Chapter 344: Nobunaga Killed Again
"Lord Ieyasu, is there something I can do for you?" the merchant asked with a fawning smile and a deep bow.
"Haha, I have matters I wish to discuss with Mr. Shirou. Please, follow me to the tea room for a chat," Tokugawa Ieyasu invited. When he smiled, his face exuded an immense sense of approachability.
"I see! Shirou would be more than delighted, of course. Allow me to brew the tea for you," the merchant offered eagerly.
"No, you stay here. It is enough for me to speak with Mr. Shirou alone," Ieyasu said softly, raising a palm to signal the merchant to be quiet. This time, however, his words carried an undeniable weight of command.
The merchant froze in an awkward daze, taking several seconds to recover before forcedly smiling and saying, "Yes... yes. Then this lowly one shall remain here."
"This way, please," Ieyasu turned to Shirou, gesturing for him to follow.
Shirou had no choice but to follow Ieyasu alone to the Matsudaira family tea room. Famous paintings hung on the walls, and the decor was strictly black and white, giving the space a primitive yet elegant atmosphere.
During Japan's Sengoku period, the castle lords and daimyo classes mimicked the style of the nobility, cultivating refined tastes and popularizing tea ceremonies. In a closed space, sitting face-to-face, they would wait for the matcha to be prepared. During this time, loud noises were forbidden; everything was treated as sacred.
For the daimyo, it was also the best place to observe subordinates, exchange ideas, and build rapport. Oda Nobunaga once personally prepared matcha for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, an act that moved Hideyoshi so deeply he became utterly devoted to Nobunaga.
Now, Ieyasu laid out the tea set and waved for the servants to leave, remaining alone with Shirou.
"Oh, Mr. Shirou, though you claim to be a mere blacksmith, your manner of speech and your presence are extraordinary. Why not stay here for a while? In Mikawa, there will certainly be a place for your talents."
"No, I only heard that there were demons and monsters in the city, so I came to resolve that issue," Shirou replied. After all, Tokugawa Ieyasu—currently Matsudaira Ieyasu—would soon be ordered by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to relocate his family from their ancestral base to Edo.
"The overall situation is decided. The Shimazu of Kyushu cannot hold out much longer; victory naturally belongs to Toyotomi Hideyoshi," Shirou added.
"Oh? Once Lord Toyotomi unifies the land, what do you think he will do next?" Ieyasu asked, looking at Shirou with curiosity.
"I am but an obscure blacksmith. How could I know the thoughts of such a great figure?" Shirou answered with a light laugh.
Shirou truly had nothing to say. If he were meeting the Tokugawa Ieyasu who had already taken power, he might have played the part of a prophet, advising him to seize the opportunity during the Honno-ji Incident when Oda Nobunaga died—to prepare in advance, protect the heirs of the Oda family, and reap the greatest benefits.
Of course, whether the other party would believe him was another matter entirely.
There is a famous description of the personalities of the Three Unifiers of the Sengoku period: What do you do if a cuckoo refuses to sing?
Oda Nobunaga's answer: "Kill it." Toyotomi Hideyoshi's answer: "Lure it." Tokugawa Ieyasu's answer: "Wait for it..."
The flexible Tokugawa Ieyasu is historically evaluated as being as cunning as a fox and as patient as a turtle. Even if he believed Shirou's words, he wouldn't do anything too risky.
But right now, in this world, Ieyasu did not yet hold power.
On the other hand, Toyotomi Hideyoshi already held the reins of authority, having incorporated the vast armies of the Oda family. The momentum of unifying the land was set. He had formed alliances with various factions and become the Kanpaku recognized by the Imperial Court. The Matsudaira family had lost their chance to compete for supremacy and could only surrender and become vassals to avoid his sharp edge. This was why the Osaka merchant, under Hideyoshi's protection, could so easily gain an audience with the lord of a province.
What Shirou could provide him now was only the news that Hideyoshi's invasion of Joseon (Korea) would inevitably end in failure, perhaps saving him a few years of biding his time. At this moment, Hideyoshi was still working hard to unify the sixty-odd provinces of Japan.
"No matter. I see you are a man of broad vision who has traveled to many places. Treat this as casual conversation and let me hear your thoughts," Ieyasu said with a随和 (easygoing) smile, lacking any air of superiority.
Chatting with such a person was indeed relaxed and pleasant. Looking at that face, one could imagine that everyone had once fantasized about a certain robot crawling out of a desk drawer to live with them.
