Kinoshita Castle in Niwa Prefecture is forty miles away from Shimotsu Castle, which has been renamed Kiyosu Castle by Qi Min.

This is the northernmost land in Owari Province.

Speaking of which, the Owari Kingdom, and a large county in the interior of the Central Plains, may be about the same in size, much smaller than the counties and towns on the border of Daqi, which are vast.

When there were still a few days before the Spring Festival, Lu Ning followed Kyoko to Kinoshita Castle.

Now that the situation is reversed, Lu Ning has become Kyoko's follower, which may make her enjoy it very much, and often take Lu Ning with her.

Zhen Dong Ji and Ji Zi and Zizi still did not leave the manor where Lu Ning lived, but Zhen Dong Ji needed to go to the newly opened embassy every day to sit in the office, and the Central Plains Government Office was different, overseas embassies, there was no evening office, and the two hours of sitting time during the day, in the case of very little business and immigration affairs, the embassy mainly dealt with the local magnates, and promoted the Daqi culture, and won the favor of the locals.

What made Lu Ning a little helpless was that like the Edo Upper Embassy and the two provinces of Andong and Jinghai, as well as the northern, northwestern, and southwestern tribes, there were also several missionaries from Daqi in this Owari country.

After Emperor Lu became the Emperor of the Central Plains and entered many temples to become the top god, a fanatical group gradually formed, calling themselves apologists, who attacked the supreme gods of other doctrines, believing that Emperor Lu was the lord of all gods.

Even many Middle-earth Buddhist traditions had to adapt their teachings to this new situation in the Central Plains in response to this fanatical mood and survive.

And the defenders, with the financial support of the East China Sea Baixing, went to the four directions to preach.

Of course, this Tao is not the Tao of Taoism.

From a certain point of view, Lu Ning feels that in fact, Confucian culture is also a religion, but its radiation expansion depends on the subtlety of culture, and never needs any missionaries.

And the fundamental impact of this, from life customs to moral concepts, is actually much wider than that of many religions.

But its influence takes a long time to be effective, and it is far less than other religions, which rely on belief in gods to do everything.

The apologists, naturally, like the missionaries of most religions, discovered the trick of mission, and the supreme god of "Emperor Lu" was organically combined with the culture of the Central Plains, which became the key to their missionary work, so that the other party first believed in the existence of the supreme god of "Emperor Lu" in a narrow sense, and became a "monk", so that they could get the protection of "Emperor Lu", do good deeds in this life, and be bright in the next life, etc., Mount Tai in the Central Plains is the holy land of monks and the like, and so on, the hodgepodge of religions such as Middle-earth culture and the supreme god.

Moreover, the incarnation of "Emperor Lu" in the world is the Emperor of Great Qi in the Central Plains, who is the Son of Heaven, and makes Great Qi further obtain the legitimacy of the monarchy's heavenly endowment.

Lu Ning was caught off guard by the birth of the Guardian group, thinking about it, it may be that he blames himself for doing too much, needless to say the martial arts who often break the city single-handedly, the impact of the enlightenment scientific concepts brought by the new learning, the re-understanding of the world by Qi people under the guidance of these theories, and the verification of these theories, maybe, it is a little illogical that he is not worshiped as a true god.

And when the 21 great treasurers of the East China Sea Baixing jointly sent a letter to the inner government, hoping to fund the "defenders" to preach overseas, so as to educate the barbarians, improve the status of the Qi people overseas, so that the Qi people can obtain a higher moral voice in some overseas conflicts, and decompose and fight against some overseas stubborn forces united by religious orders, etc.

In this regard, Lu Ning adopted a tacit attitude, waiting to see the changes, the wheel of history, under his own influence, has naturally formed another kind of inertia, in the end, what the result is, can only be proved by time, if he forcibly obstructs, in fact, he may be making a second mistake.

It's just that the name "Guardian", Lu Ning felt a little weird when he heard it for the first time, and then remembered that the word "afterlife" was given a derogatory color, but this thought also disappeared in a flash, after all, the present is the present, and the future is the future.

With the help of the Upper Embassy, three defenders, all men, bought a house as a temple to worship the statue of the Emperor of God, and set up a Guangjiin temple to do good deeds and give to the poor, so as to develop believers.

