The origin of Hideyoshi the monkey and the relationship between him and Oda Nobunaga need to be briefly introduced here.

Born in a poor farming family in Nakamura, Aichi-gun, Owari, the monkey lost his father at a young age, and after his mother remarried, he was abused by his stepfather, causing him to be malnourished, short in stature, and obscene in appearance.

When the monkey had a half-sibling, he could no longer stay at home, so he ran away from home and became a merchant who traveled from south to north.

During this period, the monkey became acquainted with the bandit leader of the Kiso River, Koroku Wasuka, and once ate a period of white food at Wasuka's house, but he also took the initiative to share his hard-earned money with these robber brothers.

Finally, one day, the monkey seized the opportunity to take refuge under Oda Nobunaga's door and became a soldier carrying shoes and leading horses.

In the third year of Eiroku (1560 AD), the Daimyo of Suruga Province, Imagawa Yoshimoto, tried to seize the power of Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the Muromachi shogunate, and when the Imagawa army passed through Owari Province, the military commanders of the Oda family disagreed about whether to stop Imagawa Yoshimoto.

At that time, Oda Nobunaga had just killed his own brother Oda Nobuyuki, and it was widely speculated that he would not dare to act rashly, so the monkey made a bet with them, he bet that Nobunaga would definitely fight an ambush by surprise and win a big victory, but none of the samurai of the Oda family took the monkey seriously.

Just when everyone was unprepared, Oda Nobunaga suddenly made a decision to urgently assemble a team to stop Imagawa's army from Kamiro, and at this time, the monkey, with the help of his friend Maeda Toshiie, brought miso soup and rice balls to the soldiers, which surprised Oda Nobunaga.

After Oda had eaten and drunk enough, the soldiers under Oda's command completely annihilated more than 50,000 enemy troops in the barrel narrow, and the famous Suruga general Imagawa Yoshimoto was killed in battle.

The monkey won the bet, and since then he has been appreciated by Oda Nobunaga, and his appearance and behavior are quite funny, and he is often used by Nobunaga for fun, so he became an ashigaru samurai of the Oda family, and at this time, he changed his name to Kinoshita Hideyoshi.

The monkey who has won the status of a samurai is simply a step to the sky! It greatly stimulated the robbers of the Kiso River, and Wasuka Koroku admired him so much that he fell to the ground, and since then, he has followed him before and after the saddle and obeyed his words.

Monkey also knew that it was not enough to win the trust of his lord by performing burlesque, so with the help of Koroku Wasuka, he began to make friends and established a relationship with the Satsuma pirate Hayashi Kazukan, and started a business to buy muskets for the Oda family.

Suffering from his lack of military exploits, although the monkey was like a roundworm in Oda Nobunaga's belly, he was deeply loved, but he was always looked down upon by other generals, and as an ashigaru samurai, he himself was not able to support his retainers.

There is a legend in Japan that whoever wins Mino wins the world, and the ambitious Oda Nobunaga said that he wants to realize the world's Buwu, so the monkey judged that although Mino was the territory of Nobunaga's father-in-law, Saito Michizo, it was only a matter of time before he attacked Mino.

If you want to get Mino, you must first build strategic fortifications in Sumamata, and in order to obtain the beauty of Sumamata's castle, the monkey can be said to be Zen and has made a lot of preparations in advance.

Due to the lack of strength of the monkey, he roamed around the country with Wasuka Koroku and made a large number of wild warriors in private, during which he once saved Guo Yi in Chikuzen.

Seeing an ugly-looking peasant who became a samurai of the Oda family, these wild samurai were full of hope for the future, and they only waited for the monkey to come up with money, and at the first call, they would gather under his tent to work for their lives.

Mino is located on the Higashiyama Road, bordered by the Kiso Mountains to the east, Mt. Ibuki to the west, Echizen to the north, and Owari to the south, sharing the beautiful and rich Nobi Plain with Owari in the south.

