Matsui Yukan said this, which still sounds very reasonable. However, combined with the current situation and his performance, a discerning person can see that his intention to defect to Nobunaga is already very obvious.

Historically, Tomokan Matsui was a man who was very good at observing the direction of the wind and following the trend. Since his grandfather's generation served Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the Matsui family has served the Ashikaga family from generation to generation, and he himself was entrusted with important responsibilities by General Yoshiki as a genealogy, but after the death of General Yoshiki, he soon took refuge in Nobunaga, but his nephew Matsui Yasuyuki was very loyal, and followed Hosokawa Fujitaka to rescue Kakukei, and finally served the Hosokawa family, becoming a famous old courtier of the same name as the Ishida family's Shima Kiyoko and the Uesugi family's Naoe Kanesu.

After defecting to the Oda family, Matsui Tomokan was indeed reused by Nobunaga, and was soon appointed as the right pen of the Oda family, and later served as the Kyoto commissioner with Murai and five others, becoming one of the people with the highest status among the Oda family officials, along with Murai Sadatsu and Takei Yuan. However, as soon as Nobunaga died, he immediately turned to Hideyoshi and became the acting official of Sakai Town. Unfortunately, Hideyoshi did not like him and deposed him three years later, and he has been missing since then.

In addition, he is also a famous tea man and is one of Nobunaga's tea heads. At the time of the change of Honnoji, Tokugawa Ieyasu was entertained at a tea party in Sakai Town.

Maybe it's my delusion, why didn't the character of many big tea people at that time be very good? Matsunaga Hide, known as the "worst in the world", Araki Murashige, who killed the main family and rebelled several times, Oda Nagaki, who made his nephew faithfully resist and secretly escaped by himself, etc. As for watching the wind make the rudder and protect oneself, it is simply a must, just look at Hosokawa Fujitaka and this one...... Odate Glow is a straightforward person, or just a person whose blood is more active than his brain, where can he think of so much. He immediately agreed with Matsui's idea: "This is really an important thing...... Master Youxian said this, which is really reassuring! ”

But Renki Yoshimasa saw Yukan's true intentions, and he quickly glanced at Matsui Yukan, but on the surface he was silent. Anyway, he had already lost faith in the Ashikaga family, and he had reached a tacit understanding with me that he would not delay the future of others...... After the banquet, Okan Glow and Yoshimasa Niki said goodbye and left, but I stayed on the pretext of asking for chess advice.

After more than 20 years of death, Renmu Yoshimasa looked at my chess move and suddenly said: "His Royal Highness Xuanjing's layout is very atmospheric, I really can't understand it." But what is the reason for this layout? ”

"The main thing is to find a way out for Lord Yizhou...... Of course, there are some personal intentions in it. ”

"Can I please?" Yoshimasa Niki's attitude is very serious.

"Disrupt the situation in the Kanto region, and let the families get involved deeper and longer, especially the Takeda and Uesugi families," I took out two black chess pieces and rubbed them in my hand, "Kanto is the capital of samurai, and many wealthy families represented by the Kanto Yayagata have always attached great importance to their reputations...... Therefore, I would like to try to give the name of the Horikoshi Gongfang to the Takeda family, so that the three parties in Kanto, the Uesugi family, the Horikoshi Gongfang, and the Hojo family, who control the Furukawa Gongfang, can fight in the Kanto region by virtue of their righteousness, and the wealthy families can also have more choices, thus exacerbating the chaos. ”

“…… Let's not say if it will get my wish, but ...... It's really an atmospheric layout," Renmu Yoshimasa sighed, "What does this have to do with His Highness Xuanjing?" ”

"His Royal Highness Danzheng is a person who cares about the world, and after supporting the general, there will probably be a lot of actions, which will inevitably arouse the vigilance of all parties and jointly deal with this family. If we let the east side be chaotic for a while, it will be easier for our family to deal with it...... Moreover, since I was born in Tosa, I naturally wanted the west to clash with my family first, so that I could take advantage of the opportunity to calm the turmoil and return to Shikoku as soon as possible to take on greater responsibility. I explained.

"That's right," Yoshimasa Hitoki laughed, "Well, I'll wait and see!" ”

……，…… At the beginning of April, as one of my entourage, I followed Nobunaga to Kita-Omi to participate in a motion by the Oda and Asakura families through the mediation of the Asai family to jointly support Yoshiaki Kamiraku.

Since the death of the leading Asakura Sodrus and the forced submission of the Asai family to the Rokkaku family, the covenant between the two families has existed in name only, only as an armistice. The Norada battle, which decided the fate of the Asai family, did not ask the Asakura family for help; The Asakura family attacked Wakasa at the beginning of the year, and did not ask for help from the Asai family next to Wakasa Province. And this intermediary can be said to be the action that the Asai family finally achieved by exerting the greatest influence on the Asakura family.

At the same time, it is also an opportunity to strengthen ties and repair our covenants.

