Kawasaki Yorihiro stroked the newly grown short beard and said: "In this way, if we play the banner of the Date family, we should attack the Shingu Party first, and the Dongbo Elders will not come to the rescue, but now how many soldiers and horses are still available for the Shingu Party, can it be achieved with one blow?" ”

Shi Song Fumigo immediately replied: "The Shingu Party is due to the old age of the old party leader Nizi Criminal Department Shaofukuni, coupled with the fact that he has been defeated by Nizi Haruhisa several times, and his body is exhausted, and he has not come out to take charge of affairs for a long time, and now the Shingu Party is divided into two factions, one faction is headed by Nizi Seihisa stationed in Yonago City, the standing army is about 300 people, and the mobilization force is about 500 people, and the other faction is headed by Nizi Keihisa stationed in Otaka Castle, the standing army is about 400 people, and the mobilization force is about 1,000 people. Yonago Castle and Otaka Castle are about two miles apart. "The ancient length unit of the Wa Kingdom, 1 li is about equal to 4 kilometers in modern times, and the conversion of two li in the text is 8 kilometers, and the distance between the two cities of Yonago Castle and Otaka Castle is quite close.

Hosokawa Tsumasa looked at the map, raised his head and said, "According to my suggestion, since we have obtained the approval of His Highness, although we have three months to attack, we can't sit back and wait for the situation to change, and we have to send troops to attack one of them first, so as to confirm the reaction of Izumo Kingdom." Yonago Castle diverted sea water from the Nakakai Sea into Horiuchi to form a moat, and Yonago Castle built Honmaru at the top of Minatoyama Mountain, Nimaru on the belly of Kitatoyama, Sanmaru at the foot of the mountain, Uchizenmaru on Kitaoone, and Iiyama to the east. The city is high and thick, easy to defend and difficult to attack, there are thousands of soldiers, once it falls into the cage city battle, Nizi Yijiu brings troops to help, I am afraid it is not easy to attack. ”

Yoshida agreed: "Exactly! We don't need to attack Yonago Castle, we only need to attack its outer cities, and I think Otaka Castle is good. Nizi Seihisa and Nizi Keihisa have been brothers for a long time. Just act fast. Even if Makoto Niko ignores his past suspicions for a long time, we can establish a position on the west bank of the Hino River. If Tsukiyama Tomita City reacts extremely quickly, it means that the situation is still under control; If Yueshan Tomita City is in a panic and can't save itself, and Yonako City takes care of Cage City by itself, it means that its interior is already in chaos! You can persuade Mizi City and other cities to surrender, and if you don't know what is good or bad, you can take advantage of the situation and destroy it in one fell swoop. ”

Kawasaki Yorihiro frowned. Fang Cai said: "Speaking of persuasion, that Nizi Jingjiu has intersected with His Royal Highness, but Nizi Chengjiu has no intersection, will this Nizi Chengjiu agree to surrender?" "He knew about Nizi Jingjiu's many visits back then.

Yoshida Masanari smiled indifferently: "At this time and that time, I heard that the old leader of the Shingu Party, Nizi Kunihisa, favored Niko Koihisa, and alienated Niko Seihisa, so the defenders of Odaka Castle are stronger than Yonago Castle, once Niko Jingjiu reacts and mobilizes 13,400 people, it will be difficult to attack Odaka Castle." Moreover. It is rumored that Niko Seihisa has a short temper and once whipped Niko Yoshihisa. As long as Otaka Castle is taken, Yonago Castle will fall into a dilemma and will have to consider the way back. ”

The Takeyei clan pondered for a moment, and also agreed: "I agree to take Odaka Castle first, and after taking Odaka Castle, you can use the Hino River on the one hand, and I propose to persuade the people of the Higashiki Kingdom to surrender to it, and I can propose that Nanjo Munekatsu serve as the guardian of the Toboqi, and then stabilize it first." ”

Qinghe Hengxiu sent a few cases, got up and said, "It seems that we have to take the tail high city." Yoshida Masanari, as a pioneer officer, you led the front 800 people to Ao Castle in Hino County immediately, and ordered the lord of Eo Castle, Captain Beetsuka Uemon, to lead his headquarters as a direction to attack Odaka Castle, and I will take all your iron cannons and take Odaka Castle. Kawasaki Yorihiro, you lead five hundred people on the left, follow behind the vanguard, set up the Hino River, and look at Yonago Castle from afar. Hosokawa Tongmasa, you led 500 men on the right, and persuaded Hino County to surrender and pay tribute all the way, so that he would follow him. Bungo Ishimatsu, you have found out the movements of the Yun Kingdom and the Dongbo Qi Kingdom. The rest of you will escort the grain and grass with me, and walk slowly. ”

The congregation will obey.

Eo Castle, also known as Emi Castle, is located in the key point of Eo, Hino-gun, and is a castle built on a cliff formed by the volcanic activity of the Hino River and Daiyama.

