The sky was always overcast, and there was not a ray of sunlight in sight. The sea fog over Beppu Bay in the distance occasionally burrows into the castle of Funaikan.

Wabayashi Echigo stood in front of the door of a room in the castle lord's mansion, proudly clasping his hands and closing his eyes slightly. He was sitting in the city lord's mansion. As the army of the Luo family slaughtered under the city, more and more retainers in the city came to see the two mothers and sons of Shiochimaru. How can a six-year-old child and a woman deal with these people? Therefore, as the largest official position in the city and the most powerful military commander, Wakabayashi Echigo Shou is naturally the only person in the city who can call the shots.

"Stepping on ......"

Just then, a footstep was coming quickly.

"Report!" When the retainer saw the governor standing in front of the door, he hurriedly saluted.

"What?"

Wakabayashi Echigomori asked sternly, but his eyes were still slightly closed. It was one of his people. Before the Luo family's army was about to approach the Funai Pavilion, he moved his clansmen into the city or into the navy in advance.

"My lord! You look very bad. ”

"Without further ado, what the hell is it?"

"My lord, the army of the Luo family outside the city has moved, and it seems that it is preparing to attack the city."

"Is it finally here?" Wakabayashi Echihoushou suddenly opened his eyes and muttered to himself. Since the army of the Luo family surrounded the Funaikan, it has not been attacking the castle, and even the towns outside the castle have not entered, and the other party has begun to sweep the area around the Funachikan. Judging from the information that Hosaku shot into the city yesterday, in the entire area around the Funaikan Pavilion, only Takasakiyama Castle and Tsuraga Castle, which were guarded by the Otomo family's own clan, were not captured. Over time, though. It was only a matter of time before these two branches were breached. And today. Is the other party finally going to attack the city?

"Send someone to inform the lord of the house." After a moment of thought, Wakabayashi Echigoshou commanded as he walked towards the city wall.

"Mansion Master?" The clansmen were stunned when they heard this, and then they thought of who this so-called "mansion master" was. It's just a six-year-old child, and because his family was almost wiped out, there are not many people in the city who regard him as the true heir of the Otomo family at this time, so the clan didn't react for a while. As for the mother of the "lord of the house", everyone already regarded him as a poor mother. Not only did her husband die. Now I can't save my son. At this time, everyone in the city was in danger, and it was obvious that they did not have much confidence to resist.

After asking the clansmen to go to Shiochi Maru's mother and son to report the changes outside the city, Wakabayashi Echigo Mamoru quickly came to the city wall of the main gate of the Funachi Pavilion. At this time, the movement of the Luo family's army outside the city had already made the defenders in the city nervous.

Standing on the city wall and looking out, I saw that the army of the Luo family, under the orders of the generals, began to slowly approach the mansion pavilion, and on the side facing the main gate, a neat military formation stood out.

"Prepare for battle!" Seeing this scene, Ruolin Echigo Shou thought that the Luo family was really going to attack the city, and immediately ordered.

"My lord, where do you look?" That's when it happened. A retainer beside him pointed to the distance. The direction that the retainer was pointing in was the direction of the military formation that had just stood out from the Luo family's army.

At this moment, the military formation suddenly stopped at a distance from the city gate. Then split in an instant, revealing a wide passage from it. Immediately afterward, a group of men and horses walked slowly from the passage to the city gate.

"Coffin?" At a glance, Wakabayashi saw that a coffin was being carried in the group of people, and in addition, behind the coffin, there were several people holding some wooden boxes. The whole team looked quite solemn and solemn.

"Pause the attack." Seeing this scene, Wakabayashi Echigo immediately ordered the guards on the city wall not to attack.

In this way, the thousands of Otomo family guards on the city wall, as well as nearly 10,000 soldiers of the Luo family outside the city, watched the coffin gradually come to the gate of the Funai Pavilion.

"On the orders of my lord, I hereby return the remains of Otomo Yoshikan! As a sign of respect for the deceased, the family will retreat half a mile and officially start the war two hours later. After stopping the coffin outside the city gate, a warrior of the Luo family stood in front of the city gate and raised his head to the city wall and shouted. Later, after leaving one person behind, the rest of the Luo family began to evacuate under the leadership of this samurai.

Zhengliang, who was guarded by everyone in the distance, also waved the military equipment in his hand, and the army of the Luo family surrounded in the mansion hall also began to retreat in an orderly manner.

