Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 552

On November 20, the 1590th year of Tensho (30), the weather in Japan was so cold that it began to snow in Kyoto. Hideka wore leather boots with suede and rode eastward on a tall horse.

Behind him, in addition to the attendants and bannermen who followed him westward at the beginning, there are also family members who have been taken over from Kibi, and some of the family members of important ministers total more than 2000 people.

In addition, there are several retainers specially prepared by Xiuchang for the Xiu family to help the Xiu family guard and escort the gold that was moved out of the treasury of Xiuchang's mansion.

Hideyoshi's actions were also quick, and on the third day, 5 of the 3 kans that had been promised to Hideo were handed over to Hideo, but Hideo was short of manpower, so he asked Hideonaga for help.

When they arrived in Gifu City, they still needed to help the Xiu family move more copper coins from the treasury of Gifu City. These were not something the Xiu family could afford with the number of people in their hands.

These people are Hideonaga's banner samurai, and they are always equipped with ashigaru, and they can also be used as the help of the guard team on the march. After all, it is a bit difficult to rely on more than a hundred people from the Hideo family to take care of 2000 family members and finances. difficulty.

It was also because of the family members that Hideka traveled eastward this time at a slower speed. It took only 6 days from Kyoto to Gifu. It took Hideka only 3 days to go from Gifu to Kyoto.

The Hide family had no choice but to hand over their family members to their attendants, and sent Kagawa Keinori and Satomi Yoshiya to take 50 bannermen to guard the team, and he took the others to go to Iwazuke first.

Fortunately, before these family members set off, they followed a battalion of Gomoto Fanzhong. They were responsible for the main security. In addition, Xiuchang lent 1 people to the Xiu family, so they wanted to be safe on the way.

Yixin Chongchuan didn't know how to ride a horse, and he couldn't keep up with Xiujia's speed by walking, so Xiujia also left him behind in the team.

So Xiu's family took a group of more than a hundred people to head eastward to Yanfu, and stayed overnight the next night. This journey used to take 3 days.

The next morning, he bid farewell to Tsutsui Sadaji, and asked him to take care of the family members behind. After all, his sister Fujihime was also in the team behind, and he agreed without hesitation.

After traveling for half a day, I arrived at Yoshida Castle. At this time, Yoshida Castle was very busy. Kiyohide Nakagawa was asked to transfer the title of Iwadai Fukushima Castle. He had been given a year and a half to move, but Hideyoshi’s order came a few days ago, so he had no choice but to move. Order subordinates to speed up the progress.

When the Xiu family arrived, he had gathered an army of 3200 people, and he would go north with the Xiu family.

The Xiu family set off here, and when they passed Junfu City, they specially expressed their gratitude to Tokugawa Ieyasu, after all, the other party will need to help him guard the territory.

When they arrived at Odawara Castle, Xiujia paid special attention to the progress of Odawara Castle.

At this moment, the outer structures of Odawara Castle have been demolished, and the residents of Odawara Town were moved to the base of Suppu Castle by Tokugawa Ieyasu. In addition, the war has just gone through not long ago, and the prosperity here is no longer the same as before.

The entire stone screen of Odawara Castle is being dismantled, and Masashiro, the flower house in charge of it, has built a medium-sized pier on the seashore 200 meters away from Odawara Castle, which can berth 4 ships at the same time.

Due to the shallowness of the beach outside Odawara Castle, in order to facilitate the direct transportation of bricks and stones to ships, the wharf was built tens of meters long. From a distance, it looks like a giant dragon. wood.

The Xiu family came to rest in Odawara Castle, and the new residence city of Matsudaira Yasumoto, which was transferred here, was still under construction, so they temporarily lived in Odawara Castle.

I don't know what he thinks, he lives in Honmaru, and outsiders are demolishing Sannomaru Kazuo, as the city lord, he doesn't feel unlucky.

Yasumoto Matsudaira's new Honjo Castle was built at the foot of Mount Ashigara, two kilometers north of Odawara Castle, next to the Karigawa River, and the civil work of the Honmaru has just been completed.

Facing Hideka's arrival, Matsudaira Yasumoto, ordered by Tokugawa Ieyasu, hosted a banquet in honor of Hideka and his party.

As one of the three major forces of the Tokugawa family in the Sagami country, the most important daimyo on the border now pass here, and Sakakibara Yasumasa and Sakai Tadashi also insisted on attending.

In the seat, he seemed to be very interested in the stones on the stone wall that Hideka removed from Odawara Castle, and when he saw Hideka came, he asked Hideka for part of the construction of Ashigara Castle.

In his own words, "You transported these stones back to Yanfu City by sea to build the city, and it will consume a lot of manpower for this. Why don't you just sell them to me like this."

