Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 196: Running Faster Than One
Half an hour later, the Miya family opened the city and surrendered.

The death of Imagawa Yoshimoto was too great a blow to them, and they were exhausted after being tormented by Shinwanzu for several years. No one from top to bottom had the will to fight. Even if there were one or two diehards who wanted to fight to the death, no one responded. In the end, the Goya family hurriedly packed up their valuables and opened the city gates, betting that the Yuanye Society would keep its promise and spare their lives.

Yuanye had no intention of breaking his promise. He issued a pass to the dozens of people from the Yuya family and sent them away. He left a few dozen people behind to take over the city, and led the Wanjin army to continue northward.

The next target was Takeda Castle, a place that Hara was also familiar with. He came here the first time he came to Chita Peninsula to kidnap people. Now he revisited the old place, the scenery was still the same, but the familiar people were gone - the old man Takeda Heiemon died of illness two years ago. It was said that he vomited blood before his death. It was very likely that Hara had robbed him too many times, resulting in huge population losses, and his eldest son was shot dead. Afterwards, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got, and the angrier he thought about it, the angrier he got, and he was so angry that he died.

With a slight sense of guilt, Yuanye continued to send Aman to persuade them to surrender.

The Takeda family had been beaten up several times by Harano and suffered heavy losses. They have not recovered at all until now. Now facing the Wanzu army which is nearly ten times larger than that of the past, they lacked the courage to resist even if Imagawa Yoshimoto had not died. In the end, they made the same choice as the Goya family.

These two families were ripe fruits and had both been repeatedly beaten up by Harano. If there had not been the threat of the Imagawa family, Harano would have eaten them up skin and bones two years ago. In a sense, their surrender now was a relief. At least they no longer had to live together with this evil neighbor, Harano, and live in fear day and night. However, the Ebina family was bolder than the other two families and showed the courage of "risking their lives". They refused to surrender and began a siege battle, determined to fight to the end.

Their courage was commendable. Even though they knew the strength of the Wanjin Army, they still behaved bravely. However, a low rammed earth wall, some wooden gatehouses, arrow towers, trenches, and more than a hundred samurai armed with bows and arrows were not a threat at all. Under the strong cover of the Wanjin Army's iron cannons, a large section of the wall was blown down soon. Then they were defeated and were blocked by the Wanjin Army in the city and killed.

In the end, the Ebina family held out for more than two hours, which caused some trouble for Yuanye and delayed him some time, but it cost the death of most of the male members of the family.

Yuanye was not so easy to deal with those who dared to resist. He simply confiscated the property of the Ebina family and sent the remaining members of the clan to hard labor as a warning to future generations.

Well, this way fewer people will die. If you listen to him, he won't kill you all, and at least you can save your wealth and life. If you don't listen to him, you won't have to listen to him anymore.

The Chita Peninsula will belong to him from now on, and he doesn't need samurai on his territory.

Yuanye had been holding back in Wanjin and Shin-Wanjin for several years, working hard to develop and throwing all his surplus into the army. He had only one imaginary enemy, Oda Nobunaga. Even if the powerful families on the Chita Peninsula gathered together, they could only cause him some trouble. Now, more than a hundred people were scattered in various small "cottage" villages, so there was no need to mention them. He swept all the way as if he was in an empty land and arrived at Otakagawa in just half a day.

The Ōtaka River is a tributary of the Shirakawa River and flows into the sea near Ōtaka Castle. Originally, Ōtaka Castle was in the hands of the Imagawa family and was defended by Udono Nagateru and Matsudaira Motoyasu of Marugane Fort on the north side. However, on the night of the Battle of Okehazama, Matsudaira Motoyasu was the first to abandon his defense area and flee. Udono Nagateru did not hesitate and also fled with his men before noon today. By the time Harano arrived in a hurry, Ōtaka Castle was almost empty, with only some local powerful families inside.

