Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 71 Yamazaki's Eve

"I think you have heard the news in Himeji." The next day, Hideyoshi stood on Himeji Sannomaru and said to the soldiers below the castle, "Yes, His Royal Highness of the Right Mansion died in battle, and General Zuo Jinwei also died. Nijo Castle. It’s all the fault of the rebel Mitsuhide!”

"I, Hideyoshi, swear that I will take Mitsuhide's head and present it in front of the Lord's cemetery in honor of the lord's spirit in heaven! All those who obtain the heads of the rebels, regardless of their status, will be the master of a city! I, Hideyoshi, will definitely crusade against Mitsuhide! The lord takes revenge!"

Previously, Hideyoshi had kept the secret of Nobunaga's death from the samurai Ashgaru in the army, and even the subordinate daimyo. Knowing that the army was repairing in Himeji on the evening of the 6th, the army knew about this shocking incident from top to bottom. There was some uproar among the military forces.

Hideyoshi Hideyoshi stabilized the situation in time and rewarded the soldiers with money and food. Hideyoshi met the other daimyos assigned to him separately and rewarded them with fiefdoms, which finally stabilized the hearts of the people.

After the second sound of the conch this morning, the army motivated by money began to gather, but at this time the army still lacked a bit of energy, so Hideyoshi began to speak to the entire army.

Avenge the Lord!
This is the banner that Hideyoshi set up to attack Mitsuhide this time. For this reason, he also specially made two sides of the flag to declare his determination.

Written on one side: The villain Mitsuhide fell into the eight hells
Written on one side: Loyal minister Hideyoshi now avenges the right government

The two flags fluttered in the wind, proclaiming Hideyoshi's determination, and at this moment, Hideyoshi is here to offer a heavenly reward, regardless of his background, whoever presents the head of the traitor Mitsuhide will be able to win Wanshi Zhixing and become the lord of the city.

This is no different from a leap that ordinary soldiers cannot achieve. The soldiers who heard Hideyoshi's reward were as excited as if they had been beaten with chicken blood. They wanted to chop off Mitsuhide's head and become masters.

The Hashiba army with high morale shouted "Fight against Mitsuhide! Avenge the Lord!" Waving their weapons, they showed their bravery to Hideyoshi.

Hideyoshi looked at the tens of thousands of warriors below the city, waved his hand and said, "Fight against Mitsuhide! Avenge the Lord! Target Kyoto, let's go!"

The army moved slowly under the leadership of a general, and marched towards the capital with great arrogance. At this time, Hideyoshi said to his brother-in-law behind him, "You should be optimistic about this Himeji Castle. If I lose the battle ahead, you will kill all my mother and father." family members, and then set fire to the city, don’t make it too painful for them to go.”

The army set off on the morning of June 6. At this moment, the sky had just dawned. Flags and flags were everywhere on the Sanyo Road leading to Kyoto. The soldiers' flags and spears in their hands were like moving forests, covering the mountains and plains, moving eastward.

Xiujia was next to Hideyoshi, looked at his worried face, and asked, "Father just swore that he would avenge the Youfu, why does he seem a bit unsteady now?"

Hideyoshi came over and told the Hide family the whole story. It turned out that although Hideyoshi was determined to avenge Nobunaga, it was a battle to determine his own destiny. So last night he secretly found Fudoji Temple under Himeji Castle, pretending to be an ordinary soldier. Pray to the host.

As a result, the sign said that Hideyoshi might not be able to return to Himeji Castle here. The host interpreted it as a lottery, saying that he would die if he left. .

The two completely different draws before and after made him a little puzzled. Could it be that although he defeated Akechi Mitsuhide, did he die?If he died in battle, who is the purpose of attacking Guangxiu in this battle?

After listening to Hideyoshi's description, Xiujia thought for a while and said with a smile, "Congratulations, father, both of them are the best lottery."

"But the first one asked my whereabouts and said that I will never meet Himeji in this life!" Hideyoshi asked doubtfully.
"This lottery should be interpreted as follows: it indicates that my father will jump over the dragon's gate with a carp and fly up to the clouds to become a real dragon. Naturally, the Himeji castle is not something that my father can take anymore. After this battle, my father will definitely be the master of Antu and rule the world. The child is here to congratulate the father!"

