Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

In Japan's Sengoku period, you could be wicked, ruthless, or vicious, but you absolutely could not be weak. Being weak was the greatest original sin; if you couldn't win a battle, you were worse than a dog.

The people of Echigo not only accepted the gold coins from Uesugi Kagetora, who occupied Kasugayama Castle, but also discovered that Kagekatsu was consistently unable to penetrate Echigo. It would be a miracle if they caused any trouble; there was absolutely no trouble at all.

They're all probably waiting for Uesugi Kagetora to rescue Shiina Kagenao. If the rescue is successful, all of them will side with Uesugi Kagetora.

Has it really come to this? Shichibei only just found out. A few days ago, the senior retainers of the Oda clan held a meeting and thought that the internal strife within the Uesugi clan would likely last a long time. Now it seems that if they don't intervene soon, Uesugi Kagekatsu will suffer a crushing defeat.

Oh, by the way, Uesugi Kagekatsu's troops were stationed at Uozu Castle in Echigo Province. How did his troops remain steadfast, and how did he manage to secure their food supplies?

Kawada Nagachika, the lord of Toyama Castle in western Echigo, chose to support Uesugi Kagekatsu, not only by providing troops and manpower to help him in his campaigns, but also by offering him provisions and supplies.

Furthermore, the local Jodo Shinshu monk, Kōkō-ji Kenshū, did not adopt a hostile stance towards Uesugi Kagekatsu and Kawada Nagachika because he supported his brother-in-law, Murakami Kunikiyo. After all, Murakami Kunikiyo's primary goal was to control Kaga Province, and his secondary goal was to sit back and watch the two tigers fight, observing the battle between Kagekatsu and Kagetora first.

Kagekatsu was already at a disadvantage, and then someone else undermined him. What was the point of Kagekatsu playing then? He might as well just wait to die.

Even so, deserters have begun to appear on Kagekatsu's side. Some former close associates and hatamoto who supported Kagekatsu have broken away from his ranks and surrendered to Kagetora. In order to consolidate his power in Echigo as quickly as possible, Kagetora has forgiven these people and even rewarded them with generous amounts of gold.

Alright, everyone, eat and drink well. Shichibei needs to send this message by fast horse to Oda Nobunaga, who is currently at the front line of Tennoji Fortress.

Nobunaga, itching for a fight, personally led the attacks on Kizu Fortress and Rogan Fortress again. That's quite in line with his character—he gets back up wherever he falls. He lost at Kizu Fortress last time, and this time he's determined to get his revenge.

He immediately wrote to Nobunaga, informing him that the situation in Echigo might soon...

Kawada Nagachika, the lord of Toyama Castle in western Echigo, chose to support Uesugi Kagekatsu, not only by providing troops and manpower to help him in his campaigns, but also by offering him provisions and supplies.

Furthermore, the local Jodo Shinshu monk, Kōkō-ji Kenshū, did not adopt a hostile stance towards Uesugi Kagekatsu and Kawada Nagachika because he supported his brother-in-law, Murakami Kunikiyo. After all, Murakami Kunikiyo's primary goal was to control Kaga Province, and his secondary goal was to sit back and watch the two tigers fight, observing the battle between Kagekatsu and Kagetora first.

Kagekatsu was already at a disadvantage, and then someone else undermined him. What was the point of Kagekatsu playing then? He might as well just wait to die.

Even so, deserters have begun to appear on Kagekatsu's side. Some former close associates and hatamoto who supported Kagekatsu have broken away from his ranks and surrendered to Kagetora. In order to consolidate his power in Echigo as quickly as possible, Kagetora has forgiven these people and even rewarded them with generous amounts of gold.

Alright, everyone, eat and drink well. Shichibei needs to send this message by fast horse to Oda Nobunaga, who is currently at the front line of Tennoji Fortress.

Nobunaga, itching for a fight, personally led the attacks on Kizu Fortress and Rogan Fortress again. That's quite in line with his character—he gets back up wherever he falls. He lost at Kizu Fortress last time, and this time he's determined to get his revenge.

He immediately wrote to Nobunaga, informing him that the situation in Echigo might soon...

The battle is about to be decided. We've only just begun our preparations, and I'm afraid we'll be too late.

There was really nothing that could be done. The incident happened so suddenly that even Shichibei, who had the foresight, couldn't be sure when Uesugi Kenshin would die.

The history of this plane has changed so much that it's unrecognizable, and it may only be of some reference value now.

The urgent message was quickly delivered by the Flying Kicks to the Tennoji Fortress in Settsu Province. Unfortunately, Nobunaga himself was not there; the fortress was guarded by Sakuma Nobueshige. Nobueshige dared not open Nobunaga's urgent message and could only entrust it to another person to deliver to Nobunaga's location at the Kizu Fortress front.

