Where The Enemy Awaits

He had come so close to slaying Nobunaga.

It was all going to plan, just yesterday. Mitsuhide had been diverting his men back to Kyoto, Nobuyasu had been gathering up the men he could trust to rendezvous with his partner, and Nobunaga was vulnerable. He had no one but a few guards, alongside a few members of his family. A single strike, and the Demon King would lay dead in Honnoji.

It had been a shot in the dark, risking everything to reveal his intentions to Mitsuhide. Had Akechi decided to play it safe and reveal Nobuyasu's plan....

I'd be where I am now. Tied like a dog, his forces either scattered, fled, or turning traitor, and awaiting the man who would have him executed for treason. Not to mention Akechi's betrayal of the cause. It was almost enough to make Nobuyasu laugh. Almost.

Laughter was something foreign to him during the past three years.

True, he had never been the most cheerful of children, but the cruelty of his 'ally' had killed what was his sense of merriment. The thought of it gave Nobuyasu new life, new passion, and most importantly, new anger. Gritting his teeth, Nobuyasu kept his gaze firmly set forward.

Think of the men of Hamamatsu. Of Okazaki. Of Nagashino. Of Mikawa. Of Father himself Nobuyasu began to feel ashamed of his self-pitying.

Would his father have moaned and wailed of his fate? No. Ieyasu Tokugawa had been made of stronger stuff. When defeat became certain, he rode down to attain glory and his place in the annals of history, without regard for his own life. The Takeda had underestimated the fury of a man with such determination.

There were families that lived on, because of his father's actions. As there were families because of how the Takeda had been held off at Hamamatsu, forcing them to fall back. How the men of the Tokugawa held firm when Shingen smashed through Noda Castle, and went straight for their final stronghold, thinking his victory was ensured.

Nobuyasu had only heard of the bullet wound later. For so long, he had become convinced that it was the work of the heavens that Shingen Takeda would have been slain the way he was. It gave some comfort, after the death of his own father.

The same went for Nagashino. Forced to eat their own dead, all for Katsuyori's ego, the defenders of Nagashino still fought on and allowed for both Nobunaga and Nobuyasu to reach them in time. For all the tortures that he wished on Nobunaga, for all the sins of the Demon King, the destruction of the Takeda was not one of them.

It was righteous justice, or at least the closest thing to it that Nobuyasu could see.

It was the same justice that seemed unable to strike down the master of the Oda. After this, there would be no others who could stop his conquest. The Mori, Uesugi, Hojo, none of them had the power to stop him. Those that weren't being invaded were frozen by fear, hoping that they could somehow survive the crisis at hand.

Nothing could be further from the truth, especially now. The man who exiled retainers like Nobumori, and Hidehasa on a whim, for all their years of service, and who seemed to delight in the death of the loved ones of his retainers was not one for small mercies.

I weep for Japan. A man like him ruling over all. The thought made Nobuyasu grit his teeth. At the rate of his madness, he'll be slaying the Emperor next! Who else could challenge his delusions of grandeur?

His room had been spacious but barren, a likely mockery of samurai values from a man who lacked knowledge of what the word value even meant. All that Nobuyasu had was the evening sky shining through a window on the left, and a door in front of him, where he expected someone to enter and inform him of his fate.

Speaking of the devil, the sound of footsteps echoed into the room. It came from the hallways just outside of the room, and they were getting louder and louder. Nobunaga had likely come to see the face of the man that almost took his life. The face of the man who had been the son of one of his only friends. The face of the man who he had wronged.

He no doubt expected grovelling, or some kind of tearful explanation. As if Nobuyasu was a boy to be commanded. Nobunaga had never seen him as an equal, the way he had with his father, but that did not matter. Nobuyasu was going to die, and it was going to be on his terms.

If Mother's murder did not break me, neither shall the words of a monster. That was the promise he made to himself, as the footsteps stopped just in front of the door.

As it slid open, Nobuyasu would admit to being shocked by what he saw. Perhaps it was only his pride that made him think that he would have a final conversation with Nobunaga Oda, to lay down all the evils that he had done, and to have a moment to spit on the monster. A final confrontation for the history books for the price of his life.

