In March, the fourth year of Qing'an.
The era name Qing'an is the second era name used by Emperor Shohito, whose posthumous title is Emperor Goguangmei. Because the Japanese pronunciation of his first era name Shojin is close to "burn", which may cause fires, it is not exempted from this rule. Welcome, so it was changed to Qing'an in April 1648 in the Western calendar.
However, the era name of Qing'an is still not very popular (the most popular era name in Japanese history is Kan'ei, because the Japanese copper coins Kan'ei Tongbao have been minted for more than 200 years), because since the Qing'an Year, Japan's national There's nothing to celebrate, and it's not very stable either.
Because of the failure of the Korean War, a large number of ronin in Japan had no way out. It would be damned if Japan could still be stable. Therefore, since the Qing'an Year, serious ronin violence has occurred every year in Japan. The number of assassinated feudal lords and important ministers of each feudal clan also increased significantly.
But this is not the most troublesome thing. What troubles Tokugawa Iemitsu the most is that there is a female Nobunaga from the neighboring country of Korea, who is the emperor of Kobuin.
It turned out that after Emperor Xingmuin arrived in North Korea, she followed her husband, Prince Daemingnying, to many battles to attack the remnants of the Qing Dynasty who were entrenched in the northeastern part of Korea. They finally completely pacified the remnants of the Qing Dynasty more than a year ago.
This matter is not a big deal at all. It is impossible for a young woman of the Xingwuyuan Emperor to actually kill the enemy in battle. Her role on the front line is just to hold hands with Prince Ning Zhu Cijiong and comfort him mentally and physically... But there was a group of northern samurai who couldn't stand up to Kobuin who were particularly capable of boasting. They actually blew the emperor of Kobuin into the female Nobunaga of Bubu Joseon.
After the reputation of Emperor Kobuin's bravery was spread back to Japan, a group of ronin who were afraid of the world's chaos began to look forward to Kobuin's return from North Korea to launch a war to overthrow the world - and they didn't even think about who the husband of Kobuin was? But this bunch of brainless ronin didn't think so much at all. Not only did they hope that Kobuin would come back and fall, but from time to time, some people would violate the shogunate's ban and sneak from Japan to North Korea to defect to the Kobuin Emperor.
According to the report of the secret agent sent to Korea by the shogunate, the number of northern samurai directly under the Kobuin has increased from 1,000 when they just left Japan to more than 2,000... Isn't it a much increase? No, it’s a lot more, because the northern samurai can also hire retainers!
After Emperor Kobuin arrived in North Korea, he promulgated the "Northern Samurai Laws", which linked the duties of the northern samurai to the number of their own retainers - if they had no retainers, they could only be the lowest level. of ashigaru. If anyone has a retainer, try being a cavalryman. If anyone has five retainers, they can become an ashigaru captain. If someone has ten retainers, he can become a cavalry captain. Anyone who has twenty retainers can become an ashigaru platoon leader. Anyone with forty retainers could become a cavalry platoon leader. If anyone has sixty retainers, he can become an ashigaru squadron captain or even a higher official position... In short, the more retainers you have, the bigger your official position will be and the more soldiers you can lead. And if there are many officers and soldiers, it will be easier to achieve meritorious service. After performing meritorious service, you can get more salary and even a fief.
In short, the core of "The Laws of the Northern Samurai" is to encourage the Northern Samurai to find ways to win people over. Whoever can win more people will get more opportunities for promotion and wealth.
Therefore, although there are only 2,000 northern samurai under Kobuin's command now, including the retainers of the northern samurai, the military strength owned by the Emperor of Kobuin has reached more than 30,000!
This number exceeds the number of military households subordinate to Zhu Cijiong, the husband of Emperor Xingwuyuan... The latter only had 20,000 households after an additional household closure.
In other words, the number of troops owned by Emperor Xingwuyuan and Zhu Cijiong has reached 50,000!
Such a large army needs food, drink, pay, and equipment. The annual expenditure is at least three to four million taels! Zhu Cijiong couldn't afford it with the little village he had in North Korea.
So Ming Emperor Zhu Youjian must have made money!
