Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 105 Fortification of Osaka
Hideyoshi, who had won both military and political victories, was already swollen to the extreme. He always remembered the hexagrams that the monk had made for him when Himeji raised his troops. Therefore, even after the Cheongju Conference, Hideyoshi never returned to Himeji.

Although Hideyoshi temporarily used the Nijo Castle of the Ashikaga family as his base, but as the news of Hideyoshi's victory over the Shibata Katsuya spread to the West Country, Kobayakawa Takakage ordered Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who had taken refuge in the Mori family, to be sent to ( tied) to Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi, who was born as a farmer, was still in awe of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the emperor, and the ministers at this time. Hideyoshi ordered people to clean up Nijo Castle and make it the residence of Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

Hideyoshi, who has lost his residence here, urgently needs to choose a new place as his residence. At this time, Hideyoshi’s mentality has changed. He thinks that he has replaced Nobunaga, so he needs to build a city that is far beyond the scale of Nobunaga. giant city.

In the end, Hideyoshi decided to build a castle in Kosaka under Qian Zongyi's suggestion.

Osaka, formerly known as Kosaka Village, was originally a farm in Tosei County, Settsu. Venerable Lianju preached here and taught the establishment of Shishan Honganji Temple.

Hideyoshi's baby name is Hiyoshi. Legend has it that Hideyoshi's mother dreamed that the sun flew into her belly and was diagnosed with pregnancy by a doctor the next day.

In Hideyoshi's opinion, "Kosaka" is definitely not a name worthy of his name, so he renamed the "Kosaka" area where Ishiyama Honganji is located to Osaka.

The geographical location of Osaka is indeed incomparable. It is on the side of Kyoto, which is convenient for Hideyoshi to establish a good relationship with the government. At the same time, it stands above Sakai Town. Hideyoshi builds a city here and can supervise the most important trading port in Kinki nearby.

Osaka is surrounded by rivers and open terrain. It is located on the main road of sea and land transportation, extending in all directions. It is surrounded by Hanoi and Settsu mountains. It is very safe. It is indeed the best stronghold for people in the world.

In the eighth year of Tianzheng (1580), Hongan Temple Xianru Kaesong surrendered, but his son Jiaoru refused to leave the Shishan Hongan Temple, and he was about to go to Xinchang to kill him. Finally, under the threat of Xianru passing the throne to his second son , chose to leave Osaka.

But before Jiaoru left, he set a big fire and burned down all the walls of Ishiyama Honganji Temple.When Nobunaga controlled Ishiyama Honganji Temple, he considered that it was an important city for controlling Sakai, so he built it on the basis of Ishiyama Honganji Temple.

After the Cheongju Conference, Hideyoshi handed over Settsu to Ikeda Hengxing, and Ikeda Hengxing got Osaka. He also saw the geographical advantages of Osaka, continued to repair the Osaka Castle built by Nobunaga, and prepared to move from Arioka Go to Osaka as the base city, and now the city is quite large.

In the end, under Hideyoshi's kindness and power, Ikeda Hengxing accepted the transfer request of 60 koku of Mino Quanling Kao Zhang Niwa County in the name of rewarding him for his meritorious service against Shibata Katsuie.

As compensation for Oda Nobuo, Hideyoshi compensated Oda Nobuo with 10 koku around Nagashima in the northern part of Ise;

In this way, Hideyoshi completely controlled all the lands from Hoki to Omi, Izumi, and Yamato, and actually directly controlled Tajima, Inaba, Harima, Tamba, Yamashiro, Settsu, Yamato, Izumi, and Hanoi. .

Hideyoshi himself was good at building castles under Nobunaga. Both Sumata Castle and Nagahama Castle were built by Hideyoshi. Later, when Takamatsu blocked the dam and flooded Takamatsu, it took only 10 days to complete it, which others could not complete in months. feat.

Coupled with the fact that Hideyoshi has Kuroda Kanbei, a famous fort builder, as a reference, Hideyoshi has a well-thought-out plan for the expansion of Osaka Castle.

On the second day after Ikeda Hengxing transferred to Gifu, Hideyoshi took his own horses and officers and soldiers with Kuroda to Osaka to survey the terrain. I stayed in Beizhizhuang City to sort out the new collar, so I didn't come here.

From May 11, the 30th year of Tensho (around mid-July 1583 AD), Hideyoshi recruited peasants from all over the country, looking for large and small stones, and transported them to Osaka by sea and land. On September 7 in the Western calendar, Osaka Castle officially started. start work.

