"You're back so fast!" Ikeda muttered. "I thought you would have to come back in a few days! Why did you arrive so soon to see the messenger of the Lord's order? ”

"See!" Hideyoshi Hashiba also sat down on the edge of the brazier, stretching out two hands that had been frozen to a blue-gray color and roasting on them. "We were actually done and were hurrying back, and on the way we met the messenger who asked us to return. I thought something big had happened, and it took less than two days to arrive, and I didn't want to come back, but the lord just let us camp in place, since there was nothing to urge, what are you doing in such a hurry? It caused me to travel continuously in such cold weather...... Ahh As he spoke, he sneezed several times in succession.

As he spoke, Asano Nagamasa greeted me indiscriminately, and he searched everywhere in the tent, and after a few busy work, he only found a few pieces of dim sum, and unwillingly, he took out the ribs around his waist and cut a large piece of it on the wild goose in Ikeda Hengxing's hand. The other young man, whom he didn't know, stayed there without saying a word, not even finding a stool to sit on.

"Why didn't you see that?" It may be that he has eaten almost enough, and Ikeda Tsuneko is not too concerned about losing some of the "loot". "The lord can't stay here anymore and is ready to withdraw his troops, so he just 'rubs the troops' together because of this, and nothing else. It's you, aren't you going to chase after Dr. Jiro Kurimura's people? Why did you come back on your own? ”

"It's over!" Although Hideyoshi Hashiba had a monkey face that was red from the cold, he still couldn't hide his smug look. “…… The more than 300 people in Kururi Village were almost all wiped out, and his own head was taken off by Toranosuke! Except for a few remnants of the party that slipped through the net, everything else has been cleared, and Wu Ao has also been burned clean. It didn't make much sense to spend any more time for those few people, so I led my troops back! ”

"Good job, buddy!" Excited with some excitement, Ikeda threw the remaining bare bones into the brazier, and the grease on them caused the charcoal to immediately burst into a red flame. "Look at what Shibata guys have to say this time! That stupid guy is still wandering around in the mountains to the east, but Dr. Genzo Matsuda, who was being pursued by him, actually attacked Lin Tongsheng's camp at night five days ago, and now he may be hiding not far away! ”

"How can such a thing happen?" Hideyoshi Hashiba and the others were obviously stunned for a moment, obviously because they had been in a hurry and had not heard about our situation here. "Here...... Is the situation bad here? ”

"That depends on what you say!" Ikeda shrugged his shoulders absently. "It's not a big loss, but the constant harassment is a big blow to morale! Suzuki's heavily guarded Saga Castle seems to be impossible to capture for a while, and there are small groups of people harassing it from time to time, and the baggage team has already been attacked several times, and it will be too late to withdraw when the grain route is cut off! ”

"No wonder ......" Hearing this, the "monkey" also gloomed, and whispered silently in his mouth. "No wonder we were repeatedly told to set up the camp, it turned out to be ......"

"But this time you're good enough to show your face, and the troops who went out haven't heard of who can win!" Ikeda patted Hideyoshi on the shoulder in admiration, but I thought he was trying to wipe the oil off his hands. "Tell me how you did it, and I'll go out and create public opinion for you when I go back!"

I can't say that there is no element of luck here, but ......" was praised and "Monkey" became excited again, apparently noticing Ikeda's small movements. "We did plan it out very well! Dr. Jiro Kurimura began to hide in Tibet to make us unconscious, but we were blocked by several of our ambushes, and finally we ran with them all the way to the nest, although a fierce battle can not be said to be cutting the grass and eradicating the roots, but in the short term, don't want to make waves again! ”

"You can! What are you good at......" I flattered him inside and out, but my eyes fell on the young man's face. Although this person is not handsome, he looks very upright, and he gives people the impression of being dignified, especially his eyes are as sharp as a sword, and he seems to pierce people's hearts unconsciously. Originally, with his appearance and temperament, this kind of look can be said to make the image of the whole person almost perfect, but for some reason, he deliberately suppressed this gaze, and only stared at it when others were not paying attention, which made me feel that this person was always watching other people's privacy behind his back.

"You don't know each other yet! I forgot to introduce ......" Seeing that I was paying attention to the young man, Hideyoshi Hashiba remembered what to do. "This is Kuroda Kanbei, who was originally a retainer of the Harima Kotera family, and now he has been transferred to the main family and assigned by the lord to me as a god! His insight in strategy is indeed extraordinary, and he has the greatest credit for successfully pacifying the Kuritura family this time, repeatedly correctly judging the enemy's movements and arranging them in advance, so that we can complete the task so quickly! ”

"You're Kuroda Kanbei?!" Although I suppressed it for a while, everyone still saw my surprise, I didn't expect this genius military advisor who was known as the Takenaka Hanbei to appear in front of me so quickly. It seems that history has accelerated the process a little, at least in the west, but I don't know how much of it is because of my connections.

