Under the surveillance of the soldiers, who were facing a formidable enemy, Maori Yuanxin was brought to Bi Su's tent.

With his previous experience of accepting the Tachibana family in Yanagawa Domain, Bi Su did not appear at a loss this time, but stood in front of people with a look of arrogance. Because he is tall and tall, he is much taller than Moto Nobu.

It further reflects the oppression of the small vassal by the big country.

Because they had already started to set up camp, many Han soldiers started to light fires to boil dry food and noodles. There was smoke everywhere, so the smoke was very thick, visibility was not high, and it was a busy scene.

The smoke choked both of them, but Maori Motonobu still bowed respectfully to Bi Su, and knelt down as the ground was trampled on the mud.

"I have met the general of the Han army."

"Are you the envoy of the Maori family of the Changshu Domain?" Bi Su waved his finger and motioned for Maori Yuanxin to stand up, "What's the matter?"

"The vassal told me several things, and I asked the general to allow me to relay them one by one." Motonobu Maori stood up calmly, "First of all, what we are most concerned about is the attitude of the Han Dynasty towards the bad vassal - your envoy

We have also seen the statement issued, and it has been clearly stated that the shogunate and some feudal lords are listed as enemies, and they are declared to be destroyed together... So, what does the Han plan to do with our Choshu Domain?"

"We came to Japan to punish the shogunate and restore the discipline of your country. We do not want to be enemies with the whole of Japan, nor do we want to attack anyone for no reason. I think your domain also saw it, although we are not the only ones except the shogunate.

We still need to attack several feudal lords, but our memorandum has already listed their crimes. They are all stubborn and obedient to the shogunate, so they are targeted by us."

In accordance with the established strategy of the Han Dynasty, Bi Su answered Motori Motobu's question, "So, if your clan does not cooperate with the shogunate and become our enemy, we will not regard your clan as an enemy and will ensure your clan's safety.

"

"If the feudal clan follows the shogunate or fights against the Han army, it will be regarded as an enemy and attacked mercilessly, right?" Mori Gennobu asked.

"Yes." Bi Su replied without any hesitation, "So it depends on how your noble family chooses."

Seeing how tough the Han official was, Moto Nobu Moori was slightly hesitant, but he quickly returned to normal.

"The feudal clan and the shogunate have always had a deep hatred. In the past, I was just afraid of the shogunate's power, so I had to give in. I have never forgotten the hatred in my heart." Moto Nobu immediately expressed his attitude, "The feudal clan sent me here.

We have reached a consensus before - we will never fight to the death for the sake of the shogunate and become enemies of your country."

In the previous Warring States Period, the Maori family was also a powerful force. After several generations of management, it occupied a vast territory. At its most prosperous period, it once controlled nearly two million koku of territory in the seven countries, and had the potential to seize the entire Japan.

Ambition. However, after the rise of Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, they suffered a major blow.

In order to realize his ambition to unify Japan, Oda Nobunaga went on conquests, and his power expanded day by day, and finally reached the sphere of influence of the Maori family, and the two families inevitably clashed.

After the war began, Oda Nobunaga sent his subordinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi to conduct a conquest, and after many battles, the Mori family fell into a disadvantage. But at this time, Oda Nobunaga was at his peak and was captured by his subordinates.

Mitsuhide Akechi launched the Honnōji Rebellion and killed him. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had to withdraw his troops on the condition that the Mori family ceded the territories of three countries and returned to participate in the war for the political legacy of Oda Nobunaga.

Because of this battle with Hideyoshi, the Mori family decided internally that Japan would fall into the hands of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, so they had to temporarily curb their ambitions and became a staunch supporter of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

In order to repay the support of the Maori family, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has always been very supportive of the Yurong Maori family. Before the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Terumoto was appointed as one of the "Five Elders", responsible for discussing decisions and jointly assisting the young master Toyotomi Hideyori.

adult.

The five elders include Tokugawa Ieyasu, Maeda Toshiie, Ukita Hideie, Mouri Terumoto and Kobayakawa Takakage (after the death of Kobayakawa Takakage, Uesugi Keikatsu replaced him). Among them, Mouri Terumoto's power is ranked second after the imperial family.

Tokugawa Ieyasu's annual income is close to 1.2 million koku.

