Takigawa Tokiyoshi is two years younger than Maeda Toshiie. Both of them are tall among a group of short people, but Takigawa Tokiyoshi is taller and stronger. When he stared at Maeda Toshiie's
The evil spirit released inadvertently made him feel cold all over, and his eyes looked as if two sharp knives were about to poke holes in his body.
Maeda Toshiie secretly said bitterly. He had experienced many battles in the past few years. Ever since he accidentally killed Juami and experienced a short-lived life in exile, he realized that the most important thing for a samurai is not the favor of his lord, but his own.
The method of commanding troops and the power of bravery, just like Shibata Katsuie, who offended Oda Nobunaga as much as he did, but he only sat on the bench for a few years and then came back to power. He just killed a humble comrade by mistake and was killed.
exile.
In the past few years, he has been working hard to practice martial arts. He wrote a sincere letter of atonement and asked for forgiveness, and was forgiven by Oda Nobunaga to return to Japan. In the ensuing Battle of Okehazama, he sought the death of several members of the Imagawa family.
The general not only returned to the Red Mother's Clothes because of his merits, he was also promoted to the leader of the Red Mother's Clothes, and his status was much stronger than before.
Maeda Toshiie didn't want to cause trouble, so he replied: "We are samurai from the Owari Oda family. We have important matters to see the mayor. My name is Maeda Toshiie. I saw your appearance just now and thought you were my nephew Maeda Kei."
Taro, I'm sorry for admitting the wrong person."
"Owari Samurai Maeda Toshiie..." Takigawa Tokimasu suppressed his excitement and asked in a trembling voice: "So what is the relationship between Maeda Zonin-den and you?"
"Zouto Maeda is my elder brother. I didn't know you were..." Maeda Toshiie looked at him with some uncertainty.
Takigawa Keijiro sighed and said: "My name is Takigawa Tokimasu. More than ten years ago, my elder brother, Keitaro, went to Owari with his uncle Takigawa Kazumasushi. It is said that he was adopted as an adopted son by Maeda Zouto, the lord of Arakoko Castle in Owari Province.
Just because the relationship between my father and my uncle is bad, we haven’t contacted each other for more than ten years. I wonder how my brother is doing?"
Maeda Toshiie seemed particularly happy and said kindly and enthusiastically: "It turns out to be Takikawa-den! I have heard about the reputation of Takikawa-den for a long time and I am very envious. I didn't expect that they are actually related by marriage. Keitaro lived a good life in Arashi Castle.
As the heir to the family governor, I assist my brother. Speaking of which, I met him once a few months ago and got married to my brother’s daughter last year.”
In fact, Maeda Toshiie had already guessed this possibility when he called Takigawa Tokimasu. He knew very well the ins and outs of how his sickly Maeda Tokiyoshi welcomed Takigawa Kazumasu's nephew. At the same time, he also knew that there was Takigawa Masushige in Echigo.
The father and son Takigawa Shimasu are probably Takigawa Kazuki's closest relatives, but Takigawa Kazuki has never mentioned this matter in front of others, and he is not sure about the relationship between Takigawa Shimasu and his cheap nephew.
How close they are to each other, all they know is that they are from the Takigawa clan and have Keitaro and Keijiro as their childhood names.
Takigawa Shiyi relaxed. He nodded and said, "So my brother is already married! That's perfect... By the way! What's your name?"
"The name is for the benefit of Keitaro Maeda."
"Is Maeda interested? He looks pretty good." Takigawa Shimasu raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "I hope my brother can be an excellent samurai, but I remember that my temperament seems to be different from my brother's. No.
He likes the samurai life of fighting and killing too much. He also likes literature and singing more. I wonder how he is doing now?"
Maeda Toshiie said with a smile: "It's probably like what Takikawa-den said! He studied Waka Tea Ceremony, and his understanding of the bow and horse method is still relatively superficial. Keitaro's ambition is to be an excellent priest, and his brother also supports him very much.
decision."
