Ashikaga Yoshiyasu hesitated for a long time, and his childish little face was entangled for a long time, and he thought for a while before saying: "If you have three roads, you should choose to guard Mino or Mikawa!" The overall situation of the thick tail should be more important than anything, and the time-consuming and laborious Sakamoto is completely incomprehensible. ”

"Is that what you think?"

"Yes!"

Gen Yoshishi chuckled and said, "What about Sakamoto?" Nakajo Tokihide commanded 30,000 troops to defend Sakamoto, the radical ones could seize Kyoto and capture Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the Emperor of Masakincho could regain the throne, and the conservative ones could attack Kannonji Temple and occupy Kotani, but they could rely on not breaking the pass and defending the danger, and blocked Oda Nobunaga and 200,000 Western troops in Mino Province and did not allow them to enter and exit.

If you want to return to Kinai, you can only break the gate, or turn south and enter Kinai from Suzuka Pass, no matter which one you choose, it will bring great room for the Eastern Army to exert itself, once Yu seizes the opportunity to chase and fight, the scattered organization of the Western Army will inevitably collapse in an instant, and Oda Nobunaga does not dare to take this risk. ”

It seems that the confrontation between the eastern and western armies is like the situation of the rebellion of Yingren, but in fact, the gap between this situation is very large, and the morale organization of the eastern and western armies all depends on the adjustment of the generals of all parties, which leads to a lot of samurai who are fishing in troubled waters with ghosts.

The Western Army, which was hastily organized by Emperor Lunzhi, even lacked basic unity, and if 25,000 soldiers were sent from Kyushu, and 30,000 soldiers from Nishikoku and Shikoku, it could be detected that many samurai were half-hearted about Lunzhi, and the so-called Western Army got together for three days and quarreled at both ends, and the samurai below were like a group of bandits grabbing turf, restlessly gathering to pick up the sword. There is no such thing as solidarity from beginning to end.

The ripple effect of Shimazu's actions has taken the entire Kyushu military force away. This had an extremely bad impact on the samurai families of the Western and Shikoku who rushed over thinking that they could reap the benefits. Morale has been hit, and the cohesion of the military spirit is also declining rapidly, so many congenital factors are restricted, so that Oda Nobunaga, who has always been arrogant, does not dare to choose to fight hard.

Ashikaga Yoshiyasu asked unwillingly: "Then what if Oda Nobunaga leaves an army to stare at Sakamoto?" ”

Genyoshi knew the child's thoughts, probably thinking that Oda Nobunaga shouldn't be so stupid, so he said: "There is no specific number for how much to stay, 30,000 or 50,000?" The main force of the Oda Army was left behind, or was it the Allied Army that left the Western Army? Can you ensure that the remaining army can indeed defend against Nakajo Tokihide, you must know that he is also a general who has been in the territory for twenty years. It's definitely not something that can be resisted by sending a samurai casually, and the remaining major general is weak and wants to keep an eye on Sakamoto, that is, he deceives himself. ”

Ashikaga Yoshitai thought for a while, and suddenly had an idea: "If you leave 60,000 people, it will be no problem for Yoshikawa Motoharu and Kobayakawa Takakei, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, and Akechi Mitsuhide to keep an eye on Sakamoto, right?" ”

"That's a good point! It seems that Saburo is much smarter than Oda Nobunaga. Gen Yoshishi praised his son's intelligence, and then shook his head and said: "The essence of the Western Kingdom and the Four Kingdoms is the Mori family and the Miyoshi family, you have transferred the main force of the Western Kingdom, the main force of the Shikoku Miyoshi family, and the main force of the Kinai shogunate Akechi Mitsuhide to Omi to suppress Sakamoto, and the main force of the Western Army under Oda Nobunaga is only available to the Oda family, Asakura, Asai and the people of the Kinai country, such a Western Army is not the opponent of the Eastern Army at all." ”

"Then ......," Ashikaga Yoshitai thought for a moment. Said: "It must be feasible to help Echizen Province!" ”

Yuan Yishi said: "It's not feasible to make a decision. ”

"Why?"

Genyoshi took the trouble to answer: "First of all, Echizen Province is narrow. The 200,000 army poured into it in a short period of time, and it was difficult to exert all its strength, and secondly, the army was dispatched to rescue Echizen, and it was necessary to pass through Ika Prefecture in Omi Province, which had been captured by Yu's master craftsman Yamamoto Michiki, and only needed to recapture it and block the streets of Tsuruga by repeating the old tricks, and the 200,000 Western Army would only have a dead end, leaving tens of thousands of troops stationed in Ika County to be able to perfectly prevent Sakamoto's abnormal movements, and how much military protection did Kyoto need?

