I formed the strongest swordsman group

Although Harada Sanosuke had spoken the cruel truth clearly, Qing Deng still couldn't believe his ears.

The expedition to Choshu ended in "failure"... This bad news directly destroyed the joy brought to him by "Chiba Eijiro's resurrection".

Before launching the "Second Great Return to China", Qing Deng had led the Anti-Choshu Corps to break through the Geishu Pass and enter the heart of Choshu.

Next, as long as they detoured to the north, they would be able to reach Hagi Castle (the headquarters of the Choshu Domain).

The Anti-Choshu Corps had an overwhelming advantage in military strength and the remaining prestige of "easily breaking through the border".

On the other hand, Choshu had experienced a series of setbacks such as the "August 18th Coup", "Ikedaya Incident", and "Kyoto Summer Campaign", and suffered heavy casualties and lost all talents.

Looking at the entire Choshu territory, the only unit that could still fight was the Qibingtai.

But the Qibingtai had already left Choshu and followed the Fazhu Party to attack Edo.

In a nutshell, the defense of Choshu Domain was extremely empty! It was no different from an "empty domain"!

The gap in combat power between the two sides was so huge, why did it fail at the last moment?

In order to find out the truth, Qing Deng immediately sent a message to Otsu, asking Kondo Isami to compile a more detailed "actual situation of the expedition to Choshu" and then send it to Edo as soon as possible.

Six days later, a scroll with rich content and detailed records of "the beginning and end of the failure of the expedition to Choshu" was presented to him.

This scroll... It's better not to read it. As soon as Qing Deng saw it, his expression instantly became extremely terrifying, even more terrifying than when he first learned that "the expedition to Choshu failed".

In short, the reason why the "Choshu expedition" failed was not because of the lack of combat power or supplies, but because of the lack of unity of people!

After taking over the actual command of the expedition to Choshu from Qing Deng, the lord of Aizu Domain, Matsudaira Yoshiyasu, was indeed full of confidence and vowed to repay Qing Deng's expectations.

He took out 120,000 points of enthusiasm and marched north.

Under his orderly dispatch, the army marched at full speed, rushed straight to the heart of Choshu, and arrived at Hagi Castle as scheduled.

Matsudaira Yoshiyasu was not in a hurry to attack the city, but first sent a "letter of persuasion to surrender", asking the defenders of Hagi Castle to open the gates and surrender unconditionally.

If you can defeat the enemy without fighting, it would be the best.

Then he soon received a reply from the defenders of Hagi Castle: No need to persuade! Fight if you want to!

Matsudaira Yoshiyasu was not surprised by such a result, he had already made the corresponding psychological preparations.

When the army marched towards Hagi Castle, all the villages along the way were emptied out.

The population, livestock, and supplies all disappeared, not even a piece of rice husk was left.

In order to resist the attack of the army, they did not hesitate to do this... The determination of the Choshu army to "swear to defend Hagi Castle" can be seen.

At this point, there was nothing to do but to force the attack.

As the headquarters of the Choshu clan, Hagi Castle was naturally not a simple, easy-to-attack castle.

Like other large castles of the same period, the architects responsible for designing Hagi Castle showed amazing creativity and designed the castle's defense facilities to be extremely sophisticated and complex, determined to make the attackers feel disgusted like eating shit.

If you want to capture such a strong castle, you can only rely on the power of artillery.

Although the Choshu Corps has an army of 200,000 and a huge momentum, the only unit with sufficient artillery is the Satsuma Army.

However... just before this great battle, at this extremely critical juncture, the Satsuma Army was lazy and followed the old ways!

As soon as the battle began, the Satsuma Army's artillery team frequently encountered "unexpected situations".

Either the gunpowder was damp and could not be used.

Or the barrel was damaged and needed to be repaired.

In short, there were various situations that made it impossible to operate the artillery normally.

The war had been going on for several days, and the sound of the artillery rain fired by the Satsuma Army's artillery was not even as loud as the drizzle in early spring!

Although the general of the Satsuma Army, Saigo Yoshinosuke, had a lot of excuses, anyone could see that these were just their excuses, and very lame excuses.

It hadn't rained in the past few days, so how did your gunpowder get damp?

Haven't you always been diligent in maintaining your weapons and equipment? How did it just happen to break?

This bad attitude of not even installing it, like teasing a child, made Matsudaira Yoshiyasu furious.

Although he was furious, he could do nothing about it.

The Satsuma Army was not his unit, and no matter how loud he shouted, he could not command any of their soldiers.

No matter how Matsudaira Yoshiyasu persuaded him, no matter how good or bad he said, Saigo Yoshinosuke did not change his attitude: Whatever you say, there is no way you want us to contribute to this battle!

Seeing that the Satsuma army was dawdling, Matsudaira Yoshiyasu simply gritted his teeth and decided to launch a strong attack directly, using the flesh and blood of the soldiers to capture Hagi Castle!

