"What should come is here after all." Hideho sighed helplessly, for this protracted war, different people have different opinions, most people say that the victory of the war is the credit of the Ming army, while the Koreans shamelessly say that it is their own merits, while some right-wingers think that if it is not for the death of Hideyoshi, the situation of confrontation can be maintained, and when the Jurchens rise and the Ming Dynasty is too busy to take care of itself, there will still be a chance of victory. But these are not clear words, the only thing that is certain is that this war left a painful memory for China, Japan and South Korea, which is still regrettable.

For the Ming Dynasty, the seven years of conquest greatly consumed the already weak national strength, and the Liaodong soldiers suffered heavy casualties, which greatly weakened the forces that suppressed the Jurchen people, and created conditions for the rise of the Jurchens later.

For Korea, this is a complete patriotic war, due to the military equipment has been slackened for a long time, as soon as the war began, it was attacked by the Japanese army, in less than three months, Sanjing fell, the king fled north, many cities were scorched, the people were displaced, and countless casualties were killed, which greatly damaged the already underdeveloped economy of North Korea, so that in the later "Ding Mao Rebellion" and "Bingzi Rebellion", they were simply unable to parry the offensive of Hou Jin, and had to embark on the road of abandoning the Ming and Qing Dynasty;

As a war planner, Hideyoshi originally hoped to take this opportunity to expand his territory to solve the contradiction of insufficient land in the country, but the result was that he could not hurt others but hurt himself, and he couldn't help but take the slightest advantage, but greatly shook the foundation of the Toyotomi clan in the country, and sounded the death knell for the Toyotomi family with his own hands.

Hideyoshi saw that Hideho stared at the tatami mat stupidly without saying a word, so he coughed lightly, and Ishida Mitsunari also felt that Hideho's move was not very polite, so he reached out and nudged him, and Hideho relieved himself and bowed down to apologize to Hideyoshi: "The minister is thinking about who has the ability to take on this heavy responsibility, and he can't help but be distracted, and ask His Highness for forgiveness." ”

"So you have the right person?" Hideyoshi said with a little expectation, after all, he was the envoy of the Ming Kingdom, if the contact envoy made the wrong choice and missed the good opportunity for peace talks, it would be too late to regret it.

Hideho respectfully asked Hideyoshi: "May I ask Your Highness, what is the official title of the envoy sent by the Ming Kingdom this time?" Seeing Hideyoshi's embarrassed face, Sancheng preemptively replied: "According to the report of Settsu Mamoru, Li Zongcheng, who served as the chief envoy of this mission, is the governor of the Ming Five Army's Governor's Office, and Yang Fangheng, who serves as the deputy envoy, is the commander of the Jingwei Command Mission. ”

Xiubao pondered for a moment, and shook his head with a sad face, as if he was in a lot of trouble.

Seeing this Hideho's expression, Hideyoshi was also a little worried, and asked nervously, "Could it be that these two people have very high official positions?" ”

"Exactly," Xiubao told the truth, "As far as the minister knows, the commander of the Jingwei Command Envoy is already a high-ranking official of the third rank in the Ming Kingdom, and the governor of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies is a position that only important ministers can confer on the second grade." ”

"Zheng Erpin!" Hideyoshi and Mitsunari shouted almost at the same time, but they were very happy after being surprised, "I didn't expect Mingguo to also put a lot of effort into it." Hideyoshi said excitedly.

Seeing Hidebo's worries, Mitsunari turned sideways and said to Hideyoshi, "Your Highness, if it is true as His Highness said, our country must also send the two ministers to contact us." ”

"That's trouble," Hideyoshi scratched his head and said with a tangled expression, "Now the only one who is in the second position is His Royal Highness the Tokugawa Inner Prefecture, but he doesn't know much about the Ming Kingdom, and he doesn't want to travel far, so he probably won't be happy to take on this important task." ”

"Isn't His Royal Highness Maeda from the second place, he should be able to deal with the envoy reluctantly." Hideho informed Hideyoshi of the person he had in mind.

