It was May of the second year of Yonglu (1559 AD). In a valley in the northern part of Hinata Kingdom, which leads to the southern border of Toyogo Kingdom, Shimazu Takaha was sitting there quietly.

In the corner of the valley, a plum blossom was blooming, and the petals that fell on the ground were covered with a thin layer of mist. The plum blossom, which was supposed to be blooming during the New Year, was only blooming in a closed valley at this time. This was really incredible.

However, the miraculous blooming plum blossoms did not make Shimazu Takahisa happy. The experience of the coalition forces over the past few days really made him unable to be happy!

With the continuous fierce battle with the Luo Family Army, the iron cannons, ammunition and even arrows in the coalition were consumed a few days ago. Even the important drugs were consumed, which caused many wounded soldiers in the military to die in the pain because they had no cure. For these dead soldiers, most of them were rocks in the valley and the military camp was limited, and when they could not find a suitable location for burial, they could only throw the bodies of these soldiers into the Beichuan next to them, allowing them to drift into the rivers of the Luo Family Army camp on both north and south along with the Beichuan water flow.

What makes the house even leaking is that it has rained a few heavy rains these days, which has caused many soldiers to soak in the camp, which was originally limited in tents. In addition, these mountains are relatively cold at night, so a large number of sick soldiers emerged in the camp for several consecutive days. Whether it is the soldiers who died because of no cure or the soldiers who are constantly sick, the morale of the coalition forces in the camp has been greatly reduced.

The most fatal thing is that even the food in the camp was getting lower and lower. In order to save food, even Shimazu Takaha himself reduced the supply of food a lot, and the daily supply of ordinary soldiers was changed to porridge. However, even so, with the current food consumption, it is estimated that in less than half a month, the food in the coalition will be completely consumed.

In fact, the coalition forces are already in this situation. As long as Luo's Zhengliang attacks with all his strength, the coalition forces will be very difficult to resist. But what is abominable is that this Jiuzhou eagle has not been moved. Even though their coalition forces have even stopped attacking the Luo family's position blocking the southern exit from the Luo family, the cunning eagle has not moved.

"What a cruel eagle!" After instantly learning that Luo's Masara was planning to directly make them unable to resist because of hunger, Takahiro Shimazu looked at the small sky above the valley and sighed in despair.

"Why is this happening?"

Under such a blow, Shimazu Takaha also reflected on why their coalition was forced by Masara Luo this time to the point where he did not even have the chance to fight to the death.

First of all, it is not wrong to form an alliance with the Iton family and the Sahiro family. After all, the Luo family is too strong. If everyone still does their own things, they will be destroyed by the Luo family one by one sooner or later. At the moment when the family is alive, everyone will naturally resist in groups.

After the alliance, both the Sakai family and the Itong family fought against the Luo family in the Fenghou Kingdom area. On the contrary, the Shimazu family, as the initiator of the entire alliance, only had conflicts with the Luo family when the son of Masarara of the Luo family came out to support the rich family in the North Satsuma region.

But this obviously cannot satisfy allies Ito family and the Sakai family. In order to maintain the stability of the entire alliance, at the joint invitation of the Ito family and the Sakai family, Takaku Shimazu not only sent the powerful general Shinna Tadamoto and took some of the elite troops from his family to the important city of Meimu Licheng on the border of the Sakai family, but also led a large army to support the Sakai family and jointly resisted the invasion of the Sakai family by the Ro family. This series of actions were indeed what Takaku Shimazu needed to do and had to do.

Secondly, after leading the reinforcements to the battlefield, Shimazu Takaha made sufficient arrangements. At least with the preparations in the country of Satsuma, even the Luo family took advantage of the opportunity to invade the Satsuma region during the period of his departure. With the efforts of his legitimate son Shimazu Yoshihisa and the remaining retainers, and the preparations made in advance at home, even if the territory was lost, he could still deal with the Luo family for a long time.

