Chapter 15, the twenty-seven moments of Chongzhen's four years (15)

The fifteenth moment: the ambition of the old man of Changzhou

A.D. 6-1, the fourth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, December of the seventh year of Kanei in Japan, Choshu Domain, Maguan, Chunfan Building

The Chunfan Building of Maguan is a private villa built near the Maguan Strait by the Japanese Junjie, the "Choshu Old Man" Shou Sui Nobuyoshi in recent years, the pattern of this building is not big, but the victory is in the negative mountain facing the sea, there are blue waves in front of the sea, there are mountains and forests in the back, the scenery is quite beautiful.

At the end of spring this year, when the famous general of the Ming Dynasty, Huangshi, crossed the sea to Changzhou to discuss the matter of the joint army to attack Satsuma, he stayed here, and he was also interested in splashing ink in person, and named this building "Spring Sail Building". It seems to commemorate his arrival here on a spring day. The landlord Shou Sui Xinji was naturally pleased to accept Huang Dashuai's ink treasure, and commissioned a craftsman to make a pair of gold plaques, hanging in front of the building, and officially changed the name of the building.

On this day, the old man who stayed with him occasionally had nothing to do, and was entertaining several guests and colleagues to drink and enjoy the snow on this spring sail tower.

Although it was a cold winter moon with a howling north wind and heavy snow outside, the inside of the Chunfan Building was smoked by the blazing brazier and warmed like spring. As far as the eye can see, all kinds of splendid furnishings are full of exotic customs that are very different from the Japanese style - exquisite crystal glass chandeliers are hung from the ceiling; Instead of tatami mats, the floor is covered with Persian carpets, colorful woven with various patterns; On the carpet stand two rosewood bogu shelves filled with various enamel treasures and glazed ware, as well as a brightly colored screen of gold-painted landscape paintings; In front of the screen, instead of Japanese-style cushions and low tables, Chinese-style carved wooden chairs and eight-immortal tables are placed, and because it is winter, thick cushions made of velvet felt are added to the seats and backrests, which are very comfortable. Even the brazier for heating in the corner of the wall is very elegant, and the best hardwood charcoal is added with exotic spices, making the whole house rich and fragrant, full of spring.

The most striking part of the interior is a specially built enclosed balcony facing the courtyard and the sea, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows on three walls and glass panels inlaid on the ceiling

As soon as a few foreign samurai who visited Chunfan Tower for the first time entered the door, they were suddenly shocked when they saw the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and transparent roofs that were almost like the greenhouses of later generations. I couldn't help but lean over to the large glass plate that was as clear as nothing, and looked at the lead-gray sky outside in the middle of winter, the cold plum that bloomed resolutely in the midst of all things, and the snowflakes that fell in the wind through the window, and fell into a trance for a while, and even involuntarily reached out to touch the falling snow outside the window, until my fingertips were blocked by the glass, and I woke up in shock.

--Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, they had never experienced the novel feeling of being outdoors without being exposed to the wind and snow.

Seeing those foreign warriors in such a trance, all the Choshu feudal lords present laughed one after another, completely forgetting that when they first came to Chunfan Tower, they seemed to be in general gaffe...... However, the host, a tall and burly (by Japanese standards) Nobuyoshi Mori, who was only twenty-six years old, simply smiled calmly and invited everyone to come and sit down, so that the guests were admired for his courtierly demeanor.

Because the food and wine have not yet been prepared, everyone just sits in a circle around the table, drinking mellow Lingnan oolong tea with a delicate and small, crystal clear glass tea set, and tasting some "wagashi" pastries, while chatting about some topics to relieve boredom.

At first, they just talked about the ups and downs, but as they chatted, they involuntarily led the topic to current affairs.

“…… This year, the number of stones in the collar is 1.5 million. Although there has been no bumper harvest of rice in the past two years, the yield is still acceptable. As for the new crops imported from the Ming Kingdom, the yield of those sweet potatoes and potatoes was even more amazing. Even though it costs a lot to send troops to Satsuma this year, after the autumn grain is put into storage, the military rations stored in the domain can still last for a year. If the ancestor (Mori Terumoto) had known about Izumishita, he would have been very pleased."

An old man with a white beard sipped tea and chattered as he looked radiant. It's a pity that he is a little too old, not only does his speech leak and speak slowly, but his words are also slurred, which makes everyone want to be drowsy, but for the sake of his lord's master, he has to forcibly endure - until he seems to inadvertently leak the last sentence:

“…… Now that I am about to organize a New Year's banquet, I have been hesitating for a while, and when it comes to accepting the toast of the ministers at the end of this year, will I continue to follow the old practice? Or should I say something different from previous years? ”

Hearing this, those foreign warriors were still at a loss, but the eyes of several Choshu clan warriors who reacted sharply suddenly lit up.

-- All the samurai of the Maori family know what the above seemingly ordinary words contain:

Downfall

Speaking of which, long before the last "Expedition to War" broke out, the relationship between the Choshu Domain and the Edo Shogunate was almost "two hatreds in one day, three rivers and four seas", and it is no wonder that in the history of another world, the Choshu Domain eventually became the vanguard of the Shogunate Movement.

