Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 786 East-West War ([-]) Okayama Castle Fights Unbreakable
Tokugawa Ieyasu has his own time plan, and he doesn't think that Hideka can break through the Junyuan three lines of defense he carefully prepared in just a few months.

What's more, he now has his own secret weapon in his hand. He thinks it is not easy to take down Okayama Castle in a short time, but if he can use this thing to severely hit the Mori family, it can make the Okayama clan helpless. It can even make the daimyo who are still hesitating at this moment gather around him.

Looking at the bare Okayama Castle that was felled on the mountain, Tokugawa Ieyasu did not blame Ishida Mitsunari for beating the grass and scaring the snake, because when Hideya really did something, the Okayama clan would stab Osaka in the back sooner or later.

At this moment, he just wants to use the fire attack to continuously consume the water source in Okayama City and force them to open the city.

It's just that today's days are not the best. Japan has come to the dry season in October, but it will still rain every now and then. The pressure to win Okayama in a short time is not enough.

"I've overestimated Mori Chunagon~" Looking at the towering castle tower of Okayama Castle on Okayama, Tokugawa Ieyasu said helplessly, "I have already set the stage for him, and even the military forces of Beichu have been withdrawn." But he didn't even dare to take a step back."

As Tokugawa Ieyasu said, he turned around and said to Matsudaira Ieji behind him, "Go and dismantle those cannons on Toyama, move them here, and take down Okayama Castle first."

The artillery that Tokugawa Ieyasu mentioned refers to the Dutch armed merchant ship "Yede" that drifted to Hirado in the 5th year of Keicho. In history, this merchant ship was lost and drifted at sea, and was reported to the Ieyasu Tokugawa.

Tokugawa Ieyasu heard that the crew on the ship suffered heavy casualties, so he ordered the ship to be driven to Osaka. After negotiating with the crew, he dismantled part of the artillery on the condition of helping them return to the voyage. that door.

Also because of this incident, after the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, all kinds of Western trade were cut off, but trade licenses were opened to the Dutch.

Among them was a special historical figure named Miura Yasuke, who later became a diplomatic adviser of the Tokugawa shogunate, responsible for the shogunate's external relations, not only was canonized as a samurai, but also gave Zhixing a noble wife.

In this timeline, the "Ye De" still drifted to Japan on time. At that time, Hideka had already left for Ezo, and Toyotomi Hideji was keen on internal power struggles. He didn't care about these southern barbarians who came by accident. Naturally, Ieyasu Tokugawa was given a chance. .

Tokugawa Ieyasu has long heard about Hideo’s deeds of casting cannons in Iyo before. Although Iyo is restricted to only produce copper, and the relevant copper ingots need to be transported to Shangzong before casting cannons, Tokugawa Ieyasu himself also hopes to obtain this kind of destruction. weapons.

So he concealed the Dutch merchant ship, sent people to move the fleet from Hirado to Hamamatsu to dock, and sent people to unload the artillery on their ships and sent people to learn how to operate the guns.

Of course, these artillery are now in Enjiang, and it is impossible for Tokugawa Ieyasu to transport the artillery to Bizen in such a short period of time.The artillery in his current army was a gift from Spanish and Portuguese merchants to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Because it is a gift, the caliber is not large, but it is very ornately decorated. The inner tank is made of copper but the outside is covered with gold.Hideyoshi collected him as a work of art until Hideyo discovered it when he was looking through the collection of Toyotomi's house.

Tokugawa Ieyasu originally planned to use Okayama Castle to attract the source of the Maori family, and set up formations at Toyama Castle on the west side of Okayama, and defeated the enemy with artillery and Toyotomi Banner.

But who would have thought that Mori Terumoto, one of the five big guys, would be so cowardly. Before facing Ishida Mitsunari, he only knew how to stick to it. Now that Ishida Mitsunari has withdrawn his troops, Tokugawa Ieyasu even entered the defense of the company to encourage Mori Terumoto With all the strength withdrawn, Mori Terumoto just regained his backup lost ground and stopped moving forward.

What really made Tokugawa Ieyasu take off his guard against Mori Terumoto was the arrival of the Mori family's diplomatic monk Anguoji Huiqiong, who brought the meaning of Mori Terumoto.

"It is only necessary to ensure that all the current knowledge and actions of the family remain unchanged, or withdraw the compensation from the Buzen Kingdom to Bichu Banguo, and promise that the family will not be held accountable for following the rebellious leader Toyotomi Hideji in the future. The family is willing to follow the inner government and help Assess the rebellion in Hokuriku."

In the mouth of the political speculator Moriya, he defined the "bitter masters" of Hokuriku who died of daimyo patriarchs as rebellion. Fortunately, he did not have the courage to directly define Hideo, otherwise Ieyasu Tokugawa would not dare to use it. him.

Tokugawa Ieyasu naturally would not believe the one-sided words of a diplomatic monk, but Mori Terumoto was very sincere, not only expressed his willingness to send troops to support, but also willing to send his own son, Matsujumaru, who was only 10 years old, to the Tokugawa formation as a hostage.

