Looking at the Saito Army walking among the dense forests and bushes, Kitabatake Keika smiled confidently. At this time, he was already a platoon commander of Chang Panbei - and the only platoon commander of an iron cannon platoon.

Since the last time the iron cannon played an excellent role on the battlefield, the voice of the Yuqiu family's opposition to the purchase of the iron cannon has also decreased. Yu Qiuping then spent another 1,000 yuan to buy back thirty-five iron cannons, thirty of them were equipped with the troops, and the rest were handed over to Lan Xianghua to disassemble them at will, ponder the internal structure, and then try to imitate them.

Sena watched a large amount of silver being carved out, and his heart was dripping blood. Therefore, he was also the one who was most determined to ask Lan Xiang to dig their blacksmith shop to quickly imitate the iron cannon. The cost of the iron gunner is too great - it costs 30 times to buy an iron gun, plus Yu Qiuping's kind of training method regardless of the cost: every day to train and shoot until the gun is hot, and the supply of gunpowder and projectiles is unlimited, so that the iron gunner alone has to spend about 20 times a year. In other words, an iron gunner needs 50 kan a year - equivalent to 5 permanent infantry.

However, Sena had to admit that under this kind of training at any cost, the accuracy of the Yuqiu family's iron gunners was indeed very impressive. According to Tsuda Kazukichi, the Yuqiu family's iron gunners relied on their quick training methods, and their hit rate was already on par with that of the well-trained Nerai iron gunners, and the reload speed even surpassed them. Compared with Oda Nobunaga's iron gunners who were reluctant to spend money on training, it was even higher.

At this moment, they were lying in ambush on a steep shrub-covered slope in the mountain behind Saruki Castle, and with cold eyes on the Saito family who were leaving the city, they chose a path and rushed towards the auxiliary soldiers who were working on the works.

"The ambush place that His Highness chose is really good." Kitabatake Keijia couldn't help but admire. Ever since he started following Yuqiu Ping 7 years ago, his Highness Momiji has always shown extraordinary talent in defense. Whether it is the choice of terrain, the construction of fortifications, the position and rotation of the defending troops, it is very perfect.

The Oda family had long expected that Tajimi was likely to go out of the castle to counterattack, so they sent troops to roughly surround the area around Saruki Castle. However, Yu Qiuping felt that Tajimi's knowledge of the surrounding mountains must be far better than theirs, and perhaps he could find some small roads that lead directly to places to get water. So he placed his platoon of iron guns on a small hill near the water source to monitor the situation around him.

Sure enough, the 150 or so Saito army led by Tajimi Shushu bypassed the position of Takigawa Kazuyi outside the East Gate and drilled into the hilly bushes to the south. Takigawa Kazuki couldn't catch up, so he had to give up. However, no matter how much they make their way around the mountains, they still have to rush to the auxiliary soldiers who are cutting off the water source - and this is exposed to the vision of the Kitabatake.

"Reload!" Kitabatake Keike lowered his voice, and the surrounding iron gunners immediately began to reload with their hands and feet. Dozens of seconds later, the fiery ropes of the iron cannon had already been ignited.

Kitabatake Keigie looked through the bushes and woods at the fast-moving Saito Army, which consisted of about 50 armoured soldiers and about 100 miscellaneous soldiers with no armor but only weapons—presumably temporarily mobilized auxiliaries. When they reached the closest, Kitabatake Keike immediately shouted, "Volley!" ”

The end of Kitabatake's roar was immediately lost to the roar of the iron cannon. The roar of 50 iron cannons was already quite impressive, and it had a huge echo in the mountains. The projectiles of the iron cannon pierced through the branches and bushes and fired at the Saito army. The Saito Army, who was walking among the woods and bushes, heard a thunderclap on the ground, followed by the sound of a projectile sinking into the flesh and screams in his ears. The birds that roost in the mountains and forests were frightened by the sound of the volley, and fluttered their wings and flew out of the woods.

By the time the person who hadn't been hit came back to his senses, there was blood all over him. More than a dozen ashigaru were hit by iron cannons and fell to the ground in pain, and a few of them swallowed their breath directly. A large number of shrubs and branches were also concentrated by the flying iron cannon projectiles, raising large clouds of dust and branches and leaves.

"It's an iron cannon!" Taji, who was walking in front of the team, was surprised by the repair! It's not that he didn't notice someone on the hill just now, but he is confident that he is familiar with geography, and even if those small groups of soldiers in ambush are killed, he can calmly escape. If it is a bow and arrow, the power in the woods will be greatly reduced, and it will not cause much loss.

I didn't expect it to be an iron cannon!

He looked up at the Oda army on the small hill—each of the gunners was uniformly dressed in sleeveless feet, and their helmets had a tall fluttering autumn leaf, and they were quickly reloading.

Taji immediately understood that there was nothing good about this, and a single salvo reduced the number of his sortie troops by 10%. In desperation, he immediately ordered his men to retreat and flee back into the city—only to be beaten by the rapidly reloaded iron artillery team, leaving behind several corpses.

