A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

The general's royal letter has been issued, and Takeda Harunobu's goal of controlling Suruga has been achieved. After a slight hesitation, he accepted it.

However, Yamauchi Yoshiharu could not calm down. The whole country of Yuejiang had been defeated. Regardless of whether there was the endorsement of the general or not, this was already an established fact. As for the guardianship of Shinano, it is naturally good. After all, having a guardianship in Shinano within Yamauchi has the prestige of ruling. But Suruga is the fundamental and critical point of this fight.

In order to show fairness and to ensure that Takeda Harunobu could accept the mediation of his general, Ashikaga Yoshiteru not only recognized the inheritance rights of Imagawa Hikoro and Imagawa Yoshiki at the same time. He also gave the position of guardian of Suruga, the guardian of the tenth generation of the Imagawa clan, to Imagawa Hikoro, but at this time Suruga was divided into three, and the winner had not yet been decided.

But the Yamauchi family was raising the banner of supporting the shogunate and fighting thieves. How could they not obey the shogunate's orders? If you don't listen, you will slap yourself in the face. Yamauchi Yoshiharu cannot afford to embarrass this person. He is also the uncle of Ashikaga Yoshiteru. Even if his eldest nephew throws a piece of shit, he will catch it with tears.

There is only one point of conflict between the two parties at the moment. Since the general has recognized the two sons at the same time, each of them has a country, then the Suruga Shita County, which has been occupied by the Yamauchi family, should be returned to Takeda Harunokata.

Of course, the Yamauchi family refused to give in. They had already suffered a loss. It was impossible to spit out the meat in their mouths. However, Takeda always used the general's royal letter as an argument. The general of the Suruga Empire, who was led by Imagawa Yoshimoto, was awarded to Imagawa Hikogoro, which has nothing to do with the Yamauchi family.

Just for such a territory of five to six thousand guan, the two sides went back and forth and argued with each other for three days. In the end, Kai's wheat was ripe. Takeda Harunobu was reluctant to part with the small 100,000 kilograms of wheat, fearing that the harvest would be late and it would affect drying and storage. Only then did he reluctantly agree to shelve the dispute, maintain the status quo, and discuss it later.

So under the witness of the official envoy Mibuchi Fujitaka and the imperial envoy Nakato Nobuhiro, Imagawa Yoshiuchi and Imagawa Hikoro officially succeeded the Suruga Imagawa family and the Toe Imagawa family respectively. At the same time, the Yamauchi family and the Takeda family behind the two once again entered into a two-year no-war agreement, although both sides felt that it was unreliable.

Then the two armies each led their troops and retreated. Takeda Harunobu left his son Takeda Yoshinobu and his family's old man Tomohomasa to command Suruga, and hurriedly withdrew. Although the Hojo clan lost the opportunity to aspire to the Imagawa throne, they used this opportunity to restore the Izu Kingdom and the Kadong region in one fell swoop, and occupied the Fuji Jinshan Mountains, which produced thousands of taels of gold annually. The new territory of more than 30,000 guan brought the power of the Hojo family to a higher level. They completely emerged from the shadow after being defeated by Uesugi and became a great name with more than 100,000 guan.

Takeda occupies Abe Kaneyama, which produced 6,000 taels of gold annually at its peak, as well as the four most fertile counties of Abe, Anhara, Ariwa, and Masuzu in Suruga. He has completely recovered from the weakness caused by the disastrous defeat in the Uedahara War in the past, and has become one of the 100,000-gun daimyo.

The Yamauchi family's mobilization of all the people's power this time can be considered as a little reward. The whole country of Yuanjiang has been captured, and the national power has expanded to 150,000 guan, which is enough to look down on the heroes of the sea.

On the way back to the army, Koheita hurriedly sent someone to send a message to Konishiharazaemon who was guarding the border of Toe Mikawa, asking him to let go. Allowed the scattered soldiers of the Imagawa Army to escape back.

