After returning from fasting, Takeda Harunobu attacked the Hojo family before Imagawa Yoshimoto could speak:
"Your Highness Hojo, since you can't reach an agreement with the Imagawa family, why not come and talk to the Takeda family first?"
The Takeda family's timing was indeed very insightful. After a whole morning of see-sawing, the negotiators of the Hojo family and the Imagawa family were a little tired, but only the Takeda family maintained full energy and condition; secondly, the Hojo family, who was eager to reach an agreement, saw that it was difficult to reach an agreement with the Imagawa family, and they would definitely hope A breakthrough was achieved in the secondary negotiations with the Takeda family to promote the progress of the main negotiation with the Imagawa family; therefore, the Hojo family would inevitably soften its position and make concessions to the Takeda family in the peace negotiations.
"10,000 koku of grain and grass." Hojo Ujiyasu repeated the conditions just now, but Takeda Harunobu had no intention of talking to him.
"Twenty thousand stones of food and grass." Hojo Ujiyasu raised two fingers.
"Too little." Takeda Harunobu flatly refused.
"Twenty-five thousand koku." Hojo Ujiyasu added a little more.
"It's still too little." Takeda Harunobu refused again.
"40,000 koku." After Hojo Ujiyasu said these words, he pushed the tea cup forward on the table and placed it on the edge of the table. "Whether you want love or not, that's all. The Hojo family's annual tax revenue is only 200,000 koku." Shi, how much more do you want?"
"60,000 stones."
Takeda Harunobu calmly spit out a number, but the look on his face seemed to be a sure win.
Hojo Ujiyasu's heart skipped a beat - the number reported by Takeda Harunobu happened to be the bottom line of the Hojo family's negotiation. While trying his best to control his facial features and prevent his expression from showing off, he cursed: "60,000 koku? Why don't you just go to Odawara Castle to grab it? Give you one-third of the year's income? Hojo?" Can we still pay our salaries, and can we still fight the war?"
"60,000 stones."
"It's impossible. The Hojo family can't afford it, and it's impossible for my father to agree!"
"60,000 stones."
"Go and look for it yourself in the warehouse of Odawara Castle? After emptying the warehouse, can you find enough food for 60,000 koku?"
"60,000 koku." However, Takeda Harunobu seemed to be unable to get in. No matter what Hojo Ujiyasu said, he just repeated the number just now.
Now Hojo Ujiyasu was slightly panicked - could it be that his reaction just now revealed a flaw, and Takeda Harunobu guessed the bottom line of the Hojo family? Only then could he dare to bid so boldly without fear of breaking up the negotiations with the Hojo family.
"If His Highness Takeda is so stubborn, then there is no need to continue the conversation." Seeing Hojo Ujiyasu's confusion, Hojo Genan behind him slowly spoke, and instead turned his attention to Imagawa Yoshimoto, "Your Highness Imagawa, We don’t need to talk about it anymore. Let the two sides go back and prepare for the battle. It seems that this battle will never be a good one."
Imagawa Yoshimoto understood Hojo Genan's hint - Hojo Genan hoped that the Imagawa family, as a strong party in the alliance, would restrain their allies, the Takeda family, from taking drastic actions to avoid intensifying the situation and damaging the negotiations. From this standpoint, the Imagawa family and the Hojo family have the same interests, and neither wants the Takeda family to "open its mouth".
However, because the Imagawa and Takeda families are allies after all, it is inappropriate to directly rebuke them at the negotiation table. It will also give the Hojo family a feeling that "the Imagawa and Takeda families are not united" and tempt them to do so. The Hojo family is even tougher. At this time, the only option is to provide additional compensation to the ally in private in exchange for concessions from the ally in the negotiation.
"Torachiyo, can you take a step to speak?" Imagawa Yoshimoto then gestured to Takeda Harunobu, who then stood up knowingly and followed Imagawa Yoshimoto out of the house and came to a pavilion.
"To be honest, our Imagawa family seized a large amount of the Hojo family's baggage on the official road west of the Fuji River. If Tora Chiyo doesn't mind, it can be used as military expenses for the Takeda family to support the Imagawa family this time..." Imagawa Yoshimoto said after considering it. , Takeda Harunobu was already laughing.
"Stop being so coy, Goro, be calm." Takeda Harunobu patted Imagawa Yoshimoto on the shoulder and put his head in front of his face, "After all, how much difference are the Imagawa family willing to pay to the Takeda family?"
"10,000 koku." Imagawa Yoshimoto reported a number, "The supply of sea salt will definitely be sufficient in the future."
"Okay." Takeda Harunobu readily agreed, "Deal."
·
After returning to the reception room, Takeda Harunobu did not sit down, but stood directly beside the table, raised a palm and said to Hojo Ujiyasu, "50,000 koku, not a grain of rice should be missing."
"Okay." Hojo Ujiyasu didn't push the envelope anymore this time, he just snorted coldly, "Just don't overeat."
"A warrior should have an endless appetite." Takeda Harunobu patted his belly and laughed, then sat back on the desk - the remaining negotiations had little to do with the Takeda family, they just wanted to do everything possible Just delay the negotiation process - let Takeda Nobutora's main force grab one more day in Sagami.
"Then let's get back to the topic." Hojo Ujiyasu retracted his gaze, straightened his sitting posture, and looked at Imagawa Yoshimoto, "Kado, it's impossible to pay you back. If you want other compensation, it's okay."
