It seems that with the arrival of Kyoka's twenty No. 3 cannons and four No. 2 cannons, the Shimadzu family's final battle to quell the Shouchi Rebellion is about to break out. But as the saying goes, things are unpredictable, and no one can predict some surprises in advance. of.
For example, Tokugawa Ieyasu's mediation.
Ieyasu had previously supported the Shimazu family in suppressing the rebellion, otherwise he would not have endorsed the legality of Shimazu Tadashi's execution of Tadashi Yinjuin with the order signed by the elders, and personally sent someone to escort Tadashi back to the mansion. But, this time and that time.
When Ieyasu did this, he had three main purposes: first, to win over the Shimazu family; second, to strive for stability in Kyushu; third, to sell Kyoka to gain face - it would not work if he did not sell anyway.
The first point has been mentioned before, so I won’t mention it here.
The second point has actually been mentioned, which is that not far to the north of the Shimazu family's territory is the territory of Konishi Yukino, and Konishi Yukino will obviously not side with Ieyasu. [Note: I got confused in the previous chapter and wrote Yukinaga Konishi as Kato Kiyomasa. Please correct it here. In addition, the description is just confusing, but the location of the territory is not confused. Konishi's territory is north of Shimazu, and further north is Kato. ]
In fact, Tokugawa Ieyasu's strength in Kyushu is very weak. Currently, there are only two big names that he is relatively confident that he can win over: Kato Kiyomasa and Kuroda Nagamasa.
According to the original history, Terasawa Hirotaka, who later joined the Eastern Army, had a territory of 90,000 koku from Karatsu Castle in Hizen Province. However, this incident itself is very strange, because Terasawa Hirotaka has always been on good terms with Konishi Yukinaga, and the two of them They all dislike the style of the dogmatic people. Therefore, many people found it baffling when Hirotaka Terasawa joined the Eastern Army during the Sekigahara War.
In this case, Tokugawa Ieyasu certainly didn't count on Terasawa Hirotaka at the moment. In Ieyasu's eyes, he only had two graspers in Kyushu, namely Kato Kiyomasa and Kuroda Nagamasa. In terms of strength, the forces that favor Ieyasu are obviously at a disadvantage on Kyushu Island, which is why Ieyasu strives to win over the Shimadzu family.
The third point is naturally that Ieyasu cannot afford to offend Kyoka. Since he knew that the Shimadzu family was the first in Japan to build the Kyoka Crystal Building, Kyoka must be behind it, so of course he would not openly suppress Shimadzu. Otherwise, if Gao Pragmatic is dissatisfied, Tokugawa Ieyasu will have a lot of fun.
The Japanese value family names more than lineage, a point that has been emphasized many times before. However, the reason why Tokugawa Ieyasu was willing to give up his position as shogun to Gao Yan, who he adopted as his adopted son, was actually not just for the family name "Tokugawa". He also had his own follow-up plan, and this The plan actually takes pedigree into account, too.
To put it simply, Ieyasu planned to marry his biological daughter to his adopted son.
There are two questions here. The first is whether it is in compliance with the regulations and traditions for a biological daughter to marry an adopted son; the second is whether there is a suitable daughter to marry.
The answer to the first question is yes. Japan during this period, especially the daimyo family, often had similar practices. Of course, the general situation is that the daimyo only has daughters but no sons, so they will consider marrying their daughters to someone and accepting this person as their adopted son to inherit their family name in the future.
Not to mention that this adopted son originally had a foreign surname, even if the adopted son was his own nephew, it was still allowed at this time, and it was very common.
Just give a random example: In the fourth year of Eiroku (161), Takeda Jinzaburo of Horikoshi Castle accepted his word and helped attack Sakuraba Castle at the request of the Nanbu family. Unexpectedly, he died in the battle. Oura was very sad when he learned the news and said: My brother helped the Nanbu family to attack Sakuraba Castle, but he died as a result. He has done so much, so I will support his son well.
