I formed the strongest swordsman group.

Chapter 1005 Heading to Ou! The [Oyu Trial Combination] is held! 【4500】

The "One Country, One Castle Order" covered all feudal domains - even Mito Domain, one of the "Three Great Houses", was no exception.

Like other feudal domains, Mito Domain had only one city, the Domain Office.

Restricted by the "one country, one city order", the tactic of "relying on each city and resisting layer by layer" was doomed to be unworkable.

Once the provincial government falls, it will be all over.

Therefore, after the fall of Mito Castle, the remnants of the Mito Domain completely lost their ability to resist - without a castle, where could they gather supplies? Where could they mobilize troops?
Even if you are determined to resist to the end, you will be eliminated sooner or later.

Even the towering Mito Castle couldn't stop the Shinsengumi's attack, let alone fighting against the Shinsengumi in the wild where there was no defense?

After Tokugawa Yoshiatsu opened the city and surrendered, the four major branch domains under his rule - Fuchu Domain, Shishido Domain, Moriyama Domain, and Matsuoka Domain - soon received the news.

Without waiting for Qing Deng to send anyone to urge them, they all surrendered quickly and behaved in a very submissive manner.

Faced with Qingdeng's overwhelming force, they dared not put forward any conditions and only hoped to end the war as soon as possible to save their lives.

Qing Deng sent Nagakura Shinpachi to take over the lands of these four branch fiefs.

Anyone who resists will be killed without mercy - he instructed Nagakura Shinpachi like this.

The "Mito Conquest" is over...but, from another perspective, this war has just begun.

Why did Qing Deng want to destroy the Mito Domain?
On the one hand, it was naturally for revenge, and at the same time, it was to kill a chicken to scare the monkey, to shock the world, and to restore the prestige of the shogunate and the king.

But on this basis, there are other purposes.

Since the "Choshu Conquest", both the shogunate and the Qinjin domain have suffered considerable losses.

War is very expensive.

Qing Deng led the Shinsengumi from west to east, and all the food, money, weapons and ammunition were severely damaged.

Among them, artillery shells are the most important.

Bombarding Geishuguchi, bombarding Sekigahara, bombarding Mito Castle... Although the soldiers of the 11th Division had a great time, the price they paid was high.

It is no exaggeration to say that the artillery shell stocks that Qin Jinfan had accumulated with great difficulty in recent years were basically used up in these three battles.

As for the shogunate, there is no need to mention it.

Two successive "Edo Siege Battles" almost reduced Edo to ruins, and it would take at least ten years to recover.

Since the damage was severe, the natural thing to do is to try to recover.

Mito Domain was one of the "Three Great Houses" and had vast and fertile land. It had very developed agriculture and handicrafts, and because it was close to the Pacific Ocean, it had a considerable fishery.

As such, the wealth accumulated over the past two hundred years is naturally very considerable.

A lean camel is bigger than a horse - although the Mito Domain has suffered many hardships in recent years and its national strength has been declining, its "remains" are enough to feed the shogunate and Qinjin.

Qing Deng set his sights on the wealth of Mito Domain - although he did not say it explicitly, everyone knew it.

Therefore, after conquering Mito Castle, the part that Qing Deng had been looking forward to the most finally began - starting to collect the wealth of Mito Domain!

The first thing he took was, naturally, the territory of Mito Domain.

The territories of Mito Domain and its branches... Aoto took back nearly 400,000 koku of land in one go! And most of it was fertile land in the Kanto Plain! (Moriyama Domain was in Mutsu, not in Kanto)

Of course, land alone cannot satisfy Qingdeng's appetite.

As for how to collect the wealth of Mito Domain, it can be summed up in one sentence - the treasury of Mito Domain must be taken, and the homes of the Mito lord and his ministers must also be raided!
The Mito lord and his ministers ignored his advice to surrender and insisted on resisting stubbornly - Qing Deng had every reason to raid their homes.

They won't be able to use these things later anyway.

Qing Deng gave the task of "squeezing out all the water households" to Kondo Isami.

Kondo Isami led hundreds of soldiers and headed straight for the treasury of Mito Castle and the residences of the Mito monarch and his ministers, strictly prohibiting any unauthorized persons from approaching.

Mito Domain was indeed an old and powerful country. After opening its treasury and seeing the mountains of yellow and white things, Kondo Isami's eyes widened instantly - this was also because he was not responsible for the finances of Qinjin Domain, so he rarely saw large amounts of money.

Of course, compared with the "private inventory" of the Mito ministers, the Mito Castle's treasury is really not worth mentioning.

Serious land annexation is a common problem in feudal regimes.

Land was increasingly concentrated in the hands of large landowners.

In order to own more land, the big landlords used various means to seize land and forced the farmers who owned land to sell their land and real estate and become tenants. This gradually evolved into a situation where "the rich have fields stretching for miles, while the poor have no place to stand."

The upper-ranking samurai headed by the lord of Mito Domain were the largest landlord class in Mito Domain.

There were fewer and fewer free citizens, and the country could not collect money. Instead, these "loyal ministers and generals" became richer and richer.

