"How does it feel?" Ikeda asked me, his face flushed with excitement.

"It's okay!" I don't care. "Oh, it's just a bit of a mess, it should be well organized!" At this time, the hall was filled with a buzzing sound due to the whispers of more than two hundred people, like a huge wild honeycomb.

"You're too disrespectful, aren't you?" He snorted disapprietedly. "This is the general's banquet! Although my family is a famous samurai family for generations, even my grandfather and my grandfather's grandfather would never have imagined that their children and grandchildren would one day feast with the shogun. Not to mention that you, a guy from a civilian background, aren't you the glory of your dreams? ”

"This is called 'the back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves', 'the blue is better than the blue'!" I leaned into his ear and whispered, "What about the Ashikaga clan?" The ministers of the famous Fujiwara clan and the descendants of the emperor, aren't there many people who go to serve as diners for the powerful daimyo? Now the times are different, and they are long gone. Good job, boy! Maybe in the future, the Shogun will play a role of amusing you at your banquet! ”

"Ah~?!" Ikeda exclaimed in small exclamation. Although his personality is usually deviant, he is still young, and the idea of "loyalty" in the traditional samurai education has not been completely shattered by the cruel reality. "What a rebellious thing you say!" There was a hint of horror in his low voice.

"Great rebellion?" I snorted softly. "Ping Qingsheng is a great rebellion; The source of the Lai Dynasty is a great rebellion; Hojo's current politics is a great rebellion, and even his old ancestor, the Ashikaga Son, is also a great rebellion! I'm just telling the truth, just to give you a heads up! ”

What do you mean by that? What exactly do you want to do? He stared at me intently, his tone full of nervousness.

"What am I?" I said with a light-hearted and humorous expression. "It doesn't matter what a little person like me says or does, at most it's just a joke! The point is......" I lowered my voice again and said, "What does the lord think, and what he plans to do!" ”

"You mean......" Ikeda asked, stunned.

"I didn't say anything!" I quickly interrupted him. "What I can tell you is this: the lord is now famous all over the world, and the prestige of the Oda family cannot stop there! With the influence and status of the Ikeda family among the various factions of the Oda clan, and with the love and trust of the lord for you, although I dare not say it recently, it will not be difficult to become a great lord of one hundred or two hundred thousand koku in ten to twenty years! ”

"This ......," he said, falling into a stunned contemplation.

Seeing his expression, I smiled and turned my gaze away. Our relationship is pretty good now, and I think his personality is on the right side of mine, and he's a guy to be wary of! It would probably be a good thing for me to wake him up sooner.

A few days ago, after each getting what they wanted, Asai Nagamasa and Tokugawa Ieyasu left with their troops without waiting for Ashikaga Yoshiaki to arrive, without the slightest consideration for his face as a general. Three days earlier, Ashikaga Yoshiaki and his "empty shell" dignitaries had arrived in Kyoto, accompanied not by a mighty army, but by a guard of five hundred men sent to him by Oda Nobunaga. When he entered the city, Nobunaga personally went to greet him, accompanied by several ministers of the imperial court, all of which was compared to the grand scene of Oda Nobunaga entering the city. However, Oda Nobunaga still did a lot of face-saving work, and he gave up the Honnoji Temple where he used to stay, and moved into the larger but more dilapidated Qingryoji Temple. Now many people understand: the Muromachi shogunate has reached the end of the day, and Ashikaga Yoshiaki is just a transitional figure! Actually, it doesn't require a keen sense of politics!

However, Ashikaga Yoshiaki did not seem to understand this reason, and the day after arriving in Kyoto, he went to meet the emperor, and then many ministers. He also appointed Hosokawa Fujitaka, Kyogoku Takayoshi, Hatakeyama Takamasa and others as shogunate deacons, as if he was preparing for the "old shop new Zhang". Oda Nobunaga was not yet ripe at this time, so he played this game with him. Today's banquet was nominally to entertain the meritorious officials who had returned to the chaos, but in fact, Ashikaga Yoshiaki wanted to put on a stand as a samurai leader, so all the retainers above the general of the Kyoto Oda family were present.

"How does it feel?" I took what Ikeda Tsuneko had just asked me and threw it at Hideyoshi Hashiba, who had just walked over.

"A thousand words, a thousand emotions!" His eyes lit up, and there was a slight tremor in his voice. "I feel that the previous days have really been in vain, but the hardships and hardships I have endured in the past have also paid off! It's all worth it......" The last sentence was already heavily nasal.

"Really?" I smiled slightly. Ikeda Tsuneko, who is a high-ranking family, was inexplicably excited to attend such an occasion, not to mention the "monkey" who was born in the countryside! Besides, he himself is a "noble fan", and in history, he ******** desperately accept a woman from a famous family as a concubine to satisfy his inferiority complex disguised as arrogant. Attending the general's banquet today, it's no wonder that he behaved like this! "You are grateful for the General's 'favor'?" I wanted to try him, so I asked casually, pretending to be unintentional.

"You're not kidding me, are you?" He actually heard the problem in my words at once. "General? What is General? Who is the general? The excitement in his tone turned to contempt in an instant. If you don't have strength, you won't really have power, and how different is a general without power from an actor on stage? The current Ashikaga Yoshiaki is like a child who walks among the robbers with gold, and the reason why he still holds the gold in his hand is because the robbers have not yet decided who the gold should belong to! ”

"Ha, ha, ha, what an apt analogy!" I laughed and slapped the monkey on the shoulder and glanced at Ikeda. He was stumbling there at the moment. "And you still have that look just now? It looks like it's going to be saliva! I continued to "test" Hideyoshi Hashiba.

"What I envy is just this feeling of being a 'superior'!" Hideyoshi Hashiba replied. "At the same time, seeing the prestige of the lord today, I feel more hope and motivation! According to this current trend of the family, it will not be possible to replace the shogunate in a few years. This is a good opportunity to show your talents, as long as you seize it, it is not impossible to take charge of a city, a country or even several countries after more than ten years! He looked me up and down with those big round eyes. You don't really think that the Ashikaga clan still has a 'play', do you? Then I'm going to doubt your wisdom! ”

"How can that?" I smiled at him. "I'm just looking at your face to remind you not to be confused!" After he left, I said to Ikeda Tsuneko, "Got it? You know what everyone thinks! ”

"Which ......" It seems that he still has some doubts.

"His Royal Highness the Great Nayan Ju Pavilion has arrived; His Royal Highness Oda arrived; ......" At this moment, a series of singing sounded at the door.