On May 17th, at the end of the third quarter, Nineteen Villages.
"Are there no reinforcements yet..." Oda Nobuyoshi leaned against the inner wall of the rock village, gasping for air.
Saito's army had arrived at the outskirts of Jujujo Village more than an hour ago, catching Oda Nobuyoshi off guard. The three wealthy families along the way and the surrounding Kawahei people also responded immediately to the Saito family and recaptured it as agreed in advance. After losing his own land, Oda Nobuyoshi suddenly faced a situation of being alone. The Saito family's 4,000 troops surrounded his 500 people in the Nineteen Villages.
Oda Nobuki is the younger brother of Oda Nobukiyo, the lord of Inuyama Castle. Oda Nobukiyo is Oda Nobunaga's cousin and is also married to Oda Nobuhide's daughter. Therefore, he stood by Oda Nobunaga during the previous series of turmoil in Owari. However, the relationship between the two families was not very close, and there was even a estrangement due to the division of the spoils. Therefore, when Oda Nobunaga requested reinforcements this time, Oda Nobukiyo only sent 150 soldiers and 350 auxiliaries led by his younger brother. Soldiers came to help Oda Nobunaga build the rock fort. And Oda Nobunaga did not take Oda Nobunaga, who was likely to be disobedient, with him on the western expedition, but asked him to stay behind - who would have thought I actually encountered such a situation.
Oda Nobunaga didn't originally want to fight for Oda Nobunaga. After seeing the Saito family's military strength, he had plans to escape. Unfortunately, Hineno Hiroshi noticed Oda Nobunaga's intention and immediately ordered Saito Ryuuki's The horsemen went around to the side of Jujujo Village to wait. Seeing so many cavalry appearing on the battlefield, and looking at the distance of nearly 200 feet between Jujujo Village and the Kiso River pontoon bridge and the ferry, Oda Nobuyoshi had no choice but to He gave up his plan to escape and guarded the four gates.
The more than 1,300 soldiers of Saito's army did not waste much time. After a little reorganization, they headed towards the Nineteen Villages. Due to the hasty attack, Saito's army failed to prepare enough siege equipment and only had three rams. The Saito family's archers did not have a lookout to rely on, so they stood on the ground and fired towards the city. It was difficult to cause too many casualties. The Saito family's soldiers held shields to cover the auxiliary soldiers carrying the siege ram. Hit the village gate.
Faced with siege from three sides, Oda Nobuyoshi had to throw all the ashigaru near the three village gates. The archers were responsible for attacking the city rams, and the soldiers stood ready at the gates and walls of the village, while the auxiliary soldiers collected the rocks and The wood was smashed towards the bottom of the city. Since the Nineteen-jou Village was built temporarily, the wall was not very high. Many Saito soldiers even climbed up the city wall by stacking Arhats, which caught Oda Nobuyoshi off guard. So he hurriedly climbed up the city wall where he was standing. The troops at the gate were mobilized on the wall to prevent the Oda family from infiltrating. He even went into battle personally with his attendants twice, and was hit by an arrow in the shoulder.
Now, he had just retreated from the front line and was letting an attendant bandage the wound on his shoulder. It was probably a sore spot, so he took a breath, and then cursed:
"Damn, where are the reinforcements..." Oda Nobunaga breathed in quickly to endure the pain, "We have been fighting for an hour! Why are there no reinforcements! Is Oda Nobunaga blind?"
Suddenly, multiple loud sounds of wood breaking suddenly came from the north gate. Immediately afterwards, shouts of death, cheers, and screams sounded together.
"What's going on!" Oda Nobuyoshi stood up in a hurry, climbed up to the top of the inner wall, and looked towards the north gate - he saw that a big hole had been opened in the original north gate, and a large number of ashigaru carrying wave patterns and flags were standing there. They poured into the rock village from the north gate, and the small number of Oda family soldiers inside the north gate were unable to resist the onrushing Saito family ashigaru, and were retreating steadily.
"Quick! Follow me!" Oda Nobuyoshi, who had not rested for long, once again led his guards to meet him. At the same time, he called on the troops on the North Gate Wall to immediately abandon the guards on the wall and come down to resist. Under such a combined attack, , barely blocking the Saito Ashigaru at the door. However, such an order caused a series of chaos. Many Saito Ashigaru took the opportunity to board the North Gate Wall and attack the East Gate and West Gate along the North Gate Wall. This caused a chain reaction - the East Gate and the West Gate also fell soon after. The Saito family's Ashigaru swept in from behind and directly attacked Oda Nobuyoshi who was resisting at the north gate. Oda Nobuyoshi was punished on the spot by a Hatamoto samurai of the Saito family. Death. The remaining Oda troops dispersed like birds and beasts, hurriedly escaping from the empty south gate, but were brutally killed by the long-awaited Saito family's cavalry. No one made it to the Kiso River alive. The desperate remaining troops had no choice but to He knelt down and begged for surrender, and Nineteen Villages fell.
·
At six o'clock in the morning, the heavy rain stopped. After repairing the pontoon bridge, the Oda army came across the river and found that it was too late. The Saito family's wave pattern flag was already flying on the nineteen strongholds. Most of the food and grass that the Oda family brought across the river had also fallen. In the hands of the Saito family, only the food on the grain road that had been transported to the front line yesterday and the day before yesterday was estimated to only be enough for the army for three days. Saito Ryuuki also sent someone to send Oda Nobuyoshi's head to express his gratitude to Oda Nobuyoshi. Long provocation.
