Ouchi Zhishi didn't look at Chongwen, he played with the Buddha beads of Juhai Zhongjin in his hand, and only looked up at Chongwen after a while, and said expressionlessly: "I didn't expect that a fugitive from the shogunate would enter and leave the Zhou Mansion in a grand manner, and His Royal Highness Da Chuhai is not small. ”

Chongwen smiled slightly, and said: "I saved your sister first, and sent Ling Zun Baoshan later, why don't you dare to come to the door? Could it be that Lord Shaofu will bind me and send me to the shogunate?"

Ouchi said coldly: "The Ouchi clan is a general's retainer, and it is not the way of a samurai to abolish the public for private purposes. ”

Chongwenqi said: "The general's retainer, God knows which general will be next, if the Ouchi family is unlucky, I am afraid that it will not be possible to be a concubine." ”

Ouchi pressed the handle of the knife with his hand and shouted: "Bold! Dare to be rude to the Ouchi clan in Zhou's visit to the national mansion!"

Chongwen quietly untied a text saber, put the sheath on the floor in front of him, and said calmly: "Lord Sun Jiro don't have to be angry, you should know the original owner of this knife, Lord Sun Saburo gave me a treasure knife in front, and saved my life in the back, will I have malicious intentions towards his brother?" ”

Ouchi Zhishi put the string of Buddhist beads on the leaning table, looked at Chongwen and said, "Since His Royal Highness Da Chuhai didn't come to humiliate us, then what are you doing?"

Chongwen said: "Naturally, I am here to save you. ”

Ouchi Chiyo laughed, as if he had heard something ridiculous, and it took a long time to stop laughing and say, "Although the Ouchi family is despicable, it is not to the point where a merchant needs to save his life. ”

Chongwen sneered and said, "I am not only a businessman, I am also the leading sentry of the East China Sea Merchant Group, and the chief treasurer of the General Administration of Commerce and Commerce. The Ouchi family is not only a shogunate, but once the Yoshitsu shogun is killed, you will all be labeled as a rebel, so what should Shosuke-sama do then?"

Ouchi Zhishi smiled coldly and said: "The Ouchi family has already made arrangements, so I won't bother His Highness to go to sea, my father has been a victorious general since he was 16 years old, and in the past 40 years, no one has been able to defeat the Ouchi family, and there will be no such person in the future." ”

Chongwen said, "About four months ago, I had an interesting conversation with Lord Lingzun at Shitennoji Bamboo Forest Garden. At that time, I admired the strategy of Lord Lingzun, and he used his immense patience to gain time.

At that time, like you, I firmly believed that the Ouchi clan would win. It's a pity that Lord Rezun made a mistake that made all his efforts go to waste, and the Ouchi clan was in danger. ”

Ouchi Zhisheng was a little breathless, he turned to Chongwen with both hands, and asked, "What is wrong?"

Chongwen said unhurriedly: "Ling Zun has a sentence that I agree with, he said that there is no one who will win, it is only the situation that is inevitable, and the gentleman can only take advantage of the situation."

At that time, he gave me a detailed account of the situation of all sides of the shogunate, set a strategy to show weakness to the enemy, used various means to win over and divide the important ministers of the shogunate, and did not hesitate to betray the Matsuura party and my dragon island in exchange for the trust of the shogunate. ”

Ouchi said, "Is Your Highness reproaching the Ouchi family for treachery?"

Chongwen Zhengse said: "There is no morality in the face of life and death, I don't think there is anything wrong with Ling Zun's approach, but Ling Zun's idea is wrong.

He took the initiative to admit defeat to resolve the hostility of the shogunate and divert the attention of the shogunate, so that once the shogun died, the war would ignite among the important ministers of the shogunate. For example, the Spo family and the Hosokawa family are likely to fight each other first for the Hanoi country, the Sasaki family and the Akamatsu family will fight for the position of the servant, and the Ouchi family can hide in the shadows and sit on the mountain to watch the tiger fight, seizing the opportunity to seize the world in one fell swoop.

