Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 455 "Defending against the Barbarians"

"Master Fengxing, this has really reached its limit!"

"Assholes! Didn't you hear the general's order?" a middle-aged man roared, "Dig! If you have reached the limit, then find more workers! Now is not the time to hesitate!"

"But now, people are needed everywhere. The Ashigaru army, the docks, the beacon towers, the camps..."

"...Damn it!" The middle-aged man clenched his fists, "Keep digging! I'll ask the general for the extra workers!"

As the current Ginzan magistrate of Iwami Ginzan, Yasuhara Denbei has a heavy responsibility.

He was originally just an assistant to the first Ginzan Bugyo, Okubo Nagayasu. After Okubo Nagayasu was executed for his crimes and his body was dismembered, he, who was familiar with the mines, took over the position of Ginzan Bugyo.

After the Battle of Sekigahara, Mori Terumoto was defeated and Iwami Ginzan became a land of heaven. Like the Sado Gold Mine, both the gold and silver mines are now directly under the jurisdiction of the shogunate.

Now that the army is approaching, the coasts of Honshu and Kyushu are occasionally harassed by the Ming fleet and the Korean and Mongolian armies, and the entire shogunate has been mobilized.

Yasuhara Denbei was unable to travel the long distance to Edo, nor could he just leave Iwami Ginzan, so he sent his assistants to Harima.

Now, the headquarters of the Imperial Japanese Army, led by Sakai Tadayoshi as the commander and Doi Toshikatsu coordinating the logistics, is located in Harima.

The military headquarters was only a temporary organization. Tokugawa Hidetada would not leave Edo, and Sakai Tadatoshi was a hereditary daimyo whom he could trust and was capable enough. Fourteen years ago, it was Sakai Tadatoshi who stayed in Osaka during the Battle of Osaka.

Doi Toshikatsu was a core aide to Tokugawa Hidetada at the beginning of his administration. He participated in the revision of the "Laws for the Samurai" and was also the one who coordinated logistics during the Battle of Osaka.

As for the Edo side, Tokugawa Hidetada was naturally the core, assisted by Honda Masanobu and his son, and Ishin Soden, who drafted the "Laws for the Samurai" and was known as the "Black-robed Prime Minister".

Unlike the past, this time it was an "external enemy" that attacked, and the whole of Japan was in a state of tension. Another loyal retainer of Tokugawa Hidetada, Aoyama Tadatoshi, who served as the governor of Kyoto, was closely monitoring the movements of the daimyo in Kyoto and the western provinces. His strength was intelligence work.

At the military headquarters, Sakai Tadayoshi and Doi Toshikatsu were receiving Aoyama Tadatoshi.

"The purchase order must be completely successful!" Doi Shengli looked at Aoyama Tadatoshi, "Mr. Aoyama, it is not enough to just purchase food in Kinki. At this moment, the outer daimyo of the western and Kyushu provinces have already stockpiled food in advance. The purchase order is only for merchants. The Anti-Islamic Army Headquarters needs your support!"

Qingshan Zhongjun frowned: "Master Laozhong means... we need new clues and evidence, what should we change?"

"The Fukushima family, the Shimazu family." Doi Shengli was not shy in front of him. "That guy Fukushima Masanori, as one of the Seven Spears of Kengaku, still occupies Aki and Bingo. The "Laws of the Samurai" only relaxed the ban on ships, but that guy should be repairing Hiroshima Castle, right?"

"Indeed..." Aoyama Tadatoshi nodded, "Bingo and Aki are related to the Shogun's full preparations for war against Seto."

Faced with the menacing Ming Dynasty, the Edo Shogunate has begun to take action.

Since Edo, the shogunate's headquarters, was not on the front line and the terrain was mountainous, the overall strategy was decided early on.

The front line is naturally Kyushu Island. Further south of Tsushima Island, only Iki Island is suitable as the front line. At present, the Ming army has not yet captured Iki. The judgment of the headquarters of the Imperial Army and the Edo Shogunate is that the Ming Dynasty wants to use its advantage in maritime power to lure the Shogunate to form a navy to harass the Ming Dynasty's supply line to Tsushima Island.

This was an open conspiracy, and the shogunate could not wait for the Ming Dynasty to make adequate preparations. It had to harass the sea transport routes. Therefore, the ban on large ships with a capacity of more than 500 koku was temporarily lifted. Instead, the shogunate required the daimyo of Kyushu Island, Shikoku Island, and the western coast of Honshu Island, including Izumo, Iwami, Nagato, Suo, Aki, and Bingo, to vigorously build ships.

The Kansai navy had already gone to Iki, trying to harass as much as possible on the one hand, and on the other hand trying to stop the Ming army's raids on the coast of Kyushu Island.