"Well! It's enough for the Takigawa family to have me as a warrior who goes into battle. Let my brother pass on the Maeda family's ancestral lineage properly..." Takikawa Tokiichi slapped his head and said awkwardly: "Hey! Look at me, I'm stupid!
This is not a place to chat and reminisce. Since you are the envoys from the Owari Oda family, please come with me! Go directly to Kasugayama Castle to stay!"
The so-called four joys of life include meeting an old friend in a foreign land. Although the Owari samurai is far from being considered an old friend of Takikawa Tokiyoshi, once his biological brother is involved, it becomes a different story. He completely regards Maeda Toshiie as his own.
Not only did he invite him to his house as a guest, he also notified his father, Takigawa Masushige, to come with him to reminisce about the past. Maeda Toshiie told about the life of his brother Maeda Masashige in Arakoko Castle. The situation changed in the dictation of Maeda Toshiie.
Very warm.
In fact, the relationship between Maeda Toshiie and Maeda Toshihisa was not as close as imagined. Because Maeda Toshiie was weak and had no children but had to forcibly adopt the Takigawa family's son, the four Maeda brothers had a falling out and almost split up, as did the Maeda Toshike family.
Unable to stay in Arashi Castle during this turmoil, he relied on his outstanding appearance to become Oda Nobunaga's follower.
Maeda Toshiie hated his elder brother from the bottom of his heart. Although he was very sick and had no heirs, he was unwilling to adopt his brothers as the heirs of the family governor. Instead, he wanted to find an adopted son from a samurai family who was not from Owari and was from the clan of Maeda Toshihisa's wife.
From the perspective of him and many members of the Maeda family, this was a foolish move by his brother to favor his relatives and disregard the safety of the family.
Just because of a battle for heirship, the unity that the Maeda family had accumulated over the years was destroyed. Maeda Toshiie relied on his appearance and martial arts to lead his younger brother Yoshiyuki Sawaki to become a member of the Red Mother Clothes. After ten years of struggle and accumulation, they
The two brothers are no less than the rigid Maeda Toshihisa, and even more so in terms of their lord's trust.
And since that incident, the Maeda Toshi family rarely returned to Aroko Castle to visit relatives, especially since they had just married Osomatsu as their wife a few years ago and gave birth to their eldest daughter, Yukihime, to build a warm family, so they were even more reluctant to do so.
Returning to that indifferent Arakko Castle to look at his brother's face, he couldn't say that in front of Takigawa Masushige and Takigawa Keijiro. He could only try his best to recall the stories that Mr. Lingling had seen with his own eyes and heard with his own ears.
The father and son listened.
The two of them were very happy to hear that their son's position as the heir of the family governor was very stable. They also learned that the Maeda Toshie was getting married and had children in Qingzhou City and settled into a small family. They presented the Maeda Toshie with the Nagaboshi Tachiichi, which was made by Soga and Hei.
Handle, a carefully selected Mutsu horse, one hundred Yongle coins, twenty pieces of various kinds of fabrics, and a carriage and two pack horses for transportation. He also asked Maeda Toshiie to take good care of this.
Son, this wealth should be regarded as a reward.
Maeda Toshiie did not expect to get so many good things in just one night. The generosity of the Takigawa family and his son was completely beyond his expectation. The Owari samurai who came with him all had their eyes turned red with envy.
Kinoshita Hideyoshi circled around Maeda Toshiie, hoping to elicit from him the situation of the Takikawa father and son.
Niwa Nagahide was very happy and said with a smile: "His Royal Highness Toshiie has really encountered a good thing! Not only is it a good thing for the Maeda family, it is also a great good thing for my Oda family. Take advantage of the kinship between the two Takigawa-dens.
It may yield unexpected results, so I ask His Highness Toshiie to move around frequently and contact His Highness Takigawa."
"I understand!" Maeda Toshiie did not expect that he could also be the breakthrough for this mission. However, he knew very well that the influence he could have on the Takigawa father and son was very limited. After all, Maeda Keitaro was already the adopted son of the Maeda family for more than ten years.
In a matter of years, he had become an out-and-out Maeda family samurai.
