Just as Gui Yuancheng was thinking about how to bypass the sea area of the Luo family and return to the Maori family, in the Shikoku area he was about to go to, there were also people who were thinking about the Luo family as much as he did.

This is a temple on the outskirts of Shikoku Kokusa Castle. And a team of people had just arrived outside the temple gates. After leaving the others to wait outside the gate, a Zhongneng man with a child of five or six years old, led by the monks at the main entrance of the temple, went directly to a secluded courtyard at the back of the temple.

The monks who led the way were all young and strong people with evil spirits, and on the way forward, the middle-aged man also saw a group of monks training with spears in a courtyard. So from the outside, it looks like a temple, but inside it becomes a barracks.

After coming to the courtyard, in a room with an open wooden door, the middle-aged man saw a young monk sitting cross-legged on a cushion, with a Buddhist scripture between his legs, his eyes closed, holding Buddhist beads and chanting silently. After a while, the image of this young monk has changed a lot, his head has been shaved, and he is wearing black monk's robes, but his temperament is more calm than before.

After standing quietly in the courtyard and waiting for a while, the young monk finally finished reciting the scriptures, and after the middle-aged man left the children around him in the courtyard, he came directly to the young monk's room, removed his shoes, walked into the room, and at the same time took out a letter in his arms and handed it to the young monk.

The young monk took the letter and opened it and read it directly. Soon after, when he had read it, he put the letter aside and began to ponder it with his eyes glazed.

"Hey!" After a long time, the young monk sighed, looked at the middle-aged man sitting opposite, and said, "It seems that the rise of the Luo family is inevitable!" ”

The middle-aged man also smiled bitterly and nodded after hearing this. Agreed with the young monk.

The young monk is none other than Takanobu of Ryuzoji from the family of Ryuzoji Temple in Hizen Province, Kyushu. And the middle-aged man is the former retainer of the Otomo family. As for the six-year-old child who was playing on his own in the courtyard at this time. It is the longevity pill of the sister-in-law of the previous governor of the Otomo family, Otomo Sorin. Compared with the longevity pill in history (that is, Otomo Yoshito), due to the emergence of the Luo family, it led to the marriage of Otomo Zonglin earlier in order to strengthen the internal rule and left the son-in-law longevity pill earlier.

After being rescued by Takanobu of Ryuzoji Temple a few years ago, Usuki Kensu came to Tosa Province in Shikoku with Longevity Pill, and became a retainer of the local powerful Nagamune family under the recommendation of Takanobu of Ryuzoji Temple. With the cooperation of the strategy of the Usuki Jiansu and the martial arts of the Takanobu of the Longzoji Temple, the two quickly gained a foothold in the Changzong family, and gradually became the most important ministers of the Changzong Department.

Just due to a short temper. Longzoji Longxin does not seem to be integrated with the young master Changzong I Yuanqin, with the improvement of the status of Longzoji Longxin, it has aroused the suspicion of several other sons of the family governor Changzong I Ministry. Recently, for the sake of the goal in the hearts of the two, under the persuasion of the construction and persuasion of the Usuki Jiansu, Takanobu of Longzoji Temple lived in seclusion in the current temple on the grounds of physical discomfort, in order to temporarily alleviate the contradiction with the young lord Changzong and other people, in order to preserve the power that the two of them had built up with great difficulty.

Of course, after living in seclusion, Takanobu of Longzoji Temple accepted the construction of the Usuki Jiansu to read the scriptures. While coming to recuperate the mind, he also used this to confuse the relatives of the Changzong and my department. On the other hand, they took the opportunity to secretly establish relations with the immediate temple and shrine forces, and took the opportunity to secretly expand their own power. Anyway, Takanshin has been a monk at the temple since he was a child, and although he later wandered around because of a series of changes in his family, he was very familiar with how to communicate with the temple shrine.

While establishing their own power in Tosa, Takanobu and Usuki-saki Kansu naturally did not forget their respective goals, Ryuzoji Takanobu hoped to return to Hizen Province and establish a Ryuzoji family that would regain control of Hizen Province, while Uusagi Kansu hoped to return to Bungo Province to assist the young master Longevity Pill, who was still young at this time, to re-establish the Otomo family that controlled Bungo Province, and also to revitalize the Usuki family.

