Chapter 13 Section VII

In mid-October, after returning to Tianman's hermitage, Niu Yi quickly wrote two letters. A letter to Akito Taya, the temporary priest of Mount Atago, expressing his gratitude for the care he received during his stay there, along with dried kelp from the Mutsu area.The other letter was addressed to Konoe Qianjiu, and the addressee wrote "Your Excellency Dongqiudang, who lives in seclusion at Cizhao Temple in Dongshan".In addition, he felt that if Konoe knew that he had worked in Toyotomi's house, he would be wary, so he called himself a reclusive drug dealer in Osaka, Jifeng.The title of this letter is "Ask for a Calligraphy" and "Ask to See Your True Face".Even if the two meet each other, as Nobunaga's former subordinate, Niu Yi remembers each other's appearance, while Jin Wei may not remember himself.If we can meet each other, maybe we can find some points of connection between Maejiu and Mitsuhide, at least some feelings can be produced.

After writing the letter, Niu Yi went into the library to find the materials.Because there were too many boxes for miscellaneous books, it was not easy to find it. It took half an hour (an hour) to finally find a piece of yellowed paper. On it was a satirical poem, transcribed by Yuki Omura.That was in late June of the tenth year of Tianzheng fourteen years ago.From the 16th of that month, Mitsuhide Akechi’s head was hung at the site of the Honnoji Temple. One morning, someone pressed a piece of paper with a short poem on a large rock on the nearby river beach with a small stone. strip.At that time, many people in Kyoto went to see Mitsuhide’s head, and he wanted to listen to everyone’s thoughts, so he went there. He keenly found the note and copied the content on it.According to Yuji, the note was placed on the boulder because the platform on which Mitsuhide's head was hung was too high for the note to fit.

Mitsuhide suddenly attacked Honnoji Temple and easily put Nobunaga to death, but when Hashiba Hideyoshi gave up attacking Takamatsu Castle and quickly mobilized his troops to fight against him under the banner of revenge for Nobunaga, Mitsuhide was vulnerable again, and soon , His head, which was hung with a lot of money, was picked up from the grass.For some reason, the skin on his face was peeled off, making him look black.It was impossible to identify any of Mitsuhide's features—thinning hair, thin eyebrows, narrow nose bridge, and slightly upturned pupils known as "sky eyes."Hashiba Hideyoshi, who was the victor, had no confidence after forensics, but had to hang up that head as a declaration of victory.Kanbei Kuroda played a trick and placed the head on a very high platform so that passers-by could not see it clearly.The satirical poem placed on the rocks on the river beach was quickly taken away by Kyoto Soshidai, and its whereabouts are unknown.

Looking around in Rizhou, the guards have disappeared.Hosokawa also abandoned, sitting empty in the grass and thinking. That night, Youji and Niu Yi avoided their colleagues and quietly discussed the interpretation of the poem in Niu Yi's residence.Rishu is another name for Mitsuhide, Konoe naturally refers to Konoe Maeku, Hosokawa is Hosokawa Tadako... The meaning of the whole poem is that Akechi Mitsuhide struggled to find Konoe Maejiu, but even his son-in-law Hosokawa Tadakashi abandoned him. Mitsuhide's dreams were shattered and he had to sit alone in the grass.At that time, the two of them understood the poem exactly the same.Take it out again today, plus the daydream he had in Shuiwei the day before yesterday, Niu Yi is basically convinced.

"Who is the author of this poem?" ——The two were more concerned about the author than the content. "Probably a wise remnant, and a fairly famous person. I saw that the writing on it is very beautiful. If it is not a wise insider, it is impossible to know so many inside stories." Yuki patted his chest confidently. But why is Mitsuhide so eager to find Konoe-sama? Niu Yi thinks this is a problem. (The day before yesterday, in Mizuo's daydream, this mystery was solved, by myself. The poor wise man was completely fooled a long time ago, and was regarded as a traitor. It's a pity...)

In the library, Niu Yi muttered to himself towards the high ceiling. Mitsuhide's control of Kyoto is known as "the wise three-day world"-to be precise, he controlled it for eleven days.During this period, he quickly captured Nobunaga's Azuchi Castle and the nearby Seta Castle (the owner of the city was Kagetaka Yamaoka, who destroyed the city himself and hid in the mountains), Nagahama Castle (the owner of the city was Hashiba Hideyoshi, and he was sending troops to China at that time. place, all wives and concubines fled to the direction of Hokuriku), and the momentum was like a broken bamboo.

