Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

On the second day of June in the third year of Qingchang, Hideyoshi became more and more ill and was bedridden. The news quickly spread outside the city.By mid-June, Fushimi Castle was already full of people's hearts.The lingering winds of the troubled times have not yet dissipated, and the Tai Pavilion admired by all the people has fallen again. It is naturally unpredictable how it will end. On June 16th, Tokugawa Ieyasu summoned all the daimyos stationed in Beijing to the hall of Fushimi Castle, and held a grand banquet in the name of Taiko.In fact, this banquet was not approved by Hideyoshi, but Ieyasu called Maeda Genichi, Asano Nagamasa, Masuda Nagamori, Ishida Mitsunari, and Nagatsu Masaka Gobuki together, and reluctantly let them hold it.

"Among the generals, some dare to despise the orders of the superiors. If they are allowed to go on like this, they will naturally cause private fights among the generals, and then turn into riots. Therefore, we want to let them all enter the city and hold a big banquet. I hope Wu Fengxing will take this opportunity. Teach them a lesson." "Is this the Taiko-sama's order?" Ishida Mitsunari asked first. "Could it be that Shaosuke Jibu has doubts?" Ieyasu smiled. "Thirty percent didn't mean that. It's just that nowadays adults are often insane, so they took the liberty to ask."

"That's right, gods and Buddhas don't speak like ordinary people, but eminent monks and great virtues can understand the Buddha's heart well and popularize the Buddha's way. If everyone is allowed to do whatever they want, it will cause riots. Do you understand?" Sancheng's sharp gaze quickly glanced at Ieyasu, but did not continue to refute, besides, there was no loophole in Ieyasu's words.But he understood that this was not the order of Hideyoshi who was bedridden, but the intention of Ieyasu. On the 16th, all the generals gathered together and held a grand banquet.During this period, Wu Fengxing took the stage one after another to state the general trend of the world, admonishing Zhongte to give up personal grievances and obey God's orders.Ieyasu, Hideyori, and Toshiie sat side by side in the top position, and at the beginning they were silent, letting Gohoshin preside over everything.

Among the generals, there were those who calmly asked about Taige's condition, and some who openly challenged Wu Fengxing. "Because the Taige is seriously ill, everyone in the world must obey the orders of Wu Bongxing. Is that what you mean?" "Exactly. Since Taige is still ill..." "Huh! I won't follow. How can the old grudge be solved so easily?" "Do you want to disobey the order?" "Hmph! It's impossible for us to go to Taige's pillow and ask in person to confirm the authenticity of these orders." One person started it, and immediately many people responded: "Yes. Who knows what is the order of the Taige, and what is the pursuit of private opinions? Could it be that just one sentence from you can clear up the previous suspicions?"

With the strength of the wine, the whole house suddenly boiled.The matter has come to this point, and the generals can no longer be appeased by the five obediences alone.The drunken generals were all skeptical of Wu Fengxing, and seemed to point all their fingers at Ishida Matsunari. Sancheng noticed that everyone's resentment had concentrated on him, his face changed, and he thought, he was plotted against!He looked at Ieyasu, and Ieyasu was still sitting silently next to Hideyori, toasting and drinking.This is Ieyasu deliberately using everyone's mouth to blame himself, deliberately making himself look ugly... The more he thinks about it, the more he feels that something is wrong.

"What, now you know how powerful you are?" Sancheng felt that Ieyasu seemed to be saying this, and forced him towards him viciously.Thirty percent is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and will never be so willing to take the blame.He hurriedly walked in front of Jiakang, and said: "The Lord of the Inner Palace must have seen it, the scene is so chaotic. Please tell everyone that all orders come from the Taige." Ieyasu was silent for a moment.Taige is still ill, and everyone is already like this. One can imagine the chaos after he left.He had already expected this. "Inner Palace, this is an insult to the Taige's dignity."

