Warring States Eagle

At the beginning of March in the second year of Hongzhi (1556), the army led by Masara continued to advance to the Yamaguchi area, the center of the Ouchi family's rule, after the captured Youtianyue Castle in Jishiki County of Zhou Fangguo rested for a whole number of days.

When the black eagle banner with a white background appeared in the array of the marching Luo family's army, the people who had just been "invited" back from the nearby forest by the farmers and soldiers of the Luo family all looked at it involuntarily.

After getting along with each other for a few days, these people found that the soldiers of the Luo family did not loot around like the soldiers of other daimyo, but appeared to be very disciplined. Received food aid from the Luo family's army.Gradually, these common people who originally belonged to the family began to come out of their homes, and boldly watched the Luo family's army, which was well-equipped and well-equipped.

This time, in the battle of the cage city in Youtianyue City, the Luo family killed a total of 45 standing ashigaru, 130 peasant soldiers, and more than 200 local soldiers who surrendered. A total of more than 400 people were injured to varying degrees.As for the enemy defending the city, there were more than 450 soldiers who were killed alone. Including the wounded prisoners, there were more than 800 prisoners in total.These captives, together with their families, will be moved to various territories of the Luo family in Kyushu under the escort of the Luo family's cabinet and navy, and will become slaves of the Luo family.These slaves will work for free for the Luo family for a certain period of time (during this period, the Luo family will only ensure their food, clothing and health, and will not increase any additional remuneration), and the heinous slaves will become the bloody training for recruits in the Luo family's recruit training camp. object.Their end will only be death.And their families would be slaves on slave farms; slaves in general.Soldiers such as hostile forces will become slaves of the Luo family for road construction and city demolition and city construction, and their families will become slaves on slave farms; captives who are forced by hostile forces to fight against the Luo family will themselves and their families become slave farms slaves who participated in various workshops and planting work on the farm.

Of course, slaves with different levels of hostility will have different enslavement time and the degree of enslavement.These slaves will work for the Luo family free of charge for a certain period of time, and then be freed according to the labor performance formulated by the Cabinet.Thus, he became a member of the Luo family and obtained a certain amount of land and a house to live in.

As for the food, weapons, coins and other materials confiscated this time, they are still being cleaned up by personnel urgently dispatched by the Cabinet.In addition, the cabinet of the Luo family who followed immediately began to take over the newly occupied territory with the help of the city guards. They resettled the local people who gradually returned to their homes, and compiled household registration books and other work.On the other hand, the Military Pavilion is counting military merits, preparing to distribute rewards to those who died and those who gained military merits (generally, they will be distributed directly to the soldiers' family members in the territory of the Luo family. Take it from the hand of the eyepayer), and on the other side, assist the logistics department to treat the wounded.

It is the same as the walled city that was captured before.After leaving the wounded and some soldiers to guard Youtianyue Castle, Zheng Liang's army immediately went out again.

Because of the confluence of part of the soldiers of the second army led by Masahiro Isano.Therefore, although some battle damage was caused due to the just-concluded World War I, and some soldiers needed to stay in the newly occupied area, there were more than 3000 troops after the two teams were ready to go out.

Among them, Zhengliang is the main general of the formation, and the deputy generals are Kato Duanzang, Andel, Irita Yoshimi, and Takahashi Shaoyun. There are 80 people in the cape, 320 samurai squads, 300 iron gun squads, and 300 soldiers. People's standing ashigaru, 500 reserve farmers and soldiers (equivalent to reserve standing), a total of 500 people.

The leader of the vanguard will be Masahiro Isano, the deputy generals will be Yoshikawa Kosuke, Kalai Chengheng, Akao Kenzhong, Akaana Mitsukiyo, and the second standing cavalry squadron will consist of 50 people (one man and one horse equipped), and 200 foot light troops , 550 reserve farmers and soldiers, a total of 800 people.

The rear will be led by Honda Toshimasa, military physician Mingfeng Hidemasa, deputy generals Yamazaki Xingsheng (an old minister of the Ouchi family), Jiang Liang Xianxuan (a former minister of the Tao family), Noda Chobo (a servant of the Tao family), and Du Longkang (a former minister of the Zhou Fangguo Du family. Family governor), 500 temporary farmers and soldiers, and more than 300 people from various places who surrendered to the allied forces of the wealthy clans, a total of more than 800 people.

Youtianyue Castle was built at the foot of Youtianyake, and it is the only way to go to the Yamaguchi area from the east.After passing through Youtianyue City, there is a canyon mountain road formed by Youtianyue Mountain and Ximu Mountain. More than 3000 troops of the Luo family marched along the rugged mountain road. It is a wide canyon formed between Yueshan Mountain and Jishan Mountain.

