Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 25 Hachiro's First Battle at Maruyama Castle (33) (Revised)
In May of the eighth year of Tensho, when Bizen was fighting in full swing, Hidecho sent news from Tajima that he led Nagahama Bei to attack Takeda Castle guarded by Taiden Teruhito with lightning speed. Died in battle, Gakiya Mitsuari surrendered.

Yamana Yutoyo, who stayed in Kuma Castle, abandoned the castle and ran to the more dangerous Yuko Mountain Castle.But in the end it was decided to surrender in Kaesong, but it would be decided by the horse immediately.

Hidecho Hashiba then led his troops into the country of Inaba. Inaba and Tajima originally belonged to two mountain names, similar to Ogiya Uesugi and Yamauchi Uesugi in Kanto, which originally had the same origin.

In the 17th year of Tianwen (1548), Yutoyo Yamana killed the guardian of Inaba, Makoto Yamana, and appointed his younger brother Toyosada Yamana as the guardian of Inaba as the lord of this place to stabilize the Inaba area.

In the third year of Yonglu (1560), Fengding died, and Yufeng appointed his eldest son, Toyo Yamana, as the guardian of Inaba.However, in May of the fourth year of Yonglu (1561), Dongfeng also passed away (died), so he had to appoint his nephew Fengshu (son of Fengding) as the guardian of Inaba. He asked Yuanfeng, the second son of Shanming Toyosada, who had become a monk, to return to the vulgar, and named him Shanming Toyo and Anding Inaba.

Perhaps it was because Toyokuni was a monk and was blessed by the Buddha, or maybe it was other unknown reasons. The throne of the famous Inaba mountain, which was supposed to be cursed, settled down after Toyokuni inherited the family governor.

Yamana Toyokuni, guarding Tottori, saw that his uncle had surrendered, so he also prepared to surrender to Hideyoshi, and sent it to Himeji along with Hidecho's letter.

Yamana Toyokuni agreed to Hideyoshi's request, but his subordinates, Morishita Totsuko and Nakamura Harunu refused to obey the order, and together with others drove Yamana Toyokuni out of Tottori City, and asked Yoshikawa Motonharu for help.

At this time, Ukido had captured the two counties of Chito and Wakasa, and Hidecho Hashiba had already invaded Iwai along the coastline, and Tottori Castle was in danger of being surrounded.

Izumo country Yoshikawa Motoharu received a call for help from Tottori Castle, and judged that the situation was very critical. He immediately asked his fellow clan Yoshikawa Keiya to serve as the lead, leading 3000 people to support Tottori first, and he would lead the main force to keep up.

Yoshikawa Keiko arrived before the Oda Army merged into Tottori, and established Maruyama Castle in Yagami County, southwest of Tottori Castle, as a branch city to echo Tottori.At the same time, the Kano Castle between the two castles was added to make it a fulcrum between Maruyama and Tottori.

When Xiuchang learned that Yoshikawa Yuanchun was coming, he hurriedly sent a letter to Hideyoshi, hoping that he would lead the reinforcements to support him, and at the same time ordered Ukita's army to move closer to him. (At this time, Akechi Mitsuhide was pardoned and was able to return to Tamba to govern the territory. At the same time, he cooperated with Hosokawa Fujitaka to attack Tango according to Nobunaga's request, so the Tamba Army was withdrawn. Hidecho removed Tajima's garrison, plus the total number of Ukita's army Just over 6000 people.)
After Hideyoshi received Hidecho's news, it happened that the Bizen Uki family sent the news of repelling Takakage Kobayakawa. Hideyoshi decided to lead 12 Harima soldiers to Inaba-Tottori.

On June 25th, Hashiba Hideyoshi arrived in Tottori, and a total of 18 people from Hidecho's men surrounded Tottori Castle.I said earlier that Japanese mountain cities were extremely difficult to capture in the era without cannons.

Hideyoshi could only adopt a long-term siege method. He set up 52 villages around Tottori and the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan as defenses. The defenders assault.

