……，…… With this in mind, I soon began work on the reconstruction of Bodhi Temple, with Honda Masanobu as the general commissioner. With his and Ashina Hyotaro's cleverness, he must have understood the arrangement I had anticipated for Hyotaro.

Then within a few days, Caicai and Xiaoxia gave birth to children one after another. Nana was born to a boy, and of course I named it Keishiro. The retainers were very happy about this, so that even if something misfortune happened to Keijiro, there would be no dispute in the family over the choice of a new heir, because the child was on top. His name is higher than all the other concubines.

Xiao Xia gave birth to another girl, which made her a little disappointed. According to the meaning of Baoxinyuan, she should give birth to a boy in order to succeed the Kamikawa family.

Seeing that she was depressed, I deliberately picked up my newborn daughter Mingjin in front of her, pretended to be very worried, and said, "What should I do!" You can't let Keitaro inherit it, right? ”

Xiao Xia thought that I was really worried about the inheritance of her Shangchuan family's family name, but she cleaned up her mood and comforted me wholeheartedly: "Your Highness, my daughter is also very good." Don't you like your daughter very much? ”

"That's a good word. But aren't you disappointed that you don't have a family name to inherit? I asked deliberately.

"But it's a lovely kid anyway! As for whether the child is male or female, it is up to the gods and Buddhas to decide. She tried to argue, as if to convince herself.

"Is that so?"

"Yes!" She nodded earnestly.

"I see, you must have done it on purpose!" I suddenly said solemnly.

"Huh?" She stared blankly at me.

"Then it can't be helped," I sighed, "and we'll have to try a few more times!" ”

"Oops! Your Highness is so annoying! She sneered, her hands covering her flushed face.

Suddenly a maid came to the door. She knelt by the door and bowed her head to report: "Your Highness, Lord Baoxinyuan of the Jingliuli Courtyard sent someone to ask Your Highness to go to the meeting." ”

I guess I want to ask about the condition of the two children! She is a monk and it is not convenient for her to visit her children before the age of a month. Or, just want to ask about the progress of the construction of the Bodhi Temple...... "So I went first?" ”

"Your Highness, go down!" Xiao Xia looked up, her face still flushed.

"Huh! What a stupid woman. I rubbed her hair and walked out of the room.

When I came to Jingliuliyuan, Baoxinyuan really asked about the child and Bodhi Temple, and I answered her one by one.

Then, she shouted to the side hall: "Shiro left! ”

The door to the side hall opened, and two people walked in. One is Ikeshiro Saemon Yoriwa, and the other is Xiujing who accompanies him.

"Xiujing! How did you get back from Kishiwada Castle...... It turns out that the brother of the Chi family is also here? It's a blessing. I greeted me cordially, and at the same time understood the reason why Xiujing came back.

"Lai He meets His Royal Highness the City Lord." Chi Yori-ho saluted me with some embarrassment.

"Brother Shiro Zuo doesn't have to be like this," Xiujing's attitude was also very kind, "In front of my mother, let's just talk about kinship!" ”

"Not bad. You're welcome. I smiled and nodded.

As I spoke, I cast an inquiring look at Xiujing. He nodded slightly, and then gestured in the direction of the Treasure Heart Temple. So I realized that it was Hidekyi who met with Chi Yoriwa at Kishiwada Castle, and then made an idea for him, accompanied him to Mie Castle, and met with me through Hoshin-in.

“…… That Lai He will obey his fate," Chi Lai He hesitated for a moment, and bowed to call, "His Royal Highness Xuanjing." ”

"Speak! I'm tired, so I'm going to rest for a while. Baoxinyuan said with a smile. Ah Ming, who was waiting beside him, immediately stood up and helped Baoxin Courtyard into the inner room. There were only three of us left in the hall.

I looked at Chi Laihe and saw that he looked a little depressed, and quickly guessed the general reason.

"Lai and his brother have come from a long way, has there been any change in the family?"

"Exactly," Chi Yoriwa sighed, "His Royal Highness suspected me of being disloyal, so he forcibly ordered me to live in seclusion and give up the position of head of the family to my sister-in-law, Rokumatae. Moreover, even Rokuemon is just a puppet, and all the housekeeping is in the hands of the old Ike Bagoro. ”

"Chimangoro?" I have a little impression of this person, I have heard Iwamatsu Jingding say before, "...... Is that the person who advocated taking refuge in Changzong's family and killing the old Yan Song Jingzhong in the family? ”

"yes!"

