Pillars of the Wu family

If the soaring Tone River did not break out in the middle and upper reaches, it would inevitably flood in the lower reaches. Several tributaries of the Tone River system were running at full capacity to supply water at the same time. The overload of the downstream carrying capacity quickly broke through the weakest dam and poured into Musashi Kingdom, which is located in the south of the country. The vicinity of Edo Castle in Kanto was the hardest hit area.

On the first day of the flood, hundreds of people were missing and thousands of people were displaced. Unfortunately, Hojo Ujiyasu was on the front line to supervise the battle, and his son-in-law Hojo Ujimasa was also on the front line. His wife Ruixiin was the only one to do the hard work in the rear. Like a gamble with no retreat, a gambler who has put all his chips in has no chance to back down.

Hojo Shiyasu is also a headache. He is known as the number one civil servant in the Kanto region. He has a group of capable ministers and officials who have done a lot of good things. Right now, there are epidemics spreading in the front and rear of the camp. The treatment of patients requires a lot of doctors and medicinal materials. The total amount of material resources is limited. How to allocate the limited resources to the places where they are needed is a matter of knowledge. Whether to rescue the disaster victims or the sergeants in the camp first becomes a problem. Shikang Hojo’s choice is to solve the camp first Infestation of disease.

There is also a reason for him to do this. Those who do great things cannot be benevolent. Although loving the people is very important, war is more important. If you can only choose one of the two, Hojo Shiyasu will definitely choose the latter. As for the disaster in the rear The spread of the epidemic is left to the elders of the Hojo family and the appraisers to deal with it.

This wanton storm lasted until the end of summer and gradually ended. When the weather cleared and the soil dries up, it was almost early autumn. After several days of sunny days, the moisture evaporated, and the Hojo family was delayed by the heavy rain for a long time. , Now that I have a glimpse of the time, where can I let go.

It was not long before dawn.The fresh air is mixed with the smell of earth and grass.All the way in the sky, the sun shines on a row of arrow oars in Mitake Castle.Just heard the low and melodious sound of the conch, and the soft muddy pond turned into hard ground on the fifth day of the sun, and the howl of war was inevitably blown again.

The archery team held their bows and threw arrows desperately. More than a dozen ashigaru stared at the rain of arrows in the city and advanced hard. As the distance gradually approached, soldiers began to die. The bow and arrow team on the head arrow scull shot into a hedgehog.

Thousands of ashigaru slowly gathered at the base of the castle like worker ants. They needed to fill up the earthen borough against the rain of arrows from the castle.Both Shancheng and Pingcheng have to build various styles of earthbores, which are equivalent to pits similar to moats. The introduction of running water can be transformed into waterbores, which are equivalent to moats in the actual sense.

If you want to attack the city, you must fill up the earthen burrow. The process of digging, transporting and filling the soil is long, not to mention that the flying stones and arrows thrown down from time to time are very harmful to them under the watchful eyes of the defenders in the city. The method of the Hojo family is to let the ashigaru build a bamboo wall with a length of several tens of meters. Under the cover of the bamboo wall, the peasants can at least escape a little bit.Every time a square of soil is filled, it is escorted forward by a few foot-holding rifles. This kind of soil-filling siege tactic is currently the only siege method. [

The weakness of lack of siege equipment and poor siege was revealed at this time.The siege of tens of thousands of troops is difficult, and they have to use the stupid method of ant-attachment to attack, block the earthen borough and then pile up the soil to climb the city wall. It is not that the Hojo family has thought of other methods. Two hundred iron cannon ashigaru, which were easy to build, were sent to the front line.

Ise Shusosuke is the leader of this iron running team. It is not easy to get this lucrative job. If his father is not for Ise Sadaun's younger brother, he would not be able to take the position. Under the cover of friendly troops, Ise Shufang led the Two hundred iron cannon ashigaru came to the city, and dozens of people lined up in an orderly row to load gunpowder, light the match, test the gunpowder, clean the barrel, load lead pellets, reload gunpowder, and aim and shoot.

The sound of ping-pong-pong iron cannons did not cause the defenders on the city to panic, and iron cannons would retaliate sporadically from the top of the city. The reputation of the cannon has spread all over the world. Up to now, the iron cannon is not a new thing in Kanto.

