Kyoto, Nijo Imperial Palace, the third year of Motokame, the eighth day of the fifth month, the sun is dark and the sky is cloudy, and there is a sudden rain between them.

Nobunaga, who was critically ill, stretched himself up, lay on the ox cart, and was surrounded by his soldiers to the castle, and Ashikaga Yoshiaki put on armor for a rare moment, stood at the door in person, and led his retainers to greet him solemnly.

The shogunate was full of joy, but everyone in the Oda family was silently sad.

The first one, Oda Nobutada, his eyes were still red, and his face was tense, as if he had exhausted his strength to maintain a relatively calm expression.

The "mutually beneficial" agreement was finally reached.

Although the shogunate was on the more cheerful side, the people of the Oda family were somewhat reluctant.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki was in high spirits, at least on the surface. He personally wrote the imperial letter appointing Oda Nobunaga as the head of the shogunate, and he signed many letters and ordered his retainers to pass on the news to the daimyos.

At the same time, he further single-handedly dredged the relationship between the imperial court, so that Nobunaga's official rank was raised to a higher level, reaching the "top four", and the leader of the bullet was as good as the original. Yoshiaki himself is just "from the three powers", and the two are now only one step apart.

The General is obviously not a philanthropist who is willing to give and does not expect anything in return, and today's generosity only shows that he has reaped more benefits than he has given in the chips—at least he thinks so.

After some procedures, the shogunate was personally led by Mibuchi Fujiei, and eight miscellaneous servants respectfully carried Nobunaga and his people to Nijo Castle. Since then, he has become the "ruler" of the Muromachi shogunate, and has sat in a position that only Hosokawa, Hatakeyama, and Spo can only achieve in the past, and he is more than 10,000 people under one person, and he is extremely noble. At the same time, freedom was lost.

At the cost of this, Oda Nobutada, who was less than 14 years old, achieved an unprecedented reputation for righteousness and became the new governor of the imperial court and the shogunate.

The various anti-Oda forces, led by Miyoshi Nagaitsu and Asakura Yoshikei, were immediately declared "traitors" by Ashikaga Yoshiaki on the spot, and even Uesugi Kenshin, who had always respected the shogunate, was severely reprimanded.

Therefore, the middle and lower-level generals of the Oda family are still relatively happy on the whole. At the very least, seeing that Nobunaga is still alive, that the rumors are self-defeating, and that he has been recognized by the imperial court and the shogunate, then he can put aside his worries and concentrate on fighting the enemy in front of him.

Asukai Matsuden, who came from the imperial court, looked very indifferent, perhaps the least burdened of all the people present. In the past few decades, the ministers have become accustomed to the rise and fall of Hosokawa, Ouchi, Miyoshi, etc., and it can be said that they have experienced a hundred battles and have seen a lot. Now that there is one more Oda, what is there to marvel at?

And the mood of the tie is quite complicated.

Nobunaga was seriously injured and unable to serve, and the power of the Oda family would undoubtedly be greatly reduced, and the Hirate family, which was alone on the coast of the Seto Inland Sea, seemed to be becoming more and more unrestrained. Coupled with Ashikaga Yoshiaki's conditions, now the tie is about to break away from Oda in both name and reality.

Being independent and no longer snorting seems like a good thing.

But at the same time, it also means that it is no longer possible to get strong support from the center.

Not to mention anything else, when the "rice standard" was promoted and liquidity was at its tightest, Nobunaga gave 5,000 taels of gold, equivalent to 20,000 copper coins, as soon as he made a move, and he didn't mention the repayment of the money at all. Looking at the whole of Fusang, can you find a second one for such a reliable big brother?

In addition to this, you need to consider how to get along with your old colleagues......

Even if Nobunaga himself was injured, he would be able to fully understand the situation, and so would a figure of Takigawa Kazuki's level, and they would not be overly concerned about the issue of reputation. Under the current circumstances, if Hirate Honhide insists on his loyalty to the Oda family, Ashikaga Yoshiaki will definitely be very dissatisfied and give all kinds of constraints, then Awaji and Izumi will be extremely dangerous, and the Oda family will encounter more trouble.

Only by making the shogunate think that "the Oda family is crumbling and will collapse at any time" can the two sides work together and things can turn around, which is the so-called "life to death".

But those middle and lower-class Owari samurai probably won't understand the reason, but they will only think that Hiteshu is taking the opportunity to escape from the shipwreck and climb the high branches!

Even Lin Xiuzhen, Sakuma, Mino, Mino Nobumoto and others clearly understand this truth, but they may deliberately pretend not to understand......

However—

These intrigues that are not humane to outsiders must be put aside for the time being.

There is a strong enemy in front of you!

Although Miyoshi Nagaitsu of Settsu Province was not strong when he raised his army, after all, he had a deep foundation and extensive connections, and in a short period of time he won the support of Araki Murashige, Yusa Nobuyo and others, and his military power suddenly swelled, posing a threat to Kyoto.

The situation in Hokuriku is still unclear, but with at least more than 20,000 troops of the Asakura family and the suspected presence of Echigo Uesugi soldiers, sooner or later the enemy will move south to attack Kinai.

Before Oda Nobutada arrived, Hirate Hinohide gave orders as a formation generation. Now that Oda Nobutada has come to the front line, Hirata Honhide has changed his name again, but he is still the most senior and prestigious veteran present, and he is also the uncle of the new governor, and he still maintains the right to speak.

