Compared with the smoothness of taking over Iki Island, taking over Tsushima Island may be relatively difficult.

At least four or five days have passed so far, and there is still no news from the direction of Tsushima.

However, Yang Zhen was not too worried, because Tsuima Domain was not big, the island had many mountains, few fields, and the population was always insufficient. Before the large-scale mining of Tsushima Ginzan, Tsushima Domain had only one stone high that was recognized by the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Ten thousand stones.

Although the Tsushima clan did not mainly make a living by cultivating the land, but made their fortune by trading with North Korea, it is an undisputed fact that there is not much farmland suitable for growing rice on the island.

This means that the population under Ma Zong's jurisdiction will not be too large, and at the same time, the amount of rice that can be stored will not be too much.

Especially after the Koreans were completely conquered by the Qing Dynasty and the amount of rice paid as tribute to the Qing Dynasty each year doubled, the rice and other materials that Ma Zong could obtain through trade must have been greatly reduced.

If we take into account the plague since last year, and Tsushima has been almost cut off from trade with the outside world for nearly a year, how much confidence do they still have to stick to the isolated island?

Furthermore, the lord of Tsushima Domain, Soyoshi Nari, had already been killed by himself.

And Yang Zhen also learned from the tribesmen who surrendered to Ma Zong that Zong Yicheng's eldest son was still very young, only two years old now.

Correspondingly, Soyoshi Cheng brought out a large number of retainers, samurai, peasants and soldiers from Tsushima Island. Now they are dead, surrendered, and those who are not dead have lost the opportunity to be redeemed from Tsushima Island.

.

Now, there are only about 300 of them left, and together with thousands of other Japanese who have not been ransomed in the prisoner-of-war camp, they are being supervised and supervised by Zhang Tianbao's grenadiers, and are engaged in the construction of Hirado Mountain Castle and Hirado West Seaport.

among.

When the construction of the new Hirado Mountain Castle and Hirado West Harbor is completed, it is hard to say how many of the three hundred or so people will survive.

Under such circumstances, one can only imagine how many young and strong ashigaru Tsushima, which already has a small population, can spare to fight against the attacks of Yan Shengsan, Jin Yukui and Lin Chongfan.

Therefore, Yang Zhen was not too worried that Yan Shengsan and the others would not be able to capture Tsushima Island.

The only thing that worried him was their progress in occupying and taking over Tsushima.

Because on the evening of July 26, a sentry ship sent by Shen Yongzhong, who was staying in Seogwipo, passed by Uku Island and arrived on the west coast of Hirado, bringing Yang Zhen the news of the arrival of the Dutch fleet.

.

It may be that the council of senior members of the Dutch East India Company found it profitable, or they may have transferred new armed plywood ships from other places. In short, the strength of the Dutch increased.

According to the information reported by Shen Yongzhong, the final fleet sent by the Dutch had one more large armed plywood ship than what Thomas Peder originally said when he was at Port Arthur. It was not the previous four ships, but five ships.

The total number of troops dispatched by the Dutch was much larger than what Thomas Peder said when he was at Port Arthur. According to Shen Yongzhong's report, there were about a thousand men.

Although there are quite a lot of black-skinned Uban slaves, accounting for almost half, the number of white-skinned and red-haired Japs has also increased significantly, and the two are almost half and half.

In addition, the commander of the Dutch fleet was a completely unfamiliar name, but Cohen, Yang Zhen's "old friend" who had met in Lushunkou before, and He Tingbin, who secretly accepted Yang Zhen's appointment through consultation with the town government, were both present this time.

Among the Dutch expedition fleet.

Knowing that He Tingbin finally made the trip, Yang Zhen was heartbroken.

With him, Yang Zhen couldn't understand what the Dutch were thinking.

At the same time, communication and coordination with the Dutch fleet can also be much smoother.

On the evening of the same day that Yang Zhen learned that the Dutch had arrived in Seogwipo waters, he decisively ordered Qiu Guangyi to lead a fleet to quickly go south to Bokjeong Island and set up camp on Bokjeong Island.

Moreover, Yang Zhen ordered Qiu Guangyi to go all the way south, passing through Uku Island and other Goto Islands, and especially after arriving at Fujiang Island, he must immediately erect a monument on the island to clearly indicate the ownership of the Goto Islands and its affiliated islands.

