Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 163 Three Rivers Raid

For Hideo, as long as he blocked Tokugawa Ieyasu's retreat, he would be invincible until Hashiba Hideyoshi's reinforcements arrived.But who would think that he has too many military exploits?

What's more, judging from the terrain, Anxiang Castle is indeed not a city that can be defended, and there is no dangerous terrain to rely on, but if Kariya Castle can be captured, then Hideka can confront Tokugawa Ieyasu in Kariya Castle. The reason why the Xiu family decided to try the surprise attack plan against all opinions.

After resting in Anxiang City for one night, Xiujia took his 7000 troops out of the city first and headed for Kariya Castle.

The distance between the two castles is 10 kilometers. Soon after Hideya left the castle, the movement of Ukita’s army was detected by Kariya Castle. Guard Mizuno Tadashige thought that Hideya was planning to attack Kariya Castle, so he ordered people to guard their posts strictly in response to Ukita’s attack.

However, the Xiu family led an army of 7000 troops and headed west across the Jingchuan River directly in front of him, without any sign of attacking the city with all their strength.

With doubts about Hideo's plan, Mizuno Tadashige finally chose to send only a small number of scouts to follow Ukita's army, and the main force was stationed in Kariya.

On the Hide family's side, after crossing the Sakai River and entering Owari, they turned north and headed for Kuku Castle, and kept checking with Tsusue Sannojo about the situation of the two Tokugawa troops along the way.

The current situation is that Tokugawa Ieyasu's South Route Army stayed overnight at Atsuta Hoshizaki Castle yesterday, while the East Route Army was repaired at Iwasaki Castle yesterday.

Judging from the map, Owari's Aichi and Chita counties are vast plains that stretch as far as the eye can see, and there are no high mountains and dense forests to set up an ambush for the Hide family to hide their troops.

There is no way, the Xiu family can only use the most crude method, hiding soldiers in the city, his goal is the city of Tagua.

Simply, there were less than 300 defenders at this time, and only one charge of the city was taken down. After Hideka took down the city, he ordered to repair the city, clean up the battle traces, and at the same time keep the flag of the Oda family to confuse the Tokugawa army.

At around 2:[-] p.m., Tsusue Sannojo brought the information that Hideka was extremely concerned about. The Tokugawa family's South Army had already marched to Narumi Castle, and its vanguard army, led by Honda Tadakatsu, entered Odaka Castle for a temporary rest. .

Judging from the distance from Dongminghai, Dagao to Tagua City, it is only 12KM, and the speed of the infantry will definitely arrive in 3 hours. At this time, the East Route Army is marching slowly, and it is still about 4 hours away from Tagua.

However, the envoy sent by his vanguard army has been intercepted by Xiujia, and he clearly told the defender of Tagua that the Tokugawa East Route Army will spend the night in Tagua and ask him to prepare food and labor for 7000 people.

This is not a little bit behind the Xiu family's expected time, and I don't know what happened to the East Route Army, the distance is slower than the arrival of the South Route Army.

From Narumi to Mikawa, there are two roads to go, one is to continue south, turn east at Otagawa Castle and go directly to Kariya Castle, the other is to turn east at Narumi, pass through Kukake and then turn southeast, Cross the Sakai River and enter Kariya.

The Xiu family could not calm down with this information for a long time, and the atmosphere in the evaluation room was also depressed.

Because Hideka did not know which route Tokugawa Ieyasu would choose to march, if he chose the east route, then the distance between the East Route Army and the South Route Army would not be far, and Hideka would be forced to fight 7000 troops with 1 soldiers. The family's defeat is in sight.

After all, it is the main road of Tokaido from Narumi directly to the east to Kukaku Castle, and the caravans along the way also took this road, which is closer to the distance needed to go to Otagawa Castle.

