The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 574 The sword chopped at the devil's head
It is easy to start a war. You can find any excuse and start a war immediately. But it is not easy to end a war.

Not to mention the losers, even the winners need timing to end the war.

Matsudaira Sadanobu sacrificed his own son in order to give a shot in the arm to the battle he had insisted on launching.

But unfortunately, reality gave him a ruthless slap in the face, because it was not a shot in the arm, but more like pouring a bucket of oil on the fire.

The Liwei Army of the Beijing Camp that crossed the river was primarily composed of Zhejiang soldiers. Their main force was the violent civilians who had fought during the Hangzhou Restoration Campaign. A mix of troops were recruited from Chuzhou, Wenzhou, and Taizhou in eastern Zhejiang after the establishment of the Great Yu Dynasty. They also included the renowned Qi Family Army, primarily men from the good families of Yiwu and Dongyang counties in Jinhua Prefecture.

It's not that the people of Jiangnan are incapable of fighting, but that their living standards are too good and they value their lives too much, so they are unwilling to fight to the death. Moreover, because they have read so many books, they always accumulate some clear stupidity that comes with knowledge.

This kind of scholar generally cannot be beaten, but if they encounter a suitable environment.

For example, if someone can organize them with ideals, responsibilities and discipline, and combat skills do not necessarily require childhood training, the fighting power of the scholars will be quite terrifying.

The current Dayu Dynasty not only has met the conditions for the explosion of scholars' martial virtues, but also has another favorable condition.

That is, in the eight years since the Dayu Dynasty recovered the south of the Yangtze River, many children aged seven or eight not only had the opportunity to become scholar soldiers, but also had the opportunity to practice killing skills from an early age.

They watched the Dayu Dynasty restore the Han people's glory, and watched the new Hongwu Emperor drive out the Tartars from south to north, recover the lost territory, and establish an eternal empire.

Therefore, they were extremely confident, had great admiration for the emperor, and were extremely keen on measuring the future with swords.

When such people appeared in previous dynasties, they would be directly regarded as the foundation of the dynasty, such as the good family sons of the Han and Tang dynasties.

The term "good family son" is not something that everyone can be qualified to bear. Those who work as ox-and-horse workers in large steel mills and textile mills in Susong, and those who work as tenants for tea and mulberry farmers, are not qualified to be called good family sons.

The good families of the Dayu Dynasty were a group of middle class people who emerged in the Jiangnan region after Mo Zibu revived the country.

This kind of middle class is not the conceptual middle class of later generations that does not own any means of production, but a class that actually owns industries and truly controls the means of production.

For example, in the Liwei Army, most soldiers' families either own two or three hundred acres of land, or have opened various factories, or have four or five ships for freight transportation.

They have received a good and systematic education since childhood, and most of them have received systematic training from military instructors since elementary school.

They started training in formations at the age of seven or eight, and started shouting "March for the Emperor" at the age of twelve or thirteen. By the age of fifteen or sixteen, they had basically mastered the three-person bayonet technique.

This army composed of good family boys has superb combat skills, relatively strict discipline, high degree of coordination, strong willpower, and is the best soldier.

Napoleon's Old Guard, which appeared decades later in history, was actually mainly composed of good family members from French middle-peasant families who controlled certain means of production.

They followed the emperor and beat the anti-French coalition army, which was composed of British cattle and horse workers, Russian semi-animal serfs, and German bankrupt tenants, until they cried for their parents.

In the end, France was unable to continue the fight. After Napoleon's restoration, the French army's combat effectiveness declined significantly, also because France's good family men were almost exhausted.

What's even more outrageous is that the Japanese samurai army that is currently launching a collective charge is actually a group of good families who have control over a small amount of means of production.

However, due to the poverty of Japan, they are completely unable to compare with the good families of the Liwei Army.

You know, the families of the Liwei Army soldiers own two or three hundred acres of land in the Jiangnan area!

Even in Wenzhou and Chuzhou, because water transportation is relatively convenient and they are close to the Yangtze River Delta and Ningbo, the crops produced are quite valuable, so the land efficiency is very high.

If calculated based on the stone height in Japan, the output efficiency of 200 acres of land in Jiangnan is at least 800 stones.

In other words, the current battle is between the Japanese samurai with an income of 30 to 100 koku and the Chinese bourgeoisie with an income of 800 to 2,000 koku. The result is predictable.

The Liwei army on the hillside was arranged in five layers, standing horizontally from top to bottom, with distinct armor and artillery mixed in, giving them the advantage.

"Boom!" The thunderous sound of muskets continued to ring out. When the enemy approached to within seventy or eighty meters, the good family men of the Liwei Army were still able to fire a volley.

With every volley, a large number of warriors who launched the pig charge were knocked to the ground, and their screams could even be compared to the sound of muskets.

"Boom! Boom!" The twenty field guns on the hillside also fired huge solid bullets from a high position. Each shot left a bloody groove, and the hillside was littered with broken limbs and flesh.

