"Since you don't know, why don't you check it out for me right away!" The one sitting opposite was Senlan Maru, and if he changed to other close attendants, it might be a violent beating.

I have to say that Niwa Nagahide did it very secretly this time, in order not to let the fact that he had rebelled be known to others, Ashigaru, who ordered the gatekeeper to open the city gate, and after leaving, he sent several retainers under his command to follow him, and then exterminated all these people, so as long as his retainers did not betray him, then no one can know that he did it.

Niwa Nagahide did this, in fact, to leave a way back for himself, and this idea had already been there when he plotted with Kinoshita Hideyoshi and others that day, but because of his introverted personality, he didn't show it at all, not only did he hide it from others, but even Kuroda Kanbei couldn't see any clues. After all, Niwa Nagahide thinks that if only with Matsunaga Hide's 3,000 troops, even if he enters the city, it will be difficult to cut Oda Nobunaga under the sword, because he knows very well that there are only 5,000 troops in Azuchi Castle, but the combat power of these 5,000 people is very strong, it can be said that most of the people in this army are from Owari, and they have followed Nobunaga to fight in the south and north for many years, and it is not an exaggeration to call it a division of a hundred battles, and in addition, their equipment can be described as luxurious, although these people are ashigaru, but the armor on their bodies, The weapons in their hands are definitely comparable to ordinary generals, and they are loyal to Oda Nobunaga, so it is still very difficult to defeat them.

Sure enough, just as he thought, although the army under Matsunaga Hide's command took advantage of the lack of reaction when he entered the city and achieved an absolute advantage, as time went by, his advantage became less and less obvious, and every time he pushed in the direction of the castle tower, he would pay a great price.

However, just as Matsunaga Xiu was in a hurry, a samurai suddenly came from the rear, came to him, and said, "My lord, our reinforcements are coming, and there are thousands of people, and my lord will definitely succeed this time." ”

And when he finished speaking, Matsunaga Hideshi was confused, but after a while, he understood that the reinforcements must have been sent by Kinoshita Hideyoshi, and after hearing that this support army was under the banner of his own family, he only thought that this was just Kinoshita Hideyoshi's trick, but it was better to have reinforcements than nothing, and now he can only eliminate Nobunaga first, otherwise this time it will be dead.

Sure enough, after the addition of 5,000 troops, the advantage of the Matsunaga army expanded again.

Although the 5,000 troops in the city can already be compared to the flag samurai of the Takayama family in terms of elite, Nobunaga ignores one point, that is, the problem of the general, although the army is elite, but there is no strong commander but it is in vain, so as soon as the enemy reinforcements join the battle group, as the main general of the Oda family, Oda Nobunaga's younger brother Oda Nobubao has already panicked, the reason why he can serve as the main general of this army is not because of his ability, but completely because of his background, Oda Nobunaga's idea is very simple, Such an elite under his command, if it is handed over to others, it is not possible to reassure him, but if it is handed over to his younger brother, and this younger brother does not have any ambitions, it is much more reassuring, as for his ability, Nobunaga does not think about it at all, after all, the role of this elite is to protect his own safety, whether it is in the city or in battle, he can be transferred freely, and he does not need any capable generals to command, but it is because of his thinking that it has led to a complete failure.

Seeing that reinforcements continue to pour towards his side, if the capable samurai will immediately lead his army in the direction of the castle tower and fight and retreat, relying on the castle tower for defense, if this is done, then at least he can hold on until the arrival of reinforcements, but he didn't do it, not that he didn't want to, but at this moment Oda Nobubao was completely panicked, and he didn't know how to do it, and the only thing he could think of now was to immediately send someone to ask the lord how to do it, but the other party didn't give him enough time at allWhen he had just sent people to leave, he saw that Matsunaga Hide's two support armies had tacitly outflanked him, and Oda Nobubao still did not give any orders at this time. And because of his inaction, this army has completely lost the ability to resist after the enemy has completely surrounded them, because they have been completely unprepared from the beginning of the battle.

