Imagawa Yoshimoto and his horsemen drove past the queue of the Hojo family, as pleasant as passing by a wheat field on the roadside. Having learned from the past, the soldiers of the Hojo family did not dare to attack at all, and Imagawa Yoshimoto also carefully kept the distance beyond the range of the bow and arrow. From time to time, he looked back at the gap he had just rushed out of. After confirming that the pursuers of the Hojo family did not pursue him from the north of the official road to the south of the official road, he gradually let go of his suspense.
"Relying on constant harassment, I finally slowed down the progress of the Hojo Army and bought a day. I hope that it will be enough for the troops from the Kadong area to arrive at Katsurayama Castle." Imagawa Yoshimoto silently planned the progress of supporting the troops - he is out on the expedition today. After walking for most of the day, I don’t know the specific marching situation. The fastest one should be the Fuji family. If they set off from Fujimiya Castle, they should...
"boom!"
An explosion suddenly came from my ears, and Imagawa Yoshimoto's horse immediately stood up with a neigh. Imagawa Yoshimoto was skilled in equestrian skills, so he was fine, but many of the surrounding horses were almost thrown off their horses - such as Kira. Weicheng, he really fell down.
After Imagawa Yoshimoto came to his senses, he immediately realized that it was an iron cannon firing. He turned to look to the right, and saw the iron gunner of the Hojo family standing on the official road and firing at him. The smoke from the gun had not completely dissipated. However, Imagawa Yoshimoto himself had just kept a certain distance from the Hojo family's queue and was not within the range of the iron cannon, so this salvo did not cause any damage, but only had the effect of frightening the horses.
"Why were you transferred here?" Akai Heigao's horse was also frightened and couldn't help but cursed, "Wasn't the iron artillery team at the head just now? Why was it transferred to the middle?"
"There may be a back-up plan." Feimura Yangha also became alert, "Your Highness, please evacuate quickly."
"Don't withdraw." However, Imagawa Yoshimoto shook his head decisively, turned his horse's head to point in the direction of the official road, and said with his keen sense of battlefield: "The iron artillery team was specially mobilized, which shows that the Hojo family has a plan against us. But obviously in Why are the Iron Cannon Team still firing outside the range? It means that the Iron Cannon Team's mission is not to hit us. This means that the Hojo family has other back-up forces to attack us. Then I guess that the Iron Cannon salvo is just to slow down the attack. The speed of our horses will buy time for the Hojo cavalry to make a detour, and soon they will come around from the west of the official road - no wonder they are not pursuing us, but they want to directly block our retreat."
"Then what should we do if Your Highness...does not retreat?" the horsemen asked one after another.
"Attack. Rush over and deal with the pair of iron gunners before they have time to reload. You all know how long it takes for a team of iron gunners to train proficiently in using iron cannons, right? After finishing this group of iron gunners here, the subsequent battle will begin. The Hojo family has no iron cannons." Imagawa Yoshimoto raised his hand and pointed straight at the pair of unprotected iron cannons on the Hojo family's official road, snapping his fingers, "Gentlemen, follow me and charge into the battle!"
·
"I go?"
At this time, in the Hojo family's formation, Oto Nobuki, who was leading the iron artillery team, was so stunned that he couldn't close his mouth when he saw that instead of retreating, the Imagawa family's horsemen gathered around the red bird horse seal and went straight towards the Hojo army again. He asked, "Is this family governor desperate for his life? What is he doing?"
Yes, none of the iron gunners of the Hojo family expected that Imagawa Yoshimoto would not speed up his evacuation after being ambushed by the iron artillery, but would directly fight back against the army alone, so that no one was prepared to guard against the cavalry charging into the formation. . They were hurriedly transferred from the front line to the center, and there were not even enough anti-horse pikemen nearby.
The distance of forty feet was only a matter of a few breaths for the cavalry. There was no time for the Hojo family's iron gunners to escape. The Imagawa family's horsemen were already in front of them. The iron gunner of the Hojo family tried in vain to block the samurai sword with the iron cannon in his hand, but he could only be chopped down by the sword. These precious iron gunners, who had been trained for several months or even more than a year, were cut down to the ground like wheat by the Imagawa family's horsemen. Oto Nobuki almost vomited blood when he saw it, but he had no choice but to escape with the defeated soldiers in embarrassment.
During these few breaths, Imagawa Yoshimoto clearly saw more than 200 knights of the Hojo family coming around from a gap in front of the Hojo family's marching column, which was just enough to block the horseback crowd. The westward direction on the south side of the official road. If Imagawa Yoshimoto had chosen to continue fleeing west just now, he might have been beaten by the roundabout Hojo team due to the low horse speed caused by the iron cannon.
The house cavalry was disintegrated with a side attack.
Thinking of this, Imagawa Yoshimoto loudly urged: "Don't chase too much and keep your horse speed, otherwise it will be very dangerous. Hurry and kill to the north of the official road, then turn west..."
Before he finished speaking, the sound of galloping horse hooves suddenly came from the west - the Hojo family's horsemen were surrounded by Hojo Ujiyasu, coming directly from the planned retreat of the Imagawa family's horsemen, and the Imagawa army had no time to speed up. He hedged and reluctantly accepted the challenge. In an instant, he was chopped down by the knights of the Hojo family because of their thin armor. Dozens of them fell down in an instant.
