I

Daimyos from all over the country live in Edo. Even if it happens to be their turn to return to their fiefdoms this year, their wives, children and accompanying officials will still stay in Edo.

Therefore, when Edo was besieged, reinforcements would definitely be sent.

But the reinforcements were very slow, mainly because the roads were difficult to walk. Japan does not have official roads spread throughout the country. Even the land tax collected by the daimyo every year must first be transported by sea to Osaka and Edo, and then transported across the country by sea from these two cities.

The first to take action was the Mito clan, one of the three imperial families.

Mito Domain is very close to Edo, and the feudal lord often comes to Edo Castle for a stroll even when he is in his own fiefdom. And because the feudal lord was also a Tokugawa clan, he was called the "deputy shogun".

After the Edo samurai who failed to enter the city were defeated by the Daido Army, many fled to Mito Domain.

Tokugawa Mitsuki ordered the gathering of these samurai, and also issued an order to all Kanto feudal lords, asking all the Kanto daimyo armies to come to Mito Domain first to gather.

When Han Shouxin captured Kyoto, Tokugawa Mitsuhiro had gathered more than 30,000 troops and was also recruiting Ashigaru within his territory. They also recruited many civilians and announced to the outside world an army of 200,000, hoping to scare away the Chinese army.

Tokugawa Mitsuaki himself had never fought in a war, but he was the most educated daimyo in Japan.

Tokugawa Mitsuhiro personally serves as the editor-in-chief of "History of Japan", "Etiquette Code", and "History of Hitachi". He does not live in the castle, but lives in the mountains to the west of the city. He calls himself the "Hermit of the West Mountain" . Under his encouragement, the literary style of Mito Domain flourished, and Mito School gradually formed.

Zhu Shunshui, who served as a cabinet minister to Zhao Han, was Tokugawa Mitsuhiro's teacher in another time and space.

At this time, a war was about to begin, and Tokugawa Mitsuhiro was surrounded by a large group of literati counselors in addition to his retainers and samurai.

Yoshi Hongmoto, who is well versed in Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism and Chinese history, said: "According to the Edo samurai who were summoned, the Tang soldiers had sharp iron cannons, and they fought in street battles and maintained a well-organized formation. In addition to suppressing peasant unrest, our army has already We haven’t fought a war in thirty years. We must not rush to rescue Edo this time. We must continue to gather troops in Mito. Only when we have more than 50,000 soldiers can we really go to the battlefield."

Okabe Yinao, who is also proficient in Confucian classics, retorted: "Edo has been besieged for more than a month, and the soldiers are very fast, so they must rush to the rescue. "Sun Tzu's Art of War" says that this war is nothing more than the right time, the right place and the right people. The shogunate defended Edo Castle, occupying all the geographical advantages. The Tang soldiers came out of nowhere to invade our Japanese land. Our army must be united as one. This is harmony. My brother said that the Tang soldiers had sharp weapons. After the reinforcements arrived in Edo, they could attack on rainy days. This is called the weather. The weather. I have the right location and people, so how can I be invincible?"

"This is a wonderful statement." All the literati praised him one after another.

Tokugawa Mitsuhiro asked his retainers again: "Do you think we should send troops immediately, or continue to wait for the remaining Kwantung troops?"

The retainer Ukai Mitsuba thought for a while and said: "House Governor Rong Bing, the armies in various parts of Kantung are all doing their own things. Although the home governor was temporarily appointed as the general of Kanto, he cannot effectively command the entire army. Now there are rumors in the army. Starting from the beginning, the samurai who escaped from Edo described the Tang soldiers as invincible heavenly soldiers. If they continue to gather troops and fail to advance, the longer the delay, the lower the morale of the Kanto tribes will be, and the deeper their fear of the Tang soldiers will be."

"Then set off quickly!" Tokugawa Mitsuki listened to the opinions of his retainers further away.

The Japanese Kwantung Allied Forces rushed to the aid of Edo.

There are tens of thousands of warriors in various banners, more than 8,000 ronin are temporarily recruited, and there are more than 30,000 ashigaru. As for civilian husbands, there are countless of them.

As soon as the reinforcements passed not far from where my grandson stayed, they were discovered by the reconnaissance cavalry of the Datong Army.

