"Huh? Ran away? If he runs, won't my long work be gone? That's not going to work! That's not going to work! Honjo put the soup cake into his mouth in two bites, and after drinking the fish soup in one goo, he shook his hand and got up to lead the troops in pursuit, but fortunately he was stopped by Uesugi Terutoka.

Uesugi Teruhu took out a handkerchief to wipe the soup stains on the corner of his mouth, and then slowly stood up and said: "No need to chase, this is the hintch area of the Sagami River on the west bank that has entered the Hojo family, and it is easy to catch the Hojo army's tricks if you chase it, so it's better to let them go back!" ”

"Isn't it a bit of a loss to let them retreat safely like this!" Honjo waved his arm in frustration to vent his dissatisfaction, and sat back in his place angrily and complained while eating fish soup and soup cakes: "A big victory has turned into an empty gun, and I knew that I should cross the river at the same time." ”

Kakizaki Keijia patted him on the shoulder and said with a smile: "Don't talk stupid words, you kid don't talk stupidly, it's easy to be discovered by the Wind Demon Ninja when you divide your troops to cross the river in advance, and the Hojo Army will only withdraw faster and more urgently, and it will take two or three hours to transport troops when you cross the river together. ”

The Hojo Army's stride retreated so fast that the scout cavalry sent by Uesugi Terutora chased the Hojo Army's ass to the outside of Odawara Castle only to see the black pressure of the army waiting to enter the city, in order to run faster and more convenient, the Hojo clan Masashi simply gave up the camp of the Hojo Army together, this simple decisiveness and determination is enough to completely explode the daimyo of the same era in ninety percent.

In the abandoned Hojo camp, there were still tens of thousands of stones, grain, grass and all kinds of ordnance camping equipment, all kinds of living utensils in the tents of the soldiers, spare weapons, and the small vaults hidden by the samurai were not taken away. There were also ingredients prepared the night before, ready to cook for the soldiers in the morning, and left in place without anyone to take care of them. The entire battalion went to the camp empty, and all the cheap Kira army.

At noon that day, more than 35,000 troops had a feast at the Hojo Army camp near Wuliangji Temple. It took another night to dismantle the entire camp, including the wooden stakes and ropes, all of which were loaded into a flatbed truck and taken away.

This is in line with his past development of the green hair tax, and advocating the idea of making money and saving first, and the samurai who grew up starving and freezing always have a little bit of saving in their bones, even if there is such a living god of wealth as Kira Yoshitoki to make life better and better, but some living habits will not be easily changed.

The retreat of the Hojo clan was still a huge spiritual blow to the people of Sagami country. When Musashi Province was lost, the Hojo clan said that there was absolutely no problem with Sagami, and when East Sagami was lost, he said that the Hojo army could hold the Sagami River, and now that the Sagami River has been penetrated, the Hojo clan retreated to Odawara Castle with 20,000 troops that were only lightly damaged, and how to let the people of Sagami Country continue to support with peace of mind.

At this time, it happened to be the most important autumn harvest of the year, and the samurai of the Sagami and Izu clans all ran home with their own ashigaru hulala, and the army left in Odawara Castle was only more than 7,000 people, and the remaining Hojo army was either a die-hard supporter of the Hojo family because the conditions did not allow it, which means that the control of the Hojo family is now declining.

The atmosphere in Odawara Castle Town has a tendency to deteriorate, forcing Hojo Shiyasu to send Hojo Hanan to contact the Sagami people and Izu people. By promising to appease and other means, he resettled the hearts of the 21 Sagami and 14 Izu families, and promised to return to Odawara Castle at the end of the autumn harvest.

On the other hand. The Hojo clan decided to give up the territory in the Kamijo Province to return to Odawara Castle, and the 7,000 Hojo troops in Kururi Castle and the Kamitsu Province left the Fangsu Peninsula by boat overnight, so that they gathered 14,000 elite divisions who could fight well, and punished several low-level samurai who were bewitching the public in succession in the Hojo clan, and personally appeared in Odawara Castle to do communication and guidance work, so as to win the hearts of the people back into their own hands.

As the first male castle in Tokaido and in the hands of Hojo Shiyasu, who is good at defending and counterattacking, this Odawara Castle can indeed be called the first fortified castle in the world, of course, this is also related to the strange shape of Odawara Castle that is very different from other fortified castles.

Odawara Castle is Hirayama Castle, which is neither a water castle surrounded by water like Sakamoto, nor a mountain castle that occupies the entire high mountain like Kasugayama Castle, but a large castle built on a relatively high plateau, and it was not the Sagami Hojo clan that originally established Odawara Castle, but Kobayakawa Enpei, one of the Sakato Hachihei clans in the Genpei period.

During the Uesugi Zenhide War in the 23rd year of Tsuoei (1416), the Tohi clan, which belonged to the Uesugi Zenhide side, was uprooted, and in the 24th year of Tsuneei (1417), Omori Yoriharu was enclosed for his merits and established Odawara Castle and expanded his power in Sagami Izu.

