Chapter 72 first quarter

In February of the sixth year of Tensho (1578), Hidecho Hashiba Koichiro stayed at Himeji Castle. The whole city is just a small walled city, and there are only a few watchtowers made of loose earth barriers and wooden boards in the city.The flags that were planted everywhere to boost morale rustled in the biting sea breeze. Koichiro has only nearly a thousand Hashiba troops under his command, and the city lord Xiaoji officer Wei Xiaotaka has less than two hundred soldiers accompanying him. In addition, there are 700 Koichiro's own subordinates in Tajima Takeda Castle in the remote mountainous area to the north, plus those stationed in the west. Of the more than 700 Nizi troops in Last Moon City, it can be said that in the entire Harima and Tajima regions, these are the only reliable ones left.At this time, the local daimyo in Harima began to waver, but there was still no news of when his brother Hideyoshi led most of the Hashiba troops back to Omi.

(In case there's any commotion...) Thinking of this, Koichiro couldn't help sweating down his back.Although he has had numerous experiences of staying behind in battle, this time Koichiro was extremely timid. (It seems that Miki may not be able to keep it...) Koichiro was already mentally prepared.The biggest daimyo in Harima, Bessho Choharu of Miki Castle, had joined the Oda family to assist Hashiba's troops, but recently he has made some unusual moves.They dug deep ditches and erected fences in their own cities, transported food and ammunition for soldiers, and at the same time constantly recruited neighboring small wealthy or rural warriors into the city.Their superficial excuse is that "the war against the powerful enemy Moori is expected to be a long time", so they must reserve in advance, but in fact it is obvious that they are preparing to resist the Oda family and Hashiba's troops.Koichiro has long known that Maori and Ashikaga General Yoshiaki, who is protected by him, have sent envoys to Miki again and again, but due to the weakness of his troops, he is powerless to stop them.

To make matters worse, the dynamics of the Bessho clan can have a huge impact on other daimyo or rural samurai.Those wealthy Harima clans who don't know much about the situation in the world seem to have overestimated the strength of the local leading daimyo Bessho family and their ability to judge the situation, thinking that following the Bessho family will be foolproof. In addition, there is also a big problem in front of them: the large number of disciples here have already launched an anti-Oda movement under the guidance and instigation of Honganji Temple. The Honganji Temple, which is guarding Osaka Shishan and fighting with Oda Nobunaga, sent envoys to all parts of the country to encourage disciples to rebel against Oda. The key areas are Kaga, Noto, and Izumi, Kii, Harima and other places where the enemy and us must fight middle ground.Among them, the disciples of Kaga and Kii have already rebelled, and the situation in Harima has become more and more intense.Rural samurai and peasants who believed in Ichizo began to put pressure on the lord or lord, urging them to rebel against Nobunaga, and some people planned to rise up to rebel themselves.Such an incident broke out in Yingga, who is in the west of Himeji.

Seeing that the general situation is not good, the rich family of Harima trembled with fear.They had already heard about the Apostle's power to cause chaos all over the country.If the rural samurai and peasants join forces to revolt, not only will the order of the territory not be maintained, but they may not even be able to defend their own city.For them, the disciples around them are far more terrifying than the Oda army in Kinai. The situation is getting worse day by day, and bad news reaches Koichiro's ears almost every day.When my older brother Hideyoshi first arrived last November, the 30 wealthy Harima families who had gathered here and vowed to help the Oda family had already betrayed their promise one by one.

Seeing this situation, even the officers and soldiers of Xiaosi couldn't help but look sad.It's no wonder that even his own lord, Omoku's small temple administrator, and his in-laws, Shikata's Kushibashi family, seem to be planning to fall to the Mori family along with the Bessho family. "Unless Hideyoshi-sama can lead the army here as soon as possible, I'm afraid it won't be able to stop this trend." Guan Bingwei said despondently, as if to show that relying on his own wit and sharp tongue could no longer solve the problem.Even the officers, soldiers and guards who have always been confident said such words, which shows how dangerous the situation was at that time.

Other people who are closely related to the Oda family and can no longer turn to each other have also made this request one after another.Bessho Shigeto and Sasiya Sukeemon, who stood on the side of the Oda family in the Bessho family, came to urge them again and again anxiously. "Oh, really?... I didn't hear that the Mori family had already attacked." Koichiro pretended to be relaxed, repeatedly emphasizing that "the enemy of the Oda family is the Mori family, Harima has already subdued it", and blindly said some superficial words.This situation is seen in the eyes of the Harima nobles. Either they think that Koichiro cannot see the current situation clearly, or they think that he is not as good as his elder brother and cannot be relied on at all.But Koichiro couldn't care less.

(If I also booed at this time and let them see the predicament of Hashiba's family, the situation would be even worse...) Koichiro told himself that, he bit the bullet and endured the criticism from all sides, because he knew very well the reason why his brother stayed in Omi - now, Hashiba's family has no funds to send troops to fight. As in any era, military operations always require huge sums of money.Even though the military equipment in the Warring States Period was simple and the cost of manpower was low, it still cost a lot of money to send troops.The warrior class usually has a salary, so as long as the mobilization order is issued, they will grind their guns and bring their horses to report, but the general still has to supply bows and foreign guns and shells.In case the war prolongs, the distribution of military rations is also a big problem; in addition, it is necessary to spend money to hire porters or workers who were indispensable to the army at that time.So to dispatch an army of 10,000, it would cost at least several thousand taels, and once they stayed on the front line for a long time, it would cost several times more.If there is no military rations in the middle of the battle, or the wages of the workers cannot be paid, the general's credit will plummet and cannot be recovered.Once many famous names in the Warring States were defeated and lost power, their territories were lost in the blink of an eye, and their retainers also defected one after another, mainly due to the exhaustion of military expenditures.

When Hashiba Hideyoshi sent troops to conquer Harima last fall, he had already owed a large amount of debt.If you want to march west again now, you have to get funds from Oda Nobunaga.But when it comes to money, Nobunaga is smarter than anyone else.Hideyoshi already owns the territory of 120,000 stones in Omi, and the privilege of "arbitrarily encroaching on and slaughtering ten countries in China".From the standpoint of Nobunaga, it would be unfair to give Hideyoshi military expenses, and it would be detrimental to the control of the retainers.Although Hideyoshi spent a considerable amount of money in order to eliminate the serious crime of violating military orders in Hokuriku (the incident of retreating without permission due to discord with Shibata Katsuie), but it was Hideyoshi's fault, and Nobunaga had no reason to sympathize with him.More importantly, at this time the Oda family must reserve funds to deal with Kenshin Uesugi in the north.

Under such circumstances, just that the Harima princes were secretly mobilizing and possibly rebelling, it was not enough for Nobunaga to spend a large amount of money, because it only meant that the propaganda work promoted by Hideyoshi had failed.Unless there are some decisive situations that make everyone think it is necessary, there is no need to use the funds of the Oda family. However, of course, these difficulties should not be known to the people of Harima, otherwise Hideyoshi's authority and credibility will be gone, and it will be difficult to retain those who have joined the Oda family, let alone manage the local administration.It is because Xiaoichiro knows this situation too well that he feels uneasy, but he only says some high-sounding scene words; even if he is ridiculed for being inferior to his brother, he can only endure it secretly and continue to pretend to be stupid.Like this, as a staff member, sometimes you must have the ability to pretend to be stupid.