The Akagawa River is the main main stream between Tagawa-gun and Murayama-gun, originating from Mt. Higashidake near Echigo Province, and the upper reaches of Akagawa River is another huge Lake Gassan near Nishikawa, Murayama-gun, which is also known as the Hanhejiang, and the Hankawae Oe clan originated on the east bank of this lake.

The peaks on both sides of the Hanhe River are all over the place, among them there is a Ba Yang Mountain is very famous, about the name of the top Ba Yu originates from here, near the five-color swamp on the west bank of the Ba Yang Mountain, a group of troops marched slowly along the mountain road, their banners were scattered and disheveled, many people's heads and arms were still wrapped in blood-soaked gauze, they were the defeated Date army.

Date Huizong rode his mount at the front of the team, his armor was very neat and did not suffer any injuries, but the smudges on the armor were smoky and burned but could not be covered for a while, the overall image was a decadent remnant of the defeated army, behind him were more than 2,400 troops, all wounded and demoralized.

Speaking of which, the impact on the Date army is relatively small, because the location of the large camp is relatively remote, so when the Kira army launched a night attack, so that Date Terumune had enough time to respond, and by the time Takigawa Shiyi arrived at the camp of the Date army with the red reserve cavalry, he would have escaped with his own army, if it weren't for Takigawa Shiyi, a guy who violated common sense, relying on the speed of the cavalry and biting the Date army tightly and not letting go, maybe he could still get out of the way.

Just bitten by Takigawa Shiyi's Chibei cavalry, it almost made the Date army dumplings by more cavalry who came later, if it weren't for Date Huizong's decision to break his tail and survive at a critical moment, Mo said that he would exchange the lives of 600 people for 2,000 people to escape, even he himself would have to explain outside Opu City.

I watched the sky gradually brighten. The troops who tossed in the middle of the night to escape from death were extremely tired. Date Terumune ordered the army to rest in this five-color swamp. Riding a horse to the hillside to look out at the beautiful lake and marsh created by nature, the blue waves rippling in the morning breeze.

Mt. Kumano is a volcanic lake surrounded by a col between Mt. Kumano at a height of 1,840 meters and Mt. Karita at Mt. Karita at 1,758 meters.

Date Mimoto walked over with two rice balls wrapped in lotus leaves. said: "Lord, I'm tired from running around all day, let's eat something and then hurry!" ”

"I'm not tired, not tired at all." Date Huizong pursed his lips and forcibly stopped his tired body from shaking, how could he not be tired or hungry after running all night, but he is now the head of the family, and he needs to maintain the majesty of being a family governor at all times, so even if he is tired and hungry, he has to ride a horse to run here to blow a cool breeze, which is the only way that the young family governor can do after a painful defeat. At least make yourself look stronger.

How much effect can his childish actions have, but his stomach growls uncontrollably. Date Mimoto looked at Date Terumune's embarrassed expression, smiled and said, "My lord, let's eat something!" We still have a long way to go, and we will strive to return to Yonezawa as soon as possible, and we will be safe until the Kira Army finishes taking care of the affairs of Tagawa-gun. ”

Date Huizong honestly jumped off the horse, holding the rice balls and devouring them, but the dignified Ida family's governor only had two rice balls for breakfast, which seemed too shabby in any case, and they had no choice but to flee in a hurry and discarded a large number of baggage and small pack loads, as well as grain and grass, in the big camp, and they could have this rice ball still squeezed out from between their teeth.

The night attack was so fast and so rapid that no one had more time to react, and it was not easy for Date Terumune to remember that it was not easy to retreat with the army, and as for the heavy grain and grass, it was really powerless, and many ashigaru escaped without even putting on the imperial loan, and the waist bento they carried with them was also forgotten in the busyness, so most of the ashigaru could only go to the mountains hungry to pick wild fruits and dig wild vegetables, and some people ran to the five-colored swamp to catch fish and make a fire to get some hot food to eat.

Eating two rice balls in three or two bites is just a preliminary suppression of hunger, for a half-old child of his age is the time to eat, and two more rice balls can be eaten in three or two bites, but he didn't ask for a few more rice balls to eat, because he knew that the current ration must be very tight, and if he made a request, he would definitely be satisfied, but then maybe it was Date Mimoto who gave him his share of rice balls to eat, and starving the family governor was a sign of destruction, and he would not do such a stupid thing for the evil appetite.

