In December of the twelfth year of Yongroku (1569), the war between Ise and Iyo gradually came to an end.
In Ise, Oda Nobunaga's troops went through a fierce battle for nearly half a year, during which they did not even withdraw their troops during the autumn harvest. They finally captured Okouchi Castle, the main city of the Kitahata family, and completed the pacification of Ise.
Kitahata Nobunaga originally thought that as long as the autumn harvest was delayed, Oda Nobunaga would have to withdraw his troops. Who would have thought that the proportion of standing troops in Oda Nobunaga's troops was astonishingly high, so he could endure the consequences of not withdrawing his troops during the autumn harvest.
The Kitahata family's troops did not expect this and did not reserve enough food, wood, rolling stones, and feather arrows in the frontline cities. They were attacked by the Oda army one after another. Starting in October, the Oda family's troops
The siege of Okouchi Castle began.
However, Okouchi Castle was heavily defended, and the Kitahata Kei family, a master of kendo, took the lead, which greatly boosted the morale of the defenders and made the siege extremely difficult. The Oda family suffered heavy casualties in the battle, including Ikeda.
Many high-ranking samurai such as Hengxing and Inaba Ittetsu were injured. The Oda army had been fighting abroad for half a year. Morale was low, Ashigaru was homesick, and a war-weary atmosphere began to spread in the army. And the middle army who was originally suppressed by Oda Nobunaga
Seeing that Okouchi Castle could not be captured for a long time, the Isehao clan became more and more excited.
In desperation, Oda Nobunaga began to use diplomatic means. He proposed that Kitahata Tomofusa, the son of Kitahata Tomokazu, adopt Oda Nobuo, the second son of Oda Nobunaga, as his adopted son, and then Oda Nobuo would marry Kitahata Tomokazu's daughter.
Chiyo went to the throne, thus allowing Oda Nobuo to inherit the Kitahata family as a member of the Kitahata family, and Kitahata Gukyo had to retire and give up the position of monastic governor.
Regarding such peace terms, the Kitahata family's senior ministers protested one after another. They pointed out that Oda Nobunaga only compromised when he saw that Okouchi Castle was difficult to capture. At this time, as long as he persisted in resisting, Oda Nobunaga would have no choice but to withdraw his troops. Wait until
The war in Kinki will resume in the coming year, and Oda Nobunaga will have no time to look south, so the Kitahata family will have the opportunity to recover the lost land in Ise.
However, Kitahata Tomabusa, the son of Kitahata Nobunaga, did not dare to take the risk. He urged his father that surrendering at this time could still save his life. If he refused to negotiate for peace and waited until the city was destroyed, according to Oda Nobunaga's temper, the Kitahata clan might be in trouble.
It's going to be a disaster.
Kitahata Gujiao has always been a ruthless character, and only such a character can resist the Oda family's tens of thousands of troops for more than half a year. However, in the past six months, the Kitahata family's relatives have suffered extremely heavy losses, and the territory has been devastated. Kitahata Gujiao cannot bear to fight anymore.
, so he accepted Oda Nobunaga's proposal and surrendered to Kaicheng.
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On the other side, the war on Shikoku Island was also progressing very smoothly for the Miyoshi family.
After the Miyoshi family's army surrounded the strong city of Lumori Castle, they began to encircle and call for reinforcements. Due to the important geographical location of Lumori Castle, which is the east gate of Iyo, the Kono family of Iyo country and many small wealthy families were not willing to give up easily. So Kono
Relying on their little prestige, the family organized a coalition that included the Utsunomiya family, the Saionji family and many other small wealthy families, and went to aid Lusen City in a mighty manner.
Although the coalition forces have been formed, this group of people is still unsure. The Miyoshi family has dominated Kinki for so many years, and it has accumulated a lot of reputation. The troops under its command are also known as good at fighting. They can compete with the powerful troops like them.
It was said that it was in heaven and on earth. However, what surprised them was that after they traveled thousands of miles and traveled over mountains and ridges to reach Lusen Castle, the Miyoshi family still failed to capture the city. The overjoyed Iyo coalition immediately launched an attack, but was defeated
The long-awaited Mihaoshi family was defeated in one fell swoop in the wild battle.
Afterwards, the Miyoshi family directly abandoned the fortified city of Saginori Castle, led the army and marched straight in, chasing the defeated troops of the coalition all the way westward, crossing the mountains and rivers all over Iyo country.