At this moment, Nobunaga was watching the Awa navy construct three pontoon bridges—not one. Although Nobunaga was known for his risky tactics, he was also quite prudent when he had the upper hand. He understood the principles of combining orthodox and unorthodox strategies without needing further explanation.

The Honganji army inside Kizu Fortress, lacking the support of the Saiga party's arquebuses and with its forces stretched thin, had also lost a large number of arquebuses and other weapons due to its major defeat. At this moment, they were truly sitting idly by, unable to venture out of the city to harass the Oda army, which was supported by a large naval force.

All I could do was silently pray that things would get better once the Maori navy launched their attack.

Nobunaga, who was watching with great interest as the navy blocked the river mouth and the soldiers built a pontoon bridge, was feeling that his tens of thousands of kan had not been wasted when an urgent report from Tennoji Fort appeared in Mori Ranmaru's hands.

Upon hearing that it was an urgent report from Shichibei in Kyoto, Nobunaga was a little surprised. What could have happened in Kyoto? After he finished reading the report quickly, an urgent report from his good brother Oda Nobuhiro also arrived.

In Oda Nobuhiro's urgent report, there was also a piece of information that Shichibei was unaware of. That was, during the Otate Rebellion, the castles of Naoe Nobutsuna, who had declared his support for Uesugi Kagekatsu in his capacity as a close associate of Uesugi Kenshin, namely Echigo-Toyama District and Ita Castle, had been captured by Hojo Kagehiro, a general under Uesugi Kagetora.

The Yoita-shu (a powerful military force) did not participate in the battle; only Naoe Nobutsuna and a small number of retainers followed Uesugi Kenshin to serve him. This means that there were over 250 samurai alone, and the Yoita-shu, known as the "Great Body" of the Uesugi family, had been wiped out. Only Naoe Nobutsuna, the lone commander, remained, barely clinging to life in Kagekatsu's camp.

It's unclear who gave Uesugi Kagetora the idea, but on one hand, anyone who defected and surrendered to him would be pardoned. On the other hand, he ordered the Echigo lords that anyone who attacked and captured the territory of a lord supporting Kagetatsu would have their territory increased by the amount captured.

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The same applies to Ueda-Sakado Castle; whoever captures it owns it.

The Ueda Nagao family's territory is worth far more than 30,000 koku. This immediately lured the Echigo clan, who were already somewhat inclined towards Kagetora, into a corner. As for seizing the territories of Kaga and Noto, that was too far-fetched. Even if they did seize them, it would simply mean that the eldest son would inherit the Echigo power, while the second son would inherit the foreign territories.

The strength of the main family may not necessarily increase, and it may even lead to internal strife within the family. If the collateral branches develop well, they may in turn suppress the main family.

If it were territory within Echigo Province itself, the enthusiasm of the people would be incredibly high. Because it's in Echigo, they could directly govern it, and everyone was from their own village; it was just a matter of leaving the village and turning a corner – very simple.

In other words, Uesugi Kagetora's side has effectively gained the upper hand in the internal strife within the Uesugi clan of Echigo. Furthermore, given the lack of large-scale unrest in Echigo and the arrival of 20,000 Hojo reinforcements, conquering the region is extremely difficult. In any case, considering Oda Nobuhiro's opinion and that of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was on his way to meet him, it would be very difficult to break through in the short term.

The main reason was that the Uesugi and Hojo clans' strength increased dramatically after forming a brotherly alliance, although the Oda clan's forces on the eastern front were also considerable.

Because spreading out five fingers along the long border is less powerful than making a fist.

The two urgent reports caused Nobunaga, who had been in a very relaxed mood, to have some fluctuations.

Anyone else in this situation would have been filled with self-pity, lamenting their missed opportunity or feeling that the tide was not on their side. But Nobunaga simply scolded Azai Nagamasa for his mistake, put the letter away, and loudly ordered his attendants to speed up the construction of the pontoon bridge.

If they could capture Kizu Fortress before the Mori navy arrived, the Oda navy would no longer need to worry about fire ships and rafts attacking from behind, and could face the Mori directly.

The officers and generals were unaware of the events in Echigo. Even Nobunaga and Shichibei only knew bits and pieces of information about the distant Hokuriku region. Moreover, news was subject to significant delays, and obtaining information from the war zone was already difficult; furthermore, Kasugayama was quite a distance from Kyoto.

Since Nobunaga has given the order, let's brace ourselves and attack the castle!

At this moment, Tsutsui Junkei had also assigned Sakuma Nobumori to lead the attack, and the Negoro clan, with over seven thousand cavalrymen, was also present. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for Sakuma Nobumori alone to complete the land encirclement of Honganji.

With troops from all sides gathering, Teranishi Hidenori, a general under Sakuma Nobumori, took the lead and led his Owari troops across the pontoon bridge to launch an attack on Kizu Fortress.

