No matter what era we live in, we still have dreams. This dream that gives life the courage to survive is sometimes called ambition or ambition, the meaning of survival, and so on. Over the course of a person's life, dreams are constantly being constructed, collapsing, collapsing, and re-established.

In short, in the autumn of the 23rd year of Astronomy (1554 in the Western calendar), Aki Kuni was a battlefield between the thirty-three-year-old "Unparalleled Shogun of the Western Kingdom" Yoshicho Ouchi, the twenty-two-year-old "Aki Eagle" Mori Takakei, the twenty-one-year-old strongest pirate Murakami Takeyoshi, and the twenty-year-old one-eyed dragon Date Masaki.

Ouchi Yoshinaga, Mori Takakei, and Murakami Takeshi were not harmonious, and there were also suspicions and contradictions, which was the key to Date Masaki being able to take advantage of the final victory, but when Ouchi Yoshinaga no longer maintained his original offensive posture, he began to build a fortress in Silver Mountain Castle and wait for work. On the other hand, Mori Takakei also put on a posture of defending to the end in Yamashiro, Yoshida-gun, looking forward to realizing the glory of the last resistance to Niko Haruha again, Date Masaki had to stop his rapid expansion and stop at Aki to think about how to deal with it next.

The pace of history does not cease to turn because a few people stopped.

In short, when Date Masahiro was still thinking about how to deal with the cage castle of Ouchi Yoshicho and Mori Takakei who echoed each other from afar, in the distant Shikoku, the addition of another group of elites of the era made this war more complicated, and also made Date Masahiro have to give up the decision to conquer Ouchi Yoshicho and Mori Takakei by force, at least for a short time to temporarily stop this war that determines the general trend of the western country.

In the distant Shikoku Saki Kuni Katsuga Castle, evening. Uematsu was looking out at the quieter ground outside the city. One side is close to Xiangxi Yuancheng. He muttered, "My lord." Look at whether those Dongtan turtles are stupid, at the beginning there were some rangers who came to die, but in the past ten days and half a month, it has been a lot quieter, and I haven't seen a single figure of them. ”

Kasai Motosei smiled and said, "I'm afraid that the news of the battle of Kojima Bay has reached their ears, and they originally wanted to take advantage of the confrontation between the Date family and the Ouchi family to harass my family, but now, hehe." Young master, what have you done? ”

Of course, Uematsu Zimasa knew what Kasai Motosei meant by asking this, but he said calmly: "The young master will no longer have the slightest complaint after hearing about the battle of Kojima Bay, but please also ask the lord to go to greet his relatives, otherwise once the Date family annexes the Chinese region, the weight of my family will be greatly weakened." ”

Xiangxi Yuancheng knew that Zhisong Zizheng was Lao Cheng's opinion, nodded and said, "That's right!" ”

The soldiers on the tower shouted: "City lord, there is an army ahead!" ”

Xiangxi Yuancheng and others hurriedly came up to the city wall, and saw a small group of people coming faintly in the direction of the east. He immediately shouted: "Order all the soldiers to go to the city at once, and prepare for battle!" ”

"Yes!" Several messengers took orders. Run down the tower.

Xiangxi Yuancheng drew his saber, clenched the hilt of the knife in his hand, and the ten rivers did not attack for several days in a row, he was feeling strange, he did not expect that they would choose this time to plunder. He didn't think about it any further, because he soon found that the men and horses that were coming from outside the city were not the ones that survived from the ten rivers.

There were not many people in this team, only five or six hundred, and they were all dressed like the Xiangxi family, but they were a lot of tattered, and the weapons were not neat. One of the people in the team came out of the group, and when he arrived at the bottom of the city, he shouted: "Brother, I am Xiangxi Motomasa, Shihe Yicun led an army of 3,000 to besiege Xigang City, Xigang City fell, I gathered the remnants of the army all the way and fled west, please take it in." ”

Zhi Songzi Zheng frowned, took a closer look at the truffle torches at the head of the city, turned back to Xiangxi Yuancheng and said, "Lord, it is indeed Xiangxi Yuanzheng." ”

When Xiangxi Yuancheng heard this, he called several people to carefully identify the soldiers in the ranks under the city, and sure enough, most of them knew that it was the defenders of Xigang City and the remnants of the nearby soldiers, and there was no doubt that he was there, so he still put the knife in the sheath, waved his hand, and said, "Open the door!" ”

The sound of the wooden bolt twitching, the city gate was slowly opened, and the three or four hundred soldiers waiting outside the gate approached the city gate one after another, and the formation was chaotic and random, like a group of travelers from afar, anxious to enter the city to drink water, eat a full meal, and then sleep beautifully.

Uematsu suddenly found that these soldiers who seemed to move casually, their expressions did not look like a long drought and nectar, and some of them often looked at the city tower, as if they were a little nervous, and when the city gate began to open, many people's right hands were inadvertently placed on the left side of their waists.

The intuition cultivated by years of military service woke up Uematsu Zimasa, and he suddenly drew his knife and shouted, "There is fraud! Close the city gate~! When the defenders of the city heard the exclamation of the elder, they couldn't react for a while, and they looked at Xiangxi Yuancheng on the spot. Xiangxi Yuancheng was also a little stunned at the moment, at a loss.

