Even though Naomasa Hori was waving his flag like crazy as a warning, most of the chaotic samurai on the battlefield were still indifferent to the danger of the Otsutsu position. Only one person on the entire battlefield kept a clear head.
"All the cavalrymen of Hokurikudo come with me! The cavalry of the Oda family are also coming through!" After Shibata Katsuie briefly surveyed the situation on the high ground, he immediately realized what the Red Leaf Army wanted to do. He brought
His own Hatamoto knights galloped behind the Oda family's battle line, waving flags and shouting continuously. The samurai such as Maeda Toshiie, Sasana Narimasa, Fuwa Koji, Hori Hidemasa, and Hachiya Yorotaka still hadn't reacted yet.
But he still sent all his banner knights to Shibata Katsuie one after another. Although there were still many people who had not gathered, Shibata Katsuie saw that it was almost too late, so he led the 3,000 cavalry who had gathered to quickly go north.
, going around the southeastern bank of the Yodo River.
"The enemy's target is the Otsutsuki position..." Although Shibata Katsuie is still confused about the actions of the Red Leaf Army - at this time, it is clear that the Red Leaf Cavalry should be allowed to sweep the battle line. Although it is impossible to reverse the advantage of the 70,000-strong army, it can at least be restored.
The situation made the Hongye Army's collapse slower. What's the use of rushing straight to the Otsutsu position? What will happen if they rush down? In order to win this useless position that has played no role in the entire battle, they actually
Did he use his most precious cavalry and reserves?
Shibata Katsuie glanced at Oda Nobunaga's horse seal that was still not erected in the direction of the bastion, and felt a little uneasy - he firmly believed that Oda Nobunaga could never be taken away from the formation so easily, and was probably just moving.
That’s it. When the horse seals are erected again, the Oda Army can end its shaky state. Although the disappearance of Oda Nobunaga’s horse seals plunged the Oda Army into chaos on the battlefield, this flaw led to the final reserve of the Red Leaf Army—
- Shibata Katsuie suddenly realized that this unexpected incident that was extremely bad for the Oda family could be an opportunity for the Oda family to completely win - as long as he wiped out the reserve team of the Red Leaf Army, the Red Leaf Army would be finished.
Therefore, Shibata Katsuie took over the commanding role of Oda Nobunaga and dispatched messengers to various places in a smooth manner, asking all ministries to stabilize the front line. At the same time, he allocated manpower to cooperate with him in encircling and suppressing the Tongqiang Bei and the Ryohara Bei. However, he did not
We know that on the east side of the battlefield, a large number of Oda troops mistakenly thought that Shibata Katsuie's quick return north of the horse sign was abandoning the army and absconding before receiving the message from Shibata Katsuie's messenger. This led to Oda's
Many members of the army lost their will to fight and began to fight and retreat, giving the Red Leaf Army and the coalition forces valuable rest time.
Shibata Katsuie did not expect that the battlefield would be so chaotic that he had already led his cavalry to the battlefield, but no one except Hori Hidemasa sent any supporting troops. The cavalry of the Hongye Army led the way from several bridges on the Yodogawa River.
Rushing up to cross the river, Liaoyuanbei's military formation was also following up quickly...
etc…
Shibata Katsuie was suddenly stunned, because he saw that the three square formations of Rakihara Preparation were not hollow, but packed full of people. Those people were not wearing the uniforms of the auxiliary soldiers, but the red leaf army's uniforms.
Fighting soldiers - but more than half of them are not wearing armor. This ratio... is the Jingzhe equipment of the Red Leaf Army. They deliberately did not fly the military flag to hide their identities, and the purpose was to reach - the big barrel of the Oda family on the hill
position.
Shibata Katsuie immediately realized the purpose of the Red Leaf Army - they wanted Jingzhe to seize the Oda Army's big barrel and fire it. The Oda family's big barrel was made based on the drawings provided by Yu Qiupei, and the size and ammunition loading capacity were
They are all the same as the big tubes of the Red Leaf Army, and they are naturally seamless to use. Now nearly half of the 70,000 soldiers of the Oda family are within the coverage of the big tube positions on the hills. If those 150 large tubes are allowed to fire at their own troops from a high position,
,The consequences could be disastrous…
Shibata Katsuie had no time to think carefully, nor did he have time to wait for the reinforcements to arrive. He rushed along the Yodo River and rushed towards Rakihara Bei and Jingzhe Bei.
