At five o'clock on the morning of May 6, Yu Qiuping and his party arrived at Kambara-jo, the largest stronghold of the Imagawa family in Anbara County. It is nearly forty miles from Yuqiuping's territory to Kamohara Castle, and it would take a day to change to an ordinary army.

However, since all the veterans of the expedition were soldiers, the action was fast. Even if they carried a lot of goods, it only took half a day to reach Kambara-jo, and everyone found an inn in the castle-town town of Kambara-jo, rested, had lunch and then went on the road.

Further east of Kambara-jo Castle is the territory of Fuji-gun and Sunto-gun, and there are not many Imagawa family strongholds there, and the messenger disappeared after leaving Kambara-gun. It can be said that this is the last safe place.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, everyone who had rested after lunch set off here. Not far from Kambara-jo, you can see the Fuji River, which flows from the mountains of Kai Shinano and flows into the bay of Izu, where the water flows abundantly, and the river becomes wider the closer you get to the mouth of the sea, and the section of the river before the rain and autumn level is six or seven hundred meters wide, and there is no bridge through which it can pass.

Asking the villagers on the side of the road, they said that if they wanted to cross the Fuji River, they would either have to find a bridge in the narrower part of the river upstream, or take a ferry.

Yu Qiuping and his entourage carried a large amount of goods, and it was too troublesome to go to the mountains to the north to find a bridge. The villager said that the caravans and merchants who came and went generally rented large boats to cross the river.

Looking over the river, there are indeed several large ferries on both sides of the Fuji River. So Yu Qiuping spent money to organize a large ferry, and transported his subordinates, ox carts, and carts over several times.

If you cross the Fuji River and look east, you can see Mt. Fuji and Mt. Aitaka to the southeast. If the previous map is correct, there should be this trail between Mt. Fuji and Mt. Aitaka, which is also part of the mountain road that circles Mt. Fuji. The envoys sent to Hojo by the Imagawa family generally traveled from the south of Mt. Aitaka to Hakone and then to Odawara. The envoys sent to the Takeda clan would pass through the trail between Mt. Fuji and Mt. Aitaka and turn north to Fujiyoshida Castle and then to the Kusakikan.

Therefore, the focus of this investigation will be around Aiying Mountain. So Yu Qiuping led his subordinates and approached the east.

Once you cross the Fuji River, there is no wide river on the road. Two or three miles east of the Fuji River is the Fuji Hayakawa River, which is not wide and has a bridge leading to the other side.

After passing the Fuji Hayakawa River, the group's destination was the Shimobori River, which is not far away. On the two- or three-mile road from Fuji Hayakawa to Shimohori River, you pass through a small hill. The woods on the hills are shady, secluded and beautiful.

"Hey, Boss Saburo." Nakahide Mimasaki patted the horse and came to Yu Qiuping's side. In order to hide people's eyes, Yu Qiuping changed his surname Yuqiu during this expedition, and changed his name to San Lang. Because his subordinates were not very strange, he didn't change their names.

"Zhongxiu, what's the matter?" Yu Qiuping asked.

"The boss is really famous!" Nakahide Omaezaki said with a smile, "After we cross the Fuji River, the caravans and pedestrians we are about to meet along the way will feel the domineering spirit of the boss!" They all avoided it, so that none of us could meet it! ”

"You kid..." Yu Qiuping was about to laugh and scold and punch him, when he suddenly understood that there was something in the words of Nakahide Omaezaki. He glanced at Nakahide Mimaezaki, "Are you trying to remind me that after we crossed the Fuji River, we never met anyone again?" ”

"I'll go, you kid, can you be serious when you make suggestions." Yu Qiuping smiled bitterly, "I thought you were joking again." ”

"Indeed." Amano Jingde said in a low voice, "Not only did I not meet a single person, but even the birds in the woods along the way were not frightened, and someone may have passed by." ”

"But if someone is passing by, why don't we see footprints? No one has ever met us head-on. Naoe said in a deep voice, "My lord, please be careful. ”

Yu Qiuping was stunned and looked at the forest in front of him. The woods on the hill are dense, and it faces the official road sloping down the hill.

"Stop." Yu Qiuping raised an arm and motioned for his subordinates to stop. More than fifty people immediately stopped in place.

If there is an ambush there, your own troops, passing through here, will surely die.

"U-turn. Take a long detour. Yu Qiuping made a few gestures, and his subordinates immediately began to move the convoy towards the south.

At this time, in the woods.

"They seem to notice something?" A young man said to a big man next to him.

