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Chapter 515

Hojo Matsuhime didn't look back when she heard the movement outside the room, but said calmly: "Your Highness, Ashikaga Kamisuzaburo, is here! Are you here to take my life?"

Yoshiki Kira stood solemnly in the room with his tachi in his hand. Looking around, the quiet decoration showed no luxury. In comparison, Ashikaga Fujimasa's room looked like that of a nouveau riche. It was covered with gold foil and was so vulgar that it reminded people of monkeys.

He put his hands behind his back and admired it carefully for a while, then suddenly smiled and said: "I have heard for a long time that the idiot father-in-law married a smart and beautiful lady. Today I saw that it is indeed the case! It is such a pity that such a beautiful woman marries that idiot father-in-law!"

"Master Zhenfu, please respect yourself. I am by no means a vain woman, and I am not afraid of your power and sword. If you want to kill me, just kill me!" Hojo Matsuhime paused for a moment, holding a horn comb and gently combing her long hair.

"Do I really look like a bad person? Or do I look like a bastard who attacks wives and daughters?" Kira Yoshitsugu touched his cheek, shrugged helplessly and said: "I have no intention of touching Mrs. Hojo, I just want to tell Mrs. Hojo not to think about it again.

The safety of your husband is in danger. After the death of that idiot, I will make the decision to betroth Mrs. Hojo to my sworn brother, Kira Tomo. Mrs. Hojo must recognize this person! I don’t intend to occupy the Furukawa Imperial Palace, let alone

I don’t have the bad habit of robbing other people’s wives and daughters. I will support Mrs. Hojo until she gets married. I’ll say this and say goodbye!”

Hojo Matsuhime sat there blankly, until Kira Yoshi left far away for a while, then she combed her long hair, looked at herself in the mirror and said with pity: "It turns out he doesn't care about me at all.

This means, I thought he would take me to be his wife... Do I think too highly of my appearance? Never mind! Just take advantage of that silly boy Kira!"



Yoshitoki Kira had never thought about stealing Ashikaga Fujimasa's woman, nor did he intend to use this method to deepen the hatred of the Kanto samurai towards him. He also took this opportunity to damage his hard-earned reputation. The most important thing for him at his position was

Beautiful woman. As long as he reveals similar thoughts, a lot of samurai will send their daughters and sisters to recommend themselves as pillow mats. He doesn't want the blood of the Ashikaga family to spread on the street, in case some unscrupulous descendants are produced for him in the future.

It would be even worse if Jinoumaru, his legitimate son, caused some trouble.

This anticlimactic Furukawa battle reflects how weak Furukawa's control over Kanto is. It's like a paper tiger that looks majestic but is actually vulnerable to a blow. Yoshitoki Kira didn't even use 50% of his strength.

He beat him down easily, which was not as good as a finger from the Hojo family. No wonder the Hojo Ujimasa despised this guy and chose to kick him back to the Furukawa Imperial Palace.

The real victims in this battle were Chiba Yinfu, Yuan Yinzhen, and Gaocheng Yinji. As for the small city lords of Xiaju, Shimo, and Hitachi, it was not worth much to kill and injure a group of them. These three

All the large countrymen from the neighboring countries escaped, which made this siege less perfect. A total of more than 4,000 people were killed and nearly 10,000 prisoners were considered a good gain. Compared with the self-inflicted loss of less than 400 people, it was really impressive.

It can be called a complete victory.

This was an unfair war. Yoshitoki Kira led the elites of the five countries to attack the people of the three countries of Kanto and Minnan Mutsu. Both the general's morale in commanding the army and the unity of the people of each country were too poor.

Far away, there was a breakup before the internal war started, and Harusuke Kada's rebellion further pushed this Japanese coalition into the abyss.

With no power to fight back, they are competing to see who can run faster with longer legs. The scheming warriors are still thinking about how to stop their enemies. It would be best if he runs slower and gets trapped in the rolling iron current of Kira's army. This kind of combination

There was almost no hope of victory as the battle continued. That's why Yoshiaki Satake retreated without hesitation. If he didn't leave at this time, he would have no chance to leave again.

