Nagasaka Kuro Tadashi was in a very bad mood at the moment, neither the empty moonlight nor the silent streets could make him feel better. He brought the bottle he was holding to his lips and took a sip of it, and the inferior cloudy wine flowed from his mouth to his stomach, causing a burning sensation.

It's not that Nagasaka can't afford to drink better wine, but only this kind of ** feeling can fight against the cold weather in the Northeast, and if you want to live there, you have to keep fighting, and only the strongest men can survive.

My father's favorite drink was this kind of inferior turbid wine during his lifetime, and until the last moment of his life, whenever he was drunk, he would tell him about his hometown. "Is my hometown really that good?" He couldn't get an accurate answer from his drunken father, so he asked himself this in his heart, but he still couldn't get an answer.

When he left Mikawa, Nagasaka Kuro Tadashi was only four years old, and his hometown was only a vague shadow in his memory, and it seemed that the mountains there were very green and the water was green, unlike the Tohoku region, which was a dazzling white for most of the time.

As an important retainer of the Honda family, Nagasaka Kuro Tadashi's father came to the desolate Michinoku with the main family 18 years ago, but he knew that he would face cruel circumstances, so he had to leave his wife, the monk's infant second son, in his hometown.

From a very young age, Nagasaka Tadashi knew that his father had no hobbies other than drinking those shoddy liquors, so he saved up each copper plate and put it in a jar, and then entrusted it to his colleagues in Beijing to give it to his wife and children in his hometown. Of course, it would be nice to be able to get such a task in person, but because many people are in the same situation, such opportunities are often very competitive.

The image of his mother in Nagasaka Tadashi's heart is not so much a memory as an imagination, because the lack of maternal love since he was a child has become more and more intense. He had been longing to see his mother for as long as he could remember, but the journey from Mitsu to Mikawa was definitely not something that a child could bear, and it would take several years for the head of the family, Honda Tadamasa, to have a chance to go to Beijing.

After his father's death, Nagasaka Tadashi inherited the family business of 170 koku. And then became an important retainer under Honda Tadamasa, and the main reason was that he wanted to return to his hometown with his father's bones, and this time he was able to follow the lord Tadashi and the main hall Kiyotada to.

Finally able to see his mother's face, and finally to see his hometown after 18 years of absence, Nagasaka Tadashi hugged the burden wrapped in his father's ashes altar and 50 silver dollars, and his heart almost couldn't help jumping out.

But he didn't see his mother's smiling face, not even the old and gray face, but only a mound of loess on the hillside outside Okazaki City. "My mother died in October last year. I didn't have anyone who came back, so I couldn't bring a letter to Mutsu!" The younger brother, who has become a farmer, said as he wiped his tears.

"It was October last year, so isn't there only a two-month difference between me and my father?" Nagasaka clenched his teeth, feeling the blood all over his body rushing to the top of his head, producing a feeling of dizziness one after another.

Why is this the case? Nagasaka Tadashi asked himself like this, but every time he asked, a flame seemed to burn in his body.

"That field is what I'm cultivating now, and I can grow very delicious rice!" The younger brother pointed to the large rice fields under the mountain and said, looking very attached. "In the past, my mother used to say that those fields were originally our own!"

It was already November, and the crops had already been harvested, but a large amount of dense rice stubble could still be seen. Flocks of sparrows and crows hop and bounce in search of food. It's not hard to imagine what autumn looks like in gold. This is definitely a good field, a field to be proud of!

"It's not just this field! The mountain, the river, and the city are our own." Only Nagasaka Tadashi himself heard this roar in his heart.

Didn't stay long in my hometown. After completing the funeral for his parents, Nagasaka Tadashi gave the 50 silver dollars to his younger brother and left Okazaki, catching up with the Tokugawa family near Kiyoshu. Hastily answering the greetings of his colleagues, he plunged headlong into his room, and looked fixedly at the roof and started to raise.

Seeing the rich mountains and rivers of his hometown, he thought of the snow-covered desolate fields of the Northeast, and he didn't know what he would do if he continued to stay in Okazaki!

"Ha~~!" He poured another mouthful of turbid wine into his mouth, and the burning sensation only made Nagasaka Tadashi's nerves even more excited. The north wind on the winter night blows across his cheeks, and the biting cold is so exciting.

The number of people in the process of entering Beijing is very strict, and there is not much flexibility in when and where to arrive. Naturally, the Tokugawa family did not make any misleading moves on their own, so this year it was Osaka-Kyoto-Nara.

