At two o'clock in the afternoon, Oda Nobunaga personally led the main force to the south of Kyoto after ordering Sakuma Nobumori to lead his troops to stay in the temple complex. After rectifying for an hour, the Northern Route Army of the coalition army finally reluctantly restored most of its structure and had the ability to fight a war. From both south and east, they surrounded Kyoto. In addition to the casualties of the morning battle, the total number of allied forces besieging Kyoto reached 11,000. After a morning of hard fighting, the Miyoshi family, which held out in Kyoto, also suffered a lot of losses, leaving only more than 4,000 generals.

Since Kyoto itself was not suitable for defense, both the Kyoto Imperial Palace, where the emperor and his court ministers, and the Sento Imperial Palace, where the abdicated emperor lived, were simply walled. Although the emperor has been seized of power for hundreds of years, his position in the hearts of the Japanese has always been sacred and inviolable. Even the most powerful samurai did not dare to be too rude to the emperor. As a result, in recent years, every time there has been a war near Kyoto, people have tried to avoid the emperor's residence.

But this time, Miyoshi seems to have decided to resist to the end. On the pretext that the soldiers were in danger of fighting, Miyoshi Yoshiken sent people to invite the emperor and the palace secretaries from the Kyoto Imperial Palace, the Sento Imperial Palace, and other places, and sent them to the Harimi Shrine two miles to the west for refuge. And he led the army into the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and let Iwanari Tomomici and Miyoshi Nagaitsu enter the Sento Imperial Palace, preparing to defend Kyoto.

Miyoshi Yoshiken put on such a resolute posture, which made Oda Nobunaga a little confused. If the main force and auxiliaries of the Miyoshi family had retreated a long time ago, there was no need for them to be so desperate? Or rather, the order given to them by Miyoshi Nagakei was to do everything possible to hold back the Oda army and buy time for the main force to return to the division to quell the rebellion in Settsu.

However, Oda Nobunaga, like Yoshiken Miyoshi, is also a lord who is not afraid of heaven and earth. Since Miyoshi Yoshiken dared to offend the world's disapproval and alarm the emperor and occupy the palace to garrison, then he dared to attack the palace directly!

After receiving the order from Oda Nobunaga to attack the Kyoto Imperial Palace and the Sento Imperial Palace, the coalition forces were in an uproar. Because the coalition forces did not know that Miyoshi Yoshiken had sent the emperor and the palace secretary out of Kyoto, they thought that Miyoshi Yoshiken had taken the emperor and the palace secretary hostage and guarded them in the palace. If the emperor is harmed in the war, no one can afford to bear this burden. Not only did he have to apologize, but the family could not escape the catastrophe.

Asai Nagamasa, who has always had a strong sense of justice, was the first to be furious after receiving the order, he was sitting on the stone pier resting, and when he heard the order, he almost jumped up, split the stone pier in half with a knife, and at the same time shouted angrily at Oda Nobunaga's envoy: "What is His Highness Oda thinking? We samurai exist to protect the Emperor, so how can we do such a rebellious thing! Such an order, under which refusal to accept! ”

And the old ministers of the Oda family, including Shibata Katsuie, Niwa Nagahide and others, also opposed Oda Nobunaga's exaggerated order, and bitterly advised Oda Nobunaga to think twice. Akechi Mitsuhide even proposed that Oda Nobunaga invite Ashikaga Yoshiteru, who had an old Ashikaga Yoshiki with both the Miyoshi family and the emperor, to mediate, and ask Miyoshi Yoshiken to withdraw from the palace.

However, everyone's hesitation and disobedience made Oda Nobunaga, who was already in a very unhappy mood today, furious. At the top, he directly ordered his banner samurai and directly subordinate soldiers to attack the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Although these troops directly under Oda Nobunaga could not refuse to carry out the order, they were reluctant to attack, and even the young men of Maeda Toshiie and Sawaki Yoshiyuki who were not afraid of the ground were tied up when they fought. The battle lasted two quarters of an hour, but the Oda family did not make any progress.

