The samurai of the Asai army also went to bed early after a busy night, and there were still many injured samurai in the large camp on the mountain who needed to rest early, because the lack of necessary medical conditions on the mountain made the medical officers in the camp could only do simple bandaging and disinfection for them.

It stands to reason that there should be no problem in doing this, the strength of less than 7,000 troops on the mountain plus the 5,000 troops under the mountain is enough to resist the surprise attack of the Kira army, and the separation of the mountain and the mountain is an effective way to deal with the surprise attack, if the Kira family does not come, it is okay, as long as he dares to rush over, whether it is to raid the Isono Yuanshosho who blocked the road up the mountain, or to go around the mountain to raid the protection of Asai Nagamasa, he will have to face a counter-raid from the other direction.

Not to mention that the location of Isano Yuanchang's camp is very ingenious, and the setting up of secret posts on several dense forest slopes nearby will shroud a large area in the eastern part of Shidake Mountain within the scope of the police circle, as long as there is wind and grass nearby, it will immediately be transmitted to the ears of Isono Yuanchang, and the movement of tens of thousands of troops at night is very large, no matter how careful you are, you can't completely cover all the sounds, as long as there is a sound, you can't escape the ears and eyes of Isono Yuanchang.

However, Asai Nagamasa still missed a move, and the defense system of Shidake Mountain was not perfect.

In the middle of summer, the sky dawned relatively early, only four o'clock when the sky had a little sign of light, this is the last ray of darkness before dawn, the silent night will come to an end in just half an hour, the soldiers of the Asai Army vigil are cold and hungry and drowsy for most of the night, their heads are only thinking about the warm quilt and a bowl of fragrant hot soup, this is the moment when their spirits are most relaxed.

It's the hottest summer of the year. When you walk in armor for a while, you will be covered in sweat. Therefore, the armor worn by both samurai and ashigaru is very thin. But such thin clothes are very comfortable at the bottom of the mountain, but once you go up the mountain, it becomes troublesome, and such thin clothes can't cover the cold mountain wind at all.

Because Mt. Shidake is located between Lake Biwa and Lake Yuwu, the water vapor evaporated by the lake that has been scorched by the sun all day condenses into dew drops in the middle of the night, and after standing in the camp for a while, the body becomes very damp, and the night watchman Ashigaru holds three guns and shiveres, and his body is wet and cold and very uncomfortable, and they hope to squeeze in the direction of the fire. Occasional glimpses of samurai curled up and napping in front of the fire are filled with envy.

The young Ashigaru held the bamboo spear and trembled and said to his companion, "I really want to lie down in front of the fire and sleep for a while!" Even if it's just for a moment! I don't know what's going on, my head is groggy and seems to be very uncomfortable. ”

"Ahh Worst! Sick! His companion shuddered and said in annoyance, "This is a trouble! Once you get sick and can't get up for a few days, the samurai will definitely get angry! ”

Another young man said in a hoarse voice, "I've been sick for a long time!" Now I'm shaking all over, my head is hot, and my legs don't seem to be my own, so I think I should take a break early! Otherwise, you may fall headlong and not be able to get up! ”

A few more people came around and whispered, "Why don't we go and talk to the samurai?" I can't hold my body, but something is going to happen! ”

"This is a cold disease, as long as you cook some ginger soup and drink it for the rest of your life, it won't take a few days to get better." The middle-aged Ashigaru of the older man didn't seem to be a little cold in his thick clothes, and when he saw that the young Ashigaru was blue and shivering, he complained: "I said that I asked you to bring a few more clothes, but I said that my bags were full and I didn't want to bring them." ”

These young people muttered a few words in a low voice, and were just about to walk over. was pulled by a short man: "Don't go!" Let's let me Shinzaburo go! The samurai lord is angry, and he only rushes at me! Anyway, let a few of our patients in the same village rest for a night, and there will be problems with the body if you carry it so hard! ”

So the little man rushed to the fire and negotiated with the samurai. After a while, a fierce quarrel was heard, and it seemed that the samurai who was sleeping was very upset that Ashigaru's begging disturbed his dreams, and several samurai jumped up and kicked the little man to the ground, beating him and cursing in his mouth.

