The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 312 Hongye
The twelfth month of the first year of the Tianqi reign.

The third wave of envoys sent by Ping Liaohou to Edo for peace talks were again killed by the Shogun.

Ping Liaohou did not expect the shogunate to be so tough and determined to fight the Kaiyuan army to the end.

It seems that signing the Niuguan Treaty was not as easy as imagined.

The shogunate's toughness further strengthened the time travelers' determination to conquer.

The Japanese fear power but not virtue. The Korean soldiers killed tens of thousands of people in Kyushu, but it was not enough to make the island beasts surrender.

Then let's continue the killing.

On the second day of the twelfth lunar month, Ping Liaohou bid farewell to his beloved Jin Yuji and led the coalition forces from Kyushu to attack Honshu, officially starting his great cause of dominating East Asia.

The 60,000-strong army advanced by land and sea, rushing towards the Sekigahara area of Mino Province at night.

On land, Deng Changxiong led the Second Army of nearly 10,000 troops across the Kanmon Strait and launched a surprise attack on the Choshu clan.

Choshu Daimyo Mori Terumoto is sixty-seven years old this year, already in his twilight years.

Lord Mori had just returned to Choshu from Edo. In Edo, the Shogun believed the slander of that charming woman and insisted on having a decisive battle with the Kaihara army at Sekigahara.

Lord Mori was old and frail, unable to influence the shogunate's strategy, and dared not resist the Kaihara army.

When the Korean soldiers came to attack, Lord Mori was terrified. This old general, who was over 60 years old, remembered that he had led 3,000 troops to land in Busan and burned, killed and looted in Korea. Only then did he realize that a disaster was coming to Choshu.

"Run away, run away! Choshu samurai cannot be used as pawns by the shogunate."

When the Kaiyuan army crossed the sea, the lord of Choshu immediately led his retainers and warriors to flee eastward in panic.

On the second day of the twelfth lunar month, the Kaiyuan army occupied Nagato, Suo and other cities.

The Kaiyuan Army guarded the gates of each city and blocked the roads leading to the outside world from the Choshu domain.

The Korean soldiers killed indiscriminately according to the number of troops sent by Changzhou to Korea that year.

Almost all the males in Choshu who did not escape were killed by the Korean soldiers, and the moat was filled with beheaded corpses. Deng Changxiong estimated that the death toll was far more than 3,000.

