"My lord, under such harsh conditions, we would rather die in battle than accept it!" With Takagi Kiyoshi's shout, his roar echoed in the small room, and for a while, the Han soldiers standing next to him rushed up with their weapons, trying to stop this impudent man. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Zhou Pu was not too surprised, but stretched out his hand to stop the soldiers, he also knew that his conditions were so harsh, it was strange that the representatives of the shogunate were not angry.

"You say these conditions are harsh? What's the harshness? He looked at Takagi Kiyoshi unhurriedly, "Your Tokugawa family has caused such a big disaster, and you are the enemy of your country's imperial court, it stands to reason that it should be a catastrophe and set an example. ”

"To dissolve the shogunate and remove the shogun is tantamount to making the deeds of the ancestors of the Tokugawa family come to naught, and the shogun cannot agree to this under any circumstances." Because of his extreme anger, the veins on Takagi Qing's face were already bulging, but he still held back his anger and said to Zhou Pu in a trembling voice, "The words of the territory are also fought by the ancestors of the Tokugawa family and the retainers and samurai of the past dynasties little by little, and it is easy to give it to others, otherwise what kind of face will we have to go down to the ground to see the Divine Monarch?" ”

"So you mean, you can't make any concessions at all, and you can't talk about these issues?" Zhou Pu asked with a sneer.

"The land thing, too...... It's not that it's not entirely impossible to discuss. Takagi Kiyoshi reluctantly replied, "We, the old man, said that the shogunate could cede the administration of Kyushu Island to the Han Dynasty, and at the same time respect the arrangements of the imperial court in the distribution of land between the western country and. ”

"Isn't that what the shogunate said about it, and without the shogunate's consent and approval, we have no way to distribute it?" Zhou Pu couldn't help laughing, "It turns out that the shogunate is all generous to others, giving us the place we have occupied, but he has nothing to lose!" ”

"The shogunate still has hundreds of thousands of troops in Kanto, and if you really think you can take land from Kanto again, then you can come and take it yourself." Kiyoshi Takagi retorted, "Now that the adults are still in the western country, the land of has not been plundered, so how can we talk about being generous to others?" ”

Let the Han and the imperial court hold the land after the war, this is Doi Toshikatsu's personal opinion, even Tokugawa Iemitsu does not know now, in Doi Toshikatsu's view, since the order of the forticity Kiyono is issued, the region will definitely become a depression, and then it will be difficult to continue to support the presence of the army, then it is very difficult for the shogunate to maintain a large army in, in this case, it is better to take it out and throw it to the imperial court, so as to shrink the front and maintain the shogunate's foundation in Kanto.

Because he knew that it would be difficult for Tokugawa Iemitsu to agree to such a condition immediately, he decided to throw out this condition first, and if the Great Han could really agree to compromise with the shogunate because of this, then Tokugawa Iemitsu would not disagree with this fait accompli.

However, he still didn't expect that Dahan was still very dissatisfied with their conditions.

In Zhou Pu's view, although these negotiation conditions provided by the shogunate could allow the Han to return with a full load and get great benefits, the shogunate did not suffer a painful loss, and still retained the fundamental importance of the Kanto region - and the Kanto region has not experienced war until now, and it will definitely recover faster than the western country after the war, and the shogunate will also gain absolute superiority over the western country and the Japanese court.

If the Great Han agreed to such a condition, then as soon as the Great Han relented, the shogunate would soon recover, and then, like Tokugawa Ieyasu, swept the western kingdom and reigned in Japan again.

Therefore, he could not agree to the other party's negotiation conditions under any circumstances, and even if he compromised, it would definitely weaken the shogunate to a certain extent, so that he would never be able to break the balance he had built after the war.

"That's right, our army hasn't entered Kinai yet, and you can still survive, but before our army advances, the recovery of Kyoto is only a matter of time." Zhou Pu looked at the other party confidently, "At that time, even the shogunate is in danger, what can we talk about giving up Kyoto to us?" ”

"If your lord thinks that your army will definitely be able to hit Kinai, then there is nothing to say in the next place, this can only be proved with knives and guns." Seeing that it was impossible to reach any consensus in the first contact, "In this case, I will say goodbye first, and wait until a while to contact the adults, presumably the adults will have a different opinion by then." ”

In order not to interrupt the channel that was established with great difficulty on both sides, he did not say anything to death now, but only said that he would contact him later. He had seen the majestic fortifications of Himeji Castle before, so he was convinced that the shogunate army would be able to hold back the advance of the Han army, so he planned to wait for the Han to be frustrated and poured cold water under Himeji Castle before coming to contact the Han envoys, thinking that the treatment and conditions he would receive would be much better.

And Zhou Pu is also very confident now, he has seen the scene of the Han using siege artillery to attack the heavily guarded fortified city, so he feels that as long as he transports the cannon, he can definitely break through any fortress of the shogunate army.

