Prime Minister Bizen

The time came to mid-December of the ninth year of Keicho (1604). Several days had passed since the confrontation between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Hideie here at Nobi. The Eastern Army's oppressive attack on the Western Army made the Western Army very embarrassed. .

The frontal situation has obviously shifted to the favorable direction of the Eastern Army. In the past ten days, in addition to Tokugawa Ieyasu, Nagamune's Nobuki, Nabeshima Naoshige, Tachibana Muneshige and others have successively contacted Hideka.

Xiujia promised them the security of their post-war skills, and would rely on their performance on the battlefield to recount military exploits.

For example, Hideka promised to reward Nagamune's family, Tosa Ikkuni, after the war, on the condition that he would renege on the battlefield.

Promise that Naoshima Naoshige can replace the Ryuzoji family as the Hizen daimyo, and promise Tachibana Soshige that he can become the only daimyo in one country, or give him the security of most of Bungo.

The reason why Hideie gave Tokugawa Ieyasu so long time to negotiate with him was more to give other daimyo time and opportunities to contact him.After all, when it comes to the battlefield, you can't trust Tokugawa Ieyasu alone with the outcome of victory or defeat.

Although several daimyos have come to contact Hideo on their own initiative, the Shimadzu family and Kobayakawa family who are most concerned by Hideo have never contacted Hideo.

Hideka took the initiative to approach Shimadzu Yoshihiro and Kobayakawa Hideaki, but these two seemed to be hesitant about whether to finally stand on Hideka's side.

The person sent to contact Yoshihiro Shimazu was his former minister Towa Kutora. As Yoshihiro Shimazu's former think tank, the friendship between him and Yoshihiro Shimazu was extraordinary.

In addition, the Hide family and the Shimadzu family have cooperated a lot on Ryukyu trade issues before, and the relationship between the two has always been considered good.

With these two layers of guarantees, Hideie thought that the contact with Shimazu Yoshihiro would go smoothly, but he never expected that Shimazu Yoshihiro would welcome the arrival of Towa Kutora, but he would not accept Hideie's proposal anyway. It's a little ambiguous.

Xiujia offered a reward of 40 shi to the Shimadzu family, and Xiujia clearly informed Shimadzu Yoshihiro that the Shimadzu family would be transferred after the war.But Yoshihiro Shimadzu was unwilling to leave Satsuma and Osumi, and even asked the Hide family for the addition of Osumi Ikkuni.

In fact, there is not much knowledge and practice in Osumi Province. There are only 17 koku in the whole country.Not to mention that the Shimadzu family already controls land in two Osumi counties, and the real increase in Tomoyuki is only about 2.

Such a condition is actually not a big mouth for a lion, but the Xiu family does not want the Shimadzu family to continue to stay in southern Kyushu, and he is not the kind of person Ishida Mitsunari who can agree to other people's conditions at will.

The most important thing is that Hideka doesn't think Yoshihiro Shimadzu's achievements on the battlefield are worth 50% of his current knowledge and practice.

If Shimazu Yoshihiro is given a 50% bonus, what kind of reward should Tachibana Muneshige and Nabeshima Naoshige give?
However, Jiuhu, the baby, agreed to Yoshihiro Shimadzu's conditions on behalf of the Hide family there. After he came back, he explained, "Someone in the Western Army must know that we are contacting them. There are 6000 sergeants in Satsuma's guards. A powerful one in the Western Army.

We are not afraid that he will not work hard at that time, but we are afraid that he will use this to hinder our next adjustment process.Therefore, even out of the need to stabilize Satsuma and the Shimadzu army, I boldly agreed to Satsuma's request first. "

This reflects the role of Kutora Nawawa. With Hideie's character, he will definitely not fight with Shimazu Yoshihiro here, but the relatively smooth Kutora Nawawa will.

Really, after the Xiu family defeated the Western Army and entered Luo with an absolute advantage, how do you want to arrange the Shimadzu family?
In history, Tokugawa Ieyasu also promised Date Masamune Shigao of a million shi, but in the end he gave away 68 shi.

