When it was dark, Toki Tayasu, Inaba Masatoshi, and others, who were standing on the high ground in the middle of Kotsu Castle, saw that the shogunate army was digging trenches in the east, west, and north of the castle to prevent the troops inside the castle from attacking, but they deliberately vacated the southern part facing Suruga Bay.

After the end of the day, Toki Yatai was famous, but after seeing the style of the shogunate army, he sneered and said to his colleagues around him: "I thought that the shogunate sent Itakura Shigemasa to lead the army because this person had some outstanding talents, but I didn't expect to use this old-fashioned strategy of encircling three and one."

Seeing that they were digging the trench so hard, Itakura Shigemasa didn't seem to notice the movements of the two teams of Matsuura and Numata at all. We have won this battle. ”

The samurai behind Toki Tayasu were relieved one by one, and when they saw that the shogunate army had really been tricked, they suddenly felt that their previous fear of the shogunate was really good for no reason. If the shogunate's army were all such fools, it is really difficult to say what the outcome of this war would be.

Toki Tsuyatai enjoyed the praise of the subordinates behind him, and then spoke again: "Please Inaba Hall to preside over the defense of the city, I will take the rest of the troops to rest for the time being, once the shogunate army lights the smoke pillar signal in the camp opposite the Kotsu River, I will ask Inaba Hall to send someone to inform me that I will personally lead the team out of the city to pursue, and this time I must leave half of the shogunate army." ”

Inaba Masatoshi knew that this Toki Tayasu didn't want to be robbed of the limelight by himself anymore. Otherwise, this battle would have been the credit of him, Matsuura, and Numata. Looking at the situation on the battlefield, Inaba Masaori felt that it would not change much whether he participated in this battle or not, so he agreed without complaint.

Just when Toki and his subordinates went down to the roof to rest, the 4,000 troops of the shogunate army had all arrived at the foot of Kotsu Castle. In addition to the 500 men stationed behind the shogunate army as a guard force, the remaining 3,500 men were divided into three teams and worked tirelessly to dig long trenches around the east, north, and west sides of Kotsu Castle.

By the time the sun was rising overhead, a long trench one man deep and two people wide had begun to take shape. Since the Suruga army in the castle did not disturb the shogunate army much during the entire construction process, the trench continued to extend southward, as if trying to completely encircle the weak Suruga army inside the castle.

As the trench began to take shape, Itakura Shigemasa again called out to the castle, claiming that as long as the Suruga Army surrendered, everyone except the day before yesterday would be pardoned for offending the rebellion of the shogunate army.

This insincere shouting of the shogunate army greatly disappointed the soldiers in the castle and strengthened the determination of many soldiers to resist the shogunate. God knows how these shogunate armies will distinguish between rebellions.

Just as the two low-ranking samurai of the shogunate shouted hoarsely into the castle, the signal that Inaba Masatoshi had been waiting for for a morning finally appeared, and a faint pillar of smoke rose up, and then quickly turned into billowing black smoke.

This pillar of smoke was so conspicuous that not only the Suruga army inside the castle saw it, but also the shogunate army outside the castle noticed this strange situation. Soon, a soldier of the shogunate army reacted and asked his colleague uncertainly, "Isn't the place where the fire is on fire our main camp..."

Itakura Shigemasa, Yanagi Soju and others, who were sitting under the wooden shed in the northeast of Xingjin City, walked out of the wooden shed one by one and looked in the direction of the camp under the reminder of the guards.

"Isn't it our big camp that burned up over there?" "It must not be wrong, it is our big camp...""Such a big pillar of smoke, isn't everything burned out...""It's all this time, and you're still worried about what was burned, haven't you thought that this is someone who copied our back road, and we are now trapped in the west of Xingjin River..."

Listening to the discussions of these feudal generals around them, the faces of Itakura Shigemasa and Yagyu Muneki were blue and white, and they didn't know how to explain to the shogunate now.

The first time they crossed the river, they were beaten by the Suruga army, and they can still say that they were unlucky and were attacked by the enemy army. But this time it was copied by the Suruga army, and there is obviously no excuse to speak of.

Itakura Shigemasa finally couldn't bear it anymore and asked Yagyu Zongju beside him, "But Lord Mamori, are we withdrawing from the siege and going back to rescue the camp?" Or will you continue to besiege the enemy forces in the city? ”

Liu Sheng Zongju's face turned dark and said: "The matter has come to this, can we go back to rescue the big camp, and we can rescue the big rescue..."

Yanagi Zongju suddenly stopped halfway through his words, Itakura Shigemasa looked at Yanagi Zongju who suddenly changed his face for a few inexplicable moments, and looked suspiciously at his intently gaze, but there was only one Ashigaru who was lazy eating balls.

Itakura Shigemasa couldn't help but say with some unhappiness in his heart: "But Lord Mamori, now is not the time to pay attention to the soldiers who have made mistakes, should we retreat or attack now?" ”

Liu Sheng Zongju looked at him with a desperate look and asked, "When you crossed the river last night, how much food did you bring with you?" ”

Itakura Shigemasa said impatiently: "Naturally, it's a day's rice balls, and our big camp is behind us, how much more do we have to bring..."

