The Imagawa family's horsemen fired a condescending volley, instantly knocking everyone on their backs. Although not many cavalry were directly hit, the roar of the iron cannon and the smoke caused by the projectiles frightened the Hojo knights so much that they stood up and neighed, and broke free from control. Kick the riders off their horses hard. The horsemen of the Hojo family fell into chaos instantly, and had to separate their troops to prevent the Imagawa family from taking advantage of the chaos to kill them.
"Leave them alone." Imagawa Yoshimoto stopped Akai Kuroko's attempt to pursue, and instead immediately rushed towards the 200 knights assembled by the Hojo family, "Deal with that one first."
The knights of the Hojo family were originally dealing with the 200 main force of Himura Hiroyuki. After noticing that Imagawa Yoshimoto was leading another 200 knights from the west, they immediately turned around and ran north of the team to seek cover from their own infantry. At this moment, the ashigaru of the Hojo family had completed their formation. A large number of archers bent their bows and aimed arrows at the direction where the Imagawa family's horsemen were chasing. Imagawa Yoshimoto immediately ordered the troops to move away to avoid the splashing. rain of arrows.
"Go around and attack the auxiliary soldiers at the end of the team." Imagawa Yoshimoto had no intention of confronting the ashigaru team that had already formed in front of him. He drew his horse and left, charging towards the auxiliary soldiers at the end of the Dongfang Hojo family's queue again. These auxiliary soldiers did not have the protection of the soldiers. When they saw the Imagawa family's horses coming back to kill them, all of them turned pale with fear. Upon seeing this, the soldiers in front of the Hojo family hurriedly retreated to cover their auxiliary troops, but the Imagawa family's horsemen still had no intention of rushing into the formation.
"Right here." Imagawa Yoshimoto advanced to within the effective range of the iron cannon and ordered to stop. The horsemen dismounted one after another, took out their iron cannons, loaded them, and fired a volley at the auxiliary troops. The more than two hundred auxiliary troops were stunned by the iron cannon. Even though not many people were killed, they were so frightened that they scattered like birds and beasts and jumped off the official road crazily to the north.
At this time, the horsemen of the Hojo family had already reorganized their formation and rushed towards Imagawa Yoshimoto's place with a roar. Imagawa Yoshimoto immediately got on his horse again with his horsemen, put the iron cannon on his back, took out his bow and arrow, and fired another shower of arrows at the chasing Hojo family horsemen, causing endless trouble to the pursuers.
However, this time, the horses of the Hojo family were extremely determined. Even if they endured constant attrition and people falling behind, they still focused on pursuing the location of Imagawa Yoshimoto. If we continue to withdraw like this, we will soon have to rush eastward into the Sagami territory - then there will be no way to continue to interfere with the actions of the main force of the Hojo family.
"Go around to the north of the official road, turn around and head west." Imagawa Yoshimoto raised his finger and pointed to the north of the Hojo family's queue. He led the horsemen to step onto the official road from north to south and then rushed down the official road, once again fighting with the Hojo family's army. Moving westward in a parallel manner, the auxiliary soldiers of the Hojo family trembled in fear. Many archers tried to launch arrows to attack the Imagawa army, but facing high-speed moving targets, it was difficult to control the lead time - if they were not careful, they would accidentally injure the Hojo family horses chasing behind them.
The Hojo family's horsemen did not expect such a bold move by the Imagawa family. They did not have time to adjust their direction and rushed over the head. By the time they turned around and continued chasing the Imagawa family's horses, the distance between the two sides had widened considerably. The Imagawa family's horsemen seized the opportunity, went around to the high slope next to the official road, and launched another volley at the Hojo family's queue from a high position. A group of archers from the Hojo family tried to shoot at each other, but suffered heavy losses. Many samurai came out with their ashigaru and tried to attack the Imagawa family's returning horses. However, the horsemen just got on their horses and left in a graceful manner. After pulling away to complete their reloading, they dismounted and fired another volley. Repeated several times, they defeated the Hojo family's infantry.
At this time, the Hojo family's horsemen finally arrived belatedly, and the Imagawa family's horsemen immediately pulled out their horses and left, continuing to fire arrows to harass the pursuers behind them. The Hojo family's horsemen chased for a while, and suffered a lot of casualties. Seemingly feeling that this was not the way to go, the Hojo army slowed down their horses and followed the Imagawa family at a distance beyond the bow and arrow range of the Imagawa family - they were heavily armored and could not catch up with the lightly armored Imagawa family. The share of equanimity can only be continuously consumed. If we pursue like this for a whole day, we don't know how much precious cavalry will be consumed.
"We are also slowing down." After discovering the adjustment of the Hojo family, Imagawa Yoshimoto decisively changed his tactics and signaled the Imagawa army to collectively slow down their horses, shortening the distance between them and the Hojo family's return troops behind them, and continued to move towards the Hojo family's return troops. Shoot the arrow. The Hojo family horse returns to the public
This move made him so angry that he had to slow down even further.
"That's it now." Imagawa Yoshimoto seized the opportunity when the front line of the Hojo family cavalry slowed down, and after commanding his men to fire a final round of feather arrows, he suddenly increased his horse speed. The front line of the Hojo family was dodging arrows and could not speed up for a while, and the rear line was also slowed down by the front line. Some anxious cavalry wanted to speed around, which further aggravated the chaos of the team. Slowly and quickly, when the Hojo family cavalry pursued again, they had been thrown away by the Imagawa army for a longer distance.
