Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

“Sigh…” Todo Takatora and Takenaka Shigeharu shook their heads and waved their hands respectively.

"What advice do you all have for me?" They're all on the same side, having a private meeting. Shichibei is shameless; if he says something wrong, so be it.

"In my opinion, it would be better to focus solely on the fact that the rebels have captured Aizu Castle and then resolutely launch a campaign against them," Takenaka Shigeharu suggested after some thought.

Why?

"The work that wasn't finished last time." Takenaka's reason was simple.

The last time Oda Nobukatsu served as the supreme commander, he campaigned against the Tojo clan in Kanto. He captured Odawara Castle and essentially unified Japan. However, at that very moment, Oda Nobunaga passed away, so Oda Nobukatsu rushed back to Kyoto to succeed him as prime minister.

The subsequent pacification of Oshu, namely the attacks on the Aizu-Ashina clan and the Higan-To clan, were all carried out by Tokugawa Ieyasu leading his troops.

In other words, Oda Nobukatsu's military might never actually set foot on the land of Oshu. Many of the samurai lords of that era feared power but not virtue; they only submitted when a sword was held to their throats, otherwise they would consider rebellion at the first opportunity.

Why not take this opportunity to invite Oda Nobuo to personally lead the expedition and give Aizu a proper haircut? If this haircut is done well, it can generally last for ten or twenty years.

For example, the Takeda clan carried out a massacre in Saku District, Shinano Province, wiping out the Ōi clan, who had dominated the area for many years. Sure enough, the region remained peaceful for the next ten or twenty years. No further wars against the Takeda clan broke out.

It should be noted that the Ōi and Takeda families had been entangled for decades. Takeda Harunobu's mother was Lady Ōi. The two sides fought back and forth without ever achieving a decisive victory. It wasn't until Takeda Harunobu shaved his head in Saku-gun that the conflict finally subsided.

"Hiss..." There's a hidden meaning in his words.

Shichibei understood; it meant that Oda Nobukatsu would personally go to Aizu and kill 50,000 people, wiping out all 40,000 troublemakers who had recently emerged. He would kill them all, piling their heads into a mound, so that all the lords of Oshu could see it clearly.

Thus, for the past two or three decades, Ouyu has dared not harbor the slightest disloyalty. As for Niwa Nagahide's ruthless killing of Yoriki and his usurpation of Yoriki's family business, those are all trivial matters. All that everyone sees is the fifty thousand heads; nothing else matters.

"There is still one problem: the Aizu people dared to breach Aizu Castle, is there no one behind them?" Although Takatora Todo felt that there was no problem with doing so, he still took a limited risk.

If Oda Nobukatsu personally leads troops to Aizu, and then some feudal lord in Ōu suddenly rebels, it could trigger an avalanche of unforeseen events.

“Both Date and Mogami are respectful.” Shichibei thought for a moment. Date Terumune and Mogami Yoshimitsu were both intelligent people, not the kind who were addicted to being bad at something.

In this world, Nihonmatsu Yoshitsugu has already been sent directly to heaven by Niwa Hideshige, so Date Teruzo naturally won't be punished by "Daddy Collapse." He's currently managing state affairs in Yonezawa Castle, and even inquired whether he should send a daughter to Oda Nobuo as a concubine.

How could someone as intelligent as him possibly launch a sneak attack on Oda Nobukatsu?

"What good is obedience? What if someone is obedient but rebellious? How will Asai deal with that?" Todo Takatora felt that all so-called obedience was just a hypothesis and unreliable.

"That's true." If that's the case, then it's indeed true.

Oda Nobunaga genuinely valued Azai Nagamasa, even suppressing the Hori Hidemura rebellion for him. However, due to various reasons, the two inevitably became adversaries. This eventually led to Azai Nagamasa's uprising in Azuchi, nearly destroying the Oda clan's power.

"In my opinion, it's best to play it safe." Todo Takatora felt it best not to offer any overly presumptuous suggestions.

"Has there been any news from Vice Admiral Hashiba of Hakata?" Takenaka Shigeharu asked Shichibei in a low voice, inquiring about Hashiba Hideyoshi's attitude.

Hideyoshi is still the chief retainer and military advisor of the Oda clan, a very prestigious position, theoretically second only to Oda Nobukatsu in the Oda family. Although he has practically moved away from the political core, he still wields considerable political influence because he helped Maeda Toshiie enter the cabinet.

