Chapter 151: The Wound of Turning Point (I)

Regarding the issue of the two prefectures of North Ise, Keimasa quickly got along with the way to deal with it. The method of this book is actually very simple, Kita-Ise has not participated in the war for a long time, and mainly relies on Mie Town for finances, so the annual tax levied on the peasants is only 40%, and the widows and lonely homes are even exempted; However, in Oda Nobuo's domain, due to his great ambition, he participated in many wars one after another, and the annual tribute collection ratio in the domain was as high as 70%. Jingzheng only needs to tell the people about this fact, and then instigated by the center, the people will set off a large-scale rebellion of the people to resist Nobuo's entry into these two counties for their own interests. And at this juncture, Nobuo definitely can't think of anything to suppress it, and maybe he has to guard against spreading into his own territory. Because in the past two years, due to his rampant conquest, the situation in Owari has been very tense.

Taking a step back, now that the big war is coming, even if he has the greed to force himself into the master, Hideyoshi will not allow him to waste his troops on suppressing it.

"His Majesty has sent a letter to Kiyoshu asking His Highness to cooperate with the Kiso River border to prevent the spread of a large scale to the country of Owari, and His Royal Highness Kiyoshu has agreed, and has temporarily given up his plan to enter the two prefectures...... His Majesty thought that this was already enough. It only needs to drag on this time, and when the family breaks Hideyoshi, there is no doubt about the ownership of the two counties of Kuwana and Yuanben. Jing Zheng reported to me.

Although I have a grudge against him, I really appreciate his work in seeing the opportunity. With some mixed feelings, I wrote to confirm his response this time, and asked him to lead the newly built Ueno Bei and Iga people to Yamato Province and join forces with Tsutsui Shunkei, so as to pacify the wealthy clans in the country and prevent any further accidents.

Such a tacit understanding between the Yamato Kingdom and the family can completely offset the influence of public opinion on the change of ownership in South Hanoi. And as the two families of Yura and Kira successively controlled Nanhanoi and Yamato, the contradictions between the two sides were finally put on the table and evolved into an open contest.

At the beginning of June, the three of Wakae in North Hanoi were persuaded by Ikoma to join the Yura family with him. Under the pretext of territorial disputes, Jing Xiu led his headquarters to attack Iyi Xuanzhi in South Hanoi, thus officially opening the prelude to the decisive battle between the two families. Jingxiu himself led 30,000 troops from the North Omi and South Omi under his command to advance to Shingui Mountain, on the one hand, as the backing of the three Wakae people, and on the other hand, he also controlled the border areas of Yamato and Hanoi to deter the Yamato side.

Hanoi Province is densely populated, the area is only about the size of Iga Province, and slightly larger than the two prefectures of Awaji Province, but it is divided into 16 prefectures. Since it was divided into two divisions, the north and the south, and belonged to the Miyoshi Yoshitsugu and Hatakeyama families, territorial disputes between the two sides have occurred from time to time, and later they fought for two or three years, accumulating a large number of contradictions. Now that Ikoma is using this as an excuse to start a war, Ii Xuanzhi has no way to stop it, and he has no strength to resist the more than 30,000 troops in front of him. After all, he has only been in Nanhanoi for a month, and it is impossible to control the wealthy clan in the territory, and the only thing he can rely on is the more than 1,000 wells he brought.

As a result, Iyi Xuanzhi simply gave up the city, defeated the 1,000 pioneers of Ikoma in the field battle, and then led his troops to "transfer" to the country of Izumi with a large number of heads, and joined the Xiujing of Quanzhou City. Jingxiu took advantage of the situation to occupy Takaya Castle, and stationed the people of Hanoi in the north to Shinguishan, relying on the remnants of Matsunaga Shu to monitor the Yamato side, and led 30,000 troops from North Omi and Minami Omi to invade Izumi and attack his biological father Xiujing and twin brother Xiuxing.

I'm not worried about Quanzhou Castle, with the strength of this giant city and the large amount of military rations and military materials that have been hoarded before, 30,000 people can't do anything about him, and even the moats (so-called ring moat cities) built during the Sakai period around Quanzhou Town can withstand it for a while. And Jingxiu's posture is probably more to draw a line with the family, show his heart to Hideyoshi, and hope that Hideyoshi will not mind his kinship with the Kira family, so as to consider the issue of heirs fairly.

Such a piece of information makes me very emotional. It seems that Xiujing is right, Jingxiu is indeed very good, and I am too conceited. With my eyes, I naturally understand how strong the strength of the family is, and how far apart the Yura family is from the family, but in the eyes of ordinary people, the Ishitaka controlled by the Yura family is not less than mine, although I have the name of the elder of the Genji family, Kyoto is controlled by the Yura family...... Jingxiu may also think so, so he chose the Yuliang family, and the last time he saw me, he was either to leave a way back, or it was simply perfunctory.

