On May 28, 1572, when Hirate Honhide led a coalition of 30,000 Ki to Katsuhata Castle, Owari was at the most dangerous moment.

Oda Nobutada still has about 20,000 remnants left, but less than half of them are really trustworthy, and they are still reluctant to protect themselves, and in the short term, they are obviously unable to counterattack Takeda Katsuyori, who occupies Kiyoshu Castle.

As a result, the Tokugawa clan withstood the pressure of the enemy's main forces at Enoe and Mikawa, and was divided into two parts, Okazaki and Hamamatsu, relying on the coastal fortresses, and was defeated and defeated repeatedly, and resisted with difficulty.

At the same time, many independent local forces show signs of instability. The most fatal thing was that Nobumoto Mizuno of Kariya Castle broke away from the battle line without permission and cut off communication with the Oda family, which led to the cutting off of the center of east-west communication.

At this time of internal and external difficulties, Hisho Hide's clothes were not untied, and the water and rice were not touched, so he stepped straight into Oda Nobutada's evaluation room, suppressed the friendly forces with lightning speed, and at least superficially seized the right to speak for the coalition forces.

In this link, Tosa's "Himewakako" Nagasa's head relatives of the Ube provided very considerable help. With the attitude of "fighting dogs under the banner of the criminal department", he sneered at those Owari people who lost the battle but still had illusions, and said what many retainers wanted to say but were embarrassed to say.

It is said that Ikeda Hengxing complained in private: "What Himewakako, Ghost Wakako, this Tosa man is simply a mad dog, so he should be called 'Inuwakako'!" ”

Ignoring these distractions, Hirata Honhide gained a foothold and issued instructions to his troops, and at the same time made unquestionable "suggestions" to Oda Nobutada's men.

From the left and right, the coalition forces bypassed Takeda Katsuyori at Cheongju Castle and cut off their rear routes.

"Ghost Boy Keiji" is the pioneer general, leading 500 athletes under his command, and transferring 3,000 banners from Hondo Zhengzhong, Yamauchi Ichitoyo and other departments, grouped into one place, taking the southern route, passing through the Crab River and Retsuta, pointing directly to the two strongholds of Narumi and Dagao.

Kazuji Nakamura and Okakishi led 3,600 Kii people to guard their flanks and monitor Takeda Katsuyori in Kiyoshu, while Asano Nagayoshi and Yasudai Terada led 1,700 people from the Izumi people to serve as backup to ensure the connection between the two.

The Oda family, too, also selected three or four thousand people who were still able to fight, with Sasa Naimasa and Maeda Toshiie temporarily serving as the chief and deputy commanders, and went to Shinano, Ryono and other places, with the goal of capturing Iwasaki Castle, and if there was spare strength, they would take advantage of the victory to attack the area around Iwasaki Castle.

Along the way, the 4,000 troops of the Mino trio were covered, and Oda Nagayoshi, and the Tsutsui family's Matsukura Shigenobu combined 3,000 troops, as a reserve, ready to be replaced at any time.

On the front, Hirate Honhide commissioned Nagamune and Ibe Motoko to lead thousands of people from Shikoku to attack Mizoguchi Castle on the outskirts of Kiyoshu Castle, and make a gesture of approaching from the west, and Kawada Nagajin went with him as a representative.

Correspondingly, Oda Nobutada sent Ikeda Tsuneko, Niwa Katsu and others to surround Ichinomiya in the north of Kiyoshu Castle in response to the movements of other friendly forces.

Outside the frontal battlefield, the dark war does not stop. The ninja forces brought in by Ishikawa Goemon and Mitsuhiko Dorao were immediately put to work, they were closer to mere military scouts, mainly through on-the-ground reconnaissance and rumor gathering, at most some temporary identity disguises, which was not the same routine as Takeda Tobori's group who were good at undercover infiltration.

On the other hand, Tie Tsunohide wrote a handwritten letter to the Nine Ghosts Yoshitaka who "avoided the war and protected the ship", with only a naked line of simple text on it: "Do you only know that you are afraid of Takeda Daizen in the east, but you don't know that you are afraid of the Tie Punishment Department in the west?" ”

Two days later, the Nine Demons sent someone to present the "good news", claiming that an important breakthrough had been made, that a small detachment had been eliminated in the shallows of the Kaido, that prisoners had been captured, and that the Takeda naval army had been disfigured out.

This pirate giant, after going through a very complex psychological process, finally took a firm stand.

At the same time, Mizuno Nobumoto, who had an ambiguous attitude in Kariya Castle, defended the territory and did not listen to orders, and said that he was sick and lived in seclusion, and he reluctantly ran into an unusually stubborn emissary of the Hirate family.

The messenger looked stunned, and didn't care whether he could see him or not, and when he entered the city, he spread out his two hands, on the left was a Yongle coin, and on the right was a knife with a flat hand family crest, and the only thing he said was "Please choose one of the two."

After hesitating for a whole day, Mizuno took the copper coin with a painful expression and returned the knife.

The next day, a gift of 1,000 kans, along with 1,000 soldiers from the Heite family, settled around Kariya Castle, and Hirate Hideyoshi had successfully entered Narumi Castle and restored the connection between Owari and Mikawa.

On the North Ise side, after Takigawa Kazuki received 2,000 reinforcements, the situation finally improved slightly.

Although it was a rabble of 2,000 ronins and peasants, the political significance was greater than the military significance, but as long as it was an individual, it would have some effect.

In addition, in response to the request for help from the Higashimino Toyama clan that "they can only hold out for another fifty days at most", Hiraite Hanohide responded: "Please hold on for three months, and if reinforcements do not arrive after three months, we will not consider it a betrayal." ”

Of course, this move was also after consulting Oda Nobutada.

