It was May of the second year of Eiroku (1559 AD), and Shimazu Takahisa was sitting quietly at the foot of a mountain col in Manji Valley, which leads from the northern part of Hyuga Province to the southern border of Bungo Province.

In the corner of the col, a plum blossom was blooming, and the petals that fell to the ground were covered with a thin layer of mist. It is incredible that plum blossoms, which were supposed to bloom at New Year's Day, bloom in full bloom in a closed col at this time.

However, the miraculous blooming plum blossoms did not make Shimazu Takahisa happy, and what happened to the coalition forces in the past few days really made him unhappy!

With the continuous fierce battles with the Luo family's army, the iron cannon ammunition and even the arrows in the coalition army were all exhausted a few days ago. Even the important medicines were consumed, which caused many wounded soldiers in the army to die in pain because there was no medicine to treat. For these dead soldiers, because they are in the valley, most of them are surrounded by rocks, and the location of the barracks is limited, so when they can't find a suitable place to bury them, they can only throw the bodies of these soldiers into the Beichuan next to them, and let them drift with the current of Beichuan to the rivers of the Luo family camp on the north and south sides.

In the past few days, there have been several heavy rains, so that many soldiers in the camp with limited tents have been drenched, and these mountains are relatively cold at night, so a large number of sick soldiers have emerged in the camp for several days. Whether it was the soldiers who died because there was no cure, or the soldiers who were constantly sick, it greatly reduced the morale of the coalition forces in the large battalion.

The deadliest thing is. Even at this time, the food in the camp was running out. To save food. Even Shimazu Takahisa himself drastically reduced the supply of food, and as for the daily supply of ordinary soldiers, it was changed to gruel. It's just that, with the current consumption of food, it is estimated that in less than half a month, the food in the coalition army will be completely consumed.

In fact, the coalition army is already in such a situation, as long as Luo Zhengliang waves his troops to attack with all his strength, the coalition army is already very difficult to resist, but the hateful thing is. This Kyushu eagle has not moved, even after this period of time, when their coalition forces have even stopped attacking the Luo family's position blocking the southern exit, this cunning eagle still does not move.

"What a cruel eagle!" After instantly learning that Masarashi Roche was planning to directly make them unable to resist because of hunger, Shimazu Takahisa looked at the small piece of sky above the valley and sighed in despair.

"Why is this happening?"

Under such a blow, Shimazu Takahisa also reflected on why their coalition forces were forced by Luo Masarashi to the point that they didn't even have a chance to resist desperately.

First of all, there is nothing wrong with forming an alliance with the Ito family and the Saeki family, after all, the Luo family is too strong, if everyone is still going their own way, then sooner or later they will be destroyed by the Luo family one by one. At the time of the life and death of the family, everyone naturally resisted together.

And after the alliance. Both the Saeki family and the Ito family were at war with the Luo family in the Bungo Province area, but the Shimazu family, who was the initiator of the entire alliance, only had a conflict with the Luo family when the sister-in-law of the Luo clan Masahiro went out to support the wealthy clans in the Northern Satsuma region.

In order to maintain the stability of the entire alliance, at the joint invitation of the Ito family and the Saeki family, Shimazu Takahisa not only sent the family's fierce general Shinna Tadagen in advance to the important town of Umemurai Castle on the border of the Saeki family's territory to garrison, but also personally led a large army to support the Saeki family this time to jointly resist the invasion of the Saeki family by the Luo family. This series of actions is indeed what Takahisa Shimazu needs to do, and has to do.

Secondly, after leading the reinforcements out of the battle, Takahisa Shimazu also made full arrangements. At least with the preparations in the Satsuma country at this time, even if the Luo family took the opportunity to invade the Satsuma region during the period of time he left, with the efforts of his sister-in-law Shimazu Yoshihisa and the retainers who stayed behind, as well as the preparations made by the family in advance, even if the territory is lost, it will still be able to deal with the Luo family for a long time.

As for the back road that went out to support before, Shimazu Takahisa also made full arrangements. Not only did he stay in Matsuo Castle, an important town on the back road, but some of the elite of the Shimazu family were left behind, and even along the way from Satsuma Province to Hyuga Country, he secretly arranged some detailed works for warning purposes. After all, it is indispensable to defend against people, even if the Ito family is an ally, but with the relationship between the two families before the alliance, it is necessary to be extremely careful.

