Along with Tsuruoka Hachimangu Shrine, there were also hundreds of years of faith that had been passed down during the shogunate era. Oda Nobunaga, who personally burned all of them, had already left Oda Nobutada and Niwa Nagahide in charge of the transfer of the Kanto territory.
Get ready to return to Kinki.
However, at the foot of Odawara Castle, Shibata Katsuie, Maeda Toshiie and others who originally wanted to see Oda Nobunaga off found that they had become the escort team, while Amakihei, Tokugawa Ieyasu and others who had originally planned to escort Oda Nobunaga back to Kinki
But he found that he had to see off Oda Nobunaga.
"Lord?" Yu Qiuping looked at Oda Nobunaga with great confusion as he instructed the women to go north, "Why don't you come back to Kinki via Tokaido with us? We will take a detour to Higashiyama Road, but the Hokuriku Road is a little further away.
It’s more than half the distance. And it’s snowing in Hokurikudo, so it might be delayed even longer.”
"When we came here, we took the Tokaido Road. It would be boring to walk again when we go back." Oda Nobunaga smiled and explained to Amakihei. Such a nonsensical reason seemed extremely normal from Oda Nobunaga's mouth.
After saying that, he tucked the horse under his belly and headed north without hesitation, leaving Shibata Katsuie, Yu Qiupei and others in the same place. Everyone looked at each other, not knowing what to say.
Yu Qiupei smiled bitterly at Shibata Katsuie, and then bowed his hands to him, preparing to say goodbye to him. However, Shibata Katsuie glanced at Yu Qiupei and the attendants behind him, and was suddenly stunned for a moment. Then he pointed at Asahina Taihei and said
, "Is he also your flagship?"
"Yes." Yu Qiupei didn't understand why Shibata Katsuie suddenly asked about Asahina Taihei, and nodded.
"Very young, very familiar." Shibata Katsuie frowned, and after thinking for a moment, he said, "Did he be recruited from Owari? Maybe he is the son of my old subordinate."
"No, he is the son of my step-brother when we were in the Imagawa family. I don't know why His Highness Shibata looks so familiar..." Yu Qiuping shook his head. He wanted to express his doubts, but he suddenly reacted and remembered that Asahina Taiheng and Shibata Masaru.
Regarding the duel between our families, "Your Highness Shibata still remembers that 23 years ago, I met you in a B&B in the village of Okehama. I was about to be defeated by you, but was saved by my elder brother at the critical moment. At that time, you
I also fought against my eldest brother, maybe it was the influence left by that time."
"Oh..." Shibata Katsuie nodded when he heard this, and also fell into the memories of that time, "Your sworn brother is not like you at that time. He is very brave in martial arts. In time, his martial arts will not be inferior to mine."
"That's right, that's my eldest brother, and he's also this guy's father." Yu Qiuping smiled and stretched out his hand, rubbing Asahina Taihei's hair beside him, "Not only his martial arts, but his riding skills were also the best in the Imagawa family back then.
First of all, he was able to carry me and escape from His Highness Shibata."
"But the price is a bit high." Shibata Katsuie sneered disdainfully, then shook his head and said, "In order to escape, I threw away such a precious map in a hurry, which almost brought disaster to Mikawa. If it hadn't been for you later
Sticking to Zhili saved the situation, but I’m afraid it’s hard to get better.”
"Ah?" Yu Qiuping was stunned when he heard this. He didn't understand what Shibata Katsuie was discussing at all, so he subconsciously asked: "What did you say?"
"What?" Shibata Katsuie was also puzzled by Yu Qiuping's performance.
"What precious map?" Yu Qiuping vaguely felt that he had touched some crucial clues. He immediately took the reins of the horse and came to Shibata Katsuie's side, and asked in a low voice.
"It's been so long... I can't remember exactly. It seems to be a map that records the route, schedule and personnel of the Matsudaira family's transportation team to supply food to Narumi Castle." Shibata Katsuie seems to be unable to recall the specific situation.
, he mumbled a few words casually.
"When did we ever throw away something like that?" Yu Qiuping was completely confused and asked blankly.
