Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 658 The Battle of Jianzhou

When Xiujia relayed his thoughts to Hideaki Kobayakawa and Motocho Yoshikawa, Motocho Yoshikawa expressed his objection.

"I have always known that Da Nayan uses troops like a god. Since you have made such a suggestion, you must be sure to win it. But I don't understand why we should go up to defend Ming now that the Ming army has collapsed and the Korean soldiers are about to retreat. The army is fighting. Don't forget, Your Highness, we are just accompanying the army in this battle!"

Kageo Awaya, the elder of the Kobayakawa family, also expressed his objection, "Your Highness, is there any point in going to war at this time? This is a war of the Ming people, why let us Japan shed blood. It is not right for the Ming people to fight the Wuliangha people dog-to-dog. Is it better for us in Japan?"

At this time, Kuroda Nagamasa who was on the side also said, "Maybe the Ming country is deeply threatened by the Wuliangha people and has no time to take care of North Korea. We can conquer the dynasty again. Even if we can't invade the Ming country, we will occupy North Korea." Why not do it with more than ten million stones of the Eight Paths?"

After hearing what they said, Xiujia wanted to agree with their point of view, but quickly explained, "Do you think the Ming army is strong? Is the Ming country strong?"

Muneaga Yamaguchi, who was transferred from Tanba to Hideaki Kobayakawa, replied, "Naturally, it is very strong. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is 3 times stronger than me."

"It is such a powerful Ming army that was defeated by the weak Jurchen. If the Jurchen becomes strong in the future, won't they cross the sea and attack our homeland of Japan?

As for what Mr. Kuroda said about taking the opportunity to occupy North Korea, facing such a Jurchen country, are you sure you can hold North Korea? "

Hearing Hideka's words, Kuroda Nagamasa replied unconvinced, "Japan is blessed by kamikaze, and the people of the Jurchen mountains and fields are nothing more than the people of the mountains and fields. If you want to attack Japan, you must first learn how to navigate the sea."

Xiujia retorted: "The Jurchen may not be able to cross the sea, but the Ming people and Koreans who were conquered by them will.

Besides, even if they don't attack Japan, can't the Jurchens attack Hamgyong Province and Gangwon Province?These two places are both neighboring countries that His Royal Highness Guan Bai ordered to control.

Now that there is an opportunity to defeat Jurchen, suppress its rise, and ensure the two peaces, don’t choose. Should we face him alone after Jurchen becomes stronger? "

In fact, there are still many loopholes in the reason that Xiujia said, but because it was said by Xiujia, the other big names will not say anything more.

Seeing that there were no objectors, the Xiu family ordered the big names to prepare their armies, check the iron cannons and gunpowder, cut down a lot of thick trees and branches, and take all of them on the march as temporary repelling horses to stop the Jurchen soldiers from charging. .

Even though the Hide family had stated their interests, Kuroda Nagamasa was still unwilling to join the army.

In the end, his family's old Goto Keiji came forward, accompanied by 1500 people and 300 iron cannons, which can be regarded as giving the Hide family a face to ease the relationship.

In addition to the North Korean soldiers who transported food and fodder along the way, the Xiu family only brought 3500 of their own, 1500 of the Kuroda family, 1000 of Motocho Yoshikawa, 2500 of the Kobayakawa family, 6000 of Hamgyong Dobing, and 3000 of Gangwon Dobing. People, a total of 1.75 people played.

Hearing the news that the Japanese army wanted to continue going north, the Koreans staying in Xiaguan City felt unbelievable, and some even said that the Japanese were going to die.

Wu Weizhong, who had just rested for the night, heard the news, and enduring the pain of the wound, sent someone to call Xiu's family to the bed to inquire about the reason.

He was also very surprised why the Japanese army insisted on advancing even though the Ming army was defeated. "You are the accompanying army. Since the main force has been defeated, why did the accompanying army enter Yan again?"

And Xiujia confides his own thoughts with him. After listening to Wu Weizhong, he is very moved, and is very moved by Xiujia's righteous actions.

When he asked what kind of help he needed, he heard that Xiujia wanted him to hand over the cannon to Xiujia and give it to some gunners who could fire, Wu Weizhong agreed without thinking.

