Chapter 944: The Failed Alliance |
PS: First of all, let's unify the response. The Kamen Rider form of Shima Takeshi can be directly referenced to the Witch Rider.
"Is he just saying some bad things?" Liu Xing asked seriously.
Li Hanxing nodded and said seriously, "From the expression of that bespectacled man and the things he said, he probably only heard some bad things, and he didn't make any promises to the high-ranking member of the Shimazu Family. He only mentioned that he would pay more attention to another high-ranking member of the Shimazu Family."
It seems that Shima Mitsuhiro is not in a hurry to succeed and directly tries to win over the Ii Trio.
However, speaking of which, Liu Xing suddenly became very curious about one thing, which is whether Shima Mitsuhiro is worried that the Ii Trio will inform Shima Takeshi.
Or, Shima Takeshi will directly confront the Ii Trio.
If Shima Takeshi directly confronts the Ii Trio and informs them that he has already risen from below and is preparing to usurp the nest, then the Ii Family, or even the Public Faction, should choose to stand on Shima Takeshi's side... Of course, the Ii Family and the Public Faction will not openly support Shima Takeshi, but will secretly provide some convenience for Shima Takeshi.
Because the time bomb of Shima Takeshi can only play its greatest role when it is detonated at certain specific times.
At that time, after Shima Takeshi learned that Shima Mitsuhiro had said bad things to the Ii Trio, the most likely choice he would make is to let the Ii Trio pretend to believe Shima Mitsuhiro, but in fact, they are trying to find out the truth about Shima Mitsuhiro.
However, speaking of taking action, Liu Xing thought of another question, which is when will Kitano Masakazu launch an attack on the Shimazu Residence?
From the current situation, since Shima Mitsuhiro is risking his life to come out and attract Shima Takeshi's attention, it is obvious that he wants to lure the tiger away from the mountain, using himself as bait to force Shima Takeshi to leave the Shimazu Residence and come to the city center of Kagoshima to "confront" him. After all, a soldier against a soldier, a general against a general, it is impossible for Shima Takeshi to arrange for his subordinates to go with Shima Mitsuhiro to pick up the Ii Trio, right?
Of course, Shima Takeshi should also know that Shima Mitsuhiro is trying to lure him, so he just transformed into Kamen Rider and left the Shimazu Group building through the teleportation gate, and it is most likely that he will return to the Shimazu Residence to make arrangements, preparing to turn the tables on him, because Shima Takeshi is well aware that Shima Mitsuhiro will definitely monitor outside the Shimazu Group building to confirm his movements. Therefore, as long as he leaves the Shimazu Group building in a normal way after everything is arranged, the sneak attack launched by Kitano Masakazu may turn into an encounter.
"Liu Xing, do we need to continue tracking the members of the Ii Family now?"
Li Hanxing looked at Liu Xing, who was deep in thought, and said, "If we delay any longer, we might lose track of them."
Liu Xing, who had snapped out of his thoughts, nodded and stood up, saying, "Let's go, we'll continue tracking the members of the Ii Family, but Sun Huiwen, if you can, go back to the Shimazu Group building first and pretend to be a client who has come to do business. Ask the receptionist if Shima Takeshi is still there."
"Shima Takeshi? Is he the high-ranking member of the Shimazu Family who was just badmouthed? His name sounds a bit familiar to me." Sun Huiwen followed behind Liu Xing and said, "Oh, I remember now. Isn't this Shima Takeshi the adopted son-in-law of the current chieftain of the Shimazu Family? After Li Hanxing and I came to Kagoshima, we collected some intelligence about the Shimazu Family. Unfortunately, the chieftain of the Shimazu Family has already gone to Osaka to serve as the commander of the Warrior Faction, so we lost interest in doing business with the Shimazu Family. After all, with our level of fame, it's hard to meet the leader of a certain faction."
"However, this Shima Takeshi is quite interesting, or rather, we are very interested in his status as an adopted son-in-law. After all, being an adopted son-in-law is also a unique feature of the Island Nation. There are quite a few famous people in the Island Nation who are adopted. But speaking of which, this situation should also have been passed down from China, because in ancient China, there were many generals who held real power and adopted many foster sons, cultivating them into the elite or bodyguards of their own troops, or even their private soldiers."
