In Suo Province, Nagafu Castle is located across the Tsushima Strait from Moji Castle.
After the war with the Otomo clan, Mori Motonari moved here from his main castle in Aki and remotely directed the war in Kyushu.
In fact, the other side was now in the hands of the Mori army, and it would be more convenient for him to command from Moji Castle. But that would affect the authority of his two sons, restricting their hands and feet, which would be detrimental to the battle.
Moreover, since the serious illness the year before, Mori Motonari's health had collapsed, and he could not stand the heavy military duties. He sadly accepted the advice of his two sons and recuperated in the Nagafu while steering the battle.
Sometimes things just go against one's will. In the past few months, the war on the front line has reached a stalemate. Material supply and personnel replacement are all proceeding step by step, and there is not much disturbing news. It is also said that the naval forces of various families in Kyushu were retaliated by the Ming Dynasty fleet because of the reckless sneak attack by the Matsuura family before. Even the Bungo navy of the Otomo family was not spared. It is said that Wakabayashi Zhenxing even lost one eye.
On the contrary, the territory of the Mori family, which had been peaceful for many years, became unstable, and troubles occurred one after another.
First, the general of the Amago clan, Yamanaka Kanosuke, who had escaped before, contacted 350 remaining retainers of the Amago clan after years of secret work. He also found the orphan of the Amago clan who had become a monk in Tofukuji Temple in Kyoto, and changed his name to Amago Katsuhisa after returning him to secular life, making him the flag bearer of the Amago clan's revival.
However, facing the resourceful and warlike Mori father and son, Kanosuke did not dare to act rashly. It was not until the main force of the Mori army was dragged in northern Kyushu that he thought the opportunity had come, and he resolutely raised the banner of the "Amago Restoration Army". With the help of Naza Nihonsuke, the former admiral of the Amago clan and the commander of the Tango navy, he landed from Oki Island via Miho Pass and announced the restoration of the Amago clan.
The Amago family was of noble birth and had once been the governor of eleven provinces in western Honshu. Although they have now been destroyed, there are countless survivors of their old retainers such as Kanosuke and Nihonsuke. Soon the re-establishment army expanded to 3,000 people, and using Mayama Castle as a base, they began to attack the former Amago family's main castle, Tsukiyama Tomita Castle.
Mori Motonari was very surprised when he heard the news and quickly mobilized troops from Suo and other places to reinforce. He cleverly deployed his troops and used the favorable terrain to defeat Kanosuke's attack.
Seeing that he could not retake Tsukiyama Tomita Castle, Kanosuke turned his troops to Iwami and Hoki. Wherever he went, former retainers of the Amago clan joined him, and the momentum was very great.
This kind of rebellion by the former master is the most difficult to quell. It is necessary to use superior forces and achieve an overwhelming victory to make those half-hearted guys give up completely. Otherwise, if you relax for a moment, they will revive again.
Unfortunately, the main force of the Mori army was in northern Kyushu, and the troops left behind were mostly not very reliable... The Mori family started from too low a point, and the foundations of the Amago family and the Ouchi family were too strong, so that Mori Motonari had already exhausted the best years of his life just to complete the snake swallowing the elephant.
In order to quickly integrate the armed forces in the territory, he adopted a relatively relaxed system of the two rivers, retaining a large number of fiefs and armies of the retainers of the Niwa and Ouchi families. These people were grateful and fought effectively in normal times. But now that the old master has raised the banner of "revitalization", how can these people not be shaken? It is not uncommon for them to let the enemy go, secretly aid the enemy, or even turn against the enemy.
Judging the situation, Mori Motonari could only use both kindness and force to win over the hearts of the people, while at the same time ordering all cities to take a defensive stance to temporarily avoid the enemy's attack until the beginning of next spring when his two sons were free.
~~
We took great pains here and finally made all the arrangements, but unexpectedly we received news from the other side - the Ouchi family is also going to rise again!
Ouchi Teruhiro actually obtained a letter of recognition from Kyoto and was about to return to the periphery under the escort of the Bungo navy - Izumo Province was the base of the Amago family, and Suo and Nagato countries were the headquarters of the Ouchi family.
A few days ago, after receiving this news from Kitakyushu, Mori Motonari could not sleep at night.
The rebellion of the Amago and Ouchi families was not terrible in itself. He did not take it seriously when the two families were at their peak. Now it was just a resurgence of the dead. What was there to be afraid of? What was terrible was that behind these two people were the shadows of Otomo Sorin and Oda Nobunaga.
The former is easy to say, the purpose is nothing more than to make him unable to take care of himself and have to withdraw from Jiuzhou. The latter is a big devil who will see the flaw and make a fatal blow!
Now he is already struggling to cope with the situation because of Kanosuke. If Ouchi Teruhiro also lands and causes chaos, he will have to withdraw his troops to northern Kyushu to quell the rebellion to prevent Oda Nobunaga from finding an opportunity to start a war.
Therefore, he approved Kobayakawa's order to dispatch the Yashirojima navy to support Akihoura, and ordered the Injima navy to patrol the Bizen and Bingo waters to prevent the enemy from just making a feint and landing elsewhere.
After the order was passed down, Mao Li Yuanjian stayed in his residence, anxiously waiting for the battle results from the front line...
~~
In the middle of the night, hurried footsteps were heard in the residence, and the warriors guarding the door hurriedly shouted in a low voice: "Keep your voice down, the lord has just fallen asleep!"