What he got instead was a man and a boy facing him. The man was easily recognisable from the start, after Nobuyasu had spent so long fighting a campaign alongside him, as Nobutada Oda looked down upon the likely now-former leader of the Tokugawa. It was almost unnerving to see how much the son resembled his first memories of the father.

The boy by his side was likely Katsunaga. Nobuyasu had known that the former hostage of the Takeda had only been released last year, and had been sent to his father's side for the campaigns ahead. The urge to hide behind his brother seemed to be fought at every turn, fear coursing through his whole body. What made the sight truly bizarre was that he resembled Nobutada more than the other Oda brothers.

"I'm not in a position to kill you." He said, looking Katsunaga right in the eye. "That fact is why I'm here now."

"Nobuyasu, if you would direct your attention to more important matters," Nobutada said with the lord of the Tokugawa happily obliging. "I suppose you are wondering why you are here."

The meaning was understood instantly. "Who betrayed us?" Nobuyasu growled.

"Mitsuhide, out of love of my father, faked discontent with him to lure you out. He long suspected that you would be making a move, after the Takeda were exterminated, and stringed you along long enough to lure you into an ambush." Nobutada explained. "It was quite a good thing that that was his intention as well. We had just heard of a joint plot and were ready to assume the worst."

At the time, he had gone ahead with a small vanguard to meet with Mitsuhide in time. There was no chance that he was trusting Mitsuhide to be the one to slay Nobunaga, and then take power for himself, leaving Nobuyasu in the same place, but with Mitsuhide instead of Nobunaga. He had hoped to keep a check on the man.

Only I ended up being caught in his damn trap. Nobuyasu grit his teeth, knowing that Mitsuhide's wasn't the only cowardice. "Who among my retainers betrayed me?"

"I will not compromise their identity. Needless to say, they knew what was best for the Tokugawa." Nobutada replied, his younger brother preferring to remain quiet. It was amazing how his voice refused to shift in pitch or tone one bit. "The provinces of Kai and Shinano will be distributed with the Tokugawa in mind. Just as certain retainers of ours shall benefit from the destruction of the Mori."

"So our vassalage will be complete. No doubt you have a puppet arranged for my replacement."

"Iemoto Matsudaira will be a fine ruler. Not one to pick fights with their followers, or engage in meaningless grudges." Nobutada's eyes narrowed. "Did you really think that Tokuhime would not come to us in woe? That she wouldn't mention how you curse our name? Was it so hard to at least pretend affection?"

Nobuyasu looked to the side. "For the woman who arranged the death of my mother? For the crime of wanting me to have a son-"

"With a woman once of the Takeda." Nobutada rolled his eyes. "Do you realise how many years it took for us to convince Father that you could be trusted again? That you could be just as good an ally as Lord Ieya-"

"Don't say his name!" Nobuyasu snapped, the ropes around his legs being the only thing keeping him from standing. Katsunaga's face paled, but he remained in place. "Should I have knelt on the ground and kissed the ground Tokuhime walked on, after I had to order my own mother's death? Should I have called Nobunaga 'father', for the prize of being allowed to tour Kansai with him? Or perhaps I should have offered him Mikawa? He seemed very happy to turn us into a junior partner, once he was done with the Azai."

While I had to be the one to unite my clan. The one to endure the doubts, the murmurs, and the plots. How many of his followers had contemplated defection at one point? That had been a question that haunted him.

Stupidity was not something people thought of, when they spoke of Nobuyasu Tokugawa. Arrogant, violent, hot-tempered, all of those things, but never stupid. The fact that he had been propped up by a group of retainers, from Il to Tadatsugu to Mototada, was always apparent. Even more so that it took Nobunaga to have the process confirmed so quickly. It was only after Nagashino that he was trusted to rule on his own, even if he was stuck as a junior to the Oda.

In hindsight, there were many moments when his men could have exchanged their true loyalty to the Oda. It only took one member of the inner circle to destroy a man, and it was clear that that member had been one who never truly believed in Nobuyasu. Who could it have been?

