At this time, within Kinki, Asakura and Asai had long been wiped out; the Saito family and the Rokkaku family had long become history, and the Miyoshi family, once the overlord of Kinki, had only a few remaining forces struggling. The remnants of the Hatano family
The power can only survive by relying on the solid walls of Yakami Castle.
Three months later, Oda Nobunaga summoned two allies, Du Fei and Tokugawa Ieyasu. At this time, Du Fei took advantage of the two men's rest to reorganize their troops and occupied the Miyoshi family's Iimori Castle and other territories, and formed a plot against the Honganji family.
suppress effectively.
Oda Nobunaga looked at the ambitious Du Fei and the scheming Tokugawa Ieyasu, laughed a few times and said: "We first want to celebrate, now almost the entire Kinki is under our control! This little nail in Honganji Temple
It’s really an eyesore! They first turned against us without any warning, and they still refuse to surrender to us! I decided that this will be my next target!”
"Is the target Honganji Temple?" Tokugawa Ieyasu seemed to have a bad look on his face. He fully hoped that the next target would be the Takeda family. Because the Takeda family's territory was very close to his territory, he was afraid that Takeda Katsuyori would gather troops to take revenge.
The second is that after occupying the Takeda family's territory, he can gain more benefits by staying closer.
"Ieyasu, I know what you're thinking. I've said it a long time ago. No matter where the target of our strategy is, every ally will benefit! Don't care about temporary gains and losses!" Oda Nobunaga relied on his large number of soldiers and general Hiro in
The three of them always played a very powerful role, and strange to say, whenever he spoke, Tokugawa Ieyasu would be extremely dissatisfied and would immediately shut up and stop talking.
But Du Fei often didn't buy his account: "Nobunaga, I also want to capture Ishiyama Honganji Temple in one fell swoop, but according to my ninja's observations over the past few days, Ishiyama Honganji Temple is truly the most fortified castle in the world! Just that.
The outer city wall is nearly three feet high! Its strength can be described as terrifying. I think that if we attack hard, we will need at least 50,000 troops to besiege the city to have any chance of winning! With the current strength of our coalition forces, the most we can do is
It’s not cost-effective to gather 20,000 people together.”
"Why, is Du Fei, who has always been afraid, also afraid of those fake monks at Honganji Temple?" A strange smile suddenly appeared on Oda Nobunaga's face: "Who said we are going to attack hard? Monkey! Come out!
"
At this time, Kinoshita Tokichiro came out from behind the screen with a bit of shyness, and opened a map of Ishiyama Honganji in his hand to show it to several people: "I have obtained the topographic map of Ishiyama Honganji from Lieutenant General Nakayama Kiyohide.
, The Honganji family and the Miyoshi family were allies before, so Nakagawa Kiyohide paid special attention to the topography of Ishiyama Honganji Temple when he visited somewhere, and he didn’t expect that it would actually come in handy now!”
He pointed at the map and said: "Please see, everyone, the city defense of Ishiyama Honganji Temple is divided into three pills. Each floor is guarded by a large number of iron gunners. They are surrounded by the sea on three sides. The only thing that can be entered and exited is the main entrance."
"I've known this for a long time, Fujikiro, just say what you want to say!" Du Fei said directly.
"Of course it won't work if we attack hard. However, although their structure surrounded by sea on three sides is easy to defend, it also has a huge flaw. Once the front door is blocked, their supplies will become a big problem!" Monkey said confidently.
: "So, the best strategy to deal with the Honganji family is to siege them for a long time and add ninja harassment and destruction!"
Tokugawa Ieyasu suddenly intervened and said: "Isn't Ishiyama Honganji Temple surrounded by the sea on three sides? They can definitely transport supplies by sea."
"That is impossible!" Oda Nobunaga said categorically: "The Kumano navy under our command will completely block the waterway! I can guarantee that the Honganji family will not get any support at sea, only artillery fire!
"
After Oda Nobunaga finished speaking, his eyes looked resolutely into the distance, as if he had a spirit that penetrated everything!
a few days later
As expected, the Ishiyama Honganji Temple was tightly surrounded by the Oda Allied Forces. However, the head of the Honganji Temple family, Honganji Xianru, was not afraid: "Let them come! How dare they invade the pure land of Buddhism! Let's see how our iron cannons deal with them!"
"
However, the smug Honganji family iron cannon monks waited for a whole day and did not see an enemy within range. On the contrary, the Oda alliance troops built various fortifications and camps not far from the Ura Castle.
, seems to be permanent.
Now it was Honganji's turn to be anxious: It's broken! Could it be that we are going to fight a war of attrition? He began to calculate how many days there would be enough food in the city. At this time, Yorikane Shimoma hurried over and said to him anxiously: "
Host! Our grain transport ship was sunk by the Oda coalition! The entire sea route is blocked!"
"What!" Honganji Xianru heard the news and was like a thunderbolt! He almost fell down while holding on to the wall with one hand: "The sea route is blocked! Then we"
"Host, don't be too anxious! We can think of other ways!" Yorikan Shimoma quickly comforted him and said, "Don't forget that we still have a secret passage!"
