Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

Even if they were defeated, more than a thousand men entered General Mountain Castle to help defend it, and three days later, Oda Nobuhiro and Sakuma Nobumori's army arrived.

160. The fierce battle raged through the night like a sweeping storm.

"go!"

Nobunaga waved his hand, pulling his men to their sides and setting off. In that short time, the Ōtsu garrison had collected hundreds of torches for the troops. It wasn't enough, but there was nothing they could do; they had arrived in Ōtsu at the last minute without prior notice. The fact that the people there didn't rebel and obeyed Nobunaga's rule was already a great favor to him.

Mōri Hideyori led the way, followed closely by Sassa Narimasa. Both of their men were samurai from Owari and Mino, belonging to the core of Nobunaga's power. Even after a day's journey, they fought with all their might for Nobunaga.

The retainers who were guarding Nobunaga were also invigorated at this moment, changing the saddle on Nobunaga's horse and feeding it soybeans and black beans.

The snowstorm did not stop, and the surroundings were as dark as ink. Nobunaga ordered more than twenty men in their garb, each leading several dozen riders, to form a column and advance in coordinated formation.

Every few moments, whistles were sounded in succession to prevent the troops from getting separated. Several guides were captured in Otsu and all accompanied Mori Hideyori's troops in the vanguard. Although the main road to Kyoto was overseen by Shichibei and Hosokawa Fujitaka and they knew it well, in the wind, snow, and darkness, who knew if they might accidentally turn onto a side road?

The journey that would normally take a horseback ride of at most an hour and a half took the Oda army more than five hours in the wind and snow, and time passed by unknowingly.

On the second day of the first month of the twelfth year of Yonglu, in the capital, at General Mountain City.

Still shaken, Ashikaga Yoshiaki couldn't sit still. Although he was leaning on his sword, he couldn't calm down and kept sending people to inquire whether reinforcements had arrived. When the first person to come to his aid, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, came to his aid, Ashikaga Yoshiaki almost considered Yoshitsugu as his nephew, and he held Miyoshi Yoshitsugu's hand, moved to tears.

Subsequently, Wada Koremasa and Ikeda Katsumasa each led several hundred troops to Kyoto. Wada Koremasa remained at Honkoku-ji Temple to draw fire for Ashikaga Yoshiaki. The other generals escorted Yoshiaki as he retreated to Shogun's Castle and held it to the death, while also reporting the news to Oda Nobunaga in Gifu.

According to Akechi Mitsuhide's estimate, with the heavy snow in Gifu, even Nobunaga would need at least four days to lead his army to Kyoto.

They've only been defending for a day, and the Ashikaga army, numbering less than two thousand, has already suffered over a hundred casualties. Due to inadequate preparation, they even lack arrows and arquebuses. Today's battle was just a single engagement in the evening; if the Miyoshi Triumvirate launch a large-scale attack tomorrow, the defense will likely be extremely difficult.

Are there any reinforcements nearby? Even just a few dozen would be helpful.

Reinforcements will definitely arrive, but it's snowing, and it will take time for everyone to get there. Even if we call upon the monks from the northern and eastern mountains to come to our aid, it will be by tomorrow night at the latest. The Ashikaga army will still have to hold out during tomorrow's daytime battle.

Settsu Harumono, Ōdate Harutada, and others even suggested to Ashikaga Yoshiaki that they should give up and run towards Takashima County in the north of the river under cover of darkness; only by doing so could they survive.

Upon hearing this, Ashikaga Yoshiaki stood up even more. He refused to leave, even though he had finally succeeded as the Shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate. Before the Shogunate could be restored, he was driven to exile by the rebels.

Even Shichibei knew that only a shogun who resided in Kyoto, sat in the imperial palace, and issued imperial edicts was a true shogun. To flee to another region was not only a loss of face for the shogunate and the shogun, but also made it difficult to return in the future.

Yoshiaki and his brother Yoshiteru were similar in some ways. He still held a sliver of hope, thinking that with so many reinforcements from the shogunate, Nobunaga would only need four days to arrive. Once the heavenly army arrived, the mere Miyoshi rebels would surely be crushed.

