Sagami Odawara Castle, Matsuda Morihide praised: "Awesome! That's amazing! What a murderous letter! This town government is not a simple person! ”

"Tongue to heart! When my army arrives, we will see how he resists. Tsunade Toyama healed the scar and forgot the pain, remembering the past like a sea of hatred filled his heart: "I must let them know that my Hojo family samurai is powerful!" ”

"Last year's preparation was insufficient, but this year, with the help of our allies, we will definitely be able to capture Ueno Country!" Hojo Tsunari's face was slightly smiling: "And Echigo!" I heard that the land there is abundant and beautiful, and the power of several countries is top, if you can get three points, why don't my Hojo family worry! ”

Hojo took a deep breath and ordered, "Tear down all these proclamations and destroy them, and forbid to talk about proclamations, Kotaro!" It is not good to do things, and knowledge and action will be reduced by 100 times! ”

"Yes! Your Majesty is going to receive the punishment! "Wind Demon Kotaro received the order with a bitter face, and the entire Kanto region was plastered with notices overnight, including Izu, Sagami, Musashi and other areas under the actual control of the Hojo family, and it was no exception, because of the Wind Demon Ninja, the notices posted in the three countries were relatively the least, but no one can say this reason, and the meaning of a hundred or a thousand posts is almost the same.

A trace of anger flashed in Hojo's eyes: "The hatred that ruins my reputation, my Yasu must be avenged!" Let my Hojo family settle the siege with you this time! ”

"Ahem! Lord! Hojo Phantom Nunnery recalled the frightened Hojo Shiyasu back to his senses: "The proclamation can be put down first, the military service has been summoned, and the grain and grass savings have been prepared since the beginning of the year, I don't know when the lord is going to go out?" ”

"Well, the three military advisors said that the day after tomorrow is an auspicious day, so let's make it the day after tomorrow!" The Hojo clan said with a straight face: "This battle is related to the life and death of my Hojo family. Please be vigilant. Don't underestimate Echigo's rivals! After my Hojo family captures Ueno. Our family will definitely reward the three armies! ”

The Hojo retainers bowed in unison: "I am willing to serve the Lord!" ”

Only four days have passed since Echigo's action, and the Sagami Hojo family announced the order to go out, and the Hojo clan Yasu himself served as the general general, and the deputy general was Hojo Nagatoma into the Taoist Phantom Temple, and now the old governor has stepped down from the lord of the small machine, and his son Hojo Shin inherited the family business of the small machine Hojo, and served as the genealogy of the Hojo family.

This time, the Hojo clan Yasuko led an army of 38,000 to almost all the main forces of Izu, Sagami, and Musashi, which shocked the entire Kanto. Realizing that a great event was about to happen in Echigo, the people who had been watching the excitement were a little overwhelmed, and many Kanto people subconsciously wanted to thwart the Hojo Army.

The stronger the enemy, the more dangerous he is, Satake, Utsunomiya, Satomi and other powerful countrymen quickly reacted, but they were all dragged back by their own problems and couldn't exert their strength, the Utsunomiya family just assassinated the thief Mibu Tsunabe who stole Utsunomiya Castle, and there was no effort to send troops at all, and on the other side, Satake was attacking each other with the powerful countrymen Edo clan in Hitachi.

As the Hojo side alliance, Oda Clan's life is not easy, and in recent years, he has been at odds with the Yuki clan and the Satake clan, and these two families have joined forces to attack Oda Castle while the Hojo family sent troops. Leaving the Hojo family, the Oda Castle that shrouded him was in danger, and if he had the kung fu to send troops, he might as well save himself. Satomi Yoshiyao was busy eliminating the disobedient Masato Takeda clan, and he didn't have the time to deal with Echigo's affairs.