The father and son of the Takigawa family knew the rules of the Wu family very well, but they just missed the eldest son for a while to visit their hometown. It was absolutely impossible to expect them to favor the Oda family because of this matter, and the Takigawa father and son had no choice in the end.
This is also the reason why he directly gave Keitaro Maeda some wealth.
It's not that the father and son are reluctant to spend this little money, but they are worried that rashly intervening in the Maeda family's affairs will cause a strong backlash. The adopted son's father disappeared for more than ten years and suddenly appeared and brought a lot of good things that Aragoko City could not give.
.What kind of meaning will this allow the Maeda family samurai to interpret?
Whether it is interpreted as trying to steal Keitaro Maeda as the heir to the family governor, or taking the opportunity to interfere in the Maeda family's internal affairs, it will have a huge negative impact on Keitaro Maeda, and at the same time, it may cause turmoil and disaster to the Maeda family.
Putting Maeda Keitaro in huge danger, the father and son would never dare to do such an out-of-bounds thing.
Niwa Nagahide summoned everyone and said solemnly: "Everyone should know how urgent my lord is in urging me this time. A few years ago, my lord tried to explore the possibility of marriage in the exchange of letters with the Lord of the Town. In the end, the Lord was rejected by the Town.
The lord tried to get around it but failed. This time we came to the mission under huge pressure. This marriage alliance involves the future development of our Oda family and the safety of our family. The order given by the lord is that only success is allowed and no failure is allowed.
If there is an emergency, there is no need to go back to Owari."
Kinoshita Hideyoshi asked with some worry: "I have a question! No need to go back to whether Owari was exiled or..."
"Of course he committed seppuku! Wouldn't Tokichiro still want to be exiled for a few years before returning to Owari?" Sasaki Narimasa seemed to have a grudge against him, always using harsh words to ridicule Kinoshita Hideyoshi, every time
He was so sarcastic that he couldn't even raise his head. Of course, this time, without exception, he stared at him and chased him.
Kinoshita Hideyoshi looked at the sharp expression on Sasaki Narimasa's face in disbelief, and then looked at Maeda Toshiie's unfazed expression, and muttered in a low voice: "If you fail, you will commit seppuku. This is too harsh! You clearly shoulder the responsibility.
With such a dangerous mission, why doesn’t anyone look nervous at all?”
Maeda Toshiie scratched his chin and showed a troubled expression: "It's hard to say whether he will commit seppuku or not, but if he fails, he will definitely not be able to return to Owari! Speaking of which, why do I always encounter such dangerous tasks!
If I had known earlier, I should have found an opportunity to pretend to be sick in Qingshu City. If I really failed and were exiled from Owari Province, Osomatsu and Yukihime would definitely be sad!"
"That's right! Ah Chun is still at home waiting for me to go back! He will be sad if he really can't go home! My father-in-law Zhengsheng will not force Ah Chun to divorce me and remarry!" Zuo
Sasana Masa also began to feel distressed. Several brothers of the Sasaka family died on the battlefield. Without the protection of his brothers, the Oda family could only climb up from the grassroots level as a samurai. If this mission failed, no one would show mercy.
It is very likely that he will be exiled.
The more I thought about it, the more troubled and angry I felt. I turned my head to the side and saw the stunned Kinoshita Hideyoshi. I couldn't help but continue to mock: "Among us samurai, you are the only one, Tokichiro, who has never touched a woman, right? Your Highness, Katsuzaburo.
To marry the daughter of Arao Sakuemon-don, you are the only one who has not yet made an engagement, right? You should work harder to find a woman to marry before you are thirty!"
Ikeda Tsuneki patted Sasanagi Masa on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Hey! Uchizosuke doesn't know about this, right? Tokichiro seems to have taken a liking to the daughter of the Asano family, and I heard that he plans to propose marriage to His Highness Asano Mataemon.
, that woman’s name seems to be Ning Ning, right?”
Maeda Toshiie looked at Kinoshita Hideyoshi in surprise, and said with amazement: "There is still such a thing? Then I must congratulate Tokichiro in advance!"
