Chapter 2107
Very few people can resist the temptation of power, let alone the power that is easily available in front of them, and Tagawasuke is no exception. He knew very well that the armed forces he currently had far exceeded those of his superiors, the Matsuura clan, and he had enough strength to replace them. However, the reason why he had been holding back was mainly because he was worried that the Hizen Kingdom and the shogunate would take the opportunity to intervene when chaos broke out in Hirado. , allowing these external forces to reap the benefits.
If it hadn't been for the former lord Matsuura Jinnobu who destroyed Hirado Castle to eliminate Tokugawa Ieyasu's suspicion, the Matsuura clan's territory would have been taken over by the shogunate long ago. However, the shogunate has never given up the idea of bringing the Hirado domain into the area directly under its jurisdiction. In recent years, it has been weakening Hirado's trade status through measures such as the national lock-down order, forcing foreign merchants to transfer their trading locations to the Nagasaki Port under the control of the shogunate. Even if the shogunate does not take direct action against the Hirado Domain, the Hirado Domain's main source of income will eventually be cut off by the shogunate in a few more years.
The Matsuura family did not have the confidence to resist the shogunate's intentional suppression, but Tagawasuke did not want to sit still and wait for death. Once Hirado lost its trade privileges, it would quickly become a rural place with only agriculture and fishery, and it would be difficult to rely on these industries alone for a long time. Maintain a strong armed force. If there is no armed force, what else can Hirado use to bargain with the shogunate?
Therefore, in order to end this vicious cycle, Tagawasuke must first let the shogunate understand that Hirado is no longer a soft persimmon who can be manipulated by others, but a local powerhouse who is qualified to sit down and negotiate terms with the shogunate.
To achieve such an effect, the first step is to replace the Matsuura clan's rule over the Hirado clan. Since this process obviously cannot be completed through negotiation, Tagawasuke can only use his armed forces.
Of course, it is necessary to find a high-sounding excuse for this kind of behavior that subjugates superiors. Asking for orders for the people is undoubtedly an excellent entry point. The Tagawa family already has a relatively strong influence in Hirado, and coupled with the deliberate management under the advice of Han staff in recent years, it should be easier to obtain support from the people after the uprising.
These Han leaders under Tagawasuke were basically from Shibazhi, they were ruthless and decisive in their work, and they had been preparing for this day for a long time. Therefore, after receiving Tagawasuke's statement, they immediately began to act separately.
After his men left with their respective tasks, Tagawa Suke glanced at Tagawa Shichizaemon, who was still sitting next to him, and was quite satisfied with his calm performance. Although he is not a biological heir, Tagawa Nanzaemon does have the blood of the Tagawa family, and he is young and mature. He has a composure that belies his age at a young age. This also makes Tagawa Suke quite optimistic about his future growth. .
"Shichizaemon, do you know what will happen next?" Tagawasuke decided to give his godson another test to see if he was sitting here listening to the meeting just now, whether he was wandering in the world, or whether he was listening carefully to all parties involved. Express opinions in discussions.
Tagawa Nanaemon lowered his body and responded: "If the child understands correctly, my father will become the leader of the Hirado clan!"
Tagawasuke showed an expression of relief on his face and nodded: "Your understanding is correct. Times have changed. It's time for us, the Tagawa clan, to rule the Hirado clan!"
Although the Hirado clan was already in a situation where the leader was weak and the servant was strong, for the sake of safety, Tagawasuke ordered to gather manpower before taking action and cut off the Matsuura family's escape and rescue channels to avoid unnecessary complications.
Although Tagawasuke was only a retainer of the Matsuura clan and a vassal of the Hirado clan, the number of armed personnel he actually controlled had already exceeded that of the principal. Some of these quasi-soldiers live in Hirado Port under various disguised identities. They are sailors, farmers, shop assistants, coachmen... Almost all of these people are old members of Shibazhi and have certain combat experience. The most important thing is that they are all willing to be loyal to Zheng Zhilong's descendants and do whatever it takes for revenge. Among the personnel deployed overseas by the Tagawa family, these people are basically the main force.
In addition, there are a large number of armed personnel in the training stage on the Goto Islands west of Hirado Island. The sources of these people are very mixed. They include not only Japanese and Han people, but also refugees and fugitives from Korea, Ryukyu and other countries, and even mercenaries from Southeast Asia and Europe.
