Chapter 44 Clues

The death of Ji Zong also declared the failure of the assassination operation.

The joint assassination team originally composed of six teams: "Wind", "Lin", "Fire", "Mountain", "Yin" and "Thunder", now only a few are left responsible for cleaning up. Members of the Feng Squadron at the outpost outside the Imperial Palace.

These members of the Feng Team are almost all ninjas, and they are not good at frontal attacks. Even if Shuangxie is not present, it is impossible for them to take away Nobunaga's weapons under the protection of Nobunaga's remaining generals. Head.

Therefore, after a brief ideological struggle, the on-site commander Juzo finally blew the leaf flute and sent out the signal to retreat.

In a short time, the remnants of these assassination teams disappeared into the night.

Nobunaga's soldiers suffered heavy losses and were unable to chase the assassins, so tonight's battle came to an end.

As for Ashikaga Yoshiaki's pretense of sending his subordinates and soldiers to the house the next day to investigate Nobunaga's situation in the name of "tracking down the assassin and protecting Nobunaga".

Anyway, as long as Nobunaga is not dead, Ashikaga Yoshiaki's conspiracy will be shattered.

Next, Nobunaga can just find an excuse such as "I feel it's unsafe here" and leave the city at any time.

No matter what Ashikaga Yoshiaki does at this time, it will be very passive and unwise politically. For him, the best choice at the moment is to treat him coldly and let Nobunaga go. Get out of here, otherwise whatever he does will be humiliating himself or even seeking his own death.

It’s night, later.

Huang Donglai, who had treated his wound with the help of a doctor, was leisurely eating supper with Sun Yixie in a Japanese-style room.

The dangerous situation they encountered not long ago seemed to have no impact on the emotions of these two people.

Perhaps even the two of them did not realize that their experiences in the arena in the past few years have made them very sophisticated. The "swords and shadows", "bloody storms" and "narrow escapes" that people often talk about, They've seen it so much that they've gotten used to it.

This kind of adaptability and pressure resistance is also a kind of talent. Some people are weak in this aspect, so they are not suitable for walking in the world.

"I'm sorry."

At midnight, Hosokawa Kisuke's voice came from outside the door.

Shuangxi has been waiting for him for a long time. As soon as he heard that the other party had arrived, he immediately let him in to talk.

"I'm sorry to keep you two waiting. I'm really busy tonight." After Hosokawa came in and closed the door, he lowered his head and apologized.

What he said was polite, but a bit too pretentious.

Who doesn’t know that you, the “internal leader” of the imperial palace, have to cooperate with Nobunaga’s men to deal with the corpses all over the yard tonight? What is there to apologize for? I’m not looking for trouble with you. .

"Hey, Mr. Hosokawa, please stop being polite. It's getting late. Let's get down to business quickly and you can go to bed."interest. "Sun Yixie saw that Hosokawa had a tired look on his face, so he interrupted him directly with a very impolite but pragmatic sentence.

"Ah, you two just don't blame me. "After hearing this, Hosokawa immediately straightened up with a smile, raised his head and continued, "So, what are the things you two said you wanted to ask me for advice during the day?"

At this time, Sun and Huang quickly After exchanging glances, Huang Donglai immediately said, "Mr. Hosokawa, was it possible that a diplomatic mission returning from Osaka stayed in your Flower Palace more than a month ago?"

Perhaps the Japanese people at that time did not know or care about it, but everyone in Kyoto with a slight official title basically knew it. The envoys who are envoys to Osaka will stay in the Flower Palace for a while after returning to Kyoto. When the time is right, the general will personally take the top leaders of the envoys to meet the emperor.

These. Naturally, Sun and Huang had learned the information from Xiaomei a long time ago. Now Huang Donglai would know it and asked, just to use this to lead the way and test Hosokawa's reaction when he heard it.

Unexpectedly, This Hosokawa's reaction was really big

His face changed color at that time, he hesitated for several seconds before replying, "Well, that seems to be the case. "After finishing speaking, he paused and immediately added, "However, you two may not know something. At that time, it was not just the people of Nobunaga's family who lived here as it is now, but many dignitaries who came to Beijing to do business lived here. , and civil servants are relatively mixed, so I am not deeply impressed by this mission. ”

Sun Huang looked at Hosokawa’s erratic eyes and guilty mouth, and listened to his evasive answers and superfluous explanations, which was really a bit difficult.

At this moment, Shuang Xie was sure in his heart that the Hosokawa Kisuke in front of him was a person who was not very capable or courageous, and whose psychological defenses could easily be broken.

So, Sun Yixie started skillfully. "Asshole, do you think we are three-year-olds?" He shouted and slammed the table.

This slap scared Hosokawa so much that his whole body trembled. After that, he shrank back like the wind, and his straightened body bowed again, "No, no, I don't dare, how dare I deceive you two?"

