At the corner of the winding mountain road of the Satri Ridge, a high-ranking samurai wearing a black ox hair hood stood alone in the middle of the road, and the soldier in front of Numata Kanichi did not have time to stop when he turned the corner, and rushed in front of the samurai, and the other party immediately cut off the soldier's left hand with a sword in the manner of a Iai slash.

Due to the speed of the soldier, the soldier's colleagues next to him and Numata Kenichi behind him did not come to the rescue, and when the soldier fell down with a wail, the front team immediately became a little confused. The brave samurai did not retreat from this, but took advantage of the chaos in the front of the Numata brigade and stepped forward with a sword in both hands and slashed down at Numata Kanichi behind the fallen soldier.

As the captain of this brigade, Numata did not carry a flintlock pistol, but a Chinese-style command knife. Starting from the Kotsugawa River, Numata Kanichi, who had fought three consecutive battles with his head in his arms, really didn't expect that someone would run in front of him to play the trick of riding a thousand horses, so he really didn't have any defense against such an attack, and he didn't even draw out his command knife.

Seeing that the other party slashed hard at himself without hesitation, Numata Kanichi didn't even think about it, so he used the command knife in his hand as a crutch, and blocked it with the backhand of the knife with the sheath. The other party was holding a knife in both hands, and he was only holding a knife in one hand, and Numata Kanichi himself didn't think that he could block the other party, but he knew that he couldn't retreat now, because if he took a few steps back, he might make the team behind him chaotic.

On such a narrow mountain road, once the team is chaotic, the other party really can't do it and complete the feat of riding a thousand. When Numata Kanichi desperately raised his command knife to make a final effort to protect himself, he found that the opponent's sword did not fall as hard as he thought, and the blade pressed against his ear and slid to the side, leaving only a blood mark and a few strands of hair cut off next to his ear.

Numata Kanichi looked at it and found that the samurai was kneeling on the ground weakly, and the two soldiers beside him were stabbing the samurai in the abdomen with bayonets, one of the soldiers was worried that he would not die, and stirred it in his abdomen vigorously, and the skilled samurai couldn't even pronounce a word, so he fell down spitting blood.

Squadron Leader Isamu Uemura caught up at this time, he first stepped forward to probe the breath of the fallen samurai, and then turned to his boss and said, "Captain Numata, this man is dead, but looking at his outfit, he is not an ordinary person,"

Numata Kanichi ignored him, and instead asked the soldier who was checking the fallen left hand that had been cut off, "How is Shitaro?" ”

The soldier who squatted down to inspect said with a dejected expression: "I fainted, but there is only a piece of skin left in his left hand, and I am afraid that he will become crippled in the future." ”

Numata Kane's eyes dimmed for a moment, then he lifted his spirits and said, "You and Murayama carry him down for treatment, even if he is crippled, it is nothing, as long as he can survive, Your Majesty will definitely take care of him." Didn't His Majesty give the soldiers who were disabled in Daming before, gold, silver, and work? ”

Your Majesty mentioned by Numata Kanichi, the soldiers naturally knew that this was referring to the Ming Emperor and not the incompetent Highness in Junfu City. If when they first returned to Japan, the soldiers were still loyal to the Ming Emperor and His Royal Highness Tadacho, then for more than half a year, the soldiers of Matsuno Shigemoto's wing preferred to regard themselves as subordinates of the Ming Emperor and Tokugawa Tadanaga as their employers.

In fact, the treatment given to them by His Royal Highness the Loyal Elder and the treatment given by His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Kingdom cannot be compared at all. Of course, these soldiers will not know that the treatment given to them by the Ming Kingdom is actually the money of Zhongchang. However, for Tokugawa Tadanaga, he did not feel that he had wronged these soldiers.

When he was in the Ming Kingdom, he couldn't interfere with the treatment of these soldiers, but after returning to China, these soldiers, who were originally one level higher than the peasant soldiers, actually wanted to enjoy better treatment than ordinary samurai, how could this be. If he does this, how will the other retainers explain it?

Although this matter was finally settled by Ming Guo subsidizing a part of the food allowance, the estrangement between the two sides had already arisen.

