This confrontation is just such a rout, and naturally it can't be said that Shibata Katsuya is much worse than Uesugi Kenshin, so it is really unnecessary to elevate Uesugi Kenshin and belittle Shibata Katsunobu. Strictly speaking, the two didn't even really fight, but Uesugi Kenshin took the lead because of the civil strife in Nanao Castle and seized this opportunity; And Shibata Katsuya had no choice but to keep surviving, so the main force of the headquarters and the people in the family crossed the river first, leaving the rear to stop the Uesugi army. Being able to keep the main force of the headquarters and the people in the family from being damaged (although the Shibata Katsuya was defeated in history, the powerful generals of the Oda and Shibata families did not have any casualties), this is already a very good ending, after all, in the three aspects of time, place, and people, Shibata Katsuya is completely at a disadvantage.

Shibata Katsuie's transfer to Echizen was only two years ago, and it is definitely not too much to say that it is not attached to the hearts of the people. As for Minami Kaga, it has not yet been completely pacified by his Northern Army Regiment, and Kita Kaga is occupied by the Ichijo sect with Kanazawa Mido (Oyama Gobo) as its headquarters, and it has no roots in Noto Province, relying on nothing more than the surrender of the Nagasuren clan. In this way, crossing enemy territory, going on an expedition to a different place and competing with a strong enemy, the risk is too great, and I or other people in my family who know the opportunity (such as Hideyoshi, who withdrew halfway through history), will not rush out of the battle-that is, Nobunaga has a good gambling surname, and has a lot of money in his hand and has always had good luck.

When the father and son were killed, Nanao Castle surrendered to the Uesugi family, and the only support of the Northern Army Regiment in Noto Province was lost, and the Uesugi family's 20,000 troops were facing the Uesugi family's momentum. With the loss of fighters, the enemy's territory, and the lack of morale of the army, Shibata Katsuie had no choice but to retreat, and he had to cross the Tetori River, which was the dividing line between the north and south of Kaga Province, as soon as possible. Then, in order to protect the main force of the headquarters and the people in his family, he can only give up part of the rear formation, otherwise, when the Uesugi family catches up, it is estimated that the entire army will not have a chance to cross the river, and the losses will be even more serious than now.

With such a careful analysis, it can be seen that there is nothing wrong with Shibata Katsuya's disposal. And his failure was actually the culmination of Nobunaga's risky behavior.

However, no matter how extenuating things were, Shibata Katsuya was defeated after all. Those Echizen and small wealthy clans who had not been in Japan for a long time, as well as Kaga Ichijo Sect as an enemy, would only see the fact that he was defeated; Naturally, Uesugi will also focus on publicizing this fact, and the morale of the military will be greatly boosted by it. It is conceivable that in the next period of time, the Northern Army Regiment and the Shibata Katsu family will face the negative attitude of the internal wealthy clans, as well as the vigorous counterattack of the Uesugi family and the Ichijo clan outside, and the situation will be very difficult.

Not long after, there was also a war on the western front of the Oda family.

Due to the personal death of Mimura Moto, the original preparation guarded the destruction of the Mimura family, and was replaced by Kobayakawa Takakei, the general of the Mori family Sanyo Province; The bookmakers and Ishikawa families, who had served as guardians since the Hosokawa period, were the two pillars of the Mimura family, and they also fell under the control of the Mori family. Among them, as the general leader of the Zhuang family, the Xijia Zhuang Shengzi Yimen perished in the rebellion, and the Suiida Yuanzi (Zhuang Yuanzi) of the northern family took over as the general leader of the clan, and the fourth son of Maori Yuanshi, Maori Yuanqing, became the adopted son of Yuanzi, thus inheriting the position of the Zhuang family in China; The position of the Ishikawa family was inherited by Shimizu Soji, and as mentioned above, he was the son-in-law of Ishikawa Hisachi, an important minister of the Ishikawa family and the head of the family, Ishikawa Hisatochi, who took advantage of the military rebellion in China and the Mori family entered in a big way, and took over the main family's Takamatsu Castle to Kobayakawa Takakei, and then served under Takakei, making great contributions to his pacification of China.

In this way, the situation in China was initially stabilized, and the Maori family could free up their hands and calmly deal with the Oda family.

What's more, the power of the Oda family has already extended into the two countries of Bizen and Misaku, which are adjacent to Bei China, or is it still using the sworn enemy Niko family as its tentacles, occupying the key points of the border area between Bizen, Harima, and Mimasaka countries. This posed a great threat to the Maori family's rule in China, and also blocked the passage for the Maori family to directly attack Harima, which the Maori family absolutely wanted to uproot.

