Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 218

Asano Nagamasa's actions were considered quick. Although he knew nothing about marching and fighting, he still trusted Oka Toshikatsu, a veteran on the battlefield, and Miyabe Tsutsuru was also admonishing him.

He finally decided to let Koide Hidemasa command the Tajima crowd, and he would take the main force across the Yoshino River, let Kinoshita Shigeken's 750 people replace Hosokawa Tadake in Ikeda Castle, and then move forward in an attempt to reunite with Okatoshi.

But he was one step too late, and finally, under the suggestion of Miyabe Jirun, he could only lead nearly 9000 people to station on Beishan, forming a corner with Zhongxi City.

Before the arrival of Asano Nagamasa, Nagamune and Ibu Yuanqin sent people to quickly attack Nakanishi Castle and Ruoshan Village, but they could only retreat 600 meters and set up the main battle at the Eight Dragon King Shrine in Nanshan, preparing to fight Asano Naga Political battle.

"In my opinion, Asano Nagamasa is not someone who is not familiar with the art of war. He can detect the movement of our army in advance, guard the central and western city with heavy troops, and set up a main formation in Beishan. It seems that there are many capable people in the Hashiba family." Changzong I, Yuan Qin, was in the formation, looked at Beishan on the opposite side of the plain and said worriedly.

"My family has marched from Iyo to this point, and it's not just how long Iyo's Ukita Hideo family can be kept in the dark. Our army should quickly break through the enemy in Beishan and make peace with Qintai in Baidi City. At that time, our family will definitely take the initiative."

Changzong set the tone and asked everyone again, "Nowadays Beishan and Zhongxi City are the forces that form horns with each other, and the army of our family is no more than [-] people. How should we attack the city? If you have any good suggestions , report it as soon as possible."

Gu Zhongcheng, Yuanqin's vassal, suggested first, "Let me lead the Abo people to watch over the defenders in Zhongxi city. My lord, don't worry and lead people to a decisive battle with the enemies of Beishan."

Gu Zhongcheng was originally a priest of the Tosakuni Ichinomiya Shrine. Because of his outstanding diplomatic and military skills, he was reused by Yuanqin, and he was promoted to the elder of Yuanqin in Changzonggabe.

Historically, when Hideyoshi attacked Shikoku, Gu Zhongcheng served as the garrison of Miyagi, the largest pass of the Awa country, for the Nagamune family.Once held Hideyoshi's army in check, but later felt that the enemy's army was strong, and tried hard to persuade the bloody Yuanqin to give up resistance and surrender, and finally saved Changzong's lineage.

Now that the Xiu family crossed the sea too suddenly, he, as the old flag leader of the Abo people after Xiangzong's family of Qintai, naturally followed Yuanqin to Yiyu to fight.

Before experiencing the beatings of Yu Chai's family, Gu Zhongcheng was an extreme supporter of Yuanqin's death-fighting faction, so the suggestions he put forward were relatively radical.

Gu Zhongcheng’s proposal can be regarded as a middle-of-the-road strategy. When ancient and modern Chinese and foreign generals encountered such a situation, they would often choose this strategy. However, the basin under the Zhongxi City is not very large. It is 400-500 meters wide from east to west and 1 kilometer long from north to south. about.

The terrain under the Zhongxi city is completely a replica of the battle of Jianyue. It is almost impossible to monitor the defenders in the city while launching a decisive battle with the Yushiba army in this narrow area, so Chang Zong's Ibu Yuanqin rejected his proposal.

Gu Zhongcheng's idea was consistent with that of many people present, and now this idea has been rejected by Changzong's family members, and the retainers have no better idea for a while.

There was a moment of silence in the shogunate, and finally Gu Zhongcheng suggested, "There is a small path up the mountain to the east of the Eight Dragon King Shrine. This path is said to lead to Ikawa Castle. Why don't we ask the local Orion or Yaonong, and they will lead the way through Ikawa Castle." From Miyoshi Castle, the Hashiba Army from Awa Kingdom attacked Kitayama from behind?"

