When Toyotomi Hideyoshi wanted to buy a ship, would he buy a pure transport ship without the need to carry guns?
No matter how Gao pragmatic thought about it, he felt that this matter was weird. It is only the 16th year of Wanli, that is, 1588 AD. At this time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has begun to calculate that if he wants to conquer the world, he must first conquer China; if he wants to conquer China, he must first conquer Manchuria and Mongolia... Oh, it should be North Korea that must be conquered first. ? Have you even started preparations so early?
Gao Pragmatic thought for a moment and rejected this hypothesis in his heart. Although politicians must have long-term plans, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi was still a heroic figure in Japanese history, but since he is a politician, there is one point he cannot get around: assessing the situation and tailoring his plans accordingly.
To be precise, the current situation in Japan is called "Toyotomi Hideyoshi basically unified Japan." There is a key word here, which is "basically." Basically, that is to say, in other words, all ninety-nine prayers have been prayed, except for the last shiver.
Tokugawa Ieyasu's surrender did mean "basic unity", but Ieyasu's surrender itself was not a heartfelt surrender, let alone a bow of one's head. In fact, it was not solid at all.
To a large extent, he was just fooled by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's political methods. He couldn't get off the stage for a while and pretended to be surrendered. Whether there will be other variables in the future, Gao Pragmatic believes that Toyotomi Hideyoshi at this time may not even be sure.
Moreover, even if Ieyasu surrendered, it would not be considered the unification of all Japan. At least some daimyo in Kanto still did not regard Toyotomi Hideyoshi as the "boss in chief". Before solving the Kanto issue, Gao Pragmatic believed that it was unlikely that Toyotomi Hideyoshi would start preparing for the western invasion.
However, according to Gao Pragmatic's memory, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's initial approach to solving the Kanto issue seemed to be to prepare for a political solution, but later he seemed to have temporarily changed his decision and replaced it with military means because of an accident. It's a pity that Gao Pragmatic couldn't remember what kind of accident it was because of.
But having said that, Gao Pragmatic does not think that Toyotomi Hideyoshi did not have Ming's idea at this time. Regarding this issue, he had some impression that Toyotomi Hideyoshi had already had the intention to invade the Ming Dynasty a few years before he invaded North Korea.
As we all know, Toyotomi Hideyoshi inherited Oda Nobunaga's cause of unifying Japan, but he did not follow his route. Instead, he changed his strategy, first reconciled with his opponent Tokugawa Ieyasu, and got closer to the imperial court, and used the imperial court's name to conquer the "rebels" "-Obviously this is following Cao Cao's "holding the emperor to command the princes". Of course, this approach is also very consistent with the actual situation in Japan.
After "basically" completing the domestic unification of Japan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ambitions for external expansion have expanded rapidly. Occupying North Korea became Toyotomi Hideyoshi's most basic policy at the time. A series of domestic and foreign policies he promulgated at that time were actually centered on this policy.
Of course, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion of North Korea was only a means. Occupying the Tang Kingdom (in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's words, the Ming Dynasty) and dominating Asia was his ultimate goal. Regarding this point, Gao Pragmatic has read a series of historical materials back then, which can provide supporting evidence.
According to Gao Pragmatic's memory, Toyotomi Hideyoshi clearly revealed his ambition to conquer the Ming Dynasty for the first time in a red seal written to his retainer Ichiyanagi Soyasu, saying that he not only wanted to unify Japan, but also wanted to conquer the Tang Dynasty (Ming Dynasty).
The seal was only signed with the date "September 3" and no year number. Later, according to research by Ganhiko Iwasawa, it should be the thirteenth year of Japan's Tensho period - that is, the thirteenth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, that is, September 3, 1585. Since the seal seal is an official document in Japan rather than a private letter, it means that the invasion of China was already on the agenda by Toyotomi Hideyoshi at that time.
In the fourteenth year of Wanli, that is, 1586, when preparing to conquer Kyushu and attack the Shimadzu clan, Toyotomi Hideyoshi told Kuroda Takaka and other close disciples that the next target after the conquest of Kyushu was the Tang Dynasty (Ming Dynasty).
