"The lord is preparing to retreat to Shinno? There is nearly a thousand miles away from Muro. There is still Ueno barrier in the middle of the way. Under the pursuit of the Toyotomi army, it is impossible to arrive safely. My subordinates think that they should retreat and rely on the strong cities to defend. The family has many inner cities. If the Toyotomi army wants to attack Edo, it will probably take several months. This is enough to win the opportunity for the Maori army." Honda Masato was confident and completely disagree with Toyogawa Ieyasu's 50,000 troops to Shinno, but hoped that he would follow the old story of Odahara and return to Edo Cage Castle.

Kan Hachishu is the ability to run Tokugawa Ieyasu for ten years, and Edo Castle is a strong city that the Tokugawa family is confident and difficult to defeat. Returning to Edo Cage Castle, this plan has received support from many Tokugawa retainers, including Okubo Tadon Neighbor who was not very good at dealing with Honta Masato.

But Tokugawa Ieyasu did not accept Honda Masato's suggestion, but instead expressed his reasons: "This time, the entire army is attacking. The military forces that can be mobilized are basically mobilized to participate in the war. Only Hidetachi and 10,000 troops stayed in Edo to avoid being attacked by the enemy. But I didn't expect that the Battle of Hirahara, who thought he was sure to win, would be like this. The military forces of more than 70,000 troops are now only 50,000, but the military forces of the Right Prefecture are 120,000! Please ask everyone, does Hirahara still have the opportunity to win?"

"So the lord decided to withdraw his troops, and the ministers could understand this, but what made Shinto puzzled was why he gave up the cage and went to Shinno? The distance there was a long way, and it was really not an ideal place to fight."

After hearing the doubts of Honda Masato, Tokugawa Ieyasu was quite helpless: "The Toyotomi Daimei in the surrounding area of ​​our family has been eyeing her. I am afraid that as soon as the battle begins, the Right Mansion will send people to Ikeda, Asano and other families. These Damen will definitely occupy the strategic city of Kento, which will prevent the return of our army from returning to Edo. If our family fights against it, it will inevitably delay the speed of the march, so that the main force of the Right Mansion will have the opportunity to catch up, attack the blocking troops from attacking us, and destroy the family under Kento. Therefore, the plan to return to Edo is not feasible. However, Hidetachi, who is already in Edo, can rely on Kento to resist the attack of the Toyotomi army in Kanto and restrain a certain amount of troops for our family."

"The lord is worried that my family's way back will be cut off?" Honda Masato asked.

Tokugawa Ieyasu nodded slightly: "Yes, this time, the Damen of Aizu, Pusheng, Utsunomiya, Ikeda, Asano and other damen are all left-behind and do not move. It is obvious that this is the arrangement made by the Right Prefecture to prevent the uprising of the family. Although they are all damen of only 300,000, they are more than enough to capture the city of the family defended by the widow. But this is also good. They led the army deep into their territory and had no time to respond to the call of the Right Prefecture to block the family. In this way, the road to Shinono will be much smoother."

"But I still don't understand why I need to retreat to Shinno. Can't I go to Hokuriku or Kitauro? The former three families are all their own allies, and the latter's defense is empty and powerless to block my own attack. In any case, they are much stronger than Kitauro."

"Shino no Yasumoto, except Sanada, is all of his family's allies. Whether it is Ishikawa Yasunari of Kitashino, Hirooshi Yoshiaki, Sentomi Hidehiro, or Kyoto Kochi of Minami Shinno, they have all mobilized and prepared to support him. In other words, except Kanhashishu, Shinno is the second stronghold of his family. As for the Hokuriku and Kitaubuno you mentioned, the former is too tortuous, while the latter is Hirano and the Toyotomi Daiichi territory on all sides. It is difficult to stick to it, so it is not suitable for the family to make a comeback. In short, as long as we can successfully arrive at Shinno, our family can organize another decisive battle. By then, the outcome is still unknown."

Tokugawa Ieyasu was full of confidence. He first ordered Honda Masato to send people to Hokuriku and notified the three families who were waiting for Hokor, Murakami and Mirguchi, and asked them to lead their troops south along the north road into the Tohoku Street and capture the Kawaakashima leader of the Pusheng family in Kita Shinono; then sent people to Shinono Komoto Castle and informed Hidehi Shinishi, asking him to immediately summon Shinno Daming to go north to assist the Tohoku Army in attacking the Tohoku Street and to penetrate the Tohoku Street. Finally, he formulated a retreat plan and tried to achieve a strategic transfer to Kita Shinno with the minimum casualties.

