When Yagyu returned to the pontoon area with his army, he found that two of the five pontoon bridges had been burned down, leaving only the three closest in the middle.

There are still people crossing the river on these three pontoon bridges, and it is the soldiers who have been left to guard the camp. The dejected soldiers honestly followed the instructions of the Suruga soldiers behind them, and crossed the bridge in an orderly line one by one, carrying almost nothing on them except for a single coat.

When Yanagi arrived, there were already 4 or 500 freed soldiers sitting on the riverbank near him, and these soldiers who had survived the death had finally relaxed after crossing the river with the last courage, and did not know what to do, so they simply sat down on the riverbank by the pontoon, and a few simply lay on the ground.

Looking at these defeated soldiers who blocked their way, Yanagi Zongju was also furious, and while he asked people to drive these defeated soldiers out of the way, he grabbed a few people and came over to ask about the number and whereabouts of the enemy troops who came to attack.

Just as he was inquiring about the defeated army, the two small groups of people who had been urging the shogunate to capture and cross the river on the other side quietly turned around and left after seeing the other party's reinforcements. The Shogunate captives waiting to cross the bridge did not know anything about this, and lined up to cross the bridge according to the rules set by these Suruga soldiers.

Yanagi didn't get much useful information from these frightened defeated soldiers. He knew only two things, and when the sun rose above the height of a man on the eastern hill, the battalion began to be attacked by the Suruga soldiers.

The attack first came from the north, and when the remaining samurai in the battalion moved their forces to the north of the main camp to defend, the Suruga soldiers appeared on the east side. It was also at this time that the lack of a general in the battalion came into play, and some of the samurai called for their soldiers to go east to defend against the enemy, but others stopped them on the way, feeling that the north side where the battle had already begun was more important.

When the soldiers defending on the north side of the camp heard that the east side of the camp had been breached, they dropped their weapons and fled, which caused the defense line on the north side of the camp to be broken through instantly. The soldiers, who had lost their command, quickly surrendered to the Suruga soldiers.

After that, as Yagyu saw it, the Suruga soldiers lit a fire and began to burn down the camp while clearing out the resistance in the camp. And the defeated soldiers, who had surrendered, were driven across the river by the Suruga soldiers.

As for the whereabouts of the Suruga soldiers who had captured the main camp, the large camp on the opposite side began to quiet down about four and a half quarters ago, and I guess the other side began to retreat at that time. However, because the smoke was so thick, no one could see where the Suruga soldiers had gone, but someone could faintly hear the footsteps of the soldiers leaving to the north.

Yanagi looked to the north on the other side, and the smoke released by the camp that was still burning violently covered the woods in the north, and no abnormal conditions could be detected.

It was also at this time that these defeated soldiers were finally driven aside by the troops brought by Yagyu Soki, and the bridgehead and pontoon bridge were cleared to the extent that they could be passed.

Yanagi Zongju looked at the large camp with thick smoke billowing on the opposite bank, and had a premonition in his heart, even if the fire was extinguished at this time, there would probably be nothing left in the camp. However, he still gave the order for his returning subordinates to cross the river to put out the fire, and sent two small teams to the north to search for the movements of the Suruga soldiers.

As for the defeated soldiers, who had completely lost their organization and were empty-handed, he simply ignored them and left them to fend for themselves.

After a moment, the fire in the camp was finally extinguished, not because of the lack of fire extinguishing equipment, but because the combustibles in the camp were almost burned.

Just near the edge of the camp, the ground was already roasted, and the shogunate soldiers in straw sandals had to dig dry earth from the edge to pave a road to the camp.

Although there were no open flames in most areas of the camp, there was still a billowing heat wave in the air, which made Yagyu extremely uncomfortable. In addition, there was a strange smell of meat in the air, looking at the charred corpses that had been cleaned out on the side, and the soldiers who were vomiting, Yanagi Zongju naturally understood the origin of the meat fragrance.

Yanagi took one look at the soldiers, then ignored them, and stood where he stood and asked the samurai who was in charge of cleaning the camp, "All the food has been burned?" Didn't save at all? ”

"Yes, my lord, they have all turned into charcoal, except for some pickles in the jar, but there are not many of them, and they can't be eaten as food..."

While Yagyu was still asking, the other side of the river suddenly became noisy again, and soon the heavily armed Itakura Shigemasa rushed into the large camp that had been burned to ruins, and the first thing he saw Yanagi asked was: "How much grain is left?" ”

When Itakura Shigemasa and Yagyu walked out of the camp in frustration, he remembered something and asked, "Where did those damn Suruga soldiers go?" Is Sat Ridge still in our hands? ”

Yagyu was about to answer, but saw that the team on the other side of the river was chaotic again. A samurai hurriedly ran up to Itakura Shigemasa and reported with some trepidation, "My lord, the defenders of Kotsu Castle have caught up, and Lord Toda and Nakamura have sent me to ask for instructions. ”

Itakura Shigemasa subconsciously looked at Yagyu Zongju on the side, as if he was counting on him to get an idea. Although Yagyu was dissatisfied with Itakura Shigemasa's weakness, now that the two of them were in the same boat, it was difficult for him to sit idly by.

