After Yu Qiuping left the residence of Tetori Castle, Honda Tadakatsu and others immediately came up to him.
"How are you, Your Highness?" a guard asked anxiously.
"The talks have collapsed." Yu Qiuping spit out these words quickly, "We originally wanted to use His Highness Hatakeyama's appeal to call on the wealthy families in Hanoi to join us in attacking the Miyoshi family. But His Highness Hatakeyama insisted on taking control of Hanoi by himself, and we couldn't.
Accept it, even the lord cannot accept it."
"This old fool!" Another one of Yu Qiuping's guards scolded angrily: "You are putting on airs, living in the past, and not understanding current affairs at all. Do you think the Hatakeyama family is still the third in charge? You really don't know what is good and what is good.
.”
"Yes, he is indeed an ignorant fool." Yu Qiuping replied with a smile, "Let's go back."
But aren’t I, Hanbei, and Nagamasa all ignorant fools?
Yu Qiuping and his party slowly left Setori Castle, but they did not notice that on the roof of the fourth floor of the Setori Castle castle tower, there was a vicissitudes of middle-aged man, holding on to the railing, watching them leave.
·
When Yu Qiuping returned from the original route of Hanoi, he found that the deployment of the Sanhao family had changed. Most of the troops staying in Hanoi were gathering towards Gao'an County, Daxian County, and Shechuan County, which was much farther south than the original deployment.
.
"What does this mean?" Yu Qiuping was a little confused about the change in the Sanhao family's deployment, but he still managed to cross the blockade by changing his clothes. When he entered Ruojiang County, he immediately understood the change in the Sanhao family's deployment.
The reason——On Ruojiang City, the red leaf flag is flying high.
"Ancheng, how did you do it?" After Yu Qiuping led the guards into Ruojiang City, Fukushima Anchor immediately brought people over to greet him.
"Reporting to Your Highness. After Lord Takenaka received the news from you that the number of Miyoshi troops in the Ruojiang area was limited, he immediately formulated a battle plan and launched an attack. The Miyoshi family did not expect that we would attack so fast. The reinforcements had just arrived in Gao'an County.
, we have captured Ruojiang City, Ruojiang County, and Hanoi County, a total of more than 48,000 stones of territory!"
"Do you have enough people?" Yu Qiuping was a little surprised, "Can you do so many things with less than 800 soldiers?"
"No, Mr. Takenaka sent out all the more than 1,200 soldiers who were still training. Under the leadership of Zhongxiu, Shengzheng, and Yudong, they followed the main force to bluff. Those defenders didn't know that they were all new recruits.
They were all dressed in tatters and had only inferior items such as bamboo guns. They thought they were elites like the platoon below, so they abandoned the city and ran away."
"Hanbei's move is good! It's a bluff! Haha! It also uses battle as training to let the new recruits adapt to the battlefield!" Yu Qiuping heard this and smiled with satisfaction, "We have captured another nearly 50,000 stone territory, which is really a bumper harvest.
Ah. In this way, we will have nearly half of the territory of Hanoi under our control."
"But Your Highness, the Miyoshi family's reinforcements have also arrived at a faster pace because of the fall of Wakae." Fukushima Yasunari said with some worry, "According to the intelligence, Miyoshi Yoshihiro and Miyoshi's trio had already rushed back to Hanoi the day before yesterday.
Izumi, the total number of Miyoshi troops in front of us may have exceeded 14,000."
"So much!" Yu Qiuping's face changed when he heard this. In the Kinki area, due to its dense population, the daimyo's mobilization capacity is generally greater than in other places. Currently, the amount of Izumi in Hanoi controlled by the Miyoshi family totals approximately
He only had about 260,000 dan, but he could muster an army of 14,000 people.
"And there is no way to solve the food and grass problem." Fukushima Yasunari shook his head and said, "For this operation, we used a lot of military rations and recruited many hungry people as auxiliary troops, which also consumed a lot of food. We
The current food reserves can ensure that the residents of Tokiwa Prep and Maple Leaf Mountain Castle will last until mid-November at most."
"Master Takenaka originally wanted to plunder the autumn harvest grain and grass from Miyoshi's family in Wakae County in Hanoi County, but after the raid, he discovered that the grain and grass had long been transported back to Takaya Castle." Fukushima Yasunari's expression became even lower when he mentioned this, "
Your Highness, please think of a solution quickly, otherwise we will starve ourselves before the Miyoshi family comes over. In order to defend Wakae City, we have brought almost all of Tokiwabi's army here, and the training of new recruits is also being carried out here in Wakae City.
But the food has to be transported from Maple Leaf Mountain City, and countless food is consumed on the road every day."
"I understand. I will go back to Maple Leaf Mountain Castle right now. The money for Yoshibei and the Mitsubishi Caravan should be here soon. I will go and think of a solution." Yu Qiuping nodded towards Fukushima Yasunari and asked again, "
The guarding of Ruojiang City will be left to you and Charlie. If you feel you have enough strength, you can build a few bastions around it as auxiliary defense fortifications."
Having said this, Yu Qiuping suddenly became confused and asked again: "If you bring the whole army here, who will defend Maple Leaf Mountain City?"
"Don't worry, Your Highness. Sanada-sama said that because the Honganji Temple and the Miyoshi family are in a state of hostility, the Miyoshi Army in the Settsu area north of Maple Leaf Mountain Castle has all gathered near Arioka Castle to guard Ishiyama Gozuki Castle. Maple Leaf Mountain Castle is not in danger."
Shima Yasunari replied confidently.
