Yu Qiuping thought that he was cornered, but even here there were troops from the Okabe family who came in a roundabout way. Not long ago, he had already thrown down his own feet and put away the momiji shawl. At this moment, he is already somewhat relieved. Silently, he took out the red leaf shawl from his arms, tied it on his shoulder, and slowly pulled out the thousand birds that he had been reluctant to throw away, and the bright blade reflected the brilliance of the moon. Yu Qiuping looked at the little fire in the hills and swallowed his saliva. Several people around him also understood Yu Qiuping's intentions, and they all stopped and drew their knives in their hands.

However, in the next second, under the firelight, there was an excited shout from Yoshioka Katsumasa: "It's His Highness!" ”

Immediately afterward, the two platoons of Tsukiwabi Ashigaru who were waiting in the hills poured up the hillside, led by Nakahide Mizensaki and Katsumasa Yoshioka, who hurriedly welcomed the fleeing friendly troops into the hills and settled down. When he saw that the two old subordinates and the subordinates of the two platoons were safe and sound, Yu Qiuping couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Why are you here?" Yu Qiuping opened his mouth and asked, "I thought it was the chasing soldier of the Okabe family again, and I almost died." ”

"After His Highness gave the order for the whole army to retreat, we wanted to retreat to the south gate." "But the thousands of people on the other side of the defense line were all in a mess, and the black lights were so blind that they couldn't get through. We had no choice but to run southeast to the sparsely populated area, intending to wait in this hill until dawn. I didn't expect you to come this way, Your Highness. ”

"How come there are only two platoons? Shouldn't there be three platoons on the south side? Amano Keedoku roughly counted the number of people and asked in a low voice. Nakahide Gozenzaki and Katsumasa Yoshioka looked at each other, sad. Yu Qiuping saw the expressions of the two of them, and his heart sank.

"The other platoon got separated from us in the dark night, as if it had been caught up by the Okabe family's troops." Nakahide Omaezaki said in a low voice, "We walked a long way before we realized that they were gone, and it was too late to go back to the rescue." ”

"Is that so..."Yu Qiuping swallowed and nodded silently. Naoe Tadahei arranged for the ashigaru who had been tossing in the middle of the night to take turns to rest, and by the way, the number of people was counted, and several high-ranking samurai gathered around Yu Qiuping.

"Now... We still have five platoons left, in total—" Naoe Tadahei lowered his voice, hesitantly not daring to continue.

"Qin Bingwei, how many people are there..."Yu Qiuping tried to suppress the shaking of his voice and said softly.

Before Naoe Tadahei could speak, the sentry on the hillside suddenly sent a message of alertness. Everyone hurriedly gathered their troops, and the ashigaru on duty went to push the sleeping ashigaru and began to form a formation behind the hills with torches. Yu Qiuping led a few people up the hill in disarray, and looked along the sentry's arm, and could see about a dozen people, carrying three torches, staggering towards this side.

As the group approached, Yu Qiuping immediately recognized them - they were wearing Tokiwa armor with red leaves on their helmets. Yu Qiuping hurriedly signaled his subordinates to light torches, collect stragglers, and lure them in this direction.

"Is it Your Highness?" The person who was the leader of the dozen or so people asked with some excitement after seeing the large number of people with torches.

"It's the voice of Zijing!" Yu Qiuping and Naoe Tadahei glanced at each other and said in unison. They hurried down the hill and helped a dozen brothers up. Almost all of them were injured, and there was a deep blood mark on the face of the Water Atom Sutra from the corner of the mouth to the corner of the eye, and it must have left a scar.

However, before Yu Qiuping, who was like a knife, could open his mouth to offer condolences, the Water Atom Sutra was a fierce man who knelt down, and he didn't care about the wound on his face that was still bleeding, and kowtowed heavily to Yu Qiuping.

"Your Highness! Zijing, I'm sorry for Your Highness! I'm sorry for my parents..."The water atom whimpered with self-reproach, "As the commander of a platoon, I failed to control the situation, causing the whole platoon to collapse!" I finally gathered the stragglers, and I didn't have time to rescue the main formation, and I watched Yachisuke be killed by the people of the Okabe family! I'm sorry for Your Highness! ”

"I... My brother—" The water atom smacked and his voice suddenly raised, "My parents repeatedly told me to take care of my brother before they set out... As a result, my brother died in battle, and I couldn't do anything! I'm sorry for my parents..."

"It's all my fault... I'm sorry to blame..."

This sound of "I'm sorry" was like a heavy hammer, and it hit Yu Qiuping's heart with a bang, and he was almost a little unstable.

"Counting these fifteen brothers... We still have 232 people left..."Naoe Tadahei tried to suppress the tone and voice of the words, but suddenly crushed Yu Qiuping. He sat on his knees with his legs weakened, and picked up the bleeding water atom scripture. His head hung down weakly to hide the unstoppable tears.

Because of this number, he will never forget.

Two years ago, in the city of Zhili, where the story began. There were 232 slaves there, who fought with Yuqiu Ping for the sake of freedom and dignity. In the past two years, the Yuqiu family has gradually become stronger, owning a territory of tens of thousands of stones, and has become a relative of the Imagawa family. Before this expedition, there were also more than 600 soldiers and more than 1,200 auxiliaries, and an army of nearly 2,000 people.

In the blink of an eye, there were only more than 200 ashigaru with red leaves around him.

