The first row of ten iron guns on both sides of the western phalanx opened fire after a volley.

A burst of blue-black smoke rose from the gunpowder.

After the shot, the iron gunneru put down his gun, and no one went to watch whether the shot was successful or not. Without the slightest hesitation, they turned backwards to the right, carried iron cannons from column to column, quickly ran to the last row, and then took their positions and quickly reloaded.

And the iron artillery general Kohata Xiaoxian, who was standing on the left flank of the iron artillery team, retreated to the second row of the iron artillery ashigaru team, raised the sword in his hand upward, and shouted: "Raise the gun, aim!" ”

Similarly, the iron cannon on the right flank also has an iron cannon team leader, who is responsible for firing with the iron cannon team on the right flank.

Under Kohata Xiaoxian's order, the second row of iron cannon ashigaru raised their guns expressionlessly, and then aimed the guns flat, and took a small step forward with his left foot, keeping his body center of gravity balanced when shooting.

Kohata Xiaoxian's eyes flashed, and then he swung the sword downwards and roared heavily: "Shoot!" ”

Another round of gunfire rang out, and the choking smell of gunpowder here in the Takeda Army's main formation became even stronger, and the smoke from the shooting had not yet dissipated, and now another layer was superimposed underneath.

The archers, who were standing densely on the other side, were hit again by the volley of muskets, and this time the two fell to the ground again.

Li Xiaotie's artillery is equipped with light equipment, and although the Guoyou barrel produced by Omi Guoyou Village has a range of 50 rooms, it basically can't penetrate the armor at this distance. It was only at a distance of thirty that two rounds of iron cannon salvos were fired, and the power and hit rate of the iron cannon showed their effect.

At this time, the opponent's archerfoot light team had just entered the predetermined position of its own shooting, and was affected by the two iron cannon salvos, although the casualties were not large, but there were many bowfoot light movements, which seemed a little flustered.

Just as the Saito Army's Kushizu Light Brigade was preparing to shoot at the Takeda Army's formation.

The sixty archers on both sides of the Takeda Army's auxiliary armament took the lead in raising their bows and firing a volley, and the arrows on both sides shot into the bow-footed light queue of the Saito Army, which lacked armor protection, and suddenly burst into the opponent's formation.

Immediately afterwards, the iron artillery ashigaru team in the center of the Takeda Army fired a third row and a fourth row salvo.

The bow of the Saito army was lightly attacked, and the long-range weapons of the Takeda army's bows and arrows and iron cannons were double-hit, and the casualties were not small in an instant.

Under the order of the opposing archashigaku, the Saito army's archashigaru men barely held on to the front of the battle, and in a panic released two rounds of arrows, they immediately retreated, without causing many casualties to the Takeda army.

This time, the iron cannon ashigaru under Kohata Xiaoxian performed very well, much to the surprise of others, under the harassment of the opponent's bow and arrow, although the iron cannon ashigaru team suffered one or two casualties, it still made normal tactical movements, and there was no panic during the last military training.

The Saito army didn't seem to have much expectation of their own kushigae before, and after the kushigaku retreated, the spearhead phalanx in the rear immediately lowered their spears and formed an impact formation.

Within a distance of twenty minutes from the Takeda Army, the front row of the Saito Army speared a light team and launched a charge.

"Shoot the arrows!"

The bowashigaru on the left and right of the Takeda army, after shooting three rounds of arrows, their strength was slightly relaxed, generally speaking, the bowashigaru in the war, can only shoot seven or eight arrows in a row, and then they have to lose their strength.

But Li Xiao's archers are all professional soldiers, and they are well-trained in peacetime, so they can support up to ten arrows.

At this time, the bows and ashigaru of the Takeda army shot the fourth round of arrows, but the samurai of the Saito family, who were charging forward, were all covered with goods and equipment, and there was a hat wrapped in iron on the head of the ashigaru, so the defense against bow and arrow shooting was still relatively strong.

After a round of arrows, the Saito soldiers suffered few casualties, and there were a few brave samurai, with four or five arrows hanging from their bodies, and they continued to charge as if nothing had happened.

Li Xiao shook his head when he saw this scene, at this time, the full armor of the Warring States has been widely popularized, and it has replaced the previous large armor with complex workmanship on a large scale, and the Ashigaru of the Saito family is a piece of goods per person, and the popularity of the large armor is low, and only rich samurai can afford to wear it, and most of them are ancestral armor, which has been used from generation to generation.