"In ShimoKuroda Takataka, meet His Highness the Stars and Lord Ikeda!" He walked over and saluted me and Ikeda Hengxing respectfully, and immediately bowed his head after looking at me in surprise. "Please forgive me for being rude, have you had the honor of meeting His Highness the Stars Soldiers before you go down? Why don't you have any impression at the next level? Probably quite confident in his memory, he simply asked directly when he thought about it to no avail.

"No, never!" I have returned to normalcy at this point, and it is good for me to keep an eye on such a person, and there is no need for him to keep an eye on me at all times. "I've just admired Kuroda-sama's talents, and I didn't expect the Kodera family to be willing to send my lord over!"

"But ......" Kuroda Kanbei is still a little strange, he has only participated in the entanglement between the Kodera family and some small and medium-sized forces in the vicinity before, and it seems that his reputation should not spread so far.

"You don't have to care...... Ikeda interrupted his inquiry, uninterested in such a question. He's always been so divine, if you really have it, you can bear it! ”

"Yes......" Although he was still full of doubts, Kuroda Kanbei had no choice but to stop there.

"Since Lord Yuchai successfully completed the mission this time, then we have to celebrate! Hurry up and get some wine to be prepared, how about we have a drink? Ikeda rubbed his hands together excitedly, the oppressive atmosphere of the past few days had suffocated him.

"Good! Right now, right now! This proposal was immediately met with an enthusiastic response from Asano Nagamasa, who seemed to have exhausted and hungry from the continuous march.

"Drinking? This...... It doesn't seem so good! "Monkey" looked hesitant. When the herald of the lord came just now, he repeatedly told him that the situation has been very tense recently, and he must be careful and vigilant, especially at night, and he must be in good spirits! As governors, not only do we not lead by example, but we also drink......"

"Hey, hey, hey, that's what you don't know!" Ikeda laughed slyly. "You've just arrived, and you don't know anything yet! Let me ask you, how long have you been on the road? ”

"It's been a day and a night!" "Monkey" was asked a little inexplicably by him, and didn't seem to understand what it had to do with drinking.

"That's it!" Ikeda Hengxing said proudly: "I guess you are already sleepy, cold and hungry now, so you should drink a little wine and get your body out of the way, and then hurry up and go back to sleep!" You're going to wake up a little bit by the time the lights are in the hands, and you'll just get up in the middle of the night! ”

"Will the Saga people definitely come?" Asano Nagamasa asked puzzled. "Since you know that they will come, why don't you set up an ambush, why are you always so passively beaten?"

"Coming is coming, they come almost every day!" Ikeda shook his head and grinned. "But I don't know where they came from, or who they're going to fight! First, there are not many of them each time, second, there is no pattern to where they fight, third, they may not necessarily get closer, maybe they will shoot a burst of iron cannons at the brightly lit tent in the dark and then withdraw, of course, they may also touch in and set a few fires to steal a few horses or something, but who can say for sure? So everyone has to spend so much, anyway, I've already divided people into black and white classes. But it's safer to talk about it during the day, so I want you to take a break! ”

"Something like this...... It's a head-scratcher! As soon as they heard this, the newcomers couldn't do anything.

"Ah Xue!" I shouted outside the tent, "Tell me to go down and prepare a banquet, and I will feast a few adults!" ”

"That'...... We're in for trouble! After thinking about it for a while, Hideyoshi Hashiba no longer insisted.

"It's all old friends, so you don't have to come to this 'fake trick'!" Ikeda pouted disapprerovingly.

At the following banquet, everyone's mood gradually rose, and although they didn't dare to drink more because of the arrangements in the evening, the topic became very broad and in-depth. I carefully tested Kuroda Kanbei and found that his resourcefulness was indeed unfathomable! Of course, I had to be very careful with such a person, and if I was not careful, he might detect my intentions. All the topics were brought up first, and I just dealt with them in a casual way.

According to my preliminary estimate, Kuroda Kanbei's skills should not be under the Takenaka Hanbei, but this person may not have learned to restrain his edge because he has not suffered many setbacks. Historically, he seems to have suffered from this, and by the time he realized it, others were already wary of him!

It's really tiring to be so careful, and when they're all gone, I've lost my spirit, and now I really want to sleep.

"Lord!" After the attendants removed the remnants, Ah Xue whispered to me, "Ishikawa-sama has returned, do you want to see him now?" ”