After more than half a month after Echigo's usual turmoil had survived peacefully, Kasugayama Castle decided to punish him accordingly, and decided to hold a public trial at the same time in Kasugayama Castle Shimo-cho and Naoetsu Port, with the purpose of executing the Isōmune bandits who attacked and burned villages and towns.

On April 1st, the sun was shining and the wind was beautiful, and on a warm morning, the farmers of Kasugayama Castle Shimo-town and Naoetsu Town gathered in Shimo-cho and Naoetsu Town, and more than 100,000 people crowded the two Shin-machi, which has developed rapidly in recent years, and the Shin-machi built last summer connected the two unconnected places to form a complete urban area.

It is an undeveloped open space between Kasugayama Castle and Naoetsu Town, and since the construction has not yet begun, it is regarded as a natural square by the local townspeople, and there are often Kemari competitions organized by the private sector and performances by ape musicians.

Today, this square was temporarily requisitioned and used by the lord of the country, and a high platform was erected in the center of the square, and a row of wooden gallows on both sides of the high platform had already been prepared, as well as a dozen huge wooden stakes and simple steps, and there were many firewood and grass piled up next to it, and I don't know what it was used for.

The noisy noise came one after another, and the gathering of more than 100,000 people at this time greatly exceeded the expectations of Kasugayama, and the nearby Tongxin people were not enough, so they could only urgently mobilize 5,000 troops from Kasuga Mountain Castle to maintain the normal order of the square, and many foreign merchants and tourists were also attracted to it, while curiously looking at what Echigo was doing, and at the same time he was talking about the character of the Echigo samurai who maintained order.

Soon a group of sinners with their hands tied together by a rope were escorted into the square by the samurai, and the spectators on both sides immediately moved out of the way for the samurai, and they were not so polite to the sinners. Dirt, rotten leaves, and even leaf-covered droppings fell on them like a storm. While smashing back, he scolded.

Most of the sinners lowered their heads and did not speak. A small number of people are still reciting "Nam no Amitabha Buddha" in a low voice, and a very small number of criminals are still glaring at the crowd of onlookers, who are the protagonists of today's trial, and who have always been in trouble half a month ago.

The crowd standing at the front of the line erupted into an inexplicable shouting and scolding, and after a while, the audience in the back row understood what was going on, and shouted directly in a loud voice: "Look! That's the sinners, I heard that they are all die-hards who have always been sectarians, and they are not willing to reform no matter how much they persuade them! ”

"They burned down our village. Kill our people! The old men in the mountain city don't know how to cherish the opportunity when they give them, they really deserve to be killed! Several villagers cursed quietly.

Nagano Yegu, who was standing in the line, looked around at the energetic people and exclaimed, "This is the city, a vibrant city, do you know Morijiro?" ”

Seeing that his little friend did not react, he gushed about the new ideas he had learned: "The concept of the city is the concept put forward by the town hall back then, a complete city includes multiple functions such as residential areas, public communities, medical and educational areas, handicraft areas, commercial trading areas, etc., with perfect ditch drainage structure, perfect police and concentric organization, which can protect the safety of the lives and property of the townspeople!" ”

"Yes, yes. Of course I know, you've said it dozens of times, can I still not know? I found that you have the potential to be a high monk! Nobusada Kohata joked about this chattering guy. The two of them were already crowded with peasants from various villages on all sides, and the crowd made him uncomfortable, and the privilege of the samurai didn't seem to work very well in Echigo, which was the most magical thing about Echigo.

Anyone who enters Echigo knows that arrogant samurai must learn to put away their tails in order to get along, and if a ronin tries to use his privilege to do something bad, or even kill someone in the street, he will definitely be suppressed by force.

The status of the samurai brought them dignity and awe, but it was not a reason to insult the townspeople and peasants at will, and a new idea emerged within the Kira family, led by a group of young samurai led by Takigawa Keijiro, Shimatoki Katsu, and Honda Tokimasa, mainly to promote a samurai spirit.

This so-called samurai spirit is not the traditional "Imperial Grace and Dedication", but a new spiritual system formed by reprocessing and refinishing things plagiarized from chivalry, and it talks about the new samurai spirit with loyalty, law-abiding, bravery, glory, humility, etiquette, piety, and sacrifice as the core of the eight spirits.

Loyalty, law-abiding, and bravery are the core of the samurai spirit that the Kira family particularly emphasized, loyalty to the shogunate, loyalty to Genji, loyalty to the lord is above all else, and abiding by the laws of the samurai, shogunate edicts, and lord's decrees is the basic code for maintaining order, and fierceness, bravery and fearlessness are the fine traditions of samurai society that have been praised for hundreds of years.

