"You're right, I didn't think it through." Zhao Song whispered to himself, "Now after what you say, I understand a lot...... The Holy God really remembers the old feelings for us. Even if our Liaodong Army is scattered in the future, at least everyone still has a future to protect. ”

"So we have to do everything well, and we can't live up to Your Majesty's kindness, right? You should get the idea, right? In such a position, not only me, but also Chen Dashuai can't show any favoritism to you and the people below, we are enough to take care of it! Zhao Shuai, let me tell you a little more thoroughly, with your previous qualifications and merits, plus the merits of this expedition to Japan, in the future, in the army, except for a few marshals, who else will be able to compete with you? After several marshals retire, this Minister of War, I think you will have a chance to be in the future! So...... Zhao Shuai, you have to be cautious in your words and deeds now, there are some things that you can't do, and don't let the top and bottom think that you are too selfish. ”

Yan Guang's words made Zhao Song's heart move, and he felt suddenly enlightened. He has always followed the marshals, especially Chen Dashuai, to fight, and it is only natural to follow them to lead the army, and he has not considered his future future. If you think about it now...... It makes sense.

In the past, he had a lot of meritorious deeds, and now he is the Xingyang Earl of the Han Dynasty, how many people in the army are now made earls? Sooner or later, these marshals will return to Beijing to take up their posts or stay idle, and it is not inconceivable that he will become the de facto leader of the entire army by virtue of his exploits and his status as a distant relative of the royal family...... If it weren't for the trust in him, how could His Majesty entrust such a task to himself?

It seems that there is really no need to rush.

"Okay, now we don't need to say anything else, we can only fight this battle with all our strength first, so that Your Majesty will feel that we are usable and reliable...... In addition, if we want to convince the other armies, we have to show real skills, and it is useless to just make small movements. Zhao Song was silent for a moment before speaking. Don't worry, I didn't plan to suppress Li Huanghe and Ma Tongji, no matter what they say, they are also great Han nobles, no matter what, I won't let the two of them suffer. I just want Bi Su and them to play the jackpot first. ”

"It's good if you don't have this heart, the other two regiments of the Holy Admiral are giving these two people, they are indeed very precise, and they are probably also the leaders of the next generation of the army that His Majesty is very fond of, so I think Zhao Shuai has always maintained a good relationship with them." Yan Guang nodded, "Okay, now that I have already said what I should tell you, I can only tell you these things once, and we will continue to do business in the future, and I will never let you go about this matter again...... I hope Zhao Shuai doesn't blame me. ”

"How could I blame you! You told me these heartfelt words today, it can be seen that you have always taken our friendship to heart, and I can't be happy! Zhao Song smiled and patted the map on the table, "Don't worry, I already know these things in my heart, and I don't need you to remind me in the future." Thanks to your reminder, I don't have to worry about what happens next to the brothers...... Let's just fight this battle well. ”

He changed his seriousness just now, and pointed around the map with great excitement, thinking about the next strategy for using troops. "I read the plan you wrote last night, and there are indeed a lot of merits, now that our army has fought in Kyushu and controlled a large area of coastal land in two places, at least the landing operation is very successful and successful, and then we should continue to sweep and take down the entire island of Kyushu as soon as possible."

"And rightfully so." Yan Guang reverted to the rigid expression he had just now, "Now that most of the army has gone to land, Zhao Shuai, it's time for us to go ashore, otherwise, if the officers and soldiers below are fighting in front, but we are watching from the sea, what will it be?" And it's not good for us to say it when we send people under the fence like this. ”

The Han Navy is directly under the control of the emperor, and the emperor commands through the independent military and political departments of the navy, because as a senior official of the Military Council, he has not been able to interfere in the command of the navy, so the officers of the Military Council have always been a little dissatisfied with the navy, and Yan Guang is a person of this character, so he has hardly put on a good face to the people of the navy along the way. Fortunately, Zhao Song has always been very tolerant of the navy for the sake of the overall situation, so there has been no contradiction between the two armies.

