"Thank you, uncle! If it weren't for my uncle coming in time, the consequences would be unimaginable! The little nephew made a big mistake and almost led to the annihilation of the Iyo people and the destruction of the Miyoshi family! The little nephew is willing to accept all punishments! After being picked up on the boat, and after seeing Anzhai Dongkang, Miyoshi Yoshixing, who was ashamed and embarrassed, knelt down at once, and kowtowed again and again to ask for guilt.

"Virtuous nephews don't have to be like this, victory and defeat are common things in soldiers." An Zhai Dongkang laughed twice, and lovingly helped up Miyoshi Yixing. As the fleet lifted anchor again, they had slowly sailed away from Sakai Harbor, and the Yuqiu army on the shore could only sigh at the wind. "Not long ago, didn't your second uncle be defeated and captured? Third uncle, I have also suffered defeats. As long as you reflect on it afterwards and improve it, it's good. ”

"What my uncle said is that the little nephew needs to improve too much. The uncle's plan can be seen through at a glance, but the little nephew is firmly kept in the dark. If it was my uncle who was on the front line yesterday, I'm afraid it wouldn't be like this. Miyoshi Yixing shook his head guiltily and said, "Sure enough, it's too early for me to take charge of a country." ”

"Virtuous nephews don't have to be presumptuous, don't hide it, even if I'm in your position, I can't see through the tricks of rain and autumn and red leaves." An Zhai Dongkang smiled bitterly twice, patted Miyoshi Yixing on the shoulder, and said, "If I can see the plan of the rain and autumn red leaves, how can I not take countermeasures?" I just took a precautionary measure and personally led the Awaji Navy to Sakai Port to meet them, and the rest of the troops immediately retreated to Kishiwada Castle to defend it. ”

"Light enemies, counter-attacks, ambushes, and fire attacks are interlocked, and there must be capable people in Yuqiu's family."

·

At this moment, in the castle town north of Sakai Town, the merchants of the lower house are also closely watching the development of the war. After confirming that the victory of the Yuqiu family was decided, many of them cheered excitedly. A few days ago, it was Yu Qiupei who came to Sakai Town in person and proposed this scheme to the merchants of the House of Commons to lure the Miyoshi family into attacking. Their House of Commons deliberated all day, and finally voted to agree to Yu Qiuping's plan, because they could not think of any other way to defeat the Miyoshi army than this plan. It's better to fight to the death than to sit and watch the defeat of the Yuqiu family.

They acted according to the strategy of the Yuqiu family, and in advance transferred the treasury, precious goods, money and grain to the castle town near the sea in the north, and anchored with the fleet so that they could retreat at any time. And in the treasury, only straw, cotton and sulfur remained. And the hostage Yu Qiuyou was also secretly dropped, leaving a stand-in there. In doing so, you can avoid the risk of Akihei fake-acting - really looting Sakai-cho. Still, they were apprehensive. Now that the plan was successful, Yu Qiuping didn't have the slightest thought about Sakai Town, and they naturally celebrated with relief.

However, there are other people who are solemn at the moment, and there is no joy at all. Among them are Imai Munehisa, Tsuda Mune, and Sueyoshi Sunshiro and other wealthy merchants.

"See, this is the strength of the Yuqiu Army." Imai Sohisa looked at the Yuqiu army that defeated Miyoshi Yoshiko, but what came to his mind was all pictures of the night. The military formation, which is as neat as a tofu block, is almost disjointed and uniform even in running. High terrible execution, even if you have to go into the various neighborhoods and treasury of Sakai Town separately, there is not the slightest chaos, and everyone carries out the task step by step. Almost in that short period of time, the entire town of Sakai was completely occupied.

"If His Highness didn't inform us, but just did it, just like last night." Imai Munehisa laughed twice, and his cheeks, which had always had a businessman-like professional smile, also looked a little stiff, "Do you think we can escape?" ”

No one answered Imai Munehisa's words, and no one knew how to answer.

"We must be more careful in the future defense, whether it is the treasury or the place where Yuqiu Gongzi is under house arrest." Imai Sohisa sighed and whispered helplessly, "That crow judge is so powerful, that crow of his has actually penetrated so deeply. As long as he wants, he can even take Yuqiu Gongzi immediately, and even take our lives. ”

"Those are battle-hardened ninjas, and there are a lot of plainclothes lurking in our caravans or shops." Tsuda Munekichi also added in a low voice with some fear, "I've been trying to investigate in the past few days, but I'm afraid that everyone will be in danger, so I have to give up." ”

"This is not the most important question, the question is what to do with Haimao now?" Sueyoshi Sunshiro interrupted a little anxiously, "Originally, after the Miyoshi family and Honganji were at odds with each other, and we Ishiyama merchants joined the Diet, the trading ships in Ishiyama were already in trouble. I was often inexplicably hijacked by Miyoshi's ships in the Seto Inland Sea and asked for a review.,In the end, I had to pay a benefit fee to get through.。 Now that you Sakai Town and the Yuqiu family have deceived the Miyoshi family, what should we do if the Miyoshi family breaks the previous agreement with the Yuqiu family in anger, blocks the port and forbids us from trade, and even allows the Awaji Navy to rush into the port and ransack it? ”

"There is no way, I can only let His Highness the Ministry of Governance establish a naval army that can compete with His Highness An Zhai earlier." Tsuda Munekazu spread out his hand, shook his head, and said, "Before that, try to bear with me as much as possible." Although the blockade of the port is also painful, it is still acceptable, and what I am most worried about now is that the Awaji Navy will directly rush into Sakai Port and plunder, burn and seize our merchant ship cargo, and then everything will be over. ”

·

And what the businessmen in the House of Commons are worried about, Yu Qiuping is also worried.