Shigemasa Itakura paused as he spoke, and he finally realized that something was wrong. In the burned barracks, all their rations were stored. Now it is not a question of whether they will stay or not, but whether they can connect with the army behind them before they run out of food.

Although it is now after the autumn harvest, the peasants in the nearby villages must have some grain in stock, but there is no village that can supply four or five thousand people with enough food to eat. Isn't it suicide to divide troops to collect food under the watchful eye of the Suruga Army?

If they were unable to collect food on the spot, they would have to break away from contact with the Suruga Army as soon as possible, jump to the east of the Kotsugawa River, and join up with their own reinforcements. But will the Suruga Army, which occupies the main camp, get out of the way? As long as they are blocked west of the Xingjin River for one night, tomorrow they will be hungry to fight, and what is the use of a large number of people.

Itakura Shigemasa glanced back at the samurai behind him who had not yet reacted, and then turned back and asked Yagyu Muneju with a pale face, "But Lord Mamori, what should we do now?" ”

Liu Sheng Zongju's face finally returned to normal, and he said calmly: "Dispatch people to return to the camp, but there are some people left here to confuse the defenders in the city, if these defenders think that we have fled in a big way, I am afraid that in the end, no one will be able to return to the other side." ”

After some deliberation, the two decided to let Yagyu Muneju quietly take 800 people back to rescue the camp, and wait until Yagyu Muneju restored the pontoon bridge and successfully crossed the river, and then notified Itakura Shigemasa to retreat with the main force, as for the remaining officers and soldiers who were used to confuse the defenders, they were left to the Suruga Army to dispose of.

Just as Yagyu was secretly sending people back to help, the last area of resistance in the camp built by the shogunate army on the east bank of the Kotsu River had just thrown weapons to Matsuura Nobumoto's subordinates, indicating that they were going to surrender.

Numata Kanichi, who was attacking from the east of the camp, stepped through the messy camp and met with Nobumoto Matsuura, who was attacking from the north, in a large tent in the middle of the camp.

Numata Kanichi, who was standing at the door, looked at the boxes of shogunate flags, documents and other trivial things that several soldiers carried out from the big tent, and couldn't help but ask curiously at Matsuura Nobumoto: "What are you doing with these rags, isn't it too cumbersome?" What are we going to do with these captives, we can't seem to take them with us. The next step is to dismantle the pontoon bridge and block the Itakura Shigeshobe on the opposite side? ”

Matsuura Nobumoto looked at the letters in his hand seriously, shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it can't be blocked, if these letters are true, the reinforcements of the shogunate army will arrive tonight." In the next two days, three or four troops, no less than 3,000 men and horses are expected to arrive here with provisions, and it is impossible for us to fight on both sides.

These captives were the troops of Numazu and Odawara Domains, which we had defeated once a few days ago, and if it weren't for them guarding the main camp, we wouldn't have been able to take this place so quickly. These soldiers have no intention of fighting, and they have to bother to take care of them if they stay, so it is better to drive them all across the river and let Itakura Shigemasa have a headache about what to do with them.

As for the pontoon bridges, it seems that there is no point in dismantling them, and with such a narrow river, they will soon be able to build seven or eight new bridges. Rather than letting them run around, it would be better to keep pontoons and limit where they can cross the river, which will be good for us to judge their movements.

Now I am thinking, after letting them cross the river, under the pursuit of Tokiden, will the shogunate army still be able to maintain formation? If the shogunate army is chased and scattered, can we ambush them again near the Sati Ridge? But I'm worried that when the shogunate reinforcements arrive, the ambush won't work, and the shogunate will fight back. ”

While watching Matsuura Nobumoto frown and think, Numata Kanichi looked at the things that were carried out by the soldiers, suddenly grabbed an item from it, and said, "In that case, it would be better to send someone to pretend to be Itakura Shigemasa's messenger."

Anyway, there are so many blank letters representing the shogunate, so let's issue an order for Itakura Shigemasa to transfer these reinforcements back. The armies of these feudal states did not know the people of Itakura Shigemasa at all, and they only recognized the Shinken with the shogunate logo, so it was difficult to guarantee that they would not be fooled. ”

Matsuura Nobumoto paused, put down the letter in his hand, and said, "The two samurai who handled the paperwork for Itakura Shigemasa also happened to be captured by us, and we only need to ask them separately to know the format of how to write these orders, but what excuse should we find for the reinforcements to return?" ”

Numata Kaneji looked at the object in his hand and thought for a while, then said with a smile: "Let's just say that there are wealthy clans in Kai who responded to the chaotic orders of His Royal Highness Tadashi, and these wealthy clans gathered thousands of mountain people to try to go down the Fuji River and cut off the rear road of our army.

After receiving the news, Yagyu Tajima Mamoru suggested to Itakuraden that he order the reinforcements behind him to turn around and defend the Fuji River to protect the rear of our army. ”

Matsuura Nobumoto suddenly clapped his hands lightly and said, "This reason is good, it's not good to say that those idiots will really be fooled."

In addition, simply send an order to the defenders of Satri Ridge, telling them that the pillar of smoke lit here is a ploy by Lord Tajima to confuse the enemy, and order them to hold on to Satri Ridge and not go down the mountain without permission, so that our army will be safer in the vicinity of Satri Ridge in the future..."