In the early morning of May 28, Yu Qiuping got up early and immediately led his troops towards Anxiang City. Sena Bei, who got up with Yu Qiuping to assemble, could not gather as fast as Tokiwa Bei. By the time Yu Qiuping waited
The troops had already set off for half an hour before Sena Bei left the castle town outside Kariya Castle.
At three quarters of the hour, Anxiang City was clearly visible in the field of vision. It was only a short 13 miles from Kariya City to Anxiang City. According to Tokiwa Bei's speed, he would definitely be able to arrive in half an hour. In order to save time, Yu Qiuping even
Instead of taking the auxiliary troops with them, they were asked to set off with Sena Ujitoshi's team. Tokiwabei's Ashigaru were neatly dressed themselves and had arrived outside the castle town of Anxiang Castle.
A long time ago, Yu Qiuping sent a large number of detective horses to investigate the southeast. What made him feel a little relieved was that until now, there was no sign of large-scale activities of the Okabe family. And this also worried him - because before
In several fights, he failed to figure out the Okabe family's movements every time, and suffered defeat every time.
After Tokiwa Bei arrived at the city, Tadashi Sakai in the city immediately sent an envoy to communicate. When Yu Qiuping euphemistically expressed his intention to enter the city to assist in defense, he was immediately rejected by the envoy. Yu Qiuping tried to make this request many times later, but failed
They were all excused by the envoys with various excuses such as "The environment in the city is not good, how dare you wrong Tokiwabei", "The Matsudaira family is more than enough to defend the city, but Tokiwabei would not worry about it". Yu Qiuping understood Sakai Tadashi's attitude.
Finally, he stopped trying any more and honestly set up camp on the west side of the castle town - naturally he would not go south to help the Matsudaira family as a shield.
After completing these deployments, Yu Qiuping immediately sent messengers to report back to Kariya Castle, saying that no movements of the Okabe family had been found yet, so that the main force should not act rashly to avoid being counterattacked by Okabe Motobu. Yu Qiuping now expressed his feelings towards Okabe Motobu.
I admire the military strategy very much. The two sides are clearly evenly matched, but now they are being led by Okabe Motonobu, who maintains a strategic offensive.
"Tell me, why is this situation happening?" Yu Qiuping asked a few people around him in confusion, "Why are the two sides evenly matched, but we have always been so passive?"
Naoe Tadayei, Honda Tadakatsu and Yoshioka Katsumasa seemed to be unable to give very good opinions, so they just listened silently. Sanada Masayuki frowned and thought for a while, and then said with some hesitation: "In my opinion,
, I’m afraid it’s caused by differences in intelligence.”
"Oh?" Yu Qiuping looked at Sanada Masayuki, "Kibei, tell me?"
"Actually, from the beginning of the confrontation between Narumi Castle and Odaka Castle, we were destined to be led by the nose." Sanada Masayuki said, "Since the Okabe family is closer to the southeast than us, he retreated
When the time comes, we have to follow. The Okabe family has always been choosing the battlefield. Wherever we have reached with the hind legs, they have been there with the front legs. They have a thorough understanding of the time and place, and our movements are all under their noses. But where they move,
We have no idea what we are going to do. The backwardness in intelligence forces us to be on the defensive and relatively passive."
"That makes sense." Yu Qiuping suddenly understood, "But it seems there is nothing wrong with it. Aren't Kariya City and Anxiang City both in our hands now? Although the Okabe family has always taken the initiative, there is nothing wrong with it.
Is there any advantage?"
"And now, the Okabe family's intelligence advantage no longer exists." Sanada Masayuki said with a smile, "Now that we have the city as a base, we can rely on the subtle advantage of the cavalry to hide our army's movements.
As long as we survive today, we can try to detect the Okabe family's movements."
"It makes sense." Yu Qiuping and several others smiled and nodded.
"What are you talking about?" Nakahide Omaezaki muttered dissatisfiedly, "How can that old thief Okabe be as powerful as you think? When I look at him, he just goes to no one every time.
He's running around in different places, and doesn't care what our intelligence is. Anyway, he won't go wherever we guess he's going. He's just playing hide and seek with us! If you ask me, he'll take a detour and run back to Narumi City right now.
went!"
"Come on, you. Run back to Narumi City, you can think of it!" Yu Qiuping laughed loudly, "You kid, can you be more serious when discussing problems!" Everyone was amused by Omaezaki Nakahide's words.
, the depressing atmosphere was relieved a lot for a while.
After the inspector sent to Kariya Castle returned, Asahina Taito's latest order also arrived together with Sena Bei who had just arrived. The top priority was to find the movements of the Okabe family's troops. Asahina's family, Amaki's family, Sena
The famous experts sent out a large number of detective horses to search southward. Don't act rashly until the investigation makes some progress.
However, it was as if yesterday's script was playing out again, and the news reported from batches of scouts was: no sign of the Okabe family's attack was found.
With the experience of being cheated last time, Yu Qiuping would no longer stand around doing nothing this time. At 2:00 p.m., he personally led a team of reconnaissance cavalry to the south to conduct reconnaissance. However, they had already advanced.
