Under the watchful eye of the soldiers, Mori Motoshin was brought to the tent where Bi Su was.

With the previous experience of accepting the Tachibana family in the Liuhe Domain, Bi Su did not look at a loss this time, but stood in front of people with a proud face. Because he was burly and much taller than Mori Motoshin, he even more reflected the oppressive power of a large country over a small domain.

Because they had already begun to set up camp, many Han soldiers began to make fires to boil dry food and noodles, and there was cooking smoke everywhere, so the smoke was very thick, the visibility was not high, and it was a busy scene.

The smoke choked both of them a little, but Maori Motoshin still saluted Bi Su respectfully, and knelt down on the ground as it was trampled on the mud.

"I've seen the generals of the Han Army."

"You are the emissary of the Maori family of the Choshu domain?" Bi Su waved his finger and motioned for Maori Yuanxin to stand up, "What's the matter?" ”

"The clan has explained a few things to me, and I asked the general to allow me to relay them one by one." Mori Motoshin stood up calmly, "First of all, what we are most concerned about is the attitude of the Great Han towards the evil feudal clan - we have also seen the document issued by your envoys, which has clearly stated that the shogunate and some feudal lords are listed as enemies, and they are declared to burn all the jade...... So, what does the Han plan to do with our Choshu Domain? ”

"We came to Japan to punish the shogunate and restore the discipline of your country, not to be an enemy of the whole of Japan, nor to attack anyone for no reason, presumably the noble domain also saw that although we have to crusade against several feudal lords in addition to the shogunate, our inscription has already listed their crimes, and they are all because of their stubbornness and obedience to the shogunate, so they will be targeted by us."

Bi Su answered Mori Motonobu's question in accordance with the established strategy of the Great Han, "Therefore, if your domain does not cooperate with us from the shogunate, we will not regard your domain as an enemy, and we will ensure the safety of your domain." ”

"If the clan follows the shogunate or fights against the Han army, it will be regarded as an enemy and hit mercilessly, right?" Mori Motoshin asked.

"Yes." Bi Su replied without any hesitation, "So it depends on how your clan chooses." ”

Seeing that the officers of the Great Han were so tough, Mori Motoshin was also slightly hesitant, but he quickly returned to normal.

"The evil clan and the shogunate have always had a deep hatred, and they were just afraid of the shogunate's power before, so they had to be humble and wronged, and they have never forgotten the previous hatred in their hearts." Mori Motonobu immediately expressed his attitude, "Before the feudal clan sent me, there was a consensus that we would never fight to the death for the sake of the shogunate and make enemies of your country. ”

During the Sengoku period, the Mori family was also a powerful man, and after several generations of management, they occupied a vast territory, and at their peak they once controlled the territory of the Seven Kingdoms for nearly 2 million koku, and had the ambition to conquer all of Japan. However, after the rise of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, they suffered a major blow.

In order to realize his ambition of unifying Japan, Oda Nobunaga went on expeditions and expanded his power day by day, and finally reached the sphere of influence of the Mori family, and the two families inevitably clashed.

After the start of the war. Oda Nobunaga sent his subordinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi to fight against him, and after many battles, the Mori family fell to the disadvantage. However, at this time, Oda Nobunaga was killed by his subordinate general Akechi Mitsuhide at the height of his life, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi had to withdraw his troops on the condition that the Mori family ceded the territories of the three countries, and returned to participate in the war for Oda Nobunaga's political legacy.

Because of this war with Hideyoshi, the Maori family agreed that Japan would fall into the hands of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, so they had to temporarily restrain their ambitions and became a staunch supporter of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

In order to repay the support of the Maori family, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has always been very close to the Maori family. Before Taiko Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Terumoto was appointed as one of the "Five Elders", responsible for discussing and making decisions and assisting together until the young lord Toyotomi Hideyori came of age.

