Chapter 2153 The battle between justice and injustice
This year's winter was extremely cold for Ichijo Hideyoshi.
The negotiations between the Chinese island countries ended in vain. After returning to China, Shen Weijing, who was in charge of the negotiations, was suddenly captured and imprisoned by Emperor Wanli. The negotiations between the Chinese peninsulas immediately came to a standstill.
Governor Konishi, the person in charge of the island country, was confused. When faced with Ichijo Hideyoshi's repeated inquiries about the progress of the negotiations, he did not know how to respond.
At this time, a special joint meeting of the Spurs Fed was held in Sakai Port, and representatives from all parties unanimously decided to enter an interest rate hike cycle from the beginning of spring.
The first interest rate increase was more than 50%, and the cumulative interest rate hikes were 30% for many times. We also tightened loans, recovered Spo food stamps from the market, and maintained the value of food stamps.
The samurai family of Nishijima Country, which had been obtaining cheap loans from Shiba Tokura, was caught off guard. They would soon face an increased interest burden.
What's even worse is that Shiba Tokura has also begun to tighten loans, and the original trick of paying off old debts with new debts can no longer continue.
The battle was fought for the Ichijo family, and the money was earned for the Shiba family. The samurai family of Nishijima Province had been busy for more than two years, and the family was just looking after the dead.
This thankless situation made the samurai family of Nishishima country complain, and Ichijo Hideyoshi was under increasing pressure.
The last straw that broke Hideyoshi's mind came in spring.
In the spring of the following year, Emperor Wanli sent an envoy from the Celestial Dynasty to the island country.
The mission landed at Sakai Port, ennobled Minamoto Yoshigan in Kyoto, conferred the title of King of the island country, and granted the King a gold seal.
According to the records of the Ming Dynasty, Yuan Yi spent three days in Yinzhai, and then welcomed the envoys in the suburbs, received the title, performed five bows, bowed his head three times, and called out salutes from the mountains.
Yoshigan Shiba accepted the Ming Dynasty's imperial crown, court clothes, and gold seal, and became the second king of the island nation to be officially canonized by the Celestial Empire after Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.
Interestingly, the canonization of Emperor Wanli was conditional on granting the title but not paying tribute.
In other words, the Ming Dynasty recognized the vassal king Siba Yiyin, but he was still not qualified to participate in Kanhe trade.
Sibo Yiyin's plea to China to reopen the exploration and cooperation trade was handled vaguely by China.
The envoy of the canonization only brought an ambiguous statement. The king of the island country has newly conferred the title and has not made any achievements. His Majesty the Emperor is waiting to see what happens.
What was Emperor Wanli waiting for? Sibo Yiyin knew it well.
Therefore, after receiving the response from China, the political action that Spo Yiyin had been preparing for many days was finally launched in full swing.
As soon as the Chinese envoys left, the Spring Review of the Provisional Shogunate was held as scheduled.
During the meeting, the entire United Front unanimously passed a resolution and issued a document severely condemning Ichijo Hideyoshi's unprovoked invasion of the peninsula, which led to a regrettable war between the Japanese island countries.
The Grand Councilor Zhu Ji strongly demanded that Ichijo Hideyoshi immediately stop the war, withdraw from the peninsula, seek peace with China unconditionally, and maintain peace and friendship among the island countries of China.
After the Grand Council reached a consensus, the provisional shogunate had a legal basis to adopt a tougher attitude towards Ichijo Hideyoshi and related samurai who initiated the war, and restrict their behavior.
Including but not limited to logistics restrictions, personnel exchanges, tariff barriers and other obstructive measures to pressure Hideyoshi Ichi to return to the path of peace as soon as possible.
After the conclusion of the major review, the SPO Fed meeting was also held again.
Representatives at the meeting voted to appoint the Kami Sanada family to be responsible for the new chairmanship of the Spam Fed, while Sanada Nobushige recommended his retainer Seikai to serve as chairman.
The first thing Qinghai did after taking office was to declare to the outside world that the current rate of interest rate hikes was too slow and that he would further speed up the rate hikes and achieve the 30% target of raising interest rates by autumn at the latest.
This means that in the short period of half a year from spring to autumn, the interest rate on loans lent by Sibo Tuchang will rise from an average of 30% to an average of 60%.
