Chapter 142: The Battle of Profit (Part II)

Seeing that our combat strength was outstanding and that we were victorious, the main force of the Li army, which was originally stationed in Akiyoshidai, Miyu County, immediately withdrew from the Changen Kingdom and retreated eastward to the Yamaguchi Kaolin Castle of the Zhou Defense Kingdom.

I didn't expect them to be so crisp. Since the rise of the Ouchi family, the two countries of Zhou and Nagan have often been regarded as a whole, and later the Toshiya took over the two countries, also as a whole, and when the feudal domain was abolished, it was officially merged into Yamaguchi Prefecture. And whether it is the Ouchi family in the past or the current Li family, the power in the Nagae country is very weak, except for the Naito family and the extinct Houdong family (the former Nauchi family's guard), there are almost no powerful wealthy families in the country. Therefore, during the reign of the Ouchi family, the Tao family, who served as the guardian of the Zhou Dynasty, the Sugi family, who served as the guardian of Bunzen, and the Tsukita family, who served as the guardian of Iwami, were all clans of the Ouchi family who were born in the Zhou Defense Kingdom, and only the Nagai guardian was the Fujiwara North family Naito clan who was born in the Nagai family, and the status of the Ouchi family was much lower than the other three.

Because of this, apart from Katsuyama Castle, there are basically no strongholds in Naga-gun Toyoura and the adjacent three prefectures of Otsu, Miyu, and Atsusa, and although Akiyoshidai, where the Rike Honjin was located in the past, was a key area along the longitudinal line of Naga-kuni Hagi Castle, Yamaguchi Kamine Castle of Shuho Province, and Shuho Defense Castle (when the Choshu Domain was established, these three castles were candidate residences), there were no strongholds, because this is Japan's largest karst mountain region (modern Akiyoshidai National Geopark). Neither for building a city nor for farming.

The reason why the Li family did not defend Shengshan City is probably also to see this. If the decisive battle is fought at Katsuyama Castle, if it fails, there will be basically no nearby castle to retreat and regroup, except for the castle by the sea, and the result will be a collapse of thousands of miles, which will be a huge blow to one's own prestige. Then, instead of taking such a risk, it is better to use it as a test of our combat strength, anyway, the territory at home is large enough, and there are ready-made cannon fodder.

As soon as they retreat like this, the disadvantages will fall on our side. If we continue to march to Miyu-gun, not only will we not be able to obtain a suitable front-line stronghold, but we will also have to face the joint defense of Hagi Castle, Yamaguchi Takamine Castle, and Hofu Castle. Among these three cities, the lord of Hagi Castle is Yoshimi Masanori, the partial master who destroyed the Ouchi family (the main room is the sister of Yoshitaka Ouchi, and the daughter-in-law is the sister of Li Huiyuan), and is currently stationed by Yoshikawa Moto; The lord of Yamaguchi's old castle is Ichikawa Nobuyo, and his wife, Ichikawa Bureau, once resisted the counterattack of Ouchi Teruhiro with a lonely city, and is currently the location of the main camp of Rihui Moto; As for the Hofu Castle by the sea, Kobayakawa Takakei led the naval army to garrison it, and many fortifications were built. It can be said that any of them are not so easy to conquer, but the other side is still able to support each other.

Shimazu Iehisa understood this situation, and it was not easy to continue the in-depth attack for a while, so he began to strengthen the city on the spot, putting on the appearance of preparing for a long-term confrontation. In addition, he also sent Satake Nobuhide to attack the castle of Changfu, two kilometers away from the sea, as a logistics supply base. This castle was later the residence of the Choshu Domain, but it is currently only the residence of Naito Takun before he succeeded the head of the family, and after the fall of the main residence of Katsuyama Castle, the city was already empty, so Satake Nobuhide easily entered this castle, and then repaired the port under the castle, and moved the logistics supply base from Shimonoseki Port here.

I know that Shimazu Iehisa didn't really want to stay there for a long time, and his purpose in repairing the castle was to attract the Rika family to take the initiative to attack. At present, he is the direct subordinate of the main force and the people of Satsuma Country, they are all good at field battles, and their siege ability is not so outstanding, and it is okay to deal with Katsuyama Castle as an abandonment, but it is very reluctant to attack a fortified city with more than 10,000 troops stationed. Moreover, even if he wants to hold it for a long time, Shimazu Yoshihiro is very likely to oppose it, these 15,000 people are most of the young and middle-aged labor force of Satsuma Country, and he still needs them to go back to the autumn harvest, how can he waste it here?

Perhaps, the Li family also had this idea, they gave up the decisive battle, in addition to being afraid of our combat effectiveness, they also wanted to wait for our side to take the initiative to withdraw and go back for the autumn harvest.

So the two sides confronted each other, and the situation seemed to unfold according to the Li family's expectations.

