Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

"Nonsense..." Nobunaga simply waved his hand, indicating that there was no need for words of comfort.

The two left the academy one after the other. Nobunaga didn't speak again, and Shichibei didn't say anything more either. Turning back to the Kawamura residence in Sakai, Ashikaga Princess, who hadn't been notified beforehand, was quite surprised to see Shichibei return. However, after a slight surprise, she immediately started boiling water and preparing food, and asked Shichibei how long he planned to stay.

Just as Shichibei was about to answer, he heard a child crying inside the house.

"Whose child is this?" Ashikaga Princess couldn't possibly be the child of another man, given that she was being cared for by the Seven Soldiers.

"The orphans of the late Shogun Kōtoku-in." Ashikaga Princess was quite frank, because these children were all the offspring of her cousin, Ashikaga Yoshihide.

530. I really don't know if it's madness or foolishness.

Ashikaga Yoshihide has a younger brother, right? Why didn't you send him to his brother? Instead, you sent him to your cousin? Shichibei may not mind raising a few more children, but we've taken on way too many kids.

"It was sent by the Right Minister, who said he would temporarily entrust it to my care." Ashikaga Princess was perfectly justified; she was simply following orders.

Why weren't you notified?

"It was only delivered two days ago, and I was just about to inform you. You didn't just suddenly come to Sakaimachi, did you?"

"Oh." Since it was sent by Nobunaga, then let's keep it.

That doesn't make sense. Ashikaga Yoshihide was a former shogun and was under the protection of Oda Nobunaga, so it's quite normal for him to commit seppuku after being attacked by Mitsuhide. Mitsuhide didn't mistreat his family either; his wife, children, and even the younger boys were spared. Therefore, Yoshihide's wife, Lady Yuki, should still be alive.

This Yuki Castle is not that Yuki Castle. The Yuki Castle in Shimosa, Kanto, and the Yuki Castle in Shirakawa, Mutsu, are all far apart. Ashikaga Yoshihide's wife, Princess Yuki, was a member of the Yuki clan, a retainer of the Muromachi Shogunate in northern Ise.

The origins are unclear, and Shichibei never inquired about them. Since the children's legal mother was still alive, why were they abandoned to Ashikaga Hime?

Upon further inquiry, it was learned that Lady Yuki had shaved her head and become a nun. Moreover, as a woman, she was not capable of supporting so many children and had no choice but to entrust them to Oda Nobunaga.

Ashikaga Yoshihide originally had 50,000 koku of land for retirement, but Nobunaga, in order to prevent him from actually controlling the territory, had Shichibei send Ashikaga Yoshihide 10,000 kan of pocket money every year.

The sum of money was enough to support five hundred retainers and foot soldiers, and to maintain Ashikaga Yoshihide's dignity. Now that Ashikaga Yoshihide is dead, he has no land to inherit, and his family is suddenly in dire straits.

Therefore, Nobunaga gave Lady Yuki a thousand koku of rice for her old age, and left her children with Ashikaga Princess, who was considered part of the same family. As for why he didn't leave them with Ashikaga Yoshiaki? Yoshiaki's own son had been taken away by Nobunaga and sent to a temple to become a monk.

Although Nobunaga admired Ashikaga Yoshiaki for not participating in Mitsuhide's rebellion, it only shows that Yoshiaki wasn't stupid and at least knew how to assess the situation. However, his hatred for Nobunaga's destruction of the Muromachi Shogunate probably hadn't subsided.

"Anyway, I have no sons or daughters." Ashikaga Princess originally had a son, but he was beheaded because Miyoshi Yoshitsugu rebelled.

"Tsk." Upon hearing this, Shichibei clicked his tongue and prepared to leave.

Oh, Miss, you really are a young lady, you're really stabbing me in the back.

How about we get it done now? Whether it works or not, that's not up to me. Anyway, it'll be done, and as for the rest, you can go pray to those great medical gods and great gods of safe childbirth.

Shichibei's feelings towards Princess Ashikaga were actually quite complex. He greatly admired her for her mastery of samurai etiquette, her excellent interpersonal skills, and her ability to arrange his clothing and schedule.

