Atsuta-gun, Owari Province, inside an inn near Atsuta Jingu.

Zheng Yi was listening to the reports of his subordinates one by one.

I saw a Taoist priest say: "I found out from the priest on duty in the shrine that there has been no large-scale transfer of soldiers in the Atsuta shrine recently, combined with our investigation in the vicinity two days ago, I think this statement can be accepted." ”

Someone immediately added, "My subordinates secretly asked the eight pilgrims who went to Atsuta Jingu to pray for prayers, and they didn't feel that the situation in the shrine was any different from before. ”

After this person finished speaking, it was Nie Zhan's turn to make a report: "When I was collecting information near the hotel, I noticed that there was a Quan Miyi in the Divine Palace who had a bad reputation, so I deliberately found that Quan Miyi in the Divine Palace, and bribed him with an excuse. ”

Nie Zhan cleared his throat and continued: "Because Quan Miyi is usually responsible for specific social affairs, and You Yi is mainly responsible for assisting in lawsuits, this group of people can best detect the changes in the internal situation of the Divine Palace. According to the man, he and his boss Youyi had not been assigned to the Atsuta Shrine lawsuit for a long time, and all social affairs were handled by the Quan Shrine Attorney - he suspected that the lawsuit had left Atsuta Shrine. ”

Zheng Yi listened to the report of his subordinates, took a bite of the rice ball in his hand, and summarized the report: "According to Xueyi's information, not long ago, several ninjas took away a long knife-like artifact from the Atsuta Shrine, and it is reasonable to suspect that it is the Tiancong Cloud Sword. Now that the lawsuit here also has the possibility of 'leaving the Shrine', then we might as well make the worst inference - that lawsuit and the Heavenly Cloud Sword have both left the Atsuta Shrine, and now their whereabouts are unknown, and the danger is extremely great. ”

The Taoist priests in the room instantly felt that the atmosphere was a little heavier.

Ran Hegui drank the bowl of strangely colored miso soup in his hand, silently feeling the strange smell of water from the tip of his tongue to his throat, and finally fell into his stomach.

The situation is as strange as the taste of this bowl of soup.

After thinking about it for a while, Ran Hegui put down the soup bowl and expressed his opinion: "The main thing is reasonable, the current situation in Fenglu Prefecture is treacherous, any situation can happen, and we must be on guard against this." I think this inference can be passed back to the provincial government, and it will be up to the great real people, the lord of the mansion, and the deputy lords to make a decision. ”

Zheng Yi nodded, this is the safest thing to do now, even if their inference is proved wrong in the future, the upper authorities will not give them a big note because they suggest to guard against this "worst-case scenario" - on the contrary, if this inference is correct and the Daomen has taken measures to deal with this situation in advance, then they can be regarded as a great achievement.

There is no infallible and reliable intelligence in the war, otherwise what would those armies do? It would be nice to directly compete with the elite level of the scouts.

Zheng Yi got up, patted the dust on the feather weaving, and decisively ordered: "After lunch, I will report the information and inferences I have found to Deputy Mansion Master Cao, and then return to the previously agreed meeting point and join the rest of the brothers." ”

With that, he threw the last bite of the rice ball into his mouth.

Everyone nodded, and the speed of eating was also accelerated, and some of the people who had already finished eating began to prepare the dry food they needed for the return trip.

Ran Hegui drank all the miso soup, and was about to pack up his dry food, when he suddenly smelled a sweet and greasy smell, and immediately became alert, turned his head to look at the door, and found that a bamboo and wood pipe protruded into the room through the crack in the door, which seemed to be the source of the smell.

He was about to give a warning, but suddenly he felt dizzy, and he forced himself to look around, and found that everyone in the room was just like him, and some people had even collapsed on the floor.

How is this possible, it is impossible for them to be recruited so quickly with the amount of drug blown in by that small bamboo pipe, and the food and water in the hotel in the past two days have also been personally checked by Director Zheng, so there should be no chance for people to start......

The gradual blurring of his mind made Ran Hegui lose the ability to think, and he, like other people who had been drugged, slowly fell to the ground.

After about a cup of tea, the door was slowly pushed open, and the innkeeper walked in with three fellows—strangely they didn't seem to be affected by the drug.

