Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 72 The Battle of Tianwang Mountain
In the early morning of June 6th in the tenth year of Tianzheng, only 11 days had passed since the Honno-ji Temple's change, and Mitsuhide Akechi still dreamed of the sweet dreams of the people of the world.

Akechi Mitsuhide and Jian Jing Shunqing have been friends for many years. It was Mitsuhide who acted as a matchmaker and introduced Shunqing to Nobunaga. The father-in-law of Shunqing's son Dingji was Mitsuhide.

As early as after the Honnoji Incident, Jian Jing Shunqing once helped Mitsuhide to pacify Omi as a guest army, and he can be said to be the most important ally in Mitsuhide's hands.

Therefore, before facing the decisive battle to decide his future, Mitsuhide sent a letter to Jianjing Shunqing, hoping that this old friend could help him again, but the letter was like nothing, and no reply was received.

Although Mitsuhide was very unwilling, he still had a sliver of hope. In this letter, he pledged the three kingdoms of Izumo, Hoki, and Oki, and hoped that this old friend could join the battle before the battle.

In fact, for Mitsuhide in this matter, he had already reached the point where he had to fight. Because of his many handling mistakes in the Honnoji Incident, the news of the Honnoji Incident spread quickly.

His original plan was to assess Kinai in one month, and then fight the monkey or the Shibata Sheng family, but Hideyoshi had already arrived in Kyoto in just a week, and he was not sure about the Shibata Sheng family who confronted the Uesugi family in Hokuriku. how long it takes.

He had to take advantage of the time difference between Hideyoshi and Singer's return journey to defeat each other separately, so that he could have a chance of winning.

Another point is that Mitsuhide's mission Hideyoshi rushed back from Beizhong at this time, and the army will inevitably suffer serious losses. The difference in military strength between the two armies should not be large, and he still has a chance to fight.

It wasn't until the evening of the 11th that he received the news from his scouts that the Hashiba army on the opposite side consisted of 1.5 people from Hashiba's main team, 8000 from Ukido, 4000 from Ikeda Hengxing, 2500 from Nakagawa Hideyoshi, and 1600 from Takayama Ukin.The total strength has reached 31500 people.

After receiving the news, Mitsuhide lowered his proud head for the first time before arriving here at Honno-ji Temple, and said mockingly, "This monkey is hateful."

"My lord, do you have a good strategy?" Veteran Toshizo Saito asked, "At this time, it is meaningless to stick to Katsuryuji Castle. Shibata Katsuya also came back from Hokuriku, the world will not be ours."

"For the present plan, we can only go to war." Mitsuhide said helplessly
"Going to battle? Where is the location?"

"Start the battle at the foot of Dragon King Mountain, which is sandwiched between the Dragon King Mountain Range and the Yodo River. The roads are narrow, and large troops cannot be deployed. The difference in strength between the two armies will no longer be obvious."

"Compared to this, as long as our army seizes the Dragon King Mountain, we can suppress the Yuchai army at the foot of the mountain, and the victory is not something that cannot be ours." Guangxiu said to the map.

"Do you mean to take the initiative to attack?" Mizoo Maosheng asked in surprise
"Don't worry, Shohei, don't forget, I am a man who can defeat even the Great Demon King Oda Nobunaga." Mitsuhide gave an encouraging smile to his trusted retainer.

Immediately, Guangxiu began to give orders for tomorrow's formation, and all the generals were encouraged by Guangxiu, and they all expressed their congratulations to Guangxiu for the prosperity of their martial arts and then left.

With the departure of the retainers in the shogunate, Mitsuhide, who was full of fighting spirit just now, looked at the moon in the sky and said, "What a beautiful moon, I don't know if I can see you again tomorrow."

According to yesterday's arrangement, the Zhizhi Army woke up the soldiers at the third watch, and lined up for dinner at the fourth watch.

