Owari Yumeki Golden Day

As expected, Ashikaga Yoshiaki complained to his close ministers that Nobunaga was dressed like a fighting cock and was deliberately showing off to them. Of course, Shichibei didn't hear this, and before he could get close to him, Hosokawa Fujitaka came over to take over.

Wada Koremasa saw Shichibei approaching and signaled Ashikaga Yoshiaki to stop talking. Yoshiaki, however, was remarkably composed, his expression instantly shifting to a calm one. Just like the day he arrived at Rissho-ji Temple, he remained calm and composed, as if nothing had happened.

125. Problems arise as soon as you arrive

Needless to say, both Akechi Mitsuhide and Shibata Katsuie performed exceptionally well in this hunt. However, Akechi Mitsuhide was skilled in archery and horsemanship, while few samurai in the Oda army were skilled in yabushi (darts) and horsemanship, so Mitsuhide stole the show.

Mitsuhide could even draw his bow and shoot arrows at wild boars while on horseback. In a country like Japan, which is not known for being a horse-riding people, the fact that he could have such a skill in horseback archery made Nobunaga look at him with admiration.

It was only after he was over forty that he began to shine, once he was admired. Did Mitsuhide not have talent before he turned forty? Clearly, he did, but unfortunately, he didn't find a good master or the right opportunity.

Nobunaga was so impressed that he even gave Mitsuhide his own saddle as a reward for his outstanding hunting performance. Because Nobunaga was the organizer of the hunt, he did not need Ashikaga Yoshiaki's permission to accept such a reward.

The Oda retainers had no choice but to admit that Mitsuhide was such a tough guy, they just had to go up and compete with him. There was no first in literature and no second in martial arts, Mitsuhide was just tough, and they couldn't beat him, so they couldn't refuse to accept it.

The key point is that Mitsuhide shines brightly, and Ashikaga Yoshiaki is in a very good mood. Although he only has a hundred or so attendants (who come from all over the place), his attendants are of high quality. Isn't it that he has immediately surpassed the upstarts of Owari, and the mental victory in his heart is quite refreshing.

When people are happy, they will be more friendly to others, and the atmosphere of the camping party will be quite harmonious.

As for the wild boar that was killed...

Oh, bleed, bleed quickly!

As they were enjoying a drink in the camp, Shichibei came out to watch the attendants collecting the spoils, seething with anger. Nobunaga hadn't given any instructions on how to handle the prey, leaving a brief vacancy in power, and Shichibei's appearance was met with outrage. The attendants and family members assumed Shichibei had come with the king's orders and held no doubt. Thus, the power to manage the spoils fell squarely on Shichibei's shoulders.

If you prepare it in advance, pig blood is a good thing. Some places love to eat pig blood soup. I think it's also called pig blood, anyway. I didn't prepare it now, so I just had to preserve the fresh meat as much as possible.

Pig offal is also good, like the large intestine, which needs to be rubbed vigorously with coarse salt. Nowadays, Japanese people have never used this and don't know how to handle it. Shichibei alone won't be enough, so it's better to take out the pig's heart and wash it first.

I had thought Nobunaga and his men would kill several hundred wild boars, but in the end, including both large and small ones, they only killed about forty. That's three medium-sized wild boar herds at most. It seems the pig plague at the Linden Valley Residence will continue.

"Nanabe, Nanabe, eh?" A man named Maeda Toshiie came over from the camping next door.

"My lord, what are your orders?" Shichibei was directing his family members to divide the meat. When he heard Maeda Toshiie's call, he immediately jumped up and responded.

"We shot several pheasants. Roast them and go with wine." Maeda Toshiie came to instruct Shichibei to collect the prey, but he did not extend the order to include all of them.

"understand."

But Shichibei was already working on it before he'd given the order. No wonder he'd seen no one near the sake cart ahead. Maeda Toshiie scratched his head, wondering if someone had come to inform him first. He muttered a few words, picked up two more bottles of sake, and headed back to the campsite.

At this moment, a shogunate official had already started a dance in the camp. Shichibei, accompanied by several maids who served as drinking companions, played flutes and drums, and everyone in the camp was having a great time. No one cared about what was happening outside the camp. After all, Nobunaga was showing off his strength, and Yoshiaki was trying not to be looked down upon by Nobunaga.

