In December of the 12th year of Eiroku (1569), the war between Ise and Iyo gradually settled.

In Ise, Oda Nobunaga's forces finally took Okochi Castle, the main city of the Kitabatake family, after nearly half a year of fierce fighting, during which they did not withdraw even from the autumn harvest, and completed the pacification of Ise.

Kitabatake Gukyo originally thought that as long as it dragged on until the autumn harvest, Oda Nobunaga would have to withdraw his troops. Who would have thought that Oda Nobunaga's troops had an astonishingly high proportion of standing troops, so they would be able to endure the losses caused by the autumn harvest and not withdrawing their troops. However, the troops of the Kitabatake family, because they did not expect this, did not have enough food in the castles on the front line, as well as saki, rolling stones, and feather arrows, which were broken by the Oda army one after another. Beginning in October, the Oda clan began to besiege Okochi Castle.

However, Okochi Castle was heavily garrisoned, and Kitabatake Keikei, who was a kendo expert, took the lead, which greatly boosted the morale of the defending side and made the siege extremely difficult. The Oda family suffered heavy casualties in the battle, including the wounding of many high-ranking samurai such as Ikeda Tsuneko and Inaba Kazutetsu. The Oda Army had been fighting outside the country for half a year, morale was low, Ashigaru was homesick, and an atmosphere of war weariness began to spread among the army. And the Naka-Ise Hao clan, who was originally suppressed by Oda Nobunaga, saw that Okochi Castle could not be attacked for a long time, and their minds gradually became active.

In desperation, Oda Nobunaga began to use diplomatic means. He proposed that Kitabatake's son, Kitabatake, adopt Oda Nobuo, the second son of Oda Nobunaga, as his adopted son, and then Oda Nobuo would marry Kitabatake's daughter, Chiyo Gozen, so that Oda Nobuo would inherit the Kitabatake family as a member of the Kitabatake family, and Kitabatake would have to retire and give up the position of family governor.

In response to such peace conditions, the important ministers of the Kitabatake family protested one after another. They pointed out that Oda Nobunaga would compromise when he saw that Okochi Castle was difficult to take, and that as long as he insisted on resisting, Oda Nobunaga had no choice but to withdraw his troops. When the war resumes in the following year, Oda Nobunaga will have no time to look south, and the Kitabatake family will have a chance to regain the lost territory in Ise.

However, Kitabatake's son, Kitabatake, did not dare to take the risk. He urged his father to surrender at this time to save his life. If they refuse to negotiate peace, after the castle is destroyed, according to Oda Nobunaga's temper, the Kitabatake clan may be wiped out.

Kitabatake Gukyo has always been a ruthless character, that is, such a character can resist the tens of thousands of troops of the Oda family for more than half a year. However, in the past six months, the relatives of the Kitabatake family have suffered extremely heavy losses, and the territory has also been devastated. Kitabatake Gukyo couldn't bear to fight any longer, so he accepted Oda Nobunaga's proposal and surrendered Kaejo.

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On the other hand, the war on Shikoku Island, the progress of the Miyoshi family is also very smooth.

After the army of the Miyoshi family surrounded the fortified city of Lusen Castle, they began to encircle the point to send reinforcements. Due to the important geographical location of Ekimori Castle and the eastern gate of Iyo, the Kono family of Iyo Province and many small wealthy families are not willing to give up easily. So, relying on the little prestige left, the Kono family organized a coalition army that included many small wealthy families such as the Utsunomiya family and the Saionji family, and went to the aid of Luxin Castle.

Although the coalition is formed, the hearts of this rabble are bottomless. The Miyoshi family has dominated for so many years, and it can be regarded as accumulating a lot of reputation, and the troops under his command also have a reputation for being good at fighting, and they can be said to be heaven and earth. However, to their surprise, after they traveled thousands of miles over the mountains to feel the castle, the Miyoshi family still failed to take the castle. Overjoyed, the Iyo coalition immediately attacked, but was defeated in one fell swoop by the long-awaited Miyoshi family.

