Not long after returning to Kishiwada Castle, news came from Tosa that Motojin had captured Aki Castle.

I wasn't surprised to hear that. The time of the Yuanqin's dispatch of troops was well chosen, July was the month before the harvest of grain, and with the territory of the An Yun family, to feed so many troops, it was impossible to have too much grain in stock at this time. Moreover, the Yuan Qin also slept in advance and returned to the Hengshan Minbu, a retainer of the Anyun family, who poisoned the well in Anyun City, completely ruining the vitality of the city.

Faced with such a situation, An Yun Guohu had no choice but to commit suicide by cutting his abdomen in order to save the lives of everyone in the city.

Before seppuku, An Yun Guohu ordered his retainer Yuliang Xiuliang to escort his son Senjumaru to Awa to seek the protection of Awa's Miyoshi family in preparation for the revival of the An Yun family in the future. However, the Yuan family apparently learned the negative "lesson" that the Motoyama family did not cut down the grass and eradicate the roots, so that his father Kuniqin could revive the family's name, and sent someone to hunt down and kill Senjumaru, extinguishing the attempt to revive the An Yun family.

Sure enough, it's the style of the Yuan family...... He has no mercy for his own people or for his enemies.

In addition, information came from Tsuya in Sakai Town that the Fukuchi Munetaka of Iga Province had accepted the mediation of Shigeharu Takenaka and Yorichen Ishitani and decided to welcome Yoshimasa Nishiki, the guardian of Iga, back to his territory. Correspondingly, the Fukuchi family will assume the position of guardian and then be loyal to the chief; And Yoshimasa Hitoki will adopt Keisaburo at the right time and inherit the family business as an adopted son.

As early as the time to welcome Ashikaga Yoshimasa, I had an agreement with Nishiki Yoshimasa. Originally, I wanted to solve this problem while Nobunaga was in Rakuroku, but it was a twist and turn because of Nobuo Kitabatake. Fortunately, my remedy is quite appropriate, and I laid the chess piece of the Fudi family, and now it has finally worked.

In order to deal with this matter, I decided to go back to Kita-Ise in person, send Hoshin-in back to Mie Castle with Hidekei, and then go to Gifu Jin to meet Nobunaga. I left Masakatsu Kusukatsu, Katsugano Motoshin and Standing and Reserve (Fubei) to garrison Kishiwada Castle, and Iwamatsu Nobutari and Futami Mitsunari to garrison Osaka Bay and Kumano respectively, and only led a thousand naval troops back to Ise Province.

It's autumn, and the climate in Mie Castle is very comfortable. The maple leaves in the castle have begun to turn red, and the trees are still green, and there are seasonal flowers such as bush clover, rattan hakama, and dill, and a variety of flowers such as powder blue, lavender, and beige. Not only Baoxinyuan, but also I have been away for more than half a year, and I feel very comfortable.

After the official meeting, I arranged for Hoshinin to stay in Honmaru for the time being, and instructed Nana, Yuka, and Konatsu to take care of her. Especially Yujia, she has always taken care of people, and she also has to handle the decoration of the Buddhist hall, and it is the person who accompanies Baoxinyuan.

And I myself stepped out and arranged the affairs of the collar.

In fact, the only thing I really need to deal with is the one of the blessed land family, and the other thing is to accept the straight tiger. The rest of the general government and military affairs, such as Shigeharu Takenaka, Yoritsu Ishitani, Naotora Iii, and Kazutoyo Yamauchi, do not need to wait for me to hold on, and even the Joruriin Temple, which was planned not long ago, is now under construction.

When Fukuchi Munetaka heard that I was back, he quickly rushed from Iga to meet me in person. He wanted to surrender to Nobunaga through my intermediary, so that I would be in charge of his future dealings with the Oda family.

But after some consideration, I gave him a different opinion:

"Why don't you just go through the Kitabatake agency?"

"The Kitabatake family," Fukuchi Sotaka shook his head, "I would rather deal with His Highness Xuanjing than His Highness." Moreover, there are some things that involve the Tsuya and Hattori families, and that's the key to it. Otherwise, even if Iga is nominally united, it will still be the same. ”

He was talking about Tsuya supplying food to Iga Province and the Hattori family recruiting personnel from Iga Province.