Yuzuki Castle, the main city of Iyo Province, was captured in one fell swoop. The Kono family lost their main city and hurriedly fled with their relatives and family members by boat to seek refuge with the Mori family.
However, the Kono family itself does not have much control over the small wealthy families that line the territory of Iyo country. The withdrawal of the Kono family will not have much impact on these small wealthy families. Because the territory of Iyo country is mountainous, it is not easy to march. After these small wealthy families retreated to their territory,
They defended themselves individually, which gave the Sanhao family quite a headache.
As it was time for the autumn harvest, the undefended Sagi no Mori Castle once again blocked the Miyoshi family's food route. The Miyoshi family had no choice but to leave Miyoshi Yoshihide to defend Yuzuki Castle, and then the army withdrew to Sanuki Country. On the way back to the division, the Miyoshi army besieged them again.
Lusen Castle, Lusen Castle saw that there was no food and grass inside and no reinforcements outside, so they had no choice but to surrender. The entire East Iyo and most of Central Iyo fell into the hands of the Miyoshi family.
After the autumn harvest was over, the Miyoshi family immediately marched westward again to attack the remaining territory of Iyo country. However, the Mori family, who had completed the autumn harvest, hurriedly crossed the sea to assist the Saionji family and other Western Iyo wealthy families in resisting the Miyoshi family. At the same time,
Taking Kono Michinao and Kono Michonori back to Iyo, he asked him to call on the small wealthy families in Higashi Iyo to cooperate with the Maori Army and drive away the invaders. The Maori Army Army was led by the famous general Yoshikawa Motoharu. It was strong and occupied a favorable location. Miyoshi was immediately defeated.
The army at home has no way to start.
At the same time, in order to compete for control of the sea, the Mishima Navy led by Kobayakawa Takakage also competed with the Awaji Navy led by Azaya Toyasu in the Seto Inland Sea. Both Anzai Fuyasu and Kobayakawa Takakage were well-known naval battle masters, and both sides had a lot of history.
The battle once lasted for more than ten days, and there was still no winner. At the most critical moment of the battle, Miyoshi Yoshihide sent a lobbyist, using large sums of money and territory as inducements to betray Noshima, one of the Mishima naval forces.
Murakami Bukichi of the navy. Murakami Bukichi ignored all the orders of the Mori clan and his clan and resolutely led his fleet back to Noh Island.
The withdrawal of Murakami Bukichi left the Mishima navy in chaos and low morale. Fuyoshi Anzai took the opportunity to exert his strength and defeated Takakage Kobayakawa in one fell swoop. Seeing the defeat of the navy, Yoshikawa Motoharu was worried that the Maori army would be trapped on Shikoku Island by the Miyoshi family because they lost control of the sea.
Returning to China, they had to retreat hastily. In order to cover the evacuation of the transport fleet, Kobayakawa Takakage's navy got into a hard fight, and finally managed to escape by relying on the changes in the ocean currents. In order to cover the evacuation of the fleet, the capable general of the Inshima navy, Nomi Munekatsu,
However, he personally cut off the enemy and was finally defeated and captured.
After the Maori army withdrew, the wealthy families of Iyo Kingdom completely lost their desire to resist. The Saionji family and other wealthy families of all sizes submitted oaths of surrender one after another. Miyoshi Yoshihide, Nomi Munesatsu and the captured Maori family soldiers
As a bargaining chip, the Maori family exchanged Kono Tongnobu, who was attached to it, and announced that Kono Tongnobu would be appointed as the governor of the family again. Miyoshi Yoshihide welcomed Kono Tongnobu back to Yuzuki Castle and placed him under house arrest, and controlled the Iyo Kingdom in his name.
, the power actually fell into the hands of the Sanhao family.
As the 360,000 koku territory of Iyo Province fell into the hands of the Miyoshi family, the Miyoshi family, which had lost a large amount of territory due to the Kyoto War and the Shiki War, regained its momentum. In addition to Miyoshi Nagakei and Anzai Fuyasu, who were in charge of digesting the territory of Shikoku, they also guarded against
In addition to the counterattack of the Mori family and the Kono family, Tokawa Kazun and Miyoshi Yoshihide led their troops back to Settsu and Harima, where they joined the troops of Araki Murashige, Kamikichi Yorisada and others. The total strength reached 25,000 people, and their intentions were unknown.