However, with the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the situation in which the younger leader became stronger, and the discord and struggles within Toyotomi's retainers, the Maori family's ambitions began to stir again. In the fierce struggle, they coveted Toyotomi Hideyoshi's political legacy.

The powerful people gradually divided into two factions, one faction was headed by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the then governor of the Mori family, Mori Terumoto, joined the other faction and became one of the leading figures.

The two groups gradually became incompatible with each other during many battles, and finally began to use swords to decide the outcome. As the general of the Western Army, Terumoto Mori became Tokugawa Ieyasu's main opponent.

However, in the decisive Battle of Sekigahara, the Western Army was completely defeated due to various factors such as generals' different intentions, poor command, and labor expeditions. As the main force of the Western Army, the Maori army also suffered as a result.

Huge loss.

What followed was a bigger blow. After defeating the Western Army and establishing his dominance over Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu began to deliberately use various means to weaken the Maori family. The most direct and powerful means was to reduce the Maori family.

In addition to the fiefdom - the territory of the Mori family was reduced from 1.2 million koku to 370,000 koku. Only the territories of Shufang and Nagato were cut off, and even Anyun country, the foundation of their origin, was forcibly cut off by the shogunate.

Although the Maori family accepted this punishment because of the uncontrollable situation, the seeds of hatred have been sown in their hearts. Their monarchs and ministers have never forgotten their desire for revenge, and they have tried every means to regain everything they lost in the past. Therefore, in

The big man came over and saw that the Tokugawa family's rule was already shaky at least in the Western Kingdom. The Mori family began to have other thoughts in private.

They sent Maori Yuanxin here, firstly to find out the attitude of the big men and see if they must be enemies of the Maori family; secondly, to explore the cooperation between the two parties and at least give the Maori family an opportunity to take action.

The Han army showed extremely strong combat power as soon as it came up. Whether on land or at sea, they maintained a crushing superiority in force. Even though the two sides had not fought yet, the Changshu clan also understood that their current

Force could never stop the attack of the Han army.

Therefore, after Bisu made it clear that as long as the Maori family did not fight to the death for the shogunate, he would not regard the Maori family as enemies, he immediately expressed his position and attitude, fearing that unreasonable disaster would be caused because of the shogunate.

"Your noble family really understands the righteousness." Seeing that the other party was so knowledgeable, Bi Si also smiled calmly. "Then I can make a promise to you."

Although the Maori family may not be very strong, they guard the southernmost tip of Honshu Island and are the only way for the Han army to go north to Kyoto. If they can cooperate with the Han army, it will of course be a good thing. For the Han army

, the fewer enemies you have to face, the better.

However, the more this happened, the less he could show his secret joy in front of them. He deliberately behaved very reservedly, as if the attitude of the Maori family was not of much importance to him.

"Thank you, General. With this, everyone in the clan should feel at ease." After receiving Bi Su's personal assurance, Maori Yuanxin was obviously relieved. "We, the Maori family, have a deep hatred for the shogunate, and there is no way we can help them.

The truth is, I only hope that the big man can work hard to defeat the Tokugawa shogunate completely and give me a sigh of relief!"

Although he said so, Maori Yuanxin also saw that he was just a field officer of the Han Dynasty. Although he had a high status, he should not be able to make a decision from the standpoint of the Han Dynasty court, so his statement was still unacceptable.

Totally believe it.

Although the Choshu clan has analyzed it for a long time, they have concluded that the Han Dynasty will tolerate those feudal lords who are neutral or surrender to them, and their attitude towards the Shimazu family and the Tachibana family has also shown this, but if there is no reliable guarantee,

, my heart is still not very stable.

We still have to meet the Han general and the Han envoy who issued the "Kyushu Reward and Punishment Order", and establish contact with them to confirm their attitude.

After the two were silent for a while, seeing that the Han general in front of him had no intention of speaking, Moto Nobu had no choice but to continue.

"We already understand what the general means, and we will definitely cooperate with the general's actions. As long as the Han army wants to go north to fight the shogunate, the feudal clan will never stop it. Now the Han army has great martial arts achievements in Kyushu, and I think it will happen soon.

Let’s march into Kyoto...General, can you let me and other envoys go to see the generals of your army and the envoys sent by your emperor?"

