The war in Echizen soon came to an end. Nobunaga's troops were divided into two routes, one with the main force of 60,000 troops from Owari, Ise, Minami-Omi and Mino-Bankoku, led by himself, and more than 100,000 followers of Kaga Ichijo Sect, who had occupied most of Echizen, outside Kitanoso Castle, and the other was Wakasa and Kita-Omi led by Takeda Nobutaka, Niwa Nagahide, Hira Hideyoshi, Higuchi Naobo, with a total of 9,000 people, and the Wakasa water army was sent to Echizen and Kaga to the border to cut off Kaga's retreat. They broke through several cities one after another, and slowly pressed down from behind. As soon as they heard that the back road had been cut off and that they had been attacked on their backs, their morale was immediately shaken, and they were soon defeated by Nobunaga, and fled back to Kaga Province in a hurry, killing and wounding as many as 30,000 believers.

Even so, the power of Kaga Ichisho is still very strong. It was with this in mind that Nobunaga had already considered before the battle, and was preparing to set up a second front regiment at home in Echizen. Therefore, when he repelled Yixiangzong, he issued a reward order and gave 680,000 koku to the twelve counties of Echizen. Among them, Shibata Katsuie received 490,000 koku from eight prefectures and served as the general of the Hokuriku side, and the former southern Omi territory was enshrined and became the direct leader of Nobunaga; Takigawa Kazuki served as the deputy general of Shibata Katsuie, increased the 70,000-stone territory of Ono County, and guarded against Ichijo on the front line; Sasa Narumasa and Fupo Koji served as Shibata Katsuka's yori, and Nakagawa Shigemasa, who had previously served as Yoriki, divided the two prefectures of the prefecture into 100,000 koku; The remaining Tsuruga Prefecture was acquired by Muto Shunhide, who had a special status and did not need to be dispatched by Shibata Katsuie, but as a direct minister of Nobunaga, he was responsible for the metoke (supervision) of Echizen Province.

Since Minami Omi became Nobunaga's direct leader, the construction of a new castle was also put on the agenda. Soon after Nobunaga disbanded his army and returned to Kyoto, he issued an order to build the castle, designating Niwa Nagahide as the sole responsibility. The location of the castle was decided to be Azuchi on the shores of Lake Biwa. It is not far from Kannonji Castle and Changguang Temple Castle, and there was originally a small city, but when the outbreak of Minami Omi was always a battle, it was once guarded by Nakagawa Shigemasa. However, compared with the later Azuchi Castle, the scale of the small town can be said to be fluorescent to Haoyue. At the foot of the mountain, there is an inlet of about several hectares on the edge of Lake Biwa, which is surrounded by walls on the east and west sides, and the cost of the entire project, according to Niwa Nagahide's estimates, will cost about 1.1 million kan.

Even Nobunaga, who controlled a large territory and controlled prosperous merchant towns such as Kyoto, Sakaimachi, Otsu, Gifu (including Atsuta), and Kiyosu (including Tsushima), would not have been able to come up with so much additional money in one fell swoop. In this case, the profits from the trade and the minting of copper coins were very important to him.

For this reason, the construction of the city was arranged, and he summoned me, Hatakeyama Yoshishu, and Lin Xiuzhen.

Among the three, Hatakeyama Yoshishu succeeded Niwa Nagahide, the general commissioner of the general commission, and was responsible for the collection of goods for the exploration trade; Lin Xiuzhen took care of Nobunaga's money writing house, and the small judgments and sub-judgments worth more than 400,000 yuan minted last year have not yet been issued; On the one hand, I am responsible for the negotiation and transportation of the survey trade, and on the other hand, I am also in charge of the maintenance of the three-cargo system.

It is rare to be able to replace Niwa Nagahide's job, and Hatakeyama Yoshishu values this opportunity very much. He used Nobunaga's name and his own connections to sort out the matter of collecting goods in an orderly manner. He divided the entire share of trade into three parts, one part of which was given to the various family genealogies and daimyo of the outer style, and was in charge of Nobunaga's close associates, Fukutomi Hidekatsu, Hori Hidemasa, Sugaya Nagayori, Kinoshita Iesada, and Hasegawa Shuichi; Part of it was handed over to the townspeople, led by Matsui Tomokan, the Sakai town appointed by Nobunaga, and Imai Munehisa, a wealthy merchant loyal to Nobunaga; In addition, some of them were handed over to Kyoto's Aikoku-ji Temple, Honno-ji Temple, Nara Todai-ji Temple (Kagan Sect Daihonyama), Kofukuji Temple (Hoshozong Daihonyama), Nara Harun Taisha Shrine, Owari Atsuta Shrine and other major temples and shrines, and Takei Yu'an, who was in charge of domestic and foreign affairs and had recently been awarded the title of three Dharma Seal Grand Monks (Sangsho rank, the Dharma Eye Monk position higher than the Sangdu rank, and the lawyer rank on the Dharma Bridge of the Asamiyama Ride, three of whom were Quan Monks).

