I was living at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and I dealt a brutal blow to the Eight Banners!

Following the landing of the Ming general, the Earl of Pinglu, at Nagasaki Castle in the Hizen Domain of Japan in June of the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign (1644),...

Tokugawa Iemitsu, the head of the Tokugawa shogunate, formally declared war on the Ming Dynasty.

In the same month, Tokugawa Iemitsu began organizing a coalition army of the shogunate, intending to launch an offensive against Zheng Zhilong's forces, which occupied the Hizen Domain.

Zheng Zhilong appointed Zheng Sen as his general and led nearly 20,000 pirates to the Saga Castle area to engage in fierce battles with the shogunate's allied forces.

During the war, the Japanese people of Chikuzen and Chikugo domains actively supported and cooperated with the shogunate's allied forces and spontaneously persisted in their anti-aggression struggle.

Wherever Zheng Sen's pirate soldiers went, they were met with resistance from the local people.

however,

Due to internal conflicts and the differing motives among the feudal lords, the Shogunate coalition was unable to pose a substantial threat to Zheng Sen's pirate army. Instead, the pirates captured the two domain castles of Fukuoka and Kurume.

However, due to the local Japanese people organizing themselves and attacking the pirate soldiers, Zheng Sen was forced to retreat to Fukuoka.

In early July,

Tokugawa Iemitsu commanded the shogunate's allied forces to launch an attack on Fukuoka, which was defended by Zheng Sen.

After Zheng Sen led his pirate soldiers to hold out for three days, he began a counterattack against the shogunate coalition, which was routed.

Two days later,

Zheng Sen once again led his pirate troops to attack Kurume, the castle of the Chikugo Domain.

The central route was used to contain the shogunate's allied forces outside Kurume Castle, while the left and right routes penetrated deep into the Chikugo Domain, burning, killing, and looting.

Tokugawa Iemitsu led his troops in a breakout and retreated to Kumamoto Castle in the Higo Domain, while sending the lords of the Satsuma, Ōsumi, and Hyuga domains to their aid.

In mid-July,

After receiving reinforcements, Tokugawa Iemitsu had sufficient troops and decided to launch a counterattack against Zheng Sen's forces in Saga Castle and Kurume.

The Higo Domain lord Kato Tadahiro, the Bungo Domain lord Nakagawa Hisamori, the Buzen Domain lord Hosokawa Tadaoki, and 5,000 domain soldiers were killed in battle, and Zheng Sen's pirate army also suffered heavy losses.

Just as Tokugawa Iemitsu learned that reinforcements from the central and northern domains were about to arrive, and the scales of victory were tipping in favor of Japan.

At the end of July,

Xu Anguo led the Second Army of Liaodong to land in the Iwami Domain, swiftly captured the Iwami Silver Mine, and continued to expand outwards.

In just twenty days, they successively captured the Suo and Aki domains in the south, the Izumo domain in the east, and the Nagato domain in the west.

At this time, Mori Hidemoto, the lord of the Nagato Domain, was leading reinforcements from various domains in the central and northern regions to aid Saga Castle.

Unexpectedly, the enemy landed at the Iwami Domain and quickly conquered the surrounding three domains, and was heading towards the Nagato Domain.

Shocked, Mōri Hidemoto quickly led 12,000 troops from various domains back to reinforce the city, intending to defend it to the death with his men.

As a result, Xu Anguo's second army used cannons to bombard and collapse the city wall, causing heavy losses to the vassal soldiers on the wall.

In desperation, Mori Hidemoto led his troops in an attack, only to be surrounded and annihilated by the musketeer battalion.

Xu Anguo's Second Army suffered 1,800 casualties, while the Japanese army was completely wiped out. Mōri Hidemoto returned to his domain and committed seppuku.

At the end of August,

Upon learning that the 20,000 Liaodong troops of the Ming Dynasty's Pinglu Earl had captured the territories of five fiefdoms, including the Shijian fiefdom, and had completely annihilated the reinforcements he had long awaited,

Tokugawa Iemitsu completely lost the will to resist and immediately sent envoys to the Iwami Domain to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty's Pinglu Earl.

……

September, the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen reign.

Zhang Jingchuan, the Marquis of Pinglu and the Liaodong Military Commissioner of the Ming Dynasty, boarded a ship at Jinzhouwei with his personal guards and headed to Japan.

September 11th,

Lord Zhang met Tokugawa Iemitsu, the current head of the Tokugawa shogunate, at Omori, the castle of the Iwami Domain.

