The situation in Japan is more complicated than that in the Ming Dynasty, especially at the class level.

In the current fight against the Ming Dynasty, although they seem united, they actually all have ulterior motives.

Especially now, the status of the emperor is in a declining state. After experiencing the war between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the status of the emperor is at the lowest in the history of Japan.

This situation was not only reflected on the Emperor's side, but even the Shogun could not ignore it.

Just as the Shogun ignored the authority of the Emperor, at this time in Japanese society there were often cases of shugo daimyo despising the Shogun, lower-level local lords and samurai challenging shugo daimyo, and even samurai not taking the Emperor seriously - people called this phenomenon "the lower class overthrowing the superior."

For example, when Emperor Go-Sagami of the Northern Dynasty was on a tour, he met Toki Yorito, the guardian of Mino.

The emperor's close ministers shouted, "The emperor is here, get off your horse!"

Upon hearing this, Toki Raito did not dismount, but instead became furious and said, "Tell me clearly whether it is a courtyard carriage or a dog carriage. If it is a dog carriage, shoot him with an arrow."

As he said this, he really drew his arrow and shot.

His followers rushed forward, tore off the curtain of the emperor's carriage, overturned the carriage, and beat up the officials around the emperor.

Afterwards, Toki Yoshitomo was executed by the shogunate, but this caused greater dissatisfaction among the lower-class samurai.

Some people said: "If it is not possible without an emperor, then we can carve one out of wood or cast one out of gold, and banish the living emperor to some other place to avoid any trouble."

Someone lamented: "The phoenix is ​​born in the last days, and its miserable state is also sad; the pheasant was chased away by wildfire and has no nest to return to."

At this time, the power of the Emperor's court declined and it was like a small prince.

Historically, Emperor Jianwen of the Ming Dynasty referred to Ashikaga Yoshimitsu as "King Minamoto Daoyi of Wa" in his imperial edict to Wa.

In his letter to the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu also called himself "Minamoto, the minister of the King of Wa". The Shogun had become the representative of the highest power in the country. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu called himself "Minamoto Michiyoshi" because the Ashikaga clan was a descendant of the Seikawa Minamoto clan, that is, the direct descendant of Emperor Seiwa.

Even the later Tokugawa shogunate was descended from the Kiyokawa Genji, so the shogun's coming to power was simply the emperor's branch replacing one branch.

After the unification of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu did not fulfill his original promise to restore the tradition of succession of emperors from the Daikakuji and Jimyōin factions.

The royal family, ministers, and generals of the Southern Dynasty were extremely indignant, and Emperor Go-Kameyama also regretted his decision deeply.

In the original history, Kameyama fled Kyoto and re-established the Southern Dynasty in the Yoshino Mountains, which is known as the Later Southern Dynasty.

The royal descendants and ministers of the Southern Dynasty continued to struggle for nearly half a century in order to restore their old power.

Later, a group of thugs sneaked into the palace, stole the divine sword and divine seal, and used them to support the royal descendants of the Southern Dynasty to oppose the shogunate. After the failure of the plot, many descendants of the Southern Dynasty royal family were killed.

There was another similar incident later, which almost led to the extinction of the royal family of the Southern Dynasty.

The forces represented by the Southern Dynasty were the Japanese pirates who were the main invaders of the Ming Dynasty.

For example, when Zhu Di captured Japanese spies, they belonged to the Southern Dynasty.

During the period of division between the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the struggle between the various princes of Japan reached a white-hot stage, and they attacked each other. In the process of this struggle between the North and the South, the feudal forces of the Southern Dynasty began to be defeated and had to withdraw from the Japanese mainland.

Among them, some feudal lords of the Southern Dynasty, as well as the samurai and ronin under their rule, chose to leave in order to avoid being hunted down by Japan. They took a boat to the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty, where they engaged in smuggling and some even burned, killed and looted.

As the Southern Dynasty continued in Japan, the Japanese pirates along the coast of the Ming Dynasty continued to import wealth to the Southern Dynasty as a means of resistance against the Northern Dynasty.

The conflict between the Northern and Southern Dynasties in Japan did not end with the unification of the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

But it has been entangled in history for hundreds of years.

The power of the Southern Dynasty has never been completely eliminated.

Some people say that the Northern Dynasty controlled most of the country, so it was the actual ruler and should be the orthodox one.

But some people also say that the sacred artifact transferred by Emperor Go-Daigo was fake, so the orthodoxy still lies on the side of the Southern Dynasty.

Even hundreds of years later, some people still confidently said: "Isn't the current emperor the descendant of the usurper who snatched the three sacred artifacts from the Empress of the Later Southern Dynasty?"

For a time, it caused a huge uproar in Japan.