Glory represents the glory of the ancestors, the glory of the samurai, the eulogy of the ancestors to the guardian of honor, humility is the fine tradition of the strong, humility is not modesty, not inferiority, but the strong are not arrogant, always alert to their excellent character, etiquette is the core of a civilization, not etiquette is the vulgar barbarian, even if the force is strong, there is no need to fear.

Piety is the devotion to the gods and Buddhas, and the dishonesty to the gods and Buddhas is not sincere to people, the great god of the Hachiman Bodhisattva who protects the samurai, is also the god of the Kawachi Genji, he blesses the samurai for 500 years and will continue to protect it in the future, and those who do not worship the gods and Buddhas and do not worship the Hachiman Bodhisattva cannot be a samurai.

Sacrifice is a precious spirit, different from the sacrifice of the Central Plains Dynasty refers to a certain kind of livestock, this sacrifice is a pure foreign culture, the main connotation is to achieve a noble goal, such as saving the life and helping the wounded, such as guarding the homeland, maintaining the righteousness of the samurai, the authority of the shogunate, the glory of the ancestors, etc., willing to sacrifice their own interests, and even sacrifice their own lives for this spirit.

The noisy crowd suddenly quieted down, and I saw that the townspeople in the distance all knelt down as soon as they cheered, and Nagano Yegu and Kohata Nobutada in the back row saw clearly a group of samurai who climbed the high platform and walked up, among which a young man wearing a black hat and a hunting suit as a minister was tightly surrounded by dozens of red-armored samurai.

I only heard singing from afar: "The governor of the left guard, the general of the town guard, the time has come for Ashikaga Kamizaburo Yoshio!" ”

"The long-tail bomb is less than Bi Jinghu has arrived!"

"Meet Duke Wu Wei, Lord of the Kingdom!" At this moment, both the shishu lowered their heads in unison. One of these two represents Echigo's past. One represents the future of Echigo. Together, the two of them created the glorious myth of two million stones in the country of Echigo, and people always have reverence and worship for the creator of the myth.

"Hosokawa Bingbu Daisuke Fuji Takashi arrives!"

"Yamamoto Sado is lucky to be on time!"

With the name of the shouting one by one, the high platform gradually stood full of the two generations of Changwei and Kira, so many people gathered in one place can imagine how much pressure on the security is, in order to prevent similar assassinations from happening again, a cordon was pulled up within 30 meters around the high platform, and the heavily armed Kira was ready to stand around the high platform. If there is any disturbance, you can immediately turn over and suppress it.

In addition, on the two wings of the high platform, the iron artillery team, the heavy vine bow team, the murderous samurai not only suppressed the criminals waiting for trial, but also frightened the onlookers, many spies hidden in the crowd showed different expressions, Echigo's strong force and excellent army were perfectly reflected at this moment.

Also hiding in the crowd were the two young spectators, and Nobusada Kohata stared at Chibei's envious drool: "It would be nice if my family also had this armor!" Then my Kohata family must be the first in Ueno and the first samurai in Banto! ”

Nagano said with a blank face: "Five hundred sets of armor, weapons, and five hundred good horses are enough to turn over your Xiaohata family and sell it ten times...... Maybe twenty or thirty times! ”

"Hey! Don't splash cold water! I know it's impossible, but don't dampen my self-confidence! Nobutaha said dissatisfied.

"It's not to hit you. There are only no more than thirty people in the queue who can stand in the queue of your family. Maybe it's just ten people. ”

"Doesn't that mean that only cavalry generals can enter? This must be a lie, right? Anyway, why did you change the name to Zhenfu Palace? ”

"Isn't the general of the town guard palace the town palace?" Nagano couldn't bear to hit his companions, but he still felt the need to make him realize the facts: "Do you see that their size and the weight of their armor are the ones worn by ordinary samurai?" Think about what we eat, and what is Kira Akabi eating? I've heard that the horses of the Kira family eat only the finest pastures, grains, and soybeans, and if you think about the amount of food a horse can eat, you will know how much copper it will cost. ”

"It's a daunting expense! I'm afraid that only the town palace can afford to raise this kind of elite soldiers, right? "Kohata Nobuzhen smacked his lips and made a difference, if he wants to raise this kind of elite soldier, it is not possible to achieve results with thousands of dollars, and tens of thousands of dollars will be smashed into it, not to mention that a wealthy family like him, even the guardian of the daimyo can't bear such a powerful expenditure.

More importantly, an elite and an invincible division are completely different existences, as long as an elite is smashed with money, with the best training and the best generals to lead the success sooner or later, but the invincible division is from the establishment of dozens of battles of large and small wars, and gradually establish an invincible momentum that looks down on the world.

