Although the Takeda Army was small in number, they had already occupied the terrain in advance and launched a surprise attack from a commanding position, instantly throwing the hurriedly formed Hojo Army into chaos. The various equipment of the Hojo Army were scattered along the long mountain road. For a while, they were unable to gather troops, and all fronts were scattered.
"I really ate shit..." Hojo Ujiyasu, who was in a hard fight, couldn't help but cursed, "Kafi and these hillbillies in the mountains are really annoying."
The Goseki Bei led by Hojo Weimasa and others had immediately returned from the road and rushed to the mountain road to support them. After the main force returned, the Hojo family immediately boosted their morale and began to launch a counterattack. What puzzled Hojo Ujiyasu was that the Takeda family had no intention of retreating.
"Still not leaving? Are you waiting to stay and eat the shit I gave you?" Hojo Ujiyasu looked at Takeda Harunobu who was motionless under the horse seal in confusion, "Can you defeat my main force with just a few people? Or... Takeda Will there be reinforcements coming to my family? No..."
Hojo Ujiyasu uneasily covered the sun with his hands and looked towards the mountainous area to the north, but he saw nothing. Just when he turned back to look to the west, he found that the fire in Fujigawa West had been extinguished at some point, and the smoke had become thinner. He looked up slightly and noticed that the sky to the west of the Fuji River was full of dark clouds, and it was probably raining heavily.
"When did it start raining?" Hojo Ujiyasu suddenly became nervous, grabbed the guards on the left and right, and asked. However, the entire Hojo family had just been preoccupied with dealing with the Takeda family's ambush. Who had time to pay attention to the weather twenty miles to the west?
"Oops...if the fire is extinguished by the rain before it burns, then the official channels will be unobstructed." Hojo Ujiyasu has realized the danger of the matter and also understands the reason why the Takeda family refused to retreat. Sure enough, it didn't take long for Imagawa's army to emerge from behind the foot of the mountain beside the Fuji River under the banner of Eryinliang.
At this time, Imagawa Yoshimoto was riding on the official road from Fuji River to Yoshihara, and he could faintly see the battlefield where the Hojo Army and the Takeda Army were fighting. On the top of a high mountain in the north, the horse seal of the Takeda Army was flying high. Takeda Harunobu, who was under the horse seal, also noticed the Imagawa family's red bird horse seal, and turned to look at Imagawa Yoshimoto under the horse seal.
For a moment, both of them seemed to recall the scene when they fought side by side a year ago——
·
"Two versus one doesn't seem to work." At this time, Nakasugi Torachiyo, who heard the sound of fighting in the house, also followed the sound, drew a knife in his hand, and stood behind Dahu Xiuzuna, "Goro, don't panic, I'll come help you."
"Lord Hu, do you mind if we bully the minority?" Imagawa Shigen smiled bitterly and patted the dirt on his body.
"Whatever." Hu Xiugang still had a look of contempt on his face, not taking the three of them seriously at all.
"Okay, Kuaishou." Chiyo Nakasugi laughed heroically a few times, and then stood up and stabbed Dahu Xiuzuna in the back, "Then I'm not welcome!"
·
Imagawa Yoshimoto snapped his fingers towards where Takeda Harunobu was, and led his army directly behind the Hojo Army. "Don't panic, Tora Chiyo, I'm here to help you."
As if Takeda Harunobu could guess what Imagawa Yoshimoto was talking about even from a distance, he hit his chest hard with his hand and laughed, "Lion, you don't mind if we bully the smaller ones, do you?"
Hojo Ujiyasu on the mountain road looked at the Imagawa-Takeda coalition forces attacking from the front and back. His expression was as ugly as possible. Naturally, he couldn't say such forceful words as "casual" like the sword master Dahu Hidetsuna. Instead, he laughed and cursed. One sentence: "Unlucky, I'm full just from eating shit today."
Just when Hojo Ujiyasu thought something was wrong and was about to deploy his troops to retreat separately, another army came from the southeast of Yoshihara, flying the flag of Hojo's scale pattern. Hojo Ujiyasu recognized it. It was the main defender of the family in Odawara Castle.
Seeing the arrival of reinforcements from the Hojo Army, the Takeda Army and the Imagawa Army did not dare to attack. Instead, they immediately occupied a strategic position and blocked the main retreat route of the Hojo family. Hojo Ujiyasu found Hojo Ujiyao who was leading the army to support him, grabbed him by the collar and asked:
"Is Dad crazy? Didn't he already know that Takeda Nobutora and his people went to Odawara? Why did he send 2,000 people to support him?"
"If you don't support me, brother, aren't you dead now?" Hojo Ujiyao pointed to the Takeda Army and Imagawa Army on both sides, "I have already planned an empty city strategy in Odawara Castle, but I was worried that you would be ambushed when you retreat, so I sent We’ll come and take you back.”
"How to get back here?" Hojo Ujiyasu looked at the Takeda Army and Imagawa Army who were defending in the northeast and southwest. "The retreat is all blocked. Are you going to pass under their noses with such arrogance?"
"Then go and sue for peace. You have to go back no matter what, otherwise what will happen to Odawara Castle?" Hojo Ujiyao said to Hojo Ujiyasu without any explanation, "This is my father's death order!"
·
At this time, Imagawa Yoshimoto was riding on his way to see Takeda Harunobu. Along the way, Yutaka Furunoji and Nao Hayasaka kept trying to persuade him, believing that Imagawa Yoshimoto should not go to the Takeda family's military camp alone because it was too dangerous, but Imagawa Yoshimoto was not worried at all. Just when they reached the foot of the mountain at the Takeda family camp, they happened to meet Takeda Harunobu and his party who were hurrying down the mountain. Coincidentally, Itagaki Nobukata, Amari Koyasu and others beside Takeda Harunobu were also urging Takeda Harunobu not to go to the Imagawa family's military camp alone, as it was too dangerous.
