On the chaotic battlefield, Sano Nobumitsu, the messenger sent by Iio's company, could not find Imagawa Yoshima's location. He remembered before that before the war started, Imagawa Yoshima's horse seal should be in the north of Kakegawa Castle. Therefore, Sano Nobumitsu rode his horse across the river at great risk, and passed north between Kakegawa Castle and Sekiguchi Bei's positions. He was almost hit by an arrow, and finally managed to get around to the north of the city with a narrow escape. As a result, when he arrived in the north of the city, he only saw the Imagawa family's main army and the mess they had walked on - many corpses, weapons and flags fell into the bloody water. Horikoshi Bei, who acted together with Imagawa Yoshima, seemed to have been killed. repulsed.
"What the hell, where is the main hall?" Sano Nobumit reined in his horse and looked in disbelief at the fact that the entire north of the city was under the control of the Imagawa clan. Before he could figure out the situation, another burst of arrows came from the top of Kakegawa City, forcing him to pull out his horse and flee.
"If you were repulsed, should you be heading west?" Sano Nobumitsu looked far into the distance to look for Imagawa Ryozane's horse seal, and rode his horse to the west. "Where did you retreat to? I'm so anxious, I have to hurry up. Send the message! What should I do if the military flag is delayed?"
There were many messengers who were as confused as Sano Nobumitsu. Since Imagawa Yoshima's army on the entire open battlefield was ambushed by Imagawa Yoshimoto, they were all in chaos for a while, and they sent messengers to Imagawa Yoshima to request follow-up instructions. However, Imakawa Yoshima's horse seal was being chased by Matsui Sonobu and kept retreating, making it impossible for the messengers sent by various ministries to find anyone. They were wandering around like headless flies and had to fall into The dilemma of fighting on their own.
Imagawa Yoshima himself also understood that on the ancient battlefield with a single communication method, moving the main formation and general flags would greatly hinder communication and command among the troops, and would also shake morale. At this moment, he had lost control of several reserve teams on the northern and southern fronts and could not contact them at all. But facing the menacing attack from the Imagawa family, he had no other choice but to retreat.
Only now did Imagawa Yoshizhin gradually clarify his thoughts - they were indeed ambushed. The number of Imagawa clan troops in front of them may be close to or even greater than our own, and they have already occupied all the terrain suitable for deploying troops. To have such means, Taiyuan Xuezhai must be personally commanding them. In that case, the Hojo family either made a stupid mistake during reconnaissance, or they were deliberately deceiving themselves. The Imagawa family sent the suspected soldiers to Hedong at night, and the main force has been marching westward to Yuanjiang step by step.
"Damn it..." Imagawa Yoshizhen thought of this and couldn't help but hold his forehead deeply, feeling regretful for his rash advance and falling into a trap. He originally wanted to set up his own formation and horse seals directly on Zijiao Mountain, but he encountered a head-on attack from Imagawa Yoshimoto. The horse seals were chased back continuously, disrupting all the communication lines of the army.
However, it was not all bad news. After Imagawa Yoshima took his flag and Horikoshi and retreated westward for a long time, he finally saw the main force coming from the west of the city. 500 Kirabei, 500 Todabei, 800 Iibei and 1,500 people from other small wealthy families from Yuanjiang came to the northwest of the city one after another and formed an array between Tarimu Village and Oike Lake.
Including Imagawa Yoshima's Hatakemoto and Horikoshi Bei, their total strength has reached more than 4,500 people, and the number of combat soldiers has reached more than 1,600, which is enough to compete with the 1,500 Hatamoto combat soldiers of the Imagawa family. Seeing that he encountered a strong enemy ahead, Imagawa Yoshimoto also drove down the Zijiao Mountain with the 300 horse troops at hand, rushed behind the Imagawa family's banner soldiers, set up his red bird horse seal, and decided to take command personally.
Imagawa Yoshima kept the 300 soldiers of his flagship unit in the formation as the main formation, and asked the more than 240 soldiers of Horikoshi Bei, who had suffered heavy losses, to retreat to the back of the formation as a reserve team. Kirabei's 170 soldiers formed a formation close to Oike Lake in the south as the right wing. This area is full of tidal flats and swamps and is not suitable for marching. It is enough to leave only this few men; Iibei and Todabei's 440 soldiers formed the central front; The 500 soldiers of the small wealthy families of Yuanjiang were stationed in Chuimu Village in the north as the left wing. These small wealthy families were not very powerful. Each family only brought a dozen or dozens of soldiers, making unified command very difficult. , Imagawa Yoshima simply arranged them in the village, and let them fight on their own in units of houses and blocks.
"The formation is good, you deserve to be the third brother." After arriving at the formation, Imagawa Yoshimoto looked at Imagawa Yoshima's formation and sighed with great admiration, "With the help of the terrain, the battle line is shortened and the army is more concentrated. Deployment and The deployment of troops is also very appropriate, making the best use of everything. Especially with the Oike Lake as a barrier to the south. Even if the more than 330 Asahina war preparation troops in Kakegawa City want to go out and attack, they must bypass Oike Lake. This gives My third brother gave the warning time so that he could transfer Horikoshi over to make up for the leak."