On August 5 of that year, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued the "Kyushu Mobilization Order" to all the daimyo who defied the "Nothing Order", he made it clear: "The plan to conquer the Tang Kingdom was already under consideration. We should make full use of the attack on the rebels." The Shimadzu family had a good opportunity to build an aggressive posture." (Note: This is the original text. And the word "aggression" was not a derogatory word in Japanese at the time.)
In 1589 in original history, Toyotomi Hideyoshi wrote to the Portuguese Governor of India, stating that he had formulated a plan to conquer the Ming Dynasty after achieving the unification of Japan. At the same time, he also sent a letter to the Spanish and Philippine Governor of Luzon, saying that when he was born, he had the ability to rule the world.
After he determined to unify Japan, it took him ten years to realize his long-cherished wish. After that, it was Hideyoshi's natural mission to subjugate Korea and Ryukyu, and then conquer the Ming Dynasty, so Luzon was required to pay tribute.
In November of the following year, 1590, the Korean envoy Huang Yunji went to Japan and submitted his credentials to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In his reply, Toyotomi Hideyoshi informed North Korea: first, to unify the world and foreign lands, which is the mission given to him by Toyotomi Hideyoshi; second, to require North Korea and Japan to jointly conquer the Ming Dynasty and serve as the "guide to the Ming Dynasty"; third, , requiring North Korea to submit and pay tribute.
In June of the next year, that is, 1591, North Korea, which accepted the canonization of the Ming Emperor and regarded the Ming Dynasty as its suzerainty, formally rejected Japan's proposal or request to "falsely enter the Ming Dynasty" and did not agree to Japan's request to invade China through North Korea.
As a result, Japan under the control of Toyotomi Hideyoshi began to accelerate its war preparations and launched two wars of aggression against Korea from 1592 to 1598. These two wars are called the "Battles of Bunroku and Keicho" in Japanese history, the Wanli Korean War in Chinese history, and the "Imjin Japanese Rebellion and Jeongyou Zai Rebellion" in Korean history.
Gao Jingshi thought of the following points at this time: First of all, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has already had an aggressive intention towards the Ming Dynasty, which is for sure; secondly, Toyotomi Hideyoshi seems to really think that he can win this battle; again , the prerequisite for attacking the Ming Dynasty is still the complete unification of Japan.
There is a key time point in this, which is 1589. Gao Pragmatic clearly remembers that Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent a letter to the Portuguese Governor and the Spanish Governor in this year, stating that he had "unified Japan".
In other words, the solution to the Kanto issue will be completed in the next year or so.
Gao Pragmatic wondered in his mind: Could it be that Toyotomi Hideyoshi went to the Maritime Trade Alliance to buy ships in order to conquer Kanto? However, his conquest of Guandong did not require crossing the sea, and it was actually not that far away. No matter what, he only needed to send troops on land. Why did he need ships?
Zhu Yingzhen was satisfied as long as Toyotomi Hideyoshi bought ships but not cannons. He didn't care at all what the latter would use these ships for. But Gao Pragmatic certainly couldn't be the same as him, so he drew out the conclusions he derived separately and concluded that Toyotomi Hideyoshi's move was to deal with Kantō. However, he also raised questions about the relationship between conquering Kantō and buying ships.
This question was obviously out of line for Zhu Yingzhen. He was stunned for a moment, frowning a little, and said slowly: "Maybe... he wants to send troops by sea?"
Liu Xin suppressed her laughter and pretended to be calm: "Speaking of sending troops by sea to attack Huanglong, the slave family has done this once in Siam. But from the perspective of the Yinu family, since Toyotomi Hideyoshi still needs to temporarily buy a ship, I am afraid that there will be a conflict with the slave family. The conditions at hand were not the same.”
Upon hearing this, Gao Pragmatic knew that Liu Xin had other opinions, but he was worried about the face of Zhu Yingzhen, the "general governor", so he said it so euphemistically. He naturally had much less scruples than Liu Xin in this regard, so he immediately asked: "I forgot, Miss Liu, you also played this trick in the Battle of Siam. In this case, what do you think about this matter?" opinion?"
