Owari Yumeki Golden Day

"Oh, the soldiers have been fighting for a long time and are very tired. At least there should be a rotation." Ikeda Terumasa sighed.

"The people of Gifu are even more exhausted. Moreover, 1,100 people died in the battle of Anegawa. Do you think there are still fresh troops in Gifu?" Shichibei was also stating the actual situation.

Nobunaga's main force lost over 2,000 men at Kanezaki and over 1,000 at Anegawa. The total force was only a few thousand, and in just these two rounds, over 3,000 men had been killed, with no way to replenish them in a short period of time.

Do you think Nobunaga doesn't want to fight a war for wealth?

"Can't recruit any miscellaneous soldiers right now?" Ikeda Terumasa was still naive and asked if there were any miscellaneous soldiers with combat experience available for hire.

Not to mention that Nobunaga was already broke and in debt, leaving him with no money to hire any more soldiers. The remaining soldiers in Owari had already been wiped out by Saito Ryuki and Nagashima Ganshoji.

I'm afraid these two companies were preparing before the spring of this year and have been raising funds for several months. At this time, Ikeda Terumasa is still raising funds, but where can he raise funds?

Do you dare to hire those miscellaneous soldiers in Ise who believe in Jodo Shinshu?

"Let's find a way to capture Kamijou Fort as soon as possible..." After saying this, Shichibei felt that with someone of Ikeda Terumasa's level, he could do the job as well.

The Kawamura family has the support of Takenaka Shigeharu, Aochi Shigetsuna, Kuwayama Shigekatsu, Ota Ushiichi and others, so it is not difficult to organize an encirclement.

200. Shishan raises an army to rebuke the enemies of Buddhism

Seeing Shichibei anxious, Ikeda Terumasa suddenly thought of something. If Shichibei gathered all the troops, although 1,500 people was impossible, at least 500 people, at least 1,000 people would not be impossible.

Nobunaga personally helped to found the Kawamura family's samurai corps. Over the years, thanks to the Kawamura samurai corps, the Oda army never had to worry about logistics when it went out. Nobunaga simply said hello to Shichibei, gathered his men, and charged forward, leaving Shichibei to handle everything else.

This time, Nobunaga only led 3,000 men into battle, but he didn't plan to bring any logistics support. After entering Kyoto, he would fight against Ashikaga Yoshiaki, and then he would arrive in Settsu. After three days of fighting, he would be able to return. He really didn't need any logistics support.

Of course, this is the plan, but problems will arise in the actual implementation, which is another story.

So the Kawamura Samurai Group, including Yoriki, should have nothing to do, right?

What? Seeing Ikeda Terumasa looking at him, Shichibei realized that this guy had set his sights on us. Although Shichibei had thought, "I can do it too," we are not in the business of killing people with knives. That's the business of you samurai.

But Ikeda Terumasa had finally grasped a straw and was unwilling to let go. He grabbed Shichibei's sleeve and asked Shichibei to put the affairs of state first and, considering that everyone was fighting for Lord Nobunaga, lend a hand.

"Wars are frequent, and I have to be ready to go into battle at any time." Shichibei shook his hands and gave a high-sounding reason.

The world is full of people who want to oppose Nobunaga, and Nobunaga is fighting almost every day. Under such circumstances, Nobunaga may need to mobilize the army at any time to fight. Once Nobunaga mobilizes his entire army, then Shichibei will have to follow.

Asking Sakuma Nobumori for help would be more reasonable than asking Shichibei. At least everyone had their own errands, and only Sakuma Nobumori was still stationed in Gifu Castle.

"Uemon can't be transferred. He didn't see the lord going into battle, and I hesitated again and again and didn't take him with me." Although Ikeda Terumasa's level was not very good, he understood it well.

In fact, Sakuma Nobumori is the only remaining lid on the Oda family's pot. There are countless pots boiling outside. When the pot boils, Sakuma Nobumori has to keep it under the lid.

Even Nobunaga himself went to Settsu, and the Sakuma Legion was the last resort. Who could mobilize it unless it was a critical moment?

