Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 336 Battle of Kyushu ([-])

The one who was pulled up behind them was a young man in his 20s who was about the same age as Todo Takatora, and their name was Huashan Jiudao.

After asking the usual questions, Akashi Jingqin turned to look at Xiujia and asked if Xiujia had any questions to ask.Xiujia asked with great interest, "You were the one who led the first battle against our army in the morning, and you can lead 500 people at a young age. It seems that the Shimadzu family thinks highly of you.

But when your backup team was broken by me head-on, your rear team didn't even want to come up to support you, but just gave up on you. I don't know how you feel.

I see that you are a talent, and the collapse before the battle is all due to the poor quality of the reserve team and the friendly army.If you come under my command, you can definitely display your greatest talent. How about it? Are you interested in surrendering to me? "

Although Huashan Kudaka is a branch of the Shimadzu family, and the Huashan clan also belongs to a large family within the Shimadzu family and owns the territory of Wanshi, Huashan Kudaka has enough reasons to refuse the Hide family's offer.

But the Xiu family still threw an olive branch to him, the reason is that they value his ability, after all, he is a big man who can become the elder of the Shimadzu family in later generations, and lead the soldiers to capture Ryukyu, so he has some ability.

If it was an ordinary person who recruited Kawayama Kudaka, it would be reasonable for Kawayama Kudaka to refuse, but now the one who recruited him was the Toyotomi Hide family, the third person in the town of Toyotomi.

Hideka believes that as long as a normal person can see the gap between the Shimadzu family and the Toyotomi family, at home Toyotomi Hideyoshi is particularly confident in destroying Shimadzu this time, Hideka still has a glimmer of hope for Kawayama Kudaka's surrender .

But unfortunately, Xiujia's hope turned into disappointment in the end. Huashan Jiugang rejected Xiujia's suggestion of soliciting. After hearing this, Xiujia immediately turned cold, feeling as uncomfortable as being slapped on the face.

The Xiu family has already been rejected by three people one after another today, and when he conquered cities and territories in the past, others always begged him to give him a way out, how could he have been so angry like today.

Just when Hideka was about to issue a disposition order to Kawayama Kudaka, Yamada Yunobu and others, Nobu-kun Anayama walked in from outside the temple and whispered in Hideya's ear, "Your Highness, Shimadzu sent an envoy Come here and say you want to make peace with His Highness."

"Negotiate peace?" Xiujia asked suspiciously, "What kind of peace is to be negotiated?"

I was just a person who was ordered to rescue the crisis in Usuki Castle when I was in danger. I wanted to negotiate a peace with Toyotomi Hidecho and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Why did you ask me.Of course, he still said, "Let the people over there come in."

The person who came in was none other than Huashan Kudaka's father, Huashan Chusuke.

"Foreign Minister Huashan Tadsuke, following the advice of the head of the Hyogo family, came to meet the general of the Toyotomi family, but he has not asked the name of this general." Huashan Zhongsuke said when they met, first reporting his family name.

Akashi Jingqin, who was sitting at the lower right of Xiu's house, said, "Sitting in front of you is the adopted son of His Highness Kanbai, who governs the seven kingdoms of Bizen, Bichu, Misaku, Hoki, Inaba, Sanuki, and Iyo. Your Highness, Secretary of State Toyotomi Hideka."

In the past, when the Xiu family was watching film and television works, it was fun to hear the servants report a long list of names to the other party, but I never thought that I could have this experience now.

After hearing the Hide family's name taboo, Kawayama Tadsuke showed surprise, but quickly recovered his emotions and responded, "It turns out that it is His Highness Toyotomi Hide family of Bizen. His reputation is widely praised even in Kyushu. Today It is really a blessing to meet you.”

At this moment, the Xiu family became very playful, and followed his topic and said, "Is that so, if your lord thinks this is a blessing, why don't you surrender to me, so that you and my monarch and ministers can see each other often in the future, and your son I can always be by your side."

Kawayama Tadsuke savored the meaning of Hideka's words, looked up at his son suddenly and asked in surprise, "Have you already surrendered to the Toyotomi Clan?"

Kawayama Kudaka quickly denied, "There is absolutely no father, you know me well, how could I do such a thing as betraying the Shimadzu family?"

Kawayama Kudaka is the second son of Kawayama Tadaka, his eldest son died young, and his eldest grandson also died young, so Kawayama Kudaka had the opportunity to inherit the family business.

And Kawayama Kudaka is indeed the only heir of the Kawayama family at this time. Both his father Tadsuke and grandfather Kawayama Yoshihisa have devoted a lot of experience to training him, and want to train him to be the right-hand man of the Joshimazu family governor.

