Chapter 121 9. Confusion and Chaos in the Kanto Bureau

After reading the letter of Hosokawa Harumiya carefully, everyone in the Yamanouchi family was relieved. Now it was snowing heavily, and it was impossible to fight. Hosokawa Harumiya would have no problem at least in the next three months.

Now we just need to wait for the snow to melt next year, and we can lead troops to support. However, the road to Ueno Shinano was blocked by Murakami Yoshikiyo, and the road to Sagami Musashi was blocked by Hojo Ujinao. Both of them were not easy to deal with. We could only wait for Uesugi Terutora to send Echigo troops to enter Kanto, beat Murakami Yoshikiyo home first, and then conquer Matsuyama and Kawagoe to connect to Hachioji.

In addition, Takeda Harunobu's movements were very confusing. He helped his son-in-law restore Sagami, and withdrew his troops back to the armor after getting Tsukui. The main force was not used at all. He must have some plan in the spring of next year, which is difficult to guess.

After this wave of turmoil in the Hojo clan, Sagami was fully restored except for Tsukui, Musashi was mostly restored, and the allied forces of Shimosa were also linked up. It became a daimyo with 120,000 kan again. The key point is that there was no internal strife within the Hojo clan itself.

In the Warring States period, there were too many cases of brothers fighting each other, and uncles snatching the family business from their nephews was even more common. Mori Motobu was the one who frightened his nephew to death to take the throne. Satomi Yoshiyori's brother Satomi Yoshihiro, who was extremely brave and defeated the Hojo family at Mifuneyama, died at the age of forty. His family business was also usurped by his own brother.

However, the Hojo clan was very efficient. Oishi Ujiteru and Fujita Ujikuni, the uncles of Ujinao, did not change back to the name of Hojo, to show that they jointly assisted Hojo Ujinao in inheriting the family business. However, Hojo Ujinobu, the son of Hojo Nagatsuna (Genan), still kept the name of the Hojo clan, but the Hojo Nagatsuna's troops who lost the Izu clan were the weakest. (It is indeed very rare, and it is rare in the Warring States period. The powerful younger brother did not rise up to rebel against the rule of his older brother. Hojo Ujimasa and his group of brothers are considered to be very united.)

So it is said that if you don't cut the grass at the root, it will grow again in the spring breeze. Last time in the battle of Odawara, we should have listened to Uesugi Terutora's advice, all men over the age of fifteen committed seppuku, all those under the age of fifteen were sent to Zenkoji to become monks, and they took a one- or two-year-old child to get 20,000 kan for safety. If they did so, how could there be these messes now? (Of course, if this condition had been in place, it would have taken at least half a year to fight based on the level of Odawara Castle) I would have been sleeping peacefully at home.

The most urgent task is to contact Uesugi Terutora, the Kanrei Dansho Shobichi of Echigo. As soon as he takes action, at least half of the scoundrels in Kanto will immediately change their flags on the city wall. With these small fish as the vanguard, even though Hojo is making a lot of noise now, he may be beaten back to his original form.

And this time, we must eradicate all the evil. Anyway, Imagawa Yoshimoto kidnapped Hojo Sukegoro, and the Hojo family will not be extinct.

The only thing to worry about is that the Kai Prime Minister will be at peace. Uesugi Terutora will face the Hojo Imonshu's army of more than 10,000 and Kai Tiger's army of more than 10,000. In this case, the small fish can't be counted on. If Uesugi Terutora has to rely on himself, his 8,000 people will not be enough.

Kobayata returned home from Yamanouchi Yoshiharu's residence. The New Year's atmosphere in Fuchu Castle this year has faded a lot. Everyone knows the news that Hachioji was surrounded. However, people are not panicking. After all, no one has been able to break into Yamanouchi. Most people who have not suffered any pain are more anxious or uneasy.

Sitting next to the fire pit with Uncle Tsunayoshi, they don't have to worry about sending messengers to Uesugi Terutora. They think that next year there will definitely be a large-scale mobilization of 10,000 people in the whole country, but they don't know whether to take the Nakasendo or the Tokaido.

Taking the Nakasendo Road means cooperating with Nagano Yoshimasa and others to attack Murakami Yoshikiyo, and taking the Tokaido Road means attacking the flank and threatening the Hojo clan's Odawara, and then Uesugi Terutora will break through Kanto from Echigo again, and the two sides will meet in Sagami in victory.

Both methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Uncle Tsunayoshi believes that Hachioji is in danger, and in the end, Yamanouchi's army must try to quickly open the road to Shinano Ueno and then provide support. Kobayata estimates that Yamanouchi Yoshiharu will do the same, after all, it is safest to join Uesugi Terutora.

Wait, the New Year will soon pass, and once the heavy snow melts, the chaos in Kanto will re-emerge.

