In the summer of this year, when Echigo went out to Ueno and Shinano one after another, Nagao Keinobu who stayed in Kasuga Mountain Castle got a son, and took the young name Komage Maru, which is also the young name of the Suyoshi Nagao family from generation to generation, counting the Kunimatsu born at the beginning of this year, Suyoshi Nagao and Ueda Nagao both gave birth to sons-in-law, which is also regarded as a sign of the prosperity of the Nagao family.

In April this year, a serious military conflict broke out between the Saito family in Mino Province, and Saito Yoshiryu killed his father in a battle with Nagara River, and Oda Nobunaga, who was his son-in-law, tried to rescue him, and turned against his brother-in-law Saito Yoshiryu.

When this happened, the Kira family was dealing with the people who had always been in a big way, and then there was a summer of war, which didn't matter, after all, it didn't have much to do with Kira Yoshitoki, but the letter from Oda Nobunaga at the end of autumn still surprised him a little, this Oda Saburo seemed to treat him as a pen pal, and every spring and autumn always had to send two or three letters, from exchanging personal interests and hobbies to imagining the future, and everything in his own house had to be talked about, this time it was about the death of his father-in-law Saito Michizo.

The death of Saito Michizo is a representative of the wise old age and faintness in the prime of life, the eldest son Saito Yoshiryu was born to the side room Fukayoshino and was made a son-in-law, and he was quite similar to Saito Michizo in his ability and wrist, but he was not as ruthless as his father, so he was loved by the Saito family and the people of Minokoku who surrendered.

Saito Michizo was a thief of the Mino country and was not in the right position, in the early years, in order to seize the family business of the Toki family, he did everything to seize the family business of the Toki family, and he ascended to the position of the lord of the country and competed with the perseverance of Toki Yoriyi for more than ten years. Oda Nobuhide of Owari is harmonious. Only then did he completely drive out Toki Laiyi, who had lost his backing.

But he also paid a heavy price for it. In order to deter the people of Mino, who rebelled against him, Saito Michizo used many horrific tortures to tie up all the samurai and family members who resisted him, and execute him according to his personal preferences, and the torture of the execution varied.

For example, the rebellious criminal samurai and their family members were tied with ropes, and then tied to the ox and drove the oxen with fire and whips, tearing the criminal samurai alive to pieces, and splattering internal organs and blood everywhere. It is also necessary to force those who he considers to be ill-intentioned to watch, in order to achieve the purpose of deterrence and show-off.

The punishment of cooking in oil is the punishment of boiling in oil, throwing the criminal samurai and his family into the oil pot and frying them alive, especially when he listens to the terrible screams and the frightened expressions of the people of Mino, it is very fulfilling, and Ishikawa Goemon was also executed by this kind of torture, the source of which is inspired by Saito Michizo.

Finally, and the most famous, he tied the heavy cloth with ropes to the bodies of the criminal samurai and their families, and then poured grease on it and set it on fire, and was wrapped in the raging fire and could not move, so he could only jump or fall to the ground and roll around wailing. Michizo Saito called this kind of action of struggling and hobby called it Oni Tsuki, and he liked to watch Tori very much. Because this is a dance that only the dead can dance.

Because of his brutality and thirst for killing, the people of Mino were both feared and hated, and they did not dare to resist the brutal Saito Michizo, so they gradually united under the banner of Saito Yoshiryu to keep warm, Saito Yoshiryu was more willing to treat these Mino people well, and gradually in the brutal torture and bloody terror, Mino gathered a large force, that is, Saito Yoshiryu.

In 1554, Saito Michizo found that there were fewer cronies around him, and Saito Yoshiryu's prestige became higher and higher.

Maybe it's really old and faint, the retired Saito Michizo began to pamper his two younger sons, Xi Heiji and Sun Shiro, and the old ones tried their best to meet all the needs of these two younger sons, such as giving the second son Xi Heiji the name of "Isshiki Right Soldier Wei Daifu".

