Warring States Eagle

Naturally, Zheng Liang didn't know that the letter sent by Zheng Liang didn't attract Nizi Qingjiu's attention, and even caused a reaction.And what is Mao Liyuan mentioned in his letter doing at this time?

Speaking of which, Mao Liyuan was really smart this time.After seeing the strange behavior of Ouchi Yoshitaka and Lengquan Longfeng at the banquet, he left the Ouchi hall in a hurry.Why did Mao Liyuan leave in such a hurry?Because he is old and cunning, he has long guessed from the various actions of the family during this period that there will be changes in the family.For the sake of safety, he had already ordered people to set up a secret stronghold near the Ouchi Hall. Once there was a real change in the Ouchi House, he would quickly run to the secret stronghold to take refuge.

Just as Mao Liyuan had expected, not long after arriving at the secret stronghold, he received news that Tao Longfang had rebelled and that the rebels were coming to the inner hall.Later, he received news that more than [-] soldiers from Da Nei Yilong were going to meet Tao Longfang's rebels.

Just as Ouchi Yoshitaka had expected at the beginning, Mori Moto also believed that Ouchi Yoshitaka could use his troops to extinguish Tao Longfang's rebels at this time, so he missed the best time to escape until he waited until Ouchi Yoshitaka Uchi Yoshitaka's army suffered a disastrous defeat, and after the news that Ouchi Yoshitaka led the crowd to escape from the Ouchikan, Mori Moto realized the seriousness of the problem, so he immediately decided to flee back to his home in Anyi Kingdom from a remote path he had chosen before. Territory to go.Anyway, even Ouchi Yoshitaka himself escaped, so even if Ouchi Yoshitaka will return to Ouchikan safe and sound in the end, his act of leaving Ouchikan without authorization will not be held accountable afterwards.

It's just that no matter how old and cunning Mao Liyuan is, he can't imagine it.It was actually in the process of him riding back to An Yifei from the trail.I met a group of bandits who came out to fight the autumn wind taking advantage of the chaos around the big inner hall.Seeing Mao Liyuan, this group of people looks like fat sheep.This group of bandits who had eaten wild vegetables in the mountains for a long time had their eyes reddened, and chased after Mao Liyuan, and everyone came.

The so-called scholar encountering soldiers is unreasonable. When there are only five or six people on my side, and hundreds of people on the other side, four loyal retainers voluntarily stayed in the rear, and then gave up their only war horse. After Mao Liyuan, he and another retainer.

Seeing these four retainers sacrifice their lives to stay behind, Mao Liyuan immediately shed a few lines of old tears. He remembered the scene of being chased and killed by Nizi's army after the fiasco in Izumo Kingdom, crying for his father and mother.It's just that he didn't expect that in a few years, he would encounter the same situation again.

In the end, with bandits constantly chasing after him, Mao Liyuan waved his old hand and said silently in his heart, "Everyone, stay at ease. I will take care of your family." Then he didn't look back. He fled on his horse.After finally escaping from the pursuit range of the bandits, it is estimated that there were two people riding on the horse at the same time, and they were also desperately driven to run with all their strength just now, so when they passed a slope.The war horse stumbled and fell directly into the hillside.

Poor Maori Yuan.Although his old life was saved, his left leg has been lame since then, and he wants to walk like Kansuke Yamamoto.The only difference from Kansuke Yamamoto is that Mori Moto walks with a wooden cane, while Kansuke Yamamoto walks with the sword sheath he carries with him as a cane.

Thinking back, it seems that after the Maori family met the Luo family, they seemed to be really unlucky. At least two members of the Maori family were directly or indirectly disabled by the Luo family.One is Yoshikawa Motoharu who lost his left arm after being assassinated by Kato Duanzang, and now Mori Motojo has been added.If it weren't for the series of rumors of the Luo family, Mao Liyuan would never have stayed in the inner hall as a hostage at all. Naturally, he would not have encountered Tao Longfang's rebellion and being hunted down by bandits. will be lame.With the help of another retainer, Mao Liyuan finally returned to Anyi Kingdom and recuperated behind closed doors.