And after surrounding them, several samurai have come to Matsunaga Hide, although he has not seen these people, but he also knows the origin of these people, he thought that this is just the Kinoshita family, but what he didn't expect is that Tokugawa also sent reinforcements, of course, in order not to contact himself after the plan was revealed, so this time the leading samurai sent by the two of them are not well-known retainers. After a few brief words, Matsunaga Shu did not hesitate any longer, and immediately personally led an army of 800 people straight to the castle tower.

Nobunaga had been standing by the window of the observatory and looking out, and he didn't feel any anger at the moment, not only did he not get angry, but he still had a smile on his face.

"At this time, why can my husband still laugh." In addition to Nobunaga, only the Lady Nohime of the main room was left on the lookout, and even his favorite Moriranmaru had already led all the attendants in the castle tower to guard the door at this time.

"Why are you laughing? Haha, don't you think my goal has been achieved, so why don't you laugh? When the emperor is sixty and one today, his bloodline has been cut off, and once he dies, there will be no successor, so that the biggest problem of reform has been solved, and I believe that Xinzhong will complete it, haha. "Yes, that's what Nobunaga thinks at the moment, no one can escape death, since what's so terrible, and as early as more than ten years ago when Imagawa invaded, he should have died, and now he has lived for nearly twenty more years, and not only won the world, but also destroyed the imperial family, he really has nothing to regret, what are he afraid of when he dies, as long as he is faithful, then everything is still under the control of the Oda family.

"Report to the lord, the enemy...... The enemy has already invaded the castle tower, so please prepare for it. Just as Nobunaga was talking to Nohime, I saw Moriranmaru break in with an anxious face.

"Okay, I see, you must keep it out of this door, go."

When Moranmaru left, Nobunaga pulled out a folding fan from his waist and walked to the middle and began to jump up, while Nohime sat down and listened quietly.

Then Nobunaga threw the folding fan in his hand and said to Nohime; "After I'm gone, I don't want to see you insulted, so ......"

"Husband doesn't need to say anymore, following husband for decades, today is the time for liberation." After speaking, I saw that she did not hesitate to pull out the dagger that her father gave her decades ago to kill Nobunaga from her cuff, and plunged it into her chest.

And Nobunaga watched Nohime cut himself, the expression on his face finally fluctuated, although Nohime was not his favorite woman, but she was the woman who helped him the most, which Nobunaga never denied, and now he watched the other party die in front of him, and Nobunaga, whose heart was like steel, couldn't help but be a little moved, he had never said sorry to anyone in his life, but at this moment he said this word to Nohime bluntly that he thought he would never say in his life.

As the movement in the castle tower became louder and louder, Nobunaga knew that his end was finally coming, and he also didn't want his body to be insulted by others after his death, so before seppuku, he kept pouring the fire oil that had been prepared just now in the room, and as the flames ignited, Nobunaga also made his final preparations......

On July 19, 1578, as the castle tower was surrounded by raging fire, the demon king Oda Nobunaga fell.

And just two days after the fall of Oda Nobunaga, Kinoshita Hideyoshi, who paid close attention to his life and death, Tokugawa Ieyasu and others did not receive the notice sent by Niwa Nagahide to send a large army into the Oda family's direct jurisdiction, Tokugawa Ieyasu encountered a lot of difficulties, after all, he had just become a member of the Oda family, even if there was Niwa Nagahide's order, those generations of the Oda family were also making things difficult, that is, at this moment, most of them did not know that the lord had fallen, and after making trouble, they had to do it, Otherwise, the Tokugawa army of 15,000 would not have thought of calmly entering the Oda territory.

And Kinoshita Hideyoshi is different, after the last ten years of operation, now the strength of the Kinoshita faction in the Oda family is not much worse than the Takayama clan, plus what he wants to occupy is close to Harima, and the city generations of Settsu and other countries have already joined the Kinoshita faction, after all, the Takayama clan is too far away from them, they have no other choice, so that the Kinoshita army has not encountered any difficulties at all when entering here, but because most people do not know that Kinoshita and others have rebelled, so although these are people from this faction, But Kinoshita Hideyoshi didn't dare to let them continue to guard, who knows if they will suddenly turn back once they get the news, one or two are okay, if there are too many, then they will cut off their way back to Harima.

