Walking along the only dirt road in the village that could barely be called a "road", Imagawa Yoshimoto finally heard the sound of horse hooves in the distance. When he got closer, he immediately recognized the tall and powerful Kira Usei. Behind him
, it was Takeda Harunobu, Ginkgo, Taiyuan Sekssai, Mrs. Sanjo and the rest of the group. The clumsy carriage and Xinou had been abandoned, and the group was traveling lightly.
"Haha, Master Xuesai really knows Goro." After Takeda Harunobu saw Imagawa Yoshimoto coming this way, he couldn't help but sigh to Taiyuan Xuesai, "I knew he would walk in the opposite direction when he saw the torch."
"Chengfang has been naughty since he was a child. He knew that he was going against his master, so he naturally had to do it the other way around." Taiyuan Xuezhai also laughed twice, and then urged, "Let's go quickly, don't waste time.
."
"Ah...this..." Kinoshita Tokichiro listened to the conversation in front of him, looked at the team of dozens of people and the horses in front of him, and caught the word "pursuing troops", and was stunned for a moment.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to get you involved." Imagawa Yoshimoto bowed slightly apologetically, "We are samurai from another country and were chased while passing by Owari. If you want to avoid disputes and danger, you can leave now."
"Your Highness, the Governor, is joking." Amano Keitoku spoke almost without hesitation, regardless of the risk of overstepping, "There is no reason to let the stranger leave, otherwise it will be troublesome if he reveals his whereabouts to the pursuers. Either take him to
Release him to a safe location or execute him on the spot."
"It doesn't have to be like this, the little one won't leave." Kinoshita Tokichiro shook his head. After a moment of panic, sparks of excitement seemed to flash in his eyes - it seems that the more dangerous it is, the closer he is to getting ahead, "I'll follow you, little one."
, I am not afraid of mountains of swords or seas of fire.”
"It's really an ambition that I can't match. Go get him a pair of shoes and some clothes. Don't get cold." Imagawa Yoshimoto sighed secretly, then got on his horse and followed the queue forward. Halfway through, he almost forgot.
After realizing the matter, he hurriedly opened his hands to Takeda Harunobu and said, "Oh, by the way, Tokichiro, this is the man I want to introduce you to his house. He is the governor of the Takeda family..."
"No, no, no, no need." Unexpectedly, Takeda Harunobu waved his hands repeatedly with some fear, and pushed back Imagawa Yoshimoto's hand without any explanation, "Goro, this kid can just follow you. Kid, listen, you
The person in front of me is the famous most benevolent person in Tokaido, His Excellency Imagawa, the governor of the Imagawa family."
"Huh?" This time Imagawa Yoshimoto was confused. It was Takeda Harunobu who recognized at first glance that Kinoshita Tokichiro was a talented person, but it was Takeda Harunobu who insisted on pursuing Kinoshita Tokichiro and took him away, insisting that he must accept Kinoshita Tokichiro as his leader.
The retainer was still Takeda Harunobu - why did he pass it on to someone else when the time came?
"Stop talking and leave quickly." Takeda Harunobu glanced at the movement in the distance and urged him to change the topic, "Otherwise, we will be caught up later."
No one cared that Kinoshita Tokichiro was dumbfounded after hearing those two famous names - although he was young and didn't know what kind of behemoths the Imagawa family and the Takeda family were - but he was favored by the big shots anyway.
.
The group headed northwest, and soon met Kentaro Tian Shen, who was rushing back to the team.
"They have all been led to the west. After extinguishing the torches, they will no longer be able to find us." Kentaro Tian Shen said as he turned to look back, "Without three or four hours, we will definitely not be able to catch up."
"Okay, by then we will have already left the territory of the Oda Danmasa family (Oda Nobuhide) and entered the Oda Yamatomomo (Oda Nobyou) family in Qingzhou City, and the ninjas of Furuno Castle will not be able to make a big splash. "The ground is chasing you." Taiyuan Xuezhai replied confidently, "You can rest on the roadside for a while. We set out all night and didn't have enough fodder. The horses can't go very far."
After the group stopped on the side of the road, the entourage and ninjas began to feed the horses quickly, while Taiyuan Xuesai and Takeda Hironobu studied the next route on the map. Only then did they have time to ask Imagawa Yoshimoto and Takeda Harunobu's reckless behavior.
"I was talking about going for a walk, but why did I bring a child back inexplicably?" Taiyuan Xuezhai glanced at Kinoshita Tokichiro, who was sitting awkwardly on the wall not far away, and said to the two of them with some dissatisfaction, "We are in enemy territory. You should be careful in your words and deeds, why are you so easy to cause trouble?"
Imagawa Yoshimoto did not answer, but glanced at Takeda Harunobu - meaning that this matter was caused by you, you can solve it yourself. So Takeda Harunobu had to bite the bullet and said: "Master Yuksai, Master Hironobu, I'm the one who sees that The child is quite gifted with spiritual energy, and he wants to take it back and become his retainer."
"But didn't my lord say before that he only had a relationship with that humble boy?" Takeda Hironobu said with a kind face, but "disbelief" was still written on his face, "How can you think that he is talented? The poor monk also said I don’t see anything unusual about that child’s appearance.”
"This..." Takeda Harunobu was also speechless for a moment, but just when he was hesitating how to answer, the sound of wheels and the sound of horse hooves came from the distance.