"Aren't you in a hurry to throw away the Jinhaori and everything? The map was picked up in the Jinhaori." Shibata Katsuie pointed at the Jinhaori under the winter coat that Yu Qiupei was wearing.
Weave.
"Wait..." Yu Qiuping suddenly felt a little out of breath. The logic he had always believed in suddenly collapsed without warning. The world was spinning in front of his eyes, and waves of memories kept coming.
I remember taking off my jinhaori to reduce weight when escaping... That was twenty-three years ago in the first year of Eiroku (1558)...
·
Before he finished speaking, the sound of horse hooves could be heard behind him. The strong man (Shibata Katsuie) rode the horse Yu Qiuping left at the farmer's house and chased after him.
"Damn, what a bad luck!" Asahina Taehyung spat. The strong man behind him was also quite good at equestrian skills. In addition, Yu Qiuping and Asahina Taehyung were riding on the same horse, so they couldn't get up fast at all. The distance between the two sides continued.
Zoomed out. Only fifty meters were left.
"No, throw away everything you can!" Yuqiupei said urgently. After Asahina Taiheng heard this, he controlled the reins with one hand and took off his samurai uniform's haori in three strokes with the other hand.
He threw it to the roadside casually, took off the inner lining and handed it to Yu Qiuping, and continued running shirtless. Yu Qiuping also quickly took off his shirt, carefully put away the red leaf pendant, and then
Seeing the right moment, he tied the two pieces of clothing together and threw them towards the strong man behind him. The clothes flew with the wind, and the strong man who was galloping was caught off guard and the clothes wrapped the horse's head, and the horse stood upright.
, almost knocking the strong man off his horse. When the strong man adjusted his posture and chased again, the distance between the two sides had increased to more than 200 meters.
·
But...what about the map Shibata Katsuie was talking about...How could there be a map involving secrets of food transportation in Jinhaori?
The memories of that year flashed before Yu Qiuping's eyes like a revolving lantern, and he kept searching through the fragments of memory, retrieving memories about that map - and then he finally realized - that map was taken by Asahina Yasuhiro from Okazaki Castle Castle
I stole it out of the pavilion and wanted to use it to watch the road when I went to the front line.
·
After Yu Qiuping and Matsudaira Motoyasu said goodbye, they returned to their inn room. As soon as they opened the door, they saw a sneaky figure hiding behind their bed.
"Brother, what are you doing there!" Yu Qiuping asked angrily and funny, "Are you hiding behind the bed waiting to steal someone?"
Yu Qiuping's voice startled Asahina Taehyung, who quickly turned over and made a silent gesture, then signaled Yu Qiuping to close the door, and then carefully shrank behind the bed board.
"Brother, what are you doing?" Yu Qiuping curiously approached Asahina Taehyung, but the latter's strange sitting posture prevented Yu Qiuping from seeing anything. In desperation, he had to shrink behind the bed board.
Asahina Taehiro was using the candlelight on the table not far away to concentrate on studying a... map? Look at the locations of several cities on the map. There are large circles drawn on it. One of them is marked Okazaki Castle, and there are also
Several official roads are marked. On the left side of the map, the general outlines of Ise Bay and Mikawa Bay are also outlined. I guess it is almost the same as the map of Mikawa Owari. Owari is in the west and Mikawa is in the east.
, further east are Yuanjiang and Suruga, which is the road Yuqiuping came from.
"What kind of map is this?" Yu Qiuping wanted to verify his guess.
"This is the Imagawa family's troop deployment plan in southeastern Owari and Mikawa. I stole it from uncle Ujihiro." Asahina Yasuhiro chuckled. Only then did Yu Qiupei notice that in every city and near important villages, there were
Numerous information such as the number of garrison troops, generals, and material equipment were densely written in small regular script. In the side column, detailed records were also recorded of the transportation teams transporting military supplies to Narumi Castle and Dagao Castle from the beginning of the year to the end of this year.
time and route.
"Is there going to be a war?" Yu Qiuping instinctively became alert.
