There are only two ways of life in the world: rot and burn. The cowardly and insatiable choose the former, and the righteous and generous choose the latter.

- Gorky (proletarian writer of the former Soviet Union, founder of socialist realist literature)

Because of the information transmission channel of the Yanhuang ninja army, the efficiency of the Yanhuang family has been greatly improved, and on the night when the messenger sent by Andong Iezhong and the messenger sent by Bu Weixin arrived at Sanhe Castle, Bai Feng's three orders have been sent to Hasedo Castle by the Yanhuang ninja army.

After Yuzawa Castle was captured by Yuzawa Castle with his army, Yufu Weixin only built it in the castle for two days, and then led his army to Hasedo Castle with his captives, and the samurai of the 1st Banner Regiment and 6,000 spear warriors were in charge of staying behind in Yuzawa Castle.

With the destruction of the Uesugi army under Uesugi Keitor, the Yanhuang Army, which had already occupied Hasedo Castle and Yuzawa Castle, had three targets that could continue to attack: one was Tendo Castle directly west of Hasedo Castle, the second was Enzawa Castle northwest of Hasedo Castle, and the third was Mamuro Castle to the southwest of Hasedo Castle.

As long as Anto Ietada and Yubu Weixin led an army to capture any of these three castles, Yamagata Castle, the capital of the Mogami family, would be exposed to the Yanhuang family's forces, and unless the Uesugi family sent a large army to the aid of the Mogami family, the Mogami family would surely die.

It was impossible for Mogami Yoshimitsu, the head of the Mogami family, to be unaware of the importance of Tendo Castle, Enzawa Castle, and Mamuro Castle, so after learning of the annihilation of the 150,000 allied forces on the front line and the fall of Hasedo Castle and Yuzawa Castle, he immediately took many emergency measures.

Mogami Yoshimitsu's first order was for Tendo Castle Lord Tendo Yorisada, Enzawa Castle Lord Enzawa Mitsunobu, and Mamuro Castle Lord Salmon Nobu Hidetsuna to expand the garrison in their respective castles to at least 50,000, and to send them to the three castles along with the order, as well as 60,000 sets of weapons and equipment and 120,000 copper coins that Mogami Yoshimitsu had temporarily transferred from the warehouse of Yamagata Castle.

60,000 sets of weapons and equipment and 120,000 copper coins sound like a lot, but in fact, each city can only get 20,000 sets of weapons and equipment and 40,000 copper coins, but it is enough to complete the task of expanding the army of each city by 50,000.

With more than 3,000 standing troops in each city as the core, more than 46,000 peasants and soldiers were temporarily recruited to form a 50,000-strong garrison army.

Even the 100,000 elites of the Uesugi family, led by the famous general of the Uesugi family, Uesugi Jinghu, failed to stop the army of the Yanhuang family, and also took the 50,000 army of the Mogami family and two fortified cities.

The reason why he sent half of his family's weapons reserves and copper coins to Tiantong Laizhen and the others to seize the time to expand the army was purely because he needed these three cities to buy time for himself, and the longer he held the front line, the more prepared he would be in Yamagata Castle.

At the same time as the order was issued, Mogami Yoshimitsu sent three groups of messengers to Echigo, Shimono, and Shinano, and whichever of the Uesugi family, the Date family, and the Oda family was willing to help the Mogami family, which family could reap the loyalty of the Mogami family.

As the governor of the Mogami family, Mogami Yoshimitsu did not pin all his family's hopes on reinforcements from other families, but on the one hand, he sent several messengers to ask for help from neighboring families, and on the other hand, he expanded his military operations in Yamagata Castle, recruiting a large number of wandering samurai and ninjas.

Nearly 150,000 pieces of copper coins and treasures collected by the previous governors of the Mogami family with a total value of more than 100,000 guan were piled up by Mogami Yoshimitsu in his own city square; all the young men who were willing to serve the Mogami family in the army could each receive the same copper coins, and all the low-level wandering samurai and shinobi who were willing to join the Mogami family could receive five copper coins each.

Intermediate samurai and middle ninja can each receive 10 copper coins, plus a random treasure worth no more than 10 kan, and senior samurai and upper ninja can each receive 20 copper coins, plus a treasure worth no more than 50 kan.

This unprecedented method of recruiting troops allowed Mogami Yoshimitsu to recruit 75,000 peasant soldiers, 2,500 mid- and low-level wandering samurai, and 3,800 middle- and lower-level ninjas in ten days, such an astonishing number that even Hakumine, who was far away in Sanhe Castle, was shocked.

The expansion speed of the Yanhuang Ninja Army under the leadership of Hattori Hanzo was originally very satisfactory to Bai Feng, but compared with the expansion speed of the Yanhuang Ninja Army and the ninjas recruited by the Mogami family, Bai Feng could only sigh that Hattori Hanzo's courage to do things was still not enough!

Of course, Bai Feng just sighed casually, the Yanhuang Ninja Army is a specialized intelligence assassination agency, and the special nature determines that the Yanhuang Ninja Army cannot recruit ninjas on a large scale like the Mogami family, after all, not all ninjas are suitable for intelligence and assassination.

With the combination of more than 20,000 family standing troops and 75,000 newly recruited peasant soldiers, the number of defenders of Yamagata Castle reached 100,000, and the samurai legion composed of 2,500 wandering samurai and the ninja legion composed of 3,800 ninjas became the trump card in the hands of Mogami Yoshimitsu.

Mogami Yoshimitsu's every move in Yamagata Castle was reported in great detail by the Yanhuang Shinobu military to Anton Iethu and Yubu Yushinobu, and in view of the distribution of the Mogami family's military strength, Anto Ietadama and Yubu Weixin formulated a new battle plan to attack in four directions.

Because Assam's 2nd Essini Regiment had already escorted the prisoners back to Oshu, and the 3rd Division of the Yanhuang Standing Army was responsible for remaining behind Hasedo Castle and Yuzawa Castle, the only forces actually available in the hands of Anto Ietada and Yubu Weixin were the two divisions of the Yanhuang Standing Army, the 1st Banner Army, the 2nd Banner Army, the 3rd Lucy Army, the Sanada Standing Army, and the Kunohe Standing Army, with a total strength of no more than 150,000.

The specific operational arrangements were: With the 1st Banner Army as the first route army, attack Tendo Castle due west; with the 2nd Banner Army as the 2nd Route Army, attack Enzawa Castle in the northwest; with the Yanhuang Standing Army and the Kunohe Standing Army as the 3rd Route Army, attack Mamuro Castle in the southwest; and take the Sanada Standing Army and the 3rd Lucy Army as the 4th Route Army, and make a detour through Shinano to wait for an opportunity to intercept the reinforcements and friendly forces of the Mogami family.

The fragmented Shinano Kingdom was ostensibly fought by countless small families, but in fact it was fought by some hegemonic families, such as the Uesugi family of Echigo, the Takeda family of Kai, and the Tokugawa family of Mikawa, these three families were the forces behind the many small families of Shinano Province.

The Tokugawa family itself was a vassal family of the Oda family, which was why Mogami Yoshimitsu sent people to Shinano Province to ask for help from the Oda family, and Sanada Masayuki, who was the commander of the Fourth Route Army, was tasked with intercepting any army that might reinforce the Mogami family from Shinano Province.