Chapter 27 Chapter 6 The Beginning of Deception

Shen Weijing's negotiating team withdrew from Seoul along with the Japanese army on April 18, all the way to Busan. In Busan, Shen Weijing heard the news that the Ming army began to pursue, and also won a victory in Daegu.Shen Weijing fell into panic for a while, fearing that he would be regarded as an abandoned son who confuses the enemy, he quickly wrote a letter to Li Rusong, warning that the military actions of the army might endanger the progress of the peace talks. I don't know whether this letter really played a role. In short, the Ming army quickly stopped at the front line of Daegu, and began a delicate confrontation with the Japanese army.Only then did Shen Weijing heave a sigh of relief, and continued his peace talks.

According to the agreement, Shen Weijing himself stayed in Busan to coordinate; while the official envoys of Ming Dynasty Xie Yongzi and Xu Yiguan took a boat to Japan.Xie and Xu were 10,000 reluctant, but now it was too late to regret it, so they had to board the Japanese ship Anzhai and tremblingly headed towards Tsushima Island.Going back on the same boat as them were President Xiaoxi and the three executive adults. On May 16th, Xie and Xu successfully arrived at Hizen Nagoya.There, they received a warm welcome. You know, this is the first batch of official envoys from Ming Dynasty since the Jiajing period.The Japanese side was very grand and capable, and the big names from all walks of life came over in turn to toast and treat the guests, making the two angels Xie and Xu dizzy.

After several days of continuous welcome, the negotiation officially kicked off.The Japanese representative was mainly in charge of the negotiation, an old monk Jing Zhe Xuansu. He was a veteran of diplomacy and had been fighting with the First Army on the front line. At the beginning of the negotiations, Jing Zhexuansu still used the old method, pointing a deer for a horse, turning black and white, first accusing North Korea of ​​treachery, Japan launching the war out of necessity, and then accusing the Ming army of pursuing too closely and not keeping promises. Xie Yongzi and Xu Yiguan stayed in Japan very comfortably for the past few days, and their impression of Japan changed accordingly.Once the fear is gone, the psychological advantage of the Heavenly Dynasty Shangguo will return to the two people, and the momentum is very different.

Their negotiation skills are not as good as Xuansu's, but stupid people have stupid ways.No matter what Jing Zhe Xuansu said, they only insisted on two points: first, both sides withdrew their troops and returned to China;These two points are Daming's bottom line, if he can't keep it, he will lose his head, so they can't help but be unprincipled. Xuansu exhausted all his tricks, and even put forward such nonsense as "Japan is willing to fight the Jurchen for Daming" as a condition, Xie and Xu shook their heads like a rattle, and refused to agree to it.Negotiations have reached an impasse.

President Xiaoxi and Xuansu are in a hurry, the Taige is still waiting for good news, if they still can't persuade the envoy, the peace talks will fail. At this time, Kato Kiyomasa, who was far away in Busan, came up with an idea. There is an eternal principle in negotiation: if the tongue can't solve it, use the teeth to solve it.Kato Kiyomasa felt that Ming envoys were so tough because they believed that they had a military advantage and that the Japanese army was weak and could be bullied.Therefore, it is necessary to launch another military operation and slap the other side severely in order to force them to make concessions at the negotiating table.

Kato Kiyomasa had long been responsible for President Konishi's negotiating with Ming, and thought that the drug dealers had taken his credit, and spared no effort to mix sand in it.His move is quite shrewd: if the retaliation achieves the expected goal, then Kato will also have a share of the credit for the peace talks; if the expected goal is not achieved, the negotiation breaks down, and President Xiaonishi will bear the blame.No matter what, Kato didn't suffer. Kato Kiyomasa's suggestion was very suitable for Hideyoshi, and it was quickly approved and conveyed to Ukita Hideo's family in Busan.