Of course, in the history of this world, the Choshu Domain was still the vanguard and pillar of the Shogun Movement.

-- The ancestor of the Maori family of the Choshu Domain, he was known as the "First Wise Commander of the Warring States". At the height of their power during the Sengoku period, the Mori family once owned 80 percent of the western part of the island. After Maori Yuan's death, the heir was his grandson, called Maori Terumen. The expression of this person in history, in general, can be summed up in one sentence, the heart is higher than the sky, and the hand is softer than tofu. Because of the low hand of the eye, from time to time there are all kinds of bad luck.

Thus, in the fifth year of Keicho (66), the largest battle in Japan's history, the Battle of Sekigahara, was fought by Tokugawa Ieyasu against Ishida Mitsunari, of which the Western Army led by Ishida Mitsunari actually represented the Toyotomi family, the supreme ruling family of Japan at that time. However, although Ishida Mitsunari is the representative of the Toyotomi family, he is actually a commander-in-chief of the battlefield, and the commander-in-chief of the Western Army is Mori Terumoto.

At that time, Ishida Mitsunari invited the powerful Mori Terumoto to be the general of the Western Army, at first he still refused to come, and finally Ishida Mitsunari promised that once Tokugawa Ieyasu was defeated, the Mori family would become the second largest family in Japan, second only to the Toyotomi family, and this uncle agreed to participate in the war.

By the time of the decisive battle between the eastern and western armies at Sekigahara, the total number of the western army on the battlefield had reached about 100,000, of which there were 30,000 or 40,000 troops of the Mori family and the three branches of the Mori family, the Kobayakawa family and the Yoshikawa family, but these 30,000 or 40,000 people were unable to unite at all due to the perennial incompetence of the Mori Terumi Patriarch and the contradictions and divisions between the three families, and they were either onlookers or defected on the battlefield -- the hesitant and timid Mori Terumoto obeyed the Yoshikawa Hiro family (who had been bought by Ieyasu at that time). In exchange for the Tokugawa clan retaining the Mori clan's territory after the war, the Tokugawa clan adopted a passive policy of avoiding war against the Eastern Army. As for the Kobayakawa family, they simply betrayed and fell to the Tokugawa family, thus directly leading to the defeat of the Western Army on the Sekigahara battlefield.

However, the defeat of the Sekigahara battlefield did not mean the defeat of the entire war, you must know that at that time, Mori Terumoto himself also brought 10,000 men to stay in Osaka Castle, and Osaka Castle was known as the "first in Japan" at that time.

Therefore, Tachibana Munemoto, the daimyo of the Western Kingdom, who was also in the city at that time, and even Mori Hidemoto, the adopted son of Mori Terumoto, and others thought that they should defend the city and fight to the death, even if they still had to negotiate peace with Tokugawa Ieyasu in the end, at least they had to show their strength, so as not to be flattened by the old turtle. But at this most critical moment, Mori Terumoto shrank his head again - he decided to believe in Tokugawa Ieyasu's promise to protect the Mori family's territory and surrender without a fight.

Who knew that after the war, Tokugawa Ieyasu immediately changed his face, and in the face of Mori Terumoto, who came to beg for mercy, Tokugawa Ieyasu reversed his previous promise and cut the fief of the Choshu Domain from 1.2 million koku to 300,000 koku, and he was impoverished all of a sudden. In this regard, Maori Huiyuan was dumb and couldn't say that he had bitter suffering from eating Coptis chinensis, so he had to swallow the bitter wine he brewed, and then retired to repent. And the whole of the Chosu Domain hated the shogunate deeply from then on, to the point of hatred to the bone marrow.

At a time when the wheel of history had just rolled to the seventh year of Kanei, and only thirty years had passed since the Battle of Sekigahara, there were still many old people in the Choshu Domain who had experienced the Great War that year. Although the disaster was mainly caused by Mori Terumoto's stupidity, hatred is hatred, and since the opening of the Edo shogunate, the heart of every Choshu domain samurai has burned with vengeful anger. So much so that every year at the Spring Festival gathering, the Maori clan of Choshu would say, "My lord, is it okay?" At the beginning of the congratulatory message, of course, the feudal lord's reply was always "It's not time yet, please keep waiting."

However, even Mori Terumoto himself probably did not expect that this sad wish, which made him regret to death, might be fulfilled when the Mori family had just passed on to the next generation - when the Kyushu expedition was won in the summer of this year, and the Shimazu family of the Satsuma clan was subdued, and the Kyushu feudal clans were terrified and frightened, and they flattered the Mori family and the Ming reinforcements and begged for mercy, looking at the letters sent by the descendants of Sengoku celebrities such as Kato Kiyomasa's son, Kato Tadashigo, the lord of the Kuroda Kanwei (Fukuoka domain), and other descendants of Sengoku celebrities. The current lord of the Choshu domain, Mori Shuki, once said to the attendants on the left and right with emotion: In this way, at this year's New Year reunion, I may be able to answer something different.

