Li Wei ignored the persuasion of the two lieutenant generals, insisted on characterizing Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, a shogunate force, as a rebellious minister and thief, and after driving away Imagawa Sadayo, not only did not retreat, but also attacked the nearby Japanese forces more fiercely, and at the same time, after occupying the city, he no longer plundered and left, but divided his troops to garrison, as if he wanted to annex the territory of the Japanese kingdom.

Seeing this, Imagawa Sadayo was even more anxious, on the one hand, he hurriedly summoned the local daimyo such as Shaoji Puteng, Otomo and Shimazu, and asked them to quickly gather their troops and resist the expansion of the Ming army, and on the other hand, they also hurriedly sent people back to Kyoto to report the news.

In the Kyoto shogunate, Gong Tengxing hurriedly walked into Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's mansion and hurriedly saluted: "General, something is wrong!" ”

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who was closing his eyes and recuperating, slowly opened his eyes, and there was no trace of joy or anger on his young face, and he said lightly: "What's the matter?" ”

"The commander of the Ming army was replaced by the general of the Ming army who made things difficult for us before, this time we are so well prepared, after Imagawa Sadashi submitted the paperwork, this person still believes that we are rebellious ministers, insists on not retreating, and recently began to occupy the surrounding city land, it seems that he really wants to seize the territory of my Japanese country!"

Gong Tengxing is anxiously reporting.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu heard this, and his calm face couldn't help frowning slightly.

The last time he got the message from Imagawa Sadashi, he was quite suspicious of this Ming general, in terms of the traditional style of the Chinese Dynasty, they have lowered their posture, and also respectfully agreed to the Ming request, the Ming should be happy to retire, and even the Chinese emperor may want some rewards when he is happy.

However, this general of the Ming army seemed to have a deep hatred with them, and insisted on a war, and even threatened to destroy Kyoto!

Although he didn't believe that this person could do it, there was no doubt that the Ming army's combat power was strong, and if this Ming army general had to fight him to the death, then even if the Ming army was driven out in the end, he would lose his troops.

The power of the Wa Kingdom is complicated, and he finally suppressed most of the daimyos, and only a few are still struggling with the Southern Dynasty, if he falls into a war with the Ming army at this time, maybe this shogun will have to change his surname again!

After pondering for a long time, Ashikaga Yoshimitsutsu Shen Zhi ordered: "Order the daimyo from all over Honshu and Shikoku to send troops to Kyushu to resist the Ming army, and in addition, let the deacon Yamana Tokiyoshi dispatch the shogunate troops and also go south with the army." ”

Even if the Ming army had made it clear that he refused to negotiate peace, then he had to mobilize a large army to fight with him.

However, when it comes to troop transfers, it is necessary to pay more attention to the fact that the shogunate's forces cannot be exceeded, but they must not be too much.

The daimyo in various places are not stupid, if the shogunate does not move, just let them send troops, they will definitely not do it, but if the shogunate sends too many troops, he will lose the strength to suppress other daimyos, and he will also fall into crisis.

"Yes!"

Gong Tengxing was hearing this, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.

There were more than 60 subordinate states of the Wa State, and there were countless daimyo in various places, and with the shogunate taking the lead, even if an army of 200,000 or 300,000 people could be raised.

The strength of the Ming army is less than 100,000, plus being in a foreign country, the weight of food and grass is a problem, and more importantly, there is no supply of soldiers, and if one dies, there will be one less.

He believed that it would not be long before the Ming army had to retreat.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu frowned for a moment, and then said: "In addition, I will repair another book, you ordered someone to take a detour and send it directly to the Ming Dynasty and present it to the Ming Emperor, I don't believe that this Emperor of the Great Unification really wants to occupy the land of my Wa Kingdom!" ”

He suspected that the commander of the Ming army was making his own opinion, and the Ming Emperor had no intention of destroying their Japanese kingdom at all!

Gong Tengxing Zhenggong claimed that he was, and when he saw that he had no other instructions, he bowed down and retired.

The power of the Wa Kingdom is intricate, and the powerful daimyo in each region monopolize several command states, with tens of thousands of troops, while the small lords are hundreds of thousands of shrimp soldiers and crab generals, but there are countless numbers.

Although Ashikaga Yoshimitsu had already given the order, it would take a long time for these daimyo to respond to the call, but the shogunate's own soldiers and horses moved quickly, and under the leadership of the governor Hosokawa Yoriyuki and the deacon Yamana Tokiyoshi, they quickly gathered 100,000 soldiers and horses and headed south to Kyushu to support Imagawa Sadayo and them.

In Dazaifu, Lu Tang stood in the center of the hall, reporting to Li Wei on the recent achievements of the Ming army.

