The Donoya occupies a flat land formed by alluvialization of several tributaries of the Nachi River. In the southwest, by the Nachi River, there is the Tanoya Castle, which is the main city of the Donoya. In the northeast, it is the Yunoya Castle standing next to the largest tributary of the Nachi River. The current lord is Donoya Kijiro.

Following the trail through the dense forest, I finally saw Yunoo Castle opposite from me from a distance. Standing by the river, Hiraji Togo lowered his head and looked at the wooden box in his hand. The wooden box contained the bandit's head treated with lime. "It must be successful!" Heiji Togo said to himself.

As a lowly refugee, Hiraji Togo was not qualified to meet the city lord directly. So he found acquaintances who lived in the city town. Heiza Taro. Heiza Taro was a wandering samurai several years ago, and was once a bandit on a mountain road. He relied on his own tricks to hurt several bandits. The bandits gathered more than a dozen people to besiege Hirasa Taro. The so-called two fists cannot beat four hands, and Hirasa Taro lost without any suspense. Since they could not beat them, they had to run away. The bandits had been beaten to hold their breath, and they were willing to let Hirasa Taro go, so they chased them from behind.

He had been chasing me and fleeing, and when he was exhausted, he accidentally discovered Komaki Village at the foot of Noitaka Mountain. There was no other way, and Komaki Village had to rush into the small village. Heiji Togo, who was the head of Komaki Village, saw the bandits attack and immediately organized the villagers to defend themselves. Finally, he drove away the bandits and saved Hirosa Taro's life.

A year later, Taro Hirasa became Dono Kijiro's samurai, and gradually became Kijiro's confidant through his outstanding performance. On the way home, he accidentally encountered Hiraki Togo who came to Yunoo Castle Castle to raise grain due to a food crisis in the village. Both of them were surprised by the chance encounter. Taro Hiraki even forced Hiraki Togo to his home. After a detailed discussion, after learning about Hiraki Togo's difficulties, he immediately used his power to help Komaki through that difficulty. Since then, whenever Komaki was in trouble, Taro Hiraki would try his best to help.

On this day, after learning about Hiroshi Togo's purpose, Hirasa Taro immediately entered the city and reported to Dono Kijiro.

After briefly listening to the whole story, Kijiro couldn't help but feel overjoyed. He always wanted to annex the Komaki Village, which was only a few miles away from the mountain road. After all, the land there is no worse than that in Yunoo Castle. And the most important thing is to show some performance in front of his father. Maybe his father would consider abolishing his elder brother and establishing himself as the heir of his family.

In the Warring States period, the legitimate sons usually act as the heirs of the family governor, while other sons can only choose to become monks or be stationed in other cities as the city guards to avoid hindering the development of the legitimate son. Kijiro Tono always thinks that he is better than his elder brother, and he is the best candidate for the family governor. So he has been looking for opportunities to show his excellent side. Now the opportunity has come. In the past, considering that this group of dirty people is large, it is difficult to start. Now the losses are heavy. Isn’t this the opportunity given to him by God? Kijiro couldn’t help but feel more excited.

"Okay" Kijiro seemed very excited, "Taro, gather people immediately, we will go to fight off the bandits right now."

Looking at Kijiro's excited face, Heisha Taro didn't know what he was thinking, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart. Just like this, how can he compete with the eldest son for the position of family governor?

"Your Highness, are you planning to take the opportunity to annex or destroy the filthy people there?" Heisha Taro was not anxious to object.

"Yes, as long as you take it down, my father will definitely look at me differently," Kijiro looked at Hirasataro and said excitedly.

"Your Highness, do you know why the head of the family has not taken it down there?" Heisha Taro continued to ask.

"Hmm? Yes. It would be easy for my father to annex the place. Can only a few dirty people stop the attack of two or three hundred people in my family?" Thinking of this, Kijiro himself couldn't understand why his father didn't do that.

"Your Highness, even if we successfully annex there, how should we face those bandits directly?" Heisa Taro continued to ask.

"Hiss!" Kijiro suddenly evoked his memories of last year, and his whole body shivered. Last year, the bandits attacked Yunoo Castle, but in the end, they did not capture the Castle Rock. However, they plundered in the town. Thinking of the scenes of the bandits killing and setting fires, a layer of cold sweat oozed out of his whole body. But then he thought, if this time could be successful, maybe his father would summon him back to his own city to live, so he would not have to face the bandits directly. Thinking of this, the scene of his mind being damaged by the bandits' territory last year, and he was scolded by his father, and his elder brother laughed at him. His whole body immediately surged with anger and said to Hirasataro coldly, "Hmph, several bandits are not afraid of."

"Yes, Your Highness." Heisa Taro saw Kijiro getting angry and dared not object directly, "But, Your Highness, even if we can resist the bandits, the Akasaka family upstream of Yunoo Castle and the Takashi family downstream have always been eyeing this city. Once we are negligent in order to deal with the bandits, which leads to the capture of this city by these two families, how should we explain to the head of the family?"

"Ah?" This sentence completely hit Kijiro's weakness, and the courage he had just plucked up suddenly became vented, "Then, Taro, what should I do?"

"Your Highness, the head of the family has not been annexed there in order to establish a protective wall between us and the bandits. Those filthy people will resist the bandits, at least to prevent the bandits from frequently raiding the bandits. So this time we will not only not be able to annex this time, but also give them appropriate support. Otherwise, they will be destroyed by the bandits or moved elsewhere, and then the city will face three threats," Taro Hirasa took the opportunity to say.

"So should we send troops to help them fight back the bandits? According to what they said just now, they are at the end of their lives, and I doubt whether they can resist the bandits." Kijiro said with concern.

