Ming Dynasty: My Father Zhang Juzheng

The night is deep.

It was a chilly night in the middle of summer, most of the candles were extinguished, and the Otomo family's home was completely silent.

Only the croaking of frogs and chirping of cicadas in the bushes made a constant noise, making people feel upset.

Otomo Sorin leaned against the small window of his bedroom, looking at the moonless night, his brows furrowed into a big lump.

The age spots on the old cheeks were clearly visible under the candlelight in the house.

Maybe he really is old.

In the past two years, my previous enthusiasm for progress has disappeared, and even my memory is much worse than before.

Now, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army is coming with great force, and it seems that he is going to annex him in one fell swoop.

When Otomo Sorin thought that the Otomo family's foundation was about to be destroyed in his hands, his heart was broken and the pain made the corners of his mouth twitch.

"My Otomo family's twenty generations of ancestors fought bravely and bravely to establish the foundation we have today."

"If the Otomo family is destroyed, how can I face my ancestors?!"

Thinking of this, Otomo Sorin closed his eyes in despair, and two turbid hot tears flowed down his cheeks.

"Father, can I come in?"

There was a crisp sound, and Otomo Sorin shuddered, wiped the tears from his eyes, and shouted to the outside: "Come in."

The door was pushed open with a "ya-ya" sound, and Otomo Chiyoko, wearing a white singlet, walked timidly into the bedroom from outside with light lotus steps.

She is sixteen years old this year, like a pure cherry blossom, making people feel pity for her.

Otomo Sorin was slightly startled, but quickly recovered.

"Father." Chiyoko Otomo called out softly.

"Please sit down, Chiyoko." Otomo Sorin smiled kindly and pointed to the tatami on the left.

Otomo Chiyoko smiled faintly, straightened her body and knelt down. Otomo Sorin returned from the window with a trembling body and sat opposite her daughter.

The two looked at each other. Otomo Chiyoko looked at her old father and felt a pain in her heart. She mustered up the courage to ask, "Father, I am willing to marry Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As long as you can protect our Otomo family, I am willing to sacrifice for our family."

"Do you know who Toyotomi Hideyoshi is?" Otomo Sorin asked, slightly moved.

"I know, he is the regent." Otomo Chiyoko said seriously.

"Yes, he is the Emperor's regent and the general." Otomo Sorin murmured to himself, "His ambition is to unify the entire Japanese island, and it will not be easily changed because of a certain person or a certain group of people."

Therefore, even if the daughter married the old man Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Otomo family would most likely not be able to survive.

At most, you're living like a dog.

He was a proud man, a proud daimyo, and daimyo only die in war.

He would never allow his daughter to become someone else's plaything. The entire Otomo family had to rely on others to survive!
"But I am the daughter of the Otomo family and a member of the Otomo family!" Chiyoko Otomo argued with a red face.

Otomo Sorin made up his mind and smiled warmly at his daughter: "Chiyoko, I have a task for you. Tomorrow, you will follow your eldest brother and his family and leave the Otomo family's territory."

"where to?"

"It doesn't matter where we go."

After Otomo Sorin finished speaking, he laughed at himself and thought to himself that the world was so big, so where in the world didn't there exist a place for his Otomo family?

That’s great. Just go to Ming Dynasty and ask for their asylum.

"Father, are you going with us?" Chiyo Otomo seemed to sense something and asked crisply.

"Father is old, so he won't leave." Otomo Sorin shook his head and reached out to touch his daughter's head. "When you get out, you must listen to your eldest brother and never act like a little bitch again."

Chiyo Otomo nodded repeatedly, her big watery eyes filled with tears.

"Silly child, go and have some rest." Otomo Sorin wiped the tears from his daughter's eyes and consoled her with a smile.

"I want to accompany my father and ask him to tell me more about my mother, okay?" Chiyo Otomo shook her head, snuggled into her father's arms like a spoiled child, and asked with a hopeful look on her face.

She vaguely felt that after this separation, she would never see her father again.

Didn't Otomo Sorin think the same thing? She hugged her daughter tightly and said with a choked voice: "Your mother is a very beautiful and intelligent woman, as pure as the cherry blossoms."

Two days later in the morning.

There was still thick fog on the sea and cold air was raging everywhere. A dozen boys and girls slowly boarded the warship on the shore under the protection of the guards.

Chiyo Otomo was holding a six-year-old child and looking back in the direction of home from time to time.

A pair of big watery eyes, filled with tears.

"Aunt, what's wrong with you?" The child didn't know the current situation and thought it was a long journey, so he asked.