First of all, the Oda family and the Asai family. Due to Saito Ryuxing's decision, the Asai family lost their place to divide Mino's territory, and as a result, they found nothing in the two raiders of Mino. To say that there is no opinion, it is absolutely impossible, and Nobunaga is indeed too unkind, knowing the thoughts of the Asai family, but in a serious manner according to the literal covenant, he annexed the entire Mino alone, leaving no dividends for the Asai family.

In order to repair the relationship, Nobunaga personally went to Kita-Omi this time, showing the greatest sincerity and giving the Asai family enough face. Seeing Nobunaga's attitude, Asai Nagamasa showed a certain degree of emotion. In addition, he had a very good relationship with Aichi, who gave birth to his first child, Chacha the year before (he was 49 years old when he committed suicide in 1615 in the Edo period's "Oncho", and now he is several months pregnant, so even for the sake of his beloved wife, he will warmly entertain Nobunaga as a brother-in-law).

In addition, although the Oda family has to go through the Asai family, the Asai family also borrows from the Oda family. In recent years, due to the chaos within the Rokkaku family, the Asai family has successfully subdued several wavering wealthy families, and mastered the land of the six counties of Kanzaki, Aichi, Inuage, Sakata, Asai, and Ika among the twelve Omi counties. However, the rest of the territory is not so easy to manage, although those Southern Omi wealthy clans do not treat the Rokkaku family very much, but they do not treat him even more often Asai family, once the Asai family invades, they can still unite around the Rokkaku family to resist. Besides, the Asai family itself is not monolithic, and occasionally something not very harmonious happens.

The Asai family's plan is to take advantage of Nobunaga's east wind to clean up the Minami Omi wealthy clan, and then slowly annex them. Compared with the Oda family, they have geographical advantages and network advantages, and this annexation of Minami Omi will not fall behind the Oda family...... Probably that's what the Asai family thinks!

Therefore, the only demand of the Asai family is to resolutely defeat the Rokkaku family and not to negotiate peace with the Rokkaku family. Nobunaga readily agreed to this offer, and it seemed to be doing well. Later, when Yoshiaki offered to persuade the Rokkaku family to get out of the way on the friendly relationship between the shogunate and the Rokkaku family, Nobunaga simply rejected the offer.

Secondly, the Asai family is also willing to maintain friendly relations with the Asakura family. The power of the Asakura family is too strong compared to the Asai family. Although they only possessed Echizen Province, the Asakura family gained a great deal of wealth from the port of Tsuruga in Wakasa Bay, and they were able to mobilize more than 30,000 troops. Kaga has always been a sworn enemy of the Asakura family, not to mention the Battle of the Kowloon River, which was attacked with 300,000 people, and last year he also plotted against the Hao clan Horie Keitaka and attacked the Asakura family together, but he was unable to move forward in front of the Ohno people of Ono County Division Asakura Keiken. And as the head of the Asakura family's namesake, the Tsuruga Commander, who has 8,000 troops, not to mention, in the decades that Asakura Sodra was in charge, the Tsuruga people fought in Wakasa, Tango, and Kaga countries, and the results were extremely brilliant. It can be said that with the power of this prefecture, it will be able to compete with Kita-Omi.

Regarding the alliance with Oda, the Asakura family was originally not very interested. Yiqiu is in their hands, and the name is in their hands. And it was in this name that they raided Wakasa Province in order to open the way to Kyoto. Now, the six-year-old governor of the Takeda family, who is the guardian, has been forcibly moved to live in Ichijo Valley Castle and has become a puppet of the Asakura family, and Wakasa is about to fall into the hands of the Asakura family. However, at this time, Yoshiaki changed his mind and took the initiative to send someone to contact the Oda family.

This is not the first time that Yiqiu has changed sponsors. At first, he was in Minami Omi, and when he saw that the Rokkaku family was not the same, he changed to Wakasa Province, and Wakasa Country was also not strong, so he changed to the Asakura family, and the heart said that the Asakura family was so strong, it should be safe. However, the Asakura family also had a problem.

In fact, in addition to Yoshiaki, Echizen also has a descendant of the Ashikaga family, which is the Satani Gongkata line inherited by Ashikaga Yoshimitsu's second son, Ashikaga Yoshitsugu. At the beginning, Ashikaga Yoshitsu was deeply doted on by his father Yoshimitsu, and when he was in the gento costume, the etiquette was actually in the format of the royal prince, and he was named "Yoshiiji" with ulterior motives. It's a pity that he finally didn't have an "heir", and he was driven out of Kyoto because of rebellion, and lived in Echizen Satagani, which has been called Satanya Hall since then, and the residence is naturally the Satana Imperial Palace, and then it has been continued.

To this day, this branch has long lost the qualification to inherit the shogunate, and even the Miao character and bloodline have changed. The heir of the contemporary Saddle Valley Gongfang Satani is actually the blood of the Spo clan. His grandfather was one of the largest gunpowder pots in the Onin Rebellion, and he was the same name as Hatakeyama Yoshiyoshi, and it was these two people who each provoked a dispute over the inheritance in their own families, which directly led to a large-scale war between the eastern and western armies. As a result, the Echizen Guardian Shipo family and the Guardian Kai family declined one after another, and the real power of Echizen Province fell into the hands of the Asakura family. Later, in order to prevent the Spo family from regaining the guardian position, the Asakura family thought of an idea to let Spo Yoshitoshi, the son of Spo Yoshitoshi, inherit the Kuratani family, so that Spo Yoshitoshi himself was promoted from "Leader" to "Gongfang", but he lost the title of inheriting the Echizen Guardian position.

