In the blink of an eye, March passed, and the Kanto region ushered in the warm and humid rainy season, and with the smooth bloodless opening of Kururi Castle, the Hojo family's offensive on the Bosu Peninsula gradually reached a stalemate, and the continuous rain not only extinguished the Hojo family's attack but also brought great pressure on the logistics supply, and the high morale of the Hojo army fell all the way, and the Hojo Phantom Ann appropriately slowed down the pace of the attack.

Masaki Tokimo used his strength to prove that he was stronger than the traitor brother Masaki Toki, and the 8,000 army was tossing and turning back and forth between the narrow plains and valleys in the eastern part of the Fangwei Peninsula, and they simply lost their armor and abandoned their armor, and the newly captured Ono Castle and Jotani Castle were also recaptured with the cooperation of the local people, and the Satomi army, which had won one after another, regained the morale of the losses, while the rebels were losing troops and retreating to their respective cities to defend.

The 5,000 troops sitting in Dafushan attacked several times, and most of the cities were repulsed, and under the persecution of Zhengmu Shimao, they couldn't even stand the camp of Dafukuyama, and packed their bags and withdrew to Kururi City overnight to be defended, which is equivalent to eating only one Kururi City back and forth, and the situation in the eastern part of the Fangwei Peninsula gradually fell to a tug-of-war.

The battle on the western front of Hojo Mirage also came to a standstill, Satomi Yoshiyao of Owada Yamajo Castle and Satomi Yoshihiro of Sakan Castle merged together, and 10,000 Satomi troops eager for revenge launched a counterattack against the 7,000 Hojo Army, and started a big battle with the Hojo Phantage Temple near the Koito River, and the main force of the Satomi Army once broke through the front of the Hojo Army and killed directly in front of the main camp of the Hojo Illusory Castle, if it were not for the timely support of the Hojo Army of Kururi Castle, the Hojo Phantom Ann might have been buried next to this shallow river.

In this battle, the Hojo Army lost 1,200 men, while the Satomi Army lost less than 500 men, and the Southern Kwantung Army experienced several unsuccessful wars. Both the quality of armaments and morale are relatively poor. Compared with the elite under Satomi Yoshihiro, it is half a level behind. If it weren't for the fact that the main forces of the Hojo Army were on guard, the strong men in the north would not have fought to this level.

The morale of the Hojo army suffered a lot of losses, and when the Hojo Phantom Temple saw that the opportunity was not good, he led the army to retreat to Kururi Castle to standby, trying to deplete the Satomi army through the consumption of military rations for the confrontation, anyway, as long as the Hojo Phantom Temple did not retreat for a day, Satomi Yoshihiro would never dare to disband the military service on the spot and let the peasants return home to farm.

It's a pity that the heavens don't fulfill people's wishes, and whenever the Hojo family finally comes up with a clever plan, there are always people who jump out to block their progress.

This time it was Yoshiaki Satake of Kita-Hitachi Province who jumped out. In addition to suppressing Edo Tadamitsu's attack on Oda Clanji, this Jun also made a lot of efforts to restore Utsunomiya Hirotsuna, the lord of Shimono Kingdom, to Utsunomiya Hirotsuna, and married his daughter to Utsunomiya Hirotsuna, and then repelled Iwaki's attack last year, and once again married his youngest daughter to Iwaki Shigetaka's adopted son, Iwaki Kintaka.

The only regret is that he did not reap enough benefits in the Kanto Astronomical Rebellion and the Second Kokutodai War, which frequently interfered in the affairs of Shimono Kunichu and attacked the Shirakawa Yuki clan, and established the heyday of the Satake family.

The anti-Hojo leader of this family, who is also a hardcore one, also paid attention to the movements of the Bosu Peninsula when Satomi Yoshihiro was in a bitter battle. He was reluctant to lead his army to the front line to face the attack of the 20,000 Hojo Army, and all he could give was the support of grain, grass and medicine at sea. He also understands the truth of cold lips and teeth.

When Masaki Toshigeru was invincible in the eastern part of the Indulgence Peninsula, Satake Yoshiaki's ship carried the grain and grass that the Satomi family needed most to the outside of Izumiura, which was a port close to the capital of Daki Castle, and the only obstacle was Toki Lai of Manki Castle, so Masaki Toshigeru ordered his adopted son Masaki Kentoki to lead an army to besiege Manki Castle, while his second son Masaki Yoribo led an army to defend Katsuura Castle, and the rebel general Masaki Tokitaka led an army to defend Katsuura Castle to counterattack at any time.

