After Hideyoshi Hashiba tried his best to explain and persuade, Niwa Nagahide finally decided to stand up and facilitate a meeting to decide the future of the Oda family, which took place at Kiyosu Castle in Owari Province.
Important figures in the Oda family such as Hideyoshi Shibata, Katsuie Shibata, and Nobuha Kitahata also responded to Niwa Nagahide's call.
This is not only to give face to Niwa Nagahide, an important neutral faction, but also because the incident at Honnoji Temple happened suddenly, and all parties are not ready to break up now.
This Qingzhou meeting will decide the next governor of the Oda family and related territory distribution issues.
But in the eyes of the careerists who took off the shackles of Oda Nobunaga, it looked more like an outpost before a civil war.
Before all parties can make military preparations for a decisive battle, everyone needs a political game to occupy the moral high ground.
Niwa Nagahide was not unaware of this, but in despair, she could only believe in Hideyoshi Hideyoshi's political guarantee and vowed to push Kikimaru into the position of the orthodox heir of the Oda family.
This is Niwa Nagahide's memory of Oda Nobunaga, and it is also the only thing she can do for Oda Nobunaga to preserve the reputation of Kijimaru.
Although the saint has a holy decree and gives Kikimaru to Mitsuhide Akechi to raise, the safety of Kikimaru is guaranteed.
But in Niwa Nagahide's view, if Mitsuhide Akechi wants to truly value Kiwimaru and cultivate Kiwimaru, Kiwimaru must have sufficient political value.
Therefore, Niwa Nagahide wanted all Oda ministers to admit at the Kiyosu Conference that Kikimaru was the orthodox successor of Oda Nobunaga.
For people like Akechi Mitsuhide, it is safest to make Miraculous Pills a rare commodity.
———
Just as the saint returned to Kinki and the undercurrent of the Oda family was raging, there was also a frank conversation between Hosokawa Fujitaka and Akechi Mitsuhide, who were huddled in Shoryuji Castle waiting for the Holy Judgment.
In the room sheltered from the wind, Mitsuhide Akechi looked pale, even wrapped in a thick coat in the early summer.
After the miscarriage, she did not take a good rest to recuperate, and even led troops to Yamazaki to confront Hideyoshi Hashiba, which eventually led to her becoming seriously ill.
Although Fujitaka Hosokawa came to his aid in time and managed to escape and return to Shoryuji Castle, the root cause of his illness eventually fell into his body.
Akechi Mitsuhide took a look at Fujitaka who came to visit Hosokawa. She seemed more haggard than him, and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Why do you feel that you are more tired than me?"
Hosokawa Fujitaka was so angry that he threw a letter in front of Akechi Mitsuhide and said.
"A letter came from Toshiie Maeda."
Akechi Mitsuhide raised his eyebrows and asked.
"When did you become so familiar with Maeda Toshiie?"
Hosokawa Fujitakapi said with a smile.
"The Izumi Hosokawa family has been together in the shogunate for so many years, and their greatest skill is making friends.
Believe it or not, if a saint hadn't been born to tie you and me together, even with Oda Nobunaga and Hashiba Hideyoshi, I could have prospered and be no weaker than anyone else."
Akechi Mitsuhide smiled.
"Of course I believe in Fujitaka's ability.
So, you have told the saint that my body is broken and I will never be able to get pregnant again?"
Hosokawa Fujitaka snorted coldly.
"This is natural.
You have caused too much trouble this time, and only a saint who can't bear to treat you can survive. If I don't make you miserable, how can I move the saint's compassion?"
Akechi Mitsuhide shook his head and said.
"I have thought a lot these days, and life and death no longer matter to me.
Oda Nobunaga is dead, that terrible innovator no longer exists, and no one in this world can stop the saint from unifying the world.
Maybe you think I did something wrong, and maybe the saints think I did something wrong, but I know very well in my heart that I am not wrong.
No matter how tenacious your spirit is, no matter how great your ideals are, they are nothing in the face of physical destruction.
When a person dies, nothing is left.
I only have one chance to kill Oda Nobunaga, so I must do it.
