Chapter 3518
Chapter 3518
Chapter 3518
Since war is inevitable, Masuyama Masayoshi can only put aside other thoughts and only consider how to help the shogunate win the war.
He knew that the feudal lords in Kyushu were no longer what they used to be. With the support of Hai Han and the purchase of a large number of advanced weapons, their military strength was no longer what it used to be. If the shogunate wanted to suppress the rebellion of the local clans in Kyushu, there would inevitably be a series of fierce battles.
What the shogunate lacked most at the moment was not manpower and weapons and equipment, but military expenditures. In the past winter, the shogunate had invested funds equivalent to two years of fiscal revenue in emergency military expansion and preparation for war.
A considerable portion of these war preparation funds flowed overseas, and the main destination was foreign weapons and equipment suppliers.
In addition to Hai Han, the shogunate was also quietly contacting merchants from Portugal and the Netherlands, trying to purchase various types of firearms from them. However, the quantity and quality of the goods that these channels could supply were far from comparable to those of Hai Han.
Although the shogunate was well aware that Hai Han had an unshirkable responsibility for the dramatic changes in the situation in Kyushu, it could only swallow its pride and accept the loss. Not only could it not publicly accuse Hai Han, but it also had to offer gold and silver and beg Hai Han to sell more arms to it.
The shogunate's foreign trade channels had been greatly affected since the incident in Kyushu last year, and now only a few ports in Honshu that allowed Hai Han merchants to enter continued to operate. But without Nagasaki as a window, the scale of trade dropped sharply, and the large amount of tax revenue that evaporated out of thin air made the shogunate feel painful.
This change in inflow and outflow quickly caused the shogunate's treasury to run dry. As a last resort, they could only increase the mining of gold and silver mines in Iwami, Ikuno, Sado and other places in the country, hoping to make up for the serious financial deficit.
However, in Zengshan Zhengli's view, this way of solving the problem is only a stopgap measure, because no one can predict how much reserves these gold and silver mines have, and whether there will be more to be mined next year after digging this year.
Therefore, Masatoshi Masuyama's view on the civil war was actually consistent with Tokugawa Ietsugu's, that is, it was necessary to defeat the Kyushu local armed forces as quickly as possible with thundering force and complete the suppression quickly.
If the war were to drag into a stalemate, it would not only greatly consume the shogunate's resources, but would also provide Hai Han with an opportunity to intervene in the civil war.
Zeng Shanzheng could only pray that the cross-border investigation organized by Hai Han was just for fun. He didn't dare to think about what would happen if Hai Han took advantage of the civil war.
In early March 1658, a large fleet began to leave Dinghai Port in Zhoushan and sail eastward to Kyushu, Japan, miles away.
As there were too many ships participating in this expedition, they were divided into five groups when they set out to facilitate coordination and command. Each group of ships was thirty or forty miles apart, stretching over two hundred miles from beginning to end, and sailed into the East China Sea in a mighty manner.
Not to mention the diplomats from various countries who participated in this investigation, even many time travelers had never seen a fleet of this size before. And Shi Diwen, who had planned this investigation, once again received praise from all sides.
To be able to travel to Japan one day is one of the goals of most time travelers after coming to this time and space. However, due to various objective reasons, Hai Han has no intention of launching a large-scale military campaign to conquer the Japanese archipelago, and only a very small number of people have been to Japan in the past thirty years.
Many people have never thought of going to Japan in this way. Although the purpose of this trip is not to conquer Japan, seeing with one's own eyes how this country has embarked on the road of self-destruction is enough to make most of the elderly travelers happy. Three days later, the first batch of fleets arrived at the waters of the Goto Islands, the westernmost tip of the Japanese archipelago.
Although this place is about two hundred miles away from the west coast of Kyushu, it is already under the jurisdiction of Kyushu Saga Domain.
The lord of Saga Domain, Mitsushige Nabeshima, dispatched several warships to welcome the arrival of the Hai Han fleet at the Goto Islands.
The Nabeshima clan of Saga Domain could be regarded as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the great changes in Kyushu last year. In one go, it annexed several small domains in neighboring areas, including Karatsu, Hirado, Omura, Shimazono, Fukue, etc., and the territory it actually controlled expanded several times in an instant.
Mitsushige Nabeshima felt that his power had greatly increased, and of course he was no longer satisfied with staying in a corner. He immediately joined forces with several other powerful clans and prepared to make the shogunate his next target.
The Sasebo Bay occupied by Hai Han is now within the territory of Saga Domain, so the Nabeshima family has always maintained close contacts with the Hai Han garrison, and Nabeshima Mitsushige also firmly believes that he is the person with the strongest support from Hai Han.
When he heard that Hai Han was going to organize several countries to visit Jiuzhou, he realized that this was a very rare opportunity, and took the initiative to apply to Hai Han to take on the reception task.
Of course, this kindness can only be appreciated. Hai Han will not hand over the lives of so many important people to outsiders. Moreover, after learning the actual size of the inspection team, Nabeshima Mitsushige would probably be glad that his application was not successful. Otherwise, the thousands of people from Hai Han would have to rely on Saga Domain to receive them, and it would not take long for Saga Domain's treasury to be emptied.
Along with the Saga warships, the Hai Han navy stationed at the Sasebo base also appeared in the waters of the Goto Islands. The base commander, Shiro Amakusa, personally led the team to greet them. He is also the highest-ranking official currently stationed in Japan by Hai Han.
When the survey fleet slowly sailed into Sasebo Bay, the guests from afar were shocked by the environment here - the harbor conditions and port scale here are even better than Zhoushan Dinghai Port.
Even Ning Qi, who has always been very strict about military spending, couldn't help but exclaimed after seeing the scene of the Sasebo base with his own eyes: "Great! It seems that the money spent in Japan over the years has really not been wasted!"
Shi Diwen said proudly: "The Sasebo base controls the shipping lanes in and out of the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, and is the mainstay of the entire Kyushu region. It is precisely because of the existence of this place that the daimyo of Kyushu are sure that our country has the ability to back them up, so they dare to rise up and fight against the shogunate."
Since Hai Han occupied Sasebo Bay, the port construction here has never stopped. The result of more than a decade of continuous construction is a coastal wharf that is 20 miles long and has nearly 100 berths.
At the same time, there are more than 30 dry bulk warehouses, a convenient terminal rail transportation system, and a shipyard with more than ten large and small docks.
The garrison base, which covers an area of several miles, is the core area of this region. Outside of it, there are tens of thousands of people living on the coastal plains near the military base, gradually forming a coastal city that revolves around the military base.
(End of this chapter)