Japan's fourth year of Qing'an, the sixth day of June.
I don’t know what a good day this day is. Anyway, the boss of Yonezawa Uesugi, Uesugi Tsunakatsu, issued an order to the 6,000 poor feudal lords of Yonezawa Domain to gather at Yonezawa Castle on June 6th five days ago. He also said that there were Important announcement!
A month before the assembly order was announced, rumors spread within the Yonezawa domain that made all the domain members feel heartbroken - their domain lord Uesugi Tsusakatsu had contracted an incurable disease. The doctor diagnosed that Tsuna Sheng only had three years left to live.
Since Yonezawa Uesugi has always had a small population, there was only one sapling left in Tsusakatsu Uesugi's generation, and many of them didn't even have children... They probably wouldn't be able to give birth!
According to the rules of the Tokugawa shogunate, if a feudal lord has no brothers or nephews to ascend the throne, his domain will be removed after his death, and the territory will be returned to the shogunate, and the feudal lords will also lose their family income and jobs. If the feudal lord wanted to adopt an adopted son before his death to continue the family name and allow the feudal clan to continue to exist, it would be extremely difficult to obtain the approval of the shogunate... Even the 550,000 stone family fortune of the former God of War Hideaki Kobayakawa would not be able to survive. Xiuqiu was cut off because he had no heirs. Isn’t it just a dream to continue the family business passed down by Uesugi Keikatsu without having any heirs?
Therefore, after hearing that Uesugi Tsusakatsu had an incurable disease, the Yonezawa feudal lords felt that a disaster was imminent.
Although Yonezawa is known as the poorest feudal clan in Japan, no matter how poor it is, it is still a feudal clan, and it is also the only support for Yonezawa's 6,000 samurai family. If the Yonezawa clan is withdrawn, the men of the 6,000 Yonezawa samurai families will all become rogues!
The Yonezawa clan has always been poor, so the families of the Yonezawa clan members do not have much savings. Once they become a wanderer, they will not even have a buffer time to eat old rice. They will directly face the multiple choice of starving to death or crossing the sea to join the Emperor of Kobuin... ..
Because of this rumor, on the sixth day of June, there was already a sea of people outside the small Yonezawa Castle. More than 10,000 warriors came from all over the Yonezawa Basin and surrounded Yonezawa Castle. . The anxious faces all looked towards the shabby-looking main city of the First Poor Domain.
While everyone was watching, a huge flag with black characters on a white background was suddenly erected above the castle tower of Yonezawa Castle.
"Look, Duke Qianxin's Bizi flag!"
Someone immediately recognized this battle flag belonging to Uesugi Kenshin, the Dragon of Echigo!
"Oh my god, aren't you dreaming? The Bizi flag actually appeared..."
"My lord actually raised the flag of Duke Qianxin...are you going to work hard?"
"It must be so. My lord, we don't have much time left, and we can't bear to watch the Uesugi family lose their name, so we must work hard!"
"Great, now the Uesugi family is saved..."
"But the Tokugawa shogunate is still very powerful! Has the time for its fall really come?"
"What are you talking about? Do you still have to wait for the opportunity before the Uesugi family's samurai fall?"
"Yes, if we wait any longer, my lord will no longer be alive, and the Yonezawa clan will be gone by then, what else will happen?"
If the Yonezawa clan is gone, there will be no curtain to fall, and we can only be unlucky!
"Lord! Look, the lord is riding out of the city on a war horse..."
At this moment, Uesugi Tsunakatsu had already left Yonezawa Castle surrounded by a group of Guards samurai and began to march along the moat of Yonezawa Castle.
"In front of my lord, there is Zhu Bing's white umbrella, and behind him there are Luanlong flag and Bizi flag... My lord is really going to fall!"
Zhu Byeong White Umbrella is the so-called white umbrella bag, which was a symbol of the protection of a country during the Muromachi Shogunate period. Although the Uesugi family is the head of the country, no kingdom is under the control of the Uesugi family. Moreover, the Uesugi family is not the most powerful feudal lord in Dewa Kingdom. Masayuki Hoshina, who owns a territory of 430,000 koku, is the most powerful feudal lord in Dewa Kingdom.
If there is anyone in Dewa who can be called a guardian, it is only Masayuki Hoshina!
Moreover, the Yonezawa feudal lords all know that the Uesugi family’s white umbrella bag symbolizes not the protection of Dewa Kingdom at all, but the protection of Echigo Kingdom!
