Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 871 The final change

The road has to be walked step by step, and the meal has to be eaten bite by bite.

The orthodox emperor ascended the throne and promulgated a new decree, and the titles of the daimyo and lord ministers could be downgraded and inherited. However, their knowledge and practice made it impossible to directly implement the inheritance method of grace at the moment.

Especially under the premise that Toyotomi Hidetoshi had just reduced the title of the Owari clan, the law of favor succession was equivalent to a reduction without guilt in the minds of the daimyo. Even if the Hidetomi clan wanted to implement such a decree, they still had to worry about their own strength and daimyo. their inner thoughts.

Therefore, Hideie and the orthodox emperor have repeatedly guaranteed that only the title will be inherited in descending order, but the title of the daimyo will not be reduced without reason.

The first thing an orthodox emperor does after ascending the throne is to strengthen the imperial power to control the army.

He directly used the reason that the emperor of old Japan had two guards to reorganize the emperor's guard army, and handed over this task to the general Hideie.

Hideie directly organized them into 6 Imperial Guards responsible for guarding Kyoto and Kanto, namely the left and right Habayashi Guards, the left and right Tiger Guards and the left and right Ryujo Guards. Each guard commander was a Lieutenant General of the Guards, such as the Lieutenant General of the Left and Right Habayashi Guards. There are three divisions under the guard, each with 3 men, and a cavalry battalion with about 1800 men.A total of 600 people per bathroom.

The Habayashi Guards are responsible for guarding the Emperor, and they must follow the Emperor whenever he goes on tour.The Habayashi Guards are mainly composed of samurai from the Kibi and Kanto old Toyoharu families, with a small number of samurai from Kinki and Kyoto.

The Tiger Guards are responsible for the garrison tasks of old Kyoto and Osaka, and generally do not go out into battle. The guards are mostly filled by samurai warriors from Kinki, Saikuni, Noo, Echizen, Kaga and other countries.

The Ryujo Guards were responsible for the garrison of Fushimi and surrounding areas, with the left guard stationed at Fushimi and the right guard stationed at Hachimanyama Castle.

In addition to the six imperial guards, there are two imperial guards specifically responsible for guarding Fushimi Castle and Toyoharu Castle, with a total of 6 people. The left guard is stationed at Fushimi, with only two 8000 people, and the right guard is stationed at Toyoharu, with 3000 guards. and 3 cavalry unit totaling 1 people.

Since the two guards of the Gohonban clan and Habayashi need to protect the emperor closely, they must be the sons of the samurai family who have been absolutely loyal for generations.In addition, they select good seedlings from orphanages favored by the country, train them in combat skills from an early age, and train them into Mamluk-style warriors.

The selection requirements in Habayashi and Gohon are also the highest, and the remaining ones will be filled into the two guards of Tiger and Ben and the two guards of Longxiang respectively.

More than 6% of the samurai and banners of these two guards came from the banners of the Tibetan area, and the remaining 4% were issued to the great names in the world. Blood was drawn directly from the banners and standing armies of the daimyo, and the Fushimi imperial army The director went directly to the big names to draw dice. The big names couldn't refuse, as refusing would be tantamount to treason.

The warriors of this army are selected from all over the world. Regardless of whether they are already ministers of other families or not, during the imperial garrison period, the selected warriors must obey the emperor's orders more than the orders of their lord.

The imperial army has no time limit for garrisoning. Only when the imperial army feels that your age or physical condition is not suitable will they send you severance pay.

As for whether you want to be naturalized in Tibet or return to your place of origin, even for samurai who have performed meritorious services, the shogun can also ask the emperor to grant them a salary or tomoyo directly become a samurai belonging only to the emperor.

The salaries of all soldiers in the imperial army and the imperial clan are borne by the royal family. Even the samurai and ashigaru recruited from the daimyo territory do not need to be borne by the daimyo for their salaries.

However, in order to increase the enthusiasm of this part of the samurai, the daimyo needed to continue to provide rice money to his family based on his salary before the conscription.

In addition to the more than 4 people guarding the Kinki region and the 5000 standing troops at Toyoharu Castle, the emperor also had standing corps in various places similar to the Tohoku garrison.

