Chapter 178: It's better to divide it evenly

"Hattori, Taiko-sama's safety is in your hands."

Tokugawa Hidetada's close retainer, Matsudaira, spoke loudly towards Hattori Hanzo, who was dressed as a ninja.

In the famous Honnoji Incident, the second generation of Hattori Hanzo once covered Ieyasu to travel thousands of miles back to his own territory, thus giving Ieyasu the opportunity to compete with Hideyoshi.

The Hattori family has always been a close protector of the Tokugawa family, and even the fief is in the Kai Province near Edo.

"Lai Fangdian, although rest assured, the safety of Lord Taige will be handed over..."

Hattori Hanzo's command has three hundred banners and close ministers, all of whom are so-called ninja masters, and at this moment they have already protected the fainting Tokugawa Hidetada and retreated to the rear.

And Sanada Yukimura and Miyoshi Masaysu rushed left and right in Tokugawa Hidetada's main formation, disrupting Tokugawa Hidetada's main formation, and under the wind and rain, it was impossible to retreat in an orderly and gradual formation.

The people of the Four Heavenly Kings knelt down in front of the battle and wept loudly when they saw the head of Tokugawa Iemitsu, and at this moment their morale was completely lost, and with the help of the Dingmu army, the Toyotomi army began a full-scale counterattack, and the shogunate army was now a watchdog in the sunset and fell asleep, and could only turn around and flee in the storm.

The tide of battle has taken a turn for the worse...

Sanada Yukimura's target was Tokugawa Hidetada, and it was a great pity that he couldn't kill the dying Tokugawa Ieyasu, but today, in the case of such a big victory, Tokugawa Hidetada's life was determined to be won.

Miyoshi Masayasu and Sanada Yukimura's cavalry converged, and now there are more than 1,500 cavalry troops, and now that they are already a big victory, no one can stop the Toyotomi army from taking advantage of the situation to pursue.

In the first battle of Sekigahara that year, the Eastern Army chased the Western Army like this, and the Western Army was defeated and there was nothing left.

Driven by the cavalry, the Kamiya River was in an unprecedented retreat at this moment, and the shogunate army under the storm had no time to find their own daimyo's military formation, and even Tokugawa Yoshinao, who was preparing to press forward to prevent the situation from continuing to erod, was coerced away by the defeated army from the valley.

There are too many people, and the land of the Kamiya River is too small, and hundreds of thousands of people are crowded together, which is already the limit.

Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng reined in the war horses, and immediately raised the signal flare to collect the Dingwu soldiers, except for the more than 100 soldiers who were injured by the bamboo arrows of the shogunate army before the wind and rain, no one died, and the battle situation was extremely good.

"Brother Jiandou, it's time for us to withdraw..."

After saying that, Sun Chuanting sent someone to deliver a message to Toyotomi Hideyori, and took most of the horses on his war horses and walked towards Fangjin.

Toyotomi Hideyori's mood at this moment was beyond expression, and he personally made a big salute to the messenger who delivered the message, and then asked him to bring his most sincere greetings to the Ming army, and then took Ono and other cronies to ride horses to follow the pursuit of the shogunate army.

In the Battle of Sekigahara, the troops of Ishida Mitsunari pursued by the Eastern Army as far as Shinano Province and Echigo Province were more than 500 li, and it was a mixed pursuit of foot and cavalry, which is enough to see how cruel that defeat was.

Today, the number of defeated opponents is four or five times that of that year, and the degree of terror can be imagined.

Sanada Yukimura's pursuing troops had already thrown off the follow-up infantry for more than thirty miles, Hattori Hanzo's escort was mostly cavalry, and Tokugawa Hidetada was put into a niche cage and carried away by four or five ninja soldiers in carriages.

"My lord, I'm going to Hagiyama Castle in front of you..."

Miyoshi Masu rode his horse to the horse side of Sanada Yukimura, and the two of them were chasing the fleeing Hattori ninja soldiers with their cavalry troops not far ahead.

The Iga Concentric Soldiers were all organized into the Iga School in order to reward Hattori Hanzo after Ieyasu won the world, so the combat effectiveness of the Iga Concentric Soldiers in the hands of the current Hanzari is not ordinarily high.

And after entering the Edo shogunate, there was no more war, and the samurai often fought privately with each other, and this kind of battle was a weapon fight, and the force value of the two sides was mainly to worship the mountain gate.

If it's from the Iga faction, even if it's a subordinate sect, it's a top-level existence.

"Nakamura, you're in charge of intercepting..."

Nakamura Masanobu is a disciple of Hanzari, his kung fu is extremely high, and he is in charge of the next team, and after receiving the order, without delay, he turned his horse and led fifty Tongxin soldiers to stop in place to prepare to intercept the pursuing Sanada army.

In such a crisis situation, the queen of the palace has only one word of death, but Nakamura Masanobu is not afraid of death at all, and it is regarded as a supreme honor as a ninja to be able to protect Taiko-sama from death.

"The three good people solve the enemy in front of them..."

Yukimura saw that there was someone blocking the road in front of him, so he immediately decided to divide his troops and march, there were more than a thousand cavalry on his side, and crushing these people was just a sprint.

...

"Newspaper..."

A cavalryman rode quickly to the gates of Hagiyama Castle.

"Newspaper... Enlighten the lord, the emergency military situation ahead..."

The military newspaper was picked up by a flag book and handed to a middle-aged man sitting outside Hagiyama Castle.

