1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2126
In the face of the reality of disparity in firepower, even if the Hirado Army has the advantage of home court, it is still difficult to stop the advance of the Haihan Army.The Special Forces didn't even throw artillery in the battle, and they quickly repelled opponents who tried to block the official road leading to Hirado City by using only rifles.

Realizing that they could not achieve their goal, the Hirado Army retreated angrily after leaving behind more than 20 corpses.Tagawasuke did not embarrass the frontline commanders, because he himself watched the battle not far from the battle site.

Although he had expected the strength gap between the two sides before the war, the reality was still crueler than Tian Chuansuke imagined. It is extremely difficult to cause effective killing.

Thinking back to when he heard those people from Shibazhi describe the strength of the Haihan army, he was a little dubious. He somewhat suspected that these people were looking for reasons for their own failures, but only after fighting the Haihan people on the battlefield did they understand the past. All the rumors I heard are true, not to mention defeating the opponent, it is difficult to slow down the opponent's attack speed.

And those combat plans formulated before the war, including dispatching naval forces to attack the opponent's maritime supply line, now seem unlikely to be realized.Tagawasuke watched the artillery battle at Hirado Port for two days, and he had already clearly realized the strength of the Haihan Navy. He could only secretly pray that the navy would be more careful in its actions and not collide with the opponent's main force.

However, this kind of prayer seems to have failed. In the morning, he received the news that the navy fleet appeared north of the Hirado Strait, which already gave Tian Chuansuke a vague premonition, because this was not what he sent to Wei Zhi. The combat command was obviously Wei Zhi's awareness of the bad situation in Hirado Port, and he tried to do something to change the situation.

Seeing that the two large warships that had not been in battle for the past two days unexpectedly rushed out of the strait at an extremely fast speed to face the naval fleet, Tian Chuansuke couldn't help but feel worried, worrying whether the navy would be able to withstand it This kind of big guy's attack.His worries became reality in the afternoon. Several Ataka boats belonging to the Hirado Navy were sandwiched between the Haihan warships, swaggering across the sea outside Hirado Port, and apparently pulled them deliberately after being captured by their opponents. Come out and show it to hit the morale of your own army.

The only good news is that there are no newly built Chinese warships among the captured ships. This at least gives Tian Chuansuke a glimmer of hope for the navy. Maybe there will be better fighters for the navy after that. play.

But whether it is at sea or on shore, the current battle situation of the Hirado Domain is not ideal, or to put it more seriously, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a retreat.Although the retainers claimed to Tian Chuansuke that they had successfully shot and killed many Haihan soldiers in the battle, he did not believe in these battle reports that lacked evidence.

According to some unconfirmed gossip, someone witnessed the execution of Tagawa Kojiro by the Haihan Army near Boxiangwan. This news also shocked Tagawasuke.There are not many senior officers under him who can lead troops to fight, and every death is one less.And for a loyal subordinate like Tagawa Kojiro, he probably doesn't have enough time to train new ones.

The enemy army located in Ono Village began to advance northward, which meant that the opponent was about to launch an attack on Hirado City.Knowing that he only had one night left to deploy the final line of defense, Tagawasuke ordered to recruit all the young and strong in the city, and began to dig trenches on the southern line to build a temporary line of defense.

As the most important fortification in the area, Hirado Castle was burnt down by the feudal lord who was eager to cleanse himself more than 30 years ago. After that, in order to gain the trust of the shogunate, the successive feudal lords did not rebuild Hirado Castle. Such castle fortifications, not to mention the walls surrounding the entire Hirado city.Whether it is to avoid the suspicion of the shogunate or to save money, in short, there is no decent fortification in Hirado today, and how effective the temporary defense line can be in the face of powerful foreign enemies?

Hirado City is the main population-inhabited area on Hirado Island, accounting for more than [-]% of the permanent population on the island, but the thousands of people did not speed up the construction of fortifications. Much more than just from the outside.

