May 1, the twelfth year of Astronomy (1543), Yoshida Castle in Mikawa Kingdom.
After a long and dusty journey, the Shangluo delegation returned to the territory of the Imagawa family in Mikawa Kingdom. Ohara Town prepared a hasty banquet at Yoshida Castle to honor Imagawa Yoshimoto - it was really "hasty", so much so that
He himself did not attend, but was accompanied by Yamada Keitaka, captain of the Nishibei Prefecture of the Imagawa family who stayed at Yoshida Castle - but Imagawa Yoshimoto was also used to his style.
As a direct disciple of Taiyuan Xuezhai, Obara Zhenmi did not inherit Taiyuan Xuezhai's smoothness. On the contrary, he did not care about social interaction at all. He always had a cold face and focused on his work - but with his junior brother
Amano Keitoku is somewhat similar. At present, Taiyuan Xuezai is staying in Kyoto to handle follow-up affairs and is not within the Imagawa family. The monitoring work in the Yuanjiang and Mikawa areas that was originally responsible for Taiyuan Xuezai has also fallen to Ohara Zhenmi. Obara
Zhen Zhen was so busy that he wished he had 13 hours in a day. Naturally, he didn't want to take time out to meet Imagawa Yoshimoto - to please his lord? That was not within his scope of consideration.
Compared with the thrilling trip to Luo, the return journey seemed particularly peaceful and comfortable - at least that's how Imagawa Yoshimoto feels now. Along the way, Imagawa Yoshimoto and Takeda Harunobu talked and laughed, sharing interesting stories from childhood to adulthood, and finally parting ways.
I actually felt a little reluctant to leave - Imagawa Yoshimoto originally thought that he was used to parting with himself, and would only be reluctant to leave Ginkgo and Taiyuan Xuezhai.
According to the original arrangement, the Imagawa family's mission and the Takeda family's mission would part ways at Yoshida Castle. The Imagawa family's mission would be along the coastal official road of Mikawa-Toe-Suruga, while the Takeda family's mission would go directly from Mikawa North
Going to Shinano——Because Takeda Harunobu planned to go to Minami Shinano for an inspection. So, it was time to separate.
"Would you like to give me a ride?" Seemingly sensing Imagawa Yoshimoto's reluctance, Takeda Harunobu, who has always been arrogant, rarely made a straight shot, "Goro will accompany me on a mountain road again and send me to Nagashino Castle, and then you
Go south and go directly back to Toe, and I'll go north to Shinano."
"Being respectful is worse than obeying orders." Imagawa Yoshimoto was naturally happy to agree, and then told Amano Keitoku, "Amano, take the delegation directly back to Imagawa Hall, and by the way, send back the kitten I adopted and give it to Hayasaka. My wife, I, and a few personal guards will accompany His Highness Daizen (Takeda Harunobu-Daizen Dafu) on a trip."
"Your Highness, please pay attention to safety and let the ninjas follow you for protection." Amano Keide reminded very cautiously, "Do you want to inform Mr. Obara?"
"Forget it." Imagawa Yoshimoto hesitated for a moment, and after thinking about Obara Masumi's old-fashioned and cold face, he still shook his head, "Otherwise, I will inevitably have to give him some advice."
Going upstream along the Toyokawa River, the mountain scenery of the Three Rivers in the Northeast is breathtaking. Imagawa Yoshimoto was thinking about suitable haiku in his mind, Takeda Harunobu looked around at the places where troops were deployed in the mountains, and Ginkgo remained silent.
On the horse of Imagawa Yoshimoto, he leaned against Imagawa Yoshimoto and took a nap.
"Don't sleep, Ginkgo." Imagawa Yoshimoto moved his elbow, trying to wake up Ginkgo behind him, but found that she was sleeping soundly and shook several times before she woke up.
"Good morning...sir..." Ginkgo stretched out and yawned weakly.
"It's almost night, why is it so early?" Imagawa Yoshimoto looked at the setting sun on the horizon and couldn't help but joked,
"It's still early to get up tomorrow." Ginkgo murmured, gently leaning against Imagawa Yoshimoto, ready to continue sleeping.
"What a beautiful sunset and mountain scenery, if you miss it, it will be gone." Imagawa Yoshimoto shook his head even more vigorously, and at the same time looked back and pointed in the direction behind him, "Look, you will never get it again."
