1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 900 The Battle of Osaka ([-])

November 11, before noon, at 18:[-].

The overall deployment of the shogunate army was in place around [-]:[-] a.m., and it had been more than seven hours since then, and the overall layout had been studied and reviewed repeatedly for several days.

The [-]-odd divisions of the Sendai Domain are in the front row, and the [-]-plus divisions of the Kaga, Aso, and Tanita Domains are on the right. Department five thousand is on the left.

The above is the first team array of the shogunate army, and the second team includes Owari, Mito, Kishu (or Kii), and Pudai Tsuchiura, Shimodate, Takasaki, Sakura, and Uto There are more than [-] vassal troops including Gongfan.

As the chief general, Masatoshi Hotta naturally couldn't stay in the rear. In this period of underdeveloped communication conditions, if the chief general is too far away from the front army, it will inevitably cause news blockage and delay in sending orders.So Masatoshi Hotta chose the Hiranogawa Highland, which is less than two kilometers away from the former army, to set up more than [-] main forces of the shogunate.

The Hirano River is the only slightly higher platform on this vast plain, and a watchtower can be erected to overlook the entire battlefield.

In contrast, the deployment of the Qi army appeared to be hasty, with a lot of randomness, and was located in a vast plain.Moreover, because the number of people is less than [-], they appear lonely and thin in front of the huge army formed by the shogunate army.

However, just as the Qi army was in a hurry to deploy, Masatoshi Hotta ordered the Sendai Fan to take the lead in attacking, trying to catch the opponent by surprise.

Unexpectedly, within half an hour of the battle, the Sendai Fan was beaten back by the Qi army, and the army turned backwards and rushed towards the second formation.

Masatoshi Hotta immediately ordered more than [-] troops of the Mito clan to go out to the formation to respond, and tried to stop the collapse of the Sendai clan and prevent it from attacking the main formation.

The defeat in the first battle cast a shadow over Masatoshi Hotta's heart.Just now, the guns and guns were firing in unison on the battlefield, and the gunpowder smoke filled the air. I couldn't see it clearly through the binoculars, but it seemed that the fighting was very lively, with people coming and going.At this time, Masatoshi Hotta was full of hope, thinking that only the [-] soldiers under the Sendai Domain could shake the Qi army on the opposite side.

Therefore, he was about to order the forward troops on the left and right wings to attack, preparing to cooperate with the Sendai Fan and attack the Qi army's formation.However, in the blink of an eye, the Sendai Fan retreated back in defeat, which made him very disappointed.

It seems that after decades of peace, the warriors of the Date clan no longer had the bravery of the Masamune (the first lord Date Masamune) period.

Originally, during the three days waiting for the decisive battle, in addition to carefully discussing with the generals of the various armies how to arrange troops, Masatoshi Hotta had always hoped that the troops from various vassal states from China (referring to the western part of Honshu Island) would arrive on the battlefield. In order to gather more troops, maybe at a critical moment, it can give the Qi army a fatal blow.

But what is disappointing is that after the defeat in Hyogotsu (now Kobe) more than a month ago, several vassal armies from China flinched and did not dare to march on Osaka again.Later, I heard that the rebellious Changzhou Mori family had frequently moved in Zhoufang and Nagato, intending to threaten the retreat of the Hiroshima and Tsuwano domains, forcing the above two feudal clans to return their troops to deal with the Mori clan. threat.

Without the military support of the two strong southwestern feudal clans, the weaker Chinese feudal clans became more cautious, stopped their troops, and temporarily stationed in Himeji Castle.However, the Echizen Matsudaira family of the Himeji Domain became more timid and cowardly after being defeated by the Qi army in Hyogotsu. They delayed sending troops to assist Osaka on the grounds that it would take time to mobilize the samurai and ashigaru again.

As for the vassal states in Shikoku, Kyushu and other places, because of the existence of the powerful Qi navy, even a small sampan is a luxury, let alone sending troops to help.

Despite this, Masatoshi Hotta is still full of confidence in the more than [-] troops at hand.Even though the Qi army's guns and guns are sharp and their combat power is tyrannical, their strength is less than a quarter of theirs.Moreover, the two sides are still engaged in a field battle on this flat and unobstructed Hirano River.

You must know that when Tokugawa Ieyasu fought in the world, he always dominated the feudal lords because he was good at field battles. In the Battle of Sekigahara in the fifth year of Qingchang (1600), the Tokugawa clan was completely defeated in the field battle in less than a day. The Western Army achieved an unprecedented victory, thus establishing the unification of Japan.

