Although it can be said that Masahiro took great pains to get Masanari Yoshida and Fumigo Ishimatsu to go to Kyoto to assassinate Miyoshi Nagakei's retainers, the unpredictability of this matter prevented Masahiro from putting all his mind on it.

Now it's March, and the spring ploughing that should have started at the beginning of spring has become abnormal, and then it has become abnormal, and there has been no movement for seven or eight days after the beginning of spring, which is really not good news for Zhengheng.

During the Warring States period, the various forces exercised a military system, and the most critical components were food and population, and food was still above the population, and the distribution of money at that time was also based on food, and once there was a shortage of food, the ruler's dominance would be leveraged.

With food, you can maintain your rule, recruit more samurai and soldiers, expand your land, and then grow more food with the newly occupied land, and if you run out of food, you will immediately fall into the opposite vicious circle until you finally perish.

Food has become the key to the troubled times of the Warring States, in fact, food is the key at all times. Looking at the Ita territory, the mountains are vertical and the plains are insufficient, and it is really not an easy task to feed a small army, and to keep the peasants living in the Date territory from starving to death.

With food, everything is easy to do. For the local authorities of the Wa Kingdom at that time, the best way to obtain food was to plow the land, because at that time, the whole of East Asia was in a situation of food shortage, and the local governments everywhere held the grain in their arms and did not let go.

If you want to buy it, you must also have food to buy.

It's spring, and it's only after the autumn harvest that we can buy surplus grain on the market. Fortunately, after the harvest last autumn, Masahiro purchased a large amount of grain from various places, especially through the actions of Tennoji House in Kinai. This is one of the reasons why Miyoshi Chokei will not start another war.

Seeing that Zhengheng seemed to be a little irritable, Yeshan Yichao opened his mouth to comfort: "Your Highness doesn't have to worry too much, whether it is the Imperial Pavilion or the City Pavilions in various places, all the people know the importance of this matter, they don't dare to slack off in the slightest, and the ministers will keep an eye on it at any time." ”

Zheng Heng looked at the gloomy sky outside the window and gently rubbed his forehead. He said in a deep voice: "Daisuke Miyauchi, spring plowing is already several days late, which is an unpredictable thing for our Date family. If the weather continues like this, I am afraid that the spring ploughing will be delayed. ”

Noyama Yoshiasa also showed a wry smile, yes, for the Date family. Now the importance of spring ploughing is in the first place. No one can compare, just as the two were chatting privately about the topic of spring ploughing, suddenly the light of the sun appeared outside the window.

As soon as Zheng Heng saw the sun suddenly appear, he ran out like a child, jumped and laughed: "Haha, the sun is finally out, the sun is finally out, tomorrow." Tomorrow, if it's still good weather. Then start plowing right away. ”

The appearance of the sun is a gratifying thing for Zhengheng, and it is also a happy thing for the farmers who plow the land to eat, and the grain for the winter has already been eaten, and if the spring ploughing is not started, I am afraid that it will not be able to survive the autumn harvest.

With the beginning of spring ploughing, the frowning Zhengheng could finally be relieved a little, but he didn't have much of the heart to stay in the backyard anymore and spend time with his beautiful wives and concubines, and began to patrol his territory with his little surname and thousands of guards.

Early in the morning of March 5, Masahiro was accompanied by Ishikawa Hisataka to inspect the fields near Takamatsu Castle, accompanied by Fujii Hisashi, the lord of Fukawa Castle, Hihata Rokuro Guard, and Shimizu Soji's father, Shimizu Sonori.

Shimizu Zong, as a fellow of Ishikawa Hisataka, once intended to let his second son Shimizu Muneji enter Takamatsu Castle as the heir, and became the lord of Takamatsu Castle from the countryside, his original plan should have succeeded, but he didn't expect Date Masaki to rise so quickly. Shimizu Sect was an opponent in the rise of Date Masato, Ishikawa Hisataka had to let him live in seclusion for the safety of Takamatsu Castle, but with the outstanding performance of Shimizu Soji in the Battle of Kojima Bay, at the same time, Shimizu Zong also died, and behaved quite deferentially, under the pleading of Shimizu Soji, at the same time, Ishikawa Hisataka was also loved, so he let him accompany him, of course, at the last seat, as long as Masahiro did not object, Shimizu Zong could appear openly in Date Territory in the future.

Spring ploughing has begun, which is not a big challenge for the Date family, you must know that now Date Ling can include Bizen, Bichu, Bigo, and Misasaka The territory of the four countries that originally belonged to the country of Bi, and also includes Aki and part of the Harima country, although Iwami country belongs to the Date family, but the spring ploughing of Iwami country does not belong to the management of the Date family.

The sun finally appeared, and as soon as it appeared, it swept the cold into the corner, and the dilapidated scene of winter was gone. Everywhere between the ridges of the fields was renewed, and the people toiled but toiled with vitality in the bright sunshine. The people are ants who are busy for the master of the city, and how they can survive this year is the thing they are most concerned about. As long as they live in peace, it is best to have some surplus food all year round, and they are very satisfied to go to the town and market to change some knick-knacks for their wives and children.

