"My lord, the negotiation over Haijin Castle has been settled, as long as the family sends troops as planned, Goto Oki is willing to guarantee the family." Immediately afterwards, Ishikawa Kiyoyasu replied Goto Kiji's words to Ishikawa Yasunaga word for word.

Kang Chang breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, and said quite happily: "Qingkang, thanks to you this time." You don't know that just now, Yasukatsu sent someone to bring me a message from Osaka, and just three days ago, Maeda's attendant and Ogasawara Shinanomori under the command of the Uchifu defeated the Maori army at Gotoyama Castle, and many important ministers such as Ninomiya and Jijichen were killed in this battle. An Yi Nayan has ordered the remnants of the Amano Sweep to retreat, and it is estimated that they have retreated to Otsu Castle. ”

Since the 10th of March, Mori Terumoto has mobilized 46,000 troops to attack, excluding the 8,000 men handed over to Mori Hidemoto, making him the daimyo who has invested the most troops besides Hidebo and Ieyasu. Beginning with the official takeover of Osaka Sooki and Sannomaru on March 18, the Maori army captured Takatsuki Castle and Yodo Castle on March 25, Fushimi Castle on April 6, and Otsu Castle on April 10, and basically controlled the three kingdoms of Hanoi, Izumi, and Yamashiro under the name of Hideyori and most of Settsu Province in less than a month, and became the overlord of the region.

During this period, except for the heavy losses at Fushimi Castle, the army did not encounter fierce resistance, which became the main reason why the Maori generals underestimated the enemy when they attacked Gotoyama Castle in the early stage. Nagayoshi Pass is located east of Gotoyama Castle and west of Otsu Castle, and in order to gain Hideyoshi's trust, Hideho intended to build the pass with the side facing Fushimi undefended, but although Hideyoshi agreed to renovate it, the defense capability of the west side was still far inferior to that of the east side, and this defect was reflected in the early stages of the battle.

On April 11, Mori Terumoto's uncle, Amano Motomasa, took Ninomiya as the vanguard and mobilized 27,000 troops under his command to storm Nagayoshi Pass, and the garrison general Ogasawara Takakiyoshi led 3,000 troops from Mt. Gotogashi to support. Due to the light enemy, the Maori vanguard strayed into the ambush of the Toyotomi army on the first day of the battle, and suffered heavy losses. Motomasa Amano immediately adjusted his strategy, allowing Mori Motoyasu to mobilize large barrels to bombard the city gates, and at the same time harassing them with bows and iron cannons, making it difficult for the Toyotomi army to repair the damage in time.

On April 13, Nagayoshi Pass was bombarded, and finally many sections of the city wall collapsed, Amano Motomasa saw the opportunity to launch a general attack, although the defenders under the leadership of Ogasawara Takakiyoshi carried out stubborn resistance, but in the face of nearly 30,000 Maori troops, the Toyotomi army gradually collapsed, and in the evening, the remaining 1,300 people retreated into the fortress to defend to the death, and the Maori army immediately surrounded the castle. In the early hours of the morning, unwilling to sit still, Takyotomi led the Toyotomi army to break through, and the battle continued until noon, and in the end, the Toyotomi army broke out of the Maori army's encirclement and returned to Goto Mountain Castle at the cost of 700 losses.

At this point in the battle, the Maori army still had the upper hand: the Toyotomi army suffered 2,900 casualties in the first battle of Changji Pass, of which 2,400 were reinforcements brought by Longqing; The Maori army suffered more than 1,900 casualties in total, and nearly 40% of them died in ambush on the first day of the battle, which shows Amano's excellent military talent.

After a two-day rest, Motomasa Amano led the main force of the army to continue its march along the Nakasendo Road, and at the same time sent troops to capture Mizuguchi Castle, the residence of the Nagashu Masa, and cut off the support of the Ise Toyotomi army to Mt. Gotoshi. At noon on the 15th, the main force of the Mori army arrived at Mt. Hachiman, a few miles away from Gotoyama Castle, which was originally the residence of Toyotomi Hideji and was once the economic center of the Omi region, but after the destruction of the Hideji clan, the castle was also abandoned. Motomasa Amano set up camp at the site of the old mountain castle and prepared to launch an attack on the mountain castle from the southwest when the Maori army at Mizuguchi Castle arrived southeast of Mount Goto.

