"Temple! Temple!" A small but urgent shout came from the end of a corridor in the Choryang Japanese Hall into this large and spacious Japanese-style room. What sounded together with the shouting was the sound of bare feet walking on the floor.
Masanao Tsuchiya, who was sitting indoors, smiled bitterly, and what came to his mind was a steaming bowl of white rice with a fragrant aroma... because the person who shouted "Miya! Miya!" was specifically responsible for "begging for rice." "An important minister of the Tsuchiya family, the current "beggary" Kanemaru Masataka of Hitachi Tsuchiura-bo.
Of course, "begging for food" is not a permanent function of the Tsuchiya family. The Tsuchiya clan with a land of 45,000 koku is not so poor that it is begging. The most that their family could do was to rely on their head to become a shogunate and not repay their debts.
But at the Choryang Japanese House, there really needed to be a Tsuchiya retainer who could pull off his face and speak Chinese to discuss ordering food with the besieged Ming army outside... So this important task was given to He Tsuchiya Masanao was related (the ancestor of the Tsuchiya family came from the Koshu Kanemaru family), and he had studied Confucianism with Zhu Shunsui, so Kanemaru Masataka, who knew Chinese, was in charge.
Kanamaru Masataka was indeed gifted with begging. He could always get some white rice from the Ming army that besieged the Japanese mansion, so he was nicknamed the "Begging Practitioner" by a group of samurai who didn't know how to beg but also wanted to eat the food they brought.
And today is another "working day" for begging... Listen to the rushing footsteps to see that it's time for dinner.
The footsteps and shouts became louder and louder, and the door to the entrance to the Japanese room was opened in an instant. What caught the eyes of a group of senior warriors in the room who were growling with hunger was none other than Masataka Kanemaru, the beggar with an excited look on his face - judging from his expression, could he be asking for fish and meat? Are those unreasonable Ming soldiers showing kindness?
Tsuchiya remained calm, while Kanemaru took several breaths and stared straight at his young master. After a while, he finally burst out: "Your Majesty! Quan Sangha, the imperial envoy of the Ming Dynasty Supervisor, has arrived at Busan Pu , I want you to meet in Busan City right away..."
Great, this inexplicable "hungry rice incident" has finally come to an end!
All the high-ranking samurai in the room showed joy... They were all Hatamoto samurai with hundreds of shi family wealth. Although they were not rich, they had no experience of starvation. Now they were attacked by a group of people holding flintlocks. What's the matter with the Ming army, which is so fierce and vicious, that they are starving in the Caoliang Japanese Pavilion and are not allowed to leave?
"Oh..." Tsuchiya Masanao did not stand up in a hurry. Instead, he looked at his retainers and asked slowly: "Has the supply problem of Choryang Hall been solved?"
Does he mean that dinner is about to arrive?
"It will be solved soon!" Kanamaru Masataka said, "Master Quan said, as long as we can clearly explain Japan's alliance with the Qing Dynasty, the Netherlands, and Spain, as well as Japan's attitude towards the Ming Dynasty's merger with Korea, and Japan's China’s claim to the Ryukyu Kingdom...they will restore supplies and let us go back to the country.”
"Baga!" Masanao Tsuchiya suddenly stood up, and all the samurai in the room were startled by his actions and looked at him blankly.
One of the older Hatamoto samurai asked gently: "Tsuchiya-don...aren't these things unspeakable? Has the shogunate given any instructions in this regard?"
Tsuchiya glared at the old guy bitterly and said coldly: "There is nothing that cannot be said about these things, but once they are made clear, war will be inevitable!"
"War? Tsuchiya Palace, will the Ming Dynasty invade Ryukyu?"
Tsuchiya almost got angry at this old fool with a family income of eight hundred koku, "It would be great if it was just Ryukyu!"
The Ryukyu Kingdom was captured by the Satsuma Domain of Japan in the 37th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty. King Shang Ning and more than a hundred people were captured and imprisoned in Kagoshima for two years. Finally, they had to sign the "Fifteen Articles" and recognized it. Satsuma Domain's control of Ryukyu.
In addition, the Ryukyu Kingdom had to send envoys to Edo to meet the shogunate, thus being included in Japan's "Chinese barbarian system". The Satsuma Domain also established a "zaiban envoy" in Naha, the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom, to control the Ryukyu Kingdom. country for surveillance.
