In the early morning of October 18th, the sixth year of Tenmon (1537), Zentokuji Temple in Fuji County, Suruga Province.
Both Imagawa Yoshimoto and Taiyuan Xuezhai were filled with emotions when they revisited their old places. It was thought that after the fall of Hedong, they would have no chance to come back for a long time. However, the Hojo family didn't care about Zentoku Temple and did not send troops to occupy it. The monks in the temple still lived a peaceful life. The original living rooms of Imagawa Yoshimoto and Taiyuan Xuezhai were also kept tidy.
Not much time to wait. Takeda Harunobu arrived with Takeda Hironobu. According to the agreement, only two of the three families of Jia Xiangjun went up the mountain without weapons, and the warriors waited at the foot of the mountain. Imagawa Yoshimoto also personally came to greet him at the temple gate and bumped fists with Takeda Harunobu.
"Torachiyo, I won't be merciful later." Imagawa Yoshimoto reminded him with a smile.
"Exciting! Goro, I've been waiting for your words." Takeda Harunobu also smiled boldly, patted his chest and said, "I've wanted to compete with you for a long time. Don't lose your pants later!"
"Master Hongxin." "Master Xuezhai."
The two diplomatic monks were old acquaintances, and they performed Buddhist salutes to each other, all within the context of pleasantries.
However, the four of them waited in the reception room for a long time, but Hojo Ujiyasu didn't see anyone coming. It stands to reason that the Hojo family is the one who is most anxious to negotiate peace. After all, he wants to withdraw his troops and go back to rescue Odawara Castle. Why is he not the first to come and still being late?
Is there any plot behind it?
I waited and waited, but Hojo Uyasu still didn't come. Imagawa Yoshimoto was going through the prepared speech over and over in his mind, but seeing that he never had a chance to speak, he actually became a little impatient, and his nervousness made him unable to calm down.
"Be calm and don't be impatient." Taiyuan Xuezhai noticed something strange about Imagawa Yoshimoto and muttered softly behind him, "Being late for the meeting is a great tool to kill the other party's energy and mentality. You have to calm down."
"Yes." Imagawa Yoshimoto took a deep breath and tried to adjust his breathing.
At this moment, a cursing voice came from the door of the temple.
"Uncle, there is nothing to talk about! Just talk and beat them and that's it! We have 9,000 people beating 7,000 of them. What's there to be afraid of? Why did you have to drag me here?"
Even far away, you could hear Hojo Ujiyasu's loud complaints and Hojo Genan's comforting voice.
Doesn't he want to talk about it at all? No wonder you're late.
Imagawa Yoshimoto began to beat a drum in his heart.
With a "pop" sound, the paper door was opened, and Hojo Ujiyasu strode towards his seat with a murderous look on his face. After sitting down, he didn't say any courtesy. He put one foot on the table and drank a cup of tea by himself. Hojo Genan stumbled over behind him, saluting constantly and apologizing to the people on both sides.
"Just do it, who can't?" Takeda Harunobu was very dissatisfied with Hojo Ujiyasu's attitude. He directly put both feet on the table and leaned back as if on a recliner. At the same time, he said to Imagawa Yoshimoto He pursed his lips and said, "Wu Lang, let's go together?"
"I'm not very good at this..." Imagawa Yoshimoto explained with a grimace. He had been educated and educated since he was a child, and he was indeed more elegant, so he couldn't do this. But what made him even more unhappy was that - the soles of Hojo Ujiyasu and Takeda Harunobu's shoes were obviously very dirty. They were left on the clean table like this, with dust and dirt falling half of the table - which made Imagawa Yoshimoto's mysophobia suddenly return. Guilty.
"Then let's talk, hurry up!" Hojo Ujiyasu shouted, pointed at the ceiling and said in a deep voice, "You two, just go home and have dinner, don't stop me, or you won't be blamed. The Hojo family is ruthless!”
"Is this the condition of the Hojo family?" Takeda Harunobu raised his eyebrows and looked at Hojo Ujiyasu with a sneer.
"If you don't accept it, beat me. There are more of us than you, so why are you afraid of you? Are you too brave?" Hojo Ujiyasu slammed the table, turned around, pointed at Imagawa Yoshimoto's nose, and cursed, " Didn’t you appreciate my power enough last time? Do you want to do it again? Kill thousands more people to show you? I’ll give you Suruga thousands more orphans and widows?”
"Your Highness Hojo, since you are here to negotiate, you should be polite at least. We are not forcing you to come..." Imagawa Yoshimoto tried hard to maintain a calm tone and wanted to explain, but was interrupted by Hojo Ujiyasu with a wave of his hand:
"I don't want to come at all! All I want to do is fight my way back! What's there to talk about? It's the old man and other old guys at home -" Hojo Ujiyasu turned around and glared at Hojo Genan, " You insist on dragging me here to negotiate! What a nonsense! What I want now is to break up the negotiation quickly and go back to fight, do you understand?"
Imagawa Yoshimoto took a breath and was speechless for a moment.
Don't the Hojo family want to talk at all? Did Hojo Ujiyasu come here just to deal with the instructions of Hojo Uzuna and Hojo Genan?
Just when he wanted to turn back to Taiyuan Xuezhai for confirmation, he felt Taiyuan Xuezhai's eyes staring at his neck, which felt faintly hot.
