Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 208

Ariyoshi Kakuhei was the first to rush into Uomiyama Castle as a vanguard, and his brave performance even attracted Hosokawa Tadakashi's nod of approval. He turned to ask the elder Matsui Yasuyuki next to him and asked, "The man who broke the castle reported that his family name was Yukichi. , who exactly is it, do you know?"

Yasuyuki Matsui was 15 years older than Tadake Hosokawa, and he was a member of the shogunate. He initially worked under the command of Fujitaka Hosokawa. After Ashikaga Yoshiki was killed by Nagahide Matsu, he became an official Oda Nobunaga together with Fujitaka Hosokawa.

The relationship between him and Hosokawa Fujitaka is more appropriate to say that it is an ally rather than a monarch and minister. Of course, this is not a problem between the two of them, but a consensus problem hidden within the Hosokawa family.

The composition of the Hosokawa family is extremely complicated, including the original shogunate retainers, Hosokawa retainers, Omi people, Tango people, etc. They gathered under the command of Hosokawa Fujitaka simply because he and Oda Nobunaga had the best relationship. Just talk.

The reason why many political actions of the Hosokawa family in history were relatively conservative was because of disagreements within the territory. Of course, the scumbag Hosokawa Tadakashi was lucky, and he succeeded every time in the team, and finally won 52 for the Hosokawa family. Wanshi's knowledge and practice survived until the end of the Tokugawa period.

For the Hosokawa family, the vassals headed by Matsui Yasuyuki finally became real vassals after several generations of marriage.

Tadake Hosokawa's first battle was the Nobuo decisive battle half a year ago. Others began to train heirs to take to the battlefield when they were teenagers, but Tadake Hosokawa's first battle was after he succeeded the family governor at the age of 20.

His father Hosokawa Yusai (who has become a monk) also encountered this problem, so he asked Matsui Yasuyuki and other retainers to take care of him.

Matsui Yasuyuki thought for a moment and replied to Hosokawa Tadaoki, "There should be Yoshida Heibei's family members. After the castle is broken, we should invite him to come and ask about it."

Tadake Hosokawa came to ask questions out of interest, but he didn't know about it when he saw Yasuyuki Matsui, so he lost interest and continued to observe the battle situation.

But with such a little effort, there was a lot of gunshots on Yujian Mountain City, combined with the shouts and roars of the soldiers, the Waeimaru, which had been quiet just now, became lively again.

However, Hosokawa's ashigaru, who had just entered the city with arrogance, threw away his helmet and armor and ran out, not forgetting to straighten his hat along the way for fear of being shot by the arrow feathers in the air.

But he saw a man in red leather armor following behind Hosokawa Ashgaru who was fleeing, stabbing left and right with the spear in his hand, as if Yoshikakubei had just entered the city.

After the Hosokawa army had escaped, the gates of the city were cleared before letting everyone take a closer look at the man's appearance.The tendons all over his body made the leather armor directly reflect the texture of his body.

Looking up, he wears an old-style forehead protector on his head, which shows that his background should not be high. In the Japanese Warring States period when he had his own equipment, the forehead protectors were only equipped by local samurai and low-level ashigaru. armor.

In the meantime, this person was fighting in front of the city gate, looking at the fleeing Hosokawa Ashgaru, he calmly ordered to the back, "Close the city gate!"

Soon enough, Ashigaru ran out from behind him and closed the wooden gate of Waimaru with a new wooden bolt. In just a few tens of seconds, none of the Hosokawa army outside the city dared to keep it. The fruit of breaking the city was not easy, and watched the city gate being closed.

Different from the calmness (panic) on the front line, Hosokawa Tadaoki's face was extremely ugly when he saw the Hosokawa army being driven out, and immediately asked to beat the drum again, but was stopped by Matsui Yasuyuki, "Your Highness, the situation inside is unknown, Why don't you ask the ashigaru who has just started to fight and ask what happened before making arrangements?"

Tadake Hosokawa was originally angry, and his good samurai education calmed him down quickly, so he asked to bring the vanguard members over for questioning.

Not long after, Yukichi Ryuyuki walked over with a few ashigaru in a low mood. Yukichi Ryuyuki was from Omi, and he was a true retainer of Hosokawa, so his attitude was different from Matsui Yasuyuki.