The debt borne by the Nishijima Kingdom Samurai family under Ichijo is 30 million koku in food stamps, and the annual interest payable will increase from 9 million koku to 18 million koku.
The total population of the island country is 10 million, and the total stone value is 20 million. The interest of 18 million stone has almost reached the total stone value of the island country's land output.
Not to mention returning the principal, even if they force the West Island Kingdom samurai family to death, they won't even be able to pay out the annual interest.
As soon as the news of the Spam Fed spread, the military family of the West Island country was in an uproar.
From the Ming Dynasty's canonization, to the Grand Council, to the Sputnik Fed, Sputnik's political actions were to continuously tighten the rope around Hideyoshi's neck.
Step by step, he forced Ichijo Hideyoshi to stop the war and surrender to the Ming Dynasty unconditionally.
Now that the ball has been kicked to Ichijo Hideyoshi's side, facing huge internal and external pressure, how will Ichijo Hideyoshi choose?
———
In late spring, Ichijo Hideyoshi secretly recalled Ichijo Hideyoshi, the commander-in-chief of the Ichichi regiment that invaded the peninsula, to Nagoya.
Inside the house, two sisters were sitting opposite each other, with no third person present.
Ichijo Hidecho said respectfully.
“Since the Ming Dynasty entered the peninsula and Pyongyang and Seoul changed hands, the war mainly took place in the southern four provinces of the peninsula.
This spring, our army launched the second Jinju Battle, and now Kato Kiyomasa has captured Jinju Castle."
Hideyoshi's way of shooting the case.
"Good! Kato Kiyomasa lived up to my expectations and did a great job.
But why did Jinzhou change hands so easily? This fortified city was captured in just one spring? Didn’t the Chinese Peninsula send troops to support it?"
Faced with Ichijo Hideyoshi's question, Ichijo Hideyoshi, who had been on the front line of the peninsula, was very clear about the contradictions of the Ming Dynasty peninsula, so he explained.
"Since the Ming Dynasty entered the peninsula in large numbers, the two sides of the Ming Dynasty and the peninsula had extensive differences in matters such as the speed of advance, logistical support, information exchange, and distribution of military merits.
Because of confusing intelligence, the Ming army was hesitant and unwilling to advance. The peninsula was eager to regain its homeland and had been urging the Ming army to take action.
The Ming army had no choice but to advance, and mostly used southern troops to defend important towns such as Pyongyang and Seoul, while northern troops were responsible for attacking southward.
Because of our tight defense, the Ming army did not take any advantage. The Northern troops had many horses and suffered considerable losses. It is said that the Ming army's horses were lost in battle to more than 12,000 horses, which made the Northern troops complain.
However, the southern soldiers were stationed in the rear and rarely made any meritorious deeds. As a result, military merit rewards were insufficient and there were many complaints.
There were already many differences between the Northern and Southern troops in the Ming army, and because of the uneven distribution of military merits, the discord became increasingly serious.
The Ming army was also at odds with the peninsula's monarchs and ministers. Both sides were writing letters to the Ming emperor complaining about each other, making the situation very embarrassing.
It is only natural for our army to seize the opportunity and take advantage of the opponent's internal chaos to capture Jinzhou in one fell swoop."
Ichijo Hideyoshi nodded.
"I see."
Taking advantage of the contradiction between the Ming Dynasty and the peninsula, a legion finally gained a firm foothold after retreating to the south of the peninsula, and was not pushed into the sea by the Ming army.
This was originally a good opportunity to strengthen the defense line, but unfortunately...
Ichijo Hideyoshi sighed helplessly and asked slowly.
"Do you think there will be another large-scale war on the peninsula this year?"
Ichijo Hideo shook his head and said.
"impossible.
The Ming army was at odds with the monarchs and ministers of the peninsula. They had to mediate with the emperor through the Ming court, which took a lot of time.
We also captured Jinzhou City, blocking the passage for the Ming army to go south, and the Ming army was even less willing to take the risk of going south.
The distance between Seoul and BJ was not close, so the lawsuit between them went to BJ, and then the Ming emperor sent people to appease and reconcile them, which took half a year anyway.
It was late autumn and winter at that time, which is not suitable for large armies to go into battle. This year's war on the peninsula will probably be a stalemate, and there will be no large-scale wars. At most, there will be some minor border frictions."
