I made up my mind, and I sent an order to summon the envoy of the Chozong family, Takimoto Temple.

When he left, he was ordered to go out of the city to sue for peace, and it has been five days now, but I have not summoned him. Although he behaved very calmly, he must have been anxious to see the depression in the castle town, and the small and medium-sized wealthy clans of Takaoka and Wuchuan counties showing off their power outside the city. After all, the longer I besieged the city, the more severely the castle town was damaged, the greater the prestige of my family was lost, and the more detached the wealthy families in the territory became.

So when he received my summons, he immediately came to the house where I was temporarily stationed.

I was joined by Shujing and Kira for the meeting.

Counting this time, it is the third time that Takimoto Temple has met me. He politely greeted me and Xiujing, and finally turned to Kira and said respectfully: "It turns out that the young master of Qinzhen is also here......"

This is the name of Qinzhen when he was still in the family of Changzong. At that time, the national relatives were still the heads of the family. And here by Takimoto Temple is called out, obviously the meaning of ridicule.

Kira had already figured this out. He didn't respond to anything, and his face was very calm.

"Kinsada is a member of my Kira family, so I really don't deserve to be called that," I interrupted Takimotoji with a smile, "However, when I'm not in Tosa, Kinsada will manage the two counties of Takaoka and Ugawa on my behalf, and his status as His Royal Highness Chosho and my department is not much different...... So if there is another chance to see him, I hope His Royal Highness Takimoto Temple will not be lazy! ”

"That's a great way to congratulate!" Takimoto Temple's face changed slightly. He probably didn't expect that I would trust Kira so much.

Then, there was a brief silence between the two sides.

Takimoto Temple refused to speak, probably thinking that I was in some trouble and needed to draw troops as soon as possible, so he took the initiative to summon him in order to discuss the matter of peace. This kind of thinking cannot be said to be wrong, but in the current situation, I have the upper hand, and naturally I will not give up my favorable position in the negotiations.

As a result, he was defeated, and the old words were repeated: "Regarding the issue of peace between the two families, how did His Royal Highness the Captain Saemon think about it?" ”

"I remember, last year, it seems that there were a few conditions." I said slowly.

Takimoto Temple was really anxious at this time, he didn't care about being polite, and shouted loudly: "His Royal Highness Captain Saemon has been hanging the foreign minister for five days, and still refuses to show sincerity?" This is a loss of His Highness's integrity! ”

"Your Highness Takimotoji, please pay attention to your attitude?" Xiujing reminded.

"Yes. The foreign minister was rude," Takimoto Temple Fei also realized that he was too excited, and immediately softened his tone and owed a debt, "If His Royal Highness Captain Saemon insists, it is okay to take it out and discuss it." For example, the position of His Royal Highness can be recognized by the family; Hoshin-in-sama, I heard that I have already gone to Ise Province; There is also the matter of His Royal Highness Naobu Katsugano, His Royal Highness Captain Saemon may wish to ask Motonobu Katsugano for confirmation......"

This person is really cunning, and he takes the established facts as a concession from the Changzong family. Really, if I hadn't forced Yuan Qin to that level and tried to convince Qin Zhen himself, would he have left the Changzong family? As for taking it back to Baoxin Temple, that is not something that Changzong and my family can obstruct. There is also Katsugano Motonobu, although he is Naobu's son-in-law, but he doesn't know more about the attack on the mouth of the Niyodo River than me, and until now, Katsugano Naonobu's body has not been found.

However, he has this attitude of giving in, and it is enough, which is exactly what I need.

So I nodded in agreement and said, "Since His Royal Highness Takimoto Temple said so, then I'll take a step back!" The affairs of the Xiangzong family can be put aside for the time being and replaced with another condition. ”

"Please show His Highness the Captain Saemon." He seemed relieved. At least, the other wing of the Chozong family and the Kami County can be saved.

"When my father was hunting on the banks of the Niyodo River, he died due to a sneak attack by Maochen Benshan. Such a shameless act that goes against the demeanor of the samurai must not be left alone! …… Therefore, I hope that His Royal Highness will hand over the heir of Motoyama Maochen and let me dispose of it. I said in a deep voice.

"This ......" Takimoto Temple finally lowered his head after a little hesitation, "The foreign minister will present it to my lord, please wait for a while." ”

"Then I'll wait for the reply from His Highness Changzong and my department." I nodded.