-- Based on the usual obscure "belly art" rhetoric of Japanese politicians, this is already a very straightforward expression that he wants to rise up next year and bring down the army.

Obviously, with the expansion of strength step by step, the seed of ambition in Maori Xiu's chest has also begun to grow rapidly.

Of course, having such an idea in his heart does not mean that he will definitely put it into practice - as a famous family that has been passed down for several generations, Mori Shu is not a fiery hero like Oda Nobunaga, and if he wants to decide any major matter, he must consult the opinions of the retainers in advance and unify his internal thoughts, otherwise it will lead to disastrous consequences: the reason why Mori Terumoto was in the early days before and after the Sekigahara War had to be indecisive, swaying from side to side, and indecisive, and finally became the laughing stock of the world. It was also related to the divisions and sharp antagonisms within the Maori retainers at the time.

As for the new generation of Maori Xiu, the first thing he needs to refer to is the opinion of the "old man" who follows Nobuyoshi.

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After listening to the words from the feudal lord's trustee, and facing the bright eyes of the guests, Mori Sui Nobuyoshi just drank another cup of tea unhurriedly, and then replied slowly, "...... The meaning of the lord is already known below. It's just that there are some places in it, which are really incomprehensible, and if it is said that it is an enemy of the shogunate, isn't the current domain already planning? And if you want to enter Jingshangluo, I'm afraid it's still too early."

“…… With the current military strength and prestige of our domain, can't we send troops to Shangluo? A young samurai from a noble birth asked, "...... The new army of our domain, which was built by the method of the Huangshi Marshal of the Ming Kingdom, has been trained to 10,000 at present, and there are many stocks of grain, straw and ammunition. The Shimazu family, the strongest in Kyushu, has been subdued, and the rest of the Western Domains are also terrified. Even if there are still two or three dark centers to the shogunate, such as the Yamauchi family of the Tosa Domain, the Terasawa family of the Karatsu Domain, and the Matsukura family of the Shimabara Domain, they are all far away from our Choshu Domain, and they have few soldiers, so they are powerless to stop our Domain from sending troops. From this point of view, even if our army's eastward expedition to Shangluo cannot be said to be a one-way response, at least it can make the two feudal domains not help each other, so why can't they send troops? ”

-- The samurai shogunate in the Middle Ages in Japan was such an unreliable system, and the shogunate had to maintain an overwhelming superiority over the feudal kingdom at all times in order to maintain the peace and stability of the entire shogunate system. If the shogunate shows the slightest sign of weakening, then the next thing is the sad prospect of rebellion and rebellion, and the wall falling down and everyone pushing; Or at least it was the kind of situation where the rebellion exploded, and no one cared about the safety of the shogunate.

“…… How can it be so simple? Do you know that before and after the Warring States Period, how many heroes successfully went to Luo? Ouchi family, Hosokawa family, Miyoshi family...... But apart from the last Nobunaga, who has won the world? Isn't it the collapse of the middle way, from prosperity to decline, and from then on, the hegemony has become empty? ”

Shousui Shinyoshi shook his head again and again, "...... Even Nobunaga, it took more than ten years from the success of Shangluo to the domination of the world, so for the journey of my Maori family, Shangluo's entry into Beijing is just the beginning, not the end Compared with four years ago, the Tokugawa shogun's family is indeed much weaker, but it is not yet weak enough to be destroyed in a battle. You must also be prepared to fight on the battlefield for several years or even more than ten years.

There is a proverb in the Ming Kingdom: 'Sharpen the knife and do not mistake the woodworker,' Since the fall of the curtain cannot be accomplished overnight, then in order to fight for a long time, the rear must be cleaned up, remember that Toyotomi Taiko sent 200,000 troops to win the battle of Odawara Castle and eliminate the Hojo family, the overlord of the Kanto region, it was clear that the situation was already settled in the world, but it still took another year to sweep away the 6 Ou and Dewa princes in the northeast, and then calmly mobilized the troops and horses of the various domains to go out to Korea - if it was not for such a plough in advance to sweep the cave and cut off the troubles, I am afraid that after the Toyotomi Taiko crossed the sea to attack the dynasty and suffered a slight setback, the remote land of Ou would immediately be in chaos

In the same way, although our domain first broke the shogunate, and then pacified Satsuma, the army was intimidating the sea. However, the current situation in Kyushu can only be said to be rough at best, and most of the vassal states have only secretly sent letters to surrender, and have not yet publicly surrendered, so they are not reliable. In addition, the Hirado, Karatsu, and Shimawara domains, which were even more die-hard Sasho factions, continued to use the shogunate and the Shikoku land Sata clan as foreign aid, and insisted on being the enemy of our army. Even the Nagasaki Prefecture, which was placed in Kyushu by the shogunate, has not been eradicated to this day, and in the past few months it has continued to contact Western merchants through the port of Guò Nagasaki to help the shogunate import saltpeter and ordnance from overseas......"

As he spoke to the crowd, he dipped his fingers in tea and drew a rough map of Kansai, Japan, on the table....... For my domain, it is indeed possible to start erecting the banner of the curtain next year, but we must not only think about Shangluo and enter Heianjing, but forget about the safety of the back road. Instead, it needs to be done gradually, and in any case, the nail of Nagasaki must be pulled out first, and at the same time, the various feudal domains of the western country must be forced to send troops together......"