Masaki Toshigeru met with the envoy of the Satake family, Okamoto Zenzhe, the learned monk of the Satake family and another learned monk of the Hojo family, Itabe Okae Yukisai, whose name is famous in the eastern country as a number of cultural people in the Kanto region, and the two high monks are engaged in diplomacy, because the cultural people are good at words and will be courteous wherever they go, and the Zen monks can enter and exit any samurai's residence at will without fear of being captured, so it has become a special diplomatic culture of the samurai in this era.

Okamoto Zenzhe wanted to invite Masaki Shigeru to taste the tea ceremony, and spent half an afternoon talking about the profundity of the Zen realm, and only after cleaning up the remnants of tea did he slowly say: "Masaki Daizenden is a well-known samurai in Kanto, and the Kamiki Satomi clan is also a well-known samurai in my eastern country, so I shouldn't be rude to attack for the Hojo family, my lord has the heart to help, but the distance between the two countries is far away, and there is a long distance between the lower countries, so I sent some grain and grass to talk about the support, please understand the Satomi Punishment Hall and the Shoki Daizen Palace." ”

Masaki Shigeru hurriedly leaned over and thanked: "On behalf of the lord, thank you Satake Ukyoden for your assistance, there are not many samurai who can have this heart in this Kanto, Satake Ukyoden supports my Satomi family and I will not forget it, please Okamoto Hall on behalf of me to convey the gratitude of the samurai of the room to the Ukyoden." ”

The two politely exchanged words for a while before slowly changing the topic to the ongoing war in Kamiki Province, Masaki Shigeru talked about the suppression of the Hojo Army's army was very sad, and the loss of Kururi Castle was like a sharp knife that split the Satomi family from the middle, Satomi Yoshiyao and Satomi Yoshihiro were struggling to support on the front line of Sakan Castle, and he was blocked in Daxi Castle and did not dare to take a step beyond the thunder pond, fearing that if he was not careful, he would be caught by the Hojo Army in the north and south to take away control of Daxi Castle.

Zhengmu Shimao sighed in distress: "Now that the situation of my Satomi family is getting more and more difficult, I really don't know how long I can last!" In the next few days, I couldn't rest day and night, and the old wounds left on my body for many years recurred, and I really don't know how long I can last for my father-in-law. ”

As the genealogy of the Satomi family, Masaki Shigeru's prestige and merits are based on an occasion battle, since he was young, he was the savior in the crisis several times, and he personally broke off to buy time for Satomi Yoshiyao to run away, how many times he almost died and left a scar and how much blood spilled, as he grew older, his blood weakened and his body gradually felt that he couldn't support it, and Masaki Shigeru had said to his son several times that he didn't know which day he might be planted from the Mercedes-Benz horse and never get up again.

Okamoto Zenzhe said in an indifferent tone: "The great dining hall has an outstanding martial name, and in the future, I will resist the attack of the Hojo family as a well-known samurai in my Kanto, how can I say these discouraged words?" If the samurai of the Kanto region learned that the famous gun Daizenden would also give up. There must be many samurai who are desperate about this! So...... Think more about the good side or leave a chance for a comeback. ”

Gun Dashan is his nickname. His fame was recorded in the "Zongdi Night Talk" of the Northern Army God. Asakura Sodrip only mentions Nagaoden, Takeda Hall and Masaki Daizenden in the samurai of the Eastern Kingdom, the first two are the dragon of Echigo, the other is the tiger of Kai, and only he, the third person, is only the old man of the Satomi clan.

In fact, Masaki Shigeru's military strategy is not the top level in the Kanto region, and if he gives him 30,000 troops, he may be beaten by Hojo Tsunari, and he doesn't even know his mother, but let him command five or seven thousand troops to be a general for a while, it will definitely be the top level among the eight countries in the Kanto region. It's not even inferior to Nobuharu Baba and Iitomi Huchang, so it's hard to say whether it can be compared with Kakizaki Keike and Saito Asanobu.