Fortunately, I have always sought stability and rarely bet on strategy, and this time I also did not expect Jingxiu to affect the predetermined strategy for this.

Since the Yura family started a war, then I will fight back.

My first target was the naval force of the Yura family in Settsu Province, and for this reason, I would cooperate with the Fuba Squadron and Iwamatsu Nozo of the Aki Province to set the tone and launch an attack on Konishi Yukinaga's headquarters. This is the battle I am most sure of winning, whether it is the strength of the naval army or the level of the main general, my family has an absolute advantage. And this is indeed the case, Iwamatsu Jingding quickly completed the strategy, completely destroyed the Yura family naval army, as the flagship of the naval army, "Seto Maru", because there was no naval gun, and could not get the cooperation of the rest of the ships, like a sick tiger that had its minions removed, along with the head of Konishi Yukinaga and others was captured. As a result, the battleship was able to return to its home and revert to its former name.

As soon as the Yura Naval Army was gone, the Honke once again completely controlled the Seto Inland Sea. I ordered Iwamatsu to go to Osaka Bay, get in touch with Quanzhou Castle, and then stationed on the spot to assist Quanshu Castle in defending against a possible attack by Jingxiu.

The situation of Zhou Fang and Anyun was not affected by the departure of the Fubo sub-fleet. More than 40,000 well-equipped troops, all of which have been inspected and integrated, have high morale, and are ordered to fight to the death, and the force that broke out is naturally very strong, and the leaders of this army, including Higo's Shimazu Iehisa, Maeda Toshiie, Sawaki Yoshiyuki, etc., Nagato's Shimazu Yoshihiro, Yamauchi Yasutoyo, Kawakami Tadaken, etc., Chikugo Tachibana Michiyuki, Takahashi Shaoyun, Tachibana Zhenhu (Somo), who performed prominently in the battle to pacify the countrymen, etc., Bungo's Otomo Yoshitomi, Yoshihiro Tongyuki (Takahashi Shaoyun's nephew, the last pillar of the Otomo family, He once defeated Kuroda Rusui Striker), etc., and concentrated most of the outstanding generals of the Shimazu and Otomo families. Although Mori Terumoto and Kobayakawa Takakei refused to give in, almost gave up the defense of Anyu and Beigo, and led all their troops to support Zhou Fangguo, but in the face of this army, the 30,000 people they cobbled together were really not enough, and they were soon forced to abandon Yamaguchi Takamine Castle and Matadagake Castle in the west of Zhou Fangguo (which had blocked Ouchi Teruhiro), and gave up the central Zhou defense that was not dangerous to defend, and withdrew the battle line to the eastern Shudu family territory, relying on the undulating mountain terrain and the two adjacent mountain castles of Lianhua Mountain Castle and Kurakake Mountain Castle. Only then did it temporarily block the alliance forces of Nagato, Higo, Chikugo, and Bungo.

However, when the Kitakyushu army of Shinkei captured the eastern part of Iwami, and then abandoned the western part of Iwami and its own logistics route, and directly invaded the western part of the Azumi country, the main force of the Mori family could not sit still. These three forces, whether it is attacking the empty Yamamoto Castle in Yoshida-gun to the east, or going all the way south to Itsukushima, cutting off the passage for the main force of the Maori family to return, and uniting with Otomo Yoshitomo in the west to flank them, are all consequences that they cannot bear. As a result, Mori Terumoto and Kobayakawa Takakei quickly abandoned their positions and withdrew to the castle before Shinkei moved south, and were surprisingly tightly surrounded.

What they could hope for now was that Motoharu Yoshikawa, Motokiyo Suita, and Soharu Shimizu would be able to hold the eastern part of the country, and drag it out until the Yura family made a big move. If this can be done, the family will have to relieve the siege of the mountain castle in Yoshida-gun, and gather forces to fight against the Yura family, and the situation of the Maori family will naturally get a great turnaround, and they can work together with the Yura family to deal with the family, and at worst, they can also find a relationship between the Yura family and the main family.

However, this expectation is not easy to achieve. While the family was winning on the Western Front, the Eastern Front also made great progress. Mimasakaku had already been taken, and Shikoku, Minamikyushu, and Bizen Ukidai joined forces and invaded Beizhong with a force of 80,000 troops, and soon swept the country, suppressing the power of the Mori family in two fortified castles, namely Shikoku Takamatsu Castle in the southeast Shimizu Soji and Mitsuchu Matsuyama Castle in the central part of Suizu Motokiyo, each with three or four thousand troops in each.