"Then let's start moving tomorrow and move all of our people on the ship to land, this is a serious command and operation!" Zhao Song immediately made a decision, "It's just that the headquarters can't be placed in Nagasaki, which has now become a hell on earth." ”

"It's a good thing to become a hell on earth, so that the wealthy clans and feudal lords in other places will see the fate of our enemies." Yan Guang replied rather coldly, "Besides, the more ruined Nagasaki is, the more displaced civilians will be, and the easier it will be for us to use ......."

"I really can't say that to the outside world." Zhao Song laughed, and then gestured at the map again, "For those wealthy clans and feudal lords, scaring is necessary, but only scaring can't do it, we can't all drive them to a corner, how to appease them, I'm afraid it depends on that Lord Zhou...... Hey, I really hope that Lord Zhou can live up to his name and do a thorough job, but I'm waiting for the day when the stars of the wealthy families in Kyushu will be arched by the moon! ”

At this time, Zhou Pu, who was mentioned by them several times, was indeed running for the cause of winning over the wealthy families in Kyushu.

Compared with before, today, when the Han Dynasty has fought and repeatedly defeated the shogunate army, his work at this time is a little more dangerous, but he has a little more confidence.

Since the Shimazu family set up a large army, captured the Nobeoka Domain, and killed the feudal lord Arima Naojun, in order to avoid any more conflicts with other major domains before making a statement, they chose to stay still for the time being, and only sent some samurai to find the Han army in private, so as to get in direct contact with the Han army.

At the same time, they sent envoys to the feudal lords they felt were hopeful, and they were ready to persuade them to join in the cause of opposing the shogunate's restoration of the throne.

Originally, in this great cause, the Kato family of the Kumamoto Domain, which owned the land of Higo Province and one country, could be a great help. The ancestor of the Kato family was Toyotomi Kiyoshi Kiyomasa, one of the seven guns of Mt. Kato, who was honored for his many meritorious services under Hideyoshi's account, participated in most of the wars led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (including the conquest of Goryeo), and received a large territory of Higo Province on the island of Kyushu.

But after the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, various powerful factions began to fight with each other, and after a long period of hesitation, Kato Kiyomasa finally chose to fall to the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu, so in the end, when it came to rewarding meritorious deeds, Tokugawa Ieyasu increased the territory to Kato Kiyomasa, allowing him to annex the territory of his former colleague Konishi Yukinaga, and became a big lord with a territory of 520,000 koku.

However, because of the question of Kato Kiyomasa's origin, the Tokugawa family has never given up monitoring and controlling the Kato family, and has repeatedly suppressed the Kato family in various ways (just like suppressing the Fukushima Masanori family who were sealed to the Hiroshima Domain). After Kato Kiyomasa's death, his son Tadahiro Kato inherited the Kumamoto domain, but was also severely suppressed by the shogunate.

Originally, because of this hatred of the shogunate, they could become allies of the Great Han and the Shimazu family, but unfortunately, just last year, the shogunate suddenly forcibly changed the Kato family to the northern Izuwa country on charges of causing turmoil among the vassals due to the lack of control of the territory, disrespect to the shogunate, and rebellion (and the territory was also reduced to 10,000 koku, which can be said to be a humiliating disposition, and like the Fukushima family, this is also part of the Tokugawa family's purge of those former retainers of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who surrendered).

It is said that the shogunate wanted to make Hosokawa Tadashi, the lord of the Kokura Domain of Toyozen Kuni, the very deferential, become the new owner of the 520,000-stone domain, but no official order has been issued yet.

To be honest, this incident is also one of the reasons why the Shimazu family is determined to take the opportunity to rebel against the shogunate - the Kumamoto domain is at the door of the Satsuma domain, and because of the previous conflict with the Tokugawa family, a 520,000-stone feudal lord was forcibly driven out of the territory, which has to make the Shimazu family, who also had conflicts with the Tokugawa family, feel a little cold.

