It's not too early now.

It was past five o'clock, and although the sky and the earth were still bright, the sun had already set behind the hills on the other side of the field.

From the time Qingdeng and others launched the pursuit, only half a day had elapsed since they were fully charged and fought to death.

In half a day, we pursued for more than a hundred miles...

Even during World War II... no, even in modern warfare, such numbers are enough to stun people.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Qingdeng and others were so surprised.

They just kept their heads down, unaware that they had pursued for more than a hundred miles at a stretch, and had even broken into the territory of Owari Domain.

At this time, Hosayazaemon spoke again:

"Who are you? Quickly state your name!"

Perhaps from Qingdeng's conversation, he vaguely sensed that the person in front of him was not an ordinary person.

So Hosayazaemon's tone softened a lot.

As the authority of the shogunate gradually declined, the pro-vassal daimyo headed by the "Gosan Family" became increasingly dishonest.

As long as their interests are not violated, they will go all out to obey and disobey all orders issued by the shogunate.

However, no matter what, from the current perspective, the "Yu San Family" are still allies of the shogunate.

Since they are allies, all due etiquette must be observed.

Qingdeng stood up straight, raised his head and said loudly:

"I am the envoy of Gyeonggi Town, Ju Qingdeng!"

"We attacked here to chase down the bandits."

"We did not know that this place is the territory of the Owari clan. No offense is intended. Please forgive me!"

The moment they finished speaking, the Owari samurai led by Hosoyazaemon immediately widened their eyes, their expressions changed, and their expressions were dominated by strong shock.

"The governor of Gyeonggi Province?"

"Then isn't he the benevolent king?"

"Is it really him?"

"That's not right! Nioh-sama should be setting up defenses in the Iga area right now to stop the bandit army from invading Kyoto!"

"Yes, Lord Nioh cannot be here."

…

You look at me, I look at you... they are chattering to each other.

Owari Domain is adjacent to Gyeonggi Province.

Therefore, no matter what happens inside or outside Gyeonggi, Owari Domain can always receive relevant information as soon as possible.

After all, this domain is an established power with a territory of 620,000 koku, and they still have the most basic information collection capabilities.

Therefore, they received the news of "Ise Eruption" as soon as possible.

After learning about the changes in Ise, the Owari Domain government quickly mobilized the army - but this was not to fulfill the obligation of "closing a vassal and establishing a country, using the vassal as a screen".

They did not send troops to reinforce Qingdeng, but sent them to the border area to guard their own land.

Owari Domain is located exactly between East and West Japan.

In other words, if the bandit army wants to attack Kanto, Owari Domain must pass through.

In order to ensure its own peace and interests, the Owari Clan exerted great efforts.

While guarding against the intrusion of the bandits, they also paid close attention to the progress of suppressing the rebellion in Fufu.

They knew that Aoshinobu had already commanded the "Shinkai Allied Forces" composed of the Shinsengumi and part of the Aizu Army officers and soldiers, and sent troops eastward to station in Iga to prevent the rebel army from invading the west.

As for further information, due to the limited information transmission capabilities, they did not know it.

Today is April 11th.

Qingdeng's troop dispatch date was nine days ago, that is, April 2.

Counting the time spent on reorganizing the troops and marching, it only took Seito 9 days to completely defeat the rebel army and advance all the way to Owari?!

The Owari samurai felt incredible about this.

After a brief period of shock and confusion, Hosotani Zaemon regained his composure...or rather pretended to be calm.

He cleared his throat vigorously, put on a softer tone, and asked:

"You said you are the governor of Gyeonggi Province. What evidence is there?"

Qingden raised his eyebrows.

"What? Haven't you seen my portrait?"

"I personally think that the painter responsible for painting my portrait is quite capable. He perfectly reproduced my charm on paper."

Hosoyazaemon looked troubled.

After a while, he replied intermittently:

"Sorry, your face... is too dirty! We really can't see your face clearly!"

Hearing this, Qingden subconsciously raised his hand to touch his face - a greasy and disgusting feeling covered his fingertips.

If he had a mirror at hand, he could see how dirty his carved face was.

To put it simply, it is like a color palette where you can find a variety of colors.

Mud, gravel, dust, grass clippings, unnamed dirt...these messy dirt covered every corner of the face.

This layer of "dirt combination" is already disgusting.

As a result, the blood and sweat were "melted" again... like a melted oil painting.

It was so dirty that it felt like all the features were glued together.

Not to mention her appearance, it's hard to tell her gender.

Qingden rubbed away the dirt on his fingertips, smiled bitterly and said half-jokingly:

"I was so busy chasing death and chasing north that I forgot to clean up my image."

After that, he took out a clean pocket paper from his arms and wiped it on his face haphazardly.

The white piece of paper instantly turned into pitch black "charcoal strips".

After wiping it like this, although the whole face was still very dirty, I could still see the facial features clearly.

"How? Can anyone recognize me now?"

For a moment, a strange silence fell among the Owari samurai.

The silence did not last long.

About 5 seconds later, the shock turned into a voice:

"It's really Nioh! It's really Tachibana Aoden!"

"Is it really him?"

"That's right! It's indeed him!"

"You are all so blind! I have long recognized this man as Nioh. The warrior who rides an ox, there is no one else in the world except Nioh!"

…

Hosoyazaemon's reaction was extremely quick.

People like him in the officialdom have always been very sensitive to various rules and etiquette in the officialdom.

With extremely smooth movements, he rolled off the horse with a "swish" and knelt down on one knee with a respectful expression.

Compared with just now, they are completely different people.

"Lord Tachibana, I am so rude! I am so offended, please forgive me!"

Immediately afterwards, the other knights behind him dismounted and saluted Qingdeng respectfully.

Qingdeng waved his hand:

"I understand, please get up."

At this time, Hosayazaemon seemed to have thought of something, and asked quickly with an anxious look on his face:

"Lord Tachibana, since you are chasing the bandits, will our sudden appearance hinder you?"

The benevolent king was leading his troops to suppress thieves, but they suddenly jumped out and blocked his way, causing the battle to be affected... This kind of thing is a typical "big or small trouble".

If you don’t get on the scale, you won’t weigh four ounces. Once you get on the scale, you won’t be able to weigh a thousand pounds!

One bad move will cause a very serious diplomatic accident!

Thinking of this, the Owari warriors couldn't help but feel chills running down their spines.
To be continued...