Oda Nobunaga is not an ordinary person. She has a divine descendant, which means that she will become the biggest unrest factor in Shiba's world.
The saint's heart was too soft, and he couldn't attack Oda Nobunaga, so I had to do this, kill Oda Nobunaga when she was at her weakest, and I didn't dare to wait any longer.
Even if the saint has no time to send troops to the Oda family at this moment, even if a new strong man appears in the Oda family to inherit Oda Nobunaga's legacy, it is still a hundred times better than if Oda Nobunaga is alive.
The saint can eliminate the new strongman, but he cannot be cruel to the mother of his child.
Just for this reason, I must kill Oda Nobunaga at all costs."
Hosokawa Fujitaka looked at Akechi Mitsuhide coldly and said.
"Why are you telling me this? Shouldn't you read Maeda Toshiie's letter now? Don't you want to know the saint's decision to deal with you?"
Akechi Mitsuhide's always elegant smile looked a little bitter at the moment.
"Futaka, you are a perfect politician who can only talk about interests.
But this was the only time in your life that you fell in love, but I took advantage of you and it became your only weakness.
You love the saint, so you don't dare to let me die. You are afraid that the saint will think you are cold-blooded and heartless.
But I don't care, I don't care what the saint will think of me or how he will deal with me. I have killed Oda Nobunaga and lost my child.
My goal was accomplished, my life was ruined, and the Holy Judgment of the Saints was meaningless to me.
But I dare to make a bet with you, the saint will definitely protect me."
Hosokawa Fujitaka's eyes twitched and he teased.
"You know the saint very well. You would know that you survived without reading the letter."
Akechi Mitsuhide looked sad, looked at the courtyard in the distance, and said slowly.
"Of course I know him well, I know him better than anyone else.
You people, you say you love him, but you can never forget your own family's future, your own children, and you can't let go of your own selfishness.
And I have nothing, I am willing to kick down all obstacles for him and see him dominate the world.
So, do you know who the saint’s favorite woman is?”
Hosokawa Fujitaka's breathing was a little heavy, his eyes were fixed on Akechi Mitsuhide, but he didn't speak.
Akechi Mitsuhide smiled and shook his head.
"Don't look at me with such a scary look. The woman the saint loves most is not me, but Ashikaga Yoshiki who was killed by me.
Didn't you expect it? I couldn't understand it at first, but then I gradually figured it out.
He was really miserable, and all the women around him were thinking about him and taking advantage of him, except the dead Ashikaga Yoshiki.
The living can't fight the dead, because the dead want nothing and don't fight for anything. They will only be chipped away at the unpleasant things in the memories of the saints and polished to become more and more perfect.
So Ashikaga Yoshiteru, who was killed by me, was the saint's favorite woman, and now Oda Nobunaga may be added to her list.
But because I killed the two of them, they became the two women that the saint loved most. I really don’t know if the saint would hate me in his heart?
No matter what, if I can become the woman he hates the most, I will be very, very happy, as long as she is not transparent and dispensable in his heart, that's fine."
Hosokawa Fujitaka looked at Mitsuhide Akechi, who had a calm face, and was speechless for a moment. It took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence through his teeth.
"Those people outside are right, you are really a madman, a complete madman."
Akechi Mitsuhide picked up the letter from Maeda Toshiie with his slender index and middle fingers and asked with a smile.
"Let me guess, how will the saint save my life? Is he going to deprive me of my authority and put me under house arrest, or let me guard the tomb of Oda Nobunaga?"
Hosokawa Fujitaka sneered.
"Those words you just said scared me so much that I really thought you knew everything.
It's a pity that you guessed it wrong.
The saint wants you to raise Qi Qi Wan and let Qi Qi Wan inherit everything from you as punishment."
Akechi Mitsuhide's face froze, his hands loosened, and the letter between his fingers fell to the ground.
Thinking back to that day when I saw the sleeping child in the arms of Tianhairen, she was full-term and had lost her fetal appearance. Her skin was fair and she looked cute.
Akechi Mitsuhide once wondered whether the child he lost was as lovely as her, but today, she has truly become his own child.
