Fukuoka, Genki New Army Battalion, Headquarters.

Xiao Mingliang, who was standing in front of the huge sand table, held his hand and rubbed his chin and stubble beard, but his eyes were staring at the mountains west of Kyoto.

At present, the line from Nagoya to Tsuruga has been cut into two sections, north and south, and the entire plan is also divided into two stages, first south and then north, but because of the lack of troops, it is necessary to avoid fighting on the north and south lines at the same time, and the reason why the Japanese king was allowed to flee west is to destroy the southern feudal domains when pursuing the Japanese king, but not to let the shogunate panic.

While pondering, a staff officer walked up to him and reported: "Commander, Nagoya is calling, yesterday, the defenders stationed on Nakasendo ambushed more than 1,000 elite Japanese troops who rushed to the pass at Xingjingyi, and captured several Japanese ....... ”

"Only a few Japanese members were arrested?" Xiao Mingliang asked, with the cooperation of the shogunate, they set up ambushes on the Nakasendo and Tokaido and several small roads, and the main target was the Wa King, not a member of the Wa Kingdom.

"Yes, there are no sixteen or seventeen teenagers among all the captives, and the highest ranking among the captured adults is Masami Inaba, who is one of the elders of the shogunate."

Inaba Masami is quite a respected old middle school of the Tokugawa family, Xiao Mingliang naturally knows something, but he is not interested in this person, so he even instructed: "Report to the big treasurer, Inaba Masami is temporarily detained in Nagoya." ”

Soon, the return call from Yi Zhizhi arrived, and the content was very simple - a gift to Inaba Masami back to Edo.

After reading the telegram, Xiao Mingliang frowned and said, "The principal is showing favor to the shogunate?" ”

"It's not a show of goodwill, it's a stabilisation of the shogunate." Guo Zhongmu said with a smile: "The purpose of Inaba Masami's active activities in Kyoto is to promote the union of the public and military forces, to send him back to Edo, and possibly to test the reaction of the shogunate. ”

Xiao Mingliang said slowly: "I'm worried that it will be self-defeating, if the shogunate knows the details of Kyoto, I'm afraid it won't sit still." ”

"The shogunate didn't know anything about the situation in Kyoto." Guo Zhongmu laughed and said, "They just pretend not to know." ”

Edo, wharf.

Stepping on the dock, seeing a group of shogunate officials who were hurrying up to meet him, Inaba Masami still had a feeling of unreality, and when he looked back, he saw the officer in charge of escorting him on the Qing warship smiled and waved to him, he bent down and bowed, anyway, all the way from Nagoya, the other party's attitude was still very friendly.

Straightened up, and when the officials who greeted him arrived, he didn't even say a polite greeting, and said straightly: "Go to the General's Mansion." ”

Outside the gate of the General's Mansion, Masayi Inaba got down from the sedan chair, and Matsudaira Yasuei greeted him with a smile on his face, bowed and said, "Masaji-kun is frightened." ”

The shock that Inaba Masami received this time was indeed not small, and it was a great luck to be able to return to Edo alive, and he returned the salute before he said, "Has the Lord's condition improved?" ”

Hearing this, Matsudaira Yasuei sighed lightly and shook his head slowly, "It's getting more and more serious........" ”

In an eventful autumn, at a time of crisis, but the king of heaven is young, and the general is seriously ill, is it possible that the sky is going to die? Masashi Inaba took a deep breath and strode through the door.

Outside the Tokugawa Iemo dormitory, Inaba Masashi saw Sakai Tadanori waiting outside, and after greeting him, Sakai Tadashi said with a straight face: "The lord's body is weak, and it is not appropriate to be stimulated." ”

Inaba said in a deep voice: "The situation is beyond imagination, and I must report it truthfully. With that, he took a detour and went straight into the dormitory, kneeling down before the Tokugawa Ishige collapsed.

Seeing people coming in, Tokugawa Ishige tried his best to prop himself up and lay half-down, and said in a weak voice, "It's good that I can come back safely." ”

Seeing that Jia Mao was really getting weaker and weaker, but he was still worried about his safety, Inaba Zhengsi's nose was sour, and his voice was a little choked, "The Qing Kingdom is not just going to destroy our country, but to destroy our clan, and the minister has the courage to implore the Lord to send troops to relieve the siege of Kyoto!" ”

Sakai Tadatsu, who followed in, heard this, and hurriedly said: "Even if you send troops, you can't solve the siege of Kyoto." After a pause, he continued: "Yuanqi has destroyed countless countries, and there has never been a precedent for exterminating the clan. ”

