Volume 2: Gathering Storms Chapter 51: Sagami's Brave Lion

  After the conquest of Kunimi Castle, Obata no Kiyoshige not only killed his fellow clansman Obata no Kagetoshi, but also recovered their original castle and utilized his influence in Kanra District and Tōtōmi District to induce local powerful families to surrender to the Takeda clan, sending hostages as well.

  This move completely led to the Nagano family losing control of Kōzu District and Tōgo District, just like cutting off one arm from the left and right arms. The 3,000-strong Takeda army continued to attack without stopping, this time surrounding the outer castle of Karakawa Castle, Kurahonjo Castle.

  After besieging for two or three days, Takeda Shingen received a letter from the former head of the Hojo family, Hojo Ujiyasu. At this time, Hojo Ujiyasu, who was known as the Sagami Lion, had already passed on the position of family head to Hojo Ujimasa, but he still held the military and political power of the Hojo family.

  The letter from Uesugi Norimasa said that the Takeda family should go through Musashi Province and join forces with the large army of the Hōjō clan led by Hōjō Ujiyasu, and together lay siege to Matsuyama Castle in Musashi, which was defended by Uesugi Norimasa. The Takeda family's generals held a military council and decided to send troops to support the Hōjō clan's attack on Matsuyama Castle.

  At that time, when the Takeda and Hojo armies arrived, the powerful clans of Kozuke Province, who had a good tradition of changing sides like wall grass, such as Sanada Chikazane, Sano Masakane, Oyama family, Oda family and others, changed their flags on the castle head, severed their relationship with Uesugi Kenshin, the ruler of Kanto, and flocked to the Hojo family.

  It was almost overnight that Uesugi Kenshin woke up from a dream and found that his power in Kōzuke Province had been reduced by half.

  After the Battle of Kawagoe, Hōjō Ujiyasu led an army of 11,000 to a great victory over the Kantō Federation's forces of 80,000. The Kanamaru-Uesugi clan was destroyed and the original Kantō-kanrei Uesugi clan also suffered heavy losses. In the invasion of Musashi Province by Hōjō Ujiyasu, the original Kantō-kanrei Uesugi Norimasa had to flee to Echigo in 1551 to seek refuge with Uesugi Kenshin, starting a decade-long life as a fugitive.

  In the fourth year of Eiroku, four months before the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, Uesugi Kenshin sent Uesugi Norimasa, who was idling away at Kasuga-yama Castle, to gather the Kantō daimyos under the pretext of a campaign against the Hōjō clan. The Hōjō were then besieged by an army of 100,000 from the provinces of Kōzuke, Shimotsuke, Musashi, Hitachi, Kazusa and Shimosa.

  The result was that the Hōjō clan survived strongly in Odawara Castle, and Uesugi Kenshin had to withdraw his siege. On the way back, he also took down Matsuyama Castle, a strategic point of the Hōjō clan in Musashi Province, and stationed Uesugi Norishige there, while ordering Taigen Sane, the lord of Iwafune Castle, to cooperate with him in defending Matsuyama Castle and preventing the Hōjō clan from extending its influence into Kōzuke Province again.

  After the capture of Matsuyama Castle, Uesugi Kenshin formally succeeded to the Kantō region from his foster father Uesugi Sadazane at Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine in Kamakura, and as the name suggests, he governed Musashi, Sagami, Hitachi, Shimotsuke, Kazusa, Shimosa, Awa, Kozuke, and Shimano, a total of eight provinces in the Kantō region, as well as Kai and Izu, for a total of ten ryōkei countries.

  However, it was later proven that such a nominal title was unreliable in the Warring States period where the strong preyed on the weak. While Uesugi Kōsei was alive, the powerful clans of Kantō did not take him seriously; otherwise, he would not have been chased around by the Hōjō clan like a stray dog and had his own castle, Odawara Castle, captured, forcing him to flee to Echigo for refuge.

  When Uesugi Kenshin succeeded as Kantō Kanrei, this name became even more ironic.

  When Uesugi Kenshin was in power, many rōnin gathered to take advantage of the situation and defeat the Hōjō clan, who had been tyrannical for a long time. After the fourth battle of Kawanakajima, both Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen were severely wounded, and his influence in Kōzuke Province decreased significantly.

  At this time, the Hōjō family joined forces with the Takeda family and returned their power to Kōzuke Province. Those local daimyos who put their own safety first turned around and criticized Uesugi Kenshin for his cowardice, then threw themselves into the warm embrace of Hōjō Ujiyasu like a lost child returning home.

  After gaining the allegiance of some powerful clans in Kōzuke Province, Uesugi Kenshin focused all his attention on Matsuyama Castle, and the 16,000-strong Hōjō army launched a full-scale attack on it.

