To our gratification, the popularity of the Li family in the Oda family is surprisingly good. He was born with Nobunaga's small surname and served by Nobunaga's side for more than eight years, and many people knew him. Although he was usually very aggressive, he was a bold man, brave in battle, and especially outstanding in marksmanship, and was an excellent samurai. The Maeda family, where he is located, has a good relationship with the other major families of Owari, so not only Niwa Nagahide, who is a good friend, came forward, but even the Shibata Katsu family praised the Toshi family for their bravery and loyalty in front of Nobunaga. Even the gang of people in the black mother's clothes, although they have a righteous dispute with the people in the red mother's clothes recently, they are probably the majority of the people who sympathize with the Li family. In this case, Maeda Toshiya finally saved his surname.

However, after all, he violated the laws of the Oda family and the precepts of Nobunaga himself, so punishment was inevitable. At the end of the first month, Nobunaga officially announced the punishment of the Toshi family: they were expelled from the Oda family and were not allowed to continue living in Kiyoshu. The rest of the family shall not take him in, otherwise he will be punished with the same crime.

Of course, it was a blessing to be able to save his surname, but in this way, the Maeda Toshiya family couldn't even go back to their own barren town, and it became a question of whether they could even stay in Owari. When I asked him what he was going to do in the future, Maeda shook his head gloomily, rubbing the silver hairpin he had taken from Ami.

"Otherwise," I suddenly thought of Koroku Wasuka and the others, "I have a good relationship with all of you, and if I introduce you to stay for a while, they will definitely accept it." ”

"But didn't Kawanami take refuge in Saito Yoshiryu? Although I have left the Oda family, I will never be in the company of the enemies of the Oda family. Maeda Toshiya shook his head with a determined expression.

"Don't worry about that," I explained, "although Kawanami took refuge in Saito Yoshiryu, they were not taken very seriously, so they didn't even send hostages, and they still maintained a lot of reading power. In addition, Kawanomi's friends are very mixed, and they don't completely tear their faces with either side, so I was able to bring Fujihachi back last time. ”

"In that case...... Then bother you. Maeda nodded.

Early in the morning of the third day, the Li family put on a hat, carried a small wooden box, and set off with a spear. He had a letter of introduction on him, which I wrote to Matsukura Castle to Maeno Nagayasu. After gaining the territory, Koroku Beesuka will definitely move out of the mountains and build a castle on the new territory. However, due to the hostility between the two sides, the news was not so smooth, and I didn't know where he was now, so it was most convenient to introduce the Ri family to Matsukura Castle.

Leaving Cheongju this time was a huge blow to the Maeda Toshiya, and he only informed the Sawaki family and us, and it was Yoshiyuki Sawaki and a few people from my family who saw him off. At this time, Ah Song was already pregnant, and she was the last thing the Li family could let go. Before leaving, the Li family solemnly entrusted her to me and Yu Jia.

"Your Royal Highness of the Li family, the concubine is very willing to take care of Mrs. Asong...... However, Madame is pregnant, so it seems safer to return to Wasteland City, right? Lord Oda didn't forbid Mrs. Amatsu! ”

The Li family glanced at Ah Song and sighed helplessly: "I think so in the next, but Ah Song is too stubborn." has been like this since she was a child, when her mother took her to Wasteland City, it was not her mother who abandoned her, but her mother who remarried...... This time, she did this again, saying that since the family was separated, she couldn't make trouble anymore...... Therefore, I had to ask Mrs. Yujia to take more care of me. Maeda Toshiya said, bending down and bowing.

"Don't worry," I looked at Ah Song, who pursed his lips, "I will treat Ah Song as a sister." ”

Listening to my words, Ah Song's lips pursed even tighter, and the Li family nodded gratefully. Xiao Xia's head was originally lowered, but then he suddenly snorted softly, lifted the corner of his eye and glanced at me.

Despite reluctance, the Toshi family finally embarked on the journey, and our group returned to the castle. My friend is gone, and life has to go on.

The opening of the store is in Zhang Luo, and a batch of radish kimchi in the early stage has been out of the urn, and the next thing is the decoration in the store. And I've been busy with the affairs of the Li family. It wasn't until everything was ready, with Yu Jia's request, that I took the time to find a wooden sign and wrote three Chinese characters for "Sorrel House" and hung it on the door, which was much more conspicuous than the house name sign with the word "Kira" written on it.