Clinging to this last glimmer of hope, Yoshiaki rejected the suggestion of fleeing. Instead, he mustered his remaining courage and began actively preparing the castle's defenses. He also gently comforted the Ashikaga generals and soldiers, encouraging them to defend Shogun's Castle to the death.

The Miyoshi Triumvirate below the castle had it even easier, as the Miyoshi family still held considerable influence in the capital region. After their sudden landing, many powerful figures in the region who had served the Miyoshi family for years still remembered how Miyoshi Nagayoshi could order the execution of whomever he wanted, or even the entire family of someone he decreed. They largely remained neutral in the face of the Miyoshi army's surprise attack.

Sending someone to report to the higher authorities is already considered a favor to the new shogunate and the new Kanrei. Those who report nothing at all and pretend they know nothing are not uncommon.

It can be said that if the Miyoshi Triumvirate were to kill the new shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki, or defeat him and force him to flee back to Gifu Castle in Mino, then the Miyoshi Triumvirate's influence in the Kinai region would immediately be restored, and those powerful officials who had sided with Nobunaga would immediately turn to them.

In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of people would gather under their banner, following them to seize southern Omi and restore the Rokkaku. They might even march straight to Mino and destroy the Oda clan.

By evening, they discovered that the defenses of Honkokuji Temple were weak, and they also learned that the shogunate forces were deploying to Shogun's Castle. They immediately guessed that Ashikaga Yoshiaki had fled. When they launched their attack, they found that the defenders were very determined, but their defenses were very weak.

Good, good, good! With Yoshiaki here, we will surely be able to kill Ashikaga Yoshiaki tomorrow!

The mountain fortress was surrounded by a large camp, and many bonfires were lit due to the winter cold. The incident was sudden, and the various forces in the capital region were either observing or unable to mobilize enough troops to provide support, so the Miyoshi Triumvirate had no need to hide the campfires to avoid being attacked.

There are fires raging all around the foot of the mountain, what can you do about it?

Indeed, there was nothing they could do to them, as bonfires were everywhere. After observing for a moment from the shoulders of three pagemen, Nobunaga confirmed that the Miyoshi Triumvirate truly numbered over ten thousand. With only a thousand or so Oda cavalrymen who had rushed to the scene, they simply couldn't confront them head-on.

Some might say that Nobunaga also went up at Okehazama, right? Yes, he first sent about three hundred men up to make a kill, to confirm that Imagawa Yoshimoto's main camp really only had five thousand men, and to make Imagawa Yoshimoto complacent. He himself had two thousand men, so he decided to take a gamble.

“The enemy is extremely lax!” Maeda Toshiie was also watching from the side.

"The enemy camps are scattered quite haphazardly." Sasa Narimasa could tell the location of the enemy camps by the arrangement of the campfires.

Nobunaga didn't answer, but instead jumped down from the human observation posts of the servants and paced back and forth in thought. Then he saw Shichibei using ropes and branches as brooms to first sweep up the snow. Whether or not to have horses drag pine branches around to create a large fog of people was up to Nobunaga.

"Are you so sure?" Nobunaga sized up Shichibei.

"No, it's just preparation." Shichibei was sitting on a pile of pine branches, tying up brooms. He was tying them up anyway, whether he would need them or not.

"That's right, let's fight first." Nobunaga didn't know anything else, but he knew Shichibei's skills very well.

Aside from horsemanship, Shichibei's combat skills are practically nonexistent. He's skilled with a sword, but has never used a spear, and is completely clueless about archery, though I've heard he's recently started learning. As for wrestling and hand-to-hand combat, he's utterly terrible. Nobunaga, unarmed, could easily outmaneuver ten Shichibei seven times, even taking a few with him in the process.

"I'm quite good at using arquebuses," Shichibei replied, because he really could use an arquebus.

"Tsk..." It's precisely at times like these that you need to relax a bit, and Nobunaga found that his chest felt less tight.