"In the land of Kyoto, millions of displaced people have gathered, and a large number of displaced people are starving to death all the time, and if it is delayed for more than a month, it will inevitably be one in ten, so ruthless, what is it if it is not extermination?" Ye Zheng said sharply: "The king of heaven has mercy on the people, voluntarily went to the capital of the Qing Kingdom to meet the beggars, and sent envoys to the Qing army camp five times, but all of them were killed, this is definitely not an ordinary expedition, but a sincere desire to destroy the country and the clan!" ”

Although the Qing army strictly sealed the news, but the shogunate in Kyoto has a lot of eyes and ears, its own secret means of communication, Kyoto homeless people gathered, starvation everywhere, Iemo and others are clear, but Meiji sent the Qing army camp to be killed several times, but they have never heard of it, several people are shocked, Matsudaira Yasuei said with a pale face: "The two countries are at war without killing the envoys, the Qing army is so ruthless?" ”

Inaba Zhengsi said in a deep voice: "The envoy was sent three times, and only one of the attendants was cut off and put back. ”

The Qing army is not even allowed to surrender! There was silence in the room, and after a while, Sakai Tadashi said: "The Qing army intends to cut off the inheritance of our royal family, and it is not surprising that it is not allowed to surrender, the Qing army has excellent firearms, strong combat power, and is even more brutal and ruthless, we can't let Edo become the second Kyoto!" ”

The shogunate army is far from being the opponent of the Qing army, and the shogunate is well aware of this, which is why the shogunate knows the situation in Kyoto and pretends to be deaf and ignorant, because even if it sends troops to reinforce Kyoto, it will not be able to relieve the siege of Kyoto, but will attract the Qing army to attack Edo.

Hearing this, Inaba Masami sneered, "Can you keep Edo without resistance?" After the Qing army captured Kyoto, it was inevitable to turn its guns and attack Edo! ”

Sakai Tadashi glanced at him, did not say a word, the shogunate and Yuan Qi had an agreement to allow the shogunate to surrender, although the shogunate general controlled the real power of the Japanese state, but there was no righteous name, the Qing army could not rush to kill everything, and besides, Yuan Qi and the shogunate got along well for more than ten years, the shogunate was willing to surrender, and Yuan Qi had no reason to fight!

Seeing Sakai, Tadashi was silent, and Matsudaira Yasuei spoke: "Yuanqi may not be able to fight Edo after capturing Kyoto, but if we reinforce Kyoto, Yuanqi will definitely attack Edo!" Edo and the Kanto Plain have a population of tens of millions, we can't afford to take this risk, even if there is a glimmer of hope, we must do our best! ”

Sakai Tadanori echoed: "The key is that you can't win!" Our battle with the Qing army is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg. ”

If you can't win, you should wash your neck and let others slaughter you? Inaba Masami was very disdainful of the two, looked at Tokugawa Ieshige, and said, "Lord——。 ”

Tokugawa Ieshige glanced at Sakai Tadanori and said slowly, "Yuanqi promised not to fight the Edo ........ ”

Seeing Jiamao, Sakai did not hide it, and slowly said that he had reached an agreement with Yi Zhicontent, and Inaba Masashi was silent for a long time before saying, "Could this be Yuanqi's divisive plan?" Let's sit back and watch Kyoto be destroyed, and then let's fight Edo.

At that time, there will be no daimyo to help us. ”

"It's not like we haven't thought about it." Sakai Tadanori said: "As I said before, even if the public and military forces are combined and the whole country is gathered to resist stubbornly, we will not be able to escape the result of being destroyed, so we can only hope that Yuanqi will keep his promise." ”

"What's the use of Yuanqi's promise? It was the Qing Imperial Army that attacked Kyoto! Zong Ye Zheng sneered: "If Yuan Qi doesn't come to fight, it's hard to guarantee that they won't fight!" ”

"It's too late to say anything now." Sakai Tadanori said coldly: "The wood is already in the boat!" ”

With the continuous influx of a large number of displaced people into Kyoto Prefecture, Kyoto Prefecture is overcrowded for most of the month, and Kyoto, and surrounding towns are all crowded, and a large number of people are still pouring in every day.

In ordinary disaster years, there are still people who give soup porridge, but in this situation, no one dares to give porridge for relief, the number of displaced people is too large, and the amount of food is not enough to toss.

At present, the grain in Kyoto has risen to two taels of gold and one stone, and there is still no price in the market, and it is impossible to buy grain with gold and silver.

In stark contrast to the deserted depression of the grain market is the human market, a yellow flower girl can be exchanged for only a bucket of rice, many children don't want anything, just ask for stuttering, and another lively place is the recruitment office of the strange soldiers, countless young and strong young men are scrambling to take the exam, although it is dangerous to be a soldier, but at least they can eat enough.

