As the reconnaissance cavalry sent out returned one after another, Yu Qiuping also had a general understanding of the enemy's formation—it was a crane wing formation listed on the basis of numerical superiority. Seeing this, Yu Qiuping began to try to adjust the formation of his subordinates. Except for 1 platoon of archers and 1 platoon of infantry in the center, the reserves and the rest of the troops were slightly distanced to the flanks. The left flank and the right flank sent 3 infantry platoons and 1 bow platoon respectively, and still held 2 infantry platoons and 1 cavalry platoon as reserves.

As the horn sounded, the troops on Oda Nobunkiyo's side began to slowly advance westward. Yu Qiuping's subordinates were meticulously prepared for the battle, and they were not afraid of the enemy who was slowly approaching. Oda Nobukiyo's main formation did not move too much, it seemed to be only playing a role in restraining it, and his two wings had already approached about 150 meters away from the Yuakihira front.

As the distance between the two armies was reduced to the effective range of the bows and arrows, the long-range reserves of the two armies standing in the front rows also began to exchange fire. Due to the long distance, it was difficult for the bow and arrow to reach the enemy's position, and most archers had to use projectiles to ensure the range. However, such a projectile could hardly pose an effective threat to Ashigaru, who was wearing a carcass, so Oda Nobukiyo's troops were still approaching.

At this time, Charlie was in the platoon on the right flank, as the commander of the bow platoon. What made him very dissatisfied was that his platoon still had the 20 iron gunners equipped with Yu Qiuping - this was simply an insult to the bow and arrow. Therefore, when the two armies were projectile, Charles refused the fire request of the iron gunners on the grounds that "the range was not enough", and instead took the remaining 30 archers to shoot on his own. Unlike the Japanese archers, who could only shoot, 150 meters was already the flat range of the British longbow Charlie. He unceremoniously fired a series of arrows, and the arrows did not miss. Even at a distance of 150 meters, there was still one unlucky ghost who was killed by Charlie straight in the door, and the remaining few archers who were shot in the chest and abdomen were obviously enough to choke - because Charlie's arrows were so powerful that ordinary carcasses could not completely remove the damage.

As the enemy drew closer and the two armies were only 100 meters apart, the iron gunners came again and asked for fire. This time, Charlie was too embarrassed to refuse. In any case, most of these archer veterans are also old subordinates who have followed him for several years since Zhili City, and they are embarrassed to lose their face too much.

·

Since Tsuda Kazuyoshi, as an instructor of Tennojiya, will definitely not follow Yu Qiuping on the expedition. The person in charge of this small iron artillery team was given the command of the old archer who had followed Yuakihei from Zhili Castle, Kitabatake Keike. He was also a well-known marksman in the Tokiwa Army, and was trusted by Yu Qiuping for his outstanding exploits. According to the archers' own evaluations, his marksmanship was second only to Charlie in the entire army. It's just that Charlie's archery skills are so superb that his talent is overshadowed.

Not long ago, when Yu Qiuping asked the 20 veterans to stop using bows and arrows and use iron cannons, they also complained. In the eyes of archers, these iron guys make loud noises when fired, and they are quite imposing, and they do a lot of damage - but how can this kind of clever ornament compare to the bows and arrows used in battle formations? However, since it was Yu Qiuping's order, these ashigaru people still did it honestly. They had to abandon their well-honed bow and arrow skills in favor of these rusty iron cannons.

The first few days were very difficult for the Kitabatake Kei family. The operation steps of the iron cannon are much more cumbersome than that of the bow and arrow, and the slightest carelessness in the charging and ignition parts may also bring danger. One of their unfortunate companions caused an explosion when he accidentally ignited the gunpowder next to him while lighting the arquebus. He was just blessed, he was just burned, and he didn't make any big trouble.

However, after this safety incident, everyone became extremely careful when loading the iron cannon and changing the ammunition, and no one dared to pursue speed anymore, and it took nearly a minute and a half to reload on average - this was after Yu Qiuping had already asked them to provide them with a technical guidance called "Early Closure". The so-called early closing is to configure the amount of gunpowder and projectiles needed for a shot in advance and pack them in a small paper bag, and pour them all directly when using them, so as to save loading time.

However, Yu Qiuping is not discouraged by this, he firmly believes that practice makes perfect. Since Chang Panbei can train from a plate of loose sand in the past to a strong army that is now forbidden by order, then their iron gunners must have no problem controlling the reload time to less than one minute through hard training! Kazuyoshi Tsuda could have done it without a morning meeting, so why couldn't they?

And so the grueling reloading and reloading training began. Except for the Iron Gunners, who trained in a queue for an hour every day, they spent all the rest of their time repeating that boring set of movements. The brush clears the chamber, tears the paper packet, pours gunpowder and projectiles into the barrel, compacts it with a whole strip, ignites the fire rope, and ignites the iron cannon. Yu Qiuping didn't even ask them to aim and shoot, just shoot the bullet at a place where no one was there - so that they could hurry up and practice reloading a few more times. Every action is a strictly required standard action, and some additional small actions are not allowed.

