The battle between Honganji Xianru and Miyoshi Changqing ran through most of the Yonglu year, and Zhengheng was quite concerned about this matter, and he was only concerned, and he didn't have the slightest intention of getting involved in the early and middle periods, and even the water army was unwilling to support Ishiyama Honganji.

Today's Date Navy is no longer the ragtag army of the past, the Salt Fill Water Army, the Murakami Water Army, the Yashiro Island Water Army and even the Ako Water Army have all become part of the Date Water Army, and those who do not want to be part of the Date Water Army have either been cleaned out or completely disappeared from the flesh. There is only one voice of the Date Navy now, that is, Zhengheng, it can be said that in three years, the main work of Zhengheng is to build roads, and the secondary work is to integrate the water army.

The strength of Ishiyama Honganji also shocked everyone in the Date family, and it became clear to Masahiro why it took Oda Nobunaga ten years in history to force Honganji to withdraw from Ishiyama Honganji, instead of cutting down the grass and roots like Nagashima Senganji and Kaga had always done. Oda Nobunaga's siege of Ishiyama Honganji can be said to have exhausted all the elite troops of the lineage, lost a large number of personnel, lost several fierce generals, and spent a full ten years, but has not completely conquered Ishiyama Honganji. With the successive illnesses and deaths of Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin, and the fact that Oda Nobunaga's naval army cut off the only sea grain route between Ishiyama Honganji and Mori Terumoto, Honganji, which was difficult to support alone, had to surrender.

Masahiro is now a Sengoku daimyo with up to 3 million stones, and the number of stones is second only to Miyoshi Chokei, who dominates the Kinai and Shikoku, but he also knows that in fact, the 3 million stones claimed to the outside world are at most less than 2 million stones, and this is the result of his unremitting efforts to build roads, and the current Date Territory is still building roads. It will take 10 or 20 years to complete the project. The construction of roads connecting the various castles led to the development of the fields first, and the second was the deepening of the rule of the Date family.

Two million stones, according to the method of recruiting three hundred standing troops with 10,000 stones, sixty thousand people can be recruited correspondingly, of course, it is impossible for the Date family to recruit sixty thousand people. It's also unrealistic, and now there are about 15,000 standing troops stationed near Okayama Castle, distributed in more than a dozen large and small cities around it, and about 30,000 people are stationed in other countries and places, which means that only these 45,000 people can be taken out, and there are twice as many reserves, which is all the military strength of the Date family.

The strength shown by Honganji Temple has nearly 60,000 people in Izumi alone. According to the report of Tsuda Soda, the population of Izumi Province is about 100,000, of which about 30,000 people are located in Sakai Town, and 20,000 people are sheltered in Shingon Sect's Neraiji Temple. Not to mention the disciples in Hanoi, Kii, Settsu, etc. In just a few days, Kishiwada Castle was besieged by nearly 70,000 or 80,000 people, and if it weren't for the timely removal of the disciples of the Ichijo sect in the castle, I am afraid that Kishiwada Castle, the only city controlled by the Miyoshi family in Izumi Province, would fall into the hands of Honganji, and Izumi Province would become the second "earthly Buddha country" after Kaga Province.

Honganji easily achieved a phased victory in Izumi Province. To a certain extent, their adventurous spirit was even more aggressive, in just a few days. Kishiwada Castle was in a hurry, and Miyoshi Shikyu, who was in charge of Hanoi Province, was also besieged, losing contact with several cities. Hatakeyama Takamasa, who was nestled in Kii, became active again, first taking refuge in Honganji, and then leading tens of thousands of disciples in Kii and Kawachi to participate in the siege of Miyoshi Shikyu as the spokesperson of Honganji.

Miyoshi Changqing is tired of running for his life, and Zhengheng's mood looks good. There was no trace of concern on his face for the strength shown by Honganji. At the beginning, when he told Hosokawa Fujitaka, he had already thought that as long as he didn't start a rebellion in his territory, he would turn a blind eye to the riots in Kinai. Obviously, since he is one-eyed, it is better to let his eyes be closed completely, and he should not see at all. The more chaotic the fight in Kinai. The more inextricably the forces in Jinai fight, the more hostile forces he will have to face when he goes to Luo in the future, the weaker the opposing forces will be countless times weaker.