“Shichibei is the one who leads the way. Letting him go first is putting the lord in a difficult position.” Sasa Narimasa saw the broom and obviously understood, so he came over and chimed in.

"Then you go first!" Nobunaga pointed with his hand.

"Understood!" Sasa Narimasa answered without hesitation.

He was more than willing to fight for Nobunaga, and Nobunaga did not treat him unfairly. By the time of the Honnoji Incident, Sassa Narimasa already controlled half of Etchu Province. Although it is highly likely that if Nobunaga had survived, he would have eventually been granted Aizu or Akita, but at least a starting salary of 300,000 koku.

"Yaso, you take two hundred men and go along the flank." Nobunaga then gave the order to Maeda Toshiie.

They then invited Hideyori Mori, who was resting on the ground, to join them, and had him lead 150 men to follow behind the two of them, continuing to engage in the battle, causing the Miyoshi Triumvirate to misjudge the situation.

Kanamori Nagachika, with a hundred men, ran around shouting behind the three, making it appear as if they had a large force. Once they were all engaged in battle, Nobunaga personally led three hundred men to charge into the Ōtemon gate of Shogun's Castle, rushing to Yoshiaki's aid.

Shichibei was in the rear guard, watching over Nobunaga's Yongle Tongbao horse emblem, while also leading and driving the horses to create the illusion that tens of thousands of troops were coming from the rear.

"Who goes there!" Sasa Narimasa, standing beside Nobunaga, threw the small knife at Shichibei's feet forward.

The retainers on either side rushed forward like wolves and tigers. About twenty meters away, a figure leaped out. He shouted that he was a retainer of Asai Bizen-no-kami and not an enemy. He asked which part of Oda's army the Nobunaga main force belonged to.

Oh? Nagamasa Asai has arrived too?

The man was brought before Nobunaga with his hands bound. Upon seeing him, the man immediately kowtowed. He had assumed it was one of Nobunaga's generals stationed in Jiangnan who had arrived, never expecting it to be Nobunaga himself.

Previously, Nobunaga was parading through the streets of Kyoto, and almost every samurai of the Asai army had seen Nobunaga.

Only then did he release his grip. Nobunaga ordered him to immediately bring Azai Nagamasa to a meeting, and then they would join the attack. If Azai Nagamasa also had several hundred men, then the wave attack would seem even more realistic. Two thousand well-prepared troops attacking ten thousand unprepared enemies—the odds were evenly matched.

Within twenty minutes at most, Asai Nagamasa arrived with five or six hundred men to join him. Nagamasa was completely incredulous; Nobunaga was farther away than him, yet he had arrived before him. But this was not the time to discuss it. The two had a falling out last time, but this time Nagamasa was giving face to Nobunaga's new regime and had actually come to the rescue. Nobunaga had his own reasons for this.

Without further ado, Nobunaga immediately ordered Nagamasa to engage in battle between Mori Hideyori and Kanemori Nagachika, and to drive out the Miyoshi Trio. He had to disrupt the enemy forces so that he could follow up and break into the Ote Gate of Shogunyama Castle.

Nagamasa simply nodded in agreement with Nobunaga's strategy. He then put on his armor, summoned his troops, and followed Mori Hideyori toward the Miyoshi army.

"Keep an eye on my horse!" Nobunaga instructed, leaping onto his horse and leading his troops forward to attack.

At four o'clock in the morning, while it was still dark, the first battle cry suddenly rang out. Sasa Narimasa and Maeda Toshiie split into two wings and launched a fierce attack on the Miyoshi Trio, displaying great power.

Caught off guard, the Miyoshi Triumphs were even exclaiming in surprise, wondering where the commotion had occurred. As the troops fell into disarray, the second wave of Oda's army launched a fierce attack, searching everywhere for the whereabouts of the Miyoshi Triumphs' general.

As dawn broke, Azai Nagamasa and Oda Nobunaga joined the battle one after another, and Oda Nobunaga's Yongle Tongbao horse emblem was erected at the foot of Mount Uryu. The sounds of men and horses, the billowing smoke, and the startled flight of birds filled the mountains and forests, as if tens of thousands of people were constantly being thrown into battle.

