"It's not that simple! What our family is really worried about is the Rokkaku family across the river. Once Nakao City is in crisis, Rokkaku Yoshihide will not sit back and die. It will be difficult for eight thousand Rokkaku troops to cross the river and cross the river to join the children of the Kira family. Oh! It’s a bit difficult for my family’s 10,000 troops to fight against 15,000 people. My brother can’t mobilize more troops at the moment. Only by joining forces with Hinata Mamoru can our family have a chance to win.”
Shikawa Icun's military strategy is not bad. Before leaving, he had already calculated that the gap between the two armies was not big. Eighteen thousand versus fifteen thousand is not safe. What's more, there are still three thousand Hosokawa troops in Nakao City. One side can contain the enemy and the other can attack. This is to defeat the three good families one by one.
The Lord of Sanuki Muta Castle, Kami Uchikage, asked in confusion: "But why didn't Rokkaku Yoshihide simply cross the river to join Kira's army? Wouldn't this allow us to directly oppress our side?"
Tokawa Icun laughed and said: "Of course Rokkaku Yoshiken can't do this! How can someone as cunning as Rokkaku Sadarai take the initiative to change the situation of the war? Don't forget his brother's evaluation, the Rokkaku family only does things to follow the trend and build momentum. , I will never take the risk of charging ahead!"
Seeing the way the retainers suddenly realized, he continued: "Of course, this is only part of the reason. The biggest reason is that he is unwilling to leave a gap for his brother to seize the opportunity. Kitaomi on the north bank of the Uji River, once faced with the fall of Sakamoto Imperial Palace, , not only will the little general on the mountain be scared out of Nakao City, but even Rokkaku Yoshiken will have to face the situation of being cut off from his return route, so he will not risk crossing the river. No one dares to act rashly before the autumn grain is harvested. It’s still very early for the real decisive battle!”
On the other side across the river, the results of the discussion between Kira Yoshitoki and Yamamoto Tokiyuki were similar to what Tokawa Ichino said. Kira Yoshitoki frowned and said: "In fact, you can also collect some annual tribute during the summer harvest, which adds up to about It seems like a few thousand stones! But this is far from enough! There are still two months until the end of the autumn harvest, and the real decisive battle will have to wait."
"That's right! The Rokkaku family could only send out 8,000 reinforcements because of the lack of food. The Miyoshi family could only send out 20,000 reinforcements at a time because of the lack of food. Speaking of which, we still took advantage. The two counties of Shiga Takashima did not care about the cost. Mobilize and organize an army of five thousand, and even if you wait until the autumn harvest, it will not be much more than this number." Yamamoto Tokiyuki is very familiar with the actual situation of grain and grass. The Kira family currently only has five thousand koku of grain in stock, which is the old grain left over from last year's autumn harvest. , only enough food for the seven thousand troops for more than three months.
"This kind of confrontation is a waste of food!"
Yamamoto Tokiyuki asked: "Isn't training in Sakamoto a waste of food?"
"That's different!"
"What's the difference? We train troops and get food, but now we can also train troops."
"...It seems to make sense! Then use these two months to continue training!" Kira Yoshitoki was finally convinced and gave the order to continue training.
So at the end of June, a long confrontation began. Kira Yoshi ordered the fishermen under the jurisdiction of the Yodogawa family to hang around the river of the Miyoshi family every day in order to monitor the movements of the Miyoshi family. These fishermen regularly cast nets on the Kamogawa River every day to catch fish, which naturally caused The Miyoshi family was highly vigilant. The Miyoshi family paid close attention to the movements on the river, and even sent samurai to capture several fishermen for interrogation, and concluded that they were indeed fishermen.
Therefore, every time fishermen came to fish, they would be driven away by Miyoshi's samurai in a small boat. These fishermen would take advantage of the samurai's return to run back and continue to cast their nets. It is said that this kind of annoying thing made Miyoshi very angry.
The samurai at home were annoyed, and even the fishermen who brought fresh fish to sell them were rejected. Hattori Ninja took the opportunity to disguise himself as a vendor selling fruits, vegetables and salted fish, and successfully sneaked into the camp to spy on information.