His only mistake was to despise the Matsuura Party and Ryuojima, believing that our power was insignificant and that it was worth betraying us in exchange for the shogunate division.

He didn't expect that Hosokawa Yoriyuki successfully bought off the two naval armies of Murakami and Iyokokukono, and the Ouchi clan's shipping route in the Seto Inland Sea was cut off. Yoshihiro-sama betrayed me again, so the new route couldn't be taken. Now that the Kwantung War has begun, how did the Ouchi clan's 20,000 troops in the western country enter the eastern country, crossing 1,500 miles of lofty mountains and 6 hostile countries?"

The Ouchi brothers were silent for a while, and after a while, Ouchi said weakly: "Even if there are no reinforcements from China, the Ouchi clan still has strength in Kii Province and Kuncheng, which is enough to fight." ”

The corners of Chongwen's mouth rose slightly, and he said: "I'll calculate for you, the most of the wealthy families in Kii is loyal to the Ouchi clan is 2,000, there are 1,400 police officers in Qicheng, there are 400 monks and soldiers in the Four Heavenly Temples, there are about 800 monks and soldiers in the Famen, plus 200 horses and Huizhong people from the Ouchi clan, a total of more than 4,000 people, even if the Ouchi clan recruits ronins, at most 5,000 people."

As a guardian of a country, this is certainly a powerful force. But looking at the opponents of the Ouchi clan, the Sasaki clan can gather 20,000 troops, the Hosokawa family also has 20,000 Shikoku warriors, the Hatakeyama family also has more than 10,000 people, and the shogunate has 2,000 direct subordinate oma returns. If the Spo family had the support of the shogunate, he would be able to recruit 30,000 people in the 10 countries of the Kanto region.

How many allies did the Ouchi family have?The Kamakura Princess's Hokko and Hachiya had about 10,000 elite soldiers. Does Lord Shaosuke think that he will be able to deal with the siege of General Spo? In this way, Lord Lingzun will lead 5,000 people to resist the 50,000 troops of the shogunate alone, even if Lingzun is as fierce as a tiger, the Ouchi family will be able to avoid destruction?"

Ouchi Chimori couldn't bear it anymore, and shouted: "You bastard, don't say it!"

Chongwen turned his head to look at Sun Erlang, whose face was distorted, and continued to say coldly: "Can you escape the disaster by covering your ears and stealing the bell, the situation is like this, I won't change it if I don't say it."

The reason why Lord Ling Zun categorically betrayed us has his own reasons. He believed that the weaker the Ouchi clan looked, the less likely the shogunate would be against him, and the shogunate's retainers would kill each other and bring about their own destruction. There is a big loophole in his idea, if he doesn't want to go to Castle and hides in Wakayama Castle to resign himself to fate, it will naturally be the result of his vision.

But will he be able to give up his ambitions for Sakai Castle? Once he returns to Sakaijo, the shogunate will reunite and make enemies of him. But what is the significance of the Ouchi family not wanting to take the castle, so what is the significance of Lingzun in the eastern country? Isn't the three generations of the Ouchi family working hard to seize the castle and control the shogunate?

There is also a possibility that it is beneficial to the Ouchi family, if Ling Zun can hold the castle with weak forces, the shogunate army will not be able to attack it for a long time, and there will inevitably be internal strife and self-collapse. This is probably the only hope that Lord Lingzun has now, he has been in battle for a long time, he is well versed in the art of war, the people of Qicheng are dependent, and there is enough food and grass, and he may be able to keep it until the day of internal strife in the shogunate army. But... He forgot about us. ”

Ouchi looked at Chongwen and asked, "What do you mean by this?"

Chongwen said lightly: "If when the shogunate's 50,000 troops are besieging the castle, my East China Sea merchant group suddenly appears in Sakai Port from a new route, and attacks the Ouchi army in front and back, how can Lord Lingzun support it?"

Ouchi said with a strong sense of inwardness: "His Royal Highness really thinks that a few Kangshang merchants in Hirado can completely destroy the Ouchi clan?"