This momentum comes from self-confidence, self-confidence comes from the powerful Kira Army, the best general, the most courageous general and the most powerful combat effectiveness, and a deeper combat spirit and will need to be reflected, and the spirit of Kira Chibei in front of him is the word "invincible", as if the world's heroes are like chickens and dogs.

Hosokawa Fujitaka walked up the high podium with the speech script, and caught a glimpse of the onlookers still talking to themselves, buzzing and annoying, so he gestured to the samurai standing aside, and was soon slowly beaten by the military drums that had been temporarily recruited, and the loud noise suppressed the noise of more than 100,000 people.

"Silence! Today is the day of the public trial, and on behalf of my lord and the main hall, I hereby announce that the public trial has begun! The leader of the bandits, Ishida Yasuki Shou, was an official of the Shengxing Temple, and was lured by the bewitchment and heavy money of the Kai Takeda clan at the beginning of the year, and personally led thousands of Yuezhong troops at the beginning of the year, pretending to be believers to infiltrate Echigo and wait for an opportunity to cause chaos.

On the evening of 12 March, when the assassination broke out, the leader of the bandits, Ishida Yasuki, launched a series of attacks near Sekigawa, attacked and burned 15 temporary settlements, killed 658 civilians, and then launched an attack on more than a dozen nearby villages, resulting in a total of more than 26,000 houses and facilities, and more than 1,000 casualties......

"What a loss!"

"Bastard! You should be aware that so many people die, right? ”

"Oh yes! I just want to say that so many people died, and I accidentally leaked my mouth. ”

"Why do I feel that your performance is insincere!"

"That must be your delusion!"

There were two strange people talking to themselves in the crowded audience, crazy like a fool, because the distance was far away, and Nobutaha couldn't hear the speech on the high platform clearly, and the two teasers were chirping and disrupting the rhythm, and he was so angry that he almost wanted to beat them up.

I didn't hear what was said behind this distraction, but I saw Hosokawa Fujitaka retreat with the speech, and Kira Yoshitoki, who was holding a folding fan, slowly walked up to the podium, standing on the highest point of this square and looking down on all the people in the square, and the bold townspeople shouted: "Wu Weigong is presiding over justice for us!" ”

The boy on the high platform still stands, and the long silence has made the noise in the hall fade away, and it is believed that the nobleman of Kyoto will call the shots for everyone, as he has done in Echigo for many years.

"Since ancient times, there is the name of Yuezhou, I Echigo is synonymous with the bitter cold land, once this was also the place of exile of nobles in the imperial court, since the Kamakura shogunate, many times the Kanto Rebellion forced countless samurai to flee north after the Echigo, it has been more than 300 years...... Listen clearly, this is more than three hundred years! Not thirty years, not three years! Three hundred years of Echigo has remained unchanged, the peasants of Echigo are still struggling to survive, and the samurai of Echigo are still poor, why should I be bitter and cold, be poor, and starve and freeze? Why? ”

The unexpected opening sentence made people ask the audience, there are many ordinary civilians here, most of them have lived in the Echigo natives for generations, thinking about the poverty and hardship of Echigo in the past, every April and May when there is a green season, a large number of old people will be abandoned, it is even worse in the event of a famine, it is not uncommon for a drought to starve thousands of people, and if there is a plague and locust plague, it will be a hell on earth.

"Wars, floods, droughts, earthquakes, plagues, and locust plagues have killed many of our compatriots, shattered families by famine, and how many samurai have died in despair in the midst of great hunger! I am familiar with Hanshu and know that there is a sentence in the poem of Yuefu: The white bones are exposed in the wild, there is no rooster crowing for thousands of miles, how much have you paid, and what have you got? Why do people always come to destroy the peaceful life, and why? ”

The samurai of the Nagao family who were talking and laughing on the high platform were silent, and the hundreds of thousands of spectators under the high platform were also silent, and the sad memories were once again evoked.

How many hardships and hardships were placed in front of Echigo, it was enough to make the samurai's hearts ache, and many old people couldn't help crying loudly, it was really miserable, and before they knew it, a flood of sorrow spread intermittently, and the women snuggled up to each other and cried, and the men's eyes were red.

They remembered that their father had gone into the forest without saying a word during the great famine twenty years ago and never came back, and how many families had come this way, abandoning the lonely old and drowning their babies, and people were just living simply and mechanically in order to survive, without courtesy, righteousness and shame.

As the lord of Echigo, Nagao Jinghu also empathizes with this, the troubled Echigo farmers have suffered too much, Kira Yoshitoki's words once again evoke his memories, more than ten years ago, the land of Echigo was covered with war clouds, and it was not much different from the samurai armor in "Artemisia Lixing", so that lice grew not much. (To be continued......)