The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 433 Tokugawa Ieyasu also plays tricks

Did Tokugawa Ieyasu want to seize control of Japan?

There is no need to ask this question, history is the proof.

Historically, it was Tokugawa Ieyasu who destroyed the Toyotomi clan and took control of the entire Japan, and the Tokugawa shogunate controlled Japan for more than two hundred years.

There is no doubt that Tokugawa Ieyasu had an ambition to control Japan.

However, this guy is too cautious and will never take action unless he is sure.

Historically, he waited until Toyotomi Hideyoshi died before taking action.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi is not dead yet. Will he take action?

Mori Terumoto racked his brains to instigate Tokugawa Ieyasu to take action.

This guy doesn't like fighting, but he has a special hobby of writing letters.

He used to often write letters to fool Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Could he instigate Tokugawa Ieyasu with just one letter this time?

It was already a little chilly in Edo in early September.

Especially in the early morning, the gentle sea breeze is so comfortable.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was feeling very comfortable at the moment. He had never expected that Mori Terumoto would write to him and ask him to join forces to deal with Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

He was drinking tea comfortably in the tea room of his apartment, reading Mori Terumoto's letter and thinking about how to take action.

This guy is really sleepy and wants to bring a pillow to me.

He had long wanted to overthrow Toyotomi Hideyoshi and take control of the entire Japan.

There are many reasons why he hasn't taken action yet.

Whether Toyotomi Hideyoshi was dead or not was not the main reason.

Historically, the reason why he chose to take action after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death was because the Toyotomi clan was defeated, and once Toyotomi Hideyoshi died, the defeat of the vassal state of Korea was a foregone conclusion.

The Toyotomi clan was unable to reverse the defeat of its vassal state, Korea.

In other words, the Toyotomi clan wasted a lot of money and manpower, sacrificed countless soldiers, but in the end they got nothing and were defeated by the Ming Dynasty and its vassal state, Korea.

The Toyotomi clan had already lost the support of the people in Japan, so he would not encounter much resistance if he tried to seize control of Japan. At least other daimyo would not put all their hopes on the declining Toyotomi clan.

At this time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's defeat in the vassal state of Korea was a foregone conclusion, and the Ming Dynasty also printed many tabloids specifically to slander this guy. The Toyotomi clan had also lost the support of the people in Japan.

Therefore, whether Toyotomi Hideyoshi is dead or not is not the key point.

The main reason why he has not taken action is that he is afraid that the Ming country will take the opportunity to attack the Japanese mainland. Also, he has no advantage in military strength at the moment.

There was no way. At this moment, most of the Japanese troops were still prisoners in the hands of the Ming Dynasty. Even if he won over many daimyos through marriage, the problem was that they had no soldiers.

Mori Terumoto's letter just happened to solve these two key problems. This guy was willing to form an alliance with him and attack Toyotomi Hideyoshi from the east and west, which solved his problem of insufficient troops.

More importantly, Mori Terumoto said that the Ming Dynasty had no intention of attacking the Japanese mainland, and it was Toyotomi Hideyoshi who wanted to induce the Ming Dynasty to attack the Japanese mainland.

What this guy said seemed to make sense. The reason why Toyotomi Hideyoshi dragged on with the Ming Dynasty was that he still didn't give up.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi ceded Tsushima Island and Iki Island successively but did not solve the issue of ceding Kyushu Island. His reason was to lure the Ming Dynasty to attack the Japanese mainland.

In this way, Toyotomi Hideyoshi could take advantage of their mentality of fighting to the death against the invasion of the Ming Dynasty to secure his position as Taiko, while at the same time consuming the strength of the Ming army.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi wanted to deplete the Ming army's strength and then launch a large-scale counterattack!

What Mori Terumoto meant was that they would join forces to kill Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and then restart peace talks with the Ming Dynasty, paying an additional one million taels of silver each year to redeem the soldiers from Kyushu.

In this way, the Ming Dynasty would not attack the Japanese mainland, and the Mori clan would not have to face the fierce attack of millions of Ming troops.

Tokugawa Ieyasu read Mori Terumoto's letter again and again, and the more he read, the more he felt that what Mori Terumoto said made sense.

He knew Toyotomi Hideyoshi quite well. This guy's resilience was truly amazing. No matter what desperate situation he was in, he would never give up easily.

This is also the fundamental reason why this guy was able to become the ruler of Japan from a lowly pauper.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi would certainly not give up. He would definitely try every possible way to turn the tables. If he wanted to do that, he could only use the external threat of the Ming Dynasty to make trouble. Now there was almost no room for maneuver within Japan. Most of the daimyo had lost confidence in him. If Toyotomi Hideyoshi did not find a solution, it was only a matter of time before they joined forces to drive him out of power.