Let's keep an eye on our wild boar. Actually, we also have deer, pheasants, and rabbits. As for the bear, we haven't seen it yet. If there were a bear, the previous hunt might have been more intense.

However, the hunting grounds in the north of Gifu Mountain are close to human activity areas, so wild boars will run around without restraint. Bears are smarter and are less likely to overlap too much with human living areas.

There were reports of giant bears preying on humans in Hokkaido during the Meiji era. However, this was due to the rapid intrusion of humans into the bears' territory, which the bears were unable to adapt to, leading to fierce resistance. Gifu has been a region of human activity for centuries, and under normal circumstances, bears would have long since retreated and reduced contact with humans.

What a shame! Why don't Japan have any leopards? Even an isolated island like Taiwan has leopards, but Japan doesn't. If there were, I'd be able to see one today.

While I was daydreaming, the warriors' families had already scalded the pheasants, removed their feathers, and cleaned them. Compared to wild boars, they were much more skilled at handling small mammals and birds.

This may be related to the fact that the prey hunted by falconry for a long time are all small animals. The last time Nobunaga took Tokugawa Nobuyasu hunting, they caught rabbits and pheasants. The rabbits were later skinned and used to make gloves for Tokugawa Nobuyasu.

Now that they were skilled, Shichibei could finally sit down for a while. Otherwise, he would be so anxious, as he couldn't bear to see such a big piece of meat go to waste.

As soon as he sat down, he felt hungry. Seeing his family cutting up a deer leg, Shichibei didn't pretend and cut off a pound of it openly. How to roast it? It's very simple. Take a shovel, wash it clean, light a fire underneath, and roast it.

I remember the barbecue dinner at Luxuean when I was watching Dream of the Red Chamber. Salt was provided, of course, as were soy sauce and vinegar. If there were any wild garlic, I'd pick them and mash them into a dish, which would have been even better.

"I was wondering why I couldn't find you. Turns out you were hiding here and eating secretly." Shichibei took his first bite of venison and was savoring it when Kinoshita Hideyoshi ran over.

Why are you bothering me instead of drinking and watching dancing in the camp?

"Would you like some too?" Shichibei found a pair of chopsticks and handed them to Hideyoshi.

"They're chatting inside." Hideyoshi didn't care whether to eat or not. He just took the chopsticks and chatted with Shichibei in a low voice.

"Hmm?" Shichibei kept talking, mainly because he had to turn the food over.

It wasn't a big deal. At the beginning of the spring, the imperial court and the various shrines in Kitayama and Nanzan held a New Year's Prayer Festival. But things were going on in Nanzan and Nara. Matsunaga Hisahide was not only battling the Miyoshi Three, but also opposing forces in Yamato, led by the Tsutsui clan.

On October 10th of last year, Matsunaga Hisahide committed one of the most heinous crimes in the world—burning down the Great Buddha Hall.

It is said that the fire burned off the Buddha's head, causing the entire Matsunaga army to collapse. Many soldiers of the Matsunaga army fled, fearing that the gods and Buddha would bring down terrible punishment and disaster.

Of course, this matter had nothing to do with Nobunaga, nor with Ashikaga Yoshiaki. This year, the imperial court took the lead in presiding over the New Year Prayer Festival. Because the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple burned down, the temple petitioned the imperial court to take the lead in soliciting donations from all over Japan to help rebuild the Great Buddha Hall.

Historically, fundraising for this reconstruction failed. Although Todai-ji Temple was a big name, it was ultimately not as good as Ise Grand Shrine. At that time, even Oda Nobuhide contributed money to the reconstruction of Ise Grand Shrine, and many nobles and samurai also donated enthusiastically.

Of course, no one knew that the fundraising would fail, so the imperial court sent people to Ashikaga Yoshiei and Ashikaga Yoshiaki separately, asking them to contribute what they should.

