Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2158 Zong Baikui (Wei [-])'s scheming
It seems that with the arrival of Jinghua's twenty No. [-] guns and four No. [-] cannons, the Shimadzu family's final battle to put down the Shonai Rebellion is about to break out, but as the saying goes, things are impermanent, and no one can predict some accidents in advance of.

For example, Tokugawa Ieyasu's mediation.

Ieyasu had previously supported the Shimadzu family's suppression of the rebellion, otherwise he would not have endorsed the legality of Shimadzu Zhongheng's beheading of Ijiin Zhongdong with the writ jointly signed by the elders, and personally sent someone to escort Zhongheng back to the mansion.However, this moment and that moment.

When Ieyasu did this, his main purpose was threefold: first, to win over the Shimadzu family; second, to keep Kyushu from chaos;

The first point has been mentioned before, so let’s skip it here.

The second point is actually mentioned, that is, not far to the north of the Shimadzu family's territory is Konishi Yukina's territory, and Konishi Yukio is obviously not on Ieyasu's side. [Note: In the last chapter, the brain twitched, and Konishi Yukio was written as Kato Kiyomasa, please correct it here.In addition, the description is just confusing, the location of the territory is not. Konishi's territory is north of Shimadzu, and further north is Kato. ]
In fact, Tokugawa Ieyasu's strength in Kyushu is very weak, and there are only two daimyos who are relatively sure that they can win over: Kato Kiyomasa and Kuroda Nagamasa.

In the original history, there was Terasawa Hirodaka who joined the Eastern Army later in the Hizen Kingdom Karatsu City, but this incident itself is very strange, because Terasawa Hirodaka has always been on good terms with Konishi Yukyo-chan, and the two of them They all dislike the style of the Arbitrary Faction.Therefore, when Terasawa Hirodaka joined the Eastern Army during the Sekigahara Battle, many people felt baffled.

That being the case, the current Tokugawa Ieyasu certainly did not count on Terasawa Hirotaka.In Ieyasu's eyes, he has only two hands in Kyushu, namely Kato Kiyomasa and Kuroda Nagamasa.In terms of strength, the forces inclined to Ieyasu are obviously at a disadvantage in Kyushu Island, which is why Ieyasu is trying to win over the Shimadzu family.

The third point is naturally that Ieyasu cannot afford to offend Jinghua.Since he knew that the Shimadzu family was the first daimyo in Japan to build the Jinghua Crystal Building, Jinghua must be standing behind it, so of course he would not suppress Shimadzu in the open.Otherwise, if high pragmatic dissatisfaction is caused, Tokugawa Ieyasu will have a lot of fun.

The Japanese value family name more than blood, which has been emphasized many times before.However, the reason why Tokugawa Ieyasu was willing to give up the position of shogun to Gao Yan, who was adopted by him as his adopted son, was actually not just because of the family name "Tokugawa", he also had his own follow-up plan, and this The plan actually takes pedigree into account as well.

To put it simply, Ieyasu plans to marry one of his own daughters to his adopted son.

There are two issues here. The first is whether the marriage of a biological daughter to an adopted son complies with the regulations and traditions; the second is whether there is a suitable daughter to marry.

The answer to the first question is yes.Japan during this period, especially the daimyo family, often had similar practices.Of course, the general situation is that the daimyo only has a daughter but no son, so they will consider marrying their daughter to someone, and at the same time accept this person as their adopted son, who will inherit their family name in the future.

Not to mention that this adopted son originally had a foreign surname, even if this adopted son was his own nephew, it was allowed at this time, and it was very common.

Just to give an example: In the fourth year of Yongroku (1561), Shinzaburo Takeda of Horikoshi Castle, at the request of the Nanbu family, helped attack Sakuraniwa Castle, but unexpectedly died in battle.Da Pu Wei was very sad when he heard the news, and said: My brother helped the Nan family fight Yingting City, and he died in the end.He has done so much, so I will take good care of his son.

