In the early morning of May 28, Yuqiuping, who had gotten up early in the morning, immediately led his troops to Anxiang City. The assembly speed of Sena Bei, who got up with Yu Qiuping to gather, was far less than that of Tokiwabei. It was only half an hour after Yuakihei's troops had already set off that Sena Bei left the castle town outside Kariya Castle.

At three o'clock, Anxiang City was already clearly visible in the field of vision. It was only 13 miles from Kariya Castle to Anxiang Castle, and according to the speed of Tokiwabi, it would definitely be possible to arrive in half an hour. In order to save time, Yu Qiuping did not even go with the auxiliaries, but asked them to set off with Sena Shitoshi's team. The ashigaru people of Tokiwa were dressed neatly by themselves, and at this time they had arrived outside the castle town of Anxiang Castle.

A long time ago, Yu Qiuping sent a large number of scouts to the southeast to reconnoitre. To his relief, until now, there had been no signs of the Okabe family's large-scale activities. And this is also worrying him - because in the previous few encounters, he has not been able to figure out the movements of the Okabe family every time, and he has been deflated repeatedly.

After Tokiwabei arrived at the castle, Tadaji Sakai in the castle immediately sent an envoy to communicate. When Yu Qiuping euphemistically said that he wanted to enter the city to assist in the defense, he was immediately rejected by the messenger. Yu Qiuping tried to make this request many times after that, but the envoys used various reasons such as "the environment in the city is not good, how dare you wronged Chang Panbei", "The Matsudaira family is more than enough to defend the city, and Chang Panbei is not strong" and other reasons to prevaricate back. After Yu Qiuping understood Sakai Tadaji's attitude, he stopped trying to do more, and honestly set up camp in the west of the castle town - he naturally did not go to the south to help the Matsudaira family as a shield.

After completing these deployments, Yu Qiuping immediately sent a herald to report back to Kariya Castle, saying that the movements of the Okabe family had not been discovered for the time being, so that the main force did not have to act rashly, so as not to be shot back by Okabe Motonobu. Yu Qiuping now admires Okabe Motonobu's military strategy very much, and it is clear that the two sides are evenly matched, but now they have been maintained by Okabe Motoshin to maintain a strategic offensive and lead him by the nose.

"Why is this happening, you say?" Yu Qiuping asked a few people around him in confusion, "Why are the two sides evenly matched, but we have always been so passive?" ”

Naoe Tadahei, Honda Tadakatsu and Yoshioka Katsumasa didn't seem to give too good advice, so they just listened silently. Sanada Masayuki frowned and pondered for a while, then said with some hesitation: "In my opinion, I'm afraid it's caused by the difference in intelligence. ”

"Oh?" Yu Qiuping looked at Sanada Masayuki, "Kibei, can you talk about it?" ”

"In fact, from the very beginning of the confrontation between Narumi Castle and Dataka Castle, we were already doomed to be led by the nose." Sanada Masayuki said, "Since the Okabe family is closer to the southeast than us, we have to follow him when he retreats, and it has always been the Okabe family that has chosen the battlefield. Wherever we reach with our hind feet, they have been with our front feet, and they know the time and place, and our movements are all under their noses. But we don't know where they're going or what they're going to do. The backwardness in intelligence forced us to take a defensive position and be relatively passive. ”

"Makes sense." Yu Qiuping suddenly brightened, "But it doesn't seem to be anything bad." Aren't Kariya Castle and Anxiang Castle in our hands now? Although the Okabe family has always taken the initiative, it doesn't have much advantage. ”

"And now, the Okabe family no longer even has an advantage in intelligence." Sanada Masayuki said with a smile, "After we have the castle as our backing, relying on the subtle advantage of cavalry, we can hide the movements of our army very well. As long as we survive today, we can try to detect the movements of the Okabe family in reverse. ”

"Makes sense." Yu Qiuping and several people all smiled and nodded.

"What, how many of you are talking there?" Mimasaki Nakahide muttered dissatisfiedly, "How can that old thief in Okabe be be as powerful as you analyzed. I look at him, even if he runs to a place where no one is there every time, and he doesn't care what our information is, anyway, if we guess where he is going, he doesn't go anywhere. Peek and butter with us! If you want me to say, he's going to take a detour back to Narumi City now! ”

"Come on, you. Run back to Narumi City, and you'll get out of it! Yu Qiuping laughed, "You kid, can you be serious when discussing problems!" Everyone was amused by Mimasaki Nakahide's words, and the depressing atmosphere eased a lot for a while.

When the tanma sent to Kariya Castle returned, the latest order from Asahinatai arrived along with Sena Bei, who had just arrived. The top priority is to find out the movements of the Okabe family's troops. Asahina's family, Yuqiu's family, and Sena's family sent a large number of scouts to search south. Don't act rashly until the investigation progresses.

However, just like yesterday's script played out again, the news that the group of probes reported was that there was no sign of the Okabe family's attack.

With the experience of being pitted last time, Yu Qiuping will not stand stupidly and do nothing this time. At the second hour of the day, he personally led a team of reconnaissance cavalry to the south to reconnoitre. However, they had all advanced to the Yasaku River, twenty miles south of Ansho Castle, but they still couldn't see the shadow of the Okabe family.

