At this moment, Nobhiro Oda, who was running wildly east of the Yahagi River, had been muttering "It's over" for half an hour. The friendly army Mizuno Bei behind him had been routed, and in front was the main force of the Imagawa family's attack, and to his south
——Asahina Bei and Okabe Bei are quickly detouring to the west, trying to block his escape route across the river. And it won’t be long before the Imagawa family’s Hatamoto, who has just defeated Mizuno Bei, will also complete its reorganization and move south to attack them——
At that point, death is really imminent.
"Where are those bald donkeys from the Ichikai sect? Why aren't they moving? We are here to cooperate with your Ichikai sect. What are you doing?" Oda Nobhiro has already greeted the Jodo Shinshu monks in Mikawa tens of millions of times in his heart.
He didn't know that the Imagawa family had quickly completed the reconciliation with the Yi Xiangzong with Shanru's help. At this moment, he couldn't find even an ally in the Mikawa hinterland.
"Your Highness, Okabe Bei and Asahina Bei are faster than us!" Oda Nobuhiro's attendants have been paying attention to the speed of the torch moving parallel to the south. "If this continues, they will get in front of us! Change the line.
Road, right?"
"Change the road?" Oda Nobuhiro turned his head to the east and glanced at the pursuers behind him - that was probably the main force of the Imagawa Army. Under the light of the fire, Imagawa Yoshimoto's red bird horse seal was faintly visible, and the surrounding troops moved forward no matter what.
"There is no other way out."
"Why don't you leave first, Your Highness, and we can follow later?" Another Hatamoto was also a little anxious, and asked such a question tentatively.
"Are you trying to make me abandon the army and abscond?" Oda Nobhiro heard the meaning of Hatamoto's words, frowned, and scolded in a low voice: "This Anxiang Zhong was handed over to me by my father, and you want me to abandon it."
Did they escape?"
"How could it be? Let His Highness go ahead and organize a crossing on the river bank. After all, the situation of the ferry and the crossing bridge has not yet been grasped. Only His Highness can handle such important matters!" This Hatamoto can talk and helped Oda Nobhiro build the steps gorgeously.
Grandly, "Even if I fight for my life, I will lead the team to the river bank! Your Highness, you will command us to cross the river when the time comes!"
Oda Nobuhiro fell into silence, he hesitated. He could indeed be like a great hero, loudly scolded his subordinates' proposal, and categorically announced to stay - and finally buried himself here. Oda Nobuhiro's legitimate son was still young, and he
As the eldest son of an adult concubine, once he is captured, the negative impact will be inestimable. For his own face and honor, or for the interests of the Oda family?
"Then please, make sure you come out safely." Oda Nobuhiro made his choice. He seemed to have no face to communicate with his subordinates anymore, turned around, patted the horse and left.
"Yes!" Several Hatamotos were all samurai who had served the Oda family for generations. After receiving such a promise from Oda Nobuhiro, they all breathed a sigh of relief, then puffed up their chests and loudly accepted the order.
"Oda Ohsumi seems to want to abandon the army and abscond..." Taiyuan Xuezai, who was pursuing from behind, suddenly spoke.
"Hey? Teacher, are your eyes so good?" Imagawa Yoshimoto looked intently at An Xiangzhong's torch, but couldn't see any movement at all.
"The Anxiang people have slowed down a bit, they are not so anxious to run, and the team has expanded to the two wings." Taiyuan Xuezhai said sharply: "It is obvious that some cavalry in the team have left, and the rest
There is no need for the Ashigaru to follow the cavalry. If you are slack, you will be slow. And the current leader intends to disperse the troops to cover the evacuation. It must be Oda Ohsumi who left on horseback with his guards and some samurai."
"What do you say?"
"Chengfang, go and stop him." Taiyuan Xuezhai raised his arm and snapped his fingers in the direction of the thrust: "Take the horse back and break away from the large army, walk in a straight line, go straight to the river, and stop the cavalry group. "
"Okay." Imagawa Yoshimoto then took the order and left. He ordered 400 horses and his trusted bodyguards, and then rode straight to the back road of Oda Nobhiro. After crossing a few small hills, Imagawa Yoshimoto had already crossed the two sides. The main army was left behind, and the silhouette of a group of people hurriedly fleeing westward with torches in the distance became clear - they were all cavalry, probably Oda Nobhiro. After they abandoned the Ashigaru Brigade, they fled quickly After passing a few levels, he quickly rushed to the vicinity of the Yahagi River.
Oda Nobuhiro and others seemed to have noticed the group of pursuers diagonally behind them, and they desperately began to urge the horses to speed up. However, in the cavalry pursuit of night battles, the people in front could not outrun the people behind - because the people in front could not outrun the people behind. You can't see the road clearly with only torches, so you don't dare to gallop recklessly, otherwise you will fall to the ground if you are not careful - and the pursuers behind take the road trodden by the people in front, so it is naturally much safer.
Suddenly, as he was thinking, he tripped over something. A guard beside Oda Nobuhiro was thrown away, including his horse and man, almost dispersing the entire team. Three or four people fell down in succession. Imagawa Yoshimoto took the opportunity to shorten the distance severely, while Oda Nobuhiro only had about twenty riders left.
Even if the factor of night is not considered, the riding skills and horses of the cavalry beside Oda Nobhiro are far inferior to the elite Hatamoto of the Imagawa family. Seeing the Yahagi River right in front of them, Imagawa Yoshimoto's pursuers are getting closer and closer. Oda Nobuhiro almost beat the horse's buttocks to pieces, but he could only watch helplessly as the torches from behind gradually approached, and the sound of the horse's hooves became louder and louder.