Liu Xin was waiting for Gao Pragmatic's words. She nodded slightly at him and Zhu Yingzhen, and then said: "In my humble opinion, the Yinu family seems to have two crucial factors for such a cross-sea attack. First, this The total strength of the Fanglu Division is small but elite; secondly, our maritime strength is large and strong.
Nu Jia can cite three examples in a row. During the Battle of Beijing and Ding Annan, the fleet suddenly attacked Thang Long City. Since Thang Long City was right on the river, the fleet carried very few land divisions, and Thang Long City surrendered directly due to the power of naval guns.
During the Yunnan-Burma War, Huang Dutong made a cross-sea expedition to Burma. He made a surprise attack on Bago in World War I and defeated the main force of the Burmese army in World War II. This time it is in line with the above two points of the Nu family: thousands of sails across the sea, a powerful fleet; the land division only has more than 30,000, but all of them are elite, one is as good as ten.
Finally, the Battle of Luzon, the expedition of our Northern Sea Trade Alliance, also had extremely strong maritime power, but the land division only had more than 20,000 people. As a result, Spain was forced to not dare to resist on land at all. "
Gao pragmatic thought she would give an example of the time she suppressed the rebellion, but unexpectedly she only mentioned the other three times. He couldn't help but smile slightly and thought to himself: No matter what era people live in, they can only speak and act according to the habits of that era. , Confidence may be regarded as arrogance, but humility will never go wrong.
Seeing that Gao Jingshi had no other reaction, Liu Xin continued: "From the above, we can find that Toyotomi Hideyoshi does not have the above two elements. He even needs to find us to buy the ships he needs temporarily. It can be seen that here Before, the navy... or navy at his disposal was weak and not worth mentioning.
You two may think that since he can quell Japan's troubled times, he must have elites from the Lu division. It may not be wrong to think this way, but there are two problems here: First, in recent years, Toyotomi Hideyoshi has been accustomed to sending troops to suppress the army, rather than to break through with elites.
For example, in the previous "Kyushu Expedition", the equipment level of Satsuma Domain's army was not good. In theory, if Toyotomi Hideyoshi's elite troops wanted to make an elite breakthrough, there would be no chance of victory. However, Toyotomi Hideyoshi would rather mobilize a full two An army of 100,000 people fought with overwhelming force and won, instead of fighting an elite versus elite battle that might have cost much less.
The slave family is not saying that the elite of the Toyotomi family can no longer fight, but that in the mind of Toyotomi Hideyoshi at this moment, the "power of Mount Tai" meets his needs. ",
At this time, Gao Pragmatic finally nodded and spoke: "Yes, Toyotomi Hideyoshi represents the Japanese court at this time, and the court's goal in countering rebellion is to destroy the dead, and avoid procrastination. Otherwise, not only will there be long nights and many dreams, but changes will easily occur, and it may even lead to If the authority of the imperial court is damaged, the impact will be even greater.”
Zhu Yingzhen was initially hesitant when hearing Liu Xin's words, but as soon as Gao Pragmatic affirmed, he immediately agreed: "Yes, yes, Rixin's words are reasonable. Previously, I watched Rixin pacify the northwest, and at first I heard that Rixin led the troops When the main force headed straight for Ordos, I was still frightened and restless, thinking that this was too dangerous.
Later, it was seen that this battle in Rixin was like peeling off a cocoon, cracking the layers of Burihatu's schemes, and winning consecutive battles, and even forced the Ordos tribe to fight as subordinates. In the end, it formed a overwhelming trend, which caused internal chaos in Bobai. In the chaos, Ningxia Jiancheng was captured with almost no soldiers.
To be honest with you two, when the military report came out, all the princes in the court were celebrating with their crowns in their hats. I admired Rixin even more. It was only when the Japanese people's victory essays arrived in Beijing, detailing various tactics and objectives in this battle, that I realized that there were so many things to say about a battle. It was really amazing. Sincerely convinced. "
Okay, okay, I know you are boasting.