"I don't plan to bring those two things to the table, just let the Tsuya and Hattori families do it in their own names," I shook my head, "The reason why I want to go through the Kitabatake family is mainly to consider the intention of His Highness Danzheng." His Highness Danmasa hopes that His Highness Kitabatake will exert more influence, and if this matter is carried out through His Highness Kitabatake, His Highness Nishiki and the Fukuchi family will definitely be able to obtain His Highness Danmasa's kindness...... What's more, the second son of His Royal Highness Zonglong serves the Kitabatake family, which is a natural thing! ”

"Since His Royal Highness Xuanjing thinks so, it is under his orders." Fukuchi agreed.

A few days later, Kitabatake Nobuo accompanied Yoshimasa Nishiki and Munetaka Fukuchi to Gifu to report the incident to Nobunaga. I set out with them, but in the name of debriefing.

Nobunaga was very happy, and agreed to the appointment of Fukuchi Munetaka on the spot, and gave him and Nishiki Yoshimasa a rich reward. For Nobuo Kitabatake, Nobunaga also praised it vigorously.

Of course, he knew that he couldn't do this with Nobuo Kitabatake, and the main credit was mine. This is exactly the effect I need, to do things solidly, but not to take credit, only to take benefits.

After that, I went to see him alone and reported to him about the dispatch to Tosa. However, he didn't seem to care, and just complimented me on this performance:

"I understand your kindness. Nobuo is so famous thanks to your support! ”

"Since the lord has put his subordinates in charge of Shimowazumi, then Ise Province naturally has to rely on His Royal Highness Kitabatake." I replied.

"Then I'll hand over Nobuo to you. From now on, you will serve as his military supervisor. ”

"Your Majesty will do your best."

"With the example of you and Nobuo, I am ready to let Sanchimaru inherit the Wakasa Takeda family, with Nagahide as the military supervisor and support. What do you think? Nobunaga asked.

This is exactly what has happened historically. For quite some time, Niwa Nagahide served as Nobutaka's military supervisor, and Takigawa Kazuyoshi served as Nobuo's military supervisor until he was solely responsible for one aspect...... Obviously, Nobunaga already had his thoughts on the future of the big deal. But that was after the elimination of Asakura and Asai, so isn't it a little early?

"With His Highness Changxiu's ability, it is naturally no problem. It's just that His Royal Highness Changxiu is currently in charge of Kyoto, I'm afraid he won't be able to pull away, right? I asked, confused.

"Kyoto and Minami-Omi are almost settled down for now." Nobunaga said confidently.

That's how Nobunaga judged?

I understood why he changed his yuan the following year, and then attacked the Asakura family, until he fell into the first siege and almost lost his life and belongings.

It's all due to his conceited surname. In view of this character, in the face of adversity, he will always persevere and be full of faith until he knocks his enemies to the ground; But once you are in good times, you tend to think too highly of yourself, so that you make mistakes in judgment, or you are in a hurry, or you are unprepared. From the distress of Kanegasaki, to the crusade against the Ichizo sect, to the Honnoji incident, this is not the case.

Perhaps there is another reason, and that is Nobunaga's favorite song of "Fifty Years of Life". The so-called 50 years of life not only means that life is short, but also that there is no time to wait. Relative to his ambitions, these decades are too short, which is why he is so radical. The entire Oda family was almost pushed forward by him, everything was done by him, and the retainers only had the share of obeying orders, and those who couldn't keep up with the pace like Lin Xiuzhen and Sakuma Nobumori would be abandoned by him without hesitation.

Later, he even broke with the conventions of this era, no longer personally leading the army, but adopted an extremely efficient corps system, with important ministers acting as commanders-in-chief, thus giving his retainers a great deal of room to exert themselves and give full play to their abilities to conquer various places. As for himself, he was only responsible for rewarding and post-battle processing after the raid (such as the Iga Expedition and the Takeda Expedition). This is completely unthinkable in other daimyo families.

