Chapter 194 37. Nobunaga Detoured to Azuzaka

Saji Nobunaga (Nobunaga's brother-in-law), who accompanied Yamaguchi Kyotsugu and his son to defect to the Imagawa party, also began to feint at the request of Taiyuan Zen Master. The frequent mobilization of various military forces on the Chita Peninsula temporarily made Yamaguchi Kyotsugu of Narumi Castle determined to defend the city.

The situation in the entire Minami Owari area suddenly became confusing, and the territory of Chita County almost temporarily fell to the Imagawa party. But at this moment, it was Oda Nobunaga of the Oda party who maintained the offensive in Chita County, and the Imagawa party seemed to be just responding to the moves.

Unlike Nobunaga's aggressive and proactive attack, Taiyuan Xuezhai Zen Master gathered an army of 8,000 people and rushed to Okazaki Castle in just two days, and then Nobunaga rode around to judge Nobunaga's next move. But he also stopped his march and did not show that he was going to rescue Narumi Castle immediately.

The masters of both sides fought, and the others were just pawns. Now the two were still in the trial stage of soldiers going out of the boundary and patrolling the river, both holding the main force in their hands and waiting for the opponent to make the first move.

Nobunaga saw that the Zen Master Taiyuan Xuezhai on the opposite side did not lead the army to advance quickly to support the crumbling city of Minghai. While he continued to look for opportunities, he did not have time. More than 5,000 people from Owari also gathered under his command one after another to listen to his orders.

Now the outbreak of the conflict between the Oda and Imagawa parties seemed to be imminent, but Nobunaga actually gave up the idea of ​​sieging and attacking the reinforcements, and no longer entangled in the isolated city of Minghai. After a feint, leaving Sakuma University with 500 people to besiege Minghai in the nearby castles, the entire army actually retreated.

This was far beyond the expectations and judgments of all parties on the battlefield. Therefore, Zen Master Taiyuan temporarily stopped sending scattered teams to harass Owari, and stopped in Okazaki. He sent his capable generals, Asahina Taishin and Asahina Taicho, to lead the Sakai, Ishikawa, Honda, Okubo and other Mikawa people in the Higashi Mikawa area, totaling 2,200 people, as the vanguard to explore the Yabiki River.

Although the method of responding to changes with the same is conservative, it is safer. As long as the army is in hand, Taiyuan Xuesai Zen Master will be invincible. And he can support all parties at any time and centrally dispatch. To be honest, Minghai Castle is very important, and Taiyuan Xuesai Zen Master wants it very much, but he doesn't care whether Yamaguchi Kyotsugu and his son die or not. If they die, they die, and it will be easier for him to take over the territory.

On this side, Nobunaga came up with such a dragon's tail, and he actually reached Higashi Mikawa Kariya Castle in one day and one night. The lord of the city, Mizuno Nobumoto, became the flag general of the Oda clan in Mikawa as early as the Oda Nobuhide era. Now he has received Nobunaga's notification, gathered 500 people, and the two armies merged. Then the Oda army rested in Kariya Castle for a night to recuperate.

The next day, Nobunaga's troops suddenly appeared at the foot of Anxiang Castle. There were only two or three kittens in the castle. Even the castle lord Okabe Masayuki appointed by Imagawa Yoshimoto had already taken his soldiers to Okazaki to join Taiyuan Xuezhai Zen Master.

So, facing the 6,000 Oda troops and the internal response of Mizuno Tadashige, the younger brother of Mizuno Nobumoto in the castle, Anxiang Castle, the most important town in Higashi Mikawa, was taken down in one go. In this way, Oda Nobunaga's actions were completely exposed, and even a blind man could see that Nobunaga wanted to cut off Taiyuan Xuezhai Zen Master's retreat route in a roundabout way.

Anxiang Castle is to the west of Okazaki. With Anxiang Castle as the starting point, Oda Nobunaga only needs to send out an army to block the Tokai Street, then Okazaki will be in a dilemma. More than 8,000 Imagawa troops cannot be supported by just one Okazaki Castle. With people eating and horses chewing, it won't take long for the Imagawa army to run out of food. The result of the army without food is self-evident.

Oda Nobunaga's appetite is really big. If Nobunaga eats up 8,000 Mikawa and Suruga people in one go, what a guy! Imagawa Yoshimoto is definitely going to destroy the country soon. Half of the army will be cut off. At that time, even gods can't save him.

Let alone Imagawa Yoshimoto, it would be the same for anyone to be wiped out with 8,000 people. Not to mention 8,000 elite soldiers, even 8,000 strong men, there are only 10 million people in Japan, which is almost one-thousandth of the total population of the country. This is still a local conflict between local states. He may only have 30,000 or 40,000 strong men in a state. It's not playing house.

Taiyuan Zen Master just received the news that Anxiang had fallen and more than 6,000 Oda troops had already marched into the streets of Tokai. The old monk reacted immediately, abandoned Okazaki Castle and all its branches on the spot, and notified the Asahina father and son on the border to retreat in an orderly manner from the Yabiki River, ready to be finished with the entire army at any time.

Chasing and chasing, the two armies raced against time, and finally in the afternoon of that day, the two armies suddenly encountered each other at Mikawa Azuzaka.

The terrain of the entire Azuzaka is not fragmented. The entire battlefield is on a gentle slope, low in the west and high in the east, but the key point of the battlefield is that there is a small hillside on the side of Azuzaka. Whoever can seize this commanding height will gain the initiative on the battlefield.

And Azuzaka is a place, hahahahahaha, everyone is familiar with it. Azuzaka Seven Spears, there were seven brave warriors under Oda Nobuhide in this place, leading the Oda army to defeat first and then win, adding a strong stroke to Oda Nobuhide's martial arts.

Although Taiyuan Xuezhai Zen Master was the one who retreated in a hurry, he led his troops to retreat from Okazaki Oji Street, marching faster, and actually occupied a slightly higher place on the east side of Azuzaka to stop. Nobunaga spent a lot of time attacking Anxiang Castle, so he arrived at the battlefield a little later and was unfortunately in a position to attack from the west.

But this did not prevent Nobunaga from patrolling the battlefield with high spirits at this moment. Without looking too much, he also found the small hill on Azuzaka with a keen sense of battlefield.

At the same time, the main camps of the Imagawa and Oda armies waved their flags. Maeda and Mori of the Oda side went out to attack the hillside, and Okabe and Udono of the Imagawa side also shouted and began to charge towards the nameless hillside.

Relying on the geography, the Imagawa army took the lead in climbing the earthen slope, and the Imagawa two-hiki and red bird patterns were established one after another. Okabe Masayuki had just lost Anxiang Castle and was angry. Now he finally found an opportunity to compete with the Oda army head-on and get back the lost ground. After occupying the top of the hill, they immediately placed wooden shields and bamboo bundles, and then a row of archers began to draw bows and shoot arrows to prevent the Oda army from climbing the hill.

When Mori Yoshinari and Maeda Toshiie saw that the Imagawa army had taken the lead, they would not allow the mission to fail. On the one hand, they requested to send reinforcements to join the team attacking the hillside, and on the other hand, they began to attack the Imagawa army from both sides.

When Taiyuan Zen Master saw that the mountain was successfully seized, he felt relieved. The Imagawa army also recovered from the tension of the sudden retreat, and the troops of each unit took up their positions, showing the awe-inspiring demeanor of the Kaido strongmen.

Last week's results were unexpected, very unexpected, and I was not prepared, so I will only update three times.