Hideka believes that for Tokugawa Ieyasu, who has his hometown stolen and needs to race against time, he will definitely choose to take this path, so that he will face the risk of being surrounded!
The Xiu family is under a lot of pressure now, and he has a sense of oppression that he used to get when checking scores in the college entrance examination.Judging from the current situation, the Xiu family seems to be on the brink of death in this big test that will determine their own destiny.

After a long time, Xiujia finally raised his head, his eyes were bloodshot, and at this moment his heart was full of fear.

So he asked Tsushaki Sanzhicheng again, "Is Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Southern Route Army's Houjie Army, or in the Vanguard Army?"

Tsuge Sannojo replied, "Tokugawa Ieyasu's 2000 banners were originally the Chinese army, and they marched with the Shinano people, and they were separated from the forward army by an hour's journey."

"Is Your Highness worried that the Tokugawa family will be surrounded by the Narumi-Takaku line and the South Route Army?" As if seeing Hideka's worry, Takayama Shizong asked.

Xiujia tried his best to calm down his fear, nodded helplessly and said, "From the map, it should be the best choice to walk from Narumi, so the distance between the two armies is only 1 hour. There is no time to implement the plan. At this moment, we must either turn to attack Tokugawa Ieyasu’s South Route Army, or choose to withdraw and return to Okazaki.”

"With all due respect, Your Highness doesn't need to worry about this at all." Gao Shan Clan shook his head and said flatly.

"Why? Isn't the Narumi-Takaku line the main road of Tōkaidō?" Xiujia heard that Takayama clan directly vetoed this seemingly best possible answer. He seemed to have caught a life-saving straw, with a hint of excitement and a little asked puzzled.

"It's true in common sense. From the map, you can go back to Sanhe quickly by taking the Narumi-Taku line. However, under the current situation, this road is a route that His Royal Highness will never choose." Gao Shan Clan The tone seemed to be full of confidence.

"Why? The Tokugawa Senate is also a battle-hardened battle, why is it far away?" Hideka continued to ask.

The Gaoshan clan put on an expression like Zhuge Liang, an expert, and explained confidently, "Because there is a strategic location on this road that is not marked on the map-Tongzama."

"Orezama?" Hideka asked in surprise, "But in the third year of Yongroku (1560), Oda Ufu defeated Daisuke Imakawa?"

"It's exactly here. When Daisuke of Jinchuan Zhibu went to Los Angeles in the third year of Yonglu, Councilor Tokugawa was in the army. He almost died in the battle. He should still remember this place."

"Now that His Highness is approaching Mikawa and oppressing Kariya, based on His Highness's past combat experience, it is really impossible for His Highness to make a surprise attack to defeat the enemy, just like His Highness is doing now, wanting to defeat all the enemy troops and seize Kariya City. "

"Your Highness's battle habits, Tokugawa Councilor must have heard of it. With his steady personality, he will never choose the Narumi-Takaka route. He is afraid that His Highness will attack him like Oda Youfu back then. There’s really no chance of turning around.”

"In addition, Senator Tokugawa's personality can be stable. Although it will take an extra day to walk Otagawa Castle, there are plains that are not easy to set up ambush along the way. Walking this way can avoid the dangerous Ozazama area and ensure that the main force Arrived at Kariya Castle completely."

"Has my reputation spread so far? So that the Tokugawa councilors are thinking about my victory?" Hideka asked in surprise after hearing Takayama's explanation.

Takayama Clan and other generals laughed and said, "It's not only spread to the Tokaido, but under Hashiba-sama's intentional spread, I'm afraid that everyone from Satsuma in Kyushu to Aomori in Olu knows about His Highness's reputation."

Hideka laughed dumbfounded when he heard them making fun of himself. Of course, the most important thing is that if Tokugawa Ieyasu is afraid of his own surprise attack and chooses to take the more secure line of Ota River as Takayama Clan said, then he should fight for himself more. for 2 hours.

The facts are exactly as Gao Shan Clan said. One hour later, information came from Narumi that Honda Tadakatsu's vanguard continued to head south towards Otagawa Castle.

