The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 447: Toyotomi Hideyoshi Dies in Frustration

Japan really can't drag on for too long.

Because before the siege of Osaka Castle, Toyotomi Hideyoshi wrote a letter to Tokugawa Ieyasu asking for peace.

This guy also directly ordered the 100,000 main forces of Shinano and Ueno to return for support.

The Toyotomi clan's eastern and western fronts had collapsed, especially the more than ten countries on the eastern front, where only one or two thousand or even a few hundred people were left to guard each country.

The Eastern Front is almost undefended.

Tokugawa Ieyasu naturally wouldn't be polite.

While Mori Terumoto was still assisting Qi Jiguang in besieging the city and attacking reinforcements, Tokugawa Ieyasu also began to advance towards Kyoto and Osaka Castle.

As for peace talks, that is impossible.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi had fooled Tokugawa Ieyasu many times. Every time the situation was going well, Toyotomi Hideyoshi would start playing tricks.

This time, Tokugawa Ieyasu would never fall into Toyotomi Hideyoshi's trap again.

Although Tokugawa Ieyasu was a little worried that this was another trick of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and was afraid of being ambushed, he did not dare to advance too quickly, but this guy kept advancing steadily.

Shinano Province and Ueno Province are only about a thousand miles away from Osaka Castle. Even if Tokugawa Ieyasu advanced twenty or thirty miles a day, he would reach Osaka Castle in fifty or sixty days.

It was impossible for Mori Terumoto and Qi Jiguang to keep besieging Osaka Castle and attacking the reinforcements.

After annihilating the main force of the Toyotomi clan, they will continue to advance eastward.

In other words, they would move towards Tokugawa Ieyasu. If both sides advanced at the same time, the Mori army and the Tokugawa army would face each other within a month.

What to do then?
If we follow the original strategy, we will just do it!

Mori Terumoto and Tokugawa Ieyasu were still allies.

If they caught Tokugawa Ieyasu and beat him for no reason, they would be the ones in the wrong.

What is more crucial is that once the two sides go to war, the Sichuan Army hidden in the Mori army and the twelve battalions of the vassal state of Korea will no longer be able to hide.

By then, the other Japanese lords will know that Mori Terumoto is a traitor.

In this case, the other Japanese lords would definitely stand on Tokugawa Ieyasu's side.

It would be troublesome if these guys united and fought to the death. Tokugawa Ieyasu, Maeda Toshiie, Date Masamune, Gamo Ujisato and others had hundreds of thousands of troops in total.

As the attacking party, they will definitely suffer a great loss.

If it turns into a war of attrition where every inch of land is fought for, the hundreds of thousands of troops of the Sichuan Army and the twelve battalions of the vassal state of Korea will probably not be enough.

It was precisely because Wanli took this into consideration that he prepared to change his tactics quickly.

However, communications were not well developed at that time, and communication from the heart of Japan to the capital of the Ming Dynasty was even more difficult. Even with fast horses and fast boats, it would take more than ten days.

Moreover, at this time, the heartland of Japan and the capital of the Ming Dynasty were both covered in ice and snow, making communication even more difficult. No matter how urgent the message was, it would take more than a month to send it back and forth.

In other words, it had been more than half a month since Qi Jiguang received Wanli's secret order. The main force of Toyotomi Hideyoshi who hurried back to support had rushed into their ambush and was surrounded and annihilated by them.

Fortunately, because it was snowy and icy at the time, the Toyotomi reinforcements could not run fast, and it took these guys more than ten days to run into the ambush circle.

Qi Jiguang had just annihilated the main force of the Toyotomi clan and was cleaning up the battlefield when Wanli's secret order arrived.

What Wanli meant was to let them wait, wait for the Japanese tabloids to frame Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and then let Mori Terumoto put on a show, and then go to war with Tokugawa Ieyasu.

This wait lasted for more than twenty days, and by the time the new issue of the tabloid reached Japan, the New Year was almost approaching.

Qi Jiguang was stunned when he saw the new issue of the Japanese tabloid.

This frame-up is so clever.

If he had not personally executed the nine clans, he would have thought that it was Toyotomi Hideyoshi who did it!
If Toyotomi Hideyoshi saw this, he would probably be so angry that he would vomit blood.

At this time, he was still outside Osaka Castle, and he could even see through the telescope Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who often stood hunched over on the top floor of the castle tower and looked out at the city.

He had already mobilized 200,000 troops and thousands of naval warships under Ma Qiancheng and Yang Yinglong to prepare for the siege of Osaka Castle.

At this moment, Osaka Castle was surrounded by three layers of soldiers inside and outside, and no one could get in or out.

Outside the city, there were densely packed snow-white tents, and the waterway leading to the outside of the Osaka Castle moat was densely packed with Ming Dynasty navy warships.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi should have realized long ago that these were not the Mori clan's troops at all, but the elite of the Ming army!

Wanli meant that Osaka Castle would be taken sooner or later, and that Mori Terumoto would have to put on a show after the new issue of the tabloid arrived, so they would have to wait for a while before going to war with Tokugawa Ieyasu.

We can't just sit around doing nothing during this period of time. We might as well take over Osaka Castle first.

