The two generals sitting in the middle of the formation, one of them was dressed in iron black and five bronze feet, and wore an iron black sixty-two tendon bowl on his head, only these two points can only be preliminarily judged to be from the eastern country, but when he saw the gold leaf on his pocket and the sword-shaped eyepatch on his right eye, his identity was self-evident.

"Echizen Mamoru is on the order of the right government to crusade against the Kanto region, and I, Satake, will do my best to help." Sitting next to Date Masamune was the current head of the Satake clan, Yoshinobu Satake, who was known as the "Totaku Squire". It is rumored that although he succeeded to the governor of the family in the eighteenth year of Tensho, the power of the family has always been controlled by his father "Oni Yoshishige" Satake Yoshishige, and his status in the family is similar to that of Horiharu of the Echigobori family. However, in fact, he still showed amazing statecraft after succeeding him, for example, in just one year, he completely wiped out the power of the "Southern 33 Pavilions" entrenched in the southern part of Hitachi, led by the Dasho clan, and increased the number of Ishitaka by more than 100,000, realizing the entire domination of Hitachi Province in one fell swoop, which was incomparable to Hori Hideharu.

Satake Yoshinobu and Ishida Mitsu made a good deal, so they tended to be neutral or slightly biased towards the Toyotomi army, but because Satake Yoshishige was optimistic about Tokugawa Ieyasu, the two had a dispute for a while, and finally reached an agreement, that is, Satake Yoshinobu sent the Mabe clan to lead 3,000 Satake troops to follow Hideho to Aizu, and at the same time, Satake Yoshishige assumed the responsibility of releasing Tokugawa Ieyasu's 70,000 troops, so that in the future, whether Hideho or Ieyasu won, the Satake family will not be greatly affected.

However, when it was learned that the Toyotomi coalition had defeated the Tokugawa-Uesugi army at Hibara, the balance of power between the two factions in the Satake family changed dramatically, and most of the retainers who originally supported Satake Yoshishige turned to support Satake Yoshinobu, especially the elder Wada Akiwei, who had previously firmly supported Yoshishige, also became ambiguous at this time, and Satake Yoshinobu thus took the lead in the family.

At his insistence, the Satake clan mobilized another 15,000 people in Hitachi, which was almost all the Satake clan could come up with. Just as he was deciding where to attack the Tokugawa domain from, something unexpected happened: Date Masamune and Honjo Shigenaga, who had originally planned to go to Ueno to follow Hidebo's army, received a letter from Hideho when they traveled to Shimono Koyama Castle, and Hideho considered that Asano Nagamasa was not good at leading the army and that the attack on Edo might not go well, so he asked Date and Uesugi (Honjo) to go to Musashi to support Asano Nagamasa.

However, at this time, Date Masamune learned that Asano Nagamasa had conquered the most important castle north of Edo, Kawagoe Castle, and would soon arrive at Edo Castle. In order to compete with Asano Nagamasa, Date suggested that the two castles go to Edo via the two castles of Furukawa and Sekijuku and take the Mito streets, and Honjo Shigenaga agreed, but when the army arrived at Furukawa and Sekijuku, he found that the two castles had been conquered by the forces of Shingu Yukitomo long before their arrival, and Date and the others were disappointed.

However, considering that Edo Castle was also a fortified castle and that there were more than 10,000 defenders in the castle, it would be difficult for Asano, Ogasawara and others to make a breakthrough in a short period of time, Date Masamune accelerated his pace again, and happened to meet Yoshinobu Satake, who was hesitating, at the junction of Hitachi and Shimoso.

At that time, Yoshinobu mainly considered that the castles on the border between Shimoso and Hitachi had been completely captured by the Toyotomi army, and the Satake clan sent troops to the Tokugawa domain at this time, even if it was just passing through these castles, would it cause the Toyotomi army to be alert and hostile, and whether Hideho would punish the Satake clan for not having been notified in advance after the war, if that was the case, it would be better not to send troops.

When Date Masamune found out, he immediately persuaded Satake Yoshinobu to combine the army with the Date and Uesugi coalition army, so that with Hidebo's previous letter to Masamune, it would not cause embarrassment for the Toyotomi defenders in the surrounding castles, and the Satake army might as soon as possible arrive in Edo and do their best to atone for the crime.