His death poem could serve as a warning to the others. At best, he would serve as a martyr to rally the Tokugawa against Nobunaga. There was still time for an uprising, but not if they all suspected one another.

"Your victory is not certain, Nobutada. No matter how much you think it is." Nobuyasu did the closest thing to standing tall. "Do you truly think that men like Tadakatsu and Naomasa will simply bow to you? They will rise up, with the strength of the men of Mikawa, and they will fight until the last. The Hojo will smell the blood in the water, and then where will your campaign against the Uesugi be?"

It was a long-shot, yet it still gave Nobuyasu the warm light of hope.

"I'm sure they will." Nobutada turned back to the door, flanked only by Katsunaga. "Your mother was executed on suspicion of planning with the Takeda to undermine the Oda. You have obviously been doing the same. My men will escort you to a room where you may write your death-poem, and then you shall be granted the right to commit seppuku."

"Should I thank Nobunaga for such an honour?" The last true lord of the Tokugawa asked.

"No. He wanted to publicly execute you via sawing." Nobutada walked to the door, just a single step from leaving the room. "I felt that you deserved more. We might have been true friends, Nobuyasu, just as our fathers were. It's just a shame that the son's anger has forced him to follow their father into the afterlife."

With that, Nobutada stepped outside and left the room, Katsunaga following behind him like a whipped dog. As the two left, fully-armed guards entered the room and lifted Nobuyasu up in their arms, dragging him forward. It appeared that his ropes would only be cut once he was in the room where he would die.

Knowing Nobutada, it would be a small mercy that he would be allowed a friend to be the one to take off his head. In regard to allowing dignity in death, Nobutada easily outpaced his father in that regard. Craning his neck, the last thing he could see was Katsunaga whispering something to Nobutada, who merely just nodded and whispered back.

A sinking feeling hit his stomach, before he forced it back. The time for last words will come soon.

Nearing the room where he would end it all, a name came to Nobuyasu. One of the men who would have done anything for his father, but would have betrayed him easily. The two never got along, and he wouldn't be surprised if his 'loyal' retainer didn't sell his mother down the river in the first place, before advising him to execute her over angering Nobunaga. It all made sense.

It was a gamble, but the only one he had left. If anything went wrong, he'd just have to hope that natural causes would take the Demon King down instead.

With nothing else left, Nobuyasu's thoughts went to his mother and father.

Perhaps if it were him, instead of me, things would be different, Nobuyasu had no doubt that Ieyasu Tokugawa wouldn't have let his wife be murdered the way she was. He'd have succeeded where I failed. I'm sure of it. I'll have to apologise for my failure, when we meet again.

With that, despite facing death, the thought brought a smile to Nobuyasu's face.

---

"Brother," Katsunaga only spoke up when they were out of hearing range. Nobutada silently thanked his brother for that, although he wished that he didn't have to strain to hear him. "Why didn't you tell him who it was? It surely wouldn't have mattered."

"It would have hurt him, that's how it might have mattered. I'm sure Father might have had me tell me about Tadatsugu's actions." Nobutada's father probably would have done many things that he wouldn't. "Then we'd be wondering if he mentioned it in his death poem. The rest of the Tokugawa forces are just a few miles away, and I would rather we get this over and done with."

Nobutada had been a veteran of enough battles with the Tokugawa to know when they were loyal. Nobuyasa was brash, hot-tempered, almost cruel, and clearly one to hold a grudge, but he was also intelligent, passionate, and able enough to inspire some of his retainers to loyalty close to that of what Ieyasu could do. For now, the retainers were tamed, but that depended on a smooth transition.

If the Oda were seen as trading in bad faith, Iemoto could be convinced by some means of rising up again, creating a distraction that no one needed. That included creating a death poem that was suspected to not be Nobuyasu's own work. Another was that one of their own was a traitor, and had allowed the Tokugawa's power to fall even further.

No. Better to keep them guessing, keep them at a level that we can control. Nobutada calculated. The sooner it was all over, and attention could go back to aiding Hideyoshi's efforts, the better. The thought of future campaigns reminded Nobutada of something. "Father thinks you might benefit from accompanying me on the Shikoku Campaign, once we have eliminated the Mori."