"Haha." Imagawa Yoshimoto and Takeda Harunobu burst out laughing after seeing each other, and then they hugged each other fiercely. They each smiled and said to their subordinates behind them, "I told you, don't worry."
"Goro." Takeda Harunobu stepped back half a step, hammered Imagawa Yoshimoto on the chest, and laughed boldly, "Or should I really call you brother-in-law?"
"Tora Chiyo said before that he would poison his brother-in-law. Why, is he still poisoning?" Imagawa Yoshimoto also smiled and mentioned the joke at that time.
"If you are too weak, Goro, I will poison you immediately and then annex the Imagawa family." Takeda Harunobu showed no mercy at all, and said directly while laughing, "Don't laugh either, I can really do it. This kind of thing comes out.”
"Then your sister is going to be a widow."
"Why do I care about these things?"
Imagawa Yoshimoto and Takeda Harunobu laughed again. Takeda Harunobu extended his hand very generously and said, "Such arguments have happened so many times before, there is no need to talk about it again."
"Yes, I can't convince you, and you can't convince me." Imagawa Yoshimoto also stretched out his hand and firmly held Takeda Harunobu's hand, "But this does not prevent us from becoming allies and each getting what we need."
"I hope you, Goro, will be stronger and not be so weak that I will one day make up my mind to swallow up the Imagawa family." Takeda Haruko patted Imagawa Yoshimoto's shoulder with his other hand, and Imagawa Yoshimoto pointed coolly with his other hand. He pointed at the army behind him.
"I don't care, but then you have to ask the Imagawa family if they agree."
·
When Imagawa Yoshimoto returned to the camp, Taiyuan Xuezhai was already waiting for him in Dazhai.
"The Hojo family sent an envoy to ask for peace, and they want to negotiate with us and the Takeda family." Taiyuan Xuezai took out the letter just left by the Hojo family envoy and slowly fanned himself like a fan.
"Negotiate now?" Imagawa Yoshimoto heard this and laughed, "What qualifications does the Hojo family have to negotiate? Isn't it now at the mercy of others? As long as we don't negotiate with them, their troops will not be able to go back, and Odawara will be an empty city. Even if my father-in-law (Takeda Nobutora) can't defeat us, he can still plunder the castle town, and the Hojo family's decades of efforts will be in vain. So the Hojo family has no qualifications to negotiate at all. They must agree to whatever conditions we offer. What."
"Oh? Is that what you think?" Taiyuan Xuezai laughed, then stood up, rolled the secret letter into a roll of paper, and hit Imagawa Yoshimoto hard on the head, "You bastard , so tender!”
"Ah?" Imagawa Yoshimoto was a little confused by Taiyuan Xuezhai's knock.
"Let me ask you, assuming we don't negotiate with the Hojo family and just drag their main force here, what good will it do to our Imagawa family? It was the Takeda family's troops who went to Odawara Castle to grab a lot of money! At that time, the main force of the Hojo family was in a hurry to go back for rescue, and they would definitely fight us in a bloody battle. The Takeda family brought a total of 2,000 people, and the ones in front would be 5,000 of us. Those who died would be ours, and all the loot we grabbed would be Takeda family, are you going to do such a stupid thing?"
Imagawa Yoshimoto nodded thoughtfully, while Taiyuan Xuezai laughed and scolded: "I think you are really stunned by the Takeda Princess. Do you really regard the Takeda family as your own? We were not here before. We have been enemies for decades! As long as there is a profit, the Takeda family can betray us in a minute, why are you considering their interests? "
"Would it be much simpler if the negotiators were just us and the Hojo family?" Imagawa Yoshimoto realized the reason, "But with the addition of the Takeda family as a third party, the situation becomes complicated due to the entangled interests of the three parties. .”
"What you are imagining is: If there are only two families left in the world, then there is no need or possibility of negotiation. Both sides want to kill each other, so why is there the need to negotiate? That's what it means, right? ?" After Taiyuan Xuezhai said this, he changed the topic, shook his finger and said, "But such a situation is simply impossible, because it is impossible to have a family with completely unified internal opinions and only one voice."
"A territorial exchange agreement that attracts daimyo may make the retainers in the disputed territories hateful; an agreement on tariff reduction and exemption between neighboring countries may make businessmen make a lot of money, but it may make the farmers and farmers of the weak side hate each other. The handicraftsmen's families were ruined. There were conflicts between daimyo and their retainers, conflicts between a clan and foreign clans, conflicts between clan generations and outsiders, and conflicts between wealthy families in different regions; not to mention the countless conflicts between farmers and merchants, samurai and civilians. It’s a contradiction.”
"There are countless interest groups within a family, and there are countless voices that influence the daimyo as a negotiator. How can the daimyo reach an agreement based solely on his own wishes? Can he cope with the surging opposition at home? In fact, The result of every diplomatic negotiation is the result of the consensus reached by countless interest groups in each family and countless interest groups in another family. Even if there are only two families negotiating, there may be dozens of players involved. How could a situation as simple as you say happen? What's more, we are currently negotiating with Hojo, Takeda, and Imagawa."
"I didn't expect that there is so much knowledge in diplomacy." After listening to Taiyuan Xue Zhai's words, Imagawa Yoshimoto murmured to himself with emotion.
"Haha, welcome to the field of thinking about family politics (international politics (not))." Taiyuan Xuezhai snapped his fingers and made a "please" gesture. "This is just the introduction. There are many ways inside. It’s gone.”
