After Yu Qiupei and his party left the gate of Xiangguoji Temple, they prepared to head towards Honnoji Temple in the south where Oda Nobunaga stayed. And if they go this way, they will inevitably pass by the palace. As Yu Qiupei's identity, there is no need to avoid it, but outside the palace
However, there are all kinds of complicated etiquette on the streets. Yu Qiuping found it troublesome, so he took a detour to the east bank of the Kamogawa River, planning to bypass the imperial palace and go to Honnoji Temple.
Walking on the bridge of the Kamogawa River, Yu Qiupei couldn't help but feel a little emotional. The Kyoto war between the Oda family and the Miyoshi family was fought on both sides of the Kamogawa River. It was the largest decisive battle since the Onin Rebellion, and it also determined the future of Kyoto.
The ownership of Kinki and even the whole country has attracted the attention of the whole country. More than ten years have passed, and the streets of Kyoto have been brand new, exuding vitality and prosperity everywhere. They are completely different from the ruins of the past. This ancient capital and the people in it have gone through countless
Even after every catastrophe, it always shines with new brilliance.
Under the rule of the Oda family, Kyoto was a quiet city, seemingly isolated from the war-torn world. In recent years, in order to protect the safety of the imperial palace and Oda Nobunaga, who often lives in Kyoto temples, the Oda family's ninjas
A huge barrier was spread around Kyoto, and no one with weapons or anyone with a suspicious identity was allowed to enter. Even high-ranking officials like Yu Qiuping, his guards and ninjas must stay on the edge of Kyoto and are not allowed to be brought to the palace or
Around Nijo Castle. Therefore, it can be said to be safe and secluded in Kyoto. There are no proud samurai with swords on their bodies, and no messengers riding horses passing by.
Things are no longer the same, but people are no longer the same. Most of the warriors of the two armies and the world-famous figures who fought in Kyoto back then are probably no longer alive. Among the three powerful brothers, Miyoshi Yoshihide and Anzhai Fuyasu are no longer alive.
He died in the hands of Yu Qiupei one after another, and the Miyoshi trio on the Miyoshi family had long been killed by Yu Qiupei. Araki Murashige, Matsunaga Hide and others also died after treason. On the coalition side, Oda Nobunaga and his former allies fought against each other.
When they met, the Asakura family and the Asai family were eliminated successively. Asakura Yoshikage died and his family was wiped out. Asai Nagamasa was also martyred in Otani Castle, and the Asai lineage was almost cut off. What is even more sad is that the war that year
It was the orthodoxy of succession surrounding the Ashikaga Shogunate. Now the Ashikaga Shogunate has been deposed by Oda Nobunaga, leaving only Ashikaga Yoshini still struggling in the Western Kingdom.
Just when Yu Qiuping was moved by the scene, Honda Tadakatsu beside him suddenly shouted: "Get off the bridge!"
Before Yu Qiupei could react, he was already pushed off the bridge by Asahina Taihei. Immediately afterwards, he saw Yujian and Kunai coming towards the bridge where the group of people were just now.
"Assassination?" Yu Qiuping was shocked, "This is Kyoto...how is it possible?"
However, Yu Qiuping immediately discovered that the matter was worse than he imagined. Dozens of ninjas suddenly appeared on both sides of the bridge and rushed towards Yu Qiuping.
"Cover Your Highness, retreat to that alley!" Honda Tadakatsu made a prompt decision and pointed to the alley in the distance, which was very narrow. Asahina Yahei immediately drew his knife in his hand, and Honda Tadakatsu guarded him on the left and right.
Yu Qiupei and Imagawa Kaede rushed towards the alley. As soon as they entered, a large number of ninjas rushed over. Honda Tadakatsu waved his sword horizontally, forcing the nearest pursuers back and successfully retreated into the alley.
lane.
"How could there be an assassin in Kyoto?" Before Yu Qiuping could catch his breath, his mind was already working rapidly. "Because of the location of the imperial palace and the fact that the lord himself often lives in a temple in Kyoto, the security of Kyoto is very low.
This family attaches great importance to it. The Oda family has a large number of ninjas around it, and anyone who enters must be inspected. Nowadays, it is very difficult to hide from the ninja network of the Oda family, and it is impossible to sneak in dozens of people.
There are not many people in Kyoto who are qualified to carry weapons. Even people with my status are not allowed to carry ninjas. How could dozens of people suddenly appear to assassinate me?"
"Ping means...this is the master's own person?" Imagawa Feng immediately understood the meaning of Yu Qiu Ping's words.