The advantage of this plan, which is largely based on my opinions, is that it can be smoothly connected with the current system of the three commissions of the survey, the castle, and the temple at home, and the existing system can be used to summarize the original complicated affairs, and at the same time, the workload can be greatly reduced.

In addition, almost all of the people in charge of specific affairs are Nobunaga's cronies, so Nobunaga will definitely be very satisfied with such an arrangement! As for himself, as a person with a great name and a general identity, it is neither suitable nor necessary to take too much power, anyway, after the matter is done, the greatest credit must belong to him.

And that's exactly what happened. Nobunaga expressed great appreciation for Hatakeyama Yoshishu's arrangement and really encouraged him. However, with Nobunaga's acumen, he naturally saw that I was involved, and when Hatakeyama Yoshishu retreated, he immediately pointed it out to me:

"This matter, you must have planned it for Yi Zhou!"

"Yes. His Majesty did give a few suggestions to His Royal Highness Yi Zhou, "I admit it frankly," how did the lord find out? ”

"Yi Zhou is not a retainer of his own family, the internal affairs system of his family, and the personnel structure, how can he understand it so clearly?" Nobunaga scoffed, "Do you think that such an obvious thing can be hidden from me?" ”

"Lord Mingjian! Moreover, His Majesty did not think to hide it. I quickly clarified.

"So, why are you so zealous?" His face was full of smiles, "You're already in charge of the interaction with Mingguo, you don't want to control even the affairs of this side of the world, right?" ”

Although this remark was a joke, I didn't dare to be contemptuous at all, who knows if he was serious?

The lord teased. That is the affairs that His Highness Nagahide is responsible for, and His Majesty does not dare to think that he can be better than His Highness Nagahide," I respectfully explained to Nobunaga, "If His Highness Nagahide presides, he can naturally do it very properly, and there is no need for His Majesty to rap; However, now His Royal Highness Yi Zhou is in charge, as the lord said, he is not a retainer of his own family, and he does not know much about the operation of the family, so his majesty has to give some suggestions, so as not to deal with it poorly and delay the lord's major affairs. ”

"You're so relaxed!" Nobunaga nodded, "So, you should have done what I told you, right?" ”

"Yes. His Majesty already had a full understanding of the money-building technology of the Ming Kingdom, and also invited two casters. As I spoke, I took out a piece of paper from my bosom and asked Nobunaga to turn it closer to him. This one is close, and it is the famous Senlan Pill. He is the third son of Mori Kasei, who is ten years old this year, and has recently been called to serve as Nobunaga's nickname because Hidemasa Hori, Shuichi Hasegawa, and others are busy with the affairs of the Kan trade.

And on that piece of paper, the specific steps of the sand casting method are written. This method of coinage, originated in the Tang Dynasty, and then fully matured in the Song Dynasty, when the economy was developed, the demand for copper coins was great, and the technology and technology were also in a highly developed stage, so it was able to perfect this extremely convenient and fast coinage method. Specifically, it is somewhat similar to the movable type printing that also originated in the Song Dynasty, first of all, it is necessary to make a carved mother (also known as ancestral money), and then cast a batch of exquisite mother coins (there are tin mother money, copper mother money, etc.) with the carved mother, and then fix a hundred mother coins with wooden frames and sand as money molds, respectively make face and back models, and then take out the mother money, make gates, straight sprues, and sub-sprues, and finally fix the fan and cast copper juice. In this way, because the money can be made in batches, and because it is a whole frame of mother money sand turning, the sand mold is evenly stressed, so not only the money casting speed is extremely fast, but the money is also very uniform, which is our country (China!). A leap forward in the coinage process, much more advanced than the Yangwen Mufan coinage method that minted five-baht coins before the Tang Dynasty.

And now the book, those who privately minted copper coins, used the Yangwen Mufan coinage method that has been eliminated, so the coinage is not clear, and there is no certain regulation on the size, just like the five-baht coins before the Tang Dynasty. However, even without me, a few decades later, I will get the technology of turning sand and casting money, because this technology is too widespread in the Ming Kingdom, for example, in the book "Tiangong Kaiwu" written in the Chongzhen period, there is a detailed introduction to the process of turning sand and casting money.

