Chapter 50 9. Advancing with Courage and Sharpness

The Echigo cavalry, skilled in archery and horse riding, shook the front of the Hojo army. I believe that all the forces on the battlefield can see it clearly. Even someone like Kobayata who doesn't know much about military affairs can see some shadows.

This is not to say that the Hojo army is too bad. In fact, the Hojo army is also okay. They fought well. His flank was attacked by the soldiers sent by Yamauchi Yoshikatsu. Although Yamauchi Yoshikatsu only asked to contain the soldiers and not to fight too hard, so as not to cause too many casualties to the Yamauchi army.

But it is impossible to preserve strength on the battlefield. The original goal of the Hojo army is to defend and counterattack to knock down the Yamauchi army. Now Yamauchi Yoshikatsu only sent three or four hundred people, which is just like playing. Just take this opportunity to eat up your small army first.

Soon the Yamauchi army was stuck by the Hojo army. The two sides fought back and forth, and they couldn't get out of contact at all. Unlike the battle in the movie where they shouted to each other for two hours to go home for dinner, Kobayata had already seen casualties on the Yamauchi army side.

Kobayata subconsciously said to Aji: "Look, the soldiers trained by Dihuang Hachiman are really amazing, and their fighting power is so strong." Aji hummed, but did not answer Kobayata. Kobayata slapped his forehead and realized that it was these people who tied up Aji and sold him last year. It was good that he did not curse, but Kobayata asked for trouble. It also stimulated Aji's young mind, which was a big sin.

Continuing to look at the battlefield, compared with the situation on the flanks that were anxious and even had a slight advantage, the cannon fodder Sano soldiers and Numata soldiers used in the center to consume the elite attacks of Yamanouchi and Echigo were becoming more and more passive.

Although no one had dropped their weapons and turned around to run away as Kobayata thought, there were more and more gaps in the originally straight battle line. Many foot soldiers shrank back and refused to go forward to supplement the first row. The Echigo cavalry's horse archery was too powerful, and the distance was close, and almost every arrow hit the vital points. How could the soldiers who saw the front row people fall dare to replace them, even if there were still a few wooden shields standing in the first row.

It was basically impossible to defend against the strong bows and heavy arrows shot from 20 to 30 meters away with the iron battle hats on their heads and the cheap equipment on their bodies. Moreover, with the current medical level, even if the vital parts are not hit, the wound may be infected with sepsis and finally fall to the ground.

If you are shot in the neck, eyes, chest and other vital parts, no one will help you to treat it. If you are not killed on the spot, and you still have a breath. Others will quietly watch you gradually weaken in the constant wailing, and finally lose too much blood to death.

With such a big risk, anyone who is not a fool would not think of really working for the Hojo family. What's more, Hojo Yasumoto has inherited the Numata family, and he doesn't even regard the Numata soldiers as his own people, and drives them to be cannon fodder. This behavior is too chilling for these Numata soldiers.

According to Xiao Pingtai's judgment, the reason why the cannon fodders on the front line did not collapse was mainly because of the dazzling gun tips of the Hojo main samurai and foot soldiers who were stacked in three formations with more than a thousand people behind them.

As for the iron cannon, Yamauchi only had dozens of them, and no more than a hundred including the one that Nagao Kagetora had just sent. In addition to the small number, it could not form a dense firepower. The main reason is that gunpowder is not cheap. Xiao Pingtai spent a total of 100 coins to buy Aji and his father and sister, and the gunpowder money for one shot of the iron cannon is enough to buy one-third of Aji.

You use such an expensive iron cannon that may not be able to hit people with one shot. If you calculate the account, it will be painful, considering the frugal and even stingy nature of Yamauchi Yoshiharu and Yamauchi Yoshikatsu. Don't say it, don't say it, I can't bear it, anyway, it is absolutely not worth using the iron cannon to kill these miscellaneous soldiers. If it can shoot samurai, it is not a loss-making business. But it is obvious that there are no more than a hundred Hojo samurai in the field, so it is not useful.

