"Don't go back, leave quickly. The attacker may be trying to lure the tiger away from the mountain, or he may be waiting for the rabbit." Ginkgo reacted immediately and pulled Imagawa Yoshimoto to avoid the hills beside the field.
"Alert!" Hayasaka Nao immediately shouted loudly. He drew his sword in his hand and directed the ninjas and guards to guard Imagawa Yoshimoto. At the same time, he said to Tsuchikawa Sutra in the distance: "Mr. Tsuchihara, please bring a few people with you.
Go back to the village to investigate the identity and size of the attackers!"
"Yes!" Tu Atomjing took the order after hearing the words, and quickly headed towards the way he came from with a few elite ninjas around him.
"No need to worry this time." Imagawa Yoshimoto was quite relaxed at this time - with the experience of several previous dangers, he no longer dared to do anything like this, and he was surrounded by enough guards and ninjas. There was no one
There was no way a hundred people could pose a threat to him. But if there were really a hundred armed men moving within the Imagawa family territory - they would have been discovered long ago.
After waiting for a while with peace of mind, no more attackers appeared around, and everyone gradually felt relieved. Soon after, Tu Atonsu also hurried back, and the few ninjas around him were not injured.
It seems that no battle broke out, but the horses of Imagawa Yoshimoto and others were not brought back - but the horses didn't matter, and the Imagawa family was not short of money.
"How is it? What's going on?" Imagawa Yoshimoto asked.
"Looking at the footprints and traces of fighting, they must be a few bandits." Tsuchi Atomsuke leaned in front of Imagawa Yoshimoto and said, "I'm sorry, I was late and couldn't save the horses."
"The horses don't matter." Imagawa Yoshimoto motioned for Tsuchihara to stand up without any hesitation, and then suddenly realized something: "Wait... The traces of struggle you mentioned are..."
"The housewife seemed to be trying to stop the bandits from taking away the horses, so she left traces of the struggle and was killed." Tu Yuanjing stated without changing his expression, "So were the two children."
When Imagawa Yoshimoto rushed back to the scene, the bodies of the old lady and her two grandsons had been hastily buried by his men. The old lady did not wait to return to her son and daughter-in-law, and the children did not wait to return to their parents.
——Of course it is possible. Those two couples would never have come back.
Imagawa Yoshimoto did not wait for the opportunity to chat with this old lady.
"This old woman's house is full of poverty. The robbers probably know that, and they won't come to rob her house on weekdays." Yutaka Furuno looked coldly at the bloodstains at the scene of the incident that had not been cleaned up, and said the most beautiful words of Yoshimoto Imagawa.
What you don’t want to hear: “It was our good horses that attracted the robbers to her house and robbed her, causing death to her family of three.”
Imagawa Yoshimoto tried his best to calm his breathing, but even his inhaling voice was full of anger.
"Why do you do such a stupid thing?" Ginkgo walked out of the house, looked back at the simple meal that the kitchen had just prepared before it was served, bit her lip and whispered softly: "It's just a matter of stealing a few horses.
Well, there is no need to risk your own life. We are strangers to her, we just gave her a helping hand... Why should we risk our lives against the vicious robbers for our property?"
Hayasaka Nao was stunned when he heard this, and was silent for a while, and finally decided to speak: "Madam, you may not understand the mood of us grasshoppers who are digging in the soil... Some favors that are easy in your eyes are nothing to us.
It’s the kindness of Sansheng. How can we tolerate the horses that our benefactors put in their own homes to be snatched away like this? Maybe I was in a hurry and rushed to stop him, which led to tragedy..."
"Even children..." Imagawa Yoshimoto clenched his fists, with a rare murderous look in his eyes.
A good family, a family that had gone through so many hardships but still held on to hope and lived tenaciously, just disappeared.
"Pursue." Imagawa Yoshimoto spat out one word fiercely and looked at the horse's hoof prints as they left. "Prepare your horses and mobilize your troops. Follow me to pursue and catch the murderer. Can you still let these little kids escape from my eyes?"
"It's bad..."
At the same time, the group of people who stole Imagawa Yoshimoto's horse gradually began to realize that something was wrong.
"This seems to be a horse from the Wu family, and judging from its quality, it must be something that only the great name Wan Shi can afford, right?" A bandit felt something was wrong the more he looked at the horse sitting down, and he kept looking at his leader, "Still there?"
I wonder where that tall horse came from in that poor old woman’s house. Maybe it was tied there by a passing samurai? What if we are tracked down after we robbed someone else’s horse? Should we keep the horse?
Run quickly?"
"What are you afraid of? What can a samurai do?" The leading bandit leader didn't care at all. "I have been living in Sanhe for so many years and have many connections. I just hide away for a few days to avoid the limelight. Even if it's Matsudaira Hirotada.
Now, there is nothing you can do against me."
Early the next morning, Imagawa Yoshimoto and others followed the horse's hoof prints all night long, and the final destination pointed to an unexpected place - Mikawa Province's Jogunguji Temple.
