On July 12, the ninth year of Tensho (1581), Ameakihei led his army back to Kishiwada Port. After laying down their troops on Shikoku Island, Sawaki Yoshiyuki and Mori Kotakashi also rushed back to Honshu to report to Oda Nobunaga. This time Ameakihei returned.
On the road, many newly built ocean-going merchant ships can already be seen sailing towards the Ming Dynasty in the opposite direction to the Hongye Fleet - the prospecting trade that has been suspended for many years has finally resumed. The crews and sailors on the ship are enthusiastic about the Hongye Fleet.
We waved our hands and thanked them for the endless business opportunities they brought us.
After arriving at Kishiwada Port, as expected, as soon as Yu Qiuping got off the ship, he was greeted by the anger of Ikeda Tsuneaki who had been holding back for several months.
"Didn't I say that it was too late to go to the rescue before? Didn't I say that the situation in Kyushu was in danger, and maybe it would all be left to the Western United Nations?" Ikeda Hengxing walked forward quickly and put his hands on Yu Qiuping's shoulders.
The ground shook Yu Qiuping, while he shouted to him angrily: "I sympathized with you from the bottom of my heart at that time! I thought Hongye you were probably going to hold back your food this time! What happened? How come you haven't been out for half a month?
You wiped out the Jin family, the Ryuzouji family, and even the governor? And then half a month later, the entire Kyushu and the Western Kingdom were pacified by you?"
"It's only been a month? How did you do it? That's half the world!" Ikeda Hengxing became more and more angry, and finally complained like a resentful woman: "Damn it! The most important thing is,
I’m not here for such an important battle!!! I’m not here! That brat Touhachi and Kolon are both involved! But my name can’t be written in this battle! I’m so angry!”
"Isn't this still Kanto?" Yoshiyuki Sawaki said with a big smile as he got an advantage and gave Ikeda Hengxing a hard push on the chest, "If you can defeat Kanto within a month like Momiji did,
, more famous than the red leaves!"
"Let's treat you two. Since Kolong is a junior, you two must treat me to a good meal!" Ikeda Hengxing stretched out his hand angrily, with his index and middle fingers spread apart, pointing at Yu Qiuping and Zuo
Wai Liang's way of saying, "Who's going to invite you first?"
·
At the dinner table, Ikeda Hengxing talked about a strange incident recently.
"By the way, let me tell you something. The master is suppressing top-secret information from being released. Don't tell outsiders." After eating a piece of fish steak, Ikeda Hengxing wiped his mouth and said very mysteriously.
Be humane to Yuqiu.
"How did you know the top-secret information?" Sawaki Yoshiyuki said sarcastically with a sideways smile.
"Then don't look at who I am. I have connections in Kinki and Ono. I have connections all over the world. If you want to know about this, you will naturally need some means." Ikeda Hengxing said proudly.
Bragging, he raised his eyebrows and said.
"Stop being so pretentious, what is going on?" Yu Qiuping put a few mouthfuls of rice into his mouth and urged impatiently.
"Well...since you asked sincerely..." Ikeda Hengxing obviously hadn't had enough, and still prolonged his voice to whet the appetites of Yu Qiuping and the others.
"Then you will tell us with mercy?" Yu Qiuping was amused by Ikeda Hengxing's line of the same name that he heard countless times in Pokémon, and continued with a smile.
"Yes! Show mercy!" Ikeda Hengxing seemed to be very impressed by this sentence. He took a sip of wine leisurely, then waved to the door, signaling the guards to close the door and leave. After everything was arranged,
He bowed his waist slightly and lowered his head, lowering his voice and said to Yu Qiuping, Ikeda Hengxing and Mori Kotaka: "The eight-foot mirror is lost."
"What?" Yoshiyuki Sawaki and Fumiko Moriko were both stunned and exclaimed.
After being half a beat slower than them, Yu Qiuping, with wide eyes, shouted in an even more surprised tone: "What?"
After seeing such a violent reaction from the three people, Ikeda Hengxing's little, oh no, big vanity was satisfied, and he continued very excitedly: "These are the three artifacts passed down from generation to generation by the Imperial family, just throw them away like this."
Okay, tsk tsk tsk, this matter is so big that my lord dare not announce the news. After all, the Ise Shrine where the eight-foot mirror is stored is also under the jurisdiction of our Oda family. It would be shameful to tell it."
"How did you lose it? Who stole it?" Yu Qiuping slapped the table and stood up, asking nervously and loudly, which shocked Ikeda Hengxing and others.
"No, we Japanese haven't reacted like this yet. Why are you, a man from Ming Dynasty, so excited? You are not a subject of the Emperor." Ikeda Hengxing looked at Yu Qiuping's surprise at a loss.
At first glance, he said, "This matter is both big and small. Losing a broken mirror will not affect the Oda family or anything..."
"Who stole it? When did it happen? How is the investigation going now? Where is the eight-foot mirror?" Yu Qiuping asked without any pause at all. Naturally, Ikeda Hengxing and the others did not understand that as a third party
But Yu Qiuping knew the meaning of the eight-foot mirror, one of the artifacts. It was not a symbol of royal authority. If it fell into the hands of Qingmizu Zhizi, she could use this artifact to go back in time and destroy all those who are still alive.
People directly erased it!
"Could it be that it has been retraced now?" Yu Qiuping muttered words that no one could understand, while he looked blankly at the lines on his palms, "That's right... just like what she said.
