It was getting late, and behind the team - that is, to the east, the red reserve team of Shanxian Changjing also gradually slowed down. It seemed that they had no plans to fight in the field. Seeing Shanxian Changjing's performance, Yu Qiu calmed down.
He made up his mind and ordered the troops to set up camp at Xiliubei in the far west. Since all the auxiliary soldiers were left behind for three days, a series of complicated logistical activities had to be done by the soldiers with adequate clothing. Although this would
It greatly consumed the soldiers' physical strength, but Yu Qiuping had no other choice.
Since the intelligence was completely blocked, Yu Qiuping now has a dark eye on the situation in the east. This situation makes him feel very bad, because he has always emphasized the role of intelligence, so he established a special military intelligence department. Although Sanada Masayuki tried his best
, but it is still impossible to spy on the situation behind Chibei. I don’t know where the Takeda family’s army has arrived now. Are they coming closely behind Chibei, or are they staying under Hamamatsu Castle to repair? Can this information be confirmed?
, it concerns whether Yu Qiuping will rush to evacuate in the middle of the night with a torch tomorrow.
After nightfall on December 22, a large number of fires were vaguely visible in the southeast. According to estimates, this should be the main force of the Takeda family moving. In other words, they have probably left Hamamatsu Castle and are heading northwest to join the vanguard.
Yu Qiuping realized the danger of the situation and had to order the troops to also light up torches and retreat. Because in the previously arranged plan, the Yu Qiu army must keep a distance of 30 miles from the Takeda army when retreating. If
If the Takeda army rushes to the vanguard overnight, the distance between the two sides will be only 5 miles. At dawn tomorrow, the Takeda army will attack, and the Yuqiu army will not be able to escape.
Yu Qiuping's army came all the way and went through a rapid march in armor, which exhausted a lot of physical strength. But now he had not slept for two hours before he had to get up and go on the road again. Yu Qiuping was also deeply worried about the physical strength of the army. Simply Yu
Qiu Jun trained hard and had adequate food, and was still able to complete the tasks assigned by Yu Qiuping.
After noticing Yu Qiuping's withdrawal, the red troops from Changjing, Shan County also set up torches and pursued them, lingering around Yu Qiuping. Yu Qiuping felt uneasy, because in the dark night when he couldn't see his fingers, the troops
Yu Qiuping's mood was very unstable, and he was likely to collapse due to accidental events. If the Red Bei team rushed over all of a sudden, Yu Qiuping was not sure whether he could stop it. Therefore, he specifically ordered the 450 Iron Cannonmen of Tokiwa Bei to take the risk.
In order to avoid the risk of misfire, they loaded iron cannons with torches to guard against an attack by the red reserve troops.
Walking at night was extremely slow, not to mention that the Red Bei Corps was following behind them. The entire night, Yu Qiu Ping's army did not go a few miles. Yu Qiuping kept looking at the far east, behind the Red Bei Corps -
—There were no torches lit up. This means that the Takeda family's large force could only advance as far as Iiya's position and did not continue the pursuit with torches. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that Amakihei was able to distance himself from the Takeda family's large force.
, the bad thing is that Takeda Army could have a good night's rest and recharge his batteries, but Yuqiu Army stayed up for most of the night.
Since the war was imminent, and the number of Takeda troops was larger than expected - Tokugawa Ieyasu was no longer able to help Ua Qiupei contain even 1,000 Takeda troops. Therefore, Ua Qiupei paid special attention to the battlefield layout of Shitarahara. He
Envoys were sent to Mikachi and Shitarahara in batches to understand the situation. Before dawn, all the auxiliary troops had successfully withdrawn into the valley, and some mountain roads were repaired and widened to facilitate the retreat of the Yuqiu family soldiers.
.At Tokugawa Nobuyasu in Shitarahara, enough horse-proof fences and horse-repelling fences have been secured, and half of the trenches have been dug. Since he has to design a huge position to accommodate more than 15,000 people, the workload is very heavy.
It is estimated that it will not be completed until noon.
"It's still too late." Yu Qiuping sighed slightly.
