novelraw Chapter 247 247
Chapter 247 247
Tianzheng eight years, spring.
Antu City is bustling with pedestrians.This fortified city built by Oda Nobunaga is adjacent to Lake Biwa and close to Kyoto. It is a place that everyone yearns for at the moment.
The so-called "Antu" means "peace and paradise" - if you can live in this city, you will be safe and worry-free.And Antu City is also worthy of its name. This city, which symbolizes Nobunaga's hegemony, has become extremely prosperous under its governance. Countless people came here admiringly, and their families moved to it.
At the top of Antu City is a majestic Tianzhu Pavilion.The name of this work is "Tianshu Pavilion", because the lord of the castle, Oda Nobunaga, believes in Catholicism, he specially changed it to "Tianzhu Pavilion" to show that he is close to the sky.In other words, Oda Nobunaga, who is sitting on one side, is the so-called "lord of the world".
At this moment, in this gorgeous attic painted in gold and green, there are crowds of attendants and warriors coming and going, preparing for the upcoming banquet.
Whenever the cherry blossoms in spring are in bloom, no matter how busy and militant people are, they will stop and stop under the cherry blossom trees to linger.This year's cherry blossoms seem to be particularly prosperous, so the city lord ordered a cherry blossom viewing party to be held at the castle tower, first to enjoy the spring scenery, and second to celebrate the recent victories in Harima and Tajima.
The servants worked hard to spread the red silk and set up the curtain; the maids cooked the food, cut the fish and vinegar rice, and prepared meals for the banquet.Compared with the hustle and bustle under the stone wall, the Tianzhu Pavilion is much quieter.The fourth floor of the Tenju Pavilion is Nobunaga's favorite place to go when he is resting. The four walls here are painted with bamboo, pine and sunrise, pasted with gold leaf, which is extremely gorgeous; looking from the sliding door, you can see Lake Biwa The water waves, the scenery is very elegant and pleasant.
Oda Nobunaga, who was 47 years old at the time, sat here cross-legged, looking at Lake Biwa in the distance, lost in thought for a long time.
Although it was not yet time for the banquet to begin, he had already ordered someone to bring the wine cups, and taking advantage of this moment of leisure, he poured two sips by himself.There are no children, wives and concubines around, and there are no retainers and envoys around. This kind of tranquility has not been seen for a long time.
In the distance, Lake Biwa shimmered under the sun, and the lake was shining brightly. A few white water birds flapped their wings and disappeared into the clouds.Nobunaga squinted his eyes, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes unfolded layer by layer.He has been in and out of the battlefield since he was a teenager. Over the past few decades, he has expanded Tyranny to this point. When he came to his senses, he was already nearly half a hundred years old.
He has always refused to accept old age, no matter how old he is, he always feels that he is still full of boiling blood like a boy in his fifteenth, sixteenth or seventeenth.What's more, in the forties, in the eyes of others, he is also a mature man, and it is the most glorious moment for a man.
Nobunaga took a sip of wine slowly, slowly thinking about something in his mind.
The eldest son, Nobutada, is now in his twenties.Although he is not the biological son of his wife Gui Die, his talent is worthy of his status as "Heir apparent".When I really get old in the future, maybe I can consider letting him inherit the family business.
How time flies.
In a blink of an eye, even his own child has grown into an indomitable man.
Nobunaga drank a few more cups, already feeling a little tipsy.Suddenly, a figure seemed to appear in front of his eyes.It was the figure of a woman, her hair was like ink, and her figure was slim, like a quietly blooming Ye Tan.At first, he thought it was his wife returning home, but after a closer look, it was not the case.
It was a young girl, not Gui Die today.her facial features
To Nobunaga, there is a vague sense of familiarity, but it seems to have been covered with dust for decades, and no matter how you wipe it with your hands, you can't wipe it clearly. The 47-year-old Nobunaga squinted his eyes and tried hard to recall, rummaging through the countless faces he had seen in his nearly 50 years of life.
Finally, he faintly remembered——
Long, long ago, when he was a 15-year-old boy known as "Owari's Big Fool," he met a woman named "Yu".
Even though decades have passed, Nobunaga still remembers that she has an extremely outstanding appearance, so that in the following decades, Nobunaga has never seen a more beautiful woman than her.
No... not necessarily so.
It's just that he was 15 years old at that time, young, vigorous and vigorous, and he found everything beautiful.Perhaps it was the woman named You who carried his memories of being in Furuno City when he was a teenager, so he thought her appearance was beautiful.
Nobunaga half-closed his eyes, knowing that such a phantom would appear in front of his eyes because he was drunk, but he still tried to talk to this phantom from the past, "Are you Ayu?"
The young girl turned around, showing a gentle smile, and nodded: "Master Nobunaga, do you still remember me?"
