Prime Minister Bizen

Hideyoshi was very happy with Joseon's visit. No wonder he was so indifferent to Date Masamune's performance just now. It turned out that such "good things" made him feel happy.

The North Korean envoy, Huang Yunji, is the grandson of Huang Xi, who was in charge of politics. He was born in the Huang family of Changshui and was a member of the Western Party.The deputy envoy, Jin Chengyi, was originally from the Jin family in Yicheng, a member of the Eastern Party.

Both Huang Yunji and Kim Sungil came from a family of Confucianism. They didn't know much about Japanese and couldn't understand what the Japanese present were saying.

Just like that, the two were manipulated by Soyoshi Tomo, and presented Hideyoshi with the credentials of North Korea and Japan in front of the Tohoku Oku daimyo.

Then I was surprised to see all the daimyos present congratulating Hideyoshi. From their understanding, they didn't quite understand why the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries made these hillbillies so happy, as if there was some great joyous event.

The two sides couldn't understand each other's words. Naturally, they were speaking with each other, and it was all thanks to Zong Yizhi to translate in the middle. Isn't there room for manipulation in this.

Although the king of Joseon did not come as promised, what Gu Zongyizhi said was because the king of Joseon sent envoys to inform Hideyoshi, and he would come naturally after everything was settled.

Hideyoshi was very happy that North Korea surrendered to him, what he wanted was North Korea's attitude, now that North Korea came to "surrender" to him, and his conquest of "Tang Kingdom" was imminent, Zainan didn't want to continue to get involved in such trivial matters.

Therefore, he announced in front of everyone, especially Zong Yizhi, who was translated in the middle, "Tell your Korean king, I, Hideyoshi, will not treat those who are loyal to me badly, and I will reward him with Liaodong after the Ming Dynasty is conquered." .

After I go back, I will tell that Li, Li Yan, to prepare his army for war, prepare food and grass, and prepare to receive my million-dollar army entering the court. "

This is the first time that Hideyoshi has formally and unreservedly publicized his idea of ​​fighting Ming to the world's daimyo.Before that, I only revealed the meaning with a few people on a small scale.

Especially the names of Kanto and Yuao, they don't even know where North Korea is.Previously, I thought that Hideyoshi had pacified Hojo, and after Kanto and Uoshiki, the world would be peaceful. Who would have thought that Hideyoshi would actually want to start a foreign war.

And our protagonist today's back was soaked in cold sweat after hearing Hideyoshi's words, and the cold sweat on his forehead couldn't help staying.He had never known Hideyoshi's plan to use North Korea to invade the Ming Kingdom.

In this way, the Japanese army must pass through North Korea. Now I am cheating on both sides, the purpose is to maintain stability on both sides of Japan and North Korea.

As a result, you now tell me that Japan is going to lead troops through North Korea, how can you let me lie to you?

He swallowed his saliva in fear, half of Hideyoshi's words were translated, but he couldn't utter a single word.

He looked around in a panic, and suddenly found that Toyotomi Hideka on the left was smiling at him. That smile was really scary in the current environment.

Fortunately, Zong Yizhi's actor training is not bad. He bit the bullet and translated to the North Korean envoy, "My Highness has received the letter of credence from the King of North Korea. My Highness said that I am grateful for your sincerity. Let’s share the same hatred and develop together in harmony.”

After finishing speaking, he couldn't help but look aside, only to find that the incomprehensible smile was still on Xiu's face. …

Even if the Korean envoy could not understand Japanese, he could still hear the name of the king. Therefore, when Hideyoshi called out Li Yan's name, but Zongyizhi didn't translate it, he asked Zongyizhi, " Your Highness seemed to call my Highness by the name just now?"

Jin Chengyi's question was fooled by Zongyizhi with his sound and meaning. As for Hideyoshi's question, what did the Korean envoy just say?

There has always been a kind of thinking in North Korea that the Ming Dynasty is the center of the world, and North Korea is the largest vassal state in the world. Whether it is the Jurchen tribes in the north or Japan in the south, they are all inferior to them.

The king of North Korea asked them to come with the letter of credence for the founding of the state, but the purpose was to do more than less, and to agree to Hideyoshi's request. What about "same hatred and common development", even a small country is worthy of it?

But fortunately, on such an occasion of etiquette, the North Korean envoy gave Hideyoshi a bit of face, and several people on both sides couldn't understand what the other side said, so they just smiled and nodded at each other to deal with it.

But deal with it, Du Yuzong Yizhi's explanation of the taboo of the Korean monarch's name just now will not be let go so easily, a seed of distrust has begun to germinate in the heart of the North Korean envoy.

Hideyoshi was generally very happy with the knowledge of the North Korean envoys, and immediately said that he would invite them to dinner that night and asked all of you to accompany them.

