The combined forces of the Miyoshi family and the Matsunaga family arrived at the castle of Kannonji Temple at 6 o'clock in the morning. After deliberation, Miyoshi Yoshiken led 12,000 men to feint the west gate, while Matsunaga Shu led the 18,000 men of the Matsunaga family to attack the north gate.

And the commander of the Matsunaga family's vanguard unit is none other than Naito Ruan, the son of Matsunaga Nagayori. That is, the diplomat who was active in the battle of Wenlu Keicho in his previous life (Ming Dynasty historical materials mistakenly recorded as Xiao Xifei) However, at this moment, he has just turned 20. As a member of the Matsunaga family, he commanded the vanguard troops to attack the North City Gate.

He had been told that the north and west gates of Guanyin Temple City had been destroyed in yesterday's fierce battle, but he never thought that the city gates had been repaired now.

"It's pretty fast." Naito Ruan muttered in his heart, and glanced at the Oda family Ashigaru at the head of the castle - it was the maple leaf of the Yuqiu family. He had 500 soldiers in his hands, as well as more than 1,000 auxiliaries pushing battering rams and ladders. Due to the urgency of time, the Matsunaga family rushed all the way, and they did not have time to carry heavy siege towers and watchtowers, so they had to attack with these simple facilities.

Although he had not been on the battlefield a few times, his father was a veteran of many battles, and he had already talked to him about various matters during the siege war. He led the whole army slowly to a distance of 50 zhang from the city. The archers standing at the head of the city are estimated to have such a long range that they can't make an effective attack on him. His men were all well-dressed, and if they wanted to mortally wound them with bows and arrows, they had to reach a distance of at least 30 zhang.

He then ordered his archers to line up and line up unhurriedly. After arranging the formation, he planned to step forward and shoot at the archers of the Yuqiu family, covering the cloud ladder and the ram of the auxiliary soldiers.

However, to his surprise, with a roar from the city, the smoke rose instantly, and the archers standing not far in front of him immediately let out a miserable scream, and many people fell directly to the ground under the splash of blood.

"Iron cannon? So much? Naito Ruan was taken aback when he saw this, and hurriedly looked towards the castle. After the smoke slowly cleared, nearly 100 iron gunners were standing behind the wall battlements, meticulously and quickly reloading.

"Good fellows! 100 iron cannons! Is this Yuqiu family so rich! Naito hurriedly waved the order, telling the archers to move forward quickly and return fire before the next shot from the cannon.

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"The iron cannon is so useful." At this time, Yu Qiuping, who was standing in the castle tower and watching the battle situation, watched the performance of the iron gunners with satisfaction, and sighed to Shigeharu Takenaka and the others beside him: "These iron cannons are still bought, and the cost is too high. When Hanamaru's Military Industry Division can produce iron cannons on their own, we can train all the archers in Tokiwa to become iron gunners. ”

"Moreover, every time we meet a new opponent, our iron gunners can take advantage of it." When Yu Qiuping saw that Naito Ruan's archers were moving fast, he couldn't help but smile slightly, "It's just that they don't know that the reload speed of our iron gunners is 30% faster." ”

As soon as Yu Qiuping's words fell, the iron gunners at the head of the city opened fire again. The unprepared archers had barely taken their positions to draw their bows when they were hit again by a barrage of bullets. Two condescending volleys, the 150 archers had already fallen almost 30 people before they could fire a single arrow. Halfway through the draw, he was hit by an iron cannon shot, and the arrows that were already on the string were also hastily fired, and only a dozen arrows flew softly across the city, hitting three iron gunners - but none of them did any damage to Tokiwa Ashigaru in high-quality armor.

Naito Ruan was also anxious when he saw it, and hurriedly ordered the auxiliary soldiers to rush forward with the ladder and the ram. Now, he no longer counted on the archers to suppress the fire at the head of the city to cover the auxiliaries, but on the auxiliaries to attract fire for the precious archers.

However, Yuqiujun doesn't seem to be fooled. As the archers of the Matsunaga family entered the range of the archers of the Yuqiu family, the archers and iron gunners worked together, and under the command of the Kitabatake Kei family and Charlie, they took turns pouring fire on the archers of the Matsunaga family, which was already in disarray, and soon the archers were crushed.

"Ru'an is not very good there, it is estimated that there are nearly 200 iron cannons and archers at the head of the city." After Matsunaga Shu saw that Naito Ruan's archers were neatly dealt with by the Yuqiu family's firepower, he had to reassess Yuqiuping's strength. "Jiutong, you bring another 5,000 people up and take down the gate of the North City for me."

By the time Matsunaga's 5,000 men arrived at the castle, Naito's first auxiliary troops had already suffered heavy losses under the fire from the castle. The ladders and hammers were scattered all over the place, only five ladders were erected on the city wall, and two hammers were pushed in front of the city gate.

When Matsunaga arrived on the battlefield, he immediately ordered Naito's soldiers to start climbing the ladder. The new 3,000-odd auxiliaries lifted the ladders and rams left on the ground and continued to advance. And he himself pushed the 500 archers he brought to the front line, intending to suppress the 300 people of the Yuqiu family.

