In the middle of March of the 12th year of Eiroku (1569), the turbulent skies over Japan were once again covered with the dark clouds of several wars.

At the beginning of this year, Otomo Sorin, the overlord of Kyushu Island, launched an attack on the Ryuzoji family, which had been colluding with the Mori family, in order to unify Kitakyushu, and besieged Saga Castle. Ryuzoji Takanobu himself was powerless to parry, so he could only ask for reinforcements from Mori Moto. In recent days, Mori Moto, who has been committed to the Kyushu strategy, knew that the matter was big and did not dare to slack off, and personally led 40,000 troops to land in Kitakyushu for reinforcements. Yoshikawa Motoharu, Kobayakawa Takakei, Fukuhara Sadatoshi, Kumagai Nobunao, Yoshimi Masayori and other important ministers in the Maori two rivers all joined the army, and it can be said that they are the strongest lineup of the Maori family. After landing in Chikuzen, the Maori army immediately surrounded Tachibanayama Castle on Otomo's side.

Seeing that Maori Yuan was coming with his whole army, Otomo Sorin, also gathered his forces again in the territory. Both the Mori family and the Otomo family are daimyo with a total stone height of more than 1.1 million koku, but the Otomo family has the advantage of fighting on their own soil, so it is easier to mobilize troops. Counting the strength of the allies and vassals such as the Aso family, the total number of the Otomo army is close to 50,000. Otomo Sorin, relying on superior forces, forced Ryuzoji Takanobu to negotiate peace with him, and then turned to Chikuzen, intending to fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Mori family.

At the same time, the island of Shikoku is not at peace. Miyoshi Nagakei gathered a large number of troops in Sanuki and Awa countries, and it was obvious that he was going to make a big move. The Miyoshi family is at war with the Akamatsu family, the Oda family, and the Chosamune Ibe family at the moment. The Ikeda rebellion in Settsu had been completely suppressed at the beginning of the year, and now the army in Settsu was turning to the Harima region. And the head relatives of Chozong and my department also had no way to take the main force of the Miyoshi family, and they had already returned to Tosa in disgrace before the spring ploughing. And the main army of the inner Miyoshi family in Kishiwada Castle and Takaya Castle was also very active after spring ploughing, and there was constant friction with the garrison troops of the Yuqiu family.

Whether it is the Akamatsu family in Harima Province, the Nagamune Ibu family in Tosa Province, or the Yuakihei family in Kawachi Izumi, they are all rumors at this moment, for fear that the Miyoshi family's army on Shikoku Island will come straight to them. For this reason, Yu Qiuping specially asked Oda Nobunaga for reinforcements. After a winter of recuperation, the Oda family had regained the ability to fight. Shibata Katsuie, Sakuma Nobumori, and Mori Kosei in the Minami Omi territory have assembled troops and are ready to reinforce Akihei. And Oda Nobunaga himself also began to recruit militia in advance in Owari and Mino, and if the Miyoshi family really came with the whole division, Oda Nobunaga would also have to come to Kyoto again and fight with Miyoshi Nagakei again.

Time passed slowly in the tense atmosphere of each day, and none of the forces involved dared to take it lightly. On May 1, Ataka Fuyasuyasu's navy arrived at the ports of Sanuki and Awa provinces, and a large number of Miyoshi troops began to board the ships. When Akihei learned the news from Hosaku of the Military Intelligence Division, he immediately realized that something was wrong and hurriedly sent a request for help to Oda Nobunaga. And the Akamatsu family of Harima Country was already overwhelmed by the Miyoshi family troops of Settsu Country, and they were also worried at the moment. And the heart of the head of the sect of Changzong has finally let go - the Miyoshi family boarded the ship, which means that the target is no longer his Tosa.

However, to everyone's surprise, the Miyoshi family's army headed straight west after boarding the ship, landing in Iyo Province at the northwest tip of Shikoku Island. The wealthy clans of Iyo Province were caught off guard, and before they could react, Gremori Castle was already surrounded by the army of the Miyoshi family. Miyoshi Yoshiken, known as the current governor of the Kono family, Kono Tsunao, relied on conspiracy to seize the position of family governor and put the former family governor Kono Tsunobu under house arrest. The Miyoshi family's trip was because they received a secret letter from Kono Tongxuan asking for assistance from the Miyoshi family, and they came to support Kono Tongxuan's reinstatement. Although Kono Tsunobu immediately refuted the rumors, saying that he had never written such a letter and voluntarily gave up the position of family governor to Kono Tsunao, the Miyoshi family ignored it.

