On the 13th day of September in the 8th year of Tensho (1580), my army entered Yamashiro Province in the streets of Yamashikoku, and the advance was already approaching Yamazaki and Kyoto was in sight.

"Please Your Highness Yuzhou must think of the common people in the world, and don't involve Kyoto in a merciless war!" While I was resting temporarily on the march, a third messenger sent by Matsunaga Hidehide spoke earnestly before me. He was a eloquent young man, but I wasn't interested in everything he said, and I didn't even hear his name.

I sat in the tent set up on the side of the road, and watched as the procession on the road continued to move forward, the feet of men and horses on the dry road, and the dust that flew up seemed like a yellow mist filling the air. Although autumn is no longer so hot, the drought caused by the lack of rain in a year has pushed the whole of to the brink of collapse.

"After clearing out Matsunaga Xiu, maybe I will be the savior of the people and the court!" The strange thing is that when the war is about to begin, what I think about the most is not how to fight this battle, but the various arrangements and measures after the war. Maybe deep down, I didn't think of Matsunaga Shu on the battlefield as a qualified opponent!

"Your Highness has always been a benevolent and righteous gentleman who respects the court and is sympathetic to the people, and he will never ...... today" Seeing that my eyes fell into deep thought, the messenger thought that his words had had an effect, and encouraged his tongue to speak more vigorously.

"Alright, you should have enough!" His words did wake me up, but they only reminded me of what to do. "You can go back to where you came from!" I stood up and walked outside, feeling something wrong with my saber and reaching out to help me. "That's right!" Suddenly, I stopped, turned to him, and said, "Tell the man who sent you to wash his neck and wait!" ”

"Your Highness Yuzhou, please think twice!" The young messenger took a half-step anxiously and stretched his hand forward slightly.

"Humph!" Shinhachiro snorted heavily with his hand on the hilt of his sword, and his eyes glared at him angrily.

"I'm sorry! ......" The messenger's face turned pale, and the hand shrank back as if it had been burned by fire. He didn't really want to make any drastic moves, it was just an instinctive reaction in an anxious situation. "Hmm......" he turned to the man who had come with him, a visibly wink.

"Your Highness...... Could you please think again! The man who wanted to pretend not to see it finally couldn't resist such a "earnest" attack, and reluctantly spoke.

This man has a very fair face and is not yet 20 years old. The reason why he is here is because he is my eldest brother-in-law, the second son of Machicho Jixiu, Jimeiin Kihisa. Matsunaga Hide's intention to make peace is very sincere, and he is part of "sincerity".

"Needless to say, I don't have the mood to do this when my military affairs are urgent!" I didn't give him a good face because of my kinship, but said coldly with a gloomy face. "The so-called good and evil are not separated, and I can't be under the same sky with a traitor like Matsunaga Shu. If I can't avenge my ancestors, what kind of face do my Xingqing clan have to live in the world! Your Excellency doesn't need to say any more, please also go to the court on my behalf: when I have cleared all rebellion, I will go to the court to plead guilty! ”

"Your Highness, have you misunderstood?" I grinned at my reprimand, but I noticed that the muscles on his face were actually adjusting in a smooth manner. "There is no evidence that His Royal Highness Matsunaga had anything to do with the martyrdom of the Oda Right Mansion, on the contrary, he actively dealt with the aftermath and avoided the chaotic situation, which the imperial court took very seriously! Besides, now that the rebels of Mori and Araki are approaching Kyoto in a raging manner, they are about to threaten the safety of the imperial court. But you're here to make a big deal out of the dissidents, aren't you a little ...... Kind of ......" He didn't know what to say, rolled his eyelids and looked nervously at me, then at his surroundings.

"I naturally have the evidence, but it's inconvenient to show it to you now!" I looked at the two men with contempt, then raised my chin haughtily. "The greatest thing in the world is to set things right, remove the false and keep the true. If the rebellious ministers and thieves are allowed to bewitch the saints and listen to the chaos of the government, then the so-called peaceful chaos is just an empty word. The world has been deceived by Matsunaga's traitors, and my move is to set the world up for good. Okay, let's go! I turned my head away from them.

"Your Highness, your move is a great rebellion against the will of the imperial court!" Seeing that my attitude was so refusal, Matsunaga Hide's messenger was almost desperate. "I despise the public will of the world, and I am unwilling to argue for my own stigma, everything is premised on the stability of the court and the world. If His Royal Highness Yuzhou has any dissatisfaction, he can invite all the princes of the world to distinguish the truth from the false, how can he ...... the disaster of war"

"Lord Qiqi, His Royal Highness Xinxiao has arrived!" At this time, an attendant came to report to the outside of the shed.

"Everything, let's wait until I take Matsunaga's head!" With an impatient wave of my hand, four guards immediately picked up the two of them and walked out.

Before leaving, he turned his head and gave me a meaningful look. I turned my face slightly and gave him a knowing look.