"Not yet." If Hideyoshi had a plan, Shichibei would be on Hideyoshi's side.

There's no other way. Let's adjourn the meeting for today. Shichibei will send a letter to Hideyoshi to ask about his thinking. Anyway, the Aizu situation has already been dealt with, and it's unlikely to improve or worsen anytime soon, so a slight delay won't hurt.

Nobuo sent people all the way from afar to Kumamoto to inquire, precisely because they in Kyoto hadn't come up with a suitable solution either. Furthermore, while Kyoto considered the matter urgent, it wasn't so urgent that it would immediately collapse and required a swift and decisive solution.

He immediately wrote to Hideyoshi, and Hideyoshi, who shared the same idea as Shichibei, also wrote to ask Shichibei what to do.

What to do? Why don't we all sit down and talk together? Shichibei, who was originally the "Minister of Trade for the Five Ports" and was in charge of inspecting the five ports, immediately rode off to Hakata. Two days later, the two sat down together.

Hideyoshi's answer was unexpected.

drag!

According to Hideyoshi's assessment, the Aizu gang was nothing more than a group of petty thieves who simply stayed put and didn't amount to much. All they wanted was to protect themselves and take this opportunity to make another fortune.

I've heard that Kyoto has ordered the surrounding lords to surround Aizu to prevent the situation from spreading. So, let's wait and see, and delay it a bit.

It was the same rhetoric Sakuma Nobumori used back then: having become a prime minister, the head of the court nobles, and the de facto prime minister, one must demonstrate one's authority to secure one's position. Sakuma Nobumori thus incurred the wrath of Oda Nobutada, while Hideyoshi acted more discreetly than Nobumori.

Hideyoshi considered himself a senior retainer in charge of governing the domain, and was therefore unaware of the development of the situation. So it's normal for him to want to know more details before giving advice to the Grand Chancellor.

Normally, me going to Kumamoto to decide on matters in Aizu? That's the same concept as me sitting in the capital and caring about the lives of the vast rural people.

Taking this opportunity, we can employ a delaying tactic and allow the central government in Kyoto to postpone the matter.

On the surface, this may seem like just a routine delay. But in reality, it is also undermining the authority of the current leaders.

When problems arise, the incumbent executives are all helpless, discussing the issue day after day without finding a solution. This effectively weakens the newly appointed executives.

Those below will only think, "When so-and-so was in charge, everything was highly efficient, and problems were dealt with immediately without any delay. Now that so-and-so is in charge, they're so incompetent when something happens. It's incomparable."

In a sense, Hideyoshi was using the Aizu incident to launch an attack on the new ruling team.

It's not really about factional strife; it's just a power struggle between the old and new governments. As long as Aizu doesn't collapse, I'll just watch the show.

As for what consequences or troubles this delay will cause, those are things for the future; don't worry about them now.

Moreover, there isn't a single person in Japan today with such a top-level, strategic vision. Even Hideyoshi or Tokugawa Ieyasu might not have seen that far ahead.

In order not to make this delaying tactic too obvious, Hideyoshi's idea was to first unite with Shichibei and jointly express their support for Takigawa's temporary succession to the Takigawa family.

They pretended to shift the political focus to the succession of the Takigawa family. Niwa Nagahide was dead, but Niwa Nagashige was young and vigorous, in his prime, and the succession was secure. Takigawa was only thirteen years old at the time and still needed support to manage his hundreds of thousands of territories.

Supporting Takikawa Kazutoki's succession was also a step in consolidating his prestige within the Owari lineage. If he could support Takikawa Kazutoki today, he could support other Owari lineages tomorrow.

Shichibei was undoubtedly willing to support Takikawa immediately, signing his name without hesitation if Hideyoshi asked. However, he was less certain whether using this incident to delay their plans for Aizu was a good or bad thing.

When the Oda clan was on the rise, unifying the country, everyone worked together towards a common goal. Now that they've unified the country and reached their peak, is it time to start declining?

If things really drag on like this, what if something goes wrong? Shichibei was really unsure. But since he didn't have any good ideas of his own, he temporarily agreed and didn't offer any further suggestions to Kyoto.

Japan's national affairs thus continued for another month, and then February, amidst fruitless discussions and disputes...

Chapter 627 Ieyasu suggests pressing down (Sponsored by Amagi Sansho)

To be fair, the delaying tactic did have some effect. Since most of the Aizu guerrillas had disbanded and returned to farming, the mobilization effort of drawing 40,000 to 50,000 people out of 500,000 koku inevitably drew both farmers and soldiers into the army.

