Great name!

Chapter 271 Peace Negotiation
In Nakano Castle, Oda Nobutada held a celebration banquet to celebrate with a group of family elders and retainers. The battle went smoothly and the atmosphere at the banquet was very relaxed.

After the five kinds of dishes and three rounds of wine, everyone was a little drunk and started chatting loudly. When they talked about something happy, even the serious Nobutada started to laugh.

Suginobo Terusan boasted loudly, "I have already told others not to follow Honganji and oppose the Oda clan, but they did not listen. Now look at the Saiga clan losing their city and territory. They are so stupid."

Ota Sakon then said, "The Oda clan has a brave general like Lord Naganobu, how can the Saiga clan be a match for them?"

Mao Li Shengqing, who was sitting a little in front, immediately said: "What are the Saiga clan? We only need Naganobu to take action. If my brother-in-law Jingzhao Yin comes, he will definitely kill all the Saiga clan members!"

All the generals immediately agreed. After all, everyone had heard of the reputation of Lord Tsuda Jingzhao Yin. He was a famous general who had won every battle and never lost.

Tsuda Naganobu said modestly: "It is indeed only us who need to come to deal with the Saiga clan. How can a famous general like my father take action so easily?"

What he meant was that the Saiga clan was not worthy enough for Tsuda Nobutora to take action. If Suzuki Sadao and others heard this, they would definitely be furious.

After all, although the Saiga clan was only a single force, it participated in many wars. Even the overlord Miyoshi family at that time suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Saiga clan.

The Saiga clan and the Negoro clan worked together for Hatakeyama Takamasa, fought against the Miyoshi family, and killed Miyoshi Yoshitaka, Miyoshi Nagayoshi's right-hand man.

The Saiga clan was also very famous in the capital, but no one expected that after only more than ten years, they would be looked down upon.

But now the Saiga clan is being suppressed and beaten by the Oda clan, so naturally there is nothing to say.

During the dinner, everyone naturally talked about the bad things about the Saiga clan.

Oda Nobuo, whose face was already somewhat flushed, was very dissatisfied as he saw many people praising Tsuda Naganobu.

He put down his glass and laughed contemptuously, "It doesn't matter who comes to fight against the minority. What's there to brag about?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere at the table became strange. When people like Suginobō Terusan and Ota Sakon saw that it was Oda Nobuo who was speaking, they shut their mouths with embarrassed looks.

Those who surrendered were of low status and no one dared to anger them, let alone a noble like Oda Nobuo?

But just because they don't dare to provoke it doesn't mean that others are afraid.

Tsuda Naganobu had long been fed up with this guy Oda Nobuo. The Tsuda family's fiefdom was close to Minami-Ise, and Oda Nobuo often relied on his status as Nobunaga's son to make Tsuda Naganobu obey him.

But Tsuda Naganobu always said the same thing: Then I will write a letter to ask my father, and then let my father reply to Nobuo-dono.

When Oda Nobuo saw this reply, he felt as uncomfortable as if he had eaten shit.

Therefore, Oda Nobuo had always been secretly against Tsuda Naganobu.

Tsuda Naganobu looked at Oda Nobuo and sneered, "Nobuo-dono, it's as if you've never fought a war. I often listened to my father explaining military strategies. He said that if you can use more troops to defeat a smaller force, you should do so.

The other side clearly has more troops than them, but they still want to fight with fewer troops and try to gain fame. This is just like a deer. "

Oda Nobuo gritted his teeth. He really couldn't refute this. After all, it was said by the victorious general Tsuda Nobutora. How could he refute it?

Damn it, this Tsuda Nagatobu is so shameless, always bringing up his famous general father to pressure others. If he has the ability, just show off his own ability!
Tsuda Naganobu looked at Oda Nobuo with some complacency, which made Oda Nobuo even more annoyed.

At this time, Oda Nobutada said: "Nobuo, you should think twice before speaking, otherwise if you say the wrong thing, it will only bring shame to the Oda family."

Oda Nobuo was furious. He slammed the table and shouted, "Master, please don't underestimate me. If you let me be the vanguard, I can also conquer the territory of the Saiga clan."

When Tsuda Naganobu saw that Oda Nobuo seemed angry and ready to fight, he shook his head slightly.

Before the war, Nobutora warned him not to underestimate the strength of the Saiga clan and to be careful in every battle.

As a result, Nobuo Oda actually spoke out of turn, which was really asking for death.

Tsuda Naganobu took the opportunity to give him a push and said directly: "Nobuo-dono really doesn't know his own strength. My Lord, since Nobuo-dono wants to be the vanguard, then I will let him be the vanguard general."

Oda Nobutada felt that Tsuda Naganobu had bad intentions and wanted to trick his younger brother Nobuo, but Nobuo was always so arrogant, so it was good to let him suffer a loss, which was a good way to teach him a lesson and make him behave himself.