What surprised Kira Yoshiki was that Yuuki Haruto had such courage to "rob" Ashikaga Fujimasa while the Furukawa Imperial Palace was in chaos. Regardless of whether he was out of selfish motives or for other reasons, it was a blatant desire.

Going against the Kira family greatly touched the bottom line set by Yoshitoki Kira, so Yoshitoki Kira immediately ordered an attack on Yuki Castle.

Maybe Yuki Haruto thought that he could save Ashikaga Fujimasa by doing this, which was a good solution. The worst he could do was wait until Kira's army came to kill him before giving in in a dignified manner, but he didn't understand that what Kira Yoshitoshi wanted was Ashikaga Fujimasa's.

Life, to save this good-for-nothing, the public wanted to go against him. He was so pleased with Ashikaga Fujimasa that he basically cut off the possibility of continuing to sell good things to the Kira family.

Yuki Haruto's act of snatching away Ashikaga Fujimasa should have been a temporary decision. He acted in a hurry and was not well prepared and did not communicate well with his brother Koyama Hidetsuna. As a result, he only led 1,500 troops to withdraw to Yuki Castle and defend it.

A messenger was sent to inform Koyama Hidetsuna, but before he could get a reply, Nagano Yamasa led an army of 10,000 men and surrounded Yuki City.

Almost overnight, the winds in Kanto turned around. First, the Yamakawa Castle controlled by the Yuuki clan was forcibly opened by the samurai of the Kira family of Uchidō to lure wolves into the house, forcing the Yuki clan's powerful clan, the lord of Yamakawa Castle, the Yamakawa Suruga Mori clan to abandon it.

Then the Yuki clan's other sect, Tagaya Masahiro, the lord of Kagaya Castle, whose residence was also captured by Kira's army, was forced to flee into Yuki Castle for refuge.

The speed of the Kira family was so fast that the family members of the Yuki family were worried. That night, they gathered in the large room of Yuki Castle to discuss countermeasures. Oshima Katsuyoshi said worriedly: "I, Yuki

The territory of our family has been lost one by one, and if this continues, the Kira family will annex all the places where we and others can live."

The whole family of family members all glanced at Yuki Haruto. As for the attitude of Ashikaga Fujimasa who was sitting on the throne, it was completely unimportant. Ever since he left the Furukawa Imperial Palace, this idiot was like a lost dog, sitting in the room in despair.

In a daze, he had already recalled that because of the collective betrayal of Kada Harusuke and his family members, he personally killed his favorite and was abandoned by his most trusted Matsunaga, and finally came to Yuki City in a daze.

Thinking of that painful memory, the corners of Ashikaga Fujimasa's mouth twitched slightly. Even without raising his head, he could feel the contempt and hostility of the members of the Yuuki family tree. If it were other Kanto samurai, he might have been sent to Kira by the name of Koga Furukawa.

Yoshitoki asked for credit and reward, and the reason he could barely remain polite was probably for the sake of publishing Yuki Haruto.

Ashikaga Fujimasa can only hope that Yuuki Haruto can turn the tide and use the Yuuki clan's bravery to once again recreate the great deeds of the Yuuki Battle in the past. But this idiot still forgets the most important point: the Yuuki Battle.

This was at the expense of Yuuki Mochitomo's death in battle and almost the entire family being exterminated. The Kanto samurai were to preserve the last trace of blood for the direct descendants of the Ashikaga Mochito clan that they admired. Ashikaga Fujimasa's actions did not qualify for respect, and Yuuki Harutomo had no intention of doing so.

I must seek death and life for this good-for-nothing.

Yuki Haruto had long noticed the hopeful look in Ashikaga Fujimasa's eyes, and secretly thought to himself that if His Highness Kōkata had known this earlier, why would he have caused so many scandals in the first place? He ignored Kōkata's expression and turned to the samurai in the room.

: "Seek peace! As long as the Lord of the Town is willing to let His Highness go, everything else can be discussed slowly."



Kira Yoshitoki's main formation is located in Yamakawa Castle, which is only one mile away from Yuki Castle. Standing in this castle, you can almost see all the movements in and out of Yuki Castle. Kira Yoshitoki's main formation only has 5,000 elite horsemen.

