Chapter 610 16. Dangerous News From Luoyang Stirs the World

(Due to political censorship, the actual title of this chapter is "The whole world is in turmoil when there is an alarm in Luoyang.")

The Yamanouchi family is worried about being stuck in a quagmire, while Oda Nobunaga has already been stuck in a quagmire!

After celebrating the New Year in Gifu, Oda Nobunaga went to Luoyang without stopping. On the one hand, as a shogun, he congratulated Ashikaga Yoshiaki on the New Year, and on the other hand, he hoped that Ashikaga Yoshiaki would quickly issue him a royal instruction.

The content is of course that Asakura Yoshikage is a companion of the shogunate, but Ashikaga Yoshiaki has repeatedly refused to come and has no respect for the general. After all, the whole world belongs to the king, and everyone is a minister of the Muromachi shogunate's shogun. Asakura Yoshikage dares not to obey.

This is the benefit of using the general to command the princes!

With justice in hand, I have the world!

Ashikaga Yoshiaki hesitated again and again, after all, Asakura is a force that supports the shogunate. Moreover, the Asakura clan now dominates the two countries of Echizen and Wakasa, and has the two ports of Tsuruga and Obama. Its strength is definitely worth the 250,000 kan of the daimyo.

To put it bluntly, Ashikaga Yoshiaki saw that Oda Nobunaga was going smoothly and his power was expanding like a snowball, and he finally became alert! What he wanted was just a powerful daimyo who could protect Luoyang, not a tyrant who could unify Kinai and threaten the monarchy.

You, Oda Nobunaga, can share power with me, and I, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, have known this for a long time. But you can't usurp power!

If there is a giant, five generations of deep-rooted Echizen heroes, like a sword hanging in the sky, hanging high above Omi, and can rush from the north of the river at any time. Then Ashikaga Yoshiaki will have a way to play checks and balances and coordination, and he will have the opportunity to expand his power, increase his reputation, and gather the monarchy.

If Asakura, like Kitabatake, becomes the brother state of Oda Nobunaga, although the power supporting the shogunate is increasing on the surface, in fact, it is only Oda Nobunaga's strength that is increasing.

No matter how Akechi Mitsuhide persuaded him this time, Ashikaga Yoshiaki did not give in after all, and only issued a vague imperial letter to Asakura Yoshikage. This was not to Oda Nobunaga, and the content only asked Asakura Yoshikage to let Takeda Motoaki return to the country to serve as the guardian of Wakasa.

Oda Nobunaga was said to be very unhappy at the time. He repeatedly assured Ashikaga Yoshiaki that he would never cut off the Asakura family, and allowed Ashikaga Yoshiaki to send envoys to participate in the battle as a military supervisor to protect the Asakura family.

But Ashikaga Yoshiaki still refused. Nobunaga could not force him directly. This was the general he supported, and he could not slap himself in the face.

In the end, the negotiations between the two sides naturally ended unhappily!

But at least the imperial letter was sent to the world, and Ashikaga Yoshiaki did order Asakura Yoshikage to let Takeda Motoaki return to the country. Although this excuse is not as good as directly attacking the rebellious Asakura, it can also be used.

The various troops that had been contacted before to use the army against Asakura could also be mobilized. Although Oda Nobunaga did not fully achieve his wish, the Nishiwakasa clan that surrendered to him could still be used as a righteous and vanguard.

Just as Oda Nobunaga returned to Gifu and was about to contact the Yamanouchi clan and the Mikawa Matsudaira clan, something strange happened.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki saw that Oda Nobunaga was sweeping all the way, so could others not see it? The Miyoshi Three, who had retreated to Awa in Shikoku before, saw that Oda Nobunaga's strength was becoming more and more powerful, while his power had not increased much, and it was very likely that they would gradually decline.

So he made up his mind!

Raise an army!

As soon as Nobunaga arrived in Gifu, he received news that the Miyoshi Three had landed in Hyogo and Koshimizu. Logically, they should have attacked Akutagawa Castle and Katsuryuji Castle first to open the road to Luoyang.