A gasp rippled through the city walls and below: Gifu Danjo-den has arrived!

Those on the city walls were overjoyed, while those below were terrified. The Miyoshi Triumvirate, whose ranks had been thrown into disarray, immediately decided to flee. Just as they hesitated, Akechi Mitsuhide, inside the castle, led two hundred men without hesitation, opened the gates, and charged out in support of Oda Nobunaga.

Caught between two forces, with Oda's reinforcements pouring in continuously, the Miyoshi army was caught in a pincer attack. Just then, Azai Nagamasa's cavalry, swaggering in from both sides, charged in two separate columns. The Miyoshi army collapsed in disarray, their defeat swift and devastating.

The Oda army units refused to give up, pursuing and capturing prisoners and beheadings everywhere. The Miyoshi army trampled each other, even attacking one another, as they fled.

It was freezing cold, and these soldiers were awoken from their sleep in the middle of the night, without even a chance to put on clothes; some were left with only a single layer of clothing. At first, they were brandishing swords, their bodies churning with adrenaline and cortisol, and they didn't even feel the cold. But as the rout began, their hands and faces were frozen.

There are probably hundreds or even thousands of Miyoshi soldiers who froze to death on the roads and in the valleys.

After the Miyoshi army outside the castle was driven away, Ashikaga Yoshiaki reopened the castle gates to welcome the Oda army. He thought that since the Oda army included Azai Nagamasa, there must be 30,000 men. He even ordered Settsu Harumon to quickly prepare food and miso in Kyoto, since Nobunaga had come to rescue him personally, he should at least be given a hot meal.

When he learned that Nobunaga had only sent a little over a thousand people, and that Azai Nagamasa had only been encountered by chance on the way, Yoshiaki was astonished, not to mention Hosokawa Fujitaka and Akechi Mitsuhide, who exclaimed in surprise.

More than a thousand people dared to come to support Yoshiaki and even launched a surprise attack on the Miyoshi army. Oda Nobunaga was truly amazing.

Upon hearing this, Ashikaga Yoshiaki stared at Nobunaga for several moments before making an unbelievable move. He ran over and hugged Nobunaga like a child, and Nobunaga didn't resist, letting Yoshiaki hug him tightly. He even reached out a hand and gently patted Yoshiaki's back.

"Father."

Everyone around him heard it clearly: Ashikaga Yoshiaki called Nobunaga "father." Nobunaga was clearly taken aback; his hand patting Ashikaga Yoshiaki paused for a moment, but he quickly recovered and continued patting.

"From now on, please let me call you Father!" Ashikaga Yoshiaki finally released Nobunaga and made this request to Nobunaga in a very solemn tone.

161. Awe-inspiring power over Sakai Town, 20,000 kan.

Shichibei swallowed hard, muttering to himself, "You old bastard, how dare you call me that?" Nobunaga really is worldly-wise; he actually managed to snag a shogun's son.

Needless to say, even Shichibei, an Oda retainer, felt that Ashikaga Yoshiaki had gone too far. What about the large group of retainers behind him? Hosokawa Fujitaka turned his head away immediately, while Ōdate Harutada and Settsu Harumono closed their eyes. When did the Muromachi Shogunate become such a mess that even the dignified Shogun had to recognize a father figure just to survive?

What to do? Ashikaga Yoshiaki has already said it. A promise is a promise. A shogun's word is his bond, and from this day forward, Nobunaga is the shogun's father.

How to deal with this matter later can be discussed later. The primary task now is to completely expel the remnants of the Miyoshi Triumvirate, wipe out the area around Kyoto, and restore order to the entire Yamashiro Province.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki remained at Shogun's Castle, but there was no need to summon any gatekeepers for protection. Simply adding arquebuses and bows and arrows, and setting up a few watchtowers would suffice.

