Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 69: Is it just fixed thinking?
The ox carts were moving too slowly, and their marching speed was the slowest in the world. Yuanye was overtaken by others all the way. By the time he arrived at Inaba field after more than an hour, Oda Nobunaga had already finished his repairs and led his army out again, without even waiting for him.

He asked the samurai who stayed behind in the temporary camp, and learned that Oda Nobunaga did not leave him any orders. He then asked in detail about the movements of Nobunaga's army and found that Nobunaga's army had been divided into three groups: two detachments went to destroy the newly built Matsuba Fort and Mibongi Fort, while Oda Nobunaga and the lord of Moriyama Castle, Oda Nobumitsu, led the main force towards Kaizu, seeking to engage in battle with the main force of the Kiyosu army.

Yuanye hesitated for a moment, then ordered Maejima Jiro to set up a "field hospital" on the spot. After eating some rice balls, he was ready to receive the wounded. He himself took Aman and Aqing to the front to take a look. After the last trial, he found that as long as he kept a good distance in the wild, a small group of enemies could not do anything to him, so he became more courageous and felt that it was not impossible for him, a modern man, to fight on the battlefield.

He was so bold that he went to watch the fun again. On the way, he asked Aman, "How strong is the Kiyosu Oda family?"

"It's not bad. After all, they are the main Oda family in the lower four counties. Kiyosu Castle is also a big city with many large estates left over from the past. If we are ready to fight to the death, we can probably send out more than 3,000 people. However, most of them are miscellaneous foot soldiers, and the samurai party is only about 500 to 600 people."

Yuanye nodded slightly, feeling that the overall strength of the Kiyosu Oda clan was not as good as that of the Oda Danjotada clan. No wonder the "Tiger of Owari" didn't even dare to fart when he was alive. But now the Danjotada clan is disunited and is about to fall apart. Most of its vassals are unwilling to listen to orders. With only the strength of Furuno Castle, the outcome is hard to predict - Oda Nobunaga just sent a wave of attacks to Higashitsuno, which makes it even more dangerous.

If Oda Nobunaga loses again, it will probably be difficult for him to continue to be the head of the family.

He thought to himself, and hurried his horses with Aman and Aqing - Yuanye rode a big horse, and the two of them rode a calotte together. It didn't take long for the three of them and two horses to arrive near Haijin. From afar, they could hear the sounds of conch shells, taiko drums, and "heheoh". It seemed that the main forces of both sides had already met, and the Qingzhou army did not choose to avoid the battle and engage in a siege, but directly attacked to decide the outcome.

Ah Man looked from a distance, then stood on horseback to observe the terrain, pointed diagonally and shouted, "Let's go over there!"

Of course, she had the final say at this time. Yuanye followed the two of them in a circle and appeared on one side of the battlefield. Just like in Tozuno, he found a high place to watch the excitement. But this time it was not a counter-harassment and expulsion war like the one in Tozuno. Both sides mobilized and dragged the farmers out of the fields, resulting in a significant increase in the number of people on the battlefield.

At a rough glance, the Kiyosu army had about 500 armored men and a total strength of nearly 2,000; the Nobunaga army also had about 500 armored men and a total strength of about 1,300 or 1,400.

The main combat power of both sides was still composed of spearmen, but this time there were more people participating in the battle. Oda Nobunaga's side arranged three rectangular spear formations, while the Kiyosu army tried to make use of its numerical advantage and arranged a large horizontal formation, but the two wings and the center were equally heavy.

Ah Man lay beside Yuan Ye and began to give instructions: "The big fool used the偃月阵, and the Qingzhou army used the衡ony九阵. One is to take the initiative to launch an attack and break through the two wings, and the other intends to contain the breakthrough of the two wings and launch an oblique counterattack in the gap. The response is also methodical."

Yuanye took a closer look and found that the three spear formations of Nobunaga's army were slightly separated, with the two wings parallel and the middle one slightly behind, which did look a bit like a crescent moon; the spear formations of the Kiyosu army were closely connected, like a wall of uneven thickness - this was the infantry combat in the classical era, and when there were a lot of people, they still had to consider the formation.

He watched carefully, and Ah-man liked to show off, so she talked nonstop, enumerating the advantages and disadvantages of common formations such as fish scales, crane wings, goose formations, and square and circle formations. She also mentioned several classic examples of changing formations in the middle of a fight to trap the opponent. As she was talking, she exclaimed, pointed at Oda Nobunaga's two wings and said, "No, look at the two wings of the big fool, it seems that they are all his gang members, or the people from Tozuno..."

