In March, the fourth year of Qing'an.

The era name Qing'an is the second era name used by Emperor Shaohito, whose posthumous title is Emperor Gokoumei. Because the Japanese pronunciation of his first era name Shojin is close to "burn", which may cause fires, it is not exempted from this rule.

Welcome, so it was changed to Qing'an in April 1648 in the Western calendar.

However, the era name of Qing'an is still not very popular (the most popular era name in Japanese history is Kan'ei, because the Japanese copper coins Kan'ei Tongbao have been minted for more than 200 years), because since the Qing'an Year, Japan's national

There's nothing good to celebrate, and it's not very stable either.

Because of the failure of the Korean War, a large number of ronin in Japan had no way out. It would be damned if Japan could still be stable. Therefore, since the Qing'an Year, serious ronin violence has occurred in Japan every year. The assassinated

The number of feudal lords and important ministers of each feudal clan also increased significantly.

But this is not the most troublesome thing. What troubles Tokugawa Iemitsu the most is that a female Nobunaga from the neighboring country of Korea emerged from Korea, that is, the Emperor of Kobuin.

It turns out that after Emperor Xingmuin arrived in North Korea, she followed her husband, Prince Daemingnying, to many battles to attack the remnants of the Qing Dynasty who were entrenched in northeastern Korea. They finally completely pacified the remnants of the Qing Dynasty more than a year ago.

This matter is not a big deal at all. It is impossible for a young woman of the Xingwuyuan Emperor to actually kill the enemy in battle. Her role on the front line is just to hold hands with Prince Ning Zhu Cijiong and comfort him mentally and physically...

But there was a group of northern samurai who couldn't stand up to Kobuin and they were so bragging that they made the Emperor of Kobuin look like the female Nobunaga of Bubu Joseon.

After the reputation of Emperor Kobuin's bravery was spread back to Japan, a group of ronin who were afraid of the world's chaos began to look forward to Kobuin's return from Korea to launch a war to overthrow the world - and they didn't even think about who the husband of Kobuin was? But.

This bunch of brainless ronin didn't think that much at all. Not only did they hope that Kobuin would come back and fall, but from time to time, some people would violate the shogunate's ban and sneak from Japan to North Korea to defect to the Kobuin Emperor.

According to the report of the secret agent sent to Korea by the shogunate, the number of northern warriors directly under the Kobuin has increased from 1,000 when they just left Japan to more than 2,000... Not an increase? No, it is an increase.

A lot, because the northern samurai can also hire retainers!

After Emperor Kobuin arrived in North Korea, he promulgated the "Northern Samurai Laws", which linked the duties of the northern samurai to the number of their own retainers - if they had no retainers, they could only be the lowest level.

ashigaru. If anyone has one retainer, then you can try to be a cavalryman. If anyone has five retainers, then they can be an ashigaru captain. If anyone has ten retainers, then they can be a cavalryman.

Squad leader. If anyone has twenty retainers, he can be an ashigaru platoon leader. If he has forty retainers, he can be a cavalry platoon leader. If he has sixty retainers, he can be a cavalry platoon leader.

An ashigaru squadron captain or even a higher official position... In short, the more retainers you have, the bigger the official will be, and the more soldiers he can lead. And if the official has more soldiers, it will be easier to perform meritorious service. After performing meritorious service, you can

Get more salary and even a fief.

In short, the core of "The Laws of the Northern Samurai" is to encourage the Northern Samurai to find ways to win people over. Whoever can win more heads will have more opportunities to be promoted and make a fortune.

Therefore, although there are only 2,000 northern samurai under Kobuin's command now, including the retainers of the northern samurai, the military strength owned by the Emperor of Kobuin has reached more than 30,000!

This number exceeds the number of military households subordinate to Zhu Cijiong, the husband of Emperor Xingwuyuan... The latter only had 20,000 households after an additional household closure.

In other words, the number of troops owned by Emperor Xingwuyuan and Zhu Cijiong can already reach 50,000!

Such a large army needs food, drink, pay, and equipment, and the annual expenses are at least three to four million taels! Zhu Cijiong cannot afford it with the little village he has in North Korea.

So Ming Emperor Zhu Youjian must have made money!

