The city of the sun.

It is located in Hita County in Bungo Province in a basin surrounded by high mountains. Since ancient times, it has been a battleground for soldiers. Standing on the earthen walls of Hikojo Castle, to the north, through the towering mountain path of Mt. Yufuka, is a castle leading to the Ōuchi Ietohiro Mae Province. To the east, the mountain road next to the river leads to the hinterland of Bungo Province. To the south, follow the mountain trail to the foot of Mount Aso in Higo. To the west, it is bordered by Chikuzen and Chikugo through the Mizurope Mountains and the Hoju Mountains, respectively.

Outside the castle, the Sanga River, an important branch of the Chikugo River, runs along the castle walls. There are many farmers along the Sanya River. The fertile land along the coast is a small granary of Bungo Province. Since the Sanyagawa River originates from the water and springs in the surrounding mountains, when the rainy season comes, when these currents converge in large quantities on the Sanyagawa River, the water level of the Sanyagawa River rises, and if the surrounding river embankment is lacking, it often causes a major flood. The local farmers believe that this is due to the dissatisfaction of the water god, so every rainy season, a grand fireworks display is held to pray for the water god to prevent flooding. This ritual has been preserved to later generations and has become a famous fireworks festival. At the same time, the water quality here is also quite good, especially the groundwater, which is said to be healthier than ordinary mineral water, and has become a famous product in the future.

At this time, the city has completely become the logistics base of the Otomo family's strategy of building the country of the country, and a large amount of food, weapons and other materials are piled up here. Due to the limited manpower, most of the people responsible for maintaining these supplies are women and children who have been forcibly recruited from the local area. As for the men, they were basically recruited to the front line to participate in the Takara Castle raiders of the Otomo family.

This place originally belonged to the territory of the Great God family, and more than ten years ago, as one of the top wealthy families in Bungo, the Great God family was completely subdued by the Otomo family. He had to be forced out of this territory. Then the family moved to Jiuzhu County, where the environment was much worse than here. It became a direct domain of the Otomo family.

Although the Otomo family has been under the jurisdiction of this place for more than ten years, because the guards here have always relied on the initiative to deal with the local people, coupled with the nostalgia of the original lord Okami's family in the hearts of these people, in fact, the relationship between the military and the people here is not very good. Therefore, in order to avoid accidents, Usuki, who was the logistics general of the Otomo family's strategy and the temporary commander here, simply sent all the men here to the front line, and sent the main guard force of the castle to the checkpoint in the Fuyue Mountain Road to defend the Daitozen Ouchi family in the north (although the two families have formed an alliance at this time, it is necessary to watch out for each other). Due to the lack of male soldiers, and there were not many guards left in the city. Therefore, he simply forcibly recruited local women and children with almost zero combat effectiveness to come to assist in the management of materials.

Today is already early afternoon, and Usuki Jiansu is checking the account books at this time. Several of the wealthy clans who gathered in Hichiyo Castle in response to the call of the Otomo family last night also rushed to the Otomo family camp in Chikugo Province overnight with torches, and now the troops of the two wealthy clans have not yet arrived. According to the latest report, the forces of these two wealthy clans have also arrived at the nearby Kakumuli Castle, and they will pass through here today, and then rush to the camp of Chikugo Province. As for the latest batch of peasant soldiers recruited to be responsible for transporting supplies, they should also arrive at Xiongmu Li Castle behind Jiaomu Li City. Everything seems to be in order. Now all we have to do is wait for the good news from Chikugo Province.

For this strategy, he is full of confidence. After all, this time, he personally sent the Ouchi family and secretly united with the Naito family to promote the alliance between the two families, so as to achieve the goal of jointly attacking the Luo family. With the current strength of the two families, they can completely crush the Luo family. So he's confident.

"Your Excellency, your Excellency."

At this moment, several urgent calls from the guards sounded outside the council hall. When he heard this, he immediately frowned. He put down the account book in his hand, and then stood up with his hands on the ground. Walk slowly towards the door.

"Your Excellency." At that moment, two guards hurriedly walked in through the door, and among them was a samurai who was panting and his feet were weak.

"What is this?" Seeing this scene, Utari Jiansu couldn't help but be stunned. At the same time, a bad premonition burst out from the depths of my heart.

"Lord...... The lord ...... "Before the man could finish speaking, he fainted. Before fainting, one of his hands struggled to point in the direction of the west.

"Come, help him down to rest." The person who came was obviously exhausted and fell into a coma, and as long as he recuperated for a while, he should be fine. It's just that his words and actions before he fell unconscious completely made Usuki puzzled. He couldn't help but pac around the room.

"It's not good, the lord is in danger." Suddenly, Usuki Jiansu seemed to think of something, and suddenly exclaimed: "Come on, immediately beat the drum and gather the soldiers." ”

Just as Usuki Kansu was gathering soldiers in Hizo Castle, Otomo Yoshikan was about to fall into danger.