Deng Changxiong summoned the Korean commander Jiang Shangshi and severely reprimanded the friendly general, warning the Koreans not to violate the orders of Ping Liaohou and kill indiscriminately.

~~~~
The Choshu Massacre spread to the various feudal domains in Kanto, shocking Kanto.

Deng Changxiong led his army to continue advancing eastward. The Aki clan was frightened by the killing of the Choshu clan and sent envoys to the Kaiyuan army camp overnight to negotiate peace.

The envoys repeatedly told the Kaiwon army that the Aki clan did not participate in the Korean war and did not send a single soldier to Busan.

"Ping Liaohou has promised that if the daimyo who did not send troops to invade Joseon during the Imjin War would surrender voluntarily, their lives would be spared and no further investigation would be conducted."

After receiving Deng Changxiong's guarantee, Aki Domain immediately announced its surrender.

In the Wanli War to Aid Korea, the Kanto daimyo were responsible for paying the money, while the various Kansai feudal clans sent troops.

The other daimyo of Choshu to the east basically did not participate in the Korean War, and these vassal states were also preserved.

With Aki Domain as an example, daimyos in places such as Bitchu and Izumo surrendered one after another.

On the seventh day of the first lunar month, the Kaihara army approached Tamba, and was only a hundred miles away from Mino Sekigahara. The various feudal lords along the way fled eastward and joined the shogunate army.

When Deng Changxiong was advancing rapidly on Honshu Island, Liu Zhaosun and Wu Aheng led the Kaiyuan navy to land on Yuanjiang by sea and head straight for Sanyuan.

On the fifth day of the twelfth lunar month, the vanguard of the First Army suddenly attacked Sanhe.

Mikawa daimyo Okazaki Honda led his samurai in a fierce battle. Under the saturation attack of the Kaihara army's field artillery and rockets, the Mikawa samurai were quickly wiped out, and Lord Okazaki committed suicide by seppuku.

The Echigo, Dewa, Ueno, Kaga and other domains responded to the call of the shogunate and gathered on the Mino Plain.

On the sixth day, Ping Liaohou ordered the entire army to stop pursuing and station in Sanhe.

The foreign fleet that Tokugawa Hidetada had been waiting for did not immediately join the shogunate army after the war broke out.

Seeing the situation take a sharp turn for the worse, these shrewd European businessmen declared neutrality.

Getting involved in the war between the two Eastern armies early is obviously a losing business.

So they sold firearms and ammunition to both sides of the war at the port of Nagasaki, and even provided all kinds of supplies to the ships of both sides. Every merchant ship made a lot of money.

In the 1620s, there were numerous merchant ships from Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain trading in Japan, totaling over a thousand.

Most of these merchant ships were soft-sailed clippers, equipped with cannons firing twelve-jin shells. Both their performance and firepower surpassed those of contemporary Japanese red seal ships. By hoisting a black skull flag, they could cosplay as Pirates of the Caribbean ships.

Liu Zhaosun was quite wary of such a maritime force.

If the merchant ships of the four countries make up their minds to cut off the retreat of the Kaiyuan army at all costs, Ping Liaohou and his 60,000 troops will be killed on Honshu Island.

Fortunately, the four countries were scheming against each other and were not united at all. They came all the way from Europe just for money and had no need to fight with the Kaiyuan army.

Before setting out from Hizen Domain, Ping Liaohou ordered Li Dan and the Portuguese to abandon the siege of Kyushu. The main fleet immediately joined the Kaiyuan Navy and headed to the waters of Honshu to ensure the absolute safety of the Bungo Channel and the surrounding areas of Totomi.

Li Dan was born a pirate and had a keen battlefield intuition. After receiving the order from Ping Liaohou, he immediately led a group of pirates to evacuate Ryukyu and head to the waters of Honshu.

After making military preparations, Ping Liaohou sent a message to the merchant caravans of the Netherlands, Britain, France, Spain and other countries through the Portuguese merchant Roman, guaranteeing that after defeating the shogunate, the interests of various countries in Japan would not be harmed.

Ping Liaohou's concessions did not win the understanding and support of merchant caravans from various countries.

These four colonial pioneers had never had any contact with the Kaiyuan Army before, so they did not understand this goodwill clearly. They just thought it was a sign of weakness from the Eastern barbarians, so they began to gather in Honshu from all directions, ready to launch a tentative attack on the Kaiyuan Army.

And this will make them pay a heavy price.

On the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, in the castle town of Mikawa Domain.

There were sparse snowflakes floating in the sky, and this small coastal town on Honshu was completely devoid of the tranquility of winter.

The First and Fourth Guards Armies were stationed in this city, making final preparations for the decisive battle two days later.

The flags of the Sanhe clan covered the sky, and their weapons and armor were like clouds.

Teams of cavalry marched across the muddy road, whizzing past the artillery. The cavalry were heading to the northern suburbs of Sanhe, ten miles away, for defense.

The vanguard of the shogunate army was approaching the northern part of Mikawa. The cavalry battalion sent out Yabushou to fight, and several fierce scouting battles broke out between the two sides in the deserted villages in the north.

The artillerymen commanded auxiliary troops and civilians to push the heavy field guns and move forward with difficulty in the mud.

A carriage carrying red cannons got stuck in a mud pit. The packhorses raised their hooves and screamed, trying desperately to pull forward.

A short and strong Mongolian herdsman waved the whip vigorously, whipped the horse's belly, and scolded it in Mongolian, asking the packhorse to try harder.

The packhorse struggled a few times and then fell to its knees in the mud.

When the Mongols were about to whip the enemy, they were stopped by a Kaiyuan official in front of them.

