Judging from his resolute attitude, Zeng I Guyou finally understood how determined the old man had made.

"Your Excellency...... My lord! He muttered to himself, and at last burst into tears,

For the shogunate, he and Lao Zhong are sinners no matter what, and Lao Zhong is going to use his death to wash away his sins so that he can help the shogunate.

"Okay, no need to say any more, take advantage of the current opportunity, let's go back first, you can leave halfway, don't hesitate." Naito Tadashige patted him lightly on the shoulder and encouraged, "The road is difficult, you must be careful yourself." ”

"Old and middle-aged adults...... Why don't you let me guard you? At this time, Tadayuki Kuroda, the lord of the Fukuoka Domain, who had been listening to the side, suddenly interjected, "I have been in Kyushu for a long time, and I am familiar with the terrain. ”

Naito Tadashige's words just now had already frightened him, and he could already see that the two high-ranking officials of the shogunate had lost hope for war, and continuing to retreat and trap Kurume was just delaying the time to perish. Naito Tadashige made up his mind to die for the country and the shogunate, and he didn't want to die like this.

"No way!" However, his hopes were immediately rejected by Naito Tadashige, "Kuroda, as the lord of the domain, you have owned a feudal domain for generations, and you have the obligation to defend the territory, but you fled when you saw the enemy, and you still sit back and watch the fall of the domain...... After doing these things, I should have ordered you to apologize immediately, but I just thought that you had no choice but to do so, and now is the time to employ people, so I just left you a life, and now you should only wear the crime and make meritorious deeds, and defend Kyushu with your own life, and still want to escape? If you want to die, why don't you run now?! ”

Kuroda Tadayuki was frightened by Naito's harsh scolding, and he didn't dare to say much for a while.

"Listen, now you bring all your people, follow us to Kurume, hold on there, and wait for the shogunate's army to come to the rescue, this is the only way for you to make meritorious contributions, don't think about running away." Naito Zhong didn't want to look at him anymore, and turned his head to look at Zeng I Guyou again.

"Okay, let's go, and when it is dawn, I'll write a letter to the general, and you can bring it to me by the way...... lest there be people who think that you have fled without a fight. ”

Then, without allowing anyone else to say anything, he immediately ordered all his troops to leave and set out on the road to Kurume Castle.

The night was already coming to an end, and a little cold glow began to appear in the east, but under the glow, all of these officers and soldiers were depressed, most of them were disheveled, and many of them even had blood stains. No one spoke, everyone walked forward in silence, and it was bleak.

They were the remnants of the defeated soldiers who had retreated from various battlefields, and after two short but fierce battles, they had been suddenly defeated under the Han Kou's troops, and they had lost the courage to confront the Han Kou again in a short period of time, and it was precisely because of this observation that Naito Tadashige finally gave up the hope of continuing the field battle, and put the last hope on the defense of the city.

However, unlike their depressed state, as the light of dawn slowly descended from the sky, Ma Tongji and his men finally confirmed that the shogunate army could no longer attack them, and the soldiers' highly tense spirits suddenly relaxed, followed by cheers almost simultaneously.

"Wan Sheng!" "Wan Sheng!"

Everyone brandished their weapons and shouted, and some even threw their sabers into the air.

However, compared to the excitement and excitement of the officers and men under his command, their regiment was much calmer. Still with a saber in his hand, he led a few senate officers around the small battlefield. The blood on the saber in his hand had turned dark red, flashing with a chilling light.

As far as the eye can see, there are dense corpses, all the way to his feet from a distance, although it is not very real, but this scene is terrifying enough, but Ma Tongji, who has long been accustomed to seeing the battlefield, is not as afraid as ordinary people, but calmly observes all this.

In his eyes, the dense corpses could easily be divided into two groups. There were very few in red, and most of them were shogunate soldiers wearing blue-gray clothes and half-bald heads.

Judging from his rough count, the casualties were overwhelmingly favorable to his own side, with hundreds of shogunate troops killed and several times as many wounded, causing only a few dozen casualties among his men.

However, given the number of this expeditionary force, such a casualty ratio is still unsatisfactory.

"These Japanese are really a bit brave, they can still rush so fiercely in such a dark night, we have never seen such a fight before, it seems that we underestimated them before." He said suddenly, thoughtlessly. "I thought it would be easy to defeat them, but I didn't expect to cause us such casualties."

"But we still won the battle against them, Tuanzheng." One of the senators replied with a smile, "They have paid so many casualties, and now they are fleeing in disarray, I'm afraid they have been beaten by us, right?" I'm afraid I'll never dare to face us head-on again...... Then we'll be able to take Nagasaki and beat them up! ”

"Nagasaki is now in our hands, and the remaining shogunate soldiers will definitely not be able to stop us, and it is only a matter of time before Kyushu takes it." Ma Tongji shook his head, "But...... We can't keep fighting like this, we can't afford this kind of consumption. ”

When he first went ashore before, he still had a kind of contempt for these Japanese, feeling that it was easy for these elite soldiers under his command to beat these Japanese, and he could hit wherever he wanted, but after last night's battle, he was much more sober. However, in front of his subordinates, he couldn't show this emotion, so he said it very tactfully.

