The plum blossom trees in the courtyard are full of heavy flowers. Time is like a river, and it is now the end of October of the 23rd year of astronomy (1554). The mansion built by Haruma Niko at the end of the Hii River in the outer corner of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle on the island of Honshu is already on a grand scale, more than tripling in size when it was first built.

And in her spare time, Niko Haruhisa will also come here to rest. On this day, just as Niko Haruhisa was leisurely drinking tea in this mansion, a figure stumbled in.

"My lord, please be the master of your subordinates! "As soon as the visitor ran into the house, he fell directly to his knees on the ground and cried at the same time.......

Nizi Qingjiu was stunned for a moment, looked up, and was immediately startled. The person who came was none other than his retainer, Captain Nakai Heizo Guard, who was usually known for having a beautiful beard. Now it's a good thing, the big beard of Captain Nakai Heizo has been shaved off the left half, obviously, Captain Nakai Heizo came to cry this time, it must be for his beard, so Niko Haruhisa immediately asked:

"What the hell is going on?"

"My lord, please be the master of your subordinates!" Hearing Niko Harumu's question, Captain Nakai Heizo immediately cried again, and then he told Niko Haruhisa the reason why his beard was shaved with a handful of snot and tears.

The reason is simple, because he met Seihisa Niko of the Shingu Party. And Nizi Seihisa didn't know what kind of madness Lu Dao had, so he actually called Captain Nakai Heizo Guard, and then pressed him to the ground, shaved off his beard with a knife, and deliberately shaved only the left half.

"How do you see people with half of your beard? You go home and shave the rest of it. Let's take it a long time. Feel relieved. I'll be the master for you. "After learning what happened. Nizi Haruhisa immediately comforted Captain Nakai Heizo first, but he was already angry in his heart, "Kunijiu father and son, you are slapping me in the face!" Immediately, he had already thought about how to eradicate the instability in the family of Kunihisa and his son.

Objectively evaluated, in fact, Nizi Qingjiu can also be called a rare British lord among the generations of governors of the Nizi family. Although at the beginning of his succession to the governor, he was overjoyed to attack the Maori family, trying to establish his prestige as the governor with a great victory, but he was defeated. In addition to dying of anger for his grandfather Niko, he even attracted Yoshitaka Ouchi. Although Yoshitaka Ouchi was eventually repelled, his family's prestige was also greatly damaged.

But Niko Haruhisa was not discouraged by this, but instead took the opportunity to repel the Ouchi family's coalition forces, and directly exiled a large number of Izumo Kuniku who had secretly communicated with the Ouchi family, and then confiscated their territory, thus greatly strengthening the power of the clan. At the same time, Niko Haruma used coercive means to seize the monmae town of temples and shrines such as Kitsuki Taisha (especially when he went out to Angi Country some time ago, he asked for help from Ichimune but was refused, so after Niko Haruhisa returned to Izumo Province, he directly used the power of these local temples to vent his anger). The wealthy merchants of Wakasa Province opened up a sea route across the Nishiwa Province, extracting large quantities of "tsushiroku" (water trade tax) from the trade of iron sand in Izumo Province and Hakuki Province and Iwami Ginzan. Raising a fat and strong, with financial support of the Nizi Haruhisa, vigorously built shrines and Buddhist temples internally, tried his best to maintain order in the territory, and vigorously went to the east to negotiate externally, and repeatedly entered and exited the country of Bigo, China, Misaku, and Harima, and forced the heroes of these areas to subdue, but also repelled the Ouchi and Maori coalition forces that invaded these areas several times, which was very majestic.

In fact, all of the above-mentioned actions of Nizi Haruhisa were based on the long-standing efforts of his grandfather Nizi, and accelerated the concentration of all the wealth, materials, and power in the family on the body of the clan and the governor of the clan, and completely transformed into a real Warring States daimyo. And as Niko Haruhisa's reforms continued to progress, he soon found that he had encountered a great obstacle.

This obstacle is naturally the Nizi family Shingong Party led by Nizi Kunihisa and Nizi Chengjiu.

The Shingu Party is an unusually elite force of the Niko family in Izumo Province, and over the years, its horseshoes have traveled all over the Anyu country, Bigo country, Misaku country and other places, shocking the enemy country. However, for the governor of the family, Niko Haruhisa, the Shingu Party was an even worse opponent than the Mori Yuan, because the commander of this army was not himself, but his uncle Yoshida Kunihisa (i.e., Niko Kunihisa). In that year, after the third son of Nizi Jiujiu, Yanye Xingjiu, rebelled and was ambushed, he was hot-headed and rewarded the second son Guojiu with his long-lasting fiefdom. Yoshida Kunihisa, who had already been the heir of Higashi-Izumo Yoshigadaso, now has Shioye-so in Nishi-Izumo, and his power spanned the entire Izumo country at once, and it swelled up extremely. Not only that, but the old man Nizi also took a fancy to Guojiu's martial arts and appointed him as the military director of the Nizi family, and unified the small wealthy families directly under the jurisdiction of the country into an army and returned to the command of Guojiu. And because Kunihisa's building is located in Shinmiya Valley, north of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle, this army is named "Shingu Party", which is actually the private armed forces of Niko Kunihisa and Niko Seihisa father and son.

