Ise Sakyo unintentionally exposed the scandal between Shiba and Oda. She also expected Oda Nobunaga to act as a coward for the shogunate and become a bargaining chip to suppress Shiba Yoshiyin.
The agency's calculations were too clever, and it cost you your life. If you do too many evil things, you will really die by coincidence. This means that if you do too much injustice, you will die.
Yoshigan Shiba will pay the price for his naivety, and only after paying a painful price will he understand that the Ashikaga Shogunate is already extremely bad and is not worth looking forward to.
As for Ise Sakyo, don't even think about having a good ending. Oda Nobunaga was never a good man or woman, and her patience was just a way of waiting for a ferocious beast to ambush before hunting.
Only when she shows her fangs will the samurai of the shogunate understand Shiba Yoshigan's good intentions. But by then, who will side with Shiba Yoshigan, who has been severely slapped in the face by reality?
The broken mirror is reunited, but the cracks are still there. There is no going back, never going back.
Shiba Yiyin was destined to abandon this decadent old shogunate and embark on his own path.
———
No matter how deep the night is, it will eventually fade away. When the first ray of sunshine in the morning blooms from the east, the world will always usher in a bright new day.
In Tofukuji Temple, Oda Nobunaga and Mr. Asai had breakfast together. Outside the sliding door, people were socializing in spring and summer. It was getting warmer every day, and the sun was shining on the body, making people lazy and unwilling to move.
Nagamasa Asai was obviously still angry about the treatment at yesterday's ceremony and looked unhappy.
She is a daimyo with hundreds of thousands of koku in Kitaomia. She is young and promising, and stands out from the rest. In this battle of Kamiro, the Asai family mobilized against the season and suffered heavy losses.
But what about the shogunate? To put her in the second seat was simply too much.
The samurai family valued etiquette, and it was common for them to draw swords to save face. The descendant of the declining Kyogoku family was sitting in a high position, but he was in a corner. Asai Nagamasa wanted to get angry at that time.
It can be seen that Oda Nobunaga, a daimyo with two million stone, was treated the same as him. Asai Nagamasa was stunned and no longer angry about his own experience. Instead, he shook his head at the arrogance of the shogunate.
There are sixty-six countries in the world, and the stone height is 20 million. The Oda family occupies the core fertile lands such as Owari, Mino, Kitaise, and Minamiomi, and the stone height is 2 million, which is one-tenth of the world.
At that time, the Yamano family, one of the four positions in the shogunate, occupied the eleven kingdoms of the Western Kingdom and was known as the Sixth Hall, which means the Daimyo who owned one-sixth of the territory.
Western country has many mountains but little land. It sounds scary that the Yamano family owns eleven countries. In fact, it is very watery, and it may not be more powerful than the Oda family who owns the Nobi Plain.
Oda Nobunaga was watching from the side of Kyoto, and Ashikaga Yoshiaki was so arrogant that he ranked her second in the succession ceremony. Asai Nagamasa didn't know what to say.
Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the new Ashikaga shogun, does he really think that his fame is too great? The samurai family are all obedient little white rabbits who are ranked according to their seniority.
Seeing that Asai Nagamasa's face was not good-looking, Oda Nobunaga said with a smile.
"Asai-hime, are you still angry about what happened yesterday?"
Asai Nagamasa sighed.
"I am nothing more than a small foreign vassal, but I never expected that you would also receive such cold treatment."
Oda Nobunaga shrugged and said it didn't matter.
"You wrongly blamed Mr. Gongfang. She has not long since returned to secular life and does not understand the etiquette of the Wu family.
The important matters of the ceremony must be arranged by the shogunate performer who is proficient in etiquette. In this matter, our new general is also a puppet on strings, and he has been manipulated by others.
Even if she saw us at the second table that day, given her character, she would not stop the ceremony and stand up for us."
Asai Nagamasa narrowed his eyes and said.
"You mean, the ministers are up to something?"
Oda Nobunaga sneered.
"These shogunate ministers are not good at fighting, but they are the worst thing to stay in the shogunate and eat and drink.
You and I have done a good job in assisting the general in going to Luo, but they did not get any benefits, so naturally they are dissatisfied. I am not surprised to use the occasion of the ceremony to beat us.
After all, we are a foreign vassal, and we don't know the etiquette, so we naturally follow their mercy. If we want to save face, we must know how to donate money and show filial piety.
The ministers relied on this method to extract bribes and lived comfortably in Kyoto."
Asai Nagamasa's face turned cold, he already understood.
After she came to power, she has been busy with war and housekeeping. Even when she helped Ashikaga Yoshiki defeat Miyoshi Chokei, she never set foot in Kyoto. She was almost ignorant of the secret operations of the shogunate.
But Oda Nobunaga was different. She wanted to become a member of the world, but she spent a lot of money to buy information and clearly discovered the ugly behavior of the shogunate.
