Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 366 The Final Battle in Southern Kyushu (final)
Xiujia's response was very quick, and it took only a quarter of an hour to complete the mobilization work.

Due to time constraints and even having no time to boil the pot for cooking, the Xiu family ordered the leftover rice balls from yesterday to be distributed, and everyone quickly ate them in front of the hot water.

At the same time, Hideo asked Sanada Nobushige and other attendants to quickly put on their armor and notify Kuroda Takataka, Asano Nagamasa, Ikeda Teruma and others stationed on the north side, asking them to mobilize troops to join him as soon as possible.

The Xiu family's reaction was already fast. It only took more than ten minutes to march from the west of Takaoka Castle to the east side. Converted to the time at that time, it was half a quarter of an hour, but this half a quarter of an hour was very difficult for the Xiu family. long time.

The Hideka really wants Hidecho's safety, the Hideka's heart still hopes that the Toyotomi family can last for a long time, and whether it is now or in history, Hidecho is the pinnacle of the Toyotomi family.

For now, Hidecho is the key link between Hideyoshi and Hideya, playing a role in easing the relationship between the two.

As far as Hideyoshi is concerned, he also values ​​his younger brother very much.Hideyoshi in history also had a major change in temperament after the death of Xiuchang. He successively made conquests against North Korea, rashly promoted the civil servant faction and punished the fighting faction, which eventually led to the division of the internal forces of the Toyotomi family.

Takataka Kuroda, Nagamasa Asano, Terumasa Ikeda, Weizhong Hayashi, Sadamichi Inaba and others discovered the anomaly in the eastern camp almost the same as Hideka, but they had the same reaction as Keichi Akashi and others.

One is that they are indeed afraid of Ying Xiao's power, and the other is that their own strength and prestige are not enough to rule the surrounding daimyo forces, or to call on them to support Toyotomi Hidecho, so they can only sit and worry.

Take Asano Nagamasa as an example. After discovering the fighting situation on the east wing, he has already summoned his generals to mobilize his own army.

It's just that he doesn't have the courage of Xiu's family, and he doesn't feel like mobilizing troops at will in the middle of the night. He can only guard the camp strictly and cannot let anyone in.

Just at this time, the Xiu family made a move, and the retainers beside him also pointed to the Xiu family and said to him: "My lord, His Royal Highness Gangshan's army on the right wing has moved."

When Asano Nagamasa heard the news, he hurriedly climbed up the turret and looked to the west, and vaguely saw several knights galloping towards this side holding torches.

One of the knights came to Asano Nagamasa's camp on horseback and waved a torch back and forth, "I am a retainer of His Royal Highness Toyotomi Hideka, the lord of Okayama Castle, and I request to meet the lord of Awa Katsumi, Asano Nagamasa."

After hearing this, Asano Nagamasa did not answer but hinted at the retainer beside him with his eyes. After getting the hint, the retainer leaned out and asked the knight, "Do you have proof?"

The samurai was slightly taken aback when he heard this, and said in embarrassment, "The situation is urgent and there is no proof."

The retainer then asked, "Is there a letter from His Highness the Secretary of State?"

Hearing this, the knight said anxiously, "My lord has already left the battle, and I don't have time to write letters at all. Please wait for the message to inform His Highness Asano."

As a result, things are a little difficult to handle, and everyone's eyes are on Asano Nagamasa waiting for his ruling.

After all, it was night now, and the identity of the person in front of him could not be confirmed at all. If he rashly sent troops and got caught in an ambush, the risk would be great.

Seeing the indifference in the camp, the knight became a little anxious, "Your Majesty is really a retainer of the Okayama Temple, and I am here to send a message to Lord Asano Nagamasa. My lord has just left the battle and is going to support His Highness Zhong Nayan. I'm here to inform His Highness Asano.

My lord also asked me to bring you a sentence, he said: "The decisive battle of Kyushu is tonight, and Shimadzu's night attack is a battle of trapped beasts. Fame is not good for the world. Please think deeply about the pros and cons.

