The reason why Owari Province is recognized as an important area by the provincial government is that Atsuta Jingu, one of the three major shrines in Hoscale Prefecture, is located within the borders of the province.

Atsuta Shrine is one of the oldest and highest status shrines in Fenglu Prefecture, and legend has it that it was built thousands of years ago by Concubine Gong Zhenyuan, who was built by Wuzun Wei of Fenglu Prefecture during the struggle for power, and was used to worship the Kusanagi Sword used by the Wai Jian, that is, the Tiancong Cloud Sword, one of the three major artifacts of Fenglu Prefecture.

The main hall of Atsuta Shrine is dedicated to Wuzun and Wuzun's concubine Gong Zhenyuan, as well as the five gods of Tianmen, such as Amaterasu, Suzhan Mingzun, and Kandao Seeding, which have been highly valued in Fenglan Prefecture in the past dynasties, and have a very high majesty in the folk of Fenglin Prefecture.

In the middle of the Great Wei Dynasty, a great turmoil broke out in Fenglu Prefecture, when the shogunate declined, the daimyo rose one after another, and the countries fought for power with each other.

At that time, the most powerful of the daimyo was Nobunaga Gong, who was the daimyo of Owari Province at the time, and he sent troops to attack the daimyo in various places, aiming to unify the world, and was known as "Tianxia Buwu", while the first regent of the Toyotomi family, Sekihaku, was only one of the generals under Nobunaga at that time.

After Nobunaga was forced to death by the rebellion of his subordinates, the first generation of the Toyotomi family, Sekihaku, gradually mastered Nobunaga's power, and finally pacified the troubled times, unified Fenglan Prefecture, and called himself "the people of the world".

Legend has it that Nobunaga was invaded by a powerful enemy, and before the decisive battle, he prayed to the gods in Atsuta Shrine, and finally miraculously won. The "Nobunaga Screen" in the current Atsuta Shrine is a wall dedicated by Nobunaga Gong to the shrine, and later the first generation of the Toyotomi family, Sekihaku, also overhauled the shrine, and in recent years, the emperor and empress of Hoshishu have also visited here.

A shrine that is extremely important to the Heavenly Gate, a shrine that enshrines one of the few top demi-immortals in the Phoenix Scale Prefecture, the Tiancong Cloud Sword, and a shrine that is heavily guarded and has many organs.

If you want to scout this shrine, you really have to risk your life.

Nie Zhan finished eating the dry food in his hand, and saw that Ran Hegui was still sitting there silently without saying a word, laughed twice, and took the initiative to resolve the embarrassment: "What, you're still not happy to say two words about you?" ”

"Whoever is unhappy, eat and sleep silently, this is the rule of etiquette." Eating the last bit of jerky in his hand, Ran He glanced at Nie Zhan and continued: "I set off on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and I only ate one marching pill after sitting on the boat for three days, I don't have the strength to fool around with you." ”

Nie Zhan suddenly became anxious: "How can you call fooling around?" I'm anxious for the future of our brothers! You Ran Xueyi is twenty-five or sixteen this year, brother, I am obsessed with how old you are, and now you are twenty-seven, but now you have only mixed a seven-grade Taoist, if we can't earn more merits in this Fenglan State war, this life will end like this! ”

Nie Zhan glared at Ran Hegui angrily and continued: "Don't forget, the Dao Sect stipulates that only those who rank as a sixth-grade Taoist priest before the age of thirty can be included in the ranks of 'Preparatory Sacrificial Wine', and those who rank as a fifth-grade Taoist priest before the age of thirty-five can be included in the ranks of 'Alternate Sacrificial Wine'. If you can't get a 'Xuanzi Gong' and be promoted to a six-grade Taoist priest in this mission, not to mention that you want to be a four-grade sacrificial wine Taoist, you can't even get the 'alternate sacrificial wine' and 'preparatory sacrificial wine', we will definitely have to go to the battlefield to make up for this credit! ”

Ran Hegui was still silent, but there was still a hint of wavering in his heart.

He is not a very ambitious person, but now that the war is about to start, it is indeed a rare good opportunity for these low-level Taoist priests, if they don't upgrade to a higher level at this time, I'm afraid this life will be wasted.

Seeing that Ran Hegui seemed to have been moved by his own words, Nie Zhan continued to persuade: "I know what you're worried about, Brother Zhan, I've been in the rivers and lakes for some time, and I've done a lot of reconnaissance and assassination like this, as long as you follow me to do things, there will definitely be no danger." ”

"I'm so secure, if I didn't know that you used to be a Taoist priest in Youfang, I would have thought that the killer of the "inn" was talking next to me, if you said that I had done the assassination of the emperor of Fengfang Prefecture before, I would have hugged your thigh directly! Ran Hegui secretly slandered himself, but still cooperated and said: "Yes, yes, with Brother Xiongfei's help, our mission is guaranteed to be completed smoothly." ”

Nie Zhan patted Ran Hegui's shoulder arrogantly: "I've told you a few times, it's called Brother Zhan!" When you and I were in the rivers and lakes, you didn't know where to play the Xuansheng card with your classmates in the Vientiane Dao Palace. ”

As if he suddenly thought of something, Nie Zhan lowered his voice and asked, "Is there any one of your classmates at that time with the surname Qi?" ”

Ran He was stunned for a moment, and then reacted: "You're talking about Lao Qi...... That Qi master of Ziwei Hall is right? ”

As if realizing that he had said the wrong thing, Ran Hegui immediately changed his words after shouting the word "Lao Qi".