Nobunaga then ordered Sassa Narimasa to enter Kyoto first and control all the passes before the Oda and Asai armies entered the city to meet Wada Koremasa at Honkoku-ji Temple. The Miyoshi army, which had surrounded Honkoku-ji Temple, mostly collapsed after hearing of the defeat at Shogun-yama and did not commit any atrocities such as arson or attack on Kyoto.

Riding into the capital, the Three Good Men's antics actually had one benefit.

This directly proves that Ashikaga Yoshiaki lacked the ability to protect Kyoto, which can be further argued that only Lord Nobunaga had the capability to guarantee Kyoto's safety. Should the Imperial Court favor the centuries-old cooperative Muromachi Shogunate, or the emerging power of Oda Nobunaga?

Many changes don't happen in a short, dramatic burst. In fact, they occur step by step, little by little, until the whole picture is transformed.

Oh right, we were just running around, and as soon as we finished, we immediately got back into battle. At this point, Shichibei suddenly noticed that Matsunaga Hisahide had jumped out from Nobunaga's ranks.

Indeed, Matsunaga Hisahide went to Gifu to wish Nobunaga a Happy New Year. However, he didn't get to do so. On New Year's Eve, he was woken up and rode his horse at breakneck speed from Gifu to Kyoto.

To be honest, this old man has amazing stamina. Even Shichibei, a young man with a big stick, felt exhausted, but Matsunaga Hisahide volunteered to help Nobunaga contact the court nobles and inform them that Lord Nobunaga had defeated the Miyoshi traitor.

It seems that during the historical retreat from Kanesaki, there's a claim that Matsunaga Hisahide was with Nobunaga. If that's true, then that old man was indeed remarkable. The fact that he managed to escape from Kanesaki back to Kyoto in a single day and night is not much different from the current day-and-night escape from Gifu to Kyoto.

Thanks to Matsunaga Hisahide's contact and Akechi Mitsuhide's efforts, the court nobles, including the imperial court, learned in a short period of time that their savior Nobunaga had actually arrived.

Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable!

Normally, a march from Gifu to Kyoto takes three days. The attack was sudden; the Miyoshi Triumvirate only arrived in Kyoto yesterday noon. How could Oda Nobunaga have defeated the Miyoshi army this morning?

This was completely impossible, which was one of the reasons why the Miyoshi Triumvirate were so unprepared. No matter how fast they ran, it would take Nobunaga three days to reach Kyoto. They never expected him to arrive in just one day and launch an attack without a moment's rest.

The imperial envoy arrived at Honkoku-ji Temple, where Nobunaga's temporary headquarters saw him in person and showered him with praise. Nobunaga possessed such formidable military strength that he was able to safeguard the entire capital in such chaotic times.

The stronger Nobunaga's military power, the more excited and pleased the imperial court became. After all, the court no longer held real military or political power; the safety of Kyoto depended entirely on the authority of its samurai collaborators. It was simply a matter of the bigger Nobunaga's fist, the happier they were.

Nobunaga, feigning nonchalance, acted as if nothing was particularly impressive, simply receiving the imperial envoy with an air of ease. This nonchalant demeanor truly belied Nobunaga's extraordinary abilities.

The townspeople and commoners of Kyoto were astonished by Nobunaga's swiftness and were abuzz with discussion. Nobunaga was too formidable; the Miyoshi Triumvirate had been repeatedly defeated by him. The hearts of the people of Kyoto were secretly beginning to turn towards Nobunaga.

Once all these messy mundane affairs were dealt with, reinforcements from various regions finally "bravely" arrived in Kyoto. No one knows how Nobunaga managed it, but Shichibei was exhausted and found a pile of firewood at Hongoku-ji Temple, where he curled up and slept for several hours. Nobunaga, however, received the lords and envoys from various regions without a moment's pause, and everyone was in awe of Nobunaga's power.

When Shichibei got up again after noon, many courtiers from Yamashiro and Settsu had gathered in Kyoto. Nobunaga even raised a glass and drank with Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, Ikeda Katsumasa, Wada Koremasa, Matsunaga Hisahide, Azai Nagamasa, and others, putting on a relaxed posture as if he had the world in his grasp.