It's getting dark. In the midst of a crackling sound, Pingshou Fan Xiu silently put down the thousand miles tube in his hand and gave instructions to his subordinates:

"Shimazu Hyogo (Yoshihiro) seems to have managed to break through. Let the Baixiang Jiajia Department pursue at the end, and the cavalry team of the guards will go around and intercept it! ”

The retainers on the left and right were overjoyed when they heard this, and they took the order and left.

This is a small mistake caused by being too hasty to react in the early hours of the morning.

The two divisions of Matsukura Shigenobu and Yamauchi Kazutoyo, the main forces of the flag, took into account the risk of the attack on the main formation, and the relatively reliable Nanjo Motosushi and Isshiki Yoshiki were the possibility of the embankment being combined with the outside, and they did not spend their efforts on interception. The outermost Takeda Motoaki and Kyogoku Takayoshi were originally related households, and their combat power was very worrisome, so it was expected that they couldn't stop it.

Shimazu Yoshihiro's team of black-armored samurai was inconspicuous when they were still, but when they moved, they galloped as fast as the torrent of the Kuma River, and quickly broke away from the entanglement.

In contrast, the soldiers under the command of Takeda Motoaki and Kyogoku Takayoshi were very sluggish and slow.

Relying on the position to shoot with iron cannons may not be shown, but once a tactical maneuver is required, this difference in training degree is very obvious.

However, it was gratifying to see that the Kaisho Iesho Division, which was a reserve, caught up at almost the same speed, and was not slightly slower than the Shimazu Army.

In addition, about one and a half thousand cavalrymen, in three sequences, went around along other routes.

This may be the first time in the history of Fuso that someone has organized the use of a professional standing cavalry. In the past, daimyo in various places also had the tactics of immediate assault, but they always temporarily gathered samurai with mounts to fight, and there was no discipline and organization for their individual martial arts and bravery.

And it was also because he had more and more money in recent years that he formed a new cavalry team among the guards.

There are a total of 1,500 people in the three teams, all of whom are professional soldiers, who spend their daily lives on the training ground, are very familiar with each other, and the relationship between superiors and subordinates is very clear and strict, completely eliminating the feudal elements that soldiers have. At the same time, in order to maintain this team, there are 1,200 servants and 700 pack horses waiting with the army, and the logistics supply must be counted separately.

However, since the establishment belongs to the "pro-guards", it has never been able to get the opportunity to go into battle with real swords and guns, mainly to play the role of an honor guard around the general general, and at best go up to harvest it when the overall situation has been decided.

In the words of the adherents in private, which cannot be made public, it is "a man who can afford to die, and a horse cannot afford to die".

A flag team of Ashigaru was killed, and the aftermath pension is generally completed in twenty times. But a good horse that is good enough to be a war horse has a starting point of at least fifty strokes, and a stronger one or two hundred strokes is also common, and it is often priceless. Like the high-headed horses that the Lord of the Inner Mansion likes to cross and improve with the Nanban breed, the production is extremely limited and cannot be measured by money.

This time, it was because he saw that the world was about to be decided, and he felt that he was being teased by Shimazu Yoshihiro, so he resolutely ordered the dispatch of the personal guard cavalry.

Hirate looked over with a chisato and saw that there were undulating hills in front of him, but the slope was not large, and there was no lack of smoothed roads, which was not the most suitable terrain for horses, but there was no reason to be restricted.

Four legs should be sharper than two legs.

At the limit of his field of vision, he saw that a team of horses with blue flags seemed to have circled to a suitable position and stopped part of the black Shimazu army, and then the Baixiang Jiajiasho department with yellow flags and gold armor immediately accelerated to chase after them, but it seemed that there were still many enemy troops who continued to evacuate towards the fork in the road.

Then I couldn't see it clearly.

What can be done has been done, and there is no need to worry about it anymore.

If the five thousand of the most elite of their own family, plus the cavalry that never existed in Fuso in this era, could not deal with the enemy's more than 1,000 people, then there was nothing to say.

