What made Miki Castle famous in the first battle was undoubtedly Yushiba Hideyoshi, that is, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who later replaced Oda Nobunaga as a generation of Tianjiao, that is, the one who tried in vain to invade Korea and seize the Ming Dynasty.

Historically, Hideyoshi Hashiba fought for two full years to attack Miki Castle, and the opponent he had to face was much more complicated than the opponent that Date Masaki had to face now, and Hideyoshi Hashiba surrounded Miki Castle on the one hand, and had to divide his troops to attack her supporters and retainers, and on the other hand, he had to deal with the Maori army that was pressing step by step, which was really restrained, and it took up to two years.

In this era, if the opponents that Hashiba Hideyoshi is going to face, Besshoji Nagaji's father and grandfather, want to use the methods used by their children and grandchildren to resist Date Masaki, then it can only be said that they are asking for their own death. Date Mashiro's opponent is actually much simpler, although Honganji secretly supports Miki Castle on the one hand, but still does not completely tear his face and openly make enemies with Date Masaki, he can only secretly volunteer Miki Castle, since it is secret, then Miki Castle has received very limited support, and even if there is nothing, on the other hand, after three or four years of adjustment, there are not many people who are willing to follow the other family on that dead end.

Of course, if the father and son of Bessho and Anji knew the process of the rapid fall of Kenbu Mountain Castle, they would not have the courage to hold on to Miki Castle, you must know that the catapult was a siege weapon excavated by Date Masahiro from the pile of old papers, and the attack on Tango Jianbu Mountain Castle used ten huge catapults, could they be confident that they could block the bronze cannon that was more powerful than the catapult. Of course, in their eyes, the bronze cannon should be called the collapse of the country. The country collapsed, the country collapsed. The country collapsed with one shot.

The reason why Honda Masanobu persuaded the father and son of Besho to rebel. The reason for this is that Miki Castle is a key area on the land route to Settsu Province, and it can be reached directly to Settsu Nambatsu through the Sanyo Road to the east. Moreover, after taking control of Miki Castle, Date Masahiro was able to completely advance his actual control area to the gate of Ishiyama Honganji, which was also the reason why Honda Masanobu persuaded Honganji to support Miki Castle at the risk of tearing his face with the Date family.

Date Masahiro arranged such a big situation, but he didn't play in person with his sleeves, and it was not yet time for him to appear in person. Miki Castle's rebellion gave him the opportunity to delay for a while, but of course this time could not be too long, and after the victory and defeat between the new temple forces and the old temple forces, it was time for Date Masaki to send troops to Shangluo. Just as in history, Hashiba Hideyoshi waited until Akechi Mitsuhide launched the Honnoji Revolution and killed Oda Nobunaga before raising troops to counterattack and launch the Battle of Yamazaki, breaking through Akechi Mitsuhide and then taking advantage of the situation to steal the world in one fell swoop, as for Oda Nobutada, it was just an accident, even if Akechi Mitsuhide did not kill Oda Nobutada, Hashiba Hideyoshi didn't mind secretly making him never able to open his mouth.

Attacking slowly was not a laissez-faire for Miki Castle, but Date Masaki's time was precious, as he gathered soldiers recruited from various regions. While training these soldiers began. These troops are generally between the ages of 16 and 40 and have undergone some cohort training. Able to shoot sideways and columns. Nearly half of them have traces of large-scale training, and the backbone elements are basically the old foundations that Date Mashiro has worked all the way through, but there are still nearly half of them who have not gone through such a large-scale assembly at all.

Outsiders often call the Wa State a village-level weapon fight, right to say yes, not right to say wrong, everything in the Warring States period is military first. This is similar to the Warring States period in ancient times in the Central Plains, where the peasants were always ready to fight in order to serve the soldiers, that is, the samurai. The peasants do not just take care of their own farming, they also have to train every once in a while, and even fight with hundreds of people in seven or eight days, and fight with hundreds of people once a month, and if they are unlucky, it is common for them to come to fight with thousands of people in a year, such as some peasants in areas known as the Tiger of Kai and the Dragon of Echigo, but they have fallen into blood mold, and it is not difficult to carry weapons to fight a battle of 10,000 people for more than half a year within a few years, and this kind of thing has come several times in a row.

