Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 741

Because today is a wedding banquet, not to mention Fengchun Fan's defensive strength is weak, the defensive strength of Osaka Castle is a little lax.

The side door, which should have been guarded by a group of 5 people, is currently guarded by only these two people. The reason is that the team responsible for patrolling the walls on both sides has temporarily reduced its staff today, and only 3 people can be drawn from the side door to be responsible for patrolling one side.

As the two people were killed at the door, the Okayama clan warriors who were waiting outside followed the footsteps of Kawamoto Kanbei and Ogata Jusaburo and entered through the side door.

Since it is a side entrance, it is not far from the hall where people feast in Fengchun Family Mansion.Even if the people in the inner circle didn't hear the movement outside, there would always be someone on the outside who heard the noise and came to check.

"What's going on?" The movement at the side door first caused the reaction of the two warriors sitting on the verandah drinking.

They saw the change at the door, and just stood up from the corridor, they were shot and killed on the corridor by the warriors of the Okayama clan who poured into the mansion.

Fortunately, their wailing aroused a wider range of vigilance. The three-member team that originally belonged to the side door defense team and was now patrolling the east wall heard the movement behind them.

They illuminated the side door with their lanterns, and when they found someone intruding, the leader of the defense team blew the whistle hanging around his neck without hesitation.

The other two samurai held the spears in their hands and rushed towards the Okayama feudal samurai who rushed into the mansion without hesitation.Even if the people in front of them are dozens of times larger than themselves, they are ready to kill themselves and procrastinate for time.

And the team leader who blew the whistle just now, after blowing a round of whistles for security and enemy attack, ignored the fixed rhythm of the next whistle signal, and quickly blew the whistle again and again, pulling out the samurai sword and His subordinates defend against the enemy together.

[The whistle is the alarm! 】

This is the memory engraved in the bones of every warrior of the Fengchun family. As the whistle was heard inside, the originally noisy hall fell silent, and everyone was confirming the accuracy of the whistle.

But as I said before, the samurai gave up his life to resist the enemy after only blowing one round, and the whistle behind him was completely chaotic.

Even though everyone who had just drank some wine and was a little tipsy, they quickly sobered up with the sound of the whistle.

Nagase Shichiro, the captain of the Banner Squadron who was in charge of guarding the mansion, jumped up from his seat and ordered to the samurai in the hall, "Arai Toshihei, go and confirm some situations. Gear up to defend against the enemy!"

Following the order of the chief official Nagase Qilang, everyone in the hall quickly threw away the wine bottles in their hands and began to look for their weapons nearby.

It is true that some of them are unbearably drunk, but right now Nagase Qirou has no time to take care of these drunkards, he has to settle the matter in front of him first.

Almost following Nagase Shichiro's order, the chaotic whistle outside stopped.

Shichirō Nagase's order had just been issued, and Zheng Cheng, the flower house who did not participate in the banquet because he was in charge of his daughter's marriage, stumbled in.

"This is impossible!"

"Okayama!"

In the impression of many Toyoharu family retainers and samurai, the relationship between the Okayama Domain and the Toyoharu family has always been very good, as close as brothers and partners.

As Hideyoshi's guards, they rehearsed the operation of the Osaka family's siege of the mansion in this place in Osaka Castle. For this reason, they also dug a secret road out of the city, and rehearsed the attacks of other third parties such as Hideji, but they never rehearsed Oka. Shanfan came back to attack him!
"It's true, my samurai have already rushed up, everyone hurry to support!"

It seemed to be in response to Hana Fang Zhengcheng's words, when everyone was stunned, only a sound of "Ah!" was heard, and Hana Fang Zhengcheng was shot in the back by an arrow and fell into the hall.

The old man’s fall finally awakened the bewildered crowd. Since all the samurai swords were confiscated outside the hall, the people outside the hall quickly drew out a knife at random and rushed to fight with them, while those inside the hall picked up tables, chairs and benches as wooden bars. Block the arrows and pick up weapons nearby.

The chief officer in the hall, Nagase Shichiro, was in a hurry to direct the battle, and even sent someone to help the old Huafang Zhengcheng who fell to the ground to the back.

Because the Xiu family transferred 30 warriors from the mountain city into the city, the armed force in the mansion reached nearly a hundred people, so many people could not fit into one room.

This side hall is the closest to the side door, so the 20 or so people in the hall were the first to face the enemy attack, but the disturbance here quickly attracted the attention of the surrounding rooms. Fengchun family warriors know.

As one of the banner chiefs who protect Hideka's life and safety, Shigantaroemon, who has 200 banner warriors in command, quickly gave orders to the other squadron leaders.

"Otsubo, take people to the nearby arsenal to put on armor, Yoshii leads people to support Nanase first, (Kojima) Yahei goes to the castle from Tamamakou himself, and inform the master of the situation here!"

In the previous chapter, I mentioned that the Toyotomi family decree stipulates that only daimyo and special retainers can keep armor in the mansion, and the retainers and samurai guarded by the Ming can only go to the city in civilian clothes.