You daimyos are still confused, and many of them don’t even know where North Korea is, but in short, they know that two foreign countries have surrendered to Hideyoshi, and the "Great Japan" is famous far and wide.

After Hideyoshi left, the crowd gradually dispersed, and the Yuao Kanto daimyo gathered in twos and threes to exchange the news they had just heard.

In fact, not only the Yuao and Kanto daimyos attended today, but also the Hokuriku daimyo Maeda Toshiie and some Kinki daimyos.

Maeda Toshiie will come to Kyoto, one is to finalize with the Hide family and avoid marriage, and the other is to see how his son Iwaki Toshiya is doing after he succeeds the Iwaki family.

Seeing that others were in Kyoto, Hideyoshi simply dragged him to Osaka to participate in this evaluation. Firstly, he was to help him keep the place down, and he came to let him, as a Hokuriku daimyo, experience Hideyoshi's feeling of being worshiped by North Koreans.

Xiujia deliberately walked a few steps late, and left with Xiuzhen, Iwaki Ritaka, Maeda Toshiie and others. On the way, the two children kept exchanging new things they had just heard in the hall, and their admiration for Hideyoshi was beyond words.

In fact, since the Nara era, when Japan opened up the Kanto and Northeast, Japan's external expansion has stagnated. Now Hideyoshi's reputation has brought Ryukyu and North Korea to Korea, which has indeed made Hideyoshi's reputation flourish.

Even if Hideyoshi's story is true, and he can effectively suppress Ryukyu and North Korea, then no one will say anything to the Japanese.

Seeing Ogasawara Hidetada and Iwaki Ritaka's awkward talk, Hideka and Toshika seemed worried, and Hideka asked him, "Is Your Highness worried about fighting against Ming?"

Maeda Toshiie nodded and said, "General You is well-informed, do you know anything about the Tang Kingdom?"...

"I have heard a little bit that the current name of the Tang Dynasty is called "Ming". It is a country with thousands of feet of mountains in the west, desert grassland in the north, and the sea in the east and south. The area is ten times that of Japan, and the population is also ten times that of Japan. "

This time was the Wanli period, and the Ming Dynasty had begun to fall into decline. The land area was basically the territory of the Han Dynasty minus the Western Regions, with Jiayuguan in the west and Liaodong bordering North Korea in the east.

Originally, the Ming Dynasty could effectively implement Jimi rule over Mongolia and Jurchen in the Northeast, but it was all lost after the Tumubao Change.

It was not until the appearance of Li Chengliang that while establishing Liaodong iron cavalry, he used the land of Kanto to re-divide the military field, which enabled the Ming Dynasty to re-rule Liaodong, Liaoxi, and spread its influence to the Jurchen and Chahar tribes.

Facts have proved that the Chinese are not cowards, but they are not fools either.As long as there are reasonable rewards and driven by field servants, the Ming people can kill Jurchen and Mongolian asses.

However, the civil officials at the end of Ming Dynasty looked down on these Qiu Bamen, and the military officers began to encroach on the military fields again. The last stand of the Ming army in the middle and late Ming Dynasty came to an abrupt end.

Hearing that Japan's land and population are 10 times that of Japan, Maeda Toshiie was silent, and then looked at Hideo in confusion, the meaning was very clear, "Since you all know that there is such a big gap between the two countries, why don't you dissuade Guan Baizhengming? ?”

Hideo even saw the blame in Maeda Toshie's eyes.

However, Xiujia smiled and replied, "You really should visit the Tang envoy again. You will know that when it was called the Song Dynasty, there was a small country in Liaodong, whose national power was ten times weaker, but it destroyed the Liao and Song Dynasties successively. .”

"You mean that although the Ming Dynasty was great, the people were lazy and helpless, and the army had no will to fight?"

However, the Xiu family shook his head and said, "Then you should ask Ming Shang how the Tang Kingdom, now called the Ming Dynasty, was established. When their Emperor Hongwu rebelled against the Yuan Court, it was also 10 times weaker." expelled Tartars."

In fact, the Xiu family still didn't say a word. Just 30 years later in Liaodong, the new Jurchen regime defeated the Ming army by a gap of 4 times. The battle loss ratio of the two sides reached an astonishing 1:25. Totally discouraged.

Maeda Toshiie was confused by Xiujia's back and forth, and then said clearly, "What do you mean, please tell me."

"What I mean is that the war between two countries is not determined solely by the number of people and national strength. If this is the case, the two sides just need to count the number of people in front of the battle. The one with the most people will win soon?

What I mean is that the Ming state is strong, but their borders are larger, and the marginal effect of stacking their military forces is diminishing. The number of troops that can really move to the front line is only 10,000+. You won't know until you hit it. "

Xiu Jia said this purely from the perspective of a military commander. In fact, whether it was the three major Wanli campaigns or the last Saarhu, the Ming army's maximum mobilization number was 10. Xiu Jiaming did not lie.

