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There have always been people who betray their country and their nation for personal gain from ancient times to the present. For Liu Xiang, except for himself, everything else can be betrayed. For such a person, Tang Tong must kill him. Even if Liu Xiang surrendered, Tang Tong would kill him.
Mu Dalang didn't know that the pirate leader he caught up with was Liu Xiang, and he didn't know that Lord Tang from Da'an liked to kill people like Liu Xiang. Mu Dalang only knew that the fish in front of him was a big fish, which might be worth a lot of silver, so he shouted to several people in his group to surround Liu Xiang.
Liu Xiang was a capable general under Zheng Zhilong and was proficient in martial arts. However, he was frightened at this time and could only exert 50% or 60% of his full strength. When he saw Mu Dalang raising his sword to chop at him, he just blocked it with the goose feather sword in his hand and did not think of fighting back. He just wanted to escape in a hurry.
After Mu Dalang and Liu Xiang exchanged a move, the force from the rebound made his wrist feel numb. He knew in his heart that the big fish in front of him was a powerful character, so he desperately called on everyone to surround Liu Xiang.
Although the planned area of Kokura City is very large, many channels have been dug for the unified planning and construction of sewers. In addition, some trenches have been dug on the periphery, making it difficult for Liu Xiang's fleeing men to escape at a high speed. It also makes it difficult for Liu Xiang to move forward little by little when he is mixed in the crowd. As a result, he is noticed by more and more Japanese. At this time, the Japanese are the victorious pursuers, so their morale is very high. All they see are ingots of silver. They don't care about the danger and are willing to kill Liu Xiang, the big fish, at the cost of their lives.
After Liu Xiang killed more than a dozen Japanese, not only did these Japanese not retreat, but more Japanese came rushing over. You have to know that for ordinary Japanese in this era, life is very cheap. They have lived a life of lack of food and clothing for generations. For a bite of food, to feed their families, they are not afraid to fight with others. What's more, Tang Tong promised that the families of those who died in the battle can live the same life as ordinary people, which made these Japanese even less afraid of death.
Even a master like Tang Tong would have been chopped into pieces by these countless monsters, not to mention Liu Xiang's small matter. What was even worse was that the Japanese chopped Liu Xiang's head into more than a dozen pieces in order to grab the credit, so that even Liu Xiang's closest people could not tell whether it was Liu Xiang's head.
After this battle, Liu Xiang's men lost more than 6,000 men and less than 4,000 surrendered and became prisoners. The main reason for having so many prisoners was the benefit of the Yagyu family. The captains of the Japanese teams this time were all from the Yagyu family. They had followed Tang Tong for half a year and gained a lot of benefits from him. Their living conditions were greatly improved. They had sincerely regarded themselves as the subordinates of Lord Tang and were very resolute in carrying out the orders given by Tang Tong.
This time, about 3,000 Japanese died. Although the bounty and pensions cost Tang Tong more than 100,000 taels of silver (the Dutch were all killed by Tang Tong's men and are not included in this list), it was just a small amount compared to the gains.
Three warships and seventy red-haired cannons were seized. These were real sea warships, and in that era, they were very powerful. Liu Xiang left behind four hundred large and small ships, nearly three hundred large and small copper cannons, and nearly ten thousand collected cold weapons. Unfortunately, Liu Xiang and his men's property was kept in their lair, which was currently the Dutch sphere of influence, and Tang Tong could not take it. As for the Dutch, they did have some property, and the eight hundred muzzle-loading muskets were also a good income.
After taking stock of the income on the battlefield, Tang Tong distributed the bounties and pensions, and announced that the families of the 3,000 Japanese who died in the battle would become official citizens of Kokura Castle. He allowed their children to read Chinese books in Kokura Castle, and tried his best to arrange for those who were able to work to participate in work. Tang Tong's move immediately made many Japanese regard themselves as members of the Great Power, and made more Japanese determined in their hearts to become citizens of Kokura Castle.
The great victory at Kokura Castle also made the various Japanese lords who were watching the excitement from the sidelines realize the strength of the Great East. As soon as Shimazu Matsumoto got the news, he sent an envoy to Tang Tong to congratulate him. Other lords on Kyukoku Island also sent envoys one after another. One was to congratulate Tang Tong and his men on their victory, and the other was to express their intention to surrender to Tang Tong. Of course, they did this for two reasons: one was because Tang Tong was a high-ranking official of the Great East, and in their eyes, he was no less important than the Shogun; the other was because they were afraid that Satsuma, with the support of Tang Tong, would send troops to destroy these foreign countries.