As for some Chinese people who still want to complain, they quickly shut up, because Ashikaga Fujimasa, the son-in-law of Hojo Shiyasu, as the general of the Kwantung Coalition Army, reacts calmly to this to Satomi Yoshiyao, he knows that he offended the Furukawa Princesses a few years ago, especially the Hata Harsuke offended so badly that he knows that he can't get close to this family, not to mention that now the Furukawa Princes are even more unable to get close to the arms of the old enemy Hojo Clan.

The Furukawa clan held high its own banner and announced the crusade against Echigo, and the family tree of the Furukawa Gongfang of Shimoku Province was the Daida clan, as well as the Chiba clan, the Shimono Sano clan, Musashi, and the Ueno Shirakura clan, Kurakano clan, and Naba clan of Ueno Shirakura clan, Kurakano clan, and Naba clan went out with the army as other countries, and the entire army exceeded 42,000 people.

Before the army of the Hojo family left Sagami Country, the Shirakura clan and Kurakano clan near Miyoshi Castle took the lead in changing banners as the vanguard, and took the initiative to take on the burden of attacking Oyoshi Castle.

Fortunately, Nagano Kentada also had a defense, last year he was arranged to be the lord of the city with the intention of defending the rebels, as soon as the Hojo family announced the formation of Nagano Kentada, he made corresponding countermeasures, the castle high base deep Otsu Castle was built in imitation of the structure of Kaizu Castle for a whole year, which could easily accommodate the garrison of the army, hoard food for March, and there were enough wells in the city near the river, so it only took a thousand defenders to defend the castle to resist the surprise attack of the two armies.

On the castle, Nagano Kenzhong's snow-white beard was disturbed by the disturbing wind, as Nagano Yemasa's brother, he was already not young, and it was really hard to stand on the front line to withstand the pressure of the Hojo family, looking at the dark sky from time to time there were thunder flashes, and the chaotic white warehouse and Kuragano coalition forces under the city were retreating in an orderly manner.

"The war started so quickly, which is much beyond the expectations of the main hall!" The gloomy clouds on Nagano Xianzhong's brow are difficult to dissipate, Nagao Jinghu has already led the army out of battle, but when he can come to Ueno is another matter, a white light from the black clouds to illuminate the gloomy battlefield.

"Boom!"

Thunderbolts lit up the sky, and the dripping raindrops fell on Nagano's face, and the next moment the drizzle turned into a torrential rain, and the cold rain poured into the sleeves of his clothes along the gaps in the armor, and the Nagano samurai standing at the head of the castle frowned and stared at the swarthy crowd below the castle.

The people at the head of the city flashed a sentence in their hearts: "The rainstorm is coming......"

On 20 June, Echigo's army was assembled and the last military meeting was held before the departure.

Kira Yoshishi was in the first place, and his eyes swept over the two columns of retainers and said, "All the kings understand that they must go into battle!" But how to get out of the battle requires brainstorming. ”

"Your Majesty, just throw bricks and lead the jade!" Hondo coughed and said, "The enemy is outside the country!" I'm sure you've heard this too! The strategic goal of this expedition is to remove the so-called Echigo encirclement network, so let's count what our enemies are! First of all, since the west of Vietnam and Central China has always been in the same place, the number of troops is very likely to exceed 50,000! This is followed by the Sagami Hojo clan. The military strength is not less than 35,000! Again, it's Kai Takeda. The military strength is more than 15,000! Finally, there are the Mogami clan of Dewa and the Ashina clan of Mutsu. The number of troops is unknown, but the number of troops will not be large. ”

"The Vietnamese and Chinese have always been mixed indiscriminately, which is simply hateful! And that Dewa Mogami and Mutsu Ashina, who had bypassed them last time, but didn't want to germinate in a solid state, which is unforgivable! "The reserve general Miyabe Jirun hated the root of his teeth when he mentioned Mogami and Ashina, the two cunning daimyo, and a few years ago he almost kept the Mogami family when he crusaded against the Honjo clan, and this regret has been lingering in his mind for a long time.

"If you want me to say that it's better to attack all the way!"

