"Only by doing meritocracy can our Kuroda family become truly strong and stand tall in this troubled world. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info "After Wan Ji finished speaking, the two adults were speechless in surprise, is this what a child should say?" You must know that in this era, perhaps only Oda Nobunaga could say such things, because this concept is too advanced and not at all easy for people in this era to accept. Japan now has a strict class system, so in fact, discrimination against the common people, or ordinary laborers other than the samurai class, is an unavoidable problem for most daimyo in this era, which also causes the low status of other professionals in this era, so Kuroda Nagaya used to only entertain ronin samurai, and other professionals were not welcome.

"Wanji, what you said is too good, the vision of our Kuroda family is indeed too narrow, as long as it is a strong and useful talent for our Kuroda family, the Kuroda family will gladly accept it, my Kuroda Shigetaka is also a ronin from the end of the micro, the Kuroda family has no identity discrimination, only survival is the law of sweatshirt in troubled times."

"Thank you, this ......" Ryonzo Konishi didn't know Wanji's identity.

"He is my eldest son, the sister-in-law of the current Kuroda family's governor Takashi Wanji. I don't know what Wanji said, can Ryūsa-kun consider it, I decided to let Zhitaka accept you as a retainer of my Kuroda family, and first appoint you as the representative of the family, the position of the head of the ashigaru group, and the annual salary of fifty years. As long as you manage the business development of your family well, the position and income can be adjusted, which is good. Chonglong said with a smile.

Konishi Ryuza immediately saluted Kuroda Shigetaka and Wanji respectively, "Thank you for His Royal Highness Shigetaka and the young lord, in the lower Konishi Ryonzo is willing to go out of the Kuroda family, and there are still some opinions on business, and he will definitely be able to manage his family's business well, and he will not hesitate to do so for the sake of the Kuroda family." ”

"Okay, Long Zuojun, you and I don't need to have a lot of relationship, I believe in your ability, and I also believe in the vision of our family Wanji."

"I took the liberty to ask, on the way here, I heard that there was a unicorn in the Kuroda family, but I don't know if it is the young master."

"If I have to say it, it should be this stinky boy!" Kuroda's tone was full of love.

Konishi Ryuzo solemnly said to Wanji: "Thanks to the appreciation of the young master, I can take on this important responsibility, and I will work hard to live up to the name of the young anchor Moguo Qilin'er." ”

"By the way, just now you said that you sent your wife back to her parents' house, and now that you have left your own family, you will no longer live as a wandering herbalist, so you can go and take your wife back to Himeji Castle! Later, I'll ask you to arrange a place to stay in the city. Chonglong said with a smile.

"Thank you, Your Highness, the villain will either pick up his wife here, her maiden home is not far away, and it will take two days to go back and forth."

"It's okay, so as not to cause trouble, Ryoza Nagaya." Shigetaka called the guard who had been recruited as a flag warrior to come in.

"What does Your Highness command?" The guard was still immersed in the joy of becoming a samurai, his face flushed, and his voice was sonorous.

"That's right, this little Nishiryuzo-kun has been hired as the business director of his family, and you will both be working in Himeji Castle in the future, but he now needs to pick up his wife to live in Himeji Castle, in this case, if you don't know each other, you will accompany him on a trip, and be sure to ensure the safety of their couple, you may be able to do it."

"Congratulations to Konishi-kun, I will definitely protect the safety of your husband and wife, if you want to hurt you, you have to pass over my corpse."

"Well, in that case, you should go first! Go and go back quickly. ”

After the two Ryuza were far away, Shigetaka and Manyoshi's grandson also went to Himeji Castle for lunch, and by the way, they talked to Zhitaka about accepting the two Ryuza as retainers, and also expanded the size of the longhouse, and divided it into samurai districts, craftsmen's districts, merchant districts, and ninja districts, and spread the news to the entire island country through the mouths of ronin samurai.

Early the next morning after taking Konishi Ryuza as a retainer, Wan Ji was reading in his room as usual, when suddenly there was a chaotic sound in the entire palace, followed by various shouts and cheers, and occasionally the sound of running footsteps.

This is the rhythm of the army, and Wanji came out of the house, just at this time Musato Kobei passed by with two ashigaru.

"Kobei, what's the matter? Are you going to go into battle? Who is the enemy? ”

"It's the young master! The lord has just reported that there is a gang of bandits preparing to attack the village of Xiahe to the north of us, and that they should soon be able to reach the village, and they should soon be able to reach the village. ”

"Okay, Kobei, you go get busy first!"

Wan Ji thought for a moment and walked quickly to the assessment room.

