Chapter 370 29. Escape in a Hurry Amidst Danger

The two groups of people stared at each other.

Who dared to move in Rakuten under such circumstances? The Hosokawa army was trying to create a firebreak and try to kill their way to the vicinity of the Imperial Palace.

The more than 1,000 people of Iwanari Tomomichi scattered and set fire and looting, and the troops of Miyoshi Masayasu also turned into chaotic soldiers. Miyoshi Nagayoshi and Matsunaga Nagamichi, with about 2,000 soldiers, had not yet dispersed. They were trying to block Ashikaga Yoshiteru.

Of course, the ordinary townspeople who were swept by the fire were either burned to death or ran out of the capital with their packages. Moreover, Rakuten was so large that it had not yet completely rioted.

Obviously, although the fire swept through many places in Rakuten, the light was extremely dazzling, but it was only to help the Miyoshi soldiers who were generally night blind to recognize the road.

The 40 or 50 soldiers in front of Yamauchi Yoshikatsu were obviously recruited from Settsu Province. In the past few decades, most of the time they were fighting with the Miyoshi clan, so how could they be loyal to the Miyoshi Three. Now that they have entered Luojing, they naturally try their best to break away from the group and rob.

Hearing the obvious voice from Kinai just now, Yamauchi Yoshikatsu felt like he was facing a great enemy. If it was on the battlefield, twenty samurai servants could easily rub against two hundred miscellaneous soldiers, but now it was in the streets.

The foot soldiers put down their long spears in a row and blocked the street. Yamauchi Yoshikatsu had no long-range weapons, so he really couldn't do anything about these miscellaneous soldiers.

While thinking about how to deal with this group of Sanhao thieves, Yamauchi Yoshikatsu was also found on the opposite side.

"Daian Temple has been taken a fancy to by our Kawauchi Village! Brothers over there, go somewhere else, we have more than a hundred people here" [Note 1]

This group of soldiers obviously regarded Yamauchi Yoshikatsu and his group of more than 20 people as miscellaneous soldiers who were out to rob, and threatened Yamauchi Yoshikatsu, who was far fewer in number than them, to move away and not disturb them from robbing the temple.

If you were an ordinary person, you would be exposed in a conversation, but you happened to meet someone from the Yamauchi family. Yamauchi Yoshikatsu started serving Ashikaga Yoshiteru as a public servant at the age of twelve, and lived in Kyoto for nearly ten years. He spoke fluent Kinai dialect, and other people also often went to Kyoto, so they could speak Kyoto dialect to some extent.

"No! There are also forty or fifty people in our Miku Village. We will split the money in half when we meet. We can't come here for nothing!" He spoke in the Yamashiro dialect without any sense of disobedience.

Both sides falsely reported half of their numbers, and Yamauchi Yoshikatsu looked unwilling to give in.

The chief villages in Kinai have a good habit, that is, they don't fight when encountering problems. They fight when they can, and they fight hard. They will fight reluctantly when the talks fail. In the past hundred years, the chief villages would rise up as soon as they were dissatisfied, but they didn't fight. They took to the streets to protest, surrounded government offices, shrines, and temples, and took the route of non-violent street resistance.

If you don't agree to me, I will set fire. The rent I owe you is nothing. How much are your government offices, temples, and shrines worth? Tax-free! Benevolent governance! Hello, I'm good, and everyone is good!

Therefore, the rebels who had a preconceived notion that Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu was also taking the opportunity to make a fortune heard that Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu wanted to divide the loot equally, and they were more certain that Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu was the head of a village in Yamashiro Province and brought people to rob.

The rebel leaders calculated that Daan Temple was so big that there must be thousands of kan or even more wealth. One kan weighed four pounds, and the forty or fifty of them could only carry two or three thousand kan, and they couldn't take more.

"Okay, let's go in and take it based on our ability, whoever gets it will get it!"

"Okay, but we have to burn the bonds first, so please help the brothers on the opposite side!" Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu couldn't really go into the temple to rob money, he just wanted to run away with this gang.

When the rebels heard this, it was no wonder that Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu had to share the spoils, it turned out that he owed money to Daan Temple. They cursed him in their hearts, but they were actually very happy. They must have rushed in first to rob silver and then copper coins.

"Stupid, go burn your bonds!" The village chief despised Yamauchi Yoshikatsu for being brainless. He was afraid that he could not pay off the debts after robbing the money.

"Okay, then we will go to the temple first, and we must leave half for the brothers." He cursed him in his heart, but he still said it beautifully.

After that, the forty or fifty people rushed to Daan Temple without looking back. The village chiefs in Kinai had formed a deep friendship with Kazuna during the Kakitsu uprising, and they had a lot of incense for decades. Now that the division of the spoils has been confirmed, there will be no internal strife.

Yamauchi Yoshikatsu and his group breathed a sigh of relief. How important it is to master a dialect! It can save lives and save people when necessary!

Seeing that the group of chaotic soldiers left, they were already some distance away. Everyone ran away, not daring to stop for a moment. They only wanted to leave Kyoto quickly and reach Shirakawa, and they would succeed.

At this time, the cries and shouts in Luojing were deafening, especially the people in the area between Shangjing and Xiajing, who no longer dared to stay at home. The fire was getting more and more intense. They had to escape from Kyoto to survive.

Yamauchi Yoshikatsu rushed to Shirakawa Avenue, and more and more people were fleeing along the way. The road was completely blocked, and the temperature continued to rise, and thick smoke and ashes filled the air.

Almost all the elderly, women, and children were in great pain, and there were so many people that it was difficult to breathe.

In addition, the unguided evacuation and the fear that had nowhere to dissipate aggravated the difficulty of moving forward. People kept falling to the ground and could never stand up again.

Kyoto's layout was not completely square, and the streets were crowded, narrow, and crooked. There were all kinds of debris blocking the road, and some sections were even completely blocked and impassable.

Just when he was at a loss, the flow of people actually rushed back to Yamauchi Yoshikatsu. Yamauchi Yoshikatsu, carrying Teruwamaru on his back, almost lost his balance and was pushed down.

From a distance, there were hundreds of Miyoshi soldiers hacking and killing people and clearing the road.

Everyone inside the mountain was horrified. Could it be that they had been discovered? Been recognized? Did the Miyoshi trio and Matsunagamichi send troops to hunt them down?

"Calm down! Calm down! Don't panic!" Even though Yamauchi Yoshikatsu was very nervous, he quickly calmed everyone down.

Everyone randomly found a house on the roadside. The ajar door had obviously been violently broken open. The house was in a mess and had been ravaged by rebels. However, there was no body in the house. It seemed that either the owner of the house had fled in advance, or he had been kidnapped and sold into a living room.

"Let's see if we can break through the courtyard wall, avoid the thieves, and leave through another street."

The attendants looked for a water tank in the house and washed and moistened the cotton cloth covering their mouths and noses. While quietly exploring the structure of the house, they could see if they could escape.

[Note 1]: There is a so-called total village system in Kinnei, which is a remnant of the feudal village system of the old era. They farmed in peacetime, but during the war the village chief ordered all the men in the village to assemble and go out to rob. Yes, the main thing is to go out and rob, fighting is not the main content. At the same time, these head villages are also one of the main forces in the moral government, tax resistance and Yikui.