Late at night on May 19th, the sixth year of Eiroku (1563), Inabayama Castle.
Takenaka Shigeharu held a contract he had just signed in his hand, and with four or five guards, he hurriedly walked on the small mountain road leading to the outside world from Inabayama Castle. Not long ago, the desperate Saito Ryuuki signed the contract
, was drawn up a few days ago by many wealthy families of Simeron headed by the three people of Mino. The wealthy family of Simeron declared that as long as Saito Ryuuki is willing to sign this contract, the wealthy families of Simeron will immediately send troops to aid Inabayama Castle.
The contract requires Saito Ryuuki to punish the cronies in the family - it requires two direct ministers, Hineno Hirosaki and Takekashi Naomitsu, and many Saito family direct ministers to completely withdraw from central affairs. At the same time, the practice of collegial system of important ministers is restored.
The Saito family's decisions on all major matters such as territory, taxation, and expeditions must be approved by the joint meeting of ministers composed of three people from Nishi Mino. The direct ministers of the Saito family were driven out of the center, and a meeting of ministers was established.
To complete the central decision-making, this can be said to be completely independent of Saito Ryuuki.
The most important thing is that there is a stipulation in the contract - the three people of Simino will send one person every year to lead the troops to protect the safety of Saito Ryuuki and other ministers in Inabayama Castle. In other words,
It is necessary for people sent by wealthy families to control the military power of Inabayama Castle, monitor Saito Ryuuki and other ministers, and prevent them from regaining power.
Saito Ryuuki would never sign such a harsh and severe treaty unless he was forced into a desperate situation. But now he has no choice but to hesitate. Under the siege of the Oda family, Inabayama Castle is already in danger. If
If we can't make enough concessions to allow the powerful clans to send troops to assist, Inabayama Castle will not be saved, so how can we talk about power?
After signing the treaty, Naomitsu Takekaya and Genta Komaki, who were staying in the city, were ashamed and angry, but they had no choice but to do anything. However, the powerful army from West Mino came, and together with the main force of the Saito family who was about to return from Higashi Mino, they could indeed help.
Inabayama Castle was rescued from the siege. Naomitsu Takekamo and Genta Komaki asked Takenaka Shigeharu to be careful not to leak the news, and let the rich people of Simino, who were familiar with the terrain, quietly go to the vicinity of Inabayama Castle and attack Oda Nobunaga.
He was caught off guard and surrounded and surrounded near Inabayama Castle!
·
However, the first thing Takenaka Shigeharu did when he left Inabayama Castle was to send people to Inoguchi Town to spread the news that the Nishi-Mino wealthy families were about to jointly send troops to rescue Inabayama Castle.
"Master Takenaka, why is this?" A servant asked in confusion, "We can obviously attack by surprise! Then won't the Oda family be prepared!"
"Oh?" Takenaka Shigeharu chuckled and glanced at the attendant behind him. "Then why don't I ask you a few questions?"
"Sir, please speak." The attendant replied respectfully.
"If you were His Majesty Oda, how would you react if you heard that the Nishi Mino wealthy families were uniting to reinforce Inabayama Castle?" Takenaka Shigeharu raised his head, looked at the night sky, and asked softly.
"Hmm..." The attendant frowned and thought for a moment before replying: "The total number of our Simino wealthy coalition forces is close to 7,000. Coupled with the reinforcements coming back from the east, our strength will definitely surpass Oda Nobunaga's army. If
I am Oda Nobunaga, I will definitely retreat."
"Then how would you react if the wealthy Simino family appeared near Inabayama Castle without your expectation?" Takenaka Shigeharu still raised his head and continued to ask casually.
"Um..." This question seemed a bit too difficult. After thinking for a long time, the attendant replied: "Maybe we can only rely on the walls of Sannomaru to fight to the death with the castle town."
"Then what?" Takenaka Shigeharu didn't seem to hear a satisfactory answer and continued to ask.
"Then..." the attendant frowned and replied tentatively: "Find a way to retreat?"
As soon as the attendant spoke his own words, he seemed to understand something.
"The biggest casualties in war occur during pursuit," Takenaka Shigeharu still looked up at the sky. "The so-called battle, in a sense, is just trying to force the other side to retreat and provide opportunities for one's own pursuit."
"If there is a way to directly make the Oda family retreat, why bother to fight a hard battle." Takenaka Shigeharu chuckled, "Conquering the enemy's army without fighting is a good thing."
"Then what if Oda Nobunaga is determined to capture Inabayama Castle tomorrow and ignores the rumors we spread and continues to attack by force?" The attendant still asked uneasily.
"It's okay, he can't beat him down." Takenaka Shigeharu whispered confidently. The cool evening breeze blew over his handsome face and blew up a few strands of silk on his forehead. He looked at the sky and smiled confidently.
The mountain rain is about to come and the wind fills the building.
·
In the early morning of May 20, the sixth year of Eiroku (1563), a heated discussion just broke out in the main tent of the Oda family in Sannomaru of Inabayama Castle. The focus of the debate between the two parties was where the Oda family should go today.
Inabayama Castle is indeed a world-famous fortified city. Even though the defenders were no more than 2,000 and the city wall could not even stand, it still withstood the fierce attack of Oda Nobunaga's nearly 10,000 troops for a day. Everyone had to admit that this was the best siege by the Oda family.
The time has passed. Today, the reinforcements from Higashi Meinong will be rushed back.
