At the beginning of the summer of the seventeenth year of Astronomy, after leaving Togo Heiji and Shinnosuke Akabane in charge of the overall reception of the new territory occupied by Higo Kunishi, Masarashi once again led a large army to Aso Prefecture, the old nest of the Omiya family.

The troops who marched with Masara this time were respectively more than 90 people in cloak and more than 300 samurai teams were on stand. The reason why it is not full is because in the Higo Raiders, some cloaked people and samurai were injured and can only stay in a safe area for the time being to continue treatment.

In addition, the first standing ashigaru team of more than 400 people under the command of Tankane, Tetsunosuke, and Asakura Sodri was executed; The sixth standing ashigaru team of more than 400 people led by Nobuyin of Enjoji Temple, Kumon Shigetada, Kuroki Minori, and Masamune of the Luo clan will be the main force of this Aso County raid. And a total of more than 300 people in Feigo, the army of the Chenghao clan in various parts of the country will also advance with the army.

Due to Kai's request to continue his rebellion, Masarashi left the 7th Standing Ashigaru Brigade under his command in the Higo area, Yoshikawa Kokei and Uemura Hontsuna left behind, while Takasaka Masanobu continued to advance with the team. The mission left behind by Kai Jinnao and others was to assist the Cabinet of Internal Affairs under the command of Togo Heiji and Shinnosuke Akabane to speed up the reception of the newly occupied territories in Higo.

Since the eastern part of Higo was mainly mountainous and not suitable for cavalry operations, the first standing cavalry team under the command of Isono Homamasa was also left behind to assist Togo Heiji and Shinnosuke Akabane.

Due to the difficulty of the mountain road, Masarashi abandoned the plan to pass directly through Karashijo Castle and follow the mountain road into the hinterland of the Omiya Tsukasa family, and instead entered Iwao Castle in Kamiyijo-gun from Kenshida Castle, and joined up with Kato Danzo and Aso Yuenaga who were stationed there. Only then did we enter the foothills of the southern side of Mt. Aso.

Mt. Aso, where active volcanoes and hot springs are widespread, divides Aso Prefecture into two major basins: the north and the south. The place where the Masashi army was located was the small Minami Aso Basin. The main castle of the Omiya family, Hama-no-kan, and the important town of Yuura Castle are located in the Kita-Aso Basin on the other side of Mt. Aso.

By the end of June, Masara's army had marched to the shores of the Kurokawa River on the border with Minami-Aso. The Kurokawa River is a small river formed by the Aso volcanic lake, and if you cross this small river, you will officially enter the Aso Prefecture.

"Kansuke, I'm going to enter Kitaso by July." Masara said as he looked at the bonfire in front of him. July is the official start of summer, and such a season is very unfavorable for marching and fighting in the mountains and forests.

Unlike the tourist attractions that have been planned and built in later generations, the area around Mt. Aso at this time is full of wilderness. Even the mountain roads that are often crossed by mountain people are actually rough and difficult to navigate. In such weather, not only do you have to endure the sweltering heat, but you also need to be on guard against mosquitoes, snakes and rats, especially the almost ubiquitous dryland locusts. In addition, the rugged mountain roads have brought great trouble to the transportation of grain and grass in logistics. Therefore, in such an environment, the longer the march drags on, the lower the morale of the army will be, even if it is trained and experienced in several battles.

At this time, Kansuke Yamamoto, who was the military advisor of the army, wore a square scarf on his head and a cloth feather weave on the outside of his armor, and sat by the campfire. Seeing Masahiro's figure, he stood up suddenly. Push the handsome he was sitting in front of Zhengliang.

"My lord, according to the news that Black Hawk returned this evening. It seems that General Aso in the Hama-no-kan has just learned about the changes under the castle of Kenshida, and there is chaos in the Hama-no-kan during this war. ”

"Hmm. It's about the same in time. Masarashi nodded. After the first battle under the castle of Kenshida, it only took a few days for the Luo family to sweep away many areas of Higo, although there were rugged mountain roads, but during this time, those defeated soldiers of the Otomo family alliance should also be able to rush back to the Omiya family to report the news.

Kansuke Yamamoto looked at the sparkling Kurokawa outside the camp. "What does the lord plan to do with Aso Weifeng?"

"Do you have any objections to my disposition of Aso Weifeng?" Masara asked. After a close meeting with Kai in Wuzi City, Masara also personally met with Aso Weifeng, who had become a prisoner of the Luo family. After Aso Weifeng personally promised to surrender to the Luo family, and under the pleading of Jia Fei, Masara promised to spare the lives of Aso Weifeng's two fathers and sons. Kansuke Yamamoto raised this question at this time, and he must have had his own thoughts on this.

Kansuke Yamamoto glanced at Masara and silently added firewood to the campfire. In the mountain wind, smoke rose from the crackling firewood and drifted from Masahiro's side towards the other side of the Kurokawa.

"Lord, although after the surrender of the two fathers and sons of Aso Weifeng, the family will definitely transfer them, but the lord is afraid that this will chill the hearts of some of the other retainers, and even if the two fathers and sons of Asu Weifeng are transferred, but they will not die for a day, the people of Aso County will not have a sense of belonging to the lord, and the lord should not forget the rebellion in the territory a few years ago!" Kansuke Yamamoto is obviously persuading Masarashi to break his promise and get rid of the two fathers and sons.

After listening to Kansuke Yamamoto's words, Masarashi groaned. As the territory becomes larger and larger, Zhengliang is indeed more and more worried when thinking about things. As far as the disposal of Asu Weifeng's two fathers and sons is concerned, Zhengliang is more concerned about using this to buy the Feifei family, so he finally decided to just transfer the two fathers and sons of Asu Weifeng. On the other hand, Kansuke Yamamoto looked at this matter from the perspective of fundamentally ensuring the stability of the Luo family, so he raised objections.

"My lord, it is necessary to temporarily appease the two fathers and sons of Aso Weifeng, so as to successfully take Aso County and let more local wealthy families join our family, but we can fabricate an excuse for rebellion afterwards and take the opportunity to get rid of them. In fact, all it takes is a glass of poisoned wine to quietly settle the matter. Kansuke Yamamoto saw that Masato was moved by his suggestion, so he continued to whisper.

"You can't do it too early, at least you can't do it until the family completely controls the fat queen, and these local wealthy families are completely divided into various places and cannot be united." Masahiro looked at the black shadow in the distance and whispered from the mountain forest.

"The lord is wise!" Yamamoto Kansuke knew that Masara Michichi agreed with his suggestion, and immediately received the order.

The conversation between Masara and Yamamoto Kansuke that decided the fate of the two fathers and sons, Aso Yutoyo, was of course not known to others. After resting on the banks of the Kurokawa River for the night, the army officially crossed the Kurokawa River on the second day, and then bypassed several lines of defense of the Omiya family at great speed, and directly arrived at the main castle of the Omiya family.

Under the persuasion of Aso Weifeng, Hamanokan officially announced his surrender, and then the rest of the Aso family retainers also surrendered one after another, and the Masashi soldiers took Aso County without succession. At this point, the entire Higo country, except for the most rearly half of the ball mill county, has been included in the territory of the Luo family's power.

According to the preliminary statistics of the Internal Affairs Cabinet, the total income of the Luo family has reached about 900,000 stones. (To be continued......)