"Your Highness, I failed to command and failed to break the city, please punish me." You Ji Lixing was very depressed, and put on an appearance of accepting his fate.

It was Matsui Yasuyuki who first discovered the problem, and he asked first, "Master Yukichi, don't worry, your highness has seen your family's bravery just now, especially the samurai named Kakuhei, by the way, speaking of Here, Jijue Bingwei, who just broke the city, is here? Who is he to you?"

You Ji Lixing heard Matsui Yasuyuki's question, raised his drooping head, looked at the elder with aggrievedness and replied, "Returning to Mr. Matsui, Jubei is my nephew. Unfortunately, he can't come to receive your letter in person at this moment." Praise."

Hearing this, Yasuyuki Matsui and Tadakashi Hosokawa exchanged glances. Even Tadakashi Hosokawa, who was furious just now, was dumbfounded. He coughed dryly and said, "What's going on inside the castle? Why did you break into the castle and be pushed out?"

Kiliyuki knelt on one knee and introduced to Hosokawa Tadaoki, "I just asked about the ashigaru who came out of the castle. It turns out that there is a special structure between Uomiyama Castle Outer Maru and Sannomaru. Sannomaru has a small path that can be killed from behind out."

"In addition, the Sannomaru was built on the mountain, and Changzong's family opened a lot of design openings on the Sannomaru screen. When our army attacked along the mountain road, the enemy's shots from the side of the mountain road Kong shot at our army, and another army rushed out from the trail just now, killing our army by surprise, and we lost the outer pill."

After listening to Yukichi Ryuki's narration, Hosokawa Tadaoki had a certain understanding of the situation in the city.

We mentioned more than once above that Yamashiro's attack on Uwaimaru was just the beginning of the siege, so Hosokawa Tadake was prepared for the setback in the attack on Uomiyama Castle. come out.

Just when Hosokawa Tadake was preparing for the next wave of offensive, a samurai carrying a centipede flag came to Hosokawa Tadake, and he asked Hosokawa Tadake for instructions, "Admiral Asano asked me to ask Hosokawa Temple whether the siege is There was resistance, and if there were any issues that could be brought up, he would help."

Hosokawa Tadakashi is a face-saving person. As mentioned earlier, there are only 500 defenders in Uomiyama Castle today. If he leads 3200 people to break the city, he will have to rely on the help of others. What is the face of the Hosokawa family?

Therefore, he rudely rejected the soldier's question, "Go back and tell Asanoden that he will have lunch at Uomiyama Castle."

The envoy returned with the message from Hosokawa Tadakashi, and Hosokawa Tadakashi seized the time to make the next step.

Soon the preparations for the second wave of the Hosokawa army's offensive were completed. Since they had just gained experience in defeating Uaimaru, this time the offensive against Uaimaru was still unfolding as a gourd.

About 30 minutes later, Uomiyama Castle’s Waimaru was breached again. It was still the same as last time. The enemy did not prepare too many defenders in Waimaru. This time, the Hosokawa army also chose to fight steadily. The artillery team and Kamashigaru then entered the city and exchanged fire with the defenders at the head of the Sannomaru Castle to cover the attack on the city.

The attack was quite smooth. The Hosokawa army successfully suppressed Sannomaru's firepower, and the new vanguard began to hit Sannomaru's Hukou gate with a ram.

Due to the protection of the screen, Sannomaru's defensive power is much stronger than that of Uwaimaru. Soldiers can shrink their bodies inside the screen and shoot outside. Therefore, the shooting of Hosokawa's army at the top of the city does not cause much damage. The shooting of iron cannons and bows and arrows The purpose is just to suppress the head of the city and shoot at the vanguard.

The commander of the siege was the same as Yasuyuki Matsui, who was born in the Ashikaga family of the Yoneda family. The first man was the son of Yoneda Yuzheng, the governor of the Yoneda family, Yoneda Shimasa.

But after all, he was born in a family of shogunate retainers, and received a relatively good samurai education since he was a child. He was even more comfortable dealing with small towns in the countryside. In addition, behind him was his uncle Isshiki Tengchang, who was serving as the second questioner, providing him with support. At the same time, help him see the path where Sannomaru is rushing towards Uimaru.

