On April 20, the 14th year of Tenmon (1545), on the Ashigarayama official road at the junction of Sagami Kingdom and Suruga Kingdom, Imagawa Yoshimoto secretly rode here with 400 horses early, waiting for the arrival of the main force of the Hojo family.
"Is this your Highness' method of "defending the city"? "After yesterday's battle, Himura Umoha has been completely convinced by Imagawa Yoshimoto's tactical skills. "Since there is no chance to defend the city, I took the initiative to go out of the city to attack. I can't even see the city wall. This is the first time I've seen it. !」
"This is just this one time. After that, everyone is familiar with the iron cannon. Although this method is still useful, it will definitely not have such a good effect." Imagawa Yoshimoto raised his head, glanced at the blue sky, and said with some regret sighed. He himself had been thinking about his tactical response for a long time yesterday: cavalry wearing light armor, bows, arrows, iron cannons and samurai swords would make all infantry and heavy cavalry helpless in open terrain. Unable to catch up and unable to fight with long-range firepower, the only way seemed to be to endure a certain amount of losses and send a team of light cavalry to pursue the iron artillery cavalry until the opponent's horse power was exhausted.
Of course, it is difficult to truly effectively annihilate the enemy with this style of play. At best, it can only delay time. Because such a battle consumes a lot of the iron artillery cavalry itself, and their concentration will soon decrease due to the decrease in physical strength, which is by no means a long-term solution. Moreover, such tactics are only applicable to battles without fixed positions such as harassment warfare and guerrilla warfare - if our side has some positions that must be defended (such as defense lines, main formations, and cities), then the enemy only needs to attack what they must save. , the iron artillery cavalry could only return to the frontal battlefield obediently.
Just when Imagawa Yoshimoto was thinking about this, some smoke and dust were faintly visible on the mountain road in the distance. The horsemen led by Imagawa Yoshimoto were lying in ambush behind a high ground on the undulating official road. It would have been impossible to find them without the scouting horses approaching. However, yesterday's battle between the Hojo family and the Imagawa family in Izu should have been reported to the main army starting from Odawara Castle, and Hojo Ujiyasu would probably make corresponding preparations.
Just when Imagawa Yoshimoto was thinking about this, the horseback crowd watching on the top of the slope suddenly waved their hands very quickly to warn. Imagawa Yoshimoto then went to the top of the slope in person and carefully looked towards the approach of Mount Ashigara - he found that the Hojo family's army had advanced several hundred steps away, and the detective horse responsible for the reconnaissance was rapidly approaching the top of the slope.
"Is all the loading completed?" Imagawa Yoshimoto confirmed to his subordinates. After receiving a positive reply, he quickly waved his hands twice to signal the entire army to get on their horses. Subsequently, the red bird horse seal was raised high by the flag bearer. Imagawa Yoshimoto rode his horse over the top of the slope, and led 400 horsemen back to kill the Hojo army from top to bottom.
When the scout horses of the Hojo Army saw the sudden appearance of the Imagawa family's cavalry, they were all startled. They all turned around and ran back to their own ranks, trying to warn the main force. In almost a few breaths, the Imagawa family's horsemen had already rushed to the front of the Hojo family formation more than thirty feet away - this is the effective range of the iron cannon.
Just when Imagawa Yoshimoto was about to signal his subordinates to dismount and shoot, he suddenly realized that something was wrong - the soldiers walking directly in front of the Hojo army column did not seem to be panicking at all. Instead, they stopped in an orderly manner at the maximum firing range of the iron cannon. superior. In the flash of lightning, Imagawa Yoshimoto roughly estimated the number of people in this unit - more than 40 people. The number of people in the iron cannon team of the Hojo family was similar to that of the iron cannon team that ambushed them during the voyage. This was the total number of iron cannons in the Hojo family.
"Go to the right, bypass the official road, and go towards the hills." Imagawa Yoshimoto suddenly changed his order and forcefully led the Imagawa family horse back to speed again, drew an arc, bypassed the front of the mountain road, and turned And go to the hilly land south of the official road. The subordinates didn't know why, and were still curious about why Imagawa Yoshimoto issued such an order. The next second, they saw the soldiers of the Hojo family walking at the front of the queue pulling out iron cannons from their backs like magic, intending to shoot. But The Imagawa family's horsemen had already left the iron cannon firing range.
"My brother-in-law has been prepared for a long time, but there is really nothing we can do..." Imagawa Yoshimoto directed the troops to take a detour while thinking about Hojo Ujiyasu's response, "He also loaded the cannon long ago and planned to take the lead when I dismounted. Shoot a round of frightening horses. Since he is already prepared, he must have informed the entire army of the existence of the iron cannon, right? Maybe he has demonstrated it in front of the entire army, so this troop from Sagami will not You’ll be frightened by the iron cannon like Izu did.”
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But their iron gunners are not cavalry, they are not mobile enough and cannot keep up with us. " Imagawa Yoshimoto signaled the horsemen to speed up quickly while carefully observing the formation of the Hojo family. After discovering the devious actions of the Imagawa family's return troops, the Hojo family's formation was slightly disturbed, but there was no panic. Soon, nearly 300 cavalrymen came out of the queue and followed the Imagawa family's horsemen in pursuit, not giving them a chance to stop and shoot at the flanks of the Hojo family's queue.