In the end, even on the way out and in the confrontation with the Luo family, he was cautious. Even when he and the Ito family reinforcements had just walked out of the mountain road and entered the rear of the territory of the ally Saeki family, he was careful to send people to investigate and warn in front of him (in fact, Shimazu Takahisa's arrangement did work, and Masara had planned to take advantage of the fact that the other party had just come out of the mountain road and lacked vigilance because he was behind the Saeki family's territory, so he was ready to ambush them, but after the black hawk of the main family discovered the early warning team of the Shimazu family, he decisively gave up this idea).

Even after learning about the damage caused by the Luo family in the Saeki family, he decisively decided to directly attack the Luo family's position, which is not wrong. Because Shimazu Takahisa could see at a glance that Roche Masaki was trying to delay them in the local area. For them, who are far away from their own territory, and at the same time, the territory of the Saeki family has been destroyed by the Luo family, a long-term confrontation with the Luo family is the most disadvantageous. Even in the end, the decision to retreat immediately after learning of the fall of Matsuo Castle was the most correct decision at the time.

In this way, from beginning to end, Shimazu Takahisa made a decision that was correct! So why did the coalition end up in such a miserable situation? Who is at fault?

The first thing that is wrong is that the opponent Luo family is too powerful and cunning.

The cunning guy of Luo Clan Masarashi had scared the Saeki family into hiding in the city before their reinforcements arrived at Saeki's house, and then took advantage of this opportunity to turn the Saeki family's territory into a miasma. They even burned most of the food reserves used in the city. At the same time that the Saeki family was panicked and the morale of the army was shaken (because the family was looted by the Luo family). It also laid the groundwork for the various means of the coalition forces later.

He then used the local terrain of the Kurusugawa River to create a fortified position. In this way, as long as the Luo family stays there, even if they are motionless, they can pose a great threat to the coalition forces. In this way, Shimazu Takahisa and they don't want to delay, and hope for a quick decision, because they are too far away from their own territory, unlike the Luo family, which is their own territory behind them. More logistical support. And they can't retreat, in fact, as long as the Luo family sticks there, the coalition forces won't dare to retreat, unless they plan to give up the territory of the Saeki family.

And when the Shimazu and Ito coalition forces arrived, the granary of Saeki's family was suddenly destroyed by fire. The allied forces needed to transport food and supplies over long distances. At the same time, with the confrontation of the Luo family's army, in order to ensure the back road and support, it is necessary to continuously draw troops from various cities to the back stronghold and border stronghold defense, and at the same time ensure that a large number of materials are gathered to the back stronghold. All this has caused great attrition and inconvenience to all parties of the coalition forces.

Even so, of course. As long as the Luo family's positions on both sides of the Kurusu River were quickly defeated, the difficulties they faced would be greatly reduced. It's just that Shimazu Takahisa didn't expect it. The Luo family's position was so strong. If they were attacking a fortified city, it would take a year and a half to break through it, and Shimazu Takahisa didn't have anything to say, but now they were just attacking the improvised fortifications in the woods, and it was unbelievable that the coalition forces could not even conquer the front positions of the other side. And in the process, the power of the opponent's iron cannons and bows and arrows also frightened Shimazu Takahisa.

Indeed, the Luo family's military strength is too strong, which is also a fault for their current situation. But the bigger fault came from the Saeki family, who were allies.

Now Shimazu Takahisa has finally understood, after being constantly invaded and harassed by the Luo family for several years, the Saeki family is actually completely afraid of the Luo family from the bottom of their hearts. That's why there was a situation where the border town of Umemurai Castle was lost before the support of the Shimazu and Ito coalition forces arrived, and even if the territory and family property were looted away by the Luo family in front of them, and the Saeki family could only bury their heads in the city and did not dare to attack, and there was a situation where the Saeki family had problems when they were interrupted twice in a row during the retreat of the coalition forces, especially after the last time the Saeki family governor Saeki Yukyo personally broke off, it was even more provoking that he had already been separated from his family and far away from his homeland, The Saeki family, who had repeatedly failed and the morale of the army was shaken, was dissatisfied with Saeki Weijiao, and this is why the Saeki family gave Saeki Weijiao as a surrender gift to the Luo family.

