On December 29, 1568, the Miyoshi family, with Miyoshi Yoshiken as the commander-in-chief, fought against the Oda family with Akihei Rain as the commander-in-chief in Shiki-gun, and the Oda family won a great victory. Due to the narrow terrain, it was not easy for the two wings of the Miyoshi family to retreat, and eventually Iwanari Tomodo was captured, and Miyoshi Yoshiken was captured. At the cost of about 500 dead and wounded, the Oda army inflicted 700 casualties on the Miyoshi family, and more than 1,700 people were captured. Of the 4,000 soldiers of the Miyoshi family, only more than 1,000 fled back to Gaoya Castle, which can be said to be the biggest defeat of the Miyoshi family in more than ten years.

When the news was heard, the entire region was shaken. Oda Nobunaga sent a message of appreciation from Gifu Castle, commending Akihei Akihei, Hideyoshi Kinoshita, and Mitsuhide Akechi for their great achievements. He also allowed Yu Qiuping to report to him in a private message - cooperating with Sakai Town, Ishiyama Town merchants, and Hatakeyama Takamasa. When the news of the cooperation between Akihei and the merchants of Sakai and Ishiyama and Hatakeyama Takamasa first reached Gifu Castle, Hayashi Hide-sada, and other family elders were very dissatisfied and asked Oda Nobunaga to immediately send an envoy to rebuke Akihei and stop this deviant move. However, Oda Nobunaga was under tremendous pressure and recognized Yu Qiuping's cheap actions. And now, when the news of Yuqiuping's victory came, Oda Nobunaga was even more proud to show off the battle report to those family elders.

"Don't use suspicious people, don't use suspicious people. Do you see? Yu had long expected Momiji to succeed! ”

"But my lord, this thing is not proper at all. Momiji and the merchants cooperate with the Hatakeyama family, and if these merchants and the Hatakeyama family try to be hostile to the Oda family in the future, then the position of the rainy autumn autumn leaves will be very delicate. Lin Xiuzhen always disagreed with Yu Qiuping's approach, believing that it was very likely to free Yu Qiuping from the control of the Oda family in the future.

"Cut, do you think Momiji is stupid? That's just a stopgap measure to tide you over. Now that the Miyoshi family has been defeated, Momiji has no worries, the military power is in hand, and taking back the power is as simple as looking at the pattern. ”

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However, Yu Qiuping, who is not stupid in his mouth, does not intend to take back the power in the hands of merchants and Hatakeyama Takamasa. In his heart, he also looked forward to this new system that could bring different vitality to the Yuqiu family. However, it is not yet time to take back power.

After Yu Qiuping won the joint battle, he wanted to take advantage of the victory to take Gaoya Castle. Helplessly, Sanhao Changyi and Sanhao Zhengkang defended the city, and Yu Qiuping did not build siege equipment, so he had to give up. While he was busy building the ladder lookout, another 5,000 Awa people from Miyoshi Yoshiken also arrived at Izumi and were hurrying towards Takaya Castle. Yu Qiuping was afraid of being joined by the inside and outside, so he had to retreat to the north bank of the Yamato River. Yu Qiuping once tried to blackmail the captured Miyoshi Yixian and more than 1,700 Miyoshi troops, but the Miyoshi Changyi, who defended the city, refused to eat hard and soft, and resolutely refused to compromise.

The result of Yu Qiuping's almost defeat of the Miyoshi family's Kawachi and Izumi front forces in the battle also had a significant impact on the pattern of. Matsunaga Hide, a balancer who always stands on the side of the weak, is probably worried that Yu Qiuping's family will be dominant, so he actually regrouped his army to the area of Maki Island Castle and threatened Yu Qiuping's Maple Mountain Castle. And Miyoshi Nagakei himself ordered to stop the siege of Tosa, and gathered his troops in Awa and Sanuki provinces, ready to cross the river to at any time to find a place.

