In the middle of such a starry night, relying on the help of a group of old ministers and the prestige he had established for a long time, Sanada Masayuki almost effortlessly took Numata Castle and completed the first task that Hideho gave him. Oriental Reading Network

Long before going to Aizu, Hideho sent people to contact Masayuki many times, and in addition to promising him a series of post-war rewards, he naturally had to make some requests.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I thought that the victory of the Right House was a foregone conclusion, and the current Tokugawa army and Shinano's generals were just dying and struggling, and they could not change the situation." In the council hall, Masayuki was holding a folding fan and drawing back and forth on the map, and the retainers on the side listened carefully to his analysis of the current situation.

At this moment, a scout staggered into the temple, knelt down in front of the generals in a panic, and shouted: "Lord Kaiyu, just now, the Tokugawa army suddenly pulled out of camp and sent a vanguard of about 5,000 men to march quickly along the Numata streets, and they will reach the castle at about dawn!" ”

"Five thousand?!" The generals were in an uproar when they heard this, and the voices of discussion, exclamation, and emotion were mixed together, and the atmosphere in the hall instantly became tense.

Masayuki looked down at the terrain around Numata Castle and asked slowly, "Have you ever seen which general is leading the troops?" ”

"The villain saw that it was the horse seal of Sakakihara Shikibu Daisuke Yasumasa, but the team also had a battle flag with the Sakai and Okuhei family crests." The scout replied respectfully.

As soon as he heard that Sakakihara Yasumasa was playing forward, the quarrel in the hall instantly became intense. Some retainers suggested that troops should be transferred from Tiancheng immediately to assist in the defense; Others also felt that it was not only too late to transfer troops, but also that it would be useless in the face of the nearly 30,000 Tokugawa army, so it was better to burn the grain and grass and withdraw to Tiancheng to avoid the edge for the time being.

Masayuki patiently listened to the analysis of the two sides, but in fact, he had already made up his mind in his heart: "It seems that someone told the inner government about the changes in the castle, otherwise according to my previous calculations, the earliest Tokugawa army would not arrive in Numata until tomorrow night." ”

"I had planned to send 1,000 troops to the outskirts of Numata to ambush, wait for the Tokugawa army to fight tomorrow night, destroy its morale, force it to abandon the siege and go south, and then attack along the way, delay its march, and buy time for the Youfu army."

I have to say that Masayuki's plan is still very practical, after all, with the little force in his hand, there is no chance of winning a frontal confrontation with the Tokugawa army, and the decision to attack and harass the battle is also due to the fact that Numata Castle is located critically, but it is not an easy place to defend and difficult to attack. As a hill castle, Numata did not have the geographical advantages of a mountain castle, and after many military disasters, the city defense was not very strong, so it was not suitable for a cage castle. The most important point is that Masayuki saw Ieyasu's intentions clearly, that is, he only wanted to fight quickly, and there was still a long way to go to Shinano Komoro, and he definitely did not want to waste time here. Therefore, there is no time to waste attacking the city, so it is the best plan to attack along the way.

But now that the Tokugawa army has noticed the strangeness of Numata Castle and sent Sakakiwara Yasumasa to lead a large army to attack, it must be that things are not as simple as Masayuki originally imagined.

"Genjiro, when did Tian's army move?" Changyu asked.

"According to my father's wishes, we set off two hours later, and we should have arrived in the area of Famous Walnut City." Sanada Nobuyoshi replied.

Na Kurota is a branch town of Numata, located northeast of Numata and very close to Numata Street. Masayuki thought for a moment and immediately ordered: "You immediately set off for Nahutao, inform Suzuki Tadashige, tell him not to come to Numata, set up ambushes in the mountains on both sides of Numata Street, and don't act rashly when you see the Tokugawa army for the time being, and wait for my signal." ”

"What's the signal?" Xin Fan asked, and the generals were also puzzled.