My Highness also said: If your lord wants to send troops, please go to Takaoka Castle to reconcile.

There is another adult in the next family who is going to notify and plead guilty. "

After saying that, the knight reined in the horse rope, tied his horse to the Qianye camp and went further back.

After the knight left, Asano Nagamasa's retainers still looked at their lord, waiting for him to make up his mind.

When the Asano Army dispatched troops from Shikoku, the total strength was 2500. In addition to the 1400 troops who were in charge of Miyoshi Hideho at the beginning, the total strength was 3900. After the previous battle damage, especially the Battle of Banjiang River, he was healthy and able to fight at this time. There are still 3452 people who are still a decisive force.

Just when Asano Nagamasa was hesitating, another retainer ran from behind and said to him, "My lord, Master Ikeda Teruma has already entered the battle at the rear."

Hearing that Ikeda Teruma behind him had come out, the retainers beside Asano Nagamasa also persuaded him, "My lord, let's go out! There's no reason why the Okayama Palace should recruit each other."

Asano Nagamasa glared at him as a warning, telling him to pay attention to his words. After all, the name of his apprenticeship was definitely not at the invitation of Toyotomi Hideka's family.

Of course, warnings are warnings, and he still ordered to his retainers, "Let's go out and target Takaoka Castle."

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Xiujia's actions were very quick, and it only took about 40 minutes from mobilizing troops to arriving at Takaoka Castle.

Before the Xiu family's troops arrived, some of the troops had already been disbanded on the front line.

Seeing the tens of thousands of troops coming from the north of Takaoka Castle, the defeated soldiers may have thought it was the Shimadzu family's army surrounded by another route, or they were afraid of being killed by their own samurai as deserters, so they turned around and fled eastward. .

Hideo, who didn't know the situation on the front line, had no choice but to ask someone to arrest a few samurai and come back for questioning. As a result, by coincidence, he ran into Takakage Kobayakawa who was being coerced and retreated.

Seeing Kobayakawa running with disheveled hair and his helmet missing, Xiujia asked in shock, "Why is Your Highness Jin Wu in such a mess?"

Kobayakawa Takakage was brought in front of the Xiu family, asked the Xiu family for a sip of water and replied, "I looked from afar and saw an army coming from the north. The retainers persuaded me that it was reinforcements from the Shimadzu family. I want to run away.

Fortunately, I stopped him in time, and I said to him, "There is Ziwei Temple on the west side, it is absolutely impossible for the Shimadzu family to come from the west. Those who can come at this moment must be the relatives of Her Highness Ziwei." It hit the nail on the head. "

Hearing Kobayakawa Takakage's compliment, Hideka smiled and said, "His Royal Highness Jin Wu is absurd. I found the commotion in Xiying and was afraid of Shimadzu's attack, so I led the troops to help. Why is His Highness Jin Wu here? Shimadzu's attack Have you entered the camp of the Chinese army?"

Takakage Kobayakawa polished his sentence a little and replied, "It is indeed Shimadzu's attack. The sky is too dark to see the number of people. Our army can't resist and has no choice but to withdraw our troops for a while to wait for reorganization."

After Kobayakawa Takakage finished speaking, Xiujia heard giggling laughter from behind him, as if someone else said something like "I didn't see you reorganize the army".

But the daimyo Hideka would never mock Kobayakawa Takakage at this time, and he asked Kobayakawa Takakage again, "So at this time, I'm afraid the Shimadzu family has already entered the Chinese camp?"

Takashi Kobayakawa nodded and responded, "I'm afraid that's the case, but there's no need to worry about the Ziwei Palace. Takaoka Castle has already surrendered. Nagon and his banner team have already entered the city. Even if the Shimadzu family breaks through the camp under the castle, it will not hurt Nagon." cent."