But Hideyoshi resolutely refused, and there was a hint of sadness in his words: "His Royal Highness the Li family has been getting weaker and weaker recently, and most of the affairs in the territory are in charge of the son-in-law, how can I bear to send him to Kyushu." ”

"The minister has an idea, and I don't know whether to talk about it or not." Mitsunari calmly gestured to Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi said without thinking: "Since it is the idea of the ruling department, it is not wrong, come and tell me and His Highness the Servant." ”

"Yes," Mitsunari bowed his head slightly, and continued, "Although it is customary for the official position of the Great Nayan to be no more than three, His Royal Highness Maeda has already set a precedent and obtained the second position, so why not follow the example of His Highness Maeda and ask the Emperor to grant His Royal Highness the second position of the servant, so that His Highness can serve as the contact envoy, and the minister believes that His Highness will not fail the Taiko's trust, and will be able to smoothly bring the envoy to Fushimi." ”

After speaking, Sancheng also bowed to Xiubao, looking like he was entrusted with it. Regardless of whether Sancheng intends to make things difficult for himself, Hideho is unwilling to meet with those envoys of the Ming Dynasty based on national sentiment alone, after all, he now represents Japan, but he has to bargain with his motherland, which he can't accept, and he also knows what the result of this peace talks is, if he really accepts this task, then he will definitely implicate himself, rather than taking such a big risk for the sake of the three of them, it is better to stay out of the matter and stay in Fushimi to persuade Hideyoshi to quit the army and accumulate some strength for the Toyotomi family.

So Hideho decided to ignore Sancheng's request and refused to Hideyoshi: "It's not that the minister is unwilling to serve His Highness, it's just that Hideho is still inexperienced, and he has nothing to do with the Ming people. ”

Hideyoshi didn't want Hideho to go, after all, he had just returned from the Tohoku, and his wife and newborn daughter had not yet met, so it would be too cruel to let him leave for Kyushu now.

Thinking of this, Hideyoshi vetoed Sansei's proposal: "Shizhong has just returned to Beijing from Aizu, and he has not seen his newborn daughter yet, and now let him go to Kyushu, I can't bear it, so let's let the envoy rest in Hakata for a few days first, and talk about the matter of the envoy later." ”

Now that Hideyoshi has made a decision, Mitsunari can't say anything, so he has to stop there. Because Hideho caused trouble in Tokaido, in order to block Yuyo's mouth, Hideyoshi did not plan to reward him for his merits in Aizu, but thinking of his tireless efforts in the past two months and the advice he provided for the transfer of the Uesugi family, as well as his "unintentional move" to eradicate the three wealthy clans of Junyuan, after thinking about it repeatedly, Hideyoshi still planned to give Hideho some rewards, but the name had to be changed.

"You haven't seen your daughter yet, have you?" Hideyoshi looked at Hideho with a kind face.

"No, but I heard from the maids that she didn't want to be a minister, but more like her mother." Shuho replied shyly with a blushing face.

"It's a good thing that my daughter is like a mother." Hideyoshi laughed, and the laughter was so hearty that it made Hideho's heart warm.

"Xiaozhu is gone, I can be regarded as the grandfather of this child," Hideyoshi was still happy, as if he really regarded this little princess as his granddaughter, "After all, it is your first child, I have to make some expressions, so let's give you the Kaito and Kaixi counties of Owari as congratulatory gifts, this is for the little granddaughter as a dowry in the future, you don't want to swallow it alone when the time comes." ”

"Thank you Your Highness for the reward, and when the weather improves in a few days, the minister will bring the princess to meet Your Highness." Hideho replied respectfully.

Hideyoshi looked at the sunset outside the window, and realized that it was not too early, so he asked Hideho to hurry back to Koriyama, hoping to meet Kikuhime and the princess before dinner.

And at this time, Sakurahime had just dragged her tired body back to Honmaru, her mind was full of the scene of the meeting with Changsheng just now, pain, despair, but helpless, holding the hairpin that Hideho gave her when she got married, Sakurahime's heart was dripping blood, even though there was a lot of guilt and self-blame in her heart, at this moment, she couldn't turn back, she could only sink faster and deeper in the dark mire......