That night, Ieyasu and his son stayed in the Jiangnan Garden.

The night rain lapped the surface of the lake, and the sound of waves from Osaka Bay could be heard faintly in the distance, making the warmly lit tea room seem very quiet.

"Uh...oh...hiss..."

Zhao Hao leaned against the pillow, stretched his legs comfortably, and enjoyed the foot massage from his godson.

"Oh Taosama, how about this strength?" Ieyasu knelt down below and pressed and rubbed the acupoints on the soles of his feet vigorously while saying flatteringly.

"Yeah, professional." Zhao Hao nodded vaguely.

"Lord Nobunaga also praised my foot massage skills." Ieyasu smiled like a 160-pound child, and sighed: "Besides father, I have only massaged his feet."

"I really don't want to serve that country mouse." He suddenly became angry again and unconsciously exerted force with his hands.

"It hurts, please be gentle!" Zhao Hao grinned.

"Father, you have a weak kidney. Please be patient for a while." But Ieyasu did not let up.

"Nonsense, the kidneys control hair. Look at the hair on your head..." Zhao Hao said with a sour feeling.

"It's inevitable. My father and I have been working hard day and night..." Ieyasu sighed and said proudly, "But at least we are not busy. Unlike Lord Hideyoshi, he married many wives but couldn't give birth to any children."

"He is over fifty years old, right?" Zhao Hao took the teacup offered by Zhao Shizhen and took a sip.

"Yes, fifty-one." Ieyasu gloated, "Still working hard, but no matter how hard he tries, it's all in vain."

"Oh? What do you mean?" Zhao Hao's heart was ablaze with gossip. After all, whether Hideyori was Hideyoshi's son was one of the major mysteries of the Japanese Warring States Period.

"Eighteen years ago, when Lord Nobunaga led his army to attack Ise, Lord Hideyoshi was in charge of attacking Asaka Castle. The lord's son, Omiya Kageren, was a master archer. He shot Lord Hideyoshi in the crotch while he was commanding the battlefront, causing him to be injured and affecting his fertility." Ieyasu smiled:

"Although Lord Hideyoshi insisted that he was shot in the buttocks, not the testicles, it is an indisputable fact that nothing was found in the following 18 years."

"Is that so..." Zhao Hao thought that Ieyasu had some explosive information, but it turned out to be just hearsay. However, there is really no way to verify such things. You can't just take a sample and send it to the laboratory of Jiangnan Medical College to look at it with a high-powered microscope...

"Alas. In fact, he still has the mindset of a farmer. The Wu family doesn't care whether they are biological children or not. As long as they have the father-son relationship, it is enough." Ieyasu wrapped Zhao Hao's left foot with a hot towel and began to massage the other foot.

"For example, Xiukang?" Zhao Hao teased.

"Haha," Ieyasu said with a wry smile, "It's impossible. Lord Hideyoshi places too much emphasis on blood ties. If he had married Princess Asahi to me twenty years earlier, there would still be hope."

"Don't you look down on me?" Zhao Hao said with a smile.

"Alas." Ieyasu said dejectedly, "It's just talk, how dare I look down on her? If my son doesn't agree to marry her, the two families will be at war until death."

"So what do you think?" Zhao Hao asked softly.

Ieyasu kept moving his hands and whispered, "As long as there is a possibility, I will naturally not submit to that country mouse. But the situation is stronger than me. Alas, I really can't bear it..."

As he spoke, he raised his head, looked at Zhao Hao eagerly and said, "Father, can you scare Lord Hideyoshi?"

"What do you want me to do?" Zhao Hao asked without comment.

"He has issued an order to conquer Kyushu and will soon capture Kyushu. As long as father sends a fleet to blockade the Kanmon Strait, just like he did to Lord Yuanjiu, and stops him in Shimonoseki, he will know how powerful our Zhao family is."

"It doesn't make much sense." Zhao Hao thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head and said, "As the saying goes, God helps those who help themselves. Mori Terumoto and Kobayakawa Takakage of the Western Kingdom have already surrendered to the Kanpaku. Otomo Sorin of Northern Kyushu is also a useless man. He finally managed to kill the Hizen Bear, but was defeated by the Shimazu family and had no choice but to go to Kyoto for help, actively inviting a wolf into the house. They have all given up, so what's the point of my fleet going out to fight?"

"That monkey violated the 'Three Bans on Foreigners' Order!" Seeing that Zhao Hao had no intention of sending troops, Ieyasu said anxiously: "And he also violated the 'Perpetual Peace Treaty' by building Osaka Castle in the demilitarized zone next to Honganji!"

"Of course he will be punished, but it's not the right time yet." Zhao Hao said calmly, "The Kanmon Strait is too narrow. My fleet can stop him for a while, but not forever. And are you sure you want me to stop him from conquering Kyushu Island?"

"This..." Ieyasu was stunned for a while, and then he shook his head dejectedly and said, "Forget it."

You have to know that Hideyoshi's biggest problem now is that he got his start too late and had no hereditary retainers. He only started to grow into a local lord after the Honnoji Incident. His trusted generals, such as Kuroda Kotaka and Konishi Yukinaga, were of humble origins and had no capital at all. To put it bluntly, they were just a bunch of peasants who rose to power.

From any perspective, Monkey had to quickly assign fiefs to his subordinates in order to stabilize his fragile Toyotomi Group.

But Toyotomi Hideyoshi was never known for his military talent. His talent points were mainly added to intelligence, eloquence and internal affairs. Unlike his former lord who relied on military conquest and crushed all opponents, he relied on his excellent diplomatic skills to bring the various daimyo together.

For example, in the war in the 12th year of the Wanli reign, Hideyoshi, with several times more troops, failed to gain an advantage over Ieyasu, and instead lost three generals. However, despite the defeat on the battlefield, he used his amazing diplomatic skills to subdue Oda Nobuo, which immediately put Ieyasu, who stood up for Nobuo, in trouble.

