The time was the beginning of January of the fifth year of Yonglu, and it was the occasion of the New Year.

In the Washio Yamajo Castle of the Shimihara family of the Shimihara family facing the Sanyo Michido Province facing Bigotara, the Tsushibara family governor of the Sushiwara family, Mamoru Monda Tango, who had just finished attending the New Year's banquet and was a little drunk, was preparing to sleep in the middle of the castle.

Washio Castle is a castle built from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain, so once the decision is made to close the city, foreign enemies cannot easily attack it. Because of this, there was a considerable distance between the Nakawari and the deep warp, and it took a lot of time for the already drunk Menda Tango to return to the castle tower to rest.

And just as Mentian Danhou had just rested, suddenly someone knocked loudly on the gate at the bottom of the mountain, and shouted to the gatekeeper who was woken up:

"Please open the door and let me go! Below is a person sent by the lord of Matsuo Castle, Konobutaro, who specially sent medicine for his younger brother Konomura Childe! This is a life-threatening matter, please open the door immediately and let me pass!"

The lord of Matsuo Castle, Konobutaro, was a handsome young man of twenty-three years old at this time, and the elder brother of Kogojiro who was imprisoned in Washio Mountain Castle. The reason why Menda Dango Mamoru imprisoned Kogo Jiro was entirely to control Kogo Taro, the lord of Matsuo Castle.

As for the reason why he wanted to control the lord of Matsuo Castle, Kobutaro, it was mainly because he had been constantly encouraging many other retainers in his family to persuade Monda Dango to surrender to the Luo family.

Speaking of the Luo family, it can be said that the power of this overlord is in full swing at this time, in addition to completely unifying Kyushu, this Kyushu overlord also annexed many territories of the former Western overlord Ouchi family, such as Nagato, Zhoufang, and Aki, and defeated the Mori family, the clan of the Sukihara family. Touched into the Bingo region. Now. On the coastal border of Bigo Province, Mihara Castle and Ichiseru Yamajo Castle, which originally belonged to the Mori family, were already occupied by the Luo family.

It is rumored that in recent times, the Luo family has increased a lot of troops to Sanyuan City and Yicheng Mountain City, and even the Kyushu eagle seems to have appeared in Sanyuan City, of course, the statement given by the Luo family is directly aimed at the Maori family, the sect of the Sugihara family, who had previously used the opportunity to send envoys, tried to assassinate the Kyushu Eagle Luo Zhengliang, but it ended in failure. Now the reason why the Luo family has such an abnormality is completely preparing to take revenge on the Maori family.

However, as the so-called big people fight, the little people suffer, not to mention that the Sukihara family is still a wealthy family that is subservient to the Maori family, so in this case, it is inevitable that they will be angry with the Luo family. And as the Luo family's infiltration of various parts of Bigo Province became stricter and stricter, many of the retainers in the family were naturally a little shaken, and it was under such circumstances that the lord of Matsuo Castle, Kobutaro, even came out. took the lead in persuading him to abandon the Maori family and switch to the Luo family.

But. Xiao Wu Taro and these people know about the insidiousness of the Maori family's governor Maori Motoshi, and Menda Dangomori is really a little worried, as he switches to the Luo family, will he suddenly be killed by Maori Moto's conspiracy one day. He had previously personally participated in the conspiracy organized by Mori Motosho against some wealthy clans in Bigo Province who were loyal to the Ouchi family or secretly connected to the Niko family.

What's more, although the Luo family is in full swing at this time, after all, it has just entered Bigo Province, and the Maori family has directly annexed the power left in Bigo Province after the decline of the Ouchi family, so in comparison, the Maori family is stronger than the Luo family in Bigo country. It is precisely for this reason that in order to ensure the stability of the family, Kadoda Tango Mamoru will order Konobutaro to hand over the hostages to ensure that he will not act indiscriminately below.

And the reason why Kadoda Dango Mamoru is so worried about Konobutaro, the root cause also originated from the Battle of Itsukushima a few years ago, when under the call of the clan Maori family, Menda Tango Mamoru led many retainers including Konobutaro to support the Maori family and the Ouchi family Tao Takabo in the decisive battle on Itsukushima, but the Luo family suddenly intervened in this battle at the last moment, when the ships were limited, Menda Tango Mamoru had to abandon Kogotaro and others in Itsukushima, and then followed Maori Yuan to escape.

After returning home in a hurry, because Konobutaro and others did not follow back, as time went on, some other retainers in the family naturally started the idea of the territory of Konobutaro and others' families, and this is a very normal thing after all, and even Menda Tango Mamoru himself has the idea of directly annexing the family of Konobutaro and others.

So, before Menda Dangoshou made up his mind, and the other retainers in the family did not explicitly stop Menda Dangomori, many retainers of the Sugihara family began to gradually carve up the family territory of Xiao Wu Taro, and at this time, Xiao Wu Taro and others returned unharmed, and later after inquiry, Menda Dango Mamoru learned that Xiao Wu Taro and others were directly released by the Luo family.

