Prime Minister Bizen

Xiuzhen was adopted as the adopted son of Feng Chen's family, and the Xiu family could finally call him a brother in a fair manner.

Although the two belonged to brother-in-law in the past, they could only be called by their official names in order to avoid suspicion on official occasions.

And as Xiuzhen was adopted as a member of the Gifu family, his identity as a cousin of the Xiu family was confirmed, and the titles of "Xiu's elder brother" and "Xiuzhen's younger brother" will become unobstructed in the future.

Of course this is not the most critical.

You must know that Xiujia married his younger sister to Xiuzhen, and Xiujia is Xiuzhen's brother-in-law.

In the same way, Xiuzhen is now the son of Xiuchang, and the Xiu family married Xiuchang's daughter, and Xiuzhen can be regarded as the brother-in-law of the Xiu family in turn.

In the Warring States Period, the two families who married each other like this were deeply bound in the eyes of outsiders, just like the Three Kingdoms Alliance and the Cheongju Alliance in the past.

In other words, Xiuzhen has since been completely labeled as a faction of the Xiu family. Even if he does not want to continue to stand on the side of the Xiu family in the future, people outside will not easily believe it.

Once there is a confrontation between the factions, then Xiuzhen becomes the one who is guilty of the crime, that is, from this moment, Xiuzhen and the Xiu family are completely bound.

Right now, the Toyotomi family is in full swing, Xiuzhen is adopted as the son of the Toyotomi family, even if it is only the son of the Gifu family, his political status among the daimyos has been greatly improved.

The most important thing is that in the past, he mostly wanted to be called by his peers, such as Qiu Miji, Iwaki Rilong, Qingjin Nobuyuki, and Sanada Nobuyuki, but now he dare not accept them even if he wants to be called by his peers.

As he officially changed his name to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the more than a dozen famous names in Kanto and Ouyu who were included in his organization may be more obedient to him. The operation is also smoother.

For Xiuzhen, a daimyo who guards Ou, the harvest is infinite. For Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he gained a closer relative to guard Ou. In addition, Gamo's village is in Sendai. Ou Yu can also feel more at ease.

The reason why Hideyoshi agreed with Hideyoshi to adopt Hideyoshi as his adopted son at this time in this life.

Coincidentally, in history, Toyotomi Hidetaka's home city was Yamato Koriyama Castle, and in this life Toyotomi Hidetada's home city was Iwadai Koriyama Castle.

In fact, their original idea was to directly adopt Hidetoshi Hashiba to Hidecho, along with his Tanba Kameyama Castle 10 koku.

But after thinking about it this way, the Toyotomi family was still digesting it after going around in the end. In order to promote Hashiba Hidetoshi, he had to pay his own money to seal him.

With Xiu's suggestion, they realized that Xiuzhen was really a good choice, not to mention the right age, but also taking into account ability and loyalty. The most important thing is that the 30 shi Zhixing didn't have to pay for it by themselves, which was a completely free deal.

Xiuzhen's adoption of the Gifu clan can be said to be the most important thing recently. Even Hideyoshi, who is far away in Kyushu, asked Ishida Mitsunari to bring a gift.

This is a congratulatory gift from the Mori family to Hideyoshi after Hideyoshi appraised Odawara, and it is a treasure recorded in the "Ichi no Box" of "Toyotomi's Royal Waist Account". …

Hideyoshi sending such a precious gift is enough to show how much he attaches importance to Xiuzhen.

Xiuzhen and the others stayed in Kyoto at the end of November, and finally they were reluctant to leave. Now, the time when Hideyoshi was scheduled to play is getting closer and closer. They must feel familiar with the environment and soil of Kyushu in advance when deploying as the forward of the Fourth Army.

Since many of the soldiers they brought were Ou people, and many of them were not familiar with water, Xiujia specially prepared a boat for them to transport to Bungo, which could be regarded as allowing these soldiers to adapt to life on the boat in advance.

As the date of Hideyoshi's conquest approached, the process of Hideyoshi transferring the seal of Kanto also came to an end.

After watching the last boat, Jiuhu, who stayed behind as Jibei, ordered the remaining supplies under the supervision of Toyotomi Hidekatsu's retainers, and brought a small number of retainers to Kyoto, where he will meet Xiu home to do the final handover.

At the same time, as the end of the year approached, the Seto family, who had been in charge of Ezo affairs, also took advantage of the time to open up the Vladivostok stronghold, traveled the east coast of North Korea to Tango in advance, and reported to the Hide family that Ezo and The situation in Vladivostok.

In general, everything is going as planned, and the Seto family is reporting the development of Ezo to the Hideo family.

After Takatora Fujido arrived in Ezo, he quickly became familiar with the environment. He changed the method of peaceful development, marriage and mergers in the era of Tachihara Hisakuna and Ukita Tadakaya, and directly launched an offensive against the northern and eastern parts of Ishikari.

