While Emperor Chongzhen and the others were happily celebrating the New Year, Tokugawa Iemitsu summoned his remaining cronies, Masayuki Hoshina, Tadakatsu Sakai, and Tadaki Abe, and held a closed-door meeting.
In fact, everyone knows that in today's meetings, there is only one topic, how to deal with today's difficulties.
If there was a way, he would probably have proposed it long ago. Therefore, these people are a little curious. Is it possible that the General has a way?
Tokugawa Iemitsu's expression was a bit painful, and he said to them: "If nothing changes if this continues, let alone the shogunate, our Japanese country will be destroyed in an unprecedented way, and it will be destroyed by foreign countries.
This is something we cannot bear!"
The emperor has been in power for so many years, even if he has no power, he is just a decoration, but he has been killed. If the Edo area is captured by the Ming army again, it will really be the end of the country.
Hearing Tokugawa Iemitsu's words, Abe Tadaki and others reacted secretly. They were not as powerful as the enemy. They had already invaded the island, and Amaterasu didn't appear. What else could they do?
Seeing that no one below him answered, Tokugawa Iemitsu knew that he had no choice, so he had no choice but to say sadly: "I have thought about it. The main reason why Mingguo came to knock on the door is because of us.
The reason why we formed an alliance with the Qing Dynasty and sent troops to North Korea to make the Ming Dynasty an enemy. Therefore, as long as I plead guilty, maybe the Ming Dynasty will let us go and the shogunate can continue to pass on the legacy!"
Hearing this, several people couldn't help but look up at him with shock on their faces.
Having said this, Tokugawa Iemitsu had already given up and immediately continued: "I have decided to pass the throne to Ietsuna. He will be eight years old soon. You will support him well. Please do everything!"
Having said this, he knelt down and bowed to his ministers.
Upon seeing this situation, all the ministers were immediately excited. They immediately bowed back and started admonishing one after another.
"My lord, the shogunate cannot live without you!"
"Even if the Lord hands me over, Ming Guo may not forgive me. Rather than doing this, it's better to kill the fish and break the net!"
"Yes, it's all due to our incompetence as ministers. We absolutely cannot let the Lord carry it, otherwise the fish will die and the net will fall apart!"
"..."
They still wanted to speak, but Tokugawa Iemitsu reached out and stopped them from continuing to speak, and then said in a very helpless tone: "Can't you see it yet? The fish will definitely die, but the net may not be broken!"
"..." After hearing this, the house suddenly became quiet.
With the current situation and the strength of the Ming Dynasty, it is true that they want to break the net, but the net may not be broken!
What's even more sad is that Japan is an island country and its navy has been destroyed. Even if you can't defeat it and want to escape, there is no place to escape!
In other words, only by pleasing the Ming Dynasty and satisfying the Ming Dynasty, maybe with their mercy, the Japanese country can escape this disaster!
Thinking of this, Abe Tadaki, the smartest among them, suddenly said: "Your Majesty, in the history of China, there is a Yue King Gou Jian who endured humiliation and hardship, and finally recovered his country. Therefore, your Majesty does not have to abdicate. You can learn from Gou Jian and bear the humiliation.
Under this, maybe there will be a day when we can turn around!"
When Ting said this, the other two people immediately opened their minds and agreed.
"That's right, the Ming Dynasty has always claimed to be a heavenly country. As long as we keep a low profile and give them more face-saving things, based on their past examples, they may be happy and won't destroy us!"
"Yes, we can present beauties to the Ming Emperor, and be given a title by the Emperor to treat the Ming Emperor. We can even have Ming as his father and Japan as his son. In short, we will say whatever the Ming Emperor likes to hear; whatever the Ming Emperor likes, we can
, what should we give? With the Ming people’s good face-saving virtues, there is a lot to be done in this matter!”
"..."
Listening to what they were talking about, Tokugawa Iemitsu's eyes glowed with hope again.
If possible, of course he still wants to be the shogun! After all, his son is only eight years old, what can he do!
The emperor of the Tang Dynasty once had the title of Heavenly Khan and the title of Emperor. Would the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty also like it? When the time comes, the title of Emperor will be the emperor among all the emperors in the world. He is called the Emperor.
Then would the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty like it?
People in the Ming Dynasty probably liked this the most, right?
As long as you can keep the shogunate and recognize the Ming Emperor as your father, it won't cost you a hair. This is possible!
No matter how disgusting it is, if you follow Gou Jian's example and eat shit, there will be no problem!
After thinking for a while, Tokugawa Iemitsu suddenly felt that his fate might not be a dead end. Thinking like this, he immediately started conspiring with his three confidants.
Afterwards, an extremely humble letter of credence was prepared. Abe Tadaki sent it to the Ming army in a low profile. Of course, the gifts he brought with him were also very valuable. But looking at it this way, the sincerity was still full.