In this way, it is not a big deal for me to rush to Tosa, and perhaps it is still a sign of aggressiveness, provided that I am still under his control and that there are no problems with the affairs I am responsible for...... These thoughts flashed through my mind, along with a few details about the retreat from Kanesaki. However, I naturally don't want to express my worries, it's purely because I don't feel comfortable finding them.

"What the lord said is very true!" I replied respectfully.

……，…… After the Hatakeyama clan in Kawachi elected a new governor and made their position clear to Nobunaga, Iga Kuni then surrendered, both of which greatly enhanced Nobunaga's prestige. In October, at the same time that Ashikaga Yoshiaki was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and the secretary of state, after the promotion of Nijo Harara, the imperial court took the initiative to issue an edict and promoted Nobunaga to the fourth rank of the lower minister. This has broken the convention of the highest rank of the local martial arts family but from the fourth, surpassing the repair doctor from the fourth position of the Guanling Daisan Miyoshi Changqing, and also surpassing the Shonaga Xiu's from the fourth position to play Zheng Shaobi.

I stayed in Mie Castle for two months on Nobunaga's orders to assist Nobuo Kitabatake in dealing with a possible backlash from the Iga family. It wasn't until the completion of the Joruriin Temple that I returned to Kishiwada Castle with Hidekei.

This time, Xiao Xia did not accompany her, and she and Nana were pregnant at the same time. Hoshinin is right, there are too few people in the Kira family, if you exclude Xiujing, who will restore the name of the family of Xiangzong in the future, and Keisaburo, who is scheduled to join the Jirenmu family, there are only two brothers Keitaro and Keijiro in the main family. This is a very unreasonable thing for a family whose territory has reached 100,000 stone and is on the verge of coming out, and at least there is still the Kamikawa family that needs to be restored.

I brought Naohu Ii and eight-year-old Tiger Song.

Leaving Sanhe at the age of two, this is the first time that Hu Song has gone far away. Seeing that the battleship was gradually moving away from the beach, he asked me with some worry: "Your Highness the city lord, if you go ahead, will you lose sight of the land?" ”

"It's okay. Although I left the land here, I entered the wider ocean! That's a lot bigger than where we live! ”

"Oh!" He screamed in surprise, turned his head to look at both sides, and asked suspiciously, "But, how do you know if you have gone in the wrong direction?" ”

"Don't worry, out of Ise Bay, you still have to walk along the coastline. That's the direction. I replied simply.

"That's right." Hu Song nodded.

"But, Toramatsu, shouldn't you change your words, what did Keitaro call me?" I said with a smile.

"Father......" he exclaimed, a little awkwardly.

"Not bad!" I touched his head while looking sideways at Naohu Ii beside me. Her face was slightly red, and she slanted her gaze slightly, just in line with mine, and had to retreat with a little embarrassment.

I laughed in my heart. Even a woman like Jing Yi Naohu who doesn't let her eyebrows go, once she marries a wife, she will still be weak in her attitude and show the appearance of a little daughter, especially when she is newly married. This has nothing to do with ability, but is in line with the surnames of men and women and the customs of this era.

Seeing her like this, I suddenly missed the image of the girl sitting cross-legged under the cherry blossoms, talking with me and Sawaki Yoshiyuki. That maverick posture is her most attractive side. However, she is only two years younger than me, she was born in the year of Renyin (1542) (hence her name Naohu), and now she is twenty-eight years old, which is considered an excess of the standard leftover girl even in modern times...... If you don't get married, you won't have much chance in this era!

That's not to say she's not attractive right now. After getting married, Jing Yi Naohu, compared with Caicai, Xiaoxia and Yujia, has a different style.

On this ship, she, as a general, has her own cabin just like me. Normally, she didn't want to stay in my room, so I had to give in to her.

When she saw me come in that night, she sighed softly, and her words were quite distressed: "Alas, Your Highness...... Here you go again. ”

"Yes! You don't like it? "I lay down next to her.

She didn't say anything, and silently helped me remove my clothes.

"Do you want the lights on?"

"Don't do it!" She said a little shyly.

Then, the two quickly became one. When I was all in, she sighed again.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Every time I do this, I always feel uncomfortable, as if my city has been attacked......

