The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 695: The Shogunate Begs for Peace
The ancient evil god that Zhang Zhen mentioned has not appeared yet. Everything is calm and there is no sign of doomsday.

Until the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.

When the military and civilians of Saga Castle were celebrating the 45th birthday of the retired emperor, Mount Fuji, located in the south-central part of Honshu Island, 160 miles east of Edo, and spanning Shizuoka and Yamanashi, suddenly erupted.

Thick smoke rose from the top of the mountain, and the mountain trembled slightly, like a woman in labor, as if something was about to break out of the ground.

The monks of the Sengen Shrine at the southern foot of the mountain disappeared, along with three Edo samurai who had climbed the mountain to worship.

Sengen Shrine has a history of a thousand years. It is said that it was built by the Tang Dynasty monk Jianzhen to suppress the evil spirit of Mount Fuji. It seems that it can no longer suppress it...

~~~
After the Manshou Festival, the retired emperor's palace was moved from Saga Castle to Moji Domain, which was separated from Honshu by only a shallow strait. On the other side of the strait was Ushiseki Castle, where the Treaty of Ushiseki was signed.

In the dead of winter in the fourth year of Guangde, the shadow of war began to hang over Honshu Island.

The waterways from Honshu to Shikoku, Kyushu and Hokkaido had been completely cut off by the Qi army. By early December, Tokugawa Iemitsu and the remaining daimyo of Honshu had actually become trapped.

In view of the fact that the landing might cause huge casualties among the soldiers, the emperor did not order an attack for a long time.

However, the bombing of the Japanese pirates never stopped.

Every three to five days, a hot air balloon would fly over the Kanmon Strait and over the Choshu Domain. From an altitude of over a thousand meters, it would bombard this domain, which was said to be the most powerful in Japan.

Hot air balloons dropped tens of thousands of pounds of leaflets, incendiary bombs, grenades, and corpses infected with the plague virus.

It was the dead of winter, the weather was dry, and the buildings in the Choshu clan's castle were mostly made of wood.

The fire caused by the explosion continued to burn, and countless Japanese were burned to death. The food stored in the city was burned, and many people were infected with the plague.

At this rate, the Choshu clan would collapse without a fight, even before the army landed.

Compared with the desperate Japanese pirates, the Qi army was obviously in a much better situation.

The army's logistical supplies are very sufficient and the epidemic prevention measures are perfect.

In the past six months, more than 800,000 people in Kyushu were slaughtered, and more than 100,000 were exiled to Fujian and Sakhalin. The imperial civil officials plundered millions of kilograms of grain from these dead and exiled Japanese, and all the farmland in Kyushu has now become horse breeding grounds for the cavalry of various armies...

The rebel general Zuo Liangyu and the pirate Zheng Sen were trapped on Shikoku Island and were in a very bad situation. They were unable to save themselves and were unable to assist Edo.

Zuo Liangyu began to take the initiative to contact the Qi army to discuss surrender. It is said that he held the imperial seal of the former Ming emperor in his hand, which he believed was an important bargaining chip for peace talks.

Even Zheng Sen, who had a grudge against the retired emperor for killing his father, wanted to surrender to the Great Qi.

Liu Zhaosun flipped through the peace proposals sent by Zuo Liangyu and Zheng Sen, and gained a deeper understanding of Wu Sangui's surrender to the Qing army in history.

Unfortunately, the emperor had no interest in peace talks.

Since the national policy of the Great Qi has been determined, it is highly likely that it will not occupy Japan for a long time in the future. Therefore, there is no point in leaving any survivors, and it may even hinder the emperor from becoming an immortal.

Therefore, whether it was Tokugawa Iemitsu or Zuo Liangyu, their fate was already determined when the retired emperor went on the eastern expedition.

On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the day of Manshou Festival, the Choshu clan was once again attacked by incendiary bombs from the Qi army.

The Shogun and the surviving daimyos were completely powerless to fight back against the Qi army's dimensionality reduction attack.

All the wise and capable emperors in history, from Emperor Taizong of Tang to Empress Wu Zetian, were unable to destroy Japan. At most, they could only make some moves on the Korean Peninsula and Japan. As for Kublai Khan, who conquered most of the world hundreds of years later, both of his two eastern expeditions failed.

The emperor is different from them.

The Yamato people, who claimed to be descendants of Amaterasu, experienced the fear of genocide for the first time in the face of the fierce offensive of the Qi army.

"Without desire, one is strong. I seek nothing, so there is nothing I cannot do."

Later, when the retired emperor was summarizing and reviewing the Eastern Expedition, he explained it to his subordinates in this way.

