Kaga Province is a highly productive area with a wide range of mountains and rivers, and a belt of Kaga Plain that runs southwest to northeast, with agriculture in the center of the plain and fisheries flourishing in the coastal areas.

In the troubled times of the Warring States period, a high enough productivity could produce a large enough population, and a large enough population could provide a wide enough source of soldiers, Kaga was such a treasure, but it was not occupied by any of the daimyos, because it was deeply influenced by the Ichijo sect, and the peasant rebellion initiated by the believers of the Ichijo sect spread throughout the country, and many of the guardian daimyo were exiled or even killed, and this place eventually became the sphere of influence of Honganji.

Long Tao took the three cities, and only wiped out the monks and soldiers of the Honganji family, although the main regular military force in this place was removed, but there were still a large number of followers of the sect all over the country, and it was still necessary to fight if he wanted to use this land completely for him.

In the city of Oyama, in the temple that served as the temporary city lord's mansion, Long Tao was rewarding meritorious deeds.

At this time, Wuchuan Changjian had already brought 6,000 Liukou, and scattered to the three cities to take on the responsibility of defending the city, saying that it was the Liukou in the mountains, in fact, they had been receiving secret training from the Wuchuan family in the past few years, and their quality was not necessarily low in the regular army.

Long Tao was named the elder of the Wuchuan Changjian family, Kenzaburo was the general, Liuji and Sun Bingwei were the generals, and the outstanding performers in the cavalry team also had their own rewards.

Kenzaburo obtained the head of Qili Lai Zhou, made outstanding achievements, was named a general, and a group of pirate leaders were not convinced, but Wuchuan Changjian, they had never even seen it, and they actually got the highest position of the family elder as soon as they came, and several leaders were inevitably unconvinced, but they were forced by Long Tao's power and did not dare to speak out to question.

Long Tao naturally saw their intentions, and said with a smile: "Your leaders may not have seen Changjian, but I can tell you that the reason why I was able to raise troops so smoothly was all due to Changjian's hard work and preparation behind his back in the past few years. ”

"As for you." After a pause, Long Tao continued: "Please rest assured, I also keep all your merits in mind, and I will naturally give you a satisfactory reward in the future, but for now, I also ask you leaders to return to their respective villages and water valleys, and continue to be your leaders, and the villages are still under the deployment and management of the Sakura Palace." ”

As soon as these words came out, the leaders of the ninja villages were still expressionless, no different from receiving other orders on weekdays, but the leaders of the thirteen water armies could no longer help but change color on their faces, revealing their grievances.

Long Tao glanced around the faces of a group of pirate leaders and asked, "Your goal is just to get an official position in this small country of Kaga?" Don't you want to be the lord of a city or even the lord of a country, and become a prince? ”

The leaders looked stunned, and Long Tao said generously: "Kaga is just a starting point, don't forget, our target is the whole of Japan!" ”

Seeing everyone's eyes lit up, Long Tao continued: "To unify Japan, it will take a long process, we must think long-term, I want you to go back and continue to manage the villages and their own villages, that is, to control the underground world of Japan, in order to ensure our long-term continuous financial and material resources, to be honest, you are my most solid backing, even if Kaga Province is lost one day, but as long as you are here, my Ashikaga Yoshiji will definitely be able to make a comeback!" ”

"Your task is incomparably important! You are all people who have started a business with me, how can I forget this credit? In my heart, you are the first generation of my Ashikaga family! Today I promise that when Japan is unified in the future, you will all become princes! ”

The words made the leaders of the thirteen families completely excited, and they all bowed to the ground.

"Obey the Lord's orders! May I do my best! ”

Subsequently, Long Tao continued to discuss many details with them after the establishment of the new forces, but what he did not expect was that when determining the family crest, Wuchuan Changjian, who had always been obedient, objected to him for the first time.

Each force and even each stronger family has its own family crest and banner, and the Ashikaga family has always inherited a family crest called "two to two", but it is currently used by the shogun's family, after all, the current shogun Ashikaga Yoshiki is the orthodox head of the nominal Ashikaga family.

Long Tao this time because of the cherry blossom road, he led the troops into battle has made a lot of cherry blossom flags, this time I was going to use cherry blossoms as a family crest, but I didn't expect to be strongly opposed by Wuchuan Changjian, and even did not hesitate to die to admonish each other.

