Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 359 Burning Kusatsu Castle

"General Zheng, if you fight like this, it's better to withdraw the army and bombard them with artillery for a day."

The fierce battle in Caojin City lasted for an hour. Although the Ming army was advancing steadily, its own casualties began to increase gradually.

Looking at the number of more than [-] people killed in battle, a general of the Eastern Army Governor's Mansion spoke dissatisfiedly, and Zheng Zhilong could only comfort him when he heard the words:

"Although our army has suffered four hundred casualties, the casualties of the Japanese pirates are several times that of our army, and they are now on the verge of collapse..."

Zheng Zhilong still wanted to appease the other party, but before he finished speaking, the sound of Tang Qi galloping came from a distance.

Zheng Zhilong and the other generals of the battalion heard the sound and saw that Tang Qi also came with a team of horses, dismounted before the battle, and trotted all the way to bow:
"Commander, we found Japanese pirate reinforcements from Toyosato in the north of Kusatsu City, and the strength is about two battalions!"

"It should be Date Masamune's reinforcements." A general said immediately, and Zheng Zhilong also said after hearing the words:

"I said why Matsudaira Tadaaki has held on for so long. It turned out that he was waiting for reinforcements."

"They should not have many troops. Otherwise, a veteran like Date Masamune would not be able to lead seven thousand troops to help."

An old-school general who participated in the Battle of Restoring Liao Dynasty reminded him, and suggested after speaking:

"If the general army is insufficient, we should send a message to Yan Jinglue of Osaka Castle right now, and let Jinglue command the army to attack Nagoya by sea and go straight to Edo Castle!"

"This..." Zheng Zhilong was a little undecided, because he knew that His Royal Highness Qi Wang said that in Japan, it is necessary to fight slowly and carefully.

It's just that if he doesn't return this kind of news, it may be recorded by someone who cares.

So after thinking about it, Zheng Zhilong turned his head and said to Zheng Zhifeng, his sworn brother next to him:
"Send a message to Yan Jinglue..."

"Yes!" Zheng Zhifeng agreed, and then went to arrange for Tangqi to deliver the news.

Everyone knew that Zheng Zhilong was not easy to make a decision, so he didn't make any suggestions, but simply spread the news. As for whether to make a surprise attack, Yan Siqi had to make a decision.

But when they were discussing the decision, the Japanese army at the head of Kusatsu City was gradually retreating due to the loss of elites, and soon someone rode back to send news.

"Report to the general, Zheng Zhi and the tiger general have already captured the southern section of the city wall, and the Japanese pirates have retreated to the inner city and the east and west sections of the city wall!"

"Okay!" Hearing Tang Qi's reply, Zheng Zhilong turned to look at the others and said:
"General Liu Can, general Li Can, please lead the two troops to the north to intercept Date Masamune's reinforcements, and the rest of the soldiers and horses will press up. Our army must eat all of Matsudaira Tadaaki's troops!"

"I'll take the order!" The two generals bowed down, and Zheng Zhifeng, who had returned, also bowed down.

With the loss of the south city wall, the Japanese army began to retreat to the west city wall and east city wall, as well as the alleys in the city for a short rest.

Zheng Zhihu did not pursue blindly, but ordered people to clean up the corridors of the city gate, clean up the battlefield, harvest the heads by the way, and count the Japanese army's battle losses.

Some wounded fell down, and the screaming Japanese soldiers were freed by the Ming army with a knife, and their heads were harvested one after another.

Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhifeng led two battalions to the south city wall, and reports of battle damage and beheadings were constantly sent by the guards at various posts.

"Our army killed 420 people in battle, slightly injured 710 three people, and seriously injured 320 seven people."

"The first level of Japanese pirates harvested 560 and seven levels..."

Two quarters of an hour later, Zheng Zhilong looked at the summary, nodded slightly and said: "If you don't count the more than 700 slightly injured brothers who did not affect the battle, our battle losses with the Japanese pirates are close to one to six."

Zheng Zhilong was very satisfied, but a general of the Eastern Army Governor's Mansion was dissatisfied:

"One to six, if His Highness and Dudu Sun find out about this, we will inevitably be reprimanded."

What the general said was not false, because before they set off for the expedition, Sun Yingyuan had already explained that the record of the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion could not be worse than that of the Korean War.

How much was the battle loss of the Ming army and the Japanese army in the Korean War?

Different from the records in "History of the Ming Dynasty", North Korean officials who witnessed the battle and a small number of Japanese daimyo who participated in the war all spoke highly of it.

