The first month of the second year of Eisada was another turning point for the Oda family since the change of Honnoji. At the beginning of this month, at the behest of Oda Nobutaka, Inaba Ichitetsu and Naomasa of the clan went to the military camp under Gifu Castle alone to send New Year's greetings to Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi was overjoyed and immediately appointed Inaba Kachitetsu as the military commissioner, and at the same time appointed Oda Nobuo as the chief general and Ikeda Tsuneko as the deputy general to launch a general attack on Gifu Castle.

Sixty-five years old this year, Inaba Istetsu has served under Nobunaga and Nobutada for more than ten years, and has participated in the Battle of Kannonji Castle, the Battle of Sister River, the Battle of Shingui Mountain Castle, and the Battle of Arioka Castle, and has made many achievements. It's a pity that he is not a family of Nobunaga's cronies, so he has always maintained the status of a local wealthy family, and has not soared like the rest of the Oda family retainers, and the territory has always maintained the size when he was invested in the Oda family. Later, it was a very good opportunity to assist Nobutada, and when Nobutada inherited the family business, he would definitely be treated favorably as a direct minister, but Nobutada was killed in Kyoto, and he was almost implicated as the son-in-law of the traitor Saito Toshizo.

After such an accident, thinking of the clan Bu Quan who died in the battle earlier, and Ando Shouji, who was exiled by Shintada, Inaba Itchitetsu's biggest wish now is probably how to keep the family business! Therefore, after receiving a letter from another son-in-law, Shibata Katsutoyo, and learning that Kita Omi had surrendered to Hideyoshi, he quickly changed his position and persuaded the clan Naomasa to go to Hideyoshi's army with him.

With the assistance of Inaba Ichitetsu, who had experienced many battles and was familiar with the fineness of Gifu, Oda Nobuo's siege operation was very smooth. Seeing this situation, Hideyoshi left his younger brother Hidenaga to garrison, and he led his headquarters to Sawa Mountain Castle to preside over the finishing work of the Kita-Omi raid and reward some personnel. As the main general, Keihide was transferred by Hideyoshi to Kita-Omi Province, where he commanded the 100,000-stone territory of Takashima and Ika Counties, and presided over the defense of Kita-Omi together with Shibata Katsutoyo of Nagahama Castle.

In addition to this incident, it is likely that Hideyoshi left Gifu Castle with another intention. He knew very well in his heart that with Oda Nobuo's character, once he captured Gifu Castle, he would definitely not let go of Nobutaka, who had always had a grudge. This result was exactly what he expected, but after all, Nobutaka was the son of Nobunaga, and it was inconvenient for him to do it himself, otherwise he would have a bad reputation, so he appointed Nobuo as the chief general and handed over the butcher knife to Nobuo, who was also Nobunaga's son.

A few days later, Gifu Castle finally fell, and Nobutaka, Yutsu, Nobutaka's mother, Mrs. Sakaji, and the newborn Tamoorihime all fell into the hands of Nobuo. Nobuo lived up to Hideyoshi and my expectations, and killed Nobutaka on the way back to Azuchi, and Yutsu calmly accompanied her husband Nobutaka to the Yellow Springs in accordance with her previous reply to the envoy of Tsuya.

Hearing the news, Niwa Nagahide of Sakamoto Castle did not say a word, refused all diet and decoction, and soon passed away. He suffered from chronic stomach problems, and historically died of stomach cancer four years later (it is also said that he committed suicide by seppuku because of the double torture of guilt and illness).

However, when he defeated the rebels last year, Hideyoshi did not achieve all the results, nor did he establish the power and prestige that was enough to succeed Nobunaga in history, so that Niwa Nagahide still had some expectations for the Oda family, and he has been trying to maintain the balance between the people, or I will preside over the center and preserve the Oda family to the greatest extent. These complicated things and heavy pressure exhausted Niwa Nagahide's remaining vitality and made him fall early.

Therefore, a few days after Keisei sent the battle report of Gifu Castle and the death of Niwa Nagahide, the envoys of Hideyoshi and the Niwa family came to Kira Castle Hall one after another. Hideyoshi's envoy was Yoshitsugu Otani, who informed me about the course of the battles of Nagahama Castle and Gifu Castle, expressed regret for Yujin's death, and also sent Nobutaka and Yutsu's widow Tamaorihime.

Receiving the child from Tamorihime's temporary nurse, I couldn't help but think, fortunately, it's a daughter, if it's an heir, I'm afraid it won't survive in the hands of Nobuo, and he didn't even let go of Nobutaka's mother, Mrs. Saka...... This made me realize the difficulty of this little life in my hand, and her wrinkled little face, which could vaguely be seen to be a little similar to Yujin when she was a child, touched the softest place in my heart all of a sudden.

