Chapter 32 35. Imagawa Tsutomu Violates the Border
The summer harvest was about to end, and a rider rushed into Fuchu Castle, bringing news that the Totomi people belonging to the Imagawa clan of Suruga were beginning to gather, and the ships of the Suruga navy Okabe clan, Mamiya clan, etc. also began to appear on the Ejiri Ocean.
The envoys of Isshiki Palace reported three times a day that the invasion of the Imagawa clan was obviously unavoidable. So the horses in Fuchu Castle went out in all directions, each holding the white flag used by the head of the Minamoto clan and the head of the Ashikaga clan, and mobilized along the rivers, streets, and mountains and forests, one village after another.
Shouting and reporting. Those holding guns, wearing bows, fathers with sons, grandfathers with grandsons, leading horses, carrying baskets, everyone was like a small drop of water, rolling forward.
In the paddy fields, riverbanks, and mountains and forests, mobilization orders came one after another. The old man sent his son, the wife sent her husband, and the children sent their fathers. One, two, three, gathered under a white flag. The water drops gathered into a stream, which slowly flowed to Yamanouchi Fuchu Castle.
The next day, Fuchu Castle was noisy, with teams of soldiers holding flags and swords. The strong ones were dressed in armor, carrying swords and spears, while the weak ones staggered and carried miscellaneous items. Hosokawa Harumiya looked at the list and called out one name after another. Each name represented a team of more than a hundred or a dozen people gathering in the Yamanouchi clan's river. The city was like a market, with people everywhere.
Kobayata also took leave from Kitabatake University. As a flag bearer assigned by Zixiaoji Tsunayoshi, it was time to fulfill his feudal military obligations.
With Aki's help, he put on the black lacquered side-barrel five-piece torso given by Nagano Yoshimasa, pasted a note with the words "Zuxiaoji Tsuna family" in his pocket (to prevent his identity from being confirmed after being killed, to ensure the dignity of the samurai), raised the sun and moon horse flag of his uncle Tsunayoshi, and waited for the gathering of more than 300 people of the Renchuan Sixteenth Army under the city.
As a hatamoto of the Yamanouchi clan, a general of the foot soldiers, and a deputy flag chief of the Renchuan Sixteenth Army, uncle Tsunayoshi was full of vigor and spirit. He was nearly forty years old and finally got ahead. Commanding an independent reserve army and enjoying the merits of this reserve army, he was nervous about the coming of war and excited about the desire for merits.
Because it was the first time for uncle Tsunayoshi to lead a large army of 300 people, even though he had fought for 18 years, he was still a little flustered. Kobayata's ability to read and write came in handy at this time. He first made a simple domaru for Aji, and asked him to carry a rattan frame with documents in it. He checked the number of military service with Tsunayoshi, confirmed the number of mounted warriors and foot soldiers, and fortunately there was no trouble.
He also extracted food from the warehouse in the city and distributed it to the small teams in each village to make fire and cook, arranged the location of the camp and toilets, and distributed firewood. Looking at this familiar scene, Kobayata couldn't help but sigh that he couldn't escape the mess after all.
However, soon because of the huge army of more than 9,000 and nearly 10,000 people mobilized this time, the main family's practice was unsustainable, and it was necessary to draw literate warriors to fill in to ensure the various needs of the army.
This strong man was undoubtedly caught by Kobayata. After discussing with his uncle Tsunayoshi, his uncle Tsunayoshi asked him to focus on the main family, but he might not be able to go to the front line and might not have any credit. Kobayata was indifferent, he didn't want to fight a mess. (Nowadays, there is a saying that the words are rough but the truth is true. Only by being tough can you have sex, and it is possible to live.) As long as he has a life, with Xiao Pingtai's ability, there are many merits and prospects. If you want to reduce the risk, not going to the front line is the best choice.
Back to the magistrate's office again, Kitabatake University was anxious and had not slept for a day and a night. His eyes were red. The other dozen or so people with the power and the heart were also working non-stop. There was an endless stream of heart running back and forth with documents to pass on the news. Kitabatake University kept signing and stamping on the wooden board to dispatch supplies.
Even with such non-stop processing, the documents from all over the world that needed food, arrows, wood, etc. were still piled up like a mountain. Over there, the war horses of Ma Hui needed 20 stones of fine wheat and soybeans, and here the back flags of the hatamoto were insufficient and they needed ten rounds of white cloth.
Kitabatake Daigaku greeted Kobayata: "Kobayata, you came at the right time. As you can see, I am busy here. Please dispatch people to prepare to transport military rations to Ejiri and Qianying for the army."
It turned out that Kobayata was asked to organize a small cargo team to prepare to transport food to Ejiri. Kobayata received the order and intercepted the 700-man small cargo team and about 1,200 soldiers from each team of the army with documents. In this way, more than 4,000 troops of Yamauchi went south in chaos to join more than 3,000 people in Ejiri.
Borrowing a few like-minded people, Kitabatake asked Kobayata to delay the departure of the army for one day and let all the logistics to hurry up and set off with rice and salt. Kobayata said to him: "Can you leave it all to me?" (As for why the departure can be delayed, it was mentioned in the previous article that due to the limitation of the road scale, the army actually only advanced for half a day, and the transporters in the rear did not have this limitation. As long as they rushed forward, they could advance for a whole day, so they could catch up with the army)
Kitabatake looked at Kobayata quietly for a while, and could not see any changes on Kobayata's face. So he slowly said: "If you delay the military rations, even if you commit seppuku, it can't make up for the mistake!"
Kobayata said: "Try your best. If there is any mistake, it's all my fault."
Kitabatake thought of a job and asked Kobayata what he needed. Kobayata immediately asked for a big request, asking to send people to Minamishibhara and Echigo to buy rice, to Ueno to buy pickled beans, and to Hida to buy beans. Organize all the packhorses in the area, mobilize the women who are temporarily idle, and hire them to participate in the transportation with a reward of six cents a day. He also ordered Ejiri to raise funds to buy seafood, mainly kelp and seaweed, and stopped selling salt and stored it. Finally, he lent him 20 long-foot people (for communication), 10 people (literate), and 150 armed water people (equipped with slingshots and short swords).
Kitabatake agreed to all of them, so in front of Kitabatake, all the rice was put back into the warehouse by Kobayata, and replaced with coarse barley, wheat, buckwheat and beans, and the salt was reduced by half. No other food was brought.
After a flurry of activity, they finally followed Xiao Pingtai's request and untied the rice, wheat and beans that had been tied up and placed with great difficulty, and moved them back to the granary in the city, replacing them with the coarse grains that Xiao Pingtai requested. The fine rice was all left in Fuzhong City.
They were exhausted after doing these two rounds of work in one day, and they thought they could set off immediately. However, they saw that the atmosphere between Kitabatake University and Xiao Pingtai was very subtle.
Kitabatake University, who watched this scene from beginning to end, went from incredible to extremely angry. He pointed at Xiao Pingtai and said, "You think I am not dying fast enough at my age!"
Starting from 9 o'clock tomorrow, there will be one update every two hours, a total of five updates. In addition, if there are more than 1,000 people this week, there will be eight updates next Tuesday.