This was what Ichijo Hideyoshi was waiting for. She stood up and walked to her sister and said solemnly.
"Hidecho, I have something that affects the life and death of the Ichijo family. Please support me."
Ichijo Hideo was surprised and bowed.
"Everything I have is given by my sister. It is my responsibility to devote myself to the Ichijo family."
Ichijo Hideyoshi nodded in relief and whispered.
"There will be no war on the peninsula this year. I want you to leave a small number of troops to garrison the city and transfer the main force back to the island country."
Ichijo Hidecho asked.
"Transfer back? Let everyone go back to their hometowns to eat and reduce military consumption?"
Ichijo Hideyoshi smiled bitterly and shook his head.
“If you put all the people back, it will be difficult to pull them out again.
Now that the situation is not favorable to me, each family has already started to wait and see about me. At this time, we should firmly hold on to their army of expeditions.
put all one's eggs in one basket."
Hideyoshi Ichijo looked serious, looked at Hideyoshi Ichijo, bowed and said.
"Please give me your orders."
Ichijo Hideyoshi said coldly.
"When the army comes back, it first goes to Nagoya Castle, and then takes a boat from Shimonoseki to Himeji Castle in Harima Province. I have already gone there to mobilize military supplies and ensure military supplies.
Before the autumn harvest at the latest, I will go to Himeji Castle in person, lead a large army into Shiba's territory, supply food to the enemy, and fight to the end with Shiba Yoshigan."
By the time Ichijo Hideyoshi spoke, his face was already ferocious.
Shiba Yiyin's soft knife stabbed her so hard that she couldn't sleep, and all the families under Ichijo's command had a tendency to become alienated.
At this time, if we return the army, Ryuzoji, Otomo, Mori, Shimazu, Chosoga and other families, they may not be willing to wait and see.
The military needs of the army outside the country can no longer be sustained due to the economic sanctions imposed by the temporary shogunate, and the interest rate hike strategy of the Federal Reserve Bank of Spa has made everyone miserable.
If this continues, there will be a dead end. Hideyoshi has no choice but to turn his gun and charge into Shiba's territory to give it a try.
Ichijo Hideyoshi naturally knew that the situation of Ichijo's family was not good. She was Ichijo Hideyoshi's biological sister, and the two of them were like grasshoppers tied on a rope.
Hideyoshi Ichijo wanted to take the last gamble, Hideyoshi Ichijo had no other choice but to play with her.
———
At the same time, I heard a lot about the mountain city and stayed in the hotel.
Yoshigan and Miyuki were sitting in the corridor together, and there was no third person present either. Miyuki asked without any scruples.
"I don't understand why my father didn't directly attack Ichijo's territory, but chose to provoke Hideyoshi Ichijo with every blow.
Aren’t you worried that a dog will jump over a wall in a hurry? In other words, why would you force a dog to jump over a wall without striking first?”
Yiyin smiled.
"Miyuki, do you know how many people have bought Hokurikudo stocks, Shiba Real Estate, and stored their wealth in the food stamps of Shiba Dokura?
Not to mention the samurai family under Shiba, the old Oda retainers, and the famous names of the Western Kingdom, there are also a few who secretly hide some wealth in Shiba's territory.
They are risk-averse and want to secure a way out, and the Spo family's peaceful development path is what they like to see.
Therefore, I cannot be fond of fighting or challenging.
This bad guy who started the war can only be done by Ichijo Hideyoshi.
Externally, I appealed to Ichijo Hideyoshi to stop the war, and raising interest rates and cutting off supply was just to stop the war.
I can't take the initiative to fight, so I can only force Ichijo Hideyoshi to take action first, which is considered a free war.
The island country has been in chaos for a hundred years, the samurai family has long been tired of war, Hideyoshi Ichijo's foreign aggression is unpopular, but I have been developing the economy.
But this time, the Fed's interest rate hike has ignited a new round of economic crisis. If I start a war, the military elites in the world will definitely feel disgusted.
But if Ichijo Hideyoshi starts the war, then all the blame will fall on her.
It was she who started the war, it was she who ruined the domestic economy, and it was she who ruined everything good.
I have no choice but to accept the challenge, this is a righteous war, and only a righteous war can make most people on my side, let the orthodoxy of Sibo's theocracy be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the national destiny will last long."