Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 795 East-West War (VIII) Seizing Puyuan City
Kambara Castle is a majestic castle located on the right bank of the Fuji River on the top of a 138-meter-high mountain overlooking Tokaido and Suruga Bay.

The high mountains of Yui and Xingjin in Suruga Kingdom directly protrude southward to Suruga Bay. This place is like Echigo’s relatives. The flat land is scattered in various valleys and is very narrow. It is second to none in the Tokaido. difficulty.

Kambara Castle is located at the east entrance of the main point. There is a small narrow plain at the foot of the mountain, and it is bounded by the Fuji River.

In December of the 11th year of Yonglu (1568), the Three Kingdoms Alliance of Kosho Jun collapsed. Taking advantage of the fact that Imagawa Ujima and Tokugawa Ieyasu were fighting in Yuanjiang, Takeda Shingen began to attack Suruga.

But even Shingen, who was as strong as Shingen, did not capture Kambara Castle and entered Junfu, so he had to leave some garrisons to guard Kamanu, and the whole army went around and surrounded Junfu.

In order to rescue the Imagawa Clan, the Hojo Clan Administration sent reinforcements led by the Hojo Clan Nobuo to break through the Takeda Clan's blockade and enter Kambara Castle, using it as a stronghold to block the Takeda Army's rear route. Shingen had no choice but to retreat from Suruga by agreement.

At the end of the 12th year of Yonglu (1569), Takeda Shingen invaded Odawara and severely damaged the Hojo clan and then attacked the Imagawa clan again.The generals of the Hojo Ushinobu and others of the Kambara Castle Association Army and the Imagawa clan died in battle, and the city was set on December 12.Shingen personally went into the city to renovate it, and used it as a defense base against the Hojo clan.

In the 10th year of Tensho (1582), Kamahara Castle was once again captured by the Oda and Tokugawa coalition forces. In order to show his loyalty to Nobunaga, Tokugawa Ieyasu personally abandoned the castle.

This castle was not included in the "List of Main Castles within Tokugawa Territory in the 20th Year of Tensho" submitted by the Tokugawa clan to Hideyoshi.But after Hideyoshi's death, Tokugawa Ieyasu ordered people to rebuild the city again in order to guard against Hideyoshi's attack from the east.

The Xiu family patrolled the Puyuan city defense on horseback, planning to make a military strategy based on the information of later generations.

I saw that it took the top of the mountain at an altitude of 138 meters as the main Qurin, and on the northeast side of it was built the Quren called "Zenpukuji Quren" and Osora Hori. Expands in steps.In addition, many small curved wheels were set up around the plain area on the south side of the castle, directly connecting the Tokaido to the castle.

That is to say, if the Xiu family wanted to continue heading west, at least they had to take down the small Qulun at the foot of the mountain before the legion could continue walking.

But I don’t think so about Puyuan City. The city was built too precipitously, which made the Xiu family feel a little apprehensive, thinking about whether it is still the same strategy as before, leaving a large army to surround them and then continue westward to lure the enemy.

After careful consideration, the Xiu family decided to take the city for the first time.

Kambara Castle is very important, not only Hideka knows, but Tokugawa Hidetada also knows this, so he stationed his important minister Nobumasa Okohira in this city, and there are 2500 people stationed in Kambara Castle.

In fact, Tokugawa Hidetada originally wanted to send more troops. In his opinion, there are 5000 people left in Kambara City who can hold on for a longer time.However, Tokugawa Ieyasu's family members Sakakibara Yasomasa and Okahira Nobumasa who stayed by his side persuaded him together, "How is Ufu's attack on Suruga today and Takeda's attack on Suruga back then?
At that time, Takeda's power was not enough to attack Kambara, so he immediately decided to go around the city and attack Junfu. Wouldn't Youfu make the same judgment?But at that time, the Imagawa family was close to the Hojo family, who could provide Austrian aid. Now that the Youfu is attacking, do I have allies on the east side? "

The meaning inside and outside the words is that Puyuan City is indeed very strong, but this city is also a mountain city, and once it is surrounded, it is impossible to effectively stop the enemy.

Regardless of the strength of Puyuan City, Puyuan City without support can be destroyed by itself as long as the water in the city is consumed. The Xiu family has a lot of troops, and there are enough troops to surround it without attacking it and seize Junfu first.

Finally, after discussion, Opin Xinchang only needed 1700 people as support, and the remaining more than 800 people were mobilized from his own territory.