In desperation, Oda Nobunaga had no choice but to compromise and send Akechi Mitsuhide into the Kyoto Imperial Palace to negotiate with Miyoshi Yoshiken. However, after the two armies were connected, they learned that Miyoshi Yoshiken had already sent the emperor and the palace secretaries away. Oda Nobunaga, who felt that he had been tricked, became angry again and immediately ordered the entire coalition army to storm it. Without psychological baggage, the coalition forces used all their might, and the Miyoshi Army gradually became unstoppable. The Sento Imperial Palace fell in less than six minutes, and the defenders retreated to the Kyoto Imperial Palace to put up their last resistance. The roads in the Kyoto area were complicated and the terrain was narrow, and the Weaving Alliance Army was unable to deploy its forces well, giving the Miyoshi Army a chance to hold on.

·

At the same time, after a long period of hard fighting, the trio of Yuakihei and Mino finally repelled Miyoshi Yoshiko and recaptured Okazaki Shrine. After Miyoshi Yoshiko retreated to Ginkaku-ji Temple, the Mino trio were reluctant to pursue again, but directly followed the path taken by Oda Nobunaga's Nakaji army. After all, it's not much to conquer Ginkaku-ji Temple, but it's a great honor to enter Kyoto.

And Yu Qiuping's subordinates also asked for battle. Akihei was not a traditional Japanese samurai and did not have such a strong sense of honor, but his subordinates were different. Yoshioka Katsumasa. Mimasaki Nakahide and these people are about to grind out the ears of Yu Qiuping, and they have been urging him to enter Kyoto.

And Oda Nobunaga sent a herald to order the 50,000 auxiliaries in the coalition army's main camp to carry a large amount of baggage and go to Kyoto along the route of the Northern Route Army. He believed that Kyoto would soon be captured, and that auxiliary troops would be indispensable to begin the rectification work.

Seeing that even the auxiliary soldiers were about to enter Beijing, and he was still staying at Okazaki Shrine, the dissatisfaction of Tokiwabei's subordinates erupted collectively. Although Yu Qiuping had no intention of attacking, he had no choice but to follow the wishes of his subordinates and reorganize his troops and prepare to march towards Kyoto.

However, just as he was about to leave, he found dozens of sneaky people sneaking in through the south gate of Okazaki Shrine on horseback. Yu Qiuping frowned, and chased after the guards around him. When he arrived, he found that the leader was the same young man who had escaped from Nijo Castle a few days earlier to report to the coalition forces that Ashikaga Yoshiei had died of illness. He was leading dozens of people with shovels, digging something there.

"Who are you?" Yu Qiuping frowned and asked with some dissatisfaction. And Long Zi and the others behind him also drew their knives out of their sheaths one after another, looking at the dozens of people very vigilantly.

The dozens of people turned their heads when they heard the sound and found that it was a person wearing a shawl of red leaves with a dozen guards with red leaves on their helmets, and they immediately recognized that this was Yu Qiuping.

"His Highness Momiji." The little surname in the lead replied respectfully: "The inferior person is the public of the Gongfang Palace. ”

"What are you doing here? Why don't you stay in this position to protect the generals, what are you doing on the front line? After realizing that this was Ashikaga Yoshiteru's subordinate, Yu Qiuping asked even more dissatisfied.

Due to the bad relationship between Yu Qiuping and Ashikaga Yoshiki, those dozens of people also have a deep hostility towards Yu Qiuping. More than a dozen of them simply continued to shovel the soil, and one of them snorted coldly: "Where else is the front line here?" Kyoto is the front line. Hang our public hall in the back and cut it. ”

"How did you talk to His Highness Momiji?" One of the guards beside Yu Qiuping was furious when he heard this, and shouted at the public.

