In the eyes of Tokugawa and the people, Lucius seemed to be a mysterious and unpredictable worldly master, and it seemed that in front of him, there was no one in the world who could be stronger than him.

It can be said that when facing Lucius alone, Tokugawa Kazuto will feel an invisible pressure, so that he does not dare to face Lucius at all, and he does not even dare to come out of the atmosphere, so he can only try to restrain the fear in his heart and try to maintain a normal attitude to stand by Lucius's side.

At this moment, being invited by Lucius to sit down and drink made Tokugawa Kazuto feel a little hesitant, not knowing how to deal with it, wanting to sit down but being a little afraid.

Lucius raised his head to look at Tokugawa Kazuto, saw the other party standing opposite him hesitating, and couldn't help but smile and said, "Hehe, why don't you want to sit down and have a drink with me?"

Tokugawa and the people recovered from the panic when they heard this, and quickly sat down opposite Lucius, lowered their heads and did not dare to look at Lucius, staring at the wine cup in front of him, and couldn't say a word for a long time, although he seemed to have a lot of things to say in his heart, but when the words came to his mouth, he just didn't know what to say?

Lucius poured Tokugawa Kazuto's wine cup full of wine, smiled and said, "Come, have a drink, don't worry, the wall of fire outside will not be extinguished for a short time, and a drink or two will not delay the war." ”

Tokugawa and Kazuto hurriedly raised the wine cup in front of him and said to Lucius, "Your Highness, and people, and people respect you." ”

After that, he directly raised his head and drank the wine in the wine cup, probably because he drank too violently, he actually choked, and quickly put down the wine cup and coughed violently.

Seeing this, Lucius took a sip of wine and asked with concern, "Are you okay?"

Tokugawa Kazuto forced down the cough, raised his head to look at Lucius and shook his head and said, "Ahem, no, it's okay, it's just that I drank a little more violently and choked." ”

Lucius continued to savor the drink, smiling and saying, "Don't worry. Taste it slowly to be worthy of this drink. ”

Tokugawa and the people responded, slowly calmed down the nervousness, grinned and looked at Lucius and said: "Your Highness, you are calm, you can not be chaotic in the face of danger, and you are a child in front of you, and you actually do some ugly things, so that Your Highness, you always follow behind me to clean up the mess." ”

In response to Tokugawa Kazuto's apologetic words, Lucius smiled and waved his hand: "No, in fact, you don't have to say that, you have done a good job." It's just that you still lack some self-confidence. ”

Speaking of this, Lucius put down the wine cup, pushed the beef slice in front of him to Tokugawa Kazuto and said: "Many times, self-confidence is very important, only by trusting yourself and believing in your own ability, you can dare to do many things, just like this plate of meat, you have the confidence to eat it." You have to be decisive. ”

As he spoke, Lucius directly picked up the chopsticks and picked up the beef slices on the plate, which Tokugawa and Kazuto didn't expect. Lucius actually picked up all the beef on the plate with a single chopstick.

Looking at the little bit of meat foam left at the bottom of the plate, Tokugawa Kazuto was dumbfounded, not knowing what to say, and not knowing whether to pick up chopsticks again?

Lucius put the beef back on the plate. Looking at Tokugawa Kazuto, he said, "Look, you still have to start quickly, whether I can eat it or not." As long as anyone else is concerned, I will take all the pieces of meat first. ”

With that, Lucius picked up a piece of beef and put it in his mouth, chewed it and ate it, and then asked Tokugawa Kazuto, "What do you think of the current situation? Do we need any special response? Or do we just stick to the city?"

Tokugawa Kazuto didn't expect that Lucius would ask himself like this, he was stunned for a moment, raised the wine cup and took a sip of wine, and then looked at Lucius's sincere appearance.

He picked up another slice of beef and ate it, then took a deep breath and said, "Your Highness, I think we should not continue to hold on, we should take the initiative to go out, so that we have a chance to repel the enemy army." ”

"Oh, do you think we should go out and repel the enemies outside the city? Do you think that with the current situation in the city, we have the ability to repel the army outside the city?

Lucius's series of questions immediately left Tokugawa and Kato speechless, in fact, when Tokugawa and Kato answered, they didn't think about so many things at all.

He just felt that it was obviously not a good idea to stick to Edo Castle now, if the other party had been besieging Edo Castle, so many people in the city would need to eat, and if the food in the city ran out, then I was afraid that the entire Edo Castle would not be able to support it for long at all, and it would soon be broken by the enemy.

Rather than leaving the entire Edo Castle unbreached at that time, it is better to take advantage of the current morale to take the initiative to attack the castle and fight to the death with the enemy outside the city, and maybe fight for a chance to survive.

From the words of Tokugawa and the people just now, Lucius could also guess his thoughts, and couldn't help but shake his head and continued: "I know your thoughts, you think that when our morale is high, we can try to take the initiative and fight for that glimmer of life, but in my opinion, that is a dead end at all, not a glimmer of life." ”

"Why? Why do you say that this is a dead end? Could it be that if we take the initiative to attack, we really have no chance of winning at all?" Tokugawa Kazuto was a little unconvinced.

