Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 248 Shocked to hear that Niwa cut belly for stone
Niwa Nagahide was also considerate, seeing that it was getting late, he specially asked Niwa Nagashige to entertain Hideo's family for one night, and returned to Bizen tomorrow.

The Hide family wanted to come here, which is only 2-3 days away from Okayama, and now they can get Niwa Nagahide's care, so they agreed.

The Hide family still has some affection for Niwa Nagohide. In the impression of the Hide family, Niwa Nagohide is the image of a good uncle who is dedicated to the public. After the death of Oda Nobunaga, he has been trying his best to maintain the stability of the Oda family.

Hideka believes that the reason for Niwa Nagahide's failure is that he too much hoped that others would support the Oda family like himself, and he ignored the ambition of others.In addition, he is not Oda Nobunaga, so he cannot balance the ambitions of the generals.

If he is really dedicated to the public, it's okay, other generals may not dare to make mistakes due to his reputation in the process of defeating and conquering.

But his fault is that he can't stop his own ambition, so under the temptation of Hashiba Hideyoshi time and time again, he wants to uphold the idea of ​​serving the public wholeheartedly, but he is unwilling to give up the idea of ​​​​increasing the family's strength by the way. If you want to please, you can only become a sloppy person.

The most terrible thing is that, as the most prestigious elder of the Oda family under Shibata Katsuie, Niwa Changhide did not form his own sphere of strength. He believed that all daimyos should be loyal to the Oda family.

To sum up, a good person who wants to carry out righteousness, but is not thorough and has some selfishness, can only bury the Oda family on a cliff in the end through constant compromise.

Anyway, the Xiu family has fulfilled their duty of reminder, and it can be regarded as repaying the favor owed to the Niwa family since the Qingzhou meeting. As for whether they continue to die, it is not up to the Xiu family to decide.

In the view of the Hide family, Niwa Nagahide may still have his last stubbornness. Even though he has dirty his body, he still wants to put on an image of being loyal to the Oda family.

I don't even think about what Mrs. Guidie, Master Three, Oda Nobuo and others will think of him. I'm afraid it's just wishful thinking in the end.

Niwa Nagashige seemed very dissatisfied with the Hide family, and instead of personally leading the Hide family to the HOS, he hired a retainer to do it for him.Not long after, Maeda Xuanyi and Changzong's relatives were also brought over.

Maeda Genichi seemed to be very concerned about the outcome of Hideka's meeting with Niwa Chohide, so he took the initiative to go to Hideya's side and asked, "How is the repair doctor?"

Xiujia shook his head and replied, "What I saw today is already terminally ill, and I'm afraid he will die soon."

"Ah?" Hideka's answer was somewhat beyond Maeda Genichi's expectations, he and Niwa Naghide were old people in Nobunaga's time.Originally under the command of Niwa Chohide, he was practicing.

Later, after he switched to Hideyoshi, there seemed to be a gap between Niwa Chohide and him, which is why Chichi didn't take the initiative to visit Niwa Chohide, but asked Hide's family after he came out.

"Things are so impermanent. I saw them in Osaka a few days ago." Maeda Xuanyi said with some regret.

The relatives of Changzong's family are still a little embarrassed to see the Xiu family at the moment, but after all, they have been included in the Xiu family's power, and will work under the Xiu family for a long time in the future, so they also participate.

By the way, the first sentence, Changzong's family is really a lucky man. In history, he is good at seizing opportunities to make Changzong's family bigger and stronger.

And in this life, even though Chang Zonggabu's family has been punished by Hideyoshi, he himself was also ordered to cut seppuku.But he was lucky because it didn't take long for Hideyoshi's Guan Bai to be appointed.

In order to show his magnanimity, Hideyoshi pardoned Yuanqin, but ordered him to live in seclusion in Koyasan.

This is not because the Battle of Jiyi has been delayed for a long time, and Koyasan has been unable to connect for a long time.That is, shortly before Xiu's family returned to their departure, Yuan relatives of Changzong's family were escorted by relatives respectfully, and went to live in seclusion in Kongo Temple in Koya Mountain, Kii, with the dharma name of Zen Master Huiming.

Maybe it was because Yuanqin didn't die in the end, Xinqin himself didn't have much hatred for Xiu's family.

After being informed by Ishida Mitsunari, he knew that he would be playing for the Bizen Hashiba family for a long time to come, so he took the initiative to approach Hideka.

However, Xiujia felt that there was some estrangement between the two of them after all, so even if the relatives wanted to strike up a conversation several times, Xiujia always talked about him.

"Is His Highness Niwa Chohide the one you are talking about?" Sitting next to Maeda Genichi, Xinqin asked.