Because he is the younger brother of Saito Yoshiryu, and their brother's mother, Fukayoshino, is the daughter of Isshiki Yoshikiyo, he makes a name for the high gate to decorate his house to show Michizo's love for Kiheiji.

But in this way, it is very unfair to Saito Yoshiryu, who is the lord of Mino and feels that he is insulted, and the second son is Isshiki Right Soldier Daisuke, but he is still Saito Yoshiryu, and there is no good name, and his reclusive father will say how good he is and how good Sun Shiro is, and mentioned a key word "waste".

It's just that he can endure it if he likes to make a name, but only the abolition of the heir is something that Saito Yoshilong can never tolerate, with the preference of Saito Michizo for Kiheiji and Sun Shiro getting heavier and heavier in the past two years, the signs of abolition are becoming more and more obvious, and Saito Yoshilong decided to do something.

One day in early November last year, Saito Yoshiryu in Inabayama Castle suddenly fell ill, and according to the doctor, Saito Yoshiryu was dying soon, and Saito Yoshiryu, who knew that he was dying, proposed to meet his two younger brothers, and his younger brother Nagai Michitoshi, who was deeply trusted by Saito Michizo, personally acted as a messenger to let the two brothers Kiheiji and Sun Shiro relax their vigilance, and as soon as they heard that there was such a good thing, they hurried to Inabayama Castle to visit his seriously ill brother.

The first time they saw the tiger-backed brother Saito Yoshiryu, the two brothers were still a little afraid and worried, but listening to the terminally ill Saito Yoshiryu in the future, he expressed his intention to pass on the position of the governor to Kiheiji, the two brothers were immediately overjoyed and completely forgot the vigilance and persuasion of the samurai, under the active persuasion of Saito Yoshiryu's favorite minister Hineno Hirosa, the two brothers let down their guard and sent away the attendants to drink and have fun, and the two brothers were drunk until midnight.

Hineno Hiroshi, who accompanied Kiheiji and Sun Shiro to drink until midnight, was not drunk, and after making sure that the two brothers and their entourage had relaxed their vigilance, he killed the two brothers Kiheiji and Sun Shiro on the spot with a sword, and the two of them went to hell with the dream of the lord of the country.

Saito Yoshiryu, who should have been seriously ill and bedridden, appeared outside the door at this time, he coldly watched the process of executing the two brothers by Hinenohiro, and at the urging of his uncle Nagai Michitoshi, he put to death the attendants of the two brothers with a wave of his hand, along with the secret agents buried in the city, which also meant that the father and son turned against each other from then on.

From the point of view of technique, Saito Yoshiryu executed his two younger brothers. It is similar to Oda Nobunaga's method of executing Oda Nobuyuki. The same feigning of illness leads to a hostile door. And they are all the same contradictions that occur between neighboring countries, and it has to be said that greed blinded them and cost them their lives.

After murdering the two brothers, Saito Yoshiryu sent a messenger to deliver the bodies of the two brothers to Saito Michizo, who learned the whole story, Saito Michizo looked up to the sky and sighed, and in the face of Saito Yoshiryu's army gathering, he immediately sent a messenger to his cousin Akechi, son-in-law Oda Nobunaga, for help.

Saito Michizo didn't expect to play a lifetime of intrigue and trickery. In the end, he was pitted by his most trusted person.,Nagai Michitoshi is his very kind of younger brother.,Has been tasked with delivering information about Inabayama Castle for him.,But he never thought that this younger brother had already defected to Saito Yoshiryu.。

In other words, the entire Mino people basically took refuge in Saito Yoshiryu, they hated the cruel and sinister Saito Michizo, hated his cow cracks, kettle fried, and clothed, and every time they watched their old friends being tortured to death, the anger and anger in their hearts became more and more irrepressible.

The root of the curse had long been laid, and Saito's defeat was a foregone conclusion, as heavy snow in late winter made it difficult to march. Saito Michizo did not dare to continue with him at Sagiyama Castle, so he burned the castle and fled to Daisan Castle near the Nagara River. The patient Saito Yoshiryu is determined to unify the internal front first and then deal with Saito Michizo, the turtle in the urn.