Although Edo also gained a reputation for pioneering territory from the Satsuma Domain's conquest of Ryukyu, it was the Satsuma Domain that benefited. Therefore, if the Ming Dynasty "takes back" Ryukyu, there will be no actual loss to the Edo shogunate, but it will weaken the strength of the Satsuma clan.
The real headache for the shogunate in the past two years was not that the Ming army wanted to send troops to Ryukyu, but that the Ming army did not send troops and only used rhetorical cannons to keep the fire going. The Satsuma clan was also a master who did not take the matter too seriously, and its rhetorical cannons were louder than those of the Ming Dynasty. , constantly packaging themselves as anti-Ming heroes. This made the shogunate very passive and had no choice but to sing along.
Under this circumstance, when the Dutch, the Qing Dynasty and the Korean Kingdom proposed a joint resistance to the Ming Dynasty, public opinion in Japan was of course one-sided support. At this time, if there are strong generals like Ieyasu, Hidetada, and Iemitsu in power, they will not be swayed by public opinion and will most likely be able to make the right choice.
But Tokugawa Ietsuna, the fourth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, was a man with insufficient intelligence... With an IQ of 70 or 80, it was impossible for him to govern by himself. Therefore, the major policies of the shogunate can only be "evaluated" by a group of senior middlemen, that is, everyone discusses them.
Of course, these old Chinese did not dare to be enemies of the world's public opinion, and as a result, they were confused and dragged into the anti-Ming pirate ship by Kangxi and Ma Sui.
But after all, these veterans were not Showa staff, so when they sent additional personnel to the Choryang Japanese Pavilion to "shock" the Ming Dynasty, they also gave many instructions to "avoid conflicts" - "shock" the Ming Dynasty was for those groups in the country. It's for those who don't mind the big deal, but "avoiding conflicts" is related to the stability of the shogunate.
Therefore, the Chinese and Chinese requested that the Choryang Japanese Consortium should not leave the Japanese Consortium without permission from the other party (Ming Dynasty or North Korea), otherwise all of them would have to commit seppuku after returning home!
This is also why Zhu Heji's "non-resistance policy" failed to attract the Japanese invaders, and later changed it to starvation, which only attracted beggars... This is where pretending to be a coward meets a real coward.
So Zhu Heji simply stopped pretending and sent Quan Shangxia to question him.
Masanao Tsuchiya is an important minister of the shogunate, and his father is a senior citizen, so he naturally knows the pros and cons.
But eating is important!
Therefore, Tsuchiya Masanao had no choice but to take several relatively high-status shogunate bannermen and his own retainer Kanemaru out of the Choryang Wakan. Then, escorted by a group of Ming troops, they arrived at a government office in Punai, Busan. We arrived at the Ming Dynasty's minister Quan Shangxia, who was wearing a bright red official uniform, a black veil on his head, and a confident smile.
Because this meeting could only be regarded as semi-formal, there was not much etiquette. After the two parties greeted each other casually, they sat down face to face in the lobby and got down to business.
"Have you eaten?" Quan Shangxia asked with a smile.
"not yet......"
Tsuchiya Masanao also knew a few words of Chinese - Zhu Shunshui was favored by Tokugawa Mitsuhiro, so an important minister of the shogunate like him had to pretend to listen.
Quan Shangxia said with a smile: "Then let's keep the story short and explain it clearly as soon as possible. Then you can have a good meal and go back to your hometown."
Eat a good meal and then go back to your hometown...it's really touching!
Tsuchiya Masao listened to Kanemaru interpreting the other party's words, and then frowned and asked: "Does the Ming Dynasty really want to attack Japan? Aren't they afraid of following in the footsteps of the Ming Dynasty?"
His words were translated into Chinese by the general officer led by Quan Shangxia.
Quan Shangxia smiled and said: "It's not their Ming Dynasty, but our Ming Dynasty...We Korea are now part of the Ming Dynasty! But you Japan is not qualified to become a province of the Ming Dynasty, you can only become a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. .
But this is also very good, because after the Ming Dynasty there will be many vassals, and Japan will be the first among them! The benefits are huge...so it's totally worth fighting a battle first and killing a few people. Because without fighting a battle, you will not know the power of the Celestial Empire, and the Celestial Empire will not know your usefulness.
Okay, now on behalf of the Japanese shogunate, answer the questions raised by our Ming Dynasty truthfully! "