"Recently, our army has captured nearly ten large and small castle fortresses such as Saga, Hakata, and Hirado, and the Japanese people have either fled in despair or surrendered to the city, and there is almost no decent resistance, and there are also some famous lords who have taken the initiative to surrender to our army, and I have not attacked these ......people for the time being."

Lu Tang said respectfully.

There is no shortage of traitors anywhere, and the same is true of the Wa Kingdom, some small masters saw that the Ming army was unstoppable, and they also followed the wind and surrendered to the Ming army.

Of course, I don't know if they're real or fake, but that's okay.

"Let these surrendered lords attack the other Japanese people, and if they don't listen to our orders, then they will be destroyed together!"

Li Wei said lightly.

Surrender cannot be said or forgotten, but must be taken into action.

Lu Tang nodded in agreement.

"In addition, grab all the money and food that these Japanese people can grab, and then we can use this money and food to recruit Japanese people as cannon fodder, and let them rush to the front in the war, and whoever behaves well will reward them more!"

Li Wei said lightly, he felt that it would be inhumane for the Ming army to rob these Japanese people of their money and food and let them starve to death, so it was better to use these money and grain to hire them to work, which was a good thing to kill two birds with one stone!

Lu Tang's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he praised: "General, this is really a good way!" ”

"Huh."

Li Wei smiled, and then said solemnly: "In the future, we will have some ammunition left, and if we can drive these widows, let them fight, and our own people only need to help from the side!" ”

"Yes!"

Lu Tang said yes.

After the Ming army arrived in the Wa Kingdom, they experienced several major battles, and Li Wei's ammunition consumption was also very large, especially when attacking Dazaifu, in order to hurry up and ignore the consumption of a fierce bombardment, but it cost a lot of ammunition.

Although he had already sent people back to Beijing to urge for ammunition and baggage, it would take time to send them, and during this time, they had to guard against the Japanese reorganizing their army to attack.

Kyoto was a long and narrow country, and Kyoto was a thousand miles away from Kyushu, and it took Hosokawa Yoriyuki to lead his army to Kyushu for nearly 20 days.

After losing Dazaifu, Shaoji Puten and others had to temporarily gather in Chikugo's Tsukushi Castle, and they waited for a full month for the Kyushu guards, and the shogunate's army finally came late.

A large group of daimyo such as Imagawa Sadayo and Shaoji Puten, Otomo Sorin, Ouchi Yoshiko, etc., went out of the city to greet them.

Hosokawa Yoriyuki is the shogunate, second only to Ashikaga Yoshimitsu as a general, and more importantly, the Hosokawa clan is also one of the three most powerful families under the shogunate.

"This time, I was ordered by the general to lead the shogunate's 100,000 troops to come, in addition to these, the general has also ordered the daimyo from all over the country to send troops and horses to jointly resist the Ming army, we will work together to drive the Ming army out of the country!"

Hosokawa Yoriyuki knelt on the throne and said to everyone in a deep voice.

When Shaoer Puten and the others heard this, they immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The Ming army had less than 100,000 soldiers and horses this time, and Hosokawa Yoriyuki brought 100,000 troops, plus the 50,000 people they had gathered themselves, and the strength of Kyushu had reached 150,000 at this time.

And this is not the end, the daimyo in various places are still sending troops to support, and after a few dozen, the Japanese army will approach the number of 200,000, more than twice as much as the Ming army.

"Lord Guanling, the power of the Ming army's firearms is amazing, although we have the advantage of troops, we still have to take precautions when we start a war, and we can't underestimate the Ming people!"

Shaoer Puten reminded with some unease.

Ouchi Yoshiko, Shimazu Yoshihisa and others also hurriedly followed, they would not forget the power of the muskets and artillery of the Ming army.

At that time, in the battle of the pontoon bridge, they were also more than the Ming army, but they ended up in a miserable defeat, and now I still have palpitations when I think about it.

Hosokawa Yoriyuki is not a reckless person, and nodded in agreement when he heard their words:

"I already know this, but firearms need to consume a lot of gunpowder and projectiles, and the Ming army has crossed the ocean to come to our country, and they won't bring too much ammunition when they think about it, and when their ammunition is exhausted, those firearms will become decorations, and we can easily defeat them!"

Although the Wa Kingdom did not get firearms, they still knew something about firearms, especially their high-ranking nobles.

Although Hosokawa Yoriyuki had never seen these new firearms of the Ming army, he knew from their descriptions that these firearms were the same as the previous ones, which were things that detonated projectiles with gunpowder.

When Shaoer Puten and the others heard this, they couldn't help but glance at each other, their eyes flickering.