In fact, in Tokugawa Hidetada's vision, Izumitou, Xingguo Temple, and Zentokuji Castle should be able to block Hideka's offensive for 1 to 2 months. At that time, Kambara Castle will block Hideya for another 2 months, and Tokugawa Ieyasu will arrange it for himself. The task is completed.

But who would have thought that Xiu's family was so fast that it took them a few months to arrive at Puyuan City.What surprised him even more was that Hideka's behavior really made Sakakihara Komasa talk, even exceeding their expectations.

He actually failed to take down the three cities along the way, and continued to advance after leaving a superior force to besiege the city.According to this progress, Kambara Castle may really continue to detour around Sunfu after taking down the outer defense line as Sakakibara Yasumasa said.

While Tokugawa Hidetada of Sufu was nervously receiving information from Higashi Suruga, the army led by Hideka had already surrounded Kambara Castle. The family has already ordered the Ashikaga family who arrived first and surrounded Kambara Castle to issue an order to attack the city.

"Because there is still some time before the setting sun, let's take down the small curved wheel on the outside first." This is what the Xiu family said to their son.

For important cities on the Tōkaidō like Kambara Castle, the Hideo family had already sent ninjas to find out the key points of the city defenses earlier, and recently investigated the situation of the city defenses. Just follow the previous plan to attack the city.

The Ashikaga family, who had received the order from the Hideo family, was gearing up. This was nothing compared to the time when Hatsutokura Castle had a solid 2500 people in the city.What's more, there is the Xiu family personally supervising the battle behind the scenes. For the Ashikaga family, this battle is more like a performance show to prove themselves to their father.

So at the beginning of the battle, he sent the most powerful team under the Ashikaga clan, 500 people recruited from the Kanto Ronin, plus 600 recruited ashigaru and 300 iron cannon ashigaru.

The Ashikaga family received 10.5 shi, and mobilized 4900 people within the collar, and the mobilization ratio has reached 466 per [-] shi.But relying on Ashikaga's name, he recruited more than a thousand ronin from surrounding countries.

Although these ronin have already pawned their possessions in poverty, but benefiting from the Ashikaga family's name and wealth, the Ashikaga family paid for them to equip them with mobilization and ordinary iron pockets, although they are still as serious as the Toyoharu family. The equipment of the samurai is not comparable, but the "killing" skills under his hands are real.

The 500 ronin group directly jumped off Dobori under the cover of the iron cannons, then hooked the rope to the stone screen on the other side, and climbed up with the rope.On the other side facing the two city gates on the east side, the vanguard composed of internal mobilized soldiers held a bumper and hit the wooden gate vigorously.

In order to ensure a beautiful battle against the enemy in front of his father, the Ashikaga family unprecedentedly ordered all the samurai who were good at shooting under their command to gather at the top of the city to cover the front guards who broke the door, and directly called the defenders who dared to probe.

Facts have proved that "snipers" are the best arms that can successfully deter the enemy no matter what era.

Although Tokugawa Hidetada basically mobilized all his skills in order to block Hideka, but the ones at the forefront must be the Suruga people.

The Japanese battlefield was like that. Although the intensity and scale of the war gradually increased in the later period, the famous "Spirit of Mikawa" in history was just something deliberately promoted by the Edo shogunate. After all, the Mihe people were beaten and cried twice by Takeda Shingen time ass?
Even if the Mikawa people who are the main force of the Tokugawa samurai are like this, how much do you expect the Suruga people to be dedicated to these things?

At the beginning of the battle, some young warriors eager for military merit and performance showed their heads and shot arrows at the city gate.But when these [hot-blooded youths] were named by warriors holding heavy rattan bows, those old fritters on the top of the city became much smarter.Even if he was reprimanded by his own warriors and asked to fight back, he just hid behind the wooden pole with a small head exposed, shot the arrow in his hand casually, and then retracted.

"Fight back! Fight back! His Royal Highness Toyotomi's reinforcements are coming soon. After the young master arrives, I will describe your performance one by one. If you are punished at that time, don't blame me for not reminding you today! On the contrary, if you fight bloody battles to the death, I will definitely report your meritorious deeds to the lord, how long will I wait if I don’t establish meritorious deeds now?”

Seeing that the people on his side were doing foreign work, the samurai in charge of the outer defense line became very angry, and immediately threatened and lured them.

The soldiers at the bottom didn't know that there was no reinforcements behind them at the moment, and the superior warriors were intimidating and luring, and the "cloud reinforcements" followed closely behind.Only then did morale recover again, and the Ashikaga army outside the city started shooting each other again.

