The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Take two copies of this and send them to Zhu Shangshu and Tan Shangshu to let them know about this."

The Ministry of Household Affairs wanted to consolidate the financial power of the Ming Dynasty. Although it was only the Ministry of Household Affairs that was discussing this matter, Wei Guangde could still see that Zhang Juzheng's tacit approval was behind it.

Ming Dynasty's fiscal and taxation was indeed too complicated, which was actually not conducive to the reasonable allocation of fiscal funds.

Wei Guangde knew that if this news was released, it would definitely cause an uproar in the capital, but he still decided to do it.

It can be regarded as asking for advice. Although he supports this reform measure in his heart, he knows that the probability of passing it is extremely low, so there is no need to get on Zhang Juzheng's boat and let them struggle on their own.

Zhang Ji agreed, took the note from Wei Guangde and put it into the box. He took out another note and handed it over. He whispered to Wei Guangde: "Master, this is sent by Commander Liu, saying it is the latest situation in Japan. There seems to be complete chaos over there.”

"Chaos? Then after Oda Nobunaga defeated the Muromachi shogunate and exiled Ashikaga Yoshiaki, didn't Japan have a civil war situation between the Oda clan and the Takeda clan? How could it be chaotic?"

Wei Guangde frowned and reached out to take the note from Zhang Ji.

"Bring the light closer."

Wei Guangde only glanced at the words on the note, then frowned and ordered.

There were a lot of small words written densely on the note. To be honest, Wei Guangde's eyesight was pretty good, but he still found it difficult to read.

Zhang Ji hurriedly brought the candle closer to the table and brought two more candles from the side. Only then did Wei Guangde read the content on the note carefully.

"It's true that it's chaos, but it's getting close to great peace."

The note was the news sent back from the Japanese country by Jin Yiwei's spies. Naturally, it was mainly focused on the battle of Changshino that was currently brewing in the Japanese country.

If the shogunate's faction was dominant a few years ago, with the death of Takeda Shingen, the situation reversed, and the shogunate army could no longer suppress the Oda army on the battlefield.

Oda Nobunaga also took the emperor to order the princes to protect Emperor Masachikamachi, and in the name of regaining power, he continued to launch an offensive against the participating shogunate forces.

In the battle that is brewing now, both sides are bringing out their best, and the outcome of the war will be enough to affect Japan's future historical trends.

Takeda Shingen and Wei Guangde had no memories, but he knew about Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu who were active in Japan at this time, but he did not see another famous figure, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Yes, thanks to the island country strategy game he once played, Wei Guangde still remembers that the most powerful figures in the Japanese country during this period were Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

In this battle, Wei Guangde didn't need to guess. The one who had the last laugh must be Oda Nobunaga. After defeating the remaining shogunate forces represented by the Takeda clan, Oda Nobunaga began to unify Japan.

It seems that he was betrayed by his subordinates and died in some temple.

Wei Guangde didn't know when Oda Nobunaga died, but it was definitely not now.

The intelligence analyzed the strength of the Oda Army and the Takeda Army in detail, and the judgment was that the Takeda Army had a slightly greater chance of winning, but the leader of the Oda Army, Oda Nobunaga, was more cunning and had the possibility of a comeback if commanded properly.

Well, the Ming Dynasty in this era actually had a similar understanding of the battlefield to the Japanese, and they were also optimistic about the Takeda Army, which had superior cavalry.

Finally, there is the latest name and other information of the main figures of the Japanese country collected by the Jinyiwei agents, including the names and ministers of various places, as well as the so-called famous generals.

"Still no Toyotomi Hideyoshi?"

Wei Guangde looked at the names one by one under the candlelight, but did not see Toyotomi Hideyoshi's name.

It feels bad not to be in control.

Wei Guangde couldn't help but rub his temples. It couldn't be Monkey King who jumped out of the cracks in the rocks. As soon as he came out, he defeated the famous names of Japan and replaced Oda Nobunaga.

Skipping those familiar "celebrities", Wei Guangde mainly focused on the names of Oda generals and family elders.

It should be said that Oda Nobunaga's ability to conquer the current state is related to the outstanding talents under his command. Among them, the Oda family retainers Akechi Mitsuhide and Hashiba Hideyoshi, known as Oda's two arms, have come into his sight many times.

Famous generals naturally attracted Wei Guangde's attention.

Of course, among them, Hashiba Hideyoshi was once named and investigated by Wei Guangde. After all, his name had the word "Hideyoshi" in it.

However, the result of the final investigation was that Hideyoshi's childhood name was Hiyoshimaru, his original name was Kinoshita Tokichiro, and he was later named Hideyoshi by Oda Nobunaga. He was just from a poor peasant family in Nakamura Township, Aichi County, Owari Province. He was originally an Ashigaru, but later served Oda. The letter is long and rises.