"You can't come to me then." Shichibei's official position was Nobi Oyakata of the Oda clan, which means chief merchant, head of merchants, in charge of all commercial activities in Owari and Mino.

You can tell at first glance that this isn't a job where you have to be a soldier and carry a gun.

"I don't need you to send troops. You have to guard Ochiai Fort for me for only five days, no, three days!" Ikeda Terumasa also risked his life and was ready to go all out to compete with Saito Tatsuoki for Kamijou Fort in the southwest.

"Three days?" Now that things have come to this, Shichibei is from old Owari after all, so he can't just not give him any face.

"Just three days!" Seeing that Shichibei's tone softened, Ikeda Terumasa immediately wanted to make an agreement with Shichibei.

"alright."

There's no way around it. We're still stuck in the old Owari, Oda, and Shimo-gun circles. If we help Ikeda Terumasa today, he'll owe us a favor. While favors are unreliable, they can sometimes be incredibly effective.

Returning to Gifu, Shichibei carefully reported the incident to Oda Qimyoumaru. He would be leaving Gifu for a few days to respond to Ikeda Terumasa's invitation to send troops. For the next two days, Oda Qimyoumaru would have to guard the gates of Gifu Castle on his own.

Upon hearing this news, Oda Qimyoumaru was intrigued and wished to visit, but was restrained by Lady Nohime. With the situation turbulent and Nobunaga constantly away on the battlefield, the family needed a legitimate son to take charge. If Qimyoumaru left Gifu, it would be detrimental to the people.

Very good, Lady Nohime is indeed sensible.

In this case, Shichibei agreed to Ikeda Terumasa's request and reported it to Oda Qiyomaru. He then sent orders to his many subordinates, as well as the samurai and servants whose names were listed in Kawamura Doshin's account.

Takenaka Shigeharu brought eighty men, Aochi Shigetsuna brought fifty, Tsuchida Chikakiyo, Kuwayama Shigekatsu, and Ota Ushiichi each brought a dozen or so. Putting it all together, they were still a few short of two hundred, so let's just assume Takenaka Shigeharu was worth five, so that would be two hundred.

There were seventy riders of Mori Jiro's left rank, who were deployed by Shichibei's wife, Major General Kojou, with the help of makeup materials; one hundred and sixty iron cannon and bow foot soldiers were deployed from the Owari Tsushima territory (usually guarding the post stations); two hundred and fifty loyal soldiers were deployed from the Konan Kari territory; and two hundred loyal soldiers were deployed from the Minokana territory.

In addition, there were 200 small-sized samurai, foot soldiers, and foot soldiers sent by Nobunaga to support him, totaling 1,080 people.

They were all professional soldiers, more than half of them samurai, and the rest were ashigaru recruited from ronin and other miscellaneous soldiers. Adding in temporary hires or horsemen, servants, and flag bearers recruited from inns, there were a staggering two thousand men.

Normally, they went out on small porter teams, rarely mobilizing full forces. Furthermore, Murai Sadakatsu would sign up military servants to join the small porter teams, easily numbering 5,000 or 8,000 men. Shichibei had never taken it seriously, thinking they were Nobunaga's troops, and most of them were military servants with no fighting power.

When we ourselves mobilized the Kawamura family's troops to join the battle, we didn't expect that this would be the situation.

Even Oda Qimyoumaru, who came to see Shichibei off, was surprised. How could you have such mobilization power? Isn't Zhixing only worth 6,200 kan?

According to the level of 10 kan to get a foot soldier, the maximum number of people that can be obtained is 620. Besides, who would use all their knowledge and actions to increase the number of troops? Should we stock up on military rations and rice? Should we add weapons? Should we buy cannons?

Six thousand two hundred strings of cash could support three to four hundred regular soldiers, and with the same amount of logistics support, it would still be a stretch to have a thousand people.

Unfortunately, he didn't have time to wonder. Shichibei was already leading his men south, preparing to participate in the siege of Kiyosu Castle. The troops were even flying large flags with two vertical and two horizontal lines.

