On the fourth day of the fifth month of the 10th year of Tensho (1582), a large army of more than 70,000 men was assembled in the plains and hills of eastern Owari. If you look closely at it by someone who cares, this army, although it has an astonishing number, does not have the slightest negligence in equipment and numbers. As for the visual fatigue caused by the complicated flags and fingers, it may be the only regret.

At this time, the sun was already about to set, and the soldiers were preparing for dinner, with a leisurely atmosphere in the busyness. Although it is a large army, there is not much tension about the imminent war at the moment, and most of the things such as flags and golden drums are in the collection.

On an open flat ground in front of the Chinese army's tent, a bonfire lit with pine branches was burning, and a few cleaned pheasants and hares were roasted on iron skewers. That's what we've learned in our hunt today, and it's pretty good to find them in the wilderness where this army has trodden.

I sat on a marching horse and carefully stared at the food on the fire, and sitting next to me were my second son, Hidekiyoshi Hatano, Yoshikiyoshi Shikoshi, Shima Katsuaki, Fujido Takatora, and Sanada Yukimura, who were whispering something from time to time.

The date of departure was a little later than I had originally estimated, and it may be that I was overestimating my own abilities, as some people were too far away to be able to avoid accidents. However, it can also be seen from this that the quality of each family, and the troops of both the Mori and Shimazu families have been reached ahead of schedule.

According to my estimate, as soon as the meeting was held on March 28, the two companies somehow sent the information back to the country, and I don't know if it was a ninja or a pigeon. After that, without waiting for the return of their respective governors, Shimazu Yoshihiro led an army of 2,000 and Yoshikawa Motocho led an army of 3,000 to begin to advance eastward.

Shimazu Yoshihisa suddenly fell ill and had to stay in Kyoto to recuperate, and Mori Terumoto met the arriving troops at Harima, although they were not the first to arrive in Owari, but considering that their journey was precious, at least they arrived before Ikeda Tsuneko.

The lords of the daimyo near naturally came faster, because they were not allowed to summon peasant soldiers this time, and they had no reason to delay, and the face was given by others and thrown away by themselves, and I believe that no one would feel uncomfortable at this time. The two uncles and nephews, Maeda Toshiie and Keiji, were left where I was, and they had their own tasks.

I had expected to reach 100,000 troops, but now there are still 30% who have not arrived for various reasons, but this is reasonable, after all, considering the actual situation of individuals (the daimyo of Kyushu has only reached the Shimazu family so far), and I didn't give them time to prepare before. As I said before, I don't give death orders, and you have to understand those who are incapacitated, they are usually classified as ants who bite the elephant to death, and they can't point to what role they play at critical moments.

I picked up an iron skewer and sniffed it, the skin of the pheasant on it had turned golden brown, but if I smelled it carefully, there was still a trace of blood, and it was not ripe. "Have you sent supplies from the Shimazu and Mori families?" I put the pheasant back on the fire.

"It's been sent, a full month's worth of grain and grass!" Fujido Takatora hurriedly replied that this time, because there were many soldiers and horses and they were fighting together, he assisted the Gamo clan to jointly coordinate military affairs. "It's not just the two of them, but the rest of the troops have also been replenished. Subsequent supplies and baggage are being shipped from Kyoto and Sakai Town to Narumi Castle, and in case of accidents during the army, some are stored at Shima-Toba Castle, which can be shipped to various ports along the Tokaido coast at any time! ”

"Send them some more weapons, and try to make the first collaboration as perfect as possible!" I know they're all in a hurry to perform, and all I need is an attitude.

"Father, can I start this crusade against Tokugawa?" Saburo Yoshikiyo asked with some excitement.

"You? It's early! I smiled and shook my head, now is not the time to use this force.

This time, Jiro Hidekiyo, as the head of the Hatano family, led 2,500 troops to personally go into battle, which was also his first appearance. As the eldest son, Nobukiyo had to stay in Kyoto because he wanted to replace my town.

However, as a daimyo who already had a large amount of land, his failure to set an example would have a certain impact on the morale of the army, so he sent his younger brother Yoshikiyo, who was not yet a daimyo, as an acting general, and led 6,500 Awa soldiers and horses to participate in the war, so that the courtiers who did not have the status of vassals would not hide the glory of being the lord. In addition, this unit also includes armored cavalry, and Shima Katsutoshi is the deputy general of Saburo Yoshikiyo.

Shinhachiro has been staying with me for nearly a year, and the position of the first rider has basically faded out, and I didn't pay much attention to it at first, until Xinqing sent me a letter half a year ago. In this letter, he asked me to approve Sanada Yukimura as the deputy commander of the armor cavalry, and asked me if I could promote Goto Matabei Kiji to the rank of chief commissioner under him. After some deliberation I agreed to his request, but instead of my appointment, I gave him all the power related to the armor and left it to him to make his own decisions.