Besides, didn't you see that the main force was Hojo Takahiro of Echigo? He was fighting well, and the Yamanouchi family just needed to show their support. Cooperating with Hojo Takahiro's performance was considered fulfilling their duties, and they were fighting a bad battle.

Kobayata was daydreaming, and Hojo Yasumoto on the other side was also daydreaming. Seeing that the less than 200 samurai in Echigo were about to scare away the cannon fodder in front, the samurai and servants on horseback at his side totaled only 50 to 60. Should he go for a collision?

After thinking for a while, Hojo Yasumoto gave up. In the seventh year of Eisei, Echigo Shugodai Nagao Tamekage led the elite cavalry of Echigo to break through the army of the former Kanrei Uesugi Noritada. Uesugi Noritada even gave up his life under the iron hoof of the Echigo cavalry.

The troops of Echigo Shugodai Nagao clan were fierce characters who attacked and killed the guardian Uesugi Fumie and Kanrei Uesugi Noritada in succession. He was so good at doing such a rebellious thing, and he didn't care who you were when he killed people.

Hojo Yasumoto didn't have the kind of heroic spirit in Shakespeare's famous work "King John" that the whole world would attack from three sides, and I would give them a head-on blow here.

He didn't think much of himself, and he didn't dare to send his elite hatamoto and horse ring to attack the Echigo cavalry.

In the end, after thinking about it, there was no good way, so he had to send 1,000 Hojo reserves forward to supplement the front line.

Because of the addition of fresh troops, the front of the Hojo army finally began to slowly return to the original straight line. It seemed that they could continue to fight for another round, and morale was slightly boosted. This made Hojo Yasumoto feel a lot more at ease, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.

But before Hojo Yasumoto could finish his sigh of relief, the situation on the battlefield changed. On the side of the Echigo Nagao Army, Hojo Takahiro and Hojo Kagehiro, father and son, had given up the strategy of continuing to harass and attack the Hojo Army with cavalry.

The Echigo army shouted in unison, and all the cavalrymen who were originally holding bows changed to long naginatas, carbines or large swords. They gathered into a sharp force headed by Hojo Takahiro and his son.

All the cavalrymen arrived at the starting position without any mistakes in just a few breaths, and the knights on horseback were adjusting their breathing. Some people even took out wheat beans from the cloth bags around their waists to feed them to the war horses under their crotches. These wheat beans were soaked in salt water and could replenish the physical strength of the war horses. After all, these war horses had just carried the samurai back and forth for hundreds of meters, and their horsepower was consumed a lot.

That is to say, the Echigo war horses that grew up in the ice and snow of the Echigo Plains have this level. If the pack horses under Xiao Pingtai ran 500 meters at full speed with Xiao Pingtai in full armor, the horses would be useless and might even spit out white foam and die. After all, animals are not machines. Like humans, they have a limit to their energy. An exhausted person will definitely not be able to run, and an exhausted horse will definitely be the same.

As if to give the horses and the cavalry who had already fired arrows several times a break, the Echigo infantry, who had been standing in formation, began to slowly move forward amid the sound of the marching warriors.

These infantrymen, whether they were just a janitor with a battle hat and a spear, or a foot soldier wearing a battle hat and a foot, or a samurai with high spirits, all held their weapons tightly and were divided into three sections.

Moving from behind the cavalry to the front of the formation, the infantry paused for a moment and reorganized the formation. Laying down their spears, they gathered into a forest of spears, and shouted, "Hey, hey, hey." They made fighting movements.

The first section, judging from the flag, should be led by a samurai with the surname Kojima. There were many samurai with the surname Kojima in Echigo, and it was probably not the brave general known as Oni Kojima Yajiro Sadaoki. He was a guard of Nagao Kagetora, and would not be willing to be driven by Hojo Takahiro, who promoted the Hokushu.