However, man is not as good as heaven. Ten days later, Shinkei, who had conquered Mihara Castle, accepted Shigeharu Takenaka's advice, gave up further expanding the results of the battle, and instead led the two kingdoms of Ah B and Sanki and two detachments of Dinghai and Fubu to come to Zhou to defend and attack the coastal fortress.

Kobayakawa Takakei certainly did not expect that a frigate armed with naval guns would be so terrifying. Although he had seen it before, when I returned from the Ryukyu expedition, my combat strength had not yet fully recovered, and the purpose was only to raise my might, and I did not seriously attack the city. However, Xinjing's expedition this time was the first time since he succeeded to the governor, and it was also the first time he served as the chief general, so everyone under his command naturally tried their best to show it. In this way, Kobayakawa Takakei's Mihara Castle was tragic, first being hit by naval guns, and then being forcefully advanced by nearly 20,000 troops, and it was not long before it fell.

I don't know if he has already guessed the fate of Sanyuan City when he saw Xinjing suddenly join the main battlefield? At that time, the news of the country of Beihou may not have reached yet. And how will he deal with a powerful fleet and superior enemy forces......

"Report to the lord, Fangfu Castle has been taken by the head of the family, and Kobayakawa Takakei retreats to Yamaguchi Takamine Castle to join Li Huiyuan. His Royal Highness Shimazu received the news and immediately led the defenders of Yamajo to attack the mountain pass with the head of the castle. Hattori Masanari reported to me.

"Thank you for your hard work." I nodded. Naturally, I am very pleased with the results achieved by Shinkage and Shimazu Iehisa. However, I always felt that something was wrong, because things were going so well, and Kobayakawa Takakei was too easy to beat.

For Longjing's ability, others may underestimate him because he has been repeatedly frustrated by me, but I know very well, that is the person who once crisscrossed the Seto Inland Sea in history, although he has always been suppressed by the navy of my Yue era, and I have a bad taste, and I still vigorously provoked him, which hit his prestige in the Li family. But he led nearly 10,000 main forces to defend the city, and it seemed impossible to be so vulnerable.

"Where is the Kobayakawa family's navy?" I asked.

"Before, it was stopped at Hofu Port to prevent our troops from forcibly boarding the 6," Hattori replied, "However, after the attack of the two fleets of Dinghai and Fub, Hofu Port has become a ruin, and it is quite difficult for the troops on the transport fleet to go ashore...... Therefore, the ministers and the members of the navy think that the Kobayakawa navy is almost destroyed. ”

"Really?" I nodded, feeling much more relaxed. At present, the military situation in Zhou Defense and Changen, whether it is the Xinjing Army or the Shimazu Army, is a cross-sea expeditionary operation. In this case, logistics and supply are the top priority, so I will guard the Guanen Strait with the Anlan Detachment of Mitsusei Futami and refuse his request to attack the defense government until the arrival of Shinkei and a breakthrough.

And at this moment, Maeda Toshinaga came in to report: "When Mr. Futami heard that the Kobayakawa naval army had been destroyed, he specially sent someone to convey his congratulations to his ministers, and asked for orders to lead a fleet to attack Hagigi Port."

It's really anyone's coming, I couldn't help but laugh. This second sight of Guangcheng, very utilitarian, has always been very active in the war, before he was stationed in the Guanen Strait, I'm afraid it's stuffy, no, as soon as he heard the threat of going to the Kobayakawa Navy, he immediately came to ask for war.

His proposal to attack Hagigi Port, which is located in the northern part of the country of Naga, facing the Sea of Japan, coincided with my thoughts. In this case, it will form a containment of Yoshikawa Gent in Hagi Castle, so that he cannot easily go out to support Yamaguchi Takamine Castle in the south, which is equivalent to indirectly supporting the Yamaguchi Raiders of Nobuyo and Shimazu Iehisa. It seems that he has put a lot of effort into analyzing the current situation.

For his seriousness and focus, we should also give him some rewards as encouragement.

"You send someone to tell him that I have allowed it," I nodded, "but before he goes out, he will carefully patrol the area around the Zhoufang Beach twice to make sure that no Obayakawa naval forces can leave." ”

"Yes. Your Majesty will surely convey it to Lord Futami. Maeda Toshicho bowed and left.

Three days later, however, I immediately regretted my decision.

As I was careful, Takakei Kobayakawa was indeed not an easy person to match. Before, in the face of the superiority of our navy in the Seto Inland Sea, he wisely chose to shrink his strength, and in recent years, he has hardly left the port, and even Murakami Buyoshi of Noh Island was beaten by him to Yashiro Island to work as a fisherman. However, in this decisive battle, he understood that it would be the key to the future of the Li family, so he gave up the maritime defense of his home city Sanyuan City, brought all the naval troops to Zhou Fangguo, and reassembled the naval forces of Noh Island, and all of them were deployed to defend the port.

