Seeing that Hiraga Nariyori sacrificed the Divine Turtle Tactics and sat on the castle of the mouth of the sea, refusing to go out of the castle to drown in the battle despite how the Takeda army provoked, Takeda Shintora was not as impatient as he was when he besieged Nakao Castle a few months ago.

With the windfall obtained by Jingzhen's sale of Ming Guoyu, Takeda Shintora had enough money and patience to squander. First, relying on the "Golden Bullet Offensive", the grain and grass and the war losses can be continuously replenished, and the logistical pressure of the long-term siege can not be worried. Second, relying on the "Great Law of Scattering Coins", you can urgently recruit ronin samurai at any time, pull the reserve forces in the territory, and do not worry about the comeback of the newly defeated Imagawa clan and Hojo clan. Therefore, Takeda Shintora tried to crush the mouth of the sea head-on with the most calm and unhurried posture, and took the lead in creating an image of the Takeda clan as invincible and invincible in Shinano's ambitions.

However, when the Takeda army was adjusted and officially began to try to attack the city, most of the calmness and ease in Takeda Shintora's heart were removed.

Umi no Kou Castle, although its name is a castle, is actually more appropriate to call it a castle, but it is just a small castle built of civil engineering and several miles in length and width. However, although this fortress is small, it is a key pass that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, otherwise it would not be regarded as one of the gateways of Shinano country. In addition, the spring and summer rains were abundant and the streams were surging, and the defenders actually dug the upstream rivers in advance to discharge the floods, which not only blocked the Takeda army from building embankments and dams upstream, and adopting the strategy of water attack, but also turned dozens of miles outside the city into large swamps.

Even if they were rivals with each other, Jing Zhen secretly applauded and admired the wonderful operation of the defenders. Turning the earth into a ze, the mobility of the Takeda Army was instantly abolished. Faced with waist-deep mud, the proud cavalry directly scolded and quit the game, and the originally brave and capable Ashigaru was immediately slowed down into a toddler, struggling with a deep foot and a shallow foot under the city, and then being killed by the city's shooters as a live target point by bit.

Seeing this scene, no matter how calm and unhurried Takeda Shintora was, it was impossible to calmly watch the elites of his subordinates in the mud, and become the experience points of practicing archery under the command of Hiraga Nariyori. He could only pinch his nose and admit the planting, stop all the offensive, and instead dig ditches and ditches on a large scale, dredge the stagnant water, and wait for seven or eight days when the stagnant water is drained and the swamp is completely dry before the offensive can be reorganized.

This time, it can be said that the lethality is not great, but the insult is extremely strong, and most of the Takeda army's spirit of rushing for hundreds of miles and falling in one drum has been frustrated. It was also difficult for Takeda Shintora to continue to maintain a calm posture, so he had to convene a meeting of the generals to discuss the distribution of the city.

In this military discussion, Jingzhen, as a new famous general and a rising star handpicked by Takeda Shintora, was full of worries in his heart, and he did not shine as wise as the previous times, but everyone was in the same cloud, and he echoed the opinions of several important ministers.

One is too young. No matter how miraculous he is this time, it will be difficult to break the rewards and enter the ranks of ten thousand stone ministers, but he will deepen the jealousy and dissatisfaction of some colleagues because of his limelight.

The second is to observe words and colors. The family's leading minister and one of Takeda's "two positions", Ganli Bizen Shou Hutai, took over 15,000 koku from Nakaju Mogun after the defeat and punishment of Nobutomo in Anayama, and it was obvious that he was about to become the banner of the Takeda clan's invasion of Shinano. In this expedition, Ganli Hutai also showed far more activity than usual, and went straight to the first merit and was officially appointed by Takeda Shintora. If Jingzhen is ignorant and shows off her talents and covers up her limelight, she will definitely make her unhappy and destroy the original harmonious relationship.

The third follows history. Like the memories of his previous life, the Battle of the Sea Mouth was the first battle after his friend Takeda Shingengen was served. According to the original history, the Takeda army attacked the sea mouth city for a long time and did not defeat it. When the whole army withdrew, Takeda Shingen went online and began to turn the tide. Taking advantage of the cover of the wind and snow, taking advantage of the enemy's indulgence in the feast of celebration, he captured the fortified city garrisoned by 3,000 people with a surprise attack of hundreds of people, and captured the general Pingga Chenglai, won the respect of everyone in the family, and laid the foundation for the later filial piety of the father and son. Compared with Takeda Shintora, who seems to be quite generous, but is actually ruthless and moody, and rewards his retainer Zongsanzuo text package (Note 1) at every turn, it is obviously more in the interests of Jingzhen to let Takeda Shingen, who has a more friendly relationship with him, rise to the top early.

