Time flies, and in a blink of an eye it is May 1st of the third year of Yonglu (1560 AD).

On this day, Imakawa Yoshimoto officially issued an order requiring his generals to arrive at Junfu Castle ten days before and set off together.

After the generals arrived, the army finally set off, first to Tokaido on the 11th, and then advance from Tokai and Honsaka on the 12th. On the last fifteenth, the vanguard troops must arrive at the Chili-rot in Sanhe Bihai County.

The Ikebukuro is quite close to the end of the border of Zhang Guo. General Imakawa Yoshimoto arrived at Okazaki Castle in Mikawa on the 16th day later, and then immediately held a military assessment meeting to prepare for the war.

Imakawa Yoshimoto is over 40 years old this year, and he is at the age of strong fighting spirit. He is very obese, so when he set out from Junfu Castle, he must tie three more horses after riding a horse and go with all his retainers. Then he sat in a sedan made of gold and silver, carried by four great men and moved forward slowly.

No matter what, he is different from the wild samurai in the Mikawa Kingdom and Ohachi Kingdom. He began to absorb Kyoto culture and customs very early, and was quite close to the ministers, and his living habits were as high as those of the generals. Because of this, his armor was embroidered with the view of the Shu River, and his chest and shoes were tied with white cloth. In addition, he also painted thin eyebrows and his middle teeth were blackened with ink. He entered a large room in Okazaki Castle with serene satisfaction. The situation inside was like the luxurious and gorgeous impression given by Yamato paintings.

He also specially chose many beautiful boys as his guards, holding the two-foot and six-inch sword of the Sonsanzabu-word written by him, and the two-foot and six-inch sword in his hand and the two-foot-six-inch sword in his armpit. Due to his excessive obesity, he was particularly prone to feeling hot. He looked at the left and right sides and found that there were special round fans with a diameter of about three feet beside him fanning him. There was also Yu Bi who was guarding him next to him.

"Guards! Come forward!" he said. The little guards standing in front glanced at each other. Then they looked back at their staff, and finally stood back at their positions as Imakawa Yoshimoto asked.

So Imakawa Yoshimoto officially started the meeting: "Now I want to tell you my thoughts. If you have any opinions, don't be polite, just raise them. If there is no objection, it means that you have decided to obey my views. Now I will convey my intentions to all camps so that everyone can know."

"Yes!" Everyone responded immediately.

"Also, Okazaki Castle is about to become a battlefield, so here will be led by Ahara Motoke, who will be the garrison work!"

At this time, Anhara Motoke was beside him, so he asked and answered from the center on his right: "Yes!"

"Secondly, in addition to Yoshihisa's family, I will assign two thousand soldiers around me to join the camp. You will lead 4,000 soldiers to monitor all positions of Ikechiro and Imaoka in Mokawa, Kariya and other places, and to pioneer my way forward."

Regarding this order, Yoshihisa Horikoshi, who was sitting on the left seat, spoke: "Sir, according to the information sent back by the intelligence personnel, we do not need to be such cautious guards at all!"

"What? No?" Imakawa Yoshimoto's fat body trembled. He was originally a very nervous person. His eyebrows were still trembling at this time. "Oda is always a famous rioter. For such a person, you actually said that you don't need to be alerted?"

"Yes! Sir, because in fact, Oda Nobunaga did not prepare to fight us across the border, this information is absolutely correct and reliable. Based on the detailed information, they thought it would be best to wait until they were sure of victory before going out to fight. Before that, they just had to sleep and wait, and now they are preparing to defend the city!"

"What? They have the idea of ​​fighting in the cage? What is the evidence?"

"Yes! The Imperial Chef in Kiyoshita is a man named Kishita Fujiro. He and another man named Kizunashi Shigetachi went around in the territory of Ohara Kingdom and even went to the Sankawa Kingdom region to inquire about it, and hurriedly bought Dajiang everywhere. There are two or three people engaged in selling Dajiang in the Nishisanhe area. We found out about this from these people, and everyone has the same statement, so there should be no mistake!"

"Did you make a judgment based on these just? Yoshihiro!" Imakawa Yoshimoto asked quietly, "If it's just like this, our plan will not be changed. Yoshihiro, you should take 4,000 people to be a pioneer for me and sweep the road ahead first!"

"But...about this matter..." Miura Beigomo, who was standing behind, spoke, "Mr. Nagatoshi, Utagawa in Otaka Castle, also reported about this matter."

"What? Is there anything about this?"

"Yes! There is a complete information about Oda Nobunaga's decision to defend Kiyosu Castle."

"Okay! Then you can tell me!"

"The frontlines of this guy Oda Nobunaga are Washizu, Marukena, Danshigaki, Zenzawaji, Nakajima and other cities, but there is still no need to increase the number of people in these cities."

"What? He didn't increase the number of people..."

"Yes! Lord, you know that the number of people in these castles is still the same as before we left from Jun Mansion!"

"Yubi! Take out Oda Nobunaga's equipment book and take a look." Imakawa Yoshimoto said as he took the equipment book and put it in front of him.

"Okay! After that, you will read the information about the guards and the number of people given to you by Changzhao again!" He said so.