Therefore, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was likely to risk his life and lure the Ming Dynasty to attack the Japanese mainland, thus turning the tables in desperation.

This guy is really capable of such a crazy thing. He even dared to attack the Ming Dynasty through the vassal state of Korea. So what if he led the Ming Dynasty to attack the mainland of Japan?

As for whether Mori Terumoto would lie to him, he thought it was unlikely.

Because the Mori clan is currently stationed in northern Kyushu and western Honshu, if the Ming Dynasty attacks the Japanese mainland, the Mori clan will definitely be the first to suffer. They may lose all their territories or even all their troops.

He also knew Mori Terumoto quite well, and this guy wanted to preserve the Mori family business.

If the Ming Dynasty attacked the Japanese mainland, the Mori family's property would definitely be lost.

Therefore, Mori Terumoto decided to choose the lesser of two evils and it would be better to go against Toyotomi Hideyoshi than against the Ming Dynasty.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was unable to defeat the Ming Dynasty even with the combined strength of the entire Japan, but the combined strength of Mori Terumoto and him far exceeded that of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, so it was not difficult to defeat Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

There is also the issue of the Iwami silver mine. At this time, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was taking a very heavy cut. Mori Terumoto could get about one million taels every year, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi took more than three million taels.

Mori Terumoto said that the 3 million taels of compensation paid to the Ming Dynasty every year would be paid from the Iwami Silver Mine, and the rest would belong to the Mori family. This is better than the current division.

In other words, as long as he joined forces with Mori Terumoto, he would definitely have an absolute advantage in military strength. Moreover, he would not have to pay a single ounce of silver as compensation to the Ming Dynasty after they killed Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He would only have to provide 1.4 million shi of grain every year.

After receiving the compensation, the Ming Dynasty will most likely not attack the Japanese mainland.

In this way, both key issues were resolved, and of course he had to take action.

However, he would not be so foolish as to send out troops like this.

It was impossible for Mori Terumoto to rush forward and fight Toyotomi Hideyoshi based on a letter. He had to be prepared for any eventuality. If Mori Terumoto was lying to him, he would be the one doomed.

He thought about it carefully, and actually put down his teacup and started writing a letter.

This guy wrote not one, but three letters.

He actually told Uesugi Kagekatsu, Date Masamune and Gamo Ujisato that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was selfish and wanted to lure the Ming Dynasty to attack the Japanese mainland in order to preserve his own power.

If the Ming Dynasty was really provoked to attack the Japanese mainland, Toyotomi Hideyoshi would definitely let these daimyo send troops to fight the Ming Dynasty first.

This guy is too vicious. We can't go on like this. We must unite, drive Toyotomi Hideyoshi out of power, and then restart peace talks with the Ming Dynasty and pay money to redeem the Kyushu soldiers!
What he meant was, I have decided to send troops to overthrow Toyotomi Hideyoshi's rule, what about you?
Will Uesugi Kagekatsu, Date Masamune and Gamo Ujisato agree to join him in the expedition?

While he ordered people to deliver the letter, he also sent a number of spies to secretly monitor the movements of these three people.

Date Masamune quickly sent out a messenger, and he also received a reply from Date Masamune soon.

This guy agreed to send troops, but he said that he would return to his hometown and his original territory after the mission was accomplished. He wanted to take over the entire Dewa Kingdom.

Gamo Ujisato seemed to have no reaction at all and did not send a messenger at all.

Uesugi Kagekatsu also sent a messenger, but he did not receive a reply from Uesugi Kagekatsu.

It is obvious that Uesugi Kagekatsu went to inform Toyotomi Hideyoshi!
This seems to be a stupid move on his part. If the other party is unwilling to send troops, they will definitely inform on him.

In fact, he was just playing tricks.

He knew that there would definitely be a snitch among the three people, and as long as someone did so, Toyotomi Hideyoshi would definitely take action against him.

If Toyotomi Hideyoshi had taken any action against him, he would have had more tricks to play.

Now he is not afraid of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He even hopes that Toyotomi Hideyoshi will gather troops to attack him in anger.

If that were the case, the kerosene can he bought would come in handy.

Using kerosene cans to defend the city would definitely make Toyotomi Hideyoshi fall flat on his face. Ten thousand kerosene cans could not only kill Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 100,000-strong army, but would also definitely cause heavy casualties to Toyotomi's army.

He was just waiting for someone to inform on him. He wanted Toyotomi Hideyoshi to come and attack him, but he didn't expect that the person who betrayed him would be Uesugi Kagekatsu. He originally thought it would be Gamo Ujisato.

But it’s better this way. At least he has found out that Uesugi Kagekatsu is unreliable.

So, would Toyotomi Hideyoshi send troops to attack him in anger?

(End of this chapter)