Chapter 3547
Limited by Kyushu's local population base and military budget, the combined reserve forces of several powerful vassals only have more than 3,000 and less than 4,000 troops, of which about one-third are affiliated with the navy. Therefore, there are only about 2,000 reserve troops that can be deployed to the land battlefield to perform defense changes at this time.
Moreover, there are still many uncertainties in the combat effectiveness and morale of the reserve forces. The coalition generals do not dare to use them directly as a new force. They can only arrange for the reserve forces to be mixed with the main battle forces to be responsible for the defense of hill positions.
The Haihan military was also not optimistic about the strength of the reserve forces. In a report submitted before the war, Amakusa Shiro pointed out that these newly trained troops seriously lacked actual combat experience and were not suitable for direct combat on the front line.
The formation of these reserve forces was followed up by the Sasebo base. The training plan was personally formulated by Amakusa Shiro. He also attended the training and graduation assessment of relevant personnel, so the credibility of this report is extremely high.
The Haihan military believed that the safest plan was to first arrange for these new recruits to be responsible for the defense of the major cities of each vassal, and then replace the local armed forces garrisoned and send experienced veterans to the front line to perform combat tasks.
This is also the experience Haihan has accumulated in the past few years, using troops with limited strength to fight in the north and south.
However, the Kyushu vassals have devoted all their efforts to this war, and it seems that there is no such remaining energy. The armed personnel stationed in various places have basically been replaced by militia groups with weaker combat effectiveness, and the fatigue of the frontline combat troops has also increased. When it came time to take a rotation and rest, the reserve team had to be pulled out to take over.
In comparison, the situation of the shogunate army is much better. There are still 20,000 to 30,000 available troops on the other side of the strait. Although the military quality of those logistics troops is also difficult to carry out combat missions, they are more successful because of the large number of people. The number of people available for rotation alone exceeds the total strength of the Kyushu Allied Forces.
Tokugawa Ietsuna crossed the sea and returned to the Mori mansion the day after the battle. He was not afraid of fighting, but wanted to explain to the families of the Gosan family who had two dead and one wounded in person, and designated various parties as soon as possible. The successor of the family will ensure that the Tokugawa clan will not cause civil strife in the branch families.
In addition, there is another very important thing, which is to meet with the secret envoys sent by Portugal and the Netherlands.
The envoys from the two countries brought Tokugawa Ietsuna unexpected good news, that is, the Portuguese and Dutch countries decided to provide emergency support to the shogunate with a batch of arms.
Each country will provide the shogunate with thirty cannons, five hundred matchlocks, two hundred flintlock muskets, three thousand kilograms of gunpowder, four armed sailing ships, and five military advisers.
However, because it is a temporary measure, these arms cannot be delivered at once and will be delivered to the Tokugawa Shogunate in batches within the next month.
In addition, the emergency assistance from Portugal and the Netherlands is not a good thing that falls from the sky. These arms are not sponsored to the shogunate for free, but are also calculated and settled according to normal arms trade - the price is even 30% higher than previous transactions.
Of course, there is nothing to say about raising prices at this time. After all, it is wartime, and even if the shogunate can still afford the money, there are very few sellers who can sell arms to the shogunate.
Compared with Haihan, whose delivery time is far away, this batch of arms from Portugal and the Netherlands can be obtained at least within a month. For the shogunate army that just suffered serious losses in artillery and artillery, this is simply a timely help. .
Of course, the money bag of the shogunate is not a cornucopia of things that can be made out of nothing. The arms order placed with Haihan a few days ago has already spent all the taxes that the shogunate has just levied from the country. Where to dig out the next money? It is certain that at this time, I have to pay a large amount of money to go out, which is really a bit tight. The shogunate's financial embarrassment seemed to be expected by the other party. Envoys from the two countries quickly stated that although the price of this batch of arms could not be negotiated, if the shogunate had payment difficulties, then extension or installment payment was not out of the question.
Of course, such "care" also came with a condition, that is, the shogunate must open the trade markets of Osaka, Nagoya, Edo and other places to Portugal and the Netherlands after the war, and enjoy the same treatment as Haihan in terms of tariffs.
If this kind of condition, which was obviously taking advantage of someone's situation, was proposed on a normal day, Tokugawa Ietsuna would undoubtedly reject it without hesitation. But the current situation did not leave Tokugawa Ietsuna with more choices.
After a month of fighting with the Kyushu Allied Forces, the shogunate's equipment losses were also very large, especially in the artillery battle that just ended yesterday. The shogunate lost almost two-thirds of its field artillery and nearly half of its artillery.
Every gun, cannon, and ship that could be purchased at this time was extremely important to the shogunate—especially supplies from outside Haihan, which were especially valuable.
Tokugawa Ietsuna had long noticed that the equipment losses of the Kyushu Allied Forces were also huge, but the other side seemed to be constantly being replenished with energy.
This was very obvious in yesterday's artillery battle. The Kyushu Allied Forces seemed to have no regard for the amount of ammunition used when they opened fire. The intensity of their firepower output was far beyond the normal level. It was obvious that there was plenty of ammunition for them to squander.
The only reasonable explanation is that Haihan Secret provided supplements for it. Comparing this with the long delivery period for the arms purchased by the shogunate, Tokugawa Ietsuna was even more convinced that Kaihan's position was more inclined to the Kyushu side.
Under such circumstances, the supply of arms from outside Haihan is particularly important. Tokugawa Ietsuna could not refuse the additional requests made by the Portuguese-Dutch envoys. If the civil war could not be won, it would make no difference to Tokugawa Ietsuna whether he agreed to their conditions at this time.
All current decisions must be based on winning the civil war. As for whether the national policy on foreign trade needs to be changed in the future, that will have to wait until after the war.
As a result, the two parties quickly reached an agreement, which finally gave Tokugawa Ietsuna a breath of relief.
But dealing with the Yusan family is actually more troublesome than external negotiations.
The injured Tokugawa Mitsutomo, the head of the Owari Tokugawa family, is currently in good health. He only needs to rest for a period of time and it should not be a big problem to regain his ability to govern.
What is more difficult to deal with is the Kishu and Mito branches. According to past rules, the current shogun should appoint a successor after the death of the head of the family. However, if the head of the Kishu Tokugawa family has no heirs, it may be difficult to appoint another successor. Hard to convince the public.
The brother of the head of the Mito Tokugawa family holds military power, but the retainers want to support the young master to succeed him. This uncle-nephew dispute may also evolve into a new civil war.
Tokugawa Ietsuna also has ideas about the candidate for his successor, that is, he must obey his orders, be loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate, and help the shogunate win the current civil war at all costs.