Recruiting soldiers is a very difficult and troublesome thing in peacetime, but in the Warring States period, when everything was prioritized to serve the military, the Date family was the only overlord who controlled the western country, and as long as it was a young man with a dream, all members came to join. Of course, such young people with dreams are a minority after all, and most of them are still forcibly assigned to each township and village, and soldiers are also recruited according to the proportion of the number and stone height, which is also a method often used in the Warring States period.

In ancient times, the peasants of the Wa Kingdom only had a name and no surname, that is, they were not eligible to enter the household register, and if they wanted to enter the household register, they should at least have a name, and they did not even have a name, which is why the household registration system was opened only after the Meiji Restoration because for better management of the peasants. Of course, there is another group of people who do not have surnames, and that is His Majesty the Emperor, who has lived in Kyoto for thousands of years and is shivering. It's a very troublesome thing for Date Mashiro to recruit soldiers directly, but according to the proportions and the number of soldiers that a samurai encompanies according to the number of soldiers, this trouble can be solved for him in a certain sense, but in a certain sense, these recruited soldiers are vassals of the local samurai, not the direct subordinates of Date Mashiro.

Date knew that in order to get them all to agree with his orders alone, he would need to scatter the backbone members and start building a force, and soon a massive force of 45,000 men would be formed. Since Miki Castle can't be conquered in a short time, it's not that the Date army is incapable, and it is really easy for 45,000 people to attack a Hirayama Castle with only 1,000 people defending the city, especially in front of the Date army, which is equipped with a large number of bronze cannons.

It was quite embarrassing to be able to be unable to conquer Miki Castle in order to delay time, but Date Masahiro felt that this was a good opportunity to train his troops. His troops were all dispatched and headed straight for Miki Castle, knowing that thousands were scattered all over the mountains.

The pressure on Miki Castle for a while can be imagined, even Honda Masanobu, who specially contacted Miki Castle, was nervous with sweat on his forehead, and he was now hiding on a mountain far away from Miki Castle looking at the Date Army surging like waves, and sighed, "It's a lot." ”

The country is so big, even if even the most lame person can walk back and forth for a day. The 45,000-strong forward had just arrived at Miki Castle and began to build a camp. The palace army was still eating chazuke in Himeji Castle and waiting for orders.

Miki Castle is known as the strongest castle in Harima Province. It used to be the largest castle in the eight counties of Higashi-Harima, and of course it was not a small castle with low walls, but it was really a sparse and ordinary castle in the eyes of Date Masaki, and his vision became more and more tricky as time went by. Miki Castle seems to be a big city that can accommodate seven or eight thousand people, but now the defenders in the city plus the families of these defenders are only more than 3,000 people in total, and there are only more than 1,000 people who can take up arms to fight.

With a scale of more than 1,000 people, trying to resist the attack of 45,000 people is really a thing that makes you wake up from a nightmare. Know that he is not dealing with an army that is helpless against siege warfare. Needless to say, the catapult and the bronze cannon are about to lift the veil of mystery.

Date Masahiro thought about delaying time, but his striker Miyazawa Heihachi looked like he was determined to win, you must know that he was originally a garrison, but he was removed from his position when he was attacking Iwami Kuni, and now he finally got mixed up with the position of striker, how can he not want to perform well.

Faced with such a trembling castle, Miyazawa Heihachi felt that there was no need to wait for Date Masahiro to make a move, and it would not be better to conquer Miki Castle before Date Masahiro arrived. He commanded: "Herald! Prepare a ladder and set up a fire on the west side of the city. After the smoke on the castle, the siege begins! ”

Bundles of branches and grass were thrown into the crackling fire, and soon they were scorched and blackened by the flames. In the end, it reluctantly burned reluctantly. The stalks and leaves of the plants, which were still full of moisture, burned very poorly, and thick smoke rose from several high firewood piles.

The smoke quickly rose up, so that the outside of Miki Castle's walls was soon filled with smoke, and it was impossible to see in the distance.

The various organic matter contained in the plant stems and leaves were either directly roasted by the flame, or oxidation reactions occurred during the combustion, and the pungent or non-pungent smell drifted along the smoke to the head of Xicheng City. The limited defenders of the city were gradually unable to open their eyes. The heat was rising, and the sound of coughing and sneezing was increasing at the bottom of the city.