Xiujia felt a little headache when he received this task.Hideyoshi didn't know the reality of the Ming army, that's all. The Xiu family had seen the fighting power of the Ming army in the Bizhi Pavilion. Whether it was the Liaodong Army or the Southern Army, they were extremely terrifying.The Japanese army is now guarding the Japanese city, and they still have a bit of confidence, but if they are released to fight in the field, the Xiu family really has no confidence in winning a big victory. The Ming army can't fight, so let's just fight the North Koreans.After all, the Japanese army beat the Koreans without any psychological pressure.

After thousands of choices, Xiujia chose Jinzhou as the target of the Japanese army's sword test. Jinju is located at the junction of Gyeongsang-do and Jeolla-do, backed by the Namjiang River and Poyang Lake. It is the gate of Jeolla-do, and its strategic location is very important.Moreover, starting from Busan, passing through Changwon, Gimhae, Masan, Ham'an and other places, the whole journey is about 126 miles. All the way is a relatively wide road, without any mountainous areas, which is convenient for the army to advance and retreat. Combining the above conditions, Jinzhou is the most suitable for this time to kill chickens and monkeys.

The Japanese army suffered a loss in Jinju in October last year.At that time, the main attack was Hosokawa Tadheung of the Ninth Army. He tried to open up the connection between Gyeongsang and Jeolla Erdo, but he had a bloody encounter at the foot of Jinju City, and was defeated by the defender Kim Simin and the rebels from all over the country. .Since then, the Japanese army has not been able to fully control the surrounding area. So this time when the troops were sent, the Japanese army played a banner, claiming to avenge last year's vengeance under the city of Jinju.The Ukita Hide family went into battle in person, with Kato Kiyomasa, Konishi Governor (he had rushed back to Busan Port in early June), Kuroda Nagamasa, Kobayakawa Takakage, Mori Hidemoto, Shimadzu Yoshihiro, Nabeshima Naomo, Nagasogabe Moto Many generals with their relatives went out with the army - including the 3,000 men of Date Masamune, the famous Mutsu general who had just rushed to North Korea from Japan, with a total force of more than 60,000, and the elite went out together.

The Japanese showed the strength of a lion fighting a rabbit, and they were determined to win Jinzhou. Kato Kiyomasa is not pleasing to the eyes of Konishi, and Konishi is also uncomfortable with Kato Kiyomasa.He himself does not advocate starting a war. Starting a war is tantamount to tearing up the tacit understanding of the truce between the two sides, having a negative impact on the peace talks, and ruining his long-term efforts.But this is the strategy set by Mr. Hideyoshi, and Xiaoxi dare not object. The only thing he could do was to secretly tell Shen Weijing the information that Japan was going to send troops, explaining that I didn't know about it, and it was all instigated by that bastard Kato.Shen Weijing said that you should withdraw your troops and come back quickly, Xiaoxi smiled wryly: "This is what happened, I can't stop it."You simply evacuate everyone from Jinzhou City and let Kato Kiyomasa seize the empty city.Anyway, he can't keep it, once he withdraws, you just take it back.

