Buried alive in the Qing Dynasty

Page 295

In order to achieve the above goals, Zhu Heqi had to put in the greatest strength in the shortest possible time, seek a decisive battle with the main force of the Japanese shogunate, and win an overwhelming victory in the first place.Then use methods such as division, disintegration, and buying to force the rulers of Japan to submit, so as to avoid falling into a protracted situation.

And Duo Liangchuan's battle just followed Zhu Hexi's wishes.Those Japanese samurai whose brains are still stuck in the Warring States Period and who don’t know how to fight a protracted war except for defending the cage city are obviously scared of being beaten... But there are many samurai in Japan, and they are "fortunate" to participate in the Battle of Tataragawa In the battle, the warriors who have seen the power of the heavenly soldiers are only a small part of them.

So Zhu and Qi organized this armed parade across Japan's Honshu Island.According to the plan, his [-] troops will go east all the way after crossing the Kanmon Strait, first to Osaka and Kyoto, then drive all the way to Edo along the Tokaido, then return to Nagoya Tenno Castle, and finally leave by boat in batches.

Of course, it will not be completely removed.

Zhu Hexi would leave behind a Japanese garrison composed of Korean soldiers and the Eight Banners of the Ming Dynasty. Half of them were stationed in Nagoya Tenno Castle, and the other half were placed on Ezo Island——Ezo Island is located in the Vancouver area on the west coast of North America. That is about thirteen thousand miles.In the case of ocean currents that can be used, more than one month and at most two months will be over.

Therefore, in the future, Datomorrow's eastward route to America is to first arrive at Tenno Castle in Nagoya, Japan, where to replenish food, then arrive at Ezo Island to replenish fresh water, and finally use the Kuroshio Current and the warm current of the North Pacific to reach the west coast of North America.

If the farming on Ezo Island can achieve a certain degree of success, then the efficiency of transportation will be even higher.

And to ensure the success of the construction of Nagoya Tenno City and the settlement of Ezo land, it is indispensable to let the young people in the Japanese middle school know how powerful Ming is.

According to Zhu Hechi's understanding of the Japanese warriors, as long as the boss of Daming is strong enough, they will be good minions!

Of course, obeying the strong is not just a habit of Japanese samurai, most people are like this.The same is true of Anukdun, who is kneeling in front of Zhu and Qi, and her Junggar cavalry... If it weren't for the fact that the Ming soldiers were so strong that they dare not resist, would they be so obedient?

In this battle of Japan, Anukodun really did a lot of hard work!In the Battle of Tadaragawa, she personally put on armor and led the Junggar cavalry to charge the battle, and then went to block Tokugawa Tsunayoshi non-stop. After the army set foot on Honshu, she led the Junggar cavalry as the vanguard-this road can go so steadily , The deterrent power of these thousands of Junggar cavalry should also have played a certain role.

"Anu, you've worked hard!" Zhu Heyi nodded approvingly, and called Anu Ketun to come forward, "Come here, let's have some food together... You will personally escort me into Osaka City later!"

"Anu Xie Your Majesty's Grace." Anu Kedun hurriedly kowtowed to Zhu and Qi, and her Chinese became more and more fluent.

Zhu Heqi smiled and said again: "Anu, you are the first to conquer Japan this time... I want to reward you heavily, tell me, what reward do you want?"

Anu smiled and discussed with Zhu and Qi: "Your Majesty, can you allow Anu to think about it?"

Zhu Hechi nodded and laughed, "Okay, Anu, just think about it slowly."

"Then Anu first thank the Holy Spirit for his grace."

At this time, Zhu Hexi took a rice ball and a pot of rice wine from an attendant beside him, and handed them to Anu together, "Let's eat some first, and after we finish eating, let's go to Osaka together... This is second only to Jiang's rice wine." The second largest castle in Japan!

Also, cheer up your Dzungarian cavalry.This castle town in Osaka is still the industrial and commercial center of Japan. We must let the merchants in Osaka know that our soldiers are invincible! "

"Yes!"

……

Osaka Castle Town.

