Jing Yi Zhihu's cavalry gradually moved away, and the sound of horses' hooves became farther and softer. However, before the sound of hooves died down completely, another dense tremor was heard on the ground. The tremors were intensifying and were coming this way, apparently approaching us.

It's the Takeda Army! It is the main force of Changjing in Shan County! I was quick to make my judgment.

So, it's time for us to go...... I took a deep breath and gave a loud order: "All people take off the banner, all the samurai on horseback dismount, and run forward according to the marching order!" ”

With that, I took the lead and jumped off the "snow cloud", wrapped the reins around its neck, and ran forward. The first time I encountered this situation, "Snow Cloud" was a little overwhelmed, but when I ran away, it immediately hissed and chased after me.

That's fine, if no one rides, the gravel on the riverbed shouldn't hurt it.

Then, dozens of samurai on horseback also dismounted from their horses and acted according to their duties. Some people came to protect them, and some people commanded the people to carry out orders, helped each other untie the knots on their backs and waists, and threw all the flags on the ground.

Throwing away the flag is to lighten the burden of escaping. And losing 4,000 flags at a time is definitely a big deal.

In this era, the production cost of relying on the flag is not low, thousands of relying on the flag, whether it is cloth or dye, is very expensive, many famous people can not bear it alone, and need to be equipped with retainers to help prepare a certain number according to their knowledge and practice. Therefore, when the battle is over and the battlefield is cleaned, even the flag on the back of the dead will be recovered.

Until the last resort, we will not lose the flag...... Presumably, Changjing of Shan County will think that we have lost our fighting spirit!

The branch of Mitsuka stayed in the rear, and the commander of Kawakita Fujimoto, who had not been in the Yuan service for a long time, was in charge of the broken rear. After a while, he sent Kawakita Fujimoto to the front and reported to me in a low voice: "Your Highness Zhoumoto, Changjing of Shan County has caught up!" ”

"Is it on a horse?" I asked.

"At first, I was chasing after him on horseback. However, soon more than a dozen horses fell in the ranks, all of which seemed to have broken their hooves...... Then Changjing ordered everyone to dismount, still following us. Kawakita Fujimoto replied.

"It's really unyielding!" I gasped and laughed.

"Yes. I went to the end of the next line. Kawakita Fujimoto slowed down.

After almost four kilometres, I felt like I was almost at the limit. But look at the people on the side, they are still in good spirits, Miyata Mitsuji and Joto Kazuki even keep holding my flag and horse seal.

I'm still a little better pampered, and I can't compare to these guys.

Maybe I'm not even a monkey, he used to be Nobunaga's groom, and it was not uncommon to run four or five kilometers with Nobunaga's horse. The ashigaru of this era seems to be very good at long-distance running, most likely for the convenience of escape...... Let's let them save some energy! Besides, I do need a break right now.

"Pass the order, slow down, but don't stop." I ordered Miyata Mitsujimichi and took the lead in changing to a walking position.

"Yes." Miyata Mitsuji held the military flag and conveyed the order to the entire marching army.

Not only that, but seeing that everyone seemed a little depressed, he also loudly encouraged everyone. This is what he is very good at, although he is my personal guard, because of his low background and no shelf, it is easy to gain the approval of ordinary soldiers.

"What's going on? Bastards, one by one, it's like they've lost a battle! Cheer up! He shouted loudly.

"We've lost the battle!" A samurai who knew him well reminded him.

"Nonsense! The one who lost the battle was obviously from the Tokugawa family! Miyata Mitsuji immediately retorted, "When did we defeat the battle, but instead killed dozens of Takeda's Chibei cavalry!" ”

"But it's us who are running away now, right?" Someone laughed and raised the bar with him.

"So what's the matter, you're worried that you won't be able to outrun those mountain monkeys?" Miyata Mitsuji laughed out loud, "Please, they're just farmers, and they still have to farm!" But what about us? What were you doing every morning when you were training? ”

"Running around Mie Castle!" Many of the soldiers of Chao Mingbei responded with a smile, obviously impressed.

Miyata Mitsuji took over the conversation: "Yes, what did His Royal Highness the City Lord ask us to run?" Isn't it just for now? ”

"Mitsuji-sama, it's an order from His Royal Highness the Pavilion Master! The lord of the castle is the young lord Keijiro......" A soldier corrected.

