Three days, three full days, it took Karatsu's messenger to reach Edo.

It was only with great difficulty that the messenger was able to meet an old lieutenant who was in charge of government affairs with the assistant general, and reported the news of Tangjin's crisis. The old man was also shocked, and since last year, the Edo shogunate had been thinking about how to calm the anger of the great man. But all kinds of apologies and confessions have been used, and they don't pay attention to them at all.

The Edo shogunate also expected that there was a high probability that a war would break out, but they did not expect the Tang army to attack so quickly.

"You wait here, I'll go and meet the general immediately, and I'll call you at any time if necessary."

Lao Zhong quickly went to the palace, and after finding the general's close attendants, he told him about it and asked him to tell the general.

"The Han army raided Tangjin?" When the side servant heard this, his face became heavy, and he nodded, "I'll report to the general right away." ”

The contemporary shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, who was drinking in the side room of the Oku, heard the newspaper and hurriedly put down his glass.

"Immediately invite the elder to come over and discuss important matters, quickly."

The Tokugawa family was in his forties, the third shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and became the third shogun in his twenties. However, his father was still alive at the time, and after his father abdicated, he made him a general, and his father was called the Great Imperial Palace, and the two ruled the world together, called the dual rule. In reality, however, for more than a decade after that, the real decision-maker was still his father.

It wasn't until his father's death ten years ago that Iemitsu was truly in power.

However, he is more like his grandfather Ieyasu than his father, but he is far inferior in terms of means. After Iemitsu came to power, he issued a decree of seclusion five times in ten years, and at the same time banned Catholicism, forbade the western daimyo from trading with foreign merchant ships, and prohibited the western daimyo from manufacturing and owning large ships to go to sea.

He had a monopoly on the benefits of trade with foreign merchants. Intensify the suppression of Catholicism and close the country. This series of policies led to conflicts between Portuguese and Spanish merchant ships and Japan, as well as the Amakusa and Shimabara rebellions of the religious people. The most tragic thing is that because of the isolation of the country, which led to the crusade of the Tang State, they were forced to fully open the port trade. The Treaty of 918 was signed, and the concessions of the Hirado Tsushima Goban and other islands were given to the Tang Kingdom.

However, the general did not learn a lesson and changed his governing strategy. On the contrary, he soon listened to the advice of his retainers, began to ban the export of silver and copper to the Tang, and reduced the trade volume with the Tang state.

Ben also wanted to use this to blackmail China, which was extremely short of silver and copper, and wanted to break China's exclusive trade rights with Japan, but it attracted the wrath of the Tang people.

Many people have said that it is not wise to anger the Tang State. But this Tokugawa shogun always said that the shogunate had 80,000 banners, but he didn't want to think about the last time Liu Jun led the fleet to bombard Edo, it was close at hand.

At that time, he was still the Marquis of Zhennan of the Ming Kingdom, but now he is the emperor of the Han Dynasty in the Central Plains.

Compared with the great Han of Middle-earth, the national power of Japan is far behind.

Soon, the old, the old. A large group of shogunate officials, such as Wakanyo, Shogun, and Ometsu, came to the call.

"The Tang Kingdom is raiding Karajin, this is an undeclared war against Japan and China!" Tokugawa Iemitsu's eyebrows furrowed. A look of anger.

"The Tang people deceive people too much, fight with them!"

One of them shouted that he was a retainer in the shogunate who was in charge of the shogun's direct banner and the imperial family, and there were three to five of them. The Tokugawa shogunate was known as the Hachimoto No. 8, but in fact, the 80,000 people included Hajimoto, the imperial family, and Hajimoto's courtiers.

In the Edo shogunate, the flag was used to refer exclusively to the samurai directly under the shogun. Those whose territory is less than 10,000 stone high are called flag books, and many high-level flag books even have territories of seven or eight thousand stone high, which are not weaker than some small feudal lords.

