New Shun 1730

Soon, Maori Munehiro brought his men to the Dashun Army camp and signed a peace treaty.

Hagi Castle, which had been bombarded to the point of being unable to move, opened its gates and surrendered.

Dashun detained 1,200 samurai captives including Maori Munehiro, and each samurai also notified their families to send the gold, silver, rice and other things they could collect to Hagi Castle.

The people from the trading company appraised the prices here and discounted the gold, silver, lacquerware, silk, grain and other things in the city.

A few days later, each samurai also sent their own grain to Hagi Castle. The grain was piled up like a mountain, and the gold, silver, silk and lacquer knives were worth a total of 750,000 taels.

The trading company directly paid a piece of paper and counted the silk and various Japanese goods at a very low price. The Dashun officials could take this paper to the trading company branches in the capital, Songjiang or Weihai to withdraw cash.

Li Li also made an account, and asked someone to transport the account and cash to Tianjin by boat and send them back to the capital.

Although the money was not small, he felt that it was not the time to reach out for it now, and he should consider the long-term future. It was better to return it to the court first and let the court deal with it.

The Dashun Army that entered Hagi Castle then began to repair the defense of Hagi Castle in accordance with the previous order of the Privy Council and prepare for a long-term stay here.

At the same time, the news that the Dashun Army urged the Hagi Domain to reduce taxes was spread throughout the territory controlled by the Choshu Domain, stating that under the coercion of the Dashun Renyi Wangshi, all the land taxes of the Choshu Domain would be reduced by 30% in ten years. If the lord violated it, the people could go to Dashun to sue. All under heaven is the king's land, and the king's army will preside over justice.

Another 30,000 stones of rice were taken out, and the people everywhere who had no rice to cook could come and take it.

…………

The warriors who fled back to Shimonoseki brought the panic back to Shimonoseki and crossed the strait. Rumors of fear spread like bacteria among the samurai who were hard to gather together on weekdays but gathered together to defend.

The battle lasted only half an hour, and the 8,000 samurai gathered by the Choshu clan collapsed across the board, and this was under the attack of the Choshu clan governor and the Dashun.

Those samurai who had experienced the horrific bombardment exaggerated their personal experience, which was like hell.

Those samurai who had seen the power of the Dashun volley guns and survived trembled as they recalled the scene of their companions falling to the ground one by one. Some even twitched all over when they saw the white clouds in the sky, and thought of the smoke from the horrific volley guns at the foot of the mountain.

The mentality of fear spread among the samurai, and the military spirit and morale quickly declined.

These samurai who had previously thought that the Dashun was not good at field battles, now only had to wonder when the Dashun would attack Kyushu Island.

More samurai began to resent the Shimazu clan.

The people of Satsuma and Kagoshima invaded Ryukyu. The benefits were taken by the people of Kagoshima, but they got nothing. Now they have to suffer such fear because of Satsuma.

At this time, the lords of the various fiefs in Kyushu Island have quietly started to contact each other and prepare to put pressure on the Ōmetsu Ino Masatake.

This war can't be fought.

The slogan of the shogunate is loud, and it wants to fight to the end. If it really wants to fight to the end, let the shogunate fight by itself.

The Kumamoto, Chikuzen and other fiefs no longer want to shed blood for the shogunate and the Satsuma people.

The shogunate may survive the fight to the end, but what about the vassal states on Kyushu Island? What will be left of the vassal states on Kyushu Island?

To put it in a good way, it is like the Choshu domain, which owes a debt that can only be repaid in ten years.

To put it in a bad way, if Dashun wants to occupy all the lands of the Kyushu domains, it is not impossible.

The Choshu domain is in Honshu, not in Kyushu Island; Dashun does not want the land of the Choshu domain, but it may not want the land of the Kyushu domains.

It just so happened that the lord of Satsuma Domain had been staying in Edo for several years because of hernia and had not returned. This incident also happened to exclude Satsuma Domain from the small circle. The lords of several large domains gathered together and began to threaten the daimyo Ino Masatake.

The first to attack was the lord of Hizen Domain, Nabeshima Michiko. On the one hand, he was a daimyo, and on the other hand, the threat faced by Hizen Domain was greater.

