When Li Chenfang stood on the third floor of the castle tower and looked at the night view of the entire Osaka Castle, his heart was still a little incredulous. However, several fires had already been lit in the courtyard below the castle tower, and the leaders of the various volunteer teams had gathered in the courtyard to talk happily, and beside them were barrels of Honmaru's treasured sake.

These ronin, who were still worried about dinner this morning, are now drinking red one by one, and they keep ordering the captured handymen to cook grilled fish or barbecue meat for them, and they completely regard Honmaru as their own place.

Mizuno Nobuko, Sasaki Jiro, Noma Junichiro and other Osaka officers and soldiers who surrendered to His Royal Highness Tadashi did not celebrate with these rural ronin, they sat on both sides of the wooden corridor of the castle tower with the remnants of Toyotomi such as Mori Katsuya and Sanada Daisuke.

For them, the capture of Osaka Castle was not the end, but a battle that had just begun. They weren't the street ronins who had no tomorrow, and a victory wouldn't get them carried away. The young man who led them to defeat Osaka Castle, any decision they made next would give them an idea of how far this team, representing His Highness Tadacho, could go.

When Zheng Xiang walked to the third floor of the castle tower, he saw Li Chenfang standing on the observation deck leaning over the railing, as if observing the ronin who were eating, drinking, and laughing around the bonfire in the courtyard. He couldn't help but walk forward quickly and said, "See, why bother to wait and see." There is such a great joy today, and we should go down and rejoice with them.

You probably haven't received the news yet, but Yuta Higuchi and seven or eight people were caught near the jade stoma, and now the big thing is decided. Even if that acting officer Sakai Shigesumi escapes, he can't organize an army to counterattack us..."

Li Chenfang turned around and walked back to the castle tower, and said to Zheng Xiang: "Sakai Chongcheng is not our trouble, the following people are our biggest trouble now." ”

Zheng Xiang said with some surprise: "Next? Aren't they all our people down there? What trouble will they have? Besides, as long as we get things out of town tonight, we don't have to do anything with them. Do you really want to defend this Osaka Castle for that Tokugawa Tadanaga? ”

Li Chenfang beckoned to the guards on the side, took an account book from his hand and handed it to Zheng Xiang, and said, "This is the entry and exit accounts of the Honmaru vault, you can take a look at it first." As for tonight's transport operation, I am afraid it will be put on hold for the time being. ”

Zheng Xiang stopped looking at the accounts, looked at Li Chenfang and asked in surprise, "Why?" Even if the inventory of the Honmaru vault can't be shipped for a while, we can continue to ship it during the day tomorrow, and now that the entire Osaka Castle is in our hands, what are we worried about? ”

Li Chenfang shook his head and said, "No, this city is not in our hands, but in the hands of us and the people below. The reason why they obeyed us was that we were going to lead them to take over the city and defeat the current shogun.

If they find out that we have deceived them and want to run away with the gold and silver of the city, do you think they will obey us? If these people lose hope, will they still abide by the order we have established? I'm afraid the city will turn into hell in the next moment. With our current manpower, it's probably not a problem to rush out of the city, but do you think it's possible to take something with you? ”

The smile on Zheng Xiang's face suddenly retracted, he tilted his head and thought for a while, and then realized that what Li Chenfang said was indeed the truth. After taking Honmaru, their every move will now be watched by the brave and surrendered shogunate samurai below, and this is not the time to take advantage of the chaos to transport things out of the city.

Zheng Xiang thought about it for a long time and couldn't solve the problem at hand, so she couldn't help but ask Li Chenfang, "Then what should we do now?" You should have thought about this before implementing this siege plan. ”

Li Chenfang spread his hands and said helplessly: "I didn't think that I could really capture this city, I just wanted to leave a deep enough impact on the shogunate." ”

The corners of Zheng Xiang's mouth twitched, it was true that he hadn't thought about being able to capture this city before, otherwise he wouldn't have desperately prepared for the plan to transport Ginza's deposit out of the city at night.

The two stared at each other for a long time, Zheng Xiang finally smiled, put his arm around his shoulder and said, "Why are you so serious, even a piece of gold can't be transported, and we have finally climbed the castle tower of Osaka Castle." I believe that our actions have had a profound impact on the shogunate. No matter what decision you make next, I will support you. ”

Li Chenfang was silent for a long time before he said firmly: "In that case, let's do a big job." ”

When he went down to the first floor of the castle tower, Zheng Xiang still didn't know what Li Chenfang meant by the big fight. However, after Li Chenfang summoned everyone into the castle tower, he finally knew what Li Chenfang wanted to do.

Li Chenfang, who was sitting on the main seat, glanced at the more than 100 warriors kneeling in the large open room, watching these warriors bow down to him one by one, and no one dared to look directly at him, and a sense of complacent happiness couldn't help but emerge.

However, after all, he had spent a lot of time in the emperor's side, and he knew what real power was, and the deferential posture of these warriors in front of him was just an illusion. He is not the object of these people's allegiance, and the exact allegiance of these people is still undecided. They were only able to get together because of a bold plan.

