Kyoto, Nippon, Toyotomi Hidetsugu's mansion.
Toyotomi Hidetsugu looked at Ishida Mitsunari, whose eyes were swollen, and his eyes were slightly unbearable.
"How's the injury?"
Toyotomi Hidetsugu's question was just a gesture, even though he could see that Ishida Mitsunari's eyes were badly swollen. In fact, if Ishida Mitsunari had not dodged in time, Asano Yukinaga's iron fist would have been enough to blind his eyes.
Moreover, Hosokawa Tadaoki and Ikeda Terumasa were behind Asano Yukinaga. They were also the two people who could take Ishida Mitsunari's life. They were extremely dissatisfied with Ishida Mitsunari. If it were not for Maeda Toshiie's mediation, they would have already taken action.
In the beginning, Xiao Ruxun made the decision to divide Nippon into three. After careful consideration, he used the privilege of the Commander-in-Chief to secretly release the three supporters of the Toyotomi clan, Ishida Mitsunari, Yukita Hideie, and Asano Yukinaga, who were captured alive after the war.
Xiao Ruxun decided to let them return to the Toyotomi clan to stabilize the Toyotomi clan's situation. He did not want the power of Tokugawa Ieyasu to surpass the Toyotomi clan. This was to prevent Wu Weizhong's 10,000 men from being unable to control the situation, which would affect the situation that he had painstakingly managed.
This strategy was indeed effective. From the information he obtained from Monk Xuan Su's confession and the judgment he made from his blurry memories, Ukito Xiu's family was the adopted son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was extremely loyal to the Toyotomi family and would not betray them.
Ishida Mitsunari was promoted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and was also very loyal to him. Xiao Ruxun still vaguely remembered the battle of Sekigahara against Tokugawa Ieyasu was Ishida Mitsunari, who was also Tokugawa Ieyasu's mortal enemy.
Asano Yukinaga had been working for Toyotomi Hideyoshi since he was a child. He was also very loyal to the Toyotomi clan. At that time, Tokugawa Ieyasu killed Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Asano Yukinaga gritted his teeth and swore that if he could escape, he must avenge Hideyoshi.
Therefore, Xiao Ruxun chose to release these three people in secret.
Xiao Ruxun was also paying attention to the situation in Japan from Myanmar. When he found out that these three people were used by Toyotomi Hidetsugu to stabilize the situation, he knew that his plan was effective. The Toyotomi clan's power was stabilized again, and the Tokugawa clan missed the best opportunity to destroy the Toyotomi clan. From then on, they fell into a situation where the east and the west confronted each other.
Coupled with the suppression and deterrence of Wu Weizhong's 10,000 southern soldiers, Japan entered a strange period of peace.
And this period of peace could be maintained until now because of the long-term open and secret fights between the east and the west, as well as the deterrence of the Ming court.
Now, Maeda Toshiie died at the right time. Although Tokugawa Ieyasu was no longer causing trouble outside, the internal conflicts of the Toyotomi clan still continued.
After Ishida Mitsunari was reappointed, he summarized the failure of the battle in Korea and criticized himself. At the same time, he also criticized some of the daimyo who died in Korea or were sent to Beijing to be executed. After he punished himself, he also demanded that the heirs and families of those daimyo be punished, in order to remember the meaning of revenge for the humiliation of Xu Tu.
In the end, the effect was achieved, and at the same time, it caused public anger.
After the war, Toyotomi Hidetsugu and Maeda Toshiie urgently needed capable subordinates to stabilize their situation. Therefore, they promoted these three people as heroes who led the troops to break out of the encirclement and return to their homeland. Very smoothly, they became daimyo again and took control of the power.
In fact, they also understood that the reason why Xiao Ruxun asked them to come back was to strengthen the power of Toyotomi. He did not want the situation of the East and West to be broken, and he did not want Japan to be unified. Although it was very insidious, it was undoubtedly in line with their interests.
At that time, although tens of thousands of the Tokugawa army were wiped out by the Ming Army, and they also lost the military adviser Kuroda Guards, who had betrayed Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and one of the four heavenly kings, Honda Tadakatsu, their strength still remained. They were much better than the Toyotomi army, which was basically wiped out by the Ming Army.
Kato Kiyomasa, President Konishi, and other supporters of Toyotomi Hideyoshi were basically all killed, and the army was also almost completely wiped out. Basically, those who went did not come back. They were either killed or captured by the Ming Army and brought back to China to do hard labor before they died in China.
The Toyotomi clan only had a group of retainers under Toyotomi Hidetsugu and a small number of troops left. If it were not for Maeda Toshiie's timely action to help Toyotomi Hidetsugu stabilize Kyoto and recruit troops, it was estimated that before the Ming Army attacked, Tokugawa Ieyasu would have attacked Kyoto.
Losing Kyoto, the righteous gathering point, the Toyotomi clan would really become rootless duckweed.
Fortunately, Xiao Ruxun knew how to balance the power of both sides. He sent back the three key people who had not been killed in time. Although they were very angry, for the survival of the Toyotomi clan, Tokugawa Ieyasu was also a mortal enemy.
According to the order of priority, they decided to let Tokugawa Ieyasu pay the price in blood first, then let Xiao Ruxun know the consequences of arrogance.
In the end, seven years had passed, and they still could not achieve their dream.
Instead, they walked further and further on the road of political enemies.
Ishida Mitsunari was talented, but his methods were radical, his emotional intelligence was not high, and he did not have the ability to lead. He could not balance the civil officials and the military officials, and the ministers, and the series of policies issued were not friendly to the military officials. This made even the Yukita Hideo family, who had never paid attention to the civil officials and military officials, feel dissatisfied.
In the outbreak of this conflict, the Yukita Hideo family did not play any role. If it was not for Toyotomi Hidetsugu's timely intervention, who knew what would have happened.
However, as the king, Toyotomi Hidetsugu could not really punish the three people. After reprimanding them, he quickly released them. In fact, Toyotomi Hidetsugu was also very dissatisfied with the sudden attack of the generals on Ishida Mitsunari.
In his opinion, as soon as Maeda Toshiie died, these generals rebelled together and attacked Ishida Mitsunari in front of him. To put it in a small way, they did not give him face. To put it in a big way, they did not respect the king. Could it be that Maeda Toshiie's status was higher than his?
When Maeda Toshiie was alive, he was also very respectful to him and gave him enough face. However, these generals did not give him any face at all, and they did not respect him at all. This made him, who was close to the military officials when Maeda Toshiie was still alive, start to have other thoughts.
He began to realize that the balance that Maeda Toshiie could maintain could not be maintained without some means. At the very least, under the premise that he did not have the same prestige as Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Maeda Toshiie, his position became unstable.
Even so, he could be sure of Ishida Mitsunari's loyalty. Therefore, he decided to use Ishida Mitsunari to balance the power of the military officials. He definitely would not let the military officials be too arrogant, lose control of them, and threaten his own position.
There was no problem with his strategy. If it was any other emperor, they would do the same.
Seeing that the generals under them were out of control, they would be even more worried.
Even a country like the Ming Dynasty, where the generals did not have fiefdoms, would guard against the generals, let alone the daimyo who had a large number of fiefdoms.
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