There's a theory that Shichibei's surname wasn't "Kawamura." Since the Japanese use the word "kawa" interchangeably, Shichibei could also be called "Kawamura Shichibei Nagakichi." If Shichibei lived long enough and passed down his family business, he would have been eligible to become a descendant of the Kawamura clan, a member of the Kamakura shogunate's household.

If we trace back further, we can trace back to Saeki Nobufusa of the Fujiwara no Kita no Hideyoshi-ryu clan, and even to Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, the pillar of the Kawachi Genji clan.

It all depends on what the future needs will be. The old famous families are now dead or gone, and who knows what the origins of the princes and warriors who have risen in the chaotic times are? Those who want to become prime ministers look to the Taira clan, those who want to become regents look to the Fujiwara clan, and those who want to become shoguns look to the Minamoto clan.

As for a family tree, it is something that anyone can fuck with. No, it is something that anyone can compile.

After a day's journey, they arrived at the Iwakura Camp. Lin Xiuzhen, who remained behind in Iwakura, was puzzled. What kind of troops were these? They had never seen them before. Seeing that it was Shichibei, he was equally astonished. He had never seen Shichibei leading a single battle, and the horse flag with two horses standing upright and two horses leading down was the first time he had seen it.

But there was nothing to be surprised or confused about at this time. Nobunaga was being followed like a dog, putting out fires everywhere. He was very happy that such a mobile army had appeared.

After a night's stay in Iwakura, Shichibei marched towards Ochiai Fort. Ikeda Terumasa had originally estimated Shichibei would bring 500 to 600 men, who would be able to hold the fort. Ten kan per foot soldier was roughly the market price. However, Shichibei actually arrived with 2,000 men, far exceeding Ikeda Terumasa's expectations.

Because as the Lord of Inuyama Castle, who only had 10,000 kan, he couldn't possibly send out a 2,000-man army unless he used all his strength. After all, his strength was relatively low and he hadn't received any large-scale reinforcements.

What else is there to say? Let's get started.

The Oda army strengthened its encirclement of Kiyosuno, while the balance of power between the enemy and our forces in the Settsu Nakajima area on the other side was reversed.

Nobunaga gathered Hosokawa Fujitaka, Wada Koremasa, Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, Hatakeyama Akitaka and others, totaling 20,000 cavalry, to face the Miyoshi Three's group of more than 13,000 cavalry.

At this time of tense confrontation, Master Kennyo of Ishiyama Honganji Temple finally issued a manifesto to the Jodo Shinshu believers across the country to attack the "Buddhist enemy" Oda Nobunaga, officially opening the prelude to the ten-year Ishiyama Battle.

Thousands of monks and believers who had gathered at Ishiyama Honganji Temple immediately marched behind Nobunaga, preparing to attack Nobunaga together with the Miyoshi trio, and once again replicate the victory of the Battle of Kanezaki.

Fortunately, Nobunaga had long harbored suspicions about Honganji and had ordered Niwa Nagahide and Hanawa Naomasa to monitor Ishiyama, thus preventing a major chain reaction. However, the anti-Nobunaga forces now had a complete advantage in Settsu. If Ikeda Tomomasa, who controlled the Ikeda clan, had cleared his household and led 5,000 troops into battle, Nobunaga would have been trapped.

What Nobunaga never expected was that after Honganji suddenly joined the war, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, who had been watching from the sidelines, actually took action himself, leading more than 2,000 shogunate officials and thousands of reinforcements from the Tamba clan to support Oda Nobunaga.

The reason was very simple. Ashikaga Yoshiaki heard that there was a guy named Nijo Haruyoshi among the leaders of the Ikko Ikki in Honganji. This guy had been plotting to defeat Ashikaga Yoshiaki and re-install him as shogun.

In fact, even now, Ashikaga Yoshiaki hadn't considered Nobunaga's demise. His plan was to bring more factions into the shogunate's inner circle, pitting them against each other. As the supreme arbitrator, he would walk a tightrope, balancing the situation. After all, Ashikaga Yoshiaki wasn't good at fighting, but he was comfortable with intrigue and political maneuvering.

Between two evils, Ashikaga Yoshiaki chose to build Honganji Temple.