According to Koheita's estimation, although most of the Suruga Knights died in the battle, some people would still escape. Putting these people back in Suruga and their respective territories would make Takeda Harunobu sick to death even if they couldn't start a rebellion.

Yamauchi Yoshiharu was convinced when he heard this. Although his son also inherited the Imagawa clan, those samurai whose territory was in Suruga would definitely not be able to keep them. Their wives and children were all in Suruga.

But Yuanjiang's samurai can recruit all of them to stay, enriching the Yuanjiang ancestors of the Yamauchi family, and allowing Yuanjiang to quickly raise a cannon fodder team to fight.

At this time, Owari Narumi Castle and Okabe Gennobu gathered the unbroken soldiers and not only attacked Kariya Castle, but also killed Mizuno Nobuchichi. For a time, Owari's southern Mikawa west side was Okabe Motonobu's strongest force, occupying as many as 20,000 to 30,000 castle territories. Combined with the strength of his brother Okabe Masatsuna, the two combined were no less than four thousand.

However, he used such a huge territory to formally negotiate with Oda Nobunaga, and then rode into Kiyosu Castle alone. Not only did he retrieve the head of Imagawa Yoshimoto, he also exchanged other captured flags, drums, and honor guards. .

It stands to reason that with such a large number of troops and territory, anyone would have some different thoughts, but Okabe Motobu did not. He happily handed over all the castles after holding a grand ceremony for Yoshimoto at Oda Nobunaga and building the Uprising Genzuka in Aichi County. He returned to Suruga with his troops and Yoshimoto's head.

So much so that Nobunaga couldn't help but praise this man as a "true samurai". The story of Narumi exchanging Yoshimoto spread throughout Owari and Mikawa in an instant, and spread to other places. This loyal and unrivaled samurai received unanimous praise from both the enemy and ourselves on the battlefield. If he hadn't wanted to kill Yoshimoto, Nobunaga would have tried to persuade him.

After bidding farewell to Nobunaga, he also allowed the Mikawa and Toe soldiers under Okabe Motonobu's command to leave the team and return home along the way. After entering Toe, he also discovered that the Imagawa family had changed in just one month.

Everyone in the Yamauchi family is naturally very familiar with this true warrior. He was also the negotiator during the Tenryu River War, and now the glorious story of Narumi exchanging Yoshimoto has been heard. Even Yamauchi Yoshiharu was moved. The anti-Justice Gen was dead. It would be better for such a samurai to return to Suruga to take advantage of Takeda's old thief than to take advantage of himself.

Okabe Motobu was noncommittal, but insisted that Yoshitoshi return to his hometown and be buried next to his father and brother in Suruga.

Koheita also admired this person, but everyone has their own ambitions, and finally suggested Yamauchi Yoshiharu not to force others. Moreover, such a samurai who is loyal to Imagawa will definitely conflict with the Takeda family who wants to annex the Imagawa clan, and it may work wonders.

So Yamauchi Yoshiharu generously presented a batch of food and weapons to Okabe Gennobu and asked him to return to Suruga.

After Okabe Motonobu left, another major player, Asahina Taitomo, relied on his familiarity with the geography of the distant river and went through all kinds of hardships, drilling into ravines and wading rivers, and arrived at Ejiri with Okabe Motonobu.

He reacted much more violently than Okabe Motonobu. When he heard that his two cousins ​​had become Imagawa's sworn relatives, his son Taromaru had become Yamauchi Yoshiharu's son-in-law, and his master had also become Imagawa. Adopted relatives. Not sure whether to cry or laugh, I was silent for a long time.

When Asahina Carpenter told him that Ashikaga Yoshiteru's royal letter recognized that Imagawa Yoshiuchi was Imagawa Yoshimoto's successor, their family did not count as surrender, but only supported a cheap son of Imagawa Yoshimoto. This person didn't understand why, it was just a fig leaf, and he sighed dejectedly. He paid homage to Imagawa Yoshimika and confirmed his identity as master and slave. At this time, Yuanjiang finally belonged to the Yamauchi clan.

After everything was done, Yamauchi Yoshiharu said "wait a minute."