This road is an important mountain road connecting Awa and Tosa in later generations, but it has not been developed yet. Only the eastern section connected to No. [-] Castle has the original dirt road, connecting remote villages in the Shikoku Mountains with Awa The mainstream society of the country is connected together.

As we said before, the terrain of Awa Country is sandwiched between the Sanuki Mountains and the Shikoku Mountains. The entire terrain is trumpet-shaped, and the Shikoku Mountains can be said to occupy 2/3 of the area of ​​​​Awa Country.

But this does not mean that there are no towns and villages in the mountains. Indeed, on the contrary, a considerable population of Awa lives in the Shikoku Mountains.

Compared with the plains, because the Japanese lords lack sufficient administrative power to control the people living in the mountain nests, many large and small semi-independent villages have been formed.

No one can say when the village was formed. It is generally believed that as the old manor system was gradually eroded by local farmers, some relatively powerful "name masters" turned into a powerful party, and others had no lords. Some areas have evolved into "惣村" governed by civilians.

Some of their leaders are hereditary "Sha Tai people", and some are elders elected by the village council, known as "Yuming".

Usually, two or three villages will form Zhuangzi Mutual Guarantee, and each village will elect a very "Yi Ming" to hold a council to discuss village affairs, rather than being arbitrarily determined by the lord.

These villages often exist in areas that cannot be touched by the power of the lord, such as the mountains of Shikoku, and even the small islands in Lake Biwa also have joint villages of Somura similar to Sugaurazhuang.

During the Heian period, due to the scattered territory and the lack of mastery of the territory by the lords, although the lords were greedy for the labor and taxation of the village, they really felt powerless for direct governance.

Therefore, even if the village is within the sphere of influence of the lord, it is an independent individual, and will not provide labor and military service for the lord, and will pay part of the tax regularly, which can be regarded as a free village of the republic.

But with the establishment of the Muromachi shogunate, the Ashikaga family distributed all countries to the guardian daimyo, which greatly enhanced the strength of the guardian daimyo, and the tolerance of the guardian daimyo to Somura was much smaller.

Under the simultaneous action of the lords' radishes and sticks, the original dragon slayer eventually became an evil dragon. The "Yi Ming" originally elected by the villagers accepted the government's recruitment and became a local warrior passed down from time to time. Zhuangtou turned himself into the lord's retainer, a wealthy family who holds the territory.The Somura, which was originally formed spontaneously to avoid the lord's taxation, was gradually assimilated into the territory of the retainers under the lord's jurisdiction.

Entering the Warring States Period, Somura reappeared. This time, most of them were villages spontaneously formed by the people fleeing the war. It was during this period that the mountains of Shikoku and Kii were greatly developed.

The previously mentioned Ikawa Castle was originally Ikawaso, which was originally composed of the village of Soo. It lived peacefully in a place beyond the jurisdiction of the government. Later, with the unification of Awa by the Miyoshi family, the valleys near the Yoshino River were gradually developed. .

The "Shatai people" here are finally released to the outside world, and with the help of Miyoshi's family, they complete the transformation from a village to a powerful man in the Warring States Period.

Today's Ikawa Castle is under the jurisdiction of Ikawa Keibei, who is the descendant of the original "Shatai Man".

However, the only place he can directly manage is his own village, the current Igawa area.The other villages are his subordinates in name, but they are still semi-independent villages in fact.

"Crack..." Chang Zong slapped the horsewhip on the simple wooden table in the assembly city with the horsewhip in his hand, and decided to say, "Just do it like this, how long will it take?"

It was also the first time for Gu Zhongcheng to take this road, so he couldn't give the exact time, so he could only estimate, "It always takes three to five days."

"Three or five days." Changzong Ibu Yuanqin stroked his beard and thought, "I will give you 2000 people, as a ranger, I will detour from Igawa Castle to Awa. These few days, I will call for battle at the city every day. Once you come from the north of the mountain Go around and disrupt the main formation on the opposite side, I will support you immediately, victory or defeat is determined by one stroke."

In the end, Chang Zong's relatives finally decided to take a gamble and split another 2000 Awazhong from his few remaining troops, and Gu Zhongcheng led the plan to carry out a surprise attack.

