"I only wonder about one thing now." Taiyuan Xuezhai took a few steps back, returned to the house, and asked Imagawa Yoshimoto and his subordinates: "I just finished questioning the elders of the Okuhira family. Three (Okuhira Yoshimasa), he said that someone suddenly attacked Nagashino Castle that night. They mistakenly thought that our Imagawa family was going to seize the city at night. Under the misunderstanding, they took the risk and decided to rebel. Later, after discovering that they had made a mistake, they once sent an envoy to Surrendering, only to find that the hostages had been executed, there was only one way to go. So what happened to the attack on Nagashino Castle that became the trigger for a series of rebellions? Who attacked the Okudaira family?"
"I've already checked, but there are currently no clues. The attackers have all withdrawn without leaving any traces. They look very professional." Ohara Jinmi reported immediately.
"Continue to investigate and see if any of the opposition forces are causing trouble again, or if it is directed and acted by the Okuhira family." Taiyuan Xue Zhai sat down in front of the desk, and then knocked hard with his knuckles and said: "And this Behind the attack, there must be a trace of his wife's involvement. How did he know that Chengfang would go to Nagashino Castle that day? This was Chengfang's temporary change of itinerary. You don't even know, Obara, how many others can you know? Someone close to me must have leaked the secret, and we must get to the bottom of it!”
Taiyuan Xuezai's words suddenly cooled down the air in the room - this meant that there might be a nanny among Imagawa Yoshimoto's closest confidants. Even if he is not an absolute confidant of Imagawa Yoshimoto, he is still a member of the bodyguards and ninjas. If there is a concubine in such a sensitive position, it means that the family's information will be continuously leaked.
It can even be said that the few people in the house now may not be reliable. The three people who may know the relevant information, Obara Jinmi, Amano Keitoku and Tsuchi Atomsuke, all looked solemn at this moment and fell into silence.
"Could it be the Takeda family?" Hayasaka Nao, the only one who had no scruples because he was not present, put forward a guess, "The Takeda family's envoy traveled with His Highness and knew his whereabouts. Nagashino Castle is close to Shinano. It is also within the scope of activities of the Takeda family ninjas.”
"How is that possible?" Imagawa Yoshimoto heard this but retorted without even thinking, "The Takeda family is our ally."
"Can't allies betray you? The Hojo family were also our allies before." Taiyuan Xuezai seemed to be amused by Imagawa Yoshimoto's words.
"But if the Takeda family wanted to attack me, there were so many opportunities in the wilderness along the way. How could they have to wait until I entered the city before attacking? Why bother?" Imagawa Yoshimoto recalled their experiences along the way and shook his head. He shook his head and said, "Furthermore, His Highness Takeda was injured while protecting me, and almost everyone was killed. A person with his kind of character would definitely not do such a thing to put himself in danger."
Of course, there is another reason, in fact, this is the main reason - that is, Imagawa Yoshimoto does not believe that his friend Takeda Harunobu will betray him - of course, he cannot say this reason in front of Taiyuan Xuezhai, otherwise Taiyuan will inevitably Xue Zhai's ridicule.
"Indeed..." However, Taiyuan Xuezhai was convinced by Imagawa Yoshimoto's words. After thinking about it, he said: "In any case, the rebellion of the Okuhira family is a small probability event caused by multiple misunderstandings, and the attacker himself could not have predicted it. Arrive. If his purpose was to attack you, he must not have known that attacking the Okudaira family could lead to a chain of rebellions. It is more reasonable to attack in the wild than in the strong city of Changshino Castle."
"What if the attacker just wanted to attack the Okudaira family?" Hayasaka Nao threw out another guess.
"Attack the Okuhira family? Then besides the neighboring Takeda family, can't you find anyone else with a motive?" Taiyuan Xuezai nodded slightly, and then he laughed, "Attack the Okuhira family and then take advantage of the chaos to seize the city? The Takeda family Are they trying to break the alliance with us? If they really want to break the alliance, they must have been fully prepared. How could they be in such an embarrassing situation, even His Highness Takeda himself was injured? It doesn't make sense. If it is the Takeda family, I can't think of any of them Justification for the attack."
"Okay, let's investigate this matter slowly and talk about it later. We have more important things at the moment." Taiyuan Xuezhai snorted twice, put his hands behind his back, and walked out of the house slowly: "Let's clean up those things. traitor."
·
On May 10, the twelfth year of Tianwen (1543), after the Imagawa family's bannermen and genealogy leaders arrived one after another with their troops, Taiyuan Xuezhai vigorously punished the wealthy families who rebelled in Yuanjiang and Sanhe.
This Yuanjiang chaos
The first culprits of the Okuhira family were the Okudaira family. Although Okudaira Yoshimasa had identified the cause and effect of his rebellion as stemming from a misunderstanding, the Okudaira family's attack on Imagawa Yoshimoto and subsequent incitement of rebellion were also unpardonable, and they were given a sentence close to reform. Punishment - The territory of 20,000 koku was directly reduced to 3,000 koku around Zushou Castle, and the territory was confiscated and handed over to the Imagawa clan for management. The family governor Okudaira Sadakatsu was beheaded, and his son Okudaira Sedano succeeded him. Before the Yuan Dynasty, Okudaira Sadakatsu's third brother Okudaira Yoshimasa served as a posthumous official.