"Before leaving, Zhao Shuai also said that we can't win by brute force alone." The senate officer hurriedly said, "If the whole of Japan is united and everyone fights us around the shogunate, we will not be able to win even if we exchange one for ten or twenty, so we have to divide and rule the Japanese and let others help us, and let the shogunate take care of the country and not be able to deal with us with all its might." ”

"The army is plotting, the second is the enemy, the second is the army, and the next is attacking the city, Sun Wuzi is really a wise saying!" Ma Tongji sighed with emotion, "Zhao Shuai asked us not to go to Nagasaki City before, and it was really far-sighted. ”

After saying that, he continued to walk around the battlefield. The grass beneath his feet had been soaked in a thick layer of blood from the fierce battle of the previous night, and the congealed blood seemed to have covered the ground with a carpet, and his shoes were stained with blood.

The soldiers were now very tired from the fierce fighting last night, most of them sat on the ground to rest, and some even slept next to their weapons despite the strong smell of blood. Ma Tongji didn't want to wake them up, but only ordered the officers to let the soldiers take turns to rest, and the sober ones were arranged to be sentry or clean up the corpses on the battlefield.

Under his gaze, the corpses of the Han soldiers on the battlefield were slowly cleaned up, and then piled into a pile of corpses.

Ma Tongji and his subordinate officers walked to the pile of corpses, and then saluted silently, and after the salute was completed, the pile of corpses was directly set on fire and cremated.

In order to avoid the fear of soldiers fighting in a foreign land and having to bury their bones in a foreign land after death, the army made a decision to stipulate that the Han soldiers killed on the battlefield should be cremated as long as they could. After cremation, the ashes of these Han officers and soldiers will be specially collected and then sent back to the country for burial, which is also a means of maintaining morale.

As for the remains of those shogunate soldiers, then he can't control them for the time being, and let the local people be responsible for burying them when the time comes.

At this time, the remaining urban area of Nagasaki Castle suddenly burst into flames, which were set on fire by the remaining shogunate troops in Nagasaki Castle after receiving orders from the old Nakato Tadashi. Some of these people are more stubborn, and they originally planned to fight the Han Kou to the end and repay the country with death, but now after receiving the order, of course they will not be polite - anyway, they know that they will die, so they don't care about leaving themselves a place to live.

However, there are still many remnants of civilians, women and children in Nagasaki Castle, and when their last shelter was burned down, they cried out again in horror, and the cry and the light of the fire made people feel compassion when they heard it.

This terrible cry soared into the sky, and also crossed the sea, and reached the fleet in the distance.

"Zhao Shuai, the matter of recruiting Japanese people has to be put on the agenda, at least the corpses all over the ground must be dealt with as soon as possible." In the Han fleet off the coast of Nagasaki, a senatorial officer frowned and looked at Zhao Song with a worried face, "The mess here now, if it is not dealt with as soon as possible, I am afraid that there will be a plague at that time, which will seriously hinder the movement of our army." ”

The senate officer was a burly man, but his facial features were quite soft, he wore a special cyan uniform, and a pair of glasses on the bridge of his nose, which looked a little polite - after the Western craftsmen who came to Dahan passed on the production method of Western glasses, the Han craftsmen quickly imitated it, and after many years of manufacturing, the quality has been very good.

His name is Yan Guang, his name is Gao Ze, and he is now the chief senator of the Japanese army.

Like most of the high-ranking officers in the Han army, he was also born in Xu Huai. He was born in a family of lifters, he was smart since he was a child, and he was far better at reading and learning than his peers, and his family originally wanted to focus on cultivating him, so that he could become the first jinshi in the family, and his father also gave him high hopes. However, since he was a child, he has no interest in reading books related to the Chinese movement, but likes some miscellaneous studies, especially military books and geography books, and he also likes to dance with guns and sticks, and has tempered a good body since he was a child.

His father was originally worried about him, but after repeated dissuasion and even beating to no avail, he had to give up the idea of letting him go to school, and let him learn what he was interested in, just secretly sighing that his family was unlucky, and he couldn't cultivate a seed of reading.

However, just when the elders in the clan felt that Yan Guang had nothing to do in his life, the situation suddenly changed dramatically. With the rise of Zhao Jin, a huge military group soon arose in the land of Xu Huai, and Yan Guang, who had already been willing to do the next big cause, threw himself into the army without any hesitation.

