On July 18, behind a small bush in the northern part of Nagusa County, Okushige Masashi was engrossed in staring at the Momiji Army slowly moving in the distance. Although he is only 17 years old this year, he is a great sharpshooter in the roots, and he has won the true inheritance of the father and son of Tsuda and Tsuda. Therefore, he was able to become a general of the Ashigaru at such a young age.

Originally, with his qualifications, it was not his turn to command independently. However, this time, according to the tactics decided by the leaders of each country, the entire Kii people had to be broken into pieces, except for the Saga people, who were guarding the important castle of Iwaku, and launched a guerrilla war against the Momiji army in the mountains and fields. Therefore, Okushimasa was also assigned to 20 soldiers because of his title of Ashigaru General (in fact, there is no strict distinction between soldiers and auxiliaries among the people of Kii, but there are not enough weapons to distribute to everyone), and he was ordered to go to Nakusa County to harass the Momiji Army.

Due to the narrow and crooked official roads, the traffic volume is extremely limited, and the marching plan formulated by the staff of the Momiji Army still makes full use of various mountain paths. Not far in front of Oku Shigemasa was a platoon of soldiers of the Red Leaf Army, who were coming around this small mountain road. Okushimasa knew that in the entire Meikusa County, there might be hundreds of guerrillas lurking like him at the moment. But he didn't know that he was the first of all the guerrillas to come into contact with the Red Leaf Army, and he was about to fire the first shot of the Battle of Kii.

"Ready." Okushigemasa lowered his voice and reminded the seven gunners in his team to reload and ignite. Then, everyone held their breath and watched silently as the pair of soldiers drew closer and closer, and the sound of neat footsteps grew louder and louder. When the spears of the Red Leaf Army were lined up 50 meters away from the side of their bushes, Okushigemasa suddenly rolled over and yelled, "Shoot! ”

As he pulled the trigger, the 7 iron gunners and 6 archers on his side also got up and shot at the Red Leaf Army not far away. After a flurry of gunfire and arrows, a puff of gunpowder smoke rose from the bushes, and one of the 50-man platoon of the Red Leaf Army was knocked down and one wounded.

"Enemy attack!" The Red Leaf Army reacted the moment the gunfire rang out, and the platoon commander in command immediately shouted in Chinese, "The gunfire is on the left!" The first shift, the second shift, immediately search the bushes on the left! ”

"Yes!" The two squads on the left side of the line, led by Ashigaru, immediately turned around and rushed into the bushes with spears in hand. Seeing this, Okushige immediately led his subordinates to retreat into the hills and forests behind him, taking advantage of the complex terrain to get rid of the Momiji army. The Genlai people wore only simple cloth clothes to facilitate their march in difficult terrain. However, the hardness and sufficiency that the Red Leaf Army is usually proud of in the battle formation has become an obstacle at this moment, making the soldiers' movements in the mountains and bushes a little struggling, and the distance is gradually thrown away.

After opening a safe distance, Okushigemasa retreated to another bush, quickly commanded his subordinates to reload the iron cannon, and fired another round at the Momiji Army chasing into the forest, killing and wounding two more people. Although the archers fought and retreated, shooting almost non-stop, they failed to do any damage to the well-armored Momiji army. The Momiji Army wanted to pursue further, but Okushigemasa immediately asked the others to throw the pre-prepared stones and clods towards the Momiji Army, although it did not cause any casualties, but it also hindered their marching speed. Seeing that the iron cannon was about to complete another round of reloading, the platoon commander sitting on the mountain road couldn't sit still, and ordered his subordinates to stop the pursuit and return immediately.

"It's no fun to fight those little thieves." The platoon commander of Ming Dibei snorted disdainfully, "Your Highness has emphasized many times in the previous meeting, as long as the march is not affected, don't be delayed by the guerrilla attacks of the Kii people and get caught up in the battle between the mountains and forests. ”

However, after the platoon resumed its marching formation on the mountain road and advanced again, Okushigemasa came over with a ghostly man. Taking advantage of their familiarity with the terrain, they took a path and ambushed the platoon again. When the platoon was gone, another volley was launched, which hit one more person. Mingdi's platoon ignored Okushimasa's troops and continued to march. But a short time later, they were attacked again.

"Is there an end?" This time, not only the platoon commander, but also many of the ashigaru in the platoon were a little annoyed. Their platoon didn't do anything, and inexplicably suffered 10% casualties, and they didn't even touch the enemy's hair.