The Ashikaga shogun controlled the world with a balanced hand, and was most taboo about the appearance of strong daimyo. The shoguns of all generations had the bad habit of condoning and acquiescing to minor surnames, and relying on the shogunate and other shogunate ministers to ask for bribes from foreign vassals.
On the one hand, it humiliates the self-esteem and belittles the local martial arts families. On the other hand, it also weakens the strength of the local martial arts families by asking for large amounts of donations.
It's just that in recent years, the shogunate has weakened greatly. There are fewer and fewer local samurai families who are willing to be warm-hearted and cold-hearted and donate money to the shogunate.
However, the methods of extorting bribes passed down from generation to generation by the ministers have not kept up with the changes of the times. They are still living in the old dream, fishing for all the benefits, and offending many people.
The local martial arts no longer feared the generals and hated the shogunate, and they also had a share of the credit.
Oda Asai assisted the general in going to Luo, but this did not benefit the shogunate. Of course, they had to beat these two ignorant local feudal lords to let them know the rules of the shogunate.
Oda Nobunaga was unwilling to pay attention to it, and Asai Nagamasa really didn't understand. Neither of them donated money to win over the ministers, which led to the humiliation of this ceremony.
Since the third generation of shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu massacred the emperor's court, the ceremony of the samurai family has been presided over by the mourner.
Harusuke Kada, whom Yoshigan met in Kanto, was a member of the Kamakura Ashikaga family's memorial service. Because the Kada family knew etiquette and could preside over various ceremonies, they had some privileges that distinguished them from other samurai families.
There are also such performers in the shogunate, who will help the ministers repair the ignorant foreign vassals, and make the country bumpkins who don't understand etiquette suffer some dumb losses.
Ashikaga Yoshiaki didn't even have time to learn etiquette and cope with the ceremony, so he had no time to pay attention to these small actions.
Even if Ise Sadakyo, Wada Weimasa and others knew about this, they would not care about it because it was an old rule accumulated over many years.
They would not offend their colleagues in the shogunate in order to establish a vassal state in a place that they would have to leave sooner or later. The most they could do was remind Oda Asai to save some money and maintain their dignity.
With no one paying attention, the matter of Oda Asai being relegated to second place will simply go unnoticed. From a etiquette perspective, this matter cannot be faulted because the family status of the two families is indeed not high enough.
Asai Nagamasa was so angry that he cursed.
"These villains, the shogunate will be destroyed sooner or later in their hands. I will write a letter to the Lord Gongfang to expose their evil deeds."
Oda Nobunaga shook his head and said.
"The public will not care about it.
What did our new general rely on to transform from being a Dagoni to becoming the supreme king in the world? Isn’t it the old rules of family lineage that protect the system?
Even if she knew this, she would still protect the ministers. Because this is the foundation for her to become a general."
Oda Nobunaga seemed not to care, but in fact, he was far more vengeful than Asai Nagamasa.
She has a surly temperament, and she likes big scenes and cares about face. If she hadn't been worried about Shiba Yiyin, she wouldn't have suppressed her femininity and pretended to be a good baby.
Asai Nagamasa was choked up after hearing this. He couldn't take a breath, but he had to swallow it.
Oda Nobunaga was right when he said that Ashikaga Yoshiaki could succeed to the position of shogun not because of her personal ability, but because she had the blood of Kawachi Genji flowing in her body.
She must firmly grasp her status and the order of hierarchy in order to ensure her majesty and power.
Seeing Asai Nagamasa's expression of disdain, Oda Nobunaga secretly smiled. She wasted so many words today just to make Asai Nagamasa give up on the shogunate.
The shogunate has been rotten for a long time. Apart from the naive man Yoshihiro Shiba, who else really takes the shogunate seriously?
The ministers also fished for more and more, and did not want to raise their heads to see if the boat would sink.
Oda Nobunaga looked at the courtyard outside the sliding door and said leisurely.
"Asai-hime, today is the first day of the new general's appointment. Mr. Kokata cannot escape the sin we suffered yesterday.
Believe it or not, the ministers will definitely find ways to temper the general. This is their way of survival.
When the general wants to show his majesty on the throne, they must be respectful and respectful. If they want to do something practical, haha.
The Luozhong legal system that I submitted will also be discussed over and over again by the ministers, until it is completely changed beyond recognition and I don’t even recognize it myself.”
Asai Nagamasa's chest felt tight, she put down her chopsticks and sighed.
"This is the shogunate where we fully support the restoration of Shangluo."
The city gentleman on the side saw that his wife was too sad to eat, so he glared at his sister with dissatisfaction and said.
"The whole family is having breakfast happily, but why are they talking about things that make them unable to eat?"
He didn't understand the shogunate's politics, he just felt sorry for his wife. Putting down the bowl and chopsticks, the mayor looked at Asai Nagamasa and said.
"I'm going to visit the castle town today, will you go with me?"
Asai Nagamasa looked at Oda Nobunaga and said.
