Chapter 37 second quarter

On September 7th, Nobunaga led his army to Hirao Village, Minobupo County, and the next day to Takamiya in Omi, where he joined Asai Nagamasa's troops and marched into South Omi together. The Japanese use the term "gale wind sweeping the fallen leaves" to describe the rapid attack of Lien Chan, while the West uses the term "knife to cut butter". At this time, the latter sentence can more vividly express the situation of the Oda army's rapid onslaught.Because, Nobunaga did not attack the various mountain cities in Minami Omi one by one, and continued to expand the territory, but only captured the key points on the way to Beijing, and went straight to Kyoto without distraction.In other words, he worked hard to implement the "straight to Huanglong strategy" of ignoring the periphery and only focusing on attacking important strongholds.

This was a strategy that Nobunaga was extremely good at and used often throughout his life.He used this strategy to defeat powerful enemies such as Asakura, Takeda, and Honganji one after another, but ironically, his demise was also because the enemy (Mitsuhide Akechi) adopted this "straight-on Huanglong strategy" that completely locked the target and attacked, And as soon as he smashed it, he smashed into Nobunaga's heart. Many knowledgeable people have criticized that during World War II, both the Allies and the Axis powers forgot about this strategy and spent a lot of unnecessary combat power and time attacking and defending places of no absolute importance.From this point of view, although the famous generals of the Warring States Period had not learned modern strategic theories, they already had more correct strategic thinking than military officers in the 20th century.

Closer to home.Rokkaku Chengzhen, who refused to assist Nobunaga a month ago, specially contacted the three Miyoshi people in Kyoto (Miyoshi Nagai, Miyoshi Masayasu, and Iwami Tomotsu) in order to prevent Nobunaga from going to Beijing and try to consolidate the southern Omi castles.Unexpectedly, Nobunaga's army came surprisingly fast, and there was no time to make complete preparations. The Oda army took the lead in attacking an important sub-city of the Liujiao family - Jisaku Castle.The attack started on September 12 at Shen time (around 4:00 pm), and the city was captured that night.The siege started at four o'clock in the afternoon, which was unusually late at the time, but it was astonishingly fast that it could be captured on the same day.The time of the battle is probably only two hours before and after.

Those who were listed in this siege battle included Sakuma Nobumori, Asai Shinpachi, Niwa Nagahide, and Kinoshita Fujiyoshiro Hideyoshi.Those who have made military exploits include Sakuma's subordinate Sakuma Moriji, Niwa's subordinate Shizu Motsu, Matsudaira Shinichi who led the reinforcements of the Tokugawa family, and Kinoshita Fujikichiro's subordinates Takenaka Hanbei Shigeharu, Hachisuka Masakatsu, Kimura Hayato Zuo and others.From this point of view, Kinoshita Tokichiro made great contributions to the capture of Mino because of the construction of Sumata Castle and the three people of Xuanfu Mino. At this time, he has risen to a position comparable to that of Sakuma, Niwa and other important ministers.

At the same time, another group of independent troops of the Oda family was advancing towards the enemy's base, Guanyin Temple City, and occupied the city the next day (13th). Liujiao Chengzhen and Liujiao Yibi and his son fled in defeat. To Iga.In this way, Nobunaga took Minami Omi within two days by relying on his quick and decisive actions and strong military force.When the three good people heard about this, they were shocked and immediately left for the west of Beijing.On the 14th, Emperor Masakimachi ordered the palace to be vigilant against Nobunaga. In addition to notifying Uesugi Kenshin and others of the situation, Oda Nobunaga also sent his retainer Fuba Hanoi to Gifu to welcome Ashikaga Yoshiaki to Omi and enter Beijing with him.On September 26th, just two months after Nobunaga welcomed Yoshiaki Ashikaga to Risshoji Temple in Mino, Yoshiaki Ashikaga actually realized his dream.Yi Zhao probably never dreamed that things would develop so quickly and smoothly.

However, for Oda Nobunaga, going to Beijing does not mean "a dream come true".Going to Beijing is neither his goal nor an important goal, but just a process to achieve the ideal of "all under heaven". As a fierce and strict military commander, Nobunaga can't rest, and has no intention of rest.In order to maintain the stability of the capital, he must immediately eliminate the remnants of the remnants of the enemy.On September 29, Nobunaga sent troops to attack Katsuryuji Castle near Tennosan Mountain, then attacked Settsu, and sent troops to Izumi and Yamato. In the eyes of modern historians, "Oda Nobunaga's going to Beijing" was an epoch-making event that created a new era, but people at that time probably did not have this kind of cognition. Most people may think that this is just "the Oda family replaced the The Miyoshi family in the past".It wasn't until Nobunaga showed an unprecedented tendency towards totalitarian rule that they realized that their thinking was wrong.

