Chapter 493 52. Both Sides Face Off Against Ikunoyama
"What time is it?"
"The end of noon time and the beginning of noon time."
Xiaopingtai covered the sun with his hands and took a look at the sky. It was indeed past noon, almost one o'clock in the afternoon.
It took too much time to build the pontoon bridge and test the Takeda army. We can't waste any more time. The sun goes down early in the spring. When the sun sets in the west, we have to withdraw our troops. It's unrealistic to expect to fight at night with fire, and the soldiers' physical strength can't keep up, so there are still three hours.
Xiaopingta felt that it was impossible to end the battle in front of him in three hours. But now that there are six Franco machine cannons, this chance has greatly increased. As long as he can advance to 200 meters away from Takeda Harunobu, the battle will be secure.
"Leave a hundred of my iron cannons behind, and then send an order to His Highness Jilun, asking him to send a thousand people to stay on the pontoon, and the other teams will follow quickly."
The Fo Lang machine gun on the other side could no longer be seen clearly, and the fort where the rice bags were temporarily piled up was also abandoned. It will also take some time to re-tow the cannon carriage, and it will also take a while to sort out the projectiles and gunpowder and follow them together with the army to follow up quickly.
"His Royal Highness Haijin has sent a message. They have already set up camp and raised their troops. Soon, the first 500 horsemen will be able to join the battle."
If Takanashi Masarai's 5,000 men join the battle, Koheita's chances of winning will increase a lot. The Shinano soldiers and horses of the Kaizu clan are very resistant to fighting hard, especially the large number of cavalry, which can give a great gain to the Yamauchi army.
"What about your highness, the steward?" Koheita turned around and looked in the direction of the north bank of the Tone River, and glanced at the Uesugi army's camp.
"No news yet."
Chen San shook his head. He had not received any news, nor had he seen any envoys from the Uesugi Army. This means that Uesugi Terutora himself is still hesitating whether his Echigo troops can go into battle and whether to preserve Echigo's troops.
"Okay, why hasn't Aji arrived to urge the Nanman soldiers?"
"You are getting impatient. It has only been half a quarter of an hour. How can it be so fast?" Chen San kept playing with the iron cannon and helping Xiao Pingtai load the two horse barrels.
"The first mover, Anzai, is at war with the Takeda Fangbaba Civilian Department and cannot move forward!"
A long-footed soldier ran out from the ranks of the army. Anzhai Kiyoyasu drove away the defeated troops and encountered the obstruction of the Takeda army. It seemed that Takeda Harunobu had reacted and began to prepare for a battle with Kodaira in the wild.
"The left wing Iwase has already killed Hajima Uchizosuke, and the Hojo people are retreating and are looking for support from the Sugiyama main formation." Another Nagazu member also rushed over.
"Okay! Okay! Okay! Tojiro is brave and diligent, and he has lived up to his expectations. He ordered Tojiro to occupy the high slope, cooperate with Ina's people, block the Hojo people on the spot, and buy time for the entire army to defeat Kai's feast."
The situation on the entire battlefield is temporarily in the advantage of the Yamauchi Army, and all aspects are maintaining an active offensive.
The Oishi family surrounded Matsuyama with five thousand people, and Koshihata with fifteen thousand people. There are only 15,000 soldiers on the battlefield at this moment, and among them, 2,000 soldiers under Hashima's command have retreated, making it impossible to use them again in the short term.
At this moment, Iwase Motomasa had seven thousand men under his command. They did not seek victory, but only wanted to delay for three hours to give the entire army a chance to win. With his ability, he should be able to do it.
The vast plains on the south bank of the Tone River were filled with flying flags and tens of thousands of soldiers from both armies. They were densely packed and intertwined, and the sounds of killing were endless.
Koheita's main team finally arrived at Mount Ikuno. The man arrayed on the mountain was naturally Takeda Harunobu. Tens of thousands of troops at the foot of the mountain were arrayed in an orderly manner. Hundreds of soldiers galloped among them, conveying Takeda Harunobu's military orders.
