One day in September of the thirty-ninth year of Wanli, on the north bank of the Inai River estuary in Kagoshima, southern Kyushu Island, Japan. On the plain on the north bank of the estuary where the Chinese Army fortress is located, 1,000 Japanese samurai lined up in a neat square array, surrounding the Tokugawa. The important ministers of the shogunate, Itakura Shigemasa and Toda Ujitetsu, as well as the newly arrived shogunate Xiaoranosuke, were waiting there for Yin Feng, the chief leader of the China United Company, to come to negotiate. The 1,000 samurai troops were neatly organized and equipped neatly. The 300 people on the left wing are iron artillerymen drawn from each domain. The center and right wing are samurai directly under the shogunate, that is, the guards of Itakura Shigemasa and Toda Ujitetsu. They faced the cannon of the Chinese army 300 steps away under the September sun. and the rocket car. They remained motionless. The flag bearers behind the formation were carrying the shogunate's flag and the heraldic flags of the various lords of the Kyushu Allied Forces.
On the east coast of the Japanese military formation, three huge Fei battleships lined up along the coastline. Along with a dozen three-masted gunboats, they aimed hundreds of cannons at the sea 400 steps away from the Japanese samurai. Hold them.
This day was the first day that the Tokugawa Shogunate and the China United Company officially started negotiations on Kagoshima.
On the Daohechuan fortress, Yin Feng put down his telescope and coldly asked Luo Quanxiu, the commander of the fort at the entrance to the sea: "When did these people stand there?"
Luo Quanxiu, the commander of the volunteer gunners, stood at attention and replied: "We lined up here last night. We stood there secretly and silently. We have been motionless for several hours. We only discovered it in the morning. Until now, they seem to have Not even a single move."
Yin Feng sneered: "Negotiation is negotiation. You actually played this trick with me: This is a demonstration to show us. You can't win on the battlefield. Just put on a show to show us military discipline and military appearance. Humph."
"What is he doing? The captain of the ship asked me to lead some people to charge at him. Let's see what kind of formation they can come up with." Yan Siqi stepped on the crenellations of the city wall and shouted loudly.
Yin Feng nodded: "Playing this kind of psychological warfare game is just a joke in the face of absolute strength. The cavalry regiment will attack. Yan Siqi will lead the student army to attack. Follow the cavalry regiment and completely defeat the opponent's formation. Chaos. Make a way for me."
Sixty heavily armored cavalry suddenly rushed out of the fortress at the mouth of the Inagawa River. They lined up in a long snake formation 100 steps away from the Japanese samurai phalanx. Then, tall Arabian horses and Andalusian horses breathed heavily. Slowly. The ground pressed against the Japanese samurai array.
Tachibana Munege was riding behind the formation. His face was distorted. He saw the opponent's intention, but there was nothing he could do. The two armies had declared a temporary truce to each other since yesterday. Now if the iron gunners are allowed to shoot, this The 1,000 warriors in the phalanx will be immediately bombarded into pieces by hundreds of cannons from the opponent's fortress and on the sea within a few hundred steps.
Yan Siqi had a gloomy face. He led 100 student soldiers, wearing full movable plate armor and holding flintlock muskets with fixed bayonets and loaded ammunition. They lined up in two rows with 100 Yin Feng's black guards behind them. Lin Yue's whistle sounded and he marched neatly to the rhythm.
Only Taiwanese natives and Japanese warriors in the world are equipped with bamboo armor. However, this kind of bamboo armor is as meaningless as paper in front of the full set of metal plate armor of heavy cavalry.
Yin Feng's heavy cavalry slowly but firmly approached the Japanese samurai. The samurai's bamboo spears and spears stood upright. However, the Japanese samurai's short-headed spear points could hardly penetrate the thick and arced European-style plate armor. The heavy cavalry They were all carefully selected by Yin Feng, a big man from Shandong and Liaodong. The lance he held in his hand was one foot long. Only the eyes of his helmet showed through the whole body. Even the man and the horse looked like a moving iron wall.
They gently moved their long lances and pushed aside the warriors who were blocking the way; some blind guys came closer and stabbed randomly with spears and bamboo spears. But the cavalry's plate armor blocked the random punctures. They lightly He lightly urged the war horses, and forcibly knocked the samurai away with his iron armor, trampling them until they screamed. A Japanese samurai had already been seriously injured by the heavy cavalry, which weighed half a ton with both men and horses. In a short period of time, the soldiers were in strict order. The Japanese military formation was completely in chaos. The samurai on the first line were pushed to the second line. Then groups were pushed to the rear. The phalanx was completely beaten into a concave shape. The samurai's manpower was simply unable to stop the heavy armored cavalry. of progress.