With such a family background, his surname was not Toyotomi, so he was naturally rejected by Wei Guangde.

But in his heart, Wei Guangde had a good impression of Hideyoshi Hashiba, except for the fact that he was similar to Ma Fang, who rose up from the ranks to become a general step by step.

If you seize the opportunity, your life is still strong.

"Master, why do you say that the Japanese country will soon be in great trouble? They are fighting so fiercely now, with tens of thousands of people fighting."

Zhang Ji on the side asked softly at this time.

He is not a military idiot, and he knows some things about the military.

He had read some information about the Japanese country, and every time he saw that one side of the battle had tens of thousands of troops, to be honest, it felt more powerful than the Ming Dynasty fighting here.

At the very least, Zhang Ji knew very well that if the Ming Dynasty wanted to mobilize tens of thousands of troops to fight, it would require almost all the efforts of the country to do it.

As for the current war in the southwest, the Ming Dynasty mobilized nearly 100,000 troops into Yunnan. In order to raise military supplies, Wei Guangde had been holding discussions with people from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household, and forced money and grain from various government treasuries.

Don't just look at the generals fighting life and death at the front. In fact, the court at the rear is the key to winning or losing the war.

Soldiers who don't have enough to eat and don't get paid will make trouble, disobey orders, and end up losing the battle.

But look at the Japanese country. It can mobilize so many soldiers and horses in a small area. It should not be underestimated.

It's no wonder that the Japanese pirates were able to stir up Southeast Asia like that. They were all fought in big battles and had rich combat experience.

"It's almost time to decide the winner."

Regarding Zhang Ji's words, Wei Guangde just smiled and said, although he could not say that the Oda army would definitely win.

"Now the strongest people in the Japanese country are the Oda clan and the Takeda clan. Even if the battle cannot be decided in one battle, if they fight again and again, one side will be completely defeated in the end.

Two years ago, the Takeda army had a huge advantage. Because Takeda Shingen died unexpectedly, the Takeda family failed to eliminate the Oda clan in one fell swoop.

But the situation has been reversed in the past two years. The Oda clan suppressed the Takeda clan and was forced to fight again this time. The potential of the Takeda clan is probably exhausted, and a defeat will leave him no chance to turn around. .

On the other hand, the Oda clan seems to be getting stronger with each passing fight.

In the next battle, Oda Nobunaga can still draw tens of thousands of troops, but the Takeda family may not be able to do so. " Wei Guangde analyzed.

Every time Oda Nobunaga finished a battle, he was able to occupy more or less a piece of territory, and then the local people became his subjects. These people had to follow him out the next time he fought, so the soldiers and horses did not lose too much because of the war. .

And the Takeda family has lost a lot of places in the wars of various sizes in the past two years. Although it is not big each time, it can add up to a big loss, and the final loss will be big.

"The Takeda Army should have taken advantage of the victory a few years ago to pursue it and defeat Oda Nobunaga in one fell swoop. I can only say that the head of the Takeda family is really incompetent."

Zhang Ji whispered his opinion on the side.

"Haha, after the old one dies, and the younger one inherits his legacy, there must be a stable process and full takeover.

The opportunity was only seized by Oda Nobunaga, so it is understandable that the Takeda family has suffered heavy losses in the past two years.

As for chasing after victory, you haven’t discovered the characteristics of Japanese wars. They all launch wars during slack farming times. This is why they can mobilize tens of thousands or even more people every time they fight. farmer with hoe. "

Wei Guangde smiled, but soon a hint of bitterness appeared on his face.

In fact, it is somewhat wrong to say that the Ming Dynasty followed the path of professional soldiers, so it was difficult to support tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of troops.

How many of the so-called soldiers in the Ming Dynasty were truly professional soldiers?

Perhaps, only the battalion army can barely count, because they are recruiting soldiers.

And how different are the Weisuo army from the peasants of Japan?

The wars fought by the Japanese during the Warring States Period were mainly concentrated during the slack farming period. This was because during the busy farming period, farmers needed to invest a lot of labor and time in farming and were unable to participate in or support war activities.

Therefore, in order to ensure that there are enough manpower to participate in the battle, and to obtain the materials and food needed for the war, the war is usually arranged to be conducted during the slack period.

In this way, the lords could mobilize more manpower and resources to support the war, while also ensuring that basic life needs were met during the war.

During the Japanese Warring States Period, due to the policy of integrating military and peasantry, farmers were engaged in agricultural production during normal times, and participated in military training and combat during slack periods.

This system ensured that when needed, peasants could be quickly transformed into warriors to provide the necessary military support to the lords.

