The Hirakata-jukuba garrison was a feudal army from the Mikami Domain, and the garrison commander Nobunao Endo was in his early 30s, and was known for his clerical skills in the domain. It was precisely because of Endo's ability to handle logistics that Naomasa Ii asked him to be stationed here to transport grain and grass materials for the army.

Endo Nobunao had never experienced a battle formation, and the feudal armies under his command had never been on the battlefield, so it was probably okay to suppress the peasant rebellion, but when the rebel army with Matsuura Nobunobu as the core attacked, the defenders were quickly defeated and withdrew from the Hirakata camp.

Fortunately, this defender is from a feudal domain, and Endo Nobunao is still popular with the army on weekdays, so although the defenders were defeated and retreated, they did not abandon him, the main general, and scattered. After he gathered it, he also gathered more than 400 people.

But in their panic, most of the soldiers dropped their weapons and armor, leaving half of the 400 unarmed. Nobu Endo looked at these frightened subordinates and knew that they could not be expected to retake the lodge.

But he didn't dare to just run back to the old camp downstream, in that case he might not be able to save his head. Endo Nobunao sent someone to report to the old camp for help; On the other hand, they tried to negotiate with the rebels, trying to get them out of their camps on the pretext of not interfering with their return home.

Nobunao Endo's gentle strategy is crooked. After taking the lodging grounds, the deserters lost the motivation to continue the pursuit and escape from the defenders. Before the battle was over, many people couldn't wait to break into the houses in the lodging grounds to look for belongings and try to make a small fortune. Others opened the granaries and ordered the inhabitants to make dry food to take with them when they fled.

After capturing the lodging ground, these deserters seized a lot of weapons, and the deserters who had weapons and courage began to disobey Matsuura Nobumoto's orders.

However, the organization and discipline of Matsuura Nobumoto's 300 men were not comparable to other deserter groups, so no one dared to jump out and openly oppose Matsuura Nobumoto's orders.

The messenger sent by Nobunao Endo gave the deserter leaders an excuse to think that since the other party no longer prevented them from going home, everyone should leave the lodging with the prepared food and go home.

After laying down the camp, Li Chenfang found that there was not much food in the accommodation. Surprised, he questioned several prisoners and learned that the earliest convoy of grain would not arrive until the afternoon.

The rebels occupy this place, and Ii Naotaka probably won't pay too much attention to it, but if I let Ii Naotaka know that there is an Osaka army that occupies his rear road, I guess he won't let it go easily.

Li Chenfang did not want to reveal his identity before the arrival of the grain convoy, so he hoped that the deserters would stay a little longer to cover for his people.

Therefore, he stopped Matsuura Nobunoto, who wanted to get angry, and shouted at the more than 30 leaders in the room and the hundreds of deserters listening in the courtyard: "Endo Nobunao is just a nameless feudal priest of the nameless small domain, does his promise really work?" ”

The deserters, who had made a lot of noises at the right end, suddenly quieted down suspiciously, and turned their eyes to Li Chenfang, who stood up to speak.

After watching everyone's attention focus on himself, Li Chenfang lowered his voice slightly and said: "The leader of this army is the chief minister of the shogunate, Naotaka Ii, and Endo Nobunao has lost the flood land, he may not be able to save himself, and he can still pack tickets for us and allow us to go home safely?"

If we really evacuate like this, and everyone goes their separate ways, and the shogunate army catches up and arrests us, who can deal with these shogunate troops alone? I guess everyone's head will be lost, right? ”

When it came to their own lives, everyone finally listened, and some people couldn't help but ask, "Then what should we do now?" Do you want to refuse Endo-sama's request and fight to the death with the shogunate army? ”

Li Chenfang couldn't help but smile and said, "Of course, you can also quietly escape into the Ikoma Mountains in the north. But I doubt how many of you will be able to get out of this forest without the locals leading the way.

But even if you can get out of this forest, will you really be able to go home safely? Don't forget, there is still a large army led by His Highness Yoshinao to the north of us, and if Naotaka-sama Ii sends a messenger, the passage to the north will be blocked, and everyone will become deserters who are being hunted down by the shogunate. ”

The leaders in the room exchanged glances with each other, and then they all said to Li Chenfang: "This lord, you have brought us here from the beginning, and we all believe that only you can take us home. If you have any ideas, please let us know, as long as the plan is really feasible, why don't we follow your actions? ”

Li Chenfang lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then said to everyone: "No matter how we can go home safely, we should guard here before it gets dark today."

As long as we hold this place and intercept the grain ships heading from Kyoto to the front, we can force Naotaka Ii to negotiate with us. Either he let us go home safely; Either the front line will be cut off, and the army will collapse, and we will be able to pass through the blockade line in the rear even if we are mixed with the defeated army. ”

Previously, everyone listened to the opinions of Li Chenfang and others, and came to the Hirakata accommodation just to fill their stomachs and bring some dry food home.

However, when they easily drove the garrison away, everyone's demand inevitably increased, that is, they wanted to return home safe and sound. Even if some people want to sneak away, they just want others to be substitutes for the dead and block the pursuers of Naotaka Ii.

