Oda Nobunaga did not die in the assassination, but his current posture is not much better. Unable to handle affairs, he may choke at any time, and he is not enough to be the backbone of supporting his retainers to continue.

At this time, the head of the pen, Sadakatsu Murai and the chief Oda Nobubo, were all killed in battle, Niwa Nagahide and Mori Kasei were on a post-mortem mission in Hokuriku, and they didn't know if they could return safely, and the situation of Shibata Katsu on the front line in Settsu also implied countless dangers, and Sakuma Nobumori was ordered to be claustrophobic a few months ago and had not been reinstated.

As a retainer, Hirate Honhide does not like to promote juniors and cultivate personal influence like Shibata and Niwa. But after all, he is a native of Owari, the son of the master of the demon king, and the son-in-law of the Oda family, and he is much stronger than Takigawa Kazuki, a foreigner who is not liked by others, and he must take on the role of the mainstay.

It may not be long before Oda Nobutada will come to Kyoto surrounded by the retainers left behind by Hayashi Xiuzhen, Niwa Katsu, Inaba Ischitetsu, and An Teng Mori, but a second-generation person who is less than fourteen years old is obviously not enough to convince the generals, let alone the appearance of being ready to move. And the influence of those who stayed behind was limited to the two countries of Omi, and could not cover at all.

This situation reminds people of the Imagawa family behind the barrel narrow room.

In addition to the loss of a strong family leader, he also lost a large number of backbone family elders, which caused the Imagawa family system to collapse, and he lost the actual control of Enoe and Mikawa overnight, and only his hometown Suruga was still in his hands.

The size of the Oda family is several times larger than that of Imagawa today, but the situation is quite similar - the control of Kinai is not secure, and it is entirely based on the personal ability of a few powerful retainers; Mino and Ise have not been completely digested, and there is a possibility of unrest breaking out at any time; Owari itself is the only one that is solid, but how can it deal with the endless stream of potential enemies?

However, it is not without the opportunity to avoid tragedy.

The Oda regime, which currently rules, is not a single powerhouse, but a dual rule with Ashikaga Yoshiaki of the shogunate. One provides strength, and the other provides fame.

In the face of absolute strength, fame is useless, but when strength is not in an overwhelming advantage, the existence of fame is very important.

had not yet had time to be fully integrated, and Nobunaga had not yet possessed overwhelming power, so he had to be constrained and had to give the shogunate the most basic respect and apparent power.

This was unpleasant in the old days...... However, when the situation is critical, it becomes a turning point.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki is also a descendant of the Muromachi shogunate, and although Nobunaga's respect for him is insincere and superficial, it also makes him the only shogun with a little prestige in decades.

The majority of conservative people with old-fashioned ideas will approve of the current shogunate, not to mention the many ignorant masses who do not care about politics, and think that it was the prince who personally led the army to defeat the "traitors" such as Rokkaku and Miyoshi!

The recent series of anti-Oda tendencies was probably instructed by the shogunate in secret, but it was always in secret, and it was not exposed to the public, and there was room for mediation. If Ashikaga Yoshiaki can be persuaded to continue cooperating, then the situation of the Oda family can be maintained for a while.

Even if it is defeated by Asakura, Miyoshi, and Uesugi, it will not evolve into a total collapse.

But what if you convince Ashikaga Yoshiaki?

Clearly, there must be substantial respect and more power to be ceded. For example, it stopped interfering in the internal affairs of the shogunate, removed Kyoto's eyeliner and internal response, and assisted the shogunate in expanding its direct territory......

But these things, after all, are too fragmented and lack the power to hit people's hearts.

Today's generals are very weak in the face of swords, but they are very tough politically.

In this situation, it is really not easy to impress him......

If it doesn't succeed, if Ashikaga Yoshiaki fights to break the net, he will also issue a crusade against Oda...... Then the foundation that the Demon King has worked so hard to create is probably going to be cold, and even if he doesn't die and the clan is wiped out, the territory will shrink greatly.

