The balance of victory was tilting towards Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

Under the current situation, even for Zhu Gui, it would be difficult to hold on to the remaining three cities.

Moreover, in field battles, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu had a greater advantage, that is, the source of intelligence for operations on the home front.

After all, it is the territory of Japan. Although the four feudal kings have been running it for a long time, there are still many Japanese people who are loyal to Japan.

When Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was besieging the city, he received news from local Japanese that they had discovered Zhuge Liang's base camp.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was very careful. Even though the news was brought by the Japanese, he still sent people to investigate first.

After confirming that everything was correct, 450,000 troops were dispatched to encircle Zhu Yuanzhang's military camp.

Even though the Ming army was better equipped than the Japanese army, it had 450,000 troops, many of whom were the most elite samurai under Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. This was not something that the garrison troops led by Zhu Rong could stop.

After discovering the Japanese soldiers' actions, Zhu Yu turned around and fled without hesitation.

Because in his military camp, there was not only his eldest son, but also the sons of two other kings.

If the war was lost, it would be an extremely heavy loss for the Ming Dynasty.

What Ashikaga Yoshimitsu didn't know was that at this time, an elite Ming army of 100,000 had landed on the west side of Kyushu Island.

…

"My great grandson, it seems that the situation in Japan has been determined. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is indeed quite capable, but in my eyes, he is still a little immature."

"He thinks that our Great Ming no longer has the military strength to take care of him. However, the strength of our Great Ming is beyond the imagination of the small country of Japan."

"This 100,000 elite troops will completely defeat Japan."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed out loud.

When Zhu Gui first led the army, he knew that he would most likely not be able to defeat Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. From the beginning to the end, Zhu Gui's 200,000 troops were just a bait.

A bait to induce Ashikaga Yoshimitsu to mobilize the total military force of Japan.

Only by letting Ashikaga Yoshimitsu concentrate all of Japan's military forces on Kyushu Island can the Ming Dynasty take action and solve the Japanese problem once and for all.

The cost of attacking Honshu Island would be even greater for the Ming Dynasty.

In the beginning, the Ming Dynasty actually had enough military forces to deal with Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's rebellion.

But there is a problem here, that is, how to attack Honshu Island after defending Kyushu Island.

Honshu Island is the real base camp of Japan, and many of its cities are extremely difficult to attack.

Over the years, Honshu Island has been continuously building defensive measures. They learned from the Ming Dynasty city and continuously raised and deepened the city walls.

Not only did the attack on each city take a long time, but the losses were definitely not small.

No matter what time it is, siege is always the most troublesome thing.

Therefore, Zhu Ying discussed with Zhu Yuanzhang whether there were other ways to avoid the seesaw battle for the city of Honshu Island, so as to quickly establish the war situation.

The final target was Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

Taking advantage of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's eagerness to retake Kyushu Island, he set up a trap.

Zhu Yuanzhang's 200,000 troops were just within Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's acceptable range.

If there were too many, perhaps Ashikaga Yoshimitsu would withdraw from Kyushu Island. If there were too few, it would not be possible to hold back Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and force him to mobilize the entire Japanese military.

It seems that Ashikaga Yoshimitsu is about to retake Kyushu Island, but in fact the situation is now under the control of the Ming Dynasty.

These 100,000 troops are the real elite of the Ming Dynasty.

Among them, 50,000 troops are the Ming Dynasty’s capital guards, and another 50,000 troops are the graduates who were recently transferred from military academies across the country this year.

While the Ming Dynasty was fighting foreign wars, it was also speeding up the training of its soldiers.

With the Ming Dynasty's strong economic strength, it only takes three months to train qualified recruits.

In six months, we can train an excellent team.

The elite forces formed by veterans leading new recruits can help the new recruits adapt to the battlefield atmosphere more quickly.

The reason why Ashikaga Yoshimitsu failed to receive the intelligence in time was that these 100,000 troops were transported by steam ironclad ships.

Even if there is a spy from Japan who wants to send out information, can he be faster than a steam ironclad ship?

Ironclad ships could not cross the sea, but they could reach the coast in a few days and then be transported by the Qinghai Navy.

Under the current situation on Kyushu Island, these 100,000 elite troops are the key to breaking the impasse.

They are not garrison soldiers. Every soldier is strong and sturdy, and knows how to ride and shoot.

Among them, there were 30,000 cavalrymen, who were transferred from the grassland by train.