According to the records of the Koreans, the Ming army killed less than 2000 people during the first aid to North Korea. In the same period, among the 6000 people who died in the Japanese army, at least one-third died in battle with the Ming army. The two sides scored one to ten casualties.

For the second aid to Korea, tomorrow the two armies will launch a round of more intense contests. Although the Ming army is a little bit up and down this time, the casualties during the whole stage are not too many.

Even though the Battle of Ulsan, in which the Ming army suffered heavy casualties, was recorded, it was not like the Ming Dynasty’s own Ding Yingtai and other trolls said that they were hacked and killed by the Japanese army by tens of thousands.

Whether it is in the "Eastern Division Memorial" published by Yang Hao and Ma Gui after the war, or in the "Xuanmiao Zhongxing Zhi" recorded by North Korean officials, the number of Ming soldiers who died in battle or disease did not exceed 3000. None of the wounded exceeded [-].

On the other hand, the Japanese army was much more miserable. In the "Chosun Ji" written by the Japanese samurai Okochi Hidemoto, more than [-] Japanese soldiers were harvested by the Ming army just in the "Battle of Farms" in the peripheral battle.

Throughout the Ulsan War, the Japanese army died more than 2 people.

Not only that, but the Japanese army's "Korean Service Records" also mentioned that thousands of Japanese soldiers remained in Daoshan City. After being starved for more than ten days, after the siege was relieved, they crazily ignored and ate Hesai. Wait for some characters to live."

Kiyomasa Kato, who was praised by later generations as "Tiger Kato", barked and barked before the war, clamoring that the 40 Ming army could not break through the city.

As a result, he was thoroughly taught to be a man by the Ming army throughout the battle, just like being poured from head to toe by someone carrying a bucket of excrement.

After the war, Yang Gao and Ma Gui, who obviously caused great damage to the Japanese army, were fabricated by the trolls headed by Ding Yingtai of the Ming Dynasty, turning right from wrong.

Little did he know that Kato Kiyomasa was completely discouraged by Yang Hao and Magui's beating, and ran from Ulsan to Sesangpo to hide and closed his door to seek medical advice.

Tiger Kato was completely reduced to Kato Cat, which was also the most qualitative blow to Japan by the Central Plains Dynasty since the Tang Dynasty.

However, even with such a disproportionate exchange ratio, the biggest loser in the Battle of Ulsan was still the Ming Dynasty.

With the replacement of Yang Hao and others, Magui was also affected by the capital, and he flinched in the second battle of Ulsan. The final battle of Sacheon almost completely ruined the previous battle of the Ming army. image.

The failure of the Battle of Sacheon led to the death of about 3000 people in the Ming army who entered the DPRK for the second time, and the elimination of the Japanese army was about [-] to [-].

Without this battle, the Ming army's loss ratio to the Japanese army in the second battle against the Japanese army should have been [-]:[-] instead of [-]:[-].

But even so, on the whole, the war to aid Korea lasted for nearly seven years, and the total number of actual fights was only more than a year. Nearly [-], including those who died of illness and other non-combat causes, were [-] to [-], and the total number of deaths should exceed [-].

The battle losses of the Ming army against the Japanese army remained at around [-]:[-].

Sun Yingyuan explained that the Eastern Army's governor's mansion will have a battle loss ratio that exceeds the first battle in the DPRK, which is about one to ten.

At present, the battle loss is [-] to [-], not to mention that this group of people will be reprimanded by Sun Yingyuan, even Yan Siqi will not be able to escape the ending of being participated in the book.

In nearly two and a half years since Yan Siqi and others landed in the Four Kingdoms in June of the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the Ming army wiped out a total of 3000 Japanese soldiers and lost 700 people, which is close to a ratio of [-]:[-]. Compare.

It was precisely because of such a loss ratio that Zhu Youjian did not send someone to replace Yan Siqi, because he felt that Yan Siqi played well.

But if Zheng Zhilong's style of play is followed, it is estimated that he will win the state capital at most, and Zhu Youjian will have to change people to manage Yingzhou.

Therefore, after being dissatisfied with the generals of the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion, Zheng Zhilong also found that the battle damage ratio was a bit larger, so he was a little uneasy and said:
"It can still recover some, as long as our army uses artillery to annihilate Matsudaira Tadaaki's troops, it will still be able to deal more than ten battle losses."

