This may be the current consideration of Matsunaga Hide.

And his rebellion did cause quite a stir in Kinai, and even Nobunaga himself was very surprised. He didn't crusade immediately, and it seems that he realized that he was really a little less kind of to Matsunaga Shu this time, so he ordered Matsui Tomoto, who was appointed by Sakai Town, to serve as an envoy and go to Shinguiyama Castle to meet Matsunaga Shu in person.

In his order to Matsui Tomokan, he wrote: "Carefully ask him what he wanted, and then ask him what he wants, and then a detailed report will come up, and Yu will make a judgment." ”

It's a pity that Matsunaga Shu didn't appreciate it at all, and didn't even let Matsui Yukan enter the city, but just blindly gathered troops to strengthen the city's defenses. This finally made Nobunaga furious, and when he took the two protons that Matsunaga had left in Azuchi, to Kyoto, beheaded them in Rokujo Kawara, and then ordered Hatakeyama Yoshishu of Minamikawachi and Tsutsui Shunkei of Higashi Yamato to attack nearby, and Oda Nobutada of Mino came to preside.

Hatakeyama Yoshishu and Tsutsui Shunkei received orders and soon launched an attack, which was ended by Hosokawa Fujitaka. However, the fortifications of Shinkiyama Castle were extremely strong, and it was used by Matsunaga Hide's power to monitor Yamato and Hanoi during the previous years. Hisahide himself is a celebrity in castle building, and even Nobunaga has been amazed by his castle-building skills, and even Niwa Nagahide also partially referred to the pattern of Shinkiyama Castle when planning the castle tower of Azuchi Castle. The two families of Hatakeyama and Tsutsui attacked together for three days, but they still did not advance an inch, so they had to temporarily suspend their troops and wait for the arrival of Oda Nobutada's main force.

On October 1, Oda Nobutada led 30,000 main forces to Yamato Province and joined the two armies, bringing the total number of troops under his command to 40,000. He set up a position at Horyuji Temple and listened to the details of the siege of Hatakeyama Yoshishu and Tsutsui Shunkei in the previous days, and then decided to attack steadily and slowly uproot the various branch castles on the periphery of the Matsunaga family, on the one hand, to consume the living force of the Matsunaga family, and on the other hand, to attack the military morale of the defenders of Shinkiyama Castle.

This method really worked, and Oda was outnumbered, and the various castles on the outskirts of the Matsunaga family fell one by one. By the 5th of October, Kataoka Castle, which had 1,000 defenders and high hopes for Hisahide, was also conquered by the combined efforts of the 5,000 troops of the Tsutsui family and the Inaba Ichitetsu Division, and both the defenders of the castle, Kiyoshi and Masatomo Mori, were killed. Upon learning of the battle report, the defenders of Xinguishan City were inevitably deeply hit, and the main city of Xinguishan City was also directly exposed to the front of nearly 40,000 troops.

In the end, it was Matsunaga Hide's retainer Mori Yoshiku who decided the direction of the war. He was originally a genealogy of the Tsutsui family, and after the fall of Tsutsui Castle, he became a retainer of the Matsunaga family due to the persuasion of his fellow clan Mori Masantomo, and gradually gained the trust of Hisahide. In this battle, together with the old man of the Matsunaga family, Kunitaka, he was ordered to lead the headquarters of 200 iron cannons to garrison Sannomaru in Shinguiyama Castle. When he learned of the fall of Kataoka Castle, he had already wavered about the prospect of defending the castle, and the death of Mori Masantomo touched him even more, and when he found out that it was the former master Tsutsui Shunkei who attacked the north gate, he got up with the idea of returning to the Tsutsui family, and secretly got in touch with the old Matsukura Shigenobu of the Tsutsui family. Tsutsui Shun was overjoyed and immediately agreed to Mori's request for a long time to return, promising to return his territory and give him a certain increase. And the messenger who delivered the letter was also rewarded by Tsutsui Shunkei, and returned to Sannomaru with thirty taels of gold.

So, on the 10th day of October, there was a sudden civil strife in Shinkiyama Castle, and the old family Oka Kunitaka was killed by iron cannons in the chaos, and Sannomaru also opened the castle gate to the Oda family. Affected by this, Ninomaru was soon captured by the Oda family, and only Honmaru where Matsunaga Shu and his son were left remained. Matsunaga Shu knew that he would inevitably explode on the fourth floor of the castle tower with all the gunpowder stored in the castle, and the huge explosion almost tore off the entire roof of the castle tower, and he himself was naturally left with no bones. A generation of annihilation was annihilated in history.

