Chapter 895 The terminal disease of the Edo period - tuberculosis [6000]

The epic defeat of the Eastern Expedition caused heavy losses to Changzhou

The guerrillas, sniper teams and other elite units with acceptable strength are all gone.

The losses were so great that they could be said to have shaken the country's foundation.

Of course, for Katsura Kogoro, Takasugi Shinsaku and others, compared to the loss of military power, the collapse of people's hearts is the most troublesome trouble.

"Respect the king and repel the barbarians" has always been the unswerving administrative philosophy of the Changshu senior officials, and it is also the biggest political correctness in the Changshu domain.

It was by relying on the slogan "Support the imperial court and expel the barbarians and Di" that they were able to unite all major classes in Changzhou and unite with the outside world.

But the result... after touting the "Changzhou Soul" for so many years, it has never been put to use.

Facing the powerful ships and artillery of the Western powers and the iron hoofs of the Shinsengumi, the Choshu soldiers who struggled to exert their "Choshu Soul" always had only one end: being ruthlessly crushed!

From the "Shimonoseki War" to the "Ikedaya Incident" and then to the "Summer Battle of Kyoto", they suffered defeat after defeat, and the defeat became more and more disastrous.

Faced with the poor results of repeated defeats, no matter how tough the radicals are, they have no shame in talking about the "soul of Choshu" or "cutting warships with samurai swords".

Today, with the deaths of Gensui Kusaka and others, the radical faction that has lost the support of the people has completely lost power.

In this way, the radicals with extreme ideas and cruel methods completely withdrew from the center of power in Changzhou, and could no longer make any waves.

The conservative faction led by Katsura Kogoro and Takasugi Shinsaku took over the power of Choshu - this should be regarded as the only good thing for Choshu in recent years.

Although Katsura and Takasugi are both novices in running the country, they are already much better than before.

At the very least, this country is now run by normal people.

For a long time, there has been a conservative force within Changzhou that cannot be underestimated.

After the radicals lost power, not only the conservative faction represented by Katsura and Takasugi came to power, but the conservatives also rose up.

This group of people originally opposed any words and deeds that attacked the imperial court and the shogunate, and were known as the "secular theory faction".

Throughout the ages, "political inertia" has been a common occurrence.

Although the crotch-stretching performance of the shogunate in recent years is obvious to the world, the psychological weaknesses accumulated over the past two hundred years cannot be eliminated by simply eliminating them.

The powerful image of the shogunate, which ruled Japan and no princes in the world dared to disobey, was deeply engraved in the hearts of the older ministers.

Even though they knew that the strength of the shogunate was far less than before, many people still feared the shogunate and were unwilling to become enemies of the shogunate.

Of course, many of these conservatives are pure "long-time traitors."

Most of these guys are related to the shogunate, and they naturally put their own interests above those of Changshu.

The conservative leader of Choshu was named Muri Tota.

Regarding the "Chōshu Expedition" that the shogunate was about to launch, Katsura and Takasugi had a very heated debate with Makuri Tota and others.

The conservative opinion is simple: surrender directly.

Muri Tota and others said:

The three people who had originally advocated "conquering the capital and retaking the emperor" completely angered the elders of the shogunate - Fukuda Echigo, Imperial Secretary Shinano, and Masudaemonsuke - and committed seppuku.

Then, the lord, Mouri Kei, was asked to personally wear white clothes representing surrender, face the east, that is, the direction of the Edo shogunate, kowtow to admit his mistake, and submit a surrender form to pray for the generosity of the shogunate.

Anyway, "just do it like this" is a piece of useless trash without any opinion, and no one will care about it.

Even if he were asked to do such a cowardly thing, he would definitely say "Okay! Let's do it like this!".

In fact, when the two factions were discussing how to respond to the shogunate's Western Expedition, they did not even invite Mori Yoshiuchi to attend.

It can be seen that the lord of Changzhou is so useless that even his own officials look down on him.

Makuri Tota and others believed that the shogunate would not exterminate Choshu.

After all, Changzhou is a powerful vassal of the Western Kingdom. Even though it has suffered heavy losses now, it still has a certain amount of combat power.

