Chapter 1202 Dances with Wolves!

Bang Tao Island
In a certain mansion, Beijo Kawamasa leaned on a chair with a tired look on his face. He was almost sixty years old. Because he had taken very good care of himself before, he looked only in his early fifties. However, after all the hard work during this period of time, he looked like a seventy-year-old man who was about to die...

When he led his troops to Bangtao Castle a few months ago, due to the arrangement of Muto Masaaki, the front-line commander of the shogunate army, General Nakamura Keito, lifted the siege of Bangtao Castle and led tens of thousands of shogunate troops to retreat to Hengtian.

Hojo Kawa was overjoyed at this. His ambition had grown extremely large due to the instigation of the Great Zhou's unified mediation. He had the idea of ​​using the power of the Zhou people to overthrow the Toyotomi shogunate, so he joined forces with Watanabe Taketake to launch this war to overthrow the shogunate!

However, as the war progressed, Hojo Kawagoe felt that the Zhou people were not sincere in helping him overthrow the Toyotomi shogunate, but instead wanted to plunge Higashima into endless turmoil and internal friction.

That's why the Zhou people stopped supporting them when their troops were heading straight for Heian-kyo and the situation was looking good, causing him and Watanabe Taketake to fail in their plan.

And when they were overturned by the shogunate and fell into despair, the Zhou people appeared again and provided them with a large number of firearms to ensure that they could continue to fight the shogunate!

Hojo Kawa was not a fool. In fact, he had already realized the Zhou people's idea at that time. However, there was no way out for the benefit of himself and his people. Under the background that the shogunate army was aggressive and vowed to eradicate him and Watanabe Takemu, Hojo Kawa had no choice. Even though he knew that these Zhou people had ulterior motives, he could only drink poison to quench his thirst and seek the skin of the tiger and dance with the wolf...
So when the siege of Bangtao was lifted and Muto Masaaki came to hope that Watanabe Taketake and Hojo Gawa could negotiate with the shogunate, Hojo Gawa's attitude was also very positive!
When the war reached this point, Hojo Kawakawa's original ambition had been shattered. He no longer wanted to overthrow the Toyotomi shogunate and establish his own Hojo shogunate. He now only wanted to restore the original situation, and he would be satisfied with that.

Faced with the condition proposed by Muto Masaaki that peace talks could be negotiated only if the Zhou people were handed over, Hojo Kawa accepted the condition after a slight hesitation. At the same time, his ally Watanabe Taketake, who also agreed to the persuasion, also agreed to the condition.

Even though his ally Watanabe Taketake opposed handing over the Zhou people in exchange for peace because he was concerned that the shogunate would come after him, Hojo Kawa was still determined to use the heads of Wang He and others in exchange for forgiveness from the Toyotomi shogunate.

However, after Wang He learned that Hojo River and the Toyotomi shogunate were negotiating, he had a bad feeling and immediately chose to run away, leaving the people sent by Hojo River to capture him empty-handed.

Wang He's escape triggered many chain reactions, the most important of which was that it gave Ishihara Nobuyuki, who was in favor of war within the shogunate, an opportunity. Because the shogunate army had suffered heavy casualties after a long siege on Bangtao Castle, some people within the shogunate began to waver in their belief in fighting to the end.

Therefore, the peace advocate Muto Masaaki took advantage of this opportunity and joined forces with Nakamura Keito to bypass Ishihara Nobuyuki and attempt peace talks.

Although Ishihara Nobuyuki was dissatisfied with this, facing the alliance of Muto Masaaki and Nakamura Keito, he was somewhat helpless and was forced to acquiesce in the peace talks. However, he also put forward a condition, that is, Hojo River and Watanabe Taketake must hand over the Zhou people headed by Wang He...

Ishihara Nobuyuki's condition was unanimously agreed upon within the shogunate and served as a prerequisite for peace talks between the two sides. Therefore, after Wang He and others fled, the peace talks between the two sides came to a stalemate!

For this reason, Ishihara Nobuyuki directly accused Hojo River and Watanabe Taketake of being insincere and deliberately letting Wang He and others escape. They still had thoughts of betrayal in their hearts, and now they just wanted to use the peace talks to restore their strength, and then continue to join forces with the Zhou people to launch a war!
Therefore, Ishihara Nobuyuki advocated continuing to wage war, completely defeating Hojo River and Watanabe Takemu, and killing thousands of people from the Hojo and Watanabe families to demonstrate the great military achievements of the shogunate, and at the same time to warn other daimyos who were ready to make moves!

