The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 567: Tianming Eruption (Happy)
In Japan, Edo Castle, daimyakus with all kinds of strange family crests are swarming in the most populous city in the Eastern world.

This is the most concentrated manifestation of the political, economic and even social deformities in Japan at that time.

In a country full of poor people, a giant city with productivity surpassing Japan appeared like a castle in the air.

Although the prosperity of millions of people gathered together was a false one, it still looked quite shocking.

Many samurai from small fiefs in remote areas, wearing patched and tattered clothes and holding various flags symbolizing their masters, ran around Edo Castle in shock and aimlessly.

"Sure enough, we can't let all these country bumpkins gather in Edo Castle."

The tenth Shogun, Tokugawa Ieharu, stood on the Honmaru Palace, gazing at Edo Castle in the distance, muttering to himself.

Seeing the poor samurai running around the city and causing one disturbance after another, Tokugawa Iehei realized that the strategy of the elder Tanuma Okitsugu was correct.

If all the soldiers from various feudal domains were allowed into Edo Castle, the head of the Shogun would probably have been blown to pieces.

At this time, the Tokugawa shogunate's military was very weak.

The reason is that the five branches of the Japanese army, including the so-called small surname group and the imperial retainers, which were left over from the Warring States period, have become completely aristocratic and cannot undertake combat missions.

The shogunate army in history was actually a Western-style army that was formed at about the same time as the armies of powerful domains such as Satsuma and Choshu in the southwest. It certainly does not exist at present.

Those who can provide security for the shogunate today are actually the illegitimate sons of the hatamoto and samurai, who were supposed to be the backbone of the shogunate's military, and even their retainers.

The armed forces such as the Shogun Makaishu and the Iron Cannon Team formed by these people were only enough to maintain the basic protection of the Edo Honmaru Palace, and were completely unable to fight against the poor feudal soldiers from various fiefs.

After muttering a few words in disgust, Tokugawa Ieharu turned away from looking at the messy Edo Castle and the running samurai.

Ever since his only grown-up son, Tokugawa Iemoto, was murdered and he was unable to track down the real murderer, Tokugawa Ieharu lost interest in everything.

His numbness and slowness were quickly reflected in the speed with which the shogunate responded to the current situation.

Ye Mingyue and Wu Wenhui took back Ryukyu in September last year. In February this year, Mo Zibu dispatched Li Changgeng to form a new fleet, forced the Satsuma domain to surrender, and basically occupied the Choshu domain a month later.

Three months later, in May, Mozibu Garienstein was appointed General Zhendong and led 20,000 naval and land troops to cross the river to the Choshu domain again.

As soon as Ryan arrived, he began to work with the cooperation of the Satsuma clan to force the various clans in Kyushu to surrender using both soft and hard methods, and he was very busy.

However, during these nine months, the only thing the Tokugawa shogunate accomplished was to gather hundreds of relatives, hereditary daimyo and some outer daimyo in Edo Castle, and only allowed them to bring a small number of retainers to Edo.

As for the soldiers of these fiefs, they were dispersed and deployed to various places.

This attitude of being more cautious against one's own people than against the Chinese army naturally aroused a lot of dissatisfaction, and countless samurai from various feudal domains in Edo Castle complained.

It was this situation that, in turn, made Tokugawa Ieharu even more afraid to gather his army together, as he was still very afraid of death.

Well, losing hope or interest in life does not mean that Tokugawa Ieharu wants to die.

However, as the bad news came one after another, when Satsuma and Choshu clans suffered first, these daimyo, most of whom were located in Kanto and Kansai regions, were not too nervous.

But when Nagasaki could not be defended and Nagasaki Magistrate Hirotomi Kusase was captured, many people could no longer sit still.

Even the three great families like the Owari Tokugawa family, the three great nobles like the Hitotsubashi Tokugawa family, and the close vassal families like the Aizu clan and the Matsudaira family could not hold back and asked Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu to convene a meeting immediately to discuss countermeasures.