Da Qi does not need the population of Wa, nor the land of Wa, nor even the wealth of Wa, so it can be free to act and go further. ~~~~
On December 18th, the Shogun assessed the situation and announced to the world at Edo Castle that the shogunate surrendered.

The imperial edict was issued in the voice of the emperor.

The emperor of the eternal dynasty has long lost the real power in Japan, but as a mascot, he will still be carried out and used as a chamber pot at critical moments.

Although it was a letter of surrender, the words were full of rebelliousness.

It was precisely because of this edict that the retired emperor was enraged, leading to the complete destruction of Japan.

The palace of the retired emperor of Saga Castle.

The retired emperor sat on the throne, his eyes scanning the front. A group of Japanese envoys who had come from Edo were kneeling on the ground with their buttocks raised high.

"Read it, and I will hear how they propose to negotiate peace."

Dongfang Zhu quickly unfolded the Emperor's surrender edict and read aloud:

"In view of the current situation in Japan and the current state of the shogunate, I wish to take extraordinary measures to rectify the situation and save the people of the world from disaster..."

"Stop," the emperor rubbed his forehead.

"How dare a tiny country claim to rule the world?"

"It seems the Japanese are not used to submitting to the Great Qi. However, I don't need them to submit. Please continue reading."

Dongfang Zhu agreed:
"I hereby inform you, my subjects, that I have ordered the shogunate to inform Qi that we are willing to accept its terms of surrender, resume fulfilling our obligations under the Treaty of Niuguan, compensate Great Qi for its war losses, repay its overdue annual tribute, and dispatch the Crown Prince to Great Qi."

Such conditions were obviously not enough to impress the emperor, and he just sneered.

Dongfang Zhu continued reading, "To seek the health and well-being of the Japanese people, and to join hands with Ryukyu, Korea, and other countries to enjoy the joy of common prosperity, was the late emperor's earnest expectation of me, and it is also the goal I have persisted in pursuing over the years."

To seek the well-being of his subjects, he must plunder Great Qi? Joining forces with Ryukyu and Korea is even more absurd.

"When I interrupted the Treaty of Niuguan and declared war on Great Qi, it was actually to safeguard Japan's survival and stability. As for the subsequent ronin raids on coastal towns and the Satsuma Domain's annexation of the Ryukyu Islands, these were not my intentions in the first place. It was simply the reckless behavior of my subordinates..."

It turns out that the Japanese pirates have a long tradition of rebelling against their superiors.

"It is not my original intention to invade other countries' territories; it was not my original intention to be an enemy of Da Qi. After half a year of war, although the generals and soldiers of each vassal state are brave and good at fighting, the officials are diligent in governing the country, and the millions of people are selfless and dedicated to the public, each doing their best, the war situation has not improved. The people's support is also not in my favor. In addition, the enemy has recently used cruel incendiary bombs, which fall from the sky and cannot be avoided, killing innocent people frequently. The damage is unpredictable. If we continue to fight, it will not only lead to the demise of the Yamato clan, but will also cause additional casualties to the Da Qi army. In this case, how can I protect hundreds of millions of people and express my gratitude to the spirits of my ancestors..."

After reading this, Dongfang Zhu finally stopped, because the emperor's face turned ugly.

It’s not because there are too many flaws in this edict, but because the Tokugawa shogunate’s understanding of the situation was so outrageous that it really shocked the retired emperor.

After reading the whole article, there is no word of surrender, and there is no mention of Japan's century-long invasion of China.

The only meaning expressed is that in order to achieve prosperity together with other countries, Japan has paid a huge price, with heavy casualties in the army and homes destroyed and people dead everywhere.

Although the ceasefire now is not beneficial to Japan and the Emperor feels very aggrieved, they must do so for the sake of peace in future generations.

The Emperor sighed deeply and said leisurely:

"What a twisted nation! They should have surrendered properly, but they refused to lower their stance. This is the way to their death."

It is really eye-opening that the shogunate was surrounded by enemies on all sides and yet it was still able to draft such a ridiculous edict.

The retired emperor thought about it for a long time but couldn't understand why he should accept such a ceasefire decree.

Perhaps it was because the emperor was the only one in the imperial line and was high above everyone else that he dared to look down on the world and on Liu Zhaosun, the king of all kings.

"First, behead the Japanese envoy and use him as a sacrifice flag. Tokugawa Iemitsu doesn't understand me yet. Does he have the strength to fight me? Fifteen years ago, I gave him a chance, but he was useless. The Japanese feared my might but not my virtue. They ordered their army to land in Choshu and massacred the Choshu clan."

(End of this chapter)