On February 15, the third year of Tensho (1575), the Oda family's army gathered at the foot of Ishiyama Gobo Castle and surrounded Ishiyama Gobo from three directions: north, east, and south. Oda Nobunaga led an army of 50,000 to personally sit outside the east gate of Ishiyama Gobo.
Ma Nobumori led an army of 20,000 as the main general of the north gate, while 25,000 troops of Amakihei, Akechi Mitsuhide and Ikeda Tsuneaki were located south of Ishiyama Gobo. The Shima navy led by Kuki Yoshitaka also came all the way from Ise Bay.
They came over and cruised in the sea west of Ishiyama Gobo. Together, the Oda family had a mighty army of nearly 100,000, which really shocked the entire Kinki region.
Oda Nobunaga mobilized his troops this time to come, and Honganji Temple naturally did not dare to neglect. He gathered all the Ichijo sect believers near the Ishiyama Gobo, and the people of Kii who believed in the Ichijo sect - the Zahe crowd and the Genlai crowd also came.
They came to help in the battle, and together with the monk soldiers from Honganji Temple, the total force reached nearly 30,000.
After Oda Nobunaga occupied some villages and towns around Ishiyama Castle, he immediately went from house to house to investigate those who responded to Honganji's call and entered Ishiyama Gobo. As long as it was found that someone at home had gone, he would immediately kill everyone. Oda Nobunaga
Such a fierce attitude not only failed to intimidate the Ichijo sect believers, but made their resistance even more determined. Many of the Ichijo sect believers were poor people and were completely incomparable to the elite standing soldiers of the Oda family. Many people
Wearing ordinary civilian clothes, eating his feet, wearing a bamboo hat, and holding a bamboo spear issued by Neganji Temple, he came up to fight the Oda army.
"These people...are really...crazy." Ikeda Hengxing was currently responsible for attacking a rock fort in the southwest of Ishiyama City. The rock fort was defended by all the ragged followers of the Ichiki sect, and the well-equipped monks and soldiers of Honganji Temple combined.
There were not even 50 of them, but these people brought great resistance to Ikeda Hengxing's department.
Ikeda Hengxing stood on a high ground next to the battle line, looking at the disheveled and disheveled people, holding bamboo spears, hoes, axes and other backward weapons, and rushing towards the Oda family's battle line like crazy. They
Chanting Buddhist chants such as "Namu Amitabha" in unison, they rushed towards the Oda family's iron armored regiment. In front of the Oda family's swords, guns, swords and halberds, the thin clothes and rare shabby equipment were as brittle as paper.
, they seem not to be afraid of death, and their ability to endure casualties far exceeds Ikeda Tsuneaki's imagination. In a sense, they are not an army at all, and there is no concept of casualties. For them, death is not a terrible thing.
, on the contrary, it is the most wonderful road to the Pure Land.
In the teachings of the Yixiang Sect, they emphasize "the positive cause of faith and repaying kindness by name." They believe that Amitabha Tathagata's relief is unconditional and does not require believers to work hard to do good deeds, practice Zen, or keep themselves clean. As long as they recite the Buddha's name in their mouths, they will do it for the sake of the Master of Hongwan Temple.
And even if you do a lot of evil, marry, have children, eat meat and drink wine, you can still go to the Pure Land in the next life and enjoy an extremely happy life.
Relying on its simple way of belief, the Yixiang Sect has been welcomed by the vast number of people who have suffered from wars. If there was such a simple way to go to the Pure Land, which people would refuse? In the troubled times of the Warring States, the people endured the secular world.
There was too much suffering and danger in the world, and they could not see the hope of the human world, so they turned to seek the comfort of religion, and the emergence of Yixiang Zong just gave them a place to rest their souls.
Under the encouragement of Yi Xiangzong, the people turned their attention from the miserable secular life with no future to the beautiful pure land afterlife. They firmly believed that as long as
According to what the monks of Yixiang Zong said, if you chant the Buddha's name on your lips and obey the orders of the Dharma Master, even if you are vulgar and ignorant, do not follow the Dharma, are full of evil, marry a wife and have children, you can still get the salvation of gods and Buddhas. For this reason, whenever Yixiang Zong's
When the monks call on everyone to collect donations, these poor poor people will use their little savings to express their respect for the Dharma Master. And when the Dharma Master calls on them to fight to surround Yixiang Zong, these believers will be extremely crazy. Because
According to the Dharma Master and the monks, anyone who dies in battle for the Dharma Master can directly ascend to the Pure Land and bid farewell to the miserable world.
In the view of Yu Qiuping, Ikeda Hengxing and others, such an idea is nothing more than ignorant and sad. It is obviously an excuse made up by the sect to deceive the people. But for those people who are struggling to survive in the secular world, life is no longer
What color, their only hope is the pure land of the afterlife, and only religious sustenance supports their survival. For them, the preaching of monks who are good at this is enough to capture their souls and make them willingly become
A devout believer.
Ikeda Hengxing watched those believers rush towards his troops like a wave. Although most of them were killed pointlessly, there were still a few who were able to rush in front of the Oda army and use their own
All means of attack were used to attack the Oda family, including punching and kicking when weapons fell off, biting when hands and feet were cut off, and crazy people hitting their heads against the soldiers' hard legs. Corpses were piling up in front of the battle line.
Gao, the Oda army is advancing with difficulty.
On February 20, the Oda family finally reached the city wall of Ishiyama Castle and began to try to fill in the moat under Ishiyama Castle. However, the number of iron cannons in Ishiyama Castle far exceeded Oda Nobunaga's imagination, giving the Oda army
It brought heavy casualties. The author of the Akamu Yizu - Naomasa Naomasa, a close confidant of Oda Nobunaga, was shot and killed on the spot while commanding the troops on the front line. A rough estimate is that there are five to six thousand iron cannons in the city. This is obviously
It's not just the mercenaries who came to the city and the mercenaries who came to the city. The Honganji Temple itself must have purchased a large number of iron cannons in the past few years.