The vanguard led by Miyazawa Heihachi was not the Yasui people he was familiar with, but the backbone of them were all extremely experienced samurai, and seeing that the defenders at the head of the city were already in disarray, the assault troops immediately covered their faces with cloth and rushed into the smoke with a ladder.

Miki Castle is a flat mountain castle, and the main defense method is not its castle walls or the hill bag it is built on, but the Misuchi River around the city, but unfortunately just by virtue of how the defenders of Miki Castle are the opponents of the Date Army, the Misanghe River has already been abandoned by the defenders of Miki Castle after the arrival of the Date Army, and has to give up, even if they go out of the city to face the battle, they don't even know them, 45,000 people, and they are all elites dressed neatly equipped with weapons.

It looks like an elite, and nearly half of them are recruits. But compared to the more than 1,000 defenders in Miki Castle, they still dare not go out of the city, once people dare not go out of the city, they will be looked down upon, and Miyazawa Heihachi, who served as the striker, is not eye-catching.

Once it is looked down upon by Miyazawa Heihachi, a guy who eats people and does not spit out bones, Miki Castle will end its fate in a sad way, and there will be no chance of being ravaged by the bronze cannon, and the mystery of the bronze cannon will no longer be revealed.

Miki Castle is a flat mountain castle, after losing the protection of the Misugawa River, the passage to Miki Castle was opened, and the sound of coughing and sneezing became more and more under the cover of smoke, and five or six long ladders were erected in the blink of an eye, and the Date army who climbed the ladder covered their mouth and nose with a relatively sparse cloth, and the defenders at the head of the castle did not expect the Date army to adopt such a tactic, covering their mouth and nose with a thick coarse cloth, and feeling that they could not breathe. If you don't cover it, you can barely breathe, which is really difficult.

Not only the smoke caused by the combustion, but the Date army under the city kept firing arrows and cannons in the direction of the city, and of course the cannon fired iron cannons, that is, guns, creating more choking smoke, and the extremely bad environment reduced the difficulty of attacking the city a lot, and the Date army began to fight with the defenders for control of the outermost city wall in the first battle of Miki Castle.

This made Honda Masanobu who was hiding in the mountains clench his fists, thinking about whether to ask Honganji Xianru to give up the attack on Enryakuji Temple and other old temple forces, and instead unite with the old temple forces to deal with the powerful Date army. But after thinking about it, Honda Masanobu smiled bitterly, this is impossible to happen, if there is a glimmer of opportunity before the attack on Yamato Country, now, the two sides do not have a minimum of trust, how can they unite, I am afraid that it will be used by the old temple forces to unite the Date family at that time, and now I can only pray that Miki Castle's luck is good enough.

Miki Castle's luck?! If it were any of the other retainers of the Date family who took the position of striker, I am afraid that it would not have ended up so tragically, Miyazawa Heihachi did not know what Masahiro really thought, and the only thing he wanted was to be guilty and meritorious.

Date Masahiro, who was on the way, suddenly heard the news of Miyazawa Heihachi's onslaught on Miki Castle, his face became a little tense, and he sighed a little in his heart.

Date Masahiro didn't say what he thought in his heart, and he originally wanted to use Miki Castle to delay time, and he just thought about it, and he didn't announce it, but now he heard Miyazawa Heihachi attack the city in a smoke way, and asked casually: "I never thought that Miyazawa Heihachi had grown a lot after being dormant for a few years, and he knew how to use smoke." ”

Noyama Masaki guessed some of Date Masahiro's thoughts, but seeing that the latter did not intend to blame Miyazawa Heihachi, he asked quietly: "My lord, in this way, Miki Castle is afraid that it will not be able to hold on for a long time, do you want to attack Settsu Province?" ”

What Noyama Masaki meant, Masahiro knew, he originally wanted to use Miki Castle as a target to delay time, but he never thought that he would encounter this kind of thing just after leaving Himeji Castle, which made him a little surprised, but attacking Settsu Province was a complete tear in the face.

Zhengheng smiled dumbly and said, "You said that once the news of Miki City reaches Kinai, who is most anxious?" ”

As soon as his words came out, everyone present looked at each other and spoke one after another, most of them said that Honganji was obvious, but Kuroda Kanwei, who was at the end, said: "I'm afraid that the first one to be anxious is Ashikaga Yoshiteru, the shogun of Kyoto?" (To be continued.) )