Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 503 Lizheng entered the Yancheng Fan, Date humbly asked for forgiveness

In fact, Xiujia respected the choices of allies, just like when Xiujia proposed to Xiuzhen to transfer her to Aizu but he refused, Xiujia didn't say much.

It's just that Xiuzhen has learned from the past not long ago, and now Sakuma Shengzheng rejected his proposal so eloquently, which made Xiujia angry with other ideas.

Therefore, Xiujia still persuaded him, "I will support you no matter what decision you make, but if you don't make the preparations in advance, Guanbaidian really has the idea of ​​entrusting the Dafan in Kaga, and your Kanazawa will definitely be forced to let you go." out."

Sakuma Shengzheng expressed his understanding of this point mentioned by Xiujia, but he still said, "I understand that the right general cares about me, but multiple transfers in a short period of time are really easy to cause instability in the retainer group. If His Highness Guan Bai If you want me to transfer the seal intentionally, then I can only obey in principle.”

Seeing Sakuma Shengzheng being so decisive, Hideka could only follow his decision.

The Xiu family didn't want to stay here for a long time, but seeing that Sakuma Shengzheng was unwilling to transfer the title, and Xiuci regarded himself as a tiger, the Xiu family stopped staying here, and directly bid farewell to Xiuci and left.

Not long after returning to Odawara from Kururi Castle, Hideka originally wanted to go back to Odawara Castle, but heard that Hideyoshi had set off for Utsunomiya, so he gave up the waterway and planned to go north by land, so as to inspect the territory he arrived at in the future along the way. I have a plan in mind.

In the simplest terms, Hideka intends to refer to the operation of Tokyo in later generations, and build three foreign trade ports along Edo Bay, Chiba, Yokohama, and Edo.

Because Yokohama is located in Sagami, it is closer to Chichibu Iron Mountain and Chichibu Jinshan behind it. You can refer to Nasafune Town to build an armament casting town here. As for the water conservancy required by the water section machine, you can use the nearby Tsurumi River and the Nitamagawa River. build.

As for Edo, it will be a distribution center for commodity trade. The Arakawa and Sumida Rivers flow through here, and there can be sufficient exchanges with Hideka's main city, Iwasuke Castle.

From now on, the relationship between Edo Castle and Iwafu Castle will be like the relationship between Beijing and Tianjin in later generations. If the conditions are ripe, the Hide family would not mind moving the city south to Edo.

As for Chiba Minato, Hideka's positioning is a bit embarrassing. This place will only be developed as an ordinary port town. It is the connection point between the upper and lower districts, and it is also an important port for the two places.

However, with the completion of Edo Minato, most of the supplies of Shangso and Musashi will be landed from here and sold to various places.

Always rely on the Ichikawa waterway, and also transit at Kofudai in the west of Edo, or transit in Choshi (diao four tone) in the southeast of Kamiso, and transport them to Shimono, Hitachi, and Kamiso via the Tone River.

Therefore, the main purpose of Chiba Minato is not to provide trade, but to serve as the exclusive wharf for the Iyo Copper Mine and Ezo Gold, Silver and Copper. Hideka intends to build a cannon base near Sakura Castle, specially for Hideka to cast copper cannons and store.

In order to facilitate transportation, Xiujia also had to dig a canal to connect the Inba Marsh with Edo Bay.

The advantage of choosing here is that it is sparsely populated, relatively speaking, it is not the core of Kanto, and there is a certain distance from other daimyos, so it is not easy to be noticed.

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Hideka's speed was very fast, and finally caught up with Hideyoshi in Kansu Castle, and they went to Utsunomiya together.

The whole team was mighty, and Hideyoshi went north with an army of 25. It is hard not to feel that Hideyoshi planned to use this opportunity to deal with Date Masamune together.

Coincidentally, Date Masamune seemed to have thought of what Hideyoshi thought, and finally ran to meet Hideyoshi when Hideyoshi arrived in Yuki Castle.

As if to show his sincerity, he only took more than a dozen of his servants to the south, wearing mourning clothes as if he already had the will to die.

Regarding Date Masamune's arrival, Hideyoshi did not give him a good face, and directly left him in Yuki Castle, as if this person did not exist, and the army continued to repair and head to Utsunomiya as usual.

When Date Masamune saw that Hideyoshi ignored him, he immediately panicked, and found Tokugawa Ieyasu, whom he had known before, hoping to pass it on for him.

On the first day after the pair arrived in Utsunomiya, bad news came again from the team of the Toyotomi family. The head of the Iwagi family, Iwaki Changlong, died of illness.

As the Kanto daimyo who had surrendered before, Hideyoshi had to give preferential treatment no matter what. He wanted to directly order the son of Changlong Iwaki to inherit the position of family governor, but after asking, he found out that Changlong Iwaki had no son.

In history, he had a son who was born only 8 days after the death of Changlong Iwaki. Because there are too many variables for such a small child, Yoshishige Satake's son was adopted to inherit the family business.

But in this life, the Odawara War was launched half a year earlier, and Changlong Yancheng didn't have time to exercise with his wife at all, so he naturally had no son.

