Japan, Edo Castle, Imperial Ministry House.
This is where the veterans of the Tokugawa shogunate helped the shogun handle government affairs, and it is also the de facto center of power in Japan today. According to the regulations of the Tokugawa shogunate, there are generally four to five senior middlemen under the shogun, who take turns managing different affairs on a monthly basis. In principle, they are selected from among the Daimyos with a territory of more than 25,000 koku.
As for the five people who are now serving as laozhong, they are the second-generation lord of the Sagami Odawara Domain and the grandson of Shogun Oku's founder Kasuga Bureau Inaba Masanori. The first generation of the Sekisuka clan's Kuze family, the surname of Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada was born. Even in his seventies, Kuze Hiroyuki can still be seen as having a delicate face. The first generation of the Hitachi Tsuchiura Domain, starting with the third-generation shogun Kinxi, has been serving the Tokugawa shogunate in Edo for more than 50 years. Tsuchiya Nao has never even been to his own territory. The adopted son of Kasuga Bureau, Kane Ietsuna, was born in a minor family name. When his father died, he committed seppuku and committed suicide. Hotta Masatoshi was the only one who had his loyalty to the Tokugawa family written on his face. His ancestors have followed the Tokugawa (Matsudaira) family for generations. He is also handsome and handsome, and he is very popular with Tokugawa Tsuna. He became the head of the surname group in his twenties, and became the senior lord of Hizen Province's Karatsu Domain, Tadashi Okubo in his thirties. towards.
These five veterans, plus Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the most "wise man" of the Tokugawa family, one of the three imperial families and a great historian who fabricated history for Japan, all gathered together in the Imperial Ministry room and sighed.
This made the entire "outside" of Edo City (referring to the offices of the shogunate's senior officials and officials) tense. What happened? If Mitsukuni of the Mito family didn't create history at home, why would he sigh in Edo City? This is scary!
Because according to Tokugawa Ieyasu's will, the Mito family has a very special right, which is to select a "Tokugawa" from the Kishu Tokugawa family and the Owari Tokugawa family to succeed the Tokugawa family when the Tokugawa clan becomes extinct. He became the governor of the Tokugawa clan and the general who conquered the barbarians of Japan.
Could this day be coming soon?
Ietsuna, the mentally retarded and childless Tokugawa shogun, is already terminally ill and about to die?
This stupid old man also had a hard life. Although he was a fourth-generation general who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he couldn't stand up to his stupid brain and couldn't hold the power at all. After his father Iemitsu died, he became the puppet of the old middlemen. He also had physical problems and was now very sick. I'm forty, I don't even have a son, and I seem to be sick recently.
And once he dies like this, the inheritance problem of the general's family will arise!
Is this Tokugawa clan extinct?
Although Ietsuna has no hope of having a son, he still has a brother, Matsudaira Tsunayoshi, and a nephew, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. Although Tsunayoshi took the Matsudaira surname and can no longer be considered a member of the Tokugawa clan, Tsunayoshi is the real deal. Tokugawa! Can the head of the Kofu clan be considered a member of the Tokugawa clan?
It seems that Kamijun Ieyasu didn’t make it clear!
If Tsunatoyo is considered a member of the Tokugawa clan, then who is the Kofu Tokugawa clan? You have established your own family, how can you still belong to the clan? There is no such rule in Japan!
If he cannot be counted as a member of the Tokugawa clan, then will members of the Kishu Tokugawa family and Owari Tokugawa family be recruited by Tokugawa Mitsukuni to succeed them?
But would Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and the retainers of the Kofu clan be satisfied with such an arrangement? There won't be any drama about the Koshu samurai sending troops to Kanto, right?
Judging from the gloomy faces of these old middlemen, there must be a dispute - these five old middlemen clearly know that they are not capable people. One is the grandson of the founder of Da'ao who has prospered as a pimp for the general's family, and the two He is a "shogun's man" who rose to power by virtue of his good looks, a "filial son" who came to power because his father sacrificed his life for Lord Iemitsu, and an old immortal who has survived for more than fifty years through seniority.
