Even after Masahiro learned about this magical escape process of Mori Moto, he deeply sighed at Mori Moto's sensitive and dangerous sense of smell.

Soon after Mori Moto and his people fled into the nearby mountains and forests, Kinoshita Masanao immediately completely blocked the local access to Aki Kuniyama County and Yoshida County in accordance with Masarashi's order, and at the same time began a large-scale investigation of suspicious people in the local area. Because Maori Yuan was lame with a leg, and Yoshikawa Motoharu was deprived of an arm, this investigation also focused on personnel with this type of characteristics.

It's just that after some efforts, he caught a lot of retainers and samurai of the Mao family who fled with Mao Li Yuan at the beginning, but Mao Li Yuan and others were never found.

As for Maori Yuan and others, after burrowing into the mountains and forests, they took advantage of their familiarity with the local terrain and finally returned to the territory of the Maori family in the mountains and forests directly from the trail in the mountains and forests. However, since they had escaped from a mountain forest road this time, it was already late November when they appeared in front of the Mori family's Hino Mountain Castle. At this time, the army of the Luo family had completely controlled the western, southern and central regions of the Aki Kingdom, and even the eastern region had almost all fallen, leaving the last fortified city, the Chausu Mountain Castle of the Kobayakawa family. And Kinoshita Masanao's army also began to attack the Mori family's Yama Prefecture and Yoshida Prefecture.

In such a critical situation, the first thing that Maori Yuan had to resolve was naturally the crisis faced by Yamayama County and Yoshida County in front of him, so he was under his series of transfers. The two counties not only resisted the attack of the Third Route Army where Kinoshita Masanao was located, but even dug a pit and waited for the Luo family's Third Route Army to jump down, in an attempt to rewrite the situation in the central region of Aki Country, and even the southern and western regions. It was only because of Kinoshita's vigilance that Mori Motosa's attempt was finally shattered.

After resolving the current crisis between Yama Prefecture and Yoshida Prefecture, Mori Moto was able to receive the news that he had temporarily lost contact with the eastern region of Aki Province due to an attack on the border between Yama Prefecture and Prefecture, and finally learned that his third son, Kobayakawa Takakei, had become a prisoner of the Luo family, and used it as a tool for the Luo family to attack the Kobayakawa family in the eastern region.

The so-called tiger poison does not eat children. But Maori Yuan told us with facts at this time. Now even if he is his own son, in the era of the Warring States Period, he still has to be sacrificed. Even though the entire eastern part of Aki Province had basically fallen into the hands of the Luo family at this time, Chausu Mountain Castle controlled the main road from the eastern region to Yoshida County in the northern part of Aki Province and the central region of Bigo Province. Once occupied by the Roche family. Then the Roshi family can attack Yoshida-gun of the Maori family to the north. To the east, it could also threaten the central region of Bigo Province, which the Mori family had managed to control, and thus cut off the connection between the Mori family and the more distant Bichu region.

So for the sake of the family's interests, Mori Moto also gave the order to kill Kobayakawa Takakei with great difficulty. This is even so. The Maori family was still slow to react. At the beginning of December, when the retainers who conveyed the order of Mori Motosho were still half a day away from Chausu Mountain Castle, the Otemon Gate of Chausu Mountain Castle had already fallen under the loud sound of the Luo family's explosive packs, and immediately, a large number of Luo family troops poured into the city, and finally captured this mountain castle on the border between Shatin County and Yoshida County.

So far, in the entire Aki country, the eight counties of Numata, Kamo, Yasu, Saeki, Yamagu, Takanomiya, Yoshida, and Shatin, of which the six counties of Numata, Kamo, Yasu, Saeki, Takanomiya, and Shatin have fallen into the hands of the Luo family, and the remaining two counties of Yama and Yoshida in the northern region are still in the hands of the Mori family.

Geographically, in fact, the Luo family at this time is equivalent to mastering the eastern, southern, central and western areas of Shanyang Road, which is the main passage of Sanyang Road in Anyi Kingdom. The northern region, which was controlled by the Mori family, was a transitional zone connecting Aki Province with Iwami Province and Izumo Province. As a result, the Maori family was caught between the Luo family in the south and the Nizi family in the north.