Military strategy can be subdivided into the collection and command, the so-called collection is the general, the commander is the general, the good general can be the commander of an army, the good general can be a town general, this type of samurai belongs to the typical general, the commander is excellent and resourceful is not bad, the only drawback is that the match is not good, can only be a general, can not be a commander, like Uesugi Huihu military strategy is all-round only a samurai who is slightly worse at attacking the city. That's definitely a search all over the world and I can't find a second person.

Even Kai Tiger Takeda Shingen is only at an extremely high level, only a little worse than Uesugi Hui Tiger. The level of command is relatively poor, and it is not necessarily much stronger than Takeda Shinshihiro and Baba Shinharu under him, but Takeda Shingenqiang is also the top existence in strategy and strategy, and he is very good at attracting talents, so he is very prestigious in the Koshin samurai.

Masaki Shigeru is not inferior to the young and vigorous Hojo clan in addition to the commander, and the martial arts are not inferior to the young and vigorous Hojo clan, this is also because of the decline of his qi and blood as he gets older, and he is not necessarily much worse than Saito Asanobu in the right year twenty years in advance, and he is not much worse than the Kakizaki Keijia who is the same age but cherishes his body very much.

"Leave a chance to revive ......" Hearing Okamoto Zenzhe's hint, Masaki Shigeru's eyes lit up, and he looked at the learned monk who was over thirty years old and still well-maintained as a twenty-four or five-year-old young man, and hesitated: "I don't know what Okamoto Hall said...... What do you mean by that? ”

"Now the situation in Kanto is the Hojo clan is dominant, and the Kanto samurai such as us have been beaten and abandoned their armor several times, and they can only be trapped in the city of sorrow and sit on the empty mountain, but it is not a long-term solution, so we have to ask some foreign aid to change the situation in Kanto." Zenzhe Okamoto smiled slightly, put down the tea bowl and tea whisk in his hand, dipped the water droplets left in the kettle, and gently wrote a few words on the desk.

"It's ...... The town is a prince! Is that His Royal Highness the prince of Kasuga Mountain Castle? Masaki Shimao's brows instantly furrowed tightly, with his military strategy and resourcefulness for many years, of course he would not forget the lord of Hokuriku, but he did not feel ecstatic because of this, but leaned forward and whispered: "This palace is a noble from Kyoto, it is really inconvenient to contact my Kanto martial artist!" After all, the Kwantung samurai are loyal to His Royal Highness the Furukawa Princess. ”

"Huh! Shogi Daizen is a little insincere! In the past two generations, how could the governor of the Satomi clan have been loyal to the Furukawa Gongfang, it must not be appropriate to say this! Okamoto Zenzhe looked at him with a smile, which meant to accuse the Satomi family of supporting the Koyumi Princess, provoking the civil strife between Furukawa and Kokoto, and then giving the Hojo family the opportunity to contact the Furukawa Princesses to invade the Kanto region.

The civil strife in the Kanto region is nothing more than a variety of battles between the Kanto Princes and the Shogunate, the Kanto Princes and the Kanto Governors, the Kanto Governors and their own clans, and the Kanto Princes and their own clans.

The Anbo Satomi clan became the upper Satomi clan because of the east wind of the small bow Gongfang's separate family, so Okamoto Zenzhe seemed to inadvertently stab a sentence to make Masaki Shigeru speechless, but fortunately, this learned monk also had no intention of embarrassing the gun Dashan, and said: "Today, this Furukawa Gongfang Hall is of bad character, and he has not received the samurai education that a Gongfang Imperial Palace should receive.

As soon as he ascended the throne, he killed two of his own brothers, such cruel methods were disgusted by our Kanto samurai family, not to mention that the Furukawa Gongfang married the daughter of Hojo Sagami Mamoru and the Hojo family were very close. The performance of recent years is all indicative of this Furukawa Prince. has degenerated to the point where being forced to be a puppet becomes a willing puppet. His behavior has completely disappointed us and other Kanto samurai! ”

Aside from the few Furukawa princes who died early, the Ashikaga Haru clan of the previous Furukawa princess also rose up for a while, and united with the Kanto governor Uesugi of Yamauchi Uesugi Kenmasa, and the governor of Ogiya Uesugi Asagi to launch an attack on the Sagami Hojo clan, but unfortunately the 80,000 army could not fight the 12,000 troops of the Hojo clan, and finally gloriously reduced to a puppet echo worm.

