Li Xiao threw aside the codex describing the collapse of the main force of Honganji, closed his eyes, and said categorically: "Immediately send troops to Echizen!" ”

Usami Nami was on the side and said: "My lord, but Noto, the army in Yuezhong has not yet been mobilized, and Honganji Temple is so defeated, I am afraid that even if our army goes to reinforce, it will only be a drop in the bucket." ”

Li Xiao sighed and said: "As much as you can rescue, reply to Honganji, so that they can take refuge in our county from Ohno County, but I didn't expect that the Oda army also had a big tube, and the Honganji army was defeated and retreated so quickly." ”

February 16.

Li Xiao hastily assembled in Yuezhong, and Nengden 8,000 troops were able to march out of Echizen in Muzhou City.

However, even if he heard the news of Li Xiao's battle, Honganji was defeated, and Honganji fought against the Oda army for several days in Echizen's last line of defense, Toba Castle, and gave heavy casualties to the Oda army of Ando, Niwa and other parts of the siege, but it was still broken by the large barrel that arrived from the rear.

Qili Lai Zhou, Shimoma Lai Zhao and other Honganji several officials fled in a hurry.

Echizen Kaga border land.

On the banks of a river.

Thousands of Echizen people, old and young, fled to Kaga.

The people were ragged and their faces were dirty, and some people used pack carts to carry their families or goods onto the trains.

Although these people had not eaten for a day or several days, their faces were in a hurry, and they looked back to the south from time to time with a look of horror on their faces.

Although the children's cries continued along the way, the people still fled north.

There is no other reason why these people fled to Kaga, but it was Nobunaga's cruel methods against the Ichikozong in Hokuriku.

After the destruction of Toba Castle, Nobunaga slaughtered the entire Toba Castle, leaving no one behind.

In the city, whether it was monks, believers, people, or Oda troops, there was no distinction between them, and there were more than 12,250 or more beheaded heads.

And not only that, but Nobunaga also issued a massacre order for the entire Echizen.

After Nobunaga was worried that these Ichijo sects would flee into the mountains, he ordered the Oda army to search the mountains and issue an order to capture or kill all men, women, and children.

Nobunaga's cruel methods of emptying a thousand rooms in Echizen and leaving no grass to grow finally caused panic among the people of Echizen.

Not only the common people who believed in the Ichijo sect, but even the Tendai sect and the Shingon sect, which had been enemies of the Ichijo sect before, feared Nobunaga's tyranny and began to flee to Kaga.

The people who traveled along the way fled to Kaga from Echizen.

In harmony with the ranks of the common people, there were also hundreds of monks and soldiers who had retreated from the front, and almost all of them were wounded.

These monks dragged their naginatas and threw them on their shoulders, and their faces were all depressed.

The leader of this group of monks was a fang official named Shimoma Ryō.

The Shimoma clan is a hereditary official of Honganji, and there are various branches, and Shimoma Yoriyo, the father of Shimoma Yoriryo, is the Honganji general who is called Osaka's left and right general with Suzuki Shigehide in the Ishiyama battle of Ishiyama Honganji against the Oda family.

Hearing that Hokuriku Honganji Temple was in danger, Shimoma Yoriliang led a group of monks from Ishiyama Honganji Temple to Hokuriku to support the Ichijo sect's war against the Oda family.

In the recent Battle of Toba Castle in the cage castle battle, the monks and soldiers of Ishiyama Honyama led by him attacked the Oda family feather Shiba Hideyoshi team at night in order to rescue Toba Castle.

However, in the face of the rapid rise of the Oda family's general, Yushiba Hideyoshi, Shimoma Yoriliang's night attack was unsuccessful, and the monks suffered a lot of losses, and he himself was cut in the right leg in the fight with the Oda army.

In the face of this situation, Shimoma Ryo knew that he would be pursued by the Oda family's army at any time, so he had to retreat to Kaga as soon as possible. …,

Now Lai Liang is in a big cold sweat on his forehead, and the leg pain injury has slowed him down a lot.

Just when Lai Liang was holding back the severe pain, a young man snatched the naginata knife on the side, bent his body, pointed to his back, and said, "Come up." ”

Shimoma Ryo looked at the other party, this person was his wife's younger brother Otani Hiruma (forenoticed, this person is another name in history Otani Yoshitsugu).

Ohtani Hirama's father, Taijin Otani, was a hereditary official at the gate of the Shoren-in Temple of Honganji.

Yasujin Otani was killed in the previous battle against Oda's Shibata Katsuie Legion, and his head was taken by Shibata Katsuie's general Mao Shou Katsuto.

The death of his father was a very painful blow to Hiroma Ohtani, who was only 16 years old.

So Ohtani Heima vowed to avenge his father.

Shimoma Ryo glanced at Hirama, and without hesitation, he asked Otani Hirama to carry himself, and said: "Hirama, you can rest assured that as long as we return to Kaga, we can regroup the army and ask the Oda family to repay this blood debt." ”

Otani Heima strode forward with Shimoma Lai Liang on his back, as if he didn't have any effort, but after listening to the other party's words, he frowned and said: "Lai Liang, the power of the Oda Army is definitely not something that we monks and believers can resist. This is true even when returning to Kaga. ”

Lai Liang's face changed when he heard this, and he was about to get angry.