She was wearing the two-tube-pattern gown that Nobunaga remembered, with a bat fan with a tooth handle stuck around her waist, her jet-black hair tied behind her back with a sandalwood belt, and her complexion was as quiet and beautiful as before.
Nobunaga smiled at the phantom: "Of course I will remember. The person who dared to pretend to be the princess of Mino Kingdom...you are the only one. Later, when Gui Die married, he was also very surprised when he heard about it, and said he wanted to See you."
Gui Die is a sassy and interesting woman, she heard about Yu from Nobunaga, and she really wanted to meet this bold and wonderful girl.
"Master Gui Die actually reacted like this?" The phantom of the woman knelt down beside Nobunaga, poured wine for him, with a demure and docile posture, as if she had served by the overlord's side for many years.
Nobunaga looked at her profile, and murmured: "You still look like you when you were young, but I am getting old. Soon, I will become a gray-haired old man, right?"
The woman didn't answer, just looked at him with a smile.
Nobunaga tried his best to recall what happened when he was 15 years old - he was ordered to marry Saito Guicho, the princess of Mino Kingdom, but Guidie was pretended by the woman in front of him.With a tentative attitude, he treated her as a real returning butterfly, took her to ride a horse to see the sunset of Furuno Castle, and made him try the iron cannon that had just been introduced to Owari country at that time.Ayou seems to be very talented with iron cannons. When he first used it, he hit the very center of the water tank...
At that time, I was still young, with the appearance of a young man; unlike now, there are some white strands in my hair, and my face gradually has grooves; when I undress and go to bed, I see the old scars on my body, and I can always think of what I have experienced in the past countless wars.
"Yu, where did you go after you left Furuno City?" He asked.
He was really curious.
After the real Guidie was found, You disappeared overnight and could not be found anywhere.No matter how many servants he sent to look for her, he still couldn't get any clues about her, as if there had never been such a woman in the world, or it was just a dream of his youth.It's just that after a long time, he mistook the dream for something that really happened.
However, women
She didn't answer his question either, just looked at him with a smile.
Nobunaga picked up the wine cup, and with a flash in front of his eyes, her appearance seemed to be changing between blur and clarity.He guessed that this woman was an afterimage in front of his eyes after being drunk, so she couldn't answer the questions he didn't know, but could only answer what he knew.
"That's all..." Nobunaga gave up asking her.He stared at her quiet smiling face, and thought of many things from his youth, he couldn't hold it back for a while, and started talking in a rambling manner.
"You said that Gui Die was a woman who would accompany me for the rest of my life. After she got married, I found that she was indeed quite capable and a very powerful woman. We have been married for more than 30 years, and I always think so."
"When I was young, you said that one day, I would have my own 'Peace and Paradise'. Now I have built this city and named it 'Antu', which just fits the meaning."
"The sunset at Azuchi Castle is also beautiful, but the sunset at Furuno Castle seems to be more charming..."
"I have many children. The eldest son Nobutada is very capable and useful. But he is not good at iron cannons. Compared with iron cannons, he prefers to wield knives and guns. I often say to him 'this way No way', sooner or later, the iron cannon will make the knives and guns disappear...but he doesn't take it very seriously."
"Catholicism, this is something I only came into contact with later. Are those things from the West interesting?"
Nobunaga rambled on for a long time, but the woman just sat quietly, listening with a smile.In the distance, Lake Biwa is quietly glowing with waves, and water birds make thin calls and walk on the water waves.When Nobunaga finally finished speaking, she looked over with a pair of clear eyes, nodded, and said, "I know everything."
After a moment of silence, she smiled and said, "I know that everything is fine with Mr. Nobunaga, I am satisfied."
Nobunaga listened and let out a slow breath.
"Nobunaga-sama, Nobunaga-sama. Are you awake?" An attendant called from behind, and Oda Nobunaga rubbed his forehead, slowly waking up from his drunkenness.The attendant was still calling him, and said, "The banquet is about to start, Changbin Hall and Sakamoto Hall are already here, do you want to go down?"
The servants, surnamed Mori Lanmaru and Mori Lanfang, waited outside the door with a knife.Nobunaga looked at their familiar faces, as if being pulled back to reality from a dream.He turned his head and looked at the place where Fang Caiyou was sitting—it was empty, without any phantom of a woman, and the distant Lake Biwa was still shining with magnificent sunlight, and the waves were undulating.
"Forget it..." Nobunaga said, standing up, "Let's go. I'm in a good mood today, how about... let me present a Noh play for everyone. "Atsushi", how about it?"
Mori Ranmaru responded at the door: "It's an honor."
"Hahahaha..." Nobunaga laughed, "It's a piece of good fortune, and I never get tired of listening to it." After saying that, he walked towards His Excellency with his entourage.
At the wine cup behind him, there was left a cypress fan with a tooth handle used by women; the cypress fan was quietly leaning against the wine pot, without making a sound.
◎The author has something to say:
Nobunaga is intentional, and Youyou is ruthless.