By the end of July, the Seto Inland Sea had been largely cleared, and the navy was able to free up their hands. I turned my attention back to Kitakyushu and focused on the port of Hakata in Chikuzen Province, the port of Hirado in northwestern Hizen Province, and the port of Nagasaki in southwestern Hizen.

These three ports are important gateways to Kyushu's foreign trade, and the forces to which these three ports belong are an important link in controlling Kitakyushu.

Needless to say, the Port of Hakata has been an important base for exchanges with the Bohai Sea and the mainland since Dazaifu was in charge of Kyushu during the Heian period, and in modern times it is still the most prosperous port west of Osaka, and Fukuoka City, where it is located, has always been the most prosperous area in the Kyushu region. As far as the previous Muromachi period and the current Sengoku period are concerned, which one controls this port, then the strength will definitely jump to a higher level, such as the Ouchi family, the Otomo family, and the current Akizuki family.

Hirado Port in the northwestern part of Hizen Province is the territory of the Matsuura family, or the territory of the Hirado Matsuura family, which is next to the Shimomatsuura family in the Matsuura Party. This family had a similar position to the Chikuzen Akizuki family, the Chikugo Kamachi family, and the Higo Kikuchi family, all of whom were members of the Hei family, and Minamoto joined the Minamoto family during the war, so they became subordinates of the Kamakura shogunate. However, neither Minamoto Yoritomo nor the Hojo family trusted them very much, so they sent the three families of the Kanto Imperial Family, Shotsu, Otomo, and Shimazu, to serve as guardians of the northern, central, and southern parts of Kyushu, respectively. This pattern was also recognized by the Muromachi shogunate, and has been followed until now, for more than 500 years. After such a long time, the Matsuura family has long been divided into a mess, and there are more than 30 kinds of genealogies, and the contents of the records are very different, so it is almost impossible to find out the correct genealogy. However, the difference between relatives and relatives is more important now, and then, relying on the huge trade income of Hirado Port and Nanban merchants, Matsuura Takanobu of the Hirado Matsuura family quickly suppressed the entire Kita-Matsuura Peninsula and established the largest power in the northwestern part of Hizen.

The last port of Nagasaki was the shortest of the three ports, and it was officially opened on April 27, 1571, the second year of Motokame, eight years ago. In the past, due to the war between the Ouchi family and the Mori family, and the Mori family and the Otomo family, the port of Hakata was severely damaged, and even the church of the church was damaged by the war, so for several years, the Portuguese only had one port to berth. Perhaps seeing this, Matsuura Takanobu became arrogant towards the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and the Church, breaking many of his initial promises, causing the Portuguese to move south and find the new port of Nagasaki. Juntada, Omura, of the Omura family, welcomed the arrival of the Portuguese, and immediately promised to give the area around Nagasaki to the Church (which he fulfilled in 1580), converted himself to God, and destroyed many temples and shrines, including Omura's Bodhi Temple (he himself came from the Arima family), thus causing a large-scale rebellion in the domain. However, now that he has been subordinate to the Ryuzoji family, relying on the power of the Ryuzoji family to suppress the rebellion in the territory, as a price, the three sons of his family, except for his sister-in-law Omura Kizen, were all sent to the Ryuzoji family as hostages.

The Ryuzoji family has a general way of ruling over the subordination of the wealthy clans outside the eight eastern prefectures of Hizen. It can be seen that the so-called "Wuzhou Taishou" of Longzoji Takanobu is too much water. In eastern Hizen, he relied on kinship, and even his own mother was married to the Nabeshima family by him at the age of forty-seven, so as to pull the Nabeshima family into his own door. Although this is a bit disgraceful, but the effect is real, when the 60,000 troops of the Otomo family besieged Saga Castle, his retainers were shaken, but they received the resolute support of the Nabeshima family, and relied on the raid of the righteous brother Nabeshima Nobuo (Naoshige) to kill the general of the Otomo family, Otomo Sorin's brother Otomo Kinada, thus gaining great prestige in Kitakyushu, and the wealthy clans who suffered from the invasion of the Otomo family have thrown themselves into his command to seek refuge, and the power of the Ryuzoji family has also grown like a snowball.

However, a snowball is a snowball after all, and if you bump it slightly, it will immediately collapse. Ryuzoji Takanobu himself understands this, and in recent years, he has repeatedly carried out purges in his sphere of influence in an attempt to consolidate his foundation. But he did not expect that with the cohesion between the forces under him, it would not be able to withstand this kind of beating, for example, the more a building built on sand, the more it tossed, the more likely it is to settle and overturn.