As for the retreat where he had previously launched a support, Shimazu Takaha had made sufficient arrangements. Not only did he stay in Matsuo City, a major back road town, he even secretly arranged some detailed works along the way from Satsuma to Hinata to warn him. After all, he was determined to defend others. Even if the Iton family was an ally, the relationship between the two families before they formed an alliance was still very careful.

Finally, even when he was out of the battle and in the confrontation with the Luo family, he was cautious. Even when he had just walked out of the mountain road and entered the rear of his ally Sahiro's territory, he carefully sent people to investigate and warn in front (in fact, Shimazu Takaha's arrangement was indeed useful. Masayoro also planned to take advantage of the other party's first exit from the mountain road and lacked vigilance because he was behind the Sahiro's territory, so he was ready to ambush them. However, after the Black Hawk discovered the early warning team of the Shimazu family, he decisively gave up this idea).

Even after learning about the damage caused by the Luo family in the Sabuki family, it was not wrong to decisively decide to directly attack the Luo family's position. Because Takahisa Shimazu saw at a glance that Luo family Masara was trying to delay them in the local area. For those who were far away from their own territory and the Sabuki family's territory was destroyed by the Luo family, a long-term confrontation with the Luo family was the most unfavorable. Even in the end, the decision to retreat immediately after learning that the retreat of Matsuo Castle was lost was the most correct decision at the time.

In this way, from beginning to end, all the decisions made by Shimazu Takahiro were correct! So why did the coalition forces end up in such a miserable situation? Who was the one who was wrong?

The first thing that is wrong is that the opponent Luo family is too powerful and too cunning.

Before their reinforcements arrived at the Sabuki family, the cunning guy, scared the Sabuki family and hid in the city and couldn't stand it. Then he took this opportunity to make the Sabuki family's territory chaotic and even burned most of the reserved food used in the city. While causing panic among the Sabuki family and the hearts of the army (because their family was looted by the Luo family), it also laid the groundwork for various means of the coalition forces later.

Then he used the local terrain of Kurusugawa to build a solid position. In this way, as long as the Luo family stayed there, even if they remained motionless, it could pose a great threat to the coalition forces. In this way, Shimazu Takaha and the others did not want to delay, and hoped to fight quickly, because they were too far away from their territory, unlike the Luo family who was behind them. They received more logistical support and could not retreat. In fact, as long as the Luo family stayed there, the coalition forces would not dare to retreat unless they planned to give up the Sakai family's territory.

When the Shimazu and Ito coalition arrived, the grain silo of the Sakai family used in the city was suddenly burned down by a fire, which led to the coalition forces needing to transport food and supplies for a long distance. At the same time, with the confrontation between the Luo family army, in order to ensure the rear and support, it is also necessary to continuously draw troops from each city to defend the rear strongholds and border strongholds, and at the same time ensure that a large amount of materials gathered in the rear strongholds. This has caused great consumption and inconvenience among all parties of the coalition.

Of course, even so, as long as they quickly defeat the positions on both sides of the Kurusugawa, the difficulties they faced would be reduced a lot. But what Shimazu Takaku didn't expect was that the positions of the Luo family were so strong. If they attacked a city, it would take a year or two to break it. Shimazu Takaku had nothing to say, but now it was just an attack on the fortifications temporarily built in the woods. The coalition forces could not even conquer the front-end positions of the opponent. This was too unbelievable. Moreover, in this process, the power of the opponent's iron cannon and bows also terrified Shimazu Takaku.

Indeed, the military power of the Luo family was too strong, which also caused a mistake in their current situation. But the greater mistake came from the Sabuki family, who were allies.

Now Shimazu Takahiro finally understood that after being invaded and harassed by the Luo family for several years, the Sabuki family was actually completely afraid of the Luo family from the bottom of their hearts. Therefore, the situation was that the important border town of Meimu Li Castle was later lost in Shimazu, and the support of the Ito coalition forces arrived. It was also that even if the territory, family and property were plundered by the Luo family, the Sabuki family could only huddle in the city and dare not dare to

The strange scene of the attack further led to the situation where the Sahiro family broke the rear twice during the retreat of the coalition forces. Especially the last time the Sahiro family's governor, Sahiro Weijiao, personally cut off the rear, which further aroused the dissatisfaction of the Sahiro family, who had long been separated from their family and stayed away from their hometown and had repeated failures and were shaken by the army's spirit. This was why the Sahiro family gave Sahiro Weijiao a gift to the Luo family as a gift for surrender.

