Shimoma Yorino is a brave general who has emerged from the Shimoma clan in recent years, and he is characterized by his courage and outstanding strategy and sober mind. Although he wanted to teach Miyoshi Changqing a lesson, he bluntly said that it was not easy to fight alone, and he was sent to Okayama City to renew his contract. It's called the renewal of the contract, but it's really estranged, Xianru has now handed over the power of a large part of the monks and soldiers to Shimoma Laizhao and others, but he has no way to refute Xianru's decision, and now he has always besieged the cities of the Miyoshi family in various places, which makes Shimoma Lailian worried.

It has always been like a rainbow in the Kinai, and it has burst out with unprecedented strength, which is certainly gratifying. Shimoma Yoriren always had a bad premonition, feeling that the development of things might not be so simple to let Ishiyama Honganji establish an earthly Buddha kingdom in Kinai. This was his secret premonition, but it brought him amazing gains at several crisis moments.

For the change of the situation, Shimoma Lai Lian has a very strong sense of ability. In history, it was his and Suzuki Shigehide's battles that caused Oda Nobunaga to repeatedly lose face in front of Ishiyama Honganji. When Xianru was unable to support alone, it was he who advanced and retreated together with Xianru. After Oda Nobunaga's death, it was his persistence that allowed Honganji to recover quickly during the Toyotomi Hideyoshi era, maintaining neutrality in the confrontation between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyori to preserve Honganji's power.

Now that the situation has changed dramatically, Shimoma Yoriyoshi clearly feels that Honganji is squandering Honganji's power in Kinai, and once it is squandered, it is the time for Miyoshi Nagakei and Ashikaga Yoshiaki to send troops to suppress them on behalf of religious forces other than Honganji.

Honganji Xianru was not a stubborn Dharma master, and when he heard that a ship of the Awaji Navy had appeared off the coast of Nambatsu, he immediately sent people to catch up with Shimoma Yoriren and his party. Ask them to renew their covenant with Date Politics. Then he asked the Date family to send a navy to encircle and suppress the Awaji navy. At the very least, it is required to be able to contain the Awaji water army.

Since Shimoma Yoriren had a premonition that Honganji would be in big trouble, he naturally did not continue to delay time on the road, and immediately rushed to Okayama Castle without stopping. Since the cavalry in Date territory is either owned by the inn that carries the message, or is a strong soldier in the army, it is difficult to see a war horse such as a kenma on the road. The arrival of Shimoma Yorilian, so what's the matter, Hattori Masanari has already bought the samurai ronin who guards Shimoma Yorilian. Under the absolute advantage, it has almost become instinct to go to other families first, and then to go out of Shiida's house.

Shimoma Yoriren judged the situation and knew that Honganji did not have any qualifications to order Date Mashiro to dispatch a navy to deal with the Awaji Navy, and he did not have much ability and strength to threaten Date Masato, so he could only choose to compromise and muttered in a low voice: "It's really cool!" He first wrote to Date Mashiro, inviting Date Mashiro to come to Beijing to meet with him, and another request was to invite Date Mashiro to participate in their alliance. As a person who can see clearly where his own interests lie, Shimoma Yoriyo does not think that Date Masaki has much interest in renewing his contract. Today's Date family does not have many disciples of Honganji. In particular, Date wanted to rebuild the Buddha statue, but he obviously couldn't explain the situation inside the ruins and left.

The power of the Date family is second only to Miyoshi Chokei. If it can get the support of the Date family, Honganji will be able to deal with the siege of other religious forces in Kinai. He wrote a letter to convey that what he meant was just a stepping stone. Without waiting for Date Masahiro to respond, Shimoma Yoriren personally came to Okayama Castle to ask for a renewal of the contract, and then supported Ishiyama Honganji Temple within a certain range according to the provisions of the treaty.

Honganji Xianru attaches great importance to the ability of Shimoma Yoriren, although he is somewhat unkind to let him come to renew the contract, but before leaving, he still talked to him in private once, and the two sides uphold the concern about the cause of Honganji, and it is obvious that he told his worries about the lower world Yori, and he sent Shimoma Yoriren to renew the contract, to a certain extent, the importance of Date Mashiro is much higher than that of other princes. Honganji Xianru even entrusted carte blanche to Shimoma Yoriryon, and if Date Masahiro was willing to send troops to support Ishiyama Honganji, he would be able to talk about anything, and even withdraw from all the Honganji monks who were preaching in the Date domain, such words came out of the mouth of Honganji Xianru. If this is known to others, I am afraid that it will immediately be opposed by everyone, and the position of Honganji will be unstable.

