Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 167 Three Rivers Raid (End) Tokugawa's Surrender

Zhongshan Zhengcheng returned to Kariya Castle at noon that day, but he fell off his horse due to extreme exhaustion shortly after crossing the border, and was still brought back to Kariya Castle after being discovered by the samurai from Hideya's side.

When he woke up, it was already daytime on the second day (July 7st), Xiujia went to his dormitory to meet him as soon as he woke up.

"You've worked hard, Zheng Cheng." Seeing him waking up, Xiujia gnawed on the rice balls, sincerely happy for him.

"Your Highness?" Zhongshan Zhengcheng didn't expect that Xiu's family would come here to meet him in person, he said flattered, then put down the rice ball, wiped the corners of his mouth with his hand and saluted Xiu's family.

"Did you see Tokugawa Ieyasu?" Hideka said straight to the point, "Did Councilor Tokugawa say anything when he saw Ii Xiu's body?"

Nakayama Masanari told Hideka everything he saw and heard in Ota Chuanaka. After hearing about it, Hideka felt a little bit sad. As far as Hideka's own feelings are concerned, he wanted to recruit Naomasa Ii, a civil and military expert, to attract him. That's right, it's just that good fortune made people so that the two sides could only be hostile to each other, and it also made the most famous military general in the Warring States period die early.

Xiujia was very satisfied with Zhongshan Zhengcheng's achievements, and immediately said, "I want to give you my family name, and you will be Zhongshan Wanzhizhu Jiacheng in the future. At the same time, I plan to promote you to be the captain of the entourage team and manage 10 people. Team."

For the old Japanese samurai in the "His Highness Thank You" team, getting the name from the lord often means that they have entered the eyes of the lord, and they will definitely have a very good future in the future.

Just when Xiujia was communicating with Jiacheng, Zhuang Qing went straight into the house and reported to Xiujiahui, "The army of the Tokugawa Council set out from Datianchuan Castle."

After hearing the news, the Xiu family ordered Zhongshan Xiucheng to take a good rest, and then returned to the evaluation room of Honmaru to listen to more detailed information.

As for Tadashi Sakai, who was in charge of the East Road, after being raided by Hideo, the 1200 red reserve team was completely annihilated, with only more than 5 troops.

In Kukake Castle, he met Mizuno Tadashige, who had just gathered hundreds of remnants, and informed Tokugawa Ieyasu of Otagawa Castle about the fall of Kariya Castle.

After the body of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Otagawa Castle, Ii Naomasa was sent to Otagawa Castle, he had to deal with some political matters, so Tokugawa Ieyasu’s pace was delayed for a whole day until today (July 7 Day) depart from Otagawa Castle in the morning.

According to the pace of Datian Chuancheng, it is expected that he will come to Ogawa Castle to the west of Jingchuan to be stationed tonight, and confront Xiujia across the river.

"It's time to send people to garrison Ogawa Castle, so that our family can be regarded as having a stronghold west of Jingchuan." It was Oka Toshikatsu who spoke.

As the last general to come to Mikawa, he prepared his army along with Kami no Kojo, until yesterday afternoon when he came to Kariya Castle with the Tsutsui family's army.

Oka Toshikatsu’s suggestion is indeed worthy of reference. Ogawa Castle is on the southwest side of Kariya Castle, and the distance between the two cities is about 2km. This is not far from the mouth of the Sakaigawa River. The width of the river is 150 meters wide. It is difficult to cross this width without a boat. of.

Tokugawa Ieyasu's previous plan must have been to order all the ships in Hekinan Town to come here after passing Okawa Castle, and the Tsu troops would be transferred to Kariya Castle to fight Hideka in the Mikawa Plain.

However, as Kariya Castle was controlled by Hideya, even if the Tokugawa Army's naval forces were able to transport troops to the east of the river, they might face Hideya's halfway attack.

At the same time, Okawa Castle is like a nail, watching the troops on the west side firmly. Once the landing on the east bank is unfavorable and the troops on the west side are insufficient, the defenders in Okawa Castle can come out and launch a surprise attack on the Tokugawa Army.

Of course, Ieyasu Tokugawa still had another choice at this time, and that was to go up the river and attack Okazaki through Kamo County.

For Tokugawa Ieyasu, it was impossible to go upstream to cross the river. After all, Hashiba Hideyoshi's pursuers were right behind his ass, so how could he hit him head-on.

Once this option was abandoned, he was left with the option of ordering the Sanhe Navy in Binan Port to forcibly transport the Tokugawa Army to the east bank after storming Ogawa Castle.

But don't forget that after Tokugawa Ieyasu's fiasco in Ise Bay, most of them retreated to Suruga, and only a small part fled into Binan Port.

The Yuchai navy system is well preserved, and at this moment, it is just right to go north along Jingchuan, first capture Binan, and then block the Jingchuan river.

If the Jingchuan river is blocked, Tokugawa Ieyasu's 2 troops will be trapped in Aichi and Chita counties, and it is only a matter of time before they die.

