Outside Kyushu Hyuga Kunimen Castle, not long after Saeki Yui entered Kamogawa Castle, Ito Yuki and Ito Yuban finally waited for the Ito family's army, but they only saw Ito Yuan lying on a wooden plank and dying.

"What's going on?"

Seeing Ito Yuan in such a situation, Ito Yuki and Ito Yuban immediately asked with angry faces. In the face of the two people's reprimands, Ito's retainers were full of shame, and in the end, an elderly retainer told the two in detail about Ito's injury and the subsequent incident of Ito Yuan's escape under the auspices of Saeki Yuano.

"Damn!"

Saeki Yui's decision to retreat and flee not only made all the previous efforts of Ito Yuan and the Luo family army to fight to the death in vain, but also made it a lot of fatigue after Ito Yuan was seriously injured, and even increased Ito Yuan's injuries, isn't this tantamount to murder? Ito Yuki and Ito Yufan immediately had the intention of entering Menchuan Castle immediately to find Saeki and settle the account.

"Oh no, no." Just as Ito Yuki and Ito Yuban were about to act, a footlight in Kadogawa Castle hurriedly ran over.

"What?" Ito Yuki immediately asked.

"My lord, it's not good, that Saeki-sama took people to the city warehouse to get some grain, and now he left directly from the south gate." Ashigaru immediately replied.

"What?" Ito Yuki, Ito Yuban and others were immediately shocked when they heard this. After being slightly stunned, Ito Yuki's face immediately changed, and his eyes were blazing and said, "Could it be that Saeki is planning to rebel?" ”

In Ito's opinion. Saeki's actions were too much. Originally, there was not much food in Menchuan City. And after fleeing here yesterday, on the one hand, the two brothers sent people to urgently warn the castles in the rear and ask for reinforcements, and on the other hand, they urgently sent a few ashigaru in the city to the nearby villages to recruit peasant soldiers and food, and after some efforts, they finally added a little grain to the warehouse of Menchuan Castle (the grain that the city had hoarded in the past was previously transported to Matsuo Castle in order to support the strategy of the three families and two armies against the Luo family in the Bungo Country area). Now Saeki Weizhi went straight to the warehouse without saying a word and robbed the extremely important grain, isn't this a rebellion?

Originally, Saeki Yui Nao's move to reach an agreement with the Luo family, who seized Matsuo Castle and caused Ito Yuan to be seriously injured, had already made Ito Yuki very dissatisfied. Now Saeki has such a rude behavior again. Can Ito Yuki endure there? Anyway, the two sides are just allies, and in his heart he also sees the Saeki family as a poor pawn begging from his own family, not to mention that with the loss of Matsuo Castle, his lord will inevitably lead the army to return from the Bungo country, so without the protection of the family, the foundation of the Saeki family in the Bungo country will be seized by the Luo family, so the Saeki family is worthless in his eyes at this time.

Thinking of this, Ito Yuki immediately shouted; "Herald ......"

"Oh no, no......" Before General Ito Yuki could finish his order, he was in the rear of the fleeing Ito army. A ashigaru shouted and ran quickly.

The order was suddenly interrupted, and Ito Yuki almost pulled out the knife at his waist and slashed down Ashigaru who was panting and running to him.

The messenger Ashigaru, who had just arrived, also seemed to notice that the atmosphere was wrong at this time, especially after seeing Ito Yuki's cannibalistic eyes. Even the panting action has been reduced as much as possible.

"Say it. What's the matter? The younger brother next to him, Yuto Ito, saw that the situation was not right, so he diverted his attention from the scene and glared at Ashigaru, who was already kneeling on the ground, before asking.

"Big ...... Adult, back ...... The pursuers in the rear quickened their march. At the request of Ito Yuban, the report Ashigaru finally replied tremblingly.

"What?" When he said this, he immediately surprised everyone.

"Bastard, why didn't you say it earlier?" Ito Yuki, who was already hot, kicked the messenger down with one kick.

"Quick, speed into the city, and prepare to meet the enemy." After kicking the messenger ashigaru down, Ito Yuki didn't look at the reporting ashigaru who was rolling to the ground, but ordered directly.

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency, Ship...... ......Before everyone could take action, another ashigaru who reported the news ran out of Menchuan Castle.

"What?"

"Ships, a lot of warships." Ashigaru, who had just arrived, immediately returned.

"Boats? What ship? Ito Yuki asked.

"My lord, there are a lot of warships on the sea, and the family pattern seems to be the Luo family's naval warship."

"Huh?" This time, the crowd was not so simple as exclaiming, and some people even sat on the ground in fright.