My grandson's place was later called my grandson's city. It is more than 40 miles east of Edo and is a waterborne commercial market town.

"Master Governor, it's getting late, so let's camp here." Ukai Miden suggested.

Tokugawa Mitsuki nodded in agreement and added: "I just discovered the cavalry of the Tang army. When I read the Tang Dynasty classics, I found that the Tang people used night attacks since ancient times. We must be more prepared tonight!"

"That's for sure," Ugaigamiden said, "But don't worry, Lord Governor, this place is still more than thirty miles away from Edo. It will take a long time for the Tang Dynasty's cavalry to rush back to report the news. If we want to send troops here, It's sixty miles to go back and forth, and there will definitely be no time for a night attack tonight. When we march tomorrow, we must be more prepared to avoid being ambushed halfway by the Tang army."

Tokugawa Mitsuki nodded: "That makes sense."

…

"Boom boom boom!"

Dozens of artillery bombarded Edo Castle.

The daimyo in the city thought that the Datong Army was about to launch a general attack, so they hurriedly mobilized their troops to defend.

Amid the roar of artillery, 2,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry took sea ships and landed at Ichikawa, not far to the east. Then, the infantry took the captured small morning boat, and the cavalry rode all the way along the river, running at full speed to raid the Kwantung reinforcements.

The Japanese Road Leading Party was responsible for identifying the road and turning south of Liushan.

Since it was already dark, the cavalry also led their horses on foot. The men held their titles, their horses bound their hooves, and they tried not to make any noise. The four thousand Datong troops all moved forward in silence.

When we arrived at the Kwantung Allied Forces camp, it was already past four in the morning, and even the enemy sentries were asleep.

The camp of the Kwantung Allied Forces is backed by a small hill. There are some wooden fences set up around the camp, and a lot of caltrops are also scattered to prevent sneak attacks.

Several of the infantrymen of the Datong Army who were the first to approach had their feet pierced by accident. Fortunately, he had a branch in his mouth, so he just grunted in pain. The injured soldier retreated, and the other soldiers came over to clear the obstacles. The caltrops were all strung together with strings, and there was a big string when picked up.

The next step was to destroy the wooden fence. As soon as they pushed to a section of the wall, the secret sentry of the Kwantung Allied Forces was awakened.

"Tang Bing is coming, Tang Bing is coming!"

As the secret whistle issued a warning, four thousand Datong troops began to light torches and swarmed in through the knocked down wooden fence.

Tokugawa Mitsuaki and his Hatamoto set up a tent on the mountainside to rest. After Ukai Miden explained, he also felt that there would be no night attack. Because it takes time for the Chinese cavalry to return to report the news, and it also takes time to mobilize the night attack troops. It is already dawn when they come all the way.

Therefore, Tokugawa Mitsuhiro slept soundly and was awakened from his dream at dawn.

"What happened?" Tokugawa Mitsuru asked as he hurriedly dressed.

When Ukai heard the news, he ran into the tent and said with a horrified look on his face: "Sir, Tang soldiers attacked at night!"

Tokugawa Mitsuki asked: "Didn't you say that the enemy had no time to attack at night?"

When Ukai heard the news, he cried bitterly: "The Tang army is too fast."

Tokugawa Mitsuaki asked again: "What's going on outside?"

Ukai Miden replied: "Several camps in the west are in chaos, and the army in the east is gathering."

Tokugawa Mitsuki didn't bother to get dressed, so he got out of the tent and looked down the mountain. I saw fires everywhere in the military camp to the east, and there were many torches moving towards the east.

Some of the torches moved very fast, and they were two thousand Datong cavalry.

Beyond the small hill, this place is surrounded by flat plains, which is very suitable for cavalry to gallop. The cavalry were dedicated to killing and driving away the defeated troops, and the task of setting fire to the camp was left to the infantry. The camp of tens of thousands of Kwantung Allied Forces was half disrupted in the blink of an eye.

Japanese samurai rarely had meat to eat, and Ashigaru were even less able to eat meat. Many of them suffered from night blindness.

Unable to see clearly in the dark, and with no time to put on their armor, most Japanese soldiers grabbed their weapons and fled, and many even threw away their weapons.

They couldn't tell the direction and subconsciously fled to a place where there was no fire.

