On October 7, 1568, the Miyoshi family and the allied forces launched a world-renowned battle in Kyoto, where nearly 40,000 soldiers fought to the death. In order to attract the coalition forces to attack, Miyoshi Nagakei took the initiative to abandon the strategic location of Mt. Otowa in the early morning, and induced the coalition forces to throw a large number of troops in the direction of Kyoto and Nijo Castle. After a morning of hard fighting by the coalition forces, they finally captured Kyoto, but Miyoshi Yoshiken committed a great disapproval in the world and burned Kyoto, causing chaos in the coalition army's position. At noon, Miyoshi Chokei and Tokawa Ichikun launched a counteroffensive to retake Mt. Otowaba. The coalition forces west of Kamogawa were caught off guard, and when they rushed back to help, they were attacked by the Miyoshi Army sweeping down from Mt. Otowa and were routed in one fell swoop. Yu Qiuping, an important minister of the Oda family, led the crowd to hold Nanzenji Temple, blocking the pursuit of the Miyoshi family, allowing most of the coalition forces to retreat safely.

However, just as the coalition was defeated, the Matsunaga family, an ally of the Miyoshi family, suddenly counterattacked. He took advantage of the fact that the main forces of the Miyoshi family gathered in Kyoto, attacked the Miyoshi family's main city, Imoriyama Castle, and burned down the granary of the Miyoshi family. The Miyoshi family was caught off guard and had to retreat in a hurry, while the coalition forces were able to enter Kyoto.

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Iimori Mountain Castle is one of the most important towns in, with a large population, a thriving commercial location, and a large amount of farmland suitable for cultivation, as well as an important strategic location. If Iimoriyama Castle is in the hands of the Miyoshi family, the Miyoshi family's Hanoi, Izumi, and Settsu can be connected. Otherwise, Kawachi Izumi would be cut off and become an enclave, which could only be connected to the Miyoshi family mainland through the sea lanes in the Seto Inland Sea.

With such a fat in his mouth, how could Matsunaga Shu spit it out?

Until now, Yu Qiuping didn't figure it out. But he still vaguely remembered that after Lin Xiuzhen heard the conditions, he immediately motioned to Oda Nobunaga with his eyes to agree. Subsequently, Matsunaga was satisfied, and Oda Nobunaga signed an alliance oath. As the wolf smoke as a signal slowly rose in the camp of the coalition forces, a huge fire also ignited in Iimori Mountain Castle - it was Matsunaga Shu burning the grain and grass of the Miyoshi family.

Everything was as Matsunaga Shu expected, and the Miyoshi family, whose grain and grass were burned, had no choice but to evacuate from Kyoto and march to Harima. On the way, Shihe Yicun saw that Sanhao Changqing beside him was still smiling, and he couldn't help but ask in a low voice with some annoyance:

"Big brother, how can you still laugh when you are so badly trapped?"

"It's a big gamble to solve the troublesome things in one go. In the end, the gamble was lost, and the feeling of regret was also the most tasteworthy part of gambling. Moreover, Danzheng has always been a capricious person, and negligence of his movements is also our own mistake, and we can't complain about it! Miyoshi Changqing seemed to look at the clouds in the sky with some intoxication, slowly lay on the back of the horse, and laughed loudly.

"Since I encountered that rainy autumn and red leaves in the casino nine years ago, my eldest brother's whole person has changed." An Zhai Dongkang also didn't seem to take the defeat to heart, and also joked with a smile: "Could it be that the kid's words about 'people don't live under masks' have reached the heart of the eldest brother?" The eldest brother, who has always been cautious before, is living more and more like the big brother who gambled with us when he was a child! ”

"Big brother, third brother, you?" Shihe Yicun was a little blindsided by the attitude of Miyoshi Changqing and Azhai Dongkang, and the wound on his left hand was about to burst with anger.

"Actually, it's not a bad thing." Miyoshi Yoshiken patted their fourth brother, who had always been quick-tempered, and said with relief: "Settsu Ikeda, Harima Akamatsu, Tosa Chomune, Ibubu." These three moths came out in one go, and we just solved them in one go. ”

"Except for the Changzong and my department, the others are all easy people." Shikawa snorted disdainfully, "But Kyoto was given up to the general for nothing, it's really infuriating." ”

"It doesn't matter if it's a place of right and wrong, and there are constant struggles. Oda Nobunaga has become the target of the whole world in our place, and he will soon taste the attack of the encirclement. Miyoshi Yoshiken glanced meaningfully in the direction of the east, "And there is a bullet with the same bed and different dreams just south of Kyoto, how many days do you think Oda Nobunaga will have a comfortable life?" ”

"Traitor." When Jukawa heard Matsunaga's name, he spat on the ground in annoyance. The three brothers all looked at each other and smiled when they saw his vicious appearance.