Kinoshita Hideyoshi panicked and explained: "It's okay. Don't listen to His Highness Hengxing's nonsense. If it reaches His Highness Asano Mataemon, it will ruin a woman's beauty."
Tsuneki Ikeda shrugged indifferently, seeming to say that I can't guarantee whether it's true or not. At that time, Sasanagi Masa still asked: "Will His Highness Asano Mataemon agree? I always feel that it is difficult to agree."
"In fact, it's not difficult! As long as we can successfully complete this mission, the reward given by the lord will be enough for Tokichiro to switch to a full-time job." Niwa Nagahide turned to encourage Kinoshita Hideyoshi: "So please invite Tokichiro.
We must work harder and strive for success so that we can return to Owari in triumph, and then all the samurai here will help Tokichiro propose marriage!"
Kinoshita Hideyoshi vowed: "I, Hideyoshi, will do my best! I will never let this mission fail!"
A few days later, at Ohiroma in Kasugayama Castle, Kira Yoshi met with an envoy headed by Niwa Nagahide, including Maeda Toshiie, Sasana Narimasa, Ikeda Tsuneki, Kinoshita Hideyoshi and other samurai. Niwa Nagahide bowed respectfully: "
My Majesty, Niwa Gorozaemon Captain Hide, pays homage to His Highness the Prince of Jinfu. On behalf of my lord, I would like to wish the Ashikaga clan a long military career and good health to His Highness the Lord Jinfu!"
"My thoughts go out to you, Oda Daman, and I also wish him good health and a long career in martial arts." Kira Yoshi looked at the mission with a smile, and was full of curiosity, because he had already learned about the main composition of the mission through Kira Ninja.
These illustrious warriors were full of curiosity and inquiry.
Maeda Toshiie is the largest and most conspicuous. The skinny and short Kinoshita Hideyoshi's performance of secretly looking around is also very eye-catching. Sasaki Narimasa takes care of himself meticulously like a serious and rigid samurai. Ikeda Tsuneki lowers his head and stills
No hope scratched his cheek like a restless guy. Kira Yoshiki never expected to meet such a group of Oda family retainers on such an occasion, and they couldn't even say a word, which made him feel
Very interesting.
Niwa Nagahide didn't know what Kira Yoshitoki was thinking, but when he saw the fellow samurai who were sizing him up, he quickly introduced: "These are my colleagues, Maeda Mataemon Toshiie, Sasanaizou Suke Narimasa,
There is Kinoshita Tokichiro..."
Kira Yoshitsune also found that he had been staring at them for too long. He was so distracted that he didn't notice it, so he unnaturally concealed it and said: "These are all ministers of the Oda family! Oda Danzheng is so loyal.
He is very good at cultivating his retainers, and they are all very good!"
The young samurai who were cowering behind and did not dare to raise their heads suddenly became excited. Even the polite words from Kira Yoshiki were enough to make them feel honored. Niwa Nagahide did not expect that it would go so smoothly, so he said happily: "I'm here
I came here on the order of my lord, to discuss the terms of alliance and marriage with the Lord of the Town. My Lord was very emotional when he mentioned that he and the Lord of the Town met in the Shouchi River and Kawara more than ten years ago!
Thinking back to that afternoon of the style calendar eleven years ago, I, Oda Saburo Nobunaga, met Kira Saburo in Shouchi River and Kawahara. It was destiny... Thanks to the many cares of the town master in the past ten years, my Oda family has been able to go smoothly.
In order to maintain the control of the Owari Kingdom, the timely notification of the information by the town master Okehazama, and the guidance like a beacon allowed the Oda family to win a great victory...
Therefore, my lord hopes to become friends with the town master forever, enter into a covenant, form a kinship, continue to extend and strengthen this friendship, and establish an alliance to watch and support each other in order to cope with this troubled world."
Niwa Nagahide said a lot of sensational words, and there was even a long paragraph of Oda Nobunaga recalling the story of the past. It took half a quarter of an hour for this letter of faith to come down, during which several members of the Kira family passed on.
