Pillars of the Wu family

In early July, as the storm gradually weakened, Kanto finally calmed down. There was a piece of information in front of the Hojo Clan of Edo Castle in the Musashi Kingdom. He had been staring at the piece of information for half an hour without moving, not because it was so novel. It made him unable to understand. Since last year, a lot of similar information has been received one after another. Every information tells the matter clearly and clearly, as if he saw it with his own eyes. The alliance annexed the three foundations of Junyuan of the Imagawa family.

To be honest, this is not too new. The Takeda family was originally much stronger than the Hojo family. Although the army is not as large as the Hojo family, but in terms of the strength of the army and the ability of the retainers to conquer and fight, it is really beyond the capabilities of the Hojo family. In comparison, if the Hojo family had that set of retainers, they would have defeated half of the Kanto Eight Kingdoms long ago, instead of sitting in Sagami Musashi and Izu Three Kingdoms thinking hard about how to expand the family.

In fact, the Hojo clan didn't quite believe the information. For more than a year, he hadn't taken any more drastic action on Imagawa Yoshimoto's death. It was because he had more confidence in his brother-in-law, the Imagawa clan. The death of the hero Yuan was severely damaged, but it was not enough to shake the foundation of the Imagawa family's rule, let alone collapse because of it.

The Imagawa family still inherits a good platoon, and the Kosangjun Three Kingdoms Alliance has given him strong support. He only needs to stabilize Junyuan San's basic position, so the Imagawa family will still be the overlord of the Tōkaidō. There is still a chance to rise up in the air and make a big splash. The Imagawa family really only needs to have his level, and with the help of Imagawa Shouguini, there will be no problem.

What the Hojo Clan administration was actually considering was to build a Mifune cottage on Mifune Mountain in the northwest of Sanuki Castle near the Satomi family.Because the Mifune cottage is too close to the Sagaki Castle guarded by Satomi Yoshihiro.As a result, almost every move in Sanuan City was exposed under the eyes of Mifune's cottage.This fortress is like a sharp dagger nailed to the heart of Satomi Yoshiyao, Satomi Yoshihiro and his son.

Since the victory of the second Kofutai War, the authority of the Hojo clan has been greatly strengthened. Although the genealogists in the family know the role of Hojo Ujiyasu, many foreigners under the Hojo family and the unknown Kanto samurai do not understand this. The reason is that this is very beneficial to the Hojo clan's administration, at least he is a stable governor.

That's why he was able to persist in attacking the Shangsuo Satomi clan despite his father's doubts. Once Fangsao's strategy of invading and attacking is successful, then the Hojo clan's territory will be added to the territory of the Hojo clan. Annexed the next country.By attracting powerful people from the Shimono and Hitachi countries, you can confidently and boldly challenge the dominance of the Echigo Kira clan in the Eastern Kingdom.

In the past few months, he has failed to attack Sanuki Castle several times, so he came up with this crooked trick to ask Fujisawa Harimamori and Tanaka Misaku to build a Mifune cottage on Mifune Mountain next to Sanuki Castle, which can be monitored around the clock In this way, the actions in Sanguancheng can not only pin down the defenders of the Satomi clan in Sanguancheng, but also wait for an opportunity to seize Sanguancheng when the Satomi clan is in chaos.

The waiting time came soon. Toki, the lord of Wanxi Castle, and Masaki Tokada, the lord of Katsuura Castle, accepted the Hojo Clan’s mediation and fell into the arms of the Hojo Clan. As a last resort, it is not surprising that as a grassroots with an unstable position, he was lured by the Hojo clan to defect.

But the latter is not the same, as the first family governor of the Katsuura Masaki Clan.Masaki Tokami is still Masaki Tokimo's direct younger brother, and he is one of the four corners of the defense circle of the walled city network that Satomi Yoshiyao personally delineated.His betrayal was tantamount to stabbing Satomi's back fiercely. Perhaps it was the turn of the wind and water, and finally it was Satomi Yoshiyao's turn to taste the bitter fruit of being betrayed.

