After receiving the news, Tokugawa Ieyasu gathered all the retainers on the same day, this time it was not only the important ministers of the family, but even the low-level samurai who did not have official service were also recruited, as long as they were direct ministers, at this moment, all of them appeared inside and outside the assessment room, and the number of people was enough to be hundreds. Although there is still a big gap between it and the Oda family in terms of quantity, the quality is not worse than that of the Oda family.

Looking at the retainers who were sitting in tight clothes inside and outside, Tokugawa Ieyasu's heart suddenly gave birth to a sense of pride, and this feeling was the first time he had experienced it.

"The reason why the assessment meeting is held today is that you all already know that at present, the family has reached an agreement with the Takayama family to capture the Takeda clan's territory in Shinano, and the family has taken Kai all, and now Shinano has fallen into the hands of the Takayama family, and the family has not taken action for a long time, is this the work of my Tokugawa family, is it my Mikawa samurai, is it my Tokaido samurai?"

"Lord, my subordinates are willing to win the Jiafei for the Lord, and I also ask the Lord to agree." I saw Sakai Tadaji speak.

"The subordinates are also willing to win the Jiafei for the lord, and ask the lord to agree." This time, not only the samurai in the room, but also those retainers who were not qualified to enter, and could only listen to the instructions outside the door.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this battle with the Takeda family is related to whether my Tokugawa family can rise, so I will personally lead a large army to this battle, and you will immediately assemble a large army and be ready to be dispatched at any time."

"It's the lord."

After waiting for the lord's order, the Tokugawa family moved all the way, and everyone knew that this was the best time for them to live a meritorious life, so they mobilized the army as much as possible. I'm afraid that there will be fewer troops under my command. Can't get the credit. And because the house is surrounded by the sea on one side. Surrounded by the Oda family on both sides, there was no need to worry about the territory being attacked when the army was dispatched, so the Tokugawa army reached 20,000 people, and although there were only 8,000 banners among them, the momentum was huge enough.

Although the army was mobilized to 20,000 people, it was impossible to send all of them to attack Kai, and although the Takeda family had no intention of asking the Hojo family for help, they had to defend against it. Therefore, after leaving behind 2,000 banners and 4,000 peasant soldiers, the total force of the Tokugawa family's attack on Kai was 14,000 men, which was 2,000 more than the number estimated by Ishikawa on that day.

The reason why the Takeda family was able to receive the news so quickly was that the clan was of course the credit of the clan, and if it was too late, I am afraid that even if it asked the Hojo family for help, it would be too late, and then I am afraid that I will have to steal chickens and rice.

Unlike the excitement of the Tokugawa family, the Takeda family can be said to have a worried face. As the head of the family, Takeda Katsuyori was a little overwhelmed. Therefore, immediately gather the retainers to discuss the countermeasures, and the counsel comes and goes. If you want to get out of the current crisis, there is only one way, and that is to ask the Hojo family for help, and Takeda Katsuyori can only agree in the end.

However, because the Tokugawa army began to prepare for war as early as when the Takayama army attacked Shinano, so before the envoy sent by the Takeda family arrived at Odawara Castle, the Tokugawa army had already invaded Kai, and at this moment, because the Takayama army was still in Uehara Castle, the Takeda army stationed on the border did not dare to withdraw, but in addition to this army, it could only gather an army of about 4,000 people, and these horses alone were certainly not the opponents of the Tokugawa army, so Takeda Katsuyori finally decided to cage the castle, This decision is a great shame for the Takeda family, which has been constantly expanding abroad.

Tokugawa Ieyasu saw that the other side did not conduct a decisive battle, and finally had no choice but to divide his troops into three ways and began to capture the southern castle of Kai.

"My lord, my subordinates think that the situation seems to be a little bad." As soon as the Tokugawa army captured Shimoyama Castle in Jumo County, Tokugawa Ieyasu had not yet entered the castle, when he saw Anayama Nobuyojun chasing after him, he spoke.

At this moment, when Tokugawa Ieyasu was happy, he suddenly heard him say such words, and he couldn't help but say with displeasure: "Now that the family has captured such an important town in less than two days, what is wrong with destroying Takeda in less than three months?" ”

"My lord, please think about it, the reason why the army of this family is so strong is only because the main force of Takeda is not there, and now that the Takayama Army has not retreated, what will the Takeda Army do if there is no extra army to resist the attack of this family?"

When Tokugawa Ieyasu heard this, he couldn't help but tremble, the main force of the Takeda army was pinned, and if Takeda still wanted to keep the territory, then I am afraid that he would have to ask for help from Hojo. If this is the case, then let alone take all the Kai, I am afraid that all the people in my family will be in danger of being invaded by the enemy.

After thinking of this, he only heard Tokugawa Ieyasu speak: "Send someone to Takayama's house quickly, and ask Takayama-sama to order the withdrawal of troops for the time being." ”

"The lord must not do this." I saw that Ishikawa Shumasa also trotted all the way over at this time.