The Kumamoto clan had no hope of wooing for the time being, and after several discussions with Shimazu Yoshihiro, Zhou Pu finally decided to make the Tachibana Muneshige, the lord of the Yanagawa domain, his first target.

This Tachibana Soshige has a great background, he was not originally surnamed Tachibana, he was originally the eldest son of Yoshihiro Zhenli, the important minister of the Otomo clan, and his first name was Yashiro. Later, because he inherited the family name of the Takahashi clan, he changed his name to Takahashi Tonghu.

He was very brave from a young age, and gradually became famous in the surrounding area. When he grew up, he was favored by Tachibana Michiyuki, another important minister of the Otomo clan at the time, because this Tachibana Michiyuki himself had no adult heir, so he recruited him as an adopted son and son-in-law, and let him inherit his Tachibana family name (interestingly, Tachibana Michiyuki's real name was Toji Kinmori, and he himself inherited the Tachibana family name and territory by entering the family).

After marrying Tachibana Michiyuki's daughter, Tachibana Chiyo, Tachibana Muneshige soon became the new head of the Tachibana family after Tachibana Michiyuki's death.

Because of loyalty to the Otomo family, so at that time Tachibana Michiyuki and the Kyushu wealthy Shimazu family have been fighting, the two sides have fought several times, Tachibana Muneshige because of the courage to defeat the attack of the Shimazu family many times, so by the Otomo family's general Otomo Sorin.

Later, Otomo Sorin took refuge in Toyotomi Hideyoshi and became a general under him, and Tachibana Muneshige was transferred to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's account, and was very appreciated by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Because he was very active as a pioneer in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's war to pacify Kyushu, and made great achievements, Tachibana Muneshige was rewarded by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and gave him a total of 132,000 koku of land around Yanagawa Castle as his family domain. And he also personally said such praise as "Honda Tadakatsu in the east and Tachibana Soshige in the west can be described as unparalleled in the East and West".

Being treated so well by Hideyoshi, Tachibana Muneshige was naturally very grateful and fought bravely for Hideyoshi all the time.

Because of being in Kyushu, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi conquered Goryeo, he also participated in this war very early, and repeatedly confronted the armies of Goryeo and Ming, of course, due to the strong military strength of Ming, in the end, Tachibana Soshige did not achieve brilliant results, and finally withdrew to Japan with the army of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's order.

By this time, Japan was already facing a change - Toyotomi Hideyoshi had died of illness at this time, and his five elders began to fight fiercely for the power he had left behind.

During the struggle, Chief Elder Tokugawa Ieyasu and Chief Governor Ishida Sansō became mortal enemies, and they began to win over their supporters in preparation for a decisive battle.

And as the unparalleled Tachibana Muneshige, of course, he also became the target of Tokugawa Ieyasu's recruitment, but in the face of Tokugawa Ieyasu's wooing, he replied directly, "If I forget Hideyoshi's kindness and join the Eastern Army, then I might as well die", and then joined the Western Army and fought against Tokugawa Ieyasu together.

However, despite his bravery, the Tokugawa clan won the war that would determine the fate of Japan and defeated the daimyo of the Western Army one by one. After retreating all the way to Osaka, Tachibana Muneshige originally wanted to continue fighting with the Tokugawa family, and suggested that the general of the Western Army, Mori Terumoto, continue to resist, but Mori Terumoto had been frightened and did not want to continue fighting for the survival of the family, so he chose to surrender to Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Seeing that the island of Honshu was no longer able to resist the Tokugawa family's troops, Tachibana Muneshige fled back to his own territory in the Yanagawa domain on Kyushu Island, and continued to choose to resist Tokugawa Ieyasu. At this time, of course, Tokugawa Ieyasu would not be polite anymore, and he issued an order ordering all the daimyos in Kyushu who surrendered to him to attack Tachibana Muneshige, and only Shimazu Yoshihiro sent reinforcements to aid the Tachibana family at that time.