Katsunaga's eyes widened at that. "What help could I be?" He asked.

"You've done well at running Iwamura Castle, and Father believes that you may have potential." Nobutada replied. "Nobutaka is already preparing to move into the eastern areas, and we'll be striking down north with Hideyoshi and Nobukatsu." He almost grimaced at the last name.

"It all seems so easy. Merely knocking down the last few pieces." Katsunaga said as his tone turned from meek to inquisitive.

"The Shimazu may give us some trouble, if they decide on needless resistance. The same goes for the Uesugi and the Hojo." Nobutada said, before finding his confidence again. "They will fail. Our victory is certain."

At that proclamation Katsunaga stopped in his tracks. Nobutada took two steps before his mind registered what had happened, turning his attention to his younger brother. The boy, well as much as someone could be a boy at fourteen years old, was almost shaking with fright. It seemed to be only willpower that kept him relatively steady.

"What's the matter?" Nobutada asked.

"It wasn't inevitable. We would have been defenceless. Akechi might have killed us, if it wasn't for Tadatsugu's warning." Katsunaga said. His voice kept itself steady.

"Yes, and that's why he'll be enjoying his land. When we are done with the Mori, he will have all the time in the world to bask in Father's forgiveness." Mitsuhide's betrayal of Nobuyasu, and excuse for why he was moving in soldiers, was enough for them to keep him alive for now.

When they were done, however, his fate would be different to what he expected. If he was lucky, he could be exiled to a monastery for the rest of his life, languishing the frugalities of monk-life. As time went on, however, Nobutada knew that his father was preferring the punishment he gave all would-be assassins.

The heir to the Oda would be lying if he said that he didn't sympathise with the idea. Sawing was brutal, but well-deserved in Mitsuhide's case.

The fool thinks he can take back what he would have done. To think that he assumed he could reach for the mountain-top and be safe from falling. Nobutada grimly smiled at such insanity. Only for him to remember certain other parts of Tadatsugu's report. The Hosokawa wouldn't have joined him, would they?

When they made the call to gather defenders, in case Mitsuhide tried to fight, or Nobuyasu overcame Akechi, the Hosokawa happily offered men to send out in aid. It was only the realisation that the Oda were safe in Azuchi Castle, rather than Honnoji, that made Mitsuhide back down. Yet he seemed certain that his father-in-law stood with him.

So who was right? It was clear that Nobunaga Oda had been giving in to some more of his...eccentric urges. His disdain for the Imperial Court and retainers who failed him was a particular sign of that, as well as the fact that he put his own name on a picture of Kami. Some were talking of him destroying the Imperial Court and making himself Emperor. Madness, but one that could spread.

Enough. Such thoughts are unnecessary. Nobutada focused on the important matter at hand. Mainly, rallying his younger brother. "The important thing is that we have nipped this in the bud. The Tokugawa will be busy bickering amongst themselves, and searching for evidence that isn't there in Nobuyasu's last words." Katsunaga nodded at that.

Even if Nobuyasu somehow discovered it and wrote down a clue, it couldn't be proven for truth. All of the Tokugawa inner circle knew that Nobuyasu and Tadatsugu did not get along in the best of times, for they knew, it was just hatred and paranoia taking over. At worst, Sakai Tadatsugu would become a figure of loathing to some, for what happened to their lord.

Those that wanted to make a stand now lacked a leader. Iemoto was not a fool, but he was not Nobuyasu, and he was certainly no Ieyasu.

Katsunaga shook his head. "Like father, like son. Both perish because of their rash nature." Katsunaga sighed. Nobutada's expression was clearer than he thought, judging by Katsunaga's confusion, or his brother was better at reading expressions than he thought. "Did I say something wrong?"

The Ieyasu that Nobutada remembered was bold, but not in the way that Katsunaga seemed to view it. The sort of man who disregarded strategy and culture for a fight, charging ahead without a care or plan. Ieyasu was anything but a fool, if ready to take a risk in leading his men forward. Was that how those who did not know him see him?