In the past few years, after the Tokugawa shogunate felt the aggressive threat from the Ming Dynasty, they more or less took some measures to resist the Ming Dynasty.For example, the Osaka Castle Town was opened, and merchants and missions from Western countries were allowed to enter the Osaka Castle Town.It also approved the Dutch East India Company, which has always been friendly to Japan, to open a business office and send consulates in Osaka Castle Town.

The Dutch East India Company's support for Japan is not just lip service.On the day when the Battle of Tataragawa began, a merchant ship of the Dutch East India Company loaded with gunpowder and flintlock guns just sailed into the port of Osaka.

Also with the ship was the new Governor of Batavia, Krylov von Goens.

When Zhu Heqi's army marched through the Osaka castle town and marched towards Osaka Castle, the governor of Goens, who visited Japan secretly, was standing on the second-floor balcony of a small Dutch-style building. I used a single-tube telescope of the Crystal Palace brand to observe the Ming army infantry and cavalry marching in.This pale old man in his 60s came from Europe. When he was in Europe, he saw a lot of elite armies from the Netherlands, Sweden, and France.

However, compared with the seemingly endless infantry and cavalry he sees now, those European army elites seem to be a bit inadequate... Even the French, Dutch, and Spanish armies that have achieved "low sugar" can't compete with them. Compared with the Ming Army in front of us, the "sugar content" is incomparable, and the quantity is incomparable!

"Governor, the infantry and cavalry of the Ming army you saw are only a small part of the Ming army... there are about 10 people!"

The person who is speaking is Lei Jiesen, the head of the East India Company who once served as an envoy in the Qing Dynasty. He is an out-and-out "knowledge of China". Shop boss.

"Just a small part?" Governor Goins showed a surprised expression, "That's all the Sun King's standing army..."

"Governor, the population of Louis XIV is about the same as the total population of Japan, while the population of the Ming Empire is as high as 6000 million, twice as many as that of Louis XIV! If Japan's population of 2000 million is added, the population of the Emperor of Ming Dynasty will be as large as that of Japan. It will be as many as 8000 million...almost on par with the whole of Europe! If we want to defeat him, we must concentrate the power of the whole of Europe! Otherwise, I suggest that the company adopt a friendly policy with Ming and recognize his Celestial Empire... After all, he His enemy is Spain, not Holland."

Chapter 691 Where is Kangxi?

Hearing Lei Jiesen's words, Krilov von Goens couldn't help laughing bitterly, "Concentrate the power of all of Europe... It sounds like the words of Louis XIV, but we are citizens of the United Provinces Republic!

Why fight the 80 year war with the Spanish if we would be in favor of something like this?Our Merchant Republic would rather close its eyes and pretend not to see the rise of Ming Dynasty, the great eastern empire, than agree with European unity.Because a Louis XIV's Europe will make us sea coachmen lose the opportunity to dominate the ocean and make high profits... Just look at what our East India Company has encountered in the Eastern Sea in recent years! "

In the past few years, with the rise of Daming's sea power, the Nanyang Trading Company supported by Daming is occupying the market share of the Dutch East India Company...the two have launched fierce competition in the seas and coastal countries of the Nanyang and Dongyang!

This is not a simple business competition, but an all-round competition where gunboats come out from time to time!

Although the Dutch East India Company relied on its own advantage of controlling the route west of Malacca, it could barely maintain it under the competition of the Nanyang Trading Company.But the company's profits are getting smaller year by year, and costs are getting higher year by year.

If there is a "dominant country" similar to the new Ming Dynasty in Europe... no matter whether this country is France or the Holy Roman Empire, it will inevitably support its own Indian trading company to squeeze the market of the Dutch East India Trading Company.

At that time, the Dutch East India Company will face the dilemma of being attacked from both sides, and it is not guaranteed to go bankrupt!And it is not only the Dutch East India Company that is unlucky, but the entire Dutch maritime industry chain-in the 17th century, maritime trade was a top industry chain, who would not want to grab it?