Of course, the biggest mistake came from Iton's family.

If Matsuo Castle, the only retreat of the coalition forces, even if the coalition forces cannot repel the army that invaded the Sabuki family, at this time, they can at least use the Sabuki family's territory to continue confronting the Luo family, and will not be trapped in a valley where even if they are willing to resist, they will be useless.

With the three coalition forces of Matsuo City, a total of more than 2,000 defenders, if the Ito family was careful and received the invasion warning of the Luo family in advance, they would soon get more than 5,000 defenders from all over the surrounding areas. How could such a number of defenders not resist the siege of the Luo family for a period of time? However, Matsuo City was still suddenly attacked, and there was no warning at all before, which only shows that the Ito family was too incompetent.

It is precisely because of the cunning and hateful opponent of the Luo family, coupled with the two incompetent allies of the Sahiro family and Ito family, that the Shimazu family has reached such a predicament. Shimazu Kiku even thought that if he did not form an alliance with these two allies, would the current situation of the Shimazu family be even better?

"Master!"

Just as Shimazu Takaha was still pondering, the old man Ijiyuan Takara, walked over with a limp. Looking at Ijiyuan Takara, whose thigh has not yet been cured since his injury, Shimazu Takara's heart couldn't help but feel pain. With the current injury of Ijiyuan Takara's thigh, it seems that this thigh cannot be saved without herbs. If the injury worsens, even Ijiyuan Takara herself cannot be saved.

"Lord, the Luo family has sent an envoy just now..." After coming to Shimazu Takahara, Tadaro Ijiyuan immediately reported the report in a low voice.

It turned out that not long ago, the Luo family sent a small team of troops to escort a box not far from the coalition camp. He also loudly stated that the box was given to Ito Yoyoshi, the governor of Ito family. After making a loud publicity, the Luo family members turned around and left. Then the Ito family also sent someone to take the box away.

Since the entire process of this matter was seen by the Ito family, the Shimazu family members who were responsible for the defense outside the camp, and the Shimazu family members took away the box. After the Ito family took away the box, the Shimazu family members naturally reported the situation to the samurai master above. After reporting it layer by layer, Tadaro Ijiyuan reported the situation to the family governor Shimazu Takaku.

"Is it another way to disagree? Hum!"

After listening to Tadaro Ijiyuan's report, Takahi Shimazu commented disdainfully. In fact, the Luo family took advantage of the opportunity that the coalition forces could not see a longer distance clearly at night and had been tied to persuade the surrender with feather arrows that removed the arrows. The rags of the words of alienation were shot into the coalition camp, or simply shouted noblely from a distance of the camp, thus exhorting the coalition forces to surrender and alienate.

This is no longer a conspiracy, but a direct conspiracy, and it is really effective. It has indeed caused many people to be ambushed and even deserters have occurred. However, these deserters were arrested and executed and beheaded on the spot.

"Do you think they will be fooled?" Just as Shimazu Takaha was commenting in the coalition tent that the Luo family's move to Ito Yoyo is a divisive move, Masara also teased Hiroshi Hiroyuki, who was standing on his shoulder at this time, and asked at the person in front of him with a smile.

This Haidongqing was one of the two Haidongqings from Jiuzhou when Aguda surrendered to Zhengliang when the Ming Dynasty surrendered to Zhengliang. Over the past few years, this pair of Haidongqings has raised several nests of descendants, and after Zhengliang's special training, the intelligence system using Haidongqing as a transmission tool has also developed to a certain extent.