Therefore, Dapuwei married his daughter to Dapu Weixin (also called Shan at the time), and adopted her as an adopted son.This is considered to comfort the brother's spirit in heaven, and Dapu Weixin later successfully inherited the position of family governor after Dapu Weize's death.

Therefore, it is a normal practice in Japan to adopt an adopted son, then marry his own daughter to the adopted son, and finally let the adopted son inherit his position as the governor of the family.Since it is normal, it is not surprising that Tokugawa Ieyasu would think so.

According to Ieyasu's vision, not only could the "Tokugawa" family name be preserved according to the shogun's family status, but also half of the shogun's bloodline would still belong to the Tokugawa family in the next generation, which is the best of both worlds.

As for Gao Yan, who was originally just a highly pragmatic bastard, with some flaws in his status, Tokugawa Ieyasu didn't think it was a big problem.After all, although it is true that he is a bastard, you also have to look at the identity of his biological father, right?

He is the dignified "Guan Bai" of the Tang Dynasty!Considering that the Tang Dynasty defeated Japan not long ago, and with the Japanese demeanor of "fearing power but not morality", the status of "Tang Guoguan Bai" is so precious that it cannot be expressed in words.Then his son, even if he is a bastard, no one would dare to touch porcelain in Japan.

What's more, if Gao Yan was from the Tang Dynasty through and through, the acceptance in Japan would be somewhat problematic, but Gao Yan's biological mother was a serious Japanese princess, wouldn't this be the best of both worlds?You know, although the strength of the Narita family is not strong, their family status is not low.

Let’s not talk about it too early, let’s just say that during the Muromachi shogunate, the Narita family was the genealogy of the Yamauchi Uesugi family, the leader of the Kanto, and the Yamauchi Uesugi family can be traced back to the son of Uesugi Kenbo, the uncle of the Ashikaga Takashi’s direct brother, who was also Ueno, Koshi Later, Kenxian Uesugi, who was guarded by Izu...Anyway, simply speaking, the Narita family has a long history and a good status.

To put it bluntly, "Dechuan" used to be nothing more than "Songping", the Miao character (surname) of the bad streets in the Sanhe area.Later, Ieyasu tried to "organize the family tree" by himself, saying that his original "Matsudaira" was the descendant of the Dechuan family, a branch of the Nitta family of the Kiyowa Genji family, so he "backtracked" and changed "Dechuan" to "Tokugawa". ".

In fact, Ieyasu's "Minen courtier" Jiagegui knew something was true, but regardless of whether it was true or not, anyway, the court later recognized that "the Tokugawa clan derived from Genji has the same status as the branch clan of the Fujiwara clan."Therefore, Tokugawa Ieyasu was different from Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi could not be the shogun anyway, so he had to create a Toyotomi Gongyi who "integrates palace and martial arts", but Tokugawa Ieyasu was later able to serve as the "elder Genji" With his identity, he easily served as the general who conquered barbarians.

In short, family style is very important if you say it is important, but if you have the means and ability, it is not difficult to find a reason to fool you with a high-sounding sound--unless it is Hideyoshi, everyone knows that he came from a humble background. Need to find another way.

There is no way to define a high-practical "family status" in Japan, but there is no doubt about her current "international status", and Kai Ji's identity is obvious, and her family status is not low.

Therefore, there is no problem with Gao Yan's earlier status, and when he became the adopted son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, his family status was automatically calculated according to Tokugawa's, and he became a "source courtier", so there is no doubt about it.

The second problem of Ieyasu's plan is the daughter.There is one thing here that is crucial, and can even be said to have changed history.

In the original history, Tokugawa Ieyasu had a daughter named Matsuhime, who was born in 1596, that is, the 24th year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty and the fifth year of Bunroku in Japan (the first year of Qingchang), but she died when she was only two years old.

However, this time, because Ieyasu had already secretly connected with Jinghua, Song Ji received medicine from Jinghua's Edo Crystal Building when she was sick, and then escaped the fate of early death and survived tenaciously. Now she is almost four years old. Years old.