When Takimoto Temple had to leave, Xiujing asked suspiciously: "Brother, can my family agree to this condition?" The son of Motoyama Maochen, Benshan Qinmao, is now not only an important minister in the family, but also the nephew of the Yuanqin! If he really handed it over, wasn't he afraid of losing the trust of his retainers? ”

"You think so, because you don't know the surname of the Yuan family," I laughed, "for him, family affection and righteousness are not very important things, if necessary, relatives and retainers can be discarded." ”

"Is that so?" Xiujing muttered to himself, his eyes subconsciously looking at Kira's relatives.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I might mind if I hear it, after all, I'm still a brother!" It dawned on me.

"Brother's surname is very clear below, and there is no need to remind the righteous brother," Kira Qinzhen smiled bitterly, "However, if you want to take revenge, in fact, the righteous brother has already done it." When it was said that the defender who died in the battle of Ninomaru in Lotus Pond Castle was Motoyama Shigekei, the second son of Maochen, who was originally sent to me by his brother. ”

"It's him!" I sighed, turned around and asked Xiujing, "When I said that you are the general of the front line, why didn't I hear you talk about it?" ”

"It's brother, you said you don't have to pursue it!" Xiujing said with hug.

"Ah, did I say anything like that?" I tried to think about it, and it seemed ...... That's true. At that time, my attention was focused on the Lord's in-laws and the castle tower that had been burned down.

"Looks like I was negligent." I laughed.

Xiujing shrugged his shoulders like me: "What about Maochen's eldest son?" ”

"My real name is Taro Sasada Shigeru, and after surrendering, I changed my name to Kin Shige......" Kira replied.

"By the way, he is also a close relative of Qinzhen," thinking of this relationship, I made a decision, "Since I have already won Maoqing, I can comfort my father, so I will let Qinmao go!" If Brother Ling Yuanqin really can't bear to hand over this cousin of his, how about making him your retainer? ”

"Brother Yi is so generous, thank you so much!" Kinzhen showed a grateful expression.

……，…… In the afternoon of this day, Xiangzong and my pro-Thai troops came to our office to sign an oath. I released Qin Mao in front of him and made him the elder of the family. Qin Mao solemnly thanked him, and stood very resolutely beside Ji Liang's relatives, which made Xiangzong and my relatives quite embarrassed.

Then, as my acting official in the two prefectures of Takaoka and Gogawa in Tosa Province, I signed an oath of peace with Shintai.

For my arrangement, Yoshinao Satake, Yoriwa Ike, Yoshihide Satake, and Tsuno Dingsheng have no opinion. They are very clear about Kira's chastity talents. In the family of Chosamune, I was in charge of the strategy of the two counties in the west, and if I hadn't intervened, the Satake Yoshinao brothers would have accepted his strategy and become his strength, and the retainers of the Tsuno family would have surrendered to him.

With this arrangement, I immediately withdrew from the siege of Okatoyo Castle and set out for Tosa Province.

In order to ensure the speed of the journey, I divided the water army into two parts. Part of it was the three land armies of the Standing Reserve, the Auxiliary Reserve, and the Reserve, and the 800 iron gunners of the Waquan people and the naval army, all of whom took the ships quickly and rushed to the Awa country with only a small amount of baggage; The other part was the transport force, centered on the slower Ataka ships, with the rest of the naval forces responsible for transporting most of the baggage.

In this way, the original five-day journey could be reached in three days by the Marine Army, which was the vanguard.

The Kumano Navy Detachment, which transports the Saga people, is mainly based on quickly closing the ship. And after they returned to Kii Province, they should have joined the Honganji Temple with the root of the people.

According to the intelligence, since the last time I attacked the Awaji line, Awa's Miyoshi family seems to have been keeping a close eye on the whereabouts of my water army. When I left Amwada Castle with 14,000 men, they were very worried for a while, but it wasn't until I landed in Tosa that they relaxed and established contact with the Chosho family. Two days ago, I finally decided to send troops, probably because I knew that I was besieging Okatoyo Castle, and then I received instant information from the Saga people that I would continue the siege, and even if I left Tosa Province, I would go directly to Izumi to help Nobunaga's main force, as I had agreed when I received the letter.

