A samurai who doesn't want to be a daimyo is not a good onmyoji

Chapter 236
In the following period, the situation in Mino became more and more turbulent. Because Saito Ryuuki set fire to Inabayama Castle and took the initiative to move eastward to avoid the soldiers from the Asai family, the new daimyo of the Saito family Although his actions allowed him to escape for a while, he suddenly lost the hearts of the people.

His name, chosen by Dao San himself, certainly contains many beautiful expectations for the future, but in fact what he inherited is a mess. Now he has done something like this, which has made Meinong heartbroken. I am afraid that he will never do it again. There will be no chance for revival, because the Asai family or many other famous names around him will not give him a chance to rise.

Especially when Hosokawa Fujitaka came specially from Kyoto and formally awarded Asai Nagamasa the title of guardian of Mino in the name of the general, many retainers who were originally loyal to the Saito family became even more out of proportion.

After all, since the beginning of Dao San, he has only won the position of Mino daimyo by "subjugating the top". The country was already unfair. Hou Yilong killed his father with his son for no reason, and used monsters as soldiers. When he arrived at Longxing, it was even more... Setting fire to the city, the Saito family is really worse than the last generation.

In this case, even if the weather is cold and winter is about to enter, and it is impossible to mobilize troops on a large scale, more and more Mino samurai choose to surrender. Compared with being conquered by the Asai family's army in the spring of last year, At least they can still maintain some dignity like this.

And I heard that the governor of the Asai family has always been generous and generous. Although they don't expect to receive thousands of koku like the rewards that Ando Mamoru and Inaba Ittetsu did before, they can still give some preferential treatment to those who surrender without a fight. All the land was confiscated, right?
Asai Nagamasa did not disappoint them. He was not stingy with those who surrendered voluntarily. He gave them different rewards and treatments based on the size of their territory, the number of soldiers and generals, and whether they had fought with the family's army before. He was extremely generous. up.

Generally speaking, if we look at the history of that ancient Eastern country, there are probably only three ways to deal with those who saw the situation unfavorable and chose to surrender out of desperation after the war.

The first is to disband all the troops, then disband and reorganize them, and conduct a bloody purge of their generals and officers to warn others not to make unnecessary resistance.

The second is to keep the original army, but transfer the main generals to other places. After a few years, the soldiers will naturally forget their original generals.

These two methods are also relatively common ways of handling the situation, which do not bring much benefit to the parties concerned, but for those who are defeated and surrendered, they do not have much free choice.

The third type is relatively much better, giving high-ranking officials, generous salaries, and large rewards, and then selecting talented people among them to continue to exert their strength and establish new achievements.

Under normal circumstances, those who can abandon their original hatred and become the third type, even if they cannot be the hegemons of a country or a place, they must be outstanding people in their area, and they can often even leave a mark in the history books.

Faced with these demoted generals from Mino, Asai Nagamasa chose the third option.

Although the national conditions of Nibon are different, farmers are often more inclined to accept the management of local lords, so many warriors will not be treated particularly harshly after a defeat, because the victors still need their presence to help maintain the local system. Stablize.

But despite this, there are only a handful of daimyo as generous and generous as Asai Nagamasa, so the samurai who surrendered are all grateful.

As for several samurai who had participated in Yoshitsune's army and crusaded against Dao San, he did not punish them on the spot, but handed them over to Dao San's last son Saito Roshiharu to help deal with them. After all, he also fought part of Dao San in the beginning. The banner of three vengeance.

Although the samurai were anxious after receiving the news and didn't know what would happen to them, in fact they underestimated Saito Roshi's capacity and underestimated his wisdom.

While he was extremely grateful to Asai Nagamasa, he did not take the opportunity to retaliate or be biased in any way. Instead, he learned from Asai Nagamasa's previous rules and dealt with them equally. After a little punishment, he allowed them to be punished and meritorious in the future.