"General Zheng's Mingjian..." The general of the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion heard the words and bowed, and Zheng Zhilong also confessed to Zheng Zhifeng when he saw this:

"Let people transport artillery to the horse road, divide the troops to block the four gates, and then prepare heavy kerosene and trebuchets. I will set fire to Kusatsu City!"

"Yes!" Zheng Zhifeng immediately agreed when she heard the words, turned around and went to make arrangements.

The lighter five-jin cannons were pulled to the top of the city by the Ming army using cloud carts, and the ten-jin cannons were pushed to the alleys of the streets.

In the small city of Kusatsu, there are about 2 civilians. For these civilians, Zheng Zhilong, who knows the life of Japanese civilians, quickly thought of countermeasures.

"Hey! I mean the people inside. Daming didn't come to invade us. Daming came to bring us culture. The land in the south is already being divided, and the common people can get one mu of land per person! Only [-]% of the land tax needs to be collected."

"Think about your family, think about how the emperor and the general dealt with us?"

"We don't have land, and we still need to undertake labor!"

"You are soldiers for the general, but you only have three rice balls a day, but I am here as a civilian husband for the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and I can eat two catties of "silver relics" every day, as well as a fresh fish and unlimited salt and soy sauce."

"Wake up! You idiots! Facing such a general, what is worthy of your allegiance!"

In Kusatsu City, when some Japanese civilians were sent to the front by Zheng Zhilong, they immediately began to persuade some civilians in Kusatsu City to surrender according to the manuscript written by Zheng Zhilong.

After reading Zheng Zhilong's manuscript, some people even blamed the "crime" of the Tokugawa shogunate.

As a perverted country where the strong bullies the weak, Japanese farmers are a group of bottom-level people without dignity and power no matter what era they are in.

After the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate, in order to strengthen its own rule, it followed the example of the suzerain-vassal system of the Ming Dynasty and established a complete shogunate system.

The so-called "maku" refers to the shogunate, which is the central government agency. The general is the supreme ruler of the shogunate. The emperor is only the head of state in name, without any real power.

"Fan" refers to the vassal state, which is the territory and its governing body entrusted to the local daimyo by the general.

The feudal ruling system composed of the shogunate and the vassal state is the shogunate system.

The economic basis of the shogunate system is the feudal land ownership system, and the national land is divided into four types: the shogunate territory, the daimyo territory, the royal family and ministers' territory, and the temple and shrine territories.

The territory of the shogunate is called "Tianling", which accounts for a quarter of the country's land, including the three major cities of Edo, Osaka, and Kyoto, as well as other commercial, transportation centers, and military locations.

The domains of daimyo are called "vassal domains", which account for nearly three-quarters of the country's land and belong to more than [-] daimyos. In contrast, the proportion of the domains of royal family, ministers, temples and shrines is very small.

Under the shogunate system, feudal lords at all levels divided the land into small pieces, cultivated by farmers, and squeezed "annual tribute" and various taxes from them.

Farmers have "permanent leasehold rights" on the land they cultivate, thus forming the unique principle of "scholars governing farmers and farmers supporting scholars" unique to Japanese feudal society.

Japan under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate implemented a strict feudal hierarchy, and all social classes were divided into levels of scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants.

Among them, "farmers" refer to farmers who account for [-]% of the country's population. They are direct producers on the territory of the feudal ruling class and bear the obligation to pay feudal land rent and annual tribute.

Land rent is usually paid in proportions of "five publics and five people", "six publics and four people" or even "eight publics and two people".

From the beginning of its establishment, the shogunate stated bluntly: "The principle of taxation on farmers is to neither let them die nor let them live."

In addition, farmers also had to perform various kinds of labor, mainly including "national service" and "subsidiary rural service".

The former refers to repairing bridges, repairing roads, and repairing dams, while the latter refers to the fact that farmers need to provide horses and porters for post stations along the way during the daiming "Shenjin Account".

In addition, farmers' clothing, food, housing, and transportation were strictly restricted by the feudal government.

As lowly peasants, they are not allowed to use materials other than cotton and linen to make clothes, eat more rice, buy wine and tea, smoke, build houses that do not match their status, and are not allowed to move and change jobs at will. segmentation.

Even the crops grown in the fields must be uniformly regulated by the government.

Farmers living under this system basically have two meals a day, and the so-called rice is mixed cooking rice cooked with a small amount of brown rice such as radish, taro, butterbur, and bamboo shoots.

Those who are a little richer can add a small amount of salt or sauce to eat, but no matter what, as long as they are farmers, they can only make do with it.