"He will likely try to prove his status," Shirou said.
"Correct. If it were me, I would also choose to consolidate my territory and let the people recuperate. But that 'Monkey' cannot do that. The moment he attained his position was the moment the world began to feel great disappointment in him," the raccoon-like Ieyasu
laughed, looking like a cat-type robot that had just sneakily eaten all the dorayaki while Nobita wasn't looking.
"..." Shirou remained silent, but nodded inwardly. It seemed that even without power, the man who would ultimately harvest the fruits of the Sengoku period was still incredibly formidable.
After Toyotomi Hideyoshi completed his unification, he began his purges. Through various "promotions in name but demotions in reality," the Matsudaira family would soon be ordered to move from their base to Edo. Later, to clear the path for his young son, he executed wave after wave of ministers who had once achieved great things for him, and even killed the tea master Sen no Rikyu.
As an emperor who rose from a peasant uprising, he could be said to be the one with the most "legitimate" claim to power in history. During his reign, imperial power reached its zenith.
However, perhaps because of his childhood experiences, when he held absolute power, he became headstrong and suspicious, lacking the capacity to tolerate others. He killed almost all the meritorious officials who helped him conquer the land; the number of officials executed was in the tens of thousands, and when Jinshi (successful candidates of the imperial exam) passed, he sometimes had them all killed on a whim.
Like Chen She, who claimed "if one becomes rich and noble, do not forget the others," yet killed the fellow villagers he once farmed with. Or the rogue Liu Bang, who could abandon his elderly father, wife, and children.
Emperors born into poverty who later rise seem to be colder and more detached. Perhaps because they worked a lifetime for their property, it is too painful to share.
Zhao Kuangyin, born into a military family, could dissolve military power over a cup of wine. And Li Shimin, born of royalty—despite killing his brothers and pressuring his father—was extremely dedicated to his comrades and full of loyalty. It's no wonder Yang Guang had to take the fall and be cursed as a father-killer and mother-stealer, otherwise, how could the flaws of a "Great Sage King" be covered up?
"Toyotomi Hideyoshi is a clever and wise man; he will surely realize his mistakes and change when the time comes," Shirou said.
"Mmh, I admit he is a genius. The reforms he and Nobunaga made were extraordinary. But even a monster like him will soon find that this way won't work," Ieyasu said.
"..." Shirou nodded privately.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was destined for failure. He discovered that if he stopped, his peasant background meant that even as Kanpaku—having suppressed all the daimyo and castle lords with force—many people still did not submit in their hearts. Thus, Hideyoshi had to launch a new ambition: to invade Joseon, proving his brilliance by expanding territory.
What Hideyoshi was about to do was the second half of the famous "Taikou Risshiden." This was the disadvantage of his peasant birth; he had to do something massive to prove his divine heroism, so invading Joseon was his first major task.
After all, Japan was different from China; it placed a heavy emphasis on bloodline and birth. Even if a warlord group gained control of the land, they would nominally remain loyal to the Emperor—at least in their hearts, they recognized the Emperor as the legitimate bloodline.
Hideyoshi's situation at this time was similar to the later Qing Dynasty after it defeated the last Ming resistance and unified China under Qianlong. On the surface, the threats were eliminated, but there were undercurrents. Most Han people still did not recognize the Emperor in their hearts.
Qianlong thus styled himself the "Old Man of Ten Completions," claiming his cultural and military achievements were first in history. But in fact, aside from military merit, the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century indirectly enjoyed the dividends of global trade from the Americas. New crops like corn, potatoes, and extremely hardy sweet potatoes were introduced to handle famines. When the basic needs of food and clothing were met, a population explosion followed.
What remained was mostly vanity and enjoying bottomless flattery. He claimed to have written 40,000 poems, but the only ones that endured were proven to be stolen directly from his ministers Ji Xiaolan and Shen Deqian. Yet, he launched "Literary Inquisitions" against those who wrote well. He also loved to inscribe his calligraphy on various antiques and paintings—a habit that at least benefited modern antique dealers.
He spent his life doing things that seemed to "save face" but lacked true imperial grace, much like a modern politician. However, these might have been considerations for political stability. Given the precedent of the Yuan Dynasty, it was difficult for an outside ethnicity to rule the Han for long.
