Prime Minister Bizen

During the meeting between Hideka and Satake Yoshigetsu, at the foot of Xiangshan Mountain on the other side of Hakone Mountain, looking at the fortress lined up on the top of the mountain, Torii Mototada frowned, and gave the order to withdraw troops to the people below with great difficulty.

Seeing that Torii Motochu was about to retreat, Naito Nobunari, who came from Xingguoji Castle to support him, asked in puzzlement, "Iga Mamoru? Why didn't you attack? But my son is still on it!"

Torii Mototada called the soldiers to retreat quietly, and personally explained to this family vassal, "The opposite is relying on Furukawa Lizhai, and there is Xiangshan behind. Instead of wasting our troops here, it would be better to gain more from defending Cage City."

Hearing Torii Mototaka's explanation, Naito Nobushiro, who was eager to rescue his son, could only curse a few words in a low voice, and then followed him back angrily.But the movement of thousands of people was so big, how could it be possible to hide it from Masatoshi Suga and others on the mountain on the other side of Guchuan.

As early as after hearing the report from the scouts, Masatoshi Suga had already ordered the generals to gather in secret to deal with the enemy's attack.But who knew that the Tokugawa army wanted to attack at night, and they were about to leave after a circle at the foot of the mountain.

Masaki Kajihara (the second son of Ota Suzasa), the general under his command, asked Suga Masato to fight, but Masato Suga refused on the grounds that the army was exhausted and the details of the enemy forces at the foot of the mountain were unclear.

In fact, Suga Masatoshi's idea is correct, because Torii Mototada is not a reckless general.He had planned his retreat long before planning the night attack. Fist City was only 10 miles away from Xiangshan, and 1000 people were laid in ambush along the way in order to come out when necessary to catch up with the Fengchun army who was chasing him.It is even possible to cooperate with the main force to strike back and bite off a piece of meat from Feng Chunjun.

But Torii Mototada, who was evacuating all the way to Izuntou Castle, looked at the quiet back, mixed with happiness and a little bit disappointed.

Masatoshi Suga rejected Masaaki Kajiwara's suggestion to lead the troops to chase after him, but said, "Since people have come all the way, they have to give back to the opponent. Since the opponent stayed up late and wanted to make a surprise attack, then don't take a good rest tonight."

He directly ordered the troops to take turns to rest, and Masaki Kajihara, the captain of the general reserve who was the first to call for battle, led the troops to Izuntou City. He pretended to attack the city defense at night, and raised his torches to create momentum.After an hour, other troops will naturally come to replace them.

The generals were puzzled, especially Masaki Kajihara said why he asked himself to go out just to scare the opponent?
Masatoshi Suga reassured him, "Arranging Mino to defend you in the first team is naturally to let you come back to rest earlier, and you need to be the main attacker in the siege tomorrow."

Masaki Kajiwara was overjoyed when he heard this, and there were no complaints, so he immediately took over the military order from Suga Masari and went down the mountain to reorganize the army.

Nobunari Naito, who originated from Kokokuji Temple, withdrew from Mukaiyama together with Mototada Torii.In order to prevent being surrounded in Quantou Castle during the day, Torii Motochu asked him to return to Xingguo Temple City overnight.

In fact, more than a thousand soldiers from Xingguo Temple are very tired, and they all want to rest in Quantou City for one night.But in the words of Torii Motochu, "Izumito Castle is the front line to meet the enemy, and I will wait for you to rest in peace."

To be honest, Naito Shincheng is not like withdrawing, his son is still being held captive in the battle.Wasn't the purpose of leading the troops here this time to save his son?

But he is a member of Tokugawa's family after all, and he has to consider the overall situation of Tokugawa to some extent.As the guard of Xingguo Temple, he brought his troops out of the city to Izuntou Castle privately, and he could defeat the enemy by uniting with Torii Motochu at night. He didn't care that he was his half-brother, so he punished him directly.

After much deliberation, Naito Nobushiro finally accepted Torii Mototada's suggestion and chose to take his exhausted soldiers out of the city from the north of Izumizu Castle to Xingguo Temple Castle.

But not long after their team left the city, they heard the deep sound of conch horns in Quantou City behind them, which was an early warning of enemy attack.

Quantou City was built on a plain with soil, so it was naturally farther than Naito Shinari. At this moment, they didn't know where the enemy was, and they didn't dare to march rashly in the middle of the night. Instead, they stopped at a place 1 km north of the city.

But not long after, an envoy from the city flew over to inform him: "There are enemies coming from the east. There are probably 5000 of them by the torches. My lord begs Feng Qianshou to return to Fangxingguo Temple City as soon as possible."

Yes, it is such a coincidence.Masaki Kajihara, head of the Headquarters, went down the mountain late on purpose to prepare for the fatigue of the city defenses of Quantou City.You must know that the general reserve is one of the Hideyoshi's standing reserves. Because of Hideyoshi's life, the three reserves of the general, Hitachi, and Edo were not fully staffed all the year round. The three battalions only had one company with 3 people stationed everywhere. The number is no more than 1.