"The only trouble is Iimori Mountain Castle." Antaku Dongyasu frowned, and touched the mane of the horse that sat down with some uneasiness, "As soon as Iimoriyama Castle was lost, Honganji fell out with us again, and Hanoi and Izumi have become enclaves. If you want to contact them, you have to rely on my trolls. ”

"It's okay, Oda Nobunaga's territory is separated from the east of Yamashiro Province and Yamato Province, and Danmasa and the Shogun are hostile to each other. The forces of all sides contain each other, and there is no way to do anything with Hanoi and Izumi. Miyoshi Changqing stiffened up from his horse, "Okay, don't complain." First completely suppress Settsu, and then regroup the troops and bring back Iimori Mountain Castle! ”

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On October 8, after the Miyoshi family withdrew, the coalition forces also entered the burning Kyoto and Nijo Castle and began to extinguish the fire. It is said that Asakura Yoshikei wanted to turn back after learning that the Miyoshi family had retreated. But he has always loved face, he can't pull his face, after all, he has already retreated privately, and he found that it was too embarrassing to come back after winning the battle, so he returned directly to Echizen from the east bank of Lake Biwa.

When the coalition forces arrived in Kyoto, Oda Nobunaga immediately sent someone to pick up the emperor and the palace secretary from the Harimi Shrine. Emperor Shokincho, who is 50 years old this year, actually ran out barefoot when he saw the banner of the Kamiluo Army, and it was embarrassing for Maeda Toshiya and a few others to be in charge of greeting him.

The emperor and the palace secretaries were suddenly invited out of Kyoto by Miyoshi Yoshiken yesterday and moved to this Harumi Shrine. Subsequently, Kyoto was burned to the ground, and the shouts of killing around them continued, which terrified those who were helpless. However, Miyoshi Yoshiken only gave them the day's rations at that time, and the next day the Miyoshi family was already in a hurry to retreat, and no one took care of the emperor anymore, and there was no food to eat. The emperor wanted to take refuge in Nijo Castle, but the entire area around Kyoto was full of displaced residents due to the war, and many bandits were doing evil, so people did not dare to step out of the Sunny Shrine, so they had to wait inside tremblingly. During this time, a group of robbers also attacked the Sunny Shrine, and after discovering that His Majesty the Emperor was trapped here, they hurriedly knelt down to plead guilty, and left some food for the Emperor. However, these things were not enough to fill the stomachs of so many people, and by the time the coalition forces came to pick them up, the emperor and the palace secretaries were already grumbling with hunger.

Ever since the fall of the Emperor hundreds of years ago, he has been stripped of his authority and controlled Kyoto like a puppet. The territories and imperial lands that originally belonged to the emperor had long since been swallowed up by the powerful daimyo in the troubled times, and the emperor's income was gone, so he could only rely on the Ashikaga shogunate, the controller of Kyoto, or the tribute of foreign daimyo.

However, as the Ashikaga shogunate gradually lost power, continued to be in turmoil, and the emperor's life became more and more difficult day by day. During the control of the Miyoshi family, the emperor and the palace secretaries barely lived well, although they usually couldn't eat anything good, but they still had delicious food to taste during the New Year's holidays. At this time, all the royal family and palace secretaries will throw their reserve and etiquette out of the clouds, eat and drink desperately with their bellies open, and there have been people who can't walk because of this.

However, after the Miyoshi family withdrew from Kyoto and Matsunaga Shu took charge of Yamashiro, the money and food paid to the emperor and the palace secretaries shrank day by day. In order to maintain the expenses of the imperial family and so many palace secretaries, the emperor even had to hand over the ancestral calligraphy, paintings, and porcelain in the Kyoto Imperial Palace to the palace secretaries to sell, or send the palace secretaries to various places as envoys and diners to eat and drink.

The poor days made the old man develop a good habit of careful budgeting, and the money he saved was carefully stored in the palace by him in case of emergency. However, all of this was destroyed by the fire of Yoshiken Miyoshi. The Kyoto Imperial Palace, where they had made their home, the porcelain, calligraphy and paintings, which were the main sources of their living expenses, and the money that the poor emperor had worked so hard to save, were all burned in the fire.

When the convoy of allied forces welcoming the emperor passed by the Imperial Palace, the emperor saw the Kyoto Imperial Palace burned to ashes, and actually knelt on the ground and cried loudly. Those who hear are sad, and those who see are weeping. Although the emperor has lost his authority for hundreds of years, he is after all an unshakable faith in the hearts of all Japanese people, and everyone has mixed feelings when they see him so down. Oda Nobunaga immediately promised to rebuild the Imperial Palace and Nijo Castle for the Emperor, and promised to pay the Emperor a monthly tribute of enough money and food. The Emperor and Ashikaga Yoshiteru were deeply moved by this, and the Emperor granted Oda Nobunaga the official position of Shogun Shotada, and Ashikaga Yoshiteru was willing to give Oda Nobunaga the post of Ashikaga Shogunate's vice-general of the Shogunate, a position higher than that of Matsunaga Hide, and a favor bestowed on the Imagawa family by the former shogun.

