Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

Of course, this matter had nothing to do with Nobunaga or Ashikaga Yoshiaki. This year, the Imperial Court took the lead in presiding over the Prayer Festival for a Good Harvest. Because the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple was destroyed by fire, it petitioned the Imperial Court, requesting that the Imperial Court take the lead in soliciting donations throughout Japan to assist in the reconstruction of the Great Buddha Hall.

Historically, fundraising for this reconstruction failed. Although Todai-ji Temple was a big name, it was ultimately not as good as Ise Grand Shrine. At that time, even Oda Nobuhide contributed money to the reconstruction of Ise Grand Shrine, and many nobles and samurai also donated enthusiastically.

Of course, no one knew that the fundraising would fail, so the imperial court sent people to Ashikaga Yoshiei and Ashikaga Yoshiaki separately, asking them to contribute what they should.

The Ashikaga Shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate had an obligation to assist in the maintenance and repair of the Forbidden City. Ashikaga Yoshiteru also donated 500 kan to the Imperial Court for the repair of the Forbidden City. In reality, the Imperial Court and the Shogunate had a relatively close cooperative relationship. They needed each other and provided value to each other. Now the Imperial Court was leading the reconstruction of the Great Buddha Hall, but Yoshiteru had no money.

Whether Ashikaga Yoshihide gives money or not is a matter for the Miyoshi Triumvirate. Whether Ashikaga Yoshiaki gives money or not is a matter for Nobunaga.

There are two historical controversies surrounding the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple. One is that Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as the ruler of the land, accepted the court's advice and prepared to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall. However, Hideyoshi wanted to usher in a new era and did not want to rebuild Todai-ji Temple, but instead built Hōkō-ji Temple.

What role Fangguang Temple played afterward, becoming a turning point in history, is another matter.

There is another case in which a monk named Gongqing of Todai-ji Temple at that time deceived Keishoin, the mother of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, by telling her that Tsunayoshi could not give birth to a son because he was not pious enough to the Buddha, and that he had to spread Buddhism in order to give birth to a son.

Wow, this old monk fooled Keichangyuan so much that he finally gave him a lot of his own gold coins and his beloved son's gold coins, so the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple was rebuilt.

Well, it was this monk Gongqing from Todai-ji Temple who told Keishoin that dogs should not be killed, as killing dogs would bring bad luck and prevent one from giving birth to a son.

Now Ashikaga Yoshiaki has approached Nobunaga, hoping that Nobunaga could contribute a sum of money to persuade Todai-ji Temple to ascend to the throne in Yoshiaki's name, in order to help the public good.

Paying the money was not a difficult task for Nobunaga, but how to give the money to the imperial court and then use it to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall was a bit more complicated.

Oh……

Sigh, if someone without a brain came to live in this day and age, and encountered all sorts of messy things every day, could you possibly understand it?

Ashikaga Yoshiaki brazenly and openly demanded money, acting with a clear conscience. If Nobunaga gave it to him, it would be seen as him doing Nobunaga a favor. If Nobunaga refused, the previously supportive relationship between the two would immediately crumble.

Nobunaga certainly wanted to establish a good relationship with the imperial court, but he wasn't a fool to give away thousands of kan to the court or temples for nothing, without gaining any real benefit. So he didn't know how to respond.

Kinoshita Hideyoshi, who didn't want to get involved in this matter, immediately made a hasty retreat. Anyway, there were so many clever retainers in the Oda clan that someone would surely come up with a good compromise.

This way, one can neither offend Yoshiaki nor offend Nobunaga.

"When our lord becomes a governor, such things will certainly happen frequently." Hideyoshi, of course, had some insight and spoke with great certainty.

"Thinking about it, that makes sense." Shichibei remembered that Hosokawa Harumoto often accompanied Ashikaga Yoshiharu on his almsgiving ceremonies.

What are your thoughts?

"Ah?" Shichibei, who was eating roasted venison, trembled in his hands.

Why are you asking me this? If you can't do anything, what can I do? Shichibei, unwilling to let the venison fall on the rocks, picked it up and grilled it over the fire, then ate it as usual.

"Perhaps they will still ask you about me." Hideyoshi gestured towards Yeying with his chin.