After all, the fortunate ones are a minority, the vast majority of the homeless people are in a state of starvation, and everything that can be eaten is eaten by the hungry homeless people with green eyes, and the whole of Kyoto is like a rare locust plague, and it is bare as far as the eye can see.

In order to prevent the rebellion of the displaced people, all the towns hired a large number of patrols, patrolling day and night, even so, the situation of the displaced people storming the towns and looting the wealthy merchants still happened from time to time, and the newly formed strange army did not face the Qing army, and began to suppress the riots of the displaced people first.

A man-made famine spread rapidly in Kyoto and surrounding towns, killing people almost every moment, and dead bodies can be seen everywhere on the roadside, in the suburbs, and in the wilderness.

The situation in the city of Kyoto is slightly better, but it is also panicked, the news that Kyoto has been besieged on three sides has already spread, a number of princes and nobles, rich businessmen and big men are like ants on a hot pot are sitting still, frightened, the current lottery, not even a chance to escape, although the west is not besieged, but now the city is full of hungry people, who dares to go out of the city? If you don't go out of the city, the Qing army will call, and you will still be dead.

The royal palace, the permanent palace.

Meiji was also completely in despair, after hearing the news that Inaba Masami and his party were ambushed, he was completely desperate, Kyoto was surrounded on three sides, but the west was not besieged, but who would dare to reinforce Kyoto in this situation? I am afraid that all the feudal domains are currently using all their forces to intercept the entry of the homeless.

He now hoped that the Qing army would be able to attack earlier and end this kind of desperate torment as soon as possible, but he knew very well that this was a complete extravagant hope, and the Qing army would definitely not attack at this time.

The camp of the Qing army of the Hirakata.

The troops were in full swing carrying out all kinds of training, and there was no sign of attack, and Monk Lingqin walked around the battalions every day, inspecting and supervising the training, but Yixun lost interest after a few days of freshness, and in his opinion, these trainings were too boring and monotonous, and they were the same, and they were really not interesting.

Every day, he was stuffed in the big tent and read the information to understand all aspects of the Wa State, after all, after the destruction of the Wa State, it was handed over to the imperial court to govern, he needed to fully understand the Wa State, as for the attack on Kyoto, he had gradually faded his mind, and a large-scale famine was currently breaking out in Kyoto, which was not a good time to march.

On this day, he was looking through the materials in the big tent, and the guards came in to report: "The general of Yu, Xiao Mingming, the commander-in-chief of the Yuanqi War, has arrived in Osaka and is coming to Hirakata, and it is expected to arrive in half an hour. ”

What is Xiao Mingming, the commander-in-chief of the war, doing? Is it possible that there will be a war? Yixun was overjoyed in his heart, and hurriedly ordered: "Go and ask the monk to return to the account." ”

The monk Grinqin rushed back, and Yixun immediately went to the camp gate with him to greet him, although he was the general of the imperial court, but in front of Xiao Mingming, the commander-in-chief, he did not dare to put it at all, after all, the weapons and ammunition of the battalion, grain and grass, clothing and other materials need to rely on Yuanqi, and the future expansion of the army also needs Yuanqi's strong support.

Waiting for boredom, Yi Xun said casually: "Now is not a good time to attack Kyoto, what is Xiao Mingliang doing when he comes to Hirakata?" ”

"Most of them came to inspect the training of the troops." Monk Lingqin said without thinking: "In my estimation, it should be for us to prepare for the attack on Kyoto." ”

"Isn't it too early to attack Kyoto at this time?" Yi Xun pondered and said, "At present, Kyoto's food should not be exhausted....... ”

Monk Lingqin smiled when he heard this, "The army of 100,000 is in the war, and the daily consumption is extremely amazing. How can Yuan Qi not count this account?

After a pause, he continued: "With the weapons and equipment of our army, attacking Kyoto is overwhelming, so why wait for them to run out of food and grass? The reason for this famine is nothing more than to have peace of mind and save trouble. ”

As the two were talking, they saw a cavalry team coming quickly, a high-headed horse, even more handsome and extraordinary under the short and long Japanese horse, and more than a hundred steps away, Xiao Mingliang slowed down the horse with the reins, and stopped the horse more than ten steps away and smiled: "Why are the two princes so polite." So saying, he jumped off his horse and stepped forward quickly.

Yixun also greeted him quickly, and said with a smile on his face: "Commander Xiao is here, how can we not welcome him from afar." ”

"Commander-in-Chief Xiao is here, there must be good things." Monk Greenqin smiled heartily: "We are greeting the soldiers on behalf of the whole army." ”

"The monk king can fight well, and he doesn't want to be so neat." Xiao Mingliang smiled and snorted, and then saluted the two.