The troops were stationed in the city. Nagano Yasumasa led 10,000 Ueno troops to tightly surround Yuki Castle, while Sanada Yukitaka led 15,000 troops to turn around and launch an attack on Shimono Kingdom.

Chiba Yinfu, Yuan Yinzhen, and Gaocheng Yinji, the most powerful people from the Lower Hui Kingdom and even the northern part of the Upper Hui Kingdom, were all held captive in Shanchuan City, making the southeastern part of the Lower Hui Kingdom almost an undefendable land. In Sanada

The combination of Xingtaka's strategy and massive military suppression made it impossible for the people of the Xiahui Kingdom to form an effective unity. Several people from the country successively took the lead in opening the city or setting up a blockade. Under the influence of their example, thousands of people were quickly united.

The territory of the Ye family was encroached on to a large extent.

The remaining branch cities are all directly descended from these three families and serve as city lords. Facing the massive advance of Yukitaka Sanada's Shinano Army, they still stubbornly maintain a resolute attitude of not opening the city. They belong to the core area of ​​the territory of these three families. Not only the city.

Gaoleishen also has a large number of loyal and brave warriors guarding the city.

Yukitaka Sanada's approach was somewhat similar to Terutora Uesugi's strategy of advancing into Kanto. First, he sent out a large army to cut off the main roads of Shimono Street, ensuring that several cities remained relatively silent and disconnected. The Chiba clan's home city is at the easternmost point of Hasu Province.

The terrain advantage of Moriyama Castle on the south bank of the Tone River is more conducive to the Kira Army's strategy of cutting off communication.

After cutting off the contact, they were trying to catch a turtle in a urn, constantly passing on all kinds of false information about the Ji Liang army's invasion of the Xiaju Kingdom. Some rumors said that Chiba Yinfu, Yuan Yinzhen, and Gaocheng Yinji were defeated and captured, and some even said that these three family governors were defeated.

Still safe and sound, he was still holding on to the last line of defense at the Furukawa Imperial Palace, killing the Kira army in Chiba territory, sometimes said to be 6,000 people, and sometimes said to be 30,000 people. The true and false information was passed to the hands of the city lords in each city, disturbing the hearts of the people.

Panic.

The ordinary people in the city did not understand the military affairs of the lord level at all. They just heard a bunch of rumors from the east and the west, and they all said the same thing. For a while, they couldn't figure out which rumor to believe was more credible. This

We fall into one of the most common logical traps. When several rumors appear at the same time, people always try to identify the credibility of each rumor and find out which one they think is the most credible and believe it.

This is the cleverness of Yukitaka Sanada in spreading rumors. Dazzling rumors spread out in the castle towns of Shimonosu Kingdom almost at the same time. Whether they are true, false, reliable or outrageous, they are flying all over the sky. There are also many people claiming to be outside the Furukawa Imperial Palace.

After witnessing the outbreak of the war, many townspeople were willing to believe the random stories they made up.

People always have an instinct called blind obedience. This is what it means when a lie is told a thousand times and it becomes the truth. No matter how blind nonsense everyone is telling it, it will be generally accepted. Needless to say, the creator of these rumors must be Kira

Ninjas, of course they are not making up these rumors for fun, but to facilitate Yukitaka Sanada to hide his true combat intentions.

Medieval countries all have one characteristic, that is, the speed of information exchange and dissemination is very slow. It often takes half a year or even more than a year for an ordinary piece of news to spread from Guandong Road to Kinei. In other words, there is no so-called "news" in this era.

, all of them are old news passed down by word of mouth through hearsay. For example, Sanhe’s movements would take a month to spread if there were channels, but if there were no channels, it would take three or two months to slowly complete the natural spread process.

An ordinary samurai will always know everything about the things in the Xiahui Kingdom every ten or eight days. After all, they are close to each other and they are both lords of the country under the Chiba clan. They have a long list of kinship ties that are too numerous to count. When there are

On such a day, they suddenly found that their news channels were not so well-connected. A lot of good and bad news flooded their ears. The relatively simple information identification system of the people of Xiahui was a bit inadequate, and they could not tell which one was what.

Which one is true and which one is false?