……

When he came to Owari, he brought not only a huge elite army and an endless supply of money and food, but also the most urgently needed confidence and momentum.

At least the shelves for the counterattack on Cheongju City have been erected.

But this obviously did not intimidate Katsuyori Takeda.

The second generation of Kai was very decisive in his response, and after discovering the large-scale operation of Hirate Tosu, he ordered his troops to withdraw one by one in an orderly manner, emptied more than a dozen fortresses, and concentrated supplies in Cheongju and several branch cities within a mile around it.

It even includes places such as Nakono Castle, Kodo Castle, and Shoushan Castle, which can be called "important towns".

Before the end of the month, Oda's army was ambushed and crushed, unable to organize a strong defense, and was forced to abandon these strongholds.

Now it's back for a very small price.

Only Cheongju Castle, which has the highest wall, the strictest defense, the most abundant materials, and the greatest political significance, remains.

Due to Takeda Katsuyori's voluntary abandonment, coupled with the persuasion of Mizuno Nobumoto by Hite, the anti-Takeda coalition forces basically reached a siege arrangement within a few days, and initially cut off the road from Cheongju Castle to the outside world.

However, to the northeast of Owari, Sasa Narumasa's fate did not go as smoothly as the southern route of Hideyoshi Tokute. He noticed the traces of Changjing and Takasaka Masanbu in Sanheshan County, due to the lack of intelligence, the supply was tight, and he did not dare to move lightly, so he could only turn the attack into defense, so there were still many loopholes in the encirclement.

Old information said that there were only 5,000 people in Yama Prefecture and Takasaka, but Sasa Narumasa claimed that a large number of Mikawa Country's banners appeared in the enemy's formation, and the total combat strength was much higher than expected, and pessimistic estimates may have included tens of thousands of surrendered troops.

The bigwigs in the rear were a little frightened by this, and Hiratite further warned that the many troops on the northern front were not under each other's command, and none of the generals had the qualifications to order others, and in case of a surprise attack, it could cause a catastrophe.

After a long time of hesitation between the three proposals of "entrusting Oda Nagayi with temporary command", "dispatching Hayashi Xiuzhen to coordinate various departments", and "personally driving to the front line", Oda Nobutada finally chose the last one.

He took almost all of his cronies, such as Mori Nagahide, Hiromasa Ryoda, and the only remaining soldiers who could fight, left Katsuhata Castle and went to Komakiyama Castle, and then marched to the Nagakute area to prevent Mikawayama Prefecture, Takasaka and others from raiding the Oda army. He even simply took away Ikeda Tsuneko and Niwa Clankatsu, who were attacking Cheongju Castle head-on.

Corresponding ...... Due to the persuasion of Mizuno Nobumoto and Kuki Yoshitaka, Hideyi only encountered some small wealthy families in the Aichi and Chita areas who temporarily took refuge in the Takeda family, and the combat effectiveness and morale of the other party were not worth mentioning, and the purpose of opening up the coastal corridor was very smooth.

Nakamura Kazushi and Okakishi Masashi did not encounter obstacles, originally they were just going to monitor Takeda Katsuyori to prevent the other party from going out of the city to attack, but they didn't expect that guy to take the initiative to abandon the city, and took advantage of the situation to occupy Nakono, Gudu and other places, and guarded in the south of Cheongju City.

Subsequently, Asano Nagayoshi, Dr. Terada Yasudai and others were stationed in the territory of Nine Ghost Yoshitaka and Mizuno Nobumoto respectively, with a hidden intention of surveillance.

In short, the people of the Tierate family took the southern route, took over a number of strongholds that Takeda Katsuyori voluntarily abandoned, and pulled back the two friendly forces that wavered in their positions, and the merit was immeasurable.

The people of the Oda family took the northern route, and although they also picked up a lot of castles, they were very troubled and ran into the activity area of the Yama Prefecture and Takasaka Division, and the situation was not very good. Although the purpose of besieging Cheongju City was successfully accomplished.

This was, of course, a pure accident.

No one knew anything about the direction of Mikawa beforehand, and no one knew which side of the northern or southern route was safer.

There is absolutely no element of private messages from the Tie Punishment Department.

At this point, the pre-requisite for the siege of Cheongju was completed.

However, Heide did not really order the siege of the city, but constantly sent people to Sanhe and Yuanjiang to carry out the task of spying on intelligence and transmitting information.

The first and foremost thing was, of course, the restoration of contact with the Tokugawa family.

In fact, Tokugawa Ieyasu of Enoe-hamamatsujo took the initiative to send someone to find a tie and expressed his intention to resolutely resist the war. But the two sides are so far apart that it is difficult to have actual cooperation.

And Tokugawa Nobuyasu of Okazaki Castle is not enthusiastic at all.

After subduing Mizuno Nobumoto and opening up Kariya Castle, he urged the Nine Demons Yoshitaka to take the initiative to attack Takeda's Suruga naval army, and the road to Okazaki was actually basically unblocked, but Hirate Honhide did not receive a warm response.

Even a symbolic invitation to coordinate operations is only a belated perfunctory statement.

However, the draw was not overly shocked or angry.

He just made an official reply in the most normal tone, and then, finding a member of the Oda family, through a special channel, sent a private family letter to Miss Gotoku who married to Mikawa as a relative.

I also deliberately asked Yan Chiyomaru, who came with the army, to greet his childhood sweetheart's little friend, which is considered a public and private penny.

Then Hirate said to his son, who was not in the middle of the story, "I have arranged five volt lines to attract Takeda Katsuyori to leave Cheongju Castle, and I am waiting for them to ferment, and now it is the sixth. But I always had a hunch that this sixth might be the most useful. ”