Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 785 East-West War ([-]) Pre-war Strategy and First Confrontation
Dagu Jiji asked his younger brother (adopted son) to send Ningning and Yijiaji to Yuezhong. This road is not easy.Even if they crossed Echizen by water, Echichu was being attacked by the Uesugi clan at the moment.

Asano Nagamasa was defeated by Uesugi's strong army in the first battle, and he had to hide in Toyama Castle and refuse to defend. When he heard that his sister and Hideka's son were sent over, he was extremely shocked.

Not only Asano Nagamasa, but Chacha was completely annoyed by Okagari's surprise raid on Beizheng Office.

Originally, Chacha was still hesitating whether to punish the Xiu family, but now the Xiu family sent retainers to snatch people directly from her city. This was the worst provocation to the Osaka Toyotomi family.

In the recent Osaka evaluation, Chacha held the young Xiuli in a miserable misery, and directly stated that the mother and son were bullied by his two elder brothers successively, and the daimyos did not regard Xiuli after Hideyoshi's death as the master at all.

This is a very serious accusation, no less than designating the Xiu family as an enemy.

In fact, the reason why Chacha resented Ai Ai's statement, and did not dare to be so strong as to directly declare the Hide family an enemy of the dynasty, was naturally because she was afraid that Tokugawa Ieyasu would not support her.

Although Chacha has basically mastered the territory of Osaka Castle and Kinki after a series of operations, but the Tokugawa family is located in the Tokaido after all. If they join forces with the Hide family, the Osaka side may be directly defeated.

But what she didn't expect was that Tokugawa Ieyasu supported him surprisingly this time. He said that he would stand with Osaka, maintain the authority of the lord Xiuli, and report the kindness of the former lord Hideyoshi.

In the past, I wanted to get off the ship because I still wanted to maintain a friendly relationship with Hideo, but Hideo repeatedly rejected Tokugawa Ieyasu's request, and finally made Tokugawa Ieyasu give up his fantasy.

Since your Hideka is going to fight me, then I, Tokugawa Ieyasu, have no fear. When it comes to the battlefield, it is not certain who will live and who will die.

Tokugawa Ieyasu also unexpectedly agreed to Ono Nagaji's request to expel Hideo Toyoharu's pedigree, so that the relationship between Hideo and Osaka is no longer a civil war for power between the Toyotomi family, but a foreign daimyo The flag rebellion tried in vain to overthrow peace.

In this way, the moral commanding height originally occupied by the Hideka was much lower, and it also gave Tokugawa Ieyasu the capital to further adjust the daimyo of the Hideka's army.

Tokugawa Ieyasu knew very well that the Hideo's army looked powerful, and its core was still the tens of thousands of Kanto Army Corps, and nearly half of them were Kanto, Shinano, and Tohoku daimyos. If they could be allowed to explode from the inside, they would surely It can weaken the strength of the Xiu family.

In fact, Osaka also wanted to coerce the emperor to issue orders to the Hide family to face the enemy. Fortunately, Okagari received a greeting from the Hide family in advance, and must arrange for the Emperor Goyojo to take refuge in other areas.

But the Emperor Houyangcheng disagreed, and Okagari did not have such a great ability to forcibly kidnap the Emperor.

Kyoto is located in the plains of the Yamashiro State, a place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Toshi Okano had no choice but to use the imminent military disaster in the Yamashiro State as an excuse to forcefully relocate the Emperor to live in Otsu Castle in Omi.

His original idea was to place it in Fushimi Castle, but the defense of Fushimi Castle has not been completed. Even if it is the Yamashiro Toyoharu and Omi Otsu, he can mobilize no more than 7000 troops, so he can only divide the troops. The two groups were stationed in Fushimi and Otsu respectively, and at the same time went to Tsutsui in Yamato for help at regular intervals.

In his vision, Tsutsui's family is Yamato's 27 daimyo, and mobilizing [-] people is not a problem at all. Such Fushimi and Otsu each have [-] people stationed, which is enough to cut off the east-west traffic link in Osaka.

However, just as Tsutsui Joji refused to accept Akichi Mitsuhide's recruitment during the Honnoji Incident, Tsutsui Joji became hesitant to Okanori's request.

The core reason is that Tsutsui Sadaji left his own son last year, so Tsutsui Yasudao, who was adopted by the Hide family two years ago, seemed extremely embarrassed.

This is exactly what Xiujia is most worried about.

At the beginning, seeing that the time in history had passed, Tsutsui Joji was getting older, and he should not be able to give birth to a son.Only then did Xiujia express in Ezo that he could adopt his sixth son Haruyoshimaru, and Tokugawa Ieyasu would be the black hat and named Tsutsui Yasada.

But who would have thought that just one year later, Tsutsui Sadaji's biological son was born.Although Tsutsui Yasuda is 13 years old, and Tsutsui Sadaji's newborn son is not yet one year old, but this is enough to affect Tsutsui Sadaji's side issues.