Yang Zhenke knew better than anyone in this era what the Dutch East India Company's fleet and its mercenaries were.

Once the Dutch fleet arrives at Fukue Island and finds that the Goto clan has been destroyed and the Japanese on Fukue Island have been wiped out, they will most likely board the island without hesitation and then claim that the island was discovered by them and belongs to them.

.

Yang Zhen didn't want the island he had worked so hard and so hard to seize to end up unknowingly taking advantage of the Dutch.

Of course, in addition to sending Qiu Guangyi to lead a fleet south after hearing the news, Yang Zhen also wrote a personal letter to Shen Yongzhong and assigned him several important matters.

At the same time, he was also ordered to continue to guard Yingzhou Island, and after receiving the letter, he requested the Dutch fleet to meet at Fujiang Island around August 16th, and then discuss joint dispatch of troops at Fujiang Island.

Yang Zhen did not want the Dutch fleet to sail north to Hirado Island before August 15th.

After all, Yang Zhen has already opened up the situation here with Jin Haizhen's own strength. He doesn't want the Dutch to suddenly intervene when he is picking fruits.

The Dutch have been interested in Hirado Port for more than a day or two. The Dutch business office was forced to move from Hirado Port to Dejima outside Nagasaki Port last year.

In order to resist the ban imposed by the Tokugawa shogunate, the Council of Senior Members of the Dutch East India Company frequently negotiated with the Tokugawa shogunate.

However, in the end, due to the Tokugawa shogunate's tough national lockdown order, it had to be relocated from Hirado Port to outside Nagasaki Port, which was directly managed by the shogunate.

If they learn that they have successfully occupied Hirado Port on Hirado Island and then bring up the matter of moving the business headquarters back to Hirado, things will be complicated.

Therefore, for Yang Zhen, the top priority now is to complete the substantive occupation of Hirado Island, Iki Island and Tsushima Island as soon as possible.

At that time, even if the Dutch come, they have made cooked rice from raw rice, and they have certain strength. Even if they follow the rules of the Dutch, they can only accept the reality. It is impossible to get a share of the pie.

.

However, in order to achieve the actual occupation of Hirado Island, Iki Island and Tsushima Island, it is necessary to complete the construction of the port fort and the castle in the port as soon as possible.

In particular, Hirado Island, which the Dutch coveted, needed to speed up the construction of Hirado Mountain Castle and its east and west forts.

Therefore, after learning that the Dutch fleet had arrived at Yingzhou Island, Yang Zhen arranged for Qiu Guangyi to go south to the Goto Islands and then stationed at Fujiang Island. He repeatedly urged the construction of Hirado Mountain Castle and Fort and Iki Island Iki Mountain Castle and Fort.

Reconstruction and expansion.

Regarding the thousands of Japanese slaves who still existed in the prisoner-of-war camps after the Matsuura prisoners of war were repatriated, Yang Zhenke had absolutely no intention of letting them idle.

Including the old and weak Japanese slaves and women who stayed on Iqi Island and refused to leave, Yang Zhen had no sympathy for them at all. He sent an order to Lin Qingye and drove them all to the construction site, forcing them to cut wood and collect wood day and night.

Stone, ramming fortress, building a city.

Of course, Yang Zhen actually knew very well that in order to maintain the current achievements, in addition to building strong city defenses on the island, he should also attract a large number of immigrants from Jinhai Town to colonize the island as soon as possible, completely replacing the original population on the island.

In a letter written by Yang Zhen to Shen Yongzhong, who was staying on Yingzhou Island, he had already told him to handle this matter. However, the time was too short and the distance was too long, so it was difficult to achieve immediate results.

Just when Yang Zhen was commanding his troops to consolidate the occupation of Hirado Island, Iki Island and other places, the retainers of other feudal lords' daimyo who had been released previously, after August, one after another brought their "

ransom".

On the morning of the second day of August, it was the Terasawa family of the Karjin clan. Yang Zhen ordered Yu Haichao to collect the rice, sulfur and some of the gold, silver and bronze used to offset the rice. He once again fulfilled his promise and immediately released Terasawa Kendaka who was shot and wounded and bedridden.

On the afternoon of the third day of August, the Kashima Domain, a branch of the Saga Domain not far from Hirado Island, after waiting and watching for a long time, also sent the prepared ransom to Hirado Port in exchange for their feudal lord Nabeshima Masashige and his wife.

