At 2:00 p.m., Oda Nobunaga, after ordering Sakuma Nobumori to lead his troops to stay at the temple complex, personally led the main force to the south of Kyoto. After an hour of reorganization, the Allied Northern Route Army finally managed to restore most of its structures.
, possessing the capabilities of World War I. They surrounded Kyoto from the south and east. Excluding casualties from a morning of fighting, the total number of coalition forces besieging Kyoto reached 11,000 soldiers. And the Miyoshi family in Kyoto held firm.
After a morning of hard fighting, the losses were also considerable, with only more than 4,000 generals left.
Since Kyoto itself is not suitable for defense, both the Kyoto Imperial Palace where the emperor and his ministers live, and the Sento Imperial Palace where the abdicated emperor lives, only have simple walls. Although the emperor has been deprived of power for hundreds of years, he
The status in the hearts of the Japanese has always been sacred and inviolable. Even the most powerful samurai would not dare to be too rude to the emperor. Therefore, every time there is war near Kyoto in recent years, everyone will try to avoid the emperor's residence.
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But this time, the Miyoshi family seemed to have decided to resist to the end. Miyoshi Yoshiken, citing the danger of the war, sent people to bring the emperor and his ministers out from the Kyoto Imperial Palace, Sento Imperial Palace and other places, and sent them to the palace two miles away to the west.
He took refuge at Seimei Shrine. He led his troops to the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and asked Iwanari Tomomichi and Miyoshi Choitsu to enter the Sento Imperial Palace and prepare to defend Kyoto to the death.
Miyoshi Yoshiken put on such a resolute posture, which made Oda Nobunaga a little confused. If the main force and auxiliary troops of the Miyoshi family had retreated long ago, there is no need for them to be so desperate? Or is it the order Miyoshi Nagakei gave them?
He was trying his best to hold off the Oda army and buy time for the main force to return to put down the rebellion in Settsu.
However, Oda Nobunaga and Miyoshi Yoshihide were both fearless masters. Since Miyoshi Yoshihide dared to violate the universal law and alarm the emperor and occupy the palace for garrison, then he would dare to attack the palace directly!
After receiving Oda Nobunaga's order to attack the Kyoto Imperial Palace and Sento Imperial Palace, the coalition forces were in an uproar. Because the coalition forces did not know that Miyoshi Yoshihide had sent the emperor and his ministers out of Kyoto, and they thought Miyoshi Yoshihide was being held hostage.
The emperor and his ministers were stationed in the palace. The war was fierce and dangerous. If the emperor was harmed during the war, no one could bear the burden. Not only would he have to commit suicide, but his family would also be annihilated.
Asai Nagamasa, who always had a strong sense of justice, was the first to become furious after receiving the order. He was sitting on the stone pier to rest. After hearing the order, he almost jumped up and split the stone pier in half with a knife.
He roared at Oda Nobunaga's envoy: "What are you thinking, Your Highness Oda? We samurai exist to protect the emperor, how can we do such a treasonous thing! I refuse to accept such an order!"
The veterans of the Oda family, including Shibata Katsuie, Niwa Nagahide and others, also opposed Oda Nobunaga's exaggerated order and urged Oda Nobunaga to think twice. Akechi Mitsuhide even suggested that Oda Nobunaga invite Oda Nobunaga from the main formation.
Both the Dewa Miyoshi family and the Emperor had their old Ashikaga Yoshiteru to mediate, asking Miyoshi to withdraw from the palace. If that didn't work, they had to ask Miyoshi to send the Emperor and the palace ministers out before starting a war.
However, everyone's hesitation and disobedience made Oda Nobunaga, who was already very unhappy today, furious. He directly ordered his Hatamoto samurai and direct-controlled soldiers to storm the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Although these direct-controlled troops of Oda Nobunaga could not
They refused to carry out the order, but were reluctant during the attack. Even young men like Maeda Toshiie and Sawaki Yoshiyuki, who were fearless, were helpless in the fight. The battle lasted for two quarters of an hour, but the Oda family did not make any progress.