Therefore, Oura married his daughter to Oura Nobu (then called Shan) and adopted her as his adopted son. This was considered to comfort his brother's spirit in heaven, and Oura Nobu successfully inherited the position of family governor after Oura's death.
Therefore, it is a normal practice in Japan to adopt an adopted son, then marry the biological daughter to the adopted son, and finally the adopted son will inherit the position of governor of the family. Since it is normal, it is not surprising that Tokugawa Ieyasu would think so.
According to Ieyasu's idea, not only could the "Tokugawa" family name be preserved according to the shogun's family lineage, but also in the next generation, half of the blood of the shogun's family would still be from the Tokugawa family. It was simply the best of both worlds.
As for Gao Yan, who was originally a highly pragmatic concubine with some flaws in the dignity of his status, Tokugawa Ieyasu didn't think the problem was big. After all, although he is a concubine, you still have to look at the identity of his biological father, right?
He is the dignified "Guan Bai" of the Tang Dynasty! Considering that the Tang Dynasty had just defeated Japan not long ago, and with the Japanese's demeanor of "fearing power but not being immoral", the status of "Tang Guanbai" is simply too valuable to express. Then his son, even if he is a bastard, no one in Japan would dare to touch him.
What's more, if Gao Yan is a Tang nationality through and through, Japan's acceptance will be somewhat problematic, but Gao Yan's biological mother is a serious Japanese princess, isn't this the best of both worlds? You know, although the Narita family is not strong, their family status is not low.
I won’t talk about it too early. Let’s just say that during the Muromachi shogunate period, the Narita family was the lineage of the Yamauchi Uesugi family, who was in charge of Kanto. The Yamauchi Uesugi family can be traced back to the son of Uesugi Kenfusa, the uncle of Ashikaga Takauji Naoyoshi’s brother, who served as both Ueno and Koshi. After that, Kenaki Uesugi, who was guarded by Yin Dou... Anyway, to put it simply, the Narita family has a long history and its status is not bad.
To put it bluntly, "Tokugawa" used to be just "Songping", a Miao character (surname) for the bad streets in Mikawa area. Later, Ieyasu himself tried to "organize the family tree" and said that his original "Matsuhira" was the last descendant of the Tokugawa clan, a tributary of the Nitta clan of the Seiwa Gen clan, so he "revisited" it, but changed "Dekawa" to "Tokugawa" Sichuan".
In fact, Ieyasu's "Minamoto courtier" family background is somewhat true, but regardless of whether it is true or not, the imperial court later recognized that "the Tokugawa clan, which originated from the Minamoto clan, has the same status as the branch clan of the Fujiwara clan." Therefore, Tokugawa Ieyasu was different from Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi could not serve as shogun in any case, so he had to create a "palace and martial arts integrated" Toyotomi Gongyi. However, Tokugawa Ieyasu was later able to serve as "the elder of Genji". With his identity, he can easily serve as the general of Zhengyi.
In short, family status is very important, but if you have the means and ability, it is not difficult to find a high-sounding reason to fool you - unless you are like Hideyoshi, everyone knows that he comes from a humble background. Need to find another way.
The high and pragmatic "family character" cannot be defined in Japan, but there is no doubt about their current "international status", and Kafihime's identity is obvious, and her family character is not low.
From this, there was no problem with Gao Yan's earlier status, and when he became the adopted son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, his family status was automatically calculated according to Tokugawa, and he became a "Minamoto courtier", and there was no doubt about it.
The second problem with Ieyasu's plan was his daughter. There is one thing here that is so critical that it can even be said to have changed history.
In the original history, Tokugawa Ieyasu had a daughter named Matsuhime. She was born in 196, which was the 24th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty and the fifth year of Bunroku in Japan (the first year of Keichang). However, she died when she was only two years old.
However, this time, because Ieyasu had a secret connection with Kyoka, Matsuhime received medicine from Kyoka's Edo Crystal House when she fell ill, and then escaped the fate of early death and survived strongly. Now she is almost four years old. Years old.
