Gao Pragmatic originally did not intend to interrogate the prisoners. After all, in his opinion, the Japanese invaders had no way out under his overall calculation. They would be destroyed sooner or later. Whether or not they saw the prisoners would have no impact at all.
However, an accident happened. Fujido Takatora strongly requested to meet Gao Jingshi through the guarding soldiers, claiming that he had important information to report to Gao Jingshi face to face.
When Gao pragmatic learned the news, his first reaction was "Takatora Todo is selling Hideyoshi." No wonder Gao Pragmatic thinks too much. After all, Todo Takatora's reputation in history is really not very good, especially since he seems to be crucified on the opposite side of "loyalty".
But no matter what, he is still a general in the Japanese army, so it would be nice to say that he has something serious to report. Of course, according to Gao's pragmatic style, you can't fight an unprepared battle, so you need to go through the things about Toudo Takatora in your mind and think about this person first, so that you can "predict people like gods."
[Note: Takatora Toudo’s life is available on Baidu Encyclopedia, so I won’t repeat it here. By default, readers already know it. ]
Gao Pingshi carefully recalled it and discovered that Todo Takatora's infamy was not caused by the uproar at that time, but more than two hundred years after his death, due to the defection of his descendants, which brought him infamy. At that time, people directly criticized the Jin clan for having the "style" of their ancestors, so Todo Takatora was pulled out of the pile of old papers and put on trial.
In fact, although Toudo changed jobs many times, it is reasonable to say that it was a daily "two-way choice" between the Warring States generals and his lord. He actually had no record of defecting on the battlefield. From this point of view, the infamy he received from later generations was probably more fabrication and mudslinging, or at least using the moral standards of later generations to demand the ancients, which obviously cannot be called objective.
And in later generations, due to the network effect, his image was portrayed more deeply. In fact, what is the most criticized thing about him on the Internet? It should be that he finally took refuge with Tokugawa Ieyasu instead of dying for the Toyotomi family.
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic must first consider the relationship between Takatora Toudo, Toyotomi and Tokugawa.
First of all, there is the most practical reason: after Hideyoshi died, Hideyori was young, had a baby, and Asai Chacha had a harem woman, and both mother and son were powerless people in the system arranged before Hideyoshi's death. Theoretically, they have no right to speak, administrative power, personnel power, military power, financial power... none of them.
Hideyoshi, Ishida and others created a system of five elders and five elders. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that the elders are the direct internal affairs team of Toyotomi, but the elders are all in their own way, and the future will definitely be unstable.
The most powerful person at this time was Tokugawa Ieyasu, so in the eyes of many people, Ieyasu was most likely the next "Tenkaren". In this way, Takatora Toudo is just taking sides.
Toyotomi has no descendants, and these retainers are all from the first generation. Todo Takatora is essentially another retainer of the Yamato Toyotomi family who was eliminated by Hideyoshi. Therefore, he stood in line with Tokugawa outside Toyotomi, but he actually had no burden.
As for what happened before Ieyasu's death, the Tokugawa world was already stable. At that time, Todo Takatora took ten thousand steps back and said that it was just a flattery to Tokugawa Ieyasu, but in exchange for the stability of the family for two hundred years.
Just take a look at how many changes the Tokugawa shogunate later made, and how much surveillance and consumption it took, and you will know that Todo Takatora really made the shogunate feel comfortable by photographing Ieyasu like this. How much "commotion" and change is there? However, the Todo Clan's Tsu clan remained safe until the end of the Tokugawa period.
Besides, is it okay if they don’t take pictures? If you don’t shoot, can you say “The tall tiger in Fujitang is my first battle”?
Of course, if that's all it is, it can only prove that Todo's high-ranking officials fall on both sides, but there are others.
As for other things, the first thing that bears the brunt is the relationship between the Toyotomi family and him. Todo Takatora changed jobs many times, but in fact there was only one boss he recognized, not Toyotomi Hideyoshi, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi!
His affection for the Toyotomi family, or what the Japanese call "bond", has always been with Hidenaga. A person who used to cut down his colleagues if they disagreed with each other, but after working with Xiuchang, he no longer cut down his colleagues, but instead tried to maintain a good relationship with everyone.
A man who originally only relied on his martial arts to fight and kill people, in order to serve as the boss of Hideucha, he successfully performed various tasks such as city construction, city and town construction, official negotiations, and even intelligence reconnaissance. If he hadn't been for Hideucha, Why work so hard? Logically speaking, isn't it enough for him to just fight well?
But a problem arose. There was a conflict between the Yamato Toyotomi family (i.e. Hidecho's line) to which he was loyal and the Toyotomi family! This is about the Todo Takayoshi incident.
At first, Hideyoshi wanted to adopt a child from the Niwa family as an adopted son, but Hideyoshi was very unhappy, and the two brothers had a quarrel for a long time. In the end, Takatora Toudo stood up and adopted the matter, which relieved the ongoing conflict between Hideyoshi and Hideyoshi.