During this period, there was a rumor circulating in Mino in the country, which said that Fukayoshino, who was the side room of Toki Raiyun, was pregnant with Toki Raiyun's child and married Saito Michizo to do the side room, and that child was Saito Yoshimyu, in fact, the relevant legend prototype has long been there, Saito Yoshiryu was born tall and big, and the big man of 1.75 meters dominates the audience wherever he goes, Saito Michizo is only 1.6 meters tall, this father and son don't look at it right, it is said that Saito Michizo does not like Saito Yoshiryu is also the reason.

Saito Yoshiryu did not come forward to confirm this rumor, just because his big man has been suppressed and feared by his father for many years, and now he has become his talisman because of a blessing in disguise, so he is also happy that someone will fan the flames for him, after all, killing his father is a great crime of disobedience and unfilial piety, and it would be different if his own father was Toki Raiyun, and he could also use this method to strengthen the legitimate dominance of the lord of Mino.

In April this year, the ice and snow melted and spring sowing ended, Saito Yoshiryu pulled up 17,500 troops to go out to Osan Castle, on April 18, Saito Michizo and Tsukizuru Mountain set up a formation, Akechi did not dare to send troops because of the unknown situation, on the other side because of the winter snow melt on the Hida Mountains caused the river to swell, as a guest army Oda Nobunaga did not dare to go deep alone, and could only be deployed in the relatively distant Kiso River, Tojima near the Hida River, and near Higashizobo.

Saito Michizo didn't expect Saito Yoshiryu to gather so many troops, look at his only 2,700 still loyal troops, how bitter and sad his heart is, this unsuspenseful war unfolded along the Nagara River, as soon as the Saito army vanguard general Takewaist Michijo took the lead in rushing to the front, Saito Michizo had to send a flag team to repel the Takewaist team.

Saito Yoshiryu's lieutenant general Nagaya Shikya's guard gate issued a challenge, Saito Michi's three armies responded to the battle in Shibata Kakuna, and the two sides chose to launch a surprise attack at the same time when they were on a horse, two thousand seven hundred fought hard to fight seventeen thousand five hundred, even the elite of the Kira family did not dare to do this, not to mention that the opposite side was still led by Saito Yoshiryu, a group of angry Mino people as the main force, and the three armies of Saito Michi were already doomed before the war began.

Soon the three armies of Saito Michizo were outnumbered and retreated to the bank of the Nagara River, looking at the surging river behind him, Saito Michizo knew that he had no way to escape, and the hundreds of remnants of the defeated soldiers who were sleepy and tired of horses were desperately resisting, and the sixty-three-year-old Saito Michizo was still fighting bravely, he roared loudly and scolded Saito Yoshiryu for being ungrateful, and tried to resist the attack of Saito Yoshiryu's army, and he knew very well in his heart that this battle could not be escaped.

At this time, Komaki Genta came out from the side, this old acquaintance of Saito Yoshiryu shouted, stabbed Saito Michizo in the calf, and took advantage of the old man's stumbling and falling, and cut off his head with a knife in his hand, and the fate of a generation of heroes came to an end, and Oda Nobunaga, who was watching from the wall, could only return to Qingzhou City with three thousand troops with an iron face, and vowed in his heart to wash away this shame.

Oda Nobunaga's letter swore that he must capture Mino to avenge his father-in-law, Kira Yoshitoki can also understand his thoughts, a young daimyo who is proud of the spring breeze, saw his father-in-law chopped off his head by his brother-in-law under his nose, but his strength is too weak to eat meat, so he can only run away in a gray way.

As for whether he avenged his father-in-law because his father-in-law treated him very well, he didn't need to think much about it. How can a daimyo like this have such deep feelings. Saito Michizo doesn't go to yin, this little son-in-law is very kind. Don't think about it, he must have coveted Minon's territory to avenge his father-in-law.

Kira Yoshitoki replied casually, assassinating him to the point that he had never written it out, especially emphasizing the dangers of Ichiza and the troubles he had encountered in Tsushima, so that he should be careful of the Nagashima Isuna sect in Owari, and the Isō sect of Mikawa.

