Chapter 6 6. Seeing the Enemy Inside and Outside the City

The victory of the Shimoyama Battle greatly boosted the morale of the Yamauchi Army. From Shimoyama Castle to Ejiri Fuchu Castle, various Chinese lords opened their castles without any injuries.

Anyway, you come to you, he comes to him, whoever you come to is not a good thing to do. No matter who wins or loses, there are always thugs to fight for their lives. The fence-sitters are numerous and powerful, just like leeks, they will grow again in the spring breeze.

The villages and settlements along the way often brought rice balls, sake, and pickled fish to the Yamauchi Army. It’s not that the Yamauchi Army is so popular, but it’s just the survival wisdom of farmers in troubled times.

Xiao Pingtai didn’t know about this at all. He only knew that he didn’t have to eat fried rice and rice porridge. The freshly made rice balls with rice bran and pickled fish tasted much better than that stuff.

And the Shirakawa side seemed to have given up several branch castles in order to gather strength. The bandits and evil gangs along the way, and the disgruntled local samurai pretended to be guides, and finally gathered an army of about 600 to 700 people and gloriously became the main family's Jiangji Xianfangshu.

Various free settlement certificates and county magistrate exemption certificates were issued indiscriminately. A wild samurai (to put it bluntly, he became a bandit and pulled a group of accomplices to make a fortune) actually won 300 kan with more than 50 well-equipped infantrymen, just waiting for the Yamanouchi family to take him back home in glory.

Kobayata naturally didn't have such a good thing as a fence-sitter. He still held his two flags and followed the large group to the Jiangji Fuchu Castle in 11 routes.

Three days later, a prosperous port city appeared in front of them on the narrow plain along the coast. The well-maintained harbor was leaning in front, and the moat connected to the Lianchuan River was surrounded in the back. The originally densely populated town could not see how many townspeople there were, and the ships in the port had been collected in the harbor in the city.

Kobayata observed Ejiri Castle from a distance. You know what? The Japanese are really good at building castles. So during the Keicho War, the fame of the Japanese castle could be spread to Beijing.

It is no wonder that the Yamanouchi family could not conquer it after several expeditions. Kobayata also saw that the biggest reliance of the Shirakawa family was to build a city with the sea and the river behind. Apart from anything else, although the land on the coast is partially salinized, the mud and sand washed down from the upstream has created a small impact plain with fertile soil and sufficient food.

In addition, with the large and small ships that the navy can come and go freely, it is easy to obtain troops and food supplies at any time. If his land and water transportation cannot be cut off, this time it is very likely to return in defeat.

However, the samurai above will worry about the messy battle. Kobayata only has to do the hard work of building earth walls and fences.

Through exchanges with farmers recruited from the local area, it is also learned that there are 2,000 soldiers and horses in the city, and 400 to 500 navy soldiers operating dozens of ships.

The Yamanouchi family only had a three-fold advantage, and no one knew where the confidence came from.

A few days before the camp was set up, everyone was repeating physical labor. Digging up roads, erecting fences, and releasing a large amount of water in paddy fields, gradually cutting off all land routes to Ejiri Castle, but there was still a water route to the city.

On the afternoon of the sixth day, the answer full of confidence finally appeared. The Boso navy raised sails and paddled large oars, leading the way with an Atakabune, with the big words "Hachiman Daibosatsu" written on the sail. There were more than a dozen Kanbune cruising around behind, and the remaining hundreds of Kobana flew forward and backward.

Everyone rushed to the shore to watch several Kobana rowing over, and dozens of people escorted several samurai-looking people to get off the boat and go ashore, and the Yamanouchi family head Hosokawa Harumiya also greeted him under escort. After a conversation, his entourage presented two wooden boxes.

Kobayata recognized that it was the wooden box where chess pieces and gold were stored at home, and each box was full of more than a thousand taels. As expected, the brilliant and pleasing golden light after opening the box made the warriors of the navy smile.

That night, a group of dozens of Shirakawa soldiers came out of the city to surrender, and there were many scattered ones who escaped from the city.

The next day, dozens of ships of the Shirakawa navy, led by five or six sekifune, rushed towards the Boso navy.

The Yamauchi army was deployed on the beach and watched this medieval naval battle. Except for Kobaya, sekifune and Ataka are both paddle-sail dual-purpose ships (of course, there are also pure paddle boats). Sekifune is a medium-sized ship popular in the Seto Inland Sea, which is dotted with islands. In order to collect ship mark fees, the pirates put their ships across the islands between the routes, and it became a sea pass, hence the name. Ataka is like a house on the sea, but it is a large ship.

The Boso navy was obviously skilled and powerful. The casting rods on the ship kept throwing stones, and Kobaya attacked in groups to surround the Shirakawa sekifune. In the distance, bows and cannons were firing at each other, while Ataka was charging through the Shirakawa navy, wantonly sinking Shirakawa Kobaya.

As for the famous roasted fire arrows, sorry, that is the secret of Mishima Murakami, and Kobayakata will never see it. The battle lasted less than an hour, and the Shirakawa army's Guan ships were completely annihilated, either captured or sunk or burned, and most of the Kobaya were also scattered. At this point, Ejiri Castle was completely cut off from internal and external traffic.

Similarly, fighting to promote peace, the brutal siege should begin.

Please rest assured, the manuscript is more than 150,000 words!