It was noon when Nasu Zikichi arrived in Cheonan, and the samurai of the castle were in full swing, and according to Nagamasa's orders, the troops of each army must be put in order by the evening, and once they had dinner, they burned down Cheonan, and the army retreated to Cheongju in the night.

The arrival of Ziyoshi obviously aborted Nagamasa's plan, especially when he saw Hidebo's handwritten letter, Nagamasa understood that it might be difficult for his army of 3,000 men to return to Cheongju.

"The current situation has been written in detail in the letter, and I hope that Jia Fei Shou will lead the troops to the north with the foreign ministers, and work with my lord to rescue His Royal Highness Xiuyuan." Due to the day and night, Ziji was also very tired, sweating profusely waiting for Changzheng's response.

"Please go back and tell His Highness the Servant, let him rest assured, my Changzheng will reorganize the troops and horses, and set off for Chenghuanli tonight, if nothing happens, I will be able to meet with him tomorrow evening." Nagamasa replied with an oath.

After receiving this answer, Zi Ji nodded with satisfaction and said gratefully: "Jia Fei Shou is really the mainstay, with you on the horse, we will definitely be able to defeat the Ming army and rescue His Royal Highness Xiuyuan." With that, Ziji bowed to Changzheng, then got up and withdrew from the main hall, and quickly returned to Chenghuanli.

Looking at the back of Ziji's departure, Goto Kiji, who was beside Nagamasa, bowed down and said, "Since the military situation is urgent, the minister will order to go down, let the sergeants eat early, and they can set off in the afternoon, and if it goes well, they will be able to arrive at Chenghuanli early tomorrow morning." ”

"No hurry, wait." Changzheng changed his serious expression, closed his eyes slightly, and said softly: "Tell me to go down, let the soldiers continue to clean up, don't be in a hurry, you can be as slow as you can, even if you set off tomorrow morning, it will be no big problem." ”

"Lord!" Goto Kiji understood what Nagamasa meant, but he didn't want to believe it, but pretended to be surprised and admonished: "If you start tomorrow morning, won't you arrive in Chenghuanli the day after tomorrow, and then His Highness will blame him, and I'm afraid..."

"In the future, the wisdom of Lord Fuji will not fail to understand what the lord means, right?" Before the guard could finish speaking, Kan Masatoshi, who was standing aside, interrupted him. In the past, in the face of Goto Matabei, who had the names of "Kuroda Shuangbi" and "Kuroda Eight Tigers", Masato was speechless at all, but now it is different, relying on the favor of Nagamasa, this military general, who has just celebrated his thirtieth birthday, is ready to take this opportunity to challenge Matabei's status.

Zhengli took the letter from Changzheng's hand, read it aloud in front of Jiji, and when he read "20,000 Ming troops Lianke Yuanzhou, Dichuan, Chungju, and Wai Xiuyuan in Fengyang", he looked sideways at Jiji, and asked respectfully: "The Ming army is 20,000, and there are only 3,000 in Nayan, and the morale of the Ming army is like a rainbow, and Nayan is embattled on all sides. ”

"As a samurai, loyalty comes first, how can you abandon the righteousness that you have adhered to to this day because you are greedy for life and afraid of death?" Kiji argued with reason and tried to impress Nagamasa with the spirit of bushido: "Isn't it true that Mamoru Baba Minomori was the one who gave up his life for the sake of loyalty and righteousness, even if he dies, such a hero will live forever in the hearts of thousands of samurai." ”

"On the contrary," Kiji glared at Masaori and said indignantly, "If you are greedy for life and afraid of death, and abandon your loyalty, even if you enjoy all the glory and wealth, you will be spurned after death, and there will be no day to turn over." ”

"Keiji Goto, you!" Zhengli just wanted to open his mouth to scold, but was stopped by Changzheng, he stood up, stared at Jiji coldly, and after a long time, he suddenly raised his hand, slapped Jiji's face, and scolded with a red face: "Bastard and soldier, are you cursing me?" What a bold man, what do you think you are? If it weren't for my father's face, I would have banished you a long time ago, so why should you be presumptuous here? I'm not Baba Shinharu, so I won't exchange my life for any righteousness, if you can't get used to it, you can take your people to Fengyang, block the eyes for the second lord, and achieve your righteousness! ”

"Lord!" Kiji fell to his knees suddenly, looked up at Changzheng with red eyes, and said with squirming lips: "This is all for the reputation of your family, you must not be deceived by villains!" ”

"Get out of here!" Changzheng kicked Kiji over, and roared with his teeth and claws: "I've had enough of you a long time ago, and I say at every turn that I think about my family, and if I die in a foreign country, you can take over the power alone?" Get out, get out with your people, from now on, you Goto Matabei will no longer be a retainer of my Kuroda family, and my Nagamasa will no longer be your lord, so we will break off our righteousness! ”

"Lord!" Kiji got up and pleaded while kowtowing: "It's not a pity that Kiji died, but if the villain is not eliminated for a day, the Kuroda family will not be at peace for a day!" ”

"I think you're the villain!" Changzheng turned his back and shouted at the samurai outside the door: "Come on, drag this person out for me, from now on, he is no longer a retainer of his own family, if anyone dares to object, he will be expelled together!" ”

Two samurai, you look at me, I look at you, neither dare to step forward to put Kiji out of the main hall, after all, it is the old minister of the family, how can you say that you will drive it away, besides, this may be Changzheng's angry words for a while, wait for a few days to subside, and then take Kiji back, at that time, won't he become a black cauldron? Thinking of this, the two samurai bowed their heads and remained silent, but Suga Masato was still chattering, insulting Kiji without scruples, and praising Nagamasa's "wise decision".

"That's enough," Kiji suddenly roared, then stood up, walked slowly to Zhengli, and said coldly: "The gentleman is frank, the villain is a relative, my Kiji is dedicated to the public, with a clear conscience, you are so aggressive, full of villain face, with someone like you to assist the lord, the Kuroda family is really going to be a lot of disasters." Don't worry, I can't stay in this house for a long time, if it weren't for the old lord's hard work, I wouldn't have stayed until today. The lord insists on believing the villain, then there is no value for my existence here, in this case, Jiji will leave, and I hope that the lord and the old lord will take care. ”

After saying that, Kiji walked out of the main hall without looking back, leading the samurai Ashigaru who were willing to follow him, a total of 300 people, to leave Tian'an and gallop towards Chenghuanli.

"Lord, please also send someone to arrest the guards again, if you let him go to Chenghuanli, I am afraid it will be bad for my family." Although Masatoshi wanted to exclude Kiji from the retainers, he was afraid that he would inform Hideho of Nagamasa's plan, and once Hidebo learned the truth, the Kuroda family would not be far from changing the situation.

However, Nagamasa was not worried about this, he looked at the snow scene outside the window, and sighed: "Although I don't want to admit it, but it is true-Matabei is the humerus of the Kuroda family, I believe that with his character, even if he is kicked out of the house, he will not do anything unfavorable to the family, and you don't have to worry about him denouncing the family and selling the owner for glory." ”