Pillars of the Wu family

There was not much time left for the Date family to struggle. On the third day after Kobagawa Morizong came to the Kira Army camp, the Kira Army launched an attack on Zhongshan Castle. Under the cover of the Iron Cannon Team, Ashgaru easily approached Zhongshan City. The wooden arrows and oars in the city could not support the iron cannon's repeated fires and were all broken into pieces.

No matter how many samurai who are not afraid of death climb up the arrow oar, they will be beaten into a pool of rotten meat in an instant. The power of hundreds of iron cannons concentrating fire at the same time within a distance of 20 meters is beyond the imagination of the Date family. Facing the Kira army With an almost brutal attack, Date Terumune could do very little. It was nothing more than ordering bows and arrows to fight back lightly and strictly guarding the Otemon Gate. The Zhongshan Castle was built relatively solidly, and there would be no danger of being broken for a while.

However, the 1-odd army of the Date family shrunk in Zhongshan City and was helpless. A group of samurai huddled in the evaluation room and quarreled fiercely. Some people began to discuss the issue of peace, while others expressed their determination to live and die with Zhongshan City. However, there was a serious disagreement between the pedigree of the pedigree and the people of the country, which made Date Teruzong, the family governor, scratch his head very much.

Soon they could no longer quarrel, and the Date army was greatly shaken after only one morning of the war. Some strange rumors suddenly appeared and the Date family fell into a passive position. These rumors were basically aimed at Date Huizong, the family governor. He said that for his own selfishness, tens of thousands of people left their homes and came to the border of the highest home to fight a war that was doomed to failure. Just like the last time Mipo Castle abandoned his allies and fled alone.

There are many similar statements, most of which are directed at Date Terumune himself.Shape him into a selfish, narrow-minded and self-righteous person.An arrogant house governor who doesn't know the heights of the heavens and the depths of the earth.For a small matter of jealousy over a woman, he did not hesitate to start a war with the famous Genji family, the Kira family, and portrayed the princess of the Mogami family as an infatuated woman who had a heart for Kira Yoshi, and was betrothed by Mogami Yoshito to Date Terumune who did not like it. Finally, with the help of his elder brother, Mogami Yoshimitsu, before he was about to get married, he repelled the Date family and regained his freedom.

When Huizong heard such bizarre rumors, his face turned blue and his eyes burst out, and he wanted to tear the mouths of these people, but if he really searched and couldn't catch the rumor maker, he could only angrily execute an ashigaru who spread rumors And low-level samurai as an example.What he did would not help solve the problem, but would add fuel to the rumors, and more and more gossips were spread in private.

Seeing that the situation is slowly becoming unfavorable to him, Date Mimoto is determined to persuade Date Teruzong, hoping that he will temporarily extinguish his anger, and first reach a non-war agreement with the Kira family before making a decision. This proposal was strongly supported by Nakano Munetoki and Makino Hisaka Support, but Date Huizong outrageously rejected this proposal, saying that he would never turn back if he did not take revenge.

Seeing the world is not going well, Date Mimoto thought of seeking help from the reclusive Date Qingzong. At present, no one can persuade Date Huizong except the former governor, let alone Date Huizong has a group of retainers as support.As a result, his words as the elder of the Fuzheng family were gradually becoming less effective. Nakano Zongshi complained to him several times that the family governor did not know how to respect the attitude of the elder of the family, which also made him very worried.For now, only Date Harumune can solve the crisis.

It didn't take long for Date Harumune to go to Zhongshan City in person and drag Date Teruzong to the castle tower for a closed-door conversation with his father and son all night. The next day, it was reported that the Date family was willing to reach a non-war agreement with the Kira family. Morizong Xiao Liangchuan signed an agreement with Mogami Yoshimitsu on behalf of the Date family as an envoy, and the two armies agreed to gradually disband on the next day until the two parties fully signed the agreement before retreating.

At the same time, the envoys of the two sides, Shi Shoudong and Xiaoliang Chuanshengzong, also walked back and forth, conducting a series of consultations on the release of prisoners. The Date family wanted [-] prisoners no matter what, and the last family wanted to take back the territory near Zhongshan City no matter what. , but both parties are unwilling to unilaterally fulfill the obligations required by the other party, so there is only endless wrangling.

But seeing that it was not a problem for everyone to stay here at the time of the autumn harvest, at the behest of Date Qingzong, he reluctantly agreed to exchange [-] captives for the territory near Zhongshan City. Withdrew from Zhongshan City, and then the Kira Army released [-] prisoners and the unlucky Murata Munezoku.

Afterwards, Kira Yoshitoshi appointed Mogami Irako Soniu to lead the [-] troops as the lord of Zhongshan City, and Shijia Shoudong led the [-] troops to be the lord of the Monomiyama City. The walled city network composed of the castle, Wujian Shanmai, Naraxia Castle and the Shangshan Castle behind it can effectively block the offensive route of Zhici County to Mogami.

Date Huizong, under the urging of his father Date Harumune, left this sad place full of resentment. This battle of Zhongshan City, including the previous Battle of Suchuan, was always a big loss for the Date family, and the battle of Suchuan was a loss. The [-] troops and [-] captives also joined his uncle Murata Munezoku, and the battle at Zhongshan City lasted for three days, and there was unfavorable phenomenon of wavering in the army. If this kind of method is used to stop this unhealthy trend, Date Huizong's reputation may be ruined here.

