Red Mansion Royal Cat

Chapter 564: Master Wang gave me a surname

Since the early Han Dynasty, Japan has always been a vassal state of the Central Plains dynasty, and its customs and habits have been largely influenced by the Celestial Empire.

Even the imperial calendar and solar terms they used were based on the one promulgated by the Celestial Empire. Things like celebrating the New Year were naturally copied from the Celestial Empire, although in many ways they were copied in a weird way.

The Tamba Domain was considered to be "under the feet of the emperor", but the lords of Kyoto had already gathered hundreds of thousands of "armies" in this small area, which directly led to the people of the Tamba Domain having to dig up even the grass roots to eat.

Due to the shortage of food and the heavy snow in recent days, the number of elderly people carried up the mountain by their children and grandchildren is more than ten times that of previous years.

The New Year of the twelfth year of Yuanyou was spent in a state of panic and desolation. Even the wealthy families in the village hung tattered white banners in front of their doors, indicating that there would be a funeral in the family this year and they would not be receiving guests for the time being.

dong dong...

"Song, it's me, Teng, open the door quickly!"

The dusty man knocked on the shabby door of a thatched hut at the edge of the village. His deliberately lowered voice made the starving woman inside open her eyes, revealing a look of surprise and hope.

"It's brother..."

The woman wanted to open the door for the man, but she was so hungry that she didn't even have the strength to raise her hands. After struggling for several times, she had to shout out with all her strength: "Brother, Song is not here, I can't get up, just take down the door."

This door can't protect against people, it's just to prevent wild beasts coming down the mountain.

The visitor removed the broken door effortlessly, and as soon as he entered the room, he smelled a musty and rotten smell.

Bangdang...

In the dim and low house, the visitor put down the cloth bag on his back heavily, and with the light coming in from the door, he could see the situation in the house clearly.

The person lying in the torn quilt with dry hair, pale face and skinny body, turned out to be his sister Taozi.

"Taozi, what's wrong with you? Are you sick? Where is Song Renren?"

The mountains were blocked by heavy snow, so the Japanese rarely left their homes.

Not only would that consume the limited food, but it would also make it easy for the animals to be eaten by wolves coming down the mountain.

Taozi's face showed bitterness and sadness when she heard this. Under her brother's gaze, she cried, "Song was captured by the people in the general's mansion. All the men in the village who could still hold a sword were captured. They wanted Song to fight with the nobles of the Celestial Empire, and they also took away the food. I'm not sick, I'm hungry. I haven't eaten for three days..."

Bang!
Fuji was angry. Just as the nobleman from the Celestial Empire had said, the nobles of Japan would never treat poor people like them as human beings.

The enemy of the Japanese was not the Celestial Empire, but the Japanese nobles who rode on them and sucked their blood.

The broken table fell down with a loud bang under Teng's punch.

The broken dishes on the table were all scattered around, with some black, moldy stuff inside, which made Teng feel even more desolate and angry.

His sister actually eats these things during the New Year!

cough cough...

Taozi started coughing again. She wanted to get up but was unable to climb out of the torn quilt.

Teng rushed forward with heartache, picked up his sister, took out some dry food that was still warm from his arms, and stuffed it into her mouth.

"Eat something first. I'll go make porridge for you. You've been hungry for a long time, so don't eat too much..."

……

Fortunately, Taozi's home was on the edge of the village. Teng quietly cooked a small pot of hot porridge and added some marinated mutton to it. The brother and sister took advantage of the heat from the campfire and drank the meat porridge in big gulps.

It had been more than two years before Taozi tasted meat for the first time.

Although my family was poor and often went hungry in the past few years.

But her husband Song treated her very well, and even when the family was short of food, he never thought of abandoning her to the mountains.

But in the past two years, people from the General's Mansion have been constantly coming to steal food, and even sealed off the mountain, not allowing people to go hunting in the mountain.

She thought her brother had died in Izumo Domain, but unexpectedly Fuji came back and brought back a bag of rice and several pieces of meat.

"Has my brother become a samurai? In which general's palace does he serve?"

This was the only possibility Taozi could think of. Only samurai could eat the precious mutton.

After filling her stomach, Taozi felt much better.

She anxiously inquired about Teng's situation, thinking that if the general that Teng served was willing to show mercy, perhaps he would release her husband and send him home.

But Teng's eyes were full of resentment, and he sneered and said: "My name is Kato Tadayoshi now, and I am a second-class citizen of the Celestial Empire!"

what?
Kato what?
What is Celestial Empire?
Momoko didn't understand what Kato Tadayoshi said at all, and it was difficult for her to understand what Kato was thinking now.