Taking a breath, looking at the gradually brightening sky, he ordered the troops to extinguish the torches. Now their position is less than 10 miles away from the entrance of Sanri. If there is no interference from the Takeda Army, the Yuqiu Army can defeat them in less than an hour.
He arrived. However, Yu Qiuping also knew in his heart that Shanxian Changjing would not let him leave.
Sure enough, just after Yu Qiuping extinguished the torch, a loud roar suddenly came from the Red Bei team behind him. More than 600 people threw the torches in their hands to the ground in unison, which seemed to be invisible in the hazy morning fog.
It was quite shocking. Immediately afterwards, the Red Guards dispersed into a looser cavalry charge formation and quickly attacked the Yuqiu Army.
"Coming!" Upon seeing this, Yu Qiuping immediately ordered Fukushima Yasunari, "Ancheng, Tokiwa, stop! Prepare to respond to the enemy!"
"Yes!" After Fukushima Yasunari received the order, he immediately ordered the flag bearer to wave the flag of Tokiwabei. The order was passed down one level at a time. The entire Tokiwabei army, which had been evacuating toward the west in large strides, immediately stood still and then shouted several times.
After a brief command in Chinese, the entire army turned back and aligned to the right. Tokiwabei's three companies formed a hollow square formation and stood in a square shape. The first row of pikemen on the outside knelt on one knee, and the second row
The spears were ejected from the shoulders of the first row of ashigaru, and the third row pointed their spears diagonally high into the sky, forming the Yuqiu family's classic anti-carbine formation. This formation could effectively prevent the cavalry from detouring around the flanks.
"So fast." Yamagata Masaki snorted coldly when he saw this, "In a dozen breaths, the reserve team that had just retreated was like a frightened hedgehog, instantly exposed. It's no wonder that Imagawa Harubu, Miyoshi
Xiu Xiu values this son so much, and he really deserves his reputation."
Seeing Tokiwa Bei put up such a formation, Yamagata Masaki asked himself that there was no good chance. Indeed, if he used Chi Bei to rush into the spear formation, Chi Bei could still rush in with his bravery and skill in fighting, but the casualties would be high.
It's quite tragic.
Just as the Red Bei troops were pressing towards Tokiwa Bei's position, Yamagata Masaki relied on his intuition from decades of fighting on the battlefield, and suddenly noticed something was wrong. He waved his hand suddenly and ordered the troops to disperse to both sides immediately.
A moment later, all 450 of Tokiwabei's iron cannons opened fire. Shokyo of Suminshan Prefecture gave the order early, and no Chibei was hit and fell off his horse. If he had given the order a little later, and Chibei had continued to charge forward, he would probably have been in the front row.
A dozen people were shot into dice.
"With so many iron cannons hidden, I thought the previous information was false." Shanxian Changjing muttered again and glanced at the four highest flags in Yuqiu's army. A maple bird horse seal, a mountain flag,
A bow and arrow flag, and a wicker flag.
"It seems that the configuration of the three reserve teams is the same. The number of iron cannons cannot be thousands." Shanxian Changjing frowned and whispered to a messenger, "Erlang, you go and report to the lord.
The number of Yuqiu's iron cannons is likely to be thousands, so be careful."
Later, Shanxian Changjing loudly ordered again: "All ministries, do not enter the range of the iron cannon, just use it as a deterrent from a distance!"
·
Since the Red Bei team has been cruising near Tokiwa Bei, Toki Bei did not dare to resume the marching formation and retreat (otherwise there would be a risk of being rushed by Chi Bei), so he had to keep the alert battle formation moving slowly, at a speed that was almost negligible.
No matter what, Yu Qiupei was worried that the Takeda family would catch up with such progress, so he had to order Narubei and Hosoragi who were following Tsukiwabei to form formations to guard the left and right wings for Tsukiwabei. With the cover of iron cannons on both wings, Chibei
The team did not dare to get too close anymore, but slowly retreated a certain distance, posing a threat to Yu Qiu's army if they were still close to the ground. Yu Qiuping then commanded the three reserve teams to cover each other, fight and retreat, and always keep the iron gunners facing each other.
