At 5:40 on the morning of May 6, Yu Qiuping and his party arrived at Puyuan Castle, the largest stronghold of the Imagawa family in Anhara County. It is nearly forty miles from Yu Qiuping's territory to Puyuan Castle. If it were a normal army, all of them would be there.
It's a day to go.
However, since all the people on this expedition were veterans of the war, they moved very quickly. Even with a large amount of goods, it only took half a day to arrive at Kawara Castle. Everyone also found an inn in the castle town of Kawara Castle to rest.
After a while, have lunch and then hit the road.
Because further east of Kabara Castle is the territory of Fuji County and Shutong County. There are not many strongholds of the Imagawa family there, and the messenger disappeared after leaving Kabara Castle. It can be said that this is the last safe place.
At 2:00 p.m., everyone who had rested after lunch set off on the road. Not far from Kabara Castle, you can see the Fuji River. It flows from the mountainous area of Kai Shinano and pours into Izu Bay.
The river becomes wider as it approaches the mouth of the sea. The section of river in front of the Yuqiu Plane is six to seven hundred meters wide, and there is no bridge that can pass through it.
Yu Qiuping asked the villagers on the roadside. They said that if they wanted to cross the Fuji River, they could either find a bridge in the upper reaches of the river where the river is relatively narrow, or take a ferry across.
Yu Qiuping and his party carried a large amount of goods, and it was too troublesome to find a bridge in the mountains to the north. The villager said that generally, caravan merchants who came and went rented large boats to cross the river.
Yu Qiuping looked across the river and saw that there were indeed several large ferries on both sides of the Fuji River. So Yu Qiuping spent money to build a large ferry and transported his men, ox carts, and handcarts across several times.
Crossing the Fuji River, looking up to the east, you can see Mount Fuji and Mount Aitaka in the distance in the distance. If the previous map is correct, there should be this path between Mount Fuji and Mount Aitaka, then
It is also part of the mountain road that circles Mount Fuji. The envoys sent by the Imagawa family to Hojo usually travel from the south of Mount Ai, to Hakone and then to Odawara. The envoys sent to the Takeda family will pass through Mount Fuji and Ai
The small mountain road between Eagle Mountains turns north, heading to Fujiyoshida Castle and then to Uzakizakikan.
Therefore, the focus of this investigation will be around Aiying Mountain. So Yu Qiuping led his men and moved closer to the east.
After crossing the Fuji River, there is no very wide river on the road. Two or three miles east of the Fuji River is the Fuji Hayakawa. The river is not wide, and there is a bridge that leads directly to the other side.
After passing Fuji Hayakawa, the group's destination was the Shimobori River not far away. On the two or three miles from Fuji Hayakawa to Shimobori River, they had to pass through a small hill. The trees on the hills were shadowy, quiet and beautiful.
"Hey, Boss Saburo." Nakahide Gomaezaki came to Yu Qiuping's side. In order to deceive others, Yu Qiuping changed his surname to Yuqiu during this expedition and aliased himself as Saburo. His subordinates were not very good at Miaozi.
Strangely, he didn't change their names.
"Zhongxiu, what's going on?" Yu Qiuping asked.
"Boss is indeed very famous!" Nakahide Omaezaki said with a smile, "After we crossed the Fuji River, we avoided all the caravans and pedestrians we were about to encounter along the way as soon as I sensed your domineering aura, boss.
So that we can’t meet anyone!”
"You kid..." Yu Qiuping was just about to laugh and punch him when he suddenly understood the meaning behind Omaezaki Nakahide's words. He glanced at Omaezaki Nakahide and said, "You want to remind me that after we crossed the Fuji River, we never met again.
Is anyone here?"
"Here, you kid, can you be more serious when you make suggestions?" Yu Qiuping smiled bitterly, "I thought you were joking again."
"Indeed." Amano Jingtoku whispered, "Not only did I not meet anyone, but the birds in the woods along the way were not frightened. Someone may have passed by long ago."
"But if someone was passing by, why didn't we see any footprints? No one has ever met us face to face." Naoe Tadohira said in a deep voice, "Sir, please be careful."
Yu Qiuping was stunned and glanced at the forest in front of him. The woods on the hills were dense, facing the official road diagonally below the hills.
"Stop." Yu Qiuping raised an arm to signal his subordinates to stop. More than fifty people immediately stopped where they were.
If there is an ambush there, your troops will definitely die if they pass through here.
"Turn around. Take the long way around." Yu Qiuping made a few gestures, and his subordinates immediately began to move the convoy, heading south.
At this time, in the woods.