In the center of this canyon is a river called the Kosabana River, and a fortress called Himeyama Castle is located on the east bank of this small river.Although the army can go around the other side of the walled city, and then go straight to the Yamaguchi area, but behind the army there is such a time bomb ready to attack at any time, which is also very dangerous, so Zhengliang is going to send this one to the Yamaguchi area The last obstacle is removed.

What Ling Zhengliang didn't expect was that before the Luo family's army set up camp under the city to prepare to attack the city, the defenders in the city took the initiative to open the city gate. Uno normally led the defenders with only more than 100 people to surrender to Zhengliang.

In fact, this is also a normal helpless move of the guard Uno. After learning that Youtianyue City in the east has fallen, in just a few days, there have been more than 200 deserters in Jishan City. The defenders at this time also have no fighting spirit.Seeing that the Ouchi family was not far from being destroyed, Uno normally had no choice but to be a smart person in order to save the lives of himself and his subordinates.

With the surrender of Jishan Castle, the eastern gate of the Yamaguchi area, the center of the Ouchi family's rule, was completely opened.After leaving some defenders to take over Jishan Castle, Masara immediately led an army of nearly 3000 people into the plains of the Yamaguchi area, and arrived in front of Yamaguchi Castle, the home of the Ouchi family, in the evening.

The Yamaguchi Castle of the Ouchi family is located in the center of the Yamaguchi Basin, and the outer gate is on the verge of the Yamaguchi River.After years of operation, Yamaguchi Castle can be regarded as a strong city.From the perspective of terrain, the entire Yamaguchi area is a basin surrounded by mountains, and there are three paths to enter the basin, one is the mountain path among the mountains in the north, and the other is the alluvial path along the Yamaguchi River in the west. The river beach and the third are the mountain roads in the southeast that Zhengliang's army took.

The mountain path in the north is the most difficult to walk, because not only the towering mountains and forests have to be climbed, but also the mountain path is very narrow, and the Ouchi family also built a mountain city on the mountain path that can only be guarded by one man.

The road to the west is the most convenient passage among the three roads, but at the narrowest point of this passage, the Ouchi family also built a shoji mountain castle.Since the fortress is relatively deep in the Shankou Basin, it is easy to be attacked from the rear by the enemy troops from Youtianyue City to the east of Laizi. The danger of pinching back and forth.At the beginning, Masahiro Isano saw this, and in order to meet up with the army of the lord Masara, he gave up this road and attacked Youtianyue City on the east coast first.

Finally, the road to the east, because Youtianyuecheng is located at the junction of the eastern and western regions of Zhou Fangguo, it is the place that the army led by Zhengliang must pass through when it needs to enter the Yamaguchi area, so there was the previous battle of the cage city, and the captured After the right Tianyue Castle, the fastest way to enter the Yamaguchi Basin is naturally the east road passing through the nearby Jishan Castle.

The Yamaguchi area gathers a large number of ministers and various entertainers. It is the place with the strongest cultural atmosphere in Western countries. It is known as "Little Kyoto". After several years of restoration, it soon became a place of culture again.However, with the arrival of the Luo family's army, the place immediately fell into a panic. Many people here had personally experienced the scourge of the Tao Qingxian Rebellion last time, and now they encountered the military disaster again, and they were naturally extremely nervous.

Since it was already evening at this time, and Zheng Liang didn't intend to cause chaos in the area, Zheng Liang arranged for people to start camping, and at the same time sent people to rectify the local law and order.

Meanwhile, in Shankou City, there was a lot of panic because of the arrival of the Luo family's army. Hundreds of guards in charge of guarding the city climbed to the top of the city, looking nervously at the Luo family's camp outside the city.

At this time, Ouchi Yoshinaga, who was the governor of the Ouchi family, did not go to watch the barracks of the Luo family army outside the city like the others. On the contrary, he himself sat quietly in the room, watching the window gradually go west. sinking sky.

"Deng, thump, thump..." At this time, there was a sound of the board being trampled on.The person who came was obviously very anxious, that's why he made such a loud noise.Soon, a middle-aged man opened the wooden partition of Ouchi Yoshinaga's room and walked in.

"My lord, the soldiers in the city seem a little shaken by the appearance of the enemy army outside the city. Please, my lord, cheer up the soldiers!" the visitor said earnestly.

"Fang Zhong, I have become a lonely family!" Ouchi Yoshinaga did not respond to the visitor's request, but said to himself.

"Master?" Ouchi Yoshinaga asked, the visitor was obviously taken aback.He immediately thought that what the lord Ouchi Yoshinaga said was almost correct. During this period of time, he had heard news of the fall of his own castle and territory almost every day. A territory.

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