The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 719 Sekigahara! Yang Xiuqing VS Tokugawa Yoshinobu!

The tenth day of the seventh month of the eleventh year of the Tianli calendar, Sekigahara, Japan!
Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe it was a deliberate arrangement by the Tokugawa shogunate.

The "Asahi Allied Forces" led by Yang Xiuqing and Kusunoki Inako were blocked in the Sekigahara Basin surrounded by Mount Ibuki, Mount Sasao, Mount Matsuo and Mount Nangu by the Shogunate Allied Forces led by Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the general-in-chief of the Tokugawa Shogunate Army and also the "Go-mi" of the Shogun.

Yang Xiuqing was standing on the top of Nangong Mountain, where Maori Hidemoto had deployed his troops in history. The mountain wind blew up his dragon robe. The Korean soldiers under his feet were setting up artillery. The barrels of the twelve Armstrong breech-loading guns imported from Britain shone coldly in the moonlight, exuding murderous aura. He turned and looked at Inoue Kaoru, the representative of the Choshu clan, who was kneeling beside a rock. The 28-year-old samurai still had a scratch on his forehead from the fight with the Tokugawa army the day before.

"Tomorrow at 11:00 a.m., your army will feint to attack the foot of the eastern foot of Mount Tenman." Yang Xiuqing used his scabbard to pick up the map and drew an arc on the hillside of Mount Peimo. "When the Sendai clan turns against us, you will launch a full-scale attack and attack the enemy from both sides of the Ida clan."

His words were translated into Japanese by Kusunoki Inako.

Inoue Kaoru's Adam's apple rolled. He was not a fanatic of the True Prophecy Sect. The reason he joined the True Prophecy Sect was because his master, the Mori family, wanted to avenge the humiliation after the Battle of Sekigahara 260 years ago. Of course, he also needed a reward! He gripped the sword at his waist, and the rope around the handle was soaked with sweat: "If our army breaks through the main camp of Tokugawa Yoshinobu in Peimoyama."

"After the war, the Mori family can recover the lost territories of Aki, Bingo, Bitchu, Izumo, Iwami, and Oki, and the lands can be increased to 100 million koku!" Kusunoki Inako suddenly spoke. She was wearing a robe embroidered with rice ears and crosses, and her fingertips brushed across the back of Inoue Kaoru's knife: "God is my witness, those who break the promise will fall into the lake of sulfur fire forever!"

In the light of the torch, Inoue Xin's pupils shrank to the size of needles, and he bowed deeply to Yang Xiuqing: "The Mori family is willing to fight to the death for the Eastern King!"

Kusunoki Inako leaned close to Inoue's ear and whispered, "You don't need the Mori family to fight to the death. The glory of dying for the Eastern King belongs to me!"

Paired with Momoyama and Yoshinobu's main camp.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu poured French red wine into a lacquerware wine glass. The deep red liquid flowed over the rim of the glass and formed a thin stream on the pear wood table. But he was completely unaware of it and didn't know what he was thinking.
Katsu Kaishu's one eye flickered in the candlelight: "Admiral Enomoto's steamship has arrived at Edo Bay and will reach Osaka Beach in three days."

"It's too late." Mizuno Tadashi, the chief elder of the Kishu Domain, crushed the Japanese confectionery in his hand, and suppressed his anger in his Kishu accent: "The steam gunboats of the Kingdom of Korea have long blocked the entire Seto Inland Sea! How can those broken ships of the shogunate navy be a match for them?"

Matsudaira Yoshiyasu suddenly lifted the curtain, and the mountain wind, carrying the sound of the Korean army's bugle call, poured into the tent. The lord of Aizu pointed at the tiny fire on the top of Nangong Mountain and said, "Two hundred and sixty years ago, the God defeated the Western Army of more than 100,000 soldiers here! Tonight, we have 80,000 soldiers, and the bandits have only 50,000. The advantage is mine!"

"It's 57,300." Katsu Kaishu wiped his sword, and the inscription "Bizen Osafune" reflected the corners of his nervous mouth twitching: "Hanzhenyue's Christian Guards are 22,000, Satsuma's Riflemen are 8,000, Choshu's Special Forces are 6,000, Tosa's Riflemen are 3,000, and Hizen's soldiers are 2,500."

Tokugawa Yoshinobu suddenly stood up and turned over the table: "Have you heard the singing at the foot of Nangong Mountain?"