"I see," I nodded, "Lai and brother want me to help you get the throne of your family, right?" ”

"It's okay to be the head of the house, and it's okay for Rokuemon to take over. It's just that Wan Goro's ability is limited, and his equipment is small, and he can't accommodate people with different opinions in the family, and with him in charge of housework, the Chi family is likely to lose unity until it falls apart! Chi Yoriwa said this, and lay down in front of me, "After this incident, and later the assassination of Mangoro, I have been completely disappointed in His Royal Highness Motokin...... Therefore, I formally asked His Highness to send troops to help. After that, whether he is the head of the family in Shimoto or Rokuemon, the Ikeke family will submit to His Highness. ”

"It's no problem to send troops to help," I agreed to his request, and then asked, "It's rare that you just left Nagazong's family and came from Tosa Province, can you tell me about the recent situation in the country?" ”

"There are some things worth mentioning...... Chi Laihe nodded and went on in detail.

In the year since my last withdrawal, the most significant event in Tosa was the capture of Hasuike Castle by Kira Kinsada. This castle is the first fortified castle in Takaoka County, and the lord of the castle is the head of the Tsuno family, who married the daughter of Ichijo Kaneji as his stepfamily, and the head of the Tsuno family, Tsuno Seikatsu. In order to defend the city, the Ichijo family also specially sent a small number of people such as Hirao Shinjuro, Doi Jibu, and Okiya Toji to help defend the castle and be responsible for monitoring the Tsuno family. However, these three people are the culprits of the fall of Lotus Pond City. They accepted Kira's persuasion and assisted Kira to capture Hasuike Castle as an internal officer. Subsequently, Kira took advantage of the situation to march and captured the Ichijo family Toba Castle, approaching the territory of Hata-gun.

Because of this incident, there was a lot of turmoil in the Tsuno family's house. Most of the retainers have lost confidence in the Ichijo family and tend to move closer to the Changzong family. The more radical ones even demanded that Tsuno Dingkatsu immediately send out of the main room of the Ichijo family, or hand over the position of head of the family to the son-in-law born to the previous main room, and immediately surrender to the Nagamune family.

In addition, the Tosa Satake family also deviated from the Ichijo family, and the lord of Kurei Castle, Yoshinao Satake, and the lord of Kamikae Castle, Yoshihide Satake, successively expelled the people who were stationed in the castle by the Ichijo family. Citing the fall of Hasuike Castle, they claim that the Ichijo family's castle in the two castles could not be trusted either.

"Lotus Pond City, ......," I sighed with nostalgia. The reason why I left Tosa in the first place was because of what happened to Hasuike Castle. At the same time, it was also the place where Iwamatsu Jingding and I first met.

"I didn't expect that after some tossing and turning, Changzong and my family still have the ability to capture Lotus Pond City!" Xiujing exclaimed.

"Actually, the main reason for the fall of Lianchi City is the Ichijo family. There are not many people led by Kira Qinsada, and if it weren't for the betrayal of the castle sent by the Ichijo family in Lotus Pond Castle, it would be impossible to capture Lotus Pond Castle. Moreover, Tsuno Takatsu also asked the Ichijo family for reinforcements in advance, but the Ichijo Imperial Palace did not send any troops. ”

"After that, the Ichijo family didn't try to regain the lost ground?" I asked.

"Yes. However, the Chozong family did not continue to attack, and took the initiative to reach a peace with the Ichijo family. Chi Yorihe replied.

"A home is no longer possible. However, I am afraid that the family of Changzong and my department will not be able to attack in the past two years. "I quickly judged the reality of the Tosa two powers.

"Then there will be no obstacle to sending troops to help Brother Shiro's left!" Xiujing said with relief.

"No," I shook my head, "I decided to take Hasuchi City and the surrounding areas and give it to Lai He as a territory. ”

"Lotus Pond Castle...... Is it? Chi Yorihe didn't turn a corner for a while, "The territory of the Chi family is Tanesaki in Urado Bay." And the main force of the Chi family is the water army......"

"Hasuike Castle is always much stronger than Uradoike Castle, right? In addition, Urado Castle is too close to Chomune's house and is located in a port, so it is easy to attack. Once the Yuan Qin sent troops, the buffer time was too short, and it was difficult to organize the troops to garrison in time. I explained.

"Yes! Brother Shirozuo, you really don't have to be confined to your original territory. Look at my brother, after leaving Tosa, didn't he also get a new collar of nearly 100,000 koku? And it is in the trend of emergence, and the future is bright...... As for the navy, it can be used to garrison the Niyodo River. ”

"But the Chi family doesn't have the strength to defend the territory? His Royal Highness Xuanjing is the guardian of Izumi, so he can't leave his military power in Tosa Province for too long......" Chi Yoriwa still has concerns, "Actually, I don't want to take back the territory, I just want to bring all the powerful people in the family to the Kira family to match." ”

"Leave everything to me!" I said it with confidence.

“…… Then you will obey your fate. "Ji Yorihe thought about it and decided to completely follow my arrangement.

"Very well, then I'm ready to send troops immediately!" I laughed and made my decision.

Two days later, I led a reserve of 1,500 men to Izumi Province by water, taking with me Kumano's navy and newly built ships.