The Iyo Province on the island of Shikoku is home to many wealthy families, and the Kono family is only a nominal kokuji and does not have that much control over local affairs. And the reason why Iyo Province was able to stand side by side with the Miyoshi family and the Nagasune Ibe family on Shikoku Island was because they had strong backers behind them - the Mori family and the Otomo family.

However, the main forces of the Mori family and the Otomo family are all facing each other in Kyushu at this moment, and the people who remain in the territory are simply unable to support Iyo. The governor of the Kono family, Kono Tsunao, hurriedly sent someone to mediate between the Maori family and the Otomo family, trying to get the two families to return to the division to rescue him. The Mori family immediately agreed, but the Otomo family refused. Mori Moto, who found out that something was wrong, immediately sent his ninjas to investigate, only to find out that the Miyoshi family seemed to have formed an alliance with the Otomo family in secret. Otherwise, the Otomo family has no reason to let the Miyoshi family attack their allies.

The Mori family was under pressure to seek a quick solution so that they could go back to the rescue of the Kono family and keep the Mori family's fulcrum on the island of Shikoku. However, the Mori family itself is slightly inferior to the Otomo family in numbers, and it is an away game, so it is especially difficult to take the initiative to attack. The two armies fought a bloody battle at Tatarahama, and in the end the Mori family was defeated.

And the methods of the Miyoshi family and the Otomo family are one after another. A large part of the territory occupied by the Mori family today is the land of the Ouchi family and the Niko family in the past. And the Ouchi family's Ouchi Teruhiro is currently living in exile in the Otomo family's house. As early as last year, when Ashikaga Yoshiei was still alive, the Otomo family had already contacted the Miyoshi family and applied to the imperial court and the shogunate for a letter of recognition for Ouchi Teruhiro to inherit the Ouchi family's governorship. Seeing that the time was ripe, the Otomo family funded the Ouchi Teruhiro soldiers, horses, money and food, and asked him to return to Zhou Fangguo and call the remnants of the Ouchi family to revolt. Soon after, this army captured Gaoling Castle, the home city of Zhou Fangguo. At the same time, the Miyoshi family also financed the Niko family's Yamanaka Yukimori to lead the Niko family retainers to revolt, raid around the Izumo Province within the territory of the Mori family, and began to besiege Getsan Tomita Castle.

What Maori Yuan didn't expect was the next move of the Miyoshi family. Instead of returning to Awaji Province after dropping down the landed Miyoshi family's troops, Ataka Fuyasu's Awaji naval forces continued westward into the Kanmon Strait between Kyushu Island and Chugoku to attack the Mori family's convoy. Ichikawa Nobuyo, the commander of the Mori family's navy, was caught off guard and was taken by Ataka Fuyasu's fleet.

Seeing that the situation was out of control, the helpless Maori Yuan had to order the withdrawal of the army. Before leaving, he lit all the lights in the camp, and the Otomo family thought that it was a deception and did not dare to pursue, so that the Maori family successfully withdrew under the cover of the navy. However, under the attack of the Miyoshi Navy and the Otomo Navy Army, it was already very difficult to cover the withdrawal of the troops, and they had to abandon a large amount of baggage. When the Mori family withdrew to China, they were unable to support Iyo Province due to the loss of baggage.

After receiving the news of the westward advance of the Miyoshi family's army, Oda Nobunaga also made a quick decision and led the army assembled in the Ono area to invade Ise Province in the south. As early as two years ago, Takigawa Kazuki had already attacked Ise several times, subduing the Kobe clan, Nagano clan and other northern Ise clans. The Kobe clan and the Nagano clan even had to welcome Oda Nobunaga's son Oda Nobutaka and Oda Nobunaga's younger brother Oda Nobubo as heirs. And now, Oda Nobunaga's troops are aimed directly at Central Ise and Southern Ise, and Ise Kuniji Kitabatake Gukyo does not show weakness and personally sits in Okochi Castle, preparing to resist Oda Nobunaga's attack.