"Crystal Building" is just another name for the headquarters and branches of Jinghua's major trading companies in Japan. It gets its name from the large amount of transparent glass used in these buildings.In fact, in addition to these headquarters and branches, Jinghua Trading Company is an all-encompassing trading body, including medical clinics and pharmacies.

The physicians in these clinics all graduated from the Jinghua Craftsman School of Medicine in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, and their medical skills far surpassed many so-called famous doctors in Japan at that time, so Song Ji saved her life because of this.

Gao Yan was born on September 23th in the 1595rd year of Wanli ([-]). He was the eldest son of Jia Fei Ji, who was less than one year older than Song Ji, so he was quite suitable in age.It is also because of this that Tokugawa Ieyasu had already made a plan to "let Matsuhime marry him in the future" when he proposed to accept Gao Yan as his adopted son.

Now turn your attention back to the Shonai Rebellion in the Shimadzu family.Since Ieyasu's various plans have already been decided, it stands to reason that he can just wait for the Shimadzu family to take down Shonai and kill Ijuin Tadashi, so why did he jump out to mediate?

The answer is: Ieyasu didn't expect that the Shimadzu family hadn't dealt with Ijuin Tadama for half a year, but now he himself had to deal with Uesugi Kageshin.Kyushu can't be chaotic at this time, he needs a complete Shimadzu family to come out and support him.

So, the new question now is: Why did Tokugawa Ieyasu suddenly need to clean up Uesugi Kekatsu immediately?
According to the general theory of Japanese historians in later generations, Tokugawa Ieyasu's crusade against Uesugi Kagekatsu was due to the fact that Uesugi's family built a territory and had the intention of treason.But obviously, how could the problem be so simple!
During Toyotomi Hideyoshi's period, Uesugi Kekatsu and Tokugawa Ieyasu successively joined the Toyotomi regime, and the two basically maintained a good relationship.Because Toyotomi Hideyoshi had instructed before his death, Gu Ming ministers married each other to strengthen the bond, and worked together to assist Toyotomi Hideyoshi.However, it is not known what Toyotomi Hideyoshi's specific arrangement is, or whether it will be implemented.

The only thing that can be traced is that the Uesugi family and the Tokugawa family almost formed an in-law relationship under the needlework of Masuda Nagamori, one of the adherents, and it aroused the worries of another minister of life, Mori Terumoto.However, due to the outbreak of the attack on Ishida Mitsunari by Toyotomi Seven Generals, the matter was left alone.

Logically speaking, since they almost got married, the relationship between the two families should be quite good, but this is not the case.

After Toyotomi Seven Generals attacked Ishida Mitsunari, under the leadership of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the only unlucky guy in the incident, Ishida Mitsunari, thought behind closed doors.This result not only made Mori Terumoto very dissatisfied, but like Terumoto, Uesugi Kagekatsu, who had a good relationship with Ishida Mitsunari, was also affected.Shortly after Ishida Mitsunari was forced to retire, Mori Terumoto had private contact with Uesugi Kekatsu to guard against Tokugawa Ieyasu.

However, what is certain is that even at this time, the Uesugi family and the Tokugawa family still maintain a relatively good relationship.Because Uesugi Kagekatsu did not actively intervene in Tokugawa Ieyasu's step-by-step exclusion of other daimyos who favored Ishida Mitsunari.

In general, until the end of August this year (the fourth year of Keicho), when Kekatsu Uesugi returned to Aizu with his chief minister Naoe Kanetsugu, there was no estrangement between Tokugawa and Uesugi on the surface.

So, why did the relationship between the two suddenly deteriorate rapidly as soon as they left Kyoto?

