On the eighth day of June, the official news was finally finalized.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki gathered 80,000 men and horses, and the mighty crusade against Asakura was, as everyone expected, unfinished and abruptly stopped.

Leaving aside the official's statement, the flat hand sent someone to secretly investigate, and also came up with his own analysis.

In addition to the men and horses of the Oda and Asai factions in the coalition army, the other forces only came to fish in troubled waters, and they did not have a resolute fighting spirit. And Oda and Asai are holding each other back and can't exert their full strength.

Echizen has not been affected by war for a hundred years, and the people must have accumulated wealth and goods, and everyone in Province is red and hot about this; I also heard that the traffic in Tsuruga Port Town is bustling, and the rich merchants and wealthy customers are like clouds, which is even more mouth-watering.

However, the Asakura army acted cautiously and did not give any chance, so the coalition army advanced slowly. The crowd gathered in Kyoto and waited for four days, and then set out for another five days, but they did not set foot in Echizen territory, which made the soldiers who could not resist the desire to plunder be restless and ready to move.

Finally walked to the edge of Tsuruga, but Ashikaga Yoshiaki had a messy idea - he felt that Tsuruga was not only a commercial city, but also a cultural town, and he did not want this treasure land to be spoiled by the Yachi, so he ordered the whole army to bypass this place and enter Echizen directly through the area of Mt. Shidake to fight against the Asakura army.

This is a hornet's nest.

The small lords of may not be able to fight, govern the people, or govern, but they all have the means to see the wind and steer the rudder, and the yang and the yin to disobey. I didn't dare to openly contradict it in front of the general, but secretly provoked my subordinates to make trouble, causing people to turn over on their backs, chickens and dogs jumping, and the march was naturally delayed.

There is nothing that can be done about it.

Although the Ashikaga family itself has recovered in recent years, it has only more than 6,000 soldiers so far, and its size is insufficient, so naturally it cannot be punished at will. What's more, this group of short-sighted little lords who are greedy for profit are precisely the ones who support the shogunate the most.

It's also very helpless.

People who saw the situation clearly and knew how to be flexible, such as Gamo Dingxiu and Tsutsui Shunkei, most of them had already taken refuge in the Oda family.

Talented people who want to make a difference, such as Araki Murashige and Besshoji Nagaji, would rather support Asai and hope to rise while the chaos is rising.

There are also people like Akai Naomasa and Horiuchi Zen, who are bent on self-preservation and are unwilling to get involved in the complex political situation in the center, not to mention.

The rest of those who were less intelligent and narrow-minded were forced to be appointed by the shogunate if they wanted to be retained.

As a result, Ashikaga Yoshiaki is naturally overwhelmed and difficult to deal with.

At this time, the Asakura family tried their best to ask people to intercede everywhere.

The Kyoto literati said that the item was invalid, the envoy of Takeda Shingen was rejected, and the face of the Nara monk was not big enough......

So this time the battle was even bigger.

The two who are close to the sixtieth year, the right to accept the words, the three Nishizhi personally went out and visited in an ox cart.

Uesugi Kenshin and Mori Moto, who have always had the most shogunate, sent their cronies and retainers to Kamiraku at the same time.

Prince Kakufu, the head of the Tendai pedesticial seat of Mt. Hiei Enryakuji Temple, sent the Takeda envoy to ask for another meeting.

Honganji Kenru wrote a handwritten letter of several thousand words and asked the official Shimoma Yorilong to send it to the Kyoto Imperial Palace.

The two families of Tsuruga Haoshang Kawa Funaya and Konoya, with Tsuda Munekazu of Kaimachi as the intermediary, offered 500 taels of gold.

All of a sudden, public opinion from all sides was activated, and I don't know how much money Asakura Yoshikage has invested. Seeing this situation, Ashikaga Yoshiaki didn't dare to insist too much, so he just took the steps and ordered the conquest to be suspended, and observed Asakura Yoshikage's attitude of "asking for guilt" before making the next decision.

said that it was "suspended", but as soon as it was announced, those small wealthy clans secretly put the soldiers back, and only a few people remained, putting up an empty shelf to support the scene, which was very embarrassing. In the end, in addition to Oda and Asai, that is, Hirate Tsuyoshi, Matsunaga Hide, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu and others.

Excluding the troops who were overly damaged and were resting, the strength was suddenly reduced to less than 40,000.

But that's enough.

Asakura Yoshikage's intercession is already overjoyed, so how can he still have the idea of continuing to fight? Immediately, he took the trouble to fast and bathe, and arranged a ceremony to ordain as a sign of sincerity.