Yuanye quickly looked over, regretting that he did not have time to rub the telescope with his hands. However, after looking carefully for a while, he could probably see something wrong. The two wings seemed to be really Oda Nobunaga's group of young men - just look at the small flags behind them. The armored men in the front row of the two wings were all "Yongle Copper Coin Flags", but the gun formation in the middle slightly behind was mostly "Four-sided Papaya Flags". It should be composed of Oda Nobunaga's armored men as the main force, supplemented by a part of miscellaneous soldiers and foot soldiers.

Ah Man was also sure of it now, and said in disbelief, "Did the big fool send all the other retainers to the detachment, or did he still have to rely on this bunch of green hands to decide the outcome? Hasn't he figured out how he lost last time?"

Yuanye was also a little surprised, but he felt that a person shouldn't be so stubborn. He hesitated for a moment and said nothing.

At this time, the two armies had entered each other's firing range and began to shoot arrows at each other. This time it was Oda Nobunaga's side that suffered the loss. The number of archers and foot soldiers of the Kiyosu army was much larger than theirs, and the archers and foot soldiers general's command was also quite effective. In a blink of an eye, they overwhelmed Oda Nobunaga's archers, causing Oda Nobunaga's side to suffer significantly higher casualty rates.

Of course, the Qingzhou army also suffered many casualties. This time, the back rows of the long-lance foot soldiers on both sides were mostly miscellaneous foot soldiers wearing only iron-studded hats. Their armor was messy and scarce, so the bows and arrows were much more powerful than last time, and they took away many lives in waves.

Under the baptism of arrow rain, people in the spear foot soldiers on both sides kept screaming and falling down. The Kiyosu army was fine, but there was a slight commotion in Oda Nobunaga's spear formation, as if they were not as resilient as before after the battle. However, they were only scattered for a moment, and then under the kicks of the spear foot soldiers, they formed a tight formation again and continued to advance forward.

There was no way to stop at this point, and the only thing to do was to get closer to the enemy as quickly as possible.

Soon, the two wings of the two formations met first, and then there should be fierce hand-to-hand combat, with long spears stabbing each other, to see who can withstand the bloody consumption first. At least that's what Yuanye thought, but to his surprise, from a distance he only saw long spears like a forest on both sides, raised and lowered, and then the Qingzhou army actually lost the initiative and was stabbed first, and screamed in pain. The subsequent rounds were worse than the previous ones, even worse than Nobunaga's army in Tojino, it was like being kicked hard by a giant, and the front row fell over in an instant.

Same group of people, just over ten days apart, have they changed so much?

Aman was confused. The more he looked, the more he felt something was wrong. From afar, it seemed that the spears of Nobunaga's army had suddenly become longer. He rubbed his eyes, said "I'll go take a look ahead", then bent down and ran away. Yuanye was also very anxious. The place where they were watching the battle was a bit far away, and the people looked only as big as the tips of their fingers, so many details could not be seen clearly.

Fortunately, A-Man ran back quickly, with a puzzled look on his face: "Dasha... No, it was Oda Nobunaga who came up with something new. He... He modified the spear from a two-chamber spear to a three-chamber spear, making it one full chamber longer. He also recruited the river bandits and mountain robbers from the Kawanami clan and the Hosuka clan, and mixed them into his gang as spearmen leaders!"

Her eyesight was excellent, at least much better than Yuanye's. She noticed something was wrong from a distance, and when she ran closer, she saw that it was true. Not only did Oda Nobunaga gather a group of old guys who were daring and daring to fight in his gang, he also secretly lengthened his spear by two meters. Moreover, the extra two meters were always hidden. The foot soldiers held the middle part of the spear while marching, and the extra two meters of the spear were hidden behind their backs. When the two sides were close, they suddenly showed their fangs, and with the advantage of the opponent's spear being two meters longer, they stabbed in the front row and shot in the back row, which directly confused the Kiyosu army with shorter spears. They couldn't stand in the first round and were defeated at the first touch.

After hearing what Aman said, Yuanye could no longer lie still. In addition, Oda Nobunaga now had a great advantage and the danger level on the battlefield had dropped significantly. He quickly moved forward a long distance to personally observe the details of the battle - Oda Nobunaga really changed the spear, from more than four meters long to more than six meters. Now every inch longer was an inch stronger, and the Qingzhou army could not stand at all. The two wings had retreated to the side and rear of the middle queue, causing the middle queue to suffer a disaster and be stabbed by the two wings, and the formation began to become a little disorganized.