First of all, Fujita Nobukichi, one of Uesugi's key ministers, suddenly led his family and retainers to leave the Uesugi's house, or to say that he fled from the Uesugi's house.They ran to Shimono country (located in Kanto, belonging to Tokugawa Ieyasu's sphere of influence), and sought asylum from Tokugawa Ieyasu;

Then, Naomasa Hori, the chief minister of Hori Hideji, the lord of Kasugayama Castle in the Echigo Kingdom to the west of Aizu, reported to Ieyasu Tokugawa that there were unusual actions in the territory of the Uesugi family, such as a large number of mobilizations for civil engineering, which seemed to be an unruly attempt.

Did the Uesugi family carry out a large number of civil engineering projects with an evil intention?In fact, Uesugi Keicho was ordered by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the spring of the third year to move from his hometown Echigo to Aizu less than half a year before Toyotomi Hideyoshi passed away.

The death of "Man of the World" Toyotomi Hideyoshi is naturally a big event for Japan. As one of the Ministers Gu Ming, Uesugi Kekatsu naturally cannot return to the territory at this critical moment.He and his important minister Naoe Kanezuri stayed until the end of August in the fourth year of Keicho before they had the chance to return to the new territory.

According to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's instructions before his death, the famous masters are not allowed to carry out large-scale infrastructure construction in the territory without permission.However, considering the situation of the above-mentioned Uesugi family, it is really justifiable, so no one pursued it.

On the other hand, Tokugawa Ieyasu's current successor, Tokugawa Hidetada, already knew that the Uesugi family was under construction in the territory in March, and he also expressed his understanding in a letter to Uesugi Jingsheng.In other words, the Uesugi family's territory construction has already been notified to the surrounding area, and even the Tokugawa family, who are not on the border, also know about it.

More importantly, the so-called Hori Naomasa's denunciation only appeared in the historical materials of the Uesugi family, military novels, and the famous "Noe Nao" in later generations.If there is such a big move that is enough to alarm the Hori family, which is more than [-] kilometers away and does not directly border Aizu, then the daimyo who border Aizu should also report it, but there is no record of this in the historical materials. .

Therefore, the biggest focus of the conflict between Ieyasu Tokugawa and Jingsheng Uesugi is obviously not on the construction of the Uesugi family's territory.

There are two real problems, one related to Nobukichi Fujita.After the escaped Uesugi retainer fled to Tokugawa Ieyasu's territory, there was no movement to follow, and the reason why he escaped from the Uesugi family was also confusing.It is generally believed that he was because the Uesugi family was completely controlled by Naoe Kanetsugu and his party at that time. Fujita Nobukichi, who was born in another country, was increasingly isolated and eventually left the Uesugi family for development.

At the same time, there is also evidence for inference in later generations, that is, after the Battle of Sekigahara, Fujita Nobukichi was awarded the title of ten thousand stones by Tokugawa Ieyasu. Therefore, some historians believe that Fujita Shinkichi caused Tokugawa Ieyasu to have Opportunity to suppress the Uesugi family and make credit will be rewarded.

That is to say, these scholars speculate that it was precisely because Fujita Nobukichi fled into Tokugawa Ieyasu's territory in late February, and then reported the Uesugi family's misconduct, which gave Tokugawa Ieyasu the opportunity to act.

Although some scholars believe so, what still needs to be pointed out is the records about Fujita Nobukichi. Except for the "Nao Jiang", basically this Fujita Nobukichi has no sense of existence in history, and his name has basically disappeared from historical materials. It only appeared again in the rewards of the Battle of Sekigahara.

Therefore, whether he denounced the Uesugi family (or made a false accusation), only appeared in the records of the Uesugi family, and there is no evidence from his own historical materials. It can almost be regarded as an isolated evidence, which should not be accepted logically.

The second reason is that Uesugi Kagekatsu, as one of the ministers of Gu Ming, did not go to Beijing in the early spring of the fifth year of Qingchang to pay homage to the lord Toyotomi Hideyori.