Today, Masatoshi Hotta also decided to replicate the great "Battle of Sekigahara" in Hiranogawa, preparing to win a brilliant victory in a devastating way, announcing to the world that despite the decades of Yuan and Yanwu, Tokugawa's Still maintained a strong combat power.

"Order Date to gather up the defeated soldiers, rest on the spot and regroup."

"Order the Mito Tokugawa family to lead their troops forward and attack the front line of the Qi army."

"Order the Kaga Maeda family to lead troops to attack from the right flank."

"Order Kuroba, Suzaka, and the Tsu clan to attack from the left."

"Order the Owari Tokugawa family to lead their troops forward, and prepare to launch a second wave of attack depending on the situation of the front line's intrusion."

"Order Matsudaira to lead all the cavalry to stand by on both wings, ready to launch an assault at any time."

"Fire a loud arrow to inform the ambush army near Mingming Temple to immediately attack Daban Castle!"

"..."

Following Masatoshi Hotta's orders, the entire shogunate army moved accordingly, and more than [-] forwards resolutely launched a full-scale attack on the Qi army.
-
"preparation!"

"put!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

Following the order of the artillery commander, the 12-pound and 8-pound army guns on the artillery position fired first, and huge projectiles slammed into the shogunate army hundreds of meters away.

Under the influence of the strong recoil, the artillery was shaken back several meters after firing.Immediately the gunners on either side moved forward, pushing the guns back into their original firing positions with all their might.Otherwise, the probability of a collision between the artillery and the ammunition vehicle will be greatly increased.

After struggling to reset the artillery, the gunner immediately aimed horizontally and called the gunner to readjust the horizontal direction of the muzzle.Different from infantry and cavalry, Qi's current artillery is already a highly technical arm. On the battlefield, the effect of artillery firepower depends largely on the technology and experience of artillery position setting and aiming.

All artillery officers are recruited from the students who graduated from the intermediate school. In the artillery school, they have to carry out three years of theoretical and practical learning, basic ballistic parabola theory, geometric applications, air resistance, simple distance measurement, and The so-called shooting elements that are being studied, etc., need to be mastered within three years.

Therefore, for the artillerymen of Qi State, aiming and firing has become a physics and geometry application problem instead of relying on personal experience and feeling like before.Now artillery officers only need to measure parameters such as distance and height difference, and compare the radiation table, and then use the quadrant to measure the angle of the artillery, and then adjust the azimuth and height to achieve precise aiming.

After years of development and summarization, Qi’s field cannons have reduced the various and numerous types of artillery to three types, namely 12-pound, 8-pound and 4-pound calibers.And with the progress of Qi's metallurgical industry and casting technology, the weight of all field guns has also been greatly reduced under the premise of ensuring power and effective range.

The active 12-pound cannon is 2.4 meters long, weighs 980 kilograms, has a maximum range of 1600 meters, an effective range of 800-900 meters, and a rate of fire of one shot per minute.The lightest 4-pound gun is 1.6 meters long and weighs only 290 kilograms, but its maximum range can still reach 1000 meters, its effective range is 400-500 meters, and its rate of fire can reach 3 rounds per minute.The above-mentioned three cannons can switch shotguns according to needs, and the Qi Army artillery has basically achieved standardization, modularization and generalization, and can be quickly repaired after damage.

Since the artillery and artillery vehicles of the Qi State have greatly reduced their weight to varying degrees, the deployment and maneuvering of artillery are more flexible.The gun car can quickly switch between firing mode (front) and marching mode (rear), and the artillery, ammunition and gun crew can be carried on the same gun car.

Therefore, the generals of the Qi army knew that the shogunate army had started to line up earlier than Hiranogawa, but they still calmly advanced to the battlefield on the day of the appointment and calmly formed formations to meet the enemy.

After Masatoshi Hotta gave the order to launch a formal attack, the more than 12 cannons attached to the Qi army immediately let out a roar that shook the sky. The 8-pound gun and the 700-pound gun took advantage of their long range, and when the two armies were more than [-] meters apart, they began to violently bombard the slowly approaching shogunate formation.

Huge projectiles smashed into the dense shogunate army ranks, and then quickly formed ricochets, relying on strong potential energy, swept across the infantry ranks at high speed, wading out bloody paths almost without hindrance.

The shogunate army advancing slowly in dense formations was obviously not prepared for the fierce artillery attack of the Qi army. Whether it was the Mito clan, one of the three royal families that relied on it as the core, or the Kaga clan, Kuroba clan, The formation of the foreign troops such as Suzaka Fan immediately became chaotic, and the formation was no longer as strict as before.