On this day, Mao Liyuan, who had basically recuperated, called his son, Mao Lilong Yuan, to him, and asked:

"Now that Ouchisuke has been killed by Tao Longfang, what do you think the family should do now?"

Mori Takamoto's main wife is the adopted daughter of Ouchi Yoshitaka, the real daughter of the late Nagato guardian Dai Naito Xingsheng, and when Mori Takamoto was a hostage at the Yamaguchi Ouchikan, he also had a relationship with Tao Takamura and Jiang Liangfang Sakae. , Hongzhong Longbao and other young heroes have deep friendships, and they can be regarded as "big insiders". Mo Liyuan asked him for advice now, just to see Mori Takamoto's analysis of the current situation.

The son-in-law Mao Li Longyuan thought for a while, and replied: "My father-in-law was framed by Tao Longfang, so my family can attack and destroy the Tao family in the name of revenge for his father-in-law."

But the scheming Mao Liyuan laughed in a low voice after hearing this, and then said: "The banner is always the banner, and the family can use it at any time, but can the current power of the family compete with Tao Longfang?"

Asked by his father, Mao Li Takamoto immediately bowed his head and remained silent. Although the family of his father-in-law Ouchisuke suffered civil strife, after all, the foundation accumulated for hundreds of years is still there. The country's military strength is at least [-] people, which is far from what the Anyun Maori family's mobilization force of only a few thousand can hold.Thinking of this, Takamoto Mori, who originally planned to suggest to his father to take the opportunity to attack Zhou Fangguo, immediately became discouraged.

Seeing the lack of confidence on the face of his son Mao Liyuan, Mao Liyuan patted him on the shoulder and comforted him: "Military confrontation is like Yin and Yang poles, that is, the relationship between the prosperity and the decline, the relationship between one and the other depends on the general With Tao Longfang's current strength, of course we can't swallow him up at once, but we can take it slowly."

In fact, Mao Liyuan already had a rapid expansion plan in mind at this time.

According to the plan, he will send envoys to Tao Longfang and establish a friendly and mutual assistance relationship with Tao Longfang.He even took the opportunity to appreciate Tao Longfang's move this time, saying that Tao Longfang's move is conducive to the prosperity of the Ouchi family.In short, it is to use sugar-coated bullets in words to confuse Tao Longfang.Given that Tao Longfang was only 30 years old at this time, and he launched the rebellion with the determination of a powerful and powerful family, it would naturally be very useful.

Living in Tao Longfang's confusion made Tao Longfang concentrate on eliminating dissidents.When unifying the forces of Zhou Fang, Nagato, and even Iwami.Mao Liyuan will be an ally of Tao Longfang.Taking the opportunity to aggressively annex the forces loyal to Ouchi Yoshitaka in An Yun Country, the first is to eliminate the powerful countryman Ryuho Hiraga, and then capture Sakurao Castle, Sato Ginzan Castle and other targets one by one.

Yingwei Castle in Anyun Country is "a dagger that Anyun Country extends to Itsukushima. It can stab the enemy, and it can also be used by the enemy to stab oneself in the abdomen." This castle is far away from Yandao on the sea. The distance is very close, so it can be said that those who want to take Itsukushima.Be sure to occupy Sakurawei City first as a forward base.

Zuodong Yinshan City is located at the vital point of the border between Zhoufang State and An Yun State. If Mao Liyuan can occupy this place, Tao Longfang's forces can be blocked from the gate of An Yun State.

While gradually completing the unification of the Anyi Kingdom, Mao Liyuan also planned to gradually control the forces that originally belonged to the big family, such as the Beihou Kingdom, the Beizhong Kingdom, and the Meizuo Kingdom, and subdue all the people in these areas under the umbrella of its influence.

Of course, since some areas border on the Nizi family's sphere of influence, in order not to get entangled with the Nizi family too much during this period, Mao Liyuan will pretend to be his grandson when necessary, and transfer his influence from the United States, etc. The area away from the core area of ​​strength was given back to Nizi's family.So as to achieve the purpose of confusing Nizi's family.

