If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 170 Young Warrior
In the castle town of Fukuoka Castle, a young samurai was walking on the street.

Ordinary people on both sides of the road saw the two sabers on his waist and habitually stood on both sides of the road, bowing their heads and saluting him.

According to the tradition of the Japanese country, when samurai travel, ordinary people must give way and bow their heads, or even kneel on both sides of the road. If any behavior is considered disrespectful or offensive, samurai can directly draw their swords and kill the offending people directly. Behead.

What's more, there is no need for a reason at all. Just because the samurai bought a new sword and wanted to test whether it is sharp, he can pull a commoner from the roadside, and then cut it into two pieces with one blow, and show to future generations whether the sword is sharp. It's like cutting down a straw mat.

In the Japanese country of this era, ordinary people may be the same as a roll of straw mats compared to samurai.

It's just that the current controller of Fukuoka City is Zhu Zhanchen, the Ming Dynasty vassal king. There was no rule in the Ming Dynasty that warriors could kill people on the street at will. Even if they were relatives of the emperor, they would be held responsible if they really killed people on the street. of.

Of course, a certain beast king who liked to hit people on the head with a hammer did so because his father was Zhu Yuanzhang, but he was not seriously held accountable in the end.

So although the young samurai still walked on the street with his sword in hand, the people on the street actually didn't have to worry about being chopped down. It was just a habit to bow their heads and salute.

Moreover, this young samurai who looked well-dressed but slightly downcast was not in the mood to pay attention to these things.

The young samurai comes from the Ouchi family that previously ruled Fukuoka. He is considered a retainer of the Ouchi family. That is to say, he has been a retainer of the Ouchi family since his ancestors. It has been passed down to him for several generations.

It is precisely because of such qualifications that the young samurai's family still has a certain status in the Ouchi family. Their family has a farm outside Fukuoka City, and the family can afford to support two hundred infantrymen with spears.

Although he is not considered a wealthy family, he is considered a middle-level samurai in Fukuoka.

So when the Ming army landed to attack Fukuoka, the elders in the family gathered all the soldiers and went to Fukuoka Castle with relatives who could hold swords to help defend the city.

The young samurai was left behind to guard the family farm because he was too young and not the heir to the family. What was left to him were only some old, weak, sick and disabled tenant farmers who had been summoned temporarily.

As for able-bodied labor?Naturally, he was taken away by the family members and went to Fukuoka to support the Daimyo in defending the city.

Then?Then all the family's relatives who could hold swords, the two hundred infantrymen the family had painstakingly saved, and the young men they had recruited were all wiped out in the thunder summoned by the real dragon.

As a result, the young samurai who was originally just the second son of a branch of the family suddenly became the sole heir of the family. With the support of several old retainers, he inherited the family and became the new head of the family.

If it were in the past, this might have made the young samurai very happy, and even he was so excited that he couldn't sleep for a few days.

But now that the Ming army has cleared out the Japanese forces on the entire Kyushu Island, inheriting the position of the head of the family only means shouldering the responsibility for the inheritance and prosperity of the entire family, which is a hard job now.Especially when the family farm was almost attacked by the Ming army, at least until he rationally chose to surrender, this burden and responsibility became even more of a chore.

Although the family farm was saved by timely surrender, it was obvious that the Ming army was not an Ouchi family. Even though the young samurai presented the security documents and population register of the family farm, the family was still deprived of the territory and armed and temporarily under guard. , the farm passed down by the family for generations also had a group of Ming troops stationed there.

This was a move taken by the Ming army to clear out the Japanese forces on the island.

In order to prevent these farms with certain armed forces from causing rebellion, Zhu Zhanquan dispersed his troops, attacked the farms that resisted, slaughtered all those who dared to resist, and then stationed his troops directly on the farms until Zhu Zhanjun made a new decision.

Although the number of Ming troops stationed at the farm of the young samurai's family was small, with the family's reputation in several villages surrounding the farm, they could still defeat this group of only a dozen Ming troops by calling on the villagers to swarm them.

But the young warrior who had just become the head of the family clearly realized that it was easy to deal with this group of Ming troops, but it was very difficult to deal with the more Ming troops that followed.

Even in the heyday of the family, with more than a dozen samurai and two hundred ashigaru who specialized in martial arts, it was difficult to fight against the Ming army.

The young samurai has a very clear understanding of this point. Perhaps it is because he is just a descendant of a branch of the family. He is not taken seriously in ordinary life. His martial arts skills are also ordinary. Relatively speaking, his character is more cowardly, so when he encounters such a thing , his first thought was to solve the problem through other means, instead of just rushing forward with a knife and screaming like a traditional middle- and lower-level samurai.

Perhaps this is why the Ming army stationed at the farm got along quite well with him. After the young samurai just wanted to please these Ming soldiers to prevent them from harming the farm and offered some food, the captain of the Ming army team He told the young samurai a piece of news, a piece of news that would give him a chance to revive his family.

The King of the Ming Dynasty, who has now occupied and ruled the entire Kyushu Island, is recruiting people. As long as he can read and speak Chinese, he will have the opportunity to become a subordinate of His Highness and work for His Highness.

This is indeed a good opportunity for the young samurai, because the family territory is near Fukuoka Castle. The young samurai once studied Mingguo dialect and writing seriously because he wanted to read books all written in Chinese characters.

This is even a prominent science in the Japanese country, called Sinology. Any family that does not want to cultivate just a muscular man will let the family's children learn some Sinology.

Of course, generally speaking, Chinese studies taught in the Japanese country usually only teach Chinese characters, and the pronunciation of Chinese characters are directly interpreted in the Japanese language. Being able to use Chinese characters correctly is considered a talent, and a young samurai who is proficient in Ming dialect is considered a rare talent. .

So even though he is not popular because he is a descendant of the family, it is easy to understand that after the family is mobilized, it will be a young boy like him who will stay to guard the house instead of an old man from some family.

It is precisely because of the above that the young samurai entrusted his family affairs to his loyal old retainers and asked the captain of the Ming army stationed at the farm to take care of his home, so he took his few possessions with him. With two sabers that were more formal than practical, they came to Fukuoka Castle with the hope of becoming a subordinate of His Highness the feudal lord.

　In Japan, it is true that many middle- and upper-class samurai understand Sinology. Especially in Fukuoka, where the envoys from the Tang Dynasty were sent. It is not uncommon to have people who understand the dialect of the Ming Dynasty.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)