Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 304: Reunion and Counter-Reunion
"Your Excellency, I have escorted your army. Next, I will lead the fleet south to join the Siamese fleet and jointly fight against the Ming fleet to compete for control of the sea."
"Well, Major General Yagyu, I have been very grateful to you for taking care of me along the way. Logically, I should not make any more requests. Although I am not good at naval warfare, I also know that it takes time and luck to find the enemy fleet in this vast ocean. Although the number of Ming's new fleet is certainly small, it is no match for Ming's Funing Town Fleet, which is also quite combat-effective, and my Japanese..."
Date Masamune spread his hands and said, "Although we have brought many ships this time, the most powerful ones were left in Osaka Bay by Fujido Sado. What if you don't find an opponent, and the new fleets of Funing Town or Ming Dynasty enter the Tsushima Strait? You know, this time, our entire army only brought 100,000 stones of grain and grass. Moreover, since the eight provinces of Korea have been pre-allocated to various daimyo, the people there will be our subjects in the future, this..."
"Hahaha, Lord Date is right. But the Kubo-dono has already thought of a solution to the matter that worries you."
"Oh? May I ask what your Highness' instructions are?"
"Hey, here is a handwritten letter from His Highness, please take a look."
As a historical cartoonist, Tokugawa Yoshinao was at least very familiar with the history of the three East Asian countries. He certainly knew what problems existed in Joseon at that time: although the nobles of the Yangban class were fighting among themselves, they strictly guarded against the middle class, common people, and untouchables below the Yangban class, creating a huge class gap and completely cutting off the path .
Therefore, Tokugawa Yoshinao's advice to Date Masamune was: mobilize the middle-class people and ordinary people to deal with the yangban in various places - these places will be your fiefdoms in the future anyway, and most of the land in these places is in the hands of the yangban at this moment. If you don't kill them, where will your future fiefdoms be?
Of course, we want to unite the people of Korea and avoid the war that happened 20 years ago. So, after killing the yangban, we will distribute a little land and wealth to bribe the middlemen and ordinary people. The middlemen are the illegitimate sons of the yangban nobles. They are more or less educated and have some skills. And because of their status, they often work at the most basic level of the government. As long as these people come over, they will be very useful for us to stabilize the local order.
As for ordinary people, they are often self-cultivating farmers. This class is the main source of tax revenue and military personnel for the country, so of course they also need to be won over and appeased.
As for the untouchables? Please, the pie is so small, don't think about sharing it: Japan has its own untouchables, and it is a last resort . If the untouchables are still to be taken care of, I'm afraid that everyone in the Japanese army, from Date Masamune on down, will be unhappy.
As for whether what was obtained after killing the yangban nobles was enough for the conquerors and the "traitors" who were preparing to form an alliance with the conquerors, there was no need to worry about this at all: the hereditary system of the yangban nobles led them to seize most of the country's resources, so these guys were extremely wealthy.
In addition, Korea had another problem during this period: it had only been 20 years since Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched the war of aggression against Korea. During that war, in order to solve the food problem, Korea openly sold the status of "yangban". In other words, even if you were a middle-class person, an ordinary citizen, or even a pariah, as long as you paid enough money and grain to the state, the state would grant you the status of yangban - from then on you were qualified to be an official!
Although after Korea calmed down, it stipulated that if the new yangban wanted to maintain this status, they had to marry a noble of the same yangban, and the offspring they gave birth to could maintain the yangban status. But, wasn't it just 20 years since the war ended? Those new yangban who obtained their status by paying taxes to the country during the war are still alive!
Therefore, Tokugawa Yoshinao estimated that at this time, the yangban members of Korea, in terms of population alone, accounted for at least 10% to 20% of the population of Korea, and as for wealth, it was estimated that it was no less than 80%! Taking down the yangban members would be enough to divide the spoils and stabilize the ruling order!
"I see, the Kufang-dono really knows everything! I am grateful for your advice." After bowing slightly towards the east, Date Masamune turned around and said, "In this case, I won't have to worry about food and salary issues in the short term."
"Well, please feel free to march forward, Your Excellency. The Kufangdian is still in the country, allocating and transporting food to Nagoya Castle. Once I meet up with the Siamese allies and repel the Ming fleet, I will head north again to escort the food ships."
"Yoshi, now all my doubts are gone and I can march forward with peace of mind. In this case, I sincerely wish your Excellency Major General good luck in military affairs!"
"Hi, I wish you good luck in martial arts."
…
On April 10, Yagyu Kanbei's fleet began to move south. Before that, the Guangdong and Guangxi Governor's Office of the Ming Dynasty had already started to get busy.
On April 3, the Siamese and Spanish fleets appeared off the coast of Hainan Island. The two Ming warships patrolling there quickly retreated after completing their initial reconnaissance.
On April 4, the news was reported back to Guangzhou. After discussing with Yan Siqi and Liu Zhaosun, Xiong Tingbi asked Yan Siqi to lead the fleet out to sea: not to fight the enemy, but to find a way to meet up with the fleets of Yu Zigao in Fujian and Li Guozhu in Zhejiang - the enemy's fleet was so powerful that it would be bad if it was blocked in the port.
On the other hand, Xiong Tingbi issued a governor's order, ordering the troops of Guangdong's Nanhaiwei, Shendianwei, Guanghaiwei and Guangxi's Xunxiangwei, Fengyiwei and other garrisons to concentrate on the Leizhou Peninsula.
Logically, a garrison in the Ming Dynasty should have 5,600 combat soldiers. However, with the garrison system now corrupt, especially in the south which has been peaceful for more than 200 years, Governor Xiong himself has no idea how many soldiers these garrisons can have.
As for the most powerful Kunming Town, Xiong Tingbi naturally placed it in Guangzhou: it was not because he was afraid of death, but Guangzhou was the core of southern China and must not be lost.
As for Qiongzhou Prefecture, well, let’s put it aside for now.
Of course, as the teacher of the crown prince, Xiong Tingbi would not conceal anything from Zhu Youdong. He honestly wrote a report, and sent it to Yuan Keli in Beijing and Nanjing with the highest level of urgency!
On April 8, Yan Siqi successfully met up with the fleets of Li Guozhu and Yu Zigao.
"Brother Guozhu, you are here so quickly. I told you that it would take you some time to reorganize your troops after my speeder arrives in Ningbo."
"Zhenquan, that's because I wasn't in Ningbo at all. In fact, after you led the team south, Yu Shuai and I started an exercise in the waters off Xiamen."
"Oh, I see." Yan Siqi let out a long sigh, then frowned again: "You two, are we just going to go south directly?"
Li Guozhu looked at Yu Zigao, and after receiving Yu Zigao's signal for him to speak first, he spoke very straightforwardly: "In my opinion, it is difficult for a country like Siam to put together such a strong lineup as Zhenquan said. Of course, I am not saying that Zhenquan's men reported falsely. In my opinion, it is very likely that the Spanish Manila Fleet in Luzon has also joined the Siamese lineup."
"Well, it's possible."
"So, Siam's invasion of our Ming Dynasty must have been planned for a long time. Therefore, although we are slightly at a disadvantage at the moment, we still have to hurry south to find the enemy for a decisive battle. Because if time drags on for too long, the Portuguese fleet that is said to be watching in Macau may be forced to join the Siamese fleet. And if things go wrong, the Japanese pirates' fleet will also move south."
"General Li is absolutely right! In my opinion, we must start this battle as soon as possible!"