·

"Momiji! You're a great artillery team! "After Ikeda Hengxing heard that Tajimi repaired the counterattack out of the city, he immediately rushed to reinforcements with troops, but he only saw the back of Tajimi repairing and fleeing in embarrassment and the two dozen or so bloody corpses on the ground." The Iron Artillery Team only fired two rounds, and killed so many people! ”

"What, this cost me a lot of money!" Yu Qiuping patted Ikeda Hengxing on the shoulder, "An iron cannon is dozens of times!" Gunpowder and projectiles for training also cost money! As long as you are willing to spend money, you can have a strong iron artillery team like me! ”

"Well, what a stinky show," Ikeda Hengxing snorted disdainfully, and glanced at Yu Qiuping: "I know you have money!" That's it! I'm a poor ghost! ”

·

After Tajimi's embarrassed retreat, no one could interfere with the operations of the Oda family's auxiliaries. It took them three days to completely cut off the water supply in the city on the afternoon of June 9. It was the height of summer, and the weather was hot, and the only remaining drinking water in the city was rapidly depleted. The residents of the castle town had fled to the castle, making the water situation in the castle even more strained.

Now, the residents and the ashigaru people in the castle basically don't use the water for anything other than drinking, and only Tajimi has the power to wash his face. Everyone dug into the ground just to find a new source of water, but in vain. The few trees in the city were all plundered by thirsty people, because they contained a small amount of water. The residents and ashigaru looked forward to the stars and the moon in the hope of a heavy rain to solve their urgent needs, but the sky was never beautiful.

Water cuts are often more powerful than food cuts, because people always have a much better chance of finding something to eat than they are to find water. It's really not good, there is still a dead end to people cannibalism. And human beings are far more capable of enduring hunger than they are of thirst.

In such an embarrassing environment, Taji's repairs have been helpless. He could only do his best to collect fresh water and ensure that his hands were light enough to drink. There was almost no chance of winning out of the castle, and the Oda family did not seem to have any intention of attacking the castle, trying to die alive and thirsty to repair it.

Tajimi now pins all his hopes on reinforcements from the Saito family, hoping that they will be able to send someone over to relieve the siege as soon as possible. However, it backfired, and the reinforcements of Nagai Michitoshi and Higashi Mino stayed in Seki Castle and made no intention of trying to aid Saruki Castle. Since Saito Ryuko believed that this Oda family would not be able to threaten the Saito family's territory in central Mino, he did not urge reinforcements to relieve the siege, but wanted to wait until the Oda family withdrew on their own before following to regain the lost territory. As for the life and death of such a small wealthy family as Tajimi, Saito Ryuko naturally doesn't care about it. The wealthy families of Ximino broke his heart, and he did not have any good feelings for these little wealthy families because of this.

During the siege of Tajimi, Jiro Osawa of Unuma Castle tried to relieve him, but he was helpless in the face of the Oda family's army. Jiro Osawa once sent an envoy to ask Michitoshi Nagai and the army of the Saito family to go south, and he would work with many small wealthy clans to relieve the siege of Sarukoshi Castle, but he was also refused. Disheartened, he could only lead the army back home.

The brutal siege lasted six days, and on June 15, Tajimi finally couldn't hold on anymore. He surrendered Kaesong on the condition that he and his men leave safely. Both Ikeda and Maeda felt that Tajimi's repairs were desperate and that it would be too much to put forward any more conditions. However, Niwa Nagahide considered the problem of the people's hearts and did not want to press too the Mino, so he agreed to his request. On the afternoon of June 15, Tajimi led his army to flee north, and Saruki Castle was also occupied by the Oda army. After the Oda army entered the city, everyone was busy celebrating. Only Yu Qiuping was a little unbearable because of his own behavior of cutting off water and hurting the people, so he immediately organized the ashigaru to dredge the original underground water channel, and at the same time transported water into the city to alleviate the water difficulties of the residents in the city, which added a lot to his image of a "good man" all along.

After taking Saruki Castle, the entire high point of vision on the north bank of the Kiso River was controlled by the Oda family. On the one hand, Niwa Nagahide sent an envoy to report to Oda Nobunaga and at the same time asked for reinforcements. On the other hand, they are trying to further attack Unuma Castle, an important town in the upper reaches of Saruchi Castle.

However, just when Niwa Nagahide organized auxiliary troops to prepare for large-scale construction of siege equipment, Kinoshita Hideyoshi took the initiative to ask Ying again, saying that he would go to persuade Osawa Jiro to surrender Unuma Castle! This surprised Yuqiu and others. He also persuaded him to become addicted?

"Fujiyoshiro, I'm afraid you want to make meritorious service and go crazy?" Yu Qiuping persuaded hard, "This time you have made a great contribution to the plan of cutting off the water!" There's no need to fight hard! Jiro Osawa is not a neighbor who was close to us like Toyogo Nakajima back then, but an enemy! What if he kills you! ”

"The two armies are fighting, don't you kill them." Kinoshita Hideyoshi rubbed his hands to cheer himself up and responded, "Besides, it's just about seeking wealth in danger!" If you don't work hard, where can you make meritorious contributions, where can you get ahead! ”

"But it's too dangerous!" Yu Qiuping still shook his head.

"Well, Momiji," Kinoshita Hideyoshi looked at Yu Qiuping's worried expression, and suddenly felt a little moved in his heart: "If you treat me so sincerely, I will tell you something from the bottom of my heart." ”

"I'm not better than you, I'm not from the Ming Kingdom, and I'm not the golden beetle son-in-law of the handsome and dashing Imagawa Jibu." Kinoshita Hideyoshi smiled bitterly, "I'm the son of a pariah, a poor ghost, and an ugly shoe-lifter." ”

"I knew from a young age that if you want to get ahead, you have to fight everything you have." Kinoshita Hideyoshi clenched his fists slightly, his eyes were a little red, and he whispered viciously: "I also want to prove to those who looked down on me before: even if you are from a humble background, you can be respected by the world by relying on your own efforts!" ”