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's method of "defending the city"?" After yesterday's battle, Himura Hiroyuki 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 to attack. Even the city walls were visible. This is the first time I’ve seen the undefeated city guard!”
"This is just this one time. After that, everyone is familiar with the iron cannon. Although this method of warfare 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 He sighed. He himself had been thinking about his tactical response for a long time yesterday: cavalry wearing light armor, bows and arrows, iron cannons and samurai swords would make all infantry and heavy cavalry helpless in open terrain. Chase after chase. If they can't, they can't fight with long-range firepower. The only way seems to be to endure a certain amount of losses and send a team of light cavalry to chase the iron artillery cavalry until the opponent's horse power is exhausted.
Of course, it is difficult to truly and effectively annihilate the enemy with this style of fighting. At best, it can only delay time. Because such a battle consumes a lot of the iron artillery cavalry itself, and concentration will soon decrease due to the decrease in physical strength. It is definitely not a long-term solution. Moreover, such tactics are only suitable for 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 As long as they attack what must be saved, the iron artillery cavalry can only return to the front battlefield obediently.
Just when Imagawa Yoshimoto was thinking about this, some smoke and dust could be faintly seen on the mountain road in the distance. The horseback soldiers led by Imagawa Yoshimoto were ambushing behind a high ground on the official road. If the scout horses hadn't come closer, they would have been there. It may be discovered. However, the battle that took place between the Hojo family and the Imagawa family in Izu yesterday should have been reported to the main army starting from Odawara Castle, and Hojo Ujiyasu will probably make corresponding preparations.
Just when Imagawa Yoshimoto was thinking about this, the horsemen who were watching at the top of the slope suddenly waved their hands in warning. So Imagawa Yoshimoto came to the top of the slope in person and carefully looked towards the way to Mount Ashigara - and found the Hojo family The army has advanced several hundred steps away, and the detective horses responsible for reconnaissance are quickly approaching the top of the slope.
"Have you finished loading?" 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. Then, 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 horses 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 formation. In almost a few breaths, the Imagawa family's horses returned to the group. They had already rushed to the front of the Hojo family formation more than thirty feet away - this was 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. Above. In the midst of lightning and flint, Imagawa Yoshimoto roughly estimated the number of people in this unit - more than 40 people. It was similar to the number of iron cannons in the Hojo family's cannon team that ambushed him during the voyage. This was all the iron cannons of the Hojo family. quantity.
"Go to the right, bypass the official road, and go towards the hills." Imagawa Yoshimoto suddenly changed his order, abruptly led the Imagawa family horse back to speed again, drew an arc, bypassed the front of the mountain road, and turned And headed for the hilly land south of the official road. The subordinates didn't know why, and were still curious about why Imagawa Yoshimoto gave such an order. The next second, they saw the soldiers of the Hojo family walking at the front of the queue coming from behind like magic. He took out his iron cannon and intended to shoot - but the Imagawa family members 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 has already loaded the cannon and plans to take the lead when I dismount. 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, and they are not mobile enough to 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 roundabout actions of the Imagawa horsemen, Later, there was some commotion in the Hojo family's formation, but there was no panic. Soon, nearly 300 cavalrymen came out of the formation, following the Imagawa family's horsemen in pursuit, and shot at Hojo without stopping. Opportunities flanking the home queue.
"He is well-organized and his formation is not messy at all. He is worthy of being the Lion of Sagami." 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 Based on the hearsay information, I came up with a countermeasure, and almost caught Imagawa Yoshimoto off guard. If Imagawa Yoshimoto hadn't just escaped a volley from the opponent's iron gunner, these hidden cavalry would probably have taken advantage of the Imagawa family. When the horsemen were shot to the point of being turned upside down, they suddenly came out.
"Get the bows and arrows." Imagawa Yoshimoto ordered to the horsemen, and he also skillfully bent the bow and set the arrows. He pursed his lips, squinted his eyes, and felt the distance, horse speed and wind direction, relying on his innate With his talent, he adjusted the shooting angle as easily as he could: "Between the top two and the top three, follow my first arrow and shoot!"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! After saying that, Imagawa Yoshimoto let go of his right hand, and the arrow flew away from the string. The horsemen of the Imagawa family were also skilled in bows and horses, and when they saw Imagawa Yoshimoto's After the shooting arc, he immediately imitated a similar angle and threw random arrows at the Hojo family's cavalry. The Hojo family's knights were shot into a panic and several of them fell off their horses. But Imagawa Yoshimoto was also unambiguous and immediately added It was the second round of arrow rain that greeted them. The Hojo family's cavalry tried to fire arrows to fight back, but they were in pursuit, and the arrows they shot out could not hit the Imagawa family's horse soldiers who were retreating. Instead, they were the Imagawa family's horse soldiers. If you shoot back, you can hit their queue head-on, causing them to continuously reduce their numbers.
Seemingly realizing that such attrition was fruitless, another 200 cavalrymen quickly rushed out of the Hojo family's formation and marched in the opposite direction along the north side of the official road. It seemed that they wanted to outflank the Imagawa family's returning horses. Imagawa Yoshimoto noticed the Hojo family. Yanchen, who led the army north on the official road, soon became aware of the Hojo family's actions.
"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 to divert 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 using True charge. Once the Hojo family horses behind us go back to pursue Akai, I will immediately turn around, chase them, and find the opportunity to fire on them with iron cannons. The remaining 200 people will go with Haimura to deal with the Hojo family's patchwork. The cavalry came 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 because of 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. I muddy the water and adapt to the situation. How can he be faster than me?"
After Imagawa Yoshimoto gave the order, the horses of the Imagawa family slowly divided into three teams, followed by Himura Umoha and Akai Kurotaka and left the main army. This change of formation allowed the horses of the Hojo family to pursue them. The soldiers felt a little troubled - 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 made them not know how to deal with it, so they could only look at Hojo Ujiyasu's horse from a distance. Seal - but at such a long distance, the information that the horse seal can convey is quite limited. We can only wait for Hojo Ujiyasu to send the messenger - the problem is that they are all cavalry, and they are moving fast, and the messenger wants to catch up. It really takes them a while.
Just when the Hojo family's horse warriors didn't know how to act, the battle situation became more and more complicated. One of the Imagawa family's horse warriors rushed towards the auxiliary troops on the Hojo family's official road, and the auxiliary troops immediately acted in chaos. A regiment. As a last resort, the soldiers in front and behind them stopped and tried to form formations to cover their auxiliary troops, 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 cavalry, when they saw the 200 Imagawa family horses returning, looked like they were menacingly coming to save their lives. , also retreated, and did not choose to engage in the battle, but kept a certain distance, unable to come over to cover the auxiliary troops. The Hojo family's horsemen had no choice but to try to return to aid themselves, and gave up continuing to pursue Imagawa. Yoshimoto Mayin's actions.
After Imagawa Yoshimoto saw the response of the Hojo family, he immediately turned his horse's head and rushed south down the hill, disappearing from the sight of the Hojo family's horsemen. Akai Kurotaka also led his troops in front of the auxiliary formation of the Hojo family's rear army. Skimming the formation, he did not charge directly into the formation, but turned to the formation further back, pulling more and more Hojo family soldiers into formation on the spot. The Hojo family's horsemen were in a dilemma for a while, and they also tried to turn their horses around. Head chasing Akai Kuroko.
Akai Kurotaka immediately waved the flag to send a signal. 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, and 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.
