Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 357 The Battle of South Kyushu ([-])

Early the next morning, a howling sound resounded throughout Xiaocang City, and the daimyos who hadn't woken up rubbed their eyes and sent people out to investigate.

Not long after, the retainers came back one after another to report, "Qiuyue Xiuxiu was arrested. It seems that he pretended to surrender, but in fact he was acting as an internal correspondent for the Shimadzu family, betraying his family's information and so on."

Last night after Qiuyue Zhongshi was fine, for this local snake in Kyushu, many big names including the Maoli family specially got together for a meal to express their concern for him.

Unexpectedly, he was arrested after only one night, and he was arrested in the name of collaborating with the enemy.

The arrest of Qiuyue Zhongshi made the daimyo who had a drink with him yesterday couldn't help shrinking his head, fearing that he had drunk too much yesterday and said something that shouldn't be said.

After a while, another retainer came to report, "Qiuyue Xiuxiu was escorted by His Highness Guan Bai to Honmaru for beheading."

The news of Hideyoshi's execution of the Akizuki family quickly spread throughout the Toyotomi army.Many people expressed incomprehension about Hideyoshi's sudden murderous behavior.

After all, Qiuyue Zhong is really a daimyo, a high-ranking nobleman.Looking at the wars between Japanese warriors during the Warring States Period in history, it is very similar to the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period in China.

High-ranking warriors have their own honor, and even enemies will choose to give each other a chance to respect.

Therefore, most of them will be allowed to kill themselves in order to preserve their dignity, and they will not implicate their wives and children.

However, Zai Hideyoshi directly ordered someone to behead Qiuyue Zhongshi. The number of people who have been beheaded since ancient times in Japan can be counted in the history books.

When everyone was in doubt, Hideyoshi quickly convened everyone, read out the crimes of Akizuki, and declared that anyone who dared to communicate with the enemy Shimadzu in private, Akizuki would be the end.

At the same time, he also declared that as long as those who devote themselves to fighting for their duties will be rewarded, the land of Kyushu will be left for them to grab.

After the radish and the big stick were used together, the warriors who were a little surprised because Qiuyue Zhongshi was killed were all relieved.

After dealing with Akizuki's planting, Hideyoshi took the subordinate daimyo of the Kitakyushu Army and his soldiers, and under the escort of more than 5 bannermen, he marched to the front line of Chikugo.

At the same time, Xiujia and Xiuchang bid farewell to Hideyoshi, and the two walked together on the road to Bungo.

"Why didn't uncle inform Father of the risk of Hinata's surprise attack just now?" On the way, Xiujia couldn't help asking Xiuchang.

Since Hideo and Hidecho told about the danger of crossing from Iyo to Hyuga yesterday, Hideo has always hoped that Hideonaga can ask Hideyoshi to give up this plan.

The two originally planned to report to Hideyoshi together last night, but Hideyoshi was very angry after knowing Qiuyue's tricks, and suggesting to him that he wanted to suspend the plan would probably hurt him, so he did not inform Hideyoshi.

Xiuchang originally planned to ask him when he bid farewell to Hideyoshi today, but when Xiujia accompanied Xiuchang to bid farewell to Hideyoshi today, Xiujia was always by his side, and Xiuchang didn't say anything about it until he left. I don't understand very much.

Hearing Xiujia's inquiry, Xiuchang smiled and said, "Don't be so pessimistic, Hachiro. Maybe I can make great achievements in this surprise attack. Besides, my brother has a lot of opportunities every day. As relatives, shouldn't we give it to him?" Do you share your worries?"

Seeing Xiuchang's calm appearance, Xiujia knew in his heart that it would be useless to persuade him any longer.

In the 15th year of Tianzheng, on April 4st, Xiuchang and Xiujia, who were all ready, parted ways in Funai City.

When parting, Hideka said to Hideonaga, "Don't worry, Uncle, I will do my best to attract Yoshihiro Shimadzu's idea, and create barriers for you to surprise Hinata."

Xiuchang still returned Xiujia's warm smile, "Then leave everything to Xiujia."

After sending Hidecho away, the Hide family drove towards Usuki Castle with more than 6 members of the Southern Kyushu Corps assembled in Funai City. and go.

At this time, it was Tadashi Kawayama, an old acquaintance of the Hide family, and his son who refused to guard Saeki Castle.

Regardless of the fact that Saiki Castle is located to the north of the Banjo River, it seems that the Shimadzu family refused to defend the city for income, and the river would become an obstacle to their support of Saiki Castle.

In fact, in this era when tunnels could not be dug, the dense mountains in the east of Bungo made the main road, the Rifeng Line, dug along the coastline, and the main cities were also distributed by the sea.

The troops led by the Xiu family numbered nearly 7. If they wanted to advance so many safely, they could only come along the Rifeng Line, and there was absolutely no possibility of crossing mountains and ridges.

