Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 162 Three Rivers Surprise Attack ([-])

Almost at the same time, the curtain of the shogunate was pulled up, a samurai came in with a monk, and reported to Hideo, "Your Highness, the Tokugawa army has begun to retreat from the front line of Owari, and its troops are divided into two groups. Go all the way south to Narumi Castle and all the way east to Iwasaki Castle. The number of mobilized people is about 5000.”

"When did this information come from?" Xiujia asked nervously.

"It's the morning's information. It was sent from Owari without stopping for a moment. According to the schedule, the Tokugawa army will arrive at Kariya Castle tomorrow at the earliest. Please prepare early, Your Highness."

"Understood, you can step back, if you have any new information, please send it as soon as possible."

"Yes"

Although Okazaki Castle was captured, Hideka was not excited at all, but became very nervous instead.

I heard that he knows that the key to this battle is not here, but to defeat Tokugawa Ieyasu's vital force.

Therefore, Hideka did not have the heart to persuade the captured generals to surrender in Okazaki Castle, and simply locked them all in Ninomaru's samurai house.

At the same time, he called Akashi Quanto, and the other two captains of the Hatakemoto group, Ikamoto Heiji and Kakunan Yiqin, and said, "You two take the Hatakemoto group to look for Ukita Hidei, and integrate the Hatakemoto group's forces to go north to seize the Owari border. Natsume’s family is just a small wealthy family, and there are not many guards.” (This Shangxiang is not the Shangxiang City of Hohan County, but the Shangxiang City of Kamo County.)
"After seizing Kamigo Castle, always observe the movement of the Tokugawa Army in Iwasaki Castle. If the enemy comes from the east, let Kamigo Castle let the enemy pass, and report to me quickly. Fight, your task is to delay the opponent's marching speed."

"If the opponent chooses to turn south at Iwasaki Castle and join the South Route Army under Kariya Castle, you will continue to stick to Kamigo Castle and wait for our orders at any time. This matter is very important. I don't worry about Xiuyi. Let Akashi Quandeng be responsible."

Konan Yiqin is the son of the Lord of Ohata, a beautiful country, and has been serving the Xiu family since the Xiu family selected the second-generation samurai of each family to enrich the attendant team and the banner team. .

It's just that whether it's Ikaruga Heiji, Kakunan Yoshin or Ukita Hidei, Hideka has no confidence in them fully implementing their own combat ideology, so Akashi Zento was appointed as the commander-in-chief of Hatakemoto, presumably relying on his outstanding military and political talents in history , as well as his stable and peaceful personality, is one of the best candidates who can perfectly execute the purpose of Xiujia.

After ordering these things, Xiujia didn't even enter the city himself, but just asked the reserve team that was in charge of Okazaki's siege to take a rest in Okazaki City, and waited for a battalion to guard Okazaki in the evening, and then raced against time. The large troops headed for An'an City.

By the time Hideo entered Anxiang City, two pieces of information had been transmitted from Tokugawa one after another. One was the news that the Tokugawa Army vanguard had entered Narumi Castle and Iwasaki Castle that afternoon. Judging from the marching distance, Tokugawa Ieyasu Obviously in a hurry, so the marching speed is very fast, and it can be said that they are tireless and then return to help.

The second news is the news that was learned after the Xiu family took control of Anxiang City. The East Route Army of the Tokugawa Army did not choose to continue eastward to attack Kamo County and form a pincer attack on the Xiu family. He joined forces with the South Route Army at the foot of Kariya Castle.

The commander-in-chief of the two counties is also completely clear. The commander-in-chief of the East Route Army is Sakai Tadashi, who is assigned to Ii Naomasa and others to command the 3500 Toe soldiers as the vanguard. .

The South Route Army was led by Honda Tadakatsu and Kanbara Yasomasa with 3000 Toe Soldiers as the vanguard, plus 8500 Kai Shinano members including Suwa Yoritada, Ogasawara Hidemasa, and Hoshina Masatoshi as the follow-up, and Tokugawa Ieyasu himself was also there Inside the South Route Army.

It left a total of 2500 people from Mikawa led by Ishikawa and 1500 from Owari's allies to defend Qingzhou City, trying to hold back Hashiba Hideyoshi's main force, and more than 4000 people from Mikawa led by Okuheira Zhenkatsu guarded Owari and Mikawa. Several cities along the route blocked Yuchai's possible pursuit from behind.