The authority of Zhengheng had been established many years ago, and his performance on the battlefield made many people not dismiss him for unifying the world, so many heroes were willing to become his retainers. But after nearly three years of dormancy, his political ability has also been respected by many people. Zheng Heng is no longer the person who had to try all kinds of policies in the past, he will first listen to the opinions of many retainers, and then listen to the opinions of merchants and ordinary people, and finally make a decision.

In the past three years, the authority of Zhengheng has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and certain new policies have been introduced, and many results have been achieved, and the shrines established in various places have also played a role in transferring faith, and with the establishment of these shrines for the protection of the country, the statues of Zhengheng can be seen everywhere.

The cult of personality and the worship of gods and Buddhas began to slowly merge, which had both advantages and disadvantages for the rule of Zheng Heng, but Zheng Heng clearly had no intention of pursuing it, and at the same time supported the development of this trend. Nowadays, even outside the castle of Okayama, a bronze statue of Zhengheng riding a royal horse, wearing a battle suit, holding a command sword in his right hand and holding the reins of a horse in his left hand, is a form of pro-signs. The bronze statue is four meters high from the horse's foot to the right hand of the commanding knife. Everyone who wants to enter Okayama Castle, no matter who it is, must take off their hat and salute in front of the bronze statue.

With the support of Zhengheng and the development of road construction projects, whenever a place is built, it is necessary to open a mountain, or to build a shrine to protect the country, or to build a dam, and whenever an important project is to be built, a statue symbolizing the image of Zhengheng must be built first.

Now in the middle of the sixteenth century, there is no need to worry about being overthrown by the wave of democracy, and in East Asia in the nineteenth century, there is no need to worry about the threat of being overthrown by the wave of democracy.

The emperor has nominally ruled the Wakoku for more than 2,000 years since the mythical era, and it has always been the emperor who has ruled the Wakoku country, so it can be said that it has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and it is a difficult thing to replace it.

In part, the current approach of the political balance is a challenge to the legitimacy of the divine authority of the emperor.

He deliberately equated himself with the status of the emperor, or simply wanted to transform into the status of a god ordained by the emperor, and if it were not for the fact that it was now the Sengoku period, when the emperor was at its most declining, he would have been immediately attacked by opposition forces, especially the Shinto system, which was entangled with the emperor.

The war finally happened inadvertently. Tozawa Baiyunsai's mood that had become bad because of the restrictions of power became much better after his daughter Amo gave birth to a daughter for Zhengheng, and at first he was also a little annoyed that he could not give birth to a son for Zhengheng, but Amo's casual words reminded him that his background was not enough to bring any good things to this possible grandson, but a granddaughter could make the status of the Tozawa family more stable.

Tozawa Hakusai came to Okayama Castle with the information he had just received from Izumo Province, the main city of the Date family. His mood was quite complicated, he came to the bronze statue and bowed, and then led the escort to the conference room.

Zhengheng was holding an evaluation meeting, a monthly evaluation meeting, and when Tozawa Hakusai himself appeared at the door, he interrupted Noyama Yoshitomo's speech. Noyama Masatomo is giving a brief explanation of Bigo's work plan.

Zhengheng glanced at the information handed over by Tozawa Baiyunzhai, his eyes shrank involuntarily, and everyone in the meeting stopped speaking, knowing that the arrival of Tozawa Baiyunzhai must have had a major change. For the ruling class of the Date family, the intelligence services of the Date family are not unknowable secret services. Hattori is in charge of Kinai intelligence, Tozawa is in charge of intelligence in the western country, Kyushu, and Shikoku, and as for Kusama, he has directly become a police force, and Kusama has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and now he is sitting aside.

Zheng Heng smiled and said, "I just got the news that Ni Ziqing died of illness three days ago. There was a commotion in the room. Niko Haruhisa can be said to be their old rival, if it weren't for Niko Haruhisa to drive Nizi Yoshihisa. In charge of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle, Izumo Province is afraid that it has already fallen into the hands of the Date family.

Seeing everyone's excited appearance, Zhengheng smiled, what is the fastest credit, it can never be compared to the war, and the three-year dormant period made the Date family hold its breath. For the Izumo country, which is close at hand, everyone has been grinding their fists and preparing for a long time.

However, Masahiro did not immediately issue an order to attack the cloud country, but continued the meeting, and at the same time, the order of Tozawa Hakusai was quite simple, that is, to tell the news of the death of Niko Haruhisa to Niko Yoshihisa, who was far away on Oki Island. Let him return to Gassan Tomita Castle to fight for the Successor War.

