Chapter 3623
Tokugawa Ietsuna stood on the east gate tower with a livid face at this time, witnessing with his own eyes the entire process of the conflict outside the city.
Regarding Sakai Tadaki's handling of the matter, he actually had nothing to blame and did not interfere. But the exchange with the refugees failed and quickly turned into armed conflict. This result was really difficult for him to accept.
This means that the shogunate's irrefutable status in the minds of the people has begun to collapse and split into two opposing camps. In the future, it will probably be much more difficult to obtain support in terms of personnel and materials from the private sector than before.
The refugee group making trouble outside Nijo Castle was indeed dispersed, but Tokugawa Ietsuna knew that the problem had not been solved. After this battle, the situation in Kyoto would further deteriorate in a direction unfavorable to the shogunate.
Of course, if the unrest is only limited to Kyoto, then the shogunate can also use various means to suppress the mob as soon as possible to calm the situation and get everything back on track.
But if what happened here spreads rapidly across the country, causing imitators to appear in more places, and then being used by some conspirators hiding behind the scenes to turn into a new round of civil war, that would be a real big trouble.
The only good thing is that these refugees in Kyoto do not have the ability to launch a siege at all, and they lack unified command. It is more like a riot to vent their dissatisfaction.
While some explosives were dropped from refugee crowds during the conflict, the damage caused was modest. Tokugawa Ietsuna believed that it should be the method of the instigator behind the scenes, but it was far from enough to shake Nijo Castle's solid defense system.
The scenario that Tokugawa Iedsuna had been worried about, "the enemy using refugees as a cover to attack the city" did not appear in the end. He was also a little surprised why his opponent did not take this opportunity to try a more powerful attack method. Could it be that Nijo Castle was defeated by the enemy? Intimidated by the defense?
He felt that things would not be that simple. His opponent had worked so hard to concoct such a riot, and it should not have ended hastily. It's just that the shogunate is in the light and the opponent is in the dark. There seems to be no other way now but to resort to tricks.
Seeing the mess on the street, Tokugawa Ietsuna became more and more upset and ordered people to clean up the outside quickly, catching what should be caught and burying what should be buried.
Tokugawa Ietsuna was right to worry. This man-made riot was just the beginning of the chaos.
While the shogunate army was busy dealing with the aftermath, there were new rumors from various parts of Kyoto, saying that conflicts broke out when refugees who petitioned for peace to the shogunate were driven away by the shogunate army. At least a thousand people were killed in this one-sided massacre. The street outside the east gate of Nijo Castle was completely soaked in blood, and the smell of blood spread for miles around.
It is said that the shogunate will next conduct a large-scale manhunt across Kyoto in the name of suppressing the riots. During this period, it is unknown how many innocent people will be unlucky.
In fact, the number of refugees killed in the conflict was not that high, barely in the triple digits, but more than a thousand people were injured due to various reasons in the chaos.
However, at this juncture, there was chaos inside and outside Kyoto, and no one could verify how many people were killed or injured outside Nijo Castle, let alone whether the shogunate army would go on a killing spree in Kyoto next.
Both refugees and local people in Kyoto were in panic at this time and began to look for shelter. Although Kyoto is large, the only places that can really provide shelter for ordinary people are temples such as Tofukuji Temple, Kiyomizudera Temple, Nanzenji Temple, Higashiyama Jishoji Temple, and Kinkakuji Temple, as well as Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine and Yasaka Shrine. The location of the Zen Society.
Of course, now there are two more options. One is the royal family, which has clearly expressed support for the refugee group. The Kyoto Imperial Garden where it is located is very large. If the royal family nods, it will be easy to accommodate tens of thousands of people.
The other place is Donghaihang Trading Company, which is affiliated to Haihan. Everyone knows that this is the semi-official organization of Haihan stationed in Kyoto, and even the shogunate does not dare to touch it. If you can get the protection of Donghaixing, your personal safety will be guaranteed.
Some people even believe that Donghaixing's business inn is safer than the royal palace, because the royal family is still under the control of the shogunate after all, and the Haihan people don't have much scruples about the shogunate.
It's just that the East China Sea Tour covers a much smaller area than the Royal Garden. It can accommodate a thousand people at full capacity. If you arrive late, there may be no room.
Lin Qiu was well prepared for the refugees who came to the store like a tide. He had already ordered people to set up several barriers outside the gate to block the flow of people. At the same time, he arranged for people to stand on high places and keep shouting, saying "Travel to the East China Sea" The reception capacity is limited, so it can only temporarily accommodate women and children. Men over three feet tall will not be admitted.
Lin Qiu's purpose of doing this is very clear. First, it is to make it easier to control the crowds who enter the store to take refuge, and to prevent young people from mixing in and causing trouble. Only a small number of manpower can control the situation in the store; secondly, it can also allow the store to have more people. As a layer of protection, those who have family members taking refuge in the store will take the initiative to defend the store and help maintain order around the store.
However, he still somewhat underestimated the appeal of his business. Soon after the conflict in Nijo Castle, tens of thousands of refugees came to seek asylum.
Although the containment conditions were set, the large number of women and children quickly reached the upper limit of the store's storage capacity. Except for several important areas such as the warehouse, archives room, and telegraph room, the rest of the store became Part of a temporary shelter.
Even the bedrooms arranged by the business inn for Yang Tianlei and Amakusa Hayabusa could only be combined into one for them to squeeze in, and one of the bedrooms was freed up to accommodate more than 20 infants and young children.
Seeing this, Yang Tianlei smiled bitterly and said: "Is this battle a little too big? Now we are almost going to be included in it!"
Amakusa Hayabusa was relatively calm: "We can only overcome it temporarily and wait for news from the royal family. According to the previous agreement, it is the Japanese emperor's turn to be a good person and calm the situation."
When they planned this matter, they had already calculated that the actions of the refugees would only cause temporary chaos in Kyoto, but would not be able to continuously put pressure on the shogunate. Therefore, after the chaos, the royal family must seize the time to come forward in order to make full use of this rare opportunity to establish prestige and win the favor of the people.
Of course, Donghai Xing can also win a lot of hearts by taking in refugees. However, at this moment, the refugees surrounding the business inn have actually brought a lot of inconvenience to Donghai Xing. It is difficult for outside news to be transmitted back to the business inn in the first time. , so that several principals could not know the reaction of the shogunate and the royal family.
In addition, the people of the Kyushu vassals were still operating in the city at this time, and their contact with the merchant stores was temporarily cut off due to this chaos, so they could only act according to their own circumstances.