Takato Castle Castle Tower.

In the castle lord's apartment, Takeda Katsuyori was dressed in a Wu suit, carrying his hands behind his back, and holding a folding fan in his palms, standing in front of the windowsill, facing the blowing wind, and looking at the land under his own rule under the city.

As far as the eye can see, there are rolling mountains in the distance, green rice paddies at the bottom, and in the castle town in front of you, pedestrians are busy walking on the dirt roads of the town.

"This Takeda family has great rivers and mountains, and it must not be handed over to my brother."

Takeda Katsu said in a deep voice, and at that moment, there was the sound of footsteps at the top of the stairs.

"Your Highness Shenglai, what's the point of sending someone to find me in such a hurry?"

Takeda Katsuki turned around, a smile appeared on his face, and said, "Li Xiao, it's easy for you to come, let's sit down and talk." ”

Li Xiao nodded, so the two sat down facing each other.

As soon as he sat down, Takeda Katsuki's face was full of indignation.

He said: "When my brother heard that he was attacking Nishiueno with me, he immediately asked Iitomi to suggest to my father that he would lead the main army of the Takeda family to attack the three counties of Ganraku-gun, Tahu-gun, and Midori-gun, and that we would lead the army to attack the two counties of Azuma-gun and Usui-gun. ”

"Changed strategy, Your Highness Na Shenglai, is this information accurate?" Li Xiao asked, he already had a feeling of being impressed by Takeda Katsuki. In order to compete for the throne, Takeda Katsuki finally knew how to start building his own intelligence network.

Takeda Katsuki nodded and said, "Absolutely. The three counties of Ganle County, Duohu County, and Luye County have just been raided once for my western Shangye expeditionary army, and most of the wealthy clans with a little power in the local area have been wiped out, so it will not take much effort to calm down again. The two counties of Azuma County and Usui County are different, the Saito family has just betrayed my Takeda family, and there is also the support of the powerful Hao family, the Hawei family, and the Kawara family. ”

It's no wonder that Takeda Katsuyori is so angry, the army he can mobilize in the territory is only 1,000 at most, and the troops that Iitomi Huchang and Takeda Yoshinobu can mobilize are close to 5,000 troops, but the division of labor between them has fallen far behind, and he handed over the difficult bone of the Azuma County strategy to him to gnaw.

"Did the lord agree?"

"Promised."

Li Xiao smiled indifferently and said, "Since the lord has agreed, it means that this matter has been settled." Your Highness, you are here now, it is useless to sulk alone, you can't change anything. What's more, it is natural for the lord to deal with it like this. After all, when it came to attacking Nishi-Ueno, the lord gave carte blanche to Lord Iitomi, His Royal Highness Yoshinobu, but now he has been given a piece of the pie by His Royal Highness, which can be seen as an accident that we won by accident. Therefore, in order to balance the sense of imbalance in the hearts of His Royal Highness Yoshinobu, it is reasonable for my lordship to agree to their request at this time. ”

Hearing Li Xiao's analysis so incisive, Takeda Katsu couldn't help but nod his head again and again, and said: "That's right, if I am my father's position, I won't refuse." But ......"

"But His Highness Katsuyori is careful that we can't successfully capture the two counties of Azuma County and Uibing County, right?"

Takeda Katsuki nodded and said: "Yes, Saito Home Castle Iwaki Castle is a fortified city several hundred meters high, and Iwaki Castle controls Azuma Street, which is an obstacle that our army has to cross, and there is also the Hakuo family on the left and right of the Saito family, and the support of the Kawara family is not easy to deal with." ”

Li Xiao smiled heartily and said, "If it is too easy to attack, it will not show His Highness's means." His Royal Highness's road to the throne is like climbing a mountain with a heavy load, sailing against the current, and doing difficult things against the common way, if you don't do something that ordinary people can't do, how can you see Your Highness's means, how can you make the lord and the important ministers in the family look at His Highness with admiration. ”

Hearing Li Xiao say this, Takeda Katsuki also laughed, and kept hitting his palms with a folding fan, and a strong confidence flashed in his eyes.