At this time, in the assessment room, Kuroda Zhitaka sat at the top, and more than ten people such as Kodera Takahisa, Itetomoji, Matsui Shigetaka, and Muri Kobei were seated.

"The number of enemies is about forty, and according to the report of Nagaya Ryuza, these people are fully armed, not like ordinary bandits, they can go to Xiahe Village this afternoon, so we have to go out as soon as possible, what do you think, say it quickly, we can retreat from the enemy in one fell swoop." Kuroda was the first to speak.

"This is not easy to do, we don't have time to gather peasant soldiers, even if we add more than 20 peasant soldiers in Xiahe Village, we are about 70 people, even if we defeat the bandits, I'm afraid we will have relatively large losses!" Matsui Shigetaka thought for a moment and shook his head.

"But we can't let the villagers of Xiahe Village go unchecked, just kill them like this, don't say that we have seventy people, even if there are only twenty people, we should kill them, don't think about it, let's just kill them." Imate shook his fist, not seeming to take the enemy in his eyes at all.

"No, that's all." Kodera Takahisa couldn't think of any other way.

"Lord, then let's kill it directly!" "Yes! Kill it directly. "We can't let them invade Xiahe Village." The other retainers also agreed to send troops in this way.

"In that case, let's ...... directly"

"Lord, please wait a minute." Kuroda was just about to give an order when a child's voice interrupted him.

"Wanji, don't mess around, this is an important evaluation meeting." Kuroda said sternly.

Wan Ji respectfully knelt outside the assessment room, and said without fear: "My lord, my lord, my lords, I have heard the current situation, and the current situation seems to me to be easy to solve, and I already have a strategy for this battle. ”

"Wanji, is this true?" Ite's Tomoshi immediately exclaimed.

"Yes, Ida-sama, Sun Tzu's Art of War says that knowing the enemy and knowing oneself is invincible, we now know the enemy's situation, and we also know our own strength, and the enemy is completely unaware of our movements, we can definitely win. First of all, we can not only be the banner warriors of the city and the peasants and soldiers of Xiahe Village, but I will talk about this later. The important thing is that these bandits have a lot of suspicions, and I think that they are soldiers sent by some hostile force, not ordinary bandits, and this is what we need to figure out. We will not only fight this battle, but also completely annihilate the enemy, and this is the result of this battle that is in the interests of our Kuroda. ”

"That's true, but how are we going to fight this battle?" Itetomo asked anxiously.

"If these bandits are really sent by a certain force, it is likely that there will be intercropping in our castle town, so we can do this and so, and then do so, and the most important thing is to stay alive, and leave more than two, so that we can definitely know who is the mastermind behind them, and not everyone in our Kuroda family can bully." After Wan Ji finished speaking, he bowed to the assessment room.

There was a moment of silence in the assessment room, and everyone in the family looked at each other, wondering if Wanji's strategy was feasible.

"Lord, I think Wan Ji's method is the best strategy at the moment." Suddenly, Koji Takahisa said with a smile.

"My lord, I agree with Wanji's approach." Matsui Shigetaka also said with a smile.

"The lord will attack like this!" "Yes! The young master is worthy of the hope of his family. "The Kirin of Harima Country lives up to its name."

Kuroda Zhitaka motioned for everyone to be quiet: "In this case, this time we will fight like this, you and Kobei will lead everyone to reorganize the army, and Takahisa and Shigetaka will go separately to contact various places, and assemble at the designated location just mentioned, and you must arrive before the time Wanji said, and there must be no mistake." Also, Wanji will be assessed in the future, and you can listen to it as my little surname. ”

"Hey" everyone was ordered to leave, and Wan Ji stepped aside.

When Itetomo walked past Wanji, he touched Wanji's head vigorously, "Good boy, good." ”

Kuroda just smiled at Wanji and went to prepare. Although Wanji wanted to know the final result of the battle, he still went back to his house and went to read the military book, and only he knew whether he could read it or not.

Shimokawa Village is the northernmost village in Kuroda Prefecture, and it usually takes four hours to walk from Kuroda Home Castle to Shimokawa Village. Like other villages, the village is crossed by a small river, but it really has no characteristics of its own. Because the autumn harvest had passed, there was nothing in the fields, the men could hunt, and the women could weave cloth for a small income.

In the afternoon, the sun usually sets early in autumn and winter, and the villagers basically return to the village, and the whole village seems quiet and peaceful.

In the woods not far north of the village, dozens of people are lurking inside, they are wearing armor, holding swords, their eyes are always paying attention to the north, no one makes a sound, animals, birds and beasts do not dare to approach, the forest is quiet and terrible.

Finally, just as the sun was about to set completely and night fell on the earth, dozens of figures moved towards this direction.