"Don't you have a better way to convince them?" "We were ordered by the Taige to hold today's banquet." "So there's no other way? Better to wait and see." "But if you let them get drunk, I'm afraid..." "Don't worry. If you know the crux, you will have countermeasures." Sancheng bit his lip and left bitterly.In his view, Ieyasu simply wanted to show the generals the weakness of Gohoshin.He cursed in his heart, this old fox! Not long after Sancheng left, Ieyasu called Asano Nagamasa over and whispered a few words.Changzheng immediately had a serious face, and went out of the hall very nervously, and came back soon after, as if he was recovering from Xiangjia.Ieyasu nodded leisurely.

"Everyone be quiet, I have something to say." Ieyasu sat up straight and said.Due to the noisy voices, it didn't calm down for a while, and the noise continued for a while. "Now all the gates of Fushimi Castle are closed." Ieyasu waited for all the generals to calm down, Fang said, his voice was full of confidence, "At this time, the world should be the most important thing. In order to help you solve the personal grievances between each other, we deliberately This banquet was held. However, things did not go as planned. Instead of showing any signs of reconciliation, the situation intensified. As a last resort, I have no choice but to not leave the city tonight.” Although Ieyasu’s expression was calm, his words were extremely sharp: Those who disobey the order will be killed without mercy!

There was a sudden silence when the house was full.They knew that Ieyasu was a minister of the interior with a high official position, and since the Battle of Komaki Nagakute, everyone in the world knew his extraordinary strength as a general.For a long time, Ieyasu in Fushimi Castle has been particularly cautious.But today, he was suddenly enraged, drew his sword and stretched his strings, and the city gates were closed... The crowd of drunks was shocked, and the arena was filled with silence and murderous intent. "Haha, this is just us joking, it's just a little too much, and there is absolutely no intention of disobeying God's orders." Someone said this.

"That's right. I just drank too much, and I want to use the strength of the drink to satirize those despicable people who lie about serving the public, but are doing shady things." "I'll tell the Lord of the Neifu, the Neifu has always been a meticulous person." "Yes, yes. Well said, well said. We swear: From now on, we will never care about personal grudges or fight against each other." At this time, the executioners finally breathed a sigh of relief.But their faces turned ugly again, and everyone's mind was full of doubts: Ieyasu must be trying to use the banquet today to downplay Wu's authority, push himself in front of the generals, and stand up for himself.This cunning old fox!

