Of course, if you don't consider Ashigaru's physical condition, you can also take the mountain road, especially if you cross Mt. Komyo, you can directly attack the Kasuga Mountain Castle established on the Takada Plains, but as for whether Ashigaru will have the physical strength at that time, it is unknown, in addition, you can also take the sea route, but where did Shibata Katsuya go to find so many ships for a while, so in the end he was still ready to attack Echigo in a conventional way.

Although the Uesugi family is far worse than the clan clan in terms of intelligence gathering, how can he not know anything about such a large-scale transfer of the Shibata and Takayama families, especially since the opponent's army has already gathered in Katsuyama Castle, if he can't see the other party's strategic intentions, then he is not worthy of being called Uesugi Kenshin.

For the upcoming war, although the retainers of the Uesugi family feel pressure, but they do not have the slightest sense of fear, if Oda Nobunaga himself leads the army to come, they can also be afraid, but the other party is only Shibata, Takayama coalition army, and according to the intelligence, the Takayama clan is not in the army, so for the next war, they are still very confident, so as soon as the military discussion opens, all the retainers of the Uesugi family have only one idea, that is, to start a war, start a war, and after destroying its main force, invade Echichu and seize Noto.

Uesugi Kenshin was very satisfied with the attitude of his retainers, so he immediately mobilized his troops and prepared to fight, of course, he did not intend to fight hard with the other party, after all, the strength of the opponent's army was no worse than his own, so this time Uesugi Kenshin was ready to outwit.

On April 15, 1576, the Hokuriku region had been completely warmed, and on this day, the Shibata coalition army also marched to Echigo in accordance with the previously established strategy.

The war lasted until the third day. The Shibata Army was like a bamboo. Already crossed the Himegawa. Coming to the outside of Fudoyamayama Castle, along the way, the Shibata coalition army did not encounter any decent resistance at all, and at this moment everyone thought that Uesugi Kenshin must be afraid of the strength of the coalition army, so he was ready to rely on Kasuga Yama Castle and fight in the cage city. Therefore, the originally tense coalition forces are a little relaxed at the moment.

Of course, this is only the idea of the vast majority of samurai and ashigaru. There are exceptions, such as Sanada Masayuki, he would never think that Uesugi Kenshin was afraid of the strength of the coalition forces, nor did he think that the other party would cage the city, after all, once the cage city, then the initiative would be in the hands of the coalition army.

But how to deal with Uesugi Kenshin, he thought about it for three days, and finally did not guess the other party's intentions, so he could only remind the military situation that was already a little lax to be vigilant at any time, for this military advisor. Shibata Katsuya and the others are still respectful enough, and the other party is Uesugi Kenshin. It is absolutely impossible to be careless, so after being reminded by Sanada Masayuki, these people also had to restrain their contempt for the Uesugi family, especially at night, they were afraid that the Uesugi army would rob the camp and arrange a large number of troops, but all this turned into a futile effort, it seems that Uesugi Kenshin has no intention of letting the main force under his command fight with the coalition army in the field.

The Fudo Mountain Castle in front of you is the strongest and largest castle in the western part of Neck-gun County, and the existence of this castle is to prevent attacks from the side of Echichu, and the castle lord Yamamoto Temple is the chief of the castle, as a member of Uesugi Kenshin, stationed here. Although this person is not good at wisdom, but he is extremely brave, and there is only one way from Echichu to Echigo, so if you invade Echigo with a strategy, it is impossible to open it, so this city does not need any wise people to sit in charge, only a brave person is here, and the goal can be achieved.

This is also the reason why Kenshin Uesugi was able to place it in such an important place.

At this moment, the head of Yamamoto Temple sat on the main seat with a depressed face, according to his original intention, he wanted to fight the enemy to the death, even if he died in the city, at least he thought that if he did this, even if he was defeated in the end, it would be the end of the samurai.

However, while he was actively preparing for battle, the lord sent an order for him to fight the enemy in the field, and only to be defeated without victory, and to move in the direction of Kasuga Yamajo Castle after the defeat to join the Uesugi army.

As soon as the order came, Yamamoto Temple was immediately dumbfounded, he wanted to rely on the fortified castle to block the enemy, according to his idea, even if he couldn't hold it, but at least he could delay the enemy for a month, after all, as the largest city in the west of Echigo, there were also 8,000 foot light in it, and once the surrounding wealthy clans and other military forces came to help, then with the city can also defend it, as long as it lasts for a month, or even only half a month or less, the Uesugi army will feel, at that time, how can the enemy be invincible?

But the lord's words can't be ignored, and he has absolute trust in the lord, since the lord let him do this, then it must make sense, but he can't think of it, since the lord knows it, then he can only do it.

Therefore, when he learned that the enemy had crossed the border and was rushing towards Fudoyama Castle, he immediately led his troops out of the city and prepared to fight the enemy.