Among the families currently ruling Sangang, the Qiuyue family's power is not weaker than that of the Ryuzoji family, and they only maintain a superficial subservience to Longxin, and they don't even send a hostage; Matsuura Takanobu and Zhenxin father and son are smart people, whether they were throwing in the dragon to build a temple before, or later in history in the history of Shimazu, Toyotomi, and Tokugawa, they did not hesitate at all, in the face of the threat on the sea and the overall situation, he should make the right choice; As for Omura Juntada, it is estimated that it is difficult to have any loyalty to the Ryuzoji family, and in the historical battle of Okita, when he followed the Ryuzoji family on the expedition, because there was a family of Arima who was a relative on the opposite side, he ordered the iron artillery team to be free of loading projectiles, and set off expensive fireworks on the battlefield...... Moreover, he had a close relationship with the Church of Portugal, which was also very useful.

Since we don't plan to send troops on a large scale now, it should be a good choice to threaten the three families of Hakata, Hirado, and Nagasaki with a naval army, so that they can turn their backs on Ryuzoji Takanobu and dissolve the power of Ryuzoji from the periphery.

In view of this policy, the father and son of Iwamatsu Jingding and Iwamatsu Jingjing soon went into battle. With the frigate Fuba as the main force, they led more than 600 warships and more than 5,000 men from Imabari Port to sail westward, and soon passed through the Kanmon Strait and reached the waters of the Saimoto Sea between the Korean Peninsula and Honshu. According to the itinerary, they will arrive at the three ports of Hakata, Hirado and Nagasaki, and send envoys to Akizuki, Matsuura and Omura respectively. The use of force may also be limited if necessary.

However, before the news of Hakata could come, good news had already come from Shimazu Iehisa's side: the Aso family had surrendered to the main family.

The good news came so quickly that I was a little skeptical. The Aso family currently controls the eastern part of the northern higo, and the actual stone height is close to 100,000 stones, and it is the orthodox (divine descendant) of the Aso country, and the Omiya Division who has served as the Aso Shrine for nearly a thousand years, no matter in terms of strength or reputation, it shouldn't be so careless? It wasn't until two days later that the detailed battle reports from Shimazu Iehisa and Nobuhide Satake came back that my doubts were relieved.

It's a bit of a drama. Since the civil strife of the Aso family decades ago, the various branches have been extinct one after another, and among the clans, only Aso Weifeng and his son Weijiang, and Weizhong father and son are left. Wei Feng died 20 years ago, and his eldest son, Aso Wei, is currently serving as the family governor. As of this year, Wei Jiang has reached the age of 60, and there is not much time, but he has not given birth to any heirs, and the only person who can inherit the family business is his forty-year-old brother Aso Weizhong, however, Aso Weizhong also has no heirs now (his sister-in-law Weiguang was born two years later), which is the biggest hidden danger of the Aso family at present.

More than half a month ago, the old Kai Muneun of the Aso family's pen head family went out from Mifune Castle to try to recapture Kenshida Castle, which was occupied by the Kitashimazu family, but not only did not get his wish, but instead lost his number one retainer Tayo Muneden and a large number of ashigaru, and the situation in Mifune Castle became tense. In desperation, he had no choice but to ask the master's family for reinforcements, and the head of the family, Aso Yu, heard the news and immediately ordered his younger brother Aso to lead 3,000 troops to the Imperial Boat Castle to support.

At this time, it was already close to the busy farming season, and the autumn harvest was about to start in various places, so both the samurai and the ashigaru couldn't help but complain about going into battle. Shimazu Iehisa's people collected complaints from everyone at the castle town izakaya, and soon found out the information about the commander, strength, and time of the reinforcements, and passed the news to Shimazu Iehisa. After discussing with Nobuhide Satake, Shimazu Iehisa immediately suspended the attack on Mifune Castle, divided 400 cavalry and 600 iron cannons, and Shimazu Iehisa personally went to the route of reinforcements to set up an ambush. Aso Yuzen's reinforcements were caught off guard and were dizzy by the iron cannon on the half-slope, and most of his subordinates immediately fled, and then Shimazu Iehisa took the opportunity to lead a cavalry assault and killed a large number of samurai of the Aso family, and Aso Yuzen himself died under the sword of Shimazu Iehisa.

When the news reached Asu's family, the head of the family, Asu, was certainly blinded, and the minds of his retainers were also active. Now that he is old, Asu Wei, who died in battle, can be said to be the only reasonable heir of the Aso family at present, and his death, the lineage of the Aso family is equivalent to extinction, and then wait for the partial branch families to snatch the name of the clan and cause chaos in the family like a few decades ago...... However, at the current juncture of the current and repeated setbacks of the great enemy, can the Aso family still afford such a toss? Obviously, the answer is no. Not to mention the civil strife, even if you go all out, it will be difficult to block the attack of Shimazu Iehisa and Minami Higo.

