1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 738 Chrysanthemum and Sword ([-])

February 2, Ryukyu, Shuri Castle.

In 1426, after Shuri unified the three mountains and established the Ryukyu Kingdom according to Shi Shang Hashi, he excavated a dragon pond and built a garden, making Shurijo Castle the royal city.The second Shang dynasty also used this as its capital, and its king Shang Zhen once expanded Shuri Castle, and its layout was built on the basis of the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty. In 1609, the Japanese Satsuma Domain invaded, and Shuri Castle was looted.

Located in the southeast of Shuri Castle, the first section of the city wall of Jishimen is a double-layer city wall with a width of more than five meters, and a large number of stones are used as the foundation, which is very strong.Yoshio Ueda, the elder of the Satsuma clan stationed in Ryukyu, led more than two hundred remnants of the army, backed against the city wall, and used several strong official warehouses as the final stronghold to carry out the final stubborn resistance.

Yoshio Ueda originally thought that relying on the solid city defense facilities of Shuri Outer Port and Shuri Wangcheng, he could hold on for at least half a year and inflict a large number of casualties on the Qi army.

However, to his despair, the Qi army conquered Shuri Outer Port and wiped out more than [-] defenders in just two days.Subsequently, after the Qi army surrounded Shuri City, it took more than ten days to drag several powerful cannon heavy artillery to the Shuri King City, and then began to bombard the city wall violently.

After three consecutive days of bombardment, cracks and partial collapses of a section of the east city wall of Shuri were irresistible, which made the Satsuma army guarding the city feel a deep sense of powerlessness.The Qi army did not attack the city with ants at all, but relied on its own powerful artillery to bombard the city wall from a distance, and sometimes fired a few explosive shells occasionally to inflict a large number of damage to the Samo army on the top of the city.

On February 2, a gap of more than 24 meters was collapsed in the eastern section of Shuri Castle.After several more rounds of artillery bombardment, the Death Squad of the Loyalty Army, the vanguard of the army, shouted, and rushed towards the gap with a long knife in hand.Subsequently, Zheng Sen's and Gu Rong's Ming troops also entered the city.

The Satsuma army with less than 2000 people fought desperately. Relying on a lot of houses and government offices, they fought a brutal street battle with the coalition forces who invaded the city.

After paying hundreds of casualties, the coalition forces were a little annoyed by the crazy counterattack of the Satsuma army. With the acquiescence of the commander of the Qi army, the soldiers of the coalition army stopped fighting with the Satsuma army from street to house, and began to set fires everywhere in the city, trying to Force the Satsuma soldiers from the house where they are hiding, and then annihilate them.

After a few days, the once prosperous and prosperous Shuri King City suffered another catastrophe. It was like hell. Almost all the houses in the city burst into flames, and countless innocent Ryukyu people died.Combined with muskets, sword and shield soldiers, and grenadiers, the coalition soldiers began to clear the exposed Satsuma army point by point in the city.

By February 2, most of the Satsuma army was wiped out in the city, leaving only more than 26 remnants near Jishimen in the southeast of the city.

Facing the madness of the Satsuma army, the coalition forces did not want to carry out unnecessary persuasion. They drove hundreds of Ryukyu civilians, and kept throwing firewood and branches to the place where the Satsuma army was stationed, trying to smoke them out of the stronghold with fireworks, and finally wiped them out. .

Seeing this situation, more than 50 Satsuma soldiers rushed out from the stronghold, trying to drive away the Ryukyu people who were throwing firewood, but they all fell to the ground under the fire of the Qi army's muskets.

When attacking the Satsuma army, the coalition forces were very surprised that they had very few firearms, almost none, and even lower than the firearms equipment rate of the Guangnan army.

Some Japanese officers accompanying the army explained that many military officials learned that after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, in addition to promulgating the strict "Knife Hunting Order", it also issued another prohibition, that is, strictly prohibiting firearms. Except for a few shogunate officials who trusted samurai, Others in the country were not allowed to own guns, let alone produce them, which made the muskets and artillery that played a key role in the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate gradually disappear.