If you march along the Nippon Line, Saeki Castle becomes a city that is absolutely impossible to avoid on the road. It is located at the mouth of the Fanjiang River, on the Nippon Line road (from the upper right of the map).

The Shimadzu family calmly crossed the river from the upper reaches of the Fanjiang River to provide supplies to Saeki Castle (left side of the map). This is why Shimadzu Yoshihiro refused to give up Saeki Castle at the beginning.

Saeki Castle is not only a very important city on the road, but also the residence of the Saeki family. It is one of the few stone wall castles in Kyushu.

Although the Honmaru was only built with stone walls, its city defense level has surpassed many cities in this era, not to mention that it is located on Mount Saeki, which is steep and easy to defend.

Although Shimadzu Yoshihiro made people stick to Saeki Castle, his own main battle was set up on Ikeda Castle south of the Banjo River, and between the two castles, relying on the original castle defenses, he rebuilt Tsumure Castle, making it the Saiki Castle. The second line of defense behind the city.

Standing on Ikeda Castle, looking at the defense line he set up on the other side, Yoshihiro Shimadzu was full of pride. He believed that this line of defense would be difficult to capture no matter who came.

As long as Saiki Castle is there, he can continuously provide additional personnel from the rear, but the Toyotomi family can only rely on iron heads in front of this iron wall.

However, the development of the situation exceeded Yoshihiro Shimadzu's expectations, and he will soon find that "the times have changed."

On April 4, the main force of the Xiu family walked out of Rifengxian's mountain road and came to the village named Haiqi in later generations.

This place was originally just a small field of a few hundred stones, and there was a fishing village near the sea, with more than a hundred people living in it.

However, in order to provide a forward position for Saeki Castle, Yoshihiro Shimadzu built a new branch city on the mountain here, and garrisoned 150 people.

The guards were samurai from the relatives of the Shimadzu family, led by 150 people who were also from Satsuma villagers. Naturally, they knew that their 150 men against the 7 army would be like hitting a stone with an egg, but they took the task resolutely, because they were The first line of defense against the Toyotomi family.

They completed the task very well, relying on an isolated city, and delayed Hideyoshi for 2 days. Some of the reasons why Hideyoshi deliberately delayed the time to attract Shimadzu Yoshihiro's attention.

After this small town was destroyed, Hideka finally had to face Usupira Castle, the first branch city on the north side of Saiki Castle.

The city is located on Mount Udaira, a city higher than Saeki Castle, overlooking the entire port from here.

The meaning of defense for such a high city is almost zero, because the city lacks drinking water, and it is not realistic to dig wells in the city. The water in the city needs to be picked up from the mountain every day.

But Japan still likes to build cities on these mountains, the purpose is to provide observation posts for the city below.

Facing the towering Usuhira Castle, the Hide family ignored it at all, but directly ordered the Ukita Kan family to march from the valley between the two mountains, to take Fukuyama Castle between Saeki Castle and Tsumure Castle, and cut off the Shimadzu family's support .

At the same time, he ordered a large army to line up on the east side of Saeki Castle to monitor the movement of Saeki Castle and prevent the defenders in Saeki Castle from going out of the city to attack the back of the Quan family.

The defenders stationed in Usuhira Castle naturally discovered that a pair of troops of more than 5000 men passed by their foot of the mountain, and they immediately notified the guard Kawayama Tadsuke in Saiki Castle.

However, constrained by the 3 army under the city (the army was not fully deployed), Kawayama Tadsuke did not dare to act rashly, so he could only send a message to Shimadzu Yoshihiro on the other side of the Banjo River, telling him to pay attention to the Rangers on the west side.

In order to cooperate with Toyotomi Hidecho to cross the Pacific Ocean, Kuki Yoshitaka and others who originally belonged to the Southern Kyushu Legion have been transferred to Iyo.

In order to show his concern for Xiuchang, Xiujia also handed over all the closed ships of his Okayama Navy to Xiuchang.

Nowadays, most of the Okayama navy in Bungo are small haya boats, which makes the navy of Toyotomi of the Hide family extremely weak, and can't even control the Banjo River to prevent the Shimadzu family on the other side from providing support.

Hideka originally wanted to cut off the connection between the Shimadzu family and Saeki Castle, and then calmly attacked the city, but Yoshihiro Shimadzu on the opposite side was not a Muggle either.

Seeing that Saeki Castle was unable to pinch Ukita Kan's troops, he ordered the defenders of Tsumure Castle to go out first to support the defense of Fukuyama Castle, and the follow-up reinforcements continued to cross the Banjo River to support Saeki Castle.

Seeing that Fukuyama Castle could not be attacked, and Shimadzu soldiers crossing the river upstream, Xiujia frowned deeply.

He knew that Fukuyama Castle had to be captured. This was not only the reason for cutting off the retreat of Saeki Castle, but also the worry that the Shimadzu family would cut off their retreat along the valley.

After thinking about this, the Hide family simply stopped attacking Saeki Castle and put all their main force into Fukuyama Castle to fight against the Shimadzu family.

