Seventy-year-old Yamamoto Jin'emon Shigesumi has been lucky for most of his life. Samurai at his age have basically missed the ever-changing Warring States Period. They didn't even catch up with the dispatch of troops to Korea and the Battle of Sekigahara. At most, they were in Osaka. Appearing in the winter and summer battles, it is more difficult to get a good job by relying on your true ability to cut people than to reach the sky. If you want to live well, you mainly rely on reincarnation!
Fortunately, Yamamoto Shigesumi's reincarnation skills are still excellent. He cannot compare with those lucky people who cast a feudal lord, but in comparison, it is too much...
His father was an important minister of the Nabeshima family of the Saga Domain. He also assisted Katsushige, the second generation of the Nabeshima family, in the "turtle march" during the Battle of Sekigahara, successfully avoiding the decisive battle. By avoiding a decisive battle, he also avoided falling out with Tokugawa Ieyasu. In addition, Tokugawa Ieyasu needed someone to watch over the old immortal Kuroda Josui in Kyushu, so the Nabeshima family, which belonged to the Western Army in the Battle of Sekigahara, was lightly let go. Yamamoto Shigesumi's father also received a reward for being "late and meritorious", leaving his son with a family fortune of 1,000 koku.
Inheriting 1,000 koku from his father, and receiving the care of the feudal lord Katsushige because he was the son of a hero, Yamamoto Shigesumi's life was definitely something that would be envied by most Japanese samurai who had difficulty filling their stomachs. He spent his whole life eating, drinking and having fun with the feudal lord. When he was over 60 years old, he married a young and beautiful wife. When he was 70 years old, he even gave birth to a young son.
Just when he thought he was definitely a winner in life, disaster suddenly struck! The Tokugawa world, which was originally as stable as a rock, suddenly became turbulent, and Kyushu became the hardest hit area in the troubled times. The Nabeshima family, which has always been cunning, also made a wrong bet in this troubled world and suffered bad luck.
At the beginning, the Nabeshima family took a cautious line of loyalty to the shogunate...that is, they continued to be "late" that the family was best at, and waited until the situation became clear before sending troops to attack Shimazu or defecting to Toyotomi.
Moreover, the Nabeshima family was not just "late". They also contacted the Kuroda, Hosokawa, Tachibana, Arima and other families next door to be late together.
With so many people being late, the Tokugawa shogunate probably had no choice but to ignore the blame, right?
Of course, being late does not mean being late. When the news of the Spanish fleet's disastrous defeat in the Battle of Kagoshima Bay came, Nabeshima, Kuroda, Hosokawa, Tachibana, and Arima all felt that the situation was clear.
The Spaniards behind the Shimadzu family have been defeated. The Shimadzu family is facing a dead end!
Therefore, Nabeshima, Kuroda, Hosokawa, Tachibana, Arima and other five families stopped being late and ran towards the battlefield together.
Except for horses, among these five houses, all others can be beaten! The five allied forces dispatched 50,000 troops, and they rushed to the castle walls in a mighty manner. They were about to capture Toyotomi Kunimatsu alive. It took a long time to kill Shimazu Mitsu, but... the Shimazu family dispatched 20,000 people. The Japanese-Spanish coalition deployed the latest Spanish square formation and pulled out 20 artillery pieces. A burst of artillery fire and spear assault directly defeated the fifty thousand Nabeshima, Kuroda, Hosokawa, Tachibana, and Arima coalition forces.
The five families including Nabeshima, Kuroda, Hosokawa, Tachibana, and Arima who returned from the defeat were dumbfounded. Because they suddenly found that they couldn't even be a wallflower anymore! Although the five of them gave the Shimadzu family a beating, the Tokugawa family still received the support of the Ming Dynasty. The army entered Nagasaki and surrounded the entire Nagasaki Peninsula.
However, Shimazu, who had a great victory in the battle of Fuuchi Castle, did not dare to approach the Nagasaki Peninsula...
Even the Shimazu family themselves had no confidence. How could Nabeshima, Kuroda, Hosokawa, Tachibana, and Arima dare to join the family? Isn't this making fun of your own belly? How painful it is to pull!
But Mitsuhisa Shimazu refused to join the Shimadzu family. They were just keeping their eyes open and not messing with the Shimazu family, but they sent out troops to attack Fuuchi Castle!