But she happens to be the daughter of the Ashikaga family, which sounds impressive, as she is the daughter of the previous shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiharu, and the younger sister of the previous shoguns, Ashikaga Yoshiteru and Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Her father and brothers were both shoguns. Such a noblewoman, paired with Shichibei, to put it in a slightly mystical way, you need to have a strong enough life force to handle her.

Her ex-husband, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, was the head of the Miyoshi clan, who was the deputy head of the Miyoshi family under the shogunate. He died at the young age of twenty-five.

So, should we get it done? Shichibei moved forward and sat down. Mrs. Takaya was already showing, so we couldn't get it done. To paraphrase Eason Chan's movie "Money Empire," he had nine wives. Eight of them were enough for two mahjong games, and the third one was on her period, so he had to go find a prostitute.

Although Shichibei didn't have this kind of trouble, he hadn't done anything for a while. As a result, Ashikaga Princess helped Shichibei change his clothes, pointed outside, and said it was still daylight.

Oh my...

Boring.

"My lord, the envoy of the Ōtomo clan, Tahara Minbu, has landed." Shichibei was muttering to himself, waiting for dinner, when Saegusa Morinaka rushed over to report.

"Tahara Chiken?"

“The third son of Ōtomo Sōrin, Tahara Takamori,” Saegusa Morinao gave the answer.

"It's him." The situation in Kyushu is developing so fast. Even Otomo Sōrin and Otomo Yoshitō have sent people to the Kinai region to pay their respects to Oda Nobunaga.

As mentioned earlier, Ōtomo Sōrin suffered a major defeat in his expedition to Hizen and Imayama, followed by another major defeat in his expedition to Hyuga and Mimikawa. In effect, he lost his status as the hegemon of Kyushu and began to decline.

It's not that it's going downhill, it's that it's already flooring the gas pedal and sprinting downhill at breakneck speed. Apart from Bungo, only a small number of forces in Buzen and Chikuzen are still supporting Ōtomo.

Yanagawa, Aso, Kai, and others from Higo all joined Ryuzoji, while Sagara, Hishikari, Fukami, and others joined Shimazu, and Chikugo was completely disintegrated.

It's definitely time to kneel down and beg for help, to find a powerful figure to rely on.

"What brings you here?" Shichibei asked casually.

"We are still investigating." As Saegusa Morinaka answered, Shichibei realized that he had asked in vain. After all, Tahara Chikamori had only just landed and probably hadn't even met Nobunaga yet, so how could he know?

"Go and investigate quickly." I wonder what kind of conditions the Otomo family will offer this time.

Because he had something on his mind, he finished dinner and took a bath that evening, and his encounter with Ashikaga Princess was still rushed. Ashikaga Princess didn't say anything, just patted Shichibei, smiled, and lay down to sleep. Shichibei still had some suspicions about what happened during the day, so he didn't pay any attention to her.

Hideyoshi would definitely grant him a large fiefdom with an income of over 500,000 koku to guard Kyushu. Therefore, Buzen, Chikuzen, and Hizen would be indispensable.

Ito Yuhei had already kowtowed to Nobunaga, willing to be the vanguard, and he was the first Kyushu lord to come and surrender, so it was necessary to secure the former Hyuga territory.

Although the matter of Akizuki Tanemi has not been completely settled, the price is over 120,000 koku of land in the three districts of Chikuzen and Chikugo. After dividing it up, and considering the small lords who have been settled in Kyushu, the Ōtomo family doesn't have many lands left.

The next day, Nobunaga summoned Shichibei, although he had not yet received him.

Tahara Chikamori, but both sides have already secretly dispatched diplomatic monks to make contact. Just like when the Mori clan came to see Nobunaga, they invited the monk Ekei of Ankokuji Temple.

The Otomo family's demands were outrageous; they wanted to add half of the province of Bungo and Bunzen to the province of Chikuzen.