If Honganji is able to say such things to Shimoma Yoriryun, it is enough to show that he trusts Shimoma Yoriren and is also worried about the future of Honganji as much as Shimoma Yoriyo. Although Shimoma Yoriren also knows that Honganji Xianru is beyond ordinary people in terms of faith, and it can be said that he does not have the ability to strategically, once Honganji has acquired some physical words in the following routine, I am afraid that Honganji Xianru will immediately get carried away and forget the words he said today.

Similarly, Shimoma Yoriren also knows that Date Masahiro is by no means a little doll who will simply believe his words, but now that the situation is like this, even if there is only a glimmer of hope, he will try to drag the Date family into the water to become a foreign aid to Honganji.

Due to the blockade of the Awaji Naval Army, Shimoma Yoriren chose the land route, and Honganji's influence in the Settsu Province was huge, and he passed the blockade of Miyoshi Chokei without much effort and entered Harima Province. Harima Province was also influenced by Honganji to a certain extent, and of course it was not as big as Settsu, especially after passing the power of the Bessho family in Miki Castle. Although the defense of Miki Bessho's territory is strict, because the power is sandwiched between Date and Miyoshi, especially because he thinks he has offended them all, he naturally has no binding force on people from both sides. Shimoma Yoriren arrived at Himeji Town, where the Date family's stronghold in Harima, and in Himeji Town, Shimoma Yoriren finally boarded a boat bound for Okayama.

There were many more ships disembarking in Okayama than in Himeji, and since Okayama Castle became the main city of the Date family, its throughput increased a lot, and there was a huge dockyard on the east coast of Okayama Port, where the Date Navy was stationed.

The ships in Okayama Port were coming and going, but they were in good order, and Shimoma got off the ship and saw a group of soldiers in half-armor in charge of directing traffic, and some people wearing blue kimonos and large caps standing guard in the nearby sentry post. Shimoma Yoriren had sharp eyes, and he recognized that these men in blue kimonos and large caps had the words "Okayama Police" written on the chest of the kimono in black, and there was a number under the letter.

Of course, Lai Lian will not come alone. He was accompanied by a dozen bareheaded monks. They are the guards of the lower room Yorien. In order to disguise their identity as monks, their heads were wrapped in white cloths, and more than a dozen strangers wrapped in white cloths stood in place and looked around, blocking the progress of pedestrians, which immediately attracted the attention of the Okayama police. Four Okayama policemen with knives pulled out their swords, and a man who might have been an officer came over and said, "Everyone, after getting off the boat, go this way, don't block the people behind." ”

If this is the case at Ishiyama Honganji. The group of monks under the command of Shimoma Lai Lian will definitely let them know why the flowers are so red, but under Okayama Castle, they naturally won't do this, but they still show the quality of monks and soldiers, and immediately want to block in front of Shimoma Lai Lian to protect his safety. Shimoma Yorilian pushed the two away, stepped forward and first called a Buddha number, and said: "The poor monk is Shimoma Yorilian of Ishiyama Honganji Temple, and he wants to ask to see your family, Lord Date Dazai." ”

The officer's eyes lit up immediately when he heard this, and he said, "Please come with me." As he spoke, he led Yoriren Shimoma towards a wooden house near Okayama Port. Outside the wooden house, many merchants waiting to do business lined up and saw the group coming. Especially seeing the officer's posture, naturally no one would come forward to stop him. The Date family is obviously a privileged society, and the status of the merchants in the Date family is much higher than in other places, but they will not have a head-on conflict with the samurai, and once there is a head-on conflict, those police will definitely favor the samurai's side, even if the merchants take the reason.

The policemen on the dock did not follow, but they did not immediately lift their alert, and used a wooden whistle to make a sharp whistle, attracting more than a dozen Okayama policemen to guard Shimoma Yoriren and his party. Shimoma Lai Lian is not a monk who eats fasting and recites Buddha, he can see that most of these policemen are soldiers who have seen blood on the battlefield, and there are some ronins who obviously have some wild paths, they are sturdy, and they look very unusual. The fact that they had a sword hanging from their waists meant that they were not samurai.

The first merchant in the room who had just finished handing over glanced at the group of people who came in, his eyes shrank, he turned sideways and hurriedly left, as long as he paid the business tax of ten taxes and one of them, and got a piece of paper printed by Date and his family, he could go straight to the entire Date Territory.