The jurisdiction of Takamatsu Castle consisted mainly of the town of Joshita and more than 20 natural villages, and at that time, the Wa Kingdom was mainly composed of natural villages, which were naturally formed by the villagers gathering in a certain natural environment over a long period of time. In general, it has only one surname, is a descendant of the same ancestor, and has the same blood relationship.

The village of each natural village is naturally the local land, and it is also the main source of force for Takamatsu Castle, once Takamatsu Castle needs troops to fight, then Takamatsu Castle will get food, and then let the land of these natural villages come out and call on the young and middle-aged people in the village to come out.

Takamatsu Castle's ability to flood the city was enough to show that there was no shortage of water in the area, and it was also impossible for Ishikawa Hisataka to lead Mashiro to visit the wasteland, turning a river bay, the terrain had gradually opened up and flattened, and the farmland was connected to each other, and the east and west were clustered on the hillside along both sides of the stream.

On one side of the ridge, you can see a shallow stream with a simple wooden bridge. Both ends of the bridge are tied to large boulders by thick ropes that span horizontally and vertically. Several pieces of wood were also tied with ropes, and the bridge deck was nailed with planks of length, short, wide and narrow. On the other side of the river is a mansion at the foot of the mountain.

The mansion is not like an ordinary mansion, there is a trench dug around the mansion, a drawbridge hangs outside the gate, and directly opposite, a sturdy arrow tower stands in the wind.

Ishikawa Hisataka pointed and said, "That's Shimizu Village, which is the residence of Shimizu Sonori and Soji father and son. He turned his face and asked the Shimizu Sect, who was at the end of the seat, to come up and speak. Qing Shui Zong nodded gratefully, but he didn't speak, Zheng Heng hadn't asked yet, he couldn't speak out on his own.

Qing Shui Zong couldn't guess Zhengheng's intentions, he knelt on the dirt respectfully, waiting for Zhengheng's verdict, he also knew that he had done wrong back then, once it was revealed, he could only apologize with death, and the same death could also eliminate the suspicion of his sons.

Zheng Heng smiled and pointed to the kneeling Qing Shui Zongzhi, his memory of the Qing Shui Zongzhi was quite vague, not everyone could make him remember the other party's mistakes, he smiled: "He is the father who educated such a brave general as Qing Shui Zongzhi, get up, don't kneel." ”

Qing Shui Zong's face suddenly turned red, and his expression was at a loss for what to do, seeing that Zhengheng didn't mean to blame him, he came to his senses, and knelt down, and said in a trembling voice: "Thank you, Your Highness the Lord of the Nation, for forgiving the rudeness of the year." ”

Zhengheng knew that Ishikawa Hisataka brought Shimizu Village today, firstly, to let Zhengheng see how the spring cultivation of Takamatsu Castle was, and secondly, it was also for the sake of Shimizu Sonori. The things of that year were not a big deal, in the final analysis, it was not authentic for Zhengheng to do it himself, the twelve or thirteen-year-old Zhiji was violated by him at a young age, how could Qingshui Zong, who has always regarded Zhiji as his daughter-in-law, have a good face for him, not to mention, Zhengheng back then was still a local tyrant that no one knew about, and it was already a very polite thing to kill Zhengheng at that time because of Zhiji's affairs. Now that Ishikawa Hisataka has come out to intercede, why not be generous with Zhengheng, not to mention that now the identity and status between the two have fallen one by one, and now the difference between the identities and status of the two people is too far, and the Qingshui Sect who shook his face in front of him back then is afraid that it will never return.

Zheng Heng said with a smile: "Look at the sky, it's noon, so I'm going to bother you on your village today." "Laughing at the grudge, since he has come to Qingshui Village, and it is close to noon, he has the idea of entering the village, which is also a good thing for Qingshui Sect.

Suddenly, Zheng Heng remembered something, turned around and ordered: "Let the guards stand guard outside the village." ”

Shimizu Village has already opened the middle door, the suspension bridge is lowered, and the eldest son of Shimizu Zongzhi, who stayed in Shimizu, took his family to kneel on the side of the road and wait for a long time, just like many middle and lower families, the eldest son stayed at home to inherit the family business and sent the rest of the heirs to other families.

Qing Shui Zongzhi and Qing Shui Zongzhi look seven or eight points alike, but they are much older than Qing Shui Zongzhi, kneeling respectfully on the side of the road, not daring to raise their heads, but a few little boys kneeling behind him raised their heads without knowing the height of the sky.

Masahiro and Hisataka Ishikawa were exchanging some meaningless polite words, and a rush of hooves came from far and near.

Following the prestige, a cavalryman hurried from the east. Seeing his tired face, he must have been in a hurry. When he got closer, he had already been stopped by Zhengheng's guards, and after some exchanges, he came to Zhengheng under the leadership of the guards. (To be continued......)