Before Nobunaga's verdict against the Toshiya came out, the store had already officially opened at home. However, apart from a few acquaintances and close neighbors, no one noticed the small shop at all. In this era, including the current Ming Dynasty, everyone is doing business and advocating time-honored brands, holding the purpose of "the fragrance of wine is not afraid of deep alleys", so there is no fanfare to carry out publicity. With such a social climate, it's not convenient for me to be too ostentatious, otherwise it might be self-defeating.

But in this way, business is not very good. Because it is a new thing, the price is much more expensive than ordinary radish sticks, and at first only families who have tried kimchi will be happy to patronize it. However, these kimchi are all delivered by Yu Jia, and the relationship with our family is naturally relatively close, and the result is that when they come to buy it, even Yu Jia is embarrassed to accept their money.

The day after the Li family left, I listened to Yu Jia's report, and my heart became even more depressed. Her voice grew lower, and my brow tightened.

"That's not going to work," I shook my head, "I'm completely losing money!" ”

"It's the concubine who is useless......" Yu Jia bowed his head and apologized.

"It's okay with you," I put my hands on her shoulders and put her in a straight position, "let's figure it out together!" ”

"Yes!" Yuga bowed his head.

"By the way, who is the most popular in Cheongju?" I asked.

"Huh?" Yujia opened his mouth and stared at me blankly.

"It's about talking about who talks about the most!" I'll put it another way.

"Lord Oda, of course! By the way, there is also the princess of the city, the sister of the lord of the country. Although she is only thirteen years old, everyone says that she is already an amazing beauty. I don't know who will be so blessed to marry the princess back home......" Speaking of this, Yu Jia's expression was flying, obviously a topic of interest to her.

Gossip, sure enough, women of any era and country are inevitable.

"Then let's do it, tomorrow we will send some sorrel to the lord's family for a few days in a row, and then suddenly we will not send it. At that time, Lord Hou was used to eating mouths, and he would definitely ask us for it again. Then, we hyped it up, and the fame of sorrel was definitely beaten. "I thought about it and said.

"Oops! Your Highness is so smart! Yujia was very happy to agree.

"So, how do you give the sorrel to the lord? If you want to send it directly to the North Castle Tower, it wouldn't be too decent, right? I scratched my head.

"You can ask Yuji for help." Yu Jia suggested.

"Who is Yuji? Are you familiar with us? I asked rhetorically.

"It's the one who came to visit with His Royal Highness the Li family a while ago! Looks like a monkey. Isn't he in charge of purchasing Oda's kitchen? ”

"It turned out to be him!" I came back to my senses all of a sudden, isn't it Kinoshita Toyoshiro or Toyotomi Hideyoshi!

I have to say that Yu Jia's suggestion is very good. However, even though I have seen many famous people in the Warring States, I still feel very absurd at the thought of asking Feng Taikaku, who ruled the whole of the country, to help us deliver sorrel, and I almost can't help but laugh out loud.

"Your Highness, what's wrong with you?" Maybe seeing that my face was distorted, and my face was very strange, Yu Jia hurriedly asked.

"Ahem!" I covered my mouth and coughed twice, adjusted my mood by the way, and then sat down and explained to Yu Jia, "Your idea is very good, please give it to the monkey about sending sorrel, remember to pay others!" ”

"Yes, the concubine remembered." Yuga nodded.

……，……

In this era of unpretentious simplicity, my simple marketing method has been a huge success. After three days of free supply, and then two days of sorrel, Nobunaga had someone call him over.

"Monkey, I remember a few days ago there was a sour and crispy radish dish, which tasted pretty good, why haven't you had it for the past two days? Did you embezzle the money? Kindness? ”

"The lord has been wronged! The sorrel a few days ago was given to the villain by the Kira family, but they didn't deliver it in the past two days, and there was no such expense in the vegetable money, so ......" Yuyoshi reported to Nobunaga, almost kneeling on the ground.

"Sorrel? Kira's family? Is it the sorrel made by Xuanjing's family? Oda Nobunaga asked.

"Yes, it's His Highness Xuanjing."

"Okay, in the future, you go to his house every day to ask for some, and just say that I said it!" Oda Nobunaga commanded. Since the retainers have the will to be filial, he is naturally willing to accept it, and he takes the initiative to accept it.

