After sending Isono away to Masamasa, Masarashi slowly walked out of the council hall, and then stood in the corridor made of wooden planks, looking at the rockery in the courtyard, and slowly fell into deep thought.

Many people may think that Masaliang's decision to build a strategy this time is a bit rushed, but this is the result of Masaliang's careful consideration.

Because those who dared to stay to resist the pursuit of the Luo family's army at the time of the rout were generally elite warriors and soldiers, and most of these people were prisoners or ghosts of the Luo family. Most of those who were able to escape in the end were peasants who were afraid of death. Therefore, the Otomo family and the Chikugo heroes did lose most of the elite soldiers after this battle.

Coupled with a large number of Hao generals who were injured in the chaos and Yoshihiro Kanri, who is still said to be injured and unconscious, the Otomo family is obviously broken this time. At least for a short period of time, the influence and power of the Otomo family in Chikugo will be greatly reduced. This is a good time for the Roche family to take advantage of the situation.

And historically, the Otomo family has always been very good at making a comeback. This can be seen from the fact that he made a comeback after several failed attacks on the rising Ryuzoji family. Masara believes that as long as he gradually recovers, the Otomo family will enter Chikugo again. When the time comes, will the Luo family still have to fight in front of the fat? No, as the so-called defense of the enemy outside the country, Hizen will be used as the strategic rear, and Chikugo will be the new battlefield chosen by Masayo. Here, no matter how the two families fight, it will not affect the stability of Hizen. So strategically, Chikugo is also very important.

More importantly, when the Luo family and the Otomo family are fighting. Next to it stood a big inner family with a tiger's eye. Since before and after returning fat from Izumo's pretending injury. Masara is actually always keeping an eye on Izumo's battle situation.

Judging by the current situation. The Ouchi family is almost certainly going to experience a fiasco, as recorded in history. But even if they fail miserably, Ouchi Yoshitaka and Tao Qingxian, who are the main foundations of the Ouchi family, still exist. As long as these two people still exist, even if they are injured, Ouchi will still be a wounded lion.

Zhengliang has always adhered to one principle, that is, to believe in history, but not to believe in history. Since his little butterfly came here, perhaps the wheel of history has quietly changed. Therefore, Masaro did not dare to bet on Yoshitaka Ouchi after this failure. Will it really be like the historical record, falling into a low period, or even ignoring political affairs.

If, after this battle, the Ouchi family is already an injured sheep, then the Luo family can naturally develop according to their own plans. But if the Ouchi family is a lion who is licking his wounds with his head buried and waiting for an unlucky ghost to come to the door to provoke it to regain its majesty, then the Luo family will naturally have to be cautious. At least for now, the Luo family is not suitable to be the unlucky ghost and become the object of the Ouchi family's prestige, and it is even more inappropriate to directly have a head-on conflict with the Ouchi family.

Therefore, Masarashi must race against time before the results of the Izumo battle of the Ouchi family come out. When the attention of the Ouchi family is not Hizen, the pace of expansion is intensified. Then digest the results while waiting for the times to change.

It was also based on this principle that after defeating the Otomo family's coalition and receiving an invitation from Tojikan to negotiate peace, Masara agreed to the Otomo family's request for peace. Everyone can see that the Otomo family is just a helpless move to preserve their strength. But isn't this a move by Zhengliang to preserve his strength?

If you follow the advice of the retainers at the beginning, take the Katsuo Castle and Asahiyama Castle controlled by the Hizen Otomo family in one fell swoop, and then enter the Yamabi Castle and Akaji Castle where Chikugo meets Hizen and Chikuzen, and cross the Chikugo River in the rear, and drive the Otomo family on the opposite bank out of Chikugo in one fell swoop.

Let's not talk about whether this can be a victory, but even if the most Lu really wins, it will be a miserable victory, and the surrounding Haoqiang will definitely not sit idly by.

Now, not only did they preserve their strength, allowing the Luo family to transfer their main forces to the southwest of Chikugo, but they also took Katsuo Castle and Asahiyama Castle without bloodshed, and then were able to deceive Mutian Castle and force Mise Castle to surrender, directly controlling the eastern part of Hizen. Now, except for Arima and Saigo in the south, the rest of Hizen has been completely incorporated into the territory of the Luo family.

What made Masato even more concerned was that Chikugo's Yamagashi Castle and Chiji Castle were located to the north of the Chikugo River, and they were just being attacked by Hizen and Chikuzen.

Such a piece of right and wrong is indeed difficult to take. Unlike now, the edge of the Luo family's territory is surrounded by mountains and seas, with the exception of Fukae Castle and Mise Castle, which borders Chikuzen, and has a natural protective barrier. As long as the Luo family takes this place of right and wrong, it is equivalent to seamlessly bordering their own territory with the Ouchi family.

