Chapter 3 Yamato Dai Nayan-3

Now let's push the story back to the period in the middle of this article.This was the period when Hideyoshi spread the legend that he was a descendant of the Emperor of Heaven, and was preparing to become Guanbai.As mentioned earlier, during this period Koichiro gradually made achievements in governing Kishu. However, during this period, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's regime had not yet controlled the entire territory of the Japanese archipelago in its own hands.The territory he conquered was centered on the Kinki region, and also included part of the East China Sea region, as well as the northern and Chinese regions.The rest of Oshu, Kanto, Shikoku and Kyushu are still under the control of other forces.

Hideyoshi's top priority is to capture Shikoku, and a force headed by Nagasogabe Yuanqin who rose from the Tosa region has already conquered most of the territory of Shikoku. Hideyoshi informed Yuanqin: "You are only allowed to keep one country, Tosa, and you have to let go of the other three countries and surrender!" However, Yuanqin refused to obey. He formed an alliance with Tokugawa Ieyasu of the East China Sea, one east and one west, echoing each other, and became an enemy of Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi made up his mind to conquer.The policy is to solve it in the short term as much as possible, because Ieyasu Tokugawa is facing the enemy in the east. For this reason, we decided to adopt the following strategy: invest a large army and launch an overwhelming offensive to make the enemy frightened and lose their fighting spirit.After Hideyoshi made a plan for this battle, he called Koichiro.

Hideyoshi ordered, "You are the commander-in-chief!" Hearing this, Koichiro raised his face at first, then tilted his head and pondered for a moment, and after a while, his plump and fair face flushed red, showing excitement.It has been twenty years since I followed my brother.I have experienced many battles in the past twenty years, but this is the first time I have broken the title as the commander-in-chief. The soldiers who crossed the sea to the four countries were called 40,000.Koichiro first crossed the strait by boat, landed on Awaji Island, and then used Fukura Port as his forward base to collect 900 military ships.

A general who was familiar with the situation of the navy said to Koichiro, "What about the whirlpool in the Naruto Strait?" Koichiro, contrary to his usual habit of whispering, laughed and said: "You ask me what to do, I can't swallow the whirlpool of the Naruto Strait in one gulp. As long as you have wisdom and courage, you will naturally be able to cross it Yes. To keep an eye on the tide situation, tie the boats together to form a raft to prevent being washed away by the tide. The rafts are lined up, and the oars and sculls on each boat move in unison according to the command, and bravely rush across. , is there any other way!"

Koichiro's tone was rough, and he was completely different from the gentle and refined him in the past. Soon, according to what Koichiro said, the army crossed the Akashi Strait at once, and landed at Tosapo Port in Awa (Tokushima Prefecture), where they built a temporary castle as a base, and then continued to send troops to expand Occupied territory.At the same time, another army led by Maori entered Shikoku from the side of Iyo (Ehime Prefecture), and a flank force led by Ukita Hideka from the side of Sanzaki (Kagawa County), and entered Shikoku every day. Conquer the momentum of breaking a city and keep moving forward.

Koichiro led the main force and besieged Ichimiyagi, which was the largest fortress of Nagasoga's army in Awa.Due to the tight defense of Gu Zhongbingwei, the guard of Yiguan City, it was not captured for a long time, but this was expected from the beginning.Koichiro had already made mental preparations and planned to spend a little more time in attacking Ichimiyagi. However, Hideyoshi, who was in Kinki, always felt threatened by Tokugawa Ieyasu from the east, so he was afraid that the war against Shikoku would become a protracted war. This fear turned into dissatisfaction with Koichiro.

"Xiao Yilang is a bad person. He always does things so leisurely, like viewing flowers." In fact, it is not a leisurely leisure, even if Hideyoshi came to fight in person, this level of stalemate in the battle, objectively speaking, I am afraid it is inevitable.However, because the other party is Koichiro, Hideyoshi is particularly prone to complaining, and it is inevitable to exaggerate. Hideyoshi said, "I'll go by myself!" This means that you have to go out in person.Not just talking about it, until this period, Hideyoshi's actions have always been very alert.He immediately set off to Sakai in Osaka, stopped there, first sent a fast boat, and immediately sent someone to report his actions to Koichiro, who was in the army of Ichinomiya City in Awa Country.