...This is just like having a dream, everything has changed, but the person who has no memory has no idea."
"What are you talking about?" Ikeda Hengxing frowned and looked at Yu Qiuping, and then turned his attention to Sawaki Yoshiyuki and Mori Kotaka, "Did he get anything dirty on Kyushu Island? This is crazy.
?”
"No, everything was fine before." Yoshiyuki Sawaki arrived with the same confusion, while Kolong Mori looked at Yu Qiuping with a worried look. The latter finally calmed down and slowly sat back on his bed.
Sitting on his seat, he took a deep breath, and then said to Hengxing Ikeda in a somewhat heavy voice, "Hengxing, please tell me carefully about this matter."
"I don't know what's wrong with you." Ikeda Hengxing shook his head at Yu Qiuping and smiled bitterly, and then continued, "I said that the master has blocked the news. I don't know the specific situation. The following are all
Rumors may not be true, so don’t take them seriously.”
"Speak quickly, speak quickly." Yu Qiuping urged several times uneasily.
"It is said that the entire Ise Shrine, from the abbot to the shrine maidens to the guards and priests sent by our Oda family, all died overnight, leaving not a single person alive." Ikeda Hengxing said in a gloomy way.
He told a ghost story in a tone of voice, "Besides, it doesn't look like someone was killed by outsiders. Judging from the traces and scars left at the scene, it turned out like this because the entire temple was killing each other."
"What?" Sawaki Yoshiyuki was shocked when he heard this, "Is this the rumor you heard? Are you trying to fool a three-year-old child?"
"I didn't believe it at first, and I even teased my lord. Who knew that my lord just glared at me and scolded me not to tell anyone about this." Ikeda Hengxing pursed his lips, spread his hands and said innocently, "I did it.
I also doubt whether this is true."
"Why? What are you trying to do? This shrine has been fine for so many years, so how could it suddenly kill each other and leave no one alive? Even if there are no survivors, there will be one or two who escaped and reported for help." Zuo
Waki Ryoichi pointed out the falsity of this rumor to the point.
"But the fact is that until now, none of us have seen the survivors in Ise Shrine, and the Lord has blocked all news. There is a guard at Ise Shrine who is my former subordinate. I have been there
When I visited his family, the whole family was paying tribute, and the guy was no longer there. But when asked about the details, they didn't know anything, and they couldn't even get the body. No one I knew at Ise Shrine was there.
Didn't come back." Ikeda Hengxing's words once again made the rumors confusing.
"Is it true that no one ran out?" Yoshiyuki Sawaki confirmed in disbelief.
"It's true that no one ran out." Ikeda Hengxing answered truthfully, "Even the accident that happened to Ise Shrine was accidentally discovered by a passing herald one day later."
"If there was internal strife among the people in Ise Shrine and no one ran away, then how did the Hachisha Mirror get lost?" Yoshiyuki Sawaki once again pointed out the flaw in the rumors, "It must still be in the palace.
"
"My lord's ninjas have searched all over Ise Shrine but can't find it. It must have been lost. That means it's not as simple as internal strife in Ise Shrine. There must be outsiders involved." Ikeda Hengxing found someone who could explain it.
The reason was explained.
"Ise Shrine is so big, even if it is attacked by a large-scale bandit group, there is still enough time for people to flee and report." Mori Kotaka followed Ikeda Tsuneaki's idea and explained the jurisdiction, scratching his head in confusion, "
If you want no one to escape from Ise Jingu, then you must have thousands of attackers with a large number of weapons, and they must surround Ise Jingu from all directions at night." Mori Kolong thought about it.
After a long time, he reluctantly gave an explanation that could bring the story described by Ikeda Tsuneaki into perspective, "Then this group of people, for some unknown reason, refused to attack themselves. Instead, they forced the people in Ise Shrine to kill each other...
Maybe it means that only the last person who survives is allowed to come out."
"A bandit group of thousands of people is moving in the safe hinterland of Ise Country, and is besieging Ise Shrine late at night. It is impossible not to be discovered by the surrounding people." Sawaki Yoshiyuki shook his head and tapped the plate with his chopsticks.
He said, "The number of attackers must be small, and they don't know what means to use to sow discord and force the people in Ise Shrine to kill each other."
"If there are not many people in the shrine, someone will definitely run out." Ikeda Hengxing began to find fault with his story, "How is that possible?"
"Otherwise, how could it be done? No one escaped alive, they were still killing each other, and there were not many people?" Ryoyuki Sawaki reported the conditions set by Ikeda Tsuneaki for the story in one breath, "Here comes someone.
Did Onmyoji put a curse on them? Or was it some kind of divine power?"
"Don't tell me, this is the most reliable explanation." Ikeda Hengxing laughed and clapped his hands, and glanced at Yu Qiuping beside him - only to find that the latter's face was ashen at the moment.
"What's wrong with you? Why have you been like this since you heard this story?" Ikeda Hengxing put his hand on Yu Qiuping's shoulder, pulled him over, and joked with a smile: "Scared by ghost stories? I won't do it again.
I told you, hahahaha..."
"Did the Lord do anything later?" Yu Qiuping obviously had no intention of joking and asked very calmly.
"What's the matter with you?" Ikeda Hengxing muttered and rolled his eyes at Yu Qiuping, but still told everything he knew: "My lord seems to have sent many ninjas to investigate, but nothing has been found for so many days.
But the Lord has strictly sealed the news and does not allow outsiders to know."
Chapter completed!