"Yes! Washizu's garrison is Oda Nobuhei, with about 350 seven soldiers under his command; Marukeni's garrison is Sakuma University, with about 400 people under his command; Dan's garrison is Mizuno Tadaki, with about 200 people under his command; Sanzhao Temple's garrison is Sakuma Nobuhei, with 200 people under his command; Nakajima's garrison is Kazuhide Kazuhide, with about 180 people under his command."

"Well! It's true! He really didn't increase at all!"

"Yes! His total strength is only 1,330. Under such circumstances, he cannot support any city at all. However, now every city is constantly sending envoys to Kiyosu, asking Oda Nobunaga to send support troops."

"For this point, does the General Administration mean to increase the number of people at all?"

"Yes! He had no intention of increasing his intention at all. And he had plans to defend the city. This means he could no longer imagine... This is the news obtained by Yudian Changzhao there."

Hearing this, Imakawa Yoshimoto looked up at the sky, as if he was thinking about something. No matter what, our army had nearly 30,000 elite soldiers, but he only placed 1,300 soldiers on such an important border. This number is really incredible. What's more, even if he gathered all his personnel to launch a total attack, he would not be able to fight against us for a moment!

"This is really a strange thing..." Imakawa Yoshimoto said slowly, tilting his pig head.

"If you can't send reinforcements to defend the city... If you can't send reinforcements to launch a sneak attack, that makes sense!"

"Yeah! About this matter..." At this time, Bei Houshou spoke again.

"Oda's total strength is only seven thousand. Therefore, in my opinion, he has no reinforcements at all. But he believes that doing so will definitely make us suspicious, so he will proceed slowly with a cautious attitude."

"You don't need to explain this! OK! Horikoshi Yoshihisa, I will send another thousand of my men to your army, and change the number from the original four thousand to five thousand. Just prepare for the route of advance like an ants!"

"What? Add another thousand people..." Yoshihisa Horikoshi asked in an incredible tone. The total strength of such an important small town on five borders was only 1,330 for the garrison task. Why do we need to use 4,000 troops on the way forward? I had wanted to refute this way, but now Imakawa has added another thousand people. This made Yoshihisa even more incredible, but then he seemed to understand. So he suddenly realized:

"Oh, so that's it! It turns out that this is the noble body that is about to command the world, so the defense must be so cautious and now I fully understand."

"If you understand, that's good, you must be careful." Imakawa Yoshimoto was very attentive to everything, and he was careful. "Okay! Since the road in the middle is already strong, the remaining attack troops are the attacking forces. Among all the enemy castles, the strongest and most powerful one should be Marukeen Castle defended by Sakuma University. Then, Matsuhei Motoyashi! You can lead 2,500 elite troops from Sankawa to attack this castle!"

Sitting in the last seat on the left, Matsuhei Motoyashi, who is the lord of Okazaki, said with an enlightened look: "Sir, I will hand over the strongest enemy to us to launch an attack. This is a glorious thing for us, thank you!"

After saying that, he lowered his head again.

"The second is Washizu Castle, which is led by Asahinatato to attack."

"Yes! Send the envoy to Asabina's position now!"

"The three thousand soldiers led by Nagatao, Ueden Nagata, are responsible for supporting the attacks of Marukeen and Washizu. Once the enemy city is broken, they will immediately turn to the streets of Kiyosu, and Nobuzao Geshan will also follow him!"

"According to what the lord said, I, Geshan Xinzhen, just deploy it?" At this time, this sound suddenly came from the top seat on the right.

"Yes! At the beginning, you will first lead five thousand soldiers toward Qingzhou City, and wait for the others to capture all five enemy castles, and then join forces to attack the enemy's castle."

"Geshan Xinzhen led five thousand men to head towards Qingzhou Street."

"By the way! And, Matsuhira Motoyashi!"

"yes!"

"After you broke the Marukoen Castle, you immediately turned to the Ogao Castle in Nagao, where Uttarako was. At this time, Uttarako was also heading towards Kiyosu, so after Marukoen was destroyed, you entered the Ogao Castle as a guard. You must show the courage of the Mikawa samurai and never lose to others. The enemy is very tenacious, so you must have the determination to die, do you know?"

"Yes!" After answering this, Matsuhira Motoyasu couldn't help but sigh secretly. He missed Oda Nobunaga, who had a deep friendship with each other when he was a teenager. Although Oda Nobunaga sent an envoy to secretly contact Okazaki Castle, hoping that they would not fight for life and death in difficult situations. The problem now is that Imakawa Yoshimoto's mansion was very deep, and he actually deliberately used the name of the Mikawa Samurai Warrior and did not weaken the Matsuhira family's troops at all. Therefore, will this result be something Imakawa Yoshimoto can allow?

"Next..." At this time, Imakawa Yoshimoto ordered the big country fan waiters standing on both sides to slap them hard. He glared at the two because he felt that they were slapping too slowly, "Miura Beigu's guard led three soldiers to stand by me."

"yes!"

"The five thousand soldiers of our team will be directly under my command. After Dagaocheng is pacified, we will enter the city and launch a general attack on Qingzhou together."

