Warring States Eagle

"Hasn't it succeeded yet?" Zhengliang said to himself on a small hill outside Youtianyue City in Jishiki County of Zhou Fangguo.

Right in front of Youtianyue City, a large number of soldiers of the Luo family tried to land on the wall of Youtianyue City with ladders, but the soldiers were often pushed down by the hateful city guards after they climbed the ladders. With just a push on the chests and wooden shields of the soldiers of the Luo family, those elite standing members of the Luo family fell awkwardly from the ladders, not to mention that the arrows in the guards kept shooting at the soldiers of the Luo family, although most of them It will be resisted by the regular Roche armor or Roche armor, but will occasionally penetrate the armor or armor and hit the stock.As for the well-dressed reserve soldiers and the peasants and soldiers who did not wear any armor, the damage suffered was even greater.

After uniting with the army of Isano Yuanchang, the Luo family's attack on Youtian Yuecheng this time has a full force of 6000 troops, and the defenders of Youtian Yuecheng are estimated to have at least 3000 people, most of whom were forcibly recruited. of peasants and soldiers.Relying on the terrain of the city wall, these defenders stubbornly resisted the attack of the Luo family's army, and blocked the advance of the Luo's family's army.Under such circumstances, the only way to attack Youtianyue City is to lower the morale of the defenders in the city and gain a chance to break the city.Of course, this assault on the city was mainly to allow the blasting team of the Iron Cannon Squad under his command to cover.Previously, in order to comprehensively capture Nagato, Zhoufang, Aki, Bingo Shikoku and the sea areas near these areas.Zhengliang divided up nine armies to attack in different directions, and as the main force, Zhengliang's army gathered all the iron cannons and gunpowder that the Luo family participated in this time.at this time.It is time for these gunpowder to work.

For this siege, in addition to ordering the various teams to forcibly ascend the city to attack, in the previous attack, Zheng Liang also ordered the Iron Cannon Squad to attack the city, and even ordered Li Huamei's huge ship, which was patrolling and guarding the nearby waters, to sail Go to the sea area closest to Youtianyue City, and shoot a few shots directly in the direction of Youtianyue City.

It's a pity, under such cold weather.The effect of iron cannons and large cylinders is not good, especially large cylinders.Due to the muddy road, but it is too heavy, it is very inconvenient to transport, which greatly hinders the speed of marching.In the end, shortly after Zhengliang led the army to land on the coast, he was forced to abandon Datong.The iron cannon team's attack on the city, as well as Li Huamei's large cannons firing around Juchuanshan, only achieved the effect of intimidating the defenders in the city, and did not have much killing effect.In this regard, Zheng Liang was determined to order the staff of the craftsman workshop to make a good summary after returning to improve the actual effect of gunpowder in cold and humid weather.When attacking the marsh city, it also encountered such a situation.Of course, because Marsh City is a strong city surrounded by mountains on three sides.There is only one side for the attacker to move on, and this side is full of difficult swamps.The Luo family's army suffered a lot of casualties, which made Zheng Liang gritted his teeth and sent people to besiege Qimao City instead, and then took a detour.As for the current siege environment of Youtianyue City, it is much better than that of Marsh City, so Zheng Liang adopted the method of attacking the city by force.Now it's time to see if the gunpowder will disappoint you.

Finally, after a lot of hard work, the demolition team came to the Otemon gate of Udatake Castle again, and Zhengliang was standing on the top of the hill, watching the scene at the Otemon gate of Udatake Castle nervously.

"Boom!" With Masara's complaint, the demolition team at the Otemon finally did not disappoint him. With a loud noise, the Otemon of Youtian Yuecheng fell down.

Everyone around, whether it was the defenders in Youtianyue City or the Luo family's army that was attacking, all stopped because of the loud noise.

"Kill!" At this moment, Masao Isono, who had been waiting not far away, yelled immediately, clamped his horse's belly, and led the Luo family's cavalry team to kill You Tian, ​​who had collapsed the Otemon Gate. At the gate of Yuecheng.

"Kill!" The Luo family's army, which was attacking the city wall of Youtianyue City, finally reacted, and the morale immediately rose sharply. On the contrary, the morale of the Youtianyuecheng army defending the city fell again and again.