"The Duke is ridiculous. That battle was risky because conditions were limited and time was tight. It was indeed a last resort. As long as there is a better way, I don't want to risk going straight into the hinterland of the Loop." Gao Pragmatic laughed and changed the subject. After turning around, he asked Liu Xin: "Miss Liu, please continue."
Liu Xin nodded and continued what he said before: "No matter what the current situation in Japan is, at least Toyotomi Hideyoshi still needs to fight an overwhelming counter-insurgency war. In other words, even if the Kanto princes are not traitors, , he will definitely use various means to turn this battle into a 'counterinsurgency war'. With his political skills, the Nu family believes that this should not be difficult."
Gao Pragmatic nodded and said, "That makes sense, but what happens next?"
"Don't be impatient, Sir. Don't rush to say 'then'. The slave family has one more thing to add." Liu Xin said: "According to various information from the Sea Trade Alliance, the slave family believes that the other side in this battle is probably Guandong. The most powerful Hojo clan in the region.
Today, all Japan from the west of the Hojo clan has surrendered to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and there are still some people in the east and northeast of the Hojo clan who are only nominally surrendered. However, if the slave family expected it to be true, Toyotomi Hideyoshi would probably use various means before attacking the Hojo clan, including intimidating these daimyo with the scale of the troop dispatch, so that they would either defect or surrender, or at least dare not help the Hojo clan.
In this way, this battle is actually almost an all-Japan crusade against the Hojo clan. However, although the power of the Hojo clan and Toyotomi Hideyoshi is very different, they also have one place where they rely on their strength, and that is Odawara Castle, known as Japan's "the most fortified city in the world". "
"Oh, Odawara Castle..." Gao Jingshi nodded. Liu Xin's words finally brought out Gao Jingshi's memory.
This Odawara Castle is indeed quite famous. Not to mention various historical materials, even when playing games, Gao Pingshi had many impressions of this city.
Gao pragmatically remembered, let's not talk about the historical record of Odawara Castle, let's talk about "this time" Toyotomi Hideyoshi captured Hojo, and the only way to attack Odawara Castle was to engage in a long-term siege - to surround it with more than 200,000 troops. , actually did not dare to attack. The two sides stared at each other for a long time, and it ended only after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's political offensive forced the Hojo clan to commit seppuku in exchange for the "safety" of their retainers.
In other words, this city was not "beaten" in the end, but more like it was obtained by deception.
Of course, Odawara Castle is easy to defend and difficult to attack, but that does not mean that its defense can be compared with that of Constantinople. There is definitely a long way to go between the two. It just means that Toyotomi Hideyoshi is no longer able to attack at this time. We are not willing to waste our troops on such a strong city.
At this time, the two things connected: Toyotomi Hideyoshi had already begun to consider attacking the Ming Dynasty, so he regarded domestic power as his future strength.
At this time, Liu Xin saw that Gao Pangshi did not continue to say anything, so he continued: "Since Odawara Castle is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is known as the most fortified city in Japan, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi needs to show off the dignity of the world, then he can only You can choose to siege a city with a large army. What is the biggest trouble for your side when it comes to sieging a city with a large army? It lies in the supply of military rations.
According to the report of the Maritime Trade Alliance, the road condition from the Gyeonggi region of Japan to Kanto does not seem to be very good. Mr. Guo, you are familiar with Japanese trade. I wonder if the Nu family’s inference is accurate? "
Zhu Yingzhen praised: "It's completely accurate, so if our fleet wants to trade in the Gyeonggi region, it will go to Osaka (it was "Ban" at this time, and later changed to "Han"), but because the trade route between Gyeonggi and Kanto is not smooth, , so we would rather sail eastward to Odawara Castle (this city is about 70 kilometers southwest of later Tokyo, not in Tokyo Bay, but also on the seaside)."
"Thank you for your advice, Duke." Liu Xin nodded slightly towards Zhu Yingzhen, then looked at Gao Pragmatic, and said: "Da Si Nong, this shows that Toyotomi Hideyoshi wants to buy a ship from Beijing, at least for now, mainly to transport grain by sea. .”
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