"Your Highness, what now? Do you want to hide the news? Sanada Masayuki looked nervous and asked Yu Qiuping for advice.

After hesitating for a moment, Yu Qiuping shook his head and said in a firm whisper: "Don't hide it, talk to the people and all the samurai Ashigaru about our predicament, and tell everyone that I will find a way, so that everyone should not panic." ”

Sanada Masayuki followed Yu Qiuping's request and announced the news to the collar, but the result was better than expected. The people were grateful for Yu Qiuping's honesty, and the previous panic due to the shortage of materials gradually calmed down, and the discussion and various rumors gradually subsided.

"Your Highness is really talented." Seeing this, Sanada Masayuki sighed with emotion, "I thought that at this time, I must strictly abide by the news, but I didn't expect His Highness's move to gain the hearts of the people." ”

"That's because I don't know the bottom of my heart." Yu Qiuping smiled miserably and spread his hands, "If I have a way to solve the dilemma, I will definitely keep the news stable." But at the moment, I don't know what to do, if I hide the news now, and by the end of the month, there will be no food, how do you tell me to end it? ”

·

Although Yu Qiuhei knew in his heart that it would be impossible for Sakai Town to deliver goods to him again, he still sent an envoy to try his luck. As he expected, the merchants of Sakai Town were very sorry for Yu Qiuping, but they couldn't help it.

Yu Qiuping could only turn to Yamashiro Province and Yamato Province for help, wanting to buy food from there. However, due to the turmoil caused by the previous Battle of Kyoto, Yamashiro Province had almost no grain left. And Yamato's Matsunaga Show directly banned the grain trade, and seemed to be planning to pit Yu Qiuping fiercely. Yu Qiuping dared to be angry but did not dare to speak, and in desperation, he had to ask for help from Minami Omi, who was farther away. Omi has always been known as a grain producing area, but this year it was unfortunately hit by a plague of locusts, and due to the passage of the coalition army, a lot of grain was looted, so there are few cheap wholesale grain sales in the market today. Money is not a problem, due to the termination of the deal with Sakaimachi, the Mitsubishi caravan is now not short of money. But even if you want to buy it, you basically buy it in bits and pieces, which is a drop in the bucket for the tens of thousands of people around Maple Mountain City.

Yu Qiuping has ordered a slight reduction in the rations of military and civilian rations, and at the same time purchases grain from the surrounding area at high prices in the form of retail. But even so, according to the most optimistic estimates, grain will only last until December 5.

And the problem of Changpanbei's equipment is also difficult to solve at the moment. In desperation, Yu Qiuping ordered the purchase of expensive pig iron from all over the country, stopped the production of iron cannons, and concentrated all efforts to build the must. He also collected the armor of the gunners and archers, who did not need to fight hand-to-hand, and replenished them with pikemen. The iron gunners, archers, and the remaining pikemen could only wear the inferior bamboo and hemp armor and cotton armor that they had captured before.

To add insult to injury, a sleet fell on 22 November. For people who don't have shelter from the cold, sleet is even more destructive than heavy snow, the temperature plummets again, and some of the surrounding creeks even begin to freeze. Kaede Imagawa hastily ordered bonfires to be lit around the castle town to keep the people warm, but dozens of people still froze to death that night, and many more got frostbite or fell ill. Kaede Imagawa had no choice but to put the sick and wounded, women and children into the houses that had already been built, and let the young and middle-aged stay in the cold wooden houses. In order to treat the wind and cold, the medicine in Maple Mountain City was also in a hurry. In the previous transaction, Konishi Lonzo did not ship much medicine due to inventory problems, and now Yuqiu's family is also facing a shortage of Chinese herbal medicines.

·

Yu Qiuping didn't think about tea and dinner these days, and sat in a samurai house in Maple Mountain City every day and meditated on the solution. Chang Panbei's training had been temporarily halted to save some food rations, but it was not a way to drag it out like this.

When it was really a last resort, Yu Qiuping could only lead Chang Panbei and his family to retreat from Hanoi and retreat to places where there was food, such as Minami Omi or Ono. However, it is difficult to say how many of the more than 50,000 victims around Maple Mountain City can survive this winter. As more and more people fell ill from hunger and cold, rumors spread that Yu Qiuping was about to abandon the city and flee. Although Yu Qiuping has been sending people to refute the rumors, the rumors have spread more and more widely. Yu Qiuping had no choice but to ride a horse once a day in the morning, noon and evening to patrol the castle town to reassure the people.

