The congratulatory envoy sent to Nanjing by the Tokugawa shogunate was Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the heir of the Mito Tokugawa family, one of the three imperial families. This candidate was decided after half a month of discussion among a group of senior shogunate officials.

First of all, Guangguo is a master of China. He is proficient in Sinology, familiar with Confucian classics, and has done a lot of research on "Zi Lun Ge Wu Chapter". He is also proficient in arithmetic and French. Basically, he is an academic master! Guangguo's ideal of academic master is to go to China.

Study abroad and enter Taixue, the holy land of academic excellence in East Asia!

So he is very willing to go to China and have a look.

Secondly, Mito Mitsukuni's identity is also suitable. The heir to the Gosan family and the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu is a core figure in the shogunate, and his seniority is high enough. At the same time, he has not yet ascended the throne, and he has not been awarded a high-ranking official by the imperial court.

Sending him to visit China not only shows that Japan attaches great importance to the Ming Dynasty, but it is not too cheap.

After all, the Ming Dynasty did not send anyone to congratulate Emperor Gonishi on his accession to the throne. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty also unilaterally lowered Japan's "national character", downgrading Japan from an emperor's country on equal footing with the Ming Dynasty to an independent power... This move

It seems natural to China, but to the shogunate it is also a secret pleasure - the shogunate does not want the Chinese empire to pay attention to the emperor!

If the Chinese Empire supports the emperor, it will be in big trouble! Because the villains who conspire to bring down the country in Japan usually use the banner of respecting the emperor! And the Chinese Empire is now the leading brother in East Asia, with a lot of subordinates, this matter

Although it has nothing to do with Japan, there are a group of evil daimyo and ronin who are unstoppable and will use China's attitude towards the emperor as a bellwether - do you see that China already values ​​the emperor, and you Tokugawa family actually bully the emperor?

This is an internationally recognized traitor!

Therefore, a group of senior shogunate officials are quite satisfied with China's policy of ignoring the emperor... Of course, this kind of satisfaction can only be kept in the heart, but cannot be shown on face! Otherwise, they will be called treacherous ministers.

Thief's!

Therefore, the shogunate could not send too important people to the Ming Dynasty to congratulate the victory to show their displeasure.

In addition, Mito Mitsukuni is famous for his cleverness! He is the smartest person in Japan, so he was sent to the Ming Dynasty for another task, which was to explore the relationship between the Celestial Dynasty and the Satsuma Domain!

What is the relationship between the Celestial Dynasty and the Satsuma Domain? This makes the shogunate senior officials very troubled!

With the strength of the navy and army of the Celestial Empire, it should be easy to drive the Satsuma Domain out of the Ryukyu Kingdom, right? Moreover, the Ryukyu people have always been pro-Japanese and should have begged the Celestial Empire to send troops.

But the Celestial Empire accepted the situation of co-administration of the Ryukyu Kingdom with the Satsuma Domain... This is simply incredible!

How could the majestic Celestial Empire tolerate half of the vassal state that had been surrendered to it for more than 200 years being occupied by a Japanese internal vassal?

How is this possible? How is it possible that there is no conspiracy?

"Marquis of Xiamen, what does the Emperor of China want to do with the Ryukyu Kingdom?"

In the Japanese embassy in the outer city of Nanjing, near the Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty, Tokugawa Mitsukuni immediately smelled a conspiracy when he heard the visiting Zheng Jiangong talk about the issue of formal co-administration of Ryukyu.

This is a conspiracy!

Zheng Jiangong smiled: "Of course it is co-management between the two countries. The emperor of our country is willing to have good relations with Japan. Because our country and Japan now have a common enemy, our two countries are already allies, and half of Ryukyu has another

What are you reluctant to part with?"

Do you think I'm a fool? As soon as Tokugawa Mitsukuni heard Zheng Jiangong's words, he immediately knew something was wrong.

Half of Ryukyu... to whom? To Japan? Sorry, Japan is just a place name!

This half of Ryukyu can only be given to the Shimadzu family! The Tokugawa shogunate can't reach it! And if you still keep half of it, doesn't this mean that you have maintained a window for communication with the Shimadzu family?

If the Shimadzu family loses half of Ryukyu, or gets the entire Ryukyu family, it will be difficult for you, Ming Dynasty, and the Shimadzu family to collude, so you only leave half of Ryukyu and half...

