Although Abe Masaoji is not from the Tokugawa family tree, his father Abe Masakatsu was a hostage with Tokugawa Ieyasu in Imagawakan when he was a child, and since then he has served Tokugawa Ieyasu, and fought for Ieyasu in the Battle of Sekigahara and died, so the Abe Masaoji brothers have always been valued by Ieyasu.

In the Battle of Osaka, Abe Masaji was the first to lead the Oban group to break into Osaka Castle, so he was able to quickly rise to an important position in charge of Osaka Castle after the war. In the eyes of the two generations of generals, the trust in Abe Masaji may not be much less than that of the Ii family. Naotaka Ii, who is younger than Abe Shoji, is dissatisfied with Abe's defeat, but he has no intention of dealing with the other party on the spot.

However, excluding Abe Masaji from the decision-makers of the next military conference, Naotaka Ii did it without scruples. After Abe Shoji was driven out of the big tent, most of the people who stayed in the big tent were the retainers of the Hikone domain.

When Naotaka Ii asked them about the next military plan, the retainers led by Kimata Moriyasu all thought that they should not move forward.

They believe that after the complete defeat of Abe Masaji's army, not only did it hit the morale of its own army, but even the flank of its own army lost its barrier. At this time, they continued to attack Osaka Castle, and with the defense of Osaka Castle, I am afraid that it would not be possible for their demoralized army to break through.

When their attack on Osaka did not go well, the army that attacked Abe's Shoji Army cooperated with the defenders of Osaka to attack them behind, and I am afraid that it was time for the entire army to be defeated and retreated.

Therefore, it is time to stop where you are, and then urge His Highness Yoshinao's rear army to come as soon as possible. After the two families are united, it is not too late to attack the city.

Kimata Morian also said to Naotaka Iino: "The reason why His Highness ordered his army to move south quickly was only to take advantage of the capture of His Royal Highness Tadashiga, the hearts of the Osaka army and the people were undecided, and our army suddenly appeared under Osaka Castle, and there must be wavering people in the city who surrendered to our army, so that the city could be opened without blood."

But now that Abe's army has been attacked and destroyed, the morale of the soldiers and civilians in Osaka Castle is bound to be high, while the morale of our army is low. The situation was already very different from before His Highness set out, so the minister thought that the original plan should be revised, and now he should be cautious about dealing with the enemy. ”

Anhara Asamaya also persuaded Ii Naotaka to say: "Our army quickly moved south, and the food that we carried with us was only five days, and then we had to continue to transfer grain through Yodogawa.

Now that the friendly forces in the west have been broken by the enemy, and if we leave the Yodogawa line, if the enemy continues to move north along the Yodogawa River and cut off the transportation routes on the Yodogawa, I am afraid that it will not be a question of whether or not our troops should attack Osaka, but whether we can withdraw to Kyoto safely.

The minister thought that the top priority now was to send another force across the Yodogawa River in addition to asking for help from His Royal Highness. The first is to gather the remnants of the army; The first is to monitor the western side of the Yodo River to prevent the enemy from sneaking into the upper reaches of the Yodo River. ”

Regarding the suggestions of several retainers, Naotaka Jing thought for a long time and thought that it was still correct. However, he rejected the suggestion that Abe Masaji should cross the river to collect the defeated army, and instead ordered Nagano Yoshiki to lead 800 men across the river to collect the defeated army.

The reason why Naotaka Ii made such a decision was that he thought in his heart that Abe Masaji was indeed old and no longer had the courage to rush into Osaka Castle first. Otherwise, they would not have abandoned their troops and fled without knowing who was defeated and how many enemy troops were attacking.

Naotaka Ii was worried that if Abe Masaji crossed the river to collect the defeated army, if he was attacked again by the enemy army who sneaked up last night, it was estimated that he would leave his troops and flee, and the morale of his army would be completely destroyed.

Subsequently, Naotaka Ii ordered Anhara Asama to build two more pontoon bridges over the Yodo River to ensure smooth communication between the east and west banks of the Yodo River. He also ordered Abe Masaji and Saigo Shigeto to lead 3,000 men and horses to advance five miles to Osaka Castle and set up another battalion to observe the defenders of Osaka Castle.

And he and Kimata Morian took the main force to sit in the old camp on the east bank of the Yodo River, waiting to see who would strike first between the defenders of Osaka Castle and the army that attacked Abe Masaji. Naotaka Ii decided that the unit would attack him first, and he would lead the main force of the old battalion to attack that unit first.

Li Chenfang's night attack can be described as very successful, the troops on his side suffered more than 30 casualties, but Abe's side was captured more than 3,000 people, nearly 1,000 dead and wounded, mainly casualties caused by trampling on each other in the dark night, and two or three thousand people scattered and fled.

However, for Osaka now, too many prisoners are also a problem. With so many people captured at once, there really isn't a place to hold them for Osaka Castle, which is about to usher in a big war.

Li Chenfang thought about it for a long time and decided that in addition to those samurai, he should put back the recruited ashigaru. In the first place, these ashigaru were forced to come.,I didn't commit any sin myself.,Now it's just a bent on going home.。

Second, after losing the command of the land, the samurai in other places could not command these ashigaru at all. Samurai who were not from their own country, did not even know their names, and what to use to restrain them from obeying orders. As long as they fled from the battlefield, those samurai would not be able to find their homeland at all.

However, just when Li Chenfang was thinking about how to release these ashigaru, Zuo Nobutaka, Matsuura Nobumoto, Numata Kanichi and other subordinates came to see him.