And the Netherlands itself, because of its small size, its army was completely defeated by Louis XIV's army in the Franco-Dutch War that just ended not long ago, and then it barely survived by relying on the method of substituting water for troops. .Therefore, it basically lost its chance to become the hegemon of Europe.

In this case, the Netherlands will of course oppose the emergence of a hegemonic country that can lead the whole of Europe.

But the imminent threat of Xin Daming, Krilov von Goins, had to be ignored... Thinking of this, Goens put down the binoculars in his hand, and walked around the room with his hands behind his back.After taking a few steps, he suddenly thought of someone, and turned to Lei Jiesen and said, "When I was in Europe, I heard that there was a man named Kangxi who was the mortal enemy of Emperor Ming. Where is he now? Can we ask him further?" Provide support to curb the rise of Ming Dynasty?"

Lei Jiesen frowned when he heard this question, and didn't know what to say for a while?

"Is this Mr. Kangxi worthy of support?" Goins waited for a while, but did not hear Lei Jiesen's reply, so he asked again.

Lei Jiesen replied: "Mr. Governor...not this Kangxi, but two Kangxis!"

"Two? Same name and surname?"

"It can't be considered the same name and surname," Lei Jiesen said, "Maybe one of them is fake... and both of them are fake."

"What's going on?" Goins became more and more confused as he listened.

Regarding this question, Lei Jiesen is actually confused, "Mr. Governor, it is now certain that there are at least two Kangxis, one of whom has surrendered to the Ming Emperor and was appointed as the governor of the Northeast of the Ming Dynasty. Not long ago, he led troops. I fought a battle with the army of Rakshasa."

"How did it turn out?" Goins asked.

"This Kangxi has won a big victory."

Goins was slightly disappointed, "What about the other Kangxi?"

"I ran to the west, and I don't know where I went..." Just as Lei Jiesen said this, cheers suddenly sounded outside the window.

"Onboard! Onboard..."

Although Goins didn't understand what "onboard" meant, he knew it was "cheering", so he stopped the discussion, walked quickly to the window, and looked out.

At this time, he found that the brigade of cavalry in chain armor was lined up neatly in four columns, and mighty and mighty passed through the street under the East India Company's shop.And those who cheered were the merchants of Osaka standing on both sides of the street to welcome the Ming army...

Seeing the welcoming attitude of these Osaka merchants towards the Ming army, Goins couldn't help but sigh deeply: "Prepare a gift...I'm going to meet the Emperor Ming in Osaka Castle!"

"Governor, what do you mean..." Regison looked at Goins and asked.

Goins smiled wryly: "Money... still has to be earned, even if it's a little less!"

"Ok, I see."

Lei Jiesen nodded, just as he was about to arrange for the gift, Goins said again: "Lei Jiesen, don't forget Kangxi... the one who ran away, look for it as much as possible, maybe it will be used Got it."

"Yes, Your Excellency the Governor."

……

When Zhu Hechi led his [-] troops in an armed parade on the land of Japan as a victor, he almost forgot about his old enemy, Kangxi Kang Mazi.

But Kangxi did not forget Zhu Hechi, the mortal enemy who forced him to leave his hometown, travel thousands of miles, and almost fell into desperation!

At this time, Kangxi has led an expeditionary force of about [-] people to the vicinity of Shymkent, a famous Central Asian city near Ugam Mountain, and is fighting with the Kazakh Khanate Khan Toukhan who has received reinforcements from Luocha. The armies confront each other.

Just from the analysis of the size of the camps on both sides, we can know that Kangxi is in an extremely dangerous situation.

Under the night of late autumn in Central Asia, there are two brightly lit camps, one large and one small, on the grassland north of Shymkent.The camp of the [-] expeditionary Qing army led by Kangxi was in the north. The camp was small in scale and there were not many lights.The camps of the Kazakhs and Rakshas are in the south, and the lights are dotted all over the wilderness, like a sea of ​​stars on the ground.

