In the gateway to Kagawa Castle in the central region of Kyushu Hyuga Province, Ito Yuki and Ito Yuban and others finally decided to abandon the castle and retreat after some discussion.

As for the placement of Ito's body, after some controversy, Ito Yuki personally made a mistake for Ito Yuan (which can be understood as cutting off the head), and Ito Yuan's head was disposed of with temporarily found lime and put it in a valuable wooden box, and Ito's body was temporarily buried on a hidden hill in a mountain forest near Menchuan Castle.

Standing in this tomb, you can see the whole picture of Kadokawa Castle, maybe Ito Yuki and the others don't want Ito Yuan to sleep here lonely, but can see Kadogawa Castle. However, soon this tomb will see that Menchuan Castle has fallen into the hands of the Luo family's army, which is definitely bad news for the dead Ito Yuan, if he can crawl, he will definitely crawl out of the tomb.

After burying Ito Yuan, Ito Yuki and the others immediately led the army out of Mogawa Castle with the wooden box containing Ito Yuan's head. And the actions of Ito Yuki and the others made Saeki Yunao, who was also running for his life in front, feel nervous.

After all, taking the food in the other party's city without saying a word, and then leaving alone, will definitely make the other party dissatisfied. And his side is in a situation where he is under the fence, so Saeki really doesn't know how the people of the Ito family in the rear Gate Castle will treat them? Therefore, Saeki Yui Nao has been sending people from the rear to monitor the changes in Menchuan Castle, but now he was a little panicked when he learned from the retainers who rushed to the front on horseback to report to him that a large group of people had suddenly appeared in Menchuan Castle.

"Pick up the pace!" In desperation, Saeki had no choice but to order his troops to speed up their escape. The more than 200 people under his command are the foundation of his two fathers and sons' foothold on the territory of the Ito family. So even now. Saeki still hasn't given up on the idea of his command.

Soon. Saeki Yuenao's troops came to the vicinity of San'in Castle of the Mira family, a major retainer of the Ito family, and when Mira Shigenao, who had just fled back to San'in Castle from Matsuo Castle, learned that a large army had passed through his territory, he hurriedly took his command to the side of the nearby road to prepare to meet him.

After that night of fierce fighting with the Luo family's siege army in Matsuo Castle, Mira Shigenao was also hit by an arrow in the arm, but in the end he escaped from the city after a desperate fierce fight, and then without the permission of the main general Ito Yuyasu, he fled back to San'in Castle overnight, and now such a group of troops suddenly appeared. He was really a little worried, it was Ito Yuan who found out that he had escaped, and then settled the accounts with the Autumn Queen.

"I didn't expect that after Matsuo Castle was defended, Ito-sama was still thinking about himself, and he came so quickly." Previously, in order to prevent being settled by the Autumn Queen, in addition to speeding up the mobilization of peasants and soldiers in the city, Mira Shigenao also sent someone with his letter of request for help to rush back to the Mira family's residence Ogawakan to ask for help from Yonera Shigeji, who was an important minister of the Ito family. It seems a little late now.

In this way, Mira Shigenao waited for Saeki to arrive with trepidation, but to his great surprise, the other party obviously had no intention of meeting him, but only sent a retainer to greet him briefly. Then he took his subordinates directly and whistled by like a gust of wind.

"What's going on?"

After returning to San'in Castle, Mira Shigenao, who didn't understand what was going on, sat directly on the tatami mat and touched his head and thought about it. But he didn't think about it for long. Ito's brigade has entered his territory again.

"Is there something going on up ahead?"

Mira Shigenao finally came to his senses at this time. Previously, in his eyes, although Matsuo Castle was captured, but with the Aiyan Fortress in the south of Matsuo Castle and the gateway to Menchuan Castle, the family could completely resist the invasion of the Luo family, but two groups of people passed through his territory in a row, and this time it passed through his territory or Ito Yuki's men and horses who only controlled Menchuan Castle yesterday, even if he was stupid, he found that something was wrong.

So Mira Shigenao immediately led the men out of the city, this time he didn't plan to stand on the side of the road to avoid the people, but directly found Ito Yuki. Fortunately, it seems that for the sake of the relationship between the same camp, Ito Yuki really told Yonera Shigenao all the situation. Of course, after saying that, Ito Yuki neither let Mira Shigenao follow him to retreat, nor did he let Mira Shigenao stay in San'in Castle and prepare to meet the army of the Luo family that was pursuing in the rear, but left directly.

Looking at Ito Yuki's soldiers who kept passing in front of him, Mira Shigenao was really a little dumbfounded. Unexpectedly, he only left for a day, not only did the main general Ito Yuan die, but even Ai Yanqi fell, and even Menchuan Castle was abandoned by Ito Yuki.

