At the end of September of the first year of Eiroku (1558), Okayama Castle. It was a waning moon night, and Setouchi still had to gently and rhythmically blow the soft sand, and the night covered the land, but in this still atmosphere, there was a bloody wind that was about to come.

At night, sitting in the study and still reviewing all kinds of paperwork and newspapers, since moving into Okayama Castle, it has been the busiest time for political balance recently, and the great riots in Kinai, Kyushu also do not stop, and he needs to deal with everything.

Although he is assisted by his retainers, he still likes to be hands-on in everything, and he has a rare seriousness about the importance of details, and the daily workload is very large, and the rest time is relatively small. Only now did he understand why those famous British lords in history died young, because they were all exhausted to death.

Hattori Masanari fiddled with the oil lamp, let it illuminate a little study, and whispered: "Your Highness, it's time for you to rest, it's almost early in the morning, and next year you will receive Hosokawa Fujitaka, the envoy of the Tsuruga Princess?" "Since he succeeded Ah Mo, he has been favored by Zhengheng.

Zheng Heng smiled, put down the paperwork in his hand, glanced at the style outside the window, yes, it was late enough, and said, "No need, you go and rest first!" He stretched his waist, he didn't want to commit a crime against the wind for a while, at most he could only hold hands with his wife, hey, even his wife could only hold hands.

Hattori Masanari answered, walked out of the study, and suddenly a ninja appeared in front of him, judging from the other party's figure, he was still a female ninja, and whispered a few words to Hattori Masanari, and Hattori Masanari's young face showed a trace of ridicule.

Hattori Masasari smiled slightly: "Really? If you come, you don't have to let them go! He said the same as he disappeared into the darkness.

In the second half of the night, at the corner of the castle wall on the west side of Okayama Castle. Lying was a female corpse with unkempt hair, her upper body shrouded and exposed, her pants stripped and her lower body exposed. Hattori squatted down and checked with his fingers for a while. The female ninja who found this female corpse reporting to him at midnight never thought that it would not be able to stop it, but would be restrained.

He found that the female corpse had been killed, and then it was pretended to be the way it is now, the time was not more than a quarter of an hour, the body temperature was still hot, and a few footprints were very clear, and he measured the size of the footprints again. According to the footprints, a total of three people came.

Hattori smiled, smiling weirdly. He was able to influence the future generations for decades and grow into the king of the dark world, so naturally he was not in vain, and muttered in a low voice: "Will you use this method to cover up your figure, aren't you afraid of being dirty?" His hands were strangely changed, and there was a long sword in his hand, and the ninja actually used the samurai's sword, which was really a strange ninja. The knife stabbed between the legs of the female corpse beneath him. Then a stream of hot blood rushed up from under the knife. A female corpse that was already cold would even splatter blood.

The female corpse turned her body over, and the corpse was still flipping. Hattori Masanari doesn't believe in ghosts, he is not the son of man, but the son of demons, a ghost who has fallen into the path of demons and dreams of getting out of the sea of suffering. He smiled coldly, and from under the female corpse there was another corpse, and his mouth was cut open alive. The blood in his throat was still flowing, and he didn't expect that there would be someone hiding under a naked female corpse, and he also let his head hide between the legs of the female corpse, what kind of people are they.

Hattori Masanari moved half a step, and threw an extra stone in his hand. Then he moved in a staggered step, put himself in a position without any dead ends, and said in a low voice: "Come out!" His eyes sparkled, and he looked straight ahead by the flickering lights.

A male voice came out from the shadows, the stone hit the forehead, the blood flowed, and he looked at Hattori Masari with bared teeth and cracked teeth, and said viciously: "Damn thing, I didn't expect that my earth escape technique has not yet been practiced at home, who are you?" ”

Another figure jumped out from the other side, and the two stood together to block Hattori's path, glanced at the corpse of his companion lying on the ground, and said, "I said don't hide under a woman's pomegranate skirt, you're going to be unlucky, you see, die." ”

Hattori Masari sniffed and said, "Who am I, it turned out to be Koga's miscellaneous pieces, you don't play with firearms, what kind of knife did you come here to play?" Muttering to himself, he indirectly added a spell from time to time, which was obviously a type of ninjutsu.

The faces of the two changed suddenly, they glanced at each other, clenched the short knife in their hands, they deliberately changed their clothes before leaving, using Iga's clothes, they never thought that they would use their sense of smell to tell their true bodies, what a powerful boy.