Next is Asahina Chantoku of the Suruga Asahina clan. What he did was even worse than that of the Okuhira family, and he attacked Imagawa Yoshimoto without any scruples. For the sake of the Asahina family's past achievements, Asahina was allowed to commit hara-kiri. The Suruga Asahina clan was reorganized, and all the territories it belonged to were merged into the Toe Asahina clan, which had contributed to the suppression of the rebellion. At the same time, all the samurai of the Suruga Asahina clan were released, and those who were involved in the rebellion committed seppuku. Those who were not involved could serve as officials in the Tooe Asahina clan. This ended the separation of the two Asahina clans.
The Kanuma family and the Ii family, who also rebelled and took clear measures to attack the Imagawa clan, also suffered severe punishment. The governor of the Guanma family, Guanma Dingze, committed seppuku and was succeeded by his son, Guanma Dingcun (Guanma Dingcun's younger brother, Guanma Dingyuan, was taken as a hostage and had been executed together with Ohara Zhenmi in Tahara Castle). The 10,000 koku territory of the Kanuma family was reduced to 7,000 koku, and the confiscated territory was placed under the direct control of the Imagawa clan. At the same time, the Imagawa clan allocated 3,000 koku from the territory directly under the jurisdiction of Yuanjiang and the territory bordering the Uden family to reward Uden Nagamochi for his role in protecting the emperor.
The current governor of the Ii family, Naomichi Ii, and his brother Naoyoshi Ii were ordered to commit seppuku as the main conspirators. They were succeeded by Naomori Ii, the son of the late previous governor, Naomi Ii, and Naohei Ii, who retired, served as the post-war minister. The Ii family's 17,000 koku territory was reduced to 14,000 koku, and the deprived territory was awarded to the neighboring Osawa family as a reward for their aid to Imagawa Yoshimoto. The territory of the Osawa family jumped to 15,000 koku, becoming the pen head of the Western Yuanjiang people, and even caught up with the number of territories of the old Sanura family, the pen head family in the past.
As for the Iio family, Horikoshi family, Saigo family and other people who participated in the rebellion but were not enemies of the Imagawa clan in name or in fact, although they were each punished to a certain extent, the head of the family was not ordered to commit seppuku. or retreat. Of course, Taiyuan Xuezhai did not miss this opportunity. He asked each wealthy family to introduce a group of anti-Imagawa retainers as scapegoats to be punished on behalf of the main family.
And those retainers who were pro-Imagawa faction - many of them were Taiyuan Xuezhai's spies within various wealthy families, such as Ono Masanao, Horikoshi Sadatoyo and others - seized this opportunity and, under Taiyuan Xuezhai's instructions, , officially moved from behind the scenes to the front, and began to affect the internal affairs of various wealthy families. With the support of the Imagawa clan and the pressure of public opinion brought about by the suppression of this large-scale rebellion, the master clan was also powerless to expand their power.
After the liquidation was completed, the group set off back to Imagawa Hall.
·
On May 30, the twelfth year of Tianwen (1543), Imagawakan Castle Tower.
"Finally, these wealthy people have been completely repaired." After Taiyuan Xuezhai returned to his room, he immediately sat on the futon and stretched out comfortably. "No matter how much he secretly monitored and beat, he never directly let himself go." People take power effectively. From then on, it will be difficult for them to cause big troubles."
Imagawa Yoshimoto followed Taiyuan Xue Zhai into his room and looked around at the messy paper balls, bedding, pens, inkstones and leftover food scraps in his room. He was so obsessed with mysophobia that he suddenly felt nauseous. He had been brewing for a long time just now. I couldn't even say an apology for a moment.
"However, rule maintained by force and power can never last long. Because every power will weaken one day. Even if it is not weakened, but only has intermittent fluctuations in strength, it will lead to backlash. If your minister I am not convinced by you from the bottom of my heart, and I dream about how to oppose you every day, so sooner or later he will find an opportunity to overthrow you." Taiyuan Xuezhai waved his hand to Imagawa Yoshimoto, motioning for him to sit down and listen, like That's what I did when I gave him a lecture when I was a kid.
Imagawa Yoshimoto lowered his head and looked around, finally picked a relatively clean tatami, carefully pushed aside the garbage in a small area with his feet, and knelt down there.
"So, if you want to really establish a stable rule, you cannot rely on military force. You must make your retainers recognize your rule from the bottom of their hearts and recognize the Imagawa family as their master family." Taiyuan Xuezhai
Then he continued to preach:
"To put it bluntly, you either talk about feelings, or you talk about interests. Those who talk about feelings are Genedai and Ichimen. They have served your family for generations, so naturally they are reluctant to part with you. People who talk about interests are the newly joined foreigners, and others are interested in them. You have no loyalty. You must think that you can bring benefits to them before they will recognize you. Or you can expand your territory and give them land as a reward. If you don't expand, then you can only find a way to improve the territory's economy and Once the population becomes more prosperous, we will give them more freedom and voice."
"Of course, you can also talk about feelings with foreigners. If you are a famous general who is rare in a century, and a sage who cares about the country and the people, everyone will be attracted to you and follow you voluntarily. Or you and these wealthy families Build a good relationship between the head of the family and the important ministers, whether it's a banquet, courtesy to the virtuous servant, or having fun with each other, whatever drama you want, just interact with them more and make them sincerely willing to follow you."
When Taiyuan Xuezhai said this, he himself laughed, and said to amuse Imagawa Yoshimoto: "Of course, I know that your disciple is not interested in these things at all. Didn't we also make an appointment to leave all government affairs to my master? You just need to travel around and have fun. But it’s not a big problem, as long as you have a teacher here..."
"Teacher." However, Imagawa Yoshimoto raised his head, seriously interrupted Taiyuan Xue Zhai, and whispered: "This is also what I want to talk to the teacher this time."