"I'm too lazy to turn around." Ginkgo complained sleepily.
"There's more to life than just laziness. Didn't I tell you before that you have to pursue something?" Imagawa Yoshimoto was in a good mood. He rarely used the sermon lines he used when the two first met 7 years ago, while stroking Ginkgo's long hair.
, and said with a smile: "If you are too lazy to leave your name in history, and you are too lazy to write a book, then isn't appreciating the beautiful scenery in the world the best pursuit? It is suitable for our little lazy cat Ginkgo."
"No." Ginkgo's voice became softer and softer, and she couldn't open her eyes, "I don't like it."
"Then have you found what you're after? What is it?" Imagawa Yoshimoto looked at Ginkgo's eyes closed tenderly.
"I'm looking for it, I'm looking for it, don't scold me, you will find it sooner or later, you will find it before you die..." Ginkgo was already extremely sleepy, and a few illogical words popped out of her mouth intermittently, and then she fell into a deep sleep.
fell asleep.
"Haha, my sister's life is just a mess. She has no pursuits or goals. She just muddles along every day, eating and waiting to die. If I ask her to look back on her life before she dies, she probably won't be able to think of anything but the memories.
How many hours have you slept?" Takeda Harunobu mocked his sister mercilessly from the side, and then glanced at Imagawa Yoshimoto: "Of course, Goro is not much better. You two are really a pair of lazy people made in heaven.
men and women."
"That's too much to say... there's really nothing we can do. In troubled times, there are so many people living in a hazy way, so don't be merciful." Imagawa Yoshimoto let out a long breath, then looked at the subordinates behind him, "I heard that Mr. Daichan
Do you have the teachings? What about your pursuit? Do you have it? And what is it?"
"No." Kira Weicheng whistled and said nonchalantly: "If I have to say yes, I just hope that all the orphans in the world can live a life of adequate food."
"I accidentally mentioned a great pursuit." Imagawa Yoshimoto was slightly moved, "Isn't this much more meaningful than the great chef who thinks about it day and night to conquer the world?"
"I want to be a swordsman like my master." Kentaro Tian Shen's eyes were full of longing, and his lonely left hand was holding the handle of the sword caressingly, "I want to start a sect and pass on my own art of war. It sounds a bit arrogant for me to say that.
I hope that all warriors who are born with disabilities can follow my example and teach them swordsmanship that can be used with one arm, so that they can also feel proud."
"You can do it." Imagawa Yoshimoto nodded towards Kentaro Tian Shen and encouraged him with a smile, "Where there is a will, there is a way. Besides, Tian Shen, you have worked a hundred times harder and nothing can trouble you."
"Yes." Takeda Harunobu also seemed to be quite confident in Kentaro Tian Shen's swordsmanship, "You will definitely become famous in the future, with great talents all over the world, and you will teach great students."
"Thank you very much, Your Highnesses." Kentaro Tian Shen bowed respectfully and said, "I will fight hard for the rest of my life."
"What about you, your name is 'Kinoshita Tokichiro', right?" Takeda Harunobu looked with interest at Kinoshita Tokichiro, who couldn't ride a horse yet so he could only sit on Kira Weisei's horse, "What is your pursuit?"
"Little... little, oh no! I! I want to stand out, so that all the people who look down on me will look at me differently. I want to be... I want to be -"
Kinoshita Tokichiro's face turned red, he stammered and considered his words for a long time, and finally roared out his ambition like a vent:
"I want to become a member of the world!"
Except for Kinoshita Tokichiro, everyone was stunned.
After a long while, Imagawa Yoshimoto said with some confusion: "'People of the World'...is this term used to describe Taizheng ministers or shoguns? It's good that Kinoshita has such lofty ideals, but you are not a direct descendant of the Genji family. How do you open a government office? How can you be a minister of Taizheng if you are not a member of the Five Regents family?"
"This..." Kinoshita Tokichiro's face instantly turned redder, like a monkey's butt, "I don't understand this... I just want to be..."
"Imaginary talk, you stinky little monkey." Kira Usei snorted coldly and jolted the horse deliberately, almost throwing Kinoshita Tokichiro off the horse. The latter grabbed Kira Usei by the lapel of his clothes to avoid being killed, "Learn first. Let's ride a horse. We commoners will never be as prosperous as those 'big men' in our lives."