Historically, Hideyoshi's terms were that Ōtomo Yoshitomo would receive Bungo Province and Bunzen District, while Ōtomo Sōrin would receive Hyuga Province. However, Hyuga would have to cede one castle and one district to Shiga Chikatsugu, whose loyalty and integrity were renowned throughout Japan.

In addition, the province of Ōsumi was granted to Chōsokabe Motochika.

It can only be said that the Ōtomo clan dared to set a price, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi dared to agree. In the end, during the great relocation of Kyushu, Ōtomo Sōrin was utterly useless. While the Shimazu clan suffered a major defeat, they still displayed a fighting-to-the-death attitude. To expedite the pacification of Kyushu, Hideyoshi agreed to the Shimazu's surrender, and the rewards for Ōsumi, Hyuga, and other regions were never realized.

"What do you think about the situation in Kyushu?" Nobunaga was not doing his morning exercise; he was just sitting idly.

In his youth, he would practice shooting at the range even in the dead of winter, shirtless. Not to mention summer, he truly trained hard through the coldest and hottest days of winter, riding horses, flying eagles, and practicing martial arts tirelessly.

It's only early summer, a very comfortable time of year, and this...

Ten years ago, this would have been around the time he finished his morning workout and had his body wiped by the servants. Back then, Nobunaga wouldn't have bothered with Shichibei at this time; he would change Shichibei's loincloth in front of him, treating him like family.

"Otomo's price is too high." For Shichibei, the greatest benefit of Kyushu is foreign trade; territory is secondary.

The Ito clan, who had already come to surrender to Nobunaga, lost their territory. The Akizuki clan, who were currently negotiating with Nobunaga, had territory inland in Chikuzen Province. The Ōtomo clan, on the other hand, not only had coastal territory that could directly support the Oda clan's landing, but also possessed a large castle, port, and warehouses, allowing the Oda army to rest, assemble, mobilize, and stockpile supplies.

When Oda's army initially planned to attack Shikoku Island, it was thanks to the bribery of Miyoshi Yasutoshi that they were able to successfully land on the island. Without this support, Miyoshi Nagaharu could have easily pushed Oda's army into the sea with just a few thousand men before the main force had even established a firm foothold.

So, Otomo is clearly using this as leverage to try and sell itself for a good price.

It's only because he's down on his luck that he'd even considered selling himself out. Besides, he's accumulated a wealth of experience fighting landing forces, and was once jokingly referred to online as "West Country Kawanakajima" for his large-scale battles and skirmishes with the Mori army in the Buzen and Chikuzen areas centered around Moji Castle.

Although the Mori army gained the upper hand on several occasions, they were still forced back into the sea by the Ōtomo clan. At the height of their power, the Mori clan captured Tachibana Castle, aided the Akizuki clan's resurgence, and even threatened Chikugo at one point. But ultimately, they failed, retaining only Moji Castle as their stronghold in northern Kyushu.

“That’s true.” If the price wasn’t high, Nobunaga wouldn’t have come to Shichibei to discuss it; he would have agreed on the spot.

"We have the upper hand now. If we can talk, we can talk; if we can't, it's not necessarily a bad thing." The three strongest powers in the Nine Provinces cannot make room for new people without killing one or two of them.

At its peak, Hyuga Ito Yuhei only had 180,000 koku, while Chikuzen Akizuki Soejiro had a staggering 100,000 to 200,000. If such people were settled down, it would not affect the overall distribution after the war.

Besides, does the absence of Butcher Zhang mean we have to eat hairy pork? Does the absence of his daylily mean we can't make the Eight Great Bowls?

"Would you be willing to go to Chikuzen to open up the country?" Nobunaga put aside the matter of Tawara Chikamori and asked Shichibei directly.

"Why wouldn't we want to?" With direct control of Hakata Port, the best days are yet to come.

Besides, even if he were reassigned to Hakata, he would most likely remain Shichibei as the deputy governor of Hori, Kyoto, Tsuruga, and other places. Nobunaga wouldn't personally take on that role.

The acting prime minister will henceforth only issue orders in the capital.

"What about Fujikichiro?" Nobunaga seemed to have thought of something.

