At 8 o'clock in the morning on July 12, the battle clouds were thick on Shinano Kawanaka Island. Kira's regiment approached the Ohorikan on Hachimangahara to launch a landing battle. As the general, Kira Yoshitoki led by example and personally led his five hundred troops. The horsemen stood on the shore, drew Bo Qi'an Gang from their waists, and pointed the tip of their swords straight ahead to urge the army to attack.
There are no less than a dozen arrow sculls densely packed on the wall on one side of the Ohori Hall. Each one has an arrow scull with a height of close to five rooms and a mixed structure of earth, wood and stone. It is much stronger than the previous pure wooden sculls, and there are iron cannons on the arrow sculls. Sporadic gunshots erupted from the Ashigaru, and soon they were fired back by dozens of iron cannons. Unfortunately, most of these bullets hit the thick rocks and broke out a lot of stone chips.
Thousands of Ashigaru held their shields high and charged forward hard. As soon as they rushed to the city, they were attacked by stones and arrows from the city. During the fierce battle, the Kira family samurai found that these three temporarily reinforced castles were not easy to deal with. Especially since the three castles are connected to each other, most of the reinforcements can be sent into the city to participate in the defense before the Kira family's army invades. Each time, the rhythm of seven thousand defenders versus thirteen thousand is very troublesome.
This battle lasted until evening with no outcome decided. Kira Yoshitoshi had no choice but to order his troops to retreat. The Takeda family defenders in the city did not come out to pursue them. They stood on the arrows and watched closely as Kira's army retreated calmly. , until Kira Yoshi stood on the side of the ship, he spat bitterly: "This is the Tiger of Kai? He is obviously a cunning old fox! You want to lure the Kira family to the bait, but I am not as good as you want! As the saying goes, if you stay for a long time, you will be sure. If you lose it, I don’t believe you can keep it like this forever!”
Kira Yoshishi boarded the boat that the navy had been waiting for for a long time and slowly retreated. He returned to the boat on the Saikawa River and went back and forth between the two sides. The Ashigaru team was the first to leave. The red cavalry, iron artillery team and Jufuji bow team were always at the back to act as a guard. Until the last cavalry troop boarded the ship and returned to the ship, the Takeda defenders in the city did not make any move. Today's siege battle was destined to end in failure.
Takeda Harunobu's intentions were profound, and the Kira Army's several river-crossing attacks also suffered heavy setbacks. He knew that his own disadvantage lay in the absolute gap in equipment. The gap in the military literacy and tacit understanding of the soldiers was not particularly obvious. On his own side, In the case of superior strength and inferior strength, it is also a very correct idea to resolutely avoid a decisive battle with the Kira Army.
If it were just like that, it would only give play to the basic characteristics of "avoiding shortcomings" and "avoiding reality". It also needs to bring out the characteristics of "promoting strengths" and "taking advantage of weaknesses". For this reason, Takeda Harunobu painstakingly designed a set of formations. The Ohorikan, Hirota Village, and Yokota Castle on Hachimanhara were heavily built with fortifications.
A security force of 8,000 people was deployed in the three branch cities. Moto's 12,000 troops were still stationed on Mount Chasu. The Takeda family's defense measures were very detailed and in place. The number of troops deployed in the three cities was 3,000. With a force ratio of three thousand to two thousand, the two thousand defenders of Yokota Castle are closest to Chasu Mountain and the farthest and safest from Xichuan River.
This means that even if Ohorikan is unprepared and surrounded by the Kira army, facing the powerful attack of the Kira family's iron artillery team and the roasting team, it will be difficult to capture the fortress of the three thousand defenders in a short period of time. More What's more, the movement of the Kira Legion's landing was very loud and slow. Located at the confluence of the Saikawa River and the main stream of the Chikuma River, Ohorikan could easily detect them. It also issued a warning and called for friendly support before the Kira Legion launched a large-scale attack.
Just like this, you can't trick the Kira family. The most powerful thing is that these three connected castles are not afraid of the so-called attack from behind. No matter how you go around, you can't ignore the defenders in the city. For example, today's attack Take the Takeda side's 7,000 defenders in the Battle of Cage Castle as an example.