In fact, it is very in line with the way of life of the Maori family. They did not follow Toyotomi Hideji before. Their army stopped at Amagasaki and stopped going east. Instead, they asked Hideji for an errand to guard Osaka. Then it's over.

In the face of political changes in Osaka, Mori Terumoto did not play a good role in "guarding Osaka".He didn't mention that his ally Xiuci swept the tail, but ignored the progress of the situation.

In fact, with Mori Terumoto's ability at that time, and the tens of thousands of Maori corps half a day away from Amagasaki Castle, Mori Terumoto had enough time to control Osaka stably and prevent Toyotomi Hidekatsu and others from seizing power.

But now, according to Mori Terumoto, his previous inactions have instead become a means for him to claim credit from Osaka.

It's not that he didn't ask Osaka for forgiveness before, but Ishida Mitsunari and Chacha didn't listen to him, and made up their minds to take him under the knife.

But now Tokugawa Ieyasu is different from Ishida Mitsunari. Mori Terumoto and Tokugawa Ieyasu are old buddies. In his opinion, Tokugawa Ieyasu is a smooth guy. mean.

In his mouth, even Ishida Mitsunari's attack on Maori's skills before became a "misunderstanding", which was the result of his own Maori family's own actions.

But Tokugawa Ieyasu, who received the news of Mori Terumoto's surrender, could not see the slightest excitement and joy on his face. At this moment, he was even more sad than he was a few days ago.

After Matsudaira Ieji left, Tokugawa Ieyasu looked helplessly at the majestic Okayama Castle on the east bank and sighed, "Hey~ time waits for no one. I have clearly told you repeatedly, but that child Nagamatsu (Tokugawa Hidetada) is still I fell into the right house's trick."

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The location where Tokugawa Ieyasu stands now is Ishiyama Castle, the sub-city of Okayama Castle Defense, which is where Okayama Castle was located in history.

The reason why it became a sub-castle instead of the sub-castle as it is customary in Japan is because Hideo took advantage of opportunistic reasons and listed it as part of Okayama Castle's defenses, calling it "Ishiyama Maru".

The stone bridge across Asahikawa that connects this city with the Okayama Jogai Maru is the most important passage connecting the two banks of Asahikawa, for which the Okayama Clan receives a lot of tolls every year.

When Ishida Mitsunari's army crossed the border, they temporarily controlled Ishiyama Castle and a part of Okayama Castle Outer Maru, which is why Ishida Mitsunari launched a surprise attack so quickly.

After the arrival of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the outer general structure announced a breakthrough after fighting for 5 days, which means that such a large and wide general structure is not suitable for Japanese city defense. It seems that it is very large and protects many places. In fact, it is everywhere loophole.

Afterwards, Ieyasu Tokugawa besieged Ishiyama Castle on the west bank and Okayama Castle on the east bank by virtue of his military strength, adopting a strategy of attacking the west bank and attacking the east bank with fire. Finally, Ishiyama Castle was declared broken after more than ten days of siege.

Looking at the burning castle towers on the west bank, Hanfang Zhengcheng closed his eyes in pain.At the beginning, in order to declare his determination to stick to it, he asked his nephew Hanafang Xiuyi to lead people to stick to it.

Ishiyama Castle is said to be integrated with Okayama Castle, but after the loss of Ishiyama Waimaru, it became an isolated city. The defenders in Okayama Castle could only watch helplessly as the soldiers in Ishiyama Castle resisted until the last moment when the city was broken.

And when seeing Shishan City burn, it dealt a huge blow to the morale of the entire defender.

It is precisely because of the loss of Ishiyama Castle that Okayama Castle lost the most favorable control over Asahikawa and lost the sustainable water supply.

However, the Western Army that took down Shishan City also failed to take down Okayama City in one go, and the two sides could only enter the siege battle.

The process of besieging the city is boring, and it is suffering for both the attacker and the defender.

Now more than 3 months have passed since the siege of Tokugawa Ieyasu. If you count the previous siege of Ishida Mitsunari, more than 4 months have passed.

The mental state of the upper and lower members of Okayama Castle has lost its initial excitement, and the most common question asked by the people below is "When did the Maori family's reinforcements arrive? Where is the lord's army coming?".

Fortunately, Xian Fani, on behalf of Xiu Jiu, came forward to appease the soldiers, and the elders ate and lived with the soldiers, and the soul of Okayama, Hanabang Masayuki, came forward to encourage them before, which made the soldiers stick to it until now.

Okayama Castle was built to cope with this moment from the beginning. Now there are more than 1 soldiers in the city, and there are sufficient rations and weapons. As long as there are sufficient water resources, it will not be a problem even if it lasts for a year.

Tokugawa Ieyasu accepted Mori Terumoto's request to surrender, and of course only Tokugawa Ieyasu accepted, and this proposal was still pending at Chacha.

For Tokugawa Ieyasu, the surrender of the Mori family means that the situation in the West Country has completely stabilized. He can completely leave the blockade of Okayama to Mori Terumoto and Maeda Toshinaga in the West Country, and take the initiative to transfer troops back to the East Country to deal with it. The more terrible enemy.