One of the fellows crouched down to investigate the fainted Taoist priests, while the other boasted in the Japanese language: "No matter how many times you have seen it, your lordship makes this incense so exquisite." ”

The innkeeper snorted proudly, and boasted a little ostentatiously: "That's nature, but I bought this incense from a Nakashinobi lord at a great price, and I have never made a mistake in using it—this incense has to be taken orally and inhaled through the nose, otherwise it is no different from ordinary spices." Even if the celestials of their Dao Sect came to inspect the food, they wouldn't be able to find my hands and feet, let alone them. ”

The guy just wanted to continue to brag a few words, when he heard a bang, and then his head burst open like a watermelon that had been smashed by a heavy punch, and Bai Huahua's brains and fishy blood were scattered everywhere along with the skull fragments, like a goddess scattering flowers.

The innkeeper's eyes widened in horror, and he hurriedly looked at the place where the sound of the gun had come, and he didn't even have time to wipe off a piece of brain that had fallen on his face.

I saw Zheng Yi sitting on the ground, holding a "Shenlong Handcuff" with green smoke in his right hand, which slowly drooped down because of weakness, and his cold gaze just met the innkeeper.

The boss was shocked and angry, stepped forward quickly, kicked away the "Divine Dragon Handcuff" in Zheng Yi's hand, reached out and pinched Zheng Yi's chin, and asked sharply: "How come!" How come you weren't fascinated by the incense! ”

Zheng Yi took a sip of the boss and laughed mockingly: "Your broken mist incense here is really bad, if it is a little later, Lao Tzu will be able to recover and slaughter a few of your miscellaneous pieces!" It's a pity that the hand is a little off, otherwise it would have exploded in the head of your old dog. ”

The innkeeper was extremely angry, and punched Zheng Yi in the face as if venting, calmed down a little, and instructed the remaining two guys: "Hurry up and clean them up, especially this guy, tie him two more loops of rope." ”

As if remembering something, he said again: "Don't hurt your life, what Aoyama Yayi wants is alive, and the dead can't ask for any information." ”

The two men nodded their heads repeatedly, ready to work together to carry a fainted Taoist priest out of the room, when they suddenly felt a piercing pain in their chests, looked down, and found that a piece of knife had pierced their hearts from the back of their hearts.

The two fell forward unwillingly, and were very surprised by the attack they suffered - didn't the boss say that he had never missed a hand with the incense?!

And the boss who boasted about Haikou and said "I have never missed" before a stick of incense also looked at the Taoist priest holding a double knife like a ghost, and he couldn't understand why his treasure was planted on these Central Plains Taoist priests.

The Taoist priest with the double knife in his hand inserted the rib cha in his hand back into the scabbard, held his knife in one hand, and walked slowly towards him under the frightened gaze of the innkeeper.

Seeing the person in front of him getting closer and closer, the boss trembled and pulled out the ribs around his waist, and just put on a posture with a knife in a rusty manner, only to see a little cold flash in front of him.

The tip of the knife slashed through his throat, and as a large stream of blood sprayed out, the owner of the black shop slowly fell to the ground, ending his life of sin.

Zheng Yi looked at all this in front of him in amazement, he watched the Taoist priest put the knife into the sheath, and asked incredulously, "Nie Zhan?" How did you ......"

Before the words fell, Nie Zhan had already come to Zheng Yi's side, stuffed the antidote pill in his hand into his mouth, and smiled slightly: "Principal, save some effort to detoxify, we have been calculated this time, it is estimated that the 'city lord' in the mouth of this old dog has already brought someone to search for us." ”

Zheng Yi nodded, and swallowed the question in his heart along with the antidote pill into his stomach, after all, it was not surprising that a former Daoist like Nie Zhan had some unusual methods.

Of course, Ran Hegui knew very well why Nie Zhan was not fascinated by the incense - it all depended on the "Returning to Void Gu" on his body.

When Nie Zhan was still a famous Taoist priest, he once traveled to southern Xinjiang, where he had a dispute with a person from the witch cult, and was assassinated by that person's Gu, but he didn't want the Gu worm to have some kind of abnormality, and it became a rare "return to the void Gu".

