Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

"Alright!" Mori Terumoto immediately agreed. He now understood that his foundation was weak and he needed more people to join in order to have a chance to contend with Shichibei.

As the father of Nobuo's legal wife, he still held a certain status and position. Moreover, as a senior retainer appointed by Nobuo, he was able to win over some people to join his side.

As mentioned before, Mori Terumoto can be considered a hereditary minister. Therefore, he is definitely within the scope of this hereditary minister. When the time comes, if they swarm him, even if it's a hand-to-hand fight with Shichibei in the council chamber, he'll have an ally, right?

"The coming-of-age ceremony is imminent, and we must hold it first!" Shichibei must first get the matters to be discussed today approved.

Because Shichibei was attracted to Hijikata Okihisa and Takikawa Okitoshi, two of the three senior members of the Imperial Household, many of those who came from Nobuo's close confidants and trusted followers became daimyo of ten thousand koku and were listed as hereditary retainers.

Historically, the Tokugawa Shogunate had approximately 5,000 hatamoto (military commanders), of which 250 held positions with a rank of 3,000 koku or higher. These individuals formed the middle and high-ranking officer ranks of the Shogunate's direct army, much like how the Oda clan organized its army today.

The Sanada brothers, each granted a fief of 100,000 koku, were originally Nobunaga's 8,000 koku stablemen. There are dozens of people like them, all with around 10,000 koku. With them all being promoted, it's hard to say who will ultimately have the most influence in the central government.

After all, Shichibei has the support of a major lord, but the former Nobunaga's army also has a hundred or so minor lords. If it were one person, one vote, the scene would be absolutely spectacular.

"This matter can be established first, and the consensus of the Imperial Household Agency must also be established!" Maeda Toshiie had essentially openly confronted and made an exchange with Shichibei.

"..." Shichibei first tried to adjust his breathing; it was impossible for him to get angry at a time like this.

Once anger takes hold, one is at a disadvantage. What was once a calm and methodical approach can easily turn into trouble when anger arises.

"This is the only way." Mori Terumoto thought there was a chance.

Narita Ujinaga and Hatakeyama Nobutaka were looking at Shichibei with bated breath, hoping to get their entry into the central government approved first, as delays could lead to complications and unforeseen problems.

"call……"

"Let's do it this way." Shichibei let out a long sigh of relief, then suddenly realized something.

Let them stir things up. There's never been a rule that only Shichibei can stir things up and no one else can. Since Maeda Toshiie and Mori Terumoto are willing to stir things up, let them try.

I want to see just how far this situation can get messed up. If it turns into a complete mess, who knows, everyone might just support Shichibei to take charge.

“Okay!” Maeda Toshiie and Mori Terumoto agreed in unison.

Narita Ujinaga and Hatakeyama Nobutaka were overjoyed, finally gaining legitimate access to the central government and becoming ministers in charge.

"The transfer of Nagato no Kami to Kawachi has also been approved." Shichibei was able to carry out his plan.

"This..." Maeda Toshiie wanted to stop him.

"This is unacceptable, that is unacceptable, what is acceptable?"

"Very well, let's transfer the fief to Hanoi."

Chapter 669 The Noble Republic is a lump of...

Upon returning and recounting what had happened that day, the retainers all fell into deep thought. Ii Naokichi, however, seemed rather eager to try, sitting behind Todo Takatora and slightly raising his head.

Because she received 100 koku of land in Ii-dani, Ii-sama's dream of restoring her former territory had been realized. In any case, the land where the old site of Ii-dani Castle was located became their family's villa.

The reason why Ii Naokichi was not involved in this transfer of fiefdom was because he had already become the adopted son of Shichibei and a member of his family. If Shichibei was to fight against others in Osaka for a long time, Ii Naokichi would have to guard his territory of one million koku in his hometown.

Furthermore, Shichibei would definitely not let him suffer any losses; within the million-koku territory, there would certainly be 100,000 koku for him. He himself had also expressed to Shichibei that he would continue to follow Shichibei for now and did not want to go out and run his own business just because he had been granted a fiefdom.

"Toramatsu, you speak," Shichibei urged Ii Naokichi to get straight to the point.

"Does Father know how to make buckwheat noodles?" Ii Naokichi asked unexpectedly.

"I've seen it before." It's Japanese soba noodles. I've had it a few times in Kai before. Later, I learned to make noodles after marrying Yamagata Masamitsu's sister.

