Pawn Crossing the River

Omi Province, Hikone Castle, Castle Tower.

This is a traditional Fenglinzhou vassal city building, which is both a mansion and a castle.

The so-called castle tower is a tower with a mountain-shaped roof and a high corridor with high corridors, and the outer and inner steps are inconsistent. The tower has two floors, with a three-story observation deck on top, for a total of five floors. The watchtower is large, and the mountain-style fascia intersects with the eaves above, so there are six floors inside. The edge of the uppermost floor of the tower is enclosed within the outer wall, which is painted with white plaster. The gables are also varied, and the windows are sliding doors, which are luxurious and spectacular.

The Ii clan also built the Xuangu Garden in Hikone Castle based on the concept of Xuanzong's palace garden in Daqi. The Hosho Terrace in the garden offers a view of Hikone Castle from below and is where the feudal lord entertains distinguished guests.

Strictly speaking, Toyotomi Hidemoto was not the owner of Hikone Castle, the Ii clan was the owner of the city. However, after the situation worsened, Toyotomi Hidemoto came to Hikone Castle as a guest. The Ii clan was a vassal of the Toyotomi clan. In addition, The feudal lord of Kamihikone Domain was appointed as the elder, but was not in Hikone Castle, so Toyotomi Hidemoge took charge of the affairs of the castle on his behalf.

At this time, Toyotomi Hidemo was sitting across from him on the Fengxiang Terrace in Xuan Palace Garden, drinking tea. The thirty-two-year-old Toyotomi Hidemo was accepted by the Central Plains Due to the influence of customs, Yuedai did not shave his head, but wore his hair in a bun like the Central Plains people. He has a delicate appearance, wearing a wind-folded black hat, tied with a hanging thread, a long straight hakama, tied around the hakama's waist, and decorated with breast buttons, small exposed sleeves, large curtains and other decorations. He wears " "Dianzhongchao", holding Zhongqi, dressed in standard daimyo style.

The person opposite Toyotomi Hidemo was wearing a boat-shaped black hat and a plain coat, and he looked exactly like a samurai.

The samurai held the tea cup with two fingers and rotated it gently, but did not drink the tea. He looked at the surrounding scenery casually, and then turned to Toyotomi Hidemo: "The emperor's Qingwei Zhenren appointed His Highness to be the regent Guanbai. This is a great thing, but His Highness is not happy?"

Toyotomi Hidemo smiled bitterly: "Your Highness Hidetsugi, His Highness Hideyoshi, and Duke Masahiro died in mysterious circumstances. Duke Naosada's head is in a different place. It is really unpredictable whether he will be here or not."

Bushido: "Wealth and honor come from danger."

Toyotomi Hidemoto picked up the tea cup and said nothing.

Going to Xiujing is certainly very risky, but if he can survive, he will become the new regent Guan Bai. Even if Guan Bai's position is transferred in the future, he will still be His Highness Taige.

That's why he didn't say no.

The warrior was about to speak when he suddenly stood up with a sneer on his face: "Another mouse sneaked in."

Toyotomi Hidemoge was already used to it: "Thank you, Ishishuzai."

Ishishusai is the name of the ancestor of the Yagyu family. He learned swordsmanship from the sword master under this name and received the Shinin-ryu true transmission. On this basis, he created the Yagyu Shinin-ryu. From then on, all the heads of the Yagyu family took the name Shishuzai. This is also common in Fenglinzhou. For example, the Hattori family, which has been loyal to Prime Minister Toyotomi for generations, also has the same name for all generations of family heads.

The Yagyu family has always been the swordsmanship teacher of the prime minister. The current generation of Shishuzhai Yagyu Munetsu is one of the eight swordsmen in Fenglinzhou, and is as famous as Katsura Zenyuki, who assassinated Qingweizhenren.

The most famous thing about Shininryu is "no sword attack", which is to use bare hands to control the opponent, so Yagyu Munemasa did not draw the sword, but slashed with his bare hands. On the line, there were twisting marks visible to the naked eye, which was actually the same as the one with naked eyes. Takeo's Shattering Line of Vacuum is somewhat similar.

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At the same time, a figure was also forced out by the hand knife, as if it appeared out of thin air. It was less than twenty feet away from Fengxiang Terrace. The whole person seemed to be seeing flowers in a fog, and his appearance, clothing, and body shape could not be clearly seen. A vague figure can be seen. Being able to sneak up to a point where a swordsman was only twenty feet tall before being discovered shows that this person's stealth skills have reached the level of perfection. In other words, if Yagyu Munamasa hadn't been in charge of this place personally, Toyotomi Hideshige would have been destined to be assassinated.

Faced with this knife, this person did not dare to take it hard. Instead, he exploded into more shadows and fled in all directions.

"A ninja of the Koga style?" Yagyu Somasa changed his move into a five-finger grab.

In an instant, countless blades of light emerged from all directions, intertwining into a killing net. No matter it was in the sky or on the ground, or from east to west, from north to south, there was no gap left, covering all these cloned figures. in

Then I saw Yagyu Munamasa making a fist with five fingers.

The killing net began to shrink inward rapidly, as if closing the net. All the clones that touched the net immediately disappeared into thin air. Seeing that the number of clones was getting smaller and smaller, there was only one left in the end????????????? ???The original deity exploded with a bang and turned into a straw man. He was then cut into countless pieces by the snare of sword energy.

Yagyu Somasa did not panic, he waved his left hand lightly, and silently, a dark wind came out, floating erratically.

This is the new Yin-liu secret sword "Feng Lan". It condenses a thin line of sword energy with a cold Yin Qi, which has the effect of self-tracking.