To sum up, Jingzhen would rather resist Takeda Shinho's disappointment this time, be an honest spectator, and give up the stage to Takeda Shingen, rather than be a leading bird again, in order to be destined not to have too many rewards.

Although the military council did not discuss any fame, there was always Gan Li Hutai who was willing to take a gamble and volunteered to be the first attacker, and Takeda Shinhu was generally satisfied.

In Takeda Shintora's opinion, let Ganli Hutai touch the mouth of the sea city, and the victory or defeat of the two sides should be five or five. The castle of the mouth of the sea is claimed to have 3,000 defenders, but excluding the old and weak, the available combat strength will not exceed 1,500 people; As the most important minister in the Takeda side, Ganli Hutai has more than 1,500 troops under his command.

In addition, Kai and Satsuma, Mikawa in general, is already known for its poor mountains and bad waters, and the spirit of the Kai mountain people is far from being matched by Shinano's soft eggs, if Ganli Hutai forcibly attaches ants regardless of losses, plus more than 5,000 people in his own formation can support at any time, and capture this small broken city that has added a lot of blockages to himself, it shouldn't be difficult, right?

……

On the second day, the confident Takeda Shintora was slapped in the face again.

From the very beginning, the siege war went straight to the heat. In order to support the offensive, Takeda Shintora searched the entire army and tried his best to piece together 300 sets of sufficient and 1,200 sets of leather armor vests for the Ganli army, at least to ensure that all the soldiers in battle were armoured. Ganli Hutai himself was wearing a double layer of solid armor, covered with a feather weaving, and brandished a spear to fight in person. The brave and famous head of the family rushed forward, which greatly stimulated and encouraged the morale of the Ganli army, and 1,500 people lined up in a formation and marched forward 300 steps, and only after approaching the city a hundred steps and the arrows were suddenly dense, did they disperse the formation and rush towards the city in a swarm, with a great momentum of black clouds crushing the city and wanting to destroy it.

But this last 100 steps is the first line of the moat!

First, the terrain under the city is too much. Although it was flat, it was covered with random stones, which were generally only knee-high, but they were so hard and unshakable that the Ganli army could not form a formation at all, but could only be separated by these vertical stones, and creep slowly along the narrow and narrow road in it.

In addition, after the flood, the city was full of potholes left after the swamp dried up, and the siege troops could only fight on foot, and the key was that they were extremely slow, but these potholes were not enough to cover the long-range arrows, so with the Shinano coalition army bursting out of stone arrows, the Ganli army had to suffer unilateral casualties from the moment of engagement.

Second, as we get closer and closer to the city wall, it is really like arrows raining down and arrows are like the wind. Attacking with arrows was a common occurrence for the stoic Kai mountain people, but in the past, the enemy would shoot arrows in their hands in a haphazard manner, and then spend a lot of time winding them up before re-firing them, and so on. Therefore, the Takeda Army can seize the gap between shooting and winding, stop defending when shooting, and take the opportunity to advance when stopping, and slowly close the distance.

But this time it was very different, and the arrows in the city were like a spring rain, endless, and never ceaseless to fall from the city on the heads of the Ganli army, raining down death. As the besieging soldiers fell in rows, the originally fierce black clouds urging the city, in this seemingly soft but actually hidden murderous spring rain, faded layer by layer, and gradually wore away the form and color...... This kind of casualty visible to the naked eye made Ganli Hutai, a veteran general who was accustomed to seeing a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, couldn't help but be frightened.

However, according to Ganli Hutai's previous experience, as long as he withstood the casualties and killed the city, he would win most of the battles. After all, as long as the attacker climbs the city wall, even if only a few people break through, the bow-to-foot light on the city will fall into panic, which will greatly weaken the suppression of the city. The follow-up siege troops can easily make up for it, and then break and occupy the gate of Outer Maru, enlarge the army inside, and gradually compress the enemy into Ninomaru and the main castle, and the battle is considered to be won. Therefore, although he was shocked by the unexpected battle damage, he still gritted his teeth and supervised the division forward, ordering the equipment to be installed in front and the leather armor to be bowed behind, and to advance in a scattered manner......

For the next quarter of an hour, the fighting was lackluster...... It is nothing more than the attacker unilaterally being passively beaten and struggling to advance. But Ganli Hutai finally overestimated the tolerance limit of his own sergeants, and the city wall that seemed to be hanging in front of him but could never reach it, seemed to stop in the next second, but the rain of arrows falling from beginning to end finally broke the nerves of Ganli's army. As a result, the 1,500 elite and battle-fighting divisions, despite the roar and encouragement of this general resounding through the battlefield, still collapsed so abruptly.