However, in essence, the Heavenly Emperor Dao is still a hodgepodge of polytheism, preaching the concept of good and evil in the Central Plains culture, and does not have the aggressiveness of monotheism, but it is obvious that there are many extremely wise people among the defenders, and put forward the concept that all the sects that do not make the Emperor the supreme god are evildoers.

Moreover, in order to show the determination and holiness of the defenders, the defenders swore not to marry for life, which in some ways was a way for the defenders to have prestige among the believers and be admired by the believers.

Lu Ning felt that if he participated, these things would naturally be necessary, but he didn't want to, the wise men among the defenders could also see a lot of worldliness clearly.

Later, I heard that many of the wise men who were called "elders" were transformed from Taoist priests and Buddhas, and a few of them really believed that they had seen the emperor's manifestation of the saints, and even saw the image of himself bringing the Book of Heaven into the world to teach the universe Dali, and these people were really believers, and there was even no shortage of direct martyrdom to prove it.

In this regard, Lu Ning began to be a little amused, saying in his heart that these may have been mentally unstable, but now it is just the right time for him to become a pioneer of the sect, and maybe he will be famous in history in the future.

But later, I faintly began to wonder if I was really chosen by God to come to this world?

I had some headaches, so I simply didn't think about it anymore.

At least for now, I still don't believe in any ghosts and gods, and I can be in awe of these theories, but I don't really believe in their existence.

Following Kyoko Fukada to run around and subdue the powerful people of Owari Guohao, Lu Ning felt even more funny, if he was really chosen by God to do great things, now there will be no more thunder, and he will kill himself?

……

Bamboo forests, grille huts, it seems that the powerful manors in these places have the same style, very quiet, but after seeing too much, I will get used to it.

Kyoko Fukada and the lord of Kinoshita Castle, Niwa Daisho Nariyuki sat opposite each other, and Lu Ning knelt a little behind Kyoko Fukada's left side.

In fact, the ancestors of the Sai Xing originated from the Kitato clan, and because he served as the Daipeng of Niwa County, people used to call it Niwa Chengxing.

Kyoko Fukada's snow-white slender hand just put a deed on the case in front of her, and the servant next to her took it with both hands and presented it to Niwa Chengyu.

Lu Ning knew the content of the deed, if Niwa Chengxing signed and pledged, then his famous field was placed in the name of Fujiwara Qimin, that is, Fujiwara Qimin became his famous owner, and he had to pay one-third of the stone grain after the inspection to Fujiwara Qimin every year, of course, Fujiwara Qimin also assumed the obligation to protect his property from then on.

In addition, Fujiwara Saitoshi also has the power to recruit brave men from his manor at any time, and Niwa Seiryuki's inheritance of Narita needs to be confirmed by Fujiwara Saitoshi.

That is, it is really similar to the retainer system of the Warring States period.

Lu Ning also smiled secretly, the city lord daimyo system he implemented in the buffer zone such as Shimono and Hitachi was imitated by this Kyoko Fukada, and it is true that this move can really gain control of Owari Province with extreme efficiency without breaking out into an armed conflict.

Now, this Chengxing Daipeng of Niwa County has not yet pledged allegiance to Fujiwara Saitoshi.

Speaking of which, Da Peng is the internal official of the order, and at the local level, the Da Peng of a county is basically equivalent to the county guard.

But now that Owari has been transformed into Zhixingguo, Dapeng has lost its historical mission and original authority.

Kyoko Fukada even went one step further and subdued Niwa Chengyuki as a retainer.

But obviously, Niwa Nariyuki has not yet deeply understood the mystery that "the retainer of the retainer" is not your retainer, so when he read the deed, his face became more and more ugly, especially his inheritance of the famous field, which still needs to be confirmed by Fujiwara Saitoshi, which means that he will be bound when he chooses the heir of private property, and even the emperor and the regent Sekihaku have never interfered in such matters.

"Paying rent to the State Department at the time of grain harvest is what it should do, but in other matters, the State Department will inevitably intervene too much, and it is also against the system of famous fields." Niwa Seariyuki had a calm face and stared at Kyoko Fukada gloomily.