If Zheng Liang knew what Mao Liyuan was thinking at this moment, he would definitely scold Mao Liyuan for being shameless.Especially Mori Moto's occupation of Sakurabi Castle and Itsukushima in the future.In Zhengliang's view, it was simply the most shameless trap.And this trap was set up by Mao Liyuan a few years before the duel with Tao Longfang.

Masaragi did an analysis of the Itsukushima War.

As Mori Moto said to Mori Takamoto, the biggest secret of facing the army is how to offset the advantages of the enemy and then develop the advantages of the own army. Geographical people and turned into friends.After careful thinking, Mao Liyuan believed that the Mao Li army was confronting Tao Longfang, the "Wisdom Unparalleled General of the Western Kingdom" head-on on land. If the calculations were based on the current situation of the two families, the difference in the number of troops that could be mobilized in their respective territories was too great. Bigger, the odds are slim.

So, can we lure Tao Jun, who is superior in numbers, to a narrow place, let his advantage become a disadvantage, and then use a small number of elite soldiers to gather and wipe them out in one go?Mao Liyuan had considered many places when he was recuperating before, but he gave up. For no other reason, his own soldiers were too small to surround Tao Jun, and he could not annihilate Tao Jun even if he surrounded him. Even if he captured [-] Pigs cannot be caught in two or three days, not to mention that Tao Longfang is not a pig at all.After Ouchi Yoshitaka's expedition to Izumo failed, Tao Longfang was in charge of the rear of the Lulu Temple and distributed all the dry food to his soldiers, but he used "dried sardines" (dried sardines) to satisfy his hunger. Tao Jun was greatly moved and forced to break through. Layer upon layer of interception, he returned to Zhou Fang.Fighting against a commander like Tao Longfang, can he be expected to abandon the army and collapse himself?Obviously impossible.

Then, giving up the idea of ​​a decisive battle on land and luring Tao Jun to the island is the best choice: first, the terrain of the island is rugged and narrow, suitable for Maori Yuan, so use a small and broad battle plan; second, the island is surrounded by sea, It is easy for tens of thousands of people to climb up, but it is not so simple to retreat, and it is also in line with Mao Liyuan's thinking of fighting a war of annihilation.

But the second problem also came out. Tao Longfang is not stupid. Morimoto can never learn from Miyamoto Musashi decades later and write a letter of challenge, "Sasaki Kojiro, let's fight on Yanliu Island , be there or leave", then Kojiro took a knife, and the two fought to the death at the agreed place.

The so-called soldiers are deceitful, and they fight according to routines. Most of them are based on the novels in the book, and they can't be done for real.Therefore, the second problem Mao Liyuan faced was how to lead Tao Longfang by the nose and make him obediently come to the place he had chosen to accept the slaughter.

So Mao Liyuan finally set his sights on Yandao, because although this island is small, it is a territory that Tao Longfang must not lose. As long as he touches Yandao, or even shows a little bit of ambition for Yandao, Tao Long will let Tao Long The house was furious, and "Xin Ran" went here to fight the Maori family.

For nothing else, Yandao is really important to Tao Longfang, or to the entire Ouchi family!How did the Ouchi family rely on to prosper and prosper for so many years?It is the maritime trade with the Ming Dynasty, North Korea, Ryukyu, etc. His family used Yamaguchi Ouchikan and Hakata Port as transit bases, transporting Japanese knives, fans, and pottery out, and then pouring in silk, books, and porcelain from the mainland. Turn around twice, and get ten times or even hundreds of times of profit from it. Otherwise, how could the Yamaguchi University Hall attract so many ministers and eminent monks to come here?How do you have the money to build palaces and temples?And where do we get the financial resources to support the expensive concerts, tea parties, and Noh?In addition, don't forget that even if the Ouchi family buys in-demand products from the mainland, they will still stay in the warehouse of the Yamaguchi Ouchikan. It still needs to transfer these things to the inland of the Japanese country in order to earn more money. !