The Tsutsui family in Kinki was the killer move that Hideka had prepared before, but Tsutsui Joji still hesitated on the issue of whether to design his own parent-child inheritance or adopted-child inheritance.

Although the Hide family repeatedly expressed their relief that Tsutsui Sadaji gave birth to his own son after returning to Honshu, and said that he would not let Tsutsui Yasuda inherit the Tsutsui family, he offered to change its name to Toyotomi Yasuka.

But Tsutsui Joji graciously refused at the beginning, he didn't want to have a rift in the result of such a deep bond with the Xiu family.

But he hesitated again, because he was located in Kinki, and he would be the first to bear the brunt of the war between the eastern and western armies.So he wants to take the middle way.

At this time, Tokugawa Ieyasu threw an olive branch just right. He said that he could help his biological son inherit the Tsutsui family business and ensure the knowledge and conduct of the Tsutsui family.

If the Tsutsui family is willing to help Osaka to calm the chaos, Osaka will not hesitate to give the Tsutsui family a reward from Dahe Yiguo.

Yamato is Kinki in Kinki, Tsutsui Joji is not stupid enough to believe that Osaka will reward him with the leader of the upper country on the edge of Osaka.

But Tokugawa Ieyasu's proposal was indeed very tempting, which made him not express his position in the face of Okagari's request for help, and this was exactly the result Tokugawa Ieyasu wanted to see.

Tokugawa Ieyasu really can't believe Ishida Mitsunari's tactical and strategic level, even if he faces Toyotomi Hideka, he has to put in 12 points of spirit.

Tokugawa Ieyasu directly proposed to Chacha that he should be in command and adopt a strategy of defending east and attacking west.After all, there are still two giant Buddhas of Uesugi and Tokugawa in the east. As long as Tokugawa Ieyasu seizes the time to end the war against the Mori family and the Okayama family, he can even transfer Kyushu daimyo to the east and defeat them with superior force Xiujia.

His proposal was approved by Chacha. Tokugawa Ieyasu directly took command of the general of the Xiguo Crusade Army, and Ishida Mitsunari was under his command. He gave it to his son Tokugawa Hidetada.

Before the war really started, Tokugawa Ieyasu wrote to Tokugawa Hidetada, telling him not to care about gains and losses of [-]% and one place, to ensure the strength of the Tokugawa family, and to give up Kai and Suruga and retreat to Yuane when necessary.

He set a deadline for his son, he must rely on several solid barriers on the Tokaido to resist for more than half a year, and he planned to use half a year to clear the Maori and Okayama families.

Tokugawa Ieyasu knew what the daimyos wanted most, and he even released the Kyushu daimyo Nagamasa Kuroda to contact Kato Kiyomasa.Persuading his family to go to the Western Army on the condition that "His Royal Highness Fengchun has been expelled from Toyotomi's lineage, this battle is to fight against rebels and maintain Toyotomi's orthodoxy."

In addition to Kato Kiyomasa, Tokugawa Ieyasu also wrote to daimyos such as Tachibana Munemo and Nabeshima Naomo. In his opinion, although the Hide family sent their son to the Tachibana family, this does not mean that the relationship between the two is unbreakable. .

Tokugawa Ieyasu directly promised Tachibana Soshige that after the war, he would get the Chikuzen Daihankoku and Hakata Trade Alliance, and he promised that Naoshima Naoshima Shikagami would get the benefits of the original Ryuzoji family as a condition, and strive for the two to join his side.

In addition, there is Kobayakawa Hideaki, who was originally under the command of Ishida Mitsunari, but has been in a logistics position. This time, Tokugawa Ieyasu directly promised Kobayakawa Hideaki that after the war, he could obtain Aki and Bingo as a condition, requiring He led his troops into Gifu and cooperated with Oda Hidenobu to guard the exit of Nakasendo.

The above-mentioned big names have all responded positively to Tokugawa Ieyasu's mediation strategy, at least superficially.

Tosa Daimyo Nagamune's relatives deliberately turned to the Hide family, because the conditions offered by Tokugawa Ieyasu were only Tosa Ikuni.In addition, Iyo, Sanuki, and Awa around Tosa are all allies of Hideka, so he adopted a procrastination strategy in response to Tokugawa Ieyasu's letter.

However, he did not turn into Okayama Castle and raid Kinki from Sanyo Avenue as agreed with the Xiu family.

It can be said that before the situation of the battle became clear, these daimyos who were far from Hideka's skills were more or less ambiguous towards Tokugawa Ieyasu and Hideo, and they all waited for the situation to become clear before taking sides.

After dealing with the matter of falling near Kinki and Nishikoku daimyo, Tokugawa Ieyasu returned a letter to Hori Tadatoshi's family elders, trying to let them know where they went astray, and blasted two families from Asano and Kanazawa.

