The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 305 Iron-Blooded Ambition
"Did Li Dan and his men capture Ryukyu?"

"Only Okinawa Island is still resisting. A few Japanese ghosts waiting to be reincarnated. Ping Liao Hou, I heard from the sailors that there is a fear of another typhoon in the next few days. Should the army postpone the landing on Tsushima Island?"

Liu Zhaosun put down the teapot and looked gloomily at the huge map of Kyushu hanging in the tent.

After a long time, the commander of the 120,000-man army covered his face and fell into deep thought.

On the second day of November, the Kaiyuan army gathered in Korea, and Ping Liaohou's central army camp also moved forward to Busan. Jin Yuji followed her husband to the expedition, and her daughter was left in Wendeng.

As the sixth day of November drew closer, Ping Liaohou became more and more anxious.

This was the Kaiyuan Army's first expedition and the first real expansion of territory.

Although it was just an attack on a small Tsushima Island, they had already conducted more than a dozen exercises in preparation.

The scene of Kublai Khan's failed invasion of Japan kept appearing in his mind. Ping Liaohou had asked Qiao Yiqi and others many times to discuss the details of the failure of the war.

For the ancients four hundred years ago, they could analyze the Yuan-Japan War from different perspectives, giving time travelers more ideas.

For example, before landing, the Song army and the Goryeo army surrendered, the Mongols hindered each other, and the army was not acclimatized...

Qiao Yiqi and the others talked about a lot, but they didn't mention Kamikaze.

Liu Zhaosun speculated that the so-called kamikaze was probably a product of the Japanese's own mythology and had nothing to do with the war itself.

But what will happen if we lose this time?

Before the battle even begins, you're already thinking about failure.

Seeking victory from failure, this is Liu Zhaosun's philosophy of using troops.

Open the bow without turning back the arrow.

There is absolutely no reason to withdraw troops at this time. Once Tokugawa Hidetada realizes that the situation is not right and mobilizes a large army to reinforce, it will be much more difficult to take over Kyushu.

Liu Zhaosun stood up and walked to the door of the big tent. Looking at the endless stream of ships of all sizes along the coast, he turned around and said to Deng Changxiong, Wu Aheng and others:
"No need to postpone. Everything will proceed as planned. On the sixth of November, we will cross the sea and conquer Tsushima Island. Then we will attack Iki Island. We will strike with all our might, like a lion fighting a rabbit."

After dismissing all his subordinates, only his wife Jin Yuji was left in the tent.

Jin Yuji was fully armored and dressed as a guard, guarding her husband and regaining her heroic spirit.

Liu Zhaosun's eyes were full of love.

"How long has it been since my lady accompanied me in battle?"

Jin Yuji counted with her fingers and said with a smile:

"Almost two years."

"It's been so long. No wonder I feel so familiar when I see you wearing this armor..."

Liu Zhaosun said this and took his wife's hand, saying with deep affection:

"That day at the Hun River, I made a vow to you that we would never be apart in this life, and from now on, even if it means death, we will die together."

Jin Yuji felt that her husband was a little abnormal these days, but she didn't know what was wrong with him. After hearing this, she felt a little relieved.

"I heard that when Tokugawa Ieyasu was alive, he was always accompanied by a woman who, like me, dressed like a man, wore armor and went into battle. She also made great contributions to the Tokugawa army."

Liu Zhaosun laughed out loud when he heard this. He didn't expect that Jin Yuji also knew about the history of Japan.

It turns out that children who love reading novels know a lot.

"How can the women of Tokugawa Kameson be compared with my wife? I only regret that Ieyasu died too early, otherwise I would have fought him on the battlefield to see who would win."

"I am in the army, and outsiders have criticized me a lot. My husband wants to take me with him this time..."

Liu Zhaosun looked at Jin Yuji and said comfortingly:

"That's just the gossip of ordinary people. What do they know? Why can't women fight on the battlefield? Is it because they can't shoot a bow or use a musket?"

Jin Yuji smiled.

"My husband seems to hate the Tokugawa clan with a deep hatred. I wonder why?"

Liu Zhaosun nodded. He did hate Tokugawa Ieyasu.

The reason for this, in addition to the conflict of real interests, is also due to an experience in the previous life.

When he was still in college, he had a classmate who always held Honzanso Kohachi's "Tokugawa Ieyasu" in his hands every day, like a Christian holding the Bible.

Not only that, this classmate also boasted everywhere, saying that Japan's Warring States period generals were so numerous that any one of them could instantly defeat Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Xiang Yu, and Han Xin. It's a pity that China has had few reliable generals for thousands of years...

Before he traveled through time, he was very upset when he heard this. After just a few rebuttals, he was labeled a Huang Han nationalist and scolded by a group of "Japanese friends" on the school forum... "The Japanese were born in the land of the rising sun, but they act like beasts. I should follow the will of heaven and teach them to fear."