Subsequently, the Miyoshi family directly abandoned the fortified castle of Lumori Castle, led the army to drive straight in, chased the rout of the coalition army all the way west, crossed the mountains and rivers scattered throughout the territory of Iyo Province, and captured the main city of Iyo Province in one fell swoop. The Kono family lost their castle and fled by boat with their relatives and family to seek refuge in the Mori family.

However, the Kono family itself does not have much control over the small wealthy clans that inhabit the territory of Iyo Province, and the withdrawal of the Kono family will not have much impact on these small wealthy clans. Due to the mountainous territory of Iyo Province and the difficulty of marching, these small wealthy clans defended themselves after withdrawing their territories, which caused a headache for the Miyoshi family.

Due to the time for the autumn harvest, Sagimori Castle, which had not been conquered, choked the grain route of the Miyoshi family, and the Miyoshi family had to withdraw to Sanuki Province after leaving Miyoshi Yoshiken to defend Yuzuki Castle. On the way back to the division, the Miyoshi army besieged Lumori Castle again, and Lumori Castle saw that there was no food and grass inside and no rescuers outside, so it had to open the castle and surrender, and the entire East Iyo and most of the Middle Iyoshi fell into the hands of the Miyoshi family.

And immediately after the autumn harvest, the Miyoshi family once again swung westward to attack the remaining territories of Iyo Province. However, the Maori family, who had completed the autumn harvest, hurriedly crossed the sea at this moment to help the Saionji family and other Nishiiyo-ho clans resist the Miyoshi family, and at the same time returned to Iyo with Kono Toshinao and Kono Tonobu, so that he could call on the small clans of Higashi-Iyo to cooperate with the Maori army and drive away the invaders. The Maori Army was led by the famous general Yoshikawa Motoharu, with strong strength and geographical advantages, which made the army of the Miyoshi family unable to start for a while.

At the same time, in order to compete for sea supremacy, the Mishima Navy led by Kobayakawa Takakei also faced off against the Awaji Navy of Yasutaka Fuyasu in the Seto Inland Sea. Yataku Fuyasu and Kobayakawa Takakei are both well-known naval battle experts, and the two sides have fought back and forth for more than ten days, and they still don't win or lose. At the most critical moment of the war, Miyoshi Yoshiken sent lobbyists to lure him with heavy money and territory to defeat one of the Mishima Naval Army, Murakami Takeshi of the Noshima Naval Army. Ignoring all the orders of the Maori clan and his fellow clansmen, Murakami Takeyoshi resolutely led his fleet back to Noh Island.

Murakami's withdrawal caused the Mishima Navy to be in chaos and morale was low, and Yasutaka Fuyasu took the opportunity to exert his strength and defeated Kobayakawa Takakei in one fell swoop. Yoshikawa Motoharu saw the defeat of the navy and was worried that the Maori army would be trapped on Shikoku Island by the Miyoshi family because of the loss of sea control and would not be able to return to China, so he had to retreat in a hurry. Kobayakawa Takakei's navy fought hard to cover the evacuation of the convoy, and finally escaped by relying on the change of ocean currents. However, because the right-hand man of the island navy, Nomi Munekatsu, personally broke off in order to cover the evacuation of the fleet, and was finally defeated and captured.

After the withdrawal of the Maori army, the wealthy clans of Iyo Province completely lost their desire to resist. The Xiyuan Temple family and other wealthy families of all sizes offered oaths and surrendered one after another. Miyoshi Yoshiken used Nomi Munakatsu and the captured Mori soldiers as bargaining chips to exchange Kono Tsunobu who was attached to it to the Mori family, and announced that he would support Kono Tsunobu to return to the post of family governor. Miyoshi Yoshiken welcomed Kono Tsunobu back to Yuzuki Castle and put him under house arrest, and controlled Iyo Province in his name, but the power actually fell into the hands of the Miyoshi family.

With the 360,000 stone territory of Iyo Province falling into the hands of the Miyoshi family, the Miyoshi family, which lost a large amount of territory due to the Kyoto Battle and the Shiki War, regained its momentum. In addition to Miyoshi Chokei and Ataka Fuyasu, who sat in Shikoku to digest the territory and at the same time beware of the counterattack of the Mori family and the Kono family, Tokawa Ichikun and Miyoshi Yoshiken led their troops back to Settsu and Harima, and joined the troops of Araki Murashige, Kamiyoshi Yorisada and others, with a total strength of 25,000 people, and the intention is unknown.