After receiving this news, Satomi Yoshihiro in Sanuki Castle finally couldn't bear to take action. The constant surveillance day and night made him very painful, and the betrayal of his trusted general made him feel extremely angry, so he immediately went to Shangsuo Country A large number of troops from the south gathered at Sanuki Castle. Of course, such a big movement could not be concealed from Fujisawa Harima Mori in Mifune's stronghold. An urgent report was quickly sent to the Hojo clan of Edo Castle.

In fact, the Hojo Clan was already impatient with waiting, and the job of sitting on the sidelines was not suitable for a young man like him. Fortunately, Satomi Yoshihiro was also a very impatient person, so the Hojo Clan ordered an army of [-] Rushing into Shangsuo country, Shangsuo Rimi clan was not in a hurry, Satoshi Yoshiyao's methodical author's deployment, he sat in Kururi Castle and waited for the opportunity to wait for the Hojo clan to attack first.

Although Yoshihiro Satomi is young, he is not an idiot who does not know the importance of the situation. He knows that the Hojo clan government is surrounded by hungry wolves and dares to move. This is roughly the main military force of the entire Fangxuan Peninsula.

Facing the Hojo Clan's murderous rush into the Fangsou Peninsula, Satomi Yoshiyao is still a little uncertain about how to act. Inducing the Hojo Clan to invade the Fangsou Peninsula is only the first step. The key is how to defeat the arrogant Hojo Army in the next step. It is definitely not possible for him to use [-] troops to resist [-] troops.

The previous few times when the disparity in military strength was small, they could not defeat the Hojo Army. This time, the troops were at an absolute disadvantage and the chances of making a comeback were extremely slim. Satomi Yoshiyao understood this truth, and the genealogists in the family naturally understood it very well. Masaki Tokimo thought about it I feel that only the tactics of flanking may still have the power to fight.

Horie Yoritada felt that the tactics proposed by his elder brother were too risky, and the nature of gambling was relatively strong, so the Hojo clan had to bite the hook, and the army that was responsible for the frontal resistance would face great danger. The fate of the collapsed army was destroyed, but Masaki Tokitada couldn't come up with a better solution, so even though the genealogy retainers felt that this was too risky, it was the best choice until there was no better proposal, so Satomi Yi Yao finally decided to adopt Masaki Tokimo's strategy.

Satomi Yoshiyao has already decided to completely retreat to the second line after the battle on this occasion. If he wins, he will naturally survive until retirement. If he fails, then he doesn't have to worry about this problem anymore. He will definitely perish in Kururi Castle, and he will never surrender. Under Hojo's banner.Imagine how hard he had offended the Hojo family all these years.I knew that choosing Hojo's house was the worst choice.

The dominance of this battle is completely handed over to Satomi Yoshihiro.The young Satomi Yoshihiro Danin personally led the main formation to set up formations on Mt. Kukuzo and Otsuka Mountain. The Hojo Clan’s policy saw that Yoshihiro opened up his formation and planned a decisive battle, and immediately deployed the main formation on Mt. Mifune. The distance between the two sides was about ten. Five kilometers, maintaining a long-term confrontation situation.

The Hojo Clan soon learned that Rimi Yoshihiro's main camp on Mt. Kukukura only had [-] troops, and he felt a little proud in his heart. To them, it seemed to them that Rimi was at the end of his rope. Pulling out [-] troops proves from the side that Yoshihiro Satomi has fallen into an embarrassing situation with no soldiers and no generals to use.

Hojo Genan made a different opinion. He felt that although Satomi Yoshiyao suffered a big defeat, he would never be unable to gather [-] troops.However, it is obviously unreasonable to have only [-] troops in this formation, so we should beware of fraud. This time Hojo Tsusunari did not come to help as the defense of Matsuyama Castle, but guarded Kita Musashi to guard against the powerful neighbors in the north.