After that, Hidenaga adopted Toyotomi Hideho. As a result, Hideho also passed away a few years after Hidenaga's death. At this time, Todo Takatora, who was the chief retainer of the Yamato Toyotomi family and the elder of the Hoshito family, had been making plans for a long time, hoping that Todo (Niwa) Takayoshi would inherit the Yamato Toyotomi family to prevent Hideyoshi from exterminating the family, but Hideyoshi did not allow it.
At this time, Todo Takatora became sad and angry, and ran to become a monk. Later, Hideyoshi gave him a great name, but he was actually brought back by force.
How should I put it? After all, he is the elder of the Toyotomi branch family. He has good abilities and good popularity. Such a loss of talent is indeed a bit shameful for the Toyotomi family.
Although Hideyoshi really had a hard time talking about his retainers, it is impossible for Todo Takatora to be completely unaware of Hideyoshi's employment style. So here is a very practical question: If Hideyoshi was really annoyed and asked Todo Takatora to commit seppuku, could he refuse?
Three months after Hideho's death, the Hidetsu incident also broke out. Gao Mingshi saw in the documentary that year that Todo Takatora parted ways with the Toyotomi system because "it used to be the central government, but now it is the local leader of the country." Therefore, the stance is different and the thinking has changed.
This may make sense, but it can be understood in reverse: he used to be a retainer of the "Toyotomi branch family, Yamato Toyotomi family", so of course he had to do his best for Toyotomi. But later this branch of the family was canceled by the Zong family and the heirs were extinct. What should we do?
Sorry, then I will naturally become a free man. I should be busy with my own life. Why should I be loyal to "Toyotomi"? My master's family is the Yamato Toyotomi family, and the master is Hidecho, not you Hideyoshi. Xiuchang Juehe, if you refuse to let Gao Ji adopt you, then of course I will have no one to be loyal to.
Finally, Gao pragmatically thought about the relationship between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Todo Takatora.
It is almost impossible for a foreigner to be trusted by three Tokugawa generations throughout his life. Don't say that Yin Da Zhengzong and him are "two beautiful people", this is a joke.
Did Masamune Yin make any small moves against Hideyoshi? Of course, Kasai and Osaki Ikku are the same! Did you do anything small to Ieyasu? Of course there are, and the same goes for Yikui in the Nanfang clan! There were even rumors that "Yinda united with Okubo Chang'an and borrowed the power of Spain to support Tadaki"... So Ieyasu has been keeping a close eye on Masamune.
And Toudo Takatora is so trusted, which means that this person at least has no record of "disloyalty" in the first place, otherwise it would be strange that Ieyasu could not guard against him.
It is said that Takatora Toudo is "a master-switching maniac", but Tokugawa Ieyasu really has no grudges or worries in this regard. Even Takatora Toudo, as an outsider, actually mastered the power of ninja in the later period. It was enough to show that Ieyasu recognized his loyalty and character.
As the actual ruler, the loyalty and character that Ieyasu can recognize are definitely not the irony of the "owner-changing maniacs" on the Internet, nor are they "the old turtle who bullies orphans and widowed mothers recognizes traitors. This is just the same thing."
If Takatora Toudo is like this, Ieyasu will have to consider whether Hidetada or even Iemitsu can handle him in the future, and then he will definitely be killed by means of commotion and changing the one-stop method. But Ieyasu recognized him and gave him extraordinary trust and power.
After thinking about Todo Takatora's relationship with important figures in the main factions, Gao Pragmatic also thought about the issue of interests.
Toudo Takatora was originally the patriarch of the family with 20,000 shi. Later, after Hideyoshi was eliminated from the clan, he was granted an additional 50,000 shi by Hideyoshi, reaching a fief of 70,000 shi. But this has a prerequisite. The lord Toyotomi Hidenaga, who was kind to him, originally had Yamato, Jiyin, and Izumi's territory totaling millions of koku - so if Takatora Toudo didn't object to this incident, it would be a good idea to take advantage of him. En's master's family's territory and family name amounted to one million yuan, and he was given a title of fifty thousand in exchange for himself.
But Takatora Toudo objected. He first wanted Takayoshi to change his position. After Hideyoshi objected, he even ran to become a monk.
Even if we have to look at him from a "mercenary" perspective, after the death of his old master, as the family elder who assists the young master Zuo, his influence and actual power are much greater than that of the Seven Thousand Stone Daimyo.
You know, the chief daimyo of a million koku and the elder of the pentou family are no less generous than daimyo of less than one hundred thousand koku. For example, the Tohoku daimyo Tsugaru Nobubu was humiliated by the elder of the Maeda family's pentou family Nagafuku Okumura.
So no matter how you calculate it, whether it's feelings or interests, Takatora Toudo will always suffer. How could Hideyoshi want him to be loyal and bury him for the Toyotomi family after he suffered such a big loss? How could this be possible?
