Chapter 3616
Tokugawa Ietsuna was worried that someone would use the influence of the royal family to make a fuss about the shogunate. After much thought, he decided to go to Kyoto in person to ensure that the situation would not continue to get out of control.
He firmly believed that as long as he showed up in Kyoto, many rumors that were unfavorable to the shogunate would be disproven and all conspiracies against him would be foiled.
After all, in this country, he is the real ruler. Whether it is the Kyushu rebels who rebelled or other conspirators hiding in the dark, they are just insects about to be crushed.
Tokugawa Ietsuna's idea was correct, but he did overestimate his own strength. Especially after half a year of war, the mentality and momentum of the shogunate army were far worse than when the war first started. Once he leaves, he will no longer be able to respond in a timely manner to the battle situation on the Kyushu front line, and the uncontrollable factors will greatly increase.
As soon as Tokugawa Ietsuna embarked on his journey to Kyoto, the news spread back to Kyushu through some secret channels. The Kyushu feudal lords immediately launched a prepared propaganda offensive, using detailed tactics to spread news in the war zones on both sides of the Kanmon Strait, saying that Tokugawa Ietsuna was unable to command operations due to serious illness and had quietly withdrawn from the front line and returned to Edo.
There are several other versions of similar rumors, such as a coup within the shogunate, and Tokugawa Ietsuna was put under house arrest by his retainers and is currently a prisoner.
There is also news that Tokugawa Ietsuna has secretly gone to a place in Shikoku to prepare for armistice negotiations with the Kyushu Allied Forces. At that time, the shogunate will cede the governance of the Shikoku region to the Kyushu vassals in exchange for peace.
The most outrageous rumors even claimed that Tokugawa Ietsuna died suddenly of illness. The shogunate decided not to announce the funeral secretly before determining his successor, but would soon take the initiative to withdraw troops and cease the war, giving up the goal of conquering Kyushu.
But no matter what kind of rumors they are, the shogunate is about to withdraw its troops, and the shogunate is preparing to abandon the western Honshu and Shikoku regions, these are two elements that are almost certain to appear.
These rumors without beginning or end may not have high credibility, but the problem is that the person involved, Tokugawa Ietsuna, has left the front line. Moreover, in order not to affect the morale of the military, he deliberately arranged a secret trip. In fact, not many people knew his whereabouts.
This invisibly created an extremely unfavorable situation for the shogunate - Tokugawa Ietsuna himself was unable to appear in front of the frontline troops at this time to get rid of these deliberately created rumors.
Even if the shogunate announced the true whereabouts of Tokugawa Ietsuna at this time, since he could not prove it himself, the sensational rumors would be confirmed. All explanations and clarifications provided by the shogunate will most likely be regarded by the audience as an excuse to deliberately conceal the truth, which will instead increase the credibility of the rumors.
At this time, many people in the shogunate army thought about the same question. After the commander disappeared, should the war against Kyushu continue? Is there any point in fighting the enemy on the front line?
Once someone starts to ponder this kind of question, morale in the army will inevitably be affected. Especially those small vassals who were frightened by the authority of the shogunate and had to send troops to help in the war must consider their own retreat at this time.
If sufficient military strength is not preserved at the end of the war, then one's own territory is likely to be eaten up by other powerful vassals after the war, leaving no bones left.
Before the war begins and after the war ends, no matter which side wins or loses, it is the period when strong vassals annex weak vassals most intensively. This is an objective law proven by Japan's hundreds of years of civil war history. Before the war between the shogunate and Kyushu started this time, Kyushu also completed a round of large-scale annexation within Kyushu. After the original more than 30 vassals staged a wave of big fish eating small fish, in the end only the current Kyushu coalition was left. The five major families are in power. Whether you refuse to be a strong person's meal, or you plan to treat others as your own meal, it is particularly important to preserve your strength at this time.
At this juncture, the Kyushu Allied Forces, which had been maintaining a defensive posture in the Kanmon Strait recently, rarely launched an active attack on the shogunate's position.
This approach indeed greatly exceeded the expectations of the shogunate army, because the Kyushu Allied Forces were mainly defensive on the frontal battlefield, and most of their proactive actions were raids on the supply lines in the rear of the shogunate from the sea. They rarely destroyed the shogunate army's Forward positions and military camps were targeted.
This unusual move was also interpreted by some shogunate officials and generals as the Kyushu Allied Forces really knew about Tokugawa Ietsuna's situation and knew that the shogunate army did not have a commander-in-chief to command, so they took such bold actions.
The Kyushu Allied Forces took the initiative to attack on the frontal battlefield. This was an excellent opportunity for the shogunate army to consume the opponent's strength. However, because Tokugawa Ietsuna was not in the formation at this time, and various rumors came into play, many people in the shogunate army had already given birth. For the sake of self-protection, there was no thought of a decisive battle with the Kyushu Allied Forces.
Therefore, in response to this round of offensive launched by the Kyushu Allied Forces, the shogunate army rarely responded to the attack. They just defended their positions and minimized their own casualties.
Although this battle did not allow the Kyushu Allied Forces to achieve much success, it greatly boosted their morale and eliminated the weakness of only defending but not attacking for several months. On the other hand, the shogunate army that did not attack to fight was just the opposite. They seemed to be waiting for the shogunate to issue an order to evacuate Kyushu.
The several daimyo gathered in Fukuoka Castle were very excited after receiving the battle report from the front line, and at the same time they were amazed by the strategic planning of the Shi family father and son.
Shi Diwen did not report the details of Kaihan's people to Kyoto to have secret contacts with the royal family. He only told them that there would be trouble in Kyoto in the near future, which may force Tokugawa Ietsuna to temporarily leave the front line, while Kyushu The coalition's counterattack must seize this opportunity to launch.
As for spreading rumors among the shogunate army, of course it was also part of the Kyushu Allied Forces' counterattack. If these measures had not been used to shake the morale of the shogunate army in advance, the frontal attack by the Kyushu Allied Forces would not have gained much advantage. Instead, it might have turned into a war of attrition that the daimyo least wanted to see.
The next instruction given by Shi Diwen was to let the Kyushu Allied Forces pursue the victory. However, the target of the attack was not the part of the shogunate army located in the Kitakyushu region, but the shogunate army warships operating in the Kanmon Strait.
"The purpose of this operation is to make the shogunate believe that we are going to cut off their retreat from Kitakyushu to Honshu, further exacerbating their panic!"
With successful examples in front of them, several famous names naturally followed Shi Diwen's guidance. Immediately, he began to mobilize his naval fleet, and one day later launched a new round of offensive against the shogunate army in the Kanmon Strait.
During this period, the Kyushu Allied Forces did not launch a series of offensives on land. It seemed that they deliberately left a gap so that the shogunate troops stationed on the Kyushu side of the Kanmon Strait could have time to watch the battle at sea.