Finally, Emperor Meiji, the last emperor of the Northern Dynasty, made a ruling that the Southern Dynasty was the orthodox one and that the emperors of the Northern Dynasty were not included in the imperial succession series, but the status and treatment of the emperor remained unchanged.

Therefore, Ashikaga Takauji was regarded as a traitor, while Kusunoki Masashige became a model of loyalty to the emperor.

Although Japan currently seems to be unified, it is actually on the brink of division.

The shogunate was unable to suppress the daimyo in various places.

In this special era, the Shugodai, the people of the country, and the people related to them all became daimyo with their strength, and competed to expand the territories of the kingdoms, and successively dominated one side and became the daimyo of the Warring States period.

This led to a situation of division among warlords, and Japan was plagued by constant war thereafter.

In Kanto, the Kamakura shogun Ashikaga Nariuji was dissatisfied with the Kanto Kanrei Uesugi Noritadada and assassinated him.

This move triggered a long-term confrontation between the Kanto Kanrei and the Kōbō, which led to the shogunate sending the Suruga guardian Imagawa clan to suppress the conflict, forcing Ashikaga Nariuji to move to Shimotsue Koga and become the first Kobō of Koga.

After the war, the Horikoshi Shogunate Ashikaga Masatomo, who was supported by the Kanto Kanrei Uesugi clan, and the Furukawa Shogunate, who was supported by the northern Kanto powerful families, emerged in Kanto.

The rebellion of Nagao Kageharu, a senior retainer of the Yamanouchi Uesugi clan, gave the Ogigayatsu Uesugi clan the opportunity to expand their own power, prompting the Yamanouchi Uesugi clan to choose to reconcile with the Kofu of Furukawa to fight against the Ogigayatsu Uesugi clan.

In order to fight against the Yamanouchi Uesugi clan, the Ogigayatsu Uesugi clan formed an alliance with the Ise Nagauji clan.

The Horikoshi Kubo was destroyed by the Ise Nagauji due to internal strife, and the power of the Hojo clan, the descendant of the Ise Nagauji, increased greatly.

Not long after, Uesugi Sadamasa died suddenly, causing the decline of the Ogigayatsu Uesugi clan. The Hojo clan then turned to attack the Ogigayatsu Uesugi clan, eliminated the Sagami Miura clan and occupied Odawara Castle, leading to a new situation in which the two Uesugi clans united to fight against the Hojo clan.

Later, the second head of the Hojo clan, Ujiyasu, invaded Musashi Province and replaced the old Ashikaga and the two Uesugi clans to become the strongest daimyo in the Kanto region.

In addition to the Ise Nagauji rising in the Kanto region and becoming the representative of the new daimyo, new powers began to emerge in various parts of Japan, some of which were able to overthrow their superiors and some even became regional leaders.

The Izumo Shugoro usurped the real power of the Shugoro Kyogoku clan from the Amago clan, and later his daimyo Amago Tsunehisa replaced the Kyogoku clan and became the Izumo Shugoro.

During the lifetime of Amago Nagahisa, the Amago clan expanded to be on par with the head of the Ouchi clan, Ouchi Yoshioki, who prospered due to overseas trade.

During the struggle between the two heroes, Mori Motonari, a native of Aki, gradually absorbed the power of the Amago clan and the Ouchi clan. Later, he took advantage of the internal strife of the Ouchi clan and defeated the powerful minister of the Ouchi clan, Sue Harukata, in the Battle of Itsukushima and became the new overlord.

In addition, the Mino guardian Toki clan was also driven out by their important retainer Nagai Norihide and declined. Nagai Norihide later inherited the Saito clan, changed his name to Saito Hidetatsu, and took the Buddhist name "Dosan".

It can be said that Japan is currently in chaos.

Faced with the constant threats from the Ming army, without starting a major war, Japan is currently experiencing serious internal strife.

This is also the reason why, although Kyushu Island is about to be occupied by the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese army has not yet made any moves.

On Zhu Di's side, after a brief rest, he personally led the army to war the next day.

Although the Japanese people had long been accustomed to the hurricane, they still could not avoid casualties.

Let’s not talk about the personnel situation for now, but in terms of city defense, it can basically be said to be a blank.

In just three days, Zhu Di's army achieved great success.

Wherever they went, there was no decent resistance at all, which could be described as overwhelming force.

But as the army continued to advance, a very difficult problem was placed before Zhu Di.

"Your Majesty, our army is running low on food."

"In all the villages that have been occupied so far, these Japanese have almost no food."

"After interrogation, we learned that long before, there were Japanese officials who collected a lot of taxes here and then transported all the grain away."

"Not only food, but also some young and strong men and elite troops were basically transported to Honshu Island."

Zhang Yu was on horseback, reporting to King Yan.

Zhu Di, holding the reins, sat on his horse and frowned as he looked at the cities in front of him that were being easily conquered by his soldiers.