After such consideration, the retainers quickly made a decision to surrender to the Kira family, which was the most threatening and powerful ...... to their family, in place of the aging Aso Yuisho. I nodded, and handed the battle report to Maeda Toshinaga, "Take it to the study and file it!" Then an order was drafted to let the Shimazu family temporarily serve as the guardian of the Northern Higo and preside over the affairs of the Aso family. When the situation stabilizes a little, he will appoint an adopted son for Aso Yui, who will succeed him as the head of the Aso Shrine Omiya. ”

"Is it for His Highness Shimazu to appoint? Such an important matter......" Maeda Toshinaga asked suspiciously.

"Yes, it can be appointed by Shimazu Iehisa. From now on, the Aso family will concentrate on the duties of the Aso Shrine, and they will no longer have to worry about the affairs of the territory. ”

"Understood." Maeda Toshinaga nodded in response.

"In addition, let Kikuchi Takeshige of Mimizu Castle go to Kitahi, replace Shimazu Iehisa as the lord of Katata Castle, and participate in the raid against the Kikuchi family's retainers in the western part of Kitahigo." I continued.

"Do you want His Highness Kikuchi to rule the old land of the Kikuchi family?" Toshinaga Maeda quickly understood my intentions.

"That's a good idea, that's exactly what it is. Go ahead! I smiled and nodded to him.

"Yes." After receiving my approval, Maeda Toshinaga immediately went happily.

What a clever child! Let him succeed Satake Nobuhide, originally mainly to win over and bind the Riya family, after all, his relationship with Nobunaga is extraordinary, and he is very cautious, and he has a good relationship with many colleagues, including Shibata, Niwa, and Yura, and is a person who can come in handy. It's just that I didn't expect that Li Chang did a really good job.

As for Kikuchi Takeshige, whose original name was Yonera Shigehide, I asked him to change his surname to the clan family through Niwa Zhangshu at the beginning, just so that it could play a role in attacking the old land of the Kikuchi family. Today's Kikuchi family, not only the heir of the clan, but also the name is dead, at the end of the period, several generations of family governors are usurped by other families. In comparison, the Maihara family, where Kikuchi Takeshige was born, is quite famous (inheriting the name of the Kikuchi family and the baronial title during the Meiji Restoration), so with the support of the Oda family or the Kira family, it will not be too much of a problem to lead the old leader of the Kikuchi family.

At this time, the attendants came to report that the news sent by the navy had arrived.

"What about Hakata and the Akizuki family?" I asked. Calculating the time, at this time, the news of the navy should have been sent back a long time ago, and the news of the navy should be faster than the land route.

"Yes." The attendant respectfully handed over a seal with the whale wax seal of the Iwamatsu family.

I opened it and saw that the letter was a report from Iwamatsu Jingding to the envoy Qiuyue's family. He said that when he first received our envoy, Qiu Yue's attitude was very eager, and he did not express any objection to our request, but only warmly asked the envoy to stay for a longer time; However, when he heard that the Aso family had surrendered to us, he immediately changed his attitude and sent our envoy back to the ship.

Is this the reaction? I'm a little puzzled, shouldn't we be more eager to get good news from us? How did you suddenly turn your face?

What is the reason for this abnormal pattern of behavior?

…… I suddenly thought of Araki Murashige in Settsu.

recalled the process of making a fortune in Akizuki, and it was really similar to the Araki family, and he and Araki Murashige were both very good at taking advantage of the situation. When the Mori family invaded Kitakyushu, he attacked the Otomo family in the name of the Mori family, and almost wiped out the rest of the clan of Toji Kanren; Later, he surrendered to the Otomo family, and invaded the nearby wealthy clans in the name of the Otomo family; When the Ryuzoji family rose, he changed his court and encroached on the territory of the Otomo family under the command of the Ryuzoji family. After many years of this management, the Akizuki family now controls territories that span the three kingdoms of Bunzen, Chikuzen, and Chikugo, and has grown into one of the largest forces in Kitakyushu.

Now, however, after pacifying southern Kyushu, I have quickly pacified Higo Province, and I have shown signs of unifying the whole of Kyushu. In this way, his way of taking advantage of the situation will not be effective, so I am ready to take advantage of the current chaos to fight me the most, just like Araki Murashige did to Nobunaga.

There is no doubt that his next move will definitely be to strengthen the Ryuzoji family, and Ryuzoji Takanobu to attack Shimazu Iehisa and Otomo Sorin, respectively, in order to weaken our forces and continue the stalemate. Even the Maori family may be drawn into this union.

Perhaps, something is in trouble......

(To be continued)