"enough!"

Sun Chuanting shouted, and the Mongolian herdsman quickly put away his whip and stood at a loss by the mud pit.

Sun Chuanting summoned the guards and looked around. A hundred steps away, a high platform was erected. Someone was performing on it. Below, a sea of soldiers from the Fourth Army sat, with some Korean soldiers also sitting outside. "What are the instructors doing?"

He muttered something under his breath and ordered the guards:
"Go, call some North Koreans to help."

The guard took the order and left, and soon called over a dozen Korean soldiers who were watching the fun.

Everyone shouted slogans and worked together to push the carriage. The pack horses summoned up their remaining courage and lashed out with their front hooves, and the wheels were finally pulled out of the mud pit.

"Maybe this lord has a solution. Are you also a Mongolian?"

The Mongolian driver flattered Sun Chuanting cautiously, but he glanced at him and waved him off.

Sun Chuanting asked the guards to call Wei Feide, the commander of the engineering battalion, and asked him why the road had not been repaired yet. The war was imminent, and what would happen if the transportation of food, fodder and weapons was delayed.

Wei Feide was so anxious that he kept wiping his sweat and hurriedly explained to his old superior that the Japanese had fortified their defenses and cleared the countryside, and when they fled, they had dug up the road and opened up the river, flooding part of the road.

Sun Chuanting ordered Captain Wei to restore traffic immediately, and if there were not enough people, he should recruit Koreans.

At this time, the roars of the soldiers came from behind. Looking over there, I vaguely saw a few figures swaying on the stage, but they were not very clear.

Sun Chuanting had just arrived from Jiuzhou and felt very unfamiliar with this scene.

"Sir Sun, that's the play 'Looking at the Sea.' They perform wherever the main camp is set up. Today it's our Fourth Army's turn."

Wei Feide hastened to explain that Sun Chuanting, the chief logistics officer for Kaiyuan, was not in the mood to listen to Wang Hai.

He took two guards with him and walked straight towards the central military tent of Ping Liaohou.

"The instructor has been busy with this these days. When did the Kaiyuan Army start performing opera? It's really ridiculous."

As he passed the stage, Sun Chuanting shook his head and frowned, only to hear someone on the stage shouting:

"Hahahaha, I'm Tokugawa Hidetada, the second Shogun. All of Japan belongs to me! I killed my father, Tokugawa Ieyasu, exiled my brother, Tokugawa Shinichi, and took possession of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's wife, all in order to concentrate my forces and attack the Ming Dynasty."

Sun Chuanting was attracted by the unpleasant duck voice and thought of the scene when he encountered a eunuch seeking a job at Zuoanmen in the capital.

"I'm going to steal your rice, your gold and silver, your fields, and your women. I heard that Minguo women are tall, even taller than the giants in Edo (the Japanese call tall people giants). Hahaha, they can be taken to my palace and sleep with me..."

The stage was decorated with Japanese tatami mats. A Japanese general, less than three feet tall, the size of a pumpkin, with pockmarks all over his face, was riding an equally short Guoxia horse (Note 1) and jumping around.

The Shogun brandished his Japanese sword and screamed in a strange voice.

Two equally short Japanese warriors followed beside him, proudly dragging Japanese swords that were longer than themselves.

At this time, a samurai handed over a note. "Tokugawa Hidetada" read it and laughed:

"What? A group of Chinese refugees have arrived from Kaga. Fine, I'll kill them all first! Then I'll attack Liaodong."

There were more than a dozen rows of soldiers sitting neatly in the audience, all staring with wide eyes at the "monster" who was riding a pony and was coming to seize Liaodong.

The commanders of each camp and the pacification soldiers stood around the soldiers. They were not in the mood to pay attention to Tokugawa Hidetada's ambitions, but just stared at the soldiers around them nervously.

Under the tense gaze of the soldiers, the curtain slowly fell.

The cheerful sound of suona rang out, and the stage scene switched to a beautiful seaside.

A young man and woman dressed in Hanfu costumes were fishing. A clear and pleasant female voice rang out on the stage:

The fish are fat in the blue water
The tide rises and falls
Brother brings sister to catch seafood

hey hey hey hey hey hey
I picked up a conch and blew the trumpet

The waves come and combine to form a song
The brother comes to chase crabs and the sister comes to pick snails
I was bitten by a crab accidentally.

Screaming loudly in pain
Ouch
·····
Suddenly, the suona stopped playing, and a group of Japanese warriors appeared on the beach and rushed straight towards the Han woman. The young man hurried forward to stop them, saying angrily:

"Who are you?"

The samurai cursed, "I am a servant of the Shogun. Hurry up and leave the silver and the woman behind. I will spare your life!"

The young man stopped the Japanese pirates and told his companions to go ahead.

"Sissi, go!"

The Japanese pirate stabbed the young man to death with a knife, and chased the Han woman running in front with a lewd smile.

Tokugawa Hidetada stepped onto the beach and laughed heartily at the young man's body lying on the ground:
"Hahaha, all the silver and women are mine. After I kill all of you Han people, I will attack Korea and Liaodong!"

There was silence all around.

Suddenly, two soldiers in the front row rushed onto the stage, swung their sandbag-like fists and attacked the short general.

The two pacification soldiers on the stage immediately pushed the combat soldiers away, and two more combat soldiers rushed up from behind, blocking the escape route of "Tokugawa Hidetada", and the fight started again without any explanation.

The soldiers who rushed up from behind couldn't find the shogun, so they held down a Japanese samurai and started beating him up.

A group of captains rushed forward with whips and beat the soldiers. Screams and curses rang out on the stage, and the scene was extremely chaotic.