"His Majesty Oda and I still have something to discuss. You can go by yourself. Bring more money and silk and have fun."
Oda Nobunaga nodded.
"You have fun, our daughter's family has serious matters to discuss.
The person in charge of the castle town is Hideyoshi, and you are familiar with it. Just go and have fun, and if you encounter someone who is not smart, ask Hideyoshi to help you hold the place."
Ichijun tilted his head in displeasure, glanced at the two most important women in his life, and walked away muttering.
"It's boring, we just talk about things all day long.
Hideyoshi is doing well and has managed the castle town of Kyoto. I would like to go and see how capable and majestic this little monkey is now."
———
The ministers were so disgusted that they could not eat more than a few mouthfuls of food, so they simply withdrew their breakfast. Oda Nobunaga and Asai Nagamasa sat cross-legged in the Zen room and talked about business.
Oda Nobunaga said.
"I have made arrangements, Fujido Tiger will not survive the summer harvest season.
After that, you can propose to the military families of the three counties who have always disobeyed you, to collect military grain services from this year, starting from the summer harvest.
I will ask the people from Minami Omi to move north to help you put pressure. Under the deterrence of our north-south attack, I believe those people will understand the truth.
There is no such thing as free food in the world, and they have been free for two years. If they want to be content, it is time to return to the right track of paying food and taxes."
Asai Nagamasa hesitated.
"Do you really want to attack Fujido Toraka? How should I explain it to Ootaisho?"
Oda Nobunaga smiled.
"Todo Todo is not dead, Takashima County is okay, but Aichi Inu is pushed out by the samurai of the two counties to use her as a shield. How do you deal with it?
To make the three-county martial arts families completely give up and surrender, you must make an effort. If you let them see your hesitation and play the game of duplicity, the matter will happen again.
The battle of Shangluo has ended. My army cannot remain in the south of Omi forever, wasting food and grass.
If you want to get rid of it once and for all, you can use the tiger head of Tengtang to use it, and then support it with a large army to suppress the border, keep the three counties of the Wu family, accept defeat, and hand over food and tribute."
Asai Nagamasa lowered his head and said nothing.
Of course she knew the opportunity was too good to miss, but once she did this, there would be no room for maneuver between her and Shiba Yiyin, and the friendship between the two parties would inevitably crack.
She is already married to a husband, and there is no possibility that she will have any consequences with Shiba Yiyin. But can they not continue to be just friends?
Oda Nobunaga narrowed his eyes and looked at Asai Nagamasa.
She took advantage of Asai Nagamasa's desire to control the three counties and encouraged her to kill Todo Toradaka, so she naturally had her own motives.
Todo Toraoka is not only a trouble for the Asai family, but also a thorn in Oda Nobunaga's side and a thorn in his flesh.
Although Shiba Todo's leader only has 10,000 koku, with his influence on the samurai families of the two Aichi Inukami counties, Todo Tora is capable of doing many things.
If this thorn is not removed, it will be a hidden danger buried behind Minami Omi.
Of course, Oda Nobunaga could have killed Toudaka Todo by herself, but she insisted on obtaining the consent of Asai Nagamasa before doing so, just to put the blame for the murder on Asai Nagamasa.
This is a plan that kills two birds with one stone.
The first was to alienate the friendship between the Shiba Asai family. The second was to pull out the hidden stake of Shiba Yoshibank in Minamiomi. From then on, the comrades-in-arms that Shiba Asai had formed during the Norada battle would inevitably turn cold.
Asai Nagamasa pursed his lips and said nothing, while Oda Nobunaga said with a smile.
"I understand the friendship between the Asai family and Lord Kenshin very much. Asai Hime is a person who knows how to repay kindness and I admire her very much.
However, if the Asai family does not control the three counties, there will be no peace within Kitaomi.
How long can the Asai retainers tolerate the fact that the three counties have not paid their military and food services? If this continues, something big will happen sooner or later, so you have to make a decision early.
Don't worry, you won't be involved in killing Todou Tougao. Someone else will naturally do it.
It’s just that you have to give me an accurate letter, otherwise how can I mobilize troops and horses to help you subdue the Wu family of the three counties?"
Asai Nagamasa smiled bitterly.
Odaisho is such a wise man. As soon as Todo Torako died, the Asai family relied on the help of the Oda family to forcibly annex three counties. Of course he understood what was going on.
But what Oda Nobunaga said makes sense. If the issue of the three counties is not resolved for one day, the conflicts within the Asai family will continue to intensify, and one day they will explode.
Asai Nagamasa thought about it again and again, and finally sighed.
"Your Majesty Oda, what exactly do you want to do?"
Seeing that she finally relented, Oda Nobunaga smiled and said.
"After the land of Nan Omi surrendered, some of the Koga people surrendered to me. This little thing just allows me to test them and see if they are worthy of my taking in.
Assassination is the specialty of the ninjas, but they are really capable of planning a plan for me."