"How is that possible? The Oda family only has 3,000 soldiers in total. They can't even make up 10,000 people. It's not enough for us." Asahina Taehyung
He raised his head disdainfully, "Didn't you hear that I stole the map?"
"Then what are you going to do? Brother, why are you stealing pictures?" Yu Qiuping asked curiously.
"Of course we are going to play," Asahina Taehyung said with a matter-of-fact expression, "Let's go to the front lines of the Imagawa family and the Oda family. It's hard to find the way without a map."
·
It's that map...that map that Asahina Taehiro stole. It recorded in detail the time and route for transporting supplies to Narumi Castle... Asahina Taehiro took it with him in his clothes after he stole it. When we were in a hurry to escape, I
He just threw the clothes and the map out, and then Shibata Katsuie picked them up.
"So Shibata-dono... that bold surprise attack you launched against the Matsudaira family's grain transport team at the border of Owari Mikawa in the first year of Eiroku (1558)... that was the battle at Chirit Castle that made me famous, the cause of the incident was not
We have a traitor who leaked the secrets of the grain transport team to you, but did you see our map recording the schedule route?"
Yu Qiuping looked at Shibata Katsuie tremblingly, hoping to get a negative answer from him, but Shibata Katsuie nodded matter-of-factly.
"There's no traitor, it's just that map." Shibata Katsuie responded casually, obviously unaware of how much impact this information had on Yu Qiuping.
·
Yu Qiuping still remembers the secret "detection of the traitor" operation carried out by the top brass of the Imagawa family. Imagawa Yoshimoto and Sena Ujitoshi tried their best, but could not find the traitor from the Imakawa family. And the reason why they suddenly started to search
The traitor was not a sudden thought. The origin of the matter was the incredible raid of the Oda family in the first year of Eiroku (1558). The Oda family dared to cross the long mountain road and raided with light troops without carrying auxiliary soldiers and baggage teams. It was simply
A suicidal decision - but they happened to catch the Matsudaira family's food transport team that was transporting food to Narumi Castle that day, and achieved great success. The time and distance of the food transport team were confidential information, saying that the Oda Army
Being able to predict such an action was simply a fantasy. Therefore, the senior leaders of the Imagawa family unanimously concluded that a traitor had leaked information about the grain transport team to the Oda family, and that was why the Oda family dared to launch such an exaggerated raid. Afterwards, a series of investigations and exploratory actions were carried out.
, all based on the leakage of information about this battle. Even after the Battle of Okehazama-Narumi Castle, the entire Imakawa family suspected that a traitor caused the death of Imakawa Yoshimoto. This judgment was also inherited two years ago.
The inference after the attack on the grain transport team. Ame Qiupei and the Asahina family have firmly believed that Okabe Motonobu was the traitor who killed Imagawa Yoshimoto for so many years. It was also because the surprise attack that year convinced them that there must be a traitor.
existence, so when analyzing the cause of Imagawa Yoshimoto's death, we will naturally think in that direction.
But now, the logic that I have believed in for more than 20 years suddenly collapsed - the surprise attack on the food transport team was not a traitor leaking secrets from inside and outside, but Yu Qiupei and Asahina Taiheng lost the intelligence map.
In other words, there may really not be a traitor in the Imagawa family? The "traitor" that Imagawa Yoshimoto and Senajitoshi have worked hard to investigate for a long time may be just a mistake made by Yu Qiupei and Asahina Taehiro. And Yu Qiupei has always been identified as a traitor.
Could it be that the traitor Motonobu Okabe was also unjustly accused? The awe-inspiring righteousness that Okabe Motonobu showed when he was talking to Yu Qiupei before his death was obviously not something that a traitor could express...
There is no traitor in the Imagawa family... and there is no traitor? If this is really the case, Okabe Motobu's resolute performance before his death can be explained...
But if there was no traitor in the Imagawa family, what happened in the battle between Okehazama and Narumi Castle? How did so many confusing situations come about? Who locked the gate of the castle tower? Those unbelievable things
Who sent the messenger? Who transferred Imagawa Yoshimoto's bodyguards? How could Imagawa Yoshimoto die unexpectedly?
To be continued...