Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 44

The Hide family placed the upper road preparations at the front line in the middle, with Togawa Bei of Togawa Hideyasu on the left, and the preparation team composed of Oku Prefecture nobles led by Matasafune Sadao's son Hasefune Tsunao on the right.The Xiujia Banner was originally placed behind the entire army to control the overall situation.

Since the Xiu family was young, they could only sit on a tall horse with a close samurai.Fudo Myoko Main was held high by Kenjiro, and the flag with the words of Fudo Myoko behind him swayed with the sea breeze.

Since the advantage and loss of the surprise attack, Xiujia also hopes to test the training results of the direct reserve team through this dignified battle.

"According to the inspection report, the number of Changzong's army on the opposite side is about 3000, and our army has an advantage of 4400. My lord ordered the attack." As one of the three elders, Togawa Hidean replaced the former Ukita Tadashi's role, serving as the guide for this battle.

It was just unexpected that Xiujia did not adopt Togawa Hidean's plan, but asked the whole army to press forward to the first 80 steps of Changzong's army.

Following the issuance of Xiujia's military order, as the top guard of the Chinese army, he stepped on the beat of the drummer assigned to each company and marched forward.

Although the pace was still scattered and the formation was uneven, Shangdaobei still moved forward steadily, corresponding to the somewhat chaotic subordinate legions on the two wings.

After approaching a distance of about 80 steps, following the sharp long whistle of the reserve captain Masayuki Takashima, the entire reserve team acted as if they were one, and quickly sorted out the somewhat messy formation after the second short whistle.

The neat action on the road was like a mountain, pressing down on the hearts of everyone in Changzong's department on the opposite side.As the commander-in-chief, Kagawa Ami looked at the opposite Ukita Army with a stern expression. The discipline of the Ukita Army in front of him was something he had never seen before traveling with his father in Shikoku.

However, Kagawa couldn't afford to think too much about it, and the formation on the opposite side began to loosen with the change of the drumbeat. Afterwards, with the whistles of the captains, the front row of the reserve team easily opened their bows and arrows, losing the pinned feathers. The arrow flew out under the action of the power of the bowstring.

Despite the rush of time, Xiujia still made more than 800 bows from mulberry wood and other woods according to local conditions without the availability of Ezo yew pine wood. They were usually used as training bows and distributed in the arsenals of various counties to replace the backward Marugi bows.

It's just that the battle was urgent, so we had to recollect 500 longbows from all the counties in the whole territory to match the 300 or so heavy rattan bows we originally owned and assign them to Shangdaobei.

The British longbowmen in history used the same bow as the European longbow but showed the secret of the unusual effect. One is that the material of the bow is different, and the other is the unique double-fingered string technique. As the British longbowmen continue to The creation of miracles led Britain to victory.This technique has further become the victory gesture of later generations.

Xiujia can't solve the wood problem for the time being, but he can teach his archers more effective techniques. After half a year of training, although the techniques are still unfamiliar, the shooting range has been greatly increased.

The rain of arrows shot from Shangdao Beizuqing's hand fell about 10 meters in front of Changzong's army, and only a few arrows hit a few unlucky peasants and soldiers.

Seeing such a cross-stretching archery, the pressure caused by the upper road equipment in Changzong's family dropped sharply, and they all showed mocking smiles at Ukita-jun, and some even started making faces at Ukita-jun.

On the side of Shangdaobei, as the captain corrected the target here, more ashigaru raised the bow in their hands and put on the feather arrows, and then there was another short and neat whistle, and these ashigaru let go With the hand that drew the bow, hundreds of feathered arrows flew out like wild horses that had run wild.

The 80-step feather arrows can fly in less than 2 seconds, and they fell on their heads before Changzong and my family could react.This time it was no longer a trial shooting, these arrows were like nails piercing into the bodies of the incomplete Kagawa.

Even if there are enough ashigaru and samurai, facing the special armor-piercing arrows, they are all knocked down by the arrow rain prepared by the upper road. In an instant, hundreds of people from Kagawa who were still laughing at Ukita's army in front of the battle fell down.

The sudden downsizing made the army of the Kagawa group loose, and Hideka seized the opportunity to order Shangdao to prepare for an attack.