The feudal warriors under his command and the Ashigaru team.

It was also in the evening of this day that Yan Shozo, who led the team to occupy Tsushima Island, also sent a ship and rushed back to Hirado Island with a detailed victory report.

Yang Zhen was overjoyed at the news and decisively summoned the Japanese slave lords who were still stranded on the island. He publicly announced the success of Yan Shengsan's occupation of Tsushima Island and informed them of the fate of the Tsushima clan.

——Because they were stubbornly resisting the Ma Zong clan’s retainers and refused to withdraw from Tsushima Island, Yan Shengsan and the others started bombarding Yan Yuan Port and Yan Yuan Castle in Yan Yuan Port for three consecutive days starting from the early morning of July 26th.

On the morning of the first day of August, Jin Yukui assembled several heavy artillery and landed, successfully destroying the outer wall of Yanyuan Castle. In the afternoon of that day, Yan Shengsan launched a full-scale landing operation on the island, and in the evening he surrounded the inner city where the castle tower of Yanyuan Castle was located.

That night, Zong Yicheng's wives and concubines took Zong Yicheng's daughters and two-year-old son and burned themselves to death in the castle tower of Yanyuan Castle.

Due to the strict implementation of the Tokugawa Shogunate's one-country-one-city order for the Tsushima clan, there is only Imuhara Castle on the two islands in the north and south of Tsushima that are almost connected together.

Therefore, as soon as Yanyuan Castle was destroyed, the news of Zong Yicheng's death spread, and at the same time, the news of Zong Yicheng's youngest son's death spread, and the entire Tsushima Domain suddenly became leaderless.

By the afternoon of the second day of August, nearly 10,000 men, women, and children from the north and south of Tsushima Island had surrendered.

Yan Shengsan ordered that all the captured Tsushima clan members, regardless of direct lineage or branch lineage, be executed. As many as 200 people were beheaded, and the entire Tsushima clan was uprooted.

After Yang Zhen informed Kuroda Tadayuki, Nabeshima Katsushige and others of this news in public, all the feudal lords' daimyo became horrified.

Some sighed speechlessly with complicated expressions, and some kowtowed to the ground and remained silent.

Yang Zhen killed Zong Yicheng on the spot, which was a huge shock to them. Now he even sent a fleet to directly occupy Tsushima Island and wiped out the Tsushima Zong family. This fact made them even more frightened.

On the evening of the third day of August, without Yang Zhen's urging, the feudal lords who had not been redeemed asked Yang Zhen to allow them to send one of their subordinates back to the domain to supervise the matter.

In this regard, after several negotiations, Yang Zhen reluctantly agreed.

In this way, at noon on the seventh day of August, the Kuroda family of the Akizuki clan and the Kuroda family of the Torenji clan, both branches of the Fukuoka clan, sent their ransoms and materials in exchange for Kuroda Chohei, Kuroda Takamasa and their

The feudal lords and the Ashigaru.

Then, on the afternoon of the ninth day of August, Omura Clan and Shimabara Clan, which were further away from Hirado Island, came hand in hand, bringing their ransom and supplies.

Naturally, Yang Zhen would not break his promise to them. In the evening of the same day, after handing over the gold, silver, grain, rice, sulfur and other materials sent by the two feudal lords, Yang Zhen ordered the release of Omura Junnobu, the lord of the Omura clan, and the lord of Shimabara clan.

The lord of the feudal lord, Tadabo Korikushi, and of course his subordinates.

In fact, even if Yan Shengsan's army was unfavorable and failed to completely wipe out the Tsushima clan and completely occupy the northern and southern islands of Tsushima, these feudal lords and daimyo would soon be unable to hold on.

Because these days, Yang Zhen ordered to use the original Matsuura Family Hirado Castle site as a basis and use a lot of manpower to comprehensively rebuild and massively expand the mountain castle.

Almost all of these captured feudal lords, retainers, retainers, and samurai gang leaders were forced to participate, except for those who were injured or seriously ill.

The feudal lord's daimyo and his retainers and attendants, who were originally pampered and pampered, couldn't bear it anymore within two days, and they no longer felt the pain in exchange for the huge amount of supplies they had to pay.
Chapter completed!