Xiaoxi's suggestion is certainly a malicious one, but it is also a solution.Shen Weijing hastily wrote a letter to Li Rusong, telling them the plan of the Japanese, suggesting not to confront the enemy head-on, and to avoid the enemy's edge. When Li Rusong heard the news, he didn't care about despising the Japanese's backlash, and immediately ordered all the troops not to act rashly.If it turns into a confrontation between the main forces of the two armies, the dispersion of the Ming army will be very dangerous.Liu Ting, who was closest to the Japanese defense line, even specially wrote a letter to Kato Kiyomasa, urging him to give up this idea as soon as possible, but Kato Kiyomasa simply ignored it. Seeing that Jinzhou City was in dire straits, most of the generals of the North Korean Army began to agree with Shen Weijing's opinion, and simply let the empty city come out, why bother to die.However, Kim Cheon-il firmly opposed the proposal to convert the rebel army from Ganghwado to a regular one. He believed that the words of the Japanese could not be trusted. Jin Qianyi gathered a group of generals who agreed with his views, such as Cui Qinghui, the right soldier of Gyeongsangdo, and Huang Jin, the soldier of Zhongqing, and entered Jinzhou with their respective subordinates. There were a total of 8,000 defenders.In addition, there are some small troops of the Korean army and the Ming army in the periphery as support, and Liu Ting also promised that Jin Qianyi will send reinforcements. On June 21, the main force of the Japanese army arrived at the city of Jinzhou and began to attack the city from all sides.This was an extremely tragic siege battle. The Japanese army dispatched tens of thousands of elite soldiers, iron cannons, tortoise shell vehicles and other weapons to slam the city wall day and night.The entire city of Jinzhou was engulfed in a sea of ​​flames, and there were dangers everywhere.Jin Qianyi, Cui Qinghui, Huang Jin and others stood firm on the top of the city and personally commanded all kinds of defensive equipment. From June 21st to June 29th, the Japanese offensive lasted nine days.The tall city wall of Jinzhou City was brittle by the continuous fire, and a corner was collapsed by the heavy rain from the sky.The Japanese army took the opportunity to rush in, and the desperate North Korean defenders started street fighting. They were soon outnumbered and gradually wiped out one by one. Facing the swarming Japanese army, Jin Qianyi took his son Jin Xianggan, and Cui Qinghui and others jumped into the Nanjiang River to commit suicide.Jinzhou fell. Probably because they knew that this city could not be defended, the Japanese army became so brutal in Jinju City that they massacred the city in an inhumane manner.The North Korean soldiers and civilians in the city were killed and wounded, blood flowed like a river, and more than 60,000 residents in the entire Jinzhou City were slaughtered, which became the first tragedy in the Imjin War.Those so-called "famous generals of the Japanese army" played tea ceremony and wrote poems on weekdays. They seemed to be very elegant and civilized, but when they smelled blood, they immediately forgot civilization and human nature. It can be seen that some essences of some nations never change. of. Having vented enough animal desires in Jinju, the Japanese army left the city full of corpses and retreated triumphantly to Busan.The armies of the Ming and the Dynasties were shocked to see the tragic situation in Jinzhou, and even Emperor Wanli, who was far away in Beijing, expressed uneasiness after hearing about it. Apart from the moral condemnation, Song Yingchang and Li Rusong were eager to find out one more thing: did the Japanese really want to talk about peace after such an unscrupulous act?According to the understanding of the civilized world, playing such a massacre during the peace talks is tantamount to completely tearing the face, and there is nothing to talk about. They went to ask Shen Weijing, Shen Weijing hurried to talk, why not talk!Regarding the Jinju massacre, Shen Weijing explained that it was caused by discord within the Japanese army. Kato Kiyomasa was dissatisfied with the negotiating mediation of President Konishi and started the war without authorization. This explanation barely subdued the anger of Song Yingchang and Li Rusong, Shen Weijing wiped off his cold sweat, and went to test the Japanese mind again. It turned out that the Japanese didn't take the Jinju Massacre seriously at all.They feel that more than 60,000 human lives are not a big deal at all, and what should be discussed must be discussed without any psychological burden. Instead, they feel that they have a