Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 379: Sweeping Kyushu and Hai Rui Establishing New Rules
Nagasaki was originally a fishing village. In fact, it became the Port of Nagasaki today because of the Ming Dynasty’s official and private trading companies coming to Japan to trade, which led to the gradual transformation of Nagasaki Village into the Port of Nagasaki. There is even a Grain Bureau Town established by the Ming Dynasty’s Grain Bureau here.

Lu Tong and his personal guards first entered Liangyeju Town.

Wang Zhe, the head of the Grain Industry Bureau, greeted Lu Tong as soon as he saw him coming. "Thank you for your hard work, Deputy Commander. The Ryuzoji clan still hasn't doubted our plan. I have always told them that our army is only temporarily stationed in Nagasaki and will be dispatched to suppress Oda Nobunaga within three months. So, if they are still willing to trade with us now, I wonder if the army needs to purchase anything extra so that I can ask them to arrange it!"

"No need. Now that the navy has entered Nagasaki, it will be no problem for the army to use Nagasaki as a springboard and directly occupy Hizen. We can just rob it when the time comes. Why bother spending money to buy it now?"

As Lu Tong was talking, Chen Yu, a captain of the Jinyiwei stationed in Nagasaki, appeared. Lu Tong took the opportunity to ask, "Captain Chen, you came at the right time. What is the current situation of the Hizen Kingdom? How many soldiers are there? Tell us. If possible, before General Qi leads the army to arrive, our navy will first destroy the Hizen Kingdom. Then the army can go directly to China to deal with the Mori clan."

"The main forces in Hizen now are the Ryuzoji clan, the Otomo clan, the Shoni clan, and the Matsuura clan. Right now, the Ryuzoji clan is mainly fighting the Otomo clan. Ryuzoji Takanobu has just joined forces with Mori Motonari to attack Otomo Sorin, and is now preparing to send troops to Chikuzen..."

Jinyiwei Captain Chen Yu replied.

"In that case, send one of your men as a guide to lead my officers and soldiers to Chikuzen first."

Lu Tong gave an order.

As the deputy commander of the army, Lu Tong could naturally command the Jinyiwei who were responsible for military intelligence reconnaissance in Japan.

Chen Yu, a captain of the Jinyiwei, said yes, and immediately ordered his general Mu De to serve as a guide for Lu Tong's marines.

This morning.

Lu Tong then led 5,000 marines to Chikuzen.

The current guardian of Chikuzen is Otomo Sorin, a top daimyo who owns six territories: Buzen, Bungo, Chikuzen, Chikugo, Hizen, and Higo.

But at this moment, Otomo Sorin was facing a joint attack by Ryuzoji Takanobu and Mori Motonari, so his defeat was inevitable.

Lu Tan also learned the basic situation of some daimyos on Kyushu Island at that time from Jinyiwei Mu De.

Lu Tong was also very surprised that there were so many countries in such a small country like Japan. When he arrived in Chikuzen, Ryuzoji Takanobu, Mori Motonari and Otomo Sorin had already started to fight.

However, the arrival of Lu Tong's 5,000 Ming troops also surprised the three daimyo who were about to engage in a great battle.

"General Lu, your country's army can only stay in Nagasaki and Hirado to replenish supplies, and then go to Kansai to punish the traitors who usurped the Muromachi shogunate. You cannot enter the inland of Hizen."

Ryuzoji Takanobu was a daimyo who welcomed the Ming army to enter Nagasaki and go through Nagasaki to Kansai to suppress Oda Nobunaga, but he was indeed unwilling to let the Ming army go deep into his territory. After all, he could not guarantee that these Ming troops would not take the opportunity to seize his power when they arrived in his territory.

Lu Tong said, "Ryuzoji Takanobu, you are really a fool. I appreciate your friendship with the Heavenly Kingdom, so I brought 5,000 soldiers to help you attack Otomo Sorin. But now it seems that you don't need our help. In this case, we will go to Otomo Sorin. I believe he will be willing to give us more benefits."

