Pillars of the Wu family

At this time, it was the second watch, and the samurai who didn't like to drink and entertain went to bed early. The assassination just now woke up people again. Nagao Jinghu hurried over in his clothes, and when he saw Kirayoshi, his body was covered in blood. , The room was in a mess, frowning: "What's going on? What happened?"

"The penetrating assassin of the Takeda family has killed many people just now, and there are still news that keep coming..." Explain the ins and outs in a few sentences.

Nagao Jinghu asked the samurai, "How is the situation of Tongxinzhong? Did the Yikui Army attack Xinding? How is the situation in the village? How many casualties?"

"My lord, the blessings of Wuweidian! My Echigo Shinmachi has wooden fences, earthen walls, and watchtowers. It is no problem for each town to block the town gates to resist the Ichikui army! The nearby villages have just completed the withdrawal and merger, and every village has them too. The facilities in the town and the villages have no shortage of rice, grain and drinking water, so it should be no problem to resist!"

"Is there any news that the village has been occupied?"

"There is no news for the time being! There was news of a change in some places in the evening, and the villages guarded the entrance of the village to guard against the attack of the Yi Kui army. The specific situation is still unknown!"

Hosokawa Fujitaka stood up and explained at this time: "Master, the main hall, please be calm! In fact, since last year, I have organized several similar drills. The village was full of swarms, the enemy invaded and stormed the village, etc. The drills have been simulated, and there are [-] to [-] related plans. The foundation for similar incidents has been achieved in the vicinity of Guanchuan. Some villages may encounter greater difficulties, but it will not be so difficult to win these villages. easy!"

"So that's the case, just go out and break them one by one?" Nagao Jinghu glared at the retainers, "Then what are you waiting for? Get ready to go out right away!"

Yoshitoki Kira suddenly said: "Brother! The situation is unclear now, and we don't know the extent of the collusion between the Takeda family and the Etsuchu Ichikui Army. How many Ichikui troops they have and what they have done. So please return to the common life and come back! Echigo's Stability is inseparable from the strong support of my brother!"

"My lord, please come back!" The Echigo samurai always referred to Nagao Jinghu as the lord. They never called Kira Yoshishi "the master" or "the lord". Yoshito Kira knew this very well and never thought of forcing them What to do, there are three main reasons for the formation of this embarrassing situation.

The first point is that most Echigo samurai still recognize Nagao Jinghu as the lord of Echigo. Echigo does not need a mascot-like female daimyo. The blood of Echigo samurai is full of factors of violence and military supremacy. , the long-tailed Jinghu fought north and south for more than ten years.To continue his father's unfinished business, this courage won the favor of most samurai in Shangyue and Zhongyue.

The second point is that many samurai can't save face and take refuge in the Kira family, an outsider. Even if he is a famous nobleman, no matter how many magical methods he has to win people's hearts, it still won't work. Many stubborn Echigo samurai think about the goodness of the Kira family while being stubborn He insisted that only Echigo's samurai can lead Echigo's thought.

The third and most important point is that Jiliang Yoshitoki was not very willing to accept the Echigo Samurai. There were many reasons, the most important being that he was unwilling to leave an excuse.Said that if you don't know how to occupy the magpie's nest, you can no longer secretly accept the retainers of the Nagao family, Honjo Shigecho and Kurokawa Kiyomi.It is understandable that Hojo Takahiro belongs to the defeated and surrendered. If the greedy and insufficient recruit more samurai from the Echigo Uesugi faction, Yangbeizhong, and Uedazhong, then it will really become an act of dove occupying the magpie's nest.

Nagao Jinghu immediately realized what he was thinking, and retorted without hesitation: "Hu Ji is already the lord of the country and she has done a very good job, and it will get better and better in her hands. Compared with her deeds, my An elder brother who only knows how to fight together is not qualified as a king..."

"Brother! Who said you can only fight in joint battles? Echigo went from looking chaotic more than ten years ago to living and working in peace and prosperity after returning to Shangluo. This is all thanks to your hard work! Without the guidance of your brother, Echigo How could it have developed so smoothly? Without the support of my brother, how could Hu Ji and I get to where we are today? Echigo's past is entirely the result of his hard work, and Echigo's today also has half of his achievements!

