Tokugawa Ieyasu did not violate the terms of the treaty, and of course, he did not dare to. For him, although he had achieved the meritorious deed of killing Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the remaining forces of the Toyotomi clan were still entrenched in Kyoto. Toyotomi Hidetsugu and Maeda Toshiie were still alive, especially Maeda Toshiie, who was more loyal to Hideyoshi. It would be difficult for him to convince Maeda Toshiie to abandon the Toyotomi clan and follow him.
Moreover, even if he accepted Maeda Toshiie, there was no guarantee that Maeda Toshiie would not become Tokugawa Ieyasu's own "Tokugawa Ieyasu". He would become the leader of the other daimyos and continue to threaten his shogunate regime. That was definitely not the result that Tokugawa Ieyasu wanted. He would not learn from Toyotomi Hideyoshi and negotiate with him if he could not eliminate them. He would directly use his military force to completely wipe out the remaining forces of the Toyotomi clan.
The daimyos of Xikoku were basically Toyotomi Hideyoshi's supporters. Their main force had fallen apart in North Korea, and none of them had returned. Now was the best time to wipe out the western region. Tokugawa Ieyasu almost immediately ordered the entire army to get ready and split into three groups. The two groups on the left and right were handed over to the two strongest daimyos other than himself. He led more than 30,000 troops from the Tokugawa headquarters, with Honda Tadakatsu as the vanguard, and marched directly in the direction of Kyoto.
A few days before this, he had secretly sent people to his territory, Kanto, to Edo to inform his headquarters that he was going to revolt against Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He asked them to consolidate their territory and defend it strictly. When his army arrived, they would launch a pincer attack from both the inside and outside. Together, they would wipe out the remaining forces of the Toyotomi clan and conquer the world.
This was the strategy of Kuroda Rusui, the military counselor. He planned the strategy, designed the routes, and determined the most convenient routes for Tokugawa Ieyasu. After reaching a compromise with the Ming Army, they had no more worries. They had to seize every minute and every second to conquer Japan and eliminate the hostile forces. This was because the Ming Army could betray them at any time. On this point, Kuroda Rusui and Tokugawa Ieyasu both had doubts.
They did not trust the Ming Army. Therefore, before they split up, they left 5,000 people to guard Nagoya Castle. They placed all the cannons on the high ground of Nagoya Castle to guard against the Ming Army's attack from the sea again. At the same time, Tokugawa Ieyasu brought the head of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his walking stick to Xiao Ruxun, indicating that this was the head and token of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Xiao Ruxun had everything he needed. He hoped that Admiral Xiao would keep his promise and not betray the alliance.
Xiao Ruxun laughed heartily as she received the Japanese envoy. She set up a banquet on the flagship to entertain the envoy, drinking and chatting merrily with him. During the banquet, Xiao Ruxun also told the envoy that the army did not want to continue fighting and would immediately return to rest and reorganize. After a while, they would come back to receive the compensation and the three islands. She told them to prepare in advance.
After that, Xiao Ruxun watched the Japanese envoy leave. Before the envoy completely left, he shouted at the top of his voice, "All troops, prepare to retreat." The Japanese envoy heard this. When the envoy passed this message back to Tokugawa Ieyasu and Kuroda Rusui, although they were still a little uneasy, they were more or less relieved. At the same time, they felt that time was running out. They seized every minute and second to attack Japan.
They were racing against time. In fact, Xiao Ruxun was also racing against time. After obtaining the head of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he confirmed with Xuan Su that the head indeed belonged to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Therefore, Xiao Ruxun immediately decided to return to Pusan in Korea. He took a fast boat and left first so that the main force of the navy could rush back to Pusan as soon as possible.
Xiao Ruxun took a fast boat and spent most of the day rushing back to Pusan in the middle of the night. The next morning, he rushed back to the Daegu camp and saw Yuan Huang.
In the few days that Xiao Ruxun was away, Yuan Huang, who was authorized by Xiao Ruxun, still managed the proud soldiers of the Ming Army well. Except for Li Rusong, who did not come for a few days, Wu Weizhong and Ma Gui, the two leaders of the Southern Army and the Xuan Army, still gave Yuan Huang face. With them around, the main force of the Ming Army obeyed their orders. Li Rusong was a little arrogant, but Yuan Huang did not care, and neither did Xiao Ruxun.
However, when the news of Xiao Ruxun's return spread, Li Rusong still brought Nurhachi to the central camp to attend the military meeting. At the military meeting, Xiao Ruxun announced the biggest result of the past few days — the coup in Japan was over and Toyotomi Hideyoshi was dead.
Then, he showed the head of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
"The reason why the Japanese pirates in Pusan are still holding on to the city and not surrendering despite the lack of food, water, and supplies is that they still have illusions about Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Nippon. They do not believe that Toyotomi Hideyoshi will abandon them. They firmly believe that Toyotomi Hideyoshi will come to rescue them, so they have persisted until now. If they know that Toyotomi Hideyoshi is dead and Tokugawa Ieyasu's coup was successful, their will to resist will completely collapse."
Then, Xiao Ruxun ordered Yuan Huang.
"Yuan Zanhua, immediately organize the military documents and write at least a thousand pieces of paper with the words' Tokaku is dead 'written on it. Roll them up and shoot them into every city with arrows to spread the news that Toyotomi Hideyoshi is dead. Then, we will send Toyotomi Hideyoshi's head to the main city of the Japanese pirates and hand it over to the commander-in-chief of the Japanese pirates. He will know what to do next."
Yuan Huang stroked his beard and smiled confidently. "The art of war says that attacking the city is the bottom line, attacking the heart is the top line. This attack will hit the heart of the Japanese pirates. Once this news gets out, our army will issue an ultimatum. We don't have to worry about the timid Japanese pirates not surrendering. As long as one surrenders, there will be a second, a third, a fourth. In the end, only one or two surrenders, and we will be able to take them down by force."
Xiao Ruxun nodded and announced the battle order. He ordered the entire Ming Army to stop resting and gather for the final battle. Yuan Huang quickly organized the military documents and perfectly reproduced the psychological attack that Xiao Ruxun had requested. In a short period of time, he had written thousands of such papers and tied them to arrows. He organized a group of archers to arrive at each city. Under the horrified gaze of the Japanese pirates, they began to move.
The Japanese pirates were surprised to find that the Ming Army did not use cannons to attack. Instead, they used crossbows, a weapon that had not been used much.
Thousands of arrows were shot into the city. They did not kill or injure anyone, but the things on the arrows were more lethal than the cannons.
At this time, the literacy rate of the Japanese army was extremely low. Basically, only some of the middle and senior officers were literate. The soldiers at the bottom were all illiterate. However, for this kind of thing, as long as one officer understood it and exclaimed, "Tokaku is dead," it was enough to cause people's hearts to waver.
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