"It's His Highness Niwa Chohide." Maeda Genei replied.

"Speaking of His Highness Niwa, I was lucky enough to meet him in Awa when I was in Tianzheng ten years ago. He is really an adult who is calm and cares about the world."

The date mentioned by Nagamune's relatives was exactly the time in 1582 when Oda Nobutaka and Niwa Chohide, in the name of Nobunaga, launched a crusade against Chomune's family in Shikoku.

In that battle, the Oda family won first and then lost, and was killed by Nagamune's family. Even the chief general Oda Nobutaka almost didn't come back.

The Xiu family looked at Chang Zong's relatives, a little uncertain about what he meant by this sentence, whether it was a compliment or a mockery.

Maeda Genichi was still immersed in the answer that Hideka said that Niwa's long life was not long, and he said with some sighs, "I heard that His Highness Niwa often wails in the middle of the night, as if there are bugs growing in his stomach and it hurts like eating, even if he looks for it. No famous doctor can cure it.”

"From what I saw today, His Highness Niwa is indeed in great pain." Hideka agreed with Maeda Genichi's description, "If I get this strange disease one day, I'm afraid I won't even have the willpower to persevere as a doctor."

"Hey~ Now that's the case, with His Highness Niwa's wisdom, I think he will properly dispose of Harima's 40 koku land." Maeda Genichi also acquiesced in the fact that Niwa Nagahide's life is not long, and began to gossip about the events behind the Niwa family stand up.

The Hide family naturally knew about Niwa Chohide's attitude, but they were still at home at the moment, and the Hide family didn't know whether Niwa Chohide would change his mind in this life, so they could only echo, "Trust Your Highness Niwa."

Because Niwa Chohide was seriously ill, the entire Murotsu Castle was circling around the old man.Xiujia and the others also went to bed early after dinner, after all they had to hurry the next day.

Hideka also deeply understood what Genichi Maeda said about Niwa Chohide's wailing.

I didn't experience anything during the day, but in the dead of night, Niwa Nagahide's intermittent wails came from the apse, as if a ghost was calling, and it was particularly permeating in this dark night.The Xiu family was so frightened that they quickly covered the quilt tightly, wanting to go to sleep quickly.

Xiujia prayed that the night would pass quickly, and that he could leave Muratsu City the next day.Who would have thought that in the middle of the night, chickens and eggs would suddenly break out in Muratsu City.

The noise woke up the Xiu family who had finally fallen asleep. The noise was so loud that the Xiu family even thought that an enemy was attacking.

The Xiu family didn't know why, after meeting with Maeda Xuanyi and Changzong's relatives, he caught the servant who thought he was running on the wall corridor and asked, "What's going on, why are you in such a panic."

The attendant who was held back by the Xiu family said, "The main hall. The main hall has undergone seppuku. I'm going to inform you adults."

Hideka released the attendant and let him go, exchanged glances with the two people beside him, apparently they were all surprised by the news of Niwa Nagohide's seppuku.Where does an old man who is terminally ill get the strength to cut seppuku?

But what Hideka thought was that Niwa Changhide's seppuku was just like the legend, he couldn't bear the pain and cut out the stone.

Or because he was ashamed of his trust in Oda Nobunaga, after talking with Hideka earlier, he chose to apologize with death?
The answer to all this will ultimately be witnessed by the Xiu family.

He took Maeda Genichi and Nagamune's followers to the courtyard where Niwa Changhide lived, but was stopped by the samurai at the gate of the courtyard.

Not long after, Niwa Nagahide's second son, Niwa Nagasawa, came forward and complained to the Hide family in tears, "My lords, please go back, the Niwa family still has some households that need to be dealt with."

"Can you let us see the repair doctor for the last time, I used to be the repair doctor's subordinate, it's a pity that I didn't see him this morning." Tian Xuanyi asked from the side.

Niwa shook his head and refused, "It's really inconvenient today, please go back to rest first, and let a few of you come over when we have roughly dealt with it tomorrow."

There is no other way, the Xiu family and the others can only go back and wait for the news, but the Xiu family is willing to wait for nothing.

Back at the house, after bidding farewell to the two adults, Hideohisa summoned Kakashi and said, "Try to sneak in, see what's going on with Dr. Niwa, and report back to me."

After an hour or so, Kakashi came back and reported, "When I entered, Niwa repaired the body and arranged it again and again, but blood stains could still be seen in the room where he was originally resting. People around said that the repair doctor was Seppuku, but from what I've seen it's kind of weird."

"What's strange?" Xiujia asked curiously.