"He is well-organized and his formation is not messy at all. He is worthy of being a Sagami Lion." Imagawa Yoshimoto secretly praised Hojo Ujiyasu's battle formation command a few words - facing the latest tactics that Imagawa Yoshimoto had just used yesterday, Hojo Ujiyasu only relied on He came up with a countermeasure based on hearsay information, and almost caught Imagawa Yoshimoto off guard. If Imagawa Yoshimoto had not just escaped a volley of fire from the opponent's iron gunners, these hidden cavalrymen would have suddenly rushed out while the Imagawa family's horsemen were being shot to their death.
"Get the bows and arrows." Imagawa Yoshimoto ordered to the horsemen, and he was also skillful in bending the bow and nodding the arrows. He pursed his lips, squinted his eyes, and felt the distance, horse speed, and wind direction. Relying on his innate talent, he adjusted the shooting angle as easily as he could: "Between two and three, follow my lead. Arrow, shoot!"
After saying that, Imagawa Yoshimoto loosened his right hand and the arrow flew away from the string. The horsemen of the Imagawa family are also skilled with bows and horses. After seeing Imagawa Yoshimoto's shooting arc, they immediately imitated a similar angle and threw random arrows at the Hojo family's cavalry, shooting the Hojo family's knights. They were in such a panic that several people fell off their horses. And Imagawa Yoshimoto was not ambiguous, and immediately greeted him with a second round of arrow rain. The Hojo family's cavalry tried to fight back with arrows, but they were in pursuit, and their arrows could not reach the retreating Imagawa family's horses. On the contrary, Imagawa Iema's shot back could hit their formation head-on, causing them to continue to lose numbers.
Seemingly realizing that such attrition was fruitless, another 200 cavalrymen quickly rushed out of the Hojo family's formation and marched in reverse along the north side of the official road, seemingly wanting to outflank the Imagawa family's returning horses. Imagawa Yoshimoto noticed the smoke and dust from the north of the main army on the official road of the Hojo family, and soon became aware of the actions of the Hojo family.
"There should be a total of 500 knights in their formation. If the 300 just now were the Hojo family's own horses, then these 200 should be knights gathered from the people of each family. Their combat power is limited, and they are all important members of the family. Once he dies, it will be a traumatic thing for the family. He must cherish his life very much, and he would not dare to trade his life with our horsemen." Imagawa Yoshimoto glanced at the colorful flags behind the newly arrived 200 riders, and said After judging the situation, he ordered again:
"The whole army was divided into three teams. I led 100 people to continue walking eastward and diverted the pursuers behind me. Akai led 100 people and made a charging gesture towards the auxiliary soldiers of the Hojo family's rear army, forcing them to form a formation, but without Really charged. Once the Hojo family horses behind us went back to pursue Akai, I immediately turned around, chased them, and found the opportunity to fire on them with iron cannons. The remaining 200 people went with Haimura to deal with the Hojo family's patchwork The cavalry is coming out."
"This is our advantage." Imagawa Yoshimoto showed a confident smile, raised his right hand high, and snapped his fingers at the horse seal waving in the wind behind him: "The Hojo family can deal with it so appropriately, all thanks to Sagami Yu Lion's command in advance. The problem is that he is far away in the center of the army now, and I am in the queue. Mixing the water and adapting to the situation, how can he be faster than me? "
After Imagawa Yoshimoto gave the order, the Imagawa family's horsemen slowly divided into three teams, and followed Himura Umoha and Akai Kuroko to leave the main army. This change of formation troubled the Hojo family's horseback pursuers - the previous tactical arrangements had been specially instructed by Hojo Ujiyasu in advance, and they did not hesitate to implement them. However, the current changes left them at a loss as to how to deal with it, so they could only look at Hojo Ujiyasu's horse seal from a distance - but at such a long distance, the information that the horse seal could convey was quite limited. All we can do is wait for Hojo Ujiyasu to send messengers - the problem is that they are all cavalry and are moving fast. It will take some time for the messengers to catch up with them.
Just when the Hojo family's horsemen didn't know how to act, the battle situation became more and more complicated. A group of horsemen from the Imagawa family rushed towards the auxiliary troops on the Hojo family's official road, and the auxiliary troops immediately became chaotic. As a last resort, the soldiers in front and behind them stopped and tried to form formations to cover their own auxiliary soldiers, but this suddenly destroyed the entire army.
The route of travel was blocked.
However, even so, they didn't seem to be able to complete the formation before the cavalry charged into the formation. On the other side, the Hojo family cavalrymen also retreated when they saw the 200 Imagawa family horsemen coming to fight for their lives. They did not choose to engage in the battle, but kept a certain distance. Come and cover the auxiliary troops. The Hojo family's horsemen had no choice but to try to come back for reinforcements and gave up their pursuit of Imagawa Yoshimoto's horse seal.
After Imagawa Yoshimoto saw the response of the Hojo family, he immediately turned his horse's head, rushed south down the hills, and disappeared from the sight of the Hojo family's horsemen. And Akai Kurotaka also led his troops to sweep away in front of the auxiliary formation of the Hojo family's rear army. Instead of charging directly into the formation, he turned to the formation further back, pulling more and more Hojo family soldiers to the spot. array. The Hojo family's horses were in a dilemma for a while, and they also tried to turn their horses' heads and chase Akai Kurotaka.
Akai Kurotaka immediately waved the flag to send a signal. Upon seeing this, Imagawa Yoshimoto once again pulled the troops and jumped up the hill, just in front of the Hojo family's march route - the Hojo army was caught off guard.
"Get ready to shoot!" Imagawa Yoshimoto shouted loudly. The 100 horsemen immediately took out their iron cannons, lit the match ropes, and aimed at the Hojo family horsemen who were chasing Akai Kurotaka - they were just in front of them. Passing by the hills below the Imagawa family.
"boom!"
