Everyone has defects, just like the apple that God has bitten, and some people have more defects, precisely because God especially likes his fragrance.

- Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy (one of the most outstanding writers in the history of world literature)

Before the capture of the southern cities of Mutsu Province, Gaoshuiji Castle and Bian Seishi Imperial Palace, leading the army to cross Takasuji Castle and Bian Seok Imperial Palace and penetrate deep into the hinterland of Mutsu Province where the situation is unknown, this kind of military action that only idiots would devise, the risk is too high to describe!

Katakura Kojuro and Goto Nobuyasu, although they don't know much about the strength of the Yanhuang family and the Mutsu Kingdom, as important ministers of the Date family, they know the strength of the Date family.

In addition to the Uesugi family's army in attacking Mutsu Province, the Date family also had 40,000 standing troops in Shimono Province and 120,000 peasant soldiers to mobilize, and the crux of the problem was that Shimono Province, which had nine counties, had a total stone height of only 464,000 koku.

The Date family, whose family territory was 464,000 koku in height, had 60,000 standing ashigaru numbers and 150,000 peasant soldiers mobilized before the war.

Hakumine, who founded the Yanhuang family as an outsider and joined the Mutsu Province, has no knowledge of the history of the Mutsu Kingdom, and the land area of the Mutsu Kingdom, which has a height of 1,730,000 stones, is much larger than the total area of the seven provinces of Hokuriku Province.

Originally, the territory of the country was about the northern part of today's Mutsu Province, and it was one of the five countries of Mutsu, which had seven prefectures, and the territory of Lu Chugoku, which was incorporated into Mutsu Province, was about the central part of today's Mutsu Province, and it was the land of ten prefectures, which was the second of the five countries of Mutsu Province.

Iwashiro Province, which was incorporated into the Michinoku Province, is also in the central part of the Michinoku Province and has nine prefectures, which is the third of the five prefectures of Mutsu, and Iwaki Province, which was incorporated into the Mutsu Province, is also in the central region of the Mutsu Province, and has fourteen prefectures, which is the fourth of the five countries of Mutsu.

The land of Rikumae Province, which was finally incorporated into the Michinoku Province, was about the southern part of today's Michinoku Province, with 14 prefectures, and was the fifth of the five countries of Michinoku.

What made Katakura Kojuro and Goto Nobuyasu feel even more helpless was that the previous battle between the Uesugi family and the three major families of Takeda, Tokugawa, and Hojo directly led to a large influx of people from Ueno Province into Oshu, and now Oshu has a population of at least three million or more!

In the land of the fifty-four counties of the five countries, with a stone height of 1,730,000 stones, and three million people, the Yanhuang family, which dominates Ozhou, is only stronger than the Date family in terms of overall strength! According to Katakura Kojuro's estimate, the number of troops that the Yanhuang family can mobilize will not be less than 300,000!

In fact, the Yanhuang family, which had completely abolished the peasant and soldier system, had only 80,000 standing troops at full strength, and excluding the troops stationed at Gaoshuisi Castle and Bian Shi's Imperial Palace, the Yanhuang family's garrison in the hinterland of Mutsu was only 35,000.

Of the 35,000 standing armies, only the 15,000 soldiers of the Southern Standing Army under the command of Nanbu Nobunao were the 15,000 soldiers of the Southern Standing Army under the command of Nanbu Shinnao, and the Izumiyama Standing Army of Izumiyama Guyasu and the Yanhuang Standing Army of Sanada Nobushigeru were also far away from the hinterland of Oshu.

Even if the Izumiyama Standing Army and the Yanhuang Standing Army were able to return to the hinterland of Oshu in time, Nanbu Nobunao would not have given orders to Quanshan Koyasu and Sanada Nobuyoshi to transfer troops, because the garrisoning task of the Izumiyama Standing Army and the Yanhuang Standing Army was far more important than the return to the hinterland of Oshu!