Osaka during the Hideyoshi period was by no means what it looked like after the reconstruction of the Tokugawa shogunate, let alone the Osaka Castle with reinforced concrete buildings. When describing the fortification of Osaka, Yuki Omura wrote:
The construction of Osaka Castle, which has just started, begins with the low foundation of the castle tower.It is so tall, square and octagonal, just like a white jade screen.Although a good craftsman holds the ink rope and uses the axe, it is nothing more than that.More than [-] people were scattered among nearby countries and far away villages, and stone cubes of all sizes were transported by land and water, like ants entering an anthill (die).It is indeed a marvelous masterpiece of ancient and modern times, shocking the whole world.

Hideyoshi designed an unprecedented eight-story castle tower for Osaka Castle, and the tiles must be pasted with gold leaf, embellishing Osaka Castle with splendor.The scale of its castle and moat is also unprecedented, which fully highlights Hashiba Hideyoshi's momentum of swallowing mountains and rivers, and shows Hideyoshi's ambition.

Although Hideyoshi insisted on the grandeur of Osaka's design, the construction speed was very fast. After only one and a half years, the Honmaru in Osaka was basically completed.

According to the report of Louis Floys, a Westerner who witnessed the scene at that time: "The houses of 40 families were built in about 7000 days, and 5 people worked at the same time. And those who lived in nearby Sakai and plains, etc. Merchants were also moved here, and samurai residences were built, forming a prosperous castle town."

Hideyoshi also selected the best materials. The stones used to build the castle tower are all huge stones with a width of 6.4 meters and a height of 4.5 meters. There are 32 stacks including the foundation.

When building the Honmaru, in order to ensure that it will not be eroded by the Mizubori River, although the stone wall used slightly smaller stones, it still stacked as many as 46 stacks.

It is said that during the Battle of Osaka, Tokugawa Ieyasu used the Nanban cannon to bombard Osaka Castle. The projectiles from the 6-pound cannon could not hurt Ishigaki at all.

Until later generations, people could not explain where Hideyoshi got so much granite to build Osaka. Even in the Edo period of the Tokugawa shogunate, the stones used were not as good as Osaka.

While Hideyoshi was building the city of Osaka, the retainers finally waited for the belated award. Hideyoshi repeated his old tricks on this award, including Nakagawa Kiyohide and others on the list of his servants. Default is selected.

The final rewards are as follows: Kiyohide Nakagawa was entrusted by Yamato Otsu to the two prefectures of Yamato and Kagami, and led the 8 koku of Yamato-gun Mountain Castle, which became the barrier of Osaka.

Sealed his brother-in-law Asano Nagamasa in Settsu Takatsuki Castle for 8 koku, Miyoshi Hideji in Arioka Castle for 8 koku, and Kato Koyasu led Ibaraki Castle for 6 koku, making them a barrier to protect Osaka.

In addition, Hideyoshi transferred Hachiya Takayori to Kaga Kunohmi County, and took 7 koku of Komatsu Castle, and Wada Gishi Castle, which is the 10 koku of the Izumi area, was handed over to Hori Hidemasa, who was heavily used by Hideyoshi, and Hori Hidemasa became Izumi. King.

He also made arrangements for his hometown Hideyoshi. He added Masakatsu Hachisuka as the lord of Miki Castle, possessed 10 koku of Harima, and supervised Harima on his behalf.

Among the seven guns of Jianyue, except Masanori Fukushima, who was granted an additional 5000 shi, the other six were awarded an additional 3000 shi.

Although all the hard and difficult battles of Jianyue were fought by the Xiu family, these people just chased down the rout soldiers and harvested the heads of a few deserters who lost their resistance.

But Hideyoshi, out of the need to strengthen his reputation, still pulled out the seven of them as models, and rewarded them generously, in an attempt to dilute Hideyoshi's achievements in this battle by rewarding them.

Of course, it was for the purpose of appeasing Hideka, and at the same time, because Hideka quickly changed his seal name after accepting the characters of Hashiba Miao; and he called himself Hashiba Hideka in public many times; let others call him Major General Hashiba , won the affirmation of Hideyoshi.

In the end, Hideyoshi added Zhixing to the Hide family, and gave the Hide family the 5.5 stone seals from the two counties of Sayo and Ako that the Hide family had used in exchange for Fujido Takatora.

So far, even though the Hideo family has not conquered Sanuki, they have acquired a territory of 70 koku, becoming the most powerful daimyo in Hashiba's family.

(End of this chapter)