After all, apart from the main messenger Yoshiryu, the biggest crime was that under the instructions of Yoshiryu, Hineno Hiroyuki, who killed Saito Roshiharu's two brothers, Sonshiro and Kiheiji, and Yoshiryu's important ministers, were one of the main conspirators of this matter. Ichi Nagai was lucky.

Ujie Fuzen, one of the remaining three people in Mino, and Fuha Koji of Fuha Castle, were actually not guilty at first.

Of course, as they continued to stand beside Yilong and Longxing and become enemies of the Asai family, their crimes became more and more serious. Now, even if they really come to surrender in person, Asai Chang The government will not forgive them easily.

On the one hand, Saito Toshioharu's actions made several samurai grateful, and Asai Nagamasa became more and more satisfied with Saito Toshioharu, so he directly announced that he would start to form the Asai family's bodyguards according to the list he gave. Returning to the public, he served as the captain of the first team.

Saito Toshiji naturally accepted this task with joy, because he knew that the loyalty and ability he had shown for a long time had finally been fully recognized by His Highness.

After seeing the list, he felt even more grateful, because he knew how important this seemingly ordinary-sounding squad leader actually was.

In addition to many young children sent by the Asai family members, there are also Asai Masamoto and Asai Masayuki, Migumo Kenji's younger brother Migumo Narimochi, Ning Ning's adopted brother and brother-in-law Asano Nagayoshi, Akechi Mitsuhide's expression His younger brother, Mitsutada Akechi, and Norihide Tokuyama, the leader of the Tokuyama clan, Inaba Sadachi, the son of Ittetsu Inaba, and Akao Kiyofuji, the son of Akao Kiyotsuna.
It can be said that this is a quite luxurious lineup. Perhaps these young samurai do not have much fame at the moment, but each of them has been personally selected and considered by Asai Nagamasa. If they can meet his conditions, their potential is undoubtedly It is very outstanding and will definitely have a bright future in the future, and there is also a certain amount of power behind it.

Being able to contact and summon them in advance as the captain, even if he gives up his identity as the last son of Dosan in the future, Saito Toshioharu is bound to have a place in Asai's family.

And this is more in line with some of his expectations.

His elder brother Yilong has lived under the shadow of his father Daosan all his life. In the end, when he was bewitched by a monster, he did not hesitate to fight with a sword. However, the reason was not that he really wanted to kill his father, but more just that he wanted to kill his father. Just to prove his strength to his father.

How come he, the youngest son of the Saito family, didn't have this idea?It's just that he never really had a similar resistance, because he knew it was impossible.

But now, under the command of His Highness, he may really get such an opportunity!
Seeing Saito Toshioharu's fighting spirit becoming more and more high-spirited, Asai Nagamasa was also very satisfied. At first, he really just wanted to use the other party's identity to obtain the land of Mino more smoothly.

Later, he considered that the other party was Axiu's younger brother, so he gave him some extra care.

But now, Saito Riji has proved with his own abilities that even if he abandons those things, he is still a rare and excellent samurai.

However, there are many candidates for Ma Huizhong, and they can be divided into two teams. Saito Toshiji serves as one of the captains, but there is still a shortage of another.

In this regard, Asai Nagamasa has no intention of specifying any more, but intends to let them compete freely, and finally select the best among them.

This immediately aroused their fighting spirit. They were all young warriors of about the same age, with little reputation and similar abilities. Of course they were not convinced by each other, so they secretly began to compete in various ways.

Asai Nagamasa also intentionally allowed them to compete with each other, because as long as they don't go out of their way, this competition can eventually be transformed into a motivation for them to move forward.

During this period, he also began to personally teach them breathing techniques and basic onmyoji techniques.

Although he doesn't really value the strength of this personal guard, he needs to use words and deeds to subtly and ultimately ensure their absolute loyalty to him, as well as the families behind them.

Now that you have chosen to become a daimyo, and since you have begun to conquer the territories of other countries, you must do your best!
At the same time, the Echigo-Uesugi family once again officially announced to the entire Nibon that they had never formed an alliance with the Miki family.