Kuraya Shitsuchi is the son of Yoshitoshi of Kuraya (Spo), and the official residence is from the three senators. The name of the senator is called the prime minister. His daughter's female room name is called the little prime minister, just like Shikibu Daijo Fujiwara is the daughter of the time Purple Shikibu, and the daughter of Shao Nayan Kiyohara Motosuke Qing Shao Nayan. And this little prime minister is Asakura Yoshikyo's favorite side room, and the son of Ajun Maru is named the heir of the next family governor. As an uncle, the heir of the shitani, he was also reused by Asakura Yoshikei.

There is a tradition in the Asakura family that the family governor is not in charge of the army, and the military aspect is in charge of the relatives known as the namesake people, which are divided into the two inner clans of the county division directly under the namesake and the two counties of Tsuruga and Ono; Coupled with the people of the wealthy family, it is all the military power of the Asakura family. The standard for sending troops was 10,000 from afar and 20,000 from neighboring countries, with the Ono people in the east as the main force and the Tsuruga people in the west. Among them, due to his important position, the Tsugar Commander-in-Chief has always served as the pen head of the people of the same name, acting as the general in the name of the military commissioner. Even in the life-and-death battle of the Kowloon River and the later decisive battle with the Oda family, the governor of the Asakura family never personally participated in the battle.

The first Tsuruga Commander, Asakura Sodi, is a daimyo that does not need to be mentioned; The second Asakura Keiki, Yoshikage's own uncle, inherited the Tsuruga Gunji as the adopted son of Sode, and has been in seclusion for nearly ten years; By the time of the third Asakura Keigami, Kuraya Tsuguchi began to gain reuse. As Yijing's confidant and the uncle of the next family governor, he naturally wanted the power of the clan to be expanded, so he even provoked Yijing to provoke a fight between the same people in order to weaken their strength.

In 1564, when the Asakura family launched an attack on Kaga Province, Yoshikei was instigated by Kuraya Tsuguchi to appoint Ono Kenji Asakura Keikag as the commander-in-chief. Asakura Jingyuan was naturally unconvinced, and fought with Asakura Jingjing, but failed to fight back for the position of the general general, and Jingjing's reason was what Yijing said, "This battle is the main force of the Great Wild People, and the general should be the Great No County Division" and other words. Furious, Asakura Jingyuan immediately committed suicide by caesarean section in the battle, protesting to Yijing and Jingjing. Due to this serious situation, Yoshikei had to break with tradition and personally serve as the commander-in-chief to go to Kaga Province (朝倉氏の当主がsince ら外に出陣するのは明応4 (1495)で極めて異例のこと - of course, this may also be a trend).

Afterwards, Jingyuan's younger brother Asakura Keiheng inherited the position of Tsuruga Commander and Kanesaki Castle Lord, and because of Jingyuan's seppuku, he won back his qualification as the acting general of the army. However, the two families of Tsuruga and Ohno have since been in opposition and have been the cause of the Asakura family's demise.

Due to the complete victory of Asakura Yoshikei's Battle of Kaga, the prestige and power of the Asakura clan increased greatly, and Kuraya Tsuguchi also tasted the sweetness and worked harder to make waves at home. Finally, on June 25, 1568, the disgruntled people of the same name poisoned and killed Asakura Ajunmaru, the nephew of Kuraya Tsuguchi and the next governor of the Asakura family, at the age of six.

Here's what's about to happen in almost three months. As for who the murderer is, Asakura Yoshikyo has not been found, and perhaps he has not been traced at all. And because of the heartache of Ajunmaru's death, Asakura Yoshikyo had no intention of political affairs, and even gave up the opportunity to send troops with the Oda family to support Yoshiaki, and gave up the name of righteousness to the Oda family.

If Nobunaga, who was determined to innovate, had great ambitions, and coerced the general to order the daimyo, could be called "Jin Cao Ying", then Yoshijing and Yuan Benchu, who gave up Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty and abandoned military affairs due to Yuan Shang's illness during the Battle of Guandu, can be called "Yuan Shao today...... Hosokawa Fujitaka's eye for the wind was famous in that era. He soon discovered the crisis of the Asakura family and persuaded Ashikaga Yoshiaki to find another competent sponsor. So there was Akechi Mitsuhide's trip to Gifu, and this time the Asakura-Oda Covenant. Although the Asakura family was helpless about this, they could not stop it. Fortunately, Yoshiaki still had some righteousness, and promised Asakura Yoshikei the reward for Wakasa Guardian, and instructed Akechi Mitsuhide, who was in the alliance at Kotani Castle, to fight for the Asakura family.

In my meeting with Akechi Mitsuhide, as a retainer of the Asakura and Yoshiaki families, he quickly proposed this condition to the Oda family as soon as it came to the actual content.

(To be continued)