Warring States Eagle

After dismissing Masahiro Isano, Masamune slowly walked out of the meeting hall, and then stood in the corridor made of wooden planks, looking at the rockery in the yard, and slowly fell into deep thought.

Many people may think that Zhengliang's decision to attack Chikuhou this time is a bit aggressive, but this is the result of Zhengliang's careful consideration.

Because those who dared to stay to resist the pursuit of the Luo family's army during the defeat were generally elite warriors and soldiers, and most of these people became the prisoners or ghosts of the Luo family.Most of those who escaped in the end were peasants and soldiers who were afraid of death.Therefore, Otomo's family and the tyrants of Chikugo did lose most of their elite soldiers after this battle.

Coupled with the large number of powerful generals who were injured in the rebellion and Ji Hongjianli who was said to be still injured and unconscious, Otomo's family was obviously hurt this time.At least in a short period of time, the influence and power of Otomo's family in Chikugo will be greatly reduced.This is a great opportunity for the Luo family to take advantage of the situation.

And historically, the Otomo family has always been good at comeback tricks.This can be seen from the fact that he made a comeback after several failed attacks on the rising Longzhaosi family.Zhengliang believes that as long as he gradually recovers, Otomo's family will enter Chikugo again.At that time, will the Luo family still have to fight in Feiqian?No, as the saying goes, keep the enemy out of the country, Hizen will be the strategic rear, and Chikugo will be Masara's new battlefield.Here, no matter how the two families fight each other, it will not affect the stability of Hizen.So from a strategic point of view, Chikugo is also very important.

More importantly, when Luo's family was fighting with Otomo's family.Standing beside him was a big family who was eyeing him covetously.Since Izumo pretended to be injured and returned to Feihou.In fact, Zheng Liang was always paying attention to the battle situation in Izumo.

Judging from the current situation.The Ouchi family is almost certain that it will experience a fiasco as recorded in history.But even with the disastrous defeat, Ouchi Yoshitaka and Tao Qingxian, who are the main foundations of the Ouchi family, still exist.As long as these two people still exist, even if they are injured, the Ouchi family is still a wounded lion.

Zhengliang has always insisted on a principle, that is, to believe in history but not to believe in history.Since he, a little butterfly, came here, maybe the wheel of history has quietly changed.Therefore, Zheng Liang did not dare to bet on Yoshitaka Ouchi after this failure.Will it really fall into a low period like historical records, and even ignore political affairs.

If after this battle, the Ouchi family is already a wounded sheep, then the Luo family can naturally develop according to their own plan.But if Ouchi's family is a lion that is licking its wounds and waiting for an unlucky ghost to come and provoke it so that it can regain its prestige, then the Luo's family will naturally have to be careful.At least for now, the Luo's family is not suitable to be that unlucky ghost and become the target of the big family's prestige, and it is even more inappropriate to have a direct confrontation with the big family.

Therefore, Zhengliang must race against time before the results of the Ouchi family's Izumo battle come out.When Ouchi's attention is not on Hizen, step up the pace of expansion.Then while digesting the gains, wait for the time to change.

It is also based on this principle that after defeating the Allied Forces of the Otomo family and receiving the invitation from Hucijianlian to negotiate a peace, Zheng Liang resisted all opinions and agreed to the peace request of the Otomo family.Everyone can see that this is just a helpless move by the Otomo family to preserve their strength.But is this not Zhengliang's move to preserve his strength?

If you followed the suggestion of the retainers at the beginning, taking the Katsuo Castle and Asahiyama Castle controlled by Hizen Otomo’s family in one fell swoop by taking advantage of the power of the big victory, and then went on to enter the Sanwei Castle and Akashi Castle where Chikugo, Hizen, and Chikuzen intersected, and finally crossed The Chikugo River drove the Otomo family forces entrenched in Chikugo on the other side out of Chikugo in one fell swoop.

Let's not talk about whether it will win or not, but even if it wins in the end, it will be a tragic victory. At that time, the surrounding tyrants will definitely not sit idly by. In the end, the Luo family is just making wedding clothes for others.

Now not only has the strength been preserved, so that the Luo family can transfer the main force to the southwest of Chikugo, but also took down Katsuo Castle and Asahiyama Castle without bloodshed, and then was able to swindle Muta Castle, force the surrender of Sanse Castle, and directly control the eastern part of Hizen .Now, except for Arima and Xixiang in the south, the rest of Hizen has been completely included in the territory of the Luo family.

What made Zheng Liang even more concerned was that Chikugo's Sanbi Castle and Akashi Castle were located on the north side of the Chikugo River, which happened to be pinched by Hizen and Chikuzen.

Such a place of right and wrong is really not easy to win.Different from the present, except for Shen Jiangyue Castle and Sanse Castle bordering Chikuzen, the edge of the Luo family's territory is blocked by mountains and seas, with a natural protective barrier.As long as the Luo's family takes over this place of right and wrong, it is equivalent to seamlessly connecting their own territory with the Ouchi family.