Liu Zhaosun took Jin Yuji's hand and walked out of the tent towards the Busan Port where masts were like a forest. After walking a few steps, Jin Yuji quickly pulled his hand away to prevent being seen by the soldiers.

The officers and soldiers coming towards them saluted Marquis Ping Liao, and Liu Zhaosun returned the salute one by one.

"Madam, do you think that in today's world, people from different countries are getting closer or farther apart?"

Jin Yuji pondered for a long time and said hesitantly:
"They're getting closer, aren't they? There are more and more red-haired barbarians in Kaiyuan City. I heard that a group of Portuguese merchants arrived last month. Didn't my husband also send people to Sakhalin Island and Europe?"

After the great geographical discoveries, people from different continents and nationalities have become closer and closer. This is globalization.

"Madam, do you know that in the world I live in, the world four hundred years from now, people no longer come closer, but become alienated from each other, and countries exploit their neighbors."

“We call it deglobalization.”

"Perhaps hatred and killing are the essence of this world."

Liu Zhaosun continued, "The Japanese fear power, not virtue. Whenever they get the chance, they will burn, kill, and plunder westward. This is their original sin, and it cannot be purged."

"For the sake of our descendants, we must exterminate these jackals. Now is the best time. The shogunate's rule in Kyushu is not yet stable, and the Portuguese are willing to fully support us."

Jin Yuji nodded thoughtfully and stopped asking about the matter.

The two men walked onto a large rock on the shore and looked to the south.

Tsushima Island, sixty miles away, was vaguely visible, shrouded in a thin mist of rain.

A storm is about to come.

~~~~~
On November 6, perhaps as fate would have it, a northwest wind blew over the sea.

The Kaiyuan fleet, which was in the upwind direction, seized the opportunity and set out immediately. The 25 flat-armored ships were divided into two teams, advancing east and west in a mighty force.

The two armies finally met in the center of Tsushima Island, cut the island's defenders in two, and annihilated them on the spot.

There were only five or six hundred ronin samurai from the Kyushu clan stationed on the island. Their firearms were crude, and many of them were foot soldiers.

It can be seen that the military strength of the various feudal lords in Kyushu is weak.

To deal with such a weak opponent - at least weak on the surface - the Kaiyuan army put all its efforts into it.

Fight like a lion against a rabbit, with all your strength.

Ping Liaohou knew very well that if the army was defeated once during a long expedition of thousands of miles, its morale would be shaken, and if it was defeated again, it would be like a frightened bird with a broken horn, with no remains left.

So, he cannot make any mistakes.

Things went much more smoothly than expected.

On November 6, the first year of the Tianqi reign, the Kaiyuan army landed on Tsushima Island, and more than 500 Japanese pirates who were defending the island were killed.

The next day, the army continued to attack Iki Island, which is close to Kyushu, without rest, and approached the coastal islands of Hizen.

Two hours later, another three hundred Japanese warriors were killed.

On November 9, the Kaihara troop transport ship sailed into Hakata Bay. After two hours of artillery preparation by nearly a hundred warships, the Kyushu landing battle officially began.

Three thousand soldiers from the vanguard mountain special operations battalion rushed forward and easily broke through Jiuzhou's paper-thin defense line in just half an hour.

Kyushu Island has a complex terrain, and breaking through the coastal defense line is only the insignificant first step.

That year, after breaking through the Great Wall defense line, the Mongolian army was pushed back to the sea by the samurai ronin of the Kamakura shogunate and ultimately suffered a crushing defeat.

Over the next three days, troop transports continuously brought 60,000 Kaiyuan soldiers to the main island of Kyushu, without any enemy attacks.

After the army completes its assembly on the shore, it will divide its forces and march deep into the interior of Kyushu Island to hunt down the Satsuma and Hizen samurai who have fled in panic.

On November 13, Liu Zhaosun, surrounded by guards, set foot on Japanese territory.

At the port of Hakata, on the deck of the flagship Hiryu, Ping Liaohou delivered a speech that was later recorded in history to the soldiers who were about to land on the island.

The content of the speech imitated the speech given by German Emperor Wilhelm II on July 1900, 7, when he saw off the German Expeditionary Force to China to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in Bremen Harbor.

"When you land on Kyushu Island, remember: no mercy, no prisoners. Because what you will face next is an enemy more brutal and hateful than the Jiannu and the Liaozhen. For the past three hundred years, they have come to the coast of the Ming Dynasty, burning, killing, looting, and committing all kinds of atrocities. If we do nothing today, then in another three hundred years, they will continue to slaughter our descendants..."

"Therefore, our mission today is to fight our way out for Kaiyuan, for Liaodong, and for your descendants! Anyone who stands in the way of the Kaiyuan army, except for Japanese civilians, will be killed."

(End of this chapter)