Prime Minister Bizen

On the last night of his stay in Edo, Hideka left for his good comrade Nakagawa Hidemasa.In fact, not only him, but Qingxiu Nakagawa, who had already lived in seclusion, came from Kururi Castle just to have a final talk with Hideka.

Because of Hideyoshi's death and the oppression of Hideyoshi and Ishida Mitsunari, they had complaints against Toyotomi Osaka's family.Correspondingly, it was precisely because of the protection of the Xiu family that they retained the knowledge and practice of the total 17 shi.

However, it still cut them by more than half from the name of nearly 30 shi.

If it is said that during the Qingchang Rebellion and the Ezo Conquest, the Nakagawa family had repaid the kindness of the Xiu family by advancing and retreating with the Xiu family, now they follow the Xiu family to cook with their heads on their belts, That's another story.

Just as Katsuyuki Sakuma and Hideyoshi Hori (Hideji Hori’s younger brother, the current head of the Hori family) received a letter from Ieyasu Tokugawa, Hidemasa Nakagawa, one of the core members of Hideo’s Eastern Army, naturally also received a letter from Ieyasu Tokugawa. letter from

In terms of their own thoughts, Nakagawa Hidemasa and Nakagawa Kiyohide still tend to follow the Hide family in principle, after all, the friendship for so many years is here.

But this is a major event of cooking, and if it affects the whole body, the lives of the whole family will be tied to the chariot. Whether you want to follow the Xiu family, and how far you go, depends on how the Xiu family can do it. What kind of chips are out.

Of course, just from Nakagawa Hidemasa giving Tokugawa Ieyasu's letters to himself to read, it is enough to reflect the attitude of the Nakagawa family to the Hideo family.

Looking at the letter, Tokugawa Ieyasu asked Nakagawa Hidemasa to fight back, and after the event was completed, he could give Kamso Ichigoku a reward of 38 koku, Hideo silently closed the letter.

If the conditions promised by Tokugawa Ieyasu are really followed, the Nakagawa family will gain more knowledge and practice than when Hideyoshi was alive. Of course, this geographical location is obviously not very good.

The purpose of Nakagawa Hidemasa to show this letter to Xiujia is naturally to show Tokugawa's price to Xiujia, and then wait for Xiujia to bid.

However, Xiujia did not rush to offer more favorable conditions to persuade him to continue to follow him. Instead, he asked him, "I also think the conditions in the inner palace are very favorable. I don't think I can offer more favorable conditions than this." conditions."

Hearing that Xiu's family did not offer more favorable terms than this, the father and son exchanged glances at each other.

Zhong Chuan Qingxiu was about to say something to comfort Hideo, but Hideo preemptively said: "Does the attendant feel that the conditions of the Inner Palace can really be fulfilled by the Tokugawa Inner Palace?"

Hearing the tone of Xiujia's retort, Hidemasa Nakagawa frowned and asked, "What do you mean by this?"

"I mean, the Tokugawa Uchifu is just the head of the Toyotomi family. Now that Asano and Mori have rebelled, the real power of Osaka is in Yodohime's hands. Is she willing to offer you such a bargaining chip?
Not to mention how much land in the world can be promised, Tokugawa, Kitanosho, Maeda and other daimyos all need to be rewarded, and the previously damaged daimyos in Osaka also need to be rewarded to comfort them. How much extra knowledge do they have? Can I open it to you? "

"." Hearing what the Xiu family said, the father and son were silent for a while, which was actually the reason for their entanglement.

Xiujia saw that the blow was enough, so it was natural that they set their own terms.This condition is not necessarily much better than Tokugawa Ieyasu in terms of the number of knowledge and actions, but a certain geographical location will definitely be better than what they offered.

"But I'm different, the world I've built will have enough land to reward meritorious daimyos, and land for attendants will naturally be indispensable.

What's more, how can the land of Shang Zong be used to house attendants?I intend to reward Kaga to my attendants, this is the fertile land of Hokuriku, isn't it more comfortable than Shangzong? "

"Kaga?" The father and son looked at each other again when they heard the conditions offered by the Xiu family.According to the latest Zhixing Shigao, Kaga's Shigao is similar to that of Shangzong, but as Hideka said, Kaga's geographical location and climate environment are much better than Shangzong.

In fact, they have already noticed that after Hideka's success in going to Los Angeles, it is very likely that the Muromachi Shogunate will implement the two political systems of Kyoto and Kanto. In this way, it is inevitable that there will be no large-scale daimyo in these two places.

So they had already prepared for the possibility of transferring the seal, and today they were able to get the award of Kaga from the Xiu family, which has exceeded their expectations.

As Hideka said just now, even with the same conditions, the possibility of Tokugawa Ieyasu's fulfillment is far less than Hideka's.