Chongwen said lightly: "I said, I am not a businessman, we are the East China Sea merchant group. This group includes the Hirado Merchant Gang, the Yuegang Merchant Gang, the Zhelin Merchant Gang, the Meiling Merchant Gang, the Nanao Merchant Gang, as well as the Iryūojima, Mishima Matsuura Party, the Bozu Water Army, and the Kumano Water Army. The merchant group is a super merchant group with a principal of 10 million taels of silver and 4 million taels of cash at any time.

Not only are we rich and rival the country, but the merchant group can also mobilize more than 300 sea ships, nearly 20,000 armed sailors, and dozens of cannons at any time. Do you really think that we are just a few businessmen, and we can only lie and threaten?"

Even the young and vigorous Ouchi Mochimori was a little angry, he swallowed his saliva and asked, "But why do you want to harm us? ”

Chongwen smiled slightly, and said, "Lord Lingzun's betrayal of the Songpu Party and Longwang Island is really despicable, why can't we take revenge on the Ouchi family?" With that, Chongwen took out two letters from his arms, gently placed them on the floor in front of him, and pushed them forward.

Ouchi Sheng nodded at the little surname, and the little surname stepped forward to pick up the letter and put his hands in front of Ouchi Zhishi. Shaosuke of the Criminal Department took the letter and hurriedly skimmed through it, his expression became more and more nervous, and finally his hands trembled. Finally, he raised his head with a somewhat dazed expression, still holding the few pieces of paper in his hand.

Ouchi didn't care about etiquette, stood up and took the letter from his brother's hand and looked at it, it was the letter of Michiyu Sasaki and Yoriyuki Hosokawa. After reading it a moment later, the young samurai sat on the ground with a dull gaze.

Seeing that the two brothers had finally relented, Chongwen decided to give them the final blow, he smiled and said: "The Hosokawa family gave us a city and a country, and the Sasaki family gave us a monopoly on the trade of the country, isn't this enough for us to be enemies of the Ouchi clan?

There was a sudden dead silence in the second hall, and even the heavy breathing of the two brothers could be heard. Finally, Ouchi said slowly: "I have a plan to break your tricks, I know this plan, but you don't know." ”

Chongwen sneered: "You know your strategy, and I know it, but it's useless. After a pause, he continued, "Your plan is nothing more than to kill me or detain me, and the merchant group will die down. But I'm just an old group of merchants, and the merchants care about profits, no one cares about my life or death, what should they do or what will happen, your strategy is useless. ”

Ouchi was finally deflated, and he said helplessly: "Since His Royal Highness Da Chuhai must destroy the Ouchi family, why did he come to Zhou to visit the national mansion, in order to see the pleasure of revenge with his own eyes?"

Chongwen calmed his face and shook his head: "I'm not so bored yet, speaking of which, the grievances between Longwang Island and the Ouchi family are really inexplicable." Although Lord Lingzun used to be unfavorable to me, but Nonghime Hall is my confidante, and Sun Saburo disobeyed his father's order and sacrificed his life to save me.

The clan of my Tokai merchant group is a brother with the dead and dead, and I don't know if the Ouchi clan is my enemy or brother. But in any case, the cannon of the East China Sea Merchant Group will appear in Qicheng, it doesn't depend on me, it depends on the desire of the Qidong people of the East China Sea Merchant Group to get rich... It's just that the muzzle of the gun is pointed at the shogunate or the Ouchi family, but not necessarily. ”

Ouchi Zhisheng's eyes lit up, and then dimmed again, and said: "We can't give you a city and a country, and we can't give you a monopoly on trade. ”

Chongwen said with a smile: "To put it mildly, the East China Sea merchant group does not need a trade monopoly, nor does it look down on a city and a country. I said, I'm here to save you, the Tokai merchant group can help the Ouchi clan and wipe out all the tens of thousands of troops of the shogunate... There is only one condition. ”

Ouchi Zhishi stared at Chongwen tightly, and only after a long time did he ask in a trembling voice, "What conditions?"

Chongwen Zhengse said: "I want the young master of the Criminal Department to become the governor of the Ouchi clan." ”