The Ashikaga Shogun of the Muromachi shogunate was obligated to assist in the maintenance and repair of the Forbidden Palace. Ashikaga Yoshiteru also donated 500 kan to the imperial court to help with its renovation. In reality, the imperial court and the shogunate enjoyed a close cooperative relationship, each needing and providing value. Now the imperial court was leading the reconstruction of the Great Buddha Hall, but Yoshiaki lacked the funds.

Whether Ashikaga Yoshiei gave money or not was up to the Miyoshi Three. Whether Ashikaga Yoshiaki gave money or not was up to Nobunaga.

There are two historical incidents surrounding the Great Buddha Hall at Todai-ji Temple. One is that Toyotomi Hideyoshi, as a patriot, accepted the imperial court's advice and planned to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall. However, Hideyoshi, eager to usher in a new era, chose to build Hoko-ji Temple instead of rebuilding Todai-ji Temple.

What role Fanguang Temple played afterwards and became a turning point in history is another matter.

There is another case in which a monk named Gongqing of Todai-ji Temple at that time deceived Keishoin, the mother of the fifth shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, by telling her that Tsunayoshi could not give birth to a son because he was not pious enough to the Buddha, and that he had to spread Buddhism in order to give birth to a son.

Wow, this old monk fooled Keichangyuan so much that he finally gave him a lot of his own gold coins and his beloved son's gold coins, so the Great Buddha Hall of Todai-ji Temple was rebuilt.

Well, it was this monk Gongqing from Todai-ji Temple who told Keishoin that dogs should not be killed, as killing dogs would bring bad luck and prevent one from giving birth to a son.

Now Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Nobunaga have proposed that Nobunaga should pay a sum of money and persuade Todai-ji Temple to be enthroned in the name of Ashikaga Yoshiaki to help public morality.

Paying the money was not a difficult task for Nobunaga, but how to give the money to the imperial court and then use it to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall was a bit more complicated.

Oh……

Alas, if you replace a brainless person with someone who lives in this era and encounters such messy things every day, can you figure it out?

Ashikaga Yoshiaki openly and honestly asked for money, and he felt justified in doing so. If Nobunaga gave it to him, it would be like helping him be a good person. If Nobunaga refused to give it to him, the relationship of support between the two sides would immediately be broken.

Although Nobunaga wanted to establish a good relationship with the imperial court, he was not a fool who would take advantage of the situation. It would be difficult for him to respond if he paid thousands of kan to the imperial court or temples and shrines for no tangible benefit.

Kinoshita Hideyoshi, who didn't want to get involved in this matter, immediately ran away. After all, there were so many smart retainers in the Oda family, and someone would always come up with a good compromise.

It would not offend Yoshiaki, but would also please Nobunaga.

"When you become the governor in the future, there will be no shortage of such things." Hideyoshi naturally had some vision and said it with certainty.

"Come to think of it." Shichibei remembered that Hosokawa Harumoto often accompanied Ashikaga Yoshiharu to give alms everywhere.

"Do you have any idea?"

"Ah?" Shichibei, who was eating roasted venison, trembled in his hands.

Why are you asking me this? If you can't do anything, what can I do? Shichibei, unwilling to let the venison fall on the rocks, picked it up and grilled it over the fire, then ate it as usual.

"Maybe I'll ask you about me." Hideyoshi nodded towards the camp.

126. Fancy and quasi-status

Hideyoshi was right. If Nobunaga didn't have an idea, he would definitely gather everyone to brainstorm. Of course, this group refers to the important ministers and above, including Shichibei.

Talking about this, venison no longer tastes good.

In the end, Shichibei put down his chopsticks. If Nobunaga asked, how would he answer? He didn't see Hideyoshi standing next to him, waiting for Shichibei's answer.

After a brief pause, Shichibei couldn't quite put his thoughts together, so he asked Hideyoshi what Nobunaga had just heard about this. Furthermore, the imperial court was taking the lead in raising funds to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall, and it certainly wouldn't just ask the two Ashikaga, but would also solicit donations from the feudal lords close to the court.

People like Tosako of Shikoku and Saionji who had good relations with the imperial court, as well as Mori in the west, Shimazu in Kyushu, Uesugi in Echigo, and Oda Nobunaga who is in front of us.