It is worth mentioning that when the Manchu Qing Dynasty compiled and revised the "Siku Quanshu", like the rest of the more than 2,800 kinds, more than 13,600 volumes, more than 150,000 books, more than 170 kinds and more than 80,000 book plates, and about 10 million Ming Dynasty archives (only more than 3,000 pieces remain), "Tiangong Kaiwu" was also completely banned, and it was not republished for more than 100 years, but it was issued in four editions, printed more than 20 times, and also published twice in Europe and the United States. It was not until the Republic of China that some scholars found the content quoted from the "Tiangong Kaiwu" from the local chronicles of Yunnan, and then recovered this world's first comprehensive surname work on agriculture and handicraft production from the Yueben...... Perhaps because of his surname, Nobunaga didn't have much interest in the technical aspects of things. He took a cursory glance and set the paper aside.

"I'll entrust you and Sado with the specific things." Nobunaga nodded to me and Hayashi Xiuzhen.

"Yes." Lin Xiuzhen bowed and agreed. That's when he had a chance to speak.

"Then there's one more thing," I asked Nobunaga, "how should the new money be printed?" ”

"How to print? What does that mean? Nobunaga asked rhetorically.

"Do you want to ask for instructions, is it to select Yongle money, use it as a mother coin, or re-engrave the mother? If you re-engrave the carve, what name should you use? …… After all, this money is expected to circulate in large quantities in the world, and the name cannot be carefully considered. ”

"Oh?" When I said this, Nobunaga's interest immediately rose, "Do you think that you can mint new money instead of Yongraku money?" ”

"If the lord refers to the grade of the copper coins minted, the courtiers can guarantee ...... And His Majesty thinks that it is better to re-engrave the mother of carving, after all, we do not have the mother money of Yongle money, and the money in circulation is the mother of money, and the money minted is at most similar to the money imported through private trade, which is worse than the genuine Yongle money. ”

"That's a problem," Nobunaga thought for a moment and decided, "Let's re-engrave the mother of the carving!" …… The newly minted money is called 'Tianzheng Tongbao'! ”

"Yes. Your Majesty obeyed. "I received the order first, and then Lin Xiuzhen also leaned down and received Nobunaga's order. I looked at his expression and felt a lot more settled. Although Nobunaga asked him to take charge with me, the whole thing was entirely at my suggestion, and the Eagle Mother would be in my hands, so I would naturally take the lead in minting money, and he didn't seem to have any intention of challenging my authority.

"Yes, Mamoru Sado," Nobunaga remembered another thing at the mention of Tensho Tsubo, "Those Tensho Minor Judgments and Tensho Judgments are still in the money writing house in Kyoto, right?" ”

"Yes. The total is more than 400,000 yuan, and the old minister has always been well guarded, and he did not dare to slack off. Lin Xiuzhen said.

"Well, it's almost usable now. Of the 400,000 guan, you will give half to Changxiu as the first expense for him to build Azuchi Castle. ”

"The old minister obeys." Lin Xiuzhen owes herself.

"In addition, you are going to divide 20,000 yuan of gold and send it to Ieyasu in Yuanjiang!" Nobunaga commanded again.

"Send 20,000 to His Royal Highness Hamamatsu......" Lin Xiuzhen couldn't turn around.

"Yes, it's for Ieyasu." Nobunaga smiled, "This time Ieyasu asked me for help, and I sent Nobutada and Nobuyaki to lead the Mino Bankoku and the Northern Ise army to Enoe, but it didn't help much...... Although, the main reason for this is that the defenders of High Heavenly God Castle surrendered to Takeda Katsuyori, but after all, I didn't fulfill my responsibilities as the main family, so I compensated Ieyasu for the loss with 20,000 kan! ”

"The lord's move is full of the spirit of the lord family, and it is also a sign of responsibility," I couldn't help but praise, "In this way, His Royal Highness Ieyasu will definitely be glad to join the command of the family!" ”

"yes, that's exactly what I thought!" Nobunaga was in a very good mood, "Katsuri Xiao'er, he actually dared to follow his father's example, and he said that he would bring down my Oda family, it was really beyond his strength...... Now that Hokuriku has decided, it's time to teach him a lesson! ”

"What the lord said is very true." I spoke with Hayashi Xiuzhen, and then Shi Li said goodbye to Nobunaga.

At the end of the month, under Nobunaga's orders, Nobutada, with the power of the entire Mino country, captured Iwamura Castle, which had been occupied by the Akiyama Torasa of the Takeda family at the end of the previous year. Akiyama Tiger fought and died, and Nobunaga's aunt Iwamuraden, who was committed to Akiyama Tora, was not executed by Nobunaga's order as in history, but was only confined in Gifu Castle.

(To be continued)