Miyao Castle is in danger, and Maori Yuan has long expected it.

As early as the third day after the departure of Tauryubo, that is, on September 24, Mori Moto left the Shishido Takashi family to garrison the mountain castle of Yoshida-gun to guard against the Niko family, and then he and his three sons, Mori Takamoto, Yoshikawa Motoharu and Kobayakawa Takakei, gathered the army of Yasuki and galloped towards Kusatsu to help. Unlike in history, when there were only 4 or 5,000 people in the Maori Yuan, this time due to the integration of the power of some wealthy families in the Bigo Kingdom, Bei China, and even Bizen Province, the strength of the Mao Li Yuan at this time has reached more than 10,000 people.

But even so, although the attack of the Tao army on Miyao Castle became more and more intense, Mori Yuan stopped at Kusatsu Castle and stood still, he only gave an order on the 26th: Kumagai Nobu directly led dozens of ships carrying more than 200 people to Miyao Castle to support.

At this time, the defenders of Miyao Castle were hungry and thirsty, and they were waiting for reinforcements from their side, and when they saw Kumagaya's fleet, they immediately cheered loudly. And Kumagai Nobunao also took advantage of the path that had been prepared on the bay side of Miyao Castle to quickly send reinforcements into Miyao Castle, and then surrounded Miyao Castle, and only after the last turn of the rudder did he slip away. The morale of the defenders, who had received reinforcements and material assistance, suddenly increased greatly, and even though they took up arms again, they continued to fight against the Tao family's siege army.

"Baga!" Tao Longfang, who learned that Miyao Castle had received reinforcements, was furious, and immediately ordered the navy to block the sea near Miyao Castle to prevent the Maori army from coming to support again.

After Mao Liyuan learned that the sea area near Miyao Castle had been blocked by the Tao family's navy, he immediately thought of Miyao Castle's embarrassment, and his heart was very uncomfortable. But he can't rush now. Since the change of Daning Temple. He kept working the layout. Seize the key points in the southwest of Anyun Country, encircle Itsukushima without fighting, pretend to be a grandson in front of Tao Longfang, constantly woo the people of Anyun Kingdom, Bigo Country, Bei China and even Bizen Country, secretly train a naval army, etc., etc., everything this does is to compete with the Tao family's army in Itsukushima.

And now, it has reached the last step of the decisive battle, that is, waiting for a fresh reinforcement from the sea. That is, the "Murakami Water Army". In order to delay the waiting for reinforcements and continue to lay out, Miyao Castle, which was used as a decoy, not only could not appear too many troops and lose the role of the decoy, but also had to make huge sacrifices to hold the castle when the number of troops seemed to be small!

In fact, in history, because Maori Yuan only had four or five thousand troops, he chose this strategy, and now Maori Yuan has an army of tens of thousands on land, and he can fight head-on with Tao Longfang's army. But why did he choose this strategy now? There are two main reasons for this:

First, although Maori Yuan already had tens of thousands of troops on land at this time, only two or three thousand of them could actually be called elite soldiers. The rest of the people are just here to make soy sauce. At this time, Tao Longfang had an army of 20,000 people, and many of them were elites who had followed Tao Longfang for many years. Therefore, Maori Yuan categorically would not choose to face off with Tao Longfang so soon.

The second is due to the problem of the water army. There are at least five or six hundred warships of the Tao family's navy, and Maori Yuan is here? There were only 50 or 60 ships under his subordinates, "Kawauchi Police Solids" (this navy was originally a subordinate of the Takeda family of Yazuki Province, and is now controlled by Kodama Shokata and Iida Yoshitake), plus 70 ships of the "Numata Police" (originally belonging to the Numata Kobayakawa family, first the property of Mori Moto's third son, Kobayakawa Takakei, but in fact it was commanded by Nomi Munakatsu), and together there were about 130 warships, which could not be compared with the Taolongfang Naval Army. In this case, the Maori family's navy is fighting a harassment war, and the army can still be competent, and it is tantamount to a fool's dream to have a direct decisive battle with the Tao's navy with hundreds of warships. In addition, Mao Liyuan also deeply realized that the reason why Tao Longfang was able to come to Itsukushima for a decisive battle was completely dependent on his powerful naval army, and he was able to advance and retreat freely. Therefore, if you want to annihilate the Tao army, the battle on the land of Itsukushima is secondary, and the Tao army and the navy are annihilated and expelled, cutting off Tao Longfang's retreat, which is the key to this victory. However, with the strength of the Mori family's current naval forces, this is simply an impossible task, and the only way to do this is to ask for a strong neutral force like Murakami's naval forces to help him.

And in order to invite Murakami's Mishima Navy to help, Mao Liyuan also gave a lot of blood.

