When the wandering Japanese samurai Mitsuhide was appreciated by Oda Nobunaga and became a vassal, he swore: "Mitsuhide, who is a fallen warrior, is treated with great courtesy by Nobunaga's lord, and is also ranked with other important courtiers." Be gracious to the Lord, and work to pieces! ”
(Wise Hikari)
However, he soon after, he killed Oda Nobunaga. What's going on?
Wise Mitsuhide was a bitter child who lost his father at a young age and was raised in foster care with his uncle's parents.
The account of his youth is almost blank. However, according to the Chronicle of the Wise Army, the Wise Family is a branch of the Toki clan of the Mino Clan, and should be regarded as a descendant of the Takeda clan.
In any case, the childhood under the fence should have nothing to remember. Therefore, when Wise Mitsuhide grew up, he began his career path.
At first, Mitsuhide was a vassal of the Saito Michi clan. However, the days of peace did not last long, and Saito Michizo's son Saito Yoshiryu, after killing his father and becoming the new head of the house, immediately launched an attack on the Meiji family, which had always been close to Saito Michizo, and the weak Wise Family soon perished, and Wise Mitsuhide was forced to flee.
Soon after, Mitsuhide yukyo wandered to Echizen Ande and became a vassal of the Asakura family. However, the Asakura family despised him, so he did not stay long before he resigned from his post and continued to wander.
Just as he was leaving Echizen Kingdom, he met Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the younger brother of the Seiyi general Ashikaga Yoshiaki. Ashikaga Yoshiaki was expelled from Kyoto after his defeat. Unwillingly, he wanted to find Asakura to help him return to Kyoto, but Asakura refused. So he pinned his hopes on the Takeda family, but was also rejected. Seeing that Ashikaga Yoshiaki was frustrated, Akira Mitsuhide advised him to go to Oda Nobunaga, who was the strongest at the time, and was willing to follow him and become his vassal.
(Oda Nobunaga)
At the Oda Nobunaga family, Mitsuhide, with his outstanding eloquence, persuaded the skeptical Oda Nobunaga to agree to help Ashikaga Yoshiaki regain his position as a shogun of Seiyi. At the same time, Oda Nobunaga greatly appreciated the talents of Mitsuhide Akemitsu and directly told Ashikaga Yoshiaki that it would be better to let Mitsuhide serve the Oda family as a vassal.
Ashikaga Yoshiaki naturally had no objection to this suggestion, after all, he was still waiting for Oda Nobunaga's rescue! So he readily agreed.
In this way, after going around in circles, Mitsuhide became a vassal of Oda Nobunaga, who was now forty years old.
As a warrior, Wise Mitsuhide can only truly gain the recognition of the Oda family by virtue of his merits, and with Oda Nobunaga's ambition of "the world of Bubu", Wise Mitsuhide really has a lot of opportunities to obtain meritorious achievements!
Sure enough, the days that followed with Oda Nobunaga were numerous, and Wise Mitsuhide was not only brave, but also quite strategic. This played an important role in the conquest, and Wise Mitsuhide also received many merits as a result.
Oda Nobunaga, who had a clear reward and punishment, soon gave the wise Mitsuhide Hanmoto New Castle, making him a wandering samurai to a prince with a territory of 50,000 stones. Immediately after destroying the Asakura clan, he was appointed acting governor of Asakura Domain.
(Tianxia Buwu)
According to historical records, the rewards and value received by Mitsuhide wisely surprised Oda Nobunaga's former courtiers. This also reflects from the side that the spring of the wise light show has finally arrived. Therefore, wise Mitsuhide, in all gratitude, made a vow to Oda Nobunaga to be loyal to Oda Nobunaga.
However, the master-servant relationship between fish and water is too idealistic, because everyone has a character flaw.
In 1579, Mitsuhide was ordered by Oda Nobunaga to attack the Hatano family. Wise Mitsuhide, who was unwilling to "take the world of Buwu", in order to persuade the Hatano family to surrender, took his mother as a hostage, negotiated with the Hatano family many times, and finally won the trust of the Hatano family and expressed his willingness to surrender.
Just when Hideharu Hatano, the head of the Hatano family, led his brother to personally apologize to Oda Nobunaga for surrendering, Oda Nobunaga beheaded him and his brother on the grounds of his capriciousness and untrustworthiness. In anger, the Hatano family also killed Mitsuhide's mother.
After this incident, Mitsuhide's initial gratitude to Oda Nobunaga turned into resentment, but he did not yet have the intention of rebelling.
(Honnoji's Change)
In 1582, Oda Nobunaga, who had occupied almost all of Kyoto, hosted a banquet at his home to Tokugawa Ieyasu and his party, and the person in charge of the reception was Mitsuhide. As a result, at the banquet, Oda Nobuhide slapped Mitsuhide several times in front of everyone because of the different taste of fish, and scolded him. Fortunately, under the persuasion of his courtiers, he allowed Wise Guangxiu to continue to preside over the hospitality work. But wise Mitsuhide, who was a heavy minister, was a very self-respecting person, and the embarrassment at that time could be imagined.
Two days after this incident, Oda Nobuhide ordered Mitsuhide to become a vassal of the prince Toyotomi Hideyoshi and asked him to attack Korea with Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Shortly after Mitsuhide's departure, Oda Nobunaga deprived him of the two territories that had been given to him, Tanba Kameyama and Omi Sakamoto. At the same time, he was also preparing to attack the Nagamasa Ibu yuan who was close to The Wise Mitsuhide.
Perhaps it was for these reasons that the wise Mitsuhide, who was preparing to support Toyotomi Hideyoshi, suddenly changed his mind about obeying Oda Nobunaga's orders, and then returned to Kyoto with more than 13,000 people, and raided Oda Nobunaga, who had only one hundred and sixty people around him, triggering the Honnōji Rebellion and killing Oda Nobunaga.
(Reference: History of the Warring States of Japan)