"That's fine." Yu Qiuping nodded and was about to turn around and leave. Suddenly he remembered something and said with a relaxed smile: "By the way, An Cheng, please make arrangements. Thompson wants to get together with everyone for a drink."
"Huh?" Fukushima Yasunari was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then a happy smile appeared at the corner of his mouth: "Young foreigner? That's really great."
·
After Yu Qiuping hurried back to Maple Leaf Mountain City, Sena Ujiyoshi and the military industry department, caravans, agents, judges and a large amount of money led by him also arrived at Maple Leaf Mountain City. According to him, the second batch of relocated family members is estimated to have also arrived.
It's already on its way, and Kaede Imagawa will be responsible for organizing that trip.
"You came just in time." Yu Qiuping finally waited for his iron rooster, "I will give you all the accounts related to food, house repairs, armament manufacturing, and training. You can calculate for me whether we have enough money.
!”
After arranging for Sena Uji to settle accounts immediately, Yu Qiupei also sent the acting officials and judges to the territory to be responsible for taxation and law respectively. Normally, Naoe Tadayei is responsible for the affairs of the acting officials, but now that he is away, Yu Qiuping has to take charge of it himself.
As for the judges and the formulation of laws for the new territory, Yu Qiuping left them all to Amano Keitoku.
Most of the territories that agents and judges were sent to were the half of the 120,000 stone territory in Yu Qiuping's hands that originally belonged to the direct jurisdiction of the Samhao family. The other half of the territory was under the control of Hanoi's wealthy family. Yu Qiuping did not dare to go there for the time being.
Move them, because these wealthy families are closely related to the Sanhao family. If they threaten their territory, and those wealthy families unite to launch an attack in response to the Sanhao family's attack, then everything will be over for the Yuqiu family.
After all these tasks were completed, it was already October 25th, and Sena Shiyi settled the accounts and obtained
The conclusion drawn is not optimistic.
"Hongye, although Mitsubishi Caravan does have strong assets, it has now entered the loan repayment period, and the funds that can be transferred are not too much." Sena Shiyoshi held a thick stack of ledgers in his hand and said to Yu with a low expression.
Qiupei said: "The purchase of military rations is now the first priority, followed by the purchase of building materials for residents to spend the winter, and then the money for training and ordnance manufacturing."
"Food is not bad. The Kinki region has a bumper harvest this year. Food in Sakai Town is not too expensive. But if we want to build houses for so many people for the winter, the cost of building materials will be nearly 100,000 kiwan even by the most conservative estimate. And Joban
The cost of preparing all the necessary equipment, such as long guns, short knives, and especially iron cannons, would add up to 70,000 yuan, not counting the cost of training. Moreover, Maple Leaf Mountain Castle was severely damaged by the fire, so the cost of repairs was conservative.
It is estimated that it will require 40,000 guan."
"The total funds that the Mitsubishi Caravan can mobilize at this moment is only 220,000 guan. It can only squeeze out 10,000 guan at most to buy food. At the current price, it can buy enough to feed more than 50,000 people for about forty days.
of food.”
"Forty days?" Yu Qiuping counted with his fingers, "The current military rations can still last until mid-November...that is, it can barely last until the end of this year. But what about next year? What will happen next year?"
"Hongye, I strongly advise you not to waste Mitsubishi Caravan's funds like this." When Sena Shiyi heard that Yu Qiuping planned to invest all the funds in production, he couldn't help but become anxious: "Mitsubishi Caravan is a
We can only place orders for chickens. These working capital are hard earned over the past five or six years. Relying on them to snowball, our business can grow bigger and bigger, the more money we make, and more and more can be supplied to Hongye.
.But if Momiji spends them all now, it will be useless to kill the goose that lays eggs. The Mitsubishi Caravan will have to start over from scratch like it was five or six years ago! After that, the expenses of the Yuqiu family will not be sustainable at all! What’s more, we just arrived from Ono.
We are doing business in Kinki, a place we are unfamiliar with, and we need more funds to squeeze into the Kinki market. How can we allocate all the working capital at this time!"
Yu Qiuping knew what Sena Shiyi said was very reasonable, but at this moment, he had no choice. If he didn't spend money to sell food, everyone would starve to death. If he didn't spend money to repair their houses, these more than 50,000 hungry people would
I don't know how many people can survive the severe winter. If we don't spend money on training and manufacturing armaments, then Tsukiwabei will be unable to fight at all, and he will not be able to survive in these four war areas.
"If the skin is gone, how can the hair be attached?" Yu Qiuping sighed and shook his head helplessly, "If the Yu Qiu family can't defend this Maple Leaf Mountain City, what's the use of having so much money?"
"Momiji!" Sena Shiyoshi's eyes were red with anxiety, and he almost quarreled with Yu Qiuping, "Are you going to throw away all these years of hard work? If Maple Leaf Mountain Castle is not defended, it will not be defended. The worst we can do is go back to Owari.
ah!"
"If the mission fails, if I go back to Owari, I may never be trusted again. Moreover, Shibata-sama, Mori-senpai, and Sakuma-sama have all obtained fiefdoms of more than 100,000 koku. If I return to Owari now,
There will be only those 70,000 stones left, and I will no longer be able to compete with them." Yu Qiuping shook his head resolutely, and said in a deep voice: "What's more, I promised the tens of thousands of people in Maple Leaf Mountain City, as long as the Yu Qiu family is still there.
, we have to protect Maple Leaf Mountain City, how can we not keep our word?"
Just when Yu Qiupei and Sena Shiyi were arguing, Ryuko suddenly came in and reported: "Your Highness, several businessmen from Sakai Town and Ishiyama Town are visiting!"