∷ Shuha Novel: Novel

September of the first year of Motoki.

Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin confronted Kawanakajima for the sixth time.

The strength of the two armies was 22,000 for the Takeda Army and 18,000 for the Uesugi Army, and the size of the two armies exceeded the previous battles of Kawanakajima.

For Uesugi Kenshin, the Takeda Army attacked Echigo on three fronts and flanked the rear, and he should have shown a very anxious posture and tried to seek a decisive battle with Takeda Shingen.

However, Uesugi Kenshin's tactics were extremely sophisticated, steady and steady, but he insisted on winning and losing some small fights, and continued to fight with the Takeda family.

Takeda Shingen saw that Uesugi Kenshin did not take the initiative to fight, but he took the initiative to counter-defensively, and constantly sent a thousand-strong special team to attack the back of the Uesugi family in a roundabout way, trying to cut off the grain route of the absolute side.

Uesugi Kenshin calmly took matters into his own mind and resolved the attacks on the Takeda family one by one.

For a while, although there was no large-scale decisive battle between the two peerless generals, the thousand-man scale battles between the two armies of Danshi were almost every day, and each side had their own victories and defeats.

But generally speaking, the commanders of the two armies are very calm, and after such a long delay, the battle situation must gradually develop towards the side of the Takeda Army.

However, at this time, after more than half a month of confrontation, Shin Xuan's physical condition had problems, and he suddenly fell ill in the army and could not be a director.

At the important juncture when the two families gambled on the fortunes of the country and used the family of the country as a family to prepare for the battle of Bo, Shingen, the backbone of the Takeda family, suddenly fell ill.

This made the retainers and generals of the Takeda army at a loss for a while.

Takeda Shingen was on the sickbed and ordered Takeda Katsuyori to take charge of the military on his behalf, while Takasaka Masanobu and Baba Nobubo assisted Katsuyori in handling military affairs.

So the burden of confrontation with Uesugi Kenshin was transferred from Shingen's hands to the hands of Jiā to Katsuyori.

All of a sudden, the sixth battle of Kawanakajima was a great increase in variables, and the situation was confusing.

The two corps on the left and right of the Takeda Army still acted according to the plan formulated before.

The strategy of the right flank of the Higashiueno offensive went very smoothly.

Naito Masato, the main force of Nobusada Kohata's Nishiueno Army, has now surrounded the castle.

The lord of the castle, Hojo Takahiro, shrank his forces and held the castle tightly and did not dare to fight.

However, the Sanada family, as a partial army, attacked the city everywhere, and the Sanada army first captured the branch of Numata Castle, which is located on the east bank of the Tone River.

After the capture of Nakuro Castle, he gained a stronghold on the east bank of the Sanada family's Tone River and further threatened Numata Castle.

After the capture of Nakuruma Castle, the Sanada army attacked more vigorously, and the Konabuchi Castle and Ogawa Castle of Higashiueno were successively captured by the Sanada family.

Sanada Yutaka is known as the Attack Bomb Sho, and is the first siege general of the Takeda family, and his three sons are not inferior to Sè in the sè.

In addition to the Sanada family's three members, the Sanada family's first member Yazawa Yoritsuna and his son Yazawa Yoriyasu also performed very well, assisting the family governor to repel reinforcements from Numata Castle.

And because of the realization of this three-way attack, the Sanada family also came a few years earlier than in history, and the name Kuruma Castle led the land into the direct leadership of the Sanada family.

Now in Echichu, under Matsukura Castle, Li Xiao's Hida Echichu Legion has started a jī battle with the reinforcements of Naoe Keixuna and Kawada Nagakin.

Fujido Takatora rode a fast horse and galloped into the Takeda army's main formation.

When they approached Li Xiao, the two sides raised their spears and stopped, and Fujitang Gaohu immediately turned over and dismounted, knelt down on one knee and said, "Tell the lord that the Echigo army has repelled twenty-three heads for us. ”

Fujitang Gaohu's face was quite ambitious and complacent, because of his outstanding achievements in the past few years, he was transferred by Li Xiao from Qibenbei to Shengang Bei, temporarily acting as the general general, as a sixteen-year-old young man, he was promoted to Li Xiaojun's Zhongjiaqing general in such a short period of time, temporarily in charge of Shengang Bei, this promotion speed can be described as very fast.

Fujido Gao Huxin felt that at this speed, his dream of a hundred thousand stone daimyo or even a million stone daimyo would not be far away.

Li Xiao put down the monocular Qianli tube from his eyes and said: "You are wrong, the Echigo army took the initiative to retreat, not repelled by our army. ”

Fujitang Gaohu was stunned when he heard this, and said, "Take the initiative to retreat? ”

Li Xiao nodded and said: "In the battle just now, the military strength of the Yuezhong Hao clan on Xiuchang's side suffered a little loss, and the real target of Naoe Jinggang's attack in this battle was them, and it was only for the purpose of containing Shengang Bei." ”…,

As soon as Li Xiao's words fell, at this time, Kinoshita Hidecho also took a few servants to Li Xiao's main formation.

As soon as he saw Li Xiao, Kinoshita Hidecho hurriedly turned over and dismounted to plead guilty, and said: "My lord, my command is not effective, and I have not resisted the offensive of the Echigo army. ”

Li Xiao glanced at Kinoshita Hidenaga, this command of the decisive battle is not his strength.

Moreover, the military strength of the wealthy clan in Vietnam and China is not as good as the army of Echigo, which is well known.

Therefore, in the first battle, in the head-to-head duel between Kinoshita Hidenaga and Naoe Jingzuna, he completely had the upper hand.