Just as he said this, several maids had already brought the wine and food. Shou Sui Nobuyoshi stopped talking, led the guests to clench their hands into fists, and began to pray before the meal with a reverent expression - as batch after batch of Choshu New Army completed their training in Liaodong and Fujian丨 returned to Japan one after another, the "Loyal Patriotic Catholicism" of the Jesuit missionary and artillery instructor Duncan also entered the Choshu Domain: from Shou Sui Shinyoshi onwards, all the Choshu New Army were baptized collectively during the training period and converted to the Japanese version of the "Loyal Emperor Patriotic Catholicism" "Chung Emperor Loves Choshu Catholicism"......

The invincibility of the Chōshū New Army and the Ming Funing Army (in order to get technical assistance from the Jesuits, the army of the Marshal of Huangshi was baptized very early) proved the supernatural powers and magic of Catholicism in a certain sense -- since ancient times, the Japanese nation has had the habit of imitating and following the strong, so after the victory of the last "Seicho War", the lord of the domain, Mori Hide, took the lead, and many important ministers of the Mori family converted to Christianity together, and officially became the "Kishibutan Daimyo" (the nickname given to Christians in medieval Japan), and the merchants and common people of the Choshu Domain saw this and followed suit...... Next, the lords and daimyo who had surrendered to the Choshu Domain were also baptized and converted in order to curry favor with the Maori family.

-- Thus, regardless of the level of piety, in at least a few short years, the Society of Jesus increased its income in Japan by nearly one million "Lambs of the Lord......

After the prayers, a few plates of cold cuts were served, mainly pickled pickles and small fish that are common on the Japanese table. Because it was an ordinary thing that was usually eaten, everyone present didn't move their chopsticks much, but they just listened to Shou Sui Xinji continue the topic just now, only to see Shou Sui Su Lao turn around and pull a young beautiful young man with red lips and white teeth and beautiful eyebrows, and introduce it to everyone...... It was only at this time that all the guests suddenly realized that this beautiful young man who was only ten years old was not the "little surname" or male pet who was newly accepted by Shinyoshijuku, but a messenger sent by the Catholic Church on Kyushu Island, named Amakusa Shiro Tokisada, whose father was originally a retainer of the famous "Kiritan" daimyo Konishi Yukinaga in the Toyotomi period.

After the Battle of Sekigahara, the defeated Konishi Yukinaga was beheaded by the Tokugawa family, the territory was changed, and the retainers scattered to become ronin. Amakusa Shiro Tokisada and his family also came to the port of Nagasaki and continued to practice Catholicism devoutly, and organized secret churches underground to fight against the "ban on Christianity" issued by the Tokugawa shogunate. Since he was a child, he has been smart and clever, proficient in doctrine and Western medicine, and is known as a "prodigy", and is praised as a "holy son" by Christians in Kyushu, and can be called an idol-level star - don't look at his young age, as long as he beckons casually, there will be fans to work for him

-- At the end of the Muromachi Shogunate, Catholicism spread rapidly in Japan with the arrival of the Portuguese and then the Spaniards. By the eighties of the sixteenth century, there were more than 200 churches in Japan, and the total number of Japanese Christians who had been baptized and converted reached hundreds of thousands.

However, since the ultra-conservative Tokugawa Ieyasu founded the Edo shogunate, he has always been hostile to Catholicism, and has repeatedly issued "banning Christianity", ordering the killing of missionaries, destroying churches, and carrying out various cruel and bloody repressions against Catholics throughout the country...... After more than ten years of such dark days, the Christians and missionaries on the island of Kyushu suddenly appeared in surprise: with the sound of a cannon in Choshu, a Japanese crusader army had arrived

As early as four years ago, during the "Zhengchang War", the Chōshū New Army and the Daming Funing Army attacked the coastline of the Kyushu domains one by one, repeatedly using shells and swords to "persuade" the Kyushu domains to withdraw from the unjust war against the people of Chōshū...... When it came to attacking Satsuma this year, the Choshu New Army and the Ming Funing Army beat the Kyushu feudal clans again by the way, focusing on beating a few people who were not upright enough to hook up with the shogunate, and did not completely abandon the daimyo of the "ban on religion", warning them not to make an example.

The "Kiritan" in the current territory actually had such a big backer, and the princes on Kyushu Island had no choice but to push the boat one after another, ignoring the shogunate's "ban on religion", and even a few daimyo families were secretly baptized, converted to God and became Christians, and even the shogunate in Nagasaki Port was so frightened that they did not dare to seriously enforce the "ban on religion" after being attacked several times by fanatical Christians who were tied to bombs.

Although the shogunate has repeatedly issued various national lockdown orders and religious bans in recent years, with the Choshu Domain, a great rebel, taking the lead in the rebellion, the shogunate's orders are basically a piece of waste paper west of Kyoto. On the entire island of Kyushu, only a few feudal states that were most loyal to the shogunate, such as Hirado, Karatsu, and Shimawara, still insisted on the shogunate's "ban on religion" and refused to waver, which also aroused great anger among Japanese Christians......