If you are not careful, the Luo family will take the place of the Otomo family and fall into the situation of being caught between the Ouchi family and the Otomo family. And leaving this place of right and wrong and the northeast territory of Chikugo now is tantamount to leaving a common enemy for the Ouchi family and the Luo family. Indeed, for a long time in the future, the Luo family will need to have a common enemy with the Ouchi family to ensure the existence of the alliance. That's the Otomo family.

However, if you don't enter Chikugo, then the Luo family will have the Ouchi family in the north and the Otomo family in Chikugo to the east, which is almost equivalent to being completely trapped in the land direction. As for the sea route? To tell the truth, regardless of the combat power of Zhu Qinfeng's Nanban ship, in fact, the Luo family's navy can only protect itself.

Therefore the passage of land must be opened. So Masarashi chose the southwest direction of Chikugo. As long as you take here, to the northeast is the rest of Chikugo controlled by the Otomo family, which will be used as fat and bones to attract the attention of the Ouchi family. Continuing to the southwest, Higo is nominally under the jurisdiction of the Otomo family. This is tantamount to opening up a new development channel.

While opening up this development channel, it also gradually controlled the Ariake Sea area between Hizen and Chikugo, reducing the scope of the Luo family's enemy. This is the real purpose of Zhengliang's strategy this time.

However, such a strategy can only be thought up by Zhengliang, who knows the historical direction of the Dao, and it seems unconvincing, which is why some retainers have objections. It's just that Zhengliang can't tell them that he knows the results of Daoist history, right? Therefore, Masahiro can only bite the bullet and deal with the opposition of his retainers.

And the news and results of this meeting with Togo Heiji and Isono Yuanchang quickly reached the ears of the retainers. The retainers quickly understood the message conveyed by the head of the household. As a result, the roots of Masahiro's ears finally calmed down for a few days.

In the past few days, Masashi has not been idle, in addition to approving the territorial affairs sent from various parts of the territory, he has also been preparing non-stop to attack the southwest region of Chikugo. Grain, grass, armaments, maps, intelligence, etc., all of which must be prepared in advance.

On this day, when Zhengliang approved the affairs of the territory, the cloaked people outside the door asked for instructions that Li Hongfei was outside the door to ask for a meeting. Zhengliang immediately let him in and meet him.

"Your Excellency, I am very happy." After meeting and saluting, Li Hongfei immediately said happily.

"Oh? What's the joy? Zhengliang's eyes lit up when he heard this. Because of his experience in surveying mineral deposits, Zhengliang asked Li Hongfei to conduct a detailed survey of the mineral deposits in the territory in the past six months. Could it be that Li Hongfei has found a mineral deposit?

"My lord, there are silver mines and copper mines in my family's territory." Li Hongfei said happily. This young man, who had been a farmer, had hid in the mountains to hunt, and even followed a few foreigners to assist in the exploration of mineral deposits in the Ming Kingdom, seemed quite excited at this time.

When Masara appointed him as the director of the mines, he was questioned by some of his retainers, but now, after more than half a year of hard work, he has finally proved his ability and completely silenced some people. More importantly, he will be able to eat under the great young and admired lord in front of him.

"Silver mines? Copper ore? Over there? Hearing this, Masahiro immediately asked the little surnamed Nabeshima Naoshige next to him to bring a simple map and asked directly.

Li Hongfei pointed out two places on the map at great speed. Zhengliang took a closer look and couldn't help but say in his heart: Sure enough.

When sending Li Hongfei to explore mineral deposits, Zhengliang pointed out several places that particularly needed to be explored, but he did not expect that Li Hongfei really looked for mineral deposits in these places.

These places were actually pointed out based on the memories of Masashi's later generations. However, due to the long difference in age and the confusion of memory, Masato does not know whether the mineral deposits in these places have been mined. So I just had the idea of giving it a try. I didn't expect to find a mineral deposit.

Judging from the map, the silver mine is located on Beizhen Mountain in front of Donghi, close to the version of the Gorge. The copper mine is located on the Void Hidden Mountain near Nanfei. Both of these places are located within the territory of the Luo family, so they can start mining immediately.

"Your Excellency, as you mentioned, Your Majesty has found a large amount of porcelain clay near the Black Hair Mountain, and also found some low-content sulfur ore on the Tianshan Mountain." As if deliberately delaying telling Zhengliang, Li Hongfei said more good news.

"Good!" Masato was really excited at this time.

The discovery of silver, copper and even porcelain clay relieved the financial pressure on the territory to a certain extent, allowing Masato to exchange for more materials, and the emergence of sulfur mines solved the problem of the source of gunpowder for the firearms factories that were about to step on the right track. As long as there is enough saltpeter, gunpowder can be mass-produced. This will be a great battle force for the Luo family in the future. I can't help but be unhappy.

"Lord of the Kingdom, the messenger of Shenwu Shaozhan, Lord Wang Hai, and Lord Zhu Qinfeng are outside to ask for a meeting." The cloaked people standing guard outside the door suddenly came in and asked for instructions.

"Let them in." Masato said with a smile. These guys have a really good sense of smell. (To be continued......)