If the Hida Army suddenly attacked west to take Gifu Castle, and the Sakamoto defenders marched east to capture Kannonji Castle and Kotani Castle, and completely opened up the line of Higashiyama Road, Oda Nobunaga would have no point in reinforcing Echizen in the north, and with superior forces, he would have repelled the 50,000 troops of Uesugi Danmasa and occupied Kaga.

And this has no impact on the battle situation, even if Oda Nobunaga fights all the way to Echichu, it doesn't matter, Uesugi Danzheng only needs to hold the natural danger that his relatives don't know and don't know, and he can play a game of catching turtles in an urn, and only Hida River can choose to enter Hida to take Mino Road, if there is no support from the water army, it is tantamount to a mirror flower and water moon, and taking Shinano is even more self-defeating, and the farther he goes, the faster he dies. ”

Ashikaga Yoshitai said thoughtfully: "So...... Is there only an attack on Sakamoto? ”

"The first thing to attack Sakamoto is to clear the hidden dangers, Nakajo Shixiu left half of the army, and fled to Maizuru Port with the other half has lost the ability to influence the battle situation, and the emperor of Masamicho probably wants to take this opportunity to force the emperor to take back the Yuan Xuan, and by the way, give Yu Zhi a dynasty enemy, and bring back the disadvantage of fame and righteousness, but it is too frivolous, and the emperor did not catch it but burned Mount Hiei." Genyoshi can guess Oda Nobunaga's way of thinking.

Based on the experience of the two of them exchanging letters for many years, and then the correspondence gradually faded from confidants to friends and then to enemies and friends, it is not a day or two to speculate on each other's thoughts, and judging Oda Nobunaga's thoughts from his temperament and behavior is actually not very difficult to guess.

The most important thing is that he is sure enough, no matter which of the three things Oda Nobunaga chooses, he will not succeed, and the smooth escape of the Emperor of Shokincho is an accident, but it is not an accident that the pillars of the samurai family raised troops in Tsuruoka Hachimangu Palace, and the Yuan Xuan and Ryū Decree are just a convenient name for the samurai, which can be seen from the fact that Minamoto Yoritomo raised troops with the edict of Nioh, and Ashikaga Zunji was sent to Emperor Go-Daigo's Tsuru Decree to change banners.

When the army is raised, the role of this name becomes less important, the martial arts compare the strength is a bloody battle, not the ministers play tricks and tricks to win, the eastern and western armies still rely on real swords and real guns in the war, rather than shouting slogans to each other across 108,000 miles to decide the victory.

The battle of Shangluo was repeatedly rehearsed by Yuan Yoshishi and his retainers countless times, and various unexpected factors and countless sets of corresponding solutions were prepared. For example, Hokuriku Road, Higashiyama Road, and Tokaido are all in Kamilo at the same time. Higashiyama and Tokai fought together to exterminate the remnants of the Kai Kai Takeda clan. Completing a task that usually takes years to complete in two months is not something that can be done with a pat on the head.

Taking advantage of the moment when the main force of the Western Army was transferred to Mino-kuni to confront the main force of the Eastern Army, Uesugi Kenshin, who was a partial division, led 50,000 troops all the way to the ground, and in late April, he captured the last fortress of Kaga Province.

Actually, it's not that I don't want to be spared. It's really Uesugi Kenshin who doesn't want them to be spared, from the old to the young, from the monks to the officials, thousands of people are all killed, and then Uesugi Kenshin raised the butcher's knife again against the stubborn Yixiangzong, this time the slaughter of them is still justified, and those who block the Eastern Army are all thieves, and those who block it are monks, so they are called thief monks.

Staying in Kaga Province for a few days and continuing to attack Echizen Province in the west, the shadow son Asakura Keikagami, who was buried in Echizen Province, immediately rebelled, this commander of 6,000 troops and served as a general to resist Kaga Ichijomune and the Eastern Army, but he was the biggest destabilizing factor in the Asakura family, and his ambition was to destroy all his relatives in the Asakura family. For this reason, he also deliberately changed his name to Tsuchihashi Keigami, and asked Uesugi Kenshin to relay it to Genyoshitoki. Seeking the opportunity to receive the next word, he couldn't wait to change his name to Tsuchihashi Shijing, and abandoned the words that had been passed down from generation to generation in the Asakura family.

