By the time Yoshioka Tsuneko and Jodo Tomomasa were sent away, we had roughly pacified Usuki-gun. The next time, I left the 3,000 troops of Higashisanki of Ikoma and Kankawa Motogami to garrison Nobeoka, and led the main force of my headquarters into Koyu County and advanced all the way to the north bank of Ogawa. This is close to the core territory of the Ito family, and the Ito father and son have always followed my own actions, on the one hand, as a signboard for me to win over the wealthy families along the way, and on the other hand, for me to consult on the situation of the Xiangguo, through the narrative of the father and son, I have a broader and deeper understanding of the Xiangguo and the Shimazu family.

The Ogawa River in front of us, also known as the Mimitsu River, flows through the central part of Koyu County, dividing the county into two parts, north and south, which are roughly the same size. The area on both sides of the river, which was called Shinnain during the Kamakura period, was one of the main rice producing areas of Mukai Province. The so-called "courtyard" refers to the earthen fort built by the imperial court in remote areas before the Kamakura period in order to collect, store, and protect grain. In addition to Shinna-in, there are also seven courtyards in Xiangguo, including Shinkoin-in, Mimatata-in, Musa-in, Obi-in, Dojiin, Kushima-in, and Sainin-in. For example, during the Heian period, the Tabe clan of Usa Hachimangu Shrine was later changed to the Tsuchichi clan because he was in charge of Tsuchiji-in; Shimazu, the fourth son of Shimazu Tadamune, the fourth generation head of the Shimazu family, was granted the title of Shinnain Temple, so it became the Shinnain family.

Whether it is among the wealthy families of the Xiangguo, or among the various branches and tribes of the Shimazu family, the Xinna family is the most turbulent one, and from the experience of this family, we can completely see the strength of the entire Xiangguo power.

As early as the beginning of the Muromachi period, not long after the Shinna family was enclosed, they encountered the Ashikaga Takashi clan and the Ashikaga Naoyoshi brothers fighting for power, and then they were driven to the southern part of the prefecture by Naoyoshikata's guardian Hatakeyama Naoaki; After the decline of the Hatakeyama family and the rise of the Ito family, the Shinna family was ordered by the clan to move to Obiin in southern Naka-gun, and resisted the Ito family together with the Isaku Shimazu family in Kukuma-in; However, a dispute soon arose between the two families, and then the territory of the Shinna family was seized by the Isaku Shimazu family, and the Mune family had to give them another border area to the west of Hara Niin, near Osumi Province, and transfer the Shimazu Toyoshu family to Obi; Later, they reached a rapprochement with the Isaku Shimazu family, and the head of the family, Shinna Tadashi, married his niece Tokiwahime to the head of the Iki family, Yoshihisa, and gave birth to Shimazu Tadara (Shimazu Takahisa's father), and when Shimazu Tadaya became stronger, the Shinna family was also rewarded and regained the entire salvation temple; However, twenty years ago, the Osumi Kuniku liver Fu family rose up and formed an alliance with the Ito family, and the Shinna family was driven out of the territory and went to the Sadogahara area in the north of Naka Prefecture to struggle for support; In recent years, the Shimazu family has completed the reunification and gradually recaptured Osumi and Xiang, and the Shinna family finally saw the light, but Shimazu Iehisa chose Sadoghara Castle as the main location, and the Shinna family had to accept the arrangement and move to Oguchi Castle on the border of Satsuma Province, and served as the force of Shimazu Iehisa.

Now the general who guards the high city of Xinnayuan is the head of the Xinna family, Xinna Zhongyuan, for him, it can be regarded as returning to the original leader. In addition to him, there are also Shimazu Asahhisa, the head of the Shimazu Toyoshu family, Shimazu Asahita, the brother of Shimazu Asahita and the head of the Hogo family, Kitago Tokihisa, and Kitago Tokihisa's son-in-law, Shimazu Iehisa's brother, and Shimadzu Ihisa, who inherited the Shimazu Xiangshu family, who command about 10,000 troops of the Shimazu family.

Obviously, these people are all relatives of the Shimazu family, and in the current Shimazu family, basically only samurai from the family can participate in decision-making, so it can be said that it is complete cronyism. From the old Ijiin Tadato and Kawakami Tadachi, who were in charge of government affairs, and Yoshihisa Kayama, who was in charge of foreign affairs, to Shimazu Yoshihiro (Higo General), Shimazu Tokihisa (Higo Vice-Admiral), Shimazu Ihisa (Bungo Commander-in-Chief), Shimazu Ishisa (Bungo Vice-Admiral), and Shimazu Tadanaga (Shimazu Yoshihisa's younger brother, who succeeded the Isaku Shimazu family and the naval general), all came from the Shimazu family's branch or clan.

On the other hand, however, this is where the Shimazu family struggles.