Anyway, this island unit was moving towards the Hojo side. At first, they were just walking fast. In the last fifty meters, everyone grasped their weapons and charged quickly. It was like pouring hot soup on snow, or cutting butter with a sharp knife. The whole Hojo army was immediately dented.

It is true that the brave wins when two armies meet. Both sides did not have three-barreled long guns that could only be used for fighting. Everyone carried a one-and-a-half or two-barreled gun that was convenient for close combat. Anyone who was stabbed would have a bloody hole, and there was no chance of survival.

The soldiers of the Hojo army were a mixture of cannon fodder and regulars. When they saw a row of guns stabbing at them, the Sano soldiers and Numata soldiers, who were not firm to begin with, immediately panicked. Their bodies retreated involuntarily. It didn't matter if they retreated by themselves, but when they retreated, the Hojo foot soldiers next to them also panicked. People are group animals, and they will follow the crowd.

In the end, some retreated, and some did not. Soldiers of different courage and cowardice were lined up in a line without direct military law constraints. The Kojima team stabbed more than a dozen people with just one charge. But these people were the bravest warriors on the whole line who did not retreat.

Now it was good that the bravest people died first. The rest were even more terrified by their miserable deaths and retreated even more, and were beaten into a depression by the Kojima team.

But the Kojima team did not want to fight, and dispersed to the left and right wings and withdrew from the battle in just a few minutes.

This made the soldiers of the Hojo army breathe a sigh of relief. Seeing the enemy retreat, these soldiers slowly filled the depression under the shouting and coercion of the samurai. They reluctantly formed a line of soldiers that could block the enemy again.

Just as the Hojo soldiers trembled and held their guns, trying to continue fighting, the sound of the Echigo Nagao soldiers came again. Seeing that the Echigo soldiers were only 50 meters away from the Hojo military area.

The second Yasuda team in Echigo also had more than 300 people. According to the homework that Kobayata had done in advance, Yasuda Kagemoto or Yasuda Nagahide could be possible. These two had a little reputation. The Yasuda clan supported Kagekatsu in the Onate Rebellion. Later, the Yasuda clan was transferred to Aizu with Uesugi Kagekatsu, and they were also considered important retainers of the hereditary generation.

The Yasuda team, led by a samurai with a horse mark on his back, rushed to the Hojo army line like a raging wave hitting the base. It was only a few minutes of contact before it dispersed to both wings in an orderly manner.

This attack made the Hojo army more shaken. Kobayata saw that the samurai who supervised the battle of Hojo were drawing their swords to kill their own soldiers who tried to escape, and the panic was obvious.

When it came to the third team, Chisaka (who was also the family elder of the Yonezawa domain of the Uesugi clan) team, the charge of the Echigo soldiers was even more fierce. The staggered front line was full of elite samurai and senior foot soldiers holding long spears. Almost a charge and stab thinned the first line of the Hojo. Twenty to thirty people were stabbed by the Chisaka team, and they fell to the ground without shaking.

When Xiao Pingtai thought they were going to stop and expand the victory, the Echigo army did not stop and spread out to the two wings again. The three teams of Kojima, Yasuda, and Chisaka took a few breaths and soon formed three rows again. The flags fluttered in the wind and the soldiers shouted.

This round of infantry attack bought precious rest time for the cavalry. Hojo Takahiro and Hojo Kagehiro even changed horses, and the other cavalry and war horses were almost rested. They got on the war horses with full energy and roared for battle.

As the Chisaka team retreated and reorganized, more than a hundred Echigo cavalrymen with full morale and physical strength had rushed to the front of the Hojo army, and attacked the chaos of the Hojo headquarters and Ueno cannon fodder without hesitation.

The exhausted and demoralized Hojo army had long been scattered, with soldiers unable to find samurai and samurai unable to gather soldiers. Hojo Takahiro and his son easily broke through.

Especially Hojo Takahiro's red spear, stabbing left and right, spinning like a flying horse. Hojo Kagehiro's three-foot-three-inch-long sword also killed many people. Xiao Pingtai, who was watching, mourned for the Hojo army. These two humanoid killing machines were simply dead if they stuck to them, and died if they touched them. It perfectly demonstrated that killing can be simple and clear, and become an art.