As the peace talks reached a deadlock, more and more people within the shogunate supported the ideas of the pro-war faction Ishihara Nobuyuki. Ishihara Nobuyuki also ordered the shogunate army to take some actions in Hengtian and recruit personnel and supplies from the rear, showing that they could start a war again at any time!
Although Ishihara Nobuyuki stated that this was just to put pressure on the Hojo River, his move made the already relaxed nerves of both sides become sensitive again, and the cloud of war once again shrouded the sky over Higashima Island.

At this critical moment, a small force from the Watanabe family attempted to raid a granary and gunpowder depot of the shogunate army in the rear.

However, due to the tight vigilance of the shogunate army, not only did the sneak attack fail, but this small force of the Watanabe family was also completely wiped out by the shogunate army.

After hearing the news, Ishihara Nobuyuki thought it was a good opportunity to resume the war, so he hyped up the incident and ordered all the prisoners to be taken to the ceasefire line agreed upon by both sides for execution, and built a Jingguan with their heads...

Ishihara Nobuyuki's cruel behavior also angered the Watanabe family. Many of the Watanabe family's retainers wanted to start a war again, but with the mediation of Hojo River, the Watanabe family suppressed their anger and launched an investigation into the sneak attack. The result of the investigation was that this small force was bewitched and bribed by the Zhou people, and carried out the sneak attack under the instructions of the Zhou people!

However, Ishihara Nobuyuki was not satisfied with this explanation. He believed that the sneak attack was planned and directed by Akai Kumaji, a retainer of the Watanabe family, so he asked Watanabe Taketake to hand over Akai Kumaji and publicly apologize for the sneak attack. But it was obvious that Watanabe Taketake could not accept such humiliating conditions!

Therefore, the already tense situation between the two sides became even more tense, and the civil war became more imminent. Under such circumstances, Ishihara Nobuyuki, who had won enough support from the shogunate, bypassed the peace-loving Muto Masaaki, captured Nakamura Keito, and then brazenly launched a war!
This time, Ishihara Nobuyuki learned from the previous lesson and took command of the battle in person at the front line. Under Ishihara Nobuyuki's personal command, the morale of the shogunate army was greatly boosted, and they quickly defeated the coalition forces of Watanabe and Hojo, and once again reached the city of Bangtao!

However, just like the previous siege operations, facing the high and thick walls of Bangtao, the shogunate army, which lacked heavy artillery, had only two options!

The first method is to use ants to attack the city and pay with human lives!
The second method is to trap Bang Tao City and use time to grind it out!

The former requires great sacrifices, while the latter requires a large amount of military supplies. Having experienced the failure of the first siege, Ishihara Nobuyuki wanted to directly choose the second method this time. So he asked Muto Masaaki who stayed in Heian-kyo to find a way to gather supplies for him so that he could win the final victory in this battle of endurance...
However, as the war has continued to this point, the flames of war have affected 60 to 70 percent of the people on East Island. Their production and life have been greatly affected. Many people have been forced to abandon their land and become refugees under the influence of the war, and some have even become bandits.

Therefore, it became extremely difficult for Mutō Masaaki to gather military rations and supplies for the front line. In order to gather supplies for the front line, Mutō Masaaki even ordered his men to rob rations from women and children.

Secondly, Muto Masaaki himself was the leader of the peace faction, advocating peace talks with Hojo River's Watanabe Taketake. Therefore, after seeing the tragic situation of the people who could no longer survive and were starving everywhere, he became even more unwilling to fight this war!

For the sake of the hundreds of millions of people in Higashima and for the continuation of the Toyotomi shogunate, Muto Masaaki realized that it was time for him to make a decision!

At this time in Bangtao City, the exhausted Hojo Chuan was waiting for news from Muto Masaaki, and soon he saw the returning Watanabe Yumu. Seeing Watanabe Yumu's livid face, Hojo Chuan immediately had a bad premonition in his heart, but he still asked with a fluke mentality:

"Is Ishihara Nobuyuki still alive?"

Facing Hojo Kawa's question, Watanabe Taketake sighed helplessly and nodded. Seeing this, a feeling of disappointment and even despair filled Hojo Kawa's heart...
However, Beijo Chuan was still unwilling to give up the last glimmer of hope and asked again:
"Is he really still alive?"