Matsuura Nobuyuan, whose soot had not yet been wiped off his face, couldn't help but say loudly after seeing Li Chenfang: "My lord, now is a good time to force the retreat of the Iyi Naoxiao Army." As soon as Abe's army was defeated, the west bank of the Yodo River was a smooth road for our army.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Ii Naotaka army has not yet reacted, our army is now moving north along the Yodo River, and we can cut off the grain route of the Ii Naotaka army. Once there is a threat of cutting off the grain route, either send troops to pursue our army or retreat, this attack will be in vain. ”

Zuo Xinxiao also nodded in agreement: "As soon as the army retreats, if you want to regroup and come back, I'm afraid it won't be possible to do it in a day or two." The weather is cooling down quickly, and when the shogunate army moves south again, it will probably be a day of snow. Rain and snow are good for us and not good for the other, and it is impossible for the shogunate army to hold on to our army in the cold winter, and it will eventually retreat. ”

After listening to the suggestions of several subordinates, Li Chenfang lowered his head and pondered for a long time before he said quietly: "The soldiers are expensive, but they are not expensive for a long time." Putting the war through this winter is not necessarily a good thing for us. As time goes by, there are more variables, and the soldiers' fatigue and war-weariness come out.

After our army defeated Abe's Shoji army, Ii Naotaka is now a lone army, and if it is forced back so simply, I am afraid that the next time it comes back, the shogunate army will not have so many flaws. ”

Zuo Xinxiao couldn't help asking: "What do you mean, do you want to eat Jingyi Naotaka's people and horses?" This army is no better than Abe's troops, and with their current morale, I am afraid it will be difficult for us to give us a chance to shake the morale of the army. ”

Li Chenfang thought for a long time before saying: "The current camp of the Jingyi Naoxiao Army, five or six miles away from the Yodo River, there is also an Anwei River parallel to the Yodo River. If we build a camp on the west bank of the Anwei River, what do you think Naoktaka Ii will do? ”

After Zuo Xinxiao took the command knife and simply drew out the nearby terrain on the ground, he drew a circle in the upper reaches of the Anwei River and said: "The river is the shallowest here, if I am Jingyi Naotaka as a division here, I can monitor the movement of our army, and prevent our army from going north to cut off the Yodogawa grain road." ”

Li Chenfang looked at the map on the ground and thought for a long time before saying: "Zuo Xinxiao, you go and tell those prisoners to build a large camp that can accommodate 10,000 people on the west bank of Anwei River, and as long as they work hard, release 100 people in the afternoon and let them go home."

In addition, all the samurai leaders captured were selected and handed over to the fleet to take back to Osaka. They escorted the samurai into the city with great fanfare, and told the citizens of Osaka that our army had defeated Abe's shoji army.

Five more sentry teams were sent to monitor all the movements of Ii Naotaka's army on the west bank of the Yodo River. Nobumoto Matsuura and Kenichi Numata are stationed one mile west of the camp and are waiting for my orders..."

The news of the defeat of Abe Masaji's enemy army and the construction of a large camp on the west bank of the Anwei River soon reached the ears of Naotaka Ii. The other party did not immediately lead the army north, which made Ii Naotaka feel relieved, and while ordering the construction of the pontoon bridge to be accelerated, he ordered the Nagano Yehui Division, which had already crossed the river, to move to the shallow water upstream of the Anwei River to contain the other party from going north.

At three or four o'clock in the afternoon, Nagano Yehui suddenly found that more than 100 people had run out of the camp that the other party was building, and ran along the An Wei River to his own camp. This surprised him, and he immediately sent someone to intercept him.

After bringing these people back for questioning, it was revealed that they were members of the captured Abe Shoji Army. Worried that the other party had mixed in with the spies to come in, Nagano Yehui also specially sent a few people across the river to let Abe Masaji distinguish.

Although it was eventually confirmed that these people were indeed members of Abe's Shoji Army, they did not receive much preferential treatment. Because they were released by the enemy on their own initiative, Nagano was worried that some of them would be bought by the enemy, so he confined them in one place and used them as coolies.

This is too different from the treatment of those soldiers who escaped back in advance, and the released ashigaru, who were originally quite well-behaved, suddenly became dissatisfied. However, because there are fewer people on his side and more subordinates in Nagano Yehui, these people's dissatisfaction can only be lip service.

But soon the situation changed, and every hour or two, dozens of prisoners from the opposite side were constantly released from the camp, and these prisoners were not from the same place. As soon as they left the enemy's camp, they scattered and fled.

At first, Nagano Yehui also sent troops to intercept again and again, preventing not a single captive from escaping to the north of the camp. But when it got dark, his men began to get tired, and turned a blind eye to the captives who had gone far away, and stopped chasing them.

After intercepting 4 or 500 prisoners, the defeated soldiers of Abe's army immediately became emboldened and began to argue with the soldiers who were guarding them, demanding food and clothing.

Nagano realized that these captured soldiers who were empty-handed were his biggest trouble. He had wanted to send them to the old camp on the east bank of the Yodo River to take care of them, but Asahara Anbara, who was guarding the pontoon, objected to moving unreliable personnel at night. The old camp temporarily transported a small amount of food to him, and let him wait until dawn to talk about the rest.

Seeing that the old battalion and his colleagues had this attitude, Nagano Yehui finally acquiesced to his subordinates not to intercept the deserters returning north, and even some soldiers who wanted to return to the camp on their own initiative were driven out by his subordinates from afar.