The weather is getting colder and colder, and the warm winter sun gently caresses the frost-covered earth, and the ice cubes hanging under the eaves of the city everywhere shimmer in the sunlight. "It's cold!" Dressed in a thick leather jacket and rubbing leather gloves with exposed five fingers, Zhengheng stood on the castle tower of Takada Castle, looking at the slightly bleak Asahikawa River.

Takada Castle was built on Katsuyama Mountain, and its location is a wide valley at the bend of the Asahikawa River, and it is also an important place next to the main street leading to Izumo Province, and it has been the residence of the Miura clan for hundreds of years since the last year of the Kamakura shogunate, and Miura Sadamune, the ancestor of the Miura clan, built the castle in the Katsuyama hills for hundreds of years, and it has never been moved, naturally because of the superior geographical conditions here.

Takada Castle, on the other hand, is built on the banks of Asahikawa Mimasaka and Izumo streets, and when viewed from above, the details of the terrain are blurred, but you can see the whole picture. It's no wonder that this place is called a mountain country, and the basin is surrounded by some steep mountains.

Looking east from Takada Castle, the famous Mimasaka Basin of Kibi Kogen also came into his field of vision. Takada Castle looks strong from the outside, and it seems very difficult to capture such a fortified castle, but if there is a problem on the inside, no matter how strong the castle is, it will be impossible to hold it. The fact that Takada Castle has changed hands several times shows that it is not impregnable, and if you want to hold on to peace, you can only go out to fight, burn the flames of war to the enemy's territory, burn the enemy's castle, and not introduce the enemy into the country.

The cold wind blew up from the bottom slope of the hills, and the wind blew on Zhengheng's exposed face, which was cold to the bone. The body is cold. The heart is hot. This is the voice of all the soldiers of the Date Army. The long-awaited feast for many soldiers of the Date Army is finally about to begin.

After bidding farewell to Hirochu Takaho, Masahiro appointed five people, including Akagi Takao, Ishikawa Hisataka, Yoshida Masanori, Katayama Yokocho, and Katsuro Hiroshinobu, to investigate the merits of each retainer and retainers in the Bizen battle, so as to reward their merits. Zhengheng is the general leader of the business, they are the most important generals and staff members in addition to Yeshan Yichao, Taoshan Zhenglai, and Qinghe Hengxiu, all of whom are Zhengheng's right-hand men.

For an army, after a lot of hard fighting, there is nothing more important than a reward. In "Military Prophecy", it is said: The army has no wealth, and the soldiers do not come; There is no reward for the army. Taxis don't go. Under the incense bait, there will be hanging fish; Under the heavy reward, there will be a dead husband. Therefore, those who salute are the return of the scholars, and the rewarders are the deaths of the scholars. Pinch where he returns, show what he has died, and he who asks will come. Those who regret the ceremony will not stop. Those who regret it will not be used. The rewards are tireless. then the earth fights to the death.

The lord of one country and one city was the dream of almost every samurai of the Warring States period. Even the slightly ambitious merchant peasants wanted to have their own castle. All those who wish to control their own destiny worked hard in the Warring States period, which also gave equal opportunities, and as long as you have talent, regardless of your origin, you can be reused.

A family that has lasted for more than a hundred years, it is difficult for young people to be able to display its decay, but a family at the beginning of a business is what all people with a little ambition yearn for. Not many people knew about the Date family before Zhengheng, and they were the king and hegemon in the ravines in the plateau, and it was only in Zhengheng's generation that they walked out of the plateau and stepped on the peak of life step by step. There is no need to look at the age of Zhengheng, from the origin of the five ministers who calculated the size of his execution, it can be seen that the essence is good.

Akagi Takao was born in the mountains, Ishikawa Hisataka is a foreign minister, Katsuro Hengxin is a minister, Yoshida Masanari is a minister, and Katayama Hengcho is a ronin. The ronin of Kibi Shikoku are happy, and the Date family is still thriving and fast, and a large number of samurai are needed, as long as you risk your life, you can get a qiē.

The Date family has always been not very financially well-off, and every penny has to be broken in half to spend, especially now that the maritime trade has been destroyed by the strict zhòng of the Murakami naval army, and a large number of copper mines cannot be transported to the Nagasaki maritime merchants in exchange for copper coins and Tang goods, and it is difficult to maintain a long-term war by relying only on the trade in the six places.

The Date family is not a wealthy family, but Zhengheng is a generous head of the family, and fortunately, the enemies he defeated are all a group of wealthy fellows, and they have obtained a lot of goods from the hands of the enemy, which is used to reward meritorious officials. This time the army was sent to prepare for the former country, and a large amount of goods and grain were also obtained.

Niko Haruhisa owned Iwami Ginzan, the largest silver mine in the world at the time, and when he went out into battle, he carried silver with him, and he was able to cash out the silver on the spot without waiting to go home. To maintain an army of tens of thousands of people, it has entered the winter, it is obviously impossible to feed the war by war, the Nizi army went out with a large amount of grain, plus Urakami Masamune and Urakami Sokei brothers also stored countless money and grain in order to compete for the hegemony of Bizen, because the degree of defeat was too fast, most of the assets fell into the hands of Zhengheng.

