135

The cold winter has arrived, and I am still in the army.

The army had already marched to the shore of the Chiyogawa River in Mi-gun, Inhatae, only five and a half miles away from Tottori Castle.

The Yamana Army and the Maori Army seem to have completely abandoned the idea of field warfare, and more than 20,000 people stayed in the city together, unable to defend themselves.

"Envoy-sama, I'm going to enter Tottori Castle by next summer." Monkey Road.

"So, then, Mamoru Chikuzen, do you have any good ideas?"

The military advisor of this march is the wise ten soldiers Wei Mitsuhide, and at the same time, he is also the deputy general of the army.

He wore a scarf on his head and brown cloth over his armor, and sat by the campfire. Seeing the figure of the monkey, he stood up sharply and pushed the military bench he was sitting on in front of the monkey.

"Envoy-sama, you don't have to be so polite to me, you are nominally my lieutenant general, but in fact, how dare I call you as a lieutenant," the monkey excused himself a few words, and then sat down, "I plan to surround Tottori Castle and fight a protracted war." ”

"Protracted war? Haha, if I'm not mistaken, your favorite thing about Tsukuzen Mamoru is a protracted battle like siege warfare and positional warfare, and the longer it lasts, the better. ”

"Hehe, I'm smiling, no matter what happened before, I finally finished the battle, but the situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and I can't delay the deliberate war because of that kind of prolongation. If no one from Tottori Castle takes the initiative, we will have to spend the New Year on the banks of the Chiyogawa River. ”

I stood aside and couldn't help but complain in my heart: "It seems that it is because of you that we will celebrate the New Year in this ghost place." ”

"Hey, Kogoro," the father turned his head suddenly, "the smoke is too thick, you can add some more firewood." ”

"Okay."

Although I promised very happily in words, in fact I bent down to add firewood, and at the same time I said in my heart, you two "great leaders", if you had set up tents in the fishermen's houses by the river earlier, or just stayed overnight, I would not have had to go to such trouble...... Just as he was thinking of this, there was a sudden commotion in the team.

"Kogoro, what's going on?"

"I don't know, let's go check it out first," I said, dropping the dry firewood in my hand and walking towards the crowd in the distance, "what a noise!" The general has disturbed you by discussing the military situation! ”

"Oh, it's the wise general, you're here just in time, give me a judgment." The young general who was held by Kuroda Kanbei with one hand, if I remember correctly, he should be the monkey's brother-in-law - Asano Nagamasa.

Asano Nagamasa almost said to me with a crying voice, "Toranosuke's subordinates came to report just now, and Toranosuke left the camp with a dozen people?" ”

"Wait! Who is Toranosuke? ”

"Oh, you may not know the general, Toranosuke is Kiyomasa, he talked to you yesterday."

"Oh, it's him," to be honest, I've never been interested in monkeys, and I'm not interested in his samurai, "Do research", "Kato-sama, what is he doing in the camp, is it Chikuzen Mamoru who assigns orders?" ”

"No, the lord would not give such an order at all, it was his own idle panic and wanted to go out of the camp to kill a few ronins to have fun."

"Isn't that just doing it on your own? This is to be dealt with by military law. "Hehe, whether it's Kato Kiyomasa or Fukushima Masanori, it's hard for me to say what I admire, these two monkey cronies are obviously well-limbed and simple-minded, otherwise they wouldn't be used by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

"So, I want to take advantage of the fact that the lord doesn't know about it, I want to bring someone to find him back first, he is only sixteen years old this year, and he is still a child, what can he do? It's good to meet some stragglers, but if you meet Yamana's army......"

It seems that the relationship between the "arbitrary faction" of your monkey family is very good.

"No way!" Kuroda Kanbei decisively refused, "I can't let you out!" It was already my fault that Kato-sama went out just now, and if I let Asano-sama go out again, the lord will not be able to spare me. ”

"So you don't care about Toranosuke's life or death, right?" Asano Nagamasa roared angrily.

"Shut up! Changji! ”

The voice of a monkey came from behind him. Asano Nagamasa's face changed, and he secretly screamed in his heart, but there was nothing he could do. Kuroda Kanbei and I slowly turned around and found the monkey staring at us.

Seeing that the monkey had understood all this in front of him, Asano Nagamasa knelt on the ground and cried loudly: "Lord, lord. Please send someone to pick up Toranosuke. It's dark now, and he's in danger if he encounters an enemy! ”

"Toranosuke, that bastard boy ran out by himself, and he is to blame for his death!" The monkey did get angry.

"No, my lord, although Toranosuke is a little impulsive, he has always listened to your words the most, and he can't just let him die in vain, although this time he left the camp without the lord's order, but we can't watch him being killed by the enemy. I'm ready to be punished. Let me go. ”

"Nope! It's true that Toranosuke is a child, but if it weren't for you adults who spoil him every day, he wouldn't have become so arrogant, and there is no one in his eyes" The monkey roared, he turned his head to Kuroda and said, "Officers and soldiers, who ordered Toranosuke to attack?" Why did he dare to go without permission?!"