The only pity is that after these Haidongqing set out from all over the country, they will only fly back to the only place, that is, their old nest, Feiqian Guoye Gaoshan. Therefore, the Luo family can only send information from various places to Yegaoshan through these Haidongqing, and then summarize and analyze the information in Yegaoshan, and then use manpower to go on the marching avenue within the Luo family territory that is gradually connected to all, and send the information to Zhengliang and others or to a designated place.

As for whether the intelligence envelope will be lost due to Haidongqing on the way, this is basically impossible. Haidongqing is a type of birds of prey, and it is already the boss among the local birds in the Warring States Period. If it does not seek trouble for other birds, it is already merciful. It will definitely not happen that Haidongqing is attacked by other birds of prey.

As for whether humans will attack them?

Haha, most people in various parts of the Warring States Period are confused by the upper class and temples and shrines, so they think that these birds are the incarnations of devils or the incarnations of gods, and generally do not attack them. Even if there are fools who want to do it, they need to have excellent archery skills. However, Hai Dongqing himself has extremely high vigilance and flying skills. Even Masayoshi himself may not be able to hit them with his own skills.

Of course, Zhengliang originally planned to form a more complete intelligence transmission system by cultivating pigeons, but even though he entrusted Ming merchant Wang Hai and others, no trace of a pigeon was found in the Warring States Period or in the Ming Dynasty, so the so-called pigeon transmission system was naturally impossible to talk about. Zhengliang also felt very strange. Normally, birds like pigeons should be very common? Now they have not even found a feather, so Zhengliang can only be speechless about this.

The Haidongqing that Zhengliang was working on at this time was really the originator of the Luo family's Haidongqing intelligence transmission system. Moreover, the Luo family and even the local Haidongqing in the Warring States Period were almost its descendants. Previously, since he had just raised a nest of Haidongqing, who had already started learning to fly, in this case, even if Aguda, who was most close to them, took action personally, they would not pay attention to Aguda, so Zhengliang, who had originally planned to bring one of them by his side, could only give up this idea for the time being.

As for why Zhengliang brought it with him? The reason is that, as the ancestor of Haidongqing of the Luo family, Haidongqing, he only got close to two people. One is naturally Aguda who they followed from the beginning, and the other is Zhengliang. Moreover, these two Haidongqings will not only help Zhengliang investigate the terrain and enemy situation in the air, but will also directly transmit information between Aguda and Zhengliang. After the special movement of Zhengliang or Aguda, as long as they tie the letter to their feet, they will deliver the letter to each other (unlike other Haidongqing of the Luo family. As long as they take off, they will only fly back to the Haidongqing nest in the high mountains of Feiqian Guoye).

Previously, Zhengliang's location was located in a mountain road in dense mountains and forests, and was far away from other major territories of the Luo family. However, as the family governor, although the legitimate son was left as the position of the family governor in Feiqian Guoju City and was responsible for handling all the affairs of the family, some of the family affairs, even after the legitimate son Huiliang and his auxiliary retainers jointly discussed, Zhengliang still needed to make decisions in person.

At the same time, the intelligence from the Intelligence Bureau also needs to be delivered to Masayora in time. However, due to the rugged and far roads along the way, these affairs and information were delivered to Masayora's hands late, so Masayora was a little dissatisfied with this. He even decided that after he seized Hinata, he must build the land passage between Hinata and Tunghou Kingdom where he was located into a marching road.

However, with the arrival of this Haidongqing, the previous troubles have finally been temporarily resolved. Just send Aguda, who is following him to Qibucheng in Fenghou Kingdom, to stay behind. Aguda will then send all the letters gathered in Qibucheng to his home through the Haidongqing in front of him. Then, after he checked, he will send the written orders to Qibucheng through this Haidongqing. Then it will be necessary to pass them out through the intelligence staff of Qibucheng. Of course, for the sake of security, generally, while Haidongqing is teleporting, the same intelligence or order will be sent at the same time through manpower.

And this time, the one who arrived at Masara with this Haidongqing also had the elder and military advisor of the Luo family, and the five Dazai Shaoshuo Akaba Nobusuke.

