different warring states of japan

Chapter 2157

In the spring of this year, Oda Nobuyuki was assassinated while touring southern Ise. Subsequently, a local uprising broke out and violently resisted taxation by refusing to pay the additional taxes and labor service required for the conquest of the peninsula.

Riots broke out in various parts of southern Ise, and the injured Oda Nobuho fled to Owari in a hurry, but he ultimately did not survive the early summer and died in Kiyosu Castle.

After Oda Nobuhashi's death, the two countries of Ise and Owari were in chaos and leaderless. All supplies to the war on the peninsula stopped, and they even didn't bother to take care of the daily military supplies.

When the samurai in various places that were once under Oda's rule saw that there was such a good thing going on, they all followed suit and started to slack off.

Anyway, there is still a national uprising in Minami Ise, and both Ise and Owari are resisting taxation. If they don’t pay, we won’t pay either.

Spring and summer are the busy seasons for transporting military supplies and mobilizing labor. Oda's former territory of 4 million koku was abandoned as well, and he immediately became the first domino to fall.

All the families under Yitiao's command were ready to make a move, and the undercurrent was surging, so they all began to wait and see.

But Hideyoshi Ichijo seemed unmoved. No one knew what she was thinking or what she was busy with. She just let the situation develop in a worse direction.

---

Owari Province, Arako Castle.

At that time, Maeda Toshimasa, as an associate of Hayashi Hidetada, was given Arashi Castle and 2,000 kan.

During the Battle of Inagaki, Oda Nobunaga's sister Oda Nobuyuki launched a rebellion. Hayashi Hidetada and Shibata Katsuie joined forces to support her, but they were badly beaten to a pulp by the fledgling Oda Nobunaga.

After surrendering, Oda Nobuyuki was decisively executed by Oda Nobunaga to eliminate future troubles.

As the leader of the military faction in the Oda family, Shibata Katsuie was appeased by Oda Nobunaga.

However, Lin Xiuzhen had a hard life. She was marginalized early on and eventually became the chicken that Oda Nobunaga killed to scare the monkeys, and was exiled.

The Maeda family of Arako Castle also experienced many twists and turns in the Battle of Inagaki. Maeda Yoshihisa, the mother of Maeda Yoshitsugu, was deprived of her status as heir after the war because she obeyed Hayashi Hidetada.

Maeda Toshiie, who fought to the death for Oda Nobunaga in the Battle of Inagaki, became the heir to the Maeda family of Arako Castle.

This was also an important reason why Maeda Toshiie and Maeda Yoshitsugu had conflicts. Of course, the bigger reason for their split was Yoshigin.

But in the end, both Maeda Toshihisa's faction and Maeda Toshiie's faction left Arako Castle and left Oda Nobunaga's army.

Although Maeda Toshimasa was still the lord of Arako Castle and a vassal of Oda Nobunaga, her two daughters were extraordinary.

One of them founded the Iga Maeda clan, and his adopted granddaughter Maeda Yoshitsugu became the Kinki general of the Sasaki clan and the magistrate of the Kinki Sasaki domain.

One of them founded the Kaga Maeda family, and his daughter Maeda Toshiie became the lord of a major domain in Hokuriku Province and the deputy governor of Owari Sabo.

Maeda Toshimasa's status rose accordingly. Although she only had 2,000 kan to live on in her old age, no one dared to have any bad thoughts towards her.

Even Oda Nobunaga, a hardworking man who couldn't stand his subordinates lying down, turned a blind eye to Maeda Toshimasa's laziness. After all, his descendants were ambitious enough.

At this time, Toshimasa Maeda encountered a troublesome situation.

She held Lin Xiuzhen's letter in her hand as if it were a hot potato.

Sitting in front of her were Maeda Rikyu and his daughter, Maeda Yoshihisa, which made her feel even more torn.

Hayashi Hidemasa was the former master of Maeda Toshimasa. Because of Inao's defeat, he was deprived of the jurisdiction of Arako Castle by Oda Nobunaga. But he was Maeda Toshimasa's benefactor after all, and the two had a deep personal relationship.

