Mao Liyuan annihilated the main force of Tao Qingxian's men in a battle, and killed Tao Qingxian, the head of the Ouchi clan.

At this time, he no longer hid his ambitions, and while constantly integrating the power of the wealthy clans of the Ouchi clan, he also questioned the inheritance of the current head of the family, because the current head of the family, Ouchi Yoshinaga, was not the bloodline of the Ouchi clan at all, but Tao Qingxian was pulled over from the side branch to be a puppet.

His meaning is obvious, that is, to expel the current head of the family, Ouchi Yoshicho, to support another puppet himself, and even directly let his eldest son Mori Takagen inherit the position of the head of the Ouchi clan, at least, Mori Takamoto is still the grandson of the original Ouchi clan head Ouchi Yoshitaka, in terms of blood, it is much purer than the so-called Ouchi Yoshinaga.

If you want to seize the position of the head of the family, it is not easy to say, it is not difficult to say, he knows very well that the current head of the family, Ouchi Yoshicho, is not the key to this competition, the key is the wealthy families of the countries under the Ouchi clan, for example, Ouchi Yoshitaka's brother-in-law Yoshimi Masanori, in terms of blood relationship, the son of the family is more qualified than his son to inherit the orthodoxy of the Ouchi clan.

There are many such people in the countries under the Ouchi clan, and he is not the only one who is spying on the position of the head of the Ouchi clan, the reason why people are not angry at this time is mainly because he has not yet attacked the position of the head of the family, once he attacks the position of the head of the family, these people are very likely to jump out and join other wealthy families in other places to crusade against him, just like he crusaded against Tao Qingxian.

Of course, it is very simple to solve this problem, as long as you continue to expand your strength so that it is so strong that it makes people desperate, no one dares to jump out and say the opposite.

Of course, Mao Liyuan knew this, and after defeating Tao Qingxian, he began to continuously integrate the wealthy clans in various places and incorporate local forces in various countries.

At this time, his wisdom was reflected again, under his coercion and temptation, the wealthy families of various countries quickly handed over the force in their hands, and in less than two months, he expanded his men to more than 30,000, and his authority even exceeded that of Tao Qingxian when he was in power.

As the number of men and horses under his command grew, the time was ripe for him to seek the position of the head of the Ouchi clan, but at this time, he encountered a rather embarrassing problem, that is, he had no money, or rather, he simply could not support his more than 30,000 people.

There is no way, his Maori clan is not a prince who has been inherited for decades or hundreds of years, and the assets in his family are already limited, plus he gritted his teeth and bought a hundred iron cannons, and he is even more stretched thin.

At this time, in Dongying, it is not easy to feed more than 30,000 people, because Dongying's materials are too scarce, and food or anything has to be purchased from Daming, and Daming's grain has been transported to Dongying by sea for thousands or even tens of thousands of miles, which is quite expensive, and for rice, it costs at least five taels of silver and one stone.

What does this mean?

This means that more than 30,000 people and horses, just food, a month's consumption is more than 100,000 taels!

And his Maori clan, Yoshikawa clan, and Kobayakawa clan are not rich lords, and all the assets add up to only a few hundred thousand taels, that is to say, he can maintain the rations of more than 30,000 people and horses for several months with all his strength.

This is a rather contradictory question, if he doesn't maintain so many people, he has no hope of seizing the position of the head of the Ouchi clan, what ambitions, what hegemony is just a dream, if he maintains so many people, and the silver is not enough to spend, what should he do?

He thought about it, and it seemed that the only way to recover Iwami Province and seize control of Iwami Silver Mine was to go.

The reason why Toei produces so much silver has a lot to do with the Iwami Silver Mine, because the silver production of a Iwami Silver Mine accounts for most of the entire Toei, that is to say, the silver production of an Iwami Silver Mine is enough to account for more than 20% of the silver production in the entire world!

If such a large silver mine can be snatched up, will there be a shortage of silver?

And he didn't need to make excuses at all, just run to attack Iwami Province, because this Iwami Province was originally the territory of the Ouchi clan, but because Tao Qingxian seized power, the head of the family, Ouchi Yoshitaka committed suicide, and the Ouchi clan was in turmoil, and the Niko clan of Izumo Province took the opportunity to occupy Iwami Province.

In other words, he led his army to attack Iwami Province to regain lost territory, and his name is justified.

However, the Nizi clan is not a vegetarian, and at this time, the strength of the Nizi clan is even above the Ouchi clan, because the Nizi clan has fully controlled the land of the Eight Kingdoms at this time, and the Ouchi clan only controlled the land of the Seven Kingdoms in its heyday.

To be honest, he ran to attack Iwami Province this time, it was purely a last resort, and it basically had little to do with wisdom.

He's just poor and crazy, forced by money.

If he hadn't had hundreds of iron cannons in his hands, he wouldn't have been able to provoke a strong enemy like the Nizi clan at this time.

So, the question is, is the iron cannon really invincible?

If the forces of the two sides are equal or not much different, the iron cannon is indeed invincible, the premise is that there is no iron cannon in the other side.

Mao Li Yuan obviously underestimated the strength of the Nizi clan, and he was sitting in the land of the Eight Kingdoms, could the strength be similar to him?

As soon as he marched westward and attacked the first target, Yamabuki Castle, he encountered strong resistance from the Nizi clan, an army of 40,000 people, plus dozens of earthen cannons, and directly hit him in disgrace.

At this time, he realized that iron artillery is not invincible, or in other words, the number of iron artillery must occupy an overwhelming advantage in order to become the key to determining the outcome of the war.

However, by the time he reacted, it seemed to be a little late, because by this time he had already been unable to ride a tiger.

If he hadn't sent troops to attack Iwami Province, maybe he wouldn't have been so passive, and if more than 30,000 horses and horses really couldn't sustain it, he could still appropriately reduce it, leaving only more than 10,000 elites, so that maybe seizing the position of the head of the Ouchi clan would have to be considered in the long run, but it would not be a complete defeat.

It won't work at this time, because he has already torn his face with the Nizi clan, even if he retreats from Iwami Province, the Nizi clan will chase after him and chase him, if he reduces his men at this time, how can he resist the attack of the Nizi clan?

This time, he is tantamount to forcing himself into a dead end, unable to advance, unable to retreat.

So, what to do?

Forced into desperation, he finally remembered Gu Kexue, the secretary of the Ming Ministry of Industry, if people were willing to support him with a batch of iron cannons and help him take Iwami Province, then everything would be solved.

So, he hurriedly sent someone to the Hirado Domain to ask Gu Kexue, the secretary of the Ming Ministry of Industry, for help.

Gu Kexue naturally couldn't come over to see him, and even at this time, Gu Kexue didn't know that Yang Cong was "swaggering" in Dongying under his signboard, and it was Hou Zhitan who was invited, this guy who called himself Gu Kexue, the secretary of the Ming Ministry of Industry.