They even suspected that the reason why the orthodox elder sister Xiaolu Patriarch of Hida Kingdom died mysteriously and violently. Benefits.

Miki Yoshiyori even immediately changed his son's name in an attempt to occupy the magpie's nest, and openly occupied Matsukura Castle. This was a great injustice in the eyes of the Uesugi family.

Because they also slandered the Uesugi family, who were known for their ethics, for being allies with villains like them, the Uesugi family would never tolerate such insults. Therefore, the Uesugi family decided to expel the villain Miki family who occupied Hida Country, and the two sides officially started hostility.

But as soon as the news spread, the Takeda family, which had always been hostile to the Uesugi family, immediately announced that the Uesugi family had betrayed their faith and had already formed an alliance with Anekokoji, but instead coveted the gold mines in Hida's country, and broke their promise in the blink of an eye. The Takeda family could not By tolerating this behavior, they will support the Aneskoji family in resisting the invasion of external forces.

Although it is somewhat ridiculous to accuse Uesugi Kagetora, who is famous for his giri, with the reputation of Takeda Shingen, but when the news came out, for a time, Hida, Kai, Shinano and many large and small companies in the Echichu and Echigo areas The forces were still affected one after another, and each began to take sides.Even if the weather gets colder and colder, they are temporarily unable to mobilize troops this year, but it is conceivable that there will be a big war in the coming year.

Of course, it will take at least half a year before the war officially starts, not to mention three months in winter. Even in spring, Ashigaru who are farmers still have to give priority to farming.

Otherwise, not to mention that the farmers themselves would not be able to give up their land to fight the war, the daimyo and samurai in various places would never be so stupid, because most of the income earned by farmers from farming belongs to them. This is also the limitation of not having a professional army. .

However, in this way, the Asai family, which already has thousands of professional infantrymen,
But no matter what, when many forces took sides, Asai Nagamasa had decided to side with the Uesugi family, and he also sent an envoy.

Even without mentioning the good meeting he had with the other party when he was in Kyoto, he himself admired Uesugi Jinghu very much.

In the Warring States Period, which was full of conspiracies, betrayal and subjugation, a person like her who did not fight for her own selfishness but only fought for justice was unique in the entire Nippon. Even Asai Nagamasa himself could not be so selfless.

Especially since she is still a warrior Ji, this is even more commendable.

Her existence has certain positive significance for many samurai and people in Echigo and even Nippon, and he does not want her to lose to the ambitious Takeda Shingen.

Since Takeda Shingen entered the battlefield at the age of 16, he has fought about forty major battles so far.

In these wars, all were attacks, most were sieges, and they ended in victory.

In addition to several encounters with Uesugi Ketora that failed to win a complete victory, and Murakami Yoshikiyo's victory and defeat, he only lost twice when facing the Nagano family in Ueno and Minawa Castle. How much does Juggernaut Kamizumi Hidetsuna matter?

This record is truly terrifying.

It is worth mentioning that although he repeatedly claimed that what Sun Tzu advocated: as fast as the wind, as slow as the forest, as aggressive as fire, and as motionless as a mountain, these were the sixteen-character mantra of his Takeda family's art of war.

But in fact, Takeda Shingen's siege techniques were mostly based on storming and besieging the city. Sometimes he even had to spend several months to build a city, and he would never retreat until it was captured.

This is not only completely different from the proposition in "The Art of War" that siege the city first, but also completely inconsistent with Asai Nagamasa's military creed.

Whether he was fighting against the Rokkaku family or the Saito family, Asai Nagamasa never took action. Once he did, he was like thunder. His offensive was extremely fast and violent, directly hitting the enemy's vital points, and completely deciding the final direction of the battle in a very short period of time. .

As for the rest of the gradual pacification of various places and many post-war matters, he is usually no longer specifically responsible for it, but leaves it to Shima Sakon and other subordinates to continue.

But no matter what, seeing that he may have the opportunity to compete with the opponent, it is impossible to say that Asai Nagamasa is excited at all. The opponent is the famous "Tiger of Kai" after all!

