And after getting the arrangement, what they didn't expect was that because there were too few samurai who could be trusted by the two countries, their arrival could be regarded as a charcoal in the snow, and the Takenaka Hanbei now had no time to care about the identities of these people, and now there was only one, as long as it was a diehard person of the Takayama faction, then it would inevitably be reused, and many middle and lower-level samurai took advantage of this opportunity to become the lord of a city, of course, this is only temporary, but even so, it is enough for them to feel excited.

With the addition of these people, the military strength of the two countries has reached 30,000, and the combat power of these 30,000 people is still very considerable, although Oda Nobutada lacks the pioneering spirit of his father, but also knows the importance of armaments, so after he took over the two countries of Noo, he did not sit back and wait for the world, but actively trained the army, and he followed the model of the Takayama family, and did not like the number of people, but with enough funds to arm the 50,000 army, only 25,000 people, the same funds, after the number of people was reduced by half, Of course it will be more elite. Of course, this is also faithfulness, and if it had been someone else, if it had not reached the rule of five people per 100 koku set by Nobunaga for a long time, he would have been punished a long time ago.

At the same time, Kinoshita Hideyoshi and others had already led a large army to Azuchi Castle after the deed was completed, and at this moment the army in Azuchi Castle had reached 80,000 people, and Kuroda Kanwei suggested that he should take this opportunity to attack Noo immediately, and go all the way to the east, when the Takayama faction and others were not well prepared, to take the other party by surprise, so that there was a great possibility that a battle would be able to determine the world.

But Kinoshita Hideyoshi doesn't look at the attitude that he often takes the Takayama clan seriously on weekdays, but this is just to cover up his inferiority, in his heart, he is still very worried about the Takayama clan, it can be said that the people in the world who can make him feel this way, except for Oda Nobunaga, is the Takayama clan, so he still has a conservative attitude towards attacking the other party, and he also feels that he should wait, and wait until Mori Kecheng completely controls Ono, and then send troops to the east is the best time.

Although the people of the Takayama faction had already prepared by then, but because this time for the sake of secrecy, they did not use all their strength, and they could take advantage of this time to mobilize more troops, such as Maori, Ryuzoji Temple in Kyushu, Shimazu and other forces, once they sent troops to come, plus the tens of thousands of troops in Ono, then the army that they could use this time would reach 150,000. With such a large army, I am afraid that the mountains will not be destroyed.

And although his idea was opposed by Kuroda Kanwei, Ukita Hideya and others, but it was also supported by Kinoshita Hidenaga, Horio Yoshiharu and others, they all believed that the high mountain was by no means something that could be eliminated in a war, and at this moment instead of going to war, it would only fall into the quagmire of war, rather than this, then it is better to take this opportunity to digest the benefits just won, especially the Kai Town, as long as this place is digested, then the economy of the family will have a qualitative leap, with the support of funds, even if it is against Takayama head-on, Nor will it be left behind.

And after making this decision, another thing is equally important, that is, the name, after all, including Kinoshita Hideyoshi himself now occupies a large area of land in the Oda family, but after all, the name is not right, and now there are two ways in front of them, the first is to establish Oda Nobunaga's son as the heir of the Oda family, which is also common sense, and there is another way, that is, self-reliance, although Kinoshita Hideyoshi prefers the first one, but in today's situation, he can no longer choose.

After all, the reason why these people of the Kinoshita faction can compete with Takayama is entirely because they are united, otherwise, let alone compete with the Takayama faction, even the Takayama family itself is not something they can resist, so that only by uniting these forces can they continue to fight against each other, which is not only clear to Kuroda Kanbei, but also Takigawa Kazuki, Tokugawa Ieyasu and others are also very clear, but once they are loyal like Kinoshita, then they become a relationship between monarchs and ministers, which is very detrimental to future development, After all, whether it is Tokugawa Ieyasu or Matsunaga Hide, they also have the ambition to take over the world. So after this matter was proposed, the result was not discussed, until the news of Nonoo came, and they had to pinch their noses and admit it even if they didn't want to.