Fujido Takatora accepted the order of the Hide family to include the Koreans in the military service account, but he could only serve as the lowest gun footgaru, and the rare hunters could be promoted to the bow footgaru.

The social ecology of Ezo is far behind that of Japan's main island. These Koreans who were compiled into military service accounts are not so much ashigaru as Japan's early mobilized farmers and soldiers.

The Governor's Mansion of Ezo does not provide armored stomachs. It is a great gift to give them an iron spear. In order to save their lives on the battlefield, these Koreans also do everything possible to make armored stomachs with the materials at hand.

The first is the most common cotton in Ezo, which is widely grown in Ezo. While it is used as warm clothing, it has also been used by some North Koreans to make cotton armor.

As a result, Fujido Gaohu found that this kind of armor, which was soaked in cotton and then dried in the sun several times, was especially suitable for the environment of Ezo.

In the past, Ezo could not fight in winter, but with the cotton armor, this kind of armor can not only keep warm, but also have a good defense effect against bows, arrows, iron cannons, and swords. It's just that in summer, it's too hot and becomes a burden.

Even though Ezo is in the extreme north, the temperature in summer is still 30°C. Anyone who has been to Hokkaido knows that Hokkaido is a place with long summer and winter and short spring and autumn.

The actual thickness of the cotton armor is probably a little thicker than the military overcoat, and it is heavier, almost the same as a quilt. If soldiers wear it all the time in midsummer, it will easily cause body fluid loss.

In fact, the Ming army did not wear cotton armor when marching, and only wore it when fighting. This caused the Ming army to march when it was at its weakest.

The peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty often seized this loophole and attacked the Ming army. …

Yingwa Jiuhu also gave Xiujia a cloth mask when he came this time. It was printed and dyed with Xiujia's favorite blue color. A very fine work of art.

In fact, the Xiu family had always wanted to vigorously promote the cotton armor in the past. After all, in the iron cannon era, the protective area and protective power of the cotton armor were much stronger than the four-faced Nanman armor.

Hideka wanted to promote the Nanban family on a large scale within the scope of his skills, but according to Seto Jiazheng, the style of the cotton armor's armored stomach was too different from the traditional Japanese armored stomach, and it was not favored by the Japanese samurai in Ezo. happiness.

The Xiu family is not in a hurry to promote it forcefully. When these gentlemen meet Liaodong cavalry wearing heavy cloth face armor in North Korea; Only when the countless iron cannons that smashed the enemy can't penetrate the protection of the Ming army, they will realize how exaggerated the protective power of the cotton armor is.

On the contrary, the savage Jurchen that he bought from Jianzhou Jurchen at the beginning flocked to this kind of armor stomach. The key point is that this group of guys are strong and strong, and many of them are good at shooting bows. barrel lance, hatchet and buckler.

This equipment is almost the equipment of the heavy infantry of the Ming Dynasty. If it is equipped with horses, it will be the heavy tank of the old era.

Although it was only a force of more than 300 people, it became the vanguard of the Ezo army to break through the formation. The bows, arrows, knives and guns in the hands of the Ainu tribesmen could not break the protection of this group of heavy armored infantry.

For them, from a long distance, they only need to lift the small round shield that is often hung on the left arm to cover the loss of the face, and the arrow feathers can't break the armor at all.

When you enter, you can charge with a gun and cover your head, because it is difficult for the spear on the opposite side to break through your cotton armor protection.

Waiting to pierce through several people with a long spear, abandon the gun and use an ax or knife, cooperate with the round shield on the left arm, and slash and kill in the formation. Armor was dyed blood red, and his body was covered with the blood of the enemy.

In many cases, the troops in the rear of a battle did not even go into battle, and the enemy's tribal people were defeated by the charge of the White Armor Army.

And because this army likes to wear white armor, it is also called Baibei in the Yezo Corps. However, the Koreans, Jurchens and Ainu do not have such a habit of calling it. They like to call it the White Armor Army.

Judging from Fujido Takatora's current performance, Hideka is very satisfied. As expected, Hideka is right. He is a samurai who can be flexible. Sending him to Ezo will definitely change the development environment of the stagnant pool there.

And Hideo was also talking about the situation of the White Armored Army to the Seto family, and asked him to bring a message to Fujido Takatora, "Since the protective power of the cotton armor has been discovered, it should be promoted in the Ezo formation as much as possible. Pretend to be given the best treatment and status, for those who have done meritorious service, they should be promoted to warriors, and fertile land and beautiful concubines should be given, regardless of their ethnic origin.

At the same time, such an elite team should not only be composed of Jurchens, but all Ainu, Korean and Japanese who are strong and skilled in martial arts should be selected.If the elite is composed of a single ethnic group, it may be harmful. "

The Xiu family gave Kazuto who migrated to Ezo a lot of preferential treatment. In the past, they would directly give land to their wives, and they would be directly promoted to samurai after making meritorious service. …

For the attached Ainu, the Ezo Governor's Mansion is also treated as a Japanese, as long as they make meritorious service, they will be granted the status of a samurai.