"You won't be deceived again, will you?" Yu Qiuping scolded in a low voice. It was here that his scout had encountered the Okabe family's intelligence barrier last night—but now there was nothing here—so the Okabe family could only go south to Nishio. Several bridges over the Yasaku Kawakami remained intact, and the Okabe family did not seem to have any intention of hindering the pursuit.

"Your Highness, let's continue south!" Kohata Jie Sheng enthusiastically proposed.

Yu Qiuping straightened up slightly on the horse's back and looked at the surrounding terrain. To the southwest of them, there was a forest that obscured the road from Kariya Castle to Nishio. Beyond the Yasaki River, there is also a large forest and hills. These are two places where you can ambush your troops.

Yu Qiuping, who had always been cautious, still did not rush forward with the cavalry. Instead, some of them went to the official road to the west and asked for the Asahina's scouts from Kariya Castle to cover the flanks. He also sent Kohata Jiemori with 10 horsemen to cross the Yasaka River from the bridge and reconnoiter to the woods to the southeast.

At six o'clock, the horses sent to the west and southeast returned in return. Neither in the woods to the west nor in the southeast, there were no ambushes—not even the banners of the old suspicious formations. The Asahina family's Tanma, led by Asahina Taehyung himself, has continued to approach south.

Although the current environment is not absolutely safe, Yu Qiuping feels that for his dozens of cavalry, there is no problem to get out. He then went hand in hand with Asahina Taehyung, one east and one west. Cross the Yasaka River and run along the two official roads towards Nishio.

At the beginning of the afternoon, Asahina Taehyung and Yu Qiupei met one after the other at Nishio. On a plain in Nishio, they found traces of large-scale camping and cooking on fires—apparently the troops of the Okabe family were stationed in Nishio yesterday—and the cavalry north of the Yasaki River was nothing more than a suspicious formation.

If the Okabe family had arrived in Nishio yesterday... Today...

Yu Qiuping looked to the east, and a sense of foreboding made him shiver on a hot day.

Sure enough, the scouts found a large number of unerased footprints and horseshoe prints on the official road leading from the west tail to the east of the Kamagata. Looking far to the east, it seems that you can still see the dust raised by the army.

"Abandon Kariya, bypass Anxiang and Okazaki, and abandon all important towns," Yu Qiuping said with some disbelief, "all the way to the south, and force your way to the east." It's a lot of courage. ”

Further east of Kamagata, Yoshida Castle is located. This is the most important stronghold of Higashi-Mikawa and is now part of the Okuhei family. In other words, Yoshida Castle, which is basically empty, will be attacked by the Okabe family immediately.

"Go and inform Her Highness Asahina and Her Highness Sena." Yu Qiuping said in a deep voice, "The Okabe family did not try to attack Anxiang Castle, but the whole army made a detour from the south, and the target was Mikawa Yoshida Castle. ”

Now, the main force of the Asahina family has been thrown away by the Okabe family for a day and a half. The situation is already very sinister. Only then did Yu Qiuping really realize the advantage of being in front of the retreat - he could always lead the latter by the nose. Capture a fortified city and keep your pursuers at bay.

"It's all to blame for not being able to bite the Okabe family in the first place." Yu Qiuping sighed regretfully, "Otherwise, they wouldn't have distanced us and toyed with us." The first general of the Imagawa family, his real name is well deserved. ”

When Yu Qiuping led the cavalry back to Anxiang City, it was already too late. He learns that the Asahina family has led a large army to meet at Anxiang City, and begins to discuss the next step. Now it's too late to chase after the back of the Okabe family's ass and chase it from the south road. Only by following the official road of the northern route may have time to support Yoshida Castle. Because the official roads in the south are relatively remote, the roads are narrow and rugged, which is not conducive to the rapid passage of large armies. However, the official road to the north, Ansho Castle - Okazaki Castle - Iwrokuji Temple - Mori - Yoshida Castle, is the official road used by the Imagawa family's army, and the traffic volume of the road is almost twice that of the official road to the south. If you take the northern route, it is still possible to catch up.

However, the problem in front of everyone is that if you want to go through the northern route, you must pass through the territory of the Matsudaira family. Is the Matsudaira family really willing to let such a large number of Asahina families pass? You know, now the Okabe family is far to the south, and they can't intervene in the situation around Okazaki Castle at all. If there is a rebellion against the Asahina family now, the Matsudaira family will not have time to fall to the Okabe family, and they will be immediately besieged or even wiped out.

Therefore, both Sakai Tadaji of Ansho Castle and Matsudaira Motoyasu of Okazaki Castle refused to let the Asahina family troops pass, and even assumed a posture of martial law. In the end, it was Yu Qiuhei and Sena Shitoshi who rushed to Okazaki Castle in person to negotiate with Matsudaira Motoyasu, and reached a compromise clause - the auxiliary troops were allowed to pass through the line from Anxiang Castle to Okazaki Castle. The soldiers marched from the plains and meadows to the south of the official road. Inevitably, this will slow down the march considerably, but there is no other way for them to do so. Oping and his son were anxious, but they couldn't do anything about it.