Hearing the news from Takakage Kobayakawa, Hideka cupped his fists and saluted him and said, "Thank you, Your Highness Jinwu, for letting me know, why don't you just regroup the army here, and leave Shimadzu to me to deal with it."

After finishing speaking, he said to Shimizu Nobuya behind him and Kamichi left backup captain Baba Shijia, "You two stay here to help His Highness Jinwu gather the formation, and at the same time contact the daimyos such as Asano and Ikeda who are preparing to attack in the rear, and point out the direction for them. The others follow me."

Then he ordered to Gang Lisheng, "Master Tanzheng, please lead the vanguard to the city of Takaoka and break the formation for our family!"

Gang Lisheng responded to the order and rode forward with his flag.

Suzaku Bei of the Takayama Clan was originally under the organization of Oka Toshikatsu's original army, and the relationship with him was relatively harmonious.Although Date Masakura had just taken over Qinglongbei not long ago, he still obeyed the boss.

Therefore, there will be no lack of command because the command is not Okatoshi's own reserve team, and even because the two reserves are well-trained, they can be very effective in knowing and implementing Okatoshi's orders.

Suzaku Bei arrived in Kyushu earlier, and followed Toyotomi Hidecho through the Battle of Buzen.Qinglongbei was the last standing equipment to arrive in Kyushu, but it withstood Shimadzu Yoshihiro's most vicious beating in the Fukuliangyama Castle Seizure Battle.

The two backup teams suffered heavy losses in the previous battles. The original 1500-strong reserve team now has more than 2300 people in total, and even with Xiujia's supplementary firearms battalion, there are only 2500 people.

But it is precisely because of this that they have a deep blood feud with the Shimadzu family, and after fighting the Shimadzu family, they broke out extremely strong fighting power.

The Shimadzu family's troops are weak, and since they launched a night attack, they will choose to win in chaos. The more chaotic the Toyotomi family's army formation, they can make up for the lack of troops through hand-to-hand combat and personal bravery.

They did the same at first, setting fires everywhere and killing single soldiers, and coerced the broken soldiers to kill Toyotomi Hideaga's central army.

Even though Toyotomi Hideaga had ordered the spears to fight against the enemy, they still tried their best to disrupt the opponent's spear formation, and then stick them up and use short knives to finish off the enemy.

Gradually, the soldiers of the Shimadzu family seemed to be embedded in Toyotomi's reserve team. Perhaps some soldiers wanted to escape for their lives.

But the samurai knew the consequences of their escape, because their lord was Toyotomi Hidecho, Hideyoshi’s younger brother, so no matter how hard the front line was, they fought desperately to resist the Shimadzu’s attack, and even the samurai class fell into the battle themselves. Fight with the Shimadzu family.

Facing such a chaotic battle, the Xiu family knew very well that they had to use a well-organized army formation to deal with the enemy, because a chaotic war was exactly what the opponent expected.

It was very dark at this time, and people in a chaotic battle are already highly nervous, and they need to always pay attention to their front, back, left, and right sides, and it is easy to accidentally injure them.

Although I don't know how many people there are in the Shimadzu family on the opposite side, Hideka tried his best to avoid such unnecessary friendly fire from happening, so he strictly ordered all the reserve teams to advance as a whole.

Some Shimadzu soldiers saw a neat group of soldiers approaching from the north, and their eyes were already red-eyed, only the thrill of killing was left in their minds, and they rushed towards this side straightly holding their samurai swords regardless of the number of people on their side. Come.

A few people were named and shot by the sharpshooters in the backup team. When more than a dozen people rushed, the samurai ordered the ashigaru behind to shoot forward with bows.

It was early morning and night, and visibility was already poor. At this time, the thick smoke produced by shooting with iron cannons would only obscure one's vision.

The Shimadzu family seemed to rely on chaotic battles to win, but the Xiu family let the iron cannon fire at this time, but instead dazzled his eyes, so that the Shimadzu family could rush out of the smoke.

