The next afternoon.

The sun deflected, shining into the valley from the side of the mountain that towered like a sharp blade.

After most of the day, the trail on the mountain road.

Saito of Saito Riki, the Jimbo joint army has reached a position only three miles away from Kamiokan no Machi.

The heat of midsummer retreats much faster than the Echichu Plain in the high mountains and inland areas of Hida Province, so I suddenly entered the mountains, and Saito Riki, who was accustomed to living in Joseijo Castle, felt that the mountain wind was blowing, and it was already gradually gaining a bit of autumn.

After entering Hida's territory, Saito Riki has been very vigilant, and after monomi Bantou constantly summarized the information of the investigation, he reported it to Saito Riki so that he could know at any time.

As far as he knew, Li Xiao, the commander of the other party's Takeda Army, had two ambushes, the Nagano family and the Murakami family, so he was extremely cautious about the surrounding reconnaissance.

For now, Saito Iki has been informed that the Takeda Army of Kamiokande Castle seems to be going to fight against the Saito family by Cage Castle.

If this is the case for the Takeda Army, then all this has fallen into the trap of Saito Riki, because Shioya Akisada has promised him to ambush in Kamiokanda Castle, and the Hosaku has been prepared.

When the cage city battle is going on, he will set fire to the city and create chaos, so as to give him the opportunity to cooperate with the outside and break through the city gate in one fell swoop.

And according to the information provided by Shioya Akisada, there will not be too much grain and grass in Kamiokanda Castle.

If the Takeda Army really expects the reinforcements from the Eima family to arrive, and Saito Riki touches a cold smile on his face, then he has just fallen into his trap.

As for field battles?

Saito Riki also made this preparation, but it was unlikely to be in his mind.

When he got the specific information that Shioya Akisada gave him about the Takeda Army, he was very surprised, the number of defenders of Kamioka Castle far exceeded his expectations.

According to the news that his sister Xiaolu Lianglai gave him before, Li Xiao was only two hundred standing at best, and he could summon another two hundred peasant soldiers in emergency mobilization, such strength.

In fact, Li Xiao's small Shengang City, the lord of 5,000 stones, has 500 standing troops under his hands, not to mention, there are also 80 iron cannons, such a sharp weapon.

All of this shocked Saito Liki, and at the same time, he was very greedy for Shengang Yinshan in his heart, only a wealth like Shengang Yinshan could support Li Xiao to expand to such strength in a short period of time.

So he made a desperate bet this time, especially to his father-in-law, who offered his favorite tea set and several famous knives to the old man's god protection chief, which was exchanged for the five hundred people of the god protection chief.

The leading general is the Jimbo family Ikeda Castle lord Terarishima office.

Terashima Jobida and another important minister of the Jimbo family, Kojima Jobtown, are known as the double walls of the Jimbo family, and they are both Zhongxing ministers who assist the Jimbo family to rejuvenate the Jimbo family.

In this way, Saito Riki had the confidence to capture Kamiokanda Castle in one fell swoop.

At this time, Saito Riki's belongings hurriedly rode his horse and reported to Saito Riki: "Report to the lord, one mile ahead, I found that the standing reserves of the Takeda family were assembled and lined up, and it seemed that they were going to fight a decisive battle with our army. ”

Saito Riki was slightly surprised by this news at first, but then snorted and said: "The Takeda army is 500 standing and dares to fight against my 1,000 troops, which is simply self-defeating. ”

On the other side, in a valley, Li Xiao's five hundred standing forces had been assembled here, waiting for Saito Liki's army to arrive.

This is the decisive battle location that Li Xiao has chosen in advance.

He placed 500 standing reserves on the flat ground between the valleys, and the front was empty, which was suitable for the western phalanx to fight on the plains.

On both sides of Li Xiao's military momentum, the steep and unclimbable peaks on the right side and the turbulent plateau rivers on the left.

Taking advantage of the geographical protection, Li Xiao was not worried that the weak flanks of the Western Phalanx would be flanked, they only needed to concentrate on facing the enemy army head-on.

So after Li Xiao saw this place, he secretly marveled at his extraordinary luck, but he didn't expect God to choose such a good venue for him to fight.

