The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 318 Yamato Sorrow

After two rounds of coverage and bombing by the Divine Fire Crows, the Eight-Tailed Wilderness was filled with a thick white fog.

Occasionally, one or two orange flames shone through the smoke, mixed with crazy thunder sounds.

That was the 6-pounder infantry field gun of the 7th Guards Army, mopping up the battlefield.

After experiencing the Onin War (Note 1) and the baptism of the Warring States Period, and with the introduction of high-quality firearms from the Netherlands and Spain, the overall strength of the Japanese army was greatly improved at the end of the Warring States period.

First of all, there are numerous types of troops and a strict hierarchy.

The most elite were the Moei-shu, followed by the Makai-shu and the Ryuyabusa, and the lowest level were the Ashigaru samurai.

High-quality matchlock guns were already widely used in various feudal domains.

Then there is the reasonable combination of formations and arms. The main tactics adopted are infantry cluster combat, with a relatively small number of cavalry. The use of iron cannons and three-stage shooting has become quite proficient.

Of course, in actual battles, duels between generals are still common.

During this period, the Japanese army's tactics relied heavily on the bravery of the samurai.

For example, the Okema-sasa raid, the Battle of Azuki-zaka, the Battle of Anegawa, etc., were all about competing to see who was braver, who dared to launch a raid, and who could hold out and fight to the death.

This may be the root cause of the Kamikaze Special Attack and the deaths of 100 million people hundreds of years later.

Of course, when there is a huge disparity in overall strength, the strength of a general's personal will becomes insignificant.

"Damn it, if you want to die, then come and die together. You're riding a pony and thinking you're Guan Yu, but you're running slower than a woman with bound feet! What a waste of my ammunition!"

Under a black bear flag fluttering in the wind, Zhu He, commander of the 7th Army of the Imperial Guards, roared and cursed at the Japanese cavalry rushing towards the front of the phalanx.

"A hundred or so cavalrymen dare to charge! Give them three thousand men and they dare to attack Beijing! Tell the gunners at the back to stop firing. My soldiers have finally gotten to the battlefield, and they need to see blood! Musketeers, bayonets! Maintain formation and pursue!"

This hot-tempered commander of the Guards was originally a cavalryman and loved to kill at close range.

Two years ago, when Hetuala attacked the Later Jin Dynasty, Zhu He was still a small cavalry battalion officer. In just two years, he was promoted from the grassroots to the army commander. His promotion speed was very fast.

In fact, such extraordinary promotions were quite common among the various armies in Kaiyuan.

Relying on a complete system of combat soldier representatives and performance appraisal, the entire military system implements the elimination mechanism of "the capable are promoted and the mediocre are demoted", and everything depends on combat performance.

Except for the veterans Deng Changxiong, Wang Erhu and Qi Jin, whose positions will basically remain unchanged, everyone in the Kaiyuan Army, from the deputy commander to the sergeant, will face elimination or exceptional promotion.

The Seventh Guards Army was established in August of the second year of Taichang, with a total strength of 9,000 soldiers, mainly from Liaodong, Shandong, Henan, and Mongolia (cavalry).

Among them, there are 3,000 musketeers, 2,000 spearmen, 2,000 sword and shield soldiers and archers, and 2,000 cavalry and artillerymen - Kaiyuan's latest organization, artillery mixed in various legions - the hollow square in front of them is all the musketeers of the Seventh Army.

Since it was not a main corps and was formed late, its combat effectiveness ranked last in the entire army (the last one was the newly formed 8th Guards Army).

Therefore, since the Eastern Expedition, the Seventh Guards Army has always been used as an auxiliary force. Today is the first time they have appeared on the battlefield alone.

In the past two months, he had seen the main army invincible in Kyushu and Shikoku, capturing cities and strongholds, while he had been hanging out with a group of auxiliary soldiers every day, building bridges and roads, and supervising the Korean soldiers in transporting food, all of which were despicable things. The entire army had been filled with anger.

When the hundreds of Japanese pirate cavalrymen - who were riding ponies - shouted and charged bravely, the musketeers in the front row were dumbfounded.

As far as they knew, even under the city of Guangning, the most elite servants of the Zu family had never been so rampant and had never taken the Kaiyuan army seriously.

Li Rumei, the younger brother of Li Rusong, the commander-in-chief of the Wanli Korean War, once commented on the strength of the Jurchens and Japan:
"The enemy (Nurhaci) has 7,000 elite soldiers, 3,000 of whom are armored. These 7,000 are enough to defeat 100,000 Japanese invaders."

After the end of Japan's troubled times, these 100,000 most elite soldiers, commanded by an all-star cast of Warring States heroes, often boasted in single-player games, were armed with the most advanced light firearms in East Asia at the time, the arquebus. At first glance, they seemed unmatched in combat power. (The main villain in the game Sekiro is a Ming general.)