He frowned and said, "Why did you guys ruin a good banquet like this? Since you all agreed, then let's do it your way. But I have to say this first. If you don't do well, don't blame me, your brother, for being ruthless."

Oda Nobuo stood up and said, "Don't worry, Master. I will let everyone know that anyone can take part in this battle."

The banquet ended in unhappiness due to Oda Nobuo's disturbance.

After resting for a few days, the Oda army continued its advance to attack the Saiga clan in early March.

Oda Nobutada ordered Oda Nobuo to be the vanguard, and then Takigawa Kazumasu, Akechi Mitsuhide, Niwa Nagahide, Hosokawa Fujitaka, Tsutsui Junkei, Hachiya Yoritaka and the Wakasa clan supported Oda Nobuo in attacking Suzuki Magoichi's castle.

The siege troops used bamboo bundles to build a well tower and fired cannons at the defenders in the city, causing heavy casualties to the Zaga clan.

When Oda Nobuo saw that the defenders in the city were suppressed by cannons, he immediately ordered his headquarters to attack the city fiercely. However, the defenders in the city resisted fiercely and the siege made no progress. Oda Nobuo could only order his troops to attack day and night.

Oda Nobutada was worried that Oda Nobuo would get too powerful, so he had to ask Takigawa Kazumasu and others to send troops to cooperate and attack Saiga Castle.

Seeing that there was no progress in the attack on Saiga Castle, Oda Nobutada moved his main camp to Wakamiya Hachimangu Shrine in Tottori Village, between the mountain and sea routes, and ordered Hori Hidemasa, Fuwa Mitsuharu, Maruge Nagateru, Mutō Shunhide, Fukutomi Hidekatsu, Nakajo Masakabu, Yamaoka Kagetaka, Makimura Nagabei, Fukuda Mikawa, Niwa Ukon, No Daizen, Ikoma Ichizaemon, and Ikoma Miyoshi to go to Nekoroguchi to assist the mountain route troops on the Kosaga and Kinokawa sides.

Even so, Saga Castle remained strong.

Soon, more than a month passed, and the Oda army had still not been able to capture Saiga Castle. The tens of thousands of troops had been attacking for a long time, and the soldiers were exhausted and their morale was low.

In addition, the main force of the Oda family stayed in Kii for a long time, and Honganji had only 20,000 people to defend it, which naturally attracted the attention of Honganji.

The Saiga clan was the right-hand man of Honganji in its fight against the Oda clan. Now that the Saiga clan was attacked, Honganji would naturally send troops to rescue them.

Oda Nobunaga, who was stationed in Kyoto, wrote a letter urging Oda Nobutada to quickly resolve the battle of Kii.

In the Oda main camp, Oda Nobutada called Oda Nobuo and asked him, "You have been attacking the Saiga clan for almost two months, and I asked other family elders to help you, but you still haven't been able to take them down. How much more time are you going to waste?
Father has written to urge us to come back. He is very unhappy. I think you should take your team down to rest."

When Oda Nobuo heard this, he refused to do it. His team had already lost thousands of people, and now he was being replaced. How could he make any contribution?

He argued loudly: "Master, I can't retreat. I have suffered a lot in this battle. If I retreat like this, Tsuda Naganobu will laugh at me to death!"

Oda Nobutada slammed the table and yelled, "Asshole, do you think I'm joking with you? This is an order!"

Oda Nobuo gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and finally left with hatred. Afterwards, Oda Nobutada called Tsuda Naganobu to discuss how to capture the Saiga clan as soon as possible.

Tsuda Naganobu analyzed, "Our army has been besieging Saiga Castle for almost two months, and our previous sieges were quite powerful. I think the Saiga people in the city should have reached their limit."

Oda Nobutada was enlightened when he heard this and asked quickly, "How sure are you?"

Tsuda Naganobu shook his head and said, "I'm not very sure right now. What I just said was just a guess. I can't give a definite answer, but we can try and see what the other party does."

Just as Tsuda Naganobu expected, Suzuki Sadao, Tsuchihashi Heiji and others in Saiga Castle could no longer hold on.

Just one day later, seven people including Tsuchihashi Heiji, Suzuki Magoichi, Doctor Okazaki Saburo, Doctor Matsuda Genzo, Doctor Miyamoto Hei, Doctor Shimamoto Saemon, and Doctor Kurimura Jiro jointly wrote a letter and sent it to Oda Nobutada, hoping that the Oda family would accept the surrender of the Saiga clan.

Oda Nobutada was overjoyed, knowing that he could now capture Saiga Castle.

However, Tsuda Naganobu said: "The Saiga clan surrendered to our Oda clan only under duress, and their hearts are not sincere."