But in the past, the Koreans and Jurchens who migrated from outside mostly did some farming, fishing and hunting. There were no cases of Koreans and Jurchens serving as soldiers, so naturally there was no precedent for granting warrior status.

This time, the Xiu family asked the Seto family to bring back the policy, which is considered a precedent. No matter what country in Ezo, people can become samurai as long as they make contributions, and get more land and tenant farmers who help farming.

As for the tenant farmers themselves, they are naturally filled by Koreans who are good at farming.

In fact, if it was in the same war, it would be the most difficult for the cannon fodder North Korean peasants with no armor to protect them and only holding a long gun to make meritorious service and survive.

Because the Jurchen White Armored Army broke through the formation, the work of picking up the military exploits was handed over to the Herenbei team.

Perhaps this group of Koreans are really good at farming, and Fujido Gaohu used it well, and he couldn't bear them to be wasted on the battlefield, so the jobs given were to deliver food, guard supplies, and even rush to the city to send cannon fodder. The seeds are cherished and reused, and I am afraid of dying too much to delay the farming time.

On the other side of Vladivostok, the Seto family has already established a settlement.

You must know that Vladivostok today is different from later generations. Now it is a mountainous area. The port of Vladivostok is good, but there are mostly high mountains around it, and there are few flat lands.

The draft of ships in this era is not deep, and the role of the deep-water port of Vladivostok is really not great.

And the advantage of the mountains here is that the Kuyala tribe on the side doesn't look down on this corner, and the Seto family is calmly building ports and settlements here.

However, because of the mountains, he told Xiujia that this settlement might not be suitable for large-scale development.

In fact, Vladivostok is indeed not a good starting point for early development when there is no explosives to blast the mountains and heavy machinery to level the land.

In the entire outer northeast region, the best plain is near the Twin Cities, where the climate is pleasant, backed by Xingkai Lake, and there are mountains on both sides to block water vapor, which is very suitable for agricultural development.

However, around Xingkai Lake at the moment, there are Kuyala, Suifen, Woji, Wusu, Nimacha and other tribes wrestling here. It is very difficult for the savage Jurchen to work slowly with hundreds of people close to the development point.

In fact, the Outer Northeast is a very good military base. Don’t think that it was uncivilized at the time. In fact, many tribes entered the Iron Age under the influence of Tang, Liao, and Mongolia, and had a certain feudal thinking.

The advancement of tools has given this place a certain population base. The key is that the tribes here are scattered without the concept of a country, which is very suitable for suppression by major powers in the First World War.

This is the case with the Hou Jin in history. Before dealing with the Ming Dynasty, they first dealt with the savage Jurchen, plundered their population and compiled it into Niulu, and gave them fields, armor stomachs and weapons.

Savage Jurchens are essentially tribal slave societies. Ordinary tribal people have never seen these configurations that old men had in the past.

Therefore, the Jianzhou Jurchen only gave the lower class a little benefit, and completely isolated the upper class [those with surnames], and sent their own people to serve as the left leaders to win over the lower tribal people as their subordinates, and those tribal people had no resist. …

It was the acquisition of the wild Jurchens, a large number of soldiers, that made the Jianzhou Jurchen's combat power expand rapidly. In just 10 years, they had tens of thousands of troops. Eight Banners of the Han Army).

The Xiu family had always wanted to reproduce the way Jianzhou Jurchen assimilated the wild Jurchen, but this required a powerful army to sweep the Northeast region.

At present, Kanto and Ezo have not yet been fully developed, and the Battle of North Korea and the Battle of Guanyuan are close at hand. When all this is settled, it is almost time for the Jianzhou Jurchen to rise.

The current Xiu family has no spare energy to expand and colonize the Northeast, so they can only control the conflicts with the surrounding tribes around the Seto family.

The Seto family believes that this is beyond his control. He is in charge of the Ezo trade, and now it is inseparable to take care of shipping matters. He hopes that Hideka will appoint someone to serve as the governor of Vladivostok just like the Ezo Governor's Mansion.

But Xiujia hopes to control the progress of development there. After all, when Ezo and Kanto have not yet been developed, involving the outer Northeast prematurely is actually distracting Xiujia's own strength.

Hideka's definition of Vladivostok is very clear, that is, it is a transit point for trade with North Korea, Northeast China and Japan, just because most Japanese merchant ships in this era are not good at ocean navigation.

At least Xiujia will not have the idea of ​​going north at this time.

Even if it's the best opportunity right now, I'm not afraid to wrestle with Hou Jin and Russia's arm-wrestling showmen if it drags on. Proper competition with powerful countries is actually a means to maintain the nation's fighting power.

(Of course, if other traversers come to this era, remember to take good care of the savage Jurchen army incubation pool after learning.)