February 11, Tange Village.

The village, which was already ready to flee the famine, stayed because of the old man's desperate persuasion.

"The Imagawa family said he was going to give food to our village." The old man assured the people around him. In the past few days, there are always people who send food that is barely enough for the whole village to survive for half a day's ration, so that everyone can survive.

The village has not had enough to eat since last fall. A small half of the people in the village used to live in the castle town of Narumi Castle, but after the Oda and Imagawa families began to fight over Narumi Castle, they fled there and came to Tange Village. This has made the already small number of fields in Tanga Village even more strained, but the enthusiastic villagers still give up some of their fields for the refugees to cultivate.

Last autumn, the Oda family launched an army during the autumn harvest and recruited a large number of civilians from here to serve as auxiliaries for the Oda army, but the captured food was not distributed to these temporary ashigaru at all. When the strong men returned to the village, they found that the farmland they had worked so hard had suffered a locust plague because they had not been harvested on time, and the year's harvest had been wiped out. The village had to survive on what little food had left in previous years and what little food women and children had collected. The villagers, who had only eaten two meals, were forced to change their meals to one meal a day, and during the winter, many elderly and children in the village starved to death and froze to death.

At the beginning of spring next year, although the middle-aged people in the village are not full, they also plan to work hard for spring plowing and strive for a good harvest this year. But before they could finish planting, the Oda samurai ashigaru rushed into the village and snatched all the remaining grain, no matter how much the village chief pleaded to no avail. Several peasant families who refused to pay grain were killed and their houses burned.

The whole village was completely in despair, and they could not even secure the seeds and grain for spring ploughing. The whole village went out to dig up the roots of the wild vegetables around the village, and it was difficult to make a living, and children and the elderly starved to death every day. The remnants of the people are also skinny one by one.

The other day, however, the peasant families who had fled the famine had returned to their villages, saying that a well-meaning adult would help them with military rations—to the people of a hostile country.

Although a dozen cavalrymen brought a few sacks of grain every day, the honest peasants were accustomed to the samurai's power and cold-bloodedness, and few really believed that the kind adult would really come. Even so, they pinned all their hopes on the illusory relief, and the whole village was looking forward to it at the entrance of the village.

In the early morning of February 11, a commotion broke out among the villagers gathered at the entrance of the village. Immediately afterward, more than a dozen young men in the prime of life excitedly rushed into the village chief's house.

"Village Chief, someone is here! Someone is coming from the other side of the Three Rivers! The boys wept with excitement, "See! See! The convoy with the red leaf flag can see a lot of bags of grain from a distance! ”

The village chief, who was already old, didn't care about a handful of old bones, and rushed to the entrance of the village with the boys. At this time, Yuqiu's cattle convoy had already arrived. At the head was a heroic young man, looking sympathetically at the farmers with slightly reddened eyes. Behind him, a half-grown child, holding straight up a painted maple leaf flag. Behind them, each member of the convoy wore a flag with red leaves on it. The ox cart was filled with bags of bulging grain.

The hungry villagers rushed up and surrounded the convoy, and the monkeys were anxious to pull the food off the cart at once, as if it would fly away a little later.

"Don't rush, don't rob!" The ashigaru in the convoy struggled to maintain order.

"Folks, don't worry, there is absolutely enough food!" Yu Qiuping stood on an ox cart and shouted, "Every household reports the number of people, adults receive a large bag of grain, and children receive a small bag, which is enough!" Feel relieved! Yu Qiuping pressed his hand and signaled the villagers not to rob, "The food here is all for you, and all the excess will be placed with your village chief later!" ”

"Thank you, great benefactor!" "Thank you, Samurai-sama!" Only then did the peasants realize that they were also samurai in front of them, and they stopped grabbing food and knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

"Get up, hurry up and get food!" Yu Qiuping said with a smile, "Let's go to five places to line up!" Yu Qiuping pointed to the position of his five ashigaru generals, "The ashigaru people there will help you move the grain that can't be moved back to your home, if you have any requirements, tell them directly, you're welcome!" ”

"There are five people in the villain's family and two children." The old man who was met by Yu Qiuping a few days ago went to Fukushima Yasunari to line up, and the first one was there.

"Okay, three big pockets, two small pockets!" Fukushima Yasunari shouted, and several ashigaru immediately brought food from the carriage, "Uncle, do you want us to send it back for you?" ”

"No, no, how dare you bother all military masters!" The old man nodded and said, but it was difficult for five people who were already hungry to carry these five bags of grain.

"Water Atom Sutra, Ziping, a few of you help them move back." Seeing this, Fukushima Yasunari nodded at a few ashigaru next to him, and those ashigaru immediately greeted him enthusiastically, helped the old man carry the bag, and followed the old man's family to the village.

"If you have any request, just say it!" Yasunari Fukushima said to the farmers in line, "Our 200 brothers used to live in poverty, and we all had a little difficulty but to help each other!" ”

"Your Excellency is right!" The surrounding ashigaru responded with a bang.

"Grandma, are you sick?" Mimasaki Nakahide looked at the middle-aged woman in front of him coughing incessantly and asked.

"It's okay, this samurai," the woman coughed again.