Because this is the only way for the Saito family's army to go to Kamiokanda Castle, unless Saito Riki chooses to retreat, he must start a decisive battle with Li Xiao at the location chosen by Li Xiao.

Li Xiao's army was divided into three arrays, with the 240-strong Xiguo phalanx as the backbone, Shima Katsumeng, Kohata Xiaoxian as the general, and two 100-person auxiliaries, one left and one right covering on the side, respectively commanded by Kinoshita Koichiro and Youshan Tiger on the left and right.

Youshan Huding, a native of the country recruited by Li Xiao from the village of Youshan, performed well in the decisive battle between the Takeda Army and the Sister Xiaoji Army commanded by Li Xiao, and was promoted by Li Xiao to the head of the Ashigaru Group, and was given the surname Youshan, and officially became a samurai.

There were still sixty people in the back formation, to prepare, Li Xiao, Honda Masanobu, and Shigang Ichiyu watched the battle together in the prepared array.

And the Great Treasury Chang'an stayed in the town of Kamioka to stabilize the people's hearts.

Li Xiao rode on the black forging, looking into the distance, at this moment he was not completely sure that he would go out to fight the Saito family in the military discussion last night, after the mobilization of Wenzhi's sister Xiaolu's family, Li Xiao's retainers all unanimously gave up the plan to fight against the cage city, and finally decided not to wait for Jiangma Huisheng reinforcements, go out of the city for a joint battle, and decided to repel the Saito family in the joint battle.

Li Xiao estimated before the war that the Saito family had the advantage in terms of military strength.

And the advantage of Li Xiao's side is that his subordinates are all professional soldiers who have been trained for at least half a year, and some of them have followed Li Xiao for two years, so his standing combat quality is higher than that of the Saito family.

But this alone is not enough, the biggest variable in this victory or defeat is that Li Xiao's Western Kingdom Phalanx can exert a few percent of its power.

Before the war, Li Xiao didn't ask Xiaohata Xiaoxian how he was training, because he knew that asking was also asking in vain, and he had seen the progress of the Iron Cannon Ashigaru training with his own eyes.

In the end, what the real strength is, it still has to be practiced on the battlefield, if the practice fails, all the previous gorgeous theories are useless, and they are all waste paper.

Just as Li Xiao was pondering, the military strength of the Saito family appeared in front of Li Xiao.

Immediately, Li Xiao's five hundred standing guards stood up from the original sitting on the ground to rest, and entered a posture of preparing for battle.

After the opponent's army entered from the mountain road, it was at the other end of the battlefield, from the front of Li Xiao's phalanx, about ten towns (about one hundred and ten meters) about a distance of about 10 towns.

At the same time, the opponent's cavalry team rushed forward and cruised in front of Li Xiao's army to prevent the Takeda army from suddenly attacking before the main army fell into battle.

There were also several brave samurai in the opposing horseback team, deliberately showing off their good riding skills on the horse, provoking the Takeda army.

One or two horsemen even deliberately rushed within range of the Takeda army's iron cannons, galloped at high speed, and brandished spears on their horses and shouted at the Takeda army.

But on the side of the Takeda Army, Li Xiao had already received a strict order not to fight, so the formation remained motionless and ignored it.

Therefore, the enemy cavalry was even more presumptuous, and more than a dozen cavalry successively attacked the side of the Takeda army, performing the excellent equestrian skill of galloping forward and then pulling the horse back sharply, and once again fighting against the Takeda army.

When the enemy cavalry saw that no one had come out to meet him, he could not help laughing out loud on his horse.

Soon after, the Saito army was in formation, and the cavalry returned from the front, and before leaving, the mounted samurai continued to slap the horse's buttocks in the direction of the Takeda army with their hands as a sign of contempt.

After the Saito family's 1,000-strong army was fully deployed, Li Xiao looked from a distance and saw that the opponent's army was dignified, obviously with good strength, which made him have a hunch that this battle would not be easy.

