Yamato Haruno's words were only halfway through the retainers of the lineage, and the significance of Hojo Shiyasu's choice was far more complicated than imagined, and the most obvious one was that the Izu people sent 3,000 troops to occupy about half of the total strength of the country, as long as the Takeda family and the Kira family did not plan to invade Izu, the remaining 3,000 people were enough to defend the security of Izu country.

Secondly, a little deeper is to tell the retainers of the spectrum not to drill the horns, these 3,000 people may not be able to hold the menacing Kira army, and if there are fewer of these 3,000 people, they may not be able to withstand the full force of Echigo's invasion, and the key to resisting the invasion lies in the ability of the governor to grasp the overall situation and the execution of the retainers' group, not the 3,000 national coalition army.

Under the mobilization of the Hojo clan, the war machine of the Hojo family quickly operated, and the 3,000 troops of the Izu National People's Army set off into Tsuruga-kuni Kawato-gun within a few days, which was the point of the Heto chaos more than ten years ago, and entered Suruga Province in another way after many years, I don't know what the Hojo Army would think at this moment.

When the news came that the Hojo Army had sent troops to intervene in Suruga Province, Uesugi Terutora in Musashi Province Oyoshi Castle immediately realized that this was an excellent opportunity to immediately convene a military council, as the general of the crusade army, he also shouldered the responsibility of the military generation, and the governor of Kira Yoshitoki made it clear that he wanted to sit in the rear to suppress the battle for him, and Uesugi Terutora did not hesitate to use the power of the general to announce the battle.

The 45,000-strong army turned into a black dragon, and it was like a group of wild horses that were out of the wild wild, and that morning, Hojo Tsunada, who was guarding the bowl-shaped castle, received urgent reports from all directions, but the bowl-shaped castle guarded by the Yellow Hachiman did not move at all, and the several groups of probe horses sent out were like a stone thrown into the sea without a trace.

"Uncle! What are we going to do! The Hojo clan walked around anxiously. It began with a flurry of unfavorable intelligence received in the morning. He's been going around in circles here for almost two hours. As the deputy general of this 8,000-man garrison, the bowl city is no less important to him than the first battle of life, and if he holds this place, he can be promoted to the lord of the bowl city, and if he can't defend it, he will have to go back to Odawara Castle to continue to be a son.

The young Hojo clan is the fourth son of the Hojo clan, and it happens that he is a twenty-one-year-old young man with Kira Yoshitoki, and his impatience and hurried behavior are more in line with the young samurai of this age than the deep and spicy and demonic and powerful Kira Yoshitoki. His nervousness corresponded to the chaos in the city, and the 8,000 defenders were completely unaware of the current situation in Musashi Province and fell into chaos.

Hojo Tsunari was a battle-tested battlefield general in the end, and after a little muttering, he said: "What a clever means, using the strong military strength to empty the branch cities around the bowl castle, so that the eight thousand defenders in the bowl castle could not get a trace of information, and completely turned into a deaf and blind man and forced us to shrink in the bowl castle and wait for death, is this the military strategy of Uesugi Danmasa, the wisdom of Sanada Danmasa?" It's really terrifying! ”

After all, the Hojo clan was not as calm as Hojo Tsunari, and anxiously emphasized: "Uncle! This is not the time to lament military strategy! What are we going to do? If this continues, the army's heart will be shaken! ”

The Hojo clan is not stupid at all, or there are too few examples of tiger fathers and dogs in this era. Even though several of Hojo's sons are generally not as capable as their fathers, they are a young samurai who grew up in the military. He is still very aware of the importance of military spirit to an army, and if the military spirit is unstable and rashly fights, it will definitely be defeated.

Hojo Tsunashi said: "There is no way but to wait, until the situation changes in a new way." ”

"Wait? Waiting like this will be a morale setback! ”

"Wait! Keep waiting! The enemy's main movement is unknown, no matter how we move, it is the wrong choice, and the more we do, the more mistakes we make, it is better to be still, wait! Hojo Tsunari sent his nephew away in a few words, and the Hojo clan saw that there was no choice but to retreat.

On the surface, Hojo Tsunaru was calm and unnervous, but in fact, he was more anxious than the Hojo clan, but the situation in front of him was more urgent than his younger nephew, and it was useless for Uesugi Terutora to use this advantage in strength to set a trap, waiting for the defenders in the bowl to move first, and he could be sure that as long as he moved, he would inevitably attract a series of blows.

