On the afternoon of April 9, inside the Kuroda Castle Castle Tower.

"Oh?" Yu Qiuping looked at the 800 guan placed in front of the table, not the 4000 guan as he imagined, and smiled slightly. The messenger had been asked by him to rest on the ground floor, and now he had summoned all the higher-ups to the third floor of the castle tower for discussion.

"Those four wealthy families, I'm afraid it's not through the gas." Sanada Masayuki saw at a glance that there was a lot of trickery, "Each of them just gave 200 guan this time, and they all asked to put important people back home, they must have discussed it in advance, and they plan to unite to put pressure on His Highness." ”

"Are they crazy?" Mimasaki Nakahide scoffed suspiciously, "They have more than 900 hostages here!" Their sons, the second heads of the households, or the heads of the families are also with us! Why are they bargaining! ”

"They also obviously see that His Highness is running out of stamina," Naoe Tadahei said in a low voice, "so they are not willing to pay so easily." ”

"Then let's just execute some of these people first and show them some of them!" Ji Gang Shengzheng said viciously, "Let's see if they dare to bargain!" ”

"No, that's immoral. At any time, I refuse to kill prisoners! Yu Qiuping immediately shook his head and refused, "First of all, killing them won't do us any good. Secondly, there is no end to the danger of killing captives! Moreover, it hurts to kill the captives, not only will our own brothers who are always in the pan be confused about me, but the people will also be afraid of me, and no one will be willing to surrender in the future, how bad is it! ”

"Then what do you say, Your Highness," Yoshioka Katsumasa was also a little annoyed, and spread his hands, "It seems that those families have discussed it, and they will not kill the prisoners if they see Your Highness's kindness." They don't give money either, so it's consumed, we can't see it, and it's impossible to let the captives out to work, it's equivalent to helping them raise people for nothing! Is this nothing! Although Yoshioka Katsumasa's words are a little rougher, everyone understands the core meaning. The subordinates nodded one after another and set their eyes on Yu Qiuping.

"Don't worry," Yu Qiuping looked at the nervous expressions of his subordinates, and smiled easily: "Your Highness has no ability, and there are still a lot of ghost ideas." ”

"I'm going to break up their relationship and let them fight against each other in distrust." Yu Qiuping analyzed, "Because only if they are not united, we kidnappers can take advantage of the gap." Just like Nonomura Yukinari and the four of them, if it weren't for the fact that Mitsuyasu Kato and Hara Nagayori were too soft and refused to share their hearts with the other two, we wouldn't have been able to extort money. ”

"Therefore, I'm going to introduce-" Yu Qiuping looked back proudly, and snapped his fingers in the direction of the north bank of the Kiso River: "Competition mechanism!" ”

·

On the morning of April 10, the original family waited for most of the day, and finally waited for a reply from the Yuqiu family. However, to the surprise of the original family, the Yuqiu family actually sent their own subordinates as messengers. In the previous two communications, Yuqiu's family released the captives of their original family as messengers, and asked them to bring Yuqiuping's handwritten letter.

The envoy of the Yuqiu family was also very strange, and after arriving at the original house, he resolutely refused to meet the original house, but waited outside and refused to come in. This couldn't help but make the original family angry and panicked, for fear that his behavior of only giving 200 guan would anger Yu Qiuping, which led to the abnormal behavior of the messenger. If the envoy of any family dared to disrespect him so much on weekdays, he didn't have to speak in the original room, and the samurai under his command would have broken him into thousands of pieces. But right now, hundreds of his subordinates are in the hands of Yu Qiuping, and he doesn't dare to do anything to annoy Yu Qiu's family.

Yuan Laifang also sent someone to communicate with the people of the other family in the morning, but learned that the envoys sent by the Yuqiu family did not say anything, which made Yuan Laifang panic.

However, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the guards came suddenly to inform the messenger of the request for an audience.

"He's finally willing to speak?" Yuan Laifang was surprised, "Invite him in!" ”

After the envoy entered the house, he did not say much, and after bowing to the original house, he immediately said, "Please also ask His Highness Yuan to atone for his sins." The reason why I refused to speak until I went down was because at the request of my Royal Highness, I and my three companions had to tell the four of our Highnesses at the same time. However, due to the difference in distance, it is not possible for the four of us to go to meet your Highnesses at the same time to reach your territory, so we must inform you of Your Highness's request at the same time as we have agreed—that is, four o'clock in the afternoon. ”

"Your Excellency, please speak!" Yuan Laifang said hurriedly.

"Yes, Your Highness regrets that you have not been able to pay the reparations as requested." The envoy said without humility or arrogance: "However, in order to release sincerity, Your Highness is willing to release Your Excellency, your eldest son, and the important hostage designated by the rest of the families. ”

"Great! Thank you very much, Your Highness Momiji! We were cautious before, don't blame Your Highness! "Yuan Lai Fang was busy making amends.

