Chapter 68 27. The Most Precious Treasure of the Wu Family Is Loyalty and Bravery

Kobayata hurried out of the line and saluted respectfully to all the big men present. Nagao Kagetora and Kobayata had met once before in Kyoto, so he smiled and nodded and let Kobayata speak freely.

Kobayata was not in a hurry. He looked at Nagano Yoshimasa first. This man was also an acquaintance. It was almost a friendship that they had fought side by side. Of course, they were hostile on the surface, but they were on the same side in their hearts. The Battle of Numata was Nagano Yoshimasa's direct retreat, which became the last straw that broke the camel's back for Hojo Yasumoto. Nagao Kagetora had a share of the credit for getting Ueno.

Kobayata asked him very seriously: "What does Shinano no Kami think is his most precious thing?"

Nagano Yoshimasa thought for a moment, as if he suddenly understood something, and said proudly: "The family has the Ueno Sixteen Spears headed by the sword saint Ueizumi Ise no Kami, and ten thousand Minowa people."

Kobayata asked Nagao Kagetora again, saying: "What about you, Lord Danzheng?"

Nagao Kagetora laughed heartily, "Of course it is the eight thousand Echigo warriors under my command, even the swords and horses worth billions are incomparable."

Kobayata asked the generals present again, everyone felt that the loyal samurai foot soldiers were their most precious wealth. No kind of treasure can compare to it, it is incomparable.

So Kobayata took the opportunity to ask which is more important, 500 loyal and brave samurai foot soldiers or 500 pack horses? Everyone said that it was naturally 500 samurai foot soldiers.

Everyone thought without hesitation, after all, in such a chaotic world, as long as there is a loyal soldier, who is afraid of not having wealth and land? As long as the more loyal people there are, the more wealth and territory there will be. This account will be clear immediately after a little calculation.

Koyata smiled and said to everyone, then everything will be solved. He asked Nagao Kagetora to collect at least 500 pack horses, 10,000 rice bags, 3,000 cloths, and collect all the large and small vehicles, and convert them into horse-drawn four-wheeled carts, and prepare at least 500 vehicles.

Then let the soldiers shovel soil to fill the rice bags, and all the cloth is made into things like saddle bags, and all are filled with soil.

When they heard about filling soil, everyone knew that they were going to fill the trenches, but the price was really not small, which made people feel painful. Nagao Kagetora looked at Koyata with a considerate eye, and asked Koyata seriously: "Is the Danzheng completely sure? This price is not small."

Koyata naturally wanted to reassure them: "Your Highness Danzheng must be at ease, if it is completely sure, there will be no mistakes."

"Okay! I leave it all to you!" Nagao Kagetora did not hesitate, and he trusted his people.

Kobayata then suggested to Nagao Kagetora that they should mobilize brave and powerful samurai foot soldiers, especially those who can use longbows and heavy arrows, on the grounds that they need to be covered when filling the trenches. It would be best if they were sharpshooters who could shoot arrows directly at vital points such as the eyes or neck from 50 meters away.

There should be many people who can use bows and arrows. There are at least 15,000 samurai and servants here, and all of them have been practicing swords, guns, bows and arrows since childhood. How can they not know how to make a living?

This suggestion actually fits Nagao Kagetora's intention. He also wants to understand the level of the elite samurai strength of the Kanto gangsters. And comparing archery is a very important indicator, so at least he can get a rough idea.

Then he recruited all the iron gunners in the 110,000-man army. It was very pitiful that there were less than 3,000 guns, and only 2,000 showed up. So Kobayata asked Nagao Kagetora to order these iron gunners to gather and prepare to suppress the city head later. These hooligans have not yet realized that the iron cannon will shine in the future. If they don't seize the opportunity now, they will be a dish on someone else's table in the future.

Nagao Kagetora also gave face and ordered the various armies to hand over the iron cannons and iron cannon soldiers and gather in Nagao Kagetora's central army to obey orders. It is convenient for him to unify the command and dispatch. Otherwise, you have ten iron cannons and he has eight iron cannons. If they can't fire in unison, they will be useless. Is it just to put it somewhere and hear a crackling sound? Is this a joke?

Then thousands of bamboo bundles were made and distributed to the iron cannon troops. This is what it should be. Everyone also understands that iron cannonmen often need to shoot at close range to be effective, so they need wooden shields and bamboo bundles as cover to resist shooting. Besides, this thing is not difficult. Take a bundle of straw, then wrap it around with split bamboo, and tie it with a rope. Basically, the stray bullets of bows and iron cannons can't penetrate it. It feels more effective than the armor on the body.

The military meeting ended here. Nagao Kagetora played the villain for once. In addition to mobilizing the iron gunners of various armies and the skilled samurai who could use bows and arrows, he also forced those small fish to cut trees and bamboo, make wooden shields and bamboo bundles, dig soil and pack them, snatch vehicles everywhere for modification, and hand over different numbers of pack horses. In line with the principle of making the best use of things, he also made them go to the streets outside Odawara Castle every day to curse.

The small fish complained a lot. If they hadn't been fed two meals a day, they might have scattered like birds and beasts as in history. With the way these people behaved, without Nagao Kagetora, what great things could they accomplish.

Nagao Kagetora also began to gather all the generals according to Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu's strategy, set up wine and sing. Every day, he dressed up in splendid clothes and hunted dogs and hawks in the neighborhood. He was so happy. After hunting wild boars and deer, he held an open-air barbecue party, and he looked like he was not in a hurry to attack the city.

Naoe Kagetsuna's mission seemed to have achieved remarkable results. After that, the Imagawa clan really sent out its elite cavalry and infantry. The Suruga navy almost wiped out the Izu navy at Izu Oki, and the Imagawa clan swallowed up the two Izu counties like picking them up.

Satomi Yoshiyasu was also very clear about this. The Boso navy arrived as scheduled soon, and frightened the Sagami navy into hiding in Odawara Port. There was a gap in strength. They were so scared by the Boso navy for so many years that they didn't dare to go out of the port to fight.

So more than ten grain ships from Ejiri kept coming to Sagami Bay every day, unloading a large amount of grain, so that the small fish in Kanto stopped making a fuss and stayed here to eat the big family of Nagao Kagetora. After all, it was a time of shortage of food, and there was no food to be found in the territory, so it was better to stay here for Nagao Kagetora to do odd jobs, that is, to do hard labor. No one has a grudge against rice balls, right? Without rice balls, it is good to eat.

Coupled with the constant cursing and the shouting of the family members in the city and under the city, the morale of Odawara finally began to waver. The most obvious thing was that originally one or two foot soldiers escaped from the city, but now ten or twenty people in the whole village escaped from the city. Nagao Kagetora also kept his promise. In addition to interrogating the military situation in the city in detail and confiscating all weapons and armor, he redeemed all their families, but temporarily kept them in the army for labor and let them go after the war.

So after working for half a month, the preparations for the siege were basically complete, and it all depended on Kobayata's actions.

We would attack Odawara soon!