I can ignore you killing Nobunaga and watch the show, but what do you mean by dragging along someone who wants to mess with me?

People who don't know the inside story will find the reality so absurd. Ashikaga Yoshiaki was mobilizing people to deal with Oda Nobunaga, and at the same time he personally came out to support Oda Nobunaga and assisted Nobunaga in attacking the Ikko Ikki.

The power struggle was so complex and unpredictable that even Nobunaga didn't expect Ashikaga Yoshiaki to personally come to Nobunaga's rescue, and the situation kept turning upside down.

Everyone continued to recruit their own troops, trying to gain a decisive advantage in military strength before engaging in the final battle.

After all, the Miyoshi Trio had been defeated repeatedly by Nobunaga, and their arrogance had been largely extinguished. Otherwise, they wouldn't have immediately built a fortress and made long-term plans upon landing. According to their previous plan, they would have marched directly to Kyoto and killed Ashikaga Yoshiaki in the Nijo Palace.

This type of warfare was relatively common. They exchanged troops, maintained strategic composure, and avoided engaging in casual battles. Before the Battle of Sekigahara, many people shared this view. Both the Eastern and Western armies were heavily trooped, so theoretically, it was impossible for them to easily defeat and completely crush the other side.

Kuroda Kanbei judged that the Eastern and Western armies might fight in Tokaido and Kinai for one or two years, so he would have the opportunity to sweep across Kyushu and then wait and see.

Unexpectedly, the Battle of Sekigahara was decided in a single day, and there were no more serious battles after that. The Western Army collapsed without warning, and its forces were utterly defeated.

Well, Settsu is in this situation now. Nobunaga hurriedly asked Matsunaga Hisahide if he could gather three to five thousand people?

Over there, the Miyoshi Three were also actively urging Ikeda Tomomasa to gather 5,000 men and join the battle. However, Araki Murashige, who supported Ikeda's seizure of power, advised Ikeda to wait and see, saying there was no rush, as the price wouldn't be high enough to sell them now. While they were currently making a gesture against Oda, in the turbulent times of the Japanese Warring States, who could be sure?

Ikeda Tomomasa agreed with this and held his ground, with a ready-made excuse: domestic unrest and the need to pacify the household for the time being. It was a perfectly reasonable excuse, with no room for error.

The Settsu side was in confrontation, while the other side was calling on their friends, but the same was not true on the Owari side.

Finally, they had gathered enough food, weapons, and supplies, and had summoned a large number of ronin and believers. Nagashima Ganshoji Temple was ready. Taking advantage of the good weather, they harvested the rice early and decided to launch an uprising.

Thanks to the flapping of its little wings, Nagashima Ganshoji gained an ally right before its eyes – Kiyosu Saito Ryuoki.

Therefore, the original strategy of relying solely on Nagashima to fight and restore the entire northern Ise region was transformed into fully supporting Ryūshū's struggle while seizing northern Ise. Ryūshū was allowed to lead the fight to contain the Oda army, allowing Ganshoji to absorb the entire northern Ise region and establish a second "people's country."

In the past two months, the Oda army's pressure on Kiyosu Castle has become increasingly severe. The two sides have fought back and forth over Kamijou Fort many times. There have been no fewer than a hundred casualties, so reinforcements are needed.

Saito Tatsuoki's idea was to have the Nagashima Ikko-ikki send out about a thousand troops, and Kiyosu Castle would also send out about a thousand troops. The two thousand troops would be enough to break the siege of Kiyosu by Ikeda Tsuneoki and Hayashi Michimasa, who had only about a thousand troops.

After defeating the two, Long Xing put all his efforts into mobilizing the remaining troops in Qingxu Castle, forming an army of 4,000 people and fiercely attacking Iwakura Jinya in the north.

If Iwakura was taken, the four lower counties of Owari would inevitably be shaken. Not to mention the return of Mino, the mere destruction of Owari would be enough to put Oda Nobunaga, who was forced to stay in Settsu, in a difficult position.

If the entire Owari region were shaken and in chaos, Nobunaga's forces would suffer a heavier blow than the retreat from Kanegasaki.