However, the Xiu family kept a batch of chain mail half-body armor in the arsenal. These chain mail armors are small and difficult to detect when they are put away, but they can protect the warriors of the Fengchun family for a longer period of time and protect the achievements of the Xiu family. out of town.

The Xiu family kept these chain mails in the mansion to deal with emergencies. When they really need to use them, they don't care if the laws of the Shangfengchen family are illegal. Life-saving is the most important thing.

Each squadron leader received the order to run quickly. The foundation of the Fengchun family's banner warriors was originally the Jibei Warriors, which was a reputation earned by force in the past 20 years.

After the transfer of Kanto, some Kanto samurai were absorbed, and the prestige of Bando samurai has long been passed down to the world.

Moreover, the samurai who can enter the banner group are either the children of the samurai family who are directly transferred from the attendant team, or the standing samurai who have been trained for many years and have rich experience.

If you are facing the new Bizen samurai composed of Kami Noo-tails head-on, even if you are one against two, you will not lose the wind in the slightest.

Ordinary teams will lose most of their courage when encountering such a sudden attack.However, the first reaction of the Fengchun Family Banner Samurai when he saw someone attacking him was to respond to the enemy. Even if he died, he had to spare time for his companions to fight back.

It was just that the Okayama clan was caught off guard before, and a lot of people were drinking, and their footwork and techniques were a little unstable. Now, facing the disadvantaged Okayama people, they were beaten [-]-[-]. .

There are 120 young samurai in the residence of the Toyoharu family plus a squadron of Hideo's attendants, three times the number of the Okayama domain who entered the residence.

The purpose of Kawamoto Kanbei and others was only to kill Reimi Hanabang, but such an extreme action was not planned in advance, and they fell into the siege without even finding out where Reimi lived.

In such a hopeless situation, who knows which stunned-headed youth actually shouted loudly, "Protect the country and seek thieves, strangle the enemy!"

If the purpose of this team before was to kill Reimi, who had a dirty background, when they said this, the nature of the situation further escalated.

At this moment, a somewhat ironic picture appeared.

In order to celebrate Shuri's succession to Toyotomi's family, and to clear tomorrow's peace talks, there is a fireworks viewing ceremony in the middle of the dinner.These fireworks were specially made by Xiu's master Ming Guo.

For better viewing, these fireworks are placed in the open space on the south side of Nizhimaru, so that the height of the fireworks explosion can be seen by the daimyos drinking in the Honmaru Palace.

It's just that at this moment in the Honmaru Palace, the laughing, drinking and chattering daimyos would never have imagined that a bloody riot was taking place under the fireworks.

The sound of the fireworks exploding turned out to be the best cover for the rioters, successfully covering up the noise in Fengchun Mansion.

It wasn't until the samurai known as Kojima Yahei stumbled to the gate of Tamazuokou and knocked on the closed city gate desperately that the Seven Hands Group guarding Osaka Castle heard what happened to the Toyoharu Clan under the castle.

Today, Hide's father-in-law Nagami Ito happened to be in charge of guarding the Tamamakou, but he himself had been drinking in a separate residence since ancient times, and was told by the people below that when the Okayama Domain attacked and killed the Toyoharu Domain's mansion, his glass was so frightened. fell to the ground.

He didn't dare to delay in such a big matter, while sending people to bring the Fengchun family warriors who came to report to the city, and at the same time taking the seven-handed group down to the Fengchun mansion to support.

Although the fireworks are wonderful, it is a pity that there are only 99 rings, and the display will end soon.

With the end of the sound of the fireworks explosion, the noise from the Toyoharu mansion below the Honmaru finally spread to the surrounding daimyo's mansions, as well as the Honmaru castle.

Horio Yoshiharu, who didn't know why, thought it was the joy of the warriors in the city seeing the fireworks, and complimented, "It's thanks to your lord's management of the government, and the succession of the Holy Lord. This is the cheering voice of the people's support!"

When Horio Yoshiharu complimented the bosses during the year, Masuda Nagamori, who was in charge of hosting the banquet outside the hall, stopped the Toyoharu family samurai who came up in a hurry, "Do you know where this is, what's going on with you, why are you like this?" panic?"

The attack on Toyoharu's mansion was a big deal, Kojima Yahei did not dare to speak casually, so he could only falter at Masuda Nagamori.

The samurai who brought him hadn't been told what was going on before, but was only asked by Date Nagashi to wait for him to enter the city.In the face of Masuda Nagamori's questioning, he couldn't tell why.

Fortunately, at this moment, Kojima Yahei saw Satomi Yoshiie, Kira Mori and others sitting on the corridor not far away waiting for the Hide family, and he shouted over there, "Satomi Anboshou! Kira Zuobing Wei Wei!"

"Presumptuous! Hurry up and shut up!" His shouting caused Masuda Changsheng's displeasure. He is in charge of the whole process of today's banquet. a responsible person.

"Even if it's a big deal today, we have to wait until the banquet is over." After finishing speaking, he planned to command the left and right royal fans to fork him out.