The Ukita Army was arranged along the Chiyogawa River to be the front line of guarding the Mori family.Perhaps Hideyoshi asked the Ukita Tadaka family for a backup team for Hachiro's command because of his experience with Hachiro, and the Ukita Tadada family handed over 450 Harada Sadaza to Hachiro's command.

How to evaluate Harada Bei? The average line of the Warring States Period, the most popular samurai ratio, and the most popular armor ratio.As the cutting-edge iron cannon of the Warring States period, there is actually only one Harada Bei in the entire Harada, and it is in the hands of Harada Masanori, the eldest son of Harada Sadasa.

Hachiro led such a motley army to be responsible for the patrol work on the front line of Chiyogawa. For the purpose of protection, Ukita Tadaka assigned Hachiro's reserve team as the general reserve team. The army can stay on defense every day.

Why didn't Yoshikawa Motonharu come to Inaba?Where is his follow-up support?No answer has been given in history, but according to information from Hideyoshi's ninja, there was a problem with Iwami Ginzan, the economic pillar of the Maori family, and a miner Ichikui happened.

Since Mori Terumoto was attacking Otomo's house, Yoshikawa Motoharu, who was the closest, could only go back to conquer. Therefore, Yoshikawa Motoharu, who had just reached the border of Hoki Izumo, had to turn his troops back to Ishimi country to calm down Ichikui.Yoshikawa Motoharu sent 1500 reinforcements a large amount of food and grass to Tottori before the Hashiba army closed the siege.

At first, because the siege was not completed, food was able to enter the city. Later, due to the strict defense of the Oda Army, there were less than 300 reinforcements when they entered the city. , There is no one in ten of the imported grain.

In September of the eighth year of Tensho (1580), Yoshikawa Motoharu, who had experienced many failures in transporting grain, ordered to stop transporting grain to Tottori. After the Ukita Army guarding Chiyogawa finally lost its defensive value, it received an order from Hideyoshi to cooperate with Miyabe Tsutsuru in charge of Inaba Conquests in other counties.At the same time, Aoki Kazuki led 9 Nagahama to accompany Hachiro to guard him.

Due to the arrival of reinforcements from the Mori family, the wealthy family of Chitou County seemed to have found their backbone again after leaving Ukido, and surrendered and rebelled again. Therefore, Hideyoshi ordered Ukido to be responsible for the strategy of Yagami and Chito, and Miyabe continued. Run was in charge of the crusade in Qiduo and Gaocao counties.

At this time, Kamei Tomoki, who made a surprise attack on Shikano Castle in Keta County, was under Hachiro's command. Without Kamei Tomoki's proposal, Miyabe Tsutsuru did not choose to surprise Shikano, but a steady and steady strategy.

Hachiro wore a blue-style Weiwei roll that was one size smaller and rode on a 1m2 Shinano white horse. He followed his uncle Tadaka and started the battle against Yagami. Although Inaba is very large, the production areas are in Omi and Yagami counties. In many counties, there are large flat lands in coastal areas such as Baomu, and other areas are basically mountain forests, and the grain production is really not high.

But in Hachiro's view, it is definitely not as low as 89 shi at the time of Qingchang inspection. The impact plains of Hachigami and Omi alone are enough to produce more than 000 shi of grain.In addition, in the Baomu area with a lot of air, the tall grass has a large freshwater lake like Hushanchi, and the tall grass along Hushanchi also has a vast grain field.

There should be no less than 20 koku in total, and even the beautiful works surrounded by mountains have 18 koku. You have the nerve to report 8.9 koku in Inaba?Hachiro remembers that the daimyo of Xiguo seems to be honest with Ukita Hide’s family. When I went back to see the high number of stones in Xiguo when Keicho inspected, among a large number of leading countries in the early 40.5s, only Bizen Misaku of the Uki family reported a total of 57 shi. The high, including the parts of Bichu and Harima, totaled 20 shi. Hachiro even suspected that a large part of the total stone height of Bichu, which was close to [-], was raised by Hideka's ability to honestly report it.