And what did he want to do by paying so much money to help his son raise so many troops in North Korea? To deal with the remnants of the Qing Dynasty? But those remnants were finished, and the remaining few fled to Japan and became anonymous and changed their careers to become businessmen!
Protect North Korea? Let a Japanese emperor lead 30,000 Japanese warriors to protect North Korea...The King of North Korea, Li Hao, is not afraid at all, which probably explains the problem!
Tokugawa Iemitsu is not stupid, of course he knows what Zhu Youjian and Zhu Cijiong and his son want to do? And he also has the ability to unite the Tokugawa shogunate and most of the feudal lords to defend the Tokugawa family's world... Even if Emperor Kobuin returns to Japan with tens of thousands of troops, he is still confident to lead the Tokugawa shogunate to defeat this The emperor of "Bu Wu Korea".
But he never expected that because he had worked day and night to defend Japan and the Tokugawa family in recent years, and at the same time to create outstanding heirs for the Tokugawa family, he actually fell ill from overwork and suffered from thirst and diabetes. ...Now that he is terminally ill, he will soon go to see Lord Ieyasu, the god of power in Tosho.
This is how to do?
His heir, Tokugawa Ietsuna, is only 10 years old... and is very stupid. He can't even add or subtract more than 20 - because he only has 10 fingers and 10 toes in total. Exactly 20, no matter how old you are, you can’t do it anymore.
It’s really annoying!
Let’s look at Setsugi Mitsukuni of the Mito Domain. Although he was known for being naughty when he was a child, he could already do addition and subtraction within 100 when he was 5 years old. When he was 10 years old, he began to study "Confucius’ Posthumous Chapter: Number Theory". Oh...why can't Ietsuna be as smart as Mitsukuni?
When he was anxious, Tokugawa Iemitsu suddenly heard someone sighing in his ear. He quickly looked back and saw an elderly, chubby old man with white hair and beard sighing.
who is he?
Tokugawa Iemitsu took a closer look and saw the old man's face. He immediately felt warm. This old man was clearly his grandfather, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, the late God Lord Ieyasu!
"Grandpa..." Tokugawa Iemitsu cried and begged with tears streaming down his face, "My grandson cannot die. The Tokugawa family cannot live without a grandson. Without a grandchild, the Tokugawa family will perish! Grandson I want to live another 50 years to protect the Tokugawa family..."
The old man nodded and was about to speak when suddenly someone shook Tokugawa Iemitsu vigorously, and then Tokugawa Iemitsu woke up. Open your eyes and look, where is Grandpa Shenjun? I only saw a stupid old man named Masayuki Nakabo, a smart-faced old man named Matsudaira Nobutsuna, a useless old man named Tadakatsu Sakai, and a bad old man named Tadaki Abe.
The four middle-aged and eldest old men in Edo have all arrived, and they are now kneeling in a row. Iemitsu thought to himself: I wonder who shook my general just now? It must be one of you who disturbed this general from praying to the Lord for longevity... This sin is so great that he must commit seppuku!
When the elder Sakai Tadakatsu saw the shogun being shaken awake by Okubo Tadashi, the junior group leader, he quickly reported: "Your Majesty, Mito-sama is here..."
His Highness Mito is Tokugawa Yorifusa, the lord of Mito Domain. Although Yorifusa and Iemitsu are uncles and nephews, they are about the same age. They studied and hung out together in their youth, and their relationship is excellent. When Iemitsu was young, he was obsessed with Taoism and was unwilling to touch women, so he never had a child to be his heir. Later, it was with the joint efforts of Yorifu and Kasuga Bureau that things were straightened out. Among them, the Kasuga Bureau is responsible for finding beauties for Iemitsu, while Yorifu is nagging in Iemitsu's ears every day to help him choose an heir. According to Tokugawa Ieyasu's order, the lord of the Mito Domain has the right to supervise the inheritance of the Shogun family. When the shogun's family ran out of children, they still had the right to choose a successor from the Kishu clan and the Owari clan.
Under the stimulation of Norifu, Tokugawa Iemitsu finally worked hard and gave birth to the stupid father Katsuna Tsuna and the historical animal-loving dog Lord Kata Tsunayoshi... To be honest, at this level, I might as well keep doing it. The public has no children, so it is finally up to Tokugawa Yorifou to appoint a wise king!