Without a hundred thousand or eighty thousand dollars, don’t even think about rebuilding the Great Buddha Hall.

Historically, the Great Buddha Hall was rebuilt because suitable wood was hard to find in all three Japanese islands except Hokkaido. Ultimately, the Vairocana Buddha was recast to a height of 15 meters, only two-thirds the original size.

It was only after Keishōin had his beloved son order all the feudal lords to search that two enormous trees were finally discovered on Hyuga Province's Shiratoriyama. The main beams of the Great Buddha Hall, stretching thirteen bays, were finally located.

In order to send these two main beams to Nara, 100,000 people were mobilized, and 8,000 kan of money was spent. They were transported by carts and ships, and pulled by people and horses. The cost was astonishing.

As for why the Great Buddha Hall was rebuilt even smaller after World War II and directly used steel beams? Even the Buddha's backlight was removed. Don't listen to those who claim they're living a good life. The truth is, Todai-ji Temple became a natural corporation. It couldn't raise funds from all over Japan to build its own building, nor did it want to spend huge sums of money to go to Indonesia and Brazil to cut 13-bay main beams, so it went straight to steel beams.

However, this is a difficult task. With the global decline in large timber, large-scale "wooden buildings" are bound to disappear or be destroyed in the future. No matter how well they are protected, the decay and deterioration of wood are inevitable. Take a look now.

However, it seems that the imperial court has not sent anyone to inform Nobunaga. Yamashina Gentsugu, a samurai acquaintance of Oda Nobuhide, has not even appeared in Gifu Castle. Why is the imperial envoy so slow?

"The lord did not show any reaction." Hideyoshi thought about it. Nobunaga just nodded slightly when he heard Isshiki Fujinaga talk about this incident in the camp.

The court's fundraising was not just a few dozen yuan. Without a few thousand kan, even the pillars of the Great Buddha Hall could not be erected. Nobunaga certainly did not need to express his opinion on such a large amount of money.

The simplest thing is to go home and ask the Treasury Bugyo how much money is in the gold treasury in Gifu Castle. It is always necessary.

"The public has given us a very difficult problem."

"Who says it isn't?" Hideyoshi had just returned from Kyoto, so he might be able to catch something.

Because the Oda family and the imperial court were not very familiar with each other, even though Oda Nobunaga now holds a million koku in both countries. But in the past history, were there not many daimyo who held a million koku?

When Ouchi Yoshinaga fell, he still held approximately 800,000 koku of land and territory in Shikoku. However, with the death of Sue Harukata, public sentiment collapsed, and the 800,000-koku territory quickly fell apart. No one could have imagined that the Ouchi family, which had dominated the world just a few decades earlier, would suddenly collapse in just a year or two.

The emperor and the nobles at the imperial court had no idea how well Oda Nobunaga managed his territories. From a superficial perspective, they only knew that Nobunaga had gotten rich overnight. Initially, the situation was tense, but then, suddenly, the situation exploded, swallowing up Mino Province and Northern Ise within a short period of time.

In a territory of hundreds of thousands of shi of rice, only one crop of tribute rice was collected.

How strong is the dominance? How stable is it?

Hideyoshi believed that the imperial court used Ashikaga Yoshiaki's mouth to see how good Oda Nobunaga was at squeezing the land and preventing the locals from rebelling.

Yoshiaki might have taken advantage of the situation, realizing that Nobunaga's standing army of 8,000 men was indeed quite capable. His next step would be to test the Oda clan's financial situation and see if they could afford a large sum of money to mobilize a large army to Kyoto.

War means money. If the Battle of Shangluo lasted for half a year, which was still a generally optimistic estimate at the time, the military funds consumed would probably be calculated at 100,000 strings of cash.

Without that much money, how could we mobilize 60,000 people? And how could we get 60,000 people to fight for their lives?

Of course, Hideyoshi didn't say this out loud; it was just his own speculation. Even if Ashikaga Yoshiaki was a puppet, he had his own ideas; he was the heir to the previous shogun. Nobunaga wasn't from one of the three governors or four ministers, nor did he come from a prominent family. He wasn't originally part of the Muromachi shogunate's ruling class, and his ties to the shogunate were even more tenuous.