Yamanouchi is busy preparing for the battle in the spring of next year, but another envoy braved the heavy snow and came to the Yamanouchi Fuchū Castle.

He brought the news of the death of Kiso Yoshizasa, the famous lord of Shinano Kiso Valley. This descendant of the famous Genji family, known as the "romantic governor", has ended his life of more than 60 years.

This person was also a figure of the early Warring States period, conquering the east and the west, invading the south and the north, and soon passed half of his life. Later, he made peace with the local forces of Hida and joined the alliance of the daimyo of Shinano to fight against the Takeda clan, but was defeated again and again. He must have died unwillingly in frustration.

His son, Kiso Yoshiyasu, who inherited the position of the head of the family early, informed the lords of all directions in Shinano of the news of his father's death. There is such an advantage in inheriting the head of the family in advance, which avoids the turmoil in the family caused by the heir. The early inheritance also allows Kiso Yoshiyasu to cultivate confidants and control the army early. So he doesn't have to learn from Xiaosi and conceal the death of his tiger father for three years. He can tell everyone openly: My father is dead, and I am the head of the Kiso family!

In this way, the four great generals of Shinano have only Murakami Yoshikiyo left. Suwa Yorishige was imprisoned and died by Takeda Harunobu, Ogasawara Nagatsugu was beaten by Murakami Yoshikiyo and Takeda Harunobu and ran away, and Kiso Yoshi died of old age in his hometown. Shinano is now the only powerful clan, and Murakami Yoshikiyo's huge power of 80,000 kan is eyeing the Yamanouchi clan and the Takeda clan to the south.

As for the Kiso clan whose father died, they are no longer in your eyes. Ever since Takeda Shintora was held back by the four generals of Shinano, this group of people started to fight among themselves. The result now is self-evident. The Kiso clan is now miserable and only has a small territory of 7,000 to 8,000 kan left in Kiso Valley. The territories of Hida and Mino passed down from their ancestors have long been eaten up.

Minamoto no Yoshinaka was once a powerful figure who led the Eastern Kingdom army to Kyoto and entered the capital. He never thought that his descendants would become so miserable. They didn't know that according to the historical trend, the Kiso family would completely lose their territory and become a nobody after continuous internal and external struggles.

Anyway, the survival of such a small force is not what the Yamanouchi family, a big name with 50,000 to 60,000 kan, cares about. The Yamanouchi family only cares about the melting of snow in spring and going to Kanto.

In view of the severance of the roads between Shinano and Ueno, in addition to continuing to risk sending people to take these two roads, Yamanouchi Yoshiharu also sent people to pass through the Kiso Valley and Hida, directly to the Echizen half of the country nominally controlled by Uesugi Terutora, and then take a boat to Kashiwazaki, and then they can smoothly reach Kasugayama (about the problem of crossing Hida in winter. When the snow in Hida was the heaviest, there was a situation where the snow was more than three meters deep. In theory, going there in winter is a death sentence. But in history, in order to form an alliance with Tokugawa Ieyasu to fight Toyotomi Hideyoshi, In the past, dozens of people crossed the heavy snow in Hida and arrived at Hamamatsu to meet Tokugawa Ieyasu without any injury. Therefore, sending three or five envoys to cross Hida to Echizen is feasible in theory and in fact. As for the problem of three-meter-deep snow and more than ten degrees below zero, I don’t know how to solve it. If you want to know, you can ask Sasa Narimasa, thank you! )

These envoys have gone through a lot of hardships. People are almost frozen dry. Finally, they arrived at Kasuga Mountain, and the climate in the mountains is gradually warming up.

The surface of the frozen Lianchuan is still covered with snow, but it is flowing happily under the ice. The white snow piled on the forests of the Shinano Mountains is shaken off by the big trees from time to time, and a trace of green gradually appears in various places in the mountains.

Even Xiao Pingtai seems to hear the chirping of birds from the south in the morning. Spring has indeed arrived at its due pace.

Not because of manpower, it has arrived quietly, and the time for the Yamanouchi family to gather the three armies has also come.

Kobayata also pulled out the iron cannon foot soldiers who had stopped training for a winter to practice firing a few shots to prevent rustiness.

It seemed that the entire Yamanouchi was ready to go to Kanto, and the first military meeting after the New Year arrived as scheduled.

Kobayata watched all the acquaintances enter the city along the way. Everyone looked very motivated and was obviously ready to follow Uesugi Terutora to fight a big battle.

The Yamanouchi generals, who were full of fighting spirit, sat in a row in the still cold large hall, waiting for Yamanouchi Yoshiharu to issue the order for general mobilization, but heard Yamanouchi Yoshiharu say leisurely.

"His Highness the Kanrei of Echigo will not send troops to Kanto"

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