Nobushige Sanada was in charge of contacting Kobayakawa Hideaki. When he was a servant of the Hideka, he had more contact with Kobayakawa Hideaki, and the relationship between the two has always been very good.

But Kobayakawa Hideaki obviously has his own unspeakable secrets. Most of his retainers are old ministers left by Kobayakawa Takakage, and they are all from the Maori faction.

These vassals followed Hideaki Kobayakawa to participate in the court war, and they still persisted when Hideaki was changed, and even tried to participate in the Keicho riot organized by Hideji to realize the revival of the Kobayakawa family.

Later, after Kobayakawa Toyozen returned to the country and was transferred to Wakayama, they also never gave up Kobayakawa Hideaki.It could be said that these retainers owed nothing to Xiuqiu, on the contrary, Xiuqiu owed these retainers a lot.

Among these retainers, the Maori faction had the most retainers. Faced with the possibility of joining the Eastern Army, they bluntly expressed to Nobushige Sanada that they hoped to contact the Mori Hiroka and others on their behalf.

Are you kidding me? The Maori family was the main source of the post-war awards for intellectuals, and they were destined to be listed on the list of traitors.

Not to mention that they didn't jump back to the Western Army before, even if he stood firm in the face of the siege of the Western Army, the Xiu family would not admit that he was their ally. After Shangluo took control of Kyoto, the next step was to conquer Maori. .

In this case, Kobayakawa Hideaki's personal tendency to lean towards the Hide family is no longer important, his control over his retainers is really too low.

Don't you believe it, although Mori Terumoto was the general of the Western Army in history, he had already hooked up with Tokugawa Ieyasu through Yoshikawa Hiroka and Tokugawa Ieyasu.

As one of the two rivers of Maori, the Hiro family of Yoshikawa, would he not have a relationship with the Kobayakawa family?

The Maori army led by Hiroshi Yoshikawa did not fight on Nangong Mountain, and blocked the way of the generation of general Mouri Hidemoto to go down the mountain. How similar is the behavior of Kobayakawa's retainers to coerce Kobayakawa Hideaki to call for justice in the Eastern Army?

The Xiu family offered Kobayakawa Hideaki a lot of conditions. The Xiu family promised that after the war, he would be protected by Shufang and Nagato. The total score goes out to him.

Compared with the Kobayakawa family, which currently only has 15 shi, no matter which plan they choose, it is a huge and doubled increase for them.

You must know that the Shimadzu family on the other side, the Xiu family is not even willing to seal up 50% of the current size of the Shimadzu family.

In addition to the Maori daimyo who were unwilling to abandon the Maori family and turn to the Eastern Army alone, even the daimyos who followed Tanba since Tanba, such as Matsuno Shigemoto, rejected Sanada Nobushige's proposal.

Most of them are samurai from Hideyoshi's royal family. If the Hide family did not carry the identity of a traitor and expelled from the clan, they might have turned to Hide like the friendly Tokugawa Ieyasu in history. Home here.

In this way, even if there are disagreements within the Kobayakawa family, Kobayakawa Hideaki can play a key role in finalizing the final decision.This is also Xiujia's original idea for Kobayakawa's pawn.

However, under the accusations of traitors and enemies in both Osaka and Kyoto, even Kobayakawa Hideaki himself showed resistance to turning to Hideya.

"Another useless investment." After hearing Sanada Nobushige's return, Hideie couldn't help but look at the starry sky outside the house and sighed.

The two chess pieces that the Hide family left in Kinki, Kobayakawa Hideaki and Tsutsui Sadaji, were useless, and they were not as powerful as the Kyushu and Tohoku daimyo.

But even without Hideaki Kobayakawa's participation, the Hide family of Nagamune Gabe, Naoshima Naoshige, Tachibana Muneshige, and Shimadzu Yoshihiro are already confident in defeating the enemy in front of them.

