Outside the castle, after Huang Xu ordered the army to stop the attack and sent Sakurako to meet Meiji, he sent people to closely monitor every move in the castle.

He can't afford to slack off in the slightest, and as long as the shape is not right, he will order someone to attack Tokyo City immediately.

And when he learned that the Japanese army showed signs of retreating, he knew that Sakurako's persuasion had failed, so Huang Xu ordered the army to break the city immediately.

At this time, Huang Xu didn't know that Sakurako had been forcibly taken away by Meiji, and while he ordered the army to break the city, he was also worried about Sakurako's safety, although Sakurako and Meiji were brothers and sisters, but the dog would jump off the wall if he was in a hurry, and he couldn't guarantee that this Meiji would do something unfavorable to Sakurako when he lost his mind, and Huang Xu's worries were not unreasonable.

However, how could Sakurako be outside of Tokyo City, and why did Huang Xu let him persuade Meiji to surrender.

It turned out that this qiē was all arranged by Huang Xu out of various considerations.

It is said that when Huang Xu attacked Tokyo, Sakurako was not with him, and when Huang Xu launched the Tokyo Campaign, he invited Sakurako to the front line in Tokyo.

According to his original intention, he didn't want Sakurako to be involved in the war that followed, but, as the war developed, he had to invite Sakurako to the front line, because the protagonist of this war had a lot to do with her.

And Huang Xu invited Sakura for several reasons.

First, China and Japan are feuds, and Huang Xu hates to kill the Japanese, but as Sakurako's closest person, he doesn't want to separate Sakurako from her Japanese relatives because of this life-and-death war.

Second, if Meiji could lay down his arms and lead the people to surrender, it would be a good thing for both China and Japan, which would not only reduce casualties, but also allow the war to end sooner.

So. In public and private, he also felt that Sakurako should be allowed to persuade Meiji, although he couldn't predict how good the chances of success were, but he said that he had to give it a try, and the worst was a piece of heart in his and Sakurako's hearts.

Of course, there is also the meaning of love and house in this.

And when Huang Xu raised the matter to Sakurako. Sakura is quite happy, and she was even more glad to accept the order, because she knew better than anyone else that the reason why Huang Xu was willing to do this was for her, and as long as she thought of this, there was a trace of warmth in her heart, and at the same time. Her love for Huang Xu is also deeper.

However, what everyone didn't expect was that Sakurako's departure and Huang Xu turned out to be goodbye, if Huang Xu had known that this was the case, even if he was killed, he would not let Sakurako persuade Meiji, of course. That's just for later.

Tokyo's city defenses were already in shambles, and now the Japanese army has withdrawn. Then the city defense could no longer stop the brave Taiping army, and as a result, in less than a pillar of incense, the Taiping army had already entered the city.

After entering the city, Huang Xu learned that Sakurako had been taken away by Meiji. In a fit of rage, he angrily ordered Dongfang Bufu to lead the crowd to slaughter the city, and at the same time, he ordered Li Xiucheng and Cui Min to lead the army to chase after the remnants of the Japanese army led by Meiji and Ito Hirobumi. We must find a way to recapture Sakurako and kill all the Japanese.

To tell the truth, although Huang Xu has always hated the Japanese, in the past, he at most acquiesced in the Taiping army's ability to kill the Japanese, and never ordered the Taiping army to slaughter the city as strictly as this time.

It can be seen that Huang Xu is really angry this time.

Of course, the Japanese also deserve it, they offend who is not good, but they want to offend Huang Xu, Huang Xu originally hated the Japanese deeply, hateful, but with the development of the situation later, his concept has slowly changed, and because of Sakurako, his means of dealing with the Japanese have slowly become softer.

However, what he didn't expect was that it was precisely because of his kindness that the Japanese would become more aggressive in front of him, and even so, he would no longer be polite.

Some people, if they can't be reasonable, they just have to be killed, such as the Japanese.

And Dongfang Bufu was in the middle of the order, he immediately slaughtered the city in Tokyo with an iron fist for three days, and the direct killing of Tokyo was a river of blood, and in this round of cold purge, the Japanese in Tokyo were directly killed seventy percent, and the remaining those who were not killed have become frightened birds, presumably the rest of their lives can only be spent in terror.

Originally, Dongfang Bufu planned to cut the grass and eradicate the roots, but out of strategic considerations, Huang Xu still decided to leave the remaining thirty percent of the Japanese for later use.

However, Dongfang is not confused that this time the slaughter is very cool, according to his meaning, he should have slaughtered like this a long time ago, he thinks that the Japanese are that virtuous, not slaughtering is not honest.

After the slaughter of the city, the army led by Li Xiucheng and Cui Min also returned, but they did not bring back Sakurako.