In fact, before Haihan came over, Tagawasuke had already ordered the recruitment of civilians. While building a coastal defense fort in Hirado Port, a defense line was also built at the southern end of the city to defend against possible enemy landing attacks from the south.However, the recruited civilians could barely meet the needs of the port construction site, and the defense line outside the city had always been a paper plan. It was not until the Haihan people hit Fukue Island that the defense line in the south of the city finally started.

However, the construction process is still not smooth. The reason is that the complex composition of urban residents makes it difficult to implement relevant arrangements smoothly.

Not all the people living in Hirado City are native-born locals. On the contrary, most of the people who settle here are outsiders, especially those engaged in business.Because of the special trading environment unique to Hirado, merchants and sailors from all over Japan are gathered here, and these people are not farmers who can be ordered around at will. They have money in their pockets and various connections. , the most important thing is to have a vision that farmers do not have.

It was not easy for the Hirado clan to instruct these people to work. Even if it was the wartime state of foreign invasion as an excuse, it was still difficult for them to willingly go to the construction site in the south of the city to dig soil.

These people don't know where they got the news, saying that the enemy Haihan who invaded Hirado this time was targeting the current feudal lord and the Han leaders under him, rather than looting the Hirado clan. Liquidated after the war.

Based on such remarks, if they assist the government in building fortifications, it will obviously be regarded as participating in the resistance, and this seems to be an unnecessary risk for outsiders who are not natives of Hirado.

As for the strength of the enemy, the artillery battle at Hirado Port for two consecutive days may have explained the problem well.The Hirado Navy, known as Japan's No. [-] navy, did not dare to show up from the beginning to the end. Only the temporary coastal defense fort built a few days ago was struggling to support it.And more and more people fled back from the south. It is said that thousands of enemy troops have landed in the south, and the fan army has no effective strategy to retreat from the enemy.

Some businessmen who were stationed in Hirado to fight against foreigners knew how powerful the Haihan Army was, so they intensified their propaganda among the Hirado people that the battle would be defeated, which made those who planned to wait and see the situation unwilling to join the resistance.

For the Hirado clan officials, it is also difficult to forcibly recruit these unwilling people.Now that the competition between Hirado and Nagasaki is becoming increasingly fierce, the shogunate is using various methods to pull businessmen from Hirado to Nagasaki. That will also suffer the consequences after the war.

Once the support of practitioners is lost, Hirado's trading status will be hit hard, which may further aggravate the consequences of defeat.If this results in a significant decline in the scale of Hirado's foreign trade, it is certainly not the result that Hirado officials would like to see.

As a result, the official will inevitably fall into a dilemma.Without forced labor, the labor force on the construction site would definitely not be enough, and it would be difficult to build enough fortifications before the enemy attacked the city.Forced recruitment of civilian husbands will inevitably offend a large number of outsiders, which will affect Hirado's trading status.Whichever course is chosen, the consequences could be devastating.

But in the end, Tagawasuke chose to protect himself first. As for the adverse effects it will cause, that will be discussed after the war.If the ruler is no longer himself after the defeat, the future trading environment of Hirado will be none of Tagawa's business. There is no need to be merciful at this juncture.

Under such an atmosphere, the construction of fortifications is organized, and the morale on the construction site can be imagined. Most of the people who were forcibly conscripted are unwilling to contribute, and some honest workers see that many people are deliberately slowing down, so naturally they don't Willing to be treated differently.

Therefore, although there were two to three thousand people working on the construction site in the south of the city, the construction efficiency was extremely low, and the progress of the project was far from meeting official expectations.There are even some businessmen who spend money to buy peace in private, giving benefits to those responsible for recruiting civilian husbands, and ignoring themselves; Wartime labor.

Even if Tian Chuansuke knew about these situations, he could only ignore their existence, and he had no time to investigate those tricks right now.The enemy army may launch an offensive after dawn, and there is really no need to be distracted by these trivial matters.

Although he knew that Hirado Port would also face great defensive pressure, Tagawasuke ordered Lu Yuanlong to transfer several artillery pieces from the port to the south of the city for deployment.If a few big killers were not arranged on the defense line in the south of the city, Tian Chuansuke was very worried that this defense line would not be able to withstand the opponent's round of offensive at that time.