On December 12th, Hideka sent someone to deliver an ultimatum to Ieyasu Tokugawa. If he didn't rein in the precipice tomorrow, Hideka would take the initiative to launch an offensive.

Before this, Hideie had already made arrangements. After gathering the Nakasendo Legion of Ikeda Terumasa and some of the daimyo of Nouboshi, the total force in Hideie's hands had reached 17.

Including the "Four Heroes of the Western Army" who had already decided to communicate with the Hide family, the total strength of the Hide family exceeded 18. On the other hand, if the Tokugawa family had 13 men, they would already be considered as incense.

The battlefield of Nobuo is very wide. Without radio and radio, it is unrealistic for one person to command 10,000+ troops, so Xiujia had to divide the general formation into three formations: left, middle and right.

Right Front General General Toyotomi Teruie
What the subordinates are deploying is the army of the Nakasendo Legion that he originally deployed, and now it can be regarded as rebuilt.Hideo also handed over the surrendered Nobi Daimyo's military power to him, making the military strength in his hands reach an exaggerated 7 people.

They will be responsible for starting from Gifu, controlling the upper reaches of the Nagara River and the Ibi River, and oppressing Ogaki Castle from the gentle and shallow water in the upper reaches of the two rivers.

The general on the left was Hidemasa Nakagawa, and he led the Ise Corps of Mori Tadamasa and others to attack Ogaki Castle from Ise to the north on the west bank of the Kisogawa River. people.

The Chinese army is Hideie's main formation, which is responsible for using Takenobi Castle as a base to attack the west bank of Nagara River and Ibi River, threatening Ogaki Castle directly, and their first goal is to capture Sumamata Castle.

Xiujia's arrangement is like a crab, with a solid hard shell on the front to resist the enemy's attack, and the left and right pincers attack the enemy.

However, although the thick tail is big, it is not the ideal battlefield for Hideo.Because although the Kiso River has been mastered by the Hide family, the waters of the Ibi River and the Nagara River are still turbulent here. The rivers are wide and deep, and they do not meet the conditions for directly crossing the river.

However, the water depth of these rivers does not meet the conditions for sea ships to enter the river. Maybe Gong Xiaozao can come in, but a Xiaozao can only carry 20 to 30 people. Such a small number of people is not even enough for the bow warrior Saiya of the west bank defenders. sewn.

Hideka's pincer offensive is fake, but it is true that he forced Tokugawa Ieyasu to abandon the Ryogawa defense line and finally fight on land.

The offensive on the north side had the most significant effect. After the capture of Gifu Castle, the Nagara River defense line basically lost its meaning. Although Kato Kiyomasa was still holding on to Sumata Castle, the northern castle behind him had been captured by Teru Toyotomi.

Long before this, Shimizu Castle in the upper reaches of the Ibi River had changed its flag, which caused a huge loophole in the defense line to the north of Ogaki Castle.

The offensive on the south side is a bit difficult. After all, Nakagawa Hidemasa does not have many troops, and the passage between Matsuyama and Ibigawa at the junction of Ise and Mino is very narrow. Maeda Toshichoza controls Ota Mountain Castle alone. No matter how loyal the government is, people will not move.

However, Maeda Toshinaga's persistence on the southern line could not change the result of the collapse of the overall situation. With the opening of Shimizu Castle in the upper reaches of the Ibigawa River, Tokugawa Ieyasu of Ogaki Castle already felt a chill down his spine.

He bargained with the Xiu family for the last time, on the condition of actively cooperating with the Xiu family to destroy the Western Army, in exchange for the security of 33 shi for the Three Rivers and One Country.

As for the battlefield, the Xiu family has already selected it, and it is the place that will win the world in history - Guanyuan.

After Xiujia agreed to his request, Tokugawa Ieyasu called the generals in Ogaki Castle to start a military discussion.

