[The Japanese reign title, emperor's name, era background, place names, vassal names, etc. appearing in this volume are all fictional. If there is any similarity, it is purely coincidental.]
In this parallel universe that we are both familiar and unfamiliar, not only the Central Plains, but also the history of all over the world has undergone certain changes.
For example, the great neighbor Japan came a little later than we know.
Until the 20th year of Eutai, the Tokugawa Shogunate had not been established, and warlord separatism in Japan was still in full swing.
At this time, Japan was in the reign of its 113th Emperor, Emperor Sakikawa, and its year name was "Motowa".
The "general" of the shogunate at that time was named Ashikaga Yoshiaki.
Here, for those who don’t know much about it, the emperor was basically undermined in the "Shogunate Age". At that time, the real ruler in Japan was the "Shogunate General" of the Shogunate, referred to as "General"; there were several daimyos under the general, namely the princes who ruled various vassal states.
When you hear this, do you feel a little "using the emperor to command the princes"?
That's right, the same thing happened in the Warring States Period, but Ashikaga Yoshiaki is obviously not as good as Cao Mengde.
Although he was in the position of a shogunate general and could "justifiedly" unite or attack the princes everywhere, he did not become the final winner in this era of warlord melee, but that was later, at least he had not yet been defeated.
The story of this volume starts from the war-torn Yuanhe second year.
According to legend, somewhere in the Kii Peninsula in southern Osaka, there is a not-known vassal state called "Sahara".
The land of Sahara Country is not very large, with a population of only a few thousand, but it is also a land of fish and rice.
In theory, at that time, small vassal states like this were easily targeted and annexed by other forces, but Sahara's situation was quite special: Sahara's country was surrounded by mountains on three sides and faced by mountains on the back. Unless it took a lot of effort to detour from the sea, there would be only one canyon in the mountains to enter and exit the border.
Such an easy-to-defense and difficult-to-attack terrain has naturally discouraged the troops of other vassal states. Considering that this place is just a blind spot on the lower edge of the Kii Peninsula from the map, it does not have much strategic value, and other forces themselves are also restraining each other, so no daimyo has been attacking this place for the time being.
The country of Sahara was able to temporarily guard a corner in this chaotic era.
…………
In the second year of Yuanhe, Sahara somewhere.
Under the cold moonlight, a man in his fifties dressed in a warrior was standing in the water with a bag.
He stared at a huge black shadow in the distance, and for a long time... he remained silent.
At this moment, he was in a valley. There was a large area of ​​wading water in the heart of the valley. It looked like a lake but not a lake. Its water was not as shallow as an adult's waist, but the range was far larger than that of an ordinary pond.
After standing for a long time, the man seemed to have made up some decision, his eyes changed... and then he moved.
He lifted the bag in his hand, untied the cloth outside, stuffed the cloth into his arms, and then opened a brocade box in the bag.
In the box, it contains a piece of disc-shaped jade with a diameter of about 30 cm and a thickness of more than 5 cm.
The whole body of this jade is red, and the carved patterns on both sides of the jade plate are intertwined and entangled, presenting a scene of a five-clawed golden dragon soaring into the clouds and fog.
The book here implies that this piece of jade is the national treasure that the Japanese envoy stole from the Dazhi Palace in the last book, and is called "Yanlong Bi".
So how did this thing fall into the hands of the man in front of him? Let’s not mention it here... Let’s talk about this man, now he picked up the dragon wall and walked towards the huge black shadow in front of him.
Walking forward without walking too fast.
But the distance between the giant shadow in the lake and the man seemed not as far as visually perceived.
After only a few dozen seconds of walking, the man came to the giant shadow.
He looked up at the giant shadow, and the other party... was also looking at him.
There was no dialogue, the man just looked at a huge eye for a few seconds, and then silently put down the brocade box containing the dragon wall in his hand and let it sink into the water.
Then he slowly took a few steps back, bowed, and turned around and left.
…………
When the man walked out of the valley, a gust of autumn wind suddenly blew.
His clothes were basically wet, and he was so excited by the wind.
However, this happened to quickly restore his already dazed spirit to a little clear-headed.
"Sir Zong." At this time, a rough voice sounded, "Are you okay?"
Sahara Sect, I turned my head when I heard the sound, looked at the man not far away who was kneeling on one knee to greet me, and replied in a deep voice: "Oh...Kansuke, are you waiting for me?"
"Yes." Kanasuke responded with his head down.
"Well..." Sahara Sect nodded and continued, "This time, you're worried about it."
"This is what my subordinates should do." Kansuke replied earnestly, "As long as I can share my worries..."
Woo--
Kansuke was only halfway through his words, and was interrupted by a deafening low murmur.
The voice came from the valley beside them.
This is a strange chant that no animal in the world can imitate. Although it doesn't sound like a "roar" or just makes it low, it can still drown all the noises where its sounds reach in an instant.
At that moment, the whole Sahara seemed to hear this low moan, but not many people knew what this meant...
"This is..." After the sound dissipated and his hearing recovered, Kansuke couldn't help but widen his eyes, looked in the direction of Taniguchi, and muttered.
"It seems that it has been successful." Zong I also looked in that direction, "It was the first time I heard the voice of 'God'."
So I paused and said again: "In this way, no matter Hojo, Hexagram... or even the shogunate army, it is not worth fearing... Cough! Uh, ah, ah..."
As he was talking, his face suddenly changed. He covered his chest with an extremely painful expression and coughed suddenly.
"My Lord Son!" Seeing this, Kansuke didn't care about his etiquette and quickly stepped forward to support him.
"No... it's okay." Although I said that, I didn't mean to refuse Kansuke. He let him support him. After his breathing was calmer, he looked at the blood coughed in his palm again, and said, "This is just because I have been treated in the 'Shen Water', so my body vomited out the pain..." He said, and gasped for two more times, "It's good if I vomited out..."
For some reason, his tone of the last half of the sentence was a bit like self-deception.
"Let's go back, Kansuke." So I took a moment to rest and then said to Kansuke, "Go and tell everyone this good news."
"Yes." Kansuke responded, and slowly let go of his hand that supported Son, and then stood respectfully back two meters away from the other party.
"By the way, I coughed just now..." Zong I wanted to say something again.
Chapter completed!