"31st and 34th companies, put on bayonets!" Mao Xiangsheng was the first to put on the bayonet after hearing the order from the regiment commander.

"One volley, then a charge. Pause every twenty steps to let the grenadiers release their bombs. When the explosions hit the ground, charge forward and drive the Japanese down the hillside, leaving them pissing and running!"

Lin Tianbiao, the regiment commander from Jiangshan County, Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, was tall and mighty, and very powerful. He looked at Mao Xiangsheng and waved his hand to let Mao Xiangsheng remove the bayonet.

"Yellow hair, you are the one the military commander specifically requested from the Zhen army. He said you are a skilled archer. So you stand on that rock and kill all the Japanese officers!"

Mao Xiangsheng's hair is a little yellowish, so he has the nickname "Yellow Hair".

After making arrangements for Mao Xiangsheng, the regiment captain Lin Tianbiao looked at another strong man, Huang Rui, the captain of the 34th company, who was also from Jiangshan County, Quzhou, Zhejiang.

Historically, Lin Tianbiao was the top military scholar in the 1771th year of Qianlong's reign (1780), and Huang Rui was the top military scholar in the th year of Qianlong's reign (). The two were not only fellow villagers, but also related.

"Huang Xifu, I'll give you Huang Mao's 31st Company as well. Even if you die here, you can't bring shame to us Quzhou people. Do you understand?"

After hearing this, Huang Rui's pupils were filled with blood. He threw the flintlock rifle in his hand to the ground, then picked up a ghost-head sword and wrapped the red tassel on the handle around his wrist.

"People from Jiangshan County, bring your swords and show these Japanese that samurai swords are only fit to be used to cause them to commit seppuku after their defeat!"

After Huang Rui finished shouting, the elite warriors led by Matsudaira Sadasada were only thirty or forty meters away from them.

After all, there were many Japanese warriors, more than 30,000 of them, attacking from three sides, ten against one, so even though the Liwei army had sharp guns and artillery, they still rushed up.

"Yoshi, keep going, the hand-to-hand combat is about to begin, let the Tang people taste the power of the samurai sword!"

When Matsudaira Sadasada looked up, he could even barely see the faces of the Tang army wearing red mandarin duck battle robes.

He was very happy because the Tang army's guns and cannons had caused the warriors a lot of suffering. The road for several hundred meters was almost piled with corpses.

Now they can finally get closer, and the generation gap between the weapons of both sides is finally the same. The warriors can teach the Tang army a lesson with swords.

"Boom!" The sound of volleys of musketry rang out again, and more than a dozen warriors in front fell down again. Matsudaira Sadamada was so nervous that he bit the skin of his lower lip.

"Kill them!" Before the smoke cleared, the warriors in the front row who had luckily survived shouted loudly. They had mastered the Tang army's volley of firearms. After firing, it was time to charge, and a small number of Japanese arquebusiers also began to fire in bursts from behind.

But at this moment, overwhelming bombs fell from the hillside like raindrops. The violent explosion immediately halted the momentum of the shogunate army's charge.

After a pause, a deafening roar was heard as a figure swooped down from the hillside. Huang Rui, holding a ghost-head sword, with one hand holding the hilt and the other holding the red tassel, was the first to rush into the shogunate army.

A short warrior came first, holding a cross-shaped spear that was almost as tall as him, and stabbed it towards Huang Rui's abdomen.

Huang Rui roared and swung the sword in his hand, causing the warrior's spear to deflect immediately.

If Huang Rui had not been hit by the volley of firearms and the bombardment of bombs, he would not have been able to rush into this forest of spears composed of ten-character spears.

But unfortunately, the spearmen in the front row of the Shogunate Army had been stunned by the explosion and were unable to form a joint force. So the extremely brave Huang Rui lightly knocked them away and immediately rushed into the spear formation of the Shogunate Army.

The long sword swept across, the cold light was accompanied by blood, and the spear warrior's head flew into the air almost at the same time as his spear was knocked off.

Huang Rui then controlled the sword with his hand and slashed at the surrounding warriors three times.

A man who came hurriedly, wearing a cheap bamboo armor, had a huge cut on his belly, and blood and chyme gushed out with a sound of "kuji".

Seeing this, the second samurai sword stabbed towards him with a shout. Huang Rui did not dodge, but straightened his chest and took the blow.

With a clang sound, the so-called various factions, famous swords and famous swords broke like useless scrap metal on the fine steel armor produced in Nantong Prefecture.

Because the warrior stabbed too hard, his hands felt sore and even cramped due to the high tension.

Huang Rui certainly would not miss this opportunity. He swung his sword upwards from the bottom, causing the warrior to scream. His crotch was torn, and two bells fell out of the damaged package.
Then, the long knife easily cut through his belly, almost ripping him open.

After killing three people in an instant, Huang Rui became more and more adept at it. He roared angrily, scaring the fourth warrior who rushed over and making him tremble in fear.