In comparison, the lord of Mito Domain was actually poor, and all of his important officials were richer than him.

With such a huge amount of wealth, Kondo Isami had to mobilize a large number of carts, and after counting them, they were transported to Edo one by one.

It is worth mentioning that in order to please Aoto and to show the sincerity of "never being an enemy of the shogunate", many Mito merchants have come to pay tribute and donate money and food in recent days.

Qing Deng was naturally happy to see the additional income.

When moving the "private collection" of Mito Lord and his ministers, Qing Deng specially invited Tokugawa Keitoshi and others to come and watch.

On the one hand, it was to destroy their hearts and punish Mito in all aspects.

On the other hand, it was to let Tokugawa Yoshiaki see with his own eyes how his subjects "repaid" Mito after they had gained a transcendent status.

As expected, after witnessing the astonishing wealth of his ministers, Tokugawa Yoshiaki's face became extremely ugly, sometimes blue and sometimes white.

“You…you…you…”

He said "you guys" three times in a row, his voice trembling.

However, in the end, he said nothing... He closed his mouth silently and held back the words that were about to come out.

He probably realized that he was now a prisoner and no longer had the position to refute his ministers.

Having said that, his resentment will not disappear.

Until he was taken back to the prison, he didn't even look at the ministers around him.

Facing the silent rebuke from their lord, all the ministers lowered their heads, not daring to breathe, looking at their noses and their hearts, with guilty looks on their faces...

This "economic work", which was both mentally and physically demanding, lasted for seven days and seven nights.

After completing the statistics, Kondo Isami recorded the specific figures in a book and presented it to Qingdeng.

"Qing Deng, please be mentally prepared."

When presenting the "statistical table", Kondo Isami said this meaningfully.

Qing Deng took it without caring, thinking to himself:

——What a fuss! How rich could the Mito Domain be?
He opened the "statistics table" and took a quick glance at it - then, his eyes widened involuntarily, his expression dominated by intense shock.

The treasury of Mito Castle, the private collection of Mito's lord and ministers, and the contributions of Mito's merchants... He obtained 5 shi of grain and 50 taels of gold in one go!
This only counts gold coins, not silver and copper coins.

If all the coins were counted and converted into gold coins... Qing Deng obtained 70 taels of gold in one go!
As for weapons and equipment, rare antiques and other items, there are countless of them!
After witnessing this series of numbers, Qing Deng could hardly believe his eyes.

It’s not because the money is a lot - but this huge sum of money was searched out from Mito Castle, which is astonishing!
He knew that the Mito Domain had a strong foundation, but he never expected it to be this wealthy!

Who said that Mito Domain was in decline?
Qing Deng suddenly recalled the famous story that "Chongzhen was extremely poor, but Li Zicheng found 7000 million taels of silver in Beijing."

If we look closely at the wars he had fought before, except for the "Choshu Conquest", all of them were fought on the interior lines.

Defend, then repel the enemy - even if you win, there will be no huge income.

Even the "Changzhou Expedition", the only external battle, ended in failure and failed to bring enough benefits. Just by fighting in one battle, he obtained 70 taels of gold in one go... This was far beyond Qing Deng's expectations.

He experienced firsthand why humans are so keen on war.

The consequences of defeat are certainly horrific.

But on the other hand, the huge bonus after victory is indeed extremely tempting!
Such a huge income is more than enough to make up for the recent war expenses of Qinjin Clan, and it is more than enough!
Qing Deng already had a plan on how to use this windfall.

First, set aside a small portion to rebuild Edo, and send most of the rest of the money to Otsu!

This is not his attempt to enrich himself, but the result of careful consideration.

Qing Deng's judgment on the world situation remains unchanged: the Western feudal lords are the real threat!

Gyeonggi Province was the front line against the western feudal domains.

Therefore, he must strengthen the national strength of the Qinjin clan as soon as possible and further improve the combat effectiveness of the Shinsengumi in order to meet subsequent challenges.

To sum up, if this goal is to be achieved, the abundant wealth of Mito Domain is indispensable.

Of course, the specific allocation of money and grain will be left for later detailed planning.

During the time when Aoto was busy swallowing up the wealth of Mito Domain, the battle report that "Niou destroyed Mito in just half a day" quickly spread throughout Japan.

The world's reaction to this was highly unified: shocking and horrified.

Even the most optimistic people who had strong confidence in the Mito Domain did not believe that the Mito Domain could withstand the offensive of the Shinsengumi.

However, almost everyone believed that the Mito Domain would not perish soon.

Relying on the profound foundation of an old and powerful country, it can at least last for ten days or half a month.

Unexpectedly... Qingdeng's answer was: half a day!

It only took half a day to destroy the once-mighty Mito Domain... The mighty "Three Great Houses" couldn't even hold out for half a day...!
When attacking the Choshu domain's Geishuguchi, the Shinsengumi had already demonstrated its powerful siege capabilities.

