After a night of chatting, no one knew what Gao Shisheng had instructed the monk to clear the sky, and after the rain stopped at dawn, the convoy started to hit the road again.

The street from Mikamachi Yakuba to Sakushu Castle is 16 miles long and four feet wide, and it is built along the shore of Lake Nakai, and the thick loess is rammed as hard as stone, even after being washed away by heavy rains, it is the main passage connecting Sakuma Castle to the east to Iiya Castle and to Sunfu.

The road is wide enough to accommodate six horses or four ox carts in parallel and can transport more than 100,000 koto worth of goods from to Kanto every year. But now, the motorcade of Gao Shisheng and Nagata's family can only park on the dirt ground next to the street, waiting for the street to reopen.

A group of banners and horsemen, each holding a banner seal and a banner to praise the guide, followed by a hundred and ten armor-wearing ashigaru walks. Ashigaru is divided into two parts, front and back, supporting a group of more than 30 people in the middle with a vermilion-handled umbrella to cover the 'colored sedan chair'.

This entire queue has nearly ten town lengths from beginning to end, and the number of people is about 300. Just look at the number of warriors in Maji, not to mention the strength of a team. Although the three kingdoms of Tokaido were adjacent to Shinshu, there were never many cavalry—or rather, the number of cavalry in the entire Daimyo army was pitiful. The Imagawa family, together with the genealogy and the countrymen, is only about 1,500 horsemen. And now the team that has marched in front of Gao Shisheng accounts for one-tenth of them.

"It's from the Mikawa Kira family, but I don't know if it's the Tojo Kira family, or the Saijo Kira family." Through the Ashikaga two-tael quotation on the flag, it is easy to identify the identity of the person, and it seems that he is going to Sunpu Castle to pay homage.

Gao Shisheng stopped and looked sideways, as the acting official of the Imagawa family, he should maintain respect for the Ashikaga family and the Kira clan of the Imagawa clan, but who can know the sigh in his heart for this declining samurai family.

During the Muromachi shogunate, there was a legend that "Kira Ji, Kira's heir, Imagawa Ji", and it is said that the concubines of the Kira family had the right to inherit the Ashikaga family. At that time, the Kira family was centered on Mikawa Kiraso, and its influence reached as far as Toe. However, after the Imagawa clan took control of Enoe, the Kira clan gradually declined and only occupied a corner of Nishimikawa, and split into the Tojo Kira clan and the Saijo Kira clan.

In the troubled times of the Warring States, it may be common for families to split and strong enemies to be around, but as far as Tokaido is concerned, none of them are as miserable and sad as the Kira family. The Kira clan, who once ruled Mikawa, killed each other in the Onin Rebellion, and the blood-stained Taidao slashed the foundation of a century-old famous family, and after the grass-like killing, the gods and Buddhas in the sky also closed their eyes.

Perhaps it was the endless attacks that exhausted both the Eastern and Western Kira clans and lost all their strength, and Kira Yoshiaki's second brother Kira Yoshiyasu was welcomed to the Tojo Kira family as an adopted son—perhaps more appropriately interpreted as a proton—and thus had the inheritance of the Tojo Kira clan.

In the sixth year of astronomy, the head of the Saijo family, Kira Yoshigo, died of illness, and the second brother Kira Yoshian returned to inherit the position of family governor. Soon after, due to the death of the head of the Tojo Kira family, Kira Momoto, Kira Yoshian succeeded the Tojo Kira clan, and the Saijo Kira clan was succeeded by his brother Kira Yoshiaki.

In order to protect the family business, the Kira clan finally ended the decades-long fighting and reunited reluctantly, but at that time, the crisis of Mikawa could be described as a critical and precarious situation.

The sudden rise of Mikawa in the country, and later generations praised Matsudaira Kiyoyasu as "if you live to the age of thirty, you can win the world", has just died mysteriously in Moriyama Castle; Odari Tiger, Oda Nobuhide, who was repelled by Kiyoyasu's strong yoshi, and Tokaido Daiichi Yutori Imagawa Yoshimoto regrouped and once again planned for the Mikawa invasion.

As the guardian of the three rivers in the past, the Kira clan was caught in the predicament of being attacked from three sides and staring at each other, and in order to preserve the family name, it can be said that they used all means to struggle hard. The one who gave the Kira family the strongest oppression was the Suruga Imagawa clan, which can be called the Kira clan's division.

How can outsiders understand the sorrow of this, because in the battle of Ansei Castle in the eighteenth year of Astronomical, the head of the Tojo family, Kira Yoshiyasu, colluded to assist the Oda army, and was captured by the Imagawa army and sent to Sunfu for detention. Yoshiaki Kira, on the other hand, was acquiesced in by Yoshimoto Imagawa after the war because he threw himself into the Imagawa army, and obtained the dominance of the Tojo Kira clan in the position of a leader to curb the expansion of the Ansei Matsudaira clan and maintain the balance of power among the Nishi-Mikawa clans.