Through discussions with the important officials in his family, Tokugawa Ieyasu decided to integrate the three 11,200 troops of Okubo Tadao, Honta Yasushige, and Kamihara Yasumasa into one unit. As the first-sided Temple Army, it was responsible for responding to the pursuit of more than 50,000 Toyotomi troops in the Yuyuan area; secondly, Honta Tadamasa and Sanada Nobuyuki's main troops were only used as the second-sided Temple Army, responsible for dealing with the Toyotomi troops in the main battlefield area; as for the Toyotomi troops on the northern foot of Kohishan Mountain, it was naturally handed over to the two units of Toyotomi Tadao and Masae Naito who had just obtained reinforcements from Okubo Tadasa and Okubo Tadamin. The two units were originally only 5,000 soldiers left, but they had the support of the samurai of the Hashimoto brought by the Okubo family, and they already had a strong military force of 13,000 people. It should be no problem for them to block Kyoko Takagi and Maori Hidemoto.

However, given that the Tokugawa Army planned to retreat, Numata Street began in the northeast of Kohishan, Tokugawa Ieyasu had to be more careful about the Toyotomi army on the northern foot of Kohishan. Moreover, Nasu Shiyoshi and Kawajiri Hidenaga, who killed Iiyi Naomasa, also intend to participate in the battle against Torii and Naito, Tokugawa Ieyasu had to order Tadaka Honda to lead 3,500 people to support the two units of Naito. As a result, the third party ranked first among the three-way hall army with a scale of 16,500 people. In comparison, Tokugawa Ieyasu's taboo was only a pitiful 12,000 people left. If you want to successfully retreat to Shinono, you still have to be careful.

Generally speaking, if the troops are withdrawn, the number of the Heavenly Army will not occupy the main part of the total force. However, this time, Tokugawa Ieyasu delivered nearly four-fifths of the troops to the Heavenly Army general, which was a last resort. Due to the previous full-scale battle, the front line had been stretched long from south to north and it was difficult to recover. Not only that, the Tokugawa Ieyasu's huge military advantage also made Tokugawa Ieyasu have to dispatch enough military force to stop the Tokugawa Army's pursuit. After repeated weighing, Tokugawa Ieyasu chose the withdrawal plan of the front army to change the rear army and the rear army to change the front army, which made the vanguard who controlled the main forces of Tokugawa Army instantly serve as the Heavenly Army to protect the retreat of Tokugawa's main army.

In fact, neither experienced veterans nor young generals who were on the battlefield were willing to appear on the Toyotomi Army as the Temple Army at this time. The battle the day before was exhausted and morale was low. Now it was going to be diverted overnight, and no one could support such frequent military operations. But Tokugawa Ieyasu did not care about these, and he forced the army to act according to his instructions, otherwise all military laws would be dealt with after the war.

As a result, the soldiers on the front line had to bite the bullet and act as the hall army. When Tokugawa Army's Qimoto quietly left the front line and went to Numata Street, they retreated step by step towards the south according to the established plan.

How could such a large-scale transfer not disturb Hideo? After receiving the urgent report from the Toyotomi army in the front, Hideo immediately ordered the entire army to pursue. Among them, the military forces in the Yuyuan area were led by Takayoshi Fukushima, including 37,500 people from north Kawashima, 6,000 people from Fukushima, and 5,000 people from Kyotoki, totaling 48,500 people; Masaru Fukushima led 8,000 people from south to support the main battlefield with Tadakami Hosokawa, Kinki, and Yamato.

The six troops of Hinaga and Hinata Yuki, totaled 23,000; as for the southernmost army, there were 4,000 Mino people from Hidenaga Kawajiri, 4,000 Nasushiki, 6,000 Kyoto, and 8,000 Muri Hidemoto, totaled 22,000; at the same time, Hideopo also sent someone to invite Hideaki Kobayagawa to send troops to him to attack Tokugawa Ieyasu from behind, otherwise the Tokugawa army would have successfully entered Numata Street.
Chapter completed!