1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 898
November 1674, 11, Hirosaki Castle.

Nobuzheng Tsugaru was wearing a fur cloak, lying on the city wall with his hands, watching the officers and soldiers of Yunzhou Town gathering more and more outside the city, he couldn't help feeling bitter.

Mingren finally came to kill him!
A few months ago, the Ming people from the northern Ezo area accompanied the Qi State and gathered tens of thousands of troops to attack the shogunate. It is said that they have successively captured Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and other Gyeonggi areas, and defeated the shogunate army and tens of thousands of troops from the nearby vassal states. caused shock throughout Japan.

And the Ming people of Ezo also took this opportunity to send another [-] troops to land on the port of Puffin Village (today's Aomori City in northern Japan) on the northern coast of the Hirosaki Domain two months ago, and captured and killed the samurai and the Ashgaru sixty in the domain. Yu occupied this important coastal location.

At that time, Tsugaru Nobumasa also sent people to negotiate with him, asking him to withdraw from the feudal territory and return to Ezo, and warned the other party not to trigger a war with Japan.

Over the past decade or so, the Ming people of the Ezo region relied on their powerful sea power to prohibit the fishermen of the Hirosaki Domain from fishing near the Ezo, and sometimes even sailed to the waters within the territory of the Hirosaki Domain to drive and rob the fishermen of the Hirosaki Domain. , behaved very domineeringly.

Poor Hirosaki Fan, just a small fan with an income of 4 shi, how can it be the opponent of Yunzhou Town with a population of tens of thousands.As a result, the feudal lord Tsugaru appealed to the Edo shogun several times, asking for support, providing necessary force protection, and suppressing the bullying behavior of the Ezo Mingren.

After receiving the severe warning and reprimand from the shogunate, the Ming people in Ezo will also settle down for a period of time.But within a few years, they would go back to their old ways and continue to wantonly bully the fishermen of the Hirosaki Domain on both sides of the strait (Tsugaru Strait), and landed and harassed coastal towns and villages from time to time, making the Hirosaki Domain miserable.

Now, taking advantage of the war between the Edo shogunate and the Qi State, the Ming people of Ezo directly sent troops to capture the coastal territory of the Hirosaki Domain, showing their territorial ambitions.

The other party ignored the envoy sent by the Tsugaru family at all, and sent a message to Tsugaru Nobuzheng through him, asking him to surrender his domain and change his allegiance to His Royal Highness Daming Yongwang.

Tsugaru Nobumasa was terrified. In addition to continuing to send envoys to Edo to ask the shogun for help, he also asked for help from the nearby Kubota clan (Akita clan) Satake clan and Hachinohe clan Nanbu clan.

After the Ming people occupied Puffin Village Port, they did not continue to advance south, but began to establish and consolidate the ruling order of surrounding towns and villages.They confiscated the land of the Hirosaki vassal and abolished the tenant-servant relationship of the local Japanese farmers.In the name of King Yong of the Ming Dynasty, he granted land to all farmers, announced that rent would be exempted for the first two years, and that the agricultural tax would only be [-]% within five years.

As soon as such a policy of "dividing the local tyrants and dividing the land" came out, it immediately attracted the support and support of thousands of local farmers. Put on a long-term occupation posture.

When the autumn harvest in Yunzhou Town was completed at the end of October, King Yong immediately began to mobilize the township soldiers. Within half a month, he quickly assembled more than [-] armed township soldiers. After crossing the strait, they landed in the northern part of Mutsu, Japan.

The officers and soldiers of Yunzhou Town, who received reinforcements, immediately went out of the port of Puffin Village and rushed to Hirosaki Castle, preparing to attack and destroy the northernmost Japanese vassal state in one fell swoop.

Hirosaki Castle is the residence of the Tsugaru Clan of the Hirosaki Clan. It was built by Tsugaru Nobu, Tsugaru Nobume and his son for nearly ten years.The shape of the city wall is a ladder-style Pingshan city.The entire city wall is more than 600 meters long from east to west, and nearly a kilometer long from north to south.It consists of the central part of the castle (Honmaru), the outer wall (the second wall), the third wall, the fourth wall, the north wall, and the west wall.