Hideyoshi's other interpretation made Hideyoshi's brows loosen, and he said with a smile, "Hahaha, what you said makes sense, how can Himeji tolerate me after this battle! I must choose another place , build a giant city as prominent as Azuchi!"

At noon on the 9th, the army arrived in Amagasaki for repairs. As a good brother of Hideyoshi, Hengxing Ikeda, who was a good brother of Hideyoshi and Ningning, and Nobunaga's brother led 8500 people from Takayama Ukon and Nakagawa Kiyhide to join the battle.

It's just strange that only 4400 people in this army played the Ikeda family's flag, and Nakagawa Kiyohide and Takayama Ukon did not play the Ikeda family's leading flag, only their own family's family crest flag, which seems to be participating in this battle in their own name.

Hideyoshi keenly discovered the delicate relationship between the three masters and subordinates of Settsu, and decided to operate after the war.

When the news reached Kyoto, Mitsuhide, who was still dreaming of the dream of the world, did not want to believe the news and told his retainers
"Impossible, absolutely impossible! He sent news earlier that Takamatsu was still confronting Kobayakawa on the 1st. How could he come back from Beizhong like this, and how could the Mori family let him back like this! This must be a false report!"

Mitsuhide predicted that Hideyoshi would be entangled by Mori in Bichu for at least a month, and Shibata Katsuie in Hokuriku would also be entangled by Uesugi Kekatsu. He had enough time to digest Yamashiro and Omi.

Take Tango, Wakasa, and Settsu further, and reduce the number of daimyos who have not yet decided to surrender themselves, so that they are fully prepared to face Hideyoshi.Therefore, he really didn't want to believe that Hideyoshi's army would have arrived at Settsu on the 8th, and had arrived at the gate of Kyoto.

It was not until the evening of the 9th that Mitsuhide reluctantly accepted the fact after the information was repeatedly confirmed. Faced with the proposal of his retainer Saito Toshizo to retreat to Sakamoto, he flatly refused.

At this time, Guangxiu is like a gambler whose whole family is betting on him, and he is about to face the dealer's blow. He knows that at this moment, there is only a decisive battle. Once he shows a slight retreat, it will inevitably lead to an avalanche. Daimyo will definitely be the first to abandon him.

Mitsuhide stubbornly decided that a decisive battle must be fought, but at this time, all the soldiers in his hands were sealed to various places in Omi with forged Nobunaga's pressed documents to accept the neighboring country, so they could not be regrouped for a while.

Therefore, he could only change his plan and delay Hideyoshi's pace as much as possible. He ordered the construction of Yodo Castle beside the Yodo River, and at the same time strengthened castles such as Katsuryuji Castle, so as to delay Hideyoshi's offensive pace.

Hideyoshi is definitely not as good as Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen in military command, but he knows the way to win: expand his own power and weaken the enemy's strength. To use the famous Chinese saying, those who gain the way will help more, and those who lose the way will help helpless.

Hideyoshi has never fought an uncertain battle in his life. In his words: This battle must have an absolute chance of winning before it can be fought.This is completely different from Xiujia's attitude that even if they only have a 5% chance of winning, they can give it a try.

Let’s say that Hori Hidemasa, who Hideyoshi placed high hopes on at this time, left Himeji early that night, and traveled to Arioka, Takatsuki, and Ibaraki to publicize Hideyoshi’s deeds, and asked them to help each other. Finally, he went to Wada Gishi Castle to meet the important ministers of the Oda family, Niwa Nagahide and Kobe Nobutaka.

Earlier, Kobe Konobu's four-country strategy was defeated by Nagamune's family, and he fled back to the four countries alone. Nobunaga was furious and ordered him to reorganize the military. , and transferred Ikeda Hengxing to his own Maori Support Corps.

As for Jianjing Shunqing, after receiving the news of Nobunaga's death, he neither chose to join Mitsuhide Akechi nor sent troops to Wada Gisho, leaving the two of them with no soldiers to use.

After receiving the news that Mitsuhide Honnoji had killed Nobunaga, the two had only more than 1 troops in their hands, a small half of which were Tsuda Nobusumi's troops.

Fortunately, Niwa Chohide was very experienced. After hearing that Tsuda Nobusumi was interested in contacting Mitsuhide, he tricked him into his own army.

In the end, Qianguan Yagura was killed by Niwa Nagahide's retainer Ueda Shigean in Osaka Castle and took the head outside Sakai City, and then sent his confidant retainers to control the 3000 Tsuda Army.