There are many daimyos and people in the Kanto who buy a few iron cannons from their own sources. Because there is no iron cannon production technology in the Kanto, the price of an iron cannon is often as high as three or four hundred kanwen, and one third of them are bought. Customs money, local miscellaneous taxes, and allowances for the seaport are occupied, the other one-third is the profit of the merchant, and only the last third is the cost of purchase and transportation.

Because iron cannons are too expensive, the speed of iron cannon arming in Kanto is much slower. Only powerful daimyos like the Hojo family have the capital to arm two hundred iron cannon teams at one go. The status of the iron cannon leader Ise Shubosuke is unusual. The reserve team is only a hair away from the generals, but in terms of intimacy, they are still as good as the horse back to the crowd.

Speaking of which, this is not the first time for this iron cannon team. There were only 30 people in the iron cannon team in the past few years. During the Kanto Astronomical Rebellion, Hojo Ujiyasu was not willing to let them go into battle. In recent years, the life of the Hojo family has become more and more serious. Well, the Iron Cannon Team has been expanded several times to become the current scale, and has fought several battles in South Kanto one after another. Last year, the Kyujo family and the Tonegawa battle also appeared.

Ise Shubosuke thought that the iron cannon team had practiced well, so he wanted to imitate the Kira family's iron cannon tactics and shoot with arrows and oars. He first commanded two hundred teams to aim at the arrows on both sides of the Otome Gate of Mitake Castle. The scull blasted fiercely, but he was counterattacked by random shots from the defenders on the arrow scull. He shot and killed five or six iron cannon ashigaru in three or two shots, and he quickly retreated back in fright.

As for the old iron cannons of the Hojo family, the maximum range is only 30 meters. If it flies more than ten meters away, its power will be greatly reduced. After several attempts, more than a dozen iron cannons were shot dead by the counterattack in the arrow scull. It's light, but it loses a lot every time it goes back and forth.

Such inefficient siege tactics are obviously useless. The siege battle lasted until the end of autumn and still could not break through the city. Yuyue City could not see any hope in the cage battle of [-] against [-]. The long wait made Nagano Kentada somewhat unsustainable, but fortunately, the Nagao Legion quickly got out of the predicament and trekked hard for nearly a month to Ueno country.

As soon as he came to Ueno country, the Nagao family faced a siege battle. This time his enemy was the Nabo clan of Isesaki Castle. Zhilong agreed almost without thinking, and soon he led an army of [-] to besiege Isesaki Castle, relying on the excellent iron guns trained and equipped (eliminated) by the Kira family.Easily suppress the aura of Naha Zongyuan in Isesaki Castle again.

This Nabo family is a branch of the Oehiro Yuan lineage.Speaking of it, it is also the Hojo Takahiro and Yasuda Kemoto of Echigo Mori.And the newly rising little overlord of Anyun Kingdom, Mao Liyuan, is of the same family, and the family crest is the famous one-character three-star, and the family style is even comparable to Hojo Takahiro. The first ancestor is the son of Oe Hiromoto (also known as Zongyuan), It's really weird that the name passed down to his generation is the same as that of his ancestors.

Nabo Zongyuan has maintained a close relationship with the Hojo family since the end of the Kawagoe Night Battle more than ten years ago, if there was no incident of the Kanto Astronomical Rebellion.Maybe he became Odawara's retainer a long time ago, and it's fine to be the first to jump out this time, but he has been wishing for many years.

Nagao Kagetora's siege technique is obviously much better than that of the Hojo family. The powerful iron cannon fire ensures that there is no problem in implementing the Kira family's iron cannon tactics. As soon as he gets started, he can destroy all the buildings in Isesaki Castle that are more than five meters high, no matter it is Arrows and sculls are still small sky guards, don't even try to stand up.

Isesaki Castle is also a mountain city, and the feeling of climbing the mountain is not good. Fortunately, a dirt mountain is only more than 100 meters high, and the mountain is not steep and difficult to walk. The defenders in the city immediately greeted with bows and arrows.

The dense rain of arrows drew a long trajectory down the mountain road.Whenever the arrows rained down, the experienced veteran would raise his musket and lie on the ground.Katsusaburo and a few companions didn't quite understand what it was doing, they moved a little slower, and were kicked down by Sugihara Shusuke behind him, and then the samurai pounced on Katsusaburo very nimbly. [

"Oh! It hurts so much!" Before the words finished, there was a crackling sound of arrows raining.