A total of 10 corps are divided from south to north: Kyushu, Shikoku, Sanin, Sanyo, Kinki, Tokaido, Hokurikudo, Kanto, Tohoku, and Hokkaido.

Among them, Kyushu, Kinki, Tokaido, and Kanto are the large armies, with a staff strength of more than 6000. Among them, the Kanto Corps has an excess of 1 people.

The Kyushu garrison is stationed in Chikuzen Dazaifu. The regiment is divided into two guards: the left guard is stationed at Dazaifu and the right guard is stationed at Kumamoto Prefecture.

The Kanto garrison was stationed in Toyochun Castle. The regiment was divided into three guards, left, middle and right. The left guard was stationed at Maqiao Castle, the middle guard was stationed at Edo Prefecture, and the right guard was stationed at Mito Castle.

The Kinki garrison was stationed at Yawatayama Castle, and was divided into two groups: the left guard was stationed at Nagahama Castle, and the right guard was stationed at Yamato Koriyama Castle.

The Tokaido garrison is located in Gifu Castle, with two guards on the left and right, the left guard is stationed at Ogaki Castle, and the right guard is stationed at the county and Kokokuji Castle.

The Shikoku, Sanin, Sanyo, and Hokuriku Province Guard Corps have a total of only 2500 to 3000 troops.

The Shikoku Corps has 2500 troops and is stationed at Iyo Enokawa Castle in the center of Shikoku; the Sanyo Corps has 3000 troops and is stationed at Aki Hiroshima; the Sanin Corps has 2000 troops and is stationed at Hakimiko Castle; the Hokurikudo Corps has 3000 troops and is stationed in Kanazawa.

The Tohoku Governor's Office and the Hokkaido Governor's Office are both medium-sized, with a population of about 5000. The Tohoku Governor's Office is divided into two guards, garrisoning Koriyama Castle and Sendai Castle respectively.The Hokkaido garrison has 5000 troops, divided into two guards: Hanguan Castle and Sapporo Castle.

The total strength of the entire standing army is 5.5. These standing armies will be recruited from the corresponding surrounding territories to garrison in other places.

For example, Kyushu garrison troops were recruited from Sanin, Sanyo, and Shikoku, and Sanin, Sanyo, and Shikoku garrison troops were recruited from Kyushu and Kinki.The Kinki garrison was recruited from Tokaido, Hokurikudo, Shikoku, Sanin, Sanyo, etc.

These soldiers and samurai will be recruited directly from the daimyo territory. Each daimyo must provide corresponding military service accounts according to the trip and be responsible for the food and salary issues of this part of the military service.

In this way, the system of recruiting imperial troops and paying favor rice to the families of the imperial troops before cooperating was essentially drawing blood from the daimyo.

Each time the soldiers are recruited, they need to guard in another place for 2 years, half of which is for training and rotation. Only about 7% of the troops are actually guarding the front line.

This is a standing reserve, used to directly station in a large area. Once a rebellion occurs, it can be suppressed quickly and conveniently.

For the daimyo, their main soldiers were conscripts.There will be a long period of preparation before the daimyo's action. Even if these garrison legions cannot directly defeat and suppress the daimyo, they can still cooperate with the garrisoned daimyo to hold on until reinforcements arrive.

After the Hide family implemented arms control, even the arsenal of the daimyo would be forced to be handed over to the custody of these garrison detachments, in order to weaken the possibility of the daimyo rebelling.

In addition, the daimyo are not required to perform daily duties.

The emperor's base was in Fushimi, which happened to be among the ten under heaven. Except for the daimyo of Kyushu, Tohoku, and Hokkaido, who were allowed to go to Luoyang every two years, the daimyo of other regions were required to go to Luoyang every spring to participate in the work.The daimyo of Kyushu, Tohoku, and Hokkaido did not come in person that year, but they had to send their elders to Luo to explain on their behalf.

The content of Shangluo's explanation is actually very unsatisfactory. It is nothing more than that under my current governance, the country is peaceful and the people are safe, and the people have enough food and clothing. No daimyo will really tell the emperor about the difficulties encountered in his territory when he is on duty.

In this era when there is no possibility of tourism development, the official business trips of daimyo and high-ranking samurai have become the best opportunities to promote surrounding industries along the way.

There are rules and regulations for daimyo to stay in Luo, and there are quotas for what kind of dormitories they live in and how many people they can accompany them. All money is spent to maintain these scenes!

