Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 361 The decisive battle in Southern Kyushu ([-]) Shimadzu flees south

In the 15th year of Tianzheng, April [-]th.

At this time, the climate in Japan is about to enter summer, and the weather in Kyushu is very hot, and the trees on both sides of the Banjo River are constantly singing.

Walking on the north bank of the Fanjiang River, looking at the corpses being salvaged continuously on the bank, the Xiu family couldn't help but feel a chill.

The water in the Bansho River has already receded, and the people on Toyotomi's side are sorting out the corpses that washed up on the bank, and neatly stacking them in the pits dug on the bank.

You must know that in such a hot climate, if these corpses are not treated, they are prone to diseases.

In this old society where medicine was underdeveloped, once a disease was caused in an army of tens of thousands of people, it was likely to spread into a plague, and it would be impossible to continue to attack Hinata.

"Your Highness."

When Xiujia was standing by the Fanjiang River feeling melancholy, a call came from beside him, Xiujia turned around and saw that it was Mingshi Jingqin, the deputy of Xiujia's army.

Seeing Akashi Jingqin find him, Xiujia reluctantly showed his smile and responded, "Oh, is it Iyomori? How about it, have the battle results and casualties been counted?"

"I just want to report this matter to His Highness." Akashi Jingqin was not very emotional, and handed over the account books in his hand to Xiujia

"Otomo and Asano suffered heavy losses. Asano lost 325 people and 42 samurai with surnames; Otomo's family lost 533 people and 48 samurai with surnames.

The loss of the main family is relatively small, with a total of 306 people in each reserve team. This is still counting the loss of Masachiro (Hanabo Masashige) yesterday, and 27 samurai with surnames.

The information about Saeki Castle from Kobayakawa Hall has not yet been submitted, and the details are unknown.

In the battle of Saeki-Fukuyama-Tamure Castle, our total loss exceeded 2500 people.The battle damage of the Shimadzu family should not be lower than ours. In the past few days, the first-level inspection of the light has exceeded level 2800. "

The Xiu family curled their lips when they heard Akashi Jingqin's report, not very satisfied with the answer.

If it weren't for the rash pursuit of Shimadzu's family this afternoon, which caused the impact of the water attack, the number of battle casualties should be kept below 2000.

But now Xiujia can only accept this less than perfect ending.

"Have you found Katsuchiyo and Genjiro?"

What the Hide family is most worried about now is Nobutada Anayama and Nobushige Sanada, both of whom are important pawns in their next political operations, and they must never be lost.

But just now, after I agreed to the request of the two to participate in the war, the two rode on horses and held spears, excitedly chasing Shimadzu's house, and now they were washed into the sea by the flood.

"I found it, and the navy generals rescued both of them." Akashi Jingqin replied.

Hearing the news that the two were safe, the Xiu family was relieved. If the two died in battle, it would definitely be the biggest loss for the Xiu family in this battle.

While the two were talking, Asano Nagamasa rushed towards the Xiu family, "Your Highness, Secretary of State, what should we do now? Do we want to send troops to chase after the Shimadzu family's retreat?"

Seeing Asano Nagamasa's angry appearance, Hideya was a little confused.

Although it is true that Asano Nagamasa suffered a lot after being attacked by the Shimadzu family, there is no need to chase and kill the Shimadzu family in such a hurry.

There are only 2600 people in the main force of the Asano family. After these two days of fighting, after deducting the injured, there are only about 2000 people who can fight.Why are you in such a hurry to seek justice from the Shimadzu family?
"Hirazaemon of the Asano family died in battle." Seeing Asano Nagamasa's appearance like this, Akashi Keiki whispered in Hide's ear.

"Who?" Hearing an unfamiliar name, Xiujia asked a little incomprehensibly.

"Hirazaemon is Asano Tadakichi, the cousin of Lord Asano Nagamasa, and the governor of the Asano family in the Oda era. Asano Nagamasa should be taken care of by his father, so he is so angry."

After hearing Akashi Jingqin's explanation, the Xiu family understood the ins and outs.

It turned out that during the period of the Oda family, the head of the Asano family was Asano Nagatada, Asano Tadaki's father, and Asano Nagamasa, who had no right to inherit the land, found his cousin Hideyoshi and lived with him.

Before Asano Nagamasa was entrusted with 1583 stone in 3, Asano Nagamasa and Asano Tadaki's family had been separated and managed separately, and there was no subordinate relationship.

However, as Hideyoshi continued to grow, Asano Nagamasa's political influence also continued to rise. After the Hideo family conquered the four countries, Asano Nagamasa was transferred to Awa 11 shi, and the Asano Tadaki family of Owari also pushed the boat to embrace Asano Naga Zheng's thigh, following Asano Nagamasa as the head of the Asano family.

Historically, when Asano Nagamasa was transferred to Kai, he was governed by the regional division of Kusuji and Two Territories.

Among them, the Hanoi collar in the "two collars" refers to Zhongkichi. In Asano's house, it is only 22.5 shi, and Asano Tadakichi alone has 2 shi. It is enough to see that Asano Nagamasa attaches great importance to Asano Tadaki.

