A samurai who doesn't want to be a daimyo is not a good onmyoji

Chapter 166 Thunder Knife
When I was practicing magic before, I had been troubled by my failure to master the thunder and lightning spell.

Because unlike other spells, thunder spells are extremely powerful and are especially good at dealing with monsters and other evil objects, but they are also the most difficult to practice, and to truly master them, you often need an opportunity.

If you want to truly learn thunder and lightning spells, the most important thing is to first let your body understand the attributes and characteristics of thunder and lightning. Unlike the common earth, fire, water and wind, Nibon, who is still in a feudal society, is very sensitive to both thunder and lightning. rare.

Onmyojis who have successfully practiced thunder spells since ancient times have either had famous teachers personally guide them, or they have been guided by various magic weapons with thunder and lightning properties, or they have personally experienced the power of thunder and lightning in nature during thunderstorms. .

Asai Nagamasa had already reached the bottleneck. He planned to wait for a thunderstorm and adopt the third and riskiest way to practice.

But now that he has this thunder knife - Xiaolong Jingguang, it actually saves him a lot of trouble. As long as he finds a quiet room and carefully feels the breath of thunder and lightning, he should soon be able to master the most basic thunder techniques. .

It's just that he first recommended himself an excellent military advisor, Numata Yumitsu, and then gave him such a sword. What was the purpose of Hosokawa Fujitaka?

But now that he was 100% sure that the other party wanted something from him, even though he also had something to ask of the other party, Asai Nagamasa was not so anxious at this time.

He began to drink the tea very leisurely. Although the tea was obviously very cheap, the tea maker's skills were obviously very good, so the taste was decent.

Although Asai Nagamasa didn't know much about the tea ceremony, he could see that as long as he had a holiday, he would definitely become a tea ceremony master.

However, the other party's ambition is probably definitely not limited to this.

After chatting for a while, Hosokawa Fujitaka finally couldn't help it anymore: "This time I have the audacity to invite you to my humble abode. It is already an honor for me. But Master Asai, to be honest, I still have two things on my mind. I’m asking for your help.”

Hearing this, Asai Nagamasa smiled and put down the tea cup in his hand: "To be honest, Mr. Hosokawa, I also have something to ask you for help."

Hosokawa Fujitaka was obviously stunned for a moment, because the more he understood the other party's abilities, the more surprised he became. He really didn't think he could help the other party in any way.

Is it possible that Mr. Asai wants to meet the general?
Although as the young master of the Kitanomi Asai family, it is actually unreasonable to declare that he wants to meet the general directly, but considering the power and wealth that the other party possesses, the general will probably be happy to receive him.
Well, it would be better to arrange another opportunity for the other party to meet the man from Echigo. If these two outstanding samurai, both nicknamed "dragon", could stand beside the general, it would be fine. Is it because the Mihaoshi family doesn't dare to go too far anymore?
All kinds of thoughts flowed through Hosokawa Fujitaka's heart like lightning, but before he could speak, Asai Nagamasa said bluntly: "I would like to ask Hosokawa-sama to arrange a group of ships for me so that I can return with my men. Xiaotani City, strengthen the strength of our family so that we can fight against the increasingly aggressive Rokkaku family."

Hosokawa Fujitaka's pupils suddenly shrank. Although Asai Nagamasa said so, of course he would not be stupid enough to completely believe that before confronting the Rokkaku family, he would probably have to deal with the Asai family's housework, right?
Now that Mr. Asai is willing to explain to himself, it means that the other party has made a decision. Even without his own help, he must have other back-ups.

Really, it looks like chaos is about to break out again in North and South Omi. I wonder if the other nearby daimyo will just sit back and watch, or fish in troubled waters?

However, he immediately adjusted his expression and demeanor, nodded in agreement: "Indeed, the Rokkaku family has always been domineering because they are the general's black-hatted relatives. The general has also heard that the Rokkaku family has invaded Kitaomi many times. It is really true. It goes against the law and righteousness, and the general is very dissatisfied with it."

Asai Nagamasa smiled but said nothing. In fact, the general is the nominal supreme military commander of the entire Nibon. In theory, the various daimyo are not allowed to fight each other to the death, but there is no way. Who makes him have no power in his hands? Woolen cloth?
Now, I am afraid that he cannot even maintain the security of Kyoto under his rule. Otherwise, Asai Nagamasa would not have seen so many corpses in the city. You must know that the cause of death of those deceased was not only starvation, but also obvious. He was killed by the sword.

This dilapidated capital may have already become a paradise for all kinds of bandits and thieves.

The Yamashiro country where Kyoto is located is not without fertile land, but almost all of it is occupied by powerful officials such as the Miyoshi family, and there is not much left for the general.

However, although they are both mascots, he is different from the emperor who has almost no desires and simply chose to lie down. The contemporary general Ashikaga Yoshiteru is a resolute man and wants to revive the prestige of the shogunate samurai family.