This huge army, consisting of three powerful daimyo of the non-Toyotomi family, rushed to Edo without stopping after the formation of the Shimosho border, and finally arrived at the capital Taijo on the night of May 7, bringing 30,000 strong reinforcements to attack Edo Castle.

On the way to the march, the military advisor Katakura Keitsuna couldn't help but be curious, and asked Date Masamune for advice: "The lord changed the route, originally in order to quickly reach Edo in order to get to Edo as soon as the Asano army arrived in one step, why did you spend time persuading Hitachi attendants to join the family, and the Satake clan had previously opened its territory to the Tokugawa army, and it was bound to be punished after the war, so it is really not a wise choice for you to show favor to him at this moment, with all due respect." ”

Date Masamune did not directly answer Katakura Keisuna, but asked rhetorically: "Kojuro, compared to the mistakes made by the Satake family, if the exchange of letters between the family and the Uesugi clan before the war reaches the ears of the right house at the same time, which punishment will be severe?" ”

"The minister thought it was the Satake family, if they didn't let them go, the army of the inner government would not have arrived in Aizu so quickly, and it would not have threatened the main camp of the right house for a while, almost upending the entire battle situation. It is no exaggeration to say that after the war, Tokugawa, Mori, and Uesugi were the top three, while Satake, Kuroda, and Shimazu were indistinguishable, ranking fourth to sixth. Katakura Keixuna replied earnestly.

"But I don't think so." Date Masamune smiled and said: "This expedition, Satake and Shimazu are both powerful daimyo with more than 500,000 stones, but the right house did not ask them to do their best to send troops, but as long as the Satake clan sent troops for three years, and the Shimazu clan sent 1,500 troops, at this time I was wondering, did the right house do it intentionally......"

Katakura Keixuna didn't feel anything wrong with this, he analyzed: "The minister thinks it's normal for the right house to do this, after all, Shimazu and Satake are not Toyotomi daimyos, and they are powerful, if they suddenly turn against the Uesugi clan during the fierce war, the impact on the entire battle situation will be fatal." ”

"Is that all?" Date Masamune's analysis of Katakura Jingzuna was noncommittal: "There is an idiom in the Ming Kingdom called 'leading the snake out of the hole', in my opinion, the right government left these non-Toyotomi daimyo in the skill, just to lure them to take the opportunity to 'do something', and then catch them all." Don't you see that the Tokugawa clan, the Shimazu clan, and the Mori clan all raised troops as promised?

I think in the plan of the right house, this Satake clan will also raise troops, but in the end an internal compromise was reached, only to give way instead of supporting the Tokugawa army, which is very peaceful compared to the powerful daimyo who have already raised troops. Therefore, I think that even if we want to rank, Satake should be ranked behind Kuroda and Shimazu. ”

After listening to Date Masamune's explanation, Katakura Keixuna was immediately surprised: "If it is really as the lord said, this move of the right house is really too risky!" Take the trustworthy daimyo with you, let the double-minded daimyo take the opportunity to rebel, and if the conquest of Aizu wins, it will be just a failure, even if it is a confrontation situation, when the rebels capture the residence of the daimyo who is like an empty city, and then threaten each other with relatives at home, it is difficult to guarantee that the army will not collapse, and when the time comes, without the rebels, the right house will also die in the hands of those wavering daimyo. At that time, the gold lord Wanyan Liang was invincible in the southern expedition to the Song Kingdom, and then the backyard caught fire, and was finally killed by the generals of the army, which is a lesson from the past. ”

"Isn't there enough adventurous thing that Youfu has done?" Date Masamune asked with a smile: "When Taiko was alive, he first fought fiercely with the Tokugawa family against Nagayoshiguan, and then made a good decision to exterminate the wealthy clan in the Junyuan Sanyi area; After the funeral of Taiko, he relied on his own strength to recapture Osaka Castle in one night, and then made an arbitrary decision, without the consent of the five old councils, mobilized the surrounding daimyo to quell the rebellion of the Uki family in four days. Which daimyo dares to think and do these things, so it seems that there is no need to make a fuss about him coming up with such a scheme as 'luring the snake out of the hole'. ”