Perhaps they also thought that without the 5,000 men of the Saga and Kumano detachments, I would only have 9,000 troops left, including 3,000 naval troops, so the threat would be greatly reduced, and although there were only a few people left in Katsurui Castle in this place, as long as the remaining Ten Rivers Reservoir was prepared, it would be enough to block my attack.

No wonder they are so confident. Katsurui Castle is the first castle in Nankaido, and as early as the Kamakura period, it was the home of the Awa Province, which guarded the Ogasawara family. In the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the governor of the Hosokawa family, the then leader of the Hosokawa Kiyoshi clan and the second general Yoshikan rebelled, and according to the rebellion of the two countries of Awa and Sanki, the three brothers Hosokawa Yoriyuki, Yoriyou and Quanchun were ordered to crusade and defeated the Hosokawa Kiyoshi clan. So Hosokawa Yoriyuki inherited the position of the clan and soon succeeded to the leader; Hosokawa Kanharu obtained Awa Province and founded the Shimoyagata Awa Hosokawa family, and the victory in this battle increased the number of Katsurui Castles. For more than 200 years, the castle has been the political, economic, and cultural center of Shikoku through nine generations of the head of the Awa Hosokawa family, and has been passed down to the current head of the family, Hosokawa Shinyuki, who is the puppet of the Miyoshi family.

But what they don't think is possible, and now I'm going to show them it. This is the first city in Shikoku, and I am bound to win.

On the 24th of September, my vanguard of more than 7,000 people arrived in the country of Awa. But instead of going directly to attack Katsurui Castle, I attacked Myoki Mountain Raising Castle on the side of the Naruto Strait first.

The castle was an important place connecting Awaji and Awa, and later the Awa family became the owner of Awa and set up nine fortresses in the country, and the castle was one of them. However, because the Hosokawa family and the Miyoshi family have always been strong, and the opposite Settsu and Awaji are their traditional forces, the city has not received much attention, and it still is. The current lord of the castle, the Shinomiya clan, is just an inconspicuous small wealthy family, but it is from the same origin as the Miyoshi clan and the Ichinomiya clan, and they are all descendants of the Ogasawara clan that Awa guarded during the Kamakura period.

Due to the above reasons, as well as the fact that the army was out on an expedition, the defense of the city was not very good, and the number of defenders was not large. After only half an hour or so, we broke into the castle tower and took the small mountain castle.

In addition to the people who died in battle, as well as the castle lord Shinomiya Narumi, who was seppuku, there were more than eighty people in the city. I didn't embarrass these people, whether it was a samurai or an ashigaru, they all let things go. Then they all rushed to Shengrui City at once, on the one hand, to report the news, and on the other hand, to seek refuge.

Seeing these people who had gone to defect, the Shengrui Castle side was wary at first, but after confirming their identities, they immediately let them enter the city to replenish the strength of the defenders.

I smiled when I heard this report from the Hattori ninja, just as I expected. But the first step of my seizure of the city has already been completed.

Over the next day, I made frequent sorties, attacking Kizu Castle in Shinohara, Itano-gun, Tosabo Castle in Morimoto Village, and Himeda Castle in the Himeda Fuji family. And after I fell into the city, I also released all the captives, and they also went to Shengrui City.

On the third day, the follow-up navy carrying the baggage arrived in the country of Awa. I adjusted a little, and organized a well-formed naval army of 2,000 men to attack the various water villages on Awaji Island. After the rest of the army dismantled the defenses that had taken place in the castle, they continued to penetrate into the two prefectures of Meito and Meisai, and successively captured Iyama Castle in Shinohara-ukyo, Kamata Hikaru Kantoku Castle, Yano Castle in Yano Kunimura, and Imakiti Castle in Shinohara-nagahide, and so on, in the same way as the castles of Itano-gun.

Defend key passages, cut off support lines, and then uproot branch cities...... I just put on a posture like I'm going to close the door and hit the dog.

The Ten Rivers Depository of Shengrui City thought that he had seen through my strategy, so he was happier to collect people. Anyway, Shengrui City is very large, the army is well fed, and the only thing lacking is troops.

On September 27, I captured Shibahara Castle in Mingdong County.