From left to right, there are 2000 people from Tsuda Nobuharu and 3000 people from Saito Toshizo;
800 people in the middle line Shibata Katsusada, 800 Aguan Sadao, 800 Akechi Motomo, 700 Mimaki Kenken, 650 Suwa Morinao, and 750 Ise Sadaoki;
The right team merged with He Yijia and Matsuda Masa with nearly 3000 people.

He led 3500 people in the back as the main formation, and the total force reached 1.6 after joining the frontline city defenders such as Shenglong Temple and Diancheng.

After Yuchai's scouts discovered the movement of Mingzhi's army on the other side, Yuchai's army, under the leadership of the general, lined up on the right side of Yodogawa according to yesterday's deployment.

From right to left, there are 2000 players against Tsuda Nobuharu, Tsuda Nobuharu's forwards Kato Kotasu, Nakamura Kazushi, and the back team Ikeda Hengxing 4400 people.

In the middle, there are 1600 people against the front team Takayama Ukon, 1500 people for Nakamura Izushige, and 3000 people for the rear team Hachisuka Masakatsu.Located at the foot of Tianwang Mountain, there are still 2500 people in Zhongchuan Qingxiu who belong to the center.

The left wing is Hashiba Hidecho and Kuroda Kanbingwei 4000 who occupied the highlands of Tianwangshan.

As the coach, Hideyoshi led 4500 people as the main formation, and Yuxi's 8000 people were placed in the third formation on the left and right wings.

That is, the 4000 people behind Hashiba Hidecho, led by Jushi Hiraki (Ukita Tadaka), and the 4000 people behind Ikeda Hengxing, led by Akashi Jingqin.

Since Zhongjia has already become a monk at the Guofu Temple under Toyama Castle, and his Dharma name is Heixi, even though he participated in this battle as a formation, he was still dressed as a monk and soldier. The guards by his side were no longer elite Toyama samurai, but a few vicious warriors. Monks.

At four o'clock in the morning, accompanied by the continuous drizzle, the Akechi Army, led by the old Saito Toshizo, also crossed the Monmyoji River relying on the Yodo River, and began to attack Kato Koyasu.

As this army of more than 5000 men began to attack the Hashiba army from the left flank, Hideyoshi took it for granted that the Akechi army chose his right path to attack.

3000 members of the 1000 team led by Saito Toshizo are the Akechi family's standing army. Mitsuhide handed over this unit to Saito Toshizo in order to strengthen the vanguard's assault strength.

Saito Toshizo crossed the river with Kato Koyasu and Takayama Ukon's iron cannons in the first formation of Hashiba's army, and they came to the front of the two formations in an instant, pressing them with 3000 people and gathering 3600 people to fight.Yu Chai's army began to retreat in the first battle.

At the same time, 2000 people from Tsuda Nobuharu of the Akechi Army's second formation began to cross the river and attacked Kato Koyasu's flank along the Yodo River, thus liberating Saito Toshisan's team and allowing Saito Toshizo to concentrate on dealing with Takayama Ukon.

With Tsuda Nobuharu 10 minutes after joining the battle, Hashiba's first team, Takayama Ukin, began to retreat.

Unlike most of the Yuchai army, the Zhizhi army at this time has the will to die. They know that if they cannot win this battle, they are rebellious, and they will only die.

And the low-level soldiers and samurai of Mingzhi's army, after Zhiguang's attack on Omi's wealthy family and distributed fields to them, are also eager to keep these assets that they can't usually get, so they all fight bravely to be the first.

Seeing the first shock, the monkey couldn't help asking, "Who is the vanguard of Zhizhi Army?"

The left and right replied: "It's Saito Naizosuke"

"He's really a brave general. Let Xiao Liu and Lai Bingwei press on him, and he must not be allowed to attack."

Hideyoshi quickly made adjustments. He sent 3000 Hachisuka Koroku from the second formation of the Chinese army to support 1500 Nakamura Isashige who had been defending after retreating near Takayama. Go up, pinch Saito Tori's third team.