In addition, due to the limitation of war resources, such as the need to prepare weapons and equipment by oneself, as well as the supply problem of the army, the war can only be concentrated during the slack period to ensure the smooth progress of the war.

This is why the main weapons of Japanese soldiers during this period were bamboo spears. After all, it was easy to obtain materials. All you had to do was find longer bamboo and put an iron spear point on the tip.

Well, this is an upgraded version of the bamboo gun. In fact, the original bamboo gun was made by cutting spikes out of the bamboo end and it could be carried on the battlefield.

But don’t underestimate such weapons. During the Japanese and Warring States periods, bamboo spears have always been the most important weapon.

The five ancient Japanese weapons are the Japanese sword, bow and arrow, spear, pheasant sword, and wakizashi.

For a long time, Japanese swords and bows and arrows have been the most valued weapons.

The katana can not only fight on foot, but can also be slashed on horseback, so it is very popular among samurai, especially mounted samurai.

However, Japan lacks iron materials, and the cost of making a qualified samurai sword is also very high.

Japanese bows and arrows are represented by the heavy Fuji bow and the Maruki bow, which are also weapons that samurai like very much.

Relatively speaking, spears were not taken seriously in Japan at first, and they were only used by Ashigaru.

For a long time, the attendants of the barefoot infantry known as ashigaru or those mounted warriors who fought on foot played only a supporting role, and they were not even allowed to attack enemy samurai at times.

On the other hand, the primitive indigenous peoples such as the Ainu who live in Hokkaido and Sakhalin Island in Japan have not developed the fighting style of samurai groups. Instead, they mainly fight on foot and pay more attention to the use of long weapons.

Later, after Mongolia unified China and established the Yuan Dynasty, they crossed the sea from Goryeo in the northeast and invaded Japan twice to launch the Battle of Bunyong.

Although the Mongolian army, which was not familiar with navigation, was hit by a typhoon and capsized and was defeated, most of the Mongolian soldiers from China came ashore to fight with spears and spears, while the short Japanese only had weapons such as tachi and pheasant swords to resist.

Since this battle left a profound impact on the Japanese samurai, the Japanese battle mode gradually changed from mounted samurai's mounted shooting combat to infantry group combat.

Because most of Japan's narrow and rugged mountains are not suitable for large-scale samurai cavalry to carry out galloping operations.

The Japanese also gradually realized the importance of guns in infantry warfare. While samurai gradually abandoned bows and arrows, they also began to use guns extensively, and eventually they became one of the most commonly used and important weapons in ancient Japanese wars.

The total length of Japanese spears is not long, generally 2 and a half meters is the most common. These are generally distributed by daimyo from various places to their generals and elites for use.

This length is more conducive to taking advantage of long gun combat.

But for Ashigaru, of course, the longer the better, and the farther away from the enemy, the safer it is.

As a result, super-long bamboo poles of five or six meters also appeared, with the longest reaching ten meters, which can be called the limit of Oriental spears.

According to statistics, the most common injuries in hand-to-hand combat in Japan are gunshot wounds, stab wounds, arrow wounds, and knife wounds.

The ratio of injuries caused by samurai swordsmen is surprisingly low. In hand-to-hand combat, the most valued weapon is the spear.

This is due to the improvement of Japanese armor-making technology and the lightweight of armor, so that a large number of lower-level retainers can also wear armor to fight.

In this regard, the lethality of knives could no longer keep up with the needs of the times, and the advantages of spears, which could stab and penetrate enemy armor, were greatly strengthened. Therefore, spears eventually became the mainstream of one of Japan's five soldiers.

Moreover, the lords did not care about their life and death, so it was the best choice to let them use local materials to make weapons.

In fact, the ashigaru who use a large number of bamboo spears are also very powerful in combat.

This made the Japanese lords quickly realize that instead of buying a famous sword to equip a samurai, it would be better to recruit a hundred ashigaru holding bamboo spears.

Moreover, this type of extended spear did bring great trouble to the weak Ming army.

"Calculating this, the Japanese country can mobilize at least hundreds of thousands of troops, which is enough to cause a headache."

Wei Guangde couldn't help but sigh when he thought of this.

The Oda clan and the Takeda clan alone could mobilize more than 100,000 people to fight. There were many similar princes in Japan.

Although they don't have such a large population to drive, they can still gather hundreds of thousands of people. They should be really cautious when dealing with such a country with huge war potential.

If the Ming Dynasty really wants to take action against the Japanese country, it must make more preparations, otherwise it will inevitably repeat the mistakes of the Meng Yuan Dynasty.

Wei Guangde reminded himself at this time to avoid underestimating the enemy and losing the battle. (End of chapter)