In addition to these stones, he also took a fancy to the bricks used by the Xiu family to build the stone screen. In this era of extremely low productivity, the firing of bricks and stones is a very skilled job. If you can buy them directly from the Xiu family , then it will save a lot of trouble.

For the Xiu family, even if the stones in Odawara were not in order, they would still be lumpy. The Xiu family could use them on the Iwafu Castle with a little repair, which was much more convenient than digging new stones from the surrounding area by themselves.

Moreover, masonry is something that can be encountered but not sought after, so it was naturally rejected by the Xiu family.

Another reason why the Xiu family rejected Matsudaira Yasumoto was that the purpose of building this city was to defend against attacks from the east. How could the Xiu family let him build it too easily?
When Xiujia rejected Matsudaira Yasumoto's request, the Xiujia guards could clearly see the change of expression on his face, but these Xiujia didn't care at all.

During the meeting, Hideka showed a lot of interest in Sakakibara Yasumasa and Sakai Ieji, because Tokugawa Ieyasu had informed Hideo when passing through Junfu that Sakakibara Yasumasa and Sakai Ieji would be candidates for sending troops to Kanto one.

Maybe it was a deliberate show to Matsudaira Yasumoto that the Xiu family paid much more attention to these two genealogy retainers than he, a pro-fan.

After the banquet, everyone dispersed, and Xiujia took the initiative to get together with Tadashi Sakai and asked him about the progress of asking him to draw Odawara Castle before leaving.

After hearing that his painting had been finished but the screen was still being made, Xiujia decisively expressed his gratitude to him, and expressed his hope that Xiang would get the painting back, and the screen could be picked up after it was completed.

Before Hideya said these few words, he deliberately pulled Sakai Chuji to a dark corner to speak in a low voice. He was well aware of the abilities of the Tokugawa ninjas, and his conversation was likely to be heard by the other party.

On the second day, Hideka set off to return to Iwasuke, and retrieved the paintings he had entrusted to Sakai Chuji in Yucheng Mountain City, and thanked him with 10 golden sentences.

These 10 gold coins are subsidiary products produced by Iyo Copper Mountain. Hideo previously obtained the privilege of minting coins from Hideyoshi, so he was allowed to issue financial currencies such as copper coins, gold coins, and silver coins.

The Jinpan issued by Hideya is modified on the basis of Hideyoshi Tensho Taipan. Unlike other daipans that are oval in shape, Hideya's daipan is a rectangle that is more convenient to access.

In the process of melting and casting, the pressing process was directly used. There is a small Wuqitong pattern pressing flower on the upper and lower sides, and the words "Golden Judgment and Twelve" are placed on the lieutenant general.

Turn it over and in the middle is a large gentian Wuqitong pattern press flower, with the words "Iyo Shinhama" written on it, which means that it was minted by the Iyo country Nihama coin.

On the left side of the family crest is the unique serial number of this golden order, on the right side is the casting date of this golden order, and on the bottom is the craftsman who cast this golden order.

Sakai Chuji, holding 10 Tianzheng Dakan in his hand, marveled at Hideka's craftsmanship, and said that he didn't need so much money.

And Xiujia said that Mr. Sakai helped his wife fulfill his wish, which is invaluable in itself. If there is any extra, it can be used as a deposit for the screen behind, and ask Sakai Chuji to have another dinner.

In fact, to be honest, Tadashi Sakai did not paint these two paintings very well. After all, it has only been 2 years since he retired, and it has only been 4-5 years since he faded out of the Tokugawa system. Painting is a life of self-cultivation. With his current state The level is not enough.

But Xiujia is still willing to pay a high price for this.

Sure enough, the ninja who stayed at Yucheng Mountain City reported back from Hideo, and not long after Hideo returned to Iwafu Castle, a messenger came from Suruga, saying that Tokugawa Ieyasu wanted to summon Sakai Chuji who had retired.

But when the Xiu family returned to Kyoto from Ou the next year, they found that there had been a change of people when passing through Yucheng Mountain City.

The Sakai family was transferred to Shinano by Tokugawa Ieyasu for the first time, and the 3 stone belonging to Tamariyama was handed over to Okuhei Nobumasa, and the remaining part of Zhixing was added to the head of Matsudaira Yasumoto.

Xiujia asked about the situation of the Sakai family in front of the Tokugawa retainers, and said that he was a friend of Sakai Chuji, but the Tokugawa retainers kept this secret.

However, according to Tsusue Sannojo's investigation, Sakai Tadaji committed seppuku suicide in Sumpu Castle when the Hide family went to Ou.

Perhaps in order to take into account the face of the Tokugawa family, Tokugawa Ieyasu revealed to the outside that Sakai Chuji died of illness
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From the departure from Kyoto on November 30 to the arrival at Iwafu Castle on December 15, Xiu's family arrived in Kanto in half the usual time.

