"And what is he doing in Kyoto?" I felt inexplicable, "Supporting Ashikaga Yoshiaki?" According to the current situation, Ashikaga Yoshiaki does not need him to make such support, and it is even very likely that he will refuse to accept him; Down with Ashikaga Yoshiaki? It was impossible for him to take advantage of Nobunaga's anger and clear Nobunaga's troubles with notoriety, and for the sake of fame and righteousness, Nobunaga would probably be happy to take the opportunity to destroy him...... With his cunning, he would not do such a stupid thing. ”

"But judging from his defensive actions, he is indeed preparing for entering Beijing...... The poor monk believes that Kyoto must have his goals. "Groaning in the wind.

"By the way, it's money!" It dawned on me.

Earlier this year, Niwa Nagahide and I minted 100,000 sub-judgments, worth 25,000 kan. The money was used during the time of Oda Nobutada's Motofu, either to pay for the purchase of the Motofu ceremony, or as a return gift for the gifts given by the retainers, and 4,000 pieces were presented to the emperor, in exchange for the official position of Akita Josuke from the six lower Akita Shosuke. These exquisite gold goods were unanimously praised and welcomed by the retainers and merchants, and Niwa Nagahide and I used our power for personal gain, and the 1,000 sub-coins that Nobunaga personally drew and pledged fell into the hands of Niwa Nagahide and me as a return gift.

Seeing this, Nobunaga was very satisfied, and immediately ordered the minting of 5,000 large judgments, 200,000 small judgments, and 800,000 cents to be issued next year. As a raw material for casting, a total of 450,000 kan of gold (about seven and a half tons) has been collected to the gold seat of Honnoji Temple in Kyoto, where Mitsui Takatoshi of Tsuya presided over the casting, and Hayashi Hidesada of Mikawa was in charge of supervision.

From a safety perspective, Kyoto is naturally not as safe as Gifu. However, since Gifu is located on the Higashiyama Road and its commercial status is far inferior to that of Kyoto and Sakai Town, it is the best choice to locate the Golden Seat in Kyoto in terms of the convenience of capital circulation. What's more, Nobunaga already had an idea now that he wanted to move his castle to Minami-Omi.

Now, if this batch of gold is robbed by Matsunaga Shu and cannot be recovered in time, Nobunaga will surely be greatly damaged. And Matsunaga Xiu is really famous, 450,000 yuan, which is almost equivalent to his eight-year territorial annual tribute! With this staggering military expenditure, and then blocking the pursuit of the Oda family, his strength will naturally be greatly improved, and there will be a lot of room for expansion in Kinai after that.

I have to admit that Matsunaga Shu is really well informed. Not many people even in the Oda family knew about the gold minting in Kyoto, and he was able to know about it because he probably used the connections he had gathered among the big merchants and workshops when he had been controlling Sakai Town for a long time and serving as the Kyoto commissioner.

As for the second attack of Hanoi Kuni's three good intentions, I am not surprised. The Miyoshi family has been in a state of hostility with the Hatakeyama family for a long time since they followed Hosokawa Sumimoto into Kinai, at first as the head of the family to fight for the dominance of the Hosokawa clan, and later for the country of Kawachi for their own family. After Nobunaga went to Rakuro, he and Hatakeyama Akitaka maintained peace because Yoshiaki and Nobunaga, who were the backers of the two sides, were working closely together to control the situation in Kinai.

In other words, since the situation in Hanoi is out of control, and Miyoshi Yoshitsugu and Hatakeyama Akitaka officially start fighting, it means that the situation in which the two companies jointly control Kinai has collapsed, and General Yoshiaki has parted ways with Nobunaga.

Since last year's defeat on Nagashima by the Shin Long March, his prestige was seriously damaged, and Yoshiaki, who was dissatisfied with Nobunaga's crushing under him, began to have a public dispute with Nobunaga, and Nobunaga's reaction was to send a more severe Imperial Letter. But at that time, Yoshiaki still maintained an alliance with Nobunaga after all, and although Matsunaga Shu saw that it was cheap and instigated Miyoshi Yoshitsugu to attack the Hatakeyama family, he still found a name for Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, playing the banner of conquering the Hatakeyama family's acting officials and protecting Hatakeyama Takamasa for the exiled former Hanoi.

Until August, Ashikaga Yoshiaki had not united with the Ichijo clan and the Takeda family, so much so that Takeda Shingen had to intervene to disrupt the Etsuchu in order to drag down the Uesugi family, who had close ties to the shogunate, and to avoid Kamiraku's worries. But now I am sure that Shogun Yoshiaki has decided to be hostile to Nobunaga, and the first Nobunaga siege network has been formalized. He promoted the turmoil in Kinai in order to compete with Nobunaga for supremacy in Kinai, or at least to contain Nobunaga and save the Asakura-Asai coalition.