"Kobayakawa Yachisuke, you go and help Grandma get some herbs and send them back together." Mimasaki Nakahide said to Ashigaru beside him, and then turned his head to face Grandma, "Grandma, you have to take care of your body." As he spoke, he looked at Grandma's son and daughter-in-law with a wicked smile, "I'm still waiting for you to hold your grandson!" ”

The young couple turned red, and the family thanked them for returning home with the ashigaru who helped carry them.

……

It was almost noon, and the distribution of relief was almost complete, and every household received food. The surplus grain was also sent to the village chief's house. Yu Qiuping wrote a note and handed it to the herald named Nobumi Anayama to take back, asking Naoe Tadahei to release another 10 prisoners. Then, just take the convoy and prepare to leave.

However, before the convoy could turn around, the people in the village rushed out to surround the ashigaru who had been carrying it for him, and they all found the ashigaru who had helped them carry it just now, and they didn't listen to the grateful.

The old man talked for a long time, and suddenly saw Yu Qiuping sitting on the back of the ox cart, smiling, and suddenly bowed to Yu Qiuping, and said in the most sincere tone: "Thank you for saving your life!" Adults live a long life and live a safe life. ”

Although this voice was soft, several farmers around him were busy kneeling in the direction of Yu Qiuping: "My lord lives a long life and has a safe life." ”

The wave of kneeling quickly spread throughout the crowd, and in the blink of an eye, more than 200 people in the village all knelt down. Yu Qiuping suddenly found himself in the center of kneeling, whether it was an old man who was accustomed to seeing the facts, a strong young man with strong blood, or a child who was not deeply involved in the world, they all bowed down to him reverently.

"Adults live a long life and live a safe life."

Yu Qiuping hurriedly jumped off the oxcart to thank him, but the gratitude of hundreds of people made his voice seem so small. Yu Qiuping ordered Chang Panbei's ashigaru to step forward to help the people, but only this one was lifted, and that one knelt down again, nothing could stop these people who had been honest all their lives and had been digging in the soil to sincerely thank Yu Qiuping.

The same samurai, the same high people, but the people can distinguish between good and evil.

The samurai of the Oda family did not care about their livelihood at all, one by one, they robbed the people's wealth, and they often fought each other with fists and feet, and did not care about the lives of the grass people at all, forcing the whole village to a dead end.

The adults of this family, but they are amiable and kind-hearted, and they actually use their own military rations to help local people who have never known each other. The samurai of this family are ashigaru, and they don't have a frame at all.,Like a good brother.,Sincerely help everyone.。

"Guys, don't kneel! Get up! Yu Qiuping shouted with tears in his eyes, "You shouldn't thank me, I should apologize to you!" ”

As soon as Yu Qiuping said this, the audience fell silent, and the peasants looked at Yu Qiuping suspiciously.

"You are all honest people, you have been working honestly all your lives, farming, supporting your family, and you should have enjoyed a happy life." Yu Qiuping sighed and said apologetically, "It is us samurai who have fought each other for our own selfish interests, and have drawn innocent people into the war, causing you to be displaced, hungry and cold. With tears in his eyes, Yu Qiuping bowed vigorously: "I'm sorry to you!" I will certainly do my best to alleviate your pain. I'm Yuqiuping, and I do what I say! ”

Yu Qiuping bowed, and the people who had originally stood up knelt down again with tears in their eyes, and their voices of gratitude became stronger and stronger.

"This Maeda-sama," Yu Qiuhei pulled the Maeda Toshiya who was also a little stunned on the side, "He is a close confidant of Sosuke Oda, and he came here to give the villagers a guarantee!" ”

"Uh... Well! Maeda Toshiya was stunned for a moment, and when he saw countless eyes looking at him, he suddenly became a little speechless. In the simple and sincere eyes of the people, he really couldn't make a casual promise as Oda Nobunaga said, and then break the contract in the future.

He straightened his chest and assured with great sincerity: "On behalf of Oda, Sosuke Oda assures the villagers that the matter of forcibly robbing food like before will never happen again!" I'm willing to vouch for it with my life! ”

After the matter came to an end, Yu Qiuping was really ready to leave. But the people in the village reluctantly followed, and they must leave their names in Yuqiuping.

"The whole village is up and down, and every family will set up a monument to pray for the adult, at least to know the name of the adult." The village chief grabbed Yu Qiuping's horse reins and prevented Yu Qiuping from leaving.

"Okay then." Yu Qiuping smiled slightly, and pointed to his horse seal and Chang Panbei's flag, "When I see this red leaf, it represents my Yuqiu family." My name is Yuqiu Ping, you can call me Yuqiu Red Leaves. ”

"My lord, dare to ask those three words... Which ones are they? The village chief asked again.

"Rainy rain, autumn autumn, peaceful peace," Yu Qiuping whispered, "There is abundant rain in the year, and the harvest of the year in the autumn harvest will be guaranteed, and I hope you will be safe this year." Then he rode away. Behind him, the people were overwhelmingly thankful. Although the ashigaru soldiers of Tokiwa sent the military rations that they had worked so hard to deliver and gave up the prisoners they had fought so hard to capture, their morale was at an unprecedentedly high level at the moment.

Tianye Jingde was behind him, looking at Yu Qiuping's back, and his heart throbbed indescribably.

"The benevolent love others, and people always love them." Tianye Jingde sighed softly, "I didn't choose the wrong one on the next day, and I really didn't follow the wrong person." ”