After all, if Osaka Castle is not taken, the vassal state of Korea will have to leave at least 60,000 troops to siege it, which is such a waste.

Therefore, he later sent a secret order to Qi Jiguang, asking Qi Jiguang to mobilize troops and warships to prepare to capture Osaka Castle, and to take action as soon as the new issue of the tabloid arrived.

Early in the morning, around 5 a.m., just as the sky was getting light, there were already bursts of orders outside Osaka Castle.

At around noon, the sun was rising, and the snowfield outside Osaka Castle was already densely packed with square formations, with no end in sight in any direction.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi stood on the top floor of the castle tower, hunched over, looking at the dense formations of Ming army outside the city, his eyes full of unwillingness.

The commander of the Ming Dynasty is so cunning that he actually used this trick!

It turned out that he didn't not know Mori Terumoto, but he didn't know the commander of the Ming army. This guy bribed Mori Terumoto to lead the way, and then pretended to be a Mori soldier and followed behind!
The reason why Mori Terumoto suddenly went crazy was because there were tens of millions of Ming troops behind him!
He really didn't expect that this guy, Mori Terumoto, would actually defect to the Ming Dynasty and become a traitor.

Maori Terumoto, where is your conscience?

At this time, he was still blaming Mori Terumoto.

He didn't even think about how he treated Mori Terumoto.

Mori Terumoto just wanted to preserve his strength, so when he attacked his vassal state of Korea, he actually mobilized all of Mori's 40,000 to 50,000 troops.

This is not a big deal.

After his vassal state Korea was defeated and the Mori clan's troops were released, he left Northern Kyushu, which faced the Ming army, to the Mori clan for garrison.

He also kept instigating the Ming Dynasty, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would attack him and that he could use the Maori army to consume the Ming army.

Isn’t this going to kill someone?

If Mori Terumoto had not acted as a traitor, the Mori army and even all the able-bodied men would have been wiped out!

Therefore, he couldn't blame Mori Terumoto.

If he continues like this, Mori Terumoto will sooner or later surrender to the Ming Dynasty. Even if he doesn't surrender when he is a prisoner in the Ming capital, he will surrender when the Ming army reaches Kyushu Island or even western Taiwan.

At this moment, there was nothing he could do except feel unwilling.

He could only watch the Ming army gathering outside the city and rushing over to attack the city.

At this time, the Ming army had not moved yet, but the twelve battalions of the vassal state of Korea in the east had moved.

They actually had the sword and shield soldiers form rows and rows of shield walls, and then pushed directly towards the east city wall!
Are these guys sick?

The walls of Osaka Castle are more than 50 to 60 feet high. How can it be rushed up without siege equipment?

These guys are really sick.

The shield formation advanced to about a hundred steps in front of the city wall and then stopped moving. Then thousands of arrows were fired!

What's the use?

The defenders on the city wall could just retreat behind the arrow emplacements and escape.

Isn't this a waste of arrows?
In other words, it's sending arrows to them.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi was puzzled when he saw the dense arrows falling on the city wall.

The Ming army's subsequent performance left him even more stunned.

After shooting a round of arrows, these guys slowly retreated!
He was staring blankly at the retreating shield formation.

Kuroda Josui ran up, breathless, holding a crumpled piece of paper in both hands. He bowed and said, "Your Highness, this is bad! Something terrible has happened! They're slandering you!"

The Ming army slandered me?
What's this big deal?
I just treat them as farts.

Why does this Ming army commander always do such inexplicable things?
When Toyotomi Hideyoshi heard this, he took it and looked at it with some confusion, and his expression changed immediately.

His face gradually turned red, his hands began to tremble, and his breathing became more and more intense.

The one in Kyoto was killed!
It was he who slandered the Ming Dynasty!

When he failed to use that person to force Mori Terumoto to withdraw his troops, he went crazy and killed that person, trying to frame Mori Terumoto?
idiot!

idiot!

idiot!

How dare you slander me like this!
What would the other princes think when they saw this?
I didn't do anything, but I became the eternal sinner of Japan!
Deceiving too much!

This is too much!
If other people see this tabloid, they will definitely think that I did it!

Toyotomi Hideyoshi gasped violently for a while, and then started coughing madly.

He was already ill.

This series of blows, coupled with the arrival of winter, had already made him ill.

Moreover, because Osaka Castle was under siege, he could not lie in bed to recuperate, and he had to go up from time to time to check the movements of the Ming army.

Hundreds of thousands of Ming troops were besieging the city, and he only had more than 10,000 troops stationed there. How could he lie down and rest in peace?
His anxious mood, coupled with the cold wind every day, made his condition worse and worse, to the point that he couldn't even stand up straight.

This new issue of the Japanese tabloid was like the last straw that broke the camel's back, and he couldn't bear it anymore.

He coughed harder and harder, until he even vomited blood!

Then he fell headfirst.

Upon seeing this, Kuroda Rusui quickly supported him and called out, "Your Highness, Your Highness, what's wrong with you?"

Toyotomi Hideyoshi had stopped coughing, but he seemed to have lost his breath as well.

Kuroda Rusui carefully checked his breath and his expression changed drastically.

His Highness Taiko was actually angered to death!

(End of this chapter)