"Forward!" With my permission, Sakurai Sakichi boarded his horse and shouted loudly to the entire Guards barracks. Although it was only one person, it still spread far in this quiet morning.

The whole army was in action, and my direct force alone reached 20,000 men, and it must have been quite a spectacle for such an army to fight in a vast and flat area. It's a pity that now it's moving forward, and the vast majority of Japan can't allow such a force to go hand in hand, so what most people see is just a long dragon with no head in front and no tail in the back.

In such a queue, the most beautiful is naturally my 2,000 guards, even if other daimyo have equally high-quality subordinates and spend blood to equip them, I am afraid that they will not dare to blatantly display them here. What kind of people are ...... Get yourself in the right position at all times!

There was still a cold wind in the early morning sky, and the magnificent horse sign behind me made a pleasant sound, elegant and melodious. At the moment, I was riding on the war horse "Gold" (I can't remember whether it was the fourth or fifth generation), frowning and thinking about my own affairs.

Tokugawa Ieyasu was a decisive man, and he didn't wait for Takayama and Nakagawa to start attacking Okazaki Castle today, but it made sense, because it seemed that this was already an invasion of his territory, and he had the right to respond. He began to act in the middle of the night last year, and the main force of 20,000 moved towards the Takayama and Nakagawa armies, preparing to launch an attack at dawn today.

I was awakened last night when I was sleeping in a daze, and the ninja reported the latest movements of the Tokugawa army. Without being very clear-headed, I made the decision that the 15,000 men of the Right Army would not have to wait any longer to set off immediately, gallop to the aid of the front army, and resolutely repel the Tokugawa counterattack. Later, I felt that it was still not very safe, so I ordered the Gamo clan to lead Jiro Hidekiyo, Mori Terumoto, Shimazu Yoshihiro, Yamauchi Kazutoyo (who played as Oda Kiyonobu's acting officer), Hosokawa Tadashi, Ikoma Kinmasa, plus Shima Katsutakeshi, a total of about 15,000 cavalry to take over the second team, and the specific situation was determined by the Gamo clan according to the situation. The purpose of the first phase was to focus on the capture of Okazaki Castle, supplemented by a decisive battle with the Tokugawa army.

This was only the first exploratory contact, and it was impossible for Tokugawa Ieyasu to have a decisive battle with me here, and in the plains of Mikawa and Enoe, with a semi-peasant soldier in his early 20,000s against a full-career soldier of more than 70,000, it would be tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg.

If you retreat into the complex mountains of Koshin, as long as there are no internal problems, with the courage and tenacity of the Samurai of Mikawa and the people of Koshin, it is possible. Takeda Katsuyori's lessons are not far off, and Tokugawa Ieyasu will not make the same mistakes right away.

But what I'm thinking about now is something else, and that's what Coral asked me to do last night.

"The world is about to end, but the final outcome of the Shimazu family is to seek peace. If you say goodbye to the long-term battle in this way, then the bloodiness of the Shimazu family and the Satsuma boy will be depressed. So I beg you to send my brother to do those life-and-death missions, even if they all die in battle. In that way, no matter how many generations have passed, as long as people talk about this period of history, they will mention their names, and it will always make the blood of the Shimazu retainers boil. As long as there is such a spiritual existence, even if the Shimazu family will be destroyed in the future, as long as there is a man, there is hope for revival! That's how she explained when I asked why.

Her words made me think about it for a long time, long enough to think of so many other nonsense. After the "Forty-Seven Warriors of Ako", the model of the samurai was redefined; After the "White Tiger Boys", the Aizu people of the defeated side still proudly stood in front of the world; Then after the pacification of the eastern country...... What can I leave behind?

I looked in the direction of Coral, who was wearing a bright red armor and walking diagonally in front of her, so I couldn't see the expression on her face. "What a mistake!" I muttered to myself.

Judging from the current situation, I will be a victor if there are no big surprises, in other words, history will be written by me. I can write whatever I want, but what do I want to write? This is indeed a question worth considering.

It is true that I can write myself as a glorious, great, wise, correct leader, mentor, commander, helmsman, a semi-mythical figure who leads the forces of justice from victory to victory, but is that enough? I'm afraid that this may not be the case, but people will still talk more about other people in my time, just as people say that Genyoshitsune has more than Minamoto Yorishio, and that Takeda Shingen has a far better opinion of Tokugawa Ieyasu than Tokugawa Ieyasu.

It seems to be an indisputable fact in the history of mankind that only those events that are stained dark brown with blood can stir people's spirits, or resonate, in later generations! In that sense, perhaps my progress has gone so smoothly that no one will shed tears when they talk about my story.

Perhaps the rapid demise of the "monkey" in history also has this factor, that is, the time is too short, the rise is too fast, and the lack of spiritual accumulation of several generations, but I really can't make up my mind to make amends, I am really afraid of pain!

A herald carrying a double harrier banner came from the direction of Okazaki on his back, and I didn't notice it until I was stopped by the guards a dozen feet ahead. "Report to the lord, the attack on Okazaki Castle has begun!" After being brought to me, he reported.

