"Jingxiu's ability, we have seen it at the New Year's banquet several years ago, and now under Hideyoshi's tutelage, we must have improved a lot," I nodded casually, mentioning the competition between the two at the New Year's banquet in the first year of Motogui. Many people in the family knew about that incident, and Yuliang Jingxiu's martial arts name spread in the family, starting from that competition: "To tell the truth, Zhou Jing is not as good as him, and he was able to come out on top this time, and a large part of it was with the support of the water army." And among my nephews, it is estimated that only Xuanzhi can beat him. ”

"Xuanzhi, I've heard of it too, it's the adopted son who followed you to defeat Takeda Yamayama Akabi and then establish Iyi Akabei, right?" Hearing me mention Xuanzhi, Ikeda Hengxing was very energetic, "I heard that Yuanfu has been in the house for several years, and he is still not married, so why don't you marry my eldest daughter Ah Ruo, and then pass on to my family?" ”

"Don't even think about it. Liangzhi wants to recruit him as his son-in-law and adopted son to inherit the family business, but I am not willing to do it! I smiled and rejected Ikeda's offer, "Naturally, Xuanzhi married my own daughter and stayed at home as a member of the clan...... If he weren't the only heir of the Jing family, I would definitely let him change it to Kira Miao, and continue as a branch of the clan like Zhou Jing. ”

Hearing my words, Hideyoshi seemed to be relieved a lot. Yes, from the standpoint of the samurai family, it is very fortunate to have such an excellent adopted son, whether as the heir of the clan or the head of the split family...... He smiled and turned to Ikeda Hengxing: "Ah Ruo, I have also heard that although she is only nine years old, she is already a very outstanding little beauty. Since you want to get married, why don't you consider my family's Sun Qilang? ”

This monkey is really clever in his reaction. Let Sun Qilang and Ah Ruo marry, on the one hand, they can win over Ikeda Hengxing, and on the other hand, they can also find a foreign aid for Sun Qilang to balance Jingxiu's influence at home. At present, Jingxiu's status in Yuliang's family is really too big, and it has far surpassed Sun Qilang, who has not yet been served, from Toda Katsutaka , Oto Tomonobu and other family elders, to Fukushima Ichimatsu, Kato Toranosuke and other young guards, all of whom are extremely respectful to him, if this continues, even if Hideyoshi gives birth to a parent, it will probably show a trend of tail not falling.

"You said it, that's naturally no problem." Ikeda replied with a burp.

So, he sold his daughter in half a drunk, and also made the fate of the historical killer Guan Bai and the main room Wakagozen still set a fate (after the death of the emperor, the daughter of the Imadegawa Sunny Season was promoted from the side room to the succession room).

……，…… Although the siege of Arioka Castle was successfully achieved, the castle was extremely strong and had a large reserve of military rations, and it was absolutely impossible to capture it in a moment and a half. Oda Nobutada launched several tentative attacks, but there was no significant progress, and he could only come up with the clumsiest and most effective siege move, a long-term siege.

If you besiege the city, you don't need to gather so many people to waste food and grass, and you can't stay away from Gifu for a long time. After some deliberation, he entrusted the task to Hideyoshi Hara and Mitsuhide Akechi. Hideyoshi's Harima country, which was adjacent to Settsu, had only subdued the equally fortified Miki Castle a few months earlier; The Damba Province of Akechi Mitsuhide is also next to Harima and Settsu, and he also has the experience of besieging Hatano Yagami Castle. It is very convenient and very effective to use these two people to host the strategy. As the future landlord, Ikeda Hengxing temporarily stationed in Hanakuma Castle and used it as a base to appease the small and medium-sized wealthy families in the country and participate in the Arioka Castle Raiders.

