Chapter 10 Xanadu

There has been no war for a long time. Both Owari and Mino have adopted a defensive strategy. The two countries are like dead trees and white snow in winter, neither affecting nor aggressing each other. As soon as the world is peaceful, there will be more pedestrians and horse teams on the road. After the first lunar month, it will soon be the spring of pink and willow green.The people yawned and thought: It would be great if this kind of peaceful life could last forever. The warm sun is projected on the white walls of Inabayama Castle, and even the walls can feel the laziness and burnout of the sun.In this sunny weather, if you stand at the foot of the mountain and look up at the mountain city, you will be surprised how people can build a city on such a steep mountain top.

The people in the city are very sensitive.Any move of Inaba Yamashiro can be felt by them.If the city is full of laziness, the people will also become lazy.Even if the legal terms are posted everywhere, everyone will not buy it. At this time, in the teahouse courtyard of Taoyuan, Long Xing was sleeping soundly with his head on his arms, and he was drunk again.In the early spring, Hooded Cranes and various waterfowl sang by the spring, surrounded by colorful falling flowers.Although the main city is surrounded by mountains, due to the high terrain, there are very few days without wind. "Where is my lord?"

"Where is my lord playing?" It was Saito Kuroemon and Nagai Hayato, members of the Saito family, who were looking for them all the way. Although Longxing's harem does not have three thousand beauties, there are still quite a few beauties.If you count the maids and head maids, the number is no less than the peaches in the peach garden.When Long Xing was fast asleep, these women could only sit alone on blankets or stools and wait for the sleepy ones to wake up. "My lord seems a little tired, so I went to sleep in the tea room." "Maybe drunk." Kurōemon and Hayato passed among the mournful women, came to the tea room courtyard, and looked inside.

I saw Long Xing sleeping soundly with his arms on his pillow.Kurōemon and Hayato glanced at each other. "Well, we'll come back later." The two were about to leave when they heard someone inside asking: "Who is it? It seems to be a man's voice!" Long Xing asked, his pricked ears were also particularly rosy due to drunkenness. "Isn't this Kurōemon? Hayato is here too. What's the matter?... This is a place for viewing flowers, let's have a drink together!" In fact, the two of them came to Long Xing to secretly discuss state affairs.Since the lord ordered so, Kuroemon and Hayato can only put the military situation aside.

They wanted to wait until the evening to talk, but there was still a big feast at night. So, the two waited until the next day, but the day was full of singing and dancing. For seven whole days, Long Xing didn't get involved in government affairs once, and he left everything to those old officials.Fortunately, there are many three-generation veterans in the Saito family. They are loyal and fully support the overall situation so that the country can be maintained. Although Long Xing was fatuous, these important ministers did not slack off in the slightest. They tried their best to collect all kinds of information about the Oda family.

According to the report sent by Hayato Nagai, since the defeat of the Oda Army last summer, the Oda Army has not dared to raise troops easily.This spring, Nobunaga invited tea master Shaoou from Kyoto, and held several tea parties.In addition, he also invited Shaoba, a poet of Liange, to hold a poetry competition with Liange Baiyun.Up until now, he had done little more than these arty things. The purpose of Nobunaga's capture of Mino is the same as that of Yoshimoto's attack on Owari, both to use the opponent's territory as a foothold for attacking the entire Central Plains, so occupying Mino is not Nobunaga's ultimate goal.

When the veterans of Saito's family heard about Nobunaga's recent situation, they agreed that Nobunaga's several times of sending troops had caused huge losses, and maybe this time he really planned to give up attacking Mino.The Oda family's efforts were out of proportion to their gains, so Nobunaga had no choice but to give up this idea. However, this short-lived peace did not end before autumn. Just after the Obon Festival in July, Mino heard the news that a large number of urgent letters were sent from Komakiyama to Owari counties. It seems that they will raise their troops to attack again soon.

The air under Xiaomushan City is also different from the past. They have stricter checks on passers-by, and the number of retainers going to the city late at night has also increased.Moreover, the city began to requisition horses in large numbers, and many warriors kept urging the master blacksmith to repair their armor quickly.In short, all kinds of information inside and outside Komakiyama Castle were sent to Inabayama Castle. "What is Nobunaga doing?" a minister asked. "Well, the city is still the same as before. Every night, you can see a brightly lit house, and you can faintly hear the sound of Noh playing along the moat."

Those who came back from Xiaomushan did not have a firm grasp of what they saw. As August approached, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. Xi Zuo came back and reported: "About 10,000 Oda troops have marched westward one after another and formed a formation on the east bank of the Kiso River. They are based in Zhougu City and are ready to cross the river to attack Meinong at any time." Hearing this news, those who are used to living a peaceful life and dreaming about life and death all day can't help but be surprised.Long Xing was more nervous than anyone else, standing in front of those helpless veterans, he looked extremely embarrassed.