Lucius continued to patiently explain: "As I just asked you, do you think these people in the city alone can defeat the army led by samurai outside the city?"

"This ......" Tokugawa Kazuto was speechless for a moment, because he knew very well in his heart that the city seemed to have a large population, but these people were still struggling to defend the city, so let them take the initiative to attack and rush out of the city to fight the enemy, I am afraid that most people will not even be able to hold a knife steadily, and rushing out of the city is just sending them to death.

Thinking of the drawbacks of his own solution, Tokugawa Kazuto suddenly fell silent, did not continue to say anything, lowered his head and just drank in silence.

Lucius also drank a glass of wine, and filled the cup of Tokugawa Kazuto before continuing: "Actually, the current situation seems to be very favorable to us, but in fact we do not have much advantage in hand. ”

"The army outside the city, it seems that it has lost a part, but in fact it did not endanger the foundation of Oda Nobumitsu's army, those retainers under Oda Nobumitsu did not dispatch, which shows that Oda Nobumitsu still has spare strength, at this time we take the initiative to attack, but will make ourselves passive. ”

When Tokugawa Kazuto heard this, he put down the wine cup in his hand. He said with some excitement: "However, we have been holding on to the city like this, and if the enemy does not retreat until the food in the city is in short supply, we will definitely be in chaos, and the walls of Edo Castle will not be able to protect us at that time." ”

Hearing Tokugawa and the people's concerns, Lucius nodded and said, "Well, your considerations are somewhat reasonable, but your considerations are actually a little too much. ”

Tokugawa Kazuto looked at Lucius in bewilderment, wondering why Lucius would say that he was a little worried. He felt that the other party was coming violently, and he would definitely not give up lightly, especially now that he was in a stalemate, it was even more unlikely that he would retreat lightly, and he would inevitably besiege the entire Edo Castle.

Instead, Lucius smiled and said, "Actually, the other party's current goal is not Edo Castle, the reason why they are besieging Edo Castle is to lure back Tokugawa Ihiko, who rushed to Kyoto, or it can also be said that they want to use the crisis of Edo Castle." Let Tokugawa Izuhiko fall into a panic and have an unstable mentality. ”

Tokugawa Kazuto was stunned for a moment, and then asked meaningfully: "Does Your Highness mean that their real target is actually Kyoto?

Lucius nodded. He raised the wine cup and took a sip of wine: "Yes, they just want to hold the emperor hostage, and only by holding the emperor in their hands can they be regarded as gaining the orthodox status of Fuso." ”

Kazuto Tokugawa with a surprised face. I was stunned and thought about it for a long time, and finally turned the corner: "It turns out, it turns out that this is the case." In fact, their real goal was not Edo Castle, but they just wanted to use Edo Castle to disturb the Tokugawa Shogun's heart, so that the Tokugawa Shogun would make a mess in Kyoto, and then they would take the opportunity to break through Kyoto. ”

Satisfied that Tokugawa and Kato were able to understand it, Lucius picked up another slice of beef and ate it, and then said, "Now, you should grasp the key point of the war. ”

Tokugawa Kazuto was also very excited, nodded and said, "Well, I see, we are now going to hold Edo Castle and drag the enemy here, so that the battle on the Kyoto side can be over, so that the Tokugawa shogun can come back to help, and then we can wipe out these rebels." ”

"Hehehe, I can't see it, you are young, but you have a lot of killing intent, and you seem to want to defeat the outside of the city head-on, Oda Nobumitsu's army, right?"

Tokugawa and people scratched their heads a little embarrassedly: "I don't dare to deceive Your Highness, in fact, I have always wanted to be a general, but unfortunately, I was not born in a samurai family, so I can only be a low-level soldier, and I can only stay in Edo Castle until now, and I have never had the opportunity to kill the enemy." ”

It turned out that Tokugawa Kazuto longed for a military career and wanted to become a daimyo on the side of the army, but unfortunately he was not born in a samurai family, and he did not get the status of a full-fledged samurai, so he never got the opportunity.

Originally, he thought that Tokugawa Isahiko would go on an expedition and he would get the opportunity to go into battle to kill the enemy, but what he didn't expect was that Tokugawa Ihiko finally left all the soldiers guarding the city gates, including Tokugawa Kazuto, and he and a dozen other soldiers who defended the city became the only remaining soldiers in Edo Castle.

In the previous battle to defend the city, several city guards also died, and Tokugawa Kazuto sighed a little sadly when he thought of this: "Hey, now there are only six people left in the city guards, including me, I don't know how many of us city guards will survive when Edo Castle is defended and the general leads the army back?"

When Tokugawa and Kato mentioned the soldiers who had been left behind like him, his expression became a little sad, as if he felt that it was not worth it for them not to die on the battlefield.

Lucius stood up, walked over and reached out and patted him on the shoulder and said, "Tokugawa and people, you have to remember that every warrior has his own value, those of your companions died in the war to defend the city, you have actually gone into battle to kill the enemy, you should not feel that they died unworthy, because it is an insult to them." ”

Tokugawa Kazuto raised his head and looked at Lucius, thought about Lucius's words carefully, restrained the sadness on his face, and nodded heavily in response: "Well, Your Highness, I understand. (To be continued......)