Since being exiled by Oda Nobunaga, Hayashi Hidetada has fallen into poverty.

Fortunately, in order to promote Shiba real estate and lure the Oda clan's samurai to buy it, Takata Haruno gave Hayashi Hidetsugu a house and bought horse bones for a huge sum of gold.

Think about the end of Lin Xiuzhen, and then look at yourself. From then on, in order to leave a way out for themselves, the old samurai families in Owari spent a lot of money to buy Shiba real estate, allowing Takata Haruno to earn his first pot of gold.

Oda Nobunaga was helpless. After all, everyone will grow old and weak one day and their value will be exhausted.

By that time, who wouldn't be afraid that Oda Nobunaga would destroy the bridge after crossing it? She had done this many times.

Lin Xiuzhen took advantage of the Siba family and stayed in Siba to live out her retirement. She has lived a stable and good life over the years.

This time, Oda Nobuyuki was assassinated, and the saint of the Sasaki family prepared to make efforts to win over the former samurai of Oda and let them remain neutral in the subsequent confrontation with Sasaki Ichijo.

This was in the interests of the old Owari samurai family, so Lin Xiuzhen was naturally happy to contribute.

After all, Ichijo Hideyoshi was born in a humble family and only rose to power through trickery. The old samurai of Owari were respectful to him on the surface, but in their hearts everyone looked down on this servant who once warmed Oda Nobunaga's shoes.

Maeda Rikyu brought Hayashi Hidetsugu's letter and his daughter to see Maeda Toshimasa, intending to use his old mother's connections in the Owari Takeshi family to help the saint deal with these people.

Maeda Toshimasa held Lin Xiuzhen's letter in his hand without saying anything. Maeda Rikyu still had some respect for his mother, so he did not speak for a while.

Maeda Yoshitsugu, who was standing by, was not willing to tolerate the old woman's struggle and made a sarcastic remark.

"The old samurai of Owari fought for the Oda clan and conquered a vast territory, gaining a great reputation.

But now the times have changed. Oda Nobunaga is dead, and the former Oda clan is in disarray and has been manipulated at will by the traitor Hideyoshi Ichijo.

The saint is kind and cannot bear to embarrass his old friends in Owari. He just hopes that everyone will be more sensible and not make trouble. I don’t know what you are still struggling with. Do you think that Hideyoshi Ichijo still has a chance of winning against the invincible saint? "

Maeda Yoshiyuki was sarcastic and mocking. She had long been fed up with Maeda Toshimasa.

At that time, Maeda Toshimasa was wavering between the two sides, and finally he pushed Maeda Yoshimasa's mother Maeda Toshihisa as a scapegoat to get away with it, and was not liquidated by Oda Nobunaga.

After that, Maeda Toshimasa basically went with the flow. She would kowtow to whoever came to rule the former Oda territory, whether it was Shibata Katsuie, Oda Nobukatsu, or Ichijo Hideyoshi.

Such spineless and cunning old samurai families in Owari were not uncommon in the former Oda territory and could be found everywhere.

They were just a bunch of useless people, and it was only because they met the powerful Oda Nobunaga that they unexpectedly gained power, status, and wealth that they had never dared to dream of in their entire lives.

Now that Oda Nobunaga is dead, their spirits have been deflated, and they only want to guard the power and territory they have already obtained, and slowly decay.

People with ability would have already followed Shibata Katsuie, Ichijo Hideyoshi and others to do the work. Those who are still reminiscing about the past and guarding their own little plots of land are all incompetent people who have lost their blood.

And Toshimasa Maeda is a typical example.

Therefore, compared with his mother Maeda Rikyu, Maeda Yoshihisa's tone was even more impolite and he did not take Maeda Toshimasa seriously.

Maeda Yoshitsu is the current head of the Iga Maeda family and the mother of the descendants of Sasaki, with an extraordinary political status.