In the past, there was a 5-storey castle tower in the city, but it was struck by lightning in 1627, which caused a fire and burned it down. Due to financial constraints, it has not been rebuilt, making it one of the few castles in Japan without a castle tower.

This kind of small city looks majestic and magnificent, but the materials for building the city use a lot of wood and rammed earth. If it is to deal with the armies of various feudal states that mainly used cold weapons during the Warring States Period, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack in this plain area. Fortified City.

However, although the Yunzhou Town Army has not yet transformed into an all-firearms force like the Qi Army, the ratio of firearms equipped is the highest in the entire East Asia.Moreover, as the most important ally and strategic partner of the Qi State in the Northeast, the officers and soldiers of Yunzhou Town are trained and guided by the Qi State military. Many advanced artillery are also given priority in supply. In terms of combat effectiveness, it is far beyond that. All opponents in the region.

Nobumasa Tsugaru's face turned pale when several artillery pieces were set up under Hirosaki Castle and began to bombard the city.Not to mention that the opponent has artillery, even if there is no artillery, the defenders of Hirosaki City cannot easily deal with it just by relying on more than [-] armed soldiers attacking from outside the city.

However, the Hongqian Domain is a feudal domain that has been acquired by three generations of fathers and ancestors for decades, through countless bloody battles and meritorious deeds. How can it be easily seized by others.Moreover, the enemy who came to attack belonged to Ming people of a foreign race.

In this way, the only way is to fight to the death with the enemy and die together in the whole city.

Under the cover of artillery, the officers and soldiers of Yunzhou Town successively broke through the third wall, the fourth wall, the north wall, and the west wall of the outer city of Hirosaki City in the evening, and approached Honmaru Castle.

It was night, just when Hongqian City thought that the war would stop for a while, and they would take advantage of the night to rest, Yunzhou Town suddenly fired dozens of rockets into the city. In a short period of time, a large number of wooden houses in the city were set on fire. Immediately, a fire broke out throughout the city, causing countless soldiers and civilians in the city to rush out of the city.

By dawn the next day, the entire Hirosaki City had been burned into ruins, with almost no buildings in the city intact, and more than a thousand people were buried in the sea of ​​flames.

What is even more astonishing is that after the fire broke out, the Tsugaru clan of the Hirosaki clan and dozens of loyal warriors were "accidentally" dead, so that the clan was completely extinct, and the territory under its jurisdiction was subsequently taken over by the town of Yunzhou. Capture them all.

At the same time, Yunzhou also sent troops to attack the Hachinohe Fan in the northeast of Mutsu Kingdom, occupying the city of Hachinohe, and the south of the feudal lord Yuan Jiang guarding communication and hundreds of retainers and samurai below were captured.

After hearing the news, the Satake Clan of the Kubota Clan (Akita Clan) was terrified and began to mobilize within the Clan and strengthen Kubota Castle.
-
November 11, Hagi Castle.

Mori Tsunahiro, the third-generation feudal lord of the Changzhou Clan, knelt on the throne, his eyes slightly closed, and his face was calm, but deep in his heart, he was engaged in a fierce game, causing the entire hall to fall into a long silence.

A shopkeeper of the Qi State Ryukyu Trading Company turned his head to look at Jiang Qingkui, the representative of the Black Guards stationed in Hagi City, Yuwu Xiaowei (Captain), with a worried look on his eyes.

Jiang Qingkui smiled broadly, picked up the teacup on the low table, and took a sip lightly, um, the fragrance on his lips and teeth, the tea served was good.

According to the news from Osaka, the coalition forces have already withdrawn from the captured towns such as Kyoto, Yodogawa, Nara, and Hyogotsu (now Kobe City), and have shrunk all their troops to Osaka, waiting for the arrival of the shogunate army, and then fighting with them. A showdown.