The Miyoshi Yixing headquarters was defeated by Yu Qiuping, and there was a large-scale surrender, and the morale of the troops could not be saved. Miyoshi Yoshiko was unable to fight again, and at the request of Miyoshi Chokei, he led his army back to Iyo for liquidation and rectification.

Due to the withdrawal of Miyoshi Yoshiko's headquarters from Hanoi and Izumi, the Miyoshi Army's superiority over the Oda Army also disappeared. In addition, the time is close to spring ploughing, and it is difficult for the Miyoshi Army, which does not have the advantage of troops, to make any great progress before spring ploughing. And the battle situation between Miyoshi Chokei, Sakuma Nobumori, and Honganji Temple is still scorching, and there is no breakthrough. In such a situation, Miyoshi Chokei ordered the withdrawal of troops, and Tokawa Ichiku led his troops back to Shikoku, while Ataku Fuyasu continued to garrison Kishiwa Castle. After the crisis was resolved, Ikeda Tsuneko and Takigawa Kazuyoshi also led their troops back, and the situation at Yuqiu's house was temporarily stabilized.

Although the situation on the road has stabilized for the time being, the situation at sea is worrying. The Awaji Navy that came and went freely left a huge psychological shadow on Yu Qiuping - he could have wiped out Sanhao Yixing - that was a full 3,000 soldiers. And this is annihilation in formations, there is simply no way to rebuild the army. With so many wealthy clans in Iyo Province missing in an instant, there will also be big problems with the Miyoshi family's rule in Iyo, and a large number of Ichiyoshi clans may break out, and it can even directly lead to the collapse of the Miyoshi family's fronts in Shikoku,, and Sanyo due to the lack of troops. And if Yu Qiuping captures the young master of the Miyoshi family in his hands, he can do whatever he wants at the negotiation table.

As a result, such a good situation was disrupted by the army of Anzhai Dongyasu, and all Iyo people were rescued. In a night of scuffle, in fact, not many people were killed, and it is estimated that it is less than 500. As long as the scattered Iyo people are put in order, they will be able to regain their combat strength in a few months. And the Yuqiu family itself has to pay a lot of maintenance costs because of the destruction of Sakai Town, and they can't earn much.

Fighting against the Seto Inland Sea, if there is no way to defeat the naval army of Ataka Fuyasu, then as long as the troops of the Miyoshi family retreat to the shore when they fail and wait for the Awaji naval army to dock for support, they can retreat unharmed. What worries Yu Qiuping even more is that this time Sakai Town cooperated with Yu Qiuping to deceive the Miyoshi family, and the Miyoshi family tore their faces. In the unlikely event that the Awaji Navy no longer abides by the previous agreement and brazenly attacks Sakai Port, how will Yu Akihei, who has no Navy Army, defend it?

I can't think of a way to do it myself, so Yu Qiuping suddenly remembered that there was another naval expert at home - that was Itami Kangqing, who came back from Europe. In the past few years, because Yu Qiuping has no naval army, he has no place to use, and has been following Sena Yoshito Naoe Tadahei to do some internal affairs work. Although I didn't complain, I could see that I was depressed.

Yu Qiuping immediately found Itami Yasukiyo and asked him if he could help him train a navy to fight against the Awaji navy if he had enough funds.

"With all due respect, Momiji, it's no different from a dream." After hesitating for a moment, Yi Dan Kangqing still said bluntly and in a low voice.

"What? Why? Yu Qiuping had already prepared a budget application to the Congress, but he was directly choked back by Itami Kangqing's words.

"There are too many difficulties, Momiji." Yi Dan Kangqing shook his head, paused and then said, "First of all, a naval army needs a large number of personnel. Although the dozens of brothers I brought back from Europe had been walking the sea for several years and were up to the role of captain. But a sailor can't conjure it out of thin air! If Your Highness wants to be able to compete with the Awaji Navy with more than 800 ships, you need at least thousands of sailors, these are all to be practiced step by step, isn't it a twilight achievement? ”

"Taking a step back, people are not considered, building a ship is a process. Generally, the wood has to be air-dried for three years before it can be launched into the water for shipbuilding, otherwise it will gradually deform after launching. His Highness had to wait for three years before establishing a shipyard on the coast to start shipbuilding. However, we do not have the ability to control the sea frontier, and Awaji is from Izumi in the morning and evening, and the Awaji Navy can directly attack our shipyard, so that we can't build a single ship. ”

"So what can I do? As long as the sea control of the Seto Inland Sea is controlled by the Awaji navy, we will never be able to build a ship without a safe shipyard? That's not to mention training a water army! Hearing this, Yu Qiuping also realized the embarrassment of the situation, and hurriedly asked.

"It's not like there's no way, the Southern Barbarians of Europa have a way to guard their shipyards, but the cost is really not small." After pondering for a while, Itami Kangqing lowered his head and threw a simple one to Yu Qiuping: "You can make your own artillery, which is called a big barrel in Japan." Then build a battery along the coast and place the large barrels in the battery. The range of the large barrel is longer than that of baking bombs, iron cannons, and bows and arrows, and the power is huge. If the cannonballs fired from the large barrel could hit the ship, Kohayafune would probably capsize directly, and the ship and the ship would not be able to eat a few times. Moreover, the navy shoots at bumpy ships, and the accuracy is very poor, and it is completely incomparable with the batteries set up on the road. As long as you can set up a battery, you can cover the shipyard, and you can also defend Sakai Port from the invasion of the Awaji naval army. ”

"Great idea!" Yu Qiuping clapped his hands very excitedly when he heard this, "Since you came back, I have already asked Hanamaru to start studying the casting paper you brought back!" I've forgotten it for so long, maybe he's developed it! ”