Borrow the day to change the day

In Wenhua Hall, besides Wen Tiren, the chief assistant of the cabinet, and Yang He, Minister of the Ministry of War, Li Tengfang, the new Minister of Rites, was also there.

Emperor Chongzhen knew that Zhong Jinwei didn't understand the situation, so he asked Li Tengfang to introduce him first.

In the current Daming officialdom, it can be said that no one does not know the famous Xing Guogong, and no one has not received the benefits of the changes proposed by Zhong Jinwei.Although Li Tengfang is a newly promoted minister of the Ministry of Rites, he is also very respectful to Xing Guogong.

I just heard him introduce to Zhong Jinwei: "Master, the Ryukyu envoy came to court yesterday, weeping blood and begging me, Daming, as the suzerain, to stand up for the vassal state and wipe out the Japanese pirates in their country."

Zhong Jinwei was taken aback when he heard it. The word Ryukyu was a little strange to him.But then I remembered, it should be the Okinawa Islands of later generations.

At this time it was still called Ryukyu, and there was a Ryukyu country with Ming as its suzerain.But the specific situation, Zhong Jinwei is not clear.

"What's going on here, can you tell me more about it?" Zhong Jinwei frowned slightly and asked further.

Li Tengfang glanced sideways at Emperor Chongzhen, and then still satisfied Zhong Jinwei's request, and began to explain to him in detail.

It turned out that the Ryukyu Kingdom paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty during the Hongwu period and became a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Hongwu also sent 36 Hokkien people with surnames to move to Kume Village in Ryukyu.

Since then, Ryukyu officials have been deeply influenced by Chinese culture, and the official language is Chinese.The traditional clothing of the Ryukyu people is Ryukyu, which is similar in appearance to the Chinese Hanfu.As a member of the cultural circle of Chinese characters, Ryukyu people also respect Confucianism and respect Confucius and other Confucian saints.

In the 22nd year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Yuan Keli, who was still an official at the time, was ordered to patrol the Ryukyu sea to investigate cases and redeem Ryukyu victims.

All in all, if someone says that the Ryukyu Kingdom is a province of Ming Dynasty, no one will be surprised, after all, everything has been Sinicized.

In the 37th year of Wanli, Iehisa Shimadzu, the feudal lord of Kagoshima Satsuma, which is adjacent to the Kingdom of Ryukyu, sent Hisao Kawayama to lead [-] soldiers to invade Ryukyu, captured Ryukyu king Shangning and more than [-] prince officials, and withdrew their troops back to the country.

The Satsuma clan claimed that the reason they invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom was that Ryukyu did not pay for Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s military expenses when he invaded Korea, but the Satsuma clan paid for it in advance, but Ryukyu “will not repay.”

At that time, Ryukyu also sent envoys to the suzerain country to ask for help, but at that time, Ming was trapped in the Liaodong War and could not escape, so he still had the ability to help Ryukyu solve the Japanese pirate problem, so he did not send troops.

After the Satsuma clan invaded Ryukyu, the clan sent officials to measure and allocate fields, draw clear national boundaries, formulate taxes, and blackmail Ryukyu Satsuma to pay tribute. The Ryukyu government was forced to grant official positions to the personnel sent by Satsuma.

Until the end of last year, King Shangfeng of Ryukyu heard some recent developments from the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, and he heard fishermen from his own country say about the size of the Ming fleet.That is to say, after seeing the huge fleet led by Yan Yingyuan, he secretly sent envoys to Daming for help again.

After Zhong Jinwei heard the cause and effect clearly, he couldn't help but said: "There is nothing to discuss. Since I, Ming, have the power now, I should send troops and teach the Japanese a lesson."

Emperor Chongzhen now has enough power in his hands to do this. As an emperor who has just gained great power, of course he cannot tolerate the Japanese offending his authority.

Therefore, he also nodded and said: "It is certain to send troops to Ryukyu, but there are still some things. Master Zhong is in Guangdong, so I don't know."

After finishing speaking, he motioned for the Minister of War to explain to Zhong Jinwei.

When Zhong Jinwei heard that there was still something hidden, he couldn't help being very curious, and looked at Yang He, ready to listen to what he had to say.

"Duke, my Ming forced the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate to withdraw the Japanese from Hokkaido back to the country, and then began to move prisoners of war to build large supply points. Unexpectedly, they were repeatedly attacked by the Ainu people of Hokkaido. The troops counterattacked and captured a large number of Ainu people."

When Yang He said this, seeing that Duke Xingguo wanted to speak again, he speeded up and continued: "When interrogating the Ainu people, I unexpectedly discovered that behind all this, there are Japanese people who are making trouble. They don't know I am willing to give up the land of Aizu, and encourage the people of Aizu to attack my supply point of Ming Dynasty."

"Then how did you solve this problem?" Zhong Jinwei couldn't help asking when he heard this.

Yang He would talk about it even if the Duke didn't ask.So he immediately replied: "The imperial court sent envoys to Edo, explained the matter to the Tokugawa shogunate, and strictly demanded that they give an explanation."

Zhong Jinwei nodded, he should do so.Then he was a little curious, wondering how the Japanese would respond.

"The Tokugawa shogunate did not dare to disobey based on the power of my Ming dynasty that had just wiped out the Jianlu, and finally handed over the Japanese who instigated it behind the scenes. But I heard that this matter was not smooth sailing, and it caused fierce resistance." Yang He told Zhong Jinwei reminded.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen also spoke up, and he said to Zhong Jinwei: "Master Zhong, because this matter has already come to an end, so after you returned to Beijing, I didn't mention this matter to you again."

Zhong Jinwei nodded, and then asked Emperor Chongzhen, "Then, what are you worried about now, Your Majesty?"

Emperor Chongzhen did not speak, and Wen Tiren, the chief assistant of the cabinet, said to Zhong Jinwei: "If I send troops to the Ming Dynasty this time, or send another envoy to Edo to ask the Tokugawa shogunate to punish the Japanese pirates in Ryukyu, it may cause more riots in Japan. "

"Because of what happened last time, there has been a lot of dissatisfaction in Japan. And this time it is the Satsuma clan that is causing trouble for Ryukyu. It is a big clan, and it is not comparable to the previous clan."

After hearing this, Zhong Jinwei turned to Emperor Chongzhen and asked, "Then what does His Majesty mean?"

Emperor Chongzhen looked serious and said seriously: "This matter must be resolved, but I am worried that the Japanese will not submit this time. There may be a war between Ming and Japan, so I sent Master Zhong here to ask Ask Master Zhong, what's your opinion on this matter, and how to deal with it?"

The focus of Ming Dynasty's current affairs is still feudal North America.If there is a war with the Japanese, the vassal feudalization of North America will definitely be postponed.It even has to be postponed until the conquest of Japan, so that Japan is not able to harass the vassal feudal North America.

But Japan is not a small country after all, and its combat power is not as bad as North Korea.If the Ming Dynasty officially went to war with Japan, it would be certain to win. Regarding this point, there is no doubt from Emperor Chongzhen to all the courtiers present.

But how long it will take to fight, how much money will be spent on food, and the aftermath of the victory, the monarchs and ministers present are not sure.Because of this, they asked Zhong Jinwei, the Optimus Prime of Ming Dynasty, to hear his opinion.

Zhong Jinwei figured out what the problem was, and after a little thought, he came to a conclusion.