In other words, once Tokugawa Ieyasu joins Mizuno Tadashige in Mikawa Kariya Castle tomorrow, his total strength will exceed 2.

As for Hideo's army currently gathered in Daoanxiang City, there are only Suzaku Bei, Firearms Bei, Shangdou Youbei, Akasaka Bei, and Higashi Sanuki. The troops left behind after Okazaki are only 7000 people, and the strength is too great. Xiujia has no confidence in defeating Tokugawa Ieyasu at all.

He had no choice but to issue an order to the Ukita Kan family who was attacking in Bandou County again, asking him to speed up his march and go northward overnight to join him in Anxiang City.

At the same time, people sent orders to Sakuma Shengzheng and Matsukura Ukon and Shima Sakon who were in charge of the Tsutsui family in the rear, telling them to speed up and meet with him.

But even if these troops were assembled, his own strength was still only 1. He began to regret the plan of dividing troops in Shangxiang City. When they came to Dongsanhe to set up an army, the troops would not be so stretched.

I don't know what is going on with the attack on Nishimikawa at this moment, the Hide family must muster their strength to deal with the crisis at hand, so he asked Shimizu Yuki to take people to Nishimikawa to look for Akigami Hisaka and Takashima Masayuki, so that they can lead troops to the Anping City joins the battle.

In addition to the action of gathering troops, Xiujia also tried to plan a surprise attack or two in his mind, which could effectively drain the opponent's strength and morale.

If you want to launch a surprise attack, you must take advantage of the fact that the Tokugawa army divides into two groups before they merge.

So, should you choose the East Road or the South Road?

In fact, for Hideka, the route of the South Route was within Owari Kochita County, which was completely behind the enemy. Hideka's troops could not fly, so how could they bypass the surveillance of Kariya Castle and attack the South Route?

Not to mention that the south road is personally commanded by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and its army is stronger than the east road. With the 7000 people in Hideka's hands now, I am afraid that it is impossible to capture this army, and it may repeat Ikeda Hengxing's Mistake, he was attacked from the rear by Tokugawa's East Route Army, so this direction was first ruled out by Xiujia.

But when it comes to defeating the strength of the Eastern Route Army, Xiujia is still beating drums in his heart. Xiujia has never fought against Chibei, but he has heard about this reserve team. Before crossing over, he regarded them as a strong Japanese army.

Among the pioneers on the opposite side is Tokugawa Chibei led by Naomasa Ii. Can he break through Chibei's defense line?Xiujia was also hesitating.

For the Xiu family, once this surprise attack fails, he will no longer even have the strength to organize the army to hold on, so why not let him think carefully.

Hideya's fingers shuttled back and forth on the map, as if he wanted to find a loophole on the map, and finally he put his hand on Kariya Castle.

Even if they can't defeat the Eastern Route Army, as long as they don't go too deep, it shouldn't be difficult to retreat completely. If they can lure the defenders of Kariya Castle and attack Mizuno Tadashige's troops, it is also a good choice.

The generals in the palace saw that Xiujia's brows were frowning for a while, and then relaxed for a while, and none of them disturbed Xiujia's thinking. They had been fighting with Xiujia for many years, and they were already full of trust in Xiujia.

Finally Xiujia asked, "How long will it take for Zuo Jingliang, the Tsutsui family, and the Sakuma family's army to conquer An'an City?"

Tsuge Sannojo replied, "His Royal Highness Ukita's troops were defeated by Nishio Castle yesterday, so it took a long time. When the message came, Nishio Castle had already been captured, and His Highness Zuo Jingliang was preparing to cross the Yahagi River to attack Saijo Castle. Supporting An An on his back, he said that he will definitely meet His Highness at An An tomorrow."

"Master Sakuma's troops have just been repaired in Jingu City. They mean that they will come to Anxiang City to meet His Highness in the morning after repairing for one night."

"Send someone to notify Shengzheng Sakuma, and tell him to take people to Anxiang City overnight, and then repair it after arriving in Anxiang City." Hideka denied Sakuma Shengzheng's idea, because he needed the whole army to attack to carry out the surprise attack plan, An'an City must be guarded by someone. In this case, it is better to let the Sakuma Army and Tsutsui Army station in An'an City for repairs and at the same time defend the City.

