On May 6, the twelfth year of Tianwen (1543), at the third quarter of You hour, south of Changxiao City.
The troops of the Okudaira family were still under the command of the family elders, searching for the whereabouts of Imagawa Yoshimoto all over the mountains and fields, advancing all the way south. However, the two brothers Okuhira Sadakatsu and Okudaira Yoshimasa who were on the edge of Nagashino Castle both looked ashen.
"It has been found out that it is not the Imagawa family who came to attack us. Although I don't know the specific identity and the instructor, it is definitely not the Imagawa family. The family governor's hall has no intention of seizing Nagashino Castle and changing our Okuhira family." After listening to the report of the investigating ninjas, Okuhira Yoshimasa's expression turned extremely ugly. "It was a misunderstanding, and we fell into the trap. Now it's our Okuhira family who took the initiative to rebel and attacked His Highness the Governor of the Household who is staying in our city. What should we do? Hurry up!" Send an envoy to apologize, fortunately nothing happened to the family governor's hall."
"But the second brother has been killed, and his head is hanging on the gate of Yoshida Castle." Okuhira Sadakatsu clenched his fists tightly, and his nails were embedded in the flesh and blood flowed. "Are we still going to swallow our anger and apologize? The second brother's life Woolen cloth?"
"After all, brother, it wasn't your impulsiveness that led to this result?" Yoshimasa Okudaira saw that Sadakatsu Okudaira was getting more and more excited. He walked up to him in a panic and kept shaking his shoulders: " It’s not too late to pull back from the brink and make amends! Hurry up and ask for surrender, my foolish brother is willing to be a hostage! If this continues, once the Imagawa family’s army arrives, the Oudaira family will be destroyed!”
"Shut up! You coward who is afraid of death!" Okudaira Sadakatsu finally became furious and slapped Okudaira Yoshimasa hard. "What's more to say now that things have come to this? There is only one way to go. ! Our envoys have already gone to Quanyuanjiang and Mikawa. It won’t be long before people who are dissatisfied with Imagawa Yoshimoto and his men will respond in large numbers and surround and kill Imagawa Yoshimoto. The Imagawa family will fall apart. What kind of army will there be? And What’s there to be afraid of!”
·
After nightfall on May 6, the twelfth year of Astronomy (1543), I was in the mountains northwest of Ii Valley City.
Imagawa Yoshimoto arranged for everyone to take turns to keep vigil, to be wary of anyone approaching, while others rested on the spot - after running around all day and night, they really needed to regain some strength.
It had just rained around Iigani Castle, and the mountainous terrain was naturally extremely muddy. It was with great difficulty that I found a slightly cleaner bluestone—barely meeting the minimum sleeping conditions for the mysophobic Yoshimoto Imagawa. The group of people ran in a hurry and did not bring anything with them. Only Kinoshita Tokichiro actually brought a blanket with him, which was taken by Imagawa Yoshimoto to cover the wounded Takeda Harunobu. Imagawa Yoshimoto himself was lying on the bluestone, with his hands behind his head as a pillow. As soon as I closed my eyes, sleep came over me.
In the daze, Imagawa Yoshimoto didn't know if he was dreaming - the scenes from childhood to adulthood were shown like a revolving lantern - which shocked Imagawa Yoshimoto. It's not that only dead people can see revolving lanterns. ? After suddenly becoming energetic, Imagawa Yoshimoto realized that this dream seemed a bit strange. There seems to be a stone wall in front of him. The light shines from behind and hits the stone wall. A shadow play is reflected on the stone wall. Two silhouettes are depicting the young Imagawa Yoshimoto and Taiyuan Xuezai. Could it be that the revolving lantern he just saw was the content of a shadow puppet show?
Imagawa Yoshimoto was even more confused - could this be a dream within a dream? He tried to move his body, but found that his body was too stiff to move. After using up a lot of strength to move his neck so that he could lower his head, Imagawa Yoshimoto discovered that he was tied to a stone pillar by loops of ropes.
What's this? Is the ghost on the bed?
At this moment, the picture in front of him began to shake and blur greatly, and Imagawa Yoshimoto quickly woke up - it was indeed a dream. He was still sleeping peacefully on the stone, and Ginkgo also curled up at some point and fell asleep on Imagawa Yoshimoto's chest - no wonder it felt like a ghost was pressing down on the bed.
"What a strange dream...being tied up tightly." Imagawa Yoshimoto muttered to himself.
"Huh? What dream?" Takeda Harunobu on the side seemed to be interested and suddenly responded.
"Why aren't you sleeping?" Imagawa Yoshimoto turned around and looked at Takeda Harunobu, who was sleeping on the ground in the dim moonlight, "The wounded should have a good rest."
"Not as pretentious as you." Takeda Harunobu said sarcastically.
At this moment, Kentaro Tianchen hurried back:
"Your Highness, there are torches approaching. They are lined up along the official road from east to west. The flag is Hikone Orange. They are the troops of the Ii family. They seem to be searching the mountains."
"Quickly move to the mountainous area to the west." Imagawa Yoshimoto made a prompt decision and ordered everyone to move closer to the direction away from Ii Valley Castle. At the same time, he walked up to Takeda Harunobu, took the latter's hand and helped him stand up, "How about it, Tora Chiyo? Do you want me to help you?"
"I'm not as pretentious as you Suruga female warriors. A tiger won't cry for father and mother just because of a minor injury." Takeda Harunobu smiled and shook off Imagawa Yoshimoto's hand, then patted his butt and said, "Let's go, I don’t want to fall into the hands of your Imagawa family’s civil strife inexplicably.”