"Did you expect that I would charge into the battle? Otherwise, why would you ambush me here? Since you had already expected it, why did you let the precious iron artillery team come to die? Is it a bait?" Imagawa Yoshimoto was really surprised. Struggling and leading his men to break through to the north, Hojo Ujiyasu behind him led the Hojo family's horsemen in hot pursuit. At the same time, Hojo Ujiyasu's horse seal in the central army was constantly waving, commanding all the troops on the surrounding official roads to come together to encircle and suppress Imagawa Yoshimoto. The distance between the two governors was only more than ten feet, so that Imagawa Yoshimoto could clearly hear Hojo Ujiyasu's roar:
"Look where you are going?" Hojo Ujiyasu slapped the horse forward fiercely, and yelled at Imagawa Yoshimoto's red bird horse seal: "You will be considered clean until I poop you!"
The Imagawa family's horses rushed left and right, but their horsepower was no longer what it used to be. In addition, the armor was fragile, and they did not dare to rush into the formed infantry formation. Seeing that the Hojo Army was surrounding them more and more, the Imagawa Army's casualties were increasing, and the horseback soldiers' casualties reached almost 30%, the samurai became a little impatient. Their own lives didn't matter. What would happen if Imagawa Yoshimoto died here?
"Your Highness, how about we cover your breakout first, and then we can break out on our own?" Himura Umoha and Akai Kurotaka leaned next to Imagawa Yoshimoto and asked.
"No need. Speaking of which, did you get the head I asked you to find a way to get just now?" Imagawa Yoshimoto said calmly without changing his expression.
"The fight has been like this. It has been lost a long time ago. Who cares about the military merit of a decapitated person? I have beheaded hundreds of them in my life." Akai Heigao shouted cursingly, "Your Highness, please quickly find a way to stand out. go!"
"I keep it with me." Himura Hiroyuki pointed to the head tied behind the horse's butt, "I wonder what your highness wants?"
"Put this head on the flagpole." Imagawa Yoshimoto looked back at the flag bearer holding the red bird horse seal behind him.
"Then what?" everyone asked, and the flag bearer on the side finally completed that action with the help of several people - it was really difficult on a bumpy horseback.
"Then yell with me -" Imagawa Yoshimoto coughed twice, and then seemed to be unable to let go of his arrogance, pretending to shout in a small voice: "Hojo Ujiyasu has been taken!"
Only then did everyone suddenly realize that they gathered around the head that was placed on the red bird horse seal and shouted in unison: "Hojo Ujiyasu has been claimed!"
The members of the Imagawa family in the outer circle were stunned for a moment when they heard this shout. Not knowing whether it was true or not, they all became excited and restless, shouting "Hojo Ujiyasu has been claimed", and shouted more fiercely for a fierce battle. .
The soldiers of the Hojo family were all shocked. The guards surrounding Hojo Ujiyasu hurriedly shouted in an attempt to quell the rumors. The other horsemen from the Hojo family who were farther away all stopped their attacking movements and looked back worriedly at the place where Hojo Ujiyasu was there not long ago. Some people saw Hojo Ujiyasu's figure and restarted the attack while suppressing the troops. However, some horsemen felt increasingly uneasy because they were unable to find Hojo Uyasu among the rebellious army due to the angle.
The Hojo family's horsemen were pretty good, after all, they knew that Hojo Ujiyasu himself came here with the cavalry. For other Hojo family samurai and Ashigaru, they thought that Hojo Ujiyasu was still in the army, so they all turned their attention to where Hojo Ujiyasu's horse seal was - but there was nothing under the horse seal, except for a few flag bearers, and they couldn't see it at all. Hojo Ujiyasu himself. The surrounding Hojo soldiers suddenly panicked, and the Hojo soldiers further away couldn't see clearly what was going on under the horse seal. After discovering that there was agitation around the horse seal, they were also in chaos.
"Damn it." Hojo Ujiyasu realized that the situation was not good, but it didn't look good for a while.
method. In the previous battles, Imagawa Yoshimoto relied on the advantage of being on the front line to command, and he made a fool of the Hojo family's troops, forcing Hojo Ujiyasu to rush to the front line to command in person. However, Hojo Ujiyasu was afraid that moving the horse seal would cause confusion in the command of the troops, so he did not carry the horse seal - but Imagawa Yoshimoto spread the rumor.
The soldiers of the Hojo family were in chaos, and rumors always spread faster than refuted rumors. Although many soldiers were still fighting hard, they could no longer stop the Imagawa family's horsemen from breaking through and leaving. Many samurai of the Hojo family were getting angry, desperately trying to appease their soldiers, and tried to pursue them, not wanting to see the cooked duck fly away, but Hojo Uyasu felt relaxed at this moment.
"Do you know why we didn't catch Imagawa Yoshimoto?" Hojo Ujiyasu laughed and looked at his subordinates, then nodded his head with his hand, "Because I made a mistake, I shouldn't let Imagawa Yoshimoto Noticed that I myself left the formation.」
"But Imagawa Yoshimoto also made the same mistake, didn't he?" After Hojo Ujiyasu smiled enough, he pointed back at the back of the Imagawa family's horsemen leaving, "He let me know that he left Katsurayama Castle on his own, and he was not I only know it now, but I guessed last night that he would definitely repeat his same trick today and personally lead the main force of the horsemen to harass me on the road. The only one left in Kazuyama City is Kuzuyama Bei, who has recently fallen to the Imagawa family. More than a hundred soldiers, right?"
"Then guess, if I had known all this in advance, what kind of order would I have given to Chibei who was waiting next to Katsurayama Castle in advance? In today's battle, it seems that Imagawa Yoshimoto slowed down the advance of our army. In fact, we delayed his return to aid Katsurayama Castle! At this time, Chibei had already captured Katsurayama Castle!" Hojo Ujiyasu twitched the corner of his mouth, and then waved his hand fiercely, "Chasing, Let us destroy this annoying fly right under Geshan City!"