As soon as he came to the front, he hurriedly said: "My lord, let's not talk about whether Takayama will order the army to retreat, even if it is really temporarily withdrawn from Uehara Castle, I'm afraid it's already too late, and my subordinates guess that he must have ordered someone to go to Hojo when he sent his troops, if the Takayama army retreats suddenly at this time, the Takeda army has no worries and leads the elite army to come, under the two-way attack with Hojo, the family will be defeated, if it takes the opportunity to attack Suruga, I am afraid that the family will be difficult to resist under the defeat." ”

When he finished speaking, everyone suddenly realized that the Gaoshan clan was really a poisonous strategy, which put the family in a dilemma, and it was not advisable to enter the army now, and if the army was withdrawn, then the family would not only waste money and lose the army's strength in vain, but also still not get rid of the dilemma of being trapped.

"Now that we've come to this, what now?" Tokugawa Ieyasu didn't have an idea at the moment, so he just listened to him ask.

"My lord, my subordinates think that Kai Fei still needs to attack, but it is necessary to change the strategy." Anayama Nobuyuki thought for a while and continued: "Now Hojo is strong and Takeda is weak, so according to his subordinates, the lord should send an army to aid the eastern front to prevent Hojo, and the Takeda family in addition to the elite, although there are still four or five thousand troops left, but they are all scattered in various cities, the lord only needs to gather an army of five thousand people to break them all, although the speed of capturing Kai is a little slower, but the victory will not be in vain." ”

After listening to this, Ishikawa Shumasa couldn't help but shake his head, only to hear him speak: "The lord has no hope of taking Kai this time, after all, if he wants to capture this place in an all-round way, then even if the eastern front can block the attack of the Hojo family, then the remaining army will inevitably have a decisive battle with the Takeda elite in the end, if the family only has four or five thousand people to fight against the Takeda elite four thousand, there is no certainty, and even if it wins, then the elite of the family may also suffer great losses." Speaking of this, I only heard him continue: "My lord, the main purpose of this army is to avoid being surrounded by Oda, Takayama and Hojo, cutting off the road to development, as long as the family gets rid of this predicament, then it will be easy to take Takeda in the future, so the subordinates think that the lord can lead all the troops to attack the county, as long as the county is in hand, then the family has a way to the outside world, and our army is all on the east line of Kai, even if the Hojo comes to help, the army can also be concentrated to compete with it." ”

"Okay, that's reasonable, give the order immediately, and the whole army will assemble."

The Tokugawa 14,000 army has been divided into three routes, so it is not so easy to assemble again, and the Hojo family Hojo clan can be said to have been waiting for the Takeda family to send someone to ask for help, and this is a few months of waiting, and this day finally the messenger of the Takeda family is coming, and the Hojo clan government gave an order, and the eight thousand reserves led by Hojo Tsunari went straight to the Tokugawa army.

At this moment, the clan clan in Takayama Castle finally received the latest battle report, when he saw that Hojo had already sent out the army, Tokugawa began to attack Duru County, and Takeda was still in the confrontation with the main army, he couldn't help but immediately give an order, ordering the original castle and the main family army to retreat immediately.

And after the Takeda army was not contained by the Takayama army, Takeda Katsuyori personally led four thousand elites to the Tokugawa army and went straight to the Tokugawa army, and of course this news could not be hidden from Tokugawa Ieyasu, when he learned that the Takayama army suddenly withdrew at this time, even if he had no more self-cultivation, he couldn't help but scold angrily, like a street shrew.

At this moment, it is too late for the Tokugawa army to retreat, once it retreats at this moment, it is difficult to resist the pursuit of the Hojo army, after all, in addition to the flag in the army at this moment, there are thousands of peasant soldiers, and whether it is Hojo or Takeda, although its two armies add up to only 12,000 people, but it is a real elite, once caught up by the enemy, then the army will inevitably collapse, and if the two of them take the opportunity to attack Suruga, then they will no longer be able to gather troops to protect the territory in a short period of time.

Thinking of this, Tokugawa Ieyasu gritted his teeth and immediately ordered people to transfer 4,000 of the 6,000 troops deployed on the eastern front of Suruga, and the military strength around him increased to 18,000, which made Tokugawa Ieyasu feel a lot more relieved. Since this battle is unavoidable, let's wait to see the strength of our Tokugawa army.

In July 1574, 18,000 people of the Tokugawa army and 12,000 people of the Takeda Hojo coalition army fought fiercely near Lake Yamanaka in Tsuru-gun, and the battle lasted for a whole day, regardless of victory or defeat, but because the Tokugawa army lost thousands of elite people in this battle, more than 3,000 people were wounded, and the peasants and soldiers were all scattered, so they were unable to fight again, so they had no choice but to retreat, and the Takeda army was the target of the Tokugawa army's key attack, especially under the surprise attack of the Tokugawa ninja army, so more than half of the casualties of the Red Reserve, the elite Ashigaru lost 1,000 people, and the situation of the Hojo army was slightly better, But the casualties still reached 1,000. Takeda was unable to pursue due to his heavy losses, and the three families quit.

It can be said that there was no final winner in the Battle of Lake Yamanaka this time, and the Tokugawa family not only suffered heavy losses, but also failed to achieve the strategic goal at all, and although the Takeda family held Kai, they lost a few elites themselves, which made the Takeda family take a step towards destruction. (To be continued......)