"The cherry branches turn into iron spears, the bullets are like gods, the smoke breaks through the fog, and the rain of fire buries this body"

The melody of the True Testament sect's "Martyrdom Song" penetrated the night sky, and thousands of torches at the foot of Nangong Mountain formed a brilliant galaxy.

July 11th.

The morning mist had not yet dispersed, and the artillery fire on both sides of the Kiso River had already exploded like thunder. At the main camp of the Crusader Army on Sasaoyama, Kusunoki Inako stood at the forefront of the team, her eyes sweeping over the 20,000 True Covenant warriors behind her - they were holding the Tenryaku 3rd-year rifles tightly, and their bayonets were like a shining forest in the morning light.

"Today, we are all martyrs!" Daozi suddenly untied the straps of her breastplate, and the heavy armor fell to the ground, raising a cloud of dust. She then took off her helmet, and her black hair fell like a waterfall, dancing wildly in the wind.

The Crusader soldiers watched with bated breath, only to see her take off her battle robe and wear only a thin white kimono, with detonators and explosives wrapped around her waist.

"Father in Heaven!" She held up a rice cross flag, her voice piercing the din of the battlefield, "Today, we pave the road to heaven with our flesh and blood!"

The soldiers of the Crusaders shouted fanatically, some tore off their breastplates, some took off their helmets, and more began to sing the "Martyrdom Song".

"The cherry branches turn into iron spears, and the bullets become divine power!" "The smoke of gunpowder breaks through the fog, and the rain of fire buries this body!" "The soul rises with the sky flag"

The singing swept across the battlefield like a raging wave, shaking even the artillery fire of the Korean heavenly soldiers.

At 2:15 a.m., the twelve Armstrong breech-loading guns on the top of Nangong Mountain roared at the same time, and the steel barrels belched out white smoke in the morning light. The 70mm shrapnel shells streaked across the sky, creating twelve black and red clouds of smoke over the shogunate army, and the fragments of the shells poured down like a rainstorm.

The curtain of the Tokugawa main camp was torn apart by the air wave, and Katsu Kaishu's forehead was scratched by shrapnel, and the blood blurred his vision. He staggered and grabbed the French-made telescope, and saw that the white ranks of the Crusaders on the other side were advancing in three horizontal rows - countless neatly arranged bayonets were like a silver forest, following a red rice cross flag and slowly advancing, full of religious fanaticism. "Two hundred and fifty steps - load solid bullets!" Sakakibara Kenkichi, the commander of the shogunate artillery, roared. Flames spewed from the muzzle of the six-pound bronze cannon, and the shells plowed out bloody alleys in the Crusaders' array. But the gap was filled in an instant, and Nanmu Inako's silver hairpin flickered in the smoke. She still held up the rice cross flag and shouted loudly: "God the Father, bless us!"

The crusaders sang the "Martyrdom Song" in unison as they advanced, the singing drowning out the gunfire: "Cherry branches turn into iron spears"

Two hundred steps, the shogunate's artillery fired again, and more than thirty people fell!

"The bullet is like a god coming"

One hundred and fifty steps away, the skirmishers in front of the Crusaders began to shoot from their kneeling positions, and the pointed helmets of the shogunate's training corps shattered in rows.

"The smoke breaks through the fog!"

A hundred steps away, the shogunate army's muskets began to fire indiscriminately, bullets flew everywhere and the battlefield was filled with smoke.

But the Crusaders continued to advance at a walking pace!

When the Crusaders advanced to 40 steps in front of the enemy formation under the firepower of the shogunate army, the battlefield suddenly fell into an eerie silence. Keisuke Oshima, the commander of the shogunate army training team, found that the hands of his soldiers, who were trained by French officers, were shaking as they held their rifles!

"Release!" Nanmu Daozi waved the cross flag of rice ears.

The sound of the volley of 8,000 Tenryaku 3-Year Rifles was like the collapse of the sky and the crack of the earth. The lead bullets penetrated the human body and continued to fly, causing a bloody storm in the second and third rows. Katsu Kaishu saw with his own eyes that the chest of Ogasawara Tadazane, a member of the training team standing in the third row, was pierced by three bullets at the same time - the Minié bullets fired by the Tenryaku 3-Year Rifles had extremely strong penetrating power and were very accurate, with amazing lethality at a distance of forty steps!

"Boom! Boom"

Then there were two more rounds of volleys!