"But......" said Ji wanted to speak and stopped.

"Why, can't you do this little thing?" Nobunaga raised an eyebrow.

"Reply to the lord! That is true...... His Royal Highness Xuanjing originally asked his family to open a vegetable shop, wanting to make this kind of food in exchange for money to supplement the family, but no one has ever bought it, and he has been losing money...... His Royal Highness Xuanjing is about to close the shop. ”

"That's right," Nobunaga touched his mustache, "Well, it's a pity not to make such a delicious sorrel...... Monkey, you go and talk to Xuanjing, let his family continue to do it. Also, by the way, make up for the money for the dishes from the previous days! ”

"Yes!" He bowed to the ground and said goodbye and left. Then he left Kiyoshu Castle and told us about the meeting and Nobunaga's words.

"In this case, it's already half the battle," I clapped my hands, "Yuji, there really is a set!" ”

"This is the vegetable ......money that the lord asked the villain to make up," Yue Ji took out a string of Yongle money from his arms and handed it to me.

I took it, shook it in my hand, and handed it to him.

"His Highness Xuanjing? It's ......" he raised a monkey face and looked at me quizzically.

"The money for the dishes has indeed been received. However, this time thanks to Yu Ji, so this money should be taken as a thank you gift below, please Yu Ji must accept it. I said with a smile.

"His Royal Highness Xuanjing is really ......," said Ji Shen Shi, "The villain will be ashamed." ”

"There's something else I want to ask for Ji." I continued.

"Your Royal Highness Xuanjing, don't be polite, just tell me if you have something! Also, it's called a villain monkey, and His Royal Highness the Li family is called a villain. Yu Ji agreed.

"Then please spread the word about the lord's request to continue serving sorrel in the town, and the wider the scope, the better. Three days later, another thank-you gift was served. ”

"Your Highness Xuanjing, please rest assured, the villain will definitely live up to his trust!" Yu Ji bowed his head, then got up and jumped away.

Looking at his back, Yu Jia couldn't help but laugh: "Oh, this guy named Yuji really looks like a monkey!" ”

"Yes, I can see him like this......" I nodded, and secretly added the next sentence in my heart: - this crossing is already worth the fare.

"His Royal Highness seems to value him very much, and he has always been very polite." Yuga looked at me with some confusion.

"Well, he's a reassuring person. If he helps, it will work very well. "I'm confident. This is Kinoshita Toyoshiro's ability, after his official appearance, whether it is internal affairs or problems in combat, many times he can solve them by various formal or informal means, and it seems that he is a person who is naturally good at solving problems. That's why he was deeply used by Nobunaga, starting from the lowest starting point, leapfrogging the many generals of his family, and striding to the highest position. Of course, this also made him develop a shortcoming, that is, everything starts from the current use value, and the employment of people is forward, not backward. Kuroda Takataka was full of resentment because of this, Toyotomi Hideji was punished for this, and the Hokumassho cooperated with Tokugawa Ieyasu because of this, and his military generals switched to Ieyasu because of this, and the Toyotomi regime quickly disappeared.

However, at the moment, my position is still several levels above him, and if I need help with something, please ask him to be a good choice. In that case, things can be done smoothly, and he will be rewarded or appreciated for it. For example, if I preach in the town, I will definitely not be as effective as him. As soon as I thought of this, I seemed to see him vividly describing to the crowd around him the interesting story of Nobunaga's habit of eating sorrel and asking me to continue serving it. Then, thinking of his monkey face that made all kinds of strange appearances, I couldn't help but laugh again. I have to admit that there is indeed a strange charm to that face.

Now it's time to wait for the harvest.

As I expected, the business of the sorrel shop soon picked up, and a large number of people came to taste our sorrel dishes either curiously or following the trend, so that they were so busy that they had almost no time to spare. To enhance the effect, I made a signboard with the words "Oda Country's Lord Himself Promises to Serve Sorrel" and erected it next to the door.

Since such a sign is erected, it is naturally difficult to collect money for the sorrel of the Oda family. After all, I'm tantamount to treating Oda Nobunaga as an advertising spokesperson, so naturally I have to pay some endorsement fees. There is also Yu Ji, who works so hard to promote the product for me, so naturally he has to give a thank you gift. So on the third day, I called him and gave him 5 Yongle money. He looked at the large string of copper coins, and seemed to be a little incredulous, so he didn't take them for a long time.