Later, it was suddenly captured by Hojo Sakumo called Ise Sheng, and one day after mastering Izu Province in the fourth year of Ming Yu (1495), he pretended to be going to hunt wild deer and led his army into Sagami Country, and suddenly launched a surprise attack on Odawara Castle and took the opportunity to capture Omori Fujiyori, I have to say that there is a problem with the head of this Omori clan, and such a strange method really made Hojo Sakumo do it.

Hojo Sakumo's capture of Odawara Castle marked the beginning of the large-scale expansion of the Hojo family, and in the past 60 years, Odawara Castle has undergone repeated renovations, gradually forming a special design similar to the general structure designed by Kyoto Shichiguchi, the so-called general structure is the use of the combination of the castle and the fortress to surround the surrounding area to form a satellite city to defend the main castle of the stars and the moon.

There are complete sets of living facilities such as castle towns inside the castle, and defense facilities such as Mizubori and Ishigaki are set up near the castle towns outside the castle town, and the entrance and exit design is more complex to form a set of more rigorous system and more rigorous castle structure, which is very similar to the structure of Kyoto Seven Mouths, when Tu Yi Kui relied on mastering the seven mouths of Kyoto to force the imperial court and the shogunate to finally compromise, but Kyoto is not a fortified castle for military purposes after all, and although the internal system is well organized, it does not have a high military role in the overall structure.

Odawara Castle is very large, not at all like ordinary Japanese castles, the area of nearly 10 square kilometers is many times larger than Kasuga Yama Castle, and the first phase of Edo Castle that Kira Yoshitoki is building is only 20 square kilometers, which shows that the Hojo family's ingenuity in renovating Odawara Castle is definitely a unique talented person in this era.

The castle has tens of thousands of people in reserve to eat food rations for two years, as well as abundant water resources, mainly because this Hirayama Castle is on the west side of Sagami Bay, and the actual distance from the sea is not more than 200 meters, and there is a pier and a small port town by the sea to provide necessary support for the Hojo family.

This also means that if you want to surround Odawara Castle, you must seal all the openings outside the city, otherwise the Hojo family can rely on the support of external forces to transport a steady stream of food, medicine and other things needed, but if you want to seal Odawara Castle, there is no army that is several times larger, it is absolutely impossible to seal it.

After comprehensive consideration, Uesugi Terutora led an army of 35,000 and did not immediately blockade Odawara Castle, but set up a large camp on the west bank of the Sakuza River on the Ashigara Plain, and sent 15,000 troops to lead Kakizaki Keiya, Saito Asanobu, and Ota Shimasa to attack and sweep away the Hojo family tree in the country.

The peasants of Sagami Province were frightened by the fierce Kira army, and the people of all over the country saw that the grain had just been harvested and dried before it was sent to the barn, and they ran into the large-scale invasion and surprise attack of the Kira army.

The elimination of the resistance army basically completed the deterrent task assigned by Uesugi Terutora, and the next time was to show a "civilized army", and the envoys of the Kira army acted as the second battle to go to various villages to do persuasion work, and cooperated with the Kira army to ensure that they had a lot of money and food, and could also compensate for the economic losses in the war, and the peasants of Sagami country were a little moved.

In the final analysis, this war is a war between lords, and it doesn't matter which lord is in power for the peasants at the bottom of the society, it can't compare to the desire to eat, clothe, and reproduce, but there are still many farmers who have a good impression of Hojo Shiyasu, the "Kanto civil affairs family", and the four people and six people he made have greatly benefited the farmers, and the Kira family is still the six people and the four people are a little mean and difficult to accept, but the economic and agricultural miracle made by the Kira family in Echigo made these farmers a little reluctant, Conflicted, I don't know which one to choose.

Uesugi Teruto, as the general of the army all the way, even if he is the head of the pedigree writer, he can't change his basic nature as a general, and he basically doesn't interfere with what kind of strategy the pursuers should implement against Sagami country, but he doesn't ask, the farmers of Sagami country can hesitate with heart-warming thoughts is victory, and it is too mean to do this step as an invader without victory, after all, the Hojo family has experienced four generations of hard work in Sagami country for more than 60 years, and if it weren't for the Kira family's suddenness, its own influence would be so strong, Just with the Sagami Hojo clan, the cohesion is not given for nothing.

This sweeping strategy quickly worked, and the large and small castles on the Ashigara Plains were uprooted one by one, and he didn't care about the mountain castles in the Ashigara Mountains and the Hakone Mountains, and those mountain castles were hidden on the top of the mountains as a purely military significance, and their role was to serve as a defense for the purpose of territorial defense, blocking attacks from the direction of Izu and Suruga provinces, and basically had no effect on the war in Sagami's country, and it was more practical to think about controlling the Ashigara Plains in Sagami Province as much as possible than to spend time and effort fighting these mountain castles that raised their guard. (To be continued......)

PS: Good reward, Ume has to thank the book friends for the tip, Hattori Masanari, Jane Eyre Demon, and Xiao Zimu, such a powerful reward, this month Ume will definitely fulfill his promise!