Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 327 The "Chen" of Sunrise

The Osaka Castle standing at the mouth of Osaka Bay is undoubtedly the most magnificent city in this era. From the time he started construction in 1583 until Tokugawa Ieyasu launched the Osaka Summer War, he has been building it for 30 years and has not completed Hideyoshi's plan.

But this magnificent city seems solid and reliable, but it is actually riddled with holes.

Whether in the past or now, there has never been a secret in Osaka City.

No matter how much Hideyoshi wanted to keep it a secret, what happened in Osaka Castle that day was finally spread out, and it was even more outrageous because of people's echoes.

Some people even said: "Because of concealing knowledge and actions, the Secretary of State was punished by his adoptive father, His Highness Guan Bai, who looked at his right hand."

Some people also said that "it was because His Highness Guan Bai wanted to punish the retainers of the Palace of Zhongwu, and then had a dispute with the Palace of Zhongwu, and the two sides drew their swords and slashed down at the Palace of Zhongwu".

As the situation escalated, Hideyoshi had to personally quell public opinion, and asked Ishida Mitsunari to hunt down those who spread rumors.

However, the news of Osaka was still spread through merchants and entertainers from all over the country. Of course, these are all things to come.

It was early September when Xiu's family returned to Okayama, and the news had not yet spread here. The entire Okayama city was adorned with lanterns and festoons to welcome their Patriarch.

As the Xiu family was appointed as the four upper and middle ministers, and even got the surname of Toyotomi's courtiers, and allowed to directly display this surname to others, all the warriors of the Qibei Seven Kingdoms were extremely excited.

Because in their view, Toyotomi Hideyoshi is the most promising person to evaluate the world, and this world will be the world of Toyotomi from now on.

Then my master's family will become a member of the Toyotomi family, and even have a million stone height. In the future, they will definitely be leaders of the leadership level, and their status will also rise.

Therefore, when they received the news that Xiu's family was about to arrive in the city, they sent someone to meet him in the castle town.

But beyond the expectations of the retainers, their house governor responded very coldly to their enthusiasm. The young and energetic house governor sat on his horse and held the rein with his right hand and entered the city silently.

What the Xiu family didn't know was that in order to give themselves a gift to improve their status, the retainers found the painters around them and specially painted a picture of "Prancing Horse Entering the City" for Xiu family.

It's just that they didn't know that the reason why Xiujia maintained such a posture was entirely to cover up the incompleteness of his right little finger.

The first thing Hideya does when he returns to Okayama is to go back to his inner hall to visit Naoko who is already in bed waiting for delivery.

Since the two hit the target ten rings last December, Zhizi has been pregnant for more than nine months, and now she is about to give birth.

This is the first child of the Xiu family, so Yuxi's family doesn't pay attention to it. In order to ensure the smooth delivery of Zhizi, he is surrounded by more than a dozen female testers and maids every day, and the sex court is accompanied by him day and night to ensure safety. Lost the possibility of the other concubines of the Xiu family contacting her.

The Xiu family heard the news of her pregnancy as early as when they were in Meinong, and had long wanted to come back to accompany the delivery. After all, this was the first child of the Xiu family's two generations.

It was also this child who supported Xiu's family to come out of the devil's lair in Osaka.

"Does Your Highness like boys or girls?" Although Naoko is 7 years older than Xiujia, she is now snuggling in Xiujia's arms like a child, asking in a low voice.

"Cough cough" Hearing Naoko's question, Jian Xing Yuan who was serving at the side coughed twice and said, "His Royal Highness is blessed for thousands of years, and I have personally pulled the pulse. This baby must be a boy."

Xiujia was a little surprised when he heard that, can this pulse tell the difference between men and women?
But when answering Naoko's question, although the Hide family has been educated by later generations and doesn't care about men and women, this is ancient times after all, and carrying on the family line is the top priority.

And now there are so many pairs of eyes looking at me, I have to make a correct statement, so Xiujia said to Naoko, "The girl I will give birth to will be as considerate as Naoko, but I still hope to give birth to a boy. Yuxi's family business can be regarded as having an heir."

Naoko turned her head to look at Xiujia and replied sweetly, "Then I will give birth to a boy for Your Highness."

"How can one be enough? Naoko will have several more children for me in the future." Xiujia teased, wanting to caress Naoko's stomach involuntarily.

After comforting the family members, the Xiu family returned to the front hall in a hurry. The elders of the family, Nagafune Zhenqin, Ukita Kanjia, Akashi Jingqin and a group of retainers had been waiting here for a long time.

The most important thing for the Xiu family here is to issue a certificate of military service. Everyone present here knows that there is no need for unnecessary nonsense, and they held up the roster of warriors of the Yuxi family to ask the Xiu family to appoint generals.

