Late Ming Dynasty: Conquering the world starting from riding and cutting

After defeating the shogunate's dispatched troops, the remaining Kumamoto family had nothing to fear. They were eliminated along the way, and then went south to annihilate Shimazu and unify Kyushu.

The marching sequence was arranged, with Han Xian as the commander-in-chief, Shuntian Camp as the first army, the Saga family as the second army, Qin Hao and Saga Touichi as the middle army, and nearly ten thousand people marched by land and water side by side. Kitakyushu came all the way south to attack the city and seize territory.

Bunzen, Bungo, Chikuzen and Chikugo all fell in one fell swoop. The Kumamoto family's troops immediately retreated after a slight contact, leaving an empty city for the conquering army.

As soon as Kumamoto died, civil strife broke out in the Kumamoto family. According to spies, several of Kumamoto's sons had different opinions. Some wanted to surrender, while others chose to resist. In the end, no one could convince anyone.

So there was a big fight, and the defenders of these small border towns were called back to participate in the battle. As for the current result, Qin Hao didn't know, and Han Xian had already sent people to find out the news.

However, even these small empty cities caused constant quarrels among the conquering army.

The reason is very simple. For this crusade, the Saga family has borrowed many daimyo soldiers and horses from Kitakyushu. Those daimyo and the Saga family are only nominal superiors and subordinates, and they are not completely surrendered.

Now that Keelung's army is in front, it is safe to take over Jiuzhou, so no one in these families wants to let go of this good opportunity. If you can take one bite, you will become famous. Such good opportunities are rare.

The Saga family can eat, but we can't. With a greedy mentality, the little daimyos in Kitakyushu are getting as much as they want.

For those who came from afar to conquer the rebels, it was inevitable that Qin Hao would come out to comfort them, give them a few words of praise, and then reiterate their military orders.

Robbery is okay, but killing is not.

These are all good seedlings for work. Keelung's Bazi Doumeishan is short of people. When Zhuge Xuan sent the letter yesterday, he urged Qin Hao to send a batch back to work, but the money is precious and cannot be killed.

If these farmers were sent to the Keelung Army, they could exchange for grain money and cloth, ten guan per person or three stones of grain and one piece of cloth.

These words made the hearts of all the feudal lords feel as hot as coals of fire. They would be fools not to take advantage of them.

Originally, everyone came all the way here just to make a fortune. Since people can also be exchanged for things, let's just grab things first and then people.

Double harvest, happy.

These little daimyo were making a lot of money, but Saga Chaoichi, the future leader of Kitakyushu, had no shame in his face.

First, the people he called over actually wanted to poach him, and he couldn't control it; second, they robbed too much, leaving the Saga family with no enough food to eat.

Originally there were too many monks and not enough meat, but now it is even more scarce.

A few days later, the Saga family was extremely dissatisfied when various units of the Second Army rushed into Bunzen Castle and plundered it. They almost had a fight with several daimyo. After all, this was my territory, and I had finally won it. I was about to revive it. My family property was robbed by you. What else can be left for me?

Rat? !

Still a Beetle!

You don’t even let those farmers go? !

Who else will pay my annual tribute in the future? !

How else am I going to build a place? ! (Without money, how can I live a comfortable life and enjoy the comfortable life of the upper class in Keelung!)

Regarding the unprovoked robbery of several famous people, the Keelung Army just reprimanded them not to kill people indiscriminately. They were also very obedient and sent the farmers to the ships of the Keelung Navy after they caught them.

Those who obey will get money, but Saga Chao Yi can do nothing about it even though there are ten thousand grass mud horses passing by in his heart.

Qin Hao also heard about this situation. Anyway, it's not him who is in trouble in the end. You can make trouble as much as you want, I don't care at all.

The army was noisily heading south towards Kumamoto.

Kumamoto - the border between Kitakyushu and Minami Kyushu.

Kumamoto has been the geographical center of the Kyushu region since ancient times. As for whether it is the political and economic center, Qin Hao cannot tell. The future economic center of Kyushu will be Nagasaki, but that place was beaten by a "fat man", which is not very auspicious.

"Where did everyone die?!"

On the way south to Kumamoto, there were more and more empty towns. Some towns even had no people left, and no farmers could be seen in the fields.

You must know that it is early summer, a period of rapid growth of wheat seedlings, which requires a large amount of water for irrigation. If the auspicious timing of these days is missed, the wheat seeds harvested in the autumn are likely to have shriveled grains.

On such an important day, don’t the Kumamoto farmers know about it, or do they simply not care.

Looking at the green wheat ears in the field, Saga Chaoichi felt extremely distressed.

These are all mine, all of them!

"Sir, there seems to be something wrong with these wheat ears." An ashigaru next to Saga Chaoyi said, this person was Inada Dairo.