In layman's terms, it means being a country lord in the countryside. He usually lives in his own territory in the countryside without leaving the front door. Except for occasionally going to Moriyama Castle to ask about the well-being of the country's lord, he usually spends ten or eight years there.

I would never think of traveling far away to visit relatives and friends in the eight countries of Kanto.

There are many such typical conservative samurai in Kanto. If I use one sentence to describe it, it would be "poor mobility of personnel, closed-off information, and conservative folk customs." Although they are not mountain people who live in the mountains like savages, they have a conservative temperament and

A simple and simple life is still the same. This is also the most standard lifestyle of the Kanto samurai.

Moriyama Castle's communication channels with the outside world are blocked, and the streets that communicate with each other at Shimono Junior High School are blocked. Without accurate information, it is impossible to self-screen the authenticity of the information. Listening to a bunch of false information provided by the Kira family, one has to do something.

Either they make a completely wrong judgment, or they are too frightened to make a judgment easily. The people of Xiahui happen to have both of these two kinds of people.

The first person who appeared was Shimada Yihiro, the lord of Mihiro Castle who was very close to Moriyama Castle. He rushed to Moriyama Castle with two hundred troops to find out what was going on, and ran into the main force of Yukitaka Sanada's army head-on.

The dragnet set by the enemy was surrounded by Kira's army that appeared from all directions without even reacting. The bewildered and disarmed prisoner became a glorious prisoner.

Yukitaka Sanada kept making up fragments of lies and leaking them out, giving the people of the country a sense that the war was in danger but not to the point of raising a knife to fight. The lucky Chinese warriors still waited and watched the changes in the situation. They took this opportunity to use a lot of money.

They bought goods, devised provocations and even frame-ups to force the samurai of the Xiahui Kingdom to serve as the guide for the Kira Army and deceive the gates of the fortress into opening.

Strong castles are often breached from within. Sanada Yukitaka is well aware of this and is good at using it. Every time, he can seize what the enemy samurai desires and needs most and use it to seduce him. Whether it is fame, wealth, power or sex, as long as he is defeated by the Kira ninja.

If he discovers any clues, he will use internal and external pressure to pull these samurai into the water. Once on the pirate ship, they will become a grasshopper on a rope, with no chance to escape from the palm of Yutaka Sanada's hand.

These traitors in Riche most hope that the Kira Army will capture all the cities. Because if the Kira Army captures the city, they can reward them according to their merits. Naturally, everything is easy to say. But if they cannot capture the city, they will have to worry about it all day long, fearing that the news about them will be leaked.

Go, they don't dare to take the initiative to confess to their lord, not to mention how much it will cast a shadow on their reputation and the trust of their lord, Yukitaka Sanada's gloomy and unpredictable temper is enough to make these traitors dare not go back.

A betrayal.

In just a few days, Yukitaka Sanada relied on his excellent tactics to quietly pull out more than a dozen large branch cities on the Fusui Peninsula. However, all these actions also succeeded in keeping the Chiba family's remaining soldiers in Moriyama Castle in the dark.

, the gap in strategy, military strength and information mastery has widened too much, and the unfair war is doomed for the people of the country to suffer a disastrous defeat.

Most of the people in the Shimonose Kingdom did not dare to show their heads. Some of the Chiba family retainers who were close to the border took the initiative to move closer to the Hojo Army of the Upper Harbin Kingdom. However, at this time, the Hojo Army was surrounded by Satomi Yoshihiro's troops and chased them fiercely in Kururi Castle.

, how could he dare to accept these people from the Lower Hui Kingdom coming all the way to seek refuge with him when his own fate was uncertain? If Kiragi was angered, he would turn around and attack them in the Upper Hui Kingdom. Wouldn't it be a trap?

Murakami Yoshikiyo led an army of 3,000 people around the Shimo Kingdom and took advantage of the deep night to attack Usui Castle, the original residence of the Chiba clan, in a night attack. The entire siege process went much smoother than expected.

There are many. The Lord of Usui Castle, Usui Sakon Shogun Kuin, is still a young man of seventeen or eighteen years old. Four years ago, his father Usui Keiyin suddenly died and he hastily succeeded the family governor. The only few times he went out to Kanto, he still followed the family governor.

Chiba Yinfu is playing soy sauce and has not experienced a real battle test.