Although the personnel composition is relatively complex, Tagawasuke and his staff attach great importance to the role of this group of people. The musketeers, artillery units and armed fleets under preparation basically rely on these people.
Tagawasuke spent two days gathering these armed forces hidden everywhere to Hirado Port, and then launched a coup one evening at the end of March. At the same time, the Haihan fleet, which was performing a reconnaissance mission, was on its way back to inspect the situation of the Goto Islands again, but they did not know that Hirado Port had been turned upside down at this time.
About 1,500 armed men appeared in Hirado Port at sunset, quickly implemented an organized blockade of the port area, and surrounded the Matsuura family's residence. There are also rumors in the port area that an assassin has entered Hirado to try to assassinate the feudal lord. The port area is blocked to facilitate the capture of the assassin and to ensure that no one will take advantage of the situation to rob and disrupt order.
Of course, this kind of rumor was deliberately released by the Tagawa family in order to appease the public so that ordinary people would not realize that this was an armed coup for the time being. The Matsuura family's residence, which was some distance away from the city, suffered a violent attack at this time.
Although there are still a group of warriors resisting desperately, it is difficult for these warriors holding steel swords to show their true strength in front of the attacker's muskets, and they can only consume the opponent's ammunition. The armed men commanded by the Tagawa family broke through the defenses of the Matsuura family's residence at a small cost.
Tagawasuke did not personally direct the attack on the Matsuura clan, but handed this task over to his extremely trusted subordinate Tagawa Kojiro. This man was not a member of the Tagawa clan, but a foreigner adopted by Tagawa Suke in his early years. Later, because of his outstanding performance, he was given his surname and included in the Tagawa family.
This Tagawa Kojiro is also a loyal dog. As long as it is a task assigned to him by Tagawa Suke, he will not ask for the reason, but only want to complete it satisfactorily. Tagawa Suke did not come forward and entrusted him with this difficult task to complete. This was not only a sign of full trust in him, but also the need for someone to complete some dirty work on his behalf.
After commanding the musketeers to carry out a bloody massacre of the samurai guarding the Matsuura clan, Tagawa Kojiro did not hesitate at all and ordered that anyone who tried to escape from this area should be killed. He was worried that the feudal lord Matsuura Kohei sent these samurai to die in order to delay time so that they could escape from the encirclement under his command.
But it soon turned out that he was actually overly worried. Matsuura Kohei and his family were all blocked in the residence, and there was no sign of even escaping. At this time, the troops loyal to the Matsuura clan had not even received the warning and it was too late to come here for rescue.
Although Matsuura Kohei had no ability in governing, he still had the panache as a feudal lord. When he saw the samurai-looking Tagawa Kojiro coming in, he planned to take the lead: "Bold maniac, do you know what you are doing? My retainer. They will come soon and kill you all!”
Tagawa Kojiro was naturally unmoved, staring at Matsuura Kohei and responded coldly: "Lord, you don't have to expect any retainers to come to save you... I am your retainer!" Matsuura Kohei did look familiar to him. , but couldn't remember which retainer this was, and said angrily: "Whose subordinate are you? It's so rude and hateful. Go and ask your master to come see me!"
Tagawa Kojiro sneered: "Today, a group of assassins from out of town entered Hirado and attacked the feudal lord's mansion. I received the order from Lord Tagawa and came here specially to rescue them."
"It's Tagawasuke! Why doesn't he come to see me by himself!" Matsuura Kohei is not an idiot. As soon as the other party announced his home address, he had already guessed the whole story. At the moment, he could only hope to confront Tagawasuke in person and convince him. Give up irrational thoughts. As for the foreign assassin, this was obviously an excuse made up by the other party to use force.
But Tagawa Kojiro had received Tagawasuke's instructions before, and of course he would not quarrel with Matsuura Kohei on this issue. At that moment, he just shook his head coldly and said: "Tagawa-sama is arresting assassins elsewhere and cannot come here. Meeting with the Lord of the Domain. In order to better protect the Lord of the Domain, I suggest that you immediately hand over the Hirado Domain’s treasury account books, messengers, and the feudal lord’s official seal, so that we can all save ourselves less trouble.”
