Unlike Yoshimoto Imagawa, who was trapped just now and had to draw his sword to fight in person, Motoin Osawa has been paying attention to the development of the battle situation on the entire Shodozaka battlefield, and is also clearly aware of the significance of the Ohira Town position he is holding at this moment.
At noon, Xiudunbei had already exhausted a lot of energy in the battle with the Anxiang people who had crossed the river. It was really difficult to face an enemy that was twice as many as him.
"The archers occupied several commanding heights and buildings in the east of the town, and Ashigaru moved into the designated east blocks in squad units to set up defenses." Osawa Kiyon, who had already figured out the topography of Ohira Town, stood on horseback and in the streets.
Issue instructions to his subordinates, reminding each department one by one of their positions and defense lines, "Give up the open areas that are difficult to defend and seize key intersections. Our numbers are not enough to cover the entire town, but we must prevent the enemy from going south!"
"In addition, the archery team pay attention, use fire suppression on the south path of the west gate of Miki City, and force the defenders who are counterattacking out of Miki City to the north." Osawa Kiyin left a meaningful instruction at the end. Not long after,
The warriors who defended their shields understood the meaning of Osawa Jiyin's order.
The Matsudaira army in Miki Castle had been besieged for a long time, and its morale was already low. It had been exhausted in the previous siege battles and its combat effectiveness was very limited. After launching a probing attack on the east side of Ohira Town, they were immediately attacked by a dense rain of arrows and determined
The resistance was blocked back. Matsudaira Shigetada was familiar with the terrain of Ohira Town. After realizing that the main force was deployed to the east of Ohira Town, he immediately moved around to the north and launched an attack.
"Move, move, quickly!" Osawa Momo immediately arranged the platoons that were originally focused on the east of Ohira Town, and the squad quickly moved to the preset positions and commanding heights in the north of Ohira Town, taking advantage of the internal maneuverability to complete the defense line arrangement again.
So when the Miki Matsudaira family tried to attack, they immediately bumped into the wall and were forced back by random arrows and street fighting.
At this moment, Kondo Bei and Takigawa Bei also arrived on the battlefield. These recharged Oda troops were different from the Miki Matsudaira family, and their combat power was high. However, Ohira Town was caught between Miki Castle and Miki Castle.
Between the Oto River, the northern entrance is not wide, and it is now completely blocked by the Miki Matsudaira family.
"Is the Miki Matsudaira family now an enemy or an ally?" Kondo Keiharu recalled the current situation - the Miki Matsudaira family was originally resisting the Matsudaira family, and its governor Matsudaira Nobutaka has gone to the territory of the Sakurai Matsudaira family. Sakurai
The Matsudaira family is now a retainer of the Nishi Matsudaira clan supported by the Oda family, and they jointly respect Matsudaira Takechiyo as the head. In that case, the young master of the Miki Matsudaira family, Matsudaira Shigetada, should also be a retainer of the Nishimasatsuira clan, that is, the Oda family
allies.
"But I still wish they were enemies." Kondo Keiharu glanced at the troops of the Miki Matsudaira family and felt that they were in the way. They crowded in front of Ohira Town, but they were unwilling to attack vigorously.
After all, the remaining Matsudaira Shigetada as the young master has limited prestige at home and cannot effectively command the troops. And this battle of Azozaka is a life-and-death struggle between the Imagawa family and the Oda family. What motivation does their little Miki Matsudaira family have?
To participate in it? At the cost of dozens of casualties, to seize a few positions from the elite Hatamoto of the Imagawa family, would it be of any benefit to the Miki Matsudaira family? They are not samurai of the Oda family, and they have to obey Oda Nobuhide's outflanking plan.
I just want to take back the land around my home city of Miki Castle - so don't be in a hurry now, since I can take it back after the war is over.
"If you don't want to fight, let them get out of the way!" Kondo Keiharu was fed up with the Miki Matsudaira family's offensive methods, and the Oda family couldn't afford to drag them down. On the front battlefield, Oda Nobuhide in Onishi Town was being attacked by the Imagawa family.