"Hold on! We'll be arriving at the Yahagi River soon!" Oda Nobuhiro's attendant looked at the moonlit river in front of him and roared at the top of his lungs to boost morale, "After passing the Yahagi River, we turned over on the bridge to fight. , cover His Highness’s evacuation!”
"Yes!" the attendants all yelled.
On the other side, Imagawa Yoshimoto briefly estimated the distance between the two - he was not sure whether he could catch up with Oda Nobhiro on the bank of the Yahagi River. The success or failure was estimated to be between 50 and 50. He pursed his lips and felt it. The force of the evening breeze blowing through my hair - it was a tailwind, and the wind was not weak.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Bend the bow and set an arrow." So, Imagawa Yoshimoto quickly took off the bow from his back, took out an arrow from the quiver, and ordered in a deep voice. .In the night, the 400 horses that followed responded to the order and all took their bows and arrows.
"Up three, full string." Imagawa Yoshimoto drove the horse forward while fine-tuning the angle. Taking advantage of a smooth opportunity to leap into the air with four hooves, he flicked his wrist: "Let go!"
For a moment, arrows rained down, and the sound of sharp arrows piercing the air was heard endlessly - it was not just Imagawa Yoshimoto who shot arrows, the sound of loose strings also sounded from the river bank!
Before Imagawa Yoshimoto could react to what was happening, hundreds of feathered arrows were directly nailed to the land not far in front of Imagawa Yoshimoto's horse.
Imagawa Yoshimoto was taken aback and hurriedly reined in his horse. The horseman stood up and neighed. Seeing this, the horsemen behind him also hurriedly stopped to avoid collision.
"Is there an ambush?" Imagawa Yoshimoto looked at the random arrows in front of him by the firelight - this number was definitely not something that Oda Nobuhiro and his group could shoot when they escaped. There must be an ambush nearby. In this case, continue to light the torch. Being a target is very dangerous. Just when Imagawa Yoshimoto was about to order the torches to be extinguished, countless torches suddenly lit up on the bank of the Yahagi River, and an army of thousands of people appeared in front of them.
The flag is none other than the Yamaguchi family of Narumi Castle - why are they here? Didn't they agree that the Yamaguchi family would only sell information on the Oda family's former army, and that they should not cross the Yahagi River to avoid accidental injury?
Under the light of those torches, Imagawa Yoshimoto also vaguely saw Oda Nobuhiro and his party, who had been hit by several feather arrows, fleeing into the mountain pass in panic to prepare for the formation.
"Your Highness, this place is dangerous." Himura Hiroyuki noticed that An Xiangzhong and Imagawa Army were chasing towards this direction, and immediately stepped forward to grab Imagawa Yoshimoto, "I know that you are brave enough to be invincible. But it’s late at night, and you can’t see your fingers. If you get caught in the chaos, you’ll inevitably be in danger, so you’d better evacuate. If you don’t catch it, you won’t catch it.”
"I understand." Imagawa Yoshimoto was not interested in putting his subordinates in danger for the sake of profit, so he wisely pulled out his horse and left.
After Imagawa Yoshimoto led his troops to leave, the Anxiang people were also chased by the Imagawa family's main army and fled to the shore. The organization was already in chaos along the way, and about three men and horses were scattered and killed. However, Asahina Bei and Okabe Bei were outflanked. Yamaguchi, who was well prepared, was forced to retreat with random arrows. Under the unclear night, it was unwise to forcefully cross the river to attack a well-formed army. The goal of capturing Oda Nobhiro had also failed, so Taiyuan Xuezai decisively ordered a retreat, allowing More than a thousand of Anxiang's defeated troops were able to cross the river and flee westward.
"Teacher." Imagawa Yoshimoto returned to the camp. Just as he was about to ask Taiyuan Xuezai what was going on, he saw Honda Tadanobu, Yamaguchi Kotsugi's close confidant, already waiting in the main tent.
"Your Highness Jibu, I am here to apologize on my Lord's order." Honda Tadanobu saw Imagawa Yoshimoto coming and immediately bowed respectfully.
"You know you have to apologize but you still act, so why do you need to apologize?" Naturally, Imagawa Yoshimoto was not very happy after being treated in such a way. He took off his clothes and hung them up, and sat down on the horse.
"My lord said, we each get what we need, and your army will not lose." Honda Tadanobu seemed not to understand the sarcasm in Imagawa Yoshimoto's words, but argued plausibly: "My lord betrayed the Imagawa family. After obtaining the information, he helped the Imagawa family beat the Oda family hard at a very small cost. The gains in this battle were probably half of those in the battle of Azukizaka, but the casualties were probably not even one-twentieth? In return, the Imagawa family beat the Oda family hard. The Yamaguchi family's rivals in southern Owari, the Mizuno family and Oda Ohsumi, made it easy for the Yamaguchi family to expand in the Chita Peninsula."
"Then why do you still want to save your opponent?" Imagawa Yoshimoto took out his folding fan and fanned himself to cool down the fire.
"Then we can't let your army gain too much power. If the power of the Oda family collapses thousands of miles away in Nishi Mikawa, and the Imagawa family will be on the verge of defeat in the near future, my lord will have no room for development. The two families are evenly matched, and occasionally they can eat each other.
A small loss is what I want to see most." Tadanobu Honda was sincere and spoke unabashedly what Yamaguchi Kotsugi was saying: "So the friendly forces should be rescued, and besides, Oda Ohsumi is also Oda.
As the eldest son of a common concubine, this rescue service can provide a lot of convenience to my lord in the Oda family."