But now they still have a problem, Kaga Kanazawa now has an ally of the Hide family, Katsuyuki Sakuma, who is also Hachisuka's brother-in-law, and has always had a good relationship with the Hide family.

Now that the Hide family is going to resettle the Nakagawa family to Kanazawa, what will the Sakuma family do?

To be honest, the Xiu family never thought of giving Jinze to Nakagawa at all. In the original arrangement of the Xiu family, Nakagawa would get the territory of Bungo after the war.

Although the land in Bungo is relatively barren, it is located in Kyushu, and rice and wheat can be mixed three times a year.Coupled with Bungo's trade income with the outside world, it is a good place to settle.

But now that Tokugawa Ieyasu has intervened, Xiujia can only offer better conditions than Bungo to keep Nakagawa Hidemasa.

Of course, what he said about the Kanazawa Sakuma family is also a concern of the Hide family. Maybe they can be resettled in Noto, so that knowledge and practice can be doubled.

The behavior of Nakagawa Hidemasa and Nakagawa Kiyohide did not make Hideka feel unhappy, and even made him trust them even more because of this incident.After all, the fact that both parties are willing to put on the table to discuss such an important matter shows that the other party really wants to follow you, so that the Xiu family can feel more at ease with them.

Nakagawa Hidemasa got a satisfactory answer from Hideka, and left satisfied. After Hideya stayed overnight in Edo Castle, he took Nakagawa Hidemasa, Ukita Kanka and others on the road to Shangluo again.

Starting from Edo Castle all the way to the west until the original Odawara Castle, this section of road is a stone pipe specially repaired by the Xiu family before. Whether ordinary soldiers or convoys travel on this road, it is much faster than on the field road. .

Before the arrival of Xiujia, this section of the road will take about 3 days.But after repairing the Xiujia road, if you go fast, you can arrive in a little more than 2 days.

Hideka's journey this time is from Edo Castle to Fujisawa Castle, which is the main castle of the Ashikaga family in the Kanto region, and also the home city of the Ashikaga family, the eighth son of Hideka.

Now, in order to "Fengtian Jingnan" to the west, this important town close to the front line has become an out-and-out military station. Tens of thousands of soldiers gathered here, waiting for their commander-in-chief to arrive.

This section of the road was supposed to take one and a half days, but the Xiu family specially sped up the progress. In the end, it took 1 hours to settle in the city before the sun went down.

The castle lord of the Ashikaga family, Noda Homotomo (Noda Hirotomo has passed away), Shobayashi Isshin and Ota Keisuke, three elders, as well as Yoshida Sadasuke, Isshiki Yoshinao, Kojima Yoshihiro, Kojima Tadahiro, Ukita Naosuke, Ukita Takanobu and other retainers greeted him outside the city early.

Compared with Kobi back then, the 13-year-old Ashikaga family already looks a bit like a shogun back then. The Ashikaga two-two quotation marks on the haori all show the nobility of their family to outsiders.

Although the Hide family is Toyotomi's surname, and the Ashikaga family inherits from Kanto Gongfang Ashikaga Genji, the two families have no relationship at all in terms of family lineage.

Even in terms of family status, Qinghe Genji is much more noble than this Toyotomi family who suddenly rose up without a head and tail.

But when they saw the Hide family, the Ashikaga family still gave the gift of father and son, monarchs and ministers to the Hide family under the signal of the old Noda Homono, "Boy Matsuhachiro and the Ashikaga ministers have met my father."

You must know that Satake Yoshishige, Soma Yoshin and other big names who came here a long time ago were waiting here because they knew that the Xiu family was coming.

As a result, the Ashikaga family bowed to the Hide family in front of them. Although there is no contradiction between the biological son and the biological father in terms of etiquette, the saying "bring together the Ashikaga ministers" will inevitably make these daimyos feel a little awkward.

Xiujia did not get off the horse, but signaled Toyotomi Zhongjia behind him to go up and help his elder brother up.The two brothers have been fighting together since they were young, and the school that they respected is in Kamakura. It can be said that the younger brother has been studying in the older brother's territory.

So seeing the younger brother who has already taken Yuanfu today, the elder brother Ashikaga's family will inevitably feel a little melancholy.He held his younger brother Zhong Jia's hand tightly and called him "brother".

Why did the Xiu family let the Chong family go up to support him instead of going down by himself, or directly asked him to get up, there is political knowledge in it.

As I said before, now is the critical time for the Xiu family to take over the position, and we must pay attention to the influence at all times.Although the Xiu family really didn't care about these things, it was inevitable that it would be true, and it would spread that it was not conducive to the "justice" of the Xiu family.

Who is the Ashikaga family?That is the current Patriarch of the Ashikaga family in Kanto.

Even now the world is decided by the Toyotomi family, even if Ashikaga Yoshiaki rejected Toyotomi Hideyoshi's request to adopt him as an adopted son, he refuted his face.