"Take it, it's a well-deserved thank you!" I put the money in his hands.

Yue Ji took the money and fell to the ground: "Thank you for the generous gift of His Royal Highness Xuanjing!" Next time you have a place where you can find a villain, please try to tell me as much as possible! ”

"That's it. By the way, go back and talk to the lord, otherwise, if you get 5 yuan out of thin air, it may cause trouble to you. ”

"Yes!" Then he left happy. 5 yuan is indeed a lot for him as a small leader of miscellaneous labor, which is equivalent to his quarter's salary. He certainly had reason to rejoice.

Of course, I was the happiest. Just pay the share of sorrel that is often eaten, you can ask Oda Nobunaga to make a product endorsement; For less than 6 Kan Yongle money, you can ask Toyotomi Hideyoshi to do product promotion. This matter is going to be transmitted to modern times, Matsushita Konosuke will be speechless and choked, looking up at the starry sky at a ninety-degree angle and sighing loudly; Soichiro Honda will throw himself to the ground and roll along the Honda production line; Akio Morita would be furious and fire all of Sony's advertising staff; Kazuo Inamori would be jealous and smash all the treasures displayed in Kyocera's flagship store to vent his ......

Seeing Yu Jia working so hard alone, I was very upset. But she insisted on not letting me help, saying that it would be unseemly to engage in business as a samurai, and that she was the only one in the family who was suitable for such a thing as a side room. She is so stubborn, I can only tell her to recruit more people, as long as the sealing process is in her own hands, it doesn't matter.

However, troubles are inevitable. At the evaluation meeting on the third day, Sasa Narimasa saw me in the corridor and immediately exclaimed:

"Oh, look at that! Isn't this His Royal Highness? ”

Then there was a wave of good-natured or mocking laughter.

It's no wonder that the three Chinese characters for "Sorrel" hanging in front of my house are far more conspicuous than the name tag with the word "Kira" written on it.

For the sake of the face of Yongle Tongbao rolling in every day, I didn't have the same knowledge as him, and sat down in the last row of the infantry general class by myself. Then, with a flick of his right eye, Yoshiyuki Sawaki sat down next to me. With him was Yazaburo Kato, the new Red Mother who took his place after Maeda Toshiie's departure. Among the red mothers, if they are on duty, five people are on duty, Maeda Toshiie, Sawaki Yoshiyuki, Hasegawa Hashisuke, Iwamuro Shigekyu and Yamaguchi Kyotsura are on duty for the night, and the other five are on duty. Now that he has replaced the Maeda Toshiya, he naturally follows Yoshiyuki Sawaki.

After a while, the door to the right side of the main seat opened, and Nobunaga walked up to the main seat and sat down, and Sugaya Kuemon came out and knelt behind him with a sword.

Nobunaga tapped the floor with a folding fan, and the entire assessment room fell silent.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Today's evaluation will determine the family's big deal this year! Thanks to your dedication, the family has achieved a great victory last year, and the Iwakura side has been defeated by the family, and Owari Ichikuni is about to be completely in the hands of the family! ”

"Congratulations on the prosperity of our family!" Everyone bowed their heads together.

"So, tomorrow I will lead a team into Beijing to obtain confirmation from His Royal Highness the General for my status as the guardian of Owari, and at the same time apply for a rank and official position that matches my status!"

"How many troops does the lord decide to bring?" Lin Xiuzhen, the old man of the pen family who came from Naguye City, put her hands on the ground and asked.

"This time I went to Beijing, the emphasis is on secrecy and speed. So I'll just bring one of my mother's clothes and one from my side. Changxiu is also going. Nobunaga replied.

Lin Xiuzhen gave a salute, and then withdrew her hands on the ground, indicating that there was no problem.

"Then it was decided. During my absence, everyone went about their duties, and the affairs of Cheongju were handled by Hayashi Sado and Jeongseung. Oda Nobunaga said, nodding to Hayashi Xiuzhen and Murai Sadatsu, "Sado Mamoru and Yoshibei, Cheongju will be handed over to the two." ”

"Yes!" The two of them bowed to the ground together.

"I hope you will work hard and dedicate yourself to your family! When I return, the final offensive against Iwakura will begin, so you need to be ready. ”

"I am willing to die for the Lord!" They all answered together.

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