Because of their popularity, the defense of the samurai and ashigaru bows and arrows has been greatly improved, and for the samurai who do not have crossbow skills, their power on the battlefield is becoming less and less.

The bows and ashigaru of the Takeda army fired a fifth round of arrows, a volley of sixty people, this time only taking down two or three people from the other side, and many samurai and ashigaru, with one or two arrows hanging on their bodies, charged forward like no one else.

Just when many people thought that Li Xiao was going to make the central guns out of battle at this time.

The roar of iron cannons on both flanks of the western phalanx sounded, and the fifth row of iron artillery ashigaru fired a salvo.

Li Xiao observed the effect of the shooting, and saw that this fifth row of volleys, although it only knocked down the opponent's ashigaru team of three people, but among these three people, there was the samurai who was shot seven or eight arrows one after another, and still charged forward fiercely.

Judging by the delicacy of the other party's armor, it should be a famous samurai in the Saito army.

The armor of such a samurai was more defensive than that of ordinary ashigaru, and he was hit by seven or eight arrows in two volleys of bows and arrows, but he still kept charging as usual.

However, such a brave man still can't resist a shot from an iron cannon.

Li Xiao saw the unwilling look in the other party's eyes, and then knelt on his knees, fell to the ground, and was immediately overwhelmed by the crowd of the Saito family ashigaru who rushed up from behind.

The forward of the Saito Army, Gunashigaru, had already rushed to the distance, and the Takeda Army was only fifteen in its position.

As the opponent's ashigaru team gets closer and closer, and the same for the iron cannon, the closer the shot, the stronger the lethality of the iron cannon, and the higher the hit rate.

The sixth, seventh, and eighth rows of iron cannons in the Western Platoon fired continuously, and the Samurai Ashigaru of the Saito Army, who was charging forward, was once again knocked down.

Seeing that the Takeda Army's iron artillery team had completely finished firing, Saito Riki in the rear couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, after all, being killed alive by an invisible projectile was too much for a samurai.

Many samurai don't care about being begged for their heads, because they die in an open martial arts competition, but they are most afraid of dying in vain.

For example, in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Southern Dynasty general Nitta Yoshisada was actually shot in the center of the eyebrows by a stray arrow and died, such a disgraceful death, in this book is called 'dog death', which means to die like a dog.

Seeing that the Takeda Army's terrifying iron artillery team finished shooting, it was estimated that it would take a lot of time for the opponent to reload the bullets, so the Saito Army's spear foot light team had to rush to the Takeda Army's position immediately in this gap, so that the opponent's iron cannon would be ineffective.

The Ashigaru of the Saito Army regained their courage and charged forward.

At this time, the other party was close to the Takeda military formation, and it was only a ** distance.

The auxiliary archers on the two flanks of the Takeda Army, and between the gaps between the central iron artillery team's reloads, they fired two rounds of arrows in a row.

Although these two rounds of arrows did not help at all, they did not seem to stop the Saito family's spears and foot light team from charging forward, but they played a role in delaying the opponent's impact slightly.

However, taking advantage of this gap, the Takeda family's iron artillery ashigaru team, which was originally fired in the first row, had already been reloaded.

Due to the backward reloading tactic, a queue was adopted to advance in reverse.

Therefore, the iron guns that were fired in the first row before have now retreated to the back of the original eighth row, so this is a distance of four or five empty spaces, and the side in front is the fierce array of the main gunner, which is absolutely safe at this distance.

At this time, Kohata Xiaoxian ordered the first row of iron cannons to be reloaded, and fired.

After the first row has finished shooting, the second row takes a step forward and stands in the position where the first row fires, and the third row makes up the position of the second row as usual, and so on, and the first row of the original shot is added to the position of the eighth row.

At this time, the Saito Army had already entered the maximum lethal range of the iron cannon, so the Takeda Army's iron artillery ashigaru team only had to shoot with all its strength and did not have any reservations.

Li Xiao's iron artillery team moved as quickly and effectively as they did during the usual training, only to see that after the first platoon finished firing, the second platoon followed suit, followed by the third platoon, and then the fourth platoon.