"Why are you trying to dampen people's enthusiasm?" Takeda Harunobu came out very enthusiastically to support Kinoshita Tokichiro and encouraged him: "Weren't those big people just small people two thousand years ago? Why can't small people get ahead? Why can't small people get ahead? People in the world?"
"Two thousand years ago, they were all gods and queens of the royal family, so they were naturally different from us." Imagawa Yoshimoto obviously felt quite abrupt about Takeda Harunobu's speech, "How can you blaspheme the gods?"
On May 4, the twelfth year of Tenmon (1543), a group of people passed through the Noda Castle of the Kanuma family and came to stay at Nagashino Castle of the Okuhira family. The Okuhira family was an important wealthy family in Higashi Mikawa. 200 soldiers, 400 auxiliary soldiers and the castles of Nagashino Castle, Kubo Castle, and Kameyama Castle play a decisive role as the local leader of the Higashi Mikawa Mountains.
However, in the previous confrontation between Imagawa Yoshimoto and Imagawa Yoshima, the Okudaira family acted as the reinforcements of Imagawa Yoshimoto and went to war with the Imagawa clan, which was considered to have created some rifts. However, after the Imagawa family marched into Mikawa, the Okudaira family knew that there was a huge disparity in strength. The Taira family also surrendered hostages obediently, and the head of the family, Okuhira Sadakatsu, sent his second brother, Okuhira Sadatomo, to Yoshida Castle where Ohara Masashiro was located.
Now that Imagawa Yoshimoto has arrived in person, the Okuheira family will naturally not miss this opportunity to receive their lord and build a good relationship with them. They will prepare a banquet to entertain Imagawa Yoshimoto and Takeda Harunobu.
However, Okuhira Sadakatsu obviously didn't understand Imagawa Yoshimoto's picky eating habits, and served pork, a specialty delicacy from places like Higashi Mikawa that do not pay attention to the meat ban. Imagawa Yoshimoto felt nauseated at the banquet, and his face suddenly turned pale.
After sitting down, Imagawa Yoshimoto, who did not want to embarrass Okudaira Sadakatsu, did not point it out. He just tried to maintain a normal expression and went to eat other dishes.
Okudaira Sadakatsu, who mistakenly thought that he had somehow offended Imagawa Yoshimoto, was so panicked that he quickly tried to find a way to remedy the situation and kept raising topics to compliment Imagawa Yoshimoto. However, because Takeda Harunobu was also present, Okudaira Sadakatsu wanted to flatter him too, so he boasted
Reminds me of the Shinano strategy of Imagawa Yoshimoto and Takeda Harunobu - which brought back the bad memories of Imagawa Yoshimoto - the failure to prevent Takeda Harunobu's Uehara Castle Massacre was a wound he felt regretful about.
Although Imagawa Yoshimoto is a very well-educated gentleman and is used to giving positive responses to the other party in conversations to avoid the other party's embarrassment - but now Okudaira Sadakatsu is constantly playing in Imagawa Yoshimoto's minefield, and Imagawa Yoshimoto
Yuan himself felt extremely uncomfortable just smelling the smell of pork - it was too much to ask him to socialize and talk about his taboo topics, so he spoke a little absent-mindedly.
During the banquet, Okuhira Sadakatsu even played the role of a minor, hunched over and walking forward on his knees, kneeling to pour wine back and forth for Imagawa Yoshimoto and Takeda Harunobu. Takeda Harunobu was enjoying it, but Imagawa Yoshimoto felt vaguely
Somewhat inappropriate, he said tactfully:
"Oppei Superintendent, why do you need to be so outspoken? Why bother you to pour the wine for us yourself? It really makes me embarrassed."
"Ah, yes, your highness, the governor, taught me that I was not very polite." But Okuhira Sadakatsu seemed to think that Imagawa Yoshimoto was criticizing him. He immediately knelt down and bowed his head to apologize, and honestly retreated to himself.
Sitting on the seat, Imagawa Yoshimoto was a little embarrassed by this excessive solicitude and didn't know how to reply. The banquet went cold to the end and broke up unhappily.