In short, for the Kyushu strategy of the "Crusaders" of the Choshu Domain, the hundreds of thousands of Japanese Christians on the island of Kyushu were the best "fifth column". In the plan for the downfall of the shogunate, which had been drawn up by Shousushi Nobuyoshi in consultation with Huangshi Huang Dashuai and the Senate of Lingao, these Japanese Christians on the island of Kyushu were to play an even more important role—in any case, when the war with the shogunate was suspended four years earlier, the Choshu domain had signed a peace treaty in black and white. Therefore, if the Chōshū Domain wants to tear up the peace treaty and raise troops to bring down the curtain, it is best to concoct a name that can be justified.

Therefore, after summoning Amakusa Shiro Tokisada and his godfather to inquire about the power of the church in Shimabara and Nagasaki, he prepared to make a message to the feudal lord Mori Hidesho in a few days, advising the feudal clan to try to finance a batch of weapons, ammunition, and money for these Kyushu Christians, so that they could raise their flags and raise their flags in the spring of next year to attack the Kyushu feudal kingdoms that still insisted on the side of the shogunate, such as Hirado, Karatsu, Shimawara, and Nagasaki......

Of course, the armed forces that the Catholic Church can pull up at the local level, even with a few ronin samurai as the core, are still a rabble. It's okay to pass on some information, set fire to sabotage or something, but it's a bit difficult to directly confront the regular army of the vassal country.

However, the Choshu clan did not expect this rabble to achieve anything great, as long as they built up their momentum, the new Choshu army could enter Kyushu in a big way under the banner of "protecting the faithful" and completely sweep away the remnants of the shogunate here.

Then, according to the idea of keeping Shinyoshi, the lord of the Mori Hidesho domain could follow the example of Toyotomi Hideyoshi Taiko's Kanto expedition and gather the princes of the world to besiege the Hojo family's Odawara Castle, and set up a main camp outside Nagasaki Castle, and while besieging the situation, he summoned the princes of Kyushu to come to the alliance with his troops. If someone is willing to bring troops over, it is just right for them to participate in the Battle of Nagasaki, which is an attack on the shogunate army. If someone shirks and refuses to participate, it means that the ideology and position of that vassal state are very problematic, and the new army of Choshu needs to move to the past and "educate" with cannonballs.

In this way, after the defeat of Nagasaki and the extermination of the Sashoku domains, the lord of the domain could accept the worship of the daimyo of the Western Province in Nagasaki and call himself the Saikoku Tanji (the name of the old samurai official in the Kamakura shogunate period), so as to gather troops from more than 30 countries in Kansai to go out to Kamiraku and compete with the Tokugawa family......

A military and political strategy like this should have been kept in my heart. Unfortunately, the Japanese at this time do not have such a strong sense of secrecy, and this matter is close to a conspiracy, even if it leaks out, the remnants of the shogunate in Kyushu will have nothing to do...... So, Shousui Nobuyoshi said it at the wine table without paying much attention. And after hearing this seemingly perfect plan to fall the curtain, everyone present was also impressed, and all kinds of sycophants rolled in as if they didn't want money, and they all chanted "God bless" and "the holy war will be won", and stretched out their hands and crossed without mentioning it.

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After another moment, all kinds of sumptuous hot dishes were served by the maids: salted fish stew smelling fragrant; "Oden" made with fried eggs, dried tofu and potatoes; There are also meatballs made of chicken and pork, which are also fried, and the appearance is yellow and crispy, with mushrooms and bamboo shoots in the mountains, braised tofu in yellow and white oil, almost transparent shrimp dumplings, and selected high-quality vermicelli, etc., which make people very appetizing at a glance; Even those vegetables are fried in the pan, and they look oily and shiny. The food and beverage ingredients are also high-end and high-grade wines.

Although there was a tradition of taboo eating meat in ancient Japan, it was mainly observed by the public secretary class and some people who believed in Buddhism. And everyone here is a samurai, relatively speaking, they don't abuse their stomachs so much: even Toyotomi Hideyoshi had eaten wild boar hot pot in his early years, not to mention, with the "conversion to God" and "Western learning from the East" in the Choshu Domain in recent years, as well as a large number of new troops returning from training in the Ming Kingdom, many people of insight in the domain believe that the "meat ban" is a bad habit that needs to be abolished...... In short, all the guests ate Nanban wine, and they were full of oil and elated.

Then came the next more extravagant dish, with a few sturdy servants, who took turns to serve a number of small tin charcoal stoves, and set in front of each guest a hearth of fine white coal, and a beating flame gladly roasted a net of copper wire. Another maid picked up a piece of fat and thin pork belly with long, silver-inlaid bamboo chopsticks and put it on the copper net. The charcoal-grilled copper mesh has excellent heat transfer performance, and immediately there is a stinging sound, and the room is filled with an enticing aroma of meat - these meats are marinated with the best spices and grilled, and they are fat and juicy, and the mouth is excellent. In addition to barbecued meat, there are also grilled fish, grilled squid, grilled scallops, grilled corn and other dishes to choose from, dipped in sweet and sour tomato sauce, or mixed with pepper hot sauce, it is a unique delicious taste, so that everyone immediately has a great appetite, and for a while they are sweating profusely. Seeing this, Nobuyoshi, who was the host, thoughtfully ordered someone to send a cool and thirst-quenching orange-flavored "Australian soda".