Although, the news shows that the shogunate mobilized more than [-] troops from Edo, and at the same time brought together more than [-] vassal troops from Kansai, Gyeonggi and other places. .

But Jiang Qingkui is not worried about the result of the next battle of the coalition forces, because, since the coalition forces headed by our Qi army dared to start a decisive battle with the shogunate in Osaka City, they must be sure of winning.Even if it takes ten thousand steps back, even if the coalition forces suffer a defeat, they can completely abandon Daban City and escape to the sea by boat.

After two months of successive transfers, most of the various materials seized by the coalition forces from the Gyeonggi area and Osaka City have been transported to Tamna Island (now Jeju Island) and Dongyi Island (now Amami Island, Japan) for temporary storage.Therefore, if the coalition forces are unfavorable in the war, they can choose to withdraw directly and choose another target to attack. In this battle, the initiative will always be in the hands of the coalition forces.

Although the war is still going on, Qi State has begun to plan ahead for the Japanese region after the war.According to the guidelines of the local general staff, this battle will severely damage the shogunate army, making it lose its ability to suppress the domestic powerful vassals, and at the same time force it to open the domestic market and cancel all trade restrictions on the entry of Qi products.

In order to coerce the shogunate and prevent the Tokugawa clan from resurging, Qi State will carry out a limited division of Japan, vigorously support its main domestic powerful vassals, and make them confront the central government of the shogunate.

The Changzhou Fan, located in the southwest of Japan's Oshima, became one of the targets selected by the Qi State.Although, at present, the Changzhou Fan is only a medium-sized fan country with more than 30 shi.But the family's ancestors were once rich, and once owned 120 million shi of the ten countries in China, and their strength ranked among the top three in all feudal clans.Its first-generation feudal lord Mori Terumoto was even more fierce. He fought against Oda Nobunaga, was one of the five elders of Toyotomi, and was also the general of the Central and Western Army in the Sekigahara War, and he fought against Tokugawa Ieyasu.

However, the Battle of Sekigahara, which was originally thought to last for several months, was decided within a day. The Eastern Army led by the Tokugawa clan won a complete victory, and thus unified Japan in name.After the war, the Changzhou Domain was severely dealt with by the Tokugawa Clan. The land was greatly reduced to 37 koku in the two countries of Zhoufang and Nagato, and lost Anyi, Bingo, Iwami, Izumo, Oki Five Kingdoms and The three counties in the west of the Boqi State, Beizhong to the west of Gaoliangchuan.

Among them, the most painful thing for Mori was that the Choshu Clan had to give up Aki, which had been occupied for hundreds of years, and build the Nagato Kingdom Hagi Castle as its residence.

In addition, what made Mori feel even more humiliated was that Tokugawa Ieyasu once wanted to deprive him of his daimyo status and denigrate him as a commoner.

It can be said that among the vassal states that Japan most wants to overthrow the shogunate and kill the Tokugawa clan, the Changzhou vassal must rank first.Therefore, when the coalition and the shogunate were about to start a decisive battle in Osaka, Qi State wanted to encourage the Changzhou Fan to send troops to attack the Hiroshima Fan and Tsuwano Fan who were inclined to the shogunate, forcing other clans in China to return their troops to save themselves, so as to relieve the coalition forces from the west. military pressure.

"Your army conquered Kyoto, is His Majesty the Emperor in your hands?" After a long silence, Mori Tsunahiro suddenly asked.

"That's right, your Japanese emperor has been moved to Osaka Castle by us." Jiang Qingkui nodded and said.

"Can you send His Majesty the Emperor to Hagi Castle and be protected by the Changzhou Domain?"

"Huh?..." Jiang Qingkui was stunned when he heard this.

What do you mean?Are you Changzhou Fan planning to coerce the emperor to order the princes?

Maori's ambition is not small!
-
November 11, Osaka.