For this reason, he visited many famous teachers and practiced martial arts well early, and he was even called "General Swordsman".

You must know that in Nippon at present, all samurai with the title of "Swordsman" are almost without exception all famous swordsmen in their 40s and [-]s who have experienced dozens of bloody battles. Only Ashikaga Yoshiki is a young man in his twenties. people.

Although Asai Nagamasa seriously doubted that this was related to the opponent's general's strength, so others may have taken advantage of the situation to praise him, but the opponent's true strength was definitely not too low.

In particular, this is a special world with monsters, monsters, and guardian spirits.
However, Hosokawa Fujitaka said that the general was dissatisfied with the Rokkaku family's invasion of the Asai family, and Asai Nagamasa just listened and didn't take it seriously at all.

However, Hosokawa Fujitaka deliberately mentioned the general at this time. What did he mean?

Well, I should still want money. After all, the general’s poverty is well-known throughout Nippeng. Those officials who belonged to him will more or less spread relevant information after they seek refuge with other daimyos.
So Asai Nagamasa immediately said very cheerfully: "Actually, when I came to Kyoto this time, I also wanted to present 1000 kan to the general. It would be great if I could be lucky enough to meet the general."

Hosokawa Fujitaka and Mibuchi Fujihide immediately let out a low cry of surprise, because even if they went to Jie Town in person many times, they could not get such a large amount of funds from those wealthy businessmen, even though they knew that the other party could afford it. An army of thousands of people must have extremely rich funds, but they never expected that he would actually be so generous to the general!
But after the surprise, Hosokawa Fujitaka quickly expressed his apology: "I'm very sorry, Mr. Asai, I was rude. This was actually not my intention. I..."

Although he did want to obtain a certain amount of money from the other party, he did not want the other party to misunderstand that he was acting as a blackmail or something.

Asai Nagamasa waved his hand, indicating that the other party did not need to say more: "It doesn't matter, Mr. Hosokawa, this was originally my plan. I also fully agree with the rebellious behavior of the Miyoshi family. Unfortunately, the Asai family is weak, and I am just He’s just the young master of the Asai family, and he really doesn’t have much power.”

Upon hearing this, even Hosokawa Fujitaka didn't know what expression to make.

If you can use magic, and you have thousands of ashigaru under your command, but you don't have the strength, then what is a general who can't even recruit twenty ashigaru to patrol Kyoto?

After calming down for a while, Hosokawa Fujitaka finally made up his mind: "Lord Asai, I will try my best to arrange a meeting between you and the general. The general will definitely be very moved by a loyal minister like you. After all, the Asai family was established more than 200 years ago. He is also from the noble Sanjo clan in Kyoto.”

"Also, the governor of the Echigo Nagao family has just arrived in Kyoto. I wonder if you would like to meet him?"

Asai Nagamasa smiled: "I have just met him. He is indeed the Dragon of Echigo, and his style is far beyond ordinary people. It would be better if we could see him again."

However, in order to get his help, the other party really spent a lot of hard work and found all the bloodlines of the Asai family.

The Sanjo family is the direct descendant of the Fujiwara family's Kita family Kanin family. Their family status is very high. It belongs to the kind that their ancestors once had a rich family. Once in the empire, this position is basically equivalent to that of Prime Minister or Grand Master.Theoretically, if one is strong enough to move out of this family status, for the Nibon people who attach great importance to blood and identity, even if they sit on the post of Minister of the Grand Prix, it is acceptable.

But that's just theory, the most important thing is strength, qualifications alone are far from enough.

Asai Nagamasa has also secretly investigated before, and the bloodline of the Sanjo family has not been completely cut off yet. Takeda Shingen, the Tiger of Kai, and the current head of the Honganji clan, Honganji Hiroto, the Ichikou clan, both have wives from the Sanjo clan. And they are also a pair of biological sisters.

This is also one of the reasons why Uesugi Teruhora hates the Ichikou clan Honganji family, because when he was fighting against the Takeda family, the Ichikou clan would hold him back from behind, which caused him a lot of trouble.

But what can be imagined is that the Sanjo family has never given up on revitalizing the family, and has worked hard to do a lot of things, and the results are indeed quite good. The governors of the Takeda family and Honganji family will not marry a woman casually.

It's a pity that their patriarch was unlucky. Without leaving any male descendants, he was very unfortunate to suffer an indiscriminate disaster a few years ago. Because of Tao Qingxian's rebellion, he was killed by the rebels. As a result, his great wish to revive his family was completely frustrated.

Although there are still separate families of the Sanjo clan, they are all incompetent people. In addition to clinging to the lap of the emperor and the general in Kyoto and barely making a living, they even go to the world during the poorest time of the year. It's true that the town makes money by playing the flute.
However, Hosokawa Fujitaka's words reminded him again, maybe he could help the other party a little, so that when he was strong enough and wanted this title, they would not dare to refuse.