"Don't be nervous, Mr. Hosokawa. Huang Donglai blushed at this time and said, "We are not here to accuse you. We are just asking you for some information. As long as you are willing to cooperate obediently, we will not only not make things difficult for you, but also" as he said that, he turned his gaze He moved sideways and looked at a brocade box in the corner of the room, "We are also willing to transfer all the rewards that Lord Nobunaga gave us just now to sir. ”

Let me mention here that this box of reward money was offered by Nobunaga earlier tonight in order to thank Shuangxie for helping him repel those assassins.

This way.As soon as he came, Nobunaga felt a lot more relieved, because in his eyes, people's desires are their weaknesses. With desires, there is a "price" and they can be bought, controlled, and defeated.

The really scary thing in this world is the kind of people who seem to have no desires; such people often do not really have no desires, but their desires are different from ordinary worldly desires; they have For higher ambitions or pursuits, their "price" is beyond the reach of most people, so such people are difficult to bribe and control, and difficult to defeat.

Shuangxi naturally did not want to become such a person in Nobunaga's eyes, so they deliberately made that look to prevent Nobunaga from testing them again or digging into them further. the true purpose.

Facing Hosokawa now, Huang Donglai took advantage of the situation and used this box of money as a bargaining chip, because he had already figured out that Hosokawa would definitely fall for this trick.

"Is this true?" Sure enough, Hosokawa's mind immediately changed after being coaxed by Huang Donglai, and his eyes moved to the brocade box, and then the box seemed to be nailed to his eyes. It seems like I can't get out.

"Brother Huang's words will of course count, but the premise is that you must cooperate well and tell the truth." Sun Yixie, who was pretending to be a white-faced man, took over the conversation again and said in a threatening tone, "If you "You're still pretending to be stupid here like you just did." He paused and showed a ferocious smile, "A lot of people have died here tonight. If there is one more corpse, do you think anyone will care?"

" The villain understands. The villain understands." Hosokawa had just seen Shuang Xie's martial arts with his own eyes not long ago. Of course he knew that if these two people wanted to kill him, he wouldn't even have time to shout for help; and Sun Yi Xie's threats were absolutely fine. Hosokawa was not originally one of Nobunaga's men. Even if Nobunaga beheaded him, Nobunaga wouldn't care. Then he would say that he was killed by the remnants of the assassins. So what? Who would pursue Ashikaga Yoshiaki? Who would care? That's even more impossible.

Furthermore, this Hosokawa Kisuke did have bad intentions. The reason why he was so panicked when he heard about the mission was obviously because his own butt was not clean either.

So what is the whole story?

In fact, it is not complicated. This is Hosokawa, in addition to making money within the scope of his own duties. , and also do some "side jobs" similar to middlemen.

For example, if some guests who are inconvenient to go to Fengyue places want to find a certain oiran from Beijing to come to the Flower Palace for a secret gathering, he, Hosokawa, can go and help with the operation; If the customer wants to buy some antique calligraphy and paintings of unknown origin from some unusual channels, he can also match them

More than a month ago, when the Japanese delegation lived here, they entrusted Hosokawa to help them Take something out.

Of course, these things are not "rewards" recorded in official records, but items that the members of the mission obtained and brought back when they were in the Central Plains.

Most of these things were actually bought or obtained by barter, but there were a few exceptions.

"Xilong Bi" isThat's one of the exceptions.

Our previous document also said that there was not just one treasure stolen from the palace at that time, but several, but this was the only one that the emperor named to be recovered.

The reason is also very simple. Although there are several other items collected by the emperor's family, the one that can be called a "national treasure" is this "Xilong Bi".

This item is also the one with the highest final price and commission among the stolen goods that Hosokawa has helped to sell. In addition, it has been less than two months since the transaction took place. Hosokawa is very concerned about this transaction. The buyers and sellers and the details must be fresh in their minds.

Therefore, just now Huang Donglai opened his mouth to test, and as soon as he said the word "mission", Hosokawa was agitated

At that moment, Hosokawa's heart instantly turned to Sun and Huang. The identity of the Central Plains people was related to the mission's stealing and selling stolen goods, and they speculated that the other party might be here to recover the treasures.

But with a sense of luck, Hosokawa immediately wanted to pretend that the matter had nothing to do with him and get through.

Unfortunately, in front of Sun Huang, his acting skills and psychological quality were still a little bit behind, and then they were given a package of coercion and inducement, so naturally he had no choice but to submit obediently.

Not long after, Hosokawa explained everything he knew about the situation, and Shuangxie finally learned through his clue the whereabouts of the Dragon Bi, and whether it was the one who was captured. Taken away by a man named Sahara Kansuke.

The surname Sawara existed in only one place in Japan at that time, and that was the small vassal kingdom Sawara located on the Kii Peninsula south of Osaka.

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