Raise the gun, aim, shoot.

This series of countless times of practice, when they are proficient, the iron cannon ashigaru almost didn't think about it, and subconsciously made it.

As long as it is loaded, it will come forward to fire a salvo, so between shots, there is almost no room for fire, and the time interval between the last iron cannon salvo and the next iron cannon salvo is almost only two to three seconds.

The roar of the iron cannons was almost incessant, and for a moment the sound echoed in the valley and was incessant.

Under this new round of continuous iron cannon strikes, the Ashigaru soldiers who rushed to the front of the Saito army were constantly knocked down by the iron cannons, and several samurai who bravely took the lead in the charge were killed by the iron cannons of the Takeda army at close range.

After each round of gunfire, several ashigaru fell, and every time Ashigaru of the Saito Army saw the muzzles of the black holes in front of him, aimed at him, his legs were weak.

"How is it possible, could it be that the Takeda Army is equipped with an iron artillery team of several hundred people? Otherwise, why can't they stop shooting? ”

Such a thought suddenly flashed through the minds of every Saito Army samurai who charged.

It was a bloody scene, and the Ashigaru of the Saito army often suddenly slammed his entire body in the process of charging, stopped moving, and then leaned to the side, so that a life was gone.

He hadn't even slashed at the enemy who had killed him.

Although his family is noble, plain and outstanding in martial arts, what about a famous samurai who can block ten with one, the opponent's Ashigaru only needs one shot to kill him.

The army of feudal times, in general, suffered 10 percent casualties, and the morale of the army dropped wildly, and the soldiers of the whole army would be on the verge of collapse.

The best example is the Battle of Sekigahara, a general battle with an army of more than 100,000 troops, and the number of people hanging was no more than 3,000.

This was the only exception to this point for the Takeda Army and the Uesugi Army under the leadership of Commanders Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin, who suffered an extremely high casualty ratio of 60-70% in the Fourth Battle of Kawanakajima.

And when they generally rush into battle, they take the lead in the most courageous and elite soldiers of the army, and once these people are defeated, the morale of the whole army plummets.

Under the double blow of the Takeda army's iron cannon and bow and arrow, the gunashigaru of the Saito army's front charge finally reached the critical point of collapse, and the ashigaru of the Saito family saw the samurai in their own army, as well as their brave companions, fall under the opponent's iron cannons and bows and arrows.

Facing the muzzle of the black hole in front of them, the enemy who was silent and shot at them without the slightest emotion, and an inexplicable sense of fear finally rose in their hearts.

The ** who survived quickly occupied the first place in his heart.

The first Saito family Ashigaru began to turn his head back, frantically fleeing from the front line of the charge, with the first, there was the second, the third, and in an instant, a dozen, a dozen, a dozen, a dozen began to appear.

And the ashigaru, who was originally charging, saw their companions retreating, so they naturally didn't want to be fools at this time, and continued to rush forward, and everyone turned around together and was defeated from the front line.

It was a complete rout, followed by the sound of the Takeda Army's iron cannons, which were still firing.

The Saito family, who was running a little slower, had more than a dozen people killed on the way to escape under the fire of bows and arrows and iron cannons.

Seeing the defeat of the enemy army, Shigang Yiyu's state of mind at this moment can hardly be described in words, and the previous suspicion of Li Xiao's Western Phalanx no longer exists.

Shigang Yiyu was convinced by Li Xiao from the bottom of his heart, and suggested: "Does the lord want to let the spear be chased?" ”

Li Xiao shook his head, pointed at the five hundred troops of the Shenbao family who had not yet moved, as well as the cavalry team of the Saito army, and said: "The enemy still has some strength left, and the pursuit now can only be a melee without winning or losing. ”

After Li Xiao finished speaking, he turned his head sideways and glanced at Honda Masanobu beside him.

And this Honda Masanobu, who is known as the first wise man of the Matsudaira family, is also extremely uncalm at this moment, he is used to seeing the brave fighting of the Mikawa samurai, but he has never seen Li Xiao's army such a tactic.

In the central pike-phalanx, the men and horses on both flanks had not yet been dispatched, and the enemy counterattack was repelled by an equal number of attacks with iron cannons and bows.

With such a powerful force, it seems that victory on the battlefield can be achieved only by relying on iron cannons and bows and arrows.

