Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 270 Sending the Iyo Legion Out of the City

In August of the 13th year of Tianzheng, Akigami Hisaya and Fujido Takatora led Qinglongbei and Baihubei respectively to gather in the lower school field of Okayama Castle. They were organized and sent to Iyo to suppress dissatisfied troops.

Accompanied by the transfer, there are also Tsugabi and Heki Bei composed of Akasaka Bei as the backbone.

Now that the autumn harvest is about to come, even the intensity of the war in Fukushima and Kato in Kita-iyo and Naka-iyo has decreased.

After all, without food, the army cannot be organized.

But Hideka is different. Because of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's letter, Hideka has no patience to wait for Iyo to change.

At the same time, Masanori Fukushima of Central Iyo and Kiyomasa Kato of North Iyo sent messages to Hideo at the same time, hoping that Hideo would help them so that they could complete the suppression of Iyo before this year.

With the idea of ​​linking up the two families, the Xiu family also decided to send troops ahead of time, and sent the general to Iyo before the autumn harvest, using powerful force to force the powerful clan headed by Kaneko Yuanzhai who resisted the land seizure and re-divided territories to accept the reality.

Isn't it just in time for the autumn harvest? This army entered Iyo, and it happened to be able to directly harvest the crops in the enemy's rich family. For this reason, the Xiu family specially recruited 4500 people from Sanuki to accompany them, and the total strength reached 10500. The commander-in-chief of the army march is Akashi Jingqin.

In the past, Yuxi's family commanded an army of more than [-] people, and the Xiu family must have personally led the team. This is the first time that the elders of the family have commanded an army of more than [-] people on their behalf, and the Xiu family is no longer in the queue.

But no one thought that the commander-in-chief of the army this time was not Togawa Hidean or Oka Toshikatsu, but a newcomer, Akashi Jingqin.

As a samurai family who surrendered from the Urakami family, the Akashi family's presence in the Uki family is extremely low.Of course, the main reason for this is that Akashi Jingqin is relatively low-key in his life.

However, this year, not only was he brought into the joint meeting of elders by the Xiu family, he was considered to have officially entered the ranks of elders, and he was also directly given the right to command more than ten thousand troops in battle.

In this year, Akashi Jingqin can be said to be honored and trusted.

As the first army of the Uki family to be led by an old man, Hideka is also a famous general to accompany him, not to mention Akikami Hisaka and Todo Takatora for the time being, there are Shobayashi Isshin, Ikaruga Heiji and others under his banner.

Suga Masatoshi is the commander of Wakibi, and under his command are Captain Yasuda Sakubei and Battalion General Maeda Keiji, while Okubi has Kanji Saizo as the captain.

In addition, Akashi Zento led the Akashi family's Bichu local army before the transfer, and the Sanuki people led by Togawa Tatsuyasu, Kagawa Nobuyuki, and Kosai Kakiyo who had already gathered in Sanuki Takamatsu.The entire Iyo suppression army can be described as shining stars.

For such an important occasion, Xiujia naturally had to attend in person.Along with the Xiu family, Lian Zi, the elder sister of the Xiu family, sat in the sedan chair and did not show her face, but observed her future husband-in-law through the window on the side of the sedan chair.

"Is that the tall man in black armor?" A soft voice came from inside the sedan chair.

The Samukawa Iemitsu, who was specially left outside the sedan chair by the Xiu family to identify Lianzi, leaned forward slightly, saluted inside the sedan chair and replied, "It is the samurai wearing the white feathered black armor, Fujido Anbo is more than eight feet tall. A proper giant."

"It's just that they are a little far away, and they look down on their appearance. I heard that it is one of the regulars under the command of its commander Hachiro, and it is a rare talent in recent years."

"Master Fujido has always been relatively stable in the command of the army, and His Highness has always entrusted him with important tasks. For example, Takamatsu Castle in Sanuki was built under the auspices of Mamoru Anbo."

Iemitsu Samukawa's answer was a bit of an advantage and avoided disadvantages. He especially avoided the part about Todo Takatora's appearance. After all, according to historical records, although Todo Takatora is not ugly, he is definitely not handsome either.

By the time Xiujia finished speaking to encourage the sergeant, the sedan chair had already returned when he stepped off the high platform. Xiujia walked up to Hanchuan Jiaguang and asked, "Did sister say anything? Are you satisfied with this marriage?" ?”

"His Royal Highness has never complained, and I think I am quite satisfied with An Fangshou." Hanchuan Iemitsu whispered in Xiujia's ear. "It's just that I don't understand. Princess Lianzi is the direct sister of the first mother of the Highness. It would be better to marry other daimyos. Why marry her to the retainers?"

The Xiu family has heard this question more than once. In fact, when he made this decision, he had already considered this question, but in the end he still insisted on marrying Lianzi to Takahu Todo for three reasons.

