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In the end, Tang Tong sent his 3,000 men to the battlefield. With the fire support of these 3,000 breech-loading rifles, the Japanese allied army finally attacked the walls of Edo by stepping on the corpses of those men.
Li Kui, the captain of the Japanese squadron, was the first person to attack the Edo city wall, and the team under his command was also the first to attack the city wall. Li Kui was lucky. After he led his men to climb the city wall, the soldiers of the Tokugawa shogunate, who had little morale, faced the powerful power of those muskets. After Li Kui climbed up the city wall, the entire team quickly collapsed.
Later, in the street fighting in Edo Castle, Tang Tong did not allow his 3,000 soldiers to participate, because Tang Tong promised the Japanese auxiliaries that they could roam freely and plunder in Edo Castle for ten days. After Edo Castle was captured, these Japanese auxiliaries, who were tempted by money and women, showed amazing combat effectiveness. Originally, the two sides were similar in number of people, but one side was in high spirits while the other side had no will to fight. There were even many soldiers of the Tokugawa shogunate who turned their swords and killed their former comrades when they saw the Tokugawa family's decline. Although Tokugawa Iemitsu had many loyal subordinates, he also had many people who were jealous of him. For the bounty, these people targeted the defeated Tokugawa Iemitsu.
The heads of Tokugawa Iemitsu and several of his ministers were chopped off by their men, and became bargaining chips for these people to seek credit and surrender. When Li Kui and his group arrived at the Tokugawa mansion, there were only about forty of his men left. However, several dozen people from other teams followed Li Kui. After they broke open the door of the Tokugawa family, they rushed in with a cheer, and couldn't wait to look for valuables. If they saw a man, they would chop him with a knife, and if they saw a woman, they would tie her up.
Because these people were in a hurry to find valuable things at this time, no one wanted to do that with a woman. But Li Kui was rough but careful. He knew that he and his men were the first to attack the city wall, and there would be a large reward at that time. Moreover, he led his men to break through the Tokugawa Shogunate, which was also a great achievement. So the most important thing now was not to look for the valuable things, but to control this place and wait for Lord Tang to deal with it.
Li Kui, the Japanese, had some problems, so his men obeyed him. Under his command, these people no longer searched for valuables, but took control of the place. Under the sign of Lord Tang, they stopped letting other people in and put those beautiful young women and little girls together for custody.
After a day and a night of fighting, the resistance forces in Edo Castle were finally wiped out. The streets were littered with corpses. Of the more than 300,000 people on both sides, less than 70,000 were dead. There were still about 7,000 Japanese auxiliary troops left, and nearly 10,000 Japanese laborers. Because this team belonged to Tang Tong and joined the battle during the final siege, there were fewer losses. For the sake of his reputation, Tang Tong would give a pension of ten taels of silver to the dead in this team. It seemed like a huge expense, but Tang Tong did not suffer any loss at all.
First of all, none of the 3,000 soldiers under Tang Tong were injured. Secondly, the things looted by the Japanese were one-third more than Tang Tong's. In addition, the Japanese captain who was good at handling things transferred all the property of the Tokugawa shogunate to Tang Tong. After the inventory, it was found that nearly 1.5 million taels of silver were obtained, and other property was countless. For this, the Japanese Li Kui received great praise from Tang Tong. Not only did he allocate 150,000 taels of silver to reward him and those who guarded the Tokugawa shogunate, but he also promoted him to the deputy commander of the Japanese auxiliary army.
Ten days later, Emperor Gomizunoo cobbled together a team of 10,000 people and personally led them to Edo Castle. After meeting with Tang Tong, the two sides once again reiterated the friendship between Ming and Japan. With the help of Tang Tong's people, Emperor Gomizunoo successfully took over the territory allocated to him in Edo Castle. Afterwards, Emperor Gomizunoo warmly invited Tang Tong to visit Kyoto, but Tang Tong refused Emperor Gomizunoo's invitation on the pretext of being busy with military affairs.
When Zheng Zhilong received Tokugawa Iemitsu's letter for help, the negotiation team sent by Putmans had just arrived in Anhai. While Zheng Zhilong was receiving the Dutch, he was still thinking in his mind that when Tang Tong and Tokugawa Iemitsu were both defeated, he would send troops to take advantage of the situation.
Zheng Zhilong thought that Tokugawa Iemitsu had quite a few men under his command, and Tang Tong's total number of men was no more than 30,000. Relying on the Edo city walls, Tokugawa Iemitsu would have no problem holding off Tang Tong for several months, so he had no intention of sending troops in a hurry. However, Zheng Zhilong did not expect that the Japanese were an extremely bullying race. Under Tang Tong's powerful offensive, the daimyos of those small foreign countries all surrendered to Tang Tong, and Tang Tong did not care about the lives of the Japanese at all. He filled the walls of Edo with their corpses, causing Edo City to be breached within a few days.