"Ah, I'm sorry! Didn't even pay attention! "Miyata Mitsuji is as good as a stream," ...... Anyway, now we're going to drag down the pursuers behind us, and then kill those mountain monkeys! ”

"Kill the mountain monkeys! Kill them! The crowd shouted, and their morale rose a lot.

When I heard this cry, I couldn't help but be a little impressed by Miyata Mitsuji. I have always valued his bravery, but I didn't expect him to have such an ability to motivate soldiers. Moreover, he also partially guessed my plan, which is enough to be a general.

If Yama Yama Masakai keeps in hot pursuit, I will indeed try to repel him by holding back Yasakugawara. Otherwise, it would be very difficult and painful to march on the river and face the attack of Chibei.

Fujimoto, who was in the back, caught up again.

"Shan County Changjing is still following, right?" I asked.

"Yes." Kawakita Fujimoto nodded.

This is one of the things I expected. By now, I have become the number one prey of Changjing in Shanxian County, and for the sake of the Three Rivers Raider, even in the face of 4,000 troops, he has a reason to chase after him. After all, as long as I am the main general of the reinforcements, it will be difficult for the 10,000 troops to be stationed in Okazaki Castle.

"But there is one thing that is very strange," Fujimoto Kawakita continued, "and it seems that Yamaguchi Masakai is not in a hurry to catch up with us for a decisive battle. There are only about a hundred men closest to us, and most of the army is still behind...... The elder brother deliberately asked a dozen people to pretend to flee to the mountains, and then set up an ambush in the mountains, but they were not fooled, and it seemed that they were just responsible for monitoring us! ”

"That's right!" I nodded. It seems that Yamaguchi Masakai probably also recognized the limitations on this riverbed, and then made a wishful thinking, wanting to drag us down first, and then take the opportunity to fight a decisive battle in Yasagawara.

Although the terrain has not been surveyed on the spot, the main stream of the Yasaka River, which originates in the mountains and flows into the sea, looks much the same. The river may not be deep, but after years of flash floods, the river must have been very wide and flat, and now that it is the dry season, a large area of the dry river bed is revealed, which is a very suitable battlefield (so a lot of fighting takes place on the river plain).

And on this gravel riverbed, none of us can use the weight of victory, his red reserve cannot carry out a surprise attack, and my reserve team does not have a suitable terrain formation, so we will not easily choose a decisive battle. It can be said that this gravel river is a buffer zone for both sides.

The situation is that because we don't know how long this gravel riverbed is, we all choose to conserve our strength and prepare for the decisive battle of Hewon in our respective calculations...... In this way, the main forces of the two sides maintained a distance of about two kilometers, each marching on the riverbed. As the riverbed widened, the stream widened, turning into a small river about 34 meters wide, gurgling out of the valley and flowing into the main stream of the Yasako River.

As I expected, the banks of the Yasaki River were wide, nearly 100 meters on each side, and it was more than enough for both cavalry charges and formations.

"This is it." I made a decision.

In order to take advantage of the iron cannon and weaken the threat of Akabei, I am going to cross the Yasako River, take a position on the opposite bank, and rely on the river to meet the Takeda family.

The climate in Mikawa Country is very warm, and the weather today is good, and it is a rare sunny day in winter. With the current temperature, the river water in December is a little cold, but it is still bearable.

In today's situation, a decisive battle is inevitable, and we will not give up easily because of a river.

"You, go down and explore the depths!" I commanded one of the attendants. His height is about 1.5 meters, which is the most common level in this era.

He led the way down the river, and slowly walked to the middle of the river, where the water was up to his waist and remained near his chest.

"My lord! You can spend it! He shouted from afar, a slight tremor in his voice.

I nodded. It's a great depth and gives me a better chance of winning.

"Then cross the river!" I gave the command loudly and was the first to jump into the icy river on the "snow cloud".

Led my troops across the Yasaki River, I ordered a lot of fires to be lit, baked a little, and then formed a crane wing formation hundreds of meters wide under the Kawara column. The whole army was divided into three parts, the left flank was most of the Chaoming Bei, and the right flank was the majority of the Annong Bei, each of which drew all 400 iron cannons and a 300-strong pikeman, and supplemented 200 naval iron gunners. In the middle was my own formation, where all the flags of our few of us were gathered together, and I guarded them with my three hundred banners, eight hundred iron cannons, and four hundred spears.