The five elders include Tokugawa Ieyasu, Maeda Toshiie, Ukita Hideie, Mori Terumoto, and Kobayakawa Takakei (who was replaced by Uesugi Keikatsu after his death), of which Mori Terumoto's power is ranked second only to Uchifu Tokugawa Ieyasu, with an annual income of nearly 120,000 koku.

However, with the departure of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the situation of the lord and the young ministers, coupled with the discord and struggle within the Toyotomi family, the ambitions of the Maori family began to stir again. In the midst of the fierce struggle, the powerful people who coveted Toyotomi Hideyoshi's political legacy gradually split into two factions, one led by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the then governor of the Mori family, Mori Terumoto, joined the other and became one of the leading figures.

The two factions gradually became incompatible in many battles, and finally began to decide the victory with sword soldiers. As the general of the Western Army, Mori Terumoto became Tokugawa Ieyasu's main opponent.

However, in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara, the Western Army suffered huge losses due to factors such as the different intentions of the generals, poor command, and the expedition of laborers, and as the main main army of the Western Army, the Mori army.

After defeating the Western Army and establishing his dominance over Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu began to deliberately use various means to weaken the Mori family, the most direct and powerful of which was to reduce the fiefdom - the territory of the Mori family was weakened from 1.2 million koku to 370,000 koku, and the territory of the Nagato and the country of Azumi was forcibly cut off by the shogunate.

Although the Maori family accepted this punishment because of the situation, the seeds of hatred had been planted in their hearts, and their royal ministers never forgot to seek revenge, and tried to regain what they had lost. Therefore, today, when the Han Dynasty came over and saw that the rule of the Tokugawa family was already crumbling at least in the western country, the Maori family began to think about other things in private.

They sent Maori Yuanxin over, first, to find out the attitude of the Han and see if they must be enemies of the Maori family; The second is to explore opportunities for the two parties to work together, or at least to allow the Māori to act as a result.

As soon as the Han army came up, it showed extremely strong combat power, whether it was on land or at sea, it maintained a crushing superior force, even if the two sides had not yet fought, but the top and bottom of the Changzhou domain also understood that their current force would never be able to block the attack of the Han army.

Therefore, after Bi Su made it clear that as long as the Mori family did not fight to the death for the shogunate, he would not regard the Mori family as an enemy, he immediately expressed his stance and attitude, fearing that the shogunate would invite an unwarranted disaster.

"Your clan really understands the righteousness." Seeing that the other party was so interested, Bi Su also laughed indifferently. "Then I can promise you,"

Although the strength of the Mori family may not be very strong, after all, they are the southernmost point of Honshu Island and the only way for the Han army to go north to Kyoto, so it would be a good thing if they could cooperate with the Han army. For the Han army, the fewer enemies to face, the better.

However, the more this was the case, the less he could show his joy in front of them, and he deliberately behaved very reservedly, as if the Maori attitude was of little importance to him.

"Thank you, General, in this way, the disadvantage of the clan should be relieved." After receiving Bi Su's personal assurance, Mori Motoshin was obviously relieved. "Our Maori family has a deep grudge against the shogunate, and there is no reason to help them, I hope that the great han can completely defeat the Tokugawa shogunate in one go, and wait for me to breathe a sigh of relief!"

Although he said so, Maori Yuanxin also saw that he was just an officer in a field of the Han Dynasty, and although his status was very high, he should not be able to make a decision from the position of the Han court, so his statement still could not be fully believed.

Although the Choshu clan had analyzed it for a long time, they had come to the conclusion that the Great Han would be more tolerant of the feudal lords who were neutral or had taken refuge with them, and their attitude towards the Shimazu family and the Tachibana family had already shown this, but without reliable assurance, the heart was still not at ease.

You still have to meet the general of the Han Dynasty and the Han envoy who issued the "Kyushu Reward and Punishment Order", and establish contact with them to determine the attitude.