At the beginning of June, taking advantage of the defeat of Shibata Katsuya at Hokuriku, the Mori family once again gathered all the forces in the domain and launched an attack on Kamigetsu Castle and Harima Province. Among them, 35,000 people led by Mori Terumi led by Yamashiro, Yoshida County, Anyu Province; Kobayakawa Takakei marched out of Mihara Castle in the province of Beigo, leading an army of 28,000; Yoshikawa Motoharu marched out from the mountain castle of Yuno in the northern part of the Yazuki country, leading the 23,000 troops of San'in; In addition, there is the Ukita family, which is an ally, and 10,000 people led by the Ukita Tadashi family are also in battle from Beizen.

I have to say that this number of people is really shocking, and it is even larger than the 80,000 troops when the preparation was pacified (in the first battle of Shangyue Castle in history, the Maori side was indeed equipped with the same as this, and there were even 700 more warships than the Murakami family on the sea, with a total number of more than 100,000). Although Mori Terumoto set up his main camp in Takamatsu Castle in Beizhong and did not go to the battlefield, the total force besieging Kamitsuki Castle still reached 61,000 men, and it soon surrounded Kamitsuki Castle.

Facing the menacing Maori family, Yura Hideyoshi was obviously in a hurry. Although these armies are mainly based on peasant ashigaru, and some even use hoes and bamboo guns as weapons, and their combat power is very limited, but there are more ants, and they can bite elephants to death. Not to mention anything else, this number alone is enough to intimidate many wealthy families...... He quickly sent someone to report to Nobunaga, and then did his best to gather 17,000 azulight troops at Harima, and advanced to Mt. Takakura, two kilometers away from Kamigetsu Castle.

Nobunaga hadn't given up his plan to go to Hokuriku yet, but the threat from the Mori family was obviously much greater than that of the Uesugi family. Although Uesugi Kenshin's military strategy was powerful, he was limited by the size and location of his family's territory, and as long as he held the Echizen pass, he could not pose much of a threat to Kinai. However, Harima Province is located on the edge of Kinai, and if the Mori family occupies this country, then Kinai may not be at peace, and if you want to recapture it later, you will have to take a lot of trouble and try to win the hearts of Harima's people.

He quickly made a decision, temporarily abandoned the Hokuriku strategy, and sent three batches of reinforcements to Harima. The first group was Araki Murashige in Settsu, the second group was Sakuma Nobumori in Kinai, and the third group was a direct army led by Oda Nobutada on his behalf. At the same time, he ordered me to go out and force the Ukita Tadashi family to retreat all the way; Ordered Akechi Mitsuhide to end the Tanba raid as soon as possible, and then march into San'in to share the pressure on Sanyo Harima.

After receiving Nobunaga's order, I immediately began to mobilize and prepare to march to the country of Bizen. Due to the urgency of the situation, I also divided the military forces into two groups, the first group was the elite and naval army directly under the command of 20,000 people of Sanki Province, who could quickly assemble at the port of Sangi Utatsu, and then cross the sea to attack Kojima-gun in Bizen Province, and threaten Mino-gun, where Okayama Castle, the main castle of Ukida in the north of Kojima County, is located; The second group was the military forces of Tosa, Awa, and Iyo, and they could gather about 25,000 people. This group of troops is led by Zhou Jing, Hosokawa Shinyuki, Gamo Fuhide, and Bee House Yoritaka, and their combat strength is much worse than the 8,000 army directly under them, so if the first batch of troops can achieve their goals, it is best not to use them.

As a close attendant, Nobuhide Satake often served as my right handwriter, responsible for recording official documents, and at the same time familiar with family affairs. He obeyed my instructions and prepared orders for Shukei of Tosa, Shinyuki Hosokawa of Awa, and Gamo and Beehouse of Iyo. However, I seemed to see some confusion in his face.

"Xuanxiu, is there anything you don't understand?" I asked him with a smile.

"Just a little different...... No, I guess I'm too reckless to figure out my father's strategy! He shook his head seriously, "After all, this is a joint decision between you and Your Highnesses, and it must be very safe." ”

"It's okay, you can say anything. It's just a private discussion, so don't worry about anything. I encouraged him.