After saying this, Lu Tong ordered Mu De to contact Otomo Sorin.

Seeing this, Ryuzoji Takanobu was also worried that the Ming army's joining would help Otomo Sorin, so he could not help but stand up and shout: "General Lu, please stay! I welcome the royal army to help!"

"Very good. This general has no other requests. Five hundred Japanese women! And all the necessary supplies!"

Lu Tong said hurriedly.

Ryuzoji Takanobu knew that the Ming Dynasty liked Japanese women, but he did not expect Lu Tong to directly ask for 500 Japanese women. However, thinking that he could not lose the opportunity to eliminate Otomo Sorin because of the intervention of the Ming army, he agreed: "Okay, I promise you! Within a month, I will send 500 Japanese women to the general!"

Lu Tong nodded and began to order his troops to set up camp. He also asked Mu De to prepare to contact Otomo Sorin, while he sat on a hillside and watched Otomo Sorin fight against the coalition forces of the Ryuzoji clan and the Mori clan.

At this time, Japan was still in the age of matchlock guns and did not have any powerful cannons, so the battles between these daimyo were mostly fought against each other, using the loyalty of the samurai to fight to the death, basically to see who was less afraid of death.

Lu Tong could see that these daimyo's warriors were all very brave, even braver than the Ming army, but the Ming army had the advantage of weapons and high combat literacy. The literacy rate was as high as 90%, especially the marines with a higher literacy rate. They had more advantages in collective combat, but might not be as good as these warriors in individual combat.

Otomo Sorin was defeated, and it was obvious that the joining of Mori Motonari made Ryuzoji Takanobu stronger.

However, Lu Tan took advantage of the situation and led the Ming army to occupy Chikuzen first, and then went directly into Fukuoka, demanding that Ryuzoji Takanobu not enter Chikuzen again.

To this end, Lu Tong issued a murderous military warning in Fukuoka, demanding that Ryuzoji Takanobu stop advancing into Chikuzen, otherwise other counties in Chikuzen would also be massacred.

Only then did Ryuzoji Takanobu realize that he had let a wolf into the house, but he did not dare to offend the Ming Dynasty, and was even afraid that the Ming Dynasty would interfere with his efforts to destroy Otomo Sorin. He had to follow Lu Tong's instructions, abandon Chikuzen, and attack Buzen Province instead. He even gave Lu Tong 500 Japanese women as promised, and gave 200 more Japanese women, in order to make Lu Tong promise to allow his Ryuzoji family to legally occupy other countries guarded by Otomo Sorin.

Although Lu Tong accepted these 700 Japanese women, he did not make any promises.

Ryuzoji Takanobu didn't know what to say, so he just continued to attack Otomo Sorin.

But Lu Tong seemed to have seen the weakness of Japan in front of the Ming Dynasty, and he increasingly disregarded the reputation of Japan.

"General Lu, General Qi has led all the main forces to land in Nagasaki. They are now sweeping the Japanese pirates across Nagasaki and setting up three concentration areas to accommodate the Japanese women. Now General Qi requires you to move towards Nagasaki immediately and strive to break through Buzen, Bungo, Higo, Kagoshima and other areas with the Second Guards Army within ten days and completely clean up Kyushu!"

At this time, Lu Tong received the military order from Qi Jiguang and nodded: "Please rest assured, General Qi, we will quickly approach the direction of Kagoshima!" Then, Lu Tong ordered: "The first place to be occupied should be Buzen. Now Ryuzoji Takanobu may not know the purpose of our army. Immediately send the 4th Marine Regiment to Buzen Tagawa County and tell them that a Japanese woman of our Celestial Empire's Royal Division is missing in Fukuoka. I suspect that she has fled to Tagawa, so I specially order the 4th Regiment to search Tagawa Castle! Ask the garrison in Tagawa Castle to open the gates and let the Royal Division in to search!"