When he came with Saga, he found something wrong with the wheat in the field.

"What's wrong?" Saga Chaoichi was startled and hurriedly went to the field to grab an ear of wheat and observe it.

This sight surprised Saga, "How come there are no wheat husks?" Saga fell down on the field ridge, holding an ear of wheat in his hand and seemed lost.

Even if he has never been engaged in farming, he still knows that it is impossible for wheat ears without wheat husks to produce food.

"Damn it, who did it?! I'm so angry with you."

The first thing Saga Chaoichi thought of was Kumamoto's idiot sons, but he also felt that there was no need for them to do so. No, they have to, they are afraid of me.

When he thought of this, the pain on Saga Chaoichi's face improved.

"It wasn't the Kumamoto family that did it, it was the Shimazu family!" Qin Hao rode his horse to the field ridge and told Saga Chaoichi the unfortunate news.

"Ah?" Saga asked with a confused look on his face, "How is it possible? Didn't I send someone to resist the Shimadzu family's southward passage?"

Hearing this, Qin Hao became furious. He had just received news from the front line that the Shimazu family had detoured into Kumamoto's territory. The defenders Qin Hao sent out had no effect at all, and were defeated instead. military.

"If you had told me there was another way, this kind of thing wouldn't have happened." Qin Hao scolded dissatisfied.

"Oh, I'm so confused." Saga grabbed a handful of mud from the field ridge and smashed it on his head, "I should have thought of it earlier."

There is indeed more than one road to the south, hundreds of large and small ones, but Saga made the mistake of thinking that the Shimazu family would usually choose the right path.

But even if he knew and arranged it in advance, it would be difficult to defend against the Shimadzu family.

"The Kumamoto region is barren and produces very little. If the Shimazu family recruits peasants to serve as ashigaru, using the bait of having enough food to eat, the casualties in this battle will probably be more serious than those in Fukuoka Castle!"

In the Chinese army's marching team, Han Xian worriedly expressed his worries to Qin Hao.

To the northeast of Kumamoto is Mount Aso; to the southwest is the Shiranui Sea (Yatsushiro Sea). Because there is a volcano on land and a volcano on the sea, Kumamoto had the saying "Land of Fire" in ancient times (the prototype of Naruto's Kingdom of Fire is here!).

As the saying goes, poor mountains and harsh waters bring out unruly people, and the harsh natural environment of the Kumamoto family forced local farmers to become particularly ferocious and savage in order to survive, often plundering.

During the Warring States Period in Fuso, the slogan "The strongest military in Kyushu is the best in the world, and the strongest military in Kumamoto is the best in Kyushu" was circulated in Fuso.

If future generations talk about Kumamoto, the first thing that will definitely come to mind is the cute and cute "Kumamoto" all over the world. Just like the panda, there are two extra points of blush on the face, which seems to be somewhat different from the current strong soldier.

Even though he knew that Kumamoto's soldiers were strong, this battle still had to be fought.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for this 10,000-strong army to go south and attack the Shimazu family's Kagoshima Castle with confidence.

The reason is actually very simple. This Kumamoto Castle originally blocked the northbound passage of the Shimazu family.

The construction site of Kumamoto Castle was chosen in the hilly area of ​​Chausuyama southeast of Kumamoto, across the town of Hikawa. The Shirakawa and Santoku Rivers of Higo have become natural key points. It is a rare site in the history of Fuso castle building that occupies natural dangers. Pingshan City.

Now it has become the northern gate of the Shimazu family, firmly nailed on the passage between Kitakyushu and Minami Kyushu.

Want to find a way around it? Almost impossible!

There are many small roads, but none of them are passable by a large army.

Even if a small number of troops can sneak past, how can a large group of troops pass by?

Even if we cross the mountains by cutting roads and climbing vines, how can we ensure the food and baggage of these 10,000 people?

Food cannot go through small roads. If it takes the main road, it may be cut off by the Shimadzu family's garrison at Kumamoto Castle at any time.

At that time, the 10,000-strong army will have to jump into the sea if they don't starve to death!

And if the army disperses, it will definitely be a meat bun beating a dog, and there will be no return.

Dividing troops has always been a taboo for military strategists!

In history, I don’t know how many generals suffered such a big loss, and some even felt that the country was relieved because of it.

The Saarhu War launched on the 47th day of Wanli period is a typical example of this. The Ming army took Yang Hao as the general manager of Liaodong. The troops were divided into four groups and attacked together. They attacked Hetuala, the capital of Houjin.

Yang Hao was appointed as the commander-in-chief of all the route armies and was based in Shenyang. The four generals Du Song, Ma Lin, Liu Jian, and Li Rubai respectively led the four-pronged army with a total of 120,000 people, known as 470,000, and were scheduled to separate on February 21.