However, it is intriguing that Oda Nobunaga accepted the official position offered by the emperor and rejected Ashikaga Yoshiteru's deputy general.

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After Yu Qiuping learned of this, he had been thinking about the deep meaning of Oda Nobunaga's move. However, several people around him seemed indifferent to this, and instead discussed the emperor's situation.

"The emperor, his old man, is also miserable enough." Maeda Toshiie and Yuakihei were sitting on the ruins of a burned-out wall in Kyoto, watching the emperor's car pass by not far away.

"It is really a shame for the samurai family to let His Majesty the Emperor suffer such a thing." Sen Kecheng looked at the situation of the emperor and the palace ministers, and there were already tears rolling in his eyes, "I'm so ashamed." ”

"Alas..."Hearing this, Zhizheng also sighed and shook his head helplessly.

Even Ikeda Hengxing and Ryoyuki Sawaku, who are usually not big or small, are actually silent at the moment. Indeed, in every Japanese heart, the position of the emperor is so sacred.

Yu Qiuping suddenly discovered that Asai Nagamasa had not expressed his opinion. Usually in such a situation, he, a hot-blooded idiot, is full of righteous righteous righteous brothers, shouldn't he have been indignant a long time ago?

He turned his head to look and found Asai Nagamasa sitting alone on his knees by a pile of burnt ruins, hiding his face in his arms and not saying a word. Yu Qiuping felt a little worried, so he jumped off the wall, walked to his side, sat down against him, and grabbed Asai Nagamasa's shoulder.

"Changzheng, what's wrong with you? Why don't you speak? Yu Qiuping asked with a smile.

"Brother, I'm so conflicted." Hearing this, Asai Nagamasa suddenly raised his head, and two lines of clear tears actually slipped from the corners of his eyes with his action.

"I'm going? What's wrong with you? Is it because you see the emperor's situation and feel uncomfortable? Yu Qiuping saw that the always strong Asai Nagamasa actually cried, and couldn't help but ask a little nervously.

"No, not exactly. I think for myself... The righteousness of the world seems to... It's never going to happen. Asai Nagamasa whimpered, then took a deep breath and resumed his usual tone: "Our samurai's duty is to guard the emperor. If it is really to defend the emperor's righteousness, shouldn't I immediately dedicate all the Asai family's territory to the emperor, so that the emperor and the emperor can live a good life? Then dedicate the army of the Asai family to the emperor, so that he will not be helpless in the war, and he will not be used as a puppet by the daimyo at the mercy of others. ”

"But the righteousness of the world conflicts with my righteousness to my family, my retainers, and my subordinates. If I really do that, I will be sorry for the ancestors and ancestors of the Asai family who worked hard to start a business, and I will be sorry for believing in my subordinates and retainers. I don't think I can achieve the righteousness of the world at all, no matter how hard I try, I can't do it. As he spoke, Asai Nagamasa suddenly clenched his hands into fists, lowered his voice and said in a deep voice: "I feel that I am very useless, I obviously keep talking about righteousness, but in the end I still look like a coward." ”

"Don't think about these things." Yu Qiuping patted Asai Nagamasa's shoulder and comforted.

"Does my brother have a solution?" Seeing that Yu Qiuping seemed to be confident, Asai Nagamasa asked with some expectation.

"Nope." Yu Qiuping honestly spread his hands and shook his head.

"That's it..."Asai Nagamasa sighed, his eyes instantly full of loneliness.

After the two were silent for a long time, Yu Qiuping suddenly spoke: "Changzheng, do you know, someone told me before. There are two times in a person's life. ”

"The first time is when I realize that I am not omnipotent, and there are many things that I can't do no matter how hard I try."

"The second time is when you realize that you can't do something anyway, and you still try to do it."

Listening to Yu Qiuping's preaching, Asai Nagamasa suddenly had some feelings in his heart.

"The righteousness of the world is illusory, and it may be those things that cannot be done no matter how you do it. But even if you find out, you can't give up on yourself and crouch in the corner and cry. ”

"I didn't cry!" Asai Nagamasa's face turned red all of a sudden, and he retorted a little embarrassedly.

"Well, it doesn't matter." Yu Qiuping saw Asai Nagamasa's embarrassed appearance, and laughed: "But if you ask me if there is any solution, I think you actually have a direction in your heart." ”

"It's what you told me before the Chinese New Year last year, I don't know the small meaning, why do you understand the big righteousness?" Yu Qiuping hugged Asai Nagamasa, raised his head, and looked at the clouds in the sky, "Since the great righteousness in the world is illusory, let's start with small righteousness." Worthy of friends, worthy of family, worthy of subordinates, worthy of family. ”