"This is Kyoto!" Nagasaka Tadashi, who had never left Mutsu since he was an adult, was already amazed at Mikawa's wealth. The luxury of Osaka and the elegance of Kyoto dazzled him even more, and reminded him even more of the wind and snow of Tohoku, his father's ashes, and his mother's low grave. "Why is this happening?" He couldn't help but ask himself this question over and over again, and this inquiry had turned into a torment of the soul.

The Tokugawa family is a famous family of Genji; At that time, Qingkang Gong was known as a hero who "can win the world at the age of 30"; The Samurai of Mikawa were not depressed under the cruel oppression of Suruga Imagawa; In the face of the Takeda army, the Tokugawa family also fought bravely more than once. But how could everything be like this, and why did the arrogant Samurai of Mikawa live in such humiliation as they do today?

What is the Qing Clan? Why can a small businessman get the world? Even those who were sent to the northeast could command the small daimyo of the banners. If such a thing could be allowed, then what was the philosophy that the samurai had adhered to for thousands of years?

Nagasaka felt that he had seen more in the past three months than in the past 22 years combined, and he had lost count of the doubts he had, but he wisely did not mention them to anyone. But these questions are like poisonous snakes that come out and bite his heart in the dead of night.

He only realized when he raised his hand again. It turned out that the flask was empty, so there were only three drops of wine poured into the mouth this time. I wanted to throw the flask out, but the rope on it was tied to my little finger.

"Alas~~~!" Nagasaka let out a long sigh, feeling that he was getting more and more depressed, and even Suchang's favorite cloudy wine had no effect. It turns out that he doesn't like to think about problems very much, but unfortunately lately, there have been a lot of various questions pouring into his head.

"Where is this?" Another cold wind blew through his mind, and he looked around.

This seems to be a street corner. It seems to be out of the city ahead, and in the distance it seems to be a low-lying river beach. He felt his legs go limp, and he sat down in a corner and began to remember why he had come back here.

It should have started the night before yesterday, at a gathering of the tokugawa family, Naomasa Ii, Mamotsuna Watanabe, and Hanzo Hattori, three people were rewarded, but it was not the head of the family or His Royal Highness Ieyasu, who had abdicated, but the Seishi Kiyoshi clan who had been nesting in the mountains on the edge of Sakai Town all day and night.

Speaking from the heart, there are a lot of good things in the world about this person, and they can be said quite a lot. What "stabilizing the world" and "maintaining the royal family" are. But there is no war, and the people live better, which they have seen all the way from the northeast.

However, Nagasaka Tadashi still has a deep dislike for this person, a mixture of contempt and hatred, which is not uncommon, and there are even many people who harbor this sentiment among the samurai of the Tokugawa family. Although no one said it in public, there was hardly a Tokugawa samurai who did not confirm it in their hearts - the Hoyoshi family will always be the enemy of the Tokugawa family!

There is no doubt that any samurai must love horses, and warhorses, weapons, and armor are all guarantees for the samurai's meritorious achievements, and they may be able to save a life at a critical moment. It is naturally an honorable thing to be rewarded for your military exploits as a samurai, but how can that person be rewarded?

Nagasaka Tadashi couldn't help but think of his hometown and that cruel Tohoku again.

The hatred in his chest naturally burned again.

There were also differences of opinion among the important ministers of the Tokugawa family about the reward given the night before. The controversy over this matter continues to grow. Even now, there was such a "point" unpleasantness!

It's because of the reward of war horses, Naomasa Ii, Mamoru Watanabe, and Hanzo Hattori will ...... early tomorrow morning. Oh. I should say that I will return to Kyoto early this morning, and then go to Katsura Kawaguchi Castle to bring back those damn horses!

Those little daimyo had left one after another a few days ago, and Nara's work had actually been basically over, so some Tokugawa retainers had gathered together last night, but somehow there was a discussion about whether or not to accept the reward of the Shisei clan as a war horse.

Others such as Tadamasa Honda, Tadamasa Torii, and Ieji Sakai were firmly opposed, believing that they should not accept the rewards of the stars under any circumstances.

Watanabe Moritsuna and Hattori Hanzo thought they should accept it, because while each of the three of them received a war horse, the Tokugawa family, who were the head of the family, were also rewarded with six horses. If they don't accept it, it's not just a matter of the three of them, as if the Tokugawa family deserves this kind of commendation and praise. Isn't it a disgrace in front of the world's great names?

Naomasa Ii and Masano Honda have another view, the current Shogunate of the Stars is in full swing, and it must not be frictional with it because of such a trivial matter, and everything is better in the long run. However, this statement of theirs was opposed by the two previous factions, and was the honor of the samurai just a "trivial matter"?

The controversy became more and more intense, and no one could convince anyone for a while......