Shimazu Qibin's face suddenly changed, and he hurriedly said: "How many troops does the Saga Domain have?" ”

"Originally, there were more than 20,000 troops. After occupying the Higo Domain, 5,000 remained, and now there are about 17,000 left, and they have entered our Mosa Domain. ”

Shimazu Qibin was angry when he thought of his younger brother who only knew how to compete for power and profit with him, and said angrily: "Where is Shimazu Zhongjiao? Call him! ”

Okubo Ritsu hurriedly sent someone to look for it. Not long after, a vassal hurriedly arrived: "The lord of the family, Lord Zhongjiao led hundreds of his cronies to leave the Mosa Domain with his family and a large amount of gold and silver, and fled by sea. ”

"What?" Shimazu Qibin was furious, "This damn bitch! Seeing that the Mosa domain was not protected, he fled! Quick, go and see how much of the property in the domain he has taken away! He has long been unaccustomed to this half-brother, but because he is not in the domain, many retainers are from the other party's faction, and in desperation, he has been forbearing, and now the other party has openly betrayed and is loyal to blurt out and scold.

Shimazu Qibin thought about it a little, now he has only more than 5,000 feudal soldiers under his command, and he heard that the soldiers of the Saga Domain have sharp firepower, are well-trained, and the strength of the troops has reached 17,000, and fighting against them is tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, so he knows that it is not a good way to resist directly. Seeking peace, maybe there is hope. Even if you can't make peace, even if you delay the speed of the opponent's attack, you can move rescue troops or flee.

So, he immediately made up his mind and directly sent Saigo Takamori, who was a little eloquent, as an envoy to the border between Hizen and the Mosa Domain, to sue for peace with the leader of the Saga Domain. At the same time, he sent Okubo Toshitsu to quickly rush to Edo by waterway to ask for help from the shogunate.

The next morning, Saigo Takamori returned to report that the Saga Domain had made a condition to establish a Kyushu Domain, uniting the 11 feudal states of the entire island of Kyushu into one large feudal domain.

"Lord of the Domain, the representative of the Saga Domain is a guy named Yukichi Fukuzawa, this person Takamori is quite acquainted, he was originally a down-and-out samurai, and now he is reused by the Saga Domain, and his tone is very arrogant. According to him, the Saga clan hired 30,000 troops from Shina and was determined to unify the entire island of Kyushu, and as long as the feudal lords submitted to them, they were willing to give the feudal lords a foreign daimyo, and to reward them with land and money like the princes of Shina. It is said that there are two choices for the feudal lord, one is that the fief is on the Mosa Domain or Kyushu Island, but he can no longer have his own feudal soldiers in Kyushu, and he can only keep a family of less than 500 soldiers; Second, they could lead 3,000 feudal soldiers, and the fief could be the size of the Mosa Domain, but the place was indeed designated by the other party to expand its territory outside of Japan, but in addition to the 3,000 feudal soldiers, it was also possible to bring no more than 30,000 feudal soldiers and their families. Saigo Takamori said: "As for our plan, we were immediately recognized by it, and if we want to delay time and wait for help, I'm afraid it's impossible!" The man named Yukichi Fukuzawa said that he would attack by noon today at the latest! Hatefully, they deliberately detained me until this morning, and now I am afraid it will be too late to escape. ”

Shimazu Qibin thought for a moment and said, "Longsheng, in your opinion, if we all press down on our five thousand Mosa clan soldiers and resist desperately, how long can we hold on?" ”

Only then did he realize that it was actually a smart thing for the Shimazu Tadashi to flee in a panic, and now he had to do it.

However, there must be time to flee and take away the wealth accumulated by the Mosa clan over the years. If the feudal soldiers can support it for a while, let the retainers clean up the gold and silver in the feudal treasury, and the grain and cloth will not need to be burned with fire, but it will take half a day. Therefore, he directly asked Saigo Takamori, a close confidant who understands the military, how much time he could delay.

"Lord of the Domain, according to Okubo Ritsu, even if it is the same number of Mosa Domain soldiers, it is not at all the opponent of the soldiers of the Saga Domain, especially the fierce Shina mercenaries, let alone the enemy army that is more than 3 times as strong as it is now? It is estimated that it will support for half a day at most. Saigo Takamori estimated.

