Great name!

Chapter 293: It is enough to contain Honganji

When the war against Matsunaga Hisahide began, Nobunaga could no longer bear it. As soon as the weather turned warmer, he began to prepare for war.

Matsunaga Hisahide had been keeping a close eye on the movements of the Oda family. As soon as the Oda family started raising money and food, Matsunaga Hisahide also began making final preparations.

As the commander-in-chief of the punitive army, Oda Nobutada will lead an army of 40,000 to Yamato. Following Oda Nobutada will be important ministers such as Niwa Nagahide, as well as local lords such as Tsutsui Junkei.

The campaign against Matsunaga Hisahide was the first campaign to suppress a rebellion after Oda Nobutada became the head of the Oda family. Naturally, it was a massive campaign and could not be compared to the Saiga clan.

In order to support Oda Nobutada's punitive war, Nobutora also began to issue orders to recruit his own troops from Settsu, Ise, Minami-Omi, Higashimino, and other fiefdoms, totaling more than 13,000 troops.

Except for the troops left to garrison Oka Castle and Hyogo Castle, he led the remaining 10,000 people to the Ishiyama area in southern Settsu.

As soon as Tsuda Nobutora's army moved, Honganji Hideyoshi could no longer care about Matsunaga Hisahide and his son. He concentrated the power of Honganji, deployed defenses in the northern part of Ishiyama, and at the same time asked for help from the Mori family.

Honganji set up forts on the two main roads in the northern part of Ishiyama, each of which was defended by 500 monks and more than 1,000 elite believers.

In addition, there are more than 200 people from Saiga and Negoro. If they attack by force, they will inevitably suffer heavy losses.

But they didn't know that Nobutora brought siege weapons this time.

He handed the two cannons in his hands to Tsuda Naganobu and Nobuyasu respectively, and they each led their troops to attack the two fortresses. Tsuda Nobukatsu's first battle was to follow Tsuda Naganobu.

After Tsuda Naganobu assembled 2,000 soldiers, he said to Tsuda Nobukatsu beside him: "Nobukatsu, don't act rashly. You must obey my orders in everything."

Nobukatsu Tsuda nodded with a tense face.

Tsuda Naganobu waved his hand and the army advanced towards the castle ahead.

"Report! The fort ahead has entered the range of our artillery!"

Tsuda Naganobu immediately gave the order: "Prepare artillery to attack the city!"

The artillery team advanced to the foot of the fortress hill under the protection of a team of musketeers. They began to build artillery positions and calculate the angles and landing points of the shells.

Because it is an upward shot, the attack distance and killing distance are much shorter.

However, the artillery was still ready to fire at a distance of more than 400 meters.

The Negoro people in the fortress watched the movement outside the city and said to the generals of the Saiga people nearby: "Is the other party using a cannon?"

The generals of Zaga immediately said, "It looks much bigger than the big gun. Why don't you try it with your big gun?"

The Genlai people immediately asked someone to bring a large barrel. Like the cannon, this barrel was transported on wheels, but this barrel was more than one meter long, ten centimeters in diameter, and the bullet weighed eight cents, which was no match for the three-pound cannon outside the city.

However, the soldiers of the Negoro clan pushed the cannon to the mouth of the arrowhead, loaded it with gunpowder and bullets, and then lit the fuse.

The operator aimed at the Tsuda army's artillery and pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

The sound was like a cannon shot, and the bullet shot out and flew directly into the distance.

The foot soldier hiding behind the bamboo bundle saw a black dot flying towards him, which was getting bigger and bigger.

"Oh!"

The bullet directly broke the thick bamboo bundle, hit the foot soldier, and went straight through his body, then crippled another foot soldier behind him before stopping.

"what!"

The foot soldiers around who were stabbed by the bamboo fragments screamed in agony, it was a horrible sight.

The Ashigaru general who was commanding the artillery twitched his eyes and shouted, "Get ready, show them some color!"

"fire!"

The Negoro and Saiga people in the castle did not rejoice for long, as the sound of cannons, louder than the sound of their own cannons, interrupted their shouts.

They looked up and saw a large black dot flying towards them quickly. It grew larger in the blink of an eye and then hit the wooden wall in front of them.

"boom!"

This shot directly created a hole half a person's height in the wooden wall. All the guards nearby fell down with screams, and some were left with only their bodies lying on the ground, with no telling whether they were dead or alive.

Several generals of the defending army were stunned. Before they could react, the second and third shots came one after another!

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

Nobukatsu Tsuda looked at the artillery that was firing continuously, then looked at the city wall that was shattered by the artillery, and swallowed.

Tsuda Naganobu explained: "This is the weapon of the southern barbarians. It is beyond human power to resist."

"this is too scary."

Nobukatsu Tsuda's face turned pale.

Tsuda Naganobu didn't say much. He drew his sword and shouted, "The enemy is doomed to fail. Charge!"

"Xinsheng, welcome to your first battle!"

Nobukatsu Tsuda quickly cheered up and led several mounted warriors around him to attack the castle.