When these young ashigaru saw this posture, they panicked and hurriedly surrounded to dissuade them, and were pulled out by several samurai and hid aside in a burst of intimidation, and the middle-aged ashigaru shouted, "Stop fighting!" Stop it! If you keep fighting, something will happen! Keep fighting...... Shinzaburo! Shinzaburo is no more! Come and see! ”

The short man named Shinzaburo Ashigaru was beaten and spat blood, and he breathed more and less breath, and he seemed to be choking, and those samurai seemed to feel a little too much after getting out of bed, so they dropped a handful of copper coins and let the two ashigaru take him to the camp for healing, and as for the other Ashigaru's requests, he was rejected without hesitation, and he must keep vigil until dawn, and there must be no discount.

These hard-working ashigaru didn't dare to resist, even if they saw their companions being beaten to death, they just dared to be angry and didn't dare to speak, let them continue to resist hard, it would be in vain to be killed, and the samurai lords who led them to military service were temporarily arranged to guard on the other side, these samurai were not these ashigaru lords of the village would definitely not take much care of their bodies.

The angry Ashigaru shrank into the corner with resentment and kept silent, several people walked back and forth trying to make the body warmer, and the middle-aged Ashigaru said helplessly: "Shinzaburo is a hard-working child, I watched him grow up, this child died his father when he was a child, and his mother remarried the old widower Katsuhachi at the head of the village, Katsuhachi's family has three sons who are much older than him, and Shinzaburo has been bullied by the three brothers of Katsuhachi's family since he was a child."

It's just that in this case, his life won't be too hard, but his mother only remarried a few years ago and died in a plague, Shinzaburo has become the adopted son of the Katsuhachi family from this, that old widower's foundation is not clean, and he has been colluding with the wild robbers on Ibuki Mountain all year round to do some bad things, and it is even more difficult for Shinzaburo to live without anyone to take care of him at home, do you see him so short? It was all when I was growing my body, I was starving and starving, and my body was starving. ”

"Huh! How did Uncle Shinnosuke know so clearly? It can't be that he likes Shinzaburo and his mother, right? ”

"It seems like that's really the case, but I often hear Uncle Shinnosuke scold Katsuhachi bastard, and say that a good woman is ruined......"

Shinnosuke said angrily, "You boys are going to make fun of your uncle. I won't tell you stories anymore. ”

When the ashigaru people are entertaining themselves. Suddenly, I felt that in the woods outside the camp, birds and birds suddenly fluttered up. Shinnosuke raised his head and looked at the flying birds that rose into the air for a long time, and the young ashichi quipped softly, "Uncle Shinnosuke can't be said by us and others to have nothing to say!" What are you staring at the birds in the world! ”

A few ashigaru chuckled in a low voice, but saw Shinnosuke frowning and said, "It's strange, how can there be birds flying in the middle of the night?" That's not right! ”

"Who knows! Maybe it's almost dawn, and I'm going to go out of the nest to catch insects and eat them! ”

Shinnosuke asked, "Have you ever seen a bird that comes out of its nest in the middle of the night to catch insects?" Konoha owls don't count. ”

"It seems that there is none, so what could it be? Nakshatra? Devil? Or ......" A few young ashishiki huddled together, in fear of the unknown, instinctively gathering together in exchange for a small sense of security.

"It may be ......" Shinnosuke didn't finish his words when he suddenly opened his eyes wide and pointed at the samurai who rushed out of the woods not far away. He stammered, "It's the enemy...... Raid! ”

A large group of black pressed samurai continued to rush out of the woods, they played a very dazzling Ashikaga two lead two flags, drew out a snow-bright sword spear to face the frightened guard Ashigaru is knife down, a few frightened Ashigaru didn't even scream before the head separated, the black armor samurai was splashed with blood but didn't even frown, calmly pulled out the sword and rushed to the gate keeper who was napping in the fire, a few short screams sounded and added a few sword souls.

Behind this group of samurai was the black armor Ashigaru who kept coming up, and they followed closely behind the assault samurai and rushed into the camp, and then hundreds of horseback samurai appeared outside the camp with a general, and under the general's shout, hundreds of horseback samurai turned into a dozen squads and rushed into the camp to kill people and set fire. The general's name is Nakajo Dewa Punctuality.