However, even though they had an army of 1, they were blocked from the rear and surrounded by people who had affairs with Mitsuhide. After hearing the deeds of Hideyoshi Nishi National University's return, the two couldn't believe it.

In fact, Mitsuhide had the same idea as them, or in other words, the general public thought so at this time. Hideyoshi confronted the Mori family in Bichu, and asked Nobunaga for reinforcements because he was afraid that he would not be able to deal with it.

Nobunaga was killed just after setting off from Azuchi. Why did you, Hideyoshi, retreat from the front of the Maori army like this, and you have already arrived in Kyoto at this time?Even the old minister Changxiu frowned and couldn't believe it.

The two opened the letter written by Hideyoshi, which read: Mr. Nobunaga's kindness to him, and begged the two to join his army and avenge Nobunaga.

"Damn monkey, who does he think he's talking to!" Nobutaka looked at the letter angrily and crumpled it into a ball and threw it on the ground. Hideyoshi said it as if this battle was his own decision, and he was Nobudaka's successor Nobunaga eldest son.

And he asked himself that he is more capable than his elder brother Nobuo (the mother is a maid, born 20 days earlier than Nobuo, the family tree at night), so if it is said that this battle against the general Mitsuhide Akechi, it should naturally fall on him who avenged his father.

It's just that Hashiba Hideyoshi is now in charge of the war. If it is true that he went to Amagasaki to meet Hideyoshi as said in the letter, he must be in charge, and he can only be subordinated to others.

Niwa Chohide picked up the letter on the ground, looked at the contents of the letter, and said with a smile, "This monkey."

After all, Niwa Chohide is an old Jianghu, followed Nobutaka and said, "The young master should not ignore the overall situation for small things at this time. The young master participated in this battle, thinking that you have avenged the master. Naturally, the righteousness is higher than the second highness."

"And judging from the fact that Harima Mori returned from Beichu in just a few days, he should have a winning strategy in mind. We are temporarily under the banner, so that's fine."

Although Kobe Nobutaka thinks he is capable, of course his real ability is really useless. Nobunaga is also well aware of his son's true ability, so he sent Niwa Changhide to his side to assist him.

In the past, Kobe Nobutaka was more obedient to Niwa Naghide. After all, this person is his father’s writing boss, so it’s a matter of face. But now that his father is dead, Niwa Naghide is only in Wakasa Obama’s 10 koku territory, and his attitude towards him has begun to be contemptuous. stand up.

From this incident, it can be seen that Xinxiao is extremely superficial in terms of people and doesn't care about talent at all. It is no wonder that he was ordered to perform seppuku after being humble.

Kobe Nobutaka is not willing to accept Niwa Nagahide's suggestion. In his opinion, as the general of the crusade army, it is his due duty. Why should Hideyoshi step over his head and stand on his head to shit?
Hideyoshi has been waiting in Amagasaki Castle, waiting for Kobe Nobutaka of Osaka to come to join the battle, because only if he comes, the battle will be more justified, so he sent many letters to Osaka to persuade him.

But until the evening of the 10th, Kobe Nobutaka was still losing his temper, claiming that Hideyoshi would not come unless he gave him the general.

Hideyoshi was very anxious, but the situation did not allow him to wait. Although the absence of Oda Nobunaga's son made Dayi's name no longer perfect, Hideyoshi resolutely decided to go to the battle tomorrow.

It was not yet clear on the 11th that the army set off and marched towards Kyoto.

In the first formation, there were 1800 people from Takatsuki Castle Lord Takayama Ukon, in the second formation there were 2300 people from Nakagawa Hidekiyo, and 4400 people from Ikeda Hengxing served as the third formation.

Then Hideyoshi's army followed. In the afternoon, the army entered Tomita, and the vanguard had already reached the Yamazaki area.

At the same time, Akechi Mitsuhide led an army of 1.3 troops to march along the Yodo River, and entered Katsuryuji Castle that night. At this time, the distance between the two armies was less than 2 kilometers!

Hideyoshi camped in Tomita, and strictly restrained the subordinates and ordered, "No hands, no teasing, get ready, and wait for my order."

Therefore, although the two armies are already very close, they did not tease each other this night. Everyone knows that tomorrow's battle will determine the outcome.

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Gan, hit Yamazaki right away, so excited!

(End of this chapter)