At this time, the troops under the command of Mori Ryotsu and Akao Kiyoshi entered Hitoyoshi Castle, and after a search, it was confirmed that the enemy had completely left, and the stronghold was abandoned.

There is still a lot of food and ammunition stored in the city, and when I opened the boxes and bags, I found that they were all intact and should be ready for immediate use. The wells were not buried, and there were no signs of vandalism in the buildings and furniture.

This is all the more surprising.

If you want to hold on, why abandon the city after only three days? Why don't you even burn and destroy the materials?

Could it be that the Shimazu family has begun to fall into chaos and has different orders?

This shouldn't be possible, a few days ago I thought they were a more difficult force to deal with than Takeda, Uesugi, Hojo, and Mori!

After a while, a cavalryman reported that he had intercepted the Shimazu family's army outside the "Miyahara Shrine", and that more than 2,300 soldiers had been killed, and that the heads now identified included two generals with names and surnames.

Wen Zhihei shook his head: "You have worked hard, but this time the target is Shimazu Hyogo (Yoshihiro), and the other heads are not enough to mention." ”

The cavalry retreated in fear.

After a while, another retainer returned on horseback to report that another battle had been fought at the mouth of the valley, which was only one or two hundred paces wide in front of him, and that the enemy was still completely destroyed after leaving two or three hundred men behind. This time, everyone didn't care about the severed head at all, and continued to pursue with full spirit.

Two quarters of an hour later, a third herald arrived, and said that there was a depression in front of him, and that an unknown ancient monument had been erected nearby, and that the people had caught up with the Shimazu army, and that two or three hundred men had been killed, or that they were all destroyed. Seeing that his subordinates were tired from continuous battles all the way, he continued to pursue with only the two most elite reserves of about 700 people.

As for the Guards Cavalry?

Suzuki Hidemoto and 500 people continue to try to make a detour to block the road, but it is said that the terrain is complicated and may not be able to make the trip for a while.

Tieshou Tsuyoshi listened to the report and was silent.

Hosokawa Fujitaka beside him exclaimed: "Shimazu Hyogo (Yoshihiro) rushed to kill for a long time before he broke out of the siege, and he was already seriously wounded, and probably only a thousand people managed to break through. Later, two or three hundred people were left behind three times in a row, and all three times they were all killed...... I'm afraid there aren't many people around, right? In such a situation, they were still able to fight hard, and there was no sign of surrendering or dispersing, and the Satsuma people were really terrible. ”

Then more than an hour passed, and by noon, some of them returned first, bringing back a large number of heads, and it was said that there were five members of the Shimazu clan that were worth mentioning.

However, the army had lunch and was ready to continue to advance south along the main road, but they still did not see Bai Xiang Jiajia and Suzuki Hidemoto returning to the team. I don't know if I encountered an accident or caught a big fish.

The message that came back was only "still on the hunt".

Some of the retainers were worried, and Hitehide was noncommittal, but Honda Masanobu refuted: "Did the Shimazu family spend so much effort just to ambush our pursuit team of one or two thousand people?" It's totally more than worth the loss for them. ”

The final news came back in the early moments.

In a small river less than ten paces wide that could be crossed flatly, the enemy placed the last two or three hundred men, delaying the worship of Ieka and Suzuki Hidemoto for a while. After they had settled the fourth break, the team rode up and caught up, just in time to see that Shimazu Yoshihiro had less than 100 people around him, and he could get into the gate of Oguchi Castle.

It can only make people sigh.

Hite's face was not very good, but he didn't blame the retainers.

More complained about himself, he was too conservative when he found out that the defenders in the city were moving in the early morning, thinking about preventing a surprise attack on the main formation or combining the inside and outside, but he didn't expect it to break through.

However, the world is full of ups and downs.

About an hour or so, a personal soldier hurried back and reported, "The two of you have escorted Shimazu Hyogo back with you, and you will be there soon!" ”

Everyone was both surprised and delighted, and even more bewildered - didn't that guy escape into Dakou City? How did you get caught again? It can't be that the walls have been broken by horses' hooves, right?