"Do you know the secret to making buckwheat noodles?"

"What is it?"

"Add more water to the flour, and more flour to the water," Ii Naokichi said with a blink of his eyes.

"Hahahaha." Shichibei immediately understood and clapped his hands in laughter.

Then Takatora Todo, Shigeharu Takenaka, and others nodded slightly, agreeing that this was indeed the case.

You want to include dozens or even hundreds of Owari clan members, right? Then I'll bring in all the "veterans" within the hatamoto who have held many mid-level positions, served the Oda clan for over twenty years, and whose income is over three thousand koku.

At that time, there will be two hundred people in the meeting hall, all talking at once, arguing and bickering, making a ruckus. I don't believe that a standing committee can be formed without elections or some other means.

In the past, the shogunate set up various departments and bureaucracy to expand its organization, win over personnel, and strengthen its rule. However, it later discovered this was ineffective, so it started creating even more bureaucracies with leaders. Ultimately, it was still the same few people making the decisions.

Some trends are irreversible. Although Japan is small, it has two to three hundred thousand square kilometers and a population of twelve million. Its administrative machinery relies on samurai, and high-ranking samurai cannot endlessly hold meetings in Osaka from the beginning to the end of the year.

Once everyone's tired of arguing, the eventual decision will be to appoint a hereditary governor (shōdai) to govern in Osaka. After that, the hereditary governor will typically return to his homeland to care for the people and convene a general assembly once a year, which is considered quite good.

“That is indeed the case.” Shichibei thought to himself that Ii Naokichi was quite quick-witted; his mind was sharp for someone in his twenties.

"Let's convene a meeting first to discuss the matter of Shibata-dono's transfer of fiefdom." Takenaka Shigeharu was also about to go to his new territory, but since his territory was in Iga Province, which was actually quite close, he wasn't in a hurry to leave.

Moreover, Iga was the former territory of Goto Mototsugu and Watanabe Ryo, and they had already thoroughly dealt with it, so there wasn't much difficulty in governing it.

"That's exactly what I was thinking." Shichibei had already pushed Hatakeyama Nobutaka to be transferred to Kawachi Province.

The territory had effectively been divided, and the unspoken rule that the territory couldn't be touched had been explicitly broken. Oda Katsuhoshi was too young to stop it. And since his two powerful maternal grandfathers, Mori Terumoto and Narita Uchinaga, hadn't actually succeeded in preventing it, things became much easier.

The current priority is to push Shibata Nagakatsu to transfer his fiefdom from Tanba Fukuchiyama to Yamato Koriyama. If this is successful, the Oda clan's territories will gradually decrease.

In fact, pushing for a reduction in the number of Tenryo cannot be considered Shichibei's ambition; many of the senior retainers had similar thoughts to some extent.

It's true that Hatakeyama Nobutaka loved his older brother Nobuo and was willing to protect the royal family. But when he returned to Hanoi, the former territory of the Hatakeyama family, didn't he have any selfish motives? Surely, it wasn't entirely pure.

As for Narita Ujinaga, he had no resistance whatsoever to taking over Wakasa Province, where the territory was located, and accepted the reward without any qualms.

Taking advantage of the fact that Oda Katsufusa is young and weak, and the central government is somewhat chaotic, everyone is grabbing the Wang family's share—it's human nature, and there's nothing to say about it.

Let's start arguing!

Gathering the imperial regalia would take time, but Oda Katsuhoshi's coming-of-age ceremony had to be held immediately. Although theoretically he was to go to the palace to pay homage to Emperor Hikari, due to his young age, Hatakeyama Nobutaka, who was promoted to the rank of Imperial Attendant, would enter the palace and pay homage in his place.

All procedures were handled as normally as the succession of the Oda Grand Chancellor. Although the Imperial Court harbored some resentment towards the direct demand for the rank of Fourth Grade, the Oda family and the Imperial Court maintained a good relationship, and the Imperial Court was willing to make a special exception for the direct descendant of the Grand Chancellor.

Thus, Oda Katsuhoshi was promoted even faster than the sons of the Five Regents, initially holding the rank of Junior Fourth Rank. After his rank was confirmed, his official position was straightforward: first Left Lieutenant General, then Councilor. Later, as he grew older, he was promoted to Junior Third Rank, thus becoming Acting Middle Counselor.