It's just that if the two want to achieve their respective goals, then they must not be able to bypass a Warring States Daimyo, and this Warring States Daimyo is the Luo family. Therefore, the two usually hope that the Luo family will decline because of a certain mistake, and only in this way will they have a chance to achieve their respective goals. It's just that it backfired, and the Luo family not only did not decline, but became stronger and stronger. Especially this time, after the merchants who traveled from the Osumi region to Sakai Port and passed through the coast of Tosa Province learned that the southern Kyushu region was facing the complete annexation of the Luo family at this time, it caused the two of them to sigh even more.

Regarding the actions and thoughts of Gui Yuancheng, Usuki Jiansu and Longzoji Takanobu, the enemies of the Luo family, who were lurking, Masaliang naturally couldn't know, and even if he knew, Masashi would only smile. Let's not say that the power of these guys can only protect themselves at present, even if they are encountered by Zhengliang, Zhengliang will naturally dispose of them all immediately, after all, even if it is an ant, if you are not careful, it will also cause you a certain danger, so for a potential danger, Zhengliang will deal with it mercilessly. In the same way, for every opportunity, as long as there is an opportunity, Zhengliang will strive for it.

Now, there is such an opportunity.

Previously, when Takahisa Shimazu, Yoshisuke Ito, and Yukyo Saeki led the army supporting the Saeki family to retreat to the direction of Hyuga Province after leaving behind the blocking team, Masarashi first used Saeki Town to take down the blocking team used by the Saeki family to break off the queen and all the territories of the Saeki family in Bungo Province, thus unifying the entire Bungo country.

Subsequently, he entered the mountain road overnight to pursue the retreating Shimazu family, the Ito family, and the Saeki family's tripartite alliance, forcing the three parties to finally leave the Saeki family's army led by Saeki Yukyo, in an attempt to block Masahiro's Luo family army again, but instead led the Saeki family to riot, not only gave the entire Saeki family's blocking army to the Luo family, but also sent the Saeki family's governor Saeki Weijiao to Masashi's face.

After solving the last team of the Saeki family, Masarashi naturally led the army to continue to pursue the army of the Shimazu family and the Ito family, who had fled before. At this time, Shimazu Takahisa and Ito Yoshisuke had also learned about the situation from their own samurai who had fled back and were originally left to help the Saeki family stop the pursuit of the Luo family, and they were deeply helpless about the Saeki family's incompetence. The two had no choice but to order their men to speed up their retreat.

So after a while, you chased me down. The armies of the Shimazu family and the Ito family crossed the border of Bungo Province. And arrived at the Valley of Ten Thousand Corners, which is located in the territory of Hyuga Country. At the exit of the mountain valley in the direction of Matsuo Castle to the south, they encountered the army of the Ra clan led by Isono Hitomasa and Irita Yoshimi.

During the period after occupying Matsuo Castle and Nagao Castle, Isono and Irita Yoshimi personally led a team to dig a trench in the narrowest mountain road in the Manji Valley, which was full of rocks, and at the same time used mud and stones dug up from the nearby mountains to strengthen and raise the edge of the trench near their position into a low earthen wall. Starting from the moat, a simple fortification was built between the high mountains in the east and the banks of the Beichuan River in the west, according to the method previously ordered by the lord Gongzhengliang.

Now there are roadblocks in front and pursuers in the back. In order to avoid being flanked by the two armies of the Luo family, Takahisa Shimazu and Yoshisuke Ito immediately launched an attack on the positions where Isono and Yoshimi Irita were located, despite the fatigue caused by the fact that everyone had been running for their lives for several days.

Due to the limited width of the mountain road, the combined forces of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family formed a continuous spear phalanx led by five ashigaru and directly attacked the Luo family's position.