"Is that what the Lord said?" Facing the messenger Ishida Sakichi (Mitsunari) who came to deliver the letter, Koichiro just said this, and then fell silent for a long time.It was too much, he thought.For the first half of his life, he was only his brother's assistant, but now he is finally allowed to handle affairs by himself.Just as Koichiro was fighting for the conquest of the four countries, unexpectedly, his brother would come in person again. On such an occasion, in the past, he would have obeyed his brother's orders.But only this time, Koichiro tried to make a small resistance.

Koichiro couldn't tell his brother directly, "Don't come!" He ordered the clerk to use euphemistic words as much as possible, and drafted a report to the effect: "I hope that the matter of leaving for the front line can be postponed." The submission reads as follows: Sincerely, the lord sent troops to conquer the four countries this time. My younger brother was kind enough to lead the army across the sea on behalf of my elder brother. Afterwards, I sent a powerful force to Awa and Sanuki. I divided my troops into several groups and marched forward bravely. Within a day, Lian defeated many enemy cities.The majesty of our army shocked the world, and the heroic name of our lord was revered by the world.However, the remnants of the enemy are still fighting stubbornly.I recently heard that the Lord wanted to send troops in person because of this.Although this is due to Xiuchang's lack of ability, he is still very surprised.After thinking about it again and again, I feel that the master's personal conquest of this small land may be detrimental to his dignity, and it is nothing less than a shame to his younger brother who is an elder brother and acting official.Moreover, although some time has passed since leaving the teacher, there is absolutely nothing against my brother's original intention.As for this personal conquest, it would be a great honor for Xiu Chang if he could postpone the departure.Please, my dear brother, fulfill the heart of Quan Xiu's long-term service, and give my younger brother a chance to make another military exploit.If this is the case, Brother Yu will be grateful for the rest of his life.Brother Wanwang loves me so much, I would like to make a special plea here.

Let’s say that Koichiro sent Tomosada Oto to carry the above-mentioned report with him to Gyeonggi, and at the same time, he devoted all his energy to launch a general offensive, and finally broke through the outer perimeter of the castle in one day, captured the water source, and prepared to let the city people work to death , Under such a situation, various military measures were taken, and the general guarding the city, Gu Zhongbingwei, was persuaded to surrender.Zhongbingwei went to the chief general Yuanqin who was in Awabaidi City, and personally told the situation that it was difficult to resist the official army, which finally prompted Yuanqin to make up his mind to surrender.

