The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

"Give the order." Xu Chuang hung his sword back at his waist. "Recruit them. Those who surrender will not be killed. Tie them all up and put them on the ship. Give the wounded a single stab, but don't let them suffer!"

He paused, then added, "His Majesty said before we set off that these Japanese warriors are excellent miners. They are not tall, but they are strong enough. Some of the mineral layers are too low, so it is more convenient for them to dig them."

A messenger nearby whispered, "General, with so many prisoners, where are we going to transport them?"

"Send them to Geoje Island pier to be kept alive first, and then send them back to China in batches later." Xu Chuang glanced at the number of people on the beach and roughly estimated that there were six or seven thousand surrendered samurai and more than two thousand foot soldiers, totaling nearly ten thousand.

This is just the first battle. There's Kyushu Island to come, and then Honshu Island. It seems His Majesty has no shortage of miners, and the people can also get cheap honeycomb briquettes. It's a win-win situation.

"Koh-ha! Koh-ka-s-zi!" After receiving the order, several Han soldiers immediately began shouting in Japanese to the stragglers who had not yet surrendered.

Those who surrender will not be killed. This was what the interpreter taught them before they set off. Sure enough, when the Japanese soldiers who were still hiding in the pile of rocks and the crevices at the foot of the mountain heard the familiar language, they came out one by one and knelt on the beach.

The last batch consisted of several dozen high-ranking warriors with broken legs. Ma Sandao glanced at them and then looked at the centurion of his personal guards beside him: "Liu Zi, these people can't take care of themselves if they live. Give them a quick death."

Upon hearing this, the personal guard named Liu Zi smiled knowingly and waved to the soldiers behind him. Instantly, hundreds of flintlock muskets were all aimed at the warriors.

With each gunshot and a sharp scream, these high-ranking warriors fell to the ground, one by one.

Just then, Yamamoto Kazuo picked up a handful of Japanese yaks from the ground, came to Ma Sandao, and bowed and scraped as he held them up.

"Shogun, this is the sword of a shogun, bestowed upon you by the previous shogun. It bears the Tokugawa family crest and is a top-quality sword!"

Ma Sandao casually took it, drew it with a clang, and showed a hint of surprise. Then he drew the Great Han Imperial Sword from his waist, compared it, and said:

"This sword is indeed incredibly sharp, suitable only for slashing and cutting. It has limited effect against iron armor. However, if only I could use this sword to cut off the head of the Shogun!"

As Ma Sandao spoke, he inserted the knife into his belt.

When Yamamoto Kazuo heard that Ma Sandao intended to use the sword to behead Tokugawa Ietsuna, he was surprised but said nothing. Instead, seeing Ma Sandao sheathe his sword, the fear on his face subsided somewhat.

So he kowtowed again, got up and stood behind Ma Sandao with his hands at his sides, consciously keeping a half-step distance.

Ma Sandao turned around and glanced at him: "Why are you standing so close?"

Kazuo Yamamoto paused for a moment, then took half a step back.

"And then..."

Kazuo Yamamoto took another half step back.

Seeing that it was almost over, Ma Sandao, too lazy to deal with him anymore, turned around and went to count the number of prisoners.

Seeing Yamamoto Kazuo's demeanor, the former adjutant leaned close to Xu Chuang and asked in a low voice, "General, what was that Yamamoto guy again? He just said he was willing to lead Ma Sandao's horse. What's the deal with this Japanese man pledging allegiance? Is it genuine or just a pretense?"

Xu Chuang glanced at Yamamoto Kazuo, the thirty-year-old Japanese vice-general, who was standing obediently ten paces away from Ma Sandao, head down, hands hanging on his knees, motionless, looking like a servant who had committed a serious offense.

Upon hearing this, Xu Chuang smiled and shook his head, saying, "His Majesty has already said it, how could it be false? If you beat him into submission, he will wholeheartedly serve you like a dog. On the contrary, if you are polite to him, he will think you are afraid of him and will bite you back sooner or later."

……

The fleet only rested for one night at Tsushima Island, mainly unloading prisoners and collecting the remains of fallen soldiers. They were busy until midnight before they were finally able to finish.

Subsequently, Xu Chuang entrusted the handling of the aftermath of Tsushima Island to the accompanying civil officials, leaving 2,000 Korean soldiers to guard the island, while the rest of the fleet set sail before dawn the next day.

On the morning of the third day, on the north coast of Kyushu Island.

The sun had not yet risen above the horizon, and a thin mist floated on the sea. A dozen or so fishing boats were scattered in the nearshore waters, hauling in their nets. The fishermen on the boats were shirtless, with straw ropes around their waists, and were bending over to pull the nets up from the sea.

Because of the fog, they hadn't yet noticed the dense array of sails on the sea to the north.

The Zhenhai, Xu Chuang's flagship, had Xu Chuang standing at the bow. He lowered his binoculars, turned to the signalman, and said, "Order the galleons to fill their sails and ram and sink all fishing boats. No cannons or muskets are to be fired!"

The signalman paused for a moment, but didn't ask why. He turned around and went to hoist the flag. Soon, all ten galleons raised their mainsails and bowsails at the same time, and quickly accelerated to their maximum speed, at least three times faster than the fishing boats.

The captain of the foremost galleon was named Ma Liu, a Cantonese. He stood at the bow, spat into the sea, and said to the first mate beside him, "Aim carefully, don't fucking waste ship materials."

When the first fishing boat was struck by the bow of the galleon, a dull thud was heard, the keel broke on the spot, the boat capsized, and the fishing nets and fish were thrown into the sea.

The three fishermen on the fishing boat were thrown into the water. One of them hit his head on the side of the boat and sank, never to resurface. The other two struggled to swim to the shore.

Before the second and third fishing boats could react, the galleon had already run them over—one of the fishing boats was too small and was crushed into the water by the bow of the galleon, its hull breaking into several pieces of wood that floated to the surface.

Within three-quarters of an hour, more than a dozen fishing boats were capsized, and the sea was filled with broken planks, fishing nets, and struggling fishermen calling for help.

Seeing that so many fishermen were still fleeing, dozens of small boats were quickly launched from the Fujian ships at the rear of the fleet. The soldiers rowed over and stabbed them one by one with spears and shot them one by one with arrows. Screams of agony rose and fell on the sea.

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, only ship planks and corpses remained on the sea surface. The lingering smell of blood had already attracted sharks and a large number of carnivorous fish.

"Keep moving forward." Xu Chuang put away his binoculars, his tone very calm, as if he were just saying that the weather was nice today, without even frowning at anything in front of him.

The fleet sailed along the north coast of Kyushu Island in a slightly southerly direction for about half an hour, and arrived at a deserted shore when the sun rose above the sea.

Before setting off, Xu Chuang had already thoroughly researched the suitable landing sites near Fukuoka Domain in Kyushu.

The reason for choosing this location is that there is no dock, and the coastline is a wilderness of mixed rocky cliffs and earthen slopes, with dense forests even on the cliffs.

Even the coastline where they landed had a nearly two-meter-high earthen slope covered with waist-high wild grass and miscellaneous trees, and further on, there were rolling barren mountains.

"This is it." Xu Chuang put down his binoculars and turned to look at the man beside him, a strong and muscular man.

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