Hizen Domain and Fukuoka Domain were very close to Nagasaki, and they had to take turns to send troops to defend Nagasaki every year, especially to prevent foreign merchant ships from coming.

Dashun was very familiar with Nagasaki, and there was no need to worry. He thought that even if Dashun attacked, he could only go to places closer to Tsushima such as Hirado.

Now it is different. Dashun can not only not go to Hirado, but can even go to Obama. Saga and Nagasaki are both close to the sea, but they are not safe at all.

A few days ago, the navy of Dashun bombarded Kokura and Fukuoka, and now it has captured Hagi Castle. The Hizen Domain believes that its military strength and the defense of Saga Castle cannot be compared with the Choshu Domain. If it continues to fight, it will suffer a great loss.

Now the shogunate is shouting to fight to the end, establish a new monarch, and imitate the Ming Dynasty after the Tumu Fortress Incident.

But the Ming Dynasty did not have a vassal state, and the Ming Dynasty did not say that it would let others take the lead and cross the river to Nanjing.

Now the shogunate does not send troops or support, shrinking in the line of Edo and Kyoto, and saying that it will fight to the end.

It claims to be righteous, which is clearly using the hands of Dashun to weaken the southwestern vassals.

Dashun is really not afraid of a protracted war. No matter what, Dashun's regular taxes have not been collected to the point of five officials and five civilians.

Nabeshima Kenshin said to the Ōmetsu Ino Masatake, "If we continue this war, our country will be destroyed. If the Tang people reduce taxes, there will be traitors everywhere. How can we fight for a long time?"

"Besides, the original intention is on our side. In the past, when Hashiba Hideyoshi attacked Korea, the Ming Dynasty sent troops. Korea is a vassal of China, isn't Ryukyu?"

"When the Shimazu clan invaded Ryukyu, they should have realized their mistake. It is reasonable for them to retaliate now. But why should we bear the responsibility for Shimazu's crime?"

"The Hizen clan's finances have always been in trouble. In order to survive the Kyoho famine and repair the burned castle tower, a large number of clan notes were issued. Now the people are poor and the samurai are in trouble. They can't hold on any longer."

"The Tang people may attack today or tomorrow. The samurai will gather in one place and spend money and food. The Hizen clan can no longer support it."

"The general should negotiate for the sake of Japan. If the Tang people want gold, silver, and rice, they can give them. As long as they don't ask for land, is there anything to hesitate about?"

"It is not the general's responsibility for the emperor to go north. It is really that the difference in armaments is too great and it is invincible. But the emperor did nothing wrong and did not violate the laws of the imperial court. How can the matter of Iho be done lightly?"

Anyway, the people from Satsuma were not present, and the religious person of Nabeshima directly pushed the responsibility to the Shimazu clan.

Regardless of whether Dashun really started the war because of the Ryukyu issue, it was always a trigger, and someone had to take the blame to calm everyone's anger.

Just like the attack on Korea, when the battle went smoothly, no one would say anything. Once it didn't go smoothly, someone had to take responsibility.

Akihito was captured, which was a knot in the heart of the shogunate, and they were afraid that someone would bring it up.

In any case, the Shogun who was expelling barbarians was so exiled that his house was stolen and the emperor was captured. It must be a serious crime of seppuku, right?

After discussing with the other feudal lords, Nabeshima Reiki decided to make a breakthrough in this matter: the shogunate had no responsibility in this matter, and tried its best, but the Dashun army was too strong.

Now the strong southwestern feudal lords endorsed the shogunate and believed that the shogunate had no responsibility, so they hoped that the shogunate would use this opportunity to stop talking about establishing a new monarch and fighting to the end.

It is easy to establish a new monarch, and it is also easy to fight to the end, but the only one who survived the fight to the end is the shogunate. When the fiefdoms were first divided, the relatives and hereditary daimyo were all in the central area, and the surrounding areas were all outer daimyo. If they fought to the end, the first to die would be these outer daimyo.

Taking the initiative to ask for peace would actually be quite disadvantageous to the southwestern vassal states in the long run.

They also understood that if they took the initiative to ask for peace, the shogunate would inevitably reprimand them again and again, until the end, they might hypocritically negotiate in view of the persuasion of the vassal states.

