Soon after, the group of people hid in a cave in Ibe Mountain with the Asai family samurai, and finally learned the whole story of the chaos in Kotani Castle from the Asai family samurai.
The talented and strategic governor of the Asai family, Ryomasa Asai, fought all his life and finally established the Asai family's territory in Kitaomi. What has always worried him is that as the eldest son, the heir Asai Hisamasa has a dark personality and does not have the style of the samurai family. Therefore, Asai Meimasa selected a proud young man from the common people of the Asai family, betrothed his beloved daughter Tsuruchiyo to him, adopted her as a son-in-law, and named her Asai Meimasa.
However, Asai Ryomasa's attempt to establish a common clan aroused opposition from the Asai family's retainers. The Asai family's senior ministers, headed by Kaiboku Tsunauchi, Akao Kiyosada, and Amamori Kiyosada, jointly opposed the lord's action. Asai Akimasa had no choice but to take back his life. Before his death, he was passed down to his eldest son Asai Hisamasa, and he took back his identity as Asai Akimasa's heir and changed the Miao name to Tagaya Akimasa.
Naturally, Tianya Meimasa and his supporters were extremely dissatisfied with this, and secretly began to collude with the Saito family. And Asai Hisamasa's cowardice was also fully exposed after he succeeded to the throne. He did not like political affairs and did not participate in military affairs. He was indifferent to the provocations that the Rokkaku family continued to launch on the border after Asai came to power. He sat back and watched the wealthy families under the Asai family fall to the Rokkaku family one after another, which aroused widespread dissatisfaction among retainers. There is an undercurrent surging in the Asai family.
After the Asakura and Oda families suddenly formed an alliance and jointly invaded Mino, the Saito family, unable to cope with the enemies coming from both sides, instigated Taya Akimasa to rebel. I hope he will seize the position of governor of the Asai family, break the alliance with the Asakura family, and cut off the retreat of the Asakura family's army. Tianya Meimasa then united with the opposition to rise up and attack Otani Castle. The weakened Asai Hisamasa failed to notice in advance and was caught off guard. He escaped from Otani Castle under the desperate protection of his retainers.
At this moment, those escorting Asai Hisamasa to the mountains behind Kotani Castle were Akao Kiyosuna, Amamori Kiyosada and more than twenty flags. Akao Kiyozuna recognized Imagawa Yoshimoto and others because he had met them before. A group of people from the Imagawa family and the Takeda family were watching the situation down the mountain on the hillside, planning how to arrange the route - on the other side, the retainers of the Asai family were arguing.
"Lord, cheer up, how long has it been? Why do you still act like it has nothing to do with you?" Kiyosada Yumori knelt down on one knee sadly, spread her hands and kept admonishing Asai Hisamasa in front of her, "We must quickly find a way to contact His Highness Haibei in Sickle City. There are many troops stationed in Sickle City, and His Highness Haibei is also loyal to you!"
"Just go and make arrangements for Akao-dono." Asai Hisamasa, who was sitting on a bluestone in the middle, responded casually and depressedly. He was a little thin, and the warrior uniform he wore was also dim and light gray. There was no trace of heroism in his brows, but rather a lifeless look.
"Lord, this matter requires your personal letter." Akao Kiyosuna on the side took a step forward, "The situation is now chaotic, Otani Castle has been controlled by Tianya Meimasa's people, and I will definitely write the letter in the name of the lord and the lower class. Sickle Blade City, to deceive His Highness Haibei's trust. His Highness Haibei has always been mature and prudent, and will not send troops easily without seeing conclusive evidence."
"Isn't it enough to just have my seal?" Asai Hisamasa took out his big seal from his arms and stuffed it towards Akao Kiyosuna, but Akao Kiyosuna didn't take it. Instead, he sighed and persuaded her sincerely. Advice:
"My lord, it's because you always look so depressed that this happened. Back then, when the lord's order was passed to you, most of the family agreed, and the little ones disappeared. But you neglected the affairs of the Wu family and ignored political affairs every day. You are not engaged in military affairs, and you rarely even attend the appraisal meeting. You have alienated important members of the family, which has caused the family to become alienated and lose confidence in you. This has given Tanaya Akimasa the opportunity to interfere and alienate you. At the moment, if you want to restore the decline of the Asai family, it is not Suppressing the mutiny is enough. You also need to be able to make a splash, sweep away the gloomy atmosphere of the past, and be as shrewd and capable as the old master, in order to win over the hearts of the family. How can you sit back and wait for our retainers to act for you? You are needed right now. Go show your leadership!"