Ieyasu's dissatisfaction with Hideyoshi and Hideyoshi's fear of Ieyasu largely came from this.

Hideyoshi also basically bribed and united other forces. He said that he basically unified Japan, but the daimyo of the Mori family, the Uesugi family, and the Tokugawa family were not seriously affected and could still retain their own territory and army.

Therefore, even though he had become the "people of the world", Hideyoshi still did not have enough land to distribute to his own people.

Kyushu is the place to alleviate the problem of Hideyoshi's lack of territory. Otherwise, the Kanpaku can only break the promise of peace and target these foreign daimyo. For example, the Tokugawa family now has 1.5 million koku, what a big fat sheep...

~~

After thinking clearly about the pros and cons, Tokugawa Ieyasu shuddered and said, "Let him conquer Kyushu."

After saying that, he added with a sad face: "But, when he digests Jiuzhou, I will be no match for him at all."

"Whether there is Jiuzhou or not, it does not affect his overwhelming advantage over you." Zhao Hao sat up straight, patted Ieyasu on the head, and said earnestly:

"Son, the most important thing for you now is to get your mind right. Since no matter whether the person sitting on that seat is a demon king or a monkey, they can destroy you, why do you treat them differently? Is the dung fork not worthy of killing you, so you must change it to a golden fork?"

"..." Tokugawa Ieyasu was stunned for a while, and then Fang Rumeng woke up and said, "Father is teaching me that I am obsessed! There is really no difference between Lord Nobunaga and Lord Hideyoshi to me."

"In fact, your situation is much better. Think about it, both were attempts to make you submit, but Oda Nobunaga ordered you to kill your wife and son to show your loyalty. But Hideyoshi wanted to marry his sister to you, and even sent his own mother to you as a hostage." Zhao Hao smiled and gave him a reassuring pill, saying, "I think even though he imitates your big brother in every way, Oda Nobunaga's arrogance comes from his inherent arrogance, and his arrogance can't hide his inferiority complex."

"Father..." Ieyasu looked at Zhao Hao in shock. With his familiarity with these two people, he immediately believed Zhao Hao's judgment. He could not help but kneel down in admiration and said:

"I never thought that my father, who has never even met these two people, could see through their hearts and minds just by my description! Oh Taosama is truly a god!"

"Now you know what to do, right?" Zhao Hao smiled and pulled him up, saying, "People should play to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses. If you are clearly a wimp, don't pretend to be a hero. Go back and happily marry Princess Asahi, and welcome her mother home to serve you as your grandmother. Then go and massage your brother-in-law's feet. From now on, you will be a family that is connected by bones and tendons. Lord Hideyoshi's sword will hit many places, and it will not fall on your head."

After a pause, Zhao Hao said in a domineering tone, "Just wait a few more years. When I have time, I will chop off his head and set an example for others!"

"Oh, after hearing what father said, I feel completely relieved!" Tokugawa Ieyasu rubbed Zhao Hao's legs excitedly and said, "I know how to protect myself in the future!"

"I'm glad to know. Let go quickly. You're almost breaking me apart." Zhao Haoxu kicked him and thought to himself that this was exactly the trick you were playing. Of course he felt it was to his liking.

In another time and space, it was precisely because of his supreme licking skills that Tokugawa Ieyasu not only avoided being weakened by Hideyoshi, but also grew under him to become a super Daimyo with 2.56 million koku. He was more than half ahead of the second place, Mori Terumoto... That's why he became the Japanese Sima Yi after Hideyoshi's death.

"I have thought of a way to please Lord Hideyoshi." The raccoon no longer dwelled on trivial matters and regained his cleverness. He slapped his head and said excitedly:

"Please help me, father."

"You talk." Zhao Hao nodded.

"Lord Hideyoshi has always been obsessed with his dream girl. He became lustful after finally getting her. He relied on the number of women to fill the emptiness in his heart..." Ieyasu said excitedly: "But for men, what they can't get is always a regret. The more powerful they are, the less they want to leave regrets!"

"You're still talking in different ways." Zhao Hao coughed and was about to tell him to stop talking.

But Ieyasu, who was in an excited state, could not stop: "The lover of his dreams is none other than Zhao Xiandi's wife, A-shi..." After Ieyasu finished speaking, he felt a chill behind him. Looking back, he saw Zhao Shizhen with a dark face, looking for a weapon to kill him.

"Don't get me wrong, my dear brother. I'm not planning on taking advantage of Madam Aichi." Ieyasu quickly explained, "I remember her eldest daughter, Chacha, who has been very similar to Madam Aichi since she was a child. She must be eighteen years old this year, right? If she hasn't been betrothed yet, oh..."

Before he could finish his words, Zhao Shizhen kicked him down onto the tatami and started kicking him hard on the head.

"Fuck you! It's not over yet!" He kicked and cursed, "My A Jiang married a nine-year-old kid, and my Cha Cha married a fifty-something old man! Believe it or not, I will tie you to the Hongwu cannon and blast you into Osaka Bay!"

"..." Zhao Hao quickly had his nephew pulled away, and said helplessly: "Don't worry, I won't let Cha Cha marry Monkey. Including Ah Chu's marriage, everything is up to you. I won't interfere anymore, okay?"

"That's more like it..." Zhao Shizhen finally calmed down.

Zhao Hao scolded the bruised Ieyasu again, "You are such a rebellious son! They said they would kill the monkey to warn the chickens, but why did you still push someone else's daughter into the fire pit?"

"Yes, I know I was wrong. My dear brother, please forgive me..." Ieyasu kowtowed to his relatives and apologized, not daring to mention the matter again.