Tachibana Munesege's face was ashen. He turned back to look at Itakura Shigemasa, Toda Ujitetsu and Shogun Koranosuke who were sitting in the formation. Itakura Shigemasa said with a wry smile: "Make way. Such casualties are unnecessary." Tachibana Munesege turned back. . gritted his teeth and gave the order to the messenger.
Yan Siqi's team quickly lined up on both sides of the gap created by the heavy cavalry. The bayonets pointed outward to form a corridor. Yin Feng rode his white horse and left the Dahe River Estuary Fortress surrounded by his personal guards.
The Japanese's last attempt to save some face came to nothing.
Yin Feng rode into the Japanese warrior formation. A Jesuit missionary who came to greet him and several warriors knelt down in front of his horse and saluted him.
Lu Ruohan, the consultant of the Chinese company who was negotiating this time, said in Yin Feng's ear: "They treated you with the etiquette when meeting a daimyo. It seems that you are now on par with the head of the Shimadzu family."
The hierarchy of Japanese samurai is very strict and cumbersome. For example, samurai are divided into three levels: "servant", "disciple" and "middle" (also called "nakama", which means "partner"). With one income For the 50,000-koku domain alone, the number of senior servants who belong to the rank of "shi" is as high as 63. There are 12 levels below "disciple". Those who belong to disciples and below meet senior servants on the road. Even on rainy days. They had to bow down on the roadside. Ordinary civilians had no rights at all in front of the samurai. The samurai could kill civilians they didn't like without any reason.
Itakura Shigemasa, wearing a luxurious armor, a prominent front pocket, and a guard of honor consisting of a complete set of horse markings and flags, also stood up to welcome Yin Feng's arrival; this was already equivalent to welcoming a ten-year-old It is a ceremony for daimyo who are above ten thousand stone.
The shogunate Akashi Arashinosuke stood at the end. He brought the exact decree of Tokugawa Ieyasu to Itakura Shigemasa, the general of the Kyushu Allied Forces.
As far as Ieyasu is concerned, the Sekigahara War was just the first step towards overthrowing Toyotomi. He only won the war between the Ishida side and the Tokugawa side. Toyotomi Hideyori was still above Osaka Castle. In Qianli, the world's political power must be brought into the hands of the Tokugawa no matter what. Ieyasu's years were just like this. At this time, it is insignificant to fight for the Shimazu family, which is far away, and the main force of the Tokugawa family that has joined the shogunate. The war was naturally unnecessary. Since we relied on the God-given opportunity (or man-given opportunity) of the Sekigahara War, we were able to do what even Hideyoshi could not do. He successfully compressed the Chinese Maori family into the Choshu Maori family and successfully mastered it. The remaining sea control of the Seto Inland Sea was lost. Moreover, the Chinese army has made it clear that it will withdraw from Japan after receiving compensation and revenge. Therefore, the Tokugawa shogunate has no need to consume its own strength in the Shimadzu family's Satsuma domain. Indiscriminately and A powerful overseas opponent starts a war. This is exactly what Yin Feng wants.
He jumped off the horse and saluted Itakura Shigemasa and others with a Chinese-style salute. He smiled and said: "Okay. Can we sit down and talk now? For the reckless actions of the Shimadzu family, both of us have paid the price. Now, we can talk about how to deal with the Shimadzu family."
The negotiations soon turned into a meeting between the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Chinese Army to discuss how to deal with the Satsuma Shimazu family.
First of all, the Shimadzu family must send a direct descendant to die for Yin Feng's wife; Shimazu Tadahashi, the head of the Shimadzu family who was the culprit of the attack on Ryukyu and Taiwan, has died in the battle. Yin Feng thought that he died in battle and it could not be counted. He insisted on asking Shimadzu. One more person in the family can save his life.
Other issues regarding compensation for serious property losses of the Taiwan Port China Company will be determined by the shogunate. Yin Feng's China Company will then directly discuss the compensation with the Shimadzu family. In addition, the China United Company will file a lawsuit against Shimadzu for the losses suffered by the merchants of the six countries. The debt collection amount was also determined by the shogunate. After Yin Feng's Chinese army all evacuated from Kyushu, all debt collection work had nothing to do with the Tokugawa shogunate. All troubles were attributed to the Shimadzu family. Regarding the issue of Ryukyu Island. The Tokugawa shogunate promised to keep the Ryukyu Kingdom as it was before the war. At this time, the Japanese did not know that the entire Ryukyu Kingdom was completely controlled by the Chinese army.