The shogunate Wakinenyoro and the general of the subjugation general Hotta Masatoshi stood on a high slope, holding up a single-lens telescope, carefully observing Osaka Castle.Behind him, surrounded by dozens of samurai from the banner, the famous names and leading generals of various vassal states, all of them were high-spirited or solemn, looking at the distant Osaka City.

The [-] shogunate army slowly advanced, and arrived at Imafuku and Shisano, which are located in the northeast of Osaka City, in the afternoon of yesterday, and then set up camp there. Here, the momentum is huge.

Half a month ago, the shogunate army and the armies of the vassal states from all over the country joined forces in Otsu City of the Omi Kingdom, and in the next few days, they arrived at the abandoned capital city of the coalition forces.

Kyoto is less than a hundred miles away from Osaka, and with the marching speed of the coalition forces, it would not have taken more than ten days to reach the city of Osaka.However, when the coalition forces withdrew from Kyoto, they completely destroyed the city and nearby towns, villages and towns, and looted all the supplies, leaving almost no supplies for the shogunate army.

For this reason, the shogunate army had to rest for ten days in the dilapidated Kyoto city, waiting for supplies to be shipped from the Kanto region.

When the shogunate army made preparations and went south to attack Osaka, they were shocked to find that the coalition forces had scuttled many ships in the Takasegawa Canal and the Yodogawa River, making it impossible for the army to transport the large amount of combat materials carried with the army by water.

This annoyed the shogunate army, but they had no choice but to accept the reality and try to eliminate all kinds of difficulties.While recruiting civilians to salvage the sunken ship and clean up the river, they mobilized a large number of pack horses and vehicles, accompanied the army with combat equipment, food and other materials, and slowly marched towards Daban City.

Fortunately, the Gyeonggi region with Kyoto and Osaka as the core, because of the developed commerce, makes the area not only water transportation, but also land transportation conditions are very superior, which can drive vehicle transportation, which somewhat eased the difficulty of material transportation for the shogunate army.

Now that the army is gathering at the foot of Osaka City, after a short rest for the night, General Masatoshi Hotta led a group of generals out of the camp early this morning, and boarded a high slope of the Yamato River to observe the movements of the Qi army in the city.

"Will the army of the State of Qi defend the city and force our army to storm Osaka?" Owari Fan (family name) Tokugawa Mitsutomo asked worriedly.

The war broke out for more than two months. Now everyone knows that the Qi army has sharp firearms. If they rely on the strong defense of Daban City and place firearms at the top of the city, it will inevitably cause heavy casualties to the siege army.

"No, the people of Qi will not stick to Osaka." Hotta Masatoshi said with a smile: "Otherwise, they can leave directly by boat, instead of guarding Osaka City like this, waiting for our arrival."

"Your Excellency General, you mean... that the people of Qi are going to have a decisive battle with us under the city of Osaka?" Tokugawa Mitsutomo felt a little inconceivable.

"It should be like this." Masatoshi Hotta nodded, restrained his smile, and said seriously: "Although I don't know what the people of Qi have, but they dare to fight our 2 army with less than [-] people. It's kind of weird."

"I heard..." Tokugawa Mitsutomo glanced at the generals of the Omi Kingdom over there, and lowered his voice, "I heard that Qi has a lot of firearms, and in less than half a month, it even defeated Daban , Kyoto, Nara and several other important cities in the capital. Half a month ago, they even defeated the army of the Four Routes with less than a thousand cavalry and iron blunderbuss. ... Their combat power should not be underestimated!"

"The people of Qi have iron guns, so do we!" Masatoshi Hotta said with firm eyes, "There are no less than [-] iron guns in each army. Even if they are powerful, we can exchange three for one. It can exhaust the people of Qi State! What's more, we still have more than [-] cavalry. At the critical moment, thousands of cavalry are rushing forward, how many arrows can Qi State's firearms fire?"

"Well, not bad!" Tokugawa Mitsutomo immediately became confident when he heard the words, "If this battle can annihilate the attacking Qi army in one fell swoop, it can be compared to the battle in Osaka created by Ieyasu."

(End of this chapter)