On top of the arrow, Endo Keitaka and his sister Koji Yoritsuna watched as Michitoshi Nagai's 700 troops were crushed by the Takeda Army's cavalry and cut into pieces.

And the Nagai army only had to flee for their lives.

In a panic, Endo Keitaka took a step back and said, "How is this possible, my father-in-law is a famous general of Mino, why can't even the Takeda Army defeat a reserve." ”

Sister Lu Lai Gang's face was also colorless, and he hammered the wooden fence with his hand, and said: "Impossible, this is absolutely impossible." ”

Just as the two of them were speaking, a samurai rushed to them and said, "Lord Lord, Kamioka of the Takeda Army, is ready to start attacking Otemon." ”

"What?"

Endo Qinglong was slightly startled, and said: "The main force of the Takeda Army is storming the west of the city, what is the intention of dividing the troops now?" ”

Sister Xiaolu Lai Gang said: "Don't panic, the Big Gate is the top priority of the city's defense, and the Takeda Army will definitely not be so easy to break through." Lord of the city, there are 1,200 defenders in this city, even if they have the strength to fight in the field, are you afraid that the Takeda Army will not be able to break through here today. ”

Endo Keitaka nodded and said, "In that case, I'll take a look." ”

On the west side of Hachiman Castle in the gun, the main banner of the Takeda Army, Motobi, crossed the ravine and stormed the castle.

Kamioka of Shimakatsu has moved to the front of Otemon.

The Otemon Gate of Hachiman Castle in the county is the Koryo Gate, and above the gate is a double-layered curved wheel, all of which are made of stone, and the exterior is plastered with a layer of new white ash, but in the center a row of narrow rooms is exposed, and you can faintly see the figures moving in the narrow rooms.

Except for the main gate, all of them are made of stone, and it is difficult to blast the gate open directly with a mortar.

In front of Otemon, an imperial bridge crosses the ditch and stands in front of the gate.

At the moment, the Takeda Commander's ashigami hedgehogs were gathered behind the bridge, and two six-pounder guns were each transported to the front of the battle with three horses.

Horses were scarce in Japan at that time, and even the ministers in Kyoto used ox carts instead of horse-drawn carriages to travel on weekdays, so it was a luxury to use horses to haul large cylinders.

As for the two newly cast new direct-fire guns, Li Xiao also gave them high-standard treatment, one gun commander, three gunners, five porters, and horsemen and other miscellaneous servants, and one gun was directly assigned to eighteen people.

At present, these two direct-fire guns, unlike mortars stacked on sandbags, are dragged by wooden wheels, and can turn the crank and adjust the muzzle up and down, so that the range can be adjusted immediately and the enemy can be moved.

Kamioka's iron cannons were scattered on both sides of the bridge and aimed at the gates to guard against the enemy forces coming out of the gates.

The Takeda Army's spears were light, and they also formed a phalanx to firmly protect the two direct-fire cannons on the left and right.

At this time, the commander of the direct-fire gun was in the front line, and the visual range measurement had been completed, and then the gunner, under the constant orders of the gunner, lowered the muzzle of the gun, almost parallel to the ground.

"Fire!"

With two dull cannon shots, one of the direct shots shot too high and went over the gate, while the other hit the side of the gate directly, knocking a hole in the stone wall.

"Stupid!"

Shima Katsu scolded fiercely, but then shook his head, the commander and gunner of the direct fire cannon also sighed, after all, they had only been recruited for less than three months, and the training was not enough, so the shooting accuracy was inevitably very different.

However, even though the shelling missed, it caused an uneasy commotion behind the Otemon Gate of Hachiman-jo Castle in Gugami.

The enemy apparently understood the intention of the Takeda Army to open the city gate with direct artillery.

No matter how strong the wooden gates are, they are no match for the stone walls, and they can collapse with a single shot.

If the Takeda army breaks through the city gate, it will be able to drive straight in.

While the gunners of the Takeda Army were clearing, the porters were carrying the projectiles, and reloading the ammunition, a rush of horns sounded behind the city gate.

Shima Katsu frowned when he heard this, and then saw the enemy's big gate, but the city gate suddenly opened.

Immediately, a large group of Endo Army samurai armed with spears and swords, Ashigaru, rushed out of the city gate and killed the current Takeda army.

Their purpose was obviously to destroy the artillery positions of the Takeda Army, so that the other side would not have to bombard the city gates with large cylinders.

After Dao Sheng suddenly saw this scene, he was slightly surprised, and then sneered disdainfully, and said, "Kill yourself." ”,

Immediately, Shimakatsu waited for the enemy to rush halfway to the bridge, and pressed his hand.

Bang! Bang!

The roar of iron cannons on both flanks of the Takeda Army rang out.

The iron cannons distributed on both sides were ashigaru, and they did not hesitate to pull the trigger on the Endo army that was rushing to kill.

Under the crossfire of the Takeda Army, blood splashed on the bridge for a while.

One by one, the Ashigaru of the Endo Army were planted from the bridge into the water on both sides of the bridge.

The broken bridge was also covered with corpses.

However, in the interval between the Takeda Army's iron cannon firing, more than a dozen iron cannons came up from the Endo Army and fired a volley at the position of the Takeda Army's direct artillery.

Under enemy fire, one of the gunners, who was re-ranging, was killed, and the gunners were killed and wounded.

However, at this time, a Takeda Army direct-fire cannon had been loaded, and the muzzle of the gun was lowered again, and it bombarded the oncoming Endo Army.

Because the muzzle of the cannon was pressed too low, the shells fired from this direct-fire cannon directly drilled into the dense piles of people in the Endo army.

