"You bastard! Don't take my chopsticks! Give them back quickly!"
"Why are they your chopsticks? Tell me a joke, there are people who don't know the principle of first come first served?"
On February 7, the sixth year of Tianwen (1537), Imagawa Yoshimoto was awakened before dawn again. God knows how Asahina Kikuchiyo and Okabe Jiro grabbed the chopsticks even though it was not meal time. Miaomiao next to the pillow also yawned, obviously very dissatisfied at being woken up.
"You two, can you wait until I get up before you start arguing?" Imagawa Yoshimoto opened the door and shouted to Asahina Kikuchiyo and Okabe Jiro who were struggling in the corridor.
"If you want to fight, fight outside." Imagawa Yoshimoto saw Hayasaka Nao, who was also woken up from the room, walking out of the house in a daze, and assigned him a task, "Koichiro, take Asahina and Okabe to the backyard. .At this point, Tian Chen must be practicing swordsmanship outside, let him watch these two children."
That's right, while Imagawa Yoshimoto was still sleeping soundly, the training madman Kentaro Tian Shen must have been practicing, and maybe he had already completed a set of sword techniques. Imagawa Yoshimoto didn't understand until he came into contact with him, why this naturally one-armed swordsman could practice such superb swordsmanship, so much so that his amazing swordsman teacher Oh Hidetsuna was full of praise, saying that he already had Qualifications that are not passed down from generation to generation are based on hard work day and night.
of course there are exceptions. Even on the fourth floor of the castle tower, Imagawa Yoshimoto could still clearly hear Kira Uisei's snoring. Obviously, the noise here did not disturb him at all, and he could sleep peacefully until midnight every day. Talented players don't need to practice hard.
After watching Nao Hayasaka send Asahina Kikuchiyo and Okabe Jiro out of the castle tower, Imagawa Yoshimoto yawned and prepared to go back to catch up on his sleep. At this time, he happened to see Furuno Toyo, who was also woken up, walking along the corridor.
"This is the future governor of the Asahina and Okabe families. If the relationship is like this, what will happen in the future?" Imagawa Yoshimoto showed a wry smile to Furunoji Yutaka.
"Haha, wouldn't it be great if the Asahina family and the Okabe family have some conflicts?" Furunoji Yutaka laughed twice and whispered beside Imagawa Yoshimoto.
"Why do you and my teacher say the same thing?" Imagawa Yoshimoto rolled his eyes at Furunoji Yutaka, walked to his side, and said softly, "To be honest, Takeohmaru, you are not like my teacher. Become a good old fox."
"Haha, yes or no is not that important, but someone has to do the dirty work, right?" Furunoji Yutaka took a half step away, half turned around, and looked at the porcelain placed in the corridor, discordant Imagawa Yoshimoto looked at each other.
"But I only figured it out recently." Furunoji Yutaka added.
"What do you want to understand?" Imagawa Yoshimoto was puzzled.
"I want to understand what kind of motivation makes good people willing to do dirty things and think of the worst in everything." Nafuji Yutaka stared at the blurry reflection of Imagawa Yoshimoto reflected on the porcelain wall, and chuckled, "Maybe Master Xue Zhai thinks so too."
·
On May 3, the sixth year of Tianwen (1537), Imagawakan Castle Tower.
Time flies, and it’s already midsummer in the blink of an eye. At this time, Imagawa Yoshimoto was practicing swordsmanship with Kentaro Tanasaki in the dojo in Hongainai. Although in terms of actual combat, Kentaro Tian Shen is not the opponent of Yoshimoto Imagawa. But Imagawa Yoshimoto understood that it was just because the opponent was missing an arm. Whether it is basic skills or understanding of the way of the sword, Kentaro Tian Shen's attainments are far above his own.