Representing Huang Bei is the banner of the younger generation, Hojo Shigeru. Since he justified his name in the second national government-Taiwan war last year, Hojo Shigeru has never given up trying to revive his martial arts name and win over Yuki and his son. Just to prove that he is not a worthless piece of trash is not enough to let him get rid of the bad name of tiger father and dog son.

Shigeru Hojo strongly supported the Hojo clan's judgment, and a group of young pedigree retainers in the family also booed along with him, as if there was no need to worry too much about winning this battle.The words inevitably imply that these old genealogical generations of Kanggong era are too conservative, and it is difficult for a group of genealogical veterans to raise objections.You can't accuse these young juniors of not knowing how to respect the old ministers, otherwise they will lose their face.

Seeing that the old genealogists gave up their plans to raise objections, Hojo Shizheng felt that he had won a small victory in the right to speak in the family. Although he did not dislike the proposals of the genealogists, he had to intervene in everything. It always makes people feel uncomfortable, as if reminding him that he is still a new governor and needs to be guided in many things. His father Hojo Ushiyasu is always giving him orders.

Looking at the genealogy family, all the elders shut their mouths, so they were very happy to finalize the marching plan, and decided to attack the main formation of the void mountain city in five days. Satomi's trick is to prevent being attacked by Satomi. Hojo's family is a night attack expert, so be careful of the trick of hunting geese all day long and being blinded by geese.

In the first few nights, the defense of the Beitiao Army was indeed tight, but unfortunately, the day before the formation of the battle, there was a light rain. In other words, they probably felt that there would be no surprises tonight if they were going to go out tomorrow. It was just that the troops who saw the army this night went out quietly.

When the dark clouds parted at night and the moon was dim, Masaki Tokimo led eight thousand elite troops to leave Kururi Castle. The army in his hands was the real trump card of the Satomi Clan. The Satomi Yoshihiro army on Kukukura Mountain was just pretending to be an elite. In order to strengthen the suddenness of the night attack, Rijian Yiyao deliberately spread another main force between Kururi Castle and Daxita Castle. This trick really deceived the Hojo Army's attention.

Masaki Tokimo didn't use the [-] troops to attack the Hojo Army's main formation at night. After all, he was not Uesugi Masatora and he didn't have the ability to charge [-] with [-]. Perhaps the army was too negligent, and didn't even set up a sub-camp on Shenming Mountain as a warning.

When the news came that the Rangers had successfully entered Mount Shenming and stood by, Satomi Yoshihiro immediately decided to target the main formation of the Hojo Army. Masaki Tokimo's legitimate son, Masaki Nobushio, and adopted son Masaki Kentoki were the first to break into the Mifune Mountain Hojo Army's main formation. On this front, their night attack did cause a commotion in the North Army camp.

However, the Hojo army, as experts in night raids, would not make mistakes when setting up camp no matter how careless they were. Seven thousand miles away, the army spent a lot of effort to break through the gate of the camp. Swarming, a group of wolves and tigers from the Hojo family samurai rushed forward frantically and forced the Satomi Army's main formation to retreat steadily. After all, the appearance could not be compared with the real elite. In desperation, Satomi Yoshihiro ordered to go the same way retreat.

Masaki Nobushige led the five hundred foot light battles to the last moment as the Duanhou army. Masaki Nobushige himself won the first victory for the Hojo Ujishigeru in the first battle since the beginning of the war. It took half an hour for the Hojo Army to attack the mountain.In Hojo's eyes, this posture is clearly Satomi's dying counterattack unwilling to fail.The current situation is a huge advantage for the Hojo Army.

There is no need for the Hojo clan to ask who will play.The samurai of the Hojo family who had not had time to participate in the battle all jumped up and scrambled to be the vanguard. The samurai of the Hojo family knew what kind of war was the easiest to get credit for. , but that is too dangerous and it is easy to put your own life on it.