To attack around the rear or divide the troops to plunder the ground, it is necessary to bypass the fortified city to attack the rear and station some of the main force to pin down the Takeda family defenders in the city. However, how many of the 7,000 defenders are left in the city is another question. The remaining troops are too large. The young master could not withstand the 7,000 defenders who came out of the city to counterattack. If one of them was eaten and the Kira Army's retreat was taken from behind, it would be a disaster.
Leaving too many troops is also a problem. The main force that Kira Legion can use is only 13,000 people. Of the 7,000 people left, only 6,000 are left to attack the other two cities. But if there is a steady stream of army support behind them, What should we do? It is not a pleasant thing for an army of 12,000 to fight against 6,000.
The eight thousand defenders of the three castles on the Yawatawara are not afraid. In other words, they deliberately gathered all their main forces in one city to attract the Kira family to surround them. Chausu Mountain is on the west side of the Yawatawara. The Takeda Army camp will definitely send some reinforcements to support the defense of the two cities. The two cities only need to be sustained for half an hour. Most of the main forces on Chasu Mountain will gather under the city to fight a beautiful counter-siege battle.
Therefore, these three castles are like three poisonous baits with full color, fragrance and fragrance. The tempting bait exudes fatal temptation. If Kira Yoshi cannot help but submit at this moment, then it will inevitably be dragged into the Takeda family's attack. Rhythm, it is very dangerous to fight according to Takeda Harunobu’s ideas.
In the first battle of Kawanakajima, it was Nagao Kagetora's repeated surprises that forced the Takeda family to come forward to negotiate an end to the war. In the second battle of Kawanakajima, Kira Yoshitoki also used surprise attacks to face Tsuyoshi, forcing Takeda Harunobu to give up what he was best at. The attack rhythm was dragged into the familiar rhythm of the Kira family and the result was a huge defeat. This was the third time that Takeda Harunobu decided to fight according to his own design. Of course, Kira Yoshitoki could not do what he wanted.
Back at Asahiyama Castle, the Kira retainers were busy holding a military meeting to discuss the gains and losses of this battle. Several Yoshitakas were busy writing various records without touching the ground. Kira Yoshitoki thought to himself: "The Takeda family will definitely fight head-on." If you can't defeat them, you can only hold on, but can Echigo afford to delay? We don't know the situation at my brother's place yet, nor do we know the situation in Echigo. I must take the lead in making a sound and support them with practical actions!"
The failure of several recent landing battles has given the Kira retainers a high degree of understanding of the Takeda Army. Each time, they mainly used exploratory attacks. Although they did not achieve many results, they did not suffer much losses, except for a hundred or so injured unfortunates. Dan went to receive treatment from a doctor and there were no other losses. The military meeting adjourned not long after it started. Everyone generally knew the enemy's situation and there wasn't much to say.
Hattori Masakiyoshi walked out of the shadows of the camp, leaned down and whispered: "The situation of the anti-Echigo alliance has basically been established. As early as the beginning of last year, Takeda Harunobu was planning this alliance. It was only because of Hojo Ujiyasu's perfunctory attitude that it was not possible. To be able to take shape, Takeda Harunobu originally decided to launch a siege network this year even if Hojo Ujiyasu refused to join. At the beginning of this year, Hojo Ujiyasu suddenly announced that he would join the alliance and agreed to send a large army to join forces with allies to fight together."
"Hojo Ujiyasu suddenly announced that he would join? What does this mean?" Kira Yoshi suddenly thought: "Is it because his brother defeated the Hojo family in Tonegawa last year, which made him feel resentful and join the alliance? It doesn't seem right.
!If this is the case, Hojo Ujiyasu should have joined last fall. Why did he delay joining until the beginning of this year? There must be some unknown reason for this, right?"
Hattori Masakiyoshi nodded and said: "The master of the museum is just as expected! There is indeed an internal reason. I was lucky enough to get some information. After the Hojo family was defeated and retreated last year, Hojo Ujiyasu fell seriously ill when he returned to Odawara Castle. It is said that he suddenly fell ill after the illness.
His attitude changed drastically and he decided to contact the Takeda family’s emissaries. From the end of last autumn to the beginning of this year, there were frequent emissary exchanges between Takeda and Hojo. It was not until Takeda Noburen visited Odawara at the beginning of this year that the alliance plan was finalized.”
"Then why are you telling me now?"