As a result, the news was known to Nurhachi, who led one hundred thousand Jurchen cavalry and ate them all one after another.

Since then, the Ming Dynasty's national power has plummeted, and there are no more troops to leave the country.

Qin Hao is not Yang Hao, and the Shimazu family is not Hou Jin.

Qin Hao would never allow such a stupid thing to happen to him.

"The Japanese are honest, tough, Yan Su, and he is actually a famous general among the chiefs." When he accompanied Toyotomi Hideyoshi to invade North Korea, Kato Kiyomasa was firmly remembered by the Ming army for his toughness and resistance to war, mainly because this kid's troops often He is elusive and likes to attack at night.

However, what is more vivid in the memory of the Ming army is the Japanese cities he presided over and built in North Korea, especially the Ulsan Japanese city, which caused the Ming army to shed a lot of blood.

Especially Yang Hao, the head coach of the Ming army at that time, turned out to be this kid again. He lied about the military situation, delayed the war, and many soldiers died unjustly.

But this year, this old boy was killed by Chongzhen because he actually proposed to the cabinet to give up Shanhaiguan and reconcile with Hou Jin.

How could Chongzhen, who had just come to power, accept this? He was directly dismissed from his post, pulled down and executed, which was one of the few good things Chongzhen did.

If this dear friend were still alive, Qin Hao would also like to meet this "No. 1 God of War" who almost defeated the Ming Dynasty.

Kumamoto Castle is Kato Kiyomasa's most outstanding work after returning to Japan.

Kumamoto Castle is a flat mountain castle, and the castle uses technology from the Ulsan Japanese castle.

The entire city is 5.5 kilometers long. To the southwest and northeast is the ancient city of Chiba Castle, known as Demaru Castle. Not far to the southeast is the famous ancient Shanquan Temple in Kyushu. Jianzhen spent some time practicing here when he traveled east.

Kato Kiyomasa was particularly good at building stone walls, and the upper part is known as the "Musha Banner". The main defensive facilities were concentrated in the south to cope with the invasion of the imaginary enemy Satsuma Domain.

The castle tower of Kumamoto Castle is unique to Kyushu. The castle is a connected watchtower model, and the main castle has 6 floors and a basement, which is called the "first castle".

The small castle has four floors and a basement. It is called the "second day castle" or "goshang". It is the residence of the castle lord's wife.

In addition to the castle tower, those castle towers called "橹" in Japanese are even more dotted with rows of coins.

Ken Yata's sixth-order scull, Teramoto Heihachimaru's fifth-order scull, Akagi scull, Kanmono scull (previously published by Nagaoka Bookstore), Taira scull, Akagi scull, North 18-level scull, Higashi 18-level scull, Minamoto no Shin scull, Four oars, fourteen oars, and Tianzi oars were placed around the city wall. The arrow holes on them not only allowed archers and iron gunners to shoot at the attacking teams below the city, but also took into account the problem of shooting dead spots in a humane way.

The "Warrior Banner" mentioned above has a reverse slope to provide shooters with the best shooting angle!

After listening to Han Xian's introduction about the situation of Kumamoto Castle, everyone in the Keelung Army couldn't help but take a breath when looking at the geography and defense facilities around Kumamoto Castle that the deft officers used cups, plates, teacups and other decorations. .

"What a fortified city!" Even Zhang Hu, who usually looked down upon Fusang, was still frightened at this moment.

Looking at the map and looking at Kumamoto Castle, which is almost full of traps and traps, everyone cursed the eighteenth generation ancestor of Kato Kiyomasa who built the city.

Don’t you have nothing to do at home, or are you worried that someone will harm you? Is it necessary to build such a city?

"Since this city is so strong and easy to defend but difficult to attack, why did the Shimazu family gain it so easily?"

It is reported that the Shimadzu family only took three days to conquer the city. I guess there is a way. If you figure out what the Shimadzu family did, take the medicine according to the prescription, wouldn't it be better to start over?

"My lord, the Shimazu family had already planned it. When Kumamoto invaded Saga that day, they sent spies to sneak into Kumamoto Castle. After hearing that Kumamoto was killed in battle, they encouraged the Kumamoto family to fight each other. They took advantage of the chaos in the city to lay an ambush. The spies inside cooperated with others and captured Kumamoto Castle! "

"Today, the one guarding the city is Katsuto Yokota, the general of the Shimazu family. He has already killed all the residents in Kumamoto Castle, leaving only the Shimazu family's troops, who are defending the city as tightly as iron barrels. I'm afraid this cunning trick will not be used. "

Seeing this, Qin Hao could only march the whole army towards Kumamoto Castle, and have a head-on fight with Katsuto Yokota, who is known as a brave general of the Shimadzu family, under the city!

See who laughs last!