Tokugawa Ieyasu amassed his army at a much slower rate than recorded in history, most likely because three powerful daimyo were reluctant to follow him.

Toyotomi Hideyori on the other side had already learned that the reason why Date Masamune, Shimazu Tadashi, and Mori Terumoto refused to send troops was because they saw Kangning's performance in the Awaji Expedition. Among them, Shimazu Tadashi is the most afraid of Kangning's strength.

Shimazu Tadashi, who is in the Satsuma domain in the southern part of Kyushu Island, has been observing the strength of the Ryukyu Kingdom surnamed Huang for a long time. You must know that the one who led the troops to invade the Ryukyu Kingdom was his subordinates of Shimazu Tadashi. After that, the Ryukyu Kingdom almost became his territory, but the horse lord who appeared later expanded the foundation of the Ryukyu Kingdom with strange sea goods, and built a powerful fleet on this basis.

Of all the princes in Japan, none knew him better than Shimazu Tadashi. The fleet consisted not only of pirates active in the nearby seas, but also of wandering samurai in Japan who had been fighting for many years, as well as missionaries, craftsmen, and sailors who had been brought in from the Taixi region.

Just looking at those strange-shaped ships was enough to make Shimazu Tadashi feel that this was a very troublesome force.

After that, Boss Huang's performance in the nearby sea area also confirmed his feelings.

Even the Francoman, who was armed with cannons on a sea ship, was no match for him. Not to mention the Japanese navy on the tiny hull of the ship, covered with a layer of iron skin.

Since then, Shimazu Tadashi has been doing business in a proper manner, but as for this strong neighbor, he has turned a blind eye.

Boss Huang didn't mean to take the initiative to trouble him, even if this guy was reborn like a sea with the Ryukyu Kingdom, it didn't make Boss Huang lose his mind.

Corning had no grievances with him, and the fleets of both of them were constantly shuttling in the Seto Inland Sea. I want to transport the materials needed for the trade in the territory of both sides.

And Mori Terumoto is also on the northern shore of the Seto Inland Sea, taking a share of their deals. However, on the southern side of the Seto Inland Sea, Shikoku, which originally belonged to the family of Chomune's department, is now not a single prince willing to participate in this trade.

The town of Awa Province's Bee Suga is Tokugawa Ieyasu's lackey. It's Ikoma Kazumasa of Sankiki Province that he won the position of family governor with the support of Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara, so he was not prepared to betray his benefactor, Tokugawa Ieyasu. In Iyo, it was after the Battle of Sekigahara. Matsuyama, Uwajima, Ozu, Imabari and other feudal domains were established. The reason for Tokugawa Ieyasu was of course that he wanted these princes to spy on each other, so they would never participate in the trade of the Seto Inland Sea alone until a mutual agreement was reached. As for Tadayoshi Yamauchi of the Tosa Domain, it is even more unlikely that he will participate in this trade, his father Yamauchi Kazutoyo, who was originally the adopted son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and a retainer of Toyotomi Hideji. However, after Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born, Toyotomi Hideyoshi feared a phenomenon similar to the Onin Rebellion. I tried every means to kill Toyotomi Hideji. It can be said that Toyotomi Hideyori is the murderer who indirectly killed Toyotomi Hideji, how can Yamauchi Kazutoyo's son be loyal to Toyotomi Hideyori?

So. This large-scale trade operation in the Seto Inland Sea did not attract widespread participation from Kyushu and Shikoku. On the contrary, only the local and local governments in the country participated most actively.

Tokugawa Ieyasu treated this prosperous trade as if it had never happened. Blind eye. At the same time, he also began to trade with Corning in the Kanto region, especially in the vicinity of the rivers and lakes. Be restricted. Corning's latest information, for example, is that taxes on trade in the Kanto region have more than tripled.

Hundreds of miles do not sell wood, thousands of miles do not sell wood. In ancient East Asia, the establishment of cards to collect taxes was the greatest restriction on commercial activities. Some low-tech commodities don't have enough profits to support high transportation costs.

Even if the profit range of the goods transported by Corning is unimaginably large, Corning is not prepared to use his profits to pay for tolls, so that he can become the capital of Tokugawa Ieyasu to buy arms.

As a result, the focus of Awaji Island's trade gradually shifted to the Kunaka region, Kyushu, and Shikoku. Of course, Date Masamune, who was far to the northeast, was also an indispensable part of his trade. In the foreseeable future, if there is a confrontation with Tokugawa Ieyasu, then Date Masamune, who is behind Tokugawa Ieyasu, will become the strategic factor that Kangning relies on the most.

