Gao Jingshi not only knew the reason why Uesugi Kagekatsu refused to go to Beijing this time, but it should even be said that Gao Jingshi personally gave him the reason. On the contrary, Kaiji didn't know the process, because the process of this matter did not go through Kaiji - the matter was handled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
There is no need to elaborate on this matter. To put it simply, among the dozens of craftsmen sent to Japan by Jinghua in the early years, they were naturally placed in a prestigious family like the Uesugi family.
Among them is a man named Kashiwahara Munashi, who has become the Otsutsubo Shogyo of the Uesugi family. He is a very talkative presence in the Uesugi family - Otsutsuki is the Japanese term for artillery, so "Otsutsubo Shogyo" as the name suggests. The person in charge of the Uesugi family's artillery.
How Kashiwahara Munashi managed to get such an important position over the years will not be discussed here, but it will be said that his main work for the Uesugi family over the years was to accumulate artillery and train gunners. This artillery training technique was naturally brought back from the Ming Dynasty. Needless to say, the main thing he could teach was aiming. He didn't understand other things like concentrated firepower.
What I want to talk about now is "accumulate artillery." Japan is now able to manufacture high-quality matchlock guns, also known as "Japanese iron cannons", but for real artillery, that is, large barrels, they lack manufacturing capabilities and can only obtain them through other means. This "other way" was through the so-called "Southern Barbarian Trade" in the early years, that is, doing business with the Spanish and Portuguese.
However, since Jinghua has basically monopolized Japanese trade, the number of businessmen from Spain and Portugal who continue to go to Japan to do business has dropped sharply - after all, even if you go, Jinghua will charge you a toll, and the profit margin has been greatly reduced, so it is not as good as The direct trade between Nanyang and Jinghua saves a lot of trouble and the profits are not less, so why go north to Japan?
As a result, there are only some missionaries left in Japan and hoping that Japan will escape.
There is no need to do Nanman trade, and there is no doubt that the only source of Japanese artillery is the Ming Dynasty. As mentioned before, there were people in the Ming Dynasty who quietly smuggled firearms to Japan. Not only were Jiangnan sea merchants willing to make this money, but even the princes and marquis within the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance had previously sold a batch of retired artillery pieces to Japan. It was only after the war to aid Korea broke out that Gao Gao Pragmatically, the war was stopped on the grounds that the war could not be funded by the enemy.
It was not only Jinghua's artillery sales to Japan that were stopped, but also the smuggling of artillery by Jiangnan maritime merchants was strictly controlled. There is one thing to say here: Jiangnan maritime merchants will not be stupid enough to sell finished artillery directly. This is too easy to be caught by Jinghua.
They have always split the artillery into the smallest components as much as possible, sent them to Japan in different batches, and then assembled the artillery in the local chamber of commerce they established in Japan, and finally contacted the buyer to deliver the goods. payment.
These days, it is impossible for Jinghua to open and inspect the goods transported by every ship one by one, so it is difficult for Jinghua to catch such a delivery method.
However, "difficult" is mainly because it is uneconomical in terms of cost. It does not mean that Jinghua cannot conduct a thorough inspection when it must inspect it. It just needs to send more manpower and increase the workload. After Gao Pragmatic insisted on strictly controlling the flow of artillery into Japan, it became extremely difficult for Japan to obtain artillery.
At this time, Kashiwahara Munashi had the opportunity to show his abilities to the Uesugi family: he could still get artillery for the Uesugi family from time to time. Although these artillery pieces appear to be of average quality and are often only Kyoka's No. 4 cannons, or at most No. 3 cannons, they are also extremely precious to the Uesugi family.
As a result, Kashiwahara Munashi's status in the Uesugi family has continued to rise. Although he will definitely not be able to become the family elder with his status and qualifications as a new member of the Uesugi family, it does not affect his increasing importance in the Uesugi family.
Everyone in the Uesugi family knew that Kashiwahara Munashi was able to obtain artillery because of the connections he established when he was a general in the Ming Dynasty. After all, according to Kashiwahara Munashi himself, his former master, General Liu Wei, was the "Ming Dynasty general". Guan Bai is an important general under Gao Pragmatic. With General Liu's reputation, it seems natural that getting some artillery won't be a problem.
The above can be regarded as the premise of being highly pragmatic and giving Uesugi Kagekatsu a reason not to return to Kyoto. And just after Uesugi Kagekatsu returned to Aizu, Kashiwahara Munashi immediately reported to him a "major event of concern to the world."
Kashiwahara Munashi said that he had learned about an extremely important conspiracy from Jinghua: Tokugawa Ieyasu had won the support of Jinghua and wanted to "unify internal and external affairs" to usurp Toyotomi's legacy. Specifically, he recruited a group of people from the Toyotomi family internally, and then defeated a group of people who disobeyed him by force, and then took over the identity of "people of the world", abolished the Toyotomi public ceremony that integrated public and military affairs, and established a new shogunate by him .
