Pawn Crossing the River

So Qi Xuansu had just got off the flying boat, and not even an hour after his feet landed on the ground, he hurriedly boarded a "Yinglong".

"Yinglong" set sail and headed straight for Omi.

The situation in Omi is quite complicated, with various forces crisscrossing each other. To the south is the famous Koga.

In the meeting hall of "Yinglong", Ding Weilingguan introduced the situation in Omi: "In Fenglinzhou, in addition to Iga ninjas, there are also Koga ninjas. The so-called Koga style has been established alongside Iga for generations. The strongest ninja in Fenglinzhou. In the early days, he served the princes near Heijing, such as the Rokkaku clan, the Tsutsui clan, and the Hosokawa clan. Later, he surrendered to the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. During the most glorious ten years of his career, he relied on the power of the Oda family. Koga developed rapidly and had a tendency to dominate the ninja world while Iga was being massacred. However, this trend stalled when the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven encountered the Incident at Honnoji Temple and the Oda family fell apart. However, with the development of the past ten years. Accumulated, Koga can still be compared with the Iga-ryu Hattori family who are loyal to Toyotomi Prime Minister."

"Iga ninjas emphasize individual combat capabilities, while Koga ninjas emphasize collective combat capabilities. Koga ninjas are only loyal to their lord, while Iga ninjas are only loyal to their lord. Ninjas work for the employer with the highest bid. The Hattori family of Iga-ryu are called "royal ninjas", not because of loyalty, but because no one can bid higher than Toyotomi Prime Minister. The unique collegial mechanism of the "Gunzhongsu", all matters big and small are decided by the "Gunzhongsu". The fifty-three local servants living in Koga are called the Koka Fifty-three Families, and the most important one is awarded by the Rokkaku family. The twenty-one types of feelings are called the twenty-one types of Koga.”

Li Changge said: "It sounds a bit similar to the Jinque discussion. The so-called Jiahe twenty-one people are Zhenzhi Zhenren, and the rest are ordinary Zhenzhen."

Li Tiangang took over and said: "After the fall of the Oda family, because Koga County is very close to Pingjing, the Koga ninjas returned to be loyal to the royal family. What is especially noteworthy is that the Koga ninjas are good at using medicine, so the camp and The Taoist government suspected that the former regent Sekihaku Toyotomi Hidetsugi and the former chief Laonaka Masahiro were poisoned by Koka ninjas in order to provoke civil strife in the prime minister's house. In fact, they did cause civil strife in the prime minister's house. Toyotomi Hidetsugi followed. His death led to infighting between the Toe faction and the Owari faction, and the death of the previous chief Lao Naka intensified this infighting. "

Zhang Yuelu asked: "What is the attitude of Xingying and Daofu towards Jiahe?"

Li Tiangang said: "It is easy to defeat them. It is difficult to completely eliminate them. They usually make a living through agriculture and business, and only when necessary, they are active on the battlefield as ninjas. This This makes the screening more difficult. The best way is to support one faction and fight against the other, and use the compliant ninjas to deal with the rebellious ninjas. However, the Iga Hattori ninjas who are loyal to the prime minister only obey the orders of the regent Guan Shiro and have no idea about the Taoist sect. So I can’t help you this time.”

[The problem of slow update of new chapters has finally been solved with an app that can change the source. Download the huanyuanapp source-changing app here and view the latest chapters of this book on multiple sites at the same time. 】

Zhang Yuelu nodded.

Official Ding Weiling said: "When you get to Omi, in addition to being careful about the Koga ninjas, you also have to beware of the Tianmen forces. Being respected as the so-called national religion and the mainstay of the 'Zunbang Sect', they should not be underestimated. Witchcraft is prevalent in Tianmen. The magic and spells still retain quite a lot of their original features.”

"Although Taoism and Buddhism are dominated by men, ancient witchcraft is dominated by women. For example, the famous eleven witches in ancient times, from Wu Xian who leads the witchcraft to Wu Yang who is wandering outside, are all women. None of them are men. Tianmen still inherits this tradition and is called a shrine maiden. The highest level shrine maiden is honored as a 'saio' and can only be held by royal women."

Li Changge smiled: "Buddhism has King Kong, Confucianism has King Su, and Tianmen has King Zhai."

"But witch is just a general term, similar to the Taoist priests of our Taoist sect. The head master is a Taoist priest, and the ninth-grade Taoist priest is also a Taoist priest. It cannot be generalized. This requires mentioning the positions of Tianmen. Furthermore, Tianmen only has women as the main body, and the ninth-grade Taoist priests are also Taoist priests. It’s not just women, there are also many men,” Li Tiangang added.

"Tianmen does not have a unified structure like our Daomen. In addition to jointly honoring the emperor and King Sai, it is a group of princes with various shrines as the mainstay, similar to the Confucian sect in the past with the three university palaces and the residences of saints as the core. "

"In a sacred palace, the 'Gong Si' is the number one person, and usually also serves as the 'divine master' responsible for sacrifices; the 'Gong Si' is the number two person, and can be understood as the chief and deputy palace master."

"Then there is 'Ni Yi', who is responsible for assisting the Palace Secretary and managing the lower-level clergy, similar to the chief secretary. Then there is 'Quan Ni Yi', who is responsible for the two The affairs assigned by the Palace Secretary are mainly daily life and social interaction, similar to that of the Second Secretary."

Qi Xuansu understood. If the Heavenly Master is the "Gong Si", then "Ni Yi" is equivalent to Zhang Jucheng, and "Quan Ni Yi" is equivalent to Tang Jiaohua.