This is a temple that was built as far back as the sixth year of Emperor Suiko (598). The founder was the famous Prince Shotoku. At that time, Prince Shotoku traveled across the country in order to revitalize Buddhism. When he passed through Mikawa Kingdom, he discovered
A spiritual tree, he used it to make his own statue. From then on, this place became a place where Buddhism flourished. After several evolutions, the Jodo Shinshu sect built a temple on the former site - this is the origin of Shanggong Temple. Therefore, Shanggong Temple
Miyaji Temple is also the most important Jodo Shinshu temple in the entire Mikawa region, and is even famous throughout Tokaido.
The temple is also one of the most troublesome forces within the territory of all the samurai daimyo. The reason is the long-standing privilege of "the guardian is not allowed to enter". It had already taken shape during the Yuanzheng period and was officially established during the Kamakura shogunate period - for
To restrict the penetration of local guardians into the shogunate's estates, the shogunate prohibited local guardians from entering the estates in the name of collecting taxes, chasing criminals, etc. This was clearly stipulated in the "Gosei and Failure Shiki", which was to "inhibit the entry of guardians"
". This privilege was also inherited and further developed during the Muromachi Shogunate period.
The temple power in Japan had already achieved a de facto semi-independent status long before the samurai came to power. Each large temple was armed and refused to pay taxes to the guardians, so the privilege of "not allowing the guardians to enter" naturally came from the shogunate.
The directly controlled public manor was extended to the temple territory. Some shoguns and guardian daimyo would also give them the power of "guardian envoys cannot enter" in order to build a good relationship with the temple forces - in fact, this is just a
It's just an afterthought.
The Jogiya Temple in front of you is one of the representatives of semi-independent temples. As early as hundreds of years ago, it had been in harmony with the samurai family in the Mikawa area. It refused all interference from the samurai family and was recognized by the Muromachi shogunate as a "guardian who cannot enter."
Privilege. The year before last, Matsudaira Hirotada also granted the Jodo Shinshu temples in the Mikawa area, such as Huairou Kamigongji Temple, the privilege of "protecting envoys from entering" in terms of title.
Out of respect for the gods and Buddhas, and in order to avoid unnecessary conflicts with the rebellious temple forces, Imagawa Yoshimoto took the initiative to dismount in front of the door, handed the horse to Hayasaka Nao, walked to the temple gate, and asked the garrison.
The monk soldier of the guard said: "This master, has he ever seen a group of bandits break into the temple?"
That's right, a monk soldier with long hair and a chicken bone in his mouth - it can be regarded as a characteristic of Honganji Temple.
"I've never heard of it." The monk soldier took a look at Imagawa Yoshimoto's clothes and realized that he was probably not a small person, so he patiently excused himself: "I'm afraid the donor has found the wrong place."
"That group of bandits robbed our horses. We followed the horse's hoof prints all the way, and we must be here. They may have sneaked in from some hidden place. Could you please help us search for something?" Imagawa Yoshimoto gave the monk soldier on the opposite side a
Steps, continued to request in a good voice.
"No, there is no. This is the pure land of Buddhism. Where can there be bandits?" However, the monk soldier had no intention of answering. Instead, he was dissatisfied with Imagawa Yoshimoto's continued questioning, and his tone became less polite, "
Please come back."
At this point, Imagawa Yoshimoto finally understood. Judging from the tracks of the horse hoof prints, the bandits entered through the main entrance. However, the monk soldiers refused to recognize him alive and had no intention of even asking or looking for them - that meant that
It turns out that he was not just prevaricating because he didn't know the situation, but he knew that a group of bandits had entered the temple, but he planned to conceal the protection-did that group of bandits give them any benefits?
"To be honest, those people not only stole horses, but also killed innocent people. We are tracking down the murderers." Imagawa Yoshimoto then no longer covered up, but directly showed his cards and said: "Please trouble your temple to search the temple, otherwise
For such a group of extremely vicious people to break into Buddhism is both dangerous and insulting to the gods."
"It's all said and done, why are you so crazy here?" The monk soldier was already impatient. He lowered his face and scolded Imagawa Yoshimoto: "Who do you think you are?"
"Please ask your abbot to come out, and I will talk to him." Imagawa Yoshimoto responded without any explanation.
"You have already said who you are? Why do you want to see our abbot?" The monk soldier raised his voice and shouted to Imagawa Yoshimoto, but his shout alerted the people not far away.
"What happened at the door?" A rather majestic call came. Several monks and soldiers guarding the door turned their heads to look, and then hurriedly saluted: "Master Shanru!"
The person who came was a monk who was wearing a serious cassock and had also shaved his head. He looked a bit older and his eyebrows were already gray - finally someone who looked like a monk came... Imagawa Yoshimoto secretly complained in his heart.
"Master Shanru, this benefactor is so rude." The monk soldier who had just been arguing with Imagawa Yoshimoto immediately complained: "He insisted that a group of bandits entered our temple and said that he would call you out."
"Oh?" The host frowned when he heard this, then slowly walked to Imagawa Yoshimoto, clasped his hands together and performed a Buddhist salute: "The poor monk is the abbot Shanru of Shanggong Temple. This donor is unknown.