Originally, Tokugawa Iemitsu was unwilling to come in person, but he had no choice but to come due to Lord Zhang's insistence.

but,

Fortunately, the Marquis of Pinglu from the Ming Dynasty had also traveled thousands of miles across the sea to come, so he could at least save face.

Even if it gets out,

That could also be said to show that the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to this peace talks, sending a dignified marquis from afar, which shows the importance the Ming Dynasty attached to Japan and the Tokugawa Shogunate.

For the sake of this peace negotiation,

Zhang Jingchuan specially asked Xu Anguo to make a rectangular table and matching chairs.

This is the largest room in Omori Castle.

In the center of the room was a long table and ten chairs, surrounded by thirty round stools.

The room was full of people.

Zhang Jingchuan sat in the middle of one side of the long table.

From left to right: Zheng Zhilong, Nabeshima Katsushige, Xu Anguo, and Li Daniu.

On the other side stood Tokugawa Iemitsu and his four retainers.

As for those sitting around, they were all accompanying personnel from both sides.

Zheng Sen, Shi Lang, Lin Qingye, and some generals of the Second Army of Liaodong were among those listed.

With the assistance of a translator,

Zhang Jingchuan and Tokugawa Iemitsu exchanged only polite pleasantries.

First, Tokugawa Iemitsu's retainers presented the peace terms, which were written in both Chinese characters and Japanese script.

Upon opening the document, Zhang Jingchuan immediately realized that Tokugawa Iemitsu must have contacted Nabeshima Katsushige, who in turn had consulted Zheng Zhilong.

The peace terms offered by Tokugawa Iemitsu were quite tempting.

The first step was to cede the Hizen Domain and the Iwami Domain to the Ming Dynasty. The former was given to Zheng Zhilong, and the latter to the Marquis of Pinglu.

Nagasaki served as a trade gateway between Japan and the Ming Dynasty, operating according to the previously agreed-upon unilateral and exclusive terms with the Ming Dynasty.

Of the profits from the mining of the Iwami Silver Mine, the Tokugawa Shogunate received 50%, while the remaining 50% went to the Ming Dynasty.

In military terms,

The Tokugawa Shogunate agreed to allow the Ming Dynasty to recruit Japanese soldiers to fight in Liaodong and Goryeo.

As for Japanese laborers and women, they were recruited by the Tokugawa Shogunate and sent to Ming China under the guise of labor dispatch, but Ming China had to pay money to the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Finally, there was the annual tribute to the Ming Dynasty.

After reading it, Zhang Jingchuan smiled.

Then he took out a metal box from his pocket and pulled out a cigar from it.

Shi Lang quickly stepped forward, pinched the Marquis's head, then blew on a tinderbox and handed it to him.

Zhang Jingchuan calmly placed the cigar on a tinderbox to heat it, causing Tokugawa Iemitsu to frown slightly.

however,

No one noticed that Zheng Sen, sitting next to Shi Lang, looked at Lord Zhang with a hint of reverence and fervor.

...Is this the first military merit marquis in the Ming Dynasty in a hundred years that my father often mentioned to me? He looks so young.

Tokugawa Iemitsu first glanced at Nabeshima Katsushige, and then fixed his gaze on Zhang Jingchuan.

He asked in a low voice, "Is the Marquis of Da Ming dissatisfied?"

Zhang Jingchuan put the cigar in his mouth, bit down on it, and then took two big puffs.

He opened his mouth and said:

"Are you kidding me?"

Is this all you're offering? Do you think I'm begging?!

I am a meritorious marquis of the Ming Dynasty, and I have tens of thousands of elite troops in Liaodong. You Japanese pig, are you trying to fool me with this little bit of stuff?

If the Dutch next door see this, they'll think I'm having a terrible time in Liaodong, and that you can just fob me off with this little bit of stuff.

Take it away, take it away, take this piece of rubbish away.

How stupid!

Upon hearing the translator's message, Tokugawa Iemitsu's face turned ashen with anger, yet he dared not utter a word of it.

He could only express his protest with heavy breathing and trembling lips.

"What exactly does the Marquis of the Ming Dynasty want?"

Lord Zhang exhaled a puff of white smoke, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Imitating Tokugawa Iemitsu's tone,

He opened his mouth and said:

"There's an old saying in the Ming Dynasty: 'A wise man submits to circumstances.' I don't think you want the Tokugawa Shogunate to end in your hands!"

……