The first sign appeared in October of the same year, when Nobunaga began to solicit money from temples and villages in Settsu and Izumi, including temples with a long history and high status such as Horyuji Temple in Yamato.In particular, the request to pay 20,000 kans in Sakai, a large city that straddles Settsu and Izumi, shocked the people in Kinai. From the Kamakura Shogunate to the Muromachi Shogunate, for a long time, most powerful temples and shrines had their own territories, forming an independent "kingdom" not controlled by daimyo.They are extremely rich financially, have their own monk soldiers or samurai warriors, and have a strong military force, so they not only do not pay annual tribute, but also rarely donate money to assist the daimyo.Although the daimyos are envious of the wealth of these religious groups, they have never dared to provoke them because they are concerned about their combat power and the rebound of the believers.Not only that, the general daimyo will also take the initiative to donate or divide the territory to please these religious forces.But Oda Nobunaga easily destroyed these conventions.He is a thorough rationalist, full of revolutionary ideas, not only not afraid of the punishment of gods and Buddhas, but also not worried about the force of temples in the secular world or the resistance of believers.

The same applies to cities represented by Sakai City.Sakai City was the largest industrial and commercial city in Japan at that time, with as many as 20,000 households.The entire city is prosperous and prosperous due to frequent commercial activities and various manufacturing industries. The municipal government is run by a "congregation" composed of thirty-six wealthy merchants. It is independent and self-governing, and does not allow other daimyos to interfere.Those daimyos who desperately wanted to take advantage of the financial and material supply of Sakai City did not dare to offend them lightly.What's more, Sakai City itself is also armed, just in case.They dug rivers to surround the entire city, hired a large number of ronin to defend the city, and all the citizens were equipped with weapons, especially the number of foreign guns, which might not be inferior to any famous warring states.Because businessmen at that time had to travel between mountains and fields with poor law and order, and across seas where pirates were rampant, weapons became a must-have item.It was not until the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate that citizens stopped carrying weapons with them.

In this case, Sakai City will certainly not obey.Not only did they refuse to pay 20,000 arrows, but they also sent a nine-member delegation to Gifu to express their attitude.However, Oda Nobunaga had absolutely no respect for Sakai's traditions or the advantages that its citizens could be proud of, because in Nobunaga's political ideal of "all things under control," neither inherent authority nor regional autonomy, Shelter. "Oda Nobunaga is a terrible name, a person who tramples on tradition at will." This impression began to spread throughout Gyeonggi like a prairie fire.It seems that Nobunaga doesn't seem to understand that he offended the conservative temple forces and also provoked emerging urban businessmen.

On the other hand, Nobunaga also did something that disturbed General Ashikaga Yoshiaki.In October of the same year, he began to show a move to deny the authority of General Ashikaga, that is, on October 8th, he dedicated money to the palace.At that time, the palace's finances were difficult, and the officials were very happy because of this.But this also means that Nobunaga bypassed General Ashikaga and directly contacted the Palace. During this period, however, Nobunaga continued to suppress the foundations that helped form the modern state.For example, he abolished all checkpoints in the country, and set a clear policy to promote the Leshi Leza system to the whole country.In doing so, the temples or village organizations whose main source of income is the toll tax of the checkpoint or the shares of the seat, have suffered a huge economic blow.Nobunaga actually hopes to reduce the power of these groups by cutting off financial resources.As long as they lose their financial resources, they will not be able to support enough monks or rural warriors, and naturally they will lose their military resistance.However, another purpose of Oda Nobunaga's abolition of checkpoints and the promotion of the Leshi Leza system is to prevent rebellion and establish a system of centralized rule.Unfortunately, few people immediately understood the effects of this policy.

Nobunaga only stayed in Gyeonggi for a month, so he left the capital on October 26 and returned to Gifu on the 28th.On the one hand, it was because of concern about the situation of Mino and Kita Ise, which had just been occupied, and on the other hand, the diplomatic issues with Takeda and Uesugi needed to be resolved urgently, and they could not leave the base area for a long time. Nobunaga ordered Akechi Mitsuhide, Hosokawa Fujitaka and other people who were familiar with traditional etiquette and connections to stay in Kyoto.This kind of arrangement is mainly because these people are more reassuring to the people in the palace or the people around General Ashikaga.However, the old forces in Gyeonggi, whose traditional habits or authority have been severely challenged, cannot give up because of this, and immediately launched a counterattack. In the end, even those city businessmen who were expropriated for money also joined the ranks of solidarity.

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