Hojo Umasa looked at Yoshigage with blazing eyes, but Yoshigage did not answer directly. Instead, he looked up at the beams and said.
"Odawara Castle is the strongest city in the world. The last time I came here, I felt majestic and extraordinary just outside the city.
Ujimasa, come with me to the castle tower. I also want to see if I can see the coastline from here. "
Hojo Umasa didn't know why Yoshigan wanted to talk about him, but he still bowed and saluted.
"Hi!"
The two walked out of the main hall and walked along the porch. Since Yiyin moved here, the Tongxin people have taken over the innermost defense, and the Odawara people have also guarded the outside and dare not slack off.
The two of them walked through the courtyard from the residence hall, passed the horse gate, the bronze gate, and the Tokiwa wooden gate, and arrived at the castle tower in the north of Honmaru. A group of people came sideways behind them to carefully accompany them.
The castle tower is three stories high, and the total height including the stone wall is 39 meters, which is almost as high as the seventh or eighth floor of a modern building. It covers an area of 1,800 square meters.
Looking up at the towering castle tower, Yoshigan said calmly.
"No one else needs to go in, Ujimasa, you and I can go up and take a look at the scenery."
"Hi!"
Leaving Zhu Ji behind, the two climbed up to the third floor of the castle and looked into the distance.
From here, you can't see the coastline naturally, but you can see the small towns and villages that stretch to the coast, with the castle town almost running through it.
During peacetime, it was a prosperous economic and commercial environment, and during wartime, it was an overseas supply line, ensuring that Odawara Castle would not be completely besieged by enemies on land and that supplies could be replenished from the sea.
Yiyin couldn't help but sigh.
"nice."
With the siege capabilities of the island nation in this era, it was simply impossible to storm Odawara Castle by force.
If you want to capture Odawara Castle, you must have a strong navy and army. Not only must you trap the city on land, but you must also set up a blockade at sea to completely cut off Odawara Castle's supply channels.
Odawara Castle is the base of the Hojo family. It is not just a city, but consists of a series of fortress lines. The various warehouses store enough military supplies to eat and drink for more than half a year.
Just after roughly calculating the land and sea costs of besieging Odawara Castle for more than half a year, Yoshihiro sighed inwardly. It was simply a waste of money. Who can afford such a waste?
It’s no wonder that the Hojo retainers were so arrogant. They offered the land of Higashi Musashi directly and dared to let Hojo Ushimasa confess his love directly in the hot spring.
Behind the seeming recklessness, it was the rich heritage of the Hojo family that convinced Genan Hojo, an old fox, that Yoshigan would definitely not choose to reject the Hojo family and break up with the Hojo family.
Putting aside everything else, Odawara Castle alone is a big trouble.
If Yoshigan really parted ways with the Hojo family, he would also have a headache with a disobedient Hojo family in the southern part of the Kanto Plain that he could not defeat.
Yoshigan looked at the panoramic view of Odawara Castle from the castle tower and was speechless for a moment.
Hojo Umasa stood behind him, still not giving up at this point, and mentioned Ota Yasushi again.
“A saint must endure the chaos of his own life.
I am willing to share the saint's worries, except for the hidden danger of Ohta Yasushi, and prevent the saint from getting his hands dirty in the future. "
Yoshigan glanced at Hojo Ushimasa, patted the guardrail next to the castle, and said.
"Come here and hold your hands here."
Hojo Ujimasa didn't understand why, but he still obeyed obediently. He grabbed the guardrail with his hands and looked at Yoshigami with a puzzled look on his face.
Yiyin said while pushing her shoulders down.
"Yeah, that's it. Good."
After saying that, Yoshigan walked behind Hojo Umasa.
"saint?"
Yoshigan held Hojo Ushimasa with both hands, looked into the distance, and said slowly.
“I step onto the Shinto path, consider myself a living god, and act openly and aboveboard.
Now that the Higashi Musashi land has been included in my territory, Shiba Territory has its own acting officials to take care of it and govern it according to Shiba law.
If Ota Yasushi does something wrong, he will be punished by his own official. If you want to rebel, you will have your own officials to attack you. If the acting official is incompetent, why should the Sibo family be afraid of me before I die?
Now that Ota Yasushi has no fault, if I kill someone for an unfounded crime, what's the point? Even if you come to do it for me, will everyone in the world be blind? do not understand?
You repeatedly encouraged me to kill her because of your selfish motives. You are my woman and the mother of my future child, and I cannot bear to punish you.
Now, if I give you small punishments and big warnings, will you be convinced? "
Hojo Umasa's hands couldn't stop shaking and he was speechless.
She looked at the distant crowd below, moving like ants, feeling extremely nervous and excited.
When Yoshigami saw that she was silent, he snorted, causing the Hojo clan to beg for mercy.
"I know I was wrong, I know I was wrong."
Seeing that the Hojo clan had softened its political stance, Yoshigami no longer deliberately made things difficult for her, but just looked into the distance, thinking about what was on his mind.
Ota Yasushi is not a trouble. If Yiyin wants Edo City, there will be a hundred ways to make Ota Yasushi leave voluntarily in the future.