Elder brother, has he ever seen a king who has served as the king for two years and never said a word at the evaluation meeting?Hu Ji doesn't want to be this female daimyo at all!She believes that only her elder brother can take on the position of country lord!Hu Ji and I are only interim, now that my brother has recovered, please come back again! "

"It's not a question of whether she wants to be the lord of the country, but a question of what she has to do when she sits in that position! Retiring from the family is a deliberate decision, and I will never come back no matter what!" Nagao Jinghu resolutely shook his head.

Yoshihiro Kira also shook his head: "But have you forgotten? Although the lord of the country is the successor of the Nagao family, it is even more important that the Echigo people agree, and now everyone's opinion is still looking forward to your comeback, brother. Are you unwilling to comply with everyone's request?"

Yoshitoki Kira's earnest words made Nagao's vassals look at him with admiration. Many neutral people, including Uesugi Kensei and Ogasawara Nagatoki, showed very surprised expressions. I thought of putting on a show, but it didn't look like a show, especially when I noticed that Nagao Jinghu and Kira Yoshi had serious expressions.

Changwei Jinghu insisted: "I have been a monk and lived in seclusion for three years!"

Ji Liangyishi immediately responded: "Tiger Ji is married to be my first wife!"

"She is still very young! There is a lot of time to perform the duties of the wife!"

"But she always has to perform her duties as the main wife, right? What will Echigo do then? Will my brother let go? What if the situation like today happens again? What if something happens to me?

"Stop talking nonsense!" Changwei Jinghu frowned into a knot.

"Then let's not talk about these, let's talk about youth! My brother is more youthful and vigorous! My brother is only 27 years old, how can Hojo Ujiyasu, Takeda Harunobu, and Imakawa Yoshimoto feel so sorry for retiring so early? Let me go to Echigo for so many years. How embarrassing is the samurai who is persevering!"

Yoshitomo Kira turned and pointed at the gray-haired Nakajo Fujiko, "Look at Nakajo Echizen Shouden, his hair is nearly 64 years old and more than half of his hair is gray. And look at Irobe Shuden, who is 46 years old! He is as young and powerful as Honjo Misaku Shouden 44 Aged. Kakizaki and Izumi Shouden are [-] years old! My Echigo warriors are getting old! The new generation has not yet grown up. My elder brother is the governor of the Nagao family. "

"Are you going to persuade me to come back again? No matter how many times you try, I will never agree!" Nagao Jinghu was determined, staring at Kirayoshi for a long time with his eyes wide open, and then said word by word: "This Let's talk about it later..."

"From time to time, from time to time, how long will brother back down? You can't wait any longer!" Yoshitomo Kira stared at him with determination. At this time, he was already close to a big man with a height of more than 1.7 meters. It is much taller than the stocky long-tailed Jinghu.The two of them stared at each other for a long time, separated by two meters, neither showing any intention of backing down.

"If you retreat again and again, you will only disappoint the samurai. In our impression, the dragon of Echigo is always a good man!"

"Whether I'm a good man or not doesn't need your comments!"

"Brother insists on going his own way and abandoning Echihou's many people, does that mean he doesn't care about it?"

"With you and Hu Ji here, Echihou will be even better!" Nagao Jing said cunningly: "As you said, I just need to hide behind the scenes and support silently!"

"Then what about them? Kanto is in charge of the palace, and Ogasawara Shinano is guarding the palace!" Yoshihiro Kira gritted his teeth and decided to use his trump card. Come back! These two enemies will never help each other! I will do what I say!"

"How dare you!" Changwei Jinghu was furious, and a pair of tiger eyes erupted with a strong evil spirit.There seems to be a powerful force hidden in the not-so-majestic body, which makes Kira Yoshitoki almost unable to hold back the scene.

"Why don't you dare! It is brother who promised to save them. I, Yoshishi, never took the initiative to promise anything! If brother wants to be a samurai who goes against his promise, then you should live in seclusion!" Yoshiki Kira gritted his teeth and roared back.

