The Tokugawa shogunate judged that it would take about three months for the Xia Kingdom to complete preparations for war against Japan.
Is this judgment correct?
right.
Not right either.
Yes, if you launch a war to destroy the country, you will indeed need to prepare for it for at least three months.
What's wrong is that the Xia Kingdom did not want to completely wipe out Japan.
At least judging from the current situation, Xia Guo absolutely cannot do this.
Since it is not a battle to destroy the country, the preparation time can naturally be greatly reduced.
The most important thing is that in view of the current situation, the Xia Kingdom Central Committee has already arranged corresponding countermeasures.
First the Zheng family, then Japan, and guard against the Ming Dynasty.
In other words, for the current Xia State, the most important opponent is the Zheng family.
Eliminating the Zheng family and opening up the trade channel between the East and Southeast Asia are more important than anything else.
Only by eliminating the Zheng family first can the Xia Kingdom completely remove the obstacles to entering the deep sea. No matter what kind of strategic arrangements they make in the future, they can be free to do so.
Japan, on the other hand, is relatively solid domestically. It has not undergone a long period of operation and has not undergone much change. Xia Guo wants to swallow it up in one go, but it is really powerless.
The same was true for this declaration of war against the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Note that the object of Xia's declaration of war is only the Tokugawa Shogunate, not the entire Japan.
And this is also the main reason why those famous works with similar appearance remain on the wall.
Regarding the Tokugawa shogunate, Xia Guo's purpose was to weaken its strength through war so that it could not fully control the situation in Japan.
At the same time, the degree of confrontation between the various daimyo and the Tokugawa shogunate was increased.
Only Japan, which is in civil strife, can be greatly weakened and provide conditions for conquering Xia.
Under this policy, the scale of the war against Japan was actually very limited.
The Xia Kingdom Central Committee only handed over this task to the Korean Military Region and the North Sea Fleet, and did not provide too many resources.
"General Lou, why are you here? Where is our North Korean Governor?"
Zhang Keda was quite surprised when he saw Lou Fu rushing to Busan.
Lou Fu laughed and joked: "Commander Bai said that he is the governor of North Korea, and his responsibilities are only in North Korea. It is not good for him to interfere in Japan's affairs. So I have to do it."
Zhang Keda also couldn't help but smile.
"General Bai is extremely smart and will definitely have a bright future."
There is a lot of information in this short conversation.
Bai Xiaoqi is a very smart person.
When he was appointed as the Governor-General of Korea, Commander of the Korean Military Region, and with the rank of General, he realized that he was a bit out of his league.
Although the political situation in Xia Kingdom is relatively stable now, if you don't know how to be cautious, you will definitely cause disaster.
Therefore, when he wanted to launch a war against Japan this time, he simply made an excuse and did not take the command, but pushed his deputy Lou Fu out.
Except for Lou Fu, no major troops in the entire Korean Military Region were mobilized.
Because according to the central plan, so many troops are not needed.
In the land battle, only the First Marine Division participated.
Even among the 1st Marine Division, only the 1st Marine Regiment will be put into use in the early operations.
"Our plan is to take the lead in eliminating Matsudaira Nobutsuna's troops and isolate Kyushu Island from other Japanese places. As long as we achieve this step, we will take the initiative whether it is war or peace."
Tang Wenhuan, the new commander of the 1st Marine Division, briefed on the battle plan.
As a naval general, Zhang Keda must of course cooperate in the battle.
He asked: "If we act like this, will the various daimyo on Kyushu Island be worried?"
Lou Fu has received the authorization from the central government and is in control of the entire situation.
"Except for the Karatsu Clan and Saga Clan that have been eliminated by the Shimabara Rebel Army, we will control the Shimabara Rebel Army from attacking the rest of the areas. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent people to contact the various daimyo on Kyushu Island. I believe
They can’t wait for this situation to happen.”
The conflict between the daimyō and the Tokugawa shogunate has long been documented, and the generals in this battle naturally have a firm grasp of it.
"If we only want to eliminate Matsudaira Nobutsuna, the Marine Corps alone and the cooperation of the Shimabara rebels will be enough."
It's not that the Xia army generals are arrogant.
Although Matsudaira Nobutsuna had more than 100,000 soldiers and horses under his command at this time, in fact, the number of trusted followers he brought from the shogunate was less than 10,000.
The rest is the power of various famous names.
Except for the 5,600 Mizuno Katsunari of Bizen Kuni Fukuyama Domain, the rest were all daimyo from Kyushu Island.
The reason given by the shogunate was that since the rebellion originated in Kyushu, the local daimyo should be responsible for suppressing it.
The shogunate sent people here to perform command and supervision duties.
If there is no interference from outside forces, this arrangement is very appropriate.
While the Tokugawa shogunate could deeply intervene in the affairs of Kyushu Island, at the same time, it could hold the daimyo accountable for their negligence during the battle and complete the integration of forces.
But now that Natsu has arrived, the people around Matsudaira Nobutsuna will not only not be a boost, but will also become a time bomb.
Once they lost the help of these Kyushu daimyo, Matsudaira Nobutsuna's own troops could not even protect themselves.
The plan was formulated and Xia Jun immediately went into action.
The North Sea Fleet was divided into two groups.
Zhang Keda personally led the main force and cruised in the waters between Kyushu Island and other islands, forming a separation.
At this point, the Tokugawa shogunate no longer wants to send troops into Kyushu, let alone rescue Matsudaira Nobutsuna.
Even though the shogunate reacted quickly and sent people to inform Matsudaira Nobutsuna. But when the messenger arrived in Osaka, he heard that Xia Jun had blocked the sea area, so he had to stop and look at the ocean.
Huang Fei led the squadron and headed straight for the Shimabara Peninsula.
This squadron will become a surprise force against Matsudaira Nozuna.
At this time, the Shimabara Rebel Army had lost most of the captured land due to consecutive defeats and retreated to the Shimabara Peninsula.
Yuan Shengsheng received the battle order, and after consulting with Amakusa Tokisada, he simply retreated to the end and defended the original city.
Although Matsudaira Nobutsuna fought hard, he was very excited when he saw that the Shimabara rebel army was forced into a blind corner. He immediately led his army to rush in and surrounded Hara Castle.
The next thing to do is naturally the siege.
No matter how long the fight lasts, as long as the food in the city is completely consumed, destroying the city will definitely not be a problem.
"Why are the soldiers and horses of Bunzen Kingdom delayed in arriving? Send someone to urge them. If you dare to delay again, military law will be engaged."
"The other soldiers and horses are also moving too slowly. Order them to quickly clear out the remaining soldiers in various places and come to join them."
After entering the Shimabara Peninsula, Matsudaira Nobutsuna divided the troops into several groups. Except for the fact that he personally led the main force to pursue Hara Castle, he assigned other daimyo to various places to eliminate the remaining forces.
As a result, he had been fighting outside the original city for three days and three nights, suffering heavy losses, and the various big names still did not come to join him, which made him very dissatisfied.
But he didn't know that it was no longer possible for the soldiers and horses of the Kyushu daimyo to come to join him.