A tour of Japan's Warring States Period

The original title of this chapter is: Yamauchi Soldiers Enter Qingjing Field

A cold rain will make the grass and trees wet and the roads muddy, which is nothing less than a disaster from heaven!

The original choice of going out in late autumn and early winter was to choose a good day when food and grass were abundant and the autumn was high and the horses were fat, so as to avoid the gathering of large armies and the occurrence of plague. At the same time, there is no snow on the sea route all year round, and the road is dry and hard, making it easy to march.

Now that there is a cold rain, firstly, it is impossible to march, and secondly, there is no material for making a fire to keep warm. If the soldiers do not have enough shelter and rain gear, some of them will soon become ill.

"It doesn't matter, if it rains here, it will also rain in Gifu Dansho and Tokugawa Mikawa Defense Department!" Although Koheita was confused, he still explained to the generals.

As the Siberian cold air mass moves south, Echigo and Shinano are now experiencing heavy snowfall. When reaching the sea channel, it encounters the warm and humid air currents from the Pacific, causing rainfall. Of course, in extreme cases, large-scale hail disasters may occur. Coupled with the intensification of climate change during the Little Ice Age, it is not impossible for cold rain to turn into the kind of snow that melts in mid-air.

Historically, Takeda Shingen chose to go to Luo at this time last year. Judging from his march, although it was also affected by cold rain, the weather conditions in Kaido were relatively good most of the time.

There is no reason why drastic weather changes would occur just one year later. This cold rain should be just a normal cooling and rainfall process before winter.

The point is, how many days will it rain?

One or two days would be fine, but if it rained for a few more days, it would be a truly disastrous event for the Yamauchi Army on the march. The Oda Army and the Tokugawa Army were sheltered by many fortresses such as Anxiang Castle and Okazaki Castle. The Yamauchi Army was almost in the mountains and wild fields, but there was no large fortified town that could accommodate tens of thousands of troops.

"Return to Yoshida? Wait for the weather to clear?" Uden Nagasaki asked kindly.

As the central castle of Higashi Mikawa, Yoshida Castle occupies the key point of the Toyohashi Plains and has a high castle. It was a key pass that Imagawa Yoshimoto focused on when he went to Luo. Even Taiyuan Xuezhai Zen Master spent part of his time stationed in this castle, which could easily accommodate an army of ten to twenty thousand troops.

Utilizing all the houses above and below the city, coupled with the military tents transferred from Hamamatsu, and with an army of 40,000 people squeezing into them, the problem should not be too big. Anyway, this rain cannot last for dozens of days like the rain in the plum rainy season. It will eventually stop.

"Transfer to Yoshida?" Hosokawa Saime first glanced at Uden Nagasho, then looked at Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

"No!" Koheita and Sanada Masayuki said in unison.

"Why?"

"Our army is the righteous army of Shangluo, we must not retreat!" Xiaoping Tai certainly could not agree to turn Yoshida back.

The road from Nagashino to Okazaki has been opened, and the army can reach the outskirts of Okazaki in two days of normal march. If we retreat to Yoshida, we will take the same road as Imagawa Yoshimoto and re-attack Nagasawa Mountain Castle and Kaminogo Castle. Not only will it give Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu more time to react and arrange, but it will also cause a huge damage to the morale of the Yamauchi army.

An army that should move forward unstoppably, break through all obstacles and head for Luoyang, Kyoto, retreats into its own territory just because of a rain, which can almost be equated with "cowardice before fighting".

"What Danzheng said is absolutely true. Our army should march forward to Qingjing Tianyuan and move forward with the camera!" Sanada Masayuki did not hesitate to speak directly, although he was not qualified to do so.

"Why go to Kiyoi Tahara?" Because of the sudden heavy rain, no one paid attention to Sanada Masayuki's offense. Ashikaga Yoshiaki was actually a little curious about why he wanted to go to Kiyoi Tahara.

"Qingui Tawara is not far from here, only one mile (four kilometers). But it is the key point between Danto Mountain and the Yabiki River plains. Once Qingui Tawara is controlled, our army can break into the Yabiki River at any time. In the plains, you can not only requisition (rob) firewood from the local people, but also connect to the village to build formation houses to obtain shelter."

"Gengoro's words make sense!" Koheita thought about it briefly, and the terrain of "seeing things in return" was just as Sanada Masayuki said.

"Our army can only move forward and not retreat! Gengoro's proposal is feasible!" Hosokawa Saime also agreed.

"Everyone?" Ashikaga Yoshiaki glanced at the generals standing around.

"Everything is subject to His Highness's orders!"

"Okay!" Ashikaga Yoshiaki accepted the proposal.

"Are you the son-in-law of Uncle Saime? I seem to remember that your name is Sanada Masayuki?" Ashikaga Yoshiaki looked at Sanada Masayuki's face and thought for a while.

"Yes! My name is Gengoro Masayuki Sanada!"

"Are you in Hatamoto?"

"Ninlie Banner's Ninth Division, under the control of Hebian Jiaji."

"I'm going to promote you to the side now, are you willing?"

"That's what I wish for!" Sanada Masayuki agreed loudly with a face full of joy. Koheita and Hosokawa Saime were also happy for him, and they were actually promoted from the ordinary banner to the side.

Without further ado, now that the march has been decided, the army can no longer patrol in the rain. Several hundred soldiers were left to garrison Nagashino Castle, and the native people of Shile County were mobilized, and a general appeal was made to build Nagashino Castle into one of the military depots. The rest of the army set off to Qingjing Tianyuan in the rain.

Although it was only a short four-kilometer mountain road, the impact of the heavy rain on the Yamauchi army was still huge. It was already two o'clock in the afternoon, and the army still had not arrived at Kiyotawara. The road was muddy and narrow, and the mountain road restricted the army. passed.

But the rain stopped!

Not only the soldiers cheered, but the generals of the Yamauchi Army also breathed a sigh of relief. The rain only lasted for five or six hours. Although it had some impact, it was not too big.

If it doesn't rain, the problem of the army camping in the wild will be solved. The Yamauchi Army is a division that is accustomed to fighting for a long time, and even each unit has formed an inertia.

When they arrived at the place, all the troops surrounded the 6,500 people in the middle of the army in order. The outer ones were the outer ones, and the middle ones were the gendai. Those who should chop wood chopped wood, and those who should fetch water fetched water.

Soon a lot of smoke began to rise in the camp, all because the vegetation was wet. Now that Nagashino is finished, the Yamauchi Army has no need to hide its troops or march route. Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu were both smart people. They knew how the Yamauchi army moved and where to go.

So what if we saw the continuous thick fog? Tokugawa Ieyasu's five or six thousand men still dared to come and rub the beards of the Yamauchi Army? Now, instead of just a few thousand people around Imagawa Yoshimoto, there are 40,000 people around Ashikaga Yoshiaki.

He wanted to attack Hosokawa first, so he had to go first!

"We should be able to arrive at Kiyotawara tomorrow!" Xiaoheita was caught in the rain and felt very uncomfortable.

"The whole army can pass, it's not a big problem!" Hosokawa Saime saw that Xiaoping didn't look good, and cast a concerned look.

"Be prepared to fight Gifu Danzheng at any time."

"That's inevitable!"

If there are any typos, please post a chapter to say so. I will try my best to correct them when I see them, because my own writing is too easy to read and difficult to spot.