The rare winter sun shines on the earth with a smile, and a chilly breeze gently blows on the cheeks. Vast and fertile fields, a prosperous castle town, merchants, farmers, craftsmen, samurai, and ashigaru...... or each performing its own duties or coming and going in a hurry. This is the castle town of Tayama Castle in Yoshi-gun, Aki Province, a Maori home castle.

At this time, it was already the second day of the first month of the 19th year of astronomy (1550). At the castle town whale house, a men's paradise (where women are waiting for you in addition to drinking), there are not many people in the normally lively lobby (because it is New Year's Day, men stay at home to spend time with their families). At this moment, there was a "squeak", and the wooden door of the whale house was pushed open, and five or six people entered, the leader of whom looked to be only about twenty years old.

Seeing that it was rare for a guest to visit, several maids in the lobby immediately hurried over.

"Just drink, don't let people bother you." The young man, who was about twenty years old, waved away the approaching women. When the girls heard this, they immediately left in good spirits, and soon after they were presented with the most famous sake of the whale house.

"Feel free to do so." The young man asked a few of his guards to sit nearby and drink, and then he himself picked up a bowl of sake and drank it slowly.

This young man is none other than Yoshikawa Motoharu, the second son of the famous Yoshikawa family in San'in, and the second son of Mori Motosa. Since his father Maori Yuan used a trick to put Yoshikawa Kokei under house arrest, as the adopted son of Yoshikawa Kokei, he inherited the position of the governor of the Yoshikawa family. In the past few years, with the help of his father, he has completely controlled the Yoshikawa family, and even if Yoshikawa Xingjing, who was lucky enough to escape the siege, returned home in the future, he was no longer able to take back the real power of his family.

Drinking sake has always been one of Yoshikawa Motoharu's hobbies. Recently, due to attending the annual meeting at home. He was able to return from the Yoshikawa family to the Mori family's home. After the end of the year. He spent two more days at Tayama Castle in Yoshigun, and today, before leaving for Yoshikawa's house tomorrow, he decided to go to the whale house in the castle town for a drink.

"Squeak!" Just as Yoshikawa Motoharu was getting drunk, the wooden door of the whale house was pushed open again, and a middle-aged man dressed as a civilian walked in, and after glancing at Yoshikawa Motoharu and the others, the middle-aged man was about to pass by the two attendants who were in charge of guarding Yoshikawa Motoharu's left. On the other side, a few maids in charge of soliciting business thought that a new customer had arrived. At this time, I started to walk this way.

Yoshikawa Motoharu didn't look at the middle-aged man from beginning to end, and as for the few close servants who were responsible for protecting Yoshikawa Motoharu, they also thought that this person was also here to drink and play with women, so they didn't pay much attention. After all, this is the castle town of the Maori family town, and it is definitely the safest place in the territory of the Maori family, so they are naturally much less vigilant.

It's just that when this middle-aged man was about to walk past a servant on the periphery of Yoshikawa Motoharu, he suddenly grinned and smirked, and said to the servant: "Borrow your knife and use it!" ”

As he spoke, he suddenly took a half-step towards the squire's side, and with a stretch of his hand he was already taking the squire's shoulder. Running down his arm, he had already pinched the right wrist of the attendant with one hand and grabbed the attendant's upper arm with the other. With a roar in his mouth, the two hands worked hard together, only a click was heard, accompanied by a scream, and the arm of the attendant immediately hung down in a strange and inexplicable shape, and the short knife in his hand fell into the hands of the middle-aged man. The middle-aged man immediately stabbed him, and the attendant suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest, and the red blood was particularly dazzling. The attendant slowly knelt on the ground, and at last he turned into a corpse that grew colder.

The short knife pierced into the heart is fatal, the middle-aged man has trained for this action thousands of times, breaking through the opponent's body in an instant, without giving the other party any chance to catch himself, the short knife has already been pulled out of the body with a flip of the wrist, without any stagnation, and the foot quickly rushed towards the other close attendant who had just reacted on the right.

The attendant had a terrifying look in his eyes, as if he had seen the eyes of a ferocious beast, his legs suddenly forgot to move, and his dull gaze saw a cold light that flashed red and suddenly grew larger and larger in his pupils. The middle-aged man swiped the knife lightly from the neck of the attendant with the impact, and then turned back and no longer looked at him, nor at the maids of the whale house who had become frightened by the sudden change, but walked quickly in the direction of Yoshikawa Motoharu.