"I went home and saw that my father was beaten to death by the people in the general's mansion, my mother and sister starved to death, and our house was demolished and burned... Taozi, I came here to take you and Song away."

"What? Father and the others are dead?"

Taozi hasn't been back to her parents' home for a long time. Although the distance is not far, her husband has been kidnapped, and she, a weak woman, cannot walk a few miles.

What's more, she couldn't even get enough dry food for the journey.

When I learned about the situation at home from my brother, tears started to fall again.

When night fell, Kato cooked some rice porridge and fed it to his sister who was tired of crying. Then he whispered to her about Izumo Province, the Fuso Provincial Government of Daxia, which was like a fairyland.

"Your Excellency has granted us a surname, granted us the status of second-class citizens of the Celestial Empire, granted us land and houses, and lent us farming tools and grain seeds..."

"I'll take you to Izumo's house first, and then I'll go find Song..."

Taozi has been attracted by the description given by her brother. It is truly a paradise on earth, a fairy-tale life that she has never dared to imagine.

Unfortunately, my husband was captured by the general's mansion and taken to the military camp. It may be difficult for him to come back alive.

Thinking of this, Taozi grabbed her brother's sleeve tightly: "Brother can't go, the people in the general's mansion will not let go, and will not let you go!"

Kato, however, was full of disdain: "Oh, the warriors of the Celestial Empire are already prepared. When the royal army marches eastward, we will lead the way, and all the corrupt Japanese nobles will be crushed by the royal army!"

……

During the Lantern Festival, the Izumo Prefecture government once again distributed holiday rewards to the people under its jurisdiction.

Although they were all just ordinary rice, and the best was a piece of pickled mutton, for the Japanese who often went hungry, that was the best thing.

The tablets of the two saints are constantly visited by incense burners. The most fluent words the Japanese say now are "Long live the saints and Your Majesty, and long live Great Xia."

As usual, Jia Cong was strolling on the street observing everything. The number of soldiers and civilians in Izumo City seemed to have increased dramatically again.

There were also a large number of people in ragged clothes queuing in front of the city gate, registering and receiving identity cards.

"Matsushita Momoko? Isn't this your sister? Why does she have the last name Matsushita?"

"My Lord, my sister has married. The man is called Song. Now she has been captured by the Japanese and taken to the military camp. I plan to send my sister back first and then go over there to rescue her. Songxia is the surname I gave her."

Jia Cong recognized the person who was speaking, Kato Tadayoshi, a name he had given to him himself.

He asked his personal soldiers to call them over, and soon Kato and his sister Momoko came quickly. When they were almost there, they pulled their sister to kneel on the ground and kowtowed.

"I pay my respects to the Marquis..."

"Okay, hurry up and get up, this is not popular in China."

Although it feels great to make the Japanese kowtow, Jia Cong can still suppress his desires for the sake of the country's cause.

He raised his hand and asked him to stand up.

Looking the brother and sister up and down, it is obvious that the Japanese people under Izumo's rule are far more energetic and spirited than those under the rule of Wa.

Look at those noble beasts in Japan. It turns out that they still need the imperial army from the Celestial Empire to save the suffering people.

Jia Cong once again praised himself for his foresight and asked about Kato's experience on this trip.

When I learned that Japan was on the verge of destroying all the people living near Kyoto, I almost laughed out loud.

That's how it is. Where there is oppression, there will be resistance.

Seeing the veins on Kato's hands throbbing, Jia Cong knew that this man had become a die-hard fan of the Celestial Empire.

Because the Celestial Empire not only gave him a promotion in status, but also gave him hope for the future.

In the past, the samurai he wanted to be was nothing more than a dog of the Japanese nobles.

The second-class citizens of the Celestial Empire could join the army and serve the imperial court. If they killed the enemy and made meritorious contributions, they would have the opportunity to become first-class citizens of the Celestial Empire and become military officers of the Celestial Empire...

That's much better than the samurai in the Japanese Shogun's Mansion. At least in his impression, those generals had to kowtow respectfully when they met officials from the Celestial Empire.

"Since you have brought your sister here, go to the government office to get the resettlement food, and then go get her some new clothes. She is wearing tattered clothes, which is embarrassing for the people of our Celestial Empire."

To Kato, Jia Cong's words were like an imperial edict.

Moreover, the Celestial Empire mentioned by Jia Cong is more sacred than the imperial edict.

This means that the nobleman treated Kato as his own, which further strengthened his belief in serving the Celestial Empire until his death.

"I will never forget the great kindness of the Heavenly Kingdom!"

"What's the matter with life and death? Stop saying these unlucky words. Your parents died at the hands of those beasts, and your brother-in-law is still being oppressed by them. Kato, you are a man, the only remaining bloodline of the Kato family. What you have to do is to save people, to take revenge, to build a career, to start a family, and to reproduce offspring for your Kato family..."