This battle is a battle of destroying the country. Fujido Takatora deliberately added the soldiers from the previous expedition to North Korea directly into the three reserve teams.Their combat power is definitely not comparable to that of Saitama, Ueno, Shimono, and Sagami, who are full of staff all year round.

But as Hideyoshi confirmed, the Sagami collar was not owned by the Hide family. The Sagami equipment that was at the forefront before was dismantled into three, and one of the most elite battalions was changed into the flagship of the Ashikaga family. A new battalion was formed based on one battalion. Ibaraki Bei, and the remaining 1 battalion was split and added to the three standing reserves of the upper general, Edo, and lower generals, and several reorganized garrison teams. It's almost there.

It was precisely because of the formation of Ibaraki Beixin that Xiujia incorporated it into the main team as the general reserve team.

In fact, if you look back at the formation of the army that day, you will find an interesting phenomenon. There are more than 12 people in the 11th formation, but there is no seventh formation.This is because Hideka called him Hachiro, and Ukita wanted to like the number eight. Since the Nao family, every time they set up an army formation, the formation has always been the eighth formation.

And there are many secret legions in the Xiu family's main formation that were supposed to form a separate formation, but now it's not the time for a decisive battle, so they are hidden under the Xiu family's main formation.When the real decisive battle comes, the so-called "eighth formation (main formation) other belongings" of more than 9100 people will be the seventh formation before the Xiujia formation.

Back at this point in the night on July 8, 1603, it was impossible for Naito Shinari's troops who left the city to hide their whereabouts by lighting torches in the middle of the night. In this way, they were captured by Kajiwara Masaki who was marching.

If it is called Suga Masatoshi, he may rein in his army and choose to retreat slowly to give up the battle.After all, he is a general who likes to seek stability, and he especially doesn't like the style of surprise attack late at night.

But now it is Kajihara Masaki who is in charge of the army, this reckless person who is not liked by Ota Sumasa and turned his back on the Hojo clan at a critical moment.Seeing this situation, his brother-in-law Mabe Jiugan immediately informed him of the situation.

Kajiwara Masaki only thought for a moment, then ordered his brother-in-law Makabe Hisakan to lead the horse-riding samurai of the headquarters to charge the enemy with horses, followed by Hosokawa Tsunayoshi, the general of the First Battalion of the General Staff, and charged.All the iron cannons of the third battalion were handed over to the second battalion, Matsuo Tsunashige, and asked him to lead the army to block the enemy with iron cannons in front of Quantou City.

Masaki Kajihara, who said to fight, did not even give the generals under his command time to react and persuade, and the military strategy had already been arranged. Even if the generals under this kind of encounter wanted to persuade, they had no choice but to fight first.

The Hideka’s standing equipment is no longer what it was when it was organized in Bizen. Now each battalion has 592 soldiers, including 1 iron cannon brigade with 100 soldiers, 20 horse riders, and 20 battalion generals and short soldiers (close guards). The others are 2 regular regiments, armed with spears, longbows and their own weapons, plus the short soldiers assigned by the company leader, a total of 212. (10 soldiers in the company and 5 soldiers in the brigade).

In other words, each battalion will belong to 2 companies, 1 independent iron artillery brigade and 1 ranger team.

Now Kajiwara Masaki asked Makabe Hisakan to charge the entire army of retainers and samurai on horseback. The number of them was only 60, and even including his headquarters and himself, there were no more than 80.But it's really not scary for such a small number of people to work hard for a long time.He's the guy called Onimakabe!

Kajihara Zheng Jingmang, he is more courageous than him.After receiving the cavalry sent by the other two battalions, he rectified a little and led the crowd towards the bright fire.

Of course, it is true that Zhenbi has been brave enough to fight for a long time, but it does not mean that he has a brain.These rangers themselves are the people who prepare the team, and archery is their most basic skill.Of course, the skill of archery on horseback is definitely not as good as the Xiu family's banner cavalry, but shooting arrows against the enemy's array in the dark night does not require accuracy at all, and a random arrow can put great psychological pressure on the enemy.

Yabusi equestrianism is not a unique secret art. May I ask which team of standing samurai cavalry does not want to be selected by the show family and incorporated into the banner for the public to listen to?In private, I will practice quietly.And in the middle of the night, the screaming sound of the arrow feather landslide in the night sky with the empty whistle was like a life-threatening spell, which put great psychological pressure on the Tokugawa army who had originally lined up to respond to the enemy.

At this time, the first battalion of iron cannons from the east had also come 80 meters out of the front of the formation, and began to load the projectiles of the iron cannons. After the loading was completed, they quietly wiped forward 20 steps.The torch in the night is the best indicator. Following the command of "fire" from the captain of the iron cannon, there was a burst of iron cannons firing in the night sky outside Quantou City.

Under the urging of gunpowder, the iron projectiles were shot out of the iron cannon at high speed, and they rushed to the Tokugawa army in just a few seconds, blooming bright red flowers on their bodies.