After the raging fire burned for a day and a night, the officers and soldiers of the coalition army tentatively broke into Jishimen, but found that the remaining more than 100 Satsuma soldiers had all committed suicide, and none of them survived.

After clearing the Satsuma army on Ryukyu Island, the coalition forces regrouped and took more than [-] ships to attack Kagoshima, directly attacking the old nest of the Satsuma clan.

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March 1658, 3, Kagoshima, Kyushu, Japan.

Japan's feudal society, which has lasted for thousands of years, has complex stratification, and everyone's status is inherited from the previous generation.During the period of the Tokugawa shogunate, this system was consolidated and the specific content of the daily behavior of each class was stipulated.The head of the family must post his rank sign on the door of the house, along with the required statement about his hereditary status.His attire, the food he could buy, the house he could legally live in were all regulated by hereditary status.

There are four hereditary classes below the royal family and court nobles, in order: warriors (samurai), farmers, workers and merchants.The next in line are the untouchables.Among the untouchables the most numerous and well-known are the "dirdos," that is, those engaged in filthy trades.They are the "untouchables" of Japan, or rather, they are not even considered human beings, since even the roads that pass through their villages are not counted in mileage, as if the land and its inhabitants were not at all It seems to exist.

However, such a group of people who were extremely poor and excluded from the formal social structure were suddenly recruited by the feudal lord on this day. Under the leadership of the samurai, they came to the vicinity of Kagoshima Castle with bamboo spears. .In addition to these untouchables, countless warriors and peasants were also quickly armed. With only one meal of porridge in the morning and one rice ball at noon every day, they began to conduct high-intensity military training.

As far as the eye can see, it seems that the entire Kagoshima area has become a sea of ​​soldiers.As for whether the feudal lord summoned so many troops to rebel against the shogun, or to compete with other daimyos for territories or interests, all the untouchables didn't think too much about it at all.For them, it is a pleasant thing to have a free meal of porridge and a rice ball every day.

As the second largest feudal lord in Japan with 72 stones, the Shimadzu family (the largest feudal clan is the Kaga clan), in addition to owning the Satsuma Kingdom, there are also the Osumi Kingdom and the Hyuga Kingdom, which occupy the southern part of Kyushu and dominate the southwestern part of Japan. area.

Before the outbreak of the Battle of Sekigahara, Yoshihiro Shimadzu, the 17th head of the Shimadzu family, originally accepted Tokugawa Ieyasu’s request for reinforcements, and planned to lead an army of about 1500 people to help Tokugawa Ieyasu’s retainer Torii Mototada defend Fushimi Castle. , but I don’t know whether it was due to the lack of information transmission at the time or other reasons, Torii Mototada did not receive relevant news, and rejected Shimadzu Yoshihiro’s request to enter the city to assist in the defense, which made Shimadzu Yoshihiro angry and joined the Western Army.

The Sekigahara War lasted only one day and the outcome was decided. When the defeat of the Western Army was a foregone conclusion, and faced with the collapse of many friendly troops, Shimadzu Yoshihiro successfully broke through the encirclement and returned to Satsuma safely, retaining the vitality.After the war, the Shimadzu family presented a posture of military preparation and obedience to Tokugawa Ieyasu, that is, on the one hand, they strengthened the armed forces in the territory to consolidate the national border, and on the other hand, they used diplomacy through Konoe Nobuyoshi, Ii Naomasa, and Yamaguchi Naotomo. The means expect to get Tokugawa Ieyasu's understanding.

Considering that the Shimadzu family is located in a remote area in the southwest, it is inconvenient to send out a large army for conquest, and the Satsuma domain still maintains a strong military force (it is estimated that the force exceeds 1), so Tokugawa Ieyasu had to squeeze out after some threats of force. Nose reached a settlement with Shimadzu.As a punishment, Yoshihiro Shimadzu had to live in seclusion, and was succeeded by his second son Tadahiro Shimadzu, who was the 18th generation of the Shimadzu family.After succeeding, Shimadzu Tadatoshi officially established the Satsuma Domain as the first lord of the Satsuma Domain.