Seeing Yoshiaki and Nobunaga break up, and perhaps getting the news that Takeda was about to go to Luo, Yoshitsuki Miyoshi finally had a showdown with Hatakeyama Akitaka. The direct focus of the contention between the two families is Hanoi's Seventeen Shrines and Iimori Mountain Castle. Needless to say, Iimori Mountain Castle was the residence of the Miyoshi family in its heyday, and Miyoshi Yoshitsugi's grandfather, Miyoshi Motocho, was originally besieged by Iimori Mountain Castle because he was attacked from behind; Kawachi Seventeen Shosho is from Kyoto to Sakai Town, Yodo tributary Neya River west of the seventeen gardens, the first is the emperor's forbidden imperial land, and then by the Ashikaga family, and then by the Hosokawa family to the Miyoshi family, since then it has become the leader of the Miyoshi family, at the beginning of the Miyoshi Chokei and Miyoshi Masacho dispute, the first thing is to take back the management of this territory from his hands. Now that these two places have been handed over to Hatakeyama Akitaka by Nobunaga, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, who claims to be the head of the Miyoshi clan, will of course be extremely reluctant, and Hatakeyama Akitaka will definitely not give up willingly.

The situation in Settsu Province is different, and the key person in it is Araki Murashige. This is an extremely realistic and intelligent person, who understands the importance of strength very well, and is focused on expanding his own strength and territory. For him, it doesn't matter who he belongs to, what matters is that there is an opportunity to expand his territory. At the beginning, the Miyoshi family competed with Nobunaga and Yoshiaki, and he took refuge in the Miyoshi family to attack the cronies of Wada Yumasa and the pro-Yoshiaki Itami Pro-Xing; Now that Nobunaga and Yoshiaki are fighting, he pushed the titular lord Ikeda Tomomasa to the front, and took refuge in Yoshiaki to continue to attack Wada Yuenaga, the son of Yuimasa; According to history, when Nobunaga gained power, he would take refuge in Nobunaga, take the opportunity to exile the lord Ikeda Tomomasa, and attack Nakagawa Kiyohide and Takayama Shigetomo, who were close to Yoshiaki, until he got the position of guardian of Settsu...... I found that after the success of Shangluo, Nobunaga seemed to have underestimated Yoshiaki's ability and influence too much, and in the past two years, he has rarely considered and cared for Yoshiaki's ideas. Even if Yoshiaki later rebelled, he did not kill Yoshiaki, and even allowed him to flee to the rival Mori family, probably never treating him as an opponent - the real opponent, if he did not surrender like Xianru, then he either received his own bento like Saito and Takeda, or was courted by him like Imagawa and Kinshoji Zhenghui, and some even made a human head sake cup.

The development to this extent was probably something that Nobunaga had not expected...... However, it is time to intervene anyway.

Sure enough, news soon came from Kinai that Shibata Katsuie, Sakuma Nobumori, and Akechi Mitsuhide were ordered to leave the Kita-Omi front and lead most of Minami-Omi's army to Kyoto to garrison, on the one hand, to guard the large sum of money in Kanaza, and on the other hand, to monitor Yoshiaki.

Matsunaga Shu was very familiar with current affairs, and without waiting for Shibata Katsuya to conquer, he immediately took the initiative to hand over Tawen Yamashiro to Yoshihiro Ito, the righteous brother of Naomasa and Shunkei Tsutsui, to express his apologies. Miyoshi Yoshitsugu didn't take it seriously, and still headed for Iimori Mountain Castle...... What a stunned young man! From the time he listened to the instigation of Matsunaga Xiu and parted ways with the three Miyoshi trio who were the pillars of the clan, the Miyoshi clan was already doomed to decline, and now that even the two major families of Awa Miyoshi and Sanki Shihe have declined, what is the use of grabbing the clan city and the collar?

As a result of the dispatch to Nagashima and Kyoto respectively, Nobunaga was left with only the direct forces of Mino Ichikuni and the four upper prefectures of Owari, plus 9,000 men from Ise Kitabatake and Takigawa, and 2,000 troops from Kita-Omi Yura Hideyoshi. Even if you include Nobutaka Takeda, Nagahide Niwa, and Masabe Isono of Takashima Prefecture, the total number of troops remaining in Kita-Omi is less than 40,000, and the numerical advantage has been greatly weakened.

By mid-September, news came from Tsuya that Takeda Shingen had begun to rally troops in the territory. Nobunaga should have also received information, and he ended the confrontation with the Asakura-Asai family, leaving Kitabatake Nobuo, Takigawa Kazuki, and Hideyoshi Yura to stay at the Tiger Gozen Camp, and led the Mino people and Owari Kami-gun forces back to Gifu.

Half a month after I was in Gifu, Nobunaga sent a messenger summoning me and Oda Nobubo to Gifu to discuss matters.

It should be about dealing with the Takeda family, right? I thought to myself. Due to the early fall of the Miyoshi family, Nobunaga is now in a much better position than in history, and he should be able to spare more troops to support Tokugawa Ieyasu.