After seeing the formation of the Takeda family, Saito Riki couldn't help but be puzzled, and asked the general of the Jimbo family, Terashima Ichijo: "The military formation of the Takeda family is quite strange, I have been fighting for many years, but I have never seen it. Generally speaking, when arranging the formation, the iron artillery team is placed in the front of the military formation, and there is a reason to be on both flanks. ”

Before Tejima could speak, a samurai on horseback from the Saito family spoke up: "My lord, the Takeda army is so deployed that the iron cannon Ashigaru in the back row can't shoot at all, or can only shoot the iron cannon Ashigaru in the front, which is completely a stupid move. ”

"Not necessarily."

Terashima on the side said.

Terashima has fought with the Ichizo clan and the Echigo army, and is a veteran who has been on the battlefield for more than 20 years.

He looked at it for a long time and didn't recognize what kind of formation the Takeda family was arranged, but he didn't take it lightly, but said to Saito Riki on the side with a solemn expression: "I heard that Li Xiao, the city lord of the Takeda family on the other side, is from the Ming Kingdom, and he fought in Shirane Mountain, that is, with his personal bravery, he killed six in and six out of the Huihu Gong Army, and even the first fierce general of Echigo, Kakizaki and Izumi Mamoru, were taken by him. ”

After a pause, the temple island said again: "This person is unstoppable, and he is the first fierce general under Xin Xuangong. And this seemingly strange military formation must be from the Ming Kingdom. ”

For the bravery of the Echigo dragon Uesugi Kenshin, Saito Riki, and Terashima Jobada, the mood of the two of them can no longer be described in two words, even if the word worship is not too much, since the other party has the strength to defeat Uesugi Kenshin, it is enough to attract the attention of the whole army.

Saito Riki nodded after hearing this, and said: "I have heard of this person's bravery, and Shingen has the help of this person, which is really like a tiger's wings, and the order is that this battle must be cautious, and the generals must not underestimate the enemy because of the small number of Takeda soldiers, and need to fight the enemy army as equal to their own military strength." ”

After the military order was delivered.

Saito Riki said to Terashima: "Now that I have arrived here, I can further capture Kamioka Castle, I have no reason to retreat, what is the strength of this Ming military general's array, I will know as soon as I try, please Terashima-sama, escort the formation for me, I will use the strength of the five hundred troops of the headquarters to attack the Takeda army first." ”

Terashima nodded and said, "Lord Boqishou, I wish you success in your first battle. ”

After the two agreed, the samurai on horseback on the side had a feeling of disdain for Li Xiao's formation.

At this time, Saito Riki had already pressed down with the general and issued the military order to go into battle.

As the marching taiko drums sounded, the Saito army's formation shifted and there was a rustling of footsteps.

In front of the Saito family's neat gunashigaku, there are still three rows of bowashigashi in front.

Their purpose was also to use the archery and light team to shoot first to shake the formation on the side of the Takeda army.

On the other hand, on the side of the Takeda Army's military formation, one military order after another was handed down, and the central spear foot light team of the Western Phalanx Reserve stood still.

The iron cannon ashigaru teams on both sides began to move under Kohata Xiaoxian's military order, and at the same time, the two auxiliary archery ashigashi teams on the left and right also stood in the forefront.

With the addition of the eighty iron artillery teams in the center, the total strength of Li Xiao's medium and long-range attack is one hundred and forty people.

"First list the gun!"

When the enemy's archery entered the distance of 30 of the iron artillery team, Kohata Xiaoxian shouted, and the ten iron gunners in the first column of the two wings moved in unison, raised their guns, and held their guns in front of their chests with both hands.

"Aim!"

Kohata Xiaoxian almost tried his best, and with another roar, the iron cannon ashigaru picked up the gun and aimed it in front of him, this action they have practiced countless times in the past month and a half.

At the moment of raising the gun, the muzzle of the gun of all people is almost in a horizontal line, parallel to the ground, and perpendicular to the torso at 90 degrees.

"Shoot!"

Xiaoxian Xiaoxian shouted order.

When the enemy archers are preparing to stand and shoot arrows.

The iron cannon on the Takeda Army's side was light and took advantage of the advantage in range to shoot first.

(To be continued)