However, it takes time for ordinary ashigaru to draw a bow to aim, but a skilled heavy rattan archer can shoot 1 arrows in one minute.Compared with ordinary Marugi bows, heavy rattan bows are much higher in initial speed, lethality, and accuracy. Some eagle-eyed warriors can shoot arrow feathers into the eyes of the enemy the moment they show their heads.

The war of the Warring States Period in Japan, this country is called the village war on the Internet of the Rabbit Kingdom in later generations, and some people even used the news of 90 people fighting in two villages in Changsha in the 3000s with muskets and local cannons as a comparison.

It can only be said that in the early days of the Warring States Period in Japan, when land annexation and war intensity were not high, the scale of the war may indeed be somewhat similar to the village wars of later generations.But we should compare with the same period. Don’t forget that in the same period of Ming Dynasty, the population of China was only 1.5 million.

We no longer compare counties in the west. At the same time, a county in Huguang could mobilize only 2000 to 3000 soldiers. How different is it from Japan?
In the later period of the Warring States Period in Japan, the intensity and intensity of the wars of the big names after the big fish eat the small fish are also constantly increasing. rise.

For example, during the Korean War in history, Hideyoshi’s military service account for Kyushu was 400 per 550 shi, but the ratio of many leading soldiers + civilian husbands in Kyushu may even reach [-] per [-] shi.

In addition, after decades of fast-paced and high-intensity land annexation wars, a large number of new warrior classes have been promoted, and many old warrior classes must lose their land and become ronin.

These are the people who are most eager for military exploits and to regain their status as warriors.Compared with Ashgaru who agreed to organize training, many of them are often from the samurai family in the past, and have received better samurai training since childhood.

Coupled with the experience of fighting and killing people in previous decades, their individual soldier quality is undoubtedly much higher than that of ordinary ashigaru.

And wars like siege warfare are precisely the embodiment of personal ability.The defenders used the hole left behind the stone screen to stab out their spears, and the ronin in poor-quality armor were stabbed into the soil, but the samurai in the rear continued to move forward bravely.

"The one who entered the city first was Uematsu Kametaro, the Musashi Tama samurai!"

Soon some ronin turned over the stone screen, and began to slash left and right in the city with a samurai sword. After this position is breached, it is difficult to make up for it in a short time, and the attacking soldiers outside the city will be hit by points. Continue to expand the control area until the defenders who ended in Shiping are killed, then go to the main gate to open the city gate and let the main force in.

Seeing that our side successfully broke through the outer stone screen in just one round of charge, the corners of the Ashikaga family's mouth were raised in satisfaction, and they looked arrogantly towards the direction of the Xiu family's main formation on the east side, as if they were showing off their martial arts to their father .

A moment later, with the opening of the eastern city gate, more and more Ashikaga Ashgaru swarmed into the city, which also announced that the Qulun outside Puyuan City had been captured, and the Xiu family had mastered the way to continue to the west.

But what the Ashikaga family wanted was not just a few peripheral Quluns on the plain at the foot of the mountain. He wanted to take down the southern Quren of the main city Sannomaru in one go.

Because long before the start of the siege, Shigeke Toyotomi, who was designated as the fourth general, had already come to his side under the pretext of wanting to watch his brother break the city.

The younger brother is by your side, and the father is not far away. Naturally, the Ashikaga family wanted to win more face, so they ordered their subordinate Zhuanglin Yixin, "Hokishou, you bring the second team of ronin to make up for it, and try to defeat the Sannomaru." , by the way, bring 100 bannermen to lead the formation, and those who dare to escape will be killed directly!"

Zhuang Lin Yixin was very happy to see the outer pill was broken, but he didn't expect that his lord, the Ashikaga family, would want to continue to attack the city, so he immediately persuaded him, "Your Highness, the meaning of the main hall is that we only need to break the outer perimeter." .”

But before his words fell, the Ashikaga family reprimanded, "Are you only obeying my father's orders and not mine? I am your immediate lord, and my father is not your hall!"

The words of the Ashikaga family directly set up Zhuanglin Yixin. This is the army of the Ashikaga family, and there are other big names (Toyotomi Shige's, Ukita Kanan's), and his every move can easily be spread.

If you really deserve the accusation of the Ashikaga family against yourself, you can lose your reputation and reputation in the samurai class by relying on the name of the Ashikaga family.

Zhuang Lin had no choice but to agree with the order of the Ashikaga family, and personally led the team to enter the city from the east gate to support the previous team to continue the attack on Puyuan City.

(End of this chapter)