At that time, the Hirate family will lose their strong backing, but they will occupy the rich Seto Inland Sea area, and will it not be equivalent to a young child walking in the middle of the city with a gold bank in his arms?

None of the neighbors are safe.

When we get to that point, where do we go from here?

Can you still pull up this big ship that is about to sink?

If you can't pull it up, do you want to change the court, or simply stand on your own?

Will it die faster?

Do you want to give up your current land, troops, power, and status, and go back to Owari to guard the ancestral property of those villages?

……

The area where the Oda family's military tent is located is about three and a half miles (14 kilometers) from Kyoto.

Pingshou Fanxiu only brought 300 personal soldiers, plus dozens of scouts to explore the way, and after calculation, he could reach the destination point in two or three hours.

These soldiers, including Fan Xiu himself, had already marched through a day and night.

Faced with such a grim situation, Fanxiu certainly didn't feel sleepy at all.

Most of the soldiers don't know the specifics, but the generous treatment in the past, and the sense of honor as an elite are enough to overcome the difficulties in front of them.

The prestige of the chief general is high enough, so it doesn't hurt to give an unkind order or two once in a while.

Although the people of the Heite family did not know what they were going to do in a hurry to get to Kyoto, they were still in good spirits, and they were ready to draw their swords and guns at any time at the orders of the general.

However, Tie Sho is not in a hurry to blindly seek speed.

In times of crisis, speed is important, but precision is also important.

Fan Xiu prefers to get as much information as possible before making a judgment.

Although the intelligence organization of the Hirate family is not large, it is also divided into three groups, covering different areas.

Kazuji Nakamura is responsible for the long-term collection of routine information, mainly in the and Seto Inland Sea regions; Ishikawa Goemon traveled with the army and carried out different special missions for each specific battle; Hattori Hideyasu followed the head of the family himself, engaged in the most intimate and covert work, including internal supervision.

A few days ago, I was far away in Hokuriku, and it was not the focus of the work of the flat family, and I didn't know the essentials at all.

After returning to, Hirate immediately ordered his subordinates to hold the token and contact his own reconnaissance network.

It's not that hard. The Hirate family controls the three business names of "Tamagoya", "Harutaya", and "Sankaya", and there are dozens of branches in total, and a quarter of them are also used as bases.

Eventually, on the way to Kyoto, I finally got some useful information. When Kazushi Nakamura himself got the news, he immediately rushed to Kyoto, but he couldn't see him for a while.

First of all, rumors that "Nobunaga is dead" have spread throughout the surrounding countries, and it is suspected that someone is secretly fueling the trouble, and people everywhere in the region are panicking. The 3,500 bannermen of the Oda family had been stuck for several days on the southern shore of the Biwa Lake, in an awkward position, neither attacked nor helped.

At the same time, some people noticed that there have been several ninjas fighting each other in the vicinity of Kyoto in the past few days, which is very unusual. I have the impression that only the "Xuanyuan" organization of the Uesugi family often does this kind of work, and the ninjas of other daimyo families don't like to do such things that harm others and themselves.

Secondly, one of Nobunaga's brothers-in-law, the brother-in-law of Tsunobu, the guardian of Minami Hanoi and Kii, Hatakeyama Akitaka, was killed by his family's old Yusa Shinko. Later, Yuzo Nobuyo went to Settsu with more than 1,000 soldiers and horses and attacked Shibata Katsuya.

Shibata Katsuya originally had 10,000 people, and after gathering many reinforcements from the pro-Oda forces, there were 20,000, and they were full of confidence, but they were affected by rumors and were flanked again, and many wealthy clans fled on the spot or even defected, so the battle was unfavorable, and the main formation collapsed.

