Start with Baihuguan

Chapter 542 Conquering Japanese, Yinshan
Zhu Houzhao nodded when he heard the words and said: "What the Qing family said is very true. The imperial court gave up Jiaozhi. In the final analysis, it was because the effort was greater than the gain, and the traffic was inconvenient. The local people repeated it one after another. But now Xu Ying is guarding the army and repairing the roads to connect it. In the Central Plains, there should be no worries."

The two monarchs and ministers just walked in the imperial garden like old friends, talking about some things above the court, it seemed that the monarch and his ministers got along well with each other.

The emperor who was walking in front suddenly paused, his eyes fell on Li Huan and he said: "A few days ago Zhang Huai played together with Yan Song. The Xiyi invaded the Nanyang Province. It is very powerful. I don't know where the Nanyang Province is now What's the situation."

Li Huan frowned, and said with a light smile: "Your Majesty, you can rest assured that the Nanyang Province has been booming in recent years. The Nanyang Navy Fleet alone has nearly a hundred treasure ships, and hundreds of other large and small ships. Just relying on those Xiyi fleets, to be honest, they are really no match for the Nanyang Navy fleet."

Zhu Hou took a look at Li Huan and said: "It would be great if it is true as what the Qing family said, otherwise, the imperial court will probably send the East China Sea Division fleet south to stabilize the situation in Nanyang."

As he spoke, Zhu Houzhao sighed softly: "The situation in Nanyang must remain stable in the past few years, otherwise it will definitely directly affect the issue of enfeoffment among the princes and clans of the world."

When talking about this, Zhu Houzhao said with a smile on the corner of his mouth: "To this day, all the family members of the vassal kings in the country have moved to the land of Nanyang. It is a sudden reduction of a large amount of salary to support the clan, and this alone will greatly reduce the pressure on the imperial court's expenditure."

Just by looking at the smile on the emperor's face, one can know how much the policy of relocating the royal clan overseas has affected the court.

With such a big burden thrown off suddenly, the pressure on the imperial court has dropped sharply in the past few years, and the financial situation has become better and better.

However, it has only been a few years since the vassal kings entrusted Nanyang. It can be said that except for a few vassal kings with sufficient strength and background, they have developed their fiefdoms, while the vast majority of vassal kings are still in their infancy.

At this stage, Nanyang naturally cannot be chaotic. Once there is turmoil, it is conceivable that those vassal kings don't know if there will be any troubles.

At least one point is that these feudal lords entrusted to Nanyang must not feel that the land of Nanyang is not safe, otherwise, the emperor would not be so concerned about the safety of Nanyang.

Hearing this, Li Huan chuckled and said, "The Donghai Navy is now preparing to land in the Wa Kingdom. If the imperial court's attention was not drawn by the Cochin War, the war to attack the Wa Kingdom would have already broken out."

While speaking, Li Huan bowed to the emperor and said: "Your Majesty, I have discussed with the governors of the five armies. Now that Jiaozhi has been pacified, the attack on the Wa Kingdom should also be put on the agenda."

Hearing this, Zhu Houzhao waved his hands and said with a smile: "Li Qing will discuss this matter with the cabinet. If the cabinet has no opinion, you can go ahead and do it."

Li Huan heard the words: "Your Majesty is wise, take down the Wa Kingdom and digest it. From now on, China, I will no longer have to worry about threats from the sea."

Zhu Houzhao said with a bit of disdain: "Li Qing is making too much of a fuss, a mere Japanese country, how can it be qualified to threaten the safety of my Daming sea."

Li Huan was not surprised that the emperor looked down on Wa, after all, in this era, Daming, who prided himself on the Central Plains, really didn't care about Wa, a small country.

However, who would have thought that this island country separated from China by a river would cause the greatest harm to China.

It would be fine if he didn't have that ability, the key is now that Daming has enough strength to take down the Wa Kingdom, Li Huan felt that if he was still indifferent to the Wa Kingdom, then he would really have come to Daming for nothing.

April of the 12th year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty

On the grounds that the Japanese pirates plundered the southeast coast, Daming ordered the East China Sea Division fleet to send [-] troops to land in the Japanese country to declare the prestige of the Ming Dynasty.

The troops of the Ming Dynasty were divided into two groups, one was from North Korea and landed in Japan, and the other was from Fujian, passing through the Ryukyu and Ryukyu, entering Satsuma Prefecture, and directly attacking Huanglong.