Most of the samurai don't have the Hojo family's brave and unparalleled ability. For them, a huge war is not suitable for them. Only the crushing battle with the least danger is the best opportunity for ordinary samurai like them. There will be military generals who kill the good and pretend to be meritorious, and the best choice is to obtain the most merit with the least loss.

In their eyes, the retreating Satomi Yoshihiro was just a piece of fat that was dripping with oil.Everyone wants to swallow this piece of fat in their mouths. There is no war that is easier than chasing and killing the defeated army, because there will always be stupid defeated soldiers who will take the initiative to get under the knife of the pursuers. The samurai of the sword can get some decapitation more or less.

As expected, the Hojo Army came out in pursuit, biting the Satomi Army's tail tightly, as if unwilling to eat this piece of fat. Unexpectedly, when he was about to catch up with Satomi's headquarters, he suddenly couldn't see the way ahead, and could only hear the faint sound of footsteps gradually going away, and he gritted his teeth in hatred.

Satomi Yoshihiro, who stands on Mount Kukukura, recites "Namo Kukukura Bodhisattva" aloud. The origin of the names of several Kukukura Mountains in Japan comes from Kukukura Bodhisattva, who is one of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas of Buddhism.It just complements the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, which represents the earth. Among the many Bodhisattvas, the Void Tibetan Bodhisattva specializes in wisdom, merit and wealth.It is famous for its wisdom, merit, and wealth as vast and boundless as the sky, and its ability to satisfy the needs of the world as it wishes so that all living beings can obtain infinite benefits.

Afterwards, beacon smoke was ignited on Mount Kukukura, and the sea breeze from Sagami Bay blew away the mist, making the moonlight shine down for Masaki Tomomo to see clearly, but at this moment, he did not recite Buddhist scriptures like his lord, but silently After arriving at Yawata Daimyo God to bless Satomi's martial arts for a long time, he got on his horse and led the Eight Thousand Rangers out.

Under the wave after wave of the chaos of the Warring States Period, the samurai family's outlook on life and values ​​were gradually distorted. The stubborn warriors of the older generation passed away one after another. Many samurai deliberately split into two halves to join different forces, hoping to ensure the greatest inheritance of the family blood in this way, and another samurai was even willing to marry the heirs of the local wealthy family, throwing away the last trace of glory and ties bestowed by blood. , Completely integrated into the geopolitical township party.

So when Masaki Tokada rebelled and cut into the camp of the Hojo family, the various criticisms about Masaki Tokimo and Masaki Tokada continued uninterrupted, and some people with ulterior motives or those who didn't know what to do were incited to start a war against Masaki Tokimo Attack, among them, many people think that this is the means of the Masaki brothers betting on both sides. No matter which side wins, they will get the fruits of victory in the end. Some people even suspect that this is a trick to ask for directions. Shi Mao would also pack up and sell the Satomi Clan at a good price.

Although no one dared to question this kind of criticism in front of Masaki Tomomo, the gun master, but the discussions behind it still fell into his ears. He can be sure that these rumors will naturally be transmitted to the ears of Satomi Yoshiyao, Satomi Yoshihiro and his son Li, it's just that the two father and son of Satomi didn't intend to pursue it further, no matter whether it was true or not.

Since the defeat of the second Kokufu-Taiwan war, the Abo Ratomi clan has been in constant decline. The example of the Izumo overlord Niko clan falling into recession due to the Shingu party rebellion is before him. Satomi Yoshihiro does not think that he There is any benefit in pursuing it in the face of the enemy, no matter whether Masaki Tokimo is sincere or pretending to pursue it will bring bad influence, in this case, it is better to simply pretend not to know.

But today, Satomi Yoshihiro chose to hand over all the elites of the Satomi family to Masaki Tokimo at the critical moment, which is the greatest trust in him. Masaki Tokimo is also planning to use this opportunity to wash away the injustice he suffered , no matter how many arguments, it is not as convincing as directly removing the head of the Hojo clan.