But at other times, Mitsuhide almost stayed in Kyoto, spending his time dealing with politics with the imperial court.He seized 650 silver coins at Azuchi Castle, and dedicated 500 of them to the Emperor and Prince Seihito, 100 to Gozan in Kyoto, and 50 to Yoshida Kenwa, the priest of Yoshida Shrine.It can also be inferred from this that he is eager to obtain the agreed imperial decree.If there is no imperial decree, he will undoubtedly bear the stigma of a rebel. However, Konoe Maeku, the key figure in charge of Mitsuhide's contact with the imperial court, disappeared after June 2.That decree thus became a mirage.

Later, Niu Yi learned that he lived in seclusion in Saga a long time ago and called himself "Longshan", but Guangxiu definitely didn't know it until his death.The first half of the satirical poem is ridiculed about it, full of lamentation.On the other hand, after Hideyoshi won the world, he was still pursued a long time ago. In the end, he could only go to Hamamatsu to seek the protection of Tokugawa Ieyasu.Think about the scene in the daydream, you can understand.On the contrary, if the situation in the daydream is not true, there is no reason for Hideyoshi to pursue the long time ago.Hideyoshi must have been aware of the movements of Mitsuhide and Maejiu through some method.

So, where did the imperial decree that Guangxiu wanted go?Niu Yi felt that Emperor Masakimachi would not deceive his courtiers.Therefore, he must have issued the imperial decree to "conquer Nobunaga", but someone obstructed it and hid it.This person must be weighing the pros and cons, and see who has the upper hand between Mitsuhide and Donggui Hideyoshi. "At that time, including now, who has the imperial decree issued by the emperor?" This is a wild guess.If it was true, that Yoshida Kenwa who took fifty silver coins was the most suspicious.Niu widened his eyes, pondering.

It is precisely because Mitsuhide thinks so that he will donate a huge amount of money to Yoshida, isn't that the case?From a satirical poem, Niu Yi vaguely introduced these inside stories. The second half of the satirical poem laments Mitsuhide's son-in-law Hosokawa Tadauki for betraying his father-in-law.At that time, Zhongxing locked his wife in a big prison in the mountains, while he shaved his hair and became a monk, hiding in a temple. (Everybody shaves their hair and runs away?) Niu Yi felt that the monk was a very good disguise. After a long period of contemplation, Niu put the reread satirical poems into the library.Next, he found the information about the Honnoji Incident and the Yamazaki War that he had recorded for future reference, and wanted to read the materials of that year again before officially writing to restore his memory.However, Niu Yi was not in the capital at the time, and the contents recorded above were all heard from relevant people.