However, among these direct samurai, those who are eligible to directly see the shogun are called banners. Those who are not qualified to directly refer to the general are generally referred to as the imperial family. In addition, the courtiers and samurai of the banners are also summarized in the general's 80,000 banners. Therefore, although the number of 80,000 flags is correct, not all of them are flags, and the flags of the Tokugawa family are about 5,000 people, and the rest are the royal family and the courtiers of the flags.

In the highly centralized system of the Tokugawa family, the shogun's family, which was directly subordinate to the Heavenly Domain with 4 million koku in his hands, and was known as the 80,000 banners, was indeed the strongest among the feudal domains. The feudal clans were suppressed by various means of the shogunate, whether it was economic or military, they were far inferior to the shogun's family, not to mention the general's family, as well as the imperial family and the imperial sanqing.

But even if you have 80,000 banners, then you are only far superior to the daimyo of other domains, but what if you compare with the great Han?

Dahan is known as having six fleets and 26 sub-fleets, and there are no less than 300 giant ships with three gun decks and four masts alone, and the navy blueshirts of Dahan add up to no less than 200,000 people, not counting Dahan and millions of army redshirts.

The retainers knelt on the tatami mats, not knowing how to speak.

"Immediately send an order to the whole world, order all feudal domains to prepare for war, send five soldiers for every 100 households, gather the entire Japanese army, and crusade against the invading Tang people!"

Tokugawa Iemitsu shouted angrily.

"General, no!"

The elder hurriedly shouted to stop, this elder Matsudaira Tadanao is also a relative of the shogun's family, Tokugawa Ieyasu was originally surnamed Matsudaira, and later changed his surname to Tokugawa. After he became a shogun, one of his many sons inherited the shogun's door, the rest were surnamed Tokugawa, called the Gosan, the rest of the sons were still surnamed Matsudaira, and the fourth son was named Matsudaira Tadayoshi, who became the fourth head of the Matsudaira family in the Kanto region and the lord of the Kiyoshu domain of Owari Province.

When Tokugawa Ieyasu divided the vassals, he divided the princes into the daimyo of the feudal domain, the daimyo of the pedigree, and the daimyo of the outer daimyo. Among them, only the 9th, 10th, and 11th sons of Tokugawa in the "Kin-feudal Daimyo" can use the Tokugawa surname and Aoi family crest, and they are called the Gosan family, and other members of the Tokugawa family cannot use Tokugawa as their surname. If the shogun has no heirs of his own, then the position of the shogun must be succeeded by an overtime person from the imperial family.

In addition, there is a family that refers to the Echizen Matsudaira family, of which Tokugawa Ieyasu's son Yuuki Hideyasu was the ancestor, and the Kozu Matsudaira family, where Tokugawa Hidetadada's son Hoshina Matsudaira was the ancestor.

This elder is from the Matsudaira family, and he is actually from the Jiang Jun family.

The elder was in the shogunate at this time, and it was a very special and honorable position, roughly similar to the Taishi of the Ming Dynasty. Before Ihiko, this was not an official position. Occasionally, they are temporarily set up and can participate in the affairs of the shogunate.

Under normal circumstances, the main affairs of the shogunate were in charge of several elders, and the eldest elder was equivalent to the elder Taishang, and his status was transcendent.

In terms of position, the status of the elder is transcendent. In terms of seniority, he is still the elder of the general.

Therefore, he shouted to stop, and Tokugawa Iemitsu had to listen to his opinion first.

At the beginning, it was under Liu Jun who suffered a big loss and was forced to sign the Edo Treaty, and Tokugawa Iemitsu invited this elder to serve as the elder.

"General, Sun Tzu has a cloud in the art of war, and only by knowing the enemy can he not be defeated in a hundred battles. What do we know today? We don't know anything yet, and I think we should calm down. ”

"The Han people have already ridden on our heads, how can we calm down?"