As for this combination, except for an old immortal and a filial son, the others all revolve around the life of the general. No one is a fierce man. Honda, Sakai, Iyin, and Sakakibara have gone to who knows where? If something really happened, how could we possibly solve it?
How long has this world been peaceful? The Warring States Period is not coming again, is it?
Outside the Imperial Ministry's room, the senior officials directly under the command of Lao Zhong and the other officials all poked their heads in and looked inside. The faces of the little devils with deer-headed and mouse-like eyes were all full of anxious expressions.
In the Imperial Ministry room, the voices of senior middlemen gradually started to discuss.
"It's been seventy or eighty years, how come the Koreans haven't forgotten the old grudge of Duke Taikou sending troops to attack them? They even asked the Tokugawa shogunate to apologize and compensate Korea in the name of the King of Japan, and also to carry out a profound Reflect. It’s so rude! These North Koreans are really unreasonable!”
"It's not that the Koreans are too rude at all, but that the Chinese are too rude! Now the country of Korea has been controlled by Yang Qilong of the Qing Dynasty, and the Korean monarchs and ministers are all his puppets! And the shogunate of the Ming Dynasty did not attack the Yang family, Restoring the power of the King of Korea will actually help the evil deeds, and it is extremely rude to want Japan to bow its head and apologize to the Yang family supervisor of Korea!"
"This is the Li shogunate who sent troops to Ryukyu two or three years ago and took away Japan's foreign vassal territory. It is really rude! With such a supervisor and general, how can China dare to call itself a land of etiquette?"
"What kind of country of etiquette? They no longer exist. When the Mongols destroyed the Song Dynasty, the country of etiquette was our country, Japan!"
Hearing several old Chinese people talking nonsense, the great historian Tokugawa Mitsukuni snorted and slowly raised his head: "What nonsense are you talking about? What etiquette is not etiquette? This matter has nothing to do with etiquette. Everything is a benefit!
Don't you understand? They are not looking for trouble in Japan because of Duke Taige's invasion of Korea seventy or eighty years ago, but because of the waterway to the New World!
The report from Nagasaki sent a while ago said that the Chinese took control of the waterway to the New World by hijacking the Spanish galleon two years ago, and also captured the port of Acapulco through a despicable sneak attack! And our country, Japan, happens to be on the only way to the New World starting from the Ryukyu Kingdom and Korea. If the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty controlled one or two supply ports on our Japanese land, their voyage to the New World would become very easy! "
The five Tokugawa elders had actually read the report sent by the Nagasaki Administrative Office, but the report did not mention Japan's key position on the trans-Pacific route. So when they heard Tokugawa Mitsukuni's words, they all looked blank.
The old Immortal Tsuchiya Shu, who had served the Tokugawa Shogunate for more than fifty years, stared at the head of the Mito family with a pair of dim eyes and asked: "Mito Komon, what you said about Japan's location in the New World must... What is the basis for the things on the road?"
"Attendant Tsuchiya (attendant is the official position of Tsuchiya), have you forgotten what happened in the first year of Genwa?" Tokugawa Mitsukuni asked.
"Yuanhe first year? Isn't that the Osaka Summer Formation?" The old man immediately became energetic when he mentioned the Osaka Summer Formation.
That was the last battle to end the troubled times!
Although he was not able to personally participate in the Osaka Summer Formation, he was at least born and knew something. It was such a nostalgic time!
"Your Highness Mito, why did you suddenly mention the Osaka Summer Formation? It's a pity that I was still a child at that time and didn't have the opportunity to go into battle to kill the enemy!" The handsome old man Hiroyuki Kuze was already a pretty little boy that year. When I mention that I couldn't compete with Sanada Yukimura, I feel full of regret!
However, Tokugawa Mitsukuni was speechless - with the appearance of Kuze Mitsuyuki, even if he went to the Osaka Summer Formation, he would be killed!