Four months later, a major change occurred in Hokuriku, when Kenshin Uesugi, who had always pressed Shibata Katsuie and Takigawa Kazuyi, passed away suddenly, and he didn't even have time to designate an heir. In this way, between the two adopted sons, Uesugi Keikatsu and Uesugi Keitora, there was an immediate struggle for the position of heir, which is known as the "Imperial Pavilion Rebellion" in history. Almost all of the Uesugi retainers and the wealthy clans were involved in the turmoil, and they divided into two camps, each supporting their favorite lord and brandishing their swords at their former comrades. Even some of the courtiers and wealthy families have been divided because of this, such as the head of the Yamamoto Temple Uesugi family, the head of the Yamamoto Temple, the filial brother of Yamamoto Temple, the wealthy family of Yangbei, the father and son of Honjo, the father and son of the Honjo Chief, and the Kenshin side close to the uncle and nephew of the Hetian Chief, etc., and performed a tragedy of the killing of close relatives. For example, the Kakizaki Haruya, the son of the late Kakizaki Keijia of the Uesugi family, forcibly supported Jinghu and deviated from the wishes of many of their own retainers, as a result, they supported the two-year-old sister-in-law of the Haruzaki family, Chikuma Maru, and then wiped out all the few retainers in the Kakizaki family who supported Jinghu, and murdered the lord Kakizaki Haruhin's family in the spring mountain castle...... It can be said that the entire Uesugi family was almost a mess, and completely lost control of the new lords such as Echichu, Noto, and Kaga outside of Echigo.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shibata Katsuie and Takigawa Kazuyoshi sent troops in large numbers, and soon captured the North Kaga Province, which was invaded by the Uesugi family, and marched towards Echichu and Noto. The former guardian of Echichu, who had been sheltered under Nobunaga's wing, also took advantage of this opportunity to rise up, as the vanguard of the Oda family, crossed the Hida Province and invaded the territory of Vietnam, while invading eastward, and recruiting the old department of the former Jimboh family; Sozen, the son of Naga-suren, a major minister of the Noto Hatakeyama family, because his father and brother had been killed, he changed his name to Nagakoren, and went to Hokuriku with the Yuko of the Noto Hatakeyama family and Oda Nobunaga's brother-in-law, Jimboch Zhang, and together with the Shibata Army, he attacked Noto Province.

This change in Hokuriku shocked the entire story; And the Northern Army Regiment's frenzy also greatly increased the prestige of the Oda family, making the daimyo tremble. And when he learned of this change, Araki Murashige in Arioka Castle probably panicked! He tried his best to defend the castle, fighting the idea that the Oda family might be broken by the Maori family and the Uesugi family, but the reality completely shattered his expectations. The Maori family in the west, because of the forced dispatch of troops last year, was repelled by the Uki family, and also folded the head of the Zhuang clan who guarded the Daijo clan in the original preparation, and the prestige and appeal have decreased a lot (so Kobayakawa Takakei opposed the reluctance to send troops), and now it is still firmly blocked by the Uki family; And the Uesugi family has even more of a great turmoil, even if it is calmed down, its strength will definitely drop greatly, and the new head of the family will not only have to heal the rift in the family, but also cannot have the appeal of humility. At least, he can't inherit the title of Kanto governor, because according to the old system, the appointment of the Kanto governor lies with the shogunate and the imperial court, but now that the shogunate has long since collapsed, and the imperial court has not had time to curry favor with Nobunaga, how can it be possible to give the Uesugi family, who is Nobunaga's enemy, this title? If this is the case, then the wealthy families who were originally gathered because of the Kanto Governorship may break away from the Uesugi family because of this, thus further weakening the strength of the Uesugi family.

Because of the above considerations, Araki Murashige abandoned the demoralized Arioka Castle, fled with the tea set he had collected and made up, and went to Amagasaki Castle, where his sister-in-law Araki Muraji was stationed, preparing to take him with him to the Mori family. As soon as he fled, the morale of the city completely fell to the bottom, and many samurai and ashigaru who defended the city also deserted. Hideyoshi Hara and Mitsuhide Akechi soon discovered the anomaly, captured several samurai and interrogated them, and when they heard that it was Araki Murashige who had fled, they immediately launched a fierce attack on Arioka Castle, and two days later captured the castle, and Pegasus reported the victory to Oda Nobunaga in Azuchi. Thirty-six of the Araki retainers in the castle were sent to Kyoto's Hokke sect Myokenji Temple to be detained, while the rest of the large number of women and relatives remained in Settsu to await Nobunaga's orders.

Nobunaga's treatment of these people was extremely cruel, and all 36 Araki retainers were taken by Nobunaga to six rivers to be beheaded, and their 122 wives and concubines, as well as the remaining 124 male and 388 female dependents, including the pregnant wife of Araki Hayabusuke, were all taken outside Amagasaki Castle and killed or burned in front of Araki Murashige's father and son.

At that time, I was ordered to gather the retainers of the Oda family, including Wasaya Yoritaka, Maeda Toshiie, Sawaki Yoshiyuki, and Ikoma Parents, to prepare for the final attack on Amagasaki Castle. Hearing the news, he couldn't help but sigh, although they rebelled first, but this treatment was too cruel, and the tyranny hidden in Nobunaga's heart seemed to be completely manifested.