Sure enough, seeing that the Hosokawa army was in a hurry to attack, the defenders in the castle planned to launch another assault on the Hosokawa army in the outer maru.

To be honest, the effect of some tricks depends on the right time, place and people. When the Hosokawa army invaded Uomiyama Castle last time, they did not expect that the defenders would have such many tricks. They were killed by the sudden attack of the Taiping army. Caught off guard.

However, for this siege, the Hosokawa army was fully prepared, and they dispatched an army composed of retainers from the shogunate, and they carried bamboo bundles and wooden domes, and formed a position in the open space of Waimaru. At this time, the defenders charged again. When you come down, you will lose your sudden action, and it will become a positional battle.

Sure enough, when the red-armored samurai rushed down again, he met Ishishiki Tengchang's tenacious resistance. Even though the general had amazing arms and swung several long spears in an attempt to rush into the formation, he was defeated in the end. Come, surrounded by the ashigaru I brought, wanting to retreat.

You finally came here, how can it be easy to go back here?Isshiki Tengchang saw the coming general and wanted to retreat, so he immediately ordered the soldiers to stick to it, and it would be best if he could seize the small door on the trail that only allows one person to pass.

But the reason why the trail is a trail is because it is extremely dangerous, and the defenders occupy a good location, and use bows and arrows to block the Hosokawa army who wants to follow the retreating soldiers and attack Sannomaru.

After suffering several casualties, Isshiki Tengchang finally stopped the plan, which made the red armored warrior retreat.

This is also the biggest drawback of the old-style Japanese army in the Warring States period. The army composed of powerful people seems to be intimidating in number, but how many rich people are willing to sacrifice their harvests in the next few years, and open the situation for the master with great sacrifices? ?

It's not the decisive moment of life and death. It is absolutely impossible for you to want this group of wealthy families to give their best. Although Isshiki Fujicho was educated by the shogunate and has excellent samurai qualities, he is also very familiar with samurai traditions.

Fortunately, the east is not bright and the west is bright. Yoneda is the leader of the army. After sacrificing more than 30 people, he finally broke through the gate of the tiger's mouth and entered Sannomaru. He did not rush into the city like Kakubei, but let He lightly lifted the wooden trap and entered the formation.

Sure enough, at the corner of Sannomaru Tiger's Gate, there were more than a dozen iron cannons facing the gate of the city, and when they saw someone rushing in, they immediately burst out.

Mudun couldn't defend against iron cannon projectiles, so the front Ashigaru, who was holding the wooden dagger, fell down. There was a gap in the shield wall in front, and the opposite Kamashigaru saw the opportunity to shoot at the Hosokawa army in one round. Unfortunately, Marugi's bow was too lethal, and only shot down two or three people.

Yoneda Shizheng seized the opportunity and ordered the gun foot light to rush in and fight with the enemy. The country's nobles did not use iron cannons much, and it took longer to reload. As for the shooting of the Marugi bow, the iron-coated hat can stop it.

Hosokawa's Ashgaru took advantage of this opportunity, charged forward with a spear in hand, and engaged the enemy together.The Hosokawa army was fully prepared for this charge, and Isshiki Fujicho's reserve team quickly expanded the results of the battle. It turned out that Isshiki Fujicho was in charge of the defense position and other retainers were responsible for it.

The defenders of Yujian Mountain Castle were stunned by the powerful offensive of the Hosokawa Army, but after the initial casualties, the defenders and the Hosokawa Army launched a gunfight against each other relying on the mountain road.

Firstly, at the station on the mountain road, only 4 to 5 people can be left side by side. The Hosokawa army cannot take advantage of the numbers. Secondly, the defenders are on the uphill position, and they have an advantage over the Hosokawa army from top to bottom. The Hosokawa army's offensive was unexpectedly suppressed. down.

It was already high in the sun at this time, and Hosokawa Tadake had previously promised Asano Nagamasa to have lunch at Uomiyama Castle, but now the Hosokawa army is still confronting the enemy at Sannomaru, which made Hosokawa Tadake feel ashamed.