Before Imagawa Yoshimoto could look for an opportunity for the next round of harassment, something unexpected happened suddenly. Right in front of the direction in which their horses were traveling, more than 200 Hojo knights suddenly appeared - the same team that had just been driven away by the Imagawa family's horsemen. They galloped towards the Imagawa family at extremely high speeds, as if they were about to engage in a cavalry charge with the Imagawa family's horsemen in a battle of life and death.
"What's going on? Didn't this unit deliberately avoid fighting just now? Why did it suddenly become so decisive?" Imagawa Yoshimoto was surprised, and then he realized after being stunned for a moment - could this be an order from Hojo Ujiyasu himself? instructions?
He then looked intently at the Hojo family cavalry team in front, and found that there seemed to be more than twenty people in the team, and the number of people in the team was obviously much denser at the back. It seemed that they were gathering some big shot - could it be Hojo Ujiyasu himself? ?
"Could it be..." Imagawa Yoshimoto turned to look at the center of the entire Hojo family army. Hojo Ujiyasu's horse seal was waving rapidly, signaling all the surrounding troops to launch a general attack to surround and suppress Imagawa Yoshimoto's horsemen. The soldiers of the Hojo family reacted sooner or later, stopped and tried to form a formation.
To the west is Hojo Ujiyasu's pressure formation, to the east is the Hojo family's horse warriors, to the south is the main army of the Hojo family on the official road, and to the north are the mountains and forests a few dozen feet away - the Imagawa family's horse warriors have unknowingly fallen into surrounded. The biggest advantage of Imagawa Yoshimoto just now is that he can personally command on the front line, but with Hojo Ujiyasu also coming to the front line, the Hojo army will no longer lose to the Imagawa family in mobilizing.
"Look where you are running? Are you still playing monkey here? With your back turned to people all the way, let my people follow your butt and eat shit!" Hojo Ujiyasu, just as Imagawa Yoshimoto expected, he rode his horse to the front of the battle in person , led the team of Hojo family knights to rush at Imagawa Yoshimoto's red bird horse seal, "I'm going to tell you to eat shit! Yoshimoto!"
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"Your Highness? What should I do?" Feimura Yangha realized that the situation was not good.
"Let's charge forward. What are you afraid of? There are only 200 people!" Akai Kuroko knocked the scabbard hard with the back of his hand.
"We don't wear heavy armor. Just a small scratch can make us lose our fighting power. Unless everyone is as brave as Akai-sama, it won't work." Himura Hiroyuki looked solemn, obviously not agreeing. Colleagues' views, but still did not forget to compliment him, and then looked at Imagawa Yoshimoto and said, "Your Highness, why don't we go north into the mountains?"
"If we don't go north, we won't be able to come back once we enter the mountain. We have to go all the way to Kai. What should we do about Katsurayama Castle?" Imagawa Yoshimoto shook his head, and instead of looking north, he pointed back to the south, "We Going south?"
"To the south?" Everyone was stunned when they heard this - the south side was clearly the main force of the Hojo family. At this time, the knights from the north were getting closer and closer to the Imakawa family's horsemen - there were galloping cavalry on both sides, and the distance of dozens of feet disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"Just that team of auxiliary soldiers, let's go through there. By the way, Himura, Akai, you are good at horseback riding. If possible, cut off a head and carry it." In the flash of lightning, Imagawa Yoshimoto chose Hojo in front. The group of auxiliary soldiers between the two groups of soldiers seemed to be civilians temporarily recruited from the territory. They had no equipment or structure at all, and they had no ability to resist to the naked eye.
So, under the leadership of Imagawa Yoshimoto, the Imagawa family's horsemen galloped quickly along the official road outside the range of the Hojo Iabu archers, and then suddenly made a turn of nearly 45 degrees. Everyone drew their swords in their hands and stood straight. The ground cut into the queue of the auxiliary soldiers. When the knights of the Hojo family on the opposite side were in front of him, he hid towards the south and let them escape.
The two combat troops at the front and rear tried to cover, but due to the super-fast movement of the cavalry, they had no time to react. They watched helplessly as the knights of the Imagawa Army stepped into the formation. With random swish of knives, this member of the Hojo family
The team's auxiliary soldiers collapsed instantly and fled in all directions, wailing. Now the Sichuan army opened a bloody path from north to south, directly opening a hole in the main army of the Hojo family, killed Shangguan Road, jumped off the official road, and evacuated to the south of the official road.
At this time, on the north side of the official road, two groups of Hojo family cavalry who were about to attack the Imagawa army from front to back almost collided with each other. They quickly moved their horses to stagger, but they suddenly lost their movement speed and failed to return directly along the Imagawa family horse. The enemy jumped over the official road to pursue them, giving the Imagawa army an opportunity to retreat. Imagawa Yoshimoto immediately led his men and galloped westward along the south side of the official road, preparing to rush back to Katsurayama Castle. After several times of charging, speeding up, and shooting, the physical strength of Imagawa's army and horsemen had been greatly exhausted. Even though they were only wearing light armor, each of them began to breathe heavily. They were also exhausted when sitting down, and their feet were a little weak.
"It's time to withdraw our troops, and we have bought enough time." Imagawa Yoshimoto looked up at the sky, then at the messy official road and the chaotic queue of the Hojo family, "They won't be able to arrive before tonight... …”