Before the military meeting began, a sense of frustration pervaded the daimyos. Seeing the arrival of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Masanori Fukushima couldn't wait to ask, "There was a word in the inner government that our army will join the Nobi daimyos, with a total strength of nearly 20. Wanzhong, I would like to ask where are those 5 people now?"

Masanori Fukushima is now a dog that relies on Tokugawa Ieyasu's lap, but he was the first to ask Tokugawa Ieyasu back. It seems that this dog is not really loyal.

As his words fell, Kyogochi continued to express his position. He even directly attributed the cause of the thick tail to Ieyasu Tokugawa: "Stop talking about the 5 people. The operation of the inner government to withdraw from Gifu is really incomprehensible to my subordinates." If Gifu is still there, and the natural barrier of the Nagara River is still there, how can the Eastern Army be in the middle of Mino as if there is no one in it?"

The statement of the two heavyweight daimyo naturally attracted the attention of many people in the hall.

They were here to gain military exploits. Who would have thought that they didn't earn much military exploits, but instead were suppressed and beaten by the Eastern Army. Seeing that the ship was about to sink, Tokugawa Ieyasu never made a special statement, just retreated again and again. retreat.

Now because of the retreat, Sumata Castle, along with Kato Kiyomasa's troops, has been left behind the enemy's territory and cannot extricate itself.

The daimyos can't see hope, and they don't know where they will retreat in the future, so they naturally want to vent their emotions to you, the general.

Tokugawa, who had already received the promise from the Xiu family, was in a much better mood than before. At this moment, he looked at the daimyo with eager eyes, as if to say again: "These are the guarantees for the succession of my Tokugawa family."

Now that everyone was looking at him and throwing the decisive battle plan into his hands, Tokugawa Ieyasu directly followed everyone's conversation and said, "I plan to abandon Ogaki Castle."

"What!" After Tokugawa Ieyasu's words fell, the formation exploded.Ogaki Castle is already the last stronghold of the Western Army in Nongwei.

Back again?Where else can I retreat?

Even with Jing Gao, he jumped out again and accused Tokugawa Ieyasu: "Is the inner government planning to return to the cage city of Osaka? Is this how you repay the kindness of the lord and Mrs. Yodo?"

He knew the news that Toyotomi Hidekatsu was about to lose his hold, so he generally thought that Tokugawa Ieyasu was planning to give up Mino, and even asked Toyotomi Hidekatsu to give up Echizen and return to Osaka to defend the city.

This is actually the idea that Jing Gao's ability is not good enough, and he doesn't even think about it. When that time comes, the names of the Western Army will inevitably disperse in a crowd. How many people can they gather to defend the city?
The Tokugawa family's plan could not even be accepted by Kazuki Aoki. He pointed at Tokugawa Ieyasu's pain point and asked, "Neifu! Could it be that you lost your ability and gave up on yourself?"

"No, no!" Tokugawa Ieyasu used his remaining authority to suppress the noisy shogunate and stated his plan, "I ask myself that I cannot defeat Youfu in a frontal decisive battle. It is true that Ogaki Castle is a strong city, but Ogaki The area around the city is too wide, and it is really not conducive to our expansion with the few major generals on our side.

I have already selected another place as the place for the decisive battle. The terrain here is steep and conducive to holding on, and the narrow mountain roads on both sides are not conducive to the advancement of the large army. Even if the Youfu has superior troops, it cannot be used.I believe that with your determination and strength, as long as you can restrain the development of Youfu, our army will surely win. "

Tokugawa Ieyasu still has authority within the Western Army, coupled with his personal charisma, after some brainwashing by him, the daimyos seem to have regained their confidence.

Among them, the loser Masanori Fukushima was the most active. He seemed to have forgotten that he was the first to question Tokugawa Ieyasu: "Where is the decisive place mentioned by the inner government?"

Tokugawa Ieyasu pointed to an unnamed basin on the map with military equipment in hand and said, "This is the valley between Mount Ibuki, Mount Nangong, and Mount Matsuo. I named it Sekigahara!"