February 18, the second year of Longwu.

Hibikiko Matsuura-gun Nagoya Castle and Tokugawa Ieyasu are holding a new year's financial meeting and government affairs meeting to look back on the past, look forward to the future, and release what everyone needs to do and achieve in the new year.

It has been seven years since that shocking battle, seven years since Japan was three points, and seven years after Tokugawa Ieyasu left his hometown and was forced to enfeoff the unfamiliar place in Western Japan.

This year, Tokugawa Ieyasu is about to be fifty-seven years old. He already feels that his health is not as good as before and his energy is not as good as before.

After the war that year, he, his retainers and the alliance daimyos were forcibly moved to Western Japan by the Ming general Xiao Ruxun, who was threatening Japan at that time, and took root here to survive, occupying one-third of the land of Japan, and the other two-thirds were in the hands of Toyotomi.

Originally, he planned to defeat the Toyotomi ruler Japan in one fell swoop, and then negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty and bring peace back to Japan, but things went against his wishes. The Toyotomi centipede died without being stiff. With the support of Maeda Takiya and Mizunashi Ishida, he regained his foothold and was in Kyoto.

Kyoto is the capital of Japan for hundreds of years. It not only has a strong political background, but also has a great reputation, as well as the "Emperor" who is still recognized by the world despite its lack of real power.

During the Warring States Period, the greatest wish of the princes in various places was to "go to the capital", gain the recognition of the emperor and the court, obtain the position of the general of the siege, and then open the shogunate, govern the world, and become the actual Japanese ruler, just like Toyotomi Hideyoshi back then.

Although Toyotomi Hideyoshi was dead, Toyotomi was still there. Under the leadership of Toyotomi Hideji, Toyotomi stood up again in Kyoto.

Maeda and Mizunai Ishida obviously support Toyotomi.

Although Mitsunari Ishida was not likable, the Maeda Tatsu family had a great prestige. As long as he was there, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's near-*** and Ohachi faction could maintain basic cooperation. The remnants of Toyotomi's family were still greater than Tokugawa Ieyasu.

In addition, Tokugawa Ieyasu's shame and hatred for killing Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Even if there are internal conflicts in many daimyos, they will definitely stand together and go to the outside world when fighting Tokugawa Ieyasu. In this case, Tokugawa Ieyasu will be suppressed forever in Western Japan and cannot move.

But this is not all bad. It is not all bad for Xiao Ruxun to grant the slightly broken Western Japan to Tokugawa Ieyasu, otherwise Tokugawa Ieyasu would not accept it that way.

Western Japan was indeed destroyed by war, but this also facilitated Tokugawa Ieyasu to quickly organize his internal affairs, re-divided the feudalism, quickly stabilize people's hearts, and establish effective rule. At the same time, Western Japan has a relatively powerful maritime advantage in the traditional sense.

The remaining water power of Toyotomi clan was obtained by Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was able to organize a sea merchant fleet many times in a year after the war to go south to Southeast Asia and tribes of all sizes to do business, earn money, increase income, and repair the broken Western Japan.

Compared with the more serious internal disputes within East Japan, the disputes within West Japan are smaller, which is more conducive to external development rather than internal consumption.

Tokugawa Ieyasu maintained the greatest territory and greatest interests, and was able to develop into the largest and strongest force in Western Japan, with absolute dominance.

However, Toyotomi Hideji did not. In order to win people's hearts and make up for the losses of some daimyos, Toyotomi not only did not get anything, but also enfeoffed some of the territory that was originally included in Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the strength of the family was greatly reduced.

It can be said that without the protection of the Maeda family and other large and small princes, Tokugawa Ieyasu would not be afraid of Toyotomi Hideji at all, but the one who was in a dilemma was the group of large and small princes. Although there were many contradictions, they had always been disgusted and disgusted with him, Tokugawa Ieyasu and could not be reconciled.

Of course, the Toyotomi family's power is not easy.

The Maeda Taki family has a high prestige, and after the war he has been responsible for the overall situation of Toyotomi.

In government affairs and military affairs, without his cooperation and support, Toyotomi Hideji could basically not do anything, because the first batch of daimyos that supported him were basically killed by Xiao Ruxun in North Korea.

Daemin, including Kiyoshi Kato and Governor Konishi, who are highly valued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, died miserably. Toyotomi Hideji's own retainer group is still relatively small and cannot be his entire reliance.

Mizunashi Ishida is another big stick that is easy to attract hatred. Without the reconciliation in the Maeda Taki family's drama, it is really hard to say whether Toyotomi will fall apart.

The Maeda Taki family is really an indispensable person for Toyotomi.

He not only had to restore the strength of the Toyotomi clan, but also tried his best to adjust the conflict between the Ohachi faction and the near-sighted ones, and also restore and accumulate internal strength in case of a unified war that will surely occur in the future.

The clone is not a good thing for his life span.

Therefore, within these seven years, Tokugawa Ieyasu could clearly feel the slow development of Toyotomi family and the aging of Maeda Taki's Maeda.

Tokugawa Ieyasu's good at tolerance is not unrelated to his childhood experience. A person who is good at tolerance will not easily get restless and do things that shock the world and make ghosts cry. Killing Toyotomi Hideyoshi has consumed the restlessness he has accumulated for decades, and it is impossible for him to get restless in a short period of time.

So he quietly developed himself in order to adopt a solid defensive stance, while waiting for the death of the Maeda Taki family and the fierce conflicts within the Toyotomi clan.

He has become accustomed to forbearance, just as he is used to eating, drinking, breathing and sleeping.

He has been enduring all the time, and of course endurance is not necessarily all the benefits.

Just like before, he endured it, but he had not yet endured the death of the Maeda Tatsuya family, but he had waited for news of the civil strife of the Ming Dynasty that was pressing on both sides.

A month later, Xiao Ruxun's Northern Expedition was discovered by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was well-informed in Nagoya Castle. He was very shocked by this, but not surprised.

In his opinion, it is certain that the military and the court have conflicts. Only by mastering the army can one have strength, and the army is the foundation. Xiao Ruxun is so famous that he can fight, and the court will definitely doubt him and suspect him, so he forced him to rebel.

This is a great news for Japan. With Xiao Ruxun's Ming Dynasty's power over the world, but without Xiao Ruxun's Ming Dynasty, it will greatly lose its external deterrence. At that time, the Ming Dynasty, who is in civil strife, will have no time to pay attention to Japan. At that time, it will be his chance to send troops to Shi Jian to retake Shi Jian and then win the world!

Naturally, he did not think that the Ming Dynasty would be defeated by Xiao Ruxun. It was certain that Xiao Ruxun was defeated and killed. The Ming Dynasty's forces would definitely suffer huge damage. When the news of Xiao Ruxun's death came, it would be when he took action!

Of course, a month later, he found that Toyotomi had also taken the same countermeasures as him, and sent troops to the Ishimi area to monitor the movements of the Ming army in the Ishimi direction.

Even if Xiao Ruxun died, Wu Weizhong was still famous, and his more than 10,000 troops under him were not Yi Yu.

If they were underestimated, it would be impossible to capsize in the gutter. The combat effectiveness of the Ming army left an extremely profound impact on them.

These fearful existences made them face the Ming army more cautiously and carefully examine the news of the Ming Dynasty's civil war, but the direction of the civil war made them more and more strange, thinking that something was wrong.

Xiao Ruxun became stronger and stronger as the Ming government army grew bigger and worse. In the end, in just half a year, Xiao Ruxun actually invaded Beijing and... became emperor!
Chapter completed!