Although Hideyoshi was angry and threw Ashikaga Yoshiaki to Mori Terumoto to be imprisoned in Aki, but he still had to invite him back, and offered him delicious food and drink as a high school.

He even stated that his world was granted by the emperor, and Ashikaga voluntarily gave in.Therefore, Ashikaga can use the same specifications as him in many rituals.

At the time of Toyotomi Hidetoshi's succession ceremony, Hideo, Hideji, and Tokugawa Ieyasu presided over it, but it was the old Ashikaga Yoshiaki who made it clear that he would persuade him to advance. This is enough to see the status of Ashikaga in the current Japanese political ecology.

The Ashikaga family, in front of the daimyos, practiced humble etiquette towards the Xiu family. Naturally, they were instructed by the elders of his family, and wanted to build more relationships with their father, who was rarely seen in the past, in order to get a good reward in the future. .

But doing so is tantamount to putting Xiujia in an awkward position.

If Xiujia asked him to get up immediately, it would make people think that Xiujia accepted Ashikaga's gift, and suppressed the daimyos and masters represented by Ashikaga with a superior attitude.

If you get off the horse yourself to help, it also means that the Hide family has accepted Ashikaga's gift. After all, the Ashikaga princess is worshiping you, why don't you accept your support as a response?
And doing so will also show that Xiujia is afraid of Ashikaga's authority, and give others a view that "you see, even Youfu has to support Ashikaga himself".

After all, the person who was helped up said that Potian was also the biological son of the Xiu family, but because of the Ashikaga Miao character on his head, even the father of the Xiu family did not dare to accept his gift.

In the construction of Xiujia's future political ecology, the Ashikaga family really needs to be appeased, but it must not be detached from the main family.Therefore, the Xiu family must not go down to help their son in person.

And like now, sending his other son up to help his elder brother put today's matter into the circle of internal family affairs.

Xiujia neither acted servilely nor condescendingly to make people dissatisfied. He cleverly avoided the question and handed over a satisfactory political answer sheet.

The paper was handed in in a thrilling manner, but the Ashikaga family who wrote the question could not avoid being punished, and even his teacher Noda Fanchao could not avoid being reprimanded.

Although the Xiu family knew that they had no intention of embarrassing the Xiu family, they did cause such trouble, and the Xiu family had to make it clear to him today what should be said and what should not be said.

"Matsuhachiro, you have a common name similar to your brother's, which is enough to show my love for you. (The baby name and common name of the first son of the Hide family are Hachiro)

Your mother is indeed very noble, the noblest of my many wives, which even Aju can't compare to.And I did give her enough respect, granting her the status of a 'equal wife' with the main wife.

But you should be able to see your mother's attitude from your mother's move away from Fengchun City, including that you are not the real Hachiro if you have the word "pine" in your character.

Of course, you are still my son, one of my most important sons.But you are not the direct son of the Fengchun family, and it is impossible to inherit the Fengchun family business.

Even if Hachiro dies unfortunately, he will have his son in the future, even if he has no son, there will still be Sojuro and Zenzaburo.

You need to know that a father will definitely give his sons the best things he can.What should be given to you, the father will not owe you anything, but what should not be yours, you don't need to pry.

Today's matter is to warn you, just be yourself.Follow the father's order, after the battle, it should be your reward, being the father will not shorten you, but if you want to get extra rewards other than military exploits, this is absolutely impossible. "

"Father." Hearing Xiujia's admonition to him, the Ashikaga family inevitably felt a little choked up.

If you want to say that the Ashikaga family has no ambitions, it must be a lie.Compared with the mother who had no desires and no desires, the family who was educated by Tianhai since childhood has a strong desire to compete, which may be the purpose of Tianhai's education in this way.

Fortunately, he was corrected in time later, and sent to Yixin Chongchuan not far from Fujisawa Castle to be educated.But the age of the child's xinxing formation has basically passed, and it is difficult to establish the mentality of a brother and retainer who has no desires and desires and wants to protect the eldest son.

In addition, his mother's status is indeed noble, but just because she is not the main wife, she missed the position of family governor, which will inevitably make the child feel unconvinced.

But in fact, after so many years of mastering the management of the Sagami Ashikaga collar, coupled with the persuasion of his master Yixin Takaden and his mother Ashikaga Jihime, he has already opened his heart and stopped thinking about inheriting the Toyoharu family.

What he did today was just to get more love and compensation from his father, just like a child begging for toys from his parents.

But his father directly uncovered his scars, and directly reprimanded other thoughts that had been calmed down as "impractical", and he felt somewhat wronged.

The point is that Xiujia himself is also a strict father. Seeing the teardrops in the corners of his 13-year-old son's eyes, Xiujia not only did not comfort him, but severely reprimanded him, "Wipe away the tears, Matsuhachiro. A samurai does not shed tears easily. of."