Nanbu Shinnao knew in his heart that the Yanhuang Standing Army stationed at the port and the Izumiyama Standing Army stationed at Ishikawa Castle, the port garrison who ensured the smooth landing of the Jiadu reinforcements, and the border army defenders who defended the northwestern territory of Oshu were all troops that could never be used.

Therefore, before the battle situation in southern Oshu was completely ruined, Nanbu Shinnao had no intention of using the Yanhuang Standing Army and the Quanshan Standing Army; of course, to some extent, the Yanhuang Standing Army, the most elite of the Yanhuang family, had already participated in the war in southern Oshu.

Of the 20,000 elite soldiers of the Yanhuang Standing Army, 10,000 elite soldiers have gone south to Gaoshuiji Castle to reinforce Sanada Masayuki under the command of Sanada Nobuyuki.

Although the garrison in the hinterland of Oshu is only the Southern Standing Army, the Southern Standing Army, which is composed of 15,000 standing ashigaru, is more powerful than the 30,000 mobilized army of the Date family, and the two sides are not opponents of the same level at all!

It is no exaggeration to say that if the Southern Standing Army under the command of Nanbu Shinnao and the 30,000 mobilized army of the Date family open up a formation to fight a hard-fought decisive battle, it will only take half a day at most for the Southern Standing Army to defeat the 30,000 mobilized army of the Date family.

However, war is never the simplest comparison of data, and the difference in offensive and defensive positions determines that the two armies will inevitably adopt completely different tactics; as the defending side, Nanbu Shinnao, who has 15,000 elites in hand, cannot lead the army to leave Sanhe Castle at will.

Under the Yanhuang family, there were three core towns in Oshu: Ishikawa Castle in northwestern Oshu, Minohe Castle in central Oshu, and Takasuisera Castle in southern Oshu, and six non-core towns: Fukushima Castle and Nanaoka Imperial Palace in northwestern Oshu, Hachinohe Castle and Kunohe Castle in central Oshu, and Nobeji Castle and Bianishi Imperial Palace in southern Oshu.

Under the premise that Gaoshui Temple Castle and Bian Shi's Imperial Palace were besieged, and Kunohe Yasuma led the Kunohe Standing Army to rush south to help, the area that the Southern Standing Army under the command of Nanbu Shinzhi needed to defend was unprecedentedly vast, with one core town and two non-core towns.

Nanbu Shinnao, who could not disobey the orders of the governor and mobilized peasant troops, sent out the southern standing army under his command to garrison the three cities, and there were no more troops to protect those overcrowded small towns and villages; in this way, the defense of the empty hinterland of central Oshu was actually not much different from a lamb to the slaughter, and once the army of the Date family came in, the development of the Yanhuang family in two or three years would be in vain!

Unfortunately, Katakura Kojuro and Goto Nobuyasu, whose mindset had been stuck in the peasant era, unilaterally believed that the Yanhuang family's army in the hinterland of Oshu was conservatively estimated at no less than 150,000, so that they did not carry out the order given by Uesugi Keitora to send them to death.

The death of 20,000 Ashigaru and peasant soldiers was a very heavy casualty for the Date family army, which numbered only 50,000 soldiers; the direct refusal of Uesugi Keitor's order and the violation of Date Masamune's instructions before leaving, Katakura Kojuro and Goto Nobuyasu had to find another way.

Kojuro Katakura, who did not intend to sacrifice the valuable strength of the Date family for the benefit of the Uesugi family, led his army to cross Takamizuji Castle and the Bianshi Imperial Palace with Goto Nobuyasu, and did not continue to go deep into the hinterland of Oshu, but found a relatively remote mountain forest nearby to settle down.

In order to avoid arousing Uesugi Keitor's questioning, Katakura Kojuro personally led 25,000 soldiers into the mountains and forests to hide, and Goto Nobuyasu, who led 5,000 soldiers to stay on the outskirts of the mountains and forests, constantly demanded food and grass from Uesugi Keiga in the name of holding the retreat route of the Date family's army.