After the Chinese New Year, the time came to the ninth year of Yonglu (1566). Just after the Lantern Festival, the holiday of the 650 soldiers of Chang Panbei is over. They were assembled by the officers and returned to the barracks under Kuroda Castle, and except for the five platoons that were to be on duty at the Lend-Lease on the north bank of the Kiso River, the rest of the men were engaged in intense training.

However, Yu Qiuping is still much more humane than before. He considered that with the expansion of his territory, the ashigaru people also came from all over the place, and their homes were far away from the barracks, so it was impossible to go home to spend time with their families every night as they had done in the past. Therefore, he introduced a "single holiday" system. Every five days of training, the ashigaru students are given a day off to go home and see. Ashigaru who lives close to each other can still return home to accompany their parents, wives and children after training every day.

And those who lived far away, Yu Qiuping built dormitories for them outside the barracks. They have to get up on time every day when the wake-up call sounds, and they have one more morning exercise than the other ashigaru. However, they still have compensation – that is, they can eat more breakfast and dinner that are provided free of charge by the cafeteria every day – a benefit that the ashigaru who are going home does not enjoy.

Speaking of this cafeteria, it is not a new thing, Yu Qiuping implemented this system as early as when he was still at the Imagawa family. If the Umiaki house is the most egalitarian place in the whole of Owari and even in the whole of Japan, then the cafeteria is the most egalitarian place in the Umiaki house. From samurai like Yuakihei or Fukushima Yasunari to the most ordinary ashigaru, if you want to come to the cafeteria to eat, you have to honestly line up in front of those dozen windows, and no queue cutting is allowed. Originally, everyone's minds were still a little lively, and the high-ranking samurai tried to cut in line, but when Yu Qiuping himself lined up according to the rules by example, they were embarrassed to make it easier for them to do it again.

At this moment, Yu Qiuping was waiting in the line like an ordinary person, chatting with Shigeji Takenaka, who came to visit the barracks.

"It has been heard for a long time that when I arrive on the battlefield, I will always be forbidden and hated the same enemy. I was very curious about this before, but when I saw it today, it turned out that the mystery was here. Shigeharu Takenaka looked at the neatly lined up team in more than a dozen straight lines, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "The top and bottom are equal, regardless of the high and the low, and the intimacy." Everyone who is always prepared regards each other as brothers who share life and death, and with hard training, they can burst out with such combat power and discipline. ”

"The half-soldier has passed the award," Yu Qiuping humbly arched his hand, "I don't have any other skills, so I only have a good heart left." These ashigaru brothers are all brothers who went to war with me, maybe they will be gone one day, so if you can treat them well, you can do your part. ”

"Momiji thinks that treating people equally and giving ashigaru respect may not be a big deal, but it's just hard to get to the bottom in other places." Shigeharu Takenaka shook his head and looked in the direction of Mino: "Let's just say that we are Mino." No matter which highness is in the army, the samurai will always bully the ashigaru who was born as a peasant, the veteran will bully the new soldiers, and the fellow villagers will crowd out the field, how can such a force have such cohesion as Tokiwabei? How could it be possible to practice the kind of spear formation that surrendered one's life to the collective? ”

"Haha, that's what I said." Yuqiu Hei was chatting with Shigeji Takenaka, while constantly greeting the ashigaru who passed by. The red leaf shawl he wore was very conspicuous, and many new soldiers passing by would rush to greet Yu Qiuping - because Yu Qiuping, who was the head of the family, would definitely give them a return gift in person, which was something they could not have imagined. And the veterans who have been in such an equal group for many years are smiling and watching this happen—how could they not be so excited before.

"Your Highness is good!" At this time, another samurai who was holding a plate walked past Yu Qiuping and greeted Yu Qiuping with a smile.

"Xinxian Chengliang, why did you kid come to greet me?" Yu Qiuping recognized at a glance this old subordinate who had been following him since Zhilicheng, and now he was also a platoon commander of a general of Ashigaru in Chang Panbei. "Isn't it usually only recruits who come up to greet me?"

"Hehe, I saw Your Highness, and I was embarrassed to walk away without saying hello, right?" Xin Xian Chengliang smiled and made a joke with Yu Qiuping, and said hello to Shigeharu Takenaka, who was beside Yu Qiuping: "Hello Mr. Takenaka." ”

"You kid, why do you eat so much?" Yu Qiuping glanced at the plate in his hand—in addition to a roasted fish, a small piece of meat from domestic animals, a serving of vegetables, a bowl of soup, and four taels of dry food and multigrain cakes served in the canteen every day, there were also two nests and a chicken leg. "Tell the master to give you more punches again? Didn't I say that if you can't finish eating, you'll have to deduct money! Our Yuqiu's food is expensive! ”

"Doesn't Your Highness know me?" Xin Xian Chengliang smiled and touched his stomach, "Just rely on my appetite, don't talk about these things, I can eat half a catty of rice!" ”

"If you let go of your stomach to eat, the Yuqiu family will give you a poor meal sooner or later." Yu Qiuping shook his head angrily and funny. The reason why he ordered that the food from the canteen should be deducted was not because he was worried about the waste of the ashigaru - in this era, how could these ashigaru who lived a hard life waste such good food? What he wanted to prevent was that the ashigaru people would not eat that piece of livestock!