"What's next, how do you feel?" I hugged her extremely round and tight, slightly hard buttocks, and went back and forth intimately, gradually increasing the force.

"Well......" she couldn't help but snort a few times, and then asked a little nervously, "I'm like this...... Isn't it weird? ”

"It's okay, it's much stronger than the first time!" I couldn't help but laugh. Every time I mentioned her for the first time, I couldn't help but want to laugh: "I refuse to turn off the lights, I refuse to close my eyes, I say strange things like 'I have to die to understand', and when I go in slowly, my eyes widen, blink, and widen, and I inhale and inhale again...... Ouch! ”

"Really! I've never screamed like this! She said dissatisfied.

"I didn't say anything about you! This is what I'm applauding! I gritted my teeth and covered my shoulders, "I know you belong to the tiger, but when it comes to your sore spots, you don't have to bite people so hard, right?" ”

……，…… On New Year's Day, I received a letter from Nobunaga informing me that I would take Naotora and Toramatsu to Kyoto. Also notified at the same time were Kosei Mori, Nobumori Sakuma, Kenhide Gamo, Fuhide Gamo, and Katsuie Shibata of Omi, Naomasa of Tsukasa, Atsushi Nagano of Ise, Nobuo Kitabatake, Yoshiyuki Sawaki who had recently been promoted to general, and Nagahide Niwa and Nobutaka Takeda of Wakasa. In addition, Owari and Mino were in Nobunaga's direct legion, as well as Murai Sadakatsu, Akechi Mitsuhide, and Kinoshita Hideyoshi who stayed in Kyoto, and Matsui Tomokan in Sakai Town. These people are basically the direct ministers of the Oda family or a group of people, and since Shangluo, everyone has been stationed in various places, and they rarely get together in normal times. Now that we are seeing it together, it is really a great thing.

Nobunaga was in a good mood, praised the work of the people last year, and gave more than a dozen certificates of reward in the court. I also got one of them, and when I opened it secretly, it was just some beautiful items purchased in Kyoto and Sakai Town, and three of them were from Nanban, which was not too rare for me.

In addition, Nobunaga also officially appointed Mori Ke as the governor of Minami-Omi Shiga-gun, Sakuma Nobumori as the commander of Kurita-gun, Shibata Katsuie as the governor of Yasu-gun, Kenhide Gamo as the governor of Gamo-gun, and Niwa Nagahide as the representative of Wakasa Toshiki-gun. These counties all have territories of tens of thousands of stones, which is similar to the sum of the territories of the two counties of Shimowazumi and Nangun, where I served as the guardian generation, and the position of the county is also similar to that of the guardian generation, and it is not the whole county.

However, Omi and Wakasa nominally belonged to Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Ashikaga Yoshishu respectively, and Nobunaga's appointment was tantamount to incorporating these two countries into his own territory, which was much stronger than the original position.

As he told me more than three months ago, he thinks that Kinai has been largely pacified and can begin to digest the new territories under his control.

On this point, everyone in the family seemed to have no opinion, and Shibata Katsuya and others immediately accepted the letter of appointment.

What followed was the evening feast. Because of the daytime reward, the atmosphere of the banquet was extremely warm, just like the momentum of the Oda family's current prosperity. Everyone staggered their bottles and bowls, drinking freely.

I naturally got together with Yoshiyuki Sawaki and Toshiya Maeda, and then went to find Kinoshita Hideyoshi. He served as a commissioner in Kyoto, and he was half a master, and this time he went back to his old job, waiting by the door, ready to order his attendants to buy food and drink.

Of the four people, three of them were carrying children, I brought Toramatsu, Inuchiyo brought by Maeda Toshiie, and Treasure Pill brought by Kinoshita Hideyoshi - I took a few special glances at him, and he was almost the same as Kichishimaru. Only Yoshiyuki Sawaki is alone, he has only one daughter in the family, and he can't bring it out, not to mention that the daughter is only three years old...... As for the female dependents, they are all arranged in another place.

"It's a nice place, it's a little more refreshing than the inside." I looked at the courtyard in front of the house and said appreciatively.