Then Takeda Katsuki and Li Xiao walked side by side to the map of Ueno and Shinano and looked at it in detail. From the map, Azuma-gun, located in the northeast corner of Ueno Province, is adjacent to Echigo and Shinano, respectively, and is a place where soldiers must fight.

In addition to Iwaki Castle, there are also Habi Castle, Kamahara-jo, and Songyama Castle in Azuma-gun, and further east are Kuruma Castle, Shirai Castle, and Numata Castle in Tone-gun.

And so on, the name Walnut City, Numata City.

When Li Xiao saw these two famous cities in history, he suddenly remembered a person, and then he looked at the map and planned for a long time, secretly thinking about a plan in his heart.

"Your Highness, if you want to capture Azuma County, you must ask someone to help, and you will get twice the result with half the effort, and the soldiers will not be bloody."

"Who has this idea?" Takeda Katsuki was immediately interested when he heard this.

"Sanada Ittokusai-sama?"

Takeda Katsuya asked in surprise, "Attack Shota-sama?" Masayuki's father? ”

Li Xiao held his chin, hummed, and said, "That's right." ”

Takeda Katsumi looked at the map in detail and said, "The fiefdom of Itokusai-sama, Shinno Kore-gun, is just bordering Ueno Azuma-gun, do you mean that we should borrow troops from Ichitokusai-sama?" ”

"No, Lord Yidezhai is a scheming man, and before His Royal Highness Yoshishin and His Highness, the result of the battle between the two of you is clear, he will not show his support for His Highness too openly."

Li Xiao paused and said: "What's more, the hardships of Yiyan City are not something that can be taken by borrowing a lot of soldiers and people, but the strategy of Lord Yidezhai that we have to borrow. ”

Borrowing from the strategy? Katsu Takeda repeated these four words several times.

Sanada Danmasada, Yukitaka Yukitaka Ichitokusai, the founder of Sanada's three generations, strategist, careerist, and Yamamoto Kansuke are known as the two major think tanks under Takeda Shingen.

According to the Koyo military guide, Shinano's Sanada, Ueno's Kohata, and Echigo's Okuma were used by Shingen with the 'great body of a prisoner'. These three people are in the Takeda Shingen family retainers, who are not from the Kai family, but they are other retainers, and they have become the characters of the lord of the city.

Sanada Yutaka's most fantastic achievement was to use the means of the empty glove white wolf, with only a small number of troops, to take down Toishi Castle, which Takeda Shingen's 10,000-strong army could not capture. Throughout the glorious battles of Sanada Yutaka's life, most of them were to capture famous cities, and they used many clever strategies and rarely took them, and it was precisely because of this that they were called "attacking bombs" by the Takeda family.

When Takeda Katsutaka heard Li Xiao say that he wanted to borrow Sanada Yutaka's strategy, he already had a vague idea in his heart, among the generals in the Takeda family, Sanada Yutaka said that he was the best at attacking the city, and no one dared to say first.

"I remember that Sanada-sama is from the Shino clan, and the Kawara clan and the Hawei clan in Azuma County are also from the Shino clan, Li Xiao, you mean to let Lord Ichitokusai come forward and return to these two families."

Takeda's eyes lit up and he grasped the key.

Li Xiao nodded, he remembered that in the history of the Takeda family's invasion of Nishiueno, it was the Sanada family who was responsible for the strategy in the direction of Azuma County.

Later, with the great power of Sanada Yutaka and Sanada Masayuki father and son, before the demise of the Takeda family, the Sanada family expanded their territory all the way, advancing the territory from Azuma-gun to Numata Castle in Tone-gun.

Therefore, Sanada Masayuki, who owns the three small counties, Azuma County, and Tone County, on this basis, has such a hard waist, and has changed hands four times within half a year, and he has torn his face with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and fought Ueda Castle for the first time, and beat the old turtle to the ashes.

Later, because of the incident of the Hojo family's embezzlement of the family's name Walnut City, the Sanada family triggered the Taiko-sama, who waved an army of 220,000 to level the bloody case of the Hojo family.

Seeing that Takeda Katsu had mastered the mystery from this, Li Xiaoshen said: "Borrowing the wisdom of Lord Ichitokusai is only one aspect, and what His Highness really wants to do is to tie the Sanada family firmly to your chariot through this time." ”