At the foot of the mountain to the east of Maple Mountain Castle, there is a large maple forest. Now, this maple forest has become the cemetery of Yuqiu's family. Yu Qiuping engraved the name, position, and deeds of every soldier who died for the Yuqiu Army on a wooden plaque, and a person's wooden plaque was hung on a maple tree to express his remembrance of the deceased.

And his Yuan Ceremony for Ii Toramatsu and Naoe Narumu was also held in front of this maple tree. When Naoe Tadahei learned that Yu Qiuping would serve Jing Yihu Matsu Yuanfu, he also asked Yu Qiuping to hold a Yuan service ceremony for the old Chengyuan Pill, and Yu Qiuping, who had already promised it, naturally gladly agreed.

When giving names to the two children, Yu Qiuping was really conflicted for a while. He originally wanted to give his "Ping" character to Hu Song, but after hesitating, he decided to let him have the name that made his enemies feared in history - "Ii Naomasa". He consulted Naotora Anayama, who said that the name was good, that she liked it very much, and that she didn't mind not getting a word from Yu Qiuping.

As for Naoe Narumu's Yuanfu ceremony, the word "Ping" will naturally appear in the name. Because when the Naoe pro-soldier was given the name by Yu Qiuping, he decided to pass on "Ping" as a common character. After careful consideration, Yu Qiuping gave Chengyuan Maru a meaningful name - "Naoe Dengping". Naoe Nobuyei wounded Takeda Shingen in a shelling during the previous three-day battle of the town, and made an immortal deed, saving the lives of the entire Red Leaf Army, and his good luck was also praised by everyone for a while.

After the grand Yuan dress ceremony, Yu Qiuping did not rush to leave, but sat in front of the maple forest for a long, long time. Shigeharu Takenaka came once in the middle of the year, and wanted to discuss with Yu Qiuping about making up the matter of recruiting and training recruits for several months to the three reserve teams to make up the difference, but after seeing Yu Qiuping's state, he quietly left.

Yu Qiuping didn't know how long he had been sitting in the maple forest, but he felt uncomfortable in his heart. Whenever a maple leaf falls under the autumn wind, Yu Qiuping will feel a throbbing pain in his heart. Watching a maple leaf fall, it's like watching a young life disappear in front of you.

Every soldier of the Red Leaf Army will have a piece of paper red leaf stuck in his helmet. And when he sacrificed, Yu Qiuping would take down the paper red leaf and preserve it well. Whenever people can't sleep in the dead of night, Yu Qiuping often gets up from the house, walks to the room where the paper red leaves are stored, and sits by the red leaves, chattering with them.

But in the blink of an eye, the paper leaves in the room were piled up as high as a hill. Yu Qiuping sat in the maple forest, sitting on the fallen leaves, as if sitting on the sea of corpses and blood of his countless subordinates. How many people has he sent to hell? How many red leaves have fallen from the branches? Could it be that one day, all the maple trees in this maple forest will be full of wooden signs of the fallen of the Red Leaf Army, and all the maple leaves in this maple forest will not add up to as many paper red leaves in Yuqiuping's room?

It was getting dark, and the cold autumn wind blew the rain and Qiuping shivered. At this moment, there was a sudden warmth on his shoulder. Yu Qiuping was stunned for a moment and found that a blanket had been draped over his body.

"Thank you, Ryuko." As soon as he came back to his senses, he smiled and replied casually, "Shouldn't you eat..."

However, halfway through the words, the smile on Yu Qiuping's face suddenly froze. As if he suddenly realized something, he turned around in a daze, and found that the person standing behind him was no longer the well-behaved and clingy little girl, but Mori Ranmaru.

Grief struck him suddenly, breaking down the defenses in his heart. Yu Qiuping only felt that the softest corner of his heart suddenly collapsed, making him almost unable to restrain himself from crying out loud in an instant. Moran Maru was taken aback, and hurriedly ran back to Maple Mountain Castle and called Imagawa Kaede over.

By the time Imagawa Kaede arrived, Yu Qiuping was already crying so much that he couldn't shed tears, he thought that he had come out of the death of so many people, but now he found that he couldn't do it at all.

"Ping." Imagawa Kaede looked at Yu Qiuping's appearance, and she couldn't help her eyes with tears, she walked to Yu Qiuping's side, sat down on the fallen leaves with him, gently hugged him, and whispered, "Cheer up." ”

"How cheer me up!" Yu Qiuping's voice suddenly increased, and suddenly slipped to the point where he could barely be heard, "You said that I have been for so many years... What the hell did you do? ”

"I always think that I am a traverser, I have the ability that ordinary people don't have, and I can change something with my own strength. So I've been fighting and working hard. But after all these years, what do you see what I've done? Yu Qiuping laughed miserably and hammered the ground with his hand again and again, "My brothers left me one by one, Kangzhuang died, Brother Asahina died, Takechiyo betrayed me and broke off my friendship, and now Changzheng is no more; The elders who treated me best were the same, His Royal Highness the Governor died unexpectedly, His Royal Highness Sena died for me to cut my stomach, and Senpai Senpai also died fighting to protect me; And the people close to me, so many of my subordinates, and the dragons, they left me one by one. When I turned around, I couldn't count the paper leaves behind me..."

