After a low wail, a wild goose slowly landed on the top floor of a white castle tower. It was oozing blood slightly from its leg, and it was unknown when it was injured.

After hearing the wailing sound outside the door, the people in the house also moved. A young woman, stopping the paper red leaves she was folding in her hand, stood up and opened the door, just in time to see the wild goose. The wild goose turned her head and saw the young woman as well. The geese, who have always been afraid of people and will fly away when they see people, stayed where they were and did not move. It seems that the face of this young woman is world-sour, and even the wild goose is amazed.

The young woman pulled the strands of hair from her forehead behind her ears and bent down slightly to examine the wild goose's wounds. She turned back to the room, took out a small piece of gauze, and carefully bandaged the geese. The wild goose obediently raised her right foot slightly, and watched as the young woman helped her with her wounds. When she was done, the young woman was about to get up and leave, but she was suddenly stunned. She smiled bitterly, picked up a piece of paper red leaf that had just been folded from the house, and gently tied it with a ribbon to the gauze on the right leg of the wild goose, watching the wild goose fly high into the distance with the red leaf.

·

Back on February 3, it was the first day that Yu Qiuping was imprisoned. After he was tied up by Goka, a group of samurai with rude manners violently pushed him into a prison in Ninomaru in Inabayama Castle. Because he was a special criminal, he was also specially detained underground. I walked around and around until I reached the small cell in the corner.

Yu Qiuping knew that there was no possibility of escaping, and he obediently struggled uselessly. The cells were in decent condition, with clean straw on the floor to keep out the dampness, a small piece of old tatami mat, a small table, and a skylight—similar to the cell he was holding in Sunpu Castle. After he was pushed into the cell and locked up, the rope on his body was loosened, allowing Yu Qiuping to stretch his body a little. Immediately, however, he was again heavily shackled. The samurai who captured him did not immediately search Yu Qiuping because of carelessness. Yu Qiuping took advantage of their inattention, and quietly hid the ribs and a few taels of gold left to him by Sena Shiyi in his arms under the straw. It took a lot of effort for him to be handcuffed and shackled.

Before he could catch his breath, several ninja-looking people immediately took Yu Qiuping away on the orders of Saito Ryuxing. They blindfolded Yu Qiuping, tossed again, took them to a secret interrogation room, and tied Yu Qiuping to his seat. Yu Qiuping glanced at the surrounding situation, and immediately recognized a large number of interrogation tools such as "iron trojan horse", "piercing pointer", leather whip and soldering iron stick, etc., and immediately understood what he was going to encounter.

A high-ranking samurai like him, who knew the inside story at a glance, fell into the hands of the local government, and it was indispensable to torture him to obtain information. This group of ninjas looked like they hadn't caught such a big fish for a long time, and one by one they were preparing in front of Yu Qiuping with torture tools, eager to try, and looked very excited. They are already brain-mutilating the pleasure of killing Tadashi! beat a strong iron man who didn't say a word at the beginning to the flesh, and was forced to confide in the precious information of the master's family word by word.

However, the development of the situation surprised them.

"After Oda Nobukiyo's rebellion, the total strength of the Oda family was about 13,000 people. However, due to years of war, the Oda family has a serious shortage of men, and now the number of troops that can be recruited is less than 10,000. ”

"Among them, Oda Nobunaga himself has about 4,000 people under his direct jurisdiction, stationed in Kiyoshu Castle, Nakono Castle, and Narumi Castle, and Shibata Katsuya has about 1,000 people, stationed in..."

Yu Qiuping turned around and revealed all the military information he knew, as if an intelligence chief was reporting the investigation to his lord. In an instant, those ninjas who were preparing to be tortured actually had a trace of delusion - could the person in front of them be the undercover agent planted by the Saito family in the Oda family, and they caught the friendly army by mistake?

