Chapter 175 Encroachment step by step

On the first day of the new year, except for the Oda family, most other forces will also hold a year-end or New Year's assessment meeting on this day. After all, this is the beginning of a new year, and everyone has to make arrangements for the next year's work. And the Matsudaira family, which borders the territory of the Oda family, is of course no exception.

In the assessment room of the Okazaki Castle Castle Tower, Matsudaira Motoyasu sat firmly on the main seat, although his face still looked very calm, but his mood was swept away from the haze of the past few days, and he became very happy.

Since a few months ago, he and the envoy sent by the Takeda family, Nobuyoshi Anayama, negotiated the strategy of the two families to jointly send troops to divide the two countries equally, and secretly formed an alliance, and began to plan, but although the current situation in Mikawa has been basically pacified, the power of the Imagawa family has also withdrawn from Mikawa Province with the demise of the Ichijo clan in Mikawa. However, because only a few months have passed, and now Mikawa has not completely stabilized, and the Matsudaira army suffered extremely heavy losses in the last battle, Matsudaira Motoyasu did not directly lead his army eastward to take Yuanjiang, but retreated in Okazaki Castle to recuperate.

Matsudaira Motoyasu knew in his heart that if he wanted to take Yuanjiang in one go, he must accumulate enough strength, otherwise, even if Yuanjiang was captured by himself, there was absolutely no possibility of holding it, as for who was the enemy? Matsudaira Motoyasu knew very well in his heart that it was not Imagawa, but Takeda Shingen, who was entrenched in Kai and Shinano and was known as the Tiger of Kai.

In his opinion, Takeda Shingen is like a jackal, since he can conspire with himself and seize the foundation of the Imagawa family who has been in the alliance for many years, and after the family borders on it, with the huge gap between the family and the Takeda family, if he does not come to attack, Matsudaira Motoyasu feels a little incredible.

In terms of the strength of the family, when the time comes, if Qi Zhen leads the army to attack, how can he be able to block the attack of the Takeda family? Although Matsudaira Motoyasu has never really seen the Red Preparation Battle, but it has long been famous for it, if the two families really start a war, I am afraid that as long as the Takeda family Red Preparation is a surprise attack, the military strength of the family will collapse on the whole line, so in the past few months, in addition to feeling a headache, he also began to try to separate the soldiers and peasants in the family, and prepare for the big battle with the Takeda family in the future.

He also knew that if the family implemented the separation of soldiers and peasants, it would inevitably reduce the strength of the army, but if they wanted to gain vitality under the circumference of the great powers, then there was no other way than to separate the soldiers and peasants and order the sword hunt.

Everyone in the Matsudaira family knew that it was wishful thinking to resist the Takeda family, which would become an enemy in a short period of time, with only a few peasant soldiers and a small number of banners.

Because Matsudaira Motoyasu has made it very clear to the retainers and vassal nobles in the family, these people also feel that this matter cannot be delayed for a long time, and they also know that the current family's finances are very tight, so they have expressed their understanding that the lord has not rewarded himself for the time being, and Matsudaira Motoyasu has also promised that after capturing Yuanjiang, he will double the reward himself, and the retainers and vassal nobles saw the lord's promise, and gradually put down the matter, and they all looked forward to the Matsudaira family going out as soon as possible.

But even if the retainers and wealthy families don't want to be rewarded, the Matsudaira family's funds are still stretched, and they can't make ends meet, and the rest of the money is only enough for him to compile and train 800 banners at most. In front of the powerful Takeda family, this flag will not play any role at all, so he does not dare to enter the Yuanjiang River now, lest he come into contact with the Takeda family too early.

However, although the Matsudaira family has no intention of sending troops to Yuanjiang for the time being, they have not let it go, but have been making small moves in Yuanjiang. Soon after Mikawa had just been pacified, Matsudaira Motoyasu sent Okubo Tadayo, Ishikawa Shumasa and other eloquent ministers to Enoe secretly, and their task (*) was to go to Toe to return to those wealthy clans whose territory was closer to Mikawa Province, and began to implement a policy of encroachment on the Imagawa family step by step.

Now even outsiders can see that the Imagawa clan is really weak and incompetent, how can its vassal wealthy families and subordinate ministers not see it? Therefore, when Okubo Tadashi and Ishikawa Shumasa arrived at Enoe, it took no effort at all, and it only took more than a month to return all the strength of the seven or eight wealthy families in Insosa-gun, so that the Matsudaira family also won the dominance of Insa-gun without blood, which also marked Matsudaira Motoyasu's first step out of Mikawa country. ,

However, after learning the news, the Imagawa clan did not immediately take effective measures, but only sighed every day, lamenting the impermanence of the world, and his retainers advised him for days, but he was still unmoved. Now that the retainers of the Imagawa family are all chilled, in addition to those wealthy families who have been retired, there are also a large number of samurai who are also looking for a way out for their future.

Insagun borders Mikawa country, so there is no problem in control, and in addition to these wealthy families who have been submitted, in the country of Yuanjiang, the direct ministers of the Imagawa family saw that Matsudaira Motoyasu had put his hand into the Yuanjiang, so some samurai who were not very happy in the Imagawa family also threw themselves into the arms of Matsudaira Motoyasu, and this trend has been difficult to stop, as time passes, more and more people express their submission, if you count it, the Matsudaira family has occupied more than 20% of the land of Yuanjiang, tens of thousands of stones.

And now, Matsudaira Motoyasu sat on the main seat, he was looking at the two people kneeling in the middle of the assessment room, one of them was in his twenties, I saw him with thick eyebrows and big eyes, upright facial features, wearing a black tic-tac-toe shirt with a red background, and was bowing his head respectfully waiting for Matsudaira Motoyasu to speak.

And next to him, there is a child who looks to be only four or five years old, these two are the Toe wealthy family, the head of the Ii family, Ii Naoqin and his son Akayasha, and the purpose of his coming today is to have abandoned the Imagawa family and pledged allegiance to Matsudaira Motoyasu, the reason why he was able to take the initiative to come to Shun when the lobbyists sent by the Matsudaira family had not yet gone to his territory, it was because the power of the large and small wealthy families separated from the Matsudaira family had all surrendered to the Matsudaira family, and if the family was not obedient, When Matsudaira Motoyasu attacked Enoe, his own territory would bear the brunt of the attack and become the first to be attacked, and if this was the case, the family would not be far from destruction.

So Ii Nao made up his mind that instead of waiting for the envoy of the Matsudaira family to come, it was better to take the initiative himself, so as to win the benefits of the drunk, and in order to gain Matsudaira Motoyasu's trust, he even brought hostages with him this time, and this hostage was the child next to him, and this person was the famous Ii Naomasa in the future.

It was precisely because Ii Naoqin returned to the Matsudaira family earlier than in history that he avoided the fate of dying and having his family business taken away because of the failure of the suspected assassination of Imagawa Yoshimoto.