Mino Daimyo Saito Michizo is very famous in the area, known as the "pit viper" by the world, and the first time he saw Oda Nobunaga, who is called a fool by the world, he once expressed this emotion: My descendants, it is estimated that in the future, I will only lead the life of the horse for him.

Saito Michizo was very optimistic about the future of this "fool", married his eldest daughter Nohime to him, and contributed money and efforts to support him in unifying Owari Province, incurring the jealousy of his eldest son Saito Ryuko.

Oda Nobunaga used despicable conspiracy tactics to defeat a series of political enemies such as Yoshitomo Spo, Oda Nobuyomo, and Oda Nobuyuki (Guo Yi's father) in Owari, and became a dominating daimyo on one side.

At this time, his brother-in-law, Saito Ryuko, was frightened and worried that his father might hand over Mino to Nobunaga in the future, so he attacked in advance and killed his father Saito Michizo.

After the death of Saito Michizo, Oda Nobunaga, in the name of avenging his father-in-law, tore his face with his brother-in-law Saito Ryuko, and decided to attack Mino.

In order to conquer Mino, Oda Nobunaga married his sister to Omi daimyo Asai Nagamasa, and established an alliance with the Asai family, hoping to borrow the allusion of Zhou Li's stay in Gizan, and after conquering Mino, change the Saito clan's residence city of Inabayama to "Gifu" Castle, and realize the great cause of "the world Buwu".

Although the monkey and the bee Suka Koroku and others had already prepared, the beauty of the castle construction of Sumamata was handed over to the Shibata Katsuya by Oda Nobunaga, which made them very disappointed.

Shibata Katsuie sent two-thirds of his soldiers to build the castle in Sumamata, and one-third of his soldiers fought against the Mino Saito clan's army, and the position was always broken by the Saito army halfway through the castle.

Now, from the sum of money given to him by Lin Yiguan, only 20% of it was enough to recruit thousands of wild warriors to help him build a castle in Sumamata; In addition, he was also very confident that Lin Yiguan was about to bring him a batch of arquebuses that could penetrate armor, and with such confidence, the monkey dared to open his mouth to Oda Nobunaga.

On August 15 of the eighth year of Yonglu (1565 AD, the forty-fourth year of Jiajing), Hideyoshi went to the city to meet Oda Nobunaga in the name of congratulating the Mid-Autumn Festival, and promised him that a batch of new arquebuses of the Franc machine could be shipped before the winter solstice, and emphasized the advanced nature and particularity of these guns, not only with a longer range and more accurate crosshairs, but also the most powerful thing is that they can penetrate the armor within a certain range.

Oda Nobunaga showed great interest in this, and gave him a house at Kiyoshu Castle.

Monkey Hideyoshi had just finished moving, and Ryozo Konishi accompanied Lin Yiguan and Luo Amin to arrive, and they moved into Monkey's new home and were warmly welcomed by Ning Ning.

Regrettably, Konishi Ryonzo told the monkey that the muskets promised to Oda Nobunaga might not arrive before the winter solstice, and hoped that he would convince Hayashi Ichiguan.

After figuring out Lin Yiguan's situation, Hideyoshi asked, "May I ask Your Excellency Yiguan, can you transport this batch of arquebuses before the Qingming Festival next year?" ”

The angry Luo Amin pointed at Lin Yiguan and hurriedly replied: "It depends on whether Liaodong can rescue my sister, if something happens to my sister, I don't want to live, and he can't live!" ”

"Please rest assured, Mrs. Amin, all my friends have auspicious nature, and they will definitely be able to rescue Sister Ling."

"I hope so, I hope so." Luo Amin replied smugly.

Hideyoshi pondered for a moment and said: "Your Excellency is very generous to me, and I am not a stingy person, human life is at stake, please go to Liaodong to save people first." At this moment, I suddenly remembered a top priority, as the saying goes, people have no long-term worries, they must have near-term worries, take this opportunity to do it together. ”

Lin Yiguan's words were unexpected, and he hurriedly asked, "What kind of top priority?" ”

Hideyoshi smiled slightly and asked, "Your Excellency, where do you hope to meet again?" ”

"The Forbidden City of the Great Ming Dynasty!" Lin Yiguan replied unequivocally.