Although Otomo Yoshikan has troubled the Luo family several times, in his heart, he still admires him. Otomo Yoshikan is not a lord of some kind of garbage, and being able to lead a wealthy clan to become a tycoon of a large number of people shows that his ability is quite good, and he can even be called a wise lord. Objectively speaking, his strategy of attacking the Luo family with all his strength is very correct, otherwise once the Luo family completely gains a foothold, it will be time for the tragedy of the Otomo family. The only pity is that even the best lord is likely to be a tragedy if he encounters a lord who is even better than him (such as Masayo). The result of the battle between the Luo family and the Otomo family and the Ouchi family last year directly changed the pattern of Kitakyushu, thus affecting the fate of the three families, and also indirectly affecting the fate of the rest of the wealthy families in Kyushu. It has changed the trajectory of history. Since then, the Luo family has truly become an important chess piece that has influenced the historical trend of the Wa Kingdom. However, Otomo Yoshikan tragically became a supporting role in setting off this historical event.

Of course, after experiencing this incident of Otomo Yoshikan, Masashi is also clearly aware of a problem. That is, even if the family has a deep background, if the family governor dies suddenly, and the heir has not yet been determined or is incompetent, so that it cannot get the support of the retainers, even if the internal retainers are united, a family will be separated under external pressure. Therefore, Zhengliang has always paid more attention to his own safety. He didn't want to go back to Otomo Yoshiken's path.

Previously, it was learned from the information sent by the Luo family in the castle that the Otomo family in the castle was using the death of Otomo Yoshikan to arouse the will of the defenders. In order to reduce the morale of the guards in the castle and to gain the favor of the people of the former Otomo family inside and outside the castle to a certain extent, and also out of the heartfelt admiration of Masarashi, Masarashi decided to return the body to the castle on the second day after receiving the body of Otomo Yoshikan sent by Kinoshita Masanao.

This move won the admiration of the former retainers of the Otomo family, who had already surrendered to the Luo family, and also declared the goodwill of the Luo family to the local people to all parts of the country. So Irita, who had arrived from Tsuraga Castle in the south with Isono Wonmasa two days earlier, was moved and ashamed, and personally asked to enter the castle to persuade him to surrender.

To be honest, he was forced to surrender to Cheng before. If it weren't for the fact that the surrounding wealthy families of the Otomo family at that time learned that their son had defected to the Luo family, and misunderstood that the Irita family secretly contacted the Luo family and assisted the latter in invading Oita County, these wealthy families would not have allowed him to distinguish at all. In addition, he was indeed unwilling to cause his son-in-law who had joined the Luo family to be blamed by the Luo family because of his resolute refusal to rebel, and even lead to the collapse of the family, so after weighing it again and again, he finally chose to join the Luo family.

After discussing with his sister-in-law Yoshimi Irita, he resolutely asked to send the embassy to the Imperial Palace, responsible for escorting Otomo Yoshikan's coffin into the castle, and also responsible for persuading Shioichimaru and his son to surrender in the city. On this mission, he already had the intention of dying, and if the people in the city had to put him to death, he would have nothing to say. If the people in the castle are unwilling to surrender, but do not kill him, then he will be burned with Otomo Yoshiken's body at the moment when the Funachikan is breached.

While Irita was escorting Otomo Yoshikan's coffin into the Fuuchikan, Shioichimaru's mother was leaning on the railing of the east side of the mansion, staring blankly at the opposite road from a tributary of the Oita River.

At this time, the Funachikan has become a small town hidden in the thick of greenery under the influence of spring. The sea breeze blows from Beppu Bay in the north, bringing a hint of coolness and a fishy smell. The sky was overcast, and there was not a single cloud in sight. This city will soon fall!

The continuous eaves of the castle are hidden in the endless greenery, forming a turquoise sea. Do the people who live in the house know their fate?

The army of the Luo family was already outside the town at this time, and once these troops poured in, they must first set fire to the castle. Once the defender is determined to defend to the death, the attacking side must burn the city first, which is the common sense of war. At that time, the panicked crowd would surely cry in the midst of the fire, which was extremely miserable. When she thought of this, she felt that she was guilty, as if she had harmed those innocent beings.

In addition to these creatures, there are his sons and daughters, who are less than a year old. Thinking about the fact that she was favored by Otomo Yoshikan with her beauty, she felt ridiculous when she blew the wind in Otomo Yoshikan's ears every night and lured Otomo Yoshikan to make his son the heir of the family governor. Even if you fight for it now, what if you get it? Isn't it going to die in the end?

Just thinking about it, it seems that the reason why she decided to fight for the position of governor of the family for her son was not for power. So what is it for? That's right, in order to survive. She was frightened every time she saw the hostile eyes of the former concubine of the main room towards her and her children. He was worried that this man would be unfavorable to their mother and son after inheriting the family governor, and after several struggles, he simply decided to help his son compete for the position of family governor in order to protect himself.

"Ma'am. The guards came to report, and Echigo Mamoru was escorting the coffin of the Governor to this side. At this time, the maid hurriedly came to report.

"What?" (To be continued......)