It was getting late, and behind the team, that is, to the east, the Red Reserve of Changjing, Shan County, had gradually slowed down, and it seemed that there was no intention of a field battle. Seeing Changjing in Shan County make such a performance, Yu Qiuping calmed down. He ordered the troops to walk in the westernmost part of the city, and began to set up camp. Since all the auxiliaries were left behind for three days, a series of complicated logistical activities had to be left to the well-dressed soldiers themselves. Although this will greatly consume the physical strength of the soldiers, Yu Qiuping has no other way.

With intelligence completely blocked, Yu Qiuping is now blind to the situation in the east. This situation made him feel very bad, because he always emphasized the role of intelligence, so he set up a special military intelligence department. Although Sanada Masayuki tried his best, he still couldn't get a glimpse of what was going on behind Akabi. The Takeda family's army doesn't know where they have arrived now, and whether they are about to arrive after Akabi or stay under Hamamatsu Castle to repair? Whether or not this information can be determined has a bearing on whether Yu Qiuping will rush to evacuate in the middle of the night with torches tomorrow.

After nightfall on December 22, a large number of fires in the southeast were faintly visible. According to estimates, this should be the main force of the Takeda family moving. In other words, it is very likely that they have left Hamamatsu Castle and are heading northwest to make peace with the Akabei of the vanguard. Yu Qiuping realized the danger of the situation, so he had to order the troops to retreat with torches as well. Because in the plan previously arranged, the Yuqiu army had to be 30 miles away from the Takeda army when retreating. If the Takeda Army had arrived at the place where the vanguard had been overnight, the distance between the two sides would have been only 5 miles. As soon as the morning dawns tomorrow, the army of the Takeda family will be killed, and the Yuqiu army will not be able to escape.

The Yuqiu army came all the way, and after a rapid march in armor, it consumed a lot of physical strength. But before he slept for two hours, he had to get up again and hurry, and Yu Qiuping was also deeply worried about the physical strength of the army. Simply Yuqiujun trained hard and had sufficient food, and he was still able to complete the tasks assigned by Yuqiuping.

After noticing Yu Qiuping's withdrawal, the Red Reserve of Changjing, Shan County, also chased after him with torches, and followed Yu Qiuping in the vicinity. Yu Qiuping was worried in his heart, because in the dark night when he couldn't see his fingers, the mood of the troops was very unstable, and it was very likely that they would collapse due to accidents. If the Red Reserve rushed over all at once, Yu Qiuping was not sure if he could stop it. Therefore, he specially ordered the 450 iron gunners of the broken Tokiwa to risk misfire and load the iron cannons with torches to guard against the surprise attack of the Red Reserve.

Because walking at night is already extremely slow, not to mention the Red Reserve Team that is eyeing him behind. All night, Yuqiu's army didn't go out of a few miles. Yu Qiuping had been looking far east, behind the Red Reserve - there were no torches lit. It shows that the large force of the Takeda family advanced to the position of Iitani at most, and did not continue the pursuit with torches. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that Yu Qiuping can distance himself from the Takeda family's army, and the bad thing is that the Takeda army can rest well for the night and recuperate, but the Yuqiu army has stayed up for most of the night.

With the war looming and the number of Takeda troops larger than expected, Tokugawa Ieyasu was no longer able to help Yu Qiupei contain even the 1,000-strong Takeda army. Therefore, Yu Qiuping paid special attention to the battlefield layout of Shileyuan. He sent envoys to the Three Days and Sherakuhara in batches to find out the situation. Before dawn, all the auxiliary troops had successfully withdrawn into the valley, and some mountain roads had been repaired and widened to facilitate the retreat of the Yuqiu soldiers. And in Tokugawa Nobuyasu in Shirakuhara, enough anti-horse fences and horse rejection have been secured, and half of the trenches have been dug. Since he had to design a huge position that could accommodate more than 15,000 people, the amount of work was so great that it was estimated that it would not be completed until noon.