Of course, the biggest mistake came from the Ito family.

If Matsuo Castle, which is the only way back for the coalition forces, falls, even if the coalition forces are unable to repel the Luo family's invasion of the Saeki family, they will at least be able to use the Saeki family's territory to continue to confront the Luo family, and will not be besieged in a valley where even if they have the will to resist.

With a total of more than 2,000 defenders from the three coalition forces of Matsuo Castle, if the Ito family is a little careful, if they get the early warning of the invasion of the Luo family in advance, they can quickly gather more than 5,000 defenders from all over the surrounding areas, how can such a number of defenders not be able to resist the siege of the Luo family's army for a period of time? But Matsuo Castle was attacked so suddenly, and there was no warning before, which can only show that the Ito family is too incompetent.

It is precisely because of such a cunning and hateful opponent as the Luo family, coupled with the two incompetent allies of the Saeki family and the Ito family, that the Shimazu family has been led to such a predicament today. Shimazu Takahisa even thought that if he hadn't formed an alliance with these two allies, would the Shimazu family be even better now?

"Lord!"

Just as Shimazu Takahisa was still pondering, the old family Ijiin Tadaro walked over with a limp. Looking at Tadaro Ijiin's thigh, which had not been good until now after being injured before, Takahisa Shimazu couldn't help but feel a pain in his heart. With the current injury to the thigh of Ijiin Tadaro, it seems that this thigh cannot be saved without herbal medicine, and if the injury worsens, then even Ijiin Tadashi himself cannot be saved.

"My lord, the Luo family has sent a messenger......" came to Shimazu Takahisa and bowed slightly, and Ijiin Tadaro immediately whispered.

It turned out that not long ago, the Luo family sent a small team of men and horses to escort a box to the coalition camp not far away. And loudly explained that this box was given to Ito Yoshisuke, the governor of the Ito family. After a loud shout. The team of Luo's men turned around and left. Later, the Ito family also sent someone to take the box away.

Since the whole process of this matter was seen by the Ito family and the Shimazu family who were in charge of defense on the periphery of the camp, after the Ito family took the box away, the people of the Shimazu family naturally wanted to report the situation to the samurai lord above. After reporting it layer by layer, it was finally Ijiin Tadaro who reported the situation to the governor Shimazu Takahisa.

"Is it another divisive ploy? Hum! ”

After listening to Tadaro Ijiin's report, Takahisa Shimazu commented disdainfully. In fact, the Luo family had taken advantage of the fact that the coalition forces could not see the longer distance at night, and had been using feathered arrows with arrows removed to tie the rags of persuasion and discord into the coalition camp, or simply shouting nobly in the distance of the camp. So as to persuade the coalition forces to surrender and discord.

This is no longer a conspiracy, but a direct conspiracy, and it really has an effect, it has indeed caused many people's minds to float, and there have even been cases of deserters, but these deserters have been caught and executed and beheaded on the spot.

"You say, will they be fooled?" Just when Shimazu Takahisa commented in the coalition army tent that the Luo family's act of giving gifts to Ito Yoshiyu alone was a divisive move, Masarashi also teased Hai Dongqing, who was standing on his shoulder at this time, and asked with a smile to the person in front of him.

This Hai Dongqing is one of the two Hai Dongqing that Ah Guda brought with him in Kyushu when he defected to Zhengliang in the Ming Kingdom. These years. This pair of Hai Dongqing has raised several litters of offspring, and has been specially cultivated by Zhengliang. The intelligence system with Haidongqing as a transmission tool has also developed to a certain extent.

The only pity is that at present, after these Haidongqing set off from all over the country, they will only fly back to the only place, that is, their old nest Hizen Kunino High Mountain. Therefore, at present, the Luo family can only send the news and information from various places to Ye Gao Mountain, and then after Ye Gao Mountain summarizes and analyzes, and then uses guò manpower to go up the marching road in the Luo family's territory that is gradually extending in all directions, and send the news and information to Zhengliang and others or to the designated place.

