February 18 of the second year of Longwu.

Nagoya Castle, Matsuura County, Hizen Province, Tokugawa Ieyasu is holding a financial and government meeting for the new year, reviewing the past, looking forward to the future, and announcing what everyone needs to do and achieve in the new year.

Seven years have passed since that shocking battle, seven years since Japan was divided into three parts, and seven years since Tokugawa Ieyasu left his hometown and was forcibly separated into Western Japan, a place where he was unfamiliar.

This year, Tokugawa Ieyasu will be fifty-seven years old, and he already feels that his body is not as good as before, and his energy is not as good as before.

After the end of the war, he, his retainers, and the daimyo of the alliance were forcibly relocated to Western Japan by Xiao Ruxun, a Ming general who was oppressing Japan at that time, and took root here to survive, occupying one-third of Japan's land, and the other two-thirds in the hands of the Toyotomi clan.

Originally, he planned to attack the Toyotomi clan to dominate Japan in one fell swoop, and then negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty and bring peace back to Japan, but it backfired, and the Toyotomi clan's hundred-legged insect died without stiffening, and with the support of Maeda Toshiya and Ishida Mitsunari, he regained his foothold and was in Kyoto.

Kyoto has been the capital of Japan for hundreds of years, and it has not only a strong political base, but also a name for righteousness, and the "emperor" who is recognized by the world even though he has no real power.

During the Warring States Period, the greatest wish of the princes in various places was to "go to Beijing", to be recognized by the emperor and the imperial court, to obtain the position of the general of the Seiyi, and then to open the government, govern the world, and become the de facto ruler of Japan, just like Toyotomi Hideyoshi in those years.

Although Toyotomi Hideyoshi is dead, the Toyotomi clan is still there, and under the leadership of Toyotomi Hideji, the Toyotomi clan has re-established itself in Kyoto.

Both Maeda and Ishida Mitsunari clearly supported the Toyotomi clan.

Although Ishida Mitsunari is not likable, the prestige of the Maeda Toshiya is very great, as long as he is there, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's near-*** and the Owari faction can maintain basic cooperation, and the remnants of the Toyotomi clan are still greater than Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Moreover, Tokugawa Ieyasu's shame and hatred for killing Toyotomi Hideyoshi, many daimyos, even if they have internal contradictions, will definitely stand together and unite against Tokugawa Ieyasu, so that Tokugawa Ieyasu will always be suppressed in western Japan and unable to move.

But it's not all bad, Xiao Ruxun's entitlement of the slightly broken West Japan to Tokugawa Ieyasu is not all bad, otherwise Tokugawa Ieyasu wouldn't have accepted it like that.

It was true that Western Japan was devastated by the war, but it also allowed Tokugawa Ieyasu to quickly put in order his internal affairs, re-divide the feudal domains, quickly stabilize people's hearts, and establish effective rule, while at the same time, Western Japan had a relatively strong maritime superiority in the traditional sense.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was able to organize many maritime merchant fleets in the year after the war to trade with tribes of all sizes in Southeast Asia, earning money, increasing income, and repairing the ruined western Japan.

Compared with the more serious internal disputes in East Japan, the internal disputes in West Japan are smaller and are more conducive to external development than internal attrition.

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

And Toyotomi Hideji didn't, in order to win people's hearts and make up for the losses of some daimyos, the Toyotomi clan not only didn't get anything, but also divided some of the territories that were originally included in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's hands, and the strength of the family was greatly reduced.

It can be said that if there were no guards from the Maeda family and other large and small princes, Tokugawa Ieyasu was not afraid of Toyotomi Hideji at all, but the embarrassment was that group of large and small princes, although there were many contradictions, but Tokugawa Ieyasu treated him with consistent disgust and disgust, which could not be reconciled.

Of course, the power of the Toyotomi clan is not easy.

Maeda Toshiie's prestige was high, and after the war, he relied on him to preside over the overall situation of the Toyotomi clan.

In terms of government and military affairs, without his cooperation and support, Toyotomi Hideji basically could not have done anything, because the first group of daimyo who supported him were basically killed by Xiao Ruxun in North Korea.

Including Kato Kiyomasa and Konishi Yukicho, the daimyo who were deeply relied on by Toyotomi Hideyoshi all died miserably, and Toyotomi Hideji's own retainers were still relatively small and could not become all his dependence.

Ishida Mitsunari is another big stick mallet who is easy to suck hatred, and without the reconciliation in the Maeda Toshiya drama, it is really hard to say whether the Toyotomi clan will fall apart.

Maeda Toshiya is really an indispensable person on Toyotomi's side.

Not only did he have to restore the strength of the Toyotomi clan, but he also had to do his best to adjust the contradictions between the Owari faction and the Kō ***, and he also had to restore and accumulate strength internally in preparation for a unified war that would definitely occur in the future.

The lack of skills in the doppelganger is not a good thing for his lifespan.

Therefore, during these seven years, Tokugawa Ieyasu could clearly feel the slowness of the internal development of the Toyotomi clan and the acceleration of the aging of the Maeda Toshiya.

Tokugawa Ieyasu is good at forbearance, which is not unrelated to his experience when he was a child, a person who is good at forbearance will not be easily restless and do something earth-shattering, killing Toyotomi Hideyoshi has consumed his decades of restlessness, and it is impossible for him to be restless in a short period of time.

So he silently developed himself in order to take a firm defensive position, while waiting for the death of the Maeda Toshiya and the white-hot contradictions within the Toyotomi clan.

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

He's been forbearing, and of course forbearance isn't necessarily all good.

Just like before, he endured and endured, but he didn't endure the death of the Maeda Toshiya, but waited for the news of the civil strife in the Ming Dynasty that was pressing on both of them.

A month later, the news of Xiao Ruxun's Northern Expedition was known by Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was well-informed in Nagoya Castle, and he was very shocked, but not surprised.

In his opinion, it is certain that there will be contradictions between the military and the imperial court, only by mastering the army can we have strength, and the army is fundamental, Xiao Ruxun is so famous, so if he can fight, the imperial court will definitely suspect him and suspect him, so he was forced to rebel.

This is a super good news for Japan, with Xiao Ruxun's Ming to dominate the world, but the loss of Xiao Ruxun's Ming will greatly lose its external deterrence, and the Ming in the midst of civil strife will have no time to pay attention to Japan, at that time, it is the opportunity for him to send troops to Iwami to recapture Iwami and then win the world!

He naturally didn't think that Da Ming would be defeated by Xiao Ruxun, Xiao Ruxun was defeated and killed, and Da Ming's forces would definitely suffer huge damage at that time, and when the news of Xiao Ruxun's death came, it was time for him to do it!

Of course, a month later, he found that the Toyotomi clan had taken the same countermeasures as him, stationing troops and horses in the Iwami area to monitor the movement of the Ming army in the direction of Iwami.

Even if Xiao Ruxun died, Wu Weizhong was also famous, and the more than 10,000 troops under his command were not easy to match.

If you underestimate them, it is not impossible to capsize in the gutter, and the combat effectiveness of the Ming army left an extremely deep impact on them.

These jealous existences made them face the Ming army more cautiously and cautiously listen to the news of the civil war in the Ming Dynasty, but the trend of the civil war made them more and more strange and felt that the situation was not quite right.

Xiao Ruxun became stronger and stronger, and the bigger the Ming government army, the worse it was, and in the end, in just half a year, Xiao Ruxun actually broke into Beijing, and it was ...... He is also called the emperor!