Under such circumstances, Yu Qiuping knew that he could not continue the fight, so he had to send an envoy to ask for negotiations with Oda Nobunaga's permission. After all, with Miyoshi Yixian and more than 1,700 Miyoshi family captives in his hands, he asked himself if he could still let Miyoshi come to the negotiation table obediently. Sure enough, it was impossible for the Miyoshi family to give up Miyoshi Yixian, and promised to send someone to Maple Mountain City to negotiate. So Yu Qiuping handed over the ordinary captured ashigaru to Shigeharu Takenaka and detain him in Wakae Castle, while he escorted Miyoshi Yoshiken and other important samurai back to Maple Mountain Castle and waited for the arrival of the Miyoshi family's envoy.

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The samurai of the Miyoshi family were all shackled and roped, and guarded carefully. But for a samurai of Miyoshi Yoshiken's status, Yu Qiuping did not dare to be too lazy, but gave him a lot of freedom to ride on a horse and walk side by side with him.

"I have heard of His Royal Highness for a long time, and it is a great honor to see him today." Yu Qiuping looked Miyoshi Yixian up and down, and always felt a little strange, "It may be a little abrupt for me to ask like this, have I seen you somewhere?" But when I think about it, I have never had such an opportunity. ”

Of course, Yu Qiuping didn't know that in that casino nine years ago, he had face-to-face contact with the current enemy, the three good four brothers.

"His Royal Highness may have misremembered." Miyoshi Yoshi-hyun didn't seem to have any intention of mentioning that past with Yu Qiuping, but just shook his head lightly.

"There was something abrupt on the battlefield before, His Royal Highness Shixiu, please don't blame His Highness Shixiu, I won by luck." Yu Qiuping mentioned the battle not long ago, and said modestly in a low voice.

"Your Highness doesn't have to be modest, I am convinced." Miyoshi Yixian didn't seem to eat Yu Qiuping's set, but said bluntly: "The command of the battle array has always been not my field, and there is no formation according to the terrain, and opportunistic shortcuts are indeed not the right way. It's just that His Highness has trained a good soldier, which makes me quite envious. I never thought that His Royal Highness Changyi had been on the battlefield for many years, but he was defeated so quickly in your hands. If you don't have the strength to leave 800 reserves in your formation, I can actually defeat your formation, and you can be undefeated in the scorching situation. ”

Miyoshi Yoshiken is right. If Tokiwabei's combat effectiveness was not so high, 1,200 people alone would not be able to quickly break through the position of Miyoshi Nagayi's 1,000 men under any circumstances, and would not be able to block Iwanari Yutong's flank attack, so it would be necessary to send the reserves of this formation. And Miyoshi Yoshiken did calculate the weakness of Akechi Mitsuhide and Kinoshita Hideyoshi's subordinates, and quickly defeated them. At that time, there are not many troops left in Yu Qiuping's own formation, and Miyoshi Yixian can "change homes" with Yu Qiuping. However, he didn't expect that Yu Qiuping defeated all Miyoshi Changyi and Iwanari Yutong with only 1,200 people, and he still had a full 800 people in his hands, so his attack on the main formation was in vain.

The two chatted and chatted, and they had slowly walked to the castle town of Maple Leaf Mountain Castle. Most of the people in the castle town have already repaired their houses, and Yuqiuping has distributed charcoal to every household so that everyone can withstand the harsh winter. After the news of Yuqiu's victory came, the people of Maple Mountain City were boiling - this meant that Maple Mountain City was safe, and they would not have to suffer the disaster of changing hands and looting by chaotic soldiers again. Yu Qiuping was their great benefactor, not only allowing them to rely on food for their lives, but also giving them a place to live in the winter.

Therefore, when Yu Qiuping led his troops back to Maple Mountain Castle, the people of the towns under the castle came to the streets and alleys to cheer at Yu Qiuping despite the heavy snow, and the guards who maintained order took a lot of effort to barely let Yu Qiuping and Miyoshi Yoshiken not be impacted.

Miyoshi Yixian looked at the cheering people, and then at their well-repaired houses, the charcoal fires burning in the cold winter, and the dishes and chopsticks on the dinner table at home, and a very gentle smile suddenly appeared on the corner of his mouth. Yu Qiuping was slightly surprised when he saw this - in his eyes, Miyoshi Yixian has always been a wicked person who is ruthless and quick to do dirty things, why did he show such a gentle smile to the people?

