"Huh?" Kurod was overjoyed when he heard this, and hurriedly said, "Honorable prince, is what you said true?" ”

Being able to exchange gold for silver is indeed good news for Europeans, although the silver in Europe and the colonies is close to exhaustion, but they still have a large amount of gold, if they can exchange gold for silver, it means that they can also get a steady stream of silk, porcelain and other fine goods from the Ming Dynasty.

"Of course it's true." Wang Pu smiled, "However, you don't really have no money, right?" ”

Kurod is also an old man, and quickly denied it: "Of course not, but this gold and silver exchange is more ...... than stealing"

Wang Pu waved his hand and said, "As long as you get the official document of the Dutch consul, you can go to the Ming Household Department to discuss this matter with the Household Department Shangshu, and this king will greet him." ”

"Thank you, Lord Wang." Kurod couldn't help but say, "In order to show my respect for the prince, when the Ming Central Army goes on its next cross-sea expedition, I am willing to provide thirty flat-bottomed merchant ships for free to transport soldiers and supplies." ”

Wang Pu smiled and said, "Then thank you." ”

As he was talking, a military general hurriedly came to Wang Pu, saluted the military salute, and said proudly: "Report to the prince, all personnel and materials have been boarded!" ”

"Okay." Wang Pu no longer paid attention to Kurod, turned to Zhang Yanlan and Li Ang and said, "Go on the expedition!" ”

"Yes!"

Zhang Yanlan and Li Ang agreed with a bang.

■■■

In the first month of the seventh year of the Ming Dynasty (1650), after more than a month of sailing, the transport fleet composed of hundreds of merchant ships successfully arrived off the coast of Osaka under the escort of the third and fourth fleets.

At this time, he was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate.

The difference is that Cao Ying's coercion of the Son of Heaven to order the princes only lasted one generation, and his son Cao Pi kicked the Han Emperor to stand on his own, while the shogunate axe of the Shogunate was supported by almost all the separatist princes and has been maintained.

Although the emperor is the nominal supreme ruler, in reality he is only a political puppet, let alone a domain, and even the emperor has to rely on the shogunate for money.

The Tokugawa shogunate was created by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and after two generations of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Tokugawa Ietada, by the reign of the third shogun, Tokugawa Iemitsu, the shogunate had gradually annexed the feudal land equivalent to a quarter of the land area of the country, and became the most powerful separatist princes of the shogunate, and the various institutions of the shogunate had been gradually improved.

Although the territory of this country is not large and the population is not very large, it is necessary to take a certain risk to go to war with a country that is in its heyday, because a country in its heyday, whether it is political, military, economic, or national cohesion, is very strong, and it is not easy to conquer such a country.

But Wang Pu can't wait any longer, he can't wait until the Tokugawa shogunate declines before sending troops to attack them, if he really has to wait until the Tokugawa shogunate declines before sending troops, then he has to wait until what year and month? At that time, Wang Pu was afraid that he had been dead for hundreds of years, and he had already rotted to the point that there were no bones left.

In the operational command room of the ironclad ship "Yingxing," the flagship of the Third Fleet, the staff officers had already mapped out the terrain of the mountains and rivers in the central part of Honshu Island from Osaka to Kyoto in the sand table.

In the past three years, the Nanjing Army Military University has cultivated a large number of military talents who are good at map operations, and many of them have infiltrated the island in the form of businessmen and secretly drawn a standard topographic map of the island of Honshu, and the staff officers of the headquarters of the Central Department have drawn a sand table based on this map, and Wang Pu can't help but nod his head again and again when he sees it, and the appearance of this sand table model is basically similar to the shape of the island in his memory.

Liu Qingyan held a bamboo pole and pointed to the sand table and said: "Lord, generals, this is Osaka, one hundred and fifty miles north from Osaka is Kyoto, and the Emperor's line is in Kyoto City, and then about eight hundred miles east from Kyoto is Edo, the imperial seat of the Tokugawa Shogunate. ”

Li Dingguo suddenly asked, "What is the condition of the road from Osaka to Tokyo?" ”

"Not ideal." "From Osaka to Tokyo, we have to cross the Kiso Mountains, the Akaishi Mountains, and the Kanto Mountains, and our artillery battalions and baggage teams will have to make a detour through the gorges between the mountains, so the distance from Osaka to Tokyo in a straight line is only about 800 li, but the actual distance is more than 1,400 li. ”

Liu added: "And the road is difficult and the terrain is complex, and it is very easy to get ambushed. ”

Zhang Yanlan asked Wang Pudao with some doubts: "Lord Wang, since we have to walk such a long way from Osaka to Tokyo, and it is easy to be ambushed by myself on the way, then why don't we take the sea route?" It's not a humble brag, as long as there is a third fleet, I really don't dare to show my broken sailboats. ”

Liu Qingyan glanced at Wang Pu, and then said: "If we take the sea route, our Central Army will be able to pass through the Uraga Waterway between the Boso Peninsula and the Miura Peninsula, go straight to Yokohama, Kawasaki, and even land directly in Tokyo. ”