Mitsuhisa Shimadzu, as the lord of the second-generation Satsuma clan, was in office just in time for the completion of the Tokugawa shogunate's closed-door policy, which dealt a severe blow to overseas trade, which was the main source of finance for the Satsuma clan, and the debts within the clan began to intensify. Shimadzu Zhongheng's debt of 2 taels of silver suddenly swelled to 35 taels of silver, and the vassal government was in a state of embarrassment for a while.

Therefore, in order to ease the financial situation, Shimadzu Mitsuhisa began to appoint the old Shimadzu Hisatsutsu to carry out the development of Jinshan in Nagano (now Nagano, Satsuma Town, Satsuma County, Kagoshima Prefecture) in the 17th year of Kanei (1640). However, the mining of Jinshan in the Satsuma domain was obstructed and suppressed by the shogunate after only two years, and it was finally forced to stop in the 20th year of Kanei (1643).

As a result, the Shimadzu family began to increase their pressure on Ryukyu, and through this area, they carried out the so-called "tributary trade" with Daming, which somewhat improved the finances of the clan.

More than ten years ago, the Qi people occupied several small islands in the south of Ryukyu and built them as a transit point for immigration supplies. Considering that those remote islands did not have any output, and Qi had a strong maritime force, Satsuma Fan acquiesced to the presence of Qi people on several small islands in the south of Ryukyu.

Later, as the Qi State continued to transfer a large number of various industrial products from their distant Hanzhou mainland for sale in the process of emigrating, the Satsuma Fan started a smuggling trade with the Qi State, and sent the Qi State to Ryukyu. The goods are resold to the coast of Kyushu and Honshu.The best-selling products and huge profits made the Satsuma clan earn a lot of money, earning tens of thousands of taels of silver every year.In less than ten years, not only all the debts in the domain were paid off, but also tens of thousands of taels of silver were accumulated, which further increased the strength of the Satsuma domain.

However, as Qi's ambitions for Ryukyu became stronger, cracks began to appear in the close business partnership between the two parties.When the elders of the Satsuma clan stationed in Ryukyu sent a message, the Qi people transferred the prince of Ryukyu to the southern part of Ryukyu, and also seized two strongholds in the region, showing signs of wanting to control the Ryukyu royal family.

As a daimyo feudal lord with noble qualities, Mitsuhisa Shimadzu felt that his dignity and status had been rudely challenged.Ryukyu was bought with the blood of his fathers and countless brave warriors, and it is also a symbol of the long-lasting Shimadzu's martial arts.Now, a small foreign country thousands of miles away intends to use despicable means to take Ryukyu away.Once such consequences are caused, the Shimadzu clan of the Satsuma domain will become a joke of all Japanese daimyos, and even this move will secretly refresh the Tokugawa clan who is lying high in the Edo city. Hehe, someone finally came to weaken the Shimadzu clan strength.

What is even more irritating is that this group of Qi people who have no principle of integrity, in order to covet more commercial interests, hooked up with the Maori family of the Changzhou Fan and established business contacts, in an attempt to lay a smuggling business network that radiated the state. .This move will greatly weaken the smuggling channels established by the Satsuma clan over the past ten years, as if to gradually exclude the Shimadzu family.

Tolerable or unbearable!
The people of Qi must be punished so that they can realize the dignity and interests of the Shimadzu family, and no desecration or infringement is allowed.