Hojo Tsunade sighed and said weakly, "But what if you don't move?" ”

In Sugiyama Castle, which was not far away, Uesugi Terutora looked at the quiet Bowlataki Castle and said, "Hojo Kamisuke still endured it, but what can he do if he shrinks into Bowlatajo?" Putting the 8,000 army and not daring to move is the opportunity for our army to march, and this strategy Hojo Kamisuke is wrong! If I change to the commander of my Huihu army, I will definitely shoot my horse and go out to meet the incoming enemy! ”

"The main hall of the bullet is brave and good at fighting, and the name of the Kanto is shocking, although the Hojo Kamiden is a brave general, but the military strategy is still much worse than the main hall." Sanada Yutaka said with a smile: "It is a good thing for our army that the bowl castle does not move, it is better to take this opportunity to sweep through Kita Musashi and force Hojo Kamisuke to lead the troops into battle, as long as he moves, there is a way to break it." ”

"Oh? Do you have any new ideas for Sanada Dan Main Hall? Uesugi Huihu thought for a while and said, "Surround the point to send reinforcements or transfer the tiger away from the mountain?" ”

Sanada Yutaka said: "Let's turn the tiger away from the mountain!" Only this strategy is the best strategy to deal with the Hojo Army, especially when the main force of the Hojo Army does not dare to come out to meet the attack, as long as this army is eaten, it will force the Hojo Army to give up Musashi Province, so this battle must be a big victory, and the rest will be left to the main hall. ”

In the evening of the same day, Sugi Teruto led 5,000 troops to raid Ogura Castle, and then surrounded Matsuyama Castle the next day, and the 3,000 Matsuyama people led by the Kawa clan guarded Matsuyama Castle and asked for help in several directions overnight, and then the rest of the Kira army was divided into several forces to attack around, and for a time Ninja Castle and Kawagoe Castle were raided by the Kira army.

The entire northern Musashi was swept into a war in an instant, and Daido Temple Masahiro, who had just returned to Kawagoe Town to defend it, hurriedly wrote a letter to Odawara and Hagata Castle for help, and Odawara had a message to reassure him that he was holding on to the castle, and told him not to abandon the castle until he had to, which probably meant that he fled as a last resort.

Even the governor of the Hojo clan did not have confidence, let alone the guards and defenders who were on the front line, who were dragged in Kitamusashi with the invasion of the Kira army. Many of the Hojo samurai rekindled their fighting spirit, and in the panicked siege, the samurai of the Hojo family persevered with tenacious perseverance. They did not give up hope and still looked forward to the moment when the Kira army retreated.

Kira Yoshitoki, who was in charge of Hirai Castle, only smiled lightly at the latest information that was sent. He smiled to himself: "The Hojo Army probably thought that they could hold on, but they didn't know that Yu was completely different from the Kanto governor in history, and he would not let you hold the city without retreating, and how to establish the authority of the Kanto region without defeating Musashi." ”

He still remembered that in the fourth year of Eiroku (1561), in another time and space, the Echigo army of 8,000 tigers rushed into the Kanto region under the leadership of Uesugi Terutora, and found that the troops were insufficient so he had to gather the Kwantung people coalition army in the name of the Kanto Governor to attack Odawara Castle, and his choice was to abandon Musashi Province and the Hojo Army that was stubbornly defending in Sagami and focus on Odawara Castle. It was hoped that the capture of Odawara would end the short life of the Sagami Hojo clan.

It's a pity that the idealist in history ushered in a fruitless siege under Odawara Castle, and the chaos and ulterior motives of the people of the Kanto Kingdom doomed him to only a defeat, and the Hojo Army guarded by Musashi Province and Sagami was the biggest cornerstone of the Hojo family's turnaround, and it didn't take long for him to retreat.

The background is different, the situation is naturally different, Kira Yoshitoki is not afraid of the Hojo clan's iron bucket formation tactics, he is confident that he will cut a gap in the Hojo family's iron bucket formation, tearing apart their proud defense system, he believes that under the irreversible general trend, the Hojo clan will definitely reap the bitter fruit of his carefully customized failure.