little more prestige and complacency. Hideyoshi in Nagoya heard that after the Japanese army won the victory in Jinju, he was so excited that he couldn't restrain himself, thinking that the Ming envoy would give in completely.He summoned Xuansu overnight, gave him a letter, and forwarded it to the two negotiators of the Ming side. Xuansu was not confused, he almost cried when he saw the content of Hideyoshi's letter. Hideyoshi's tone was surprisingly loud. He claimed that Ming Dynasty is an ungrateful country, and North Korea is a neighbor who knows no good or evil. You don't need a large army to teach you a lesson because you don't know my own interests. Now I make seven demands, and if you agree, your sins will be pardoned: 1 The Ming Dynasty dedicated a princess as a concubine to His Majesty the Emperor. 2 Resume Kanhe trade. 3Tomorrow the two countries will forever pledge to be an alliance 4 Seoul and West Sido were returned to North Korea, and Dongsi Province was ceded to Japan 5North Korea sends a prince to Japan as a hostage 6Japan releases two princes and entourages 7North Korea vows never to betray Japan Xuansu's eyes darkened, and he almost fainted.This is no longer a peace negotiation, this is to force Daming to sign an alliance under the city.Once this request is handed over, it is definitely a frying pan, which is simply a declaration of war. "It's all because of that guy Kuroda." Xuansu cursed bitterly. It turned out that when the Ukita Hide family wrote a letter to Hideyoshi requesting the withdrawal of troops, they were afraid that Hideyoshi would be angry because of this, so they used Kuroda Nagamasa's idea and described the actual situation as "the Japanese army won a big victory, and the Ming army begged for peace". . Hideyoshi was originally a smart man, but he is not young and his mind is already confused.He stays in the Nagoya every day, and his grasp of the battle situation comes entirely from the letters of the front-line generals, and those generals are well versed in Hideyoshi's psychology, and they have always concealed defeat and triumphed, and outlined an extremely bright prospect for Hideyoshi who is far away in Japan . Therefore, in Master Hideyoshi's mind, he always believed that the two envoys Xie Yongzi and Xu Yiguan came to Japan not for negotiation, but for begging.When he received the Ming envoy on May 22, although Master Taige was full of enthusiasm, all his regulatory actions were treated as if he was treating a surrender. Now there is news of the great victory in Jinzhou. In Hideyoshi's illusion, the coalition forces of the Ming Dynasty and the North Korea should have been photographed by Tianwei.The seven requirements he put forward can be said to be reasonable and legal, not harsh at all, and fully demonstrate the broad mind and tolerance of a winner. To say something similar, there have been precedents before.Before the start of the Imjin War, Soyoshitomo lured the North Korean envoys to Japan in the name of "congratulations" and lied to Hideyoshi that it was North Korea who had come to surrender. Returning to China almost ruined Japan's plan to invade Korea. This kind of extremely short-sighted trick will be exposed with a little confrontation. For some reason, the Japanese are never tired of this trick.Recalling that at the end of World War II, when the Japanese army was desperate, they were still bragging and dreaming dreams from top to bottom. I have to sigh that national character is really something that is easy to change. After the "Seven Items of Show" was put forward, Xuansu filed a lawsuit all over his head. He didn't dare to remind Hideyoshi that you had an illusion, and he didn't dare to throw these seven items directly in the face of Mingshi. The envoy spoke frankly. When Xie and Xu heard Hideyoshi's seven demands, their faces turned pale.If they nodded and agreed to these seven items, returning to Daming would no longer be a crime of beheading, but would be cut into pieces. Before they turned their backs, Xuansu hurriedly added something vaguely, saying that these seven points are not an ultimatum, if there are any conditions, we can slowly adjust them.When Xie and Xu heard this, they looked at each other, saying that this is a big matter, this matter is not something we can decide, we should go back and report to Shangfeng, and then I will give you an answer. It's all said and done, so there's nothing more to talk about.The Nagoya negotiations came to an end. After sending the envoy away, Xuansu told Hideyoshi that the envoy has agreed to your seven opinions, and now he has to take it back to Beijing for confirmation.Hideyoshi was very happy to hear this, and happily wrote letters everywhere