"I'll remind you that it's up to you whether you can understand it or not." Kira Yoshitoki folded the letter paper and handed it to the family name, pasted it with a lacquer envelope, and sent it to Owari.

In addition to acting as a mouthpiece for Oda Nobunaga to vent his personal emotions, there is also a message from Kyoto. At the beginning of this year, Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru somehow suddenly wanted to make a plan to rebuild Kyoto, mainly to repair the towns, streets and some public facilities throughout Kyoto, and by the way, his Nijo Imperial Palace and the Emperor's Ouchiri.

As soon as this plan was proposed, it was warmly welcomed by people from all walks of life in Kyoto, and within two months, 30,000 kanbun of Yongle money was raised, and the construction was successfully started, and Sanheya received this large order worth 30,000 kanwen, and more than 1,000 skilled craftsmen from Omi and the idle population of Kyoto cooperated to complete the project.

In the process of construction, many new towns were expanded, especially some dilapidated and abandoned old towns near Ukyo were demolished and rebuilt, but this money is not to mention the ambitious goal of "reconstruction", because the price of goods in Kyoto is too expensive. The Sanhe soil used by Kira's family is not for nothing, and the cost of labor materials alone is not cheap.

The comprehensive expansion and reinforcement of the Nijo Imperial Palace required 8,000 kan. Mainly for the expansion of several sets of supporting buildings and the addition of new buildings such as the Nishi Imperial Palace, the Fishing Autumn Pavilion, and the Minamihana-in, the requirements of the shogunate were very high, and the three-story castle wall of Ishigaki, Sanhe, and lime had to be two and a half rooms high, and the three-story main castle tower could ensure that Ashikaga Yoshiteru could overlook the entire Kyoto Castle from the terrace.

The renovation of the dilapidated palace in Ouchi takes 12,000 kan, the emperor lives in Ouchi for hundreds of years, many palaces are deserted than broken temples, some palace weeds in the palace can not be over the thighs, and the repair cost is so expensive It is also a helpless thing, Ashikaga Yoshiki gritted his teeth and simply did it to the end, and it was good to sell it for more money.

It's just that in this way, there are only 10,000 kan left in 30,000 kan, and even if the castle town is rebuilt, it won't cost a lot of money, so you can only find a way to slow down the construction speed, so in the summer, Ashikaga Yoshiki wrote a letter to the daimyo in various places to ask for a copy of the imperial material money to build Kyoto.

It happened that it was during the war, and after Shinano received the news, Kira Yoshitoki only issued an edict ordering Sakamoto's money to allocate 10,000 Kanbun to pay for the shogunate, and that paying more money for this kind of prestige would only be good and not bad.

Everyone knows that the Kira family is very rich, if it weren't for the psychology of the shogun, they would be unhappy, even if they let the Kira family contract all the expenses, anyway, the Sanheya took over the construction project, and the Kira family donated 10,000 kan Yongle money, of which 3,000 kan flowed directly back into the Kira family's pocket as pure profits.

The preliminary estimate of the project will take about a year and a half, and the construction began in March and was basically completed by the end of winter after round-the-clock construction, and the Imperial Court's Ouchiri and the Shogunate's Nijo Imperial Palace were the first to be completed, and the rest of the renovation and expansion were completed, and Ashikaga Yoshiteru was praised by the emperor for this performance.

Time flies by a year has passed, the first month of the third year of Hongzhi (1557) arrived, at the beginning of this year, the imperial court conveyed the list of the new year of the minister's life, first of all, Jiuga Qingtong resigned from the two ministers, and Sheng Xu was a right minister, according to the practice of the minister, when the minister of the promotion of the top has another name, so he is called the right minister of the long world, this honorific title is the same as his ancestor Kuga Gutong is also a unique honor.

As the second son of the Konoe family, he was passed to the Kuga family as the heir when he was just one year old, and witnessed the successive declines of the imperial court and the shogunate.