The choice to defend in this narrow area was planned in advance by Isono Yuanmasa, in order to take advantage of the narrow terrain here, so that the combined forces of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family, which had the advantage of numbers (at this time, the army of Isono Yuanmasa was only more than 1,000 people, while the other side had more than 4,000 people), could not deploy their forces. Anyway, as long as the mountain road is blocked. It is enough to hold out until the army of the lord and the good government kills from behind the enemy.

Facing the surging Shimazu Ito coalition forces. At this time, Irita Yoshimi's iron artillery team had already been filled with ammunition, and in the face of the advance of the combined forces of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family, a three-stage attack that the Luo family was good at came directly.

"Tom, tom, tom......"

As the smoke from the ammunition dissipated, Irita Yoshimi visually measured the shooting results, and the soldiers of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family coalition in the front row fell, and saw that the companions in front of them fell one after another, after all, most of the troops of the Shimazu family and the Ito family were elite, so they did not retreat because of this, but continued to shout and kill.

"Kill!" Seeing that they were gradually approaching the position of the Luo family, the gunashigaru of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family alliance put down their spears together and began to charge towards the Luo family's formation on the other side of the trench.

"Tom, tom, tom" ...... faced with the continuous approach of the enemy, the iron artillery team of the Luo family continued to attack.

At the same time, the Luo family's archery team behind the iron artillery team had also lined up on the improvised simple arrows in the mountain road, and they began to fire arrows in volleys. The enemy's spears were armed with guns in both hands, so they did not have any shields to block arrows, and most of the armor on their bodies was made of bamboo, which was probably inferior to the belly rolls and carcass of the samurai. So when the arrows came, the ashigaru could only keep their heads low, hoping that the array hats above their heads would be able to withstand the one or two blows.

On the position of the Luo family's army, the sound of the bowstring vibrating and the sound of arrows breaking through the air resounded with the sound of iron cannons. The rain of arrows and bullets caused the allied forces of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family who were charging to suffer a lot of damage in an instant.

In the same way, when the allied forces of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family fired at the bow and iron cannon ashigaru, because the front section of the trench on the side of the Luo family's position was fenced (because it was temporarily erected in the mud and stone of the trench wall, it was not stable, and as long as it was hit by the horses with all its strength, it would fall), most of them were stopped by the low earth wall of the trench in front of the Luo family's army, the fence on the earthen wall, and the arrow plate on the arrow. So even if the unlucky ghost is occasionally hit by an arrow or an iron cannon through the gap in the fence and baffle, the casualties are limited.

In particular, the arrow shield on the arrow blade is made of bamboo in the center and covered with straw, so it can not only resist the arrows, but also resist the fire of the iron cannon.

The combined forces of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family braved the rain of arrows and bullets to advance with difficulty, and during this time, the soldiers of the combined forces of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family continued to scream and fall. Even if the soldiers were lucky enough not to be hit, when they rushed to the front of the trench, they found that although the trench was not deep, the east and west sides directly reached the high mountain cliffs and the river respectively (because it was at a high position, it could not be connected to the river, and there was no river in the trench). To the south of the ditch are low earthen walls built on the edge of the ditch and fences erected in the earthen walls. Through the cracks in the fence. They saw the barrel of an iron cannon and the muzzle of a black hole. And so after another burst of iron cannons. The coalition soldiers, who had been lucky enough to rush to the front, eventually fell.

In the position of the Luo family, seeing that his own position had given such a large casualty to the combined forces of the Shimazu family and the Saeki family, Isono Yuanchang said to Irita Yoshimi on the side with a happy face: "Hehe, the fortifications designed by the lord are really ingenious, and if our Luo family army encounters similar terrain when fighting in the future, we must do so." ”

After hearing this, Irita Yoshimi smiled slightly, but he thought in his heart. It is estimated that Isono Yuanchang has forgotten that after explaining to them the construction method of this kind of fortification, the lord Gongzheng Liang also emphasized that such a fortification is not bad for defense, but if it is used for attack, it will block his own people.

Of course, seeing that the situation was on the rise at this time, Irita Yoshimi was not easy to distract him, so he had to say: "Your Excellency, don't worry, the good show is still to come." ”

At this time. On the opposite side, the Shimazu family and the Ito family coalition have another team of Ashigaru who have been integrated, and after rearranging into a formation. followed behind the first batch of Shimazu family and Saeki family alliance forces before and continued to kill the Luo family's position.