When the head of the Ono Territory Bridge rebelled, he exposed the entire Echizen Kingdom Mansion to Uesugi Kenshin's eyes, just like an invulnerable tiger suddenly exposed its soft belly, at this time, only a sharp knife is needed for a small child, and a strong stab can kill a vicious beast, Uesugi Kenshin is not a child, and he is not a sharp knife in his hand, but the Eastern Army Special Brigade, which quickly increased to 60,000 when he entered Echizen Country, and most of the Echizen Country fell into the control of Uesugi Kenshin in an instant.

Uesugi Kenshin while grasping the attack on Echizen Province, while cleaning up Shimoma Yoriteru and his remnants, this Echizen has always been a strong army that was more than ten years ago, since Uesugi Kenshin invaded Kaga Province with a fierce storm, and killed a large number of elites of Kaga Echizen in one go, it basically lost its ability to make blood, and then caught up with the Sanrihama incident, the angry Asakura Yoshikage led a large army to attack Echizen Ichi, which greatly weakened the power of Echizen Boguan, and it has long been lost its bravery.

The sporadic resistance of Ichijo Valley Castle did not cause any trouble to Uesugi Kenshin, and the only force that can be called resistance is the old Amakura Keiki of Tsuruga Prefecture, an old samurai who is nearly seventy years old and staged a white-haired man to send a black-haired man in his later years, still insists on leading the remaining 5,000 Tsuruga people to desperately resist Uesugi Kenshin, and hurriedly sends his second son Asakura Keitsune to Mino Province to deliver a message to Asakura Yoshikage.

This is in Gifu Castle is chic, every day and the Western Army's literati get together from time to time to dance and ink to wine and sing, even during the confrontation did not see the slightest tension and sorrow, his comfortable days have come to an end at this moment, after learning that the most trusted general Asakura Jingjing cut the Miao character to change the word to show his determination to break off with the Asakura family, his own nest was sent out with the assistance of this leading party, Asakura Yoshikage shouted and scolded on the spot, and then panicked and took the Asakura army to his own nest to rush back.

Asai Nagamasa saw that the situation was not right, and hurriedly rushed back with his own military momentum, he had never seen how powerful Uesugi Kenshin was, but he had always heard of how terrifying the prestige of this Northern Army God was, Asakura Keiki would hand over Tsuruga County if he couldn't bear it, and then it wasn't to kill all the way to Kita-Omi and take away his lair.

Takeda Yoshitomi is more worried about his own safety than him, and as soon as Tsuruga Port is lost, the territory of Wakasa Province will be exposed, and it will be difficult for his head and body to protect the vital points, not to mention that there is still Awaya at home, and Yijian has the existence of this Wakasa double wall, don't even think about being loyal and dedicated, pushing back the legs and pit people first-class experts, the meaning of the existence of these two families is to take revenge on the Wakasa Takeda family.

Isshiki Yoshido is worse than them, as early as Nakajo Tokihide fled to Maizuru Port, that is, when the Mino confrontation had not yet begun, Isshiki Yoshido fled back to Tango Province to protect the nest with his own little military strength, and Tango Country was full of 4,000 troops, most of which were still farmers who put down their hoes and carried bamboo guns, and if these peasant soldiers talked about farming skills, they didn't dare to say that the first-class level could also be mixed with second-rate. But if you test the ability to kill the enemy on the battlefield. I'm afraid it's not even a crop.

The morale of the major generals is equal to nothing. Isshiki Yoshimichi himself didn't want to achieve any ambition at all, and was frightened by the 15,000 troops of Maizuru Port at his doorstep, and he didn't dare to go out of the castle built by the friendship of the Ashikaga family, thinking that the war was too terrible, and people's hearts had changed too much, and it was safest to shrink into a stable home, and the so-called Hokuriku Shikoku Coalition had long become a joke.

The non-farewell of Yoshikage Asakura, Nagamasa Asai, and Yoshinori Takeda indicates that the disintegration of the Western military system is accelerating, and the so-called Western Japanese coalition army will sooner or later be reduced to the coalition army west of the East China Sea. The Mori family and the Miyoshi family were not very happy to stay, clamoring to go home and guard their respective lairs, but how could Oda Nobunaga let them go, and as soon as they approached the samurai, the samurai might also follow, so wouldn't he become a bare-gun commander.

Oda Nobunaga, hoping to boost morale with a small victory, actively planned to regain control of the south bank of the Nagara River, the core of this battle plan was simply pitiful, just trying to drive the eastern army from the south bank of the Nagara River back to the south bank of the Kiso River. I didn't dare to think of any more extravagant hopes, because the lower reaches of the Kiso River and the Nagara River had already been mastered by the navy of the Eastern Army. Even when they went out to investigate, they had to take advantage of their familiarity with the terrain before they dared to act.

