After a sacrifice on Itsukushima, the army continued to advance.

The army Itsukushima landed in the Anyu Prefecture by sea, passing through the residence of the Shirai clan, the leader of the Ouchi naval army, and then joined forces with the forces of the Mori Motosho, Amano Kosada, and other Yasui national lords.

The Maori family is obviously determined to fight and crush the biggest enemy of the Nizi family. And the thirteen-year-old Mori Motosa's second son, and later the family's number one fierce general, Yoshikawa (Mori) Shosuke Jiro Motoharu, was also among them.

Last year's Yoshida-gun Yamashiro War I was under an unprecedented crisis. Shosuke Jiro, who was only twelve years old, was eager to try and kill the enemy with his father and brother. Moto decided that he was too young and refused to let him go into battle, and ordered his retainer Inoue Kawachi Mamoru to take Jiro back to Koriyama Castle. When Jiro returned to the city, he was furious, brandished a sword, and made a big fuss in the city, and no one could persuade him. Finally, before the decisive battle on the thirteenth day of the first lunar month, Jiro led his side to run to the Yuan battle again, and Yuan could not refuse again, whether it was for the morale of the army or just for the precious courage of protecting his son, and he said "the invincible one" (probably the meaning of being bold and not taking the enemy in his eyes), and approved Jiro to participate in the battle. On that day, when the north wind was blowing and the snow was falling, Mototo's order for a general attack by the whole army, and thousands of Maori people, including the twelve-year-old Shosuke Jiro, rushed to the three-stage formation of the Niko army, instantly defeating two of them, and then killed the third group of Yoshikawa Kokei who was known for his bravery. And Shaofu Jiro also became famous because of this battle, and he fought with Tao Longfang.

Interestingly, the younger generation, who have also become famous in the past few years, Luo Shimasara, Tao Longfang, and Shaofu Jiro, who are nicknamed "Three Heroes of the Western Kingdom", actually got together by coincidence in order to deal with the Niko family. These three people, Masahiro is not yet nineteen years old, Tao Longfang is in his twenties, and Shaosuke Jiro is thirteen years old, which can really be said to be young heroes.

After joining the Mori and other armies, the army passed through the territory of the Kumagai clan and stayed overnight at the local Bodhi Temple, Kannonji Temple, before continuing the journey, during which the army passed through the Yoshikawa clan's Ogurayama Castle and the Dewa clan's Nizan Castle, and finally merged with the forces of the Iwami and Bigo Kunijin lords.

At this time, it was already the beginning of March of the 11th year of astronomy (1542). Long and continuous treks. The army was tired and needed to integrate the various powerful armies that were constantly joining in, so the Ouchi coalition army gathered and reorganized at the border between Iwami and Izumo.

And Masato also took advantage of this time to deal with the affairs in the territory.

When he first left the territory, Masarashi first arranged all the affairs of the Hizen guardian Daitogo Heiji, who had been confirmed by the imperial court, to temporarily replace the territory of the Masarashi Chief. As Masayo's father-in-law, he is the grandfather of Tang Wangmaru, the next heir to the territory. Masashi believes that Togo Heiji will definitely do this job well.

Except for the affairs of the Consulate General of Togo Heiji. Masara also sent Kakuma Ishizong and Liu Le to assist Togo Heiji in military strategy and internal affairs respectively. All generals strictly follow the tasks given by Zhengliang before leaving, stick to their own duties, and are not allowed to make any transfers without Zhengliang's orders. As for the intelligence system. Even if Masahiro is far away from the territory, he still only obeys Masaara's orders. Of course, with the character of Kosuke, the current head of intelligence, there is really no one else who can command him except Masahiro.

This for more than two months. Masahiro was connected to a lot of good news from the territory.

First of all, Zhengliang's wives and concubines are happy again. This time, Tsuru, Butterfly, and Yui Hatano were confirmed to be pregnant almost at the same time. It seems that the hard work of the previous period has been well rewarded. The lord's wife has good news in the territory. Mrs. Masamuro has given birth to the heir of the Luo family, and now several ladies have been confirmed to be happy again. The heirs of the realm don't have to worry about it at all. For a time, in the territory, both the retainers and soldiers and the ordinary people were very happy,

Secondly, the Ming fleet led by Wang Hai once again arrived at the territory of the Luo family. This time, he came on behalf of Zhu Zining and You Jianxia, who were in the Ming Kingdom. In addition to bringing a large number of goods from the Ming Kingdom, Wang Hai also brought with him more than a hundred displaced people who were desperate in the Ming Kingdom. These displaced people were all arranged to the Ming immigration settlement in the Nogao Mountains. Liu Le and Li Hongfei are responsible for all their affairs.