Not only Takekawa, but even the thirteen pirate leaders, and even Kenzaburo, Ruyoshi, Sun Bingwei and others, all agreed that the family crest of "two leads to two" should be used.

After all, throughout the Muromachi shogunate era, the Ashikaga family, which was a hereditary shogun, was the first family in the world, and there was no need to have such a glorious family crest, but to use a self-created cherry blossom family crest that had never appeared, which was too frivolous and casual!

Wu Chuan analyzed from the perspective of political interests, believing that the "two leads to two" family crest is obviously more appealing, and now that the general is in power and has lost control over the daimyo in various places, Long Tao should take a tough attitude and take on the important task of recasting the prestige of the Ashikaga family.

As for the conflict with Ashikaga Yoshiteru, it is nothing to a group of people who aim to unify Japan.

And Long Tao also knew that according to historical development, this sword general would not live for a few years.

In the end, Long Tao realized how deeply rooted the concept of bloodline and family was in the minds of the Japanese at this time, and he also accepted everyone's opinions, so he used "two leads to two" as a family crest.

However, he still kept the Sakura Banner as the flag of his army on the battlefield, and he also had his own considerations, and at this stage, he still needed to continue to use the Sakura Way.

After the departure of the ninja leaders and pirate leaders, Ryutao began the pacification and reconstruction of the entire Kaga country.

He first issued an expulsion order for all the followers of the sect throughout Kaga.

"You have always obeyed the orders of the followers of the sect, and the way of the cherry blossoms is absolutely unwilling to follow the actions of Honganji Temple and kill those who have different beliefs. You recite Amitabha Buddha in the south, and you are willing to gamble your life for it, which is the way of your cherry blossoms! Since your faith is so strong, you should make a pilgrimage to Ishiyama Honganji Temple, and you should not force you to stay here, and this is the time to evacuate Kaga within two months! Two months later, there will be no Amitabha Buddha in Kaga who will be killed! ”

As for how to completely control the treasure land of Kaga, Long Tao thought about it, and the only way to completely change blood was to drive out those stubborn sect believers and replace them with new residents, so that this land could be revitalized.

As for the new residents, it is naturally up to the believers of Sakura Road to take on the responsibility.

The news of Ryutao's establishment of the "Land of Cherry Blossoms" in Kaga will soon spread throughout Japan, and a large number of believers are sure to flock to each other.

These people who believe in the way of cherry blossoms are actually similar to the followers of the sect, mostly people of the middle and lower classes, or some low-level samurai, in short, most of them are people who have no ambition in life, and those who have vested interests in life have achieved their goals in life, who will pursue that "splendid moment"?

Replacing the thugs with these people is also an alternative kind of "countering violence with violence".

Of course, there is another important purpose for expelling the deputies.

Kaga Kunishin is taken, and the surrounding forces will definitely be covetous, and Long Tao will drive these mobs out and enter the sphere of influence of the surrounding daimyo, which will cause a certain amount of homeless riots, so that they will temporarily invade Kaga.

The expulsion order was mainly carried out by Long Tao himself, as more and more Sakura Taoist believers gathered, Long Tao selected some of them to build a new army, and the rest of them were given land, boats, etc., so that they could engage in agriculture and fishing, these people's life goals were different, some wanted to make achievements, and some pointed to a stable life, after coming to Kaga, it was also considered to have achieved their own "cherry blossom way".

Wuchuan Changjian was mainly responsible for domestic political affairs, counting household registration, measuring land, building water conservancy, developing fisheries, etc., and all government affairs were handled by him.

Long Tao himself took the newly built army and began a parade to expel the Yixiangzong in the country, and when he encountered the resistance of the mob, he just used the battle to train the recruits, and with the protection of his "Wind Forest Volcano", the casualties of these recruits were minimized.

Eight months later, Ryutao finally cleared out the Ichijo sect in Kaga, and he built an army of 15,000 people from the large number of Sakurado followers.

With the hard work of him and Takekawa Nagaken day and night, Kaga Province was completely controlled by them, and became the foundation of Long Tao's participation in the battle for hegemony, and he finally had a long and short military force with the surrounding daimyos.