Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 445: Lingchi execution, this is the fate of all those who rebel against their superiors!

Yang Yiqing stood up and bowed his head and said:

"Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, the biggest reason why the imperial power of our country has gradually declined is that we are no longer able to punish foreigners who violate the etiquette like we did at the beginning of the country. This has led foreigners to think that violating the etiquette is no big deal, and in turn has caused our people to despise the etiquette and laws and disrupt the moral principles!"

"Therefore, the rebellion of the Ouchi clan should be stopped, and the rebellious retainers should be punished directly by the imperial court!"

"Xu Jie's choice was not wrong!"

"In addition, if this kind of behavior of rebelling against superiors is tolerated, even if it happens in foreign countries, the people in their own country will become even more rude and barbaric in the future, and they will also become rude and barbaric to the people of our superior country!"

"This is naturally not conducive to peace and prosperity for the whole world, nor is it conducive to the long-term stability of the country!"

Zhu Houcong nodded.

Then, Zhu Houcong asked again: "Does anyone have a different opinion?"

Zhang Cong stood up and said, "Your Majesty is the ruler of the world. You should strictly maintain the order of superiors and subordinates and severely punish the traitors who offend you! However, once you do this, you have to calculate the consumption of money and grain."

"The imperial Ming Dynasty has little money and grain left in the direct-controlled areas, and they have to be used to promote farming, promote education, and support officers and soldiers. Therefore, if we really need to intervene to stop such sudden rebellions, we should also have some regulations on money and grain. For example, the rebels who caused the incident should not only be punished by the imperial court, but their property should also be confiscated by the government, and a portion of it should be reserved for the direct-controlled areas to spend. This will also encourage the officers and soldiers stationed in the direct-controlled areas to actively maintain the order of ethics and morality."

Zhu Houcong smiled and nodded.

He knew that if he did so, the officers and soldiers sent by the Ming Dynasty to Japan would actively instigate internal strife among the Japanese in order to make money.

But Zhu Houcong naturally hoped that Japan would continue to be divided and infighting.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong also accepted Zhang Cong's opinion.

It is said that the daimyo of Aki Province, Amago Nobunaga, had already received the first batch of bird guns and sub-guns sold to him by the Ming Dynasty on April 20th of the seventh year of Jiajing.

Amago Nobunaga collectively called these teppo.

After seeing with his own eyes the Ming army under Xu Jie test-firing these firearms in front of him, and seeing these firearms pierce armored pork ribs seventy steps away, Nizi Nagakuni was quite excited and said to Xu Jie, who was personally supervising this first arms trade with Japan:
"The power of the upper country's iron cannon is really amazing!"

"But you must remember your promise to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Without my permission, you cannot use this cannon externally. You can only use it for internal defense!"

Xu Jie gave Nizi Jingjiu very serious instructions.

He had also learned a lot about Japan. Moreover, stories like his of a group of heroes dominating the world were common in Chinese history.

Therefore, Xu Jie was naturally very worried that Nizi Jingjiu would be tempted to fight for hegemony.

Niko did not dare to offend the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and just smiled and said: "Of course, without the permission of the superior country, Anyi will not provoke a war without authorization! Even if I want to start a war, I will take the initiative to ask you for permission."

"That's good!"

Xu Jie nodded accordingly.

At this time, Amago Nobunaga said, "But I heard that the Ouchi clan is now in rebellion. The retainers such as Sue Harukata are dissatisfied with the head of the family who is obsessed with civil governance, and they have raised an army to depose the head of the family. For such a rebellious act, the upper country must stop and punish it?"

Xu Jie smiled and said, "The guards are quite knowledgeable."

"Please give us in Aki a chance to serve His Majesty the Emperor!"

At this time, Nizi Nagahisa bowed deeply to Xu Jie.

Xu Jie helped Nizi Nobunaga up and asked, "I am willing to believe in the loyalty of the guardian, but I have deep doubts about whether your retainers are loyal enough to our Emperor Ming. So, I want to know, how can you guarantee that you can convince your retainers to accept the call of the emperor and go to war against the Ouchi clan?"

"We just need Ming to allow us to take back the counties in Aki Province that were occupied by the Ouchi clan."

Nizi replied after a long time.

Xu Jie nodded in agreement: "Then I promise you that the land that was seized should be returned to its original owner!"

