The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 551 Shimazu: It’s just like being a dog, who wouldn’t do that?
In Kagoshima, Tsurumaru Castle, the eighth lord of Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Shigehiro, received an urgent message from Shuri Castle. He was trembling all over, perhaps out of anger or fear.

"The Tang Kou are here, the Tang Kou are here after all, they are here as expected!"

After a long silence, Shimazu Shigehiro suddenly shouted and stood up, which scared a group of clan elders, servants, band leaders, and the outermost Ma Hui, led by Kabayama Hisayoshi.

Because they had never seen Shimazu Shigehiro lose his composure like this, and of course no one had the mind to pay attention to it.

The people in the house could be said to be the top class in the domain. Although the Satsuma domain was poor, it had such a large family business that guaranteed their wealthy life.

If they lost the Satsuma Domain, they would become wanderers who had lost their homes and could only work as dogs for merchants. That would be miserable.

The important thing is that no one doubts the ability of the Tang people now. Think about the horrific bomb that collapsed the wall of the Zoshikan and killed the lord's direct subordinate, Suzuki Fujiken.

If the Tang emperor really wanted to destroy the Satsuma clan, he would definitely be able to do it.

"How could they do this? Satsuma has occupied Ryukyu for a hundred years.

During this period, neither the Ming nor the Qing Dynasty came to investigate, and we did not harm the interests of the Tang people. Why did the Dayu take away the Ryukyu that belongs to us? "

Shimazu Hisashi, the cousin of Shimazu Shigehiro and the head of the Kajiki family, wailed in a somewhat broken manner.

Because he knew very well that the Shimazu family had a land area of 900,000 koku, but this included the Ryukyu land area of about 140,000 koku.

Even the remaining 770,000 stones were overestimated intentionally or unintentionally.

At least for now, the gold and silver mines in Satsuma Domain are limited by mining capacity and cannot reach the high valuation.

"The domain was already deeply in debt, and last year it was able to borrow money from wealthy merchants in Osaka to maintain its operations, using Ryukyu's commercial taxes as collateral.

We had hoped to collect more commercial taxes this year by taking advantage of Dayu's decision to allow Western white ghosts to pass through Malacca, but now that Ryukyu is gone, how can we continue to hold on?

At this time, the debt of 5 million taels of silver owed by the future Satsuma Domain, which was terrifying in Japan, had accumulated to 3 million taels.

Well, it doesn't seem like much. In history, Heshen embezzled more than this in a year. At this time, Emperor Kongmo's Fuxing Company had an annual profit of more than several billion.

But Japan cannot compare with China in size, and the Satsuma Domain did not owe three million taels of silver, but three million taels of usury.

The interest on these high-interest loans alone was nearly 300,000 taels of silver per year, and with the compound interest, it was a bottomless pit for the Satsuma domain.

"No, this isn't Satsuma's business, it's the world's business. Your Majesty is a pillar of the military family and has the responsibility to protect the Land of the Rising Sun. I'm going to Edo to explain the pros and cons to Your Majesty!"

Shimazu Shigehiro heard words of despair in his ears, and as if a little stressed, he suddenly had to go to Edo Sankinkota.

However, others did not know what Shimazu Shigehiro was going to do, but his trusted family elder, Karayama Hisayoshi, who had been with him for many years, knew it very well.

The feudal lord wants to slip away!

Because although the shogunate disliked the Satsuma domain, that was from the perspective of maintaining the shogunate's ruling authority.

In fact, because Shimazu Shigetaka was eloquent and had outstanding literary and scientific literacy in Japan, he was very famous in Edo and had good relations with a group of upper-class people in the Tokugawa family.

In particular, the boy from the Tokugawa family of Hitotsubashi, whom he had arranged a marriage for his daughter Shigehime, actually became the adopted son of the current shogun Tokugawa Ieharu two years ago. It seems that as long as he does not die young, he will basically be the next shogun.

So Shimazu Shigehiro still had some connections and friends in Edo.