It would be a natural progression for him to become Grand Chancellor after reaching adulthood. At least for now, no one believes they have the power to usurp the entire Oda clan's territory. They're merely engaging in petty theft and opportunistic exploitation in private.

The name Shengfashi used for his coming-of-age ceremony was the one that Xinxiong had previously proposed for his eldest son, Sanlang Fashi, but he changed it to Xinwei.

Whether the two-year-old child understood or not, from that day on, he was Oda Nobuyuki. In official documents, his full name was "Taira Nobuyuki".

Hatakeyama Nobutaka even asked if he wanted a special seal made just for him. Oda Nobunaga used "Unification of the Realm by Force," Oda Nobuo used "Power Over the Seas," so Oda Nobuo could have simply enjoyed "Peace and Joy."

Let's leave it at that. Let him decide for himself when he grows up. There's no need to make decisions for him in advance, especially about things like this. Who knows, maybe he just wants a peaceful and harmonious relationship with his subjects?

After Oda Nobuyuki completed his coming-of-age ceremony, the foreign retainers, led by Shichibei, began to pressure Mori Komatsu and Narita Kaihime to become nuns and go to the Soji-in Temple in Kyoto to pray for Oda Nobuyuki's soul in the afterlife.

This matter had been agreed upon earlier, and although Terumoto Mori and Ujinaga Narita were slightly dissatisfied, the others were happy about it. Even if it was a matter of the minority obeying the majority, they still had to comply.

Moreover, the Oda family was a noble samurai family, and it was against contemporary moral standards for the wives not to become nuns after the husbands' deaths. Shichibei simply forced the two of them to change their practice from becoming nuns in Osaka Castle to becoming nuns in Kyoto.

Princess Mori and Princess Narita used the excuse that Oda Nobu was still breastfeeding and could not leave his mother to postpone their stay. However, the decision had already been made, and they would not be allowed to linger for long.

They can only drag it out until he's three years old; then we'll see what excuses they have. Historically, Tokugawa Iemitsu was only a few months old when Tokugawa Ieyasu entrusted him to Kasuga no Tsubone for upbringing.

Ieyasu did prevent Iemitsu from being molded into a puppet by his mother, but he couldn't escape being molded into a homosexual by Kasuga no Tsubone, becoming brutal and indiscriminately murderous (attacking passersby at night), and being easily swayed by others, ultimately even killing his own younger brother. It can only be said that Ieyasu, who had understood people his entire life, failed to truly understand them in his final act.

In the spring of the fifteenth year of Tianzheng, in the first month.

As is customary, the feudal lords paid homage to their lord, Oda Nobuyuki, during the first month of the new year. This also allowed them to gather all the hereditary rulers from Owari onwards for a meeting.

Shichibei hadn't yet put forward the proposal to bring in all of Nobunaga and Nobukatsu's kinsmen; he wanted to see what the situation would be like with these hundred or so people together.

As expected, Shibata Nagakatsu's proposal to transfer Yamato Province to his fiefdom immediately caused a huge uproar. Yamato was a territory that had been gradually reduced to a common territory by several generations of lords, including Matsunaga Hisahide, Tsutsui Junkei, and Nobunaga, who worked hard to remove the threat.

So they just handed it over to Shibata Nagakatsu so easily? Does that mean Omi and Yamashiro can be used as prey in the future? Or even Settsu, where Osaka is located?

That's right.

That was the plan they had in mind, but they hadn't explicitly stated it. The stated reason was that Shibata Nagakatsu was a meritorious figure in the previous suppression of the Eastern bandits, and he came from the core Shimo-Owari samurai group. His father, Shibata Katsuie, defended Nagakoji Castle and died a heroic death in battle, buying time for Oda Nobunaga to mobilize his troops.

If he doesn't deserve it, who does?

To put it bluntly, if you cut open your own hearts and lungs, you'll see that the blood they shed is redder than yours.

The so-called hereditary successors are divided into the Owari hereditary successors and the general hereditary successors. The Owari hereditary successors either support or remain neutral in their positions. The general hereditary successors, on the other hand, have more opposition. They entered the hereditary successor system by chance during Nobunaga and Nobukatsu's unification war.

The transformation of the Owari fudai into pure-blooded clans was not yet complete, and there was a growing rift between them. Some opposed it simply for the sake of opposing, while others believed that the Owari fudai had become too powerful and would eventually annex them all.

The simplest way is that if a family line dies out, they just choose a descendant from the Owari lineage to inherit the family business. In just a few generations, the family line will be replaced.