"yes!"

"Okabe Motonobu led 700 people to guard Naruto Castle, and the envoy immediately conveyed this order to him."

"Yes! I understand. I'll set out now."

"good!"

"In the end, Masato Asagawa is left. You brought 1,500 people back to Taku City and guard the wild samurai around the village."

The young Zhengmin was quite dissatisfied with this task: "Dagucheng is not an enemy position, why bother to guard it?"

"Hahaha! What you said is wonderful! Masato! Even Okazaki Castle needs to leave a thousand people to guard it, let alone the Dakuo City is more front-line than here, so why isn't it considered an enemy position?"

"So, sir, can you let me go further to the front line?"

"No!" Imakawa Yoshimoto shook his head sternly. Then he laughed out loud, "Everyone is very brave, but the purpose of this Battle of Shangluo is to control the world. Therefore, if the cunning monkey Ohara is defeated by a moment of negligence, it will not only make us regret it for the rest of our lives, but also make our descendants a laughing stock in history. We should certainly go forward to fight, but at the same time we should be more careful and make the opponent have no choice but to take advantage of it. This is the best strategy to win, which is my idea. Do you understand? Masato! After I set off from Okazaki Castle, I will stay in Dagucheng for one night before entering Okaga Castle, so my unit will go to serve as a garrison. Everyone here has the same status and the work they hold is equal! Well, this is the end of our military assessment. Please go back to the upper level of your post to take action!"

At this time, Imakawa Yoshimoto thought that Ohara Oda Nobunaga would be helpless under his perfect planning, so he happily showed his beautiful black teeth and smiled...

Just as Imakawa Yoshimoto was looking forward to the Oda family, a sound rang out in the kitchen of Oda home city Kiyosu Castle: "Are the meal ready?"

The person who asked loudly was the newly appointed chef Fujishita Yoshiro.

"It's going to be done soon." A servant replied.

"Hurry up, I'm hungry." Fujiro urged, "It's not that I'm hungry, but that my lord is hungry."

Since joining the Oda family, this monkey has changed a lot. Now he is no longer a subordinate of Fujii Yuemon when he first joined the Oda family, but a kitchen supervisor of the Oda family with a salary of 30 stagnant.

When he first entered the Oda family, he was responsible for cleaning the stables, and in a blink of an eye he went to carry shoes for Oda Nobunaga, then led horses for Oda Nobunaga, and finally promoted from an ordinary servant to a kitchen supervisor. He was smooth sailing in the Oda family and had already made a name for himself. No one knew why this monkey pleased Oda Nobunaga so much. He even made up an interesting story for himself and told it to everyone.

"As long as a person is still breathing, he must use his mind." He spoke opposite the stove. The servants and maids knew that the man's long speech had begun again and were all giggling.

"A person with slow reaction does not start to use his mind until he has difficulty breathing. That's too late! When the fish in the sea breathes with their mouths, their death period will come. But there are even stupider guys who start to use their minds after they die. Do you understand? When people are alive, when their nostrils can still breathe, they must learn to use their minds."

A maid named A Chang said sarcastically: "So, the chef supervisor has made a name for himself."

"Yes. When I was in charge of cleaning the stables, I was thinking about how to become a person who could talk to a horse. If I couldn't talk to a horse, I couldn't become a good horse breeder. I thought about it for three days and finally understood the horse language."

"So, when you were carrying shoes for your lord, you also learned the language of straw sandals and wooden clogs?"

"Nobody. How can shoes talk? At that time, I had to take the lead every morning and warm straw sandals and clogs with my back. If I use my belly to warm it, it will be bad."

"Hehe, then, what did you do when you were on duty in the mountains and forests?"

"I didn't do anything. It's just that there was no stolen chopping. A person deceived his superiors and took the things of his master for himself. If he had this kind of greed, he would not be able to make a name for himself. You all must remember." He taught everyone seriously, but he always asked his servants to make two delicacies every time, one for Oda Nobunaga and the other for himself. Therefore, the only ones who enjoy the most delicious food in Kiyosu Castle were Oda Nobunaga and Fuji Yoshiro.

“The meal is ready.”

"Thank you for your hard work!" Fujiro replied pretentiously, then picked up the chopsticks with satisfaction, "Well. It tastes good! That's it." The meal was served in a bowl. The soy sauce made of chicken, shredded radish, a plate of roasted fish, and some seasonings. It usually has three dishes and one soup. Today I added abalone and a catfish with walnut juice. Because the fishermen from Tsushima brought the catfish, they made this special dish. Fujiro brought the catfish into his mouth without hesitation.

After the meal was set, about three taels of wine were poured. Oda Nobunaga had a surprising amount of alcohol. If he was in good spirits, he would drink it alone. Looking at Fujiro's voracious look, the fire-burning man Kokui Sohi couldn't help asking, "How is the catfish smell?"

"I said it's good."

"You said it was good. It was before you taste it."

"It's you again..." Fujiro threw a piece of catfish into his mouth, and then ate two more pieces.

"When the fish is alive, I can tell whether it tastes good or bad. Those who don't know how good or bad they taste can't be a kitchen supervisor."
To be continued...