"Yes, I once saw myself wearing a crown in the bronze mirror, wearing the dragon robe of the Ming Emperor, commanding thousands of troops to attack the city and plunder the land, countless subjects of the Ming Dynasty bowed to me, hehe, I won't tell you, after the Lord General Jie unified Japan, I have the confidence to be the general of the expeditionary force to achieve the world's military deployment." Hideyoshi preached earnestly.

Lin Yiguan understood his intentions and replied: "Back then, in order to plot a rebellion in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, Yan Shifan had set up dozens of strongholds in advance along the coast. ”

"If you want to conquer the Ming Dynasty, it is nothing more than to take advantage of Korea and the Ryukyus." As he spoke, Hideyoshi took out a nautical chart from the bookcase and pointed and said: "You start from Korea to the hinterland of Liaodong, and then go south along Shanhaiguan, through Lushun Bay to Weihaiwei, Lianyungang, Ningbo Port, Hangzhou Bay, and then to the front line of Fujian, send henchmen to open shops and hotels, and organize merchant groups to unite these strongholds to do trade, so as to wait for the opportunity, and when I become the general of the expeditionary force, we should cooperate with the outside world, why can't we conquer the world?" ”

These words made Xiao Xi Ryuzo stunned, and asked without hesitation: "My lord, it is not easy to do this, it costs a lot of money, not to mention, and it may not be possible to do it in a year." However, what if it is still impossible to transport the musket that Lord Oda wants during next year's Qingming Festival? ”

"Hehe, please don't worry about Mr. Ronzo, how much silver it costs is not a matter for His Excellency Lin Yiguan, as for the arquebus that Lord Shang Zongjie wants, I have my own way to deal with it." When Hideyoshi said this, he suddenly asked, "Mr. Ryonzo, I once told you that a person who can see through three moves is a master, does Mr. know how many moves I can see?" ”

"Adults can see through at least five moves." Ronzo Konishi replied.

"Hehe, that's right." Hideyoshi said proudly: "Yesterday I moved into Cheongju Castle, I suddenly realized that it was not easy to build a castle in Sumamata, Shibata Katsuya lost again and again, after withdrawing from Katsuya, at least a few more generals had to be replaced, if they all failed, this errand can only be my turn, if this batch of muskets is shipped too early, wouldn't it be a fulfillment of others?" ”

"Hideyoshi-sama is really high! When is the best time to bring these muskets? Lin Yiguan asked.

At this time, Hideyoshi unhurriedly took out the bronze mirror and took a photo, did not rush back to Lin Yiguan, glared at Konishi Ryonzo, and asked angrily: "Mr. Ryonzo, did you tell the story of this divine mirror?" I heard that many merchants in Sakai Town wanted to predict the future through the Divine Mirror, and there was a lot of uproar. ”

Xiao Nishironzo was shocked when he heard this, and replied with sincere fear: "I have never mentioned this bronze mirror in front of outsiders. ”

"Could it be that the story about the Divine Mirror has reached the ears of Nobunaga?" Lin Yiguan asked.

After a moment of silence, Hideyoshi, who had a tense face, suddenly burst out laughing and said, "I used to be very worried that the story about the mirror would spread, but now I don't think so, Mr. Ryozor, when you return to Sakai Town, you will help me spread the word so that all the merchants of Sakai Town will come to Cheongju Castle to meet me and tell them that I can predict the future." ”

"Do you want to dedicate the mirror to Oda Nobunaga?" Lin Yiguan asked again.

Hideyoshi pursed his lips, made a mysterious look, and said in a non-questioning voice: "Your Excellency, please just bring the batch of muskets I want on August 15 next year." ”

According to Hideyoshi's intentions, the next day, Konishi Ryoza accompanied Lin Yiguan and his wife back to Sakai Town and began to prepare for the arrangement of a pirate base along the coast of the mainland.