Nagao Jinghu remained silent, which made Nagao's retainers very anxious. What's the matter with being silent, Nagao Jingxin was sweating anxiously, while Uesugi Consomasa and Ogasawara Nagashi who were shot for no reason on the other side could only hold back for a while. With a painful face, he begged Nagao Jinghu, "His Royal Highness, please return to vulgarity and make a comeback! I cannot wait without the full support of Dan Zhengdian!"

As the mainstream of the subjugated country, the two of them did not dare to resent Kira Yoshihime's domineering and ruthless family. Indeed, the Kira family never promised to help them. The only tentative offer was Nagao Huji as the Kanto leader. Such an outrageous asking price was immediately rejected by Uesugi Constitutional Affairs.

Now Kira Yoshitoki made it clear that he would not help them, and that he would use his own hands to earn what he wanted. The two who were familiar with the behavior of the Kira family immediately realized that this was a hint that they stood up and begged Nagao Jinghu to come out of the mountain, and obeyed others voluntarily. How painful it is for me to realize that I am voluntarily obeying others!The two could only cry silently for themselves in their hearts.

"I know that my brother is deeply heartbroken by the shameful betrayal of some Echigo people! But people will change. If you didn't see today's assassination, without Honjo Shigecho's desperate save, I would have died in Takeda Topo in Yoshiki It's under the knife! Today is his big day! Isn't it loyal enough for a groom official to protect me without thinking about his own life?"

"It turned out to be like this!" Changwei Jinghu began to waver, and the knot in his heart for many years gradually showed signs of loosening.

"Don't you understand? The loyalty of retainers is built up little by little! Two years ago, I failed to persuade my brother to come back, and my brother said that he has not recovered. We can understand this! One year ago, I persuaded my brother to come back Failed, the elder brother said that he has lived in seclusion and does not care about worldly affairs, we can't understand the elder brother's intention!

Half a year ago, I tried to persuade my elder brother to come back but failed. My elder brother said that I will talk about it later, and we all couldn't understand it!Brother, do you want to continue today?How long are you going to hold on to?Please look at the long-tailed retainer with white hair!They are looking forward to their brother's return day after day, please don't let them down, don't let Guan Lingdian and Shinano Shoudian down, and don't let Hu Ji and me continue to be disappointed, okay?

Everyone is looking forward to the moment when the Dragon of Echigo, the God of the North Army leads us to take off!Could my brother have the heart to let Hu Ji show her face in public?Do you have the heart to let her charge at the forefront as the general?Brother's comeback can free Hu Ji!When I am righteous, I will ask my brother to return to the secular life and come out of the mountain! "

"I'll ask my lord to return to vulgarity and come out of the mountain!" The Echigo warriors bowed down in unison.

Nagao Jinghu glanced at the Echigo people blankly, and they all looked at him expectantly, including Uesugi Kensei and Ogasawara Nagaji with the same expressions.Finally, he sighed and said in a low voice: "Okay! I, Jinghu, will return to vulgarity and come back from today!"

"Oh!" The Echigo warriors cheered in unison.Laughing, making noise, bursting out the emotions that have been suppressed for several years.Shino Nagao, chief genealogist of the Nagao family, was crying with joy, and kept saying, "The lord is finally back! The dragon of Echigo is finally back! I'm really going to be strong!"

"Misaku Mamoru was wrong!" Yamamoto Tokiyuki said, "I have always been strong, and I have never been short of warriors who are strong, brave and good at fighting! The arrival of my lord has made Echigo from one-sided military excellence to military and political affairs. In a situation where they are neck and neck or even better in political strategy, now Danseiden's comeback will make Echigo's military strategy even better, and Echigo will be even stronger!"

"The master craftsman said it well! My elder brothers Ibun and Takeshi are able to ensure the stability of Echigo's foundation! Now Takeda in Shinano, Ikki in Echin, and Hojo in Ueno are my confidantes of Echigo, and there are Deba and Mutsu in the distance. Potential enemies exist. They are all likely to be the culprits of stealing and destroying Echigo! I want to develop better, Kira and Nagao will be stronger, and I cannot do without the full support of my brother! My brother’s timely comeback It can effectively deter the young people, and it can even calm the nervous lords of the country!"