Because all nutrients need to be absorbed from such a crude diet, the Japanese at that time generally had a lot of food, and it was normal for a meal to be a catty.

As for the white rice that the people of the Ming Dynasty ate casually, it was called "silver relics" in the countryside, and it was basically a food that only existed in legends.

For the farmers under the shogunate, salted fish was a family heirloom.

Generally, there is a piece of salty dried carp in the house, which is taken out and rinsed in hot water to make soup every year during the Chinese New Year. The fish should be taken out immediately to dry and hang on the top of the gate as the mascot of the house.

If the salted fish is cooked for a little longer, the women and old people who cook will even hang themselves in shame.

All in all, the fate of Japanese peasants was extremely miserable under the cruel feudal exploitation and oppression by the upper echelons of the shogunate.

Knowing this, the generals of the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion couldn't help but say:
"Mother, this Japanese imperial court treats people like livestock."

His words made some Ming army guards couldn't help nodding and said:
"Yeah, I thought it would be harsh to just give a farmer two catties of rice and one fish a day."

"But every time they distributed food, they all smiled and bowed to thank them. I was also curious. I didn't expect them to have such a miserable life."

Some generals of the Ming army couldn't help talking, while Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Zhifeng, Zheng Zhihu and others stood at the top of the city and chuckled.

The reason why Yan Siqi gave the Japanese farmers land was not because of a bad conscience, but because these lands needed people to plant them.

One mu of land per person sounds like a lot, but in the areas occupied by the Ming army that were destroyed by the war, except for the millions of prisoners who were involved with the shogunate, the fields they were allocated actually only occupied a small part of the land harvested by the Ming army.

For other fields, Yan Siqi used the policy of helping to cultivate one acre, and the farmers could get half of the acre's yield.

This doesn't sound like much, and it can even be said that if this policy were placed in Daming, people would have been scolded bloody for a long time.

However, in the eyes of Japanese farmers, this kind of sharing is already a feast for the "angels" of Ming Dynasty.

Many of them have eaten the "silver relics" that they dare not expect, that is, the so-called white rice.

With their own one mu of land and the three or four mu of land cultivated by the government, they can harvest three stones of rice every year.

For them, rice freedom is basically achieved.

Not only that, when Yan Siqi started the war, most of them were before the busy farming and autumn harvest.

Although he only offered farmers two catties of rice a day, a piece of salted fish, unlimited soy sauce and salt, and a daily wage of five Wen, but for the farmers who needed to pay corvee, and also needed to provide clothing and food for the shogunate soldiers and horses It is said that this is already a great "benevolent government".

Ordinary factories such as honeycomb briquettes, iron smelting plants, cement plants, etc., paid wages ranging from [-] Wen to [-] Wen per day in Daming, but only [-] Wen were paid to farmers in Yingzhou.

But even so, these factories are still overwhelmed with registrations.

For the peasants of the shogunate, since they can get paid for helping with work, this is something they dare not even think about.

This phenomenon became more serious, especially after Yan Siqi was able to collect nearly ten million Shitian gifts every year.

Since Zhu Youjian had not issued a policy on the transportation of grain from Yingzhou to Daming, Yan Siqi kept part of the grain for the army, and sold most of the grain to the imperial shop of the Yumajian.

The imperial stores of the Yumajian have been established in various places in the three prefectures in the south of Yingzhou, and after the harvest of rice, they "black-heartedly" set a price of [-] yuan per stone of rice.

Logically speaking, this kind of price is the price of rice that only appeared in severely disaster-stricken areas in Daming. However, facing such a price of rice, many farmers came to buy it enthusiastically.

It is equivalent to saying that they plant the land and pay the grain, Yan Siqi sells the grain to the imperial store, and the farmers go to work in the factory to earn money to buy rice for food.

After the whole cycle, Yan Siqi and Yu Majian not only harvested the materials produced by the major factories, but also asked farmers to help them work for free.

But in the face of such "exploitation", the Japanese peasants were still happy, cheerfully thinking that the Ming government had brought culture and light.

For example, these peasants who were dragged into the battlefield, they clearly resisted serving the Ming army at first, but when the two catties of rice and one salted fish every day were placed in front of them, they decisively chose to surrender.

There were no defections or rebellions in the entire war zone as Yan Siqi, Lu Jianxing, Zheng Zhilong and others conjectured.

Not only that, but some peasants also took the initiative to flee from the north to the south to the rule of the Ming army, and brought some information about the mobilization of the shogunate army.

