Regarding the defeat and escape of Yoshikawa Xingjing, Masashi could only express helplessness.

Mao Li Yuan was indeed the first wise general of the Warring States, although Masashi made arrangements in advance, but it was still cracked by Mao Li Yuan. Of course, this is also due to the fact that Masahiro is entrusted to non-people, no matter how much Masara helps, but with Yoshikawa Xingjing, who can't support the wall, Adou as the governor, it can only end in failure.

It seems that the rise of the Mori family is unstoppable, and the other Kobayakawa family is expected to become a victim of the Mori Yuan conspiracy in the near future.

The only consolation is that Yoshikawa Kotsune, who was supposed to be framed and killed by Mori Moto after several years of house arrest, has now escaped and become the fierce general of the Luo family.

In this way, it not only added help to the Luo family and provided a great righteousness for the future march into Aki, but also probably allowed the Yoshikawa Kokei retainers who were killed by the Maori family for supporting Yoshikawa Kokei under house arrest in history. These retainers may become the internal advisers of the Luo family in the future under the persuasion of Yoshikawa Xingjing.

After settling the two fathers and sons of Yoshikawa Kokei and sending someone to secretly return to Yoshikawa Kokei's territory in Aki to find an opportunity to escort the rest of his family to the Luo family's territory, Masarashi once again paid attention to the progress of Nanhigo's strategy.

At this time, the three most important castles of Higo Yatsuro County, Takatsuka Castle, Yashiro Castle, and Takamine Castle all fell into the hands of the Luo family, and some of the remaining small castles were either abandoned after being captured and looted by the army of the original Xiangzong, or maintained a neutral defensive attitude. It can be said that Yatsushiro County has fallen into the hands of the Luo family.

In order to control Yatsushiro-gun as soon as possible, Masara ordered the Higo guardian of the Cabinet to immediately bring people into Yatsushiro-gun to start receiving the territory. In addition, he ordered Kai Qinao, who was resting at Eagle Peak Castle, to lead a large army and start marching towards Takao Castle and Sashiki Castle in the border area of Yatsushiro County.

Takao Castle is located at the foot of Mt. Takao, where the Kuma River, which originates in Kuma-gun, flows into the exit of Yatsushiro-gun and Reedhoku-gun. Controls the exit of Kuma County in and out of Yatsushiro County and Reedita County.

Astronomical 16th year (1547). July. Kai Qinzhi led an army of 3,000 people, consisting of some of the Luo family's 7th Standing Ashigaru Brigade, and soldiers from the Yatsushiro County Xiaohao clan who successively expressed their submission to Kai Qinzhi, and slaughtered the castle under Takao Castle.

In charge of guarding Takao Castle was Samuta Nagaken, a retainer of the Sagara family. In the beginning. Samuta Nagaken still decided to defend the castle in the face of Kai's pro-direct army.

Later, Sagara Jiyori, who gradually controlled the situation in Hitoyoshi Castle, also sent an army of 300 men (in fact, most of them were old and weak soldiers who were temporarily recruited, and it is said that there were even women among them) to the other side of Takao Castle, and formed a flanking attack on Takao Castle with the Kai Jinnao army in the direction of Yatsushiro-gun.

At this time, the news came from Yashiro County that the governor of the Luo family, Luo Masashi, had asked Kai for Sagara Yoshiji's body and was buried in Eagle Peak Mountain near Eagle Peak City. After learning that Kai Qinzhi was a retainer of the Luo family, the shocked Samuta Changjian finally made the decision to surrender the city.

With the surrender of Takao Castle. It means that the passage for the Luo family to enter Qiumo County has been completely opened. At this time, with the surrender of Sagara Jiyori, the castles of Gangcheng and Hitoyoshi Castle in West Kuma County were successively incorporated into the scope of the Luo family, while the larger East Kuma County was divided into three families: the Uemura family, the Dongfang family, and the Okamoto family, among which the Uemura family was the most powerful.

And Sagara Haruhiro and Uemura Yoriko, father and son, also fled back to Uemura's pot city at this time. Hearing that Kai had captured Takao Castle, the two were immediately startled. If Kai had continued to advance towards the eastern part of Kuma County at this time, they would not have been able to organize a strong resistance.

Not only the father and son of Sagara Haruhiro of Higashiqiuma County had this idea, but even the eldest brother of the Higashi family governor of Toyofuku Castle and the governor of the Okamoto family of Okamoto Castle, Okamoto Yorishi had this idea.

Indeed, if the army of Kai continued to march bravely on the occasion of the great victory, it could even defeat these wealthy clans one by one before the wealthy clans of Dongqiumo County united.

It's a pity. In Masayo's view, the Satsuma Shimazu family, which is separated by a mountain, is the biggest threat. Therefore, at this critical time, Masara issued an order to Kai Qinzhi and others, and after letting him leave some people to consolidate the territory he had gained, he immediately turned around and entered Reedita County, and rushed to the Shimazu family on the other side to send troops to Nanhi to seize the passage into Weibei County before Nanhi.

However, what Masato didn't know was that the Shimazu family at this time had actually made the decision to attack Nakasatsuma with all their might, and there was no plan to divide the troops into Nanhigo for the time being.

The reason why Masarashi made such a decision was entirely because he subconsciously guarded against the Shimazu family out of his knowledge of the historical Shimazu family, which eventually led to a small mistake in this decision.

It is precisely because of this mistake that the wealthy families of Dongqiumo County have a precious respite. They took advantage of this opportunity to quickly mobilize the peasants and soldiers in their territories to strengthen the defense of their respective territories, and at the same time, they formed a temporary alliance led by Uemura Yorixing to fight against the Fei family (at this time, they didn't know that the boss behind the Jia Fei family was the Luo family).

On this side, the wealthy clans of East Qiumo County are doing their best to guard against Kai Qinzhi, and the army of Jia Fei Qinzhi on that side has entered Weibei County. The first target of the army was Sashiki Castle, located on the border between Yatsushiro-gun and Reedhoku-gun.

To everyone's surprise, before everyone's army could reach the castle, the defenders of Sashiki Castle dispersed in a hurry. Kai's pro-Japanese army took Sashiki Castle without bloodshed.

Just when everyone thought that Weibei County would be easily taken, the army encountered great resistance from the local terrain in the subsequent march. The resistance was mainly caused by the local wealthy clans, but many temples were found to have joined in the resistance. These were all secretly instigated by Ryan, the dog boy in Minamata Castle.

In the face of such resistance, Jia Fei personally directly issued the order for destruction, so the entire Weibei County immediately fell into a bloody storm, and a large number of wealthy clans and temples were uprooted. In this expedition, Takasaka Masanobu and Yoshikawa Kokei came to prominence.

Takasaka Masanobu was known primarily for his tactics in battle, often tactfully avoiding a head-on confrontation with the enemy, and then taking advantage of the slackness of the opponent to launch a full blow to completely crush the enemy.

Contrary to Takasaka Masanobu, Yoshikawa Kokei took the approach of attacking head-on with all his might. Since he had just taken refuge in the Luo family, Yoshikawa Xingjing naturally hoped to gain a lot of merits through this battle, so as to gain a foothold in the Luo family. Therefore, he fought more bravely than ever before, and took the lead in almost every battle. After a few battles, except for a little minor injury, he was still unharmed. (To be continued......)