Chapter 245 19. Fight for Kiso Castle
It's really funny to say that when Kiso Yoshiyasu and Kiso Yoshimasa rejected Yamauchi Yoshiharu, they were so arrogant. They had the momentum of preferring to die in glory to living in disgrace, which made people "admire" them.
It fully reflects the style of their family, the descendants of Minamoto Yoshinaka. In the face of power, they will never bow their heads, and they will fight to the end even if they fall to the street. They have the firm determination and supreme courage to fight against the "evil forces" to the end. With that state, that look, and that posture, the Oscar for Best Actor this year must go to you and your son.
Now Yamauchi Yoshikatsu's 6,000-plus troops have just appeared at the border, and have not yet crossed the mountain pass between Ise Mountain and Asera Mountain. They haven't even seen the shadow of Tsumago Castle, a branch castle of Kiso Valley. The whole Kiso Valley is already a scene of chaos, and it collapsed instantly without organization and planning.
The Yamauchi family is a behemoth, and the Kiso family is a small boat in the raging sea. A noble owner with a few thousand kan and a noble owner with 150,000 kan arm wrestling? None of the common people in Kiso Valley are fools. Goodbye! Goodbye! No need to see you off! Three consecutive examples of quality!
However, the Kiso family has been a local tyrant in Kiso Valley for so many generations, and it is not really for nothing. After experiencing the initial chaos, they quickly mobilized the military and civilians to arm the Kawabami Shu and other local organizations on the Kiso River. [Note 1]
On the other hand, the Kiso family also knew that it was time to bow down, and hurriedly sent envoys to Mino Naegi Castle [Note 2] and Hida Nabeyama Castle. One group asked for help from Toyama Tomotada of the Naegi Toyama clan, and the other group asked for help from Miki Yoshiyori of the Sakurado Miki clan. In short, it was just the same old saying of lips and teeth being cold, and generations of marriage.
On the other hand, they did not send anyone to ask for peace on the side of Yamanouchi Yoshiharu, and they still had some reason in their hearts. They knew that they had slapped Yamanouchi Yoshiharu in the face, and Yamanouchi Yoshiharu was coming with a large army, and would not give up easily.
Of course, Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu knew that the Kiso father and son would not sit and wait for death, but the soldiers still had to walk on their own two legs, and it was still a small valley path. It was not easy for a large army to pass through, and it was impossible to play some light cavalry and fast horses to conquer the city in one day. They could only slowly guard the baggage, guard against harassment, and advance carefully.
It seems that the Kiso family is not very successful in asking for reinforcements. Anyway, there is no sign of any other forces entering the Kiso Valley. The Kiso family is now a grasshopper after autumn, and it will not live long. Even if others really have some kind of alliance or in-laws with him, they will definitely not be able to control it at this time. Who is willing to do something like a mantis trying to stop a chariot or hitting a stone with an egg? None of the Chinese nobles who can survive to this day are naive and stupid.
In the end, the Kiso family had to give up Tsumago Castle and Suhara Castle built along the Kiso River Valley, and prepared to defend the main city of Fukushima Castle with all their strength. Of course, they would not leave the city to the Yamanouchi family. Before leaving, they would take everything they could take with them, and burn everything they couldn't take with them. It disgusted Xiao Pingtai a little. He had to deal with the ruins of the broken walls before he could build a military station for transporting food and supplies.
The Kiso family did this in history. The Kiso family in this dimension was attacked by Takeda Nobutoyo after betraying Takeda Katsuyori. He also directly abandoned the periphery and relied on the strong castle of Fukushima to resist until the reinforcements of Oda Nobutada arrived.
Another time was when Komaki Nagakute, the Kiso family betrayed their master again for glory. They sold out Tokugawa Ieyasu, surrendered to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and sent hostages. Can Tokugawa Ieyasu be reconciled? Definitely not. But the army he sent was also defeated at Fukushima Castle, allowing the Kiso family to survive until the day of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's political victory.
First of all, this shows that Japan's bad wars were really bad, and secondly, it also shows that this method is useful. This is actually a very common situation in the Warring States Period. When he entered and exited Kanto for the first time, Hojo Ujiyasu completely abandoned all the branch castles in the periphery and concentrated his forces to defend the world-famous strong castle Odawara.
The Kiso clan's military strength was much inferior to that of Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu, so the Kiso father and son had no intention of splitting up their forces to block the enemy step by step. So in the end, the Kiso clan mobilized about 2,000 miscellaneous soldiers to enter Fukushima Castle and defend it to the death, in order to make a last-ditch effort.
Seeing that the Kiso clan had happily abandoned its outer strongholds and withdrew its troops and supplies, the Yamanouchi army naturally enjoyed their leisure. They followed the river valley across Komagome Ridge and arrived at the foot of Fukushima Castle.
As the main castle of the Kiso clan, Fukushima Castle naturally has its merits. In addition to Fukushima, there are Tamadera Castle, Kaminodono Castle and Kurokawa Castle built on the left and right. As the branch castles of the main castle, the important retainers of the hereditary generations, the Chimura clan, the Yamamura clan and the Shikawa clan, divided their troops into hundreds to defend.
At the same time, the Fukushima Castle built on the mountain also relies on the water of the Kiso River to ensure that there will be no water shortage in the city. In addition, the autumn harvest has just been completed, and the food stored in the city is enough for the soldiers to eat for half a year. Except for the slightly lack of salt in the inland mountains, the preparations in the city are still sufficient.
All right, according to the routine of Japan's bad war, leave the main elite troops to monitor Fukushima Castle, and dispatch each detachment to eliminate the branch castles attached to the hills around the main castle.
Kobayata came this time to manage logistics. Although he also brought more than 300 people, there were more than 50 iron cannon foot soldiers alone, but I'm sorry, our Kobayata is not going to fight this time.
The main contributor is Hosokawa Saijo, and most of the troops he led were soldiers of the Takeda family in the past two years. You can say that Yamanouchi Yoshiharu deliberately consumed them, or Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu wanted to make his good brother meritorious. Anyway, the task of dismantling the tortoise shell wrapped outside Fukushima Castle was given to Hosokawa Saijo and his Suwa Ina group.
However, this time, Hosokawa Harumiya sent his old partner, the old samurai who accompanied Hosokawa Saijo in his first battle. After not seeing him for so many years, this old man with the nickname Matsumi-sai is still strong and healthy, and he doesn't look hunched at all.
When he called out to his soldiers, he was still the same as when he ordered Kobayata back then. He was well organized, but also rigid and stubborn.
However, it was still enviable to have such a retainer, after all, he didn't have to worry about many military affairs. Unlike Kobayata, who was busy with the logistics of the entire army of 6,000 people, he also had to take care of the miscellaneous affairs of more than 300 people.
"It would be great if I could have a helper who was a real samurai!" Kobayata looked at the heavily guarded Fukushima castle group and once again lamented the sadness of having no one under his command.
[Note 1]: It was not the group of Hosuga Koroku who helped Kinoshita Tokichiro build the Sumomatari One Night Castle. After the wood in Kiso Valley was cut from the mountains, it would be tied into rafts and float downstream. In fact, after the wood floated over a section of the river, it had to be "escorted" and "inspected" by someone else. These Kawanami people were road bullies and river bandits along the river, etc., and also included ordinary people along the way.
[Note 2]: The people of Naegi Castle were called Naegi Toyama clan, and the people of Iwamura Castle were called Iwamura Toyama clan. Nobunaga's aunt, who later married Akiyama Nobutomo, was from the Iwamura Toyama clan. Although they were Toyama clans, they were not the same kind of people, and they had many dirty dealings with each other.