Now that Nizi Qingjiu wants to unify the power of the family, he naturally has his eyes on the command of this army. Therefore, originally Nizi Haruhisa was both jealous and hot-eyed for this army, and he couldn't die, but due to the growing power in the family, Nizi Guojiu and Nizi Chengjiu, the two fathers and sons, were arrogant and rude, even if they treated the family governor Nizi Haruhisa.

Especially Nizi Chengjiu, relying on his martial arts and bravery, plus he is a rich second generation, he has done many appalling things. For example, Nizi Haruhisa has a civil official named the last Sanuki Mamoru who holds the right pen position (equivalent to the secretary), and the last nose is very big, and once he met Seijiu, Makohisa actually said: "A civil official like you who has no power to bind chickens, the military name is not high at all, why is the nose so high?" Then he struck an iron fist with a painful blow, and the bridge of his nose was shattered at the end, and he could only take minutes of the meeting with his nose flattened from then on.

Not only did Niko Seihisa beat up the governor's subordinates at will, but he also liked to make a big deal of privileges, and he stipulated that all the samurai of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle must dismount and walk through before arriving at his new palace as a sign of respect. Some of the Nizi retainers were not convinced, and Nizi Chengjiu ordered a team of elite Shingu Party to be stationed at the door of the building, and when they saw those who did not get off the horse, they rushed up and dragged them violently, arrogant to the extreme. Once, Nizi Qingjiu ordered all the retainers in the city to go hunting in the north of the city, and the only way was the Shingong Valley, but all the retainers were crying and mourning, and consciously got off the horse and lined up in front of the Nizi Chengjiu Pavilion.

There are many arrogant actions like the above that ignore the authority of the family governor, and there are many more fathers and sons, Nizi Kunijiu and Nizi Chengjiu. And today's incident of the shaving of the beard of the captain of the Nakai Heizo Guard has added ironclad evidence to the arrogance of the two fathers and sons, Niko Kunihisa and Niko Seihisa.

"Ma'am, it looks like I'm going to be sorry for you." After comforting Captain Nakai Heizo Guard, he asked him to go back and shave off the remaining half of his beard, and then looked at the sky in the courtyard and said to himself.

Haruhisa Niko's wife is the daughter of Kunihisa Niko (another pair of standard cousins), who died of illness last year. In the past, thinking about the relationship with his wife, Niko Haruhisa has never made up his mind to eradicate Niko Kunihisa and his son, but now he has finally made up his mind. So, Nizi Qingjiu immediately secretly prepared to eradicate Nizi Guojiu's father and son.

And while Nizi Qingjiu was secretly preparing, Duanmu Kiyomasa, the official of the Luo family who stayed in Nizi's house as a hostage, silently watched the actions of Nizi's family, and then reported the situation to Masashi in Kyushu at any time.

On November 10, this day, a detective of the Luo family hurriedly ran into Duanmu Qingzheng's residence, and then reported: "Report to your lordship, in front of the gate of Yueshan Futian City, a bloody corpse was found. ”

"Oh? Why did this body appear there? As soon as Duanmu Qingzheng heard Wan Zhenfan's report, he immediately felt that this matter was unusual, so he immediately asked.

"Because the subordinates were far away, they didn't hear the conversation of the soldier who found the body, so it was not clear."

"In that case, immediately bring someone to closely monitor the changes in Tsukiyama Tomita City during this time, and come back in time to report." Duanmu Qingzheng arranged for his subordinates to continue to investigate, but at the same time, he said resolutely in his heart, "It seems that something is really going to happen to the Nizi family." ”

It is true that just as Duanmu Kiyomasa expected, something really happened to the Niko family, because the soldiers of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle found a secret letter on the body of the body, and the content of the letter was about Niko Kunihisa and his son, who wanted to lead the Shingu Party to rebel, and made an appointment with Maori Yuan on a time and place, etc. After reading this letter, Niko Haruhisa immediately burst into a rage, and immediately ordered Niko Kunihisa and his son to come to the audience and defend themselves.

After receiving the summons and secret letters, the father and son of Nizi Kunihisa really brought dozens of retinues as escorts, and immediately set off for Gassan Tomita Castle. After all, they really didn't rebel, and although they were arrogant, they weren't so arrogant that they dared to refuse even the call of the governor.

However, to the surprise of the father and son of Niko Kunihisa, when they were still halfway to Getsan Tomita Castle, they were suddenly besieged by an army of the Niko family, which was several times their size led by Nishijubei and Tachihara Bizen Shousho. And the slogan of besieging them was to accuse Niko Kunihisa and his son of rebellion.

Although Niko Kunihisa and his son resisted and asked to go to Niko Haruhisa to defend themselves in person, the Ten Soldiers and Tachihara Bizen Guard, who had already received Niko Haruhisa's killing order, finally slashed and killed Niko Kunihisa and his son and others one by one. Subsequently, under the arrangement of Nizi Haruhisa, a large number of troops slaughtered the territory of Nizi Kunijiu's father and son, Xingong Valley, and the Shingong Party was scattered, and all the backbone personnel were detained.

"Quick, pen and ink are waiting, I will immediately write a letter about the situation and report it to the lord." Duanmu Qingzheng, who learned the news, immediately ordered. At the same time, Hosaku, who had hidden powerful names such as the Mori family in Izumo Province, also sent the shocking news back to their respective families. (To be continued......)