……，…… Because of his exploits in this battle, Oda Nobutada was once again promoted by the imperial court and served as a lieutenant general from the three senators and left guards. Tsutsui Shunkei was also rewarded with the sealing of the Shingui Mountain Castle and the nearby 30,000 stone territory, but he did not move over, but abandoned the already somewhat dilapidated fortified castle, dismantled it into stone and transported it to the territory, and prepared to build Yamato Koriyama Castle as a separate location. Hatakeyama Yoshishu did not show any achievements in this battle, and did not receive any rewards, but he was still ordered to lead Minami Hanoi and Yamato [***] to attack Kii.

Before leaving, he suddenly came to the main castle of Awaji Island.

I was very surprised by his visit: "Isn't His Highness Yoshishu going to ask for Kii?" Why do you still have time to come to Awaji? ”

"Actually, this is what His Highness Da Nayan meant...... My performance in this raid on the Matsunaga family can be described as lackluster, and His Royal Highness Da Nayan is worried that I will not be able to successfully complete the Kii raider, so he ordered me to come and ask for His Highness Xuanjing's assistance," he smiled, "Of course, I myself would be happy to come and visit you." ”

Asking for help? Not a command...... In other words, it's up to me to decide whether to help or not.

"No problem." I readily agreed. He is currently my partner in the exploration trade, and he is also an important trading partner of Tsuya, and he also has the face of Zhou Jing and Akiko, so I will never refuse his request. Of course, to what extent it will help, then you still need to think about it, if you are too cold, you can't do it, and if you are too eager, Nobunaga probably won't want to see it.

After thinking about it, I made a promise to him: "Later, I will immediately order that Renki Keimasa of Arita County will also participate in the strategy!" In addition, there is Kumano's Ataka Water Army. They are the most powerful in my navy system except for the main navy and the newly joined Kurishima navy, and they have always been active in Mulou County in the Kumano region, and they are very familiar with the terrain of Nankii and the intelligence of various wealthy clans, and they will definitely be able to help His Highness Yoshishu. ”

"yes, that's a thank you!" Hatakeyama Yoshishu looked very happy, "I'm ashamed to say that although I bear the name of Kii's protection, I don't know too much about the situation of the wealthy families in the country. If you can learn about it from His Royal Highness Xuanjing, it will really help a lot! ”

"It's easy." I instructed Nobuhide Satake to go to the study on the fourth floor and get the Kii scroll from the dossier of various countries. The dossiers of these countries are compiled from information from various sources, such as the Tsuya, the Navy, and the Iga people, and some are detailed, while others are relatively simple. As one of the sub-provinces of the Nankai Province and the location of the Kumano Naval Army, the contents of the Kii scroll are relatively complete, with detailed maps, distribution of forces, relationships between various forces, and information on important people. Even people who don't know anything about this country in advance can get a general idea after reading the information.

"Because the lord had intended for me to pacify the entire Kii country, I put a lot of effort into it, but I was ordered to attack Iyo...... Hehe, I can help you now, but I didn't waste all this effort," I explained to Hatakeyama Yoshishu with a smile as I spread out the map.

"It's ...... Map? Hatakeyama Yoshishu couldn't help but ask.

"Well," I nodded, "it's made according to the drawing method of the Southern Barbarians, and it's a little finer than the usual map." As I spoke, I gave him a rough explanation of the directional signs, scales, and various legends. It wasn't that hard, he quickly understood, and nodded in agreement with my assertion.

"It's really more detailed than the usual map." He said.

"Yes," I nodded, pointing to a few rivers on the map, "a lot of information was obtained by the navy, and they were almost all investigating around each river...... This is a more reasonable approach, because the rivers are surrounded by fertile land, which is generally the center of the various forces, and the rivers are often the dividing line between the counties or the various forces. Especially in the western part of Muro-gun, you only need to pay attention to Tanabe Castle at the mouth of the Aizu River, Ryumatsuyama Castle at the edge of the Tomita River, and Shinmiyagi Castle at the mouth of the Kumano River. In addition, at the mouth of the Takagawa River in Taka-gun, there is Kii-Kameyama Castle of the Yukawa family, and Tetori Castle of the Tamanoki family in the middle reaches. ”

"The Yukawa family and the Tamaoki family in Taka-gun, and the Yamamoto family in Ryumatsuyama Castle in Mulou County, these three families are the three most powerful families in Kii Province, and they have served the Rokubora in Kyoto since the Kamakura period, and they followed the shogunate to fight in the Northern and Southern Dynasties era, and became the official under the shogunate, which was used to restrain the Hatakeyama family who served as guardians, but in the end these three families also fell under the command of the Hatakeyama family."