During the Daiei period, the Nizi clan invaded, and the Beetsuka clan surrendered to the Nizi clan.

Eo Castle was used as an important place for land and water transportation in the Yonago Plain to Mimasaka Province, and for a long time it served as the stage for the battle between the Niko clan and the Mori clan. The Beetsuka clan rebelled against the Mori clan in the seventh year of Eiroku, and was attacked by the Maori general Sugihara Mori, and the castle lord Beetsuka Uemon Captain and his family fell to the castle by themselves.

Now history has changed, and Sugihara Morishige, who killed Captain Beetsuka, has already died in the battle between Date Masaki and Mori Motosho in Bigo Province, and Captain Beetsuka Hidemon also judged the situation, and after Date Masaki captured Misasaka Province, he surrendered to the Date family and became a retainer of Date Masato.

Eo Castle, which is the main road of water and land transportation, if it weren't for the chaos of Nizi Haruhisa, Nizi Yoshihisa, and the Shingu Party, I am afraid that it would not easily fall into the hands of Date Masaki, after all, Eo Castle is a bit out of reach for the Date family.

Captain Beetsuka Uemon is not a smart person, but he can survive in the troubled times, and he still knows some ways to survive, and now that the Niko clan is declining, he still knows some of the general trend of the rise of the Date clan, and when he heard the arrival of the Date army, where did he dare to slack off, and immediately welcomed into Eo Castle.

Where would Yoshida Masanari stay at Eo Castle, he understood that once the news of Date Army's entry into the province spread, the opportunity to deter Yonago Castle would be ruined if he wanted to take Otaka Castle by surprise, and once Otaka Castle mobilized enough peasants, the day of the destruction of the castle would be far away.

Captain Beetsuka Uemon did not object, and after listening to Yoshida Masanari's request, he immediately dispatched 300 people, and personally led the team to follow Yoshida Masanari to attack Otaka Castle, he understood that once Date entered the country of Boqi, the sky of the country of Boqi would change color, and if he didn't hug the thighs of the Date family, he was afraid that there would be no such a good opportunity in the future.

As soon as the combined forces came out, 1,100 soldiers and horses advanced quickly along the Hino River, and at an incredible speed, it only took half a day to arrive outside Otaka Castle. The defender of Odaka Castle, Niko Keihisa, looked at the Date army outside the castle holding the banner of the Bamboo Feather Sparrow in disbelief, and said in horror: "How is it good? ”

Otaka Castle is no more dangerous than Yonago Castle, but it is a flat mountain castle, and the defenders are only 400 people. If you add the female dependents, it will be five or six hundred people. Sure enough, it was as Niko Jingjiu had predicted. The arriving Date Army immediately began to deploy to attack Otaka Castle.

The beginning of April is the busiest time for spring ploughing. Date Mashiro issued a strategy for the kingdom of Boqi, which was originally not developed due to volcanic ash, and the peasants had to use 12 points of strength to obtain 8 points of output from the land. Based on this, he believes that once the country is attacked at this time, the price that the people of the country need to pay if they want to mobilize the peasants to give up their farm work and take up arms to defend the industry of the people of the country, and it will be more than just a meal of rice.

Strategically so, tactically. Kiyokawa Henghide, Yoshida Masanari, Kawasaki Yorihiro, Hosokawa Tsushimasa, and Takebai clan, who are located in Tsuruyama Castle in Mimasaka Province, believe that in order to attack the Boqi Kingdom, the first thing that needs to be seen is not the Hachiki Kingdom, but the Izumo Kingdom, first stabilize the strength of the people in the Boqi country, defeat the Shingu party members from the Izumo country, and take the opportunity to form an oppressive force against the Izumo country, forcing the Izumo country to react, improvising, and seeing the reaction of the cloud country to make the following deployment.

On April 7, Takamasa Hatakeda, the head of the Hahata clan, known as psoriasis, lived up to his reputation. Under the impetus of Yasumi Naomasa and Yusa Nobu, he once again wielded a rusty blade. Swung to the soft underbelly of Miyoshi Changqing and cut off the back road of Miyoshi Omi's Raiders.

On the same day, Yoshida Masanari, the culprit who brutally murdered Miyoshi Nagaitsu, the head of the Miyoshi trio, burned down most of the buildings in Kyoto, and caused the Great War in Kinai, brandished a butcher's knife in his hand and slashed at the unarmed leader of the Shingu Party, Niko Keihisa, a member of the unarmed Losers Alliance. Of course, the current leader of the Shingu Party is Niko Keihisa, and his supporters flattered him, which was tacitly acquiesced by Niko Keihisa, but not affirmed by Niko Seihisa and Niko Haruhisa, Yoshihisa and his son.

Yoshida Masanari's strategy to take Odaka Castle directly was arguably a decisive victory, and Niko Keihisa, a member of the Losers' Alliance, was visibly frightened when he learned that an army of the Date Army had come from outside Odaka Castle, and while guarding the castle, he asked other castles to come to the rescue.

