Kitahara Kanemori is in his thirties this year. For a wealthy general in his thirties, not only is he upright, young and strong, but his life experience is also quite rich. It is precisely because he takes a fancy to him that he is the sister-in-law of the Kitahara family, and he will not be looked down upon by the Luo family in terms of identity, so the Qidayuan family, the Gaocheng family, the Tsuruta family, the Ryokari family, and the Kitahara family After discussion, they unanimously elected Kitahara Kanemori as the envoy of this mission.

But when facing Masayo, who is only twenty-five years old, Kitahara Kanemori has also given full play to his above-mentioned advantages, whether it is on-the-spot response or experience, Kitahara Kanemori feels that he is not facing a young family governor, but an old and cunning big name.

After some negotiations, the forces of Kitasatsuma, Kitasumi and Nishi-Hinata, represented by the Kitahara Detention Center, finally achieved the goal of alliance with the Luo family, but they also paid a lot of costs:

First of all, they must assist the Luo family to take down the Sagara family entrenched in Minamihigo Kuma County, so that the Luo family can completely control the entire territory of Higo. The Luo family, who put forward this condition, also has good reasons, one is to let the Kitahara family and other forces make up for the mistakes of the Sagara family and the Uemura family who sent troops to help the Sagara family and the Uemura family last time; The second is that the Luo family's verbal mediation alone may not be able to stop the pace of the Shimazu family's strategy, so the Luo family must fully occupy the remaining half of the Qiuma County in Higo Province, so that the Luo family's potential range can be connected with their potential range, so that the Shimazu family understands that as long as the Luo family is willing, they can send troops to support these forces at any time, and the Shimazu family will be reined in.

Secondly, the Shilu force represented by the Kitahara Detention Center must pay 20,000 koku of grain to the Luo family as an apology for offending the Luo family last time. It was even more as a reward for the Luo family to come out to mediate at the risk of breaking the alliance with the Shimazu family.

The most rear. The Luo family expressed the hope that the power represented by the Kitahara Kansho could formally submit to the Luo family. In this way, the Luo family has an excuse to mediate. However, this request was firmly rejected by Kitahara Kanemori. After some debate, it was finally changed from submission to alliance. This gave the Luo family the righteousness to mediate the conflict between the Shimazu family and them.

Of course, the idea of subjugating the power of the representatives of the Kitahara Kansho to the Luo family is just a means for Masato to negotiate with the retainers to further squeeze the negotiation opponent. After some analysis, in fact, the Luo family thought that this was not the time to directly intervene in the local interest competition, so even if the other party was willing to surrender at this time, the Luo family should seriously consider it.

The situation in Minami Kyushu at this time is indeed quite complicated. Especially at the junction of the borders of Satsuma, Osumi, Hyuga, and Higo provinces, there is a lot of power on all sides.

In the northeastern region of Satsuma Province. There are the Qidain family, the Takajo family, the Tsuruta family, the Shibuya family, the Ryokari family and other powerful forces; In the northern and western parts of Osumi Province, which is close to this place, there are forces such as the Kitahara family, the Gamo family, and the Kayama family. In the southwestern region of Hinata, which is also adjacent, there are forces such as the Kitahara family and the Yonera family. The most rear-end is the Kuma County area adjacent to Nanhigo and these three places, and it has the power of local wealthy families such as the Sagara family and the Kamimura family.

In addition to these potential forces, there are even greater potential forces. In the Satsuma area to the southwest, it is the Shimazu family that is rapidly expanding its power to the North Satsuma and even the Kita and Nishi Osumi areas.

In the south, it is trying to fully occupy the first powerful liver of the Dayu country. To the southeast, there are the Hinata Ito and Kitago families who are at war. The last is the behemoth Luo's house in the northwest.

And the relationship between these general forces is also intricate. The Shimazu family in the southwest is ostensibly allied with the Luo family and the liver family on both sides. But on the one hand, it is wary of the Luo family, and even decisively falls into the well when the Luo family is in a disadvantageous situation (against the idea of the Shimazu family. Masarashi is self-aware, and if the Shimazu family is in trouble, Masarashi will also make this choice), on the other hand, he is preparing to invade Osumi Province and oppose the liver Fu family.

The Liver Fu family, which is due south, is allied with the Shimazu family on the one hand, and wary of the Shimazu family on the other, and at the same time supports the Saigo family in the South Hyuga region northeast of Osumi Province against the Ito family (historically, after the Shimazu family began to invade Osumi Province, and the Ito family embezzled Minami Hyuga and was invited to the northern part of Osumi Province to fight against the Shimazu family, the liver family formed an alliance with the Ito family).