·
"The current head of the Ii family is Ii Shinano (Ii Naomori), who is only 17 years old. His father Ii Miyauchi (Ii Naomune) died in the war and he succeeded him, but the real power lies with his grandfather Ii Hōbu (Ii Naohei) And in the hands of two uncles (Ii Naomichi, Ii Naoyoshi)." Imagawa Yoshimoto looked back on the little knowledge he had about the Ii family, and couldn't help but regret that he didn't read more files and learn more from Taiyuan Xuezhai. ——When the book is used, it will be less regrettable:
"But I don't know what the positions of the four of them are. However, the Ii family has been hostile to the Imagawa clan for generations. Not long ago, my third brother was at war with us... Ono Izumi is the informant within the Ii family. Since he It is estimated that there is a high probability that the Jing Yi family has the intention to rebel."
"So we have to avoid them?" Kentaro Tianchen asked from the side.
"Yes." Imagawa Yoshimoto nodded.
"Then the question is where to go now?" Kira Weicheng complained behind him, "We don't have horses, so we can't walk fast on this night road. Isn't it possible to go all the way west to Yoshida Castle? It's already been done before that It must have been searched by people from the Okuhira and Ii families."
"It doesn't have to be that far. If you can't go any further, it's the Sankaichi Castle of the Uden family." Imagawa Yoshimoto could only rely on his past impressions to roughly estimate the direction in the dark night, "Uden Nagamon (Uden Nagamochi) ) is my sister-in-law. He has been serving my brother as a member of the family for many years. He is someone we can rely on and trust. It will be good if we go to him."
·
The group of people traveled all night, and finally at three o'clock on May 7, the twelfth year of Tianwen (1543), they faintly saw the location of Sanri City. A few miles away to their left was the beautiful and clear Hamana Lake - but Imagawa Yoshimoto had no time to appreciate it now. Because at the southern end of Mikachi Castle, another force detoured and was quickly rushing towards Imagawa Yoshimoto's location. Apparently, traces of Imagawa Yoshimoto and his party were also discovered.
"The wrong eagle feather is the flag of the Mikawa Saigo family!" Kentaro Tianchen recognized the army of hundreds of people.
"The Saigo family... the governor is Saigo Tansheng ( Saigo Masakatsu )." Imagawa Yoshimoto quickly mobilized the information related to the Saigo family that he had seen before in his mind, "It seems to be related to the governor of Higashi Mikawa The Numa family is related by marriage, and the Kanuma family and the Okuhira family are also very close... So, it is very likely that the Saigo family is siding with the Okuhira family, under the pretext of countering the rebellion, but in fact they are here to attack us!"
The Uden family in Mikaka Castle noticed that Saigo Bei was facing a powerful enemy after marching in the south of Mikaka Castle. It seemed that he had the same suspicion as Imagawa Yoshimoto. Gobi's eastward path led him to where Imagawa Yoshimoto was. But at the same time, Saigo Bei appeared behind Uden Bei, blocking Uden Bei's way back to his home city of Mikaichi Castle.
"Your Highness!" Uden Nagamochi welcomed the somewhat down-and-out Imagawa Yoshimoto and his party into the army, and instructed Hatamoto to immediately give the horses to Imagawa Yoshimoto, "Ohara Hizen Mamoru has figured out the whole story and is doing its best to search for you. I didn’t expect you to be here! But An Yuanbei from Nishizaki Castle has been sent to Kakegawa Castle, and Jinxibei from Yoshida Castle has been sent to Nagashino Castle. He won’t be able to come back for a while! We can only I will lead the troops to protect you first! There may be rebels everywhere in Yuanjiang, so please be careful!"
"Thank you Nagato for guarding." Imagawa Yoshimoto finally has a loyal army around him, and he can breathe a little, "Where are Saigo Bei's movements?"
"Hizen Mamoru has already given instructions! Master Yuksai also had spies on the Saigo family before. They said that the Saigo family had ulterior motives for this action. It was probably to respond to the rebellion of the Okuhira family and the Kanuma family. , come to attack His Highness who is alone!" Uden Nagamochi glanced at Imagawa Yoshimoto with some fear, then looked back at Saigo Bei's military strength, "Fortunately, I left the city.
Immediately, otherwise if His Highness falls into the hands of Saigo Bei, it will be over. "
"The Kannuma family?" Imagawa Yoshimoto heard news that he had not known before from Uden Nagamochi's words, "Have the Kannuma family rebelled too? When I passed by Noda Castle a few days ago, the Kannuma family was fine. ah."
"The Kannuma family and the Okudaira family have been close allies in Higashi Mikawa for generations, but they were forced to submit to the Matsudaira family and the Imagawa family. Master Yukisai's insider said that the connection between the two families may be much more than we imagined. Okudaira family After the Taira family rebelled, they immediately notified the Kannuma family. The Kannuma family followed the uprising and sent troops to intercept our Hatamoto Town Nishibe's attack on Nagashino Castle. Captain Yamada Eemon is currently leading the Nishibei Town at the foot of Noda Castle. A fierce battle with the Kannuma family!" Uden Nagamochi reported the information sent back by Yoshida Castle Ohara Jinmi one by one to Imagawa Yoshimoto, and then shook his head helplessly and said:
"So this time it's really strange. The Okudaira family suddenly rebelled. Master Yukisai's spies and informants who had previously ambushed the Okudaira family and the Kannuma family didn't find any clues about the preparations. Could it be a spur-of-the-moment rebellion?"
"It was probably a misunderstanding. Someone attacked Nagashino Castle at night. In addition, the Oppei family and I had some unpleasant quarrels at the dinner. The Oppei family mistakenly thought that I wanted to seize the city, so they became angry and decided to attack first. To be strong." Based on the information provided by Masanao Ono yesterday, Imagawa Yoshimoto has roughly clarified the logic, "There is nothing we can do about the past, so what should we do now? What suggestions does Uden Nagato have?"