In desperation, Oda Nobunaga had to compromise and sent Akechi Mitsuhide into the Kyoto Imperial Palace to negotiate with Miyoshi Yoshihide. However, after the two armies met, they realized that Miyoshi Yoshihide had already sent the emperor and the palace ministers away. I felt that I was being
Oda Nobunaga, who was acting like a fool, became furious again and immediately ordered the allied forces to attack fiercely. Without the psychological burden, the allied forces used all their strength, and the Miyoshi Army gradually became unstoppable. The Sento Imperial Palace fell in six moments, and the defenders retreated.
The Kyoto Imperial Palace was the last resistance. The roads in Kyoto were complicated and the terrain was narrow, so the Allied Forces could not deploy their forces well, giving the Miyoshi Army a chance to hold on.
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At the same time, after a long and hard battle, Yu Qiupei and the Mino trio finally defeated Miyoshi Yoshihiro and recaptured Okazaki Shrine. After Miyoshi Yoshihiro retreated to Ginkakuji, the Mino trio were unwilling to return.
Instead of chasing, they directly followed the path taken by Oda Nobunaga's army. After all, capturing the Ginkaku Temple was nothing, but entering Kyoto was a great honor.
Yu Qiupei's subordinates also asked for battle. Yu Qiupei was not a traditional Japanese samurai and did not have such a strong sense of honor, but his subordinates were different. People like Yoshioka Katsumasa, Omaezaki Nakahide, etc., all wanted to fight Yu Qiupei.
Qiupei's ears were calloused, and he kept urging him to march to Kyoto.
Oda Nobunaga even sent a messenger to order the 50,000 auxiliary troops in the coalition's main formation to carry a large amount of baggage and go to Kyoto along the route of the Northern Army. He believed that Kyoto would be captured soon and began to reorganize it.
When work begins, auxiliary troops are indispensable.
Seeing that even the auxiliary troops were about to enter the capital, but he was still staying at Okazaki Shrine, the dissatisfaction of Tokiwa Bei's subordinates broke out collectively. Although Yu Qiupei had no intention of attacking, he had no choice but to follow the wishes of his subordinates and reorganize his troops to prepare for Kyoto.
Go ahead.
However, just before he was about to set off, he found dozens of sneaky people on horseback sneaking in from the south gate of Okazaki Shrine. Yu Qiuping frowned and led the guards around him to chase that way.
Go. When he arrived, he found that the leader was the man who escaped from Nijo City a few days ago and came to report the death of Ashikaga Yoshiei to the coalition forces. He was leading dozens of people with shovels, digging something there.
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"Who are you?" Yu Qiuping frowned and asked with some dissatisfaction. Long Zi and others behind him also drew their swords out of their sheaths and looked at the dozens of people with great vigilance.
The dozens of people turned their heads when they heard the sound and found a man wearing a red leaf shawl and a dozen guards with red leaves on their helmets. They immediately recognized him as Yu Qiuping.
"Your Highness Hongye." The leading man with a nickname replied respectfully, "I am a minister of the Gongfang Palace."
"What are you doing here, public servants? If you don't just stay here to protect the general, why are you running to the front line?" Yu Qiupei asked even more dissatisfiedly after realizing that these were Ashikaga Yoshiteru's subordinates.
Due to the bad relationship between Yu Qiupei and Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the dozens of public servants also had deep hostility towards Yu Qiupei. A dozen of them simply continued to shovel the soil, and one person snorted angrily: "
Where is the front line here? Kyoto is the front line. Leave our Gongfang Palace behind, forget it."
"Why are you talking to His Highness Hongye?" A guard next to Yu Qiuping was furious when he heard this and shouted to the public servant.