The reason why Imagawa Yoshimoto came to the dojo to practice martial arts instead of kicking Cuju was because his kicking partner Nao Hayasaka was called away this morning. Hayasaka Nao's dedicated service to the public in the past year has won Taiyuan Xuezai's trust, and Taiyuan Xuezai began to arrange for him to participate in the work of supervising the household to monitor whether there are any suspicious signs within the family.
In the same way, Furunoji Yutaka gradually dispelled Taiyuan Xuezai's guard and judged that he had no intention of threatening Imagawa Yoshimoto's position. After all, he is a descendant of the Imagawa family and a member of the Imagawa family. Taiyuan Xuezai also asked him to work with Hayasaka Nao on the responsibilities of the household - this kind of job that can easily offend people is best done by a member of the family and the family governor's cronies. suitable.
"Your Highness, I am overstepping my bounds, but please be a little more serious." Seeing Imagawa Yoshimoto starting to be lazy again, Kentaro Tian Shen couldn't help but urge him.
"I know, Tian Chen, oh no, coach." Imagawa Yoshimoto yawned, re-arranged his stance, and practiced the kendo starting moves that Kentaro Tian Chen inherited from Ohu Hidetsuna, while complaining, "It's really There is no way..."
"I'm not flattering you, your highness learns really fast." Kentaro Tian Shen showed an envious look and praised sincerely, "When I learned this style back then, it took me a hundred days to get to something good. My master once As I said, even he had practiced for more than a month before mastering the essence. But His Highness has only practiced this for ten days, but he has already made great achievements. You have such a talent, and if you are willing to practice hard, I am afraid that your swordsmanship will be the same as mine in the future. The masters are comparable to each other."
"Tian Chen, don't you understand this? 'Effort' is also one of 'talents'. Not everyone can work hard." Imagawa Yoshimoto shook his head and slowly tapped his thigh with a bamboo knife, " When I was a child, in the temple, people would often send their children in to recite the Buddha's name. Some children were very serious, but their understanding was not good enough, and they could not learn no matter how hard they studied. When this happened, my teacher would praise them for their hard work."
"There are also children who have high understanding, but are unwilling to work hard, and have read much less scriptures than others. When encountering this kind of children, teachers will say that although they are smart, they are unwilling to work hard. If they work hard, they will definitely achieve success in the future."
"Is there anything wrong with what Master Xue Zhai said?" Kentaro Tianchen also stopped what he was doing.
"It doesn't mean that you can work hard if you want to, nor that you can be serious if you want to. Being able to concentrate on one thing without being distracted by the outside world, enduring fatigue and boredom, this so-called 'effort' is what A kind of talent cannot be developed through acquired training. Some children are born with the inability to concentrate. There is no need to embarrass them, just like some people are born with no understanding. I even dare to say that hard work is more important than understanding. Talent is much more rare and rare.”
Imagawa Yoshimoto laughed as he spoke, recalling the past events of his childhood, "Every time I met someone who didn't work hard, the old man would always tell their parents that the child didn't work hard. Those parents would be very angry and fierce. Train their children hard, force them to work hard, and beat and scold them if they don't obey. But this cannot be forced, it is largely innate. Those children who work hard but have no understanding are much luckier. Parents do not What can you say about them? But in fact, aren't they all essentially the same? They just lack a certain talent."
"Your Highness, I have learned a lesson from you." Kentaro Tian Shen carefully tasted what Imagawa Yoshimoto said.
"Are you praising yourself?" Imagawa Yoshimoto was amused by Tian Chen Kentaro's serious look, "Tian Chen, you are the hardest working person I have ever seen. Are you praising yourself for your extraordinary talents?"
"Your Majesty, you are trying to offend me. How could you have such intention?" Kentaro Tian Shen suddenly blushed at being upset by Imagawa Yoshimoto and thanked him repeatedly.
At this moment, Kira Uisei rushed over and told Imagawa Yoshimoto that someone came to the castle tower to ask for an audience. Imagawa Yoshimoto then left, but Kira Usei was entangled by Taro Shen Kentaro. Last year, when they fought at the inn, Kira Usei used his strength to bully others and defeated Taro Shen. The stronger Kentaro Tian Shen obviously resented this, and would drag Kira Usei into a competition every time he had the chance. Kira Usei couldn't defeat him, so he had to become a sparring partner.