Behind him, the attendant who had just been wiped off his neck puffed out his eyes, made a gurgling sound in his throat, grabbed his neck tightly with one hand, and kept grabbing and waving something in front of him, but the person slowly fell to his knees. His body twitched several times, and suddenly a blood mark appeared on his neck, longer and larger, spurting blood. Half of the head fell to the side and prostrate on the ground, and then it didn't move again.

The knife just now actually cut off half of his head in the rapid movement, and it took five or six steps to cut his neck open, which shows how fast the knife just swung out.

Seeing the death of two attendants in front of him, Yoshikawa Motoharu, who had just been immersed in the delicious taste of sake, suddenly changed his face and shouted loudly: "Quick, kill him!" As he spoke, he took two steps back, then pulled out the sword at his waist and prepared for a fight. As a fierce general in the family, although he was still young and had not yet reached the highest level of martial arts in his history, and was surprised to be suddenly attacked here, Yoshikawa Motoharu was not timid at all.

The middle-aged man approached quickly, and looked at a few nearby servants who were rushing to kill Yoshikawa Motoharu, and said with a faint smile: "The warm-up is over, let me see your skills now." After saying that, he jumped and killed directly at Yoshikawa Motoharu.

"Kill!" Seeing that the attendants around him couldn't stop him, Yoshikawa Motoharu sneered and shouted loudly and raised his knife to kill the middle-aged man. It's just that the middle-aged man suddenly gave way to the right at this time, and the short knife in his hand stabbed from the left rib to the top.

Yoshikawa Motoharu suddenly felt a chill coming from his chest, and his footsteps wanted to stop all of a sudden, but inertia made his body involuntarily run forward two steps, but his Taidao still subconsciously blocked his chest, and the sound of the collision between the short knife and the Taidao sounded, and a burst of sparks instantly sparked, and a bloody wound appeared on Yoshikawa Motoharu's chest, and blood splattered out. Yoshikawa Motoharu covered his chest and took a few steps back, and then he smiled and said:

"Hahaha! Good martial arts! Who are you? Why are you attacking us? ”

For Yoshikawa Motoharu's questioning, the middle-aged man grinned and smirked, and the short knife with a missing corner was held in his hand, which fell when it was hit with Yoshikawa Motoharu's knife (it can be seen how strong the impact was at that time, but unfortunately, in order to avoid suspicion, the middle-aged man at this time was not using the black eagle dagger unique to the Luo family, otherwise he would not have been knocked out of a gap), and said in a low voice: "If you want to know who Lu Dao is, go back and ask your father to know Lu Dao." After finishing speaking, no matter what Yoshikawa Motoharu thought, he directly killed him again.

Seeing that the middle-aged man was killed again, Yoshikawa Motoharu leaned down, holding the knife tightly in his hand and staring at the middle-aged man, when the middle-aged man was about to get close to him three steps away, he suddenly jumped up, raised the sword in his hand, and roared loudly: "Kill!" ”

Seeing that Yoshikawa Motoharu actually took the initiative to attack, the short knife in the middle-aged man's hand blocked it, and with a "bang", the knife hit the short knife, and for a while, sparks were everywhere, and gold and iron resonated. After all, Yoshikawa Motoharu was young and out of breath, and he was immediately attacked and took a step back, and it was this dodge that put him in danger.

"Poof!" With a bang, between the lightning and flint, the middle-aged man's short knife stabbed Yoshikawa Motoharu's left arm like a poisonous snake, and blood splattered out instantly.

"Ahh Yoshikawa Motoharu screamed miserably, and at the same time felt that his left hand suddenly lost sensation.

"Your Excellency!" At this time, the surrounding servants were finally killed, and seeing that Yoshikawa Motoharu was injured, they immediately besieged the middle-aged man like a madman.

In the face of the siege of everyone, the middle-aged man did not hesitate, raised his short knife, and killed without hesitation and shouted: "Kill!" ”

After several fights, several of Yoshikawa Motoharu's close attendants not only failed to intercept and kill the middle-aged man, but even let the middle-aged man escape. And this middle-aged man who escaped was the first ninja of the Luo family, Kato Duanzo, who was secretly sent by Masaliang. The so-called you do the first day of junior high school and I do the fifteenth, since Mao Liyuan sent someone to assassinate him, he naturally wanted to give Maori Yuan a gift in a courteous manner. And it's not just a salute, it's a few salutes. (To be continued......)