But the shogunate also knew that if it wanted to win this battle, it might need to give up something.

Fortunately, the ones that needed to be abandoned were precisely those outer daimyo who still hid their disloyalty. And what the shogunate really needed to defend with all its might was the core area of ​​Honshu.

First of all, the safety of the Seto Inland Sea must be guaranteed. The transportation of materials to Osaka and Edo is very dependent on the Seto Inland Sea waterway, and the Ming navy must not be allowed to enter these areas. For this reason, Aki on the west side of the Seto Inland Sea, Iyo and Sanuki on Shikoku Island must all have sufficiently dense beacon towers set up along the coast to organize defense and counterattacks in a timely manner.

The second place is Edo Bay. Although it is far from the front line, it is still necessary to build a sufficiently dense fort to protect the shogunate.

The next front was Kyushu Island. Fortunately, the southwestern coastline of Kyushu was mostly steep mountains, and the terrain could be used to block the attack. However, in order to keep the Ming Dynasty entangled in Nagasaki, it was necessary to lift the ban on Hizen, Satsuma and other domains, allowing them to build artillery positions, stone forts and even castles based on the terrain.

Finally, if Kyushu still cannot be defended, then most of Nagato and Suho can be abandoned, and Iwami, Aki and Shikoku islands can be used as the front line. Iwami Silver Mine is of great importance and cannot be abandoned. Once the Ming army lands on Honshu Island, as long as the defense lines of Iwami, Aki and Shikoku islands can be stabilized, then it will be a mountain battle.

To this end, the Imperial Japanese Army Headquarters has been organizing a large number of foot soldiers. These foot soldiers are lightly armed and use Takeda Shingen's "woodpecker tactics". It is believed that they can cause considerable trouble to the Ming army's supply lines on land.

At present, the one country, one city order must still be strictly enforced on the island of Honshu, so that the Ming army will be forced to attack and consolidate logistical supplies; on the island of Kyushu, this restriction has been relaxed.

There are pros and cons. How can Kyushu Island be controlled and fight to the death?
"Fukushima Masanori is not a problem." Aoyama Tadatoshi said, "Aki and Bingo cannot be lost. Since he has begun to repair Hiroshima Castle, which has been partially demolished, out of selfish motives, I believe he can give up Aki and Bingo in exchange for moving to a safer place. Lord Rochu, what else you want to deal with is the Shimazu family, right?"

Toshikatsu Doi nodded. "Even though Shimazu Yoshihiro said he is no longer in charge, we cannot trust him. Shimazu Tadatsune said that Ryukyu once again turned to Ming and made him very angry, and he would definitely fight to the death, but Satsuma and Hizen are allies. And in Nagasaki in Hizen... Aoyama-san, you know those foreign merchants, right?"

"His name is Ou Huayu." Aoyama Tadatoshi's eyes immediately flashed, "Back then, they were the ones who operated the red seal ships from Kyushu to Korea and the west."

"Since they are businessmen, they should obey the purchase order." Doi Toshikatsu reminded him.

Aoyama Tadatoshi thought for a moment and then said, "Who should be implicated?" "Naoshige Nabeshima is in Saga. As a hereditary daimyo, he is trustworthy and Nagasaki should be under his control!" Doi Toshikatsu said clearly, "Takahashi Mototane of the Hyuga domain has already turned to the Shimazu family, but Kato Tadahiro of the Higo domain has 520,000 stones of gypsum, and his position must be confirmed!"

Sakai Tadatoshi added: "In this way, Naoshige Nabeshima, who is absolutely loyal to the general, will serve as the vanguard general, and the Shimazu family will only need to defend against the enemy in the southwest together with the Hyuga clan. If this is not possible, then let Naoshige Nabeshima directly abandon the defense line and return to defend Aki and Iyo. After the war, the Shimazu family will no longer be necessary!"

"I understand." Aoyama Tadatoshi understood what they meant. "Leave Nagasaki and Feihou Domain to me. The general's majesty cannot be offended. I will get things done."

He stood up and said, "In order to let the Shimazu family know that they are focused on defending against the enemy, I have managed to obtain information about the iron cannons, and I will give it to you two first. The general's intention is to expand the number of iron cannons in the vanguard army and the Kyushu defense army led by the Shimazu family, from 50 to 200 per 10,000 koku of military service."

Toshikatsu Doi sighed helplessly: "I understand. But the blacksmith... forget it, let me figure it out."

He didn't know that Yasuhara Denbei would ask him for more workers to go to Iwami Ginzan to mine.

Food, weapons, gold, silver, copper, iron... Japan was of course short of everything at the moment, and everything had to be prepared quickly.