"Speaking of this, I suddenly thought of a person, the second-generation famous general of the Ming Dynasty, Lan Yu. His military strength was not inferior to that of the founding generals Xu Da and Chang Yuchun. He originally had a great chance to become the number one general of the Ming Dynasty at that time, but unfortunately, he was lacking in other aspects and repeatedly offended Zhu Yuanzhang's taboos, missing many opportunities to stay alive. However, the most important thing is that he also recruited over a thousand foster sons, which gave Zhu Yuanzhang a handle. Under the pretext of plotting a rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang executed Lan Yu's entire family."
Liu Xing suddenly realized that Sun Huiwen, like himself, was a person with "active thinking," and in just a few sentences, she had shifted the topic from "Island Nation adopted son-in-law" to the "Ming Dynasty Lan Yu Case."
Fortunately, at this time, Sun Huiwen also realized that she had gone off-topic, so she quickly brought the topic back, "Ahem, let's get back to the main topic. After hearing that Shima Takeshi is the adopted son-in-law of Shimazu Nakano, we looked up some related information. Although the practice of adopting sons-in-law is very common in the Island Nation, there hasn't been a case where an adopted son-in-law has taken control of a powerful family like the Shimazu Family. These families are all well-established, and if the main family does not have suitable talent to support the family, they can still adopt a suitable candidate from a branch family. If that doesn't work, they can directly cultivate an unstable tool person to work for them."
"So, when we learned that Shimazu Nakano had the idea of making Shima Takeshi her adopted son-in-law, we specifically asked someone to collect some intelligence. It turned out that Shima Takeshi's father had a very good relationship with Shimazu Nakano and even saved her life once. Therefore, Shima Takeshi was able to become Shimazu Nakano's son-in-law. At first glance, this seems quite normal, like a typical story of repaying a life-saving favor—you save my life, so I'll marry my daughter to you. But upon closer inspection, it makes one feel that the situation is a bit strange, because Shimazu Nakano only has this one daughter."
"Although it seems that families like the Shimazu Family, which are of high status and have a long history, are already in decline and have almost no presence in daily life, we all know that these families are still secretly controlling every aspect of the Island Nation. Therefore, these families are very fond of marriage alliances, because marriage is an alliance. After all, only with blood ties can both sides have the opportunity to take the relationship further. Therefore, we discovered that Shimazu Nakano's daughter had already become a couple with the son of the chieftain of the neighboring Otomo Family when she was in high school, and they even went to England to study together. At that time, the major families of the Island Nation believed that the Shimazu Family would form an alliance with the Otomo Family through marriage."
"Although historically, the Shimazu Family, as the leader of Southern Kyushu, had fought many wars with the Otomo Family, the leader of northern Kyushu, and they should be considered mortal enemies. However, after the end of the Warring States period, the Shimazu Family and the Otomo Family were both suppressed by the Tokugawa Shogunate. As neighbors, the two families began to sympathize with each other and secretly support each other. Therefore, their relationship has been gradually improving, but they have never crossed the final line. To make an inappropriate analogy, it's like being more than friends but less than lovers. Therefore, the various families believed that if the Shimazu Family and the Otomo Family wanted to take their relationship further, marriage would be the best method."
"Therefore, when Shimazu Nakano's daughter was just born, the chieftain of the Otomo Family joked about letting her daughter get engaged to his son when he came to Kagoshima to offer congratulations, and Shimazu Nakano readily agreed. Almost every time Shimazu Nakano visited the Otomo Family, she would bring her daughter along. When Shimazu Nakano's daughter started school, the Otomo Family arranged for their son to study in Kagoshima and even stay with the Shimazu Family temporarily."