Everyone turned around and saw an old donkey cart driving on the road to the south. The child standing at the front driving the donkey cart was dressed in strange clothes, half naked, and whipped the donkey's back hard with a riding whip. The donkey was driven very fast. There were four and a half-year-old children sitting on the four-wheeled wooden cart pulled behind the donkey, and they screamed in pain from the bumps.
"Alert." Taiyuan Xuezhai ordered in a cold voice. The surrounding ninjas of the Imagawa family and the Takeda family all stretched their hands to their arms and looked at the intruder warily.
"They're just some Owari kids playing around." Takeda Hironobu disagreed, half in relief and half in mockery, "Master Yukisai, why is this necessary?"
"You have to take a look and you will know." Taiyuan Xuezhai smiled. He is usually informal, but he is extra cautious when encountering things.
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Seeing so many ninjas and horses, the children racing in the car seemed to be stunned. They stopped holding the riding whip in their hands and looked at those people at a loss.
"The fabrics of the clothes are not cheap, and they are also very nutritious. At such a young age, there are already traces of martial arts practice on the hands. He must be a martial arts disciple of the Oda family." After a brief observation, Taiyuan Xuezhai already understood. "If you later deliberately lie and say you are a civilian, we will capture them immediately."
"Are you the adults of the Shibata family?" The kid in the strange clothes at the head did not shy away and asked carelessly.
Imagawa Yoshimoto frowned and roughly guessed the situation. This young boy from the Oda family was obviously here to defraud his identity. At this time, no matter how Imagawa Yoshimoto answered, there would inevitably be flaws. But if he directly asked the other person, "Are you?"
"Which one", he admitted the fact that he did not know this member of the Wu family - in a sense, his identity was exposed.
Therefore, Imagawa Yoshimoto discussed a clever idea and focused his answer on "Your Excellency", bypassing the element of "Shibata family", and answered with his hands raised: "I don't dare to accept 'Your Excellency'. The Lord has promoted me. I don't know what the Lord is doing."
Come on, what's the matter?"
"My father sent me to see how your mission is being completed." Master Oda Ji, a young man in fancy dress, said generously, "Tell me, how is the progress?"
At this moment, Imagawa Yoshimoto really didn't know how to answer. Just as he was about to answer bravely, Taiyuan Xuezhai behind him suddenly raised his hand and pressed his shoulder.
Imagawa Yoshimoto turned around in confusion, only to find that Taiyuan Xuezhai's eyes were as fierce as hawks, staring at the strangely dressed boy in front of him and the other children behind him.
"I am 80% sure that the person in front of me is probably the son of an important member of the Oda family, or even the eldest son of Oda Danmasa, and his age is suitable." Taiyuan Xuezai whispered in Imagawa Yoshimoto's ear.
"How is it possible? How can a young master of a family wander around in the wilderness wearing such unseemly clothes and approach an unidentified group alone? Could it be that he is a fool..." Imagawa Yoshimoto said to himself, but at this point he suddenly realized
——The eldest son of the Oda family, hasn't he always been known as the "big fool"?
"How can you see it?" Imagawa Yoshimoto covered his mouth with his hands and asked Taiyuan Xuezhai in a low voice - at this moment, he couldn't care less about the doubtful and panicked expressions of the children in front of him as they looked at him and whispered.
"He used his identity as the 'Shibata family' to defraud you, and then used his 'father' to suppress you. What does that mean?" Taiyuan Xuezhai snorted coldly and said to the point: "It means that this is what he feels subconsciously.
If he feels that his own authority or that of his father can suppress the Shibata family, then he is either the young master of the Shibata family or the young master of the Oda family, otherwise there is no reason to cross the family to manage other people's ninjas?"
"What the teacher said is..." Imagawa Yoshimoto also frowned when he heard this, "But maybe he is deliberately bluffing to continue to deceive us, right?"
"That was completely a subconscious reaction. It doesn't seem like he was faking it." Taiyuan Xuezhai believed in his own judgment.
"Then if they are important members of the Oda family, the teacher won't want to detain them, right?" Imagawa Yoshimoto guessed Taiyuan Xuezhai's thoughts after a second thought, "It's not good. The Wu family should be fighting against each other in public, so how can they be private?
What’s the point of kidnapping someone else’s heir?”
"Aren't the heirs of the Songping family kidnapped by them?" Taiyuan Xuezhai laughed dryly, "Stop your pedantic morals. You are even more pedantic than this old monk at your young age."
"Does the teacher really want to arrest someone?" Imagawa Yoshimoto asked, while quietly reaching into his arms to hold his ribs, and at the same time observing the reactions of the children - they obviously realized that the situation was wrong, and several children
They were trembling with fear and sweating profusely. But the young man in the strange costume who was leading the group did not change his expression, but clenched his fists with a little nervousness.
After Taiyuan Xuezhai pondered for a moment, he whispered quietly:
"No, I suspect this is a higher-level conspiracy and a trap."
Later, Taiyuan Xuezhai ignored everyone's differences, waved his hand suddenly, got on his horse and shouted: "Escape! Go northwest and go straight out of Owari! Don't stop!"
As soon as the words fell, Taiyuan Xuezhai immediately pulled out his horse and fled. The people didn't care about thinking, and hurriedly got on their horses and followed. The children were also dumbfounded, and after being stunned for a moment, they drove the donkey cart and thought
He chased but couldn't catch up. Master Odaji was so angry that he stood on the donkey cart and jumped up and down.