When Zeng Ying received this letter of credence, he really had no choice, because he could not make the decision, and even Zheng Sen, who was supervising the army, could not make the decision. He could only send a ship to send the Japanese envoy to the capital, and the emperor would decide how to deal with it.
!
……………………
Time soon came to the spring of the 22nd year of Chongzhen. There was one thing that was on Emperor Chongzhen's agenda and it was difficult to delay it any longer.
The twenty-second year of Chongzhen was 1649 AD. Emperor Chongzhen was thirty-eight years old at this time.
His eldest son Zhu Cihong was just twenty years old and was already a prince.
His second son died in infancy, so let’s not talk about it. His third son, Zhu Cijiong, was canonized as King Ding in the 14th year of Chongzhen. He was crowned in the 16th year of Chongzhen and was already 18 years old at this time.
His fourth son, Zhu Cizheng, was named the Eternal King in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen. He was seventeen years old at this time and had already received the crown ceremony.
According to the usual practice, King Ding and King Yong must be divided into feudal states. It can be said that there were wars before, and then they were busy with ZTE. But by the 22nd year of Chongzhen, the surrounding areas of the Ming Dynasty were basically conquered by the Ming Dynasty, and there was no longer any delay.
Reason.
Emperor Chongzhen had seen a video provided to him by Liu Weichao. It was originally a video of him saying goodbye to his three sons and asking them to hide out when the capital city was destroyed in the 17th year of Chongzhen's reign.
He was actually very emotional about that video, and felt extremely deeply about the destruction of his country and his family. He also felt very guilty for the fact that these three children had to die in the end.
For this reason, I let them stay with me for a few more years. But at this time, it was really not easy to delay it any longer.
On this day, Emperor Chongzhen summoned Empress Zhou, Concubine Tian, Prince Zhu Cixiang, Prince Ding Zhu Cijiong, and Prince Yong Zhu Cijiang, and held a family meeting.
Just by the identity of the participants, you can probably know what this meeting will be about. Both Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cizheng became a little nervous.
Sure enough, Emperor Chongzhen looked at the two of them and said straight to the point: "You have passed your age, it is time to become a vassal! Originally, the vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty had two choices, either to stay in the country, but with diminishing titles; or to enfeoff overseas.
, the position of hereditary vassal king. You two are my sons, I will make the decision for you, don’t stay in the country!"
King Yong is the son of Concubine Tian. When she heard this, she couldn't help but look at King Yong immediately, her eyes full of reluctance.
Compared to her, Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cizheng didn't even look at their mother, they just looked back at their father with excitement on their faces.
It was obvious that the two of them were looking forward to becoming feudal kings overseas.
Emperor Chongzhen looked at the two of them and continued: "In this world, I know what is good and what is bad. Therefore, I will give you several choices. You can choose for yourself!"
While speaking, Wang Chengen, the person he trusted the most and was the only outsider present, took out a world map, hung it on the screen, pushed it in front of the emperor and the prince, and then stood behind the screen with his hands down, acting as an invisible man.
Emperor Chongzhen stood up, came to the map, then pointed at Australia and said: "The land area here is large enough, but there are also many snakes, insects, rats, ants, etc., and the mineral resources are of course also very rich. Look at you two
Do you like it?"
Having said this, he waved his hand again, slid across the Pacific Ocean, pointed at North America and continued: "The land here is large enough, similar to the one just now, but the climate and other things are similar to the Ming Dynasty. You can also consider it!"
"And here!" Emperor Chongzhen pointed to the territory of the Mughal Empire in South Asia, and then said: "This is Tianzhu, rich in materials, with a larger population than the two places just now, and it is no longer so primitive.
There’s no need to drink Maoru’s blood! But the imperial court hasn’t conquered it yet, but it will be a matter of the next two years!”
After saying this, he looked at his two sons and said, "See for yourselves, where do you want to go?"
Zhu Cixiang, who was standing next to him, didn't wait for his two younger brothers to speak. He suddenly spoke first: "Father, is this too big?"
After he said it, he saw Emperor Chongzhen, Empress Zhou and Concubine Tian looking at him, their expressions seemed a little unhappy, so he quickly explained: "The territory of the vassal state was so large when the Zhou King and Tang King enfeoffed it before.
The territory of the two imperial brothers is many times larger than theirs, so I am afraid that the feudal kings will not accept it!"
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen immediately sneered and said: "Their vassal state is made of mature soil, all ready-made, and these places are still raw land, how can it be the same?"
At this point, he even raised his voice and said: "They have to suffer whether the vassal state I give them is good or bad, because I am the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty!"
Concubine Tian Guifei beside her originally thought that her son had to go to a place so far away, and she was very reluctant to do so. But when she heard the conversation between the emperor and the prince, she immediately changed her mind, and her eyes were on the territories selected by Emperor Chongzhen.
I glanced back and forth to see which one was better!