Without the support of artillery, this would inevitably be an extremely tragic bloody battle.

Since the Kamakura period, with the rapid development of city-building technology, siege warfare has become a typical example of "defense is greater than offense", and the defense capability of the city far exceeds the offensive capability of the army.

In the Warring States period, it was common for a siege to last for several months, or even a year and a half.

Without the help of artillery, let the soldiers use cold weapons to attack the city... God knows how many lives this will cost.

But in order to destroy Choshu, Matsudaira Yoshiyasu could not care so much.

In fact, even without the support of the Satsuma army, the Choshu Corps still had the ability to "destroy Hagi Castle".

The defenders of Hagi Castle were at most a thousand people, and the huge difference in manpower was here.

Even if it was to be piled with human lives, Hagi Castle could be destroyed and Choshu could be wiped out.

But... It's one thing that Matsuhei Rongbao is willing to sacrifice his life for justice. Whether the generals and vassal lords under him are willing to obey his orders is another thing.

Regarding this "Changzhou Conquest", the attitude of the vassals has always been very clear: this is the conflict between your shogunate and Changzhou. What does it have to do with us?

They just want to strengthen their momentum, not to make any sacrifices, and they are full of their hearts to preserve their strength.

After learning that Matsuhei Yukio was going to attack Hagi Castle, the generals from the vassals were shocked and panicked, and all the sad and angry.

It is already very unpleasant to be forced to fight a war that we are unwilling to get involved.

We have done our best to be kind and righteous, and we still want us to shed blood and sacrifice? In the end, the shogunate will take all the benefits. Why?

The youngest person, Liu Pingrong Bao, still doesn’t understand the true meaning of the saying “politics is the art of compromise”.

He didn't know that his order to "attack Hagi City" had already invisibly infuriated public anger.

What's bad is that with the precedent of Saigo Yoshinosuke, the generals lost a lot of psychological burden when they resisted Matsuhira Tomosa, so they followed suit and were unwilling to obey Matsuhira Tomosa.

In the end, Japan's traditional artistic ability - low-minded and upper-level - was staged in the Discipline Army.

The so-called "lower defeats the upper class" refers to the phenomenon that the lower class replaces the upper class due to war, power seizure, etc.

As we all know, power is bottom-up.

When the "cadres" and "cornerstones" in the middle and lower levels all accept you, agree that you are the leader, and are willing to obey your orders, you are the real leader.

Otherwise, no matter how famous your name is, you are just a commander.

At present, Matsuhira Toru is facing such a desperate situation.

If Qing Deng was here and gave these generals a hundred courages, they would not dare to disobey the military orders of King Ni.

What a pity... Whether it is strength or prestige, Matsuhei Tomokaro is too bad for Aoden.

Although the Aizu family was one of the most relied on by the shogunate, its national strength did not reach the level of overwhelming over the world, and the total stone height was only over 200,000 stones.

The ranks of many vassal states in the Ang-Ching-Law-Battle and Echizen-Battle were much higher than those of the Aizu-Battle.

Without strength, lack of qualifications, no prestige... If Matsuheri Toru can follow the wishes of the generals and not violate the core interests of the vassals, then everyone is willing to respect him as the "leader".

But if Matsuhira Tomosaki fights against everyone... Then the "lower defeats the upper part" will only be a natural thing.

In any case, there is no "if" in reality.

On the eve of the launch of the general attack, generals led by Yoshinosuke Saigo poured into Matsuhei Tomoka's camp and jointly asked Matsuhei Tomoka to stop the attack.

The reasons they gave were as follows: Changzhou has been severely punished and there is no need to capture Hagi City, so let's stop the army.

Matsuhira Toruo naturally would not accept this reason that was simply untenable.

Although he fought hard,... Unfortunately, he was already alone and unable to support himself.

In this way, overnight, Matsuhira Yoshiba was undermined and lost control of the ranks of the ranks.

The next day, under the leadership of Yoshinosuke Saigo, the generals Raokao Matsuhei Toru and made peace with Changzhou without authorization.

They issued the following four conditions to Changzhou-

First, hand over the heads of the three family elders (Echigo Fukuhara, Shinoko Koji, and Yuemon Suk) who originally advocated attacking Kyoto and triggered the "Kyoto Xia Formation".

Second, Maori Kei’s father and son apologized.

Third, demolish Yamaguchi Castle.

Fourth, hand over the five ministers and ministers who lived in Changzhou.

Saigo Yoshinosuke assured the monarchshu vassals that as long as these four conditions are completed, they will withdraw their troops immediately and will never go back on their word.

The "five ministers" mentioned in the last condition are the ministers who were forced to leave Kyoto due to the "coup on August 18th".

There were 7 ministers who fled from Kyoto at that time.

One of them, Ryder, had died of illness several months ago.

Ze Xuanjia, one of the "Seven Lords", is missing.

