On the sixth day of the seventh month of the second year of the Yuan turtle (1569), the wind was gentle and smooth, and the blue sky was thousands of miles.

Tsutsui Shunkei, the leader of the powerful monks under Kofukuji Temple, opened the castle gate and surrendered to the crusading army, declared that he would submit to the shogunate, submit to the dual regime of "Ashikaga and Oda", and let his niece Gara and his retainer Shima Sakon go to Oda Nobutada's army as hostages.

Correspondingly, Oda Nobutada generously accepted his surrender and verbally acknowledged the Tsutsui family's possession of the territories of the three counties of Uto, Shikigami, and Tabe, with an estimated total of around 100,000 koku.

Tsutsui Shunkei was grateful, and had no objection to this disposition, and immediately held a banquet on the spot in Fukuzumi Castle, and respectfully invited Oda Nobutada to appear as the guest of honor.

Since then, the Tsutsui family has set things right and become a "legitimate" force. But it is obviously impossible to become the direct retainers of the Oda family in one leap, and they are still nominally under the jurisdiction of the Yamato guardian Matsunaga Shu.

Suddenly, there is such a "subordinate" with such a powerful and evil relationship and a high-level relationship, of course, Matsunaga Xiu is not happy at all.

But he could only sulk and didn't dare to show it.

Since the first time they met, Oda Nobunaga had admired Matsunaga Hide, who never concealed his desires and acted unscrupulously, so he gave him the position of guardian of Yamato Ichikoku.

But Oda Nobutada, as a down-to-earth, benevolent, self-denying and courteous second generation of martial arts, has different tastes from his father, and he has no favorability at all for this recognized conspirator.

If it's something else, you can try to make up for it.

It's too difficult to reverse a purely emotional first impression.

If you don't like it, you don't like it, and there's no way about it.

From the perspective of onlookers, Matsunaga has always been adept at inciting negative emotions in diplomatic situations and profiting from them. Therefore, in the process of the "surrender" of the Tsutsui family, Hirate Tsutsuru has been keeping an eye on Matsunaga and is ready to defend it strictly.

But it went much smoother than expected.

The half-white Matsunaga Hide, who seemed to be unable to endure the continuous marches and meetings, looked exhausted, and looked extremely aggrieved, and did not even wait for the banquet to end, he took the blame and left, leaving his son Matsunaga as his deputy.

It seems that this old fox, who has been cursed for half his life, is really old now.

A rough calculation shows that Matsunaga Xiu's virtual age has reached sixty, and he has indeed reached the stage of old age and decay and lack of energy.

However, this does not necessarily mean that he is less dangerous!

A conspirator in a normal state, although it is also a headache, but the trajectory of his behavior is predictable after all, as long as the right medicine is prescribed and the negative impact can be minimized.

But what about a conspirator who is intellectually declining and refuses to accept old age? Will it be because of some inexplicable reasons that he will do something harmful to others and himself on impulse?

In the history of ancient and modern China and foreign countries, there are many great heroes who have passed through the heavens and latitudes, and they are ten times, hundreds of times and thousands of times more powerful than Matsu Yongxiu and others, but they cannot avoid being old and faint and making incomprehensible low-level mistakes. Some of these mistakes are even detrimental to the interests of all, and no participant benefits.

Is it possible to find a way to get rid of Matsunaga's unstable factor by borrowing the hands of Oda or Ashikaga?

It doesn't seem realistic.

Although this person was not treated well by the samurai, he had a lot of face in the court and merchants, and as an exemplary figure who was the first to defect and welcome the "Wang Shi" in the process of Shangluo, he had irreplaceable political value.

I can only watch it......

While thinking wildly, Tieshou Fanxiu pushed the cup and changed the lamp with everyone, talking and laughing.

Except for Shunkei Tsutsui, who met for the first time, everyone else is old friends. So he has long been familiar with this work.

I don't know if anyone noticed that Oda Nobutada's assistant Kawajiri Hidetaka was suddenly nowhere to be seen, and the vigilance work was changed to Hiromasa Ryoda. Anyway, no one said it, and the tie will not take the initiative to mention it.

Although Fuzhu Castle is not large, it is very rich in materials. So the generals were able to move from the cold tents to the warm rooms. The minions couldn't get into the city, but they were able to get extra fresh food. It's a joy to be happy up and down.

A scene of play, a vain text, not enough to worry about.

After spending the night in the castle, the army regrouped on the morning of the seventh day of the seventh month and prepared to attack Iga in earnest.

At this time, with the local snake Tsutsui family as a guide, the terrain and power distribution of Iga Province are no longer a fog.

Under the "reminder" of the tie Tsunohide, intentionally or unintentionally, Oda Nobutada's "independence" made arrangements, the brave Inaba Ichitetsu led the Mino-people as the vanguard, and the fierce and straightforward Ikeda Katsumasa led the people of Settsu as the second striker, these two did not know Kawajiri Hidetaka's surprise attack plan, but both of them were generals and should have the ability to improvise.

Immediately afterwards, the most reliable Oda Nobubuchi and the other members of the clan stayed in the city to guard the retreat, and the others, including Tsutsui Shunkei, followed the main general to move, and the Heite family was responsible for guarding the perimeter.

In this way, an army of 30,000 poured like a tide into an anthill and poured into the small country of Iga.

