"Lord Gao Shan, just now I met Ji Xiaolu's army outside the city, and killed all of them, and now I will present the head, can you be satisfied?" When his subordinate Ashigaru was presented in front of the Takayama clan, he only heard the Uchijima clan ask again.

If those ashigaru heads Takayama Clan Commander didn't know, but how could he not recognize the two samurai heads, under the light of the fire, he could see clearly, and there would never be anything wrong, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

I only heard him say angrily: "Open the city gate quickly, you wait with me to welcome Lord Nei Nei Island and his troops into the city!" Then he ran in the direction of the city gate.

With the Uchijima clan and his troops entering the city, there is no need to worry about the defense of Matsukura Castle anymore, as long as it is not attacked by the Uesugi army, then it can be said that the castle is absolutely safe in Hida country, and when the Uchijima army takes over the city defense, the chief of the Takayama clan ordered his subordinates to go to guard the castle tower.

In the castle tower, the Takayama clan and the Uchijima clan entered the assessment room while chatting lightly. To put it mildly, the identity of the head of the Takayama clan is just a light head, and the Uchijima clan is the head of the wealthy family who controls two thousand stone Zhixing, this identity gap is not small, and now the two belong to the same Takayama family, so he originally wanted to let the Unejima clan sit on the top and sit on the bottom, but the Uchijima clan resolutely disagreed.

He knew in his heart that his identity was indeed much higher than the other party, but after all, the head of the Takayama clan was the younger brother of the lord, and now he had the great merit of capturing Matsukura City, and it seemed that his ability was not bad, as long as he saw the lord, with the degree of the lord's love for talent, coupled with the relationship of blood, then his identity would naturally improve a lot. And the future development will definitely be stronger than himself, so he will never dare to hold it up in front of the head of the Gao Shan clan, and the last two of them will each take a step back and sit opposite each other before revealing the matter.

As soon as he sat down, the head of the Takayama clan asked excitedly, "Lord Unejima." My brother sent you, but you are willing to recognize him? ”

"Lord Takayama, this is indeed what the lord meant, congratulations to my lord." I saw that the head of the Gao Shan clan stood up suddenly, and said, "I'll go see my brother now." and handed over Ji Xiaolu Lai Gang's family to his brother for disposal. The defense of this Matsukura Castle is left to the Lord for the time being. ”

"Takayama-sama, please be calm, although I also hope to reunite with the lord as soon as possible, but now the lord is no longer in Sakurato Castle, as early as when the Ji Xiaoji coalition army went out, he abandoned Sakurato Castle and led the army to attack Kojima Castle, the garrison of the Uesugi army. And when he saw the lord in Xia, the lord not only ordered him to come to his aid, but also ordered him to guard the city with the adults after taking the city. ”

Speaking of this, the Rinri of the Unejima paused, and then said, "My lord." There is a sentence below that I don't know whether to say or not, although you are brothers with the lord, but you are also a monarch and minister, so ......" When the Uchijima clan just said this, I only heard the chief of the Takayama clan say: "What the lord said is reasonable, just now I was excited in the next moment." Thank you for your understanding. ”

Unejima smiled and said, "How can it be, don't blame me for being too talkative." ”

"Speaking of which, the lord uses his troops like this. It was a stroke of genius, and at the cost of abandoning Sakurato Castle, it was a clever plan to attack the 1,000 Uesugi army in Kojima Castle with absolutely superior forces, first depleting the enemy's army and then taking the city. At first, I was still worried about my brother, after all, in terms of military strength, Ji Xiaoji and Uesugi had the upper hand. And the elite of the Uesugi army is abnormal, but now it seems that this worry is completely superfluous, ha, ha. Speaking of the most reluctant, the head of the Takayama clan couldn't help but laugh heartily.

Since his parents died and his family was destroyed, this was the first time he had smiled so happily.

After listening to this, the Nene Island clan couldn't help but nodded, if he only felt that the Takayama clan chief had some ability before entering the city just now, then now after listening to these words, he had to let his understanding of it rise to a higher level, the lord's intentions he saw through so easily, even if such a talent is not as good as the lord, but it is much stronger than ordinary samurai, it seems that as long as the Takayama family has the lord and the Takayama clan, it is impossible to decline. …,

However, he didn't continue, but said with a little worry: "Lord Takayama, since the lord and his army are not in Sakurato City, so after making a decision, Ji Xiaolu and Uesugi will definitely not stay in that city for too long, so what we will face next is a fierce battle, that is an army of four thousand, including three thousand Uesugi elites, if you really want to attack the city, only with the six hundred peasant soldiers under your command and dozens of diggers of adults, even if there is a city to defend, it is impossible to stop the enemy's attack, I don't know what your Excellency thinks about this?" ”

After hearing this, the head of the Takayama clan also felt that the situation was a little wrong, so he hurriedly asked, "Lord Uneijima, when you met the lord, the lord didn't tell you the strategy to defend against the enemy?" ”