Of course, if Tokugawa Tadanaga showed his talent after raising the army, then these soldiers would probably be able to endure it for the future. In the future, in the midst of successive victories, the two sides may be able to mend this rift.

However, Tokugawa Tadanaga raised an army, and also raised the banner of Fengtian Jingjing. But then, His Highness seemed to have no idea. In addition to being trapped in Junfu City, constantly listening to bad news from everywhere, and watching the people inside and outside Junfu City flee, he was simply helpless.

And the most criticized thing is that he actually asked Matsuno Shigegen to lead people to send away his family and the families of some retainers. This move made everyone think that His Royal Highness Tadashi had no intention of defending Junfu Castle, not only did some soldiers begin to flee, but even the Yuanjiang wealthy clan, who were originally on the sidelines, couldn't wait to surrender to His Royal Highness Yoshinao in Owari.

So, on the fifteenth day after Tadanaga raised his army, Yoshinao entered Enoe Province with 3,000 troops in accordance with Edo's orders. Kai also sent 1,500 men to Suruga slowly. Itakura Shigemasa and Yagyu Muneju crossed the Fuji River with 6,000 troops levied by several nearby feudal states, and quickly attacked the main road of Satri Ridge.

In the precarious situation of Sunfu Castle, Torii Seiji and other samurai finally couldn't sit still and ran to Tokugawa Tadadenaga to speak. They believed that if they did not send troops to stop the shogunate army's three-way offensive and let the shogunate army drive straight in, they were afraid that when the shogunate army arrived at the castle, it would be the day when the soldiers in the castle surrendered.

Although Asakura Nobumasa participated in the Odawara Expedition and the Ueda Battle when he was young, he only fought as a small unit, and he never went to the battlefield again, and gradually rose to this position by virtue of his hard work. As a retainer of the Tokugawa clan, he had a heartfelt fear of the shogunate.

Even though he approved of Tokugawa Tadanaga's idea of raising troops to defeat the shogunate, he was a little weak when he thought about letting him lead his troops out of the city to resist the shogunate army. Therefore, the suggestion of Torii Seiji is vague, and it is thought that it is better to wait a little longer.

Masakichi Naito, Morimasa Mieda, and others, who were originally the leaders of the samurai of Sunpu Castle, strongly opposed Torii Seiji's suggestion to go out of the castle to fight the shogunate's army. This castle, which was built under the supervision of the Gonkenden, was originally designed to resist the Western Alliance, and it was also the first line of defense in Edo.

Masakichi Naito said to Tokugawa Tadanaga, "... Isn't it abandoning one's own strength to have such a fortified city and not defend it, but to go out of the city to fight the shogunate army in the field? ”

At that time, Torii Seiji believed: "The core of the castle defense is the army that must be supported from outside, and now His Highness has raised troops to attack the shogunate, and he has been trapped in the castle by the shogunate army without a battle." Let's not talk about whether the soldiers in the city have the confidence to persevere, even those princes outside will raise troops to echo His Highness when they see such a situation..."

Just when the two sides were arguing, the old samurai who had experienced the war at the end of the Warring States period, such as Hisakata Senshi and Naomasa Kozu, finally spoke out in support of Torii Seiji. Although they are not outstanding generals, they have experienced the war, and they know very well that what Torii Seiji said is correct.

If you don't fight a battle in the field, boost the morale and confidence of your own army, and let the shogunate army rush to the castle without any obstacles, then it is really possible to be broken by the shogunate army in one blow. Now that they have chosen to oppose the shogunate together with the lord, it would be tantamount to asking for their own death if they were half-hearted.

The shogunate, which had pacified the world, did not need to show tolerance for the captives, on the contrary, they needed to use brutality to deter the dissent of the princes of the world. Therefore, even if His Royal Highness Tadacho could still survive his defeat, these retainers would never be tolerated by the shogunate.

With the support of Kuishi Kugata and others, Tokugawa Tadanaga finally relented and decided to send three armies to meet the shogunate's three-way army. Senshi Hisagata and Mieda Morimasa took 600 men to meet the Kai army in the north, and if they wanted to kill the Kai army from the mountains, the terrain was their biggest enemy, so as long as a small number of troops could block this shogunate army that was not strong in battle.

