Kaizu Castle is a typical Rinkaku-style flat castle that played an important role in the five battles of Kawanakajima, but with the demise of the Takeda family and the subsequent change of Honnoji Temple, it was abandoned for a time, and it was not until Gamo Yorigo was appointed as the castle representative by Gamo Hideyuki that the fortifications were restored. But in the face of the day and night onslaught of 13,000 people, this Taira Castle, which only had Honmaru and Ninomaru, was simply unable to parry. Moreover, there were only 600 defenders left in the city, and Gamo Yorigo expected that within a day, this place would be conquered by the Echigo Shinano coalition army.

On the afternoon of the 29th, when the Tokugawa army attacked Matsui Castle for the first time, Hori Hideshige moved his main camp from the eastern part of Chausu Mountain on Kawanakajima Island to the Chikuma River, while Ishikawa Yasunaga sat in Mt. Tsuma and commanded the Hori and Ishikawa armies to attack Kaizu Castle from the west and south.

Hideshige Hori, who is nearly seventy years old, went out on behalf of his grandson Hideji Hori, and he came with him as the younger brother of Hideji's father, Hidemasa, the old man of the family. At this moment, the two of them sat in the main formation surrounded by the Horike family crest "Sansheng tortoiseshell flower ling", closely watching the battle on the other side of the river.

A few days ago, after learning that the Tokugawa family had defeated Hibara, Hori Hideshige once wanted to withdraw his troops and return to Echigo, but was stopped by Naomasa, who had always been friends with Ieyasu, and he persuaded: "The family has now conquered the two castles of Katsuyama and Asahiyama led by Gamo, and the Gamo family has a close relationship with the right house, and the family really can't turn back. ”

Horihide also felt justified after hearing this, and the Tokugawa army had crossed Numata Castle to Minowa Castle, and the two armies were close at hand, and it seemed difficult to say who would win and who would lose, so he finally made up his mind to capture Kaizu Castle according to the established plan, and then went south to attack Ueda Castle with the Shinano Clan, and finally met at Komoro.

Unlike Hideshige Hori, Yasunaga Ishikawa is firmly on Ieyasu's side. Although his father, Ishikawa Shumasa, defected to Toyotomi Hideyoshi shortly after the battle between Komaki and Nagakute, Yasunaga, who was over 30 years old at the time, always had a nostalgia for the Tokugawa family, and Ieyasu also took the initiative to strengthen his ties with Yasunaga after Ishikawa Shumasa's death, so that he gradually became both ends of the rat and began to disobey the Toyotomi clan. Especially after Hideyoshi's death, he simply fell directly to Ieyasu and became an important pawn in Kita-Shinano.

Ishikawa Yasunaga originally inherited only 80,000 of his father's 100,000 stone Zhixing, and the remaining 20,000 were inherited by the second brother Yasutsu with 15,000 stones, and the third brother Yasuji inherited 5,000 stones. Before the war, he coerced his two younger brothers to go to battle together, but Yasutsu had always been loyal to the Toyotomi clan, and when he went to Korea that year, Hideho had saved his life, so he refused to be with Yasunaga; But he didn't want his brothers to fight in the same room, and after weighing it again and again, he had to lead his family to flee from the country of Jiafei overnight, and gave up Azumi County. Yasunaga then exhausted his family in the Matsumoto area to recruit 3,000 soldiers, becoming the strongest of the Shinano daimyos.

At this moment, Yasunaga was on the mountain of his wife and daughter, where Uesugi Kenshin Gong had been stationed, quietly looking at the smoke of Kaizu Castle under the mountain, and the corpses on both sides of the city wall, and his heart was both happy and worried: on the one hand, he had achieved initial results in bombarding the south gate of Kaizu with a large barrel of Nanban, and a small number of Ishikawa troops had entered the city through the gap in the city wall, and the number continued unabated, and it was believed that he would soon be able to occupy Ninomaru; On the other hand, he was also worried, Hori Hideshige, who had an army of 10,000, chose to attack from the West Gate, which was much more clever than himself, and the West Gate was the closest to Honmaru, once it was broken, it would soon be able to kill Honmaru, and then the merit of breaking the city would probably be surrendered.