However, the military order has been set and Haikou has been boasted. After personally killing several of the leading deserters and pacifying the defeated army, Ganli Hutai ordered the second wave of attacks to be reorganized and sent additional samurai to participate in advance.

But it was not unexpected, and the attack still ended in failure.

Moreover, the soldiers who escaped this time clearly told Gan Li Hutai, who came to enforce the military law, that they had touched the city wall this time, and absolutely succeeded in killing and injuring the enemy archers at the front line, but although the other party retreated in a panic, none of them turned back and fled!

Obviously, the defenders encountered this time were not the same as the previous Shinano soft eggs, and the morale and military discipline had indeed been strengthened, and they could no longer be fueled by the usual number of roads.

Therefore, although the two attacks did not take much time, and the sun was still hanging high in the sky, Ganli Hutai heard the reply, and after a moment of silence, he still chose to retreat.

Then, at the third watch of the night, he launched a night attack.

But it still failed.

The defenders had already taken precautions, and only raised their torches together within a hundred steps before the ambush broke into the city, and cooperated with the galactic starry sky at the end of spring to illuminate the open space in front of the formation like mercury...... The surprise attack army was attacked by a surprise attack, the original prey turned into a hunter, the Ganli army fell directly into chaos, trampled on each other, grabbed the way and fled, while the defenders in the city were demoralized, after the long-range suppression took effect, they actually opened the city gate, chose to take the initiative to counterattack, chased into the dark night, and had hand-to-hand combat with the retreating Ganley army.

However, seeing that the defenders in the city were chasing a hundred steps outside the city, they suddenly stopped under the repeated reprimands of the leading samurai, turned their horses' heads and drilled back into the city to hold on. Takeda Nobuta, who personally led the cavalry and prepared to meet the defeated army, failed to make his plan to intercept the pursuers and forcibly seize the city gate, but the defenders of the city were able to be alert to this point and did not take the bait, so that their attempt to turn defeat into victory was directly defeated.

At dawn the next day, Ganli Hutai, who had not slept all night, barely managed to restrain the rout, whose morale had been so low that it was impossible to look like a rout, and only a cursory count of the number of people made him want to cry without tears. If the losses of more than 300 in the daytime battle can be regarded as heavy casualties, then the losses of night raids and counter-night raids must be added with a series of adjectives such as extraordinary and special. After a day and a night, only more than 500 remnants of its 1,500 people remained, and most of the armor sponsored by Takeda Shintora was also lost. This result naturally made Takeda Shinhu furious, and directly waved the left text of Zongsan, and expelled Ganli Hutai, who came to ask for guilt, from the barracks.

After being furious, Takeda Shintora directly ordered the whole army to start gathering. Looking at his iron-blue face, blood-red eyes, and clenched demon knife (Zong Sanzuo's text is also known as an ominous demon knife), thinking about those admonishers who fell in a pool of blood and died in the clan, the generals in the account collectively chose to remain silent and did not dare to raise any objections.

Soon, all the ashigaru, including the Keizadasho department, were assembled. On the one hand, Takeda Nobutora ordered the troops in the front row to either raise wooden shields or hold bamboo bundles to advance slowly and launch an attack; On the other hand, the defeated soldiers under Ganli Hutai who had no intention of fighting cut down trees and dug up the soil, erected earthen walls and piled up fences along the way, as if they were preparing to force them all the way to the foot of the city wall by means of civil engineering......

And that's not even counting the fact that all the bows and shigarus of the whole army were also gathered together and lined up in the back of the battle, ready to shoot and provide reinforcements during the siege of the large army.

All in all, Takeda Shintora, who had lost a series of battles and was furious, pushed out all the chips in front of him like a gambler who had lost his mind, and he was going to use all his methods to launch an unprecedented offensive desperately to try to capture the city.

This time, wooden shields, bamboo bundles, and even earthen walls and fences all played a role, effectively blocking some of the arrows pouring down from the city, and the casualties of the Takeda army's charge were suddenly visibly reduced to an acceptable level, and the vanguard had steadily moved into the last hundred steps that had been blocked many times before and was regarded as purgatory by the Ganli army!

The victory was in front of them, everyone saw it in their eyes, cheered and shouted, and the city cheered like thunder for a while!

However, Umi no Kou Castle did not intend to succumb easily, and the defenders of the castle once again showed a killing move. As the vanguard continued to move forward, a huge roar suddenly broke through the air, and the cheers in front of the formation instantly turned into screams and wails.

Crossbow! The defenders of the heavenly killing actually launched several ancient killing weapons that were almost extinct for a hundred years, and the situation suddenly took a sharp turn!