Even Nizi Keihisa was frightened, not to mention those Shingu party members who had already frightened their courage when Nizi Haruhisa set out to prepare for the former country, Xiangyuan Mountain Castle and Sueyoshi Castle near Otaka Castle, and Tianwanshan Castle a little farther away, the gates were closed, and they seemed to have no intention of attacking. They were probably worried that they would be attacked by the Date army ambush after leaving the city.

As expected, Otaka Castle was not a fortified castle, and because it was Hirayama Castle, the altitude was very limited, so the defenders were not very strong, which was one of the reasons why Yoshida Masanari attacked immediately after arriving at Odaka Castle without resting.

At the same time, Odaka Castle was also the main east-west transportation route in the Middle Ages, and the military center of the Xiboqi Kingdom, and the capture of Odaka Castle was of great strategic significance to the Raiders of the Boqi Kingdom. There was no intention of leaving the city, and no matter how noisy and provocative the besieging army was, the city was still calm.

The Shingu Party was originally the strongest legion under the command of the Niko clan in Izumo Province, but after experiencing the turmoil in Izumo Province, the crusade of Niko Haruhisa, the chaos in the Shingu Party and other reasons, it has long since lost its bravery, and the reason why he does not go out of the city is not that Niko Keijiu does not want to, but that he does not have enough troops to fight.

At noon on 7 April, after hastily eating rice balls and resting for about half a cup of tea, Yoshida Masanari ordered his soldiers to put up bamboo fences, erect several layers, hide behind, and move forward slowly. According to the experience of various battles in the past, this is the best way to dodge bows and arrows and iron cannons. Therefore, when he decided to attack Otaka Castle, he prepared a lot of bamboo fences. In addition, in order to attack Otaka Castle, he also mobilized nearby farmers, and after paying a certain amount of rice, he bought some bamboo and wood, due to the years of war between the Shingu Party, the nearby farmers did not support the rule of the Shingu Party, of course, the biggest reason is that Bamboo and Wood can be exchanged for rice that no one is too small.

Since the shooting of Miyoshi Nagaitsu, Yoshida Masanari has an instinctive affection for the iron cannon as a cross-era weapon, and on this expedition, Date Masahiro prepared more than 200 excellent iron cannons for them, and equipped with enough ammunition. Before leaving for Otaka Castle, the commander-in-chief Kiyokawa Henghide equipped all the iron artillery troops to Yoshida Masanari's vanguard army, and when facing the tightly defended Otaka Castle, the use of iron cannons was undoubtedly the best way to attack, since it could shoot the enemy, deter the enemy, and reduce the losses of his own side.

Nagao Keori was originally a retainer of the Mimura clan, but after the fall of the Mimura clan, he switched to Date Masahiro, because of his special ability in iron artillery, he became a group leader of Date Masahiro's iron artillery corps, and this expedition was the general of this iron artillery unit.

Yoshida Masanari gave an order, and the Nagao Keiri team followed the soldiers holding bamboo fences towards Otaka Castle, and crushed towards Otaka Castle step by step, and when they reached the outer wall of Otaka Castle Sanmaru Fifty paces away, more than 100 bows and arrows finally began to shoot out in the castle.

The bamboo fence was a good guarantee for the safety of the soldiers behind him, most of the bows and arrows fell on the top of the bamboo fence, and only a few bows and arrows with excellent luck penetrated through the gaps in the bamboo fence, but they had also lost their accuracy and did not cause any casualties.

Nagao Keori shouted loudly, "The first row is ready." "Hundreds of iron cannons stretched out through the cracks in the bamboo fence, and then aimed at the wooden wall in the direction of the tiger's mouth." Shoot! At the sound of an order, hundreds of iron cannons roared at the same time, spraying projectiles and smoke.

At the roar of the iron cannon, the defenders of Mimaru Castle who were trying to shoot the evil bow and arrow in their hands again were knocked to the ground, rolling on the ground and screaming loudly, even some of the defenders hiding behind the planks, which were obviously unable to resist the penetration of the projectiles.

Date Army's iron cannons were excellent, fifty paces away, and the iron cannons were extremely lethal, and they easily broke through the weak planks at the head of the castle, and the walls of Otaka Castle were partially made of stone bars, but the towers above the walls were made of wooden planks, and it was obvious that these old planks could not withstand the bullets.

"Shoot!"

Date Masaki was of course aware of the use of the three-stage attack, but the Date army did not use the three-stage attack, but the same tactic as when killing Miyoshi Nagaitsu, the iron artillery in the front row was responsible for shooting, and the iron artillery in the back row was responsible for loading, due to the use of cartridge ammunition, this tactic was more effective than the speed and success rate of the three-stage attack, which required more coordination. There are casualties in the front row, and the iron gunners in the back row can quickly fill the gap, so the number of iron gunners in the front row is much smaller than the iron gunners in the back who are responsible for loading.

Another row of iron cannons spewed out a large amount of fire smoke, and the screams were heard again. (To be continued......)