If the two sides really break up and fight to the death, even if the shogunate wins in the end, they will definitely pay a heavy price and the gains will not be worth the losses.

He preferred political victory to military victory - this was the traditional skill of the Edo shogunate.

As long as we keep our stance low enough and give the shogunate enough face, we will be able to turn the crisis around.

To sum up, we must not go to war with the shogunate.

Regarding the discussion made by Mikiri Tota and others, Katsura and Takasugi’s response was simple—ridiculous! It’s so ridiculous!

Takasugi Shinsaku, who has a hot temper, directly refuted:

"Kowling down will not buy peace! Do you think the shogunate will spare us if we kneel down?"

Although Katsura Kogoro is a gentle and elegant man, when faced with the conservatives' retarded speeches, he mocked him unceremoniously:

"Placing the hope of survival on the mercy of the enemy! I really blush for you!"

Ever since they learned that the shogunate was preparing to launch the "Changzhou Expedition", Katsura and Takasugi had never stopped collecting relevant intelligence.

Based on all the information currently known, they have determined that the shogunate's western expedition is aimed at annihilating them!

No matter which angle you analyze it from, this massive offensive that mobilized 200,000 troops is genuine and is definitely not meant to scare them.

The shogunate is determined to destroy them this time. How can it stop the attack because of your humiliation?

Taking a step back and thinking about it, even if the shogunate really spared Changzhou, it would definitely have to cut off the feudal states and change the state, and the country would not be able to survive.

Surrendering is definitely a dead end! The only way out is to pick up a knife and fight!

One side wants to surrender, the other side wants to fight to the end...The contradiction between the two sides is difficult to reconcile.

People from the two groups were quarreling so hard that their faces were red and their necks were thick.

However, this debate did not last long.

There is a saying that "power comes from the barrel of a gun."

Shinsaku Takasugi has a powerful team called the Raiders.

At the same time, he and Katsura Kogoro are both powerful swordsmen who can rival a hundred.

On the other hand, the conservatives...not to mention completely obeying their army, they don't even have a strong, brave and good swordsman under their command.

Facts have proved that weapons of criticism cannot replace weapons of criticism after all.

In this way, Katsura and Takasugi successfully "persuaded" the conservatives and suppressed the spread of the "wind of surrender."

Although the Maori wedding ceremony is a piece of iron waste that has no sense of existence and has no practical effect, the process must still be followed.

Katsura and Takasugi submitted a request to Mouri Qingqin to "work together as one to resist the shogunate forces."

Then, as expected, the other party said loudly:

"Okay, let's do it!"

At this point, Changzhou finally unified his thinking and decided to fight to the end.

Now that we have decided to fight against the shogunate, the next thing to do is very simple: seize the time to build fortifications and strengthen war preparations!

The surprise force founded by Shinsaku Takasugi is the last remaining armed force in Choshu.

The elite team, which is deeply westernized and can skillfully use guns and artillery, certainly has impressive combat power.

But... a mere 2,000 troops, facing the 200,000 troops that are about to attack, there is indeed a slight gap in terms of the size of the troops...

The country is in dire straits and defeat is imminent - this phrase is really suitable to describe the current situation of Changzhou.

…

…

Changzhou, the school ground of the Qi soldiers——

"Kill ah ah ah ah!"

"That's right! We just need this momentum! Try to maintain this momentum!"

"Hey! Who asked you to rest?! When it's time to fight, will the army let you lie down and rest?"

"Hurry up! Move faster!"

"Weakness in wielding the sword! Inaccurate shooting! Sloppy steps! Slow reaction! You want to defeat Tachibana Aoden?!"

…

The school field of the Raiders - a large, flat dirt field without even a single weed, can be seen everywhere as soldiers practicing hard.

Those who ran, those who formed formations, those who practiced musketry... it was all in full swing

What's interesting is that they put extra force when stepping on the ground.

The reason is that the words "Qin Yao", "Hui Jie", "Sa Thief", "Ju Qingdeng" and "Orange Dog" are written on the soles of their shoes.

Whenever they step hard on the soles of their shoes, they will feel the pleasure of "revenge".

…

…

Somewhere in the school grounds——
To be continued...