After tireless training for one day and one day, the gunpowder and projectiles were consumed like a stream, and the iron gunners almost went crazy like the industrial workers on the assembly line of Foxconn. Every day from morning to evening, except for the time of lining up and eating, the hands basically did not stop, repeating those steps over and over again, numb and monotonous. Gradually, their hands have almost formed a mechanical memory, and when they see an iron cannon, they will reflexively move themselves to complete the reload work, without the slightest need for the guidance of the brain. Kitabatake's family even saw him sleepwalking at night when he got up - just standing stupidly in front of the window, with his hands in front of him and not knowing what strange process was being done.

When loading, anyone who makes a mistake or moves too slowly will be immediately caught doing push-ups. If you're not careful, you can't escape with 30 push-ups. After that, you'll have to drag your tired arms to continue reloading – and you're more likely to make mistakes. Under this terrible punishment mechanism, the muscle memory of the iron gunners has become more and more deeply rooted in the bone marrow. Even when a person accidentally does a wrong step, the arms of both hands will immediately feel a sour tingling sensation after doing push-ups.

Over and over again, day by day, the loading efficiency of the iron gunners has made a qualitative leap thanks to hard training! They have nearly doubled their reload speed from one and a half minutes to 50 seconds!

·

This was the first time that the iron gunners of the Yuqiu family had gone to the battlefield, and everyone couldn't help but be a little nervous. Loading in a calm training ground is not the same thing as loading on a battlefield full of arrows. They are worried that the feather arrow will hit them and affect their movements, that they will not shoot accurately, that they will suddenly forget a certain step...

However, to everyone's surprise, when the order to "reload" was given, all the tension and doubts were easily solved. The 20 gunners were stunned, and their hands began to reload almost without the control of their brains. Although my hands were shaking a little and my mind was a mess, the reloading was still done as quickly as on the training ground.

This may be the effect of His Highness Momiji's training method!

After the reloading, all the gunners raised their cannons neatly. They hold the barrel of the gun with their left hand, hold the tail of the gun with their right hand, and their fingers are on the trigger. The right hand holding the tail of the gun is raised high, and the elbow is almost parallel to the ground, so that the face can be pressed against the iron cannon and aimed along the crosshairs.

Everyone's posture is exactly the same, as if they were made by one person. This shooting position is the posture with the highest hit rate after countless shooting experiments. As a result, the Ordinance Maniac once again wrote the Gun Statute along with the reloading animation, and all the Gunners had to aim strictly from this stance.

The focus of his gaze shifted back and forth between the crosshair and distant enemies, but the sound of the gunner's breathing became calmer. When a series of familiar standard moves were completed, it was as if they had returned to the training ground outside Kuroda Castle, and everything was in order, without any changes. The ashigaru on the opposite side was just like one target after another on the training ground, waiting for them to shoot for training. And those who did not hit the sixth ring have to do push-ups.

The unforgettable punishment made all the iron gunners concentrate at the moment, meticulously aiming at the enemy on the opposite side. They also knew in their hearts that relying on such a face-to-kill attack, even if they didn't hit accurately, they could still get good results.

The rain of arrows was still pouring down on the battle line, but none of the lucky gunners were hit. The opposing archers seemed to be going to slow down for a while, and instead of going into the range of about 80 meters, they threw them from a distance—however, they were already within the effective range of the iron gunners.

After the exit of the "salvo" shouted by Kitabatake, all the iron gunners neatly pulled the trigger. A small cloud of gunsmoke immediately rose in front of the battle line on the right flank of the Yuqiu Army, and a violent roar immediately sounded from the iron gunner, which suddenly covered up the sound of the command and the loose strings of the bow and arrow.

Almost in the blink of an eye, a scream rang out from the group of archers on the opposite side - the hard and costless training of the iron gunners of Chang Panbei paid off, and with just one salvo, they hit 8 people on the opposite side! Five of them were killed on the spot, and the remaining three were wailing to the end, clutching their bleeding wounds in pain. In this era when there are no anti-inflammatory drugs, the inflammation or tetanus caused by dirty projectiles and gunpowder into the flesh is likely to still kill them.

In a developed area like Owari, even if you don't count the samurai of the upper class, the ashigaru of the lower class more or less know such a thing as an iron cannon. However, this did not stop them from panicking when they were fired by the iron cannons. In a flash of fire, the man fell! The loud sound of the iron cannon salvo was even more demoralizing than his killing. In that superstitious era, there were various legends about iron cannons. One of them is that a person who is killed by an evil thing such as an iron cannon will go to hell after death, and his soul will never be reborn. In addition, in this year, the use of iron cannons was not very extensive, and even many of Oda Nobukiyo's Ashigaru side encountered iron cannons on the battlefield for the first time, which seriously shook morale.

Mita Yoshitoshi on the left flank of Inuyama's Oda Army wanted to rely on the numerically superior archers to use long-range shots to weaken the morale of Tokiwabei's right flank, but he didn't want to be hit by iron cannons. At this distance, the archer can't do any damage at all against the ashigaru who is wearing a carcass or a full foot. After shooting for a long time, it didn't lead to much attrition on the other side. The opponent fired a volley of iron cannons, killing and wounding 8 people at once! The carcass pill can't stop the carcass that shoots at a rapid speed!