"They seem to have noticed something?" A young man said to a burly man next to him.
"Not a businessman." The sturdy man didn't say much. He just said lightly, "How could the caravan have such orders and prohibitions? I just don't know who it is."
Yu Qiuping looked at the woods with lingering fear, not knowing whether he was being too worried.
Suddenly, there was a sound of horse hooves in front of them. The group of people cautiously approached the bullock cart and the handcart and grabbed their weapons.
However, when the man came closer, everyone gradually felt at ease. He was a messenger of the Imagawa family, with a flag of Eryinliang behind his back, and he himself was wearing the uniform of the Imagawa family.
"How come there are messengers from the Imagawa family?" After Ogawa Yudong was hungover last night, he didn't drink this morning and was unusually sober. His low voice reminded everyone to pay full attention again.
"Yes, aren't all the messengers missing?" Yu Qiuping thought to himself and looked at the messengers in front of him warily.
"The person who is coming is Lord Yuqiu!" The messenger stopped his horse a dozen steps away from Yuqiu Ping and asked loudly.
Yu Qiuping was surprised. I was clearly on a confidential mission, so how could the messengers who set out before know me? Could it be that the hall sent another group of people?
After a moment of confusion, he had missed the best opportunity to disguise his identity.
However, before the messenger could speak, Amano Keitoku, who was on the side of the team, suddenly rushed out on horseback. Before the messenger could react, he had already rushed to his side, stretched out his arms, and
Covering his mouth with one hand, he held the ribs with the other hand and stabbed his neck fiercely. The orderly soldier spurted out a mouthful of blood, which seeped out from between Amano Keide's fingers, and struggled violently.
After a few times, he let out a few screams that were muffled but could not make any sound, and then he collapsed and became motionless.
"Jingde!" Yu Qiuping whispered in surprise, "What are you doing? Maybe it's a friendly army!"
Amano Keide dragged the body of the visitor to the ground and said coldly: "I don't care if he is a friendly force or not. He probably already knew your identity just now. If you let him leave or sound the alarm, the entire army will be in danger."
"This man must die." Amano Keide looked at the bleeding corpse on the ground indifferently. The crow on his shoulder fluttered a few times, then flew to the ground and began to lick the blood from his neck.
"Jingde!" Yu Qiuping got off his horse, grabbed Amano Jingde's collar, and said angrily: "You can't kill like this!"
"I have made a choice between the life of a stranger and the lives of dozens of adults." Amano Jingde ignored Yu Qiuping's anger and shook his head, "If you don't want to take action, you can do it now."
"What should we do if it's friendly forces?" Yu Qiuping asked.
"What should we do if it's an enemy army?" Amano Keitoku replied coldly, "If you kill the wrong one, you'll kill the wrong one. It's better to kill a hundred by mistake than to miss one person."
Just when Yu Qiuping and Amano Jingtoku were arguing, Charlie, who had been looking at the corpse, suddenly spoke.
"Sir." He pointed to the body's legs, "This looks like the mark of being penetrated by a bow and arrow." He squatted down and pointed to a part of the body - Yu Qiuping looked intact, "This place should have been there not long ago.
It was shot through by a bow and arrow, and it was patched up later."
"How did you tell?" Yu Qiuping asked in surprise. In his eyes, there was almost no difference here.
"I'm familiar with bows and arrows," Charlie said. "According to my opinion, the pattern of the iron plates around this body has left traces of tightening and then opening, probably because it was shot through by bows and arrows. It was later repaired."
"Is that so?" Yu Qiuping saw that the position Charlie pointed to was exactly the position of the heart. "Could it be that the owner of this armor has died once?"
"Could it be that our Imagawa family's messenger was intercepted and killed," Fukushima Yasunari analyzed, "and then the enemy wore our uniforms and came to sneak attack on us?"
"Then why do you know that I am Yu Qiuping..." Yu Qiuping looked around at everyone, and everyone shook their heads in confusion.
"Sure enough, there may be something wrong with this person." Naoe Tadahei said, "If the main hall excludes other people, it will definitely inform you. And the messengers sent before are unlikely to know your identity. It is very likely that someone else has penetrated us.
The Imagawa family's death order soldier's armor was used to test your identity. He might just look at your age and give you a random name," Naoe Tadahei tried his best to explain, "Maybe he also gave Asahina-sama's name just now.
It’s just that he happened to be a blind cat and a dead mouse, and got the right name.”
"That makes sense." Yoshioka Katsumasa scratched his samurai bun and said, "Otherwise, I really can't figure out how they knew you were Yuqiu-sama. We kept it a secret!"