And today, the Shinsengumi once again used its undoubtedly terrifying record to prove to the world its terrifying fighting power of conquering every attack and winning every battle!
As far as the results are concerned, Qing Deng has already achieved the purpose of "killing the chicken to scare the monkey" - or rather, the effect is too outstanding!

Except for a few scattered feudal domains such as Satsuma and Tosa, no other force believed that their strength was superior to that of Mito.

Even Mito was defeated by Nioh, let alone us?
Through this battle, the world suddenly realized that as long as "Niou" Tachibana Aoto was still alive, the "Nanki Faction" would be the strongest force in Japan!

In an instant, the "fence-sitters" who had become restless due to the "shogunate civil war" gradually regained their composure.

They either remained silent or took the initiative to approach Qingdeng.

Qing Deng is too lazy to pay attention to the goodwill of the "fence-sitters" - he has more important things to deal with right now.

……

……

The Mito Domain was destroyed, and all of its wealth was taken away without a single drop left.

No matter from which angle you look at it, Qing Deng's "Mito Conquest" was a complete success.

Now that the goal has been achieved, everyone thought that Qingdeng would return home.

However, Qingdeng's next action surprised the world.

Qingdeng did not return.

He called up all his troops and continued to march north! He headed straight for Wakamatsu Castle, the headquarters of the Aizu Domain!

At the same time, he issued an order to the Oshu clans:

The lords of the Oshu domains immediately went to Wakamatsu Castle, and I, Tachibana Aoto, would have an in-depth discussion with them on the current world situation.

In addition, in order to deepen communication, an "Olympics trial match" will be held during the meeting!
The lords of the Oshu domains can bring their martial arts masters to participate in the trial and study martial arts together!
……

……

Ou - a general term for "Mutsu" and "Dewa", refers to the northeastern region of Japan.

Mutsu had 30 domains, Dewa had 10 domains, and the total number of domains in the two places was 40.

The most powerful among them was the Sendai Domain of the Date family, which owned 62 koku of land. It was responsible for the reclamation of new farming areas such as the wetland areas in the Kitakami River basin, and it is said that this increased fiscal revenue by hundreds of thousands of koku.

Therefore, the actual koku of Sendai Domain exceeded one million koku, making it the well-deserved "strongest domain in Oshu".

His ancestor was the famous "One-eyed Dragon" Date Masamune from the Warring States Period.

Because he slid down and knelt before Tokugawa Ieyasu, Date Masamune was able to retain his territory to the greatest extent.

Date Masamune once left a bold statement: "I wish I were born twenty years earlier, so that I could achieve the same great achievements as Lord Nobunaga."

Of course, what he said was pure nonsense and bragging.

The military generals of the Warring States Period had no other skills, but they were all extremely good at bragging.

Not to mention being born twenty years earlier, even if he was born thirty years earlier, Date Masamune would not have been able to become the second Oda Nobunaga.

The reason is simple: Mutsu is too poor, so poor that it has no capital to compete for supremacy.

Regarding Austrian Badminton, people generally have prejudices such as "backward economy" and "rude folk customs" - in fact, this is not a prejudice.

Just by opening the map, you can find out the weaknesses of Ou.

The first time is because the latitude is northerly and the climate is cold.

Secondly, the terrain is rugged, with more mountains and less flat land.

Finally, it is far away from Japan’s core cultural circle (Gyeonggi Province). In the words of the people of Gyeonggi Province, it is "not influenced by the king's influence."

In the agricultural era, the weaknesses in these areas were fatal and directly determined the upper limit of Austrian Badminton's development.

In addition, Ou also has the problem of "late development time".

Once upon a time, Ou was the territory of the Ainu people, also known as the Ezo.

In order to compete for territory, the Japanese and Ainu people launched a long war that lasted for hundreds of years, with both sides fighting back and forth.

It was not until the "Oshu War" 800 years ago that the Yamato court finally relied on the technological advantages gained from China to completely defeat the Ainu people, drive them out of the Oshima Island of Honshu and drive them to Ezo (Hokkaido).

To sum up, even today, Oshu's economy and culture are very underdeveloped, and it is definitely an "underdeveloped region."

In the eyes of people in Gyeonggi Province, Kanto is a barbaric and smoky place, let alone Oshu, which is even more remote than Kanto.

It is true that Ou has various problems, but it is undeniable that its strategic position is very important!

Oshu is close to Kanto, and for the shogunate, it is a well-deserved rear base.

If the rear is unstable, there is no point in talking about "fighting against the Western vassal states."

In order to eliminate this trouble once and for all, Qing Deng decided to take this opportunity to go to Ou with the remaining momentum of "eliminating Mito" and completely stabilize the rear through a "meeting"!
As for the "Oyu Trial", it was a brilliant idea that Qingdeng came up with on a whim.

The so-called "trial combination" can be understood as a "competition".

They can't be in meetings 24 hours a day, there will always be free time.

It would be boring to just waste time when you have nothing to do.

It would be better to use this free time to test the military strength of Oshu through a "trial match", and let the Oshu clans intuitively feel the difference in strength between the two sides! Add bargaining chips to the "meeting"!
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PS: This book opens the "Northeast Map" for the first time.