Chapter 3538
Chapter 3538
Chapter 3538
From Tokugawa Iematsu's perspective, this strange condition proposed by Hai Han was indeed difficult to understand.
Negotiating a ceasefire with the Kyushu rebels was not in Tokugawa Ietsugu's plan, at least for now. He believed that since he had already decided to resolve the Kyushu issue through war, it would be impossible to stop halfway - unless the other side surrendered voluntarily.
However, Tokugawa Ietsugu knew that Hai Han always acted with a strong purpose and must have some reason to put forward such conditions, so he couldn't help but worry whether there might be some conspiracy behind this, so he asked his subordinates what they thought about this.
Most people present believed that Hai Han was deliberately being mysterious and creating obstacles for the shogunate's arms purchases by setting some inexplicable conditions.
Only Sakai Tadaki, who had previously gone to Sasebo for negotiations, and Masatoshi Masuyama, who had been dealing with Hai Han's top leaders for many years, agreed that the conditions offered by Hai Han were an attempt to prolong the war and prevent it from ending in the short term.
After the meeting, Tokugawa Iematsu specifically kept these two people to conduct a more in-depth discussion on the conditions offered by Hai Han.
Tokugawa Ietsugu asked, “Tell me, what good will a prolonged war bring to Hai Han? If the war continues, won’t we be able to sell more arms? There’s no need to go through so much trouble. Even if there’s no war, we will still buy arms from them!”
Sakai Tadaki said, “From my recent interactions with the Hai Han people, I can see that they are not that keen on selling arms. Otherwise, they could remove all restrictions, and they would definitely be able to sell more arms than they currently do.”
Tokugawa Ietsugu said impatiently, "Lord Sakai, what exactly do you want to say?"
Sakai Tadaki said, “General, please forgive me for being blunt, but I think the real purpose of the Hai Han people’s actions is simply to keep the battlefield going for a long time. As for selling arms… I have an idea, but I don’t know if I should talk about it or not.”
Tokugawa Ietsuga said, "Speak!"
Sakai Tadaki said, “I think the main purpose of Hai Han selling these arms to the Kyushu rebels and us at the same time is to escalate the intensity of the war. Not only do they want to make money from us, but they also want us to lose more people and weaken our national strength through war.”
Tokugawa Ietsugu took a deep breath when he heard this. The idea that Sakai Tadamasa mentioned was indeed something he had never thought of before.
"Do you have evidence?" asked Tokugawa Ietsuga.
Sakai Tadaki shook his head, but his eyes turned to Masuyama Masatoshi: "Master Masuyama, do you have the same opinion as me?"
Zeng Shanzheng said: "From the known intelligence, Hai Han has been trying to instigate the Kyushu domains to break away from the shogunate several years ago. I believe that selling arms is just another means to complement it. The goal is to create conflicts between the Kyushu domains and the shogunate until a war breaks out."
"I also think the purpose Lord Sakai just mentioned makes some sense, but there is no evidence to prove it. Unless... they put forward the same conditions to the Kyushu rebels!"
Zeng Shanzheng had dealt with Hai Han more often, and his understanding of Hai Han's top leaders must be higher than Sakai Tadakiyo, but he was unwilling to think in that direction. It was not until Sakai Tadakiyo proposed the view that Hai Han intended to create bloodshed through war that Zeng Shanzheng had a sudden realization.
To confirm this conjecture, Zengshan Masayoshi believed that it was impossible to get an answer from the Hai Han people, but if the Kyushu coalition forces received the same treatment from Hai Han, it would seem to support Sakai Tadamori's point of view.
To know the answer, they had to use high-level spies lurking in Kyushu to get information. However, only a very small number of senior personnel would have specific information about this matter, and it was not so easy to find out the inside story. Tokugawa Ietsugu closed his eyes and thought for a while before he gave an order, announcing that the matter was over and that no further investigation would be conducted on the speculation they had just put forward.
This decision surprised the two men. They had originally thought that after they spoke out to remind them, Tokugawa Ietsugu would try to find out the truth and then take effective countermeasures to thwart the Hai Han people's conspiracy.
But they never expected that the result of Tokugawa Ietsuga's consideration was to ban this matter. However, before they could ask further, Tokugawa Ietsuga had already given the answer.
“Even if we find out that the real purpose of the Hai Han people is as you said, what can we do? Can we use this as an excuse to bargain with the Hai Han people? Can we take the initiative to cut off trade with Hai Han? Can we stop buying arms from Hai Han?”
"Think carefully, which of these can we achieve?"
Tokugawa Ietsugu looked at the two of them, as if waiting for their answer.
Sakai Tadaki and Masuyama Masatoshi remained silent, because they also realized that none of the points mentioned by Tokugawa Ietsuga were actually achievable. If they wanted to win this war, they had to rely on the military supplies provided by Hai Han.
Tokugawa Ietsugu continued, "If the troops were to know this news, what effect do you think it would have? Would it boost morale or cause panic?"
“Since we can buy arms from Hai Han, it means that their support for the Jiuzhou rebels is not wholehearted. If more deaths can lead to final victory, then there is no way the Jiuzhou rebels can outlast us!”
“So don’t worry about what Hai Han is planning to do. Focus on dealing with the enemy in front of you. No matter what Hai Han’s real purpose is, we must win this war first. Only if we win, we will be qualified to negotiate with Hai Han. If we lose, everything will be over!”
After all, Tokugawa Iematsu was the lord of the shogunate, and his perspective on issues was different from that of his subordinates.
For him, completing the war to quell the rebellion and consolidating the rule of the shogunate was the top priority at the moment. As for the loss of life and money spent in the process, these losses were not that important to him.
Hai Han is now able to control the shogunate through arms trade, raising prices, delaying deliveries, and putting forward various tricky conditions. Tokugawa Ietsuga believes that this is all due to the existence of the Kyushu rebels as a competitor.
As long as the shogunate eliminates the Kyushu rebels, Hai Han’s only trading partner in Japan will be the shogunate. Without vicious competition, the business practices will definitely have to change.
Tokugawa Ietsugu figured out the priorities and naturally had an idea of how to deal with the current war situation.
Kyushu divided its troops to attack various ports behind the shogunate army, all of which were in a hit-and-run mode, which was obviously a tactic of avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, focusing on harassment. Although this brought some trouble to the shogunate, it also showed that Kyushu was actually trying to avoid a head-on decisive battle with the shogunate army.
The shogunate army's military advantage seems to have not been fully utilized so far. Instead, it has resorted to a tactic of adding fuel to the fire on the other side of the strait, wasting several days in vain.
Tokugawa Ietsugu decided to adjust his previous tactics and use another method to break through the opponent's defense.