The result of Nooo was beyond everyone's expectations, although Kinoshita Hideyoshi got the allegiance of Takigawa, Mori, Matsunaga, Ryuzoji, Shimazu and other, Nishikoku, and Kyushu forces, although Tokugawa Ieyasu did not express his position for the time being, but Kinoshita Hideyoshi thought that it was also a matter of time, after all, the Tokugawa family was now completely surrounded by himself.

But when Kinoshita Hideyoshi learned that Mori Kecheng betrayed him and took refuge in the Takayama clan, he angrily slammed the tea bowl in his hand to the ground, and the thick tail was a stone height of more than one million stones, if the Takayama clan sect was allowed to occupy it, then it would undoubtedly make the other party's strength go to a higher level, so at this moment, even if he didn't want to start a war immediately, he couldn't wait any longer, after all, these two countries are not like Kanto, these two countries have been fully developed, as long as they get it, they can immediately bring themselves troops and funds, But now it's because of Sen Kecheng that everything is empty.

And strategically speaking, once the Takayama faction occupies Ono, then Owari, Mino, and Echizen are connected in a line and become a natural barrier to the eastern country, and the road to the eastern country has been completely blocked by the other party, and most importantly, the other party can retreat to Gifu Castle with this barrier, and Kiyoshu is a stronghold to resist, and the advance is directed at Omi, and now Omi is still the sphere of influence of Niwa and Matsunaga, and they have pledged allegiance to the Kinoshita family, and Kinoshita Hideyoshi can no longer treat them as allies as before, so no matter what, The two countries must be controlled in their hands.

At this moment, the army of the Kinoshita family has been assembled in Azuchi City, not only that, but in order to be able to resist the reinforcements of the Takayama family, so in addition to the 80,000 troops, Kinoshita Hideyoshi asked Mori Terumoto to immediately send troops to Azuchi, although the battle of Noo is captured, I am afraid that I can't count on the other party, but this army can be used as a reserve, and the task of Shimazu and Ryuzoji Temple is much simpler, that is, to eliminate Otomo, the existence of the Otomo family has contained all the strength of the Kinoshita family in Kyushu, so I want to use more military strength, Then the nail of Otomo must be removed.

Not to mention the Kinoshita family's attack on Nooo, the Takayama clan is not without any action, although it is far away in Kofu City, and the time when he received the news is a little late, but since he left Azuchi, he already knew that the Oda family civil strife was about to rise, so as soon as he returned to Kofu, he did not immediately start to assemble troops, but what he didn't expect was that the other party occupied the entire in less than half a month, he thinks, there are still many forces loyal to the Oda family in, as well as their own camp, there are them, I'm afraid that it will take a lot of effort for the other party to capture, so that he can be more calm, after all, although the Kanto region has been captured, but the attitude of those forces of Mutsu is not clear, once he leads the army to leave, the battle ahead is smooth to the end, once the battle enters a stalemate, or is not good for himself, then those forces of Mutsu may not be able to bear it, even if they don't think of it, the Kuroda Kanbei of the Kinoshita family will also help them think of it, so as soon as the clan returns to Kai, he immediately sent someone to Mutsu, Ask them to take a stand.

But the current situation, there is no room for the clan to wait for their expression, for the Takayama family Ono is much more important than Mutsu, those natives of Mutsu can take advantage of it for a while, they are not afraid, after all, they are just a rabble in front of the Takayama family, as long as Kinoshita Hideyoshi is eliminated, even if they are all united, there is no need to worry, so after receiving the news, the clan clan did not wait for their reply, but immediately led 30,000 troops under his command to Ono to assist Takenaka Hanbei and others, This time only 15,000 people were dispatched, and there was no way to do it, after all, after occupying the Kanto, the territory of the Takayama family was too big, and the attitude of the Mutsu side was not clear, so this time it was already the limit to be able to dispatch these troops, of course, if you can give the clan a year or two, after the complete integration of the Kanto, then you can rely on this place to recruit more troops, even if you leave the defense, there are at least tens of thousands of troops for the trend.

