After nightfall, Ouchi Katsu and Yao Fang were still in the tavern, drinking with Mori Sadacho and enjoying singing and dancing. Le Ji held a paper fan and danced in the silence. Ouchi Katsu and Maori both watched it with relish, but Yao Fang, a native of the Ming Kingdom, may not be used to this kind of concise singing and dancing, and his expression is a little boring.

At this moment, someone suddenly opened the wooden door, walked into the shop quickly, came to the banquet and bowed, and said in Japanese: "Report, General Tao has been attacked by assassins in the courtyard!" Nearby samurai are reinforcing them. ”

After hearing this, several people immediately got up from the floor, and Mao said in Chinese: "Tao Jing has met an assassin." ”

Everyone paid the money and left the place in a hurry, following the messenger and everyone to the place of the incident to investigate. Soon a noise was heard, and a team of ashigaru and archers was advancing. Torches burst into the streets, and black smoke wafted from the streets.

After a while, Ouchi Katsu and the others arrived at the Taojing Courtyard. I saw a torch outside the door, and several corpses were already lying on the ground. At this moment, a samurai with a sword approached the door cautiously, kicked the door open, and then rushed to the door.

In the dim light, there was the sound of swords clashing, and then a scream rang out, and the samurai quickly fell to the ground and lay motionless in the doorway. The few remaining people outside immediately stopped, carrying their knives and not daring to continue approaching, and someone shouted, "Call the archers quickly!" ”

Ouchi Katsu observed for a moment and felt that the scene was a little strange. Reinforcements couldn't even get through the doors of the annex, and it seemed that the Assassins had taken control of it; The assassins were surrounded by Iwami Castle samurai, but they didn't mention Tao Jing at all, let alone threaten people?

After a short stay, Ouchi Katsu followed the direction of the back door of the courtyard and left the place silently. Yao Fang, a native of the Ming Kingdom, seemed to have been keeping an eye on him, and immediately followed.

The two of them were silent, hurrying through the night. Katsu Ouchi barely speaks Chinese, Yao Fang doesn't speak Japanese, so it's difficult to converse, and simple language like "Kokai" is not suitable at this time.

"Murder! Murder ......" An old woman shouted at Ouchi Katsu and the others, looking very frightened.

Tonight, there were many defenders in the city, but at this time, most of them were in Tao Jing's courtyard, and some people were shouting here, but no one paid attention to them for a while. Ouchi Katsu immediately stepped forward to ask, but the old woman was too frightened to speak, and pointed to a house not far away.

It was an unwalled house, built like a haystack on the outside, and the door was open. Ouchi Sheng walked up quickly, and Yao Fang followed.

Ouchi Katsu's right hand immediately rested on the hilt of the katana, and he said at the door, "The people of the national government." "And then jump in all at once.

Next to the door, there is a samurai with a katana in both hands, leaning forward and staring at Katsu Ouchi, ready to attack at any time! The samurai probably recognized Ouchi Katsu at once, and a relieved expression appeared on his face.

But in an instant, Ouchi Katsu suddenly swung out his katana with a "bang", and the samurai at the door screamed in response, and the sword and body fell to the ground with a "clang".

This situation suddenly made Yao Fang, who followed later, show a look of surprise. But Yao Fang didn't say anything, maybe it was useless to say it, anyway, they couldn't understand each other.

"Bastard!" Tao Jing's voice came.

Ouchi Sheng's concentration just now was slightly relaxed, and he followed the sound to see that there was a string of blood on the ground, and Tao Jing was sitting against the wall, and he seemed to be injured. What made Ouchi Katsu suddenly angry was that the Shibukawa clan was by Tao Jing's side at this time!

Shocked and frightened, Shibukawa stared at Ouchi Katsu and asked, "What are you doing?" ”

Ouchi Katsuichi changed his plain and submissive appearance, raised his head and walked forward slowly, his eyes were red, staring at the pair of men and women, and said through gritted teeth: "Tao Jing, you are mean and unkind as the lord. ”

Shibukawa said, "Are you crazy? ”

Ouchi Katsu continued to walk forward, and continued, "You are incompetent and incompetent. ”

Tao Jing looked at the bloodied katana in Ouchi Katsu's hand and began to struggle to sit up, he was silent about the accusation, unable to refute it.

Ouchi Katsu said again: "You took my money without giving any favor. ”

The two of them got closer and closer, and Ouchi Katsu said, "I am loyal to you, but you insult me unscrupulously. You are not worthy of the lord! ”

Tao Jing sneered: "If you feel insulted, why don't you die?" ”

"Ah......h In an instant, Tao Jing coldly grabbed the knife on the ground and stabbed forward. Almost at the same time, Ouchi Katsu turned sideways with his knife in his hand, avoiding the stabbing blow, and the blade instantly fell on Tao Jing's neck, but it stopped abruptly! A wisp of blood immediately soaked out of the skin of Tao Jing's neck.

Tao Jing's face turned pale in an instant, and his whole body stiffened.

Ouchi Katsu's knife paused slightly, and suddenly pulled it into his arms with his force, and with a short cry of "ah", blood splattered out, splashing the Shibukawa clan next to him with blood on his head and face.

Shibukawa sat on his knees like a piece of wood, his eyes widened. Ouchi grabbed Tao Jing's clothes, wiped the knife twice, and slowly put it into the scabbard around his waist.