As for whether there will be a situation where the intelligence envelope will be lost on the way because of Hai Dongqing, it is basically impossible. Hai Dongqing is a kind of bird of prey, and it is already the boss among the local birds of the Warring States, and it is already merciful if it doesn't go to trouble those other birds, and there will definitely be no situation where Hai Dongqing is attacked by other birds of prey.

As for whether humans will attack them?

Hehe, at present, most people in various parts of the Warring States period are confused by the upper echelons and temples and shrines, so they think that these birds are the incarnation of the devil or the incarnation of the gods, and they generally do not do anything to them. Even if there are fools who want to do it, it requires them to have excellent archery skills. It's just that Hai Dongqing himself has extremely high vigilance and flying skills, even if Zhengliang himself, with his own skills, may not be able to shoot them.

Of course, Masashi originally planned to train pigeons through guò to form a more complete intelligence transmission system, but even if he entrusted Wang Hai, a businessman of the Ming Kingdom, and others, whether it was in the Warring States or in the Ming Kingdom, there was no trace of a pigeon for the time being, and the so-called pigeon transmission system was naturally impossible to talk about. And Masashi also felt very strange, under normal circumstances, pigeons should be very common birds? Now he hasn't found even a feather, and Zhengliang can only be speechless about it.

And the Hai Dongqing that Zhengliang is playing with at this time can really be said to be the originator of the Luo family's Hai Dongqing intelligence transmission system, and the Luo family, and even the local Hai Dongqing of the Warring States, are almost its descendants. Previously, because they had just raised a litter of Hai Dongqing who had begun to learn to fly, in this case, even if Ah Guta, who had the closest relationship with them, came out in person, they would not pay attention to Ah Guda, so Zhengliang, who originally planned to take one of them with him, could only give up this idea for the time being.

As for why Zhengliang took it with him? The reason is that the two Haidongqing, who are the ancestors of all the Haidongqing of the Luo family, will only be intimate with two people, one is naturally the Ah Gu who they followed from the beginning, and the other is Zhengliang. Moreover, these two Haidongqing will not only help Masato investigate the terrain and enemy situation in the air, but also directly transmit information between Akuta and Masato, after being signaled by the special actions of either Masara or Aguta. Just tie the letters to their feet. They will deliver the letters to each other (unlike the other Hai Dongqing of the Luo family.) As long as he takes off, he will only fly back to the old nest of Kaito Qing in the high mountains of Hizen Kunino with letters).

Previously, because Masahiro's location was located in the mountain road of the high mountains and dense forests, it was relatively far away from the other main territories of the Luo family, but as the family governor, although he left his son-in-law to serve as the acting family governor in Hizen Guoju Castle, responsible for handling all the affairs of the family, some affairs in the family, even after the joint consultation between the son-in-law Huiliang and the auxiliary retainers. It still needs to be decided by the political conscience himself.

At the same time, the information from the Intelligence Pavilion also needs to be delivered to Zhengliang in time. However, due to the rugged and remote roads along the way, it was relatively late for these affairs and information to arrive in the hands of Masayo, so Masara felt a little dissatisfied with this, and even he had decided that after seizing the Hyuga country, he must build the land passage between the Hyuga country and the Bungo country where he was located into a marching road.

But now, with the arrival of this Haidongqing, the previous troubles have finally been temporarily solved, as long as the Aguta who followed him was sent to Qibu City in the Bungo Kingdom to stay behind. Then Ah Guta sent all the letters gathered in his home in Qibu City to the Hai Dongqing in front of him. Then after he finished checking it, he sent the written order to the city of Qibu. Then the intelligence cabinet personnel of Guò Qibu City are responsible for passing it on. Of course, for the sake of safety, under normal circumstances, at the same time as Hai Dongqing transmits, there is also the same information or order that will be sent by guò manpower at the same time.

And this time, with this Hai Dongqing, who arrived here with Masaara, there was also the elder of the Luo family, the military advisor, and the young eunuch Akabane Shinnosuke from the fifth Dazai.

At present, there are a total of four military divisions in the military cabinet of the Luo family. Although the abilities of the four military divisions are all qualified to serve as military divisions in any battle. But they all have their own characteristics.