126. Fancy and flashy quasi-positioning grid

Hideyoshi wasn't wrong. If Nobunaga didn't have an idea, he would definitely have gathered everyone to brainstorm. Of course, this "everyone" refers to the senior retainers and above, including Shichibei.

When this topic comes up, venison doesn't taste so good anymore.

Shichibei finally put down his chopsticks. What would he say if Nobunaga asked? Hideyoshi wasn't seen standing there waiting for Shichibei's answer.

After a brief pause, Shichibei couldn't quite put his thoughts together, so he asked Hideyoshi what Nobunaga had just heard about this. Furthermore, the imperial court was taking the lead in raising funds to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall, and it certainly wouldn't just ask the two Ashikaga, but would also solicit donations from the feudal lords close to the court.

People like Tosako of Shikoku and Saionji who had good relations with the imperial court, as well as Mori in the west, Shimazu in Kyushu, Uesugi in Echigo, and Oda Nobunaga who is in front of us.

Without at least 100,000 or 200,000 yuan, there's no way you can even think about rebuilding the Great Buddha Hall.

Historically, when the Great Buddha Hall was rebuilt, suitable wood was hard to find even after searching all three islands of Japan except Hokkaido. In the end, the Vairocana Buddha was recast to a height of 15 meters, only two-thirds the size of the original statue.

It was only after Keishōin had his beloved son order all the feudal lords to search that two enormous trees were finally discovered on Hyuga Province's Shiratoriyama. The main beams of the Great Buddha Hall, stretching thirteen bays, were finally located.

To transport these two main beams to Nara, 100,000 people were mobilized, and 8,000 kan were spent. The transportation involved carts, ships, and human and animal labor, and the cost was astonishing.

As for why the Great Buddha Hall was even smaller and steel beams were used directly during the post-WWII reconstruction, even the halo of the Great Buddha was removed. Don't listen to how nicely those people talk about it; the truth is that Todai-ji became a natural corporation and could no longer raise funds from all over Japan to build its own buildings with other people's money. They were also unwilling to spend huge sums of money to cut thirteen-bay-long main beams from Indonesia and Brazil, so they went straight for steel beams.

However, this is a difficult task. With the global shortage of timber, large-scale wooden buildings are bound to disappear or be destroyed in the future. No matter how well they are protected, the decay and deterioration of wood cannot be avoided, so let's take advantage of the present moment to appreciate them.

It seems the Imperial Court hasn't sent anyone to inform Nobunaga yet. Even Yamashina Tokitsugu, a samurai envoy who was an old acquaintance of Oda Nobuhide, hasn't appeared at Gifu Castle. Why is the Imperial Court's envoy taking so long?

"The lord did not show any reaction." Hideyoshi thought about it. Nobunaga just nodded slightly when he heard Isshiki Fujinaga talk about this incident in the camp.

The imperial court's donations weren't just ten or eight coins; without several thousand kan, the Great Buddha Hall wouldn't even have a single pillar erected. With such a large sum of money, Nobunaga certainly didn't need to make a statement on the spot.

The simplest way is to go home and ask the magistrate of Gifu Castle how much money is in the gold storehouse. That would be necessary.

"The government has presented us with a very difficult problem."

"Who says otherwise?" Hideyoshi had just returned from Kyoto; he could actually have caught something.

Because the Oda family and the imperial court were not very familiar with each other, even though Oda Nobunaga now holds a million koku in both countries. But in the past history, were there not many daimyo who held a million koku?

When Ōuchi Yoshinaga died, the family still possessed approximately 800,000 koku of land and territory in Shikoku. However, with the death of Sue Haruhisa, morale plummeted, and the 800,000 koku of land immediately crumbled. No one could have imagined that the Ōuchi family, which had produced so many powerful figures just decades ago, would perish so suddenly in a mere year or two.

The Emperor and court nobles had no idea about Oda Nobunaga's ability to govern his territory. They only knew from the surface that Nobunaga had become incredibly wealthy. Initially, the conflict was protracted, but after reaching a certain point, it suddenly erupted, and in a short period of time, he swallowed up Mino Province and northern Ise Province.

The territory, with hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain, has only ever received one annual tribute of rice.

How strong is its dominance? How stable is it?

Hideyoshi believed that the Imperial Court, through Ashikaga Yoshiaki's words, actually wanted to see how Oda Nobunaga was adept at exploiting the local population and preventing rebellions.

