The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 307 Kyushu Revelation

On November 15th of the first year of the Tianqi reign, at Chisu Castle in Hizen Domain, Kyushu Island.

The wildfire on Mount Aso gradually died down. Thousands of Jianzhou Mongols climbed up the ridge using their hands and feet. After reaching the mountainside, they swung axes and knives to cut down the unburned tree trunks, and the wood was transported down the mountain.

Craftsmen and auxiliary troops gathered at the foot of the mountain, set up camp, and worked overtime day and night to manufacture shield carts, ladders and other equipment needed for the siege.

The soldiers, wearing armor, stared at the small town two miles away that blocked the army's way, with an expression of tension and excitement on their faces.

The large banner of Ping Liaohou's central army fluttered in the wind in the open space between Mount Aso and Qiansu Castle.

This was the first time that Liu Zhaosun had personally commanded a battle on the front line since the Eastern Expedition.

Over the past two hours, Deng Changxiong had commanded the siege. The Korean soldiers who had already reached the city walls were twice repelled by the Hizen samurai under the sharp fire of their muskets. Fortunately, the casualties were light, only about 800 people.

After witnessing the battle, Ping Liaohou promptly stopped the ant-assisted siege and ordered the auxiliary soldiers to build shield carts and ladders. Before the siege equipment was completed, the Korean soldiers were not allowed to attack the city at will.

Although the city before them was small, an attack would still require a powerful force and thorough preparation. Unfortunately, the Hizen Domain was not prepared at all.

The feudal lord, Tadamichi Nabeshima, rushed into battle, leaving a large amount of food and fodder outside the city walls, and his plan of fortifying the city and clearing the countryside was not fully implemented. At least, the forests where the Kaihara army had been building siege equipment had not been completely burned.

The Mino Guards roared across the valley, killing the Japanese ninjas who were lurking in the dense forest and setting fire one by one.

These Kyushu ninjas who participated in the arson had no power to fight back against the well-equipped and powerful Kaiyuan elites.

The entire pursuit process, in Shen Lian's words, was as simple as catching a rabbit in the bushes.

The ladders and shield carts were quickly built. As the drums of the central army sounded, the commanders and flag officers of each battalion led the troops in front, and the brutal siege began again.

Liu Zhaosun ordered the withdrawal of all the artillery besieging the three gates in the east, south and west, and replaced them with bows and arrows for harassment. At the same time, he concentrated all the artillery and the Divine Fire Flying Crows to bombard the north gate.

Three hundred cannons of various types were concentrated in front of the narrow moat. The cannons roared, accompanied by the sharp whistling of rockets, and the top of the city was engulfed in a sea of fire.

The half-hour artillery preparations began, the rumbling of cannons shattering the tranquility of this small Kyushu city. Amid the roar of the red-haired cannons, twelve-pound iron balls streaked through the air, smashing into the low main city gates.

Bricks and wood chips flew everywhere on the top of Qiancangsu City. The warriors dropped their Japanese swords and ran around like headless flies. Many people were hit by the flying wood chips and were dragged away by their companions with their bloody bodies as they hurriedly retreated to the city wall.

Ping Liaohou looked at the thundering artillery attack in front of him with a satisfied smile on his face.

Half an hour later, Ping Liaohou summoned Qiao Yiqi and Zheng Yi Guan (Zheng Zhilong) into his tent to discuss matters.

Also called in was the commander of the Guards, Deng Changxiong.

Liu Zhaosun motioned for everyone to sit down and pointed to the two human heads placed on the table.

"The city's defenders refused to surrender and even killed my messenger. Two Korean heroes lost their lives as a result. How despicable!"

Shen Lian added, "Other Kyushu fiefdoms, such as Chikuzen and Higo, are watching and awaiting the final outcome of this battle. We cannot lose this time."

Liu Zhaosun looked at Shen Lian: "Of course we can't lose."

He turned his gaze to Zheng Yi Guan.

This famous pirate in the late Ming Dynasty is still an accountant under Li Dan.

Zheng Yi Guan was a well-mannered man with a handsome face. If you didn't know him, you would think he was a servant of some lord.

It is difficult to connect this young servant with the great pirate Zheng Zhilong who roamed the southeast twenty years later.

Li Dan led pirates from various countries south to attack the Ryukyu Islands.

