Kyoto, Heiangu Shrine, in front of the Suzaku Gate, a hundred steps away, at the intersection of Suzaku Avenue and Nijo Avenue.

Yang Zhen arrived here at sunrise with Sun Dengxuan's Soaring Artillery Team and Wang Jun's Grenadier Team.

The ones who arrived here earlier than them were neither the musketeers commanded by Zhang Guogan nor the troops led by Yan Shengsan who detoured along the Yachuan River, but the Dutch musketeers led by Thomas Pedel and his servant Ufan.

Slaves.

When Thomas Pedel saw Yang Zhen and his team arriving, he immediately came forward with a smile on his face.

Obviously, he was very satisfied with the results he had achieved.

After all, not even Yang Zhen himself expected that the attack on Kyoto City would be so easy, and that he would reach the final destination of his trip so easily.

"Captain Yang, you are here just in time. We have already tried to attack the city gate in front of us, but without artillery, it is difficult to break through. If we want to break into this city gate, we need your help!"

Heiangu Palace is the imperial residence of Kyoto and is also called Ouchi. At this time, the highest ground of Ouchi Palace is in sight.

However, the thousands of archers, pikemen, and arquebusiers who were hiding at the Suzaku Gate became an unavoidable obstacle.

Yang Zhen had already noticed what Thomas said, but he also noticed that there was no moat in front of the Zhuque Gate, which was heavily guarded by the Japanese.

There is only one "two major roads" running from east to west.

The two here means not two, but the second one.

The layout of the Japanese Heiankyo, that is, Kyoto city, is based on the layout of the capital of the Tang Dynasty. The imperial palace faces south from the north. The main gate facing south is called Suzaku Gate, and the main street that runs from north to south is called Suzaku Street.

Correspondingly, the east-west road outside the north gate of the palace is called Yi Da Road, and the east-west road outside the south gate of the palace, the Zhuque Gate, is called Er Tiao Da Road.

By analogy, the entire Kyoto city has nine major roads from north to south. At the intersection of Kujo major road and Suzaku Street, there is a huge torii gate symbolizing the main gate, which is the official gate into the city.

Suzaku Street, which runs from north to south, also divides the city of Kyoto into two.

The one in the east is called Luoyang, also known as Zuojing. It is dotted with the residences of nobles and various temples like a chessboard.

The one to the west is called Chang'an, also called Ukyo, and it also has a variety of folk houses and townhouses distributed in a checkerboard pattern.

At this moment, Yan Shengsan, who had entered the Sakyo area via the Kamogawa waterway, was leading his troops to fight in and out east of Suzaku Street.

Zhang Guogan and his troops were attacking and advancing among the townspeople's streets in the so-called Ukyo area to the west of Zhuque Street.

Naturally, Yang Zhen would show no mercy to the Japanese, and those who dared to resist would of course be killed without mercy.

So even though Zhang Guogan, Yan Sheng and others had not yet arrived at Zhuque Gate at this time, Yang Zhen was not in a hurry.

Because as long as the peripheral resistance forces of Kyoto City are eliminated, the palace will inevitably not survive, but it will only be sooner or later.

Moreover, Yang Zhen also needed to wait for Zhang Guogan to lead his army to penetrate the area under the jurisdiction of Youjing, directly to the right rear of the palace, and then completely blockade the inner area of ​​the imperial palace.

After that, you can catch a turtle in a urn, and no one in the palace can escape.

This was a plan that was made before, and there is no need to change it now.

"Haha, brother Thomas, we have already reached here, what is there to be anxious about? Let them jump around for a while, they won't be able to jump around for much longer!"

Thomas scratched his head after hearing what Yang Zhen said, as if he didn't understand what jumping around meant.

But he also understood one thing, that is, Yang Zhen was not in a hurry, and was confident of taking down the guarded palace in front of him.

While the two were talking, someone at the Zhuque Gate shouted something loudly.

So Yang Zhen finished answering Thomas, ignored him, and then turned to He Tingbin who was following him.

"Captain, the man said that he is Shonagon, an aide-de-camp to Emperor Gomizuoin. His name is Iwakura Aruno. He wants to meet the governor."

"Meet me in person? How do you do this? Tell him that if he wants to see me, just open the Suzaku Gate and come out! Don't worry, I won't take the opportunity to launch an attack."

Yang Zhen originally wanted to persuade him to surrender first and stabilize the hearts of the people in the palace in front of him.

Since someone from the other side has taken the initiative to meet with me, I would take this opportunity to persuade him to surrender and also take the opportunity to understand the situation inside.

After Yang Zhen told He Tingbin his thoughts, He Tingbin immediately stepped forward and shouted out what Yang Zhen meant.

The person above the Suzaku Gate opposite who just asked to meet was silent for a while. Suddenly, the crowd relaxed. After a while, the Suzaku Gate creaked open a crack, and a man wearing a tasseled crown and black clothes flashed out.

A young man in a colorful robe comes.

The young man had two knives, one large and one small, in his waist, but his hands were not pressed on the handles of the knives. Instead, they held up a small white flag together.

Yang Zhen took a closer look and saw that there was a black chrysanthemum pattern on the white flag.

This is the family crest of the Japanese royal family.

Of course, just when the Suzaku Gate opened a crack, Thomas suddenly approached Yang Zhen and whispered: "Captain Yang—why not take this opportunity to order an invasion?!"