He is a person who can be said to be extremely contradictory. Today's brutality is certainly eye-catching, but sometimes it is extremely gentle. Just a few months ago, Hideyoshi's main chamber Nene went to Azuchi Castle to meet Nobunaga and complained to Nohime about the behavior of Hideyoshi's side room, and when Nobunaga learned of it, he immediately wrote a long letter of great warmth and gentleness, asking Nene to understand Hideyoshi's eagerness to obtain children, and assuring her that "it is okay to be the main room of the Hara family with peace of mind and beauty." The contrast between these two actions is simply the difference between angels and demons.

But what's the use of saying that? The people around Nobunaga were all silent in front of Nobunaga, and no one dared to raise the slightest opinion in the face of his outrageous behavior. By the time we arrived, the only thing left outside the castle was the ninety-seven pillars that had killed the Araki family's hostages, and the farmhouse's wooden house that had been burned to black ashes with the Araki family's relatives had been burned to black ashes.

This time, Nobunaga was not present, and Oda Nobutada assumed the post of commander-in-chief. Nobutada had heard about Zhou Jing's last attack on Hanakuma Castle, and he wanted to see the firepower of the frigate with his own eyes, so he handed over the first battle to my Nankaido Legion. I didn't shirk it, and soon called in the Dinghai, which was roaming around the neighborhood to prevent Araki Village from re-escaping from the sea, and bombarded Amagasaki Castle by the sea.

Compared with the last night battle, this attack was in the daytime, less of the shock of the fire in the dark night, but the view was clearer, under the three rounds of fire from the eighteen-pound gun, the walls of Amagasaki Castle were breached in many places, and even the castle tower was knocked out of several large holes, presumably many guards and even family members were killed and wounded, and an unfortunate lookout was hit head-on, and immediately turned into sawdust in the sky, and faintly flying stumps could be seen.

"This ...... It's amazing! Oda Nobutada of the Honjin exclaimed.

"Powerful is powerful, but the limitations are also very large," I took over from Nobutada's words, "first of all, the range of activities, such a sail frigate, mainly in the open sea, for her, the Seto Inland Sea is really small, and besides, the sea breeze in the Seto Inland Sea is uncertain, and sometimes it will stop completely, which is not conducive to her indulgence; The second is the restriction of attacks, which can only attack coastal areas, and is completely powerless against inland cities, and even if there are rivers, it is difficult to pass...... Another point is that it is too expensive, the ship is expensive, the guns are expensive, there is a lot of training, and the ammunition used also costs a lot of money. ”

"So, how much exactly?" Hideyoshi Hara asked, "If it's convenient, I'd like to configure such a ship to guard the Harima Beach area along the coast of Harima Province." ”

"In that case, in addition to preparing tens of thousands of sailors, His Royal Highness Hideyoshi must also be equipped with a whole navy," I smiled very innocently, "not to mention how long the sailors on the ship have to undergo cultivation and training; Nor does he mention how intimate the relationship with the Nanban merchants must be in order to obtain these cannons; In order to protect such a ship alone, a large number of ships must be arranged. Otherwise, if you are besieged by a large number of enemy boats, I am afraid that you will not be able to sink them all, and then they will be bullied closely, and you will probably be captured...... How wronged that is! ”

As I spoke, I looked at Hideyoshi's face with interest, watching his expression grow more and more disappointed, and finally sighed, obviously dispelling this idea. Although he is indeed very capable, but such harsh conditions are not something he can do, even I, with more than ten years of accumulation of naval forces, and with the help of certain opportunities, I was able to build these three Poseidon-class frigates that surpass today's national strength.

"It turns out that there are still so many restrictions, it's really teachable," Wise Mitsuhide nodded at me, his smile was very gentle, "In this way, in this family, I'm afraid only His Royal Highness Xuanjing can equip it!" ”

"It's all up to the Lord," my eyelids jumped, and I politely replied with a salute, "that's why you can each shepherd...... And I was able to control the South China Sea, and established such a naval army, which cut through the wind and waves for the lord, and the reputation of the Cloth Oda family was in the Ryukyus. ”

"Exactly, you are all the pillars of my Oda family, and you are also the support of my Oda family to conquer the world," Oda Nobutada agreed with my statement, "Now that His Highness Xuanjing has been bombarded, the morale of the city has been greatly damaged, next, which Highness is willing to take on this second formation?" ”

"Please leave the task to me Hengxing! I won't disappoint the young master! Ikeda Hengxing took the initiative to ask.

"Then, I will hand it over to His Royal Highness Hengxing." Oda Nobutada nodded.

(To be continued)