"Not a businessman." The big man didn't say much, but said lightly, "How can the caravan have such an order and prohibition. I just don't know who it is. ”

Yu Qiuping looked at the woods with palpitations, and he didn't know if he was too careful.

Suddenly, there was a sound of horses' hooves in front of the road. The group vigilantly approached the ox cart and cart and grabbed their weapons.

However, when the man got closer, the people gradually calmed down. It's a herald of the Imagawa family.,Behind the back of the two-lead two flags.,I'm also wearing the Imagawa family's feet.。

"How can there be a herald of the Imagawa family?" After Yudong Ogawa had a hangover last night, he didn't drink this morning and was unusually sober. His whispered reminder kept everyone engrossed again.

"yes, aren't all the heralds missing?" Yu Qiuping secretly calculated and looked at the herald in front of him vigilantly.

"It's Lord Yuqiu!" The herald stopped a dozen paces away from Yu Qiuping and asked in a loud voice.

Yu Qiuping was taken aback. I'm obviously on a classified mission, so how could the herald who set off before know me? Could it be that the main hall has sent another group of people?

After a moment of stunnedness, he had missed his best chance to disguise himself.

However, before the herald could speak, saying that it was too late and too fast, Amano Jingde on the side of the team suddenly rode out on horseback. Before the herald could react, he rushed to his side, stretched out his arms, covered his mouth with one hand, and stabbed him in the neck with the other. The herald spurted out a mouthful of blood, seeping out of Amano's fingers, struggled violently a few times, let out a few screams that were covered but could not be heard, and then collapsed and did not move.

"Jingde!" Yu Qiuping whispered in surprise, "What are you doing here?" Maybe it's an ally! ”

Tianye Jingde dragged the corpse of the person who came to the ground and said coldly: "I don't care if he is a friendly soldier or not, he probably already knows the identity of the adult just now, if he is allowed to leave or the alarm is sounded, the whole army will be in danger." ”

"This man must die." Tianno Jingde indifferently looked at the dead body that was still bleeding on the ground, and the crow on his shoulder fluttered a few times, then flew to the ground and began to lick the blood from his neck.

"Jingde!" Yu Qiuping turned over and dismounted, grabbed Amano Jingde's collar, and said angrily: "You can't kill so indiscriminately!" ”

"The life of a stranger and the lives of dozens of adults have been traded-off." Tianye Jingde ignored Yu Qiuping's anger and shook his head, "If you can't do it, you can do it when you come down." ”

"What if it's an ally?" Yu Qiuping asked.

"What if it's an enemy army." Tianye Jingde replied coldly, "If you kill the wrong one, you will kill the wrong one, and it is better to kill a hundred by mistake than to miss a single person." ”

Just when Yu Qiuping and Amano Jingde were arguing, Charlie, who had been looking at the corpse, suddenly spoke.

"Your Excellency." He pointed to the corpse's feet, "It's like a bow and arrow shot through here." He crouched down and pointed to the part of the foot that Yu Qiuping looked intact, "This place must have been shot through by a bow and arrow not long ago, and it was only added later." ”

"How do you tell?" Yu Qiuping asked in surprise, in his eyes, there was almost no difference here.

"Familiar with the bow and arrow," said Charlie, "according to my opinion, the iron stripes around this foot have left traces of tightening and then pulling apart, probably because they have been shot through by the bow and arrows. Later, I made up for it. ”

"Is that so?" Yu Qiuping saw that the position of Charlie's finger happened to be the position of the heart. "Isn't the owner of this armor already dead once?"

"Could it be that our Imagawa herald was intercepted and killed," Fukushima Anari analyzed, "and then the enemy came to attack us wearing our gear?" ”

"Then why do you know that I am Yu Qiuping..."Yu Qiuping glanced around at everyone, and everyone shook their heads in confusion.

"Sure enough, there might be something wrong with this person." Naoe Tadahei said, "If the main hall excludes other people, I will definitely inform my lord." And the heralds sent before couldn't know the identity of the adults. It is very likely that someone else wore the armor of our Imagawa family's martyred herald to test the identity of the adult. He might just look at the age of the adults and report a random name," Naoe Tadahei explained diligently, "Maybe it was possible to report the name of Asaka-sama just now." It's just that he happened to meet a dead mouse and got the name of an adult. ”

"That makes sense." Yoshioka Katsumasa scratched the samurai's bun and said, "Otherwise, I really can't figure it out, how do they know that the adult is Lord Yuqiu, we keep it a good secret!" ”

"Fool yourself." Ogawa Yudong snorted, "Don't comfort yourself. ”

"Anyway, I'm sorry, it's your fault." Yu Qiuping looked at Amano Jingde and bowed his head apologetically. Just now, if you let the fake herald raise the alarm loudly, call out Yu Qiuping's name, or turn around and flee to report the situation. Then the whole force will be in danger.