The short ashigaru who were not up to the standard in the upper road came out from the gap between the archers in front and ran quickly to the 50-step position, raising the loaded iron cannon in their hands and firing a burst.

At the same time, the second arrow shot by the archer behind also hit the heads of the Xiangchuan people.

The Kagawa congregation, who had been baffled by Ukita's set of actions, had lost 5 to 600 people in just one round of fighting. Although the samurai tried their best to restrain them, they could not stop the determination of the peasants to flee.

As the commander-in-chief, Ami Kagawa, after ordering the archers to shoot a sparse rain of arrows to counterattack to no avail, saw the troops in front begin to collapse, and retreated under the influence of the retainers.

Seeing that the general had retreated, the rest of the Kagawa people completely lost their control and ran in all directions on the battlefield.

Hideka was very satisfied with Shangdoubei's actions, and immediately ordered the Togawa and Oku people on the two wings to pursue, Shangdoubei cleaned up the battlefield, and he led the Banners to He Sheng City in a leisurely manner.

Although Shangdoubei has undergone strict disciplinary training, after witnessing the retreat of the Kagawa people, some Shangdoubei still habitually ran out of the team to chase the deserters of the Kagawa family, and at the same time they could search for some spoils, but these leaving the team All of them were caught by the team leader and team leader and brought to Masayuki Takashima.

Just at this time, the Xiu family passed by, and looked at the dozen or so people who were brought to the front of the formation with blank expressions. Forgiveness, but was stopped by the Banners.

As a traditional samurai, Takashima Masaoyuki obviously still did not accept the Hide family's way of commanding the army. He was a little hesitant about the warriors who had just fought bravely. To him, these were trained elite troops. It is a pity to be executed for the crime of the army.

Hideya looked at Takashima Masayuki who was unable to give the order for a long time, turned around and whispered something to Kenjiro, and walked towards He Shengcheng without looking back.

Kenjiro rode his horse across the crowd and came to Takashima Masayuki to deliver Hideka's words, "The main hall asked me to ask Takashima-sama, what are you waiting for?"

Masayuki Takashima returned with a look of reluctance: "These are good Jiro from Bizen, and they were also very heroic in the battle just now. I'm sure my lord will give me a chance."

Hideka obviously expected Masayuki Takashima to have such a reply, Kenjiro asked, "How does the "Ukita Military Law" stipulate the crime of disorderly army? Go, then let the hall do it yourself."

Xiujia's meaning is very clear, if you can't even enforce the military law effectively, you will be the captain of the reserve team, and there are many warriors behind who hope to become the commander of the reserve force to control more than 1000 people.

Takashima Masaru, who understood Hideka's meaning, made up his mind and ordered the military law generals directly under his jurisdiction to enforce the military law.

The military law team with the red background and white son's pattern flag on the back walked in front of these ashigaru and samurai. The clothes on the wrongdoers were taken off, the weapons were confiscated, and they were restrained wearing a single shirt.

Then, the military judges with swords chopped off the heads of these dozens of people in front of thousands of Ukita troops, including the left and right flanks of the nobles, and the Kosai family in the castle.

Afterwards, their heads were passed around to the whole army with long spears by the military judges like military achievements. Togawa Hidean didn't understand, Nasafune's sister didn't understand, and He Sheng's Xiangxi Jiaqing didn't understand why the Hide family not only didn't get rewards. Those meritorious soldiers cut them down instead.

Only the Xiu family knows that although they did have meritorious service, their unorganized and undisciplined behavior after the war caused commotion in the Shangdao Bei, and the formation appeared scattered. Prepared for an avalanche.

The Hide family wanted to restrain the entire army with military law, and after the muscle memory was formed, even if they really encountered Hideaki Kobayakawa's surprise attack during Sekihara, it would be enough to withstand the pressure and buy time for the Hide family to calmly deploy their formation.

In any case, the Hide family's Shangdaobei, as a military force of the new era, showed an overwhelming advantage over the peasant armed forces of the old era, which really shocked the Xiangxi Jiaqing and Ukita nobles in the city.And these were all expected by the Xiu family.

(End of this chapter)