As heavy armament, artillery is often transported by the rear team.The previous ambush mainly attacked Gao Ce's central army and Wu Weizhong's vanguard army. The rear team was relatively well preserved, and the heavy artillery naturally remained.

Of course, most of the 200-300 catties tiger squat guns that can be used with the army are indeed lost.

The Ming army attached great importance to artillery, and it was generally impossible to allow artillery to be borrowed.

但是吴惟忠被秀家的忠义感动，这才决定将后军的3门佛郎机大炮和15门300~500斤的虎蹲炮交给秀家，连带着还给了秀家配了一个游击和500人的部队。

In this way, under the extreme disapproval of Kuroda Nagamasa and the Koreans, and in the expectation of Wu Weizhong, Hideka led 1.8 people to embark on a journey northward to attack Hetuala again.

In order to march quickly, Xiujia asked everyone to prepare dry food for 5 days, and collected all the horses of the Japanese army, the Korean army, and some of the Ming army, as well as all the mules and horses of the grain transportation team.

The Xiu family ordered people to put all the gunpowder and projectiles in cloth bags, hand them over to mules and horses for transportation, and load the cannons on carts to be led forward by horses.

In order to prevent chaotic soldiers from being ambushed, the Xiu family ordered all troops to march in armor, and also ordered all troops to spread out their rangers to investigate the military situation, except for the vanguard's sentry.

Along the way, several Jurchen villages hiding in mountain nests were wiped out according to the intelligence of the rangers, so as to prevent the intelligence from being passed back, while the large army continued to march north.

Due to the armor and consignment of the troops, the troops arrived outside the city of Hetuala later on the third day.

Although the sergeants were extremely exhausted, Xiujia still ordered the cannons to be lowered and bombarded the city of Hetuala with artillery, while the Japanese army's iron artillery covered the Korean soldiers' attack on the city.

The two sides fought until the evening, and the city of Hetuala fell.

The Xiu family quickly ordered people to go into the city to gather supplies to strengthen the city defenses, and erected the artillery entrusted to him by Wu Weizhong on the city to prevent the Jurchen cavalry from returning suddenly.

At the same time, the Xiu family ordered people to grab Tongue to inquire about the situation, but by coincidence, they found Hu Lasha who was imprisoned in Hetuala Dungeon.

It turned out that he was arrested by the astute Jianzhou people in Hetuala, and the reason was naturally, "Nowadays the army is in chaos, how can there be a caravan of savages and Jurchens to do business?"

Although Xiujia also wanted to complain about his brain, the most important thing was the situation here, which was related to the victory of this battle.

Fortunately, he basically figured out the situation in Hetuala. It turned out that in order to deal with the attack of the Ming army, Nurhachi ordered people to build dams on the Suzi River and the Hun River in advance.

He wanted to wait until Liu Chen led his people through the Sarhu Swamp to destroy the dam and release water to attack the Ming army with water.

As a result, Nurhachi, who had no professional water conservancy talents, miscalculated the limit that the dam could withstand, and the dam was washed away before Liu Ting arrived.

Fortunately, a large number of floods submerged the battlefield of Sarhu. Although they failed to attack the Ming army, it also made it difficult for Liu Zhen's troops to march.

Originally, Nurhachi prepared the Zhenghuang Banner and Zhenglan Banner, as well as a reinforcement from the Yehe tribe to deal with the Ming army attacked by water, while he led the main force to ambush the Southern soldiers.

However, because the dam broke ahead of time, he was afraid that the troops left in the north would not be strong enough to resist, so he led people to Sarhu for support.

This was all the information that Hu Lasha knew, and it was confirmed by the captives in Hetuala City.

Although he didn't know why facing the flooded battlefield, Liu Ting, who knew the road was difficult, still did not withdraw his troops, but knowing that the main force of the Ming army was still confronting Nurhachi, this was good news for the Xiu family.

Life cannot always be as it should be, and just a few minutes after digesting the good news, I heard a report from someone below that the number of people who saw the Jurchen coming to Hetuala mighty and mighty was tens of thousands.

When Xiu's family came to Hetuala city and looked west, they saw a yellow-black ocean coming towards this side. Without thinking about it, they knew that it must be the Zhenghuangqi and Heiqi pro-armies led by Nurhachi himself.

Soon, the detailed information of this unit gradually came along with Tanma. The good news was that Tanma Shi only saw the army wearing yellow, black and some white armors, but did not see blue and red.