The fact is that Hideka's grandiose crossing of the Sakai River was informed by Tokugawa Ieyasu by Mizuno Tadashige, the lord of Kariya Castle.

The 7000-man army is lost as soon as it is lost, which is tantamount to forming invisible pressure for Tokugawa Ieyasu, which made him form a wrong judgment, thinking that Hideka is going to follow the old example of Nobunaga and launch a war in Ozaza Raid.

You must know that Nobunaga had only 4000 powerful troops back then, but now he is facing more than 7000 strong troops from the Western Kingdom, and he does not have 2 troops on his side.
After careful consideration, Ieyasu Tokugawa decided to bypass Ozazama and take the route of Otagawa. In short, one word is "stable"!
When Xiujia heard the news, he had mixed feelings, and suddenly felt that the heavens were pitying him. It was the reputation of Xiujia in the past that scared Tokugawa Ieyasu to change his marching route.

If Tokugawa Ieyasu knew that there was an opportunity to destroy himself in front of him like this, he didn't know how he would feel when he abruptly missed it.

If Tokugawa Ieyasu continues to go south to Otagawa Castle, then he will definitely stay overnight in Otagawa Castle. It takes 5 hours to walk from Otagawa to Otagawa. With enough time to launch an attack on the South Route Army, the tense pressure just now also disappeared.

Xiujia said calmly, "Counselor Tokugawa is thinking too much. Since the counselor is so polite, I don't want to eat his Eastern Route Army. Doesn't it appear that I don't give him face? If this is the case, I will be disrespectful."

So Xiujia began to issue orders.

"Let the envoy send an order to Kami no Satoshi Akashi to climb up, lead the bannermen out of the city, and delay the marching speed of the enemy's rear army Suruga. In a word, before receiving my order, if the Suruga people are far away from the forward The people from the river are all together, and I am the only one who asks."

"The troops in Tagua City continue to repair, and wait until the enemy's soldiers are not far from the city, and then go out of the city to form an array.

In this battle, Suzaku Bei is the vanguard, Kamichi Yubei is the left wing, and Akasaka Bei is the right wing;
The two battalions of firearms equipment are respectively strengthened on the right side of the road and the Suzaku equipment;
The Eastern Sanuki people also strengthened the offensive on the left wing. The tactical requirement is that the vanguard in the middle attack the enemy's arrogance first, and the right wing stabilizes the front and does not retreat.The sides are like an anvil.

The strengthened left wing is an iron hammer, which continuously presses the enemy's right wing, squeezing the enemy to the right and finally achieving encirclement.

The purpose of this battle is to kill the enemy's vanguard army as much as possible, especially the Tokugawa Red Army, and kill them before they form an army.

Yesterday I showed you that the bamboo spears felled are all ready, ready to be inserted on the ground at any time to resist the enemy's red army's banner charge. Our army of 7000 are all elite, and the enemy's army has only a thousand red army that can be elite. Our army will surely win this battle ! "

The generals who were encouraged by the Xiu family also cheered in the evaluation room. They have fought against the Xiu family for many years, and they are well aware of the Xiu family's hammer and anvil tactics.

This tactic sounds a bit lofty, but it was actually used by people thousands of years ago. Alexander the Great even used this tactic to flatten the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe.

That is to strengthen the military force on our side, form a local force advantage, first defeat the enemy's flank, and then surround the enemy, so as to form a force advantage again.

This tactic is the most commonly used tactic by Xiujia in the "Total War" game online battle. The best way to deal with this tactic is to rotate in the same direction as the enemy's line.

That is to say, when the opponent strengthens the left wing, our side also strengthens the left wing, and then we see that the right wing on both sides is stronger and can support the enemy's attack, so that our side can surround the place.

