Trois-Rivières Country.

On the castle of Okazaki, the flag of the three-leaf Aoi family pattern flutters in the wind.

"I still didn't expect such a change in the Takeda family."

"What I didn't expect was that the Takeda family actually reached a marriage with the Oda family, hmph, so the opportunity for my Matsudaira family has come."

On the long aisle outside the castle tower, Tadaji Sakai, the old man of the Matsudaira family, was striding forward.

Sakai Tadaji Chinese New Year's Eve nine years old today, and he exudes the vigorous aura of a samurai and has a calm demeanor.

As the head of the Matsudaira family, Sakai Tadaji is now the head of the Higashi-Mikawa banner and leads the Higashi-Mikawa people of the Matsudaira family.

Walking to the door, Sakai Tadaji dressed up, handed the katana in his hand to the small surname, and asked, "What is the lord doing now?" ”

After putting away the katana, the little surname replied respectfully, "My lord, I am eating now." ”

Then another servant opened the paper sliding door for Sakai Tadaji.

Outside the door, Sakai Tadaji saw a man in samurai attire of twenty-five or sixteen, sitting precariously with chopsticks and picking up dishes on a small wooden table.

As far as the daimyo of Mikawa is concerned, this man's meal is not rich, except for rice, there is only a plate of dried radish, a plate of boiled eggplant, and a bowl of miso soup on the plate.

At this time, the man accidentally shook off half of the eggplant on the chopsticks and fell under him.

But the other party didn't mean to waste it at all, he lowered his head and picked up the eggplant and put it back into his mouth, and when he looked up again, his eyes happened to be on the spot with Sakai Tadaji outside the door.

When the other party saw Fang Cai's actions, he saw it for his cronies and retainers, so he laughed twice to relieve his embarrassment.

Sakai Tadaji smiled, stepped into the room, bowed and said, "Meet the lord." ”

The other party nodded and said, "Heiji, you are not sitting in Yoshida Castle this time, monitoring Yuanjiang, did you come to Okazaki Castle to congratulate me on the New Year?" ”

Sakai Tadaji raised his head and said with a smile: "Please allow Your Majesty to express your belated congratulations to your lord, but Your Majesty has other important things to do here." ”

The other party nodded, hurriedly finished the meal, and pushed the wooden table, and then a small surname came up and brought the small wooden table down.

The man chewed the eggplant in his mouth, as if he was full of taste, and then said: "My Ieyasu has three good 'eggplants', 'Fuji', and 'eagles' in his life, and this eggplant is really delicious, if the world can be stable in the future, I can say that I can eat eggplants, and I will be satisfied." ”

This man who chewed eggplant was the head of the Matsudaira family, who had just unified Mikawa, one of the three heroes of the Warring States period, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who pioneered the 263rd era of Edo in history.

However, at present, Tokugawa Ieyasu has not changed the word Miao, and is still called Matsudaira Ieyasu.

Hearing Matsudaira Ieyasu say this, Sakai Tadaji sighed and said with a smile: "As a daimyo of a country, it seems that the lord's requirements are too low. ”

Matsudaira Ieyasu said solemnly: "Heiji, you still think you understand me. The way of the samurai, first of all, is to be thrifty, thrifty, is to learn how to restrain oneself**. If a samurai does not learn self-denial, how can he learn to restrain his enemies. ”

"And being a samurai requires complex brains, and simple habits. Any extravagant and wasteful behavior is shameful. At that time, Hojo was in power and held a lot of power, but he lived a simple life, won the hearts of the people, and finally had the world. It is really worth learning from our descendants. ”

After saying this tirade, Matsudaira Ieyasu said with a smile: "Heiji, what's the important matter here?" ”

Sakai Tadaji nodded and said, "My lord, Your Majesty is here for the marriage between the Takeda family and the Oda family. The Oda family and the Imagawa family have a feud, and the Takeda family, which is now an alliance of the Imagawa family, actually married the Oda family, and this time Takeda Yoshinobu rebelled, the Imagawa family mistakenly supported Takeda Yoshinobu. My lord, we have reason to believe that now the alliance between the Takeda family and the Imagawa family has broken down. ”

Sakai Tadaji said loudly: "My lord, I suggest that you send someone to consult with the Takeda family quickly, and reach an alliance to attack the Imagawa family from both sides, so that the Imagawa family can be destroyed with one blow." ”

When Matsudaira Ieyasu heard Sakai Tadaji persuade him like this, the smile on his face retracted, and he sat there silently.

Sakai Tadaji asked loudly, "My lord, what are you still hesitating about?" This is indeed the best opportunity for the family, is the lord still thinking about the building of the mountain hall and the friendship with the Imagawa family? ”

Tsukiyamaden is the main chamber of Matsudaira Ieyasu and is the niece of Imagawa Yoshimoto.

Matsudaira Ieyasu shook his head and said, "This is not what I'm worried about, when I gave up the biased 'Yuan' given to me by Yoshimoto Gong and changed my real name from Motoyasu to Ieyasu, the friendship with the Imagawa family has been severed. ”

"I'm worried," Matsudaira Ieyasu said, pointing to a tigger on the screen next to him, "and what I'm really worried about is this Koshu tiger." ”

"Lord, do you mean Xin Xuangong?" Sakai Tadaji asked, half-standing up.