Otani Heima seemed to sense Lai Liang's reaction in the lower room, and said calmly: "Lai Liang, have you forgotten the battle in the mansion?" In that battle, we had nearly 100,000 believers and more than 2,000 monks, but so what, the Oda army bombarded, and then only dispatched three legions, Shibata, Yushiba, and Akechi, and as a result, we only lasted less than an hour, and we were completely defeated. ”

After listening to it, Lai Liang was silent.

Otani Heima said calmly: "I'm not afraid of death, it's just meaningless to die, you and I both have the heart to defend the Dharma to death, but this courage is not enough, we must think of a way to kill the Oda army, otherwise...... Otherwise, it is just that hundreds of thousands of believers in the entire Hokuriku have no choice but to die with their bodies. ”

Lai Liang sighed and said, "Pingma, you're right, don't act recklessly, the previous lesson is enough." ”

Ohtani Heima smiled and said, "Lai Liang, anyway, let's go to Kaga for now, everything must be saved before there is a chance to come back." ”

Just as Otani Hirama was talking to Ryo Shimoma, only a rumble was heard, and the earth seemed to shake.

Right before their eyes, several stone projectiles fell from the sky and ran over the ground.

A stone bullet directly hit a small cart, the whole car was smashed, and the people on the car were killed.

"The Oda Army is coming!"

Shimoma Ryo was suddenly startled, and after he turned his head from the back of the Otani flat horse, he saw that on a mountain beam behind him, several Oda army generals wearing water-patterned array feathers were riding on horses, condescendingly looking down at the Echizen people who were fleeing in all directions under the mountain.

At this time, a general of the Oda family, led by him, looked down at the mountain expressionlessly, and slowly pressed down the picks in his hand, and then on the mountain beam, an army of the Oda family with a water-colored white background bellflower pattern appeared on the back.

"It's the Wise Army!"

Lai Liang suddenly drank, with the Oda army fighting in the south and the north, the legion led by Akechi Mitsuhide also became famous because of its outstanding achievements, especially in this Hokuriku Campaign, its fierce reputation in the eyes of the believers of the sect was not inferior to the Shibata army.

The Kiki Genji bellflower pattern, which represents it, has also become a representative of death in the eyes of the believers of the Hokuriku Sect.

Now, under the orders of Akechi Mitsuhide, the commander-in-chief of the Wise Legion, the Oda army crossed the mountain beam and attacked the people of Echizen below the mountain like a raging tide. …,

These followers of the Oda sect have become frightened birds under the offensive of the Oda army, not to mention resisting at all, and even fleeing is beyond their strength.

Be the first to be the cavalry of the Wise Legion, and be the first to pet you into the crowd of believers of the Sect.

Seeing the cavalry team entering, the followers of the Zong sect fled in panic, and these horseback warriors of the wise army did not hurry to swing their swords and slash and kill, but were interested, like herdsmen herding sheep, and consciously drove these believers of the sect to one place.

The followers of the Sect were even more frightened when they saw this, and as the wise army warriors drove away, they did not distinguish between things and turned around, and as a result, the two crowds collided head-on, and as a result, they trampled on each other, and countless deaths and injuries were imposed.

Seeing this scene, the horseback warriors of these wise armies had a fierce smile on their faces.

Then the Ashigaru team of the Wise Legion followed and crushed up, slaughtering the followers of the Tsuyo sect with spears and swords.

Countless followers of the Sect were slaughtered at this moment, and in front of him was just a scene of the Oda Army on Nagashima and Hokuriku killing the believers of the Sect.

Ohtani Hiruma, Lai Liang saw this bloody scene, and his eyes were red.

Ohtani Heima Huoran shouted: "Nobunaga is really a brute, he can even do such a thing, I must not let him go?" ”

At that moment, Otani Heima put down Ryo Shimoma, snatched a naginata from the monk beside him, and rushed to the Oda Army cavalry alone.

"Pingma, don't be impulsive!"

Just as Ryo Shimoma was drinking, Otani Hirama actually faced several cavalrymen of the Oda Army who rushed towards him, and one person used a naginata to pick three people in a row.

This scene of great courage made everyone present incredible.

Seeing this, Lai Liang and the hundreds of monks and soldiers also boosted their morale, and immediately killed the Oda army to rescue the nearby believers of the Oda Sect.

However, the resistance of these hundreds of monks and soldiers attracted the attention of the Oda army even more, but after a while, the wise team divided their troops and surrounded this group of monks and hundreds of believers in an instant.

"Looks like we're going to die here today."

Lai Liang said to Ohtani Hirama, and Ohtani Hirama held the naginata knife tightly in his hand, and his face was full of unyielding.

Seeing the scene of being surrounded, the monks and believers were all pale and desperate, but they also knew the fate of surrender, and decided to fight to the death and die with their lives.

Just as the Wise Army was about to give the order to encircle and annihilate this army of the Honji Sect, an army on the other side of the river with the sun and moon flags suddenly appeared in the sight of the Oda Army and the followers of the Oda Sect.

ps: There are three theories about the origin of Otani Yoshitsugu in history, and the first two don't need to be said, this book uses the origin of the Otani clan, the official of the Blue Lotus Temple of Honganji Temple.

And Otani Yoshitsugi's sister is the wife of Ryō Ryō, the official of Honganji Temple, there is no doubt about this.

It is also said that Yoshitsugu Otani was born with Kato Kiyomasa, Fukushima Masanori, and Ichiyanagi Naosue from serving as Hashiba Hideyoshima.

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