Of course, the Chinese company also had to agree to the conditions of the Tokugawa Shogunate: supply Chinese goods to the Tokugawa Shogunate at preferential prices and provide ten artillery pieces to Tokugawa Ieyasu at cheap prices. At the same time, Taiwan Port would be reopened to the Japanese Tokugawa Shogunate's seal ships.
The two parties had actually already agreed on the big structural issues. As for some details, Yin Feng asked Xu Xinsu and Zeng Rui to talk about it. When he returned to Tsurumaru City under the escort of the iron cavalry and Yan Siqi student army, the soldiers along the way cheered all the way.
The Chinese army will completely evacuate the southern part of Kyushu Island before October. The Satsuma Shimazu family and its various retainers' territories, the rich people, the samurai family, etc. have accumulated wealth over hundreds of years. In the past few months of the Chinese army's occupation, Almost all the gold and silver treasures that were looted by Yin Feng's men were almost sold at the auction meeting of merchants from various countries held in Kagoshima.
Therefore, the Chinese army retreated very quickly. The area around Tsurumaru Castle and Shiroyama was evacuated the day after the two parties signed the "Kagoshima Agreement." The news was conveyed to Taiwan Port by carrier pigeons within ten days. The company's board of directors was moved by this. I was shocked by the huge rewards obtained from this battle: in addition to the military operation expenses of nearly one million taels, the Chinese army plundered nearly three million taels of property, as well as a labor force of 60,000 to 70,000 people and more than 3,000 young men. Japanese woman. Moreover, the one million taels of silver demanded from the Shimadzu family as compensation is not included.
The Satsuma Domain has ten houses and nine empty houses. Of course, this does no harm to the ordinary people of the Satsuma Domain. The bottom peasants in Japan have no savings at all. All the property confiscated by the Chinese army belongs to the Satsuma samurai class. s things.
Five days later, the Chinese army evacuated from the positions along the Inaga River and the fortress at the mouth of the sea. Only the three giant ships, the Feiji, remained near Sakurajima for surveillance.
When Shimazu Tadanai entered Tsurumaru Castle with his few remaining subordinates, he looked at the ruins of Shimazu Home Castle, which was littered with ruins and empty. He almost felt like crying without tears.
According to the agreement between the shogunate and the Chinese army, one person in the Shimazu family must die for Zeng Qian. In his later years, the previous head of the family, Shimazu Yoshihisa, gave way to his adopted son Shimazu Tadashi in 1602 (the seventh year of Keicho) and lived in seclusion. He has always opposed Tadashi. He proposed a plan to attack Taiwan and Ryukyu. Now he offered to take his own life to ensure the safety of the descendants of the Shimazu family. In 1604 (the ninth year of Keicho), after the Osumi Kingdom Branch Castle (Maizuru Castle) was built. Shimazu Yoshi Yoshihisa Shimazu has been living in seclusion in this city. After the signing of the "Kagoshima Agreement", Shimazu Yoshihisa committed seppuku in Kokubu Castle. He was 77 years old. His head was sent to Yin Feng at Yamakawa Port for personal identification.
Lu Ruohan, Fujian businessman Li Dayou, and the Shimazu family's imperial doctor Xu Yi came to identify the head. They were unanimously certain that it was Shimazu Yoshihisa's head.
Yin Feng let out a long sigh, both for himself and for Shimazu Yoshihisa.
"This Shimanzi family is worthy of being a hero. They exchanged their old lives for the safety of the younger generation of the Shimazu family. Unfortunately, this is not the head of Shimazu Yoshihiro." Yin Feng turned to the generals present and said to Yiwu Luo Quanxiu, the leader of the gun soldiers, said: "Brother Luo, you see how to deal with this Shi Manzi's head."
Luo Quanxiu stared at Shimazu Yoshihiro's head for a while. He sneered and shook his head: "Sir shipowner, we chopped off many Shi Manzi's heads on the battlefield. This is enough to commemorate our Zhejiang soldiers who died on the Korean battlefield. I have no use for this head."
Yin Feng looked around, nodded, and then said to the Shimazu family's envoy: "Okay. Our life-for-life debt with the Shimazu family has been settled. You should take back Shimazu Yoshihiro's head. After all, He can be regarded as a generational hero."