"But what did I get? What have I gained after fifteen years of hard work in this world? Yu Qiuping sneered self-deprecatingly, and shook his head dejectedly, "Fiefdom? Offices? Power? Status? Money? These are not what I want, what do I want to do with this! I keep losing what I hold dear, and in exchange for what I don't care about, what have I been fighting for so many years? Why should I fight? Ridiculous hahahahaha..."

"Ping, aren't you fighting to end the cycle of chaos and create a peaceful and prosperous world for all the people in the world?" Imagawa Kaede felt very uncomfortable when he saw Yu Qiuping's whole appearance, and reminded him in a low voice, trying to cheer him up, "Isn't this the dream that you promised with His Royal Highness the Governor and His Royal Highness Seming, and with Lord Takenaka and His Royal Highness Asai?" Haven't you been fighting for this? Where is it as unbearable as you say! ”

"The peaceful and prosperous era is also the peaceful and prosperous era of Japan, but I am a Han Chinese!" When Yu Qiuping heard this, he seemed to have suddenly figured it out, and sighed in an extremely frustrated tone, not knowing whether he was saying it to Imagawa Kaede or to himself, "I'm Han, in the end, what does the peaceful and prosperous era of Japan have to do with me?" I will create a peaceful and prosperous era for Japan, let the people have long-term peace and stability, let the country's strength continue to rise, and then train an unworldly strong army for Japan. And then what? And then wait for the stronger Japan to invade my homeland with the army I created? ”

"It won't be like this..."Seeing this, Imagawa Kaede hurriedly retorted, but was directly interrupted by Yu Qiuping: "Why not!" Haven't you read the history of my past life! In the history of the previous life, Japan did not know how many times it had the idea of invading China, and the war brought hellish disasters to China! Isn't what I'm doing now aiding the abuse? Doesn't that just make that aggression more violent? I want to become a sinner in China for thousands of years, and I want to leave a stench for thousands of years! ”

"So what have I been trying to do all these years?" Yu Qiuping finished saying a long sentence, turned around, raised his head, and looked at the starry sky, "I keep working hard, keep fighting, keep losing the people I cherish, keep getting fame and fortune that I don't care about, until finally bring infinite disasters to my nation?" God let me cross, is it just to see jokes? ”

Yu Qiuping said this, and Imagawa Kaede didn't know what to say. She just sat quietly under the maple tree with Yuqiu, watching the maple leaves flutter in the autumn wind with him, just like when the two first met.

·

I don't know how long it has been, but Yu Qiuping's mood can't be calm. He was also confused in the past, and he once wondered why he, as a Han Chinese, fought so hard in Japan? Whenever he remembered this doubt, which was destined to be unsolvable, he always forced himself to throw himself into his work to escape.

But this time, he didn't plan to run away anymore, he wanted to think things clearly. Because he has lost so much, he can live with the loss, but he can't bear the meaningless loss. If he couldn't figure out what he was doing to continue this samurai life, then he would never have had the courage to take his men to the battlefield and die. If I don't even know what I'm for, what's the reason for my subordinates to sacrifice for it?

"Ping, why don't you go home and have a look?"

Suddenly, Imagawa Kaede spoke for no reason, interrupting Yu Qiuping's thoughts.

"Go back to Suruga? I'm afraid the ninjas of the Takeda family are waiting for revenge, right? Yu Qiuping smiled when he heard this, "How is it possible?" ”

"No, I mean to let you go home." Kaede Imagawa shook his head gently, turned sideways, and stared into Yu Qiuping's eyes, "Go back to your hometown." ”

"You mean..."Yu Qiuping was stunned when he heard this, and the place in the depths of his memory already seemed a little unfamiliar, "Go back to China?" ”

"Yes, go back to China and take a look, maybe you can solve the doubts in your heart, because I can't help you with anything." Imagawa Kaede quietly wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and said in a low voice, "Go home and take a look, maybe you can understand something." ”

"I'm leaving, what should I do with Yuqiu's family?" Yu Qiuping had to say that Imagawa Kaede's proposal was very tempting, and he couldn't wait to put on his wings and fly back immediately. However, the fetters of reality made him unable to get out of it no matter what, "The Miyoshi family and Honganji are both hostile, and the Red Leaf Army is in the reconstruction stage, where can I get out of the way?" ”

"Aren't you worried about handing it over to us?" Imagawa Kaede shook his head, "With me and your five guards here, we can handle it." Compared to the plight of the Yuqiu family in the past few months, your heart knot is more important. If you can't adjust, Yuqiu's family won't be able to go far in the future. ”

"Go ahead, go home and see."