Such superficial articles are not enough to satisfy the general.

Considering that Asakura Yoshikei was nearly forty years old, but his only son had died young, leaving only three daughters, Ashikaga Yoshiaki had a whimsical attempt to reuse Nobunaga's old wisdom of attacking Ise and forcibly stuffed a son-in-law and adopted son to succeed to the throne.

Yoshiaki is about to stand and has no heirs himself, but he has his eyes on the so-called "orphan of Yoshiki Gong, the general of the previous dynasty", who was raised in Gifu Castle. The child is now six years old, and I heard that he is quite strong, and he does not appear to have died young.

If you take the opportunity to get to Echizen, it is really a matter of both public and private, and you will get twice the result with half the effort.

Obviously, this will be resisted by many.

The Asakura family must be reluctant, needless to say.

The Oda family did not want to lose this pawn that could contain the shogunate.

The Asai family saved the idea of going through Echizen in the future, and they didn't want to see Asakura suddenly change from a "traitor" to an Ashikaga konji.

The dignified general, although he was majestic, couldn't convince so many people immediately for a while.

So this matter has to be talked about slowly.

It does not hurt that all parties mediate and bargain for nothing, but they will not produce results in the short term. There is no shortage of topics for the people of for the time being, the shogunate publicly condemned Asakura, the Uesugi army was suspicious of its authenticity, Nobunaga withdrew his army and was assassinated, Miyoshi Nagaitsu rose again, Asai and his son broke up and killed each other, and Arakimura rebelled for the second time...... It's all a topic of conversation.

Asai Nagamasa, who killed his father, got the head of Miyoshi Nagayi, and subdued Arakimura Shige, is naturally the brightest star in the eyes of the melon-eating masses, and the limelight is close to Oda Nobunaga three years ago.

Oda Nobutada is also known to be known for his victory in the east and west, and his credit as a core personnel cannot be run.

The hard-working Hite-sui brushes up on a little bit of existence (although the real greatest contribution is not clear to outsiders), Takigawa Kazuyi has commendable records in Settsu and Echizen, and Takenaka's reappearance is reminiscent of the miracle of the sixteen people who took the city back then; The complete defeat of Miyoshi Nagayi is embarrassing, Shibata Katsuie's defeat of two consecutive formations is widely suspected, and the deaths of Niwa Nagahide, Mori Kosei, Murai Sadakatsu and other big names have caused many changes......

But none of the above things are down-to-earth, and the new favorite of public opinion is the nephew of the shogunate retainer Akechi Mitsuhide, who won the wise Sama Hidemitsumi of Miyoshi Masayasu.

It is said that it was the "Ghost Boy Keiji" who admitted that he could not reproduce the deeds of Zuo Majie, and the Draw Tsuki smiled when he heard it: "Is the ghost boy afraid of the ghost warrior?" It is reasonable that a boy is not as good as a warrior. ”

So the title of "Ghost Warrior" is confirmed.

has a thumbs up for the middle of the hand, and he is worth a hundred times.

In addition, this person was very humble and said to his allies: "Qingci Hall broke the formation alone, and lost the enemy's courage, and he should be the first to take the credit." I succeeded because of the situation, and I was lucky to be famous. ”

It is very different from the rough Kanto samurai, and it is very much in line with the three views of the people.

At this time, Heite Tsunohide still remembered the past and wrote a letter to the Takenaka half-guard: "Your Excellency's so-called watching the fire from the other side, why don't you see the fire?" ”

A few days later, I got a reply: "The fire is booming." ”

Hurriedly ordered Tarao Mitsutoshi to investigate, and the next day he learned that Echizen Heavy Minister Mae-Hayoshitsugu, under the mediation of Takenaka Hanbei and Oda Nobutada, revealed his intention to surrender to the shogunate.

It turned out that this person's elder brother, Maeba Keidang, was killed by Takigawa Ichiyi Army under Shenmaru Castle. After the former Hayoshi inherited the position, he was young and vigorous, and thought that Asakura Keigami and others were inappropriately commanded. And Asakura Jingjing, on the other hand, plotted to punish the former Bo family in the name of being unfavorable in the battle.

Takenaka Hanbei pushed the boat down the river and blended into it.

In this regard, Hite-ho asked: "Does Takechuden actually have connections in Echizen?" ”

The response was: "There was a relationship with the Hokuriku swordsman Futian Shiyuan Palace. ”

There is nothing to say.

The man in Takenaka is very cautious in his choice of words, and when he says "one side of the relationship", it means that the relationship is very close.

Tomita Shiyuan is not a major minister of the Asakura family, but as a great swordsman, his reputation is far and wide, his disciples are like clouds, he is widely respected, and his status is transcendent.