If Ota Yasushi really doesn't know the truth, he will be looking for death. Yoshihiro also has many white gloves, and there is no need for the Hojo clan to be obedient when he gets an advantage.
Using this method to teach Hojo Umasa a lesson today was partly a warning and partly fun, and he was careful not to hurt the relationship between the two.
Compared with Ota Yasushi's little trouble, Yoshihiro was more worried about who would be sent to take over the Higashi Musashi land.
Musashi Kingdom has a stone height of 670,000. It was originally a large country with eight states. However, due to years of war and disrepair of water conservancy, the stone height has dropped sharply.
Nowadays, the Musuke Giri Promotion Association is engaged in water conservancy projects in Kanhachishu, starting from the middle and lower reaches of the Tone River. Musashi Province is located on the middle and lower reaches of the Tone River and has enjoyed the first batch of construction benefits.
Sooner or later, the grain production capacity of 670,000 koku will be restored. Coupled with the Tone River diversion project to eliminate floods and develop new fields, Musashi Province can expect a million koku in the future.
The land dedicated by the Hojo family to Higashi Musashi was actually only the Edogawa-Shinagawa basin in the central and southern parts of the country. In the Iwaki Territory near the north, the local samurai family headed by Ota Shimasa is now loyal to the Uesugi family.
Of course Yoshigami would not reach out there and cause any conflict with Uesugi Kenshin.
But the Tomusashi land in the central and southern part currently has about a hundred thousand koku, and its future value is three to four hundred thousand koku. Such a large piece of land really makes Yoshigami worried.
Yoshihiro still has a lot of things to do in Kinki. He came back to Kanto this time to coordinate the Kanto Secretariat's affairs regarding the attack on the East.
To put it simply, he was here to divide the cake for each family to avoid uneven distribution of the spoils. Before the fight started, there was a commotion within the Kanto Palace itself.
With him as a living god to distribute, each family in the Guandong Waiting House can trust and be convinced, so that internal friction can be minimized and external affairs can be unified.
When the attack on the Eastern Masses is on the right track, Yoshihiro has to go back to Kinki and watch over Oda Nobunaga to prevent another incident there from derailing.
Speaking of which, Yiyin also felt bitter.
Kanto and Kinki are like two seesaws. Wherever he is, there is peace, but there will be trouble on the other side.
This situation caused him to be like a firefighter, fighting the fire from both ends, but he was always exhausted and couldn't have the best of both worlds.
Judging from the history of the island country, this is not the trouble of Yoshigan alone. Whether it is the emperor's court, the Kamakura shogunate, or the Ashikaga shogunate, they are all troubled by this trouble.
The plain land of the entire island country is fragmented, and no place has absolute strength and can form an overwhelmingly powerful central government.
Among the many plains, the two areas have the strongest relative strength.
One is the Guandong Plain, covering 16,000 square kilometers. This is the largest plain in the island country. However, it was trapped in the cold north and flooded, making it difficult to develop in the Middle Ages.
Until this time, most of the Kanto Plain was still swampy and reedy, still waiting for someone willing to spend a lot of money and effort to develop it.
The other one is the Kyoto area surrounded by the Osaka Plain and the Noo Plain.
The Osaka Plain has 1,900 square kilometers of land, and the Noo Plain has 1,800 square kilometers of land, plus the Kyoto Basin, Nara Basin, and Omi Basin surrounded by the two plains.
The overall strength of the Kyoto area and the Kanto Plain can be said to have their own advantages and disadvantages, and they are indistinguishable.
The economic base determines the superstructure, so the political struggles of island countries in the agricultural era actually took place around these two powerful grain-producing areas.
Whether it is the emperor's court or the two generations of shogunate, they all want to have two hands, but they often pay attention to one and lose the other, and one of them can't control it.
The core of the Kamakura shogunate is in Kanto, and it loses control in Kinki. The core of the Ashikaga Shogunate is in Kinki, and the out-of-control situation is in Kanto.
In the end, there will always be a grand battle between Kanto and Kansai to decide whether the Kanto people or the Kansai people have the final say.
But no matter who wins or loses, as time goes by, the loser will definitely stand up and challenge again.
This is like the North China Plain and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain in China. If the two sides are isolated, geographically distant, and dissatisfied with each other, either the east wind will overwhelm the west wind, or the west wind will overwhelm the east wind.
The geographical characteristics of the Celestial Dynasty are that the North China Plain and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain are a whole, so once this region is unified, the power it will unleash will be enough to maintain a unified world.
The island country of Kanto and Kansai did not have such a good life. The rulers of the past dynasties could only have a headache and find ways to weaken one end and maintain the strength of the other.
This is exactly the same as Yiyin's troubles, running from both ends, with no support at either end, just focus on one end, and the other end will explode for you right away.
Even if he knew that he was an old scalper running from both ends, Yiyin could only put out the fire in two directions.
Because even if he wants to improve this situation, he must first unify the world. Now the world is still falling apart. Talking about bridging the political balance in Kanto and Kansai is all nonsense.
Since Yoshihiro must return to Kinki, he must carefully consider who will manage the territory of more than 100,000 koku in the Edogawa River Basin that is yet to be developed, and the super-large territory of 30,000 to 400,000 koku in the future.
(End of chapter)