Nie Zhan didn't hear the wrong thing in these words, nodded and said: "That's the one, I heard that he is also from the Vientiane Dao Palace and is also your age, so I wonder if he and you will be classmates of the Vientiane Dao Palace." ”

Ran Hegui gave an affirmative answer: "Yes, I live in the same room with him and Lao Mo, and I used to play together when I was in the Dao Palace, what are you asking for?" ”

Nie Zhan couldn't hide his excitement: "What do you mean by 'asking this for what'?" Do you know how majestic this Qi master is now! A fourth-grade director who is less than thirty years old still has some inexplicable relationship with the deputy hall master Zhang, and there is Donghua Zhenren behind him to support him. If you can catch up with him, if you don't transfer to Ziwei Hall sooner now, where can you still use it to earn credit from birth to death here? ”

Ran Hegui hesitated for a while, but still replied stubbornly: "People say that 'heroes are afraid of seeing old neighbors', I haven't been in touch with Lao Qi for many years, and I haven't been able to meet him since I came out of the Vientiane Dao Palace, and I didn't have time to participate in the last classmate meeting." Taking a step back, even if Lao Qi can read some old friendships with his classmates, I don't have the face to beg him to help me, after all, it was ...... back then."

"That incident back then" naturally refers to Yue Liuli's assassination of Qi Xuansu during the Dragon and Tiger Meeting.

At that time, Qi Xuansu and Ran Hegui were unfortunate to be assigned to the Dragon Society, and they also unfortunately became the "dead soldiers" who were sent out by Yue Liuli to die.

Although they were all rescued by Jiao Xi in the end, Qi Xuansu was still slashed by Wan Xiuwu and had to lie in bed for half a month.

Ran Hegui felt sorry for Lao Qi's place here.

At that time, he could obviously block that knife for Qi Xuansu, but he was afraid.

Although Lao Qi usually climbed over the wall with him, made mistakes, ate noodles, and even reprimanded and punished each other for each other, but looking at the extremely cold knife light with a deadly aura, Ran He was still afraid in the end.

Although he took care of Qi Xuansu for half a month afterwards, he didn't have the courage to offend Yue Liu, who was the proud son of the Vientiane Dao Palace, because of this matter.

Fortunately, the two of them have now received retribution, Wan Xiuwu was killed by the cult demon, and Yue Liuli was also imprisoned in the Lock Demon Tower Cave Heaven because of the persecution of his classmates.

He really deserved it.

Nie Zhan saw that Ran Hegui's face was not good, and he didn't mention Qi Xuansu's matter again, and pulled Ran Hegui to meditate and rest together, until the order to gather sounded in the ears of the two again.

There were a total of forty Taoist priests sent to reconnoiter Owari Province this time, except for one fourth-rank chief and two fifth-grade deacons, the remaining thirty-seven were seventh-grade Taoist priests like Ran Hegui.

It's not that the Fenglu Prefecture Provincial Government doesn't want to send high-end combat forces to help these scout teams, it's just that the big war is imminent, and the mansion masters in the Fenglu Prefecture need to keep in touch with Yujing at all times, and several deputy mansion masters are entangled in matters such as guarding against rebels and pacifying the Fenglu Prefecture Imperial Court, the Yipin Lingguan is seizing the time to prepare for military affairs, and that Pingzhang Dazhen is even more in charge of the overall situation, and the entire Fenglu Prefecture Provincial Government is so busy that their feet don't touch the ground, and some teams have begun to "pull strong ding" in those Taoist priests who have withdrawn from the local Taoist temple to the Taoist Mansion in order to ensure rapid reconnaissance.

It's a pity that Owari has a special status, and the Tianmen and Owari Toyotomi families did not allow the Daomen to set up a Taoist temple here, otherwise there are a few Taoist priests who know the way to stay in the team, and this mission can be smoother.

Zheng Yi, the Taoist priest of the Four Grades Festival and the head of the Fenglan Prefecture Provincial Government, was looking at the more delicately drawn map of Owari Country in front of him, and saw that he frowned, as if he was worried about something.