Now that the Shimadzu family was broken through in the first battle, and Kawayama Kudaka was captured, Kawayama Tadaka was impatient, and quickly asked Shimadzu Yoshihiro to return Kawayama Kudaka.

Kawayama Kudaka's grandfather Kawayama Yoshihisa is Shimadzu Takahisa's childhood friend, and the Kawayama family has assisted the Shimadzu family's prosperity.

In addition, Shimadzu Yoshihiro did have the idea of ​​​​retiring after learning that the main force of the Toyotomi family had arrived and was quite effective, so he borrowed a donkey to go downhill and agreed to Kawayama Tadsuke's request, and let him go to Ukita as an envoy of peace. Side negotiation.

This is also the reason why Huashan Zhongsuke was so excited just after he misunderstood that Huashan Hisaka had surrendered. After all: I and your grandfather put up the old face and wanted to rescue you, but you have already betrayed the master. You call them father and son Where do you put your faces?

Zhongsuke Huashan was also too excited. After calming down, he thought that his son would never betray so easily, but he looked at the young man on the high platform again, and his heart was shaken, "It's hard to say if it's him. Already."

Just when Kawayama Tadsuke was lost in thought, Hideka interrupted: "Okay, you will have time to show your father's kindness and filial piety in the future, so let's first talk about the conditions you brought to Shimadzu."

Huashan Zhongsuke came back to the country, and confided Shimadzu Yoshihiro's request to Xiujia, "My Highness is willing to use a BMW, a full collar, and a set of knives, and Zhu grabs one in exchange for the life of the captured general Huashan Jiugao. In addition, I am willing to use some supplies in exchange for the lives of the captured soldiers, and I hope His Highness will do so."

Before Kawayama Tadsuke came out, Shimadzu Yoshihiro did talk to him.In his opinion, the Hide family came from the upper reaches of the Usuki River, which means that Yamada Yunobu, who scratched Huaicheng, was probably killed in battle, which allowed the Toyotomi family to break through the line of defense.

He would not consider the possibility of Yamada Yunobu's betrayal. After all, Yamada Yunobu could choose to stick to the 4 allies, and Yoshihiro Shimadzu had absolute trust in his character.

Shimadzu Yoshihiro now sees that the Otomo family's army on the opposite side has not changed much. Obviously, the Toyotomi family has sent another main force to help, but he can't figure out the details of the Toyotomi family on the opposite side.

So Yoshihiro Shimadzu agreed to Kawayama Tadsuke's request and asked him to check the military deployment of Toyotomi's house on the opposite side along the way.

It's just that along the way, the more I look at it, the more frightened I am. Is this the Corps from Kinki?The armor rate is so high, and the number of iron cannons held is actually comparable to that of Shimadzu, the birthplace of iron cannons.

Huashan Zhongsuke looked more and more frightened as he walked along the way. He originally thought that the reserve team in the front was already the elite of Toyotomi's family. Who would have thought that the quality of soldiers in the several army formations behind would be the same, and the number was roughly calculated. There are about five thousand below.

This is equivalent to the fact that the 1 Toyotomi Army is elite from top to bottom!

The Shimadzu family started from Satsuma and merged many families along the way. Essentially, it is still the daimyo of the old Warring States system.There is not much control over the military system of the families under his command, so his military strength is somewhat uneven.

The Shimadzu family has risen too fast in the past 5 years, and there is no time to organize their territories, especially the four countries of Higo, Hizen, Chikuzen, and Chikugo. Those who rule are even less qualified to make demands on the army of the daimyo under their command.

Putting these aside, even the Shimadzu family's own Samoans are far inferior to the Toyotomi army he sees now in terms of equipment.

You must know that armor was an extremely precious resource during the Warring States period, far more precious than the life of an ashigaru, so there would never be a daimyo who would waste such precious war resources on an ordinary ashigaru.

Although the Ukita Jun Ashari that Kawayama Tadsuke saw was wearing different shapes and styles, and there were even bamboo girdles from hundreds of years ago on his body, but this is armor after all.

There are so many samurai children in Satsuma that even those who have received military training from samurai cannot wear armor for everyone, let alone those humble peasants who are from Ashgaru. .

After observing all the way, Kawayama Tadsuke has already retreated in his heart. He knows that if he wants to annihilate this elite, it is not enough to rely on more than 2 people in Shimadzu Yoshihiro's hands. He must gather his own master Shimadzu Yoshihisa The East Route Army in charge must work together to annihilate them to have a chance of winning.

While Kawayama Tadsuke was thinking, Hideka was also thinking about the conditions brought by the Shimadzu family, "Are you only here to change one person? I still have two prisoners from the Shimadzu family here."

What the Hide family was talking about was naturally Yunobu Yamada and Tadamasa Ibusuki. Originally, the Hide family planned to kill them all, but now if they could be used to exchange for some supplies, the Hide family also planned to borrow donkeys to go downhill.