Date Huizong forcibly took his eyes off the lotus leaf wrap, took a deep breath and forgot the hunger in his stomach, and said, "The family doesn't understand, why there are so many Kira troops, didn't my father-in-law say that the Kira family would definitely not know?" Our raid plan was flawless, following the defeated army of Dahoji Temple to ambush the Kira army, and then quickly blockading the port to cut off the Kira army's communication with Echigo, and besieging the city for a month and a half also proved that our strategy was fine, otherwise the reinforcements of the Kira family would have been killed a long time ago, and the family didn't understand why there was a problem when there was no problem? ”

Sitting cross-legged on the wet and cold hillside, Date Mimoto didn't mind what would happen when his embarrassed image would be seen by outsiders, he pulled his goatee and muttered, "Your Majesty thinks there should be a problem with the blockade!" As the lord said, there is no problem with the blockade for a month and a half, and when all the monarchs thought that Oura Castle would be captured soon, and suddenly killed a large number of reinforcements from the Kira family, then the blockade must still be not done properly, maybe there are some fish hidden somewhere, and when we relax, they will mix up the Izuwa country, and then inform the information to Echigo! ”

Date Terumune also sat on the hillside without an image like Date Mimoto, complaining in annoyance: "Damn! Give me another half a month to be successful! It's a pity that the work was wasted at the most critical time! Wasting so much effort in vain ended up losing our troops, what are we trying to plan for? ”

"Speaking from the heart, Your Majesty does not approve of such a hasty action, we have learned the power of the Kira family, so we should not be rashly involved, just provide material support like the Anton family, this time we are involved so deeply but in the end we have a failure. I don't know if the home will be adversely affected. ”

So far. It's inevitable that Date Mimoto will have to say something afterthought. In the past, it wasn't that he couldn't question the strategy jointly formulated by the two generations of family governors, but now that everyone has lost, he can't be blamed for hindsight, the Kira family's power can extend to Hokuriku, Koshin, Kanto, and even Dewa, and such a powerful daimyo must try to avoid hostility even if they can't form an alliance.

Date Terumun was very dissatisfied with what his uncle said, and hung his head with a muffled snort and said, "Who knew that the Kira army would come so soon? There's no point in talking about it now! I can only hope that my father-in-law can get out of danger as soon as possible! It's a big deal to pinch your nose and admit your mistake to the Kira family, and you should be unlucky to step on a piece of horse manure. ”

"I hope so! It's just ......" Date Mimoto hesitated for a moment and decided to say directly: "When we escaped, the camp of the Mogami Deyu Guarding Hall seemed to be surrounded, and it's hard to say whether we can escape or not!" ”

Date Terumune was also a little hesitant. With an uncertain tone, he said, "It should be possible!" It's no problem to escape with fewer troops, after all, it's not the first time you've experienced a battle formation, so you should know...... It's better that there is no problem, otherwise wouldn't my unmarried lady, Princess Yiji, have to mourn? ”

……

The night battle of Oura completely collapsed the situation of the Dewa National Army, and only about 600 people were killed on the spot by 13,000 troops, and most of the people turned around and fled when they found that they could not resist the Kira army, and then chased and killed about 1,000 people in the pursuit of the Chibei cavalry of the Kira army, and only about 7,000 defeated troops successfully escaped, including Date Terumune, Onodera Keimichi, who ran the fastest, and the Tendo clan and Enzawa clan in the most upper eight trees. Yuri's twelve first men have been playing soy sauce on the periphery, and the people of the country also took advantage of the chaos to escape.

The biggest captives this time were the Mogami clan and the other six countrymen in the Mogami Eight Clans. Among them, the name of the Sakagang clan is relatively loud, plus many Chinese lords such as the Hanhe Jiang clan and the Shiratori clan were also captured, and in addition to the few Chinese who escaped from the country, the Chinese lords of Murayama County and Mogami County were basically connected to the pot.

