Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 334 Battle of Kyushu ([-])

The soldiers of Ryonomiya Sanbei led by Nagamune’s trustees are all old people from Akasaka Bei. Although most of the samurai were transferred to Tsugabei, the peasants who made up Ashgaru could not be transferred.

As for Changzong's family, which was transferred from Tosa, the most indispensable thing was samurai, who quickly filled the command gap at the grassroots level and adapted to Ukita's fighting style.

Originally when Akasaka was disbanded, these ashigaru thought that they had been excluded from the Ukita military system, and they no longer had the opportunity to gain profits by virtue of their military exploits.

Now Akasaka Bei was reorganized into Ryonomiya Sanbei, and the Battle of Huaihuai was the first battle after the reorganization. The soldiers naturally marched forward courageously, killing people desperately to gain military merit.

The Shimadzu army can be regarded as a strong army in Kyushu, but it was defeated by Liang Gongshan's preparations, and finally retreated into the city under the cover of the Erzhimaru defenders.

Yunobu Yamada, who had just returned to Ninomaru, said to Ibusuki Tadamasa worriedly, "I thought the iron cannons of Otomo's house were already very sharp, but who would have thought that the iron cannons of Toyotomi's house were denser than Otomo's house? Just the firepower of the iron cannons suppressed us so much that we didn't dare to fight back."

Ibusuki Tadamasa wiped the blood stains on his face and replied, "I don't know what kind of drug their Ashgaru took. They are as brave as a samurai when they kill them. They don't even care about their own lives. They are simply devils."

Tsuna Tsuna interjected, "Don't worry, my lords, they will be sharper when they attack Sannomaru. Sannomaru's earthen wall is only this big, and I want to gather the iron cannons and arched foots like just now." It may not be so easy to shoot at us, we can also rely on Ninomaru to counterattack calmly."

Regarding the self-confidence of Tsuna Nagakusa, Yuxin Yamada disagrees with "I hope so"

While the three were discussing defense matters, Ryonomiya Yamabi, who had killed the leader, wanted to continue to attack Nijimaru under the command of the samurai from Nagamunega clan.

But as Tsuna Tsuna said, Sannomaru's platform is so big, Ukita couldn't take advantage of the number of people at all, but was shot by the arrows shot by Ninomaru Castle, and the offensive had to stop.

And because the height of Nizhimaru is much higher than that of Sannomaru on the flat ground outside the city, the original wooden escape can't effectively block the arrow feathers shot down from the city. Shimadzu's side finally suppressed Ukita temporarily. Offensive here.

"What, didn't you just say that you can take it with a single charge?" Watching the Ryonomiya Sanbei of Changzong's department begin to withdraw in an orderly manner, a retainer and samurai from Osafune Tsunao whispered.

But his complaints were still heard by the warriors of Changzong's family, and they immediately cast him an angry look.

Hearing the retainer's talkativeness, Osafune Tsunaoto scolded without knowing it, "Kigoro, you are all friendly soldiers, don't talk nonsense."

Then he walked up to the disciples of Changzong and asked him, "How about it, does Master Changzong need help from our team?"

The relatives of Changzong's family looked at Osafune Tsunao, and refused, "Master Osafune, please sweep the formation for me under the city. Next time, I will be able to break through the defense in the city, kill and hand it over to His Highness." Ignore Long Chuangang and go straight back to make arrangements.

About a quarter of an hour later, Changzong's followers personally commanded Ryonomiya Sanbei and began the second attack on Ruohuai City.

When the soldiers of Ryonomiya Sanbei began to march into Ruohuai Castle, Yasuji Wakisaka and Yoshiaki Kato on the other side of the river had also received the messenger sent by Hideya to inform them of assistance.

Now in the entire Bungo battlefield, the Xiu family has the highest official position and rank in the Toyotomi family. In addition to the fact that the Xiu family has won many victories in the past, now that the Xiu family sends people to inform them to go to battle, they naturally dare not have the slightest bit prevarication or refusal.

As soon as the two received the order from the Hide family, they hurriedly prepared the soldiers in Iano Castle. After leaving 300 people on guard, they led more than 2000 people out in a file and began to cross the Usuki River.

As the sun rises and the dense fog dissipates, the movement of Ieno Castle is naturally noticed by the defenders in Takuai Castle, but at this moment they have no energy to look at the situation on the other side of the Usuki River, because Nagamune I The second wave of offensive commanded by the Ministry of Xinqin has already begun.

This time, Nagamune's relatives directly took out the secret weapon of the Tosa family, copied from the Murakami Suijun's cannon-fired jade Zi Sannomaru, and threw it into the Ninomaru with a catapult rope.