Then again, with what happened at Mikatagahara, were they wrong to think so? Did the reality truly matter?

"No. No, you didn't. I'm just thinking of something else." Nobutada muttered. A smile came to his face, happier memories coming to his mind. "Matsuhime has just been late in sending a letter."

Perhaps it would be the right time to give Sanposhi a brother and secure the line of inheritance even further.

Still, Katsunaga didn't completely believe him, showing that he had a head on those shoulders. From the looks of things, Katsunaga would be closer to Nobutaka than Nobukatsu, in terms of skill and character. With any luck, their father's hopes for him could be fulfilled.

With that, he put all thoughts of the Tokugawa family out of his head. In time, we will see how things are. Just negotiate with whoever the retainers have chosen to send, calm any tensions, and then hand over Nobuyasu's corpse. If it goes bad, then the Tokugawa can be assimilated in time.

It was a sad fate, but one that many clans saw, to be honest. Once they were true allies, the only one that the Oda could truly trust after the Azai's betrayal. With Ieyasu's passing, they inevitably became junior allies, closer to the highest retainer than an equal ally. Now the power balance between Oda and Tokugawa was clearly in the former's favour, and the latter's expense.

Had Ieyasu lived, perhaps things would have gone differently, Nobutada mused.

With a tired sigh, he and Katsunaga moved on.
 

Dom

Moderator
I don't actually know anything about Japanese history beyond a few names, but a good read nonetheless!
 
"Had Tokugawa lived...."

Very nice -- reminds me of EdT's The Bloody Man in that way. Remove one man, and many things go completely differently. Hopefully Hideyoshi dies swiftly so resources are not wasted on mainland Asia.
 
I don't actually know anything about Japanese history beyond a few names, but a good read nonetheless!

Thanks. I know new areas can be frightening, but this is a very interesting period, which has a lot of opportunities to play around with in terms of PODs and TLs. The POD itself is basically Ieyasu charging at the Takeda at Mikatagahara after things went south and some generals were trapped. IOTL, one of his generals forced him to fall back while they pretended to be him, and promptly died for their efforts. ITTL, Ieyasu moves in and dies as expected.

That said, finding accurate research can be difficult for a variety of reasons, one being that it's a niche area which requires translation. Most of my research comes from the works of Stephen Turnball, who has done numerous books on the period from Kawanakajima, to Nagashino, to the Imjin War, and even the Siege of Osaka itself. His books on Hideyoshi and Ieyasu themselves are pretty good as well.

The issue shows in the writing here as well. Shikoku's conquest was meant to be led by either Nobutada or Nobutaka, Nobunaga's third and likely most violent son, and some even suggest Nobukatsu playing a role despite being the incompetent one. I just went with Nobutaka handling the East, with Nobutada being the overall commander as he handles things going south.

On one hand, a good few sources mention of Tsukiyama's meddling, erratic nature, and jealousies, and Nobuyasu's cruelty and unpopularity with his retainers, but these often come from the Edo Period which would probably want to give Ieyasu the best possible reason for getting rid of them. Other sources mention Nobuyasu's bravery, skill, and general determination that matched his father during his younger years.

In the end, I wrote Nabuyasu thinking of someone who isn't the best, but does well enough. Some are inspired, some never really warm to him, but he's their lord. Whether they would have followed him into fighting on, had they assassinated Nobunaga successfully, is a fair question though. He's got a temper, made worse by the whole 'had to order his own mother's death' thing, especially as the two were close, and tends to have an issue of overcompensating in his attempt to prove himself.

Even with Nobutada, information is limited. Katsunaga was someone I just wrote as someone still nervous about their place as there's nothing on him besides being a Takeda hostage, and then the fatal trip to accompany his father on some campaigns. With Nobutada, I did have enough to know that he was the most similar to his father, trusted enough to lead the campaign in exterminating the Takeda and Hisahide Matsunaga, and was more grounded than his father was. He's got the Oda tendency towards violence often on an excessive level

"Had Tokugawa lived...."

