Late on the night of 16 April, Maeda Toshimasa's advance arrived at Kaga Mikozuka Castle, while the Chinese army marched towards Mido Mountain Castle. The generals stationed at Mikozuka Castle held a military meeting to discuss how to join forces with the Rimasa headquarters, but it turned out that they decided not to rush to Kanazawa Castle in a roundabout way, but to go straight to Komatsu, the main castle of the Niwa family, and take advantage of the enemy's lack of preparedness to draw salaries, so that the Niwa army lost ground and surrendered without a fight. The generals were divided into seven armies, from front to back, Yamazaki Nagatoku, Takayama Ukin, Okuyama Eiaki, Tomita Naoyoshi, Imaeda Minbu, Ota Nagachi, and the temple army commander Renlong. When the commander of the palace army, Lian Long, led his troops out of the Great Territory and marched towards the Yamashiro Bridge, he encountered an ambush from the Niwa family. It turned out that Niwa Naga did not send all the main forces to Kanazawa when he re-raised his army, but 2,000 troops led by Eguchi Masayoshi ambushed outside Komatsu Castle to deal with a possible sneak attack by Maeda's army.

The ambush general Eguchi Saburo Saemon Masakashi raided the Nagarian Dragon Army, and it was in the middle of the night when the wind and rain were raging, and the iron cannon was useless, and the two armies fought each other. The battle took place in the area of Asai and Kuwahata in the Komatsu domain, so it was later called the "Battle of Asai Hatata".

Knowing that the two armies were clashing, the garrison of Komatsu Castle gradually arrived and started a bitter battle with the Changlian Dragon Army. In the confrontation between the two armies, many people under the Niwa retainer Matsumura Sunzaburo, Saga Bingbe, and Terooka Kanzaemon were killed in battle, while the Maeda army had nine men and more soldiers killed in the Nagaren Ryu retainers, Kobayashi Heizaemon, Oki Satoru Saemon, Nagachumu, Kashima Rokuzaemon, Hatta Sansuke, Suzuki Gonbei, Horiuchi Keihiro, Yanagiya Hyoji, Iwata Shinsuke, and many more soldiers were killed.

Nagarenlong persevered, and the Maeda army, which had arrived at Yamashiro Bridge in advance, learned the news and immediately returned to the army, and coupled with the reinforcement of Matsudaira Yasada's headquarters, the Niwa army began to retreat. The Maeda army general Kamihan Matabei advocated the pursuit of the Niwa army, and the battle ended with the loss of 500 of the Maeda army and more than 600 casualties of the Niwa army, and the winner was not decided. After the war, Maeda Toshimasa received the report and was furious. repeatedly scolded Yamazaki Nagatoku for delaying the fighter plane, and ordered him to lead the forward to smash Komatsu.

On April 17, Maeda Toshimasa captured Matsuren Castle, the key to the north gate of the Niwa clan, and cut off Niwa Nagashige's retreat; The next morning, the Maeda army crossed the Tetori River and approached Kanazawa, while Niwa Nagashige moved his main camp to Tentokuin Temple north of the Ryu River, forming a triangle with the Maeda army and Kanazawa Castle.

Knowing that the Battle of Asai did not hold back the Maeda army, and that he had not captured Kanazawa, Niwa Nagashige was in a difficult situation. At this moment, the lord and faction family boss Tani Motohide once again made a statement to Niwa Naga, bluntly saying that the Niwa family had done their best. Even if he surrendered, it would not be a shame, and even if Tokugawa Ieyasu won, his actions would not be punished, so he begged Niwa to surrender.

At this time, Maeda Toshimasa was also anxious to go south to aid Ogasawara Takakiyo, so he sent his retainers to Niwa Honjin to persuade him to surrender, and informed the Niwa clan that Niwa Nagamasa's residence city Katsuyama Castle had been captured by Oda Hideo. Accepting Maeda Toshimasa's suggestion, he surrendered his military power and went to Kanazawa Castle to be cautious, while the rest of his retainers went south with Maeda's army and went to Komatsu Castle, the capital of Jucheng, to surrender.

April 20. When Maeda Toshimasa arrived at Komatsu Castle, Yamazaki Nagatoku had already attacked Ninomaru, but after receiving Maeda Toshimasa's military order, he stopped the attack and went to Kaejo by Niwa Nagamasa instead. Shoyoshi Eguchi Masayoshi was the lord and faction, and immediately opened the castle after learning of Nagashige's surrender, and after handing over the military power, he went to Kanazawa Castle to accompany Niwa Nagashige. From then on, the 25-day Battle of Kaga-Echizen ended with Maeda's victory. Maeda Toshimasa did not have time to celebrate the victory, so he quickly led the main force of 20,000 and the Niwa army of 4,000 to set off south to support Gotoyama Castle, which had been attacked by the Maori army for ten days.