Yoshiaki might have taken advantage of the situation, realizing that Nobunaga's standing army of 8,000 men was indeed quite capable. His next step would be to test the Oda clan's financial situation and see if they could afford a large sum of money to mobilize a large army to Kyoto.

War is about spending money. If the Battle of Shangluo had lasted for half a year, and that was the generally optimistic estimate at the time, the military funds consumed would probably be calculated in the tens of thousands of strings of cash.

Without that much money, how can we mobilize 60,000 people? And how can we get 60,000 people to risk their lives?

Of course, Hideyoshi didn't say this aloud, as it was just his own speculation. Even if Ashikaga Yoshiaki was a puppet, he had his own thoughts, after all, he was the heir of the previous shogun. Nobunaga was neither from a family of high-ranking officials nor from a prominent family in the country. He originally did not belong to the ruling class of the Muromachi shogunate, and his relationship with the shogun's family was very thin.

If it weren't for Yoshiaki's intervention and recommendation when Nobunaga purchased the title, the two sides wouldn't have even achieved the most basic political trust. Therefore, mutual probing, showcasing their abilities, and constant adjustments were the inevitable outcome.

Historically, the two sides clearly failed to reach an agreement in the end, and their honeymoon period was so short that historians barely wrote about it.

Well, at least everyone had a good time on the hunt. Especially Shichibei, who brought back dozens of kilograms of meat, seasoned it, and made sausages, feeling very happy. Nobunaga only instructed that the deer and other game be distributed among everyone, and that some venison bean curd be made and sent to Ashikaga Yoshiaki, but he hardly paid any attention to the other game.

After everyone returned to Gifu, two nobles from the Urinary Tract family came to the court to solicit donations.

Nobunaga had known about the matter for a long time, but he did not express his opinion. He settled the people down, provided them with food and accommodation, and then summoned civil officials and military generals to sit down and discuss the matter.

At present, Nobunaga is taking an attitude of winning over the imperial court. He is willing to pay money, but he wants to do it in the name of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, which makes Nobunaga a little unhappy.

How come I pay for it, but others get the fame?

Why should I?!

Immediately, someone offered, "We'll pay, and it'll be under the Oda clan's name. Let Ashikaga Yoshiaki figure it out himself. If Yoshiaki can't get the money, that's his problem. We just gave Yoshiaki nearly a thousand kan of valuables; he can just give us five hundred to appease the imperial court."

This idea was actually shared by many of Oda's retainers. After all, they were all muscular men, not very quick-witted, and unwilling to let the money they had earned through exploitation contribute to someone else's reputation.

Many of the military officers in the household were also happy to donate money to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall and accumulate merit. This merit should be attributed to me so I don't go to hell; if it's attributed to someone else, then my donation is wasted.

Murder and arson could coexist with the construction of Buddhist temples, a phenomenon quite common in Japan's Warring States period.

"Perhaps this is also a test from the court for our lord." Hideyoshi finally voiced his thoughts, having refined his statement over the past two days.

"If what you're saying is true, the court only needs money and doesn't care what name it's given?" Nobunaga immediately retorted.

"That's not the case." Hideyoshi turned to the side and sat down on the couch.

"The imperial court desires stability in Luoyang, but the government is weak and powerless to pacify Luoyang, so..."

Shichibei thought to himself that Hideyoshi's words made sense. The court's biggest demand right now was actually to restore peace and stability to the entire capital. For Kyoto to be stable, the new general and the new commander-in-chief needed to cooperate seamlessly, and the military needed to be strong.

Nobunaga possesses a strong military force, capable of commanding an army of fifty to sixty thousand men. However, the seamless cooperation between ruler and subjects remains unknown.

The phenomenon of shoguns killing their subordinates and subordinates attacking their shoguns was not uncommon during the Muromachi Shogunate; it happened on several occasions. Mutual expulsion and attacks were almost commonplace.

Once the cooperation between Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Nobunaga breaks down, the inevitable result will be the Battle of Kyoto.

The imperial court absolutely did not want to see Kyoto reignite with war, so for this fundraising campaign, the court might only need two or three thousand kan, mainly to observe whether Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Oda Nobunaga had a harmonious relationship and were of one mind.

After saying this, Nobunaga pondered. All of the Oda retainers around him were like this; this was indeed a possibility, wasn't it? And it wasn't a small possibility, based on reality and past examples...