This shows that Saarhu's confrontation is not over, Liu Chen has not been defeated, and is still looking for opportunities to break through the Jurchens' defense.

And this opportunity is likely to come with the withdrawal of Nurhachi and Chu Ying, all of which were brought about by the Xiu family's capture of Hetuala.

At this time, Nurhachi saw Hetuala whose flag had changed on the top of the city, not to mention how angry he was.Taking a closer look at the flag on the top of the city, it seems familiar. Isn't this the Japanese army who fought against him in the Battle of Burhatong River before!
My hometown, Foala City, was captured by the Japanese army, and my wife and children were also taken away by the Japanese army.Now seeing that the Japanese army captured his Hetuala City again, Nurhachi ordered the whole army to attack the city in a hurry without making any preparations.

The Xiu family's preparations to get up were not sufficient, they just reinforced the part of the city wall that had been destroyed by the previous siege with gravel and planks, and ordered people to set up artillery on the top of the city.

If you have to say something about preparations, there are the small 4000 iron cannons that the Xiu family prepared before going out. (Some members of the Kuroda family participated in the battle)

Relying on the 3-meter-high earth wall of Hetuala as a support, the Japanese army poured firepower on the Japanese army below the city from behind the parapet.

Anyone who has visited the ancient city wall knows that there will be a hole every few meters in the stone bricks on the city wall.Many people think that this is used to plant flags, but it is not.

This hole is used to install a wooden retaining wall. This retaining wall is similar to a shield. It is fixed on the main body of the city wall and extends beyond the female wall. The purpose is to block the arrows shot by some enemies to a certain extent.

If you want to shoot at the soldiers behind the wall, the soldiers under the city can only go under the city, and they will be called by the soldiers defending the city.

In the late Ming and Qing Dynasties, firearms gradually replaced bows and arrows. This kind of wooden retaining wall could not withstand the projectiles of matchlock guns, so it was gradually eliminated.

However, Hetuala City in Nurhaci mainly dealt with the surrounding Jurchen tribes. Most of these Jurchen tribes used bows and arrows, so such a barrier was prepared in the city.

Seeing that Nurhachi led the troops back to the city, when the Xiu family ordered people to strengthen the city walls, they ordered people to take out these retaining walls from the warehouse under the tower and place them on the city.

Nurhachi would never have imagined that the Hetuala city he designed would one day become an existence that blocked him.

The women's arrows were designed from a long distance and the city wall would be blocked by the retaining wall, but the Japanese army inside the city could fight back with iron cannons from the gap in the retaining wall.

Or just stand within the blocking range of the wall and shoot at the Jurchen soldiers approaching the city wall.

Do you still remember the main composition of Xiujia's establishment of this battle?More than half of them are Kyushu soldiers, so what they carry are mostly large-caliber iron cannons used by Kyushu.

This kind of iron cannon is so powerful that even the armor of Nurhachi's elite black armor army was still easily broken.The Black Armored Army couldn't survive, let alone be used as cannon fodder for Zhengbaiqi.

Soon the Zhengbai Banner, which was not fully armored, had a rout of troops. In a rage, Nurhachi personally led people to kill them to the beginning of a hundred meters below the city, hacked and killed the deserters and ordered them to continue attacking the city.

Seeing this situation, Xiujia immediately ordered people to point the muzzle in the direction of Nurhachi, and replaced the cluster ammunition with live ammunition.

Following the salvo of more than a dozen cannons, there was only a sound of [pop], and the gunner looked in the direction of Nurhachi and saw only bloodstains.

Taking a closer look, I saw a group of Jurchen Niulu dressed in Hei family, surrounded by a person and ran to the rear.

But there was a war horse lying down on the original place, and a large area of ​​land was already stained red with blood. It turned out that Nurhachi's mount was hit.

Nurhachi's life and death are unknown, causing the entire Jianzhou Army to be in chaos following Nurhachi's death.

Chu Ying, who was commanding the siege of Zhengbai Banner, heard that her father was injured, so she hurriedly abandoned the siege position in the north and took people to the west to visit her father.

Originally, at this point in the battle, the attacking party had already shown signs of defeat, and the Xiu family had already beat the drums to attack and cover up the rout with the habit of the Xiu family.