At the same time, among Oda Nobunaga's original group of young men, there were indeed dozens of middle-aged men with ferocious faces, who kept shouting loudly and calling for a fight, and those young men even kicked and punched under their shouting, everyone howling loudly, chasing the Kiyosu army fiercely - these young men still seemed a little overly nervous, but this time they had the advantage from the beginning, and there were people who kept kicking them in the buttocks and instructing them where to attack, and they just had to execute mechanically, so the impact was not big.

After fighting for a while, the Cheongju Army not only suffered heavy casualties on both wings, but also fell into chaos in the middle. The Cheongju Army's general kept blowing the conch shell, as if he wanted to adjust the formation or ask his subordinates to hold on firmly, but it was not only ineffective, but also made his side even more confused.

At this time, the long-lance foot soldiers in the middle of Oda Nobunaga's side suddenly split up, and a team of mounted samurai composed of Oda Nobunaga's horsemen and a large number of lower-level samurai retainers suddenly launched an attack, shouting and crashing into the middle column of the Kiyosu army, immediately knocking the Kiyosu army into pieces - this would be difficult under normal circumstances, as the Kiyosu army could immediately raise their high and low spears to forcibly resist the charge of the horses, but their two wings had been retreating, causing the middle part to be surrounded on three sides, and they had been confused and dazed by the staggered assassinations on both sides, and had no reaction at all to the attack.

The Qingzhou army was finally unable to withstand this final blow and completely collapsed amid loud screams. Large groups of foot soldiers threw away their weapons and began to flee to the rear, shouting. They did not turn back even when they were caught up and chopped down by mounted warriors. The middle was broken through, and the two wings had already suffered heavy casualties. They were on the verge of collapse after retreating again and again. At this moment, they did not hesitate, threw away the long spears that were in the way and began to crawl away from the battlefield.

The archers and miscellaneous soldiers at the back were even worse off. As soon as the people in front started running, they were already running, and thanks to the fact that they had no armor, they ran even faster, putting them in an advantageous position for survival.

In just one or two minutes, the Qingzhou army collapsed. Large groups of foot soldiers scattered everywhere without paying attention to the samurai's obstruction. Everyone hated their parents for not giving them two more legs. Aman also became excited. She loved to fight a favorable battle. She said to Yuanye excitedly: "Since we are here, let's go chop off a few heads. Maybe we can even get the credit for defeating the enemy!"

It is the most advantageous time to join the battle. The enemy has no will to resist and just wants to run home. Then you can chase them and kill them one by one with your sword. There is no risk at all and it is really a free kill. Sometimes you don't even need to kill them. Just keep chasing them. They will have a mental breakdown and may not be able to catch their breath and run to death.

A-Man wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, even if he didn't have any military merit, he could just exchange these heads for some money. But Yuan Ye wasn't interested in this. Instead, he pondered, "Just like that? Has no one ever thought of making the spears longer before?"

Ah Man looked at the fleeing enemies all over the mountains with some regret, but Yuan Ye didn't want to chase her, so she thought for a while and said hesitantly: "I heard from my old man that the long spear foot soldier formation seemed to be first used by the Miyoshi family, and the first one used two spears. After so many years, everyone is used to it. After all, the two-lance is long enough to prevent the mounted warriors from getting close to them and using their strength. I have never heard of changing it to a three-lance..."

Is it fixed thinking?
Samurai had been practicing martial arts since childhood and were fully equipped with armor. It was difficult for the common people to fight against them, and they were often defeated by a single charge. Then the Miyoshi family came up with the idea of using a cluster of spears to restrain the samurai's charge. After all, no matter how brave a samurai was or how skilled he was in martial arts, he could not withstand the continuous stabbings of several or even dozens of four-meter-long spears, and could not play to his strengths at all.

As a result, as the fighting went on, the samurai actually stood aside and the spear-armored soldiers became the new main body of the war. Everyone started to imitate the Miyoshi family and stabbed each other with the two-gun spear. And after Oda Nobunaga was defeated last time, he learned from his mistakes and came up with a new tactic against the spear-armored soldiers?

Stab them with a longer gun?
Oda Nobunaga’s reputation as a “curator” was not in vain, he actually came up with something new.

Yuanye nodded slightly and began to feel that he had just traveled through time. There seemed to be nothing wrong with history. Oda Nobunaga was still capable and would be able to end the mess in Owari soon.

(End of this chapter)