Compared to the wars in Hokuriku and Kyushu, the situation in the Kanto region was much more stable, and because the Uesugi family adopted a strategy of concentrating their forces on Wakamatsu Castle, Hideho did not encounter much obstacle on his way to the army, and the real battle was when he was ambushed by Kiyono Nagaku, a former retainer of the Ashina clan, while passing through the Great White Shadow Mountain. This former minister of the Ashina clan came out of Uesugi Kagekatsu after the collapse of the main house, so he obtained Iwasaki Castle, the old leader of Ashina, and Iwasaki Castle is located at the northern foot of Mt. Hakukage, which is the only way for Hideho to march into Aizu, out of the so-called samurai honor, Kiyono Nagafan did not obey the call of Uesugi Keikatsu, and insisted on staying in Iwasaki Castle to buy time for Uesugi and Tokugawa to join forces.

This sneak attack can be described as a success, and the strength of more than 200 troops managed to kill the 600 sergeants of the Fukushima retainer Osaki Nagayuki, once again showing the demeanor of the Ashina samurai. However, in the face of Hidebo's huge strength, this success did not play any role at all, with the addition of other retainers of the Fukushima clan, Kiyono Nagafan was finally defeated and fled, at noon that day, the relict of Ashina set fire on the Iwasaki Castle Castle Castle Tower**, and more than 50 people, including his wife and concubine, were martyred together. After passing through Iwasaki, Hidebo's army finally reached the banks of the Agagawa River, and across this river, Wakamatsu Castle was close at hand.

At the same time, another army crossed the Naka River and quickly marched along the streets of Mito towards Heijo Castle, the residence of the Iwaki clan. This huge army of 75,000 men set out from Edo two days ago, forcibly crossed the Tone River, and coerced Satake Yoshinobu to open his territory. After passing through the Mito Towns to Mito, he received some food and grass supplies, and then set off across the Naka River towards Mutsu Province.

On the banks of the Naka River, the Tokugawa clan's golden fan horse seal flutters in the wind, the fan at the top of the horse seal has seven golden fan bones, the face is painted with a red sun, and under the fan is a silver wind banner made of leather and painted with silver lacquer. Tokugawa Ieyasu rode at the forefront of the team, with a large white flag behind him, with the words "disgusted with the filthy land, eager for the pure land", dancing and fluttering with the warm spring breeze.

Because they were on the waterway, the Tokugawa family received the crusade order much faster than Hideho who was inland, and in order not to delay the fighters, Tokugawa Ieyasu began to reorganize his armaments after returning to his skills, so as soon as the crusade order arrived, he immediately set up troops to the north to support Uesugi Keikatsu.

According to Tokugawa Ieyasu's concept, in order to be able to take the surprise by surprise, it was necessary to choose a different route from Hidebo's march, so he took Mito Kaido to Heijo via Mito, then went west along Iwakuni Kaido into Aizuro, and plunged from behind Nihonmatsu into Lake Inawashiro, and finally arrived at Wakamatsu in the west of Kosai, where he attacked Hideho's crusading army from the flank.

To put it simply, from Edo to Wakamatsu, Hideho took the hypotenuse of a right triangle, while the Tokugawa army took two right-angled sides, and the distance traveled was naturally much longer and took longer, which required the Uesugi army as the end point to resist Hidebo's attack until the arrival of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Fortunately, the Satake clan, as a neutral faction, did not cause much trouble to Ieyasu's plan, and although the current head of the company, Yoshinobu Satake, favored Hideho's side, his father, Satake Yoshishige, known as the "Oni Yoshishige", had seen Tokugawa Ieyasu's power and insisted that the family should side with the Tokugawa clan, not only for the future, but also for the current situation. The Hitachi Ichikuni Province retained by the Satake clan was only separated by a river from the Tokugawa family, and if it was against Tokugawa Ieyasu, it was very likely that it would be directly flattened by the 75,000 troops of the Tokugawa family, and it would not affect its northward march into Aizu, at best, it would delay for some time; But Hidebo's 150,000 army has already rushed to Aizu, and the time delayed by the Satake family is simply not enough for Hidebo to reinforce, not only that, but Hidebo and the Satake clan are only general friends, and it is very likely that they will turn their backs on their own family at a critical moment, but take the opportunity to storm Wakamatsu, and use the fall of the Satake clan as a stepping stone for his achievements. Thinking about it, the Satake clan decided to open the streets of Mito and let Tokugawa Ieyasu go to Aizu through his territory, not only that, but when Tokugawa Ieyasu proposed grain and grass support, Satake Yoshishige also tried his best to be satisfied, only one point, that is, the Satake clan could not send troops to assist Tokugawa, which was the bottom line of the Satake clan and an important guarantee for being able to preserve the family name in the future. Just imagine, if only the release and provision of grain and grass will not cause direct harm to Xiubao, and after the war, it can be said that it was caused by coercion, and the crime will not be too serious; On the contrary, if it is a direct army, it means that the Satake family has reached an alliance with the Tokugawa, unless they defect on the battlefield, they will not want to wash their involvement, but for the samurai, the defection is the most shameful, in summary, the Satake clan insists on not sending troops, at most it is just to ensure that the Tokugawa army is unimpeded in Changlu. (To be continued.)