The Eight Thousand Rangers entered the Hojo Army camp on Mifune Mountain from Mount Shenming. At this time, there were only a few thousand old, weak, sick and defenseless in the Hojo Army camp of 3 people. They were easily captured almost without any reaction. The defeated generals who fled down Mifune Mountain passed the news that the camp was raided by the Satomi clan to the Hojo clan government.

At this time, Hojo Clan's face was really wonderful.He knew that he had fallen into Satomi's trick after all.Like a stupid ostrich, it just plunged into Satomi's scheme regardless of its head.When they turned around, the main camp had already been taken away, and tens of thousands of stones of grain and countless supplies fell into the hands of Yoshihiro Satomi for nothing, and the Hojo clan's political hatred teeth were almost gritted.

The Hojo Clan hated the Satomi Clan very much, but now that the battalion has lost the morale of the army and is not moving at all, it immediately roared: "Retreat! Retreat immediately and don't want to fight! Don't fall behind and run around, don't look around, and don't deceive the crowd! Violation of orders beheaded!"

Jun Mufu of the Hojo Army grabbed more than a dozen unlucky ghosts with big mouths, and cut off their heads on the spot to show the public that they finally stopped the rumors.But the mouths of Ashgaru can be blocked, but the thoughts in their heads can't be blocked. Now the future of the Hojo Army is uncertain, and the fool knows that he must run away quickly. They will let them go safely, and the future of this retreat is uncertain. Someone must be the general of the army, just like Masaki Nobushige who spilled blood on the spot.

But at this time, how many people are willing to die is another question. Hojo Genan and Hojo Ushishige who are willing to die are reluctant to let them die. The unknown person who is serving as the rear army is worried that he will not be able to complete the mission and be easily defeated by Satomi Yoshihiro , and even simply patted his chest on the surface and said that the task could be completed.As soon as he turned his face, he betrayed the Hojo clan's government and took thousands of soldiers to surrender.

The Hojo Clan's gaze was like a sharp knife repeatedly sweeping across the subordinate generals, and they either met the Hojo Clan's gaze openly.Or just nod and bow down to make yourself look small, the Hojo Clan government hates these people, but they can't do anything about it. Finally, they accidentally caught a glimpse of Ota Shizi, the lord of Iwatsuki Castle in the corner, and immediately named him to be the general of the Broken Army to cover the Hojo Army The formation retreats.

Ota Shizi sighed sadly and secretly thought that he still hadn’t escaped this incident, but the samurai children of the Ota Clan of Settsu Genji would be reduced to the point where they would be sent to death. It was not so easy for the Hojo Clan to win the Kagoe Ye Battle, and then the Ota Clan made great achievements in the battle for Edo Castle, serving as the lord of the Edo Castle and becoming the leader of the Edo people in a dignified manner.

The fact that the Ota clan betrayed Uesugi Uesugi at the critical moment was not because they were optimistic about Yasushi Hojo, but because they deeply disliked Uesugi Ogiya, and chose to suddenly betray Uesugi Tosada at the most critical moment. This is the only way Only then can he avenge Ogiya Uesugi's unjust murder of Ota Michigan.

Just like Okuma Asohide's sudden betrayal of the Takeda family, Ota Zijin was guarding the front leading to the Uesugi Tosada Honjin, but when Hojo Ujiyasu's surprise attack army came, he suddenly gave way to a passage and blocked the two wings for Hojo Ujiyasu. It was the Uesugi Army that allowed Uesugi Chaosada to be captured easily, and led to the complete collapse of the Kwantung Allied Forces.

Therefore, after joining the Hojo family, the Ota clan, who consciously came from the famous Qingwa Genji family, held a contemptuous attitude towards the Iseryu Hojo clan, an outsider from Kyoto, just like the Takeda Ryoyama system that has always maintained aloofness within the Hojo clan Political status, and when the Hojo Clan Yasukata seized control of the Musashi Kingdom, his status was not stable, so Sagami Shishi endured his anger for a while and adopted a gentle strategy towards the Ota Clan.