Seeing that the Oda army did not immediately come to attack, and that the lords from all directions were merely holding their passes, the generals of the uprising were secretly pleased. Perhaps the Grand Chancellor had just vowed to rebuild the Great Buddha Temple and was unwilling to wage war rashly, so he temporarily tolerated their existence and awaited a later decision.

Their envoys sent to Kyoto were also successfully released by Oda Nobukatsu. Although they did not bring back any message, it is certain that no clear action was taken in Kyoto.

There's a chance!

Could it be that the Ashina family can really be revived? If so, the Suda, Shirakawa, Yuki, and Tamura families will have succeeded and become the new "Three Elders of Ashina".

They even planned out the three families of the territory: 80,000 koku each, which would amount to 24. The remaining 200,000 koku would be mostly used to settle the remnants of the Ashina clan's old retainers. If these people weren't settled and couldn't have their heads shaved, they would surely cause trouble in the future.

Leaving Ashina Moriyuki with 30,000 to 50,000 koku would be quite good. At least his family would prosper again, and he would have a piece of land to live on, enough to recruit a hundred or so close retainers to maintain the daimyo's prestige.

You think they don't want to become independent lords? They certainly have thought about it, but in the short term, their real plan is to let Ashina Morikami hold the top position while they take over the 80,000 koku territory.

An eerie calm descended upon the entire situation; the Aizu Ikki did not launch any offensives, and the Oda army had yet to demonstrate any clear intention to mobilize its forces.

Under these circumstances, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the lord of the Edo Domain in Musashi, chose to go to Kyoto to personally present his strategy to Oda Nobukatsu. It wasn't that he necessarily wanted to go to Kyoto; rather, Oda Nobukatsu believed that Ieyasu was an expert on the eastern provinces, and that his insights were crucial at this moment.

Hideyoshi and Shichibei did not give a clear answer. Although Oda Nobuo cursed inwardly, he did not retaliate and instead placed his hopes on Ieyasu.

Upon arriving in Kyoto, Ieyasu first asked Oda Nobukatsu three questions: Would he personally lead the expedition? Had he mobilized the troops in the eastern provinces? Could the war funds be raised?

good question!

From his own heart, Oda Nobukatsu did not wish to endure the hardships of a protracted war again. In his view, the Aizu Ikki were nothing but a piece of moss, completely incomparable to a formidable enemy like the Odawara Hojo clan. Moreover, Oda's eldest son, Saburo Hoshi, was only four years old.

At such an age, he is incapable of fulfilling the duties of remaining in the capital to oversee the government. For the sake of a complete policy, it is necessary to send the two chief ministers to the capital to assist in governing, a point that Nobukatsu dislikes even more.

Therefore, Nobuo preferred to appoint Takigawa Kazumasu or Tokugawa Ieyasu as commander-in-chief rather than personally lead the troops into battle.

The second point is that mobilizing the people of the eastern country is even more important. With the outbreak of the Kokujin So-ichi Uprising in Aizu, Nobuo had long suspected that forces from the Ou and Kanto regions were secretly involved.

The Owari patriarchs didn't trust the Eastern Nationalist troops, and Nobukatsu himself didn't really trust them either. If others could anticipate the Eastern Nationalist troops rebelling in the face of battle, then Nobukatsu's advisors could certainly do the same.

Therefore, if military action were to be taken, mobilizing 50,000 to 60,000 troops from Mino, Owari, and Ise, along with 20,000 troops from Nobuo's main force and Tokugawa Ieyasu's forces, totaling nearly 100,000, would be enough to crush the Aizu-no-jin Sō-ikki.

What about Mogami? What about Satake? None of that is needed. Even the submissive Date Terumune doesn't need him to send troops. They can all step back and watch the Central Army display its might.

Lastly, war costs...

The first two questions are easy to answer, but this one is truly difficult. This is because the former Grand Chancellor, Oda Nobunaga, was effectively a warmonger, accumulating a mountain of debt. Although the Oda clan received over three million koku of land as their imperial stipend, along with income from gold mines and transported goods, supporting 80,000 cavalrymen and settling old debts was already a huge challenge.