"It's clear to see that the Shimazu Family intended to form an alliance with the Otomo Family through marriage, allowing their true relationship to cross the final step and jointly control the Kyushu region. After all, there are only two major families in the Kyushu region, and if they were to form an alliance through marriage, the remaining small families would have no room for resistance. However, precisely because of this, both the Shimazu Family and the Otomo Family were worried that someone would try to sabotage this marriage alliance, as the other families in the Island Nation did not want the Kyushu region to be completely dominated by a single family. Therefore, the two families never publicly announced their engagement."
"Although they never announced their engagement, Shimazu Nakano's daughter had already fallen in love with the young master of the Otomo Family when she was in middle school. From an outsider's perspective, the two were genuinely in love and were not forced together by their parents or families. Most importantly, they looked like a perfect match, so the marriage alliance between the Shimazu Family and the Otomo Family was seen as an inevitable outcome, especially when Shimazu Nakano's daughter and the young master of the Otomo Family went to England to study together. Everyone believed that they would get married after returning to Japan."
"However, during this period, the situation suddenly changed dramatically! First, Shimazu Nakano suddenly claimed in private that she had no children, and there was no suitable candidate among the younger generation in the main family. This led others to believe that Shimazu Nakano intended to let the young master of the Otomo Family marry into her family, which was a common practice in the Island Nation. In the past, there had been many families that used marriage alliances to bring in members of other families to serve as the head of the family. Although this may have posed the risk of other families controlling the main family, and there had indeed been many such cases in history."
"However, from the situation at that time, the Shimazu Family was still stronger than the Otomo Family. Therefore, the Shimazu Family did not need to worry too much about the young master of the Otomo Family having ulterior motives after marrying into the family. Moreover, this young master was only the second son of the Otomo Family, and his older brother had already been confirmed as the next heir of the Otomo Family. Therefore, letting him marry into the Shimazu Family and become the next head of the family was an acceptable arrangement for both the Shimazu Family and the Otomo Family."
"However, not long after, Shimazu Nakano suddenly announced that she had adopted the son of her life-saver, Fujino Tsuyoshi—Fujino Takeshi, because Fujino Tsuyoshi had left a chronic illness after saving her and had suddenly passed away recently. At that time, everyone still believed that Fujino Takeshi, now known as Shima Takeshi, was only adopted by Shimazu Nakano to repay her gratitude. Although Shima Takeshi had graduated from a prestigious university at the time, he was still a few levels below the true academic elites and geniuses. Therefore, people like him were not even considered as tools by the major families, so not many people would have thought that Shima Takeshi would marry Shimazu Nakano's daughter just a few months later."
"Wait, they got married just a few months later?! Sun Huiwen, are your information channels really reliable? Is this gossip from that forum?"
Liu Xing looked at Sun Huiwen with some surprise.
Due to the urgency of the situation, Liu Xing and the others' understanding of Shima Takeshi mostly came from Shima Mitsuhiro. Although Sawada Yinyin also investigated Shima Takeshi's situation, due to the inherent shortcomings of the Sawada Family, the amount of information she was able to collect was limited, and this information was mostly about what happened after Shima Takeshi became Shimazu Nakano's adopted son-in-law.
Therefore, Liu Xing was unaware of what Sun Huiwen had just said.
"Please rest assured about the reliability of the information channels, Liu Xing. We mercenaries value information channels the most, so I can guarantee that these messages are all true and reliable. However, this matter, how should I put it... Although the Otomo Family did not say anything later, and their second young master also got married and had children soon after, their cooperation with the Shimazu Family continued. But this matter seems very strange, or even bizarre, because in just a few short months, Shimazu Nakano married her daughter to an obscure adopted son. This operation is simply baffling."
"Therefore, the Shimazu Family either issued a gag order or paid hush money to those who knew the truth. In the eyes of ordinary people and those small families that were not up to par, the daughter of the chieftain of the Shimazu Family married an ordinary person, which made them believe in love that transcends social classes once again. This caused quite a stir at the time, but the heat quickly disappeared under the deliberate suppression of the Shimazu Family. After that, Shima Takeshi rarely appeared in public, and now ordinary people may still remember that he exists, but they most likely do not know that he has become the person in charge of the Shimazu Family's business." Sun Huiwen said seriously.
Hearing this, Liu Xing was truly confused and couldn't understand what was going on.
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