After adjusting his mentality, Li Chenfang calmly said to everyone: "Everyone is exempt, thanks to the help of all the kings, Osaka City has finally been recovered by His Royal Highness Tadashi." Although the traitor Sakai Shigesumi has not yet been captured, the merits of the princes cannot but be rewarded. Although Your Highness is not here, I have full authority from Your Highness, so I should evaluate your merits, do you have any objections? ”

Jiro Sasaki and Junichiro Noma immediately took the lead and replied: "Since your Excellency has recovered Osaka on behalf of His Royal Highness, you can naturally give us such an assessment, and the villain has no objection..."

With these two people taking the lead, the other warriors also expressed their willingness to follow Li Chenfang's assessment of their merits. Li Chenfang nodded, and said unhurriedly: "Today's capture of Osaka City, Maori Katsuya and Sanada Daisuke won three doors in a row, which can be described as the first merit, I will award the two of you 1,000 stone in the name of His Royal Highness, can you accept it?" ”

Maori Katsuya and Sanada Daisuke walked out on their knees, bowed to Li Chenfang and replied: "Thank you for your reward, Maori Katsuya (Sanada Daisuke) is grateful, and from then on, he should be driven by adults." ”

After the two of them retreated, Li Chenfang continued: "Junichiro Noma and Jiro Sasaki are right in time, and they can make suggestions for the capture of the city, and each is a great achievement. Junichiro Masuno has an annual salary of 800 stones, and Jiro Sasaki has 900 stones, so you two can disagree..."

“… Kataoka Saemon was the first to attack the Nishimachi Office, and the blade against the thief Shimada Naotoki, counted the merit one, and awarded the annual salary of 600 stones... Matsudaira Kazuma, stationed in the granary, distributed more than 4,900 stone of grain without chaos, counted Chang Gong Ichi, and awarded 400 stone for the year..."

“… Sugihara Shishiki, Shikitaro, Goro Saemon, and Ishida Kishiwa assisted the army in capturing Osaka Castle with 49 volunteers, and as a token of gratitude, they were awarded 250 koku for their annual salaries..."

In addition to the high-ranking samurai who surrendered later, such as Mizuno Nobuko and Yuta Higuchi, the majority of the samurai who sat in the room anyway, Ichii Ronin, and Toyotomi remnants were rewarded one by one. Except for a very few people, most people feel that Li Chenfang's evaluation is very fair.

After Li Chenfang finished talking about the assessment, he raised the teacup in front of him and moistened his throat, and then continued to speak: "The merits of the monarchs, I have just finished the evaluation, since everyone has no objections, then this evaluation will end here."

But there are rewards and punishments, and now that I have said that there are merits that should be rewarded, I will now speak of the evil deeds that should be punished in the siege of the city today. ”

Li Chenfang's words made the samurai below a little unable to react, and they were thinking about who the adult wanted to punish when they heard Li Chenfang say with a straight look: "Kataoka Saemon rushed into the samurai Ikeuchi Shotaro's house in the afternoon and raped Shotaro's new wife, Sadako;

Gorouzaemon led people to break into the house of the creditor, Fujitaya, and not only killed the other party's entire family, but also set fire to the scene, almost causing a fire in the whole town;

Ignoring my orders, Ishida Kishiwa led the men out of the neighborhood where they were supposed to be stationed, stormed the commercial district, looted four shops, and slashed a shopkeeper and five men.

All three were convicted of capital crimes, and now I sentence them to beheading. But for the sake of the deeds of the three of you, I grant you permission to seppuku yourself..."

After Li Chenfang read out the crimes of the three of them, a guard quickly pressed forward and held down the three ronins. There was silence in the room, and everyone didn't know what to say for a while. They felt that the adult's treatment seemed to be too harsh, especially since Kataoka Saemon had made such a big contribution, but he had raped a woman, how could he ask for his head.

Kataoka Saemon was also extremely unconvinced, he struggled desperately, and shouted loudly: "It's unfair, it's unfair to punish adults, I'm born and died for the Great Nayan, isn't it still a woman?" Adults treat heroes like this, who will come to them in the future? ”

Kataokazaemon's shouting attracted all the volunteers in the courtyard, and although they did not dare to rush into the castle tower, they were all whispering to ask why Okazemon had been arrested.

Seeing these righteous warriors formed by the market ronin and recklessly surrounding, the leaders of the volunteers who were friendly with Kataoka Saemon in the palace couldn't help but be bold, and they opened their mouths to intercede for the three of them.

Zheng Xiang, who was sitting next to Li Chenfang, was also a little worried when she saw this situation, and couldn't help but persuade Li Chenfang: "Now that the crowd is raging, it's better to take a step back and wait for the next day." ”

Li Chenfang refused in a low voice: "If we can't subdue these righteous warriors tonight, it will not be us who will command them, but they will lead us to act." It is to take advantage of the aftermath of today's capture of Osaka Castle to let them know who is the master of this city. ”

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