Tang Tong received these envoys very warmly. They reiterated the friendly relations between China and Japan and expressed their willingness to do their part for the common prosperity of Greater East Asia. Finally, in a friendly and warm atmosphere, Tang Tong signed a large number of trade agreements with these foreign countries. The three most important points were: first, in line with the principle of common prosperity, the two sides would jointly develop the mineral resources of various foreign countries; second, all overseas Chinese in China who had registered in Kokura City and issued passports would enjoy the right not to be bound by Japanese laws. In return, Tang Tong would have the responsibility to protect these foreign countries when they were invaded by other countries; third, Tang Tong would provide large amounts of food and weapons to each foreign country as military expenses. Each foreign country would send troops to assist Tang Tong in attacking Goryeo. After the attack was successful, Tang Tong would provide free assistance to each foreign country to build cement plants, seafood processing plants, agricultural product planting bases, and provide a number of employment opportunities for Japanese people to help each foreign country get rid of its current poverty.
Although Tang Tong gained great benefits from these trade agreements, the foreign countries did not suffer any losses either. This was because they had Tang Tong's powerful military force as their guarantee, so they no longer had to worry about being destroyed by other forces in the future. For Tang Tong, keeping Japan in a state of division was also the best option at present.
Tang Tong's regulation on issuing passports to overseas Chinese in Japan fundamentally undermined Zheng Zhilong's power in Japan. Previously, all overseas Chinese in Japan gathered under Zheng Zhilong in order to protect themselves. But now with Tang Tong's strong intervention, overseas Chinese in Japan have the opportunity to be proud of themselves and no longer have to worry about being bullied by the Japanese. Therefore, many Japanese people ran to Kokura Castle to apply for this passport, and some even settled in Kokura Castle.
Zheng Zhilong was surprised for a while after learning that Liu Xiang and the Dutch were completely annihilated by the deputy general Tang. When he was considering how to get along with this newly rising maritime power, he learned about the trade agreement signed by Tang Tongxin. Soon, Zheng Zhilong realized that the Lord Tang had extended his hand to the overseas Chinese forces in Japan and fundamentally disintegrated the overseas Chinese organizations under his control. This made Zheng Zhilong immediately identify Tang Tong as his enemy.
In Zheng Zhilong's belief, no one can infringe upon his interests. Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang are actually the same kind of people. They can sell anything except their own interests. In history, he fought with the Dutch for his family's interests at sea. Now Tang Tong's move infringed upon his interests far more than the Dutch's infringement upon him. After all, the overseas Chinese power in Japan is one of his most important roots. Losing the support of the overseas Chinese is equivalent to losing a large source of silver. Without silver, Zheng Zhilong will lack ships and guns. Without silver, no one will work for him. In that case, Zheng Zhilong's power will soon shrink or even disappear.
Zheng Zhilong could not tolerate this situation no matter what, so he immediately sent someone to visit Tang Tong, hoping that Tang Tong would hand over the matter of applying for overseas Chinese passports to him, Zheng Zhilong.
At this time, Tang Tong was expanding the army in Dali. Zhang Yiheng recruited more than 5,000 young and strong men from Dali, but only brought more than 1,000 breech-loading rifles. It would take a few months to get all the guns. Fortunately, Tang Tong had no plans to send these new recruits to the battlefield in the near future, so there was no rush. Tang Tong eliminated the evildoers from the nearly 4,000 captured men under Liu Xiang and incorporated them all into the navy. He also incorporated 8,000 Japanese into the navy, of which 800 had made meritorious service in the last battle and held the muzzle-loading matchlock rifles seized from the Dutch. The rest were 1,300 veterans of the Nanyang Development Company, plus some pirates and sailors from merchants who had been captured before, forming a huge navy of nearly 17,000 people.
With the existence of this huge navy, smuggling activities between China and Japan were almost eradicated, and the customs revenue of Kokura City increased nearly tenfold. This was because Tang Tong collected taxes from both sides, taxes on goods coming from China and even more taxes on goods leaving Japan. Anyone who dared not pay would have their goods confiscated. Of course, with Tang Tong's protection, this maritime trade route became very safe, and there was no need to worry about pirate looting anymore.
When those people sent by Zheng Zhilong saw the prosperous scene of Kokura City, they couldn't help but sigh in their hearts. Although Zheng Zhilong was powerful on the sea, the Japanese did not really respect him on land. It was different with Tang. Not only was his strength on the sea strong, but his strength on land was even stronger. At least Lord Tang could make the Japanese princes bow their heads.
The one who welcomed Zheng Zhilong's men was Xu Yu. Xu Yu was now very impressive. With a calm smile on his face, he welcomed Zheng Zhilong and his men into the guesthouse in Kocang City.
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