The first hit of the cannonball, Endo Gunashigaru was directly smashed to pieces, and then the cannonball that slid by, after involving several people, hit the ground and rebounded, and immediately pierced a samurai wearing thick armor in front of him, and continued to fly forward.

The cannonball passed like a farmer plowing a field, and the enemy's ashigaru formation was suddenly pierced by a whole column of cannonballs, and finally the cannonballs reluctantly smashed on the city wall.

At this moment, as an enemy of the Takeda Army, he was also frightened by the scene in front of him, and even the iron cannon Ashigaru that was being reloaded stopped.

Those who were killed directly by the shells were lucky, while the rest of the wounded soldiers, who were missing arms and legs, broke out in unison with the most terrible screams, and the scene was like hell.

This can only be blamed on the Endo army for setting up the most stupid formation, the soldiers passing through the narrow holes of the castle and the bridge that is no more than a few feet wide, and everyone can only line up in a tight rectangular line, which is just the right opportunity for the direct fire shells to kill.

Under the damage of the direct artillery, the morale of the Endo army collapsed, and they immediately dropped their weapons and turned around and fled towards the city gate.

And taking this opportunity, Shima Katsu pulled out the sword on his waist and shouted: "Kill into the city!" ”

"Oh!"

The ashigaru of the Takeda army agreed with a bang, and entered the city with a spear in hand.

When the Endo army found out about this scene, they regretted it, and the samurai guarding the gate tried to forcibly close the gate, but they were forced to break through by the rout.

The Takeda army took advantage of the situation and entered the city.

On the side of the Takeda Army's main formation, Li Xiao heard that at the Otemen Gate of Hachiman Castle in the county, suddenly shouts of killing rang out.

At this time, a samurai rushed to report and said, "My lord, Lord Shimakatsu has led an army to attack Marunai outside Hachiman Castle. ”

The envoy's report, Honda Masanobu, Fujido Takatora and others were all overjoyed, and Li Xiao immediately ordered the banner Benbei who was storming the west side of the city to strengthen the offensive and draw the attention of the enemy army, so as to respond to the frontal attack of the island victory.

As the war progressed, more and more Takeda troops attacked the outer maru of the gunjo castle.

Finally, the sun and moon flag was erected high in the city.

In less than half a day, the outer pill of Hachiman Castle was finally broken by the Takeda army, and the Endo army lost more than 380 people.

However, despite the vast majority of the advantages in the siege battle, the Takeda army still paid the price of more than 50 killed and more than 70 wounded in one morning.

On the side of Nagai Michitoshi's army, after they were defeated head-on by Kinoshita Koichiro, they were chased and cut down by Tsuchiya Masatsune's cavalry team, a total of more than 200 were killed, more than 300 were captured, Nagai Michitoshi and the remnants of the army escaped back to Toden Mountain Castle, but his eldest son Nagai Michikatsu was captured by the Takeda army.

The corresponding Kinoshita Koichiro division suffered no more than five or six casualties, while the horseback team suffered no casualties.

Just as Li Xiao was about to give the order for his subordinate troops to continue to attack Ninomaru in Hachiman Castle in Gujo, Yokotani Kokiyoshi came to report and said: "In Hachiman Castle in Gujo, in the valley one and a half miles away, is there a military situation under the banner of the Ando Army?" ”

Li Xiao was surprised for a while when he heard this, and then said angrily: "Didn't the ninjas scout before, and there were no other troops within a radius of ten miles above the county?" Why did they let the enemy lurk within two miles, but they didn't find out. ”

"If you are so unaware that the enemy is attacking at night, our army is not going to suffer a big loss."

Yokoya Yukiyoshi saw that Li Xiao was angry, and immediately knelt on the ground with a puff, and said guiltily: "Back to the lord, the Meinong intelligence network has just been established, so there is an omission, all of this is a dereliction of duty by the subordinates, please ask the lord to surrender." ”,

At this time, Honda was holding the map in his hand, and walked over to Li Xiaoyan and said, "Lord, you can't blame Lord Hengtani, the location of this valley is very hidden, and it is suitable for hiding soldiers. According to my guess, the enemy army must have arranged this plan at the beginning of the ninja's reconnaissance three days ago, and lurked here. ”

"Three days ago?"

Li Xiao's eyes flashed, he looked at the map again, gasped, and said, "What a vicious plan, this person is well aware of the geographical advantages of this place, and has insight into the deployment of our army, if our army cannot capture this city now, then the place where we camp tonight will definitely not be able to guard against a sneak attack here." This man is so cunning. ”

Honda Masashi said, "The other party saw that Hachiman Castle was in danger of being attacked by our army, so he sent his troops to attack our flank. Otherwise, they will wait until after nightfall before they suddenly attack our troops. That's when it's hard to guard against. This person's use of ambush soldiers is really unpredictable, how could there be such a character in Ando's army? ”

Li Xiao's body was shocked, and he suddenly remembered that in the joint battle between the Oda family and the Saito family in Ghana a few years ago, it was said that there were people in the Saito army, and they defeated the Oda army with Han Xin's ten-sided ambush plan to ambush the overlord of Chu back then.

Could anyone really be so ambushed?

Li Xiao woke up suddenly and said loudly: "Order the third reserve team to retreat for me!" Withdraw from Waimaru and prepare to turn back to face the Ando Army! ”

When Honda Masashi heard this, he said, "There is no need to move like this, we still have a backhand to capture this city......

Li Xiao stretched out his hand to stop, signaling that Ben Duo Zhengxin didn't need to say much.

The soldiers did not know why, and when they saw the outer pill that was easy to beat, they suddenly gave up for Li Xiao, but since it was a military order issued by Li Xiao, they did not hesitate to carry it out.