Faced with Murakami Yoshikiyo's night attack, they didn't know how to respond. The Usui family's family members walked within a few miles of Usui Castle. They worked in Usui Castle during the day and returned to their home city to rest at night.

In the middle of the night, there was no way to find any retainers seeking strategic assistance. So in the panic, he took the best time to stick to the opportunity. As soon as Otemon was broken, Usui Kyuin saw that the situation was over, so he opened the city and surrendered.

The big movements in the south and north of the Xiahui Kingdom cannot be hidden from the attention of those who are interested. The blockade of the Kira Army can only maintain communication and suppression in key areas of the main streets. The Chinese lords in non-military key areas immediately changed the direction of the situation when they saw that the situation was not good.

.He threw himself into Kirajun’s big family without hesitation.

In the blink of an eye, most of the country was surrendered so easily. The Chiba Family Genealogy Regiment, which lacked orders from the governor, did not intend to continue to resist. Just as they were thinking about how to surrender in exchange for decent treatment, they heard Yukitaka Sanada quickly mobilizing the troops in Moriyama Castle.

The people of the country easily opened the city gates and took control of the Chiba family's home city in a majestic manner. Seeing that the momentum was not going well, all members of the Chiba family took the initiative to surrender to the Kira family. At this point, the last resistance of the Xiahui Kingdom had all faded away, and no one dared to shake it anymore.

The Kira family advances to dominate the Kanto region.

The news of Chiba's surrender spread like wings to the entire Fangsui Peninsula. This time, not only the Fangsui Peninsula was shaken, but also the entire Kanto people were shocked. No matter how fat Chiba is, he is not an ordinary famous name that you can control at your disposal.

It only took less than ten days to achieve a huge victory in continuous battles and sieges. A country so quickly swallowed up Suruga's invasion with speed comparable to Takeda Shingen.

The Kanto samurai family had long heard of the fierceness of the Kira family, the famous generals Yukitaka Sanada and Yoshikiyo Murakami, who were both from Shinano country. The first time I saw them, I immediately impressed the people of Kanto country. Even a blind man could see it.

At this time, the Kira family was definitely not a powerful person they could mess with, so a rumor spread quietly in the Fusui Peninsula, saying that Murakami Yoshikiyo was as brave as a tiger, and Sanada Yukitaka was as cunning as a fox. This name gradually became known in the following years.

It spread to the eight countries of Guandong and even the whole world.

When Yukitaka Sanada captured a large territory in the southeastern part of the Fusui Peninsula, and the battle of Yuki in the northwest of Shimosu Province was also at its most critical moment, Yoshitoki Kira did not hesitate to reject Yuki Haruto's peace proposal. Instead, he opposed Yuki's peace proposal.

The Cheng family and many resistance forces took the opportunity to make a choice between two options: either surrender obediently to everything, or enjoy the pleasure of raging war.

Yuki Haruto is not a person who is afraid of trouble. He saw that Kira Yoshiki was not going to give up, so he contacted his allies and put up a fight to the end. However, just a few days after he put off this attitude, he heard that the Chiba clan was defeated and all surrendered.

The information sent panic among the retainers and made the samurai at home shaken.

Kira Yoshishi did not give him more time to think about how to deal with the crisis. Taking advantage of the lack of news about the siege of Yuki Castle, he used the close and far combination of the iron artillery team and the roasting team to blast away the enemies in the Hitachi Kingdom at all costs.

The Yuki clan's territory intends to take this opportunity to completely eliminate the possibility of the Yuki clan's retreat.

Masakene Tagaya, the lord of Shimotsuma Castle, is also a powerful member of the Yuki clan. He is responsible for the strategy flag for Hitachi Kingdom and ranks first among the Four Heavenly Kings of Yuki. Not only does he have a large say in the Yuki family, but he is also a master

The Japanese army was powerful with thousands of troops, but in the face of the Kira Army's soldiers pressing down on the territory and capturing the city, Tagaya Masakei still gave up the idea of ​​committing suicide and surrendered honestly.

Tagaya Masakei's surrender had a great influence on the Yuuki family retainers of Hitachi Kingdom. When Kiragi's main formation launched a non-stop attack on Shimodate Castle, Mizutani Masamura, the most brave among the Yuuki Four Heavenly Kings, had no choice.