"Aunt is fine." Otomo Chiyoko smiled sadly and rubbed her nephew's head. "From now on, Kenta is a man. Remember to protect your mother and sister."

"Yes!" The child nodded seriously, and suddenly tilted his head and asked, "Aunt, why doesn't Dad go out to play with us? Didn't Mom say that Dad should go with us?"

Hearing her nephew's question, Otomo Chiyoko smiled and said, "Your father has something urgent to do, so he won't go with us for now. When he is done, he will definitely come to find us."

Kenta Otomo seemed to understand, nodded, and stopped talking.

The aunt and niece went up to the deck of the warship, and a beautiful woman in her early thirties with a plump figure came forward.

That was Kenta Otomo's mother, Yoshitsugu Otomo's wife.

"Sister-in-law."

"Mother."

Chiyoko Otomo and Kenta Otomo shouted together.

Mrs. Otomo nodded slightly. Although she did not show excessive sadness, her eyes were so red that it made people feel very distressed.

The scene of last night unconsciously emerged in my mind.

But let’s talk about last night.

Otomo Yoshitsugu was sweating profusely and hurried to the inner bedroom. Otomo's wife was surprised and asked hurriedly: "Husband, what are you doing? We are leaving tomorrow morning."

"I won't leave, Aika." Otomo Yoshitsugu hugged his wife tightly and said with red eyes.

"what?!"

Mrs. Otomo was so shocked that her heart trembled and her face was full of disbelief.

"I am the heir of the Otomo family. How can I abandon my ancestors' legacy and run away in disgrace? Even if I die, I will die in my own castle." Otomo Yoshitsugu's face was full of indignation, and he looked as if he was ready to die.

"But... But what about Kenta? What about Chiyoko?" Mrs. Otomo panicked. She beat her husband's chest and cried, "And what about me? Can you bear to let my son lose his father, let Chiyo lose her brother, and let me lose my husband?!"

"Yes, I'm sorry." Otomo Yoshitsugu replied with a sob.

"I don't want you to say sorry, I don't want you to say sorry, I want you to go with us!" Mrs. Otomo hugged her husband tightly and rolled around in his arms wildly.

Otomo Yoshitsugu allowed his wife to vent until she was tired, then he quietly walked out of the bedroom.

Looking at the gradually receding coastline, Mrs. Otomo was overwhelmed with emotion and could not control her emotions for a moment.

Chiyoko Otomo leaned gently on her sister-in-law's shoulder, and Kenta Otomo gently grasped his mother's little hand and leaned his head against her legs.

The big ship gradually disappeared amid the sound of sailing against the wind and waves.

Three days later, Chiyoko Otomo was curled up in the cabin, sleeping soundly.

Suddenly, a loud noise woke her up: "Meet the enemy, meet the enemy, quickly operate the cannon and aim at the enemy ship!!"

Chiyo Otomo quickly got up from the bed and ran outside barefoot. She saw that the deck was already in chaos.

Some people were loading cannons, while others were trying their best to give orders.

Others were running around on the deck, shouting.

In the distant sea, five warships were sailing side by side.

But we only have two.

"boom"

The opposing ship had not yet approached when there was a loud bang and shells gushed out, falling into the sea and creating waves.

Suddenly, the children on the boat screamed in fear.

The general in charge of the command watched this scene and shouted at the top of his voice: "Children, women, go back to the cabin, quickly!!"

The children and women sprang into action.

Chiyoko Otomo was so frightened that her legs went weak, her lips trembled, and her beautiful face was full of panic. "Chiyoko, you are the daughter of the Otomo family, you are the daughter of the Otomo family"

"Miss Chiyoko, you should go back quickly. Be careful not to be hurt by the shells." The guard general said earnestly.

"I won't leave. I want to defeat the enemy together with you." Otomo Chiyoko said stubbornly, "I am the daughter of Otomo Sorin. How can I flee in the face of danger?"

Everyone on the ship was a diehard fan of the Otomo family. When they heard what Otomo Chiyoko said, their morale was immediately boosted.

"Okay, since Miss Chiyoko insists on doing this, I can only obey your orders."

The guard general nodded in agreement, and Otomo Chiyoko ordered, "If the battle goes badly and the enemy attacks the ship, please kill me yourself, General, and don't let me become a prisoner of the enemy."

After looking at Otomo Chiyoko solemnly, the guard general nodded.

He naturally understood the miserable fate of women after being captured.

"Mr. Kameda, this looks like a warship from the Otomo clan." A wretched-looking Japanese pirate on the middle warship among the five warships on the opposite side was talking to a fat one-eyed man.