"This is ......" The two people who were carried out happened to be seen outside the door by Oda Nobutaka, who was about to come in, and he stopped and asked in great surprise. (Oda Nobuo and Nobutaka have not changed their names back to the other family, so it stands to reason that they can only be called Kitabatake Nobuo and Kobe Nobutaka for the time being, but if that happens, many people may not be able to figure out who they are.) ）

"It's just two lobbyists sent by Matsunaga Hide, His Royal Highness Nobutaka doesn't have to care!" I invited him to sit down, and then said, "At this critical moment when the war is imminent, His Royal Highness Xinxiao can rush to preside over the plan, so that the lord's great revenge can be expected!" ”

"His Royal Highness Zhuxing avenged his father and brother, and he was grateful. But there is a fate, and Xinxiao dares not to do his best! Oda Nobutaka just said these two words, and his eyes were already full of tears.

"Your Highness is wrong, I just want to do my duty as a courtier. Today, His Highness is ushered in, and those of us have the backbone! My expression was also very sad, and there was a slight tremor in my voice.

Oda Nobuo and Nobutaka are actually not far from here, and they received the message quickly after I sent the message, but neither of them reacted immediately, and it seemed that there was still a lot of doubt in their hearts. After all, no one except me has publicly accused Matsunaga of having anything to do with Oda Nobunaga's death, and it is possible that a rash move would become a rebellion against the imperial court, which is not something they can afford to bear.

Nobuo Oda did not make a clear statement, but returned a letter asking about the situation. After I sent the reply letter, he actually asked some other trivial questions, which made me laugh and cry. It seems that Oda Nobuo doesn't have the courage to do this, but he is still a little unwilling.

Oda Nobutaka may not be much better than Oda Nobuo, he is also happy and afraid of such a choice of risks and opportunities, but after a day he still made up his mind, but the reason is quite funny. Because he heard about Oda Nobuo's attitude, he made the opposite choice out of a subtle psychology: against Oda Nobuo, this time he might be able to win a big one in one fell swoop!

"The martyrdom of the lord and the young lord has made our ministers grief and indignant, and I originally wanted to use the prestige of the two highnesses to ask for this blood debt. I don't want His Royal Highness Nobuo to ...... Alas~! I let out a long sigh, and anyone could hear the displeasure.

"His Royal Highness Yuzhou...... This heart is really touching! Oda Nobutaka's eyes lit up obviously, and his lips opened for a moment. It's a good opportunity to show yourself, but it doesn't seem like a good thing to denigrate your brother in the first place.

Oda Nobuo and Oda Nobutaka resemble their father only in appearance, tall and fair-skinned, and coordinated facial features. However, they are also weak in character, and their lines lack strength, especially in the eyes and corners of the mouth.

"I am willing to be in the same boat with His Royal Highness Yuzhou, and the rest of you...... It's up to each of you to do what you want! After a fierce weighing, he still couldn't hold back, and secretly stabbed Oda Nobuo in his words.

"Since Your Highness Xinxiao values you so much, then please come and give orders to the whole army!" My spirits regained and I waved my hand at the attendant next to me.

"No, no, no, in front of a senior like Your Royal Highness Yuzhou, how dare I overstep the bounds!" Oda Nobutaka waved his hands again and again, looking very "excited" between the measures.

"If the name is not right, the word is not good, and if the word is not good, it will not be done! This position must be appropriate for His Highness, and I can propose a plan for you to decide! "Now that I've put this outfit in this pose, I'm going to stick to it to the end, but I don't want him to joke about my family.

By this time, Sakurai Sakichi and the other two guards had cleaned up the things on the low table, and a map of the vicinity of Kyoto was laid out on the table. The map is drawn in a way that is somewhere between administrative divisions and landscape paintings, and the forces of each side are improvised with small pieces of wood with different markings. The ninja leader, Captain Naganobu, arrives at the table, ready to give the necessary explanation.

"Matsunaga's rebels...... There are so many! Looking at the more and more markers in the direction of Kyoto on the map, and Sakurai Sakichi was still swinging up, Oda Nobutaka's face changed a little.

I didn't speak, but motioned for some explanation.

"Two days ago we expected Matsunaga's army to probably exceed 30,000, but now it seems that this estimate is a bit conservative!" The companion replied in a calm but respectful tone. "In order to resist the attack of our army, Matsunaga Shu not only recruited a large number of wild samurai near Kyoto, but also recruited many servants from the minister's mansion and monks in the temple. Now that the 50,000 army has arrived at the front line of Yamazaki and Katsuryuji Castle, it must have met with the front army of our army at this time! ”

"Ah~!" After an exclamation, large drops of sweat came out of Oda Nobutaka's forehead, and the development of things had exceeded his imagination. Although he did fight in the past, it was basically someone else who played with him, and he couldn't accept it for a while in the face of an enemy army that was superior to his own tens of thousands of people.