The Tiger of Kai roared.

Takeda Shingen, who had rarely been defeated in the eastern kingdom for decades, was invincible in the Koshu Corps under his command, and the wind forest volcano military flag became a nightmare for almost all the daimyo of the eastern country. He, hands-on.

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After Tokugawa Ieyasu and Takeda Shingen jointly eliminated the Imagawa family and divided Enoe and Suruga, the territories of the two families were already directly bordered. Tokugawa Ieyasu naturally understood Takeda Shingen's ambitions, so he was careful to guard against the Suruga-Enoe border. The two families have been in small friction for many years, and have often fought with each other for control of some cities on the border, but there have been no large-scale battles. Because after Takeda Shingen eliminated the Imagawa family, the Hojo clan Yasu broke the alliance with him, accepted the remnants of the Imagawa family, and turned to ally with the Echigo Uesugi family to wage war against the Takeda family. The Takeda family and the Hojo family fought many battles, and the flames of war once spread to Odawara Castle, and finally the two sides ended in a draw.

However, as Hojo Shiyasu, known as the Sagamimi Lion, gradually became seriously ill, he realized that his son Hojo Shimasa's abilities could never be compared to Takeda Shingen. Therefore, he left a will, and after his death, he broke the alliance between the Hojo family and the Uesugi family, and instead allied with the Takeda family again. Because he knew that Echigo was too far away from the Kanto Plain, and it was not easy to support, and it was an offensive alliance rather than a defensive one. If the Takeda family attacks Sagami, the Uesugi family will be beyond the reach of the whip even if they want to save it. With the Hojo clan's ability, he can't stop Takeda Shingen. Therefore, there is only one way to go by forming an alliance with the Takeda family again.

After reconciling with the Hojo family, the Takeda family finally had no hidden danger of being attacked from both sides, and the Tokugawa family became nervous. However, since the Echigo Uesugi family, the sworn enemy of the Takeda family, was still active in northern Shinano, Takeda Shingen still did not dare to easily transfer a large army away from Koshin. As a result, the Takeda family, which had limited troops, could only fight with the Tokugawa family on the border between Suruga and Togae.

Unbeknownst to Tokugawa Ieyasu, however, with the emergence of the Nobunaga encirclement network created by Ashikaga Yoshiteru, an anti-Oda coalition of forces was gradually forming. Honganji Xianru was both related to Takeda Shingen by marriage and a member of Nobunaga's siege network, so he agreed to Takeda Shingen's request and instigated a large-scale rebellion in Echichu. Uesugi Kenshin was thus forced to lead his army out of Echigo and go to Echichi to be crushed. At this time, Ashikaga Yoshiteru wrote to Kenshin Uesugi to mediate the dispute between the Uesugi family and the Takeda family in the name of the shogun. Uesugi Kenshin couldn't pull it out, and he had always respected the shogunate, so he simply made a favor and agreed to this request. Takeda Shinxuan, who was carefree, hoarded a large amount of grain and grass and prepared to go to Luo.

At the beginning of October, when there was a large-scale confrontation between the Oda forces and the anti-Oda forces in, the Takeda family also took action. As the vanguard of the Takeda family, Yama Prefecture Masakei repeatedly operated in the small mountain castle on the border of Enoe and Surugawa, and in the Suwawara area. Tokugawa Ieyasu instantly felt like a great enemy, and sent a large number of troops to Kakegawa Castle. Tokugawa Ieyasu now occupies Mikawa and most of the Enjiang River, with a total stone height of about 500,000 koku, and can recruit more than 15,000 people, including more than 5,000 soldiers. He left 3,000 men and his eldest son, Tokugawa Nobuyasu, at Mikawa Okazaki Castle to stabilize Mikawa, while he personally led the remaining 12,000 men to Kakegawa Castle, a border town east of the Enjiang River, to defend against Takeda Shingen's attack.

