Japan's Warring States Period: The Rise of the Wakasa Tiger

Chapter 66: Battle of Cangqiao
"That Takebeyama Castle is the main castle of the Isshiki clan!" Although Itsumi Masaki also wanted to teach Isshiki Yoshiyuki a lesson, he still hesitated to attack the castle guarded by Ikuni rashly: "My lord, aren't you worried about whether Hosokawa Kyōjo will take action?"

Tango Province is adjacent to Tamba Province, and Tamba is the sphere of influence of Hosokawa Harumoto. If he rashly attacks Takebeyama Castle and defeats Isshiki Yoshiyuki, it will probably arouse Hosokawa Harumoto's vigilance. After all, Nobushige has just defeated the Asakura clan and captured Tsuruga. Hosokawa Harumoto will not sit idly by and watch Nobushige capture Tango without taking any measures.

"I understand what you said," Nobushige said, but he also had his own analysis: "I heard from my father that it was Hosokawa Kyojo who suggested to the court to send Sanjo Yasaku as the imperial envoy. From this, I can judge that he wants to take this opportunity to win over the main family. In this case, why doesn't the main family take this opportunity to deal with the Isse clan?"

"But Isshiki Yoshiyuki is the guardian of a country after all, and one of the 'Four Positions'. Before attacking him, shouldn't we inform the Shogun and Hosokawa Kyojo?" Itsumi Masatsune suggested.

"When Asakura Dansho sent troops to Wakasa, did he inform the Kubo? When Isshiki Yoshiyuki took advantage of the situation to attack Kasa County, did he inform Hosokawa Kyōshō in advance?" Nobushige asked back, "I will give face to the Kubo and Kyōshō, but not now. Once the war in Tango is over, I will send people to Kyoto, which can be regarded as returning the favor. With the support of the main family, I believe Kyōshō will not say anything about it."

"If it really goes as the Lord expects, it would be the best." Although Yi Jianchangjing was still a little worried, he did not say anything more because Xinzhong had already spoken, and instead shifted the topic to the future strategic direction: "Lord, do you want to take over the entire Gazo County in this campaign?"

"More than that." Xinzhong shook his head: "As long as I can defeat this mob at the foot of Kurahashi City, let alone Gazo County, I will at least take over Yosha County."

"With Xie Jun?!" Yi Jianchang took a breath of cold air: "That is the lair of the Guardian Yan Yong clan. My lord, are you going to get rid of the Guardian and the Guardian at once?!"

Kasa County and Yosa County are the two most fertile counties among the five counties of Tango Province. The land area of ​​these two counties accounts for more than 60% of the total land area of ​​Tango Province, and they are the essence of the entire Tango Province. Among them, Kasa County is the exclusive domain of the successive heads of the Isse clan, and most of Yosa County is the sphere of influence of the guardian Nobunaga clan. If Nobushige wants to swallow these two pieces of fat meat, he must replace the Isse clan and the Nobunaga clan.

In response to Itsumi Masaki's question, Nobushige did not hide it, but spoke frankly:

"Tango has been torn apart for decades, with bandits and pirates rampant. Our Wakasa navy is weak and has been troubled by them. Since Lord Motonobu, successive lords have wanted to pacify Tango to eliminate the threat of pirates, but they suffered from instability in their territories. In addition, the lords' attention was mostly focused on the capital, so it was difficult to gather enough forces to attack Tango. As a result, Oi County, especially Takahama, has been increasingly attacked by pirates. As the governor of Oi County, you should be able to empathize with this."

Hearing this, Itsumi Masaki nodded and said, "Indeed, the Tango pirates initially used Oura Peninsula as their base and frequently attacked our Wakasa port, which was really annoying. Therefore, starting with Lord Motonobu, the three generations of heads of the clan all intended to use force to force the Isshiki clan to restrain the pirates and stabilize the western territory.

But you also said that the Isshiki clan is nominally a guardian, but in reality they are just puppets. They can't even protect themselves, so how can they control those arrogant pirates? Therefore, the main family decided to invade Kasa County and take over Oura Peninsula to eradicate the pirate threat. "

"What about the facts?" Nobushige asked, "When father was in power, Oura Peninsula had already been taken, but from what I know, pirates are still rampant."

"You're right. This is what I didn't expect. I thought that the pirate bases on Oura Peninsula had been cleared, and the Wakasa coast could be safe." At this point, Itsumi Masaki sighed softly: "I didn't expect that these pirates moved their nest to Tango Peninsula. Nobunaga Harunobu, who controls the peninsula, became the patron of these pirates. He facilitated these pirates' invasion of Wakasa and got a share of the stolen goods."

"Since you know all this, are you still going to stop me from taking Kasa and Yosa?" Nobushige asked, "Before, our family didn't have the strength and opportunity to reach Tango Peninsula and wipe out the Nobunaga clan and those pirates. Today is different. We have a rare opportunity to wipe out all the forces in Tango at Kurahashi Castle. How can we miss this golden opportunity and let these Tango thieves recover and continue to disturb Wakasa?" "I'm not trying to stop you, lord." Itomi Masaki corrected him, "I'm just worried that our family will attract attention."

"Tango is a barren land with fierce people and intertwined forces. Many people have turned to banditry. Neighbors cannot bear the harassment, but they don't want to get involved. If I can take over this country in one fell swoop, it will be a good thing for the surrounding forces. Hosokawa Kyojo, who controls Tamba, should also be happy to see it happen."

Nobushige's analysis made Itomi Masaki feel more at ease. In addition, his territory was originally at the junction of Tango and Wakasa. If he could take over Saga and Yosa counties, then his Oi County would be able to leave the front line and become the hinterland, and would no longer be affected by the pirates and the war between the two countries, which was also a good thing.

Thinking of this, Itsumi Masatsune finally approved of Nobushige's strategy and handed over the large group of fans in Dooku Castle to Nobushige's command.

On the morning of February 23, Nobushige led 1,500 troops south to rescue Cangqiao Castle.

Isshiki Yoshiyuki of Kameiwa Castle was shocked when he heard the news, and immediately sent Nobunaga Harunobu and Ishikawa Naomune to lead 2,000 troops to the northern foot of Kurabashi Mountain to set up a battle array to prevent Nobushige from providing support. Another 1,000 troops continued to besiege the main castle of Kurabashi Castle, trying to "siege the city and beat the reinforcements."

However, Isshiki Yoshiyuki obviously underestimated the fighting power of the Takeda army under Nobushige - the ferocity of this army, which had just crawled out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood at Kuniyoshi Castle, Kanayama Castle, and Kimei Pass, was not comparable to those cobbled-together guys under his command.

The vanguard cavalry led by Yamagata Morinobu did not show any weakness when facing the Asakura army, and did not take the mob in front of them seriously.

"Men of the Takeda family, follow me to break through the enemy's line!" With a roar from Yamagata Morinobu, more than 200 cavalrymen took the lead in rushing towards the Isshiki coalition forces.

Faced with the torrent of war horses galloping at them like lightning, the foot soldiers in the front row of the army were sweating profusely and their hands holding the bamboo spears were trembling. They had never participated in a battle of this scale, nor had they ever faced such a fierce cavalry charge.

"Bang! Wow! Ah!" In a flash, the cavalry team had rushed to the front of the formation, beating the gun quilts made up by the peasants and soldiers like a torrential flood.

Dear friends, I have been quite busy these past two days. I will try my best to update twice a day, but the time may not be fixed. Please forgive me.

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(End of this chapter)