However, Shang Yi also knew that going all out to the ocean would not be something that could be completed in a few years, and colonizing India was a distant plan. Even whether the British East India Company decided to cooperate with him was unknown. After all, in
In another time and space, the arrival of British merchant ships to China was already a matter of the next century. What I am doing now is just to pave the way for the future. As for whether it will be used and when it will be used, it can only be left to chance.
Dead.
Therefore, after Blake and Hans left Hangzhou, everything quickly returned to normal, and Shang Yi focused all his attention on preparing for war and development.
A few days later, Shang Yi also received news that the fleet that conquered the Satsuma Domain was about to return victoriously.
A month ago, Alexandra, on behalf of Shang Yi, signed a peace agreement with Mitsuhisa Shimazu. Because neither party could represent their own government, the agreement could only be named after the place where it was signed, and was called
[Kagoshima Treaty]. And this treaty also suffered a lot of criticism a few years later.
Controversy, some people think that this is the first treaty that Shang Yi actually signed with a foreign country in the process of dominating the East, so he added the words "China and Japan" in front, but some people think that this cannot be regarded as a treaty at all.
, at best it can be regarded as a rather special document.
Of course, Alexandra would not know about these future disputes. At this time, she had looted the entire Satsuma Peninsula and captured nearly 50,000 people, most of whom had been transferred to Ryukyu Island.
In and Shimadzu
After Mitsuhisa signed the treaty and received the first batch of silver indemnity from the Satsuma Domain, he immediately took the remaining population and supplies, as well as all the troops, and evacuated Kyushu Island in batches in just three days, returning to
Arrive at Ryukyu Island.
After learning that the Ming army had retreated, Shimazu Mitsuhisa finally breathed a sigh of relief. In any case, this nightmare was over. But when he returned to Kagoshima with the remaining old ministers, he found that he passed by Satsuma.
Kagoshima Castle, which the feudal lord has managed for more than two hundred years, is almost in ruins.
The main city of Tsurumaru Castle was basically completely destroyed, leaving only a few ruins. Several towns and districts in Kagoshima Castle where wealthy people lived together were also set on fire. The large city that once had a population of hundreds of thousands,
At this time, only a few hundred residents remained, and the rest fled into
In the mountains, even if they were captured by the merchant army, all small and valuable things such as gold, silver, jade, etc. were also swept away, and some large and heavy things were smashed. Except for a few houses where civilians lived, there was almost no one.
The complete thing.
Seeing such a scene, Shimazu Mitsuhisa was almost on the verge of tears. The loss of the Satsuma clan could not be described as a serious loss of vitality, and all the vitality was completely consumed.
However, grief is grief, and the aftermath still needs to be dealt with. While Shimazu Mitsuhisa ordered people to gather the people who fled and check the losses, he also ordered people to report to the shogunate Tokugawa Iemitsu. Of course, he can't say that he signed an indemnity agreement.
The treaty caused the merchant army to retreat, but after a hard battle, they finally defeated the Ming army, but they also suffered heavy losses, so they asked Tokugawa Iemitsu to exempt him from going to Edo to serve this year, and gave Satsuma
Necessary assistance to the feudal lord.
In fact, Japan is just a small place, and if something goes wrong, it will spread to the whole island immediately. What's more, if such a big thing happened, Tokugawa Iemitsu and other daimyo had already received the news, but the Merchant Army
The move was too fast. In less than a month, the troops were withdrawn from Kyushu Island. Tokugawa Iemitsu and other daimyo did not react at all. Therefore, when Shimazu Mitsuhisa's official document was passed to Tokugawa Iemitsu, this
Tokugawa Iemitsu already knew the basic situation of the First World War.
Seeing this, Tokugawa Iemitsu also found it very funny that Shimazu Mitsuhisa was pretending to be a fat man and concealing the fact that he would pay reparations and make peace. At the same time, he was secretly happy because after wiping out Toyotomi Hideyori in Osaka, the Tokugawa shogunate
The primary threat to the Satsuma Domain was the Satsuma Domain. Three generations of Tokugawa generals were trying to find ways to
Trying to reduce the strength of the Satsuma Domain. However, generations of the Shimazu clan were also very cunning and never gave the shogunate an excuse to reduce themselves. Therefore, at this time, the Satsuma Domain's territorial salary was 770,000 koku, which was among the major names in Japan.
, ranking second only to the 1.02 million koku of the Kaga Domain Maeda clan.
But this time, for some reason, the Satsuma clan actually took the initiative to provoke the Ming Dynasty. As a result, they were severely beaten by the Ming army. They even lost Ryukyu and were completely reduced to a second-rate majority. Therefore, they could no longer become a threat to the shogunate.
Tokugawa Iemitsu was naturally extremely happy. Of course, it was still a pretentious gesture to express his sympathy for the Satsuma Domain.
In response to Shimazu Mitsuhisa's request, he was exempted from serving in Edo this year. At the same time, the salary of the Satsuma Domain was increased by 50,000 koku, from 770,000 koku to 820,000 koku to show that
Assistance to the Satsuma Domain. He also stated that he would definitely stand up for the Satsuma Domain and question the Ming Dynasty in the form of a state for its unprovoked invasion of the Satsuma Domain.