Hattori Masari suddenly shouted, "Look at my eyes!" They couldn't help but be attracted by Hattori's sharp eyes. Looking at it, Hattori Masari's eyes became bigger and bigger, as if he was about to swallow everyone up. Hattori Masari lifted the sword and walked forward step by step, and the eyes of the two ninjas in front of him lit up.

Under the attention of the two, Hattori Masari began to perform the "knife swallowing technique". In the eyes of the two of them, such a long knife, first the tip of the knife was gone, then the handle was gone, then the blade, the handle, and the head of the knife were missing, and finally, only the red rope tied to the handle was left in the man's mouth.

The second figure suddenly reacted and shouted, "Haha, it's a good illusion, it wants to use illusion to deceive us!" You're just turning the knife sideways! Little monkey, don't be deceived by his illusions. "It turns out that Hattori Masanari has come to the little monkey.

The little monkey woke up like a dream and looked closely. Sure enough, the other party just turned the knife sideways.

Hattori Masanari knew that he had met his opponent and said, "Awesome, how about another flowering technique in the next move?" He took out a morning glory seed from his bosom, rested it on the palm of his hand, then pulled out a short knife from his waist, dug a hole in the ground, and solemnly buried the seed. After that, remove a piece of black cloth from your body and cover it over the seeds.

"Look, it's about to sprout!" The little monkey's eyes widened and he stared at the cloak. Kato Duanzo lifted his cloak, and sure enough, two young morning glory leaves had emerged from the soil. Hattori shook his cloak from time to time, and as he lifted it back and forth, the morning glory gradually stretched out its stems and wrapped around the pine trees. Suddenly, a flower bud grows on the stem, and a large red flower blooms at the top.

"Flowers will be thankful. It's better to wait for the flowers to be plucked first. "Hattori finished his journey, drew his long knife, and slashed the red flower as fast as lightning. With a bang, the red flower fell in front of the little monkey's eyes. At the same time, the flower stems that were wrapped around the pine trees disappeared.

"You. You, you actually killed the wood ape with illusion, I want to avenge him! After a while, the little monkey woke up from his dream, and saw that the red flower on the ground was the head of a companion who had been standing not far from him.

Two illusions in a row, one back and forth, made two Iga masters lose their lives, which is really a good skill. Hattori is shifting the knife and "bang". As the skull rolled down, the ape fell on its back, and blood spurted out like a fountain rising from the ground.

The masked towel on the little monkey's face shook dozens of times with the twitching of the flesh, his eyes were full of fear, and he was just about to avenge his companion's shout, when he suddenly became dumb, and he said in a trembling voice: "It's amazing." I thought the three of us would be able to destroy you, but I didn't expect this to be the case. ”

Hattori Masasari smiled: "It's no wonder. I'm just a nobody so far, and when I go to the River Styx, I tell your two companions, my name is Hattori Hanzo. His hand waved, and the bow and arrow whizzed in the air.

The little monkey looked at the seven or eight bows and arrows stuck in his body in amazement, and he didn't know when there were many guards standing around. What surprised him even more was that Hattori Masari, as a ninja, actually greeted the guards, and Hattori Masari walked over, stood on his side and said, "You are such a fool." ”

Koga's corpse appeared outside the study, and of course the corpse was nothing to look at, but who sent Koga's ninja. But it has become something that Zhengheng needs to figure out, you must know that since his enemies have increased, assassinations have been repeatedly prohibited.

Even the opponent can't figure it out, and if he dies, he will die in vain, but this matter can't be figured out in a short period of time, even if Hattori Masari incarnates Hattori Hanzo, it's difficult to figure it out, not to mention that the current Hattori Hanzo hasn't evolved yet.

There are not many forces that can use Koga, but Zhengheng can't figure out who did it, Miyoshi Changqing himself is difficult to protect, not to mention Rokkaku Yoshixian, as for the others, they don't want to provoke themselves, and for a while, I really can't figure out who did it was the stinky rat.

After sleeping for two hours, Zhengheng got up early, he had developed a bad habit of going to bed late and waking up early, and it was difficult to live a long life. In fact, he also wants to go to bed early, but now at most he holds hands, and he will close the book when he crosses the bottom line of holding hands, and he thinks twice that it is better to have a short life.