"Ten thousand soldiers? That's impossible! The Oda family doesn't have such a force at all. In the previous wars, they never had so many troops!" Although what Long Xing said was true, according to the scout report, the Oda Army did gather 10,000 troops and brought a large number of generals.Hearing this news, Long Xing was truly terrified. "It seems that they are going to die. What should we do? How should we retreat?" Long Xing asked the opinions of all the important ministers. At this time, he suddenly remembered his "talisman", which was Ando Igamori, Inaba Iyomori, and Shijiachang Rusuke known as the "Mino Three-person Group".Even though Long Xing usually disliked them, he had no choice but to rely on them at this time of life and death.So he immediately ordered the messenger to invite the three of them.

A few days later, the courtiers told Long Xing: "The envoy has been away for many days, but the three adults have not arrived yet." "Then, let's urge them again!" After speaking, Long Xing wrote a letter with his own hand, and sent a fast horse to send it out. However, the three veterans still did not appear. "What is 'Unuma Tiger' doing?" "He has always claimed that he will not recover from his illness. Now that he has retired to the mountains, we can't count on him." "yes?" Suddenly, Long Xing seemed to be overjoyed as if he had thought of some clever plan.He secretly laughed at the incompetence of the ministers, and said loudly: "Did you send an envoy to Kurihara Mountain to ask for half soldiers? ... What? Why didn't you send someone earlier? At such an important time, we can't be negligent! Send someone immediately Go, immediately!" After hearing this, the ministers immediately replied: "No need for your order. We sent people to Mount Kurihara a few days ago to explain the critical situation to Mr. Banbei and asked him to come down the mountain quickly." Long Xing asked impatiently: "Isn't he coming too?" Afterwards, he muttered with some dissatisfaction, "Why? Why didn't Banbingwei lead the army from Bodhi Mountain to rescue? He is a first-class loyal minister what!" Long Xing believed that although those loyal ministers usually said some unpleasant things and always looked serious, once their country was threatened, they should rush to the forefront. At that time, Hanbei expelled Long Xing from Inaba Mountain City in order to teach him a lesson.Then, he brought Longxing back to the city, and said: "Sooner or later, this city will be taken by others!" Then, he went to Mt. Liyuan.Moreover, he also handed over his Bodhi mountain city to his uncle and became a hermit outside the world. Later, Long Xing also acquiesced in Banbingwei's retirement, and said to others: "Really? Banbingwei went to live in seclusion in the mountains? How can he serve the country with his sickly appearance!" He said Like throwing away a broken fan, Hanbei has been ignored ever since. Since Hanbei returned to seclusion, Hanbei's father-in-law and clan members also naturally stayed away from Inabayama Castle.And Long Xing had already completely forgotten about these people. At this time, Long Xing finally remembered Banbingwei.He thought that since he was a loyal minister, he should ignore the previous suspicions and immediately rushed to the mountain city to serve him.However, Hanbei did not come, and he felt even more depressed. "Send another emissary! Maybe he's still angry." Although the ministers felt that it was useless to do so, they still sent four or five envoys to Mt. Kurihara to invite people.It didn't take long before the envoys came back dejectedly.They said to Long Xing: "We finally met Mr. Hanbei, but after reading the letter from the lord, Mr. didn't say anything, just kept crying. Afterwards, Mr. sighed and said: 'What a world The most pitiful king!'” Hearing this, Long Xing immediately shouted: "What? He said I was pitiful! What does this mean?" Long Xing felt that he was being fooled, and his face immediately became angry. Afterwards, he yelled at the veterans around him: "Stop counting on that sick man!" Just when Longxing sent people to rescue the soldiers several times, the Oda army had already started to cross the river.They met the Saito army in the river and fought several fierce water battles. Seeing that the Oda Army is about to invade Inabayama Castle.All parts of Mino were tense, and the defeated documents flew into Inabayama Castle like snowflakes. Recently, Long Xing often suffers from insomnia, and his eyes are always full of confusion. Because the city was full of chaos and decadence, Longxing moved his office to Taoyuan and put up tents around it.He was sitting on a bench with a golden armor behind him, accompanied by ministers. "If the troops are not enough, we must step up and urge the counties to send troops. Are there enough troops to defend the city? Don't we need to deploy some troops from the Asai family? Can Inabayama Castle be held?" Long Xing kept asking the generals around him, revealing inadvertently Out of timidity and cowardice. In order to prevent the army from being affected by the lord's timidity, those loyal veterans kept smoothing things over. They were really well-intentioned and in a dilemma. Every night, from Inabayama Castle, you can see the flames of war advancing westward from a distance.Every time the Oda army captured an important place, they would set fire to the houses, and there was already a sea of ​​flames in the distance.