Chapter 3537
The area under the jurisdiction of the Choshu Domain is the area closest to Kyushu within the shogunate's jurisdiction. Tens of thousands of shogunate troops also completed their assembly before the war in the Choshu Domain, so the entire jurisdiction automatically became the front line of the war.
Of course, the feudal lord Mouri Tsunahiro also considered the risks this would bring to his family, but Tokugawa Ietsuna promised to entrust the northern part of Kyushu Island to the Mouri clan as a territory after the war, and would also allow the Choshu clan to engage in foreign trade. Tsunahiro Mouri thought it was profitable to have privileges such as manufacturing weapons, so he decided to send troops to fight for the shogunate.
However, after two days of fierce fighting, the shogunate army not only failed to take advantage of it, but instead allowed the Kyushu Allied Forces to steal the house quietly. This not only caused a big blow to Mouri Tsunahiro, but also slapped him hard. In the face of the shogunate.
This also made some people worry about the current trend of the war. In order to win as soon as possible, the shogunate army concentrated its forces to attack the Shimonoseki Strait, but almost gave up the protection of the deep areas behind. Nowadays, it is difficult to advance even an inch on the front line, and the rear area has been lost and attacked, which shows that there is obviously a problem with the current combat strategy.
Tokugawa Ietsuna was furious after receiving the news, but he could only comfort Tsunahiro Mouri first and give him time to return to Ogi City to clean up the mess.
If the Choshu Domain is disrupted, the logistics supply will definitely be affected, and the tens of thousands of shogunate troops on the front line will no longer be able to focus on the offensive.
As a last resort, Tokugawa Ietsuna could only make certain adjustments to the deployment, and assigned some local feudal troops with relatively weak combat effectiveness to serve as guards in various towns and ports of the Choshu Domain.
Before the official war between the two armies, the Kyushu Allied Forces had actually carried out a round of harassment war. However, the shogunate believed that after the war began, it would naturally suppress the opponent on the other side of the strait and be unable to move, so it did not pay enough attention to it.
However, it seems now that the Kyushu Allied Forces obviously did not show their true strength at that time, otherwise Ogi City might not have been burned until this time.
Tokugawa Ietsuna had no problem adjusting his deployment, but his execution speed was not as fast as his opponents. Before these troops who received the transfer orders were on the road, many coastal towns were attacked by the Kyushu coalition forces.
The place that was attacked this time was not just the territory of the Choshu Domain. The farthest place to be attacked was Hiroshima City of the Hiroshima Domain, which was a full four hundred miles away from the Kanmon Strait.
However, precisely because of the relatively long distance, the scale of the armed fleet that attacked the local area was not too large, and there was no attempt to land and attack Hiroshima City. The losses caused to the local area were much smaller than those of Nagato Domain's Ogi Castle.
Tokugawa Ietsuna really didn't understand how his opponent could allocate so many warships to carry out attack missions in various places while resisting the shogunate's cross-sea operations in the Kanmon Strait.
It seems that the pre-war estimate of the Kyushu Allied Maritime Armed Forces also had a huge deviation.
A combat plan formulated with a serious underestimate of the opponent's strength will inevitably have many loopholes. The other party chose this moment to launch an attack. It was obvious that they were extremely confident in their own defenses, and that's why they dared to deploy so many warships to attack in various places.
This once again caused difficulties for the senior shogunate who commanded the operations. They were not sure whether the means used by the Kyushu Allied Forces to hide their strength were limited to maritime armed forces, or whether they had similar arrangements on land.
If the other targets that the shogunate is preparing to attack also have the same level of defense deployment as the hilly positions, it is really possible that the shogunate army fighting across the sea will be in a dilemma again.
As a last resort, Tokugawa Ietsuna could only order part of the intelligence to be verified again, and at the same time conduct reconnaissance of the planned attack targets to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
However, what followed was not all bad news. Haihan informed Masuyama Masatoshi through the liaison officer, saying that the Executive Committee had reviewed the arms order submitted by the shogunate and could enter the next stage. To Masuyama Masato's surprise, Haihan did not randomly delete several items from the order as usual, but accepted them all, intending to provide the shogunate with all the weapons and equipment requested.
"Could it be that the Haihan people think that our army is unstoppable and victory is only a matter of time, so they plan to choose sides? Have you asked the other party why?"
It's no wonder that Tokugawa Ietsuna would ask this question. After all, the process of purchasing weapons and equipment from Haihan in the past few years has never been as smooth as this time.
Tokugawa Ietsuna even felt a little regretful. If he had known this, he would have made the order more bold. He didn't know if Haihan would be so forthcoming next time when discussing arms sales with him.
Zengshan Masato said: "The Haihan people didn't play any tricks this time. It should be due to their own interests. After all, their asking price this time is a full 30% higher than before the war, and they will not accept counter-offers!"
Tokugawa Ietsuna heard this and smiled bitterly: "Don't say it's 30% higher, even if it's 100% higher, you can only bite the bullet and buy it!"
Masato Masuyama continued: "Also, Haihan people said that because of limited production capacity, our orders will not be delivered soon...probably they will be divided into multiple batches, and one part will be delivered each time."
Tokugawa Ietsuna's face darkened and he said: "They require us to pay the full amount, but the delivery has to be delivered in multiple installments? The delivery period won't be as long as ten or eight years, right?"
Masato Masuyama said: "It shouldn't take that long, but I estimate it will take at least one or two years for full delivery... maybe longer."
If it were another business, Tokugawa Ietsuna would have stopped it long ago, but the arms business is different. The international arms trade that the shogunate has access to has been almost monopolized by Kaihan, and there is no other company that can supply the shogunate. These weapons and equipment. That's why Haihan could confidently impose many conditions without leaving any room for bargaining by the shogunate.
Tokugawa Ietsuna sighed, knowing that he had no choice. He waved his hands helplessly and said: "If the Haihan people have no other conditions, then let's implement it!"
Masato Masuyama said: "Actually, there is another condition..."
Seeing his hesitant appearance, Tokugawa Ietsuna suddenly felt something bad in his heart. The conditions he left to the end might not be particularly harsh.
Tokugawa Ietsuna calmed down and then asked in a deep voice: "Tell me, what other conditions do they have?"
Masuyama Masato said: "The Haihan people said that if we take the initiative to seek armistice negotiations, we will immediately suspend the execution of the order."
"Ah?" Tokugawa Ietsuna didn't understand for a moment what the meaning of this condition offered by the Haihan people was.
The purpose of the shogunate's sending troops was to quell the rebellion in the Kyushu region. Unless the other party voluntarily surrendered, it would be unlikely to hold armistice negotiations - at least that is what Tokugawa Ietsuna currently believes.
Although it has not gone well so far, Tokugawa Ietsuna is still very confident in achieving the final victory. But when the Kaihan people put forward such conditions, it seemed that they were worried that the shogunate would not be able to persist until the war was won?