On the battlefield, the surviving shogunate troops had not had time to reload their ammunition, but the chaplains were already charging with bayonets. The triangular bayonets specially made by the Korean Ordnance Bureau were designed to break through torso armor. Ino, who was holding a rice cross flag and charging with the soldiers, witnessed a teenage chaplain boy using a bayonet to pierce the Adam's apple of a shogunate samurai, and blood spurted three meters high. The shallows of the Kiso River were dyed dark red, and the chaplains, who were advancing on floating corpses, were still singing: "Fire rain will bury this body"

Suddenly, there was a thunderous explosion from the Tokugawa main camp. The Korean soldiers led by Yang Xiuqing used 70mm breech-loading guns to blast through the defense line of the shogunate army at the foot of Sasao Mountain. One shell hit the shogunate army's gunpowder depot, and the rising mushroom cloud shook the Peimo Mountain where Tokugawa Yoshinobu was.

Directly west of Peimoyama is the main camp of the Date army.

Date Yoshikuni was holding a bloody head - it was the head of Tokugawa's military supervisor Tanuma Osei who he had beheaded. The 36-year-old Sendai lord kicked the body away and took out a letter sent by the secret envoy of Shinjo three days ago from the lining of the military feather woven cloth: "Wait for the Nangong Mountain cannon to fire ten times, raise the white flag and defect to obtain the seven counties of Mutsu - the Kusunoki rice seal."

Two thousand Sendai cavalrymen were ready. Endo Yoshinori, an important official of the domain, had already mounted a Mongolian horse and turned his head from time to time to look at his lord Yoshikuni's main camp.

At 1600: am, the tenth round of artillery fire on Nangong Mountain arrived as scheduled. Date Yoshikuni cut off the rope of the Tokugawa flag with sunflower pattern, and the white silk embroidered with "unparalleled loyalty" unfolded in the morning breeze - this was a signal to defect in imitation of Kobayakawa Hideaki in . The Sendai cavalry was divided into three groups: the first group of people rushed directly to the flank of the Tokugawa main camp, and used sabers to knock down the training team that was loading ammunition; the second group of people went diagonally to the Kiso River crossing to cut off the retreat of the shogunate army; the third group of people was led by Date Yoshikuni himself, and the sunflower pattern deliberately retained on the breastplate became the best camouflage. They shouted "reinforcements are coming" and rushed into the Tokugawa flag main team, and suddenly turned their guns to shoot.

The wakizashi of the Aizu lord Matsudaira Yoshiyasu stopped in front of his abdomen. The devout Aizu lord looked at the cross badge on the chest of the Date cavalryman and suddenly laughed wildly: "Date Masamune betrayed the Toyotomi clan back then, and now you are betraying the Tokugawa clan." Before he finished speaking, the Date cavalryman's musket had pierced his heart from behind. He was still holding the rosary until his death, and the sandalwood beads were scattered all over the ground in the pool of blood.

Although the resistance of the Aizu army collapsed quickly, it still bought some time for Tokugawa Yoshinobu. The general's deerskin boots were stuck in the mud, and his gold-embroidered haori was torn into strips by thorns. Only dozens of hatamoto were left by his side. He kept looking back at Baimoyama during his escape - that was the main camp where the god Ieyasu won the world. This time he also chose Baimoyama as his main camp, just to recreate the god's victory, but he didn't expect that he would take Ishida Mitsunari's script and didn't know if he would be caught and killed?
At this moment, Yang Xiuqing had already climbed up Peitao Mountain and stood in the original Tokugawa main camp.

"Long live the Eastern King, Tokugawa Yoshinobu is on the run, this is his sword." Kusunoki Inako presented the "Nikko Ichimonji" katana, the blade reflected the scratch on her collarbone - that was the blood mark left by a stray bullet when she led the team in a surprise attack this morning.

Yang Xiuqing nodded with satisfaction, then looked in the direction where Tokugawa Yoshinobu fled: "I will return to Korea in ten days, and Japan will be handed over to you!"

On Nangong Mountain, Moore, who had just finished lunch, picked up his notebook and wrote on it: "This is the beginning of the end of Japan's feudal era and the eve of Japanese workers stepping onto the stage of history. The semi-religious and semi-colonial rule of the Korean Kingdom will not last long. The revolutionary fire will surely turn into a raging fire."

(End of this chapter)