Hideyoshi approached Hideyoshi for advice, and Hideyoshi quickly discovered that this was an opportunity to place chess pieces and win over other daimyos.

You must know that the Zhixing of the Yancheng family after the land inspection reached 12 shi. This Zhixing is already in the top 50 of the Toyotomi family. Which daimyo would not be tempted?
As for the object of Hideka's suggestion, it is Maeda Toshiie's second son Mawakamaru (Maeda Toshemaru in history).

Perhaps because of the Sekigahara team, the Xiu family has a very good sense of Li Zheng, and now that Yu Fang is about to marry into his family, Li Zheng can be regarded as his brother-in-law, so he should help him no matter what.

Even the way to become an heir has been thought out, let Iwaki Chintaka adopt the daughter of Iwaki Tonetaka's widow Nikaido Moriyoshi as an adopted daughter, and let Maeda Toshiie marry Iwaki Tonetaka's widow as an adopted son.

Don't think this way is wild, this method of succession refers to the operation of Takakage Kobayakawa by referring to Mori Moto back then. Do you dare to say that Takakage Kobayakawa is not in the right place?

Iwaki Gozen did not have a grade mark in history, but he was younger than his three Nikaido Yukei, and Kyoei was born in 1581, so Iwaki Gozen must have been born after 1581, the same as Tensho 6 years ( 1578) was born in the same grade as Maeda Toshimasa, just right.

Historically, Maeda Toshimasa's wife was originally a relative of Maeda Toshiie's in Odawara. At that time, Gamo's village had just started to grow, and Maeda Toshiie wanted to win over.

Now that the Gamo family is still in the mountain nest of Kyushu, it is not clear who Maeda Toshisei will get from the Hide family. If the time is in time, maybe it will be able to accomplish this.

In fact, Hideyoshi's operation was quite timely, because Maeda Toshiie had already started talking about relatives with Satake Yoshigetsu, and suddenly heard that Hideyoshi planned to let his son join the Iwaki family, so he left Satake and came to have an interview with Hideyoshi After all, how could Satake have the fragrance from the territory of 10 shi!

Finally, after arriving in Utsunomiya, Hideyoshi finally received Date Masamune.Perhaps for the purpose of punishing Date Masamune, Hideyoshi held a very high-level meeting in Honmaru, Utsunomiya, and asked his subordinates and Kanto daimyos to attend if they were over 1 shi.

Because the imperial hall of Utsunomiya could not be accommodated, the gates on both sides of the corridors were opened so that the three sides could be ventilated and exposed to the light, and daimyos with low knowledge and knowledge could sit directly on the corridors and count as participants.

I saw Date Masamune, under the guidance of Katagiri Kasumimoto, enter the evaluation room wearing the white mourning clothes worn during seppuku, and saluted Hideyoshi with a solemn expression.

Most of the daimyos who participated in the meeting today had witnessed the Hojo clan’s seppuku before, and now they saw Date Masamune coming in white, thinking that Date Masamune had also been punished by Hideyoshi.

Date and Hojo were the two most powerful daimyos in Kanto and Ou. Seeing that both of them were controlled by Hideyoshi, the daimyos present were even more afraid of Hideyoshi.

"Doctor Zuojing, I thought you wouldn't come?"

Hideyoshi's opening remarks contained a hint of sarcasm, and it can be seen that now that Hojo has been reduced, Hideyoshi's view of daimyo has changed.

Before Hojo's surrender, his attitude towards the Kanto and Tohoku daimyos was still inclined to woo, but after the Hojo clan and most of the Kanto and Ou daimyos surrendered, even daimyos like the Date family showed disdain.

"It's my fault for delaying the military plane, please His Royal Highness Guan Bai to punish you."

Faced with Hideyoshi's questioning, Date Masamune had nothing to justify, and kept his stance very low. Perhaps Tokugawa Ieyasu had already given him some advice before meeting Hideyoshi.

But even though Date Masamune's stance had been lowered, Hideyoshi was still dissatisfied with his explanation, and continued to question him: "Doctor Sakyo, what is the time limit I gave Ou Daimyo?"

"Guan Baidian wants me to join the battle before the fall of Odawara." Date Masamune replied.

"When did you come there?"

"My subject is the 9th day after the fall of Odawara, the line of His Highness Kanbai who caught up in Yuki Castle."

Hearing Date Masamune's emotionless answer, Hideyoshi's anger seemed to be ignited instead, and he scolded Date Masamune: "Then what else do you have to explain?

I have already informed the world before that all daimyos who do not participate in the battle will be reduced and changed, and you can just go back and wait for the news of the disposal.

If you want to fight like Hojo, I don't care about crushing you again like destroying Hojo. "

Although Hideyoshi was very angry with Date Masamune, his words were very fierce, but in Hideya's view, it was just a scene for Hideyoshi to express his attitude.

To put it simply, if Hideyoshi really wanted to severely punish the Date family, there was no need to hold a meeting here, and there was no need to even meet Date Masamune, just let someone tell him to go back and wait to be beaten.

Hideyoshi put up such a big battle at that time, it seemed that he was humiliating and punishing Date Masamune, but in fact it was just a threat with a lot of thunder and rain.

