Chapter 3610
Chapter 3610
Chapter 3610
At the same time, in Japan, thousands of miles north of Beimen Port, the battle between the two sides of the civil war over the Kanmon Strait continued.
The weapons and equipment that the warring parties had ordered from Hai Han during the Zhoushan Forum in the first half of the year have begun to be delivered one after another. This has also enabled the newly trained armies of both sides to quickly enter the ranks of combat forces.
After repeated fighting in the previous few months, the Kyushu feudal lords and the Tokugawa shogunate each suffered considerable losses. In particular, the Kyushu coalition forces, which were already at a disadvantage in terms of military strength before the war, could not withstand the long-term consumption of war.
As a last resort, in addition to introducing Korean mercenaries to assist in the defense of their own bases, each feudal lord also started recruiting new soldiers to replenish the troops lost in the war.
Fortunately, the training of musketeers is much simpler than that of traditional soldiers. It only takes thirty to fifty days to form an army and go to war, and the requirements for the physical fitness of soldiers are also greatly reduced. This is a life-saving straw for the Kyushu feudal lords, whose population base is already weak.
However, the conscription targets were all young and strong, and large-scale conscription would inevitably affect the normal production activities in the various vassal regions. The most obvious was the reduction in grain production this autumn, which led to a sharp increase in market grain prices. In order to stabilize grain prices, the various vassal regions had to spend money to import grain from Hai Han and Korea, further hollowing out their economies.
Although the shogunate army had occupied some areas on the northern coast of Kyushu, with the strong support of Hai Han, the Kyushu coalition forces managed to withstand the offensive of the shogunate army and prevented the enemy from further expanding the area under their control.
Fukuoka Castle, only a hundred miles away from the Kanmon Strait, has now become the frontline headquarters of the Kyushu coalition forces, responsible for coordinating the combat operations of the various fiefdoms. Today’s meeting is very important to the fiefdoms, because Shi Diwen and Shi Chengxin, who are supervising the battle in Kyushu on behalf of Hai Han, will be present. Their attitudes will be directly related to the next combat deployment and how much military assistance the coalition forces can get from Hai Han.
Seeing the Shi family father and son enter the hall, the famous elders of each family immediately stood up to show their respect. The main seat in the middle of the hall was empty, waiting for the father and son to arrive.
After everyone sat down, the lord of Fukuoka Domain, Kuroda Mitsurugi, as the host, took the lead in explaining the purpose of this meeting: "At present, the coalition forces and the shogunate army have been in a stalemate for several months. If they continue to waste time like this, sooner or later, each family will be unable to hold on. I wonder if Lord Ishi has any good plan to change the current situation."
Shi Diwen responded, "I know that everyone is in a difficult situation right now, but at this stage of the war, it's not just the Kyushu coalition that's struggling. Your opponent, the Tokugawa shogunate, is not in a much better situation than you are. Cheng Xin, tell everyone about the latest intelligence we've obtained."
Shi Chengxin said in a clear voice: "Everyone, we received a secret letter from the Edo Embassy yesterday, which mentioned information about the current situation of the Tokugawa Shogunate. I will briefly summarize it for you."
The person in charge of the Hai Han embassy in Edo was Ma Boran, the eldest son of Ma Lico, the governor of the Guangdong and Guangxi regions. He had been in Edo for several years as Hai Han's ambassador to Japan. In addition to his work in the diplomatic field, Ma Boran was also responsible for the specific negotiations and operations of various secret transactions between Hai Han and the Tokugawa shogunate.
The first-hand information obtained by Ma Boran in Edo and sent back by telegram would certainly be much more credible and timely than the spies deployed by the Kyushu vassal states in Edo. According to the information collected by Ma Boran in Edo, although the Tokugawa shogunate temporarily had an advantage on the battlefield in Kyushu, its current situation was also very difficult.
Although the Tokugawa Army had several times more troops than the Kyushu Allied Forces, these troops were drawn from various feudal domains across the country, and a considerable number of them were just a mob to make up the numbers and did not have strong combat effectiveness. The troops that could really fight were actually mainly a few troops of the Tokugawa family.
But on the battlefield, Tokugawa Ietsugu would definitely not put his elite troops at the forefront. The wise tactic would be to conserve his strength first and use cannon fodder troops to consume the Kyushu coalition forces.
However, after fighting for several months, the cannon fodder troops that could be used had long been used up, and even the Tokugawa family's own direct troops had been damaged. At present, the Tokugawa shogunate's countermeasures were actually similar to those in Kyushu, and they were also urgently recruiting soldiers and training new troops to make up for the losses.
But for those smaller and weaker feudal states, their few armed forces were exhausted on the battlefield in Kyushu, and it would be difficult for them to reorganize a new army in the short term.
These small and weak feudal lords who were the first to lose their armed forces were extremely dissatisfied with the shogunate's practice of using them as cannon fodder. Some daimyo believed that this was a deliberate act of the shogunate, whose purpose was to take advantage of the opportunity of sending troops to attack Kyushu to send the armies of each feudal lord to the battlefield and consume them, thereby weakening the power of each feudal lord.
In this way, after destroying the Kyushu coalition, the shogunate would not have to worry about other places in the country following Kyushu's example and rising up in rebellion.
It is hard to say whether Tokugawa Ietsugu really had such a plan, but this conspiracy theory is undoubtedly easy to spread. At present, there are rumors in Edo that the Tokugawa shogunate is preparing to annex those weak small domains after the war, abolish their original administrative systems, and put them all under the direct jurisdiction of the shogunate.
Although the Tokugawa shogunate spoke out to refute the rumors, it seemed to have little effect. The situation on the Kyushu front was stalemate, and more and more local daimyo began to complain that their armies were being consumed without a sound, and the shogunate only gave some symbolic rewards and not much substantial compensation, which seemed to confirm the rumors that were unfavorable to the shogunate.
For these feudal states whose troops were conscripted, even if the shogunate army defeated the Kyushu coalition and achieved the goal of the expedition, they might not be able to gain much actual benefit from it. The land and wealth of Kyushu would all go into the pocket of the Tokugawa shogunate and would not be shared equally with the various families that sent troops to participate in the war.
As a result, some daimyo began to find various reasons to recall their own troops from the front line, trying to preserve the military strength of their own domain before the situation deteriorated. Even if this was not possible, they would often notify their own generals to refuse to carry out those more dangerous combat missions.
"The shogunate army may seem powerful, but in reality it is a loose group. They have been unable to capture Kyushu after a long expedition, and they are also struggling to hold on. They are hoping that the coalition forces will fall before them. But if the coalition forces continue to resist, chaos will likely break out within the shogunate. By then, the predicament will be resolved, and defeating the shogunate will not be an unattainable goal."
Ishi Chengxin's words rekindled hope in the hearts of the daimyo present. If the Tokugawa shogunate lost the support of the local daimyo, even if it was only a part of them, its strength would definitely be greatly reduced.