The meeting was held in the Great Hall of the Honmaru Palace, a grand one. There were more than seventy daimyo from various domains. They were divided into several factions, and fierce quarrels broke out among them.

But in fact, there is nothing to argue about, because the situation is now very clear. General Zhonghua Zhendong is digesting Kyushu.

All Japanese ships in the western section of the Seto Inland Sea, including fishing boats, were seized and not allowed to go to sea.

At the same time, there were signs of scouting activities by the Chinese Zhendong Army around Hiroshima Castle, the headquarters of the Asano family's Hiroshima domain.

It was obvious that their next goal was to capture Hiroshima, and then use Hiroshima as a base to continue eastward and occupy Osaka and Kyoto.

The excited daimyos all hoped to assemble their armies immediately and fight a decisive battle with the Chinese Zhendong Army around Hiroshima. The lord of Aizu Domain, Matsudaira Yoshinori, expressed his opinion to Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu in a fierce manner.

"At this critical moment, with the tragedy of the Choshu clan in front of us, all the clans and samurai in the world are willing to come out and resist the Tang invaders just as they did against the Yuan invaders.

Moreover, the daimyo in Kyushu have not completely surrendered. The shogunate should mobilize the best troops in the world to march westward now, because we have the right time, place and people.

I believe that as long as we can defeat the Tang invaders in Hiroshima and other places, and demonstrate the shogunate's spirit as the pillar of the military, even a small victory will immediately boost morale."

Matsudaira Yosho's words aroused loud cheers from the daimyos present, but unfortunately the more this happened, the less likely Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu would agree.

Now, no matter who he looks at, as long as they have many followers, Tokugawa Ieharu thinks they are plotting something and want to harm him.

"Hiroshima is too far away, too far away." Tokugawa Ieharu muttered a few words. He did not want to stop the seemingly very powerful Chinese Zhendong Army from such a faraway place.

Among those present, only the elder Nakamura Okitsugu understood best what Tokugawa Ieharu meant when he said Hiroshima was too far away.

It was too far, not because the expedition was too far, but because it was too far from Edo Castle. General Tokugawa Ieharu already felt very insecure, and if he was too far away from Edo Castle, he would feel extremely unsafe.

However, just as Tanuma Okitsugu was about to express his opinion, the daimyos below suddenly broke into a quarrel, which was very loud and even seemed very rude.

But Tanuma Okitsugu had no choice, because he knew that the noise was intentional, a deliberate attempt to limit his ability to speak. Whenever he tried to express his opinion, there would be a heated argument from below, making it difficult for anyone to hear what he was saying.

Seeing that the chaos could not continue, Tokugawa Harusuke, the second-generation head of the Ichibashi Tokugawa family, who was basically confirmed to be the biological father of the next shogun, Tokugawa Ienari, stood up and said:

"The Tang invaders are coming with great force, and Hiroshima is to the west, which makes it difficult for us to transport supplies.

I think it would be better to set the battlefield near Osaka, and let the daimyos and samurai in Kyushu, Shikoku, and Chugoku abandon the cities and go to the mountains and forests to await orders.

When the Tang invaders approach Osaka and their supply lines are stretched, we can then strike them head-on in Osaka and use the samurai from the southwestern vassal states to cut off their food supply. This will be a great achievement."

As the biological father of the next generation of shogun, Tokugawa Harujiro's words still carry weight.

And his strategy cannot be said to be wrong. It can only be said that he still needs to suffer for the outer daimyo such as the Asano family's Hiroshima domain and the Nabeshima family's Hizen domain.

Many of these outer daimyo were unable to come to Edo for the meeting, so the daimyo present had basically no objection and expressed that it was acceptable to stop the Tang invaders in Osaka.

At this moment, some dust visible to the naked eye suddenly began to float in the sky, and a bad smell came with it.

Some people looked outside in surprise, only to see that the dust was not just a little bit, but covered the sky and the sun, as if it was controlled by a god.

Soon, the sky above Edo Castle became dark, and at noon, even most of the sunlight was blocked.

"Did something erupt? Was it Mount Asama?"

As an island country that often encounters volcanic earthquakes, the Japanese have sufficient experience in this regard.