"I found out that the repair doctor was not wronged. This is inconsistent with the warrior's seppuku custom. He may have been tortured to death or bled to death."

The information that Kakashi brought back gave Xiujia the answer he had already determined in his heart.

From this point of view, I am afraid that Niwa Chohide really died after digging out the stone with a knife, as the rumors of later generations said.

When hearing this story in the previous life, Xiujia still explored this character with a curiosity-seeking mentality, but now this person died alive in front of him.

Xiujia only felt sorry for his death, and was terrified of his seppuku, which made Xiujia's hairs stand on end, and he couldn't sleep anymore.

On the second day, because the Niwa family had many affairs related to Niwa Chohide's death that needed to be dealt with, the Hide family and the others did not stay any longer.

When the Xiu family left, they kindly reminded Niwa Nagamasa who came to see him off, "Since ancient times, when a prince dies, the king must be notified first. No matter what the Niwa family is, they are all big names under the command of the Toyotomi family, and the repair doctor is also Guan Bai. My old colleagues, you must not forget this matter."

"Thank you Lieutenant General Zuo for your concern. I will remind you later." Seeing Niwa's response, the Hide family could only turn around and leave, even though they were still a little worried.

The Hide family's worry was correct. Perhaps Niwa Nagashige buried Niwa Chohide hastily because he felt that his father's seppuku was disgraceful, and weaved another cause of death in an attempt to deceive Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi had already heard about what happened in Murotsu Castle through some means. Although he felt a little sad about the death of his old colleague, he wanted to see the change in the attitude of the Niwa family after Niwa Chohide's death.

It's a pity that Niwa Nagashige's behavior touched Hideyoshi's rebellion.

Although Hideyoshi has not compiled "Samurai Laws" at this moment, it is obvious that he is very dissatisfied with Niwa Nagashige's actions.

And Niwa's attitude of keeping secrets and not reporting mourning, in Hashiba Hideyoshi's eyes, is a trample on the majesty of his rule.

So he wrote an extremely strong letter, which Ishida Mitsunari took to Murotsu to read, asking Niwa Nagashige to go to Osaka to explain in person.

It was too late when the Xiu family knew about it, so they had to write a letter to Hideaga Toyotomi to mediate on his behalf.

The final result was that the Niwa family was changed from Harima's 40 koku to Kaga Komatsu's 5 koku, and most of his retainers were acquired by Hideyoshi and Hidecho brothers.

Of course, all of the above are things to come.

After our Hideka left Murotsu, he went on a two-day march and finally returned to Okayama Castle after a long absence.

The retainers in the collar had already been notified, and gathered in Okayama City in advance to wait for the Xiu family's order.

The main reason is that the reward for the Battle of the Four Kingdoms has been delayed for several months, and it is time to arrange it.The warriors are working hard for you with their heads up, how can there be any reason to postpone the reward?

The ministers watched Xiu's family return to Honmaru, and they rode down on a flying horse, shouting along the way, "All generals will go home soon, and everything will be as usual."

In fact, the moment Hideka boarded Okayama, he had already noticed the retainers waiting between Sannomaru and Nichimaru. Call Shimizu Shinya to pass the order.

Of course, this half a year is enough time for Akashi Quanto, Kamei Tomoki and others to complete the inspection of Iyo and Hoki and other places.

Therefore, Shimizu Xin also called the two of them together with the elders of the family such as Ukita Quanjia and others, and planned to have a small meeting behind closed doors.

By the time Xiujia changed his clothes, washed his face and returned to the assessment room of Okayama Palace, all the respondent in the assessment room had already arrived.

Everyone taught the Xiu family to enter, and immediately stopped discussing and turned to salute the Xiu family and said, "See my lord, congratulations on your promotion to the left guard lieutenant general, and wish you long luck in martial arts."

Judging from the uniform sentences, it seems that during the days when Xiu's family was no longer there, they organized a lot of rehearsals.

"Get up, this is just a small meeting, there is no need to be solemn."

"My lord and we are monarchs and ministers, and it is our duty and honor to salute you." Togawa Hidean, who was writing, flattered Xiu's family first.

Xiujia looked at Togawa Hidean and praised: "I have been gone for more than half a year, thanks to Beizhong guarding the country."

To be honest, as an older generation of retainers, Togawa Hidean may not be as capable of handling government affairs as Hanabou Masayuki.

However, during the period when the Xiu family was away from the country, his achievements in holding the country were obvious to all. Before the new generation of country-holding elders grew up, the appointment of user Chuan Xiu'an was the last choice of the Xiu family, and the Xiu family also hoped that he could make the Yuxi family stable. transition.

(End of this chapter)