The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 317 Famous Generals of the Warring States Period
In the Eight-tailed Wasteland, the north wind is biting.

Flags fluttered and weapons were like clouds.

The large horse-banded flags of the various Kanto domains were clustered together, like spirit-calling banners in a ritual, all pointing to the sky.

The flags of the various feudal domains were more exaggerated than each other, especially those of the Tsugaru clan, the daimyo of Northern Mutsu.

The "卍" family crest hung on a golden Zen staff as thick as a bowl, looking particularly ostentatious.

The staff was carried by a strong warrior. Due to the strong wind today, two teppo ashigaru were needed to help the warrior keep it stable.

Matsudaira Tadaaki sneered:
"A bunch of rubes."

However, above Matsudaira's head, a large horse-printed flag with the family crest of the Trefoil family was raised to the sky, as if to prevent the country bumpkins from not knowing his relationship with the Shogun.

The Osaka magistrate, the grandson of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the nephew of the Shogun, was looking towards the east with great enthusiasm.

In an open space five miles to the east, about three thousand Ming barbarians and Korean soldiers were calmly lined up there.

Matsudaira looked at the army in front of him. The crude formations, the messy firearms, the plain armor, all revealed a barbaric temperament.

This famous general who had been trained in the Warring States Period was shocked.

"What?! We've been waiting for so long, and now we've met an opponent like this. He's even inferior to the Dewa and Omi clans!"

Behind him came the mocking voice of Nagai Naomasa, the lord of Toriyama Domain. He was a daimyo of 100,000 koku in Kanto, so naturally he spoke without restraint.

The second-ranked elder of the Tsuchiura clan, Tsuchiya Masanao, saw the Ming army's formation and laughed loudly, clapping his hands:

"The iron cannon team has no spearmen to cover them, and the barrels are so short! The artillery and infantry are mixed together, how can this be an army? They are clearly pirates! I don't know how those bastards in Kyushu could be defeated by them!"

Seeing the two big men speak, the other lords followed suit and complained:
"Are such an opponent such a threat that the Shogun needs to mobilize his army? Matsumoto-sama's samurai can easily defeat them."

"Where? Lord Matsumoto is still dealing with unarmed Catholics, hahahaha!"

For the Osaka Christian Rebellion, the shogunate mobilized a massive military force of 120,000 troops from the Kanto, Shikoku, and Tokai domains.

According to news from some feudal lords who remained in Edo, the daimyo who participated in the suppression of the rebellion would not receive any rewards.

Instead, each soldier was only given five ko (Japanese unit of measurement) of rice per day as salary in accordance with the shogunate's military service regulations.

Considering that this war was not a war between lords, but a war between lords and the ruled believers (peasants), it was a responsibility that the daimyo should bear.

Moreover, the shogunate's main energy will be used to deal with the Ming barbarians entrenched in Sekigahara and to plan and prepare for the upcoming decisive battle of Sekigahara.

It is understandable that there is no reward.

However, as the nominal leader of the daimyo participating in the war, Matsudaira became furious when he heard the daimyo's sarcastic remarks.

"Stop talking nonsense! There will be rewards! The barbarians have plundered a lot of property in Kyushu, and the Shimazu pirates have given all the gold and silver they have looted to them. Kill all the barbarians, and the Shogun will distribute the gold and silver to everyone!"

The Catholic rebels in Yao Castle were weak and not a concern at all. As long as the reinforcements in front of them were eliminated, the desperate believers would definitely think that their master had completely abandoned them and would immediately leave the city and surrender.

"The insurgents of Yaoi Castle have been hoping for a miracle from the Lord every day. Today, the Eastern Army will destroy their delusional dreams right before their eyes!"

"Shimazu and Nabeshima are good-for-nothings, both are traitors! The Western Army cannot be trusted, we still have to rely on the Kanto Daimyo to fight the war!"

"indeed!"

The Kanto daimyo howled like wild beasts.

Seeing this, the Osaka deputy nodded with satisfaction.

He pointed to the Ming army formation in front of him and said disdainfully:

"Who wants to take the lead?! Defeat this thief!"

Just as Matsudaira Tadaaki finished his words, there was a loud shout and an old general rushed out on horseback from among the daimyo.

But seeing that this man was thin and had sharp eyes, it was obvious that he had survived many battles in the Warring States Period.

The general was five feet tall (about 1.4 meters), wearing a golden sandalwood and dovetail armor, a dog-head sun hat on his head, and riding a short and fat Ao Yu horse.

How to describe this portrait of a famous Warring States general?
It is more objective and fair to use the original words of an Italian missionary at the end of the shogunate:
"(The Japanese cavalry) were like monkeys riding on dogs' backs."

This was the military commander of the Warring States Period, the daimyo with a salary of 15,000 koku, the first lord of the Ushihisa domain in Hitachi Province, and the master of great military exploits, Lord Yamaguchi Shigemasa.

Matsudaira looked at the veteran who was over fifty years old and nodded to Yamaguchi, who was still in good shape.