"This is the only possibility." Yu Qiuping frowned and said, "But it doesn't make sense... Why did the master send someone to kill me? If he really wanted to kill me, couldn't he have just killed me when he was under house arrest?"
"The master didn't want to bear the responsibility of killing his important minister, so he pretended that you were accidentally killed by an unknown ninja attack." Imagawa Kaede pointed to the black ninjas waiting for an opportunity outside the alley.
"Who are you lying to? Isn't this deception?" Yu Qiuping shook his head, "Who in the world can transport dozens of people into Kyoto without anyone noticing? Since they have been transported in, why don't they kill the lord instead?
Come to kill me? My lord’s bodyguards at Honnōji Temple are not as large as the ones I brought into the capital. If I were killed in Kyoto, the whole world would know that it was my lord who did it.”
"Then what should we do?" Asahina Taihei lowered his voice and asked Amakihei, "Are we going to break out? Or what should I say?"
"Wait a minute, let me test it out." Yu Qiuping thought of a few thoughts quickly, then stepped forward and shouted to the ninjas blocking the alley: "Are you sure you have seen the plan clearly? My lord and I have made an appointment.
That’s not the plan! Who is the leader?”
After Yu Qiuping shouted, the ninja outside the alley did not react at all. They were still looking at Yu Qiuping and his group with the eyes of prey. Yu Qiuping silently ruled out several possibilities in his heart, and then whispered, "Maybe he is not the master.
.But obviously, they are unwilling to negotiate with us."
"If you don't want to negotiate, you have no choice but to take action." Imagawa Kaede also took a step forward, walked to Yu Qiuping's side, and pulled the Chidori from his waist out of its scabbard.
"Feng'er, why did you pull out my sword?" Yu Qiuping was stunned when he saw this, and stretched out his hand to get Chidori back.
"When this is a matter of life and death, I don't care about your face." Imagawa Kaede smiled at Yu Qiuping calmly, "We must allocate weapons to those with stronger combat capabilities."
"Then what should I do?" Yu Qiuping helplessly spread his hands towards Imagawa Feng.
"Don't you have Chidori's scabbard?" Imagawa Feng raised his eyebrows at Yu Qiuping, "That's forged with Jia Yan's favorite incense burner. It's very hard. Just take it."
"Okay." Yu Qiuping was very embarrassed and took out the Chidori's scabbard and held it in his hand, positioning it like a samurai sword. "I don't know which family leader actually used the scabbard to defend against the enemy when he was assassinated.
"
"Your Highness, do you need to break out and ask for help?" Honda Tadakatsu adjusted his pace, approached Yu Qiuping and whispered.
"Can you stand out?" Yu Qiuping also asked in a low voice.
"I want to leave, but no one can keep me here. It's just that I have to keep someone by my side, so I can't leave." Honda Tadakatsu responded in a low voice.
"Then can you send Matsuchiyo to break out? Let him go back to Rensheng Temple and call the guards?" Yu Qiuping asked quickly.
"You can give it a try." Honda Tadakatsu nodded slightly, and then looked at each other with Asahina Yahei. The next moment, Honda Tadakatsu suddenly touched the ground with his foot and rushed towards the entrance of the alley like a running wolf.
, Asahina Taihei followed closely behind.
The ninjas at the entrance of the alley did not expect that Honda Tadakatsu would suddenly attack, and retreated in a hurry. Honda Tadakatsu slashed with his sword, making a sword dance and blocking the incoming kunai and arrows.
Asahina Taihei took the opportunity to roll forward, rolled past Honda Tadakatsu, and suddenly rushed into the crowd. The ninjas wanted to attack Asahina Taihei, but they were dodged by the agile Asahina Taihei like a butterfly, and directly
He rushed out. Upon seeing this, Honda Tadakatsu immediately retreated, blocking several ninjas who wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to rush into the alley. He and Imagawa Kaede cooperated to fight and retreat, and retreated to Yu Qiupei's side. Yu Qiupei watched Asahina.
Taiping's figure gradually moved away, looking worriedly at the few ninjas chasing behind him.
·
At the same time, in Honnoji Temple, Oda Nobunaga was sleeping soundly in the house. In the corridor of the temple, Lin Xiuzhen was walking slowly with her hands behind her back.
In the eyes of the lower-class samurai of the Oda family and the rest of the world, Lin Xiuzhen was just a useless veteran. She had been able to stay in the Oda family only because of her long-term hard work in serving the Oda family and her relationship as a teacher and student with Oda Nobunaga.