"It's still too late." Yu Qiuping sighed slightly, looked at the gradually brightening sky, and ordered the troops to extinguish the torches. Now they are in a position less than 10 miles from the entrance of the three days. If there was no interference from the Takeda Army, the Yuqiu Army would have arrived in less than an hour. However, Yu Qiuping also knew in his heart that Changjing of Shan County would not let him go.

Sure enough, just after Yu Qiuping extinguished the torches, a loud roar suddenly came from the red reserve team behind him. More than 600 people threw the torches in their hands to the ground, and they looked quite shocked in the hazy morning mist. Immediately afterwards, the Red Reserve Army dispersed into a relatively loose cavalry charging formation, and quickly attacked towards the Yuqiu Army.

"It's coming!" Seeing this, Yu Qiuping immediately ordered Fukushima Yasei, "Ansei, Chang Panbei stop!" Prepare to take on the enemy! ”

"Yes!" After receiving the order, Fukushima Yasunari immediately ordered the standard-bearer to wave the flag of Tokiwabei, and the order was passed down layer by layer. The whole army of Changpanbei, which had been withdrawing towards the west in great strides, immediately took hold, and then after a few brief Chinese commands, the whole army turned back and looked to the right. The first row of pikemen on the periphery knelt on one knee, the second row ejected their spears from the shoulders of the first row of Ashigaru, and the third row pointed their spears diagonally into the air, forming the classic anti-horse pistol formation of the Yuqiu family. Such a formation can effectively prevent the tactics of cavalry detours on the flanks.

"So fast." Seeing this, Shan Changjing snorted coldly, "In a dozen breaths, the reserve team that was retreating just now was like the frightened hedgehog, instantly revealing a steel needle. It's no wonder that the Kawaji Department and Miyoshi Repair valued this son so much, and it really deserved its name. ”

Seeing Chang Panbei put on such a formation, Shan County Changjing asked himself if there was no good opportunity. Indeed, if you use the red reserve to charge the spear formation, you can still rush into it by relying on the brave and good fight, but the casualties will be very heavy.

Just when the Red Reserve Team was pressing towards Chang Panbei's position, Shan County Changjing relied on his intuition of fighting on the battlefield for decades, and suddenly noticed that something was wrong. With a sharp wave of his hand, he ordered the troops to disperse in both directions at once. A moment later, Chang Pan Bei's 450 iron cannons opened fire in unison, and Changjing of Susan County gave the order early, and Chibei was not hit and fell off his horse. If he had given the order a little later and Chibei had continued to rush forward, it was estimated that more than a dozen people in the front row would have been shot into dice.

"With so many iron cannons hidden, I thought the previous information was fake." Shan County Changjing muttered again and glanced at the four tallest banners in the Yuqiu Army. A maple bird and horse print, a mountain flag, a bow and arrow flag, and a wicker flag.

"It seems that the configuration of the three reserve units is the same, and the number of iron cannons is not thousands." Shan County Changjing frowned, and whispered to a herald, "Erlang, you go and report to the lord, the number of iron cannons in the Yuqiu army is very likely to be thousands, you must be careful." ”

Subsequently, Changjing of Shanxian County once again ordered loudly: "All departments, don't enter the range of iron cannons, just deter from a distance!" ”

·

Since the Red Reserve had been cruising around Jobanbei, Jobanbei did not dare to resume the marching formation and retreat (otherwise there was a risk of being charged by the Red Reserve), so the battle phalanx that remained on guard moved slowly, and the speed was almost negligible. Yu Qiuping was worried that such progress would be caught up by the Takeda family, so he had to order Ming Di Bei and Hosoyanagi Bei, who were following behind Chang Pan Bei, to line up one after another to defend the left and right flanks for Chang Pan Bei. With the cover of the iron cannons on both wings, the Red Reserve did not dare to get too close, but slowly retreated a certain distance, if they were off the ground, they would pose a threat to the Yuqiu army. Yu Qiuping then commanded the three reserves to cover each other, and fought and retreated, always maintaining the suppression of the cavalry by the iron gunners, and never gave Changjing in Shan County a chance to take advantage of.

