The courtyard of Yodo Castle where Ichihime lives. Although it is nearly late April, the spring is still bright, the flowers are gorgeous, the birds are singing gracefully.www.biquge.info Elsewhere, it's early summer, and it's still a surprising place where spring is still in full swing. Outside the castle the trees are lush and green. The cherry blossoms outside are close to changing, and it is indeed flourishing here, and the flowers are in full bloom. The wisteria in the ring corridor also blooms for the first time, and the flower color is bright and gorgeous, and it is very dazzling. In the hall, a few cups of tea are wafting the aroma of change.

Zhengheng was dressed in a loose and comfortable kimono, and did not wear a hat, and sat leisurely on the upper seat. Ichihime dressed in a fancy costume and beating a small drum attracted the attention of everyone present. When she beats the drums, it gives people a feeling of pity.

At the end of the drumming performance, the city Ji first saluted Zhengheng, and then saluted the man sitting at the bottom, and said, "Brother! ”

In the past, all the guests were in Kyoto, but today I deliberately chose to be in Yodo Castle, and it was the brother of the hostess of Yodo Castle, Oda Nobunaga, the lord of Owari in the second time Kamiraku, Oda Nobunaga and Lady Yodo have five points of similarity, and the facial features tend to be beautiful and soft.

Oda Nobunaga went to Luo for the second time, nominally to visit his sister and sister-in-law, but in fact he came to ask for help from Masahiro. Zhengheng mediated the relationship between Mino and Owari, and under the strong strength of Zhengheng, Saito Yoshiryu was seriously ill and bedridden, and he couldn't agree happily. Oda Nobunaga learned of Mino Void Saito Yoshiryu's illness, and he was a little unwilling in his heart, so he had to agree. However, he also received a promise from Masaki that all the land he received after defeating Imagawa Yoshimoto would be handed over to Oda Nobunaga.

With Zhengheng coming forward to endorse, Oda Nobunaga's position is firmly in control of the overall situation, and without Mino Saito Yoshiryu coming out to restrain him, Oda Nobunaga can strategize, and the chips in his hands are more abundant, and he no longer has to give it a go like in history.

However, the situation changed abruptly, and Oda Nobunaga had to pinch his nose and negotiate peace with Yoshimyu Saito. In this way, he cut off his strategy of unifying the two countries, and had to find another way to create opportunities for development in the crisis. Although Oda Nobunaga was reluctant, he looked around and saw that his options were limited. Oda Nobunaga relied on political balance to stabilize the situation, but a bigger crisis quietly came, and Imagawa Yoshimoto was in full swing, and the next thing was to fight to the death with all his might.

If you win, you will open the gap and gain space, and if you lose, everything will be settled. Although Oda Nobunaga did not know that a great strategist in the future had said that "strategically contempt the enemy, tactically value the enemy", he actually agreed with the meaning of this sentence.

Oda Nobunaga is confident that he can defeat Imagawa Yoshimoto, but he knows that if he wants to win, he will inevitably pay a heavy price, and he will lose both sides or even lose everything, and his vitality will be greatly damaged. Unable to recover for several years, he could hardly accept the heavy price.

Oda Nobunaga is full of confidence, but does the people of Owari have the strength and courage to fight to the death against Imagawa Yoshimoto? Without the restraint of Saito Yoshiryu, Owari Province was not inferior to Imagawa Yoshimoto in terms of strength, and Oda Nobuhide only relied on the strength of half the country to deal with Imagawa Yoshimoto, and it was difficult to distinguish the winner from defeat. But courage is hard to say, this is not to say that Oda Nobunaga did not have courage, but his retainers felt that their strength was not enough, and they considered their own interests, so they naturally did not dare to fight with Imagawa Yoshimoto with the determination to die together. They didn't have the courage to fight to the death, and Oda Nobunaga gave them that courage on the second trip. He believed that he could get help from Zhengheng, and as long as Zhengheng fought side by side with him, the victory would be his.

Oda Nobunaga asked Mashiro for help, and Mashiro agreed to Oda Nobunaga's request. Imagawa Yoshimoto met at Zentokuji Temple, and made it clear that he had a clear attitude and was in opposition to Zhengheng, and Zhengheng couldn't divide his energy in a short period of time, which didn't mean that he would swallow this evil breath.

Politics and balances added fuel to the fire, forcing Oda Nobunaga and Saito Yoshiryu to negotiate peace, prompting Oda Nobunaga, who was eager to expand, to make up his mind to fight to the death with Imagawa Yoshimoto, whether it was Imagawa Yoshimoto's victory or Oda Nobunaga's victory, it was in favor of the Date family.

Masahiro's jealousy of Oda Nobunaga does not mean that he can tolerate Imagawa Yoshimoto's successive provocations, and the two sides compete for hegemony in the Tokaido and fight inextricably, which is a good thing for Masahiro, not only will it not be stopped, but it will add fuel to the fire, and will make things as big as possible.