Ota Yasuko, a descendant of the Ota clan, and Ota Shizi, a powerful family, became the sons-in-law of Hojo Ujiyasu respectively. The latter Ota clan was treated better than the descendant of Ota Yasuko because he married Chobayinin, the daughter of Hojo Ujiyasu. However, Ota Yasuko married only Toyama Tsunakage's daughter to Hojo Ujiyasu as the adoptive daughter of Hojoin.

However, Hojo Ujiyasu hated this group of rebellious and arrogant Ota family warriors very much, so Hojo Ujiyasu began to take action against the Ota family's mountain under him in the following years. Musashi's several seizures imposed various restrictions on the Ota family. Gradually, the Ota family's territory, Shigao, continued to weaken, and that part of the territory was added to the Hojo family's genealogists.

Gradually, Ota Kosuke discovered that his Shigao was not as big as his cheap father-in-law Tsunakage Toyama. In the end, Hojo Ujiyasu blatantly replaced the lord of Edo with Tsunakage Toyama, and Ota Kosuke could only Resigned to the second city lord, moved from Edo Castle Honmaru to Ninomaru, and the leaders of Edo also became Toyama Tsunakage as a matter of course. The relationship between the Ota clan and Hojo Ujiyasu deteriorated rapidly despite the humiliation.

That's why Ota Kosuke was persuaded by Ota Suzumasa to join Satomi Yoshiyao's South Kanto Allied Forces in the second Kokufu-Taiwan battle, trying to use the power of the Satomi, Yuki, and Satake clans to fight against the Hojo family and then capture Jiang The control of the vicinity of Hucheng and Iwatsuki Castle, but he did not expect Satomi Yoshiyao's coalition forces to be so vulnerable, and the powerful coalition forces collapsed overnight.

Ota Yasuko and Ota Sukinawa were abandoned by Satomi Yoshiyao without hesitation, and had no choice but to bow their heads and surrender. Although Hojo Ujiyasu and Hojo Ujimasa father and son quickly imposed severe punishments, Ota Yasuko, Ota Sukamasa, and Kajihara Masaki father and son were exiled After going out, he could not return to Musashi, and the famous Musashi Ota clan disappeared from then on. Although the Ota clan was not punished by exile, the situation was just lingering.

As one of the insiders and plan participants of the second National Government-Taiwan War, he was in charge of serving the Hojo Clan and repeatedly covering up the betrayal of his father and the leader of a sect. In the end, his behavior completely angered the Hojo Clan, so From Zhunyimen's fall to the point where rats shouted and beat him while crossing the street, he had been placed under house arrest in Odawara Castle by the Hojo Clan Administration and could not return to Iwatsuki Castle.

His wife Nagarinin suspects that his grandfather, father, and elder brother died at the hands of Echigo, which is directly related to the fact that the Edo clan under the actual control of the Ota clan is not fighting well. It still can't change the essence of the belly, which is completely different from the title of being able to fight well in the past.

In the second National Fusion-Taiwan War, one part of the Edo people followed the Ota clan and rebelled against Riqie, and the other part served as the vanguard and quickly retreated, throwing Tominaga Naakatsu down and killing them. All kinds of rumors spread to the ears of Chorin , the conflict between the husband and wife became more and more irreconcilable, and Ota Shizi was not eligible to return to Iwatsuki Castle, so he could only stay in the city while being ridiculed by his colleagues outside and being treated harshly by his wife at home. It is really sad There is nothing more heartbreaking.

"If I successfully cover the lord's retreat, my family may have the opportunity to return to Iwatsuki Castle with this military exploit, and the crimes on me may be relieved. If I fail, I can at least die like a samurai, and I won't suffer such a big shame every day. Injury..." Until this time, Mr. Ota was still thinking of doing meritorious service and avenging his shame, and he never forgot his hometown, Iwatsuki Castle. (To be continued..)