In fact, the trick of filling the city walls with corpses was a well-used tactic as early as when the Mongols were rampant all over the world. It was just that the Mongols used the corpses of Han people at that time. After Zheng Zhilong learned that Tokugawa Iemitsu had been destroyed, Edo Castle had already calmed down due to the efforts of various forces. Tang Tong only left a thousand Japanese auxiliary troops in Edo Castle to maintain order, and the others returned to Kokura Castle for reorganization.
After this battle, although Tang Tong got some silver, his food was almost consumed. So after a few days of reorganization in Kokura City, Tang Tong took more than 6,000 soldiers under his command and the expanded 50,000 Japanese auxiliary troops to Goryeo for food. Because there were not so many ships, these people were divided into two groups to Goryeo. There were also 1,000 new recruits under Tang Tong and 10,000 Japanese auxiliary troops left in Kokura City.
Zheng Zhilong, who received the news, was unwilling to lose his interests in Japan, so he quickly reached an agreement with the Dutch. First, the two sides would jointly manage Taiwan Island. The Dutch forces would not go to the land of the Ming Dynasty, and the Zheng family's forces would not go out of the Chinese Sea. The trade between the two sides would be carried out on Taiwan Island. Another important point was that for the trade in Japan, the Zheng family would follow the principle of joint development and joint enjoyment, and divide Japan into two halves with the Dutch. Each side would occupy one side and would not interfere with each other's trade.
This agreement was signed several days earlier than in history, and at this time the Zheng family was at its strongest, while the Dutch suffered a severe blow. As a result, the interests of the Zheng family in Japan were completely handed over to the Dutch, but now each of them had half of the interests.
When Tang Tong led his men to Goryeo, Zheng Zhilong conspired with the Dutch to seize Tang Tong's Kocang City. They thought that at this time, Kocang City was the most destitute in terms of military strength. With the strength of both sides, they could easily achieve their goal and make Lord Tang lose his base.
Without mentioning how Zheng Zhilong planned to capture Tang Tong's Xiaocang Castle, before Tang Tong and his entourage went to Goryeo, they deliberately went to Pi Island, which was occupied by the Ming navy. Since Tang Tong's death, his subordinates also fell apart, and some of them occupied Pi Island. Although Sun Chengzong of the Ming Dynasty sent people to lead the Tang Tong tribe in Pi Island, people like Kong Youde and Li Jiuchen who belonged to the Tang Tong tribe did not obey the command, and the conflict between the two sides continued. In history, at the end of this century, Kong Youde and others launched a rebellion.
The current commander-in-chief of Dongjiang is Huang Long. This person has nothing to do but prefers to act domineeringly in front of Kong Youde and others. Therefore, Kong Youde and other people in Huang Long's tribe are very disgusted with Huang Long. In the past few days, Kong Youde, Li Jiucheng and others have discussed to join Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, because Kong Youde has some feelings for Sun Yuanhua. Kong Youde, who has not thought about rebellion, thinks that joining him is a good way.
Sun Yuanhua was a bookish person. He was talented in studying but useless in military affairs. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, Sun Yuanhua was the best firearms expert in the Ming Dynasty. He transformed Western cannons into the famous red cannons in later generations. Sun Yuanhua made an indelible contribution to this. Tang Tong had known about his firearms expert for a long time, but because Sun Yuanhua was a governor, it was impossible for him to be used by Tang Tong.
In addition to Zheng Zhilong's navy in the late Ming Dynasty, there was another powerful team managed by Zheng Zhilong. This team could fight both naval battles and land battles. In terms of individual soldier combat effectiveness, it might even be better than the Guanning Iron Cavalry. Although the Jiannu defeated Zheng Zhilong's team many times, the damage this team caused to the Jiannu was so great that after Yuan Chonghuan killed Zheng Zhilong, Huang Taiji and his men couldn't help but high-five in celebration.
How could such a fierce army obey the command of a loser like Huang Long? So when Tang Tong went to Goryeo, he thought of this team and had the idea of recruiting them under his command. Firstly, after these people defected to Huang Taiji in history, they greatly improved the firearms manufacturing capabilities of the Jiannu. Now Tang Tong would never let these people defect to Huang Taiji again. Secondly, these people rebelled in Shandong and turned Shandong into a complete mess. Tang Tong also hoped to preserve the vitality of Shandong after recruiting these people.
Now Tang Tong's subordinates are far more powerful than a general's subordinates, but what Tang Tong did not expect is that Huang Long did not take Tang Tong's strength seriously at all.
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