Murakami's water army is actually a gang of pirates in the Seto Inland Sea. And they are actually related to the "Shinano General General" Yoshikiyo Murakami, who is actually of the same race! Known as the pillar of the descendants of the Empress of Seiwa "Kiyowa Genji", the origin of his family is like this, the first generation is called Gen Jingji, the second generation is called Gen Manchu, and the third generation is called Gen Manxin, and it is bifurcated here: Mannobu's eldest son Minamoto Yoriyoshi, his son is the famous "Hachiman Taro" Minamoto Yoshitsu, "Kamo Jiro" Minamoto Yoshitsuna and "Silla Saburo" Minamoto Yoshimitsu, their family is Kawachi Genji, Minamoto Yoritomo and Ashikaga Takashi are all in this vein, which is the largest noble breed of the samurai; And Manshin's second son is called Minamoto Yoriqing, and Lai Qing's son is called Gen Zhongzong, who was originally an attendant of Emperor Shirakawa, but because he cursed the emperor, he and several sons were exiled to various parts of the Wa Kingdom, among which there was a man named Xianqing, who was exiled to Murakami Township, Shinano Prefecture, and was the direct ancestor of "Shinano Murakami". As for Gen Nakamune himself, he was exiled to the Zhou defense of the western country, and later built a castle on Noh Island opposite Iyo Imabari and absorbed a large number of pirates to come and defect, which is the source of "Setouchi Murakami" (also called Iyo Murakami), and since then this noble breed of samurai has become a pirate.

The head of the pirates like the Murakami family is a descendant of the emperor, and many of the pirates under him were originally officials and soldiers of the emperor's government. In the ancient Heian Dynasty, in order to show its prestige to the small tributary countries around it, the Wa Kingdom requisitioned many local tyrants from the Seto Inland Sea, Osaka Bay, Kii Waterway and other places, and arranged for them to stand guard in Kyoto, called "Weifu Sheren", but later the imperial court was defeated, unable to pay the salaries and silver of these "Weifu Sheren", so there was a big layoff, and the laid-off "Weifu Sheren" was extremely sad and angry, so after returning to his hometown, he relied on his familiarity with the maritime geography. He engaged in the robbery of "Kyoto ships" (ships that transported rice and silk from all over the country to Kyoto). Reduced to a pirate. It's been a long time. The pirates mixed with the Daiji Shrine (such as Kii's Kumano Naval Army, which was under the command of Kumano Sanzan Shrine) and the Great Samurai Lord (such as this Iyo Murakami) and evolved into the "Pirates" who dominated each side of the waters.

Later, the pirates became more powerful and wanted to clear their name, and they no longer robbed and killed people, after all, they really wanted to rob and burn all the ships that came and went, and the trade withered. They're going to drink the northwest wind. In addition, after entering the Muromachi period, the power of the daimyo gradually extended to the coast, and many pirates began to retreat to the islands and build dock castles to protect themselves. At this time, the pirates' way of making money also quietly changed, they gave themselves the name of "Jing'an Army" and "Baomin Army", just like the bandits would call themselves "Jing'an Army" and "Baomin Army", and then reached an agreement with the trade fleet or local daimyos, you don't hide from me and suppress me, I will help you.

How can it help? There are several ways: such as "official goods transport police solids" and "officials transport police solids". It is to help you escort the bodyguards at sea, and the escort or guest officer of the protector or belonging; There is also "difficult road support". When your fleet encounters complex and rugged waters, our pirates will help you navigate; There is also a "towing boat", your boat is stranded, we will help you tow, your ship sinks, we will help you salvage, the price is fair, and there is no bullying.

There is a deep reason why the pirates did this, that is, they demanded that the daimyo recognize their "autonomy in the seas", and as long as they had this power, they had the right to collect protection money from passing fleets, such as "police solid materials", "sail money", "pack money", "superior materials", and so on. In this way, the pirates have transformed from simple bandit road barrage into a "middle-level power" that extracts money from maritime trade.

In fact, for the powerful names in various places, these pirates will hinder the middle layer of maximizing their own interests and power, and they should be completely eliminated (think about it, the merchants of your territory go to sea and hand over all the money to the pirates, how much can be left for you), but the powerful names of the Japanese country are often limited, and they can't suppress the countrymen on land, and they can't exterminate the pirates at sea, so they have to endure the pain and make peace with the pirates. Even many daimyo even set aside a part of the grange as a food for the pirates, in exchange for their "guarding". In fact, this is not bad, the sea trade of the daimyo is protected, and in the event of war, you can also rely on the water power of the pirates under the umbrella.

And in order to ask for the support of the Murakami Mishima naval army, this time Mori Yuan not only paid a lot of money, food and weapons, but also promised them the right to dominate most of the Seto Inland Sea at sea, and also reminded them that if Itsukushima is occupied by Tao Longfang again in the future, you will not have a good life.