However, the Jianzhou Jurchens under the city were the most elite black, yellow and white banners, and the Xiu family really didn't have the confidence to go out of the city to fight.

Perhaps it was a bombardment that woke Nurhachi up. Xiujia looked at the Jurchen soldiers who were besieging the city and began to retreat and regroup. They never launched an offensive that day.

It has been three days since the Jianzhou soldiers surrounded Hetuala on April 4. As the weather gradually became hotter, the Jurchen soldiers outside the city seemed to be ready again. Under the command of Ezhen and Niulu, Carrying a ladder to attack Hetuala.

The 5-day army ration carried by the Xiu family has been eaten up. Fortunately, there is some stock in the city of Hetuala, but less than 2 soldiers have eaten it for half a month.

It's just that the current Xiu family has no good way to defeat the enemy, so they can only drag it on as long as possible until Liu Chen breaks the red and blue flags that are facing him at Sarhu and comes to support him.

Jianzhou and Xiujia fought again in Hetuala for 5 days. During this period, with the help of the black flag, the Jurchen soldiers climbed up the tower several times, but were repelled by the Xiujia sent people.

At this time, we will talk about the armor-piercing weapons prepared by the Xiu family to deal with the Jurchens' armored soldiers.

It is not so much a weapon, but a double-headed mace that refers to the double-headed pickaxes of later generations. The pointed part can easily break through the cotton armor on the Jurchen elite, and the hammer penetrates deeply into the Jurchen soldiers.

Due to time constraints, the Xiu family only had time to build Bailai, which could only be handed over to the strongest Bailai soldiers, and let them patrol the city with a team of 10 people to fill the vacancy and repel the heavy armor that climbed to the top of the city. Soldier.

As for those Jurchen soldiers who have no armor and are light on their families, ordinary North Korean soldiers can use long hair to deal with them.

The two sides fought for another 3 days, and the corpses in Xicheng, the main attack direction, had reached almost the same height as the city, and they could enter the city with a single jump.

At this level of fighting, even Zhenghuang Qi, who was directly under Nurhachi, was so red-eyed that he sent them to attack the city without hesitating their lives. Thousands of Jurchen soldiers were killed in the entire Hetuala city. (Hetuala is a small city with a circumference of only 1 kilometer.)
Perhaps there was really no other way. Nurhachi sent someone to persuade Xiujia to surrender. He said that as long as the Japanese army withdrew from Hetuala City, he was willing to let the Japanese army go back.

I don't believe a word of his nonsense.Right now, the Xiu family's greatest strength is the city wall. If you really go out and get charged by your Jurchen cavalry, how can you survive?

Seeing that the Jianzhou soldiers who failed to persuade them to surrender, launched an attack on Hetuala again.When the war ended on the 12th, the food in the hands of the Xiu family could no longer support them, so they had to order people to kill mules and horses to cook meat and mix it with the grain and rice from the village to satisfy their hunger.

However, the total number of horses and mules at the Xiu family is only over a thousand, and such a small number of horses will last for another half a month. After half a month, the Xiu family will really run out of ammunition and food. up.

And at that time, there were no horses, did the Xiu family still have the strength to break out of the encirclement?

Fortunately, Liu Ting was still strong. When the Xiu family persisted until the 18th day, the Jurchen Ministry began to have commotion. The Jurchen soldiers who attacked the city began to retreat, and their own officers led them to retreat to the east.

In Hetuala, Xiujia saw that the Jurchen team had more troops in red and blue armor. These should be the red and blue flags torn from the Sarhu battlefield.

Nurhachi, who was supplemented by the red and blue flags, did not continue to attack Hetuala, but chose to flee east. There is only one possibility, that is, Liu Ting defeated Shuerhaqi in Sarhu, and now he is on his way to lead reinforcements.

Chu Ying, who was outside the city, looked at Hetuala City in pain. This is the new root of the Jurchen, but it was dug up by the enemy again.

Obviously the defenders in the city couldn't hold on any longer, and there was only a little time left.

At the same time, the Xiu family guarding the top of the city was also looking at the Jurchen army outside the city, thinking about whether to pursue it.But Xiujia glanced at the tired soldiers around him, and finally this idea was given up by Xiujia.

　We will stop on Monday (20th) and Tuesday (21st), please let us know
　　
　
(End of this chapter)