Masahiro agreed to Oda Nobunaga's request for help, but it doesn't mean that he will send troops to support, in fact, even if Masahiro wants to send troops to support, whether Oda Nobunaga, who has a very strong self-esteem, can agree is still a question, and he came to ask for help is more of a gesture and symbol.

For Oda Nobunaga, his greatest wish is that things can go smoothly according to his plan. In fact, the ultimate purpose of Oda Nobunaga's second trip to Luo was to test the bottom line of the political balance and see if he could get the desired result from the political balance.

Masahiro observes Oda Nobunaga, Oda Nobunaga's feminine appearance, but there is a firm confidence in his eyes, and not only that, Oda Nobunaga has been calm, brave and wise since he experienced the pain of losing his wife.

Shohiro asked the personal guard to hold a gift, and he gave Oda Nobunaga a long knife Kibi, the Kibi region has been famous for producing famous swords since ancient times, and there are many famous craftsmen gathered under the command of the Date family, and every year they pay all kinds of famous swords to the Date family, hoping to be promoted after the fancie.

Wine and food were served, and the gorgeously dressed subordinates poured wine for Masahiro and Nobunaga from time to time. Masahiro treats Oda Nobunaga gently, without the slightest arrogance of a superior to a subordinate. Nobunaga couldn't help but feel shocked, and since the other party treated him like this, he couldn't be careless.

Oda Nobunaga is such a proud person, he doesn't want to be a vassal to Masahiro from the bottom of his heart, although he is afraid of the strength of the Date family and the Mino Saito clan to reach a peace agreement, but this is also a matter of more advantages than disadvantages for Oda Nobunaga, who is facing the danger of Imagawa Yoshimoto.

But Oda Nobunaga understood that the two sides seemed to be equal, but he felt a deep sense of depression, and his shoulders were heavy. But looking around, in addition to political balances, how many people are worth relying on? Imagawa Yoshimoto's westward expansion strategy doomed him to the future.

However, Tsuyoi's answer made Oda Nobunaga very satisfied. He got everything he could, and it was a painful thing to not be able to get his hands on Mino Province, but going eastward and moving towards Tokaido seemed to be the best strategy at the moment, as the Date family seemed to be in full swing. He could only endure silently and wait for the situation to change.

The atmosphere of the banquet was very good, everyone took what they needed, and the political balance was polite, and by the way, Oda Nobunaga promised to stay overnight. When Oda Nobunaga was led by his attendants to the bedroom, the candlelight in the bedroom flickered and the small figure trembled.

Oda Nobunaga opened the wooden door, and there was a child sitting on the tatami mat dozing off, and he finally couldn't hold back his emotions and stepped forward to hug the child. His sister-in-law, Marvel Maru, who was only two or three years old, spent the night with Marvel Pill in his arms.

Hearing Oda Nobunaga return to his side, he sat in his study and forced himself to calm down, searching for answers in the fog of past, present, and future history. The history of the Wa Kingdom had already been destroyed beyond recognition by him, and a direct conflict between Oda Nobunaga and Imagawa Yoshimoto was inevitable.

Historically, Imagawa Yoshimoto's system moved westward, and Oda Nobunaga was just a passive decisive battle.

Oda Nobunaga was constrained by Saito Yoshiryu behind his back, and his internal instability led to the use of gambling to fight to the death, which eventually led to the awarding of Imagawa Yoshimoto and the rapid decline of the Imagawa clan. After that, Oda Nobunaga did not advance eastward to seize Suruga, Enoe, and Mikawa of the Imagawa clan, but instead reached the Kiyosu Kai with Matsudaira Ieyasu, the lord of Okazaki Castle, and turned to Mino Province. In addition to the death of Saito Yoshiryu, the Zentokuji Society Covenant is still in effect, and attacking the Imagawa clan is likely to be attacked by Hojo and Takeda. Throughout Oda Nobunaga's life, the most feared opponent was Takeda Shingen, and he was unwilling to face the more terrible Takeda Shingen just after defeating Imagawa Yoshimoto, and he had to add Hojo Shiyasu.

In this time and space, Masahiro Shangluo almost invaded the entire, Mino Saito Yoshiryu sent his sister-in-law Ryuko as a hostage, as long as the Date family was as strong as ever, blocking Oda Nobunaga's Mino strategy, leaving Oda Nobunaga with only two ways out.

Ise and Mikawa, Ise Province is known as a small warring state, and the internal forces are complex, and if you want to attack Ise Country, you have to launch a war to conquer the country. Then in the case of Imagawa Yoshimoto's aggressiveness, the only option left for him is to go east and collide with Imagawa Yoshimoto.

Shoyo is now mainly focused on Shikoku and Kyushu, especially the latter, and in order to capture Kyushu in a short period of time, especially Kitakyushu, it is necessary to launch a war of alluring the country, that is, to mobilize an army of 40,000 or 50,000. He is now taking the lead in launching the Four Kingdoms War, and the ultimate goal is Kyushu.

