In May of the third year of Eiroku (1560 AD), the two of them were slowly walking along a mountain road in Mt. Hachioji at the junction of Kai Province, Sagami Province, and Musashi Province in the Sengoku Kanto region.

"It's so hot."

After a further hike up the trail, a young man at the back of the trail with a wooden stick (one end of this stick was wrapped in some rags, and a discerning person would have seen that it was actually a spear head) as a crutch complained.

After listening to the complaints of his companions behind him, a man in front of him with one of his eyes wrapped in a cowhide eye patch stopped and looked up at the weather.

Today's weather is indeed extremely hot, but the sky in the rainy season is full of clouds at this time, and it is about to rain, so the man with the blindfold immediately urges:

"It's about to rain, if you don't want to be drenched in heavy rain like the day before yesterday, let's hurry up."

After hearing the words of the blindfolded man, the man with the "wooden stick" in the back immediately remembered the several heavy rains encountered during the previous journey and their miserable experience, and then frowned, and did not say much, but quickened his pace.

These two people, marching in front and wearing blindfolds, are none other than the one-eyed dragon of the Luo family, Luo Masamune, and the one holding the "wooden stick" in the back is the Honda Tadatsu of the Luo family.

As members of the second expedition of the Luo family, in fact, more than a month ago, they were still in the local area of Tokaido, helping the young master of the first expedition, Luo Shishi, Kansuke, Yamamoto Kansuke, Takahashi Shaoyun and others to arrange the local layout. And more than a month ago, after completing most of the tasks, and after receiving an order from the lord of Kyushu, Masahiro. The people of the second expedition of the Luo family quickly divided into several squads. We began to march from Sagami, Kai, and Echigo to the final destination of the expedition. And Roche Masamune and Honda Tadakatsu have always had a good relationship. So it's automatically a solo squad.

For the previous arrangement of the lord Gongzheng Liang to everyone, Luo clan Masamune was actually very clear about its purpose, at the beginning of the arrangement for them to stay in the local Tokaido to help the first expedition team, in order to increase their experience, and later arranged for them to be divided into several teams, on the one hand, to avoid attracting the attention of the local wealthy families because of the large number of people gathered together, and on the other hand, it was intended to let everyone on the journey. Increase their experience and familiarity with the local area.

As for the question of how they will need to contact the Luo family when they encounter difficulties during the journey, the lord Zhengliang has also made arrangements in advance, as long as they find the main local commercial house with their respective identity documents, they can contact the personnel of the Luo family's local intelligence cabinet. This qiē shows that the lord has a great purpose.

Of course, these are only the purposes that Luo Zhengzong can analyze at present, and as for the more far-reaching purpose of the Lord Gongzhengliang, it is estimated that only the Lord Gongzheng Liang himself can know.

"Look, there's a person living there." Just as Luo Masamune was pondering, Honda Tadakatsu behind him suddenly shouted. Masamune then turned sideways and looked in the direction Honda Tadakatsu pointed, and sure enough, he saw that there were indeed two thatched huts on a hillside on the west side of the mountain road.

"It's going to rain. Why don't you go there and see if you can buy a coat? "This time. Honda Tadakatsu suddenly built yì road.

"Hmm!" At this time, Luo Masamune also remembered the scene of encountering several heavy rains before, so he also nodded in agreement.

Then the two of them walked slowly to the front of the thatched hut and knocked on the door. The one who came out to meet the two was a little girl with a thin face but a pair of bright and transparent eyes (it is estimated that the adults in the family were out at this time), after learning the purpose of the two Luo clan Masamune, the little girl hesitated for a moment, then nodded, and finally closed the door.

Luo Masamune and the two thought that the little girl was alone at home, and it was inconvenient to welcome the two into the house, so they didn't think much about it, but after the two waited for a while, the little girl did not appear again, and the two couldn't help but look at each other at this time, and they both felt strange.

Fortunately, the little girl finally came out, but she didn't take out the robes that Luo and Masamune needed, but silently handed him a mountain blow flower (that is, a double-petaled begonia flower), and then shyly closed the door and did not appear again.

The little girl's strange behavior puzzled Luo Masamune and Honda Tadakatsu, and Honda Tadakatsu even thought angrily: "I'm going to borrow a robe, but why are you giving me flowers and the other two?" ”

Masamune of the Luo clan was also puzzled, but soon he remembered that he had heard a fragment of the waka in the collection of later waka songs sung by a Waka master in the castle town of the Luo family's school house. The snippet looks like this:

"Sevenfold and eightfold open,

The mountain blows the flowers and bushes,

The end is fruitless,

A thousand sorrows. ”

The first heavy mountain blowing flower will bear fruit, but the eighth heavy will not; Borrowing the pun on the Japanese words "minonai" and "mino", the little girl is actually a euphemism to tell the two of them, and the little girl's family does not have a lily because of poverty.

After thinking about this clearly, Luo Masamune couldn't help but be shocked, judging from the figure of the little girl, she was only about eleven or twelve years old at this time, but she actually had such a cultural recuperation? After all, in this era, ordinary people do not have the opportunity to come into contact with culture such as waka. From this, it can be seen that the original family environment of the little girl should be good.

Why, then, did the little girl's family hide in the mountains and fall into poverty? Immediately, Roche Masamune remembered that he had received information from the crowd around him during the trip.

The Hachioji region, as well as the Musashi Province area, where the Takeda family in Kai, the Hojo family in Sagami, and the Sengoku daimyo from all over the Kanto region meet, is a strategic point for wars, and since the beginning of the Warring States period, there have been continuous wars, the most recent of which was the ongoing battle against the Hojo family led by the Echigo guardian Nagao family, and the battlefield between the two sides was concentrated in Musashi Province.

In such an environment, it naturally caused the local people to fall into poverty and even exile, and the family of the little girl that Luo Masamune met at this time should be one of the victims. Looking at the somewhat simple thatched hut in front of him, Luo Masamune couldn't help but feel sad, and then he thought of learning a poem from the ancient Ming Kingdom in the Luo School in Kyushu with those teachers from the Ming Kingdom.

(Guess where the Second Expedition will end?) (To be continued......)