Oda Nobunaga became angry and ordered Amakihei, who was still in Sumamata, to burn the camp and the crossing bridge on the Nagara River, and the entire army fought to the death at Jujujo Village. However, because it was getting late, the Oda family tried to recapture Jujujo Village. Before we even started, we had to stop because the sun was setting.
·
After this stop, Hinano Hiroshi and Takekow Naomitsu were convinced of their new lord. Although he was only 15 years old, he was as courageous and strategic as his father and grandfather.
"Young Master, do you want to demolish the pontoon bridge on the Kiso River south of Jujujo Village?" Hineno Hiroshi asked after nightfall, "This way, we can ensure that no one from the Oda family can sneak back!"
"It's not necessary," Saito Ryuuki shook his head, "The art of war has it that the enemy must be surrounded. If the Oda family's escape route is blocked, it may arouse their determination to fight to the end. Just leave a gap here. When the decisive battle breaks out, many of the Oda Ashigaru may be shaken and run away!"
"Yes!" Hinanohiro looked at the serious Saito Ryuuki, slightly moved, and unknowingly, he changed his name to Saito Yoshiryu, "I obey, my lord!"
·
In the early morning of May 18th, in the camp of the Oda family, Saito Ryuuki's prediction came early. In one night, more than a dozen Ashigaru of the Oda family quietly became deserters and escaped from nowhere. Oda Nobunaga was furious and immediately asked for an immediate formation to attack the Saito family's position.
"As the saying goes, anger does not lead to war." Yu Qiuping looked at the furious Oda Nobunaga at the evaluation meeting, but he felt a burst of joy in his heart, "This battle is probably unwinnable." He silently calculated in his heart: "I don't know. How are the preparations going at the jaibei?"
At 06:00, after the Oda family finished breakfast, they left the auxiliary troops in the camp, and nearly 1,700 soldiers began to form an array on the plain. Among them were Oda Nobunaga's 100 horseback cavalry, and Ame Akihei's 20 Cavalry, Shibata Katsuie's 30 cavalry and Mori Katsunari's 20 cavalry. The Saito family also set up a formation around the Nineteenth Village. Saito Ryuuki personally led 400 soldiers to sit in the Nineteenth Village, and the Saito family's two More than a thousand auxiliary soldiers also stayed in Yanzhai. On the south side of Yanzhai, which is the left wing of the Saito family and in the direction of the Kiso River Floating Bridge, Hineno Hiroshi led 600 Saito family soldiers to defend to the death. On the north side of Yanzhai, On the side, that is, the right wing of the Saito family, there are 300 soldiers with bamboo waists and straight beams.
Oda Nobunaga made targeted arrangements for this. The unimportant northern battlefield, that is, the left wing of the Oda family, was left to Amakihei's more than 200 soldiers to contain the enemy. It seemed that Oda Nobunaga was still worried. The important task was handed over to Amakihei, a newly surrendered old minister of Imagawa. The central front was handed over to the 500 soldiers of Shibata Katsuie and Mori Katsunari. Oda Nobunaga personally led 800 people as the right wing on the south side. This was also The main direction of the Oda family's attack. Maeda Toshiie and several other women were left behind to lead the remaining 200 soldiers as a reserve team.
On the battlefield, the 1,700 soldiers of the Oda family have a military advantage over the 1,300 soldiers of the Saito family. However, all the auxiliary soldiers of the Oda family have stayed in the camp, while the 2,700 auxiliary soldiers of the Saito family are still in the 19th Inside the stronghold, it might come in handy during defense.
At four quarters of the hour, the battle began. Oda Nobunaga personally led 800 soldiers in the fish scale formation to attack Hineno Hiroshi's defense line. The reserve team of 200 people at the front of the fish scale formation was none other than Oda Nobunaga himself. The banner team led by him, and the three reserve teams followed behind and behind the reserve team. Hineno Hiroshi relied on the trenches and fences he built to resist Oda Nobunaga's attack. Since there was no one in the banner team, Equipped with archers, they were unable to fight back when they were attacked by the Saito family's archers, so they had to rush forward in silence. Although this caused the three reserve teams behind them to be somewhat disconnected from them, it also caught Hineno Hiroshi off guard. Bows and Arrows When he hurriedly withdrew his hand, he disrupted the formation of the reserve team behind him, allowing Oda Nobunaga to find an opportunity and rushed into the formation, deeply denting Hineno Hiroshi's formation.
At the same time, the situation on the northern front was calm. Naomitsu Takekako knew that he was only acting as a containment and did not order his subordinates to fight to the death. After the first trial, Naomitsu Takekako realized the superior combat effectiveness of the Tokiwabi spearmen. He no longer forced his subordinates to attack. However, Yu Qiupei, who had ulterior motives, still hoped that the Oda family would be defeated and would take advantage of the chaos to escape. Naturally, he would not use all his strength. The ashigaru of the two armies were separated by a distance not far and not close to each other. They slapped the opponent's gun barrels with their long spears. The archers fired weakly, unable to cause damage to the well-armored troops.
On the central front, Shibata Katsuie and Mori Katsuge were helpless when facing the Nineteenth Village. The 500 of them only carried battering rams as equipment. However, because there were two sides of the Nineteenth Village slightly behind them, Due to the cover of friendly forces, Shibata Katsuie and Mori Katsunari could only attack the west gate and were unable to deploy their troops. The Saito family's archers kept shooting at the Oda family's troops who were trying to attack the gate, leading Mori Katsuie and Shibata Katsuie to Big trouble is coming.
Chapter completed!