The core of this pacification in Yagami County is Maruyama Castle located in Heyuan.Maruyama Xinzhu is just a small town.There were 600 Maori troops guarding the castle, and there was no possibility of persuading them to surrender. The Ukita Tadaka family did not talk nonsense, and arranged for Takada castle guard Mu Nagaro to be the first team to attack Otekou from the north, and Katsuyama castle lord Makikuni Yoshinobu to serve as the second team. On the southwestern side where the situation eased, climb up the mountain and attack the flank.The main force and the main formation are set up at the bottom of the steep mountain in the east, relying on the Chiyogawa River.

This is the second time for Hachiro to watch Yuxi's siege. It is as messy as ever. Although he can't see the battle situation on both sides, what doesn't match Zhentian's screaming is the two backup teams who returned to the main team after a day's siege. .Judging from the situation on their bodies, Hachiro probably had another day of muddling with each other.

For the Hao family, fighting is not the most important thing in itself, the preservation of power is the foundation of a family's continuation. Hachiro knows that if this thinking of the Hao family is not corrected, the Ukita Army will never be able to become an iron army. Fate is probably the same as in history.

The nobles are used to this method of siege, so after the two adults came back, the generals congratulated each other on their long-term martial arts, and the voices of mutual admiration came to mind in this battle, and Ukita Tadashi's family was also used to it. This could have been a formal military meeting. Tomorrow, he will continue to attack the city as required, but Hachiro, who has received a modern education, can't bear this matter.

The act of Hachiro directly slapping Yukimi, the sword bestowed by Hideyoshi on the table, suppressed the clamor of the nobles in the curtain.Hachiro, who was only 1m4 tall, stood up and looked at the generals in the curtain with murderous eyes.

"Everyone should remember this day. It's not terrible that there is no progress on the front line. What's terrible is that you don't want to make progress and are leisurely and content." Hachiro beat every word like a hammer on the heart of the Mizusaka army. "Maruyama, Gentle Slope; Maruyama Castle, a small city; the garrison in the city is only 500, and today my Ukita army attacked ten times, but I didn't even touch the city gate! You guys still have the intention to flatter each other, shame on you!"

"Hachiro, all of you here are elders. They have fought more battles than you have traveled. Don't think that you can be unscrupulous after going out for a while. Isn't Harima Mori also able to take Tottori?" Hachiro said even Ukita The Zhong family couldn't stand listening anymore, so they hurriedly stopped Hachiro from speaking.

Hachiro looked at his uncle who was sitting in the upper seat, and then coldly at the Misaku nobles who were sitting in the lower seat. He could see the unremitting expression in their eyes.Everyone who is doing it seems that this young master who is less than ten years old does not take this young master seriously.He said leisurely, "Since your lords don't believe me, I will do the Maruyama Raiders tomorrow. I also ask my uncle to lead our team to occupy the hills and watch the formation. The two lords, please continue to attack from the southwest to attract attention, and leave it to me."

Harada Sadasuke, who is Hachiro's backup team, is a little confused. His family knows his own affairs, and the nature of his own backup team is not clear yet.He was about to speak to remonstrate, but Hachiro stopped him and continued.

"Please also hand over the iron cannons in your hands to me. I am going to use them intensively. Tomorrow I will attack the city with Nagahama under the leadership of Master Aoki. Master Harada will act as a follow-up and wait for me to attack the city. support."

When Harada Sadasuke heard it, he didn't know when he was, so he responded, Aoki Kazuki was a little confused, Hideyoshi's order was originally to guard Hachiro and didn't say that he would participate in the siege, but at this time the arrow was on the line and had to If you send it, you will accept it.The rest of the generals agreed to the arrangement more or less with a joke in their eyes.

In the evening, Hachiro and Aoki Kazuki held a small conference room inside the curtain of the Hashiba Army. Kamei Tomoki, who was in charge of collecting the iron cannons of each army, just came back and took a sip of water. "There are 72 iron cannons in the whole army, 60 are prepared by Toyama, and the rest are from other wealthy families. The gunpowder and bullets are probably enough to fire 10 rounds."