If Yoshiaki hadn't acted as intermediary and offered a chance to buy a title for Nobunaga last time, the two sides wouldn't even have the most basic political trust. Mutual testing, mutual demonstration, and constant adjustments would have been the inevitable result.

It is obvious in history that the final adjustment failed, and the honeymoon period between the two sides was so short that historians did not write much about it.

Well, at least everyone had a great time hunting. Shichibei, in particular, was delighted to have brought home dozens of pounds of meat, which he used to make sausages. Nobunaga simply instructed them to divide the deer and other meat among the group, and to make some jerky for Ashikaga Yoshiaki, but he paid little attention to the other prey.

After everyone returned to Gifu, two nobles from the Urinary Tract family came to the court to solicit donations.

Nobunaga had known about the matter for a long time, but he did not express his opinion. He settled the people down, provided them with food and accommodation, and then summoned civil officials and military generals to sit down and discuss the matter.

At present, Nobunaga is taking an attitude of winning over the imperial court. He is willing to pay money, but he wants to do it in the name of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, which makes Nobunaga a little unhappy.

Why do I pay the money while others become famous?

Why!

Someone immediately said, "We'll put the money in the name of the Oda family, and let Ashikaga Yoshiaki figure it out on his own." If Yoshiaki couldn't convert the relationship, that was his problem. They had just given Yoshiaki nearly a thousand kan of money, so Yoshiaki should just give him five hundred to appease the court.

This was actually the opinion of many of the Oda retainers. After all, they were all muscular men with limited thinking skills, and they were unwilling to use the money they scraped from the land to build up the reputation of others.

Many of my generals are also willing to donate money to rebuild the Great Buddha Hall and accumulate good karma. This good karma must be attributed to me so that I don't go to hell. If it is attributed to someone else, then my donation will be in vain.

Murder and arson and the construction of Buddhist temples can coexist, which was quite common in Japan's Warring States Period.

"Perhaps this is also a test of the lord by the court." Hideyoshi finally expressed his thoughts, and he improved his speech in the past two days.

"If you are right, the imperial court just needs money and doesn't care what name it is given?" Nobunaga immediately asked back.

"That's not the case." Hideyoshi moved sideways and sat down in front of the couch.

"The imperial court longs for peace in Luoyang, but the public officials are weak and unable to stabilize Luoyang. Therefore..."

Shichibei thought Hideyoshi's words made sense. The imperial court's biggest demand now was actually to restore peace and stability to Kyoto. If Kyoto was to be stable, the shogun and the kanrei had to work together seamlessly and have a strong military.

Nobunaga had a strong military, capable of commanding an army of 50,000 to 60,000 men. However, there was no way to know if the emperor and his subjects had close cooperation.

The shogun killing the kanrei, and the kanrei beating the shogun, was not uncommon in the Muromachi shogunate, and it even happened several times. Expelling and attacking each other was almost commonplace.

Once the cooperation between Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Nobunaga broke down, the result would inevitably be the Battle of Kyoto.

The imperial court definitely did not want to see the war in Kyoto break out again, so in this fundraising campaign, the imperial court might only need two or three thousand kan, mainly to observe whether Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Oda Nobunaga had a harmonious relationship and were of one mind.

After saying this, Nobunaga pondered. All of the Oda retainers around him were like this; this was indeed a possibility, wasn't it? And it wasn't a small possibility, based on reality and past examples...

Well, the imperial court was right. Two years later, Oda Nobunaga did fight with Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

So, the question now becomes, does Nobunaga want to stay within the larger framework of the Muromachi shogunate? If so, he should just give in this time and pay 2,000 kan for Ashikaga Yoshiaki. This would both further earn Ashikaga Yoshiaki's favor and appease the imperial court. This would ensure that his subsequent journey to Kyoto would be approved and endorsed by the imperial court.

"It's a pity to waste all that money..." Murai Sadakatsu muttered.

Of course, a few thousand guan is still money, and it can bribe a great man with tens of thousands of koku. Just throw it into the water like this, in exchange for a little kindness.

"My lord, if the court is really interested, there is nothing wrong with paying some money." Shichibei thought to himself, isn't this just a matter of name?