With these captured materials, Zheng Heng was very generous when rewarding his soldiers, and did not hesitate to distribute silver, cloth and other goods to his subordinates according to how much he had captured, which caused a lot of jubilation. He knew that only a generous reward could make most people loyal to the Date family and accumulate strength for the growth of the Date family, and besides, hoarding money was really more than worth the loss when the sea trade was interrupted.

However, now that the Date family has attacked the military forces to Nishi-Harima Province, it is clear that the trade route between the six regions and Kyoto has been opened. The half-dead Tsuruding Tennoya branch clearly has hope of being revitalized, and the only current royal merchant of the Date family, Tsuda Muneki, slowly smiles, and a forced encounter that year finally blooms into a beautiful flower.

As long as there is a demand, merchants will come, and the withered business atmosphere will slowly come alive, which is a good sign for the rule of the Date family.

In addition to the rewards of money, there were also promotions for samurai officers at all levels, and more importantly, the improvement of land and shiroku, which was also a common idea among people in the Sengoku period, the higher the position, the higher the land and shiroku, and vice versa.

According to the number of stone heights that were requisitioned during the Keicho period, which was popular in later generations, there were 340,000 koku in Bizen Province, 186,000 koku in Misaku Province, and about 30,000 koku in Nishi-Harima Province, for a total of about 456,000 koku. The Masayo described above has become 800,000 koku Sengoku daimyo is also calculated according to this number, in fact, the output at that time was less than that of the Keicho period, and the output of Kibi Shikoku hovered between 400,000 and 500,000 koku, after all, the Keicho period had already experienced more than ten years of peace in the Oriho period.

In addition, Bizen and Misasaka still have a large number of indigenous people and haonong, and it is very difficult to completely eradicate them, so the only way to do so is to weaken them.

Three or four hundred retainers of the Date family, who are above the captain of the Ashigaru family, and those who have made meritorious contributions, plus the local magnates of Mimasaka Province, a total of more than 500 people, in the evaluation meeting room of this castle full of flags, the Adamasa Tadashi Gong Date Masahiro, who created the great cause of the Date family, will begin to divide up the land of Bizen and Misasaka Province, dividing the land they have longed for for a long time according to the amount of merit. The hearts of the retainers of the Date family were hot, but only the hearts of the local heroes of Bizen and Misasakaku were cold, as cold as the cold wind howling outside.

In the center of the assessment room, there is a huge sand table, with the sea in the south and the mountain in the north, with two avenues in the middle, and several narrow passages in between. It was the first time for many people to see such a clear topographic map, and it was the first time to know the exact location of their home on the map, which also shocked countless people's hearts. Anyone with a little insight knows how much manpower and material resources it takes to draw such an accurate map, which is enough to show that the Date family's capture of Bizen and Misasaka was not caused by overnight luck, but made long-term preparations.

There are also various flags planted on the sand table, which is enough to make people see clearly, all the people present have seen the sand table, some people already know where they are going, and some people still don't have much idea, waiting for Date Zhengheng to come and reveal it.

In fact, how to distribute the land has been completed long after the end of the joint war with Niko Haruhisa before the political balance is prepared, and although some details are still in the works, the overall concept has been roughly completed. For local wealthy families, this reward for meritorious deeds is fortunate and unfortunate.

Fortunately, not everyone disappeared in Mimasaka like the Mimasaka clan, and almost all of the Mimasaka forces were safely retained, except for the Miura clan and his vassals who resisted to the end, but unfortunately they were no longer as independent as before, and could only be attached to the Date family.

Suddenly, the surrounding commotion became silent, the curtain jumped open, and Zhengheng appeared under the follower of the little guy, he stood at the front of the curtain and glanced around at everyone, and the momentum of the superior made everyone feel breathless, and some of the local tyrants who saw it for the first time couldn't help but muttered a few times in their hearts, this head of the family looked not big, but his aura was very powerful, no wonder people called the dragon in Beizhong.

In the dead silence, Zheng Heng had already walked to the first place, sat down, and then looked around again, and said in a low voice: "People, are you here?" His deep voice was deeply imprinted in the hearts of the people, so that they did not dare to gasp for breath at all.

Kawasaki Yorihiro hurriedly stepped forward to report: "Misaku, Bizen Province more than 200 heroes have all arrived. "No one dares to disobey Zhengheng's order now, no one is a fool, and the forces that can survive in the troubled times of the Warring States are all rare smart people, knowing that at this time, the attitude of submissiveness is indispensable to be rewarded, and the tough ones want to be wiped out with the Miura clan. Even the forces that didn't arrive for 200 years came to wander around Takada Castle, but in fact, Niko Haruha sent troops to prepare for the former country, which still greatly damaged the vitality of the small and medium-sized forces of Bizen and Misaku, and swept away half of the forces, and the remnants of these forces were the largest constituents who wandered nearby.

As he spoke, Kawasaki Yorihiro took out a book and read it, his voice echoed in the conference room, and more than 500 people were silent and depressed. (To be continued......)

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