Hideyoshi smiled and nodded, looking at Toramatsu carefully: "Is this Keijiro or Keitaro?" Grow really fast! is really worthy of Xuanjing's child! ”

Maeda Toshiya smiled: "It's not right, it's Tiger Song!" More than a year older than Keitaro. ”

"Is that your ...... from the Xinna side room?" Kinoshita Hideyoshi understood, "So, this time you brought that Tiger Lady and left Lady Ishiya in Mie Castle?" ”

"yes," Yoshiyuki Sawaki sighed, still with some regret. He patted the floor beside him and beckoned to Hu Song, "Hu Song, just sit next to me for a while!" ”

Tiger Pine looked at me. I nodded, and Toramatsu obediently sat down on Yoshiyuki Sawaki's side.

"Xuanjing, I originally thought that you and Mrs. Shigu had a good relationship, but I didn't expect it!" Kinoshita Hideyoshi pretended to shake his head.

"She can understand." I laughed.

"Really, Fujiyoshiro, don't talk about Xuanjing," Yoshiyuki Sawaki uncovered Hideyoshi's scars, "Didn't you marry another one in Kyoto?" When I saw Ning Ning before, my face seemed to be very ugly? ”

"Ahem......" Kinoshita Hideyoshi choked on a sip of wine.

"There's no way around it," Maeda Toshiya started the round, "Ning Ning has never had children...... I heard that your new lady is pregnant? ”

"Ahem...... "It's my turn to choke on alcohol this time."

"yes!" Kinoshita Hideyoshi replied diligently, a pair of monkey faces glowing red, almost similar to the other.

"With ...... Pregnancy?! I asked him unsure.

"Hey! What kind of expression do you have? Kinoshita Hideyoshi looked at me dissatisfied, "It's like I can't get a woman pregnant!" ”

Needless to say, I really thought so. There are so many legends about Tsurummatsu and Hideyori.

However, according to records, Hideyoshi had a biological daughter who died young, and a son Ishimatsumaru who died young, who seems to be born next year.

"That's congratulations." I said with a smile on my face.

"That's just like the words," Hideyoshi praised, and suddenly lowered his voice, "Princess Aichi is also here, and she seems to be pregnant!" ”

"Princess Ashi!" Yoshiyuki Sawaki exclaimed.

"It's indeed Princess Ashi, I watched it for a while, it's absolutely right...... She and Ning Ning were talking and laughing, looking very happy. Kinoshita Hideyoshi's monkey eyes were shining.

The Li family also subconsciously turned his ears sideways. In the hearts of the Oda family, Aichi has a very special status. Although she has been married for a long time, everyone is still used to calling "Princess Ashi".

But I'm concerned about something else.

"So, Asai is here too?"

"Yes, with the lord." The Rika nodded. He came from Nobunaga.

"But isn't this a banquet for our Oda family?" I reminded the trio.

"Asai is the righteous brother of the lord, so it's not strange here, right?" Yoshiyuki Sawaki said disapprovingly.

"Hideyoshi, you're Kyoto Commissioner, tell me what's going on?" I glanced at Yoshiyuki Sawaki. This guy is very sluggish at times.

"It's a bit strange to talk about this," Hideyoshi quickly woke up from the topic of Aichi after my reminder and thought of Asai Nagamasa's question, "The lord ordered me and His Highness Akechi to write about twenty letters, inviting the famous people around Kinai to visit Beijing in the name of the Gongfang Palace, and even Mikawa Tokugawa and Iga Nishiki's house were delivered, but not to the Asai family...... I asked my lord, and he said there were other arrangements! ”

"And what about the letter to all of you in the family?" I continued to ask him.

"Then it's not clear, it seems that Xiuzheng and others around the lord are in charge." Kinoshita Hideyoshi replied.

"It's not enough to compare Asai Beizen with His Royal Highness Kecheng, His Royal Highness Katsuya and others, right?" Toshiie Maeda is also aware of this problem.

"Who knows what the lord means?" I tried to see through the crowd and try to look at Nobunaga, but there were so many figures that I couldn't tell the difference.

(To be continued)