From a historical point of view, Nagamune's plan is similar to Kansuke Yamamoto's woodpecker strategy, but the route it took was much farther than that of the Takeda Army.

After the Changzong Ibu Yuanqin and Gu Zhongcheng agreed on this, Gu Zhongcheng immediately led 2000 people from the army, and turned eastward under the leadership of the local Orion.

After Gu Zhongcheng separated part of the troops, Yuanqin could only control more than 9000 troops, and the main force of Yuchai in Zhongxi City and Beishan no longer had any advantage.

However, in order to confuse the enemy, Yuan Qin still ordered his retainers to go to the Zhongxi city every day to call for battle. Due to the limited terrain, the lack of troops in Changzong's family was well hidden.This made Kitayama Asano Nagamasa believe that the current strength of the two sides is roughly equal.

But my side is the famous coalition army with insufficient support, and it is my first time commanding a battle as a fledgling.On the opposite side is the Changzongwo army, which has experienced many battles. The commander is the Yuanqin of Changzongwo who almost unified the four countries.For a little comparison, Asano Nagamasa didn't have enough confidence to defeat the man on the opposite side, and the situation became complicated and confusing.

After calling for battle for two consecutive days without any response, Motokin took his nephew Kira Omi as a general to bring Nishitosado + Iyo country people, a total of 2000 people, went out to the base of Beishan to monitor Asano Nagamasa on Kitayama.

Then the old man Yoshida Shigetoshi led the 2000 Awa people to be in charge of the Raiders of the Midwest City, while he himself controlled the overall situation in the main formation of the Eight Dragon King Shrine in Nanshan.

The 4000-strong army almost filled the entire Basin of the Zhongxi City. With the sound of the conch horn in the main formation of Changzong's family, after 2 days of silence, the Yuanqin of Changzong's family finally couldn't hold back and began to attack the Central Plains. Xicheng launched a battle to seize the city.

On the other side of the Yoshino River, 3000 people under the command of his son Xinqin launched an attack on Ruoshanzhai at almost the same time, and the iron guns fired in this river bend and valley in an instant.

The shouts of the warriors accompanied by the sound of bows and arrows piercing through the air, marked the beginning of the battle of Chang Zongga's family to seize the city of Zhongxi City.

Zhongxi Castle was originally a small city, a branch of Baidi Castle. Whether it was the Miyoshi period or the Changzonggabu period, the importance of the branch city was not high. Therefore, Zhongxi City only has two circles of city walls. The walls made of fences, and the walls of Honmaru are the screen panels.

The function of this kind of city wall is mainly to defend the infantry from climbing up the slope, and it has no defense against iron cannons and bows and arrows.From this point of view, the defense capability of this city is not much higher than that of Ruoshan Village on the other side of the Yoshino River.

Sarcasm is ridicule, this is precisely the common problem of countless small towns and small towns in the Warring States Period of Japan at that time. You must know that building a city requires money, and it is very expensive. tribute.

I have seen early Japanese novels, building a city is like building a house. When Chiyoshi built a few hundred shi in the Oda family tent, he built a castle with stone walls and stone walls. This kind of situation can only appear in the imagination of novelists. That's all.

Oka Toshikatsu also didn't expect that Changzong's family would suddenly attack. Before that, he only used the Nakanishi Castle as a strategic fulcrum, so he didn't repair him after winning the next castle. Now he can only hold his feet temporarily like Todo Takatora. Use bamboo bundles and wooden trees to smash behind the fence to block the iron cannon projectiles and arrow feathers from the city.

Coupled with the fact that the mountains in Zhongxi City are not high, the battles on both sides look very funny. It is obviously a arduous siege battle for a mountain city, but now it is like an encounter between the two sides in the wild.

The main force in the Japanese battle in Nakasai City is Heqibei from the racecourse staff, who is an old acquaintance of Changzong’s family. In the Battle of Sanuki last year, Heqibei lost more than 20% of its staff, which can be described as a serious loss of vitality.