Therefore, after Shimazu Mitsuhisa sent people to persuade him to surrender to no avail, he began to attack the castles controlled by the Nabeshima, Kuroda, Hosokawa, Tachibana, Arima and other families. They successively defeated Kurume Castle, Yanagawa Castle, Miike Castle, Kumamoto Castle, Saga Castle and other castles... They really have the potential to destroy bamboo!
Most of the feudal lords who lost their castles and territories were quite tolerant. Instead of having their stomachs pierced, they kept their bodies useful and slipped away to the Nagasaki Peninsula.
Seventy-year-old Yamamoto Jin'emon Shigesumi is one of the more thoughtful samurai - he has a young and beautiful wife and a baby waiting to be fed, so how can he commit seppuku so casually?
Besides, he had been waiting his whole life to return to the troubled times of the Warring States Period. How could he die without doing something good?
The old superior of the Nabeshima family, Ryuzoji Ieken, is still going strong in his 90s. Not only can he lead troops in war, but he has also been able to revive his family after a tragedy that wiped out his family.
Hojo Soun captured Odawara Castle at the age of sixty-eight, and only pacified Sagami and Izu at the age of eighty-eight, laying the foundation for the future hegemony of the Hojo family.
And the ancestor of the Tokugawa shogunate, God Lord Ieyasu, waited until he was nearly sixty years old to wait for the Battle of Sekigahara and create the Tokugawa shogunate!
So seventy-year-old Yamamoto Shigesumi thought that he might be the new era Ieken, Soun and Ieyasu, but it turned out...he had no food for two days!
Yamamoto, who had lived a good life, never dreamed that when the troubled times that the samurai dreamed of came, he, a high-ranking feudal warrior who was like a fish in water in the peaceful and prosperous times, would actually be reduced to the point of having no food to eat!
His 1,000 koku was gone... The feudal lord Nabeshima Mitsushige couldn't save himself, and he couldn't afford to support an old man like him!
And when he fled his home, he was in a hurry and took nothing of value with him. Now he has lost everything, leaving only his wife and young son, the ancestral sword and a rib.
Oh, the sword was missing two days ago, and his wife and son also disappeared at about the same time, leaving only a rib that could be used to commit seppuku.
"A samurai should die with dignity!" Yamamoto Shigesumi muttered, then sat up in a dilapidated hut, took out the ribs, and then looked at it for a while, then sighed, "If I still It would be nice to have a rice ball to eat!”
There should be no rice balls, and he didn't plan to wait any longer. If he waited any longer, he wouldn't even have the energy to commit seppuku.
Thinking of this, the old man took the risk, pulled out the ribs, gritted his teeth and glared, and pointed the tip of the knife at his belly.
Then, time passed by minute by second...
This is the belly! How can I just stab my own?
I don't know how long it took, but I heard a gurgling sound coming from his abdomen.
The old man sighed: "Baga... is old and useless! He can't even commit seppuku. What's the use of living?"
At this point, tears came down! When he was crying, the sound of a baby crying suddenly came from outside the thatched house, and then he saw his wife Aju holding his infant son and carrying a basket. The hand holding the basket was still holding a samurai sword, and came in from the outside. .
"Sir, are you committing seppuku?" Aju, the daughter of a samurai family, was very surprised when she saw her old husband's face was full of tears, his upper body was naked, and he was stabbing his belly with his ribs. "Why?" No blood coming out? What's going on?"
"Baga!" Yamamoto was so angry. This woman had a bad conscience and was looking forward to her own death!
"It hasn't been stabbed in yet, of course there is no blood!" Grandpa Yamamoto gritted his teeth again, shaking his hands and took the knife to stab his belly.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute!" Aju shouted.
Grandpa Yamamoto looked at his wife who could be his granddaughter, and waited for her to persuade him... One day for a couple, a hundred days for them!
"Master, don't commit seppuku yet..." Aju put down her crying son, and then placed a broken basket with several rice balls and a tattered samurai sword in front of her husband, " You can’t die yet…maybe it’s still useful!”
What are you talking about... The old man glared at his wife, and then asked: "Are you reluctant to let me go?"
"No!" Aju shook her head, "I took your knife to the city the day before yesterday and wanted to sell it... but I heard someone said that the shogunate and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty were going to jointly hold some kind of exam, and if you passed the exam, You will have food to eat, and you will get 2 taels of silver a month! Eat something quickly, and then go to Nagasaki City to take the exam. You must pass the exam! If you fail, please find a place where no one is around and commit hara-kiri! Don’t hesitate, just poke it hard!”