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There was such a huge army of the Miyoshi family in the west of Kyoto, and Oda Nobunaga naturally couldn't ignore it. He again led an army of 30,000 to Shangluo, converging the 18,000 men left behind in Minami Omi and Kyoto, with a total strength of nearly 50,000.

During this time, Ashikaga Yoshiteru was also working tirelessly to restore the authority of the shogunate. He first sent people to mediate the war between the Otomo family and the Mori family, and the Miyoshi family and the Mori family, and then persuaded the Hatano family in Tanba and the Isshiki family in Tango to join the anti-Miyoshi alliance. The Miyoshi family was already notorious among the samurai families in the world because of the evil deeds of burning down the palace and disturbing the emperor before, and these little wealthy families naturally fell to the other side.

In order to show the world that the Oda family's control over Kyoto was as stable as Mount Tai, Oda Nobunaga made the first decision to hold three large-scale events in Kyoto. The first was a Go competition, the second was a tea party, and the third was a wrestling tournament held last year. In the name of Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Oda Nobunaga sent an invitation to the Daimyo of Kinai and to participate in the activities organized by the Oda family.

After learning the news, Yu Qiuyan's heart has been itching. However, he also understood that as a hostage, it was impossible for him to leave Ruojiang City and participate in a wrestling tournament. It's just that he's always been obsessed with words, and even if he's in a bad mood, he won't be noticed by the guards. Kentaro Tatsumi was well aware of the troubles of the apprentices, but he didn't say anything.

On the night of November 29, Hatakeyama Takamasa suddenly called Yu Qiuyan to his study. Yu Qiu didn't know where to go, so he followed a few guards. Hatakeyama Takamasa is not a person who likes to go around in circles, and after seeing the rain and autumn coming, he asked straight to the point:

"Yu Qiuyan, do you want to participate in your Oda family's wrestling competition this year?"

"Your Highness, yes." Yu Qiuyan didn't understand why Hatakeyama Takamasa asked like this, but he didn't pretend, but answered honestly.

"Then I'll allow you to go, but I'll be back as soon as I'm done." Takamasa Hatakeyama sat at the table, flipping through the text by the candlelight, and said casually, as if he was talking about an insignificant matter.

"What? Your Highness? As soon as Morita Sho heard Hatakeyama Takamasa's words, he directly exclaimed in surprise: "Your Highness, Prince Yuqiu is our hostage!" What did His Highness do when he put him back to Yuqiu's house? ”

"I didn't want to let him go, I just let him go." Hatakeyama Takamasa replied lightly, "This is out of respect for a samurai child who is eager to make a contribution. ”

"And what if he takes the opportunity to run back? We don't have hostages in our hands, how can Yu Qiuping let us go? In a hurry, Morita Evil Xiang didn't care about etiquette, even if Yu Qiuyan was still on the side, he spoke directly.

"I respect Yuqiujibu, although his actions are deviant, he is a great samurai, and he will never do anything treacherous." Hatakeyama Takamasa still didn't let his eyes leave the copywriter for a glance, "And I also believe that Yu Qiuyan will not take the opportunity to escape." ”

"How can Your Highness pin the life and death of the Hatakeyama family on the character of others?" Morita looked around a few times as he spoke, as if he wanted to find a few nearby people to persuade Hatakeyama Takamasa to join him, but the other guards all looked at each other and didn't dare to speak.

"During the Heian period, promises between samurai were more important than lives, and respect and trust were the glory of our samurai." Hatakeyama Takamasa slowly stopped turning the book, raised his eyes and glared at Morita Evil Sho, "There are more of you in the world, and the law and discipline will often be corrupted." ”

"Your Highness, my lordship, I am willing to swear that I will never abscond without permission." Yu Qiuyan, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke.

"Why should I believe you? What guarantees do you take? Morita Sho, who was arguing with Takamasa Hatakeyama, muttered impatiently, turned his head to glance at Yu Qiu, only to find that the latter had taken out a hand-shaped doll embroidered with cloth from his bosom and handed it to him.

"It's my most cherished thing, and I'm here to testify."