Thinking of this, he immediately ordered the army to intensify the offensive and take the head of Gamo Yorigo before Horiya.

As an old minister of the clan era, although he was once confused about the future of the Gamo family because of the weakness of the lord Hideyuki, fortunately Hideho pulled a hand at this time, so that the Gamo family still retained the strength of the middle daimyo after being punished. And due to Hideho's strong recommendation, Hideyuki decided to let Yorigo serve as the representative of Haijin Castle and the acting official of the 120,000 stone Zhiyuki of Kawanakajima, and his position in the family was also consolidated.

It can be seen from this that Hideho is kind to the Gamo family and to Lai Xiang, even if Hideyuki is not on Hidebo's side at the moment, Lai Xiang will not be an enemy of Hideho, and the worst thing is to follow Ishikawa Yasukatsu and flee to other places, after all, he has always been good friends with Ishida Mitsunari, and he can temporarily keep safe when he goes there.

But now Hideyuki has given him a death order, telling him to defend Kaizu Castle to the death, and must not let the Echigo army of the Hori family join the combined forces of Shinano and Tokugawa. This is destined for him to have only one way to go, and as for the outcome, he must face it.

When Yorigo first came to Shinano, he made Kaijin Castle the center of the entire Kawanakajima area, and built a triple castle tower to enhance the operational vision and defense capability. Due to the limited area of Honmaru, he originally planned to move the palace to Ninomaru, but he was unable to do so due to the sudden outbreak of war. With the loss of Mt. Tsuna, the castle tower was also hit by the Nanban Cylinder, and basically lost its original role, and Yorigo had to move to the old palace to command the battle.

Outside the city, the sound of gunfire was deafening, and from time to time arrows were fired into the palace, causing casualties among some of the attendants. Yorigo sat upright in the hall, while the samurai went in and out of the palace, reporting on the progress of the enemy siege and their own casualties. Every report made Lai Xiang clench his fists, and there seemed to be no other way to think than to answer "I know", after all, relying on his own 600 peasant soldiers, no matter what, he could not resist the onslaught of 13,000 troops.

"Lord Qiqi, a gap has been opened near the South Gate by the Nanban Cylinder, the enemy is attacking fiercely, and our army is really difficult to parry!" Holding the wound on his shoulder, he gritted his teeth and knelt in front of Lai Xiang and said.

"So fast, it is worthy of a high-priced Nanban goods...... Tell Gamo that the left guard must hold on, and I will bring people to support. With that, Lai Xiang stood up neatly, and when the attendant saw this, he hurriedly stepped forward to straighten his whole body and handed him the scythe. Lai Xiang took the gun and strode towards the door, so that Fan also ignored the bleeding wound and resolutely followed him.

However, as soon as Lai Xiang walked out of the temple gate, he was bumped into by the oncoming envoy. Seeing this, Fan knelt down in horror and admitted his mistake, Lai Xiang didn't care and directly asked him to report the situation.

"Lord Kaiyu, Lord Left Guard, he... Just died in battle! He shuddered to tell the bad news. Gamo Zuobei is the eldest son of the old Gamo family, and is also a close friend of Yorigo, this time entrusted by Yorigo, he specially rushed to Kaizu from Asahiyama Castle to be responsible for the garrison of the south gate of Ninomaru.

Hearing that Zuo Bingwei was killed in battle, Lai Xiang was in a trance, "Just left...... although it was difficult to accept this reality, but after all, he had more important things to find, thinking of this, Lai Xiang immediately got on his horse sideways and led the horses to the south gate to support.

As the sound of fighting and the sound of swords clash getting closer and closer, Lai Xiang saw more and more Ishikawa troops with flying crane flags on their backs pouring in from the gap on the west side of the south gate.

Seeing this, Lai Xiang immediately raised his gun and shouted: "I am Pu Sheng Beizhong to guard Lai Township, and all the soldiers will follow me forward to kill the enemy, and they are only allowed to advance, not retreat!" ”

With that, Yorigo held the scythe spear in his hand, shouted loudly, and rode his horse towards the left flank of the Ishikawa army, and the horses followed closely without fear, eager to give the enemy a taste of the power of the Gamo samurai.