"Not good! Who to attack along the way? Kai and Sagami are not easy to deal with, don't forget that there is always a fight in Yuezhong. ”

At the "......" meeting, the ministers debated fiercely on how to send troops to lift the siege. The noise was quickly suppressed by Tokiyuki Yamamoto and Minoru Honjo.

Seeing the opportunity, Nanaoka Hanbo proposed: "From the perspective of your subordinates, let go of the two roads of Dewa and Mutsu to the defense of the people of Echigo Province, and focus on resisting the Kai Takeda and Sagami Hojo in the south!" ”

"How to resist is the most important problem, it is difficult to resist those madmen without a general, and the situation between Denong and Ueno must be asked to command the lord and the town palace, it is not easy to do!" Naoe Jinggang, who changed his name at the beginning of the year, officially entered the family of the Genealogy Dynasty, so he was particularly active in the evaluation meeting, and this military conference was no exception.

"Yes! Who will be the general. And how many troops should be sent? ”

Everyone knows how much military strength Dewa and Mutsu have, and the Dewa Mogami family can't even suppress their own retainers. The nominal Dewa probe is not to be feared at all, and the Ashina Mori clan of Aizu is notoriously cunning, and has tried to intervene in Echigo's history several times, most of which ended up stealing chickens and rice.

The samurai of Echigo have been honed by hundreds of years of war and have developed a fierce folk style, and they don't look down on the daimyo of Ha Ao at all, if Echigo is a distant land of turtle and wealthy clan, the samurai of Ha Oku are more earthy and smaller, and the people of the country who have been out of the feather for so many years have not begged for a little bit from the hands of the Echigo samurai, and Mitsu is not much better than it, so the ministers do not have much pressure on the two ways to let go.

Hundreds of retainers in the hall fell into deep thought, and Nagao Jinghu didn't speak but looked at Kira Yoshishi thoughtfully, with his sense of war that he had cultivated for many years, he had already found that his brother-in-law was not nervous and worried at all, and wanted to turn his head to ask a little strangely, but he heard Yamamoto Tokiyuki say loudly: "Let the old minister share the worries of the hall owner in this matter!" ”

"Sadoden?"

“…… How could it be! All the samurai in the field showed a look of surprise, in their impression that Yamamoto Tokiyuki had always been famous for training troops and building castles, as colleagues, they naturally knew that this one-eyed old samurai had a wealth of experience and superb strategic skills, including Kira Yoshitoki, many important ministers were his apprentices, but the side out of the town was still too surprising.

"Has the master made up his mind...... That's it! My family agreed! In fact, Kira Yoshitoki's heart is also full of taste, he understands what kind of character his mentor is, just like Yamamoto Kansuke understands himself, he has been planning to make this teacher a legion general for several years, and it seems that this time he finally got his wish.

The old samurai's gray hair was combed in a slight, and he took a deep breath and bowed down to the angry response: "Please rest assured, Lord Pavilion!" I was fortunate enough to go to the soup for the Kira family! ”

"Hmmm! Master craftsman, please prepare with confidence! My family will give you 10,000 main ......"

"Thank you for your kindness, I only need those 5,000 Omi samurai!"

"Five thousand is enough?" Kira Yoshishi repeated in surprise, his voice suddenly raised a little, and he admonished bitterly: "Master craftsman is sure that this is not a joke, right? It is a major military event related to the life and death of my Echigo, and the master must not take it lightly! ”

Yamamoto Tokiyuki raised his head and replied with a plain but firm look: "The old minister is extremely sure!" Please rest assured, the old minister is still measured! ”

Kira Yoshishi sighed: "...... I'm ready! Please take care! ”

Immediately more than a dozen samurai jumped out to follow Yamamoto Shixing to defend Echichu, but they were all rejected by the old man with a smile, saying that the pressure on the other roads was greater and more excellent samurai were needed to support, and the place in Yuezhong would be handed over to him to guard.