Even traces of Mongolian cavalry appeared. How powerful must the Ming Dynasty be to be able to drive them to come from afar to plunder the coastline?
It was completely different from the Ming army they encountered in Korea twenty years ago.

None of them talked about complete defeat. Instead, they were still planning how to weaken the powerful outer daimyo in the west during this defensive war and further strengthen the shogunate's control over all feudal domains after the war.

Although they all knew that the Ming army was very strong now, the advantages of terrain and local combat still made them confident of winning this victory, but the cost would be high.

What’s interesting is that Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the two places that have become the key at the moment.

Fukushima Masanori, who was still quite powerful, was originally a retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In the decisive battle between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie at Keitake, seven of them were extremely brave and thus were praised as the Keitake Seven Spears.

Fukushima Masanori, who is now preparing to build Hiroshima Castle, is one of them. As a retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, although he later turned to the Tokugawa family, his status is awkward after all. At this moment, he is in an awkward position, affecting the core defense deployment of the shogunate.

As for the Shimazu family, it goes without saying. Far away in the southwest of Kyushu Island, the Shimazu family was the main force of the "overthrow of the shogunate" until the end. Now they are also on the front line. Although they have the face burden of the Ming Dynasty retaking the Ryukyu vassal, who can guarantee that they will not turn against the Ming Dynasty?
On Tsushima Island, in front of Denraku is Yanagawa Tiaoxing who came to report.

After being captured, this former retainer of the Tsushima clan slid to his knees extremely quickly, and his attitude now shows even more loyalty.

There is no other reason. He saw the terrifying military strength and combat capability of the Ming Dynasty on Tsushima Island.

"Sir, Fukushima Masanori followed Toyotomi Hideyoshi to invade Korea, and now he is in a very awkward situation." Yanagawa Tiaoxing knelt on the ground and said, "I risked my life to meet him, but he couldn't make a decision."

Tian Le glanced at the map hanging on the side, smiled and said, "Are you not afraid that he will leak the news?"

"It's no secret that the Celestial Empire is in contact with many foreign daimyo," Yanagawa replied. "Whatever he says to the shogunate will only give them an excuse to punish him. The locations of Aki and Bingo are too critical."

"That's true." Tian Le waved his hand. "You risked your life to make this trip, so you must have worked hard. What the outer daimyo choose is not important."

"Yes, I have listed here all the changes in defense deployment that I have discovered during my journey."

Tian Le sent him there, of course, to make use of his familiarity with the local conditions.

The Ming Dynasty was putting pressure on Tsushima Island. The defense situation on the coastline could be investigated by the Beiyang Fleet's patrol boats, but more intelligence was needed in the inland.

Looking at the things that Yanagawa Tiaoxing handed over, Tian Le remained silent.

Yanagawa Tiaoxing knelt down and looked up at Tianle nervously.

He could not really go to some daimyo's castles to investigate in detail, so he could only contact a few daimyo who were sure they would not reveal his secrets. In the territories of other hereditary daimyo or even close daimyo, he could only pretend to be a ronin and summarize the current situation from the mobilization of ordinary people and some of their conversations.

I don’t know if these can meet the requirements of Mr. Tian in front of me.

"Mori Terumoto, do you think what he said is credible?" Tian Le suddenly asked him.

"I think it's credible!" Yanagawa said, "Sir, he sent his granddaughter to the Emperor. After the Battle of Sekigahara, the Mori family lost the five provinces of Aki, Bingo, Iwami, Izumo, and Oki, as well as the three western counties of Hoki. Aki was the homeland of the Mori family! Although he has shaved his head and abdicated, claiming that he doesn't care about the facts, it's useless for him to go to Edo to apologize. The hatred between him and the Tokugawa family is difficult to bridge. In this battle, the heavenly soldiers will definitely take Kyushu first, so Nagato and Suo will definitely be abandoned, so Mori Terumoto made such a decision. He said that this is the last dance!"

Tian Le stood up and walked to the map. After looking at it for a while, he reached out and pointed at the island of Iki.

"We still can't take too many risks. However, we can continue to exert some pressure."

His eyes became sharp. Japan was mobilizing ships, hoping to cause some interference to the Ming army. It goes without saying that the local daimyo, those who were extremely firmly tied to the interests of the shogunate, but many were still wavering or waiting and needed to further feel the strength of the Ming Dynasty.

Behind Tianle, the Mongolian cavalry that had already arrived were still unable to move freely, and were now under increasing logistical pressure and the pressure of thirst for war - as Japan shrank inward along the coastline, the gains from looting along the coast were becoming less and less and becoming increasingly difficult.

But if he wants to gain a foothold directly on the land of Nagato and Suo and allow them to gallop freely, Denraku still needs Mori Terumoto to take the initiative!

Just giving a granddaughter is not enough sincerity.

(End of this chapter)