The reason why Hirate was able to speak generously at the military council was because he got the information he wanted in time. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

As early as March and April, Iwanari Tomotsu was still leading the way, and when preparations were being made for assembly at Tamwa Port, another part of the Hirate family had already begun to act quietly, led by Hattori Hideyasu, with ten ninja soldiers, protecting the Jiyin of the Shoji Prefecture, disguised as a merchant employee and bodyguard, hid on a merchant ship, and landed on Awaji Island.

Hattori Hideyasu is a direct confidant, and his work has never been known to other retainers. Heite Ji Yin, as a commissioner from a wide range of backgrounds, took a leave of absence on the grounds of illness, and faked the illusion that he was being treated by a "royal" physician in Kishiwa Tajo Ninomaru.

The banner they adopted was "Sanlu House", that is, the vest in charge of food-related business in Hite, and the nominal owner was a young businessman who jumped out of Yuyue House to work alone, and was given the surname "Sanlu".

A few months ago, when Hirate Honhide, through his relationship with Kiyotsuna Akao, persuaded Asai Nagamasa to abandon and march into Harima, he offered to provide military rations at a low price. And the channel provided by this is the Sanlu House.

It was in this name that Hattori Hideyasu and Hirata Jiyin went to Awaji to collect grain. In fact, the task is to estimate the population and agricultural situation on Awaji Island.

In the eyes of outsiders, Awaji is an outerrodite territory occupied by pirates. But in fact, there are also many farmers who farm, and a small number of small businessmen.

Because this is an island of a certain size, there are two rare impact plains between the three mountain ranges, and although the area is small, the soil is very fertile, and the temperature is quite friendly. In total, more than 10,000 rice fields (about 15,000 acres) have been developed along the river, which is suitable for rice cultivation. Far from the estuary, barley, buckwheat, millet and other grains are planted.

Based on the information provided by the locals and the actual observations, it is estimated that there are at least 2,000 households on Awaji Island that make a living from agriculture and are not involved in the maritime industry. These people seem to belong to several powerful pirate forces, such as the Anzhai family, which manages many peasant households and people, and is estimated to collect more than 2,000 koku in kind tax every year.

Based on this, it can be speculated that the Awaji Navy can basically be self-sufficient in terms of food, and there is no need to find profiteers to buy it, and even export it in good years. This may also be a big reason for their strong independence. If you are like the Shima Nine Oni and can't support yourself with the real estate in your territory, you can only tie yourself to the chariot of the Daimyo.

The islanders are in a relatively closed and barbaric rhythm of life, and are very wary and unfriendly to outsiders, so the reconnaissance team disguised as merchants does not get any useful military information by the way, and does not meet any big people. However, the work of purchasing grain from the private sector is still going smoothly.

The grain supplied by Hirate to the Asai family was calculated at 500 wen per stone, which was far from the purchase price of, and he was doing a loss-making business. The gang that went to Awaji gave as much as 650 yuan, and they settled the bill with gold and silver goods or Yongle money.

This price is still lower than Izumi, but on Awaji Island, it is already very impressive. Because ordinary businessmen would not take the risk to come here to purchase this grain at all, the "Sankaya" is also relying on the Oda family behind it, and Ataka Nobuyasu will give face.

Eventually, many of the people of Awaji and the middle- and lower-class pirates (in fact, it doesn't hurt to be samurai) warmly welcomed the purchase and sold it to Sankaya for five stones, ten stones, or even one and a half stones, leaving only a few rations.

Because seeing that the summer ripe grains are about to be harvested, it is really appropriate to empty the granary at this time.

Heite Honshu had already known about the grain reserves of the wealthy clans on Awaji Island, so he waited left and right, and only sent people to land on the island in May. It happened to be stuck at the stage when the summer grain was not harvested.

Therefore, he did not need to divide and block, break each one, but took the initiative to allow the enemy to merge and expand.

Because the more soldiers, the faster they ate food, and the easier it was to dispute the process of distributing food.

Things are going well. The Awaji clans apparently have little experience in defending the city, and they lack coordination with each other, so it seems that no one has noticed this problem. Even when the Hite-Shohide dispatched military ships to load troops and relax surveillance, it was reinforcements that entered the island, not grain ships.

This makes all the pre-arrangements redundant.

……

On the other hand, although the retainers and wealthy families still don't quite understand, how to say it, the instructions of the leader, those who understand must be implemented, and those who do not understand must also be implemented, and deepen their understanding in the process of implementation. With the status of a tie show, there is no problem in occasionally turning military discussions into a hall of words.

Fan Xiu has already done some decentralization work in government affairs, and many small matters are no longer personally involved. However, the command of joint operations is another matter, and before the birth of a mature staff system, the arbitrariness of the commander-in-chief was a last resort.

Therefore, within the country of Awaji, the military momentum under the banner of a tie was set off with the order.

Fighting into the mountains, the soldiers cut off the road were gradually withdrawn, leaving only a few ninjas lurking in the wilderness to keep an eye on the spot. In the western half of the island, many roads that had been blocked have been reopened to traffic.

The coordinated defense of the main city and the branch city is the most common caged city countermeasure in this era, but the premise of this is that the branch city must be small and strong, and the main city can support each other. The cities of the wealthy clans of Awaji are not done according to this idea at all, and it is useless to divide troops, and concentrating forces is the right way.