"Huh! Has it finally been broken?" Zheng Liang also let out a long breath at this time. With the breaking of the gate of Youtianyue City, the fall of the city is inevitable.Since then, Youtian Yuecheng, one of the three hardliners encountered in the Raiders of the Luo family, was finally pulled out, and the Youtian family who planned to kill the Luo family will also be wiped out.

In fact, after a little thought, Zheng Liang also understood why he encountered these diehards in the strategy.The fundamental reason is the Luo family's retainer enfeoffment policy.

Generally, the daimyo's family's territory adopts the policy of enfeoffing the territory of the retainers.After they basically entrusted the territory to their own retainers, the territory was completely controlled by the retainer. As the family governor, they only collected a certain amount of tribute from these territories every year and during foreign wars, these retainers led troops according to the requirements of the clan. help.Such a policy has naturally created a large number of countries in China, and thus a situation where the lower and the upper is superior.Or it caused the emergence of mountain factions in the family, which led to mutual strife, and eventually led to the division of the clan, or even annexation by other forces.

The Luo family's retainer distribution policy, although it also distributes the clan's territory to retainers, is very different.

First of all, the Luo family adopted a policy of decentralization and enfeoffment.Try to disperse the territories of the retainers to various places.In order to manage these territories, the retainers had to disperse the clansmen and subordinates to various places to take care of these territories, thus preventing the retainers from gathering a large amount of family power in a fixed large territory.Under such a law.Over time, due to the distance, the families of the retainers will gradually separate, so as to avoid the emergence of large families in the territory.

Secondly, although retainers have the right to operate and manage their own territories, the premise is that they must follow the law and management system of the Luo family, and the managers of the villages and towns in these territories can only be determined by the relevant departments of the Luo family in accordance with the law of the territory. appointed.Although retainers can call these grassroots managers, they cannot appoint, remove or punish these managers.That is to say, retainers can only have management and use rights over the grassroots managers in their own territories.But there is no appointment and punishment power.In fact, this is not only the decentralization of retainers, but also mutual supervision between retainers and grassroots managers.

Finally, the military authority of retainers in their own territories was also limited.According to the current law of the Luo family, a retainer is allowed to have up to fifteen armed retainers, and the situation of the retainers and servants in the family needs to be registered separately in the Luo family's military cabinet, internal affairs cabinet and intelligence cabinet.

This kind of territorial enfeoffment system, on the one hand, retains the territorial system in line with this era to a certain extent, avoiding excessive conflicts with the system of this era, which will affect the development of the Luo family; In order to improve, the rights of retainers are restricted to ensure that the clan can monitor all retainers and territories.

certainly.Even though Zhengliang has carefully adjusted and perfected this system, trying to avoid conflicts within the Luo family, but after all, this system is still different from the overall system of this era.This led to a lot of problems.

First, just like the desperate resistance incident of the Youtian family, Naito family, and Sugi family this time, since these families know that the Luo family's system will greatly weaken their interests, these families are naturally unwilling to submit to the Luo family easily .Under such a system, it will naturally cause the Luo family to encounter resistance from many powerful families in the future.And the number of wealthy families willing to surrender to the Luo family will decrease a lot.

Second, some outstanding talents.Especially those talents who have enjoyed the benefits of some daimyo's fiefs are not willing to join the Luo family.At least under the same conditions, these talents are more willing to take refuge in other daimyos.And those wealthy families who were defeated in the war were not willing to surrender to the Luo family. Even if they surrendered, they would feel resentful towards the enfeoffment system of the Luo family.

Third, there are certain hidden dangers in the group of his own retainers.After all, as one's own rights become stronger, people's pursuit of wealth, rights, etc. becomes more intense.When the retainers who have grown up in their own family see that the retainers of other daimyos can obtain greater wealth and rights than them, they will naturally have some contrasting mentality in their hearts, which will create a desire that is not conducive to the rule of the clan, thus becoming the Luo family. The hidden worry of family rule.

Of course, in response to these situations, Zheng Liang also deliberately made remedies.

First of all, through the establishment of gradually improved internal affairs, military, intelligence and other systems, decentralization and monitoring of retainers, and firm control of the army.For example, establishing its own talent training system, cultivating talents who thoroughly support and obey the Luo family's system from a young age, and dispersing these talents among various departments in the territory to form a system that thoroughly supports the Luo family.After more than ten years of continuous operation, this system has been gradually completed at this time.