The fragments of the blasted jade caused the defenders of Ninomaru to panic for a moment. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Xinqin led someone to smash the crock pot containing kerosene on the wooden door of Ninomaru's crown, and then ignited it with a rocket. .

Because he didn't expect Otomo to launch an offensive against him so quickly, Guhuai's defense didn't even apply fire-resistant wet mud to the wooden structure of the city.

The rocket was ignited instantly after it touched the kerosene, and the raging fire instantly engulfed the crown wooden door and began to spread to both sides.

"The water is gone! Extinguish the fire!" shouted the defenders in the city, trying to extinguish the flames with the water in the few water tanks in the city, but it was all in vain.

Here I want to popularize the water problems in the Japanese Warring States Period. There are mainly several types. One is to dig wells on the spot to fetch water, which is usually found in Pingcheng or Pingshan Castle.

The other is to use a special sling device, which can lower the wooden barrel from the city and put it in the river outside the city to get water directly. In order to ensure the safety of water fetching in the cage city, water is usually taken at night, and the water taken will be Stored in the water storage container in the city for use.

This is the method used to scratch Huai Castle, which is located on the edge of the Usuki River.This is also a common method of water intake in Japanese mountain cities, such as Inabayama Castle and Nagashino Castle.

The third way is common in port cities near the sea, similar to Osaka Castle and so on.When they built it, they would build it not far from the Okawa, and build a pond that diverts the flowing water to fill the water wall and the viewing area in the city.

Normally, these waters are the landscape, but when the water flow is cut off during the war, the water in the water bores and ponds in the city becomes a life-saving resource.

However, there is also a fatal problem with the method of fetching water in Huaihuai City, that is, the amount of water fetched at one time is very small. Once a fire occurs, the water stored in the tank will not be enough to put out the fire. , time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the effect is extremely poor.

The fire that scratched Huaicheng formed a certain range of warm air flow in the valley, and the thick fog was carried to the upper layer along with the air flow, and the surrounding visual range gradually expanded.

"My lord, come and see, there are many troops over there!"

Yamada Yunobu and the others were stopped by the shouts of the soldiers. They leaned on the screen and looked towards the line of defense he was pointing at. They suddenly saw an army formation like a long snake that could not be seen at a glance, coming from the mountain stream behind him. keep going out.

There is not a trace of superfluous nonsense in the entire Ukido army formation. The silence of the soldiers, coupled with the fact that they walked out of the mountains in the blind spot, even gave Yamada another illusion that "this is the army of evil spirits from hell."

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Besides, on the side of the Xiu family, at the same time as the attack on Shihong City was launched, the Xiu family issued an order to attack Osafune Tsunao and Chang Zong's relatives in the third formation, asking them to launch an offensive against the city of Huaihuai.

After giving the order, Hideka no longer cared about the scratching of his arms. He threw the large army across Shihong Castle and continued towards Usuki Castle, enjoying the sound of iron cannons coming from behind.

The Xiu family has absolute trust in Osafune Tsunao, if they can't even take down the small city of Huaihuai, the Xiu family may have to think carefully about the further reform of Yuxi's military system.

But Yuxi's family didn't actually go far, and the army stopped. Xiujia asked curiously, "What's going on in front? Why did the army stop?"

Not long after, an envoy with a centipede flag on his back shuttled to the right of the army formation and ran quickly towards Xiu's house.

After seeing Xiujia, he knelt down on one knee and reported to Xiujia, "Master Qinglong Beiida reported that a large group of Shimadzu family troops were found in front of them, and they were confronting each other. I asked His Highness for guidance."

The Xiu family frowned when they heard that they had encountered the Shimadzu family's large army. How long had it been since Shi Hong was attacked? Can the opposing side prepare their army so quickly to go out? But they still asked him: "How many people are there?" ?”

The envoy reported truthfully: "It's too foggy to see clearly."

Xiujia frowned when he heard that, he hated fighting such unknown encounters the most.Seeing that the Xiu family did not continue to question, the envoy said again, "Lord Date also asked me to tell His Highness that the mountain road is narrow, and the width of the battlefield between the mountain and the river is no more than a hundred paces even if the river beach is included. Please inform Your Highness of the information. For Your Highness to think about."

This information is actually very critical. With a distance of more than a hundred steps, it can barely stand up to a standard brigade of 104 people. Come out, it's worse than a bad battle.

What is worthy of Xiujia's forgiveness is that the opposite side seemed to be frightened by the sudden Toyotomi army, because Shimadzu Jiufeng couldn't figure out the reality of the opposite side and did not dare to attack rashly, so both sides confronted each other with weapons in their hands at the front line. A message was sent from the rear.