The suppression of the cavalry has never given Shanxian County an opportunity to prosper.
But fight and retreat
It was too slow now, so he had to constantly adjust his formation and ensure that the team was not out of touch. Yu Qiuping kept looking to the east with fear, fearing that the Takeda family's army would catch up early. In order to hurry up, he was a little nervous several times while covering.
Tuoda, Shanxian Changjing almost took advantage of the gap between the reserve teams and rushed in. Yu Qiuping was so frightened that he broke into a cold sweat.
"Your Highness, this is not the way to go." As early as when the Red Guards appeared, Maeda Keiji had been whispering in Yu Qiupei's ear, "Let the brothers bring the cavalry to hold the Red Guards back for a while, and let the army
Evacuate quickly! If this continues, it will be too late!"
"Wake up, our cavalry can't even beat the second-rate cavalry of the Matsunaga family. You want to go against Takeda Akabi, the strongest cavalry team in the world? Not to mention that the opponent has half as many people as us?" Yu Qiuping is still the same as before countless times.
, unceremoniously refuted Maeda Keiji’s request.
"Then we have practiced cavalry hedging, and now we are definitely no weaker than the Matsunaga family! And we are just holding back, not letting go to fight. Besides, Takeda Chibei is so powerful, it was only through fighting! His Highness always refuses to let the cavalry
"When will I be able to train a powerful cavalry?" Maeda Keiji muttered unwillingly. He had always been fearless, but when he saw such a powerful opponent in front of him but couldn't fight against him, he felt very frustrated.
"Wake up, this is Takeda Chibei who wiped out the main force of the Imagawa family with a single charge. Even the Echigo cavalry would feel like facing a formidable enemy when they encountered it, let alone us cavalry. We have to practice, but we can wait until later.
Let's talk about it." Yu Qiuping shook his head resolutely, "If we fight against the Takeda family's cavalry, it will be a dead end, but our infantry is definitely stronger than the ashigaru that the Takeda family usually farms and pulls in during wars! Make use of your strengths and avoid weaknesses, understand.
?"
Since the red cavalry could not be restrained, Yu Qiu's army could not retreat at a faster pace. It was not until the beginning of the day that they finally retreated to the third day - the place where Yu Qiu's army was scheduled to enter the mountain. Yu Qiuping hurriedly boarded the mountain.
On a hard-won small high ground, I looked behind the Chibei team, only to find that there was no one there. The main force of the Takeda family had not arrived until now? The only ones who followed Yu Qiupei's army from the beginning to the end were the Chibei troops.
.
"What the hell, what are you doing, Doctor Dashan?" Yu Qiuping had an uneasy premonition in his heart for no reason, "Does it mean that Doctor Dashan didn't realize how bad it would be to let me go into the mountain? If it wasn't for the pursuit, he would have put in place such an in place intelligence barrier.
And for what?"
"Is it to paralyze me, pretend to chase me, scare me away, and then take the opportunity to knock down Hamamatsu Castle?" Yu Qiuping scratched his head in confusion and looked in the direction of Hamamatsu Castle.
——Since this morning, there are still more than a dozen wisps of smoke burning over there, and it can be seen that it has not fallen. If it has fallen, Takeda Shingen can completely extinguish all these smoke.
"It's weird." Yu Qiuping muttered to himself, and even had the urge not to go north into the mountains, but to simply retreat westward to Yoshida Castle. However, he couldn't help but be worried. With the current marching speed, he would not be able to leave today.
If we don't reach Yoshida Castle, if the main force of the Takeda Army comes in a hurry and catches up with them on the plains to Yoshida Castle tomorrow on the third day, then everything will be over.
"Let's go into the mountains as originally planned." Yu Qiuping finally made the decision and took the safest measure. "Let's go to Shitarahara!"
·
Of course, Yu Qiuping didn't notice. When he gave the order to enter the mountain road, on a tree not far from him, a woodpecker was tapping the trunk casually with its beak. Then, it fluttered
The wings flew to the other side of the trunk, waiting for a panicked insect to run out of the trunk.