different warring states of japan

Chapter 2132: A Handle to Suppress Dissidents

Ii Naomasa looked at Yoshigin in surprise. He didn't expect that the saint would be so angry.

In fact, in the view of Ii Naomasa, the temporary cooperation with Ichijo Hideyoshi will not affect the future struggle for the world between the two sides.

But it seems that the saint has no intention of leaving any thoughts to the samurai under his command. He is using Date Masamune to make an example of him.

Ii Naomasa believed that if Date Masamune was not the mother of the descendants of God, the saint might have used more violent and thunderous means to deal with her.

But the mere punishment of withdrawing from Yonezawa now is enough to break the heart of the Date family.

The Yonezawa Basin is the hometown of Date Masamune, and to the south are Aizu and Fukushima, the two gateways to the Kanto Plain.

After the death of Gamo Ujisato, the four counties of Aizu were assigned by the saint to Sanada Nobushige.

Now that Kenshin Uesugi has taken Yonezawa, Date Masamune is left with only Fukushima.

Judging from the colleagues entertained by Harada Munetoki, Date Masamune wanted to unite with Uesugi Sanada and write to the saint together, hoping to get a share of the spoils in the war of aggression against the peninsula by the Ichijo Legion.

After all, most of the retainers of the Uesugi and Sanada families are warlike and willing to expand their power, and they are likely to accept Date Masamune's advice.

However, the saint's arrangement to hand over Yonezawa to the Uesugi family immediately made the relationship between the three families of Uesugi, Date and Sanada become subtle and complicated.

The Uesugi family took over Yonezawa and looked down on Aizu and Yonezawa. At this time, even if Uesugi Kenshin wanted to make friends with Sanada Date, the other two families might not be interested in talking.

Sanada Nobushige is in control of Aizu, and the surrounding territories are all occupied by divine families, so he should just live a carefree life.

Date Masamune suffered the most. After losing Aizu and Yonezawa, he only had Fukushima left, and in the south he was blocked by the Takeda family's Hitachi Province.

In such a predicament, if she still has the desire to expand, she can only turn north and see if there is anything she can chew on in northern Mutsu.

The saint's move of three-party checks and balances immediately broke the possible consensus reached by Uesugi, Date and Sanada. He used the Oshu sect to divide the relationship among the three parties and prevented Date Masamune from making any more mistakes.

In the Kanto Plain, the territories of the Uesugi, Hojo, Takeda, and Shima families are intertwined, and there is also the Furukawa territory in the middle as a buffer zone to ease the atmosphere.

As for Aizu, Fukushima and Yonezawa, the three families of Uesugi, Date and Sanada are almost competing head-on, so they are bound to be suspicious of each other.

The saint wanted to completely cut off the possibility of the three parties joining forces. He was extremely ruthless and his attitude was very clear, leaving no room for misunderstanding.

Although Ii Naomasa didn't understand why the saint was so sensitive, since the saint's will was clear, there was no need to deliberately cause trouble for himself and he could only obey.

Even though Ii Naomasa had gotten over it, Yoshigaki was still upset.

From the moment Hideyoshi Ichijo set foot on the peninsula, she was Yoshigin's mortal enemy.

Whether it is to fight for the island nation or to safeguard the interests of the Celestial Empire, there is no room for maneuver between Yiyin and Hideyoshi, and the fight will end to the death.

No one understood this except Yiyin.

The warriors of the island nation didn't understand why the saint who always weighed the pros and cons would become so stubborn. As for the Celestial Empire, they didn't know at this time that they had such a loyal fan base in the island nation.

And Yiyin now has only one thought in his mind: whoever prevents the Sōma family from becoming a dog of the imperial court will be killed.

Therefore, even though Harada Munetoki was dead and Date Masamune had suffered a great loss, Yoshigaki still refused to give up because he knew the nature of the samurai too well.

The Ichijo Legion invaded the peninsula, and the first wave of offensives was extremely profitable, which would fuel Ichijo Hideyoshi's ambitions, but would also make the Sasaki family, who had no chance to share in the profits, salivate. The peninsula army had been defeated, and before the Celestial Empire's army entered the peninsula, the Ichijo Legion had no rivals on the peninsula and could act recklessly. The military intelligence it received would become more and more beautiful and tempting.

Simply punishing Date Masamune would not be enough to suppress the restlessness of his subordinates. Yoshigin must prepare for the future and find ways to crack down on the jackals and tigers under his command and make them obedient.

And the matter of Tobita Shinchi seems to come in handy.

At the beginning, Yiyin was just angry that this place was full of filth and that two high-level warriors had died inexplicably. He just wanted to know the truth.

But now, Yiyin's mind has changed.

Nagano Yoshimori and Harada Munetoki died well!

It turned out that these guys were secretly planning to collude with Ichijo Hideyoshi to invade the peninsula and cause trouble for the Celestial Empire.

  They deserve to die!

The location of Tobita Shinchi is right on the dividing line between the Shiba Ichijo and Shiba Ichijo families. The Yodo River is one line, and Sakai Port Ishiyama is another line.

The two sides are intertwined, and they are windows for spying on each other, and also the platform that is most likely to incite the other side's martial arts family.

If the Ichijo family were allowed to use the Tobita Shinchi platform to continuously display their huge gains from invading the peninsula and arouse the interest of the Sasaki clan's samurai, it would be too troublesome for Yoshigin.

Before the Celestial Empire's army intervened in the peninsula and before the arrogant Ichijo Legion suffered a setback, Yoshigin had to suppress this window of opportunity and not give Ichijo Hideyoshi the opportunity to incite the samurai under his command.

And this case of Tobita Shinchi is the best handle that Yiyin can find now.

From this moment on, Yiyin no longer cared about the truth. This case had special political significance.

Yiyin is no longer the Yiyin he used to be. He has experienced too many things over the years. Killing people is nothing. As long as it doesn't kill his women and children, it is just a small matter.

Yoshigaki no longer cared how Nagano Yoshimori and Harada Munetoki died. He wanted to use the case of Tobita Shinchi to intimidate the samurai under his command who were ready to make a move.

Yiyin rubbed his temples. He had to think carefully and sort out his thoughts before Yukino arrived.

Waving his hand to let Naomasa Ii, Sae Matsue and other people from the Tongxin Secretariat leave first, Yoshigin tapped on the documents and fell into deep thought.

Zhu Ji tiptoed away, and Matsukami Sae was confused and was still thinking about what to do.

She didn't know what the saint was thinking, she only knew that the saint was going to let the butcher Takada Yukino to investigate the case. It was not easy to fool those Mibu wolves, what if they uncovered the truth.

Just as her mind was wavering, she suddenly heard Ii Naomasa shouting.

"Who is there!"

Matsukami Sae looked carefully and saw a small shadow in the blind spot where the porch turned. It was obvious that someone was hiding there and eavesdropping.

Ii Naomasa's shout made the outer guards nervous. Tachibana Kanade, who was standing outside, waved his hand with a cold face, and several of his followers slowly stepped forward, holding sword handles.

The next moment, a pretty little girl poked her head out from the shadows, stuck out her tongue cutely, and said.

"Lord Ii has a very good eye. I was discovered even though I hid so well!"

Everyone's expressions relaxed at once. Ii Naomasa smiled bitterly, shook his head, and bowed.

"Second Prince, this is not a place to play hide-and-seek."