Seeing this scene, Mabi's heart was slightly relieved. He sighed softly, but was noticed by Hideo with the light of his eyes.

"An Yisou led the three thousand Satake troops to attack Aizu this time, and it was a great contribution. To put it bluntly, it was even more effective than the role played by the servant Chang Lu who was far away in Mito." Hideo said "indiscriminately" while fiddling with the firewood in the bonfire.

"Your Highness is too much. The foreign minister is just an ordinary retainer under his servant. He has not made any achievements before. This time, thanks to Your Highness's trust, he is fortunate to make a small contribution, but this is also the credit of the Satake clan, and the foreign ministers dare not accept it alone." After hearing Hidepo's words, the Mabi clan was extremely sensitive, and he immediately expressed his loyalty to the Satake clan in a tactful manner to him.

"An Yishou is too nervous," Xiubao smiled and comforted: "I am not trying to provoke your relationship with the servants, but your Zhenbi family was once a major force in Chang Lu, and Ling Zun even had the title of "Ghost True Bi" during his lifetime. I just said that it was just out of respect for the Zhenbi family. Please don't worry."

Hearing this, Mabi was a little hesitant. He knew that Hideopo was trying to test him just now, but when he heard him mention his father's nickname, he felt sad: "I didn't expect that Your Highness still remembers the deeds of Mabi and his father. The foreign minister was really excited. However, Mabi's family has surrendered to Sazhu for more than twenty years. He would not and should not have any other ideas. Please forgive me."

"What are you talking about?" Hideopo asked in surprise: "I have heard of Mabi's loyalty to Sazhu, so how could he do such a secret provocation? Well, if the conversation just now made An Yisou misunderstand, Hideopo apologizes here."

"Your Highness is a slander," Zhenbi quickly bowed and said, "It is the foreign minister who judges a gentleman with the heart of a villain. Please forgive me."

Hidebo waved his hand, then helped him up, and smiled and said, "Since it's a misunderstanding, don't take it seriously. I will tell the servants the truth about what you did for Satake today. It's getting late, and I have to prepare to welcome the inner palace. You can go down first."

"As for the order." After the Mabi family gave a tribute, they immediately got up and left the tea room. Looking at his back, Hideo sighed slightly.

"You come out," Xiubao said calmly. At this time, a middle-aged man slowly walked out from behind the screen.

"Sir Yigan, you also heard the conversation between me and your brother just now." Xiu Bao asked.

The middle-aged man nodded: "I heard it very clearly. It seems that my brother is unwilling to betray the Sazhu family and restore the glory of his ancestors."

In fact, the middle-aged man in front of Hideopo was Machi Yoshigan's younger brother, Machi Yoshigan. Machi Yoshigan had no heir, so he adopted Yoshigan's eldest son Machi Yoshigan as his adopted son so that he could inherit the position of family governor in the future. This was very common in the Warring States daimyo, and Machi Yoshigan had no idea, but Machi Yoshigan's attitude towards Satake made Yoshigan very disgusted.

The Mabi family originated from the Kanmu Hei clan - the Daejo clan - the Rumabi clan, and was also considered a sub-branch of the Daejo clan. Since the Heian period, it has been a powerful national in the area of ​​Mabi county in the Takaraku Kingdom. At the time of Mabi Kukan, known as the "Ghost Mabi", Mabi Kukan was in the Oda clan, the Hojo clan, and the Satake clan, which made the Mabi clan's sphere of influence reach a peak, and had control over the Mabi and Tsukuba counties, and had a tendency to move towards an independent daimyo.

Not only that, although Mabi clan showed that he was close to Satake, as a sub-branch of the Daemon clan, he married his daughter to the Daemon clan as the master of the Daemon clan, and actively used his advantages in the western part of Changlu to cooperate with the "Thirty-Three Halls of the South" headed by the Daemon clan to fight against the Changlu ruler of the Satake clan. On the one hand, this is the responsibility of the Daemon clan, and on the other hand, he also wanted to buy time and opportunity for his own expansion of the sphere of influence by delaying the Satake clan's invasion south.

