Okazaki Castle is located to the west of Mikawa, and since most of the northeastern part of Mikawa is mountainous, Okazaki Castle is the de facto center of Mikawa. To the northwest of Mikawa, it is Owari. 17 miles west of Okazaki Castle is the important town of Anxiang Castle. Thirteen miles to the west is Kariya Castle. To the northeast of Kariya Castle and to the northwest of Anxiang Castle, and to the extent that they form an equilateral triangle, is Zhili Castle. The place where the northeast of Zhili City is twelve or thirteen miles, is the city of Hanghang. And the castle goes all the way to the west, which is the barrel narrow room and the Narumi castle. Further north, is the domain of the Oda family.

Back in the early morning of July 26th.

Southeast of Owari, Narumi Castle.

The lord of the castle, Okabe Motonobu, is 34 years old this year, and after his grandfather Okabe Kintsuna retired, he is the current head of the Okabe family, and he is a highly decorated military general, who was entrusted with the important task of garrisoning Narumi Castle, the Imagawa family's bridgehead in Owari. Narumi Castle has long been surrounded by the Oda family's Tange, Zenshoji Temple, and Nakajima, and there are almost no people living in the castle town. Even so, the rations of 1,000 soldiers and 2,000 auxiliaries in the city were very problematic. Due to the overwhelming superiority of the 3,000 soldiers of the Oda family over him in a local area, it was impossible for Narumi Castle to open up fields outside the castle. Therefore, the military rations of the 3,000 defenders in the city were basically transported from the rear of the three rivers.

A few days ago, the Oda family once again went out to sweep the grain and grass in the area around Narumi Castle, not giving Okabe Motonobu a chance to get supplies on the spot. The troops who infiltrated the barrel narrowly even killed Asahina Taehyung, which scared Okabe Motoshin a lot. Although he and the Asahina family have always been unkind, and he doesn't like the kid Asahina Taehyung, this incident has forced him to re-examine the threat of the Oda family.

Twenty-five miles east of Narumi Castle is another city controlled by the Imagawa family. Originally, 1,000 ashigaru garrisons were led by Uden Nagasho, but after Asahina Shinji entered with 1,000 reinforcements, plus the 600 defenders of Odaka Castle, the number of Imagawa family's soldiers in Owari had reached nearly 2,000, and they could compete with the Oda family. After the arrival of Asahina Shinji's reinforcements, the Oda family immediately shrank the scope of their activities in an all-round way, and there were some anomalies in the speed and magnitude of the contraction. Later, Okabe Motonobu learned that a war of unification had broken out within the Oda family. Oda Nobunaga took almost all his troops and went to attack the Iwakura Oda family. The barrel room is now a completely safe area. The remaining forces in the five rock barrages that blockaded Dataka Castle and Narumi Castle were also reduced to the lowest point.

However, the arrival of reinforcements from Asahina Shinogi also made it more difficult to supply food and grass for logistics. Some time ago, the grain and grass of the city were in a hurry, and the military rations that were originally sent to Minghai City had to be sent to the city. Narumi Castle's military rations are now running out, and they will be eaten by the end of this month. The 1,500 members of the Matsudaira family were rushing to Narumi Castle with 2,000 koku of grain. According to the courier, he had already been stationed in the barrel room last night. If everything goes well, we can reach Narumi City at noon today, and the grain and grass crisis can be alleviated.

At this moment, Okabe Motonobu was standing at the head of Narumi Castle, looking out at the official road to the east. His 1,500 men have already completed the assembly, and they plan to wait for the arrival of the convoy to go out of the city to cover the grain and grass into the city.