"No, Your Highness. We don't need to send troops there. They still have certain combat power. And this time they brought the heads of two bandits, which shows that they can still resist the bandits. Besides, it is not easy to explain to the head of the family if they send troops. We only need to give them some food and weapons." What a joke? It's hard to convince Kijiro not to send troops. How could he let him send troops? What if he gets angry at that time, what should he do? And whether they can be eliminated is another matter. He has seen them with his own eyes before, so Taro Hirasa hurriedly advised him.

"Well, how do you think you should fund them?" Kijiro agreed with Heisa Taro's proposal.

"Your Highness, there are some leftover grains in our warehouse from the previous year, which are relatively old, about 100 shi. In addition, we can provide them with 5 spears. And they are willing to pay 17 shi. In this case, once the head of the family discovered, we will say that the rice has been edible, so we have to sell it to these dirty people 17 shi. And the spear is said to be damaged," General Taro Hirasa had already thought of a way out.

As soon as he heard that there were 17 guan, Kijiro's eyes shone. In order to fight against his elder brother, he has been paying attention to secretly preparing his own power in recent years, but he has developed very slowly due to financial troubles. Although he only has 17 guan now, mosquitoes are at least meat.

"Well, then that's it. Let them give you money quickly. You can arrange the rest." Dono Kijiro was completely thinking about how to spend the 17 knots that he was about to get, and waved his hand to signal that Heisa Taro could leave.

"Yes, Your Highness" Taro Hirasa bowed and turned around and left. Alas! It seems that there will be an internal strife in the dispute between our family. I hope that it will not be annexed by other powerful people. Forget it, it will be useless to think about it any more. Well, I have to tell Lord Hiraji about the food as soon as possible. Thinking of this, I immediately speed up my pace towards the castle town.

At this time, Togo Heiji was waiting anxiously at Heizataro's house. He had already done his job and cried loudly in front of the city lord, dressed up as if he was miserable because he resisted the bandits.

"Sir Heiji, Lord Heiji" Heiji heard a shout outside, and Togo Heiji immediately pushed the door and walked out. He happened to see Taro Hirasa pushing open the wooden door of the fence and walking in.

"How is it? Can you meet the city lord now?" Heiji Togo asked anxiously.

"No, the city lord doesn't plan to see you," Taro Hirasa said seriously to Hiraji Togo.

"What?" Heiji Donggo felt a thunder rising out of thin air. When he recalled his promise to the lord before departure, he couldn't help feeling ashamed, especially when he thought of the villagers waiting for food in the village, his heart was even more heartbroken.

"Hahaha" Seeing Hiroshi Togo's sad look, Hirasa Taro suddenly laughed, "Sir, it's actually the city lord that has agreed to give food, so there is no need to meet the city lord."

"Ah!" Heiji Togo felt a thunder in his mind again, but this time it was a thunder, "You... this... Taro, why are you still the same as before, still looking boring? Really?" I thought that it was obvious that the guy in front of him was intentionally making him look ugly, and he couldn't help but curse with anger and amused.

"Haha, Lord Heiji, I have tried my best this time. There are about 100 shi of grains in total, but they are all left behind the previous year, a bit old, and there are 5 standard spears. For this reason, you need to pay the city lord 17 knots." Heiza Taro saw that the joke was almost done, so he told the final result truthfully.

"Ah?" Heiji Donggo was extremely surprised. 100 stones, although it was old, as long as he could still eat it. Even if the lord summoned all the dirty people south of the village, it would be enough to last for two months. And there were 5 spears, and the 17 spears in the territory were added together, you could temporarily organize a 22-person spear team. After all, there are still differences between real weapons and wooden weapons, and at least they are much more confident when facing bandits.

"Master Heiji" Seeing that Heiji Togo gradually calmed down from his excitement, Heizataro said sincerely again. "Do you really not think about it anymore?"

"No, Taro, thank you for your kindness. But I will not leave those townspeople. At the time, I was chased by my enemies by my wife and daughter and fled to this point. If the townspeople had not taken in, I would have probably become a pile of loess on the roadside." Togo Heiji looked sad and paused for a moment, and then said firmly, "So, Taro, I will not leave the townspeople."

"Ah!" As if he had known the answer for a long time, Taro Hirasa sighed inwardly.

In fact, this is the fifth time that Hirasa Taro has invited Hiraji Togo to settle here. Because both he and Hiraji Togo and Hiraji to use these dirty people to resist the bandits, since he settled down, he felt that Hiraji Togo had invited him several times to save his life, hoping that his family would settle down in Yunoo City, at least under his own care, the life of Hiraji Togo family would be much better. Of course, he could only say sorry to other villagers Hiraji, and with his current ability, he could only barely take care of Hiraji Togo family. Although Hiraji repeatedly refused, now seeing the village gradually weakening and shrinking under the constant attack of the bandits during this period, Hiraji couldn't help but ask for an invitation again. But the final result was still the same.

"Then, Lord Heiji, it's probably too late to rush back now (it takes a walk from Komaki Village and crosses a few miles of mountainous areas. It's almost evening when Heiji Togo arrived at Heizataro's house). And it will take some time to prepare the food. Let's just go at my house tonight." Seeing Heiji Togo so determined, Heizataro had to give up and finally said with a smile.

"Ah, then please Taro." Heiji Togo knew that he had rejected Taro Hirasa and quickly apologized and replied with apologies.

"Haha, Lord Heiji, has Kokikiri grown taller again?" Seeing his life-saving benefactor full of apology, Taro Hirasa didn't want to make the atmosphere too deserted, so he quickly changed the subject and asked.
Chapter completed!