But with the firing of the iron cannon, the soldiers of the other two companies of the first battalion who had already lined up behind the iron cannon released their bows and arrows. The superior general specially issued the order to "shoot arrows".

The arrow feathers flew across the sky at a 45° angle, and descended on the heads of the Tokugawa army under the cover of night.They couldn't see where the arrows came from. After all, the enemy was hiding in the dark and shooting arrows.

The soldiers led by Naito Nobushige are all soldiers led by Suruga under his command, and their quality cannot be compared with the standing equipment for daily drills.After only two rounds of arrow feathers and iron cannon salvos, the army formation has already shaken.

Not to mention letting the samurai restrain the soldiers, the samurai's heart is on the verge of collapse. Some people directly led their ashigaru and rushed out of the formation into the night, wanting to shoot at them from a long distance in the night. The "evil ghost" beheaded.

But what returned to those Tokugawa soldiers who were still standing in the flames were the wailing voices of their colleagues from the night, and then fell silent.

The sound of iron cannons and the sound of arrow feathers slicing into the air are still heard one after another, and fellow countrymen around you are constantly falling down, and the colleagues who rushed out seem to be swallowed by the night. There must be some people who can no longer bear the torment in their hearts and run around and flee.

As a general, Naito Shincheng saw that he could not restrain the soldiers, so he fled westward with his banner and retainer warriors early.It was only during the chaos that the Tokugawa army thought of throwing away the torch in its hand.

As the attacker, Mabe Jiugan saw that the enemy formation was in disarray, and the scattered cavalry gathered together with shouts, retracted their bows and turned their guns, thinking about charging the army formation.The captain of the first company of the first battalion who succeeded him also ordered the whole army to withdraw their bows and turn their guns to charge the enemy.

In fact, there were others who moved faster. General Fulizhishan of the Third Battalion, who was lined up as a reserve, ordered the whole army to attack first.

In fact, when the head office came over, Quantou City had already discovered the problem, and went to warn Naito Nobunari early.As soon as he received the information, Torii Motochu went up to the castle tower overlooking the north (the tower on the 3rd floor of Izuntou Castle is on the north side.)
However, when faced with the requests from his subordinates to ask for a fight and ask whether they want to go out of the city to help the enemy, Torii Mototada shook his head and refused.At this moment, he was as worried as Suga Masatoshi who was embarrassed to the mountain. He didn't know how many people there were in Fengchun Army outside the city.

He only has 3000 people in his hands. Before that, he had captured several hundred in the mountain city, but now there are only more than 2000 people.If there are tens of thousands of enemy troops outside the city, how can my 2000 people be enough to face each other?

He borrowed a military order to strictly guard the front-line Quantou Castle. It would be a great achievement not to lose the city or to delay it for one month.

In fact, it's not that he didn't save Naito Nobunari. After all, he is also Tokugawa Ieyasu's younger brother and Tokugawa Hidetada's uncle.

But the dozens of people he sent out were beaten back by the second battalion arrayed at the city gate before they left the city. Hundreds of iron cannons were equally famous in the dark night, and Torii Mototada was not given a chance to support him at all.

Sometimes the beginning, process, and end of the encounter are such legends, and it is often not initiated by the commanders and officers of the two warring parties, but it may be that the subordinate generals of the two sides suddenly encountered each other.

In the face of this kind of encounter, many brilliant records are not arranged before the battle. It is probably because the generals of one side are timid, which makes them lose the opportunity to recruit, encircle, and annihilate the protruding part of the other side. The legendary battle is Thus began and ended.

The Shang Zongbei who had won the battle was extremely excited. Although it was a standing equipment, it was a Jibei warrior at heart, but after coming to Kanto, most of the blood was filled by Kanto warriors.Coupled with the downsizing and dissatisfaction over the years, the sergeants have just been replenished now. Many sergeants have not fought for many years, and there are even first-time fighters who have never been on the battlefield to replace their father and brother.

The victory at the next stop in Quantou City greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers of the General Reserve. Although their opponent was only a small army with only a thousand people, they could still eat this army under the eyes of the enemy's reinforcements. Become their proud capital.

Naturally, Masaki Kajihara, who advocated the battle, became a great hero, even though he gave an order without knowing the strength of the enemy army and who was leading the army before making a decision. This is an absolute taboo for military strategists.

But in terms of results, they won, and they won the support of the soldiers under their command.

Torii Mototada in the city will never know that the Fengchun Army last night only had 1 troops in one division.It only needs the whole army in his city to attack, and he will double team with Naito Shinto, and he will definitely win a big victory.

Even when he received the news of the chaotic battle outside Quantou City, Masatoshi Suga, who was on the mountain, would rather abandon the general reserve, and pressed the idea of ​​his subordinates to fight. He was as afraid of the night as Torii Mototada, and when he couldn't figure out the enemy's situation Refuse to support.

But for all of this, Torii Mototada never had a chance again.When he got up the next day, all he saw was the bloody battlefield outside the city, and more than ten thousand Fengchun soldiers surrounded from the north and east.

Quantou City was completely besieged!