They did not think of ghosts and gods at first, but instead keenly sensed that it was a volcanic eruption.

Mount Asama is located northwest of Edo and is a very famous active volcano in the world.

The reason why some people directly asked if it was Mount Asama is because Mount Asama has erupted many times in the past two months, but the situation did not seem serious.

"That's impossible. Mount Asama is at least 300 miles away from Edo. Even if it erupted, how could so much mountain ash float over Edo Castle? Unless it was an unprecedented eruption."

The speaker was Abe Masatoshi, the lord of Fukuyama Domain. He was very nervous because Fukuyama Domain was near Hiroshima. If the shogunate encountered an unprecedented eruption of Mount Asama, then his Fukuyama Domain would be really doomed.

But many things in this world are often not effective when good things happen, and bad things happen when bad things happen. Just as Abe Masatoshi finished speaking, a long and loud thunder suddenly exploded, as if it came from underground, as if it came from ancient times, and even more as if it came from people's hearts.

This strange thunder, which was completely different from the usual celestial phenomena, scared everyone into silence. The great hall of the Honmaru Palace had never been so quiet.

'It must have erupted!'

Such a thought suddenly occurred to General Tokugawa Ieharu. He stood up timidly and left without even saying hello, escorted by a group of samurai with small surnames.

This action directly confused a lot of daimyos, who had no idea what Tokugawa Ieharu meant.

Finally, it was Tokugawa Osamu who stepped in to smooth things over. "Something must have happened at Mount Asama, and it looks like it's quite serious. Everyone, please return to your respective domains first. Once I understand the truth, I'll inform you all immediately."

After hearing this, everyone could only end this so-called military meeting that started off well but ended badly. After all, it was not the first or second time that General Tokugawa Ieharu had done such abstract things.

However, these daimyos who had dispersed and Tokugawa Ieharu who had left in abstraction had no idea that this eruption of Mount Asama was completely different from the big eruption they had imagined.

This was an extremely violent volcanic eruption, reaching a level five volcanic eruption index in a short period of time.

The volcanic ash that fell on Edo Castle was only the first eruption.

After that, on the sixth day of the seventh lunar month, Mt. Asama began to erupt almost every day.

The pyrotechnic streams it spewed directly flooded several villages, and then triggered high-speed mudslides, almost blocking a large river like the Edogawa River.

The entire northwest of Edo was dotted with impounded lakes, and terrible floods, accompanied by large eruptions, raged everywhere.

On July 11 alone, the eruption caused direct deaths of more than 2,000 people.

The black volcanic ash almost covered Edo Castle, as if it were covered with a layer of algae mud mask, and the sound of thunder from the eruption could be faintly heard even in Kyoto, 500 kilometers away.

Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu, who was already very fragile mentally, was almost driven to a nervous breakdown by this horrific natural phenomenon.

He hid in the Great Ao, looking from afar at the billowing smoke and dust coming from the northwest. It seemed that in the flash of lightning, scorching fire fragments were winding around in front of his eyes, and countless people were struggling and crying miserably in this sea of fire.

"For example, we can't let them stay in Edo Castle. We must send troops, otherwise the eruption will be used as an excuse to make trouble."

Old Zhong Tianuma Oci reminded him that Japan actually also believes in the interaction between heaven and man.

Tokugawa Ieharu also understood that he could not allow these people to see the weakness of the shogunate so clearly, nor could he allow them to continue to gather in Edo in the face of such a terrifying natural disaster.

"I will personally lead the warriors of the world to Osaka to deal with the Tang invaders." Tokugawa Ieharu made the decision.

At least he is still the Shogun now. At this moment, as long as he shows his strength, he can still barely stabilize the situation.

Tanuma Okitsugu nodded solemnly, "Don't worry, I will take care of everything in Edo. When you return from Osaka, all the disadvantages will disappear."

Well, that's true, but in this atmosphere of panic, can the shogunate's so-called military dispatch really allow Tokugawa Ieharu to return safely from Osaka?
(End of this chapter)