When the daimyo was weakened to the point where there was no possibility of resistance, it was time to actually implement the order of grace.At that time, Xiujia may not be as disgusting as Xiuli, and even take advantage of himself in the process of extending favor.However, the Hideo family will definitely require that when the next generation succeeds, the daimyo must report to the emperor for distribution according to the order of seniority and the distinction between concubines and concubines.

Any behavior that dares to privately allocate Zhixing's inherited territory will be regarded as contempt for the imperial power.

By this time, the territories of the daimyo were divided and distributed from generation to generation under the order of grace. The daimyo became the minor daimyo, which coincided with the distribution system of titles corresponding to the daimyo's trip.

Why do Xiujia have to practice pushing grace?
Not only to weaken the Daimyo's influence and combat effectiveness, but more importantly to cooperate with the final implementation of Hideie's plan [Return of Benefits].That is to say, for certain daimyo, noble families, and banner warriors with the following knowledge and deeds, their knowledge and deeds will no longer be enfeoffed, but their knowledge and deeds will be converted into city rice money and paid annually.

This is equivalent to when the daimyo, wealthy families, and Hatamoto samurai lose real control over their territory. They are no longer the owners of the land. They can no longer order the people on the land, and they can no longer order the recruitment of the army. The army will become the emperor's personal everything.

This system is currently only implemented in Tibetan areas, and it is only implemented to the extent of less than 2000 dan. The Xiu family's idea is that in the future, no seal will be implemented for less than 1 dan.

The Hide family has calculated it, and based on the average birth rate of three sons among daimyo families, it would only take three generations for a 3 koku daimyo to fall below 5 koku. By then, not only would the title of baron not be retained, but the actual The fiefdom was taken back.

In addition to the military system, with the help of Ikoko Chuden, Nagafune Tsunao and others, the Hideke established "the orthodox laws of destiny" with reference to many laws of the later shogunate period.

The legal code clearly stipulates the rights and obligations of warriors, daimyo, traders, and common people at all levels, and even reaches out to temple communities to restrict the rights and obligations of temple communities.

In the law, Hideie emphasized that the vassals of a vassal were not his vassals, but no matter which samurai or common people ascended the throne were the emperor's ministers, the absolute essence of loyalty to the emperor was unlimited obedience to the top.This is tantamount to directly confirming the monarch-minister relationship between the emperor and the lowest-level samurai. When there is a conflict between the orders of one's superiors and those of the highest level, one must absolutely obey the emperor's orders.

There are many more systems that cannot be explained in one sentence.In short, the Japanese system under the control of the orthodox emperor and under the control of Hideie absorbed many problems summarized by later generations and filled many loopholes in the previous system.

When the system was just tried out, some daimyo would be uncomfortable with it, so both the emperor and the Hide family expressed relief.

After all, both the imperial army and the garrison take time to form. Before the formation is completed, the show family's gentle attitude towards the daimyo can also have a paralyzing effect.

After the establishment of the armies was completed in Tenmei 5, Hideie and the orthodox emperor became much tougher on the daimyo.

First, in the 5th year of Destiny, a conflict broke out between the Ikeda family and the local Shimazu clan samurai, and the Emperor ordered the Shimazu family of the Echu Toyama Domain to intervene and deal with it together.

Ikeda Terumasa had passed away in the first year of Tenmei. Since the laws had not been promulgated at that time, the Ikeda family did not divide the family. His eldest son, Toshitaka Ikeda, inherited the Satsuma Ikeda family. His sons, Tadashi and Tadao, respectively inherited part of the territory. He served as a minister under the Satsuma Domain.

But Shimazu Yoshihiro has passed away, and his successor Shimazu Iehisa is constantly wavering on the issue of safeguarding the interests of samurai from the same clan of the Shimazu family, or working with the Ikeda family to safeguard "the orthodox laws of destiny."

I can't blame the Shimazu family for being so hesitant for a long time. The Shimazu family themselves also moved from Satsuma to Echichu. They also faced the problem of how to assimilate the Echichu warriors. They must use strong methods when necessary.

Both Hideie and the orthodox emperor acquiesce in the use of tough measures, provided that no adverse effects are caused.