Lu Tong came up with this reason directly. He believed that Ryuzoji Takanobu's people would definitely agree. Of course, if Ryuzoji Takanobu did not agree to let his army go in to search, he would naturally have more reason to attack Tagawa County.

However, Ryuzoji Takanobu refused the Ming army's request to enter Tagawa County to search for Japanese women because he was worried that the Ming army would occupy Tagawa County like they occupied Fukuoka and implement a bloody policy against the Japanese people in Tagawa County.

Lu Tong also directly declared war on Ryuzoji Takanobu, demanding that Otomo Sorin cooperate with him, and stated that after the Ming army left, he would give all the territories of the Ryuzoji family to Otomo Sorin.

Japan, which was in the Warring States Period, had no national cohesion and was unable to unite against the Ming Dynasty. This gave the Ming army the best conditions to use the strategy of killing someone with a borrowed knife.

Otomo Sorin was unable to refuse Lu Tong's temptation to give him the territory of the Ryuzoji clan after the Ming army left, and resolutely chose to send troops to help the Ming army attack the several Reiji provinces guarded by Ryuzoji Takanobu.

Soon, the Ryuzoji clan lost the city and the entire Buzen Province fell into the hands of the Ming army and Otomo Sorin again. At this time, Qi Jiguang's main force also advanced to the south and east of Kyushu after clearing Nagasaki.

Ryuzoji Takanobu eventually fled to Kagoshima and committed suicide there.

Qi Jiguang's main force also joined forces with the Ming army's marines led by Lu Tong in Songura County.

At this point, Lu Tong would be mainly responsible for sweeping the seas and cutting off the Japanese pirates' escape routes, as well as searching for landing points in China (a Japanese place name), while Tang Kekuan would lead the main force of the Ming army to eliminate Otomo Sorin's forces and completely wipe out the remnants of the Japanese pirates on Kyushu Island.

Qi Jiguang began to study the next military strategy for China.

During this period, a group of daimyo-level Japanese pirate captives were escorted back to the country for a ceremony to present their captives. After all, the reason why the Ming Dynasty invaded Japan was because Japan harassed the southeast.

On this day, Emperor Retired Zhu Houzhao sat on a high platform behind Emperor Zhu Zailei and witnessed the captive presentation ceremony of 27 Japanese daimyos.

The Minister of Justice Gao Yi read out the verdict, and the Emperor Zhu Zailei expressed his agreement. Then the 27 Japanese daimyos were taken away and beheaded with a click!

Zhu Houzhao specifically looked at the civil servants present. Some of the civil servants with a background of Jiangnan aristocratic families had obvious solemn expressions. This kind of root-out extermination of the Japanese pirates clearly made them realize that it would be difficult for their families to collude with the Japanese pirates to engage in smuggling in the future while Japan split and became independent from the Ming Dynasty.

But no matter what, at this time, both civil officials and military generals had to praise the military achievements of the emperor and the emperor emeritus.

"Your Majesty, killing prisoners is an ominous thing. Therefore, I think that in the future, this prisoner offering ceremony can be unnecessary. The pirate leader brought back from Japan can be directly executed by the Ministry of Justice, and then the Ministry of Rites can preside over the ceremony. It is too bloody to let the Ministry of Justice publicly execute him in front of officials and civilians! It can also be regarded as simplifying politics and rituals! It will prevent Your Majesty from being too tired!"

At this time, the Minister of Rites Chen Yiqin stood up and proposed to abolish this ceremony of surrendering prisoners.

"No! When a new emperor ascends the throne, we need to promote civil and military achievements. The Japanese pirates have always been a threat to our Ming Dynasty. Now we can eliminate them and ensure eternal peace. This is something that will be remembered for generations, so how can we not promote it? If we don't offer captives, then the hairpin ceremony for the new Jinshi will not be held. Since we want to simplify government affairs, we can't just reduce the military ceremony without reducing the civil ceremony!"

The Left Censor-in-Chief Yang Lin raised objections, and Chen Yiqin had no choice but to say nothing.

Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly when he saw this. He naturally knew why Chen Yiqin and others were unwilling to hold a ceremony to present prisoners. Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty was no longer a time when civil officials were emphasized over military officials. Military generals were no longer controlled by civil officials, so they could naturally compete with civil officials and even compete with them in the court.

Xu Jie could only sigh slightly upon seeing this, he also knew that the time was no longer when the civil service group was dominant, the military group backed by the big financial tycoons and the common people were not only on an equal footing with the civil officials, but if Qi Jiguang returned triumphantly and became a general or a prime minister, the military officials would completely overwhelm the civil officials in the future.

What made Xu Jie even more angry was that there were still idealistic civil servants like Hai Rui, who only cared about the justice he upheld and would not listen to anyone. The emperor and the emperor emeritus were naturally extremely wise, but because of this, civil servants like Hai Rui had to go against the gentry again and again.

At this time, Hai Rui was indeed fighting against the gentry in Jiangnan, and he was not instructed by anyone. He just acted instinctively because he found that in Jiangnan, not only families like Xu Jie were encroaching on the people's land, but also many gentry with prominent backgrounds were encroaching on the people's land, and the situation was very serious. A large number of mulberry farmers and cotton farmers were in a weak position in the competition for land resources, and some were even forced to become workers from petty bourgeoisie because of the loss of land.

Not only that, Hai Rui also found that the rights of workers in many towns were not guaranteed. Even some workers with relatively high treatment and salaries were oppressed by the gentry, because once these workers lost their jobs, they would have no source of income. These gentry controlled most of the businesses and even organized themselves into chambers of commerce.

If a gentry wanted to discipline a worker, he could simply ask the major business houses controlled by the Chamber of Commerce not to employ the worker, thus forcing the worker into a desperate situation.

This has also led to many workers committing suicide, especially middle-aged workers who have heavy family burdens but can no longer provide cheap labor.

Many officials also helped the gentry, which further exacerbated the confrontation between the gentry and the workers.

Hai Rui was naturally different from those civil servants. He took advantage of his greater autonomy and started pilot reforms directly in Yingtian to strengthen the protection of workers' rights and interests, encourage the establishment of trade unions, encourage workers to hold property rights, and even directly formulate local regulations to protect workers' rights and interests and give preferential treatment to workers.

"Anyone who dismisses a worker during the contract period, and the worker did not voluntarily apply for resignation, must pay the worker one year's salary as liquidated damages! Governments at all levels are obliged to establish free re-employment training institutions. Any business that employs less than 30% of Ming citizens and uses a large number of white and black slaves will be taxed three times as much! Special factories can make special applications to this official! Anyone who encroaches on private land, no matter who it is, will be subject to civil judgment by the Censorate. Not only must the land be returned, but also the losses incurred from the land must be compensated..."

Zhu Houzhao carried out a pilot reform in Yingtian to increase local autonomy. After all, the production relations in Jiangnan were more advanced and complicated than those in other places. He could allow Nanzhili to carry out some pilot reforms independently first, and then promote them to the whole country.

Therefore, the governor of Yingtian could enact some local regulations and appoint officials below the provincial level (not including the provincial level) through collective voting of the leadership team. This was also an attempt to align with the modern political system. Therefore, Hai Rui could enact some local regulations through the Yingtian Provincial Legislative Committee and implement effective management of Yingtian Prefecture.

But it is obvious that Hai Rui's actions undoubtedly seriously violated the interests of the gentry and merchants, and directly interfered with the free economy of Jiangnan. Even these merchants had laws and regulations to regulate the hiring and dismissal of workers.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao received a telegram from the emperor's son Zhu Zailei on this day: "Father, it's bad. A group of students from Nanzhili are crowding outside the Daming Gate, demanding that the court dismiss Hai Rui!"

Thanks to my book friend Zhuqianzi for the 100 starting coins reward. Thank you to my book friend lads4017 for the 100 starting coins reward.

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(End of this chapter)