Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 109 The 72-shot "Salute" sends Yoshida on the road

However, on the afternoon of November 11rd, Hideka led 3 reserve teams to board the ship at Bichu Kurashiki. At midnight, all the ships were not lit torches, and the old sailors who were familiar with the Seto Inland Sea system led the ships quietly. Kurashiki port.

At around 2 o'clock in the morning, the ninja soldiers lurking in Marugame walked out of the dormitory, and began to assassinate the soldiers guarding the turret and sentry box according to the plan, clearing the way for Suzaku, who took on the vanguard mission at 3 o'clock in the morning.

At the same time, the Spanish merchant ship "Anthony", which was temporarily in port during the day, left the port suddenly after unloading two 6-pound guns, and was placed horizontally on the sea 500 meters away.

Under the command of Takayama Ujimune, the well-trained Suzaku soldiers seized various key points in the town, and then handed over the garrison task. The second team of Qinglong Beihou rushed to Mount Iino, blocking Tianwu Castle, Marugame Castle and The connection between He Shengcheng.

Marugame Castle was originally the headquarters of the Nara family. Previously, Nobunaga’s retainer owned 1.8 koku of Marugame. With the comeback of the Nara family, the Nara family could not support the offensive of the Nara family. After changing Yi Maruyama's 5000 shi, he chose to surrender.

At this moment, the defender of Marugame Castle is the famous Tosa general Yasutoshi Yoshida, who made great contributions in the Battle of Nakatomikawa and was transferred to Marugame Castle for 7500 shi. At this moment, he has just arrived in the new territory for less than 2 months.

As the second round of Qinglongbei surrounded Marugame Castle, the defenders in the city were in a mess. Yoshida Yasutoshi was awakened by his retainers.

Looking at the Ukita army with bright torches under the city, and the follow-up troops that are continuously coming ashore in Marugame Town, he feels powerless. I am afraid that he will die with the new leader today.

Just when he was lamenting his life, Qinglong Bei and Mino Bei sealed the east and west sides of Lecheng, raised their bows and arrows with flames in their hands, raised them at a 45° angle, and followed Captain Bei's order, towards Marugame Castle. shoot.

The rockets at night are like stars in the night sky, lighting up the sky, and then falling into the city. Since Ukita was not expected to come ashore from Marugame, the screens on the city were not covered with wet mud, which could easily ignite.

The defenders, who had just been hit by the rain of arrows, had no time to rest, so they frantically extinguished the flames on the arrows with cloths soaked in water.

But they didn't know that the real purpose of the rain of arrows was to show the target of the "Anthony" on the coast.

At the command of the Spanish captain, a calibrated shell was fired from a 6-pounder on the sidestring.The shell failed to reach the city, but landed in the entire Akasaka team in the north of the city, accidentally injuring more than ten people.

Akasaka's backup captain Suga Masatoshi hurriedly restrained the soldiers, and at the same time asked the backup team to shoot a round of arrows into Onimaru Castle.

The "Anthony" ship on the sea once again calibrated and fired from the high muzzle, and the shell hit the main pill accurately, destroying a scull tower. With the arrows raining down on three sides of the city, the "Anthony" received the calibration completion With the signal, 24 large and small caliber artillery on the side string fired a salvo towards Marugame Castle.

Hideyasu Togawa, Zento Akashi, and Takatora Fujido who accompanied Hideka on board were jumped by the loud noise, and the ship fell to the other side with the reaction force of the firing of the side cannons. Captain Ukita Hidei even yelled the words "The ship is sinking, so Lord Qing will go first".

Tatsuya Togawa, the warrior who once charged into the Maori enemy line in the First Battle of Toyama, beheaded 6 heads and survived, even defended his father, his face was full of horror.

Xiujia looked at Togawa Hidean and his son who were making fools of themselves, and laughed inwardly, "The times have changed." He wondered whether they would look down on Xiujia because of his young age in this life.

However, as the crystallization of the wisdom of western ocean-going civilization in the new era, the hull of the Spanish galleon quickly returned to normal without tipping over to one side.