Currently, there are four military advisors in the military pavilion of the Luo family. Although the four military advisors are capable of serving as military advisors in any battle, they also have their own characteristics.

Among them, as the chief military advisor, Yamamoto Katsusuke, who is the five subordinate Dazai Daojian, is better at tactics, intelligence control, and architecture (especially fortifications and castle buildings, the construction of the Luo family's chief residence in the Castle of the Castle of the Luo family has many designs), and his personal combat power is also very beneficial.

Previously, Yamamoto Kazusuke was originally following Masaru Masaru's military advisor, but with the arrival of the expedition, he actually ran to Masaru Masaru and asked to follow the expedition to go to the expedition. His reason was very simple, because he had traveled to the place where one of the expeditions went and was very familiar with it.

In fact, Kanasuke Yamamoto was aware of this reason, but Masara quickly understood the real reason in his heart. That was because after he learned that his second son Nobura was going to go to the battle, he knew his concerns about the safety of his second son, so he decided to go to the second son instead of him to ensure the safety of his second son Nobura. Masara was indeed very moved by this.

Masara also considered that although the work of the Luo Family Intelligence Pavilion with Yamamoto Kazusuke's departure will inevitably be affected, the Luo Family Intelligence System, which has been improved at this time, can still adapt. Moreover, it was just enough for Yamamoto Kazusuke to take this expedition opportunity to improve the local intelligence system and form a more complete external intelligence system. So Masarara finally agreed to Yamamoto Kazusuke's request and personally sent the two expedition teams where Yamamoto Kazusuke was located out of the camp.

Among the four military advisors, except for Yamamoto Kazusuke, who ranked first, the other three were the family elders, and from five of them, the junior minister of the Central Affairs Office, Kakuma Ishisou. This military advisor, formerly the Oto Tomo Sorin Normal School, is better at the overall strategic layout, has a good sense of the overall situation, and can easily analyze the advantages and disadvantages in the battlefield. Currently, he is in the local area of ​​Feihou Kingdom, responsible for overall coordination of the strategic layout and logistics supply of several Luo family armies that are invading Hinata and Satsuma Kingdom.

The third military advisor was the Luo family, Yoshioka, among the three elders of the Otomo family who were once powerful in history. In history, there were four people who were called the three elders of the Otomo family who were the Otomo family, namely Yoshioka, Taki Hanamichi (who replaced Yoshioka's position after Yoshioka's seclusion), Yoshihiro Kanri, and Usukiki Kansuki.

At the time of the destruction of the Otomo family, Xue Shin-sama had already defected to the Luo family, but when the Otomo family was destroyed, she died for Otomo Sorin in order to express her loyalty to the Otomo family. The position of governor of the family was also inherited by his only daughter, Chiyo, Takara. Yoshihiro Kenri was killed by the Luo family when the Luo family invaded the Hokage Kingdom, and as for Usuki Kansu, she lost her trace (in fact, she fled to Tosa Kingdom with Sorin's legitimate son and surrendered to the Nagazozo Mobe family, but Masara didn't know at this time).

As for Yoshioka Nagazuki, who defected to the Luo family for the sake of the survival of the family, was better at internal affairs and logistics coordination during the army's battles, so at this time, he had assisted Masarara's legitimate son Huiliang in the Xuefu City to manage family affairs; 1. At the same time, he also assisted Huiliang in coordinating the logistics support affairs of the Luo family's strategy for the Nankyushu this time.

The last one was the old and military advisor of the Luo family who were kneeling in front of Masara, who was kneeling in front of Masara, and was from the five Dazai Shaoshuo Nobusuke Akaba.

As the first military advisor to join the Luo family (when he defected to the Luo family, the Luo family was just a gradually growing Chinese people in Feiqian Country), he was better at strategy.

Before going to Zhengliang, he sneaked into the Nanjiuzhou area as Zhengliang ordered, which caused great chaos in the area, and was even more the real mastermind behind the turbulent Nanjiuzhou area.

So, what exactly did Akaba Nobusuke do?
Chapter completed!