For this reason, the more conservative Amakihei, Takigawa Kazumasu, Sakuma Nobumori and others strongly advocated an immediate retreat to avoid being surrounded and flanked by Inabayama Castle. However, Shibata Katsuie, Mori Katsunari, Ikeda Tsuneki and others did not
I advocate more effort - after yesterday's day of fighting, the Saito family has already suffered huge casualties. Now they are surrounded in Ninomaru. As long as they attack for half a day, they can hope to capture the entire Inabayama Castle! If
We retreated this time, and we don’t know when we will get such a good opportunity to attack next time.
After weighing the opinions of the two factions, Oda Nobunaga finally made a decision - to continue the attack! Even if Higashi Mino's reinforcements come back, there are only 6,000 people. Oda Nobunaga can allocate half of his troops to contain their actions, and then continue
Siege the city. In order to understand the movements of those 6,000 people in real time, Oda Nobunaga sent almost all the detective horses and horse troops to the east to spread a huge intelligence network.
After the Oda family had breakfast, the Oda family launched another fierce attack on Ninomaru. Everyone in the Oda family understood that time was limited and the opportunity was rare, so the offensive became extremely fierce. The Oda family mobilized archers from almost every family.
Standing on Sannomaru or a taller building in the city, spray arrows on Ninomaru's wall. Ame Akihei's Tokiwabi archers were also assigned to the south wall and fired fiercely at Ninomaru.
In the structure of Inabayama Castle, the height of the Honmaru wall is higher than that of Ninomaru and Sannomaru. However, the walls of Ninomaru and Sannomaru are almost flush, and Ninomaru is only slightly higher. This led to the Saito family
The archers no longer had the condescending shooting advantage they had yesterday, and were quickly suppressed by the Oda family's archers. The Oda family's ashigaru who climbed the ladder carried rolling stones and feather arrows against the city head again and again.
Finally, at 2:00 p.m., the Shibata family's troops attacked the Ninomaru city first. After Genta Komaki and Naomitsu Takekaya resisted for a while, they realized that Ninomaru could no longer defend themselves, so they had to fight and retreat.
Withdraw to Honmaru and make a final desperate resistance.
·
However, Tanma also reported at this time - the Saito family's 6,000 reinforcements to the east had arrived more than ten miles away from Inabayama Castle, and they were about to arrive in more than an hour! Oda Nobunaga had to be early
After making a plan, 2,000 people from Sakuma Nobumori, Sasaki Narimasa, and Takigawa Kazumasu were sent to defend Ghana City, protect the Oda Army's retreat, and at the same time block reinforcements from supporting Inabayama Castle.
Oda Nobunaga understood that time was running out, and immediately gathered the remaining 6,000 people, planning to fight to the death to see if they could capture Honmaru before reinforcements arrived! The archers took their positions and began to attack the enemies of Honmaru.
military suppression.
However, at this critical moment! God, who has always favored Oda Nobunaga, failed to take advantage of him! The sky that had been gloomy finally started to rain. At first it was just a light drizzle, but gradually it turned into a heavy downpour.
!This directly brings huge obstacles to the siege party. In heavy rain, the range and accuracy of bows and arrows are greatly reduced, and they are almost useless. In other words, the bow and arrow cover for the siege party is almost non-existent.
.On the defensive side, there are still defensive tools such as wood and rolling stones that can be used.
In rainy days, slippery ladders make climbing extremely difficult, and heavy clothes soaked by the rain also increase the difficulty for the attackers. The attackers often need to attack from their backs, and the raindrops will fall directly on them.
When it reaches the face, it blurs the vision and greatly affects the battle.
Oda Nobunaga saw that the Honmaru that was within easy reach was disturbed by a heavy rain, and he couldn't help but stamped his feet in anger. However, more unfortunate news followed one after another.
Just this morning, a rumor suddenly arose in Inoguchi Town under Inabayama Castle. It was said that the Naoomi faction of the Saito family had all withdrawn from the center and ceded the central power and the military power of Inabayama Castle to negotiate with Nishi Mino.
The wealthy clans have reached an understanding. The wealthy clans of Simino will gather their entire army today and rush to Inabayama Castle to support them.
When Oda Nobunaga first heard the news, he didn't believe it so much. He just regarded it as a temporary tactic for Saito Ryuuki to jump over the wall. However, the spy he deployed in Simino finally came back at noon today, bringing him
He received the news that the troops of the West Mino wealthy clan left the territory collectively yesterday and began to gather towards the east. Not long after, Uchiha Aooka, the ninja leader of Yu Qiupei, also came back after all the hard work. He met several important people on the way.
They were attacked by ninjas from the powerful Nishimeno clan at all road intersections, and it seemed that they were planning to completely block the news. However, he was able to break through the blockade due to his extraordinary kung fu, and rushed to Inabayama Castle to report the news to Amakihei. He was originally
I wanted to come here to convey information about the unusual movements of the Simino wealthy family, but I ran into Ando Mamoru's army on the road!
According to the latest news he brought, the 1500 people of Nishimeno wealthy leader Ando Mamoru are very close to Inabayama Castle! They are only 10 miles away from the Nagara River!
"Lord, please make a decision quickly." Sakuma Nobumori was already jumping up and down anxiously, "If we are surrounded by tens of thousands of Saito family troops in Inoguchi Town, we will be doomed!"
Oda Nobunaga turned his back to his anxious retainers and looked at the towering Inabayama Castle Castle through the rain and mist. His hands were clenched tightly into fists, and the folding fan in his hands was squeezed so hard that it creaked.
There was a "rattling" sound, but I felt extremely unwilling to do so. After a long time, the helplessness and resentment in my heart turned into a loud roar looking up to the sky.
"Retreat in batches!" Oda Nobunaga turned around and gave the order to his retainers.
Chapter completed!