Of course, this alone is not enough. Because if that's all, the Uesugi family is a super famous family worth 1.2 million koku, and they have the capital to directly surrender to Tokugawa and continue to maintain the family name.
Therefore, Kashiwahara Munashi went on to say that Tokugawa Ieyasu had already made his plans known to Kyouka. Unfortunately, the attitude towards the Uesugi family is that this domain is one of the Toyotomi clans that surrounds the Tokugawa clan on three sides. It has the highest status and the strongest strength and must be completely eradicated.
Uesugi Kagekatsu was shocked when he learned that, and after analysis, Naoe Kanetsugu and other important retainers also believed that if Tokugawa Ieyasu really had the intention to subvert the world, then it would indeed make sense to eradicate the Uesugi clan as the first priority. In this case, how could Uesugi Kagekatsu dare to return to Beijing? Of course, the first priority is to consolidate territory and prepare for war.
Two flowers bloom, one on each side. At this point, it’s time to turn our attention back to Tokugawa Ieyasu and see his next performance.
Tokugawa Ieyasu had used the rumor secretly spread by Ishida Mitsunari to speed up his visit to Osaka Castle, and soon entered Osaka Castle while the Osaka ministers were in a hurry and at a loss as to what to do.
Not long after Tokugawa Ieyasu entered the city, he built a solemn castle tower in the west garden of Osaka Castle. Although it cannot be compared with the main castle tower in the city, as the residence of Shaojun's regent, it is still somewhat luxurious.
With the approval of the late Taikaku, Ieyasu, who was the most powerful in the world, became an important minister. It is undeniable that the two castle towers in the same castle are far apart from each other. Ieyasu also wanted to show his majesty to the great names in the world. He seems to be saying that if anyone is dissatisfied, Tokugawa Ieyasu is willing to fight with them...
In fact, ever since Ieyasu moved into Xiyuan, he had no scruples and regarded himself as a citizen of the world. He first exiled Hijikata Kawauchi Morihisa and Ohno Hideaki to Hitachi, and then asked Asano Nagamasa to return to Kai to think about it. This time he deliberately created the illusion that he was going to attack the Maeda family in order to force the Toshi brothers to surrender.
Needless to say, Asano Nagamasa, the world once said that the Toshinaga brothers would never beg for mercy from Ieyasu, but since the Maeda family elder Yokoyama Yamashiro Chief Warden and Ieyasu apologized, the situation has changed drastically.
Ieyasu actually ordered Yokoyama Nagawa to send Yoshunin, the mother of the Toshinaga brothers, to Edo as a pledge. This request shocked Masuda, Nagasuke and others. Although there had been precedents of the late Taikaku holding hostages in Osaka before, it had never happened before that a daimyo with such a high status was held hostage in his own territory.
In this case, doesn't it mean that the Toshinaga brothers surrendered to Ieyasu? Ieyasu might have already seen through that Maeda would not agree, so he deliberately provoked him.
However, just as rumors were spreading, the Maeda family agreed to hand over the hostages, and the world was once again stunned.
Yoshiharuin—that is, Mrs. Asatsu's explanation for this is: "There is a precedent for this matter. Lord Asano has handed over his son to Edo. After the battle of Komaki Nagakute, the great government office also went to Okazaki as a hostage. As long as it is For the sake of peace in the world, I am just an old woman, so there is nothing to be afraid of."
For this almost difficult request, the entire Maeda family was in a commotion. In order to quell the dissatisfaction at home, Maeda Tosunaga acted completely secretly. First, Murai Bungo and Yamazaki Anfang sent Hoshunin to Osaka, and then from Osaka to Edo. Toshimasa was even more heartbroken than his elder brother, and said in tears: "Sending my mother to Edo as a hostage is tantamount to the decline of the family and surrendering to two masters..."
In fact, behind the profound righteousness of Hoshunin, there is also Kodaiin [Note: Hideyoshi’s main wife, Ningning. ] a huge effort. Kodaiin is committed to inheriting Hideyoshi's legacy and taking "eternal peace in the world" as its mission. But fortunately, this incident did not cause uproar.
Even though he knew that the Maeda family had no rebellious intentions, Ieyasu still deliberately made things difficult for the Maeda brothers, which seemed very unkind. However, after the hostage incident, Ieyasu immediately betrothed Hidetada's second daughter to his younger brother, Toshimashi, who wanted to inherit the Maeda family business.
This woman is Chiki's sister who is already engaged to Hideyori. Therefore, if the world is stable, Hideyori and Totsunegi will become brothers-in-law, and the three families of Toyotomi, Tokugawa, and Maeda will be inextricably linked by marriage. Although this was just a political marriage, it seemed that Ieyasu was grateful for the attitude of the late Dai Nagen Maeda Toshiie before his death. In short, the dispute between Tokugawa and Maeda can be said to have been settled.
Next came the Mori family and the Uesugi family. From Ieyasu's point of view, once Mori and Uesugi become his allies, then Ishida Mitsunari will have to obey orders obediently, and the war in Japan will be extinguished before it is ignited - unless Kyoka personally ends up, who can deal with him at that time? ?
