Narrow Road To The Deep North 13

In 1567 Nobunaga captured and moved his capital to the Saitō clan Castle at Inabayama, renaming it and the surrounding town, Gifu, after the fortress from which Chou ruler Wu Wang set out in the 12th Century to unify China.  Everything about the move was auspicious, including his new alliances with Matsudaira Motoyasu and Takeda Shingen. Here, he revealed his ambition to conquer the whole of Japan, and adopted his new personal motto Tenka Fubu, ‘The nation under one sword.’ Nobunaga determined to exist in political limbo, expressing little interest in orthodox rank or titles, including that of shogun. But the fool of Owari, gradually and unambiguously, became the real ruler in Kyoto.
The how had arrived in Gifu with why, a year later, in the form of Yoshiaki, brother of the Ashikaga shogun Yoshiteru, murdered by the Miyoshi plotters who had just installed puppet ruler Yoshihide. Yoshiaki wanted revenge. Nobunaga agreed to help him, and began a campaign, through the Rokkaku clan in southern Ōmi, driving the Miyoshi out of Kyoto.
Yoshiaki became the 15th ruler of the Ashikaga shogunate, the ‘wandering shogun,’ and Nobunaga began to restrict his powers. The daimyô who lived outside Nobunaga's sphere of influence became quite agitated by the developments in Kyoto. Upheaval in the capital was nothing new- but Nobunaga was quite unlike any of the various powerful lords of the past. They had struggled for personal gain and prestige. Nobunaga aimed to rule all of Japan. By taking Kyoto, Nobunaga had positioned himself in the 'soft under-belly' center of the nation, in the right place at the right time with the right window. Location, location, location. The other great warlords of his day Môri Motonari, Takeda Shingen, Uesugi Kenshin, and Hôjô Ujiyasu, were all far removed from the capital, and in the case of the last three, unable to move due to the ambitions of their neighbors. 
Nobunaga’s power eminated from the point of his sword, and as it grew, his need for diplomacy diminished. He kept a tight rein on his retainers, was ruthless to his opponents, especially those who proved troublesome, and his campaigns would be long and hard-fought as his reputation for cruelty grew. Few of his enemies had any illusion about what surrender meant. In a wild land of 260 Warring State feudal samurai daimyô domains, Oda Nobunaga would make more than a few.
In early 1570, Yoshiaki, displeased with his lack of real power, secretly forged an anti-Nobunaga alliance with the Asakura clan, the Azai clan, and the Buddhist Ikkō-ikki rebels. Suspicious, Nobunaga pressed Yoshiaki to request all the local daimyô to come to Kyôto for a banquet. Asakura Yoshikage refused, an act Nobunaga declared disloyal to both the shogun and the emperor. With this pretext, Nobunaga raised an army and marched into his province of Echizen. By March, Nobunaga, supported by Tokugawa Ieyasu, had penetrated its southern approaches and was moving on Yoshikage's capital of Ichijo-no-tani. Just then, Oda received the startling news that his brother-in-law, Asai Nagamasa, had switched sides to help the Asakura.