Pillars of the Wu family

The cold wind blowing from Yatsugatake into the Kofu Plain in the depths of winter, the heavy snow that had been raging for half a month finally stopped last night, and the surrounding area of ​​the Kaijimazakikan was heavily guarded, and people walked out of their huts to start a new day of work at dawn. The samurai who came and went were all lost in thought and frowning.

Takenouchi and Gozaemon rubbed their red hands and stood in a daze in the shed. There was a fire that was about to go out beside him. It was the remnant of the bonfire left by the previous post. His task was to keep an eye on Shinano. Except for a few of the hostages sent by the people of the country and the people of Shinano who were cited as directly subordinate samurai, most of them were placed under house arrest in the small courtyard of the Yasaki Pavilion. There are several other courtyards like this. All of these people.

After Harunobu Takeda returned to Kai, he ordered martial law throughout the territory. The peasants were recruited to rebuild the stone caves that had not been completed a few years ago. In the winter, thousands of farmers braved the wind and snow to repair the city. Within a few days, the peasants had extensive frostbite. Those who supervised the siege were also complaining, but the order of the governor had to be carried out. Everyone knew that at this time, one must not hit the muzzle of the gun. There was a resentment in the hearts of the Takeda family. Whoever dared to bump into it would only have one word of death. .

"I don't know if the Gaobaizhai Palace can survive this winter!"

"I think it's difficult. I heard that the arrow sores are festering very badly. I don't know what kind of arrows Kira's family used. As long as they get hit by an arrow, they are guaranteed to die. Many samurai have died in Kofu these days because of this. reason."

Takenouchi and Gozaemon couldn't help reminding: "Keep your voice down, you don't want to live?"

His colleague, Sosuke Kawamura waved his hand indifferently: "Hey! What are you afraid of, Yuwu? Look where there are other people coming here on this street. Who doesn't know our situation until now, the lord brought Ji The concubine ran to Yuya Hot Spring to recuperate. She didn't ask anything about the affairs of the territory. The young master and the stable hall are still in the hands of the Kira family. Not to mention the entire territory of Beixinano was taken, even Saku County was also lost. Didn't you Have you heard? A few days ago, the Echigo Army crossed the Shinshu Pass and attacked our Kai!"

Sorokuro Iwashita leaned over: "I've also heard about it. It is said that 8000 elites came to kill them aggressively one by one. Fortunately, our samurai in Kai are united enough. Seven to [-] people gathered from more than a dozen townships to force the Echigo Army to Back off in fear! But from my point of view, next year this day will definitely be even more difficult!"

"That's right! Our army is gone, and the samurai are dead and disabled. How can we resist the arrogant Echigo army in the coming year!" Uga Jobei smacked his lips and said, "I think we are really in trouble. .”[

Seven or eight samurai stood at the door chatting, they were the middle and low-level samurai of the Takeda family, and besides going out in battle, they were usually important points in the garrison city and had nothing to do. If you are on duty at night in cold weather, you will be frozen miserably.Not to mention those peasants who froze to death, even some of them warriors had their fingers and ears froze.

There was a loud noise in the distance, which seemed to be shouting faintly, and gradually saw the flames rising, and the warriors immediately came back to their senses.Shouted: "It's flooded! Hurry up and put out the fire!"

The fire point is a few food storage spots in the castle town of Yazazakikan. There is a small temple in the castle to store food. Residents outside the city also have to buy food from the food store. The profiteering business of hoarding is simply because he has been very good at life these years, and the police and solid people who guarded the city were sent to give a lot of benefits.So the samurai in the city were happy to help him.

Takenouchi and Gozaemon looked around for a long time, and exclaimed: "Oops! It seems that the fire started at the storehouse of Yamanashiya Ichihei, the largest grain merchant in the town. Let's go help! Let his grain store be destroyed. Burn it, and the townspeople will starve!"

"But our duty is to watch over these hostages..." Sorokuro Iwashita hesitated.

Kawamura Shimosuke slapped him on the head: "You idiot! What are you looking at! These Shinano people have already surrendered, and they are still looking at the use of this bunch of trash. If you don't rush to put out the fire, it will be too late!"

The folks who built the city brought their own grain, and the townspeople in the castle town did not do any farming and had no grain income. The grain consumption of thousands of townspeople in the Zakikan throughout the winter was not a small amount. The price of food will inevitably double in a short period of time. Now that the traffic is blocked by heavy snowfall, even if they want to transfer food from other counties, they will not be able to quench their thirst.