Solve the Vietnam-China problem. It's the problem of Shinano and Ueno's appearance. After some discussion, a decision was made quickly. Nagao Keitori led the 15,000 troops of his headquarters to Ueno Province, and Kira Yoshitoki led 4,000 troops of his headquarters and 2,000 reserves of Echigo to Shinano to join up with the 2,000 Shinano reserves, which was all the main force he could use.

As soon as the decision was made, the typhoon carried huge rain clouds that swept across half of Japan, and the situation was relatively better this time, and the typhoon quickly weakened into an ordinary depression. It brought only a modest flood, and even that put a lot of pressure on previous years' flood seasons, with the surging river breaking down many wooden bridges and the crumbling mountains washing away the roads, putting great stress on the march this season.

The Hojo family and the Nagao family had the same problem, the Nagao army that had just left Kasugayama was trapped in front of the fork of the tributary of the Shinano River, and the Uono River in front of them was close at hand, but the swelling river water brought great difficulties to the transportation of the waterway, and the flood of the more tributaries brought great inconvenience to the transportation of the 15,000 army, so they had no choice but to abandon the boat and move forward on foot. Most of the baggage was changed to the carriage and dragged forward little by little.

On the other hand, the Hojo family was also affected by the flooding of the Tone River and the Arakawa River, and the army raised from all over the country was blocked by several rivers that ran through Musashi. Fortunately, there were still some ferries in Musashi that could be detoured, and the weather forced the march to slow down.

Two days after the Hojo family announced their departure, Takeda Harunobu in the Higasaki Pavilion also made a decision to send Shinano to recapture the lost Kawanaka Island, and the Kai Takeda family mobilized an army of 22,000 and almost took out all the money they had, and on the same day the army rushed to Shinano Province.

The main forces of the town Shou Shinano took the lead in action, divided into several lines of troops and pointed directly at the defenders of Kono, and there was a great momentum of not hitting the south wall and not looking back, but the army of the Takeda family fell into the storm as soon as they arrived in Saku County, and it was difficult to move an inch in the past half a month.

What was worse than him was that the army of the Kira family could not march as soon as it left the Sekigawa Valley, so they had to send the flying pigeon messenger of the Kira ninja army to send the order of Echigo as soon as possible, and more than 5,000 people of the Northern Shinano Province immediately marched south and rushed to the aid to join Murakami Yoshikiyoshi to form a 6,500 army.

The 2,000 Shinano reserve troops guarding Kita-Shinano also held Arato Castle for the first time, and they had to support more than 1,000 Echigo National People's Army such as Kakizaki Keijia, and cooperate with the North Shinano National People's Army to defend the various branches of Kobi County, and strictly prevent the Takeda Army from entering and leaving the Baba Pass to fight a surprise behind.

The movement of the two sides was disrupted by a sudden rainstorm, and it was only improved when the rainstorm gradually stopped in July, and Kira Yoshitoki's arrangement was to empty the two roads of Hasuga, and the local people would hold the place, and at the same time, in order to protect the safety of Kasuga Yamajo, 2,000 new troops were handed over to Watanabe Takatsuna to lead the town to guard Kasuga Yamajo, and Yamamoto was ordered to lead 5,000 Omi people who had not yet been trained to Echichu to support Shiina, Tohi, Yokota and other pro-Echigo people, and Kira Yoshitoki personally led more than 6,000 people from his headquarters to Shinano Province.

At the beginning of July, in the Nijo Imperial Palace in Kyoto, Ashikaga Yoshiteru listened to the letter of help from Echigo, and sighed after a long silence: "Yu had already advised him not to be anxious, the high mountain road in the distant country of Kanto is dangerous, and now it is difficult to save Yu Xiang if he wants to do his best!" ”

"His Royal Highness is very worried! Wuweidian is too careful, consciously in that Yue Hou to make some achievements and attack everywhere, now the local people counterattack, it is said that there are 200,000 troops besieged, but I am afraid that this matter is difficult to be good! Wuweidian lost face is small, if he is buried in the queen, he can ......" The Rokkaku Yoshimiya said that it was closed halfway, so that many ministers looked sideways.