Isn't this just the beginning of the power grab by Owari Fu?

They usually entered the Oda regime through hereditary succession, hoping to climb the ranks and further control over territory, people, and power. If you've already ruined everything, what chance do we have?

They were arguing, arguing fiercely. And this was exactly what Maeda Toshiie wanted. As long as they argued, nothing could be done, and they could only follow the old ways and govern Japan according to the old methods.

We are still in a feudal society, and social development is very slow, unlike the rapid changes of the 20th and 21st centuries. Even if there are no policy updates for ten years, simply putting things on hold, the country's rule can be maintained without wavering. Even if the ruling center is brain-dead, the lower levels may still govern step by step and perhaps even do a better job of governing.

The most typical example is Emperor Jianwen. If he had done nothing and simply ruled the world effortlessly, Emperor Daiming might have lived a few more years. Instead, he was both anxious and chaotic, making one foolish move after another, which was worse than not ruling at all.

Watching this scene of conflict, Shichibei became certain of one thing: the "Noble Republic" was shit, a pile of dung, an incurable and worst system.

It was even worse than a monarchical autocracy. Although the shogunate's arbitrary politics placed great emphasis on the qualities of the monarch, otherwise a shogun like the "dog-king" would have emerged, it was undeniable that in terms of administrative efficiency, it far surpassed the aristocratic republic.

If it were an aristocratic republic, one would never be able to reach a consensus on anything in their lifetime, let alone govern the country through a system that seems to align with the interests of their own class.

Let's make it even more chaotic then. I want to see what it'll be like when things get completely chaotic.

Since the proposal to transfer Shibata Nagakatsu's fiefdom could not be passed smoothly, Shichibei suggested that experienced bureaucrats with a fiefdom of five thousand koku or more, who had long been in charge of various affairs in the central government and had ample political experience, be included in the discussion.

To be honest, even Maeda Toshiie was stunned when Shichibei made this suggestion. He couldn't understand it; with less than a hundred people, they were already making a huge racket, with spittle flying everywhere. If another hundred people came in, would anyone be able to talk in the room?

However, this proposal aligned with Maeda Toshiie's thinking, which was to prevent the power-grabbing faction, including Shichibei, from accomplishing anything.

Narita Uchinaga was overjoyed upon hearing this proposal. His former loyal followers were primarily mid-level bureaucrats holding 5,000 koku of official rank. While they strengthened Narita Uchinaga's power, they were only responsible for execution, not decision-making, and therefore could not speak on his behalf at the central level.

Now that's good, we should let all these veteran officials in; they are also hereditary officials. It's just that only those with a salary of 10,000 shi or above are hereditary officials, but as direct ministers of the Grand Chancellor, hereditary officials of high rank should be on the same level as minor feudal lords.

Okay, okay, come on over.

When the meeting resumed, the scene was even more chaotic and unbelievable. Shichibei temporarily put aside the matter of transferring Shibata Nagakatsu to the Yamato region and instead proposed the reconstruction of the Oda clan's direct army.

Oda Nobukatsu's direct army should theoretically have numbered over 70,000. However, several thousand died in the Tensho earthquake, and more than 20,000 former Nobutada followers who were sent to Nagoya defected to the Eastern Army, which also led to the army's disintegration.

In addition, many of the officials who originally belonged to the Naotomi clan, such as the Oma-mai and the Sukinobu, were transferred to become feudal lords because of their merits in the East-West Great War. For example, the Sanada brothers, Nobuyuki and Nobushige, both became feudal lords with a fief of 100,000 koku.

Therefore, the Oda clan's direct army has now been reduced to just over 30,000 men. This number is simply insufficient to suppress other warlords. If the Grand Chancellor were still Oda Nobunaga, it wouldn't matter; Nobunaga's face is his army, and whoever he visits, their army would be under his command.

Could it be Oda Nobuyuki? How can a two-year-old make a name for himself?

"Let's reorganize the 80,000-strong cavalry of the Hatamoto!" Shichibei immediately slipped in a personal suggestion: to recruit the surrendered and converted Eastern Army lords into Hatamoto at a rate of 5,000 to 3,000 koku, and quickly form the 80,000-strong Hatamoto of the Heavenly Territory.

The suggestion is actually quite legitimate, and if only three to five people discuss it, it would probably be passed quickly. However, if it's put into a large meeting of two hundred people for discussion and resolution, the scene becomes unbearable.