I saw that the Unejima clan shook his head and said, "This ...... The lord only asked him to guard the city with the adults, and he didn't say much else. ”

"This ......" Although the head of the Gao Shan clan felt a little worried, he quickly recovered, and said firmly: "Your Excellency, don't worry, since the lord ordered the two of us to guard the city, then the lord must have a comprehensive arrangement, I just need to do what the lord says, and there is no need to think about anything else, I believe that the lord will definitely have a clever plan against the enemy." ”

After listening to it, the Nechijima clan also felt that what he said made some sense, even if the lord could ruthlessly let the Unejima family as a victim, he would definitely not let his only younger brother be buried with him, so Takayama-sama was right, and he still didn't want to guess.

However, the two of them didn't know what to do, they really had some of them in high esteem, and while the two of them were talking, the clan was also discussing with his retainers how to destroy the enemy's 4,000 troops.

In the assessment room of Kojima City, the Takayama clan frowned, pacing around the room with his hands behind his back, it is not easy to do, the enemy's four thousand troops have been acting together, it is too difficult to eat it in one bite, and the distance between this city, Sakurato City and Matsukura City is almost far, even if the enemy rests in Sakurato City for the night tonight, then there is not much time left for himself? Do you really want to immediately lead the army to Matsukura Castle to defend and fight the enemy?

This is the last thing the clan wants to see, why don't you immediately send someone to Matsukura Castle, order the two of the Uchijima clan to withdraw from the city to join him, and then look for an opportunity?

Although this is a solution, but the clan is not willing to use it easily, after all, this Matsukura City is different from other cities, he is the residence of Ji Xiaolu's family, as long as this city is in hand, then this has self-evident benefits for boosting morale, once you give up, then morale will also drop greatly, when you give up Sakura Cave City, the morale of the army under your command will drop a lot, if you don't win a big battle, I'm afraid it will be difficult to recover, if you give up Sakura Cave City, then I don't know when such a blow will recover.

If it weren't for the morale of his subordinates, he could have found a deep mountain to hide temporarily, and then organized an offensive as soon as the Uesugi army withdrew, which would minimize the losses, and it would take ten days to go from Hida to Kasuga Mountain Castle, to say the least, it would take ten days, back and forth, plus a delay of one or two days, this is more than 20 days, the battle situation is changing smoothly, who knows if the Takeda family will suddenly join the war, it is really enough to cause headaches.

Thinking of this, I saw that the clan sect returned to the main seat and sat down, looking at the retainers who were meditating hard, although they also knew that in such a short period of time, it was impossible for the retainers under his command to come up with any good solutions, but the clan sect still couldn't help asking: "What do you think of the current battle situation?" ”

When the clan sect finished asking, he only heard Nakagawa Kiyohide be the first to speak: "My lord, my subordinates think that it is possible to attack Takayama Castle and Masuda Castle at the same time as ordering the Uchijima clan to withdraw from Matsukura Castle, as long as there is a battle to fight, the morale of the subordinates should not drop too much." ”…,

Maeda Toshiya shook his head and said: "My subordinates don't agree with Lord Nakagawa's opinion, even if you capture Takayama Castle and other cities, then the enemy will not defend the city as soon as the enemy comes, if you give up again, then the morale of the rest of your command will be more serious, so it's better to defend Matsukura Castle." ”

I only heard Sugitani Zenjubo echo casually: "Lord, my subordinates also think so, although the enemy has 4,000 troops, but if you add the Inner Island Army, the family has nearly 3,000 and a half, and there are cities to defend, so it is not a problem to repel the enemy army at all." ”

"Although it is not a problem to defend the city, but the combat power of the Uesugi army has probably been seen by everyone, and if it is faced face to face, then the family will also suffer heavy losses, so how should we face the Takeda army next?" Watanabe Moruna said thoughtfully.

After he finished speaking, the assessment room also fell silent again, and the retainers all knew that what was now in front of the Takayama family was a morale problem, and the other more important problem was that after the Ji Xiaolu family was eliminated, it was only equivalent to half of the completion of the Hida strategy, and there was still the Takeda family waiting for them behind.

Although the Uesugi army is also difficult to deal with, the purpose of their coming is to help the Ji Xiaolu family, since they have now let him know the truth, even if he doesn't have to fight, the other party will withdraw, but the Takeda family is different, the Takeda family is here for profit, once the enemy with the Takeda family, then the other party will definitely use all their strength, in this way, every time the family retains an extra part of the strength, the battle with the Takeda family will have more hope of victory, so it is necessary to reduce losses.

The Takeda family's military presence in Hida has been exhausted, and Takeda Shingen can still send troops to come, but the foundation of the family is too thin, if this army is really going to be exhausted now, it will really be over, so the retainers can't think about it carefully.