Japan's Warring States Period: The Rise of the Wakasa Tiger

Chapter 13 The Three Great Sins

Having said that, Takeda Nobutoyo's rhythm was completely disrupted by Yunfeng Ryusuke and Kumagai Ryunao.

This old man and young, one scholar and one martial artist, one played the good guy and the other played the bad guy, and they simply left Takeda Nobutoyo speechless.

It was not until then that he realized that this eminent monk who came from afar was in cahoots with Nobushige. After being fooled by him, let alone using the reward of "Two Peaches to Kill Three Warriors", the legitimacy of his own family headship would be questioned. He really underestimated the capable people around Nobushige.

"My lords, do you understand it the same way?" Takeda Nobutoyo hoped that the important ministers and people sitting with His Highness would come forward to speak for him. After all, he was the head of the family who could give them enough rewards. If it were Nobushige, they might not be as easy to talk to as himself.

However, the reaction of His Highness and the others really disappointed him: no one was willing to stand up and support him, not even one person was willing to mediate the atmosphere. As a result, Takeda Nobutoyo was completely panicked.

In fact, this matter is easy to understand. If Kumagai Takanao had not come out to interfere, these important ministers and the people would have been happy to see the internal strife within the Takeda clan and profit from it.

But now, Kumagai Takanao, who has conquered three cities in a row, is willing to follow Nobuyoshi's lead, and it would be inappropriate for them to raise objections. Therefore, whether they are sincere or forced by the situation, they cannot stand up to support Takeda Nobutoyo at this time.

"Haha, in that case, Hikogoro, I want to hear what you think. Do you still recognize me as the leader?" At this moment, Takeda Nobutoyo still wanted to make a final effort, trying to use brotherhood to hold Nobushige back.

"Brother." Nobushige's address to Takeda Nobutoyo also changed from "Lord" to "Brother", the meaning of which is self-evident.

"Now that things have come to this, you can retire peacefully. Please leave the Takeda clan and Wakasa to me."

"Hikogoro, you!" Takeda Nobutoyo stood up suddenly, stretched out his hand, pointed at Nobushige with trembling body, and said: "Are you planning to rebel like Nobutaka?!"

"Since you have already retired, how can you talk about treason?" Xinzhong answered calmly and calmly.

"I've already said it, I was forced by Nobutaka. Well, well, first you're my cousin, then you're my brother, you guys are awesome!"

"My lord, please calm down. Don't get yourself hurt by being angry." Seeing Takeda Nobutoyo's agitation, Heihachiro hurried forward to comfort him, and said to Nobushige in a bad mood: "I thought your highness was a hero who could turn the tide, but now it seems that you are just a traitor like Mikado-dono!"

"You bastard!" Upon hearing that Heihachiro had the audacity to insult Nobuyoshi, their Highnesses Matsumiya Kiyonaga and Kumagai Takanao simultaneously drew their katana from their waists. The gleaming blades were so chilling that Heihachiro was so frightened that he hid behind Takeda Nobutoyo again.

"Stop it." Nobushige signaled the two men to put away their swords, and instead poured a glass of wine and handed it to Heihachiro: "You little boy, you dare to talk to me like this, but you are much more 'heroic' than your brother."

"What do you mean?" Takeda Nobutoyo still stood in the same place, looking down at Nobushige and everyone present, feeling both sad and resentful.

Heihachiro subconsciously reached out to take the wine glass, but was frightened by Takeda Nobutoyo's cold look and shrank back.

Xinzhong didn't care about this. Since the matter had been made clear, he could only go down this path:

"Brother, you said that Miyagawa-dono was a traitor, but he took over the position of head of the family from you after all, and he was willing to face failure and dared to commit seppuku. But you, I heard, took the initiative to walk out of the castle tower and surrender. Whether as a head of the family or a samurai, your actions are despicable."

"I..." Hearing this, Takeda Nobutoyo was speechless. After a long while, he finally thought of a reason: "As the old saying goes: Life is the foundation of all things (命あっての物種). I am keeping this life to make plans for a comeback in the future."

"I admire you very much for being able to express the term 'afraid of death' in such a high-sounding way." Nobushige had completely seen through the cowardly nature of the former head of the Takeda clan. In that case, there was nothing more to say.

"Then let's get straight to the point. Today, I will give you two choices: one is to abdicate the position of head of the family to me, and choose a temple to become a monk, and I will provide you with food, clothing and daily expenses on time; the other is that I will directly 'inherit' the position of head from Sanfangdian, and it has nothing to do with you. And because of your cowardly behavior yesterday, you are really not worthy of staying in Wakasa. I can only exile you, and you are not allowed to set foot in Wakasa from now on."

Although these two options seem to be the same, they are actually full of meaning. The first option was to save Takeda Nobutoshi's face. Nobushige succeeded him as the eighth head of the Wakasa Takeda clan, skipping Takeda Nobutaka, which was considered to cover up the family scandal of the "Miyagawa Rebellion"; the second option was to slap Takeda Nobutoshi in the face. Nobushige succeeded himself as the ninth head of the Wakasa Takeda clan (Takeda Nobutaka was the eighth), and Takeda Nobutoshi would be cursed and never return to Wakasa, and would wander around like a stray dog ​​for the rest of his life.

After hearing the two options given by Nobushige, Takeda Nobutoyo instantly lost his strength and hope, and fell to the ground with a plop. He clenched the corners of his clothes tightly with both hands, as if he wanted to wrap himself up tightly.