"Did the main force of the Tokugawa Army attack Takayama and Nakagawa, and did the reinforcements from the two directions arrive in time?" I asked majestically as I grabbed my horse, and thirty knights formed a circle around me.

Actually, what I'm asking is a bit redundant, if the main Tokugawa force is still fighting with me outside Okazaki Castle, then how will we talk about attacking Okazaki? However, compared to Okazaki, a lonely city where the fall was only a matter of time, I was more concerned about Tokugawa Ieyasu's movements and whether he would hold me back to Hojo at any cost.

"The Tokugawa army intended to sneak attack the Takayama and Nakagawa armies at dawn, but because our army was prepared, we could not achieve the effect of the sneak attack!" Although the galloping horses couldn't help but spew white mist-like heat all the way, the herald's answer was clear and calm. "After the Tokugawa Army adjusted its strategic intentions, the defenders of Okazaki Castle also showed signs of going out of the city to attack. But then the Right Route Army of His Highness Kazuzo arrived, and the Tokugawa Army retreated slightly, and when His Royal Highness Gamo arrived, it slowly retreated in the direction of the Yuanjiang River, and the Okazaki defenders also retreated into the city! ”

"What kind of response did His Highness Gamo make?" According to my calculations, at this time, the Kamo clan has reached 35,000 troops in front and back, and it has an absolute advantage against Tokugawa. The only thing I was worried about was to make a rash advance, and it would be a lot of fun to be confidently inserted between the two parts by a certain Tokugawa support army.

"His Royal Highness Gamo left 2,000 men of the Shimazu Department and Takayama and Nakagawa to attack Okazaki Castle, and he joined forces with His Royal Highness Kore Caizo to launch a tentative attack with the Tokugawa army, and the two sides never disengaged. His Royal Highness the Gamo clan asked me to tell the lord that before the lord entered Okazaki Castle, he would never enter the territory of the Enoe first! ”

The Gamo clan is safe with troops, and I really have nothing to instruct, so I waved his hand and told him to go down and rest.

"His Royal Highness Gamo was attacked and harassed by a small group of the Tokugawa army several times when he marched, and he reminded the lord to pay attention!" He said this again before urging the horse to leave.

"Tokugawa Ieyasu's surprise attack?" I looked around at once, and there were at most some hills not much higher than the hills, and there was definitely no such thing as a barrel narrow. The Tokugawa army was afraid that it would not be able to carry out any surprise attacks or the like, and at most it would be a raid.

"Bang, bang, bang......" Before I could put my raised hand down, a burst of iron cannon sound came from the front, and it was really not far away.

"Where did this gunfire come from?" I asked in surprise that it was as thin as a one-man exercise in terms of intensity.

"Report to the lord, His Royal Highness Niwa was attacked by the Tokugawa army in front!" No one has been sent here yet, so the pilot has sent someone back to report.

Niwa Nagashi's 1,800 men were in front of my guards, and they were no more than 1,000 meters away from my position. If even he was attacked, maybe it was me.

"How many people are there in the Tokugawa army, and whose troops are they?" I asked him.

"The Tokugawa army was only 500 men, and there were no signs of horse seals. The Niwa Department is shooting at them, and they haven't come to report the situation to us! ”

"This is the so-called 'Fight by Faith' surprise team, right?" A surge of curiosity sparked in my heart, and I led my horse and walked forward.

"Lord beware!" Sakurai Sakichi came over and stopped me with some apprehension.

"It's only five hundred, and you're afraid they'll take me away?" As I spoke, I slapped his horse's head away with the military fan in my hand, and as soon as I urged the horse forward, I was followed by Sango, Ying, and Sakurai Sakichi.

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

I ran to the front and made a small turn, and then I saw what was ahead. There was a river on the side of the road, which flowed from the northeast Shinano direction, and on the other side of the river there were indeed about 500 Tokugawa troops, and there were no special signs except for the one-color "Aoi pattern" flag behind them, and there were only about 30 people shooting with iron cannons.

The name of this river is Longquan Temple River, because it has entered May, and the river is rising. The steep slopes close to the river on both sides could not stand people, so the distance between the two sides was actually more than a hundred steps, so far away the iron cannon had basically lost its lethality, and from time to time you could see the smoke splashed by the projectiles fired by the other side under the river base, and even fell directly into the river.

At this moment, the Niwa Department had stopped, and a reserve of more than 100 iron cannons was firing at the Tokugawa army across the river, and the spears were prepared side by side. Judging from the effect caused by this side, the projectile shot to that side will not have any effect.

"I am not doing anything well, which makes His Royal Highness Da Nayan worried!" Seeing me coming, Niwa Nagashige hurriedly came to him, and he couldn't do such a thing well, so naturally he didn't look good.

"His Royal Highness Niwa, please don't delay and rush to Okazaki Castle as soon as possible, I'll take a look here!" I smiled at him, reaching out to my squire for the binoculars.