Imagawa Yoshimoto recalled the knowledge that Taiyuan Xuezhai had taught him before, and after thinking about it for a while, he suddenly understood it.
At this time, there should be no chaos, no panic or confusion. Hojo Ujiyasu must be playing a double act with Hojo Genan. How could he not want to negotiate? If there was a bloody battle here, although the Kashou Allied Forces might not win, they would at least be able to hold off the Hojo family for a few days and make the Hojo family feel embarrassed. When such a tired army rushed back to Odawara Castle, the entire Odawara Castle Castle Town must have been robbed, right? Even if they rush back, can they defeat the powerful Takeda army?
Therefore, both emotionally and rationally, the Hojo family is the one who least wants to fight and the one who most wants to negotiate peace. But in diplomatic negotiations, whichever party is more eager to reach a peace agreement will be passive at the negotiating table and have to make many concessions. In order to avoid being caught in this weakness, the Hojo family pretended that they did not want to negotiate peace at all, in order to conceal their urgency to reach a peace agreement.
The Hojo family threatened to resort to force, hoping to force the Imagawa family and the Takeda family, who were at a disadvantage in terms of military strength, to proactively sue for peace, so that they could in turn take the initiative in negotiations back to themselves. Because the Takeda family has few troops, they are naturally not as confident as the Hojo family in resorting to force. Even if the Imagawa family fought a bloody battle with the Hojo family here and held back the Hojo army, they would not get anything. They would just get an advantage from Takeda Nobutora who led the troops to Odawara Castle - so the Imagawa family did not dare to resort to force.
Now it is time to call off the Hojo family's bluff and make them have to admit that they are the one who is eager to negotiate peace. The method is - show determination, show that the Imagawa family is determined to fight the Hojo family here and defeat them to the death, and they are not afraid of these threats from you at all. As long as the Imagawa family is not afraid of war, the Hojo family's threats will not be effective. At that time, the Hojo family will still have to sue for peace obediently and give up the initiative.
Imagawa Yoshimoto didn't say anything, just got up and walked out the door.
Taiyuan Xuezhai saw what his apprentice was thinking at a glance, and sang the double act in coordination: "Hey, Chengfang, where are you going?"
"Go prepare for war." Imagawa Yoshimoto turned around and responded, and at the same time greeted Takeda Harunobu, "Let's go, Tora Chiyo, since His Highness Hojo doesn't want to talk to us, there is nothing we can do. We will fight him here. Let's go, we are not all dead, and they can't even think about passing by. It's an advantage for your father, and he can make a fortune in Odawara Castle Town. But this is my betrothal gift to the Takeda family, and I can't let my father spend such a good fortune in vain. My daughter will marry me."
"Haha, it's refreshing, I couldn't ask for it!" Takeda Harunobu also laughed and stood up, while raising his eyebrows at Hojo Ujiyasu and said, "I never dared to think about it before, but it can actually turn into the best result for the Takeda family. Is there such a good thing in the world?"
Hojo Ujiyasu's expression remained unchanged. He seemed to feel that it was too cowardly to ask him to stay, so he said harshly, "Then go ahead and watch me chop off your heads and make tea for you!"
"Let's go." Imagawa Yoshimoto walked out of the door carefree, and Takeda Harunobu followed without hesitation. Seeing this, Taiyuan Yuksai and Takeda Hironobu also stood up and prepared to go out, saying goodbye to Hojo Genan.
"Wait a minute, you two!" Seeing that the negotiation was about to collapse, Hojo Genan finally lost his temper - this was the worst outcome that the Hojo family could never accept. He glared at his nephew, seemingly complaining that he sang too much in the oboe, and at the same time said to Taiyuan Xuezai and Takeda Hironobu, "It was our young master who made a mistake earlier! I will apologize to you two! The Hojo family is here Therefore, I naturally want to turn the conflict into friendship, so why increase casualties? Please ask the two masters to invite their young masters back!"
"Since it is entrusted by Master Huan'an, the poor monk will naturally obey?" Taiyuan Xuezhai and Takeda Hironobu walked out of the door with a smile, preparing to call Imagawa Yoshimoto and Takeda Harunobu back. Takeda Harunobu was indeed waiting in the corridor, as if he had expected that the Hojo family would leave to persuade him to stay, but Imagawa Yoshimoto had disappeared.
"That brat? You can't take it seriously, can you?" Taiyuan Xuezhai suddenly had black lines on his face. He was just about to praise Imagawa Yoshimoto for his good performance. He hurriedly chased him out. When he got to the door, he saw that there was no one on the way down the mountain.
"That's weird, what about that brat?"
Taiyuan Xue Zhai looked around and saw Imagawa Yoshimoto in the temple courtyard. The latter was dancing the Cuju leisurely, showing off his superb foot skills - he just went back to the room to get the Cuju.
"You brat! Come back!" A very angry Taiyuan Xuezhai ran to Imagawa Yoshimoto and pulled him back by his ears. "How can you actually seize the opportunity to be lazy at this moment? Why? Master is really impressed by you..."
"Then I can't really leave! I have to find something to kill the time. Who knew the Hojo family would give in so quickly." Imagawa Yoshimoto complained, and was honestly pulled back to the reception room by Taiyuan Xuezhai to negotiate. continue.