"These Japanese are really cruel. They don't even care about their own parents, wives and children. They just run away by themselves."

"They want to use the entire Kyushu Island as a cage to trap us."

Zhu Di said with some sigh.

Zhang Yu replied again: "Your Majesty, Kyushu Island is the place most severely affected by hurricanes every year. According to the Japanese people, whenever a hurricane hits, they will seek help from Honshu Island."

"Now the Japanese have taken away all the food, but we have left so many captives behind. They deserve to be punished."

Zhu Di didn't say anything.

Even on the battlefield, one general's success is based on the sacrifice of thousands of soldiers.

However, Zhu Di certainly would not commit such an act as massacring Japanese civilians on a large scale.

The problem now is that if we take away the food, we can naturally maintain the army's consumption, but on the Japanese side, a large number of people will starve to death.

Unless it means killing prisoners.

After careful consideration, Zhu Di gave up the idea of ​​killing the prisoners.

Because too many were killed, there was no one left, and the conquered territory became a wasteland. What was the use of it?

"What are the arrangements on the Prince of Jin's side now? The Qun Ying Chamber of Commerce has sent food to the Prince of Jin." Zhu Di did not answer the previous question, but asked Zhu Gang instead.

Zhang Yu shook his head and said, "No fleet has come yet. Even some merchant fleets changed their routes after learning that our Ming army is going to invade Japan."

"On the other hand, Duke Song had a fleet returning to transport food before the hurricane. I think it won't take long."

"But if we take the Japanese civilians into consideration, our own soldiers won't have enough to eat."

The consideration Zhang Yu mentioned was to ensure that the Japanese people were not starving to death.

But compared with the civilians and the army, the population number is a very large base.

Wherever Zhu Di's army passed, except for sporadic resistance, almost all villages surrendered directly. In less than three days, there were 70,000 to 80,000 Japanese civilians.

If the war continues, as the territory expands, the population will increase and food will become increasingly scarce.

"All Japanese civilians, except those who first surrendered to us, will be under our jurisdiction."

"Give them a small amount of food, one bowl of porridge a day, and all will be controlled. No special treatment will be given."

"If there are Japanese people who can provide a place to hide the food, they can have two full meals a day."

"Also, tell the soldiers on the front lines to slow down the pace of the conquest."

After thinking about it, Zhu Di gave the order directly.

The population certainly cannot be abandoned. Without people, what is the point of talking about rule? Can we talk about ruling the mountains, rivers and wild beasts?

At this moment, the power shift on Honshu Island was also changing rapidly due to the external pressure from the Ming army.

The Imperial Palace of Japan.

Different from the name of the Imperial Palace, the word "Ju" reflects the gap between Japan and the Ming Dynasty.

"Tell me, if I contact the Ming army and secretly help them defeat Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, will the Emperor of Ming continue to let me serve as the Emperor?"

Emperor Go-Komatsu asked his close ministers.

The title of Emperor of Wakoku was actually used during the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. Strictly speaking, it was after Emperor Gaozong of Tang.

Before this, there was no title of emperor in Japan, only "Great King" or "King of Wa".

The term "Wa Nu Wang" was bestowed by Emperor Guangwu of Han. It is recorded in "Book of the Later Han Dynasty·Biographies of Eastern Barbarians" that at that time, envoys from Wa paid tribute to the Han Dynasty and requested Emperor Guangwu to bestow the name.

Emperor Guangwu saw that the envoy was particularly short, so he granted him the title of "Wa Nu Kingdom", and its king was naturally named "Wa Nu King".

Although this name does not seem very good now, the Japanese were very happy with it at that time and used it for more than 600 years. A seal of "King of Wa" was even unearthed later.

Even the person who called himself "I" was brought to Japan.

Of course, to the Ming Dynasty or the Central Plains Dynasty, even the Emperor of Japan called himself a subject.

The reason why Emperor Komatsu asked his close ministers this question was because he really couldn't stand Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, who currently holds power, had already prepared to abdicate to his nine-year-old son Ashikaga Yoshimochi before the Ming Dynasty launched an expedition.

The construction will begin only after the huge luxurious mansion Deer Park and the magnificent Golden Pavilion Temple are completed in Kyoto.

Of course, this does not mean abdicating and giving up power, but rather becoming the Prime Minister himself. This ambition is obvious.

In the view of Emperor Go-Komatsu, the Ming Dynasty's expedition against Japan at this time was not a expedition against itself, but a expedition against these disloyal people.

Therefore, he wanted to unite with the Ming Dynasty to overthrow the shogunate of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and restore the rule of the emperor.

After hearing this, the minister hesitated for a while and said, "Perhaps your Majesty has already sent someone to contact one party to try. Now the Ashikaga Shogun has completely ignored your Majesty."

Upon hearing this, Emperor Go-Komatsu nodded heavily.