The arrival of Nakagomon Nobuhide naturally represented the shogunate and the imperial court, and officially assigned the two positions of Imagawa Yoshimoto's Enoe Guardian and Suruga Guardian to Imagawa Burial Zero and Imagawa Shin respectively, and at the same time prepared to persuade the two families to keep peace for the time being, and they could sit together and negotiate together if there was something.

After staying at the Suruga Imagawa family for a period of time, he was going to go to Enoe Province to meet Imagawa Burial Zero, but for Imagawa Burial Zero, Nakayumen Xuanxiu also had a very strange feeling. Who would have thought that Imagawa Burial, who he regarded as the abandoned son of the Imagawa family, had now divided the Enoe Province and even part of the Mikawa Province from the Imagawa family, and became a favorable contender for the position of Imagawa family governor after the death of Imagawa Motomoto?

However, Zhongyumen Xuanxiu also knows very well that the reason why Imagawa Fuling has achieved such an achievement in such a short period of time is naturally inseparable from the Luo family behind it. For the Luo family, although it violated the original covenant with the Imagawa family and put Imagawa Burial Zero, who was originally a hostage, out to compete for the position of Imagawa family governor, but in fact, for the Nakagomon family, whether it is the Imagawa clan or Imagawa Burial Zero and finally became the successor of Imagawa Yoshimoto, it is actually acceptable, after all, these two are both the grandsons of Shou Guini, and they are inseparable from the blood relationship with the Nakayumen family.

This is also the reason why after the Luo family proposed a peace agreement against the Imagawa family, the Nakagomon family did not object, and even the Nakagomon family hoped that the division of the Imagawa family would end as soon as possible, even if the Imagawa funeral zero won in the end, they would accept it.

Nakayumen Xuanxiu was sighing here, but the Imagawa clan over there was really angry, and the construction of the Imagawa family, which had been proposed in the hall before, to attack the Imagawa family in Enoe Province, did not receive the active support of all the retainers. He was already very annoyed. And now the shogunate and the imperial court are good. actually proposed to let him reconcile with Imagawa, which is simply a slap in the face to him.

What made him even more angry was that after the death of his father Imagawa Yoshimoto, the position of guardian of the distant river should have fallen to him, but now the shogunate and the imperial court actually took it upon themselves to grant the post to the guy who buried Imagawa, and he could still bear it, so even though his grandmother Shouguini, who he had always feared, was present, he still roared and objected:

"No way. It is absolutely impossible, the family will definitely send troops to regain the country of Yuanjiang and even the country of Sanhe. ”

"This?" Seeing the Imagawa clan's real eyes blazing, Nakayumon Xuanxiu really couldn't persuade him, so he had to look at the real master of the Imagawa family, Shou Guini.

The latter was also a little disappointed in the Imagawa clan at this time, this grandson would only always think about dealing with his younger brother Imagawa Burying, but he didn't realize that if he wanted to regain the Enoe and Mikawa kingdoms, he had to calm down, reunite the wealthy families in the family, and then unite with the Hojo family. Even allies of the Takeda family, with the help of their power. Only then can we regain the lost ground!

Thinking of this, Shou Gui Ni didn't care about Imagawa Shizhen's feelings at this time, but signaled the messenger from the Hojo family to hand over the handwritten letter of Hojo Shiyasu, which had been read by Shou Guini before, to Imagawa Shizhen.

Imagawa was still angry at this time, and he didn't plan to take the letter, but after seeing his grandmother Shou Guini's stern gaze looking at him, he had to endure his annoyance and take the letter, and then opened it.

As he continued to read the letter, Imagawa's expression gradually calmed down, and finally, when he put down the letter, he asked the envoy of the Hojo family:

"Father-in-law, is it really so urgent?" Both Imagawa Yoshimoto and Imagawa Clan have always followed a more ancient way of family management, so the Imagawa family has relatively little investment in information and the like, and even the current situation of their neighbors Hojo Family, Imagawa Shin is not clear.

"Your Highness, it's true!" The envoy of the Hojo family immediately replied earnestly.

"Hey!" After hearing this, the Imagawa clan really had to let out a long sigh, now the Hojo family is in danger, and from his grandmother's gesture, he can also see that his grandmother means to support the Hojo family first, so whether he wants to or not, he must temporarily let go of his coveting of the Enoe country and support the Hojo family first, so he immediately said:

"In that case, the family will immediately mobilize forces to support my father-in-law."

"The Imagawa family is grateful for the great kindness of the Imagawa family today. He will be rewarded in the day. The envoy of the Hojo family immediately thanked him gratefully. Shou Guini on the side also nodded slightly in satisfaction with the Imagawa clan's real decision.

Now that the Hojo clan has already asked the shogunate and the Imagawa family for help, what is the situation of the Hojo family at this time?

To sum it up in one sentence, that is the rumors.