Shikoku was included under the Hideyoshi regime.This was more than 50 days after Koichiro led the army to fight, and it can be said to be one of the few quick-decision battles in history.Just after that, Hideyoshi was promoted to Guanbai, fulfilling his long-cherished wish for many years. Immediately afterwards, in addition to the four surnames of Yuan, Hira, Fuji, and Tachibana, the surname Toyotomi was created. form.Needless to say, Koichiro also abandoned the original surname Hashiba after the Four Kingdoms War, and called Toyotomi Hidecho. After returning from the Shikoku class teacher, Koichiro changed the fiefdom.He switched from Kishu to Yamato.Yamato, like Kishu, is a very complicated country.Most of the land in this Yamato is owned by religious forces such as temples and shrines, either from Kofukuji or Kasuga Shrine.In addition, during the Warring States Period, these lands were all occupied by the Tsutsui and Matsunaga clans. Even after the establishment of the Toyotomi regime, lawsuits and disputes about land ownership continued to occur one after another.Just because most of these lawsuits and disputes are related to the royal family in the capital, in a sense, this Yamato place is more difficult to govern than Kishu. Hideyoshi said, "Koichiro can do this!" He took a fancy to his younger brother's ability in this area and entrusted Yamato to him.The fief that Hideyoshi bestowed on Koichiro was not only Yamato, but also Iga and some other places, with a total of one million koku.The capital is Koriyama Castle in Yamato. Koichiro's official position was also promoted. In the second year after the conquest of the Four Kingdoms, he became a member of the three councilors, obtained the status of a minister, and was allowed to go to the court to pay homage to the emperor.Then in the second year, that is, after the end of the crusade against Kyushu in the fifteenth year of Tianzheng (1587), he was promoted to the second place, Ren Da Nayan.For this reason, the world usually calls him "Dahe Da Na Yan". From then on, even Hideyoshi no longer called Takeami's son "Koichiro". Hideyoshi began to use the honorific title "His Royal Highness Dai Nayan" to him. One day, Koichiro boarded the Osaka Castle to pay his respects to his brother. Hideyoshi asked him, "How is your Divine Kingdom?" Hideyoshi called it the "Kingdom of God" because the Yamato local shrines and temples belong to a lot of land, so the world calls it that.Naturally, it's hard to call it a respectful title, especially when Hideyoshi said it now, with a somewhat coy and "this place is hard to deal with" tone.At the same time, saying this to Koichiro, who was entrusted by Hideyoshi to manage this mess, probably also contained a bit of consolation. "It's a little tricky!" "a little bit." Koichiro's answer was very simple. In fact, Koichiro was also troubled by it.Almost every day, famous temples of the Mahayana sect of Buddhism, a monastery inherited from the royal family, and the Kasuga Shrine, etc., come to the door to complain to Koichiro and sue.And either one is tricky. "Give me back the land!" Most of the people who come to the door are for this purpose.Even the fief that Koichiro distributed to his retainers, they would say: "You can't distribute that village to others casually. A hundred years ago, it was the territory of this temple. If you want to see the evidence, I have it here. Please You must return it to us." If they do what they say one by one, then Koichiro's territory in Yamato will probably be completely lost.Besides, is there any legal basis for what they say? Koichiro is different from other daimyos, he has to worry about this issue.During the one hundred years of the Warring States period, among the more than 60 prefectures in the world, all the land that originally belonged to temples, shrines, royal families, and nobles were all embezzled by the daimyos of the countries at that time.The economic status of the Warring States daimyo is based on this foundation.Toyotomi Hideyoshi ended the Warring States period of this group of separatists and established a unified regime. The various temples and shrines in Yamato said to Koichiro, "So, please return to the way you were before the Warring States Period!" However, due to the passage of time and the changes in circumstances, it can be said that such land ownership in the previous era has long been divided and has become invalid.To settle this account with the Toyotomi regime is to find the wrong door.If you really want to settle accounts, I'm afraid you can only go to the tombs of those heroes who have arbitrarily invaded other people's territory in this Yamato area during the Warring States period, and have died long ago. Koichiro was the representative of the Toyotomi regime in Yamato, and he tried his best to listen to the various requests of these people; for those reasonable requests, he sometimes returned some of the land to them.However, people's desires are endless, and the more polite Koichiro is to them, the more they think they are weak and deceitful.As a result, the people who came to the door came one after another, endlessly. He couldn't push back these people who came to him coldly.Because these large monasteries are different from other areas. They are either the