He had triangular eyes, a very thin body, and his whole body was dark and gloomy, and he sat there, giving people a very terrible feeling, as if there was a poisonous snake in front of him.

Nowadays, Dongying takes black as the noble color, and many folk women also smear black teeth.

Kyoko Fukada smiled slightly, "Doesn't Niwa-kun have a fire in his heart, isn't this Kinoshita-kun the wealth that Niwa-kun left to his descendants?" ”

Lu Ning rubbed his nose, this is the third time, Kyoko Fukada is the same routine, the Central Plains proverb, slap a sweet date, first tell the other party the obligations to be fulfilled, and then draw cakes for the other party.

"Now, Sanjiangdi and Minoji are all voices that are clamoring to respond to Ono's good old countercurrent, doesn't Niwa-kun want to play a clear stream in this big era?"

Here it is again, Lu Ning is a little helpless, the first time he listened to it, he felt that Kyoko Fukada was really good at demagogy, but after listening to it several times in a row, he was a little tired.

Within a few months, Ono Yoshiko had gathered 100,000 righteous people in Omi to resist the invasion of the Qi people, and had already marched to Shinano.

The western part of Shinano Province was the lord of the daimyo castle divided by the Echigo, Ueno, Musashi and other Qi people, or the jurisdiction of the Kanto Imperial Commander Toyoda Nakaren.

At the same time, Ono Yoshiko ordered Shinano Province's "Yugo General" Taira Weishige, the wise man Fujiwara Hidego of Suruga Province, and the Kanto Imperial Leader Toyoda Nakaren to declare war on the Qi people.

Obviously, Ono still has a united front mentality, and now, he is not in a hurry to push these half-hearted heroes who look at the direction of the wind at both ends to the side of Qi Ren.

It was Toyoda Nakato, who led the Kanto Imperial Command, and it was obvious that he was ambitious to stand on his own in the Kanto region and might even want to usurp the supreme power in Kyoto in the future.

Therefore, this veteran general who has made great contributions and became a minister of public affairs as a local hero for the first time is really a talent, even if he has been a cold bench in Kyoto for more than 20 years, his former style is still there.

Of course, Ono Yoshiko said that he claimed to have recruited 100,000 volunteers, but judging from some sources, it may be only 20,000 or 30,000 people, including armed farmers who transported their baggage.

Moreover, a few days ago, Ono Yoshiko's general, who was also his third son, Ono Youmen, sent an envoy to ask Fujiwara Qi Min to expel the Qi people in the country, abolish the so-called Qi people to the embassy, and recruit at least 2,000 brave men, led by Qi Min himself, to go to Mino Country to conquer Qi with the army.

The meaning of the threat is also obvious, if Fujiwara Qimin does not do so, Ono will inevitably go south and take Fujiwara Qimin, the national secretary, into a prison cell first.

Ono's letter to the right door said bluntly, when the country was in crisis, he only listened to the orders of General Zhengyi.

That means, Fujiwara Qimin's words if he wanted to rely on his father's left minister, Fujiwara Minoru, to rely on his power to intimidate him, it was all in vain.

Fujiwara Saimin was so frightened that he shook into chaff at that time, and immediately called Kyoko Fukada, and actually proposed to flee to Kyoto with Kyoko Fukada and the couple.

Lu Ning followed Kyoko Fukada at the time, and looked very helpless, the erosion of the Secretary of Kyoto can be seen in Fujiwara Qimin, and the current situation of Owari Province is obviously planned by Kyoko Fukada alone, just to do things, in the name of Fujiwara Qimin.

When Kyoko Fukada saw this letter, she was overjoyed.

"There is no basis for Minister Zuo to be righteous, and this letter is proof of this!"

When Ono Yoshiko claimed to have recruited 100,000 righteous people, rumors gradually spread in Kyoto.

Why did Ono Yoshiko go to the Kanto region to support the army and respect himself, he only obeyed the orders of the right minister Gentaka, and did not look at the emperor in his eyes, and so on.

Ono Yoshiko used the false title of 100,000 people to boost morale, but in Kyoto, it caused some negative effects, which he did not expect.

Needless to say, these negative information were spread by the left minister Fujiwara Minori and his staff and followers.

But the lethality should not be small.