Unfortunately, the Aizu incident occurred right after Nobukatsu vowed to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple, which is why he had just gambled away 200,000 kan from the Kawamura family. Now, he can only gamble away another 200,000 kan; he can't gamble away any more. Because the Great Buddha Hall is currently under construction, and there's plenty of money to be spent.

Shichibei still had to continue supplying the construction expenses of Todai-ji Temple. Todai-ji Temple was already a prestigious project, and construction could not be stopped.

Sweep through the Oda clan's coffers and pull out another 100,000 kan. 300,000 kan is far from enough for a 100,000-strong army to march on Aizu, given the war's duration of three to six months.

Double that, and six hundred thousand would be more like it.

It should be noted that military supplies and provisions destined for Aizu must be transported by land, and this alone makes it a difficult situation to deal with. Even using Edo Port as a transit point, transporting grain from Edo to Aizu by land would still require at least 300 kilometers.

Three hundred kilometers of land transport, wow, it's not just a matter of transport. We don't even know if Japan has the personnel to organize such large-scale, long-distance land transport.

In the past, the Shichibei organization relied on water transport for logistics, and had never relied entirely on land transport. Previously, Tokugawa Ieyasu led his more than 10,000 men to attack Ashina and Ando, ​​and they ate local food.

Now we need to use foreign troops and eat food from other regions, that's going to be difficult...

So Tokugawa Ieyasu shrugged and said, "My great prime minister, if a war really breaks out, there will be countless problems. How about we try to appease them? We'll give the Niwa clan the 500,000 koku of Aizu as before, and appease the Owari fudai."

As for the Suda, Shirakawa, Yuki, and Tamura families, let's see if there's any way to transfer them all to other places. There's no place where we can't squeeze out 50,000 to 80,000 koku of land.

Let them leave after the ban is lifted, and we won't mention the idea of ​​punishing both sides equally. Let's appease both sides and settle things peacefully.

Ieyasu's suggestion was brought to the Imperial Council, where the senior retainers, including Wakatoshi, seemed to be deep in thought. Maeda Toshiie explicitly expressed his opposition, while Nagano Nobuyuki, Ataka Kiyoyasu, and Mori Terumoto reserved their opinions. Takikawa Otoshi and Hijikata Okuhisa, on the other hand, expressed their support.

As Nobukatsu's close retainers, the two knew very well that Nobukatsu didn't have much money. But since Nobukatsu couldn't take on the role of the villainous Ooji-boro, it had to be the two of them.

He then summoned Niwa Nagashige and told him about this plan of action. Niwa Nagashige was actually quite unhappy. Although his father was at fault, the Niwa family had completely lost face. Therefore, he still hoped to retaliate, shave the heads of 50,000 people, and regain face.

However, Nobuo pressured him, since Nobuo was theoretically his father-in-law, so Niwa Nagashige had no choice but to reluctantly accept the proposal.

After he gave his approval, the envoy immediately went to Aizu to find out the thoughts of the Aizu people. If they were willing to transfer the fiefdom, then the matter would be considered settled.

Chapter 628 Enraged, He Ordered the Expedition

Kazuki Takigawa passed away.

The events were neither sudden nor surprising. When the Takigawa family nominated Takigawa Ichisuke to succeed as lord of the domain, they had clearly stated that Takigawa Kazumasu was seriously ill. Now, considering that Takigawa Kazumasu, who was greatly disheartened after hearing the news of his eldest son Takigawa Kazutada's death, had only lived for three months in total.

When the news arrived, even Nobukatsu could only lament his helplessness. Why had everyone gone to follow Nobunaga? Of the three major strongholds the Oda clan had established in the east, the Niwa clan had fled, the Takigawa clan was young and weak, and now only Tokugawa Ieyasu remained to hold the fort.

"The events in the Eastern Kingdom are so numerous and dazzling." Kiyoyasu Ataka, who considered himself to have witnessed countless ups and downs in life, still felt that the situation was constantly changing.

"I don't want to hear that." Oda Nobuo simply turned his head away. What he needed now was a solution, a way to solve the problem, not sighs.

"Please wait for Aizu's report." Takikawa Yuri stepped forward and asked Oda Nobuo to be patient.

“If Aizu can be surrendered and then granted a fief, wouldn’t it be at the mercy of the ruler in two or three years?” Hijikata Yuhisa also advised, and he said it very bluntly.

In Aizu, those locals were all-powerful, familiar with everyone and close to everyone, their every word carried weight. Let's see what tricks they can pull when we transfer them to Bungo or Bichu.