Torii Seiji and Kotsu Naomasa led 1,500 men to the aid of Enoe Kakegawa Castle to meet the Owari army. If the battle is unfavorable, retreat to the Oi River, where the river is wide.

As for the 6,000 men of Itakura Shigemasa and Yagyu Soki, who were menacing from the east, Tokugawa Tadanaga finally chose two young retainers, Toki Yasuya and Inaba Masatoshi, and went to meet them with 2,700 troops. The Matsuno Shigegen Wing, which returned from the Ming Kingdom, was divided into three parts, with Kawamoto's Right Brigade following Senishi Hyagata, Oda Kota's Brigade following Torii Seiji, and Matsuura Nobumoto's Brigade and Numata Kanichi Brigade following Toki Tayasu and Inaba Masatoshi to attack.

Toki Tayasu was born in the famous Toki clan, not only has a kinship relationship with a big man like Akechi Mitsuhide, if you go back to the Ashikaga shogunate period, it is the first generation of Mihiro country guardian, the name of a country, known as the head of all families, the head of the pen.

How could a high-ranking samurai like him be on an equal footing with samurai of unknown origin, such as Nobumoto Matsuura and Kenichi Numata, although it seems that the troops led by these two men are indeed capable.

At the first military meeting, Toki had an argument with Matsuura Nobumoto and Numata Kanichi because he wanted to wait for dawn before marching, while Matsuura Nobumoto and Numata Kenichi thought that they should set out overnight before the shogunate was aware of it and ambush the shogunate army in the area between the Satri Mountains and the Kotsugawa River.

The Sardri Ridge was the last pass east of Sunpu Castle, and after the shogunate army crossed the Sartri Ridge, the coastal plain became more and more flattened. If you can stop the shogunate army in Satrailing, it is naturally the best, if not, you should take advantage of the moment when the shogunate army passes through Satrailing safely and let down their vigilance to teach them a fierce lesson, so as to suppress the morale of this army.

The two sides insisted on their own opinions, and Inaba Masatoshi finally made a round, and he divided the army into two parts, he set off with nearly 800 men from Matsuura Nobumoto and Numata Kanichi, and Toki Yatai set off early the next morning with the main force.

Inaba Masatoshi and his eight hundred men ran to Kotsu Castle in the middle of the night, where they rested for half a night and continued eastward before dawn. Just as it was getting dark, the scouts in front of him said that a large number of men and horses were crossing the Kotsu River.

Matsuura Nobumoto and Numata Kanichi immediately suggested to Inaba Masayoshi that they should launch a surprise attack while the enemy army was crossing the river in order to crush the front line of the shogunate army. Inaba accepted this suggestion, and Matsuura Nobumoto and Numata Kanichi split into two teams, one attacking from the front and the other attacking from the flank.

With 1,800 troops recruited from Odawara and Numazu, Yagyu was opening the way for his main force. Nearly two-thirds of the way through the Kotsugawa River, this force was met with a fierce attack by Matsuura Nobumoto.

At the beginning, Yagyu saw that the opponent's troops were not strong, and urged the troops that had crossed the river to regroup, wanting to rely on the numerical advantage to eat the attacking Matsuura Nobumoto's troops.

But when Numata Kanichi's troops circled from the upper reaches to the flanks of this unit and began to use a platoon of guns, Yagyu could no longer restrain the patchwork army. The Kotsu River is narrow, but the water is not as deep as your head, and of course this is by Japanese standards.

When the troops lost their organization and everyone turned around and tried to flee back to the other side, many more were trampled to the bottom of the river by their colleagues. The Xingjin River did not flow for a while, and the river was full of floating corpses. Nobumoto Matsuura and Kenichi Numata finally couldn't bear it, and ordered their subordinates not to shoot again, allowing the soldiers in the river to return to the other side. After this battle, the front army of the shogunate lost most of it, and the soldiers who fled to the other side cried and shook the sky, and the morale of the shogunate army plummeted.