Chapter 461 20. Foreign Monks Are Good at Chanting

Xiao Pingtai, who was very annoyed, spent another whole day to smooth the road and suppress the local situation.

Someone asked, where are your cavalry? There is no cavalry in the 5,000-strong army? The question hit the point. There are cavalry, although not many, there are at least a hundred cavalry.

They are all powerful (money) servants. Who can take horses to the battlefield is really a poor guy.

But Xiao Pingtai was reluctant to do it. It’s not that he was afraid that the cavalry would be ambushed and killed in battle. On the battlefield, you must be prepared to die in battle. The main thing is the horse, which is too precious.

Ordinary war horses carry a person and walk slowly for a few hours a day. It is basically impossible for something to happen. As long as there is enough food, there is no problem. But on the battlefield, in the wild, there is no such nonsense as swords and guns.

In these dry fields, a palm-sized pit of three to five centimeters may suddenly appear. No one cares about it at ordinary times. But if the war horse runs, if you are not careful, you will break the horse hoof.

There are not many horses suitable for war in Japan, and their price is more than ten times higher than that of pack horses. If ten or eight horses are lost, the war will be a loss.

But these flies are really annoying, buzzing around Xiao Pingtai endlessly.

"Uncle, what can we do?" Xiao Pingtai felt that Uncle Tsunari, as an old shaman, might have some clever ideas. If there is no clever idea, a vicious plan will do.

"Logically speaking, it is too easy to defeat such an Ikki group. It's just that there are too many people and they are scattered all over the place."

Uncle Tsunari actually wanted to say that he would wipe them out all the way. In the words of a barber, "We will wipe them out head-on!" "We will wipe them out completely!" Give full play to the characteristics of the locust army.

The annoying thing is that these Ikko sect believers are everywhere, and they will rise up as soon as they are provoked. There are countless of them, and they have a sense of committing suicide. They are all superstitious about going to heaven after death, and they are willing to fight even if they have to abandon their homes and careers.

During the Kaga Ikki, the Ikko Ikki from all the Hokuriku countries directly supported the establishment of the Kaga Buddhist Kingdom with their entire villages and towns. They didn't want anything else, and their whole families went to the battle.

For such people, the simplest way is to destroy them physically. After they are destroyed, no matter how fanatical they are, it will be useless. They can just go to the Western Paradise to see the Tathagata Buddha.

But firstly, Kobayakawa is not such a violent person. He really can't do such a thing as destroying tens of thousands of people all the way.

Secondly, they are everywhere in the mountains and plains, and it is impossible to catch them. It is impossible to destroy them humanely. You can't disperse the 5,000 troops, right? If you disperse them, the Ikko Ikki will fail.

The principle of ants biting elephants is so simple. Every farmer in the Warring States period was a shrewd hunter. They dare not fight against large-scale group armies, but they are brave when they attack a few dozen scattered teams.

If it was just a team of dozens of people, even if they were all elite warriors, Akechi Mitsuhide's lesson would be bloody. "Samurai's true colors" are something that everyone has to participate in.

As the two were discussing, the front team came to report that they had arrived at Mikawa Hozoji Temple. It was another Ikko sect temple, and it was quite large.

As the soldiers were ready to fight, the army entered Hozoji Temple. There was no one in the temple. I think they had heard the news and all left. Naturally, the floating wealth and food were also transported away in advance, and nothing was left.

However, the heavy instruments and statues, as well as the copper furnace and the sundial, were obviously not moved and evacuated in time.

Anyway, the miscellaneous soldiers had to move even the straw sandals and wooden barrels. As long as it was something that could be moved, they would not refuse it.

Naturally, the generals led by Uncle Tsunayoshi began to set their sights on the main hall of Hozoji Temple. Unfortunately, there was no Buddha statue in the hall. Instead, a scroll of fine silk was used to write the words "Namo Bushigiku Tathagata" as a sacrifice.

On both sides of the main hall were statues of Arhats, as well as a large number of wooden niches with gold plating, and even the doorposts of the hall were gold plating. The big-headed soldiers really didn't have the skills to scrape the gold surface, but it didn't prevent them from contracting this job to the Hamamatsu merchants who followed them.

They had a way to scrape off the gold powder, so they could naturally do this business. Unfortunately, Sukezaemon, who had finally caught up, didn't have such a capable person under his command, and missed it again.

Koheita was still thinking about dealing with the Ikko Ikki, and found a step to sit down. In front of him were the cheerful and enthusiastic soldiers, who were carefree, as long as they could rob.

"Danzheng is very depressed!" Imai Meigoro walked over, with no one around him, and it was obvious that his men had all run away.

"Nothing, just thinking about how to deal with the Ikko Ikki." Xiao Pingtai symbolically gave up the step beside his buttocks and motioned for Kanai Aigoro to come over.

"Aigoro, do you have any good ideas?"

"There is no way to treat the symptoms, but there is a way to treat the root cause."

I have only heard of treating the symptoms but not the root cause, but Kanai Aigoro actually came up with a way to treat the root cause but not the symptoms. This made Xiao Pingtai happy, there is such a method?

"Why don't you tell me about it?" Xiao Pingtai was very interested.

"The way to use troops is to attack the heart first and the city second."

"Psychological warfare is first, and military warfare is second."

The two asked and answered, one intentionally and the other unintentionally. But Xiao Pingtai immediately realized that this was a psychological warfare.

"Then how do we win hearts and minds? What's the magic formula?"

"Danzheng also knows that the Nanman religion in Hamamatsu Castle is very popular, and its followers are increasing overnight."

Wow~~~~~

Xiao Pingtai suddenly realized that Christianity had spread faster and more successfully than the Ikko sect in history, and this was despite strong suppression and attacks from all sides.

From Arima to Gifu, in the vast land, it has gained hundreds of thousands of believers in just 20 to 30 years. Even famous names like Takayama Shigetomo and Arima Harunobu refused to change their religion and abandon their religion even when Toyotomi Hideyoshi was enraged by the ban on Christianity.

To a certain extent, these are cells that reproduce faster than "cancers".

But what about fighting fire with fire? Xiaoping couldn't imagine it. Hamamatsu's church gained the faith of thousands of people from scratch in less than a year. If Koheta had given him a little support at the beginning of its establishment, it would have reduced the difficulties for him in preaching.

Christianity and Yixiang Buddhism are entangled, that scene must be beautiful!

"Don't look at me like that, Tansei, it makes me hairy." Kanai Meigoro looked embarrassed when he saw Koheita's expression that he was an old yandere too.

"Hahahahaha, Minggoro, this is a wonderful plan, it can indeed cure the root cause."

To treat the symptoms, Xiao Pingtai can use strong medicine to burn it all away, but to treat the root cause, maybe this can really work.

"Hey, hey, don't tear down this hall for me, I can use it!"

The soldiers who had climbed up to the roof and were about to start demolishing the house looked at Xiao Pingtai and wondered why they would not demolish the house.