The Xiu family did not expect that this battle would cause the head of the Asano family to die like this. After comforting Asano Nagamasa, he assured him, "Uncle, you have been fighting for a day, so you should rest first. Now Now our navy is in charge of rescuing people and salvaging floating corpses, and when this is done, it will come to transfer the army to cross the river to attack, and then I will let my uncle be the vanguard."

The Xiu family is Hideyoshi's adopted son, and he also looks like Ning Ning. It is normal to call Asano Nagamasa his uncle, and it is because of this that Asano Nagamasa is closer to the Xiu family.

After rewarding the War of the Four Kingdoms, the Asano family suddenly upgraded from a 4 koku lord to a 11 koku daimyo, becoming the backbone of the Toyotomi family. He is sincerely grateful for the Hide family's help.

In the battle of Banjiangchuan, everyone did not know that the Shimadzu family set up a dam upstream to store water, and would use water attacks to delay the advance of Toyotomi's family when withdrawing troops.

The order to pursue the Shimadzu family was also given by himself, and the death of his cousin could not be blamed on the Hide family. Asano Nagamasa just wanted to vent all his anger on the Shimadzu family.

After getting Hideya's promise, Asano Nagamasa stopped making trouble, and withdrew with the samurai.

Although the Southern Kyushu Legion commanded by Hideka won the battle of Fanjiangchuan, the price they paid was not small.

Especially in this era, natural forces such as water attack and fire attack have a great impact on morale.

Especially this time, the victory was clearly in his hands, but in the end he suffered additional losses. The gap from heaven to hell was a huge blow to morale.

Xiujia observed the change in morale in the barracks, and knew that the most important thing now was to restore the morale of the soldiers.

Therefore, the Xiu family planned to use a two-pronged approach, and specially publicized the battle of Fanjiangchuan. The soldiers bravely killed the enemy, broke through three cities in two days and repelled the Shimadzu family. They celebrated.

If you are full and drink enough, how can you do without service?At this time, don't be a moral emperor. Everything must be in line with reality and restore the morale of the army.

As for this point, it is naturally left to Otomo Yoshitomo to be responsible. As for how he got people over, the Hideo family has been out of control for a long time.

Of course, in order to prevent Shimadzu from coming out to attack, the Hide family will have a total of 6200 people who have not been on the battlefield, such as Kamidobi, Minobi, Okubi, and Tsuyamabi, stationed in Ikeda Castle, Takashiyama Castle and Tsumure Castle.

Xiujia specially ordered the banquet for 3 days, and each reserve team took turns guarding the front line, and asked to set up braziers and patrols along the defense line where the Shimadzu family withdrew their troops to prevent Shimadzu from attacking the army at night.

After the joy on the 3rd, all the armies have basically forgotten the unhappiness of the day before, after all, the elite of the Southern Kyushu Army has not been damaged.

After this battle, the Shimadzu family, even if Toyohisa Shimadzu was rescued, their Osumi Hiyuga Corps suffered heavy losses, and the army might not be able to fight again without preparation.

The main army marched out again on April 21, and Hideka kept his promise, letting Asano Nagamasa and Otomo Yoshijin as the vanguard, and headed south along the Nippon Line.

This road was also the road where Hashiba Hideji and Sengoku Hidehisa led the army to attack Hyuga and was defeated last time. Hideka deliberately told them to be careful of the ambush ahead.

This used to be the eastern defense line of Otomo's family. Otomo's family is also familiar with this terrain. In order to speed up the rapid advance of troops, Xiu's family also released more than 400 subordinates of Tu Jiugang who had been captured before, and let them join Xianfanzhong's team. , Open the way for the whole army.

Since there are high mountains and cliffs on both sides of the road, Xiujia walked very carefully on this road, fearing that Shimadzu Yoshihiro would set an ambush for him on the road.

However, out of Xiujia's expectation, Shimadzu Yoshihiro did use part of the geography to set up some defenses in some fortified cities.

However, the defense force of these strongholds is more than a hundred people at most, and many strongholds are repaired but no one is stationed.

According to the confession of the captives, they knew in their hearts that they were the abandoned sons of Shimadzu Yoshihiro, and their purpose was to slow down the progress of the Shimadzu family as much as possible. Where can I go in the mountains?

According to the confessions of the captured people and the fact that some of the fortresses were unmanned, Xiujia believed that this was proof that the Shimadzu family's morale had been shaken.

The army of the Shimadzu family is still the army of the old Japan in essence, relying on the joint formation of troops from various wealthy families, and the wealthy families followed the Shimadzu family to eat meat.

In the past, your Shimadzu family won all the way, and they all had a sense of trust in the Shimadzu family. Even if the Shimadzu family wanted to oppose the Toyotomi family, they were willing to follow and won a chance.

However, following the Battle of Usuki Castle and the Battle of Banzogawa, Hideka successfully forced Yoshihiro Shimadzu back. Even though he suffered some losses in the end, Yoshihiro Shimadzu was defeated if he lost, which was tantamount to breaking the island. The signboard of the Jin family's constant victory, it is inevitable that some wealthy families will move their minds.