Sugihara Book Assistant also didn't care about face, and cursed: "You bastards, do you want to die? Are the arrows falling if you can't see the top of the city?"

"Yes! Yes!" Several recruits trembled in fright, and even echoed their voices. At this time, the ashigaru got up one after another, carried their rifles and continued to move forward. Are all the friendly troops behind you waiting for you!I have never seen you so stupid ashigaru, how did you get in here. "

Sugihara Book Assistant left cursing all the way, making a few azuru want to find a crack in the ground, a middle-aged man beside them came over with a smile and comforted him: "Don't feel sad, us old guys Back then, I came slowly through this crime. You might have to give up your life here at any time when you are on the battlefield. These samurai gentlemen are all carrying military orders, so how can we have the time to talk softly to us soldiers? , You have to listen to orders you don’t understand, this little setback is nothing, just get used to it.”

At this time, I heard the samurai in front issue an order: "Continue to charge, the lord has an order, break the castle and reward thousands of coins, everyone follow me, and Isesaki Castle must be captured!"

"Ha!" The ashigaru took a deep breath, stood up and continued to move forward.

Different from the unprepared Hojo Army, the Nagao Legion is equipped with simple siege vehicles. In fact, siege vehicles have been formed thousands of years ago. At first they were called battering rams, and later they were improved and turned into siege vehicles. Ancient Rome and the Han Empire have corresponding applications.

The manufacture of the siege vehicle is not complicated. A triangular or olive-shaped metal support frame is covered with an outer skin, and the inside is a thick log suspended on the girder by an iron chain. The tail of the log has an auxiliary crank. It is an iron cone head, and some cone heads will be made into the shape of a sheep's head. It has been called a battering ram since ancient times.

A six-wheeled siege engine approached the city under the cover of several shield-carrying ashigaru teams. The samurai hiding behind the siege engine grabbed the crank of the battering ram together, swung it backwards and slammed into the city gate. The Otemon Gate of Isesaki Castle trembled when it was hit, and Naba Tansong, who was in charge of directing the defense, was startled, and hurriedly shouted: "Don't let that weird thing get close to the Otemon Gate, fight back immediately, fight back!"

The defenders on the top of the city immediately returned fire with bows and arrows. The long-awaited Ashgaru team raised their rifles to cover the siege vehicles. The dense rain of arrows embedded in the rifles made a crisp crackling sound. The siege vehicles did not stop attacking from beginning to end. , hit the city gate again and again, the defenders in the city were a little at a loss, they had never seen such weird things, let alone how to deal with them, the balance of victory was tilted towards the Longtail Army amidst the chaos.

Saito Chaonobu looked at the tattered one-character three-star flag on the top of the city, and said with a smile: "Isesaki Castle is not large in scale. It was surrounded by our army and cut off the retreat. There is no water source on the mountain. It depends on how long they can hold on It will be a matter of time before this city is forced!"

"Of course, the sooner the better." Changwei Jinghu looked at the mountains in the south and frowned, "We don't have much time left."

Hojo Ujiyasu's eyes were bloodshot and he seemed to have not closed his eyes for several days, because he received a very bad news that Isesaki Castle was captured by Nagao Keigora, and Mitake Castle has not yet been captured here. The mounds stood outside the city walls, and there were broken limbs and arms hanging on several damaged walls, and the dark red blood dyed the loess mounds reddish brown.

Isesaki Castle is a mountain castle.It is normal for Kaesong to surrender before it is about to fall. Not all mountain castles have enough water, let alone every mountain castle can hold on for a few months. Under the crisis of water and food shortage, Isesaki Castle was forced to surrender. The two brothers Nabo Tanzong and Nabo Zong'an went out of the city to surrender, and Nabo Zongyuan committed seppuku in exchange for the chance of survival and surrender for the whole city.

Mitake Castle has not yet been breached. Under the onslaught of [-] troops day and night, Mitake Castle is like a small boat in the wind and rain that may capsize at any time. Every time, it is almost possible to break through the Otemon Gate, and it is time and again defeated by the tenacious defenders. Forcibly counterattack to drive out.In front of the Otemon Gate of Mitake City, the dark doorway looks like a giant beast that chooses people and devours them.Swallow hundreds of lives of Hojo army.