And what did he want to do by paying so much money to help his son raise so many troops in Korea? To deal with the remnants of the Qing Dynasty? But those remnants were finished, and the remaining few fled to Japan and became anonymous and changed their careers to become businessmen!

Protect North Korea? Let a Japanese emperor lead 30,000 Japanese samurai to protect North Korea...The North Korean King Li Hao is not afraid at all. I'm afraid it shows the problem!

Tokugawa Iemitsu is not stupid. Of course he knows what Zhu Youjian and Zhu Cijiong and his son want to do? And he also has the ability to unite the Tokugawa shogunate and most of the feudal lords to defend the Tokugawa family's world... even if it takes military action

The emperor returned to Japan with tens of thousands of troops, and he was confident that he would lead the Tokugawa shogunate to defeat the emperor who "armed Korea".

But he never expected that because he had worked day and night to defend Japan and the Tokugawa family in recent years, and at the same time to create outstanding heirs for the Tokugawa family, he actually fell ill from overwork and contracted thirst disease and diabetes insipidus.

...Now that he is terminally ill, he will soon go to see Lord Ieyasu, the powerful god of Tosho.

What can I do?

His heir, Tokugawa Ietsuna, is only 10 years old... and is very stupid. He can't even add or subtract more than 20 - because he only has 10 fingers and 10 toes in total.

Exactly 20, no matter how old you are, you can't do it anymore.

It’s really annoying!

Let’s look at Setsugi Mitsukuni of the Mito Domain. Although he was known for being naughty when he was a child, he could already do addition and subtraction within 100 when he was 5 years old. When he was 10 years old, he began to study "Confucius’ Posthumous Chapters: Number Theory".

Oh...why can't Ietsuna be as smart as Mitsukuni?

When he was anxious, Tokugawa Iemitsu suddenly heard someone sighing in his ear. He quickly looked back and saw an elderly, chubby old man with white hair and beard sighing.

who is he?

Tokugawa Iemitsu took a closer look and saw the old man's face. He immediately felt warm. This old man was clearly his grandfather, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, the late God Lord Ieyasu!

"Grandpa..." Tokugawa Iemitsu cried and begged with tears streaming down his face, "My grandson cannot die. The Tokugawa family cannot live without a grandson. Without a grandson, the Tokugawa family will perish! Grandson

I still want to live another 50 years to protect the Tokugawa family..."

The old man nodded and was about to speak when suddenly someone shook Tokugawa Iemitsu vigorously, and then Tokugawa Iemitsu woke up. When he opened his eyes, he saw Grandpa Shenjun there? He only saw a big, stupid old man.

Masayuki Nakabo, a smart-faced old man Matsudaira Nobutsuna, a useless old man Sakai Tadakatsu, and a bad old man Tadaki Abe.

The four elders and elders in Edo have all arrived, and they are all kneeling in a row. Iemitsu thought to himself: I wonder who shook me just now? It must be one of you, excuse me.

This general prays for longevity to the Lord God... This sin is too great, I must commit seppuku!

The elder Sakai Tadakatsu saw the shogun being shaken awake by Okubo Tadashi, the junior group leader, and quickly reported: "His Majesty Kakata, Mito-sama is here..."

His Highness Mito is Tokugawa Yorifusa, the lord of Mito Domain. Although Yorifusa and Iemitsu are uncles and nephews, they are about the same age. They studied and hung out together in their youth, and their relationship is excellent. Iemitsu was infatuated with him when he was young.

They were unwilling to touch women, so they never had any children to be their heirs. Later, it was with the joint efforts of Yorifu and Kasuga Bureau that things got straightened out. Among them, Kasuga Bureau was responsible for finding beauties for Iemitsu, while Yorifu was at home every day.

Hikari was nagging in his ears to help him choose an heir - according to Tokugawa Ieyasu's order, the lord of Mito Domain had the right to supervise the succession of the Shogun family. When the Shogun family died, he also had the right to select from Kishu Domain and Owari Domain.

Choose a successor.

Under the stimulation of Yorifu, Tokugawa Iemitsu finally worked hard and gave birth to the stupid father Katsuna Tsuna and the historical animal-loving canine Kata Tsunayoshi... To be honest, at this level, I might as well keep doing it.
Chapter completed!