Kawachi Izumi, which was about to become the center of the storm, was calm because of the strategies of the Oda family and the Miyoshi family, and Yu Qiuping breathed a sigh of relief. His new system has just been created, and if he is about to suffer the baptism of war, I am afraid that there will be many bad lucks. Now that the Miyoshi family is marching west to Iyo Country, it will not be pacified in a few months, so it will buy him enough time to transition.

·

On May 22, on the outskirts of Wakae Castle, Yu Qiuyan was practicing wrestling with Naoe Narumu and Ii Toramatsu. Although Hatakeyama Takamasa is an old-fashioned person, he did not put Yu Qiuyu under house arrest like the merchants of Sakai Town, but gave Yu Qiuyu a lot of freedom. If Yu Qiuyan was willing to go out to practice martial arts, then Hatakeyama Takamasa would send more than a dozen people to follow him, and even allowed Yuqiu's family to send people to visit Yu Qiuyan.

Yu Qiuping and Imagawa Kaede couldn't leave because they were busy with official business, so they entrusted Ii Naotora to take Naoe Narumu and Ii Humatsu, two children who usually played with Yu Qiu, to see him. Cave Mountain Nominee didn't know where he got the news, and immediately ran to Yu Qiuping to say that he was willing to take on the task of guarding the group. Yu Qiuping couldn't resist him, so he sent him over.

At this moment, Nobumi Anayama was very detained, following Naotora Ii, trying to come up with some topics. However, Naohu Ii is not as serious and cold as before. Looking at her three children, a faint smile appeared on her face, which made Akayama Nominee a little distracted.

"The young master is still so persistent." Jing Yi Naohu looked at Yu Qiuyan who was repeatedly dropped by Hu Song and Naoe Narumu, who were a few years younger than him, but still continued to train tenaciously, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Such a child will definitely have a future in the future." ”

"Yes, it's not easy for the young master." Cave Mountain Nominee sighed helplessly, "If he hadn't broken that hand, it would be even more remarkable than it is now." ”

"Cave Mountain-sama, this is not necessarily." Hearing this, Jing Yi Naohu shook his head and said, "If there is no defect, the young master may not be able to develop the quality of perseverance like today." As she spoke, she looked at Jing Yi Husong meaningfully, "Just like Husong, if he hadn't had a father since he was a child, he wouldn't have been sensible so quickly." ”

Ii Naotoko's words made Anayama Nobumi stunned for a moment, and swallowed a little nervously.

Is this a hint that he confesses! Or is it just unintentional words!

Just when Xueshan Xinshi was worried in his heart, the dozen or so guards who were in charge of monitoring Yu Qiuyan came over and said in a low voice: "Lord Xueshan, the time is almost up, please take those two sons back." Otherwise, it will be difficult for us to do it. ”

"Got it, I won't trouble you."

·

After Nobushi Anayama and Naohu Ii left with their two children, Yu Qiuyan still didn't want to go back, but wanted to continue training in the suburbs for a while. For this reason, he also asked a small surname of Hatakeyama Takamasa to be his sparring. These guards don't worry about what a disabled child can do, as long as the people of Yuqiu's family are gone, he can make trouble as much as he likes. This little surname is not the children of Hu Song and Cheng Yuan Pill who grew up with Yu Qiuyan, and he naturally didn't take it lightly or heavily, and he smashed Yu Qiuyan to the ground in a few moments.

"Yuqiu Gongzi, why are you so troubled? Why do you have to practice this wrestling? The little surname snorted very disdainfully, "No matter how a one-armed person practices, he can't compare to a normal person." ”

"Where you fall, you have to get up." Yu Qiuyan struggled to get up from the ground, patted the dust on his clothes casually, and put himself in a posture again, "I have lost all my dignity because of wrestling, and I want to take it back through my own efforts." ”

"It's useless, it's useless to practice for a long time." The little man smiled contemptuously, "But if you don't pay for it, I'm happy to accompany you." ”

"What if the old man says it's useful?"

An unfamiliar voice suddenly sounded from the woods next to it.