Although I don't know what kind of purpose the Luo family did this, but since Xiao Wu Taro and others came back, the relationship with the Kadoda Dan Hou Shou has become very ordinary, and they have even suddenly become strong in the past few years, even if the Moda Dan Hou Hou deliberately obstructed or even warned, but Xiao Wu Taro still swallowed up several wealthy clans that surrendered to the Tsubakihara family at once (these wealthy families had the idea of fighting the territory of the Kowu Taro family), and now the strength of the Ko Wu Taro family is strong, Even the head of the family, Menda Dango Mamoru is a little jealous.

So, when the Luo family suddenly changed and Konotaro was constantly moving outside, Kadoda Dangomori decisively made a request to ask Konobutaro to send his wife and children to Washio Mountain Castle as hostages. Originally, Kadoda Tango Mamoru preferred that Kogotaro would come to Washio Mountain Castle as a hostage, but considering that this might cause Kogotaro to break with him, it could only be like this, and even Kadoda Tango Mamoru was a little skeptical that Kogotaro would obey his orders and hand over his wife and children.

But what is surprising is that Kowu Taro actually quickly agreed to the request of the Menda Dango Guard: "There is no objection to the request of the Menda Dango Guard!"

While saying this, Kobutaro not only sent his wife and children as hostages, but even sent his younger brother Kobu Jiro as a hostage. It is said that this little Wu Jiro has always suffered from dysentery, which is known to everyone in the Sukihara family.

So, when the men of Little Nutaro came to the gate of Washio Mountain Castle this evening, and said to the gatekeeper:

"The little Takejiro of the family is in the city now, but he has diarrhea, and this disease cannot be cured by other medicines, and it can only be effective with the medicine specially made by our Matsuo Castle. Since we sometimes get troubled by diarrhea, Gotaro Kotaro, who happens to be my brother, has this medicine in stock, so please be okay and let me wait!"

When the gatekeeper looked at the men outside the gate, and understood who the little Takejiro they were talking about, he said:

"Tell me down! Please wait a minute!"

After a while, the gatekeeper came back and said, "Come in." ”

"Thank you! Great work!" So immediately three men came in from outside the city gate.

"How strange!" Looking at the three people who gradually moved away after entering the city, the person guarding the door always felt a little strange, but he had already let the three people pass through guò, so he simply stopped thinking about it.

And just as he was relieving himself, he suddenly heard again:

"Open the door!"

Suddenly, a second voice came from outside the city gates.

The gatekeeper, who was about to fall asleep again, hurriedly pushed open the window and asked, "Who is it?"

"I'm a subordinate of the lord of Matsuo Castle, Konobutaro, and I specially sent medicine to his younger brother Konobutaro. This is a matter of life and death, please open the door immediately and let me wait. ”

The gatekeeper couldn't help but look at these people with wide eyes. What the hell is going on? Didn't there just three people go by? Now these people are almost the same as the three people just now, and now standing in front of them seems to be the same three figures......

"This, this, what the hell are you kidding? If you are a subordinate of Lord Gotaro Koto, who brought the medicine, then who is the one who just passed guò? ”

"I've never heard of this, but please stop joking, it's a big deal about his brother's life! So please stop making jokes like that, and let me wait for Tong Guò right away!"

"What? Are you kidding? ”

"Exactly! Because Lord Nitaro Ko specially ordered us to bring medicine from Matsuo Castle, there is no one else but us! This isn't the time for jokes!"

"It's getting weirder and weirder. Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Maybe you're a fake! Come on, come on! Let's check it out below! ”

It's a really strange thing for the gatekeepers, but it's also quite an interesting question. Because of the urgency of the matter, two groups of people who were talking almost exactly the same thing in the middle of the night, the same people who came with medicine, appeared one after another, what the hell is this......

Anyway, there were only three people on the other side, so the gatekeeper opened the gate.

"Alright! So, can you show me enough evidence to prove that he is a subordinate of Lord Gotaro-chan?"

However, at this time, the man who took the lead on the other side suddenly tilted his head to the side as if he was very excited, and said, "It's hard!"

At this very moment, another person had already grabbed the doorkeeper by the collar, and the others entered the door like this.

"Don't make a sound!" The man who grabbed the doorkeeper's shirt said to the gatekeeper.

"Little Butaro has come to take Washio Mountain Castle, as soon as you make a sound, you will die immediately!"

"Huh? You're Gotaro-sama...... So, the three ...... who just went in"

"Don't worry! They are also the retainers under the bottom, and it is their responsibility to go first and open the middle door! Now please take a break! The man said in a very calm voice, and then he heard only a "whimper" from the arrested gatekeeper and lay down quietly...... (To be continued......)