"However, as Your Highness is very dissatisfied with your actions," the messenger said, "Your Highness has agreed to release one of the four important hostages. ”

"Alone? What do you mean? Whose house is it? Why? Yuan Laifang was stunned for a moment, and his voice couldn't help but raise a little.

"Let's start counting at this moment," the messenger said in a deep voice, "and the four of us will inform your Highnesses at the same time. Whoever can send the remaining 800 to His Highness's Kuroda Castle as soon as possible will show which one is the most trustworthy, and His Highness will release the hostages. If the money is not sent before sunset, His Highness will hand over the important hostages to the Oda Hall in Cheongju Castle. ”

Yuan Lai Fang was stunned in place, and immediately reacted after a while, and said loudly: "This! This! It's too much! That's it! Why did His Highness Momiji make such a request! ”

"That's not what I can answer." The envoy bowed without humility or arrogance, "That's all I have to say, please hurry up, Your Highness." With that, he retired and left the castle tower.

As soon as the messenger walked forward, the panicked Yuan Laifang immediately gathered all the retainers together to discuss.

"What does this rain and autumn autumn leaves mean?" Yuan Laifang shouted loudly: "Why do you suddenly want to send Wu'er to Cheongju City!" How good is that! ”

"Your Highness, please calm down!" An old family admonished, "I think that Yu Qiuping just wants to get the money quickly." When our money is delivered to him, it is estimated that he will not be released. We should continue to insist on the attitude of not giving money and force him to give in! ”

"Can you guarantee that?" Another retainer retorted dissatisfiedly: "In case the other three families send money!" We didn't send it! Yuqiu Momiji was annoyed and angry, and sent the young master to Oda Nobunaga! Can you take responsibility? ”

"Impossible, you use your own brain to think about it, how can Yuqiu Hongye be willing to let go of the young master as a hostage! Don't think about it! The old man retorted.

"I think you want to kill the young master because you are close to the second son!" The other retainer was a little anxious, "Say! What the hell do you have in mind! ”

"What's the use of talking about this now, don't make a noise!" The old man in the family came forward to preside over the overall situation, "The key is to discuss it with a few other families first!" What to do? As long as the four of us work together and don't give money, we won't be able to get any benefits from the rain and autumn red leaves, so we naturally don't dare to do anything to the young master as a hostage! ”

"But!" Yuan Laifang, who licked the calf deeply, hurriedly said: "This time the rain and autumn red leaves said! He's only going to release one hostage! Only the hostages of the one who sent the money the fastest can be released! We went and informed them and waited for their news! I don't know how long it will be delayed, if someone else redeems the hostage first, my son won't be able to come back! Even the hundreds of us who were detained there may not be able to come back! ”

"Your Highness! Don't fall for it! The old man of the pen said calmly: "Obviously there are four hostages, Yuqiu Hongye deliberately only put one, obviously to sow discord, so that the four of us can't unite to deal with him!" He was just scared of the four of us before we joined forces! If we give money one by one according to his wishes, we will not suffer in the end! ”

"I know! I know! Yuan Laifang raised his voice and said, "But can you guarantee that everyone thinks the same way as you!" I have always been tired of the bandits in Chuanjizhong, and this time I also pinched my nose to cooperate with them! Now that there is such a good opportunity, how can they discuss with us, maybe they have already sent someone to ransom people with money! ”

"This...", the old man of the pen was speechless for a moment. Indeed, several of their wealthy families also saw that there was a advantage to take advantage of this time, so they jointly sent troops. Usually, the relationship between everyone is not very good, and there are constant small frictions. At this moment, how can you trust that the other families will communicate with you first. "The rain and autumn red leaves set the requirement that whoever is fast can redeem the hostages, obviously not giving us time to communicate!"

This was the famous prisoner's dilemma: two people who conspired to commit a crime were imprisoned and could not communicate with each other. If neither of them denounces the other, each goes to jail for a year because the evidence is uncertain; If one person denounces and the other is silent, the whistleblower is immediately released for meritorious service, and the silent person is imprisoned for 10 years for non-cooperation; If they expose each other, they will both be sentenced to eight years in prison because the evidence is conclusive. Since the prisoners are unable to trust each other, they tend to expose each other rather than remain silent.

As the minutes passed, everyone was anxious.

"Your Highness, make a decision quickly!" Another cronie couldn't wait any longer, and urged: "When we discuss here, maybe one of them has already sent someone over!" We can't hesitate! ”

Hearing this, Yuan Laifang took a deep breath. "Don't say anything, hurry up and prepare the money! Send the money over! He stood up anxiously and urged, "Nothing is as safe as Wu'er!" Anyway, they probably will send money too! Instead of cheapening the bandits in Kawa and Zhong, I still want to redeem my son as soon as possible! ”

The old man of the pen and a few retainers knew that it was a plan, but they had nothing to do, so they could only jump into the pit honestly. "This rainy autumn and red leaves, but at a young age, he is so vicious," the old man with a beard scolded secretly: "This plan doesn't give us room to think about it at all!" Jumping into the pit over there! ”