In the eleventh year of astronomy, outside the Omori Castle of Mino, a great war has begun. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Saito Michizo (now it should be called Saito Toshimasa, but for the sake of understanding, I wrote Daozo who later became a monk) looked at Omori Castle not far away and smiled. "This Mino is mine after all"

To mention the Warring States Period, a typical character on the gram. Michizo Saito is definitely a typical figure among them.

Michizo Saito's origins are in Mino. Located in the central region of RB, the beautiful Nagara River winds through the territory, and the fertile land and pleasant climate make it a famous tourist destination in RB today. In the early Warring States period, the ruler of Mino was the Toki clan.

After the Toki clan was the famous family of RB, Kiyowa Genji, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Toki Yorisada of the Toki clan followed the Ashikaga clan to join the Northern Dynasty, and thus acquired the land of Mino, which was the beginning of the reign of the Toki clan in Mino. During the Muromachi Shogunate period, the Toki clan was once in high demand, mastering the three kingdoms of Mino, Owari, and Ise, and becoming a huge force of local guardian daimyo. As a result, the shogunate attracted the attention of the shogunate, and the third shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, used the excuse of Toki Yasuyuki's attempt to rebel and conquer the Toki clan. After this war, the shogunate used the usual "shapeshifting" method to divide the territory of the Toki clan in two, appointing Toki Yasuyuki as the guardian of Ise and his uncle Yoritada as the guardian of Mino. The Toki clan was severely weakened.

From the time of the fifth generation of Toki Yoritada, due to the weakening of the power of the Toki clan, Mino's real power began to gradually decline. First, the guardian Daitofushima clan became the de facto ruler of Mino, and then the power of the Saito family in Mino began to rise. During the period of the seventh generation of Mino to protect Toki Mino, the Saito family expelled the Toshima clan and became the de facto owner of Mino, and the Toki clan still inherited the role of Mino guardian. In the Onin Rebellion, the Saito clan took the opportunity to completely drive out their political opponents and dominate the family. The foundation of Meinong's "lower and higher" has been laid.

Michizo Saito's early life was as full of mysterious legends as Hojo Sakumo. One of the most popular theories is that of an oil seller, who is said to be able to put a copper coin on the spout of a pot and pour oil into the mouth of the coin without the money getting wet. The story sounds very familiar. Ouyang Xiu, a writer in the Northern Song Dynasty of China, also wrote a similar story, see Wenzhong Collection, vol. 129: "...... He took a gourd and set it on the ground, and put a penny, and drank the oil with a ladle, and drained the money into the gourd, and the money was not wet. He said, 'This is familiar to him. I am afraid that the story of the oil seller is based on this, and it cannot be fully believed. Nowadays, there are also those who believe that Saito Michizo's father is Captain Nagai Shinzaemon who may have served as the shogunate minister (there are also suspicions that Captain Nagai Shinzaemon is actually Michizo himself; There is also a theory that Michizo's activities before stealing Mino and protecting the Toki clan were actually the work of his father), and he himself worked as a monk at Myokakuji Temple in Kyoto as a child. His father became a member of the Nagai family because he served Minong's little guardian generation, so he became a member of the Nagai family, so he received the surname "Nagai".

By the time Michizo Saito appeared, Mino had already been in a scuffle over Mino because of Mino's guardianship. Minong's former sister-in-law, Toki Yoritake, who guarded the Toki Masaba, was originally the rightful successor of the family governor, and he also had the support of Minong's guardian Daisaito Toshira. However, in his later years, Toki Masabo liked his second son, Toki Yoriyi, and Lai Yi won the support of the little guardian generation Nagai Toshitaka, so the two sides began to fight for the throne of the family after Masafu's death.

In the 14th year of Eishō (1517), the two factions fought together for the first time, and Toki Yoritake won a complete victory, so he expelled Toki Yorii to Owari. However, the latter contacted Hikoshiro Saito as an internal response and made a comeback in August of the following year, and this time, Yorii expelled Yoritake to Echizen. Toki Yoritake was the son-in-law of the Echizen Asakura family, and the Asakura family had a relationship with the Saito family, so Toki Yoritake won the support of the Echizen Asakura family.