It's too early to think about these things, though. He still faces many difficulties, one of which is that after reaching an agreement with Tokugawa Ieyasu, he can no longer justify sending troops.

If he doesn't send troops, he will miss a great opportunity. At present, following Tokugawa Ieyasu's orders, the town of Wasuka has also assembled in the region with his army, and is the next target of Kangning's attack.

After all, the Awa country, where he is located, and the Awaji country, where Kangning is located, are only separated by the Naruto Strait.

It is a bridgehead that stretches its palm out for the Shikoku region, and it is a place that must be taken.

But now, if you send troops directly to Awa Province, you will inevitably alarm the town of Wasuka in the Tokugawa Ieyasu army. As long as he tells Tokugawa Ieyasu about this situation, then the agreement he made with Tokugawa Ieyasu a few days ago will be turned into a piece of waste paper.

So for now, Corning can only hold back his mood. Quietly waiting for the battle report from the east. If what happens next is still going according to the trajectory of history. Beesuka will appear on the battlefield. In order to exchange his heroic performance for Tokugawa Ieyasu's trust and the glory of his family, he will definitely do his best to charge forward in the war.

As long as he has even the slightest negligence to underestimate the enemy's recklessness, it will create the greatest opportunity for Gao Lin. But the problem now is that Corning can't extend its military power to the battlefield.

Without enough strength to tear up the agreement, Corning can only use his brains to think of some roundabout strategies.

Fortunately, his brain was still bright, and he quickly found the right answer. If you can't openly tear up the agreement with Tokugawa Ieyasu, then it's good to play one set on the table and another set under the table for a long time.

Isn't there a saying in this world called mercenaries? Since Tokugawa Ieyasu never liked to open his eyes and look at the world, the elder Kangning moved other things in this world to her eyes.

So, a quick letter was sent to Toyotomi Hideyori, and the main content of the letter was. Ask Toyotomi Hideyori if he would be interested in hiring his army under Corning.

Back then, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was more open than Tokugawa Ieyasu. This openness may have been inherited from Oda Nobunaga, but it cannot be ruled out that the so-called deepening of exchanges with the Western world, the rulers of the Wa Kingdom did not realize that it was not of much benefit to introduce their standards of right and wrong into the country.

Either way, the fact that he was defeated in front of Kanning was that Tokugawa Ieyasu was far less than his predecessor. has an open mind, but Toyotomi Hideyori, but inherited his father's openness, for a lot of things from the West, seems to be very familiar, after hearing about mercenaries, he just asked in surprise: "It turns out that Mr. Kang also has a group of mercenaries in his hands, I always thought that only Westerners will have it!" ”

Thereupon. The two sides soon signed an agreement. Originally, when Kangning and Tokugawa Ieyasu signed the agreement, many retainers of the Toyotomi family believed that Kangning had betrayed the Toyotomi family. They had perfectly carried out the task given to him by Boss Huang, but now it seemed that it was nothing more than a means of hypocrisy between him and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

And once between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyori, Katagiri and Mototo. Now there is a clear choice, a few days ago, he committed suicide by cutting his abdomen. With the orders of their confidant lord, they brazenly left Osaka Castle.

Although nominally, they chose another place to live in seclusion, rather than participating in the brutal war. But Toyotomi Hideyori has learned that he has secretly gotten together with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and provided Tokugawa Ieyasu with a lot of information about Toyotomi Hideyori's family, which made Toyotomi Hideyori very annoyed, but for the sake of his many years of service for the Toyotomi family, even if there is no merit, there is hard work, and he did not continue to pursue him.

However, Osamu Ohno pointed out sharply that if too much internal intelligence leaked, it would be very detrimental to the next war, so they had to quickly change their original battle plan.

His move was supported by Sanada Nobuyoshi, who had just joined them. This hem can also be called Sanada Yukimura's man, who was very dissatisfied with the original battle plan, and he advocated that he should take the initiative to attack and fight a decisive battle against a strong enemy in the field.

Of course, this is not unrelated to the main forces under his command, since most of his subordinates are cavalry, if it is a siege battle, then he and his subordinates will have no stage to perform, and his goal in life is to win the head of two generations of shoguns.

However, his view has not been recognized by most people. Among them is Kimura Shigenari, who once followed Corning and took Awaji Island together.