"What have I done wrong? I have been in office for less than half a year, and I have to suffer humiliation twice..."

"Brother, your mistake is that you have great ambitions but little talent." Nobushige took a deep breath and listed the "three major sins" of Takeda Nobutoyo.

"First, you ignored the current situation of your family and insisted on making frequent donations to the shogunate in exchange for the shogun's verbal support for you. This has caused the family's finances to become increasingly difficult and the people are suffering. This is your first crime;

Secondly, you spent a huge sum of money to bribe the Amago clan in an attempt to restore the clan's power in Aki, but ended up losing all your money and causing the clan's finances to become even more strained. This is your second crime. In addition, you implemented the policy of "relying on mother and son", which caused dissatisfaction among domestic temples, shrines, and merchants, and led to uprisings one after another. This is your third crime.

Aren’t the above three points enough to wake you up? "

In order to deal with today's situation, Xinzhong also made some efforts to prepare.

This first charge originated from the foundation of the Wakasa Takeda clan's establishment of the country - that is, to maintain close ties with the shogunate, kanrei and even powerful daimyo in Kinki in order to obtain strong support from the outside world.

This practice was indeed effective before the Onin War, and the Takeda clan also used the power of the shogunate to quell domestic rebellions many times. However, as the shogunate and kanrei weakened, continuing to adhere to this policy would eventually lead to the Takeda clan's expenditure exceeding its income and financial difficulties.

The second charge is a longer story, involving the dispute between the Wakasa Takeda clan and the Aki Takeda clan.

Simply put, Takeda Nobuyoshi, the head of the Aki Takeda clan, fled to Wakasa and served as the Wakasa guardian, founded the Wakasa Takeda clan, and once served as the guardian of both Aki and Wakasa. So in a sense, although the Aki Takeda clan appeared early, it should be regarded as a branch of the Wakasa Takeda clan.

Later, the Wakasa Takeda clan lost the position of Aki guardian for some reason. Although they later obtained the position of "County Lord" (county guardian) of the four counties of Annan, Sadō, Yamagata, and Anhoku in Aki through their relationship with the shogunate, it was already in name only at that time. The Aki Takeda clan was gradually separated, and the Wakasa Takeda clan's influence in Aki was in name only.

Therefore, in order to restore the influence of the Takeda clan in Aki and even the four counties of Aki, Takeda Nobutoyo spent a huge amount of money to please the powerful daimyo of Chugoku, Akihisa Niwa. But how could the cunning latter allow other forces that did not submit to him to appear under his elbow? When Takeda Nobutoyo found out that he was played by the Niwa clan, it was too late, and all the money he spent was wasted.

Because of this third charge, even Nobushige couldn't help but call Takeda Nobutoyo a "genius manager."

The financial deficit meant that Takeda Nobutoyo was unable to pay salaries to his retainers, so he came up with a unique and "genius" plan - "Rely on the mother and son."

The so-called "lai mother and son" was a mutual aid financial mechanism popular among the people at that time. Participating members would each contribute a portion of rice, and after collecting all, they would give it to the first person to use, and then the next time, the next person would receive it in order. This was a financial policy for small merchants to lend money to help the poor, or a way for temples and shrines to raise money to raise construction funds.

It was with the help of this mechanism that Takeda Nobutoyo, in the name of the ruler, asked the temples, shrines and merchants in Wakasa to collect 1,000 koku of rice, which the Takeda clan then distributed to his retainers as salary.

Unexpectedly, when it was the turn of the temples, shrines and merchants to collect the profits, Takeda Nobutoyo simply "gave up". First he said he had no money, and later he simply denied it. The rice donated by the temples, shrines and merchants was like water poured out, and all the money was lost.

Naturally, the reputation of the Takeda clan was greatly damaged when the head of a country did such a thing. Under the instigation of temples and shrines, uprisings launched by the people occurred one after another. Merchants also lost confidence in the Takeda clan and fled to other countries. The losses suffered by Wakasa far exceeded 1,000 stones.

Because of this, the local forces whose economy and social stability were affected became increasingly dissatisfied with Takeda Nobutaka. This also gave Takeda Nobutaka an opportunity to form cliques and factions, causing a major incident such as the "Miyagawa Rebellion".

In just half a year, Takeda Nobutoyo did three ridiculous things like this. If he continued to act like this, the angry people would turn the Takeda clan's mansion upside down without even waiting for Nobushige to take action.

"Stop talking, Hikogoro, please give me some face." Takeda Nobutoyo leaned his arms on the table, covered his face with his hands and said painfully.

Seeing him like this, Nobushige said, "Brother, it's time to wake up. I know you want to restore the glory of the Takeda clan, but given the current situation of our family, it is meaningless for you to do so. Instead, it will make our Takeda clan sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire."

"Takeda family, I'll leave everything to you from now on...Do we have to hold this handover ceremony again?" Takeda Nobutoyo asked weakly.

"No need," Xinzhong shook his head. "I've already got the family seal. I'll send someone to prepare the document and send it to you for your review and signature. There's no need to mobilize a large force to do it again."

"Okay, since you've made all the arrangements, let's do it. I'm tired, so I'll go back and rest first."

In one day, the family head was transferred twice. I am afraid that there is no other family in the world that would experience such a strange thing.

This chapter may be a bit boring, but it also explains the current predicament of the Wakasa Takeda clan, making it easier for the subsequent plot to unfold.

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(End of this chapter)