At around 4:30 in the afternoon, the sun was about to set, and the ninja sent information for the last time. Tokugawa Ieyasu stayed in Otagawa Castle, and the South Route Army had already entered the repair.

In the north of Tahang, the army has been slowly marching towards Tahang.

When it was 2KM away from Tagua City, Xiujia ordered the three gates of Tagua City to open and the whole army to line up outside the city to meet the enemy.

On the north side, Sakai Chuji and Ii Naomasa also saw the abnormality of Kukake Castle. They saw the enemy's Sawajiri Sawamon and Kojimon flags from a distance, and they knew that they were in front of Ukita's army.

Sakai Tadashi and Ii Naomasa said together, "Now our army only has more than 7000 people, and the numbers of the two sides are equal. Do you think we can stand alone?"

Naomasa Ii said bluntly, "Master Zuowei, it's not that you haven't seen the power of my subordinate Red Army, forgive me, in front of the Red Army, Bessou is the Ukita Army, even the Uesugi Army is nothing to me .”

Tadashi Sakai said with some concern: "It's better not to be too big, Ukita's army is also a strong army of the West Country."

"A strong army from the Western Kingdom? It also depends on who the opponent is. If the opponent is the ground turtle from the four countries and the Maoli mountain monkey, my red army is also confident that they can defeat them." Naomasa Ii said confidently.

"I'm not talking nonsense. How is the strength of our army compared to the Oda army? It was defeated by the Takeda family in Mikatahara. The Oda army, which is weaker than our army, can't even defeat the Nagamune family. The gross profit is only 55, and Yuxi's 'Xiguo Qiangjun' is really strong, so that's probably the case."

Ii Naomasa is really not a reckless person, he just suffered from poor information, he can't understand how stupid Oda Nobutaka is, he only knows that 3 Oda Army times 5000 Changzong's army was defeated, and the army commander Oda Nobutaka and Niwa Chohide fled back to Kishiwada Castle alone.

And this Nagamune army, which was able to defeat the Oda family, was able to draw two battles with the Ukita army, so it seems that the strength of the Ukita army is not much different from the previous Tokugawa army.

But today, the Tokugawa family, which has integrated Shinano Kai, compiled a set of Takeda Shingen's method of commanding troops in the hands of "Shingen Koji" compiled from the mouth of the Koshinhao family. According to this method, the Tokugawa army trained for one year has already made great progress.

Although it can't be said that it is the same as the Takeda Army back then, it is not comparable to the Changzong Gabu family he thinks, so he is confident that he can penetrate the Ukita who intercepted in front.

Even if it can't be pierced with one blow, it can still cause the enemy and our army to fall into a melee. It is extremely difficult to fight at night. He is confident that he will wait until dawn and wait until the reinforcements of the lord Tokugawa Ieyasu surround Ukita Hideka's house here.

Tadashi Sakai heard what Naomasa Ii said before, and felt that he was a little arrogant, but after hearing his well-founded narration, he also understood that what he said was not crazy, so he nodded and said
"In this way, our family does have the power to fight. We sent someone to inform Master Asahina behind to speed up his march and join our army. Before that, our family will be stationed here not to fight the enemy and wait for reinforcements. At the same time, we must send a message to Master Narumi The government sent envoys to tell them that this is a good opportunity to encircle Hashiba Hideo's family, and let them come to the decisive battle starry night."

Naomasa Ii shook his head aside and said, "Before, I heard people from Hashiba's family bragging about how powerful the Hashiba's military strategy is, but now I can't see it, and I chose to risk entering the enemy's territory alone. It seems that Ikeda Settsu defended Just as famous, that’s all there is to real ability.”

On the afternoon of June 12th in the 1584th year of Tenjin (6), Ukido and Tokugawa's Eastern Route Army vanguards went into battle at Takaku Castle. Both sides were full of confidence in this battle and vowed to kill the enemy here.

So what will be the real outcome of the battle?Let us wait and see the next chapter of the story.

(End of this chapter)