Time passed by every minute and every second, Xiujia led his banner team to move forward from the left side of the queue, and soon came to the front of the formation to observe Shimadzu's army with his own eyes.

I have to say that it is indeed the Shimadzu family, which has a deep foundation in Kyushu. I heard that the reason why Hideyoshi and Ieyasu did not dare to touch their Satsuma Osumi was because the Shimadzu family had a very deep influence in these two countries.

There is a data for reference. During the Taiko period, there were more than 1 samurai from the Shimadzu family alone. There were so many samurai that the Shimadzu family could not even support so many people, so the treatment of ordinary samurai could only be reduced. Use a samurai as an ashigaru.

Regardless of whether the news is true or not, the pair of Shimadzu soldiers in front of them are indeed frighteningly armored. The first row to open the way is actually a group of samurai wearing helmets. They hold spears and look at Xiangxiu with serious expressions. home side.

Just when Xiujia was struggling, the Shimadzu family warriors in the opposite formation looked behind Xiujia and exclaimed.

The Xiu family turned their heads to look, and it turned out that the city of Huaihuai was on fire.

Xiujia not only underestimated, but what kind of fight is going on in the Huaihuai side? Could it be that the battle is really fierce?

At this time, Akashi Jingqin, who was supposed to replace Xiu's family in this battle and command the entire army, also ran over from behind, and he leaned into Xiu's ear and said, "Your Highness, no matter what is going on on the other side, the two armies now We met before the battle, so many pairs of eyes were watching, it was a lot of people talking, we should show some performance, and we can explain it to Osaka.”

Hideka glanced at Akashi Jingqin and agreed with his idea, so he said to Date Masahiro who was following him, "According to what Iyoshou said, you go and try the water on the opposite side, and we won't let others gossip. We're afraid." The Shimadzu family."

"Hayi" Masahiro Date received the order, and wanted to go back to set up, but was stopped by Xiu's family here, "Come back!"

Masahiro Date returned to Xiu’s side here and waited for instructions, “Don’t shoot random cannons at such a distance, it’s easy to hurt your own people. At a distance of 200 steps, the infantry team will go directly to the enemy’s hand-to-hand combat. Let them see the bravery of Jibei warriors."

Based on the demands of the Xiu family, Date Masahiro recruited the generals of Qinglongbei's subordinate battalions to issue orders. Then, with the first brigade of the first battalion as the forerunner, Qinglongbei took the first step forward.

Seeing Ukita's actions, Shimadzu on the opposite side retreated half a step instinctively, but quickly stabilized under the organization of senior samurai.

Qinglongbei continued to walk forward slowly, and the formation marched to about 100 strides. As the first battalion in front of the formation, it began to run at small steps. After the second battalion could not fill the space of the first battalion, it did not rush up. The soldiers Putting the long spear in his hand on the ground, took off the bow and arrow hanging on his body, and began to bend the bow and nock the arrow to prepare for shooting.

When the first battalion was 40 steps forward, the soldiers held their spears flat and began to accelerate, shouting slogans like mountain shouts, and rushed to the opposite side.

The Shimadzu family also reacted quickly, using the first column in front of the formation as an arrow, and began to countercharge Ukita's side.

The mountain call of the first battalion was the password, and the second battalion at about a hundred paces shot out the bow and arrow in their hands in an instant, providing fire cover for the first battalion.

The soldiers of the second battalion shot three arrows forward, then put their bows back on their bodies, grabbed their spears and went to support the first battalion, which was already in hand-to-hand combat. At the same time, 500 people from the third battalion quickly made up their positions , to provide supplementary firepower for the two battalions in front.

The Xiu family is very satisfied with Qinglong Bei's infantry and bow coordination. After all, it is a professional army supported by himself, which is much more elite than other half-soldier and half-farmer reserve teams.

The front line began to join the battle. I don't know that Xiujia poked his head and observed the opposite side by himself. Even the ordinary soldiers behind him were curious to look forward through the gaps in the crowd, wanting to know the real situation of the battle formation.

To the surprise of Xiu's family, the Shimadzu army on the opposite side was able to fight back and forth with Qinglongbei in front of the formation while holding arrow feathers on their heads.

You must know that Qinglongbei is the first standing reserve formed by the Xiu family, and its combat effectiveness is also the most elite. If Qinglongbei can't quickly take down the opposing reserve team, then the other reserve teams will probably be even worse.

Moreover, standing equipment is the most important military bargaining chip of the Xiu family. Good steel is used wisely. The Xiu family does not want Qinglong Bei to fall into such a meaningless positional battle.

Therefore, when the third battle emptied the 15 arrows in the self-prepared quiver and was about to join the battle group, the Xiu family decisively stopped their charge and ordered Mingjin to withdraw.

(End of this chapter)