Kimura Shigenari's opinion was that it was necessary to rely on a strong barrier and actively resist to gain more time to come to the field troops to get more time to train.

In the end, Sanada Yukimura, who had a fiery heart, communicated with him very gratefully, and finally changed his position, agreeing and supporting his plan.

For this reason, Sanada Yukimura also presided over the construction of a castle called Sanada Maru in the southern part of Osaka Castle. To the south of Osaka Castle was an open field, which was too conducive to cavalry assaults. Sanada Yukimura, who was well versed in the tactics of surprise soldiers, could not see this weakness, so he decisively built the castle, so that Tokugawa Ieyasu thought that if he wanted to send Dong Qi's troops to attack Osaka Castle directly, it would not be possible to attack Osaka Castle from the south, and in the other three directions, they were all blocked by the river.

This plan was also supported by Kimura Shigenari, and the two sympathized with each other, allowing both Toyotomi Hideyori and his mother to see the dawn of victory in the war.

In addition, this time, Corning took the initiative to say that he could lease his troops to them in the form of mercenaries, which made them feel the smile of the goddess of victory and bloom at them.

As for some things that happened in the Central Plains, the Toyotomi Hideyori family got the news far earlier than Tokugawa Ieyasu, and they didn't need someone to bring the news, they only needed to send a few people casually to inquire among the smugglers from the Central Plains, and they could get a little bit of it.

Qingzhou Tuanlian, which has just been established, can fight thousands of miles under his leadership, and finally defeat Wang Sen's sect leader who can call for summer and gather millions of people, how can such a command ability not be strong!

Even though he and Tokugawa Ieyasu had signed an agreement, it was impossible for him to openly participate in this war on the side, but judging from the current trend, he would help the Toyotomi family in secret channels, which made the young Toyotomi Hideyori feel even more excited.

The day after the agreement was signed, Tokugawa Ieyasu received a message that he informed the envoys who were already with Corning, and made serious accusations that Corning should immediately correct the violation.

But Corning ignored it, pointing out that if he could, he would prefer to have the generals hire his soldiers for war at a better price.

He even said with some provocation that he knew that the Tokugawa shogun was very wealthy, and that he was once described by someone as saying that the wealth he had accumulated could pave a golden road from others to the capital.

Although this is an exaggeration, but Kangning put on a look of believing it, after Honda Chun tentatively gave the price of several mercenaries, Corning decisively refused, he thought that the other party's offer lacked sincerity, could not match the wealth possessed by the shogun, and even said that this was a disguised belittlement of the Tokugawa general, and he did not want the people he respected to be belittled, so he refused.

In the face of such a nonsense excuse, Honda Tadajun was speechless, if his brother Honda Masachun who paid the account was here, he would not have been bullied so badly by Kangning.

After receiving the reward, Tokugawa Ieyasu angrily wanted to declare war directly on Kangning, but Kangning took the lead in sending an envoy to Tokugawa Ieyasu to accuse the other party of ignoring Kangning's funeral, and unilaterally raised the tax at the checkpoint.

The implication of this sentence is that since you moved my cheese, I chose to secretly communicate with the Toyotomi family.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was speechless, claiming that after the end of the war, taxes would be restored to their original levels, explaining that the recent increase in tax levels was due to the war.

However, Corning believes that this argument lacks sincerity, after all, Tokugawa Ieyasu only needs to be a second-hand dealer, and he can make huge profits from the sea or sales, and relatively speaking, the taxes received by those cards are only small profits.

As a result, the two sides were at a stalemate, and in the end, both Koning and Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to let the course of the war decide who would give in first.

In this case, it is generally not openly said at the negotiating table, and both sides only need to agree. But when he got closer, he pretended to be young and ignorant, but he wanted to make this matter clear, and the scheming Tokugawa Ieyasu had no choice but to tear his face and compare with a little brat.

In this way, Kangning shattered the image of a good old man that Tokugawa Ieyasu had spent most of his life in front of all the princes, and there was nothing left.

And his mercenaries had already entered the Toyotomi family's position long before he sent envoys to meet with Tokugawa Ieyasu, which means that he was not prepared to make substantial progress in negotiations with Tokugawa Ieyasu at all.

For him, the legitimacy of the gains from this war does depend on performance at the negotiating table, but the value of the gains depends on performance on the battlefield.

At least, Awa already has a pearl of wisdom in his hands. (To be continued.) )