"Then it's decided," Nobunaga made his own arrangements, "Yiyi, you go back and tell Nobuo." Now that the weather is getting colder and before the snow falls, the Asakura family will definitely return to the territory. When the time comes, you will lead your troops back to Ise and participate in the offensive on the Western Front with Xuanjing! ”

"Your Majesty obeys!" Takigawa Kazuki replied.

"Nobumori, Nobumoto, since you are worried about the Takeda family, then lead the headquarters to support Tokugawa! …… In addition, bring someone from the Shuchiyo family. Nobunaga ordered.

The Xiu Chiyo in his mouth is the son of Hirate Masahide, Hirate Tsuhide, who is less than twenty years old this year. The Hirate family and the Tokugawa family are both descendants of the Nitta clan Serada family, and Honhide's great-grandfather, Yoshihide Serada, and the Serata family, who inherited the Mikawa Matsudaira family (Tokugawa family) as the adopted son of the son-in-law, are brothers.

"However, the headquarters of Sakuma, Mizuno, and Hirate are only about 5,000 people......" Mizuno Nobumoto said hesitantly.

Nobunaga nodded: "So please tell Mikawaden that you must stick to the castle." As long as I block for a while, when I break through Long Island, I will immediately lead tens of thousands of troops to support. ”

"Your Majesty takes orders." Seeing that Nobunaga's mind had been decided, Sakuma Nobumori replied helplessly.

"Mori, Shingoro," Nobunaga called to Mamoru Ando, the lord of Mino Northern Castle, and Saito Toshiji, the lord of Kajida Castle, "Now that Kasei is gone, the Akiyama Tiger has invaded Higashimino and has troubled the two of them to assist Toyama Yamato Mamoru to stop him." ”

"Yes." Mamoru Ando and Toshiji Saito bowed down.

"In addition, I have decided to send an envoy to form ......an alliance with the Uesugi family," Nobunaga said, scanning the assessment room, "Mitsuhide, please take the sea route to Echigo, and in the name of both Ashikaga and Oda, declare our intention to form an alliance with the Kanto Governor." ”

"Yes." Wise Mitsuhide takes the order.

"So be it...... Please get ready to go into battle immediately. Nobunaga ended the assessment.

……，…… Back in Kita-Ise, I forwarded Nobunaga's resolution to Atsushi Nagano and asked him to recruit soldiers again in the prefecture. He was not a retainer of the Owari period of his family, nor was he a wealthy family of Mino Province that Nobunaga now directly leads, so he was not able to participate in this evaluation.

"This decision of the lord is really strange!" Listening to my words, Nagano Fujitsu was a little incomprehensible, "At the moment of the great enemy, there is still the heart to eliminate internal troubles!" ”

Perhaps, this is what many people really think.

"Even if you say that, there's nothing you can do...... Let's do it. I said with a smile.

I can understand Nobunaga's decision. Nagashima is located at the junction of the three kingdoms of Owari, Mino, and Ise, which are Nobunaga's most fundamental territory, and Ichijomune is the cancer on this territory, which not only seriously affects agriculture and commerce in the territory of the three countries, but also erodes the hearts of the people in the country.

Tokugawa Ieyasu should understand this! At the beginning, Mikawa and Ichira almost overthrew the Tokugawa family, and it is considered to be the first of the three major crises encountered by Ieyasu, which was more dangerous than the Takeda invasion and the Iga riot.

This is a profound lesson in history. Whether it is the Chinese dynasties (including the Republic of China) or the major martial artists, the vast majority of those who died in internal turmoil always lived. In particular, the Iljanzong not only attracted the people with the illusory and beautiful Pure Land of Bliss and the earthly Buddha kingdom, but also attracted and organized a large number of peasants through such means as "preaching" such pujas, passing on scriptures, complaining about grievances, and supporting each other, and then mobilized them to resist the lord, which was extremely inciting and destructive. These "masses who do not know the truth", once organized and instigated, are like firewood that has been erected and meets a fire. Even a spark can ignite a large area and destroy the entire society and order.

But what can they change? The dead will not enter any pure land, but will only be hastily buried, and then forgotten in the corners of history, unable to leave even a name; Those who suffer are still suffering, and they still need to pay heavy taxes, but the objects of payment have changed from the lords to the monasteries, and those owners, officials, and courtyard owners live in the deep courtyards with high walls, relying on these ill-gotten gains to maintain their own luxurious and luxurious lives. As for the so-called pure rules and precepts, the so-called Pudu sentient beings have long been thrown by them to the country of Java. As soon as I thought of this, my sympathy for those believers diminished greatly, and indeed there must be something hateful about the wretched.