~~~~~~
Sun Chuanting was stunned. Two guards stood in front of him, fearing that he would be affected.

Sen Ti, who was maintaining order, saw Sun Chuanting and came over with a smile:
"Master Sun is here to watch the show too? This 'Looking at the Sea' is pretty good, right? The script was personally selected by the Marquis of Ping Liao..."

Sun Chuanting was busy transporting military supplies, and today was the first time he watched the play "Wang Hai".

The fight was still going on on the stage, and he forced a smile:

"Instructor Mori, your acting is excellent, but why is this Japanese shogun so ugly?"

Sen Ti pulled Sun Chuanting aside and whispered:
"Lord Sun, this is how pirates behave. Ping Liaohou said that if you want to defeat the enemy through public opinion, you must first dehumanize them. In other words, you can't treat them as human beings. Ping Liaohou also said that the way to maintain combat effectiveness is to instill hatred, and to instill hatred non-stop..."

Sen Ti had been with Ping Liao Hou for a long time, and he could always come up with all kinds of new terms from his mouth, and Sun Chuanting was no longer surprised.

He was too lazy to talk nonsense with the Dongguan guy, as he had something important to discuss with Ping Liaohou today.

Sen Ti glanced towards the stage. At this time, the performance order had been restored, and the soldiers who beat the actors were being beaten with military sticks.

"Master Sun, I won't say any more. I have to go and spread the word."

After saying that, he said goodbye in a hurry, took small steps, and ran to the front of the stage in two steps. Then, with a whoosh, he jumped onto the platform.

Several instructors gathered around Chief Instructor Sen and cheered to the soldiers below the stage.

"Kill the Japanese pirates, kill Tokugawa Hidetada! Defend our homeland!"

The soldiers were very excited, and thousands of them stood up, raised their hands and shouted slogans.

"Kill the Japanese pirates, kill Tokugawa Hidetada, and defend our homeland!"

Sun Chuanting looked at the enthusiastic crowd on and off the stage, said nothing, turned and walked towards the central military tent.

Note:
1. The Guoxia Horse is a rare horse. Due to its short stature, it can be ridden under fruit trees, hence the name "Guoxia Horse". Guoxia Horses come from Longshui in Deqing, and "can be ridden under fruit trees"; "They are occasionally bred among stallions, and are rare, so they are very expensive."

(End of this chapter)