Some of the daimyos present could see this. Hideka believed that Date Masamune himself understood this, so he refused to retaliate against Hideyoshi's scolding, and only then did he say:
"I would like to report to Your Highness Guan Bai, when I received your order, I was ready to send troops, but the Osaki family invaded Sendai at this time, so I had to go back to stabilize the territory first, which took a lot of time.

The subject originally wanted to join the battle after repelling Osaki, but seeing the war in the north dragging on for a long time, the subject left the army and went south with his attendants.

I thought I could feel it before the fall of Odawara, but unfortunately I caught a cold while on the road and rested in Aizu for a few days before I was able to continue on the road. At this time, I heard the news that His Highness Guanbai had won in Odawara.

Your Highness Guan Bai, I respect you from the bottom of my heart, otherwise I would not have left the army and rushed here with a few attendants, but unfortunately I was ill and delayed for a few days.

I am not justifying anything, I am just stating the facts to His Highness.Although it is God's will, the postponement is a fact after all, and I am willing to accept all punishments from His Highness Guan Bai without any complaints. "

Hideka heard Date Masamune's explanation, and couldn't help looking at Tokugawa Ieyasu. The main delay of the Date family was willing to blame the Osaki family, which was a very smart way.

Now that the Osaki family has not arrived, the removal of the seal is already an established fact, even if it is justified, it is hard to explain.

It's hard not to believe that Tokugawa Ieyasu didn't borrow the words that Satake Yoshinobu explained to Iwagi and Soma to develop for Date Masamune.

As for the second half of Date Masamune's explanation, it is also a story that can be praised and weeping. Faced with the attack on his own ability, the loyal minister gave up his troops to join the battle in order to catch up with the time. Are you Hideyoshi willing to deal with it?

What, you said you didn't come on time?That's because I got sick on the road and couldn't walk anymore.

As Guanbai, Hideyoshi said when he issued the "nothing happened" order that all disputes in the world should be handled by himself, and private violence is not allowed.

As long as he wants to establish an image of being discerning in front of all the big names, then the matter of the Date family must be handled gracefully.

Regardless of whether he originally wanted to let Date Masamune go, after Date Masamune said this, there is no problem with the identity preservation of his Date family daimyo. The question now is how to divide by the punishment .

"Hum..." Hideyoshi knew very well that Date Masamune's explanation was false, but firstly, he really didn't have the capital to go north to attack Date's house, and secondly, with so many big names in person, he had to show his tolerance.

Therefore, he said to Date Masamune, "Even though Osaki is the governor of Oshu, he must follow my instructions from Kanbaro. I will definitely punish him for provoking border disputes without my permission.

But your Date family violated the So-nothing Order to attack Aizu last year, can you take it lightly? "

Hideka originally thought that Date Masamune would explain a few more words here, but Date Masamune responded very humblely to Hideyoshi's questioning: "Yes, what you accused, Your Highness Kanbai. It was indeed because the Ashina family There is an internal problem, and someone asked me to intervene in the arbitration. But my actions did violate the order of nothing to do, and I am willing to accept His Highness's punishment."

"Your attitude of pleading guilty is not bad." Hideyoshi looked at Masamune Date, the expression on his face changed from sullen at first to serious, and said to him after a little thought

"Since you admit that your attack on Aizu violated the No Incident Order, you will be withdrawn from the territory of Aizu. As for your failure to arrive in Odawara as scheduled, although there is a reason for it, after all, there is a violation of my law, so you must also be punished .

Now that the two crimes are punished together, I decided to divide your punishment by expelling the three counties of Zhici, Xinfu, and Date, and reduce Zhixing to 45 shi. Do you have any objections? "

"Hiss~" Hearing Hideyoshi's punishment for dividing Date Masamune, many daimyos in the hall gasped. You must know that after Date Masamune won Aizu, his table height soared to more than 120 million shi, and now it has been reduced To 45 shi, it is not painless for Zhixing to directly chop down to 1/3 of the original.

Even Hideka thought Date Masamune would not accept this condition, who knew that Date Masamune still humbled Hideyoshi like a grandson and said, "I have no objection."

"Boom~" Hearing that Date Masamune had any objections to Hideyoshi's punishment, the hall exploded instantly. Some people were moved by Hideyoshi's harsh treatment, some were unbelievable for Date Masamune's cowardice, and more were Lamented Hideyoshi's suppression of Date Masamune.

You must know that such a big name with 120 million stones may be even higher in real height. The existence of Zongheng Yuao actually accepted Hideyoshi's decision to reduce the title by 2/3 in a few words, and he was not afraid at all of his retainers. possibility of mutiny.

Hideka who knows Date Masamune will not scoff at the cowardly Date Masamune like some big names. In Hideya's view, Date Masamune is the one who is more tolerant than Tokugawa Ieyasu, so he raises his level of respect. alert.

And Hideyoshi seemed to be very satisfied with Date Masamune's obedience, and then said to Date Masamune, "Since you have abandoned the dark and turned to the bright, then you are a retainer of my Toyotomi family, go back to the ranking and participate in the evaluation together."

　Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone

　　
　
(End of this chapter)