They simply asked Yu Qiuping viciously how many people were stationed in Cheongju City, and wanted to use it as an appetizer for interrogation. Who would have thought that Yu Qiuping had already informed all the military deployments in Owari in detail in detail, so that the questions they prepared would be useless at once. Moreover, this information is very authentic at a glance, which is consistent with some fragmented information they have learned before, and it will definitely not be faked. The ninjas in charge of the interrogation looked at each other, not knowing for a moment how to proceed with the interrogation.

"What are you doing in a daze! Remember! Yu Qiuping looked at the expressions of several ninjas, and muttered with some dissatisfaction: "Where can you memorize so much information after listening to it?" If I don't remember it, I'm not going to say it again! ”

Eventually, the day's interrogation lasted less than two quarters of an hour before it ended. Yu Qiuping, who has no loyalty to the Oda family at all, naturally will not suffer in order to protect the information of the Oda family, and he also wishes that the Saito family can cause more trouble to Oda Nobunaga, so that he will have the opportunity to assassinate Oda Nobunaga.

The interrogating ninja honestly reported the information to Saito Ryuxing, and now not only Saito Ryuxing, but also Hineno Hiroshi were completely dumbfounded by these experienced ministers. They briefly verified it and found that there was no mistake in the information given by Yu Qiuping - the military deployment map in Owari was in hand!

So, in the days that followed, Yu Qiuping was never interrogated again. However, the ninjas who interrogated him ran into trouble. Two of them began to doubt the current interrogation system, and one even became suspicious of the meaning of his work, and the entire Saito family's ninja group fell into confusion.

And Yu Qiuping officially became a prisoner and was imprisoned in the prison of Inabayama Castle. The cell where Yu Qiuping was held was the last of the cul-de-sacs in a large cell, and there were no prisoners in the surrounding cells, so there were a dozen jailers in charge of guarding him. Although the deprivation of liberty and the worry of his family and subordinates made Yu Qiuping very tormented, he knew that he could not do anything about it, so he simply calmed down and waited for the Oda family to communicate to save him.

I have to say that the Saito family's treatment of high-ranking prisoners is still good, and three meals a day are guaranteed. At noon, with the sound of footsteps around the corner of the cell, Yu Qiuping knew that the jailer who was delivering the food was coming again.

"Take it, eat it," the jailer carried a tray and casually stuffed Yu Qiuping's lunch from under the cell door through the crack under the cell door.

"Thank you for your hard work." Yu Qiuping smiled sincerely at this somewhat arrogant jailer, just like he did to the waiter or courier who helped serve the food in his previous life. Smiling and saying thank you to those who have served and helped him has been a habit he has developed over the years.

The surrounding jailers were slightly surprised and moved when they saw Yu Qiuping's reaction. Most of the prisoners who were previously detained here were also important ministers of the family, and they had a lot of status in Mino. Even if they are in prison, they will not have a good face for them, the jailers at the bottom of society. Yu Qiuping was also the first person to thank him.

The amount of lunch given to Yu Qiuping is still very large, and Yu Qiuping can't finish that big bowl of rice. After he had eaten all the pickles, he had nothing to eat, so he naturally couldn't eat. So he asked the jailers to rinse their mouths with their glasses of water and wash their faces. Then it was a sincere "thank you".

When Yu Qiuping asked the jailers to bring out the leftovers, he suddenly found that the jailers were all looking at the white rice and leftover fish bones, and secretly ate a lot of them while the outside manager was not paying attention. But there are many jailers, and one person has such a small bite. Only then did Yu Qiuping react, and the white rice that seemed ordinary to him might only be able to afford to be eaten by these jailers during the New Year's holidays. The kindness that had been suppressed for a long time in my heart suddenly emerged in this environment.

So, when the samurai, the head of the prison, came to inspect the next day, Yu Qiuping asked the chief to add a bowl of rice and a fish to himself for dinner, naturally because he would be hungry in the middle of the night. This chief also seemed to be angry and funny, Yu Qiuping, a dignified Oda family county lord, a family elder figure, actually begged him for food in the prison of the Saito family. After he laughed at Yu Qiuping, he didn't feel embarrassed, but added two more bowls of rice and two fish to Yu Qiuping.