Harano expelled them without hesitation, and told them all to roll north to find Oda Nobunaga, then sent some auxiliary soldiers and able-bodied men into the city, and began to rely on the rear to strengthen the city defenses and replenish ammunition and food - this place had been besieged by the Oda family before, and the city defenses were already good and did not need major repairs. If the Imagawa family had not abandoned the city and fled, it would have been difficult for Harano and his more than 3,000 people to take over here.

Otaka Castle is also the gateway to the Chita Peninsula. Further north along the coastline are Narumi Castle and Atsuta Port. If Hara controlled this place, he would have closed half of the door to the Chita Peninsula. He then led the Manzu Army eastward along the Otaka River, continuing to sweep all the way and controlling the branch castles and rock fortresses along the river.

These are not difficult. Before, this place was basically under the control of the Imagawa family. After all, Imagawa Yoshimoto took this route to Kyoto. Now that Imagawa Yoshimoto is dead, many of the Imagawa troops here have fled. Even those who have not had time to escape will have no intention of fighting when they see the Wanjin army coming from afar. They do not want to be surrounded in Owari and will leave immediately.

Taking advantage of the chaos after the Battle of Okehazama, Harano quickly controlled the branch castle and rock fortress on the south side of the Otaka River, and ordered the western Wanzu army to continuously escort the Chita nobles out of the country, while waiting for Oda Nobunaga's response.

…………

"The Imagawa family..."

After arranging the defense line of Otaka River, Yuanye returned to Otaka Castle to take charge. He was speechless when he looked at the information sent back by the "survivors".

No wonder Imagawa Yoshimoto was so disgraceful in later generations. After his death, the Imagawa family's performance was simply a puddle of mud... No, even mud is better than them, it's simply a puddle of dog shit.

Matsudaira Motoyasu was the first to run away, Asahina Taitomo was the second, and Udono Nagateru was the third. As they fled one after another, the defenders of Katsukake Castle could not stand it anymore and also started to flee. It was like a chain reaction. Everyone rushed towards Suruga, and no one knew where they were running for.

Even from the latest news, the Imagawa family defenders of Okazaki Castle in Mikawa Province also ran away - these people ran away without even seeing Oda Nobunaga, which was really inexplicable, and actually let Matsudaira Motoyasu pick up a big advantage, and instantly restored his independent status, and no longer had to be a vassal. It was probably because of the "dual system" of rule in the Japanese Warring States Period. Once the big boss died, the second-level bosses below immediately began to have their own thoughts and began to consider joining the new master, or they wanted to preserve their strength and instantly lost the desire to fight. Even if they were strong, they would instantly become a mess.

Imagawa Yoshimoto was really pathetic. He died so miserably in the mud, and none of his subordinates even thought of avenging him. They just ran faster than each other, almost like they were racing.

"Not only that, the navy of the Imagawa family has also escaped." Aman was sorting out the various intelligence sent back by the "survivors", and he couldn't keep quiet, so he said casually.

The death of Imagawa Yoshimoto was like throwing a huge rock into a pond. Huge ripples were spreading, and abnormal situations of varying sizes were occurring every moment. This was the first time that the "Survivors" had experienced such a test since its establishment. The intelligence sent back was a mess, ranging from the movements of the Imagawa family to a small powerful family gathering troops. There was a lot of chaos, and even she had to sort it out personally.

Yuanye received these intelligence reports, which were collected here by several people and several lines. After mutual verification, they were confirmed to be true. The navy of the Imagawa family did escape, and they escaped in a hurry. Because the fleet could not take so many people at a time, a lot of food and miscellaneous soldiers were left behind. Now Kanie Castle is in chaos. The surrounding Oda family's nephews are getting more courageous. They have changed from the initial shrinking state to extremely brave. They are automatically and consciously surrounding from three sides, preparing to eliminate this invader and brush up their military merits.