In fact, when he was in Kyoto and Osaka, the fact that Uesugi Kekatsu did not go to Beijing became a topic as early as early April.For example, on the eighth day of April, Yoshihiro Shimadzu mentioned in his letter to Iehisa Shimadzu:

Since Jingsheng could not go to Beijing, Masuda Nagamori and Otani Yoshitsugu made many mediations, but they still returned in vain.Ina Akizuna (this person is Tokugawa's retainer) will leave for Oshu on the [-]th of this month (meaning going to Aizu, the city where Uesugi Kagekatsu lives).

On April 27th, Yoshihiro Shimadzu mentioned again in a letter to his brother Ryubo Shimadzu:
In view of Master Nagao's (referring to Uesugi Kekatsu) delay in going to Beijing, (here referring to Ieyasu Tokugawa) sent Ina Akizuna as an envoy after learning about it, together with the envoys sent by the Toyotomi family, departed from Fushimi for Aizu on the [-]th .They are expected to return to Beijing to report in June... It is said that the Duke of the Uchifu (here refers to Tokugawa Ieyasu, the original Tokugawa Ieyasu was the Ueifu in history, and this book is the Zuofu) responded (here refers to the Uesugi family) to answer the content , or personally lead troops to crusade.

In the content of the two letters, there are three points worth noting.First, the Uesugi family was criticized for delaying going to Beijing.Second, before this, Masuda Nagamori and Otani Yoshitsugu had already done some mediation work on this matter; third, Shimadzu Yoshihiro mentioned in the second letter that Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi's family jointly sent envoys to Aizu to find out.

Regarding the first point, if emotional factors are excluded, Tokugawa Ieyasu is fully qualified to ask Uesugi Kagekatsu, who is apparently at the same level, to come and meet Toyotomi Hideyori in the name of Toyotomi Hideyori.According to the rules of the Wu family at that time, if a subject is slow and fails to meet with the lord on time, it will be regarded as an act of disloyalty. If it is serious, the lord and other retainers will regard it as intentional rebellion and will be besieged.

Excluding the plan behind Tokugawa Ieyasu, it can be seen from the two letters of Shimadzu Yoshihiro that the late arrival was not due to Tokugawa Ieyasu's nervousness, and many samurai at that time also talked about it.

As for the third point, it can also be seen that Tokugawa Ieyasu was not the only one who sent envoys to this matter, and the Toyotomi regime also sent envoys to question Uesugi Kekatsu.According to another letter from Yoshihiro Shimadzu, it can be known that Terumoto Mori, one of the five elders, represented the Toyotomi regime.

This means that Uesugi Kekatsu's delay in going to Beijing was indeed not Tokugawa Ieyasu deliberately finding fault, because the Toyotomi regime and another elder brother Mori Terumoto who had a good relationship with Uesugi Kekatsu also realized the seriousness of the problem.Therefore, this further shows that this conflict was not a matter of private territory construction as believed by later generations of Japanese generalists at the beginning.

Regarding the construction of Aizu, neither the Tokugawa family nor the daimyos around the Uesugi family have corresponding records.Explain that the behavior of the Uesugi family in the construction area is actually quite common, and there is nothing worth recording.The real reason is that Jingsheng Uesugi delayed going to Beijing for unknown reasons.

Perhaps from the weather point of view, it is understandable that Uesugi Jingsheng has concerns about the inconvenience of traveling because of the heavy snow in Aizu.However, after entering April of the following year, with the arrival of the envoys of the Toyotomi regime, the heavy snow closure of the mountains should not continue to be a reason anyway, but Uesugi Jingkatsu still did not go to Beijing, which caused the Toyotomi regime and Tokugawa Ieyasu to cooperate. Sending envoys eventually led Tokugawa Ieyasu to conquer the Aizu Uesugi family.

In the original history, the reason why Uesugi Jingsheng refused to enter Beijing can no longer be found, but now it is different-the situation of all parties is quietly collected by Jinghua, and then firstly collected in the hands of Jia Feiji in Sakai Port, and then passed on by flying pigeons. The book tells Gao Pragmatism.

Therefore, this time Uesugi Jingsheng's reason for refusing to go to Beijing is high and pragmatic.
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(End of this chapter)