Therefore, after seeing the situation ahead, Xiujia transferred back the Iron Pao Battalion from Gang Lisheng and sent Heqi Bei as reinforcements.

The reserve team of Heqi equipment is relatively complete. At this time, there are still more than 1400 soldiers capable of fighting. With their participation, Okali Katsuo's command will be more handy.

Seeing an army attacking the Shimadzu's house from the flank, the morale of the North Army regiment was also greatly boosted, and began to push back under the command of the samurai.

With the deepening of Hideo's phalanx, in order to ensure the safety of the left wing, Hideo asked Takato Todo to lead Haku, Ono, and Tsugabe to form on the left side of Okatoshi, widening the width of the battlefield and further squeezing the island. The storage space of the Tianjin Army.

At this time, Hideo had invested more than 6000 people on the front line, and the main battle of the war had become a battle between Shimadzu Yoshihisa and Hideo.

The Shimadzu army attacked from Yinshi, and the whole army rushed towards Toyotomi's house with a suffocating breath. It was this desperate breath that killed Otomogi Town and Kobayakawa Takakage back one after another.

But as the situation became anxious, the adrenaline in the soldiers began to decline, the minds occupied by the desire to kill began to clear up, and some people began to realize that they had been surrounded.

Seeing the reversal of the situation, Uehara Uehara, the lord of the highland city of Naka County in Hinata, ran to the edge of Shimadzu Yoshihisa's temporary headquarters, Kobayakawa Takakage's camp, thinking of Shimadzu Yoshihisa on the turret, and asked, "My lord, the Hyogo head hall Where are the reinforcements, why haven't they come! If the reinforcements don't arrive, our army will definitely lose in this battle!"

But his question did not get a reply from Shimadzu Yoshihisa. Shimadzu Yoshihisa looked into the distance dumbfounded, his eyes full of confusion.

Seeing that Shimadzu Yoshihisa didn't speak, Uehara Shangjin wanted to rush up to question Shimadzu Yoshihisa, but was stopped by his personal guards.

Shimadzu Yoshihisa, who was watching the whole situation from the turret of the camp, was really struggling in his heart. According to his prediction, the battle here was so fierce that he had even entered Toyotomi Hidenaga's main camp, the island in Takaoka Castle. Jin Jiajiu should have some reaction, and he should attack Toyotomi Hidecho from inside and outside.

This is also the second purpose of Shimadzu Yoshihiro's order to directly capture Toyotomi Hidenaga's main battle: to establish contact with Takaoka Castle and rescue his younger brother Shimadzu Iehisa in the castle.I am ready to die, but as long as my younger brothers are here, the Shimadzu family will not collapse.

But Takaoka Castle was terribly quiet that night. Even if the Shimadzu family and Toyotomi Hidecho got into a fight, there was no special movement in the castle.

"Could it be that Takaoka has fallen?" Shimadzu Yoshihisa was struggling in his heart, but he quickly shook his head to get rid of this thought. He must be aware of the troubles in Takaoka Castle."

Shimadzu Yoshihisa, who has strengthened his determination, said to Uehara Shangjin below, "Hyogotou needs to go around Iida Mountain. The distance is much longer than ours. It is normal to arrive later. Besides, he first destroyed the west side of Toyotomi's house. Only the stronghold can turn with me.

All the soldiers should try their best to fight in Hyogo and Takaoka Castle in the first round. Only in this way can we have a chance of victory. "

When Uehara Shangjin heard Shimadzu Yoshihisa's fake answers, his heart skipped a beat, and suddenly he had a bad premonition, but he, who had followed Shimadzu Yoshihiro for a long time, still turned around and left.

It wasn't because he believed Yoshihisa Shimadzu's words, but because he naturally trusted Yoshihiro Shimadzu, and he believed that his head of Hyogo would never give up on them.