But unfortunately, the Mabi Heizhu died of illness in the 17th year of Tensho, the year before Odawara's conquest. His death had a huge impact on the situation in Chang Lu.

After Odahara's conquest, although Hideyoshi gave the Satake country to the Satake country, it was equivalent to a blank check. More than half of the territory of the Changlu country was still in the hands of the Daisuke family and its subordinates. Hideyoshi did this, on the one hand, to give Satake Yoshige and his son a favor, but on the other hand, he did not want to see the Satake family really unify the Satake family. Instead, he hoped to obtain the surrender of the Daisuke family in name and maintain surface unity like before. In fact, the government orders did not reach the south. This is also a method commonly used by Hideyoshi to maintain control of local daimyos.

But to Hideyoshi's surprise, Satake Yoshige and Satake Yoshinori were not ordinary people. They actively used such a name for Dayi to start fighting against the Dasheng clan. But at such a critical moment, the newly succeeded Machi family governor Machi Kam changed his father Machi Kam's policy, gave up the opportunity to become an independent daimyo, and instead fully supported Satake clan.

Losing the support from the Mabi clan from the west, the strategic layout of the Dajuan clan was frustrated and his morale was greatly damaged. The Satake clan seized the opportunity and took less than a year to defeat the Dajuan clan and the "Thirty-Three Halls of the South" and completed the unification of Chang Lu. The Dajuan clan, the last master of the Dajuan clan, and his main wife, also committed suicide, and the Dajuan clan, a famous family in Kanto, was completely extinct.

Although because of this, Mabi family gained the Satake family's moral character and retained the knowledge and practice of Mabi and Tsukuba County about 6,000 stones, in the eyes of outsiders, this was just a reward for selling the owner for honor, and the reputation of Mabi family also declined greatly. Not only that, Mabi family also lost the opportunity to become an independent daimyo, which made the efforts of his ancestors' generations go to waste. It has to be said that Mabi family's actions lack strategic vision, but his mentality of seeking stability seemed to be too harsh in that era.

The practice of Mabi's family has aroused the dissatisfaction of many old ministers, including his younger brother Mabi Yoshigan. Although his son is regarded as the next family governor, Mabi Yoshigan still feels that his brother has deviated from the masters of Mabi's family for all generations, especially Mabi's wishes for Aoshigan, and his betrayal of the Dasheng clan is unforgivable.

Therefore, he and many old ministers made a request to retreat to the Machi family. Everyone came to the Xiaguan area of ​​Machi County to live in seclusion, and it took five years in a flash. The Machi family, who had lost many retainers, was greatly weakened. In addition, the Dasheng family had been eliminated, and the Machi family also lost its value. Satake Yoshige decided to find a reason to take Tsukuba County back from the Machi family. However, Satake Yoshinori could not see such a thing happening. He argued for the Machi family and finally retained his existing knowledge and actions.

However, after the Mabi clan was trapped in Mito Castle for a long time, and many Satake clans were placed in the territory, and the independence of the Mabi clan was greatly weakened.

As Hideo sent troops to Aizu, Machi Yoshigan and other old ministers seemed to have found a turning point. Especially after learning that the Satake clan gave way to the Tokugawa army, Machi Yoshigan even caught up with Hideo on the way to the Toyotomi coalition army to Numata Castle, reported the Satake clan to Hideopo and begged Hideopo to help Machi restore its former glory.

Helping Mabi escape from Satake is undoubtedly a good idea to weaken Satake. However, Hideo considers that Mabi is the current master of Mabi and has not made any mistakes when he went to Aizu, so he decided to give him a chance to test whether he intends to escape from Satake. If he is unwilling, he will hand over this opportunity to Mabi Yikan, which will lead to the conversation he had with Mabi before.
Chapter completed!