"Crystal Building" is just another name for the headquarters and branches of several major trading companies in Japan. It is named after the extensive use of transparent glass in these buildings. In fact, in addition to these headquarters and branches, Jinghua Trading Co., Ltd. is an all-encompassing trading body, including medical clinics and drug stores.
The doctors in these medical clinics all graduated from the Jinghua Craftsman Academy Medical School in the capital of the Ming Dynasty. Their medical skills far exceeded many so-called famous doctors in Japan at that time, so Song Ji saved his life.
Gao Xiang was born on September 11, the 23rd year of Wanli reign (19). He was the eldest son of Ji Fei Ji. He was less than one year older than Song Ji, so he was quite suitable in age. Because of this, Tokugawa Ieyasu had already made a plan to "let Matsuhime marry him in the future" when he proposed to adopt Gao Yan as his adopted son.
Now let’s turn our attention back to the Shouchi Rebellion in the Shimazu family. Since Ieyasu had already made all the plans, it stands to reason that he could just wait for the Shimazu family to capture Shonai and kill Yoinjiin Tadama. Why did he step out to mediate again?
The answer is: Ieyasu did not expect that the Shimadzu family would not be able to deal with Tadama Inshuin in half a year, but now he himself had to deal with Kagekatsu Uesugi. There can be no chaos in Kyushu at this time, and he needs the entire Shimazu family to come out and support him.
So, the new question now is: Why did Tokugawa Ieyasu suddenly need to deal with Uesugi Kagekatsu immediately?
According to the general theory of later Japanese historians, Tokugawa Ieyasu's crusade against Uesugi Kagekatsu was because the Uesugi family had established a private territory and had the intention of rebellion. But obviously, how can the problem be so simple!
During the Toyotomi Hideyoshi period, Uesugi Kagekatsu and Tokugawa Ieyasu successively joined the Toyotomi regime, and the two families basically maintained good relations. Because Toyotomi Hideyoshi had instructed before his death, the ministers of Gu Ming got married to each other to strengthen their bonds and worked together to help Toyotomi Hideyori. However, it is now unknown what the specific arrangements of Toyotomi Hideyoshi were, or whether they were implemented.
The only trace that can be traced is that the Uesugi family and the Tokugawa family almost formed a marriage relationship under the guidance of Masuda Nagamori, one of the followers, and it aroused the concern of another minister of life, Terumoto Mori. However, due to the outbreak of the attack on Ishida Mitsunari by Toyotomi's seven generals, the matter was dropped.
Logically speaking, since they almost got married, the relationship between the two families should be quite good, but this is not the case.
After the seven Toyotomi generals attacked Ishida Mitsunari, under the leadership of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Ishida Mitsunari, the only unlucky person in the incident, closed his door to think about his mistakes. This result not only made Terumoto Mori very dissatisfied, but like Terumoto, Uesugi Kagekatsu, who had a good relationship with Ishida Mitsunari, was also affected. Shortly after Ishida Mitsunari was forced to retire, Mori Terumoto had private contact with Uesugi Kagekatsu to be wary of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
However, what is certain is that even at this time, the Uesugi family and the Tokugawa family still maintain a relatively good relationship. Because, Uesugi Kagekatsu did not actively intervene in Tokugawa Ieyasu's step-by-step exclusion of other daimyo who favored Ishida Mitsunari's side.
In general, until late August of this year (the fourth year of Keicho), when Uesugi Kagekatsu returned to Aizu with his chief minister Naoe Kanetsugu, there was no barrier between the Tokugawa and Uesugi families on the surface.
So, why did the relationship between the two families suddenly deteriorate rapidly as soon as they left Kyoto?