Facing the confused eyes of the generals, Wang Pu suddenly turned to Li Dingguo and asked, "Dingguo, what do you think?" ”

Li Dingguo said: "If this battle is only to occupy Tokyo, of course, it can be directly landed from Tokyo, but in this cross-sea expedition, the strategic goal of our Central Army is to destroy the determination of the people to resist or to conquer the capital, not just to occupy Tokyo, so I think we should still land from Osaka." ”

"Why?" Leon asked puzzledly, "Why can't a direct landing from Tokyo destroy his determination to resist, but landing from Osaka and then taking a long detour to attack Tokyo can conquer him?" Regardless of the process, isn't the result the capture of Tokyo, and is there a difference? ”

"Of course there is a difference." Li Dingguo replied indifferently, "If my central army lands directly in Tokyo Bay, and the shogunate army is caught off guard and hastily responds to the battle, it is certain that we will lose the battle, but this will not affect the support and recognition of the Tokugawa shogunate by the princes of the Tokugawa Shogunate, because they will think that the Tokugawa shogunate was defeated because of lack of preparation, and they will still support the Tokugawa shogunate to be the enemy of our central army, in other words, I will not give up resistance because of the fall of Tokyo." ”

Li Ang said: "What is the difference between landing from Osaka? ”

Li Dingguo said: "If the central army lands from Osaka, it will take more than 1,400 miles to march from Osaka to Tokyo, and it will take about half a month at the earliest. If the Tokugawa shogunate had been defeated and had lost Tokyo Castle, what would I have thought at that time? ”

Leon asked, "What do you think?" ”

Li Dingguo smiled indifferently: "At that time, all the people who say that the central army of the Ming Dynasty is invincible, with the defeat of the Tokugawa shogunate and the fall of Tokyo City, my determination to resist has been destroyed, and then as long as I show a little favor, I can realize the second step strategy of the command, divide and disintegrate the princes in various parts of the country." ”

Wang Pu wanted to applaud when he heard it, and Li Dingguo said everything he wanted to say.

The facts may not be exactly the same as Li Dingguo's analysis, but they will never be too different, as a traverser, Wang Pu deeply knows how serious this kind of armed advance of "putting on a posture", "brazenly" and "showing off his might" is to destroy a nation's self-confidence!

In the 19th century, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, and in the 20th century, the army invaded China, and the national self-confidence of the Han nation was completely destroyed with the fall of Yanjing and Nanjing? Since then, until the 21st century, although the Chinese have achieved economic take-off, their national self-confidence has not been restored.

Even those so-called national elites, in their bones, have always believed that the Han nation is the second rate in the world, and they have absorbed the people's fat and ointment but willingly fed the Western powers.

"That's a good point." Wang Pu patted Li Dingguo on the shoulder and said loudly, "The reason why this king chose to land from Osaka is only one purpose, that is, to use Chiguoguo's force to show off completely destroy his national self-confidence, completely destroy his will to resist, let them accept the fate of slaves, and never make senseless resistance from now on!" ”

Wang Pu said that there was no objection to the landing from Osaka, and it was time to discuss how to land and fight.

However, the Osaka landing battle was a completely asymmetrical war, the Ming Central Army had the strong support of the Third Fleet and the Fourth Fleet's naval guns, although there were also two batteries in the port of Osaka, but the dozens of Hongyi cannons mounted on the batteries could not be compared with the naval guns of the Imperial Navy in terms of range and power.

More importantly, the shogunate army was still stuck in the era of alternating hot and cold weapons, and had no experience in anti-landing operations in the era of firearms.

The Central Army of the Ming Dynasty has an absolute advantage in firepower, and it is unprepared, coupled with the covert support of a large number of spies who infiltrated Osaka in advance, it is difficult to lose this battle, and the actual combat process is basically the same as the expectation of the Central Army Command, and the shogunate army stationed in Osaka was basically annihilated without any resistance.

However, the shogunate army composed of samurai and ronin still let the central army see the courage of the central army, their fearlessness left a deep impact on the central army, in the face of the dense firepower volley of the central army, they brandished their katana and roared and rushed forward, the people in front were shot and fell, and the people behind continued to rush forward on the corpses of the dead, until the whole army was destroyed, and no one surrendered or fled!

In the observation room of the ironclad ship "Yingxing," Wang Puzheng and other generals held monoculars to inspect the battlefield situation.

It was not until the landing army raised the flag that the remnants of the enemy in Osaka Castle had been cleared, and Wang Pu and the army and navy generals went ashore under the escort of the guards, and entered Osaka Castle on the corpses of the samurai and ronin.

Wang Pu sniffed two mouthfuls of bloody air, and suddenly felt extremely relaxed, he was a natural soldier, and the smell of blood was the most wonderful smell in the world for him, and this smell was even like a drug addiction to Wang Pu, and he would feel uncomfortable if he didn't smell it for too long.

The whole city of Osaka has been placed under martial law, and all the people in the city are not allowed to go out of the house, are not allowed to go out on the streets, and violators will be killed.