Because the opposite of Fujiwara Minori, he is also Ono Yoshiko's confidant and promoter, and the right minister is the former tenth prince and the elder brother of the current Emperor Murakami.

Unlike Fujiwara Minori and other ancestral royal bloodlines, Emperor Murakami is naturally a little wary of the source of Gaoming.

After all, the rebellion of Pingjiangmen, who claimed to be the new emperor, had only passed twenty years.

In fact, in history, Gen Gaoming was also framed by Fujiwara Minori for the crime of treason, and although he survived, he completely became a marginal figure in the capital.

It's just that Fujiwara Minori's staff and followers, although they have made the capital boiling, are just rumors after all.

And in the letter from Ono's right gate, there are words like he only obeys the orders of the general Ono Yoshiko.

Although the original intention was to show determination and intimidate Fujiwara Qi Min, but in the hands of someone with a heart, he could naturally make a big fuss.

It was Kyoko Fukada who saw this letter and was not surprised.

Lu Ning felt a little helpless at that time, how did he feel that the current Heianjing is the same as the Southern Song Dynasty in history?

Of course, in terms of the recognition of the country, the Southern Song Dynasty's view of the Central Plains is completely different from the current Kyoto's view of Dewa and Mutsu.

In the eyes of the ministers of Kyoto, I am afraid that Dewa Mutsu is dispensable, it used to be the land of Ezo, and now it is nothing to give to the Qi people, as long as the Qi people do not invade the west and destroy their extravagant life.

Ordinary people, it doesn't matter.

Even in the Southern Song Dynasty, in fact, most of the scholars and people in the south of the Yangtze River were not very interested in the Northern Expedition, and just wanted to hold on to one acre and three points of land to live comfortably.

This is also an important reason why Hepai has always been superior.

Not to mention Kyoto, which doesn't have a strong sense of belonging to Dewa and Mutsumoto.

However, Kyoko Fukada was happy to see this letter, and asked Lu Ning in private, if Ono Youmen led the crowd to attack Owari Province, how sure could she hold it?

According to some intelligence information, there are at least two or three thousand people in Ono's right gate, which was broken off by Ono's Eastern Expeditionary Army, and is now entrenched in the southern Mino Province bordering Owari Province.

Kyoko Fukada's question made it difficult for Lu Ning to answer for a while, after all, the specific strength of Ono's right gate was based on speculation, not to mention that if Ono's right gate really came to attack Owari Province, his own side would be regarded as weak against strong, and the situation on the battlefield would be even more rapidly changing and immeasurable.

However, Lu Ning naturally cheered up Kyoko Fukada, saying that it really couldn't be done, and he could also ask for more mercenaries from Baixing in the East China Sea.

Kyoko Fukada was overjoyed, so she wrote a letter in the name of Qi Min and sent a messenger to Kyoto with a letter from Ono's right door.

Since then, Kyoko Fukada has begun to say "countercurrent" and "clear current" in her mouth.

Ono Yoshiko, Minamoto Takaaki and other rebellious ministers and thieves are countercurrents, intending the chaos and setting things right, ending this senseless war and expelling the rebels at the same time It is the "clear stream".

This should be one of the points she made when she wrote a letter to the Left Minister Fujiwara Minori in the name of her husband.

To persuade the local heroes of Owari Province to annex, they also used the terms "countercurrent" and "clear current".

If you make a trip to this Niwa, it's another set of rhetoric.

"Now, Sanjiangdi and Minoji are all voices that are clamoring to respond to Ono's good old countercurrent, doesn't Niwa-kun want to play a clear stream in this big era?"

Kyoko Fukada smiled, I have to say that this woman has been in high spirits recently, and her momentum has become more and more oppressive, and her smile has become more and more exquisite.

This sentence also made Lu Ning immediately think that Kyoko Fukada was afraid that she had some thoughts about Mino and Sanjiang countries.

This is not Oda Nobunaga's expansion route, of course, no matter who is the lord of Owari and wants to become bigger and stronger, the initial strategic policy should be the same.

Niwa Chengxing's face became colder and colder, looking at Kyoko Fukada, he said slowly: "Lord Qi Min, at your instigation, I am getting more and more confused. ”

Lu Ning's ears suddenly stood up.

