Seeing that Hideho was still reluctant to attack Uesugi Keikatsu, Fujido Takatora, who had always been resolute, came up with a clever plan: "Lord, with the xìng grid of Aizu Palace, it must be a little difficult to accept it for him to directly accept Shangluo's questioning, it is better to take a step back, the New Year is approaching, you will post in the name of the five elders and the five commissioners, asking the daimyo from all over the country to enter Beijing to congratulate the young lord and his wife on the New Year, so that Aizu Hall does not have to be embarrassed, and when the time comes, I will talk to him about the recent rumors by the way, I believe he will not be as stubborn as before." ”

"Shangluo saw that the young master congratulated the New Year is an established law, and the name and documents have been distributed to all parts of the country, even if there are twists and turns in the road and the snow covers the mountain, it must have been received now, I don't think this idea will work." Xiubao shook his head regretfully, "But you reminded me that if the Aizu Palace refuses to go to Luo, it will be a disobedience to the laws set by Taige during his lifetime, and a disrespect for the young lord and his wife, I don't know if he can bear such a sin?" ”

"No matter how hard Aizuden's bones are, he won't dare to bear such a serious charge." Shima Kiyoshi said indignantly, "In the opinion of the minister, although he is wary of his own family, but the matter of Shangluo at the end of the year cannot be avoided, Aizu Hall and Yamashiro Mamoru should weigh the pros and cons, and it is not a way to stay in Aizu all the time, it is better to take advantage of everyone to gather together to explain things clearly, anyway, these things cannot be avoided." ”

Hideho and Shima Kiyoko have the same opinion, and most of the retainers also think that the Uesugi family will not give face to the young master, and they are willing to take the risk of disobedience to fight with Hidebo, but what happened a month later surprised Hideho and others.

On December 8, when the daimyo from all over the country were preparing to pay tribute to Hideyori and Yodohime, the Uesugi family, one of the five elders, did not move at all, but Tokugawa Ieyasu rushed to Nishinomaru and invited Hideho to attend a joint meeting of the four elders and the five commissioners.

After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Gomi, the Five Elders, and the Five Elders had a clear division of labor, each performing its own duties, and the Five Elders, of which the Five Elders, were responsible for formulating policies. The Gojo was responsible for implementation, while Hideho was responsible for proposing and deliberating policies, so Hideho was named an aftermath but did not have absolute power. On the contrary, the role of the Five Elders and the Five Commissioners cannot be ignored in the slightest. If it weren't for Hidebo's co-optation of Ukita, Maeda, and Asano, he would have almost no say in the Elder's Joint Meeting, and he could only wait for the policy decision before he could put forward his views and suggest that the Elder's reconsideration, which is why Osaka was slow to react when Ukita sāo moved.

At that time, Uesugi and Mori were cautious, Tokugawa Ieyasu was resolutely opposed to sending troops, and Maeda Toshiie supported his son-in-law Ukita to send troops, because there was no unanimity among the five elders. In fact, even if it is handed over to the five commissions for execution, the method and degree may not be unified, and Ishida Mitsunari and Masuda Nagamori, who support the Nakamura Criminal Department, will be severely suppressed. Tokishu Masaya sided with Ishida on the side, but I don't know what he thought in his heart, Maeda Genyi was Tokugawa Ieyasu's eyeliner, and he must be against brutal intervention, while Asano Nagamasa represented Hideho's interests. However, they are in a weak position in the Five Missions and cannot play a role.

On the one hand, the anti-Nagasee faction was in full swing in Bizen, and on the other hand, the joint meeting did not reach a consensus, and Hidebo, as the party in charge of the deliberations, frequently put pressure on the joint meeting. However, he still did not receive an effective response, and in this case, he decided to bypass the joint meeting and order the daimyo to send troops to help counter the rebellion.

