Chapter 49 8. Hundreds of Riders Are Like One

After hearing what Hojo Takahiro said, Xiao Pingtai really wanted to believe it. If Nagao Kagetora came, Xiao Pingtai would believe it alone, but it is hard to believe that Hojo Takahiro came with so many people.

Besides, you should know what kind of person you are. You were beaten by Uesugi Kenshin and sent to Kanto, and then you turned around and joined Hojo Ujiyasu. Then you were beaten by Uesugi Kenshin again, and finally when Uesugi Kagekatsu fought with his son and supported Kagetora. Unfortunately, he even risked his life.

So why is your word so unreliable? Xiao Pingtai didn't see any trustworthy things except that Hojo Takahiro was a bit extravagant.

But now there is a shortage of food, and you can't get food with your bare hands, so you can only trust Hojo Takahiro. To put it in a more vulgar way: What can I do? I am also desperate.

After thinking about it, for these 10,000 people, at least one month's food is still stable. Kobayata could only wait and see how the situation develops before considering other things.

Two flowers bloom, each with its own meaning. Looking at the response of the Hojo side, they saw nearly 10,000 enemy troops coming. Hojo Yasumoto summoned soldiers to defend the city, and at the same time, he pulled the tiger skin of Hojo Ujiyasu and ordered the local nobles in Ueno and Shimotsano to lead troops to rescue him.

As the Yamauchi army looted everywhere, the Hojo army's horse carriages and messengers also shuttled between Ueno and Shimotsano, trying their best to pull reinforcements to rescue their boss Hojo Yasumoto.

At this time, with the arrival of the Echigo reinforcements, the conflict between the Hojo army and the Yamauchi army was about to begin. Hojo Yasumoto was afraid that the enemy would become more and more, and finally made up his mind to go out of the city and fight to the death.

Hojo Yasumoto's capital was actually not bad. He had 2,000 local people who came to support Sagami Musashi. These were not miscellaneous soldiers. They were all elite soldiers of the Tamazunabe brought by his father, Huang Hachiman and Hojo Tsunari. They were all regular foot soldiers without any water. They were very loyal and strong in combat.

Slightly inferior were the 800 conscripted soldiers of the Numata clan and the 600 of the Shimotsano clan, a total of 3,400 soldiers that he could control with ease. In addition, the 500 people of the Azuma Saito clan and the 2,500 people of the Minowa Nagano clan gathered together and camped in the mountains outside the city. It was clear that unless they were sure to win the battle and seize the fruits of victory, they would have to go back to where they came from.

However, the military strength of these 3,000 people was enough to cheer up the Hojo army, which showed that at least on the surface, most of the people in Ueno were still on the Hojo side. Whether they contributed or not was another matter, but their attitude was at least acceptable.

In this way, the Hojo side actually had more than 6,000 people, the main force of the Yamanouchi side was 3,100 Yamanouchi people plus 1,200 Ejiri people (the actual combat force was just over 2,000), Shinano Saku Kogachi people 1,100 (all weak and useless), Ueno people 400 (tied up, even more useless), two Nagao remnants 750, and Echigo Yangbei reinforcements 1,100.

Looking at the nearly 8,000 troops of the Yamanouchi family, there were actually only about 4,000 people who could rush up and fight, which was not much different from the Hojo side's 3,000 or so who could see the battle.

As soon as the troops were pulled out, Hojo Yasumoto, who was trained by the famous general Hojo Tsunari, only took a rough look and estimated that the actual combat strength of the Yamanouchi army and reinforcements was just so-so. They were completely capable of fighting.

After Hojo Yasumoto saw through all this, he stopped talking nonsense. He quickly set up the formation and stabilized the reinforcements of the two local snakes in Ueno. To form a horn, the Numata and Sano soldiers formed a battle array with their backs to the city. The Numata and Sano soldiers were the first layer of consumption. One thousand Hojo soldiers were divided into two wings. Finally, dozens of hatamoto and horse-horse drove one thousand Hojo soldiers to be the general reserve in the second line to make the final decisive blow.