This is actually a traditional link. In the past, when the Yuxi family was still young, there were not so many troubles. With the continuous victories of the Xiu family, the knowledge of the Yuxi family has expanded several times, and the original small booklet has also been divided into 5 parts. Recorded separately in the booklet, the mobilization order originally issued by the patriarch himself has also become a method in which the patriarch orders the retainers and the retainers issue them on their behalf.

Xiujia casually flipped through a few pages, called a few names, and said to Ukita's interpreter, "Ukita Dazai Shaoer is the vanguard general, and Akashi Yishou is the generation of the Chinese army. All the samurai are mobilized, and I will go to Kyushu with me on September 9."

"Ha Yi! I will fight the enemy bravely and repay the king with death."

Akashi Jingqin, as the representative of the Chinese army, was in charge of recruiting the army. He took over the seal of imperial orders and troop deployment from the Xiu family, saluted the Xiu family, turned around, and greeted the warriors in the temple whose names the Xiu family had just called out. Assign tasks and let them go to various places in Yuxi to deliver mobilization orders.

Every time a samurai stepped forward to receive an order, he would receive a volume of imperial orders and an order flag from his hand with a "hinging sound", then turn around and leave the hall quickly.

The whole process seems a little cumbersome and complicated, but it symbolizes that the Xiu family has absolute control over this feudal kingdom.

Compared with the Dongguo and Kinki daimyos who had been mobilized in advance, Ukita's actions were considered slow.But for such a full-collar mobilization, no elder would dare to recruit on behalf of the Xiu family without the approval of the Xiu family.

It's also because the Xiu family came back late, Yuxi's family has basically completed the harvest of autumn grain in the seven countries, and now there is only drying and threshing of grain, which can be done by healthy women, the elderly, and children in these families.

Of course, because of this reason, this year's taxes are still collected, and the specific implementation figures of various places have not been reported.

The entire mobilization time is about a week. Since the Xiu family had already been vaccinated in advance at the end of last year, each family has already made preparations for the battle. Everyone is gearing up and waiting to fight the enemy to earn military merits. Therefore, the Xiu family issued an order They all wore armor and armor and rushed to Okayama from their respective fiefs with ashigaru.

Although it only took seven days, the beast of the Xiu family had long been suffocated outside, and took advantage of this time to directly bring Anan and Fujiji into the room. Regardless of whether she is subjectively willing or not, she can only stare blankly.

Taking advantage of the time of mobilization, the Xiu family practiced archery in Okayama City. Due to the broken little finger, whether it is holding a knife or a gun or holding a firecracker, it will be unstable, but when shooting arrows, the little finger will not be affected by the bow with the right hand. smaller.

The Xiu family practiced archery also to find a direction for themselves. Although it is difficult for a warrior to fight the enemy, it does not mean that the Xiu family directly ignores the basic skills of the warrior. The archery that has been dusty for many years can be practiced again .

In order to practice archery, Xiujia specially asked for advice from a well-known archery expert in Yuxi, who was indeed Xiujia's uncle.

It was also because of practicing archery that the retainers knew about the severed finger of the Xiu family.

Although the Xiu family knew that it was impossible to keep this matter secret for too long, he really didn't think about how to explain it to his retainers. After all, cutting off a samurai's finger was equivalent to declaring him disqualified as a samurai.

In order to give herself a buffer time, Xiujia asked the racecourse staff to keep it secret for the time being, and not to reveal this secret.

But the Xiu family only cared about the outside, but ignored the inside.

Xiujiaxin included Nanji and Fujiji as concubines, and they would definitely take off their fingertips when the three of them were in close contact with each other. Naturally, the two of them knew about Xiujia's severed finger.

Because Nan Ji was born in a rural martial arts family, it is only the meaning of this; and she has been with the Xiu family for many years, and the husband and wife are one body; and she has been educated in a sex academy for many years, so she will naturally keep it a secret for the Xiu family.

But Fujihime, who was born in the Tsutsui family, was different. The Tsutsui family was a big family in Yamato. She had been well-clothed and well-fed since she was a child, and she might not be aware of the impact of this incident, so she broke up with her maid.

And his maid is also an idiot, so she asked the maid of another family grandly, "Is your highness born with nine fingers?"

Although the Xiu family is unwilling to admit that their inner courtyard is indeed much more serious than Hideyoshi's, but after all, it is managed by people, and many secrets are difficult to hide.

The woman is locked in the deep palace and there is nothing else to gossip about. All the interest is on the only male Xiujia in the palace. The fact that the Xiujia only has nine fingers naturally began to spread wildly, and finally spread to Jianxingyuan and Tongfangyuan in the ears.

