Edo Castle, it can be said that the Tokugawa family was built single-handedly, and at the same time, Tokugawa Iehiko set up his shogunate here, and then in order to facilitate the control of the Fuso Imperial Family, and to achieve the purpose of coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes, Tokugawa Iehiko forcibly placed most of the members of the Fuso Imperial Family who had inheritance qualifications under house arrest in the city.

As the Tokugawa family grew in power, Edo Castle is now considered by most people in Fuso to be their Kyoto, so Edo is basically marked as Kyoto on most Fuso maps, and even the daimyo of each region basically agree with this statement.

At this moment, in the shogunate in Edo Castle, Tokugawa Iehiko, who was nearly middle-aged, sat in the middle, looking at the retainers and generals who knelt in two rows in turn.

"I believe you should receive the news that our Emperor Xià has reappeared in Chiba for the rest of his life, and the Takeda family in Chiba not only did not send the Emperor Xià back, but instead held His Majesty hostage and gathered a group of rebellious samurai, intending to stand on his own, now tell me what you think. ”

Almost all of the retainers and generals present have followed Tokugawa Iehiko for many years, and it can be said that they are the ones who personally participated in the rise of the Tokugawa family and helped Tokugawa Isahiko build up the country today.

There is no doubt about the loyalty of these people to the Tokugawa family and to the Tokugawa family, and some of them even have only Tokugawa Iehiko in their eyes, and even the emperor is not regarded by them.

At this time, hearing Tokugawa Iehiko's question, a man sitting on Tokugawa Iehiko's left hand side spoke first: "Shogun, those rumors may not be true, if the shogun really wants to verify them, Sakai Tadaji is willing to go and find out the news for the shogun himself." ”

Tokugawa Iehiko turned his head to look at Sakai Tadaji who spoke, this person is the most loyal general of the Tokugawa family, known as the head of the four heavenly kings of the Tokugawa family, the means can be described as endless, and the strength and mind are very terrifying characters, which is a big reliance of Tokugawa Iehiko today.

Listening to Sakai Tadaji's words, Tokugawa Iehiko looked at the latter with some confusion and asked, "Tadaji." It seems that you don't seem to believe that the Takeda family has the strength to hold the emperor hostage?"

Sakai Tadaji shook his head calmly and said, "No, I just think that the general you overestimate the strength of that emperor, even if the Takeda family dares to help her, what storm can she set off?"

"Then, according to your intentions, how should we deal with it? If we continue to ignore it, it will affect the foundation of our entire Tokugawa family. ”

As soon as Tokugawa Iehiko finished speaking, the person sitting to his right spoke, "Shogun." We are not letting them go, in fact, if we want to solve the current situation, we only need to contact the Iga family and ask them to send some ninjas to solve the problem unknowingly. ”

The guy sitting on Tokugawa Iehiko's right hand is called "Ii Naomasa", and he is also one of the four heavenly kings under Tokugawa Iehiko, and he is in charge of the Tokugawa family's assassination force.

Naomasa Ii's words were agreed by Tadaji Sakai: "Naomasa's method is good, and it can save us a lot of material resources and manpower. General, I agree with the method of direct administration. ”

Tokugawa Ihiko lowered his head and thought for a while, and said, "The method of Naomasa is indeed feasible, but there are many daimyo in various places who do not obey our control, and if the news of our assassination of the emperor spreads. I'm afraid it will be even more detrimental to us, and in such critical matters, assassination is not a safe approach. ”

In the past, Tokugawa Iehiko would not hesitate to send ninjas to assassinate the emperor. He would not even convene a large number of retainers and generals to discuss this matter solemnly.

However, the previous incident of Tokugawa Iehiko forcing the emperor to throw himself into the sea had a very bad impact on the Tokugawa family, and the prestige of the Tokugawa family plummeted.

Many daimyo who were originally loyal to the Tokugawa family. Now they are beginning to have different hearts, especially those traditional daimyo who originally had heavy troops, and they are self-reliant in various places, almost no longer obeying any orders from the Tokugawa family, and one by one they are eyeing the Tokugawa family, ready to rush out and eat the Tokugawa family at any time.

In the nearly a year of persecuting the emperor to the sea, it can be said that Tokugawa Ihiko has also endured a lot of pressure, and the persecution from some surrounding daimyo has made it difficult for Tokugawa Isahiko to sleep.

Now Tokugawa Ihiko wants to stabilize the situation first, and he doesn't want to have a handle in the hands of the daimyo in various places, so he doesn't want to use force to get rid of the emperor, but wants to hold the emperor in his hand first.

Probably understanding Tokugawa Iehiko's thoughts, the person sitting next to him on his left side spoke: "General, since you don't want to kill that emperor, then we can send some good men to infiltrate Chiba, find the whereabouts of that emperor, and loot her back from Chiba." ”

Tokugawa Isahiko was more satisfied this time, nodded and said, "Honda's method is not bad, but we don't have any definite news yet, and we don't know where His Majesty the Emperor is?"

