Maeda Toshinaga naturally knew that he had to do this now, but he was not physically and mentally ready to wear such filthy and lowly clothes.
But the situation was stronger than him. On one side was the threat of death, and on the other side was the threat of changing clothes. Even a fool could tell which was more terrible.
Then what was there to worry about?
It was just face. It was no big deal to lose it once.
But if he lost his life, he would really lose everything. Was there any comparison between the two?
Not at all.
So, Maeda Toshinaga gritted his teeth and put down his so-called dignity. With the help of his henchmen, he changed into the dirty clothes, and even found some dust on the ground and smeared it on his face, making himself messy and dirty. Then, he asked Houyang Cheng and his queen to do the same.
Otherwise, everyone would die.
Houyang Cheng was also very painful in his heart for the king of a country to be reduced to such a state. But he knew the consequences of not doing this would be even more painful. So, he reluctantly did it.
Houyang Cheng's queen was the last to finish the job, even though at that time, Maeda Toshinaga was so angry that he wanted to kill her.
Do you think I want to dress like this?
If it were not for my life, who would?!
The ferocious Qin Army was in the city. If they did not deal with it carefully, what would they do if they were discovered and captured?
The group of people changed their clothes in a fluster, rehearsed their lines, and rehearsed several ways to deal with being discovered by the Qin army. Anyway, Houyang Cheng and the Empress tried their best not to talk, and Maeda Toshinaga also tried his best not to talk, kneeling on the ground and shivering. The rest of the conversation would be handled by the group of retainers.
They did not believe that they could not get away with it.
The Qin Army should not kill innocent people.
Yes, innocent people. Of course, they would not kill innocent people. Xiao Ruxun had ordered that they were not allowed to destroy Kyoto and Nara. This was known by all the officers and soldiers.
But the point was, were they innocent?
They themselves had no concept of it.
After entering the city with his troops, Li Rusong ordered the search for the important figures and took on the responsibility of restoring order. At the same time, he sent someone to report the victory to Ma Wei, the commander-in-chief of this expedition. He told Ma Wei that he had taken Kyoto and broken through the capital of Nihon. In a sense, he had ended the resistance of Nihon.
This was indeed not a lie. In a sense, Li Rusong did end the resistance of Nihon.
However, if he could capture the most significant Emperor Go-yōsei, it would definitely be more meaningful.
Li Rusong was also thinking the same thing.
He gave the order to search for traces of Emperor Go-yōsei throughout the capital. He did not believe that this person could grow wings and fly away.
…
It was hard to say. Before Li Rusong set off, he had heard that the Silver-Swallowing Behemoth Department of the Ministry of Military Engineering was working on some kind of hot air balloon. It was said that they had been inspired by the Kongming lanterns and were trying to use this hot air balloon to send humans into the sky.
God knew what these madmen were doing with the funds of the imperial court.
However, Nihon certainly did not have this technology. This was certain, so Li Rusong was more sure that what he wanted was here.
It was not troublesome to not know the people. Those things that symbolized status could not be faked, such as the national seal, talismans, imperial edicts, instruments that symbolized imperial power, and so on. Even the fleeing emperor would definitely take those things with him. Those were the symbols of status. Li Rusong was very sure about this.
In addition, with the guidance of the secret agents of Black Water who were familiar with the situation in Kyoto, Li Rusong's investigators soon came to the Nihon palace and entered it to search for clues.
After entering, Li Ruzhang, who led the team, could not help but wonder what was going on here.
This was the palace?
How could this be called a palace?
Not only did it cover a small area, but most of the houses were low and dilapidated. There were only a few formal houses that could be seen. There were some large houses that looked like palaces, but the scale was far from comparable to the Imperial Palace of Daqin.
Although he was mentally prepared, the messy appearance still made Li Ruzhang feel disappointed.
"I thought that the emperor really had a good residence. It's like this, and he still calls himself the emperor? Even the rich men of Daqin may live better than him. "
Li Ruzhang curled his lips and expressed his disdain for this palace.
The secret agent of Black Water who accompanied him said, "General, you may not know that the emperor of Nihon, the emperor they call himself, actually has no real power for hundreds of years. He has always been controlled by an organization called the shogunate. In fact, he is a puppet. At that time, it should be the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty.
"Later, I don't know what happened, but the shogunate also lost its power. Nihon began to be in chaos, just like our Spring and Autumn Warring States Period. The feudal lords fought each other, but on a much smaller scale. During the Battle of Xianyang in the Ming Dynasty, Toyotomi Hideyoshi unified Nihon and took over the supreme power.
"So although this person has the title of emperor, he is actually a puppet. But in reality, he's just a puppet. His words don't count, and he doesn't live a good life. If we really want to talk about it, he's really not as comfortable as us rich men. "
After the secret agent of Black Water explained it, Li Ruzhang roughly understood.
"So that's how it is. The power has fallen …"
After that, Li Rusong looked around again and said, "It's already so miserable. What's the point of making trouble? Isn't it better to be a vassal state of Daqin? Why do they have to provoke His Majesty? Aren't they courting death? "
The secret agent of Black Water didn't know what to say. He couldn't say that this was something that Xiao Ruxun insisted on. Even if Nihon surrendered, it couldn't escape the fate of being destroyed.
Li Ruzhang didn't care too much. After the army searched and found no one, he couldn't help but frown.
"There's no one here. That's not right. Where would they go? Although this city is not as big as that of Daqin, it's not small. If we really search it, I don't know how long it will take. What can you do here? "
The secret agent of Black Water also felt a little embarrassed when he was asked like this.
"General, I'm incompetent. I can't think of a way."
"…"
Li Ruzhang sighed and ordered several soldiers to stay here and not to destroy the buildings. Then he waved his hand and left with the rest of the army.
As soon as the search began, they encountered trouble. The trouble was not small and it was really difficult to deal with. Li Ruzhang had no choice but to leave with the team. He went back and reported all this to Li Rusong, so that Li Rusong could worry about it.
At the same time that Li Rusong won a great victory, Ma Wei also led the main force of the Daqin Army on the Eastern Punitive Expedition to the direction of the capital. Along the way, they killed everything in their way. They were unstoppable and unstoppable.
The power of the local government of Nihon was really not strong. After losing the organization, it seemed weak, weak, and incompetent. It couldn't cause any hindrance to the Qin Army. Occasionally, it could gather one or two thousand people to attack the Qin Army a little, but they were soon wiped out by the counterattack of the Qin Army.
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