However, it was too slow to fight and retreat, and it was necessary to constantly adjust the formation and ensure that the team was not disjointed. Yu Qiuping has been looking at the east with fear, for fear that the Takeda family's army will catch up in advance. In order to hurry, he was a little too big when covering several times, and was almost rushed in by Changjing of Shan County who seized the opportunity of too large a gap between the reserves, which scared Yu Qiuping into a cold sweat.

"Your Highness, this is not the way to go." As early as when the Red Reserve appeared, Keiji Maeda had been pouting beside Yu Qiuping's ear, "Let the brothers take the cavalry to drag the Red Reserve for a while, and let the army withdraw quickly!" It's too late to go on like this! ”

"Wake up, our cavalry can't even beat those second-rate cavalry of the Matsunaga family, do you want to go and fight against Takeda Akabei, the strongest cavalry team in the world? What's more, there are half more than us on the other side? As he had done countless times before, Yu Qiuping unceremoniously refuted Keiji Maeda's request.

"Then we have practiced cavalry hedging, and now we are definitely not weaker than the Matsunaga family! And we just dragged on, not let go to fight. Besides, Takeda Chibei is so powerful, he also played it! His Highness always does not let the cavalry shoot, when will the powerful cavalry be trained? Keiji Maeda muttered a little unwillingly. He has always been not afraid of heaven and earth, but seeing such a powerful opponent in front of him, but he can't fight, he feels very embarrassed.

"Wake up, this is Takeda Akabei who wiped out the main force of the Imagawa family with a charge, and even the Echigo cavalry will be like a great enemy when it encounters, not to mention our cavalry. If you want to practice, let's talk about it later. Yu Qiuping shook his head resolutely, "It is a dead end for us to fight the cavalry with the Takeda family, but our infantry is definitely stronger than the ashigaru that the Takeda family usually farms and fights!" Play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses, you know? ”

Due to the inability to restrain the Chibei cavalry, the retreat of the Yuqiu army has not been fast. In this way, it was tossed until the beginning of the hour, and finally retreated to the location where the Yuqiu army was scheduled to enter the mountain on the third day. Yu Qiuping hurriedly ascended a small hard-won high ground and looked behind the Red Reserve Team, but found that there was no one. The main force of the Takeda family has not arrived until now? Sticking to the march of the Yuqiuping army, from beginning to end, there are only those red preparations.

"What the hell, what is Dr. Dashan rubbing?" Yu Qiuping had a uneasy premonition in his heart for no reason, "Could it be that Dr. Dashan didn't realize how bad it was to let me into the mountain?" If it wasn't for the pursuit, what was the purpose of making such a proper intelligence barrier? ”

"Is it to paralyze me, make it look like you're going to chase me, scare me back, and then take the opportunity to take down Hamamatsu Castle?" Yu Qiuping scratched his head in some confusion and looked in the direction of Hamamatsu Castle - there were still more than a dozen wisps of wolf smoke lit since this morning, and it could be seen that it had not fallen. If it falls, Takeda Shingen can completely extinguish all these wolf smokes.

"It's weird." Yu Qiuping muttered secretly, and even surged an urge not to go north into the mountain, but simply retreat west to Yoshida Castle. However, he couldn't help but be a little worried, with the current speed of marching, he would not be able to reach Yoshida Castle today. In the unlikely event that the main force of the Takeda Army came on a hurried march and caught up with them tomorrow on the plains of Yoshida Castle on the 3rd, everything would be over.

"Let's go into the mountain as originally planned." Yu Qiuping finally made a decision and took the safest measures. "Let's go, go to Shirakuhara!"

·

Of course, Yu Qiuping did not notice. When he gave the order to enter the mountain path, a woodpecker was tapping its beak haphazardly on the trunk of a tree not far from him. Then, flapping its wings, it flew to the other side of the trunk, waiting for a panicked bug to run out of the trunk.