Oda Nobunaga waited until the winter solstice, and did not see the musket brought by Hideyoshi, and at this time, the Shibata Katsuya failed to build a castle in Sumamata, so he had to be replaced, and replaced by the fierce general Sakuma Nobumori to continue building the castle in Sumama.

Sakuma Nobumori fought in Sumamata until the following year's Seijo Festival, and returned with another defeat, this time, Oda Nobunaga sent his son-in-law, Niwa Nagahide.

So far, although Hideyoshi has not shipped muskets, Oda Nobunaga also knows that he is not idle, and for more than half a year, countless Sakai Town merchants have come to visit Hideyoshi in Kiyoshu Castle, and of course, Oda Nobunaga has also received many benefits from merchants.

According to the merchants of Sakai Town, nowadays, the Daming Navy Division, together with the Ryukyu State Government, has been very strict in inspecting the merchant ships that transport muskets from the South Seas to Japan, and even the merchant ships of Westerners are no exception, and the possibility of transporting new arquebuses in the short term is almost none, so Oda Nobunaga did not blame Hideyoshi.

It wasn't until Sumamata came that Niwa Nagahide had also failed, which provoked Oda Nobunaga to be furious and shouted angrily, "Get me that abominable monkey!" ”

After half an hour, Hideyoshi came to him in a panic and lay down on the ground to say goodbye.

"Get up, monkey, I ask you, where are the new muskets that pierce armor? Where is it? Where is it? Nobunaga asked three times in a row, and his voice grew louder and louder.

Hideyoshi, who was lying on the ground, said cautiously: "Please calm your anger, this is all the merchants of Sakai Town, I will urge them again." ”

"Humph! How can Sakai merchants still have the heart to do business? I heard that they all predicted from your mirror that some people would become samurai and some would become daimyos, so I ask you, since there is such a divine object, why don't you show it to me? Oda Nobunaga asked angrily.

Hideyoshi replied excitedly, "Lord Jossuke, you are a 'man of the world', do you even believe such a trick?" As he spoke, he took out a bronze mirror and handed it to Oda Nobunaga with a smile.

Oda Nobunaga took the mirror and looked at it carefully, seemed a little angry, and asked, "Why is it still my face, could it be that you are deceiving me with fakes?" ”

Hideyoshi smiled slyly, hurriedly got up from the ground, came to his side, pointed to the dotted mechanism buttons behind the mirror, and replied, "My lord, you press down the back mechanisms one by one." ”

So, Oda Nobunaga began to fiddle with the mechanism behind it, and suddenly found that the mirror was bulging, and when he looked inside, he saw a samurai on horseback, wielding a scimitar to lead the troops into battle......

Then press the next mechanism, and the mirror changes, and a daimyo wearing Haori appears, commanding a group of samurai to build a castle......

As the mechanism turns, the images in the mirror change in a myriad of ways, including merchants wearing gorgeous silk to watch a play, someone sailing on the rough sea, a samurai having fun with a woman, and a general wearing a samurai feather holding a child......

Oda Nobunaga was amused by the ever-changing picture, and he patted Hideyoshi on the shoulder and said, "You are really a smart monkey, and you took this to subdue the Sakaicho merchants?" It's really hard for you. ”

Hideyoshi replied seriously: "This is all for the sake of adults to become 'people of the world' and a certain game, the Tang Dynasty Art of War says: go to the army to strategize, attack the heart." It doesn't matter if you can bring muskets or not at the moment, it's only a matter of time before you take down Mino, I will subdue the merchants of Sakaicho for the adults, in order to cut off the back road of Matsunaga Shu and the Miyoshi family, it won't be too long, the 'Crowds' in Sakai Town are all under your command, just wait for the day when the adults 'Kamiluo', realize the world's martial arts, and serve as the general of the expeditionary force in the next place, help the adults conquer the Ming Dynasty, descend to India, and enter Europa all the way to conquer the world! ”

"Monkey, if Niwa Nagahide loses again in the construction of the castle in Sumamata, you will be responsible for this!"