The first is the most important, that is, after Toyotomi Hideyoshi succeeded Kanbai, he issued a "Marriage Prohibition Order" to all the daimyos, and prohibited marriages between daimyos without their permission.

Speaking of this, Hideka still remembers that he still has a concubine room in Tsutsui's house, which was given to him by Tsutsui Junkei and his son during the Mikawa surprise attack. The family has forgotten the name of the big sister.

The current situation is that the Tsutsui family has announced to the outside world that Fujihime had promised the Hide family as a concubine as early as 12 years of Tensho, but it has not been passed through the door now, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi seems to have expressed acquiescence to this, and did not say anything to stop it. I don't know if that big sister can still get married under the new marriage prohibition law.

The second is for the purpose of winning over the retainers. It has been mentioned more than once in the previous article that the retainers of Yuxi's family tree are so powerful that they dared to act presumptuously in front of the Xiu family in history.

Although we can see from later history that these retainers accepted by the Tokugawa shogunate have been directly supporting the Ukita clan of Yatsushiro Island, which can be said to be loyal, but they still cannot make up for their arrogance when they remonstrated.

In order to ensure the balance of the group of retainers, the Xiu family intentionally married off the princess in the family, and took Todo Takahu as the model of the new senators, and let him come to fight against the Pudai members.

The third point is about why lotus was chosen instead of apricot, or why a samurai daughter was adopted and married on behalf of her father.

It may be a bit of a bastard to say it, but Kyoko, as the princess of the Yuki family, is naturally decided by the Xiu family, but she has a biological mother in Okayama.

Out of filial piety, Xingzi's marriage to Xiu's family still had to be approved by Tongfang Yuan.Of course, the Xiu family could force her to marry him off, but in this way, the reputation of the Xiu family would also be tarnished.

Moreover, Kyoko's grade is not suitable. He is only 10 years old now, no matter what, it will take 4 years to get married, but Fujido Takatora is 27 years old. Can he wait for these 4 years?

But Renzi is different. Renzi is now 17 years old, which is exactly the same grade as Todo Takatora.

And her mother is Fukunokata, although she is the same person as Senfani, but in terms of etiquette, her mother is the mistress of the Uki family, Fukunokata, and Senfani is a monk beside Toyotomi Hideyoshi side room.

In other words, sister Lianzi is now a motherless child in terms of etiquette, and the Xiu family does not need anyone's consent. Of course, out of respect, the Xiu family will definitely inform Xian Fani, but she has already married into the Toyotomi family. He has no right to interfere with Lianzi's engagement.

Of course, if she is a mistress as strong as A Jiang, that’s all. If she wants to interfere in the marriage contract of her ex-husband’s family, the Xiu family will bear it even if they pinch their noses. Unfortunately, Xian Fani is weak by nature, and he will not refuse this offer marriage contract.

As for adopting a woman from the samurai family, it was indeed a common move by daimyos during the Warring States period, but this was contrary to the original intention of the Hide family. The purpose of the Hide family to marry their sister to Todo Takatora was not just to draw in their relationship with him through marriage.

More importantly, through the act of marrying the princess of the main family, we will provide assistance to Takatora Fujido, so that this new leader of the senators can integrate into Ukido's inherent retainer system as soon as possible, and become a person who can compete with Hanabang, Togawa, Oka, and Nasafune. The existence of four pairs of venues.

In this regard, it is exactly the same as Xiujia's purpose of appointing Akashi Jingqin as the commander-in-chief of the new army.

If you choose to adopt a woman from the Wu family to marry, you will not be able to achieve such a goal.

Of course, the Kujiu Hideo family in the above-mentioned heart cannot be said to Iemitsu Samukawa. After all, with his entry into the Samukawa family, his status has changed from a vassal warrior of the Uki family to a Sanuki tyrant.

The status and status are different, and the understanding of affairs is different.

Hideka didn't reply to Iemitsu Suzukawa's question, seeing the army that had already started to move, Hideka walked quickly to Todo Takatora, and whispered a few words.

"I know that Yiyo's Xiaoxiao can't hurt you, but you still have to be careful of the danger. The news that Lianzi is going to marry you has been spread, and everyone in the Yuki family is waiting to see your jokes.

Today I beat the drums to cheer for you, and you will return triumphantly in the future.

I know that you are eager to strive for meritorious service, and let everyone think that you are worthy of being the husband-in-law of Ukido Princess, but I hope you will protect yourself, Sister Lianzi is also waiting for you to come back. "

Feeling the Xiu family's entrustment, Fujido Takahu agreed, and after assuring the Xiu family that Yiyo's disobedient Haoqiang would be judged, he turned and followed the departing Bai Hubei.