When attacking Kyushu, it is impossible to have all the political balances. The Echizen Province direction is fighting fiercely with the Asakura clan and Ichiichi, and it will not be possible to tell the winner in two or three years, and no matter who wins or loses, it will be greatly damaged. Then the only thing that makes Mashiro jealous is the direction of Tokaido, to be exact, it is the combination of Imagawa Yoshimoto, Hojo Shiyasu, and Takeda Harunobu, and the combined strength of the three of them is enough to compete with Mashiro.

No matter how Imagawa Yoshimoto was criticized by the world, he competed with Hojo Shiyasu and Takeda Harunobu in strategy, tactics, and battles, and launched many invasions with the enemy, and finally won and lost each other, and they had to lay down their arms and sit down at the negotiating table.

Imagawa Yoshimoto's aggressive westward expansion strategy is even more high-profile to confront the political and horizontal courts, if the political balance is personally killed, under the cold of the lips and teeth, Hojo Shiyasu and Takeda Harunobu will definitely abandon their previous suspicions and resist the strong enemy when facing the Date family.

It is inconvenient for Masahiro to end up in person, so Oda Nobunaga and Imagawa Yoshimoto, who are blocked from the back road, collide, no matter who wins or loses, they will lose a lot, and they are unable to challenge the authority of the Date family, which is definitely a good thing for Masaheng that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

Provoking a war and making the eastern kingdom blaze everywhere is the strategy of Zhengheng and his Date family in the next few years. Of course, he will not stop his operations during this time, and will use the fastest time to capture Shikoku, then Kyushu, or at least Kitakyushu.

After seizing Kitakyushu, with the strength of the Date family, Masahiro had the confidence to participate in the great changes in Northeast Asia.

Zhengheng thinks about the way forward.

Kuroda Kanwei hurriedly came in with a copy of the good news sent from Kishiwada Castle, with a smile on his face, but more of a wry smile, he thought very highly of himself, but now he was overtaken by a second generation of the same Date family, and he was very helpless.

In fact, the so-called second generation of the Date family is just a self-name for their small surnames, due to the rapid rise of the political balance, the age gap between the first generation and the second generation is really not large, among which the age of Date Sangou and Katayama Hengcho, who are regarded as the first generation, is not as good as most of the second generation.

Zhengheng received the document of victory on the third night after Shimizu Soji broke the enemy, watching Shimizu Soji win the first battle Ruicheng completely lost his temper, and the second war occupied Meishan and broke the backbone of the Awa country, it was really happy, he laughed a few times.

Zhengheng shouted loudly: "Send the good news and inform the world of this good news." He didn't hide it, the Date family produced an outstanding young talent, and he also told the young people of the Date family in this way that as long as he made achievements, he would keep them in mind.

Sunpu Castle, Tokaido.

Imagawa Yoshimoto sat on the main hall, distraught and enjoying the singing and dancing in the courtyard. His usual favorite song and dance, today is really not in good spirits, when the music stopped, pregnant Shi Yuantai walked in with a notice and reported: "Lord! ”

Imagawa Yoshimoto suddenly woke up and didn't know when, the music stopped Kabuki and the scene ended, and he asked suspiciously, "What happened?" ”

Pregnant Shi Yuantai handed over the notice in his hand and reported: "My lord, this is something sent from Beijing, saying that a young military general named Shimizu Soji has won the first battle in the country of Awa, and the minister thinks that this matter may be beneficial to the lord. ”

Imagawa Yoshimoto was stunned for a moment, and he motioned to continue.

This pregnant stone Mototai is not famous, but in history in "The Tale of Mikawa" left a record, Tokugawa Ieyasu was a hostage of the Imagawa family and pregnant stone Motoyasu were neighbors, and the eagle of the family often pulled in the latter's courtyard, and the pregnant stone Motoyasu had complained several times. Decades later, Tokugawa Ieyasu conquered Takatenjin Castle, and because of his old grudge, only the pregnant stone Motoyasu was sentenced to seppuku.

Pregnant Shi Yuantai knew that this was a good opportunity to stand out, so he responded calmly and replied: "My lord, this notice is just to promote the achievements of the Date family, but it can be seen from it that the strategic goal of the Date family in the next few years may not be Tokaido. ”

Imagawa Yoshimoto came with some interest, his poor spirit was really too much pressure on the Date family, especially the Date family tried their best to get Mino and Owari to reach a peace agreement, making him think that the next step was to deal with the harbingers of Tokaido.

Imagawa Yoshimoto asked, "How can you see that?" ”

Pregnant Shi Yuantai replied: "My lord, everyone knows that the nameless island is barren, and the fertile and prosperous Tokaido is not taken, but it is not like Date Zhengheng's character. So why did he take the Nankai Road first? What is the strategic purpose? ”

Imagawa Yoshimoto's heart tightened suddenly, and then suddenly exploded, thumping. (To be continued.) )