The news of the flood in the grain house spread to the virus. Takenouchi and Gozaemon followed their colleagues to leave their posts to fight the fire, but they didn't notice that a few diners from the corner shop quietly came out. Their looks had nothing special on the street. Will be forgotten, walked out of the courtyard and looked around, making sure that no one noticed, then quietly walked into the courtyard, and walked out with a dozen children of different sizes in a short time.

At different times on the same day, the same scene appeared one after another in the Yashizaki Pavilion, and some samurai from Shinano suddenly disappeared. Dozens of people disappeared in just one day. When something went wrong, these people had already left Kai and embarked on the road back to Shinano.

It is undeniable that the situation is getting worse and worse. Takeda Harunobu is ill and has been confirmed to be absent from all domestic affairs for half a year. A powerful group of Takeda Nobushige was captured. Takeda Noburen, Takeda Xinyou and a Shinryu were killed, and the most terrible thing was that Taro Yoshinobu was captured and the Takeda family was thrown into disarray. critical situation.

Masao Komai has been in a coma and awake for more than a month. The old man persisted with his breath, but his physical weakness is an indisputable fact. Shortened, woke up again in the middle of the night, and saw Nagasaka Mitsuken's concerned expression.

"...Is the situation outside okay?"

"It's not very good. The grain houses in the castle town caught fire one after another after the snow stopped in the morning, and then the hostages from the Shinano country who were held in the castle town were rescued. Topo ninja discovered that the fire was man-made. It can be determined that it was the work of Kira ninja." Ban Guangjian knew that the time was urgent and did not dare to talk nonsense.

Komai Masaobu gasped and said with difficulty: "... Is it the Kira ninja again? Our defeat in that battle was bizarre, and we lost three branch castles in a daze... Then we got stolen from the camp in a daze .It caused our army’s morale to be shaken and we wanted to retreat... Looking back now, it’s the crime of penetrating the ninja!”

Nagasaka Guangjian sighed: "My lord's old illness relapsed and went to Tanggu Hot Spring for recuperation. Now the family is supported by our family members. But people's hearts have been scattered!" [

"Hey! This is fate! The fate of our samurai is that the sun rises and the sun sets... Rising Sun General Minamoto Yoshinaka is so heroic and dies in Azuzu, we can't escape this disaster..." Komai Masaobu was confused He answered indistinctly, and after a long time suddenly sighed: "My last date is tonight..."

"Gao Baizhai! Please persevere!" Nagasaka Guangjian looked at his old friend's painful expression, and bitterly encouraged the dying old man, while a few surnames standing beside him brought the soup in a panic but did not dare to come over.

Komai Masaobu suddenly sat up, grabbed Nagasaka Mitsuken's arm firmly, as if exhausting all his strength, and chanted loudly: "I didn't expect it to be so soon! I, Gao Baizhai, have been ashamed all my life! I write down the last sentence of death! It seems like a dream is not a dream, it is empty and not empty. The fate of the world is all in my heart..."

After all, the old man raised his head and fell down straight with a long sigh, swallowing his last breath with the last trace of unwillingness and nostalgia.

Nagasaka Mitsuken said in a trembling voice: "Notify the lord, just say... Komai Masaobu entered the Taoist Gaobaizhai... passed away!"

……

In Sagami Odawara Castle, Hojo Uji Yasuzai had a conversation with his eldest son Hojo Shizheng. Compared with the high-spirited appearance half a year ago, the Sagami Hideshi is so old now.The blow of the defeat in the war made his body thinner, and his majestic face was unknowingly frosted. Hojo Ujiyasu was in a good mood. He talked about the past and the present for a long time, but finally brought the topic to the recent changes in the Takeda family. superior.

"The Takeda family was defeated, even worse than us. Most of Kai's samurai hadn't gone for a while, and the Takeda family had no chance to stand up. I never thought that Echigo's military strength would be so powerful. Before last year, Echigo was still working hard at the same time. Two battlefields can withstand simultaneous attacks from four directions in just two years. Kira Zhenfu and Nagao Masa are both top-notch generals in the world. Echigo's potential!"