Yasumasa Kamihara, who was second in the right hand, then opened his mouth to analyze: "General, with the temperament that His Majesty the Emperor likes to enjoy, I'm afraid she should be in Chiba City where the Takeda family is located now, let's just send someone to Chiba City directly, so that the ninja can act in secret, and after finding out the situation, we will do it." ”

The four heavenly kings of the Tokugawa family spoke in turn, and immediately everyone reached a consensus, and decided to send a group of samurai to infiltrate Chiba Castle, let the ninjas find the traces of the emperor first, and then let the samurai formulate a plunder plan and move.

But this leader of the team made everyone feel a little headache, most of the people present had their own affairs, they needed to deter the enemies from all directions, and they couldn't leave, otherwise it might lead to problems within the Tokugawa family, which made Tokugawa Ihiko fall into a problem again.

After pondering for a long time, suddenly Tokugawa Iehiko remembered someone, raised his head to look in the direction of the last seat, and suddenly shouted, "Where is Iga Ming?"

With a promise, a black shadow suddenly appeared from behind, as if a phantom knelt in front of the door of the middle hall, kneeling to Tokugawa Isahiko to listen to Tokugawa Ichihiko's order: "General, what do you command?"

"Ming, I'm sure you've heard the one you just said, so I'm asking you now, would you like to be the commander of this mission, and I'll go and bring back His Majesty the Emperor for me?"

The phantom who was kneeling at the end of the middle hall, when he heard this, raised his head and glanced at Tokugawa Iehiko, thought for a while and replied: "Since the general needs it, then Iga Ming will naturally live up to expectations and be willing to try, and try to help the general complete the task you have assigned, but it's just ......"

Next, Iga Ming in the phantom did not continue, as if he had some scruples about Tokugawa Ihiko, and was worried that his next words would anger the other party.

However, Tokugawa Ihiko knew what the other party was going to say, and after thinking about it, he directly promised: "If you complete this mission, I can let you go, and I will never trouble your Iga family again." ”

Iga raised his head and looked at Tokugawa Iehiko when he heard this, his eyes revealed an incredible color, and he was stunned for a moment and asked: "Is the general's words serious? Will you really let me go of the Iga family? As long as I can complete this mission, will you no longer pursue the Iga family's disrespect to you?"

Tokugawa Iehiko nodded: "Yes, I can do what I say, as long as you can bring the emperor back to me intact, I will go to the country Iga family." ”

With that, Tokugawa Iehiko reminded again: "However, I hope that the Iga family will not oppose me again. ”

The reason why Tokugawa Iehiko said this is because the Iga family used to be loyal to the imperial family, and during the reign of Sakura's father, the ninjas of the Iga family were ordered to assassinate many people in the Tokugawa family.

At that time, Tokugawa Iehiko, who had not yet inherited the position of shogun, once watched his brother and mother die under the ninja sword of the Iga family, and later Tokugawa Iehiko took power, so he spent a lot of energy to force and suppress the Iga family with thunder, and finally almost wiped out the entire Iga family.

If it weren't for the head of the Iga family, at the expense of the loyalty of the entire Iga family, I'm afraid that the ninjas of the Iga family would have already become history, and as the current head of the Iga family, Iga Naru naturally knows the strength and strength of the Tokugawa family.

Therefore, at the beginning of taking charge of the Iga family, Iga Ming faithfully followed Tokugawa Iehiko, and he never compromised on completing the tasks assigned by Tokugawa Iehiko.

It can be said that the Tokugawa family can do almost everything that can't be done on the surface, Iga Ming has done it for him, and the Tokugawa family can control the strength and other information of the surrounding daimyo in their hands, and it is also thanks to the Iga family ninjas of Iga Ming, if it weren't for the secret help of those ninjas, I'm afraid the Tokugawa family may not be able to do a stable job in the position of general.

Now, Tokugawa Ihiko actually said that he would give up control of the Iga family, which is equivalent to giving the Iga family freedom, and Iga Ming is completely free to choose who to turn to, which is a bit incredible for Iga Ming.

Tadamasa Sakai, who was sitting on Tokugawa Iehiko's left hand, first came to his senses and hurriedly said to Tokugawa Iehiko: "General, this matter must not be allowed, we still need to rely on the Iga family ninja now, if we give up the Iga family like this, it will be very unfavorable to us in the future, I hope the general will think twice." ”

Seeing that someone stood up to stop him, Iga Ming didn't feel any surprise, after all, the Iga family had too many secrets of the daimyo, and they also controlled the Tokugawa family's intelligence organization, how could Tokugawa Iehiko let himself go?

But to everyone's surprise, Tokugawa Iehiko, under the persuasion of Tadamasa Sakai and others, still insisted: "No, since I have already said it, I will definitely do it." ”

As he spoke, he looked at Iga Ming and said, "Iga Ming, as long as your Iga family can complete this mission and invite His Majesty the Emperor back to me, then I can let go of the shackles on the Iga family, of course, provided that your Iga family will not oppose me again." ”

Iga Naru quickly recovered from the shock, and knelt down to Tokugawa Iehiko very officially: "General, please rest assured, the Iga family will definitely not oppose you again, and Iga Ming will also use all the strength of the Iga family to complete the task assigned by the general, please wait here for good news." ”

With that, Iga Naru kowtowed to Tokugawa Iehiko again, and then the whole person turned into a puff of fog and disappeared silently into the middle hall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. (To be continued......)