No matter how pleasant Shimadzu Yoshihisa's words were, with the arrival of reinforcements from Hideka, Ikeda Teruma, Asano Nagamasa and others, the decline of the Shimadzu family could no longer be concealed.

The Shimadzu military equipment Hideka and Ikeda Teruma were divided and surrounded in three small areas and fought separately. The Shimadzu army, which was surrounded by heavy siege, had already developed the idea of ​​fear of war.

The Shimadzu soldiers in the outer encirclement near the east side either surrendered or had already broken through. Only the army formation where Shimadzu Yoshihisa was located could only fight to the death because he was trapped in a heavy encirclement and could not break through.

At this point in the battle, even the most stupid people have already realized that there will be no reinforcements, and Shimadzu Yoshihisa voluntarily became an abandoned son.

Although they were angry that Yoshihisa Shimadzu deceived them, they were even more angry that Yoshihiro Ji abandoned them, but there are 1200 bannermen of Yoshihisa Shimadzu here, and Yoshihisa Shimadzu still has a certain degree of confidence in the army in this encirclement. control.

As the sun shone the first light from the east, the brightness of the sky continued to increase, and the two warring parties could finally see each other clearly.

The Shimadzu side was unwilling to surrender, so Hideka could only order the sergeants to continue oppressing their living circle, strangling them here bit by bit.

"My lord, look at the top of Takaoka Castle!"

Shimadzu Yoshihisa, who heard the call of his retainers, looked at the top of Takaoka Castle as soon as the sun rose, and found that the Gosachi-patterned flag symbolizing the Toyotomi family and the cross-maru flag symbolizing the Shimadzu family were floating on the top of the castle at the same time. , he suddenly understood something.

"Is this your choice, Matashichiro?" Shimadzu Yoshihisa said with a wry smile.

So far, why he still doesn't understand that his younger brother has already chosen to surrender, and Toyotomi has already known about the so-called night attack plan between himself and Yoshihiro. The reason for organizing reinforcements to come to support.

Almost at the same time, Iehisa Shimadzu appeared on the outskirts of the encirclement at the request of Toyotomi Hidecho, and shouted to the Shimadzu army inside the encirclement to persuade them to surrender.

At this moment, Shimadzu Yoshihisa had mixed feelings in his heart. He didn't know what to evaluate his fourth brother, and after a long time he muttered, "Matashichiro, you have really grown up."

The morale of the Shimadzu soldiers who heard his call plummeted. They never thought that their Fourth Highness had turned to the enemy, and gradually some people put down their weapons and chose to surrender.

Please, who was following Shimadzu Yoshihisa, turned his head to look at his lord, and found that his face was covered with scars at the moment.

Shimadzu Yoshihisa's personal guards faced Beixiang Zhonghu and saw people surrendering constantly on the periphery. He tentatively said to himself, "Is the lord ready? If the lord needs it, I am willing to buy time for the lord."

Shimadzu Yoshihisa raised his head suddenly when he heard that, he couldn't understand what his captain of the personal guard meant.

He pulled out his ribs and looked at it for a while, but maybe it was because his younger brother's sudden surrender disturbed his thoughts.

If it is said that the betrayal of Shimadzu Tadacho and Shimadzu Tadatsu just hit Shimadzu Yoshihisa's determination to resist, Shimadzu Iehisa's betrayal deeply hurt his self-esteem.

He doesn't want to die now, he needs an explanation, he needs to ask why Jiajiu did this.

He needs an explanation.

"Surrender, Hubei." Shimadzu Yoshihisa ordered with some decadence.

"My lord?" Beixiang Zhonghu looked at his lord in disbelief. He couldn't believe that Yijiu, who had already decided to die, chose to surrender at the last moment.

However, after confirming with Yoshihisa again, he faithfully carried out Shimadzu Yoshihisa's order. After more than 2 hours of fighting, the last struggle of the Shimadzu family came to an end at Hyuga Takaoka Castle, officially announcing the war phase of the Kyushu crusade Finish.

(End of this chapter)