Masayuki raised his head, pointed in the direction of the palace with a folding fan, and said solemnly: "When you see the raging fire burning in this palace lighting up the sky, then it will be time for you to act!" ”

"What? The lord is planning to set fire to the city?! As soon as Chang Xing's words came out, everyone was in an uproar, and even the old minister Kamaharaharu was very puzzled: "The city that has just been taken, is it burned down like this?" Besides, this is still the residence of the young master......"

Chang Xing looked at everyone's nervous expressions, and suddenly laughed and said, "Who said I was going to burn the city?" It's just the palace that needs to be burned, and if you want to make the enemy take it lightly, you always have to sacrifice something. ”

Chang Xing explained his plan to everyone in detail: "Later, you will bring someone to get some dry firewood and put it around the outside of the city, and after lighting the palace, you will also light the firewood, disguised as setting fire to the city." If it is dark today, the enemy army is still some distance away from here, and the only thing we can see is the raging flames, and we will definitely think that we are invincible, destroy the city and flee, so we will lose our vigilance. At this time, Genjiro led the troops to raid, and he must get twice the result with half the effort, and maybe there will be unexpected gains. ”

Hearing this, the generals suddenly became enlightened and praised this plan. However, some people still asked, "Why did you burn down the palace when you have set up a pile of firewood in the castle?" ”

"The firewood pile outside is nothing more than using fire to cover up the truth that the city defense still exists, if you really want to create the illusion of burning the city, then the fire is not enough, if you want to cause a raging fire in a short time, the only way to sacrifice the palace is to sacrifice."

"What to do after that night attack, how to face the Tokugawa army's attack the next day?"

"Business as usual." Masayuki said calmly: "The inner government sent these 5,000 men to attack the city, originally betting that we were not prepared, if we can defeat this wave of attacks, and the city defense is still intact, then the main Tokugawa force will be surprised when it arrives during the day." Daytime is a good time to march, and the Nefu is a wise man, and will not waste time in attacking the city again, so that we can still attack along the way as originally planned, and crucify him in the road as much as possible. ”

At this moment, everyone was deeply impressed by Changxing's strategy, and no one raised any more objections, and all of them immediately acted according to his deployment. Xin Fan led three or two guards to rush to Minghu Tao, he didn't know that this night attack would eventually make him famous all over the world.

At this time, surrounded by mountains, in Kita-Shinano, a tragic siege battle was about to begin. As the horika's 10,000-strong army arrived at Zenko-ji Temple and prepared to cross the Rhinogawa River and advance to Hachimangahara the next day, Ishikawa Yasunaga of Katsumao Castle led his 3,000-strong army north to Nannomiyahama, located at the southern foot of Mt. Tsumi.

Mt. Tsumi-nu was an important stronghold for the defense of the southern side of Kaijin Castle, and once it was captured, the Nanban Drum could directly bombard the key points in the city, and the results of this can be imagined.

Because of this, Gamo Yorigo decided to mobilize 400 men to garrison Mt. Tsumi, and another 200 men to deploy along the Chikuma River to block Hori Hideshige's attack.

Originally, according to the plan of Gamo Yorigo, it was planned to deploy defenses along the Rhinogawa River, that is, the entire Kawashima Island (Hachimangahara) was included in the defense area. However, due to the lack of troops, and Masayuki of Tajo sent troops to support Numata, there were no more troops to support him, so he had to shrink the defensive circle. As a result, Hori Hideshige was able to join forces with Ishikawa Yasunaga directly in Kawashima and complete the siege of Kaizu Castle on three sides without a single soldier.

After sending a thousand troops to reinforce Numata, there were only more than 1,200 people left here, but they had to face the attack of 6,000 people from the three daimyos, and Sanada father and son were all in Numata to command and contain the Tokugawa army, leaving only Masayuki's son-in-law Oyamada Shigesei to defend the city, and the situation was very serious.

In this way, in Kita-Shinano and Kitano, 60,000 troops and eight daimyo were gathered in a short period of time, and the three isolated castles of Numata, Ta, and Kaizu were to face the enemy forces several times their size, and no matter what the outcome was, these castles and generals would go down in history and become dazzling stars in the long river of history.