At this time, Hideyoshi still felt that he was in control of the situation, with tens of thousands of soldiers in his hands, so he would not care about temporary difficulties.

As everyone knows, it was this deployment that almost caused his situation to collapse.

At the same time, Tsuda Nobuharu's 2000-man attack has also shaken Kato Kota's 2000-man team, making Hengxing Ikeda have to be on the top prematurely as the second team.

Seeing that there was a change in the left wing of Hashiba's army, and a big hole was exposed, Akechi Mitsuhide immediately ordered the Chinese army to start crossing the river.

2400 people from Shibata Katsusada, Aguan Sadada, and Akechi Shigetomo were responsible for supporting the vanguard Saito Toshizo in the battle.

The 700 people of Mimaki Kenken and the 650 people of Suwa Morinao followed Nakagawa Kiyohide's movement to the right, blocking his path to move west again to the foot of Tenno Mountain. As for the 750 people of Ise Zhenxing, they served as the front line reserve team , reinforcements at any time.

At the same time, nearly 3000 people from Binghe Yijia and Matsuda Masa, who were on the right wing of Mingzhi Army, also crossed the gentle Monmyoji River and marched towards Tianwang Mountain.

This army bears all of Mitsuhide's hopes, and whether they can win this battle depends entirely on whether they can defeat Hashiba Hidecho and occupy the top of Tenno Mountain.

As Binghe Yijia and Matsuda Masaki crossed the river, the sound of iron cannons began to sound on Tianwang Mountain on the west side of the battlefield. At the beginning, there were only sporadic gunshots, and suddenly there were loud gunshots. Thousands of iron cannons fired in volley, as if the sky was falling apart. generally.

Hideyoshi's expression on the front line changed drastically. Of course, he knew his configuration. Most of the iron cannons were assigned to the teams in front of the formation. At this time, Tianwang Mountain was able to make such a sound of iron cannons. Only the wise army in charge of attacking the mountain must be able to make such a sound.

"I was fooled! No wonder the Mingzhi army never heard the sound of iron cannons when they crossed the river. They would rather charge with their flesh and blood. It turned out that they used all their right wings (Hideyoshi's left wing)"

Hideyoshi stepped left and right in the main formation, clasped his fist with his right hand, and hammered his left hand, "What should I do? What should I do."

Just when Hideyoshi was anxious, the battle situation on Tianwang Mountain on the left side of the battlefield had become extremely anxious. Although they had the superiority in numbers, with the salvo of thousands of iron cannons, Hashiba Hidenaga's team was directly beaten by a sap.

Taking advantage of Hashiba's army not reacting, the wise army began to charge, "Attack! Take down the enemy general's head and occupy Tianwang Mountain. Victory belongs to us!" He Yijia stabbed a Hashiba Ashgaru to death, blood splashed on his armor Without knowing it, he shouted loudly.

Seeing that the general was so brave and took the lead, the morale of the Zhizhi army was high, and they rushed towards Tianwang Mountain. Suddenly, the 5000 Chai army was overwhelmed by the 3000 Zhizhi army.

By 5:30 in the morning, the wise army had already attacked the top of the mountain from Sanyin, and fought hand-to-hand with Hashiba's army on the top of the mountain. It was less than [-] meters away from Hashiba's main formation, and the projectiles of the iron cannon could even pass through the curtain and enter the main formation.

Hashiba Hidecho is in extreme critical condition!
At this time, Hide-chan Hashiba in the formation prevented his retainers from persuading him to retreat. He knew that he was located at the commanding heights of the entire battlefield.

His elder brother Hideyoshi entrusted him with such an important task, and he absolutely could not drag his elder brother back at this time, so he scolded the retainers who persuaded him to retreat, and gave the order to start from here, never retreat, and fight to the death.