"Yoshi!" The fat one-eyed man called Kameda nodded with a smug look on his face, "The head of the family had long expected that the Otomo family would send someone to escape, so he ordered us to patrol the nearby waters early on. It turned out to be just as the head of the family expected."

The family head that Kameda mentioned was naturally Mori Terumoto.

As the former overlord of the Shikoku Island region, the Mori family possessed the most powerful navy at the time.

Although the Mori family suffered heavy losses in the battle with the Ming army, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and they still retained hundreds of warships.

"Hey Yaku, surround the warship of the Otomo family, kill all the men and leave all the women alive." Looking at the warship opposite, Kameda's eyes showed lust and he shouted impatiently.

"Hai Yi!"

The large ships quickly separated and approached the Otomo family's ships from three directions.

Getting closer.

When the two warships were only more than a thousand meters apart, the Otomo family's warships fired first.

Only a few "boom boom boom" sounds were heard, and a pungent white mist floated over the sea, which was quickly torn into pieces by the sea breeze.

Lead bullets shot out from the gun barrel, reached their highest point in the air, and then fell suddenly.

Smash onto the deck of the enemy ship.

Suddenly, one of the Maori family's warships was in chaos and flames.

Some people were shouting and fighting back, some were carrying buckets of water to put out the fire, and people were running everywhere.

The Otomo family was delighted after the success, but soon, the Mori family's shells came like a gust of wind. One of the Otomo family's warships was hit more than ten times, and the ship immediately became shaky.

Danger of sinking at any time.

"Hahaha, Otomo's warships are just like this!" Kameda laughed.

"Of course, how can the warships of the Mori family be compared with those of the Otomo family?" The wretched man who spoke first echoed, "In my opinion, the warships of the Otomo family are not even worthy of carrying shoes for the Mori family!"

"Hahaha"

There was another round of merciless ridicule.

The five warships of the Mori family quickly surrounded and pursued the enemy.

A few more shells fell, and the previously damaged ship of the Otomo family let out a painful cry and slowly sank to the bottom of the sea.

Everyone in the Otomo family felt a sinking feeling in their hearts, and Otomo Chiyoko was even more frightened.

"Fire to the left, break out from there." The guard commander ordered in a calm voice.

He found that the warship on the left had been damaged before and the captain was extremely unfamiliar with the ship. If he rushed towards this side desperately, there would still be some chance to break out of the encirclement.

"bang bang bang"

A series of cannon fires were heard, and the ship on the left side of the Mori family could not resist and hurriedly made a breakthrough. The general of the guard saw the opportunity and shouted loudly: "Full rudder, full speed, full advance, break out of the encirclement!"

The warship then let out a roar, and the sea water under the ship flew up and quickly retreated behind the ship.

In a blink of an eye, the Otomo family's warships broke out of the encirclement.

"Baka! Baka!" Kameda stamped his feet in anger. "What a bunch of good-for-nothings! They actually let the Otomo family's warship escape. Hurry up and chase them. Don't let any of them go!"

"Hi."

Everyone bowed and agreed.

The five warships adjusted their positions and, like sharks smelling blood, closely chased the Otomo family's warship in front.

There was continuous artillery fire on the sea and waves were raised.

On the warship in front, Chiyo Otomo's long hair was wet and her whole body was in a mess, but she still stood firmly on the deck.

I was stunned: So this is war. It turns out that all the wealth and status I enjoy were won by my father and brothers in such wars time and time again. If it weren't for my father and brothers, I would have become someone else's plaything long ago.

She now regretted a little why she listened to her father and ran away to survive.

"Miss Chiyo, please go back to the cabin first. It's too dangerous here." While she was still in a daze, several shells fell on the deck. The escort general hurried to Chiyo Otomo and persuaded her.

"No, I'd rather die here!" Otomo Chiyoko said resolutely, "General, just go and command the warship. If I retreat, you can kill me with the knife in your hand."

A small fire had been lit on the boat, and the blazing sun broke through the clouds, casting a golden glow.

Chiyo Otomo bathed in flames and sunshine, like a phoenix rising from the fire.

The guard general stopped trying to persuade her and made up his mind to protect her and rush out no matter what.

As they were speaking, several more shells fell on the deck, the closest one even only five or six meters away from Otomo Chiyoko.

The aftermath of the explosion frightened her.

A determination to die arose spontaneously.

"General, there are warships ahead, lots of them." A soldier from the Otomo family suddenly shouted.

Everyone looked up and saw a dense crowd stretching as far as the eye could see. (End of this chapter)