That night, when Yu Qiuping's dinner was delivered, Yu Qiuping did not immediately move his chopsticks, but beckoned to the dozen or so jailers around him.

"Let's eat some together," Yu Qiuping said with a smile as if he was sharing spicy noodles with his good buddies, "It's so boring to eat alone, let's eat something delicious together." ”

"How dare you!" A jailer suspected that Yu Qiuping had other plans, and waved his hand vigilantly, "We can't move what is given to the prisoners to eat." ”

Yu Qiuping's defense to him was just a smile - didn't you steal it yesterday. However, he was empathetic, and still built a step for the jailers, "If you don't help me eat some, where can I eat so many things!" Yesterday I was hungry, but today I'm full. What if your steward finds out that I'm wasting food and withholding my food for tomorrow? ”

"Uh..." The dozen or so jailers looked at each other, a little hesitant for a moment. The fragrant grilled fish and white rice are a great temptation, and you can eat them only a few times a year. But they were still worried that Yu Qiuping would play some tricks, otherwise why would they be good to these jailers for no reason.

"Let's eat some leftovers," a jailer named Jiro whispered, "and it's okay to eat some leftovers, and he can't drug them in the re-meal." ”

In the end, the temptation of food and the kindness of Yu Qiuping prevailed over their professionalism. More than a dozen jailers sat around Yu Qiuping's cell and began to eat rice and fish with their dirty hands.

"You guys are not very hygienic like this," Yu Qiuping shook his head a little angrily, "The cell is very dirty, there are a lot of bacteria and viruses, so what should I do if I eat without washing my hands?" ”

So, at the request of Yu Qiuping, the jailers who couldn't cry or laugh had to honestly wash their hands and come over again. The nagging appearance made them seem to see their mother telling them at the dinner table.

In this way, the extra meal every night became a tacit understanding between Yu Qiuping and the dozen or so jailers, and everyone would gather in the dark cell to share this hard-won meal. Yu Qiuping's approachability and gentleness, as well as his idea of equality for all people and respect for these low-level jailers that came out of his bones, were not learned by ancient people. For the first time in their lives, these jailers were treated like this by someone who was a few levels higher than themselves, and they were all moved. Gradually, the jailers no longer treated Yu Qiuping like a felon, but more like their elders. Usually called Yu Qiuping, they also use the honorific "adult" or "highness". On weekdays, when there were no chiefs to inspect, they even untied the handcuffs and leg cuffs for Yu Qiuping, so that Yu Qiuping could stay a little more comfortable, and he could also stand up and walk around.

And Yuqiu Ping stayed in the cell all day and was bored, and he also wanted to find something to do for himself. He first asked the jailers for some red paper, and folded a lot of paper red leaves himself. After folding, he handed it to Jiro and asked him to hide it in the table at the door so that the inspectors would not find out. Later, when the paper was folded, he began to show the jailers a mountain. At first, it was just some anecdotes, but later Yu Qiuping simply began to imitate Mr. Storyteller and told the guards about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which made the jailers addicted.

On February 13, Yu Qiuping happened to talk about the exciting part of the burning of Chibi, and more than a dozen jailers on duty were listening attentively. Suddenly, there were several loud bangs from the chains in the doorway around the corner—signals from the jailer in charge of watching the wind. Yu Qiuping was immediately silenced, and the dozen or so jailers also obediently took their places, and Jiro did not forget to remove the water glass that was placed next to Yu Qiuping to moisten his throat. A moment later, the outer door of the cell was pushed open, and a man who looked like a samurai strode up to Yu Qiuping's small cell and glanced at Yu Qiuping with contempt.

"Rainy autumn and red leaves, you don't have a few days to live." After the samurai said this, he sneered and left.