Hosokawa Yoriyuki's words are true, but to consume the ammunition of the Ming army, it has to be filled with human lives, who will go?

If they let these Kyushu guardians rush to the front as cannon fodder, they won't do it!

Hosokawa Yoriyuki glanced at them, instantly understood their thoughts, and couldn't help but snort coldly in secret.

This guy wanted to use the shogunate as a gunman, and the shogunate also wanted to use them as cannon fodder, and he knew that they would definitely not obey if he directly ordered these people to consume the ammunition of the Ming army, so he changed his way.

"In addition to capturing Dazaifu, the Ming army also occupied many other cities, so I think so, let's divide our forces to take these cities first, and then besiege Dazaifu together in the end."

Hosokawa Yoriyuki said, glanced at everyone again, and added: "Whoever captures the castle this time will own it, you should have no opinion, right?" ”

"That's not good, is it?"

Shaoer Puten was suddenly a little unhappy.

Chikuzen is his family's territory, and if Hosokawa Yoriyuki says so, then after this battle, his losses will be great.

But he wasn't happy, but the others were happy, especially the Ouchi clan and the Takagi clan.

"I think it's very good, it's reasonable for the Lord to divide it like this, whoever lays the ground is whoever's own!" Ouchi Yoshixing laughed loudly.

"Yes, I agree with Lord Steward!"

Takagi Takannobu echoed.

Shaoer Puten glared at the two of them angrily, but the two ignored them directly.

If you have a bargain, you don't take advantage of that, that's a bastard!

The other Kyushu guards, the territory of the Shimazu clan is in the three eastern regions, and the Otomo clan is in the Toyozen Bungo, although there is no direct conflict with the young two Puteng, but if there is a chance to take some territory in Chikuzen, of course he will not object.

As for the other minor masters, they also hoped to take the opportunity to expand their power, and they all spoke out in agreement.

Imagawa Sadayo was a member of the shogunate and fully supported Hosokawa Yoriyuki's decision.

Shaoer Puten was alone and helpless, gritting his teeth in anger.

Hosokawa Yoriyuki glanced at him and sneered in his heart.

Although he has no enmity with the Shaoji clan, the Shaoji clan, as a veteran landlord in Kyushu, is naturally the main target of the shogunate's attack, and he just took this opportunity to weaken his power.

As for the other big names, they can't run away, and sooner or later they have to clean up!

Based on the principle that the minority obeys the majority, Hosokawa Yoriyuki's strategy was easily approved by everyone, so everyone began to arrange according to this plan.

Li Wei, who was in Dazaifu, also quickly learned of the arrival of the Japanese army, but he was not worried, but ordered Lu Tang to let the recruited Japanese people fight against the shogunate's army, and he tried to preserve his strength as much as possible.

The shogunate's army joined forces with many daimyo to begin a counteroffensive, and the Ming army shrank back to Dazaifu under Li Wei's deliberate arrangement, and the castles of Saga and Hakata that had been occupied before were quickly recaptured by the Japanese people.

But when they recaptured them, they were empty, with no money, no food, no strong men, and only a ring of tattered walls except for some old and sick people.

In order to get back the territory that belonged to his family as much as possible, the young two Puten were very active in the battle, and almost occupied one city and rushed to the next one non-stop.

But no matter how active he was, he couldn't stop the other daimyo in Kyushu from snatching these territories, and in the end, half of these territories in Chikuzen were divided between the Ouchi clan and the Takagi clan, and the other half was also occupied by the scattered small lords, and the younger two Puten only got back a small half of the territory.

At Saga Castle, the closest to Dazaifu, nearly 200,000 Japanese troops were temporarily stationed.

Everyone gathered again, and the other daimyo had happy smiles on their faces, but only the young two Puteng had extremely ugly faces.

In the previous battle with the Ming army, they all suffered a lot of losses, but after the recent counteroffensive, the other daimyo occupied the territory that originally belonged to his Shao Er clan, and more or less made up for some of the previous losses, and now they are naturally very happy.

But these people are all sucking the blood of his Shao Er clan to make up for themselves, how can he not hate!

"Ladies and gentlemen, the surrounding cities have almost been recovered by us, and the next thing is the decisive battle with the Ming army!"

Hosokawa Yoriyuki said with a straight face.

The others put away their smiles and became serious.

Shaoer Pu Teng snorted coldly and didn't say much.

"Lord Guanling, according to my observation, most of these cities in our counteroffensive in recent days are temporarily recruited by our Japanese people, and the Ming army has not participated too much at all, it seems that they have already shrunk the main force back to Dazaifu!" The deacon of the chamberlain, Yamana Tokiyoshi, said. (End of chapter)