Ieyasu has some ideas about these. However, not everyone can understand his approach. For example, since Terumoto Mori returned to his territory last year, he has ignored it and has frequently contacted Uesugi Kagekatsu of Aizu, asking about Ou's situation, or informing Uesugi of the court. dynamic……
The administrative castle of Uesugi Kagekatsu was originally Kasugayama Castle in Echigo, but was later transferred to Aizu in the first month of the year when Toyotomi Hideyoshi died. What considerations did Hideyoshi have in transferring the title of King Kage to Aizu with 1,219,000 koku? The reason is very obvious.
Seeing that after moving to Kanto, the Tokugawa family achieved great success in controlling floods. In less than ten years, the stone height was raised to 2.5 million koku. The entire Kanto area was prospering. Wasn't Toyotomi Hideyoshi nervous? He had arranged to surround the Tokugawa family on three sides in his early years. Now the remaining two sides seemed not to be a big problem, but it seemed that the suppression power from the north was becoming less and less.
This is mainly because after the death of the Kamo clan, the Kamo clan suppressed the Tokugawa family from the north and was actually bankrupt. Therefore, Hideyoshi moved the Uesugi clan, who had been famous for his martial arts since Kenshin, to Aizu and asked him to monitor the movements of Edo. Jing Sheng, Ieyasu and Mitsunari all knew the importance of this arrangement, and they could not forget it.
Unexpectedly, in August of the third year of Keicho, Jing Sheng received a letter that Hideyoshi was critically ill, so he went to the capital and stayed there until August of the following year, not returning to Xinling for a whole year. Therefore, after returning, he immediately immersed himself in tedious matters such as repairing the city and preparing roads. Ieyasu is quite aware of all this. However, Ieyasu has not fully grasped how Jing Sheng views the general trend of the world and what actions he will take.
Ieyasu still doesn't know what Uesugi Kagekatsu's thoughts are regarding the current internal struggle between the Dogmatist faction and the Adherent faction, Ieyasu's possible creation of a shogunate, and various development possibilities.
Ieyasu keeps in touch with Kagekatsu, which is actually a test. In this sense, Maeda Toshinaga, who showed weakness to Ieyasu under the persuasion of his mother Yoshunin, finally passed Ieyasu's test.
After frequent contacts, Ieyasu finally had a good opportunity to test Jingsheng.
In the first month of the fifth year of Keicho, Tozawa Masamori, the son-in-law of Torii Motada and the lord of Dewa Kakunodate Castle, sent someone to report to Ieyasu: "Uesugi Nakaton and Ie Lao Naoe Yamashiro Kanetsu not only conspired to overhaul many castles in the territory, but also In the name of the fact that Aizu, the city where the Ashina family had lived for several generations, was located in a depression and was easy to attack and difficult to defend, a new city was built at Kamisashihara, sixty-four miles away from the city."
Almost at the same time, Hideharu, the governor of Horizaemon who had been transferred to Echigo, Uesugi's old territory, also came to report that Kagekatsu seemed to be rebellious. It turned out that before transferring the title to Aizu, Kagekatsu collected taxes from Echigo for half a year in advance. As a result, Hori Hideharu, who was transferred to the title, was in trouble.
The resentful Hori Hideharu reported to Ieyasu: Kagekatsu seems to have spent all the taxes collected on building a new city, renovating Echigo official roads, repairing river docks, etc. There are even rumors that Uesugi Kagekatsu secretly built a large tube army. (artillery).
Ieyasu was neither surprised nor angry when he heard the secret report from Tozawa Masamori and Hori Hideharu. As we all know, rectifying armaments is the first priority that a military commander must do after taking office. The reason for collecting annual taxes in advance is because the Kamamo clan who was transferred from Aizu to Utsunomiya collected taxes in advance. Kagekatsu had no choice but to do it. It wasn't these trivial things that Ieyasu was worried about.
In early March of the fifth year of Qingchang, the snow in the northern country melted and the cherry blossoms were in bud.
"One million two hundred thousand koku...can Uesugi Kagekatsu, who owns such a huge territory, understand that everything I do is just to maintain a peaceful and prosperous age for Japan? Does he really have such foresight?" Ieyasu often asked himself.
A narrow-minded person who is obsessed with showing off his high official position, generous salary and strong military force will become the source of riots. Now, not only is Uesugi Kagekatsu's character beyond Ieyasu's ability to judge, but there is also a shadow that always hangs over Japan: Kyoka.
Jinghua's purpose is to have Japan fight a civil war first, and only after the veterans of both sides are exhausted, Jinghua will come out to "pacify the world", and then "support" Tokugawa Ieyasu to become the shogun with an attitude that is almost a reward. Because of this, all Japanese talents had no strength to say no to Kyoka, and the Tokugawa family even had to express gratitude and thank Kyoka for granting him the position of shogun.
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Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
(End of chapter)
