At dusk, three merchant ships flying the Yuanqi Sea Soul Flag slowly sailed into Maguan Port, and the short and somewhat thin Sakai Tadashi stood on the deck and looked at the neatly moored Qing warships in the harbor, and sighed with a complicated feeling.

This kind of warship from the West has a large tonnage and many gun positions, which is far from being something that the shogunate's naval warships can compete, and the kind of steam-powered gunboats are even more flexible, and the shogunate is not without a sense of crisis, and some people propose to improve the sailors and build new warships, but Yuanqi has strictly blocked their contacts with the outside world in the name of assisting the shogunate to close off the country.

Now that I think about it, closing the country is the biggest mistake! If it had been opened to the United States, Russia and other countries a long time ago, it would not have fallen to the point where it is completely controlled by Yuan Qi today.

As soon as the ship docked, some officers and men on patrol stepped forward to interrogate, and after learning the identity of the other party, the leading officer ordered the other party not to get off the ship, and then someone quickly reported it.

Yi Zhicontent and Monk Greenqin were drinking, and after hearing the report, he said disapprerovitously: "Let him wait, and see him tomorrow." ”

The next morning, Sakai Tadaden entered the Chunfan Building, and when he entered the room, he knelt down and bowed according to the rules of the Qing Kingdom: "Xiaguan Sakai Tadaden greets His Royal Highness." Since becoming a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, the Wa Kingdom has set off a craze for Sinology, from language and writing to ceremonial clothing, competing to imitate, as a shogunate official, he is very clear about the rules and etiquette of the Qing officialdom.

"Sit down." Yi Zhizu raised his hand expressionlessly, and when he sat down, he asked directly: "Your general sent you to Maguan to ask for a meeting, why did you ask?" ”

Sakai Tadanori understood Chinese, but he still waited for the translation before bowing down and said: "In Xia is bold and presumptuous, is the kingdom ready to use troops on a large scale to annex our country, just like Korea?" ”

Seeing him so direct, Yi Zhixiang was really a little surprised, and immediately said with a smile: "What do you think of your general?" ”

"Send troops to Kyoto." Sakai Tadanori said without thinking, he had understood it from the side, and knew that the other party liked to talk straight, so he didn't talk in circles.

Yi Zhishu said in a relaxed tone: "Then I want to ask, if we send troops to Kyoto, will your general raise troops to Qin Wang?" ”

Sakai Tadanori raised his body, looked at the other party with eye level, and said, "Your Highness wants the shogunate to send troops to King Qin?" Still don't want to? ”

This guy is interesting, Yi Zhizhi laughed and said: "What is the difference between the shogunate sending troops to the king or not?" ”

"Naturally, there is a difference." Sakai Tadanori said with a solemn expression: "The shogunate sent troops, and it was a battle for the country. ”

"The battle of the country is also a mantis arm as a car." Yi Zhizu said contemptuously: "What's more, with the geographical location of Kyoto, even if the shogunate and the daimyo in various places have a king of Xinqin, they will not be able to reinforce in time. ”

"Your Highness should know that there are two avenues between Edo and Kyoto." Sakai Tadashi said unhurriedly: "The Tokaido and Nakasendo are both avenues leading from Edo to Kyoto, and Kyoto is in danger, and the shogunate and daimyo along the way can be reinforced in time. ”

"After Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power, the shogunate built five major transportation routes, all starting in Edo, forming a transportation network centered on Edo and diverging outward, the Tokaido to the west along the coastline, and the Nakasendo to the north from Edo, passing through the inland mountains on the way to Kyoto."

Yi Zhizu said slowly: "With the forces of the shogunate and the daimyo forces along the Tokaido and Nakasendo Roads, can you stop the progress of my heavenly soldiers?" Besides, the shogunate dared to go all out to reinforce Kyoto? ”

The Yuanqi Bank is all over the Wa Kingdom, and it is not strange that Yi Zhishu understands the situation of the Wa Kingdom, but it is strange not to understand, but the last sentence makes Sakai Tadashi silent for a long time, indeed, Edo is on the seaside, and the shogunate will not dare to reinforce Kyoto in any way, after all, Edo is more important than Kyoto.

After a slight sigh, he spoke: "Your Highness doesn't know, although the king of heaven has no real power, he is the leader of our Shinto, the son of the sun god, Kyoto is in danger, the king of heaven is in trouble, the shogunate and the daimyo from all over the country sent troops to the king, and there is no hesitation." ”

Yi Zhishu glanced at him and said, "I can Chen Bing Edo Bay." ”

Chen Bing Edo Bay, instead of dividing the army to attack Kyoto and Edo at the same time, Sakai Tadanori secretly breathed a sigh of relief, it seems that the previous judgment was right, the purpose of the Qing Kingdom was only to cut off the inheritance of the Heavenly King, and then annex their country, and did not want to expand the war, after all, Yuan Qi still has huge interests in their country, and if a full-scale war really breaks out, Yuan Qi's loss is not small.

