The Shigao survey on the east bank of the Shentong River has been completed, with a total of 6,730 stones, five villages under its jurisdiction, and a population of 2,200 people.

According to the sixty percent ratio agreed upon before, Shioya Akizhen will receive 4,000 stone of Zhixing.

The remaining more than 2,000 stones will be designated as Li Xiao's direct jurisdiction.

After Shioya Akizhen obtained the survey, he immediately began to build the Ape Cang Castle on the Sarucang Mountain.

As the lord of the land, he issued a general request, and 300 people participated in the construction of the city. All the materials for building the city were raised by the Yanwu firm of Yanya Qiuzhen, and it is expected to be completed within ten months, which will become a barrier to the east of Li Xiaocheng's city.

Just when Li Xiao began to be ambitious because of the increase in territory.

An unexpected piece of news disrupted his steps.

At that time, the spring rain did not stop, and several major rivers such as the Echichu Zhuang River, the Jintong River, the Toganji River, and the Kurobe River flooded.

Li Xiao's territory is no exception, it was hit by this flood, and now Li Xiao is already busy.

To settle the victims and take out spare food to help the victims, this series of actions made Li Xiao gain a good reputation among the people of Vietnam.

However, Li Xiao also knows that his family foundation is thin, and after this relief, not including the reconstruction after the flood, it is estimated that it will not be long before Li Xiao's rice warehouse will be able to run mice.

Not only Li Xiao's side, but also the Yuezhong Shenbao family, the Shiina family, and the large and small forces have all been affected by this flood that has not been encountered in ten years, and they are now busy dealing with the affairs in the territory.

This incident also put Li Xiao's Vietnam-China expansion plan on hold for the time being.

However, the disaster of the flood was only part of it, and Yokotani himself rushed to the castle overnight and reported to him an extremely shocking thing.

At that time, Li Xiaozheng was busy for a while, completed the relief of the local disaster, and when he returned to Chengsheng Castle, he saw Yokotani Yukishige looking dusty, waiting in the castle tower of Chengsheng Castle.

Li Xiao knew that if there was no emergency, Yokotani Yukishige himself would never be right, and he was so eager to come to the castle tower to meet him directly, it was usually Yokotani Yukiyoshi who relayed the information he obtained.

Yokotani Yukishige knelt down in front of Li Xiao, solemnly took out a bloodstained letter, and said, "Lord Lord, this is the information that was obtained at the cost of two subordinates. ”

Li Xiao opened the letter, and Yokotani Yukishige described the reason for the situation at that time, it turned out that Hida's sister Koji's family was restless, and her sister Koji Yoritsuna began to fan the flames behind her back, quietly inciting Hida's domestic dissatisfaction with Li Xiao.

And a small work under Yokotani Yushige's command, who was lurking in his sister's house, happened to learn of this news and immediately spy.

Hosaku secretly learned that the daughter of his sister Xiaolu Lai Gang was going to marry Jiangma Shizheng, the eldest son of Jiangma Huisheng.

After hearing about it, this meticulous writer immediately conveyed the news through secret channels, but unfortunately it was detected by the vigilant sister Lai Gang on the way.

Hosaku was killed shortly after delivering the message, and the ninja in charge of the message was intercepted and killed by the samurai of the sister Koji family in the middle of the way, and after being seriously injured, he finally passed the message to Yokotani Yukishige.

However, the ninja still died of his injuries.

I heard that the Jiangma family and the sister Xiaolu family were able to let go of decades of hostility and abandon the past hostility, and after the secret marriage, Li Xiao saw from this blood-stained letter that a conspiracy centered on the sister Xiaolu family and secretly targeting himself was quietly brewing.

"Very good, sister Xiaolu Lai Gang, this person who dominated Hida in history, really can't wait to ignore it, and secretly wants the Jiangma family to stab me in the back,"

Li Xiao snorted coldly, said secretly in his heart, and then said to Yokotani Yuki, "Thank you for your hard work, this piece of information is very important to me, please take good care of the ninjas who sacrificed for my family in this mission, I will not treat them badly." ”

"Oh." Yokotani Yuki saw that the news was delivered, and he also let go of his heavy responsibilities and immediately stepped back.

After Yokotani left again, Li Xiao immediately summoned Honda Masanobu and Shimakatsu to discuss the matter.

At that time, Honda Masashi was also very shocked when Shimakatsu heard that the Eima family was secretly communicating with his sister Koji family.

The three of them stood in the middle of the night to discuss this matter on the map of Feida and Vietnam, and after discussion, they felt more and more bad about Li Xiao's current strategic situation.

The news of the rebellion of the Jiang Ma family was worse for Li Xiao than Uesugi Kenshin's army attacking Chengsheng City.

If the Ema family turns against the water, and now Hida is in the domestic Takeda, and the Ema alliance is against the sister path, the balance of power in the inner island will be broken.

