Shinano, Kawanakajima.

In July, Takeda Shingen led a large army from the Kusakikan to join the Hida Expeditionary Army of Yama Prefecture Masaka, Takeda Katsuyori, and Naito Masatoyo's Ueno Army to rendezvous at Shiozaki Castle south of Kawanakajima and confront Uesugi Kenshin's Echigo Army.

Since the confrontation between the two armies, although there has been no major fighting, there have been secret frictions, and there have been many small-scale battles, and each side has won or lost.

In August, Ken Uesugi ordered the Toroshi Satake family to send troops to Kanto to contain the Hojo family, an ally of the Takeda family.

The governor of the Satake family, Yoshiaki Satake, known as the hero of Hitachi, was a powerful daimyo of Kanto during the Warring States period, and the Satake family rose in one fell swoop because of his hard work.

In the fourth year of Eiroku, Uesugi Kenshin led 100,000 Kwantung coalition troops to besiege Odawara, and the Satake family contributed a lot.

Yoshiaki Satake has always pursued a diplomatic policy of pro-attachment to the Uesugi family and alliance with the Utsunomiya family to oppose the Hojo family.

At the beginning of this year, the Satomi family, who fought with the Hojo family in the Kanto region, was defeated by the Hojo family in the second Kofutai War, and its influence in the Kanto region plummeted.

On the other hand, another hero in the Kanto region, the alliance of the Satake family, Uesugi and Utsunomiya families, defeated the Oda clan, the biggest rival in Hitachi, and laid the foundation for the future unification of Hitachi Province.

Although he is the leader of the Kanto region, Uesugi Kenshin is far away in Echigo, and he often has a sense that the Hojo family's offensive in the Kanto region is beyond the reach of the whip, and the Satomi family has suffered heavy losses under the blow of the Hojo family this time, so the Satake family has become the biggest help for the Uesugi family to contain the Hojo family in the Kanto.

Now that Yoshiaki Satake has retired, the position of the governor has just been assumed by the seventeen-year-old Yoshishige Satake, who is known as the 'ghost Yoshishige' young governor of the future, and at the beginning of his accession, he showed the momentum of the overlord of the future.

In his first battle, he fought against Soma Shengyin in the Urn Plain, and Yoshige won a complete victory in this battle, and took the heads of seven enemy generals in a row.

Now the alliance between the Satake family and the Uesugi family has been effective, and the momentum of the Hojo family's progress to the Kanto region has been restrained.

At the same time as the Uesugi family and the Takeda family confronted Kawanakajima for the fifth time, the Satake family and the Hojo family also fought in the Kanto region.

In Hida Country, the game between the Uesugi family and the Takeda family here continues.

In Echichu, Saito Riki, the lord of Joseijo Castle, at the behest of Kenshin Uesugi, launched an attack on Kamiokande Castle, the only stronghold of the Takeda family in Hida, with the intention of completely driving the forces of the Takeda family out of Hida.

In addition to the 500 ashigaru of the main family, Saito Riki also has 500 troops supported by the chief of the jimbo, with a total strength of 1,000 troops.

The intelligence network laid by Li Xiao in Viethorne is under construction, and Saito Liki's troop dispatch is very fast.

Therefore, when Li Xiao heard the news of Saito Riki's troops from Yokotani Yuki, the other party had already gathered the troops in the general's territory, and it was expected that the troops would arrive at Kamioka Castle in the afternoon of the next day.

So Li Xiao convened the generals overnight to discuss how to deal with the attack of the Saito family.

As a result of the military discussion, Li Xiao's retainers were divided into two factions, one was to suggest defending the city, and the other was to suggest field warfare.

It is undoubtedly a serious plan to defend the city, and with the defense of Kamioka Castle newly built by Li Xiao, five hundred standing reserves, and the power of iron cannons, the sharp weapons to defend the city, there is no problem in resisting the attack of the Saito family.

But there is also a problem with defending the city, that is, military rations, this year's Kamioka territory has not yet been harvested, and the military rations in the city are obviously insufficient, if you want to hold on, the grain and grass in the city can only last for ten days at most.

In addition, there is another drawback of defending the castle, which is the construction and production of the territory, and now the construction of Kamioka no Town has been roughly completed, and the autumn harvest in the territory is about to begin.