Because Oda Nobunaga was already anxious, Tokugawa Ieyasu only sent someone to inform Oda Nobunaga and did not ask for reinforcements. Because he felt that relying on Kakegawa Castle, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack, the Asahina Tai Dynasty could hold on to the remnants of Imagawa with a sluggish fighting spirit for so long, and he had no problem blocking Takeda Shingen. Although Takeda Shingen is very good in the field, he can't play any tricks in the siege.

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However, it turned out that Tokugawa Ieyasu was overthinking.

On November 15, the Takeda Army suddenly appeared in the northern part of the Enjiang River! Instead of taking the flat road of Kai-Suruga-Enoe, they went directly south from the Shinano Mountains and approached Nagashino Castle. The defenders of Nagashino Castle were caught off guard and were forced to surrender under the mediation of Takeda Shingen. However, before surrendering, Nagashino Castle also sent Hamamatsu one last piece of information - the Takeda family's army numbered as high as 20,000. Takeda Shingen obviously did not intend to storm Tokugawa Ieyasu's border defense line on the Toe-Suruga line, but to invade directly from the empty north of Togae, intending to cut Toe in half with a single sword and directly attack Toe's soft hinterland.

On the same day, Takeda Shingen played the banner of Shangluo. He took out an edict written by Ashikaga Yoshiteru, saying that he was in the name of the shogun to crusade against the traitor Oda Nobunaga and enter the Kyoto Kuamasha shogunate. He also called on all of Oda Nobunaga's allies to change their ways as soon as possible and join the anti-Oda side, so that they could not be blamed for the past. If you are stubborn, there is only one way to be destroyed.

When Tokugawa Ieyasu received the news, it was already the 16th. On this day, Changjing of Shanxian County, who had been confronting him on the frontal battlefield for a long time, also led 4,000 people from his headquarters to become active. Also on the battlefield were 3,000 Hojo family reinforcements (including 1,000 soldiers).

Tokugawa Ieyasu panicked because he had not expected that the Takeda Army, which had been active on the Suruga border for so long, would actually send troops from Shinano. He was afraid that the Takeda family would go directly south from the mountains north of Toe and conquer Hamamatsu Castle, so he locked himself in a lonely city in the east of Toe and cut off the way to retreat to Mikawa's old nest. Therefore, Tokugawa Ieyasu hurriedly led the main force back to help, and at the same time sent Okubo Tadashi and others to lead the army to the north to reconnoiter and find out the specific situation of the Takeda family. On the 17th, the broken troops of Kakechuan Castle could not resist the attack of Changjing in Shan County, and Kakekawa Castle fell. Unfortunately, the troops sent by Tokugawa Ieyasu to reconnoiter encountered the troops of Nobuharu Baba and Masanobu Takasaka directly in the field, and were simply routed, and all the troops were scattered in the mountains and could not be contained. Seeing that something was wrong, the defender of Inui Castle abandoned the castle and fled and retreated into the fortified castle of Futama Castle behind him.

Futamata Castle is a key point in the north-central part of the Enjiang River, located between the Futaryu River and the Futama River, and it is the gateway from the northern part of the Enjiang River to the southern plain of the Enjiang River. If Futamata-jo fell, the army of the Takeda family would be able to march across the plains to Hamamatsu Castle. Therefore, Futamata-jo must not afford to lose. However, due to the reinforcements of the Yama Prefecture Masakei and the Hojo family, Tokugawa Ieyasu was never able to send reinforcements to Futamata. By the time he finally withdrew to Hamamatsu Castle, Futamata Castle, which had only a thousand defenders, was surrounded by the Takeda family's 20,000-strong army, and communication was cut off. Tokugawa Ieyasu knew that something was wrong, so he immediately sent someone to to report and ask for reinforcements from Oda Nobunaga.