Among them, Yamamoto Kansuke, who is the elder of the family and the chief military advisor and the fifth Dazai eunuch, is more adept at tactics, intelligence command, and architecture (especially the construction of fortifications and castles, and the building of the Luo family's chief residence in the city has a lot of his design), and his personal combat power is also very good.

Previously, Yamamoto Kansuke was originally following Masara's side as Masayo's military advisor, but with the arrival of the expeditionary team, he even ran to Masara and asked to follow the expeditionary team, his reason was very simple, because he had traveled to the place where one of the expeditionary teams went, and he was familiar with it.

In fact, Kansuke Yamamoto clearly had this reason on his face, but Masarashi quickly understood the real reason in his heart. That's because after learning that his second son Nobuya was also going on an expedition, he knew that he was worried about the safety of his second son, so he decided to go to his second son's side instead of himself to ensure the safety of his second son Nobuya. Zhengliang was indeed very touched by this.

Moreover, Masara also considered that although with the departure of Yamamoto Kansuke, the work of the Luo family's intelligence cabinet would be affected, but with the Luo family's intelligence system, which had been perfected at this time, it was still able to adapt to it. Moreover, it was just the opportunity for Yamamoto Kansuke to take advantage of this expedition to improve the local intelligence system and form a more complete external intelligence system. So in the end, Masarashi also agreed to Yamamoto Kansuke's request, and personally sent Yamamoto Kansuke's two expeditions out of the camp.

Among the four military advisors, except for Yamamoto Kansuke who was in the first place, the remaining three, the second person was the elder of the family, from the fifth rank to the middle affairs of the young man Kakukuma Ishizong. This former military advisor of the Otomo family superintendent Otomo Sorin, who is more adept at the layout of the overall strategy, has a very good sense of the overall situation, and can easily analyze the advantages and disadvantages on the battlefield. At present, he himself is in the Higo Province, responsible for the overall coordination of the strategic layout and logistics supply of the army of the Luo family who are invading the Hyuga Province and the Satsuma Kingdom.

The third military advisor is Yoshioka Nagazeng, the elder of the Luo family, who was one of the three elders of the Otomo family Bungo who was strong for a time in history. In history, there are a total of four people who are known as the three elders of Otomo Ietoyogo, namely Yoshioka Nagamasa, Tachibana Michiyuki (who replaced Yoshioka Nagamasa's position after Yoshioka Nagamasa's seclusion), Yoshihiro Kanri, and Usuki Kansu.

Among them, Tachibana Michiyuki had already taken refuge in the Luo family, but at the time of the collapse of the Otomo family, in order to express his loyalty to the Otomo family, he was martyred for Otomo Sorin, and his position as governor was also inherited by his only daughter Tachibana Chiyo at the behest of Masaara. Yoshihiro Kanri was killed by the Luo family when the Luo family invaded Higo Province, and Usuki Kansu lost his trace (in fact, he fled to Tosa Province with Otomo Sorin's sister-in-law and took refuge in the Nagamune family, but Masara didn't know it at this time).

As for Yoshioka Nagazen, who took refuge in the Luo family for the survival of the family, he is better at internal affairs and logistics coordination when the army is fighting, so at this time, he has been assisting Masahiro's son-in-law Luo Shihuiliang to take care of family affairs in Xuefu City; 1, and also assisted Huiliang in coordinating the logistics support of the Luo family's strategy for the southern Kyushu this time.

The last one is none other than the elder of the Luo family, the military advisor, and the young eunuch of Dazai, Shinnosuke Akabane, who was kneeling in front of Masato at this time.

As the first military advisor to defect to the Luo family (when he took refuge in the Luo family, the Luo family was just a gradually growing number of people in the Hizen country), he was better at strategy.

Previously, before going to Masara, he infiltrated the Minami-Kyushu area according to Masara's orders, and caused great chaos in the local area, and was the real mastermind behind the turmoil in the Minami-Kyushu area before.

So, what did Shinnosuke Akabane do?

(Thanks to the "I'm just calm" monthly pass support; Thanks to "FinalFanyasy" for your tipping support. In the past two years, I have really been hit by life, but I still insist on finishing this book, here, I beg for everyone's support again, your subscription, a reward, a monthly pass, a recommendation ticket, a collection, a click, no matter which one, is the greatest support for the next! (To be continued......)