The sound of the artillery salvo was too loud, and it wasn't until now that everyone understood why Hideka wanted the fleet from Okayama Town to beat the war drums along the coast of Takamatsu.

It turned out that the Xiu family wanted to use the sound of the drums to cover up the sound of the cannons here as much as possible, so as to buy time for him to capture Tianwu City and cut off the retreat of Chang Zong and our family.

It can be seen that Xiujia's thoughtfulness is meticulous.

The night was dark, and Xiujia who was on the sea didn't know the situation on the shore, but he could hear the exclamation coming from the city. Not long after, the second round was ready, and another volley of 24 rounds was fired. Through the moonlight, it seems that Honmaru's royal palace was hit by a projectile.

After three rounds of salvo, Ukita's unique conch horn sounded, and the torched reserve team entered the city from the east, west, and north sides of the city. By dawn of the battle, Marugame Castle had been controlled by Ukita.

When Hideka disembarked from the "Antony" and boarded the territory of Sanuki, he officially saw the appearance of Marugame Castle, which was hit by more than 60 shells last night. Most of the city wall on the side facing the sea had collapsed. The oars and screens were directly shattered, and the defensive structure of the Japanese-style castle completely collapsed.

The defenders in the city were in a mess when faced with the bombardment of Western artillery. Even the samurai had never seen such a weapon that could destroy the fortress.

The projectile that shot into the imperial hall of the hospital directly penetrated the beams and pillars, and the guard Yoshida Yasutoshi was crushed under the imperial hall. It was not until after Yuki's family entered the city that the city lord who had just entered the city in February dug out from the ruins. come out.

Marugame Castle is a very standard Japanese-style earthen wall and wooden screen castle. Even Hideka’s Okayama Castle was built according to this pattern. If Marugame Castle is vulnerable to the bombardment of Western artillery, then Okayama Castle may not It's unbearable to live with this kind of damage.

Todo Takatora and Akashi Zento, who saw the salvo of artillery for the first time, were dumbfounded by the consequences. Hidekamei summed up the advantages and disadvantages of Marugame Castle facing Western artillery, laying the foundation for the future construction of Okayama.

The two who heard the order couldn't wait to enter Marugame Castle, observed the damage to Marugame Castle, asked about the real situation of the soldiers who saw the cannon attacking the city last night, and learned from it.

After Hideka captured Marugame Castle, he didn't stay long. After leaving Akasaka as a garrison, he took the rest of the reserve team and headed for Tianwu Castle 15km away. Two 6-pound guns were transferred by Hideka to the cart. On the top, they are pulled by pack horses to follow the army.

After the Xiu family captured Marugame, they sent out the horse-riding warriors of the various teams in their hands, and asked them to hold high the Uki family's son flag and gallop across the Marugame Plain, strangling all the troops of Nagamune's family that they encountered Potential.

At 10:[-], Hideka surrounded Tianwu City, Akashi Quanto and Todo Takatora were finally able to observe the appearance of Western artillery shooting directly at the castle.

Due to the lack of cannons, the Hide family still transported two cannons to 200 meters from Oteguchi according to the method they had used when they seized Kamesu Castle, and fired at the Guanmu Gate.

6磅炮在此时的欧洲只能算是小炮，发射2.5公斤的实心弹丸，换算成口径大概为95毫米。（现代英制6磅炮为57毫米反坦克炮）

This kind of light artillery can even be mounted on wheels, put on horses and quickly transfer with the troops, and become a support artillery for troops. However, in Japan in the 16th century, artillery of this caliber was tantamount to dimensionality reduction strikes.

The 2.5 kg solid lead bullet pierced through the wooden door with just one shot. The shell that passed through the wooden door then pierced through the door and then pressed against the city gate. Wear a gourd.

The fellow who was talking and laughing on the sound side just now lost his body through the hole in the crown wooden door, and his armor was splashed with blood. Anyone would break down emotionally.