At first, he was just a small soldier in the Zhao Zi battalion, and then became an officer through brave fighting in previous wars, and then came to Liaodong to fight with Chen Sheng. During this period, he was not only appreciated by Shangfeng for his bravery in battle, but also appreciated his resourcefulness by Shangfeng, and was finally transferred to his side by Chen Sheng Chen Dashuai, who had been named Ji Guogong at that time, as a senate officer.

After the founding of the Han Dynasty, because the Han army that was fighting everywhere needed to coordinate and command, the Military Council was established, and officers with intelligence and combat experience were recruited from various armies to fill the Military Council to assist the emperor in controlling the whole army, and Yan Guang, who won Chen Sheng's trust, was recommended by him to the Military Council in the capital, and became one of the only first-class senators in charge of combat matters.

Although the level of the military council seems not to be high, and it is only an advisory body, but because it is responsible for giving advice to the emperor, it has always been regarded as one of the most important organs in the army. Moreover, he has praised His Majesty many times in the past few years, and has made a lot of meritorious achievements, and after several crowns, the title has reached the viscount and has become a member of the Han Dynasty.

When the army began to prepare to march into Japan, he was also sent to Zhao Song's side by the Military Council to plan the battle plan of the entire Han Dynasty to conquer the Japanese army.

His military rank is lower than Zhao Song, and his position is Zhao Song's assistant officer, and he is not even as good as him, but he is the representative of the Military Council and the person sent by the emperor to personally assist him, so Zhao Song will be very polite to him no matter what. Moreover, this senator is as his name suggests, he is really a very "strict" person, he usually does not smile, he has a straight face when he sees everyone, he is very insistent on his own opinions, and he often points it out mercilessly when he encounters a mistake in front of the chief, and he has spoken out several times in front of Ji Guogong, Zhao Song even heard that when he was in the Military Chamber, Yan Guang also refuted the emperor's opinion several times in person, and this rumor shocked him very much at the time - you must know that even he himself did not dare to say more than half a word in front of the emperor.

has such qualifications and such a character, so although the two have had a friendship for many years, the two of them have not said anything about the past for more than two months, and they are all businesslike.

"Of course, Japanese civilians must find a way to recruit and transfer, otherwise with the manpower of our army, it will be difficult to fully spread it on Kyushu Island." Zhao Song nodded, "However, if our army wants to recruit civilians, there are many difficulties during the period, not to mention our current image problem, even in terms of language." ”

"In terms of language, we had to rely on Japanese-speaking translators from Goryeo." Yan Guang replied quite seriously, "As for the image, it's not a big problem, the common people of Japan are oppressed by the feudal lords and the shogunate, and their ordinary life is already miserable, what kind of national hatred and family hatred can they have?" As long as I can get a few mouthfuls of food and survive, I am glad enough. Now you see, the shogunate army is already mad in Nagasaki, they have burned Nagasaki to the ground, these civilians have no place to live, let alone food and clothing, as long as we give them some food and clothing, are we afraid that they will not be used? ”

"These shogunate soldiers are doing things in our favor...... However, we will not be able to raise all these displaced Japanese civilians by then, right? Zhao Song asked rhetorically, "Nagasaki Port has now become a wasteland, and our transport ships can't transport a large amount of grain, after all, the army is in front, and the priority is to transport arms, weapons and soldiers." ”

"Our precious food was not originally used to feed these Japanese civilians, otherwise what would we do if we called here!" Yan Guang replied directly, "After our army has gone ashore, we will immediately recruit civilians, those who are willing to be recruited, those who are unwilling must be arrested, the corpses will be collected, the port will be repaired, and the residence will be rebuilt, which one does not need a lot of manpower?" When the time comes, we will send some rations so that they will not starve to death, and those who can't work will be left to fend for themselves. ”

"Yan Senate...... Sometimes you just talk too straight, and there are some things we just need to say in private, don't say them. Zhao Song sneered, "You also know that we are calling under the banner of supporting justice, but we can't do too much and push everyone to the side of the shogunate, otherwise wouldn't that be adding trouble to us for no reason?" ”

"I naturally understand the deep meaning of adults, but we can't pay so much attention to fighting." Yan Guang was still very cold, "We can't give them our own food, and we can't afford to share it, so we can only use the rich people here." The wealthy families here are all run by several generations, although they may not have much wealth, but they have accumulated a lot of food, as long as they are subdued, it is certainly not a problem to feed some people. ”

"That's what I said!" Zhao Song's head agreed. "But there are many wealthy families in Kyushu, and we can't all regard them as enemies, so we still have to treat them differently, pull one faction to fight another, eradicate all the hostile factions, and use their wealth and land to buy the hearts of other wealthy families and civilians."

Of course, the lower official also thought of this, but it was just ...... We had only fought at home before, and we really didn't know how to deal with these Japanese tycoons. Yan Guang shook his head, and then sighed slightly, "I just hope that Lord Zhou can do things a little better, so that the wealthy family of Kyushu can return to their hearts as soon as possible, otherwise we will have a lot of troubles in the future!" ”