Although the army of Tachibana Muneshige and the Tachibana family resisted fiercely, the situation was stronger than people, and they were finally besieged by the group, although there was still a raging fighting spirit, but Tachibana Muneshige had to follow his colleagues and make the same choice, surrendering to Tokugawa Ieyasu.

The Tokugawa family's revenge has always been very harsh, and although Tachibana Muneshige behaved very deferentially, Tokugawa Ieyasu did not forgive his sins but punished him harshly - he confiscated the Tachibana family's 130,000 koku territory in the Yanagawa Domain, and Tachibana Muneshige became a ronin for a time and lived a life of exile.

After suffering such a big loss, Tachibana Muneshige finally began to understand that he needed to change his strategy, and instead of expressing his anti-Tokugawa opinions, he began to curry favor with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and at Ieyasu's invitation, he became the head of the Imperial Academy (the head of the guard), and regained the territory of 5,000 koku.

After Tokugawa Hidetada succeeded to the position of shogun, because Hidetada had a good impression of him before, he changed him to the Tanakura Domain of Mutsu Province, making him a daimyo again. Mutsu is a bitter cold land at the northernmost tip of Japan's main island of Honshu, the land is very barren and sparsely populated, although the territory has been sealed several times and has become 35,000 koku, but compared to that time, it is completely different.

Tachibana Soshige's original fiefdom was rewarded by Tokugawa Ieyasu to his hero Tanaka Yoshimasa. After the forced change of territory, Tachibana Muneshige had to move north to take up his post, and during this time, his wife, Tachibana Chiyo, chose to stay, but moved out of the city to live in seclusion in the countryside, and died early at the age of thirty-four.

For more than ten years, Tachibana Muneshige continued to deliberately curry favor with the shogunate, and gained the trust of the shogunate, and then got the opportunity to run the time, and after the death of Tanaka Yoshimasa, the son Tanaka Tadamasa, who inherited his domain, died soon after, because Tanaka Tadamasa had no son, so there was a situation where there was no heir. After discussion, the shogunate decided to take back the Tanaka family's domain, and then part of the Yanagawa domain was returned to Tachibana Muneshige.

After more than ten years of patience and waiting, Tachibana Muneshige finally returned to his original domain and became the lord of the Yanagawa domain again, but the size of the domain was reduced, from 130,000 koku to 109,000 koku, and he was the only feudal lord who could return to his original domain after being changed.

After more than ten years of tempering, as he grew older, Tachibana Muneshige's previous violent temper has also been greatly restrained, and since he returned to the Liuhe Domain to serve as the lord of the domain, he has never had any conflicts with the surrounding lords, but just lives quietly in the castle, as if ...... It's like waiting to die of old age - now he is over sixty years old, and he is a rare old man by the standards of this era.

But a once powerful general, is his blood really so easy to cool down? Yoshihiro Shimazu didn't believe it. And Tachibana Muneshige did not show a pride in fighting to the death when the Han and himself began to move, and the reaction was a little strange - he mobilized the domain early and recruited a large number of feudal soldiers and peasants, but he did not move, neither to cooperate with the shogunate's resistance to the invasion of the army and the expansion of the Shimazu family in the periphery, but he did not fall to the side of the Shimazu family.

Shimazu Yoshihiro judged that Tachibana Muneshige was still very hesitant and still in a wait-and-see state, and might not even know what to do, so he decided to send his nephew Shimazu Tadanori to do persuasion work to help the Tachibana family see the situation clearly and make up their minds, and Zhou Pu said that he also wanted to come to Yanagawa Domain to persuade the veteran.

Although Shimazu Yoshihiro persuaded Zhou Pu to stop acting rashly on security grounds, Zhou Pu refused. He knew that the Han army was in urgent need of the help of the wealthy clan of Kyushu, and he also knew that the more he did now, the more the army would respect him, and the greater the rewards offered by the imperial court in the future, so he decided to take another risk and follow the envoy of the Shimazu family to the Yanagihe Domain.