He sighed: "Another major event happened during the Yuanhe period. It was the Date Maru's voyage to New Spain!"
What?
The five senior middlemen all showed vigilant expressions.
Date Maru? What does it have to do with Date Masamune, the ambitious one-eyed dragon? Could it be that the Ida family has been secretly maintaining contact with Spain?
"Don't you all know about the voyage of the Date Maru?" Tokugawa Mitsukuni looked at the five veterans in front of him, and his heart dropped.
Such a big event almost changed Japan's national destiny, but they didn't know!
Of course Tokugawa Mitsukuni knew about the "Date Maru Incident" - he was the one who studied and invented history after all! He couldn't find any historical data about the ancient history, so he had to invent it. But the history after the opening of the Tokugawa Shogunate can be found in archives. Among them, the first year of Genwa is a "big historical year". The Osaka Summer Formation, the demise of the Toyotomi family, the Genwa Yanwu, etc. all happened in this year, and the Date Maru incident also happened in this year!
Originally, Tokugawa Mitsukuni didn't pay much attention to it. It wasn't until he saw the Nagasaki envoy's report on the Ming Dynasty's capture of Acapulco Port that he realized that Japan and the Tokugawa shogunate had lost their lives in the "Date Maru Incident" What?
Originally, Japan and the Tokugawa Shogunate also had a chance to seize the Acapulco Port! As long as Kamito Ieyasu is a little bit more bad, to be honest, Kamito Ieyasu is really bad already. Why didn't he think of a sneak attack on Acapulco Port? And why was that Chinese general Geng Juyi so bold? He not only attacked Acapulco, but also hijacked the Spanish galleons!
But can this really be done by people from a land of etiquette? Is it possible that after they were ruled by the Manchus, they forgot all their etiquette and shame?
How shameless!
Thinking of this, Tokugawa Mitsukuni could only sigh, and then told the five veterans in front of him the whole story of the "Date Maru's voyage to Acapulco" that happened that year.
After hearing this, the five middle-aged men also looked in disbelief.
After a while, Masatoshi Hotta, who almost had the word "loyalty" written on his face, came to his senses and said sadly: "Oh, what a pity. If I were on the Date Maru, I would definitely risk my life for Tokugawa." The family captured the port of Acapulco!”
"Mito Danagon, we now also have the opportunity to open up new territories in the New World!" The speaker was Okubo Tadashiro, the youngest among the old and middle-aged men. He said to Tokugawa Mitsukuni, "I received another long letter this morning. Qi Fengxing’s report said that the Dutch are willing to give us the nautical charts to and from the New World and help us build a navy in exchange for forming an alliance to fight against the Ming Dynasty!”
"Nani?" Mitsukuni Tokugawa was stunned. "The Dutch want to form an alliance with us to fight against the Ming Dynasty? Are they crazy? The Ming Dynasty is so powerful now, how do they want to fight against it?"
Okubo Tadayo could not answer because the content of this report seemed to him "meaningless". Why did Japan want this chart? What is the use of Japan's navy? The ancestral family law of the Tokugawa shogunate was to close the country in isolation! There is no need to build a strong navy!
So he took a second look and felt it was worthless, so he threw it to Okubo below for archiving - Okubo was the youngest, had been a junior high school student for the shortest time, and had the least seniority, so he was responsible for "doing the hard work" among the junior high school students. , he would read all kinds of messy reports first, select the more important ones, and discuss and deal with them with several other senior middlemen. If it's not important, just approve it casually and deal with it.
And the sea map to the New World is certainly unimportant, not important at all!
Thinking of this, Okubo Tadayo quickly said to the several daimufu who were poking their heads outside the Imperial Palace: "Hurry up and get the report on the Nagasaki Enforcement that was sent today!"
"Hai!"
Immediately, an Omatosuke agreed, and then ran out as fast as he could. After a while, he entered the Imperial Ministry room with the report that was about to be filed, and handed it to Okubo Laochu with both hands.