Ashikaga Haruki was not willing to be a puppet party, tried to struggle a few times and almost pitted himself in, and finally honestly lived a few days of stable life and accidentally planted himself in the well fence and returned to the Yellow Spring. To be honest, the Kanto samurai still misses this high-minded and low-minded Furukawa Gongfang, at least he will make the Kanto samurai find a reason to unite.

Now what is going on with the Furukawa Clan and the Hojo clan politics together, whether it is a nest of snakes and rats who smell like each other, or whether it is a thief who is sold to help the number of people, in short, the Kanto Warriors basically lost interest in this Ashikaga Fujimasa, and even the few people who waved the flag and shouted under the Furukawa Princesses were all loyal to the Furukawa Imperial Office on the surface, but they actually wrote a request to the Hojo family to accept the dispatch.

"I probably understand what His Royal Highness Okamoto means, the Furukawa Princesses can't protect the interests of our Kanto samurai, and it's already violated our bottom line to go with the Hojo family wholeheartedly, so I want to abandon the Furukawa Princes to meet the town government of Echigo...... I just don't know if His Highness Okamoto has ever thought about it. That town government duke is by no means as easy to match as the Furukawa duke, and he has tens of thousands of elite generals in his hands. If you invite this town government to go south to Kanto, it is very likely to bring unpredictable changes! Masaki Shigeru focused on strengthening the bite of the last few words, which roughly means that it is easy to invite God and difficult to send God.

Okamoto Zenzhe's eyebrows furrowed slightly and flattened slightly, Masaki Shigeru's vigilance and clear mind and accurate words were somewhat beyond his expectations, at first glance, a reckless general can still figure out the twists and turns of right and wrong, this mind is definitely not comparable to ordinary fierce generals, it has far exceeded the degree of thick and thin.

However, the problems he mentioned were not difficult, and they were all in his preparation, so he smiled slightly and flattered lightly: "The Zhengmu Great Dining Hall is really admirable for its quick thinking, and it can be seen that this layer is not only proficient in commanding the army, but also good at planning, this is the talent of the general!" ”

"His Highness Okamoto has praised it."

"It's just that I don't know if the Masaki Great Dining Hall has ever thought that with the strategy of the town government and the tens of thousands of elites under his command, it will be trapped in Echigo and not enter the Kanto? What if the town government had the heart to go south to Kanto? ”

"This ......" Masaki Shigeru hesitated: "It's not easy to say!" After all, what hasn't happened yet is unpredictable, and we can't do anything about it. ”

Okamoto Zenzhe smiled and said: "At first glance, it is really difficult to say, but the judgment of the lord of my family is that the prince of the town government is waiting for the opportunity to prepare for the battle in Kanto, the reason is that my Satake clan happens to have one, the original food of my Satake clan's Ota Bichu Shoukang Ziden, and the main hall of the Ota Minbu Daifuku, the prince of the town government has already left the Hitachi Fuchu and rerouted to Kasuga Mountain Castle to seek the support of the restoration of power, presumably the Shoki Daizenden can understand the meaning!" ”

"The two of them actually left Kanto for Echigo, and they were recruited by the town government...... Sure enough, it's a prelude to going south to Kanto! Wrong! Why didn't Echigo leak out at all, this doesn't make sense! Zhengmu Shimao frowned and said: "It stands to reason that some news should be released, for example, if the troops are sent in May, they must release the news two months in advance, whether it is to recruit military service or prepare food and grass to release speech to affect the enemy, it is necessary to make some corresponding actions." ”

"This is what makes the Kira family different from our Kanto samurai...... I'm sorry! The slip of the tongue is the Kamiki Ashikaga family. Okamoto Zenzhe didn't care how inconsistent this unapologetic apology was, and Masaki Toshigeru also understood that he was expressing his attitude that he didn't care about His Royal Highness Echigo.

Attaching importance does not mean support, support does not mean alliance, alliance does not mean subordination, ministers never mean sincere loyalty, sincere allegiance does not mean true allegiance in the future, does not mean that future generations will be loyal, just like the former Hojo clan was loyal to the Minamoto Yorito, and then betrayed the descendants of the Minamoto Yorito, and personally killed the descendants of the Kawachi Genji and puppeted the first shogunate, this is the pure national mentality.