Tsuda Naganobu did not move. He looked at the southern barbarians' artillery. The artillerymen were cleaning the sub-guns and main guns in preparation for the next artillery attack.

After several bombardments, the morale of the fortress collapsed. The monks fled first, followed by the Negoro and Saiga groups. Only a few fanatical believers stayed to fight to the death.

Nobukatsu Tsuda galloped on his horse. Looking at an enemy soldier in front of him, he rode forward and killed him with a single blow.

In just over half an hour, hundreds of believers in the fortress were basically killed in the battle, and the rest were killed one by one.

Soon, Nobutora arrived with his troops. By then, Tsuda Nagatobu had already burned the castle and the bodies of the believers.

Afterwards, Nobuyasu Tsuda came with others to join them.

Nobutora's army stayed there to set up camp and rest, planning to march into Honganji the next day.

As for Honganji, the defeated remnants of the army fled back to the temple and brought the news that Tsuda's army was advancing like an unstoppable force.

Xianru's face turned pale, and he immediately called the monks Shimomama Nakataka and Shimomama Railen and other officials, saying, "Tsuda Shingen's 10,000-man army will arrive outside the temple tomorrow. The Buddha has given us a test.

Tell all believers that the Buddha is watching us, and we must fight for the Buddha. Those who advance will enter the paradise in the next life, and those who retreat will fall into the hell forever!"

The news that the Tsuda army was planning to attack Honganji Temple was like a bolt from the blue, causing chaos in the entire Terauchi Town.

The families of the monks took their valuables and money and ran to Honganji Temple, while the monk soldiers plundered the civilians' property and money from every household and handed them all over for distribution.

All the able-bodied men were armed, and the women were arranged to provide pleasure for the men. Everyone in Honganji was ready to face a great enemy, and could not sleep all night.

The next day, Nobutora rode on his horse in high spirits and led his army towards Honganji Temple. Around noon, they arrived at Terauchi-machi under Ishiyama Honganji Temple.

The area of ​​Terauchi-machi is very large, about one-fourth the size of Kyoto, and is home to more than 100,000 people.

Now they were assigned to guard the castle of Terauchi-cho to block the Tsuda army.

At Nobutora's command, the Tsuda army pushed their artillery and used iron cannons and other firearms to bombard the Terauchi-machi Castle in front of them.

The monks watching on the stone mountain were all sweating profusely.

They just felt that the end of the world was coming.

In just one day, Terauchi-machi at the foot of Honganji Mountain was almost captured, thousands of armed believers were killed, and more than 20,000 elderly, weak, women and children were captured by the Tsuda army.

Tsuda Naganobu immediately came over and asked, "Father, there are too many old people, children, and women. What should we do?"

Xin Hu thought for a moment and said, "Take the old and weak and sell them as slaves, and keep the women. Tell all the soldiers that the soldiers who have made contributions can choose women from these women. Those who have participated in the war but have not made any contributions will be given to them in a unified way.

As for the extra ones, send them back to Settsu first, and I will make arrangements later."

When the people from Honganji saw that the foot of the mountain was already flowing like a river of blood, they dared not go down and could only defend Honganji with all their might.

Nobutora was not in a hurry to attack Honganji Temple. He sent troops to clean up the area around Honganji Temple. Anyone who took up arms to resist the Tsuda army was captured and beheaded, regardless of whether they had any experience or not. Only children and women were left alive.

The children were sold as slaves elsewhere, while the women were kept for other uses.

On the roads around Honganji Temple, people hiding in the mountains and forests could see that every few meters on the road there was a branch with a head stuck on it standing on the side of the road.

There were also a few words written in blood on the branch: Those who believe in the Jodo Shinshu sect will die.

Such a terrifying scene is so terrifying that it makes people shudder at the mere mention of it and turn pale at the mere sight of it.

Oda Nobunaga admired Nobutora's actions very much, and he felt that this was the only way to solve the problem of Honganji.

However, after Nobutora swept the area around Honganji Temple, there was no further movement.

For him, his main task was to contain Honganji. Attacking Honganji by force would only lead to the loss of his own troops. It would be better to wait for Oda Nobunaga to reinforce his troops.

In this way, he could not only reduce his own losses, but also use Nobunaga's power to complete the task and obtain the reward agreed upon before.

……

On March 3, Oda Nobutada gathered an army of 40,000 and arrived in Yamato. He immediately sent Niwa Ujikatsu, Tsutsui Junkei and Hosokawa Fujitaka to lead the attack on Kataoka Castle, a branch castle guarded by Mori Hidemitsu and Ebina Katsumasa under Matsunaga Hisahide's wives. There were more than a thousand soldiers guarding the castle.

Although it was the first battle for Hosokawa Fujitaka's son Hosokawa Tadaoki and his younger brother Hosokawa Masayuki, they made great contributions and were the first to break through the city gate. The soldiers in the city quickly attacked the Oda army entering the city with cannons and bows and arrows.

