Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 230 The confrontation with Takakage Kobayakawa

To be honest, until meeting Takakage Kobayakawa, the Xiu family didn't decide how much reward they should offer him.

Takakage Kobayakawa was much older than the Xiu family, and he was a well-known general. As the pillar of the Mori family, it felt a bit awkward for the Xiu family to decide on his reward at this moment.

Let's first sort out the contribution of Takakage Kobayakawa in the Battle of the Four Kingdoms.First of all, as the only remaining boss of the Mori family after Yoshikawa Motoharu retired, the Iyo country is the sphere of influence he needs to manage.

Faced with the constant erosion of the northward relatives of Nagamune's tribe, after receiving Kono Tomunao's request, Kobayakawa Takakage immediately led more than 5000 people from Mihara Castle to land in Iyo with the help of the Murakami Navy.

As I said in the previous article, the Maori family's rule over Iyo is a bond relationship, which exceeds the definition of alliance, but the subordination is not complete.As the special envoy of the Mori family, Takakage Kobayakawa has no superior-subordinate relationship with Iyozhong, which makes his orders unable to be conveyed effectively.

Although he organized an army of more than 1 people, since each wealthy family cared about their own territory first, it was impossible to make appropriate sacrifices for the overall situation.In this case, even the "God of the Western Kingdom Army" was helpless.

The fragile alliance quickly fell apart, and Takakage Kobayakawa had no choice but to lead his team and the Kono family to retreat to the essence of Iyo.

We all know what happened after that. Due to the long siege, the soldiers were extremely exhausted and gradually relaxed their vigilance. In the end, Chang Zongga's family took the opportunity to seize the city. He could only lead the troops to break through and stationed at the northern port of Iyo city.

After receiving the letter from Xiu's family, he set out to make peace with Xiu's family and persuaded Tang Zhucheng's defenders to surrender.After Xiu's family left, he used his influence to gradually win over a large number of wealthy people who persuaded Northern Yiyu and Zhong Yiyu to surrender, which is considered an outstanding achievement.

It should be noted that in the military loyalty certificate submitted by Takakage Kobayakawa, he also included the part where he led the Iyos to fight against the Nagamune family under the orders of Hashiba Hideyoshi.

This involves a question of status. As far as Hideya knows, at the beginning of the war between the Mori family and the Nagamune family, Iyo entered in the name of the Kono family asking for help. He did not follow Hashiba Hideyoshi's order. Naturally, the evaluation starts with the letter from the Xiu family.

Now Takakage Kobayakawa reported directly to Hideo that he was Iyo who entered under the order of Hashiba Hideyoshi, so he had to consider the past when evaluating his meritorious service.

"I'm sorry for meeting Daisuke Zhongwu so late, it was my negligence in work."

Since Okatoyo castle was down, because the Okatoyo castle Honmaru was seriously destroyed, the Hide family moved the main camp to Okatoyo castle town, and Masaka Hanabo specially chose a merchant's house for the Hide family to live in.

This Jinya is considered to be the most luxurious building in the entire Oktoyo Town, even so, it still cannot escape the old Japanese screen structure.

Due to the limitations of technology and human cloud organization, the biggest problem facing cities in the old society is fire prevention and disaster prevention.Faced with such a problem, ancient China chose a technology tree, used stone as a wall for fire protection, and used wet mud to coat the wall to prevent fires.

But in Japan, people choose to take the simple structure, low cost and light route.It doesn't matter if you don't understand, the saying of low emotional intelligence is a wooden house built with the most inferior materials, even if it burns, it doesn't hurt.

After all, in the face of a fire, the idea of ​​the Japanese is to remove an isolation zone, which requires the construction of the house to be simple enough, without any permanent structure, that can be quickly disassembled to prevent the spread of the fire.

This kind of thinking cannot be said to be wrong. After all, in the absence of high-pressure water guns, fighting fires with small buckets is like a drop in the bucket.However, a building with such a structure is extremely poor for the living experience. Even the most luxurious commercial house in Okatoyo Town has air leaks everywhere. Hideka can only get as close as possible to the tea stove in the middle of the house to keep warm.

It was already dark when Xiujia met Takakage Kobayakawa, and the cold wind outside was blowing the wooden planks of the house on this January night in the Gregorian calendar.Kobayakawa Takakage had been notified long ago that he would be interviewed by the Xiu family, so he waited at the side early in the morning, but he did not expect to be able to enter now.

"I didn't expect that the sky was already dark here, and today's dinner is still useless." When Takakage Kobayakawa opened the door, Hideka poked outside and noticed that it was already dark outside, and the light outside was The unique dark red light reflected by the brazier.

"Why don't you just eat here, Daisuke Zhongwu? I've already ordered my subordinates to prepare the left and right dishes. It's just a matter of adding a pair of bowls and chopsticks."