Now it is just an engagement, and the position of the two sides in the negotiations still needs to be determined by the situation and performance on the battlefield.

"It's getting late today, and now it's already a war here, let the envoy leave now, I'm afraid there will be danger, but it goes against the principles of our big man, so the envoy will stay here tonight." Since he had already revealed all his requirements to them, Zhou Pu didn't plan to talk to them more, so he waved his hand directly and asked people to take them away, "Okay, you go and rest first, I'll let you leave early tomorrow morning!" Keeping you safe! ”

After sending off this group of envoys from the shogunate, Zhou Pu did not dare to slack off, and immediately called a group of his own senators, because Huang Changguo had already led an army to Bizen Kojima County to occupy the port, so now the senators are headed by Huang Changguo's deputy Su Zhao.

After these senators were gathered, Zhou Pu immediately told them about the situation he was encountering now.

When they heard that the shogunate had begun to sue for peace, the senators were surprised and delighted, feeling that they had already reached the dawn along the way.

However, they also quickly understood that the strength of the shogunate was still there, and their morale was still very high, and they would not easily accept the peace negotiation conditions proposed by the Han, so there was still a long way to go in the next war.

"My lord, it seems that we will not fight well in the future, break their backbones, they really think that they have the capital to bargain with our big man." Su Zhao frowned and said, "Now let's hold off for a while, wait until we bring the cannon up, give him a few hard bombardments, and see what these beam-jumping clowns have to rely on!" ”

His words also provoked the other senators to echo for a while, after years of war, the victorious Han army has become extremely confident, not to mention the artillery fire that they are proud of.

"That said, we can't afford to ignore our adversaries." Zhou Pu was not as enthusiastic as them, "Now that the envoys of the shogunate have been taken down by me to rest, I expect that in addition to their mission of making peace with us, they must also have the mission of listening to the truth of our army and collecting intelligence, and we have to guard against it." ”

Hearing Zhou Pu say this, several senators were a little surprised.

Although the number of the army seems to be huge, but in fact, the number of the Han army is very small, which is also the point that they have always been most worried about.

"Do you want us to detain these emissaries and wait until we've broken the enemy forces before we release them?" Su Zhao asked Zhou Pu hesitantly.

"As courtiers of the Heavenly Empire, how can we do such a thing?" Zhou Pu smiled and asked, "These people want to listen to the truth, so let's let them take a good look." ”

Su Zhao was a little confused at first, but soon understood what Zhou Pu meant. "Are you going to disguise yourself in front of them?"

"Yes, now call up all the Han troops who have been camped, let them walk through the camp with torches, remember, let them carry torches and repeat the cycle." Zhou Pu nodded, and then said his idea, "We want these envoys to see the military might of our Great Han!" ”

"Understood!" Su Zhao and the others suddenly realized and immediately took the order.

In the middle of the night, under the orders of the officers, all the Han soldiers in the battalion who were sleeping were called up.

In the former Ming army, because of the high level of mental tension and the tension between officers and soldiers, as long as there is a little chaos at night, there will be a phenomenon of bombing the camp, so the former Ming has always set very strict rules for the military camp, and the activities are even more prohibited at night, but the Han army is well-trained, and the trust between officers and soldiers is very good, so the commotion in the night did not disturb the soldiers, they were soon all called, and then according to the previous training, they were soon assembled under the lit bonfire.

Then, this group of Han officers and soldiers marched through the camp with prepared torches, making a formation of continuous reinforcements from the army. Under the bright bonfire at night, the red uniforms and the medal buttons worn by these officers and soldiers were brightened even brighter, and they were almost dazzling.

This kind of back-and-forth transfer did fall into the eyes of the shogunate envoys who were secretly watching. After they saw the movement of the Han army at night and the strict military appearance, they were even more in awe of this army, and they were even more shocked by the strength of the Han army.

Although they were the ministers of the shogunate, they were not completely ignorant of military affairs, and when they saw the performance of this group of Han officers and soldiers, they naturally knew how much stronger they would be than the shogunate army. It's just that because the distance is too far, they are blurry and can't see the faces and specific scales of the people on the other side.

It wasn't until after midnight that the red-clad army ended its movement and slowly returned to the camp, and the original noise and noise returned to silence. At this time, Gao Muqing and the others also secretly calculated the size of the Han army they saw, and roughly estimated that it was only close to 10,000 people, at least five or six thousand people.

Perhaps the Han army was not the only one, and there were many more Han troops marching along various routes towards Himeji Castle and Kyoto, and the fact that the mountains were the same weighed on their hearts even more.

Early the next morning, the envoys of the Great Han kept their promise and sent them on the way back to the castle, and they immediately hurried towards Himeji Castle.

And Zhou Pu was also very satisfied with the performance of his subordinates last night, he knew that he had completed the task of deceiving the other party. These shogunate envoys must have gone back to tell the information they saw to the shogunate's defending generals, so the more they judged the number of Han troops in this army, the more shocked the shogunate army would be, which was also a psychological deterrent.