"Iron Cannon Squad, let the Iron Cannon Squad shoot at the enemy troops on the mountain, and the Arched Foot Light Squad, shoot at the defenders on the uphill!" Because the attack was slow, Hosokawa Tadakashi, who came to Waimaru to supervise the battle in person, said to him. The envoy next to him gave an order.

Not long after, the iron cannons who heard Hosokawa Tadake's order began to move into Sannomaru, and stood behind the gun array to shoot at the defenders on the ramp.

Facing the firepower of the Hosokawa army, the formation of the defenders became loose. The most important point of the spear formation was the tight fit of the formation.

Sure enough, facing the suppression of the Hosokawa army with long-range firepower, the defenders lost dozens of soldiers and their formation could no longer hold on and began to collapse. It is not bad that they can be supported by friendly troops to Nijimaru. Many defenders The moment he turned around, he was picked to death by the Hosokawa army with a spear.

So far, the Sannomaru of the Ohira family has declared its fall.

Yujian Mountain City has fought to such an extent that the general defenders have lost the possibility of fighting again. After all, they have lost two consecutive circles of city walls in less than half a day, and the defenders have lost 1/5. As a last resort, who wants to die with the city.

In any case, it only took half a day to break through two circles of the city wall. From this, we can see the strong combat effectiveness of the Hosokawa army (at least compared with the Hao clan), but the Hosokawa army also paid the same amount of casualties , The tragedy of the Cage City battle can be seen from this.

The Hosokawa Army's vanguard has gone through a morning of high-intensity combat, and is now exhausted. The story that Hosokawa Tadakashi asked Asano Nagamasa to have lunch at Uomiyama Castle has completely become a joke.

Hosokawa Tadake had no choice but to accept his fate, and sent someone to notify Asano Nagamasa who was still in Ohira Castle, hoping to let the soldiers rest for a while and attack the city in the afternoon.

Unexpectedly, this decision was directly vetoed by Nagamasa Asano, "The military situation is urgent, and the Yukizaki passage must be opened within two days. Now Uomiyama Castle will take one day. How many days will it take for Kawanoejo-sama?"

"I know that the siege of the city is hard, my lords. I saw the battle in the morning with all the lords. The Hosokawa army fought extremely well, but the time is really urgent. If the Hosokawa army has limited stamina, I can transfer the other backup troops to fight with the Hosokawa palace. Rotate offense."

Perhaps Asano Nagamasa's words were out of public interest. He did praise Hosokawa Jun's performance in the last paragraph of his speech, but it was extremely challenging for Hosokawa Tadakeshi to hear.

I have already attacked half of the city, and the defenders were crushed by me on the last two circles of the city wall. What do you mean by saying that you are going to replace them now?
Want to pick the fruit, right?
No!

After all, Tadake Hosokawa was still reluctant to be that vanguard, so he asked the nobles who were in charge of the siege in the morning to retreat to eat and rest, and even led the soldiers directly under the Hosokawa family to make up for it. You must know that these soldiers didn't eat.

Although the soldiers complained about Hosokawa Tadake's actions, the effect was surprisingly good. The defenders did not expect that the Hosokawa army did not respect martial arts, and they retreated to rest in tacit understanding just now. The Hosokawa army climbed into the gate of Nijimaru through a ladder and opened the gate.

Seeing the soldiers of the Hosokawa army outside the city, how can I remember that I was hungry and alone, and there were no enemy troops in front of me, all of them were brilliant military exploits, and they were rewarded with silver!

Immediately, the decadent performance just now was swept away, and he rushed in with high spirits.

The Daping army was eating just now, so they didn't expect the Hosokawa army to launch an attack at this time, they put down their bowls and chopsticks and rushed in with their weapons.

In the morning, the red-armored samurai yelled even more, "The mice of the Hosokawa family, they only know how despicable and shameless it is to use tricks and tricks. They have the ability to fight you for several rounds!"

After all, he rushed up to fight with Hosokawa Ashgaru with his gun, and with his outstanding martial arts, he actually cleared an open space on the Erzhimaru platform. No one dared to step forward, and 7 or 8 people fell to the ground beside him corpse.