"Grass, it's annoying." The platoon commander scolded and said viciously, "You don't have to let them fight like this!" When is this a head? This has interfered with our march. ”

"The first and second shifts come with me, pounce on them from the front! The third and fourth squads outflanked from both sides, and the fifth squad remained on guard on the official road! ”

"Yes!" After receiving the order to meet the attack, the soldiers of Ming Di Bei, who had been holding their stomachs for a long time, were excited and immediately rushed over from three directions. Oku Chongzheng didn't expect them to change their formation so quickly, and hurriedly led his troops to retreat. They retreated all the way, and after pulling a certain distance again, the iron gunners immediately seized the time to reload and ignite. However, this time Ming Di Bei seemed to be prepared, and when he saw that Genlai was preparing to shoot, the four squad leaders immediately ordered one after another: "Lie down!" ”

Before the gunshots rang out, the soldiers threw their spears to the side in unison, and one by one lay down on the ground covered with bushes and weeds. The gunners lost their aim at once, and fired bullets indiscriminately against the ground, but no one was hit. After the gunshot, with a "stand up", the soldiers who were preparing for the sound of the Ming Di immediately got up and charged again.

"Nani?" Okushige and Genlai were taken aback by this strange way of playing, and they forgot to move for a while. By the time they tried to evacuate, the pikemen were already very close.

The operation carried out by Ming Dibei just now was exactly the action that Yu Qiuping had practiced again and again in the previous military exercises. It was known in advance that the more than 3,000 soldiers of the Kii people probably had no less than the number of iron cannons of the Momiji Army. Therefore, how to conduct anti-iron artillery training is crucial. The Red Leaf Army has always had a firepower advantage in combat effectiveness over the past few years - but this time the situation may be different.

However, this is not difficult for Yu Qiuping, a traverser. Not to mention these arquebuses, even in the era of hot weapons in later generations, the most effective way to deal with gunfire is still that trick - lying down. During military exercises, he repeatedly asked his subordinates to train them to lie down on the march to deal with possible gunfire.

According to Shigeharu Takenaka's suggestion, if you really want to fight back at the attackers in the complex terrain on both sides of the road, the unilateral pursuit may be futile, and you will just block your own companions behind you. If you want to fight back effectively, you have to outflank in a roundabout. All the commanders at and above the platoon level have practiced many outflanking attacks, and now they are naturally handy.

However, the people of Okushimasa are the head snakes of the land, and they have been to this area many times, and they are already familiar with the terrain in the mountains and forests. Okushimasa immediately led his men to one bush, and then quickly disappeared behind another wood. The pursuers were unfamiliar with the terrain, and after rushing through the bushes, they did not pay attention to the large craters under their feet, and slipped to the point of falling down several times at once, and were once again thrown off by Okushigemasa.

They wore heavy armor, and they couldn't outrun the people in this mountain forest. As long as the people don't want to attack and are bent on running, they have no way at all. In desperation, the platoon commander had to order the troops to be collected and returned to the mountain road, but Oku Chongzheng once again wrapped up like a shadow. The platoon commander of Ming Di was unwilling to endure casualties any longer, and retreated from another road to the main road, giving up the plan of using this small road to dredge the flow and march quickly.

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Not only the unlucky platoon prepared by Ming Di, but the marching troops on all the small roads of the Red Leaf Army encountered tireless guerrillas, and the heralds were sent one after another to the official road where Yu Qiuping was located.

"Hehe, I'm not much better than them here." Yu Qiuping shook his head with a wry smile, listening to the sound of gunfire again in a forest on the right side of the official road.

"Let Ancheng send iron gunners to suppress those annoying guys, and the main force will continue to march and not be dragged behind." Yu Qiuping looked at the Saga crowd in the distance with some annoyance—they numbered about 500, and they were basically iron gunners. They have no intention of fighting the Yuqiu family, they have been shooting the Red Leaf Army. As soon as the Red Leaf Army accelerated, they left quickly. Since they were also not fully clothed and ran fast, the Red Leaf Army could not catch up at all—and the cavalry of the Red Leaf Army was still far behind at the moment because of the difficulty of the mountain road, and they could not be transferred at all.

The constant iron artillery attacks on both sides of the road, as well as the soldiers who sometimes rushed out to attack the marching columns, and the kraft-like Zaga people in front of them, dragged the speed of the Momiji army very slowly. The troops diverted by the Momiji Army on the various paths are also in trouble, and they will return to the main road in a short time, which will further increase the congestion on the road. The traffic volume on the road is not large, and the grain, grass and projectiles will not be able to be transported at that time.

"Let's have another evaluation meeting tonight, we need to talk about the damn situation." Yu Qiuping scratched his head and nodded to Shigeharu Takenaka, who was thoughtful on the side, "If it drags on like this, we won't even be able to go to Saka City, and we will run out of food." ”

That night, the various special teams sent to the small road by Yu Qiuping basically returned to the official road and set up camp. However, Yu Qiuping could not call all the officers to the meeting. Because even after nightfall, the people of Kii were still harassing Yuakihei's troops all the time. The lights are blind, a shot here and there, and from time to time there are people rushing out to steal the camp, and it is simply not possible to send people to guard against it. Yu Qiuping also felt that if he could not think of any way to counter these elusive guerrillas in the forest, the troops would not even be able to sleep at night.