In the blink of an eye, the sun was setting and the twilight was getting thicker, and the voices of the two gradually became faint, and in the shadows, Masaki Shimao whispered: "The shogunate itself is difficult to protect, this town government still wants to go south to Kanto, and his motives are impure and unpredictable!" It's hard to guarantee that it won't become another Hojo family...... Maybe even more. ”

"This is the general trend is really difficult to contradict, we are like a flat boat floating in the sea, knowing that there is a storm in front of us and we have to struggle to move forward, the troubled times are like a ruthless flood rushing in, we are like a boat against the current and retreating, if there is no way to retreat, only to capsize and submerge, like the passing of the Momoi clan and the small bow Gongfang completely disappeared." Okamoto Zenzhe sighed, with a trace of sympathy and regret for the deceased famous family.

Yuki fought together to destroy many samurai, including the extinction of the Momoi clan in this battle, Ashikaga Yoshiaki and his unlucky son Ashikaga Yoshijun were killed by Satomi Yoshiyao, speaking of which the performance of the Satomi clan in the past thirty years can only be described as a pit, all wars except for their own expansion are pits, Okamoto Zenzhe is silent to the unlucky little bow Gongfang.

Masaki Shigeru didn't realize what Okamoto Zenzhe was doing in his belly slandering their Satomi family, nodded and said: "That's right, we are also forced to fight against the Sagami Hojo clan, the Hojo family is too arrogant and domineering and completely does not follow the rules and forms of Kanto, and does not force us to wait for the ministers to obey at all if I don't give me a chance to survive peacefully, it is said that the town government is also of a similar temperament, and recently I heard that the people of Ueno and Shinano were also coerced to give up the Zhixing Leader to the Wan Xing Leader, and many people complained that the methods of the town government were too ruthless, It's even more ...... than Hojo Shiyasu."

Okamoto Zenzhe said in a low voice: "The poor monk has also heard of this statement, but this rumor is very strange, and it is not even said who is saying it, and the people of Ueno Province seem to be very taboo to spread this statement, many people have tried these people on the way to and from Echigo, and all of them strictly deny this statement, which is very strange, and the poor monk also heard a saying from the mouth of the people of Ueno Province, and the town government seems to be interested in acting on behalf of the Furukawa Gongfang......"

"Is there such a thing? This is really unbelievable! Masaki Shigeru's eyes widened in surprise, and he said angrily: "I will never agree to the Kanto samurai!" I'll never agree with the Satomi clan! ”

"Silence! Be careful! This is all a rumor that must not be spread, the poor monk just casually said that the right to be a rumor, if the Zhengmu Dashan Hall said this nonsense, the poor monk would never admit it at that time. Okamoto Zenzhe hurriedly made his responsibilities clear, and Masaki Shigeru nodded meaningfully.

At this time, the sun set and the room fell into a short period of darkness, the little surname hurriedly came over to light the oil lamp and hurriedly retreated, Zhengmu Shimao hammered the aching shoulder and said with an embarrassed expression: "Something went wrong, I have to stay for dinner for a while, and I have been eating some vegetarian food recently, I don't know if eggs are vegetarian or not." ”

"Strictly speaking, it is not considered vegetarian, but if the Zhengmu Dashan Hall is lacking in qi and blood, you can eat more to replenish your body......"

Okamoto Zenzhe patted his head and said embarrassedly: "Look at the memory of the poor monk! Masaki Daizenden should quickly write a letter to tell Satomi that the situation in Shangshu Province is no longer able to get out, even with the support of my Satake family's grain and grass, it can only last for three months at most, and by then it will be July before the autumn harvest, and it will take at least more than a month to harvest the autumn, and there is not much food left in Shangshu Country......

Zhengmu Dashan Hall should understand that if you don't ask for help from Echigo at this time, maybe there will be no chance to ask for help, whether it is more important to believe in righteousness or to live, I hope that Zhengmu Dashan Hall will think clearly, the family business can survive, the territory can be inherited, and if you die, there will only be a handful of loess left, and a few lonely graves will be left without sacrifice. ”

"This ......"

"Shoki Daizenden shouldn't have thought of subduing the Hojo family, right?"

"Then it won't ......" Masaki Shimao hesitated: "It's just that after thinking about the town government going south to Kanto, will it be like what I just said?" ”

"This is something you and I can't interfere with, let's watch the present! Besides, it doesn't necessarily mean that he did something bad if he really did it......," Zenzhe Okamoto said in a very determined tone, "It shouldn't be worse than now!" (To be continued......)