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When the main character writes the prayer in the previous chapter, Thanksgiving has not yet appeared......

Two days after Thanksgiving, the Yoshikawa army spotted a formidable enemy on Iwami's side and on the way, when in fact, the Akechi army had already made a detour to the west when the enemy was about to discover their marching route.

They were not far from the campsite and went up the mountain. The road is steep and winding until it reaches halfway up the mountain. It is a branch road, and a fork in the road crosses the belly of the mountain.

The wise army braved the cold wind to go up the fork in the road, above the unfathomable barren mountains, below the unfathomable ravines, from a distance, a huge black shadow, not afraid of the cold of the high mountains and old pines standing upright, the rushing spring in the valley murmuring.

On the other side of the ravine, there is a high mountain towering into the sky, and the mountain on the right faces each other.

The entire belly of the mountain contains many large and small horseshoe-shaped belliacs, and the footprints of the ashigaru and the horseshoe prints of the samurai are arranged in succession to form the outline of the belly of the mountain.

The path in the belly of the mountain connects the edge of the horses' hooves. Walk from the edge of the first horseshoe, walk to the end of the hoof, you can see the second horseshoe end in front, and bend to the right from the end of the hoof to make a small semicircle, so enter the dividing point of the two horseshoe, turn from the dividing point to the left, and start to bend from the edge of the second hoof to the right and cross, hit a semicircle, to the second dividing point where the two hooves meet, and then turn a small bend to the left, so that the person enters a new horseshoe shape.

The infinite length of the human belt, on the belly of the mountain where the hooves of countless horses were arranged, walked continuously and slowly, sometimes through the shade of the trees, sometimes across the bridge, and sometimes torn by the thorns on the side of the road, the horses' hooves seemed to be endless, and the road was also bent and winding, and the houses could not be seen, the barking of dogs could not be heard, the clothes were wet, and the mountain breeze blew on the faces, although they were all tired, there was no other way but to walk.

In such a harsh environment, the officers and soldiers were cold and tired, and even sitting in the sedan chair felt a little unbearable.

[In the palace, you notify all the soldiers and walk another ten miles...... Oh no, twenty miles, it's going to get dark soon, just set up camp on the mountain to rest, tonight's night walk is canceled......]

[Ah, my lord, I won't be walking at night tonight, so ...... the battle plan that was originally made]

I don't know if it's because of the warmth of his body from walking outside the sedan chair, or because he already has a strong physique as a ninja, Okuda Keizuna's voice is no different from usual, just as heavy, not at all like a cold wind.

I don't have much explanation for his melancholy.

[I'm afraid everyone is very uncomfortable now, and they can't fight with all their strength like this...... That's it, do as I say, and I'll leave the night guards to you ninjas...... By the way, tell the soldiers to pay attention to the brightness of the campfire when baking the fire at night, and don't invite the mandrill demons in the forest. 】

[Hehe, I see. 】

Skipping my last boring joke, Okuda Keixuna went to work.

Everyone marched.

I don't know how long later, I suddenly sat down in front of me, and the word came from that side, I knew that a small mountain bridge had been broken by a horse riding team, and it was being urgently repaired.

I saw that I couldn't leave for a while. The people in the back had no choice but to sit down.

As soon as they sat down, the sleepiness of the soldiers could no longer be concealed, some yawned tiredly, some rested their elbows on their knees, and snoozed with their weapons; Some whispered, the veterans secretly used short smoking guns and inferior tobacco leaves to light a fire to smoke and keep warm, and the recruits who did not smoke were cold and envious, so they pulled down their faces to please the old-timers [looking for smoke], and the latter also happily let them smoke a puff or two. The wounded and sick on horseback were in a dilemma, but they did not dismount, and their teeth were constantly fighting, so the military doctors on one side had to cover him with quilts, and some kindly stuffed him with a hot water belt.

In general, everyone is a soldier, and they are all in good health, although it is in the cold wind, it seems that it is difficult to resist only [tired].

The bridge was repaired, the front walked, and the rear were afraid of losing contact, so they stood up without waiting for the front to open the due distance, and the team could not walk, and after several small pauses, it returned to the speed it should have.

After two or three miles of walking, the horseshoe-shaped mountains were exhausted, and the road slowly descended from the belly of the mountain, and at the foot of the mountain, there was the bottom of the gully, in which there were many large and small stones, and the crowd advanced around the left or right side of the big stone, like a dragon dance.

For some reason, the front stopped again, and Hosokawa Tadashi saw his old father trembling on the horse, and he could not bear it anymore, so he raised his voice and shouted angrily:

[Don't grind anymore on a cold day, hurry up ahead!] The people behind us are drinking the northwest wind! 】

One after another, it passed from the back to the front, and the sound passed through the wires like the electricity of the afterlife, but although the sound wave passed, the front still did not move forward.

[Okay, ...... with Ichiro]

Hosokawa Fujitaka was old and sophisticated, and he was much better than his own son in dealing with people, so he hurriedly persuaded the latter not to be rude, but the latter ignored it, and sent his own flag book to the front, urging him to move forward quickly.