Since the Kamakura period was crowned the Three Kingdoms of Southern Kyushu, the speed at which the Shimazu family has spread out has been extremely astonishing. During the time of the second generation of Tadashi, it was divided into Nakanuma, Aso Valley, Yamada, Ijiin, Giri, Machida and other branches; When the three generations were long, they separated from the Isaku Shimazu family; During the four generations of Zhongzong, the tribes such as Zota, Xinna, Huashan, Beixiang, and Ishizaka were divided; Five generations of Sadahisa, separated from the Kawakami and Suishu, Oshu two branches, and then the Shimazu Oshu family inherited the status of the clan, and since then the head of the Shimazu clan family has been called Mutsu Okumori for generations; Jiufeng, the head of the eight generations, divided into two major families, Saska and Fengzhou; Nine generations of loyalty, divided Katsura, Sumizu, Kiiri and other branches, as well as the Xiangshu Shimazu branch, and the third son Shimazu Jiuyi inherited the extinct Isaku Shimazu branch, which is the great-grandfather of Shimazu Takahisa.

In addition to the amazing ability of the clan to reproduce, the various branches are not lagging behind, especially the Ijiin family, in the fourth generation of Ijiin loyalty, gave birth to forty-eight children in one go, so the power increased greatly, divided into Iga Cang, Sayo, Mai Shengda, Oshige, Kuragahara, Tsuchihashi, Tomatsu, Shihon, Irisa, Nango, Matsushita, Maruda and a large number of other branches, so that the sixth generation of the Shimazu clan at that time Shimazu clan had to marry his daughter as the main family in order to win him over, and then married his own daughter to his grandson Ijiin Yorihisa, And then they married several times. Until now, although the Ijiin family is the earliest branch of the Shimazu family, it is more prominent than the close branch or even the branch family, and the head of the family, Ijiin Tadado, is currently serving as the head of the Shimazu family.

It is precisely because there are too many families and too many relatives that the Shimazu family has been in civil strife for more than a hundred years, and it has been fighting for the status of the clan family, and it was not until Shimazu Takahisa succeeded to the throne that it was completely sorted out. And the reason why he was able to ascend to the throne is also thanks to a series of opportunities, and after three consecutive generations of efforts.

The first generation is Shimazu Takahisa's grandmother Tokiwahime. She is a beauty from a Shinna family, and after the early death of her husband Shimazu Yoshihisa, she took over the position of the head of the Isaku Shimazu family, and soon won the admiration of the Aishu family Shimazu Yunhisa, and married Shimazu Yunhisa on the condition of ensuring the status of her child (Shimazu Tadashi), and her child inherited both the Isaku writer and the Aishu family, which are closest to the clan blood.

The second generation is Tadashi Shimazu, Tadashi Shimazu, the father of Kihisa. At that time, the Shimazu clan was very weak, and the name of the governor Shimazu Tadakan was also problematic, he was originally only the third son, and he passed to the Yingwa family early, only because the two brothers who served as the governor died early, leaving no heirs, so he relied on the support of the Sashu family Shimazu Minoru (the father of Shimazu Yoshitoka), returned to the clan and succeeded the family governor, and married Shijiu's sister, renamed Shimazu Katsuhisa; However, within a few years of succeeding to the throne, Katsuhisa had a conflict with Shijiu, and had to give Shijiu the position of Satsuma guardian, and was almost forced to give up the position of monk governor. So Shimazu Tadaya took the opportunity to intervene and gave his sister-in-law Shimazu Takahisa to Katsuhisa as an adopted heir and became the heir of Sojiade, and the second son Shimazu Sosho (the father of Shimazu Ihisa) and the third son Shimazu Naohisa (the father of Shimazu Tadanaga) inherited the Aishu family and the Ishi writer respectively.

The third generation, of course, is Shimazu Takahisa himself. He exiled the Sashu family Shimazu Minoru and the Zong family's Katsuhisa to Bungo Province, and then blocked Shimazu Minoruhisa's counterattack, forcing him to submit to the Zong family, giving up the position of head of the family to his son-in-law Yoshitora and returning to seclusion, and arranging for Shimazu Yoshitora to marry his eldest granddaughter Ah Ping (Yoshihisa's eldest daughter) as the main house; The Toyoshu family was driven out of the Hiki Castle by the Ito family, and they could only go to Satsuma to attach themselves to Shimazu Takahisa, and after winning the Battle of Ogawa last year, they returned to the country and obtained the territory of Miyazaki Ichi-gun from Shimazu Iehisa.

Perhaps it is because of this situation that the Shimazu family will adopt the current approach. For the clan family, those relatives need to be wooed; And if you want to promote talents, the relatives spread throughout the three countries of southern Kyushu can already provide enough options; Even marriages are basically not out of the scope of the respective families and tribes. For example, the current head of the family, Shimazu Yoshihisa, in order to strengthen the bond with Shimazu Naohisa, the writer's own uncle, married Naohisa's half-sister Lady Hanashun as the main room, that is, his own aunt.

This way of governing the family is certainly conducive to ensuring the cohesion and loyalty of the family, but the ability of the relatives is a problem. However, what is amazing is that most of these relatives who are currently presiding over the affairs of the Shimazu family are actually talented people, and they can be regarded as a temporary handsome in their respective families, and these toshihiko of each family and each clan seem to be concentrated in this period, thus creating the current strength of the Shimazu family.