Having one eye embedded in Shihe Yicun's camp also made Kira Yoshi feel at ease. Each piece of seemingly unimportant news contained great mysteries.
Hattori Baochang said one by one: "On the second day of the seventh lunar month, Tokawa Ichigo held a banquet for all the ministers in the big tent, and monkey musicians from the Yamato Kingdom entertained them until the third watch."
"On July 5th, Shiheyi held an eagle hunt at the southern foot of Tianwang Mountain. Miyoshi Yasumi accompanied him on the hunt and returned to the camp on July 7th."
"Run to the edge of Shengryuji Castle to hunt hawks? This guy really doesn't take my family seriously!" Kira Yoshi felt angry and funny at the same time. Ten thousand people versus seven thousand people dared to be so careless. He said he had no brains.
It is absolutely impossible. Shihe Yicun's hunting trip has nothing to do with the tight defense in the camp on the other side of the river.
"Who else in the camp opposite will accompany Shihe Yicun to participate in the eagle hunt?"
"No! Shihe Yisun rushed to Shenglong Temple City with only two hundred cavalry banners, and did not bring any retainers with him."
"Do you mean this is a show?" Ji Liangyi suddenly understood after a moment's thought, and said to himself: "What a Sanhao family! What a Shihe Yicun. He not only showed his attitude of looking down on me, but also secretly tested my family.
Attitude? The three good brothers and the four brothers are all very difficult to deal with!"
He originally thought that this "Oni Juga" was just a brash man with a big head and muscles. Who would have thought that he could also play tricks. If he didn't have the source of information, he would have been deceived by him. Kira Yoshi stood up and walked back and forth.
After a few laps, he ordered: "Keep an eye on Shihe Yicun, and report any situation in a timely manner!"
"I still have a piece of information to report. The two thousand people from Yamashiro country led by Ise Sadataka are very special. They are arranged in the westernmost part of the camp. After observing that the people from Yamashiro country have the worst discipline and the lowest morale, I quietly found out
Near Ise Sadataka's big tent, I found that his defense was very lax, do you want to do it?" Hattori Baochang made a head-cutting motion.
"No need! Just keep an eye on Tokawa Issun!" Kira Yoshishi thought for a moment and then rejected the proposal. Killing him now will not help the situation. On the contrary, it will cause unnecessary trouble.
.
"Yes!" Hattori Chief quietly withdrew.
Because there were too few sailors belonging to the Kira family, just releasing the fishermen under the jurisdiction of the Yodogawa clan made the Miyoshi family more vigilant. It also showed from the side that it was not the time to use the Yodogawa clan. The confrontation lasted for more than ten days, and the two sides remained calm.
The situation was finally broken. The samurai on the Miyoshi side often rode provocatively on the other side of the river, seemingly intending to arouse the anger of the Kira army. However, their performance was really poor. They were frightened by the indiscriminate shooting of the Kira family's archery team and fled in panic.
Maybe it was because the performance of these samurai was so bad. In short, there has been no quarreling since then. Toga Ichitomi still continued to have banquets and often invited ministers from Kyoto to appreciate Yamato Sarugaku. It is said that he even treated the ministers in front of them.
When he despised Kiragi, he said that he was just a Mikawa kid and was not worth mentioning. Such words soon spread to Kiragi's ears. The Mikawa samurai jumped out angrily to ask for a fight, while the Omi samurai was a little ambiguous and just blindly said
Cursing ten rivers and not mentioning others.
In order to appease the impatience of his subordinates, Kira Yoshi once again presented evidence to convince them: "According to the investigation, the Miyoshi family's military is in good order and there is no slack. The three thousand and four people under his command are strong in combat, and they will not allow the four reserve troops of the family at all."
, this is a trap, a trap designed to allow our family to take the initiative to attack, and the one who moves first will definitely reveal a flaw."
"Yes! Your Highness Kira is right! Let's wait!" Fujitsuna Kuchiki quickly responded.
Isshiki clenched his fists tightly and roared angrily: "Damn it! Are you just going to wait like this? After a long time, your morale will definitely be affected!"
"Train! Let's strengthen training from now on!" Yamamoto Tokiyuki came up with his own solution: "Hard training, humiliating lessons, and morale will definitely be maintained!"