The Yamanouchi faction had a geographical advantage with its back to the Echigo Mountains, and had a slight advantage of being above and below. The Yamanouchi people occupied one wing, but Hojo Takahiro seized the main position of the frontal assault. It seemed that he was trying to use a thousand people to break through the more than 3,000 Hojo troops.

In terms of battle array, although the Hojo army actually had a city to rely on, it could only form a battle array on a small plain. The reason is also very simple. The Numata area is actually a basin. And everyone knows the nature of the Japanese in building cities. A small force like the Numata family will not choose to build a large-scale flat city, but will only try to build a mountain city on the hillside.

This also led to the fact that Hojo Yasumoto, who had his back to the city, could only place his army on the flat ground. After all, the only hillside next door was occupied by Nagano Yoshimasa in advance, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Although the Yamauchi army was the attacking party, it was located at the junction of the Echigo Mountains and the Kanto Plain. The towering mountains gradually flattened here, but there was still a certain inclination angle. It was just right for the army to attack the Hojo side.

After the two sides had lined up, the Yamauchi side's formation was extremely thin on one side (more than a thousand people) and extremely thick on the other side (more than seven thousand people), which made Hojo Yasumoto confused and thought that there was some dispute within the Yamauchi army.

However, it was obvious that Hojo Yasumoto thought too much. Although Yamauchi Yoshikatsu was young and energetic, he was not an idiot who slapped the protagonist in the face in a brainless and mentally retarded novel. Not acting on impulse was the lowest requirement for a general. He was happy to have someone to charge at the front line. The samurai and foot soldiers of the Yamanouchi family were the capital of the Warring States period, and he would be sad if one of them died.

Hojo Takahiro sent a horseman to let His Highness Yamanouchi Samasuke watch the battle, and then ran back in a flash.

Then Yamanouchi Yoshikatsu was also happy to be idle, and he casually pointed out a foot soldier general of the hatamoto clan to lead three or four hundred people to contain the Hojo flank, and the rest of the army watched the show.

Kobayata was more curious about the fighting power of the Echigo soldiers. After all, various information from later generations praised Uesugi Kenshin's Echigo soldiers as incomparable. They were said to be on par with the four elite soldiers of Takeda Kai, and a few thousand men overwhelmed the tens of thousands of Hojo soldiers.

The opportunity to observe the fighting power of the Echigo army head-on should not be missed. Kobayata quickly rode his less than 1.2-meter-long Kiso horse and let Aji lead him to stand on a high place with his hands on the canopy to watch from afar.

Looking at Hojo Takahiro holding a rattan bow 200 meters away, loudly encouraging the Echigo soldiers, but the intermittent sound that came with the wind seemed to be a head for two liters of white rice, and another two liters of white rice for destroying the entire army. It was quite simple, Kobayata thought.

Then I saw Hojo Takahiro personally leading sixty or seventy horsemen with iron armor and hanging curtains on horses, holding rattan bows, and forming small groups of three or five, and each gathered together to form a large group. The Hojo army rushed in front of them, and the sound of horses' hooves rumbled continuously.

When they were about 20 to 30 meters in front of the Hojo army, they all released their bowstrings and shot arrows, and then turned to the sides without hesitation, and returned to the Echigo army to gather again.

I saw that the cannon fodder in the first line of the Hojo army kept falling down, and most of the Hojo archers were recruited on the spot. The Maruki bows were weak and the arrows were not good. In addition, the terrifying momentum when the cavalry charged, these foot soldiers were still able to shoot arrows, which was already very worthy of Hojo Yasumoto.

If they encountered an army with weak will and wavering people's hearts, Hojo Takahiro's invitation might cause the three armies to collapse immediately. Anyway, if Kobayata was a foot soldier in the first line, he would definitely turn around and run when he saw such cavalry rushing over, because his life was at stake.

After Hojo Takahiro gave way, Hojo Kagehiro, the second formation of the Echigo army, also led dozens of cavalry to shoot arrows with bows, dozens of cavalry were like one cavalry, and hundreds of people were like one person. The two father and son fought back and forth for three times, without losing a single person, and disrupted the Hojo's formation.

The chance of victory or defeat has begun to emerge.

The first update at 9 o'clock, thank you.