Echizen, Kitanosho Castle.

Kitanoso Castle is located at the confluence of the Ashiba River and the Yoshino River, and was built as a castle for the residence of a country after Shibata Katsuie received the Echizen 790,000 koku, and also served as the base camp of the Hokuriku Army.

Originally, Kitanosho Castle was built in the main character of the country, but after the battle of Nagashino and the death of Nobunaga.

Shibata Katsuie, however, did not know why, and ordered the Tsukujo to overturn the previous rope design and rebuild the castle.

The newly designed Kitanosho Castle is not only larger in scale, but also magnificent and atmospheric.

The castle tower alone is designed to be seven stories in size, comparable to the main castle of Azuchi Castle, which overlooks Lake Biwa.

The castle town is twice the size of Azuchi Castle.

At this moment, even more than Kitanosho Castle of Azuchi, there are still some walls under construction.

Shibata Katsuya watched as hundreds of people carried the Watagaya stone quarried from nearby Mt. Ashiba on top of the majestic seven-story castle tower, carrying out the construction of the castle wall.

If it were to be the past, Shibata Katsuya would have watched with great interest as this majestic castle of its own was built little by little.

But today Shibata Katsuya just glanced at it and turned away.

Shibata Katsuya walked back to the living room, picked up a bronze mirror and looked at it carefully for a long time, Shibata Katsuya, who is fifty-six this year, and the fiasco of taking Sichuan by himself was defeated by Li Xiao, which happened overnight.

Shibata Katsuya looked at his old appearance, closed the bronze mirror, and couldn't help but sigh.

"Husband!"

Shibata Katsuya sighed and suddenly heard the voice behind him.

That's it. Shibata Katsuie's body moved, and he quickly turned around.

A woman with an extremely beautiful appearance and a graceful and noble bearing. Gently lifting his skirt and bowing, he walked from behind the paper door to Shibata Katsuya.

Seeing this woman, Shibata Katsuie's heart moved, and his body bowed down almost as if he had a normal conditioned reflex before, and shouted out that she was the princess of the city.

At will, Shibata Katsuya realized that it was no longer what it used to be, and how could he be as inferior as Fujiyoshiro. Facing Princess Ashi's scoundrel-like flattering appearance.

The former No. 1 beauty of the Warring States, Oda City is now ruled by Oda Nobutada, and she is promised to Shibata Katsuya, fulfilling Shibata Katsuie's 30-year wish.

Yes, it was the first beauty of the Warring States in the past, Shibata Katsuya silently thought that he and Oda City were no longer young.

Facing the princess of the former main family, Shibata Katsuya did not dare to slack off in the slightest and stood up. Forced to look confident. Pointing out the window, he said, "Madam, how do you think my Beizhizhuang City is not big." Majestic is not majestic. ”

Oda nodded and said, "What the lord has built is naturally majestic. ”

Listening to the compliments of Oda City. Shibata Katsuie couldn't help but laugh.

At this time, Oda City suddenly said: "Husband, I don't know why, in the winter, you forcibly conscripted the people to rush to build the castle of Kitanozhuang, and added taxes to the government to the territory, and hoarded grain and grass here. Can you let me know what you are going to do? ”

Listen to the words of Oda. Shibata Katsuie's face suddenly became gloomy and silent. He said, "Madam, is there any rumor in the city?" Don't be easy to believe, I'll send someone to investigate! ”

Speaking of this, Shibata Katsuya shouted to the castle tower, "Come on, come on." ”

Oda City took a step forward, grabbed Shibata Katsuie, and said, "Why do you still have such an impulsive temper. I am a woman from a samurai family, how can I judge the situation, my husband told me the truth, you are in a hurry to build the North Village Castle, and you are also hoarding military rations, are you worried about the Takeda Army? ”

"No," Shibata Katsuya replied categorically, "once you are defeated, you can't defeat me Shibata, I still have 20,000 soldiers who can mobilize soldiers in Echizen, and loyal subordinates are enough to fight Li Xiao." ”

Shibata Katsuya said emotionally, his chest heaving.

However, Shibata Katsuya waited to see Oda City, and just looked at him silently with his eyes.

Shibata Katsuya finally looked less confident.

Shibata Katsu's family sighed and said, "News has come from Yuezhong that the Maeda Toshiya family has subdued Li Xiao. Li Xiao gave him the same treatment as when he was in his own family, and was awarded 33,000 stones. At this time, Li Xiao also changed Kinoshita Hidenaga from Shinkawa County to Kaga, and increased his knowledge to 45,000 stones, these two people were set up for my Shibata, and they were specifically responsible for my Echizen strategy. ”…,

"Kinoshita Hidenaga is okay, but the Maeda Toshi family has been in my Oda family for many years, and he knows that his family is fine, once he defects, everything in Echizen will not be a secret to Li Xiao. I think that after the beginning of spring next year, Li Xiao will inevitably attack me in a big way. ”

Oda City grabbed Shibata Katsuya's hand and said, "But even so, husband, you still have the support of your own family, if Li Xiao comes to attack, you don't have to worry so much." ”

Shibata Katsuie shook his head and stood silently.

He clearly understood in his heart that he was not thirty years old, once he was defeated, his luck would be scattered, and there would be no time to come back, and he didn't know how long it would take for this northern Zhuang City to be handed over to Li Xiao.