These 30,000 cavalrymen are heavily armored cavalry.

"It's over! It's all over!"

When 30,000 heavily armored cavalry appeared on the battlefield of Kyushu Island, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu collapsed completely.

He didn't expect that the Ming Dynasty actually had such a trick up its sleeve.

Although Japan also had cavalry, it did not have an organized cavalry unit. One reason was that due to geographical factors, Japan had no horse farms, so it could not build a large-scale cavalry corps.

The second reason is the terrain of Japan. There are not many plains, so large-scale cavalry is of little use and is not as flexible as infantry.

But in the field battle on Kyushu Island, 30,000 cavalry were enough to ignore these factors.

Because this is a major war involving hundreds of thousands of troops, cavalry can naturally play a huge role.

Thirty thousand heavy cavalry rushed into the Japanese army like a tiger into a flock of sheep, wantonly dividing the battlefield and making it completely impossible for Japan to form an effective formation.

Seventy thousand elite infantrymen, musket-wielding, sword-and-shield-wielding soldiers, like bulldozers, mowed down the fragmented Japanese army.

Even though they had an army of hundreds of thousands, the Japanese soldiers were completely unable to resist due to such overwhelming quality.

The defeat was like a landslide.

The Japanese soldiers completely collapsed after only holding out for less than two hours.

Their bows and arrows, muskets, and swords were completely unable to break the defense of the Ming army's armor. This was not a war of the same level.

Most of the Japanese soldiers were not strictly trained samurai, many of them were forcibly conscripted civilians.

If it is used in siege, it can certainly play a significant role, but in this kind of battle situation, it can easily become a burden.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu stared blankly at the crumbling battle line, muttering, "With their four hooves, they trampled on our formation."

Zhu Yuanzhang saw the arrival of the reinforcements. Although he didn't know how this Ming army suddenly appeared, it did not prevent him from chasing the Japanese soldiers.

After feeling depressed for so many days, I finally got to feel proud.

Not only Zhu Yu, but all the Ming army soldiers were like this.

Suddenly, their morale soared and they chased after the Japanese soldiers.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu wanted to flee, but how could he outrun the four-legged cavalry?

After entering the battlefield, the Ming cavalry's first target was the Japanese central military camp, where Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was located.

The chaotic situation could no longer protect the central army camp. The central army, which seemed indestructible to Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, was like paper under the Ming cavalry and was completely torn apart by just one round of charge.

Only at this point did Ashikaga Yoshimitsu realize how ridiculous his ideas were.

The gap between Japan and the Ming Dynasty was far from being made up by some conspiracies and tricks. He finally understood why the once-invincible Mongols were defeated by the Ming army.

Why were the Mongols, who had already returned to the grasslands, chased around like dogs by the Ming army?

Why did the Ming army dare to launch wars on multiple fronts without any scruples at all?

It turns out that everything is so ridiculous in the face of absolute strength.

Even the Ming army in the Japanese region now is only the tip of the iceberg of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty now has the largest and most powerful army in the world.

It's just a small part, and it's not something Japan can resist.

At this time, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu was thinking, if he did not take this opportunity to recover Kyushu Island, then whether he could stop the Ming army on Honshu Island.

After all, so many tall city walls have been built on Honshu Island today.

After thinking deeply for a while, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu shook his head slightly.

In fact, he had already felt that even if there was no war, Japan would gradually be eroded by the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, over the years, although Japan has achieved rapid development in all aspects due to Kyushu Island, its comprehensive capabilities, including military strength, have also been continuously improving.

But in fact, more and more Japanese are gradually defecting to the Ming Dynasty.

On Honshu Island, many lower-class nobles who were not doing well, as well as a large number of Japanese people, would rather live on Kyushu Island, which was controlled by the Ming Dynasty.

Compared to being exploited by the Japanese nobles, the welfare provided by the Ming Dynasty on Kyushu Island will allow them to live a better life.

Moreover, the Japanese people living on Kyushu Island can receive education from the Ming Dynasty and learn Ming Dynasty culture, language, and writing.

In the long run, Kyushu will become richer and richer, while Honshu will become weaker and weaker.

After taking over the grasslands and Goryeo, Japan would have even less ability to resist.

Because of the size of their territory and the size of their population, they were destined to never catch up with the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Gui finally contacted the Ming army that came to support him.

