Swallow Return

The returning butterfly was stunned and speechless.

Liu Yun suddenly felt much better, finding it quite enjoyable to tease the other person like this. He deliberately made an ambiguous expression and chuckled, "Of course, there's an even more important reason, which is to steal his wife, hehe..."

Upon hearing this, Guidie blushed instantly. But instead of covering her face in embarrassment like a typical Japanese woman, she simply lowered her head while raising her eyebrows, displaying a coy and alluring demeanor, like a flower ready to be plucked.

However, Liu Yun smiled and left, without coming to pluck this beautiful and mature flower.

It wasn't because he wanted to engage in idle play, but because he had been doing high-intensity group activities lately, which had become too much of a challenge. Not only was he losing interest, but his lower back and kidneys were also feeling uncomfortable.

For the sake of future happiness, one should practice moderation.

Lady Guidie, also appearing ready to get down to business, calmed herself down, suppressed her excitement, and tried to adopt a serious demeanor as she earnestly said, "In fact, some people have already approached me, wanting to discuss matters of the future!"

"So fast?" Ryuun was quite surprised. "I thought they would be thinking about avenging Nobunaga!"

"If they couldn't react this quickly, how could they possibly reach such positions?" Lady Guidie sighed softly, a complex emotion flickering in her eyes, before she began to explain in detail...

————————————————————

Around the fifth day after Sasaki Ryūun killed Nobunaga, the situation began to change in a very subtle way.

According to the investigation, most of Oda's key retainers had received the news. Among them, Akechi Mitsuhide, Shibata Katsuie, and Hashiba Hideyoshi had clearly accepted reality and sought cooperation with Ryuun to discuss "important matters." The others, such as Niwa Nagahide, Takigawa Kazumasu, and Hosokawa Fujitaka, were hesitant, and it seemed that none of them wanted revenge.

Liu Yun sighed at this, but Lady Gui Die didn't find it strange at all.

I don't know whether to say that politicians are particularly indifferent to emotions, or that Japan has a unique atmosphere.

In short, Liu Yun didn't think much of it.

Leaving aside those who were hesitant, the information sent by Akechi Mitsuhide, Shibata Katsuie, and Hashiba Hideyoshi was indeed just as Lady Kicho had predicted.

Mitsuhide Akechi likely started from Ryuun's past as a monk, speaking at length about "habit" and "tradition," subtly emphasizing the other two's humble origins and lack of knowledge of etiquette, and expressing his ambition to "restore the ancient ways and revive the rites."

If Liuyun were truly a well-read Tiantai monk who had connections with high-ranking officials, he might find this person's words reasonable.

Unfortunately, he wasn't... He only felt that the Buddhist doctrines were empty talk that was detrimental to the country.

Therefore, he had a poor impression of Mitsuhide Akechi.

Then there's Shibata Katsuie, with whom he had some past conflicts—his views were quite interesting, saying that he wanted to build a peaceful and stable new world so that the lower classes could live and work in peace and contentment, which had a bit of a "humanist" feel to it.

However, the proposed approach is to significantly strengthen control, imposing high pressure on civilian associations, gatherings, publications, and speeches, and immediately resorting to violent measures to resolve any issues once they are deemed problematic…

That would be a bit too much.

Moreover, Ryuun suspected that Shibata Katsuie was not quite clear-headed—could he have done that given the level of centralization in Japan?

Finally, there's Hideyoshi Hashiba.

It goes without saying that Liu Yun knew that Hashiba Hideyoshi was a pragmatist with no real political ideals. His proposed policy goals were also mediocre and uninteresting, not worth mentioning.

However, compared to the two unreliable ideas mentioned earlier, this actually became an advantage.

A relatively intelligent pragmatist would at least not be a bad choice.

more importantly--

Mitsuhide Akechi and Katsuie Shibata were still only making verbal promises, while Hideyoshi Hashiba's sincerity was much more obvious.

He directly sent his wife, Madam Ningning, to Liuyun's side as a "hostage" to show that he had no intention of going back on his word.

This is an old friend who has a very close relationship with Sasaki Ryūun.

Many ordinary and boring words become very believable when spoken by her.

Liu Yun was quickly persuaded—at least partially persuaded—and wrote back to Hashiba Hideyoshi saying, “Your wife is truly wonderful.”

This can be considered a preliminary statement of attitude.

After that, Miss Nine-Tailed Fox made a very interesting suggestion... I heard that Akechi Mitsuhide's eldest daughter, Tamako, is quite elegant, and Shibata Katsuie has taken in Princess Oichi and her three daughters, treating them like treasures.

Why not ask them to do what Hideyoshi did, send important people as hostages, and then see the attitudes of the three hostages before deciding who to support?

Isn't it beautiful?

Liu Yun commented that while it sounded funny, it was actually too wicked...

Or you could say the other way around: although it's really wicked, it sounds really fun...

So, let's talk about it another time!