According to Li Xiucheng, after he and Cui Min caught up with the Japanese army, they had a big battle with the Japanese army, and after a fierce battle, they annihilated the Japanese army smoothly, but it also delayed time, and when they struggled to catch up with Meiji and the others again, Meiji They boarded the ferry to Shikoku first, and Li Xiucheng and they could only watch Meiji and them leave.

The two had no choice, and after discussion, they could only withdraw the army and come back to report the matter to Huang Xu, and then make plans.

Huang Xu got the report, although his mood was a little low, he still praised Li Xiucheng and Cui Min as usual, and then asked them to go down to rest for the follow-up battle.

In the days that followed, Huang Xu ordered the army to rest in Tokyo while actively preparing to attack Shikoku Island, and he was determined that he would never give Meiji's gang any respite.

To attack Shikoku, you had to cross an inland river, and Meiji and the others had run from this river earlier, but there had to be a boat to cross the river, and the Taiping army had to get a boat if they wanted to cross the river.

Hearing this, some people may say, isn't it just a ship, there are many ships in the Invincible Armada, and there are all kinds of ships, and besides, the entire fleet is on standby at the sea outside Tokyo at the moment, and it is okay to come before summoning it.

Yes, the Armada was being ordered to encircle Tokyo at this time to prevent Meiji and the others from breaking through from the sea, but the river to be crossed was an inland river, and if the Armada was dispatched, it would not be possible to enter the inland river at all, and even if it did, it would be quite difficult.

Therefore, it is basically not feasible to send the Armada here.

Then, since it is not possible to deploy the Invincible Armada, then it can only retreat to the next best.

On the one hand, be self-reliant, find ways to build some rafts, wooden rafts and other simple means of crossing the river, and the number should be as large as possible.

On the other hand, try to find those nearby fishermen, farmers, ferrymen, etc., to buy some fishing boats, ferries, etc., for the army to ferry across the river.

As a result, the entire army then focused on the means of crossing the river.

But why is there an inland river in such a place?

Originally, the islands of Shikoku were originally connected to the island of Honshu, but later they were separated by an inland river due to land subsidence.

This inland river is called the Seto Inland Sea, which is literally a sea, but it is actually a river.

Therefore, if you want to go from Honshu to Shikoku, you must go to Guò to the Seto Inland Sea.

After the Seto Inland Sea, there is Shikoku Island.

Shikoku Island and its affiliated islands have a total area of 18,800 square kilometers and include the four prefectures of Tokushima, Kagawa, Aihime, and Kochi, which is the largest of the four prefectures.

Generally speaking, Shikoku Island is a poor place in Japan, with an underdeveloped economy and ignorant people's thinking, which is similar to those barren lands in the south in Chinese history.

And Meiji and others were forced to flee here, and they had to do it as a last resort.

However, although this place was a challenge for Meiji people in terms of economy and ideology, it was also a challenge for outsiders such as Huang Xu.

Shikoku Island is a mountainous island with almost all of the area surrounded by mountains and very few plains, and the Kochi Plain in Kochi Prefecture can be considered the largest plain in Shikoku Island.

Therefore, fighting in the mountains was definitely not a very easy task for the Taiping army, who were not familiar with the place, not to mention, although the people here were ignorant, they had always been loyal to the Japanese emperor, and it was precisely with these favorable conditions that Meiji planned to take advantage of the treacherous terrain and the favorable cultural environment to deal with the Taiping army.

After consulting with Ito Hirobumi, Meiji chose Kochi as his temporary garrison, and also used this place as a temporary headquarters to resist the Taiping army.

With this as the center, the Japanese army built three defense lines in Tokushima, Kagawa, and Ai Hi prefectures to resist the attack of the Taiping army.

The Japanese were going to put up a tough fight here.

Of course, the Japanese army did not escape Huang Xu's eyes, and after careful reconnaissance, he decided to use the First Army led by Cui Min as the vanguard of this attack on the four countries, and the reason why he reassigned the First Army instead of continuing to use the powerful firearms corps was also for a reason. This place is mountainous, and many of the heavy weapons of the firearms corps led by Li Xiucheng cannot be used in it at all, so in such a situation, in terms of practicality, the infantry corps of the First Army Corps is obviously better than the firearms corps.

So, after some preparations, Huang Xu left Li Xiucheng to lead most of the soldiers of the Firearms Corps to guard Tokyo and maintain the safety of the prefectures and counties that had been under the control of the Taiping Army, and then Cui Min led the First Army Corps as the leading army, while Huang Xu personally led the special operations detachment, a part of the Firearms Corps, and the General Headquarters to cross the Seto Inland Sea and advance towards Shikoku Island. (To be continued......)