Jia Cong can now make big promises without hesitation.

Moreover, the big promises he made were not just to fool Kato, but could actually come true.

As long as Kato can make great contributions to the Celestial Empire, the imperial court will grant him the status of a Celestial Empire citizen and give him a bright future.

There is not much noise here, but it is very attractive.

Many Japanese people who had just escaped from the oppression of Japanese nobles and followed their relatives burst into tears with excitement.

They knelt on the ground one by one, kowtowed to Jia Cong continuously, and shouted "Long live the Celestial Empire" in an awkward voice.

Central Plains Heavenly Kingdom, the central country.

The nobles of the Celestial Empire were so kind to them that they were worried that they would starve, so they cooked sweet meat porridge in several large pots at the city gate.

Those soft and tender buns are sweeter than maltose when you bite them in your mouth.

The adults at the city gate repeatedly reminded us that once we got our ID cards, we should go to the government office to collect resettlement food. Those who didn't have houses could still go and register, and the government would give them houses and land...

Compared with the jackal-like Japanese nobles and beasts they were at home, at this moment they were even willing to give up their lives for the Celestial Empire.

……

Kato Tadayoshi settled his sister down and had no more worries.

His father was already dead, beaten to death by those noble beasts.

They even stole the little food in the house, causing his mother and younger sister to starve to death.

Kato's hatred for the Japanese nobles is higher than Mount Fuji.

He left Izumo with the long sword given by Jia Cong, and went east with a large number of Japanese warriors who had settled their relatives...

No, now these people have new identities.

They were second-class citizens of the Celestial Empire, the Great Xia Fusang Homecoming Group, and their number was small, less than three thousand.

Jia Shiyi was personally ordered to lead the team, and he led this team of 3,000 people to sneak into the countryside and mountains near Kyoto.

……

Er Gouzi left by boat with several letters from Jia Cong. Liu Yi also handed the tiger talisman to Wang Ziteng and returned to the Hizen domain headquarters with Wang Ziteng's military order.

After the first month of the lunar year, spring arrives in Japan.

By that time the snow has melted and the weather has warmed up, it will be the perfect time for the army to set out and disrupt Japan's spring planting.

After spending two full years fighting with Japan, this wave of spring planting was disrupted. Jia Cong really wanted to see if Japan could still afford to support hundreds of thousands of troops?
Even though Wang Ziteng's body was being treated by Li Shiqian, it was still obvious that he had consumed a lot of effort and it was difficult for him to hold on as long as before.

In order to prevent the commander-in-chief from being exhausted to death, Jia Cong had to take over most of the military affairs after arranging the spring planting.

The news that the Dengzhou navy had completely destroyed the Western Yi fleet has arrived, and Wang Ziteng was once again frightened by Jia Cong's ingenious strategy.

"You can even calculate this? How do you know that the Western Yi fleet will arrive at that time?"

Jia Cong was still writing furiously, and said without raising his head: "Is Lord Wang sick and confused? We are celebrating the New Year, but the Western barbarians are not. Wouldn't they take advantage of our relaxation and secretly send reinforcements to the Japanese island? Even if they don't send reinforcements, what is the most lacking thing for Japan now? Firearms! Who else can provide them with firearms now except the Western barbarians?"

Although Jia Cong also wanted to try his best, he couldn't resist the fact that God was chasing him to give him military merit.

This surprise attack by the Dengzhou navy not only added a huge credit to Jia Cong's record, but also cut off the military supplies of Japan.

I guess Xiyi in Kyoto City is still wondering if their fleet encountered a storm and delayed its journey.

They would never have thought that they would never see their own fleet arrive at the Japanese island no matter how hard they waited.

"When spring comes, we will march forward with a large army, first capture the feudal states near Kyoto, and then encircle them from the north and south. We will only encircle them without fighting, and when they run out of ammunition and food, they will naturally fall into chaos!"

The reason why Jia Cong took the trouble to send a group of 3,000 people to sneak into Kyoto was because he planned to attack the center.

When the hundreds of thousands of troops gathered by Japan can't even get enough food, all the plans of suicide with honor, the Japanese locusts, and the generals and daimyo will become enemies of those hundreds of thousands of people.

I'm afraid that at that time there would be no need for the Celestial Empire's royal army to take action at all, as someone would kidnap the nobles of Kyoto and present them to the Celestial Empire.

The more Jia Cong thought about it, the happier he became. He could hardly wait to see that Japanese locust kneeling down and asking for surrender!
Monthly ticket recommendation ticket

　I’ll stop here tonight and continue tomorrow. Good night!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)