Very nice -- reminds me of EdT's The Bloody Man in that way. Remove one man, and many things go completely differently.

The sad thing is that Ieyasu would have done things differently, as in he would have forced his son and heir to commit seppuku to prevent Nobuyasu from taking vengeance for his mother's death. The whole story is a bit grim. Lady Tsukiyama was a niece of Yoshimoto Imagawa and Ieyasu's first wife and had a reputation for devotion to her husband and her duties as a wife of a Daimyo, but was also prone to being erratic and jealous of those who challenged her place as matriarch. One example was Tokuhime, the daughter of Nobunaga's favourite concubine and wife to Nobuyasu, who failed to give birth to a son and tended to argue with Tsukiyama. At one point, a daughter of a former Takeda retainer was given to Nobuyasu as a concubine to give him a son, which angered Tokuhime.

She wrote a letter to her father, alleging a plot with the Takeda by Tsukiyama, and Nobunaga reacted as expected when told of a former Imagawa plotting with the Takeda by a favoured child. He told Ieyasu to execute her, which he did, and then Ieyasu took the initiative to off his heir to prevent him from taking revenge and prove his own loyalty.

ITTL, with Ieyasu dead, Nobuyasu is forced to do it when Nobunaga starts Insisting, and on advice of his retainers, and plans his revenge. One ending I had was having Tokuhime learn that she is pregnant again, with what might be a son, but I thought it'd be a bit much.

One thing that some may notice is that the same man who betrayed Nobuyasu, Sakai Tadatsugu, was the same one who didn't offer any defence for him or Tsukiyama when Nobunaga asked him (as someone he respected) if the allegations were true. Ieyasu apparently never fully forgave Tadatsugu for that, but it says something about the man that he kept the skilled general close and even trusted him to escort his new favourite Hidetada to Kyoto during the Siege of Odawara.

Hopefully Hideyoshi dies swiftly so resources are not wasted on mainland Asia.

On what next, well, that's going to be fun. Before he died, Nobunaga wrote letters to Hideyoshi on a certain pet-project he was thinking of doing once he took over Japan, which both men agreed was a worthy use of men and resources, and would unite the land under the glory of the Oda Clan. That project?

The invasion of China via Korea.

Now, Nobunaga near the end of his life was becoming more of an erratic personality. There's a reason why Hideyoshi and Ieyasu have been suspected of having a hand in pushing Mitsuhide along. Around this time, I even mention it in the vignette, Nobunaga had exiled two senior retainers for military incompetence and their part in aiding his younger brother in attempting to remove him...over two decades ago. Mitsuihide was routinely humiliated and saw his chances of promotion fade into nothing, and there are reports from Jesuits that Nobunaga's atheism was giving way to a god-complex, adding a picture of Kami with his name on it in his base in Azuchi Castle.

Needless to say, with this latest plot in mind, the Mori are going to lose and are going to die. Hideyoshi was nearing victory, drawing Mori Terumoto into the field, and this was what allowed him to get a quick peace deal so that he could go back and avenge Nobunaga IOTL. ITTL, Nobunaga is alive and still willing to take them down for their many years of opposition. Shikoku hasn't unified yet, only doing so just before Hideyoshi attacked a few years post-Honnoji, so that's going to be a cake-walk.

The Uesugi managed to fight off Katsuie Shibata IOTL, but this will likely see the Oda army turn back and wipe them out as well. Kenshin's dead, they've just finished a civil war over the succession, and there's no chaotic moment to use to survive. Finally, we have the Hojo, who only struck in the chaos of Nobunaga's death IOTL, and the Shimazu. The Shimazu may surrender, or go for a quick few fights to save face, while the Hojo are going to be wiped out as Kanto is parcelled out.

The issue is that Japan, just like with Hideyoshi, has a leader with dreams, a country filled with warriors wanting a fight, a need for unity, and a sense of being a warrior nation surrounded by weak neighbours. Nobunaga will probably do the same, and earlier than OTL, which might help with efforts but the same factors that doomed Japan IOTL will be the same here. If he's lucky, and knows when to call it quits, he'll make a deal to secure the south of Korea and gradually retreat from the area. If not, expect a very long and bloody quagmire that only dies with the mastermind just as it was IOTL.