After being hit by the iron cannons and bows and arrows of the Luo family, the first batch of Shimazu family and Saeki family alliance forces that had suffered heavy casualties and even showed some signs of rout, regrouped and continued to kill the Luo family's position under the reprimand of their own generals.

Although the iron cannons and bows and arrows of the Luo family could easily hit the enemy due to the dense enemy army, due to the combination of the two enemy armies, there were too many enemy troops, and even if people kept falling in front, some people still charged in front of the trench. Moreover, some of the clever guys actually learned to use the corpses of their companions as cover, so as to keep approaching the position of the Luo family.

Because the trench in front of Luo's position was more than two meters wide, and although the earthen wall on the opposite side of the trench was low, it was impossible to jump directly over the trench and jump onto the earthen wall, so the allied soldiers who charged to the trench were planted in the trench one after another, and then wolfed up from the trench in an attempt to climb the earthen wall.

At this moment, with the order of Yoshimi Irita, the attack of the Luo family's iron artillery team suddenly stopped, and immediately, dozens of simple clay pots (made by the Luo family's ceramic workshop) were thrown into the trench, and as the crockpots broke, a large amount of fire oil spilled out, not only sprinkled at the bottom of the trench, but even caused many coalition soldiers in the trench who tried to climb the earthen wall to be stained with fire oil.

At the same time, after several burning torches were thrown into the trench at the same time, the trench suddenly turned into a fire ditch, and the coalition soldiers inside immediately became fire men, and all of them screamed and rushed towards the Beichuan River to the west of the trench. It's just that most of the people were shot by the Luo family's iron gunners or archers after running a few steps, so they couldn't continue to run, and fell directly into the trench, screaming and rolling continuously, and finally there was no sound again. Even those who were lucky enough to jump into the Beichuan River were shot by the archers of the Luo family who were built on the side of the river.

Seeing such a scene, the coalition soldiers who had not yet reached the trench stopped one after another, and even turned around and ran away, and the ranks of the coalition forces in the mountain road suddenly became chaotic, even if the first-class generals of their respective groups kept shouting, it would not help.

"Blow the conch, collect the troops!"

On a slightly gentle mountain col in the rear of the coalition forces, looking at the coalition soldiers lying slowly in the mountain road ahead, Shimazu Takahisa and Ito Yoshisuke both looked at each other and gave orders helplessly.

"Woo, woo, woo......"

As the order to retreat sounded, the coalition soldiers in the mountain road finally breathed a sigh of relief, and quickly retreated like a tide, leaving only the corpses that were covered in the ground, and even piled up into a small hill in some places, and the mountain road stained red with blood. A lot of blood even gathered into a small river and flowed directly into the Beichuan River on the side, staining the coastal waters of Beichuan near the mountain road red, even if the river was turbulent, it could not wash away these red water bodies for a while.

"Do you want to send troops to attack?" Seeing such a scene, even Yoshimi Irita was a little excited, so he said to the main general on the side, Isono Yuanchang.

"No!" Isono shook his head, "According to the lord's previous order, we just need to hold our positions and intercept the enemy here." It is never allowed to take the initiative. ”

"Hmm!" Yoshimi Irita had no choice but to dispel this idea. In fact, he really wanted to take the initiative. Because they still have hundreds of killer weapons in their hands that have not yet been used.

This killer feature. It was the shield bearers of hundreds of people who were resting in the rear at this time. These shield bearers were formed by Lord Gongzheng Liang according to the construction of some Ming ministers who had immigrated from the Ming State before, and they were modeled after the shield bearers in the Ming army. And these shield bearers are all Ming people.

Speaking of which, the longer he stayed in Luo's house, he found that there were really a lot of people from the Ming Kingdom in the Luo family's territory, basically no matter where he went to the Luo family's territory, he could meet the people from the Ming Kingdom on the way, and it was said that the relationship between the lord and the merchants of the Ming Kingdom could get a lot of Ming refugees every year. They even bought the Ming slaves who suffered in the pirate fleet from the Ming pirates along the coast of Satsuma, and after these Ming people entered the Luo family, they would be placed in villages throughout the Luo family's territory and blend with the local people.