The elder just shook his head, "Why don't the general meet the Tang Jin messenger first, listen to him, and ask about the situation?" ”

Tokugawa Iemitsu had the Karatsu messenger called in, and it was the first time the samurai had seen the shogun Seiyi. I don't know where to put my nervous hands.

When Tokugawa Iemitsu asked him how many men there were when the Han army raided Karatsu. How long Karatsu Castle could hold out, the samurai only knew how to describe it in two words.

"The warships of the Tang Kingdom are coming from the sea, and there are countless of them!"

After asking a few questions, he couldn't say what the reason was, and there were just a lot of them, countless of them. The number is not clear

In the end, Tokugawa Iemitsu had to let him go.

"I think that the shogunate will quickly send people to find out the enemy's situation, and at the same time quickly send orders to mobilize troops and horses in various places, and when the military situation is understood, it is not too late to attack or make plans." The elder said.

"What I mean is to try to turn hostility into friendship. In a decisive battle with the Tang Army, our country has no chance of winning. The elder sighed and said, the shogunate may have 80,000 banners that dare to fight, but the most troublesome thing is that the Tang army is stronger than the sea, and although Japan is an island country, the sailors are really not very good.

Especially in recent years, under the various policies of banning the sea and closing the country, the daimyo of the various feudal domains were not allowed to build large ships, not even large merchant ships, let alone warships. The shogunate did not have many decent warships of its own, and on land, the bannermen of the shogunate were worthy of battle, and the Tokugawa family also had an elite iron artillery force, and even had a lot of artillery purchased from the Dutch and other southern barbarians.

But without a naval division, how to fight a decisive battle with the Don Army?

The people sent to Kyushu have not been selected yet, but there are people from Kyushu again.

"The Han army has broken through Karatsu, and the Daimyo of Karatsu Domain, Terasawa Kengao, committed suicide by disembowelment!"

Hearing the news, Tokugawa Iemitsu didn't say a word, just gritted his teeth coldly, and his eyes breathed fire.

Half a day later, another man came from the west.

"Tadayuki Kuroda, the lord of the Fukuoka domain, sent someone to report that hundreds of warships of the Han army raided Hakata Bay, and asked the shogunate to send reinforcements quickly!"

"Immediately send someone to Kyushu to send an order to the Saga, Kumamoto, and Satsuma domains, and immediately reinforce Fukuoka!" Tokugawa Iemitsu slammed his fist on the table and shouted.

"Report!"

"Report to the general, it's not good, Fukuoka, Fukuoka"

"What's wrong with Fukuoka?" Tokugawa Iemitsu asked, feeling a sense of uneasiness in his heart.

"Fukuoka was lost and captured by the Don Army."

At this time, even the elder couldn't help but shout and asked, "The Fukuoka Domain is a great domain of more than 500,000 stones, can't Kuroda Tadayuki hold it even for a moment?" ”

"Kuroda Tadayuki saw the arrival of the Tang warship, and abandoned the city and fled without greeting him!"

The Tokugawa family's phosgene drew his sword and almost cut down the messenger, and at this moment he really wished he could catch Kuroda Tadayuki in front of him and cut him eighteen times.

The successive bad news made everyone in the room bow their heads and black faces, and the atmosphere in the room was extremely depressing. No one could have imagined that the situation would turn so quickly for the worse.

"I'm going to abolish the Kuroda family's feudal domain, and I won't leave him a single stone, Yagaya Deer!"

However, Kuroda abandoned the city and fled, and Han Zhan's capture of Karatsu and Fukuoka was not the worst news.

Later that day, news arrived.

After Kuroda Tadayuki abandoned Fukuoka Castle and fled to the Kurume Domain in the south, the lord of the Kurume Domain persuaded Kuroda to lead his troops to defend Kurume Castle with him, and sent people to ask for help from the nearby domains.

Then, the Saga clan quickly arrived.

However, the Saga Domain did not go to reinforce the city, but led its troops to attack the castle.