At that time, the three families of the Hida family, Jiangma, Sister Xiaolu, and Uchijima will fight against Li Xiao's family.

And the consequences of the Jiangma family's rebellion are not only that, Li Xiao's return from Kamioka Castle to Shinano will be cut off, and the support from his own family will be completely cut off, and finally he will be trapped between Hida and Echichu like an island far from his own family.

Not only that, if you plan for the worst, the two families of Echichu Shenbao and Shiina will attack at the same time, and Li Xiao will be attacked before and after, and he will be attacked by Echichu and Hida on both sides and backs, and even if there are reinforcements from Honganji, Li Xiao will never have the power to turn over.

"We must stabilize the situation of the Jiangma family."

Li Xiao said categorically that he knew that once the Jiang Ma family defected, the situation in his Yuezhong would collapse, and all his hard work would come to naught.

Honda Masashi said, "But my lord, how to stabilize it? We have leased the Shengang Silver Mountain of the Eima family for three years, and if the deadline is reached, we still won't return it, and the Eima family will inevitably break with us at that time. You must know that we don't have any, and we can exchange the price of Kamioka Silver Mountain to the Rima family. ”

Shima Shengmeng said: "Yes, Shengang Silver Mountain must not be exchanged for the Jiangma family, at the moment, our Shengang Preparation, Snake Tail Preparation of a thousand standing reserves, are all maintained by the Shengang Silver Mountain, if the Shengang Silver Mountain is returned to the Jiangma family, the current territory output, is not enough to maintain the two reserves." ”

"Besides, if the Jiangma family recaptures the Shengang Silver Mountain and mines it with our current soot blowing method, its power will also grow to an infinite extent. The Jiangma family must not be allowed to grow like this. ”

"The current situation is very unfavorable to us, can we ask the Lord for help?" Shimakatsu suggested.

Li Xiao shook his head and said: "Temporarily powerless, before the capture of Nishiueno, the family will not draw forces to conquer Hida, even if the Nishiueno is pacified, it will have to be faced in the north and south at the same time, the challenge of the Uesugi family and the Imagawa family, this situation is the same as mine, the same passive." ”

Li Xiao knew that the Takeda family was about to enter its most difficult stage, and the Takeda Imagawa Alliance, after Takeda Yoshinobu rebelled, the two families only maintained a superficial harmony, but in fact existed in name only.

The north side has to face the strong pressure of the Uesugi family, the dragon of Echigo, and the south side also has to deal with the Imagawa family, which may turn around at any time, and the situation is actually passive, in fact, it has never been before.

Li Xiao nodded, and said: "You are right, in this way, our break with the Jiangma family is inevitable, and we will inevitably face it in the future, the two major forces of Vietnam and China and Hida have attacked from the north and south, and this will be a siege network against me Li Xiaozhi!" ”

"So from now on, we have to concentrate all our efforts to prepare for the war in order to deal with this most critical matter for me Li Xiao at present!"

Honda Masanobu and Shima Katsu all nodded, and now the three wealthy clans of Hida are gradually uniting to resist Li Xiao, and the trend has gradually formed, which is definitely a big crisis for Li Xiao.

It is an unprecedented test for Li Xiao's forces, among the five major forces, none of them is inferior to Li Xiao's now, and the forces of Shenbao and Shiina are even more powerful.

The only thing Li Xiao holds at the moment is that they learned the news in advance, so they still have time to prepare for the war.

Honda Masashi said: "At present, the only way to maintain the alliance with the other party is to try their best to maintain the alliance with the other party before the Jiangma family turns around, hoping to have enough time to prepare for the war before the siege network is formed." ”

Dao Shengmeng also said: "But this delay strategy is not a way, this family and the Jiangma family will have a battle sooner or later." ”

Li Xiao looked at Shima Shengmeng and Honda Masashi, and said: "No matter what, the top priority at the moment seems to be that this matter cannot be leaked, both of them are important ministers of my Li Xiao, this news must be kept secret in the retainer group, and must not be leaked, I don't want to cause unnecessary panic in the retainer group." ”

Shima Katsu and Honda Masanobu all agreed: "My lord, my subordinates must keep secrets." ”

Li Xiao solemnly said to the island, and Honda Masashi said: "So next, the two of them must act in secret, and the family must make a comprehensive mobilization and gather all the forces to deal with the crisis." ”

Knowing that the Jiang Ma family was about to turn against the water, Li Xiao understood that he had to start making every effort to arrange it now in order to deal with the future Hida and the attack of the north and south of Vietnam.

A few days later, Li Xiao gathered all the retainers and announced the new military system.

Li Xiao first used Shengang Castle and Chengsheng Castle as Hida respectively, and the two major defensive centers of gravity in Vietnam, Central and North Korea.

Kamioka was stationed at Kamioka Castle, under the command of the general Shimakatsu Takeshi, followed by the iron cannon general Kohata Akiken, a total of 500 people, temporarily in charge of the Hida garrison.