When the two fleets of Dinghai and Fub arrived at Hofu Castle, contrary to what I expected, Kobayakawa Takakei had already learned the news of the fall of Mihara Castle and the transfer of the main force of our naval army to Zhoufang, and he knew that he was not the opponent of the two detachments, so he withdrew all the naval forces into the tributaries of the nearby Sabu River to hide, and abandoned Hofu Castle, and burned all the military resources that could not be taken away from the city. When Mitsunari Futami's detachment left the Kanden Strait, he immediately ordered his naval forces to attack, destroying one of our transport fleets, and destroying the unsuspecting ports of Chofu and Shimonoseki, and even invading the port of Én on the Kyushu side.

As a result, without a transshipment fleet and ports, Shimazu Ihisabe will not be able to receive military rations and military supplies from Kyushu in a short period of time, and its combat effectiveness and morale will inevitably decline greatly. Even the Shinkei Ministry was facing the danger of a lack of military rations, and they came to the aid of the army, and it was impossible for them to carry too much military rations, and they were counting on the supply of Kyushu or the capture of Hofu Port, but now the military resources of Hofu Port have been burned by Kobayakawa Takakei himself, and the transport fleet of Kyushu has also been destroyed, so neither side can count on it......

"It's the minister's negligence, please allow the minister to apologize" Hattori Masanari put his sword in front of him, and then knelt down.

"It's not your fault," I said with a wry smile, "the other party is desperate, and it was premeditated, of course you can't show up...... After all, you have a limited number of people and are scouting in unfamiliar enemy territory. ”

Yes, it's really not the Iga people to blame for this. So who is to blame?

Strange two see the light into it? I know that he is eager to fight, and he must not be very serious about patrolling. However, I am very clear about this aspect of his, and if I hadn't had a perfunctory mind in the first place, I wouldn't have let him be in charge of this matter; And even if he patrolled carefully, he still couldn't find the Kobayakawa fleet hidden deep in the narrow inland river.

Blame Satake Nobuhide for being too negligent and losing the back road? That's not possible, there is no water army, and Hasuike Bei was also taken away by Shimazu Iehisa, what did he take to garrison Changfu Port? The roasting arrows of the Kobayakawa Navy are not so easy to deal with. He was able to lead the 4,000 former citizens with low combat power to block Murakami Takeshi's attempt to go ashore, and rush back to Zhenkatsuyama Castle first, which can already be regarded as a meritorious achievement.

If you want to blame, you can only blame us for our long-term paralysis and carelessness, although the Kobayakawa Navy has been avoiding the war, but not because of timidity, but in order to preserve its strength, so as to play a huge role at a critical moment. Now, they have just waved it, cutting off not only our logistical supplies, but also our sea links, and I can't even contact the three expeditionary detachments now, and let them return to the Guanen Strait.

In the current situation, I have to look at the Iwamatsu Jingding, Futami Mitsunari, as well as the analytical and reactive abilities of Shinkyo, Takenaka Shigeharu and even Yoshikei, and such a big thing as Seki's strait should always be able to reach their ears. And the battle between Zhou Fang and Chang Én depends on Shimazu Iehisa and Shinkei

……，……

The waiting day is undoubtedly very difficult. However, thinking of the disparity in the strength of the two naval armies, as well as the generals of each army and each detachment, I soon calmed down. In any case, my strength is still stable, as far as the naval army is concerned, as long as any detachment comes to help, it has the strength to annihilate this Kobayakawa naval army. Such a large gap cannot be closed by a single tactical victory (as in the case of Pearl Harbor). And I also believe that Shigeharu Takenaka and Iwamatsu Jingding of Hofu Castle have two detachments in their hands, and even if they don't know about the Seki Strait, they will send some ships to Kyushu to try to get in touch with us.

However, on the third day, Iwamatsu did not come, and the Kobayakawa naval army sent someone to ask for a meeting.

The person who came was the leader of the Nomi Naval Army under the command of the Kobayakawa Water Army, and Naomi Munekatsu. He personally drove a small morning boat to the port of Én to present a letter to us. Jing Nei, who was waiting for news in the port of Én, did not dare to slack off, and immediately brought him to Tenjin Mountain Castle.

"The foreign minister was entrusted by His Royal Highness Kobayakawa to ask His Highness Taichang for peace." He said openly.

"Peace?" I smiled slightly, and my heart was more determined, "Right now, His Royal Highness Kobayakawa has taken control of the Sekien Strait, cutting off our contact and back road, it is the situation that is very good, why do you suddenly want to negotiate peace?" ”

"His Royal Highness believes that the cause of this battle was completely due to a misunderstanding," Nami Zongsheng saw that my attitude was so firm, and he was more cautious in his words, "It is really unnecessary to cause the loyal and brave soldiers of the two families to shed blood and die because of a misunderstanding...... Therefore, in the spirit of calming things down, His Highness is willing to give up his current advantage in exchange for peace between the two families. ”