In addition, this time Wang Hai also rescued a fleeing craftsman halfway. This craftsman is called Liu Ye. He claimed to be Liu Xian's nephew (Liu Xian, a famous general in the future anti-Japanese war, and should still be a deputy Qianhu), when the Japanese invaded the coastal villages of the Ming Kingdom again. Unfortunately, he was captured and taken to the pirate den of the Goto Islands in Xuanjietan, where he was used as a coolie for the Japanese pirates. By chance, he took advantage of the negligence of the Japanese Kou. Stealing a Kozao and escaping from Goto, he was unfortunate enough to encounter a torrential rain at sea. Even the boat was ruined by his mistake, and he had to float on the sea with a plank. If it hadn't happened to be discovered by Wang Hai's fleet, it was estimated that he would have died in the belly of the fish.

After going ashore, he was appreciated by Liu Le for his talent for astronomy, medicine and siege weapons, and after getting permission from Zhengliang, he was allowed to enter the Luo family's weapons workshop, honorably losing the opportunity to return to the Ming Kingdom and becoming a Luo family weapons officer. Under the instruction of Zhengliang, Liu Ye officially began to build the first siege weapon for the Luo family, the trebuchet.

Wang Hai came to the Luo family's territory for more than half a month this time, and after confirming that Zhengliang could not return to the territory for a short time, he returned to the Ming Kingdom with a large number of Japanese goods, Luo's unique snow salt, and silver. And the Luo family also got a lot of goods from the Ming Kingdom. These goods would be sold to other parts of Japan at high prices under the guise of the Kamiya family, in order to obtain large quantities of silver, grain, farming cattle, war horses, and other goods, and at the same time, through this type of trade, to strengthen intelligence infiltration into the surrounding areas. In addition, the Luo family bought twenty barrels of Ming oil from Wang Hai, as well as ten fires. There are also some ammunition. With Wang Hai's connections, it is already rare to be able to obtain such a number of firearms. It is estimated that this is inseparable from the help of You Jianxia and Zhu Zining.

After the last, shortly after Wang Hai left. The Nanban fleet led by Zhu Qinfeng and Zuo Moyang also visited the Luo family's territory again. The gold and silver given to them by the Luo family last time made them make a lot of money. This time their purpose is clear, they are coming for gold. The Roche family was also very happy and sold most of the gold in the warehouse to the other party.

And Zhu Qinfeng and Zuo Moyang also brought surprises to Zhengliang. Zuo Moyang not only brought a boatload of more than 3,000 catties of saltpeter, but even thoughtfully brought three craftsmen. Of the three craftsmen, two were familiar with saltpeter purification and one was familiar with gunpowder production. In order to make these three families of craftsmen on the verge of bankruptcy willing to settle in the Luo family's territory, Zuo Moyang used a lot of money. When Masarashi heard the news, he was very happy and immediately instructed the craftsmen and their families to settle in the craftsman town near Kishigaku Castle, and at the same time instructed Kamiya Shozhan to buy a large amount of sulfur. Sulfur is abundant in Kyushu, and it can be purchased in large quantities very cheaply, and now that iron cannons have not yet been officially introduced to Japan, sulfur is mainly sold to the Ming Kingdom, and the local price is also very cheap. With saltpeter, sulfur, and craftsmen, the Luo family's gunpowder workshop finally took shape.

What surprised Zhengliang even more was that this time Zhu Qinfeng actually exchanged fifty arquebuses and ten boxes of ammunition for gold with the Luo family. Fifty arquebuses? Coupled with the arquebuses and munitions already in the territory, the Luo family could organize an iron artillery team composed of sixty-three arquebuses, forty-one artillery, a small franc cannon, and more than twenty boxes of ammunition. Overjoyed, Masashi immediately ordered the Iron Artillery General Andre to expand the Iron Artillery Corps to 120 men and step up training.

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