According to Nie Zhan's own words, he had consulted the Taoist priests of the Metamorphosis Hall and learned that the "Returning to Void Gu" was super corrosive, and could devour and digest food, pills, demon pills and other things without leaving hidden dangers and feed back to the host, so as to enhance cultivation and repair injuries, and the more nutritious the things that were swallowed, the more they could enhance their cultivation. At the same time, because Gu worms are parasitic in his stomach, anything he eats must first pass through the mouth of Gu worms, and Gu worms like poisons the most, and there is basically no such thing as poisoning, so he himself has indirectly obtained the miracle of invulnerability.

The innkeeper couldn't have imagined that he was defeated by a small Gu worm this time.

As the antidote pills were taken one by one, and the time for a cup of tea was adjusted, the person who was hit by the incense had basically recovered as before, and Zheng Yi didn't care about reporting to the Taoist government, so he hurriedly ordered everyone to pack their luggage and escape from the hostel where they stayed.

Unfortunately, they were confronted head-on by the patrol soldiers who were attracted by the sound of the guns.

Twenty or so Ashigaru armed with spears saw the people running out of the inn and were about to come forward to interrogate them, but suddenly they pulled out their handcuffs and shot at them.

In order to ensure the smooth progress of the mission, the head of the Fenglin Prefecture Provincial Government specially transferred a batch of "Blue Bird Handcuffs" from the local Tianjitang branch and distributed them to the various Taoist priests who were dispatched, which played a great role in improving the survival rate and combat effectiveness of the Taoist priests who went out to reconnoitre.

Of course, you'll have to turn the handcuffs back in when the mission is over.

The hapless Ashigaru group leader was beaten into a sieve before he could say a word, and the surviving Ashigaru were also frightened by the sudden attack, threw away their weapons and began to flee in all directions.

Seeing that everyone still wanted to come forward to pursue, Zheng Yi hurriedly ordered: "We can't continue to waste time here, evacuate quickly and go to the assembly point that was set before!" ”

The Taoist priests, who were holding back the fire because of the plot, could only retract their eyes that wanted to kill and continued to evacuate quickly towards Haidong County.

At the junction of Atsuta-gun and Haidong-gun, there is a river called "Geumcheon".

The Kanegawa River originates in the Kiso Mountains and flows westward through Mino and Owari before flowing into Ise Bay at the junction of Atsuta-gun and Kaito-gun, where it flows into the Lake Iraa waterway.

In order to save time, Zheng Yi did not choose to set off north, pass through Oshiche County and then return to Haidong County, but decided to set off directly to the west, cross Jinchuan and return to Haidong County.

And now Zheng Yi can't wait to smoke himself who made this decision before.

……

Mitsutoshi Takenaka, wearing a black hat, a military strategist's folded foot, a white array of feathers, a thick shinotsu on his feet, and an iron fan in his hand, was standing on the hillside not far away, playfully watching the group of Taoist priests who had fallen into the encirclement, and five or six samurai wearing carcasses or feet and hoods around him.

"One hundred and fifty ashigaru, eighty iron cannon ashigaru, fifty bow samurai, and all of them are dressed in belly rolls and carcass, and the deployment of the lord of Takenaka Castle is so thorough, I think these Taoist priests are difficult to fly." Yai Aoyama Taiichiro of Atsuta Jingu said with a smile.

Mitsutoshi Takenaka looked down the hillside, and the top of the heads of the ashigaru people were connected together, forming a different landscape everywhere, which was quite pleasing to the eye.

These "landscapes" form a hollow square, and in the middle is Ran Hegui and his party.

Mitsutoshi Takenaka ignored Taiichiro Aoyama's praise, but shouted in the official dialect of the Central Plains to the besieged Taoist priests: "Mitsutoshi Takenaka, the representative of the ancient no castle in Shimo, is deeply guilty to learn that you Taoist masters are coming, and they have missed the welcome, so I am waiting for you here. For the sake of this sincere heart, I would like to ask you to return to Cheongju Castle to meet the lord of the domain, who will be eager to 'hospitalize' you. ”

After saying this, Mitsutoshi Takenaka had already walked slowly down the hillside and stopped behind the group of ashigaru.