·
At this time, on the hill, the artillerymen of the Oda Army were busy loading. They had thought that they would not be needed in this battle.
Gen didn't make any preparations, and now he saw that the Red Leaf Cavalry had already crossed Yodogawa and headed straight for the mountain, and everyone was as anxious as ants on a hot pot.
"We should change to shotgun shells! Why do we need to load solid bullets!"
"Quickly withdraw the solid bullets!"
"It's too late. They're all rushing up the mountain. Let's fight for anything!"
"Guards, get in front of the cavalry!"
"How can you open fire when we block the front?"
In the chaos, Hori Naomasa was so anxious that he had only 1,000 soldiers at hand, but he had to protect nearly 3,000 gunners and 150 large guns. No one thought that this hill would become the target of the attack before. Now,
It was too late to build fortifications in a hurry. As the sound of horse hooves gradually approached and the smoke rose from the foothills, everyone knew that the Red Leaf Cavalry was approaching. The closer the Red Leaf Cavalry got, the more unfavorable the movements of the Oda family's gunners became.
, so that when the Red Leaf Cavalry rushed to the front of the position, only one-third of the artillery was completed, and the vast majority of them were loaded with solid bullets that did little damage in close combat.
"Fight as we get closer! Don't fire now!" Hori Naomasa looked at the rapidly approaching Red Leaf Cavalry and the gradually shortening distance on the mountain road, shouting at the top of his lungs, "We only have one chance to fire, wait until the nearest moment to fight!"
"If you hit me again recently, if the cavalry rushes in front of us, even if we fire our cannons, we will die!" The gunners of the Oda Army were slandering in their hearts. They watched the terrifying cavalry waving their hands with bloody hands.
The long sword came roaring. Finally, an Oda army gunner was overwhelmed. After lighting the seal, he ran away. The sound of the cannon instantly caused a chain reaction, and the panicked Oda gun crews rushed to the scene.
There was still a certain distance and they fired hastily. Most of the solid bullets missed because the cannons were not adjusted correctly. Only the dozen shotgun shells at the end mopped down dozens of knights. After all, the gunners of the Oda family
Lack of sufficient actual combat experience. How to deal with a sudden crisis situation when being attacked by enemy cavalry?
After the red leaf cavalry rushed up the hill, the Oda family's artillery crew immediately dispersed like birds and beasts. The remaining guards watched the gunners run away en masse, and their morale was shaken under the wave of retreat. The fleeing artillery crew members were still
These guards had no space to form a formation, so they had to fight individually to fight against the Red Leaf Cavalry. Not long after, their defense was broken through. Thousands of Red Leaf Cavalry galloped around, knocking down and cutting down the guards in pieces.
Seeing that the situation was beyond control, Hori Naomasa had no choice but to flee with the troops he could gather at hand.
"Oops... Damn it!" Shibata Katsuie looked at the Red Leaf Army's banners galloping around on the hill, and understood that the Otsutsu position had been lost. But not far in front of him, Jingzhebei's troops had been divided into three
A bridge was built to cross the Yodo River, and the soldiers of Rakihara Preparation turned around and guarded the bridge. It was just a little bit... If he had reacted a little earlier, he could have stopped them before they crossed the river. If someone
If the command is unified, they can be stopped! If the lord's horse seal did not mysteriously and suddenly disappear, this army would have been stopped long ago!
"Kill them! Stop those gunners!" Shibata Katsuie shouted regardless, urging the Oda family's cavalry to rush towards the bridge.
"Stop them!" Yoshioka Katsumasa also yelled and ordered, letting the three companies of Rakihara Bei each guard a bridge. "Our cavalry of the Red Leaf Army can overwhelm your pikemen, and our pikemen can also block yours."
Cavalry! No matter how you fight, it’s the same! Even if His Highness Hongye is gone, our Hongye Army is still the strongest in the world!"
"For His Highness Hongye!"
The pikemen of the Ryouyuan Preparation chanted slogans and formed a dense anti-horse formation in the middle of the bridge, while the iron artillerymen aimed their iron cannons at the Oda family's cavalry on the banks on both sides of the bridge.
"Tch!" Sakuma Morimasa touched his nose with his hand disdainfully, then pulled out the knife from his waist, urging the cavalry around him to rush towards the bridge, "It's just a few hundred spearmen... you think you can really block it?"
Are we the knights from the north?