"Yes," he said, putting down the brush and bowing to me, "seeing that you have divided the army into two groups, I thought, why not divide them into two?" Threatened the country of Bizen all the way, directly attacked Mihara Castle in the country of Bigo located north of Innoshima, and even invaded the country of Yasui from Hiroshima Bay, which was the base camp of the Mori family, forcing Kobayakawa Takakei or the entire Mori family army to return to defense...... This kind of clearance effect should be better than simply attacking Beiqian, right? ”

"You have a very good idea, and you have helped me organize my study for a long time, and you know a lot about the maps of this area," I began by praising his merits, "but it is not enough to make a plan based on the map." The country of Beigo and the country of Azumi are the strongholds of the Kobayakawa family and the Mori family, and we have no roots in the two countries, and if we enter rashly, we are not sure what we will achieve; Moreover, Mori Terumen's 38,000 troops are still in preparation, and they can completely defend alone, without using the more than 60,000 siege troops of Shangyue City and Harima Country. In this case, not only may the military situation along the way be in danger, but it will not benefit the overall situation at all. ”

"However, the Hou Kingdom and An Yun Kingdom are so empty at the moment, wouldn't it be a pity if they didn't take the opportunity to attack?" He said with some regret.

"Ah, do you think so?" I couldn't help but laugh. His kind of thinking is a common problem of many daimyo and wealthy families now. As long as they see that there is a advantage to take advantage of, whether it is appropriate or not, they will take advantage of it. This kind of behavior, which may be very successful at the tactical level, is not strategically beneficial and can even have a negative impact on the overall situation, including diplomacy.

"What do you think the main hall is trying to achieve by letting the family attack Beiqian?" I asked, intently.

"It's to force the Uki family to come back and reduce the pressure on the side of Kamizuki City and Harima Country." Nobunao Satake replied quickly.

"That's right," I nodded, "Kamizuki Castle is a barrier against the Mori clan in Harima Province, and its strategic location is very important, and if Harima Country loses, the strategic situation of the entire Oda clan will be greatly affected...... If this happens, and we fail to get the Ukita family back, even if the Mori family achieves some successes, it will fully compensate for the strategic losses, and it will make the main hall think that the family has selfish intentions, and will make him even more angry. ”

"Yes, the child has been taught!" Hearing that Nobunaga would be angry, he couldn't help but change his face slightly. However, he felt unimpressed by the previous sentence in my words: "It's just that you think too highly of the Uki family?" I think that as long as you lead the first batch of 20,000 troops into battle, you can force them to retreat, and maybe even occupy a large territory! ”

I shook my head helplessly. Due to the many victories in the battle for a long time, many people in the current family have gradually become arrogant, and have developed a blind confidence in me and the subordinate reserves, which makes them more loyal to the Kira family and myself, and also makes the morale of the direct reserve team extremely high, and they have become the object of respect and yearning of all the military forces in the territory. However, few people can understand how much effort I expended, how much information I collected, and how much tweaking and arrangement I made in order to ensure that every battle was able to gain the first hand and be invincible.

Moreover, the Ukita Naojia is a person who is known as the three major strategists of the Western Kingdom in later generations, along with Niko and Morimoto. He started almost from scratch, and so far he has controlled the entire Bizen country, and at the same time seized a part of the Bizhong and Misaku, but unfortunately his life was limited, and he was born at the wrong time, sandwiched between the Oda family and the Mori family in their heyday, and could not make further room for development.

What's even more terrifying is that because the starting point is too low, in order to speed up the speed of the attack, he will often go off the rails and make some direct and vicious moves.

Throughout the Warring States period, there were three types of most dangerous jobs. One is when Oda Nobunaga's enemies, including Akechi Mitsuhide, who ended him, each received a bento at the right time, and was either killed by his forces or killed by God; The second is to be Saito Michizo's boss, whether it is from the Nagai family or the Saito family, as long as he is on his head, don't think about getting a good death, and the Tsuki clan's Lai Wu, Lai Chun father and son, as well as Lai Yun and Lai Ci father and son, these four Mino guardians have also been exiled; The third is to be a relative of the Ukita Nao's family, for him, not only the retainers, but also the relatives of the family are the objects of use, his two fathers-in-law and two sons-in-law, he found an opportunity to kill, and then pocketed the other party's territory, so that his own brother Ukita Tadashi was also terrified, for fear of being sold by his own biological brother at some point.

Not only that, but he also planned the first sniper case of the Warring States, and killed the three village families who guarded the three villages with an iron cannon, eliminating the biggest enemy around him. The previous war was caused by the alliance between Kobayakawa Takakei and the Ukita Naoke, which caused strong dissatisfaction and indignation from Mimura Motokin, the son of the Mimura family.

In addition to being good at conspiracy, his military strategy should not be underestimated. Mimura Motoqin once avenged his father with 20,000 troops, but he was defeated with 5,000 troops and took the opportunity to invade China, so that Mori Motokiyo, who was still alive at the time, had to order Hoida Motokiyo (then called Mori Motokiyo) to intervene.

In the face of such a person, you must not take it lightly......

(To be continued)