The most prominent point of this kind of integration is that in the military strength of the Luo family, there are already more and more Ming leaders, and many family positions are held by Ming leaders in the Luo family. Although these Ming ministers only accounted for a small part of the high-level retainers of the Luo family, the number of Ming retainers at the grassroots level accounted for almost half of the number of retainers.

But speaking of which, compared to the local people. These Ming leaders really don't have to say it, not only are they taller. And many people have a good cultural foundation, especially when learning the unique script and language of the Luo family, they occupy a great advantage, although in the beginning, these Ming people and their local generals and soldiers do not know the words and language of the Luo family, but with the delay of time, people will soon find that those Ming people have a much faster grasp of the new script and new language. At the same time, in the military situation, those Ming leaders were generally in better health than the local people, and they were more likely to accept the Luo family's unique queue training method.

It is precisely because of this characteristic of the Ming State that the people of the Ming State, and the fact that the shield soldiers are proposed by some of the Ming ministers, and they can only be trained by the Ming ministers who have proposed this new type of troops and have been in the Ming State to train new soldiers, so this time the shield soldiers of more than 100 people are temporarily only selected from the Ming people.

Of course, in Irita Yoshimi's view, it seems that the lord Masara only has an experimental attitude to establish this new army, but in the previous process of capturing Matsuo Castle, this team of shield soldiers did play a lot of roles, which made Irita Yoshimi, who had always doubted the combat power of this new team, sigh, and even envied the main general of this team of shield soldiers. Moreover, he also believed that as long as this group of shield soldiers attacked the opposite Shimazu and Ito coalition forces in the same hedgehog formation as that night in Matsuo Castle, and his iron artillery team supported them in the rear, they would definitely be able to defeat the opposing coalition forces.

However, just as the main general Isono Yuanchang said, before leaving, the lord and the government were told a thousand times, this time they were only responsible for holding their positions and blocking the other party's way, during this period, even if there was civil strife and cannibalism within the enemy army, they would never be able to leave the position for half a step.

Although in the academy of generals in the Roche Academy (after every major war, Masa-liang would organize some post-war summary and analysis study meetings for the generals), he had learned the so-called knowledge of "generals who are not subject to foreign military orders", and in the current situation, there is no problem at all in exercising this knowledge.

But since the main general Isono member Changdu refused, he naturally wouldn't say anything more. After all, at present, many retainers are coveting the position of the commander of his iron artillery team (after all, he can always receive tasks, and the opportunities to obtain military merits are not only much more, but also much easier in many cases), he finally took advantage of this opportunity to join forces with the important minister of the family, Isono Yuanchang, and got along with Isono Yuanchang on the road, so naturally he will not waste his hard-earned achievements.

As a result, Isono and Irita Yoshimi held their positions according to the previous orders of Masayo, and in the next period of time, even if the Shimazu family and the Ito family contacted several forced attacks, they still could not break through the trench of their position. Soon after, the army led by the lord Masayo also pursued from the mountain road to the north, and from then on, the armies of Shimazu Takahisa and Ito Yoshisuke were completely surrounded by the Luo family from both the north and the south.

Faced with such a situation, Takahisa Shimazu and Yoshisuke Ito were anxious. So they launched a more fierce attack on the positions of Isono Yuanchang and Irita Yoshimi in the south (because they had been defeated by Masara several times before, and even if they defeated Masara, Masara's rear was still the territory of the Luo family, and there was no improvement in their situation, so they did not attack Masara's position).

However, Masarashi naturally did not allow them to attack the southern position with all their might, so Masarashi also personally commanded the army, and on the one hand, he built fortifications in the mountain road to the north to the same as Isono Yuanmasa and Irita Yoshimi in the south, and on the other hand, began to harass the combined forces of the Shimazu family and the Ito family.

So the two sides confronted each other in the mountain road.

(Thanks to "Jun Xiang Yezi" for your support.) (To be continued......)