Comparing the two camps, we can see that the Kazakhs and Rakshas have far more troops than Kangxi's.The former has an army of at least [-], while the latter has only [-]... and it is a tired army that has traveled nearly [-] miles from the Yili Grassland.

At this time, Kangxi was standing outside his large tent in the Chinese army, on a carriage transporting tents, looking at the lights from the camp of the Kazakh-Raksha coalition army from a distance, and just muttered to himself: "Teacher Lao!" Expeditions, exhaustion of the veterans, outnumbering the masses, lack of food supplies, lack of morale... and low morale, I have really committed a lot of military taboos this time!"

"Too..."

Standing beside Kangxi and wanting to comfort him was Suo'etu. As soon as he spoke, Kangxi interrupted him, "Now don't call me Taishang, call me Dahan! I am still Mongolian Kangxi Dahan!"

Kangxi did not want people to call him Taishang not because he was used to being the emperor, so he was not used to the title of Taishang, but "Kangxi Taishang" still stayed in Xingqing Mansion in name to assist the young Tongzhi emperor Yinfeng... Yu Jia It was Kangxi Khan of Great Mongolia who personally conquered the Kazakh prairie.

"Great Khan," Suo'etu said, "if you feel unsure, we might as well negotiate a peace with the Raksha people and cede the Yamesh Lake area to them. As soon as the Raksha soldiers leave, Touk Khan's Those people are not worth mentioning."

The Yamesh Lake he mentioned is on the left bank of the Irtysh River, which is the territory of the Junggar people.After Galdan moved eastward, no one looked at this land.The Raksha Kingdom has always coveted there, because there is a salt mine there, and it is the only way to go deep into the hinterland of Junggar and the Yeerqiang Khanate.So the Raksha people wanted to occupy it after hearing that the Junggar people had left Yamesh Lake, but they clashed with the Horqin people who followed Kangxi's westward expedition.

Seeing that Kangxi was silent, Suo'etu continued to analyze: "Khan, as far as I know, there is nothing good in the north of the Western Regions. It is so cold that I can only keep a sheep... The ones that are really fat and oily are still in the Western Regions." The south of the country, which is the territory of Tianzhu Kingdom, I heard that brown sugar is also produced there! Although brown sugar is not as good as white sugar, it can still do."

Chapter 692 The Westernization Eunuch Found Kangxi!

Suo'etu's words touched Kangxi's heart.

His failure was largely due to the absence of sugar!

To be honest, Kangxi was really wronged when he lost!

Because the white sugar in the world in this era is produced in four provinces including Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang, and there is no other place!

Among them, Guangdong and Fujian provinces have the largest output and are the real main production areas.

However, not long after Wu Sangui raised his troops against the Qing Dynasty, these two provinces were occupied by Zhu Heqi, plus Guangxi, which was controlled by Zu Zeqing and turned to Wu Sangui.Almost [-]% of the sugar production had already fallen into the hands of Zhu Heqi and Wu Sangui in the early stages of the war against the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.

Now Kangxi will suffer!

Without a large supply of sugar, the firepower of the Qing army has always been at a great disadvantage...Although Kangxi tried his best, he was still unable to reverse the decline.

With the fall of Zhejiang, Kangxi completely lost its self-produced white sugar and had to rely on smuggling high-priced sugar to supply military supplies.

How much can be smuggled?Kangxi was not a particularly rich master either.

So although Kangxi Kang Mazi tried his best to make sugar for his army.But his army can only take the "low-sugar route" and cannot compete with the "high-sugar" Ming army in terms of firepower... The huge disadvantage of firepower, coupled with the huge disadvantage of the national population, has already determined that Kangxi cannot He won the war against the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.

And after leaving the Western Regions, Kangxi Khan encountered a new crisis...that is, his army is gradually "desugaring"!

The Western Regions do not produce sugar, and it is difficult to buy sugar.Even if they could get some Tianzhu brown sugar, it would be of high price and low quality.

Therefore, Kangxi's army can only rely on a limited amount of sugar in stock to maintain "sweetness", but the stock will eventually run out!

Once the inventory is exhausted, Kangxi's army will fall from "low sugar" to "sugar free".