"I know."

Li Xiao thought for a moment and said: "Xiuchang, although Naoe Jinggang's tactics are not strong, Danshi is very tight, one ring after another, if you want to defeat him, you can't follow his routine, you must make a surprise counterattack, and beat him up, understand?" ”

Kinoshita Hidecho listened to Li Xiao's words and sighed.

Honda Masanobu said on the side: "My lord, Naoe Keixuna is a famous general of Echigo, and we are not eager to deal with it, we originally wanted to turn our backs on the castle and fight a decisive battle with the other party, but unexpectedly, Naoe did not fall into our calculations, but instead used the tactics of attacking and harassing the war, so that our army could not attack the city, which is very troublesome." ”

Li Xiao nodded, his original plan was to encircle Matsukura Castle, Yin* Echigo Army to come to help, and then a decisive battle was held to encircle the point to send reinforcements.

But he didn't expect Naoe Jinggang to see through Li Xiao's plan, and instead of a decisive battle, he split into two with General Kawada Nagaqin and carried out an attack and disturbance battle.

If the Takeda army attacked and sought a decisive battle, the Echigo army would immediately retreat, and when the Takeda army slackened a little, it would immediately make a comeback.

In this way, Li Xiao could not concentrate Liliang to attack the city head-on, and there was a danger that the grain route would be cut off, so it was very difficult to do it for a while.

Li Xiao turned to the generals and said: "If our army ignores the attack of the Echigo army and directly attacks the city, what do you think? ”

Hideji Kano, the general of the flag moto bishigaru, said directly: "It was okay before, but now that the Naoe army has appeared, the defenders of the castle have been greatly strengthened by the support of reinforcements, so it will take a lot more effort to capture Matsukura Castle." ”

"So my lord, I think it's best to repel the enemy first."

Hideji Kano's words were approved by most of Li Xiao's retainers, and it was true that there was such an enemy peeping behind them, making it impossible for them to attack Matsukura Castle with peace of mind.

Li Xiao asked, "But how can the Zhijiang army fight a decisive battle with us?" ”

Hideji Kano was embarrassed and said, "This minister hasn't thought about it for a while. ”

Honda Masanobu said on the side: "Naoe Yamato Mamoru is very cautious in the use of troops, and it is easy not to use risks, and the other party is in a decisive battle, I'm afraid it won't work." ”

Li Xiaoyan said: "Since Naoe is unwilling to fall into the trap easily, and does not fight a decisive battle with our army, then I don't have to worry about it, and concentrate on attacking Songcang City." ”、

"But if it's the Echigo army, when our army is attacking the city, what about attacking behind our army?"

Hideji Kano added: "You must know that if the Echigo army is blocked by the reserve, then there is a large gap between the reserve and the reserve, between the phalanx and the phalanx, and it is easy for the Echigo army to bypass our army's blocking force from the gap and directly attack the back of our army's siege troops." ”

Faced with Hideji Kano's question, Li Xiao replied: "It's very simple, to prevent the enemy from penetrating the gap, then we will not block it with a reserve situation, but change our tactics, from now on, build three semicircular trenches behind our army's camp tent to defend our army's rear guard." ”

"The lord, the subordinates are unknown, and the triple trenches are simply unable to resist the five thousand Yue Hou army."

Li Xiao replied: "I understand this, the trench is not used to obstruct, the iron cannon of our army under Matsucang Castle has at least a thousand people, and when the city is attacked, this thousand iron cannon will enter the trench and use the iron cannon to block the approach of the Yuehou army." ”

"And the rest of the reserve responsible for blocking is located behind the trench, and if any point is broken through by Echigo, it will be blocked at that point. What do you think? ”

Li Xiao's intention is obvious, that is, to change the blocking battle from the method of interception with military strength to a mode similar to positional warfare and trench warfare.

Hearing Li Xiao's narration, his retainers were all surprised, this tactic was obviously unheard of and unheard of for this era.

However, I have to admit that its idea is indeed unique.

Li Xiao looked at Takenaka Shigeji and said, "Lord Supervisor, what do you think?" ”

Since Shigeharu Takenaka became the supervisor of the Hida Echichu Army, he has never expressed any military opinion on Li Xiao, and seems to have become mute.

Li Xiao was very suspicious of him in his heart, and he didn't know if this person was in obscurity, or if he had other plans.

After listening to this, Shigeharu Takenaka, as before, smiled indifferently and said, "But Master Mamori's strategy is very innovative, so I thought I could give it a try." ”

Honda Masanshin also said, "My lord, I also think that you can try. ”

The two famous military divisions of the Warring States have been recognized, and the rest of the retainers are meaningless, so they decided to adopt Li Xiao's suggestion and build a triple trench on the periphery.

On that day, the Takeda army abandoned the offensive on Matsukura Castle and only maintained the occupation of Outer Maru and Shinomaru, while the rest of the army turned to digging trenches under the castle.

This scene made Shiina Jingzhi in the city, as well as Naoe Jinggang outside the city, and Kawada Naga secretly wondered.

However, he didn't know what Li Xiao's intentions were for a while, so he didn't dare to act rashly.

The excavation of the triple trench was completed in one day for the nearly 10,000 troops of the Takeda Army under the city.

In addition to the three semicircular trenches, there are also many passages dug between the trenches to communicate, so that it is convenient for the iron artillery in front to be light, and when the blocking fails, you can calmly retreat to the second and third lines of defense.

So on the second day, after the trench was dug up, 1,000 iron cannons of the Takeda Army entered into place.

After that, on the Matsukura Castle side, the large cylinder began to rumble.