However, on November 24, worse news followed.

After a few days of rectification, Miyoshi Yoshiken led nearly 14,000 Miyoshi troops from Hanoi and Hoa Quan to assemble in the area of Gaoya Castle in South Hanoi. What annoyed Yu Qiuhei was Matsunaga Hide's reaction - he withdrew more than half of the troops in Shinguiyama Castle on the edge of Takaya Castle, proving that he had no intention or ability to sneak attack Takaya Castle. After Miyoshi Yoshiken confirmed that he had no worries, he led the whole army to the north and stationed in the territory of Shiki County, approaching Ruojiang Castle from the south.

Miyoshi Yoshiken did not rush to attack, but ordered the whole army to set up camp, seemingly intending to delay until Yuqiuping ran out of food, and then pursue Yuqiuping's retreating troops.

Yu Qiuping hurriedly asked for reinforcements from the surrounding friendly forces. However, Ashikaga Yoshiki rejected Yuakihei, who had offended him; Matsunaga also refused to send troops; Although Shibata Katsuie, Sakuma Nobumori, and Mori Kasei of Minami Omi were interested in supporting, Rokkaku Yoshiken and his son led the rest of the army back from the Koga Mountains, and they had to stay behind to defend the territory. And the Asai Nagamasa of Kita-Omi and the Oda family army of Ono were naturally impossible to support because they did not have enough food in stock, and the whip was out of reach. Although Kinoshita Hideyoshi and Akechi Mitsuhide are willing to come to help, most of them are new recruits, and they are too weak and are undergoing emergency training.

Yu Qiuping had to temporarily mobilize another 4,000 people as auxiliaries to ensure the logistics of the troops. However, these 4,000 people further consumed the already small amount of grain in stock, so that the food that Sena Yoshiyoshi had managed to buy was consumed in this way.

And Yu Qiuping's ninja also discovered that Miyoshi Yoshiken seems to have been in contact with many small wealthy families in North Hanoi. Those small wealthy clans successively gathered troops in the rock and prepared for battle, and the object was unknown. They were scattered almost everywhere in North Hanoi, around Maple Mountain Castle and around Ruojiang Castle, seriously threatening the safety of Maple Mountain City and the supply lines of the army, and making Yu Qiu's family vulnerable to the enemy. Yu Qiuping had no choice but to transfer back two companies of Ogawa Yuto and Yoshioka Katsumasa from the already stretched front line to guard the supply lines from Maple Mountain Castle and Maple Mountain Castle to Wakae Castle respectively. If these little wealthy families really responded to the Miyoshi family's army, it would be difficult for Chang Panbei's two companies to deal with it, and they would definitely lose sight of one or the other. Yu Qiuping sent envoys many times to communicate with these little wealthy clans, asking them to obey his command and fight against the Miyoshi family together - at worst, please remain neutral. However, the answers of these little wealthy families were noncommittal, and they seemed to have made up their minds to stand on the side of the Miyoshi family, which was overwhelming.

The grain and grass are urgent, the supplies are interrupted, the Maple Mountain City is dilapidated and difficult to defend, isolated and helpless, the people are hungry and cold, the people are panicking, the army of the Miyoshi family is pressing, and the small wealthy clan inside is ready to make chaos at any time, and Chang Panbei is not even equipped - the Yuqiu family has completely fallen into a desperate situation.

·

On November 27, at the evaluation meeting held by Yuqiu's family, the retainers were arguing.

"Your Highness, retreat, while the residents are not yet in chaos, we have a chance to evacuate the troops and all the personnel of the Yuqiu family." Amano Keongdeok fiercely asked Yu Qiuping to retreat, "Otherwise, when the time comes, the food will run out, and the entire North Hanoi will fall into chaos, and we may not be able to take the family members and them away." ”

"Aren't the more than 50,000 people from the Yuqiu family?" Shigeharu Takenaka scoffed at Amano's remarks, "Abandoning Maple Mountain Castle, what about the more than 50,000 people?" ”

"Your Highness, don't be kind to women." Sanada Masayuki also warned, "If you are not careful, you may be doomed." ”

But Momiji boasted about Haikou in front of so many people, saying that he would always protect Maple Mountain City. If you abandon the city now, it will not damage the prestige that has been earned for ten years. Sena couldn't bear to see the castle town that he had spent so much money on to repair fall directly into the hands of the Miyoshi family, so he euphemistically changed his excuse.