Previously, after discovering that there were pursuers behind him, Otomo Yoshikan decisively gave the order to flee immediately. It's just that the distance of the pursuers is already very close at this time, in order to buy enough time for Otomo Yoshikan to escape, Tianbei Jiansheng and the remaining forty-odd samurai resolutely chose to stay and be responsible for blocking the pursuers. These samurai who are still by Otomo Yoshikan's side are obviously hardcore supporters of the Otomo family, even if Zhilu Dao is likely to die if he stays this time, but his brows are not furrowed. And Otomo Yoshikan, with the assistance of several people, continued to flee to the city.

In order to speed up their escape, Otomo Yoshikan and the others only left behind their weapons, and even their armor was discarded. At the same time, they also chose one of the fastest runners to rush to Riyu City to ask for reinforcements in advance. This man was the unconscious samurai who had just been received by Usuki.

In this way, Otomo Yoshikan ran all the way for half an hour, not only crossing the junction of Chikugo Province and Bungo Province, but even about to see the shadow of Hiyo Castle. At this moment, the sound of horses' hooves sounded behind him. It turned out that it was Zhengliang and others who chased after him.

was intercepted by Tianbei Jiansheng, and in the middle of the way, several Otomo family samurai deliberately got into the forest along the road, causing signs that the Otomo family rout and fled in batches, confusing the tracking of Masara and others, and Masara and others obviously couldn't catch up with Otomo Yoshikan in time.

It was also in time that Otomo Yoshikan was unlucky, and just as Masato asked Hai Dongqing to determine the main escape direction of the Otomo family's rout, more than 30 cavalry led by Isono Yuanchang arrived in time.

It turned out that even if Takasaka Masanobu and Asakura Sote, who were good at martial arts, were temporarily asked to be responsible for Masara's safety, Yamamoto Kansuke and Togo Heiji still felt that it was not enough to be safe, so they temporarily transferred part of the cavalry that originally joined the three-way army and asked Isono Yuanchang to lead them to support Masara. And because these cavalry took the main road, not the mountain path that Masara and others walked to track down the rout of the Otomo family, they happened to arrive at this time.

After joining up with the cavalry, Masarashi immediately replaced one of the cavalrymen, and then let the infantry follow, while he led Isono and others to continue the pursuit. Finally, when he was about to arrive at Hizo City, he saw the shadow of Otomo Yoshikan and others. It's just that at this time, a team of dozens of people also opened up at the gate of Rijiao City. Obviously, they are here to pick up Otomo Yoshikan and the others.

Finding that a cavalry appeared behind him, Otomo Yoshikan and the others were startled. The easiest thing in this world to regret is that you are about to reach the end, but you find that there is little hope. Otomo Yoshikan regrets it now. He listened to the advice of his subordinates and asked people to pretend to take the main road by him, and then he hid in the forest next to the mountain road and waited for rescue.

But he was really scared at the time. Once the Luo family completely blocked the main road to Riya City before they did, then he could only wait in the forest to starve to death, so after hesitating, he still had people divided into several groups, and then entered the nearby forest along the way, while he continued to flee. Seeing that he was about to escape, but at this time, an enemy cavalry appeared behind him, which made Otomo Yoshiken fall from heaven to hell in an instant.

"Lord, run away!" At the critical moment, the four remaining retainers around Otomo Yoshikan resolutely turned around and shouted to kill the cavalry behind. They prepared to use their physical bodies to temporarily intercept the pursuers in the rear.

Otomo Yoshikan turned his head and glanced deeply at a few retainers, then resolutely turned his hair and ran forward like crazy. Supported by the desire to survive, his speed increased to unimaginable speeds.

"Kill!" Seeing from a distance the four madmen shouting wildly to block the road of the Otomo samurai, Isono Hitomasa instantly raised his horse speed and left Masarashi behind, and then shouted loudly, raised his pistol in his hand and quickly moved forward.

"Kill!" Several cavalrymen behind him followed closely behind Isono Yuanchang, and they also raised their horses and slaughtered forward without slowing down.

"Puff, puff......"

Four consecutive sounds of flesh piercing sounded, and the four samurai of the Otomo family were finally killed by Isono and others. But the speed of the horse team was still affected a little.

Masarashi quickly rode past Isono and the others. At this time, Otomo Yoshikan was already approaching the Otomo family's army that came out of Hizo Castle to meet him.

While continuing to chase wildly, Masarashi picked up the bow hanging from the horse's belly with one hand, leaned down on the horse's back to ensure his body was stable, then let go of the horse's reins, pulled out the feather arrow from his back with his left hand and put it on the longbow, and sat up again.

Pull the string in your right hand, hold a bow and arrow in your left hand, and take aim.

"Eat me with an arrow, Otomo Yoshikan!"

With a silent thought in his heart, Masato quickly used the bow and arrow skill of "Broken Gold". The arrow of the feather arrow flashed with cold light, and with a "whoosh" sound, it shot at Otomo Yoshikan, who was still running desperately. (To be continued......)