"Your Highness, you have worked so hard." The retainer of the Okabe family, Yamaguchi Muneaga, who is only 15 years old this year, stepped up to the castle, "You've been staring at it for most of the night, I'll come and see later." ”

"Okay, you can also have a good experience," Okabe Motonobu looked at the rising star, "There won't be much risk, you don't have to be too nervous, no one will attack the barrel narrow." ”

"Oh? Why? Yamaguchi asked a little nervously, "Doesn't it mean that there is a 20-mile mountain road in Gudu, 10 miles on the edge of Nakono Castle, that can lead directly to the barrel narrow." ”

"Haha," Okabe Motoshin smiled, the rising star is still inexperienced after all. "You know, it's a twenty-mile mountain road. I've seen the road, it's very narrow, it's hard to deploy the troops, and it's even more difficult to keep the weapons and baggage transports unobstructed. If the troops were to be able to get to the barrel through this path and have a supply of food and grass for three days of fighting," Okabe Motonobu had apparently been aware of these figures, "even if those troops were carrying rations, in order to set up supply lines and baggage brigades, they would only have to supply less than 600 combat troops, but more than 2,000 baggage troops would have to be invested in them. ”

"It's a difficult trail, and it takes at least three hours to get here." The rib scabbard in Okabe Motoshin's hand struck the palm of his left hand, "If you want all the troops to pass through this path and start fighting again, it will take at least five hours." ”

"Let 600 soldiers travel for five hours to reach our territory? Surrounded by more than 2,000 soldiers? Okabe Motonobu asked Yamaguchi Muneaga, "Do you think it's feasible?" ”

"What if... All the soldiers who came, carrying only a day's rations with them? "Yamaguchi Muneaga is a young man after all, and he is not willing to be dismissed so easily.

"Hahaha," Okabe Motoshin laughed a few times after hearing this, "I really wish you were in command of the Oda Army." Okabe Motonobu teased, "More than 2,000 soldiers, carrying armor on their backs and only rations, walked a few hours on the mountain road to come to us. The path is narrow, and you can only advance in columns. When we arrived at the barrel saga, we had to stop and gather our troops and form a formation, and at this time our people were all informed, and thousands of ashigaru and even reinforcements from Ansho Castle and Kariya Castle would be dispatched. ”

"When they are assembled, not only will we not be inferior in terms of troops, but we will also be able to wait for work. After a big fight, we don't even need to win. As long as it drags on until the evening, the Oda family, which has run out of food, will have to withdraw their troops, and on such a narrow path," Okabe Motonobu suddenly stretched out his hand and clenched his fist fiercely, "They can't go fast at all, so we will pursue them with their tails, leaving at least a third of their troops." ”

"After that, all the mobile forces were scattered, and the Oda family would no longer have any field forces available, and we could even take the surrounding five rocks in one fell swoop. In normal times, we don't dare to attack, but we are only afraid of the deterrence of the field troops of the Oda family in the ancient wild castle, and we will have no worries at that time. ”

In ancient times, the formation of the army was very important for the combat effectiveness of the army. The order is passed through the main general, passed to the various generals, and then passed to the general of the squire, and the general of the ashigaru under the general, the head of the ashigaru, until each ashigaru. Only by passing through the flag or the herald can the entire army be commanded. If the soldiers cannot find the generals, they will not be able to find the soldiers, and no matter how many troops there are, they will be scattered and no one can command them. Therefore, in ancient warfare, once the flag of one army was lost, it meant that the command communication was interrupted, and the lord would not be able to command that force. And if the general's banner is lost, then all his subordinates will be leaderless. This is the importance of the establishment to the military.

Therefore, if a force loses more than half of its ranks, it is only considered to have suffered heavy losses. However, if the establishment is disrupted, it will be directly judged to be incapacitated. Because the collapse of the command system means that this force is completely out of control.

In Japan, the establishment is even more important. Japan did not have a strong centralized system, and the governors divided the land among their retainers, who supported their own troops and followed them when they went to war. Therefore, it still takes some time for the head of the family to collect troops from various retainers and complete the mobilization before going out on the expedition. The retainers' own soldiers and the governors had no affection. If the order of the governor is to be passed on to an ashigaru, it must be connected through the retainers, the retainers of the retainers. Therefore, once the establishment is disrupted, it has almost no ability to fight.