The bannermen and the Yuanjiang people were besieging them, and the Imagawa family apparently had a reserve team trying to break away from the battlefield and return to support the main formation. It would be terrible if they were allowed to rush back.
After Kondo Keiharu's messengers arrived in the Miki Matsudaira family's army, they made the Miki Matsudaira family a little dissatisfied. These days, many samurai are not very capable, but they have a bad temper. They feel that although the Nishimatsudaira clan is a vassal of the Oda family,
But that’s just the Nishimatsudaira clan’s orders to obey the Oda family’s orders. The Miki Matsudaira family’s naturally only obeys the orders of their own governor, Takechiyo Matsudaira. Why can a retainer of the Oda family jump over the rank to command them? In ancient times when there was no military rank system, it was different.
Command problems among the chain of command are also very common - the Asahina family governor cannot even command an ashigaru of the Okabe family.
However, after dilly-dallying for a long time, the Miki Matsudaira family still cleared the way for Kondo Bei and Takigawa Bei. They went around to the east of Ohira Town and launched their attack again, with Kondo Bei and Takigawa Bei taking the main attack from the north. Soon after, Yamaguchi Bei also joined.
On the battlefield, the pressure on the defense forces suddenly increased. With more than twice the force disadvantage, the Imagawa army relied on the well-organized firepower deployed by Osawa Motoin and the endless ambushes in the streets to barely hold off the enemy.
.
Although positions and blocks were still being lost one by one under the offensive of the coalition forces, Osawa Motoin finally breathed a sigh of relief - at this speed, Ohira Town would not be lost before evening. At that time, the Imagawa Army on the front battlefield
You can win.
But when he noticed the actions of the Oda army, he immediately took a breath of cold air.
Yamaguchi Bei suddenly broke away from the battle line, turned around and headed east - they planned to bypass Miki Castle and directly attack the Imagawa Army's main formation from the South Bridge. However, the current Shoudun Bei was too busy to take care of himself and had no way to detach his troops for rescue.
"It's too late." After seeing Yamaguchi Kotsugi's actions, Imagawa Yoshimoto immediately realized that the loss of the main formation was inevitable. But anyway, there was nothing in the main formation. He was heartbroken and simply faced Asahina directly.
Taineng ordered: "Send a signal to the Asahina Bichu defender, and ask the Higashihara family to stop the siege of Onishi Town, and in turn, go directly to the Oda family's main formation on Mount Ryumi!"
All tactics changers are an eternal truth.
Although the Oda family's Tsurugi outflanked them very quickly, there were not many troops left in the formation and they could not withstand the attack. After noticing that the Higashihara Ezumi were moving towards Ryumiyama, the Oda army fought hard in Onishi Town.
Suddenly there was some panic - all the Imagawa family's auxiliary soldiers had withdrawn, but the Oda family's auxiliary soldiers were still at Ryumi Mountain. If they were killed, wounded and captured by the Dong Yuanjiang people, it would do a lot of damage to the Oda family's manpower.
But Oda Nobuhide also made up his mind and made up his mind to show off with the Imagawa army here. He ignored the Dongyuanjiang people who had left the battle line and gathered all his troops to attack Imagawa Yoshimoto's horse seal. The samurai of the Oda family seemed to
After receiving a lot of blood, after seeing the general attack order issued by Oda Nobuhide's horse seal, they all roared and charged forward.
"Is Oda Nobuhide desperate for his life?" The samurai of the Imagawa Army were all stunned when they saw this. They had never seen such a way of indifference when they saw the auxiliary troops and food and baggage being threatened.
Due to the lack of the combat power of the Higashino Ezumi, the Onishi Town battlefield where the Imagawa army originally had the upper hand also fell into decline. Under the Oda family's offensive, they were forced to retreat step by step and retreated to the main formation of Miai Town.
At this time, Imagawa Yoshimoto couldn't help but regret his haste when he ordered the change of positions just now. If at this time, Yamaguchi Kotsugi's troops did not rush towards the empty main formation after crossing the South Bridge, but turned around and headed west along the Otogawa River.