But when Li Chenfang analyzed the situation for them, these people who wanted to sneak away also began to hesitate. If His Highness Yoshinao's army was still behind them, even if they escaped the pursuit of Naotaka Ii now, they might not be able to escape the shogunate's pursuit. Judging from the current situation, on the contrary, everyone is united and has a better chance of survival.

However, some people still asked him worriedly: "But we have less than a thousand people here, if Jing Yidian sends reinforcements, I'm afraid it won't be less than a thousand, right?" From here to the old camp downstream, it takes a maximum of two hours, and reinforcements can arrive in the afternoon at the latest. Will we really be able to withstand the onslaught of reinforcements? ”

Li Chenfang shook his head and said, "You are not right, only along the road of the Yodogawa River embankment, it is possible for Naotaka I's reinforcements to arrive in the afternoon." If they choose to walk on the official road away from the river, they will arrive here at about 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

There were no mountains separating the two roads, but they were cut off by large woods, swamps, streams, and fields, making it difficult for large groups of people to pass through.

Of course, if we just sit here in a daze, we may not be able to stop Naotaka Ii's reinforcements.

So we have to be proactive. The road on the embankment is a quick march, but the road is narrow, and there is a lot of terrain along the way that can be ambushed. I think it's time to send a force to ambush reinforcements on the road to thwart Naotaka Ii's attempt to retake this place..."

Someone suddenly couldn't wait to interrupt Li Chenfang's words and said, "But what if they take the official road away from the river?" ”

Li Chenfang was not annoyed, and replied calmly: "To the north and east of the lodging ground are the Hirano River and the hills and mountains, and to the west are the woods and the Yodo River. Only the south and southeast faces are wilderness.

Therefore, if Naotaka Ii's reinforcements wanted to attack the camp, they would mainly attack from the south and east, and the north and west would at most be a sneak attack by a small force.

However, what is useful for Naotaka Ii for the Hirakataka army, and what is the use for us? We occupy this place only to intercept the grain ships so that we can negotiate with Naotaka Ii.

If we can't hold this place, we can burn it down to prevent reinforcements from taking it back, and then cross the Yodo River and then make plans, right? As long as we can catch the convoy carrying the grain, it will be fine. ”

Hearing Li Chenfang's method of resisting the enemy with fire, everyone's nervous mood finally relaxed. At this time, they already knew that there would be a grain ship passing by Hiraka this afternoon. Intercepting the convoy and then taking it to the other shore was obviously an easier task.

So in the ensuing discussion, the task of ambushing on the trail was naturally pushed to the Matsuura Nobumoto department, and the others stayed at the lodging field to intercept the fleet and confront the Endo Nobunao department outside the east gate.

At Li Chenfang's suggestion, the aborigines and some captives in the lodging were ordered to dig a trench outside the wooden fences to the east and south to block the speed of the shogunate reinforcements when they arrived.

The nearly 600 deserters who stayed at the lodging site were reorganized into six groups of centurians, and then each assigned a responsible task, and placed firewood and flammable materials in the lodging to prepare for arson.

When Li Chenfang led Matsuura Nobumoto's brigade south along the Yodo River, the sentry they left on the opposite side finally contacted the lost Numata Kanichi Brigade, and after transporting the Numata Kanichi Brigade across the Yodo River by boat, Li Chenfang's troops exceeded 600 people, which added a lot of confidence to him.

Just when Li Chenfang was looking for the ambush location, Naokaka Ii finally received a detailed report from Nobutaka Endo, in fact, before Nobunao Endo's messenger arrived, the soldiers who fled from Hirakata had already run to Naotaka Inoto's main camp.

Hearing that Endo Nobunao let a group of Abe Masaji's deserters seize the flood land, Naotaka Ii was also a little angry, if the two sides were not too far apart, he would have made Endo Nobunao cut his stomach and apologize.

However, it was also a tense time on the side of Naotaka Iino, and since this morning, Nagano Yehui on the west bank of the Yodo River has reported that the enemy forces west of the Anwei River have moved again, advancing from the large camp built yesterday to the opposite side of Nagano Yehui's camp, and a small camp has been built across the narrow Anwei River.

Nagano originally wanted to send troops to stop him, but he was quickly repelled by the other side. Naotaka Ii originally wanted to cross the river with the main force of the old battalion and destroy the enemy army west of the Anwei River first, but news came from Abe Shoji and Saigo Shigeto again, and the army in Osaka Castle was dispatched.

About 4,000 or 5,000 men and horses were dispatched to Osaka Castle, and a battalion was set up on the east and west sides of the shogunate outpost, and these two camps were about half a day away from the outpost, and it seemed that the other side was moving to flank the outpost.

Naotaka Ii had to turn his attention back to Osaka, and he ordered Anwara Asama to reinforce Nagano Yehui with 800 men, and then distribute 2,500 reinforcements to Abe Shoji, leaving only 3,000 Akabei and more than 2,000 miscellaneous soldiers in the old camp.

As long as the Osaka army is entangled with his former army, he will take the red reserve team to give the Osaka army a hard blow from the side and decide the outcome of this war at once.

However, just as he was patiently waiting for the attack of the Osaka army, the news of the deserters behind him came again, which really made him feel a little anxious. However, after thinking for a long time, he still ordered Okubo Shinemon and Onoda to take 1,500 feudal soldiers to quell the desertion rebellion in Hirakata.