"I'm ashamed! Nothing is known about this below. ”

The monkey was furious, "Kankanwei, you think this has nothing to do with you? Hum! Changji, you also give me a good listen: you don't have to panic, I will find a way to reason. ”

"Lord ......"

"Shut up !!" The monkey is really "hairy", especially me, an outsider, who is still staring at the side, which makes him feel that he has no face.

"Let me ask you guys, since when did you stop taking military discipline seriously? As the saying goes, 'go up and down to work', Toranosuke's words and deeds are all imitating you, if you can be a good example? Would he do such a stupid thing? ”

“……”

The monkey pointed at Asano Nagamasa and Kuroda Kanwei, two generals.

"Why can't you understand me and obey my orders?"

When the monkey said this, he finally changed his tone, "I have repeatedly warned you before that being alone is just the courage of a horseman, and that the real war must be fought with the brain!" The real famous generals are all in the shogunate, strategizing and commanding the overall situation, when have you ever seen His Royal Highness the Inner Mansion go into battle in person and rush to the front line? Don't talk about you, I've only seen it once in the night of the barrel, and after you came to me, did I personally take a knife to the enemy......"

(Hehe, if I'm not mistaken, your martial arts are not optimistic enough at all, even if you go into battle, you are probably the first to be slaughtered.) ）

"Also, as I told you, the era of fighting with bows and arrows and naginatas is almost over, and now it is the age of iron cannons. Only a well-disciplined army can win, Nagayoshi, you have followed me to participate in the Battle of Nagashino, you should have seen this. I tell you so much, and you don't understand it at all? If you don't obey my orders, not to mention Toranosuke, it's Nagayoshi, Kankanwei, even if it's my younger brother Koichiro, I will never forgive me! Remember, Yuchai's retainers are not just a few of you! ”

“……”

"By the way, that guy Toranosuke, even if he comes back, the violation of military discipline is still unforgivable. To be dealt with by our military discipline is death, and to be defeated and killed in battle when encountering the enemy is also death. It's his own choice, it's none of your business, you know? ”

No one answered, Kuroda closed his mouth in amusement, and Asano Nagamasa, who was lying on the ground, bit his lip tightly, his shoulders trembled violently, it seemed that he was still a little unacceptable to such a cruel order to the monkey.

"Kan Guard, how old are you and these guys, help me take care of these young bastards. If anyone dares to disobey the order, there will be no mercy! ”

With that, the monkey ignored the two and strode out. Everyone was silent for a moment.

I feel a little embarrassed.

"Ah, the fire is going out, add firewood." To hide the embarrassment, I hurriedly gathered the firewood and added it to the bonfire, which was burning again.

"Hehe," said the monkey, taking a sip of the gourd-filled soju, and said to his father, "Envoy-sama, I made you laugh just now." ”

"No, Lord Chikuzen Mamoru is strict in governing the army, even if you are a relative, you are not partial, which is really admirable." ……

On the way back, I asked:

"Father, why don't you say something for Kato-sama, maybe you will win the favor of the Yushiba family? Besides, that Kato, the family crest used turned out to be 'aqua bellflower'! Hehe, maybe he still has something to do with our family? ”

"No, it doesn't matter at all, that Kato Toranosuke, he is a descendant of Fujiwara Michicho, he has always been Owari, the wealthy family of the Mikawa generation, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Toki clan was powerful, and for the protection of the three major countries of the strong tail, the Kato family was given the bellflower pattern as a family crest because he participated in the campaign of Lai Yuangong to defeat the Southern Dynasty."

"Father, you are so powerful, you know this......"

"Don't interrupt, let me finish speaking, decades ago, when the three princes of Dao attacked Owari, their family also participated in the battle, so I am no stranger to them......" The father said: "As outsiders, we are not suitable to meddle in the private affairs of their Yuchai family, besides, we can't add fuel to the fire, Lord Yuchai will be angry sooner or later." ”

"Anger? Why are you so sure? If that Kato Toranosuke died in battle, and Hashiba-sama was angry, then what was the point? ”

"Hehe, that's his own business with Hashiba Chikuzen Mamoru Hideyoshi, it has nothing to do with us, I'll go back to sleep first." He shrugged his shoulders and, ignoring my inner slander, went straight into the tent.

What kind of flower is this, I won't talk about it halfway through......

But then again, when I think about it, I always feel that things may really be as he said.

As a relative of the monkey, how could the monkey bear to let Toranosuke Kato die? Perhaps, he was just worried about me and my father's presence, and it was not good to make a move to protect Kato Toranosuke, so he could only pretend to maintain military discipline, but secretly, he was more anxious than Asano Nagamasa, and as soon as my father and I left, he would send someone immediately...... Well, it must be.

At this time, I heard a commotion at the gate of the camp.

"Kato-sama is back—"