And now the Uesugi family doesn't even have an inch of Echigo territory. If they want to become the guardian of Echigo... they have no choice but to rebel!
Finally rebelling!
The feudal lords of the first poor clan outside Yonezawa City were so excited!
The samurai group in the Edo period has always had the characteristic that the higher the status, the more timid the people are, and the lower the status, the more courageous the people.
The shogun at the top was the first generation Ieyasu, who was brave and ferocious. The second generation Hidetada was not so good. The third generation Iemitsu started to be a bit timid. After Iemitsu, he became the public minister who lived in Ooku... In history At the end of the Tokugawa period, there was still a plan to combine public and military affairs. In fact, the big shots of the Tokugawa family had already been public ministers.
And the feudal lords under the general were not much stronger. Those who dared to confront the shogunate were just coerced by the poor feudal warriors below.
Now Uesugi Tsusakatsu actually found the ancestral Bizi flag, Ranryu flag, white umbrella belt and felt saddle cover (which are signs of rebellion) without any coercion from his subordinates. This can only explain one problem. ..... He is really terminally ill and has at most two or three years to live. If he doesn't do something while he can still move, the Uesugi family will be cut off from his hands.
...
"The Emperor is onboard! Onboard!"
On a hillside outside Yonezawa City, the Yonezawa warriors standing on top of each other gave the highest cheers. Standing at the highest point of the hillside, the new Echigo guardian, Gon Dai said to Uesugi Tsunakatsu, finally showed a satisfied smile - just now, Emperor Kobuin's special envoy, attendant Kusunoki Masakizaka, read out the emperor's proclamation.
In this court announcement, Emperor Kobu-in first informed Tokugawa Iemitsu of his death, leaving the Edo shogunate without a master. Then he ordered Uesugi Tsunakatsu to raise troops in Yonezawa and overthrow the emperor, and appointed Uesugi Tsunakatsu as the guardian of Echigo (the guardian is actually a shogunate official, and should not be appointed by the court, but the Kobuin does not care about this, let’s talk about the appointment), Quan Great words.
After Masaki Kusunoki finished reading the proclamation, the Yonezawa warriors immediately shouted fanatically.
Uesugi Tsunakatsu looked at the sea of people below, and his heart that had been hanging around finally relaxed - it seems that the retainers of the Uesugi family are as shameless as Takeda Shinji!
He raised his fist high on his head, and then pointed sharply to the northwest: "Gentlemen, 120 miles ahead is the territory of the Echigo Murakami Domain! 400 miles away is Kasugayama Castle! Echigo samurai, follow me back Home!"
...
"Aizu Daigan, the Uesugi family is so despicable. They have absolutely no faith. They actually launched a surprise attack on our Murakami Domain without declaring war. And Shimono just moved to the Murakami Domain not long ago and is not familiar with the situation yet, so... ..."
In Takada Castle, the main city of the Echigo Takada Domain, Masayuki Hoshina, who is respectfully known as Aizu Dainagon, is listening to the complaints of Matsudaira Naomi, the lord of the Murakami Domain who is best at moving.
This Matsudaira Naoki is the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu's eldest son Yuki Hideyasu, and his father is Hideyasu's fifth son Matsudaira Naoki. In the original history, Naoki and Naoki were the feudal lords who knew best about moving in Japan. The father and son moved a total of 11 times! This is not just a move of ordinary people, but a move of a feudal clan!
Because their family is a reliable vassal, and at the same time it is a strong vassal that cannot be easily controlled (such as the Gosan family or the clan of Ieyasu and others), but it is just a branch of the Echizen clan. Give tens of thousands of koku to make it an independent feudal clan. This is already a great kindness. Of course, the shogunate can send them everywhere and let them go wherever they are needed.
But there is a problem. The cost of moving the feudal clan is very high. Will the shogunate reimburse it in full? If all the samurai in the clan move together, the Matsudaira family will not have that much money. Therefore, every time the feudal clan was moved, Matsudaira Naoki and Matsudaira Naomi would let some samurai stay in the same place to work on farming, and then invite them back after the settlement was completed and the finances were a little better. This will cause the Matsudaira family to be particularly weak in the early stages of a feudal transfer. When Uesugi Tsusakatsu launched his attack, the Matsudaira family had just completed their fifth move... Not only were there very few samurai subordinates, but they had just moved from Himeji Country, and no one in the feudal lord was familiar with Murakami. The terrain of the domain is such that you can get lost outside the city. How can you fight the Uesugi family who was born in Echigo?