It is not appropriate to say that there are all corpses. An injured Ashgaru saw that Jubei Hetian was no longer paying attention to this side, and wanted to get up and escape, but was pierced by the spear thrown by Jubei, and even pierced Another ashigaru died, and his death was extremely horrific.

Wearing red armor and bloodstained face, Hetian Jubingwei looked like a ghost who had climbed up from hell, which made Sengoku Ashgaru, who believed in the theory of gods and Buddhas, feel frightened and retreated one after another.

Hetian Jubei calmly walked towards his spear, and in front of dozens of samurai Ashgaru, he slowly pulled out the spear stuck in him on the dead body of Ashgaru.

"Master Ada Sujujuro, who dares to fight!" Jubei shouted loudly, roaring with all his strength, and unexpectedly scared a few ashigaru to sit on the ground.

"Hahaha, Hosokawa Rat." Hosokawa Jun's cowardly appearance drew the ridicule of Ada Sujuro, but it stopped abruptly with a few loud bangs.

It turned out that Tadake Hosokawa, who saw the attack blocked, ignored the dissuasion of his retainers, and directly ordered someone to kill this brave general with an iron cannon, and told this fierce general who counts ten as ten with the iron cannon what "times have changed"

Why did Hosokawa's retainers organize Hosokawa Tadake to kill Heda Sujuro with an iron cannon? In fact, this is the same as the European church prohibiting soldiers from using crossbows. They think it is unfair to the knights who have been trained for decades.

Think about it too, I was born noble, and trained hard for decades, why was my life taken away by a small iron arrow in the end, a pariah like you.

This kind of deformed worship of knights (samurai) exists in both the East and the West, but the East is not as outrageous as the West. Taking Japan as an example, they accept and tolerate the use of iron cannons.

Although some people did object, thinking why the lives of samurai would be taken away by humble peasants with an iron cannon, but the rapid changes on the battlefield finally made them accept the reality.

Today, Japan only has a little respect for samurai with high status or outstanding performance on the battlefield. They think that killing them with iron cannons is detrimental to the honor of samurai.

But who is Tadake Hosokawa? The daimyo who lived with Nobunaga since he was a child has a much more enlightened view on these things than they do. He believes that the most important thing is to solve things in the simplest way. This is why he forced the Iron Cannon Team to shoot The reason for this is that he can't consume it anymore, and if he continues to consume it, he will really make the group of big names in the city laugh at him.

Aida Sujuro, who had been shot several times in his body, donated blood and flowed out of the bullet holes. The iron cannon shot directly penetrated the leather armor he passed on, turning his internal organs upside down.

In pain, he leaned on his spear and knelt on the ground. When he saw the fierce man who was still alive just now, the surrounding warriors of Hosokawa stepped forward and took the life of the fierce general one by one.

With the death of Sujujuro Goda, the last resistance of the Taihei army came to an end, and the remaining defenders retreated to Honmaru, but there was no match for the Hosokawa army who had broken through three circles of the city wall.

Breaking through three walls in half a day greatly boosted the morale of Hosokawa's army. They forgot about hunger and pain. Now they just want to rush into the city and loot wantonly!
At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, as the roar of "Hey~hey~hoo!" sounded from above Uomiyama Castle, it was announced that this forward fortress managed by the Bincho Sogabu family was captured by the Hosokawa Army.

At the beginning, 200 troops assigned by Nagamunegabu's family to Uomiyama Castle were from Kagawa Nobuki's troops (handed over to the commander of Taiping Kunicaku), 200 were from Higashiiyo's people, and 100 were from Awazhong.

Among the defenders this time, the ones with the strongest will were the Awa people. Seventy-eight out of ten of the Awa defenders led by Hataka Makotosuke died in battle, because they had been invaded by the Nagamune family for a long time, and they had already accepted them. Nagamune's family is his new main family, so he has contributed a lot. The spear formation on the Sannomaru uphill in front was organized by Awazhong.

Compared with Awazhong, Higashiiyo and Sanuki had much fewer casualties. The total sum is slightly more than Awazhong, and the battle damage ratio is 1/3 of Awazhong.

On the side of the siege, the Hosokawa family finally confessed the lives of 90 samurai/Ashigaru in Uomiyama Castle, and nearly 200 people were injured, which can be regarded as traumatic.

(End of this chapter)