At this point, the defense system of the two branches of Mori and Kobayakawa has been dismantled, and they can only defend the isolated city, and the strategic plan of the family has been roughly achieved. The only thing left to organize the defense is Yoshikawa Motoharu of San'in, and the three kingdoms of Izumo, Hakuki, and Inaba that he is equipped with, and the two countries of Bichu and Misaku are separated by continuous Chinese mountains, and only the Chiyo River, Tenjin River, and Hino River are located in the three river valleys for the army to pass through, and at the end of the three river valleys, there is the famous Inaba Tottori Castle, Higashi Bo Kei Ishiyama Castle and Nishi Bo Keiyoko Castle, most of the Yoshikawa family's military strength is also mostly deployed in these three fortified castles, blocking the family from entering the coastal San'in Tottori Plain, The passage of Kurayoshi Hirano and Yonago Plain.

In the face of this favorable situation, the family can be said to be at ease on the Eastern Front. Specifically, there are three options. The first is to continue to attack Beizhong, as long as you capture either of the two cities of Takamatsu and Matsuyama, the rule of the Maori family in Beizhong will collapse, just as the Maori family quelled the Beizhong military rebellion, and when Bei China is pacified, the morale of the Maori family will be greatly damaged, and it will be difficult to hold on; The second is to bypass these two cities and directly invade the empty country of Beihou to the east, anyway, with the support of the naval army, there is no need to worry about the back road, and even advance all the way to the country of Anyu, and the army of the western front is in the mountain castle of Yoshida County, and force the Maori family to sign an alliance under the city; The third is to abandon Hoida Motokiyo and Shimizu Soharu and directly attack Yoshikawa Motoharu in San'in to eliminate the largest opposition of the Maori family. Considering that the Yura family was about to go out and that there was not much time left for the family, Hosokawa Shinyuki and Gamo Nobuhide chose the most trouble-free first plan after asking for instructions from the Shinkei side, and led 30,000 troops to surround Beizhong Takamatsu Castle and Beizhong Matsuyama Castle respectively. Of the remaining nearly 20,000 troops, Tosa was deployed on the border between Bichu and Hakui, and Uki's forces were deployed on the border between Mimasaka and Inaba, guarding Mimasakatsuyama Castle at the confluence of the Chiyo and Tenjin rivers and the Hino River valley in northern Beichu to prevent Yoshikawa Motoharu from going south to make trouble.

After a few days of siege, Hosokawa Shinyuki's family elder Kume Yoshitoyo and Higashitosa's guardian Daicho Sobe Yorito suddenly came to Tosa and came to Kira Castle to ask for an audience. I had just returned from the hunt and had not had time to change out of my hunting costume, and I was surprised that they had left the battlefield at this time, so I summoned them in my hunting suit.

As soon as the two of them saw me, they immediately fell prostrate on the floor and buried their heads deeply. This humble look made me a little unhappy: "Sit down and talk!"

People obey and respond, but they still maintain that posture.

I shook my head slightly. Really, haven't I explained, general things let them ask An Yun for instructions, and Xinjing can deploy and dispose of them in a unified manner? Besides, with the current situation, the Maori family can't even move, what else can be a big deal? Is it necessary to put on this posture?

"So, tell me what's going on!" I waved my hand slightly impatiently, "Is it Yoshikawa Motoharu going south, or is there something wrong with the war?" ”

"In the main hall, Yoshikawa Motoharu did not go south to support, and the war went very smoothly. On the side of Matsuyama Castle in this strategy, the peripheral Ape Castle, Kuda Castle, Kuniyoshi Castle and other branch cities have been conquered one after another, and only Tsurushou Castle is still in the strategy, and Matsuyama Castle is almost about to become a naked city. Yoshitoyo Kume reported to me.

"In that case, is it necessary to make a special trip back to ask for something?" I raised my voice slightly.

Unexpectedly, such a simple question made the two of them tremble. They exchanged colors, and then the elder sect and my department answered my question: "The Great Hall, it's the young master Jingzhong who is missing!" ”

"Missing?" I stood up in amazement, "What's going on!" Where did Jing Zhong go missing? ”

"It's in northern China...... His Royal Highness Kamikawa was originally left by the head of the family...... "Kume Yoshitoyo reported to me a little incoherently.

The whole thing starts with me giving the order to attack with all my might. When Shinyuki Hosokawa received this order, he immediately canceled the initial plan of Jingzhong and Jingyuki, and left the two by his side. For this decision, Jingzhi has nothing, but Jingzhong often complains to Hosokawa Shinyuki, feeling that it is a very humiliating thing to go out and not fight. However, due to Hosokawa Shinyuki's constraints, he could only stay in the main formation, and participated in the military meeting with Hosokawa Shinyuki and Jingyi, and then he simply didn't attend, and dragged Jingzhi, who was younger than him, around the camp all day long,! ~！