Although soda is not a rare thing in the base camp of the travelers on Hainan Island, it is still extremely rare in Japan, because with the rather rudimentary sealing conditions of this era, it is easy for soda to go out of gas after a long time - it is just fruity sweet water. Therefore, the packaging must be made of special thick glass bottles, stuffed with wooden corks, and then tied tightly with iron wire. Every 12 bottles were shipped in wooden boxes with latticework, and the price was naturally very expensive, and the Japanese regarded them as fairy dew, so they immediately praised the generosity of the old man.

At the same time, many geisha dressed in brightly colored kimonos and heavily coated in fat powder also burst into the banquet with a smile and a fluttering butterfly at the clap of a middle-aged butler. Sit down and play musical instruments, chant and perform, or stick next to your guests and pour wine...... It didn't take long for everyone to drink and drink hotly, and they all drank prostitutes and indulged in their own pleasures, which was really a happy appearance

On the other side, looking at the sumptuous wine and delicacies, smelling the aroma of fat powder around him, and the heirs of these famous families who were respectful to themselves during the banquet, thinking of the heroism of pointing out the country and reprimanding the army just now, the twenty-six-year-old "Changzhou Veteran" Shousui Xinji, for a while, couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion, suddenly like a dream - who would have imagined that just nine years ago, he was just a poor sour ronin with a knife on the streets of Osaka?

-- The ancestor of Shousui Nobuyoshi was also a son of a certain generation of the Takeda clan of the Takeda clan, and all generations of generations have been known for their active brains and good steering. After the defeat and death of the last governor of the Takeda family, Katsuyori became the guardian of the ronin and escaped from Kai, all the way to the Kansai region of Japan, wandering among the various feudal domains, but he never found a way out. It wasn't until the generation of Morisushi Nobuyoshi that he was lucky enough to be hired by the Choshu Domain eight years ago, and then he was promoted to the head of the Ashigaru group, with a salary of fifty koku rice per year.

With the closed nature of traditional Japanese society, if there are no special opportunities, the future of Shousui Nobuyoshi's life is estimated to stop here - compared with the hundreds of thousands of ronins in Japan who are still begging with knives, he is already quite lucky.

However, in the second year of the Mori family of Nobuyoshi's exit to Choshu, the Choshu clan had a trade dispute with a gang of "pirate bandits" who violated the shogunate's ban and continued to dump the Ming Kingdom's inferior money and self-minted fake money into Choshu. After their fake money shop was seized by the domain, these strongmen did not stop doing anything, occupied the port of Shimonoseki in the Choshu Domain, and openly blackmailed the Choshu Domain. Angry, the Changzhou side mobilized an army of 3,000 to go to the crusade.

Shousui Nobuyoshi was also in the camp of the Choshu army at that time, and he thought that he would be able to capture hundreds of bandits who had come ashore, but the result of the battle was a big surprise -- these so-called "pirates" were actually all ironclad soldiers, and there were many powerful artillery to help them fight.

After retreating in a chaotic manner, in the evening of the same day, the commander of the Choshu Domain, who could speak Chinese with Nobuyoshi and had a very active brain, promoted him to the rank of general and went to negotiate with the "pirates" on the other side. Then after hearing that the old man behind the fake money shop of the "pirates" was actually the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty Shaobao (the official title of Huangshi Huang Dashuai at that time), the faces of all the warriors of the Changzhou Domain turned green with fright. They reckoned that someone must apologize for their sins this time - in the end, this infinitely glorious task once again fell to Shousui Nobuyoshi, who had just returned from the enemy camp, and on the same day that he was promoted to the rank of general, he was once again promoted to the rank of elder of the Choshu domain, and then sent to the Ming Dynasty to apologize to the crown prince Shaobao.

In this way, in just one day, Shousui Nobuyoshi went from the head of the Ashigaru group to the elder of the family, and his promotion was a miracle

At that time, the two deputy envoys of the Choshu Domain, who accompanied Shousui Xinyoshi to the Ming Dynasty, kept instilling in him the truth that "the main family is great" along the way, and kept hinting that Shousui Nobuyoshi should stand up at the "critical moment" and bravely "take responsibility". Shou Sui Xinji was naturally impassioned on his lips, but he scolded in his heart - Lao Tzu has only enjoyed the treatment of the old family for a few days, and he has not even asked for his wife, who is so stupid to go to seppuku.