"Anyway, I'm sorry, I wrongly blamed you." Yu Qiuping looked at Amano Jingtoku and lowered his head apologetically. If he had asked the fake messenger to sound the alarm loudly, call out Yu Qiuping's name, or turn around and flee to report the situation, then
The entire army will be in danger.
"It doesn't have to be like this." Amano Keide shook his head, "Search the body to see if there is any useful information. We must dispose of the body without leaving any traces, and let's move on."
Everyone took off all the clothes and armor of the corpse and found a sachet in the pocket of his underwear, but nothing else was found. There were no special marks on the sachet, just some designs that looked like animals.
While everyone was cleaning up the scene, Yu Qiuping also asked a few people to search the surrounding area to see if anyone nearby had witnessed this scene. It seemed that no trace of anyone was found.
However, the matter of the messenger still made the group of people suspicious, fearing that their identities had been exposed.
During the subsequent journey, Yu Qiuping did not encounter any more strange attacks. However, on this supposedly busy trade road, no one was seen. This was different from the previous situation where the caravan did not encounter attacks. However, there were encounters nearby.
The villages we visited were all deserted. However, there were no signs of fighting in each house. Instead, it seemed that the residents had tidied up and left the house.
"It's so weird." Yu Qiuping frowned and had no clue.
The troops passed through Yoshihara, and several of the larger villages here were actually empty. Yu Qiuping was even more surprised. Yu Qiuping had no choice but to continue eastward. Around evening, the troops passed by a wooden bridge.
After arriving at Takigawa, we arrived at Imamiya at the entrance of the path between Ai Takayama and Mount Fuji. There is a castle on the northwest foothills of Ai Takayama. At the foot of the mountain, there are large villages. The smoke from the villages and castle towns curls up, and it seems that
Many people gathered.
"That should be the Imamiya clan." Yu Qiuping explained to the people next to him, "According to the information His Highness Sena gave me before, the largest force in these two desolate counties is the Imamiya clan. There are people in their families.
With a territory of eight thousand rocks and a population of nearly 3,000, he can mobilize more than two hundred ashigaru and nearly a hundred pairs of bamboo armor. His Imamiya Castle is built on the mountain and is very dangerous." Yu Qiuping pointed to that
Castle, "The leader of the Imamiya clan is called Imamiya Rakusei. He seems to be in his thirties this year. He is a wealthy family member whose stance is in favor of the Imagawa family. He is also nominally the general serving with the Imagawa family."
"The other two powerful wealthy families in these two counties are the Ueijingshu, who prefers the Takeda family, and the Suzanzu, who prefers the Hojo family. The former is in the northwest of us, on the west side of Mount Fuji. The latter is not far from us,
Located at the exit of this small mountain road.”
While several people were discussing, Imamiya Castle also saw this team. After a while, a group of people came over with torches. The leader was riding on a horse, his body was slightly fat, but he seemed very approachable.
"Imamiya Leding!" the fat man on the horse shouted: "Are these merchants from Suruga?"
"Exactly." Yu Qiuping stepped forward and replied.
"Then please invite me to the city!" Imamiya Leding greeted enthusiastically, "The road has been a little rough recently and it's almost night. Please rest in our city for the night!"
This invitation suited Yu Qiuping's wishes. He just wanted to find a place to rest and use it as a base for further investigation.
"Then thank you for your kindness, sir." Yu Qiuping nodded and responded, calling the subordinates behind him to follow Imamong Leding's people up the mountain, while he rode his horse to the side of Imamong Leding.
"I don't know how to call the boss?" Imamiya asked.
"Kusamin Saburo." Yu Qiuping replied, "He is a merchant from Suruga."
"Where is Suruga from?" Imamiya Leding asked cheerfully.
"A small village near Ejiri Port." Yu Qiu even answered truthfully.
"Ejiri!" Imamiya Leding burst out laughing, "What a coincidence! I am also from Ejiri, she is the daughter of the common people of the Itami family!"
"Oh? Is Ling a native of Suruga?" Yu Qiuping said with a smile.
"Exactly, not only are you a bitch, but my ancestors are also Suruga people." Imamiya Leding smiled and pointed at the village and the city, "When my great-great-grandfather came here to reclaim wasteland, we are a family.
A small wealthy family. But since my grandfather joined the Imagawa family, the family business has grown bigger and bigger. They even built Imamiya Castle!" Imamiya Lading continued, "Man, you still can't forget your roots. I owe you a lot to the Imagawa family.
I don’t dare to forget it. Therefore, every time there are merchants from Suruga coming and going, I have to treat them well!"