And these people have joined the Kinoshita faction, since Kinoshita Hideyoshi said so, plus there is an order from the lord, so in the end they chose to accept, and the other party did not let them go back to Azuchi, but sent a military force to escort them to Harima, Kinoshita Hideyoshi and the Takayama clan encountered the same problems before, due to the short time to make a fortune, there is no background, so now the Kinoshita family is not short of high-level samurai, the most lacking is the middle and lower-level retainers, these castle generations can be used as a supplement, even if the ability is not good, But they are all from orthodox martial artists, which is much better than promoting some mud legs by yourself.

And after accepting these people and territories, he didn't stay in these newly acquired lands for a long time, but led an army of 30,000 to continue eastward to Omi, because he knew that if he wanted to completely digest these lands, the first thing he would do was to defeat the Takayama clan, otherwise even if he got it now, it would not be safe.

Now it has been four days since Nobunaga's fall, as the samurai of Azuchi Castle Ashigaru continue to flee, and now the news is completely impossible to hide, and the heir of the Oda family, Oda Nobutada, has received the news as early as this afternoon, when he got the news, his first reaction was not to believe, but as more and more people appeared in front of him, he couldn't help but disbelieve, and after the determination, Oda Nobutada didn't care about his grief, on the one hand, he immediately summoned his retainers to prepare for the army, and on the other hand, he sent people to the east to ask for reinforcements, which was also out of helplessness, Although he sits on the land of millions of stones in the two countries of Owari Mino, if the enemy is only Matsunaga Hide, then he has absolute confidence to destroy the other party, but when he learned from the mouth of Akechi Mitsuhide, who has left Yamashiro Province and wants to go to Kanto, not only Matsunaga Hideyoshi rebelled, but Kinoshita Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu and even Niwa Nagahide, who temporarily controlled the Oda family, also rebelled at this time, then he didn't dare to act alone, Niwa Nagahide aside, the strength of Kinoshita's family alone was much stronger than him, and with the addition of Tokugawa, Matsunaga, Takigawa and the others helped, he knew that he was not an opponent at all, and the only one who could fight against him was the Takayama clan.

Of course, he will not just wait and do nothing, when he gets the news, while reorganizing the army, he will inform the world of the fact that these people have rebelled, and ask all the forces in the world to rise up and attack him.

It's just that Oda Nobutada got the news a little late, before he announced the world, Kuroda Kanbei had already visited the emperor on behalf of Kinoshita Hideyoshi, and got the support of the emperor, of course, it was really the result of coercion and temptation, it can be said that the matter was completed, the emperor was no longer useful, the Kinoshita family not only got the righteousness as he wished, and on the same day, in order to further improve his identity, and the Kannei was not satisfied, he did a far-reaching, and ironic thing, he asked the emperor to announce to the world, Kinoshita Hideyoshi was the emperor's heir to the people.

Such a request, the emperor Fang Ren of Masakincho will definitely not agree, once he agrees, then after his death, in the absence of children, then Kinoshita Hideyoshi can inherit the throne, if this condition is agreed, how can he face the ancestors, now when he is in power, has caused the severance of the imperial bloodline, so that he can no longer explain to the ancestors, if he agrees to this condition, then even if he reaches Huangquan, he will not be able to face it, So no matter how much Kuroda Kanwei coerced and tempted, he just shook his head and refused, and in the end, in order to maintain the last honor, he actually crashed to death on the pillar. But his death didn't play any role, the person died, but the seal letter is still there, Kuroda Kanbei didn't have much respect for the emperor, and directly started to cover it, not only that, in order to fight the enemy, he pretended to be in the name of the emperor, and issued more than a dozen decrees in a row, not only declaring the Takayama clan a rebellion, but even Shibata, Sakuma and other important ministers of the Takayama faction did not fall, after doing this, he left satisfied, and burned the palace clean. (To be continued.) )