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There was such a huge Miyoshi family army to the west of Kyoto, and Oda Nobunaga naturally could not ignore it. He once again led an army of 30,000 to Luo, joining the 18,000 people left behind in Minamiomi and Kyoto, with a total force of nearly 50,000.
During this period, Ashikaga Yoshiteru was also working tirelessly to restore the authority of the shogunate. He first sent people to mediate the disputes between the Otomo family, the Mori family, the Miyoshi family and the Mori family.
War, and then persuaded the Hatano family of Tanba and the Isshiki family of Tango to join the anti-Miyoshi alliance. The Miyoshi family was already notorious among the samurai families in the world because of their previous evil deeds of burning down the palace and disturbing the emperor. These small wealthy families naturally turned to them.
The other side.
In order to show the world that the Oda family's control over Kyoto is rock solid, Oda Nobunaga defied all odds and held three large-scale events in Kyoto for the first time. The first was a Go competition, the second was a tea party, and the third was
It was held last year: a wrestling competition for the martial arts disciples. Oda Nobunaga, in the name of Ashikaga Yoshiteru, sent invitations to the great lords of Kinai and Kinki to participate in the activities organized by the Oda family.
After learning the news, Yu Qiu Shang's heart has been itching. However, he also understands that as a hostage, it is impossible for him to leave Ruojiang City and participate in the wrestling competition. He has always been taciturn, even if he is in a bad mood.
Even if it wasn't good, the guards wouldn't notice it. Kentaro Tian Shen was aware of his disciple's troubles, but he didn't say anything about it.
On the night of November 29th, Hatakeyama Takamasa suddenly asked Yu Qiu Shang to go to his study. Yu Qiu Shang didn't know what was going on, so he went there with a few guards. Hatakeyama Takamasa was not a person who liked to talk in circles.
After Qiu Shang arrived, he asked straight to the point:
"Yu Qiu Shang, do you want to participate in your Oda family's wrestling competition this year?"
"Your Highness, yes." Yu Qiu Shang didn't understand why Hatakeyama Takamasa asked this, but he didn't pretend to be pretentious, but answered honestly.
"Then I allow you to go, but you will come back immediately after the competition." Hatakeyama Takamasa sat at the table, flipping through the copy by candlelight, and said casually, as if he was talking about an insignificant matter.
"What? Your Highness?" After hearing what Hatakeyama Takamasa said, Morita Yasho shouted in surprise: "Your Highness, Young Master Yuqiu is our hostage! What did Your Highness want to do by releasing him to Yuqiu's house?
?”
"I didn't want to let him go back, I just let him compete." Hatakeyama Takamasa replied calmly, "This is out of minimum respect for a martial arts disciple who is eager to make achievements."
"Then what if he takes the opportunity to run back? We don't have the hostages in our hands, how can Yu Qiuping let us go?" In desperation, Morita Yaxiang did not care about etiquette, even if Yu Qiu Shang was still nearby.
Say it directly.
"I respect Uakijibu. Although his actions are deviant, he is a great samurai and will never do anything treacherous." Hatakeyama Takamasa still did not take his eyes off the copywriter, "And I also believe it.
Yu Qiu Shang, he will not take the opportunity to escape."
"How can Your Highness put the life and death of the Hatakeyama family on the character of others?" Morita Yasho looked around a few times as he said this, as if he wanted to find a few nearby people to join him in persuading Hatakeyama Takamasa, but several others
The guards all looked at each other and did not dare to speak.
"During the Heian period, promises among samurai were more important than lives. Respect and trust are the honor of us as samurai families." Hatakeyama Takamasa slowly stopped turning the book, raised his eyes and glared at Morita Yoshiho, "There are so many things in the world.
Without people like you, laws and regulations will be corrupted to this extent."
"Your Highness, sir, I would like to swear that I will never abscond without permission." Yu Qiu Shang, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly said.
"Why should I believe what you say? What guarantee do you have?" Morita Yasho, who was arguing with Hatakeyama Takamasa, muttered impatiently. He turned his head and glanced at Yu Qiu Shang, only to find that the latter had taken something out of his arms.
A hand-shaped doll embroidered with cloth was handed to him.
"This is my most cherished thing, and I'll leave it here to bear witness."
Chapter completed!