First of all, Fujita Nobuyoshi, one of Uesugi Kagekatsu's important ministers, suddenly led his family and retainers to leave the Uesugi family, or in other words, fled the Uesugi family. They ran to Shimono Country (located in Kanto and within Tokugawa Ieyasu's sphere of influence) and sought asylum from Tokugawa Ieyasu;
Then, Hori Naomasa, an important minister of Hori Hideharu, the lord of Kasugayama Castle in Echigo Province, which is located to the west of Aizu, reported to Tokugawa Ieyasu that there were unusual actions in the Uesugi family territory, such as large-scale mobilization for civil engineering works, which seemed to have nefarious intentions.
Did the Uesugi family really have nefarious intentions in carrying out a large amount of civil engineering work? In fact, in the spring of the third year of Uesugi Keicho's reign, he was ordered by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to move from his hometown of Echigo to Aizu. Within half a year, Toyotomi Hideyoshi passed away.
The death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the "man of the world", was naturally a huge event for Japan. As one of the ministers who took care of life, Uesugi Kagekatsu was naturally unable to return to his territory at this critical moment. He and the important minister Naoe Kanetsugu stayed until late August of the fourth year of Keicho, before they had the opportunity to return to the new territory.
According to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's instructions during his lifetime, daimyo could not privately carry out infrastructure construction in their territory without approval. However, considering the above-mentioned situation of the Uesugi family, it was really excusable, so no one pursued it.
On the other hand, Tokugawa Hidetada, the apparent successor of Tokugawa Ieyasu, already knew that the Uesugi family was constructing in the territory in March, and expressed his understanding in a letter to Uesugi Kagekatsu. In other words, the Uesugi family's territorial construction had actually already informed the surrounding areas, and even the Tokugawa family, which did not border the country, knew about it.
More importantly, the so-called report of Hori Naomasa only appeared in the Uesugi family's historical materials, military records, and the famous "Naoe State" in later generations. If there was such a big move, enough to alarm the Hori family, which was more than a hundred kilometers away and did not directly border Aizu, then the daimyo bordering Aizu should also report it, but there is no record of this in the historical materials. .
Therefore, the biggest focus of the conflict between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Uesugi Kagekatsu is obviously not on the issue of construction within the Uesugi family's territory.
There are two real problems. One is related to Fujita Nobuyoshi. After this escaped Uesugi retainer fled to Tokugawa Ieyasu's territory, there was no trace of his movements. The reason why he escaped from the Uesugi family is also confusing. It is generally believed that he was because the Uesugi family at that time was completely controlled by Naoe Kanetsugu and his party. Fujita Nobuyoshi, who was born in a foreign country, was increasingly isolated and eventually left the Uesugi family to seek development.
At the same time, there is also evidence for later generations to infer that after the Battle of Sekigahara, Fujita Nobuyoshi was awarded the title of Ten Thousand Stone Daimyo by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Therefore, some historians concluded that Fujita Nobuyoshi caused Tokugawa Ieyasu to provoke the incident. Only if you have the opportunity to suppress the Uesugi family and make contributions, you will be rewarded.
In other words, these scholars speculate that it was precisely because Fujita Nobuyoshi escaped into Tokugawa Ieyasu's territory in late February that he reported the Uesugi family's inappropriate behavior, giving Tokugawa Ieyasu the opportunity to take action.
Although some scholars believe so, it still needs to be pointed out that the records about Fujita Nobuyoshi, except for the "Naoe form", basically have no sense of existence in history, and his name has basically disappeared from historical materials until It only appeared again in the rewards of the Battle of Guanyuan.
Therefore, whether he reported on the Uesugi family (or was it a false accusation) only appears in the Uesugi family's records, and there is no evidence from other historical materials. It can almost be regarded as an isolated evidence, and logically it should not be accepted.
The second reason is that Uesugi Kagekatsu, as one of the ministers of Gu Ming, still did not go to Beijing in the early spring of the fifth year of Keicho to pay his respects to the lord Toyotomi Hideyori.
In fact, in Kyoto and Osaka at that time, the fact that Uesugi Kagekatsu did not go to Kyoto became a topic as early as early April. For example, on the eighth day of April, Shimazu Yoshihiro once mentioned in a letter to Shimazu Iehisa:
Since Kagekatsu could not go to the capital, Masuda Nagamori and Otani Yoshitsugi tried their best to mediate, but they still returned without any results. Yuna Akitsuna (this person is a Tokugawa retainer) will leave for Oshu on the 4th of this month (meaning to go to Aizu, the home town of Uesugi scenery).