Before leaving, Ping Liao Hou asked him to send Zheng Zhilong to help him settle his accounts. Li Dan was quite fond of Zheng Zhilong, and considering the cooperation of Kaiyuan Army, he sent the accountant to Ping Liao Hou.

Liu Zhaosun hoped to use Zheng Zhilong to learn more about the current situation of each vassal state.

Zheng Zhilong grew up on a ship and followed his relatives and friends to trade everywhere. At the age of thirteen, he was able to go to sea alone and trade with foreign merchants in Nagasaki, Japan.

"What is the origin of the Hizen clan, and why are they so stubborn? Not only did they kill the messenger I sent, but they also said they would lead the samurai in the city to fight to the death for the shogunate."

Ping Liaohou looked at Qiansu City, which had been reduced to rubble, in the distance, and his expression kept changing.

"Hirohiro-kun, you don't know that the lord of Hizen Domain was originally a close confidant of Tokugawa, a spy planted by the shogunate in Kyushu. He was very unpopular among the various domains in Kyushu, and the shogunate regarded him as a confidant."

In the Battle of Sekigahara, Hizen was the first western army to side with Tokugawa, and played an important role in Tokugawa Ieyasu's annexation of the Toyotomi clan.

"Since he's determined to fight for the shogunate, let's grant his wish. Let the Korean soldiers begin the assault! Tell the commanding generals that if they can't capture the city within half an hour, all officers above the rank of captain will be beheaded!"

At the command of Ping Liaohou, the combat order was passed down layer by layer. A moment later, teams of Korean soldiers pushed shield carts and ladders and advanced in orderly steps.

A shallow moat was quickly filled up by the Kaiyuan army, and the horses and caltrops were also cleared away by the auxiliary troops.

The Red Cannon and the Divine Fire Flying Crow continued to bombard the city walls to cover the Korean soldiers in front of them as they climbed the city walls.

~~~~~
"Marquis Ping Liao, during the Imjin War, all the daimyo sent their troops here."

Zheng Zhilong, with a tall and handsome figure, walked up to Ping Liaohou.

Under Wu Xiao's surveillance, Zheng Zhilong carefully spread out the map of the situation in Japan.

I'm afraid that the real intention will be revealed in the next second.

Wu Xiao breathed a sigh of relief. These days, more and more ninjas were sent to assassinate Ping Liaohou, causing the central army guards to be restless.

Zheng Zhilong knew all the densely packed place names on the map like the back of his hand.

"When Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea, each of the feudal domains sent troops: 600 from Kyushu, 500 from Kishu, 400 from Kinai, 300 from Suruga, Totomi, Mikawa, and Izu, and 400 from Owari, Mino, Ise, and Omi to the east..."

"Okay, stop reading." Liu Zhaosun interrupted the pirate accountant: "Let's go by this list and start with the Hizen Domain. How many troops did the Hizen Domain send that year?"

"Six hundred samurai, one thousand ashigaru, a total of one thousand six hundred people."

Everyone looked at Ping Liaohou:
"After the city is captured, kill 1,600 people first to express our gratitude for the soldiers and civilians who died that year. Kill all men except women and children! Until you have collected 1,600 heads."

Qiao Yiqi couldn't help but shudder.

Everyone knew that in this small town before them, apart from the Japanese warriors who were defending the city, it was still a question whether there were even two thousand civilians in the city.

If 1,600 people were really killed, it would basically be equivalent to a massacre of the entire city.

Deng Changxiong hesitated for a moment and then quickly accepted the order.

Liu Zhaosun's expression remained unchanged. He stopped Deng Changxiong who was about to leave and added:
"Commander Deng, don't let the combat soldiers do it, arrange for the Korean soldiers to do it."

During the Imjin War, the Japanese pirates burned and looted wherever they went, committing all kinds of atrocities. In Jinju alone, 1 soldiers and civilians were massacred (Note ), even infants and the elderly were not spared. Liu Zhaosun's adoptive father witnessed it with his own eyes in Korea that the people who participated in the Jinju massacre were these Hizen samurai.

"I want to help the Japanese now, to help them regain their humanity. Only by repaying grievances with grievances can we awaken them. You must remember, only by killing more people will they have a fear of you."

Many people in the big tent had participated in the Wanli aid to Korea campaign, and the brutality of the Japanese pirates was not a distant thing for them.

However, Ping Liaohou's theory of "killing people to save people" is still shocking.

Liu Zhaosun was just about to tell his subordinates the absurd story of how the United States dropped mushroom eggs to kill hundreds of thousands of Japanese, and decades later Japan was still grateful for it, when thunderous cheers of victory came from outside the tent.

When everyone walked out of the tent, they saw from afar that the Koreans had already jumped onto Qiansu City and were hacking and killing the samurai and foot soldiers who were fleeing in panic.

This time, a large number of Korean soldiers accompanied the landing in Japan, with a total strength of more than 10,000.

The Kaiyuan army prepared sophisticated siege equipment for the Koreans and provided support from behind. This weak army suddenly burst out with fighting power.

The Koreans fought from Tsushima Island to Iki Island, and then to the cities of Hizen, and their morale was high as they fought with the wind in their hands.

These Korean soldiers from Busan, Incheon, Seoul and other places, most of their fathers had personally experienced the Imjin War, and many of their parents were killed by the Japanese pirates. Now that they met their enemies, they were particularly jealous. They did not need any mobilization from the instructors, and their morale was all at its peak.

Qiansu City was quickly captured.

Half an hour later, the head of Hizen Domain lord Tadamichi Nabeshima was hung on the city wall for public display.

Sixteen hundred Japanese prisoners were pushed to the front of the city wall and made to kneel.

Amid the strange screams of the Koreans, 1,600 people were beheaded.

Sixteen hundred human heads were tied with bowstrings and hemp ropes and hung on the low walls of Chiusu Castle, swaying in the wind like wildly growing water hyacinths in the castle town.

After nightfall, the mouths and noses of the heads collided with each other, making giggling sounds.