He planned to go out of the city to fight, but instead defended the city and resisted. This decision, which was very different from his usual character, completely exposed his guilty conscience.

After all, the Kira army's aggressive attack frightened the people of the Kanto country. The Hojo family did not expand in such a big way when they were at their most majestic. They fought from Musashi country to Shimosu country and then to Hitachi country according to the map. Such terrifying combat power is simply unheard of.

There are also unseen and unseen baked jade tactics and terrifying strategies. It would be crazy not to frighten these Kanto people who don’t know the details.

Yoshitoki Kira immediately seized the opportunity to pour out all the remaining baked jade in the formation, blasting open several gaps in the solid earthen walls of Shimodate Castle. Yoshitoki Kira simply ordered the samurai clan to attack in two directions, taking advantage of the Mizutani Army

When they didn't know whether to defend the gap in the wall or the dilapidated Otemon gate, both sides launched attacks at the same time to break through the city and rush into the city. Mizutani Masamura was unwilling to fail and tried to break out of the siege. In the end, he was beaten to the bottom by the random gunfire of the iron artillery team.

It is a last resort to use up all the small stock of baked jade in one go. War, especially siege warfare, is like this. Either imitate Xiang Zong's storming of the city and use human lives to fill it, or besiege the city for a long time until he runs out of food.

Or use a huge amount of ammunition to pour out in a short period of time, destroying the opponent's defense system and destroying morale.

There are no saltpeter-related mineral deposits in Japan. All saltpeter relies on trade imports from the Ryukyu Kingdom. This trade import is a one-way import. The price is high, the service is poor, and the supply is unstable. It often blocks various daimyo and Kira who want to play with iron cannons.

Yishi has a slightly better advantage than them in that he can make saltpeter and use local methods to synthesize gunpowder particles. However, after all, saltpeter is not a mass-produced mineral deposit, so there is so much stable soil for him to use.

Even though Echigo has vigorously promoted livestock breeding over the years, the livestock soil produced by tens of thousands of livestock a year is still limited. These livestock manure must be accumulated for many years to produce high-quality livestock soil. However, the high temperature advocated by the Kira family The composting method and the use of biogas in some workshops are related to the development of agriculture, handicraft industry and the economic layout of the Kira family. Both of these things also require a large amount of livestock manure as base fertilizer for decomposition.

Just because it is for military purposes, we can't just leave a lot of livestock manure in idle land and let it be exposed to wind, sun and rain, and then after several years of natural degradation, it will form stable soil that can be used. This is inefficient and low-yield. The land is sparse and very unstable and requires the occupation of cultivated land. The Kira family's land planning is very strict. It is prohibited to cut trees on the mountains beside the river roads and in various dense forest-covered areas.

Other usable land is mainly farmland, villages, roads, cities and towns. The division of land such as developed, to be developed, and to be improved is also very detailed. It is impossible to designate a piece of wasteland and throw in a lot of manure. If left to degrade freely, who knows if it will breed countless pests and cause many troubles this summer.

The military serves politics, and the economy also serves politics. When it is difficult for both parties to compete, short-term and long-term interests must be considered. Kiragi's consideration was economics, so the raw materials for baking jade were delayed. In recent years, the production of soil saltpeter has relied on digging a piece of land, then sending followers to investigate where there are stables and toilet soil, and then recruiting workers to refine black powder on the spot.

Low output, low efficiency, and unstable supply still plague the followers of the Kira family. Fortunately, last year, Claudia brought a lot of saltpeter to last for a while, but she was reluctant to directly refine black powder with pure saltpeter. , I always want to keep some as a strategic reserve, just in case I need it one day, I can take it out to make gunpowder and use it.

It is precisely because of the various reasons mentioned above that the Roasting Team has had very few opportunities to appear in these years. Even Kato Kyouaki was transferred out of the Roasting Team to serve as Ashigaru General. This shows how much the lack of raw materials affects this rare army. Kira Yoshitoki once planned to abolish this special unit, but he remembered some old things and felt that keeping it was just a thought, so he kept it. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel is better and updated faster!


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