At present, Miyoshi Nagaitsu in Settsu has received the assistance of Araki Murashige and Yuzo Shinko, and has continued to gather the rabble, and its strength has become several times larger, with an estimated number of more than 12,000 people. The whereabouts of Katsuya Shibata are not clear for the time being, and the possibility of death cannot be ruled out.

No one can say which of the clans still supported Oda and which had rebelled. It is speculated that most people are in the wait-and-see stage, and everyone is in danger, and they will not take a stand easily.

Asai Nagamasa claims to have led 10,000 troops back from Harima to defeat the Settsu rebellion, but he has not yet engaged Miyoshi Nagaitsu. However, he can't be blamed for this, and it was indeed a trouble to suddenly turn the muzzle of the gun from the western country back to.

As for the Hokuriku affair, it has been completely dark so far. The Hirate family did not have any personnel there, and the words of the merchants and refugees were vague and inconsistent.

It can be determined that someone haunted under the banner of the Uesugi family, but whether it was really from Echigo or not, the size of the number of people, and the leader of the team did not know. The situation of the Asakura army, the remaining troops of Asai, and the rear army of Oda Hall is also not clear.

There are some people who claim that the Asakura family took Niwa Nagahide and Mori Kesei and took advantage of the situation to go south and persuade Mino to surrender the trio, although this is unlikely, but it is worth paying attention to. If this is really the case, Oda Nobutada of Gifu Castle is in danger!

Awa's Miyoshi remnant party naturally took action, and Shinohara Nagabo, Miyoshi Nagaji, and Jukawa Kurbo tore up the friendship agreement with a large army and made a comeback, and the defender of the three prefectures of Nishisanuki, Wasuka Masakatsu, and Kagawa Sakae, a local who had defected to the Oda family, faced great pressure, and Tsunohide himself was not at home, so it was impossible for the Heite family to send reinforcements, but they just continued the previous order and relied on the gunboat's firepower advantage to defend Awaji Island. As for the colleagues on Shikoku Island, I can only wish them good luck from afar, or hope that Tosa's Nagamune Ibu Yuan can give them some restraint.

By the way, it is rumored that there is also turmoil in the southern part of Ise Province, and that the Kitabatake family is seeking revival in an attempt to kill the tea whisk pill that Nobunaga sent used to be his adopted son.

There were no secret agents arranged by the Heite family, so there is no way to know the details. But this news is reasonable, instead of completely purging the old forces, but relying on the method of forcibly blocking the adopted son to annex the territory, there is a hidden danger after all.

It seems that all sides are not good news. Even Hiteshu couldn't keep his composure, dismounted on the outskirts of Kyoto, spent a quarter of an hour listening to all kinds of true and false news, and then squatted on the ground for a quarter of an hour, carefully analyzing and thinking.

These two quarters of an hour were a rare rest time for the retainers and soldiers who had not closed their eyes for twelve hours.

Then, they saw that the Oda family's first wise general, Awaji Guardian and Acting Servant Izumi, slowly got up from the ground, brushed the dust on the hem of his clothes, and calmly mounted his war horse.

The tiredness of Hisho Honxiu has not been eliminated in the slightest—after all, it is the age of independence, and it is not easy to recover his physical strength—but the confusion and hesitation in his eyes have gone.

"Misfortune and blessing are relied upon, and blessing and misfortune are lurking. The planner behind this incident is indeed extraordinary, but it is still lacking. Since we can't kill us with one blow when we're at our weakest, you won't have that chance in the future. ”

I don't know if these words were the elder of the equal hand talking to himself, or comforting the soldiers under his command, or talking to the unknown "layout" in the air.

No matter how much they know about the current situation, no matter how clear they are about to do in Kyoto, all in all, the personal soldiers of many retainers also feel full of fighting spirit when they see the resolute posture of the lord, and they only feel that the strong enemies and difficulties in the heavens and the earth are not enough to mention.

Over the years, have you encountered fewer enemies big and small? Didn't they all fall to us one by one?