Because in Japan, which has a tradition of banning meat, many livestock are not on their diet, and only fish is widely accepted. At that time, Yu Qiuping tried to persuade Imagawa Kaede and Honda Tadashi to eat pork, beef and mutton, but he was about to wear out his mouth. For his Changbanbei army, he didn't have such a good temper, and directly ordered it to be eaten compulsively. Because the protein and fat supplemented by fish are not enough to support their high-intensity training, that piece of meat is indispensable every day. In order to raise these pigs, cattle and sheep, he really spent a lot of money! If it's wasted, Sena will jump in anger again.

"I let go of my belly to eat, isn't it for the reputation of our Yuqiu family?" Xin Xian Chengliang raised his eyebrows, "At that time, it was in Dongmeinong, so it was called a cool place!" ”

"You kid really are! Alas! As soon as Yu Qiuping remembered that Xin Xian Chengliang had done something stumbling at that time, he was so angry that he straightened his forehead. Yuqiu's food is better than everyone else's, you just hide it in your heart and enjoy it! Who told you to show off everywhere! It hurt Ikeda Hengxing and Kinoshita Hideyoshi to bring people to our cafeteria to eat and drink for a long time, and they died! You Sena-sama are about to kill me, you know! ”

"The two times we sent troops to Meinong before, they were all in a hurry, and we didn't have time to prepare food." Xin Xiancheng Liang had a reasonable expression, "Last time I went to Higashiminon, I was stationed for a long time, and I was finally able to repair the canteen on the front line!" Their people are all eating bran vegetables, so let's eat three dishes and one soup, can we not show off! This is also to help Your Highness attract Ashigaru from other families to come to us! ”

"Come on, I'm going to be arrested and beaten!" Yu Qiuping pinched Xin Xian Chengliang's stomach hard, "You stinky boy, hurry up and eat your meal!" ”

·

On March 17, 1566, the spring ploughing in the domains of each retainer was basically completed. Oda Nobunaga was also anxious here, and all the high-ranking officials in the territory went to Kiyoshu Castle to hold an evaluation meeting. As for the content of the meeting, Yu Qiuping could think of it with his toes - he was going to play Mino again. However, this time, Mori Kasei who was in Mino did not return, and it is said that the Saito family had gathered troops west of Sekijo and seemed to be intending to attack the territory occupied by the Oda family in Mino. So, Kinoshita Hideyoshi had to rush to the meeting with his envoys.

Sure enough, Oda Nobunaga arrived at the assessment room as usual, strode to the main position, and said domineeringly: "After a year of recuperation, we are almost ready." Let's not waste any more time with Saito Ryuxing's stinky boy, and we will take down Mino for Yu within this year! ”

"You guys are going to go back and gather troops, we will send troops to Mino as soon as we enter the summer, and have a decisive battle before Saito Ryuko's guy attacks us, and take him by surprise." Oda Nobunaga said with his eyebrows fluttering as he tapped the tatami mat with the folding fan in his hand in a fast rhythm, "Yu can't wait." ”

"My lord." At this time, only Niwa Nagahide dared to stand up and admonish: "The lord is wise and invincible." It's just that we already have the advantage, or don't we pursue it in one battle, okay? After all, Owari has been fighting for many years, and if he can take Mino by gradually encroaching, it will also be Owari's luck! ”

"Oh? What do you mean? Do you want to suggest that Yu Wenzai play steadily? Oda Nobunaga was more gentle this time, after all, the last Higashi Mino strategy gave him a taste of great sweetness, "So what about this time, what do you think?" Do you want to hit Seminon? ”

"Exactly, my lord is wise." Niwa Nagahide leaned down respectfully and said.

"But West Mino doesn't deal with it as much as East Mino." Sakuma Nobumori on the side put forward an ordinary opinion, "There are many small wealthy families in Higashiminon, and they don't belong to each other, so they will give us the opportunity to encroach on the territory last time." And Ximinon is basically controlled by several big families in Meinong, and they are very united, once we invade, we will immediately invite their joint attack. By that time, the partial division had just passed through the Kiso River and had no foothold, so how could it defeat the Western-American coalition army? ”

"His Highness Sakuma is right." Niwa Nagahide is also a well-eared person, so naturally he won't fail to listen to other good opinions, "If that's the case, you still need to think about it in the long run." ”

"What is the long-term consideration, the long-term consideration, where is the rest of the time for you to consider the long-term?" Oda Nobunaga sneered and stood up suddenly, "Isn't there just no foothold, why don't you just build a castle there?" Where is all the trouble? ”

As he spoke, he walked to the hall, casually clicked the map of Mino hanging on the wall with a folding fan, and said in a loud voice: "I think this Minamata is a key place, which of you has the ability to build a castle for Yu in Momata?" ”