As soon as Xiujia landed, I couldn’t wait to call the elders for a meeting in Iwafu City. First, I came to hear about the progress and problems of the project during this period. Second, I planned for the development of Kanto next year. Third, I planned for the war in the near future. Mobilize and get ready.

But before that, Hideka still needs to ask Tsusue Sannojo for the latest information about the Ou area.

According to Tsusue Sannojo's description, Hideka's heart is a little more stable, because of the presence of the Takakura Castle Ou Town Guard, the riots in the Iwashiro area have subsided from the very beginning.

At this moment, Nihonmatsu Castle and Shirakawa Komine Castle are next to the two most important castles in Iwashiro. These two castles are the most important castles of the Ogasawara family, so they have been taken care of repeatedly by Honda.

When Iwashiro Ichikui broke out, it was Nobuo County, Date County and other places that had the greatest impact. Now in the entire Nakagawa Territory, except for Ogigi County, which was suppressed in time by Mogami Yoshimitsu’s intervention, the other Nobuo and Date counties have all been lost. adversary.

This is a very dangerous signal. Historically, Hideyoshi has dealt extremely harshly with the daimyos who lost their territory. For example, Nobuo Oda and Yoshiki Kimura were all treated as changes.

In the Aizu area, there is Gamo Township, the home of the Gamo family. Although there was an outbreak, the control of the territory was okay, but limited by the lack of troops, it was impossible to completely pacify Aizu.

The leader of the Ogasawara family, Shirakawa, Nihonmatsu, and Koriyama Castle were firmly in the hands of Honda for the best control. Tamura County had just experienced repression, and a large number of laborers were restricted to Koriyama Castle to participate in general elections, and they had no ability to cause chaos. .

Even if a small group of troops rebelled, it would not be a big deal. There were 4500 Ouyu guards in Takakura Castle, and they were quickly put out when there was a rebellion.

Now, instead, Sukagawa Castle in Anji County in the middle has fallen, and thousands of Yikui troops have gathered. Now it has been surrounded by 3000 guards and 2000 people mobilized by Honda multiple times.

The news that Ogasawara won't be lost is already the best news at the moment. On the way north from Kyoto, Hideka has been worried that there will be rebellions from Iwashiro to Richu.

In this way, the daimyo who originally surrendered to Hideyoshi will also be coerced into rebellion. If they want to put down Ou, they can only launch another national war.

In addition to the news from Iwashiro and Aizu, the disturbance in Shonai in the Dewa area is said to have involved Honjo Shigecho and his son Daihoji Yoshikatsu.

It turned out that Honjo Shigecho, who was in charge of the internal inspections of Dewa Kunizo, Yuri, etc., had a quarrel with Minister Se that he strictly demanded that his son Daihoji Yoshikatsu lead the internal inspection. .

Who knew that the Yikui people were like a flood of beasts, and once the cage was opened, they could no longer be restrained. Even Dabao Temple Yisheng could only be forced to cage several key cities such as Dabaosi City and Dongchan Temple City.

Honjo Fanchang and Dabao Temple Yoshikatsu wanted to cover up at first, but unfortunately the leader they found was not reliable, and directly revealed what was instructed by Dabao Temple Yoshikatsu.

Zhuang Nei is the leader of Yisheng in Dabao Temple. It is unconvincing to say that a lord encourages his people to set off riots in his territory.

It was the wind that blew louder and louder, which made Uesugi Jingsheng, who was temporarily living in the top collar, unable to hold back anymore.

Zhuang Nei Ling is under his jurisdiction. Regardless of whether this matter is true or not, it will be harmful to his reputation if it spreads.

If it is true, I am afraid that my name on the peak will not be able to escape the guilt of ineffective supervision.

Therefore, when he heard the news, Uesugi Jingsheng ignored the authenticity of the news and the request from the Hideo family to temporarily settle down with Mogami. He took his 7000 people and asked Mogami Yoshimitsu to borrow 1000 people before attacking Shonai. Go, he has to push the lid down himself.

Hideyoshi asked Uesugi Kagekatsu to go out with 1 people. However, due to time constraints and lack of assembly, he only brought 8000 people into Izuha at first. Now it is the winter of Izuha. It can take 7000 people to brave the wind and snow to enter the village again.

In fact, the story of Shonai has already spread, and Uesugi Jingsheng will inevitably be scolded by Hideyoshi in the end. For him, what he is doing now is nothing more than mending the past, but if he does it well, he may be punished lightly like in history.

Without the help of the Uesugi family and the Mogami family, the Ichikui forces in the Yamamoto County of Dewa Country were faster than in history. In a short period of time, more than 2 people gathered in the southern part of Yamamoto County, the western part of Hiraka County, Yuri County, and Yukatsu counties and other places.

What's more, Yokote Castle, the main city that has surrounded the Onodera family now, has the meaning of turning over and becoming the master.

(End of this chapter)