Attempts to interrupt by coughing failed, and it was not until the long letter was finally read that everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Honda Tokimasa couldn't bear to remind him: "It's better to use destiny between men and women..."
Niwa Nagahide also felt very embarrassed, but he had to continue to perform the routine designed by his lord, so he could only continue to pretend to be stupid and ask: "How about using the arrangement of gods and Buddhas instead?"
"Forget it... I won't worry about it anymore." Honda shook his head helplessly. He finally understood what it means to be shameless and invincible. All the samurai present expressed their dissatisfaction with this behavior of the Oda family.
Takigawa Tokiyoshi's brows furrowed tightly and he turned to Shima Tokikatsu and said, "The governor of the Oda family has gone too far! Aren't you afraid that your lord will be furious if you say such shameless words?"
Shima Tokikatsu spread his hands and said helplessly: "Maybe he expected that even if the lord is angry again, he will not embarrass him! Or maybe he has some trump card, but His Highness seems to be very angry."
The samurai present all turned their gazes to Kira Yoshi's face. Seeing His Highness Kōkata's face turn blue after being picked up, they knew that there was most likely something wrong with what Oda Tanshoden said, but it was ready.
It would be too rigid and boring to refuse to listen to the gossip and instead explore whether it is true or false. Therefore, many generations gave up their plans to continue holding people accountable and opened their eyes to carefully observe the changes in the atmosphere in the large room.
Kira Yoshitsune was indeed very angry. He even had the urge to pick up a folding fan and slap Niwa Nagahide in the face. Of course, he even wanted to slap Oda Nobunaga, who was far away in Qingzhou City, Owari Province. This disgusting guy used such despicable methods.
It is simply abominable to use such methods to deal with him. It is in vain that he has helped the Oda family a lot in the past few years. It is simply a waste of time playing the harp to others.
He finally resisted the urge to jump up and cursed in his mind: "What is Oda Nobunaga doing? He actually wrote a disgustingly sensational letter and asked his family members to banish him in front of the public.
Come out, this is deliberately to make other samurai misunderstand the relationship between Yu and Oda Nobunaga. It is a plan to use the opportunity to confuse the public and fish in troubled waters! But this method is really disgusting, making the world think that I, Kira Yoshi, like this old man...
It’s too much!”
In fact, Kira Yoshitoki and Oda Nobunaga only have a pen pal relationship, and there is no possibility of a deeper friendship. He is willing to maintain this pen pal relationship because he is curious and inquiring about Oda Nobunaga.
Thoughts. Without the interference of this layer of factors, how could one pay attention to the son of a rich man from Owari Province?
I didn't expect Oda Nobunaga to be so powerful. His climbing speed was so fast. In just a few years, he became a powerful name in Owari country. His strength has basically returned to the peak period of his father, Oda Nobhide.
The only thing missing is constant victory to get rid of the "Owari weak soldier" hat.
This big hat was one of the rich legacies left to Owari Nobunaga by his father Owari Nobunaga Oda Nobhide a few years before his death. Not only did he leave Oda Nobunaga a large territory and a supporting group of retainers, but he also experienced the Battle of Kanaguchi.
, the two defeats in the Azukizaka battle were a mess. Most of the elite samurai of the Owari Kingdom died in these two battles. It would be really unjust if the Owari soldiers were not weak.
Just the opposite of Owari, the Echigo samurai's ferocious folk customs and toughness have long been famous in the Eastern Kingdom and even the world. In the summer more than fifty years ago, Nagao Mikake made a surprise attack to attack his own Echigo guard Uesugi Funo and killed him
, and then during the Nagamorihara War in the seventh year of Eisho, he killed the Kanto leader Uesugi Sosada, and then joined forces with the Sagami Hojo clan to leave Echigo and invade Ueno to attack the Yamauchi Uesugi family, and then joined forces with the Kawachi Hatakeyama clan to fight against the Kaga in central Vietnam.
With one move, the reputation of the Echigo samurai spread to Kinai, the Western Kingdom and even Kyushu.