Niwa Chengxing smiled coldly, and there was a hint of sarcasm in his smile, "Today, I will capture you, a demon woman, and dedicate it to most of Ono!" ”

Kyoko Fukada chuckled, but instead picked up the fragrant tea on the desk, her red lips puffing slightly.

Lu Ning rubbed his neck, recently, he has been selling labor.

However, it seems that today's life is much more interesting than sitting alone and directing others to do their work.

"Boom", after the chaotic footsteps, the four walls of the grille doors were opened, I am afraid that there are dozens of Taidao warriors, each shining blade pulled out half of the scabbard, and the sun outside is shining, the light is dazzling.

Niwa Chengxing said coldly, "Now write a letter and ask your servants outside Kinoshita City to return to Qingzhou, otherwise, don't blame me for being rude, if they come out of the sheath, I'm afraid that someone will bleed!" Glance at Lu Ning.

In other words, if you don't cooperate, your follower will be divided into pieces immediately.

If you don't obey again, it's your turn.

Seeing that there were so many samurai outside the grille gate, and seeing Lu Ning instantly make a move to catch this Niwa and make a trip, Kyoko Fukada was a little worried, and glanced at Lu Ning sideways, making a look.

Lu Ning patted his leg, "I've been sitting for a long time, and I'm a little numb!" ”

Lu Ning was telling the truth, kneeling and sitting, he really couldn't learn, after a long time, his legs would inevitably be numb.

From the time he came to this world, when he was in the Central Plains, he was able to avoid kneeling and sitting.

Kyoko Fukada was a little helpless, but gradually found that this guy was extremely lazy, this was going to kill him, and he had to relax his muscles and blood before he could do it?

I was a little angry, and suddenly I felt a flower in front of me, and then, I saw that this ugly guy was already standing in front of Niwa Chengxing, and a cold and senmori thin sword was pressed against Niwa Chengxing's neck.

Kyoko Fukada was taken aback, how can she feel that every time this guy makes a move, it will make people feel that he is more terrible than he did it before, but in fact, this person is even more terrifying?

For a moment, Kyoko Fukada forgot the smile of victory on her face, and just subconsciously said to Niwa Nariyu: "Tell your people to retreat, you send us out of the city!" ”

"Don't move!" Niwa Chengxing snorted coldly, "If I die here, you will kill them and avenge me!" ”

Obviously, Niwa Nariyuki knew that after being captured by Kyoko Fukada as a hostage, the general trend was gone, and now it was a stalemate, after all, it was his territory, and there was still a turning point.

Glancing at Lu Ning, Niwa Chengxing snorted coldly: "I underestimate you?" Is it Echizen's one-knife stream? ”

Nowadays, Toei has gradually had the germ of the sword school, but most of them are exaggerated and boasted, for example, some people say that in Echizen, there were samurai, and the sword movement was very fast, and the enemy didn't have time to react, and his head was cut off.

Lu Ning pursed his lips.

"Bang", suddenly there was a loud bang.

At the grille gate on the south side, a samurai immediately fell to the sky, clutching his chest and gasping violently, blood gushing out of it.

The rest of the samurai were startled by the loud noise, and the brave ones immediately drew their swords, cautiously, slowly retreated, and the timid ones had already stood far away.

And everyone gradually reacted, it was the servant of Mrs. Owaraki, who felt something from her arms like lightning, and knocked down Moriichiro in the air, and that thing was put away again.

Ichiro Mori, who fell in a pool of blood, was wheezing, gradually getting smaller and smaller, and it was obvious that he was on the verge of death.

"You stand up and go ahead." The long sword in Lu Ning's hand moved slightly at the neck of Niwa Chengxing, and immediately a trace of blood appeared from between Niwa Chengxing's neck, and he used his hand very skillfully, only cutting through the capillaries, so that Niwa Chengxing only shed a trace of blood.

"Push it away, or he'll be your end." Lu Ning pursed his mouth and pouted the warrior who had been shot and had gradually exhaled the last breath of turbidity.

Fukada Kyoko Shi Shiran stood up, her posture was calm and graceful and slowly moved her steps, looking at Lu Ning's figure in front of her, but her beautiful eyes showed a strange look.

：。 ：m.x