Yang Zhen turned to look at him, but before he could answer, he heard the Suzaku door in front of him creak and slam shut.

Seeing this, Thomas shrugged awkwardly and stepped aside.

At this time, the young man who claimed to be the Attendant of the Emperor Gomizuoin, Shōnagon, was already holding a flag and came not far from Yang Zhen and others.

However, what surprised Yang Zhen was that Shōnagon, the Duke of Kyoto who claimed to be a capable Iwakura, actually made a ninety-degree bow to Thomas Pedel, a tall foreign devil.

It seems that in the eyes of the Japanese, they took it for granted that the leader who could lead the army to attack the Suzaku Gate in Kyoto City must be a foreigner.

However, when Yang Zhen saw this, and saw Thomas Pedel also looking confused, Yang Zhen simply made the mistake, nodded and curled his lips at him, and signaled him to come forward to deal with it.

At this time, He Tingbin, who originally wanted to introduce the person in charge of his party, immediately stopped and closed his mouth when he saw Yang Zhen acting like this.

But at this time, the Japanese Shounai Iwakura, who almost bowed to the ground, straightened up and said something to Thomas Pedel.

Of course Thomas didn't understand, so he could only turn to look at He Tingbin.

At this time, I heard He Tingbin translate in Chinese: "Iwakura is able to say that the Japanese royal family has no relationship with the Dutch and the Ming Dynasty, let alone grievances and no enmity. He asked us why we came to Kyoto City?

What do they have to do before we agree to withdraw our troops?"

After saying this, He Tingbin translated again in Dutch.

The performance of He Tingbin, a general of Tang Dynasty, obviously immediately attracted the attention of Iwakura Yuno.

What next made Iwakura even more shocked was that the arrogant Thomas Pedel, who was standing in front of him with blond hair, green eyes and white skin, actually answered him in Chinese with a playful smile.

"We haven't been here before, why can't we come now? Haha, of course we are here for peace. As long as you surrender unconditionally and we get what we want, we will retreat! Governor Yang, what I said is correct, right?

?”

The first half of Thomas Pedel's words was condescending to Iwakura Yuno, and the unreasonableness in it naturally made Iwakura Yuno very angry.

But Thomas Pedel's last words were directed to Yang Zhen, which shocked Iwakura Yunō. His small eyes widened and he looked at Yang Zhen with a look of disbelief on his face.

"Captain Yang? Could it be that you, you are the person in charge of the army that invaded Kyoto?!"

When Iwakura Yuno opened his mouth like this, Yang Zhen and many people around Yang Zhen were immediately shocked.

Because when this kid opened his mouth, he actually spoke Chinese.

There is a man in Iwakura who looks to be in his twenties, with a fair face and beardless skin, and tender skin, like a eunuch.

After Yang Zhen was astonished, he quickly felt relieved when he thought that he was in front of the Suzaku Gate in Kyoto, and the young minister in front of him was from a family of officials in Kyoto.

In the early days of the Tokugawa shogunate, after the lock-down order was issued, many Ming businessmen living in Japan at that time became Japanese naturalized.

Among them, there were those who joined the feudal lord's daimyo's family as retainers and feudal lords, and there were also those who joined the Japanese imperial family as servants.

In addition, the Japanese at this time almost always used Chinese characters when writing official documents, personal letters, and business documents.

Therefore, many Japanese feudal lords or noble families in Kyoto would serve as Tang ministers, and the far-sighted noble families would even teach their children to learn Chinese.

In this case, it is not surprising that this Iwakura can speak Chinese.

"I completely agree with Thomas Kapitan's statement. Since we are here, we must see your emperor, and if we don't get what we want, we will never return empty-handed."

Faced with Iwakura Yuno's surprised question, Yang Zhen first expressed his position as the Dutchman, then thought about it and added to him:

"Haha, Iwakura is capable. Do you understand what I mean when I say this? You have no other choice but to surrender unconditionally. Now that the matter has come to this, does it still matter who is in charge of our affairs?"

Although Yang Zhen did not confess that he was the person in charge of this Ming-Dutch coalition, the meaning of his words could no longer be understood.

Iwakura Yunō took a deep look at Yang Zhen, nodded, and no longer struggled with the problem, but asked directly:

"I wonder what you want to get from Kyoto when you come here to show off your power?"

"You ask what we want to get? Very good. If you don't avoid the question, it is a good start. Brother Thomas, please tell this Shaonayan about your Dutch East India Company's peace proposals!"

"Dutch East India Company?"

As soon as Iwakura Yunō heard these words, he was stunned, with unconcealable horror on his face.

As a descendant of a noble family in Kyoto, Iwakura Yuno had certainly heard of the Dutch and the reputation of the Dutch East India Company.

It's just that in the past, no matter what kind of trouble the foreign barbarians caused, the shogunate stood in front and had full authority to deal with it. They, the ministers of Kyoto, would only hide behind and gloat at the misfortune, and even complained in their hearts that they had lost the right to participate.

But when Yang Yi really came, they were scared to death.

In his panic, Thomas Peder unceremoniously stated the exact demands he made to the Tokugawa Shogunate.

And at the end, he added: "In addition to the aforementioned requirements of ceding territory, indemnity, and opening up trade, this time we had no choice but to mobilize troops to come to Kyoto, which cost a huge amount, and we were also attacked and blocked on land and sea. There were many soldiers and warships.
Chapter completed!