"Two provinces under the Ministry of Defense, half a province in Iwami, peaceful and orderly." Wasn't this all part of your plan? Or is it because Hidekatsu Hashiba succeeded to the throne that Hideyoshi stopped moving?

"How about transferring Shichibei to Higo?" Nobunaga suddenly made this suggestion before Shichibei had even finished speaking.

"What?" Shichibei was taken aback.

After a moment, he realized that Kagawa Nobusumi was also Shichibei. However, everyone used to call him Yuzuki Samurai, but now he was Yuzuki Lieutenant General. Few people would call him by the name "Shichibei," because he came from a good family and had been raised by Nobunaga since childhood, practically like a son.

Based on this, Hidekatsu Hashiba was in the western provinces, Nobutaka Miyoshi in Shikoku, Nobusumi Kagawa in Kyushu, Nobufusa Takeda in the eastern provinces, and Nobuhiro Oda in Kainobu.

In essence, this meant that Nobunaga established a relatively powerful faction within each region to serve as the core of his local rule. Given that a regime was poised to rule all of Japan, this arrangement wasn't entirely unreasonable.

What about the Kanto region? Will they move Takeda Nobufusa there? We don't know.

"Troublesome, really troublesome." Nobunaga stood up, stood on the veranda, looked at the greenery in the courtyard, and said with a helpless tone.

"There's a saying in the Ming Dynasty: 'Governing a large country is like cooking a small fish.' I think that's very true." Shichibei felt that Nobunaga had become more cautious in many matters, except for the matter of quickly establishing Nobukatsu.

Or perhaps "cautious" isn't quite right; it should be that he's not so quick to make a decision. It's worth remembering that during the tumultuous Okehazama Incident, after receiving news from Tsukida Hiromasa about the location of Imagawa Yoshimoto's main camp, Nobunaga almost immediately decided to go into battle.

Historically, during the Battle of Tonezaka, the generals disagreed with pursuing the enemy, but he charged straight out without hesitation, routing the Asakura clan and leaving them in complete disarray.

As I get older and have more experience, I've become more hesitant.

Of course, he's still better than the elderly Hideyoshi. The elderly Hideyoshi wasn't just hesitant; he was completely demented. It wouldn't be so bad if he just had senile dementia, but he was also greedy and bloodthirsty, even killing Hidetsugu's entire family to pave the way for Hideyori.

"Whether it's madness or folly, we'll just keep going." Nobunaga turned around and smiled at Shichibei.

"Hiss..." Your words are too ominous. They should never be spoken by someone as powerful as you who holds the reins of power over the world.

"Hahaha..." Nobunaga laughed.

Just as Shichibei was at a loss for words, Nobunaga suddenly reached out and firmly grasped Shichibei's hands, staring intently at him.

"Can I trust you, Shichibei?" Nobunaga's eyes were very serious.

"My lord, my lord..." Anyone would be slightly flustered by such a sudden question.

In particular, the Oda clan had just experienced a massive rebellion, with over 100,000 dead in the Kinai region. The Battle of Setabashi was so fierce that even the Setabashi River turned pale and turned into blood.

Given this situation, what exactly did Nobunaga mean by asking this question?

"Answer me!" Nobunaga's eyes sharpened as he tried to see through Shichibei's heart.

It should be noted that Nobunaga was over 1.6 meters tall, while Shichibei was only a little over 1.4 meters tall; the difference in height was a head. The superior height of Nobunaga was extremely intimidating to Shichibei.

"I serve you faithfully and without any disloyalty," Shichibei finally replied.

How much of it is genuine? How much is true intention? How much is just desperate panic?

How much of it was just empty talk? Nobody knows, not even Shichibei himself.

"Ha..." Nobunaga got the answer he wanted, finally let go, and turned back to the courtyard.

"My lord?" Shichibei called out tentatively.

"Alright, go to Sarugake immediately to assist Hideyoshi in reorganizing the army, capturing Sayanoura, and preparing for the battle to come." Nobunaga issued the order immediately, as if he had turned his back on him.

531. Xin Gao entered the city and was again taken hostage.