After thinking about this point clearly, Hideya ordered Takahashi Ryosuke's Kamichizuo Beishi to cross the Sakai River and enter Ogawa Castle to hold on. At the same time, he ordered the Tsutsui family's 3000 troops to go south to cooperate with Ukita Kan's family to conquer Binan City and control Binan Port Town , to expel the Sanhe navy hiding in the port, of course the Jiugui Jialong's navy will cooperate with them.

After Hideya gave these instructions, he quietly waited for Tokugawa Ieyasu to throw himself into the net in Kariya Castle.

In Hideo's view, the demise of the Tokugawa family is imminent. Even if Hashiba Hideyoshi's main force is not in the Chita Peninsula to encircle Tokugawa Ieyasu, the 2 troops in his hands will slowly disperse and flee. The Hashiba family has already grasped the key to victory. .

However, until the morning of July 7nd, even Nishi Mikawa's Akikami Hisaya and Takashima Masaoyu arrived at Kariya Castle, and they hadn't seen Tokugawa Ieyasu's army, which made Hideka a little uneasy.

Fearing that Tokugawa Ieyasu was really desperate, he crossed the Sakai River upstream and entered Kamo County to threaten Okazaki Castle, so he ordered Tsusue Sannojo to carefully investigate the information of the Tokugawa Army in the Owari area.

In the afternoon of the same day, Tsusue Sannojo received the news from the ninjas that Tokugawa Ieyasu's South Route Army did not come to Ogawa after leaving the Otagawa east, but was stationed in Ofu Castle on the side of the barrel, and Kukake The cities echo each other.

Hideo confirmed the news several times, and compared the map to think about Tokugawa Ieyasu's next move, but he couldn't figure out what Tokugawa Ieyasu's purpose was.

Tokugawa Ieyasu didn't move, and Hideka didn't dare to move at first. He didn't have many troops left behind in the hinterland of Mikawa. Hideka was afraid that Tokugawa Ieyasu would really leave suspicious soldiers in Ofu City, and the main force went back to steal his own ass. The sit-in started from July 7rd to July 3th.

Hideie, who had not waited for the Tokugawa army to move in Mikawa, tentatively ordered Akigami Hisaya and Takashima Masanobu to cross the Sakai River and occupy Akubi Castle and Otagawa Castle on the south side.Attempt to encircle Tokugawa Ieyasu.

On July 7, Hideie received the news that the two castles had been captured, but the Tokugawa family on the opposite side did not respond at all. He boldly left the left side of the upper road to garrison Kariya, and led the main force across the Sakai River to approach Ofu Castle. , launched a strong attack on Tokugawa Ieyasu and ended the war.

At this time, Xiujia was full of one thought, "Wouldn't it be the wings of the butterfly that made Tokugawa Ieyasu die in the battle like Takeda Shingen, and the Tokugawa army has no leader?"

On July 7, in the face of the Ukita Army's demise, the Tokugawa Army in Dafu City chose to leave 7 people to defend the city, and the main force retreated to Dagao Castle and Xingcheng.

The actions of the Tokugawa family made Xiujia more and more confused. Is the old turtle preparing to avoid the battle passively?
In any case, the fat in the mouth can't run away. On July 7th, the Xiu family surrounded Dafu City, besieged from three sides, and prepared to completely defeat this "tokugawa defender who lost all morale."

Unexpectedly, the defenders held their positions extremely completely, without any sign of losing their morale, and with 2000 people, they desperately delayed Xiu's family in Dafu City for 2 days.

On July 12, Tensho 7, at the moment when the Ukita army broke through the Nijimaru on the third day and forced the remnant Tokugawa army into the Honmaru, a samurai holding a banner with a Hashiba Gosan paulownia pattern ran from the north side.

With Hashiba Hideyoshi's edict, he came to Sanhe to meet with Hideyoshi. Seeing that there were two army flags fighting each other in Dafu City, he began to shout from afar, "By the order of Hashiba Quanzhong Nayan, the Hashiba Tokugawa family armistice!".

(It was wrong before, Hideyoshi has already given the carry right to Zhong Nayan, and it can no longer be modified.)
This news seems to have been expected by Tokugawa. After hearing the news of the truce between the two families, Honmaru shouted excitedly. Some people even shouted "Long live". It's like winning a battle.

But everyone in Yuxi's family was stunned when they heard the news. Dafu City was about to fall, and the Tokugawa family was in a desperate situation. Why did they stop fighting?

Hanchuan Iemitsu, who was beside Xiu's family, said viciously, "My lord, let my reserve team go, the enemy has only one breath left, and Dafu City can be taken immediately. No matter what he does, the bird will come!" At that time, it was said that he was late, and Dafu City had already been captured."

Samukawa Iemitsu's words were echoed by many people, and Ikaruga Heiji even personally suggested that he delay the arrival of the envoy.

"Idiots, sit down honestly." At this moment, Gang Lisheng, who had been silent for a long time, opened his mouth to reprimand the generals for making noise. "The person who came is right in front of his eyes. Doesn't he know what's going on in Dafu City? If he is asked to read a book from Quanzhong Nayan, all the efforts of our Yuxi family in this battle will be in vain."