It's just that the incident happened suddenly, and Funakoshi Jingzhi only had time to convince a dozen leaders before he saw Iwanari Yutong's army kill at the door. In a panic, everyone's first reaction was to go back to their homes and keep their doors closed. If you react later, you won't have a chance.

However, the attacker has now taken the initiative to make his debut, which can be described as pie in the sky.

The defenders did not dare to move lightly at first, but only sent people to test it, and only after they found that the flat army had indeed retreated, no one could hold back. Miki Zenbei, who had only 190 troops, was the first to act as a "smart man", taking the initiative to abandon his own small wooden shackle, which was unreliable at first glance, and took his men to take refuge in the related Zhuangtian Castle ship.

The Pingshou army did not stop this in the slightest, but fifty people stationed there, took over the empty town, counted and sealed the grain and ordnance, and reported it to the superiors.

Then, a day later, the Nozaki family and Awana also followed suit and entered Suga Dacho's Shichi Castle.

Then, led by Funakoshi Keinao and Kan Dacho, he also took the initiative to reply to Hinote Tsunohide, pretending to agree to the agreement of the decisive battle, but he was vague in terms of time, and he was false and wronged. Perhaps, in their opinion, they are paralyzing their opponents.

Of course, not everyone is willing to abandon the ancestral city (although it is only a larger house in terms of scale), and Katayama Yoritada, of Guangshi City, made it clear to the public that any head-on decisive battle is all nonsense, and he will never leave his hometown for half a step, and he will die in the city.

In this regard, the flat hand decided to fulfill his ambition to seek benevolence. So he mobilized 2,000 Qiben and personal guards, 1,500 Hequan and Sanhe, 1,000 Heli and 2,500 Zaga mercenaries, and adopted the attitude of Mount Tai to launch a bloody attack.

Ten hours later, the defender Guangshi Castle was burned to charcoal, and all the soldiers in the city were killed except for more than 30 surrenders.

The attackers also paid the price of 140 killed and more than 300 wounded, which shows that this tactic can only be used occasionally, but one can be two or three.

But the other wealthy clans on the island were completely frightened, and did not hesitate to run to the two largest cities to assemble, not daring to fight the army with outnumbered soldiers. Even the county town, which was originally considered a "big city", was abandoned by its owners.

What finally appeared in front of the draw was Shichi Castle with a strength of 3,000 troops, and Zhuangtian Castle with 2,500 troops, as well as a dozen or so other vacant strongholds.

Then Funakoshi Keizhi and Kan Dacho no longer talked about the decisive battle at the agreed time, and they were focused on guarding the cage city.

At the same time, news came from Shikoku that Awa's Shinohara Nagabo had finally assembled its army, amassed about 10,000 to 20,000 troops, and several hundred transport ships, and announced its departure plan.

Because the foundation of that line was too shallow, there was no strong information, and the estimate of the number of people was very vague, but in any case, the army did not run.

If it is an unknown general, it may not be able to suppress public opinion at this time. But the prestige and qualifications of Tie Sho are very sufficient, and everyone can't doubt their IQ, so they can only understand it in terms of strategy.

It was at this time that the Awaji clan finally began to realize the food problem, and some people began to secretly collect civilian rations or transport them by sea, taking advantage of the fact that the siege was still relaxed.

The island's actions were not hindered, and it was certainly not much to receive anyway. Moreover, the young and strong are all pulled to the city, and the last bit of food in the mouths of the old, weak, sick and disabled will be forcibly taken, which will only destroy the mass base of the wealthy clans.

However, those who brought in grain by sea were closely patrolled and resolutely cracked down.

Through this, the most stupid people finally understand the cause and effect of things.

The military rations offensive is not a rare strategy, but this time the magic is that it can be sent and received freely, and it follows the trend without a trace. The first purchase of Awaji's grain had the high-sounding reason of "supplying Asai", which did not feel abrupt at all. Again, the time for the march was stuck in early May, just too late to harvest the summer ripe grains.

However, there are still unresolved doubts.

The Nine Ghosts Jialong once again exerted the spirit of prudence in the military discussion: "The prison hall is far-sighted, and has the demeanor of a soldier who surrenders without a fight, which is contemptible and contemptible. It's just that it will take some time to wait for the enemy army defending the city to run out of food, so how can we deal with the army of Shikoku? ”

Without a fan Xiu's answer, Zuo Zuo Chengzheng spoke: "The premise of long-term trapping is to work together and prohibit it. The rabble in the two cities will soon be in chaos over the distribution of food, and it won't take long. Indeed, the prison hall is much more clever than we are. He is also a frank man, and his plan was rejected, but he did not shy away from it.

Then Tie Sho Xiu glanced around, and said calmly: "I think the Awaji Hao clan still accepts my proposal to fight head-on, please polish your swords and guns and fight bravely." As for Shikoku Shinohara Nagabo...... We are not the only enemies of his family. Don't worry too much about it just yet. ”

The words were still indistinct, but there was a precedent, and the people settled down, believing that the Lord would be fully prepared.

Some people also noticed that the thing of "inviting the other party to make an appointment for a decisive battle" a few days ago happened to be round? It seems that although the prison hall used tricks, it did not tell lies to its subordinates, but it did not tell all the truth.