The reason why Toshitaka Ikeda was directly named this time was because he went too far when suppressing the territory, which directly triggered a rebellion.

Shimazu Yoshihiro just passed away this year. Although the decree of favor was issued, Hideie's actions were still relatively light.

The Shimadzu family was divided into Etchu Takaoka and Etchu Toyama. Takaoka's 6 koku was inherited by Shimazu Tadayoshi, and Toyama's 48 koku was still inherited by Shimadzu Iehisa. The head of the Shimadzu family did not miss a point. Shiuri was much gentler when he unsealed Owari Domain.

If we say that the greatest significance of this favor is probably that it allows Shimazu Tadakiyoshi to directly participate in the orthodox emperor.

In order to make up for the favor extended to the Shimazu family, the Hide family specifically allowed the Shimazu family to be hereditary Earl for a long time.

Now both families have reached the second generation, and both families are facing the problem of aging family members and insufficient control over the territory.

The Ikeda family's problems are more serious, and the local forces in Kyushu are stronger.In order to increase his control and balance the balance between the Kyushu faction and Ikeda's former ministers faction in the territory, Ikeda Toshitaka blindly suppressed the Kyushu faction and eventually triggered a rebellion.

Shimazu Iehisa was better at handling the Vietnam-China issue, but after being asked by Hideie to intervene in Satsuma mediation, he fell into the issue of whether to maintain the legal system or the favor of the Shimazu clan.

There was no way. Over the past few hundred years, the Shimazu clan had become so prolific, and there were so many samurai from the same clan. Even if Shimazu Yoshihiro took away some of them, the Shimazu clan would still be the emperor of Satsuma.

Because Terumasa Ikeda was one of the top five Toyotomi bosses, the landowners below did not dare to be presumptuous. In addition, he was more tactful and handled things better.

However, under the leadership of Toshitaka Ikeda, in order to maintain the balance of power within his own family and prevent the Ikeda family from becoming a daimyo ignored by the Shimadzu family, Toshitaka Ikeda had to change his gentleness to coercion.

As a result of the contradictions and constraints on both sides, reconciliation has become increasingly difficult, and half a year of suppressing the rebellion has yielded no results.

In anger, the orthodox emperor ordered the replacement of the Ikeda family and the Shimazu family.Toshitaka Ikeda moved most of Inano Ina County to 10 koku.The title was reduced from first-class marquis (hereditary to 2 generations) to second-class earl (only hereditary to 1 generation).

His six younger brothers and uncle Ikeda Nagakichi were awarded 6 to 1 koku respectively. The Ikeda family chief executive was awarded about 3 koku, but they were demolished to pieces.

Because Shimazu Iehisa couldn't deal with Satsuma's relatives, he was directly deprived of 10 koku from Echu Tonami Half County.

As for the Satsuma Shimazu clan and other wealthy families who were plotting rebellion, it was left to the Ashikaga clan to quell the rebellion.All the wealthy families involved in the rebellion were exiled to Hokkaido.

However, the Hide family was grateful for Shimazu Yoshihiro's past contributions and allowed the Shimazu family to show kindness to these Shimazu prisoners.As long as your Shimazu family is not too burdensome, you can take as many people as you want from your 38 stone territory, and those you can save will be exiled to Hokkaido if you can't eat them.

This is actually a poison pill. Vietnam is a country with a large population. The Shimadzu family’s territory has been allocated for a long time. With so many people imported into the country despite being dealt with and reduced sealing, the finances of the Shimazu family in Vietnam and China are very high. There is a possibility of being dragged down.Then it will be the same mistake as the Ikeda family.

But Shimazu Iehisa couldn't help but think about the friendship with the same clan. After all, these people were more or less related to the Shimazu branch family that had moved to Echichu. Shimazu Iehisa needed to take care of the emotions of his existing retainers.

The best way to deal with it is to accept some of the friendly ones and ignore some of the alienating ones.But in this way, the relationship between the Shimazu family and those branch families who have not been taken in will inevitably become worse. At that time, there may be jokes about the same surname but different clans. The reputation of the Shimadzu family will be hindered.

The Ukita Kan family was a new daimyo who was placed by the Hide family after Satsuma was moved and received 27 koku from Satsuma's entire territory, with the title of third-class duke.