The first one went, and the second one went, and the team was still the same, with more frozen feet and emptier stomachs, and it was time to delay dinner if they continued to grind like this.

Although Hosokawa Tadashi grew up in a noble scholarly family, he did not inherit the cultivation and cultivation of his ancestors at all, and when he saw that there was still no movement in front of him, he rode a horse in the ranks and shouted in no order:

【Go!】 Walk! Why don't you go! 】

One after another, from urging to scolding, Ma also raised his head and opened his mouth and shouted, and finally even the soldiers of the Hosokawa family shouted after their young master.

Although Hosokawa Fujitaka stopped it, he stopped it here, and it got up again, and the sound of screaming and the sound of stopping screaming made the screaming even stronger.

The soldiers are not afraid of anything anyway, the first person to shout is the young master, and when the lord and the general are punished, they can't take their turn, so it's nothing to worry about...... Besides, they have long been impatient, and they shouted how happy.

In the end, Hosokawa Fujitaka had no choice but to give an order, whoever [made noise for no reason] had to slap his mouth, and everyone obediently shut up.

But although they did not call again, they were very anxious.

If you want to rest but are afraid of going ahead, you want to go ahead and don't move, so you have to resign yourself to fate.

[Yoichiro, you lead the team forward, I'll go to the front to see what's going on...... If you dare to cause trouble for me again, don't think I'll let you go easily!! 】

And the old man Hosokawa was burned with a sense of responsibility to deal with the new situation, he stepped forward from the side of the road, looked at the end, and walked for a long time, and a continuous voice came from the front:

[Go, go, go......]

The team gradually stretched forward with this voice, and the old man Hosokawa breathed a sigh of relief at this time, as if he had drunk a cup of hot tea in his stomach, and the full anger that was stimulated by his [bear child] just now disappeared immediately, and he walked a long way, and when he saw a person turning around, he realized that there must be something wrong, and asked:

[Who?] 】

The man who turned back looked at him for a moment and replied:

【Whoa!】 It's Lord Bingbu. 】

He immediately stood,

[I am the escort Ryuzaki Dahe next to the master, I went to the front just now, and I saw the stretcher, the food burden, the luggage burden, the person in charge of these things are lying on the road to sleep, sleeping outside on such a cold day will kill people, so I have driven them away. 】

【Escort ......】

Old man Hosokawa glanced at the young man a few times, and the latter didn't look like a powerful samurai at all.

[Yes, I've seen Lord Bingbu in this battle before, but you can't remember me, my lord. 】

[Uh, that's it...... So, have you seen the Vanguard? 】

[The vanguard doesn't know how far they've come, I'm here waiting for the people of the Shinsengumi.] 】

Shinsengumi? Could it be that this imp is still a powerful character?

Although there are questions, Old Man Hosokawa doesn't want to ask too much:

[Okay, since that's the case, the team is here, you just wait here.] 】

[Wait, Lord Bingbu, it just so happens that the master also has something to look for you, you can go with me to meet the master.] 】

[Okay.] 】

Speaking of that over there, the team of the Hosokawa family can finally walk happily for a while. The winding and concave ravines still extend forward infinitely, as if they were very slim.

After a break, he stopped again, and Hosokawa Tadashi, who had little patience, asked people to give way while walking.

After walking for a long time, there is a narrow gully road, the mountains on both sides are spread out to the left and right, in the middle is a large sand flat, in front of the sand flat, there is a small hill, the left and right of the hill, and it is a ditch.

The road stretched from the gully to the sand ping, and then it became more and more blurred, and before it reached the side of the hill, it completely lost the trace of the road. Hosokawa Tadashi walked here, and saw many people falling to the ground in all directions, snoring and sleeping, he woke them up angrily, and asked sharply:

[Who are your subordinates, and why do you lie in this place and sleep without leaving? 】

【Back to ......】

These people didn't seem to know Hosokawa Tadashi, so they finally had to look at the family crest behind him and said bitterly:

【Back to ...... Hosokawa-sama, we can't find our way. 】

【Front?】 】

[Yes, we didn't leave before we went to bed, but when we woke up, we didn't know where to go. 】

Hosokawa Zhongxing scolded, so he sent two people to find the way from the left and right of the hill, and the result of the report was that there were traces of people and horses on both sides, and he had no choice but to take these dozens of [foolish eggs] with him, and walked from the left, after more than a mile, when he reached the end of the hill, he saw that there was also a ditch on the right side of the hill, and he would be on a gorge, so he realized the reason why there were people and horses passing on both sides.

So he asked Qiben to go back to the junction to set up a road sign, and he and the team continued to move forward, and walked for half an hour before they entered the east bank of the Xiangchuan River from the south to the north, and went up along the river, about seven or eight miles, and it was already six or seven o'clock that night.

At this time, Hosokawa Fujitaka and I temporarily set up camp in a few villages two or three miles away from the east bank of the Aigawa River according to the map and the guide's temporary guidance.

To the east of the villages, there are hills running north-south, and when the Wise Army camped, they had sent direct guards to the east of the villages.

(When I was writing this chapter, I suddenly thought of the past when I traveled to Sichuan and climbed the mountains tiringly...... ）