The unexpected death of Naomasa Naomi made Oda Nobunaga furious. He immediately mobilized the entire army to launch a fierce attack. Yu Qiupei wanted to repeat his old tricks and use his simple and crude way of slowly breaking down the city to knock down the south gate, but Oda was defeated by Oda.
After scolding Nobunaga, he withdrew the front line and arranged for a large number of brave and skilled samurai to lead the army to attack the city.
However, the fanaticism and tenacity of the Ichibōshu believers far exceeded the imagination of the Oda army. They arrived at the Oda family's attack with flesh and blood at the top of the city. Often seriously injured Ichibōshu followers jumped off the city without hesitation, hugging the Oda family soldiers.
They went to die together, and the battle was very tragic.
However, Oda Nobunaga seemed determined to take down Ishiyama Gobo this time, and launched a desperate attack on various castles and wall sections of Ishiyama Gobo. Under the crazy attack of the Oda army, Honganji watched
To fall into decline, one city after another was demolished, and the city walls were repeatedly captured by the Oda family. Although at night, the Honganji family would storm the Oda family on the wall and knock the Oda family down. But the next day
, the Oda family who made a comeback will also seize this section of the city wall. The Oda family even began to destroy the battlements to facilitate their siege the next day.
However, at this critical moment, bad news came from the sea - reinforcements from the Honganji family had arrived. It was none other than the coalition forces of the Maori Navy and the Miyoshi Navy, with more than 1,400 ships.
After rounding around Awaji, head towards Ishiyama Gobo. Kuki
In front of the Miyoshi family's huge fleet, Yoshitaka's more than two hundred small boats were as weak as ants in front of an elephant. However, this time, Kuuki Yoshitaka had no way to avoid the battle because Oda Nobunaga gave him a death order.
--withstand!
Oda Nobunaga was furious at this moment. Seeing that the rock-solid Ishiyama Castle had finally been chewed off by him, it was really unacceptable for him to withdraw his troops and leave now. He wanted Kuki Yoshiro to withstand the Miyoshi family and the Mori family.
The naval forces of the Miyoshi family and the Maori family, no matter how strong they were, would be unable to do anything about this strong city as long as Ishiyama City was captured.
However, the arrival of reinforcements obviously boosted the morale of the Honganji family, and they resisted even more tenaciously. The Oda family suffered heavy casualties under the continuous fire of thousands of iron cannons. However, Kuki Yoshitaka, in front of the Miyoshi-Maori coalition forces, actually did not survive for even a day.
I couldn't hold on, and I could barely move back.
As the Miyoshi-Maori coalition landed on the tidal flat west of Ishiyama Castle, Honganji Temple immediately opened the west gate to welcome the reinforcements into the city. The Miyoshi-Maori reinforcements entered the city carrying a more objective number of iron cannons. The arrival of the new force gave the exhausted Oda army a head start.
He was attacked and driven directly out of the city.
The Oda family had been attacking continuously for half a month, and their morale had been completely depleted. Everyone advised Oda Nobunaga to retreat as soon as possible. However, Oda Nobunaga was unable to step down at this moment, and was unwilling to admit defeat easily, so he launched a full-scale attack again. However,
, at this moment, the number of iron cannons owned by the coalition forces in Ishiyama Castle is nearly tens of thousands. The strong firepower coupled with the copper and iron walls of Ishiyama Castle, the Oda family's last attack paid extremely heavy casualties. At the same time, Hatano in Tanba and Tango
The Isshiki family and the Isshiki family also raised troops again, intending to attack Wakasa and Kyoto, and Oda Nobunaga had to retreat sadly.
This battle forced the Oda family, which had been gaining momentum recently, to calm down and consider its own strategy. This time, Oda Nobunaga's attack on Honganji was quite careless and underestimated the enemy. He seemed to feel that all resistance would be defeated in the direction of his army.
For powder. Without making any strategic arrangements, he hastily attacked Shishan, resulting in a major defeat.
The long-lost victory of the coalition forces also boosted the morale of the second Oda siege, and many people who had already surrendered to the Oda family became more active. According to ninja intelligence, the Takeda family of the Eastern Kingdom seemed to want to take advantage of the Oda family.
This time, the Tian family was severely weakened and once again led the army to Luo to attack the Tokugawa family. Oda Nobunaga had to lead the main force back to Mino to be wary of the Takeda army's movements at any time.
Under such circumstances, the arrogant Oda Nobunaga had no choice but to give in and stopped his attack on the stronghold of Ishiyama Gobo. Instead, he instructed Sakuma Nobumori to continue suppressing Honganji. However, located in Kinki
The strategic location of Ishiyama Gobo at the west end is important, and it also has extremely important political and religious significance. After all, it is a serious problem for the Oda family and must be defeated. In order to pave the way for another attack on Ishiyama Gobo, Oda Nobunaga decided to first attack the Honganji family this time.
The helpers eradicated them one by one.
Therefore, Yu Qiupei was instructed to attack Kii south of Hanoi and Izumi, and eradicate the Kii people who believed in the Ichigo sect, such as the Zahezhong and Genlaizhong. At the same time, he was also asked to step up the construction of the navy to compete with the Miyoshi-Maori navy.
High and low. Mitsuhide Akechi was asked to conquer Tanba and Tango, and eradicate the threat from the flanks of the Oda family when they attacked Ishiyama Gobo. Hideyoshi Araki and Murashige Araki were ordered to conquer Harima and capture the Miyoshi family's last remaining position on Honshu Island.
Chapter completed!