By performing as an "all-around emperor"—though he had only Manchu and Mongol blood—he showed he had the Han people in his heart. Seeing him write poetry and paint made him seem more Han than the Han themselves, giving the majority Han subjects a sense of belonging and awe toward the Great Qing.
Through his actions, Qianlong signaled to the Han gentry: "I love reading too, I can write poetry, I'm fluent in Mandarin; I'm no different from a Han emperor. Come take the imperial exams, I'll give you offices. It doesn't matter who is Emperor, so don't rebel. I'll let you play too; rebelling is too much trouble."
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's end, of course, was failure. The Ming Dynasty sent troops to support Joseon. Even if the Ming army at this time was no longer in its prime—the era when they could casually tour the Great Steppe on horseback and play with the barbarians—a "starved camel is still bigger than a horse." At that time, no nation on earth could win a war of attrition on land bordering the Great Ming.
However, because of his invasion, the Ming Dynasty's finances suffered greatly. They never launched another foreign war, allowing the tribes of the Steppes to grow freely, laying the groundwork for the later fall of the empire. At this time, the Ming was already poor. Though the economy of the people was a world leader, the wealth belonged to corrupt officials and landlords; the government treasury had no spare cash.
Chinese political culture has always changed, from Shang Yang's reforms to Xunzi entering Qin. From the "Huang-Lao" governance of the early Han to Emperor Wu's promotion of Confucianism (Confucianism on the outside, Legalism on the inside). Then to the Song Dynasty, where various great scholars emerged. It was fine at first—Confucius had seventy-two disciples, and many schools were passed down. There was "contention among a hundred schools," factionalism, and ideological battles.
It was only later, when the peasant-born Zhu Yuanzhang became Emperor and claimed Zhu Xi as his ancestor, that Neo-Confucianism flourished. When Confucianism became a singular orthodoxy, learning became narrower and more fixed, and the thoughts of scholars became increasingly obstructed.
The scholar-officials of the Ming lacked the ability to generate wealth like Guan Zhong or Fan Li. Even the most learned ministers had a very shallow understanding of finance. They remained stuck in the idea that wealth was finite—if the state took six, the people only had four left. Thus, the court only thought of cutting costs and not competing with the people for profit. It was best if the Emperor emulated ancient sages by farming his own land to be self-sufficient.
No one knew how to open new revenue streams. Thus, while corrupt officials had millions and local gentry were dripping with wealth, the central financial situation of the Ming became increasingly dire. By the time of the last Emperor, Chongzhen, the treasury was so empty they couldn't even light a fire in the pot.
Li Zicheng was actually unable to support his increasingly bloated rebel army. His military skills were decent; attacking and eating the grain wherever he went wasn't hard. But to actually settle down and feed hundreds of thousands or a million mouths—that was no easy feat.
So he made three demands: the Ming must give him a million in silver to appease his men, title him a King, and grant him the Northwest. Then he would nominally submit to the Ming while maintaining a de facto separate rule, helping the Ming defend against other rebels and the Qing.
But the Ming treasury, even with annual taxes, could not produce that much money. Although that sum could have been obtained by raiding the home of a single minister or royal relative—and there would have been more than enough—the Emperor and his ministers were at odds. They refused to break the rules and wouldn't ask for help, so he committed suicide on Coal Hill.
But these are all parts of history. It is because of this past that the current "self" exists.
"Young master, let us return to the main topic. The reason I came here with you is only for the matter of the demons in the city. What you have said has nothing to do with me," Shirou reminded Ieyasu.
"Haha, of course. I look forward to the treasure sword you forge, sir," Ieyasu said with a light laugh. "However, Mr. Shirou, from the beginning until now, you haven't spoken a single word from your heart."
"I have nothing to say," Shirou shook his head. He didn't want to interfere too much with the future of this world.
"Oh? But I see you have the air of someone who holds the entire world in his palm. I am curious—even when Lord Toyotomi points his sword toward China in the future, are you not shocked in the slightest?"
"What? Toyotomi Hideyoshi has already planned to invade foreign lands now?" Shirou asked in surprise.
"Of course. In fact, he has already begun strategic stockpiling. This plan was something I heard from Lord Nobunaga when he was drunk at a banquet—before he was killed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Although the Great Ming knows nothing of us, we have been collecting data on that great nation since the Tang Dynasty!" Ieyasu said with a smile.
"Wait? Nobunaga was killed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi?!!" Shirou stood up in shock, looking at the raccoon face and shouting.
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