Nobunaga understood this key, and when Takeda invaded in history, he withdrew his troops from Kita-Omi, and he had tens of thousands of troops ready-made. However, he also did not directly support the Tokugawa, but first suppressed the countries of Kinai to prevent them from colluding with the Miyoshi family. Now that the Miyoshi family is out of play, the biggest enemy has been replaced by the Tsukizong who has made trouble again. What's more, in the face of Takeda Shingen, although Nobunaga said it lightly, he must not be very sure in his heart, right? In today's situation, he can no longer afford another big defeat. Rather than facing the Takeda family's vigorous troops in the unfamiliar Togae River, it is better to stabilize the interior first, wait for the Tokugawa family to frustrate Takeda's sharp spirit, and then fight a decisive battle in the familiar Owari or Mikawa, the odds of victory are obviously greater.

In mid-November, Takeda Shingen divided his troops again, in addition to the 5,000 men of Akiyama Torashi from Takato Castle to attack Higashimino, Shingen's main team was divided again, and 5,000 men led by Yama Shokei took the mountain road to attack Higashimikawa, the target was directly aimed at the important place of Nagashinoshi Castle in Shiraku County (the site of the later Battle of Nagashino), Takeda Shingen and Takeda Katsuyori led another 25,000 men, and the 5,000 Hojo reinforcements of the Hojo clan entered Enoe through Aobekai Pass, and 5,000 people led by Baba Nobuharu were the vanguard, first attacking Toe Futamata Castle. Tokugawa Ieyasu sent a small army to probe and met at Ichigenzaka and Baba Nobuharu, only to flee back to Hamamatsu in defeat.

At the same time, because snow began to fall in Hokuriku, the Asakura family retreated to Echizen, and nearly 10,000 people led by Nobuo Kitabatake and Kazuyoshi Takigawa were liberated and returned to Kitaise to join me. These nearly 20,000 Ise, together with the forces of Owari, most of Mino and the water army, brought the total number to 60,000. Nobunaga divided his army into four parts and launched an attack on Nagashima in unison. In the west, Kashimaguchi was led by the Ise, with Kitabatake Nobuo as the deputy general, and Takigawa Kazuki as the military commissioner, with Shimoki Gumasa, Fujikata Asanori, Nagano Fujitotsu, Branch Mitsuka, Kawakita Fujimoto, Seki Morinobu, Seki Nagamatimasa, and Chikusa Tadashi; In the eastern part of the city, Eda Nobutaka was the commander-in-chief, Oda Nobubao was the deputy general, Ikeda Tsuneko was the military officer, Oda Hidenarari, Oda Nagatoshi, Oda Nobunari, and Oda Nobuji who led Oda Ichigo, as well as Hiromasa Ryoda, Naokiyoshi Iio, Wada Todaitoshi, Shigenaga Ohashi, Yoji Hasegawa, and Katsumori Yamada of Owari Shige; Nobunaga personally served as the general of the middle road, and led the Mino people to attack from the early tail exit at the northern tip of Nagashima, and the deputy general was 15-year-old Mori Nagaka, accompanied by the direct subordinate Sasa Narumasa, Asai Masasa, Beeya Yoritaka, Kawajiri Hidetaka, Hori Hidemasa, etc., as well as Mino's Hideyoshi Daikan Hara Hidecho, Inaba Ryotsu, Inaba Sadatsu, Clan Naodori, Inumuma Nagashi, Fupo Mitsuji, Fukatsumitsu, Maruge Nagagu, Marumo Kanori, Ichihashi Nagatoshi, etc. In addition, there is a water force, which is in charge of the nine kis Yoshitaka, Ataka Nobuyasu, Kizuku Nagamasa, Maeno Nagayasu, and the three demons Dingtaka, etc., whose mission is to block Ise Bay and the east and west waters of Nagashima, and cooperate with the strategy of the land army.

The main reason for the failure of the last attack on Nagashima was that Nobunaga was too conceited to rush for success. He asked Shibata Katsuya and Sakuma Nobumori to take the old nest of the Nagashima Isseō sect, the temple and Nagashima Castle, but they surrounded the two strongholds, but they were harassed and attacked by pervasive attacks on the perimeter and supply lines, and finally became physically and mentally exhausted, and had to withdraw in embarrassment. This time, Nobunaga learned his lesson and ordered his troops to fight steadily and steadily, sweeping away the various strongholds and castles on Nagashima one by one from the outside in, and slowly narrowing the encirclement.

The work of Oda Nobunaga and I in the early stage was of great help to Nobunaga. He no longer needs to worry about the four prefectures of Kita-Ise and Owari Shimo, and only needs to focus on Nagashima. Moreover, after being surrounded for so long, the stocks of food and morale on Long Island fell to a fairly low level. In the face of the steady advance of our army, all the small strongholds were lost one after another, as if they were grains under a stone mill, and the vast majority of the believers stationed there, except for a few fanatics, fled to the larger strongholds.