"If you want to go to the pilgrimage, you can naturally go to the pilgrimage." Bi Su did not mean to embarrass them, "Now our Han generals and envoys have been stationed in Nagasaki City. If you want to go, then go

Well, I will ask some soldiers to escort you. However, the order on Kyushu Island is still relatively chaotic now, so envoys must be careful on the way."

"Thank you General for your kindness. We will naturally be careful." Although it was a bit sad to hear that Nagasaki had fallen into the hands of the Han Dynasty and became the residence of their military and political officials, Moto Nobu Moori still went to Bi Su again.

A gift.

Then, he suddenly lowered his voice.

"If your army is really prejudiced against the Hosokawa family and wants to use the lives of the Hosokawa family to establish its authority, our Mori family can also help."

Before Bi Su could express his opinion, Moto Nobu suddenly laughed strangely, "To be honest, General, there are already many people in Ogura Domain who are dissatisfied with the Hosokawa family, and they are not willing to follow Hosokawa."

If the general really wants their lives, we can make peace secretly."

Because he hoped that the Maori family would come to help him, Hosokawa Tadori was very attentive to them after the arrival of the Maori family's envoys, without much precaution. The Maori family had frequent contacts with the Ogura clan, and this time they took the opportunity to make peace with them.

Some important figures in the Ogura Domain held secret talks - of course, there were indeed not many people willing to die for the Hosokawa family and the shogunate.

Are you going to use the Hosokawa family as a tool to please us big men? Bi Su sneered in his heart.

However, it is always a good thing to use this to reduce the losses to the Han army.

"Then just follow what the messenger said." He laughed, "Please go back and tell those who are interested. If you sacrifice the city within three days, we will only save the lives of the entire Hosokawa family. If you still don't do anything after three days,

If it succeeds, then don’t blame us!”

"I believe they will make wise judgments." Moto Nobubu Moori was still smiling.

On the same day, Moto Nobu returned to the city and told the feudal lord Hosokawa Tadayoshi the news that the Han army was willing to spare the Hosokawa family. However, his happiness did not last long. Only that night, several feudal lords who got the real information

The senior ministers launched a mutiny in the middle of the night, and Hosokawa Tadori and his children were all killed.

The three-day period given by Bi Su only passed by one day. With the help of the Mori family, the Ogura Domain City was captured. The Han army reached the northernmost tip of Kyushu Island and officially took control of the entire Kyushu Island.

.

This is a very brilliant victory. Of course, for them, this is only the first part of the entire goal. There is still a long way to go.

After taking the Ogura Domain, a group of Han sergeants took Mouri Genshin south to Nagasaki, preparing for him to visit the Han generals and envoys. However, they failed because Zhao Song, Zhou Pu and others had already brought him with them.

Along with the feudal lords from various places who joined the battle, they went to attack Kurume Castle.

Motori Motonobu didn't want to waste time waiting, so he simply set off again, heading from Nagasaki to Kurume Castle. This time he finally caught up with Zhou Pu and others.

Because the Kurume Domain had been completely pacified, Zhou Pu and Zhao Song had originally planned to return to the army, but after hearing the news of the arrival of the envoy from the Choshu Domain's Mori family, Zhou Pu still took the time to receive the envoy.

"Your Majesty Moto Nobu, please see the angel!" As soon as they met, Moto Nobu bowed respectfully to the envoy.

After what he saw along the way, especially after seeing the ruined scene of Kyushu and the might of the Han army, he became more determined to let the Choshu clan avoid this military disaster and not to die for the shogunate's foolish loyalty.

On the way to Kurume, he thought several times about how to surrender to the Han in a more honorable manner, especially how to reflect the status and role of the domain, increase the importance of the Han to himself, and strive for a more important position for the Maori family after the war.

status.

So when he saw Zhou Pu, he was frightened and wanted to show respect to him, because he knew that this man represented the emperor of Han Dynasty, and a few casual words might determine the status of the Maori family in post-war Japan.

Come.

"No courtesy." Zhou Pu casually asked him to get up.

After this period of dealings with those frightened feudal lords, Zhou Pu has become accustomed to others being respectful to him, and his gestures have become a bit more majestic and arrogant as an envoy of a great power - of course, because his hair has been shaved before

He has just grown some short hair now, so he looks a bit nondescript, but no one dares to be disrespectful to him because of it.
To be continued...