Previously, the Koga ninja used a substitute to escape Yagyu Munamasa's killing snare. This is also a very famous ninja tool. However, if he wants to refine a ninja tool that can deceive the swordsman, he must mix his own essence and blood. Mix it in, so that you can perfectly imitate your own gas state.

Because of this, Yagyu Munamasa still captured a little bit of blood essence, and then used this bit of blood essence as a guide to drive the sword energy to find traces of the ninja. If this person retreated, that would be fine. If he didn't leave, he would naturally have to face this line of swords. gas.

This sword energy is difficult to prevent and block, it kills people invisible and silent, and it is extremely sharp. The body of the person struck is immediately cut off, and the wound is as smooth as a mirror, leaving no trace. Even if you are wearing something like armor, it can still pass through the armor and only hurt your body but not the armor at all.

The sword energy floated into the air on its own, which was where the Koga ninja was hiding. The ninja was also taken aback, and retreated sharply. At the same time, he formed seals with his hands, summoning a large fire storm like a burning cloud, which covered the entire sky. They all shone brightly and splashed towards the castle tower, not to hurt the enemy, but to draw Zongzheng's attention.

Munamasa Yagyu stirred it up, and a large "Fire Cloud" immediately moved and turned into a vertical flame tornado. Then Munamasa Yagyu waved his hand again, and the flame tornado soared into the sky, went straight to the sky, and finally dissipated invisible. .

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the ninja had escaped into the void and completely disappeared.

This time he no longer tried to get close to Toyotomi Hidemoto, but chose to leave Hikone Castle. The way of an assassin is always to make a sneak attack. If you miss a hit, you have to escape thousands of miles away. He has already tried twice, and if he continues to pester him, he could easily put himself in danger.

Yagyu Somasa didn't chase him. From the beginning to the end, he just stood up without even moving his feet. After the ninja retreated, he sat down again and continued drinking tea.

Toyotomi Hidemo was calm and did not panic. He just asked: "Are you a jounin of the Koga style?"

Yagyu Somasa nodded.

Jonin is a title comparable to swordsman. However, jounin is inherently deficient and is similar to Sanjin, while swordsman is similar to Qi practitioner. Under the same realm, and it is a head-on confrontation, swordsman must have an absolute advantage. .

As for why only one Jonin carried out the assassination instead of convening a large number of assassins like Katsura Zenyuki, one is that the importance of Toyotomi Hidemo cannot be compared with that of Seiweishen, and the other is that Hikone Castle is not Hidekyo. Other monks, priests, If the witches and their like want to come in, they can only attack head-on. Yagyu Munamasa is not the only one in Hikone Castle, but there are also a large number of guards, such as the iron artillery soldiers equipped with Daomen's "Sun-shooting Long Gun", the Onmyoji from Onmyoliao, and various Level Hatamoto samurai, Shinin-ryu swordsman, Iga ninja, etc. On the contrary, Koga jounin is good at stealth and sneaking, and can bypass heavy guards and sneak into the core position.

Toyotomi Hidemo sighed: "This is still within Hikone Castle. If we leave Hikone Castle, I really don't know how dangerous it will be."

Yagyu Sect ??????????????? Zhengdao: "In my opinion, after you arrive in Xiujing, the people of the Celestial Dynasty will not let you live directly in the castle tower, but will You stay in their camp and they will not let you return to Hikone City until Hikone City is completely cleared. As for the camp of the Celestial Empire, it will definitely be safer than Hikone City. Since those assassins can't kill you in Hikone City, that's okay. There will be no way to assassinate you at the Celestial Camp. In other words, the assassins have their last chance before you reach the camp. The only real danger is the stretch from Hikone Castle to the camp."

How could Toyotomi Hidemoto not understand this truth? This road is not long, but it may very well be a fatal road.

It was impossible for Yagyu Somasa to accompany him, because if Somasa moved, then several major forces, seeing that there was no hope of assassination, would probably turn their guns and attack the leaderless Hikone Castle directly. Considering the current situation, Hikone Castle cannot afford to lose anything.

Nishoji Temple, Asahi Jingu Shrine, and Koga-ryu ninjas jointly attacked Hikone Castle, which lacked Munemasa's command. One day was enough.

After all, there are only a few battles of this level in Wuxing Mountain. Under normal circumstances, one pseudo-immortal is enough to take control of one side.

Yagyu Somasa asked: "Have you contacted the camp?"

"There is news from the camp that a 'Yingryu' is already on the way and will arrive at Hikone Castle soon." Toyotomi Hidemo replied, "And the manpower sent is very interesting. Ishishusai should have heard of Domen Sanhide. The statement refers to the three young people who are most promising to compete for the eighth generation of the Grand Master. This time two were sent, namely the young princes of Zhengyiyi and Taiping Dao, and a not far away Junyan of Quanzhen Dao. . I have to suspect that Master Qingwei is not the prince of Taiping Dao, but the prince of Quanzhen Dao. He wants to take the opportunity to get rid of the heirs of Taiping Dao and Zhengyi. If something happens to these young princes, it is difficult to protect Taiping Dao and Zhengyi. You won’t be angry with me.”

Yagyu Somasa smiled and said: "None of the Guan Bai before you had such an honor. You know, even in the Central Plains, only first-class innocent Taoist priests are qualified to travel on the 'Yinglong'."

Toyotomi Hidemo gave another wry smile: "I would rather not have such an honor, just ride in a human-powered sedan, and then go to Beijing safely."

Pawn crossing the river