Just imagine, the troops of the Oda family, which were originally divided into various teams and families, ran around in crowds for several hours in general. Naturally, the connection between the various levels will become a mess, and Ashigaru can't find his own Ashigaru head, and Ashigaru can't find Ashigaru Shogun, and he doesn't know who to obey or who he can command. It will take some time for such a unit to regain its combat effectiveness.

"Unless, I'm talking unless," Motonobu Okabe said jokingly, "the Oda family knew many days in advance that we had a grain and grass team that would stay there today, and after gathering the troops early, they would take a day's rations and the whole army to attack and rob the grain and grass team, and then rely on the looted grain and grass to maintain the logistics supply." Only this plan has the slightest chance of success. According to our information, the Oda family is now sending out the whole army to besiege the Iwakura Oda family, intending to unify the interior. ”

Listening to Okabe Motonobu's analysis, Yamaguchi Muneaga let out a sigh of relief, "Sure enough, only a big fool would do such an act." ”

At this time, Oda Nobunaga, who was nicknamed the great fool of Owari, was urging all the 2,000 soldiers under his command to run on the path from Gudu to the barrel narrow at night. A few days ago, Oda Nobunaga suddenly abandoned Iwakura Castle, the home city of the Iwakura Oda family, which was already within easy reach, and preferred to delay the autumn harvest and only disbanded the auxiliary troops, and went straight to Imagawa's house with 2,000 soldiers. They set out from Gudu at the very beginning of the ugly time, and it was difficult to walk at night even if there were torches, so in order to avoid detection, the whole army also extinguished the torches after approaching the barrel narrow. But before dawn, the vanguard of this force was almost in the barrel room.

"It's too nonsense for the lord to bet all his hopes on that captured map. actually plans to rely on captured grain and grass to make up for the lack of food for the soldiers, which is obviously a mess. How can there be such a child's play on military rations. Sakuma Morisge, who commanded the rearmost reserves, was adamantly opposed to this plan from the outset, but Oda Nobunaga insisted on going his own way, rejecting everyone's advice, and gathered almost all of his mobile forces except for the northern border and the five rocks to carry out this surprise attack—each soldier carrying only one day's rations, and taking advantage of the night to cross the mountain road and attack the baggage team that stayed in the barrel narrow.

"We had absolutely no idea of the information there, so we had the presumptuous idea of trusting the time and stopping place of the grain on the map." Sakuma scolded solemnly, "The family business founded by the old lord is afraid that it will be ruined in the hands of this kid." ”

"Migoro, if the news of my defeat comes, I will directly burn the five rock stones." Sakuma Nobumori, who was following Sakuma Moritge's side, repeated the order that Oda Nobunaga had left for Niwa Nagahide when he set off, "My lord, this is going to be desperate." ”

"Lord Lin doesn't know what's wrong, he is usually so conservative, but this time he supports the lord's decision." Sakuma Shengzhong was also very dissatisfied with the old Lin Xiuzhen of the pen family, "And that Takigawa Yiyi, knowing that the intelligence work is not in place at all, he will not dissuade the lord." ”

"Oh? The two of them seem to be very dissatisfied with the lord. Suddenly, there was a kind laugh behind the two of them. Sakuma Moritge and Sakuma Nobumori looked back and saw a tall and mighty military general, leaning on this huge vermilion spear on his shoulder, riding on a horse, and looking at the two of them.

"Maeda-sama, I don't know what I mean by that." Sakuma Nobumori asked with a frown.

"Haha, I don't know," Maeda Toshiie laughed, and demonstratively led the horse around in front of the two, "I'm just here to give the order to the two of you to speed up." ”

"The lord is in front, why did you give the order from behind?" Sakuma snorted.

"It's not going to bother the two adults," Maeda Toshika galloped away on the rugged hills beside the road as soon as he grabbed the horse's belly, "walking too slowly, old turtles." Before leaving the field of vision, Maeda Toshiya shouted at the two. The echo echoed through the hills, causing the two Sakuma to be furious.

"It's so unruly, one by one, it's the same as the lord." Sakuma scolded in a low voice, raised his head, and shouted, "All speed up and keep up with Sasa-sama's troops in front." ”