Reluctant to see agitation behind enemy lines as the only lifeline, in addition to sending ninjas on secret missions, he continued to actively liaise with various parties in Kansai in an attempt to neutralize the Maori family's expansion into Shikoku from a political perspective.

However, these moves have had little effect.

The "Nizi Revival Army," which had been vigorously engaged in the San'in countries, was exposed to the main force of Yoshikawa Motoharu, and in just three or four months, most of the land was lost, and even Shinzan Castle, which was temporarily used as a residence of the daimyos, was breached.

Fortunately, the three backbone pillars of the young lord Niko Katsuhisa and Yamanaka Yukimori, Tachihara Hisatsuna, and Kamisai Mototsu all managed to break through before the castle was broken, and legend has it that they fled to Kyoto in an attempt to make a comeback.

According to a rough investigation, Yoshikawa Motoharu's "San'in Army" had 13,000 soldiers with strong combat effectiveness, while the "Nizi Revival Army" was a rabble of 6 to 7,000 newly assembled soldiers.

With such a huge disparity between strength and weakness, it is reasonable to be beaten into a falling flower.

Nizi Qingjiu, who inherited the name of "Yin and Yang One Taishou", has been dead for six or seven years, and his son is too weak to be in charge of the family business. Six or seven years has been a long time in the troubled times of the Warring States, which is enough to make most people forget the kindness and oaths of the past.

In other words, the idea of hoping that Yamanaka Yukimori and others will hold back the Maori family is pure luxury.

On the other hand, the attempt to carry out the "divisive scheme" did not succeed.

Maori Huiyuan's intelligence is certainly not as high as his grandfather's, but it doesn't seem to be too low, and in the face of true and false gossip, he was unmoved, but openly spoke in front of his retainers and lords, saying: "I am relieved that everything in the South China Sea has been entrusted to my uncle." ”

Then Hirate Honhide put himself in his shoes and thought about it, and found that Kobayakawa Takakei, who has a gentle temperament, is kind to others, and does not like the character of sword soldiers, plus he is nearly forty years old and has no children, it is indeed not doubtful.

In contrast, it is obvious that Yoshikawa Motoharu, who has been fighting for many years, is resolute and resolute, and has many heirs, and has more reason to be feared.

What's more, Mori Terumoto is also eighteen years old, and has been involved in government affairs for four or five years, and is not a despised young and weak lord like Oda Nobutada.

All in all, in the end, it was still up to Honda Masanobu's strategy to work.

The secret order conveyed by Hirate to Kawada Nagajin was:

"Do your best, within a month, to block the Maori family's guns. If, after a month, the situation does not turn around, and I do not have time to go there in person, I will allow all retainers to withdraw to Awaji in due course. ”

Pinching his fingers, last year, Kawada Changqin was sent to sit in Nakamura Castle, and it has been almost a year of hard work.

After a year of hard work, I don't know how much I will achieve. Judging from Kawada's ability, it should be possible to persist for a month!

This order was given secretly, and on the surface the army of the Tie House was not moving.

Fifteen reserve units and a standing army of more than 6,000 people were all assembled near Kishiwada Castle. In addition, after the autumn harvest was completed, there were 8,000 peasant soldiers waiting to be called up in Izumi, Awaji, and Kii.

The soldiers were ready to go east to fight Takeda.

Correspondingly, on the island of Shikoku, the total number of troops that the Hirate family could command was only about 3,000, and most of them were unreliable or unreliable.

In the eyes of "well-informed people", this is tantamount to abandoning Shikoku.

Even, Ashikaga Yoshiaki privately tentatively said, "It seems that the Kobayakawa den of the Mori family has gone to Iyo, and it is said that his views on the affairs of Shikoku have some conflicts with you......"

Then Tie Tsushu replied angrily: "It's not just some conflict, it's the opposite!" I beg to agree that the Kono family's guardianship is controversial, and that the Maori family insists on protecting them! However, now Kai Takeda has not been allowed by the shogunate to go west without permission, and the comers are not good, and defending Kyoto is the top priority at this time. Therefore, the contemptible people are willing to make concessions in the affairs of the four countries, in order to show the meaning of 'harmony and mutual forbearance for the country'! ”

In his statement, his lines were too "Weiguang is tall and complete", and his expressions and movements were also very straightforward, which did not reflect the demeanor of the old drama bones at all.

But the details don't matter, just get the message across.

The calm appearance of Hiteju is actually very uneasy inside, and he is ready to confront the Maori family in private. At that time, we will have to make big concessions to the relatives of Chomune, my department, and even Miyoshi Yasunaga, Tokawa Depository, and others, and the "traitors" of the past, such as Otomo, Niko, and Urakami, will also have to unceremoniously and boldly collude.

During this time, Oda Nobutada and Tokugawa Ieyasu once again sent letters to Kyoto asking for help.

It is said that the Takeda family only spent most of the month quiet during the autumn harvest period, and then immediately became active again, and now has mobilized more than 40,000 troops, divided into three routes, ready to move, of which the main force of the first line to attack Enjiang has more than 25,000 men.