Although Nobunaga had previously given me the autonomy to raid the Shikoku Miyoshi family, I informed Nobunaga of the decision to send troops to Tosa. This is the meaning of reporting in advance, leaving a reason for future actions, so as not to cause any trouble on the part of Nobunaga.

As a matter of fact, when I heard what Chi Yoriwa said, and understood the reality of Takaoka County, I decided to take two or three months to pacify this county. If possible, there are plans to bring back the old Kira family in Gokawa County. In this way, it was just right to avoid the battle of Noda-Fukushima, which caused the Oda family to be anxious, and also avoided the disgrace of losing Izumi Bankoku after the defeat.

In history, Oda Nobunaga dispatched 40,000 troops, plus more than 20,000 Saga and Neri reinforcements summoned by Hatakeyama Akitaka, to besiege the Miyoshi Sanzhong, Saito Ryuko and other garrisons of Noda and Fukushima 8,000 troops. At first, the Oda family had the upper hand, and the Miyoshi Sanren and Saito Ryuko were trapped in the castle, and they were in a panic, and the Miyoshi Masakatsu of the Miyoshi clan and the Kasai Yoshikiyoshi of the Sanki clan surrendered to Nobunaga at the same time. Then the three of Miyoshi proposed a peace proposal, but Nobunaga decided to settle them completely, so he flatly refused, and instead entered Settsu Province in a big way, and once again asked Ishiyama Honganji Temple for military expenses, and finally poked out the first hornet's nest of the Warring States.

According to this process, Nobunaga will never be short of a few thousand of my naval army, and when he decides to abandon Settsu and Izumi and go to deal with the incoming Asakura-Asai coalition forces, I will be back almost in time to help him stabilize the situation.

And, it's not like I'm doing nothing. Before I leave for Tosa, I will take away the thousands of mercenaries of Saga while the relationship is still good. When the rest of the Genlai people turned against the water under the pull of Xianru and stirred up Nobunaga, he would definitely be glad and even grateful for it.

The Zaga people believe in the Ichijo sect, which is definitely easier to oppose than the Genlai sect of the Shingon sect, and the combat power is more considerable...... On the 28th of July, I arrived at Kishiwada Castle. At this time, the situation in Settsu was already very urgent.

A few days ago, the Miyoshi trio had already built castles on Nakajima and Fukushima in the Yodogawa Delta behind the Ishiyama Imperial Workshop, and at the same time, through the relationship of Ishiyama Honganji, they had won over the nominal shogunate governor Hosokawa Akimoto. Hosokawa Akimoto's mother is the daughter of Rokkaku Joyori, and Honganji Xianru and Rokkaku Yoshiken are close relatives, and he is extremely unhappy under Ashikaga Yoshiaki, and he is completely suppressed by Hosokawa Fujitaka within the clan, so he took refuge in the Miyoshi side and became the nominal general general.

In response, the sworn enemy of the Miyoshi trio, Yamato Province's Matsunaga Hide, had begun to gather troops the day before, and at the same time sent someone to inform Gifu Castle.

Because of the previous festival, he did not send anyone to Kishiwada Castle to inform me, so I pretended not to know, and ordered Iwamatsu to prepare for going to sea, and specifically asked to bring at least two months' worth of military supplies and rations. At the same time, I sent Katsugano Motonobu to Kii Province and hired the Saga people to send troops together.

In order to pass before the strong wind crossed the border in Muroto, I only gave Iwamatsu Kyodori and Saga one day. Fortunately, both sides are almost professional troops, and one day is enough time to prepare for the dispatch of troops.

On the 29th, I left a thousand naval troops to garrison and left Shore Hotan City with 13,000 men. This is the largest army I can muster at present, and the direct force includes 4,500 standing troops, auxiliaries, and reserves, as well as 3,000 sailors, except for Futami Guangcheng, who defended the city, and all the capable generals accompanied me. In addition, there are 1,500 powerful troops of the people of Izumi and 4,000 mercenaries of the Zaga people. The last time Saga went to Tosa with me, their stomachs were round, and this time they were very happy to send four of the five Saga groups over. And I have already planned something, so naturally I will not refuse to come.

At the beginning of August, our army passed through Murodoki and reached Tosa Urado Bay. The Urado Navy was very wise not to meet the attack, and the Urado Ikejo of the Iketo family also surrendered with great interest. However, the old man of the pen family, Mangoro Chi, was not in the city, and I interrogated a few people, and learned that he saw seven or eight hundred warships, large and small, that were pressed on the sea, and immediately lost the will to resist, and then he led a few of his cronies to abandon the city and escape on the grounds that he needed to inform the relatives of the Nagamune of Okatoyo Castle.

According to the predetermined plan, Chi Yorihe took his family, a group of people, and retainers of the lineage, including the sister of the head of the main family, and continued with me to the west of the lotus pond castle.

(To be continued)