"It's not good, it must be the Luo family's sailors, we were attacked by the other party on the coast last night." One of the Ito retainers in the fleeing team immediately said.

"Quick, enter the city at once, and prepare to meet the pursuers in the rear. The rest of the people followed and went down to the upper city to take a look. Since it was confirmed that the person who came was the Luo family's navy, Ito Yuki gritted his teeth and immediately ordered.

So after placing the wounded Ito Yuan and leaving enough manpower to arrange the rout army that arrived one after another, Ito Yuki and Ito Yuban immediately took some of their retainers to the head of Mogawa Castle.

Since it was at the northern gate of the castle where there were mountains and forests on both sides, it was natural that Ito Yuki, Ito Yuban and others could not see the situation on the sea, but now after climbing to the highest point of the castle, everyone finally saw the situation on the sea in the distance.

I saw that the sails and shadows on the sea were really overlapping at this time, especially the three huge ships, which had a great impact on everyone. Of these three giant ships, the largest one is naturally the large lucky ship brought by Li Huamei from the Ming Kingdom, and the two smaller ones are small lucky ships made by the Luo family's shipbuilding workshop as the command ships of the Luo family's various naval teams. Since the speed on the water at this time was obviously much faster than the speed on land, Li Huamei's sailors, who were marching on the land, rushed in front of Takasaka Masanobu's army, which was marching on land.

"Such a massive trolls?" After seeing the situation at sea, Ito Yuki and Ito Yuban glanced at each other, and both saw a trace of fear in each other's eyes. Even more hateful. Yesterday, the two of them saw their naval army in Matsuo Castle directly from the nearby sea. Depending on the situation, these sailors are going to the coastal area of the largest plain in the central part of Hyuga Province. And so it goes. There is really no naval army nearby that can intercept the Luo family's naval army at sea, once the other party lands on the southern coast, then even if he defends Menchuan City, in the case of limited food, he will be besieged and killed by the other party sooner or later.

Thinking of this, Ito Yuki couldn't help but look at the expressions of the other people on the city wall, and what made him feel even more helpless was from the eyes of these retainers and samurai. He only saw fear, and he had no intention of fighting to the death. It's really a defeat before a fight.

"Hmph, no wonder Saeki went straight through the city in such a panic. It's just that if this continues, what should we do? ”

"Oh no, no......" At this moment, a retainer who had stayed in the city to take care of Ito Yuan ran up in a panic.

"Huh?"

"My lordship...... The lord ...... him"

"What?" Although the retainer hadn't made his words clear, Ito Yuki and Ito Yuban had already seen the result from the expressions on his faces, so the two of them immediately exclaimed in surprise and walked quickly to the castle.

When the two of them arrived at the hut where Ito was housed. But I only saw the body of Ito Yuan, who was lying on the tatami mat, with round eyes and a face full of unwillingness, but he had already choked his breath.

In fact, as early as when Ito Yuki and Ito Yuban met with the fleeing Ito family under the city gate. Ito Yuan came to his senses a little. Although he couldn't open his eyes or move his hands, he could barely hear the movement around him. As a result, he heard everyone's conversations about Saeki Yui abandoning the city and fleeing, the continuous pursuit of soldiers behind him, and the appearance of hostile naval forces at sea.

Yuan Ito, who suddenly learned of these news, was really angry. He desperately defended the city, but finally lost it. At this time, he felt that the act of the Governor Ito Yoshisuke sheltering the Saeki family and arranging the people of the Saeki family in Matsuo Castle was completely an act of death. Ordinary retainers did not see the impact on the Ito family after the loss of Matsuo Castle, but in Ito's opinion, this was almost the beginning of the Ito family's demise.

As an important town of the Ito family in the northern part of Hyuga Province, after the support army of the Ito family and the Shimazu family went to Bungo Province to support the Saeki family to resist the invasion of the Luo family's army, it became a necessary route for the Ito family and the Shimazu family to go through the expeditionary army. In order to ensure the safety of the back road, the governor of the family, Yoshisuke Ito, in addition to placing three coalition troops of more than 2,000 people in the city (mainly the Ito family's army of more than 1,000 people), also deployed a total of more than 2,000 land and water troops in the Nagao Fortress, Aiyan Fortress, and coastal areas near Matsuo Castle. If the Luo family attacked Matsuo Castle from the coast, then the joint defense system composed of these strongholds would be able to withstand the Luo family's attack, so that the expeditionary army of the Bungo Kingdom could return in time.