In addition, Yuzhu Jinggu, who was captured the day before yesterday, also agreed to surrender under the persuasion of Takenaka. Taking advantage of the situation, Hanbei Takenaka suggested that Ashikaga Yoshiaki use the two as pawns to control Echizen from afar.

During the entire implementation process, Oda Nobutada was brought over again.

I don't know exactly how to do it, but the result that Hirate Honhide can see is that Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Oda Nobutada are both very satisfied with Takenaka Hanbei and are full of praise.

In order to show trust, Ashikaga Yoshiaki always called Hirata to sit in the seats of the first few counselors to discuss. However, outsiders can't figure out people's private personal contacts.

This ability may seem harmless, but when you think about it, it's intimidating enough.

It's simply a favorability modifier plug-in that can't be explained by science! Maybe it has something to do with Takenaka's fair-skinned and handsome appearance......

The aforementioned "watching the fire from across the strait" has indeed been fulfilled. As soon as the threat of the coalition forces was lifted, the Echizen Asakura family immediately broke out in internal turmoil and turned away from Germany.

But there is also a sentence behind "sit back and reap the benefits"......

Exactly who can receive what benefits will depend on multi-party consultations and repeated mediation.

After more than ten days of stumbling like this, Ashikaga Yoshiaki called Hite-ho to the Imperial Palace, and revealed some words face-to-face:

He made Asakura Yoshikei himself go to Kyoto to apologize, and then adopted the legendary "orphan of the previous shogun Yoshikiko" in Gifu Castle as his heir, and used the various Asakura Keitsune, Asakura Keitaka, and the important ministers Maepo Yoshitsugu, Uozu Keigu, and Tomita Nagashige as the heir's descendants.

Needless to say, these so-called hindsights are all opposition factions who have no ambition at home, or simply internal responses.

In order to make Oda and Asai accept this arrangement, the shogunate gave a high reward-

Oda Nobutada served as the guardian of Owari, Mino, the five prefectures of southern Okin, and the eight prefectures of northern Ise, and most of the core territories were recognized. At the same time, Shibata Katsuie was designated as the guardian of Minami-Omi, and Takigawa Kazuyi was designated as the guardian of Kita-Ise.

But Ma's Ichino Ginzan had to give up after Niwa Nagahide's death. Ashikaga Yoshiaki was ready to let the original owner, Yamana, return to China, on the premise that he would pay a large sum of money to Oda Nobutada. In addition, Mori Kasei's territory in the northern part of the mountain castle was allowed to be inherited by the second son as a retainer of the Oda family, and it was temporarily managed by Tsuda Nobusumi, a member of the Oda family, until he became an adult.

The situation in Minami Ise was slightly ambiguous, and the status of Oda Chashimaru's adopted son continued, but Mitsuei Toriyao, a loyal retainer of the Kitabatake family, became one of the regents.

On the other hand, Asai Nagamasa was appointed as the guardian of the eight northern Omi counties, the five western Harima counties, and the four western Settsu counties, three pieces of land that were not connected to each other, and it is clear that Ashikaga Yoshiaki did this on purpose.

The three central Harima counties were guarded by Kuroda Takataka, the eight eastern counties of Harima were guarded by Bessho Nagaji, and the six central counties of Settsu were guarded by Araki Murashige. These three people are considered to be the little friends who support the "great cause" of the Asai family.

In the southeastern part of Settsu Province, the 50,000-stone land bordering Izumi, and the two prefectures on the east-west transportation artery, were also assigned a guardian position, which was given to Oda Nagayoshi, who had recently been active and had won many enemy generals. It just so happened that he was the brother-in-law of Izumi Lord Hisho Honhide.

All in all, Ashikaga Yoshiaki's arrangement was very meticulous, fully allowing Oda and Asai to contain each other.

The Oda family was still large, but both the good and reliable Ichimen were moved to the periphery, with the weak Owari and the unstable Minoshi in the center. (The Owari people are not weak, but the strong people are all promoted to expatriate)

The Asai family ascended to the sky in one step, and their possession of Harima Settsu was recognized, but their territories were scattered, and they did not acquire enough titles to turn Araki, Bessho, and Kuroda into vassals.

A tie can be expected that he will definitely face a similar embarrassing situation.

So he took the paper handed over by Ashikaga Yoshiaki with a smile, and opened it to see-

As expected.

Theoretically, it was rewarded heavily, but in fact it was a completely empty promise, and it might as well not be rewarded.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki, this guy, is really first-class in the world in terms of his ability to block people.