Alas, the imperial court was absolutely right; Oda Nobunaga did indeed clash with Ashikaga Yoshiaki two years later.

So now we need to get back to the point: did Nobunaga want to stay within the Muromachi Shogunate's framework? If he did, he should have backed down this time and offered Ashikaga Yoshiaki 2,000 kan. This would have further won Ashikaga Yoshiaki's favor and appeased the imperial court, thus securing the court's approval and endorsement for his subsequent journey to Kyoto.

"It's such a waste of that money..." Murai Sadakatsu muttered.

Of course, a few thousand guan is still money, and it can bribe a great man with tens of thousands of koku. Just throw it into the water like this, in exchange for a little kindness.

"My lord, if the court is truly interested, it would be appropriate to provide some funds." Shichibei thought to himself that this was just a matter of formality.

The title of Shogun had been given to Ashikaga Yoshihide, and the position of Kanrei (military regent) had been appointed to Hosokawa Harumoto's son, Hosokawa Yoshimoto (later Hosokawa Akimoto). Hosokawa Yoshimoto was currently residing at Akutagawa Castle, "assisted" by Miyoshi Nagayatsu, one of the Miyoshi Triumvirate.

However, we must say "however." If a general and a commander can belong to two different parties, why can't a commander and a deputy commander belong to two different parties?

Historically, there have been instances of Kanrei (Kanrei) and Kanrei Dai (Kanrei's deputy) being enemies. For example, Kanrei Dai Rokkaku Sadayori went to fight Kanrei Hosokawa Sumimoto. They each found a pretext, and the fighting ended there.

Is there anyone doing the job of a supervisor now?

No.

Since no one else is in power, why can't Nobunaga do it? Isn't Nobunaga qualified? Send the money to Kyoto; I don't believe the Imperial Court wouldn't even recognize a deputy governor. Although Ashikaga Yoshiaki wasn't officially appointed shogun, he always considered himself shogun and appointed various staff positions without the slightest embarrassment.

If they failed to capture the capital, they might be called "a false official." But if they did capture the capital, it would be acting in accordance with Heaven's will and the people's will, and a grand strategy would be formulated early on.

If Yoshiaki were to borrow money from Nobunaga, then Nobunaga would need to countersign Yoshiaki's official documents and correspondence as his "Kanrei-dai" (regent). Furthermore, if the money were given to the Imperial Court, the court would have to acknowledge Nobunaga's appointment as Kanrei-dai.

Regardless of whether it's true or false, useful or not, we have to make this a public display. Once the banner is raised, whether outsiders believe it or not is their business. Domestically, we are the legitimate rulers, we have the righteous cause, and we are supporting a new monarch.

Of course, in addition to that, we need to take one more step.

Didn't they say that the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple was destroyed? Should the shogunate get involved in this? Of course they should. Not only should they get involved, but they should get involved in a way that is announced to the whole world.

Oda Nobunaga, the deputy shogunate governor who was jointly recognized by Ashikaga Yoshiaki and the imperial court, issued an official document announcing that all those who committed the burning of the Great Buddha Hall would be severely punished and handed over to the shogunate for public trial once they were arrested.

In this way, by funding the Great Buddha Hall, he at least gained considerable fame and prestige. In terms of status, he preemptively established the legitimacy of Nobunaga's rule over the Muromachi Shogunate.

Anyway, the position of Kanreidae is a temporary one. When I was in it, it was like having the power of the shogunate's regent. If I don't want to do it anymore, I'll just change the name, keep the same team, and do what I'm supposed to do.

The transition is relatively easy; it's simply a matter of putting a suitable shell over one's own administrative and military team.

Especially in a country like Japan where loyalty to the emperor is highly valued, I will dedicate my loyalty to wherever that favor comes from. As for other parties, they are none of my business.

"Shichibei, being appointed as a deputy commander is meaningless, but your approach is quite good." Nobunaga tapped his folding fan.

It was clear that Nobunaga did not want to be the deputy governor; he didn't even want to get involved in that position. However, he was somewhat interested in the proposal to first obtain the legitimacy to rule in place of the shogun.

"Then..." But Nobunaga doesn't even act as a deputy leader, so how can he issue orders to the world?

"You can be allowed to take charge!" Hideyoshi suddenly interjected, having already grasped Nobunaga's thoughts.