In fact, in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty border generals who had fought against the Japanese pirates, the threat posed by 100,000 Japanese pirates was not as great as that of the 7,000 tribal warriors under Nurhaci.

Nurhaci's tribal warriors had already been defeated by the Kaiyuan army.

A hundred or so Japanese soldiers on short horses wanted to break through the flintlock musket formation of 3,000 men from Kaiyuan.

I have to say that Yamaguchi is really a talented person.

Zhu He forgot to remind the artillerymen behind him, so before the musketeers fired, the artillerymen scattered around the phalanx had already opened fire in advance.

As a result, the already loose enemy cavalry was beaten to pieces.

After two hundred divine fire crows took off, the rest of the battle became very boring.

"Da da da"

The thick smoke from the burning gunpowder gradually dissipated, and the clatter of horse hooves pierced through the heartbreaking howls of the Japanese soldiers, reaching the front of the Seventh Army's musketeers. Under the gaze of over three thousand men, a short-shouldered Oku-Uname horse limped across the three-hundred-foot-wide death zone and narrowly survived.

Behind the pony was a Japanese cavalryman of equal shortness. The cavalryman did not die immediately, probably because he was stunned by the artillery and entangled by the reins, so he allowed his beloved horse to drag him to the front of the Kaiyuan army.

"click"

There was a strange crackling sound all around, similar to the friction between armor plates.

Weird!

Fujii Ichiro, a samurai from the Ushiku clan who had been in a coma for a long time, woke up with a strange sound.

The battle-hardened Japanese warrior calmly touched his head to make sure it was still where it should be.

As an excellent warrior, escaping from the battlefield is an essential skill.

Fujiwara looked around, then untied the reins and prepared to escape.

"what!"

A sudden flash of cold light caught Fujiwara's attention.

Against the backdrop of the white snow on the ground, the cold light made the warrior feel cold.

"This is?"

Only then did he finally see clearly that behind the cold light, there were rows of giants holding muskets standing in neat rows.

They are tall and their formation is neat, like an impenetrable wall!

Of course, what shocked Fujiwara was not just the barbarian's terrifying height.

Also, the muskets in their hands.

There is a sharp blade at the muzzle of the musket!

The sharp blade was about two feet long, almost as tall as Fujiwara!
More than 3,000 bayonets were thrust out at almost the same angle, and the musketeers advanced forward rapidly with their orderly steps.

The sharp blade reflected a faint cold light in the winter sun.

"I see!"

Fujiwara finally figured out where the cold light came from, but it was too late. Three bayonets stabbed at the Ushiku warrior at the same time.

The sharp bayonet easily penetrated the warrior's gorgeous plate armor and pierced into his short body.

There was no time to shout "Charge on board!"

Fujiwara Ichiro opened his eyes wide in horror, watching countless military boots stepping over his body.

Zhu He ordered the artillery to stop shelling.

Amid the rapid and powerful sound of drums, the captains of each flag blew bamboo whistles and commanded the soldiers to advance in unison towards the shogunate army.

The Kaiyuan cavalry, which had been dormant for a long time, crossed the hills and appeared on the battlefield.

They formed a charging formation, guarding the two wings of the phalanx while hacking at the collapsed 500 foot soldiers from behind.

As an experiment, the entire Seventh Army was equipped with the latest Type 22 flintlock rifle.

The gun uses walnut wood to make the buttstock and gun body handguard, and uses a large amount of brass to make the gun body accessories to enhance the strength and durability of the gun.

The newly designed muzzle sliding bayonet and bayonet mount make the bayonet more secure and prevent it from falling off and does not affect shooting.

Compared with the Type 20 flintlock rifle, the Type 22 abolished the sear and replaced it with a large safety lock that firmly holds the hammer. When firing, the trigger releases the safety lock, which is safer and more reliable than the previous design.

The maximum range of the gun was increased from 150 steps to 200 steps (about 280 meters), exceeding the effective range of most bows.

火枪重量由9斤减轻至7斤（不包括刺刀），最高射速可达每分钟5到6发，实战射速约为每分钟3到5发，综合命中率可达七成。

Now, the opportunity to test the new weapons' actual combat effectiveness has finally arrived.

Note:
1. The Onin War (1467-1477): This civil war between feudal lords during the Muromachi shogunate era in Japan erupted during the tenure of the eighth shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, between Hosokawa Katsumoto, the shogunate's governor, and shugo daimyo (guard daimyo) such as Yamana Mochitoyo. This conflict ushered in the Warring States Period (-). Following the war, the power of the shogun, shugo daimyo, and the estate-owning aristocracy was further weakened, ushering in the era of chaotic warfare among daimyo.

(End of this chapter)