This is also an important reason why Ashikaga Yoshiaki made a series of decisions.

Although the shogunate obtained Nobunaga as the "ultimate hostage", he still took the risk on Oda's side, and the reason why Yoshiaki was willing to take this risk was because he trusted Hinoto Honhide's ability to solve the problem!

On behalf of the shogunate, Settsu Harumon expressed this opinion to Hirate Hashihide.

Of course, Fan Xiu is grateful on the surface, sincere and afraid, but there is no fluctuation in his heart, and he even wants to laugh a little.

Removing all this miscellaneous things, whether for others or for oneself, we must always do our best to deal with the current enemy.

The first thing to bear the brunt of was not the use of troops, but to spread the matter of Nobunaga as the leader as soon as possible in order to stabilize people's hearts.

The situation was chaotic, and it was clear that the Oda family heralds were being hunted and killed around, so sending envoys became a matter of caution. For this reason, the flat hand did not hesitate to send a large number of cavalry to undertake this task.

Intimate daimyo such as Mikawa Tokugawa, Yamato Tsutsui, and Omi Gamo need to get in touch immediately, convey confidence, and it is best to persuade them to send another wave of reinforcements.

Shameful watchers such as Matsunaga, Miyoshi (Yoshitsug), Akai, Hatano, and Isshiki tried to fight for them as much as possible, but it was really not possible to at least ensure neutrality, and no new enemies could be added.

Naturally, places such as Honganji, Mt. Hiei, and Kaimachi should also be taken into account.

We must not ignore the "enemy-occupied areas" such as Settsu, Kita-Omi, and Echizen, and we should also send people to secretly propagate them to attack their legitimacy and prevent the enemy from further enlargement. If the three of Mino really fell to Asakura, it would be a bolt from the blue.

After making these necessary arrangements, there are still two major problems that are floating over Kyoto like two dark clouds.

First, how many troops did the Uesugi family send to help Asakura? How far will the assistance go?

Second, is Asai Nagamasa, who has returned east from Harima, still credible? What is the situation of its army?

Theoretically, one should not rush into battle with the enemy when the enemy is not clear, but the information about the enemy situation is too chaotic to judge whether it is true or false. Hiromasa Ryoda, under the command of Oda Nobutada, revealed to Hirate Honhide that he had been completely unable to contact Kojuzo, the leader of the "Feast Talks" in recent days, and that the intelligence organization that the Oda family was proud of might have been devastated.

According to the plan of the Hirate Honhide, Asakura and Uesugi in Hokuriku are not in a hurry for the time being, and Miyoshi Nagaitsu is imminent, so the remaining more than 20,000 Oda troops should give priority to the west and attack Settsu.

This view is rightfully supported by Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

However, Takigawa Kazuki, Ikeda Tsuneko and others did not approve of this. Ikeda continued to advocate splitting his forces into two fronts and dealing with them at the same time, while Takigawa Kazuyoshi believed that it was time to stay in Kyoto and wait and see what happened.

The three had their own roots in the middle and lower classes, and the reputation of Hirate Tsunohide was not far behind, and Takigawa Kazuyoshi was not far behind, while Ikeda Tsuneko temporarily became a spokesman for the public after the death of Oda Nobubu.

Oda Nobutada, who has the highest voice in theory, feels that what everyone says makes sense, and he is in a dilemma. Emotionally, he leaned towards the genealogy of the family and the quasi-family Ikeda, and intellectually he trusted the abilities of the Heide and Takigawa, and at the same time, he was not at ease with the men and horses left behind, and he categorically could not sit idly by and watch Gifu Castle in distress.

After a few discussions, it couldn't resonate. Tieshou Fan Xiu changed his thinking, no longer analyzing the pros and cons, but convincing with conspiracy theories:

"Ladies and gentlemen, these recent sudden upheavals have happened so ingeniously that it is impossible to say that there is no one behind them to communicate with each other. I couldn't guess who the mastermind was for a while, but I could tell that the other party had been desperately delaying time in order to trigger 'foreshadowing' everywhere...... We can still get a chance now, and it is probably already a mistake of the enemy, but we must not expect the enemy to make another mistake. At this time, no matter what, you have to move first and disrupt the other party's arrangement, and Jingguan is undoubtedly the worst choice! ”

After hesitating for a moment, Takigawa Kazuki was convinced by this view, but emphasized: "What Heisho said is very reasonable...... But if you follow your plan, be sure to send someone who is smart enough to investigate first and avoid falling into the trap...... Just let the contemptible man serve as a scout. ”

When Ikeda Hengxing saw that the two bigwigs had reached an agreement, he no longer insisted and changed his tone: "I don't have too many objections to the west first and then the north, I just hope to quickly defeat Miyoshi Nagayi and return to the army to fight a decisive battle with Asakura." Kyoto is the most important, but Gifu Castle is also crucial! ”

At this moment, Oda Nobutada breathed a sigh of relief, and made a firm decision:

"In that case, the whole army will immediately go to Settsu to crusade against the traitor Miyoshi Changyi! The rise and fall of the Oda Gate is up to you! ”

His move was unsatisfactory, although it was not enough to break the hearts of the important ministers, at least it was not to cause contempt.