Okubo Tadachō took the report, opened it and read it again carefully, and then said to Tokugawa Mitsukuni with a surprised look on his face: "Your Highness Mito, it turns out that the Westerners are forming an alliance against the Ming Dynasty! Spain is participating. , Portugal, England, the Netherlands, and Germany may also invite the Qing Dynasty and the Great Zhou Dynasty to participate! All countries unite to contain the Ming Dynasty. In exchange, the Netherlands is willing to help us develop our navy and trans-Pacific trade! We are also willing to persuade Spain to establish a new empire in the New World Give us a piece of undeveloped coastal land as a colony.”
"Contain the Ming Dynasty together? Do you want to go to war with the Ming Dynasty?"
"Is it possible? Daming is still very strong!"
"Yes, we are about to go to war with the Qing Dynasty and North Korea. If we go against the Ming Dynasty, will there be more enemies?"
"That's not right. If the Qing Dynasty also joins the anti-Ming Dynasty alliance, then we and the Qing Dynasty are friends. Then why is there any need to fight? The Qing Dynasty is going to the New World, and we can provide convenience!"
Tokugawa Mitsukuni, however, frowned deeply and said nothing. Several senior members could not come up with a solution. In the end, they all looked at the "wise man" of the Tokugawa family, waiting for him to come up with an idea.
"This matter is not that simple!" Tokugawa Mitsukuni said, "Then the alliance has leaders and followers. With Japan's current national strength, we cannot be the leader. All we can do is follow and oppose the Ming Alliance. It seems that only the Qing Dynasty and the Netherlands are qualified to be the leader of the alliance. If we in Japan want to join them, we must choose one of them to follow!"
This "following" is a term for high emotional intelligence. Of course, a term for low emotional intelligence is to "recognize your father"!
Of course, there is no "beautiful father" that the Japanese can recognize now. The only three "candidate fathers" that can be chosen are "Qing father", "Ming father" and "Dutch foreign father".
"Your Highness Mito, we should follow the Ming Dynasty!" Okubo Tadayo said, "Kongkata has always been close to the Ming Dynasty, and the shogunate also uses the Japanese King's Seal awarded by the Ming Dynasty for diplomacy."
In fact, the Japanese King's Seal was not awarded to the Tokugawa Shogunate, but to the Muromachi Shogunate, and was later "inherited" by the Tokugawa family.
"Your Highness Mito," said the handsome old man Kuzeya, "your teacher Zhu Shunshui is also in Nagasaki now, right? Why not invite him to Edo?"
Come to Edo to accept an adopted son on behalf of the Ming Dynasty!
Tokugawa Mitsukuni shook his head and said: "This is not possible!"
"no?"
"Why?"
"Your Highness Mito, doesn't he always claim to be the King of Japan?"
A few old Chinese really don't understand anything. Not only do they not understand diplomacy, they also don't understand the logic of Japan's "self-extinction from China" since the fall of the Tang Dynasty.
Tokugawa Mitsukuni looked at them and said solemnly: "Japan cannot and does not want to become the second Korea! Japan should become a divine continent like China! Therefore, since the fall of the Tang Dynasty, Japan will close itself off whenever the world is unified. , to cut off official contacts with China as much as possible. Even during the era of the Taira clan and Lian Cang, Japan did not bother to establish official diplomatic relations with the Song Dynasty. But now, the Ming Dynasty is so strong that sea ships can already directly attack Edo. If If we continue to follow them, there is no doubt that sooner or later, like North Korea, we will become a Little China instead of a Japanese dynasty!"
"Your Highness Mito, what's wrong with becoming a Little China?"
Someone actually asked such a question!
Tokugawa Mitsukuni glared at the man, who turned out to be "old white-faced" Kuze.
Guangguo said: "If we become Little China, then the warriors in the world will lose their power to dominate everything now, and become ordinary citizens. We, the feudal lords, will also lose our territory and become ordinary officials and nobles. Are you willing?"
(End of chapter)