Oda had 35,000 men and Tokugawa had 18,000 men, and the total number of troops was actually superior, but the skirmishes failed one after another, and they were at a clear disadvantage.

Hosokawa Fujitaka, who was sent to "question" the Takeda family, did not receive any meaningful response, and even he himself was placed under house arrest and could not return to the Imperial Palace.

Fortunately, Hosokawa Fujitaka is a world-famous literary scholar, and Takeda Shingen is also a decent person who has no face to treat him harshly.

In response to this, the general was obviously furious, and declared that he would "severely punish the rebellious".

However......

The ministers of the shogunate, however, under the orders of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, tried to find the mistakes and omissions of the wealthy families near Yamashiro Province, and took advantage of the fact that all forces had no time to take care of Kyoto, and wantonly made a big deal on the grounds of "internal communication with Takeda".

For a time, many nobodies with a size of less than 1,000 stone were expelled or commuted.

Heide Honshu went back and forth several times between Wazumigishi Wada Castle and the Kyoto Imperial Palace, showing an attitude of "neither opposing nor approving" with the shogunate's actions, but constantly emphasizing nonsense such as "it must be verified clearly, and Tadaya must not be wronged".

Naturally, it is regarded as the wind in the ears.

According to the custom, the shogun is to stay behind the scenes, and he will not go into battle in person. This is to emulate the ancestors of the father and maintain the noble pomp and mystery. It is said that Ashikaga Yoshiaki is actually very pragmatic, but he follows traditional norms in this regard.

As a long-established authority, the shogunate inevitably inherited many "good traditions".

For example, hierarchical redundancy, bloated structure, rigid system, ungrounded, and so on.

Speaking of "plundering the surrounding land in the name of Takeda", on the surface, it was mainly the important minister Mibuchi Fujiei who helped the general to share his worries and deal with this matter.

But this guy is just talking about it, and he doesn't even bother to look through the small number of pleadings, but it's actually Ninagawa who is in charge.

And the people who are really on the front line are actually Ise Sadako, Akechi Mitsuhide, Kinoshita Hideyoshi and a few others. There is also Shibata Katsuie, who is familiar with the Minami-Omi area, to help.

The most powerful Oda and Asai are not in charge, and they are not going to be in charge of the tie, and the next level is not in charge.

Matsunaga didn't show up much, and his son Kudo behaved strangely, singing praises to the shogunate's actions, and took the initiative to expose one of his own foreign retainers, and offered the confiscated territory to the shogunate.

As a result, many victims approached Shigeharu Takenaka, who was temporarily acting as the "temporary representative of Minami-Omi Affairs", to intercede.

With Shigeharu Takenaka's IQ, he should have reacted a little faster, but he was silent at first, and it wasn't until someone came to the door to intercede that he stood up and negotiated with Ise Sadako and others as a third party.

……

In addition to the war of arms and arms, he can feel the taste of conspiracy in this series of events.

But he was more concerned about another problem than this - Takeda Shingen was so bold that he openly placed the shogunate envoy Hosokawa Fujitaka under house arrest.

Isn't it tantamount to slapping Ashikaga Yoshiaki in the face?

Do you still want the name of righteousness?

No matter how strong your military is, there is always a truth that can be made public, so that the whole army can unite as one, and the grass on the wall will fall when the wind blows. This is self-explanatory.

Judging from the style of "Jiafei Tiger", he is definitely not a person who does not care about political influence, and he must have another backhand and have no fear.

So what exactly is this backhand?

Food for thought.

In private, Hirate Hinohide and Horio Yoshiharu, Iwanari Tomotsu, Konishi Yukinaga, Tarao Mitsutoshi and others talked about this topic and talked about some opinions, but none of them had any meaningful conclusions.

Everyone felt that judging from the current situation, the Takeda family could not use conventional means to obtain a righteous name that was enough to fool people's hearts, and they had to make drastic measures and find another way to make a difference.

Even so, it is of course difficult for others to guess the truth.

Tie Fan Xiu can come up with a few ideas, but all of them are illusory, incredible, and not very feasibility.

In the blink of an eye, in the middle of October of the fourth year of Motogame (1571), the Kanto region sent an urgent report that Hojo Shiyasu, who had been suffering from a stroke for a long time and had been sick for a long time, had finally passed away.

After hearing this news, those who are interested will know that the Hojo clan will immediately break the alliance with Uesugi and Tokugawa and rebuild with Takeda. Then the large-scale attack of the "Kai Tiger" is estimated to have been put on the agenda.

Then, only four or five days after the news of Hojo's death, Koshin's hesitant Kikan issued a shocking crusade that spread the word on the borders of Toe, Mikawa, Owari, and Mino.

It deals with a public case of the shogunate many years ago, and also talks about gossip in the inner courtyard of the Oda family. The content revealed was quite shocking, and there were many weighty people who testified.

So I finally knew how the righteous name of the Takeda family came about.

Some of the content was thought of in advance by the tie, but I didn't think it was reliable. There are also many contents that are completely beyond imagination, and even make people sincerely admire Takeda Shingen's imagination.