Of course, don't look at the clan this time can only send cavalry, ninja army, bow team, and flag samurai team, but don't forget, the clan has allies, Uesugi, Shibata, Sakuma, Asai, if you add the military strength of Noo controlled by the Takenaka Hanbei, then in terms of troops, the clan will not only not suffer, but will slightly surpass the other party, so the clan is not worried about suffering because of the lack of military strength.

Since after the Azuchi Castle meeting, the clan had already informed Shibata and the others that there would be changes in the world, and they would prepare as soon as they returned, so when the envoy of the clan arrived, the clans did not delay much at all, and immediately sent troops.

On August 3, 1578, the Takayama army arrived at Mino, but at this moment most of Mino had been captured by Kinoshita's army, after all, the other side had 80,000 people, and the Takenaka Hanbei only had 25,000 troops, so except for some places that must be defended, the rest of the castles were all abandoned, so that after entering Mino, Kinoshita's army did not encounter much resistance, and advanced to the vicinity of Gifu Castle.

Of course, since nearly a month has passed since it was launched, Kinoshita Hideyoshi and others knew that reinforcements from the Takayama family could appear in front of them at any time, so in order to prevent the other party from launching a surprise attack when the house was attacking the city, the survey report they arranged exceeded thirty miles, and there was a buffer of thirty miles, which made the Kinoshita family feel at ease to attack the city.

After spreading information around Gifu Castle, Kinoshita Hideyoshi ordered his team to attack Gifu Castle.

In Gifu Castle, there are only 15,000 troops now, after all, in order to ensure that the important towns between the two countries are not lost, the Takenaka half-guards have to divide half of the army to defend those places, so being able to concentrate 15,000 people is already considered the limit.

Of course, don't look at the number of enemies who are twice as many as their own, but the steepness of Gifu City is enough to withstand tens of thousands of troops, Oda Nobunaga also led the army of the Saito family in order to capture here, but there is still no achievement, and at that time the Saito family has no courage to fight, but even so, Nobunaga has no way to take this fortified city, if it is not for the success of the raid after the final detour of the city, then I am afraid that the Saito family can continue for a year or two without a problem.

And now, although those ashigaru in the city are still a little confused, and most of them don't even know who to fight for, but the samurai who lead them, especially in important positions, are now all placed in the Takayama faction, and their mentality is different from these ashigaru, and now that Nobunaga has fallen, they are all very clear about the chaos of the Oda family, and they also know that if this battle is good, then once it is known by Takayama Lord, Feihuang Tengda will be just around the corner, so that the morale of the samurai in the city has reached its peak, They still hope that Kinoshita's army will come to attack quickly, and when the time comes, the reinforcements of Takayama will arrive, and they will have no chance to perform.

And those originally neutral samurai, most of them recognized the facts at this time, although the Oda family did not have an heir, but whether it was Nobuo or Nobutaka or Nobunaga's other heirs, they were by no means male masters, even if after this war, the Oda family set up a new master, it would never be possible to achieve the same prosperity as before, and with the strength of the Oda family, whether it was Takayama or Kinoshita, it was not something he could control, so these samurai who had previously remained neutral basically changed their minds at this time, That is, it is good to work hard for the Takayama family in a down-to-earth manner.

After learning about the mentality of the samurai in the castle, the Takenaka Hanbei was more sure of holding Gifu and waiting for reinforcements, and if they couldn't stop the enemy's attack, it could only be said that it was their own problem.

Of course, if you can block the opponent and give it a certain blow, it will be more perfect.

Thinking of this, the Takenaka half-guard immediately made arrangements and ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to lead 3,000 men to arrange them in the back mountain of Gifu. Since Nobunaga entered Gifu, he has strengthened the defense of the back mountain, but he feels that once the attack of Kinoshita's army is blocked, maybe the siege method of more than ten years ago will be used, if this is the case, then it is necessary to transfer the army to go, after all, although the defense has been strengthened behind the city, but this is only relatively speaking, compared with the entire Gifu Castle, this is still the weakest link, especially when Nobunaga repaired the city, not only did not block the road up the back mountain, but also widened this path into a large road, so that If Kinoshita's army wants to attack from here, then it will definitely be able to send more troops. Therefore, it is still necessary to send more troops to defend here. (To be continued.) )