After learning of the fall of Chausu Mountain Castle, Mori Moto immediately locked himself in the house and thought alone for a day and a night.

This time the war was really a big up-and-down for the Maori family. First, after all these years of secret accumulation, he finally waited for the death of Yoshitaka Ouchi and the God-given opportunity for the internal strife of the Ouchi family, so Maori Yuan immediately gathered the power of the Ouchi family in Aki Province, Bigo Province and Bei China. Later, he made painstaking arrangements on Itsukushima, and finally succeeded in luring Tao Longfang to the battlefield of Itsukushima, where he was ready, and defeated Tao Longfang's army.

Seeing that he was about to destroy the Tao Tayubo, which was the pillar of the Ouchi family, he took the opportunity to enter the Ouchi family's Zhoufang and Nagato country regions, expanding the Maori family into a samurai giant in the western country in one fell swoop. But at this juncture, it was the Luo family who picked peaches, not only seized the fruits of the Maori family's victory on Itsukushima, but also the Luo family returned to their own people in their own way, taking advantage of the Maori family's heavy Tao family's mistakes in Itsukushima, and invaded the Maori family's territory in Anyi Country. Previously, the territories of the Ouchi family, Zhou Fangguo and Nagato Kingdom, which had been first divided into their own territory, were completely far away from the Maori family, and instead became the fat in front of the Luo family.

Now, with the fall of Chausuyama Castle, in fact, the territory of the Mori family in Aki Province has almost returned to the time when it was a local turtle. Fortunately, at this time, the Mori family still held control of Bigo Province and parts of Bigoku.

And the retainers and the military situation. At present, it has been determined that the retainers who have been lost in this war include Kodama Shokata, Iida Yoshitake, Kumagai Nobunao, Misu Boqing, Nomi Sokatsu and other more than 20 people, and such as Kumagai, Kodama, Iida, Nomi, Jifei, Shinsato, Ioga and other families have almost suffered a blow of extermination, even Amano Mori, Fukuhara Sadatoshi, Kagawa Kokage, Katsura Motosumi and others who escaped with their lives, their family territories also fell into the hands of the Luo family. What's even worse is that the Kobayakawa lineage, which is the two rivers system that Maori Yuan has painstakingly built over the years, also collapsed with the capture of the third son, Kobayakawa Takakei, and the Kobayakawa family's territory in the eastern region was captured.

In terms of military strength, the army of tens of thousands of people that was finally put together was almost wiped out, some of them were taken prisoners of the Luo family and surrendered to the Luo family (at this time, they had been pulled by the Luo family as cannon fodder for attacking the Ouchi family's Zhou Fang Guo and Nagato country), and some people died in the battle of Itsukushima. Even the last part of the diehards who hid on Itsukushima and were unwilling to surrender were eventually hunted by the local leaders of Itsukushima and died under the speargun dung fork, which became a voucher for these lords to receive food rewards from the Luo family.

Therefore, after this war, whether it is the territory of the Maori family or the personnel situation of the Maori family, Maori Yuan has a feeling that he was beaten back to a long time ago by the Luo family.

What's more serious is that with the defeat of the Maori family, the Maori family finally managed to operate in Bigo Province and Bei China, due to the loss of a large number of wealthy families, they were dissatisfied with the Maori family, and they were also facing the division of each other to take the opportunity to annex each other (at this time, the Maori Yuan did not know that the Luo family still had a large army attacking the southern region of Bigo Province), and the situation of the Maori family would be shattered. As a family that has been fighting with the Maori family for control in areas such as Bichugoku and Bigoku, the Niko family will never let go of such an opportunity. Therefore, the Mori family will have to make every effort to prepare for the attack of the Niko family in the north.

Since it is necessary to deal with the attack of the Nizi family in the north, it is necessary to try to contain the Luo family in the south to avoid being attacked by the Luo family and the Nizi family at the same time.

So, what can be done to make the Roche family have no time to take care of the Maori family?

Mori Moto first thought of the power of temples and shrines in Aki Province, Nagato Province, and Zhou Defense Province. Due to the oppression and even bloody policy of the temple shrine power since the beginning, the Luo family is hostile in the eyes of the power of temples and shrines such as the Ichijo sect. In this case, it is natural that the Maori Yuan cannot let go of these potential allies. (To be continued......)