The two of them were happily having a tea party, but some blind guy muttered a few words to the side, which was passed into the ears of the retainer's wife, and then passed on to Tongfangyuan and his own through their mouths. husband.

Now I really can't hide it.

Tongfangyuan was so frightened that the tea party was not even held. After recognizing so many samurai wives, he took Jianxingyuan and rushed into Naoko's residence, breaking the sweet time between Hideka and Naoko.

"Your Highness, may I have a look at your right hand." Tong Fang Yuan sat next to Xiu's family and asked tentatively.

In fact, she had already noticed the problem with her right hand after taking a glance at it just now, and now she still asked, it was just a fluke.

Xiujia knew that he couldn't hide anymore, so he could only remove the gloves on his right finger in front of them, only half of his little finger was left in the dew.

Due to the cut surface, Xiujia's wound has not completely healed, and Xiujia still has gauze tied on her finger, but it can be seen that the gap is a little shorter than usual.

The female relatives were shocked and speechless when they saw that they covered their mouths one after another.

The well-informed Jianxingyuan actually already had a guess in his mind. According to the customs of Bando samurai, generally only those who made a huge mistake would choose to cut off their fingers and ask others for forgiveness, so he asked curiously, "Your Highness, what's the matter?" How did you get hurt?"

The Xiu family was a little afraid of her guessing, so they simply made up a lie and said, "I accidentally injured it when I was in Meinong. The finger of my right hand was bruised and festered. To ensure my life, I had to cut it off."

After hearing Xiu's report, Tongfangyuan was furious from his heart, and turned around and slapped Shimizu Nobuya twice, "Bastard, how did you protect His Highness as servants, in order to let His Highness suffer such harm?"

Shimizu Xin, who knew the real reason in his heart, couldn't tell the truth, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and bear the blame from Tongfangyuan.

Tongfangyuan didn't just let him go because of Shimizu Shinya's frankness, on the contrary, he slapped him twice more, and the swear words on his mouth didn't come out with any seriousness.

Maybe it's because of Tongfangyuan's irritability, or maybe it's because of worry about Xiu's family. Naoko, who was expected to give birth, suddenly clutched her stomach and was about to give birth. The sudden situation finally brought Tongfangyuan's focus back.

The female relatives hurried to make room for Naoko, and drove Hideo and his attendants out.

At this time, it was already September 9, and more than 13 troops had gathered under the Okayama castle. Hideka originally planned to start military service in Okayama on the 2th, and set off from Osaka in the early morning of the 14th.

Although Naoko's delivery directly broke the Xiu family's plan, the Xiu family didn't know what was going on inside because they were kicked out. They only knew that Naoko had a pain in her stomach for a while, and finally subsided at sunset.

The Xiu family wanted to ask about the situation, and wanted to know if the amniotic fluid had broken, but the maids who came out seemed to think this was a taboo question, so they all avoided answering it.

Hideka thought that the matter was over, but Naoko started laboring again in the early hours of the morning, and this time the amniotic fluid really broke.

There was a commotion in the Okayama Castle of Uki's family. It was obviously late at night, but countless lights were lit on the Honmaru.

The din of Honmaru spread to the city, especially in the silent night when the woman's screams of pain came from the top of the mountain, all the samurai in Okayama City seemed to have a premonition.

Almost as the sun rose, Naoko exhausted her last bit of strength and finally delivered him. After seeing the sex courtyard took the baby and patted him on the back lightly, the baby coughed up the remaining liquid in its mouth. Amniotic fluid, a loud cry pierced through the pill.

The Xiu family eagerly wanted to enter the house, but was stopped by the healthy woman arranged by Tongfang Yuan. After a while, the sex courtyard finally came out with the child in her arms and congratulated the Xiu family: "Congratulations, Your Highness, it is a male , Okayama Toyotomi has a descendant."

Xiujia looked at the child in his arms, stroked his skin lightly with his fingers, but took it back like an electric shock.He couldn't believe it was his own child.

"Your highness, please give your little highness a name," Jian Xing Yuan reminded him.

"Yes, yes, name!" Xiujia patted his hands, pacing back and forth thinking about the name.

The title of the son of the Yuxi family passed down from generation to generation is Hachiro, and the others are still born to defend him, so the Zhong family was called "Goro Qiro (this is a whole name)" when he was a child.

But this child is born of a concubine after all, and the baby name of Hachiro, which symbolizes the heir of Yuxi's family, is absolutely forbidden to be given to him.

At the same time, the Xiu family is now under the surname of Toyotomi, and this child is also the first child of the third generation of the Toyotomi family.

Finally, Xiujia looked at the rising sun outside the city, and the moon that was still hanging in the blurry shadow in the sky, turned around and said to the child who was being held in the arms of Jianxingyuan, "You will be called 'Chen Chiyo' from now on."

(End of this chapter)