If Li Xiao chooses to stick to the city, if the Saito family wants to force Li Xiao to fight, they will take the means of setting fire to the castle town, or send people to help Li Xiao engage in voluntary farming for free, and harvest all the farmland in Li Xiao's territory.

At that time, if Li Xiao didn't go out of the city to fight the Saito family, in the past six months, Li Xiao's hard work in Kamioka no Town was in vain, and all the income in the collar this year was wasted.

However, compared with defending the city, the voice of the retainers was louder against the field battle out of the city.

The reasons for the resolute opposition of the retainers are, first, there is a huge disparity in the number of troops, Li Xiao only has 500 standing reserves, but the other party has 1,000 people, and the ratio of troops is one to two.

The second is that Li Xiao's so-called Western Phalanx has not yet been trained, and it is not enough to form a combat force to fight.

Third, out of the expectation of reinforcements from the Jiangma family, at present, Li Xiao still handed over half of the Jiangma family's previous income in Shengang Yinshan to Jiangma Huisheng according to his previous promise.

Of course, Li Xiao's current income from Shengang Silver Mountain has long been several times that of the Jiang Ma family's previous income on Shengang Silver Mountain.

But how to say that Li Xiao also kept his promise, so now the Li Xiao family and the Jiangma family have joint ownership of the Shengang Silver Mountain, and now that the Saito family is attacking, how to say that the Jiangma family is also necessary to send troops to help the war for the purpose of protecting the Shengang Silver Mountain.

What's more, Jiangma Huisheng is still a minister of the Takeda family, and has the responsibility of supporting Li Xiao, and his younger brother Jiangma Nobumori, with the support of a group of old ministers and Honganji, is always trying to regain the position of the governor of the Jiangma family.

If Li Xiao falls, who will help him sit firmly in the position of the governor of the Jiangma family in the future.

Therefore, the Jiangma family and the Li Xiao family, because of the combination of interests, are still a 'very iron' alliance, if Li Xiao is attacked by the Saito family, Jiangma Huisheng will undoubtedly send troops to reinforce.

However, the strength of the Saito family will arrive tomorrow, and if a joint battle is held, the mobilization of peasant troops and the distance of troops in the Eima Fraser Command will definitely not be able to catch up with the joint battle.

And if you defend the city, you can expect to get reinforcements from the Jiangma family at least two days later.

At that time, Li Xiao can choose to go out of the city, and the inside and outside should cooperate with the Saito family for a decisive battle, this method undoubtedly chooses to defend the city and go out of the city to fight in the field, and the two factions of retainers are quite recognized choices.

Now most of the retainers have changed their positions, and they are inclined to wait for the decision of the two families to fight after the arrival of reinforcements from Jiangma Huisheng.

Just as everyone was discussing, the new retainer Honda Masanobu, who had been silent, spoke.

His opinion is that there is no need to wait for reinforcements from the Jiangma family, and he will send troops to fight a decisive battle tomorrow.

Honda Masashi was shocking, and Li Xiao's retainers were all impressed by this new Sanhe samurai.

Honda Masanobu has not long been a newcomer, and is now appointed by Li Xiao as the magistrate of Kamioka no Town, responsible for maintaining the normal order of the castle town, as well as some civil dispute cases.

The reason why it is so impressive is that Honda Masanobu showed excellent handling skills in the management of the castle town.

In the past six months, the town of Kamioka has developed rapidly, so various forces have entered, and the situation has become a bit mixed.

For example, Hida carpenters, salt house merchants, Hida locals, wild samurai, craftsmen, craftsmen, foreign merchants, and various forces are intertwined, and their interests conflict, so disputes often occur.

In May and June alone, there were more than three brawls involving more than 20 people in Kamiokamachi.

In the past, Dazang Chang'an was also the director of the Shengang Silver Mountain and the town of Shenoka, and the two sides were very busy, so the security of the castle town was not well grasped accordingly.

Therefore, Li Xiao sent Honda Masanobu to serve as the magistrate of Kamioka Town to assist Greatwealth Chang'an in governing Kamioka Town.

As soon as Honda Masanobu took office, the various forces in Kamioka Town, under his control, were obedient, and the security of Kamioka Town was very good for only one month.

As a result, the samurai of Kamioka Castle were deeply impressed by this samurai who came from Mikawa to Hida and came out of the Takeda family.