founding monasteries of a certain sect of Buddhism, or the monasteries where the abbots are the close relatives of the emperors and nobles.In other words, they are a family with the imperial court in Kyoto, and rejecting these people means rejecting the imperial court. The Toyotomi regime was built on the basis of supporting the imperial court.Koichiro was one of the members of this regime, so naturally he couldn't do that. Hideyoshi said: "What they said is really difficult!" According to Hideyoshi's explanation, that is: the past is the past, and the present is the present.The Toyotomi regime adopted the principle that past rights, due to the wars of the past century, should be regarded as having been wiped out.The new regime re-gifted them the land, however this had nothing to do with the past. Based on this principle, Hideyoshi also re-offered the land that used to be the royal family and nobles to the court.The princes and nobles of the imperial court were very happy about this. Although their distant ancestors enjoyed glory and wealth, they have been living in poverty for several generations. On the contrary, it is much better now .However, the nobles of the great temple in Nara are very stubborn about the rights they had in history. Koichiro lowered his voice and said, "Tell me a joke." According to his opinion, it would be better for my brother to change his surname to Genji, become a general who conquests barbarians, set up a shogunate, and establish a purely military regime.The Toyotomi regime is a bit nondescript in this regard.Hideyoshi became Sekiji, and Hideji and Koichiro himself, as well as other Toyotomi families, became princes and nobles.On the one hand, he is a member of the royal family, and on the other hand, he commands the princes from all over the country, ruling more than 60 states.From the point of view of members of the royal family, it is the same as those big temples in Nara.Since it is our own family, we have to stand on the same ground as them, and we should not speak out against their demands.The above is Koichiro's opinion. Hideyoshi said to him: "You can figure out the matter of land ownership." But what surprised him was that Koichiro, the chief executive, was actually a theorist with such sharp observation and analysis.Hideyoshi thought to himself, I don't know when he possessed this ability to think about problems in detail. "I understand what you said, but how do you actually deal with it?" Koichiro took a slow breath and replied, "It depends on gold." He gave them gold instead of land.This method has a strange effect.As soon as the person who came to sue got the gold, he became calm.Not long ago, large amounts of gold were unearthed in Sado and in gold mines all over the country.The use of this metal as an official currency in circulation began with Hideyoshi in Japan.And Koichiro has long understood the great efficacy of gold through his dealings with the nobles in the Nara Great Temple.Hideyoshi laughed out loud after hearing Koichiro's words, he was very satisfied with this way of handling it. Not only dealing with those difficult characters in Nara, Koichiro is also very good at mediating dissatisfaction and conflicts among the Toyotomi family's major names.Some of the daimyos who were alienated by Hideyoshi because they offended Hideyoshi, either approached the Beizheng Office or Koichiro, asking them to mediate.Koichiro often listened patiently to what they said, and helped them speak in front of Hideyoshi. In another example, daimyo who were perplexed by being squeezed out by officials close to Hideyoshi also came to ask Koichiro to mediate.At times like this, Koichiro would always go to the officials' offices in person to find out the truth of the matter, and if it was true that the trusted officials were at fault, he would severely reprimand them unceremoniously. For this reason, among the daimyo and princes and nobles, some people even said: "The Toyotomi family relied on this Yamato Da Nayan to keep the country." However, the golden age of the Toyotomi regime did not last long. In the past 20 years, Koichiro participated in all the battles with Hideyoshi, but he failed to participate in the battle against Odawara Castle commanded by Hideyoshi in the eighteenth year of Tensho (1590). Just when Hideyoshi was about to leave the teacher, Koichiro fell ill while he was in Beijing, and his condition was very serious.At this time, his mother, Ah Zhong, had been promoted to No. 1 and lived in Daban City. She was already seventy-eight years old.Fearing that her son would die before her, she donated land to various local shrines and temples, praying for Xiaoichiro's early recovery.When Hideyoshi left for the Odawara battlefield, he made a detour in a sedan chair, came to Koichiro's residence in Kyoto, and made a special trip to visit him. Even at this time, Koichiro never gave up his cautious attitude towards his elder brother. He asked someone to tidy up the sickbed, straightened his clothes, and waited by the bedside. Hideyoshi worriedly looked at Koichiro's body, which had become thinner, and asked, "Can I get up like this?" The younger brother replied with a persistent smile: "It seems that the difficulty has passed." He nodded from time to time. Anyone with a