After that, the question is what does Nobutada do?
 
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My take on the Imjin war was that the Japanese never made an attempt to occupy(and capture long-term) any part of Korea. I might be wrong, but that's just how everything looked - from the quick invasions to the city-based sieges, etc.
Great TL by the way. Has the last one died already? :p
 
Ah good, this will have more updates!

Man, Tokugawa was a cold motherfucker to make his son commit suicide like that. Shrewd, effective... and cold.

An erratic Oda also promises to be interesting; this god-complex could cause Euro shenanigans, and the erratic often do ridiculous things (like Pavel I of Russia declaring war on France because of the Knights Hospitaller)
 
My take on the Imjin war was that the Japanese never made an attempt to occupy(and capture long-term) any part of Korea. I might be wrong, but that's just how everything looked - from the quick invasions to the city-based sieges, etc.
Great TL by the way. Has the last one died already? :p

Just like the last one, it's a one-shot only.

On the Imjin War, the aim would be the same as OTL, the conquest of China. There was a proposal, during ceasefire negotiations, for the southern provinces of Korea to be given to Japan to rule over, although this came alongside very silly ideas such as a marriage between the Emperor and a Ming daughter, and so on. Hideyoshi aimed fairly high, to the point where that idea was one of the less silly ones, during a situation where the tide had turned against the Japanese and everything devolved into a cut and run to the South Coast.

I imagine Nobunaga, with his tendency to drop projects, might decide to adapt and shift direction from taking over China to having a toehold in the area to attack from. The question is one of timing and the situation on the ground itself. Sho wouldn't take the risk of lying to him, but that could just have things cancelled earlier, not to mention said apparent rising God complex and craziness that influenced him. If things are very bad, he might negotiate or work to show that his way can still work with more, well more than OTL somehow, brutality against the enemy.

Whether Nobunaga would even make such a deal is unknown. He made ceasefires before, but he always had the long-term aim of taking it, and if China becomes a lost dream, he might switch to taking Korea for later. Or he'd easily decide to force everyone to fight to the last, and be forced to make a ceasefire by circumstance. For all we know, it depends on how far Sho will go to keep the ceasefire going and what Nobunaga's conditions would be.

At most, being the most optimistic about the campaign could go, Japan could gain the southern areas of Korea. Whether Nobunaga could get that is up for debate.

Ah good, this will have more updates!

Man, Tokugawa was a cold motherfucker to make his son commit suicide like that. Shrewd, effective... and cold.

An erratic Oda also promises to be interesting; this god-complex could cause Euro shenanigans, and the erratic often do ridiculous things (like Pavel I of Russia declaring war on France because of the Knights Hospitaller)

See above. ;)

Yeah, that was what you did as a Daimyo. A healthy family relationship was a rare thing to find. Shingen made his oldest son commit suicide, his father before him had to be exiled for trying to disinherit him, Ieyasu's father told the Oda to kill him rather than have him break his agreement with the Imagawa (although the Oda were scared off from that), Masamune's mother favoured his younger brother and helped a revolt, and Ieyasu even favoured Hidetada over his next-oldest son, Yuki Hideyasu, who he disliked for some reason. Hell, Saito Dousan, Nobunaga's father-in-law who rose up from oil merchant, hated his son and heir and vice versa, with rumours of said son being the actual son of the Daimyo he had served and killed. Guess how that whole thing ended?

You did have some good relationships, such as the Mori family, the Hojo's relative unity, and even Nobunaga's relationship with his eldest son Nobutada. By the by, however, it was a pretty dangerous time, especially when the wrong heir could destroy everything. That's without getting into the question of brothers.

A lot of the policy of the Jesuits was to just focus on the people. They mostly admitted that Nobunaga was an atheist, but that he would be kept happy as long as they didn't cause noises, got the Buddhist monks angry, and promoted the profitable trade with the Europeans. The main reaction will probably be looking worried at how he seems to be seeing himself as master of all, but he'd probably wouldn't act on it
 
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