"It doesn't have to be this way." Amano Keide shook his head, "Search your body and see if there is any useful information." Dispose of this corpse again, make sure to leave no traces, and let's move on. ”

The crowd stripped off all the clothes and armor of the corpse, found a sachet in the pocket of the underwear, and found nothing else. There are no special markings on the sachet either, just some patterns that look like animals.

While everyone was cleaning up the scene, Yu Qiuping also asked a few people to search around, whether anyone in the vicinity witnessed this scene just now, and it seemed that no trace of people was found.

However, the matter of the herald still made the group suspicious, for fear that their identities would be exposed.

In the rest of the trip, Yu Qiuping did not encounter any strange attacks. However, on this trade route, which was supposed to be busy, no one was seen. This is unlike previous cases when caravans were not attacked. And the few villages I encountered nearby were all empty. But there was no sign of a fight in each room, but it was as if the residents had cleaned up and left the house.

"It's weird." Yu Qiuping's brows were tightly locked, and he didn't have any clue.

The troops passed through Yoshiwara, where several of the larger villages were empty. It was even more surprising to Yu Qiuping. As a last resort, the troops passed through the Takigawa River on a wooden bridge and reached Imamiya at the entrance to the trail between Mt. Ai and Mount Fuji. In the foothills northwest of Aiying Mountain, there is a city. At the foot of the mountain, there are large villages. Smoke curls from the village and castle town, and it seems that many people gather.

"Then it should be the people of the Imamiya." Yu Qiuping explained to the person next to him, "According to the information that His Royal Highness Sena gave me before, in these two desolate counties, the biggest force is the people of the Imanomiya. They have a territory of 8,000 stones, and a population of nearly 3,000, which can mobilize more than 200 ashigaru, as well as nearly 100 pairs of bamboo hemp armor. His current palace castle was built on a mountain, and it was very dangerous. Yu Qiuping pointed to the city, "The leader of the Imanomiya clan is called Imanomiya Ryding, who seems to be in his thirties this year, and is a wealthy family who is inclined to the Imagawa family in his position, and is still nominally the general of the Imagawa family." ”

"The other two powerful families in these two counties are the Uei Clan, who leaned towards the Takeda family, and the Suyama clan, who leaned towards the Hojo family. The former is to our northwest, on the west side of Mount Fuji. The latter is not far from us, at the exit of this small mountain road. ”

Just as a few people were discussing, the team was also seen on the Miyagi side. A moment later, a group of people came with torches. The first one, on horseback, was slightly fat, but seemed very accessible.

"In the lower Imamiya Leding!" The fat man on the horse shouted, "How many are the merchants from Suruga?" ”

"Exactly." Yu Qiuping stepped forward and replied.

"Then please come to the city!" Imamiya Leding greeted warmly, "The road has not been smooth lately, and it is almost night, so please rest in our city for one night!" ”

This invitation was in the middle of Yu Qiuping's arms, and he just wanted to find a place to rest and use it as a base for further investigation.

"Then thank you for your kindness." Yu Qiuping nodded in response, beckoning his subordinates behind him to follow the people of Imamiya Leding up the mountain, and he rode his horse to the side of Imamiya Leding.

"I don't know what the boss is called?" Imamiya asked.

"Kusemin Saburo." Yu Qiuping replied, "It's a merchant from Suruga." ”

"Where are you from Suruga?" Imamiya asked happily.

"A small village near Ejiri Port." Yu Qiu Ping can be regarded as a truthful answer.

"Ejiri!" Imamiya Le Ding laughed all of a sudden, "It's a coincidence! Cheap is also from Ejiri, and she is the daughter of the Itami family! ”

"Oh? Is Ling a Suruga person? Yu Qiuping said with a smile.

"Exactly, not only in the lowly country, but also in the lower ancestors, they are also from Suruga." Imamiya Leding smiled and pointed to this village and city, "When my grandfather was too high, he came here to reclaim wasteland, and he was a small wealthy family. But since my grandfather joined the Imagawa family, the family business has grown bigger and bigger. Imamiya Castle was also built! Imamiya Leding continued, "People, you still can't forget your roots, I don't dare to forget the great kindness of the Imagawa family." Therefore, every time there are merchants from Suruga who come and go, they have to entertain them well! ”