  So when the 3,000-strong Takeda army arrived at Matsuyama Castle in Musashi Province, they saw that the entire mountain was filled with North Ward's military tents, and the small Matsuyama Castle was surrounded to the point of being impenetrable.

  On that day, in order to thank the allied Takeda clan for their military aid, Uesugi Kenshin hosted a banquet at Matsuyama Castle to entertain the Takeda clan's generals.

  The venue of the banquet was just a flat ground, and then an array curtain with the Northern Tribes' three scales or three-tiered qilin Northern family crest was used to surround it on all sides into a rectangle.

  Historically, the first regent of the Hōjō clan, Hōjō Tokimasa, established a government at Odawara Castle in Sagami Province and was called the Later Hōjō clan to distinguish it from the Earlier Hōjō clan which had existed during the Kamakura shogunate period without having the right of the Shogun but with the actual power of the Shogun.

  In fact, Hōjō Soun was originally from a humble background and his original name was Ise Shin'gorō Nagashi. After taking over Izu and Sagami, in order to elevate his own status, he claimed to be a descendant of the Hōjō clan. Therefore, the family crest also adopted the three rhinoceros beetle crest originally used by the Hōjō clan.

  The original Hōjō clan's three rhombi crest is a substitute crest that distinguishes it from the Honke-Takebe clan's crest, the Ageha-cho. There are many examples of substitute crests being used, such as the Anayama family (Anayama Nobukimi), a branch of the Takeda family of Kai Province, which adopted the Mitsubana crest on their flags to distinguish themselves from the main house's Yotsuguruma crest.

  The Hōjō clan, under the successive leadership of Hōjō Tokimasa, Hōjō Yoshitoki and Hōjō Tsunetoki, now controls directly Izu, Sagami, Shimosa and Musashi provinces, with its influence extending into Kōzuke, Kazusa and Hitachi.

  Inside the array, the two chief generals of the Hojo and Takeda families sat in the center, while the generals of the Takeda family and the Hojo family sat face to face below their respective chief generals.

  Hōjō Ujiyasu, the master of the house, sat on a cushion, wearing a tall, black-lacquered eboshi hat and a hunting costume, holding a hinoki fan in his hand, chatting with Takeda Shingen with a smile. At this time, Takeda Shingen was still playing the role of Takeda Shingen's shadow warrior, anyway, the two brothers looked similar, if it weren't for the long-serving attendants or the old retainers of the Takeda family, it would be difficult to distinguish between them.

  Because of the Battle of Kawagoe at Night, and his fame in one battle, Hōjō Ujiyasu was known as the "Lion of Sagami". He is now 47 years old, six years older than Takeda Shingen. Since his coming-of-age ceremony, Hōjō Ujiyasu has been constantly fighting on the battlefield, with a calm and determined temperament. When talking to Takeda Nobuyuki, he occasionally glanced at the row of Takeda generals sitting below him, drinking heavily.

  Li Xiao sat among the group of Takeda family generals, picked up a small wine bottle, poured some wine into a small dish, and drank it all in one gulp.

  Can't help but say that Japanese sake is really stingy, such a flat dish is actually used to hold liquor, as if they're afraid people will drink too much in one gulp.

  Japanese banquets are traditional separate meals, each person eats their own, the uniform standard is three dishes and one soup, three dishes are a combination of one meat and two vegetables, then some clear liquor and rice.

  In front of Li Xiao, on the small wooden table, there were only a few pieces of dried clams as a side dish, and every day's pickled radish, vegetable leaves, a bowl of big soy sauce soup, and a bowl of rice that was not enough for several mouthfuls.

  Damn it, Li Xiao, who grew up in the new China with no worries about food and clothing since childhood, suddenly felt like crying but had no tears to shed. Time-traveling was really not a job for humans, and he had arrived in this era of extreme material poverty. At that time, the Japanese people believed in Buddhism, and except for birds and fish, they were not allowed to eat any other meat. Moreover, all the dishes were light in flavor and salty, to the point where Li Xiao's life over the past three months was so bland that his mouth felt like it was going to turn into a bird's beak.

  However, such a feast was a rare and delicious meal for most of the Takeda generals. It's no wonder that in these days of marching and fighting, every day was just rice balls with miso soup or some sliced noodles. In comparison, the banquet hosted by Ujiyasu Hōjō was indeed much more luxurious.

  In the face of such a 'sumptuous' feast, the leaders of both armies ate with great relish, and with some clear wine to aid in the excitement, several leaders immediately couldn't control their mouths and started spouting nonsense.

  "I say, isn't it that the Takeda family hasn't recovered from the defeat at Kawanakajima last time and is still reeling, so this time you've only sent a paltry three thousand troops to support my Hojo family? It would be better to just hurry back home."

  There was a leader of the Hōjō clan who seemed to be in high spirits from drinking, and he started shouting towards the Takeda side. Upon hearing this, all the leaders on the Takeda side immediately stopped eating.