In less than a day, Nabeshima Katsushige of the Saga Domain took the three clans of the Nabeshima family and 20,000 horses to attack Kurume Castle, which was broken in one day, and the lord of the Kurume Domain, Arima Toyotomi died in battle, and Kuroda Tadashi Castle broke and surrendered.

"Nabeshima Katsushige, how could he?" Tokugawa Ihisa was already a little stupid.

Tokugawa Katsushige that old guy he knew, when Sekigahara fought together, this old guy was on the side of the Western Army, and after the defeat, he knelt down in front of his grandfather and asked for forgiveness.

Worse news continued.

Matsuura Tsugashi of the Hirado Domain, together with the Goto Clan of the Goto Domain and the Tsushima Clan, attacked the Omura Domain and broke through the Omura Domain. The Shimazu family of the Satsuma domain suddenly sent troops to attack the Hi clan and broke the Ito family.

And the Choshu Domain's Mori clan sent troops to the Tsuwano Domain of Iwami.

It's just a mess, it seems that the Warring States are rising again, and the foreign enemy is current, and the Saikaido feudal domains actually started fighting first.

Elder Matsudaira immediately thought of a very bad possibility.

"Did they all take refuge in the Han Chinese?"

"How is this possible?" Tokugawa Iemitsu shouted. How could the feudal lords of the Yamato nation go to the Tang people, how could they do this.

The words of the credible envoy confirmed Elder Matsudaira's conjecture.

He presented a letter, an essay to be exact.

"Ask for the curtain."

The document was written by the four lords of the Choshu Domain, the Satsuma Domain, the Saga Domain, and the Hirado Domain, as well as their various sub-domains, as well as the Tsushima Domain and the Goto Domain, two domains whose territories had long been taken away by the Tang Dynasty.

Among them, the signature of the lord of the Shimazu domain is not Kentaka, and the name that Terazawa firmly believes is written on it.

Who does this Terasawa believe in? Didn't you say that Terasawa Tentaka has no heirs and wants to be extinct? Tokugawa Iemitsu has already planned it, and when Terazawa Tentaka dies, the old immortal, he will immediately succeed to the seal with one of his cronies, why is there a Terazawa firmly believe in it now, what is it?

And what angered him the most was the content of this letter signed by ten feudal lords.

It wrote a long article, saying that their Tokugawa family was in rebellion, stealing the royal power of the Japanese king, doing misdeeds, perverse behavior, and so on.

The Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty received a letter from the Queen of Japan and immediately sent troops to the east to defeat the rebels and uphold justice. And their ten feudal domains were resolutely loyal to the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty, loyal to the Queen of Japan, and were willing to be the vanguard of the Shogunate, and finally said that they were going to crusade against the Shogunate, return the Japanese government to the Queen, and let Japan always be loyal to the Han Suzerainty

"Shameless, these traitors!"

The Tokugawa family tore the text to shreds.

But he was not only angry, but also fearful.

Now not only is the Han army invading on a large scale, but they have also instigated the ten feudal lords in the west to rebel, and they have even raised the banner of asking for the curtain, saying that they want to respect the king and return the great government.

The shogunate system has been a system for hundreds of years, not to mention that under the Kanhaku regency system before the shogunate, the emperor has long had no real power.

What kind of king do you respect, and what kind of curtain do you want?

What made him even more annoyed was that these people said that they wanted to respect the king, but they called the Japanese emperor the king of Japan, and the emperor was the emperor, and the king was just a king.

These people are all lackeys of the Han Emperor!

"General, we are in big trouble now, the ten feudal clans have betrayed, and Kyushu has lost half of it!"

The elder's lips couldn't help trembling, this is not only the loss of half of Kyushu, the most important thing is that as soon as the banner of this king is beaten, and then there is a powerful Han army behind it, this war, before it starts, they have already lost most of it, and then how many people will meet the wind and rudder, and it is difficult to say how many people will fall to the enemy side to fight together.

The Han emperor's move is too ruthless, our army has not fought, and the army's heart is in chaos! (To be continued.) )