"Hedong must be returned to the Imagawa family." Imagawa Yoshimoto immediately insisted with unprecedented firmness, "Hedong has been the territory of the Imagawa family for more than 200 years. Since losing it last year, every samurai in our Imagawa family has given it to us. We regard it as a great shame and humiliation, and we are determined to regain the lost ground. Now we are using weapons and weapons to fight back to Hedong, and you ask me to go back empty-handed? This is impossible."
"Two hundred years ago, the Kamakura shogunate belonged to the Kamakura shogunate. What about now? The Hojo clan, with its Miao character, was still in power more than 200 years ago as the shogunate with all the power in the world. Now, not even the descendants can be found. We also stole the Miao character. The Xingoku Temple in Kadong turned out to be the place where our Hojo family prospered, can't we just think about it?" Hojo Ujiyasu grinned and shook his head sarcastically, "It's useless to talk about this. In troubled times, we only look at the current situation. "
"Then do you think the strength of the Hojo family is now comparable to that of our Imagawa Takeda family together?" Imagawa Yoshimoto asked coldly.
"If I hadn't been in a hurry to go back, do you think you could have suppressed my 9,000 people with these 7,000 people?" Hojo Ujiyasu asked in turn.
"But you really want to go back in a hurry, don't you? We also have the strength to prevent you from going back in time." Imagawa Yoshimoto followed Hojo Ujiyasu's words and retorted.
"So what if I don't go back? The worst I can do is have a bloody battle with the Imagawa family here. Takeda Nobutora can snatch Odawara Castle away, and your Imagawa family won't even get a penny of advantage!" Hojo Ujiyasu seemed to be scolding. , pointed angrily at Imagawa Yoshimoto and shouted.
"Hey, Your Highness Hojo, it's pointless to say this." Taiyuan Xuezhai smoothed things over with a smile, "The reason why we are negotiating is that we don't want to fight, right? You yourself know well that the current situation, Hojo It’s not enough if we don’t cut off a piece of meat, so why bother to show off? Now you are just trying to show off your words. When you return to Odawara Castle in the future, your father and the retainers will blame you, but what should we do?"
"Then I'll return the western half of Kadong and the entire Fuji County to you." Hojo Ujiyasu picked up the teacup and then slapped it hard on the table, "This is the bottom line of our Hojo family. That's it. That's it, don't think about anything more."
Imagawa Yoshimoto's mood at this moment was exactly the same as when Hojo Ujiyasu was guessed by Takeda Harunobu just now - the Imagawa family's territorial bottom line was also pointed out by the Hojo family at this moment.
"No, Fuji County, Jundong County, and the entire river east must be returned together." Imagawa Yoshimoto insisted on his request and refused to let it go, but his tone was slightly weaker unconsciously. Because in his communication with Taiyuan Xuezhai before the negotiation, Taiyuan Xuezhai had already deduced that the Hojo family would definitely not return the entire Hedong.
Sure enough, Hojo Genan saw Imagawa Yoshimoto's flaw in a moment. Before Hojo Ujiyasu spoke, Hojo Genan came out first to set the tone for the matter, "Your Majesty Imagawa, there really can't be any more. To be honest, before we came to negotiate this time, His Majesty the Family Governor had already given instructions. It would be best if we just Return half of Fuji County that the Imagawa Army has occupied. If that doesn't work, then return the entire Fuji County. This is already the bottom line of the Hojo family."
"We are asked to return Jundong County together. It is really difficult to obey the order. Even if we agree, His Highness the Governor will not agree, and there will be no way to honor it after we return. We don't want to deceive His Highness Imakawa, so we are here. We will argue with reason. If we were not sincere, we would have agreed now. But this is really impossible."
Hojo Genan's sincere words made Imagawa Yoshimoto's determination waver again. His intuition told him that Hojo Genan was not lying. This was really the bottom line of the Hojo family.
However, as a negotiator, even a momentary fluctuation in expression will be seen by the opponent. At this moment, Imagawa Yoshimoto's brief speechlessness and silence have undoubtedly revealed the details of the Imagawa family - their bottom line is only to return to Fuji County, not the entire Hedong. Seeing this signal, Hojo Ujiyasu's confidence greatly increased, and he drank the tea in one gulp, and then smiled and said: "That's it, that's almost it. You all just wanted to go back to Fuji County, right?"
Afterwards, Hojo Ujiyasu put down his tea cup and looked at Imagawa Yoshimoto with great interest. He laughed secretly in his heart: In the end, the fledgling in this diplomatic situation did not collapse after all. In terms of mentality and perseverance, he was not as good as Hojo Ujiyasu and Hojo Genan. Proven negotiator.
However, Imagawa Yoshimoto suddenly smiled.
·
"What's wrong, Your Highness, the samurai of the Imagawa family are rushing to enter Zentoku Temple!"
Suddenly, there was a loud noise outside the house, and several soldiers from the Hojo family who stayed outside the temple on guard shouted loudly.
"What are you doing?" Hojo Ujiyasu was shocked. He subconsciously raised his hand to touch his waist, only to find that he had taken off his katana before entering the temple.
However, unlike what Hojo Ujiyasu imagined, those who broke in were not the ambush soldiers of the Imagawa family, but a series of important family officials headed by Okabe Matsuna - they were all dressed in civilian clothes and did not carry weapons. The few Hojo soldiers following them and the monks in the courtyard looked at each other and explained helplessly: "Your Highnesses must come in, and we can't stop them! Seeing that they didn't bring weapons, we let them in."
"What are you doing?" Imagawa Yoshimoto saw the Imagawa family's samurai barging in, and immediately shouted loudly, "Didn't you order everyone to wait at the bottom of the mountain and not go up the mountain to interfere with the negotiations?"