"Don't mess around, don't shout, it's just a big iron cannon!" The story of the Xiu family's bombardment of Kameja Castle has spread to Sanuki, and the upper-level samurai of the Kagawa family have heard of this big iron cannon, although they don't I've seen it before, but I think it's only a little higher than the ordinary iron cannon.

Wanting to come up to stabilize the mood of the soldiers, Kagawa Jingquan brandished a samurai sword, and sternly yelled at the defenders of the city to strictly guard their posts, "No chaos, anyone who makes chaos will be chopped down, and come back quickly." The side screen shot in, hitting his right side of the body.

Kagawa Jingquan was hit hard by a drum on the right side, knocking him to the ground. Seeing his father lying on the ground, the Kagawa Jing family ran over and shouted "Father" to pick him up.

The son's cry brought the dizzy Xiangchuan Jingquan back to reality, looking at his son's mournful face, he scolded with a straight face, "Why are you crying, I just fell to the ground, you are already an adult, you have to be like a samurai Same!"

"But. But" son Xiangchuan Jingjia raised his bloody right hand. Xiangchuan Jingquan followed his son's gaze, only to realize that his right arm had been separated from his body and disappeared. The impact of the big iron cannon just now It directly broke his right shoulder blade.

Seeing the reality of Kagawa Kagetsu clearly, with the decline of adrenaline, the brain was quickly covered by pain. The heroic samurai who assisted the lord Kagawa Kage and ruled Nishi Sanuki finally couldn't bear it and let out a painful cry.

Kagawa Keizon eventually died of hemorrhage on the way to Honmaru.

Instead of commanding was another elder of the Kagawa family, Saito Yorimasa, who commanded the people to move wood and stones against the crown wooden door to replace the original "human flesh" pillar.

It's just that at this time the Xiu family has ordered Shangdao Zuobei to be the first to attack the city.Under the command of the captain Zhongshan Guangneng, they arrived at the base of the city and built the walking bridge on top of Tubori.The soldiers of the reserve team passed the bridge one by one and came under the earthen wall.

"They come up~" The samurai standing on the turret at the city gate noticed the actions of Ukita's army, and was about to call for his comrades to come to defend, when he was shot through the throat by an arrow from the backup team.

In order to strengthen Shangdaobei's assault strength, Xiujia supplemented Zhongshan Guangneng with iron cannon equipment.

Kagawa Jun Ashgaru, who was prompted by the samurai, came to the front of the screen one by one under the command of the senior samurai, and was about to shoot an arrow with a bow.

It was Ukido's iron cannons under the city that fired first, and the iron cannon projectiles directly pierced through the screen, which was only a dozen centimeters thick, and shot into Kagawa Ashgaru's body.

"Ah~ah~" Ashgaru, who was hit, fell to the ground, clutching his wound, and let out a scream.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the soldiers of Kamidobi climbed into the Shinomaru and started a hand-to-hand battle with the Kagawa army.Not long after, the gate of the Shinomaru city was opened, and as the follow-up force, Hekibi joined the battle as the second team under the leadership of the captain Todo Takatora.

The Kagawa army tried to rely on the Sannomaru rising along the mountain to resist, but after Hideya transferred iron artillery equipment to suppress firepower, he was beaten and fled in a hurry.

The main force of the Kagawa family had already followed the Kagawa attack on Wang Zuoshan Castle. Only the old master Kagawa Keiyuki and 500 people stayed in the city. Facing the Ukita army with absolute superiority in knowledge, the defenders in the city could not resist after all.

The two sides fought until about 12 noon. Keiyuki Kagawa surrendered to Ukido in Honmaru. Hideka guaranteed the safety of the soldiers, samurai and their families in the castle. Maru.

After the fall of Tianwu City, the Hide family used Tianwu as the main formation, and asked Fujido Takatora and Togawa Hidean to lead a reserve team to attack Jiashan Castle and Mashan Castle to the south, and the back road of Nagamune's family. Completely cut off, and at the same time sent an order to the Marugame fleet to transport the follow-up troops as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)