Soon, the two were brought up again, and Xiujia said to Huashan Zhongzheng, "Let's not talk about anything else, these two seem to be the guards who scratched Huaicheng. If you want to return it, I will be like Huashan Jiugao." conditions of."

Kawayama Tadsuke felt bitter. The exchange for Kawayama Hisaka was made by the Kawayama family himself. He didn't expect that Yamada Yunobu and Ibusuki Tadamasa would not die in battle, but were captured by the enemy alive and kicking.

Kawayama Tadsuke can only express to Hideka that he needs to go back and give feedback to Yoshihiro Shimadzu, and then report back to Hideka.

As for why Tu Jiujiu didn't see him, he naturally thought that it was impossible for all the main generals to be alive after the war had reached such a level. If they were not brought out now, they must have died in battle.

It's a pity that the Doji family was full of loyalty and died for the Shimadzu family. Now the more than 2 million stones of Matsuo Castle he led can only be taken back by the Shimadzu family sadly.

As for the ransom for lower-level samurai and ordinary ashigaru, Kawayama Tasuke expressed his willingness to redeem them with 500 cash per person.When Xiujia heard that the price was not for beggars, he refused on the spot.

Later, Hideka said, "In addition to these three people, the Ashgaru general captured 2 people, each of whom received a samurai sword in exchange for a collar, and the leader of the Ashgaru group captured 6 people, and each of them exchanged for an iron cannon.

Ordinary ashigaru were redeemed at a price of 5 guns per person. A total of 356 people were captured in the two battles of Huaicheng and Fuliang Castle, totaling 1780 guns. No money was accepted, and 30 guns/guns were used for discounts, making a total of 60 guns.

In addition, the Shimadzu family must withdraw from Bungo, which is also the premise of negotiating peace and releasing people. "

The Xiu family asked for very tricky conditions, he wanted to put these people back, otherwise he would have to fight the Shimadzu family here.

However, the open space on the edge of Usuki Castle is so large, there is not enough battlefield for the two armies to fully deploy.At the same time, once this battle starts, it is very likely to turn into a decisive battle.

As Xiujia said before, the decisive battle must not start until Toyotomi Hideyoshi arrives.

Once this battle is defeated, the Xiu family will inevitably bear the main responsibility. All the efforts in the past few years have been turned into water, and a wave of changes and transfers cannot escape.

Once this battle is won, it will affect the Shimadzu family's ideas of resistance and make them overestimate the strength of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's main force will arrive in Kyushu, and Shimadzu will surrender. What do you want Hideyoshi to do?
Is it necessary to reject Shimadzu's surrender in front of so many big names?Then Hideyoshi can ignore it.

So in Xiujia's opinion, if the Shimadzu family wants to retire, it is the best choice to put them back now.

If in the end Hideyoshi smells great, he can use Beiqian soldiers who have just arrived in Kyushu, and the soldiers are not acclimatized to the environment and their combat effectiveness is not shown, and there is no possibility of continuing to expand the results of the battle.

At the same time, the Shimadzu family on the opposite side gave him a ransom, so he chose to follow the trend and agreed to expel them.

As for why you need iron cannons instead of money, it’s also because you don’t have any excuses. After all, there is no assembly line project now. The forging of an iron cannon requires a master to work continuously for about 20 days. The 66 iron cannons in Xiu’s family can also be said to be reduced. Shimadzu's armament

Huashan Tadomasa initially only wanted to redeem his son and some soldiers, but who would have thought that the Hide family not only offered excessive conditions, but also asked the Shimadzu family to withdraw from the Bungo Territory. How could he decide this.

Therefore Huashan Zhongsuke could only beg for mercy from the Hide family, "Your Highness, please allow me to go back and report to Lord Hyogo before making a decision. Before that, please allow me to redeem the left guard first, and please forgive me a little bit, His Highness the Secretary of State."

He originally thought that the Xiu family would pester him here, but who would have thought that the Xiu family agreed to his request very generously, and said to him, "Go back and tell Yoshihiro Shimadzu, whether you agree or not, Fuliang, Oiwa, etc., see you in Tsujiu." I will pick it up myself when I wait for the city.”

"Ha Yi, Your Highness's words, I will definitely take them with you, thank you for your tolerance." After Huashan Zhongsuke finished speaking, he pulled up his son who was tied up beside him and retreated.

After the two withdrew, Kato Yoshiaki asked, "Does Your Highness Okayama really want to agree to the Shimadzu family's peace?"

Seeing that everyone was looking at him in unison, he said again, "I mean, this seems to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to wipe out the Shimadzu rebels here, and accomplish His Highness's immortal feat, isn't it? "

(End of this chapter)