"It turned out to be the Duke of Song. Little Prince Zhu Yu, nice to meet the Duke of Song. Thank you for rescuing me."

Zhu Yu stepped forward and recognized Feng Sheng at a glance. He immediately dismounted from his horse and bowed.

Feng Sheng also dismounted quickly: "Your Majesty, the Prince of Qi, cannot tolerate such behavior. I am here on the orders of His Majesty."

"Your Majesty is very good at foresight and knows that the Japanese soldiers will definitely launch a large-scale attack, so he specially dispatched troops to come here."

The commander of the first expedition against Japan was Feng Sheng, Duke of Song, so Zhu Yuanzhang naturally sent Feng Sheng to lead the army this time.

At this time, the Ming army had already broken through the Japanese army's central camp, captured Ashikaga Yoshimitsu alive, and a large number of Japanese daimyo.

Shouts of "Those who surrender will not be killed" were heard everywhere on the battlefield.

A large number of Japanese chose to discard their weapons and kneel down to beg for mercy.

At this point the situation on Kyushu Island has been settled.

In order to better capture the remaining Japanese soldiers, the Ming army immediately blocked the connection between Nagato and Chikuzen, Bungo and Iyo.

In this way, all the remaining Japanese soldiers were trapped on Kyushu Island, and the Ming army could capture them slowly.

By the time it was almost dark, the Ming army had captured more than 200,000 Japanese soldiers.

Because there were too many Japanese soldiers, many of them fled in panic, and there was no way to capture them all at once.

The Ming troops in the three cities also came out and began to join in the capture of the Japanese soldiers.

This catch took almost a month.

A total of nearly 400,000 Japanese prisoners were captured, and this was the maximum period that the Ming army could temporarily guard them.

Many Japanese soldiers who fled to the mountains and forests became more difficult to hunt down.

What Feng Sheng has to do now is to transport these captives away from Japan one after another.

You must know that the Ming Dynasty was currently in a period of vigorous development in railway construction, and a large number of laborers were needed to participate in the construction.

These Japanese soldiers will all be sentenced to at least fifteen years of hard labor, and they will contribute their own efforts to the construction of the Ming Dynasty.

Among them, those who know how to farm, because they were forcibly conscripted Japanese, will also be classified into farming labor, and perhaps many will be transported to the Nanyang region.

Of course, Feng Sheng doesn't need to worry about these details, as the relevant responsible officials will carry out this matter.

The Japanese daimyo, led by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, would also be escorted to the Ming capital and punished for treason.

In name, Japan was also a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, so it was naturally capable of rebellion.

This time, it is a complete blow to Japan, because 70% of the young and strong people in Japan will be sent away.

Even if one wants to launch another rebellion, the source of troops will be a huge problem.

Of course, this idea was proposed by Zhu Ying.

This will also lead to a big problem in Japan now. That is, because a large number of Japanese men were convicted and sent out of Japan to serve as laborers in Ming Dynasty or Southeast Asia, there is a large shortage of native Japanese men, resulting in a situation where there are more women than men.

Zhu Ying had no better way to deal with this situation and could only let the Ming soldiers stationed in Japan bear with the injustice.

Feng Sheng led tens of thousands of troops and headed straight for the capital of the Japanese kingdom.

He was going to hold a surrender ceremony there.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu almost drained all the military forces from Honshu Island, so it was naturally impossible for the cities on Honshu Island to offer any resistance to the Ming army.

Faced with the arrival of the Ming army, all the cities surrendered. Feng Sheng led the army all the way to the capital of Japan, Kyoto.

After a grand ceremony to welcome the surrender was held, it truly represented the demise of Japan.

There is a problem here.

How to define Japan today?

Should we directly arrange a province?

I'm afraid it will become the largest province in the Ming Dynasty.

After some discussion, it was decided to divide Japan into four provinces.

They are:

Kyushu Administration Commission.

The four countries' provincial administration commissioners.

The Eastern Declaration Administration Office of Honshu.

The Western Declaration Office of this state.

Honshu Island is too large, so it is simply divided into two provinces, so that the four provinces are more balanced.

In order to take into account the beliefs of the Japanese people and to better govern the four provinces, the Ming Dynasty retained the title of the Japanese royal family.

However, the inheritance of the King of Wa will be subject to the imperial decree of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that the King of Japan has always existed as a puppet.

As for the shogunate, it was naturally withdrawn.