Okazaki Castle is located west of Mikawa. Since most of the northeastern area of Mikawa is mountainous, Okazaki Castle is the actual center of Mikawa. To the northwest of Mikawa is Owari. 17 miles west of Okazaki Castle is The important town of Anxiang City. Thirteen miles further west is Kariya City. Northeast of Kariya City and northwest of Anxiang City, almost in an equilateral triangle position with them, is Zhili City. Twelve and thirteen miles northeast of Zhili City The place inside is Takua Castle. And all the way to the west from Takua Castle is Okezama and Narumi Castle. Further north is the territory of the Oda family.
Time goes back to the early morning of July 26th.
Southeast of Owari, Narumi Castle.
The lord of the castle, Motonobu Okabe, is 34 years old. After his grandfather Okabe Otsuna retired, he became the current head of the Okabe family. He is a military commander with outstanding merits. He was entrusted with the important task of garrisoning the Imagawa family by Imagawa Yoshimoto. Owari's bridgehead - Narumi Castle. Narumi Castle has long been surrounded by the Oda family's Tange Castle, Zenshoji Castle, and Nakajima Castle. There are almost no people living in the castle town. Even so, there are 1,000 combat soldiers and 2,000 auxiliary soldiers in the castle. Military rations were also a problem. Since the Oda family's 3,000 soldiers had an overwhelming advantage over him in some areas, it was impossible for Narumi Castle to open up fields outside the city. Therefore, the 3,000 garrison's military rations in the city were basically transported from Mikawa's rear.
A few days ago, the Oda family once again launched a raid on grain and grass in the area around Narumi Castle, denying Okabe Gennobu the opportunity to obtain supplies on the spot. The troops that infiltrated into Okehazama even almost killed Asahina Yasuhiro, which put Okabe at risk. Ben Motobu was shocked. Although he and the Asahina family had always disliked each other, and he did not like the boy Asahina Taiheng, this incident forced him to re-examine the threat from the Oda family.
25 miles east of Narumi Castle is Takake Castle, another city controlled by the Imagawa family. Originally, Uden Nagateru led 1,000 ashigaru to garrison. After Asahina Nobuyuki arrived with 1,000 reinforcements, Otaka Castle was added With 600 defenders, the Imagawa family's number of soldiers in Owari has reached nearly 2,000, which can rival the Oda family. After Asahina Nobuyuki's reinforcements arrived, the Oda family immediately shrunk their scope of activities in an all-round way, shrinking so fast , to such a degree, there are some abnormalities. Later, Okabe Gennobu learned that a unification war broke out within the Oda family. Oda Nobunaga led almost all the troops to attack the Iwakura Oda family. Okehazama is now It is already a completely safe area. The remaining troops in the five rock villages blocking Dagao Castle and Narumi Castle have also dropped to their lowest point.
However, the arrival of Asahina Nobuyuki's reinforcements has also increased the difficulty of logistical supply of food and grass. Some time ago, Takoa City was in a hurry for food and grass, and had to send the military rations originally sent to Narumi Castle to Takoa City. Narumi City's military rations are now There is not much left, and they will be finished by the end of this month. The 1,500 people from the Matsudaira family are escorting 2,000 koku of grain to Narumi Castle. According to the report from the messenger, they were already stationed at Okezama last night. If everything All goes well, we will arrive at Narumi City at noon today, and the food crisis will be alleviated.
At this moment, Okabe Gennobu was standing at the top of Narumi Castle, looking at the official road to the east. 1,500 of his men had already assembled and planned to leave the city to cover the entry of grain and grass into the city after the transport team arrived.
"Your Highness, you have worked really hard." Yamaguchi Munei, a retainer of the Okabe family who is only 15 years old this year, climbed to the top of the city. "You have been staring at it for most of the night. I will come and see later."
"Okay, you should also practice hard," Okabe Gennobu looked at this rising star, "There won't be too much risk, you don't have to be too nervous, no one will attack Okehazama."