The higher-ups had the fictitious title of family elder and did some chores for Oda Nobunaga. He had not made any achievements in decades and was just an ordinary person who was as mediocre as ever.
However, no one among the senior samurai who is familiar with the inside story of the Oda family will look down upon Lin Xiuzhen. He has a courtesy that no one in the Oda family can have - entering Oda Nobunaga's room without informing him. Although he seems to have nothing
No matter, but wherever there is darkness, there will be his presence.
"Your Highness." A ninja who hurried back found Lin Xiuzhen in the temple and whispered to him with an expression of embarrassment, "Everything was done as you ordered, but..."
"Just do your job, I will bear all the responsibilities." Lin Xiuzhen smiled nonchalantly and sent the ninja away. Only when there was no one around did his expression show a murderous look.
"My lord is unwilling to clean up the danger in the shadows, so I have no choice but to do it myself." Lin Xiuzhen coughed twice, slowly found a pillar and sat down against it. He thought about his plan over and over in his mind.
, want to make sure nothing goes wrong:
He sent someone to pretend to assassinate Yu Qiuping, but in fact he wanted to drag him to the east of Kamogawa River, and then trick him into sending someone back to the guards of Yu Qiu's family at Rensheng Temple to ask for help. When the person he asked for help had just arrived at Rensheng Temple, Lin Xiuzhen sent someone back to Rensheng Temple.
The ninja took Oda Nobunaga's seal and went to Mibuji Temple and told Yu Qiupei's guards: Yu Qiupei had fled into Honnoji Temple to make peace with Oda Nobunaga, but the assassins were chasing after him.
The horse soldiers under the banner of Tian Jun have also rebelled and are besieging Yu Qiupei and Oda Nobunaga. With the double evidence, the guards of the Yu Qiu family must be convinced and will immediately rush to Honnoji Temple to rescue them. Lin Xiuzhen's ninjas will take the opportunity to attack
The guards of the Yuqiu family provoked a fight. At that time, Oda Nobunaga's horse soldiers would definitely come out to stop them, and they would also be mistaken for the rebel horse soldiers by the guards of the Yuqiu family. In this way, they could provoke a fight.
The conflict between the guards of the Yuqiu family and Oda Nobunaga's horse. After the incident was completed, all the ninjas involved in the matter were transferred away, leaving Yuqiu to die without any evidence.
At that time, Lin Xiuzhen can label Yu Qiuping as domineering and challenging the lord. Although Oda Nobunaga will definitely understand that this is Lin Xiuzhen's own mischief, Lin Xiuzhen has given such a great opportunity to punish Yu Qiuping, Even if the charges are not proven, they can ask Yu Qiuping to think about his mistakes behind closed doors, put him under house arrest for a few years, and then severely cut down the vassal and take back the Yuqiu family's territory. In the eyes of outsiders, the Yuqiu family's guards did not understand the situation, and they treated their master. The horses returned to the crowd and started a fight. This kind of punishment was not excessive at all.
The reason why I didn’t really kill Yu Qiuping was because it was meaningless. It was not Yu Qiuping who was scary, but the powerful Yu Qiu family. Compared to the unruly Yu Qiu Shang, Yu Qiuping seemed Lin Xiuzhen naturally did not intend to kill him. What he wanted to do was weaken the strength of the Yuqiu family.
Of course, Lin Xiuzhen was also prepared for the worst. If someone in the Yuqiu family saw through this plan and refused to go to Honnoji Temple after receiving the request for help, then Lin Xiuzhen also had her own side plan. If the Yuqiu family guards did not move , then Lin Xiuzhen would bet his own fate and actually launch a rebellion to attack Oda Nobunaga. However, he would naturally not hurt Oda Nobunaga, but would send an envoy to Oda Nobunaga to ask for help from the Yuqiu family guards. The opportunity. The guards of Yu Qiu's family naturally understand the story of the crying wolf, and they will definitely not come. When the time comes, they can label Yu Qiuping as unwilling to save him. As for what punishment Lin Xiuzhen will receive, he doesn't care.
"The plan is full of loopholes." Lin Xiuzhen thought of this and smiled to herself, "My lord will definitely find out that it is my handiwork."
"But it doesn't matter. There are always people who plan some conspiracy that is so subtle that it leaves no trace, just to distance themselves from the involvement. This is very difficult." Lin Xiuzhen paused, and her smile gradually turned cold, "But If an important minister is willing to sacrifice himself to kill another person, everything will be much simpler, and there is no need to consider the issue of traces at all. Once this plan is completed, I can push the lord to the point where he has to punish the Yuqiu family."
Chapter completed!