"Half a day? It's almost possible to transfer the domain to the sea! Shimazu Qibin was just about to give an order, but suddenly a feudal priest rushed over and reported: "My lord, several large Western warships have appeared on the sea, but looking at the flag, it seems to be the red background yellow star flag of the country of China. ”

Saigo Takamori was taken aback, and he immediately understood that this was tantamount to Shina's direct intervention and blockade the sea surface of the Mosa Domain's Yamakawa Port, and his purpose was naturally to prevent the Mosa Domain from escaping.

"It's so ruthless that it has to be swept away." Saigo Takamori sighed and saluted to Shimazu Qibin: "Domain lord, there is no other way now, or just follow the other party's will and go straight to obedience!" Maybe it's better than us escaping to Edo Castle! ”

Shimazu Qibin's face was stunned, and his heart was churning.

Yes, he has been in Edo for a long time, how can he not know the current situation of the shogunate. Not to mention a feudal lord like himself who lost his land and feudal soldiers, even the current shogun Tokugawa Iesada was reduced to a meal on the plate of those shogunate retainers and Edo daimyos. If you flee to Edo with your money and lose your feudal fiefdom, you will not have the support of the feudal soldiers, but I am afraid that you will soon be eaten to the dregs and there will be no dregs left.

On the contrary, if he submits to the other party, even if he buys horse bones, he will treat himself well. Moreover, now he also understands that the other party is not the Saga Domain at all, and it is completely the power of Shina. After the occupation of Korea, it has now extended its tentacles to Japan. According to the national strength of the other side, Japan today is simply unable to resist. In that case, why would he be foolish enough to act as a funeral attendant for the shogunate? It's better to be obedient first, and you can still get a good death.

Having made up his mind, Shimazu Qibin said bitterly: "Since this is the case, let's surrender the other party!" However, my choice is to keep the feudal soldiers, 3,000 feudal soldiers will be 3,000 feudal soldiers, as long as there are troops in hand, plus 30,000 family dependents, even if the fiefdom is in the wilderness, there will still be a day to magnify my Shimazu clan. Let me surrender to them. ”

Two hours later, the "Saga Domain" that had already invaded the Mossa Domain ushered in the collective surrender of the Mosa Domain's forces, led by Shimazu Saibin, the lord of the Mosa Domain.

The Saga Domain's chief and deputy envoys, Lawson and Yukichi Fukuzawa, accepted Shimazu Saibin's allegiance kneeling on behalf of the Saga Domain at the Mosa Domain's Lord's Mansion. After taking over the Mosa Domain, Rosen was overjoyed to find that the Mosa Domain Treasury had three or four million taels worth of gold and silver, which was really a windfall.

……

In the spring of the fourth year of Taisheng, Lin Hongnian and Lawson, who actually controlled the Saga Domain, cooperated with each other, and under the troops of Lu Shunde and Li Guanlong's land and water armies, it took only two months to quickly occupy the entire nine feudal states of Kyushu Island, and announced the abolition of the original Saga Domain, the establishment of the Kyushu Domain, and the separation from the jurisdiction of the Edo Shogunate.

However, even though many people of insight in Japan knew in their hearts that the so-called Kyushu Domain, which developed from the original Saga Domain, was already under the control of the Huaxia Kingdom, on the surface, this Kyushu Domain did not openly declare its allegiance to Huaxia. But even then, they openly broke with the shogunate. Some people analyze that its strength must be able to compete with the shogunate army, which is known as more than 100,000. Since they had such a strong military strength, the other vassal states were in danger and felt that they did not have enough troops.

As a result, the Choshu Domain, Tosa Domain, and other powerful feudal domains adjacent to Kyushu Island also annexed the weak feudal states next to them, preparing to follow the example of the Kyushu Domain and establish a large feudal domain that could compete with the shogunate, and secondly, it was also for self-preservation.

Half a month later, the Choshu Domain successively annexed several adjacent feudal states such as Yasuk, Iwami, and Zhoufang, and established the new Choshu Domain; The Tosa Domain even recruited the three feudal domains of Iyo, Awa, and Sanki on the island of Shikoku to form the Shikoku Domain.