"Why do you have to force me to do something I don't want to do?" Asai Hisamasa also let out a long sigh, lowered his head and did not dare to face the eyes of Amemori Kiyosada and Akao Kiyosuna, "My brother-in-law wants to Let him be the governor. I never said I wanted the position of governor. Why don’t you insist on forcing my late father to appoint me? I am just an ordinary person with no energy and no use. It is impossible to expect me to change. If you want a shrewd and capable lord, go and join Tagaya Akimasa, he is much stronger than me."
"Hey!" Yumori Kiyosada was so angry at Asai Hisamasa's words that he hammered the dirt with his hand, "My lord, this is your responsibility! You are the eldest son of the Wu family, so this is your You have to fulfill your obligations! How can you just shirk your obligations to others so wantonly?"
Asai Hisamasa remained silent and looked away.
However, Akao Kiyosuna did not give up yet, and continued to educate him earnestly: "My lord, haven't you taught me enough lessons this time? You were born in a samurai family in troubled times. This is destined to happen, and you can't escape it. There are some things you don't want to face. Yes, things will come to you on their own! You don’t hold the power in your own hands. When others do, they will get rid of you! It’s just because you are the eldest son of the First Lord, and you are guilty of harboring a treasure! Even if you don’t hold the power in your own hands, others will turn around and get rid of you! Either for the foundation of the Asai family or for your own survival, you have to muster up your energy! Fight! If you don’t fight, you will die!"
"It's meaningless." Asai Hisamasa just shook his head, "No matter how powerful a family is, it will eventually decline one day. No matter how high it stands in its heyday, it will fall miserably when the country is destroyed. This is hundreds of millions of people in the world. How can I, an ordinary person, change the pattern of the year? I don’t want to be involved in it. I just want to stay anonymous and find a place to live in seclusion for the rest of my life. I have no interest in the fighting and killing of the Wu family. "
"Hey!" Yumori Kiyosada spat in great disappointment, stood up and turned around to leave, followed by Akao Kiyosuna beside him. Soon after, I could faintly hear the sound of people slashing bamboo with knives in the bamboo forest on the side, and a few angry scoldings:
"The First Lord is so heroic, how could he give birth to such a useless person? He was bullied in the face, let alone fighting back, and he didn't even know how to get angry? Is there really a man like this?"
Just as Amemori Kiyosada scolded him, even if he was so insulted by his retainers, Asai Hisamasa, who could hear clearly from the sidelines, remained unmoved and showed no signs of anger. He just sat on the stone dejectedly, without a single thought. Rubbing his hair. The Hatamotos next to him were all furious at first because of Ameori Kiyosada's rudeness, but when they saw that their lord still had no temper, they all became discouraged - this is probably what the Asai family calls "home." Be disloyal and disillusioned with your family governor."
·
"Did you see Goro? This is what your bullshit attitude towards life should have been like in the samurai family in troubled times." Haruki Takeda, who was watching the show on the side, bumped the folding fan around Yoshimoto Imagawa's waist with his elbow, "If you don't want to make progress, You have no ambition, do not care about government affairs, do not behave in the army, and alienate important ministers. You should have ended up like this. You were driven out of the city by the disappointed retainers, and you lived in a miserable state like a bereft dog."
"Do you know why you didn't encounter all this?" Takeda Harunobu saw that Imagawa Yoshimoto didn't answer, so he said to himself: "First, because you were lucky, Goro, and met Master Yukisai, a good assistant who is rare in the world. Back then, There was civil strife in your Imagawa family, and we all thought that you, Yue Chengfang, were already dead, but unexpectedly, you were tricked into death by Master Xuezhai, and instead supported you to replace your wise and martial brother."