Seeing this, the general of the Mito Domain, Tokugawa Tsunajo, immediately ordered all the charging samurai and ashigaru to speed up their pace and trot forward.As long as they get close to the formation of the Qi army and start a melee with the opponent, their artillery will inevitably become a decoration on the battlefield.

As the shogunate army gradually approached, the 4-pound guns on the artillery positions of the Qi army also began to bombard. Facing the overwhelming shogunate army, there was almost no need to aim and shoot. Direction, give the order to fire.

When the distance between the two armies was close to 200 meters, all the artillery had begun to replace the shotgun, and then looked at the shogunate army with a grinning grin.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

With the sound of a violent cannon, an impenetrable metal storm suddenly blew towards the dense crowd of shogunate soldiers. The smoke filled the air, and time seemed to be frozen. A row fell down, and his vision was empty, and he was suddenly exposed in front of the Qi army. In shock, he couldn't help but stop his footsteps.

The shogunate army who rushed to the front was instantly stunned, but Qi's artillery still carried out the next round of shelling in an orderly manner according to the actions stipulated in the drill code.

The gunner hurriedly cleaned the gun bore with a gun brush dipped in water and vinegar. The deputy gunner would lean over and move the screw at the same time to aim vertically.At this time, the clearer will immediately push the ammunition into the bottom of the chamber, and the deputy gunner will block the fire door with his fingers wearing leather gloves to prevent air from pouring back into the gun chamber from the fire door, and avoid accidents caused by the resurgence of residual sparks.The fuze hand uses an awl to penetrate from the ignition port, breaks the charge bag here, and puts the fuze into the fire door.The lighter lit the match in his hand, raised his right arm, and asked the gunner whether to fire.

"put!"

Following the command of the gunner, the igniter immediately ignited the fuze, then turned his head, covered his ears with his hands, opened his mouth, and waited for the cannon to fire.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!..."

Dense shotguns sprayed out from head to face, covering the crowd that continued to swarm with a wide fan-shaped surface, making the charge of the shogunate army stagnant.

"what……"

Running all the way, after several rounds of shelling, where the projectiles passed, there were broken bones and tendons, and there were stumps and broken arms everywhere, which had already put great pressure on the charging shogunate soldiers.After finally reaching the front of the formation, they were bombarded by two rounds of intensive bullet rain. For a moment, countless soldiers turned into blood gourds one after another before they could snort, and fell to the ground one after another. The death condition was extremely tragic.

In such a situation, how to prevent the soldiers of the shogunate army from feeling shattered, followed by inexplicable horror.How can the power of this artillery be able to compete with it with flesh and blood!
Many ashigaru people shouted, dropped the iron cannons and bamboo spears in their hands, turned around and ran back, trying to quickly escape from this terrifying killing battlefield.

The ashigaru generals and warriors who commanded and supervised the formation were also stunned for a moment, then glanced at the dark muzzle ahead, and then rushed to the back of the formation with no regard for the identity and honor of the warriors.

Seeing this, Masatoshi Hotta, the commander of the shogunate army in the formation, immediately dispatched more than a thousand warriors to supervise the battle and rushed forward quickly to prevent the defeated soldiers from retreating further, so as not to impact the second attacking formation.

At the same time, in order to boost the morale of the army, Masatoshi Hotta led more than [-] main forces of the Tokugawa clan and slowly moved to the front of the battlefield.The more than [-] cavalry on the two wings also received the order. After arranging their harness and weapons, they circled a large circle and rushed to the rear of the Qi army. And move.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the Sendai Domain, which had undergone some rest and reorganization, was assigned to the left wing, while the Mito Domain, which had lost more than a thousand soldiers, was placed on the right wing. More than [-] people from the , Sakura clan and other ministries were directly at the forefront.

This time, a total of more than [-] vanguard troops, in the shape of a character, approached the Qi army array again.

If one looked down at the entire battlefield from a high altitude, one would find that the shogunate army, relying on their huge superiority in numbers, had faintly formed a four-sided siege against the less than [-] Qi army array.

With the Qi army's sharp firearms, fierce artillery fire, and small-scale tentative attacks, it may not be enough to shake their formation.

That being the case, after setting aside a certain reserve team, all the offensive forces were put in at once, and the Qi army was drowned in the wilderness with the turbulent crowd tactics.

This battle will be decided today.

(End of this chapter)