Even if it is impossible to retreat the enemy with this, at least it can delay the opponent's offensive and buy more time for the Hirado clan to organize a counterattack.Of course, the so-called counterattack is just a combat plan formulated before the war, and the trend of the current battle situation is quite different from the pre-war forecast, and most of the plans formulated at that time will not work.

Although Tagawasuke himself has the will to die, he also knows that there is no way to force the officers and soldiers under him to be like him. The only thing that can stimulate morale at this time is a heavy reward.He announced to his subordinates that he would take out 20 taels of silver from the treasury and distribute it to all participants before dawn.Even the peasants and soldiers conscripted temporarily will each have a reward of ten taels of silver.

Those who performed outstandingly in battle, or had a record of beheading enemy troops, would have the opportunity to receive more generous rewards.Tian Chuansuke offered a huge reward of 100 taels of silver for the head of the Haihan Army. If he was an officer, the amount of the reward would double and increase.

Under such stimulation, the low morale finally recovered a bit.There were also some desperadoes in the fan army. Seeing that there was a big reward to be won, no matter who the opponent was, they clamored after receiving the money, and wanted to kill them happily after dawn.

When the sky was slightly bright, the Haihan army began to pull out their camps and slowly advance northward.The East China Sea Fleet continued to follow the route of the previous two days, heading north along the Hirado Strait from the anchorage near Onomura to Hirado Port.

The Fujian navy in charge of the west coast is still tasked with defending Boxiang Bay today.Although Xu Yuzhuo also intends to go to Hirado Port to show his face, but a considerable part of the troop carriers and supply ships of the coalition forces are moored in Boxiang Bay. After all, we need to find another anchorage in Hirado that is convenient for logistics ships to dock. It is not easy, and the Fujian navy can only continue to serve as bodyguards to ensure that the Hirado navy will not have the opportunity to sneak attack on its own logistics ships.

However, Xu Yuzhuo learned from yesterday's lesson and allocated half of the warships ahead of time to ambush outside the bay.If the Hirado Navy tried to reconnaissance like yesterday, even if he couldn't catch the main force of the enemy army, at least he would keep the ships sent by the opponent to reconnaissance.

However, at this time, Wei Zhi had already taken the remaining troops of the Hirado Navy to Madu Island, about 50 miles northeast of the Hirado Strait.Because the fleet led by Ishimura Shouta crashed into the sand yesterday, Wei Zhi was worried that the base on Shanda Island had been exposed and the enemy would raid his home, so he moved to a farther place overnight.

But in this way, although Wei Zhi guaranteed the safety of the navy fleet, it was difficult to grasp the timeliness of the changes in the battle situation in the Hirado Strait.If you want to send a ship to reconnaissance near the Hirado Strait, you must keep a fairly long distance-according to the group of people who escaped from the battlefield today, the fleet led by Ishimura Shota was driven several miles away by the Haihan battleship. They approached little by little at a certain distance and then called the ships one by one.

And if the observation point is too far away from the Hirado Strait, it will be difficult to play the role of reconnaissance. We can only wait for the firework signal from Hirado Castle to send out a distress signal before attacking.But this kind of communication method that I will not use unless I have to, not only can I observe it from the sea in the distance, but of course the Haihan people who are closer can also see it. When I lead the navy into the Hirado Strait, I am afraid that the opponent It has already been prepared for battle just like dealing with Shota Ishimura's fleet.

So for Wei Zhi, he is also very entangled now.If the remaining navy fleet were to go to the Hirado Strait to fight to the death with their opponents, the consequences would undoubtedly be annihilation of the entire army.But if the strength is preserved, perhaps this navy will be the capital for Tagawa Qizaemon's comeback in the future.

He wasn't afraid of death, but he was worried that Tagawa Nanazawaemon, who was hiding in Kyushu, would face the dilemma of no one available after the war after he had put all his people out to fight.At that time, let alone whether the Haihan people will continue to arrest him, I am afraid that many ambitious people will come out of Kyushu to snatch the ruling power of Hirado.

(End of this chapter)