·
After returning to the castle tower, Imagawa Yoshimoto discovered that it was Osawa Motoin, the legitimate son of the lord of Horie Castle, Osawa Motosou. Since the failure of the first Toe rebellion last year, the Osawa family has raised troops in Horie Castle to oppose Imagawa Yoshima. For a whole year of being isolated and helpless, Horie Castle held on and resisted Imagawa Yoshimata's attacks. This loyalty and tenacity moved everyone in the Imagawa family deeply, and they also gave the Osawa family extremely high courtesy.
"Can Horie Castle still be defended?" Imagawa Yoshimoto smiled and asked Osawa Motoin as the envoy, and received the answer he imagined -
"Whenever the main hall sends troops to rescue, Horie City will defend it until that time."
"What if there are no reinforcements?" Imagawa Yoshimoto took the letter brought by Osawa Motoin and joked casually at the same time.
"Then keep it." Osawa Jiyin made his promise quite seriously.
Imagawa Yoshimoto finished reading the autographed letter from Osawa Kishin, looked at Osawa Motoin seriously, and extended an invitation to him, "Osawa, after the Imagawa family's fourth reserve captain was killed in battle last year, this position has been vacant. , are you willing to take office?"
"Are you there?" Daze Jiyin opened his eyes wide in flattery.
"The legitimate son of the Osawa family deserves this grace." Imagawa Yoshimoto replied without changing his expression - this is indeed the truth, and no one in the Imagawa family will raise any objection. The head of the family himself serves as the lord of the castle, and his son can also serve as the reserve captain of the family - this is a blessing that only the Matsui family has in the Imagawa family. But the performance of the Osawa family this time is not inferior to that of the Matsui family in the past.
But what really prompted Imagawa Yoshimoto to make this decision was the content of Osawa's belief. Kisang Osawa is not as ambitious and confident as his own children. The protracted battle to defend the city greatly depleted the morale of the defenders, and the days without reinforcements made the defenders unable to see the future. Kisho Osawa was worried that someone in his family would betray him and lead to the fall of Horie Castle, so he sent his children to Imagawa Yoshimoto in advance, hoping to leave a bloodline for the Osawa family.
This loyalty to the Imagawa clan shocked even Imagawa Yoshimoto, a man who had never been fond of family interests. Even if it was to give back to Osawa Kisho, Imagawa Yoshimoto would hand over the position of captain of the fourth Hatamoto bench to his children.
"May I ask the main hall, how did the fourth captain of the fourth branch die in battle?"
While Imagawa Yoshimoto was thinking, Osawa Motoyin took the initiative to ask a question.
"You fought and died defending your position and buying time for me." Imagawa Yoshimoto recalled the tragic appearance of Makiyama Nazuo when he died in the battle, and frowned slightly.
"Then this reserve team is very suitable for me." Osawa Motoyin hammered his chest with his right hand and said loudly to Imagawa Yoshimoto, "Please, Your Majesty... Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will inherit the legacy of my predecessor and the legacy of my family." Use your unique skills to train the fourth weapon in the flag book to become the strongest shield of the Imagawa family! Live up to His Highness’s trust!”
Imagawa Yoshimoto looked at Osawa Motoin, whose young eyes were shining with fighting spirit. Obviously, this young man did not understand the world very well and misunderstood what Imagawa Yoshimoto meant. He did not understand that this appointment was essentially to praise the Osawa family, but regarded it as recognition of his own ability. But this youthful and frivolous self-confidence is admirable.
"Osawa, I will wait and see." Imagawa Yoshimoto lowered his head slightly, stared into Osawa Moto's eyes, and encouraged him in a deep voice, "When you have trained your troops, we will go back to relieve the siege of Horie Castle."