Of course, in Li Xiao's eyes, sending Honda Masatin to be the director of the local police station is quite useful.

But this is Li Xiao's way of employing people, and he can't be promoted too quickly, otherwise it will be too easy to get it, which will make Honda Masanosin lose his upward enterprising spirit, and at the same time leave it to other retainers.

Honda Masashi believed this, and all the retainers were unrefuted for a while, wanting to listen to how he said the reason.

Seeing that Li Xiao and all the retainers were contemplating and preparing to listen to his opinion, Honda Masashi said in a deep voice: "I don't know if you have noticed, I have just observed it, and more than half of the retainers who proposed to ask for help from the Jiangma family are more than half of them, and I think that all the strategies that the military council has thought of can only be taken and thrown away, because your enemies must have thought of it too!" ”

As soon as Honda Masashi said this, Li Xiao nodded, and Shima Shengmeng pondered for a while and said loudly: "Honda-sama's words are reasonable. ”

At this time, the Great Treasure Chang'an asked out loud: "May I ask Honda-sama, you said that the strategy that everyone thought of must not be adopted, but how can the Saito family stop the Eima family from reinforcing our Kamioka Castle?" Wouldn't it be even more misguided to make a wrong judgment because of the enemy's next move? Perhaps the Saito family would not have seen this at all. ”

Li Xiao looked at Chang'an, and then looked at Honda Masanobu, he had heard that the two had conflicting views on the way to deal with the law and order in the castle town, so there was a dispute, so the relationship between the two was quite incompatible.

Li Xiao couldn't help but feel a hint of irony, in history, Honda Masanobu and Mt. Zang Chang'an have always been mismatched.

During the Edo period, the two factions of Honda Masanobu and Okubo Yasan had been fighting openly and secretly in the shogunate, and there was a bit of a situation of partisan disputes in the court.

During the Edo period, the famous Okubo Chang'an Incident, Okubo Chang'an was ruined after his death because of the corruption incident, and it is said that Honda Masanobu was the black hand.

And in this time and space, the Great Treasury Chang'an and Honda Masanobu transferred from the Tokugawa family to the Li Xiao family together, do they have to fight each other to the death?

Honda Masanobu smiled sarcastically at Mt. Tsuga'an's question, revealing the unique lofty posture of a wise man, and said, "Mt. Otō, do you think the Saito family will adopt such an attitude of inaction? You're wrong. If the hope of victory is pinned on the mistakes of the enemy, such a battle will be lost. ”

The Great Treasury Chang'an was blocked by Honda Masashi's words, and he was immediately half angry.

Honda Masanobu looked around and said, "If I were Saito Riki, I would take advantage of the alliance between the Saito family and the sister Koji family, and let the sister Koji family feign to make an army, and the army will move on the border of the Ema family, making a posture of attacking the Ema family's main castle on the plateau of Suwa Castle." At that time, Jiangma Huisheng will definitely not send troops because of the military strength of his sister Xiaolu's family. ”

Xiaohan Xiaoxian echoed and said: "Yes, such a sister Xiaolu family, as long as they did not send troops to attack the Eda family, they did not violate the previous armistice agreement with my Takeda family, if Eima Huisheng really sent troops, the sister Xiaoji family took the opportunity to seize the highland Suwa Castle and unify Hida in one fell swoop, and then they also had the confidence to compete with my Takeda family." ”

"Exactly," Honda Masanobu continued, "in my estimation, Jiangma Fraser will definitely not risk losing the city and send troops to rescue his family, so he will definitely not send troops." And when the time comes, our army will wait for reinforcements to arrive, and lose the determination to go out of the city for a decisive battle, and its morale will inevitably plummet, and if it fights another decisive battle, it will have no chance of winning. ”

As soon as Honda Masanobu's voice fell, the retainers set off a new round of contention, and there were supporters and opponents of Honda Masanobu, and the two sides were at loggerheads.

And at this moment, Li Xiao's ninjas sent a secret report, which said that the sister Xiaolu family had made a small-scale mobilization in the territory today, and now an unknown number of troops had been dispatched to operate in a place on the border of the Jiangma family.

And the Uchijima family also issued a mobilization order in the territory.

This information confirmed Honda Masanobu's suspicions, and for a while, the retainers rediscovered the resourcefulness of the Mikawa samurai.

(To be continued)