The two sides fought until sunset. Shimadzu thought that the Toyotomi army on the attacking side would temporarily withdraw their troops, but the Hideka directly ordered people to hold up torches to attack the city all night.

Due to the dark night, Shimadzu's reinforcements sent from the opposite bank could only be cut off, and Shimadzu Yoshihiro, who saw Toyotomi's army determined to attack by storm, also ordered to burn Fukuyama Castle and withdraw troops.

When this order was issued, Yoshihiro Shimadzu felt very uncomfortable in his heart, because he knew that his order to save the 2000 children in Saeki Castle was equivalent to abandoning them.

But the bloody battle with Toyotomi's army in Fukuyama is really of little significance. The significance of Fukuyama's existence is to become the link between Saeki Castle and Tsumure Castle.

Even if Fukuyama falls, as long as Saeki Castle continues to stand firm, Yoshihiro Shimadzu can use Tsumure Castle as a forward base to attack Fukuyama Castle at any time and support the defenders in Saeki Castle.

Now Fukuyama Castle was destroyed following the retreat of the Shimadzu family. The fire burned all the way along the mountain, which directly hindered the Ukita Kan family who wanted to enter the city.

With the destruction of Fukuyama Castle, even if the Toyotomi clan occupied Fukuyama, they had no fortifications to rely on for defense. Instead, they had to face the Shimadzu army that came out of Tsumure Castle and came to attack Toyama every day. It is Yoshihiro Shimadzu's strategy of exhausting troops.

The war between the two sides was intense until April 4th. After Ukita’s family had come to Hideo more than once to ask Hideo to withdraw troops, Hideka had no choice but to replace Ukita’s with 15 people from the third team Teruma Ikeda, Hayashi Weizhong, and Inaba Sadatsu. The Xiu family continued to defend Fukuyama, and ordered the construction of fortifications to be stepped up. The Xiu family planned to surround Saeki Castle to death.

On April 4, the long-awaited artillery battalion of the Xiu family was finally delivered to the foot of Saeki Castle. Three large gold cannons and 20 small gold cannons were lined up along the front of the Saeki Castle, and began to pour firepower at the Saeki Castle.

Facing the rumbling artillery fire below the city, Huashan Zhongsuke, who was defending the city, cheered and encouraged the defenders, "Don't panic, these are just stone fire arrows, they won't be able to shoot a few shots."

But he always misunderstood that this was not a poorly made stone fire arrow, but a real bronze cannon. Although the caliber was small, it was more than enough for Saiki City, which used wood as its walls and gates.

Accompanied by the uninterrupted firing of artillery every 2 minutes, Saeki Castle Sannomaru and Nichimaru were riddled with holes, and the 1th squad under the castle Asano Nagamasa led his team of 2600 people as the first team, and began to attack Saeki Castle Attack.

For this reason, Xiujia specially supported one of the iron artillery battalions and provided them with fire cover.

In order to provide support for Saeki Castle and to share the strength of Toyotomi's army, Shimadzu Yoshihiro ordered his nephew Tsutoyohisa to lead people to attack Fukuyama Castle. If the Fukuyama defenders can be defeated, it would be best to connect with Saeki Castle.

Even if Fukuyama's defenders cannot be broken, they should try their best to attract as many Toyotomi troops as possible to relieve the pressure on Kawayama and his son in the city.

The two sides fought to the bottom of the chest, and with a loud "boom", the gate of Sannomaru of Saeki Castle broke down, and Asano Nagamasa's retainer Ishii Sancheng took the lead in entering the city, fighting with the Shimadzu army who refused to defend in the city. Together.

Standing on the other side of Ikeda Castle, Shimadzu Yoshihiro witnessed the fall of Saeki Castle, a strong city in his mind. In his eyes, this strong city that could consume the Toyotomi family for a whole year was just like this on an ordinary afternoon. Xiujia broke in.

Yoshihiro Shimadzu, who had witnessed the siege of the Xiu family with his own eyes, couldn't figure out why Shihiya, who had been useless in experiments, would be so useful. Masuke, is the Ishihaya that was returned by Toyotomi last time still there?"

Hearing Shimadzu Yoshihiro's inquiry, Jiwa Jiuhu asked curiously, "What is Your Highness planning to use?"

"Since Toyotomi can be used to attack the city, I can naturally use it to defend the city. Fix the stone fire arrows on the top of the city and bombard them down the city. Maybe it will have a miraculous effect."

Yes, seeing the Ishihaya of the Toyotomi family on the opposite bank, Yoshihiro Shimadzu also moved his mind, "Transport all of them to Tsumure Castle. Since the Toyotomi family can play it, my Shimadzu family can do the same."

Then he ordered sadly, "Let Matashichiro retreat and defend Tsumure Castle. I will naturally find a way to support Saeki Castle. The Tsumure Castle we talked about is lost, and our way of retreat is really lost."

(End of this chapter)