You must know that during the Warring States Period in Japan, no one desperately promoted the idea of loyalty to the master - that was something that was promoted during the Edo period of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Thinking of this, Gao Pingshi began to vaguely guess what Todo Takatora wanted to do.
He has no loyalty to Toyotomi Hideyoshi at all! Not to mention loyalty, he might even hate Hideyoshi, thinking that Hideyoshi was extremely mean and ungrateful for taking away the territory and family name that originally belonged to Hideyoshi.
This was a bit interesting. Gao Pragmatic immediately became interested and ordered Takatora Todo to be brought here. Not long after, Todo Takatora, who was tightly tied up, was brought to Gao Pangshi's tent.
Gao Jingshi was stunned when he first saw this man - not because he was tied like a rice dumpling, but because this man seemed to be a little taller than Gao Ge Lao.
This is an exaggeration. Gao Qingshi's height was measured by the standards of later generations, but he was a little over 1.8 meters tall. What was the average height of the Japanese at this time? However, Takatora Toudo looks like he may be 1.9 meters tall. Isn't this a complete giant in Japan? No wonder this guy is always taken in. His height alone makes people have to take a high look.
It seemed that Takatora Todo might recognize the red silk python robe worn by Gao Jingshi. When he saw the latter, his eyes lit up and he said loudly: "Is this how the dignified prime minister treats guests?"
Gao Pingshi was happy when he heard this. Takatora Toudo's Chinese could only be barely understood. His accent was very strong and he had to slow down his speaking speed. Compared with the previous Shimazu Toku, it was much worse. Too much. And what he said was somewhat interesting. It seemed to be following the style of some Chinese novels in the past dynasties, using "rituals" to compete with high pragmatism.
"How to treat guests?" Gao Pingshi smiled slightly and replied calmly: "Todo Gaohu, are you a guest?"
Todo Takatora was startled, as if he didn't expect Gao Pingshi's reaction, but he quickly reacted and said: "It may not have been the case originally, but it may not be the case in the future."
It seems that Takatora Toudo is still a samurai at heart. He is not particularly good at beating around the bush. He wants to get things started as soon as he opens his mouth and doesn't like to do "useless work".
Gao Pangshi felt confident, raised his eyebrows slightly, and asked: "After our cabinet regains Busan and crosses the sea to defeat Toyotomi, you will be captured by the capital, and maybe you will become a corner of the capital. This is you. Are you talking about the future?"
Todo Takatora smiled and said: "The Prime Minister can naturally do this, but this is by no means the best way to deal with it. Prime Minister, I, Todo Takatora, am confident that I can be of great use to you - especially if you really want to defeat Toyotomi."
"Oh?" Gao Pragmatic smiled indifferently: "Why do you see that?"
Todo Takatora raised his chin slightly and said, "Osaka Castle was built by me."
Gao Pragmatic was slightly startled: "Are you talking about the Toyotomi family's Osaka Castle?"
"Exactly. Is there a second Osaka Castle in the world?"
This somewhat surprised Gao Pingshi, because in his impression, although Takatora Toudo did build Osaka Castle, he seemed to be talking about rebuilding Osaka Castle during the Tokugawa Shogunate era! Could it be that he was also responsible for the first construction of Osaka Castle during the Toyotomi era?
But after thinking about it, Gao Pragmatic believed it again, because just a little inquiry could tell that Todo Takatora would not lie about this kind of thing.
Besides, Takatora Toudo was indeed the leading city-building expert in Japan in this era, and he was already a retainer of Toyotomi Hidenaga at the time. It is not surprising that Hideyoshi ordered him to preside over the construction of Osaka Castle.
Gao Pragmatic This is a manifestation of his emphasis on politics, military and economics when he was studying history, and less on other parts, so that he can't remember exactly what cities Todo Takatora built.
In fact, Todo Takatora successively built his own castles, such as Saruoka Castle, Uwajima Castle, Osu Castle, Imabari Castle, Omishima Agasaki Castle, Yinga Ueno Castle, Tsu Castle, etc.; under the Toyotomi regime, Yamato Koriyama was built Castle, Osaka Castle, and Wakayama Castle; under the Tokugawa regime, Edo Castle, Sasayama Castle, and Zensho Castle were built; and Fushimi Castle, Tanba Kameyama Castle, Yodo Castle, Osaka Castle, etc. were built.
Judging from these achievements, it is probably not an exaggeration to say that he is the number one fortification master in Japan today.
"It seems that you are indeed of some use." Gao Pingshi smiled slightly: "But this is not enough - you have also seen the artillery fire of our Heavenly Soldiers. No matter how strong Osaka City is, the Heavenly Soldiers will always collapse one day. "
Todo Takatora smiled and said: "I am not only useful for this, but..." He said and looked down at the rope on his body.
Gao pragmatic also smiled and waved his hand: "Come here, please loosen the bonds of General Todo."
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PS: I came back from my hometown last night, but there was still a traffic jam and I was late, so I took a nap before finishing this chapter. This chapter is still from yesterday and will not affect today’s updates.