Now it seemed that the situation in the Satsuma domain was about to get out of control. Once a war broke out, Kagoshima might be captured and he might be taken prisoner, so Shimazu Shigehiro's first reaction was to run away.

Before the war breaks out, he can still go to Edo to hide and put the blame, or the task of protecting the Satsuma domain, on the shogunate.

This is too obvious, so of course not only Karayama Hisayoshi discovered Shimazu Shigehide's little thoughts, but Shimazu Hisayoshi, who was complaining just now, also found something wrong.

He saw that Shimazu Shigehō had stood up, so he immediately pounced over and hugged Shimazu Shigehō's right thigh.

"Major General, the Satsuma Domain is the foundation of our Shimazu family. Our ancestors overcame many difficulties and nearly faced destruction many times before we were able to survive. Without the Satsuma Domain, how can the Shimazu family survive?
If Major General Yang leaves, Emperor Dayu will win and the Shimazu clan will cease to exist.

If the shogunate wins, the Shimazu clan will be left with nothing but lost possession of their home!"

Damn, Kabayama Hisayoshi was almost driven crazy by Shimazu Hisayoshi. You Shimazu clan, oh no, are all our Shimazu clan members idiots?

What Shimazu Hisayoshi said was correct, and even made sense, but could he say it in front of so many people, in public?
Doesn't this mean that the lord of Shimazu Domain wants to run away?
"Baka, baka!" In a hurry, Karayama Hisayoshi didn't care about anything else. He rushed forward and slapped Shimazu Hisayoshi several times.

"Are you crazy? What nonsense are you talking about? The Major General is only going to Edo to ask Daishu to mobilize all the troops in the world to resist the Tang invaders. How dare you say that the Major General is going to abandon everything and run away!"

The so-called Shangyang and Daishu are both names for Tokugawa Shogun.

Generally speaking, the general is addressed as "Shangyang" when meeting him in person, and "Daishi" when speaking to a third party. This is similar to how the lord of the Satsuma domain was addressed as "Sakon-e Gon-sho-jōga-jō" instead of "Han-jō." Of course, the current titles are not so strict, and sometimes the direct general is addressed as "Daishang."

Shimazu Hisayoshi was slapped several times and his nose was bleeding, but he still reacted.

With a thin, pointed face covered in blood, he slammed his head to the ground with a thud. "I have spoken out of turn. Please punish me like a major general."

Shimazu Shigehiro was not in the mood to punish Shimazu Hisayoshi at this time. He came to his senses and his face was burning as if he had been slapped several times.

"Yes, I just want to go to Edo to ask for help from Daishu. With the help of all the soldiers in the world, we can resist the Tang invaders together!"

Hearing what the feudal lord said, some of the retainers and samurai who did not know Shimazu Shigetaka immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

But Kabayama Hisayoshi did not relax. He quickly told Shimazu Shigehide that he had a good plan and asked Shimazu Shigehide to drive everyone out and only leave a few core members of the Shimazu family, including Shimazu Hisayoshi who had just been slapped in the face.

At this time, Kabayama Hisayoshi finally spoke the truth. He lowered his voice and said to Shimazu Shigehiro, "Major General, the Land of the Rising Sun has not experienced a serious war for over a hundred years.

It can even be said that the Land of the Rising Sun has not experienced war in the past 180 years since the Battle of Sekigahara.

On the other hand, the Tang people fought with us in the Bunroku-Keicho Campaign, and later the Ming Dynasty fought with the Jurchens. Even a hero like Koxinga could not resist the Jurchens when they entered the Pass.

After that, there was the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories, the suppression of the Dzungar Khanate, and now the Great Emperor Yu Guangzhong has returned to fight. In the past two hundred years, the Tang people have not had a few years of peace.

Moreover, today's navigation technology is much more advanced than that of the Yuan Dynasty. Europeans can travel tens of thousands of miles and will not lose many ships in a year.