Secondly, the snake tail was stationed in the castle, which was temporarily commanded by the ashigaru general Kinoshita Koichiro, and the head of the ashigaru was followed by the mountain tigers, still 500 people, temporarily responsible for the garrison of the Vietnamese side.

Unlike before, Li Xiao expanded his own flag book this time, following the example of the Tokugawa family's flag book in history, and established his own flag army.

Li Xiao created his own banner army, and another plan was to see the invincible Echigo Banner Army of Uesugi Teruhu in the Battle of Zengshan Castle, so he made this decision.

The Banner First Servant was created by Tokugawa Ieyasu in the 9th year of Eiroku, and Tokugawa Ieyasu divided the Mikawa clan into the east and west, with the eastern Mikawa clan headed by the old Sakai Tadaji of the Bitou family as the banner head, and the Nishi Mikawa clan flag head being held by another old Ishikawa Ienari (later succeeded by Ishikawa Shumasa).

And the flag first hand service, that is, Tokugawa Ieyasu directly under the flag army, under the Tokugawa family generals Honda Tadakatsu, Honda Hirotaka, Torii Tadamoto, and later Kamihara Yasumasa and other generals joined, the strength of the army is between 500 and 600 horses.

This is also later Tokugawa Ieyasu often proud, mentioned in the verbal five hundred riding Mikawa samurai.

Li Xiao naturally couldn't be like Tokugawa Ieyasu, the lord of a country, and organize such a huge banner army of 500 cavalry samurai.

Li Xiao's banner army this time was mainly composed of the mother's clothes of the original Shigang Yiyu, many of whom were originally from Hida and the dilapidated wealthy families in Yuezhong, and were composed of young people between the ages of sixteen and thirty-five.

In the previous Li Xiao's 20,000 Zhixing, Saito, Kawagami, and Ren's family were all wiped out by Li Xiao, so their original retainers all lost their respective Zhixing, and either became wild samurai, or they could only stay at home.

Now Li Xiao has compiled them into the flag book, as the original martial arts children, their own martial arts are not bad, and now they are compiled into the flag book by Li Xiao, so as not to prevent these unemployed wanderers from rebelling in the future, and also as a way to strengthen local surveillance.

However, this time the flag army Li Xiao did not follow the Tokugawa family's flag army to establish it according to the standards of samurai, so expensive.

He is still imitating the Shengang Preparation, the Snake Tail Preparation, formed in the form of a standing reserve, this banner reserve strength of 700 people, Li Xiao believes that if the training of the western phalanx is mature, it will not be inferior to the flag army composed of regular samurai, and it will become Li Xiao's greatest combat power in the future.

Li Xiao predicted that this banner army would be used as a mobile force to plan for future battles on the two fronts of Vietnam and China, defending in one place and attacking in the other, striving to form a local superiority and first repel the enemy along the way.

However, Li Xiao was very tight on the military expenses for the formation of this banner army, and Li Xiao had to make up some money.

Originally, Kamioka Silver Mountain maintained Kamioka, and the two standing guards were still a little richer, and the tax revenue between Chengsheng Castle and the trade routes between Kamioka Castle, the annual tribute of Zhixingdi, and the annual bonus of the Shioya Merchant could maintain this banner army.

However, this year, Chengshengcheng suffered a disaster, and the annual tribute income is expected to shrink significantly, and now Li Xiao is already tightening his belt.

But even if it is so urgent, in the face of the attack of the five major forces in the future, Li Xiao still must quickly form this banner army.

In the face of Li Xiao's plan to expand the army, all the retainers were shocked, they didn't know what Li Xiao wanted to use to form this army, with the current situation, Shengang was prepared with a snake's tail, and the attack was insufficient, but it was enough to protect himself, even if it was an emergency, beware of an enemy attack, he could temporarily recruit some peasant soldiers to assist in the defense.

And Chang'an, as the internal affairs of the Great Treasury, was even more stunned, maintaining this army is equivalent to exhausting all of Li Xiao's financial resources at the moment, and in the future, Li Xiao's account book will not increase at all.

And there is no money to deal with a sudden emergency.

In the face of the opposition of the retainers led by the Great Treasury Chang'an, Li Xiao, Honda Masanobu, and Shima Katsutoshi glanced at each other.

Li Xiao smiled bitterly, this is also his current helpless move, but he can't tell them the truth.

However, even so, at Li Xiaozhi's insistence, the formation policy of the new banner army was still adopted with an iron fist.

Knowing that the expansion of the army was finalized, Dazang Chang'an's face was as deep as water, in his eyes, Li Xiao, who had always been cautious, actually made such a decision, which was obviously unwise.

After the establishment of the banner army was passed, the retainers still dispersed from the castle tower one after another, but Kinoshita Koichiro remained.

He actually wanted Li Xiao to resign from his position as a serpentine general.

(To be continued)