Honnoji Change Memorandum Recorder of Renwu in the tenth year of Tianzheng: Ota and Izumi Shou At dawn on the second day of the sixth lunar month in the tenth year of Tianzheng, Mitsuhide Akechi surrounded Honno-ji Temple with thirteen thousand soldiers and set fire to Lord Nobunaga.There are different opinions on the reasons for the rebellion, and there is no conclusion. Moments (two hours) after the Honnoji Temple was attacked, Lord Kankuro (Nobudada) of Myogakuji Temple was also attacked, unable to rush to the Honnoji Temple, he gave up the idea of ​​saving his father, and led 400 soldiers to the Nijo area. Before the battle started, Already defeated.Kankuro-sama committed seppuku, and there were only two followers, which is shocking. There were rumors that Changyi (Nobunaga's younger brother) fled elsewhere after witnessing his nephew's seppuku.According to Omura Yuki, Changyi himself argued that he was not with his nephew at the time, and the above rumors were purely letting him take the blame.It is difficult to tell which is true and which is false.Or Yun Jingdu boy once compiled a ballad to mock Mr. Changyi, and quoted it as an interesting talk. The record is as follows: Seppuku, seppuku, for seppuku, I fled to Azuchi. On June 2, floods raged, and the field of Oda was empty. Appendix Number of casualties on the Oda side: There are twenty-six personal attendants at the Benneng Temple, twenty-four ordinary attendants, and three others. There are more than 60 warriors and soldiers in Erjo mansion. Among them, more than 20 corpses from the Honnoji Temple and dozens of corpses from the Nijo Mansion were collected by the Bodhi Temple (Amitabha Temple) of the Oda family, and the abbot Qingyu was responsible for cremation.Starting from the 2nd, Akechi's army searched the Honnoji site for three days, but did not find the remains of Nobunaga, Mori Ranmaru, Aiping, and Miyamatsu.According to legend, Empress Hashiba Hideyoshi once sent his subordinates to the Amitabha Temple, saying that the funeral of Lord Nobunaga would be held as soon as possible, and he asked Master Qingyu about the whereabouts of the remains, but found nothing and could only withdraw.The abbot of Amitabha Temple, Master Kiyotama bestowed upon Oda Nobunaga the following precepts—— The Great Prime Minister of Zongjianyuan Hall, First Grade Taiyan Grand Layman Yamazaki Battle Memorandum Recorder of the same year: Ditto On the thirteenth day of the sixth lunar month in the tenth year of Tensho, Mitsuhide Akechi and Hideyoshi Hashiba, who had returned from the east, fought in the rain in the Yamazaki area of ​​Yamashiro State.The strength of the two armies is as follows: Akechi Mitsuhide's army has 17,000 men.Among them, the main force was 10,000, Omi's was 3,000, Tsuda and Saburo's were 2,000, and the old Muromachi Shogunate's was 2,000.Three thousand people from Wise Zuo Mazhu stayed behind in Antu. Hashiba Hideyoshi's army was 30,000.Among them, Hashiba led more than 20,000 main troops, Ikeda Hengxing's 5,000 troops, Takayama Ukon's 2,000 troops, and Nakagawa Kiyohide's 2,500 troops. Akechi Mitsuhide's army was at a disadvantage because his son-in-law Tadakashi Hosokawa's 5,000 reinforcements and Tsutsui Junkei's 9,000-man army had never participated in the battle. Less than a moment after the battle, Zhizhi's army was defeated. Mitsuhide Akechi ran into Shoryuji Temple, took advantage of the dark night of the moon, and fled with a small group of people. It is said that on the way back to Sakamoto Castle, he was attacked by natives in the Xiaolaiqi area north of Momoyama.From this, there are two theories. One says that Zhi was seriously injured and committed seppuku. A samurai under his command intervened and buried his head in the grass; Postscript (Yiyou, the thirteenth year of Tianzheng) During the incident at Honnoji Temple, the whereabouts of many corpses were unknown. Among them, the remains of Kankuro Nobutada were transferred from Amitabha Temple to Dayunin Temple.It is unclear how his remains were discovered in the past three years. Postscript (Wuzi in the 16th year of Tianzheng) In the Bodhi Temple (Sakamoto's Saikyo Temple) of Akechi's family, Mitsuhide's seven-year anniversary was quietly held.The following is Akechi Mitsuhide’s ring name—— Guangda Meditation Gate of Xiuyuezong Perhaps because of the stigma of rebellion, the words "Ming" and "Zhi" did not appear in the name of the precept, and the titles of great layman and layman were avoided, which is really regrettable. After reading it again after more than ten years, Niu Yi felt that he had almost figured out the whole picture of Mitsuhide Akechi's attack on Honnoji Temple, except for the whereabouts of Nobunaga's remains.After leaving the library and sitting down in the study, Niu Yi still couldn't calm down his enthusiasm for reasoning. (What happened to Hashiba Hideyoshi's party who returned to the east at that time?) Niu Yi lay in the study without a stove, looking at Youji in the corner of the ceiling, thinking. (Myself, recently I started to think about it—you and I irresponsibly recorded the battle scene praising Hideyoshi, isn’t it strange? Leaving nothing else aside, let’s take Hideyoshi’s "China Return" It's a very smooth process.) Hashiba Hideyoshi of Takamatsu Castle was waiting for Oda's reinforcements. At this time, Mitsuhide's emissary