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The North Japan Sea is a foggy place, and this is especially evident in autumn.

The fog has been so heavy in the past few days, white and gray, engulfing all the villages and towns near Iwami Ginzan and engulfing the mountains. Even the three castles on the hill west of the town that had been built to defend against enemies from the east were covered in thick fog.

The samurai men guarding the castle were taken aback -- if the enemy took advantage of the vast fog and could not see anything, wouldn't they be able to prepare?

They spent several hours in fear, but this fear was unnecessary, and not only did the enemy not come, but the air in the fog was a little too quiet.

When the clouds cleared, the officers and men of the Maori family, who were guarding the castle, were taken aback -- the flags of the enemy were fluttering in the small villages below the mountain.

One, two, three-sided...... The aqua blue bellflower pattern flutters in the air in the wind, and it is extraordinarily vivid. Extraordinarily proud, in this season when the flowers are withering and the autumn wind is slaughtering, this color has more or less added some vitality.

Not only the bellflower pattern, the samba pattern, the Nadeshiko pattern, one lead two, Okubo Fuji (this is the family crest of the Honda family, taken from the Okubo family), and the plum pattern (I won't introduce this, everyone who has seen "Flower Keiji" knows it), all kinds of flags flutter in every corner of each village.

The Warring States period was an era of illiteracy, not only were the ashigaru soldiers and low-status middle and lower-ranking samurai uneducated and illiterate, but even among the [ruling class], there were very few people who could read and write, so what should they do when they fought wars? How can you tell the difference between the enemy and our army?

Look at the family crest! It's simple and easy to understand, and it's a vivid image.

There was a sharp-eyed veteran who discovered that in the enemy's military formation, there was a scarlet [Ouchi Ling], didn't [Ouchi Ling] fall as early as thirty years ago when the Ouchi family perished? Except for some small tyrants who have some relationship with the Ouchi family, this kind of family crest is not seen in Kansai at all.

What's going on?

The enemy troops guarding the bunker had already known that the army of the Wise Family had entered a place not far from here the day before, and they also thought that they might come to this area, after all, during this time, a series of military activities of the Wise Legion had been carried out with the terrifying Iwami Silver Mountain behind him, which did not look very tall and had high strategic and economic value.

Although they had always been ready for battle, they did not expect that the enemy would come to the few small villages and towns under the loose control of these castles at dawn and in the fog and shadow.

Their general, Yoshikawa Motoharu, led more than 20,000 horses to garrison Iwami Ginzan, but the connection between the three castles had been cut off by the enemy's vanguard, and if he wanted to restore contact, he had to be prepared to start a vicious battle in advance.

However, it is the busy autumn season, and the Maori family, which has not completely implemented the [separation of soldiers and farmers], is not yet fully adapted to fighting during this time period.

The only thing to be thankful for is that the three castles are well stocked with ammunition, and the food and water they have built will be enough to last until next spring.

The guards of several isolated castles had already given death orders, and no one in the castle was allowed to act rashly until Admiral Yoshikawa had no further action and clear orders.

The Maori soldiers, who had no fight to fight and were not allowed to go out, were idle.

He hid in the castle and watched the scenery of the village and town, which became a great pleasure over time.

When the fog had passed, they found that there were many peasants, craftsmen, children, old men, women, and small clothes in the villages and towns, and they were all poor jingle people, and the rich local tyrants were not here -- they had already taken up their positions, and they would either throw themselves at the Maori or the wise.

Unlike those prosperous towns formed in the United States during the [Gold Rush Age], Iwami Silver Mountain has long been nationalized by the Maori family, and outsiders don't want to get a big bargain.

So for so many years, the vicinity of Iwami Silver Mountain is still poor and white.

Thechoiceofthisorthat,

isaproblem

Around them, there are soldiers of three, three, five, five, five, to be precise, the Ashigaru soldiers who maintain the stability of law and order in the village, and some low-level samurai, who are playing the role of policemen, who come and go, gather and disperse.

Some of them were asking the villagers about local conditions, some were distributing the things sent from above, and some were gossiping together. The small street has become a lively market. There was also a small team that went to the nearby villages to put up slogans.

The so-called slogan is written that how bad the Maori family is, how how Maori Terumoto is not a thing, and Major General Akechi and General Oda are just, legitimate, and love the people.

To add a word, because the villagers are illiterate, the slogans are actually mainly paintings.

It seems that the military discipline of the Wise Legion is not bad, much better than the Imperial Japanese Army, which won the reputation of [Sai**] in later generations, and did not do anything like [Sanko].

In fact, good military discipline is not the main reason, the villagers are so poor that there is really nothing to grab, or the [flower girls] in the village really can't arouse the interest of the soldiers, which makes everyone have to be a favor and play the role of [teacher of benevolence and righteousness].