No one would have thought that Nakajo Shixiu would not know where to touch the side of Shidake Mountain, let alone that he would be able to endure until midnight and suddenly launch a night attack. The point of entry he chose was the other road up the mountain behind the mountain, which was the only dead end of the perfect defensive circle built by the Asai army, and this dead end could only be maintained for one night at most, and as soon as the morning dawned, Asai Nagamasa would inevitably reorganize the hastily constructed camp, and this dead end would also be blocked at that time.

The information that Yamamoto Tokiyuki received on the Great Rock Mountain yesterday afternoon was passed on by him, reminding Yamamoto Tokiyuki that he could use this opportunity to boldly make a time difference, and Yamamoto Tokiyuki quickly agreed to his proposal and made a series of cooperations, one afternoon plus half a night to successfully attract all the attention of the Asai Army, and to strike a fatal blow when they were exhausted.

It must be said that his attack was indeed a fatal blow, and the sudden divine soldier general beat the Asai family dizzy, and the samurai who were tired and hungry after a whole day of tossing and turning were a little sluggish, and looked at the Kira army in a daze, and they didn't know what to do at all.

Asai Nagamasa slept very well, slept soundly and heavily, and didn't hear any movement in the camp at all, until a few small surnames hurriedly woke him up and brought cold towels to wipe it several times, only to wake up the confused consciousness, heard the screams of ghosts crying wolves in the camp, Asai Nagamasa immediately realized that something was wrong.

"Oops! It must be Yamamoto Tokiyuki who went around to the aftermath to raid the camp! The people who guarded Isono Tanba couldn't even detect the sneak attack in the direction of Oiwayama......" Asai Nagamasa's brain was a little confused, and he turned around and frowned while pacing back and forth: "It shouldn't be like this!" It's not the first time that Isono Tanba Mamoru has commanded troops, so he shouldn't have made such a low-level mistake, even if there is really a problem and there are Dingno Wakasa Mamoru, Hyakuba Uchizosuke, and Endo Kiemon, they will definitely try to prevent this kind of mistake. ”

Asai Nagamasa's cronies ran in from outside the tent and said in a panic: "Lord, it's not good! There was also a fight in the camp below the mountain! ”

Yasuaki Yasuaki, who was close to the other side, also came over and said, "My lord! It's chaos in the camp right now, what should we do? ”

Seeing that the performance of several cronies and retainers was so poor, Asai Nagamasa felt more and more unhappy in his heart, and secretly scolded these guys for having nothing to do with them to have fun, and once they went to the battlefield, they were full of ugliness and embarrassed him, the governor, and couldn't help frowning and scolding: "What do you look like in a panic!" Isn't this family trying to figure it out...... Dress me in armor first! Whether it's fighting or retreating, how can you do it without wearing armor! ”

Several cronies hurriedly dressed him in armor, and before the armor was passed on, he saw Akao Kiyotsuna suddenly come out of the corner. Dressed in a mess, he looks like he's just been through a battle. Panting and said, "Lord! The Kira army in the large camp attacked fiercely. I'm about to run out of things! Please prepare for a retreat! ”

Asai Nagamasa said in surprise: "The situation is so serious? Didn't you say that the number of raiders was small? ”

"It's really not much, at most 3,000 people, but the leader of the troops is Nakajo Dewa Punctuality, and there is a very powerful Taidao samurai under his command, we can't stop the edge of these three samurai!" Akao Kiyotsuna sighed and said, "Taking advantage of the turmoil under the mountain, let's quickly withdraw from the mountain!" ”

"No! It must not be withdrawn! The withdrawal of the family will either let Isono Tanba Mamoru die in battle, or the family itself will die in Mt. Shidake! The Asai family can't withstand such a heavy blow and must find a way to hold on! Asai Nagamasa is still stubbornly insisting. This made the samurai of the Asai family feel helpless.

But the current situation has far exceeded his imagination, when Asai Nagamasa just walked out of the big tent, he saw Nakajo Shixiu rushing in his direction with hundreds of samurai, and immediately hundreds of samurai of the Asai family consciously surrounded him, protecting Asai Nagamasa in a circle, Nakajo Toshimasa was blocked several times, and the samurai who were not afraid of death and the square circle formation that shrunk into a group made him feel helpless.