With Hojo Takahiro and Hojo Kagehiro as the tip of the knife, they were almost only a hair away from completely tearing through the Hojo army formation. And seeing that they could not break the formation immediately, the two did not hesitate at all, turned their horses and withdrew from the battle. The grasp of the opportunity was extremely exquisite, and there was no delay in cooperation.

The Kojima team, which withdrew to the main camp and re-lined up, clamored forward, and the foot soldiers and samurai shouted loudly, flattened and straightened the long spears in their hands, and violently hit the Hojo army formation again.

The Yasuda and Chisaka teams had already gathered together quickly, and the three teams rushed towards the Hojo army just a few minutes apart.

Finally, the Sano soldiers who were originally forced to come could not hold on first, and they cried and screamed, leaving their weapons and flags behind and fled. The supervisory team sent by Hojo Yasumoto killed several defeated Sano soldiers one after another, but they could not stop their defeat at all.

Hojo Yasumoto was anxious and tried to grab the last straw to save his life. He waved the flag and asked Nagano Yoshimasa to go down the mountain quickly to save the already precarious Hojo army line. Not only that, he repeatedly sent messengers and horsemen to urge Nagano Yoshimasa.

But Nagano Yoshimasa had no choice and was forced to submit to Hojo Ujiyasu. If Hojo Ujiyasu was here, he might consider it, at least pretending to contact the enemy. Then pretend to be defeated in a battle and be forced to retreat by his own "defeated soldiers".

Who do you think you are, Hojo Yasumoto? Even if your father, Dihuang Hachiman, Hojo Tsunari, comes in person, he may not be able to command Nagano Yoshimasa. Just you, Hojo Yasumoto? Nagano Yoshimasa ignored the pleas of the soldiers sent by Hojo Yasumoto, who was about to die.

He directly ordered 3,000 Minowa people to retreat. In an instant, the soldiers who had already enjoyed watching the show and were ready to go home to hug their children and have dinner, pushed the golden mountain and overturned the jade pillar, and directly dispersed. 3,000 people retreated like the wind. The Yamauchi Army and the Echigo Army cooperated very well and directly let the Minowa people withdraw from the battlefield without pursuing them at all.

So the Hojo flank was completely exposed, and Yamauchi Yoshikatsu and the left and right flanks also saw that the opportunity for victory had arrived, and immediately inserted the most elite 300 flag bearers diagonally into the Hojo army. These 300 people were mixed with infantry and cavalry, and were the trump card in Yamauchi Yoshikatsu's hand. The strength of this team of flag bearers could be judged just from the armor.

Kobayata also hurried back to Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu, preparing for the whole army to rush forward together. The soldiers were as sensitive to the battlefield as the generals, and they had been rubbing their hands and eager to try.

Hojo Takahiro and his son were also very sharp, and once again led the cavalry to rush into the Sano army, which was in a state of defeat.

One person's turn and retreat would lead two people to turn and retreat, and the collapse of two to three hundred or four hundred people directly impacted the morale of the entire Hojo army. The Numata soldiers, who were barely supporting, had no concept of protecting their master at all, especially the foot soldiers, who turned their heads and ran towards Minowa with their spears turned upside down, and surrendered to Nagano Yoshimasa. Anyway, it doesn't matter who you work for, but at least you have a life to sell first!

At this point, all the hopes of the Hojo army were shattered, which was equivalent to being defeated by a mere 1,100 people of the Echigo army.

At this time, only some hatamoto and Makai organized a small group of soldiers to hold on. They were just offering their last loyalty to their general Hojo Tsunari. Who said Hojo Yasumoto was his son? They wanted to use their lives to exchange for Hojo Yasumoto's last chance to escape.

The second update at 11 o'clock, in order to make the plot complete and not to be a dog in the chapter, the two chapters together have more than 4,500 words.