Secondly, treat the grassroots citizens well, let them understand and support the system of the Luo family while being grateful for Luo's love and gratitude.Guarantee the rule of the Luo family from the bottom.The so-called water can carry a boat and overturn it. With the continuous development of the Luo family's territory, these ants-like citizens in the eyes of ordinary tyrants will occupy an increasing position in the Luo family's rule, and thus determine the Luo family's territory. stability of family rule.If all the people in the underground are unwilling to support, then even if someone with a high official position rebels, there will not be much trouble.

Finally, treat and guide your retainers well.For example, increase material and territorial rewards for retainers, guide retainers to invest in other fields such as business, and seek new opportunities from these fields that can support the development of the territory.

Moreover, it was also in consideration of the difficulties encountered at home when implementing this system, so Zheng Liang gradually built the foundation for this system from the moment Luo's family was established. More importantly, Luo's The retainers who started a family, and even most of the retainers who joined the Luo family in the future, are actually mainly from grassroots background, which avoids the emergence of various hilltops and systematic retainer groups in the family from the beginning, thus avoiding the encounter of these systems. This naturally guaranteed the smooth implementation of the Luo family's system to a certain extent.When more retainers join the Luo family's camp in the future, this set of systems has completely taken root. The so-called general trend, these retainers can only take the initiative to adapt to it.

Perhaps, some people will say, couldn't Zhengliang first implement the system followed by other daimyos in accordance with the background of this era, so as to reduce the resistance of the development of the Luo family.In fact, this approach is obviously unrealistic, because by that time, many hills have formed in the family. When Zheng Liang plans to implement these systems again, he will encounter a lot of resistance and even be rebelled.That being the case, it is better to firmly implement it from the beginning, to keep those who are willing to accept the new system, and to block those who are not willing to accept it.

Of course, the above-mentioned systems are just an attempt by Zhengliang. Even Zhengliang himself does not know whether such a system can adapt to this era better in the end and succeed.Everything depends on the final result and the judgment of future history.

However, in Zhengliang's view, in the Warring States period, those old-fashioned daimyos would only lead to the decline of the family, and the most prominent representative of them was the Echizen Hancang family.And those families who are brave enough to innovate will get different developments, such as the Hojo family, Takeda family, Oda family, and even the Mori family defeated by the Luo family.

Throughout the entire history of the Warring States Period, in fact, all the big names and tycoons are evolving towards the process of centralization.It's just that in this process, each family has its own characteristics.

Among these families, the one with the slowest evolution is naturally the Echizen Guohan Cang family.The family has been using the old family system, that is, the old family voting system.The power in the family is controlled by various relatives in the family.And these relatives fought against each other, which greatly hindered the development of the family and greatly limited the power of the family governor.

A few years ago, the Ashikaga shogunate in Kyoto was weakening day by day, and when the Hosokawa family, which controlled the sphere of influence in Kyoto, fell into civil strife and struggled with the Miyoshi family, it was the best opportunity for the Hancang family to extend their power to the Kyoto area, but the Hancang family wasted it in vain Lost.

As for the centralization of the centralization of household supervision, it is natural to count the Mori family, the Takeda family, the Hojo family, and the Oda family in the future.

The Mori family and the Takeda family roughly belonged to the same type. Both were under the operation of a powerful family governor, and gradually formed a major power system in the family, and then the family governor operated the entire family by mastering these systems.For example, the Ryogawa system of the Maori family and the Ryoyama system of the Takeda family.

However, such a system actually has disadvantages.This will easily cause these systems to form different hilltops. Once these systems lose the suppression of the strong family governor, they will become hidden dangers in the family.This is the most prominent example in history of the two Sichuan systems of the Maori family beginning to diverge after the death of Maori Yuanjiu.

The Hojo family is a way to control the power of the family from the bottom. With the efforts of two generations of Hojo Soun and Hojo Nobuyasu, the Hojo family has beneficially controlled the situation of the wealthy families in various places below through a series of internal affairs systems, calmly from the bottom Began to gradually control the overall rights of the family.

In history, the reason why the Hojo family did not fully rise, in Masarai’s view, was mainly because during the Hojo Nobuyasu era, they happened to meet the flourishing Takeda family and the Uesugi family, which led to the Hojo family’s opportunity to expand being suppressed by these two families.Later, when the Takeda family and the Uesugi family were gradually declining, the larger Oda family, Toyotomi family, and Tokugawa family appeared one after another, which can be said to be untimely.