At this time, there were only 3,600 people left in Goto Mountain Castle, and Ogasawara Takakiyoshi was wounded in the abdomen when he broke through from Nagayoshi Pass, and the responsibility of defending the castle fell to Takaharu Koo, who had rushed from Yamato to support earlier. Gao Chun was the lord of Yamato Shoo Castle, and he knew that he was not capable of 20,000 stones, and after discussing with Takakiyo, he gave up surprise attacks such as night raids and switched to cage castles, and at the same time asked Maeda Toshicho for help in Hokuriku.

In the early morning of the 16th, when the fog began to open, the Maori army sounded the horn of the conch, and in addition to the 3,000 men who remained in the camp, the 22,000-strong army attacked Gotoyama Castle at Hachimanyama Mountain and Yakado. As the residence of Hidebo in the early days, and as one of the "three capitals" (Fushimi, Koriyama, and Gotoyama), the castle has always been an important stronghold of the Yamato Toyotomi clan, especially after the loss of Fushimi.

Koo Takaharu had served the Yamato Toyotomi clan since Hidecho's time, and when he learned that Mt. Goto was in trouble, he personally led 300 troops to support. In the face of the onslaught of the Maori army, he went to the front line to direct the battle, which greatly boosted the morale of the Toyotomi army.

Due to the steep terrain of the mountains and the fortification of the city, the Maori army's offensive did not bear any noticeable results in a day's work. After thinking about it again and again, Motomasa Amano decided to cut off its water source, burn down the castle town, and besiege it instead of attacking, trapping the Toyotomi army in Mt. Gotoshi. In his case, this was indeed the usual way to attack the fortified castle, but Amano Motomasa overlooked one point, that is, the Toyotomi army on the mountain was not alone, and reinforcements could arrive at any time.

After that, for eight days from the 17th to the 25th, the Mori army besieged but did not attack, but the Toyotomi army did not surrender at all, and the Mori Terumoto, who was far away in Osaka, was also worried about the long nights and dreams, and constantly urged Amano Motomasa to carry out a strong attack. In desperation, the Maori army launched another attack on the 26th, at this time Ogasawara Takakiyo had recovered from a serious illness and commanded the battle together with Koo Takaharu, and although the Toyotomi army was cut off from the water source, the water in the castle was still enough for several days, and the morale was not depressed. On the contrary, the Maori army stayed under the city for more than ten days, and the siege did not improve, so it was inevitably a little passive and slack, and the offensive was much weaker than in the first few days.

Long Qing is well versed in "one blow, then decline, three and exhaustion", before sunset that day, he actually led a cavalry out of the city to counterattack, beating the Maori army with a head to run, Amano Motomasa saw that the situation was not good, Ming Jin withdrew the troops, although it did not cause too many casualties, but Longqing's move still weakened the morale of the Maori army, the army was tired of war, and more peasant soldiers fled at night.

The turning point of the battle occurred on the 27th, when the Mori army launched another attack on Mt. Goto, Maeda Toshimasa led an army of 24,000 troops from Hokuriku to Omi through Hokuriku Province, bypassing Sawa Castle to the northern foot of Mt. Otoshi, and Ogasawara Takakiyo immediately led his army out of the castle to meet the main siege force of the Mori army led by Mori Motoyasu.

In less than half a moment, Takayoshi feigned defeat and retreated, leading Maori Motoyasu to the valley between Mount Goto and Mount Kannon, at this time Maeda Toshimasa led a large army from the north side of the valley to kill, the Maori army panicked, and fought and retreated, and the dead reached more than 400 people. Seeing this, Long Qing also led his army to turn around and blockade the south side of the valley and start a fierce battle with Maori Motoyasu. The battle continued until 3 p.m., and it was not until Amano Motomasa sent troops to reinforce that Toyotomi Maeda's coalition army withdrew its troops. In this battle, the Maori army suffered nearly 2,000 casualties, and the available troops in the hands of Amano Motomasa were less than 20,000; On the other hand, the Toyotomi army, with a total strength of 27,000 troops, has an advantage in military strength, and has a strong city, and the offensive and defensive momentum has been reversed.

Late that night, Motomasa Amano decided to withdraw his troops back to Otsu Castle and asked Mori Terumoto for help, hoping to start a decisive battle with the Toyotomi army at Otsu Castle with an army of 30,000. However, Takashi and Maeda Toshimasa did not intend to let the tiger return to the mountain, and a large-scale night attack was inevitable.