Since coming to the shogunate as a member of the Gao family in the past few years, life has been going well, and the only explanation given to him by Rokkaku Yoshiken is that he has nothing to do in front of Ashikaga Yoshiki to give Kira Yoshitoki some eye medicine, although most of these superficial small methods are ignored by Ashikaga Yoshiki disapprovingly, but dripping water can still wear stones, not to mention eye medicine.

"Longlai Palace's words are serious!" Mibuchi Fujiei doesn't like Rokkaku Yoshimiya very much, and usually always calls him by his other name, Rokkaku Takashi to remind him that he is just a branch of the Rokkaku family, seeing him sneering and closing his mouth, he turned around and sighed: "Judging from your subordinates, Wuweidian is probably going to give up all his efforts this time!" It's a pity that the good foundation was completely destroyed by this battle! ”

Now Ashikaga Yoshiteru has become a noble two big Nayan, the right guard general, many years of pampering and good life, the heart of reliance on Kira Yoshishi has quietly dispersed most of it, and now the most common thing he does is to compare himself to Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in the Deer Garden, and the most popular thing to move around is the imperial court, and occasionally mention the daimyo of the distant country to arbitrate territorial disputes and have a lot of income, which is not much higher than the fame of his father and grandfather.

He didn't think much of Echigo's letter asking for help, but smiled silently and said, "That's fine, if Yoshitoki suffers this defeat, he will inevitably return to Kyoto, and then the shogunate will have another big help, wouldn't it be a blessing in disguise?" ”

No matter what the ministers were thinking in their hearts, they all followed the sycophant and said: "His Royal Highness is really a clever calculation!" We congratulate the shogunate on another big help, and the future will be more prosperous! ”

"Then first issue a letter of imperial teaching, reprimanding the people of all walks of life for the illegal matters of besieging Echigo, and ordering him to withdraw all troops within a month, if there is a violation of the shogunate, it will not be lightly!"

Mibuchi Fujiying opened his mouth to speak, but was pulled by Odate Qingguang, so he had to follow the ministers and lean down: "I'll understand!" ”

After many of the ministers retreated one by one, Ashikaga Yoshiki pulled down his smug expression, he naturally knew that a letter of imperial education must have no effect, not to mention that the simple imperial book of these dozens of words is so stingy with pen and ink, a discerning person must be able to see that his favor to Kira Yoshishi is not as good as before, this is how he forced Ji Liang Yoshitomi to come back.

Ashikaga Yoshiteru was skeptical of Kira's "Echigo Miracle", suspicious of his "crazy" expansion, he didn't trust Kira Yoshitoki, not because he didn't believe that he had made an oath of allegiance to him at Ishimizu Hachiman Palace, but because he didn't dare to believe in his scheming skills and abilities, especially his wrist that turned his hands into clouds and covered his hands for rain often made him toss and turn and fall asleep.

Especially the rift left by the smash a few years ago made him realize that there is no gratuitous loyalty between the monarch and his retainers, and the more loyal a capable courtier is, the more he asks for something, and he remembered some of the words that his father Ashikaga Yoshiharu had told him before his death.

"Events are always impermanent, but what the heart desires is constant! The thing he asked for was nothing more than the words 'fame, fortune, and power'......" Ashikaga Yoshiteru's brow twitched slightly, and he thought of what Kira Yoshitoki was asking for? He already has the reputation of the Kamiashikaga family, and there is always no shortage of land interests whether it is Omi or Echigo, so what does he need?

"Humph! No matter what you ask for, we always have to watch out for it! Ashikaga Yoshiki sneered: "No matter how capable you are, once you leave Yu's prestige, you will also be in the country of Echigo, if you can repent in time after this incident, it is naturally best to return to the shogunate to be Yu's henchman, if not...... Let's die there! (To be continued......)