"Yes, my Ieyasu rarely admired anyone in his life, but Takeda Shingen was one of them. If it is an alliance with the Takeda family and the Imagawa family, to paraphrase a phrase from the Ming people, it is to seek skin with the tiger. ”

Sakai Tadaji nodded and said: "The lord's concern is reasonable, Takeda Shingen is a treacherous person, with the way of deceit, cunning and plundering everywhere, the original Suwa family, and the Imagawa family are the best examples." ”

Matsudaira Ieyasu shook his head and said, "No, Heiji, you are wrong. Xin Xuangong is a real hero in troubled times, and the ethics and morality of normal people cannot be used as a criterion, and they can be described as a guideline. If you only rely on the word benevolence, you will not be able to win the world even if you do it to the extreme. ”

Sakai Tadaji asked in surprise, "My lord, is Takeda Shingen a hero?" Does the lord think that he can take over the world? ”

Matsudaira Ieyasu straightened up and said with a straight face: "Xin Xuangong, I don't know if I can finally seize the world, but looking at the world, those who can compete with it, except for Oda Dan Masada and His Royal Highness Jinghu, I don't think of a third person, and my Ieyasu is not as good." ”

Sakai Tadaji heard Matsudaira Ieyasu say this, and he was quite unconvinced in his heart, and said: "With the wisdom of the lord, the good fighting of my Mikawa samurai, can't I compete with Takeda Shingen?" ”

Matsudaira Ieyasu smiled slightly, but did not answer, but said: "It is better to judge the enemy stronger than weaker, so that we can be cautious, plan more thoroughly, and restrain the enemy by calculating more victories and less calculations." I need to be cautious in planning with Shingenko this time, otherwise my Matsudaira family will eventually become Suwa, Ogasawara, Murakami and the like, and lose at his hands. ”

Sakai Zhong raised his head and said, "Lord, so you agreed?" ”

Matsudaira Ieyasu snorted and said: "If you don't take advantage of the time when the Imagawa family is weak and take the opportunity to usurp Suruga, my Matsudaira family can only be trapped in the three rivers forever, Takeda Shingen is powerful, but there is Uesugi in the north and Hojo's elbow system in the east, unlike my Matsudaira family, there is the support of the Oda family behind me, and in my eyes, I just need to concentrate on dealing with the Imagawa family, and I will send troops to support me at any time." ”

Hearing this, Sakai Tadaji hesitated and said, "My lord, my lord doesn't think it's too much to expect from Lord Dan Zhengzhong. Lord Dan Zhengzhong, his plans are ambitious, and he is not a person who has seized a city and a country in front of him, and he may not take my Matsudaira family too seriously. ”

Matsudaira Ieyasu laughed and said, "Heiji, you don't know Nobunaga, when I was a hostage of the Oda family in Kiyoshu, I befriended him since I was a child, so I know him well. Nobunaga has had great ambitions since he was a child, and his eyes are empty, and when he first stabbed the narrows, even Imagawa Yoshimoto didn't pay attention to it. But like my Ieyasu, there is only one person who is afraid of him, and that is Shingen! ”

"If Shingen doesn't die, Nobunaga won't be able to truly control the world. If the Oda family does not have my Matsudaira family, he will resist the Takeda family and the Imagawa family for him in the east, and he will not be able to complete Kamiraku, so Nobunaga must borrow my Matsudaira family, otherwise as soon as my Matsudaira family falls, the next one will be his Oda family. ”

Sakai Tadaji agreed with Matsudaira Ieyasu's words, but at the same time said: "Actually, Nobunaga's worries are not as good as the worries of the lord Imatsudaira, the Oda family is indispensable to our Matsudaira family, and if the Imagawa family is destroyed, if Takeda Shingen wants to go up from Tokaido, he must face my Matsudaira family, and then my Matsudaira family and the Takeda family will have a battle." ”

Matsudaira Ieyasu nodded and said: "Exactly, but I have to seize the Imagawa family, after all, the strength of Koshin is now above Mikawa, and it is unrealistic to pin all your hopes on Uesugi Hojo to contain Takeda Shingen." It would be nice if I could understand a little more, and the details of the Takeda family. ”

When Matsudaira Ieyasu said this, Sakai Tadaji suddenly paused and said, "My lord, I remember, after Honda Masanobu ran away, didn't he go to Kai?" Now that I heard that Li Xiao, the old man of the Takeda family, maybe we can understand the details of the Takeda family through Honda. ”

"Faithful? I haven't heard his name for a long time," Matsudaira Ieyasu nodded and said, "I know that he has become a member of the Takeda family, but he is the first wise man of my Matsudaira family, but it's a pity." ”

Sakai Tadaji said, "If the lord is interested, you can recruit him back, or lurk in the Takeda family to respond to us and provide information." You must know that Honda Masanobu's wife and children are still in Mikawa. ”

When Matsudaira Ieyasu heard this, he shook his head and said, "Holding the relatives of the former retainers hostage to coerce the other party is an unrighteous act, and I will not do it." I know that it is impossible for him to do what he should be, but if I want him to come back, it is possible, and I am also at fault for what I did at the beginning, and if he is willing to come back, I should personally make amends to him. ”

"But if he refuses to return to my Matsudaira house, that's fine, and we must not embarrass his family. Li Xiao, a retainer of the Takeda family who came out of Honda Masanobu, fought Uesugi Kenshin in the battle against Uesugi Kenshin when he was in Shirane Mountain, and rushed straight to Uesugi Kenshin's main camp with sixty horses. If the righteous faith can come out of him, it is not a grievance, it is always the same. I am also glad that he has a good lord's home. ”

When Sakai Tadaji heard Matsudaira Ieyasu say this, he immediately bowed down and said, "The lord is really benevolent. ”

Matsudaira Ieyasu nodded and said, "Heiji, the matter of the alliance with the Takeda family will be handed over to you." ”

"Attacking the Imagawa family, but I was ashamed of being a hostage in Sunfu. You have to know my preferences, how much I wish I could enjoy eggplant while looking at the snowy scenery of Mt. Fuji in Sunpu Castle, which is also a trivial ambition of my Ieyasu. ”

(To be continued)