In fact, Tokugawa Ieyasu miscalculated the situation of water resources in the city. Due to the previous fire attack, the storage of water tanks and pools in the city has long been insufficient. Diseases have been rampant in Okayama City.

The old flower house in charge of defending the city, Zhengcheng, has not bathed for more than half a month, let alone the lower-level soldiers.Zheng Xing, the elder flower house of the older generation, collapsed on the couch early because of physical discomfort, and even the medicine stone could not be decocted due to insufficient water.

That is to say, there was a heavy rain two days ago, and finally the soldiers and common people in the city replenished some water, and took advantage of the convenience of rainwater to take an open-air bath.

As the lord of the city, Toyotomi Hidehisa has no capacity for civil conduct. As his mother, Senfani is in power, and Miura Hidemori and Hanabou Masamari each assist in governing. The most discussed issue every day is "how long can the water in the city last."

Xiujia did make some preparations at the beginning of building the city, such as stacking gravel from leveled mountains at both ends of the valley between Caoshan and Gangshan, forming a barrier lake in the middle of the valley. Tens of thousands of people are still struggling with water.

As for Asahikawa's direct water intake, the water intake was lost long after the outer pill was breached, and the Hyakken River on the north side was blocked by Tokugawa Ieyasu with earth and rocks early on.

After discussing and discussing, Hanfang Zhengcheng had to admit that "if the Maori reinforcements don't come again, the water in the city can last for about one month at most."

Huafang Zhengcheng was worrying about his father's life and the lives of all the soldiers in the city, but there was a commotion outside, Xian Fani asked curiously, "What happened outside?"

Soon, some soldiers came up to report, "Madam Qi, the Toyotomi soldiers outside the city shouted, 'The Maori family has surrendered, and now there is only Okayama left in the Western Kingdom to resist the law'."

"What?!" The news surprised the two elders who were in charge of guarding the castle. Hidemori Miura's eyes widened and he said, "How could Zhixing, who is nearly a million stones in the Mori family, just surrender like this!"

Fortunately, Hanabang Masanari has seen the big world, and after sorting out his emotions for a moment, he said, "Be safe and don't be impatient, this may be the fake news spread by the Tokugawa Uchifu after they saw me, Okayama Castle, and were unable to attack for a long time, so as to shake things up." The confidence of my defenders."

After that, he turned around and looked at the messenger in charge of sending the message and asked, "It is said that the Maori family has surrendered, is there any evidence?"

In fact, the samurai's heart has been shaken, but he still replied truthfully: "It is evidenced by the Maori family's family pattern flag, but the number of flags is not many."

"It's not surprising. Anyone can forge the one-character three-star flag. Perhaps it's a strategy of the inner government." Hanfang Zhengcheng first comforted the other elders and Xian Fani, suppressing the nothingness in his heart.

"His Highness Youfu is a famous general in the world. Since he has decided to raise troops, he is completely prepared. I just need to wait for his reinforcements. Since the Tokugawa House dare not say that 'Youfu has been defeated', then It proves that the war in the Eastern Kingdom is still going on."

Under the consolation of Hanfang Zhengcheng, the restless hearts of the family elders were relieved a little, and they began to accept the arrangement of Hanfang Zhengcheng to go down to appease the soldiers in batches.

The fact is that, as Hanabou Masanari had expected, Tokugawa Ieyasu chose to withdraw from the siege after besieging Okayama in March in exchange for the surrender of the Mori family.

However, the siege of the Okayama domain was not untied, because the Mori family really surrendered. The 6000 people led by Motocho Yoshikawa in the early stage had arrived at the base of Okayama Castle to replace Toyotomi Banner's camp.

Because the troops were reduced by 8%, Yoshikawa Motocho did not dare to surround the huge Okayama Castle from all sides like Tokugawa Ieyasu. He could only send people to garrison Waimaru and Ishiyama Castle on the east bank of Asahikawa, waiting for Mori Terumoto's follow-up reinforcements .

And after our Tokugawa Ieyasu received the hostage Mori Matsujumaru, he quickly withdrew from the siege of Okayama Castle and led people eastward.

Mori Terumoto wanted to see Tokugawa Ieyasu before leaving, but Tokugawa Ieyasu left in a hurry, and took people away the second day after getting Matsujumaru. On the contrary, Okubo Tadarin and other generals led the troops He stayed behind.

Mori Terumoto didn't understand, isn't the friendship of many years of colleagues enough for Tokugawa Ieyasu to stay and say hello to each other?

Although Anguoji Huiqiong had already obtained the promise from Tokugawa Ieyasu, Mori Terumoto was still a little uneasy in his heart. He wanted to hear Tokugawa Ieyasu's promise with his own ears before he could feel at ease.

Looking at the people who continued to move eastward from his side, there was an army of nearly 5 troops led by Maeda Toshinaga, including Shimadzu Yoshihiro, Nabeshima Naomi, Tachibana Muneshige, Kato Kiyomasa and others.

Mori Terumoto didn't understand why he gave himself the order to take down Okayama Castle, instead of counting the more than 2 Maori troops he brought eastward to help the Toyotomi family assess the "rebellion" of the Toyotomi Hide family.

(End of this chapter)