"Okay, okay! You don't want to feed our family! Don't gossip, get ready to fight immediately!" Once he decided to come back, Nagao Jinghu's style became vigorous and vigorous, and he immediately ordered: "Order Saito to go to the field Shou, Nakajo Echizen Shou, Irobu repair hall...Lead the army of Kasugayama Castle Headquarters and follow the family to fight the chaos, Yishi! You also send troops to support!"

"No problem!" Seeing that Nagao Jinghu agreed to come back, Ji Liangyi also readily agreed.

"But you can't go! Why are you staring! You have more important things to do!" Nagao Jinghu patted him on the shoulder and whispered: "Stay in Chunri Mountain City and watch. The family members in the city are very important, and there are elder sisters And Hu Ji. My little nephew has just been born, so you have to show me!"

"Understood! Then ask the master to be in charge of cooperating with the elder brother's support work!"

Tokiyuki Yamamoto replied loudly: "The old minister understands!"

……

The incident that happened on the evening of March [-]th caused violent repercussions. The complete reserve military service system in Shangetsu, the township and village congregation system were quickly mobilized. On the iron plank, originally I just wanted to seize the village as a stronghold, and then "absorb" the local residents to join the Ichikui army, so that it could snowball bigger and bigger until the next wave of reinforcements from Etsuchu came to attack Nagao in one fell swoop. , Kira two.

I never thought that Yi Kui's rise would encounter a difficult bone at the very beginning. Echigo's strong organizational strength and complete defense facilities, and his tenacious defense thwarted their offensive attempts time and time again. , In the dark night, Yi Kui's army has a very poor sense of direction, and the strong morale has been declining steadily due to the persistent onslaught on the village.

The disadvantage of being good at fighting with the wind and not being good at fighting against the wind is highlighted. Even if the nature of the peasants and soldiers has the bonus of religious fanaticism, it is impossible to continue to maintain a tenacious fighting spirit in the dark. Seeing that in the middle of the night, a village has not been captured. The Yikui army began to waver, and went deep into the key areas of Echigo but had no place to hold on, not to mention the high-end tactics of snowballing, and there was even no place to rest.

What's worse is that there are only [-] Yixiang Yikui troops in the number of [-], and they attacked dozens of villages near Guanchuan at the same time. Lost hundreds of lives.

These reckless and stupid Yikui troops will never be able to understand the policy of Echigo. They came to Echigo not to learn the advanced ideas of Echigo, but to occupy the fertile land of Echigo. Therefore, they do not know the core meaning of withdrawing and merging the new village. The strategy is to focus on local villagers and dilute some new villagers to achieve the goal of complete assimilation.

The local villagers who control the core of the village are all semi-reserves who receive armed training in batches during the slack season. Although there are more projects in Echigo in recent years, the number of trainings has been reduced to only one month. Picking up hoes and bamboo guns is comparable to that of a mob.

That night, the army of Chunri Mountain City was dispatched, and they broke through several roads and captured more than [-] people. Jing Hu took the lead.Waving the little bean in his hand, Changguang rushed into the main formation of the Ichikui Army and beheaded the general of the Ichikui Army, Ishida An Yunshou.Yi Yikui, who hadn't shown his strength yet, was easily defeated just like that.

As the general was killed.The morale of the Zongzong believers collapsed, and the fleeing Ichikui army was ruthlessly mopped up by the Echigo cavalry. Nagao Jinghu immediately ordered the villages and towns of Echigo to guard the gates. All major roads have also been blocked.

In the next few days, the believers who escaped and left alone were captured one by one. After hiding in the mountains for a few days, they were either too hungry and couldn't bear it. They ran out to steal food and were caught, or they fled to the street and were caught by a net. capture.A massive rebellion was wiped out.

In the ensuing interrogation, the leader of the bandits was Ishida An Yunshou, an official from the Yuezhong Yixiangzong Shengxing Temple, who was ordered to come to Echigo to organize the Yixiangyikui. During the three months of Echigo's activities, he didn't notice anything, and the ones who cooperated with him turned out to be the leader of the assassination, De Uraisemoru and others.