In the sixteenth year of Eishō (1519), Yoritake returned to Mino again with the support of Echizen Asakura and once again became the lord of Mino, this time, he gained a relatively long period of stable rule. It wasn't until the fifth year of Daei that the Nagai clan and Lai Yi rebelled, and Mino fell into war again, and Saito Michizo (named Nagai Shinkuro Norihide at this time), who was a retainer of the Nagai family, naturally became the advisor that Toki Yorigi relied on.

The war lasted until August of the 7th year of Oei (1527), when Toki Yorii accepted Saito Michizo's suggestion and attacked Yoritake's Katsute Castle, which Yorimu was defeated. In the third year of Xiangroku (1530), Toki Yoritake went into exile again in Echizen, and Lai Yi became Mino's guardian. Michizo Saito played a major role in this war.

After Toki Yorigi was protected by Mino, Saito Michizo began his steps of "going down and going up". The first unlucky one is naturally his current boss, Nagahiro Kogodai, Nagai. In the second year of Tenmon (1533), Nagai Nagahiro was assassinated by Saito Michizo (one says that in the third year of Xiangroku, Saito Michizo assassinated Nagai Rishisu, and some people believe that Riyan and Nagahiro were actually the same person). Saito Michizo inherited the Nagai family as a retainer of the same sect and became the lord of Mino Inabayama Castle, completing the first step in the next Katsugami.

The boss of the Nagai family, the little guardian, is the Mino guardian Saito clan. Luckily, Michizo Saito had no trouble going down the second time. In the seventh year of Astronomy (1538), Saito Toshira of the Saito family died of illness, and Saito Michizo became the heir of the Saito family, and was allowed to inherit the Saito family under the name of "Saito Shinkuro Toshimasa" and became the guardian of Mino. The following year, he began to expand Inabayama Castle and was well prepared for the future.

The battle for Mino was over at this time, and in the 8th year of Tenmon (1539), Yorijun, the son of Toki Yoritake (the last record of Yorimu was in the 6th year of Astronomy, and it is likely that he died after that, and some believe that he was assassinated by Saito Michizo) reached a tentative agreement with Yoriyi. After that, under the planning of Saito Michizo, in the 11th year of Astronomy, the two branches of Śōsō-sho Castle, the residence of Toki Yori-sum, and Beppu Castle, fell one after another, and then Dai-sang Castle also fell into the hands of Mino, and Toki Yorijun fled to Echizen again. Then, Toki Yorigi moved the castle from Lushan Castle to Daisan Castle.

At this time, the relationship between Toki Yoriyi and Saito Michizo was already very bad. Toki Laiyi once admired Dao San very much, and even rewarded one of his concubines, Shen Fangye, to Dao San. But Saito Michizo is a ghost, and he has long seen that Toki Laiyi can't become a big climate.

In the tenth year of astronomy, Saito Michizo poisoned Toki Yorimitsu, the younger brother of Lai Yi, which led to a direct confrontation between the two. After gradually clearing the clan power of the Toki clan, in the 11th year of Astronomy, Saito Michizo sent troops to attack Daisan Castle, and Toki Yorigi was defeated and forced to go into exile to Owari to take refuge with Oda Nobuhide. Mino fell into the hands of Michizo Saito.

At this time, outside Omori Castle, three or five samurai of the Toki family escaped from the castle with a boy about 2 years old in their arms.

"His Highness Tuqi has fled, where are we going next? The lord entrusted the young lord to us before he died, and now that the Toki family has been seized by the villain Saito Michizo, where else can we go? A samurai said helplessly.

"Let's go to Dewa," one of the samurai led by the leader said calmly.

"Dewa? Why go so far? ”

"The lord once said that there is a tributary of the Toki family in Dewa Country, so we might as well go to them. It's been a long time since we've been in touch, but after all, we're all descendants of the Toki family, so they should take us in. ”

"But we don't have to go that far, how about we go to find His Royal Highness Toki Laiyi?" A samurai said reluctantly.

"Confused, the lord is at odds with Tuqi Lai Yi, and he has repeatedly wanted to murder the young master, isn't it sent to death to take refuge in him now? Don't say it, let's go, go to Dewa Country. ”

So, the group headed for Dewa Province, which was far away from Mino, and who was the tributary of the Toki family they were looking for?