Zheng Yi's eyes kept staring at Takenaka Mitsujun, watching him walk down the hill, before he opened his mouth to respond: "I am Zheng Yi, the head of the Fenglin Prefecture Provincial Mansion and the Taoist priest of the Four Grades of Sacrifice, forgive me for the Bamboo City Lord, our group has a heavy responsibility, and we need to return to the Fengzhong Prefecture Provincial Mansion immediately to report to the Mansion Lord, and we don't have free time to meet the feudal lord, and please let the Bamboo City Lord let us go." ”

While speaking, Zheng Yi secretly made a few gestures to his subordinates.

Mitsutoshi Takenaka chuckled lightly and completely tore off the mask of hypocrisy and politeness: "Master Zheng, Lord Zheng and I are also very interested in your mission. ”

Zheng Yi snorted coldly and said disdainfully: "Exposed the fox's tail so quickly? But that's right, you wolf cubs of the Phoenix Scale Prefecture have always had this kind of attitude of revenge towards our Central Plains Celestial Empire. ”

Mitsutoshi Takenaka narrowed his eyes.

Zheng Yi continued: "I think that back then, when the ancestral dragon swept away Liuhe and ruled the world, he sent Fang Shijunfang to bring three thousand boys and girls to your Fenglan Prefecture to ask for elixir, at that time, the aborigines here were not much smarter than apes, right?" ”

"Maybe the period of thousands of years ago is too long for you, so let's talk about the more recent things. Hundreds of years ago, when the Great Qi was at its peak, your Fenglan Prefecture specially sent 'sent Qi envoys' to my Daqi to learn political culture, and your current political system, Buddhism, onmyoji, smelting technology, language and writing, etc., all of these things were learned at that time, so that our Central Plains Heavenly Dynasty can be regarded as your enlightened teacher of Fenglan Prefecture. ”

"I even heard that during the Great Jin Dynasty, your Fenglan Prefecture would also send women to my Central Plains Heavenly Dynasty to 'borrow' seeds to improve the bloodline, if this rumor is true, I'm afraid you still have to call me an ancestor now."

Mitsutoshi Takenaka silently clenched the hilt of the saber, and the samurai around him who could understand the Central Plains dialect were even more angry, eager to devour Zheng Yi alive on the spot.

Zheng Yi didn't care about these at all, and continued to scold: "My Central Plains Celestial Empire is so gracious, how do you repay it?" During the Great Wei Dynasty of the previous dynasty, in Lingnan alone, you Japanese robbers slaughtered tens of thousands of people in our Celestial Dynasty, and there were tens of thousands of women who were taken captive and sent to overseas islands to serve as hard labor! ”

"This is only Lingnan, as well as Jiangzhou, Chuzhou, Minzhou and other places, I am afraid that there are hundreds of thousands of dead and injured people, and I am afraid that there are hundreds of thousands of people who have been taken captive. And those who had to leave their homes are even more than a million! Countless dollars have been lost! ”

"Now that my Daomen has set up a Taoist temple in Fenglan Prefecture, educated the people, and helped the Prime Minister's Mansion, so great kindness and righteousness, you are not only not grateful, but you also want to cooperate with Tianmen to disobey the Tianwei of my Daomen, have you forgotten who smashed the castle tower in Xiujing City at the beginning!"

"People scold the Zhongshan wolf who wants to bite the benefactor to death as an ungrateful and shameless person, but I think that people like you who mutilate the benefactor, backstab the teacher, and rebel against the monarch's father, and use the 'Zhongshan wolf' to scold you are insulting the Zhongshan wolf, you are simply inferior to beasts!"

"Hey, don't say it, your big and small broken knives really look like wolf paws."

The samurai were completely furious, and they drew their swords one after another, trying to rush into the crowd and slash the Taoist priest alive seven or eight times, but they were all stopped by Mitsutoshi Takenaka.

Mitsujun Takenaka gently fanned the fan in his hand, and said slowly: "Master Zheng is erudite and strong, and I really admire him. But Master Zheng may not know that after the sword hunting order, we 'jackals' prefer those fresher and sharper minions. ”

After finishing speaking, Mitsutoshi Takenaka waved the fan in his hand, and the samurai and ashigaru who were holding the fire gun and the longbow received the order, and they all bent the bow and arrow.

All of a sudden, hundreds of firearms and bows were aimed at the Taoist priests in the encirclement.

Zheng Yi tugged at the corners of his mouth and said mockingly: "It's really a group of 'Zhongshan wolves' that can't be raised." ”