After a slight groan, he said, "The King of Heaven will not defend the ....... of Kyoto." ”

This is interesting, Yi Zhishu became interested, looked him up and down a few times, and then said, "I shouldn't have fled to Edo, right?" ”

"No, it won't." Sakai Tadanori said firmly, "Even if Edo is safe, the Heavenly King will not go to Edo, but will go to the north." ”

Staring at him for a while, Yi Zhizhi smiled contentedly and said with interest: "What do you mean?" ”

After hesitating for a while, Sakai Tadanori said: "If it is said that the upper kingdom must annex our country, we hope to end the war as soon as possible and reduce the casualties and ....... as much as possible." ”

This guy turned out to be a traitor! Yi Zhishu smiled secretly in his heart, is this to surrender? Is it the meaning of Tokugawa Ieshige? His original plan was to break each one, and try to avoid the formation of a unified resistance situation in the Japanese state, once the Japanese state with a population of 30 million formed a situation of comprehensive resistance, it would not be easy to destroy the Japanese army with only 100,000 troops, after all, he did not want to draw more troops and spend more money to destroy the Japanese state.

"I also don't want to turn the Wa Kingdom into ruins, that's not in Yuanqi's interests." Yi Zhishu immediately followed the conversation and said: "However, the royal family, whether it is the Northern Dynasty or the Southern Dynasty, must be wiped out, and the Tokugawa family can move to Jingshi or Shanghai, and there will be no shortage of titles." ”

Sakai Tadanori is most worried that Yuanqi will never let go of the Tokugawa family, after all, the Tokugawa family has actually ruled the Japanese country for more than 200 years, and Yi Zhilu, who listened to it, expressed his willingness to let go of the Tokugawa family, and a stone hanging in his heart finally fell to the ground, and he immediately bowed slightly and said: "I hope to contact my general as soon as possible." ”

Yi Zhizu nodded slightly, and then ordered: "Take him to the telegraph room." ”

After Sakai left, Zhao Liewen got up and pushed open the window, and then said tentatively: "If the shogunate has this attitude, is it still necessary to kill them all?" ”

After lighting a cigarette, Yi Zhizhi said: "Don't be soft-hearted for the future." A long puff of smoke was exhaled, and he continued: "Where there is oppression, there will be resistance, this world will sooner or later set off a wave of national liberation and independence movements, we have annexed many countries over the years, but the real risk is the Japanese country, the Japanese country has a large population, high literacy rate, and it is difficult to assimilate and integrate, this is a huge hidden danger, and we have no reason to leave a big trouble for our descendants." ”

As he spoke, he turned his head, "Call Xiao Mingliang to come, you have to discuss it carefully, it is best to destroy the king of the Japanese in Kyoto, if you really want him to flee to the north, it will be a trouble." ”

Zhao Liewen nodded, walked to the door, he turned around again, "Big shopkeeper, the monk king has arrived, it's time for them to evacuate, right?" ”

"I have already ordered the evacuation of the merchants and staff in the Kyoto-Osaka area." Yi Zhizhi said: "Otherwise, the Japanese people dare to be so sure that we are going to fight Kyoto?" ”

Kansai, Osaka Castle.

Osaka was originally the base of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and was once the political, economic and cultural center of the Wa Kingdom, but during the Tokugawa Shogunate period, the political center was transferred to Edo, and Osaka lost its original status, but because of its convenient land and water transportation and proximity to Kyoto, Osaka soon flourished again and became the logistics center and commodity transshipment center of the entire Wa Kingdom.

Lacking political distractions and a vibrant economy, Osaka quickly became a merchandising city full of freedom and vitality, along with Edo and Kyoto, known as the 'Three Capitals'.

During the more than 200 years of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Wa Kingdom experienced a period of peace, without the harassment of war, the economy boomed, and the population also increased, although Osaka Castle cannot be compared with Edo and Kyoto, but it has a population of more than 400,000, even if it is ranked as a large city in the world.

However, at present, one of the 'three capitals' of the Japanese kingdom has fallen into a panic and chaos under the shadow of war, since all the banks and businesses in Osaka have been closed one after another, and after the evacuation of personnel, all kinds of rumors have continued, as all the shops of the Qing people in Osaka have been collectively closed, and after the large-scale organization of personnel evacuation, the panic has spread further, and countless wealthy businessmen have begun to evacuate this prosperous capital.

On this morning, the rumors of war finally became a reality, a large black dot appeared on the sea surface of Osaka Bay, and the alarm bell that had not been sounded for many years resounded throughout the city, and the whole city was plunged into great chaos, and countless people began to flee with their families and mouths.