However, his movements were still a beat slower than that of the Xiu family. The Xiu family had already sent their daughter, Ah Chao, who was only 10 years old, to marry ahead of schedule, and also to send a hostage to the Hori family to show their sincerity.

External strategies are only actions outside of war, and what really determines the direction of war depends on life and death on the battlefield.

Tokugawa Ieyasu directly mobilized soldiers from neighboring countries such as Hanoi, Yamashiro, Yamato, and Omi. Ishida San became a general and ordered him to be responsible for the removal of Fushimi and Otsu.

In Tokugawa Ieyasu's view, Ishida Mitsunari still has some abilities.The reason why Okayama Castle went south before is because of its unique geographical location. If Fushimi and Otsu cannot be taken down now, Ishida Mitsunari can go back to hold the baby.

As for himself, he led soldiers from Harima, Tamba, Tango, Inaba, Tajima, Settsu, Izumi and other countries to assemble in Himeji, preparing to launch an attack on the Okayama domain.

He has already seen the loophole in breaking the Okayama Domain, that is, Okayama and Mori are fighting each other. Mori Terumoto is hesitant to send troops to support Okayama Castle. He is only willing to provide military food and military support.

The total number of troops that can be mobilized in the Okayama domain is only 1.3.It is impossible for so many people to hold on to a Okayama city. He can pull out the fortresses of Bizen one by one, and even quickly raid Bizhong through weak beauty works, so as to cut off the military support of the Okayama domain from the Mori family.

In July of the eighth year of Qingchou (1603), the Great War, known as the decisive battle between East and West in the history of later generations, began to be staged in Japan. About 7 troops, while the Eastern Army is headed by Toyotomi Hideka, with a total strength of about 22.

This is a war of equal strength, no matter who makes a wrong move, he will die without a place to die, so at the beginning of the war, both sides were very cautious in probing.

Ishida Mitsunari led more than 2 people in charge of pulling out the castles of Fushimi and Otsu. Unlike history, he did not persuade the defender Okatoshi in the castle to surrender because of Chacha.

Chacha has already ordered in Osaka to capture Okagari alive, and refer to Ishikawa Goemon, and cook him in Liujo Heyuan to relieve his hatred.

So from the very beginning, both sides of the war put all their efforts into the battle, putting the elite Toyotomi Banner into the battle from the very beginning, instead of using the subordinate legions of other daimyos to consume the arrows and iron cannon projectiles in the city.

However, Okatoshi’s legion in Yamashiro has long been replaced by Hideo. The garrison legion in name is actually organized to defend Yamashiro country all the year round. 4000 people are stationed in Fushimi Castle.

He even used the mobilization skills of the Toyotomi Army to excavate an additional circle of city walls and Dobori outside the city, similar to the operation of Sanada Maru in history.This protrusion can attract Toyotomi's main attack, but they will also be hit by fire from three sides when attacking the protrusion.

Ishida Mitsunari really had no way to deal with the Fushimi Castle stationed by Okagatoshi. He attacked the city for 15 days in a row, and Osaka urged him one after another but failed to break into the main building of Fushimi Castle.

Ishida Mitsunari was helpless and decided to change his strategy, using the water from the Uji River beside Fushimi Castle to attack Fushimi Castle, just like he attacked Ninja Castle with water in history.

But don’t forget that Fushimi Castle Ninomaru and Honmaru are built on Peach Mountain, unlike Ninja Castle, which is located in a low-lying area. How effective it is to attack Fushimi Castle here is really a question mark.

But in any case, after Ishida Mitsunari decided to attack Fushimi with water, he mobilized people from various territories around Kinki to gather under Fushimi Castle to build dams, and gave Lumi and copper coins as rewards.

Tokugawa Ieyasu couldn't understand Ishida Mitsunari's thoughts, but he was trapped under Okayama Castle now, and he didn't have much time to deal with Ishida Mitsunari.After receiving Ishida Mitsunari's promise to destroy the city within 60 days, he accepted Ishida Mitsunari's siege plan.

Tokugawa Ieyasu obviously didn't think about how the Hide family built Okayama Castle in the first place, but it was so tall and straight built on the basis of the mountain that the army he led was blocked one after another from attacking the city.

Due to relying on the construction of Okayama, the crypt attack is not realistic at all, and the rock city will be shoveled if there is less digging. Tokugawa Ieyasu can only use the method of fire attack, using the advantage of troops to create more fire in Okayama city.

His thinking is this, Okayama Castle is indeed strong, but it is a mountain city, and the mountain city has a natural disadvantage in terms of water storage.

Even though enough water had been stored in Okayama Castle at the beginning of the war, water was needed to extinguish the fire as they ignited everywhere. After the water source in the city was exhausted, Okayama Castle could surrender without a fight.

(End of this chapter)