"Oh? Why?" Yamaguchi Sounaga asked nervously, "Didn't it mean that there is a 20-mile mountain road on the ancient ferry 10 miles away from Furuno Castle, which can lead directly to the Okezama."
"Haha," Okabe Genshin smiled. The rising star still lacks experience after all. "As you know, it is a twenty-mile long mountain road. I have seen the road. It is very narrow. It is difficult to deploy troops and even harder to maintain.
The transportation of weapons and baggage is smooth. If we want the troops to reach Okezama through this path and have a supply of food and grass for three days of combat," Okabe Gennobu obviously has a good idea of these figures, "even if those troops have carried
Rations, in order to set up supply lines and baggage trains, can only supply less than 600 combat troops, but more than 2,000 baggage troops have to be invested in it."
"This path is difficult to walk. It will take at least three hours to get here." Okabe Motonori held the Ribashi scabbard in his hand and tapped the palm of his left hand. "If you want all the troops to pass through this path before starting the battle,
It will take at least five hours."
"Let 600 soldiers travel for five hours to reach our territory? Surrounded by more than 2,000 soldiers?" Okabe Gennobu asked Yamaguchi Sounaga, "Do you think it is feasible?"
"What if... all the people who come here are soldiers, carrying only one day's rations with them?" Yamaguchi Sounaga is a young man after all, and he is not willing to be refuted so easily.
"Hahaha..." Okabe Gennobu laughed a few times after hearing this, "I really hope you are commanding the Oda army." Okabe Gennobu teased, "I carry more than two thousand soldiers on my back.
Armor, carrying only rations, walked for several hours on the mountain road to reach us. The path was narrow, so we could only move forward in columns. After arriving at Tongzhajian, we had to stop to gather the troops and spread out their formation. At this time, all our people
Once we get the news, thousands of Ashigaru and even reinforcements from Anxiang Castle and Kariya Castle will be dispatched."
"When they are assembled, not only will we not be at a disadvantage in terms of strength, but we can also wait for work. After a big battle, we don't even need to win. As long as it lasts until night, the Oda family, who have run out of food, will have to withdraw their troops. In such a small space,
"On the trail," Okabe Gennobu suddenly stretched out his hand and clenched his fist fiercely, "They can't move fast at all, so we will pursue them in tandem, leaving at least one-third of their strength behind."
"After that, the Oda family, which had all its mobile troops disbanded, no longer had field troops available. We could even take down the five surrounding rock villages in one fell swoop. We usually don't dare to attack, but we were frightened by the Oda family's field battle in Furuno Castle.
With the deterrence of the troops, there will be no worries at that time."
In ancient times, the organization of the army was very important to the combat effectiveness of the army. Instructions were passed through the chief general, to each general, and then to the generals, the generals under the generals, and the ashigaru heads, until every ashigaru. One level at a time.
The entire army can be commanded only by passing the signal through flags or messengers. If the soldiers cannot find the general, they will not be able to find the soldiers. Even if there are more people in the army, it will be a ball of scattered sand that no one can command. Therefore, ancient wars
Once a unit's flag is lost, it means that command communication is interrupted, and the general cannot command that unit. And if the general's flag is lost, all his subordinates will be leaderless. This is the importance of organization to the army.
Therefore, if more than half of a unit is lost, it will only be considered a heavy casualty. However, if the organization is disrupted, it will be directly judged as losing combat effectiveness. Because the collapse of the command system means that the unit is completely out of control.
.
In Japan, organizational structure is even more important. Japan does not have a strong centralized system. The family governor entrusts the land to his retainers. They support the troops themselves and follow the family governor when he goes to war. Therefore, before the family leader goes on an expedition, he collects funds from various retainers.
It will still take some time for the troops to be mobilized. The retainer's own soldiers have no relationship with the governor. If the governor's order is to be passed on to an ashigaru, it must go through the level of contact between the retainer and the retainer's retainer. Therefore, the organizational system
Once disrupted, there will be almost no ability to fight.
Just imagine, the Oda family's troops, which were originally divided into teams and families, were all crowded together like a race for several hours. The connections between the various levels would naturally become a mess, and the ashigaru could not find their own ashigaru.