However, just as they were about to draw their bows and shoot, 400 archers suddenly appeared behind the battlements of the northern castle of Kannonji Temple, under the banners of the Mori family, the Ikeda family, and the Inaba family. They gathered together with the 300 archers and iron gunners of the Yuqiu family to shoot before the archers of the Matsunaga family. After one round of fire, more than 30 of the 500 archers of the Matsunaga family fell, while the Oda army at the head of the castle suffered no more than a dozen casualties. After being suppressed in momentum, the archer was forced to retreat after not holding out for a few rounds of fire.

"Good boy, something." Seeing this, Matsunaga Xiu frowned, and a strange smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, "Show weakness first, lure me to send no more and no less archers, and then gather superior forces to break my men one by one." Once ranged soldiers are suppressed, their accuracy and rate of fire will be greatly reduced. Originally, 650 people could have been inseparable from 700 people, but after being divided into two batches, they suffered heavy losses and could not kill him. ”

"It's time to get serious." Matsunaga Xiu sneered, and said to the herald on the side: "Order, the whole army presses and storms the gate of Beicheng!" ”

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After seeing that Matsunaga Xiu's whole army was pressing, Yu Qiuping was not in a hurry, and did not rush to change the deployment, but continued to let the two companies at the head of the city resist. However, such a force is obviously unable to complete the suppression of firepower. As the Matsunaga family arrived in front of the castle, there were more and more archers, and the situation was finally brought under control.

At this time, Naito Ruan was holding back and leading his subordinates to climb the ladder. Previously, due to his poor performance, he was delayed a lot, and it was almost noon. In order to wash away the shame of being a samurai, Naito Ruan took the lead and was not afraid of arrows and projectiles flying by him.

However, although there are already more than 20 ladders erected at the head of the Guanyin Temple City, the progress of climbing the city is unusually slow. Naito Ruan was stuck on the ladder for a long time, and he didn't see the person in front of him move. Finally, when he was at the front, he understood why his subordinates couldn't reach the city for a long time. The defenders of Tokiwa gathered around the edge of the ladder and kept stabbing at it with their spears. Those ashigaru marksmanship are very good, and at first glance they are battle-hardened pikemen. Naito Ruan held a shield to cover the left and right, barely protecting his body from being pierced, and there was no chance to attack upwards at all.

In this way, the besieging side was deadlocked for a long, long time. Naito Ruan only felt that his feet standing on the ladder were going numb, but at this time, it would be a great shame to ask to replace him, and he was in a dilemma, so he had to stay there.

I don't know how long it has been, but for Naito Ruan, who is on the line between life and death all the time, the time of a pillar of incense has been a year. Although facing the stubborn defense of the Joban pikemen, the attack on the ladder was almost helpless. But the gates below were broken by the relentless attack of the ram of the city! With the cheers that resounded one after another from the city, Naito Ruan only felt that his heart was settled. In this era, the victory or defeat of siege battles is basically determined by the loss of the city gates, of course, there are exceptions - such as the city guarded by Yu Qiuping.

Naito Ruan thought that due to the loss of the city gate, the Oda army on the city wall would scatter like birds and beasts, giving him a chance to pursue. However, the situation is quite different. The Oda army at the head of the castle retreated in an orderly and rapid manner from different paths such as stairs, corners, and castle walls according to the plan that Yu Qiuping had already arranged. By the time Naito Ruan climbed the castle walls, the northern castle was almost empty. And almost at the same time, the towers of the northern city were immediately set on fire. Obviously, the Yuqiu family had prepared a lot of flammable materials in advance and put them inside, waiting for the moment when the northern city fell to ignite the city tower to cause trouble for the attacking side.

"Go and ask the lord!" Naito Ruan gestured hard towards the heralds under the castle, "Do you give up the castle tower and attack directly, or put out the fire in the castle tower and continue to advance!" ”

After a while, Matsunaga Shu's order came: control the fire so that the fire on the castle tower did not burn to the city walls. Advance in two ways along the walls and the ground. Ruan Naito commanded the attack on the city walls, while Matsunaga was responsible for the attack on the ground.

At the same time, the Miyoshi army led by Miyoshi Yoshiken had not yet broken through the West Gate. Matsunaga Shu knows this well - because the territory of Minami Omi and the Miyoshi family is separated from the territory of the Matsunaga family, and it is difficult to control it even if it is defeated. Therefore, the Miyoshi family naturally did not care much about attacking Guanyin Temple City. If the Matsunaga family goes well, the Miyoshi family will definitely be grinding foreign workers on the side. Anyway, as long as the Shangluo army is blocked, the Miyoshi family can achieve their goal.

Matsunaga, like Naito Ruan, believed that with the fall of the castle gate, the resistance of Kannonji Castle was coming to an end. Even if it's a street fight, it's not a big deal. However, while fighting, Matsunaga found that something was wrong.