Chapter 70 29. A Moment of Selfishness Ruins Everything

The ramp built at no cost and regardless of casualties made the 50-degree slope of the Odawara outer fort lose its original insurmountable attribute.

The Hojo army in the city was also surprised that the ten-meter-high earthen rampart, which they thought was like a natural moat, was so easily flattened. The key defense areas were originally deployed at the various city gates, but the direct attack on the rampart was unexpected.

In fact, according to Kobayata's idea, the most elite Echigo samurai headquarters or the backbone forces of various armies should be directly used to build the earthen rampart and hit the Hojo army by surprise.

But the facts will definitely play a joke on people. Nagao Kagetora was reluctant to let his Echigo soldiers die, and it was impossible to draw out more than 10,000 samurai from the entire Kanto coalition army to build a separate army. As a result, the first wave of rushing up the rampart was Satomi Yasuo and Shimotsuma Tagatani.

The navy of the Satomi army is probably one of the best in eastern Japan. After all, the record is there, and the number of ships and the quality of sailors are not bad. But what about the infantry of the Satomi clan? Let's not talk about the length of time in front of the eunuch. Anyway, it's like a fight between noobs, and it's hard to say how good they are.

Shimotsuma Tagatani clan is even more troublesome. They were originally retainers of the Yuki clan, one of the eight houses in Bando. But the power of the Yuki clan has declined, and now they can only be regarded as an ally of the Yuki clan, and they are united to deal with the hooligans from all directions. In history, he finally turned against the Yuki clan and bit off a piece of meat from the Yuki clan. Now the Tagatani clan does not have the power of the future small 100,000 koku daimyo, with a total of 12,000 kan of territory. They brought a thousand people to make do, and they thought that Nagao Kagetora would eat meat and drink some soup for himself, but they were directly named and went to charge the city unwillingly.

But the facts are playing a joke on us again. Koheita thought that there would be no trouble today, and he was ready to go back to bed after washing. But I don't know if Hojo is too bad or Satomi is too fierce. Five hundred satoshi soldiers, with Masaki Daizen as their spearhead, rushed to the top of the hill.

Let everyone know that this Masaki Daizen is also a famous brave general in southern Kanto. Born in the Masaki clan of Soshu, he is called Gun Daizen, and Daizen means the official title of Daizen Ryo. The word "gun" is a compliment from southern Kanto that he is proficient in martial arts and can fight more than 30 people.

He can swing a long spear with a rustling wind, and it is not much different to say that he can kill anyone who stands in his way, and he can kill Buddhas. Anyway, he is not comparable to ordinary weaklings. He is a real samurai of the Four Heavenly Kings and Eight Guns, and the level of Aogami and Akakuni.

Then Masaki Daizen (Tokimo) was seen holding a red spear and climbing to the top of the hill. There was a fence on the top of the hill to block it. The three Hojo foot soldiers saw that Masaki Daizen was a famous samurai because of his bright armor, and they stabbed him without hesitation. It was obvious that Masaki Daizen had not fought in vain for so many years. He danced with the red spear tightly, and with a series of snaps, he swung away the spears stabbing from the left and right, and shot three shots along the gap in the fence, and the three foot soldiers fell down.

A gap of three to five meters wide suddenly appeared in the front of the attack of the Satomi army. Such a good opportunity is rare. After all, who would have thought that three against one, it is not like letting someone take three moves. The result was known within a minute, and the three Hojo soldiers were all chilled. The others were still entangled with others, so how could anyone be distracted and take care of everything. For a while, no one could come in to supplement.

Seizing the opportunity, the several samurai foot soldiers who were protecting Masaki Daizen seized the opportunity, quickly took out the ropes they carried with them to tie the fence, and shouted together. With a sound of hey, several people pulled back hard, and the fence fell down. The gap was opened in just one minute, which directly shocked Xiao Pingtai and made him speechless.

Sure enough, in this era, a brave general is more useful than hundreds of miscellaneous soldiers.

There was a brief cheer from the top of the slope, and then more fences were pushed down or pulled down. Although the Satomi army was not suppressing the Hojo army, it was seen that groups of Satomi fan patterns gathered together to fight with the Hojo army.

The momentum of the Kanto coalition army was getting higher and higher. Nagao Kagetora of the main camp also dispatched the second-line main forces of Hojo Takahiro and Nagao Toukage to rush forward to expand the results.

Kobayata looked back and observed that the two replacement troops quickly gathered together, each with hundreds of people. Further behind, the rumbling drums came from Nagao Kagetora's main camp, and even the Tagatani army, which was like a small fish next to it, began to fight with the Hojo army at the fence. There was a great momentum to determine the whole victory in one fell swoop.

But when the Hojo army on the earthen rampart was divided and eliminated, the Satomi army was about to succeed. A yellow horse flag with the words "Hachiman Great Bodhisattva" written on it moved down the slope amid thunderous cheers. The originally demoralized Hojo army regained their fighting spirit and fought back with their spears and swords.

The Hojo reinforcements shouted "Victory! Victory! Our army won!" and formed a dense forest of spears to charge towards the top of the fort. Masaki Daizen's army consisted of close combat samurai and long-armed foot soldiers, and did not bring any bow foot soldiers or iron cannon foot soldiers. They were completely unable to suppress the Hojo reinforcements that charged up. Moreover, they had more people against fewer people, and the home advantage was obvious. Although they had a bit of a sense of attacking from above, they were not at all weak.

The yellow horse flag with the eight-man flag on the rotten leaf behind them was too inspiring. Even if he was as skilled in martial arts as Masaki Daizen, he could not intimidate the Hojo soldiers who charged up.

Under the continuous wave-like attack of the Hojo army, the Satomi army retreated step by step. Kobayata knew that Hojo Tsunari was ready for battle, and his most elite Tamazawa troops must have also been ready for battle. With the addition of such high-spirited soldiers, the Hojo defense was as solid as a rock, and it was really a failure.

I don't know who shouted, but they turned around and threw their spears back to abandon the battle. The Satomi army left behind dozens of corpses of their comrades and retreated like a tide. Flags and weapons were scattered everywhere. Several wounded soldiers were unable to escape and were directly attacked by the counterattacking Hojo army.

Kobayata looked back and saw that Nagao Kagetora, who had been beating the drums in the center of the formation, threw his drumsticks to the ground fiercely and stood there sighing.

Masaki Daizen was forced by the defeated soldiers to retreat to the shelter of the iron gunners. He was so angry that he threw his bloody helmet to the ground. With a clang, blood splashed on the face of a foot soldier next to him, and then he held the red spear and cursed angrily.

Satomi Yoshiyao came over to comfort him. Masaki Daizen was the main figure in the retainer group and should not be taken lightly. Then he began to count the casualties. Several samurai died. It hurt for three minutes.

On the other side, the Tagatani clan also retreated, but there were only a few scattered corpses on the slope. They were just working without any effort.

Even if they filled the trenches and piled up the earth slopes, they still couldn't attack Odawara's castle town in one fell swoop.

Selfishness ruins everything!

It's Saturday, let's get ready.