"Please atone for your sins, Master! Both Kai and Sagami have powerful ninja armies, and they have done very good counter-intelligence work especially near the cities where they live. Because there were some problems with the previous intelligence setup, I worked hard to adjust it before the initial results were achieved.
The intelligence collection work on the two countries has not yet been fully launched, and it is impossible to obtain first-hand intelligence information from these two countries for a while." Hattori Masakiyoshi lowered his head and begged for forgiveness.
Kira Yoshihi smiled bitterly and said: "Forget it! I also know that this is not your fault. Those two old foxes have no intention of giving you a chance to spy on first-hand information. The two families are allies, and messengers frequently communicate with each other.
It’s even more commonplace. Unless you can predict the situation, the alliance will definitely not know about it. If even the target of the alliance’s counterattack can detect the core secrets, then the alliance will really have no meaning and value in existence.”
"Thank you, Master, for your kindness! I will try my best to ensure that I don't make the same mistake next time." Hattori Masakiyoshi bowed in thanks, paused and then said: "According to the information fed back by the Fuma Clan, they seem to be looking around for something.
There are traces of it appearing in Kasugayama Castle and Omi Sakamoto."
"What does it mean to be active in Kasugayama Castle and to hang out near Sakamoto? Do they have other intentions? That's not right! My family seems to have nothing to do with the Hojo family. Even the series of wars in Ueno are related to each other.
Let your brother do the work for you, what's the problem?" Kira Yoshichi paced back and forth with his arms crossed.
As a personal experiencer of that incident and the supreme commander of the mission, Hattori Masakiyoshi realized that Kira Yoshi was not aware of the impact of the incident, so he cautiously reminded: "I don't know the reason, but I feel that
Maybe it has something to do with Murasame’s exposure!”
"Yes! There is also the Murasame sword! How could I have forgotten it!" Kira Yoshitsune patted his head and said in annoyance: "How could I have forgotten this? That sword was not given to Honjo Shigenaga by my family.
Did you? How did they find out... Bah! What did I say! The Hojo family will definitely find out that such a big thing as an assassination has been spread by the family. If he doesn't know about it, there will be a problem! The family is still too much
You’re so careless!”
He didn't regret giving the sword to Honjo Nobanaga, nor did he regret that he revealed the assassination incident and publicized it. If the two were lacking, there wouldn't be any problem. However, the assassination happened first and he gave Murasame the last one.
Afterwards, he made such a big show of trying to change Sarugaku that he was simply looking for fault. To use a word he often likes to say, he is "simply hopelessly stupid."
Kira Yoshishi held his head and spoke incoherently in frustration: "What a mistake! What a mistake! How could I have completely forgotten about Murasame! After Uesugi Kenmasa's proof, the Hojo family must know it! Then
When Ashikaga Haruji died mysteriously, there was one Murasame sword missing in the whole city. If I had known earlier, I should have burned down the Furukawa Imperial Palace. What a huge mistake!"
Hattori Masakiyoshi hung his head in embarrassment. He couldn't really burn down the Furukawa Imperial Palace just because of his master's angry words. The order he received back then was to steal swords rather than kill people and silence them. However, the master was upset about this. He also had some responsibility for it, so he insisted.
The scalp said: "The information about the activities of the Fuumas in Sakamoto occurred at the turn of summer and autumn last year. I also conveyed this information. At that time, Nagao Danzhengden was fighting a fierce battle with Hojo Sagami in Ueno, and the master of the hall was fighting against the Takeda family in Shinano.
I don’t know whether the host has noticed this information."
"I didn't notice it, but I have this impression." Kira Yoshi said dejectedly: "I was probably too busy and forgot about it."
"That Hojo Sagami Mamoru wouldn't believe the reason given by the owner, otherwise the Fuma ninja wouldn't have gone to Omi to inquire about the news!"
"Of course he doesn't believe it. No one would believe it. I've made another wrong move! This is really a wrong move. The reason for making random excuses is full of flaws. How can a smart person like Hojo Ujiyasu believe this reason?
! No wonder Hojo Ujiyasu suddenly changed his attitude. No wonder he has to use his family resources to fight this year. This is all my family's fault!" Kira Yoshihi sighed and said: "The matter has come to this, let's find a way to make up for it first!" (To be completed!
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ps: Tomorrow is New Year’s Day. I wish you all a Happy New Year in advance and a happy family!