In order to go to the Wa Kingdom in the First World War, Li Huan was fully prepared this time. Among them, there were hundreds of warships of the treasure ship level, and nearly a thousand ships of other sizes.

Even in order to operate enough troops and horses to land in Japan, Li Huan recruited thousands of private ships to operate grain, grass and ordnance, which can be said to have achieved the ultimate in logistics.

But at this time, the Wa Kingdom was in an era of turmoil. According to later generations, during this period, because the Muromachi shogunate's control over the local daimyos declined, the daimyos from various places fought endlessly. Later generations of the Wa Kingdom officially called it the Wa Kingdom. Warring States period.

In the 12th year of Zhengde, that is, the year when the Japanese daimyo Ouchi Yoshiko returned to his country, the shogun Ashikaga Yoshie who lost his protection was defeated by the leader Hosokawa, so he had to resign as the shogun and Ashikaga Yoshiharu took over the shogun post.

However, due to the discord between Ashikaga Yoshiharu and the Hosokawa clan as the shogun, the shogunate's deterrence against daimyo from all over the world was even less powerful.

It can be said that today's Wa Kingdom is really a chaotic scene, and the daimyos from all over the country are fighting against each other endlessly. This kind of turmoil lasted for hundreds of years, until Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified the Wa Kingdom, unified the power of the whole country to go north to North Korea, and broke out with Daming One of the three major expeditions in Wanli, the war to aid Korea and resist Japanese aggression.

Even after a hundred years, the Ming Dynasty, whose national power has been greatly weakened, is still the Japanese country that invaded North Korea with the power of the whole country. It can be said that the Japanese country at that time was definitely at the peak of its strength. Those who invaded North Korea were all elites who had been killed so far.

Under such circumstances, he was defeated by the general of the Ming Dynasty. It is conceivable that with the current strength of the Ming Dynasty and the country of Wa that is already in turmoil, Li Huan really can't think of the situation that the country of Wa will face in this situation. How much resistance can the Ming Dynasty have during its conquest.

From the dispatch of troops in April to the middle of April, the army had already landed on the territory of the Wa Kingdom like a broken bamboo.

Until this time, the Wa Kingdom hadn't reacted, and didn't know what happened at all, and why Daming, the kingdom of heaven, would suddenly send troops.

You must know that since ancient times, except for the Mongolian Yuan who sent troops to conquer the Wa Kingdom several times, the Wa Kingdom has never suffered from foreign invasion.

And the Ming Dynasty did not send troops to land in the Wa country at the beginning of its founding. In the impression of the people of the Wa country, Da Ming, as the king of heaven, would never do anything to them.

It is precisely because of this that when the great Ming army entered the Wa Kingdom with such force, many local daimyos who were entrenched in the local area and were busy fighting against their opponents were all stunned.

Many local daimyos subconsciously wanted to resist after they came to their senses, but the soldiers and horses they usually used to occupy one side were completely vulnerable in front of Daming.

After all, for many daimyos, occupying a county is already not weak, but for such a powerful daimyo in Japan, it is not bad to have thousands of warriors under his command .

It can be said that for most of the battles between daimyos, it is a war, but its scale is estimated to be comparable to the scale of the fighting between two large villages and towns in Daming.

It can be imagined that even if a big name in such a place has the guts to fight against Da Ming, it has some strength. It is completely like an egg hitting a stone, facing Da Ming's army, and it is turned into powder in an instant.

According to Li Huan's arrangement, the [-] elite army was divided into several divisions, and they swept across like several sharp swords. Li Huan was surprised by the smooth progress and the speed of the march.

After all, in Li Huan's view, facing Ming's troops, the Wa people would at least put up a fierce resistance, and at least some price would have to be made from Daming, but the result was beyond Li Huan's expectations.

Everything really went too smoothly, but after thinking about it for a while, Li Huan could roughly understand what was going on.

After all, the time he chose to attack the Wa Kingdom was too good. This period was the middle and early stages of the Warring States Period of the Wa Kingdom. The chaos in the room has left the Wa country in a state of disintegration.

If it is said that Toyotomi Hideyoshi ruled the Wa country, and the Ming Dynasty sent a large army to land in the Wa country, at that time the Wa country was integrated from top to bottom, and it was really not so easy.

Iwami country

At this time, Li Huan handed over the conquest of the Wa Kingdom to his generals. After all, with the current situation of the Wa Kingdom, facing the [-] elite troops of the Ming Dynasty, there was really nothing wrong with it.