It turned out that Kira Yoshitoki's judgment was not wrong, and he was in a half-month rush. The lord of Ninja Castle, Narita Nagatai, was the first to surrender and pull up a wave of rebellion from the Musashi Kuni Belt and Road Party, followed by the rebellion of Ueda Asano, the former lord of Matsuyama Castle, and suddenly opened the castle. He was surprised to find that most of the people in Matsuyama were on the side of Ueda Asa, and these rebels almost captured him alive, so he had to retract to Honmaru to resist to the death.

Seeing that the Kira army outside the city converged with the rebels of the Matsuyama people and killed in the city, the governance skills of the Kawa clan as the lord of the city were not very good, but the escape route arranged for himself was first-class and powerful, two years earlier in the Takayama battle after finding out that the Hojo family was not the opponent of the Kira family, he secretly built a secret passage in Matsuyama Castle to facilitate the escape of the army when besieged, and the Miwa clan knew that the general situation had gone and escaped from the secret passage with relatives and a small number of cronies.

His run pushed the recalcitrant Matsuyama people in Honmaru to the edge of the cliff, and a few of these unlucky samurai stood in front and reacted slower to be killed on the spot, and when they shrank behind, they hurriedly surrendered when they saw that the situation was not right, and they couldn't find the castle lord, and the Kira army easily took this important town of Northern Musashi with a small loss, indicating that the direction of this war began to fall towards the unfavorable side of the Hojo family.

With a series of military victories by the Kira army, successfully breaking the delusion of the Hojo army's stubborn resistance to the end, Hojo Tsunashi in the bowl fell into contradictions, and the successive letters for help and various bad news brought by the envoys made the defenders of the bowl castle more and more anxious and confused, and the city broke out from time to time with quarrels and brawls, which meant that the samurai fell into a nervous, anxious and angry restlessness, even with his high prestige.

The Hojo clan said anxiously: "Uncle! Nephew, please send troops at once! Once Kawagoe Castle is lost, half of Musashi has already fallen into the hands of the Kira army, and if it continues to be held like this, the army's spirit will collapse! The main force of the Kira army is besieging Kawagoe Castle, and we have the best time to act at this time! ”

Tsunaga, Hojo sighed, "Yes! It's time to get moving! If you don't move, you may really have no chance, but then the bowl city will definitely be lost...... The herald ordered the army to prepare for tomorrow's march, and not a single grain of military rations should be left! Also, to appease the townspeople, don't rob the townspeople of their property, we still have to come back after all! ”

Looking at the back of the Hojo clan Kuniko leaving in a hurry, Hojo Tsunashi could only helplessly prepare for the retreat of the army, his original intention was to wait a little longer to see the situation and find out the main action rules of the Kira army before acting, but the current situation did not give him any chance at all, not to mention that the uncertain Uesugi Terutora did not know where he was, just saying that the 20,000 troops in Hirai Castle in Ueno Province, which was not far away, was enough to make him sleep.

Hirai Castle is only half a day's journey from Mt. Castle, and it doesn't take a day to travel from Mt. Huntai Castle to Matsuyama Castle, and Kira Yoshitomi, who is sitting in Hirai Castle, can come to the bowl castle in less than two days with just one action, and the speed is not a problem, the problem is that there is no intelligence support, and I don't know if the Kira army will move. When and what should I do?

In Kira's words, this is a typical information asymmetric war. It was a state in which the Kira Army was completely crushed in terms of intelligence formed under the premise of various advantages. A brave general like Hojo Tsunaru relied on Jiancheng and didn't have the confidence to persevere, which shows that the gap between the two sides is so big that the Hojo family feels desperate.

Hojo Tsunari's bizarre appearance soon attracted the attention of Kira ninjas, and not long after the strange actions of the Hojo Army, Uesugi Terutora on Kokura Castle in Taiheirayama received accurate information that the 5,000 troops that had been prepared for a long time were waiting to ambush him on the way south for the Hojo Army.

It's just that he didn't expect Hojo Tsusunari to be so alert, and he chose to sneak around the path on the side of Xianyuan Mountain to the west of Taiping Mountain, this mountain road has fallen into disrepair for a long time, and with the spring flowers, the land has become very muddy, and it is usually not used as a marching road. But Hojo Tsunashi really used this inconspicuous mountain road, if it weren't for the Kira ninja hanging behind him to pass on the information in time, he would really have deceived the Kira army who was ambushed on Taiping Mountain.