~~~~~
At the end of November, the Kaiyuan troops swept across Hizen and Chikuzen domains, and attacked eastward all the way to the Strait of Shimonoseki.

The Kaiyuan Navy joined forces with the Portuguese fleet to blockade the Bungo Channel and repel reinforcements from the Iyo and Tosa fleets on Shikoku Island.

At the same time, Li Dan led more than 30,000 pirates to land in Kagoshima and fought with the Shimazu clan of Satsuma Domain. The two sides were familiar with each other and knew each other well, so there was no clear winner.

At this point, the three groups of troops completed the encirclement of Kyushu Island.

On November 20th, Ping Liaohou's central army camp moved to Moji Port in Buzen Domain.

Moji Port is located adjacent to the Shimonoseki Strait, which lies between Shimonoseki City in Yamaguchi Prefecture, at the western tip of Honshu, and the northern tip of Kyushu.

The Shimonoseki Strait is the western gateway to the Seto Inland Sea and has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times.

More than two hundred years later, the famous Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on the Chunfan Tower opposite.

The Qing Dynasty ceded the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan Island and its affiliated islands, and the Penghu Islands to Japan, paid Japan 2 million taels of silver in compensation, and opened many trading ports.

However, due to Liu Zhaosun's time travel, history has undergone many changes.

Many historical events that should have happened are still happening today, such as the Treaty of Shimonoseki.

Just the content is slightly different.

On November 25, Yamanouchi Masatoyo, the lord of Tosa Domain on Shikoku Island, saw the Treaty of Shimonoseki on the captives who escaped from Kyushu Island. It was said that this was the condition proposed by Ping Liaohou for peace talks.

According to research and analysis by later historians, this document is the original text of the treaty.

This is quite different from the Treaty of Shimonoseki which was formally signed by both parties in Shimonoseki a year later.

"The Shimazu clan must withdraw all its troops stationed on the Ryukyu Islands and recognize the Ryukyu Islands as a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty;
Japan must pay Ming 30 million taels of silver as compensation for military expenses;

Japan must return Tsushima Island, Iki Island, and Hizen Islands to Ming Dynasty;

Japan must open seven treaty ports to the Ming Dynasty, including Nagasaki, Edo, Izu, Kagoshima, Nara, and Kyoto;

Japan must execute the daimyo of Kaga, Osaka, and Tsushima, and send their heads to the Ming capital;

Except for Ming Dynasty and Portugal, all other countries are prohibited from trading with Japan;

The shogun's son was sent to the capital as a hostage, and the shogun's daughter was married to a Ming prince as a concubine.
……

Note:
1. Ming History Biographies No.

(End of this chapter)