It can be said that before the Ukita sāo movement, the joint meeting was a wrestling field between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari, and the attitude of the two of them determined whether the policy could be passed, while Hidebo could only deliberate on the established policy as an outsider, and after the deliberation, it had to be discussed again by the joint meeting, and the cycle continued until an agreement was reached.

However, all of this changed substantially with the movement of Ukita Sāo and the dispatch of Hideho's troops. Xiubao bypassed the joint conference for the first time and sent troops, breaking the monopoly of the joint conference on the issue of troop dispatch. Although this move violated the system set by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, it was widely approved and acquiesced, and it pointed out the direction for dealing with similar incidents in the future, that is, if the joint meeting did not reach a unanimous decision, Hidebo could issue a mobilization order in the capacity of Hideyoshi.

This unspoken rule was originally an unintentional move by Hidebo, but under the planning of Fujido Takatora and other advisers, it became the beginning of the usurpation of power from the joint meeting. Fujido Takatora and others understood that relying solely on unspoken rules could not guarantee Hideho greater and sustained power, and that it was necessary to dismantle it through the division of forces within the joint council, so that Hidebo's power could be legally confirmed.

In this regard, Fujido Takatora's first action was to use the daimyo of the pro-Hideho in the joint meeting to change the ordinance to allow Hideho to participate in the joint meeting and have the right to vote, rather than being solely responsible for deliberations outside the meeting. This action was successfully passed thanks to the support of Maeda, Ukita, Asano, and Nagasaki, as well as the neutrality of the Mori and Uesugi families (the Uesugi family had not yet been provoked by Tokugawa Ieyasu at that time).

Later, taking advantage of his comparative advantage within the joint council, Hidebo proposed to adopt a "majority system" instead of the "one-vote veto system" in which a policy could be adopted if more than half of the joint council agreed, and the daimyo who objected to it must also abide by it. Including Hidebo, the number of daimyo of the Yamato faction reached four, the daimyo of the Omi faction reached two, the daimyo of the Edo faction was two, and the daimyo of the neutral faction were two, while the Nagashu Masae were hovering between Yamato and Omi, so this proposal was also passed before the tension between Mori, Uesugi and Hideho was strained.

After these two measures, Hidebo instantly became the relative majority of the joint conference, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who had always relied on the "one-vote veto" to grasp the meeting, suddenly became the weakest force in the joint conference. From April to September of the fourth year of Keichō, the joint meeting formulated and deliberated a total of 15 policies, of which six threatened the interests of the Tokugawa family, but only one of these six items was rejected because it was also unfavorable to the Mori Uesugi family, and the other five were all approved by the approval of the Yamato and Omi factions, which made Tokugawa Ieyasu feel an unprecedented threat and powerlessness. In addition, Hidebo's increasingly frequent actions in the Kanto region forced Tokugawa Ieyasu to win over the Mori Uesugi family, which belonged to the neutral faction, which was the direct reason for Okubo Tadashi and Honda Masanobu to send the two families.

As the head of the Five Elders, Tokugawa Ieyasu did not want Hideho to attend the joint meeting, but he was forced by the situation to invite Hideho to participate with a smile, and when Hideho asked what was to be discussed at the meeting, he refused to disclose it in advance on the grounds that it was "confidential", and told Hideho that he would know when he attended.

With curiosity, Hideho immediately rushed to the council hall located in Ninomaru, and as soon as he entered the door, he felt a nervous atmosphere, only to see that except for Uesugi Keikatsu, all the daimyo of the joint meeting had arrived, and Mori Terumoto, who had been working for Ankokuji Huiqiong in the past, also came in person this time, sweeping away the previous leisurely and complacent, and his expression looked nervous and serious. As the leader of the Omi faction, Ishida Mitsunari was also impatient, looking at Hideho and stopping until Hideho sat down, and then took out a letter from his bosom at the urging of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

"This is a letter written to you by Aizu Nayan, but the monogram should have been ghostwritten by Naoeyamashiro Mamoru Mori." As he spoke,!。 (Go read read .) cｏm