"Father..."

Mori Shu, the current lord of the Choshu Domain, respectfully handed the shogun to the old man sitting in the armor next to him.

The old man is the former lord of the Choshu Domain, and the current de facto controller of the Choshu Domain, one of the five elders of the former Toyotomi.

Mori Terumoto opened the military newspaper in his hand, and after reading it, he handed it to his son with an expressionless face, and then became silent, and after reading it, Mori Xiu turned his head to look at his father excitedly: "Father, the shogunate army has been defeated..."

The retainers standing beside him were stunned when they heard the news, the 570,000 shogunate army, which was an unprecedented army since Japan entered the Warring States period, was actually defeated like this?

Mori Terumoto is choosing, of course, he didn't speak, the army of Hagiyama Castle at the moment is already a full 50,000 people, if he wants, there is absolutely no problem for the Choshu Domain to recruit 100,000 people to fight, but now the key is that although the shogunate army was defeated, the specific battle situation was not obtained.

In case the army led by Tokugawa Hidetada is not completely annihilated, if his side rashly joins it, he will inevitably put himself in a dilemma, and even if the Toyotomi army does not win a big victory, he can only choose one way to go to the black until his own Choshu domain dies in the future.

And Maori Xiu is different from what Terumoto thinks, this person followed the Maeda family when he was young, and even participated in the Osaka Winter and Summer Battle, this guy is loyal to the Toyotomi family from the bottom of his heart, if it weren't for Terumoto still holding the power of the Choshu Domain, I can't say that this guy has led the army to steal the ass of the shogunate army.

"Father, Lord Hideyori came with the general trend this time, this time the shogunate army was defeated, and with the assistance of fierce generals such as Sanada Yukimura, the Tokugawa clan will be defeated, if our army suddenly strikes here, it will definitely be able to help Hideyori-sama beat the shogunate army, as long as they can help them take the three kingdoms of Bizen, they can rely on the land of Kansai to fight against the shogunate, at that time it will not be the world of the Tokugawa family alone, and it will definitely return to the Warring States period again, at that time, the heroes will also have a place to play."

Mao Lixiu actually knew Hui Yuan's hard work, after all, they were two fathers and sons, but fortunately he did not inherit Hui Yuan's hesitant temperament.

"Hmm..."

After a long time, Hui Yuan came out with a tone: "Wait..."

Mao Lixiu was deflated from the bottom of his heart, such a great opportunity, but he didn't make a move, and his father was too careful.

Including the retainers and generals behind him, they couldn't stop sighing, even if they didn't make a move at this moment, as long as they blocked the retreat of the shogunate army, they could use this as a threat to ask the shogunate for some benefits, in short, they wouldn't suffer any losses.

"Newspaper..."

One of the riders was soaking wet, and it looked like the storm hadn't come down to Hagiyama Castle.

But the weather at the top of the sky in Hagiyama Castle is not good, the wind and clouds are dense, and the mountain rain is about to come and the wind is full of buildings...

Mao Lixiu stood up and asked, "Tell me quickly..."

"Lord Qiyu, urgent report," he jumped off his horse before he could stop his horse, and said loudly: "Lord Qiyu, the shogunate army was defeated and left, hundreds of thousands of troops were all scattered, and the small one saw more than a thousand cavalrymen wearing the Sanada family coat of arms pursuing Hattori Hanzo's convoy. ”

Mori Terumoto stood up straight and spoke first: "But do you see clearly that it's the family crest of the Hattori family?" ”

"It's true..."

"Father," Mori Shu shouted, "Hattori Hanzo is a close guard of the Tokugawa family. ”

When Tokugawa Hidetada's army arrived in Nagato Province, he was still talking to the Mori father and son outside Hagiyama Castle, and Mori Hideto, who was the captain of the ninja team, could clearly see Hattori Hanzo leading a large group of ninjas on war horses to escort Hidetada.

Mori Terumoto was a little excited, if there was a carriage, it would mean that the carriage must be the old Hidetada, and Hattori Hanzo, who was a close guard, must be in the escort team.

"Father, you must not hesitate..."Mori Xiu grasped his sword as soon as he grasped it: "The shogunate army was defeated, Hattori Hanzo covered Tokugawa Hidetada's retreat, Sanada Yukimura personally pursued as the general of the Toyotomi army, the battle situation is already clear, they will inevitably pass through my Hagiyama Castle, father, the opportunity for a great change in the world is in our hands..."

Mori Hide's impassioned words made Mori Terumoto finally make up his mind, his existence is the key to determining whether the two forces of Toyotomi and Tokugawa can sit on an equal footing, and if Terumoto makes up his mind to join Toyotomi with all the Choshu Domain, then whether the shogunate can win is already a big question.

Now, if the neutral Choshu Domain chooses to join the Toyotomi Army, it will be a great disaster for Tokugawa Hidetada.

"Order, intercept the retreating soldiers of the shogunate army, all the troops of the Choshu Domain, unfurl the banner of the Five Seven Patterns and march towards the Kamiya River."

Mori Terumoto said the decisive words word by word, and Mori Xiu laughed heartily when he heard the words: "Order, the whole army set off, advance to the Kamiya River, and anyone who is unwilling to surrender in the shogunate army will be killed..."

"Yes..."

It was a war of equal division, and with the entry of the Mori family of the Choshu Domain, the tide of the war had changed completely, and the fortunes of the Tokugawa family had changed more than twenty years after Ieyasu's death...