"What do you mean! We have to enter and exit the forbidden area?" Honganji Xianru suddenly became excited: "No! That is absolutely not possible! No one has ever entered the forbidden area since Honganji Temple was built. It is said that those who enter will fall into the Abi Hell after death.
, the soul will never be reincarnated! This is impossible!"
Seeing that Honganji Temple's attitude was so determined, Yori Kane had no choice but to give up.
Thus, a long war of attrition began. Oda Nobunaga did a very unique thing. Not only did he cut off the Honganji family's food route, he also sent ninjas to harass them everywhere. Every day, the Ishiyama Honganji Temple was in chaos and miserable.
Unspeakable.
Honganji Xianru's eyes were filled with bloodshot eyes. He and Shimoma Yorikane had not slept for days and nights. They personally led the monk soldiers to guard the little food and grass. He understood that at this time, these food and grass belonged to the Honganji family.
Once the food and grass are burned, it means the city is broken.
On the fourth day, he finally couldn't hold on anymore, so he asked his subordinates to guard the granary closely. He found a barracks not far from the granary, fell down and fell asleep.
He didn't sleep for long when he was awakened by a burst of noise! He heard shouting from everywhere outside: "A ninja from the Oda family has sneaked into the city! Catch him quickly!"
Then there was a burst of noisy footsteps outside, and the paper door of the room where he and the guards were located was slammed open!
I saw an Oda ninja in black night clothes scurrying in! As soon as he appeared, he was shot to death by the iron gunners next to Honganji Hiroto.
Afterwards, a large number of guards gathered around and when they saw the host killing the spy, they all bowed respectfully and dispersed.
Honganji Kenjo threw the iron cannon in his hand into the hands of the guards beside him, and began to step forward to check on the unlucky Oda ninja. He saw that this ninja's arms were bulging, and he didn't know what he was carrying.
Curious, he took out the stuff inside the ninja bag and saw that it was gunpowder. He couldn't help but shudder, and immediately returned to the granary to check.
When we arrived at the granary, we saw that it was also in a mess. There were more than a dozen corpses of monk soldiers lying on the ground, and there were four or five men in black lying on the ground.
"What's going on! Are you being attacked here too?" Honganji asked irritably.
I saw Lai Lian covering his arms and saying, "It was the Tokugawa family's ninjas who were very skilled and knocked down a dozen of our brothers as soon as they came up. Fortunately, we had a secret sentry and shot them with muskets from behind."
Seeing the worried look of Honganji Temple, he suddenly stepped forward and whispered: "This is not the way to go! Master! For the sake of the thousands of monks in the temple, you should think of a way! If it doesn't work, I will go to the temple alone.
Dao! If I want to go to hell, it’s my fault!”
"Don't be stupid! There are many traps in the secret passage. Don't say we haven't been there. Even if we have a map, we won't be able to get out! Have you forgotten about the sudden death of the third host?"
What Honganji Kenjou is talking about is a scandal about the Honganji family that almost no outsiders know about. The third person, Honganji Kenjo, the head of Honganji Temple, wanted to hide his stolen temple property in a forbidden place due to his own depravity.
Among them, he specially found the map of the secret passage sealed by his predecessor, and went there alone with a lot of money, but unexpectedly died inside.
Regarding the secret passage, only a few direct disciples of Honganji Temple know about it, and even the abbots of branch temples like Nanari Yorishu and Suzuki Zuodafu may not know. It is the place where the first abbot of Honganji Temple was enshrined, and it is said that there are hidden things inside.
The biggest secret of the Honganji family, but except for the first host, no one can come out alive after entering.
That's why Honganji Kenjo resisted this approach. He felt that he would rather die in an honorable battle for the Buddha than betray his faith and vows before his death.
Shimo Lai Lian had no choice but to keep his mouth shut. He was a little desperate. As Honganji Kenru's most capable assistant for many years, he deeply understood Honganji Kenru's temper. As long as it was something he was sure of, he would do anything to anyone.
Nothing can be changed.
There is only enough food in the granary for four days, and the soldiers drink porridge almost every day these days. You must know that Honganji is a semi-religious organization after all, and these monk soldiers do not enforce orders and prohibitions like those daimyo soldiers.
I didn't even dare to fart, and when my food was a little worse, some restless troublemakers began to complain.
If this happened to a daimyo, the daimyo Honganji Kenru would immediately start a fight. With a wave of his hand, those nagging and dishonest people would have their heads thrown to the ground! But Honganji is the host, not the daimyo.
Therefore, like those people, he has absolute authority and the power of life and death.
He wants to execute a disciple, and the procedures he has to go through are no more than a battle. Those who approach the temple supervisor must be controlled, those who live in the old hall must be controlled, and all the family elders must also be controlled!
As the master of a temple, he only has the power to punish: face the wall, starve to eat, sweep the yard, three moves.
In a word, the monk soldiers of Honganji Temple fight with faith, but faith cannot be eaten as food. Once there is no food, no matter how devout the believer is, he will look at you with blank eyes.
Honganji Xianru gritted his teeth and endured all kinds of difficulties. He was waiting for him to know that someone would definitely come to the rescue!