"What His Highness Momiji? It's just a ferryman, what is his attitude towards the Gongfang Palace? Which onion did he think he was? The public seemed to be quite tough, as if he felt that Yu Qiuping didn't dare to do anything to the people around the general, so he said with his waist back.

However, almost the next moment, a cold light flashed, and only two loud "bangs" were heard, and the feet on the body of the worshipper were shattered in the chest, and the whole thing fell off. The person who did it was none other than Honda Tadakatsu, who was holding the giant spear dragonfly cut. He slashed cleanly and diagonally, directly beating the Gu Foot to a pulp, and at the same time, the heavy dragonfly cut was also powdered by Honda Tadakatsu's deliberate lack of strength.

The face of the congregation was as pale as earth all of a sudden, and the surrounding congregational was also stunned. Honda Tadakatsu slowly lifted the dragonfly and pointed to the mouth of the outspoken bumper, and glanced at him with indifferent eyes. The public suddenly weakened his legs, knelt down, and kowtowed to Yu Qiuping to plead guilty.

Yu Qiuping didn't pay attention to this kind of clown at all, but asked directly to the little surname, "Then what are you doing here?" ”

"We are here to find the grave of the puppet general, and we can't let this traitor die!" The little surname replied truthfully. Only then did Yu Qiuhei notice that there was a tombstone standing in the place where they were digging, which seemed to be the place where Ashikaga Yoshiei was hastily buried. And after the dozen or so members of the public let out a cry of surprise, a coffin was lifted from the pit, and the lid was lifted casually.

Yu Qiuping subconsciously turned his face away, unwilling to look at Ashikaga Yoshiei's body, "No matter what, the dead are the greatest, and digging other people's graves like this is not the work of a righteous gentleman." ”

However, these public servants are the deployment of the general, and they don't really care about how Yu Qiuping is, and it's almost the same as a lesson just now. Just as Yu Qiuping was about to take people away and lead Tokiwa to march into Kyoto, Uchiha Aooka's voice suddenly sounded beside him.

"Your Highness." Uchiha Aooka's always cold and calm voice was faintly trembling at the moment. Yu Qiuping heard that his voice was wrong, and his heart suddenly rose, and he asked in a low voice, "Qinggang, what's wrong?" ”

Uchiha Aooka glanced at Yu Qiuping, and then motioned for Yu Qiupei to look at Ashikaga Yoshiei's slightly decomposed corpse, and at the same time lowered his voice and said:

"Judging from the corpse, this person did not die of disease, but was poisoned and killed."

Yu Qiuping only felt that the blood in his body instantly coagulated, and an ominous premonition spread throughout his body. He hadn't figured out what it meant for Ashikaga Yoshiei to be poisoned, but he vaguely felt that a catastrophe was coming.

·

Almost at the same time, wolf smoke slowly lit up in the direction of Kyoto.

And in the Toji temple complex, a few miles southwest of Kyoto and Nijo Castle, where Akechi Mitsuhide had warned that the army could be hidden, Miyoshi Nagakei was sitting on a pavilion, staring at the card game in front of him. Ever since Yu Qiuping taught him the game of stud many years ago, he has been immersed in it, and sometimes he even gambles with himself alone for a morning.

"Big brother, the signal is coming, and the second brother can't hold the Kyoto Imperial Palace anymore." Shihe Yicun, who was standing beside him, saw that Miyoshi Changqing seemed to be indulging in the gambling game and didn't notice the wolf smoke, and the urn opened his mouth angrily to remind.

At this time, Miyoshi Changqing was staring at the gambling game in front of him, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth for some reason. He raised an eyebrow and slowly grasped his last covered hole card in his right hand. In his mouth, he said with words:

"Come on, Nobunaga."

Then, with a twinkle in his eyes, he jerked over the card, and the crisp sound of the wooden card hitting the table shattered the silence of the pavilion.

"Flop! Compare the size of it! ”