"But we don't see any hope of holding on, is there any way to break the situation?" Sanada shook his head and stretched out his hands in question.

"There's only one way we can do it: with the help of Sakai Town, Ishiyama Town, and His Highness Hatakeyama, and everything will be very promising." Shigeharu Takenaka pointed out sharply: "With the help of Sakai Town and Ishiyama Town, we have food, building materials, medicinal materials, and armaments. With the help of His Highness Hatakeyama, he can order the wealthy clans of Hanoi to assist us. Not only does North Hanoi no longer have to worry about backyard fires, we can get rid of the dilemma of being attacked on our backs, and even the wealthy families of South Hanoi in the Miyoshi family army will be shaken. ”

"Why did the merchants of Sakai Town, Ishiyama Town, and Hatakeyama Takamasa help us?" Amano Keide shook his head coldly, and said in a deep voice with great determination: "The Sakai Town merchant is very shrewd, and it is obviously more beneficial to help the Miyoshi family than to help us; Ishiyama Town has a good relationship with Honganji, and it can be used to trade comfortably, so why provoke us and make trouble? Hatakeyama Takamasa was bent on controlling power in Hanoi, which was also not allowed by us and the Oda Palace. There is a fundamental conflict of interests, and cooperation is simply impossible. ”

"Alright, you all have to be quiet for a while." Just when everyone was arguing, Yu Qiuping, who was silent, suddenly got up, "I suddenly have an idea, you let me be quiet." ”

Then, he left everyone in the assessment room, turned around and walked briskly into the inner room. After all the retainers present reacted, they all looked at each other, and this meeting was somewhat similar to Oda Nobunaga's evaluation meeting before the Battle of Barrel Sasama.

·

Half an hour later, when Yu Qiuping came out again, the resolute expression on his face was no different from the expression of Oda Nobunaga back then.

"Send someone to inform the merchants of Sakai Town, Ishiyama Town, and His Highness Hatakeyama, and say that on December 1st, I will make an appointment for them to meet in the castle town north of Sakai Town." Yu Qiuping said in a deep voice to Uchiha Aooka: "He said to His Highness Hatakeyama that this is his only chance to return to Hanoi, and if he doesn't come, he will miss it, and I will even eradicate the wealthy clan of Hanoi at all costs, and burn the jade of the Hatakeyama family." I told the merchants of Sakai and Ishiyama that this was their chance to become Lü Buwei, and if they didn't come, they would miss it, and I would even send people to attack their merchants on the trade routes at all costs, so that they could not eat and walk around. ”

Everyone present was shocked by Yu Qiuping's words, and didn't understand what Yu Qiuping's crazy eyes meant.

"I know it's a controlled area of the Miyoshi family, and it's dangerous. But it was also the only place where the merchants of Sakai and Ishiyama and Hatakeyama Takamasa were willing to meet me, and they certainly wouldn't come to Maple Leaf Mountain Castle. Yu Qiuping said as he strode towards the outside of the house, beckoned to Ryuko and Honda Tadakatsu, signaled that he was ready to go, and then turned his head to the stunned retainers and said, "Don't worry, please believe me once." I can defend Maple Mountain City, I can save these tens of thousands of people, and I can even break the Three Good Army. ”

Yu Qiuping walked briskly towards the door of the castle tower, took the momiji shawl handed by Ryuko, and tied him around his shoulders.

"I'm rainy, and I've always done what I said."

·

On December 1, 1568, the 11th year of Eiji (1568), in a temple in the town of castle in the north of Sakai Town. The merchants of Hatakeyama Takamasa and Sakai Town all arrived as promised. Although he came here to have a private meeting with Yu Qiuping, there was a risk of being discovered by the Miyoshi ninja. But the great temptation and the unusually tough threat given by Yu Qiuping made them dare not come. And Yu Qiuping has been waiting here for a long time.

Little did they know that their meeting here today would go down in history and become an important lesson to be learned in history textbooks all over the world.

"Without further ado, I don't have time to delay everyone's time. I'm here to talk about one thing. After Yu Qiuping saw everyone seated, he spoke directly unceremoniously and said confidently:

"Separation of powers!"