"His Royal Highness's reputation for being kind-hearted is really well deserved." Miyoshi Yoshiken found that Yu Qiuping was looking at him, and after laughing a little, he sighed with emotion, "Imoriyama Castle has been the main city of our Miyoshi family for many years, and the people's hearts were actually taken over by His Royal Highness the Ministry of Governance so quickly. ”

"The people are not stupid, they naturally like good people. They don't ask for much, as long as they can have a place to settle down and have a mouthful of food to live, they are very satisfied, and they will freely thank the lord from the bottom of their hearts. When Yu Qiuping said this, he couldn't help but whisper with some dissatisfaction: "If it weren't for the indiscriminate fishing and fire of the Miyoshi family and the Matsunaga family, if it weren't for you who almost pushed these people into hell, the people's hearts would not have been so attached to me." ”

"Huh." Hearing this, Miyoshi Yixian just sneered disdainfully, "His Royal Highness Zhibu thinks that some people are born to like to be bad people and do dirty things?" ”

What do you mean by that? Could it be that the fire burned Kyoto, the fire burned the rice and the mountain castle, or someone forced it to do it? Yu Qiuping snorted coldly and retorted unceremoniously.

"Bright is good, everybody wants to be a good person. But this is the troubled times of the Warring States, and a humble gentleman who does his best to do good deeds will definitely not survive. Every overlord has blood on his hands, and he has done treacherous things in order to maintain his family. Miyoshi Yoshiken looked at the cheering people in the castle town and said, "In order to maintain stability, someone must be responsible for getting rid of those discordant voices. For the sake of the family's interests, there are always people who have to do those unconscionable things in secret. Have you never broken justice? Have you never killed innocent people to kill or make a profit? ”

Miyoshi Yixian's question made Yu Qiuping stunned for a moment, and he didn't say anything for a long time.

Yes, it's not like he hasn't done these things.

"In every family that wants to achieve great things, there must be a person who does dirty things and bears infamy for the family. If no one does the dirty, the family will not survive. The reason why you have such a good reputation is because you have a competent subordinate who is willing to do all the dirty things for you. At Miyoshi's house, I'll do the dirty stuff. The Oda family, if I'm not mistaken, your Hayashi Sado is doing dirty things. Although he deliberately avoided all the credit and fame in order to conceal it, we of the same kind can still see at a glance who is the one who does dirty things. Miyoshi Yoshiken said, a strange smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "The Maori family has two rivers, the Uesugi family has His Royal Highness Usami, and the Takeda family used to be His Royal Highness Yamamoto, and after His Royal Highness Yamamoto died, he could only come by Doctor Daizen himself, so Doctor Daizen's reputation is so stinky." ”

"But all aspiring lords will always have the world in mind and look forward to the way forward for the family. And these dirtiest people keep an eye on the feet of the lord all the time, beware of all possible risks, strangle them in the cradle, do all the evil things for the good of the family, and bear the infamy themselves. But if there is no such person, hum..."Miyoshi Yoshiken's words turned sharply, and directly uncovered Yu Qiuping's scar, "And His Royal Highness, don't you forget, how did the Imagawa family fall?" The person who did dirty things in the past was His Royal Highness Xue Sai, who was known as the prime minister in black. After the Hanakura Rebellion, it was he who carried the infamy and got rid of all the people who threatened His Royal Highness. After the death of His Royal Highness Xuesai, His Highness Jibu no longer had anyone to rely on to do dirty things, and finally fell to the danger of his feet. If His Royal Highness Xuezhai is here, do you think that traitor still has any chance? ”

Miyoshi Yixian's words pointed directly at the eternal sore spot in Yu Qiuping's heart, making his whole body shake like a lightning strike, and he suddenly realized. Before, he was dismissive of Miyoshi Yoshixian's words, but when he pointed out such a bloody reality, he suddenly realized the importance of the person who did the dirty thing.

In his family, the person who plays this role is Amano Keitoku. The notorious Raven Judge, who was in the mouths of the people, kept an eye on the danger beneath his feet at all times.

"No one is born willing to be a bad person, but if there is no bad person, a person who wants to be a good person can't do it. There is always one person who wants to get his hands dirty to protect the others. ”