In an instant, Huang Rui raised the big knife above his head and chopped it down with a tremendous force.

The warrior screamed in pain, and his leather helmet was immediately cut into two pieces. His cheekbone was chopped off and sunken, and the so-called full armor on his chest was easily broken by the fine steel sword.

Huang Rui stirred the warrior cruelly, and blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. His entire lung was completely eroded.

"Long live! Long live! Long live!" The thunderous shouts of "Long live the army" echoed everywhere.

The red Liwei Army soldiers rushed into the black Shogunate Army, like volcanic lava flooding the earth. The samurai everywhere could only resist desperately or even turn around and run away.

In terms of firearms, they are completely separated by generations, but in fact, the same is true for cold weapons. Chinese steel and Japanese steel are completely different things.

Matsudaira Sadasada was dumbfounded. He watched his army being defeated. The few dozen meters they had just rushed out with flesh and blood amidst muskets and cannons were quickly beaten back by the red crowd.

Those Tang people were often a head taller than the warriors. They held their swords and killed them as easily as adults beating children, one by one.

Matsudaira Sadasada even saw a strong man in iron armor rushing straight into the crowd and killing three or four people in an instant.

"Yamada, quick, snipe and kill this bandit!"

Matsudaira Sadamada, whose defenses had been broken, suddenly stood up and waved his hands quickly to give orders under the family crests of the Tokugawa family, one of the three nobles, and the Shirakawa domain.

This was the moment he was waiting for. Mao Xiangsheng pulled the trigger without hesitation. Three hundred and ten meters away, with a bang, Matsudaira Sadamasa's head shook violently, and a huge bloody hole appeared on his forehead.

"What's going on, what's going on!" The samurai Yamada beside him was so scared that he screamed loudly.

Matsudaira Sadasada's adoptive father, Matsudaira Sadanobu, was not only a descendant of the Tokugawa family's Gosanke, but also a wakadonori of the shogunate and the lord of the Shirakawa domain. Therefore, Matsudaira Sadasada could also be called a wakadonori.

Unfortunately, this so-called noble status could not save him. At 310 meters, the power of the Minié bullet was no longer great, and it was a pity that he was hit on the forehead.

Although his skull was only about to be pierced, the enormous force completely broke Matsudaira Sadasada's cervical vertebrae. Even if he didn't die, he would be paralyzed for life.

At this moment, Yamada, who was howling, suddenly shook all over, and Mao Xiangsheng's second Famini bullet hit him accurately.

Seeing Yamada fall, the other warrior did not run away, but looked around in fear, "Who, who is firing?"

It turns out that this guy didn't know that there was no musket that could accurately hit the target within 300 meters. He thought that the people around him were just shooting randomly.

As a result, just as he was looking around and questioning, Mao Xiangsheng fired the third shot. The warrior was shot in the back, and the Minié bullet rotated directly in his body and drilled a big bloody hole.

The poor guy didn't know who killed him until he died, and he was particularly unlucky. When he fell, he directly pushed down the flag of the Shirakawa clan of Matsudaira Sadasada.

This time, even gods could not save them. The morale of the shogunate army responsible for attacking this hillside collapsed, and most of them had no choice but to flee.

"Jiro!" Matsudaira Sadanobu watched the family crest of his Shirakawa clan fall to the ground and instantly screamed out.

Although he is an adopted son, this is one of the conditions for him to obtain the inheritance rights of Shirakawa Domain!
"For His Majesty, for the Empire, forward!" A roar full of nature was heard.

Matsudaira Sadanobu looked in horror. It was not that the Tang army on the mountain was approaching him, but that a large number of Tang troops had already landed on the banks of the Yodo River not far away, thousands of meters above and below the river.

This...this is worse than the Tang army on the Dead Mountain coming to kill us.

It turned out that the Tang army was deliberately slow in building the bridge. In fact, they had already prepared a large number of boats. To cross the river, they only needed to use a few boats as pontoons fixed in the river, and then put up wooden boards and other items between the pontoons to cross the bridge.

"Dianyang, withdraw our troops. We cannot defeat the Tang army in a field battle."

The generals around him kept persuading him, because Matsudaira Sadanobu's 30,000 troops surrounded 3,000 Tang soldiers. Although the Tang soldiers had the advantages of terrain and guns, the result of the battle was still too tragic.

Thirty thousand carefully selected warriors fought for most of the day but failed to capture even a single Tang position.

And it’s not that the warriors are not brave, but that they really can’t win. From equipment to training, and even physical fitness, they are completely not on the same level.

"Jiro!" Matsudaira Sadanobu screamed again, tears streaming down his face. The generals around him ignored him, carried Matsudaira Sadanobu, and retreated in disgrace before the Tang army could cross the river.

　The tiger didn't go to fight the black monkey, but he really had something else to do and he was too embarrassed to ask for leave from everyone. Alas.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)