After the two were silent for a while, seeing that the Han general in front of them had no intention of speaking, Maori Motoshin had no choice but to continue.

"The general's meaning, we have understood, and we will definitely cooperate with the general's actions, as long as the Han army wants to go north to fight the shogunate, the evil domain will definitely not stop it. Now that the Han army is in Kyushu, I think it will soon march into Kyoto...... General, can I wait for the envoy to visit the general of your army and the envoy sent by the Son of Heaven of your country? ”

"If you want to do Hajj, you can do it." Bi Su didn't mean to embarrass them, "Now that our generals and envoys of the Han Dynasty have been stationed in Nagasaki City, if you want to go, then go, I will let some soldiers escort you." However, the order on Kyushu Island is still relatively chaotic now, so the envoy should be careful on the road. ”

"Thank you for the kindness of the general, we will naturally be careful." Although it was a little emotional to hear that Nagasaki had fallen into the hands of the Han and had become the place where their military and political officials were stationed, Mori Motoshin saluted Bi Su again.

Then, suddenly, he lowered his voice.

"If your army really has a prejudice against the Hosokawa family and wants to use the lives of the Hosokawa family to establish authority, our Maori family can also help."

Before Bi Su could express his opinion, Mori Motoshin suddenly laughed a little weirdly, "Don't hide it from the general, now there are many people in the Ogura Domain who are dissatisfied with the Hosokawa family, and they are not willing to follow the Hosokawa family to die, if the general really wants their lives, we can secretly make peace." ”

Because he hoped that the Mori family would come to help him, since the arrival of the Mori family's envoy, Hosokawa Tadashi was very attentive to them and did not have much defense, and the Mori family had a lot of dealings with the Ogura clan, and this time they took the opportunity to secretly hold talks with some important people in the Ogura clan - of course, there were not many people who were willing to die for the Hosokawa family and the shogunate.

Are you going to use the Hosokawa family as a tool to please our big man? Bi Su sneered in his heart.

However, it is always a good thing to be able to take advantage of this to reduce the losses of the Han army.

"Then do as the messenger says." He laughed, "Please go back and tell those who have a heart, if you sacrifice the city within three days, we only need the lives of the entire Hosokawa family, if it is not done after three days, then don't blame us!" ”

"I'm sure they'll make a wise judgment." Mori Motonobu was still smiling.

On the same day, Mori Motonobu returned to the castle and told the feudal lord Hosokawa Tadashi that the Han army was willing to spare the Hosokawa family, but his joy did not last long. In the middle of the night, however, several of the important officials of the domain, who had received the truth, mutinied, and Hosokawa and his children were killed.

Only one day after the three-day period given by Bisu, the Ogura Domain was defeated with the help of the Mori family, and the Han army reached the northernmost tip of Kyushu Island, thus officially controlling the entire island of Kyushu.

It was a brilliant victory, but of course it was only the first part of the whole goal for them, and there was still a long way to go.

After taking the Ogura Domain, a group of Han soldiers took Mori Motoshin south to Nagasaki, preparing for him to join the Han generals and envoys, but they were in vain, because at that time, Zhao Song, Zhou Pu and others had already taken the feudal lords from all over the country to attack Kurume Castle.

Mori Motonobu didn't want to waste time waiting, so he simply set off again, heading from Nagasaki to Kurume Castle, this time finally catching up with Zhou Pu and the others.

Because the Kurume Domain had been completely pacified, Zhou Pu and Zhao Song had already planned to return to their division, but after hearing the news of the arrival of the envoy from the Maori family of the Choshu Domain, Zhou Pu still found time to meet the envoy.

"Under the Maori Yuan letter, see the angels!" As soon as they met, Mori Motoshin saluted the envoy respectfully.

After what he saw and heard along the way, especially after seeing the ruined scene of Kyushu and the might of the Han army, he was even more determined to let the Choshu Domain avoid this military disaster and not be martyred for the shogunate's foolishness.

