Tokugawa Mitsukuni has completely understood!
The Emperor of China was not trying to win over the Tokugawa Shogunate at all, but was warning the Tokugawa Shogunate!
What does Ryukyu condominium do? This simply opened the door for the Satsuma clan to import flintlock guns and bronze cannons! If the Tokugawa shogunate is not obedient, it will have many open guns and cannons. The Shimadzu family should quickly use them to overthrow the shogunate!
What improves Japan's national dignity, and what recognizes the status of the Japanese Emperor? This is simply exalting the emperor and putting down the shogunate! I just want all the samurai in Japan to see it. Now it is internationally recognized that the emperor despises the general...
Moreover, the Tokugawa shogunate had to swallow these two bitter fruits with a smile and shout: The bitter fruits are so sweet, the bitter fruits are delicious!
Only in this way can the feudal lords and ronin in Japan who do not know the truth think that the Ming Dynasty supports the shogun.
After swallowing the bitter pill with a smile, the Tokugawa shogunate did not dare not support the Ming Dynasty! Not supporting the Ming Dynasty means supporting Spain!
If the Tokugawa family dared to do this, they would be fighting against the barbarians. There was no need for the Ming Emperor to send troops. Shimazu Mitsuhisa should have shouted in Satsuma: Respect the emperor and repel the barbarians!
Tokugawa Mitsukuni sighed: This Ming Emperor has such a bad conscience!
...
Tokugawa Mitsukuni, who finally realized that Ming Emperor Zhu Cixiang had a very bad conscience, returned to the embassy in Nanjing dejectedly. He was planning to arrange for a few confidants to return to China and tell the senior officials of the shogunate the bad news, and let them prepare a grand ceremony. When Wei Zaode, the imperial envoy of the Ming Dynasty, was being politely received, one of his nicknames hurriedly reported: "Your Majesty, a distinguished guest is visiting secretly!"
"Dignified guest? Who?"
The younger one replied: "It's the Spanish envoy Caballero."
"What? Spain...where is he? Has anyone seen him visiting?"
"He is in your study." Xiao surname whispered. "No one noticed his visit because he came directly from Shanghai on a carriage transporting tauwu (dried seafood)."
Caballero was originally the ambassador of Spain to the Great Mongolia. Now that the Great Mongolia is no longer there, it was merged with the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the Spanish embassies in the Ming Dynasty and the Great Mongolia were merged. After the merger, the Spanish embassy in the Ming Dynasty was originally The Spanish envoy was transferred to the Philippines as governor-general, and Caballero was appointed as the new ambassador to the Ming Dynasty.
However, the most important task assigned to him by Madrid was not to develop friendly relations with Ming Dynasty, but to develop relations with Ming Dynasty's neighbor Japan.
Madrid also knows that Japan is a country on the edge of the East Asian civilization circle and a unique existence.
Now, with the exception of Japan, all countries in East Asia are basically members of the Chinese circle. Only Japan is not in this circle, but is in its own right on the edge of the circle.
And this country of Japan is in an impartial position, right at the throat of the Ming Empire's eastward march into the New World.
To put it a bit exaggeratedly, if the Ming Empire wanted to march eastward to America, it must first march eastward to Japan!
After the collapse of Mongolia, Spain wanted to keep the Ming Dynasty out of the Americas. The most effective way was to win over Japan and form an anti-Ming alliance with Japan.
From this perspective, Spain and Japan have common interests, so it should not be difficult to win over Japan. In Caballero's view, Spain only needs to put God aside for the time being and use advanced European guns. If guns are provided to Japan, Japan will definitely be willing to cooperate with Spain.
If Japan had the strength to protect itself, even if it did not side with Spain and start a war with the Ming Dynasty, it would refuse to provide ports and supplies to the Ming Dynasty.
As long as Japan says no to Ming, Spain will have the upper hand in the Pacific...
But the problem is that the people in power in Madrid are not right! So the task given to Caballero is also unusual.
If the Emperor of Ming Dynasty had a very bad conscience, then King Philip IV of Spain had a very bad mind!