Wearing large armor, Shioka Kazuha and Hayashizaki Shisuke, one left and one right supported Nakajo Tokihide's side, and behind them there were dozens of samurai who were good at using the sword, and the assault array they promoted was not at all worried about being counter-surrounded even if it could not penetrate the Fangyuan formation of the Asai army, and the powerful force could only break out after the scale was formed. Nakajo Tokihide is using this way to tell everyone that the original intention of practicing swordsmanship is to better kill enemies on the battlefield. In this era, there are only murderous swords, and there are no living swords.

At this time, the sky was already slightly bright, and the white fish belly in the east indicated that a new day was coming, and the tenacity of the Asai army was completely beyond the expectations of Nakajo Tokihide, and the three thousand surprise attack army failed to defeat the Asai army for half an hour, and the tenacity of the people of the North Omi Province surprised many samurai of the Kira family.

Nakajo Tokihide's action this time was actually at great risk, because Ika Prefecture was very close to Tsuruga County in Echizen Province, and Nakajo Tokihide's troops had to make a big detour when they infiltrated Omi Province, and during this period, they had to climb mountains and mountains to avoid the sphere of influence of Echizen Province to come to Omi Province, so this fierce and powerful army was actually completely unlogistically supported.

When the soldiers eat food and fight the war, they must pay the soldiers first, otherwise the samurai are unwilling to move, and they are not motivated, but Nakajo Shixiu is in this difficult situation to take the army over the mountains and mountains to kill, he relies on the soldiers to bring a few days of dry food, and now there is not much left to eat, if you eat up the food you brought, then you can only imitate the defeated soldiers and rely on the food of the indiscriminate capture of peasants to eat enough.

The so-called one drum and then three and exhaustion, Nakajo Shixiu originally this surprise attack was a dangerous move, the three thousand army is the heart of the bottom, there is no rice in the belly, always unable to beat down, morale will inevitably be bruised, encountered the resolute resistance of the Asai army made them lose the opportunity to completely seize the camp, the next meal did not know which stove to start.

In this case, even Nakajo Shixiu is helpless, it is already luck to be able to come up with such a bold surprise attack tactic and successfully execute it, it is too embarrassing to expect him to have another good fortune to kill the stubborn Asai army, seeing that the sky is bright and there is no more chance, Nakajo Shixiu retreats according to the original way.

Asai Nagamasa was also forced to have no choice, the food was burned down by a fire, and he camped even more, he couldn't let thousands of troops be savages on the mountains to satisfy their hunger with wild fruits, and he also saw that this Kira army was ready to retreat the same way, and he himself was unable to pursue this surprise army, so he ordered the army to hold on to various places without recklessness, and made a move to leave if he wanted to.

He would make this choice is also a helpless move, the Asai army really has no way to continue the pursuit, most of the grain and grass in the camp have been burned, countless soldiers have been killed and wounded, and many camp tents have been burned, the losses caused are incalculable, and the thoughts of the people of the country are floating, and there is no intention to force this night attack army to stay, since they want to stay and can't stay, it is better to pretend to be generous and let them go.

Nakajo Tokihide went down the mountain along the mountain road on the west side and retreated in the direction of Yuwu Lake, Lin also sent a signal to retreat before retreating, dozens of firecrackers named Zuo Yoshicho, Yamamoto Tokiyuki received the signal and knew that the surprise attack army failed to capture the camp and retreated, so he immediately ordered the whole army to retreat and give up the strong attack on the Asai army under the mountain.

This battle was then named the Battle of Zhiyue, the two sides invested more than 30,000 troops, including 12,000 people in the Asai side, a total of more than 2,800 people were killed, more than 4,000 people were injured, and most of the grain and grass were burned and the losses were heavy.

However, the two armies on the side of the Kira army totaled more than 19,000 people, more than 900 killed and more than 1,700 wounded.

The Asai army was half-consumed, not only lost a lot of grain and grass in the loss of soldiers, but also regained the prestige of the battle of Norada, but as the only samurai who could hold out in the night raid of the Kira army, the young and tough Asai Nagamasa was still firmly remembered by many daimyo in Kinai. (To be continued......)