Date Harumune told his son a truth, don’t confront a strong opponent head-on, the Date family’s survival rule is never to be hostile to a strong one, even if he suffers great humiliation, it cannot change the Date family’s survival rule, Otherwise, he will only have to taste the failure and the separation of generations. The situation that the Date family has painstakingly managed for more than a hundred years cannot be easily destroyed by his anger and impulsiveness. Many relatives and friends support Aozhou research.

Yoshimitsu Kira didn't bother about the Date family's troubles. In fact, he didn't go to the battlefield at all in this war. He just went back and issued a general order when he was looking at the terrain near Sukawa, ordering Mogami Yoshimitsu to be in the process of retreating. Instead of going back to the city, he was stationed at Cypress Mountain as a maneuver, and the subsequent attack did not require him to come forward at all. As his shadow warrior, Shimatoki dressed up as him and commanded an army of [-] to attack, including the subsequent siege battle and He handled the peace talks, and then Mogami Yoshimitsu came forward to answer.

In the past ten days or so, surrounded by five hundred horses, he took Mogami Yoshihime to continue his unfinished business of tourism. In the second year of Kangzheng (1456), it was discovered by the local prospector, Langzaemon of Iga City. In the following years, it was owned by the Yanzawa family and quickly formed a small-scale mining locally.

In the past hundred years, the mining scale of this silver mountain has increased little by little, but the mining efficiency has always been low because of the backward mining technology and insufficient personnel. It can only ensure that the Yanze family, which has a small territory, sits firmly at the top by virtue of its economic strength. The second seat of Yakuo, after repeated explorations by more than a dozen apprentices led by Soga Taibei, confirmed that this is a shallow mine with rich silver deposits. In the following months, he quickly mobilized criminals from Sado Island to start mining and smelting. .

The location of this silver mountain is good. Not only is it close to Mogami River, but also the transportation is very convenient. The pure silver mined and smelted on the spot is sent to Echigo for further processing. The apprentices will travel all over Echigo, Etchu, Shinano, and Ueno, and now they have come to Dewa country to make new contributions to the exploration industry.

With the continuous discovery of gold, silver, and copper mines, the income of the Kira family also increased sharply. The large-scale increase in business made the geographical location of the copper house no longer suitable for daily transportation, and they were forced to move to the newly built Niigata Town for large-scale smelting. , now the copper house can provide millions of copper coins into the market every year, and gradually exchanged the Kanto coins for nearly half of the reserves in just a few years.

The reserves of Qi money in various places far exceeded his expectations. The Pipa House even got in touch with Ming smugglers operating in Kyushu. These businessmen from Jiangnan were also happy to use this Yongle money as a transaction currency in exchange for the Kira family. The raw silk needed to meet the needs of the textile industry in Sakamoto and Echigo, and ship after ship of copper coins were transported to the Ming Dynasty by smuggling ships in exchange for several times the raw silk. This is one of the most profitable businesses of the Kira family at present.

As a result of the influx of large amounts of copper coins into the market, the value of Yongle coins depreciated accordingly. The merchants traveling between Kinai and Kanto gradually lost the advantage of exchanging money between the two places. With the strong logistics force of Pipa House, the price difference between Kinai and Echigo was always maintained. After enough for the merchants to deduct travel expenses and taxes, they are faced with such small profits that they are almost unprofitable.

At this point, I have to praise Matsui Yuxian for his ingenious means. He not only prevents the merchants from going bankrupt but also gets stuck in their profit point, forcing them to give up their own merchants and join the Piwaya Alliance of the Kira family. This is what he has done in recent years. The new concept put forward advocates taking the Pipa House as the core backbone, uniting large business groups from all over the world to form a joint business alliance, and carrying out various business and trade activities through the relationship of colleagues in the alliance.

As soon as his new concept was launched, he encountered an embarrassing cold reception. In Matsui Yukan's words, he has not received active support from other places for the time being, probably because Kira's family is far away from Kinai and not in Kanto. Because of the important business district, but he also said that he is very confident about it.

After strolling around Yanzawa Yinshan for a while to enjoy the scenery, they came to Yanzawa Castle to have a cordial conversation with the retired Yanzawa Mishige, and they had lunch in the city before leaving. Their next stop was to go to Oka Castle to continue their tour He was very uncomfortable talking and laughing with Mogami Yoshihime along the way. He didn't tell the truth to the innocent Mogami Yoshihime. In fact, this trip was just a cover. Retainer.

The reason is that he feels helpless about the complicated situation in Dewa country. The core interests of the Kira family are not in the remote Yuo area. There are too many people in the country and the relationship is too complicated, which is completely different from the clear situation that Vietnam and China have always been clear except for a few people from the country.

He needs to use the hand of Mogami Yoshimitsu to suppress the people of Izuba, and at the same time, he needs to ensure that people from all over the country will not be dissatisfied with him as the family governor. Therefore, he will spend a summer visiting many places and appearing in Izuha with his honorable status. He never cared about the rudeness of the Dewa people, and talked with his retainers in a friendly way, gradually winning the respect and trust of the samurai. (To be continued..)