"Don't father hate him? My son means Muramamaru. After all, it's because of that knife that caused us such misery. A few years ago, my son didn't dare to go out to hunt eagles at will, because he was worried that the leaders would see Hojo's family. What kind of bad stories will Kamon make up? It’s really annoying to tell, why do other samurai are hawks, and our Hojo family kills and eats meat? It’s not fair!" Hojo Clan Zhengyu said indignantly.

"Don't you want to kill and eat meat?" Hojo's Kang Waner smiled: "Speaking of that enemy, in fact, my family has already seen it away. Thinking back to the changes back then, the Zhenfudian was still an eight or nine-year-old child, and I, Hojo, Our family has grudges against each other in the past, so why is there any reason to frame us? The Hattori family joined the Kira family just before stealing the sword, so the family quickly came to a conclusion that it must be the young mind who sent ninjas to steal the Muramaru, but did not want to harm The death of Mr. Guandong will cause disaster, otherwise why bother to steal only one sword instead of taking away all the financial treasures of Mr. Furukawa's family?"

"But in this way, isn't Ashikaga Haru's death very unjust? To throw his life into a deep well for a knife thief, this is too unbelievable, the child still can't understand!"

After all, Hojo Shizheng is still young, in his early twenties, he is eager to make a career, but he has never thought of being beaten by Nagao Jinghu and has not yet come out of his psychological shadow. It is very clear that the shadow must be overcome by himself, just like the Heyue night battle more than ten years ago, he overcame the psychological shadow of the [-] Kwantung Allied Forces, and finally won a stunning victory.

"After all, he is still too young. It would be nice if he could be honed for a few more years." Hojo Ujiyasu frowned slightly, and said slowly: "The latest news, Takeda Daizen went to Chizuka Hachiman Shrine, where the eminent monk Qixiu in Kai Under Yuan Bo's presidency, he cut his hair and became a monk, and his dharma name is Derongxuan Jishan Shingen, and he will be called Takeda Dashan Dafu to enter the Taoist Shingen in the future."

The so-called Derongxuan Jishan Shingen is a simple name used by warriors. In fact, it is a combination of the courtyard name, Dao name, and dharma name. The title system comes from the tradition of Japanese Buddhism.The habit of using temples as consumption has been passed down for hundreds of years, such as Hongan Temple Zhengru, Chaosheng Temple Misho, Shengxing Temple Yuncheng, Ruiquan Temple Tanxiu, Guangde Temple Chengxian, and Hongkaku Temple Dingyun are all like this.

Takeda Harunobu did not become a monk in a temple.Instead, he was only registered as a monk but not a temple. His Taoist name "Jishan" is similar to Hojo Soun's Taoist name "Tianyue", and the same is also the "Uncle Ming" who was the former abbot of Mingshu Qingjun at Myoshin Temple Among them, Xi'an Xuanmi "Xi'an", who will soon be the abbot of Miaoxin Temple, "Taiyuan" of Taiyuan Xuezhai, and "Meiyue" of Meiyue Chengfang, whose legal name was Meiyue Chengfang before Imakawa Yoshimoto, are also of this type.

This tradition comes from the Tang Empire. During the prosperous era of Tang Dynasty civilization, many eminent monks and great virtues were born, such as Nanyue Huairang's "Nanyue".The "Mazu" of Mazu Daoyi, the "Huangmei" of Huangmei Hongren, the "Linji" of Linji Yixuan, and the "Huangbo" of Huangbo Xiyun are all like this.

In the future, Takeda Harunobu will not be able to use this name. According to the official name of the temple, it should be Derongxuan Shingen, just like the famous monk Hokurain Shinei of Kofuku Temple. If it is recorded in the documents in Huilin Temple It will be labeled Kiyama Shingen. In fact, it was common sense for samurai at that time to shave his head and worship Buddha at home.Those who uphold the Three Refuges but do not abide by the Five Precepts are essentially still warriors in monk's robes and Dharma names, and what they do is still killing people and seizing property.

"Dr. Takeda Ozan joined Shingen, and now he is a monk. Is he expressing his attitude? So what attitude does he want to express? Bear the guilt of failure, express an attitude of giving in, or express the spirit of not admitting defeat?" Hojo Shizheng thought hard.