Matsui Yasuyuki, a retainer of the Hosokawa family, also led his troops to protect the Hosokawa brothers and entered the city to fight.

In the end, the Oda army successfully captured the city at the cost of more than 20 casualties from Niwa's victorious army and more than 30 casualties from Hosokawa's army, killing 150 soldiers in the city.

Matsunaga's retainers Mori Hidemitsu and Ebina Katsumasa were both killed in the battle. After the war, Oda Nobunaga learned of the battle situation and issued a letter of apology to the Hosokawa brothers.

Subsequently, Oda Nobutada led an army of 40,000 to formally surround Shigiyama Castle and set fire to the city.

However, the gate of Shigiyama Castle, built by Matsunaga Hisahide himself, was very strong, and Matsunaga's retainer Iida Mototsugu once led 200 elite troops out of the city to fight, causing hundreds of casualties to the Oda army.

However, Matsunaga Hisahide knew that his military strength was far inferior to that of the Oda army, so he sent his retainer Mori Yoshihisa to ask for help from Ishiyama Honganji and Mori Terumoto. However, Mori Yoshihisa, who was once a retainer of the Tsutsui family, ran into the position of Matsukura Shigenobu of the Tsutsui army after leaving the city, expressing his intention to switch to the Oda side, and told Tsutsui Junkei all of Matsunaga Hisahide's plans.

Tsutsui Junkei was overjoyed and gave Mori Yoshihisa thirty taels of gold as a reward. Tsutsui Junkei allocated two hundred people and detoured to Kawachi Province at night, pretending to be reinforcements sent by Ishiyama Honganji. Under the leadership of Mori Yoshihisa, they successfully entered Shigiyama Castle and won the trust of Matsunaga Hisahide and his son.

After making these arrangements, Tsutsui Junkei volunteered to lead the troops to attack the city to Oda Nobutada.

With the permission of Oda Nobutada, Tsutsui Junkei led 5,000 men to attack the city.

Afterwards, Oda Nobutada arranged for other retainers and generals to attack other locations in Shigiyama Castle.

Although Matsunaga's retainers Iida Mototsugu, Irie Daigoro, and Iwanari Kojiro repelled the Tsutsui army when they first engaged the enemy, Mori Yoshihisa led the Tsutsui army, who were disguised as Ikko Ikki, to rebel at Sannomaru, disintegrating the defenses of Shigiyama Castle from within and allowing the Oda army to quickly capture the castle.

After learning about the battle situation ahead, Matsunaga Hisahide sighed and said, "That's it for now."

Song Yongji cried bitterly, "Father, I will take people to kill the traitor now, you hurry and escape!"

Matsunaga Hisahide stepped forward and slapped him, cursing, "Idiot, I'm already half buried in the ground, what's the point of running away? You're still young, you still have a chance, get out of the city right now!"

"Father!"

Matsunaga Nagamichi burst into tears.

Matsunaga Hisahide kicked him and cursed, "Go away, stop nagging!"

Matsunaga Nagamichi had no choice but to get up and leave the castle tower.

Matsunaga Hisahide looked at the spider in his hand, raised his head and laughed, he looked at his retainer Iida Mototsugu and said: "Don't let my body be used by Oda Nobunaga to humiliate me. After I die, burn my body."

Kiji Iida left the castle tower in tears. He took a large bottle of oil from the soldier and poured it at the door of the room. Then he took a torch from a samurai and lit it.

The flames suddenly started and quickly engulfed the surroundings.

Iida Kiji shouted, "Everyone follow me, buy some time for Hermit-sama!"

In the room burning with raging fire, Matsunaga Hisahide silently recited the Lotus Sutra with a calm expression over and over again. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Hirako no Ieyasu.

"Snapped!"

He reached out, picked up the flat spider and threw it to the ground, and the treasure shattered into pieces in an instant.

Then he stood up, his body shaking a little, but he pulled out the knife from his waist without hesitation, cut his neck, and then fell to the ground and died in a few seconds.

In the last moments of Matsunaga Hisahide, his retainers Irie Daigoro, Iwanari Kojiro, and Matsunaga Daijiro died in battle one after another in order to buy time.

Iida Mototsugu led fifty soldiers and rushed towards the Oda army's Tsutsui Junkei and Hosokawa Fujitaka forces, causing many casualties in the Hosokawa army. Later, when they rushed towards the victorious army of the Niwa clan, they were defeated and Iida Mototsugu was killed.

Although Tsutsui Junkei's army captured 700 people in this battle, 500 of them were killed, and the entire Matsunaga army had 3,000 casualties.

As for Matsunaga Hisahide, he disappeared in the fire.

Now, the castle tower had been burned down to a pile of ruins, and Tsutsui Junkei smiled. He had finally defeated his old enemy and revived the Tsutsui family.

"Tsutsui-sama, the master of the family wants you to come over."

Tsutsui Junkei collected his thoughts and asked, "What's the matter?"

The samurai replied, "Matsunagamichi tried to escape but was caught by our army."

(End of this chapter)