Oda Nobunaga's plan has not yet been put into action, the most stormy June quietly passed, ushering in the good season of July when the rain was relatively soothing and there were sunny days, Gifu Castle received a bad news from Kinai, Hojo Tokimasa and Kakizaki Keike combined 60,000 troops out of Iga to invade Yamato Province, in the face of 60,000 troops and the support of the Iga ninja who led the way, Tsutsui Shunkei and his Yamato people made a wise decision to surrender.

Then the 60,000 army enveloped the Yamato people and 70,000 troops, all the way to the wind and fire to capture the Shingui Mountain Castle and the Iimori Mountain Castle, and the troops went straight to the Takaya Castle where the Hatakeyama Shotaka of Kawachi Province was located, and the Hatakeyama Takamasa who had been hiding in Kii took advantage of the situation to raise troops, and brought more than 12,000 soldiers from the Kii country and the Nelai people to the Takaya Castle, and the defenders in the city at this moment were only a pitiful 500 people.

Because of the nonsense of the Western Army, which led to the emptiness of the country of Kawachi, Yuzo Nobuyo led more than 8,000 people in Hanoi to participate in the Mino National Formation, and the old An of the family who stayed in Takaya Castle saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly tied up the governor of the family, Hatakeyama Shogao, and sent him out of Takaya Castle, thinking that he could be forgiven for his guilt, but he didn't expect Saito Asanobu to take out a knife and chop his dog's head when he surrendered.

This kind of success is not enough to lose, and it is also a scourge for the military to keep the evil retainers, and the source of Yoshishi deliberately left him a dog's life, just to kill him in front of everyone, Hatakeyama Takamasa kicked the dog's head away, scolding and disgusting this bastard betrayed him again, and there were few loyal and stable samurai in the Hatakeyama family in Kawachi.

After the capture of Kawachi Province, Nagao Yoshikei led 10,000 troops to attack Izumi Province, Hatakeyama Takamasa and Tsutsui Shunkei's more than 20,000 troops attacked Settsu Province, Hojo Tokimasa and Saito Asanobu were ordered to attack Yamashiro Province, this series of great changes took only six or seven days, if it were not for the heavy rain at the end of June, which caused the river to swell and indirectly caused the interruption of communication, Oda Nobunaga would not have been so embarrassed that even the information would have been delayed so much.

After receiving this news, he really can't continue to fight, and even the Mino country that he has worked hard to manage for many years can't hold, whether it's Oda Nobunaga himself or for the Western Army, Kyoto is a place that must not be lost, Oda Nobunaga didn't sleep all night and finally made a painful decision, abandoning the entire army of Mino to retreat to Kinai, in order to cover the retreat, he also deliberately chose to start retreating in the evening, and it was not difficult to retreat all the 140,000 troops in one night.

At the same time that Oda Nobunaga led the army to retreat, Genyoshitoki also received accurate information about the retreat, after weighing the pros and cons or giving up the plan to pursue and kill, the main force of the Western Army was in Gifu Castle, and the main force of the Eastern Army was in Komakiyama Castle, and it was very convenient for the Western Army to retreat to the west without breaking the pass, but it was very difficult for the Eastern Army to catch up, and it was necessary to cross the Nagara River and the Ifi River in turn.

In the case of gaining a comprehensive advantage, he decided to transfer the main camp to Gifu Castle first, and ordered Sanada Yukitaka to lead an army of 100,000 to cross the pass and launch a strategy against the Asai family, in order to force Oda Nobunaga to turn around and rescue the Asai army to expose the opportunity to reveal the flaws, but this Oda Nobunaga was indeed ruthless enough, and he watched his brother-in-law Asai Nagamasa being defeated, and Otani Castle was broken by artillery in less than a day.

The eldest husband did extraordinary things, giving up his allies again and again to lose his last shred of faith, and the more than 140,000 people of the Western Army who retreated to the defense of Kyoto even lost their basic morale, Oda Nobunaga suddenly regretted his cowardice, when he took the first step back for various reasons, and the subsequent step by step backwards became a habit, indicating that he was still afraid of Genyoshi in his heart, afraid of the Kanto dragon.

His heart is weak to bury the little advantage of the Western Army, the only merit that can be taken is when he retreated to Kyoto, he successfully forced back Hojo Tokimasa and Saito Asanobu, but this merit is really embarrassing to show his hand, last year Oda Nobunaga was a strong man when he was on Luo, and now he turns around and looks back at the gap between the two is not ordinarily big, just like the difference between Hotaru and Haoyue. (To be continued......)