After reading this, Yuanye really wanted to run from Chita County to Kaisai County to give Katsurayama Nobumasa two slaps in the face. This guy was clearly in the most vulnerable place of the Oda family, with 5,000 troops and a large navy, but he ran away without doing anything. I really wanted to spit in his face - you are not in any danger, why are you running? The main force of the Oda family is in Aichi County, why don't you burn Shimazu and occupy Kiyosu Castle!

If you run like this, won't that put pressure on me?
This idiot is even more speechless than the previous group of people!
Yuanye originally had high hopes for Katsurayama Nobumasa, hoping that he could lead 5,000 men to cause great trouble in the two counties of Haixi and Haidong, preferably causing such a huge disturbance that Oda Nobunaga would have to lead his army back to support him, so that he could turn his defense line into a shabby shell. However...

He was so disappointed that he couldn't help but say, "This guy is such a waste!"

"Maybe the Takeda family has also set their sights on the Imagawa family and is preparing to intervene in the dispute over the succession to the Imagawa family, so he has to hurry back to Suruga." Aman was not surprised. Samurai families were like this. In order to control the territory, the head of the family needed to desperately give birth to children in order to expand the number of their own clan and have enough daughters to form alliances. But once the head of the family dies, the children will start fighting for the position, almost without exception.

The Oda family is an example. Oda Nobunaga's brothers and sisters lined up to rebel, which was a continuation of this struggle for succession rights.

"The Takeda family?"

Katsuyama Nobumasa's "naval surprise attack team" was too far away from the main battlefield and was also targeting Oda Nobunaga. Harano had never cared much about this person before. Upon hearing this, he took out Katsuyama Nobumasa's personal information records and took a look. He discovered that he was actually the sixth son of Takeda Shingen, and was adopted by the Katsuyama family as a son according to the "Three Kingdoms Alliance". His situation was similar to that of Sawaki Tohachiro.

This man was probably the representative of the Takeda family's interests in the Imagawa family. No wonder he ran back without caring about anything when he heard that Imagawa Yoshimoto was dead, and he was too lazy to even light a fire.

Yuanye shook his head and put Katsurayama Nobumasa behind him. Now he couldn't deal with Takeda Shingen, Katsurayama Nobumasa ran away again, and now he knew that all these things were useless.

He asked Aman, "What about Oda Nobunaga?"

"Here!" Aman took out a stack of documents from the messy desk. "Oda Nobunaga's men just occupied Tatsukake Castle. Like us, they encountered no resistance. Then Oda Nobunaga himself led his men to besiege Narumi Castle. Okabe Motonobu abandoned all the branch castles and is hiding in the city to resist."

Yuanye breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, there was still one person who hadn't escaped. If all the Imagawa family had escaped, he would be in trouble. However, after he took the information and looked at it for a few times, his excitement faded a little.

Oda Nobunaga made a last-ditch effort and miraculously killed Imagawa Yoshimoto in the midst of thousands of troops, which was extremely inspiring. With this great victory, his prestige was at its peak. The Owari nobles who had previously been very cautious about their strength and refused to join him in a head-on confrontation with the Imagawa family now began to gather around him automatically without him saying anything. They gave him food and fodder when he asked for food and military service when he asked for military service. They all turned from rebellious sons into obedient grandsons.

In less than two days, Oda Nobunaga had gathered an army of over ten thousand. It seemed that he had made up his mind to remove Narumi Castle, the thorn that directly threatened Atsuta Port. He was now attacking fiercely and using the capital of the Owari clans to forcibly enter the city.

I don’t know if Okabe Motonobu can hold on. If he can’t, he will soon kneel down. Then it is possible that the Wanjin army will face a powerful attack from Oda Nobunaga.

Yuanye had no other choice now but to pray silently for Okabe Motonobu, hoping that he could hold on. Even if he couldn't hold on, he should at least buy some time so that he could make more preparations and repair his defenses.

(End of this chapter)