However, Ieyasu thought the exact opposite of them.Once Hideyoshi dies, Japan is very likely to return to the troubled times of feudal lords competing for the throne.Now that there are many crises, if we continue to let things go, maybe the day of Hideyoshi's death will be the time when turmoil breaks out again in Japan.Everyone already has a growing dislike for Hideyoshi's close ministers, and Kato, Kuroda, Shimadzu and other strong generals will definitely form gangs after they return to China.In this way, Nobunaga and Hideyoshi have devoted themselves to dominating the world, and they will fall apart in the blink of an eye. "Everyone understands this truth, it's great. Therefore, please support the young master, obey the public order, and unite as one. Alright, let's raise your glasses together and drink to your heart's content!" After speaking, Ieyasu left the table alone. In the morning of the second day, Ieyasu came to Hideyoshi's pillow and told him what happened the night before.He is still worried that Wu Fengxing will maliciously distort and lie about the facts.Fortunately, Hideyoshi was still awake at this time.After listening to Ieyasu's words calmly, he asked the attendants to retreat, and gently grabbed Ieyasu's hand.His hands were cold, thin, like dead wood. "Neifu, you did a good job. I saluted you." As he spoke, Hideyoshi's eyes burst into tears, "Hideyoshi is still young... I have to trouble you to take care of the future. After that, All the government affairs are entrusted to you. When Xiu Lai grows up, it is up to you whether he can become a weapon. Please, please!" This was the last time Hideyoshi spoke soberly. Later, Hideyoshi reconfirmed in public: all government affairs were handled by Ieyasu, and Hideyoshi's assistant minister was Maeda Toshiie.Since then, Hideyoshi's orders have become confusing and unacceptable to any reasonable person.Even so, the five elders are still Tokugawa Ieyasu, Maeda Toshiie, Ukita Hideke, Mori Terumoto, Uesugi Kekatsu; the five honours are still Ishida Mitsunari, Asano Nagamasa, Masuda Nagamori, Maeda Genyi, and Nagatsu Masakaya.In addition, when there were disagreements or even conflicts between the two, Kazushi Nakamura, Kimasa Ikoma, and Yoshiharu Horio stepped forward to mediate.When determining these candidates, in addition to Hideyoshi's own ideas, the opinions of Sancheng and others were also fully adopted.In fact, this is just to maintain the balance of power by keeping the big bosses in check, not true integration and convincing.Afterwards, the oaths were exchanged, and the contradictions among the generals eased, but everything was temporary. At the beginning of August, everyone realized that Hideyoshi's death was only a matter of time. One day, Chaya Shiro Jiro came to Ieyasu's mansion in Fushimi and reported the news that Lu Song had helped Zaemon escape. "It's really daring. When Sakai Fengxing sent someone to arrest him, he was already gone. He even swept away the gold and silver, leaving nothing behind." "So he was afraid of Taige's anger and fled?" "It's not that I'm afraid of the Taige, it seems that I want to surprise the Taige's close officials." "A close minister?" "Yes. What he meant seemed to be that it wasn't Taige's intention to arrest him, but that his cronies were acting mischievously under the guise of Taige. Therefore, don't blame him for being rude. When the government officials brought official documents to arrest him , The palace was donated to the monastery long ago, the shops and warehouses were all sold to others, and the government got nothing. Everyone in Sakai Port admired him and praised him as worthy of the famous Luzon House. He must be hiding somewhere at ease now. " Ieyasu looked at Chaya's face, was silent for a moment, and said, "When did Suzaemon leave the sea?" "It is said to be June 30th." "Oh." "Is there any mystery in it?" "Haven't you noticed that the Sakai bureau has long since disappeared from the Fushimi mansion?" "Wooden?" "Yes. She never came back after visiting her father. There is no news from Jiaoan, don't you think this is a bit strange?" "Mushi..." Chaya Shiro Jiro lowered his voice and looked around. "It seems that she still refuses to marry me after all, and went with the Luzon House." Ieyasu laughed loudly. "My lord, why do you say that?" Chaya Shiro Jiro still didn't understand why Ieyasu was laughing, he asked solemnly.Of course, Chaya knew that this was meant to be a joke, but he also wanted to confirm whether there was any evidence that Kino and Suzaemon had eloped. However, Ieyasu smiled relaxedly: "Haha...of course it is true. She is a very difficult woman to fall in love with." "My lord was joking." "How is this a joke? Mushi is such a woman. If you confess to her, she will stay away from you. But if you leave her, she will come to your heart instead. If you are with Suzaemon, she will also I just gave up. I guess she must be very relaxed