Since last year, the Nagao Keitora led a large army in the third year of Eiroku and entered the Kanto region accompanied by his sworn brother Konoe Maehisa, the Hojo family has been attacked by the Nagao family's coalition forces and has been constantly retreating. Although at the end of last year, due to the non-cooperation of the wealthy families in the Kanto region, the progress of Nagao Jinghu's strategy against the Hojo family was affected, but as time went on, such as Satake, Koyama, Oda, Nasu and other Kanto wealthy families were finally invited, so at the beginning of this year, the coalition army led by Nagao Jinghu was already claimed to be 100,000 people.

In the face of such a large army, the Hojo family finally couldn't hold on, and even if they adopted the tactics of splitting the cage battle, they retreated directly to the Sagami country under the attack of the Nagao family's coalition army.

And on March 3 of this year, the in-laws of the Hojo clan and the first pioneer to attack the Hojo family, Tai-Tian Zimasa, captured Dangma, and then entered Nakagun, in front of Odawara.

Faced with such a situation, Hojo Shiyasu sent people to ask for help from the Takeda family and the Imagawa family, and on the other hand, ordered the "Odawara people" and the "Goma Hui people" to shrink to Odawara Castle, and then organized several small ashigaru regiments to block the Nagao coalition army at key points in exchange for precious preparation time.

And on March 14, in Otsuki, Nakagun, the head of the Ashigaru general Oto Hidenobu under the Hojo clan, led the Ashigaru team to fight bravely, and it was only after repelling the rapid offensive of Taida Zimasa. Oto Hidenobu is the son of the Hojo family's ashigaru general Oto Nobuki (Nelai Kaneshisai) in the Battle of Kofutai, and his territory is in Kitabatano in Nakagun, so it is natural to protect his family without regard for his life.

However, when Nagao Keito's 100,000 successor army arrived at Mt. Ashigara on March 22, Oto Hidenobu saw the enemy's endless camp, so he suddenly understood the truth that "family property is valuable, life is more valuable, and if I die, Hidenobu will have no descendants", and immediately abandoned his position and avoided Odawara Castle together with other small wealthy clans of the Hojo family.

In late March, Nagao Keito's camp was erected on the side of the Sakago River that surrounds Odawara Castle, and while sitting in the tent with a sake cup, you can see the majestic Odawara Castle. But Nagao Keitora was not in a good mood, he hated Odawara Castle, which was the last barrier to defeat Hojo Shiyasu, but it was also a barrier that he could not overcome.

Odawara Castle, known as the strongest and most massive castle in the entire Kanto, is also a source of confidence for the Hojo family to believe that their family business will always be "difficult to attack". It is backed by Mt. Hachiman, next to Odawara Chong, and surrounded by large rivers such as the Jiugou River, it is the most typical Hirayama Castle, plus the inside and outside of the curved wheel, the oar, and the soldiers are densely packed, it can be said that the mountains and rivers inside and outside are solid, since the day it was built, it has not been broken by foreign enemies (the historical Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Odawara expedition was not to break through the castle, but to force the Hojo family to surrender to Kaejo with great strength), especially in this era of lack of artillery.

At the beginning of April, while the Suruga Imagawa family was still mobilizing troops to come to the rescue of the Hojo family, Nagao Keitor's army, with Tai-Ta Shimasa as the vanguard, once attacked the Hasuikemon Gate outside Odawara, but was unable to move anymore due to the stubborn resistance of the Odawara and the Goma Hui.

More than 100,000 Kwantung coalition troops, looking at the endless blue-gray castle walls of Odawara, are like a giant giant turtle that has completely shrunk by the bay of Sagami, and there is no need for courage, but it is useless.

Since the strong attack failed, the long-tailed Jinghu still has one more trick, that is, the siege and blockade! When the soldiers in the city are hungry, they can't catch the Hojo clan and his son and send them to him for judgment. But after this trick was put into practice, Nagao Keitora found that he was wrong again, and Hojo Shiyasu had a new invention in Odawara Castle, which was called "General Construction".

The so-called general structure is related to the characteristics of the Warring States Castle. In Chinese cities, the walls are on the outside, and most of the residential facilities are inside, which is also called "walled cities". In the Warring States period, the castle was where the lords and retainers lived, and the fields, shops, and workshops were all modeled after the Chinese "Tiaofang system", and outside the castle, the streets were divided into chessboard-like "towns" with their own duties, and the merchants were called "shomachi", and so on, as well as "vocational towns" (where craftsmen lived), "people's towns", etc., because they were outside the castles, so the full name was "castle towns".

In the event of a war, the lord could hide in the castle and command the army to resist bravely, but the castle town was often about to suffer. So Hojo Shiyasu made this invention, that is, to use wooden fences and walls to enclose the castle town, and send troops to guard the key points of transportation (such as passes, bridges, hills, and forest roads), so that the castle town can be protected when it is besieged, and then operate as usual, so that the castle soldiers can get a more adequate supply of food, weapons and money, so that they can fight a protracted war.

The total circumference of Odawara Castle is nine kilometers, and at this time, the Warring States period can be described as the premier giant city except for the Luo family's school castle in Kyushu, and in the face of this general structure, by the middle of April, Nagao Keitora had not yet exhausted the food of the Hojo family, and the coalition army under his command had supply difficulties first. (To be continued......)