In this case, Li Huan simply delegated his power to a group of generals, which can be regarded as an opportunity for his generals to make contributions.

However, Li Huan led a fleet to Shi Jianguo, which had been captured not long ago.

Shi Jianguo surrendered to Ouchi Yoshiko's Ouchi family, but now this Shijian country has been occupied by Daming, and the Iwami Silver Mountain in his country naturally fell into Daming's hands.

Iwami Silver Mine is definitely the largest silver mine in East Asia. You must know that during the heyday of Japan, the amount of silver produced accounted for almost one-third of the world's total, and most of it came from Iwami Silver Mine. .

It is just a mountain of silver that can be seen in the stone, and the annual output of silver is as much as one million taels, which shows the wealth of its mineral deposits.

When Li Huan entered the mine, he saw a large number of captured Japanese youths and warriors busy mining ore deposits on the mine under the supervision of Ming soldiers.

Chen Cang, who was in charge, led Li Huan into a workshop, and what he saw were pieces of purified silver.

Chen Cang said to Li Huan with a bit of excitement: "My lord, this Shijian Yinshan is simply a silver mountain. It only takes half a month for the next official to take over here, and it only takes a few days to restore the mining and refining of the mine. However, every day The silver he got was as much as a thousand taels."

Li Huan raised his brows, and the sun rises with a thousand taels of silver, so a year is about 40 taels, which is nothing compared to Iwami Yinshan's annual output of one million taels.

Glancing at Chen Cang, Li Huan said: "Do well, the court will not treat you badly."

Li Huan said again: "The guild ordered the captured Japanese to be sent here. Chen Guanshi, you must increase the production at that time. If you can produce one million a year, I will definitely make a contribution to the court for you. Bao, I promise you a seventh-rank official position."

Don't look at Chen Cang as the manager of this place, but he is only from the eighth rank. If he can really become a seventh rank official, it will definitely be a great reward for Chen Cang.

Sure enough, Chen Cang said with a bit of excitement: "Don't worry, Duke, as long as there is enough manpower, I can guarantee it. If the annual production cannot reach one million taels, I will apologize with death."

He reached out and patted Chen Cang's shoulder, Li Huan said with a light smile: "What I want you to do well, not to die, as long as you do well, the court will definitely reward you."

From April of the 12th year of Masanori to October, the army went straight into the city of Tokyo, Japan. The Hosokawa clan was defeated in World War I, and the shogun Ashikaga Yoshiki and the Emperor of Japan were captured alive.

With the capture of all the members of the Muromachi Shogunate and the Emperor of Japan, although there are still many daimyos in the local area who are trying to resist the daimyo conquest, they are just dying.

In November of this year, hundreds of large ships sailed into the port of Tianjinwei. Li Huan, dressed in fur, stepped off the treasure ship. Under the supervision of soldiers and Jin Yiwei, a large number of boxes were removed from the ship , and then loaded onto a huge carriage.

More than a dozen carriages creaked and headed towards the capital along the flat and wide concrete avenue.

The emperor, who had already received the news, once again led all the officials out of the city gate to meet him.

The news of the collapse of the Wa Kingdom had been sent back to the capital not long ago. Li Huan sent back the property seized from the Wa Kingdom and the Japanese Emperor and other prisoners. After all, it was a battle to destroy the country, and the Wa country, which existed for thousands of years, was still very important to Ming Dynasty.

Seeing Li Huan and others getting closer, the emperor personally stepped forward to greet them, showing the harmonious side of the monarch and ministers to countless people, and all the officials accompanied the emperor to escort the Japanese emperor and other captives to the Taimiao to worship the ancestors of the past dynasties.

At the celebration banquet in the evening, all the officials listened to Li Huan's account of the battle of the Wa Kingdom. Many officials listened interestingly, and were not surprised that Ming was able to successfully occupy the Wa Kingdom.

However, when Li Huan mentioned the gold and silver deposits everywhere in the Wa country, many officials' eyes lit up immediately.

Especially when Li Huan mentioned the amount of silver produced by Shijian Yinshan, many people were dumbfounded. They opened their eyes wide and looked at Li Huan so stupidly, as if they had heard something appalling. The news is average.

Even the cabinet elders who got the news first couldn't help but sigh when they heard Li Huan's narration.

Wailang, a member of the household department, said in horror: "A silver mine can produce as much as one million taels of silver a year. This...how is this possible? Qin Guogong must have heard it wrong."

(End of this chapter)