discerning eye can understand at a glance that this is trying to prevent Hideyoshi from worrying. Hideyoshi was also aware of this, and even though today was an auspicious day to lead his division into battle, he still couldn't help but shed tears.Seeing his brother in such a state, Koichiro panicked and said, "This is unlucky!" He quickly called the priest of Yoshida Shrine and asked him to recite mantras for his brother to avoid disasters and eradicate bad luck. . When Hideyoshi said goodbye and left, Koichiro put his hand on the shoulder of the orderly and sent him to the gate. "What a capable man!" After Hideyoshi returned to the sedan chair, recalling Koichiro's life, he couldn't help but shed tears again.But after that, Koichiro's condition improved a bit.Hideyoshi, who was on the front line in Odawara, also heard the news, and immediately sent a letter to his mother, Daisei, in which he wrote: I am glad to hear that Da Nayan has recovered from the disaster, and my son is very happy. After returning to a well-off life in the capital, Koichiro went back to Yamato County where he lived, where he recuperated.Shortly after Hideyoshi finished fighting Odawara, around October of this year, Koichiro's condition deteriorated again.Hideyoshi and Dazhengsuo asked various shrines and temples to pray for him, but there was no significant effect.For this reason, the Dazheng Institute also fell ill in bed due to excessive grief. In order to comfort his sick mother as much as possible, Hideyoshi decided to hold a large-scale prayer for Koichiro (although he himself did not believe in such things), and begged the imperial court to send an envoy to the shrines and temples to pray for Koichiro's recovery .I probably think that the gods and Buddhas will pay more attention to it if the imperial envoy personally visits the door to pray.A total of nine imperial envoys were selected. They departed from the Imperial Palace in the capital at the same time on the same day, and went to the gods of famous shrines and temples in Ryogamo, Atago, Kurama, Taga, Hachimangu Palace, and Ishikimizu respectively. Before the Buddha, pray for Koichiro. However, Koichiro's condition has not improved at all.At the end of the year, Hideyoshi, dressed in plain clothes, came to Koichiro's bedside to visit him from the capital city of Xiagunshan. But at this moment, Xiaoichiro didn't even have the strength to lift his head up, and the muscles on his face moved a few times, which probably meant a smile to greet his brother's visit.Hideyoshi moved his knees a few steps forward. Hideyoshi said emotionally: "Get well soon, if you want to have a good life, what will the world of our Toyotomi family do?" These words moved Koichiro to tears, and the tears kept coming out like clear springs underground.Koichiro probably felt that Hideyoshi's words were an evaluation of his life. Koichiro said in an inaudible weak voice, "That... that day, brother..." In order to hear what he was saying, Hideyoshi put his ear close to his mouth. "You are... the stirrup of the rope... here." Hideyoshi couldn't figure out what he was talking about, but he answered him, "Yes, yes." Trying to figure out what that meant, Koichiro seemed to be talking about the first time Hideyoshi went from Kiyosu to Nakamura Yijin thirty years ago. What happened when I returned home.It wasn't until the 23rd day of the next month that Hideyoshi realized what it meant.At that time, Koichiro was already dead.On the day he said this, in Koichiro's mind, perhaps the blue sky of his hometown when the two brothers met for the first time 30 years ago clearly appeared. Fifty-one years old.After his death, people from Kofukuji Temple and other Nara temples and shrines tried their best to slander him, saying: "This is the retribution for not returning the original land of the gods and Buddhas!" There was a religious aristocrat from Nara, and the author of "Tamonin Diary" Yingjun wrote in his diary on the 23rd day of the first lunar month of this year: Mr. Nagon Hideaga is dead.Checking the gold and silver, there are 56,000 gold coins, and the silver is piled up to the roof beams in two square rooms, countless.This infinite treasure is now beyond the possession of its owner.He is really a person who wants money but not life!Despicable and despicable! Koichiro is not a greedy person, it might be better to say that he is a generous person.Despicable, I am afraid it is the kind of person who writes the diary.When Koichiro was alive, they asked him for gold and silver treasures again and again for various reasons. Koichiro's funeral was held in Koriyama Castle on the sixth day after his death.Numerous princes, nobles and famous people from all walks of life gathered in Junshan City to attend his funeral.It is said that there are 200,000 people who gathered from all directions after hearing the bad news. All the daimyos who attended the funeral felt that the bright sun that had been shining over Toyotomi's house had begun to rapidly slant west after Dai Nayan's death.In fact, counting from this day, nine years later, on the eve of the Battle of Sekigahara, when the family split, many seniors in Osaka City whispered in a very regretful tone: "If That big Nayan is still here today, so it wouldn't be such a trouble!"