Water atom level, Kobayakawa Yachisuke... And so many familiar names that have disappeared forever. Many of them had been with Yu Qiuping's old subordinates since Zhili Castle, and Yu Qiuping knew their families, understood their personalities, sent chicken and herbs to their homes, and played Keju with them, and spent two years with them. But at this moment, he couldn't see them again, and Yu Qiuping didn't even dare to imagine how to explain to their families.

Why the hell... Why did I lose so badly when I had the advantage! Why did so many brothers die! Why, exactly!

"Your Highness! Don't you understand! In his ears, suddenly there was the voice of Amano Jingde. The voice was not as cold and ferocious as it used to be, but rather unreal. Yu Qiuping, who lowered his head, closed his eyes tightly to contain tears, his brain was blank, and he listened blankly.

"Kindness alone is nothing! It will only kill your brother who believes you support you in vain! Those who achieve great things, who will be restrained by the kindness of women! ”

"I shouldn't have accepted those people in the first place, and I should have ordered indiscriminate attacks later!" Tianye Jingde whispered like a cannon, "There are thousands of people in Yinma City who have nothing to do with you, and two thousand subordinates who were born and died with you!" ”

"Your so-called goodwill and the safety of the whole army!"

"Can't you choose which is more important?"

Those who can't give up anything can't save anything. I can't give up those thousands of people, I can't give up my so-called goodwill, and at the same time, I don't want to give up the defense line and the safety of the whole army.

We are not willing to give up anything, and in the end, nothing can be saved. The people were killed, and the troops were finished. I didn't choose to give up one side, but I chose my own kindness. In the end, it's both the best of both worlds, but it's a dilemma.

"Remember one thing that will challenge you for the rest of your life to see if you can beat yourself." When Yu Qiuping walked to the door, Imagawa Yoshimoto suddenly said.

Yu Qiuping turned around and listened attentively, and that sentence was imprinted into the young man's mind from then on, and accompanied him throughout his life.

"Make a choice with no regrets."

Your Highness... I regret it.

A day ago, in the early morning of June 20, in the castle of Suruga Kunijunfu.

Sena Toshi and Asahina Tai had been rushing to Sunfu Castle for many days, and repeatedly offered to meet with Shou Guini and the new governor Imagawa Shima, but they were both rejected on the grounds that they were ill. Sena Toshi and Asahina Taichao were puzzled, but they had no other choice but to wait in the castle. During this period, they sent two or three heralds to inform Yu Qiuping of the situation here, but they did not know that Yu Qiuping did not receive a single letter.

In the early hours of the morning, in Sena's mansion, Sena had already gone to bed, but he tossed and turned, and it was difficult to fall asleep.

Suddenly, a commotion came from the hallway. Sena Shijun rolled over, frowned slightly, and put his ear to the floor to listen, but heard the footsteps of dozens of people. He got up alertly and pulled out the ribs that were pressed under the pillow – a good habit he had maintained for decades.

However, when the door was opened, what he saw was the outfit of the Imagawa family flag samurai, and his own somewhat embarrassed surname.

"In the next place... His Highness has already gone to bed. The boy looked at the other samurai next to him and whispered in a whisper.

"It's abrupt, and I ask His Royal Highness Sena to atone for his sins." The heavily armed samurai bowed and said apologetically. This person Sena Shijun knew, and Sena Shijun also promoted him a few years ago.

"I don't know what you're doing here?" Sena Shijun frowned, put down the ribs in his hand, and asked in a deep voice.

"His Royal Highness Shou Gui Ni is invited."

When Sena was taken to the castle tower by the samurai, he found that Asahina had arrived early. There were a dozen guards standing at the door, not so much protection as surveillance.

"Your Highness Asahina, this is..."Sena asked. Before Asahi Natai could respond, there was a calming and soothing sound of wooden shoes in the hallway. After a while, the door of the room was opened again, and Shou Guini, dressed in Buddhist clothes, slowly walked into the room.

"I've seen Your Highness!" Even if Asahina Tai Chao and Sena Shitoshi had a lot of unhappiness and suspicion in their hearts about the huge incident that happened not long ago, when facing this veteran lady, they could only salute honestly.

"Late at night, I'm sorry to the two highnesses." Shou Gui Ni smiled peacefully, and with the support of the maid, he sat down opposite Asahina Taichao and Sena Shitoshi. The two hurriedly said that they didn't dare, but Shou Guini didn't respond again, just waved his hand and sent the maid away, and ordered all the guards around the room to withdraw.

However, the pressure that Shou Guini invisibly brought to Asahina Tai and Sena Shijun was even greater than the pressure brought by the dozen or so heavily armed guards just now. was invited to the castle tower in the middle of the night by force, and both of them were terrified at the moment, for fear that the master would suspect that he was the traitor. Seeing the nervous expressions of the two, Shou Guini smiled helplessly.

"There are three things to call the two of you."

"The first thing is to tell you two, I, Shou Guini, that I trust you completely, and that you don't need to be nervous."

As soon as these words came out, both of them were relieved.

"The second thing is to tell you two that the governor will lead the 8,000 troops of the Imagawa family in Sunfu Castle to the Yuanjiang River in the early morning of the near future to mediate the civil war."

Despite the fact that Shou Guini's tone was so flat and unfazed, Sena Toshi and Asahina Taichao were still stunned for a moment and then stunned in surprise.