However, the Miyoshi Three relied on their strong troops and more than 15,000 troops. They did not care about the various branch castles along the way, but drove straight to Luoyang!

Caught off guard, Ashikaga Yoshiaki could only gather less than 2,000 people to fight desperately in Honbuji Temple. The battle situation was once critical, and there was even news that Ashikaga Yoshiaki had been killed.

Luoyang was alarmed, and the world was shocked!

Wada Koremasa led the Wada people to fight to the death to help, and Akechi Mitsuhide and Hosokawa Fujitaka also led the people to fight to the front. Not long after, the lord of Kawachi Wakae Castle, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, heard that his brother-in-law was in danger and also raised troops to rescue him. The battle was extremely fierce.

When the Settsu guardian Itami clan, Ikeda clan, and Tamba guardian Hatano clan came to rescue with all their strength, the Miyoshi trio still failed to capture Honbuji Temple. Although the number of the four armies was less than 15,000, it was not far behind.

Upon hearing the news, Oda Nobunaga also led 20,000 people from Mino to help at night, and Ashikaga Yoshiaki finally escaped from danger. The Miyoshi trio led their troops to retreat and occupied Settsu, threatening Kyoto at all times.

That's it! Oda Nobunaga can't do anything, just fight a mess with the Miyoshi trio!

Because of this sudden attack, Ashikaga Yoshiaki was greatly stimulated physically and mentally, and immediately ordered Oda Nobunaga to fund the construction of a new imperial palace for him, which could station 10,000 soldiers and had considerable defensive power.

On the one hand, Oda Nobunaga was in the wrong, but on the other hand, he really needed to protect the trump card in his hand.

So Akechi Mitsuhide was appointed as the general magistrate, and Hosokawa Fujitaka, Murai Sadakatsu, Isshiki Fujinaga, and Kinoshita Hideyoshi were appointed as the vice ministers to rebuild the imperial palace. Not only did they require the construction of a wide water moat, but they also built stone walls and lime walls that were far better than before. Since it was not appropriate to build a castle tower in Luoyang, they changed it to a triple-walled imperial palace.

Under Ashikaga Yoshiaki's repeated increase, the repair of the imperial palace continued to increase. In addition, Oda Nobunaga had ordered it. He had indeed neglected the matter of repairing the Imperial Palace, so he let Ashikaga Yoshiaki repair it however he wanted, no matter how much it cost.

The project was so huge that it once involved more than 10,000 people, and Oda Nobunaga personally led his troops to Settsu Nakajima to block the retreat of the Miyoshi Three. He confronted the Miyoshi Three and tried to eliminate this powerful force that jumped to the surface to oppose him.

Naturally, Oda Nobunaga had no way to fight Asakura. He could only fight with the Miyoshi Three repeatedly in Settsu, wasting precious time.

And the content of the imperial letter he sent in conjunction with Ashikaga Yoshiaki naturally changed from sending 15,000 troops to conquer Asakura to selecting 2,000 strong hatamoto regulars to go to the Imperial Palace, and the guards of the public were killed and wounded. There was no palace in the city, and there was no sufficient troops.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki attached a private letter, asking the Yamauchi family to support him with 1,000 kan, as he had no money to spend for the time being. Of course, it would be great if the Yamauchi family was willing to give more.

There was no need to send a large army, just send 2,000 people to Kyoto for vigilance, and contribute another 1,000 kan to the expenses of the public.

This is a great surprise for the Yamanouchi family, who don't need much money for the time being, but don't have enough mobile troops. Although everyone was still worried when they heard that Ashikaga Yoshiaki was attacked, but now he can come to the Yamanouchi family to ask for money, which proves that it's not a big deal!

After a discussion, it was decided that Uncle Tsunari's father should go out himself and bring 2,000 hatamoto. Ashikaga Yoshiaki asked for 1,000, so he should give him 2,000, so as not to make the Yamanouchi family look stingy.