The lord of this castle is a little special, the lord of the castle, Kume Yoshitoyo, whose mother is the daughter of Hosokawa Chitaka, that is, the half-sister of the Awa puppet guarding Hosokawa Mayuki, and his own sister is the first main room of Miyoshi Yoshiken. In the 22nd year of Tenmon (1552), Yoshihiro Miyoshi and his younger brother Ichigen Tokawa killed Hosokawa Chitaka, angering his father-in-law and father Yoshihiro Kume. At the beginning of the following year, Yoshihiro, in his capacity as the son-in-law of Hosokawa Mochitaka, summoned Noda Uchi, the lord of Noda Mountain Castle, the lord of Hideki Castle, the general of Eijo Shogun, the lord of Sano Suga Castle, Sano Tango, and the lord of Zomoto Castle, Kokura Shigenobu, and others, and gathered more than 2,000 people to crusade against Miyoshi Yoshiken. They first attacked Miyoshi Yoshiken's sister-in-law, Ichinomiya Castle Lord Ichinomiya Chengyu, but Miyoshi Yoshiken led 3,000 people to copy the back road, Kume Yoshihiro, Noda Uchi, Kokura Shigenobu and others were successively begged to death.

However, at that time, the influence of the Awa guardian Hosokawa family in the Awa country was still very strong, and Hosokawa Mayuki, the son of Chitaka, succeeded to the position of Awa guardian, while Miyoshi Yoshiken controlled the Awa Hosokawa family in the name of guardian. Considering the stability of the territory, and perhaps the main room who committed suicide (the daughter of Yoshihiro Kume), Yoshiken Miyoshi allowed the Kume family to keep the territory. And Yifeng also surrendered to the Miyoshi family with interest, and then followed Miyoshi Yixian to fight in various places as a powerful wealthy family.

However, after the death of Miyoshi Yoshiken, the successor Miyoshi Nagaji and Hosokawa Shinyuki got along more and more stiffly, if it weren't for the constraints of the two of their mothers, the Okatatsu Hall (that is, the side room of Zhitaka and the first beauty of Shikoku Okamoto Little Major General, who became the main room of Yoshiken, and was called the Okataden Hall after becoming the main room of Yoshiken), plus the coordination of Nagaji's Gomi Shinohara Nagafang in the center, the two would have fallen out long ago.

In this case, Miyoshi Nagaji naturally disliked this nephew of Hosokawa Shinyuki. In this expedition to Shikoku, the powerful wealthy clans in the territory, Ichinomiya Chengyou, Onishi Yoritake, Umibe Tomomitsu (all three of whom are Miyoshi Nagakei's sisters-in-law), Onishi Terutake, and Shinkai Motomi, etc., all went into battle, but Kume Yoshitoyo was left to watch his family.

Although I have been treated unfairly like this, I don't think Kume Yoshitoyo will definitely cooperate, but as long as I only want him as an identity, it is enough.

Many times, no matter what he thinks, as long as he has a certain identity, there is a lot of room for use, and he will definitely be used. From a small wealthy family with an embarrassing position like Yoshitoyo Kume to Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who was a shogun, he couldn't escape such a fate...... Sure enough, when I asked him to cooperate with me in capturing Shengrui City, he immediately refused.

"Therefore, His Royal Highness Fengqian Shou (Miyoshi Yixian) is kind to the subordinates, and he can't do such a thing in the subordinates." He said with a firm expression.

"Then there is no way," I sighed, time is pressing, the time is rare, I don't have so many patience to slowly persuade now, "Hanzo, I'll leave it to you to persuade!" Injuries are allowed, but not fatal. ”

"Yes." Hattori Hanzo agreed expressionlessly.

I also ordered Joto Kazuki to take a pen and paper, and in front of Kume Yoshitoyo, write down the words "Add 5,000 stone to the name of the Kume family", draw a flower and hand it to Hattori Hanzo, and then explain to him: "This territory is in the shape of a line, as well as the wives and children of His Highness Kume, and I have also handed it over to you, so you can do whatever you want." ”

"Yes." Hattori Hanzo took the paper, still expressionless.

So I left the room.

Half an hour later, Hattori Masanari came to report to me: "His Royal Highness Kume is willing to help my family. ”

"Thank you for your hard work," I nodded, and couldn't help but ask, "Is His Highness Kume okay?" ”

"It's fine." Hattori replied.

I'd love to ask again, but what he said was "good" like that. However, considering the urgency of the military situation, I let go of this little gossip thought.

In the afternoon of the same day, Kume Yoshitoyo led more than 200 people to Katsurui Castle.

(To be continued)