At that time, there would definitely be some lower-level samurai who believed that all the responsibility came from these outer daimyo. In the end, the voices of reducing the vassal states would certainly be very loud.

The shame of the country was all caused by the vassal states.

But whether to reduce the vassal states or not is a matter for the future.

Now, if the war continues, the vassal states on Kyushu Island will be finished.

To die in Jianglai or to die now, every lord of the vassal state knows what to choose.

The enemies they have to consider are not only Dashun, but also the shogunate.

Even the shogunate is more terrible than the Dashun. If they are really forced into a desperate situation, they can still serve the Dashun as dogs. The shogunate will fight to the end to eliminate them all.

What Nabeshima Religion said was straightforward enough. He was forcing the Omegatsu to express his position and convey everyone's thoughts back to the shogun.

At this time, Ino Masatake's mentality had actually collapsed. The Dashun side had such a strong field combat capability that it was really not a solution to continue fighting. He could not win at all.

Seeing that the southwestern vassal states had gathered together, Ino Masatake also understood that this was what the people wanted. If the shogunate really wanted to violate it, I am afraid that the southwestern vassal states might not be willing to fight.

The ending of the Choshu vassal state was not tragic. At least the samurai were still retained, and the commander of the Dashun army was also a trustworthy person, who just asked for money.

But they had to bear at least ten years of debt and destroy more than a hundred years of accumulation. This was only less tragic than killing all the samurai and occupying all the land.

Now the feudal lords of Kyushu Island have completely given up on Satsuma Domain and want to sacrifice Shimazu clan. They would rather die than let their friends die.

Everyone knows this. The first two conditions of the Dashun peace talks are tribute and Shimazu clan's disposal.

However, the lord of Satsuma Domain is now recuperating in Edo, not in Kyushu Island. No wonder everyone sold you out first.

Ino Masatake sighed and said, "I know what you think. But now you still have to guard Kyushu Island, and I can't leave. How about this, you entrust your ideas to your elders, and go to Kyoto to meet the general and report the situation?"

"But don't forget it. Even if we ask for peace, the Tang army is at its peak, and the Hagi Domain has been defeated. Whether to negotiate peace or not is in China, not in Japan."

The people of Nabeshima Religion and other feudal lords have thought about this problem long ago. The bottom line of the peace talks is not to cede land, especially the land of the Kyushu domains-except Shimazu clan.

In addition, all conditions can actually be agreed to.

Including tribute and vassalage.

Compensation, opening trade, etc., these are all negotiable.

To cede land is to rise to the level of traitors; while compensation and vassalage are just to rebuild the country for the future, just like the Treaty of Chanyuan and the humiliation of Baideng.

At least, in the eyes of the feudal lords of Kyushu Island, Dashun's treatment of Japan is very ambiguous. If it is really for occupation and annexation, if Toyotomi Hideyoshi conquered Korea in the past, he would not choose this kind of tactics and strategy.

But now, this is only a possibility, not necessarily as everyone thinks. The initiative is in the hands of Dashun, and no one dares to stand up at this time, patting his chest and guaranteeing that Dashun will not occupy land, but only ask for money.

Ino Masatake looked at the reactions of everyone, and finally cast his eyes on the lord of Fukuoka Domain, Kuroda Jitaka.

The Fukuoka Domain has always been favored by the shogunate, and it is like a nail stuck in Kyushu Island. Almost every lord of the domain was granted the surname "Matsudaira" by the shogunate, and the seating arrangement in Edo was also unique.

In the whole of Japan, there are only six sets of plate armor salvaged when a Dutch merchant ship was salvaged in the 28th year of Wanli. After being modified, it was called Nanbando, and only six of them are real. Among them, there is one in the Kuroda family, which was given by the Tokugawa family, which shows that the relationship is not ordinary.

Now if even Kuroda Jigao agrees with the opinions of the southwestern domains, Ino Masatake also understands that he doesn't need to ask anything else.

Kuroda Jigao has also accepted the ideas of the other domains, and gave the shogunate the step of "the capture of the emperor is not the fault of the shogunate" in exchange for the shogunate not to establish a new emperor and choose peace talks. In fact, this is also good for the shogunate, and Kuroda Jigao thinks this is not a betrayal.