Chapter 314: The Beginning of the War

The battle suddenly became fierce, which made Hidebo realize that the Tokugawa army had reinforced Sakakihara Yasumasa, but to his puzzlement, Okubo Tadatsune did not move, to be precise, the entire Tokugawa army was not moving. At this time, Mori Hidemoto, who was stationed on the mountainside of Mt. Kohino, reported that he observed from the mountain that the Tokugawa army supporting Sakakihara Yasumasa was Watanabe and Mizuno, which were supporting the army. In other words, now there is only one lone army left between the Tokugawa front and the main camp, which is indeed good news for Hideho, who wants to surprise the Tokugawa main camp.

Can Fukushima Takayoshi alone withstand the 12,000 army led by the three Tokugawa genealogists? Hideho couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive in his heart, he understood that the quickest way to reinforce Fukushima Takayoshi now was to order Fukushima Masanori to go to support, but in this way, Okubo Tadashi on the opposite side would definitely take the opportunity to attack the people, who were not already advantageous, and if Okuhei Iemasa also led reinforcements, then the entire left wing of the Toyotomi army would completely collapse, and the next battle would basically have no chance of winning. Therefore, Hideho was in a dilemma on whether to reinforce or not, but it was Fujido Takatora's words that made him see a turnaround.

Fujido Takatora suggested that Hideho use the strategy of encircling Wei to save Zhao, that is, ordering the two divisions of Wasuka and Yuki, which were superior in troops, to take the lead in waging war against Honda Tadamasa, and with a double advantage, Ii Naomasa and Sakai Ieji on the left and right flanks of the Honda army would definitely be reinforced, and then order Kishida Tadayuki on the left flank to lead the Yamato people to drag the rest of the Sakai army, and the people to drag Okuhira Iemasa, so that the outermost Fukushima Masayo could meet Okubo Tadatsune with 9,000 troops, and the Tokugawa army in the Yubara area would not sit idly by and watch Okubo be wiped out. It must be to lift the siege of Fukushima Takayoshi and move south for reinforcements, so that Fukushima Takayoshi will have a chance to breathe and have enough time to choose whether to fight against Sakakihara Yasumasa or join forces with Fukushima Masanori to attack the Okubo army.

In this way, the passive situation of the left wing was reversed, and as for the right wing, Mori Hidemoto seized the opportunity by occupying Kohiyama. It will not give the Tokugawa army an advantage. To sum up, although Hideho was equal in strength to Tokugawa Ieyasu, relying on the favorable terrain and the grasp of the initiative, he would eventually win the victory in this great battle that related to the belonging of the world.

In fact, Hideho has long been aware that Honda Tadamasa, as the Tokugawa striker, is somewhat afraid of the Bee Suka and Yuki coalition forces with twice the number of troops, but the support of his father Honda Tadakatsu behind him has made him forget his fear for a while, but if he really fights, how much potential can this kind of mental encouragement stimulate? After all, he is twice as strong as himself, and his opponent is still the second son of the Tokugawa family. This made a part of the Tokugawa army depressed and confused. Honda Tadashi saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart. Since he is the vanguard, he should obey his orders and sacrifice himself to charge, and he has been mobilized in the army more than once. He tried to boost morale, but as the battle approached, his dry words no longer had any effect, and the Tokugawa army, which was already at a disadvantage, fell into a panic under invisible pressure.

This panic spread in an instant with more than a dozen shells falling from the sky, not only the Honda army, but also the Sakai and Ii armies on both sides. He was also shocked by the sudden attack of the cannonball, which was small, but everywhere it went, blood was splattered, people turned on their horses, and the neighing and screaming of horses suddenly spread in the dusty air, whether it was the battle-hardened Honda Tadakatsu. is still a fledgling Ao Ping Jiachang, all of them were shocked by this sudden tragedy.

"How can enemy shells be so accurate?!" Tadamasa Honda, who was patrolling the wounded in the middle of the battle on horseback, asked.