Therefore, only five ministers and ministers led by Sanji Shimei remained.

Compared with the destruction of the country, such conditions are extremely relaxed.

The generals of the Nagashu Army who were in Hagi Castle - they were all direct descendants of Katsukogoro and Takasugi Shinsaku - after a brief discussion, they unanimously decided to accept these four conditions and end the war.

Of course, whether to make a ceasefire or not, the lord of the Changzhou vassal state must make the decision himself.

Having said that, no one took the opinions of the Changzhou vassal lord seriously. No matter what he said, he would nod in agreement.

As expected, because he was deprived of the partiality, he has now changed his name from "Maori Kei Kei" to "Maori Kei Kei". After hearing that everyone strongly advised him to accept the peace talks, he answered like this:

"Well, just do it!"

After receiving Maori's sincere reply, the two generals inside and outside Hagi Castle tacitly advanced the peace talks.

The confidants of Kanei and Takasugi not only quickly killed three family members, but also beheaded the four staff officers in the prison (Taoe Takeuchi Masae, Sakuma Saie, Nakamura Kyuro, and Nago Zuo Masuke).

The Maori and his son respectfully submitted their apology.

The first three conditions are easy to handle, but the last condition is more troublesome.

At that time, the five ministers were protected by loyal officials from the court, and they were unwilling to hand over the five ministers.

Fortunately, after receiving the apology letter from the Mori father and son and inspecting the progress of the Yamaguchi Castle, Saigo Yoshinosuke and others were very satisfied and withdrew their troops without waiting for the Mori family to hand over the five nobles.

In this way, the Choshu Army was disbanded on the spot.

The 200,000-strong army fell apart and each army returned to its own domain.

Matsudaira Yoshiyasu wanted to continue to persist, but he was powerless to turn the tide.

After the Choshu Army was disbanded, the only troops he could command were the Aizu Army directly under his command, about 2,000 people.

With this amount of troops, let alone capturing Hagi Castle, he couldn't even keep the territory he had conquered.

So, he could only withdraw his troops sadly.

The "Choshu Expedition" that mobilized a full 200,000 troops and had a grand momentum ended here... It ended in a tiger's head and a snake's tail.

Not only did they fail to capture Hagi Castle, but they also vomited out all the territory they had conquered before.

In other words, they fought this battle in vain! They wasted their time and money but gained nothing!

After reading the contents of the scroll, Qing Deng did not speak for a long time...

He silently put away the scroll, then stared straight at the void in front of him, thinking, without moving...

At first glance, he seemed very calm.

But in fact, anyone who knows Qing Deng knows that this is a manifestation of his extreme anger!

At this moment, he relied entirely on his tenacity and excellent self-cultivation to suppress his anger.

He forced himself to calm down, and after his mind was a little stable, he began to count all the details and mistakes of this battle.

Why did this battle, which should have been won, end like this?

After a while, he summed up two reasons:

On the one hand, he overestimated the ability of Matsudaira Yoshiyasu.

On the other hand, he underestimated the ambition of Saigo Yoshinosuke.

In fact, the former is not a mistake.

Although there were many generals in the Choju Army, the only one who had sufficient status and could be trusted by Qing Deng was Matsudaira Yoshiyasu.

Apart from Matsudaira Yoshiyasu, he had no other person to trust and to entrust with important tasks.

In other words, Qing Deng had no choice at all at that time and could only trust Matsudaira Yoshiyasu.

If someone else were to take charge of the Choju Army, it would definitely lead to more serious consequences.

Indeed, Matsudaira Yoshiyasu made a mistake. He ignored the wishes of the generals and forced the siege, which directly caused the division of the army.

The culprit who led to the failure of the battle was not Matsudaira Yoshiyasu, but Saigo Yoshinosuke!

Saigo Yoshinosuke's intentions were already Sima Zhao's heart - passers-by knew it!

Damn gunpowder was damp! Damn equipment was damaged! It was all some poor excuses!

He clearly wanted to save Choshu and not let Choshu perish in this battle!

Qing Deng has reason to believe that the generals' "overthrow" was pushed by Saigo Yoshinosuke behind the scenes!

Saigo Yoshinosuke's "fence-sitting" is obvious to all.

Since the "Black Ship Incident", under the command of Saigo Yoshinosuke, Satsuma has been swinging between "respecting the nobility" and "supporting the shogunate", bringing the "united front value" to the extreme.

"Sitting on the fence" is not a fault, but rather a very profound political wisdom.

It is rare to find a master like Saigo Yoshinosuke who can play "sitting on the fence"!

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PS: In historical facts, the "Choshu Expedition" ended so hastily. The front-line generals ignored Tokugawa Iemochi's wishes and signed a peace treaty with Choshu without authorization, which made Tokugawa Iemochi angry to death. When Tokugawa Iemochi wanted to hold someone accountable, the generals gave him the cold shoulder.