In the first year of Koji, Matsudaira Takechiyo served as a skitko in the Imagawa family, and it was Kira Yoshian who served as a barber, in order to raise the name of the Matsudaira family, and Gao Shisheng was quite impressed, and then Kira Yoshian was imprisoned in Yakita Village, Shida County, Suruga Province, and his whereabouts are unknown.

In the second year of Hongji, the Kira clan reached a rapprochement with Owari guardian Spo Yoshigin, and once again secretly communicated with the song, and behind Spo Yoshiin at that time, it was the later Sixth Heaven Demon King, the current Owari Great Fool Oda Nobunaga.

Now he put down his position again and sent hostages to Sunpu Castle to visit the Hajj, because Saijo Castle was broken by the Matsudaira army last year, and the Kira family could no longer bear the oppression of Matsudaira Motoyasu's army, so they decided to send Yoshiko again to express his surrender to Imagawa Yoshimoto.

These 300 people, with mixed armor and uniforms, are estimated to have been put together with great effort by the Kira family in order to maintain the demeanor of a famous family and at the same time not to be underestimated by the Imagawa clan.

'I knew why I had to do it today. Gao Shisheng secretly slandered in his heart, if he surrendered honestly, he might not be able to unite the power of the east and west and re-become the banner head of the country of Nishimikawa, where would he be beaten by the Matsudaira family and couldn't raise his head, and even lost his original evidence, and was forced to move to the original base of the Higashigira family, the head of the past, and Tojo Castle survived.

Although the Kira family is in decline, after all, it is the identity of the Ashikaga dismount, and the son-in-law of the family travels, and he is an idler to avoid. Although it is not like the Imagawa family governor who went out on patrol to come to the samurai along the way to visit and bow to the court, but in the past, the people avoided the road, but it was indispensable.

"Really majestic······ Looking at the queue of the Kira family, Nagata Mori was in a completely different mood.

"This is natural, the Ashikaga gate of the Yakataden, the guardian daimyo who ruled the Mikawa country, the shogunate to pay the heads of the people, the head of the public, and the courtiers and samurai led by the world Genpei Fujitachibana are tens of thousands, but there are not many nobles who can compare with the Kamikira family. If it was fifty years ago, he would even be able to go out to tour the world on behalf of the public party and adjudicate the disputes and disputes of the wealthy family. ”

Although he knows the details of the Kira family, for the purpose of maintaining the face of the Imagawa family, he still brags about the glory of the past for his lord's down-and-out family.

It's a pity that this glory is as old as the felt saddle used to open the way in front of the Imagawa family, just like the saddle of the felt used to open the way in front of the people.

Standing on the side of the road, Gao Shisheng looked at the horses guarding the sedan chair, and he still had a feeling of indescribability in his heart.

Half envy, half longing. Envy the retinue who are hugging each other, and also longing for some of the power that the Kira family still has.

'Be an official and be a guard general, and marry a wife to Oda City!' I don't know why such a sentence suddenly appeared in Gao Shisheng's mind, and then he felt that it was really unlucky, Asai Nagamasa's common name was called Shinkuro like himself, and finally his head was cut off by his righteous brother as a wine jug.

Although it has been in decline for many years, the Kira family still has a powerful daimyo of 70,000 koku in Hato-gun, Mikawa Province, and it is also the top ten countrymen in the entire Tokaido.

The Owari Oda clan and the Mikawa Matsudaira clan are now separated, and when they are separated from the German land, the Ishitaka actually controlled by them is not necessarily much more than the Kira family, which is why the Kira clan dares to continue to test the bottom line of the Sunfu after the merger of the East and West families.

Matsudaira Motoyasu was able to break through Saijo Castle, not because the army was really overwhelmed, but because of the support and strategy of the Imagawa clan behind the million-stone daimyo Imagawa clan, so that many Kira families and subordinate countrymen rebelled against the rebellion, remained neutral, and did not dare to help the main family against the Matsudaira invasion with a clear banner.

But this does not mean that the Kira family has really decayed to the point of allowing the Matsudaira family, a native of the West Mikawa country, to arbitrarily cut off their own Wanxing, this time to give in to Imagawa Yoshimoto, it is estimated that it will not be long before the Junfu will order that the Matsudaira family obediently return the old Kira domain that was embezzled before.

The queue of the Kira family had gone far, and they saw a long dragon marching eastward, and the passing caravan that was forced to the side of the road drove the pack carts into the street, and Nagata Mori said, "Gosa, it's time to go on the road!" ”

Gao Shisheng came back to his senses and smiled apologetically at Nagata Sheng.

He looked up, looking at the rolling dust tail and was full of ambition, this is the power of a daimyo, no matter how down, there are thousands of people who will work for it and die.