"Is it providence that hit our army without debugging?" The samurai beside him speculated.

"Nonsense!" Honda Tadamasa was furious, "Providence has decided that my lord is the overlord of the world, this, this is just a coincidence, pass the order, immediately form a team, and prevent the enemy from raiding!" ”

On the west side of Hinobara, it was learned from the envoy's report that eleven of the fourteen red-clad cannons had hit their targets, and the news excited Hideho and his retainers.

"The current position of the Honda Army is exactly on the east side of the Yuki Army, and the lord's previous test artillery was really not in vain."

Originally, out of the precaution against Yuki Hideyasu and Yoshikawa Hiroie, before the two armies arrived at the intended station, Hidebo deliberately aimed at the line of Kohiyama to open artillery for debugging, this move was to be able to directly attack the two without debugging when Yuki and Yoshikawa rebelled. Sure enough, on the basis of the previous commissioning, a slight change in angle did succeed in striking the Tokugawa army. Although the barrels were mainly used for siege cities, they were no less damaging to the morale of the enemy, especially when the enemy was defenseless, and the fear caused by such blows was difficult to appease.

In addition to Hideho in this camp, Wasuka Housekeeper and Yuuki Hideyasu who were on the front line were also amazed by this accurate and shocking shelling, they did not want to miss the opportunity, according to Hidebo's previous instructions, after the Tokugawa army was disrupted by shells, the two armies immediately launched an attack on the opposite Tokugawa striker Honda Tadasabu, the iron artillery team of the army immediately launched rapid fire after reaching the firing range, under the fierce fire of nearly 2,000 iron cannons, the Honda army that had not yet been reorganized fell into chaos again, fortunately, the old capital of the Honda family, Hideshi, temporarily called the iron artillery team, exchanged fire with the Toyotomi army on the opposite side, delaying the time for the Toyotomi cavalry to charge.

However, the number of iron cannons on both sides was not at the same level, and even if they launched a confrontation, in the suppression of powerful firepower and the disorder of their own hasty response, the iron artillery team of the Honda army was finally defeated by the Toyotomi army, followed by the cavalry attack of the Yuki and Wasuka coalition forces.

Led by the old Yuuki family's old Mijuku Masatomo, 2,500 iron horsemen galloped into the hastily organized defense line of the Honda army, and these brave warriors rushed left and right in the panicked crowd, raising spears and swords to slash the Tokugawa army that could not escape, seriously hindering Honda's regrouping of the army. In this case, it was Tsutsuki Hideyoshi who stepped forward, and he mounted his horse sideways and led more than 100 horsemen to the front of the army to meet the Mijuku Masatomo, trying to buy time for Honda Tadamasa.

Mijuku Masatomo is also a battle-hardened general, and he has no fear in the face of the oncoming Totsu Xiu Xuan, and when the other party proposes a "one-horse bargain" to try to delay time, he does not fall into the scheme, but orders the soldiers to press on and strangle the cavalry team of Du Zhu Xiujiao. After slashing and killing five samurai on horseback, Tsutsuki Hidetsuki finally lost his strength and was slain by the encircled Toyotomi army, and his head was killed by the follow-up Ashigaru Shogun Nitta Yoshiemon, who was rewarded with a silver reward equivalent to 100 koku of rice.

The Honda army was in danger, which made Sakai Ieji and Ii Naomasa on both sides very uneasy, but the cannonballs disrupted the formation, and they had to take care of Nasu Ziyoshi and Kishida Tadayuki who had not yet acted on the opposite side, and after thinking about it for a while, Ii Naomasa sent Kondo Hideto, a major minister, to lead a thousand troops to support, and Sakai Ieji also sent a thousand troops to support.

The arrival of the two flanks and the delay of Tsutsutsuki Hideji allowed Honda Tadamasa to regroup on the eastern flank of his original team, and with the support of reinforcements, Honda Tadamasa decided to launch a counterattack against the Toyotomi army.