As soon as the formation was lined up and a few simple fortifications were set up, the figure of the Takeda army appeared on the opposite side. I immediately ordered my guards to blow the conch and ordered the whole army to be on alert.

The terrible conch sounded, and the soldiers who were originally sitting on the ground immediately got up, picked up the weapons beside them, and arranged them into a neat battle formation.

My main formation is divided into three parts, one in the center with the Yasakugawa formation in front of the river, and the other two are slightly inclined to serve as wing roots connecting the left and right wings. But the staffing of the three parts was exactly the same, four columns of pikemen plus two columns of iron gunners. The first two columns of pikemen are half-crouching, using the ground as a fulcrum, with the spears erected at an angle, while the last two columns of pikemen stand in lunges, stretching out their spears six meters flat, one column stabs forward, one column retracts, and then switches to each other in rhythm. Behind them was the position of the Iron Gunners, who stood a little higher, as if it were a river embankment from a long time ago, which happened to be the position of the Iron Gunners.

My tactic is a three-stage shot plus a sniper. The iron cannons on the left, middle and right are used as a section of the three-stage attack to deal with the enemy position on the beachhead. The other 200 iron cannons were temporarily hidden, lying behind the river embankment, ready to concentrate their fire on the enemy's prescribing generals.

In order to take advantage of the embankment, I set aside 30 meters of the river. This made the branch Guangjia and the others have some doubts, according to their thoughts, they should line up close to the river, in that case, the people who have just come ashore from the river will not be able to adjust the formation calmly, which is just conducive to the power of our pikemen.

However, I felt that the 30-meter embankment was left just right, and although the Takeda Army could use this distance to adjust the formation, my iron artillery team took advantage of their adjustment to shoot and kill. Maybe it's a difference in thinking, they think that the pikes are the main force, but I pin their hopes on the iron cannons. Moreover, I think that with the training, quality, and weapons of our pikemen, we can completely defeat the Takeda family's Ashigaru, and the only thing I need to worry about is the 1,000 Akabei of Yama Prefecture Masakai, and this strong reserve will definitely be used to attack my main formation.

Eventually, my authority and track record convinced them, and they all did what I wanted. It's just that their iron cannons are not many, and they are old-fashioned arquebuses, so the formation laid out is still dominated by pikemen, and although the iron cannon team is placed on the embankment, its power is limited, and most of the time it is responsible for playing soy sauce.

Soon, the Takeda family launched a tentative attack. They chose the left flank of Anongbei, and a reserve of about 500 spears crossed the river, adjusted the formation by the river, and formed a five-column to force Anongbei over. I don't know if it's for courage or because of the ice of the river, everyone shouted loudly, and the momentum was full.

Two hundred iron cannons rang out at the right time, taking away the lives of more than 20 people in the front row. The people in the back row immediately stepped forward to fill in one by one, still maintaining a dense formation.

The two sides soon officially engaged in battle, and in order to avoid accidental damage, the iron cannon was no longer fired. This is exactly the usual pattern of a two-sided battle. However, our side is well-trained, the tactical movements are extremely standard, and the length of the spear seems to be more than half a meter longer than that of the Takeda family, completely suppressing them, and the Takeda family on the front line has fallen one after another, almost half of them are about to be replaced, and even the seven or eight people in the back row are even included. The one-sided battle situation obviously surprised the general who led the team, and he immediately issued an order to retreat, and the surviving 423 people quickly evacuated.

At this time, the iron cannon finally came into use again, and once again left the surnames of more than ten people.

With a single temptation, he lost 20% of his troops, and Changjing of Shan County should know how the combat strength of our pikes is, right?

I clearly saw that the retreating general rode his horse to the main formation, dismounted and half-knelt under the banner of the Takeda Ling Army and General Maruhua Ling, and reported a few words to the horse riding general in the middle. And that general, apparently, was Changjing of Shan County, who was the general, and he sent an envoy with a centipede on his back to the flag to convey the order to another reserve. Then the reserve left the formation and went down the river to pounce on my own formation.

――Do you want to be tempted? What a prudence!

(To be continued)