At this time, the Shibukawa clan gradually came back to his senses, raised his head and looked at Ouchi Katsu blankly with a frightened and worried gaze.

Ouchi Katsu said, "Now follow me." Tao Jing was not killed by me, and you have nothing to do with him. ”

Shibukawa suddenly said, "Can the husband forgive me?" ”

"Get out of here." Ouchi repeated. The cruelty and violence he had just now suddenly disappeared.

The two came to the door before and after, only to see Yao Fang, a native of the Ming Kingdom, watching there, without any intention of intervening or speaking.

Yao Fang's expression was indifferent and he didn't care about himself, but there was a vague look of interest in his eyes. Yao Fang seemed to be very interested in Ouchi's behavior, and observed Ouchi's eyes and appeared very carefully.

As soon as they walked out of the house, they saw several samurai and ashigaru. A samurai asked, "Ouchi-kun, what happened?" ”

Ouchi Katsu said: "The guardian Dai Taojun was killed by the assassin, and the assassin was already gone when I came, and I was about to track down the nearby assassins. ”

The samurai glanced at the person next to him, the Shibukawa clan with blood on his head and face.

Shibukawa's gaze was extremely unnatural, and the color of fear overflowed on his face. But fortunately, the samurai did not ask any more questions, and after bowing, he walked briskly towards the house.

The three of them silently walked in the direction of the Ouchi Mansion, and Yao Fang was still accompanying them. Shibukawa whispered, "Those people have discovered my suspicions, will they find out about my husband, right?" ”

Ouchi Katsu was very calm, glanced sideways at Yao Fang beside him, and said to the Shibukawa clan in Japanese: "Why don't you understand?" Everything in Iwami is decided by the people of the Ming country. Tao Jing is just a 'naturally noble' dog, but he is still a dog, restrained by his tail between his legs. Does it matter if a dog dies? ”

Shibukawa's expression became very complicated.

Back in the courtyard, the Shibukawa clan was busy changing clothes. Ouchi Katsu and Yao Fang sat together in the hall, silently facing each other, and the paper and ink were also placed on the wooden table. But the paper was white, and neither of them could write.

The courtyard was peaceful, it was dead silent.

Ouchi Katsu finally picked up the pen and wrote the kanji on the paper: resentment against each other, subtraction to death.

The grammar of Japanese is different from that of Chinese, and Katsu Ouchi's classical Chinese does not seem to be very proficient, and sometimes the sentences written are not very easy to understand. But Yao Fang has communicated with him many times, and should be able to understand his habits and understand the meaning: people have hatred for each other, and only death can calm the conflict.

Yao Fang also went on to write a paragraph. Ouchi Sheng glanced at it and understood the meaning: Don't you kill Tao Jing's family?

The two looked at each other, each trying to understand each other's innermost thoughts.

Ouchi Sheng wrote to the effect that I have no reason and power to kill Tao Jing's family, and if the Ming army wants to do this, I must have no opinion.

Yao Fang shook her head. Ouchi Katsu also knew what was involved, the Ming army would not deal with Tao Jing, but would go to find out the source of the assassins; Because the assassins came to deal with the guardian of Iwami Province, which was supported by the Ming army, this was to provoke the prestige of the Ming army.

Of course, the matter has long been clear, Ouchi Katsu has already told Yao Fang that the people of the Uesugi family in the Kanto region have bought Iwami Province to guard the samurai.

At this moment, the Shibukawa clan, who had changed his clothes, came out with a tea set. Yao Fang turned his head to look at her, and he had a slight smile, but Ouchi Katsu noticed that it seemed to be a sneer.

But Yao Fang never wrote about the Shibukawa clan, and didn't mention it at all, probably because he didn't want to interfere in Ouchi Katsu's private affairs.

Shibukawa looked at Yao Fang, smiled politely and reluctantly, knelt on the ground and bowed, and said in Japanese, "It's rude." ”

Yao Fang shook her head slightly, seemingly completely incomprehensible.

Shibukawa turned to Ouchi Katsu and said, "Last night, my husband did something to me, and I was angry for a moment before I said angry words, but it's not true, can you forgive me?" That Tao Jing threatened me and persecuted me at first, he was the lord of the city, and I was a woman who was really powerless to disobey his wishes, and I was also a victim......"

Ouchi Katsu sighed, neither responding nor wanting to refute her lies.

He meditated for a while before he said, "Pleasure is just a vain, Tao Jing has taken a fancy to you just because you are my wife; I am the source of his happiness. People are always obsessed with hurting each other and taking pleasure in it. ”

Shibukawa said, "I repent, will you send me back to Shibukawa's house?" ”

Ouchi Katsu didn't answer.

Yao Fang wrote on a piece of paper: "After the Maori tour, I went to Hakata with him, and I will probably return to Kyoto from Hakata Port in the near future." Hopefully, one day, we'll see you again.

Ouchi nodded after reading, and then bowed to Yao Fang.

Yao Fang also wrote: The Ming Dynasty guards the Northern Department of the Imperial Division, and is very optimistic about the Great Inner Jun.

Ouchi Katsu: This land passers-by, and there will be death.

Yao Fang looked at the words on it and thought about something. At this time, there was a gust of wind in the courtyard outside the door, and the grass and trees "swished" sounded, and the bald head Ouchi Katsu looked blank, looking blankly at the movement in the gloomy place.

The intense emotions seem to have dissipated, and only the dull sinking is like night, shrouded in the world.