now." "My lord really thinks that she ran away with him because she likes to help Zaemon?" "To be honest, Chawu, I think she left just because of a moment of anger, out of jealousy towards me, that is, a child who temporarily left her parents' side." "My lord is joking again." "You still don't believe it? Ever since Agui came, for some reason, she has been fidgeting." "Mrs. Turtle?" Ieyasu nodded frankly, "Since you understand everything, Chaya, there is one thing you have to do." Mrs. Agui mentioned by Ieyasu is the daughter of Shimizu Sokiyo, the priest of Ishikimizu Hachiman Shrine, who became Ieyasu's young concubine.After A Gui came, Mu Shi felt a little weird.Regardless of that, Chaya Shirojiro wanted to figure out what he had to do. "Chawu, did you come to ask for something today? It's written on your face." "Oh?" "You just have to inquire, and you should know where Suzaemon went on the boat." "Yes. You can definitely find out." "Do you want to go there by boat too? That's why you're begging me today?" "My lord, I know. I firmly believe that Suzaemon must be someone who can bring wealth to Japan." "That's all. There are people from Ise Port who have already gone to sea with the same thoughts. Taiko is bedridden, but those healthy people are trying to implement their grand plans. Since you are also for Mushi, I will give special permission. Go ahead." Chaya Shirojiro blushed and nodded in agreement.He didn't want Suzaemon to sever ties with Japan just like that.Therefore, he wanted to get in touch with him.These have already been seen by Ieyasu.Moreover, if Mu Mizhen is with Suzaemon, he doesn't have to worry. If he can't get in touch with her, he feels sorry for Shoan, that's how Shiro Jiro is. "Chaya, if you get in touch with Suzaemon, be sure to tell him not to treat Kishi badly. Kiyasu is the woman my Ieyasu is obsessed with." Speaking of this, Ieyasu clapped his hands and called the servant boy. "Everyone's soul will return to dust one day." When the servant boy brought tea to the two of them, Ieyasu suddenly said this.The tea house has no interface. "I always thought that Mr. Nobunaga died unexpectedly, but now it seems that is not the case." Holding the tea bowl in his hand, Ieyasu seemed to be talking to another self in his body, "Mr. Nobunaga's life was vigorous and admirable. I heard that Back then at Honnoji Temple, when he was dying, when he found out that the person who conspired against him was Akechi Mitsuhide, he just said, "If the opponent is Mitsuhide..." he resolutely went to the fire and committed suicide. He had already seen through Mitsuhide's caution. He was stubborn and stubborn, so he didn't show any hesitation at the end of his life." Hearing this, Chaya roughly understood what Ieyasu was thinking. "Taige immediately made up his mind to fight against Zhizhi. Why? At the beginning, I thought that all of this was due to Taige's superior capacity. In fact, it is not. Nobunaga's astonishing life also created Taiko and made Taiko It also formed a decisive temperament. I only now understand the root of Taige's rise." Ieyasu's words caught the tea house's eyes, and finally he had to add a sentence: "My lord, so the Taiko's determination to attack Zhizhi is not only because of his own extraordinary ability, but also because of Nobunaga's influence on him?" Ieyasu nodded, "Yes, Mr. Nobunaga has never been confused at all throughout his life. He held high the banner of unifying the world and attracted attention." "Then, what is the difference between Taiko's life and Nobunaga's life?" "Chawu, Taige is still alive." "But recently there are always some rumors that Taige has lost his mind." "What I mean is that if Taiko's goal is as clear as Lord Nobunaga's, he won't be confused now." Chaya closed his mouth again.There is no need to ask anymore, Taiko's will is not as firm as Nobunaga's. He is sometimes for the world and sometimes for his son. Therefore, Ieyasu must have thought hard about this.What the hearts of the people want is what all people want, and everyone in the world firmly believes that Ieyasu will inevitably become the successor of Hideyoshi's great career.Because of this, compared with when Hideyoshi used to avenge Nobunaga in the name of avenging Lord Nobunaga, he made great strides all the way and took the world directly. Now there are many difficulties. Ieyasu put down his tea bowl, closed his eyes and meditated.He seemed to have forgotten everything, and he became an awe-inspiring Buddha. Chaya hesitated, he had also reached the age where he had to seriously think about the meaning of life.Taige also took the world as his own responsibility, but at the last moment, he had selfishness, so he left trouble for future generations... The world is impermanent, it's incredible.Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu, the three had the same ambition from the beginning and were tied together.To unify the world and establish a peaceful and prosperous world has always been the long-cherished wish of the three of them.Because of this, even Nobunaga, who is extremely difficult for ordinary people to please, has greatly admired Ieyasu throughout his life.The same goes for the relationship between Ieyasu and Hideyoshi.If Ieyasu is like Matsunaga Hideo, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Takeda Shingen, just to win the world, Hideyoshi probably won't use him so much.Similarly, Ieyasu must not compromise with Hideyoshi after the battle of Komaki Nagakute and show sincerity.From this point of view, the goals of the three are ultimately the same, as if they were one at all. However, when Hideyoshi became seriously ill, his ambition changed.His foundation was not stable enough for the Toyotomi clan to inherit the power from generation to generation, but he already regarded the world as the Toyotomi clan's possession.It is this kind of thinking that makes the current Ieyasu into distress. Chaya Shirojiro thought it was time to say goodbye.Ieyasu was still thinking about it alone with his eyes closed, and Torii Shintaro didn't seem to care about the tea house either. After he quickly packed the tea set, he retreated to the outside room. "My lord, let me take my farewell." Chaya saluted Ieyasu. "Oh." "The weather is hot, please take care of yourself." "You should pay more attention to the world." "I obey. Then, I will take my leave first." When Chaya Shirojiro walked out of the Tokugawa mansion, the sun had already set in the west, and on the square in front of the Fushimi Castle Gate, there were more than 20 ascetics casting long shadows on the ground. Stop counting the rosary and pray for Taige to recover.On the opposite side is the Ishida mansion, and the gatekeepers are motionless holding their guns, like terracotta warriors placed in the local area. "Mr. Chaya... Isn't this Mr. Chaya?" Hearing someone greet him, Chaya hurriedly turned around, only to see a man in a hakama suit standing there with young attendants behind him, it was Honami Koetsu. "It's Guangyue, why are you here?" "Send a short knife to the wife of the Beizheng Office." Recently, Guangyue has become more sophisticated in dealing with people.Today, his eyes were bright, and he seemed very excited, "Mr. Chaya, the world will be in chaos again. Maybe there will be military chaos within this year." He may have heard something at the Beizheng Office, and quickly leaned towards Shiro Jiro , Whispered: "The wife of the Beizheng Office has entrusted me with a big event." "Ah, this is really surprising." Chaya hurriedly looked around.Right now, the world is rumoring that Shiro Jiro and Koetsu are Tokugawa's spies, and they are also spies of the Beizheng Office.If that was the case, their opponents would naturally be Madam Nishimaru and Sannari.Not far away is Ishida Mitsunari's residence. "Guangyue, let's talk while walking..." The tea house urged Guangyue, and walked away first, "What can I ask you?" Guangyue said some nonsensical words: "It seems that there is some trouble in standing at attention and An Guo." "Is it about the Lotus Sutra? Is this what Beizheng entrusted you with?" "No. This military turmoil should be considered a civil strife, maybe it will turn into a dispute over the teachings of believers?" "What, a doctrinal dispute?" "It's the dispute between the Lotus Sutra and foreign religions." "So it's a fight between Kato Higomori and Konishi Settsumori?" "You can also say that. In short, the Beizheng Office..." After speaking, Guangyue carefully looked around again, "Of course, this is a top secret—the Beizheng Office asked me to secretly find her a secluded place in the capital." "Who wants to live in seclusion?" "Of course she is." Chaya almost suspected that he had heard wrong.Guangyue is not a person who likes to joke, he and Chawu are close friends.After Rikyu's death, he and the tea house have always been loyal to each other, and they must discuss things together.Chaya never thought that the hostess of Osaka Castle would actually seek a hermitage in the capital.It happened so suddenly that he didn't know how to answer for a while. "Mr. Chaya, it seems that the civil strife is deeper than I imagined. Oh, yes, I also heard that Taiko has announced the posthumous poem." 〖Lululu eliminates my Taige, there are more dreams of waves. 〗 Guangyue beat the time, chanted Taige's last poem in a low voice, and said with deep emotion: "It's really sad. Life without faith is really like a dream." The teahouse was speechless.Since even the Beizheng Institute has made such a determination, it can be seen that things are extraordinary.Thinking of these, he dared not agree rashly. On August 18th of the third year of Qingchang (1598), Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a generation of arrogance and unrivaled hero, left behind huge turmoil and turmoil, and his soul returned to dust at the age of sixty-two.