The shogunate was given a new lease of life, and the court followed the times, but within a few years he had risen to the rank of a right-hand minister, and his rising status made him more confident about the future, and gradually extinguished the idea of escaping the door when life was difficult in the early years.

His son, Kuga Token, who was the same age as Kira Yoshitoki, ascended to the post of three great masters this winter and succeeded his father as the elder of the Genji. This family embodies a noble door to the fullest.

The long family is considered to be the main minister close to the Kira family. But that's far from the best news. The most surprising thing for Kira Yoshishi is that his uncle has passed the middle court, and finally crossed the threshold that has not been moved for a long time.

As the uncle of Kira Yoshishi, the middle court was not a minister in the ordinary sense, and it was not the main job to write poems and paintings lamenting the Spring and Autumn Period, as a minister with great ambitions. In the fifth year of Astronomy (1536), he began to serve the shogunate as the three senators, and he did what he could for the shogunate.

In March of the 6th year of Tenmon (1537), the Shogunate's acting official in Kaga-E-Ganoso, the local countryman Asahi Clan, defaulted on the Shogunate's taxes and caused a land lawsuit.

Later, due to the exclusion of the local people, repeated disturbances by the local sect believers, and the refusal of the Asahi clan to cooperate, the Intermediate Yuan resigned from his official position in anger and returned to Kyoto without leaving the house, until the following year, the imperial court and the shogunate were helpless and reactivated him. He was reinstated as a lieutenant general of the three senators.

As the only minister in the entire imperial court who had fought against Kaga's clan for three years, he became an absolute authority in dealing with land disputes. The Imperial Court and the Shogunate would consult him on any land dispute, and during this time, he also assisted the Yamashiro Province and the Omi Imperial Court and the Shogunate Imperial Headquarters, and succeeded in recovering some of the arrears.

With this achievement, in the leap month of the 11th year of Astronomy (1542), he was appointed as a waiter in March of the 12th year of Astronomy (1543), and in November of that year, he confronted the lord of Kaga, who was in arrears of annual tribute, Izumi Yajiro, and in the summer of that year, he went down to Kaga again.

At that time, the Central Court General was divided by the hard strategy of confiscating the fields that had been in arrears for decades, and was immediately strongly retaliated against by the people of Kaga, who had always attacked him and forced him to flee from Kaga, but the Middle Court General insisted on not leaving, and simply suppressed the people of the Tsuji Dynasty.

In May of the fifteenth year of Astronomy (1546), the shogunate finally could not support it, and issued a blockade to the land of Kaga Gadaso, and had no choice but to pack up and return to Kyoto.

Another piece of news is that the cousin of the Intermediate Court Tongmi, transferred to the three of the three Nayan in the middle of the house, the left guard lieutenant general Ruyuan, his younger brother Gang Yuanfu of the middle court Tong died of illness two years ago to cast a shadow on the middle court family, only the two-year-old second brother succeeded to the Shirakawa Bowang family as an adopted son, the contemporary family governor is nearly seventy years old Shirakawa Yaye, also known as the Yaye King, the two senators and gods of the Xuguan Zheng.

This clan is the son of Emperor Hanayama Prince Kiyohito, and his sister-in-law King Nonobu is the first ancestor of the Kaimai, serving as the secretary of the ancient god officials, as the founder of the Bojia Shinto family as a royal sacrifice, also known as Shirakawa-ryu Shinto, and the middle courtyard family is also considered a prominent one.

Last summer, Kira Yoshitoki's uncle Fang Yutai gave birth to another son, and it has been determined that he will inherit to the Rokujo family, which is a family of Kuga and is also from the Yulin family, and inheriting this family is not a child of the wronged middle courtyard family.

In addition, the imperial court also served as the five attendants of the Langoka Clan, which was written by Kira Yoshitoki himself, and the official position was taken under the operation of the Kuga Harunori and the Intermediate Court, as the minister of the Murakami Gen clan, the success of the Langoka Cabinet was also the beginning of his journey to the minister.