"It should not admit defeat! If you admit defeat, the emissary of the Takeda family should have been waiting for a long time in Kasuga Mountain Castle. There has been no movement in the past two months, but now they are suddenly ordained and become monks. They must not be reconciled to failure." Hojo Shiyasu Disapprovingly said: "Even if he is not reconciled, so what? This defeat wiped out all the energy and spirit accumulated by the Wutian family for decades, and most of the essence accumulated by two generations was scattered. of."

"According to what father said. Doesn't the Takeda family have any chance of reversing the market? But my son thinks they still have a chance!" Hojo Ujimasa was afraid that his majestic father would misunderstand his thoughts, so he hurriedly explained: "My son means that there is no chance. Is there a chance for a comeback? I think they still have a chance! After all, the Shinano Banguo is still in the hands of the Takeda family. There are still many young warriors in Kai who gritted their teeth and persisted for five or seven years. There is no chance of resurgence!"

Hojo Ujiyasu knew very well what his kid was thinking, and pointed out whether the Takeda family could get out of the predicament, but in fact it was a metaphor that the Hojo family should persevere and support him. No matter whether his ideas were right or wrong, his enthusiasm should not be discouraged, so he appreciated it. Said: "There is still hope for the Takeda family, but it is very difficult and not easy to achieve. On the other hand, the situation of my Hojo family is much better. If you endure for three to five years, you can regain your strength. What you have to do is to restore my Hojo family as soon as possible. The vitality of the family, before the strength is restored, do not provoke Echigo, do not try to get involved in Ueno, this is what the Ming Dynasty sages said to hide their power and bide their time."

"I understand...wait a minute!" Hojo Ujimasa raised his head in surprise, looked at his father's extraordinarily kind face, and said in panic, "Father is saying that the child will do it? Why is it not the father who does it, but... the child does it. "

"Because I have made up my mind to be a father, I announced at the New Year's Day meeting that I will officially retire... It is better to inform Shinkuro in advance so that Shinkuro can make more preparations. In the blink of an eye, Shinkuro has grown into an adult in his 20s. The twenty-odd years of struggle have not dishonored the inheritance passed down by your great-grandfather and grandfather, and now this heavy burden is entrusted to you, you must work hard and never fall into the prestige of the Hojo family." Speaking of this, Hojo Ujiyasu's A trace of memory and nostalgia flashed in his eyes.

"Father! You are in the prime of life and full of ambition. It is a great time to show your heart and gallop through Kanto! One failure is not enough to damage the foundation of my Hojo family. It only takes a few years to restore the old look. How can you say that at this time? What a frustrating word! The people with lofty ideals in Sanzhou are looking forward to you leading my Hojo family to lay a great foundation!" The Hojo family knelt down and begged: "My lord father, please take back your order. My Hojo family cannot do without you. Your leader, even a child cannot do without your guidance!"

"Shinkuro! You are the son of my Hojo family, like the eagle riding the sky and looking down at the earth, you are destined to soar in the sky, how can you be petty like the sparrow that loves its nest and doesn't fly... I have made up my mind and don't have to Fuyan, take advantage of this month to sort out your political and military strategies, and you can ask any questions at any time, go!" Hojo Shiyasu waved him to retreat.

The Hojo Clan said the war was very easy. The uninformed layman at first glance saw that the combined losses of the Nagao and Ueno families were comparable to that of the Hojo family, as if it was just a draw, but in fact it was not. In this way, the Nagao Legion refused to defend the camp with a weak force, and the Hojo family led a large army to besiege, but in the end they were beaten by the inferior Nagao Legion and almost collapsed completely. Most of the [-] soldiers who died were from Nagao hands of home.

Looking at it this way, we can see how strong Echigo's strength is. It is a big advantage to use two enemies as one, and finally ask for benevolence and benevolence to change two for one. A loss-making business that lost one thousand dollars, was finally forced to accept Nagao Jinghu's harsh exchange request, causing his uncle to lose face in Hirai City.

And Hojo Ujiyasu, who had a smooth history in history, also retreated to seclusion after the heavy damage in the third year of Yonglu, so under the crisis situation of being hit hard and resisting, Hojo Ujiyasu's ambition was destroyed, and he returned to Odawara Castle. It didn't take long for him to think of his plan to retire.

Not long after, news came out that the Sagami Hojo family passed on the position of governor to the Hojo clan, while Hojo Ujiyasu himself lived in seclusion in Odawara Castle and did not care about world affairs. The dark clouds over Kanto seem to have dissipated a lot, and the way forward is still unknown. (to be continued...)