Hideka's army continued to advance, and arrived at the Beichuan battlefield where Hashiba Hideji was defeated on April 4. Along the way, the Shimadzu family also put up a decent resistance with more than 28 people cooking cakes in the city.

Relying on the terrain, the defenders successfully delayed the one-day trip of Toyotomi's family, and finally most of the whole city died in battle.

The deadly battle used to defend the city also made the Xiu family realize that the core troops of the Shimadzu family were still stubbornly resisting. If they wanted to deal with the Shimadzu family more quickly, they had to be dealt with separately from the nobles.

When the Hide family entered Beichuan, they thought that Toyotomi's army entered Hyuga's territory from Bungo. The Usuki County in the north of Hyuga was the old territory of the Dochi family, and the Doji Tsuna's troops were all composed of locals.

Xiujia ordered these soldiers to scatter with different backup teams to persuade them to surrender or wipe out the fortresses they saw along the way, while he led the main force to march towards Matsuo City.

To the surprise of Xiujia, before Xiujia arrived at Matsuo Castle, someone from Matsuo Castle was sent to contact Xiujia, and the leader was Sakuma Shengmasa, whom Xiujia had not seen for a long time.

Seeing Sakuma Shengzheng coming on horseback, the Xiu family excitedly said: "Xuan Fanyun, why are you here? Oh~ I forgot, you boarded in Hyuga with your uncle from Iyo, looking at your current situation Come and see, it seems that everything is going well, right, where is uncle?"

"Basically, it went smoothly. After we logged in, we fought a battle with the Shimadzu family. The Shimadzu family seemed to have just retreated from Bungo, and they looked a little embarrassed. His Highness Zhong Nayan said at that time that His Highness must have defeated him in Bungo. Yoshihiro Shimadzu, let us pick the fruit.

So I ordered me here early to wait for His Highness to come out of the mountain, and led the team to chase Shimadzu's house first.News came yesterday that the Secretary of State is leading troops to besiege Gaocheng. "

"What? Uncle has already defeated Yoshihiro Shimadzu? Tell me the details of your journey!"

The Hide family who heard Toyotomi Hidetomi's long day to win the day was very excited, and kept asking Sakuma Shengmasa about the situation, and Sakuma Shengmasa explained to the Hide family on the way south.

Forgive Hidecho for not leading the troops to board the ship to Hyuga immediately after arriving in Iyo.

Because of the need to sail for a day and a night, and because of the strong winds and rough seas that Hideka sailed on purpose, he ordered people to collect the ropes of Iyo and Tosa, and use them to connect the fleet as much as possible.

Although it is not as good as Cao Cao's iron chain boat in the Three Kingdoms period, it is true that the interaction force between the boats is used to offset part of the impact of the water waves.

After a day and night of sailing, the fleet landed in the Hyuga Nobeoka area. After sailing for so long, there were many people on the fleet who were seasick or even unacclimatized. The army had no combat effectiveness at all.

Hidecho, who was involved in this matter, finally understood the reason why the Hide family said that this trip was extremely dangerous. If the Shimadzu family launched an attack on the Hokuriku Army that had just landed, they would be lambs waiting to be slaughtered, without any resistance.

Fortunately, Yoshihiro Shimadzu took the main forces of Hyuga and Osumi to Bungo, and at this time, there were not many defenders around Nobeoka, such as Matsuo Castle, Xiyang Castle, and Inoue Castle.

Even if they found the fleet coming like a tide on the sea, they didn't dare to stop Hidechanaga who landed in the slightest. They could only send someone to inform Yoshihiro Shimadzu, who was still in Bungo, that Toyotomi's army had landed in Hyuga .

And Xiuchang selected more than 1000 people from the entire army who were good at water and not strong in self-reflection to serve as the first group, and promised to make a lot of money to let them pull out the city on Nobeoka's side in advance.

Just as Toyotomi's army was being repaired, the troops led by Yoshihiro Shimadzu finally came out of the mountains, but at this time they had received the news of Toyotomi Hidecho's landing for 3 days.

From their point of view, Hidecho's troops had already been repaired, so they didn't dare to stay for a while, and tried their best to break through Hidenaga's blockade, and fled to Nan Hinata.

In fact, the Hokuriku Army Corps led by Hidecho has been repaired for 3 days. Even though the problem of seasickness has been alleviated, many people vomited and diarrhea in the barracks because of consuming raw water. They were scattered everywhere again, which allowed Yoshihiro Shimadzu to break out.

Even so, he still captured and captured many samurai and soldiers of the Shimadzu family. When Yoshihiro Shimadzu successfully broke through, the 2.4 troops he brought to Bungo were less than 1.5.

After Hideaga continued to build for 5 days, he went south to pursue Yoshihiro Shimadzu. Before that, he specially arranged for Sakuma Shengmasa, who was familiar with Hideka, to welcome him.

(End of this chapter)