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When the news reached Oda Nobunaga's ears, it was already November 22. At this time, he had just withdrawn Yu Qiuping's 4,000 soldiers from the defensive line, preparing to use them to counterattack the Asai-Asakura coalition army. But the situation in the east country made him feel at ease. Takeda Shingen's ability is known to everyone in the world. Tokugawa Ieyasu has now lost most of the Enoe, and Futamatata Castle has also been besieged. The available troops in his hands are less than 10,000 after two consecutive defeats, how can he stop the 24,000 troops of the Takeda family and the Hojo family?

Although he was keen to persuade Tokugawa Ieyasu to hold out for a while, he would go to reinforce him when the Oda family had repelled the Asai-Asakura coalition and recaptured Kyoto. Oda Nobunaga believed that if Tokugawa Ieyasu did not come out of the house, the Takeda family would not be able to solve him in a short time. But the problem is that Tokugawa Ieyasu is also an ally of Oda Nobunaga in the end, not a subordinate of Oda Nobunaga, so there is no need to take such a big risk for Oda Nobunaga. If Tokugawa Ieyasu had died to the end, it was likely that Takeda Shingen would have besieged Hamamatsu Castle instead of fighting, and instead moved westward, sweeping away the Mikawa, which had been passed down from generation to generation by the Tokugawa family—an outcome that the Tokugawa family could not accept in any case. If Oda Nobunaga could not send reinforcements, and if Tokugawa Ieyasu did not see any hope of reinforcements arriving, he would most likely even fall to the Takeda family.

If the Tokugawa family falls to the Takeda family, or if Mikawa falls back, then the situation will become unmanageable. The main force of the Oda family was dragged in, and Owari, Mino, and Ise were almost empty cities. The only mobile troops were also transferred to the front line of Iwamura Castle - the Takeda family's Akiyama Nobuntomo recently sent troops to attack the castle in Higashimino and forced Oda Nobunaga to send reinforcements.

Therefore, if the forces of the Takeda clan were able to occupy Mikawa and drive straight into the hinterland of Ono and Ise, the Oda clan would lose all of its roots. It's like a warrior with a sturdy shield and a razor-sharp knife being stabbed in the heart with a dagger from behind by an enemy.

Therefore, Oda Nobunaga had no choice but to tell Tokugawa Ieyasu that reinforcements would arrive immediately. And the candidate he sent was the Yuqiuping Division, which had just broken away from the front. He put Niwa Nagahide and others in charge of garrisoning Yuakihei's territory, and let Yuqiuping's elite soldiers travel thousands of miles to support Tokugawa Ieyasu.

However, the shortest route from Hanoi to Mikawa, the road to Ono via Kita-Omi, has now been cut off by the Asai-Asakura coalition, and there is no chance of opening it in a short period of time. After Oda Nobunaga and Yu Qiuping discussed, they had to choose another path, a path that only Yu Qiujun dared to take in this era.

That is, from Kawachi, head south, enter the vast mountainous areas of Kii and Minami-Yamato, and follow the mountain road all the way around the south to Ise of the Oda family. Arrive in Shima from Ise and take a boat to Enoe.

From Hanoi to Ise, it is conservatively estimated that it is a 280-mile mountain road. And from Ise to the port of Shima, it is more than 100 miles. With such a complex and dangerous terrain and narrow and rugged mountain roads, it may take more than a month to walk for an ordinary large army. However, Oda Nobunaga did not give Akihei so much time, but demanded that he must arrive in Ise within ten days - Tokugawa Ieyasu may not have to wait long.

Forcibly crossing the mountains to march, Yu Qiuping had not tried before. During the civil war of the Imagawa family, he went around the mountain road to the back of the Okabe coalition army in one go. However, this time it was not a short-distance tactical maneuver, but a long strategic move, and he could not only set off lightly with so many hundreds of soldiers, but with a large-scale army composed of 4,000 soldiers, 8,000 auxiliaries, more than ten days' rations and a large number of baggage, the difficulty of which can be imagined.