carried a secret letter to the Mori family and strayed into Hideyoshi's barracks... This statement itself is doubtful. At that time, the former shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki had been under the protection of the Mori family and was the old master that Mitsuhide had abandoned.Indeed, Mitsuhide received 2,000 reinforcements from the old shogunate during the Battle of Yamazaki against Hashiba Hideyoshi, but it was impossible for him to write a letter casually to bring the former shogun back out of the arena.Moreover, only Kanbei and Hideyoshi have read this letter. That's not how it works.That letter should have been addressed to Hideyoshi himself! In the letter, besides apologizing for his delay in rescuing Hideyoshi, Mitsuhide also stated that he had no selfish intentions in attacking Nobunaga, and that he would soon be able to obtain an imperial edict from the imperial court, hoping to discuss with Hideyoshi how to govern the country in the future. Niu Yi first suspected the content of the letter and reasoned.Next, he began to ponder the reconciliation between Hideyoshi and the Mori family.From when Hideyoshi knew of Mitsuhide's treason to when he reached a settlement with the Mori family, the process went very smoothly.I am afraid that reconciliation has already begun through Anguosi Huiqiong (the monk in charge of Maori foreign affairs).Hideyoshi worried about the failure of the water attack on Takamatsu Castle, and worried about Mitsuhide's movements.If he hadn't started the reconciliation work a long time ago, how could he have achieved the "Great Return to China" so quickly? (There must be an inside story behind the miracle. The so-called history is nothing but the victor's self-talk.) This is Niu Yi's conclusion. Over the years, he has witnessed with his own eyes that behind Nobunaga's seemingly brilliant victory, there are many transactions and conspiracies hidden by invisible people. (Between Himeji and Okayama in the Sanyinin, there should be a place where Hideyoshi and Anguoji secretly met. You have to visit it to find out. Maybe you don’t know if you go...) Niu Yi wanted to go on a journey again. The third question was the one that made him more suspicious of Hideyoshi.Where did Hideyoshi, who was able to mobilize a huge army, get his financial resources?Only Niu Yi can reason this question, because at that time, as a subordinate of Lord Nobunaga, he was able to receive and compare the reports of Hideyoshi (who was ordered to pacify the Sanyo area) and Mitsuhide (who was ordered to pacify the Sanin area).If you observe Hideyoshi's movements carefully, you will find a situation—although Hideyoshi has been advancing westward, he obviously turned to the north, expanding the front, and forming a barrier to Mitsuhide's advance.The capture of Tottori Castle is a good example.Hideyoshi's real purpose is to ensure that he occupies Ikuno Yinzan. (For Ikuno's silver production, the value he reported to Nobunaga was too small; or Hideyoshi didn't tell Nobunaga that there was a gold vein.) Since twenty years ago, Niu Yi has always had this kind of doubt.This cannot be said to anyone, otherwise the head will fall.It seemed that even Yuki was watching him worriedly from the corner of the ceiling. "Don't worry, I won't tell." Niu Yi muttered, as if speaking to a living person. "You can write "Xinchang Ji" first, how about it?" Niu Yi felt that he said this from the ceiling. As soon as Niu walked out of the study, he planned to go to the toilet to urinate.He turned his arm, and his left shoulder had frozen shoulder, which hurt a little.The injuries he suffered when escaping from the earthquake that year have not healed.Suddenly he felt old. (Although I want to go to Sanyo Road, if I go, I will never be able to write the "Nobunaga Ji".) Niu Yi thought it would be great if he was ten years younger. When he was about to go back to the house after going to the toilet, Niu Yi suddenly felt the gate at the entrance of the yard move.Looking over, I saw a man wrapped in rags wriggling there. An old woman showed her face. "Oh, isn't this Fushimi's old lady?" "It's me." The old woman replied dumbly. "What's the matter with you?" "I've been cast out, my lord, and you'll let me stay here. Please." The old woman was crying with snot and tears. Niu Yi had hired her when he was in Fushimi.She is a poor local people, has no children, and is a stepmother.Niu Yiyi inquired and found out that her husband had injured his waist and was unable to move. He died last month.As soon as her wife died, her stepson and her husband abused her, even denying her food. "You know I'm here!" "It was the young Sasaki who transferred to work at Sasaki's house who helped me find it. I don't need wages, just give me food." "You strong old woman, what's the matter, don't cry. You can sleep in the warehouse at the back. If you are here, I will give the woman who is cooking now a holiday. Don't worry, you know my food preferences, stay here .” The old woman cried again.Niu Yi couldn't bear to drive her away and decided to keep her. In this way, Niu Yi lived with the old woman who defected to him, and began to create real works.It was almost early winter at this time, which was the middle of October in the fifth year of Wenlu. In more than ten days, the year name will be changed to "Qing Chang".