How could he not have heard of such a method of warfare before, Honda Masanobu deeply felt that he was becoming more and more incomprehensible to his lord.

At the same moment, the military ration in Saito Liki's hands has fallen under the horse unconsciously.

And the Saito family around him, the warriors of the Jimbo family, all had stunned expressions.

Especially the horseback warrior of the Saito family, who was laughing at the Takeda army's formation, he couldn't wait to slap himself in the face at this moment.

The Saito family looked at Fang Cai, the Takeda Army's Iron Artillery Ashigaru Team, all of them were pale, such a fierce attack, they were all fought back by the Iron Artillery Team, what kind of tactic is this.

It's simply unseen and unheard of.

Kohata Xiaoxian gasped heavily, and shouted lightly to his iron cannons: "All return to their positions and reload." ”

"Oh!"

The Iron Foot Light Team shouted in unison, and then re-established itself on the two flanks of the central Gunfoot Light phalanx.

The gunners were still repeating the usual training movements, holding the muzzle of their guns upright with their left hands, and using the oak wooden pusher to push and pull up and down to clean the gunpowder residue from the chambers. The projectile is then removed from the pouch attached to the belt, filled with gunpowder and projectiles into the muzzle, and compacted the projectile and gunpowder with a projectile bar.

Finally, the fire rope wrapped around the wrist of the left hand is inserted into the fire hole.

This full set of actions to fill the projectile can be done in twenty seconds by a skilled person, and it cannot be completed in a minute by a stranger.

The huge lethality of the iron cannon in the actual combat of Fang Cai has been reflected, because the initial velocity of the projectile fired by the iron cannon in this era is low, once the projectile hits the human body, it will hardly cause penetrating damage, and enter the muscle tissue, there is a certain chance of bursting inside, causing heavy damage.

Many samurai who were hit by iron cannons, even if they were not directly hit by iron cannons, but because of the non-penetrating damage of the projectiles, they could temporarily lose their combat ability, and they were not like arrows after shooting four or five arrows, and they were still charging as if nothing had happened.

In that killing, the Saito army was killed by nearly 100 people under the iron cannons and bows and arrows of the Takeda family, and the casualties caused by the iron cannons were at least twice as many as those of the bows and arrows.

After the iron artillery team was reloaded, Li Xiao looked at the Saito army opposite, and his face showed a hint of mockery.

"Out of battle!"

Under Li Xiao's order, under the banner of Yueyue Shuangwen, the five hundred standing guards moved again, the iron artillery team carried the guns on their shoulders, and above the spear foot light team, the tips of the three long guns stood tall.

"Let's go!"

In accordance with the command, the whole army marched forward with neat steps.

In between this, the distance between the front and rear rows was still maintained at a considerable distance, and the queue of the phalanx was not chaotic at all, and from a distance, the surroundings looked as if they had been cut with a knife.

This is all Li Xiao's endless queue training in the past two months, and he has maintained such a tight formation.

Now Li Xiao's army is slowly advancing in the direction of Saito's army like a huge wall.

The generals of the Saito clan had never seen such a beautiful military formation, and generally speaking, when the troops advanced, even the most well-trained troops would scatter the formation, and the formation could only be maintained by the constraints of the generals of each team.

The advance of the Takeda Army was very strange, they shouted a strange slogan (left, right, left, left), and the troops were moving as if they were acting alone.

Even when the opponent is moving forward lightly, the leg that is stepping at the same time is on one side.

How exactly did they do this, it's beyond anyone's imagination and comprehension.

At this time, the general of the Jimbo family, Terashima Jobada, spoke: "We must not allow the Takeda Army to advance any further, otherwise we will lose this battle without fighting." ”

"But under the fire of the Takeda Army's iron cannons, if we can't break through, we can only rush forward and die, and after that battle, many samurai in the family have been killed." After saying that, Saito Riki shook his fist fiercely, obviously in resentment.

"No, no matter how fast the Takeda Army's iron cannon is, it can't compare to the speed of the war horse, let's first use the cavalry team to attack, the iron artillery team on both sides of the Takeda Army, and then use the foot light to press on the attack, so that we can defeat the current Takeda Army."

Tejima said this, and the whole Saito army suddenly realized, yes, no matter how fast the musket fires is, can it be compared to a war horse?

(To be continued)