Chapter 643 49. Encircling Edo Castle From All Sides
There is another matter to be dealt with in Kawagoe Castle. Although the more than 1,000 Hojo soldiers who were previously surrounded in Koanji Hall were Fujita Ujikuni's rear guard, or even abandoned, it is undeniable that they were a thousand-man elite force.
Otherwise, Fujita Ujikuni would not have left them in Koanji as the rear guard to delay the Yamauchi Army from Koshuguchi. Such an army would always be a thorn in the back.
Yongtsu Ujiya took the initiative to propose that he should persuade this army to surrender. As long as they save their lives, everything will be fine.
In this way, the Yamauchi Army freed up another 3,000 men. Now the army is well manned. Kobayata set up a general station in Kawagoe and began to prepare for the siege of Edo Castle and the possible siege of Odawara Castle.
No one expected the change in the battle situation this time. Kobayata had no preparations before he came. Not to mention weapons and ammunition, he only prepared more than 10,000 people for a month.
Otherwise, he would not have compromised with Yongtsu Ujiya to save the food and grass in Matsuyama Castle and sent all the miscellaneous soldiers and civilians back to Sagami Province.
The war situation changes rapidly, and there is no time to transport them from Shinano Fuchu Castle.
The more than 6,000 Hojo who were just driven away would naturally not be allowed to enter Edo Castle. As the fulcrum city of Minami Musashi, Edo Castle has strong defenses and rich reserves. Sending people in to defend is a fool, and it is troublesome enough to have Oishi Ujiteru inside.
The other units of the coalition naturally spread out in a hurry to suppress (rob) the Hojo elements in Minami Musashi and gradually advance to Edo Castle. Along the way, the branch castles belonging to the Hojo clan and the branch castles belonging to the Ota clan defected and surrendered, or abandoned the city.
Today Akatsuka Castle was broken, and tomorrow Itabashi Castle was opened. Inazuke Castle and Setagaya Castle (both are districts of Tokyo now) were taken out one by one. The coalition camp outside Edo Castle was more than a mile away, and the army covered the sky.
As a strong city built by the ancient and modern famous general Ota Dokan, it has gone through decades of ups and downs and has been renovated and reinforced for generations. In history, when Tokugawa Ieyasu entered the city, it was already the most prosperous town in Southern Musashi.
(Yes, there should be a map of Edo Castle in the Warring States Period. But it is not here, hahahahahahaha...)
The population of the town under the castle is over 10,000, and it relies on the water transportation of rivers such as the Tama River and the Tone River to connect most of Kanto, and build a solid moat with a huge and complex water system. However, this river water is salty water that can only be drunk by livestock, and you need to carry water from two miles away to drink water.
This battle was also strange, no wonder Uesugi Asahi and Uesugi Asayoshi failed many times in attacking Edo Castle. It was also the first time that Kobayata encountered a battle where he needed to carry water to supply the siege troops. The drinking water problem of 45,000 people can drive people crazy!
It is really a lifelong learning. In war, it is not about siege, but about water supply. Not to mention Kohirata, no general in the Yamanouchi Army had ever encountered this.
In the past, people outside the city tried to cut off the drinking water in the city. Now, there is nothing to do in the city, and the water outside the city cannot be drunk. The besieging army actually has to go out to find water.
The city is not big, but there are many problems!
The main camp of the Yamanouchi Army is in the Hongo Terrace northwest of Edo. The coalition forces are stationed along the upper and lower Pingchuan (the future Sumida River), encircling the three sides of the land of Edo.
In response to the call of the Yamanouchi Army, Satomi Yoshihara and Satomi Yoshihiro also came with a large army and navy. They were beaten up by the Hojo family before, and now their power has declined a lot. But even so, they still brought 4,000 navy and army.
The water outside Edo Castle was covered by the Boso navy, and the Satomi army went to the Atago Mountain southwest of Edo Castle. At this point, the siege of the entire Edo was completely completed.
Let's discuss how to attack the city!
First of all, Edo Castle was built on a plateau. It was not actually a flat castle, but a so-called Hirayama Castle. It was not small, but not big either.
There were dozens of meters high cliffs on one side of the city, so it was better not to mention it. The other two sides were surrounded by the tributary of the Tama River, the Pingchuan River, so it was impossible to deploy the army. Only one relatively gentle slope was left, where the army could be deployed head-on.
Cannons were no longer useful, which was annoying!
Secondly, it was the same problem as that of Oshi Castle. There were a lot of paddy fields and swamps under the city, which needed to be filled.
On the contrary, the more than 4,000 Hojo troops in the city had the least problems! No matter how famous Oishi Ujiteru was, he had no way to raise the morale of the soldiers who had just experienced a great defeat in a short period of time.
The people in the city were absolutely panicked, especially now that they were surrounded by the overwhelming coalition forces by land and sea. There were no soldiers to rescue them from outside, and no will to hold on inside. It was just like a small boat in the raging sea.
Strangely, Fujita Ujikuni, who withdrew his troops from Shimotsuma, did not enter the city. It might be that the two sides just happened to diverge. Oishi Ujiteru first retreated to Iwatsuki Castle, but found that Iwatsuki could not be defended. When he retreated to Edo, his brother had already fled to Tamanawa Castle.
"Is there any news about Hojo Sagami-dono?" Kodaira looked around the Edo Castle defense from a distance and asked Murakami Yoshimitsu.
"Just arrived, it is said that he finally escaped into Odawara and has joined Fujita's troops. For the time being, I don't know whether he will hold on to Odawara or send troops to rescue Edo."
"Did he escape?" He couldn't help but sighed a pity.
In the first half of the Battle of Oshi Castle, the coalition forces and the Hojo army were basically half and half, and each suffered more than a thousand casualties. In the second half, the Yamanouchi reinforcements arrived and the Hojo army was defeated. However, even if they were defeated, the losses were not too great.
About a thousand people were captured by the people of Oshi Castle on the spot, and two or three hundred were killed. The coalition forces captured only more than 3,000 people. The biggest achievement of the Yamanouchi army that fell behind along the way was naturally to use Ujiya Ujiya, and the rest of the various forces also captured more than 2,000 people.
Of the 35,000 Hojo troops, including those killed and captured, only about 7,000 fell into the hands of the Allied Forces.
The rest all escaped!
Forget about the ones who were killed, the ones who were alive were all packed up and sent to the Umabashi job market. They must not have redeemed themselves and returned home yet, so there is no need to discuss anything.
Hojo didn't suffer any serious injuries in this battle, he just lost suddenly. If Oishi Ujiteru in Edo Castle still has a chance, he will definitely write about it in his memoirs when he is old, saying that I lost the Battle of Oshi Castle unfairly!
If we let Hojo go this year, he will be a hero again next year!
No matter what, we must beat Hojo half to death this year, and we can't give him a chance to breathe!
"There is another piece of news, sent by His Majesty Totomi. The Hojo army withdrew from Kokokuji, but left a lot of troops in Fukasawa Castle. His Majesty Totomi is attacking Kokokuji Castle and will be able to conquer it soon, but it may not be easy to join forces with Odawara."
"We haven't taken down Edo Castle yet. Write back to His Majesty Totomi and don't be greedy for credit. The most important thing is to take Suruga and stabilize the border!"
"In addition, there is news sent by Satomi Keibu-dono that Chiba, Hara, Takagi and others in Soshu seem to want to rescue Edo. Please send troops to guard the Kokufudai area to prevent the Soshu troops from entering."
"Kokufudai? It's a dangerous place!" Kobayata nodded, ready to pick a brave and careful person to guard it.
"Danzhengdanzheng! An envoy has been sent from Edo Castle!"