Of course, it is also possible that it is because of the unification and rise of the Shimazu clan that these relatives have a stage to play, thus surpassing their respective ancestors...... Who knows?

What I can be sure of now is that it is very difficult to destroy such an Shimazu family, and it is almost impossible for me. Even if I destroy the Shimazu clan, one of the major branches will emerge to inherit and become enemies of the new guardian; and then ruthlessly wiped out all the major branches, and then there were the ten or twenty Shimazu tribes, and then the Shu tribes in each tribe...... There is no doubt that they definitely have such a tough surname, for any Shimazu kinship, the name of the clan family means the guardian of the three states, it means the family name that has lasted for hundreds of years, and it means that they can dominate the relatives all over the three states, which is absolutely to be fought for.

Unless I keep pressure on Minami Kyushu for decades, or wipe out all of my kinship as Nobunaga did with the Takeda family in history, I will be able to stop this. However, I can't do the first thing, after all, I can't focus all my energy on Minami Kyushu; In the latter case, in the face of the Shimazu family, which has several times more relatives than the Takeda family, it is estimated that even Nobunaga may not be able to completely eradicate it. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who inherited his position, although he defeated the Shimazu family and murdered Shimazu Iehisa, still appointed Yoshihisa as the guardian of Satsuma Province, appointed Yoshihiro as Osumi and Said to protect the two countries, and reluctantly divided the power of the Shimazu family; After the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who unified the Shimazu family, did not move the Shimazu family's Satsuma Province, Osumi Province, and the Shimazu Prefecture's territory, and then married the Shimazu family three times, and twice married the daughter of the Shimazu family as the shogun's main family, making the Shimazu family the only family in the samurai family that has ever been out of the Edo Imperial Observatory except for the imperial family, the Miyaya family, and the Goseki family.

Thinking of this, I felt a great dilemma about the strategy task that Nobunaga had handed over. In the face of the intertwined Shimazu family, I think it is already the limit to be able to get the country of Yuxiang, and if it continues to compress, it will inevitably be subject to a strong backlash from the Shimazu family, so it is better to force them to surrender. However, according to Nobunaga's surname, this level was obviously not satisfactory to him. What's more, if you can't take Osumi Province, the Gamo family will have no place to transfer the seal, and my Kira family won't be able to get Minami Iyo; As for the Satsuma country, it is reserved for the territory of the Toshiya and Yoshiyuki, they have had a friendship with me for twenty years, and they have been fighting with me for several years, I can't let them lose their future - look at Nakagawa Shigemasa and Sasa Narumasa in Hokuriku, and the bee house Yoryū who has initially gained a foothold in the country of Yukoku, they are also from the mother's clothes, and they are about to be the guardian of one or half a country, but in terms of merit, they may not be as good as the Toshika and Yoshiyuki!

This is really a difficult thing, much more difficult than the strategy in front of you.

……，…… In mid-September, I built a port castle at the mouth of the Ogawa River and named it Mimitsu Castle, leaving the headquarters of Minami Iyo of Gamo Nobuhide to guard it, and then crossed the Ogawa River with 30,000 troops. As the vanguard, Jing Yi Xuanzhi simply defeated the attack of the Takajo Shinnazhong Yuan and drove more than 1,000 people back to the city. He immediately flew his horse to report to me, and at the same time released his scout to control the situation around him.

By the time my large army arrived, the enemy forces in Takashiro were still garrisoned by the five-story empty hori in the west, while Ii Nobunao had built two more layers on the periphery, and then turned to attack and defensive, besieging the enemy forces in Takashiro with a small number of troops, while the rest closely monitored the movements in the south. During this time, another small army of 1,000 men provoked him, trying to lure him further south, but he wisely ignored the other party.

This is very gratifying to me. Obviously, this is the Shimazu family's "fishing and nobush" tactic. If Ii Xuanzhi couldn't hold his breath and chased south, he would definitely be attacked by the main force of the Shimazu family. The opponent's strength is superior, as well as the geographical advantage and layout advantage, Jing Yi Xuanzhi's 4,000 Dong Yi Yu Ashigaru is definitely not an opponent, and if it is light, it will frustrate our sharp spirit and disrupt my deployment; At worst, the defeated army was driven by the opponent and rolled upside down, taking the opportunity to attack my main force.

"In last year's Battle of Otagawa, the Otomo family was defeated like this." I sighed to I.

"Our military strength has the standing equipment of our own family as the backbone, and it is naturally not comparable to the Otomo family. And my father, it's not Otomo Kingo. Jing Yixuan said with a straight smile.

I nodded slightly, turned to Hideki and asked, "Yoshihisa Shimazu of Satsuma, Yoshihiro Shimazu of Osumi, is there any movement now?" ”

"The news from four days ago said that their army has been assembled, with a total number of about 15,000 people, and they are stationed at Oguchi Castle in the north of Satsuma, but it is not clear which direction it will be used in," Xiujing explained by pointing to the map on the table, "Oguchi Castle is located at the junction of Satsuma, Osumi, Soxiang and Higo Shikoku, and it is very convenient to use either direction, you can support Somi, you can garrison Osumi, and you can even attack Higo." ”

(To be continued)