"Is this news about Akihoura?" In the room, Mori Motonari was sleeping lightly. He opened his eyes when he heard the noise outside.
"Yes, my lord." The messenger said in a deep voice.
"Help me up." Mao Li Yuanjie ordered, and slowly sat up with the help of the maid, letting the messenger come in to talk.
"Go ahead."
"Yes..." The messenger took out a blood-stained battle flag from his arms, raised it high above his head, and said in a tearful voice: "Today, the Bungo Navy, with the help of the Ming Dynasty fleet, invaded our Akihoura. The Yashirojima Navy fought back, but was completely wiped out, and Commander Shirai was seriously injured and died!"
"Ah..." Maori Motonari felt dizzy and almost fainted. The retainer beside him quickly pinched his philtrum and patted his chest, and only then did he calm down.
"Has Ouchi Teruhiro landed?" Lord Mori asked weakly.
"They have landed." The messenger nodded and said sadly, "Our troops on the shore wanted to stop them, but the firearms of the Ming Dynasty fleet were too powerful. After a round of bombardment, the foot soldiers suffered heavy casualties and were completely unable to resist the combined forces of Ouchi and Otomo. They were defeated and fled. Then they raised the banner of the 'Ouchi Restoration Army' and marched towards Yamaguchi Castle with great fanfare!"
"How many troops do they have?" After experiencing many storms, Mori Motonari quickly calmed down.
"At first, there were less than a thousand people." The messenger replied hurriedly, "But old retainers of the Ouchi family continued to lead their subordinates to join, and the number will soon increase."
"Hmm..." Maori Motonari nodded and asked, "What about the Injima navy? Did they fight against the Ming people?"
"Not yet," the messenger replied.
Mao Li Yuanjian waved his hand and said, "Go down first."
After the messenger left, the room fell into dead silence.
All the retainers who rushed over after hearing the news had a bad feeling - the "Niwa Revitalization Army" had already caused chaos in their rear. Now the "Ouchi Revitalization Army" had appeared again, how could they deal with it?
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty fleet was actually bribed by Zonglin and turned its guns to become an accomplice of the Otomo family! Or were they just putting on a show? This old monk's tactics are too clever...
Old Wang from Usuki Castle sneezed repeatedly and said, "It's not me, I didn't, don't talk nonsense!"
However, they have not lost confidence and still look at their lord with hope. This old man is the wisest general of the Warring States Period who led the Mori family from the lord of a small city to the overlord of the western country! Mori Motonari has the wisdom of Kong Ming!
Compared to the dangers we encountered before, this one is nothing. My lord will definitely find a way to lead the Mori family out of danger!
However, Mori Motonari fell into a long silence. He sat there like a clay sculpture until dawn.
When the morning light shone on his wrinkled face, the retainers clearly saw turbid tears flowing from the corners of their lord's eyes.
"My Lord!" Everyone was shocked. They had only seen Motonari cry when their Lord's eldest son, Mori Takamoto, died of illness. "What could have made the Lord so concerned?"
"It's okay. I was just thinking about Long Yuan. It would be great if he were still alive." Mao Li Yuan wiped his tears with his sleeve and said sadly.
"Yeah..." The retainers also cried. This was not to please the lord, but it was really sad. Takamoto was the son-in-law of Ouchi Yoshitaka. After he succeeded his father as the head of the main family, the legitimacy of the Mori family's rule in western Honshu was as solid as a rock. Moreover, Mori Takamoto was kind and generous, and possessed unparalleled leadership. If he were alive, there would be no Ouchi retainers who would follow Ouchi Teruhiro to rebel.
"If it really doesn't work, please ask the Third Young Master to bring his troops back to quell the rebellion." An old minister suggested.
Mao Li Yuanjian nodded slowly and said: "It is necessary to bring back troops, but not only Takakage needs to come back, Yuanchun also needs to bring troops back. This time, the "Kyushu Conquest" ends here."
"ah!"
"My lord, please think twice!" The retainers' expressions changed drastically. This was tantamount to wasting all their efforts! "We certainly paid a huge price for this battle. But the Otomo family is at the end of their rope. If we insist on holding on, they will not survive this winter and will scatter!"
"My lord, the first push is enough, the second is too weak, the third is too weak!" A retainer reminded again: "My Mori army has already withdrawn from northern Kyushu once. If we withdraw again, not only will all our previous efforts be wasted, but we will also lose the support of the people in Kyushu. Those daimyo and castle lords who supported us will be abandoned again, and they will definitely not respond to us next time!"
"Yes, lord, we should leave at least half of our troops in Kitakyushu to guard the line from Tachibanayama Castle to Moji Castle!" The retainers suggested.
"That will only allow the Otomo family to eat up half of our troops." Mori Motonari shook his head decisively and said, "No matter how we cover it up, the withdrawal of such a big move will soon be known to the princes of Kyushu. When they know that we have withdrawn half of our troops from Kyushu, how do you think they will react?"
"They will realize that there is a problem in our rear and that the Otomo family is invincible." The retainers said with difficulty.
"Yes, in this case, who would dare to sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight? They will quickly stand up to support the Otomo family to avoid being hit by him after the war." Mori Motonari said calmly: "In this case, the Otomo family can easily replenish troops and supplies, so their morale is naturally high. However, our remaining troops are insufficient in manpower, and we have to worry about whether the Ming Dynasty fleet will cut off our retreat, so our morale will inevitably plummet."
He sighed sadly and said, "I can't let them die in vain. Let's withdraw."