More than two hundred arquebusiers also crossed the river in an endless stream to provide reinforcements. This time was different from the last. Last time, they crossed the river by boat to attack the city, so they still had to worry about their retreat. This time, Oda's navy was gathered upstream and downstream of the Kizu River, and everyone clearly saw the three pontoon bridges being built, so they felt at ease.

Just keep killing, don't hold back.

Kizu Fortress was a very standard Japanese military fortress, surrounded by wooden palisade walls and a moat outside the walls, which was filled with water. Inside the fortress were arrow saddles, but they were just simple wooden frames, occupying a commanding position. The gate was a very simple wooden gate, the most basic type of gate in the later game "Nobunaga's Ambition: The Creation of the World".

Because it was built on a river delta, the fortress had several geographical advantages. For example, the soil was soft and damp, making it slippery to walk on. Also, without a navy, troops could only be deployed little by little, preventing the formation of a significant advantage. Furthermore, the attack surface was narrow, as the area was limited due to the river delta. Building the fortress occupied half the land, and only now, during the dry season in autumn and winter, is the other half fully exposed.

The arquebuses inside Kizu Fortress were scarce, and manpower was insufficient; they were just waiting to be breached.

On the contrary, the Oda army's arquebuses roared down from below the castle, one wave higher than the next, quickly suppressing the enemy on the castle walls. The Honganji army behind the wooden palisades and on the arrow towers fell silent.

Without the enemy's ranged attacks, the Oda army's siege became significantly easier. Teranishi Hidenori directed his family to carry logs and ram them against the wooden gate. The Honganji army behind the gate had erected many supporting logs behind the gate panels, and with each ramming and pushing, the wooden gate itself began to creak and groan.

It's just a piece of wood; you can't expect too much from it.

Besides, even if you can't break it open, you can use gunpowder to set it ablaze. Nobunaga was a wealthy and powerful ruler; he could just throw a barrel of gunpowder, weighing dozens of pounds, at you, and it would explode and burn. In less than half an hour, the fire would burn through the wooden gate.

Without the city gate, Mujin Fortress is nothing more than a dish.

At this moment, eight hundred ships of various sizes, including those of the Mori Army's naval commanders Kodama Naruhide, Reizei Motomitsu, and Inoue Harutada, and the Murakami Navy's commanders Murakami Takeyoshi, Murakami Motoyoshi, and Murakami Yoshimitsu, entered Iwaya Castle in Awaji Province.

From Suga Tatsunaga, the lord of Iwaya Castle, the generals learned that the Oda navy possessed several large Atakebune ships painted black, as well as approximately three hundred...

Other ships, both above and below, were taking turns to completely block the mouth of the Kizu River.

Both Kodama Narihide and Murakami Takeyoshi considered it a trivial matter. Even the largest Atakebune was still a wooden boat, and no wooden boat was immune to fire.

With Murakami's navy unleashing their fire-breathing bombs, the enemy ships will soon be ablaze. Just as the Oda clan perished last time, they will perish in the same way this time.

However, the generals also sensed that only a short time had passed—two years, perhaps even less. In such a short time, Oda Nobunaga had already assembled a fleet of three hundred ships centered around several large Atakebune. It was only because they encountered Mori Murakami's navy that they were able to win a direct confrontation with any other Japanese navy.

Murakami Takeyoshi was secretly astonished by the Oda clan's strength. He had originally thought that even if the Mori clan couldn't contend for the throne, they were capable of protecting the western provinces. Now it seemed that this was not necessarily the case.

452. Six ships utterly destroyed eight hundred ships.

Shichibei did not receive a reply from Oda Nobunaga, but a letter from Oda Nobuhiro was delivered. Nobuhiro's letter contained only one sentence: begin building supply depots and supply lines along the ports of the Tokaido.

He couldn't manage the Hokuriku region for the time being, but preparations needed to begin immediately in the Tokaido region. This would facilitate the deployment of Nobuhiro's Konomoto Corps, along with the forces of the Tokaido's Shun'en and Sangoku, to attack the Kanto region together.

Why didn't we do this before?

It's quite simple. They didn't kill Takeda before. Furthermore, supply depots need to stockpile resources; it's not as simple as just building a house there. They also need to repair and maintain the ports along the route and investigate the average number of laborers in each port. Mobilizing 40,000 to 50,000 troops at once means the daily demand for supplies is enormous, while ordinary ports might only have a few hundred laborers.

Not enough? If not, we need to find out the number of able-bodied men in the nearby villages and, if necessary, hire day laborers to help with the transport of supplies. Especially in Sunpu, the last major station before the attack on Kanto, we need to stockpile at least tens of thousands of koku of grain and soybeans.

It's all money, who's going to pay?