As I expected, at the beginning of the assessment, Nobunaga signaled to Hidemasa Hori to announce the invasion of the Takeda family:

"Ladies and gentlemen, yesterday I got the news that Takeda Shingen officially announced that he and the family would break the alliance and lead 20,000 troops and 5,000 reinforcements from the Hojo family to Yuanjiang! In addition, there are 5,000 troops who take the Higashiyama Road and directly invade the Higashimino of the family! ”

This news is really exciting enough. Takeda Shingen's toughness, far from Rokkaku Yoshiken, Asakura Yoshikei and the like, he succeeded to the throne for 31 years, has been fighting in the east and west, after hundreds of battles, few people can match, has annexed Shinano, Nishiueno, Junhe, Higashienjiang and other places, now is a territory of up to one million stone daimyo, become the largest force in the east, under the Takeda Akabi, in the east of the reputation is extremely prominent.

"What do you think about this?" Oda Nobunaga then asked.

It's just that most of the important ministers in the assessment room seem to be shocked by the news just now, and no one can easily express any opinions.

I sat in the first seat on the left, and I was just about to cheer for Nobunaga, but someone had already jumped out first, and it was Ikeda Hengxing who was the fifth next leader.

"Everyone!" His tone was very impassioned, "Takeda Shingen is nothing to be afraid of!" Several times to the north, all blocked by the Uesugi family, so far unable to step into the Echigo step, to the east was also blocked by a Minowa Castle for the last ten years, the only thing worth mentioning is that the alliance to the south destroyed the Imagawa family, which is gradually declining! However, when the Imagawa family was in its heyday, it was still defeated by the lord with the power of one country, and now that my Oda family has the power of seven countries, do I still need to worry about the Takeda family? ”

I looked at him in surprise. His abilities and surnames, I know, he is brave and loyal, but he is not good at strategy and strategy, and it is really not like he can say this.

Looking up at Nobunaga, he was nodding slightly to Ikeda Tsuneko. I see, it's obviously a double reed.

"What His Royal Highness Hengxing said is extremely true," I took the initiative to cooperate with Nobunaga and Ikeda Hengxing, "Takeda Shingen also knew that he was not the opponent of the lord, so he would send troops while the Asakura family was still in the confrontation with Nobutaka, Nagahide, Hideyoshi, and Takigawa in Kita-Omi, and instigated riots in Nagashima and Echichu through Honganji Temple to contain the lord and the Uesugi family...... As long as you are united, there is nothing to worry about! ”

"Maybe with the Tokugawa family alone, we can repel the Takeda family!" Hearing my encouragement, Ikeda Hengxing became even more motivated.

That's a bit too much...... Well, it's his true level.

Nobunaga coughed: "The Takeda family is still very powerful. However, the strength of this family is stronger...... Xuanjing is right, as long as you gather the power in the territory, you don't have to worry about the Takeda family! ”

"Yes!" Everyone answered in unison.

"So, I decided to pacify Long Island first and sweep away the internal troubles in the territory!" Nobunaga said suddenly.

Nobunaga's decision was a surprise to everyone. According to common sense, the Takeda family should unite with the Tokugawa family to block or fight at the Enjiang River. In particular, Sakuma Nobumori, whose headquarters is Takahashi-gun, is actually part of Mikawa, and if Takeda is allowed to break the Tokugawa family, then his domain will also be greatly damaged.

"Lord, the strong enemy is now, how can you distract him!" He hurriedly admonished.

"Is this a distraction?" Nobunaga reprimanded him, "Do you know in what capacity and in what name Takeda Shingen raised the army? In the name of the apostle and the Buddhist monk, he supports the Tiantai Lord Jue Shu Fa Prince to crusade against the Buddha's enemies! If you keep the henchman of Changdao Yizong, you will only take care of one and lose the other when the time comes! …… If you go outside, you must first settle inside! ”

"But, my lord! Nagashima Ichimune is not something that can be calmed down for a while......" Mizuno Nobumoto said worriedly. In the last crusade against Nagashima, he and Sakuma Nobumori commanded the Owari people, and they personally experienced the difficulty of the Ichijo sect.

Nobunaga didn't answer him directly, but instead called me and Oda Envelope by name: "Enbun, Xuanjing, you've been blocking the Ichisuko Sect for two months, right?" Very well done. He nodded to Oda Shinho, "Thirty Lang, thank you for your hard work." ”

"I am willing to die for my brother!" Oda Nobuchi was moved to owe a debt.

"There are nearly 100,000 believers gathered on Long Island, and there has been no replenishment for more than two months, so there must not be much food!" Nobunaga folded the fan, "Now that Nagashima is short of food and grass, and the young lord is powerless, it is time to break Nagashima!" ”

"Yes. The Lord is wise! Takigawa Kazuki replied. He, like me, Oda Nobubu, Sakuma Nobumori, and Akechi Mitsuhide, was summoned by Nobunaga from the front. For the attack on Yixiangzong, he has always been very energetic, and the abbot of the temple was killed, who led his troops to kill with iron cannons.

(To be continued)