Shihe Yicun said coldly: "I only found out now, it's too late!" The soldiers who had just entered the city gate immediately killed several soldiers who were on the spot, and the city gate was occupied by someone at once, and then three or four hundred soldiers all rushed in, and countless infantry appeared in the dark shadows outside the city.

I have always liked the ghost Shihe who went straight to the city, and Shihe Yicun led the personal guards to rush into the city immediately, and cut down when he saw people, and the dozen or so soldiers who were responsible for opening the door under the city gate barely drew their knives, and they were already in a different place. Seeing this on the city tower, Xiangxi Yuancheng shouted: "Xiangxi Yuanzheng, you traitor! Block it for me! ”

Shihe Yicun glanced coldly at Xiangxi Yuancheng on the city tower, kicked over a soldier who dared to stand in front of him, and then several ashigaru behind him were slashed and killed, and shouted loudly: "Kill with me, and the one who captures the head of Xiangxi Yuancheng will be rewarded!" ”

At this moment, more and more soldiers gathered outside Katsuga City, and suddenly more than ten huge fires were lit, and the firelight illuminated Katsuga City in the night, highlighting the bloody battlefield to an incomparably terrifying and miserable place. The low and loud sound of a war snail suddenly sounded again, and the Miyoshi coalition launched its first large-scale attack, and more than 2,500 soldiers rushed towards the city gate in an orderly manner.

Kasai Motonari led more than 30 guards and rushed towards the surging enemy, the city gate had been opened, and the defeat of Katsuga Castle was inevitable, and he was making a final effort, praying for a miracle to expel Tokawa Ichiku from Katsuga Castle.

Xiangxi Yuancheng fought hard, took the lead, and brandished his sword to kill the enemy group. Encountering an enemy soldier with several long arrows in his body, Agashigami walked with the knife, grabbed into the opponent's flank, and hacked the enemy to death with one sword. Immediately after that, he fell into the fierce siege of the three soldiers of the other side. The soldiers around him kept screaming and fell. No one retreated, everyone was red-eyed, and they forgot what life was.

Zhi Songzi saw that Xiangxi Yuancheng was in a desperate situation, and led more than ten people to rush up with a shout, and after slashing and killing several people, he protected Xiangxi Yuancheng, and knocked: "Lord, you can't do anything, retreat!" He crossed the sea to prepare for China and asked for troops from Date to send troops. ”

Xiang Xi Yuancheng saw more and more guards die in battle. Before he died, one of the guards slashed and cut off one of the enemy's legs. The enemy with the broken leg was immediately stabbed several times, but he found a cushion on his back, and he was pierced through the body by a single shot, and he cut off the hands of the gunman. The man's hands were chopped off, and the screams were so heart-rending that he didn't even notice the knife that had been inserted into his chest. The two soldiers collided in anger, each stabbing their knives into each other's bodies.

There are fewer and fewer people around Xiangxi Yuancheng, knowing that the general trend has gone, he sighed and issued an order to retreat, but it is not an easy thing to retreat, obviously the Miyoshi army is not ready to be annihilated, and the night has advantages and disadvantages for both sides, and they quickly rushed out of Katsuga City.

Outside Katsuga Castle, Miyoshi Minoru looked at Katsuga Castle in the bloody battle and muttered: "These people of Xiang Xijia are really tenacious, if they want to break through, we really can't stop them much?!" "The reason why Shihe Yicun is fighting on the front line is precisely because there is his brother Miyoshi Shixiu in the main formation, and Shihe Yicun has no worries to charge forward.

On the contrary, Matsunaga Xiu, who was standing not far from Miyoshi Minoru Xiu, raised his head slightly and said with a flattering smile: "Fengzen Palace, if we fight hard, we will definitely lose a lot, but I'm afraid that Date Bimasa's matter is a little troublesome." ”

Although Miyoshi Shixiu didn't like Matsunaga Hide's actions, but he was not as evil as his other two brothers, he glanced at Matsunaga Hide, and said: "In the battle of Kojima Bay, Date Himasa won a complete victory, and it can be said that he is already the overlord who has firmly ranked first in the western country, if he is given a period of rest and recuperation, he will have the strength to intervene in the country, and now he will be able to defeat the nearest Xiangxi family first, so that the other people can know who can protect their territory and family name." ”

Matsunaga Xiu also guessed the meaning of eighty or ninety percent from the words of Miyoshi Shixiu, and knew that Miyoshi Shixiu had the meaning of accepting it when he saw it, so he smiled and said: "The meaning of the Fengzen Palace, I understand, the subordinate will return to Kinai to report to the lord, I don't know what the Bunzen Hall has to say to the subordinate to bring." ”

Miyoshi Shixiu thought for a while and said, "No need, brother knows what to do?" ”

Matsunaga Shu replied yes and retreated, with a hint of coldness in his eyes.

Historically, when Mao Li Yuan killed Tao Qingxian on Itsukushima, I don't know if Miyoshi Changqing sent troops and horses to take advantage of the fire to rob, I am afraid that Miyoshi Changqing was not optimistic about the weak Mao Li Yuan before the war, so he killed Tao Qingxian in one fell swoop in a short period of time, and ended the Itsukushima Battle without a timely response.

Anyway, in this time and space, due to the strong rise of Date Masaki, especially after seizing the land of Nishiharima Prefecture and marrying Nishimoto, Miyoshi Chokei has paid attention to it from the beginning to now, and the seizure of Izaki Castle is obviously a manifestation of the arrogance of Date Masaki. (To be continued......)