If we advance and cooperate with the main force of the Oda family to attack the Imagawa Army from both sides, the Imagawa Army, which is surrounded by enemies from both sides, will be in big trouble. Even if Yamaguchi cannot prepare for the river, he chooses to go directly north after bypassing Miki Castle and cooperate with other troops to besiege Ohira Town - that way
With Yichuan on one side and the enemy on three sides, the situation is in danger.
But Yamaguchi Bei didn't seem to have this intention, and he just chose the wrong one among a bunch of right choices - he rushed towards the Imagawa Army's main formation, dispersed a few defenders, and then started to set fire to it in a showy manner. But Imagawa Yoshi
Yuan's horse prints were not in the formation, so this move did not do much to shake the morale of the Imagawa army, and instead wasted precious time.
At the same time, Asahina Tenno also led people into the Oda family's main formation. Upon seeing this, the Oda family's auxiliary soldiers fled north one after another. Asahina Tenno did not pursue them and began to set fire to the food and grass supplies brought by the Oda family.
.At this time, Oda Nobuhide finally couldn't sit still and issued a general retreat order to the entire army. All Oda troops on the battlefield evacuated along the original road. Imagawa Yoshimoto was also in hot pursuit and quickly ordered all the troops to retreat to their own formations.
, to avoid being surrounded by the Oda family. After seeing that the Oda family seemed to have the intention to retreat, the elders and samurai of the Miki Matsudaira family also abandoned Miki Castle with their families and evacuated with the Oda family.
On the evening of June 10, the eleventh year of Tenmon (1542), the Imagawa army extinguished the fire in the main formation, and the auxiliary troops who had previously taken a detour to evacuate also rushed back under the leadership of Na Furuno Ujitoyo to join the main army.
Set up camp, treat the wounded soldiers, and cook dinner. After counting, the Imagawa Army lost more than 300 people and injured more than 700 people in this battle - the number of casualties of the Oda family is estimated to be about the same.
But Imagawa Yoshimoto did not return to the camp, but wandered around the battlefield with a small group of horses holding torches to check whether there were any missing wounded soldiers who had not returned to the team. The battlefield in Onishi Town was very chaotic, with enemies and ourselves intertwined, and it was difficult to ensure that someone was retreating during the retreat.
I couldn't keep up with the team. After struggling for an hour, Imagawa Yoshimoto actually found a dozen wounded soldiers hiding in the pile of corpses who dared not move or could not move. He helped them onto their horses and rode back to the main formation.
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What surprised Imagawa Yoshimoto was that even though it was already time to go to bed, there seemed to be some restlessness in the camp, and the fire was very bright. He rode into the camp gate, and just as he was about to find someone to ask about the situation, suddenly
Seeing all the samurai and ashigaru in the formation standing up, it was as spectacular as a wave of people. They raised their weapons high and gave warm cheers to Imagawa Yoshimoto in the bonfire. The cheers came one after another,
It echoed for a long time in the silent Azuki Bezaka.
"Long live the Imagawa family!"
"Long live your Royal Highness the Governor!"
"Long live the Imagawa family!"
"Long live your Royal Highness the Governor!"
…
"What are you doing?" Imagawa Yoshimoto asked Himura Hiroyuki who was riding over, and lowered his voice with some embarrassment, "We didn't win either."
"Your deeds of fighting into a tight siege and rescuing your subordinates in dangerous situations have spread throughout the army." Himura Hiroyuki bowed respectfully to Imagawa Yoshimoto, then turned around and spread his hands, pointing at the enthusiastic soldiers in the camp, "
This cheer is not dedicated to a fierce general who is victorious in every battle, but to a gentle warrior who loves his soldiers as his own children."
Imagawa Yoshimoto fell silent and stood in the middle of the camp, feeling the sincere feelings of the men. After a long time, tears filled his eyes.
Yes, in this era bound by countless ethical principles, it has become a matter of course for the lowly to sacrifice for the superior, so much so that a family governor only does the ordinary thing of living and dying with his subordinates.
Little things are enough to gain such loyalty and gratitude. For people who have been living under the oppression of unequal classes all year round, "treating each other as equals" is already a precious kindness.