At the foot of the mountain, Hideyoshi was on his way. The Xiu family saw the platycodon pattern appearing on Tianwang Mountain, pointed to Tianwang Mountain in surprise, and shouted to Hideyoshi: "Father, look at Tianwang Mountain! Send reinforcements to Uncle!"

The terrain of Tianwang Mountain is a bit special. The south of the mountain (Hideyoshi side) is steep and dangerous. If you want to go up the mountain, you need to go up the mountain from the north side.

However, Kiyohide Nakagawa, who was stationed at the foot of the mountain, was transferred away at this time, and Mitsuhide Akechi sent more than 3000 people to block his movement to Mount Tianwang, making it impossible for Hashiba's army to support Tianwang Mountain.

Hideyoshi looked at the chaos on Tianwang Mountain, and knew in his heart that it was because he transferred the foot of the mountain to garrison Zhongchuan Qingxiu that made his younger brother a lone army on Tianwang Mountain.

"Are I really going to lose? Is my road to the world coming to an end here?" Hideyoshi, who lost his officers and soldiers, is like a headless chicken at this moment.

Hideyoshi did not speak in this formation, and Hashiba Hidekatsu was cowardly and did not dare to express his opinion. Seeing that the situation was about to collapse, Hideyoshi stood up and confronted Bushido who was passing orders from outside the shogunate.

"Let my uncle march forward, support His Highness Zhong Chuan, quickly defeat the enemies blocking the way, climb from the north of Tianwang Mountain, and attack Ming Zhi's army front and back."

The samurai froze for a moment, then looked behind the Xiu family, Hideyoshi in the shogunate, but saw that Hideyoshi did not express any opinions, but the Xiu family was anxious, and said to the samurai: "Hurry up! It's too late, you and I are dead Land!"

The samurai in "Ha Yi" took the order and galloped towards the west side of Ukita.

Here Hideka said to another samurai

"Go and send an order to the right-wing third formation Ukita formation Dai Mingshidian, asking him to press forward and force Ikeda Hengxing to attack the Mingzhi army. They must not be allowed to retreat again."

"romper"

"Wait a minute, 'The left wing of the Zhizhi Army has only 2000 people at this time, and the 6000 Ikeda Settsu Guards are actually being suppressed and beaten by 2000 people. It's so embarrassing. I hope Your Highness will fight hard, and don't let down the spirit of the Right Mansion.'"

"Take this sentence to Ikeda Hengxing, and say that Harima Mori brought the message to him. If he doesn't work hard like this, let Ukita join the army and let him see how real samurai fight. Of course, there is no need to mention the post-war rewards."

"Is it okay to say that?" the samurai asked a little scared when he heard that he was going to deliver the order in Hideyoshi's name.
"You just say it like this, this is what I, Hideyoshi, want to say." Hideyoshi, who was still in the shogunate just now, finally regained his glory, walked out, and said to the messenger samurai.

"Ha Yi, this subordinate is going now." The warrior who received the order quickly ran towards the army formation on the east side.

As the supreme commander of this battle, all military orders should come from Hideyoshi's mouth, but at this time Hideyoshi has already broken down a bit, and Hideyoshi has no choice but to give orders to his own troops as he sees the military situation that is about to decay.

Even if the dispatch order was issued to his own troops, Hideyoshi's move was already arrogance, but the situation was really critical, and Hideyoshi failed to coordinate the situation. Xiujia's order was endorsed.

Seeing that Hideyoshi had come to his senses, Xiujia hurriedly said, "My lord father, please forgive me for arrogating, I would like to be punished by my father."

Hideyoshi shook his hand, expressing that he didn't need to care, but said to the Hide family: "I've been hunting hawks all my life, I never thought that one day I would be pecked by a hawk, and I didn't see Hinata Mamoru's tricks. Fortunately, you are by my side."

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I'm late, I'll update it today, tomorrow Friday, this novel will be on the shelves, I will update more on weekends, I hope everyone supports it.

(End of this chapter)