"This?" Mira Shigenao was really a little confused, but it seemed that he immediately thought of something, and even exclaimed: "No." ”

Why did he exclaim? That's when he finally realized that with Ito Yuki abandoning Kamogawa Castle, the next target of the Luo family's chasing army that followed behind him could only be his own San'in Castle. Originally, he thought that there were Aiyan Castle, Menchuan Castle and other castles in the north to resist, and it would be fine for him to live in the city as the rear, but now he sees that he is about to be impacted by the Luo family's army.

The most depressing thing is that his San'in Castle is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and only the east side faces the sea. In this case, as long as the Luo family left a team to block their way out, they would be able to completely besiege themselves.

"Nope." Thinking of this, Mira Shigenao shouted again, and then rode directly back to San'in Castle, and then gave the order to evacuate. Since Saeki Yuinao, Ito Yuki and others have retreated in front of them, even if they retreat, they will not be blamed much in the future. As for their own territory? Even his life is gone, and he still cares about the gains and losses of the territory.

So, not long after Ito Yuki's army passed, Mira Shigenao led hundreds of people to retreat with valuables in the city. At this time, Takasaka Masanobu had just met with Li Huamei, who had already captured the empty city of Mogawa Castle in advance.

"So?"

Even Masanobu Takasaka was surprised to learn that the defenders of Mogawa Castle had abandoned the city and fled, and that Li Huamei's navy had simply taken over an empty city.

"Two adults, the detectives of the family have reported back, and the defenders in the Ito family's San'in City also seem to be packing up supplies, and it seems that there is a trend of abandoning the city and fleeing." Just when Takasaka Masanobu and Li Huamei were still surprised, the detective, who was in charge of riding a horse to investigate the situation in advance, sent back an urgent report.

"Oh?" After hearing the news, Takasaka Masanobu immediately glanced at Li Huamei. Immediately, both seemed to understand the meaning in each other's eyes.

"Huh!" After chuckling, Takasaka Masanobu simply said directly, "Since that's the case, then I'll just follow directly behind the other party and see what else we can gain, what do you think?" ”

"That's right." Li Huamei immediately agreed. Last night, Takasaka Masanobu discussed with Li Huamei that Li Huamei's navy would take advantage of the swiftness of the waterway to block the enemy's retreat in advance, and then Takasaka Masanobu's army, which arrived by land later, would jointly attack the front and rear to defeat the other side. But now that the enemy army has taken the initiative to give up the fortress so wisely, why not slowly follow behind the enemy army and force the enemy army to give up more fortresses and territories?

Anyway, thanks to the support of Li Huamei's navy, as long as they captured the castles and territories along the way, Li Huamei's fleet would quickly send troop transports back to Matsuo Castle (which would be faster by water than by land), and the Luo family personnel from Higo Province (via the mountain road of Nakayama Castle) and Bungo Province (transported from the coast of Bungo Province through Li Huamei's sailor army left in Matsuo Castle) would come to receive them. These personnel include the retainers of the Luo family in the Luo Family Intelligence Cabinet, the Military Cabinet, and the Internal Affairs Cabinet, as well as the peasant soldiers who were temporarily recruited in various places.

With the help of these people, Takasaka Masanobu and Li Huamei's army only needed to be responsible for capturing the castle and territory, and the rest of the reception and logistical support could be taken over by these personnel who arrived later. Anyway, with the truthful registration of the military eyes of the army, their military exploits and post-war rewards for capturing cities and territories will not be reduced. Even if you die in battle, military merits and rewards will be counted as part of the bereavement pension and handed over to the standing family.

Now that we have such a stable logistical support, we should simply continue the offensive and try our best to capture more territories and cities. Thinking of this, after Takasaka Masanobu and Li Huamei looked at each other again and smiled, they immediately left a small number of personnel to wait for the arrival of the rear receivers, and then each led the army to continue the pursuit.

As a result, under the different expressions of the parties, a strange scene appeared on the central plain of the Ito family territory of Kyushu Hyuga Province. In front, the army of the Ito family and the Saeki family was divided into three lines, the front, the middle, and the rear, and the army formation that was not connected was fleeing rapidly, and behind them, the army of the Luo family, water and land, was pursuing.

And just as the parties were staging a strange pursuit game on the land of Hyuga Province, Masayo, who was in Bungo Province, finally received a report about the situation in Matsuo Castle sent back by Li Huamei's navy.

"The big picture is decided." After reading the report, he learned that not only had Matsuo Castle been captured, but also that the various logistical personnel and support forces that the family had prepared for a long time were about to arrive (in fact, when Masara received this report, various reinforcements such as Li Huamei and Higo Province had already arrived at Matsuo Castle). A battle in southern Kyushu, which he began to lay out more than half a year ago, has finally entered the time to start closing the net.

(I wish all of you who are reading a book a happy Lantern Festival.) (To be continued......)