In fact, it will be so clever to catch the Mogami clan, it has something to do with the location of the Mogami family's camp, Mogami Yoshimori claims to be the general of the Dewa National People's Army, and the location of the camp will inevitably become the center of many Chinese people holding the moon, and Onodera Jingdao and Date Terumun are like the two wings of the crane wing array to protect the "main array" of the center.

It was such an unintentional move by him that made the Chibei cavalry of the Kira Army focus more on the area near the center, but put the Onodera Jingdao and Date Terumun on both wings in a secondary position, all like making great contributions to catch the generals, naturally they don't care about those small fish and shrimp, so they can successfully escape, and wait until Kira Chibei finds that there are so many big fish in this formation, and then turn over and chase can no longer retain these two main forces.

Compared to the Chinese people who were not taken seriously and successfully escaped, Tiantong Laizhen and Yanzawa Manzhong escaped by relying on the talent of alertness, and the camp of the most senior eight was set up next to Mogami Yoshimori, and these two families were a little closer to the east, just when Tiantong Laizhen was woken up before he fell asleep during the night attack, and then packed his bags and ran away without saying a word, Yanzawa Manzhong was more cunning than him, and escaped when he saw the nearby military village on fire, which was slightly faster than Tiantong Laizhen.

The so-called monarch and minister are the same forest birds, and they fly separately when the catastrophe comes, and the sentences used to compare husband and wife are almost the same between the monarchs and ministers, and the people of Izuwa all over the country want to say that the war is dead and the race is negative, but when it comes to running away, it is really eight immortals who cross the sea to show their magical powers, and when the Kira army can't catch up with the big head and then turn around to chase these small fish and shrimp, these Izuwa people rely on the essence of running without paying attention to the terrain, so that the Chibei cavalry has nowhere to chase if they want to.

Fortunately, Kira Yoshishi didn't plan to wipe out so many people, and it was a very bold act to run to a place that he was not familiar with at all to fight a night attack, don't look at him as if everything was in his chest, but in fact, the responsibility on his shoulders as a decision-maker was far greater than imagined.

This was his first time in Dewa Province, and it was also the first time that this mixed army had joined forces, and less than half of the soldiers had followed Uesugi Masatora to Shonai Hirano last year, but they did not take this waterway last year, let alone stay near Oura Castle, so they were at a disadvantage in terms of familiarity with the environment, which was a geographical disadvantage.

The first time this army was mixed and the first time it was out of battle, but this was the first time when it was really bold to fight a night raid, and the location chosen for the night raid was from the future Izuwa country. Rather than the relatively familiar Hokuriku Province and Kanto region. The only strong support that could be relied on around was the defenders of Opo Castle. But this defender has been half-crippled in nearly two months of fighting, and has not even been able to do more to help, which is the disadvantage of men and women.

Fortunately, no one has an advantage in the day, and the night attack battle relies on correct judgment and good timing, and the process of the battle depends more on the personal adjustment of the reserve generals, how to raid the camp to defeat the favorable resistance, how to block the camp and intimidate the defenders to force the prisoners, how to set fire to the camp and avoid the loss of food and grass supplies, etc., all of which must be handled by these generals on the spot. Kira Yoshitoki doesn't interfere with them, and he doesn't think he can do better than them in that situation.

Mogami Yoshimori was in a coma all day, and he didn't wake up in a daze until the evening, and when he found himself a prisoner and went crazy for a while, until Takigawa Tokimasa, who was more than a head taller than him, stood in front of him, this guy seemed to wake up, and even rolled back into his room and didn't dare to come out, or Mogami Yoshimitsu went in alone and sighed with his father for a night before persuading him to stop.

When Mochizuki Yoshicho quietly told Kira Yoshicho, Mogami Yoshimori woke up much earlier than he thought. It's just that he's been pretending to be asleep and deceiving the guards outside the house, and I have to say that Mogami Yoshimori is still very smart. He knew very well that the place where he woke up was not the wilderness he imagined, let alone the Yamagata Castle that he was familiar with, so there was only one possibility, he was captured.

In the chaotic era of the Warring States, almost every samurai was mentally prepared to become a captive one day, even in the unyielding samurai, they could not help but think of that day, death at this time is precisely the easiest and most irresponsible choice, compared to the heavy choice of being captured but not dying, the suicide is a coward.

