Since Okazaki Castle was very close to Sakurai Castle, Imagawa Yoshimoto left the grain and fodder baggage and the 50 horsemen in the castle town of the southern part of Okazaki Castle, under the supervision of Ginkgo, Himura Hijiha and Hayasaka Nao. He took it with him The remaining 50 horse warriors and 1,200 people from the Shogunbei, followed by the 1,300 clan clans under the direct jurisdiction of Matsudaira Nagauchi, crossed the Yahagi River on September 27, Tenmon 9th Year (1540), and stationed at Anxiang Castle. That afternoon , the army marched south towards Sakurai Castle.
Imagawa Yoshimoto himself had no intention of leading the army into battle - he did not want to incur casualties for the sake of the Matsudaira family's housework. If Matsudaira Nagachichi could not solve the problem, it would not be too late for him to go into battle. Therefore, Imagawa's army just stayed far behind. Watching from the ground, playing the role of supervising the army.
The Sakurai Matsudaira family also has about 1,300 troops, which is on par with the Matsudaira clan's troops on paper. However, at present, the entire Matsudaira family has surrendered to Matsudaira Hirotada, and only the Sakurai Matsudaira family is accused of being rebellious and losing morale. Feeling depressed. Seeing that the subjugation troops of the Matsudaira clan and the Imagawa family had arrived, many people had small calculations in their minds. Matsudaira Nobusada had originally formed a formation outside the city to prepare for a battle, but seeing this situation, he did not dare to fight in the field, so he hurriedly Withdrew into the city.
After the troops of the Matsudaira clan arrived outside the north gate of Sakurai Castle, the troops of the nearby Fukugama Matsudaira family and the Fujii Matsudaira family also came to join them one after another, blocking the west gate and south gate of Sakurai Castle - while the east gate of Sakurai Castle was close. Relying on the Yahagi River. Seeing that there was no way to escape, Matsudaira Nobusada finally gave up resistance and sent his envoys to surrender.
However, Matsudaira Nobusada's attitude made the Matsudaira family very dissatisfied - you refused to surrender before, but now you surrender when death is imminent? This kind of rebellious attitude is destined that the Sakurai Matsudaira family cannot accept any punishment at all. Keep the old territory. Therefore, Matsudaira Nagachi strongly demanded that the Sakurai Matsudaira family open the city and accept the surrender. Matsudaira Nobusada did not have the capital to refuse when the army was about to attack the city, so he had to open the four doors wide, tie his own hands, and come to Matsudaira Nagachichi. Admit your mistake.
In front of everyone, Matsudaira Nobusada burst into tears in front of Matsudaira Nagaki, like a 3-year-old child. Matsudaira Nagaki couldn't bear to see the child he loved most at that time end up like this, and he cried bitterly while holding Matsudaira Nobusada in his arms. Get up. Imagawa Yoshimoto is not very interested in the plot of father and son getting to know each other. He waited outside the honmaru with his horsemen, thinking about how to solve the problem for dinner.
It was late at night, and the troops of the Matsudaira clan in the city were still busy around, searching for the remnants of the Sakurai Matsudaira family who might be hiding - Imagawa Yoshimoto thought it was unnecessary, Matsudaira Nobusada himself had no desire to resist, so looking for these What's the need? But since the Matsudaira family wanted to make trouble, he didn't bother to care.
However, Matsudaira's caution also reminded Imagawa Yoshimoto - after all, he was leading the army alone in the Matsudaira family's territory. If there were one or two anxious people in the Matsudaira family, they would be dissatisfied with the Imagawa army. Intervening in Mikawa and trying to assassinate him - that would be a serious problem. So when Matsudaira Nagauchi invited Imagawa Yoshimoto to the castle tower for dinner, a somewhat worried Imagawa Yoshimoto declined the request and prepared to join his subordinates. Meal.
Not long after, the castle tower was filled with cheers and cheers. It seemed that Matsudaira Nobusada's surrender matter had been settled. Smelling the fragrant food coming from the castle tower, he looked at himself and the horsemen again. Imagawa Yoshimoto couldn't help but regret the coarse grains he was holding in his hand - he should have gone in to eat together.
At this moment, Imagawa Yoshimoto suddenly saw a small group of cavalry carrying torches heading towards the castle tower in the night. When he got closer, he recognized that the pair of cavalry surrounded by them was none other than Matsudaira Hirotada.
"Your Highness Matsudaira?" Imagawa Yoshimoto greeted him with a smile upon seeing this, "Are you also here for the banquet?"