In the past, the command experience of the flat was in the plains, commanding troops of up to 10,000 people. In that case, as long as the main position is placed on the commanding heights, you can have a bird's-eye view of the battle situation and take countermeasures from a high position.

Today, the total number of troops is 30,000, and it has reached the point where it is impossible to see each other from the end to the end, and the border cannot be seen at a glance, and the mountain roads are undulating, so it is impossible to find an unobstructed observation position.

Pingshou Fanxiu didn't think that he was a military genius like Han Xin, the Marquis of Huaiyin, so he made some preparations.

Based on the information provided by the locals, he sent someone to make a rough three-dimensional terrain sand table out of yellow mud, and then used small flags of different colors as the counterparts of each reserve, and specially allocated four pack horses and ten miscellaneous soldiers to be responsible for carrying them.

Scouts and Mutoki troops maintain a non-stop front and rear patrol, report the actual military situation to the command, and then move the corresponding flags. So the position relationship of our various departments can have an intuitive display.

At first, it worked amazingly.

But after a few hours, all kinds of problems arose.

First of all, about three kilometers away, Gamo Dingxiu, who was on the right flank, reported that he had found a backlit valley to make a fire and make food, but on the sand table, the area he was in should be an impassable hill.

At the same time, Hatakeyama Akitaka in the left rear was attacked by several hundred "guerrillas" and sent people to ask for reinforcements. According to the map and the sand table, Oda Nobutada sent Mizuno Nobutamoto's department to meet him. As a result, in the chaos, the communication was interrupted for more than an hour, during which he had no idea what was going on there, and it was estimated that the scout was accidentally involved in the battle and died.

As for why the two or three thousand people of the Hatakeyama family were harassed by the defeated guerrillas, they were in chaos...... This is the second time that a draw has been seen, and it is not surprising.

Fortunately, the pioneer Inaba Kazutetsu and the second striker Katsumasa Ikeda both kept in touch and passed the position back in time.

The two warriors advanced seven or eight kilometers in one day, and had already penetrated deep into the hinterland from the southwestern border of Iga Province. Seeing that the mountain road was getting more and more complicated, and the sky began to get dark again, he stopped and set up camp.

After dinner, Inaba Sadatsu (Inaba Kachitetsu's son) rushed back from the front and came to the Chinese army tent to report on the military situation.

The man replied with a puzzled tone, "Although the people of Iga are brave, they have no control at all, and they are fighting on their own, and they are not at all united as they are as rumored. Our army and Ikeda-sama encountered a dozen waves of enemies in total, all of whom numbered less than 100, and the sand was extremely rudimentary, and they had all been wiped out. A total of 460 enemy soldiers were captured, 200 were captured, and more than 2,000 old and weak women and children were controlled. Among them are Kizaemon Yamamoto, Inonosuke Masui, Dr. Shichiro Katsuya and others, who can be confirmed to be the minor leaders of Iga Province. ”

After listening to the report, Oda Nobutada and Tetehide looked at each other, and they both felt excited.

It is clear that Hidetaka Kawajiri's surprise attack had an effect, and the grassroots organization of the nearby Iga people was ineffective, but it is not known how it was done.

So Hite-ho asked Inaba Sadatsu, "Since there are captives in hand, have you ever interrogated them?" ”

"Master Hui Ping's hand—" replied the other man in a half-kneeling posture very respectfully, "those two hundred captives were all wounded and captured, and they were very stubborn and refused to confide in them. But our army tortured women and children about some information. There are a total of 34 small wealthy families nearby, and they signed an oath to advance and retreat together, with a total of 1,800 soldiers and more than 10,000 people, headed by Takino Sadakiyo, the lord of Kashiwahara Castle. But in the past two days, Takino Sadakiyo did not launch a formal mobilization, so the various wealthy clans had not yet assembled, and they were broken by our army individually. ”

Hearing this, Tieshou Fan Xiu probably understood. Hidetaka Kawajiri should have attacked Kashiwahara Castle at night, executed a decapitation operation, and defeated Takino Sadakiyo.

It is really extraordinary that a lonely army is deep and in a completely unfamiliar environment, and it can achieve such great results.

After a moment of silence, Hirate Hoshu was a little puzzled why Oda Nobutada didn't reply, but he didn't think about it, but planned to continue to ask for more details, when he suddenly heard a soft whisper in his ear.

"Did you torture the old and weak women and children......

Oda Nobutada frowned and muttered to himself. The volume was not enough for everyone to hear, but it was clearly transmitted to the ears of the lower hand and the lower hand.

I didn't expect the second generation to be entangled in this.

Pingshou Fanxiu was stunned for a moment, sighed in his heart, and then coughed lightly twice, casting a prompting look.

Oda Nobutaka observed the words and looks, immediately understood the meaning, hurriedly sorted out his thoughts, cleared his throat, and comforted Inaba Sadatsu with gentle words: "The people of Mino fought bravely, and you have worked hard!" The information sent back is also very valuable, and I will definitely remember this achievement. Now you can go and rest. ”

It's just that when he spoke, his eyebrows were still locked, and his eyes contained an indissolate sense of sorrow.

It scared Inaba Sadatsu enough, and he didn't understand where he offended Lord Nidaime, and as soon as he walked out of the camp gate, he immediately trembled and sweated.

It wasn't until Pingshou Fanxiu secretly sent someone to explain that he let go of the big stone in his heart.