I can't find the Ashigaru general, I don't know whose orders I should obey, and I don't know who I can command. It will take some time for such a unit to regain its combat effectiveness.
"Unless, I mean unless," Okabe Motonobu said jokingly, "the Oda family knew many days in advance that we would have a grain team staying there today. They assembled the troops early and brought a day's rations with them.
, the whole army went out to rob the grain and fodder team, and then relied on the stolen grain and fodder to maintain logistical supplies. Only this plan had the slightest chance of success. And according to our intelligence, the Oda family is now dispatching the whole army to besiege
The Iwakura-Oda family plans to unify their internal affairs."
After listening to Okabe Motonobu's analysis, Yamaguchi Sounaga let out a sigh of relief and said, "Sure enough, only a fool would do such a thing."
At this time, Oda Nobunaga, who was nicknamed Owari's big fool, was urging all the 2,000 soldiers under his command to gallop on the path from Koto to Okehazama at night. Oda Nobunaga was there.
A few days ago, they suddenly gave up on Iwakura Castle, the home city of the Iwakura Oda family, which was within easy reach. Rather than delaying the autumn harvest, they only disbanded the auxiliary troops and went straight to the Imagawa family with 2,000 soldiers. They left the ancient ferry at the beginning of the ugly period.
Before setting off, it was difficult to travel at night even if there were torches. In order to avoid being discovered, the entire army extinguished the torches after approaching Tongzhajian. However, before dawn, the vanguard of this army quickly arrived at Tongzhajian.
"My lord bet all his hopes on that captured map. It's really ridiculous. He actually plans to rely on captured grain and grass to make up for the shortage of military rations. This is obviously random. How can you treat military rations like this?" Responsible.
Sakuma Morishige, who commanded the last reserve force, was firmly opposed to this combat plan from the beginning, but Oda Nobunaga had no choice but to go his own way, rejecting everyone's suggestions, and almost all mobile troops except the northern border and five rock villages were destroyed.
They all gathered for this surprise attack - each soldier carried only one day's rations, crossed the mountain road at night, and attacked the baggage train stopped in the barrel.
"We knew absolutely nothing about the information there, so we so recklessly believed in the food transportation time and stopping place marked on the map." Sakuma Mori cursed harshly, "The family business founded by the old master is afraid that the
It will be destroyed in the hands of this boy."
"Yonegoro, if news of my defeat comes, burn the five rock fortresses directly." Sakuma Nobumori, who was following Sakuma Morishige, repeated the order Oda Nobunaga left for Niwa Nagahide when he set out, "My lord, you have to fight hard."
"I don't know what's going on, Mr. Lin. He's usually so conservative, but this time he supports my lord's decision." Sakuma Morishige was also very dissatisfied with the old writer Lin Xiuzhen, "There is also Takigawa Kazumasuke, who clearly knows that intelligence work is not possible at all. Even if it’s in place, I won’t dissuade the lord.”
"Oh? You two, you look very dissatisfied with my lord." Suddenly, a burst of unkind laughter came from behind the two of them. Sakuma Morishige and Sakuma Nobumori looked back and saw a tall and mighty military commander. , with a huge vermilion spear leaning on his shoulder, was riding a horse, looking at the two of them carelessly.
"Master Maeda, I don't know what you mean by this." Sakuma Nobumori asked with a frown.
"Haha, I don't know," Maeda Toshiie laughed and led the horse in a circle in front of the two of them in a demonstrative manner, "I'm just here to give orders to you two to speed up."
"My lord is in front, why are you coming from behind to give the order?" Sakuma snorted solemnly.
"It won't bother you two, haha." Maeda Toshiie clamped his horse's belly and galloped away on the rugged hills beside the road. "You're going too slow, old turtles." Before leaving the sight, Maeda said Toshiya also shouted something to the two of them. The echo echoed in the hills, making the two Sakuma furious.
"It's so unruly, everyone is just like the master." Sakuma cursed in a low voice, raised his head, and shouted, "Everyone, speed up and keep up with Lord Sasa's troops in front."