What Oda Nobunaga envied most was the samurai family with strong armies. He used to envy Takeda Shingen, the Tiger of Kai, but now he envies Kiragi, the ruler of Hokuriku. He had so many fierce generals and strong armies that it blinded many people's eyes. In Oda's case,
According to Nobunaga, half of Kira Yoshitoki's achievements today are due to his top-notch personal abilities and skills, and the other half is the support of Echigo's fierce samurai, strong army, and strong economic strength.
For the Oda family, forming an alliance with the Kira family is the best choice with no harm at all. But the problem is that most samurai families in the world know that there are many benefits to forming an alliance with the Kira family. However, it is still a huge problem for how many of them can finally succeed in forming an alliance.
Question, it is said that many samurai families have come to Kasugayama Castle in recent years to request alliances and marriages, and even their daughters who were sent to Kasugayama Castle in person were forcibly sent back.
This was Kira Yoshitoki's attitude. He did not discuss the issue of alliance with the local people. Neither the Aizu Ashina clan in the past nor the Kai Takeda clan today agreed to any request for alliance. He was telling the east country through his actions.
The samurai family, the Kira family needs obedient retainers, who are officials rather than allies.
Oda Nobunaga knew very well that he was likely to be rejected if he took the ordinary path. He could not accept failure even once. The reason was that a strong sense of crisis urged him to move forward quickly. Since Okehazama in the first year of Eiroku
Since the end of the war, the development of the Oda family has fallen into a serious bottleneck period in the past two years.
In the past two years, troops have been sent to attack Mino Country every year, but each time they returned with a loss of troops and generals without success. Especially in the first year of Yonglu, with the power of Tongzhama's great victory, they invaded Mino twice in August and October.
Both times, he was easily blocked and backhanded by Saito Yoshiryu. He almost couldn't return to Owari. Last year, he fought hard but still failed, which made him determined to find a strong ally to support and contain him.
Looking around Owari Kingdom, there are only a few who can be allies. Only Kira Yoshi of Echigo has penetrated his power into central Vietnam. Minami-Shinano may then invade Hida Kingdom, and the family business interests are completely in the east country.
The best template for an ally, not to mention the fact that he had had several cooperative relationships before and had no grudges against the Oda family, prompted him to finally make the decision to go all out to marry Yoshitoki Kira.
Namioka Totobo did not get angry because of the poor performance of the Oda family envoy. He had realized that his lord was not really angry. Maybe he just hated being used in such a disgusting little way. He did not really hate the potential of the Oda family.
Allies, if he is really angry, he will probably rebuke or simply walk away.
He also found that Yukitaka Sanada, who had just returned from the Shinano front line to report on his duties, was not angry. Instead, he looked at Niwa Nagahide's performance with great interest and became convinced. He coughed lightly and turned to Niwa Nagahide and asked softly: "
I wonder which daughter of the Oda family is planning to marry His Highness?"
Niwa Nagahide quietly scanned the samurai in the hall to make sure they had no clear objections, and then said loudly: "It is my Highness Princess Aichi of the Oda family."
"So is this Princess Aichi the sister-in-law of Oda Danzhengden?"
"This..." Niwa Nagahide said in embarrassment: "She is my lord's concubine, but my lord loves Princess Aichi very much and has always taken care of her like a legitimate sister."
Honda Tokimasa sneered: "Isn't it true that my legitimate daughter also wants to marry into my Ashikaga family? Oda Tanshoden is really confident!"
Many samurai in the Oda room then laughed at the Oda family's overestimation, as if they regarded these remarks as a joke. Perhaps the slightly sarcastic remarks angered the Oda family's samurai. Sasaki Narimasa said angrily:
"His Majesty Honda is wrong to say that! Among the wives of the Duke of Jinfu are the adopted daughter of the Imagawa family and the daughter of the Mochizuki family..."
Nagano Yasumasa suddenly stood up and shouted loudly: "Shut up! His Highness Kōkata's family affairs are something you, a humble samurai from the countryside of Owari, can discuss!"