"Not enough, Kenjiro." Hachiro called Kenjiro and handwritten a letter to him, "Now go to Hideaga-sama and ask him to borrow iron cannons and gunpowder. The more gunpowder, the better."

"Kayi" said earlier that after the arrival of the Mori family Yoshikawa Jingjia, the new Maruyama Castle was built, and the Yanwei Castle was built as a bridge between the two cities. When Hashiba Hideyoshi surrounded Tottori, he ordered Hidecho to lead Nagahama. Beibei surrounded Yanwei City. If nothing else, Yanwei City was the first to fall among the three cities.

"Young master Hachiro, the order my lord gave me is to protect your safety, and he didn't say to attack Maruyama." Aoki Kazuki finally asked after seeing Hachiro's arrangement.

"I know, there is no conflict between protecting me and attacking Maruyama." Hachiro gnawed on the rice ball, and said indifferently, "Master Kamei will trouble you to cut down the thick logs that two people hold together overnight, and hollow out the middle to make it." It’s coffin-shaped. It doesn’t have to be too big, as long as it fits me.”

"Master (Hachiro Young Master)" Hachiro's words obviously frightened Kamei Tomoki and Aoki Kazuki.

Hachiro comforted them with his hands and said, "I said, Lord Aoki, protecting me and attacking Maruyama are not in conflict. I will lead the charge tomorrow. If you want to protect me, please follow my footsteps."

"Master Balang, this is against the rules. You don't have Yuanfu yet, so you shouldn't be on the battlefield, and your lord will not allow it."

"Okay, go back now and ask your father for instructions. I will lead Changbin to attack the city tomorrow morning."

Hachiro's words seemed to have angered Kazuki Aoki, Aoki clenched his hands into fists, his face covered with veins.With blood on his face, his face turned red, and it took a long time to relax and said: "I understand, I also invite the young master Balang to sit on Zhanqiu Mountain, and I will lead Changbin to prepare for the attack, but after this matter, I will definitely report the truth to the master."

"That's it, Mr. Aoki, please, I don't have to go, so let my coffin go." Maruyama said nonchalantly
"Master Hachimaru, what do you mean?" Aoki's patience was almost worn out.

"You will know tomorrow morning, Kamei-sama, hurry up and prepare!" Hachimaru did not say clearly, but continued to order, "How many iron gunners does Aoki-sama have under his command?"

"There are only a few warriors who are good at using iron cannons, and there are less than 10 iron cannons"

"Since this is the case, organize 150 people and ask the warriors to teach them three-stage strike. If there is no iron cannon, use wooden sticks instead for the time being. Go now and use it to attack the city tomorrow."

Aoki Kazuki received an order to call together a few retainers who know how to use iron guns, and asked them to choose about 150 ashigaru to teach the three-stage combat method, so there was a very funny scene in the Hashiba barracks. More than 100 people held wooden guns The sound of the iron cannon was imitating the drill in the mouth of the stick.

Fortunately, although I have never eaten pork, I have seen pigs run.The three-stage attack has long been a common tactic in the Oda Army, and the other reserve teams are more or less familiar with it, and it is not too unfamiliar to train it.

In the middle of the night, Kamei Tomoki and Kenjiro returned to report respectively. Kenjiro borrowed a total of 100 iron cannons and 3 barrels of gunpowder from Hidecho this time.Hachiro ordered people to distribute a barrel of gunpowder and iron cannons to the temporarily formed third-stage strike team. In addition to the original iron cannons approaching 1, Hachiro had to temporarily arrest more than 200 people to make up the number.

Then I asked Kamei Tomoki to trim the surface of the coffin as much as possible, making it as thin as possible, and then poured two barrels of gunpowder into it. Although there was no match, Hachiro had already thought of a way to ignite the gunpowder.

Everything is ready, just waiting for tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)