In the imperial palace of Edo Castle Honmaru, Tokugawa Iemitsu sat slumped on the main seat, his face uncertain.
On both sides of the imperial palace in front of him, sat cross-legged the "eldest elder" of the shogunate, Doi Toshikatsu, five "old middlemen", hundreds of close lords, daimyō and several outside daimyō who were very loyal to the shogunate.
"Big Boss" Doi Toshikatsu was released by Tokugawa Iemitsu.
In fact, Tokugawa Iemitsu was reluctant to release Doi Toshikatsu. Before the war, Doi Toshikatsu predicted that this battle would be unfavorable to the shogunate, which can be said to be an insight into the opportunity. Now among the officials of the shogunate, Doi Toshikatsu has great prestige.
Gao, officials all regard Doi Toshiki as a rare and good minister.
And Tokugawa Iemitsu, who ordered Doi Toshikatsu to be imprisoned, was naturally regarded as a coward. Releasing Doi Toshikatsu was simply a slap in the mouth for Tokugawa Iemitsu.
However, five senior middlemen and dozens of pro-domain daimyo jointly petitioned to reinstate Doi Toshikatsu as an official. They were so aggressive that if Tokugawa Iemitsu did not agree, these people might have deposed him as shogun.
Now that the shogunate army commanded by Tokugawa Iemitsu has been defeated in Osaka, its prestige has dropped to its lowest point. The generals of the Tokugawa family are likely to depose Tokugawa Iemitsu and welcome other male heirs of the Tokugawa family to come to power. So in the end
At this time, Tokugawa Iemitsu compromised, released Doi Toshikatsu, and restored the elder's official position.
Now Doi Toshikatsu is sitting in the imperial palace, presiding over this discussion as the elder, discussing whether to accept Li Zhi's peace talks.
Li Zhi's peace talks conditions were very harsh. He asked the shogunate to grant seals to the four vassal towns that supported Li Zhi: the Chikugo Kingdom with a stone height of 260,000 koku (at the time of Keicho) was granted to the Nabeshima family, and Awa, which had a height of 180,000 koku, was granted to the Nabeshima family.
The state was granted to the Chosogabe family, the Anyun and Iwami provinces totaling 300,000 koku were granted to the Mori family, and the Higo kingdom of 340,000 koku was granted to the Shimazu family.
If enfeoffment is carried out in this way, four powerful Li Zhi clan princes will appear in the westernmost part of Japan, and the western part of Japan will no longer obey the orders of the Tokugawa family in the future.
At the same time, Li Zhi asked the shogunate to open the five cities of Nagasaki, Hirado, Nagoya, Edo and Sendai as free trade ports.
Li Zhi also wanted to directly occupy Osaka Castle as a permanent "concession", and the "rent" provided by Li Zhi was only one hundred taels per year.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see at a glance that this concession arrangement only dilutes the Japanese perception of being invaded by the Ming Dynasty. In fact, Li Zhi wanted to seize a colony in Japan.
Li Zhi even asked the shogunate to compensate 10 million taels of silver for a period of three months.
Ten million taels is a very huge number, and it is not something that the Tokugawa shogunate can come up with at once.
There are only 16 million people in Japan as a whole, and the population under the direct jurisdiction of the Tokugawa family is only more than 3 million. Asking the Tokugawa family to pay 10 million taels for compensation is equivalent to asking every farmer of the Tokugawa family to pay
Thirty taels of silver. If they want to raise this amount of silver, the Tokugawa family must borrow money from businessmen all over Japan, and then reduce financial expenditures and repay the money within the next ten years.
In that case, I don't know how many samurai will be laid off and their salaries will be stopped. The strength of the Tokugawa family will be greatly reduced, and their control over the entire Japan will also be greatly reduced.
Tokugawa Iemitsu thought about it, angrily slapped the folding fan on the platform, and said loudly: "I have made up my mind! I will recruit another 200,000 troops to defend Edo and never surrender to Li Zhi!"
However, after Tokugawa Iemitsu said these words, the palace fell into deathly silence, and no daimyo answered.
Tokugawa Iemitsu looked at the daimyo and officials in the palace in surprise, but saw that they all looked at him indifferently, as if they were looking at a naughty boy talking nonsense.