However, when Matsudaira Hirotada saw Imagawa Yoshimoto, his expression suddenly became fierce, and he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs: "Run! Your Highness Imagawa! Run! Great-grandfather is going to do something bad to you!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the dozen or so knights around Matsudaira Hirotada were shocked. They swarmed up and blocked Matsudaira's mouth and controlled him. Only then did Imagawa Yoshimoto realize that those dozen knights were not Matsudaira Hirōtada. The bodyguard was actually the banner of Matsudaira Yasutaka of the Miki Matsudaira family - and Matsudaira Yasutaka was supposed to be staying at Okazaki Castle.
Although he still hadn't fully realized what happened, Imagawa Yoshimoto already knew that something was wrong.
"Let's go!" Imagawa Yoshimoto made a decision immediately, calling for the horsemen to run to the stables together, preparing to seize the horses and escape. The dozen or so astonished Matsudaira family Hatamoto didn't react before they could catch up at the first time. But here. The change in the castle seemed to have been noticed by the castle tower. The roof of the castle tower instantly lit up with a blazing fire - which was particularly eye-catching in the darkness - that was a signal!
Imagawa Yoshimoto only heard the sound of sharp arrows flying from the strings in all directions. He subconsciously leaned over to avoid it, only to feel three or four arrows passing over his head, and a sudden sharp pain in his right arm.
In the darkness, countless arrows were shot from the direction of Honmaru Castle and the castle tower. Nearly ten of the horsemen who were caught off guard were shot down. Even Imagawa Yoshimoto himself was hit by an arrow in his right arm. Not even that. When he reacted, countless troops from the Matsudaira clan and the Sakurai Matsudaira family joined forces and rushed out of the castle tower to kill Imagawa Yoshimoto. The stables were also under the control of the Sakurai Matsudaira family's troops. Definitely inaccessible.
"Let's go to the north gate!"
In desperation, Imagawa Yoshimoto had to lead the crowd to escape on foot and tried to rush through the north gate of Honmaru. However, he had just arrived and was not familiar with the topography of Sakurai Castle. When he saw that the street leading to the north gate was blocked, he was like a headless fly. He ran around in circles in the alley, trying to get close to the north gate, but no matter where he went, there were always people from the Matsudaira family waiting in front of him, forcing him to survive in embarrassment under the attack of the pursuers. Hide and hide.
Sakurai Matsudairabei and Matsudaira clan's Hatamoto had set up ambushes everywhere and blocked several important roads, leaving Imagawa Yoshimoto with no way to go to heaven and no way to enter the earth. It turns out that their mobilization just now was not to search for the remaining party members - but to construct a plan in advance. The encirclement of Imagawa Yoshimoto.
"I'm going..." Imagawa Yoshimoto, who was gradually surrounded, covered his wound, his face turned livid, "What are you doing..."
"Your Highness! This way!"
In the panic, I only heard a loud roar from the east gate wall of Honmaru - that was the voice of Osawa Moto. Imagawa Yoshimoto couldn't care about anything else at the moment. He led the people towards that place amidst the random arrows and pursuit. I rushed towards him. In the chaos of the war, I saw a group of Matsudaira family samurai suddenly jumped from the roof of the house and slashed at Imagawa Yoshimoto with their swords. Imagawa Yoshimoto was caught off guard, with injuries on his arms, and was thrown to the ground. .
At the critical moment, Ma Huizhong's deputy writer Akai Kuroko arrived with a roar. He stabbed an intruder with one knife, but the Matsudaira samurai actually held on to the samurai sword tightly. Akai Kuroko had no time to wrestle with him. , abandoned his samurai sword, and attacked several other attackers with his bare hands. The rounded iron fist knocked those samurai armed with swords and armor back to defeat.
Akai Kuroko picked up the corpse on the ground, danced the corpse with great strength, and swung it at the Matsudaira samurai with his sword, beating the intruders until they were blinded by stars.
"Weicheng, are you there!" Akai Heigao yelled, and another strong man rushed out from the chaos. Kira Weicheng opened and closed his swords widely, and forced his way out. And Akai Heigao Then he carried the injured Imagawa Yoshimoto on his back like a chicken, and followed Kira Usei who opened the way to escape eastward. The horsemen behind him also fought and retreated.
"Get the east gate back!"
Matsudaira Nobusada was personally leading the troops to encircle Imagawa Yoshimoto at this moment, but found that the east gate of the Honmaru was occupied by the Imagawa family's shields at some point. Seeing that Imagawa Yoshimoto was already staggering to rush out from there, he hurriedly organized Troops counterattack.