In September last year, the long-planned Satsuma clan dispatched more than 1000 troops to land in Ryukyu. First, they cleared the commercial and political forces deployed by the Qi people in Ryukyu Shuri Outer Port and Shuri King City, and then attacked Hanxing Island, which they occupied. Hexinghe Island.However, the war went extremely unsatisfactorily. Apart from capturing an inconspicuous island and capturing more than [-] immigrants from the Ming Dynasty, they were unable to capture Hanxing Island and Xinghe Island. All the fortresses in the country cannot be conquered.However, the Satsuma army lost more than a thousand, which made Mitsuhisa Shimadzu very dissatisfied.

When the warships of the Qi State began to return to the waters of Ryukyu one after another, Mitsuhisa Shimadzu ordered Yoshio Ueda, the old man stationed in Ryukyu, to withdraw more than [-] troops back to Kagoshima, and ordered him to lead the remaining troops to defend Ryukyu to the death. Make it afraid to cross the sea to attack Kagoshima.

However, in December last year, there were sporadic warships of Qi State swimming in the coastal area of ​​Kagoshima.They intercepted any ships they encountered, and sunk or captured all fishing and merchant ships belonging to the Satsuma domain.As for the merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty, other daimyos, and the Dutch, the warships of the Qi State will repel or persuade them to leave.

On Zhengdan Day (January 1658, 1), when the Shimadzu family of the Satsuma domain was holding New Year blessing activities, five Qi warships suddenly broke into Kagoshima Bay and bombarded the port.

Although several forts in Kagoshima launched a tenacious counterattack, there is a certain gap between the guns of the Qi State at sea in terms of the number and quality of the artillery.After two hours of bombardment, although the three Qi warships were damaged to varying degrees, more than half of the more than ten artillery pieces that the Satsuma clan had accumulated for decades were destroyed, and more than [-] people were killed or injured.

Under the watchful eyes of all the soldiers and civilians in Kagoshima, the Qi warship that completed the bombardment mission swaggered and turned its bow, heading out of the harbor.Immediately afterwards, the warships of the State of Qi bombarded several towns and cities near Kagoshima one after another, and did not sail away until the evening.

Since Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched the Battle of Kyushu in 1587, Shimadzu surrendered to Hideyoshi and founded the Satsuma Domain during the Tokugawa shogunate, Kagoshima has never been invaded by foreign enemies for more than 70 years.Now, on Zhengdan Day, under the watchful eyes of countless soldiers and civilians in the feudal domain, warships from the Qi State brazenly attacked the port of Kagoshima, completely humiliating and provoking the Shimadzu family.

Immediately, Shimadzu Mitsuhisa ordered a large number of people in the domain to be recruited to join the army. He wanted to form an army of [-] people to go to Ryukyu. Shi didn't dare to have unreasonable thoughts.

However, the veteran Shimadzu Hisamitsu of the feudal family tried his best to dissuade Mitsuhisa Shimadzu from using his own shortcomings to attack Qi's strengths.Although the Qi State is far away from the Hanzhou Continent thousands of miles away, it has many "giant ships" in Ryukyu, Ming Kingdom and other places, and the Satsuma Domain's own weak sea power cannot compete with it.That being the case, it is better to gather a large army in Kagoshima, wait for Qi to attack, wait for work with ease, and rely on the superior land power to severely damage Qi's landing army.In this way, there is a chance of winning.

As for the more than [-] Satsuma troops stationed in Ryukyu, although they have been out of contact for more than two months, under the leadership of Yoshio Ueda, they will definitely cause heavy damage to the Qi army and delay their attack on Kagoshima.

In view of the shortage of ships in the feudal domain, Mitsuhisa Shimadzu gave up the unrealistic cross-sea expedition to Ryukyu. Instead, he began to mobilize the samurai to conduct military training for the conscripted farmers and untouchables to deal with Qi army's attack.

However, what is surprising is that on March 3, more than 12 ships sailed in Kagoshima Bay, and after another violent bombardment of the port wharf, under the watchful eyes of thousands of Satsuma troops waiting in full battle, they successively Withdrew to Sakurajima opposite Kagoshima, and launched a large-scale landing.

Qi State has finally attacked.

(End of this chapter)