In short, although the old man of the Shinji family has risen to 200 stone (in fact, it is an empty name, and he has not even received a grain of rice and a penny as of that time), but this ungrateful thing still does not seem to have the slightest consciousness of dedicating himself to Choshu seppuku - after he landed on Changsheng Island, as soon as he saw the marshal of Huangshi, he fell to the ground, took the responsibility for the Changzhou domain, and accepted the other party's request in full during the negotiation: because Huangshi's request was not too much, So the two sides quickly reached an agreement that Huangshi could continue to buy and sell his copper coins in Japan, but all the copper coins would be sold to the Choshu Domain, which would sell them through its own channels, and the profits would be split between the two companies.

In this way, with the agreement reached, the boss of the Shousui Shinyoshi family was finally able to go back alive - for the above agreement, the Choshu clan was basically satisfied, at least he did not kill Shousui Shinyoshi to vent his hatred, because in this way, not only did he achieve a win-win situation, but also a strategic partnership with Daming.

Then, the trade in counterfeit currency was so lucrative that with the steady stream of Ming copper coins pouring into the Japanese market, in just half a year, the Changsheng Island and Choshu Domains each made a net profit of one million taels of silver from this trade - "There are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests." This wise quote once again showed its correctness, and the large amount of profit made the originally half-hearted Maori family die. In addition, in order to cultivate "his own people" in Japan, Huang Dashuai also signed a secret treaty with the Choshu Domain, which stipulated that all personnel changes related to Huangshi in the Choshu Domain should be approved by Huangshi in advance, so as to ensure that Shousui Nobuyoshi could remain entrenched in the upper echelons of the Choshu Domain.

From then on, as an agent of the "Ming Kingdom", a year ago he was just a head of the Ashigaru group, and since then he has been the old man of the well-known Choshu Domain, and with the help of fake money trade, he controls the full seventy percent of the financial income of the Maori family, and is fully responsible for the trade work of the Ming Kingdom, and soon his prestige is growing...... Next, in order to build momentum for Shousui Nobuyoshi, when training the Changzhou New Army, Marshal Huangshi did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to make several sets of full-body wax figures for Shousui Nobuyoshi, and pasted the portraits of Shousui Suji all over the dormitories of Japanese officers and soldiers, so that whether they were eating or practicing, they could see Shousui Nobuyoshi's solemn posture and deep gaze, and repeatedly taught them: "...... From the Onin Rebellion to the present, Japan is in the midst of great changes unseen in 3,000 years, and for the sake of the emperor and the Choshu domain, every aspiring Japanese should learn from the vision and mind of Sulao."

In addition, Huangshi also staked his reputation, and spoke highly of the young Japanese talent of Mori Sui Nobuyoshi: "...... Shousui is Japan's greatest land politician, military strategist and diplomat in the past 3,000 years, such a figure is rare even in my China, he is a living national hero of the Japanese Yamato nation, and I am deeply honored to work with the far-sighted, great personality of Shousui Lord. ”

Under such influence, most of the officers and soldiers of the Changzhou New Army became fanatical admirers of Shousui Shinyoshi after returning to China, and once they talked to others about the past they had experienced in the Ming Kingdom, they would often sigh with emotion: "...... Although the Han people are proud and arrogant, they all respect Lord Shou Sui from the bottom of their hearts, and every time they talk about him, they will respectfully call him 'Su Lao, or 'Shou Sui Lao,'"

In the spring of the third year of Kanei, after the Choshu clan defeated the shogunate army and killed the Tokugawa family, he fled in the wilderness, as a famous diplomat, military strategist, reformer and pioneer who led the trend of the times, Shousui Nobuyoshi has become a star idol in all of Japan, and is known as the top legendary wise man who is better than the "famous military division of the Warring States" Takenaka Hanbei and Kuroda Kanwei, and even the shogun is sighing why he failed to get such a virtuous minister

Although a few months later, with the death of the Ming Emperor's Apocalypse, Huangshi lost ground in Fujian and provided much less support to Japanese allies. But at this time, Shousui Nobuyoshi had already been full-fledged in the Choshu Domain, and his reputation was so high that no one dared to suppress Cheng Dù casually, and he himself had always been cautious, so Shousui Nobuyoshi only gave up part of his authority in the domain a little, and he survived that difficult time.

Next, with the rise of the power of the Senate of the Lingao Traveler on Hainan Island, the power of Shousui Nobuyoshi was once again consolidated - as a smart man, Shousui Nobuyoshi has always been soberly aware of what his source of power is, and has always adhered to the position of being tough on the shogunate and the alliance with the "Ming Kingdom" (in fact, it is against the Huangshi Marshal and the "Australian" traverser group on Hainan Island), and vigorously promoted the comprehensive friendly cooperation between the Choshu Domain and the Huangshi General, whether it was dumping industrial products with Japan, exporting red copper and silver, and joining forces to conquer the Satsuma Domain. has always cooperated well, and by the way, he has also perfectly hidden the shady curtain of the "Japanese traitors" that he can't see, and has been perfectly hidden under the grand blueprint of helping the Maori family to fall and fighting for the world with the Tokugawa clan......

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In short, according to the calculation of Shousui Nobuyoshi, the rumors of the troubled times have been set off, and the grand war between the Maori family and the Tokugawa family for hegemony in Japan may take one to two generations to complete...... Therefore, in his life, the Changzhou Domain must be inseparable from the support of Ming foreign aid, and his position as a "veteran" can also be safe and worry-free.