Tagawa Kojiro's words basically made it clear the actual nature of the current situation. Matsuura Kohei shouted: "What a coward! Do you think that by taking these things away, you can replace me as the lord of the Hirado clan? Kyoto's Lord Tokugawa will never approve of the following sinners like you!”
Tagawa Kojiro responded calmly: "Whether Lord Tokugawa approves or not, that's our business, Lord Lord, you don't have to worry about it. I advise you to be more cooperative, so that we can end this matter decently without making it too complicated." Ugly.”
"If I don't cooperate, what can you do!" Although Matsuura Kohei's voice did not decrease, he could not help but have a hint of lust. Of course he knew very well that the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, who was thousands of miles away, could not save him at all, and even if he could save him, the Tokugawa general might not take action. The outbreak of civil strife in the Hirado clan may be exactly what the other party wants. .
As for who will ultimately take charge of the Hirado Domain, it probably won't make much difference to the shogunate. After all, in this era, let alone the feudal lord, even the local daimyo changes frequently. It was not unusual at all to be overthrown by force during his reign, but Matsuura Kohei did not expect that such a thing would suddenly happen to him. Normally, the old man Tagawa Suke seems to be very loyal when he kneels in front of him. Who would have thought that this guy would be a bold and ambitious man!
"Since the adults are unwilling to cooperate, I have no choice but to use force." Tagawa Kojiro glanced at Matsuura Kohei's trembling family members expressionlessly, then pointed at one of them and said: "Drag them out and chop off their heads!"
Immediately, several warriors like wolves and tigers came up and dragged out the person pointed by Tagawa Kojiro. This man was Matsuura Nagamasa, the third brother of Matsuura Kohei. Although he struggled hard, he was no match for several people who started working together. He was subdued in a few moments and was then grabbed by his hands and feet by several samurai and carried out directly. Although Matsuura Kohei was shocked that Tagawa Kojiro issued such an order, he still believed that the other party would not really hurt anyone and did not relent.
However, within a moment, Matsuura Nagamasa's head was placed on the tray usually used to hold tea cups and presented to him. His eyes were still wide open, as if he could not believe what he had experienced until he died.
When the Matsuura family members, including Matsuura Kohei, saw the head, they finally understood that the other party was not joking with them, but a ruthless murderer, and they suddenly burst into tears. Even Matsuura Kohei lost his previous strength and his face turned pale.
"Lord, hand it over, don't make the scene too ugly." Tagawa Kojiro's voice sounded again: "I ask once, and if you don't agree, I will kill someone. Don't worry, I will keep you until the end to let you Watch your family members being killed one by one!”
Matsuura Kohei was angry and scared, but he had no way to confront Tagawa Kojiro at the moment, and he didn't even have the bargaining chip to negotiate terms. Seeing that Tagawa Kojiro's eyes had begun to wander around his family again, Matsuura Kohei could only choose to compromise, but he wanted Tagawa Kojiro to promise that he could save the lives of the Matsuura clan members after he handed over these things.
"Of course." Tagawa Kojiro responded firmly: "I only need these things. Once I get them, I can let you leave Hirado. You can go wherever you want to go."
So Matsuura Kohei honestly told where these important items were hidden, and following his instructions, Tagawa Kojiro's men quickly searched out these items.
Tagawa Kojiro did not dare to be careless at all, so he took it into his hands and inspected it to confirm that these things were genuine. Otherwise, if there is something fishy about this, if he uses it later to claim credit from Tagawa, I'm afraid something big will happen.
"It's time for you to fulfill your promise and let us leave here!" Matsuura Kohei was worried that the other party would change his mind, so he quickly urged him again.
Tagawa Kojiro nodded and said: "Thank you for reminding me, sir. I will send you on your way."
Matsuura Kohei heard that something was wrong in his tone, and just as he was about to argue a few more words, Tagawa Kojiro was already giving an order: "Kill them all, and then set fire to the house and burn it down together. Don't leave any evidence!"
That night, a raging fire broke out in the Matsuura family's residence, and the light of the fire could be seen in the dark throughout the Hirado Port area. The fire burned all night before it was slowly extinguished. At dawn, rescue workers arrived at the scene and began to search for victims among the ruins. Of course, all they could find was a pile of charred corpses. More than 30 members of the Matsuura clan, plus more than 20 samurai guards and more than a dozen domestic servants, all died in this unknown fire. .
(End of chapter)