"Your Highness, the arrows there are too strong!" Matsudaira Nobusada's Ma Hui Zhongbi retreated from the door dejectedly, "The second floor of the hotel next to the door is full of archers from the Imagawa family. We can't go up. ."
"Then fight from the city wall!" Matsudaira Nobusada waved his hand, and another unit under his command, led by the Hatamoto samurai, quickly rushed up the stairs to the city wall. However, before they could reach the top of the city, I saw a torch being thrown up the stairs. In the dark night, the torch dazzled the Songping Army and illuminated themselves clearly. But the soldiers of the Imagination Army were stabbing at random in the darkness with knives and guns. These living targets beside the torches.
"Damn, how many brushes does the gatekeeper have?" Matsudaira Nobusada spat on the ground, and then immediately led his archery team to start a detour, "Let's go up to the roof of the Toei family house in the northeast. From there there is a The angle allows you to shoot directly at the top of the city! Shoot down all those Imagawa troops!"
Matsudaira Shinsada and the archers of his brigade relied on their familiarity with the terrain of their home city to skillfully navigate the streets and alleys without lighting a torch, and soon reached the edge of Toei's house. A few soldiers made a simple They built a ladder and secretly sent the archers to the roof one by one. In the dark, no one could see clearly.
However, before they could gain a firm foothold, they saw several rockets coming towards them. The archer of the Matsudaira family who was hit couldn't bear the pain and screamed. After hearing this cry, the wall of the east gate of the Honmaru immediately A warning sounded.
"Fire arrows!" Matsudaira Nobusada yelled and ordered, watching the archers on the roof shoot a dense rain of arrows towards the city. However, the Imagawa troops at the city's head were well prepared and hid behind the wall stacks to evade After this round of shooting, before the Matsudaira family's archers could fire another round, I saw the Imagawa family's archers behind the wall stand up, and in turn, a round of arrows hit the roof. There was nowhere to hide. The Matsudaira family's archers were immediately shot to pieces and jumped down from the house wailing.
"Damn, how did they know that I would come to this rooftop? Are they more familiar with their hometown than me?" Matsudaira Nobusada couldn't help cursing. He was so angry that he was about to walk through the streets with his banner. The alley rushed towards another staircase on the wall. However, after his troops entered the alley halfway, they suddenly saw more than ten Imagawa family shields and banners bursting out from the houses on both sides of the alley. Di Songping's army came to cut him down.
"How can there be an ambush here?" Matsudaira Nobusada was furious, "How do they know this is the only way to pass?"
At this time, Imagawa Yoshimoto finally led the remnants of the Mahuizhong and rushed to the east gate of the Honmaru. On the wall, Osawa Motoin was commanding the defense. When he saw Imagawa Yoshimoto's arrival, he immediately raised fire as a signal and ordered all ministries to evacuate.
"The first platoon of cavalry, cover His Highness! The first platoon of archers, immediately go to the second floor of the warehouse outside the east gate of Ninomaru to set up defenses. When you see me raising fire as a signal, fire arrows towards the main road! The second platoon of archers, stop. Attack the roof, retreat to the top of the city gate to cover the retreat of the friendly forces! The first platoon of infantry disperses to the blocks in Ninomaru to ambush, just follow my advance deployment plan! The second platoon of infantry, go control the Ninomaru that is currently unattended. At the east gate of the pill, take the small road, not the main road, and direct the auxiliary troops to evacuate! The 3rd and 4th platoons of the infantry retreat to the east gate of the pill and block the enemy! The 5th platoon of the infantry now counterattacks immediately, briefly repels the enemy and then takes cover. Friendly forces evacuate!"
Osawa Motoin issued the order in a flowing manner, and he gave up the horse to Imagawa Yoshimoto and escorted him eastward.
"Osawa, how come you know the terrain of Sakurai Castle so well?" Imagawa Yoshimoto couldn't help praising Osawa Motoin while treating his wounds, "If you hadn't guarded the east gate, I would have fallen. It’s inside.”
"The most important method of defense is the right location. Our Osawa family has a motto that no matter where we go, the first priority for a samurai is to understand the terrain. After entering the city in the afternoon, we wandered around the city." Osawa Jiyin was confident. Chi replied to Imagawa Yoshimoto.
"There are still dozens of horses behind that have not withdrawn. How long can the east gate hold on?" Imagawa Yoshimoto looked at the chaotic battle situation behind him and asked anxiously.
"Don't worry, Your Highness!" Daze Jiyin made a fist with his right hand and hit his heart hard, "Your Highness, I will hold on for as long as you want!"