"I think that His Royal Highness Yoshishu's Ashikaga family background and Hatakeyama family inheritance, as long as they subdue these three families with strength, they should be able to get their support and follow." I conclude with this.

"And what about these two places?" Hatakeyama Yoshishu asked, pointing to Tanabe Castle and Shin-Miyagi on the map.

It seems that Hatakeyama Yoshishu has a good strategic vision. These two castles were the locations of the two major branches of the Kishu Tokugawa family, one of the three Tokugawa royal families.

"Tanabe Castle belongs to the Mera family, and the place where it is located is called Kumamino, which is the dividing point between Nakaheji and Oheji on the Kumano Kodo, and the Aizu River next to it is the dividing line between the north and south Kii. Shin-Miyagi Castle is at the mouth of the Kumano River, a division between the western and eastern parts of Southern Kii Province, and is currently controlled by the Horiuchi family," I paused for a moment at this point, "However, the Horiuchi family has been almost suppressed by the Ataka family in the east, and it's just that because I didn't seal this place to the Ataka family, Ataka Nobuyasu didn't launch a final attack." ”

"Well, then, my expedition to Minami Kii will end at the west bank of the Kumano River. Since the East Coast is governed by a safe house, naturally I don't have to worry about it. Hatakeyama Yoshishu understood what I meant, and said with a smile.

"I'm so relieved to get that promise. And the Anzhai Navy will definitely try their best to cooperate with His Royal Highness Yizhou's strategy! I laughed too. Although the 40,000 stone territory of the Anzhai family is a lot, it is too remote and desolate to count on the income of the castle and the temple, and there is only one survey and commission in the territory. What's more, although this place was sealed to the Ataku family by me, it was not blocked by Nobunaga, and legally speaking, it can be sealed by Nobunaga to someone else at any time. If that happens, I'll have to prepare another piece of land for the Anzhai family.

Now there is Kii's words to protect Hatakeyama Yoshishu, and the status of the Ataka family is finally guaranteed.

"Your Royal Highness Xuanjing is polite, it's really a blessing for you to be able to get this valuable information and assistance," Hatakeyama Yoshishu suddenly sighed, "In this world now, there are really not many benevolent people like His Highness Xuanjing...... Especially I, Yizhou, have been taken care of since Brother Yihui's martyrdom, and I am really grateful! Even this Kii Banguo, I heard that His Royal Highness Da Nayan was originally going to give it to you, and it was thanks to your concession that it could get into my hands! ”

"It's just doing my duty! Since His Royal Highness Yoshishu is the guardian of Kii, he should naturally have Kii Country. I said modestly.

For me, the current result can be said to be the best. Compared to this Kii Bankoku, Higashiiyo, who controlled the central part of the Seto Inland Sea and the Copper Mountain of Yubetsuko, was more important to me, and it was not only reasonable for Hatakeyama Yoshishu to take possession of it, but also to facilitate Keimasa's management of Arita County and facilitate the activities of the Kumano Navy.

Hearing my words, Hatakeyama Yoshishu showed a hint of emotion on his face. He was silent for a moment, and moved his position half a meter closer to me: "Then, there is another matter below, I want to ask His Highness Xuanjing." ”

"Please." I understand that he probably has something private about him. The reason why I decided to talk to him was because I thought that I had great kindness to him and that I was trustworthy.

"It's about His Highness Naomasa Harada," he lowered his voice slightly, "I think His Highness Naoyan's handling this time is too harsh...... Of course, there may be some inside story! I heard that before the disposition, His Royal Highness Da Nayan had discussed with His Royal Highness Xuanjing, I wonder if His Highness Xuanjing is clear? Can you tell us a little bit about that? ”

"That's it......" I muttered, feeling a little embarrassed. Nobunaga's handling of Naomasa Harada, there is indeed an inside story, that is, Naomasa Harada carried a lot of black cauldron for me, and I handed over Shinjing to Nobunaga as a guarantee of loyalty. However, to me, this matter is a matter of wrongdoing; In Nobunaga's view, it was an unfair punishment, and it was not a glorious thing, so was it necessary to say it to him?

I don't think the relationship between me and him has reached such a point of heart-to-heart. And what I said would only affect the image of me and Nobunaga, and it would also betray Nobunaga's trust in me.

"His Royal Highness Yi Zhou, why did you ask about this?" I thought about it and asked him rhetorically.

"This ......" Hatakeyama Yoshishu looked a little hesitant. However, perhaps out of trust, he finally said, "Actually, when the attack on Nobunakiyama Castle was frustrated, I once received a letter from Matsunaga Hide......"

"What!" I couldn't help but exclaim, so loud that I was startled.

(To be continued)