Since Yu Qiupei needed to recover from his injuries, the group planned to rest here in Tushan for a few days before starting their return journey on November 20. Uchiha Aooka also needed time to return to their small village to relocate his subordinates and their families.
Uchiha Aooka has a total of 18 ninjas under his command, including 2 jounin, 4 chunin and 12 genin. These are his loyal subordinates for many years, and they are willing to bear the title of "rebellious ninja" and join him.
Living in a foreign land.
And for so many people, the annual salary they need is actually only 50 yuan.
"50 kan?" Yu Qiupei was shocked when he heard Uchiha Aooka's request. The cost of each of his Tokiwa ashigaru a year is close to 10 kan. And the salary of his samurai is more than this.
Count. In Yu Qiuping's opinion, these dozen ninjas are all technical spies with a very high professional level. How can they be cheaper than ordinary ashigaru?
"I'm really sorry," Uchiha Aooka looked a little ashamed when he saw Yu Qiupei's surprised look. He whispered in a deep voice: "My subordinates have been in dire straits for a long time, and their families need to be settled, so there may be more
I paid a little settlement fee.”
"Huh?" Yu Qiuping had a black question mark expression on his face, "I mean...do you only need this little money? With 18 of you, you should still need 200 coins a year."
As soon as Yu Qiuping finished speaking, Uchiha Aooka was stunned. Of course he didn't know that Yu Qiuping had made a lot of money by kidnapping and speculating on grain. If he converted the grain into money, he already had more than 15,000 yuan.
He originally thought that Yu Qiuping, as a new lord of 8,000 koku, would probably have a few hundred koku in savings on hand. Uchiha Aooka was shocked by the way he threw away 200 koku without blinking an eye.
"Your Highness, you don't know something," Uchiha Aooka whispered: "Hire ninjas are basically priced at this price, and I have already asked for a lot more."
Yu Qiuping had only heard about the embarrassing living conditions of Japanese ninjas before, but he didn't know that it had become so serious. They were all doing tasks of going deep into enemy territory and licking blood with their swords, and they were only given such a small salary.
It will be difficult to make a living.
"It's too little," Yu Qiuping shook his head persistently. "It's hard for your family to maintain a normal life with this money, not to mention that your mission is so dangerous. It's inevitable that there will be pros and cons. I can't just give you such a small amount of money."
"Your Highness," Uchiha Aooka was a little moved, but still whispered: "I will not be rewarded for my merits."
"Stop being so stubborn, this is not just Qinggang's business," Yu Qiuping sighed, "Your subordinates will follow you through life and death. Even if they and you can endure hardships, don't they want their families to be able to endure hardships?"
Have a good meal and dress warmly?"
Uchiha Aooka was stunned for a moment, his eyes flashed, and he didn't say much, but deeply admired him.
"Then it's settled," Yu Qiuping said as he patted the shoulder of Masayuki Sanada, who was following him on horseback to his right, "When the time comes, you will obey Mr. Sanada's instructions, and he will be responsible for your work.
"
Uchiha Aooka followed Yu Qiuping's hand and looked at the young man with a beard that had not yet fully grown, and he couldn't help but feel a little surprised in his eyes.
"Don't underestimate him," Yu Qiuping said with a smile, "He is not just a child!"
"No, His Highness misunderstood," Uchiha Aooka shook his head, "The bounden duty of a ninja is to obey the instructions of the employer. Even if a child is really under the command, I will not complain."
"For such a young man to win the trust of His Highness, it must be extraordinary." Uchiha Aooka added.
"Then let him talk to you next." Yu Qiuping looked at Masayuki Sanada.
"Uchiha-sama," Masayuki Sanada took over and said, "Your mission will not be very serious for the time being. Basically, it is to detect the movements of the major wealthy families in West Mino and Central Mino to provide us with sufficient early warning.
time."
"Understood." Uchiha Aooka nodded.
"Also, pay attention to the prices in markets around Mino, even if you pass it on to His Highness," Sanada Masayuki said. He looked at Uchiha Aooka, thinking that he would ask questions about this very strange order, but the latter remained serious.
Face, just nodding should be.
"Don't you ask me why?" Sanada Masayuki asked doubtfully.
"No need," Uchiha Aooka lowered his head and said, "Ninjas only need to obey orders. If Sanada-sama didn't take the initiative to say it, I won't ask more questions."
Sanada Masayuki frowned, shook his head and said: "Although it is a bit offensive, I may not agree with this concept of yours."
Uchiha Aooka's gloomy face still didn't have much expression. He raised his head and stared into Sanada Masayuki's eyes and said: "This has always been the practice of our hired ninjas. We will never take the initiative to do things that the master does not want us to know.
participate."
"But you have to know," the young Masayuki Sanada said eloquently: "If you want to perform a task well, you not only need to understand the actions of the task, but also need to understand the purpose of the task. If you do not understand the purpose of the task well,
When performing tasks, performers may adopt wrong execution methods or lack sufficient execution power."
"Oh?" Yu Qiuping was also a little curious, "Kibei, please continue, I want to hear it too."
"Let's use an analogy," Sanada Masayuki said after thinking for a while: "If Lord Uchiha is assigned by His Highness to complete two tasks, the actions required by the tasks are to warn of invincible troops passing through a certain traffic artery."