Nizi Lun has not slept for a long time, his eyes are red, and the rooster crows all over his head, so he gets up in his clothes and walks towards the conference room, his face has been very bad, since his father Nizi Qingjiu died of illness, he was pushed to the position by Yushan Feiyi and others, and he has been like this.

Obviously, Niko Lunjiu is more of a puppet than a master like his father. Of course, he doesn't have time to fight for more power now, and the most worrying thing is that the news of Niko Haruhisa's death reaches the ears of Date Masahiro and Niko Yoshihisa.

The former has always been an enemy of Izumo Province, and Iwami, Bigo, and Bo Qi are all in the hands of Date Masaki, and in the past three years, if it weren't for Niko Haruhisa, I am afraid that he would have already invaded Tsukiyama Tomita Castle. Once the news of Niko Haruhisa's death spread, Date came to attack Tsukiyama Tomita Castle on the back foot. He was able to resist Date Mashiro like his father, and he doubted that he had the ability.

Although the latter was expelled by Niko Haruhisa, he had the support of the local wealthy clan on Oki Island, and there were still some supporters near Tsukiyama Tomita Castle, and Niko Yoshihisa learned that Niko Haruhisa had died, and he would definitely return to Tsukiyama Tomita Castle to compete with him for the position of head of the family.

As soon as he came to the conference room, he saw Yushan Feibi leading the ministers waiting there with anxious faces, and when he saw Nizi Lunjiu coming, he hurriedly stepped forward and said: "I don't know where Nizi Yoshihisa learned the news that the ancestor has passed away and left the island." ”

Worried about what, Ni Zilun was stunned for a long time before he came to his senses, his face tightened, and he muttered, "What should I do?" The trembling voice betrayed his nervousness and timidity, and Yushan Feiyan's mood was not much better.

Yushan Feihui glanced at everyone's faces, saw that everyone lowered their heads, and then looked at Nizi Lunjiu and said: "Lord, now that the situation in Yueshan Futian City is in crisis, since Nizi Yoshihisa has learned the news of the death of the ancestor of the ancestor, I am afraid that it will soon spread out." ”

After a pause, Uyama Feibi saw that his words made everyone's faces even more ugly, and continued: "The current way, and the only way to save everyone, is to surrender to the Date family and present Tsukiyama Tomita Castle to Date Dazai. ”

Everyone listened to Yushan Feiyi's suggestion, most of them were obviously relieved, and a small number of people looked decadent and silent, obviously acquiescing to Yushan Feibi's suggestion. For them, surrendering to the Date family can still save their lives and property, and if they are attacked by Niko Yoshihisa into Gassan Tomita Castle, I am afraid that they will be liquidated by Niko Yoshihisa immediately. Back then, Nizi Haruhisa expelled Niko Yoshihisa, and they didn't fall into the well, and they were all afraid that Niko Yoshihisa would re-live in Tsukiyama Tomita Castle.

Nizi Lunjiu wanted to refute Yushan Feiji's suggestion, but when he saw the forced eyes of the retainers and knew that he should not be angry, he could only say, "Then that's it!" Nizi Lunjiu sighed and agreed to Uyama Feiji's suggestion.

On the first day of September in the first year of Eiroku, Niko Ryū and Uyama Hibi came to Okayama Castle together and temporarily lived under the castle, and on the same day, Yoshida Masanari led 2,000 people to meet more than 4,000 people outside Matsue Castle, and the Battle of Matsue broke out, which decided the fate of Izumo Province.

Yoshida Masanari's face was full of mockery, the 2,000 people who followed him to the Izumo Kingdom were not the main force of the Date family, they were the second-line troops of the Boqi country, but even such a force still showed a strong quality in the face of an enemy twice their size.

Two thousand men were neatly draped, armed with spears and a certain number of iron cannons, and were waiting in array. There was a smug expression on the face of every senior citizen. Looking at the chaotic formation in the distance, it was as if a large group of people had gathered in a rally-like nuns, and no one showed the slightest fear.

Niko Yoshihisa was also aware of his own weaknesses, and it was clear that he also wanted to raise a well-trained army, which he would not have been able to raise without financial support, not to mention that a large part of his 4,000 men were sea pirates.

The only way that Yoshihisa Niko could think of was the traditional one-horse bargain. (To be continued......)