"Patrick Tilley - Amtrak 5 - Death - Bringer" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tilley Patrick)

Mr Snow could not read or write but possessed gifts of memory and
magic: Ieyasu was literate, extremely well educated and although he was
unable to summon earth and sky forces to his aid, the skill and cunning
with which he outmanoeuvred all those who sought to remove him from
power was little short of supernatural.

Before Yoritomo's accession to the throne at the tender age of
twenty-three, Ieyasu had exercised absolute power in the name of the
Shogun's dissolute father. Yoritomo,




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now twenty-nine, was made of
different cloth. Restrained in his sexual appetites, something of an
ascetic in his attitude to food and drink, overburdened with a tiresome
morality and obsessed with traditional values, Yoritomo had proved
particularly difficult to deal with. And the main source of difficulty
was his determination to take sole charge of the nation's affairs and
ignore the voice of experience. The voice, of course, being that of
his granduncle.

It was hard enough trying to keep the government afloat and
conspirators at bay without having to reeducate an aspiring saint who
was trying to manoeuvre you out of office. In time, Yoritomo would
learn. But he would learn a lot quicker and make life a lot easier for
everyone by absorbing the distilled wisdom of his grand-uncle.

Something he had done with the utmost reluctance.

In part, it was a natural reaction to the moral laxity which had
pervaded the Inner Court during his father's reign. As a new broom,
Yoritomo wanted to make a clean sweep. A perfectly laudable aim. The
court was in need of a thorough spring cleaning. But in politics one
never did anything to excess. Yoritomo did not understand the
importance of leaving a little dirt in the corners. His puritanical
streak - laudable in a monk but utterly depressing in a vigorous,
intelligent young man holding the highest office in the land - was
blinding him to the realities of power.

The young shogun had not yet grasped an essential truth: exploiting the
weaknesses of powerful men - especially powerful opponents - was an
important element in the art of statecraft. It was also true that a
nation needed honest men of high principle and modest ambition. They
made excellent civil servants.