Watanabe Yuwu said in a deep voice:

"According to the news sent by the spies, Hojo Kawa was assassinated and his men were injured, but he is generally fine. He has led 3,000 soldiers to secretly rush to Heian-kyo. Currently, the 50,000 shogunate troops outside Bangtao Castle are under the command of his trusted general Ito Jun'ya!"

After hearing the news, Hojo Chuan fell to the ground in dismay. He looked very distraught. Seeing this, Watanabe Yumu continued:
"There is an old saying among the Zhou people that goes, 'If you fail to kill a tiger, you will surely suffer from its misfortune. Muto-kun failed to kill the evil Ishihara Nobuyuki this time, and I'm afraid he will also encounter misfortune. Hojo-kun, we can only rely on ourselves now!"

Upon hearing this, Hojo Kawa couldn't help but smile bitterly. If he could do it on his own, he and Watanabe Taketake wouldn't have ended up like this today!

At this time, Watanabe Yutake continued:
"Although Ishihara Nobuyuki handed over the command to Ito Jun'ya, I believe his departure will still have a great impact on the command of the shogunate army. Hojo-kun still has more than 20,000 people in the city. If we fight hard, we still have a chance to turn the tide!"

“Besides that, I’m also planning to contact the spies from the Coordination Office. If their goal is really to keep our East Island from internal friction, then they should help us get out of this predicament now…”

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Yijing, Ye Mansion

At 3:30 in the morning on May 20, Ye Cui, who had just finished worshipping Buddha, was a little tired. When she was about to take a rest, she heard her maid report:

"Madam! Madam An is here to see you!"

Upon hearing that An Miaoyi was coming, Ye Cui immediately asked someone to call An Miaoyi in. As soon as she entered the room, An Miaoyi smiled and saluted to Ye Cui and said:
"The daughter-in-law pays her respects to her mother!"

Seeing An Miaoyi coming to see her, Ye Cui was very happy and quickly asked An Miaoyi to sit down. Seeing that An Miaoyi came alone, Ye Cui couldn't help but ask:
"Miaoyi, where is Jingren?"

An Miaoyi answered without hesitation:

"My dear mother, Mr. Gu is teaching Jingren now!"

After saying this, Ye Cui stopped talking, but An Miaoyi still noticed something from the subtle changes in the old lady's expression, and immediately spoke:
"Mother Jingren caught a cold a while ago, so we didn't dare let him come to see you, but he always said he missed you, Grandmother!"

Upon hearing this, Ye Cui couldn't help but smile and said:

"Did Jingren really say that? How is his cold? Have the doctors at the medical school examined him?"

Facing Ye Cui's three consecutive questions, An Miaoyi also said with a smile:

“Of course! Everyone in the Ye family knows that Jingren is the child closest to you. Even I, as his mother, cannot compare to you…”

"The doctors at the medical school have already examined him. After taking two doses of herbal medicine, Jingren is already full of energy again. He wanted to come with me, but Mr. Gu's class has already been arranged. So I will ask him to come and see you right away after Mr. Gu finishes his get out of class at 5 p.m."

Hearing this, Ye Cui also smiled and said:

"I watched Jingren grow up. I really miss him after not seeing him for a few days!"

Upon hearing this, An Miaoyi also said how filial her son was and how he also missed his grandmother, Ye Cui. After saying this, An Miaoyi changed the subject and took a few Buddhist scriptures from the maid beside her, then personally handed them to Ye Cui and said:
"Master Xingkong from Puhua Temple copied several Buddhist scriptures. The Buddhist teachings in them are very profound, so I immediately brought them back for you to study!"

Upon hearing that it was the Buddhist sutra copied by Master Xingkong, whom she admired the most, Ye Cui immediately became interested. She took the Buddhist sutra from An Miaoyi and looked at the familiar handwriting of Master Xingkong in the Buddhist sutra. Ye Cui nodded with satisfaction and said:
"Miaoyi! You are so thoughtful! I like this thing very much. Miaoyi, thank Master Xingkong for me!"

Hearing what Ye Cui said, An Miaoyi was very happy in her heart, but on the surface she still lowered her head and spoke submissively:
"Mom! This is what a daughter-in-law should do! I will donate one thousand taels of incense money to Puhua Temple tomorrow..."

(End of this chapter)