After more than 20 days of suppression, the Wing Zong was suppressed into the five major cities of Changdao, Wuchangdao, Zhongjiang, Shinohashi, and Da Tori, and even the Laochao Wishing Temple was forced to give up.

By this time, there was almost no suspense. Nobunaga was overjoyed, divided the three [***] forces into six, and ordered Oda Nobutada, Oda Nobubu, Kitabatake Nobuo, Inaba Ryotsu and I to each lead 10,000 people to surround the five cities, and he led thousands of directly subordinate troops to respond in the center.

The first to break the castle were Nobuo Oda and Kazuki Takigawa. Their target was Otorii Castle, located north of Long Island, not far from the coast. Oda Nobuo asked for my consent, temporarily transferred the iron cannons from the navy, and gathered more than 1,600 iron gunners to concentrate on the attack. This momentum overwhelmed the believers in the city, forcing them to surrender to us.

However, I don't know if it was Nobunaga's order or Nobuo's own assertion, but when they accepted the surrender of the people, they did a very cruel thing and almost ruined the victory that was immediately in hand.

Generally speaking, if the first one to surrender appears in several cities that are divided and surrounded, the rest of the cities are also easily subdued. Provided, of course, that those who surrendered were treated well. However, when the believers of Otorii Castle had left Nagashima on rafts and were about to dock at Cape Kiso, Kitabatake Nobuo suddenly blocked their upper and lower reaches with naval forces and fired at them with iron cannons on the shore. In an instant, there was a scream on the river, and many people were shot and planted in the river, scattering blood flowers with strange shapes. The rest of the people were all panicked and tried to avoid the attack in front of them. However, how can there be any shelter for a makeshift raft? They either wailed or cursed in despair for our treachery, and many more jumped into the river and swam towards it, and the water was full of surging heads.

This place is close to the mouth of the river, the river is extremely deep, and those who can't water are naturally not spared, and many people who know water are also pulled into the water by the people next to them, and the iron cannon is still firing, and from time to time a blood flower bursts out in the water...... Just a few tens of meters of water, I don't know how many lives have been left.

Eventually, however, someone swam to the shore. They climbed ashore and pounced bare-eyed at Oda Nobuo's department, many of whom were dragged directly into the river, or strangled or even bitten to death by the frenzied believers. Takigawa Kazuyi, who was monitoring their evacuation on the front line, saw that the situation was not good, and immediately sent pikemen to help, and the spear nearly six meters long finally came in handy at this time, successfully stabbing the believers on the front line of the river or forcing them down into the river, saving the lives of many iron gunners.

This tragic scene by the river fell into the eyes of many people. The believers in the rest of the cities of the Sect of Ichiko, after listening to the relays of the leaders and sentries on the watchtower, naturally became more hostile to us, and strengthened their determination to garrison us. Naturally, I saw it too, and I was immediately dissatisfied with Nobuo Kitabatake. What are you doing? was about to win, but you were disturbed by this! Conscience aside, most of those people are people! And women and children! Not all of them are die-hards, many of them don't know the truth or are coerced! Execute them all, not only will their own reputation be greatly ruined, but who will farm the land! There are 100,000 people here, which is more than 10% of the population of Owari, Mino, and Ise!

What's more, many of the iron gunners who died were the elite of my subordinate Kumano Navy Army and Ise Sea Aid Team, even the people of the Kuki family and the Kizo family belonged to me!

In a rage, I handed over the ration to Fujitsu Nagano, and rode to Nobuo Kitabatake's main camp.

Maybe I should be thankful that the two-kilometer journey calmed me down a bit. Otherwise, if I enter his own camp, maybe I will turn against Nobuo Hojo on the spot.

"Your Highness Nobuo," I tried to calm my tone and voice, "haven't those believers already surrendered to us and are ready to return home?" Why is this disposition made? ”

"His Royal Highness Xuanjing's words are bad," Kitabatake Nobuo owes himself, and he still maintains a considerable degree of respect for me, the senior who led him in the first battle, achieved great martial fame, and completely controlled the power of the family, "It is said that it is a surrender, but if we let them go back like this, as long as we are relieved and instigated by those monks, they will continue to oppose us...... These people must be severely punished! ”

"Do you think so?" I sighed in my heart, sure enough, the person's surname still can't be changed, and he has a brutal surname in his bones, "So, is it what you want to see when you fall into the current situation?" ”

"Now?" Nobuo showed a smile, but, with his words, this smile always seemed a little hideous, "His Royal Highness Xuanjing also saw that those people were indeed diehards, and they all resisted desperately, and they did not repent when they died. Fortunately, Yiyi has handled it properly, and these chaotic people have all been ambushed, so there is no need to worry about it in the future! ”

(To be continued)