It's definitely Oda Nobuhiro and Oda Nobunaga who will be the ones to produce it.

Did Nobunaga ever publicly order Shichibei to stockpile military rations in Gifu and Kyoto? Actually, no. Nobunaga simply demanded that Shichibei provide money and provisions as soon as a major battle began. Therefore, to ensure that all of Nobunaga's needs were met, regardless of whether they were reasonable or not, Shichibei set up reserve warehouses in advance.

This is to curry favor with Nobunaga, to ensure that this favor does not diminish, and also to demonstrate the value of our great kinship.

Nobuhiro was merely Shichibei's father-in-law, not his lord. How could Shichibei possibly exchange tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of kan of cash for military rations and weapons, leaving them there just for Nobuhiro to use?

Now that Nobuhiro's letter has arrived, it means he's prepared to spend money on this matter. With money coming in, we're like close father-in-law and son-in-law, able to leverage our existing connections and influence to help Nobuhiro first establish and put into operation the military supply system and maritime transport system in the Tokaido region.

Let's do it. We'll take any business that comes our way.

Those in business only lamented the lack of orders, since the payment channels for the Oda clan and other feudal lords were controlled by Shichibei. Everyone's annual tribute rice was entirely handled and distributed by Shichibei. These rough, uneducated samurai knew nothing about the trade; in the end, after calculating the costs, they realized they were just wasting their time.

Kawamura-ya made it.

Since it was a letter from his father-in-law, Shichibei had to reply properly. Tokugawa Ieyasu had approximately 18,000 men to mobilize across three provinces. Takeda Nobufusa's Suruga province was suffering repeated turmoil, so he could probably only mobilize 6,000 to 8,000 men; let's say 6,000.

The two families have a combined 25,000 men, and Kita no Nobuo still has 8,000. Adding the troops from Shinano and Kai, the total is easily 50,000. With the men and horses fed, Oda Nobuhiro won't be able to hold out much gold; otherwise, the accounts won't be easy to settle.

By the way, Shinano also has gold mines, though they're not very large, but they can still yield a few gold coins. Oda Nobuhiro has also rested for two years, so he must have some savings by now.

Find an opportunity to spend all of my cheap father-in-law's gold coins.

The family fortune of over 400,000 shi (a unit of dry measure) was left to our brother-in-law. As the son-in-law, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to spend a couple of gold coins.

"My lord, a great victory!" Shichibei was still secretly laughing to himself when his servants ran up to the veranda and knelt outside the screen door, shouting "Great victory!"

"A great victory? Settsu?" Shichibei immediately thought of the battle at Kizugawaguchi.

How could they have achieved such a great victory after only four or five days away? (Warring States Period)

A naval battle that was extremely rare in history, and almost a one-sided massacre. Did we miss it?

"Our army decisively defeated Mori Murakami's navy at the mouth of the Kizugawa River, and the entire enemy force was annihilated!" Upon opening the gate, the answer was indeed that the Second Battle of Kizugawa River had already been completed.

"Where is the messenger?" Shichibei asked the messenger immediately after receiving the letter.

"Restating under the eaves."

“Immediately give him food and drink and invite him to me.”

Upon unfolding the letter, one could see that it was jointly written by Morimura Haru and Ataka Kiyoyasu. The letter contained only one sentence: the Oda army had achieved a great victory over the Mori navy at the Kizu River estuary. It had almost completely destroyed the Mori family's proud naval force, and Mori Murakami and his generals barely escaped with their lives.

The battle was quite simple. After receiving news of the Mori army's deployment, Kuki Yoshitaka summoned six ironclad ships and arrayed them at the mouth of the Kizu River. The Ataka and Awa navies served as auxiliary forces, guarding the flanks and rear respectively.

The Maori navy still used hundreds of small boats to maneuver at high speed to the vicinity of the large ships, and then launched flaming arrows and fire arrows, preparing to rely on this one trick to win the war.

Then, in the first round of attack, they were met with more than seventy large guns on the ironclad ships.

The cannon relentlessly bombarded them. The small guns were no match for the bullets from the large cannons; they shattered upon contact and sank upon impact.

Fortunately, Shichibei ordered 72 large cannons for Kuki Yoshitaka; if there had only been 36, the firepower might not have been strong enough.

After dozens of small boats were destroyed by the Oda army from a distance, Kodama Narihide, Murakami Takeyoshi, and others were not anxious. They believed that the Oda clan was only this capable, relying on their control of the ironworks in Sakai and Kunitomo to use large iron cannons to attack people.

If a hundred or so small boats aren't enough, then send two hundred at once. They want to see whether Oda's army's big iron cannons can fire faster or their small boats can row faster.

Even at this point, the Mori generals still believed they could rely on close combat to burn all of Oda's large ships and thus achieve victory.