On the other hand, after securing his old position, Shousui Nobuyoshi did not have any more thoughts - first, no matter how outstanding his reputation was, Shousui Nobuyoshi was an airborne "outsider" in Choshu, and although the Choshu feudal lords admired and respected him very much, they regarded him as a guest, and it was another matter to be a lord; Secondly, with Japan's tradition of emphasizing blood and family lineage, a person who has no name will be ruined. Finally, as an "intellectual" who is familiar with literature and history, he also knows what happened to Wang Mang after he usurped the Han Dynasty. Therefore, Mori Nobuyoshi thought that after the Mori family won the world, he should be satisfied if he could obtain the position of the former head of the Hosokawa family.

However, just as Mori Nobuyoshi was sipping the wine in his cup and contemplating the glorious life ahead, he was interrupted by an abrupt shout - he looked back with some displeasure, and saw a foreign samurai who seemed to be half-awake and half-drunk, leaning against the glass window of the seaside at some point, pointing to the Seto Inland Sea outside, and shouting inarticulately, "...... Come and see the boat, there's a ship coming."

When everyone in the room heard this, they were slightly stunned at first, and then burst into laughter, "...... Hahahaha On this Seto Inland Sea, which day is not a ship coming and going? What's all the fuss about? Are you a mountain monkey from Shinano or Kai, you've never seen a ship in your life?"

But the samurai who shouted was still incoherently arguing, "...... No, it's big, really big, big......"

“…… A big ship? Could it be that a Dutch merchant ship came to do business? Or is General Yellowstone's fleet coming again? ”

A Choshu feudal lord pursed his lips disappreciatively, got rid of the entanglement of a few geisha, and also leaned over to take a look, and was immediately stunned...... Huh? Something does look wrong with these ships...... Is there such a ship on the side of General Huangshi? ”

But at this time, Mamoru Nobuyoshi did not return, because he had also noticed the strange appearance of the hazy shadows on the sea level, and despite the cold wind outside, he suddenly got up and pushed open the glass window, and then took out a telescope from his arms, and leaned out to look out against the falling snowflakes.

The sightpiece immediately made him gasp - in the inky waves of the Seto Inland Sea, three towering blue-gray ships were plowing the waves like fierce horses, and their size was so large that the Japanese merchant ships along the way were almost like sampans. Moreover, although these three giant ships have neither sails nor oars from a distance, they can fly to the west and gallop, which is faster than the dragon boat racing of the Ming Kingdom...... It seems that he wanted to pass the Guò Maguan Strait (the old name of the Kanmon Strait) and leave the narrow Seto Inland Sea and sail into the vast ocean outside the strait.

Shousui Nobuyoshi squinted and repeatedly scanned the strange shapes of the towering ships, but he could not find any clear traces that could prove their identity, only to see a red flag fluttering on the top of the mast of one of the giant ships, painted with a golden sickle and hammer pattern

“…… What country's flag is this? Portugal? Spain? Netherlands? Their flags don't seem to be like this, this is obviously not the military flag of the Yellowstone Marshal, or the Morning Star flag of the Senate...... It's more likely that it's not the family crest of some samurai family in Japan......"

Looking at this extremely unfamiliar flag, Shousui Nobuyoshi felt that his mind was full of question marks, "...... Damn, what the hell are these big ships coming from? ”

At the same time, more and more Japanese began to notice the strange situation on the shore, and immediately ran and shouted to each other, danced and passed on the news, and even lit beacon fires, which finally caused chaos in the entire town of Shimonoseki - the townspeople, fishermen, farmers, merchants, and samurai were all shocked to the point of insanity. Some people rushed to the dock, some climbed the big trees, some jumped onto the roof, and some people took small boats on the beach, all staring in amazement at the huge strange ships that appeared in the Maguan Strait......

And the big ships also seemed to be aware of the commotion on the shore, so when they were at the narrowest point of the Guò Strait, they made a sharp and loud noise:

“…… Toot Toot - "

Startled by the sudden loud whistle, the telescope in Nobuyoshi's hand suddenly fell out of his hand and fell into the snow downstairs.

Looking up again, now those huge ships have passed through the Guò Maguan Strait, gradually moving away, Shou Sui Xinji had to shake his head helplessly, first ordered the frightened butler with a pale face, let him go downstairs to pick up his binoculars, and then found a chair at random to sit down, for a while only felt that his mind was a mess, all kinds of chaotic thoughts seemed to be coming one after another, so that Shou Sui Xinji couldn't help but feel a deep headache.

Taking a deep breath of the cold air pouring in from the window, Shou Sui Nobuyoshi rubbed his temples, and for some reason he had a vague premonition that his life future, which had been basically clear, seemed to be covered with a layer of uncertainty again......

However, just when the Japanese archipelago was shocked by the "big iron ships" and "demon army" from Vladivostok, they were shocked and inexplicable. The "Australian" traverser base located in Lingao County, Hainan Island, is still ignorant of the arrogant behavior of these "fellow villagers" in Japan for the time being.

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