And Xiujia said to Akashi Jingqin, "Yiyoshou, Yuxi's more than ten thousand athletes have been handed over to you. Counting the number of Beizhong soldiers you mobilized exceeds 1.1, you have to fight a beautiful victory for me." Come back. After Higashi Iyo's wall grass is cut, you have to help Fukushima and Kato fight the war. The burden on your shoulders is not light."

"His Royal Highness entrusted this matter to me. I was really a little apprehensive. After all, I have never commanded a ranger with more than 5000 soldiers as a partial general in the past. Now that His Highness has handed over ten thousand soldiers to me, I am afraid that I will lose His Highness." I entrust you." Akashi Jingqin said with some worry.

What he said was the truth, not a humble statement. After all, in the past, Ukita Tadaka and Okatoshi Katsu were the only Ukita who independently led more than 5000 Rangers.

The Akashi family has always been a member of the army, leading an army of several hundred people to participate in the battle. Even after being transferred to Beizhong and assigned to the military service in the Beizhong area, they only served as the captain of the army and led the army with themselves as the main force. Zhongzhong.

Now that he is suddenly awarded the commander-in-chief of more than ten thousand troops, and the number of troops under his command has increased tenfold, how can he not make him feel nervous?

"Iyo's defense is too modest, and Yiyu's powerful clan is scattered. How can there be more than ten thousand troops gathered to fight against you? You can just treat it as a battle with a scale of more than a few thousand. The generals I will assign to you are all familiar hands. Just give it to them."

The Xiu family didn't take Akashi Jingqin's concerns seriously. After all, the wealthy clans in the Warring States Period fought almost the same battles. The number of people looked bluffing, and the lethality might not be as good as the cooperative battle between two domestic villages in the 5/60s.

Moreover, the current chaos in the northern part of Iyo only belongs to the category of Ichikui. If it really reached the point where the whole people rebelled, Hideka would have personally ended it.

You Mingshi Jingqin has not commanded more than ten thousand troops, and the noble warriors have not commanded battles with more than a thousand people. Who is more unbearable than whom?

"It's still the same sentence, the old minister swears to the death to protect the Yuxi family for His Highness." Mingshi Jingqin responded to the Xiu family.

After Mingshi Jingqin finished speaking, he bowed to Xiu's family and left.

Xiujia looked at the old man who was gradually going away, and felt deeply moved in his heart. It was precisely because of the existence of such retainers that Yuxijia could survive in the troubled times.

It's a pity that the family that is obviously the most loyal to the Uki family, but because of the foreign surrender and the former elder of the Urakami family, has been excluded by the genealogists headed by Togawa in history, which really makes people feel a little lucky.

After several important warriors who were staying at the school grounds gradually disappeared, Xiujia turned around and went back home.But instead of returning directly to Honmaru, he came to fight in a school ground in Okayama Joto no Maru.

The Okayama Castle of Uki’s family has not been completed yet, and Dongzhiwan, which was originally planned to be the easternmost side of the Midtown, is now just a small fortress built on Caoshan Mountain, relatively independent of the main city.

But in this small city, there are dozens of samurai warriors neatly lined up, and the orphans living in it are the orphans who were coerced by the Hide family from Nobi San the year before last. A total of more than 1350 boys and girls live here.

The Xiu family gathered them together to teach the art of war and military strategy according to the standards of samurai, and even appointed people to teach them literature and classics, and assigned them to grades and classes according to their age, just like the school of later generations.

This school is different from Hongwen Hall.

The Hongwen Hall is aimed at the children of martial arts who have grown up or are about to grow up, teaching them arithmetic strategies and making them become qualified concentric groups and powerful groups under the command of Yuxi Duo's followers.

In the past few years, due to the large talent gap, many crash courses were held. Although Yuxi's internal affairs structure has been functioning, it cannot be called efficient.

The biggest problem is that the warrior class only knows how to fight, and many people can't even write their own names.For this reason, the Xiu family had to use government work as a bait to encourage civilians to study in the Hongwen Hall.

But this is not a long-term solution after all. After all, Japan is a country with a strict feudal ruling class. The show family and the samurai class split.

This is not the era when warriors fell down a few hundred years later. In this era when hot weapons are not very developed, killing people and fighting wars is a skill, and an army composed of ordinary civilians can't handle it.

In order to firmly grasp the violent institutions, it is necessary to give the warrior class a certain special status.

So the Xiu family planned to start reforms, setting up Hongwenkan as an institution of higher learning similar to a university, and under it was a school specializing in teaching basic literature for lower-level samurai.

But today's samurai have not been hurt by the social status quo. They think that as long as the samurai know how to fight, it is good for them to study. They have never considered that the war will end one day.

The Xiu family can only establish the foundation of the school first, and at the same time gradually start to accept the next generation of underage children to enroll.

(End of this chapter)