On the sea, on the deck of the flagship 'Tianjin', Monk Lingqin saw from the telescope the huge city that seemed to have no end in sight, and his excited tone was a little hurried, "This is Osaka City?" ”

"Yes." Sun Liping, a staff officer who accompanied him, said: "This is one of the three capitals of the Japanese Kingdom, one of the three most prosperous cities in the Japanese Kingdom, with a population of more than 400,000 ........ ”

Yi Xun was a little surprised and said: "More than 400,000 people? It's almost comparable to Yangzhou, Suzhou and Hangzhou, but ...... how many people are there in Edo and Kyoto? ”

"Edo is the most prosperous city in the Wa Kingdom, with a population of more than one million, which is comparable to that of Kyoshi." Sun Liping said without thinking: "The population of Kyoto is not as large as that of Edo, but it is larger than Osaka, with more than 500,000 nobles. ”

Monk Lingqin smiled heartily: "In other words, we are going to defeat the two capitals of the Japanese Kingdom in this battle - Osaka and Kyoto!" ”

"Yes." Sun Liping nodded slightly.

As the commander-in-chief, Yi Xun was quite cautious, and asked again: "The information provided by Yuan Qi says that the defenders of Osaka Castle have retreated to Kyoto, is this news accurate?" ”

Monk Lingqin said with a big grin: "Whether the information is accurate or not, you won't know as soon as the fleet docks." ”

Yan Liping said confidently: "Yuan Qi has been operating in the country for many years, and the information will not be wrong. ”

"Since it's an undefended city......" Monk Greenqin's tone was cold, "Slaughtering the city for three days first is considered a reward." ”

Slaughter the city for three days! Yi Xun's heart tightened, but he didn't say anything, Yi Zeng told him that the reason why Yi Zhishu changed his attention and let the Eight Banners New Army attack Kyoto was to let them slaughter on a large scale.

"There are two points that must be reminded below." Sun Li said slowly: "There are many temples and many monks in the Wa Kingdom, but the Buddhism in the Wa Kingdom is slightly different from that in our country. In addition, the king of Zhennan explained that Osaka could slaughter the city, but not burn the city. ”

Shall not burn the city? Yi Xun glanced at him and said, "It is reported that your army has burned down large and small cities in Changzhou...... ”

The New Sixth Army's attack on Changzhou was indeed the case, and Sun Liping did not refute it, and said with a smile: "At this time and that time, the big shopkeeper..... The prince's thoughts, we can't figure it out. ”

Osaka Castle is indeed an undefended city, under the order of the three days of the massacre, many residents who had no time to flee were slaughtered, and the entire Osaka Castle suddenly became a hell on earth, and the large and small canals and waterways in the city were filled with corpses, and the city was filled with a strong smell of blood that seemed to be indissolvable.

Maguan, Chunfan Building.

Zhao Liewen pinched the telegram and said with an unnatural expression: "With a few words, it seems that I can smell the blood of Osaka City." ”

Knocking on the cigarette ash, Yi Zhizu joked in a relaxed tone: "Huifu has never seen a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, so I should really let you go with the army and really see it." ”

Zhao Liewen hurriedly waved his hand, "Don't, if you really want to come to that scene in person, I'm afraid you will even vomit out the bitter gall." ”

"That's how many recruits go to war for the first time." Yi Zhixiang said with a smile: "There are still many recruits who are scared of urine incontinence, but it is also customary to kill a few more people, and you can still eat, drink and sleep while sitting in the pile of dead." ”

"Students are not the material to be soldiers." Zhao Liewen hurriedly picked up the teacup and said, "The tea is cold, the students go and change the cup of hot tea." With that, he hurriedly walked out.

Yi Zhishu got up and walked to the window, looking north, he knew that the massacre in Osaka City should continue at this moment, but he didn't have much guilt in his heart, but there was a faint sense of revenge, and the Osaka Massacre was just a prelude.

He is not an angry youth, and he has long passed the age of an angry youth, but no one knows better than him how much of the threat and harm of the Japanese state, there is a set of data he remembers very clearly, how many soldiers and civilians died in China during the eight-year War of Resistance? More than 35 million! That's more than the total population of the current Wa Kingdom!

Since there is a chance, he will definitely not be merciful, for this evil neighbor with a strip of water, he can say that he does not have the slightest good feeling, can be exterminated when the other party has not grown stronger, even if it is to go to hell after death, he will not hesitate, the Buddha said, I am not as good as hell who goes to hell!

Zhao Liewen came in with tea, and when he saw him standing by the window, he estimated that he was also entangled in his heart, so he said slowly: "Show the heart of the Bodhisattva by Vajra means, and the big shopkeeper doesn't need to care too much." ”