The deacons Jiao Qi and Meng Yue beside him saw that their master was embarrassed, and after the two glanced at each other, Jiao Qi took the lead in asking, "Master Zheng, but what is difficult to decide?" ”

Zheng Yi didn't sell it, pointed to a city on the map and said: "Look, this city in the northeast is Nakono Castle that is closest to us, this one in the north is Cheongju Castle, the main city of Owari Province, and there is also Narumi City in the southeast. We don't have enough people to reconnoiter all the surrounding castles, let alone send people to reconnoiter Inuyama Castle and the more important Atsuta Jingu Shrine, which is farther away from us. ”

He paused for a moment and continued: "The Imperial Minister of Fenglu Prefecture has already sent ninjas to reconnoiter the four cities of Owari Province before, and has also shared the information detected by those ninjas with our provincial government, but that was already December, and now that it has been more than a month, I don't know if the situation in these four cities has changed." ”

Deacon Meng Yue pondered for a moment and replied, "The 'Imperial Three Families' rebelled, the Toyotomi family was in civil strife, and the three kingdoms of Omi, Owari, and Enoe attacked each other, and now the people of all parties have been facing each other at Kuchigi Valley Castle at the junction of Yamashiro Province and Omi Province. Judging from the map, Inuyama Castle and Narumi Castle were not able to directly transport troops to the avenue near Kuchigi Valley Castle, and they had to transfer troops from Nakono Castle and Kiyoshu Castle, so there must have been a lot of soldiers in Inuyama and Narumi Castle. ”

Jiao Qi said: "Considering that the Owari Toyotomi family has always been hostile and defensive towards the two feudal lords of Mino Province and Mikawa Province, they will definitely leave a fairly powerful garrison in Inuyama Castle bordering Mino and Narumi Castle bordering Mikawa, and they will not be mobilized easily. ”

Zheng Yi nodded approvingly, but still felt that there would be a flaw in this arrangement, and just as he was about to find out where there was still a problem, a voice came from the surrounding crowd: "Chief, my subordinates have a suggestion, please send a few brothers to the official roads and avenues of Ochiai and Gudu counties to carefully investigate." ”

Zheng Yi and the others followed the prestige and found that it was a young man with a satchel who spoke.

It is Ran Hegui.

Zheng Yi looked at the two counties that Ran Hegui said, looked up and asked, "Tell me, why did you think of these two places?" ”

Ran Hegui walked neatly to the map, slid his finger from Inuyama City to Cheongju Castle, and explained: "Just now Deacon Meng talked about the route of transporting troops, I paid special attention to the main road between these four cities, and found that if a large number of soldiers were to be transported from Inuyama Castle to Cheongju Castle, they would have to pass through Asano and Ochiai Counties, and considering the distance problem, reconnaissance of Ochiai County is the most suitable choice for our current situation." ”

He slid his finger from Narumi Castle to Nakono Castle again, and then explained: "Reconnaissance of Gudu County is also for the same reason, so that we only need to use very little energy to scout the Troop Transport Avenue, or to find out from the local residents, whether Inuyama and Narumi Castle have transported troops to other places, and how many troops have been transported, combined with the information that those ninjas have found out before, we can deduce the strength of the troops stationed in the two places now." ”

Zheng Yi looked at the road on the map carefully, then nodded with satisfaction, and looked at Ran Hegui approvingly: "Observe really carefully, you are ......"

Ran Hegui hurriedly introduced himself: "Subordinate Ran Hegui." ”

Zheng Yi tilted his head and thought for a while, and then clapped his hands vigorously: "I remember, you are the Ran 500 who won the 500 Taiping money of Deputy Mansion Master Cao by playing the Xuansheng card!" ”

The surrounding Taoist priests immediately burst into laughter.

Ran Hegui laughed embarrassedly twice: "The master has a good memory, I just had a small bet with Deputy Mansion Master Cao in private, which is not true." ”

Jiao Qi scolded with a smile: "I don't know what is in charge, this kid is my subordinate, he doesn't have any bad habits, he just likes to gamble in private, his luck is quite good, and he has never lost a lot of money." ”

Zheng Yi smiled and nodded, then put away his smiling face, and Zhengse ordered: "Deacon Jiao, you take twelve people to Qingzhou City, remember to send people to reconnoiter Ochiai County; Deacon Meng, you take twelve people to Naguye City, remember to send people to reconnoiter Gudu County; Leave three people to guard the evacuation boat, and the rest go with me to Atsuta Jingu; Now to the table, come back here at this time in five days to gather. ”

Zheng Yi's gaze swept over everyone, and said solemnly: "Everyone, whether this battle can be won or not depends on us, this mission must not fail, understand?" ”

"I will wait until I understand, for the sake of the Daomen, I will not give up!" The crowd replied in unison.

At this time, the sky was just dawning, and the lords and representatives of the four castles of Owari Province were just preparing to start the day's work arrangements and garrison tasks, looking forward to the end of this seemingly ordinary day.

Unbeknownst to them, a spike had been plunged deep into their flesh.

Ran Hegui and his party are thorns in their flesh.