The children are all older, especially in the two matters of boldly using Sanada Yukimura and Goto Matabei, and appointing Yoshikiyo as the acting general, I think Nobukiyo has considered the problem carefully and comprehensively. If he had only done one of these two things, I would never have been as relieved as I am now. Minamoto Yoritomo killed all the brothers, and as a result, the Ryokura Shogunate III was usurped by Hojo, and many branches of the Yamana clan attacked and killed each other, although these are only two extreme examples, but they are also lessons from the past. Even if absolute power is matched with absolute ability, the ruler must not forget the balance, because no one can guarantee that there will never be political fools among future generations.

I don't know if every father is optimistic about his son, at least I am optimistic about them, but Nobukiyo can never have the quality of more than Tokugawa Ieyasu, at most it is on the same level as Mori Terumoto, so there are some things I have to do personally.

"Lord!" At this time, the Gamo clan walked over, followed by Shinhachiro. "The arrangement of all the soldiers and horses has been completed, and they are ready to go into battle at any time!"

"Very good, is there any news from Takayama and Nakagawa!" I gestured to the spot next to me and asked him to sit down.

"They are advancing very cautiously, and it is expected that they can launch an attack on Okazaki Castle tomorrow!" After sitting down, the Gamo clan felt that the saber was a little in the way, and pushed it back. "At the moment, the main force of the Tokugawa is stationed in the Nutada area, and it seems that they want to wait and move. There are only 1,200 people in Okazaki Castle, but it seems that they are ready to defend it resolutely! ”

"1,200 people want to defend Okazaki Castle, it's a shame that they can figure it out!" Shinhachiro sat down and picked up a roasting hare, tore a piece of meat from his hind leg and chewed it. "I've always thought the Tokugawa family was weird, but I didn't expect it...... I didn't expect them to have a problem with their brains......"

This is actually a political issue, if Tokugawa Ieyasu does not even defend his ancestral home, then his people's morale will be over, on the contrary, if there is a garrison to fight the enemy, it will become an opportunity to share the enemy's hatred. However, there is no need to explain this to Shinhachiro, and it does not make sense at all based on previous experience.

"As soon as the armies of Nakagawa and Takayama meet resistance tomorrow, all troops will immediately enter Mikawa!" I raised my right hand and stood like a knife and made a forward slashing motion. "Tokugawa Ieyasu could not have won without the reinforcements of the Hojo family, but we can't take it lightly. If we don't act quickly enough, Takayama and Nakagawa will most likely be bitten back by him! ”

"Yes! The right army that blocked the main force of the Tokugawa was the 15,000-strong army of His Highnesses Kage Teizo, Nagano Yesei, Inaba Ittetsu, Beeya Yoritaka, Oda Nobubu, and Hosokawa Shinyuki, as well as a large number of Kii people's forces, so nothing could go wrong! ”

"There is still a gap in numbers...... "Although I know that at least half of the 20,000 main forces of Tokugawa are peasants, which is not the same as the right army composed entirely of professional soldiers, after all, I am still not very solid in my heart because of the inherent possibility of "Komakiyama - Nagakute".

"The 50,000 troops in the middle road that followed up after Gao Shan and Zhongchuan are not far away, and there is the lord himself in charge, so there is no big problem!" The Gamo clan is quite optimistic, but one thing is still raised. "Just now, His Royal Highness Ikeda and his ministers discussed that they planned to lead their troops on the left road through Shirakuhara and go straight to Enoe-Fumata Castle to cut off the Tokugawa retreat. However, for the sake of safety, I persuaded him to dispel this idea! ”

"You did a good job, Hengxing is too impatient!" I nodded.

"If the armor horse plays tomorrow, I hope to participate in it!" Shinhachiro suddenly interjected.

"I won't need it tomorrow, and I won't need it for half a month!" I snorted twice, and then said, "Tokugawa Ieyasu is an old fox who won't let us block him in Mikawa." In fact, he also knew that Mikawa and Enoe could no longer hold on, and now he was just delaying time, waiting for Hojo's reinforcements, and the final decisive battle would be held in the eastern part of Suruga! ”

"If you bring the Nanban Light Cavalry this time, then there may not be no such possibility!" He muttered dissatisfied.

"That's not something you should be thinking about!" It was at this time that the rice balls and miso soup were delivered, and I didn't have to explain such a deep strategic issue to him.

*******************************************

While no one really takes "hunting" seriously, I really didn't need to do anything else before the war. The key this time is the maintenance of food and provisions, which have their own huge system in operation, and I just have to wait.

After the picnic, I said a few words to the crowd, which was nothing more than to pay attention to rest and get ready. "Is there anything wrong with you?" When I entered the tent, I saw Coral standing at the door dressed in white silk, and I couldn't help but ask with some curiosity.

Because Axue has to take care of the child who is only a few months old herself, I will let Coral take on the role of "Ji Samurai" this time. But she also enjoys it, and usually wears a red armor except for sleeping.

"The concubine has something to ask His Royal Highness!" Not only did she use a rare gentle tone, but she also knelt down like that.

"You get up first!" I was even more shocked to see this.

"This expedition to the eastern country, please leave those tasks of birth and death to my brother and Shimazu samurai!"

"This ...... And why? A chill rose in my heart.