"At first glance, the two missions seem to be exactly the same, but if the purpose of the mission is different, the actions you have to take are completely different." Sanada Masayuki continued: "If the purpose of His Highness's mission is to guard against small groups who may come to sneak attack,
enemies. Then your Majesty will definitely spread the ninjas in a secret area in the dark to prevent the enemies who come to attack from discovering them. Then, you will find an opportunity to report the information to His Highness and conduct an ambush."
"But if the purpose of His Highness's mission is to find out the specific movements of a large group of enemy troops that are bound to come from this way, then Uchiha-sama should disperse the ninjas to various high places with a clear view, in order to maximize the chances of
Understand the enemy’s number, organization, equipment and other specific conditions, and then report to His Highness.”
"So, even if the action requirements of the task are the same, if the purpose of the task assignor is different, the executor will be required to take different measures. If the purpose of the task is not well understood and only performed mechanically, it may
It's almost a missed opportunity." When Sanada Masayuki said this, Yu Qiupei and Uchiha Aooka suddenly realized.
"Therefore, what I want to tell you is the purpose of the price monitoring task," Masayuki Sanada said with a smile. "Actually, it's not a big deal. It's just that our own caravan often travels between the two countries to do business, so we need a price reference.
That’s all. So Sir, you don’t need to face a formidable enemy.”
Uchiha Aooka nodded slightly, and then bowed his hands respectfully.
"Sanada-sama is a great talent," Uchiha Aooka said in a low voice, "I am sincerely convinced."
·
Because Amakihei had an injury on his hand, he could not ride too fast, so the group was delayed a lot of time in the Suzuka Mountains, and only entered the plain area of ​​Ise on November 25. Maeda Keiji also had to go back along the way.
Zhang, Yu Qiuping and others set out on the road together.
At night, Yu Qiuping couldn't sleep at night. He was worried that he would disturb Kaede Imakawa's rest by rolling around, so he walked out of the room quietly and came to the corridor of the hotel. Through the hazy moonlight and the lantern of the hotel, Yu Qiuping vaguely
You can see that on the fence of the corridor, there is a burly man sitting astride him - none other than Maeda Keiji himself.
His body can be said to be a huge one. He is almost as tall as Yu Qiuping. In this era, he is already an absolutely tall man. And he is also much stronger than Yu Qiuping, with two arms
His muscles can almost burst his clothes.
"Keiji, why aren't you sleeping?" Yu Qiuping walked up to Maeda Keiji, put his hands on the railing, and said casually.
"I'm thinking about how to make money." Maeda Keiji sighed and shook his head.
"Making money? You have no money?" Yu Qiuping asked with a smile.
"Yes, they were all thrown into the whale house," Keiji Maeda complained while looking at Yu Qiupei, "Your Highness Momiji, after all, this matter is all your fault!"
"Blame me?" Yu Qiuping spread his hands and said, "Why blame me?"
"I asked Brother Nobita," Maeda Keiji shouted dissatisfied, "it was you who gave him 500 fen as prostitution money, so he dared to spend 500 fen so wildly in the whale house! I was afraid of losing face at the time.
, but I threw all my savings away to barely make ends meet! Now these days, if I hadn’t been following you to earn a living, I would have been living on the streets!”
"Hey, can you blame me?" Yu Qiuping laughed loudly, "I have no money but I still have to go out for prostitution!"
"What, this isn't some big whale house. Who would spend so much money on a normal day? From time to time you give money to your subordinates randomly! Besides, I could have taken the money away! All in order to rush over and save you.
, I ran over in a hurry!" Maeda Keiji shouted dissatisfied, "Speaking of which! I was the first to notice at that time that the local ninja leader might be plotting against you! You still owe me a life-saving favor.
!”
"Shh!" Yu Qiuping hurriedly made a gesture of silence, "My wife is still sleeping, please keep your voice down."
"Well," Maeda Keiji hurriedly stopped when he saw this, "I can't tell, you are really a good man who takes care of your family."
"That's right," Yu Qiuping laughed, "our husband and wife have a very good relationship."
"What a weirdo," Maeda Keiji scratched his head, held the pipe in his mouth, tilted his head and looked at Yu Qiuping, "He is good to his wife, good to the people, and good to his subordinates, and his reputation for kindness and trustworthiness is even more important.
Spread throughout this area..."
"What's wrong? What's strange?" Yu Qiuping asked doubtfully.
"The strange thing is..." Maeda Keiji frowned and murmured to himself: "A good person like you should have been unable to survive in this troubled world for a long time. How do you get better and better?"
This question made Yu Qiuping stunned, not knowing what to say.
"Well, let's not talk about this for now," Maeda Keiji took a puff from his pipe and exhaled clouds of smoke, "Anyway, I am also your savior. Do you think you should help me solve my financial problems?"
"It's easy to say, it's natural. The life-saving grace will never be forgotten," Yu Qiuping nodded and said, "How much money Qingci needs, let me subsidize your losses."
"Well, it's better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish," Maeda Keiji said with a smile, "If you give me a sum of money, I will still squander it, so you might as well find me a job!"
"Errand?" Yu Qiuping said blankly, "Aren't you the adopted son of the governor of the Maeda family? The Maeda family's territory in Huangzi City belongs to you. Where do you need errands?"
To be continued...