If one is not careful, Luo's family will take the place of Ouchi's family and fall into a situation where Ouchi's family and Ouchi's family are pinched.Leaving this right and wrong place and the northeast territory of Chikugo now is tantamount to leaving a common enemy for the Ouchi family and the Luo family.Indeed, for a long period of time in the future, the Luo family will need to have a common enemy with the Ouchi family to guarantee the existence of the alliance.That's Otomo's house.

However, if you don't enter Chikugo, then the Luo family will have the Ouchi family in the north, and the Otomo family in Chikugo in the east. This is almost equivalent to being completely trapped in the land direction.As for the sea route?To be honest, regardless of the combat power of Zhu Qinfeng's Nanman ship, in fact, the Luo family's navy can only protect itself.

Therefore, the land passage must be opened.So Zhengliang chose the southwest direction of Chikugo.As long as you take here, the northeast is the rest of Chikugo controlled by the Ouchi family, which will serve as the fat and bones to attract the attention of the Ouchi family.And continuing to the southwest direction, it is Higo who is nominally under the jurisdiction of Otomo's family.This is equivalent to opening up a new development channel.

While opening up this development channel, it also gradually controlled the Ariake sea area between Hizen and Chikugo, reducing the scope of the Luo family's enemies.This is the real purpose of Zhengliang's strategy.

However, such a strategy can only be thought of by Zheng Liang who knows the direction of history, and it seems unconvincing, which is why some retainers have objections.It's just that Zheng Liang can't tell them that he knows the outcome of history?Therefore, Zhengliang could only bite the bullet and deal with the opposition of his retainers.

And this time, the news and results of the meeting with Togo Heiji and Isano Masahiro quickly spread to the ears of all the retainers.The retainers quickly understood the message conveyed by the Patriarch.As a result, Zhengliang's ears were finally quiet for several days.

In the past few days, Zhengliang has not been idle. In addition to approving the territorial affairs sent from various places in the territory, he is also non-stop preparing for the attack on the southwestern area of ​​Chikugo.Food and grass, armaments, maps, intelligence, etc., all have to be prepared in advance.

On this day, when Zhengliang was approving the affairs of the territory, the cloaked people outside the door asked for instructions that Li Hongfei was asking for an audience outside the door.Zheng Liang immediately let him in for an interview.

"Your Majesty, you are overjoyed." After meeting and saluting, Li Hongfei immediately said joyfully.

"Oh? Why do you like it?" Zheng Liang's eyes lit up when he heard this.Due to his experience in prospecting for mineral deposits, Zheng Liang had asked Li Hongfei to conduct a detailed survey of the mineral deposits in the territory for the past six months.Could it be that Li Hongfei found the mine?

"My lord, there are silver mines and copper mines in my family's territory." Li Hongfei said happily.This young man who had been a farmer, hid in the mountains and hunted, and even followed a few foreigners in the Ming Dynasty to help explore mineral deposits seemed quite excited at this moment.

When Zheng Liang appointed him as the mine manager, he was questioned by some retainers in his family. Now, after half a year of hard work, he finally proved his ability and completely shut up some people.More importantly, he will be able to make a living under the young and admirable great lord in front of him.

"Silver mine? Copper mine? Where is it?" Zhengliang immediately asked Naoshige Naoshima, who was next to him, to bring a simple map.

Li Hongfei pointed out two places on the map at an extremely fast speed.Zheng Liang took a closer look and couldn't help saying in his heart: It really is.

When sending Li Hongfei to survey the mineral deposits, Zheng Liang pointed out a few places that needed to be explored in particular. Unexpectedly, Li Hongfei actually found mineral deposits in these places.

These places were actually pointed out based on the memories of Zhengliang's later generations.However, due to the age difference and his memory being blurred, Zhengliang did not know whether the mines in these places had been mined.So I just thought about giving it a try.Did not expect to actually find the mine.

From the map, the silver mine is located on Beizhen Mountain in Donghiqian, close to the version of the gorge.The copper mine is on the empty Tibetan mountain near Nanfeiqian.These two places are located in the Luo family's territory, so they can start mining immediately.

"My lord, as you mentioned, I found a large amount of porcelain clay near the Black Hair Mountain, and also found some low-content sulfur mines on the Tianshan Mountain." As if deliberately delaying telling Zhengliang, Li Hongfei said again More good news.

"Very good!" Zheng Liang was really excited at this moment.

The discovery of silver mines, copper mines, and even porcelain clay relieved the financial pressure of the territory to a certain extent, allowing Zhengliang to exchange for more supplies, and the emergence of sulfur mines solved the firearms manufacturing workshop that was about to get on the right track to a certain extent. source of gunpowder.As long as there is enough saltpeter, gunpowder can be produced on a large scale.This will be a great power for the Luo family in the future.Zhengliang couldn't help being unhappy.

"My lord, the envoys of Shenwu Shaozhan, Wang Hai, and Zhu Qinfeng are out together to ask for an audience." The cloaked crowd standing guard outside the door suddenly came in to ask for instructions.

"Let them in." Zheng Liang said with a smile.These guys have really good sense of smell. (To be continued..)