In fact, for a moment, Hideie had the same idea as Iemitsu Samukawa, wanting to create an established fact.

But if you think about it carefully, even if you win Dafu City, what's the point?The main force of the Tokugawa Army retreated to the Narumi-Odaka-Star City line, and Ofu City was only a thousand people. Even if they were eaten, they would not be able to change the outcome of the armistice, but they would leave a bad impression on Hideyoshi.

In addition, although there are only a thousand defenders in the city, Hideka is not a murderer at all, and there is absolutely no need for him to take the lives of his soldiers to kill the Tokugawa family.

After much deliberation, the Xiu family ordered Ming Jin to withdraw his troops and stop the siege, and at the same time asked people to bring the envoys.

When the visitor was brought to Xiu's headquarters, after a closer look, the good guy turned out to be an old acquaintance Katagiri Kemoto.

I saw this young man, one of the seven guns of Jianyue, wearing a black full body, holding a five-san paulownia flag that has been transformed by Hashiba Hideyoshi. .”

The family crest of the Hashiba family is the Sawajiri-emo, but Oda Nobunaga once bestowed the Gosantong pattern to Hideyoshi on behalf of the emperor, so Hideyoshi himself has always used the Gosantong pattern for his seal flag.

Now Katagiri Kamoto is holding the Wusantong pattern flag, not the Sawajiri Shimon, which obviously represents Hashiba Hideyoshi's irresistible will. He is Hashiba Hideyoshi's representative at this moment.

Hashiba Hideyoshi asked him to come with this flag, obviously thinking about the possibility that Hideyoshi might violate the order and continue to attack.

Fortunately, Okari Katsura pulled it in time at that time. If Hideyoshi really ordered the troops to continue attacking at that time, Hideyoshi would inevitably fall into the trap of cutting the feudal clan in the future.

Seeing this five-san-pattern-patterned flag, even the Xiu family stood up from the chief seat, came down to face the chief seat where he was sitting just now, and stood with his retainers, fell down and paid homage, "Listen to Quan Zhongna word order"

And Katagiri Katomoto brought several Hashiba Banners to Hideo, spread out the letter in his hand and read "Hashiba Quanzhong accepted the words, Hashiba Tokugawa ceased fighting yesterday, and the two armies stopped fighting here. Major General Hashiba hereby I have made great contributions to the war, I will remember all these, and I will return to Qingzhou to participate in the evaluation soon, and I will reward you for your merits."

After Katagiri Kazumoto said Hideyoshi's order, it was really Hideyoshi's style, and the sentences were very colloquial, reflecting his identity as a farmer.

"Yes, my son takes orders."

The Xiu family received the order, and Katagiri Kamoto helped the Xiu family up in a very doggy manner, and said, "Oh, Major General Hashiba really upset me, please hurry up, Your Highness is fighting heroically in Mikawa, I will wait for you in Owari I have also heard that after this battle, His Highness will definitely receive a great reward." There was no sign of disapproval from the six relatives just now.

After Xiujia and Katagiri Kasumi had some courtesies, he originally wanted to leave him to ask what happened, but he refused the invitation of Xiujia under the pretext of going to Dafu City to deliver orders to Tadakatsu Honda. And said that everything will be discussed on the return trip tomorrow.

When the Xiu family heard that he reported the name of the general defending the city, how could it be Honda Zhongsheng?Aoi Tokugawa hangs on the wall!
Hideka had always thought that the defender in the castle was a certain Matsudaira samurai, but unexpectedly the defender was Honda Tadakatsu, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Tokugawa.

In fact, it’s not bad for the Hide family. Honda Tadakashi’s well-known cypress pattern was changed after the Tokugawa family unified the world and became a general. Tokugawa Hidetada restricted only those specially gifted by the Tokugawa family to use the sunflower pattern. Before that, Ben Tadada Katsura, as a branch of the Matsudaira family, also uses the three-leaf sunflower pattern.

On July 7, Hideka, accompanied by Katagiri Kamoto, returned to Owari with the main force, and Honda Tadakatsu had already given up Obu City last night, and joined Tokugawa Ieyasu first.

On the way back, Hideka couldn't help but asked Katagiri Kasumi, "Why did His Highness Tokugawa descend?"

Katagiri Kazumoto didn't understand Hideo's meaning, and stared at Hideo with a look of foolishness and said, "Why can't Councilor Tokugawa surrender? Who in the world is not afraid of the power of Quanzhong Nayan."

Good guy, do you really think that Tokugawa Ieyasu surrendered because of Hashiba Hideyoshi's prestige?Tokugawa Ieyasu in history was the Hideyoshi who procrastinated with Hideyoshi for a long time after returning to Hamamatsu, and finally surrendered until Hideyoshi sent off his mother and sister. If Hideyoshi really has such a great prestige, what will Tokugawa Ieyasu fight with you?

Hideka saw that Katagiri Kamoto probably didn't understand anything, so he simply shut up and planned to communicate with Hideyoshi and Hidecho after seeing them.

(End of this chapter)