The Shibata army had already received information that when it was still three miles away from Budongshan Castle, it stopped its military momentum and prepared to fight the enemy here.

Shibata Katsuya wants to eliminate Uesugi as soon as possible, and Yamamoto Temple wants to retreat early, so there is no nonsense between the two armies, and after meeting, they will fight together, Yamamoto Temple Dingchang's army is only 10,000, while the Shibata coalition army has 42,000 people, especially when the elite of the two sides is about the same, almost pressing the Uesugi army to fight, and because this is a matter of course, so for the retreat of the Uesugi army, Shibata Katsuie, Sasa Naimasa, Fupo Koji and others all take it for granted.

But after Sanada Masayuki won this battle, he didn't feel any happiness, but frowned, and others ignored a question, but he thought of it, that is, he really couldn't understand why Yamamoto Temple was in the field with the coalition army under the absolute disadvantage of the army, the normal way, in this case, should definitely cage the city, prevent the family from advancing eastward, and wait for the help of the Uesugi army.

It would be understandable if the other party did not understand the military, but this Yamamoto Temple was also the commander of the army in the Uesugi family, so how could such a mistake be made, so there must be a trick in this.

At this moment, Sanada Masayuki really wanted to immediately send someone to report the situation to the lord at this time, but once he did this, wouldn't it also prove that his ability was insufficient, so he thought about it in his heart, but finally rejected the idea. In the end, he could only come to one conclusion, that is, Uesugi Kenshin must have wanted to lure the enemy deeper, but how the other party arranged it could not be analyzed at all, after all, the purpose of luring the enemy deep was to encircle himself, or cut off the food and grass of the coalition army, but when he thought about it, it was impossible for the Uesugi army to go around behind the coalition army. After all, from Echichu to Echigo, there is only this road that he is taking now, and the scouts sent out have reached the coast in the north, and the south has gone deep into the mountains, unless the other side can borrow Shinano, the other side has no chance to cut off the back road of the coalition army.

Maybe it really made Shibata and other adults guess, Uesugi Kenshin just wanted to cage the city, and the more he thought about it, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that there was no flaw, so Sanada Masayuki gradually put his mind at ease, of course, the vigilance that should be maintained is still maintained, after all, he is a very cautious person.

After a final battle between Fudo Mountain Castle and the enemy, the coalition army began to encounter no decent resistance again, and all the resistance of the army was also after the defeat, retreating to Kasuga Mountain Castle, which strengthened the idea of everyone in the coalition army, Uesugi Kenshin must be to cage the castle.

The army was so strong that it only took five days to reach Sekigawa, which was thirty miles away from Kasuga Mountain Castle, because it knew that it was going to attack the Uesugi army, which had a fortified castle to rely on, and in order to conserve its strength, it would have been stopped and stopped along the way, otherwise it would not have taken a week to arrive. At this point, everyone had no doubts at all, because at this moment, in the Kasuga Mountain Castle, plus the army that had been defeated from the front, the number of people had exceeded 25,000, although this was not the entire army of the Uesugi family, but except for those who were stationed in various places, almost all of them were concentrated here.

Due to the new arrival of the army, although it was still early, the Shibata coalition army did not launch an attack on Kasuga Mountain Castle, but prepared to let Ashigaru rest for a day and start a general attack on Kasuga Mountain Castle tomorrow.

At dawn on the second day, the coalition forces began to attack Kasugayama Castle, but everyone knew that it was impossible to capture the castle, especially the castle of Uesugi Kenshin, in one day, and there were still tens of thousands of troops in Kasugayama Castle at this moment. So on this day, the coalition forces were not able to make any progress at all.

And it was like this for five days in a row, and at this time Shibata Katsuya was already a little impatient, but before he could make any moves.

Suddenly, I saw a low-ranking samurai covered in blood come to Shibata Katsuya, and said anxiously: "Report, lord, the big thing is not good, the Uesugi army appeared behind our army, and began to deploy defenses on the west bank of Himegawa, and there are ...... There are 5,000 people, and I ask the Lord to decide. ”

"What! That's impossible. When Shibata Katsuie heard the news, he immediately jumped up.

Even Sanada Masayuki couldn't sit still at the moment, he had analyzed it before, it was absolutely impossible for the other party to go around behind the coalition forces unknowingly, but now that the other party actually did it, how could he not be shocked. So he didn't care if it was rude, and asked directly: "Do you know how the Uesugi army appeared in Jichuan?" ”

The low-level warrior said with a frightened face: "This, Lord Hui, my lord, my subordinate...... The subordinates did not know how the enemy appeared, and three days ago, the subordinates inspected the territory as usual and did not find the shadow of the Uesugi army, but it was only a night of effort, and all the land occupied by the family was lost. (To be continued.) )