How to transport it in?All idiots know that the Seto Inland Sea is the key waterway connecting Wakoku, Shikoku, and Honshu!From the Kanmon Strait to the trading city of Settsu and Izumi, this route that runs through the Seto Inland Sea is the lifeline of the Ouchi family.

If the Seto Inland Sea is the life-sustaining blood vessel of the Ouchi family, then Itsukushima, located in between, is the prostate gland that determines whether this blood vessel is unblocked.That being the case, Mao Liyuan occupied Yingwei City and stared at Itsukushima. What a fatal thing for Tao Longfang who aimed to restore the authority of the Ouchi family!

Moreover, for Tao Longfang, Itsukushima was not something he had to fight for, but he couldn't discard it at all, because it was the most precious legacy of his dead lord, Ouchi Yoshitaka.

This is because there is a huge shrine on the island, so this place has been called "Shenling" since ancient times (including not only Itsukushima, but also some sites in the southern part of Anyun country). This family is not only the "National Zao" of the Anyun Kingdom (the official title of the ancient Japanese dynasty, serving as the chief of the military and political sacrifices in one place), but also the "divine master" of the shrine.When Kiyomori Taira was in power, Keihiro Saeki, the lord of the gods, was eager to curry favor with Kiyomori Taira. He received strong support from the Heike family, and created the heyday of the Shinto Itsukushima family. The Minamoto family settled accounts after autumn, and a hot-headed person stood on the opposite side of the Kamakura shogunate in the "Jojiu Rebellion" that followed, and was really liquidated after the war.

The Kamakura shogunate expelled the Saeki family from Itsukushima, and sent a "Yujia" named Fujiwara Kishimi to be the head of the shrine to strengthen the shogunate's control over the Itsukushima Shrine.After Fujiwara went to the island, he immediately combined the samurai's "General Administration Office" and the Shinto Enforcement Office into one, and absorbed the indigenous nobles of Itsukushima to join the army, and established a snail horn regime with a combination of politics and religion, called "God Leaders". (Similar to Shinano Suwa's Kami party).With the advent of the Warring States period, the god-lord Fujiwara family continued to have internal strife, and was coveted by the Kobayakawa family and Takeda family of Anyun country successively, struggling in the troubled times.In the tenth year of Tianwen ([-]), taking advantage of the civil strife in Itsukushima Shinjuku’s house, Ouchi Yoshitaka sent a team to easily wipe out the poor Shinjuku’s house (the last god-lord Yuda Xingto committed suicide in Sakurabi Castle ), so that the Itsukushima Shinling was included in the Ouchi family.

In this Warring States Period, conquering new territories was not the biggest problem, but how to manage and digest new territories. Ouchi Yoshitaka thought of a way to completely control Itsukushima: Among the important ministers of his family, there was a man named Sugi Takashi, who seems to be a descendant of the ancient god-lord Saeki's family, Ouchi Yoshitaka arranged for Sugi Takama to marry the daughter of the god-lord's kinsman Kagamoru Ogata, renamed Saeki Nestorian, and succeeded the seat of "Itsukushima God-lord".But Sugi Takashi lives in the Yamaguchi Ouchi Hall on weekdays, and has no time to go to Itsukushima. Ouchi Yoshitaka announced another order that all the "Gods" on the island should "Andu" (Andu means warriors) The territory remains the same), as long as you submit to my Ouchi family in name, and then let your own branch, the eagle head family, be the governor of Sakurabi Castle, responsible for commanding the gods of Itsukushima.

However, in history, in the three years after the Daning Temple change, Tao Longfang was busy at first setting up the internal order, and then entangled with Ishimi's Yoshimi Masahiro. Maori are getting stronger and stronger.It wasn't until he had a falling out with Mao Liyuan that Tao Longfang discovered that Maoli of Anyun Kingdom had built many strongholds around Yandao, enclosing the island tightly. His lifeline was cut off.This is what Tao Longfang is most afraid of.In order to save this predicament, he has only one choice: organize a large army, set off to Yandao by sea, and fight Mao Liyuan in a decisive battle. (To be continued..)