Kira Yoshitoki hated the life and death argument of the Warring States period in Japan, and there was no shortage of geniuses who regarded life and death as lighter than a feather, both ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, but it was very wrong to vigorously advocate this kind of life and death argument, which would breed many irresponsible samurai, anyway, people died like lights out, and I committed suicide, so it doesn't matter how serious the mistake is, I will throw out the burden of the family business with a kick of both legs, just like those irresponsible people often say: "After I die, I don't care if he floods." ”

Mogami Yoshimori didn't want to take this responsibility, but he was still unwilling to fail like this, if he was a realist, he wouldn't have gone crazy, but took his remnants of the defeated army to embark on a journey home, and then extended in a farther direction, maybe he wouldn't engage in this anti-Echigo-Gosho alliance, and he wouldn't think about being the so-called general of the Dewa National People's Army, let alone falling into the pitiful situation of becoming a prisoner.

It is unknown what the two fathers and sons are talking about on this night, and Kira Yoshishi is not interested in letting the ninja secretly inquire, and he can guess that it is nothing more than to persuade Mogami Yoshimoro to recognize the facts and correct his mentality, and the failure of the Mogami family is not a great shame, and the samurai daimyo under the hands of the Kira family are not the largest and most famous.

The proposal of the previous day was not accidental, in fact, it was already ready to completely suppress the Izuha Mogami clan long before the action of Kira Yoshitoki, the so-called first samurai in the front of the Hazen clan is the hereditary Dewa Mogami clan, and it was this Dewa Mogami clan who had twice attacked Shimotsu, if he didn't submit this samurai as soon as possible, maybe he would make a comeback in a few years, and repeatedly harass the stable order of Shimoetsu.

The significance of this night raid to catch Mogami Yoshimori or not is indeed very significant, it can allow the Kira army to save a lot of strength, otherwise he will have to quickly lead the army out of the Hakuyama Black Mountain to Mogami County after defeating the Izuha Kunitsu coalition army, and after recovering the Shimizu Territory, he will follow the Mogami River south to raid Murayama County, and capture the so-called Mogami Hachiyu, Hankawa Clan, Shiratori Clan, Oshu Hosokawa Clan and Mogami Clan's residence.

This step is not as easy as imagined, even if he is sure that he will finally submit these families, but time-consuming and labor-intensive is always inevitable, if Mogami Yoshimori is determined to go against the Kira army, and invite the reinforcements of Date Harumune and Osaki Yoshinao with heavy profits, relying on any geographical advantage to form a dead knot of entanglement in the local area, and at that time, Onodera Jingdao in the three counties of Xianbei, Ando Hago farther away, and even the countrymen related to Osaki Yoshinao and Date Harune in the country of Mutsu are involved, and the Kira army will fall into an embarrassing dilemma.

The so-called quagmire is caught in a dilemma and difficult to extricate itself, the country of Dewa seems to be profitable, but in fact it is a hidden crisis, if you are greedy for small profits, you will not be careful to fall into it and then want to pull out of the legs, it will be difficult, at that time, a retreat will not only damage the reputation, so much hard work is all in vain, if you do not retreat into the quagmire of the country of Dewa and struggle desperately, maybe you have to invest more troops and resources, the more you invest, the more difficult it is to give up, spend five or even ten years to appease the local people, straighten out the circle of influence of the two countries.

It's like he doesn't want to fall into Kai is a meaning, Kai is a quagmire with a greater degree of crisis than Deyu, but the people of Dewa are still a plate of scattered sand and have deep contradictions with each other, he only needs to catch a top family to suppress it with force, tie it with affection, and lure it with profit to get through the crisis safely.

But the Kai Takeda clan has been running for more than 300 years, from top to bottom, almost all of them are genealogy retainers composed of relatives and friends of the Takeda family, compared to the scattered sand of the Dewa people is simply a monolith, Takeda Shingen's personal ability is stronger than all the heroes of the Dewa country, and the Shinano people who were so powerful back then were beaten by him and had no power to fight back, these Dewa people can not be compared with the powerful Kai Takeda clan at all. (To be continued......)