More importantly, she had no blood relationship with Maeda Toshimasa, and had no feelings for this cheap grandmother. Instead, she was full of disgust.

Maeda Toshimasa smiled helplessly and looked at Maeda Toshihisa, who said calmly.

"Mother, are you waiting for news from the Li family?"

Maeda Toshimasa got a chance and nodded quickly.

"Yes, Li Jia is a steady person. I would also like to hear her opinion first."

Maeda Riku smiled and said
"Li Jia is also busy working for the saint. I'm afraid she won't be able to return to Arashi Castle for a while. She is lobbying with Fuba Mitsuharu."

Maeda Toshimasa's pupils shrank slightly.

Don't break the light.

The starting point for Oda Nobunaga to step onto the stage of dominating the world was to conquer Mino Province and control the rich base of Nobi Plain, and from then on he soared to fame.

After conquering Mino Province, Oda Nobunaga had been trying to win over the samurai of western Mino and suppress the samurai of eastern Mino in order to complete his control over Mino Province.

Among the Nishimino samurai, the one Oda Nobunaga trusted the most was not the Nishimino Three, but Fuwa Mitsuharu.

Although in the war between Owari and Mino, Fuwa Mitsuharu caused a lot of trouble to Oda Nobunaga.

But after surrendering, Fuwa Mitsuharu served the new king consistently. He was much more useful than Ando Mamoru, who was a hypocrite in appearance but actually was a hypocrite.

The main force of the Oda army's conquest was mainly from Owari and Mino, while the samurai in Omi, Ise, Echizen and Settsu were latecomers.

Therefore, the middle-level samurai who received rewards from Oda Nobunaga and were granted fiefs in various places mostly came from Owari and Mino. They were the core force of Oda's former territory.

Fuba Mitsuharu first followed Oda Nobunaga in the expedition against Omi and Ise, and was later sent to Shibata Katsuie as a retainer and fiefdom in Echizen.

After Shibata Katsuie was defeated, Ichijo Hideyoshi did not make things difficult for Fuwa Mitsuharu, who assisted Shibata Katsuie in the battle, and continued to use her in order to win over the Mino samurai.

It can be said that Fuba Mitsuharu represented the tendencies of a large part of the Mino samurai.

Because of the relationship between the two daughters of the Maeda family, Maeda Toshimasa played an obvious role as a bridge between the Sasaki family and the old retainers of Oda, and she was also willing to wait for a good price.

But a word from Maeda Toshihisa immediately extinguished Maeda Toshimasa's hope of luck.

You, Maeda Toshimasa, are unwilling to help, but there are many other people who are rushing to join the saint and to work for him. If you continue to hesitate now, it would be irresponsible to the Maeda family of Araki City.

There is a clear division of labor between Maeda Toshiie and Maeda Toshihisa.

Maeda Toshiie had harmonious relations with all the old samurai families in Owari, especially during the years when Mino was divided, he was also able to communicate with the Mino samurai.

Maeda Toshihisa brought Maeda Yoshiharu to Arashi Castle to make the old fox Maeda Toshimasa realize the situation and not to push his luck further.

Although both Maeda families originated from the Maeda family of Araki Castle, Maeda Toshihisa and Maeda Riku had a tacit understanding when it came to cheating their old mother in their hometown.

Back then, the two sisters divided up the retainers and connections of the Maeda family in Araki Castle and developed on their own, causing the Maeda family in Araki Castle to fall into decline in recent years and no one has a business to pursue.

And now, the two sisters can use both good and bad cops to plot against my mother, which makes Maeda Toshimasa feel suffocated.

Maeda Toshimasa sighed helplessly.

“You two sisters have already figured it out, why are you asking me?
You can do whatever you want. I am old now, and you will decide the future of the Maeda family."

Maeda Rikyu smiled slightly, and bowed deeply to Maeda Rikyu, who had an indifferent expression on his face.

"Please rest assured, mother, and leave the future of the Maeda family to us."