The streets were filled with the corpses of lying samurai or ronin.

Wang Pu pointed to the corpses of the ronins lying on the street and said to Liu Konghe, Li Benshen, Zhang Yanyan, Li Ang and other army and navy generals behind him: "You have all seen it, I live on the island all the year round, and the living environment is harsh, so I am fierce, if we don't try to destroy their self-confidence, the whole nation will fight to the last man, even if we conquer it, we can only get a piece of scorched earth and countless old and young women and children, if so, our cross-sea expedition will become meaningless, The war was lost. ”

In the heavy footsteps, Li Dingguo hurried towards him with a murderous aura, surrounded by several officers.

When he arrived in front of Wang Pu, Li Dingguo kicked his right leg and saluted the military salute, and said proudly: "See the prince for his humble duties." ”

"yes, okay." Wang Pu returned the salute and said happily, "Well done." ”

"Lord Wang." Li Dingguo said solemnly, "What should I do with the hundreds of thousands of people in Osaka Castle?" ”

Wang Pu's eyes suddenly revealed a faint hideousness, and a cold sentence burst out from between his teeth: "Kill!" Let the brethren warm up first! ”

"Yes!"

Li Dingguo agreed with a bang.

"And ......," Wang Pu added with a cold look, "don't fire, don't waste precious ammunition, and it's best to use assassination, burial, and beheading." ”

"Yes!"

Li Dingguo saluted Wang Pu again and turned around.

Behind Wang Pu, Liu Konghe and Li Benshen looked at each other, and it was difficult for them to understand Wang Pu's bitter hatred for himself, so in this era, he was not capable of invading China on a large scale, so there was no deep hatred between himself and the Han people, but Wang Pu was not, Wang Pu had a bitter hatred for him, and he wanted to settle the account on the ancestors of later generations.

Although Zhang Yanlan doesn't have Wang Pu's ability, this guy is very similar to Wang Pu, that is, he is cruel and murderous.

Hearing Wang Pu's order, a glimmer of beast light flashed in Zhang Yan's eyes, and he said in a cruel voice: "Lord Wang, can you let our brothers from the Third Fleet also participate in the slaughter of the city?" Speaking of which, although the Third Fleet has fought several naval battles and captured several places in the past three years, many brothers have not seen blood. ”

Wang Pu said expressionlessly: "It is the right of every Han person to eliminate the inferior people, and this king has no right to stop it. ”

"Yes!" Hearing this, Zhang Yanlu saluted the military salute and said sharply, "Thank you, Lord Wang!" ”

■■■

Half an hour later, the bloody slaughter of the city officially began.

Osaka Castle South.

Zhang Yanlu led the 3,000 officers and men of the Third Fleet to drive more than 30,000 people to the beach, and then the massacre began, and one group after another of the officers and men of the Navy were escorted from the crowd of heavily armed officers and men to the beach, and the officers and men of the Navy in charge of the execution took turns to step forward with their knives in their hands and behead the people who knelt on the beach one by one.

His body was piled up all over the beach, and the blood that flowed from it stained almost the entire bay red.

North of Osaka Castle, riverside.

More than 5,000 men, old and young, were driven out of the city by the central army, forced them to jump into two of the oversized pits, and then forced those men to fill in the earth and bury people.

The man looked blank, and began to fill in the soil under the threat of bayonets from the Central Army, burying his relatives alive with his own hands.

More than 50,000 men, women, and children were buried alive, and the Central Army forced the remaining 5,000 men to line up on the edge of the last remaining big pit, then cut off their heads one by one, buried their bodies in the last big pit, and then used more than 5,000 heads to build a "human head tower" in the middle of the three big pits.

West of Osaka Castle, wilderness.

More than 2,000 men, women, and children were deliberately let go by the Central Army, and when they were scrambling to flee for their lives, the ground under their feet suddenly began to tremble, and then the sound of iron hooves like a sea of mountains annihilated the whole world, and the cavalry of the two brigades chased after them at a gallop, cutting down the men, women, and children who were rushing to flee one by one......

History will always remember this day, the fifteenth day of the first month of the seventh year of the Ming Dynasty (1650), the Ming Empire has just spent a rare harvest year, every household is full of lights, is preparing to celebrate the traditional Yuanxiao Festival, and the ocean away said that he himself ushered in the darkest day!

On this day, the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty slaughtered Osaka, and 160,000 men, women, and children in Osaka City were slaughtered!

Three days later, the Ming Central Army withdrew from Osaka, and a group of Dutch merchant ships that came to the trade sailed into the port of Osaka, but found that the sea water of the entire Osaka Bay was maroon-red, and after landing, it was found that Osaka had become a ghost town, and the Netherlands only found a dying old man and a little girl more than two years old from the ruins.

A Dutch merchant wrote in a letter back to Europe: "Satan the Devil has opened his bloody hands, his houses have been burned, his fields have been barren, the waters have been stained red, all himself has been slaughtered, and the bustling city of the past has disappeared forever......

(To be continued)