Nizi Nagakuni was very happy and said that he had sent a generous gift to Xu Jie's residence in Aki Province.

Xu Jie gladly accepted this. Then, Xu Jie led the army composed of Japanese samurai in Zhitong District and the army of Amago Nobunaga as the main force to the territory of the Ouchi clan to conquer Tao Qingxian who started the rebellion.

Of course, Xu Jie's central army was still composed of Ming troops stationed in Riyue.

In addition to assuming the responsibilities of the central army, these Ming troops will also assume the responsibilities of supervising the army.

Zhu Houcong named the army composed of Japanese local servants the Zhixie Army, which meant to assist the officials in the areas directly under the control of the Ming Dynasty in maintaining order in Japan.

There were already great conflicts between the Japanese local samurai of the Zhike Army and the original daimyo, because these daimyo exploited them heavily in order to strengthen their own military strength.

Therefore, when Xu Jie asked the local samurai in the Iwami Naoto area to march against the Ouchi clan, they responded very positively.

When Tao Qingxian led his troops to besiege Ouchi Yoshitaka, the head of the Ouchi family who fled to Hosenji Temple, the Naokazu army and the army of Amago Nobunaga arrived and first captured Yamaguchi Castle near Hosenji Temple, and then counter-encircled Tao Qingxian's rebel army, causing Tao Qingxian's rebel army to be defeated before they could capture Hosenji Temple.

Tao Qingxian and the general Naito Nobumori who launched the rebellion with him were very angry about this.

"Extremely abominable!"

"Our Japanese affairs have nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty!"

"We deposed the incompetent ruler who didn't want to make progress. What does it have to do with them?"

Tao Qingxian's face turned pale and he started cursing.

Naito Nobumori was also extremely angry: "We sent troops to Anyi, but they stopped us. Now they are also stopping us from changing the head of the family. Why do they like to meddle in other people's business so much?"

"what!"

Tao Qingxian roared angrily and slashed around with the knife in both hands like a madman.

Then, when the Hanized Japanese general Li Donghai in the Zhixie Army came to Tao Qingxian and other rebellious military officials with a knife and a large number of firearms, Tao Qingxian even took the initiative to shout at Li Donghai who was speaking Japanese: "Who are you? Why are you wearing a knife?"

"I was originally a ground attendant, but now I am the commander of the Zhixie Army!"

Li Donghae replied calmly.

Tao Qingxian became even more angry after hearing this, and said with a gloomy face: "So you are just a country servant. You are only fit to discipline foot soldiers in the countryside, not to talk to me here."

"Before the Ming army came, I was not worthy, but now that the Ming army has come, if I am still not worthy, then wouldn't the Ming army have come in vain?"

Li Donghae said this with a smile and waved his hand. The officers and soldiers of the Zhixie Army behind him rushed towards the samurai around Tao Qingxian and Naito Xingsheng.

Before long, all their warriors were killed in the battle, including Naito Okisho, and Tao Qingxian was captured alive because of his injuries.

"You Japanese traitors!"

"You are shameless! How dare you betray the nobles!"

But Tao Qingxian still refused to behave himself after being captured alive, and started to curse Li Donghae and others.

The samurai he mentioned naturally refers to the samurai class.

Li Donghai slapped Tao Qingxian's mouth with his scabbard and said, "We are not Japanese traitors. We are using a more correct way to rescue the Japanese!"

"You no longer loyal nobles are the Japanese traitors! You are the culprits that have caused the years of war here! It was you who first committed treason, forcing the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the ruler of the world, to increase intervention to prevent more people from dying tragically!"

Tao Qingxian, with blood all over his mouth, opened his eyes wide in surprise after Li Donghai said this. He did not expect that these Japanese who worked for the Ming Dynasty were now so good at arguing.

Tao Qingxian also met Xu Jie soon after.

Tao Qingxian naturally had no good impression of this Ming official who prevented his Ouchi clan from invading the Amago clan and prevented him from "overthrowing his superiors with the inferiors". As soon as he saw Xu Jie, he turned his head away.

Xu Jie did not say much to Tao Qingxian, but only ordered:
"Those who offended the superiors will be executed by slow slicing! Their heads will be passed to the various guardians and guardian generations. All those who offended the superiors will suffer the same fate!"

(End of this chapter)