So for Kangxi, the top priority now is to "seek sugar"!

He had to find a stable supply of white sugar, at least brown sugar, before the white sugar inventory was exhausted.

Only in this way can he maintain the "sweetness" of his army... These days, the "sweetness" of the army is combat effectiveness!

White sugar and brown sugar are not produced in Siberia.The Raksha country in the northwest does not produce sugar either.There is no sugar beet in these days, except for the expensive and rare honey, there is only sucrose.

There is no sugar cane in the cold northern regions.Therefore, if Kangxi wants to get a stable sugar source, he can only go south to become a profuse sweat in India.

Moreover, Kangxi has to hurry up!Because the secret of sugar medicine is spreading!As far as Kangxi knows, Westerners already know what sugar medicine is all about.And the people of Tianzhu will know sooner or later. By then, Kangxi will have to suffer from no sugar again...

So he was just "passing by" in the Western Regions, and there was no need to fight with the Raksha Kingdom in the northwest.

That Yamesh lake...Kangxi Khan doesn't even know where it is?Even if he wants to defend, he doesn't know the way!

The Horqin tribe, who are nomadic in that area now, will follow Kangxi to the south later.

However, the Great Raksha State, which dominates the north and spreads its land from Europa to Heilongjiang, seems to be quite capable of fighting. It may become an ally of the Qing and the Communists against Ming in the future, so there is no need to make too much trouble.

Thinking of this, Kangxi said to Suo'etu: "Suo'etu, go and make arrangements... You and Xiao Guizi will go to the Raksha people's barracks in person."

"Whoo!"

……

The father-in-law Xiao Guizi next to Kangxi had the opportunity to participate in this diplomatic affairs, not because he was deeply trusted by Kangxi, and not because he is now in charge of the sticky office of Kangxi's secret service office, but because Xiao Guizi followed Nanhuai all these years Ren learned Latin—became a "Westernization Eunuch" who could take on diplomatic work.

And this little Guizi father-in-law also understands Kangxi's thoughts best, and he knows what to do without Kangxi asking for many things.When passing through the Yeerqiang Khanate, Xiao Guizi's father-in-law got several beauties from the Western Regions for Kangxi... Now is the time when the holy family is at its most prosperous.

Kangxi sent him to engage in diplomacy, and also meant to give him the opportunity to make meritorious service.

Suo'etu is also an expert in diplomacy. When he was in Yili, he found some Kazakh-speaking people from the left-behind Junggars. The Kazakhs were repeatedly hanged and beaten by the Junggars. Even Toukhan’s father, Jiangerhan, was beaten to death by Batur Huntaiji’s people!

Therefore, in the quasi-department, there are still quite a few people who can speak Kazakh and have a better understanding of the situation of Kazakhs.

Under their leadership, Suoetu and Xiao Guizi found the Rakshada who was ordered to lead about [-] Cossack soldiers and shooting army soldiers to support the Kazakhs in the early morning of the next day. Nobility, Tsarist envoy Vasily Vasilyevich Golitsyn.

This Golitsyn was also a character. Not only was he a great nobleman, but he was also extremely knowledgeable. He was proficient in Western European affairs and could speak fluent Latin. He was a rare intellectual among the Rakshasa nobles at that time.

And the reason why he was sent to Siberia this time was that the news of the Yaksa city battle last year reached Moscow-now the whole country "doesn't believe it"!

How could this be true?

In fact, it is not a big deal for Yaksa City to be captured by the Chinese... But the Chinese easily broke through Yaksa City in less than a day, and almost wiped out the defenders, only a few escaped.

Moreover, there were not many of them, and relying entirely on their overwhelming firepower and field combat capabilities, they defeated the Rakshasa soldiers and Cossacks defending the city... This is really a bit sensational.

How could those Easterners have such a strong fighting power?

The tsars and gentlemen in Moscow found it incredible, thinking there was something tricky about it.So Golitsyn was appointed as the "tsar's imperial envoy" to come to the east to investigate this matter.