Chapter 540 2. Gifu Castle Is Already in Sight

The spring breeze is still strong, but it melts the winter snow. The whole winter, Fuchu Castle has never rested for a moment.

This time, the trip to Luoyang is completely different from the official trip to Luoyang that was almost every year. This is to support a high-ranking official to enter Luoyang and enjoy the merit and reputation of supporting and enthroning him.

It is worth mentioning that after learning that Ashikaga Yoshiaki asked Yamauchi Taro to serve as the so-called main team magistrate and command the main team of the Luoyang Army, he casually added an invitation letter.

The whole thing started from the Yamauchi family responding to Ashikaga Yoshiaki's order to go to Luoyang and raising an army to support Ashikaga Yoshiaki's trip to Luoyang. It became Oda Nobunaga supporting Ashikaga Yoshiaki and issuing a manifesto to invite the princes of the world to join in the event.

There is no need to say too much about the changes in this, everyone can analyze one or two or three.

These days, no daimyo who has left a name in history is a simple person, let alone Oda Nobunaga, the leader of the three heroes.

A few dozen words and a piece of paper can easily change the nature of the whole thing. Oda Nobunaga's political skills are far superior to ordinary people.

However, the Yamauchi family did not care much about the various disputes between Ashikaga Yoshiaki and Oda Nobunaga, because Yamauchi only needed to protect the shogunate and confirm the status of the adopted son. The confirmation of this political capital was much more important than joining the power struggle of the new shogunate now.

The Yamauchi samurai were in high spirits. The entire Yamauchi family has been upholding the image of respecting the shogunate and repelling thieves for decades, holding high the banner of the Muromachi shogunate. This image has long influenced the Yamauchi samurai. Everyone is proud to support the shogunate and respect the public.

Everyone started to move after the New Year, and many public servants also repainted their armor and ordered new haori. Even the Wufu needed for the ceremony was newly sewn and rewoven.

Yamauchi Taro was too young to wear his father's Nanbando armor. After all, his father was more than 1.6 meters tall, and a breastplate could cover Yamauchi Taro from head to crotch. Let alone wearing it, it was difficult for him to carry it on his back.

After thinking about it, he was still too young and there was no need to wear armor. Others didn't know, but Xiaoping knew too well that this trip to Luoyang was simply an armed parade.

The Rokukaku clan, which could have raised more than 30,000 or even more troops, only raised a team of several thousand people in Guanyin Temple Castle. The offensive of the Oda army can almost be described as crushing, and Guanyin Temple Castle was declared broken soon.

Many troops participating in the Luoyang trip did not actually fight on the field. After watching the battle of Guanyin Temple Castle, everyone walked hand in hand to Luoyang and picked up Luoyang.

This was probably the smoothest trip to Kyoto in the entire history of the Muromachi shogunate. Ouchi Yoshioki used almost all of his strength in the western part of the country and went through a lot of trouble to make Ashikaga Yoshitane go to Kyoto successfully.

Not to mention that Ashikaga Yoshiharu was driven out of Kyoto, and he used a lot of effort to win over a large number of allies and fight Miyoshi Nagayoshi to death. In the end, he was tired and went to Kyoto in peace.

Others are still thinking about the glorious history of the Sasaki Rokkaku family. It is estimated that it may take two or three months to get through the Rokkaku family. In the end, after the Rokkaku family secured their territory and obtained a position similar to the guardian of Minami-Omi, the two sides agreed to escort Ashikaga Yoshiaki to Kyoto together.

Let them think too much. Anyway, Yamauchi Shukei and Hidetani were the most active in the preparations. They were busy, and Kodaira was happy to let go.

The job that finally fell to Koyata was to teach Yamauchi Taro the etiquette of the court. Koyata naturally didn't know this. The old monk Kaikawa Shoki was well-educated, but he didn't know this kind of etiquette of the court.

Although he was from a famous Genji family like the Toki clan, he had never been to the court and met the emperor.

But fortunately, even if all the people in Yamauchi only knew the etiquette of the samurai paying homage to the shogun, it didn't matter.

Uncle Tsunayoshi knew it!

He was a descendant of the Kanin-ryu of the Fujiwara Kita family and the regent left minister Tadahira. He was a noble and famous family of the Seika family, and his generations of court nobles served as the junior rank of middle minister.

Yamauchi Taro just needed to prepare the gift and ask for advice.

And uncle Tsunayoshi could also take advantage of this wave of east wind to return to the capital together. The Yamauchi family had promised to help him rebuild the Zixiaoji residence as another liaison noble of the Yamauchi family in Luoyang.

Even after helping his uncle Tsunayoshi to be promoted to the position of Junior Third Rank, he could also help him to be a military family messenger. Although this is not the job of the Zixiaolu family, it is better to do it for the court nobles who are close to the Yamanouchi family than to do it for those who are not close to them.

The intensive training took only a few days, mainly focusing on sitting posture, footsteps, speech speed, and even the etiquette of clothing when meeting the government, the hem, sleeve length, warp and weft, all of which have rules.

After everything was done, Oda Nobunaga confirmed that he would set out from Gifu Castle on March 5. The Yamanouchi family naturally had to rush to Gifu Castle before that to meet with the Oda army.

Originally, it would be most convenient to take the Tokaido Street, but Kobayata deliberately asked the Yamanouchi army to take the Nakasendo. In terms of straight-line distance, the Nakasendo is closer, but because it is all mountain valley roads, it is winding and difficult for the army to pass.

There is a reason for this choice. Kobayata has walked the Tokaido countless times and is very familiar with it. However, the Nakasendo Road, which can lead troops directly to Gifu Castle, has never been taken before. For the sake of the future, even if it is difficult to walk, we have to give it a try.

Originally, there were 3,800 people in the Shangluo Army. Since many samurai carried gorgeous armor and weapons, and thousands of war horses and pack horses had to eat a lot of beans and wheat, the team quickly became bloated.

The families and nephews of the samurai and servants were all stuffed into the team, and you couldn't drive them away, because the samurai couldn't carry the armor on their backs and carry dozens or hundreds of kilograms of soybeans and wheat to march.

You stuffed one in, I stuffed one in, and in the end it became a team of more than 5,000, close to 6,000 people.

"Can so many people walk on the Nakasendo?" Kobayata looked at Hosokawa Saione. Yamauchi Taro was the military commissioner of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, but Kobayata and Hosokawa Saione were definitely the ones who actually commanded the army.

"It should be possible. Since the Iwamura Toyama clan surrendered to Oda Danjo, the Nakasendo has begun to be prepared and repaired."

"People are fine, but what about the more than 3,000 horses?"

"Just walk slower!" Hosokawa Saione spread her hands.

And then the facts were exactly as Kobayata estimated and Hosokawa Saione said. In fact, a large part of the road was along the river course of the Kiso River.

There were mountains on both sides, and the army was winding in the deep valley. The first mover could not see the back mover at all. It was very difficult for a mere 5,000-plus army to move. It was impossible for more than a dozen people to walk side by side. They could only squeeze forward with two or three people, and they had to leave a path for the envoys to pass.

Cavalry was simply a burden in such a place. Not to mention riding a horse and galloping, you would fall into the river before you even start running.

No wonder when Takeda Shingen went to Kyoto, he only sent Akiyama Nobutomo's 5,000-man special forces to take the Nakasendo Road. It was really difficult to walk.

After seven or eight days, we finally got out of the ravine and saw the Nobi Plain in front of us.

Gifu Castle was in sight!