The Kitago family in the southeast was just taking advantage of the fact that Shimazu Tadahiro, the governor of the Shimazu family in Toyoshu, had no children, so the governor of the Hokago, Kitago Tadashi, gave his son Kitago Tadashi as the adopted son of Shimazu Tadahiro, and Kitago Tadashi inherited the position of the Toyosu Shimazu family. And Kitago Tadashi then abdicated and went into seclusion, handing over the position of the governor of the Hokago's family to Kitago Shijiu, the eldest son of Kitago Tadashi.

As a result, the Toyosu Shimazu family and the Hokugo family are equivalent to being under the leadership of Kitago Tadashi. So in fact, the two have become one. After unifying the area, the Hokago's family was not satisfied with their current territory and began to advance to the capital basin to the northwest. It was here that it met the Ito family, who were also making great efforts to move south.

The Ito family, under the hard work of the family governor Ito Yoshisuke, had occupied all the territories in the central and northern parts of Hyuga Province at this time, but even so, because more than 70% of the land area is mountainous areas such as the Kyushu Mountains and Kirishima Mountains, and the cultivated land area is less than 10%, although the forestry resources are relatively rich, and the fishing industry around the coast is relatively prosperous, the territorial income is too low, which is obviously not enough for the ambitious Ito Yoshisuke.

So Yoshisuke Ito set his sights on the basins of Kobayashi and Miyaki in the southern region. At this time, the Kobayashi Basin was controlled by the Kitahara family, while the larger Mitsujo Basin was controlled by the Kitago family. In order not to immediately touch the vigilance of the wealthy families in all the southern regions, Ito Yoshisuke adopted a method of fighting the Kitahara family and the Kitago family one by one. First, the target of the attack was the Kitago family in the basin of the capital, and at the same time, the Kitahara family and even the Sagara family joined forces to deal with the Kitago family as foreign aid.

At this time, the main purpose of the Ito family was to occupy the southern region of Hyuga Province as soon as possible in order to achieve the unification of Hinata, and then rely on the mountainous terrain of the Hyuga border to defend against the suddenly rising behemoth of the Luo family. So he first actively responded to the request of the Otomo family to send troops to support when the Otomo family in Higo was attacked by the Luo family, and then sent troops to fight against the Luo family when the Sagara family was on the verge of extinction in Nanhigo, and even loudly denounced the Luo family when the Otomo family's old nest Bungo country was invaded by the Luo family, and even sent troops to support the Saeki family of the Otomo family in the southern region of the country against the Luo family. All this is just to keep the enemy out of the door, so that some substitute ghosts can block the Luo family's approach to the country in the past.

The situation in the southern part of Kyushu is so complicated that it can really be said that big fish and small fish are mixed in a pool of muddy water, and the situation is confusing.

At this time, the Luo family's strategic goal for the southern part of Kyushu was quite simple, that is, to seize the half of the Ball Mill County, which had not yet been unified in the Higo Kingdom, and was still occupied by the Sagara family, the Uemura family, and several small local wealthy clans, to complete the entire territory of Higo Kingdom.

Why does Masa-ra attach so much importance to this remaining half-ball mill county?

First, because this half of the Kuma County is located in the most fertile area of the Kuma Basin, one of the famous granaries of Higo Province, after taking this place, the income of the Luo family will increase by at least 30,000 koku.

Second, it connects the Minami-Hyuga and Kitassumi areas, and is almost the eastern gate of the Minamihigo area. Once this gate is opened, the power of Hyuga Province and Osumi Province can easily enter the Minami Higo region and cause damage to the Luo family's territory.

Third, out of the need for defense. Similar to the topography of Hyuga Province, the border junction between Higo Province and Hyuga Province, Osumi Province and Satsuma Province is almost all mountainous terrain, as long as the area here is contained in your hands, then the Luo family will form a complete mountain defense front on the border of Higo Province, which is conducive to the external defense of the Luo family.

As for what kind of strategy the Luo family will have after occupying the last half of the ball mill county, it depends on the specific situation.

(Thanks to """ for the 10,000 coins tip; Thanks to "turtle0920, dragon chanting moon, shw1111" for receiving the light of the great god; Thank you to "Zo-Ian, JaKey, Dragon Yinyue, Ghost Animal King Lans-kun, ", Xingziyun" for the monthly ticket. (To be continued......)