The Great Yu originated from the South Seas and learned from the Europeans. After crossing the small East China Sea, it is very unlikely that they will encounter any divine winds again. "

These words couldn't be more direct, and they immediately made the members of the Ismaili family anxious. They also understood the implication of Hisayoshi Kabayama's words.

However, this topic was so sensitive that no one dared to bring it up. Even Shimazu Shigetaka could only grunt and ask, "So, are we in the Satsuma domain just waiting for the Tang invaders to come to us in Kagoshima?"

Kabayama Hisayoshi shook his head, "Edo still has to go, and someone must go to inform Daishu and ask him to gather all the soldiers in the world to rescue.

However, Wakasho (Shimazu Shigehiro's son) is still young and cannot withstand the fatigue of the journey, so we can send someone else."

"Then what?" Shimazu Shigehiro continued to ask,

"Then we'll wait." Kabayama Hisayoshi gritted his teeth and said slowly, "If the shogunate's army can arrive, and the Tang invaders are not as powerful as they boast, then we, the Satsuma clan, will defend our territory for the whole world.

If the Great Tree cannot quickly gather a large army, and the Middle-earth Emperor's heavenly soldiers are as skilled in battle as the legend says, we will surrender to the Emperor and pave the way for them to conquer the Kingdom of the Rising Sun!"

As expected of a Confucian scholar, he switched between the two completely different titles of Tang Kou and the Great Emperor very smoothly without any obstruction.

"No, that's not possible. Although we, the Shimazu clan, are immigrants and our ancestors are descendants of the First Emperor, we have lived in the Land of the Rising Sun for hundreds of years. How can we betray them overnight and become the vanguard of the Tang people?"

Someone trembled and looked at Hisayoshi Kabayama in disbelief and said that it was obvious that it was still difficult for the samurai class, who already had some national consciousness, to accept being a traitor to the Japanese.

"How could you betray me so easily?" Kabayama Hisayoshi snorted coldly, "Our Shimazu clan is best at this!
If Long Bo had not seen that the situation was not right and quickly knelt down and kowtowed to Tosho Daigongen to beg for mercy, the Shimazu clan would have ceased to exist long ago.

Long Bo was such a hero that he even kowtowed to the enemy in order to save the Shimazu clan. What a great act.

Now we, the descendants, are just mediocre people. Is face so valuable?

You can't kneel down before the great emperor of the Middle-earth, who is a hundred times more noble than Tosho Daigongen?"

Ryuhaku is Shimazu Yoshihisa, and Tosho Daigongen is Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Although there were many complex reasons why the Shimazu clan was able to retain the Satsuma Domain after the Battle of Sekigahara, the fact that Shimazu Yoshihisa surrendered so quickly and his attitude made Tokugawa Ieyasu extremely satisfied was definitely one of the most important factors.

After hearing what Kabayama Hisayoshi said, the core members of the Shimazu clan who also studied Jinsilu with him in the room quickly echoed:
"According to the ancient scriptures, respecting the king and expelling the barbarians is conditional. Today, Dashu is just a tyrant who has established a government, and he can hardly be called a king.

As for the emperor, he is so poor that he can't even afford to eat. He spends every day in Yamashiro Province with a bunch of stupid nobles, just like performing a Joruri play. He doesn't look like a monarch, so how can he be called a king?

When I look at the king who honors the emperor and expel the barbarians, I am referring to His Majesty the Great Emperor of the Middle Earth, and the barbarians are the white devils and red-haired barbarians of the West who commit all kinds of evil.”

Well, now we even have theoretical support.

Especially Shimazu Shigehiro, after listening to it, he actually felt that it made sense, so he gritted his teeth and stomped his feet.

"Okay, then I won't leave. I'll stay here in Kagoshima to see the quality of the Middle-earth Emperor's heavenly soldiers. If they really are heavenly soldiers, I, Shimazu Shigehiro, will go to Yingtian Prefecture to kowtow to the Emperor and serve him as a servant!"

(End of this chapter)