Li Tiangang continued: "Next are Zhubu, priests, ministers, witches, etc. The shrine is equivalent to our Taoist palace, and it is naturally not the same level as the palace ministers of the shrine. Our Taoist sect has nine and twelve levels, and the Tianmen has There are five levels.”

"Except for the ordinary priests and witches who are not popular, Zhijian is the lowest level. In order to become a Kwon Miyoshi of an ordinary shrine, you need to have at least Zhijian status."

"Quan Zhengjie, the palace minister of the Ordinary Township Shrine must at least have the status of Quan Zhengjie. Quan Zhengjie cannot hold the position of palace minister of the county shrine."

"In the first rank, the palace secretary of the county society, as well as the Mi Yi of the county society and the special shrine, must at least have the status of the first rank."

"Meiji, if you want to become the palace minister of a beyoto shrine or county, you must become the meiji level. As long as you have a priesthood of this level, you can become the palace minister of various types of gods."

"Jingjie, the highest level of the priesthood. The senior officials of the Ise Shrine and the palace ministers of the major shrines are all of this level. It is similar to the hermits of the Confucian sect and the high priests of the academy."

"It's not surprising. The reason Tianmen was able to get rid of the subordinate status of Buddhism was because it integrated the teachings of the Confucian school of Neo-Confucianism. It relied on the banner of loyalty to the emperor to get strong support from the royal family. Therefore, its structure has the shadow of the Confucian school. The emperor is still the emperor, and the king of the king is equivalent to the leader of the Confucian sect, and then the ranks are ranked according to the ranks of the hermit, the high priest of the academy, and the ordinary priest. "

Qi Xuansu smiled and said: "Tianmen reminds me of the unity of the three religions, but compared to the unity of the three religions of our Taoism, Tianmen is more like the path of 'Tianting', and the two names are also similar."

Li Tiangang's face looked a little strange.

"Tianting" was supported by Taiping Dao, and this was no secret among the senior leaders of the Li family.

Li Changge didn't take it seriously and just said: "If Tianmen only has the strength of 'Tianting', that would be great."

Li Tiangang coughed lightly: "Toyotomi Hidemo lives in Hikone Castle. To the north is the Asahi Shrine of the Tianmen power in Asai County. To the south is Nishoji Temple, the Buddhist power of Kamao County. From Nishoji Temple to the southwest, there is The Koga County where the Koga ninjas are located. The Omi Toyotomi family is actually similar to the feudal lords who guard the frontiers. Their bloodline is far away from the center. This is why Naosada, the elder of the Hikone clan, did not recommend the Omi Toyotomi family. one."

Qi Xuansu looked at the map and sighed: "This is really surrounded by wolves."

"The good news is that since he is the king of Sai, he must be very powerful. This is also the reason why Naoding can become the elder. Now that there is a new Yin-ryu swordsman in Hikone Castle, Toyotomi Hidemo's safety should not be too great for the time being. Big problem." Ding Weiling said, "Swordsmanship is a very high honor. Anyone who can become a swordsman is a person with amazing talent and beauty. He is probably equivalent to our pseudo-immortal who stabbed the palm army before... ???????????????The assassin leader of Zhenren was a swordsman. He killed three of us spiritual officials and a Taoist priest. He was stabbed by the master of the army. Not only did he not die, but he was also killed. He escaped from Hidekyo and is still on the run. If it hadn't been for Toyotomi Hidemo's visit to the capital, I would have been responsible for hunting down this Nigan-ryu swordsman named 'Katsura Zenyuki'."

"As for the bad news, this new Yin-ryu swordsman wants to ensure that Hikone Castle is safe, so he cannot leave Hikone Castle easily. Once Toyotomi Hidemo leaves Hikone Castle, the swordsman will not accompany him, and all responsibilities will fall on us."

Qi Xuansu, Zhang Yuelu, and Li Changge looked solemn.

No one would doubt that several of them would grow to be on par with a swordsman in the future, but at the moment, they could not compare with a swordsman, even if the three of them joined forces. Master Qingwei took this into consideration and sent Li Tiangang and Ding Weiling as helpers.

Having said that, if cultivation is not enough, external things will come in handy. Putting aside the immortal objects, the three of them carried more semi-immortal objects together than Qingwei Zhenren, and Qi Xuansu and Zhang Yuelu combined were equivalent to carrying one immortal object.

Now the three of them join forces, one innate immortal in the immeasurable stage plus two acquired immortals in the carefree stage, combined with various semi-immortals, there is no pressure against the gods in the creation stage, and they will even have the upper hand. Coupled with Ding Weilinguan and Li Tiangang, they are comparable to pseudo-immortals.

But that doesn't mean you can sit back and relax.

Hikone Castle has been run by the Omi Toyotomi family for many years and is impregnable. There is not only a swordsman in charge, but also many retainers, guards, onmyojis, samurai, etc., who protect it at all levels. It is very difficult to assassinate Toyotomi Hidemo in Hikone Castle. But after leaving Hikone Castle, these protections were lost, and the level of danger increased greatly.

Although the Dao Sect has sent four hundred spirit officers, they are mainly responsible for the normal operation and flight of "Ying Long" and will not participate in the battle. Even if Toyotomi Hidemoge would bring some guards, it would still be incomparable to that in the feudal castle. This is not only the difficulty they have to face, but also the reason why the Taoist sect sent "Yinglong".

"Yinglong" is like a fortress. If all doors are closed, it will be difficult for outsiders to enter, and all assassinations will evolve into frontal attacks.

Pawn crossing the river