By the 15th year of Tenmei (1628), the orthodox emperor, with the support of Hideie, completely controlled the three islands of Japan, controlled Ryukyu to the south, and opened up as far north as the southern tip of Yeku Island.

According to current records in Japan, Yeku Island during the Little Ice Age is already the most arctic in the world, because even potatoes cannot be grown here, and even the most hard-working people are too lazy to continue to expand northward.

In the 12th year of the Tenmei 45th year of the Ashikaga clan's life, he was promoted to the second-class Duke because of his contribution to the pacification of Hokkaido, and most of the territory was sealed with [-] koku.

The Ukita Yoshi family, who originally had 5 shi in Ukashi, moved to Matsumae, Hokkaido, and received 7.2 shi, with the title of Hantate Castle and the title of second-class duke.

There are still many swamps in the Hokuto Plain around Hankan. As long as the development of Matsumae continues, the territory will eventually exceed 15 koku.

Originally, the Haru family of Toyotomi, who also owned 8 dan of Apod Island, and the Makoto family of Toyotomi, who also owned 8 dan of Sanuki Takamatsu, were adopted into the name of the childless Toyotomi Hidehisa. After Hidehisa died, he inherited the territory of Gifu Domain.

The Gifu clan was split into Gifu 30 koku and Ogaki 23 koku by the Hide family, which were inherited by these two sons. They were both supposed to be first-class dukes. However, among them, the Toyotomi Haru family inherited Gifu 30 koku and was promoted to the third-class Duke because of their contribution to the pacification of Hokkaido. Waiting for the prince.

After Hidesada's death, Owari Domain was forcibly enfeoffed by Hidetoshi, but 10 koku was deducted from it.Later, when the orthodox emperor ascended the throne, this part of his knowledge and conduct was made up for.

Now through the reorganization of the territory, several of Hidetoshi's sons have also been rearranged. The eldest son Toyotomi Iesada was still awarded 33 koku of Okazaki by the Hide family.The other sons inherited the territories of Ibaraki, Sanuki, Yonezawa, and Owari Chita counties respectively, and they were still born with the Toyotomi Miao name.

After Hideyoshi's death, the orthodox emperor ascended the throne, the Hide family changed the name Miao back to Ukita, Hidehisa was reclassified as Hideyoshi's heir, and Hidetoshi became Hideucha's only son.

Originally, in Xiuzhen's later years, he tried to change the Miao characters to Tokugawa and Songping for several of his sons, but the Xiu family rejected them.After Hidetoshi ascended the throne, at the suggestion of Tokugawa Hidetada, all the other sons except Iesada agreed to change their names to Miao.

The flags of Tokugawa and Matsudaira once again floated in the sky over Tokaido.

But for Xiujia, no matter what angle he discusses it from, what he cannot live up to the most is Xiujiang's kindness to him, so he must also leave an heir for Xiujiang.

Therefore, after the orthodox emperor ascended the throne, the Hide family forced the sons to change their Miao characters back to Toyotomi. If they really liked the Miao characters of Tokugawa and Matsudaira so much, they would go to Hokkaido to accompany their uncles.

The Toyotomi Keike who originally had 8 koku in Wakayama, Kii, changed their Miao name to the Ukita Keike, and Kii Daito, who had 16 koku, was made a first-class duke.

The Hide family later gave birth to three more sons. The 3st son, Ukita Masakae, was awarded Dewa Akita with 21 stones and was the second-class Duke; the 15nd son, Ukita Tori was awarded Awa Daibe with 22 stones and was the second-class Duke. 14. The Kita Masa family was awarded 23 shi from Ishikari Ikoku Sapporo, making him a first-class prince.

Finally, after the great reform of enfeoffment and relocation, the Ukita Hide family and his family controlled most of Japan's territory. Hokkaido controlled the rich lands such as Matsumae, Ishikari, Kamikawa, Shimogawa, and Kitami, becoming the absolute power of Japan for the next 300 years. controller.

Under this absolute control, Hideie suggested that the orthodox emperor implement tax reform, emphasizing business taxes and neglecting land taxes.The mines and the town of Oshiro were taken over as state-owned, and the sources of finance and taxation in the world were controlled. Although the daimyo from various places complained, they did not dare to express their dissatisfaction.

(end of book)


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