Of course Shimazu Mitsuhisa knew that all countries were bullshit, but he was relieved because what he was most afraid of was that the Tokugawa Shogunate would take this opportunity to further weaken the Satsuma clan and add insult to injury. It seems that Tokugawa Iemitsu has not yet done this.
Intend.
But even so, the losses of the Satsuma Domain were also very huge. Not only was a huge amount of wealth robbed and a major source of financial revenue was robbed, but the loss of personnel within the domain alone, including soldiers and residents, was close to 100,000, and
Most of them are young and middle-aged. In the Satsuma Peninsula, there are almost no young women between fifteen and twenty-five years old. As far as the population is concerned, it will not recover in less than 20 to 30 years. At the same time, there is still a lot of debt.
debt.
Now Kagoshima Castle is basically finished, and Shimazu Mitsuhisa has no money to rebuild, so after discussing with the retainers, he decided to move the capital to Kajigi Castle. After a month of planning, Satsuma Domain finally settled in Kajigi
The city settled down, and life after the disaster began.
Shimazu Mitsuhisa, who finally breathed his last breath, also gathered several important family elders, retainers Niinahara Tadashi, Kaguyama Hisataka, Nagahiro Yoshiyuki, Hirata Soujiro and others to discuss the next step.
Shimazu Mitsuhisa said: "The attack on Kagoshima by the Ming army this time is really a great shame for our Satsuma clan. We Satsuma people will definitely remember this hatred. No matter if it is ten years or twenty years, we will
You must report it.”
Kaguyama Hisakado: "But this domain is now severely weakened and has lost Ryukyu, an important source of financial revenue. It is not easy to take revenge. Unless we can take back Ryukyu, there may be hope."
Nagahiro Yoshiyuki shook his head and said: "It is not easy to take back Ryukyu. You have also seen the Ming army's fleet, which is simply not something we can match. Water battles rely on warships and artillery.
Victory cannot be won by desperate efforts. I think even if all the naval forces in Japan are concentrated, they will not be able to defeat the Ming army."
After this battle, the generals of the Satsuma Domain finally understood what the real battlefield looked like, and the strength of the merchant army far exceeded their imagination, so all of them lost their pride and spoke.
His tone also became much softer.
Seeing that everyone else was speechless, Shimazu Mitsuhisa also knew that today's discussion would not produce any results, so he felt very excited, so he announced the banquet and planned to go back to the back house to drink and relieve his worries. But after everyone left,
However, the old man, Shinnahara Tadashi, turned back, called Shimazu Mitsuhisa, and said: "My lord, please stay."
Shimazu Mitsuhisa also felt a little strange and said: "Hara Tadashi, what can I do for you?"
Shinnahara Tadashi said: "My lord, I have come up with a way to not only take back Ryukyu, but also to avenge this defeat."
After hearing this, Shimazu Mitsu couldn't help but perked up and said: "Hara Tadashi, tell me quickly, what can you do?"
Shinnahara Tadada: "Now it seems that even if this domain is completely restored to its original state, I am afraid that it will not be a match for Shang Yi, let alone now. Therefore, if you want to avenge the defeat, you can only concentrate the power of all Japan."
Shimazu Mitsuhisa frowned, smiled bitterly, and said: "Together all Japan's power, wouldn't that mean an all-out war with the Ming Dynasty? We, Japan, are a small country with few people, how can we be the opponent of the Ming Dynasty? At that time, Taige's
Lesson, don’t forget it.”
Xina Yuanzhong shook his head and said: "This time the Ming army was originally Shang Yi's personal effort, so we only fought against Shang Yi, not the entire Ming Dynasty, and now the Ming Dynasty is fighting fiercely with the Manchus in the north.
They may not come to control the war between us and Shang Yi."
Shimazu Mitsuhisa said: "Even if this is the case, except for the shogunate, who can call on all Japan to deal with Shang Yini? And Tokugawa Iemitsu, Iemitsu, it's not enough to see our jokes. He and Shang Yi
If you don’t have any hatred, how can you call on all Japan to fight against Shang Yi?”
Shinnahara Tadada: "Although there is no enmity between Tokugawa Iemitsu and Shang Yi, my lord, please don't forget that the Tokugawa family's biggest enemy is settling in Zhejiang, and it is within Shang Yi's jurisdiction."
Shimazu Mitsuhisa was stunned for a moment and said: "Hara Tadashi, are you talking about Princess Akun and the others?"
Although the Japanese business group was arranged to go to China by the Satsuma Domain, their details were only known to a few people within the domain, and of course Niinahara Tadashi was one of these few.
Shinnahara Tadada said: "It is precisely because of Princess Akoru that Tokugawa Iemitsu can recruit all the daimyo in Japan to become enemies of Shang Yi, and only then can our Satsuma clan have the opportunity to avenge this defeat and regain Ryukyu at the same time.
"
Shimazu Mitsuhisa hesitated for a moment and said: "This domain was greatly favored by Lord Taiko back then, so how could Kazuo now betray Lord Taiko's only bloodline?"
Shinnahara Tadada: "Those who achieve great things should not stick to small details, and this is our only chance. Otherwise, our Satsuma Domain will never turn around. Therefore, I ask you to think twice about which is more important and which is less important."
Shimazu Mitsuhisa pondered for a while and then said: "Hara Tadashi, please let me think about it carefully, but don't let other people know about this matter."