to show off, which shows from one aspect that his arrogance has seriously affected his judgment of common sense. Before Xie Yongzi and Xu Yiguan returned to North Korea, they had told Shen Weijing, who had been waiting for a long time, the results of the negotiations and the "Seven Points of Excellence".When Shen Weijing heard this, he was immediately dumbfounded. The actions of the Japanese in Jinzhou had caused great doubts about the peace talks between the Ming and the dynasties. Now Hideyoshi has made such a bunch of unreliable demands. Once it is announced, the war will definitely start. Life has come to an end—he and He Yi are now grasshoppers on the same rope. He must compromise and establish, no matter what means are used. Shen Weijing wrote a letter to scare Xie and Xu, saying that the conditions raised by the Japanese were too harsh, and if he brought them back and told Song Jinglue, he would definitely cause disaster.Xie and Xu hurriedly asked him what to do, Shen Weijing was an old liar, he lied three times, told them to go back and don’t say anything, just talk about how the Japanese are obedient and fearful of the Celestial Empire, and leave the rest to him . At this time, the envoys sent by Japan to Beijing arrived in Busan. This emissary is called Naito Ruan, who was born in Tanba Naito's family, and is the confidant of Konishi Yukyo.Because he once bestowed the Miao character "Xiaoxi" and worshiped Hida Mamoru, in the Ming and Korean historical materials, historians who were not familiar with Japanese customs regarded him as two people, one named Xiao Xifei and the other named Zen Shouto. Naito Ru'an and Shen Weijing are also old acquaintances, and they met Li Rusong in Shun'an with Shen Weijing back then.When the two met in Busan this time, they both smiled wryly at each other for a long time. Naito Ru'an was sent to Beijing by Hideyoshi this time, with two absolutely impossible missions: let Wanli sign the document for ceding North Korea to Sido; and then welcome Princess Mingshi back. Hideyoshi didn't know the truth, how could President Konishi and Ruan Naito not know, this is definitely an errand that will never return. The solution that Shen Weijing and President Xiaoxi finally came up with was earth-shattering.To put it bluntly in one word: conceal! Before the war, there was already a lot of information showing that the Japanese army came to vent their anger. The senior officials of the North Korean army, the Ming army, and even Governor Konishi thought it was better to avoid the enemy's edge and temporarily retreated to avoid it.Therefore, I think Jin Qianyi, who is determined to stay on his own, is commendable for his loyalty and compassion, and his matter is questionable.The Jinzhou tragedy was a humanitarian disaster, but it had almost no strategic value. Its only significance was that it served as an important piece of evidence in the later stage of the negotiation, prompting the Ming court to abandon the peace talks and decide to continue the war. Hideyoshi and Daming are hidden, both sides are fooled. That's a big deal, but it's also an extremely stupid one.But at that time Shen Weijing couldn't care less. Shen Weijing told Naito Ru'an that when you go to Daming this time, don't mention a word about Xiuqi, just pick something nice to say.Knowing the pros and cons, Naito nodded repeatedly. But now there is still a problem.After the Battle of Jinju, Ming had lost trust in Japan. If Japan still maintained its military presence in North Korea, no one would believe Naito even if he went to Beijing. Naito Ruan's boss, President Konishi, is a veteran who is used to deception. He patted his chest and promised that I will take care of Taiko-sama, and will definitely create a good negotiation atmosphere for you. So these three daring guys made their own decisions and set up a super big lie to deceive China, North Korea, and Japan. Naito Ru'an and Shen Weijing couldn't wait for Xie and Xu to return to Busan, and set off for Seoul first.President Konishi also rushed back to Japan at the same time, together with Xuansu, tried to persuade Hideyoshi to give up a few steps first. Shen Weijing and Naito Ruan arrived in Seoul on July 7 with thirty entourages.However, how Naito suffered a cold reception in Seoul. Everyone thought that the Japanese were not trustworthy. This person appeared to be a messenger, but actually came to spy on the military situation. Some people even suggested that he cut down the sacrificial flag.Naito Ruan was trapped in Seoul, he couldn't advance, he couldn't retreat, he was in panic all day long. But soon Shen Weijing and Naito Ruan heard good news, not one piece of good news, but a series of good news.