At noon, several caravans came to the village, they were the [arms dealers] and [grain merchants] who came to sell weapons and food--during the war years, the merchants would always try their best to get in touch with the army in order to seek the opportunity to make a fortune, and the soldiers also hoped to reduce the difficulties in the logistics of the house, so they established a [partner] relationship with them very happily.

Deformed commercial boom.

The guards in the castle still felt incomprehensible when they arrived at this scene, what did this group of enemies come to do? If they were going to go to war, they would have blown away these [bored idler] villagers long ago. Do you want to stay there for a long time? That's not right, if you stay for a long time, there is no place in this area that is more suitable as a defensive base than these three hills, and they should have lined up to kill and take the castle.

If they're not there, what are they doing here? Aren't you afraid that your own army will go to attack in the middle of the night?

The guards also saw that there would only be more and no fewer enemies who came here, and it was estimated that there were more than 10,000 people, and so many troops lived in these villages and towns, and they did not fire a single shot, except for basic military training, there was no major movement at all.

What exactly are they going to do?

In fact, not only the Maori Army, but also within the Wise Army, there are few people who understand what they are going to do this time. Akechi, Maeda, Hosokawa, Saito (who was still led by Saito Toshizo's son, Toshizo), and other military commanders in charge of leading the troops received an order from me from the sea to prepare for departure.

However, where to go? What are you going to do? I didn't mention it, and they didn't know.

As the day passed quickly, and some cold autumn nights soon came, the officers and men who had not yet slept were busy working around the campfire, some of them were torn into long strips about 10 centimeters wide with their old clothes, and some of them were made of blue hemp to form ropes thick with chopsticks -- long strips and ropes were very useful for bandaging wounds after being wounded, and this was the experience passed on by veterans who had fought in wars. Some make warm straw sandals (Ikyu and Kobako suddenly come to mind...... Some make face covers, gloves and sock covers, and some mend clothes...... Everyone is busy, and if you don't do it now, you won't have time to do it, and the solemn barracks has become a handicraft workshop with intense work (I originally wanted to say that it was a [factory], but I didn't think it was appropriate); The heroic soldier has now become a hard-working craftsman.

Let's talk about the farmhouse where the generals stayed.

Keiji Maeda took a small, copper-plated cigarette gun, lit the earthen tobacco leaves with the muzzle of the gun, which were not of good quality, and sat on the stone steps and smoked slowly.

[Count me on! Take two puffs less! 】

Sitting on the side, the wise sweeper shook away the layers of smoke with his hand.

[Dr. Kobayashi said that smoking is harmful to health, and second-hand smoke is even more harmful, Maeda-sama, you should think about me, I am not used to the smell of smoke. 】

【Cut!】 Gremlin! How do you know the fun of tobacco, that Xiaolin is really, if you can't eat grapes, you say that grapes are sour, and you can't smoke, so you spread rumors, saying that smoking is not good, but I feel that the more you smoke, the more spiritual, tobacco is a precious wealth given to mankind by the gods, how can it be harmful...... Okay, don't look at me with such pitiful eyes, I'll put it down after this rod is drawn......]

Thank you. 】

[Alas......]

Keiji Maeda glanced at the moon in the sky helplessly, when the old man Hosokawa was allocating [housing], he actually divided himself with this junior in his twenties, this is not a toss, alas, it would be good if it was with the wise light who is also [old smoking gun].

Wise Sabu is not a relative of the lord, he is the son of the wealthy family of the Tamba country and the Sabu Yi family, and the river Yi family defected in accordance with the previous plan in the [Battle of Kokoji Temple] a few years ago, which caused the complete collapse of the Hatano army, so that the family won the victory, and after the war, the merit was rewarded, and the Namikawa family was given the surname [Wise] by the previous lord, and the lord (the young lord at that time) also gave the word [letter] in his name to his son.

In the tragic third battle of Yueshan Tomita Castle last year, the family of Nagagawa Yi was seriously injured, although they were rescued, but they had no way to go to the battlefield again, so they had to retire and pass the position of family governor to the current wise sweeping department.

【Maeda-sama】

Wise Sweep suddenly whispered to Keiji Maeda, who was smoking a small cigarette in Yiran:

[As far as I can see, something is wrong with Yamazaki-sama today. 】

Keiji Maeda's eyes widened.

[Huh? What happened to him?! 】

[I see that he sometimes sits in the house, holding the family letter without talking or laughing, and does not read it seriously, and he sits for a long time, which is not quite the same as usual. 】

Maeda Keiji laughed and said slowly:

[Yamazaki, this guy, I don't know yet? I've been away for a long time, and I want to go home to see my wife......]