Ashikaga Yoshiteru relied on the praise of the emperor to catch the last train of the promotion at the beginning of this year, and the two great generals of the right guard are working hard to move in the direction of the elder Genji, but at present, the Murakami Genji Kuga family and the Nakain family are fully revived with the support of Kira Yoshitoki, and there is no hope for the Genji elder in the short term.

In addition to the people of Echigo, the people of Kita-Shinano took the initiative to come to Kasuga Yamajo Castle to celebrate the New Year, and the relatives of Ueno Province, such as Nagao, Shirai Nagao, and Ashikaga Nagao, as well as the Nagano clan, the Kohata clan, the Numata clan, the Yura clan, and other powerful people of the country, or a family, also went to the castle to congratulate him.

The once quiet and peaceful Kasuga mountain castle suddenly crowded into thousands of people, and the accompanying envoys looked curiously at the neat streets and the pedestrians who came and went in Echigo, and they were surprised to find that although they were in a white and vast world of ice and snow, the pedestrians on the road were enthusiastic about clearing the snow on the road.

Young children swooped through the crowd and disappeared into the street corner, holding pocket-sized Ashikaga Nisho two flags, and only to hear them shouting slogans about the samurai to destroy the bad guys only to realize that Echigo had become a different person.

For the samurai who rarely go out, this mission is a good opportunity to fake the public and private, and to turn over their old bottom and then owe a lot of foreign debts before coming to Echigo, in order to buy more goods here, and when they return to their hometowns after the end of the New Year's Day, they can make a fortune.

Unlike the samurai who rushed to the shop in a swarm, Nagano Yegu and Kohata Nobutsada followed a dozen or so Japanese envoys from Ueno and Shinano to wander around, not sure what to buy for the time being, looking east and west to look like a peasant samurai from the countryside, but they didn't care about the strange stares of those passers-by.

"It's only been a little over a year, and it's a big change in Echigo, people seem to be getting richer and richer, how can we do all this? Zhenfu Hall is really an enigmatic man. Nagano Yegu looked thoughtfully at the bell and drum tower in the middle of the street.

He can be sure that this was only recently built, because there was no such bell and drum tower before he left, and the bell and drum tower, which is more than nine meters high, is like a reinforced version of a civil engineering building, and in the bell and drum tower hangs a small and delicate bronze bell, and at the top of the tower hangs a huge Ashikaga two flags, which ring the bell on time from the first punctual time after the sun rises.

When the bell rings at dawn, people get up and leave their homes to start the day's work, until the last bell rings before the sun sets, and people go home from the day's work.

"There is a six-day break, no more than five hours of work, and children who have reached the age of five in the town must receive at least three years of basic education, and it is said that the new village is also doing it, which is really a big deal!" Nobusada Kohata sighed in admiration.

A Shinano samurai who was traveling with him came over and said, "I heard that the withdrawal and annexation of new villages in the entire territory of Echigo has been completed, and more than 400 castles have been demolished, 35 castle branches, and none of the new villages after the withdrawal and annexation have less than 3,000 people. ”

"It's not just that!" Although I don't know what Yoshitoki Kira thinks, Nagano Yegu still thinks it's not that simple: "It is said that the plan is to establish a house number system, a household registration system, and determine occupational categories!" It's just that I don't know what the town hall is going to do. ”

Another samurai leaned over and interjected, "Eh! Have you heard? Echigo wants to reform the tax system, abolish the previous miscellaneous taxes, change the land money into a business tax and set it at 20%, turn the material money into a tariff, and turn it into a trade goods in and out of the port, and levy 1 to 50 percent, and the specific tax on trade goods will be publicized by the Kira family! ”

"A cent of tariffs? So what else can you receive? Fifty percent tariffs are too much anyway! The group of samurai gradually gathered around the street corner, chattering and exchanging what they had seen along the way.

"That's it! Who knows what tricks the Kira family is doing. ”

"Shhhh Be quiet, you don't want to live anymore! ”

Nagano Yegu and Nobusada Kohata glanced at each other, tacitly bypassed the crowd, and squeezed into the flow of people in a flash, but disappeared after a while. (To be continued......)