Due to the implementation of the police system in the Date family, most of the checkpoints that required a large number of food and card cards in the territory were abolished, and only the four ports of Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Okayama, and Himeji were responsible for issuing tax certificates on land and sea. Since the Seto Inland Sea is full of inspection sailors, smuggling is almost cut off, and the tax revenue of one percent can be said to be acceptable, so naturally no one will commit crimes against the wind.

The crime of smuggling is quite serious, and the perpetrators will not only have all their property confiscated, but will also be sent by their families to Iwami Ginzan, Bichu Copper Mine and other places to mine for more than three years, and it can be said that there are almost no survivors who can survive mining in the mine for three years.

The officer glanced at Shimoma Yoriyo, made a gesture of inviting a seat, then sat down behind a table, and said first: "I, Hosokawa Tsutada, the commissioner of the Okayama Port Office, are Murakami and Yamashita of the Port Office. As he spoke, he pointed to the two people on the left and right.

Shimoma Yoriren didn't know what the official position of the official of the Okayama Port Office of Hosokawa Tsutada in front of him meant, but the words that came out of the other party made him feel a little uncomfortable, and his face changed, and he said, "The poor monk Shimoma Yoriren is the official of Ishiyama Honganji Temple, and he was ordered to come to see Date Dazai-sama. ”

Hosokawa Tsutaka obviously didn't know how high Shimoma Yoriren was in Ishiyama Honganji, nor did he know his name, but he heard that he had come to see Date Masahiro on the order of Ishiyama Honganji, so he naturally didn't dare to slack off, but that's all.

Hosokawa Tongzhong is a member of Hosokawa Tongzheng's clan, not very smart, and his ability to do things is not outstanding, the reason why he was able to be promoted to become the executive officer of the port office, naturally not because he is a member of Hosokawa Tongmasa's clan, nor is it the relationship between Hosokawa Yui's uncle, but he is quite rigid, one is one, two is two, and he will never do anything out of line, such a person is placed in the position of the port office, which is reassuring. For Date Mashiro, it was enough to be reassuring.

Hosokawa Tsutaka could hear Yoriyo's words, mumbled, and spoke again: "I will send your request to the Okayama Castle Public Security Office and the Diplomatic Office. After a while, he took out a pamphlet, and then the two officials of Murakami and Yamashita began to ask questions about the pamphlet.

These questions are actually very simple, they are all about some of the life deeds of Ishiyama Honganji Temple and Shimoma Yoriyo, and some of the questions are deliberately asked incorrectly. This made Lai Lian angry, is there such a shabby person? He couldn't help but say loudly: "The poor monk knows Hashimoto Sunemon Masamitsu, as long as you call Hashimoto Sunemon Masamitsu to recognize us, you will know if we are impostors." ”

Hosokawa nodded after hearing this, and said, "Oh, I know the Diplomatic Office Hashimoto Noriyuki, so please go to the Port Council Hall first, eat some snacks, and I will send your special request to the Foreign Affairs Office." ”

Two hours later, Masamitsu Hashimoto rode a fast horse from Kurashiki Port, which has now become a branch port of Okayama Port, mainly responsible for hoarding grain, and dozens of granaries for stockpiling grain have been built near Kurashiki Port.

Hashimoto Masamitsu only nodded to Shimoma Yoriren, and finally knew that Shimoma Yoriren's identity was indeed the official of Ishiyama Honganji, so he naturally signed his name on a document, and then led Shimoma Yoriren and others out of the port office.

Hashimoto Masamitsu went to Ishiyama Honganji Temple to coincide with the death of Zhengru and became the first envoy of the princes to come to mourn, so he signed an agreement, and he never thought that today Yoriyo Shiruma would come to Okayama Castle in person in order to renew the appointment, which naturally made him proud.

Hashimoto Masamitsu first apologized to Yoriren Shimoma, and then explained: "The criminal department doesn't have to be angry, in fact, it's not just you, it's the Date family. The port office is a department issued by the lord himself, so it naturally receives a lot of attention, and it is also responsible for the safety of the port. ”

Hashimoto Masamitsu said this, Shimoma Yoriren is not good to say anything, of course he is not good to ask anything about those Okayama police, after all, these are the affairs of the Date family, he is not an outsider to inquire about anything, now the only way to see Date Masaki as soon as possible is the right thing.

Shimoma Yoriren inquired again about seeing Date Masaki, but Hashimoto Masamitsu did not let him delay much, and first reported today's matter to the Foreign Affairs Office, and quickly got a reply, and Shimoma Yoriren went to Okayama Castle under the leadership of Hashimoto Masamitsu. (To be continued......)