"The second reason is that your own talents are so dazzling. Even if you have no motivation to use your talents at all, your suppressed talents are still far beyond ordinary people. This prevents people from being too disappointed in you. If you are a An ordinary person as mediocre as His Highness Asai, with such a careless attitude, would have been killed long ago. But don’t you know it’s a pity? I feel pity for you. Such a good talent, such a good foundation of the Imagawa family , I should have given you an opportunity to show off your talents and make achievements, but you wasted it yourself."
"I really can't help it... I'm embarrassed by what you said." Imagawa Yoshimoto showed a bitter smile, took out his folding fan and tapped his palm lightly, looking at the silent Asai Hisamasa not far away—— It's like looking at your mediocre self in another world in the mirror.
Yes, I should have been in the same situation as him - I just got lucky.
So Imagawa Yoshimoto turned a corner and came to Taiyuan Xuezai who was looking at the terrain on the hillside. He pulled him to a deserted place in a roundabout way. He said with some shame: "Teacher, why are the retainers of the Asai family so disappointed with His Highness Asai?" ah?"
"Didn't you hear how those two adults scolded you? Didn't you think about it?" Taiyuan Xuezhai replied without thinking.
"Um..." Imagawa Yoshimoto was slightly embarrassed by what he said. After thinking about his wording for a moment, he decided to ask tentatively: "Then what he and I did are similar, why didn't I see the retainers at home talking to each other?" Am I disappointed?"
"Huh? Our Chengfang is finally stimulated enough to ask such questions?" Taiyuan Xuezhai burst out laughing when he heard this, "You know, this is a rare 'human talk' in the six or seven years since you have been the governor! "
"So why?" Imagawa Yoshimoto blushed as he was ridiculed by Taiyuan Xuezhai.
"The number of evaluation meetings you have held in the past seven years can be counted on one hand." Taiyuan Xuezhai actually raised one of his hands and started counting with his fingers. Is it 3 or 3? 4 hesitated for a while, and finally reluctantly broke off his ring finger, "You can't even see the faces of your retainers, how do you know if they hate you? Are they disappointed in you? In addition to meeting your master and your father-in-law, you usually There are also a few Hatamoto in the castle tower, aren’t they spending the rest of the time having sex with their wives and children?”
"When I led the army in Azozaka before, I felt that the soldiers were still..." Imagawa Yoshimoto recalled his experience of fighting alone to cut off the retreat of his subordinates when he led the army in Mikawa, and recalled the scene where the soldiers lined up to cheer him. , "Ah, it's really hard to boast, but anyway, you don't have a bad impression of me."
"Soldiers and samurai are different. Soldiers at the bottom have little knowledge and think little. As long as you lead the way, love the soldiers like a son, and have some personal charm, they will love and respect you." Taiyuan Xuezhai shook his head and spoke. He turned around and said: "But the warriors are different. The high-level warriors have all gone through the ups and downs of the officialdom. Although there are some pure people among them who are inspired by morality, most of them keep ledgers in their hearts and calculate their own accounts. Can you be satisfied? If you can bring benefits to their interests, they will support you. Otherwise, they will naturally be disappointed in you."
"Then have I satisfied their interests?" Imagawa Yoshimoto asked uneasily.
"Have you done anything in the past six or seven years? Do you think you have been satisfied? You have not even met or talked to your retainers. Do you think you have satisfied their interests? You have not even met their interests. You don’t know anything about your interests and demands, right?” Taiyuan Xuezhai retorted with a smile.
"Then will they rebel like the retainers of the Asai family?" Imagawa Yoshimoto was startled by the world in Taiyuan Xuezhai's mouth, and frowned with some worry.
"Don't worry, I will not be able to change the world if you are suppressed by your master." Taiyuan Xuezhai laughed confidently and patted Imagawa Yoshimoto hard on the back, "Since you have entrusted all the state affairs to your master, Well, as a teacher, I will naturally not let you down, right? Let An Xin be your idle superintendent."