Yamaguchi Shigemasa waved his fan, whipped his horse's belly hard, and gave the order to attack to the 100 Ushiku cavalrymen behind him.

The Japanese horses with straight necks and short stature stepped on the thin snow and slowly accelerated towards the enemy formation five miles away.

Japanese horses do not hold their heads and necks high like other horse breeds, but this handsome posture makes it easy for riders to injure the horse by swinging weapons from the front.

Of course, the elite cavalry of Japan do not have such low-level problems.

Because their riders and horses were obviously too short compared to other horse breeds of the same era (not to mention dismounting).

Considering that the cavalry were all high-ranking samurai from each feudal domain, their equipment was the best in the entire army and their numbers were quite small.

Taking the Takeda army as an example, the proportion of each branch of the army is:

Cavalry 7.7%, spearmen 15.4%, spearmen 46%, archers 7.7%, cannonmen 15.4%, and flag bearers 7.7%. Cavalry only made up about % of the entire army, making them scarce.

This also means that during the Warring States Period and the Shogunate Period, it was impossible for Japanese cavalry to charge in large groups.

Cavalrymen of this era had no horse armor—most war horses had no protective measures—and Japanese stirrups were very unusual, resembling slippers, meaning the rider could not rely on the stirrups to protect against impacts from the front and rear.

The most terrible thing was that the cavalry of each feudal domain did not have lances, and the samurai preferred to chop with swords while riding on horses.

Although the samurai sword is gorgeous, it is no match for the infantry's spear.

Moreover, muskets can kill cavalry at a long distance, while the power of horse bows is very limited.

In short, the Japanese cavalry of this era had no advantage at all on the front battlefield.

This is also an important reason for the decline in cavalry appearance rate during the Warring States Period.

At that time, the typical way of cavalry combat was: single combat.

As the Red Haired Barbarians' iron cannon technology was introduced to Japan, battlefield tactics also changed.

Generally speaking, the infantry goes first, and the cavalry comes after the overall situation is determined.

In other words, the Japanese cavalry was just a supporting role.

Of course, it can also be used against Ashigaru.

Samurai wielding swords and spears on horseback were usually invincible against the thin armor of ordinary ashigaru - only a small vest with no protection around the shoulders and neck.

This kind of fighting method basically did not cause any major problems during the fight between village heads.

Of course, things are different now.

The fact that he had gathered a hundred cavalrymen showed that Lord Yamaguchi's loyalty to the shogunate was evident to him.

Of course, loyalty is conditional.

After Tokugawa unified the country, Yamaguchi Shigemasa offended the Shogun because of his wavering attitude on the eve of the Battle of Sekigahara and even had connections with Tokugawa's enemy, the Toyotomi clan. He was eventually forced to live in seclusion.

The Ushiku clan also became the last among the Kanto clans.

If it weren't for the Osaka Rebellion, when the shogunate was in urgent need of manpower, Yamaguchi would have spent the rest of his life in Ushiku.

Summoned back to the battlefield, he desperately hoped to win the trust of Tokugawa Hidetada through a great victory and thus revitalize the Yamaguchi family.

The veteran general spent all his money and barely managed to gather a hundred cavalrymen (half of whom were not armored).
He was willing to risk offending the various feudal domains in order to seize the credit in front of the daimyo who participated in the war.

Fortunately, everyone was quite disdainful of this barbarian group, and no one competed with him for military merit.

In Yamaguchi's view, the Ming barbarians in front of him looked not much different from cannon fodder.

The Kaiyuan cavalry was responsible for the rear guard and did not appear on the battlefield for a long time.

In addition, the various feudal lords in Kanto had never participated in the Korean War and lacked a intuitive understanding of the Ming army.

Until now, these confident daimyos still have no idea of the situation they will face next.

To be on the safe side, Lord Ushiku arranged 500 iron cannon foot soldiers as support behind the 100 elite cavalry.

He felt that this would be foolproof.

The five hundred foot soldiers were all in tattered clothes, and many of them were running barefoot in the snow, chasing after the fat war horses' butts, splashing up bursts of snowflakes.

When Niu Jiu's elite cavalry was only three hundred steps away from the barbarian phalanx, the phalanx remained motionless.

The veteran who was at the front felt a little nervous and began to pray for protection from the gods at the foot of Mount Fuji.

Suddenly, a low horn sounded from two hundred steps away.

Yamaguchi Shigemasa was a veteran of the battlefield. Over the past twenty years, he had heard from the generals of the Western Army about the combat tactics of the elite "Seven Family Armies" (a slip of the tongue from the Japanese) of the Ming Army.

He judged that it was the sound of cymbals and gongs of the Ming army.

The cymbals and gongs indicate that the attack is about to begin.

While I was still daydreaming, a deafening roar suddenly came from behind the square formation.

Then the earth began to shake.

"The country is collapsing!"

In the last moments of his life, Yamaguchi saw a brilliant orange-red artillery fire like the morning glow.

Countless meteors with long flame tails fell to the earth.

The famous general of the Warring States Period screamed before his death.

"Onboard! Thunder and lightning country collapses! Mars guards the heart!"

(End of this chapter)