Yoshitsugu Otani was still apologizing to me: "I'm really sorry, I didn't expect His Royal Highness Cheongju to be so reckless...... However, the princess went with her husband, and she also fulfilled her responsibilities as the daughter of the samurai family, and we were very respectful .............

"What's the point of obedience? And what's the use? They're all dead," I interrupted abruptly.

"This ...... Yoshitsugu Otani looked at me in surprise. Perhaps he was wondering why His Royal Highness Taichang, who had always been a model of the samurai, still received the envoy in front of the side room? And to say such gaffes? His eyes wandered for a moment over my minister's robe, and then he glanced at the richly decorated, beautifully furnished, and ladies-in-waiting, as if he understood something, and then bowed his head deeply.

"Yes, please forgive me," he said respectfully.

I didn't say anything, but I summoned Natsu and Tokuki in full costume and handed the child to them.

"What a lovely child" Deji rushed to hold the child in her arms, "Your Highness, is it okay to let the concubine adopt her?" ”

I nodded, "This is the child of the Oda family and the Kira family, and it would be best for you to adopt her." ”

"I would like to report to the Taitsune Princess," Yoshitsugu Otani continued, "and the head of the family has another proposal, hoping that in the decisive battle with Shibata, His Royal Highness Youkyo of Quanzhou Castle can provide some reinforcements, and afterwards the head of the family will give Nanhanoi as a reward......"

"I'm not much interested in bringing down Shibata,...... I waved my hand, "I have only one wish, I hope to be able to punish Nobuo Oda who killed Yutsu"

"This ......" Otani Yoshitsugu showed a look of embarrassment, "His Royal Highness Kiyoshu just rescued the young hall of Jishi from Gifu, there are people!" ”

"Really? That's a bargain," I sighed, "I'm already retired anyway, and I'm going to retire for the rest of my life...... You can talk about these official things. ”

"Yes,...... Otani Yoshitsu bowed and said, and nodded to Ota Soqing, Ota Kazukichi and his son beside him, "Then I will retire first." ”

Ota Munekiyoshi and Ota Kazukichi father and son were retainers of the Niwa family, and they came to Tosa Province to meet with Otani Yoshitsugu. Because they were there, Yoshitsugu Otani didn't mention Nagahide's death, and left it to Ota and his son to report to me.

Although I had already received the news from Jing Zheng, I was still a little sad to hear Changxiu's retainers report in person.

"His Royal Highness Changxiu and I have been friends for more than 20 years! I remember that not long after I arrived in Owari, and I was in charge of the affairs of Kiyoshu Town with His Royal Highness ............ Nagahide, I looked at Ota Munekiyo and suddenly remembered something, "By the way, when you established the money writing house, you were an official sent by Nagahide, right?" ”

"Taichang Gong has a good memory" Ota Zongqing lowered his head with red eyes, "At that time, the official sent by Taichang Gong was His Royal Highness Youjing, who is now in Quanzhou City, and then Ueda Shigemoto of his own family took over the post of head of the security team of His Royal Highness Youjing. ”

"Of course, I will remember these things," I nodded, "the most important thing in being a human being is not to forget and ......, when I was in Cheongju, I was deeply cared for by His Royal Highness Changxiu; Now that His Royal Highness Changxiu has passed away, leaving the ten-year-old Changzhong as the head of the family, I will definitely take care of Changzhong. ”

"I can't thank you enough for this kind of heart, Taichang Gong" Ota Munekiyo bowed deeply, "When Chongyuan was alive, we often said that it was the honor of our life to be able to participate in the creation of the world-famous money writing house and work with His Royal Highness Youjing."

"In this way,...... I smiled slightly, "Didn't you and His Royal Highness Hideyoshi have worked together before?" Later, Taizheng Gong participated in the writing of the money house, and he was the earliest official of Taizheng Gong."

"Speaking of Yuliang Zhu, it's really a bit excessive," Ota Sokiyo sighed, "The old family master is still there, and he has begun to win over the important ministers of his family...... Toda Katsunari was the younger brother of the old Toda Katsutaka of the Yura family, and soon defected to the Yura family: Shigegen had passed away, and his sister-in-law Shigean was the son-in-law of the Sugihara family in Kyoto under Chikuzen, and he also took refuge in Chikuzen Mamoru regardless of the loyalty of several lifetimes; Okuyama Shigetasei, the son of Sakuma University (Sakuma Morishige, the head of the Sakuma family before the Battle of Barrelsama), was taken in by the old lord after losing his family business during the Battle of Barrelsama, and now he has also turned away from his family; There is also the Nagashu family, how much the old family owner values him, less than three years after he was born, he is only eighteen years old this year, and he has already served as the commissioner of Sakamoto Town, but Chikuzen Shouyi is wooed, and he will pass immediately...... Today's Niwa family is almost an empty shelf."