If he has such power, how can he be humiliated by a lowly servant who is not from a filthy and inhuman background, this is the first time that Gao Shisheng has an ambition for power, or ambition.

And Hasegawa Hayato also came to the back of the convoy and kicked up the two Yamanfu who were squatting on the ground to rest, "It's time to hit the road, we can all point to you two for our fortune today!" ”

Compared to the empty monk sitting in the ox cart, Mitsuhide Naito and his other accomplice were much more tired, carrying a large red and black cloth bag, which contained the severed head of the mountain that died in the battle last night.

The two were chained to the back of the convoy and walked for half a day, already thirsty and tired. Finally, I rested for a while, and before I could breathe, I saw that I was about to hurry again, and shouted together with the wheel: "Come and drink!" ”

Hasegawa Hayato glanced at them and scolded, "Why are there so many things!" But he still stepped forward, found someone to take a bamboo tube filled with wine and handed it to him, and then asked: "My hometown asks, do you drink it all in one breath and wait for death, or do you drink it slowly and get beheaded until the day of beheading?" ”

"Straight lady thief, I'm a thief, and I'm not a bitter shaver in the field!" Mitsuhide Naito scolded, then poked his head and drank most of the bamboo tube of wine, which really quenched his thirst!

Nunu gestured to the other party and gave the rest to his brother, Hasegawa Hayato gave a thumbs up, righteous enough, and a man.

After walking some more distance, when Mitsuhide Naito felt thirsty and hungry again, suddenly another rider came running up and handed him a bottle of sake, plus a piece of half-smoked dried meat. He was tied with a rope and stretched his neck, and after eating bacon and wine with his accomplices in the hands of the rider, of course, the rider continued to ask him the same question Hayato Hasegawa had asked before, and Mitsuhide Naito gave the same answer.

When I was about to walk to the castle town of Sakujo, before the rider came over to ask questions, Mitsuhide Naito shouted, "Don't forget to give me rice at night, you want good polished rice!" These words provoked the Lang Dang of the Nagata family around him, and they all laughed, when he was tired and dizzy.

············

Gao Shisheng and the others returned to the road, but within two hours, the convoy arrived at Saku Castle Town.

According to the custom, they were arranged to enter one first, and they rested first in the old camp not far from the castle town. Although the Nagata family has been going back and forth to the counties of Tokaido for many years, and is very familiar with the garrison of the city, the rules cannot be changed, and the large group of people are not allowed to enter the city until they are searched, this is to prevent the enemy from sending Hosaku and ninjas to steal the city, after all, there has been a precedent of the 'Wolf of Yunzhou' Niko using the ninjas to raid Tsukiyama Tomita Castle and recapture the city.

What's more, this time they were forty or fifty people with bows and knives, and two cloth bags of heads, and there were dead bodies in the car, and the defenders of Sakushi Pass couldn't think of it without checking it.

But there was Gao Shisheng who took the Guan Wen Lingzha issued by Zhuang - what was more useful was the hanging copper coin that was privately stuffed into the customs guard, and the convoy entered the camp to rest first, waiting for someone sent by the city to come and investigate.

At this time, it was not yet time to submit the application, but it was dark early in autumn, and the sun was already setting in the west, and it slowly fell into Lake Hamana outside the city.

After arranging a meal, more than 40 people occupied two longhouses, and 20 people were crowded on the wooden floor on one side, and there were no seats. Takashi Mori borrowed shackles from the camp and separated Mitsuhide Naito and the two Yamabushi and locked them in one room, while he and Nagata Mori slept in the two barracks outside the barracks, in a samurai-only room.

"Remember, now this is the barracks, not your village Zhuangzi in the countryside! After the curfew, you are not allowed to come and go without reason, don't think that this is Hongosa, this is a joke with you, if you let the night patrol ashigaru catch, the light will be forty military sticks, and the heavy will be killed! ”

Gao Shisheng stood in the middle of the longhouse with a straight face, and Hasegawa Hayato was majesticly beside him to help teach a lesson to the Lang Party, and more than forty people honestly stood in two rows and bowed their heads to listen. Although the Nagata family's nursing home traveled from south to north and knew some of the prohibitions, he still repeated it in public for the sake of safety, and this was mainly to tell Hasegawa's subordinates, but it seemed that Hasegawa Hayato himself obviously didn't realize it.

Although Naito Mitsuhide and the two Yamabushi couldn't eat polished rice for dinner before, the food was not bad, and this time they were sitting at the door of the longhouse watching the excitement, and the two of them squeezed their eyebrows and opened their mouths, not knowing what code they were playing.

Gao Shisheng's regulations were not made up by him privately. Leaving military tents and barracks privately at night is punishable by beating a military stick in public according to military law. Not to mention military law, the Imagawa Fake List clearly stipulates that those who go in and out of the people and castles at night without reason, even if the samurai of Fenggong are caught by the patrolling Ashigaru, they can be killed directly as thieves.