Doi Toshiki slowly moved his knees, sat in the middle of the palace, and said loudly: "Your Highness, you must not fight Li Zhi anymore!"
Tokugawa Iemitsu stared at Toi Tokichi, speechless.
Doi Toshikatsu said loudly: "Now the people of all the feudal lords are eager to see Li Zhi attack Edo. If we are defeated by Li Zhi again and lose Edo, I am afraid that the Tokugawa family will not be able to protect it!"
Tokugawa Iemitsu looked at the other shogunate officials, only to find that they were all looking at Doi Toshiki with firm eyes, and seemed to be on Doi's side. What he said turned out to be nonsense that was ignored.
Tokugawa Iemitsu looked at the daimyo again, hoping that the princes of the Tokugawa family would support his decision.
However, the faces of the princes were also expressionless, as if they had not heard Tokugawa Iemitsu's words.
Date Tadamune lowered his head, moved out of the queue, sat in the middle of the imperial palace, and said loudly: "Your Majesty the General, at this time, you should accept Li Zhi's terms of cooperation, and there should be no more war. Otherwise, Li Zhi will lead his army to attack Edo, and the whole world will be destroyed.
The great names will be ready to take action, and then the Tokugawa family will be in danger."
Tokugawa Iemitsu glared at Date Tadamune, furious that this foreign daimyo openly opposed him.
However, at this time, all the daimyo everywhere had been disappointed by Tokugawa Iemitsu, the general conquering the barbarians had become a lonely man, and no one cared about his anger.
Tokugawa Iemitsu glanced around the hundreds of people in the palace, but could not find anyone to support him.
Tokugawa Iemitsu finally couldn't control his anger, threw the folding fan on the ground, waved his hand and strode out of the palace.
Seeing Tokugawa Iemitsu leaving, more than a hundred people in the palace showed no reaction.
After a long time, Doi Toshikatsu slowly said: "I will preside over the government affairs of the shogunate. While abolishing the samurai, I will borrow money from businessmen. I will definitely hand over 10 million taels to Li Zhi within three months."
The three princes of the "Gosan", who had extremely high status and also had the right to inherit the shogunate, took a step forward and bowed to Doi Toshikatsu. Among them, the respected Tokugawa Yoshinao said loudly: "Increase the territory of the four Shimazu families.
I also leave it to the elder to handle the concession of Osaka to Li Zhi."
With the support of the three noble families, even if the Tokugawa generals objected, Doi Toshikatsu could go ahead and do it. Doi Toshiki bowed to the three princes and said loudly: "I will send an envoy to Osaka right away and accept all Li's wishes.
Zhi’s request!”
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On the eighth day of February, Li Zhi boarded the ship at Osaka Port and prepared to leave Japan.
Shimazu Hisamitsu and Moori Hide and other four daimyo who obeyed Li Zhi rushed to the dock to see Li Zhi off.
The Tokugawa shogunate had fully accepted Li Zhi's request and completely surrendered to Li Zhi. Li Zhi asked Zheng Kaida to handle follow-up matters in Japan and returned to Tianjin.
Li Zhi heard that Tokugawa Iemitsu had been ousted by Doi Toshikatsu, the eldest brother, and that Doi Toshikatsu was behind the shogunate's surrender. But Li Zhi didn't care about these details. The Tokugawa shogunate had done its best for the ten million taels of silver that Li Zhi cared about.
Start raising funds for loans. The first batch of three million taels of silver arrived in Osaka on the 20th of last month. It is said that the second and third batches will all arrive within one or two months.
In addition to the grain that Li Zhi captured in Osaka, Li Zhi's trip to Japan can be said to be fully loaded. Ship after ship of loot was shipped to Tianjin, and he didn't know how many trips back and forth it would take to transport it.
Not only that, after this battle, Li Zhi had 30,000 more Japanese soldiers and horses.
Now Shimazu and other four daimyo loyal to Li Zhi have greatly increased their strength, and they can mobilize 30,000 troops to accompany Li Zhi on his expedition at any time. Although the Japanese army's combat effectiveness is not as good as the Ming army's frontier army, 30,000 people is still a considerable force.
On the pier, four princes, headed by Shimazu Mitsuhisa, stood in a row. Seeing Li Zhi approaching, the four daimyo bowed suddenly and bent their bodies at 180 degrees.