He asked Caballero to try to obtain the consent of the Japanese monarch to let the Kingdom of Spain recruit 50,000 mercenaries in Japan to fight against the Ming Dynasty!
At the same time, Philip IV also hoped that Japan could secretly provide one of its excellent ports to the Spanish expeditionary fleet... There will be a huge fleet arriving from the direction of the New World. After the port provided by Japan is repaired, , plunge into the war against the Ming Dynasty!
Caballero also knew that the Madrid authorities had not given up on Dodo, who had surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, and continued to provide weapons and ammunition to Dodo.
The King of Spain, Philip IV, seems to be dreaming of uniting Japan, Manchuria, and perhaps some Mongolian tribes to launch a fierce attack on the Great Ming Dynasty from all directions on the sea and land, giving the Great Ming Dynasty a fatal blow!
But how could such a thing be successful? Not to mention that the 50,000 Japanese mercenaries are not powerful at all compared to the Ming Army's hundreds of thousands of people. Even these 50,000 people cannot be recruited!
How could the Tokugawa shogunate allow a Catholic lunatic country to recruit tens of thousands of homeless ronin as mercenaries on its own territory? If we really arm them, who will be beaten?
Although he knew it was impossible to succeed, Caballero still had to carry out the king's order, so he took a carriage from Shanghai to deliver seafood and dry goods to the Japanese embassy (the Japanese embassy would get some figurines from Japan as souvenirs) to give away) and secretly sneaked into the Japanese embassy.
"What? What did you say...50,000 mercenaries?"
Tokugawa Mitsukuni couldn't believe his ears. He had met this Spanish ambassador several times before and he seemed quite normal. Why did he make such a crazy suggestion?
"Your Excellency," Caballero said in Chinese, "His Majesty the King of our country believes that the Ming Empire has a vast territory, a huge population and a huge economic scale, which is enough to withstand a long war. And they have been in the war for more than ten years. During the Anti-Qing War, they had mastered advanced Western weapons. Not only could they use them, but they could also produce them in large quantities.
The population and financial resources of our two countries cannot be compared with the Ming Empire. Once they fall into a protracted war, they are likely to be dragged down. Therefore, Your Majesty believes that we should fight quickly and give the Ming Empire a sudden, heavy, and fatal blow! The Manchus and Mongols on the East Asian continent will be on our side. They will set off rebellions and attract the main force of the Ming Army to move north. And our navy will transport 50,000 Japanese mercenaries armed with Western guns to raid the southeastern region of the Ming Dynasty... As long as this raid can succeed, the Ming Empire will fall apart, and then Japan will be able to Ming Dynasty has huge colonial interests on its land! "
Tokugawa Mitsukuni's face turned pale with fright. Why did he meet a madman? He couldn't bite, could he?
"This, this, this..." Tokugawa Mitsukuni did not dare to say "impossible"! He is not a general, how can he have such qualifications?
"Ambassador," Tokugawa Mitsukuni said, "you, what you said surprised me so much... I have no way to reply except to invite you to go to Japan at the right time."
Caballero didn't expect Tokugawa Mitsukuni to agree. In fact, he didn't expect the Japanese general to agree - unless the Japanese general, like King Philip IV, was a religious fanatic with abnormal brains! But it doesn't matter if the Japanese refuse. As long as he can see the Japanese general, he can get the most ideal result for Spain.
As long as Japan's armed forces are neutral, Ming Dynasty will have no way to fight the Spanish navy around the Japanese islands... Then the battlefield will shift to the Philippines.
Once a war breaks out in the Philippines, Spain can use diplomatic means to win over the Netherlands and England to mediate. In particular, the Dutch East India Company certainly did not want the Ming Empire to make significant progress in the Southeast Asian islands!
Therefore, if the Ming Dynasty went south, it would not be a conflict with Spain, but with the Netherlands and Britain!
And if the Ming Dynasty moves eastward... there is only one Spain on the west coast of the New World. We cannot expect that the Netherlands and England, who are also denied entry, will help Spain against the Ming Dynasty.
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