There was a look of indignation and sadness on his face.

I sighed, but wasn't surprised. In the original history, when Niwa Nagahide died, although the territory was as high as more than one million koku, they still threw themselves to the Toyotomi family, and even Ota Kazuyoshi, who saw me with his father in front of him, also took refuge in the past (at that time, Ota Munekiyoshi was dead), received 65,000 koku after Feng, and served as Hideyoshi's head in Korea in the battle of the conquest of Korea.

Because of this, Hideyoshi later took the opportunity to reduce Nagashige's territory twice, from 1,230,000 koku to 40,000 koku, which was worse than many of his former retainers.

At present, the Niwa family's territory is only more than 300,000 koku, and the head of the family is still a ten-year-old child, and because he has not taken a stand for a long time, the prospects are very bad. Then, it is understandable that these retainers have switched to Hideyoshi.

"This is indeed an unfortunate thing for the Niwa family," I comforted him, "but in any case, His Highness Hideyoshi cannot be too difficult for a long time, and you can rest assured of that; I will also ask Nobuyei to negotiate with His Royal Highness Hideyoshi, and ask him to ensure the territory and status of the Niwa family. ”

"Thank you, Your Highness Taichang," Ota Munekiyo bowed down again and thanked him, the expression on his face much lighter.

As far as he is concerned, no matter how the former ministers of the Oda family toss, he didn't do anything, and the most important thing is to ensure the safety of the main Niwa family.

……，……

Tokuhime was very attentive to Tamaorihime, and soon took my leave and went to arrange for her to be a nurse and maid herself, all on par with his own eldest daughter, Toyohisahime. Natsu remained in the room, perhaps because she heard what I said to Yoshitsugu Otani, and she was in a good mood.

"Your Highness is right, after most of your busy life, it is indeed time to rest," she said with a smile, "but these four compartments are full of maids, isn't there too much?" ”

Of course, there are a lot, but these are most of the maids of Kira Castle and Hasuike Castle! Not counting Xiao Xia and Deji's side, and not counting those who waited in the hall, just the four compartments on both sides of the main hall were kneeling and sitting in two rows of maids, a total of forty-eight.

Since there is a rumor that I have wasted my political affairs and coveted pleasures, then I will show him. I believe that the monkey who admires luxury will definitely be able to understand me, and even envy my style.

However, Yoshitsugu Otani has already left, and I don't have to pretend to be anything in front of Konatsu. So I whispered a word to the maid sitting behind me, and then she clapped her hands, dismissed all the maids in the cubicle and the room, and bowed her head and exited the hall.

"Rest, it's still impossible at the moment," I shook my head slightly, "but general things can be left to Xinjing's side, it's much easier than before." ”

"That's fine! His Highness was really busy before," Xiao Xia showed a reassuring look on his face, "Actually, in this way, in addition to wanting His Highness to accompany his concubine more, he is also watching out for His Highness's body...... Looking at His Royal Highness Changxiu, he is not yet fifty years old, but he is four or five years older than His Highness, and he has already passed away...... It's all exhausting."

"Don't worry, you should know how my body is," I laughed and made an ambiguous joke, "I can definitely work a little harder." ”

Xiao Xia blushed slightly, and quickly changed the topic: "His Royal Highness Hideyoshi and His Royal Highness Shibata, are about to start a decisive battle, right?" Otani Yoshitsugu just said that he wants Xiujing to also participate in the war and offer half of the country of South Hanoi, what is His Highness going to do? ”

"It's obvious that the two are about to fight a decisive battle," I nodded, "As for whether Xiujing is going to war or not, it doesn't matter at all; And Hideyoshi said that he was offering Nan Hanoi, but he was just apologizing for the matter of Ikoma's parents...... If it is understandable that Hideyoshi wooed Tsutsui Shunkei, it would be a big mistake to woo Ikoma's parents. He is my strength for more than ten years, and he is also my agent who has been stationed in the Oda family! ”

Hearing me talk about Ikoma's parents, Xiao Xia was a little indignant: "Really, I didn't expect His Royal Highness Ikoma to also take refuge in His Royal Highness Hideyoshi." ”

"Well,...... I continued, "I'll have to settle this matter with Hideyoshi sooner or later...... When Hideyoshi is defeated, I can really rest; After that, the strategy of the Eastern Kingdom will be handed over to Xinjing and Yijing's generation. ”