Tsuda Sokazu stood at the door of the room and respectfully greeted, "My lord, the envoy of the Tsuruga Prince, Hosokawa Fujitaka, asks to see you." "If you say Tsuruga Gongfang in front of Hosokawa Fujitaka, I am afraid that it will immediately attract the anger of Hosokawa Fujitaka, you must know that in his eyes, Tsuruga Gongfang itself is humiliating Ashikaga Yoshiteru.

Zheng Heng nodded, straightened his hair, combed his beard, and said, "Let him wait." He put his eyes on the paperwork on the desk again, this is the paperwork that was not approved yesterday, he shook his head, closed the paperwork, at this time he really has no interest in reading it, and will review it after a while.

Today's political balance is so atmospheric, not afraid of Ashikaga Yoshiteru and Hosokawa Fujitaka going crazy, it was Ashikaga Yoshiki Hosokawa Fujitaka who asked him, not him rushing forward to ask them to come. Zhengheng ate the rice and practiced archery.

I took a hot bath with the help of the maid, of course, only to wipe my back, and did not do anything else, not even holding my hand. Changed into a slightly plain kimono, and went to the living room under the leadership of the attendant, and saw Hosokawa Fujitaka waiting there early.

Zhengheng glanced at Hosokawa Fujitaka, smiled, didn't say anything, sat on the first place, and said straight to the point: "Hosokawa-sama's visit, I'm afraid it's not just polite, I heard that the general's life in Tsuruga is quite good, and the Echizen guards are strong and strong." ”

Hosokawa Fujitaka smiled bitterly, how could he not listen to the sarcasm in Masahiro's words, when Ashikaga Yoshiteru left the Sakamoto Building, Ashikaga Yoshiteru intended to go to Okayama Castle, and it was he who directly advised him to go to Echizen Province. I don't know when this matter will reach Date Mashiro's ears, and it sounds quite ironic at the moment.

Hosokawa Fujitaka was oozing sweat behind his back, and when he saw that there was a pot of tea boiling in the living room, he immediately said respectfully: "My lord is also a tea lover." "He wants to change the subject, and then make his own request, and the rest is his purpose.

Zheng Heng Gang was stunned for a moment, but he felt that this tea smelled exceptionally fragrant, and naturally knew that this was made by Amo's secret flower tea from Jiahe, and he said with a smile: "Where do I know tea, this is the flower tea brewed by my concubine's room, but it is also fragrant and nourishing." ”

Hosokawa Fujitaka sighed when he heard this, he wanted to change the topic, but he met a person who didn't know tea, but he still admired: "What the adults said is very true, fresh and elegant is really a lot of tea, the adults are really aware of everything, and they judge the case." ”

After Zhengheng sat down, he looked at Hosokawa Fujitaka who wanted to speak and stopped, but he didn't want to talk about those things, and said: "Seeing that Hosokawa-sama said so much, I must have studied a lot of tea, although I don't understand tea in my life, but I love tea, can I teach a lesson or two?" ”

Zhengheng is not in a hurry, but Hosokawa Fujitaka must not be in a hurry, he is really anxious in his heart.

Seeing that his mission cannot be completed, he will definitely be hated by Ashikaga Yoshiteru when he returns. He knew that Ashikaga Yoshiki seemed to be tolerant and peaceful, but in fact, his suspicious personality was exactly the same as his Lao Tzu, otherwise he would not have ended up in a cornered situation.

If he knows that he is talking about tea culture here, and in the end he has not even completed the purpose of coming here, it will be difficult to say his fate, and no one may be able to protect him at that time.

Thinking of this, Hosokawa Fujitaka's face became serious, and he pleaded: "My lord, the general sent him this time to ask if the lord intends to go to Luo?" When he finally said his mission, he didn't expect it to be so straightforward.

Zhengheng closed his eyes and listened to the sound of the teapot boiling, Hosokawa Fujitaka asked him if he was interested in Shangluo, he slowly opened his eyes and said, "Who is the crusade?" His answer has already explained his intentions very well, yes, he intends to go to Luo, but not now.

Hosokawa Fujitaka is also a smart person, he understands what Masahiro means, the road to Shangluo is not peaceful, and the Date family has to face two enemies, either Miyoshi Chokei, or Honganji, and now the two families are in a state of anxiety, and they can't fight anyone.

Zhengheng looked at the boiling teapot and said word by word: "Please Shogun endure in Tsuruga for another two years, when Honganji Temple and Miyoshi Chokei divide the victory and defeat, it will be the day of my family's Shangluo, and then please ask the Shogun to give my family the name of righteousness." (To be continued......)