Fortunately, in these years, Hideka intends to relocate Harima Ako and Zuoyong people to fill Bizen.Under this policy, the military equipment will not be reduced to the point where there are no soldiers to replenish.

Coupled with the fact that the backbone of Heqi has not been lost, seeing the Changzong family on the opposite side is regarded as an enemy, and the enemy is extremely jealous. When Changzong's family first started to test long-range firepower, they greeted all the things at the bottom of the box .

As one of the equipment directly under the Xiu family, Heqi equipment, bow and arrow archery is a skill that all members of the reserve team need to master. Before that, it was only because of refined combat that the teams were artificially divided into gun foot light and bow foot light.

Now that it is a battle to defend the city, it is natural that the whole team is on the field. The warriors hold heavy rattan bows or yew wood longbows that are more flexible, and the backup team below hold mixed wooden bows, and start fighting with Nagamune under the city. The troops fired at each other.

In addition, before the battle, Xiu's iron artillery brigade, which was well equipped and well-equipped, used the limited city width to carry out four-stage attacks in the city, and fired down the city without changing guns.

Yoshida Shigetoshi, who was attacking the city, was naturally prepared. With 200 iron cannons in his hand, he wanted to suppress the city, but the old way of firing iron cannons made the continuity of firepower of the iron cannons unable to be guaranteed.

The sword rain and iron cannons at the top of the city were originally shooting from a downward angle, and the wooden and bamboo beams could not completely block the soldiers behind them. In addition, they were led by Awazhong. Their combat effectiveness may be good, but their armor rate is not high. high.

Due to the above reasons, Shigetoshi Yoshida's siege team was defeated in the first round of attack without even dispatching the first fighter with a ram. More than 60 employees were reduced.

Changzong's relatives did not blame him, but let him rest for a while before organizing the second round of offensive.After all, judging from the reaction in the city just now, it is clear that they are warning the elders of the Changzong family, "I am not easy to mess with."

Asano Nagamasa, who lives in Beishan, naturally saw the battle at the foot of the mountain clearly, including the process of the first round of the siege of the Changzong family.

The performance of Zhang Zong's family pulling his hips made him suspicious. Is this really the overlord army that made people fearful and swept across the four countries?
On the following day, Changzong and my family still performed poorly. They clearly had the superiority in numbers, but faced with the weak city defense of Zhongxi City, they were stunned and did not launch an effective offensive.

The most intense battle took place in the afternoon. Some of Changzong's troops finally climbed up the wall along the earth wall, but they were driven off the top of the city after a short hand-to-hand fight with Yu Xiduo.

He didn't know how much foundation Nagamune's family had, but judging from what he could see now, Asano Nagamasa began to feel turmoil in his heart.

Nagamune's hip-pulls were touching Kitayama, Hashiba's General Asano Nagamasa's heart, but it made Oka Toshikatsu in Nakanishi City frown.

I didn't expect that I would engage in cage battles before, and the bullets and arrows carried by Heqi Bei were only enough for 1.5 bases. After a day of cage battles, these materials were consumed extremely quickly.

As for the Misakus led by Okali Katsura, the people of the country are not used to bringing enough equipment. They only carry enough for their own use, so that from the afternoon onwards, Okali Katsuki and the horse farm staff began to order everyone not to start Volley, you must be sure before shooting.

The weakening of the long-range firepower at the head of the city was sensed by Chang Zonggabu Yuanqian Mingrui. He reorganized the siege formation in the afternoon and added more melee ashigaru.That's why in the afternoon, Changzong's family was able to attack the top of the city.

At this time in the battlefield of Naka-Nishi City, Yuan Qin seemed to have seen the dawn of breaking the city. Oka Likatsu in the city felt the pressure of defending the city, and Asano Nagamasa on Kitayama thought he saw the weakness of the Nagamune family under the castle.

All three parties began to use their brains, trying to defeat the opponent as soon as possible while ensuring their own strength.

Of course, what Asano Nagamasa was thinking about was how to make himself the greatest military exploit in this battle, and it would be best to be able to kill the head of the head of the Nagamune clan.

(End of this chapter)