As for the rugged mountain road from Zhongshan Castle to Matsuo Castle of the Mitai family in the west, the governor Ito Yoshisuke did not take it lightly, but also sent more than 300 troops to Zhongshan Castle, preparing to guard the border together with the defenders of the Mitai family there, in addition, the governor Ito Yoshiyu also set up several checkpoints and earth bars in the mountain roads along the way, once the direction of Zhongshan City is lost, then these checkpoints and earth bars will get news in time and warn Matsuo City in time. After receiving the early warning, Matsuo Castle could set up an interception formation in the mountain road along the way in time, and with the help of the rugged and narrow terrain of the mountain road, it could resist the invasion of the Luo family with a single man, and get timely reinforcement from the expeditionary army of Bungo Kingdom.

But after a thousand calculations, in the end, Matsuo Castle was suddenly attacked by the Luo family. When he was attacked, Ito Yuan hadn't figured out how such a large army suddenly appeared outside Matsuo Castle, and he only figured it out when Matsuo Castle was lost and forced to retreat. Since the other party suddenly appeared from the west gate, it was natural that there was an accident on the mountain road of Zhongshan City, and all the previous arrangements of the Ito family in the mountain road ended in failure.

Although he hadn't figured out how the Luo family's army had broken through the mountain road in Nakayama Castle until now, he knew that the Ito family's crisis had arrived after the fall of Matsuo Castle. If Matsuo Castle cannot be recaptured, then the back road of the Bungo Kingdom Expeditionary Force, where the Governor of the Shogun is located, will be blocked. And the army led by the governor of the family includes a large number of elites in the Ito family. Once the Governor and the elite of the Ito family are besieged in Bungo Province, the strength of the Ito family's forces remaining in Hyuga Province will be greatly reduced.

What's even more terrifying is that since a large number of troops have been concentrated in various borders before, the territory of the Ito family of Hyuga Country is empty at this time. And the Luo family's army, which had broken through from Matsuo Castle, would inevitably invade the Ito family's territory after learning of this situation.

As for the people left behind at home, will anyone stand up and take charge of the overall situation at this critical moment? This is basically impossible, after all, the sister-in-law of the governor Ito Yoshiyu died of illness before, the second son is only five or six years old now, and the third son (that is, the next heir of the Ito family in history, Ito Yuhei) has just been born this year. At this time, the person who was designated as the host was injured again, so where to find a new host of the overall situation?

It was precisely with these in mind that Ito Yuyasu decided to defend Aiyan Castle on the south shore of Matsuo Castle, on the one hand, in an attempt to hold the bridgehead from the northern region of Hyuga Province into the empty central region of Hyuga Province, so that the rear could be prepared for the invasion of the Luo family in time, and on the other hand, he also had the intention of jointly retaking the lost Matsuo Castle after waiting for the return of the expeditionary army led by the governor of the family who had withdrawn from Bungo Province.

It's just that the Great Bodhisattva of Hachiman doesn't care about the Ito family at all, and Ito Yuan himself was unfortunately shot in the abdomen by a stray arrow shot by the Luo family outside the city when he was inspecting the defense preparations of Aiyanqi, and he was seriously injured and fell unconscious.

And when he finally woke up from his coma today, he suddenly heard that the Ai Yan Yan that he had decided to defend had been directly contributed to the Luo family by Saeki Weizhi. What made him even more desperate was that the Luo family had also increased reinforcements from the coast in time, so that the opportunity to recapture Matsuo Castle to rescue the Bungo Province and block the Luo family's invasion of the empty territory in the central part of Hyuga Province was lost.

In the end, he even learned that the Luo family's navy had actually marched along the waterway to the central region, and he was really worried and angry about this. Originally, because of the injury, a lot of blood had accumulated in his body, so when he was angry, he simply swallowed his breath and burped.

The sudden death of Ito Yuan became the last straw that crushed the persistence in the hearts of everyone in Mogawa Castle. In grief, after some discussion with everyone, Ito Yuki and Ito Yuban finally decided to abandon the city and flee.

If you don't escape, you can't do it, there are only less than a hundred defenders in the city, and the food is limited, and among the routs who have just arrived, not only are everyone exhausted, but also because of the convenience of the retreat yesterday, most of the people carry limited food, and when they arrive at Menchuan City, most of the people have little food left. In this way, it naturally caused great pressure on the grain reserves in Menchuan City. With such a grain reserve, if it is besieged by the Luo family's army for a period of time, without waiting for the opponent to attack the city, the defenders in the city will be unable to fight because of the lack of food.

What's even more odious is that Saeki not only snatched part of the reserve food from the city, but also fled directly with more than 200 people from Saeki's family, and in the end, only more than 800 people were left behind in the Ito family's rout, even if they were united with the defenders in the city, a total of less than 1,000 people. In such a situation, how to deal with the front and rear attacks of the menacing Luo family's army?

(Thanks to "sky1991" for your support.) (To be continued......)