Yanagi said to Itakura Shigemasa in an ordinary tone as much as possible: "Itakura Palace, did you first order Toda and Nakamura to select 500 people to break off, and let the others cross the river first?" ”

Itakura Shigemasa, who had no master of the six gods, immediately nodded and repeated to the samurai who came to report the news, and when the samurai wanted to leave, Yagyu suddenly added, "Those who carry weapons will cross the river first, and those who do not have weapons will pass last..."

Seeing that the samurai rushed onto the pontoon bridge and tried to squeeze through the crowd, Yagyu no longer cared about the disappeared Suruga soldiers who had not yet been found, and said to Itakura Shigemasa: "The Satrai Ridge is still in our hands, and if we count it in three-quarters of a quarter, when we arrive at the passage under the Satri Ridge, it will probably be just dusk.

It is about two miles (daytime) from Kambara, the largest lodging site in the east, and it takes the middle of the night to reach it if you go all out. But when we got to Kamara, we were safe. Now that the Suruga soldiers are chasing after us, if we give the order for the whole army to retreat, I am afraid that no one will be able to leave by then. ”

Itakura Shigemasa glanced at the increasingly disorderly team on the bridge, and said with some uncertainty: "But what does Ma Shou mean is to leave the army on the opposite side behind, and we will go first?" ”

Liu Sheng Zongju said with a flickering eye: "It's not to leave them, it's to let them insist on resisting on the spot, as long as we meet with the reinforcements behind, we will come back to rescue them, we can't everyone wait for death in a group, right?" ”

At this time, the army that crossed the Xingjin River was probably less than 2,000, and the army stranded on the other side of the river was more than 2,000 people.

Yagyu seemed to see his concern, and couldn't help but say to him again: "These are just feudal soldiers recruited from various feudal domains, not the banners and imperial families of the shogunate, even if they are all lost here, it will not damage the power of the shogunate."

At most, the general will reprimand you a few words, and he won't do anything to you. However, if we are caught by the Suruga soldiers, we will become a tool for the Shogun to humiliate the shogun, and even if His Royal Highness Tadashi does not want our life, the shogun will ask us to wash away the shame. ”

Yagyu Soki's words finally moved Itakura Shigemasa, and he agreed to Yagyu Soki's retreat plan. Toda and Nakamura, who were struggling to organize resistance on the west bank of the Xingzu River, and were inseparable from the Togi Yasushi Division, and did not fall behind, suddenly received an order to be abandoned by Itakura Shigemasa, and this Shangguan also viciously demolished the three pontoon bridges on the river, which immediately demoralized the shogunate troops who were resisting on the west bank.

More than 700 unarmed Numazu and Odawara feudal soldiers simply stayed away from the battlefield and waved white flags, expressing their willingness to surrender to the Suruga soldiers again. The other soldiers either dropped their weapons and mixed in with the ranks of the Numazu and Odawara clans, or they fled upstream desperately, preparing to find a way to survive themselves.

Seeing Shangguan's self-contained escape, the troops under his command began to collapse again, and the high-ranking samurai of the shogunate army, Toda and Nakamura, suddenly lost the will to continue fighting, and they sent representatives to surrender to Toki Yatai on the opposite side.

At this time, the 2,000 people led by Itakura Shigemasa and Yagyu Muneju had not yet run out of the east of the Xingjin River for a kilometer. When the small troops, who were responsible for demolishing the pontoon bridge and monitoring the situation in the rear, caught up with the large group and told Itakura Shigemasa and others what had happened on the other side, Itakura Shigemasa was angry and scolded the surrendered samurai for having no integrity, but he couldn't help but urge the troops to speed up their march, for fear that the Suruga soldiers would cross the river and catch up with him.

In fact, Itakura Shigemasa was too worried, and it was already very satisfying for Toki Yatai to capture more than 2,000 people in one go, and the pursuing troops he brought out of the city were only 1,500 people. After the surrender of Toda, Nakamura and other high-ranking samurai, he personally pacified these noble captives and returned to Kotsu with a large group of men; On the other side, only 300 men were sent to repair the pontoon bridge and cross the river to pursue the remnants of Itakura Shigemasa.

However, the frightened Itakura Shigemasa and the others no longer bothered to verify the number of troops pursuing behind them, and they kept driving the soldiers forward, and the original three-quarter of the way was completed in less than two-quarters of an hour.

But the consequence of this rapid march was that the whole army was completely out of formation, some soldiers could not even see where their superiors were, and the rapid march lacked physical strength distribution, so that most people had become out of breath and had no physical strength when they saw the towering Sa Tri Ridge by the sea.

Of course, to make matters worse, most of the people, except for a small number of people, had already eaten the food they were carrying, and the hungry and thirsty soldiers did not even have a chance to replenish their strength.

At this moment, Matsuura Nobumoto's department, which was ambushed in the woods next to the road, first launched an attack on the middle and rear parts of this chaotic force.