Upon hearing this, Oda Nobutada said, "It is unlikely that the Saiga clan surrendered sincerely, but our army has been fighting for a long time and needs to rest. Otherwise, when Honganji sends troops, we will be attacked from all sides."

Tsuda Naganobu said with some concern: "This time we dispatched troops suddenly, catching the Saiga clan off guard, and we didn't allow the Honganji and Negoro clan to provide timely support.

If we negotiate with the Zaga clan now, we won’t have such an opportunity later.”

Oda Nobutada frowned and asked, "What good ideas do you have?"

Tsuda Naganobu looked at the map and thought for a while, then said, "We must occupy Nakano Castle, so that even if the Saiga clan rebels, we have to take this place first, so that we have time to react.

When we attack the Zaga clan, we can use Nakano Castle as a base and directly attack the Zaga clan's heartland."

Oda Nobutada looked at the map, slashed a few times with his whip, and said with a smile: "There is still a way. With Nakano Castle, we can put a knife in the belly of the Saiga clan."

Tsuda Naganobu continued, "I think we don't need to rush to negotiate peace with the Saga clan, but instead make preparations to continue the siege, so that we can force them to give in more.

And I think we can write a letter to ask Nobunaga-dono's opinion."

Oda Nobutada also felt that this was a safer approach, so he wrote a letter and sent it back to Kyoto by express horse.

After reading the letter, Nobunaga was very satisfied with Nobutada's handling of the matter.

He did not reply immediately, but called Nobutora to discuss the matter. Nobutora came to the gate of Honganji Temple. He looked at this place and always felt a little guilty.

However, Akechi Mitsuhide did not have the strength to rebel at this time.

Instead, he was afraid that the person who shouted "the enemy is in Honnoji" was himself.

Xinhu walked quickly into the temple and was then taken to a tea room.

He walked in and sat down. Nobunaga had already prepared a bowl of tea and handed it to him.

Nobutora took the tea bowl and said, "Nobunaga-dono, you didn't come to me just to drink tea, did you?"

Nobunaga put down the tea bowl that Nobutora handed back to him and said, "You have also read the report on the attack on Saiga, right?"

Xinhu nodded and said, "I've already looked at it. Any questions?"

Nobunaga frowned slightly and said, "Why, you don't have any ideas? Our army has been in Kii, and Honganji has seen that our army is short of manpower in Osaka, so they are planning to send troops to counterattack."

"Huh? The people of Honganji are willing to leave their turtle shells? Isn't this a good thing?"

Xinhu couldn't help but laugh.

Nobunaga suddenly realized what was going on and said, "The Saiga clan intends to negotiate peace with us."

"Oh?"

When Nobutora heard this, he felt that this was neither good nor bad. However, for Oda Nobutada, this was his first war after becoming the head of the family, so winning was always a good thing.

"So what do you mean, Nobunaga-dono?"

Nobunaga smiled and said, "Originally I thought Nobutada could handle it this way, but just now when I was chatting with you, what you said reminded me."

Nobutora thought for a moment and then realized what was going on. He said, "Does Nobunaga-dono want to use this incident to lure the Ikki out of Honganji and ambush them?"

Nobunaga laughed and said, "Hahaha, this will definitely cause Honganji to suffer a great loss."

Nobutora thought about it for a while and said, "The difficulty here is that the Saiga clan will not reveal the news to Honganji. If the news is leaked, this ambush will fail.

Besides, who should command this war? If I take action now, it will affect other plans."

Nobunaga said nonchalantly: "Plans cannot keep up with changes. Anyway, the purpose of the previous plan was to severely damage Honganji Temple, which is the same as the current purpose."

When Nobunaga heard this, he thought it was true. It seemed that Nobunaga had decided to fight this battle, and that he would be able to handle the war effort.

He then said, "Since Lord Nobunaga has made his decision, I will not refuse.

Now Honganji feels that we are short of manpower and wants to send troops, but is still hesitating. The first step is to dispel their hesitation. "

"How to do it?"

Nobunaga asked hurriedly.

Nobutora pondered and said, "Our army's defense in Tennoji is still strong, and Honganji dare not act rashly. However, we can create some illusions to make the people of Honganji think that we have transferred the Oda army from the Osaka front.

I think we can do this: let some soldiers leave the front line during the day. Although the movement is covert, it will still be discovered by the enemy's spies. After this team leaves the spies' sight, they will return to the front line at night.

This way, the spies will see the false impression that our army is moving soldiers away, and coupled with the false news that our army is fighting hard against the Saiga clan in Kii, Honganji will definitely take action. "

Nobunaga smiled and agreed, "By that time, my main force will have withdrawn from Kii. This way, we can encircle Honganji from both sides and deal a heavy blow to it!"

(End of this chapter)