This time Takeda Harunobu did not arrogantly set up a Crane Wing Formation, but instead laid out a three-stage horizontal formation that was easy to change. The four teams leading the way were all old acquaintances of Xiao Pingtai.
Nobuharu of the Baba civil department, Masakei of Iitomi Saburobei, Masatoshi Amari, and Juubei Yokota.
Xiaoheita, who had just killed his eldest brother with one shot, took a look at Iitomi Masakage's team. He was indeed Iitomi Masokage. His marching formation was not inferior to his elder brother's. Hundreds of people moved like arms, advancing and retreating as one. Under the will of Iitomi Masaki.
"Masuke (Sakakibara Nagamasa), you lead two hundred people up to entangle Iitomi's team. Miya (Honda Masashige), you also lead two hundred people, and cooperate with Kantarou to attack the Baba Civil Affairs Bureau."
Qigui put down Xiao Pingtai's golden bamboo leaf horse mark, set up the imperial white flag of the Yuanyuan family, and the long flag with the sun and moonlight family emblem on Zi Xiaolu. He also took out Yamauchi Yoshiharu's armor and placed it on the cage to announce that Fujiwara Bomb was approaching the battle.
Kanai Meigoro is attacking Amari Shochen, and Imagawa Yoshichichi is fighting with Yokota Jurobei, and they are temporarily in a balance of power. Xiaoping looked at Ikunoyama in the distance and didn't know what Takeda Harunobu was thinking.
The previous collapse of thousands of people towards Ikunoyama still had some impact on the Takeda army. The troops at the rear of the horizontal formation are working hard to collect the defeated troops. For the time being, the only ones facing the Yamauchi Army are the above four teams.
"It would be great if His Highness Senhabayashi was here. Five hundred elite horseback troops would attack Takeda's army from the flanks and cut off the middle of Takeda's army. It would be easy for our army to press forward and break through his first formation."
Xiaopingta, who was observing the battle situation, muttered to himself, no one would care anyway.
"Attention, Takanashi's five hundred horses are coming to join the battle!"
Takanashi Hidemasa suddenly arrived on horseback. Historically, this was the vanguard general of the Uesugi Army in Kawanaka Island. However, the Taiga drama did not film him, and the Uesugi family also failed to succeed, so naturally their reputation was not prominent.
"It's just in time. Please lead the soldiers directly to Takeda's left flank and try to cut off the connection between his vanguard and the center."
"Please show me the strength of my Takanashiro gang!"
Takanari Hidemasa was not unhappy because Kobayata assigned him a difficult task as soon as he arrived. Instead, he was eager to try. He was still looking forward to killing the general and seizing the flag. Now that he helped the Yamanouchi family, the Yamanouchi family would always repay this favor in the future, so there was no need to rush.
Like a whirlwind, Takanari's 500 cavalry rushed to the left wing of Takeda, with smoke and dust rising and thundering. Baba Nobuharu on the left wing of Takeda was entangled by two teams of Yamanouchi troops. He could not and could not stop the surprise attack of 500 cavalry.
The plains under Ikunoyama were so large, and the cavalry came and went very quickly. The red-armored troops of the Takeda army were crushed and dispersed by Kobayata's artillery fire. The 200 to 300 cavalry inside were either killed directly or ran away.
There were not many other cavalry that could be gathered. There were more than 50 cavalry of the small county cavalry of Sanada Yukinaga and Sanada Nobunaga, the father and son of the main camp, and more than 100 cavalry of the cavalry of the Katsurao cavalry of Kosaka Tansho.
Of course, Takeda Harunobu also had some hatamoto samurai on horseback. He gathered together 300 horses and handed them over to Kosaka Danjo and Sanada Nobutsuna, asking them to rush out to meet Takanari Hidemasa.
Seeing that the Takeda army was gradually mobilized, the war finally entered a white-hot stage at this point.