Tokugawa Mitsukuni seemed to have a clear mind, but he was still respectful on face, and asked: "The common enemy mentioned by the Marquis of Xiamen is..."

"Of course it's Spain!" Zheng Jiangong said. "Spain is ambitious and wants to promote their Catholic religion all over the world. They also want to use Catholicism to disturb the hearts of Buddhist countries like us, so that we will be in chaos without a war. If

Our country was defeated in the war with Spain. Can Japan still resist the Spanish invasion?

You have three hundred feudal lords in Japan, and all of these feudal lords are loyal to the general? Are there not a few people with ulterior motives who want to use the support of Catholicism and Spain to bring down the country?"

Tokugawa Mitsukuni thought: Although there are three hundred feudal lords in Japan, the shogunate is really worried about only one Satsuma clan! This Satsuma clan is not colluding with Spain now, but is very close to your Ming Dynasty...

...

Guangguo looked at Zheng Jiangong and suddenly asked: "Marquis of Xiamen, have you ever seen Ukita Hideie?"

"Yu Xiduo..." Zheng Jiangong's face changed slightly. Why haven't he seen that old man who loves to eat? Alas, he has been very ill recently. He has diabetes and is so thin that he is skinny and bones.

He won't live long. But he finally ate enough rice before he died, and it was worth it!

"I haven't seen it, I haven't seen it!" Zheng Jiangong shook his head quickly, but how could the changes in his expression escape Guang Guo's observation?

Tokugawa Mitsukuni just looked at Zheng Jiangong and remained silent.

Zheng Jiangong felt very uncomfortable when he looked at him - Tokugawa Mitsukuni's eyes were very sharp, as if he wanted to see through people when he stared at them, which made people uncomfortable.

So Zheng Jiangong wanted to end the talks early, so he said: "I also said to the emperor that as long as Japan is willing to support the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty can improve Japan's national identity and recognize Japan as the country of the emperor like the Ming Dynasty. In the future, the emperor will

A foreign country can call himself the emperor of Japan!"

What!

Tokugawa Mitsukuni was shocked!

The Chinese Empire recognizes the Emperor as the Emperor of Japan... This will greatly enhance the Emperor's prestige!

And now in the certificate of credence given to Japan by the emperor of the Celestial Dynasty, it is General Tokugawa who is called the shogun, instead of calling the general the king of Japan or the king of Japan. Historically, Emperor Yongle once canonized Ashikaga Yoshimitsu as the king of Japan, so the Ming Dynasty

In diplomatic interactions with Japan, the shogun is always called the king. The shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate calls himself the king in diplomatic activities.

However, Zhu Cixiang chose to call the leader of the Tokugawa shogunate the Japanese shogun. Although this is the most correct title, the general is lower than the king, and the Japanese emperor is the monarch of the general!

Now that the Ming Dynasty wants to officially recognize the Japanese emperor, and also calls the leader of the Tokugawa shogunate a shogun, it is equivalent to putting the emperor above the shogun!

And this is not only the view of the great emperor, but the view of the entire East Asian world...and this view will definitely affect the powerful daimyo and ronin in Japan!

Tokugawa Mitsukuni, who was almost certain that Zhu Cihong was going to stir up the domestic situation in Japan, remained calm and said to Zheng Jiangong: "Marquis of Xiamen, I understand... I will accompany the Marquis of Wei on his mission to Japan and make arrangements.

He will meet with His Excellency the General and His Majesty the Emperor. But before I leave Nanjing, I hope to see the Emperor once more."

"Okay, I will definitely try my best to make it happen!"

...

When Tokugawa Mitsukuni met Zhu Cixiang again, the location had been transferred to the racecourse of Laoshan Palace. Emperor Zhu did not formally receive him, but invited him to ride a Yangma at the racecourse.

While riding horses, the two talked about the future of friendly relations.

Emperor Zhu had heard of the reputation of this Japanese academic master in his previous life, so he summoned him many times when he heard that the academic master Mitsukuni was visiting. The two of them were already familiar with each other, so they talked more casually now.

"Guangguo, I heard that the current shogun is a bit stupid and is known as the stupid master. Is this true?"

Guangguo frowned slightly: "Your Majesty, the public is not stupid, but he is as wise as a fool!"

Zhu Cixi shook his head: "The king of a country must be smart! Because it is very difficult to govern a country. You have to face various internal and external problems, and you must answer them correctly and carefully. And the internal and external situations your country is facing today
Chapter completed!