On April 27, Shimazu Yoshihiro mentioned again in his letter to his brother Shimazu Ryūpaku:
In view of the delay of Nagao-sama (meaning Uesugi Kagekatsu) in coming to the capital, (here refers to Tokugawa Ieyasu), after learning about it, he sent Yona Akitsuna as an envoy, together with the envoy sent by the Toyotomi family, and set out from Fushimi on the 10th. Aizu. They are expected to report back to Beijing in June... It is said that the Duke of the Imperial Household (here refers to Tokugawa Ieyasu, in the original history Tokugawa Ieyasu was the inner palace, in this book it is the Zuofu) responded to the content of the answer (here refers to the Uesugi family) , or may personally lead troops to attack.
There are three points worth noting in the contents of the two letters. First, the Uesugi family was blamed for delaying their trip to Beijing. Second, Masuda Nagamori and Otani Yoshitsugi had done some mediation work on this matter before; third, Shimazu Yoshihiro mentioned in the second letter that Tokugawa Ieyasu and the Toyotomi family had jointly sent envoys there Aizu found out.
Regarding the first point, if emotional factors are excluded, Tokugawa Ieyasu is fully qualified to ask Uesugi Kagekatsu, who is apparently at the same level, to come and meet Toyotomi Hideyori in the name of Toyotomi Hideyori. According to the rules of the Wu family at that time, if a minister was slow and did not meet the master on time, it would be regarded as an act of disloyalty. In serious cases, the master and other retainers would regard it as an intentional rebellion and would be besieged.
Excluding the plan behind Tokugawa Ieyasu, we can see simply from Shimazu Yoshihiro's two letters that the lateness was not due to Tokugawa Ieyasu's nervousness. Many samurai at the time also discussed the matter.
As for the third point, it can also be seen that Tokugawa Ieyasu was not the only one who sent envoys about this matter. The Toyotomi regime also sent envoys to question Uesugi Kagekatsu. According to another letter from Shimazu Yoshihiro, it can be known that the person representing the Toyotomi regime was Mori Terumoto, one of the five elders.
This means that Uesugi Kagekatsu's delay in coming to Beijing was indeed not Tokugawa Ieyasu's deliberate attempt to cause trouble, because the Toyotomi regime and another elder who was close to Uesugi Kagekatsu, Mori Terumoto, also recognized the seriousness of the problem. Therefore, this further illustrates that this conflict was not an issue of private territorial construction as later Japanese generals thought at the beginning.
Regarding the construction of Aizu, neither the Tokugawa family nor the daimyo surrounding the Uesugi family have corresponding records. This shows that the behavior of the Uesugi family in the construction area is actually ordinary and there is nothing worth recording. The real reason is that Uesugi Kagekatsu delayed going to Beijing for unknown reasons.
Perhaps from a weather perspective, it is understandable that Uesugi Kagekatsu is worried about the inconvenience of travel due to the heavy snow in Aizu. However, after entering April of the following year, with the arrival of envoys from the Toyotomi regime, heavy snowfall should not continue to be a reason for mountain closures in any case. However, Uesugi Kagekatsu still did not go to Beijing. This caused the Toyotomi regime and Tokugawa Ieyasu to cooperate. An envoy was sent, which eventually triggered Tokugawa Ieyasu to conquer the Aizu-Uesugi family.
In the original history, the reason why Uesugi Kagekatsu refused to come to Beijing has been lost, but now it is different - all the information was quietly collected by Jinghua, and then it was first summarized in the hands of Kaiji in Jiegang, and then passed on by flying pigeons. The book is highly pragmatic.
Therefore, Gao Pragmatic knew the reason why Uesugi Kagekatsu refused to go to Beijing this time.
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