"His Highness Wuwei is polite. We have seen His Highness's hard work these past few days. With such a large army, there are still many things to take care of." Kobayakawa Takakage closed the door and sat in Xiu's room. Sitting opposite each other, they stretched out their red hands from the cold to warm themselves on the brazier like Xiujia.

"May I ask your Highness, when will the Tosa matter be over, and when will I be able to return to court as a teacher." After his body warmed up a bit, Takakage Kobayakawa first asked Hideka.

"Is Daisuke Chubu worried about the crops in Bingo?" Hideka poured a cup of hot tea for Kobayakawa Takakage, and replied half-jokingly like a friend, "Hurry up, Tosa's affairs are arranged for these two days, Shikoku's affairs It's over, and tomorrow the vanguard will start to set off and return to the skill in batches."

"It's not that I'm worried about the crops in the field. The Bingo people are hardworking and kind, so I don't need to worry about it at all." Kobayakawa Takakage took a sip of hot tea to warm his body before returning.

"It's just that the soldiers have been out for a year, and many of them are homesick. Now that the head of the army has been captured, the soldiers should really go back."

After saying this, Takakage Kobayakawa looked at Hideo on the opposite side of the steam, and suddenly laughed, which made Hideo confused, and groped his face with his hands for a while, wanting to see if there was anything unusual.

"Your Highness, you don't need to grope. Your Highness's face is quite handsome. I'm just laughing at the old man who was sitting on a bantam back then, but now he looks so chic. The former enemies can sit together and talk and laugh happily. Things are impermanent."

Xiujia fell silent for a while when he heard that, some things are like this, the wheel of fate pushes you forward.You want to jump a few times in the middle of the car, but you are afraid that you will be smashed.

Recalling the time when I first traveled here, all I could think about was how to prolong Zhi's life.Because Xiujia knows that her age is too embarrassing, the master Shaoguo suspects that Yu Xijia will definitely become a fish on the chopping board.

Who would have imagined that the Xiu family tried to use epoch-making medicine to treat the Zhi family's stomach disease, but the fate made him die directly from the stray bullets on the battlefield, so that the Xiu family had to carry the banner of Yuxi family prematurely.

During this process, the Xiu family was not valued by the retainers at first, and might even become the head of the family who was ostracized like the three mages.Fortunately, the Nao family took precautions to find a backer like Hideyoshi for the Hide family, and with the help of Ukita's family, they initially suppressed the group of rebellious retainers.

In the days that followed, the Xiu family established its prestige through continuous wars and reforms. At the same time, the Xiu family successfully gathered a group of new members who were promoted by themselves to fight against the old retainers of the Zhi family era.

Xiujia admitted that during those days, the promotion of new senators was unfair, and there were even situations where they were promoted by leapfrogging and given more rewards.But behind this situation, Xiujia needs to face a difficult situation.

If the Xiu family wanted to gain power, they would inevitably divide the cake of the vested interests. Only the Xiu family knew how frightened they were during those days. They were deeply afraid that one day, like Saito Ryuxing, they would be led into the city by their retainers to control them. .

Afterwards, the Hide family experienced the retirement of the Ukita Tadaka family, and now even Hanabang Masayuki, who has been his right-hand man who watched him grow up, is about to retire. Only the Hide family knows what he has experienced, and no outsiders have seen it. This side of the cloud is calm and breezy.

The Xiu family's silence made the situation in the house more awkward, but fortunately Shimizu Xin also brought his attendants into the room to present food and food for the Xiu family and Long Jing.

Today's staple food is seaweed rice balls, with pickled bamboo shoots, pickled radish and half a grilled fish belly, served with overnight miso soup.After receiving the meal, the Xiu family quickly began to feast on it.

"Eat slowly, if you don't have enough, ask me for more." At this moment when Xiu's parents are in good health, Kobayakawa Takakage is like an uncle, and kindly puts the fish belly in his lunch box to Xiu's family, making Xiu's family realize that they have lost for a long time His father's love doubled his affection for Takakage Kobayakawa.

After the two of them finished eating, the lunch box was removed, and the conversation between the two finally got on the right track.

Hideya first took out the military loyalty certificate sent by Takakage Kobayakawa and asked, "As Daisuke Chubu said, you are Iyo who was entrusted by Dai Nagen to come here. But as far as I know, the Mori family is at the invitation of the Kono family. Come to Iyo to help."

"It was true at the beginning of the period, but when Iyo couldn't do anything, the main family planned to withdraw from Iyo. But at this time, Da Nagon sent a letter from Mino, asking me to stick to Iyo and hold back the offensive of Miyauchi Shaosuke .So the subsequent battles were indeed continued because of Da Nayan."