Before the war started, it was impossible for him to say that the Ming army was invincible. If he said it, he would disturb the morale of the army and be punished by Hideyoshi.

"I just said this in response to the 10-fold difference in national strength between the two countries, so I can't fight. Now I will respond to your later sentence: 'I only recently learned that my father has the idea of ​​​​conquering North Korea.'"…

Hideyoshi lied without batting an eyelid, and she was pissed off by Hideyoshi a long time ago, but she lied that she only knew about it now.

But what if you don't?Could it be that Hideyoshi is not listening to persuasion when complaining about Hideyoshi's food in Honmaru in Osaka?
As the ruler of the Xiu family, he did not approve of fighting against the Ming Dynasty, not only because of his own background, but also from the perspective of a ruler, he still resisted.

"Now that the world has just settled down, especially in the last 10 years, all the wars that have stirred up the world have occurred. The reason why the Yu-Olympic battle has been put on hold is because the people are suffering from taxation and the military rations are unsustainable.

Now that Kanto and Yu'ao have settled down, it's time to recuperate.Even if you want to fight the Ming Dynasty, it shouldn't be at this time.

But we, as retainers, now have North Korea and Ryukyu as our support, and we still don't know the victory or defeat of the Ming Dynasty, so Maeda's attendant shouldn't underestimate himself like this. "

In fact, what Xiujia meant today was "I understand what you want to say. It is true that you should not fight against the Ming Dynasty now. But if His Highness Guan Bai wants to fight, then let's fight. If it is really on the battlefield, the outcome is still uncertain, right?" ?"

To put it simply, it is to make peace with each other, to please both sides without leaving any talk.

But I don't know if Maeda Toshiie didn't understand what Xiujia meant, or what, he actually said to Xiujia, "Since the right general is so confident in this battle, then I, the Maeda family, will also accompany me."

That night, Hideyoshi invited the North Korean envoys to attend the banquet with the daimyos. At first, Hideyoshi was not at the banquet, but Hideyoshi entrusted Hideyoshi and Soyoshitomo to entertain the group of people.

During the banquet, the North Korean envoys and Xiujia and others were introduced to each other for a while.

Xiujia greeted him with a smiling face as usual, smiling and watching the performance of the international actor, without any intention of exposing him.

Since the war against North Korea is inevitable, why should the Hideo family touch Hideyoshi?Anyway, if I transfer the seal of Kanto, I should not be conscripted within 2 years, and the command will provide some supplements of military rations, iron guns, ships and other armaments.

Since it was time for someone else to die, why did the Xiu family risk being ridiculed and suspected to show off?
Xiujia glanced at the banquet, whether it was Hideyoshi's Kinki Daimyo, or the newly joined Kanto and Yuao Daimyo, they were all talking and laughing, and seemed to be full of confidence in the future overseas operations.

Hideyoshi will not give up the idea of ​​fighting against Ming just because North Korea belongs to his own side, so of course Hideyoshi is not willing to pour cold water on them at this time.

After drinking for three rounds, Toyotomi Hideyoshi suddenly walked into the hall. He changed into casual clothes and took his 5-year-old son Tsurumatsu to attend with him.

He strolled around in the hall as if no one was around, but no matter how noisy the Japanese daimyos were just now, they did not dare to move at this moment, and all lowered their heads to express their submission to Hideyoshi.

At this time, the three North Korean envoys, dressed in brightly colored official mansions, stand out among the group of big names with their waists straight.

Fortunately, under Soyoshitomo's reminder, the three of them bowed slightly to Hideyoshi to show their respect. Hideyoshi frowned when he saw the huge difference between the postures of the three of them and the surrounding daimyo who surrendered to him.

No matter how you look at it, these three brothers don't look like they came to surrender to me.

However, he said to Qi Bairi Zongyizhi that the etiquette in North Korea is different from that in Japan, that kneeling and saluting is already a great gift, so he no longer entangled in this matter, and asked everyone present to stand up, and the banquet will remain the same.

The appearance of Toyotomi Hideyoshi made the participating daimyos a lot more cautious, and it is still impossible to continue, but fortunately, the banquet continued.

During the dinner, Hideyoshi suddenly turned sideways to Xiujia and said, "Look at these Koreans, they don't even have basic etiquette and respect. When I rule North Korea, I must teach them a lesson."

At this time, the Xiu family had already made up their minds to watch the whole show, so naturally they were indifferent to all the disturbances in the hall.

To Hideyoshi's complaints, Hideyoshi replied in a tea-like manner, "What you said is that I can't wait to see the day when you will be in Wiga Kainai."