As the interrogation progressed, Hattori Baochang's face became more and more ugly. One can imagine how much punishment the Iga ninja would suffer after experiencing this big leak. The leader of the Xuanyuan ninja who cooperated with the interrogation, Kato Duanzou, always smiled and said nothing. They Xuan Yuan Ninja is originally a ninja army directly under Nagao Jinghu.It mainly focuses on intelligence spying and infiltration in the Echigo and Etsuchu regions, and at the same time has a powerful execution group.It is mainly aimed at the execution of ninjas infiltrated by the enemy, and its individual combat effectiveness even exceeds that of Iga and Koga ninjas.

Although the lord of Xuanyuan Ninja, Nagao Jinghu, has a close relationship with Kira Yoshitoki, but as a supporting Xuanyuan Ninja, he has no cooperative relationship with Iga Ninja, and even caused a lot of quarrels because of mutual information crossing. It is a huge mistake for Iga Ninja , Kato Danzoro and his subordinates looked at it with a happy attitude.

But all this is not over yet. One of the captured Ichijong thugs found a piece of news about Usami Dingman. As a result, the next day came the news that Biwa Island raised the flag of rebellion. It's not once or twice that Usami Dingman resisted him, and this time he colluded with the Yixiangzong gangsters to offend him again.

"Usami Sadamitsu has always been obedient to his family, but now he is rebelling again, Yoshitoki! Tell me why the samurai always betray!" Nagao Jinghu's face was livid, his temper is a bit self-conscious, and it was hard for him to live in seclusion a few years ago After washing away the hostility from his body, he regained it in just a few days in a joint battle that was not considered a big scene.

Ji Liangyi was not angry at all. He knew what the old man had done. He picked up a document and handed it to Nagao Jinghu: "Brother, don't be angry. I also understand Usami Suruga Mamoru's temperament somewhat. According to the information at hand It can be seen that he is an old-hearted samurai. In recent years, he has pretended to be surprising not once or twice, and his allies abandoned the last appraisal meeting. s reason?"

Nagao Jinghu took the information, and said suspiciously: "You mean he was abandoned, so he conspired against him? What's the reason? Huh? There is still an evaluation? Matsunaga's personality? Who is this person?"

"The descendant of the Miyoshi family, a powerful and scheming figure who yearns for power."

"Isn't that the character of Kizawa Nagamasa, Niko Tsutsuhisa, and Saito Michizane?"

"...It's still slightly different!" Yoshitomo Kira smiled wryly.

He originally said that Matsunaga Hideo's performance was all kinds of funny. He didn't rebel when he should rebel, jumped out when he shouldn't rebel, and finally hanged up willingly, very similar to Usami Dingman's performance. Going in, in exchange for the result of exile of the whole family, the result was misinterpreted by Nagao Jinghu.

Nagao Jinghu's face darkened: "Then Usami must definitely not stay!"

Yoshitoki Kira comforted: "It's actually not that serious. Echigo lacks such a heroic warrior. Usami Suruga Mamoru's blemish is that his age is similar to that of Xianyue's Jinggong. What can he do when he is only seventy years old? Besides, brother really believes Does this old man have the ambition and artifice of Nizi Kujiu and Saito Dosan?"

"It's very unlikely...then why write this kind of evaluation?"

"Because Matsunaga Hidemoto is not as good as Niko Kukuji and Saito Dozo!" Yoshitoki Kira added in his heart: "It's funnier than anyone else, maybe it can be surpassed!"

Nagao Jinghu also had no intention of entangled with him on human nature issues, and decided to avoid the topic: "No matter what, put down Usami's rebellion first!"

Ji Liangyishi had another plan: "In fact, there is no need for my brother to go out, just let me go for a while!"

"Are you going?" Changwei Jinghu glanced at him suspiciously: "Do you have any new ideas?"

"Almost!" Yoshiki Kira opened the bat fan and said with a smile: "Usami Suruga Mamoru's situation is a bit special. I'll test his attitude. If it's really just for rebellion, it's okay to calm down." (To be continued.) ..)