As time passed, Kato Danzo soon led the ninjas to find traces of the Nezumi ninjas. It was not too unexpected. They were the largest stronghold of Nippon, and they were in the Hida Country.

After Asai Nagamasa received the reward, he immediately sent someone to deliver the news to Iga. The Iga ninjas of Momochi Santao had been entangled with these rat men for several months. The two sides had already formed a deep hatred, but there was a chance. See their true power.

Then he personally gave the sword that he had obtained from Saito Yoshiryu to the general Shima Sakon, who had made many meritorious deeds, in front of everyone, and ordered him to command the entire army in Mino in his absence, and when the opportunity arises The power of decision-making is jointly assisted by Hanbei Takenaka, Yumitsu Numata and Mitsuhide Akechi.

Although winter is approaching and it is almost impossible to fight again this year, we still need to be on guard, and recruit the original Mino samurai and ashigaru, and form a garrison and patrol team centered on Inabayama Castle and Sagiyama Castle. Waiting also takes time.

Although Saito Ryuuki fled eastward with the wealth accumulated by the Saito family for generations, not all samurai would accompany him. He was a newly appointed daimyo who was far from having such appeal, not to mention that he also set fire to To Inabayama Castle.

In this chaotic situation, it is inevitable that there will be some fools who want to take advantage of the situation, so Shima Sakon's task is actually very heavy.

At the same time, he also gave them a few instructions to prevent them from getting too bored.

Since the new governor of the Saito family, Ryuuki Saito, and the last member of the three Mino clan, Ujie Fuzen, have all become cowards in the eastern part of Mino, the power of the Asai family will not be able to reach there for the time being. The main goal will be to cure without breaking the light.

In response, Ando Mamoru, Inaba Itte, and even Takenaka Hanbei all volunteered to help him solve this trouble.

Regardless of anything else, Fuwa Koji is just too disgusting.

Fuwa Koji has always been ambitious. He wants one of the three people in La Merion to dismount and then take his place, which naturally greatly offends the three people.

At the same time, his residence in Mino, Fuwa Castle, is also adjacent to the Bodhiyama Castle of Takenaka Hanbei Shigeharu. There have always been extremely serious territorial disputes between the two families.

The power of the Takenaka family is weak and far from being comparable to the other side. When Takenaka Hanbei was growing up, his father worried and sighed about this more than once, and he had already accumulated a lot of hatred.

But now that he has such a good opportunity, even Takenaka Hanbei, who is indifferent to fame and wealth, can't help but want to vent his anger.

With these three people joining forces, and with the support of the entire Asai family, Asai Nagamasa does not need to pay attention at all, and it is only a matter of time before Fuwa Koji's defeat.

Many retainers were busy, and Asai Nagamasa was busy perfecting the breathing method he had wanted to use before.

Based on the power he currently possesses, he has successfully completed the Fire Breathing Technique and the Earth Breathing Technique, and has passed them on to those closest to him, Shima Sakon, Nene, Miyabe Tsugujun, and members of the Asai family. The disciples, as well as many elite warriors among the horse warriors in the new city, etc.

So far, the effect is very good. Probably due to the continuous recovery of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the efficiency of their practice has also been greatly improved. Soon some people will be able to feel the energy between heaven and earth, and use it to strengthen their bodies.

Although due to the short time, they cannot yet use any special power to show that they are different from ordinary samurai, but I believe that as time goes by, it will only be a matter of time.

So while he was perfecting the remaining water/wind/thunder breathing methods, he also passed on the current two basic breathing methods to Wu Ming and asked her to teach them to the ghost-killing team and Chuye Yazhong so that they could improve. their combat effectiveness.

Although Chuye Yazhong is not currently subordinate to him, he feels the need to support these people who are dedicated to defeating monsters without asking for anything in return.

In any case, anyone who is an enemy of evil monsters deserves special treatment from him.

(End of this chapter)