The continuous siege over the past few days has reduced the number of defenders in the city by more than half. If the defenders are not light enough, the townspeople in the city will join in. Nagano Kentada's rule is quite famous, and many townspeople are willing to help defend the city. The courage can last for a while, but after a long time, the soldiers become tired and soon lose their morale, and the morale drops and the battle damage is constantly refreshed.

The townspeople in the city are quietly becoming less and less, and people have discovered that the bodies of the war dead are casually discarded on the top of the city, and no one cares about them on the streets. It's not that they don't want to burn the remains of their comrades-in-arms. It's because the soldiers are too tired. Well, the Hojo family attacked wildly day and night, and did not give them any time to rest. Even sleeping became a luxury. If they had time, they would squint for a while, so they would not have the time to care about the dead body.

Another reason is that there is not enough wood in the city, so the townspeople have to tear down their houses and start a fire to cook. In the battle of the cage city, less than a thousand men died, and the women were busy making food. Healing the wounded, but also serving as the men's work, repairing the damaged castle defenses and Otemon, and even serving as patrols and temporary guards at night.

They were also very tired, and they couldn't even hold the bowls and chopsticks when they were so tired. Everyone living in the city was gritting their teeth and persevering. They didn't realize that the dead bodies were quietly spreading the terrible plague. A good medium for relaying, soon a plague turned into a terrible disaster.

Kentada Nagano was under a lot of pressure. While defending the castle, he also had to deal with the general affairs in the castle. It was common for him not to close his eyes for two days and two nights. He was skinny and boneless at nearly sixty years old. The battle in the city cost them a huge price. His relatives were all dead. If he hadn't expected his wife and children to be placed in Minawa City, Nagano Kentada's line would have died out.

He knew what he was doing was wrong. It was a mistake to force men, women, and children in the city to undertake heavy military and husband service, but he didn't think he was a brutal warrior, forcing men over the age of 13 to take up arms and defend the city. It is a miracle that he insisted on holding on for more than a month under difficult circumstances. If he hadn't worried about the domestic situation in Ueno and worried that Nagao Jinghu would not be able to catch up with him, he would not have fought so hard.

A warrior with tattered armor and disheveled hair came over and said softly, "My lord, there are still 530 soldiers who can take up arms."

Nagano Kentada sighed: "Thank you for your hard work! But Ma Shou."

"My lord, please go and rest for a while, there is absolutely no problem with my high mountain intention here!" Gao Shandan Ma Shou said.

"The medicine in the city has already been used up, how can you let me sleep peacefully!" Nagano Kentada frowned deeply, and soon it was dawn, neither of them could sleep well, and a new day started again with a new attack.

Long-term siege is very damaging to morale. Even if the caged city is fully prepared, it cannot be avoided. The most important thing in caged city warfare is soldiers, morale, food, water, and medicine. Without soldiers, there is no need to talk about defending the city. Without morale, the city cannot be defended. , The importance of food, grass and water sources need not be repeated. The adverse effects of lack of medical care and medicine were rarely mentioned before. In fact, this is the most important part.

In the arduous battle of the cage city, timely treatment of the wounded and injured is very important. Patients who do not receive effective treatment will become the source of infection. In this era, there are no advanced disinfection measures such as ultraviolet disinfection, especially in this small city. There is a lack of doctors and even less medicinal materials. Many wounded soldiers can only watch him fester and die. It is conceivable how much morale their comrades can retain.

No one noticed that the epidemic was spreading quietly. Residents died of illness for several days in a row, because the successive attacks of the Hojo Army were ignored until the epidemic turned into a plague. The samurai spontaneously burned the highly decomposed corpses, but they themselves were quickly infected. Nagano Kentada also realized the seriousness of the situation, and it was too late by this time.

He had no choice but to order those seriously ill warriors to pack up the corpses, pile them together and incinerate them with the few remaining firewood. The billowing smoke covered half of the city, and the survivors standing in the distance only had pain and sorrow on their faces. .

Five days later, the Nagano army, unable to pull the bow and exhausted the last bit of strength, gave up resistance and allowed the Hojo army to break through the Otemon Gate of Mitake Castle. There are only more than 500 people alive, all of whom are women and children. The men either died in battle or died of plague. From a distance, thousands of corpses are piled up together. (To be continued, please search, the novel is better and updated faster!