The Datong cavalry deliberately slowed down their horses and divided into several groups to drive the enemy away like a herd of sheep, causing all the defeated troops in Kanto to rush eastward. Wherever the defeated troops went, it was like a virus contagion. A few daimyo were gathering troops, and they were also coerced by the defeated troops and fled eastward.

Seeing the horrified shouts getting closer and closer, the Kanto generals did not dare to attack the easternmost camps, and fled with the gathered Hatamoto samurai.

"Sir, let's go quickly!" Ukai saw the message and brought the war horse.

"Yes, withdraw the troops, withdraw the troops first." Tokugawa Mitsuhiro, already at a loss for words, climbed onto the horse with the help of Ukai Miden.

This knowledgeable feudal lord, who was familiar with the classics and histories, thought that the war would be nothing more than that.

Only then did I understand why night attacks always work. They were suddenly surprised, and the attacked party completely lost its organization. Tokugawa Mitsuki could not contact the various ministries at all, and could only command his own Hatamoto samurai. The tens of thousands of troops were useless!

The hill was not steep. Tokugawa Mitsuki was anxious to escape, and he actually accelerated his horse when going downhill.

The war horse couldn't see the mountain road clearly, and before it could run very far, it stumbled and blew Tokugawa Hikari away.

"grown ups!"

"Governor House!"

The retainers and warriors rushed to help him and found that the guy had fallen unconscious.

Ukai had no choice but to take Tokugawa Mitsuhiro on horseback to run away. After a bumpy ride, Tokugawa Mitsuhiro woke up and asked confusedly: "Did you escape?"

"Not yet." Ukai reined in his horse and stopped, and ordered a samurai to hand over his horse and let Tokugawa Mitsuru ride alone, otherwise the two of them would run too slowly on one horse.

Taking advantage of the time to change horses, Tokugawa Mitsuhiro looked behind him and saw the torches of the Chinese army chasing very close. There seemed to be shouts from all directions, and his tens of thousands of troops had been completely routed.

As for the civilized counselors who accompanied the army, they didn't even have horses, so they died who knows where.

The short legs of the Japanese pony carried Tokugawa Mitsuhiro and continued to run wildly. A river suddenly appeared in front of me. It was the Tone River next to my grandson's accommodation. It was the prosperity of business on this river that gave rise to the town of my grandson's accommodation.

"Where's the boat?"

Ukai Miden looked at the empty river and was furious.

When they came, in order to cross the river, they collected many boats at my grandson's residence, and tens of thousands of troops crossed the river in batches.

The daimyo who camped in the easternmost camp tonight were farthest from the location of the night attack, so they all ran away with almost no losses. The defeated troops fled to the Tone River and drove all the boats to the other side. Not a single sampan was left for Tokugawa Mitsuhiro.

"Go north!" Tokugawa Mitsuhiro said.

Unable to cross the river, these unfortunates had no choice but to flee north along the river bank.

Most of the banners under Tokugawa Mitsuaki did not have war horses. They escaped too slowly, and were killed and captured numerous times along the way. It was inevitable that some betrayers, seeking glory, would take the initiative to tell Tokugawa Mitsuhiro's escape direction.

The Datong cavalry learned the news and immediately accelerated their pursuit.

A war horse with long legs is much faster than a horse with short legs.

The pursuers were getting closer and closer, and Tokugawa Mitsuaki complained endlessly. He was a man of culture, not as good at riding as other famous names, and riding a horse at night was beyond his capabilities.

His retainers, the samurai, suffered even more. In order to protect their master, they had to slow down their escape.

Not far to the north, the pursuers were close at hand.

Tokugawa Mitsuaki doesn't want to run away anymore, he is a decent man. After reining in his horse and stopping, he pretended to be calm and turned over to dismount, and then began to tidy up his appearance. Only then did he realize that he was not wearing his coat and his hat was missing.

When the Datong cavalry chased them more than ten steps away, Tokugawa Mitsuhiro raised his hand and said loudly: "The Lord of the Mito Domain, Tokugawa Mitsuhiro, is here. If you are bloodthirsty, please take my life."

Nonsense, prisoners are rarer than heads, let alone the "deputy shogun of the shogunate".

Tokugawa Mitsuaki knew that he would not die and would be used as a bargaining chip, so he could act so calmly.