?It will disperse after just flushing it!”
The knights of the Hokurikudo Army marched onto the bridge in a mighty manner and pounced on Rakihara Bei's spearmen at an astonishing speed. As long as they bumped into each other like this - even if they were stabbed to death immediately, the overturned corpses would still be able to smash a way out of the way.
Come on - this is what the Red Leaf Cavalry did just now.
However, just before they were about to collide, the iron gunners who had been prepared by the bridge opened fire diagonally at the cavalry on the bridge. The violent roar frightened the horses of the Hokurikudo Regiment, and they rushed forward.
The horses were so frightened that people stood up one after another, and then they were swept down by the projectiles one by one in a pool of blood. Only two or three batches of horses could really hit the prairie fire line. And the horses under the knights who followed were also frightened.
, finally controlled the mount, but the speed had dropped to a dangerous level. The knights behind them were still rushing toward the bridge, forcing them to move forward bravely. But with such a horse speed, there was nothing to knock them away.
There was only one road left, and even the impact was difficult. As soon as one of Ryuhara Bei's spearmen fell down, several others rushed to catch up. They refused to retreat even a step without fear of death, and did not give the Oda cavalry a chance to disrupt the battle line.
After the charge of the Oda cavalry was blocked, these knights who had lost their speed immediately became targets for the spearmen, and were knocked off their horses one by one by random spears. The corpses of people and horses were staggered on the bridge, which also hindered the subsequent cavalry attack.
Hundreds of cavalry gathered on the other side of the bridge and circled, but they had no chance to rush to the bridge. They just allowed the iron gunners who had completed the exchange of orders to bombard them one after another. More and more Oda cavalry were beaten by the spearmen and iron gunners.
Death, the bodies of men and horses fell off the bridge, causing splash after splash of water in the Yodo River.
"Damn it..." Sakuma Morimasa, who wanted to rush onto the bridge, reined in his horse and backed away from both sides of the crowded bridge. It was already impossible to break through from the bridge. He took a few deep breaths and looked for the Red Leaf Army.
Other breaches in the defense line. However, although the width of this section of the Yodogawa River is only twenty feet, the water flow is quite deep, and it is impossible to ford it without a bridge.
Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration and discovered a new "road". At the base of the stone bridge, hundreds of corpses of warriors and war horses had fallen. Under the impact of the water flow, they interacted with the surrounding rocks and bridges.
The base and bridge piers were put together to form a corpse path.
Sakuma Morimasa was already furious, and he was not going to let go of such a ridiculous attack method. He laughed ferociously, and immediately called on his dozens of Hatamoto knights around him to rush towards the floating corpses on the water with him. Those
The corpses were hung on the rocks, bridge foundations and bridge piers, which were barely enough for the horses to jump with all four hooves. However, there were still many cavalrymen who were not skilled in equestrian skills and fell into the water when they slipped, becoming a new focus for the cavalry behind them to jump. But Sakubo
Sakuma Morimasa made no mistakes and jumped all the way to the other side of the river with superb skills. The iron gunners of the Hongye Army on the river bank had just completed a salvo. The iron cannons were being reloaded and could not fire. Sakuma Morimasa was under the last bridge pier.
As soon as the horse rides on the bridge base, it will jump to the shore. As long as it rushes to the shore, these annoying iron gunners can be killed.
However, at this critical moment, a cry of "For Momiji-sama" suddenly rang in his ears. Sakuma Morimasa could only see a flash in front of his eyes - an iron gunner of the Momiji Army jumping regardless of the direction of his horse's leap.
It came over and hit the horse's head. Almost at the moment of the collision, the iron gunner of the Hongye Army was hit to pieces with liver and gallbladder broken, bleeding from all the orifices, and was killed without even making a cry. But this sudden blow
It also changed the balance and posture of the horse, and dragged Sakuma Morimasa and his horse down the river.
Before Sakuma Morimasa struggled to lift his head out of the water, he heard another series of shouts of "For His Majesty Momiji" coming from the river bank above. Every one of the Momiji Army iron gunners jumped on the prancing horse with all their might.
The coming Hokurikudo knights knocked them all down the river, giving the brothers behind them time to change their ammunition. The falling bodies of two people and one horse also smashed Sakuma Morimasa underwater.
Ba Su, when he finally raised his head after struggling to pick up a horse, what he saw was a pair of black iron cannon muzzles pointed at him.
Chapter completed!