When we arrived at the Yahagi River, twenty miles south of Anxiang Castle, there was still no sign of the Okabe family.
"You won't be cheated again, right?" Yu Qiuping cursed in a low voice. Last night, his detective encountered the Okabe family's intelligence barrier here - but now there is nothing here - so Okabe
The only possibility was to head south to Nishio. Several bridges on the Yahagi River remained intact, and the Okabe family seemed to have no intention of hindering the pursuit.
Yu Qiupei straightened up slightly on his horse and looked at the surrounding terrain. To the southwest of them, there was a forest that blocked the road from Kariya Castle to Nishio. And across the Yahagi River to the southeast, there was also a large forest and hills.
.These are two places where troops can ambush.
Yu Qiupei, who has always been cautious, still did not advance rashly with the cavalry. Instead, he sent some people to the official road to the west and asked the Asahina family's detective horses from Kariya Castle to provide flank cover and reconnaissance. He also sent Kohata Yoshimori with 10 people.
Ride across the Yahagi River from the bridge and investigate the woods to the southeast.
At six o'clock, all the scout horses sent to the west and southeast came back and reported back. There were no ambushes in either the woods to the west or the woods to the southeast - not even the flag of the old cloth suspicion formation. The scout horses of the Asahina family were led by Asahina Tai.
Heng personally led the army and continued to approach the south.
Although the current environment cannot be said to be absolutely safe, Yu Qiupei felt that it would be no problem for his dozens of cavalrymen to escape. So he and Asahina Yasuhiro marched east and west, crossing the Yahagi River and walking along the
Two official roads run towards the west end.
At the beginning of noon, Asahina Taihiro and Ame Qiupei met one after another in Nishio. On a plain in Nishio, they found traces of large-scale camping and cooking fires - apparently the Okabe family
The troops were stationed at Nishio yesterday - the cavalry north of the Yahagi River was nothing more than a suspicion formation.
If the Okabe family had arrived at Nishio yesterday... today...
Yu Qiuping looked eastward, and an ominous premonition made him shiver on a hot day.
Sure enough, the scouts found a large number of unerased footprints and horse hoof prints on the official road from the west end to the east end of Puxiang. Looking far to the east, they seemed to be able to see the dust raised by the passing army.
"Abandoning Qiagu, bypassing Anxiang and Okazaki, abandoning all important towns and ignoring them," Yu Qiuping said in disbelief, "Sticking all the way to the south and forcibly pushing towards the east. It's really courageous."
Further east of Kamagata is Yoshida Castle. This most important stronghold of Higashi Mikawa is now owned by the Okuhira family. In other words, Yoshida Castle, which is basically an empty castle, will soon be attacked by the Okabe family.
"Quickly go and notify His Highness Asahina and His Highness Sena." Uakiuhei said in a deep voice, "The Okabe family did not try to attack Anxiang Castle, but the entire army detoured from the south, with the goal of Mikawa Yoshida Castle."
Now, the main force of Asahina's family has been left behind by the Okabe family for a day and a half. The situation has become very dangerous. Only then did Yu Qiupei truly realize the advantage of being in front when retreating - you can always hold hands.
The latter's nose is the best. If they capture any fortified city, they can block the pursuers from behind.
"It's all my fault that I didn't stick to the Okabe family at the beginning." Yu Qiuping sighed regretfully, "Otherwise, they wouldn't have distanced themselves and played with us in the midst of applause. The Imagawa family's number one general is truly worthy of his reputation.
"
When Yu Qiuping led the cavalry back to Anxiang City, it was already too late. He learned that the Asahina family had led an army to Anxiang City to meet up, and began to discuss the next plan. Now he is chasing after the Okabe family.
, it is obviously too late to pursue them from the south road. Only by following the official road on the northern line, it is possible to support Yoshida Castle in time. Because the official road in the south is relatively remote, narrow and rugged, it is not conducive to
The army passed quickly. The official road to the north: Anxiang Castle - Okazaki Castle - Ganluji Temple - Mori - Yoshida Castle is the official road passed by the Imagawa family's army. The traffic volume of the road is almost that of the official road to the south.
Twice that. If we take the northern route, it is still possible to catch up.
However, the question before everyone is - if you want to take the northern route, you must pass through the territory of the Matsudaira family. Are the Matsudaira family really willing to allow such a large number of Asahina family to pass? You know, the Okabe family is far away now
In the south, there is no way to intervene in the situation around Okazaki Castle. If the Asahina family breaks out now, the Matsudaira family will not have time to turn against the Okabe family, and they will be immediately besieged or even wiped out.
Therefore, both Sakai Chuji of Anxiang Castle and Matsudaira Motoyasu of Okazaki Castle refused to allow the Asahina troops to pass, and even adopted a posture of martial law. In the end, it was Amakihei and Sena Ujitoshi who took action in person.
They rushed to Okazaki Castle to negotiate with Matsudaira Motoyasu and reached a compromise terms - the auxiliary troops were allowed to pass from Anxiang Castle to Okazaki Castle. The soldiers marched from the plain grassland south of the official road. This was inevitable.
The ground would greatly slow down the march, but everyone had no other choice. The Oppei father and son were anxious, but there was nothing they could do.