"What's your idea, Your Highness?" After last night's formation and this morning's pre-battle arrangements, Himura Ueha was already convinced by Imagawa Yoshimoto's military strategy. "Your Highness, please tell me quickly. I'm in a hurry." I’d love to hear your opinion!”
"Let's find a way to mobilize the third brother as the flagship of the reserve team." Imagawa Yoshimoto's mouth showed a wicked smile.
"But Your Highness, according to what I just observed, the combat effectiveness of that team is extremely high. Although it still lacks combat experience, it is fast and stable in preparing for the battle, and has strong discipline. It has the appearance of a strong army that has fought hundreds of battles. ." Even if Heimura Yangha praises his opponents, he is always eloquent, "Using them as a breakthrough point will only shoot stones in the foot, I'm afraid it's inappropriate."
"Have you noticed that my third brother has been protecting his precious team and is reluctant to lose them." Imagawa Yoshimoto had already seen the clues from the battle just now, "Even if he went to cover Horikoshi's retreat, he would not do it without mercy. I wish. If we really meet the enemy, we won’t be willing to let them fight hand-to-hand.”
"What do you mean, Your Highness?"
"My third brother really wants to preserve the strength of the main team. Once it is his turn to cause the main team to suffer heavy losses, he will definitely hesitate again and again, and even reveal his flaws." Imagawa Yoshimoto secretly hid Xuan Guange as a child, playing a prank Tan's shoes were average, and he smiled and snapped his fingers in the direction of Imagawa Yoshima's fake red bird horse print, "What the third brother doesn't want me to do the most, I just want to do."
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With the rapid shaking of the red bird horse seal, the west gate of Kakegawa Castle was slowly opened. Asahina Taino led the Asahina family's 330 soldiers, drove straight out of the west gate, around Oike Lake, and outflanked the rear of the Imagawa Ryojin army's front line.
"Send Asahina out before engaging the enemy head-on?" Imagawa Yoshimoto felt incredible about this transfer of Imagawa Yoshimoto. He was completely different from the previous Imagawa Yoshimoto who had a veteran style when commanding the formation. The two of them said, "Asahina Bei's movements in Kakegawa Castle are unknown, and she is a powerful new force. This is the biggest killing move in Imagawa Yoshimoto's hands. As long as Asahina Bei does not show up for a moment, I will not dare to let go." We need to reserve a large number of troops for defense. Is there any reason to show your trump card first?"
But no matter what, since Imagawa Yoshimoto made a mistake, Imagawa Yoshima had no choice but to accept it. He arranged for Horikoshi to form a formation in the northwest of Oike Lake, waiting for Asahina Bei to make a detour. However, he also knew that Horikoshi, who had just been defeated, suffered a lot of losses and his morale was relatively low. He would definitely not be able to stop Asahina, who was the most proficient in fighting among the Imagawa family's deployment. So, finally gaining a foothold, he began to send messengers to the northern and southern fronts, instructing them to temporarily abandon the enemy in front of them, shrink back, and join the main army northwest of Kakegawa City.
Just as Imagawa Yoshima was stepping up his deployment, the Imagawa Yoshimoto army in front of him moved again. I saw Imagawa Yoshimoto detached 200 horse cavalry, suddenly broke away from the battle line, and led by Akai Kurotaka to circle to the northwest. Judging from their movement trajectory, they probably wanted to bypass the frontal battle line from the north of Tariki Village and attack Imagawa Yoshima's main formation from the side and rear. The cavalry's horses were very fast, and they had already bypassed the outskirts of Chuimu Village in a short time.
The most reasonable thing for Imagawa Yoshima to do at this time is to have his flag base facing the rear, but in this case, his precious flag base will have to face the impact of 200 elite knights of the Imagawa family. Although he is very confident in the spear formation of his own team, if the two sides collide head-on, more than a hundred people on his side will die no matter what...
In order to recruit and train these soldiers, Imagawa Yoshizhin has spent almost all the money around him. He originally wanted to use these veterans with combat experience as seedlings after returning to the division to continue training a new batch of recruits. If half of the veterans died here - Imagawa Yoshima's heart aches just thinking about it. But Horikoshi Bei had just been attracted to the south by Asahina Bei, and he had no other reserves at hand to use.
"Transfer Todabei from the central front! And transfer 200 soldiers from Tatagi Village to help!" After hesitating for a moment, Imagawa Yoshima still wanted to keep his banner team, "Transfer to the rear to deal with the upcoming The arriving cavalry!"
"Your Highness, why don't you use a flag?" Imagawa Yoshizhin's guards all expressed their confusion, "Transferring people from the front can easily cause chaos."
"At all times, you must keep sufficient reserves on hand." Imagawa Yoshizhin quoted Napoleon's famous saying to cover up his guilty conscience. "Besides, the frontal battlefield has not yet started fighting, so mobilization is not a problem."
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"Third brother, you are so obedient." Imagawa Yoshimoto saw that Imagawa Yoshima was really reluctant to leave his own team, but mobilized other troops to defend the horse army, and ordered with a smile, "Fifth preparation, hold on The rich family of Yuejiang in Suimu Village. The fourth preparation, allocate half of the troops to stay in the main formation as a reserve team, and all the rest go to the south to watch Kirabei. The second preparation, the third preparation, storm Iibei on the central front. The third preparation Once prepared, stay under the horse's seal and be on standby."