Fortunately, the Satomi Yoshika on the wall corridor in the distance heard Kojima Yahei's call, and quickly stepped forward to greet Masuda Nagamori and said, "Second Lieutenant Uemon, this person is my Toyoharu feudal vassal, come here If you come to me, you must tell me something, can you be accommodating and let me ask the reason first."

In fact, after the Keicho Rebellion, Masuda Nagamori, who was implicated in reducing the seal, was very dissatisfied with the Hide family, but who let them bear the name of Ruonianji?
As the saying goes, the seventh-rank official in front of the prime minister's door. Many people know that Lijian Yikang is the head of the Xiu family's close servant. Even if you don't give him face, you should give him face to the big Buddha behind him.

Masuda Changsheng had no choice, but his face was definitely not good-looking, he waved his hand casually and said, "Hurry up, don't startle the adults in the hall."

"Yes, wake up about this!" Satomi Yoshiya responded to Masuda Changmori's cold face with a smile, and then pulled Kojima Yahei aside to listen to his report.

Although Masuda Nagamori didn't bother to eavesdrop, but he clearly saw the smile on Satomi Yoshie's face disappear suddenly and showed a surprised expression.

"What! Say it again!"

I don't know what the two of the Toyoharu family said over there, but the profit-oriented Satomi Yoshiya who came quickly grabbed his companion by the collar in Honmaru, Osaka Castle, and questioned him loudly
"Easy! Speak softly!" The movement here stirred Masuda Nagamori's little heart again, but the Satomi Yoshiya over there had no time to flirt with him anymore.

After repeated confirmation, Satomi Yoshika threw Yahei away and ran into the hall in panic.Masuda Changsheng was so fast that it was too late to stop him.

The hurried footsteps echoed on the high-quality wooden floor of Osaka City, which aroused the glances of the guards along the way and the samurai waiting for the head of the house.

Satomi Yoshie ignored Kira Mori's curiosity and ran directly across the crowd to the hall.All kinds of abrupt sounds outside the hall naturally attracted the attention of some daimyo sitting outside the hall.

Fortunately, after seeing that Yi's family is also a daimyo, Sato stopped at the gate of the hall.Maintaining the etiquette, he bowed to the two ladies and Xiuli sitting at the head of the hall, and said to the warrior guarding by the door, "Fengchun's retainer sees Yikang and needs to inform the Patriarch."

After the samurai received the notification and nodded in response to him, he walked along the edge of the temple to the edge of the imperial steps to report to his superior Nagaji Ono. The etiquette raised his head several times to see the reaction of the lord in the hall.

Ono Changzhi received the notification and first informed his lord Chacha, and after getting confirmation, he went to Xiujia and whispered to Xiujia, "Da Nayan, some of your retainers are looking for you."

Xiujia was originally chatting with Tokugawa Ieyasu who was on the side, and looked at the entrance of the hall with some displeasure when he heard the news. Fortunately, Xiujia could drink well, and he knew very well that if there was nothing particularly important to see Yiyasu at this time, I won't come looking for myself.

He could only apologize to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was still talking to him just now, and walked outside the hall with a trace of displeasure and apprehension.

What kind of identity is Xiujia? From the fact that the warriors outside the hall are eager to find Xiujia directly at the banquet, it has attracted the attention of the surroundings.

The daimyos are all clairvoyant and have good ears, and they know very well that ordinary trivial matters on such occasions are about to be postponed. Now that the Xiu family has heard the news and went out in person, they are naturally curious about what happened.

Although many people in the hall are still talking and chatting, except for Fukushima Masaki who is really nervous and shouting, the others have already pricked up their ears and turned the corners of their eyes. Light glanced towards the door to see what was going on here.

"What!" Like Satomi Yoshiyasu, Hideka couldn't control his emotions immediately when he heard the news, and blurted out his words a little too loudly.

If the daimyos in the hall were still pretending to communicate just now, with the sound of the Xiu family falling to the ground, the hall became completely quiet.

Hideka naturally discovered the abnormality in the hall, led Satomi Yoshika to the side and confirmed in a low voice, "Are you sure it's Okayama Clan?"

"My subordinates don't believe it either, so I asked Yahei repeatedly for confirmation. He is very sure that he is the Okayama domain! He is a member of the Kojima clan of your highness, you can't believe him!"

Satomi Yoshiya's words blocked Xiujia's words back, just at this time Xiujia caught a glimpse of a tightly wrapped man rushing towards the Royal Palace in the distance, Xiujia recognized that this was already Yoshitsugu Otani who suffers from leprosy.

Since suffering from leprosy, Yoshitsugu Otani has half-retired and no longer governed. Today's banquet was also taken off early to rest in the mansion, and the mansion of the Otani family is two streets away from the Fengchun mansion.

Otani Yoshitsuji also saw the Xiu family, and his steps accelerated a little bit, "Da Nayan, there is chaos in the city. Your mansion was attacked by rebel officials. I immediately brought people to support, and now the situation is under control."

After saying this, he deliberately lowered his voice and said to the Xiu family, "The people who attacked the mansion were actually members of the Okayama domain. We deliberately left a few alive. How do you think we should deal with it?"

(End of this chapter)