Why does Maori Yuan say that? The reason is this, when Yoshitaka Ouchi was alive, although he occupied Itsukushima, he still sent envoys to negotiate with Murakami Mishima, and on the condition that he would continue to let Murakami Mishima collect "police solid materials" and "superior materials" from passing ships, in exchange for a non-war agreement with Murakami Mishima's naval army, ensuring the safety of the shipping routes of Itsukushima and even the entire Seto Inland Sea. But everything came to power after Tao Longfang came to power, it was different, he was half a year after the change of Daning Temple, he specially released a "Tao Long Fang Yan Dao 掟" (掟, that is, the meaning of the law), which has a total of seven, of which the first four are:

First, residents inside and outside the island are strictly prohibited from opening shops and building houses on Itsukushima; Second, it is strictly forbidden for unidentified ships to dock and berth; Third, it is strictly forbidden for unidentified ships to levy "police solid materials" on ships; Fourth, gambling is strictly prohibited on the island.

The first of them is to protect Itsukushima's local tyrant industry and win the hearts of the locals, and the fourth is for the sake of local security, all of which are excusable. Doesn't it mean our water army! Don't levie police solid materials on us, let us eat the northwest wind! ”

In fact, Tao Longfang's purpose is very simple, he forbade Mishima Murakami to collect police solid materials, in order to omit the intermediate profit squeezing link of Murakami's water army, and attract more pilgrims to come to Itsukushima incense, monopolizing the interests of the Seto Inland Sea and Itsukushima Shrine. But Tao Longfang's policy naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the Mishima Murakami Water Army. Therefore, as soon as Mori Yuan said that if the Mori family failed in this battle, once Tao Longfang controlled Itsukushima and the Seto Inland Sea, then the Murakami Navy would also be unlucky, so the Mishima Navy's request for help was agreed.

It's just that although the Mishima Navy did agree to Maori Yuan's request, they are nobles after all, so it is understandable that they are late. And Maori Yuan is in a hurry on this side. Because even with the reinforcements of reinforcements, Miyao Castle may not be able to hold on, under the fierce attack of the overwhelming Tao army for several days, the fortifications in the city were destroyed and the water source was cut off. If Miyao Castle, the last nail of Itsukushima, is pulled out, Tao Longfang can completely rely on Itsukushima and Maori Yuan to fight a frontal battle, and even divide troops to land in various places in the western and southern parts of Anyun Country, and at that time, Maori Yuan will not be able to resist even tens of thousands of troops.

Miyao Castle must not be lost! But even if Murakami's navy arrives late, you must be prepared for a surprise attack in all aspects before you can go out! Maori Yuan set the time of the attack on the evening of September (that is, the last day of September, the 30th), so how to make Miyao Castle hold on to it more during this period of time before the surprise attack?

Fortunately, the Maori Yuan had already been arranged. On the night of the 28th, Ta no Oka's Tao Ta Taka received a secret letter written by Katsura Motocheng, the commander of Sakura Castle, which read: "The defeat of the Mori family is inevitable, and I, Gui Motocheng, am willing to sacrifice Sakura Castle on the first day of October (October 1st) to join forces with the Zenmen and completely wipe out the army of the Mori family in the Kusatsu area." Tao Long Fang Xian was overjoyed after reading the letter, Sakura Castle and Miyao Castle were separated in a straight line, once Gui Yuancheng defected, then Mao Li Yuan's army would only be dumpling.

Moreover, in Tao Longfang's eyes, Gui Yuancheng is very justified in defection, his father Gui Guangcheng and uncle Ban Guangxiu both died in the hands of Maori Yuan, plus the Gui family also hopes to preserve the family name in front of the Tao family's army, and it is normal for Gui Yuancheng to be eager to temporarily make meritorious contributions to the Tao family!

And Gui Yuancheng is indeed meritorious, but he is meritorious for Maori Yuan. Gui Yuancheng is Huang Gai, and Tao Longfang is Cao Cao, Tao Longfang was intoxicated in a dream, and he didn't realize that this was just Gui Yuancheng's Huang Gai's bitter meat trick.

As a result, on the 29th, Tao Longfang actually ordered the whole army to rest for a day on the 30th, and then attack the city with all its strength on the 1st of October. Hongzhong Longbao, who heard the order, was shocked and hurriedly went to question, Tao Longfang was very vague: "The obscure day is the day when the three corpses are on the body, and the battle is unlucky." Hongzhong Longbao begged Tao Longfang to take Miyao City in one go, but was rejected by Tao Longfang, who was full of confidence. No one can say clearly why Tao Longfang, who was praised as "the unparalleled general of the Western Kingdom", is like this.

But because of this, the Tao army lost a life-and-death day, because on the morning of the 30th, Mao Li Yuan finally waited for the Mishima Murakami water army, and in the evening of the same day, Mao Li Yuan set sail with the whole army, chopping waves and killing in the direction of Itsukushima! (To be continued......)