For example, after confirming that the Japanese farmers would not rebel, Zheng Zhilong began to use them to persuade most of the young men who had been forcibly recruited by the shogunate to surrender, trying to instigate rebellion or cause riots, and such operations immediately achieved results.

"Don't do it! We surrender!"

In some neighborhoods, the small shogunate ashigaru and auxiliary soldiers began to come out with their hands raised, and there were quite a few of them.

"Good good!"

Zheng Zhilong, who was watching with binocular clairvoyance at the top of the city, immediately applauded and ordered:
"Those who surrender, give them a catty of white rice, a salted fish, a tael of oil, half a tael of salt, and half a tael of sauce."

"Yes!" Zheng Zhifeng nodded immediately after hearing the words, and then hurriedly arranged for people to accept the surrender, while Matsudaira Zhongming, who was leading the troops to prepare for street fighting, was so angry that he almost fainted.

"Baga! These lowly peasants, have they forgotten their identity and nationality?!"

Matsudaira Tadaaki was lying on the roof of a house, watching many strong men walk out of the neighborhood, constantly yelling.

"What shall we do now?" A daimyo next to him asked nervously.

Obviously, they all saw that in this situation, if the stalemate continued, the Japanese army would only be wiped out in Kusatsu City.

"Date Masamune, the old guy's reinforcements haven't arrived yet?!"

Matsudaira Tadaaki turned to ask his retainer, but the other party shook his head and said:
"They should have arrived half an hour ago. Now it seems that the Ming army may have intercepted them."

"..." Hearing these words, Matsudaira Tadaaki gritted his teeth, but while he still hoped for reinforcements, more and more young Japanese soldiers surrendered in the neighborhood.

In just one hour, the Ming army didn't even launch an attack, but only mobilized some civilians to advocate the Ming army's policy on the peasants, which attracted the Japanese troops on the east and west city walls, and most of the arrested men who were hiding in the neighborhood walked out.

More than 7000 people surrendered, plus the number of heads harvested before, that is to say, there are less than 7000 people left under Matsudaira Tadaaki.

"Well, it looks like no one will surrender."

Zheng Zhilong, who waited for another quarter of an hour, saw that there was no movement from the Japanese army, so he immediately ordered Zheng Zhihu:

"Prepare the trebuchet, throw all the fire oil into the city, and then throw fireballs, I will burn the Japanese pirates!"

"The last general takes orders!" Zheng Zhihu grinned when he heard this.

He began to direct the army to prepare to throw heavy oil, while the other generals began to evacuate the troops stationed at various alleys.

"what happened?"

"The Ming army has retreated!"

"Could it be that Lord Date brought reinforcements to attack the Ming army?"

"Should we break out?"

When the Ming army began to retreat collectively, the daimyos in the streets and alleys of Kusatsu City began to discuss, while Matsudaira Tadaaki looked around the city wall.

It's a pity that the distance is a bit far, and he can't see very clearly.

"Is the Ming army going to bombard us?" Matsudaira Tadaaki was still thinking, but at this moment a jar the size of a human head suddenly fell from the sky.

"boom--"

The sound of the jar breaking stopped everyone's discussion.

Before they could study where the jars fell from, jars began to fall from the sky.

These clay pots kept falling from heights and then shattered.

Soon, a pungent smell flooded Matsudaira Tadaaki's nose.

"This is fierce oil!"

Its scientific name flashed in Matsudaira Tadaaki's mind, and then he immediately turned his head and said loudly:

"These are fierce fire oil, the Ming army wants to attack with fire! The whole army is ready to break through to the North City!"

"Boom bang bang-"

Matsudaira Tadaaki commanded the army to retreat, and had no intention of extinguishing the fire.

Since Japan is all wooden buildings, manpower is often so small in the face of fire attack.

Matsudaira Tadaaki had given up defending Kusatsu, and he was going to retreat with the remaining 7000 people.

However, his reaction was too slow after all...

"Light it up, let it go!"

When Zheng Zhihu, who was at the head of the city, stood next to a trebuchet and ordered, some gunners immediately lit a special fireball with torches.

Accompanied by another gunner swinging a hammer and hitting the mechanism of the trebuchet, the fireball was ejected instantly.

This one fireball was just a signal, and when it was shot, the rest of the trebuchets threw fireballs one after another.

The fireball fell into the city with gunpowder smoke. Witnessed by the beautiful scenery of Kusatsu City, the fire ignited instantly...

　There is another update that is estimated to be written tonight.

　　On the fourth day today, the fever began to subside, and now it is only 38.5°C...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)