What's more, the more they felt that the Han was making every effort to attack the progress, the less they would have thought that the main direction of the Han attack would be to directly kill the Kanto region and fight a decisive battle with the shogunate, then there would be problems with their military deployment.

After the envoys were sent away, the speed of the Han army's advance began to slow down, except for Huang Changguo's smooth march all the way to sweep through the cities and towns along the coast of Bizen Province, the main formation of Zhou Pu's army began to march steadily, and finally stopped in the territory of Bizen Province, which was still dozens of miles away from Himeji Castle, and turned it into his own camp.

It seems that as Huang Changguo and others judged, the shogunate did intend to abandon the western country, and then rely on the fortresses of Himeji Castle and other places to defend to the death, and use delays to make the Han lose blood, and finally achieve the goal that the Han had to withdraw his troops.

"They compare themselves to Goguryeo, but they don't think about it, how can our Han be comparable to the Tang Dynasty at the beginning of the founding of the country?" Surrounded by a group of soldiers, Zhou Pu left such a judgment when he inspected his army. "If you are so conservative, you can only be beaten passively."

And at this moment, another group of people from the region secretly found him.

However, this group of people was not from the shogunate, but merchants from the region, especially those in Sakai City and Osaka Castle.

Sakai has always been a traditional commercial city in Japan, because it is located on the border of Settsu, Hanoi, and Izumi provinces, and because it is conveniently located, merchants from these three countries will concentrate here to do business, and the region is rich in products, and it is close to Kyoto and other consumption areas, so Sakai has become a commercial city.

During the Warring States period, Sakai became an autonomous city, filled with a large number of wealthy merchants, and even the daimyo in various places had to be afraid and try their best to win them over. Because of this special status, Sakai City escaped the frequent battles of daimyo from all over the world, and became a peaceful and prosperous city that even missionaries envied.

However, because of Sakai's status and wealth, it soon attracted the covetousness and jealousy of powerful daimyos.

Starting with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the central government has been doing its best to suppress Sakai, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent troops to open the strong walls of Sakai City and plundered the city, and Tokugawa Ieyasu also turned it into a white field when he attacked Osaka, and Sakai's merchants and wealth suffered greatly.

However, due to its excellent geographical location, after the establishment of the shogunate, Sakai City began to revive again, and the merchants in Sakai began to flourish again, and it was also transformed into a prosperous commercial city.

However, at this time, Osaka began to develop as a commercial city, and began to compete with the neighboring city of Sakai.

Sakai City was suppressed as an autonomous city, and many people were forced to move to Osaka, which was directly governed by the shogunate, and the Edo shogunate moved its important commercial institutions and functions to Osaka, making Osaka an important commercial city in Japan.

However, both Osaka and Sakai suffered from the Tokugawa shogunate, and neither of them had any support for the Tokugawa shogunate, and some even hated the Tokugawa shogunate because of its several attacks on Osaka.

When the Great Han landed on the island of Honshu and plunged the whole of Japan into a commotion, and began to attack step by step, the wealthy merchants in these cities began to waver. They secretly began to contact each other to discuss how to deal with the new situation in the future.

Whether out of hatred or out of the need to protect their property, they all felt that they had to make some contact with the Han first—so that whether it was a victory for the Han and the imperial court, or a victory for the shogunate, their property could be preserved as much as possible, rather than being slaughtered by others as in the Warring States period.

However, how to contact the Han made it difficult for them, because the shogunate had monopolized the trade with the Han Dynasty, they were all specialized in domestic business, rarely involved in foreign trade, and had few channels to contact the Han, let alone find a trustworthy negotiator.

Seeing that the big man had already hit the door of, these wealthy businessmen became more and more nervous, discussed and discussed, and finally decided to let the Mitsui family take the lead in the negotiation - the Mitsui family had done a lot of business before, and had begun to get involved in foreign trade, and had contacted the Dahan Merchant House in Nagasaki, in the eyes of these wealthy businessmen, they were already the best candidates now.

And for the sake of their own net worth, the Mitsui family did not dare to slack off, and immediately sent people who could be trusted in their own family, lightly armed, carefully crossed the front of the two armies through their own channels, and secretly infiltrated the sphere of influence of the Han army, and then tried their best to reveal the news to the Han army.

Through years of business accumulation, the Mitsui family is now a huge business family, relying on blood as a bond for family management, the Mitsui family has been divided into several branches through several generations of reproduction, and this time the person who was sent came from the branch family that was very close to the blood and the family, the name is Mitsui Takamatsu, he was personally sent, and it also reflects the fear and importance of the Mitsui family, and even the entire wealthy businessmen to the Han army.

When he learned of the arrival of the envoys of the wealthy merchants, Zhou Pu also changed his previous arrogance in front of the envoys of the shogunate and received them very politely. (To be continued.) )