"Yes, I'll send someone to notify." Zhezhi Sanzhicheng was about to take orders to leave, but was stopped by Xiu's family.

"Tomorrow at noon, you have a few ninja soldiers disguised and dressed up, pretending to be the messengers of the Sakai family, and go to Kariya Castle to inform the lord Tadashige Mizuno, and say: The Sakai army has encountered a surprise attack from the Hashiba army, and the vanguard has collapsed. Lead the troops to stand by and wait for help, let him quickly bring people to support him."

"Once the Mizuno army leaves the city, you should immediately notify Sakuma Shengmasa in Anxiang Castle, and ask him to lead a surprise attack on Kariya Castle, and let the Tsutsui family support us from the south side to encircle the Mizuno family's army. This must be done well, once our army captures Kariya Castle, we can confront the Tokugawa family across the Sakai River, and then our family will be invincible."

Indeed, as Hideya thought, Mizuno Tadashige, who was trying to lead troops to support Okazaki Castle after receiving the letter from Okazaki for help, led his troops back to defend Kariya Castle because he received an order from Tokugawa Ieyasu, and he must Defend this important fortress on the side of the Sakai River Mikawa.

If Kariya Castle can be guaranteed, Tokugawa Ieyasu will have a safe crossing point. After crossing Kariya Castle, the distance between it and Anxiang Castle is only 10KM. There is no danger to defend in this area, no soldiers In the Kefu Mikawa Plain, Tokugawa Ieyasu is confident that he can defeat Ukita Hideka here with the advantage of numbers.

For Hideka, a peaceful decisive battle was not the best choice. Capturing Kariya not only meant moving the front line forward, but also meant that there was a natural position to defend according to the terrain.

Once the Kariya Castle raid fails, Anxiang Castle will become a tasteless tasteless place for Hideka to eat. Hideka may choose to abandon Anxiang Castle and return to the east side of the Yahagi River to defend Okazaki and wait for Hashiba Hideyoshi's support.

After giving the orders to Tsusaki Sanzhicheng, Xiujia continued to say, "Everyone is resting in Anxiang City today, and will leave Anxiang early tomorrow morning, cross the Jingchuan River and capture the Taku Castle, and then threaten Sakai Tadashi."

After receiving the order from the Xiu family, all the generals went down to prepare one after another, and Sakuma Shengzheng and others in Jingu Castle received the order from the Xiu family. After marching overnight, they arrived in Anxiang City in the middle of the night, but the troops they brought were only their subordinates. of 1200 people.

"Is the Tsutsui Army unwilling to come?" Hideka asked after seeing that the Tsutsui Army hadn't arrived.

Indeed, as Hideka thought, when Hideka's order was transmitted to Kanaya Castle, Sakuma Shengzheng, who had the grace of saving his life, resisted all opinions and led his 1200 people to set off overnight.

As for the Tsutsui army, because of the large number of powerful families, Matsukura Ukon and Shima Ukon did not fight each other, and they quarreled over whether to march overnight.

Shima Kiyoshin wanted to obey the Hide family's order and bring people to An Ning, but the nobles under him were unwilling to march at night after being provoked by Matsukura Ukon, so he had no choice but to give up.

Hideka heard Sakuma Shengzheng's statement, frowned, sighed and said, "I'm afraid that the march will be late tomorrow morning, but there is no better way at this moment. Tomorrow, you can only attack Kariya Castle with your own army." Now, the victory or defeat is in your hands."

Immediately, Hideo told his plan and Sakuma Shengmasa here, and Sakuma Shengmasa immediately said, "Although Major General Hashiba is optimistic about the demeanor of my Hokuriku hero, even if Mizuno Tadashige does not leave, I will take it for His Highness." Kariya Castle."

Therefore, in this midsummer day, the Xiu family in the hinterland of Sanhe planned a monstrous plan. Even though the troops were a little short, he was ready to risk his life to try. The key to the surprise attack on Sanhe depended on the result of tomorrow's battle.

　This is today, there is no update tonight, please don't wait
　　
　
(End of this chapter)