"What Hongye Highness? He's just a ferryman. What's his attitude towards Gongfang Palace? Who does he think he is?" That Feng Gonggong seemed to be quite tough, as if he felt that Yu Qiuping didn't dare to touch the people around the general.
How about it, he said back with his hands on his waist.
However, almost the next moment, a cold light flashed through, and only two loud "bang bang" sounds were heard. The weapon on the monk's chest was chopped into pieces and fell off completely. The person who did it was holding the handle
Honda Tadakatsu's giant spear dragonfly cutter. He made a clean and diagonal slash, directly beating the weapon to pieces. At the same time, the heavy dragonfly cutter was also because Honda Tadakatsu deliberately did not withdraw its strength, and the sword was smashed to pieces.
A slab of stone at the feet of the public was beaten into powder.
The Bong Gong Gong's face turned pale all of a sudden, and the surrounding Bong Gong Gong were also stunned. Honda Tadakatsu slowly raised Dragonfly Kirito, pointed at the mouth of the Feng Gong Gong who made the rude remarks, and looked at him with indifferent eyes. The Bong Gong Gong looked at him with indifferent eyes.
The public's legs suddenly became weak and they knelt down, kowtowing to Yu Qiuping to apologize.
Yu Qiuping didn't pay attention to this clown at all, but directly asked the nickname: "Then what are you here for?"
"We are here to find the grave of the puppet general. We cannot let this traitor die!" The young man replied truthfully. Only then did Yu Qiuping notice that where they were digging, there was a tombstone. It seemed to be that of Ashikaga Yoshie.
The place where it was hastily buried. After the dozen or so worshipers let out shouts of surprise, a coffin was lifted out of the pit, and the lid was casually opened.
Yu Qiuping subconsciously turned away, unwilling to look at Ashikaga Yoshie's body, "No matter what, the dead are the most important. Digging other people's graves like this is not what a gentleman would do."
However, these servants were deployed by the general, and Yu Qiuping couldn't really control what happened to them. He just taught him a lesson. Just when Yu Qiuping was about to take people away and lead Tokiwa Bei to march into Kyoto, Uchiha Aooka's voice suddenly came to him.
Sounded around me.
"Your Highness." Uchiha Aooka's usually cold and calm voice was slightly trembling at this moment. Yu Qiuping heard something wrong with his voice, and his heart suddenly rose, and he asked in a low voice: "Aooka, what's wrong?
Already?"
Uchiha Aooka glanced at Yu Qiupei, then motioned to Yu Qiupei to look at Ashikaga Yoshie's slightly rotten body, and at the same time lowered his voice and said:
"Judging from the corpse, this person did not die of illness, but was killed by poisoning."
Yu Qiuping felt that the blood all over his body solidified instantly, and an ominous premonition spread throughout his body. He had not yet figured out what it meant that Ashikaga Yoshie was poisoned, but he vaguely felt that a disaster was coming.
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Almost at the same time, smoke slowly ignited in the direction of Kyoto.
In the Toji temple complex a few miles southwest of Kyoto and Nijo Castle, which is where Akechi Mitsuhide warned that the army could be hidden, Miyoshi Nagakei was sitting on a pavilion, staring at the card game in front of him. Since many years
Not long ago, Yu Qiuping taught him the game of shuttle, and he has been immersed in it. Sometimes he even gambles with himself alone for a whole morning.
"Brother, the signal has come, and the second brother can no longer defend the Kyoto Imperial Palace." Standing next to him, Toga Icun saw that Miyoshi Changqing seemed to be addicted to gambling and did not notice the smoke, and reminded him angrily.
At this time, Miyoshi Changqing was staring at the gambling game in front of him, with a smile on his lips for some reason. He raised his eyebrows, and slowly held his last covered hole card in his right hand. He muttered something in his mouth.
:
"Come on, Nobunaga."
Then, with a flash of light in his eyes, he suddenly turned over the card, and the crisp sound of the wooden card hitting the table broke the tranquility on the pavilion.