Kobayakawa Takakage spoke convincingly, and while speaking, he took out a letter from his bosom and handed it to Xiu's family.Hideka stayed with Hashiba Hideyoshi for two years when he was a child, and he can still recognize his handwriting and pressed flowers. This letter is indeed Hashiba Hideyoshi's own handwriting.

In fact, Xiujia knew without reading the letter that what Kobayakawa Takakage said must be true. How could such a big celebrity choose to deceive Xiujia at the risk of losing his reputation and Hideyoshi's anger.

In addition, Xiujia thought from the bottom of his heart that Kobayakawa Takakage was an honest gentleman, and his act of accepting the letter was just a routine matter.

Now that it has been confirmed that the letter is authentic, the contents of Takakage Kobayakawa's military certificate of loyalty can be entered into the military merit system.Xiujia handed the letter back to Kobayakawa Takakage and asked him, "Do you want a reward from Daisuke Zhongwu?"

"Do you still remember the promise you and I made under Tangzhu Castle?" Kobayakawa Takakage immediately answered this question, but chose to kick the ball back to Xiu's family.

What Takakage Kobayakawa said was that under Yuzuki Castle, facing Takakage Kobayakawa's coercion, the Hide family promised to give the Kobayakawa family (Mori) the reward they deserved, and now it's time to fulfill their promise.

Indeed, in the matter of bargaining, whoever speaks first will lose the opportunity.

Hideka did not give a direct answer, and first stated to Kobayakawa Takakage, "The commander of the Asano army led the army to resist the attack of Nagamune's Motokin in Nakanishi Castle for more than 5 days, until my reinforcements arrived to seal the victory. 3.6 stones were transferred to Abo for 10.85 stones.

Miyoshi Hideboden was originally a member of the Miyoshi tribe, and Da Nayan promised to restore his old collar, so he transferred the 8.1 koku of Awa Miyoshi City from Sanuki Toramaru.

Active in Okatoyo Castle, Fukushima Masanori and Kato Kiyomasa, who broke through three cities and captured Miyauchi Shosuke, transferred 3 koku from Kinki to Tosa 10. How many shi does Miyauchi Shosuke think he should keep? . "

Xiujia reported the names of the currently confirmed names, kicked the ball back, and forced Kobayakawa Takakage to make an offer first.

Kobayakawa Long Jinghan said with a smile, "I confronted Yuzuki and Miyauchi Shaosuke for several months, which gave enough time for His Highness to organize the Four Kingdoms Legion, and then persuaded Tangzu to surrender, and for His Highness to win over the Iyo family, and for His Highness to quickly Assess Yiyo for making meritorious deeds."

Takakage Kobayakawa repeated his meritorious deeds, which were all described in the previous military loyalty certificate, Xiujia frowned, not knowing what he meant.

It seems that he saw Hideka's expression, or that Kobayakawa Takakage also felt disgusted with each other's quizzes, and he took the initiative to throw out his chips, "If I ask for Iyo Ikkuni, Your Highness will definitely not give it, but Iyo Bankuni I should have deserved it."

"Iyo's know-how is no less than 29 shi, so if he counts 30, the Chief Assistant of Central Affairs asks for half of it. Isn't he greedy?" Hideka was frightened by the other party's report. What else do you have left for yourself?

"It's not true. Most of the rich families in Iyo are old with me. After Your Highness returned from Yuzuki, I did the same thing as Asano-sama and led the army to stabilize Iyo. It depends on the people of the country, isn't this the embodiment of the achievements and influence of the family in the Iyo country?"

At this moment, Takakage Kobayakawa perfectly explained what it means to say the most stupid things in the calmest tone.

Regardless of the fact that Takakage Kobayakawa just stated the facts again, he was actually implying Hideka: I know all the wealthy families in Iyo, and if you give me face, I will give you face, so that you can also quickly accept new collars.Otherwise, don't say I didn't remind you if you don't listen to discipline when you arrive in the new-collar wealthy family.

The Xiu family was not used to him either, pointing to the five-san paulownia pattern flag behind him and asked, "Does Daisuke Zhongwu still remember this flag?"

What Hideka meant at this time was to tell Kobayakawa Takakage that he came to Shikoku under the order of the imperial court, and the land he received was also granted by the imperial court in name.

Not to mention whether the Xiaohao clan dare to confront the Xiu family directly, even if they really dare, then you are an enemy who resisted the king's order. The Xiu family has the authority to shovel you directly, and even if you go to the emperor to file a complaint at that time, it will not work.

Takakage Kobayakawa didn't expect Xiu's face to be so tough, and his complexion became ugly. He didn't look like a kind uncle when he was serving food for Xiu's family just now. Instead, he stated to Xiu's family in a bad tone
"Your Highness should give the family a reward that matches the meritorious deeds. This is what His Highness promised on behalf of Da Nayan!"

(End of this chapter)