Chapter 3614
Chapter 3614
Chapter 3614
The Kyushu coalition forces were limited in size in carrying out the raid, and they did not dare to fight. They would fight and run away wherever they went, so the damage to these ports was not too serious. However, the public opinion caused by this quickly plunged the Seto Inland Sea region into panic.
There was news that the shogunate army had lost its battlefield advantage and could no longer effectively blockade the Kyushu region, so it allowed the Kyushu coalition's armed fleet to once again break into the Seto Inland Sea. The garrisons in these areas were almost all transferred to the front line, and they were completely defenseless against the Kyushu coalition, and naturally could not withstand the opponent's surprise attack.
It was impossible to find out whether this negative news was spread spontaneously by the people or deliberately spread by spies in Kyushu. However, the damage to the prestige of the shogunate was soon apparent.
After the attack, more than a dozen daimyo in the Shikoku region, represented by Tokushima and Kochi domains, jointly wrote to the shogunate, requesting Tokugawa Iematsu to repatriate the troops in the Shikoku region from the front line to protect the region from harassment by the Kyushu coalition forces.
Before the shogunate had time to respond, the Hiroshima clan, also located on the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, made the same statement. This was the strongest clan in the region, and the combined forces of the dozen clans in the Shikoku region were barely comparable to the scale of the Hiroshima clan's troops.
The Asano family, the daimyo of Hiroshima domain, actually has a deep connection with the Tokugawa shogunate. The former daimyo Asano Nagamasa married Tokugawa Fumihime, the third daughter of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. The current daimyo is Asano Mitsumasa, the second son of Asano Nagamasa, and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu. In terms of seniority, he is one generation older than the current shogun of the shogunate, Tokugawa Ietsuga.
It is also because of this that the Hiroshima clan provided 100% support to the shogunate in the early stages of the war. Not only did they contribute money and manpower, but Asano Mitsumasa also personally led his troops to participate in the shogunate's campaign to conquer Kyushu.
However, the Hiroshima Domain was only 200 miles away from Kyushu, so such behavior naturally made it the first to stand out, resulting in the Hiroshima Domain becoming the main target in the two long-distance raids of the Kyushu coalition forces.
Although the Kyushu coalition forces did not directly attack Hiroshima Castle, the two previous raids caused huge losses to the local area. This time, half of the port was burned down. It will take at least one or two years to slowly recover.
At this time, Asano Mitsumori also realized that it would be difficult for the shogunate to defeat the Kyushu coalition in a short period of time, and it could not even blockade the sea and restrict its actions. Hiroshima Domain, which was very close to Kyushu, was an important logistics base for the shogunate army and was bound to become a target of repeated attacks by the other side.
In order to protect his own safety, Asano Mitsumasa had no choice but to recall the troops. Although this might be seen as sabotaging the cause, he could not just watch the Kyushu coalition forces come in and out of his own territory with impunity and do whatever they wanted.
Other daimyo who made such a decision might have been worried about offending Tokugawa Ietsugu, so they chose to write a joint letter to express their demands.
However, Asano Mitsumasa had no such concerns. After all, he was an elder of Tokugawa Ietsugu. After greeting him, he immediately transferred back the Hiroshima clan's troops from the front line without waiting for the other party's nod of agreement, in order to stabilize the public opinion in the jurisdiction.
But Hiroshima Domain pulled its troops from the frontline, which was equivalent to setting an example for other domains. If the shogunate did not release the troops from other domains, it would only lead to more complaints and dissatisfaction. However, if the demands of the Shikoku domains were met and their troops were sent home, the frontline troops would be greatly reduced in number, which would definitely cause great damage to the overall morale and confidence. The momentum of the shogunate army came largely from the large army assembled by the various domains. If the troops were pulled away from the east and the west, it would not be far from collapse.
Tokugawa Iematsu could only withstand internal and external pressure and announced that he would not allow the various domains that had sent troops to transfer troops from the front line, but would arrange for the troops of each domain to fight in rotation as appropriate. By the way, this also explains why the Hiroshima domain was able to transfer its troops back - that was because the Hiroshima domain had suffered heavy losses in the previous battle and needed to return to its base to rest.
Although this explanation was far-fetched, it did temporarily ease the internal conflicts and prevent the situation from getting worse.
In order to appease the emotions of the daimyos in the Shikoku region, Tokugawa Ietsugu had to reluctantly announce that he would reduce the taxes these domains would pay to the shogunate in the next few years so that they would have sufficient time to recuperate after the war.
However, these measures were only temporary solutions that only addressed the symptoms and not the root cause. Tokugawa Ietsugu was also well aware of the crux of the problem. He knew that only after the threat from Kyushu was resolved would the domestic situation have hope of returning to peace.
However, the shogunate had no good solution to the current stalemate in the war.
If it was just the Kyushu coalition, this crusade would have ended months ago. But the problem was that the Kyushu coalition had the support of Hai Han and even mercenaries from Korea to guard it, so they were able to sneak attack the shogunate's rear.
It now seemed like an impossible task for the shogunate to defeat the Kyushu coalition forces, which were escorted by Hai Han and Korea. If the stalemate continued, it would not be the Kyushu coalition forces that would be dragged down first, but the shogunate, which had assembled tens of thousands of troops on the front line and had spent half a year without being able to win.
The military expenses and supplies consumed every day were a huge burden for the shogunate. After struggling for half a year, the entire logistics system was already overwhelmed. The reason why it did not collapse was that, first, there were many conveniences brought by local operations, and second, the opponent Kyushu coalition had limited strength and was on the defensive for more than half of the time, so the direct damage to the shogunate's rule was not great.
But after the raid, the logistics system had become shaky, especially the port of Hiroshima Domain, which temporarily lost its function of transporting supplies after a fire, which forced the shogunate army to find another port as an alternative.
This port must not only have the hardware facilities to berth large fleets and store a large amount of supplies, but also cannot be too far away from the battlefield of Kyushu. However, there are not many ports that meet these conditions, and after this battle, such ports are actually within the attack range of the Kyushu coalition forces. Taking on this task is equivalent to turning one's own territory into the target of the Kyushu coalition forces.
This deal not only did not bring any practical benefits, but was also very likely to bring trouble. Therefore, the several places that were questioned by Tokugawa Ietsugu all found various excuses and were unwilling to take on the tasks assigned by the shogunate.
Tokugawa Ietsugu was extremely angry about this, but he could not punish anyone specifically. However, if the logistical problems were not properly resolved, the war of conquest would not be able to continue.