On the way to Kurume, he pondered several times how to surrender to the Han Dynasty more decently, especially how to reflect the status and role of his own domain, so as to raise the importance of the Han Dynasty to himself and strive for a more important position for the Maori family after the war.

Therefore, as soon as he saw Zhou Pu, he was sincerely frightened, and he wanted to show respect for him, because he knew that this person represented the emperor of the Han Dynasty, and a few casual words might determine the status of the Maori family in post-war Japan.

"No courtesy." Zhou Pu casually asked him to get up.

After a period of interacting with those fearful feudal lords, Zhou Pu has become accustomed to the appearance of others being respectful to him, and he has a little more prestige and arrogance of the envoys of great powers in his gestures - of course, because his hair has been shaved before and now he has only grown some short hair, so it looks a little nondescript, but no one dares to be disrespectful to him because of this.

"Since your clan sent you over to meet me, you must have already made up your mind, right?" Zhou Pu went straight to the point.

"Yes, the clan wants to surrender to the Great Han like the Shimazu family and the Tachibana family." Mori Motoshin knelt on the ground again, and then touched the ground with his head, "Please also ask the angel to be gracious, so that the evil clan can keep the original population of the territory." ”

"We are here to crusade against the shogunate, not to be enemies of the feudal domains, and all the feudal lords who surrender to us can protect their territories and even seal them." Zhou Pu quietly gave them a lure, "But...... After all, your domain is on the island of Honshu, and there are many places involved in the territory, so has it really unanimously agreed to surrender to our country? ”

"The previous feud with the shogunate was as deep as the sea, and the Tokugawa shogunate reduced the seal for no reason, which caused the feudal clan to suffer huge losses, and the previous feudal lords all died with hatred, and now I think about it, the upper and lower feudal clans are also bitter hate...... Now that we have the opportunity to rebel against the shogunate, how can we let it go! Mori Motoshin replied passionately, "Surrendering to the great Han and being loyal to the king's order is the unanimous proposition of our important ministers in the domain, and it is also the decision of the feudal lord, so it must be implemented." Of course, there are some stubborn people in the clan who don't know the times, but we can eliminate them on our own, so we don't have to bother with the angels......"

Zhou Pu didn't know that the stubborn fools in his mouth were some important ministers within the Maori family.

Mori Terumoto was disappointed and frustrated by the defeat in the Battle of Sekigahara and the large reduction of the feudal domain, so he passed the position of family governor to Mori Hidesho early, but because Mori Hide's was too young at the time, Mori Terumoto has always held real power.

Eight years ago, Mori Terumoto died, and Mori Shu was already 30 years old at the time. Originally, the feudal administration was supposed to be handled by Mori Shu in the name of the feudal lord, but something went wrong.

Mori Hidemoto, a major minister of the Mori family, had made great achievements as the adopted son and general of the Mori Terumoto before, and became the object of Terumoto's dependence, and fought for the Mori family during the Battle of Sekigahara. However, after the Battle of Sekigahara, because of the power of the shogunate, he joined the Tokugawa family, and was appointed by the shogunate as the lord of the Choshu domain, a branch of the Choshu domain, and lived in Edo all the time, becoming a close confidant of successive shoguns.

He served the shogunate wholeheartedly, married the adopted daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and repeatedly planned to continue to weaken the Choshu domain, once intending to induce Mori Karitaka, the lord of another branch of the Mori clan, to leave the Mori family.

After Mori Terumoto's death, he regarded himself as the guardian of Mori Hide, and he had been remotely controlling the situation of the Choshu Domain in Edo Castle, and was deeply hated by the lord Mori Hide, which was an important reason why Mori Hide's intention to defect from the shogunate so easily.

Therefore, Mori Shu planned to take this opportunity to eliminate Mori Hidemoto's cronies in the domain in the name of the shogunate's rebellion - although they may also want to surrender to the Han.