Hosokawa Fujitaka was a little surprised, but he still agreed with Asai Nagamasa's evaluation of Nagao Kagetora: "Yes, Kagetora-sama is indeed amazing, and the general was also amazed by him."

After a slight pause, Hosokawa Fujitaka took the initiative to speak out without Asai Nagamasa asking further: "Kanto Commander Kenmasa Uesugi transferred his position as Kanto Commander, the family map and important treasures to Kagetora. Sir, and decided to give him his surname. This time, Sir Kagetora came to Kyoto just to seek the recognition of the general."

Asai Nagamasa suddenly laughed: "So that's the case, then I really should congratulate Mr. Kagetora, and also congratulate the general."

Uesugi Kenmasa, the nominal Kanto governor, is also the head of the Nagao family. However, because he is too weak, his territory has long been captured by the Hojo family. Although he has never stopped resisting, he has been defeated by the Hojo family every time. , and then ran to Echigo in despair and took shelter with the Nagao family.

But after all, he has a righteous name. Once he transfers his position to Nagao Kagetora, based on the opponent's past performance, he will inevitably start a war with the Hojo family.

At that time, the Takeda family will definitely not sit back and watch, because in addition to their hostility to the Nagao family, there is also the existence of the Three Kingdoms Alliance of "Koshio Shun".

In this way, I'm afraid Imagawa Yoshimoto will not be idle anymore. Although he can't reach the Nagao family, he will definitely take the opportunity to send troops to attack the Oda family in the west.

Although they are allies, they are also competitors. When an ally is held back by a powerful enemy, it is the best time for him to develop and grow!

Hosokawa Fujitaka also quickly apologized, and then said that he would try his best to mobilize connections and collect enough ships for Asai Nagamasa. If each ship can carry 20 people, an army of more than 1000 people will only need more than 50 ships.

Due to the decline of Kyoto, the fertile land was basically occupied by the Miyoshi family, so everyone else had to find ways to find food. In addition to wild vegetables and fruits, of course there were only fish and shrimps in Lake Biwa.

So as long as Hosokawa Fujitaka uses his power, he will definitely be able to find many ships. Even if most people's ships are relatively small and cannot transport all the ashigaru at one time, two or three times are definitely enough.

Asai Nagamasa was not stingy, and said on the spot that he would spend another two hundred guan as military expenses for this operation. He also asked Hosokawa Fujitaka to keep the matter secret as much as possible. He did not want the Miyoshi family to notice, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble. .

Of course he knows that the shipping fee is far from that much, but only with sufficient fuel and water can the other party work harder for him.

Of course, Hosokawa Fujitaka said that he wouldn't need so much, and quickly agreed.

There is no other way. As a minister of the general, he does not want to fall to the Sanhao family. He is too poor. Let alone five hundred guan, even fifty guan is undoubtedly a very large fortune for him.

Asai Nagamasa took another sip of tea and signaled the other party not to be too excited: "Hosokawa-sama just said that there are two things you would like me to do for you?"

Hosokawa Fujitaka immediately smiled: "With your donation, Mr. Asai, there is only one thing left."

In fact, he wanted to borrow money from the other party, and then went to prepare a ceremony for Lord Nagao Kagetora to officially accept the position of Kanto Governor.

Nagao Kagetora rushed to Kyoto this time and did not bring much donation. However, because of the other party's previous kindness, the general did not want to make the ceremony too shabby, but he could not directly signal to the other party.

After much deliberation and going round and round, Hosokawa Fujitaka finally took the initiative to share the worries of the general and proposed to try to borrow some of the money from Asai Nagamasa. After the ceremony was completed, he would privately hint to Nagao Kagetora and take it back. After receiving the money, he would return it to Asai Nagamasa.

It's just that he didn't expect things to go so smoothly. Before he opened his mouth, Lord Asai had already offered to donate money to the general.

However, although the second thing is not so urgent, it still carries a certain degree of danger.

"Lord Asai, to be honest, there is a long-abandoned mansion in Kyoto. Recently, the sound of flutes, barking dogs and wailings have been heard many times in the middle of the night. More than ten people have been killed. Some people say that they can eat it if they see it. A lot of people have heard the sound of corpses being chewed by evil ghosts."

"Is it a ghost?"

Asai Nagamasa became a little more interested at this time. He had killed a lot of monsters during this period, but he hadn't seen half of the ghosts yet.

It's just that the way ghosts attack is different from that of monsters. As spirits, they usually don't kill people by devouring them.

"Okay, then leave it to me. I will go there in person tonight to defeat the demons."

Just take advantage of the remaining time to practice the real thunder method. No matter whether the opponent is a ghost or a demon, you must test the power of the thunder method with the opponent!

(End of this chapter)