Shibata Katsuya looked at Oda City, which was no longer in his prime, and couldn't help but think that if there was anything more terrible in this world than the twilight of a beauty, it would be the twilight of heroes, and the ambition was not there.

Shibata Katsu Jiaqiang smiled and said, "Madam, what you said is right, the lord grew up watching you since childhood, and he has always been close to you. If I have six difficulties, he will not silently ignore it, but this northern Zhuang City must also be built, so be prepared. ”

Oda City nodded and said, "I'm relieved to say this, in fact, I don't have to stick to one city and one place, if I had been guarding him back then, and not sitting in Kotani Castle, maybe there wouldn't be that day." ”

Speaking of this, Oda City said emotionally to Shibata Katsuya: "Husband, the concubine body has passed the life of being a parasitic person, so no matter what happens in the future, where you are, please be sure to bring the concubine body and the three children of the concubine body, even if it is also in the sword mountain and sword forest, it will go with you." All right? ”

Shibata Katsuya listened to Oda City say this, and it was inevitable that the hero was short of breath for a while, and the love of children was long, what Maeda attacked, Takeda attacked, and the grand plan to dominate the industry were all left behind, but I hope that time will stay at this moment, and never move forward again.

Tianzheng is five years, cold winter.

Noto Country, Nanao Castle.

Hokuriku is experiencing another heavy snowfall.

Above the sea surface of Nanao Bay, snowflakes are scattered on the surface of the sea.

Offshore areas are even more shallow with a thin layer of ice.

The sea is frozen, and at this time, it is impossible for a ship to go out to sea, so there is silence in the harbor.

Only the sound of the snow falling is the sound of the snow.

In the heavy snow, everything was lonely, Li Xiao wore a robe, walked out of the castle tower, did not need to follow closely, and slowly descended the mountain alone along the horse road.

Since the capture of Nengdeng Kingdom, Li Xiao has also come to this Seven Tails City every year to spend the winter.

There is no other reason, as a crosser, Li Xiao grew up in the south with a mild climate since he was a child, and he has not seen heavy snow a few times in his life, so he is slightly afraid of cold.

Hokuriku was one of the coldest regions in Japan outside of Mutsu and the undeveloped Hokkaido, which he was not used to.

So sometimes when he is comfortable, Li Xiao can't help but complain, why did he have to let him travel to the Takeda family in the first place, if it was in Kyushu, Shikoku would also be very good.

In order to avoid the cold, Li Xiaodu chose to spend the winter in Qiwei City, which is near the sea, because the winter here is a little warmer.

Spending the winter in Seven Tails Castle was inevitably a little lonely, because he left Li Zheng, most of his retainers, and his retainers in the city.

Therefore, Li Xiao only brought Qi Benbei and a few attendants to Nanao City for the winter, while Yumi Kohata and her sisters are still in Kai at the moment, and they will not be able to come to Vietaka to reunite with Li Xiao until after the spring of next year.

Therefore, this winter, Li Xiao was very lonely.

Now that the snow is falling, Li Xiao is walking alone, he is light and simple, and he goes out from the hand gate, and goes straight to the castle.

The purpose of Li Xiao's trip was to find Usami Nami.

Usami Nami lives not in a castle town retainer yashiki, but in a rather secluded place.

This is because Usami Nami naturally likes to be quiet, so she chose to live here.

Li Xiao put on a heavy robe, took a big hat, and came to Usami Nami's house with his memory, and was about to knock a few times in front of the door, but found that the door opened casually. …,

After Li Xiao walked in from the gate, he saw that several cold plums in the courtyard were waiting to be released, which was very beautiful.

Just as he was about to look up, he saw a soft knock on the door, and Usami came out of the door.

I saw Usami Nami wearing a plain white underwear, her long hair hanging down to her waist, although she didn't dress up, but she was so pink that she couldn't bear to turn her eyes.

When Li Xiaodan saw that Usami Nami saw him, he immediately wiped a trace of anger on his face, and immediately shouted: "Who are you who dare to trespass into my room." ”

Hearing Usami Nami say this, Li Xiao immediately reacted, remembering that he was still wearing a hat and a robe, so he couldn't recognize it for a while.

At that moment, Li Xiaosheng laughed a little, then lowered his voice and said: "It turns out that the general of the Takeda family, Lord Usami, is actually a daughter, this is really amazing, I don't know what Major General Konoe and the rest of the retainers of the Takeda family will think after the news is leaked." ”

Usami Nami listened to Li Xiao's words, immediately rolled her eyes slightly, and then laughed, and said: "Lord, why bother to come on a snowy day to make your subordinates laugh." The voice of the lord, no matter how disguised, can still be easily recognized by the ministers who have been by your side for more than ten years. ”

Li Xiao was immediately surprised when he heard this, and at the same time secretly praised Usami Minami for being as careful as a hair, and she was still so calm at the moment when her identity was revealed.

At that moment, Li Xiao took off his hat, put on his coat, and said with a smile: "Nami, I still saw through you, you are very beautiful." ”

Hearing Li Xiao's praise, Usami Nami wiped a trace of shame on her face at the moment, but she still pretended to be indifferent, and said: "The lord smiled, I don't know what to show for the visit?" ”

Li Xiao listened to Usami Nami's tone, and there seemed to be a faint feeling of rejecting people thousands of miles away