Uesugi Terutora received the information and made timely adjustments, and marched south from Taiheishan Mountain to rush to Taamime Castle before the army of Hojo Tsunade Castle rushed to Taamime Castle, and rushed to Enmeiji Temple outside Taamime Castle, and according to the strategy he discussed with Sanada Yukitaka, he sent dozens of horseback samurai disguised as envoys to Taamime Castle to ask for reinforcements.

In a matter of moments, Taamime Castle became the new castle of the Kira Army, and the lord of Taamime Castle, Tanimoto Shige, and his Lang Party were locked up in the Iwaguchi Shrine outside the castle, leaving only 500 Yoshira Castle soldiers to be stationed in the castle disguised as the Hojo Army. Uesugi Terutora led the remaining 4,500 Yoshira troops who still sat in Enmeiji Temple to wait for work.

In the afternoon of the same day, Hojo Tsusunari took the tired and hungry Hojo Army to Taba Castle to stay at it, and Hojo Tsusunari felt very strange when he saw that Sukuya Shigetsu was a little unnatural to greet the army. So he asked, "Huh?" Why didn't you see the right guard hall of Sukuya? I haven't missed it since the first day of the new year! ”

"This ...... My brother was not feeling well and was recuperating in the city, so he came down to greet the upper temple. Sugu Shigeri stumbled and said: "Please go to the palace and the temple to rest in the city, and the soup bath and wine banquet have been prepared for the two of you, and it will be held soon." ”

The Hojo clan rode a war horse for a whole day, and was overjoyed when he heard the news, "Really? That's great! Let's get inside! I'm sore now, I just want to eat a big meal, take a shower, and get a good night's sleep! ”

"Yes! I didn't even have time to eat lunch, and I'm hungry now! The samurai of the Hojo Army also relaxed and whispered and laughed, and after a while, they entered Taamime Castle under the leadership of Sukuya Shigetoshi, and it was normal for people to relax when they arrived at their destination, but this normal situation was very dangerous.

But Hojo Tsusunari always stood still, he frowned and pondered for a moment and suddenly said, "Wait! Something seems wrong! How did Sugudian know that our army had marched here, and how did he prepare the soup bath and wine banquet in advance? I didn't send an envoy to contact you, where did you get the news! ”

"Oops! I said I leaked! Sukutani Shigetoshi secretly scolded himself for being stupid, and when he looked back, he saw that the Kira Army samurai in the castle who was pretending to be the Hojo Army suddenly drew his sword and slashed at the Hojo Army beside him, and Nagao Keijin yelled: "Send a signal!" Do it now! ”

"Kill!" A short word revealed the identity of the Kira army, and the samurai of the Kira family immediately ripped off the cyan camouflage on his body, revealing the black armor leaf and the white Ashikaga Nichiji family pattern, and the hooded Hojo clan felt great humiliation and anger, and pulled out the sword and shouted angrily: "The thief of the Kira family is killed!" ”

Hojo Tsusunari secretly scolded himself for being too careless, and even forgot that the Kira family was the best at using trickery and conspiracy, while commanding the army in the city to organize a counterattack, while forcing the Hojo army blocked outside the city to climb the city immediately, at this time, if it was blocked outside Taamime Castle and did not rely on it, this night would really be certain death.

Suddenly, there was a firecracker explosion at the head of the city, and the next moment the Kira army in the woods on both sides outside the Otemen Gate suddenly came out, and Hojo Tsunari's complexion changed greatly, and he immediately ordered the Hojo army outside the city to turn around and meet the enemy, but this delay The entire formation became a mess, and Hojo Tsusunari's heart was angry but there was nothing he could do.

At this time, the gap in morale was highlighted, the Kira army was full of morale and strong will to fight by waiting for work, food and contention, and the Hojo army dragged the small pack pack team and could not run fast and trekked through the mountains all day, frightened and scared, tired and hungry, even sixty percent of the basic combat strength could not be played, the formation was not in order, the morale was not high, and the Hojo army was tired and hungry had no confidence to resist the attack of the Kira army.

Arakawa Matashiro tugged at his reins, his eyes widened and shouted, "Run away, Shogun!" Flee back to Odawara and move in to the rescue to avenge us! ”

"Run? Where is Ben going to flee? The clan is still trapped in the city and can't escape, I Gangcheng is entrusted by the lord to take care of him, if the clan has a mistake, what kind of face will he have to flee back to Odawara Castle? Hojo Tsunaru sighed: "It seems that today is the last day of my Tsunado!" (To be continued......)