Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 326

"Fixed shooting and loading, aiming at the Japanese pirate camp outside the city of Kyoto, the elevation angle is [-] degrees, ready to release!"

"Bang bang bang-"

On the fourteenth day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of the Apocalypse, when the people of Ming Dynasty were preparing for the Lantern Festival one day later, the army led by Yan Siqi had already arrived at the capital city.

After three months of defense, Osaka Castle was captured by Yan Siqi, and Tadaaki Matsudaira led the remaining troops to withdraw to Nara Castle.

At the same time, Zheng Zhilong in the southern part of the island was as powerful as a bamboo, and successively attacked Yamaguchi, Hiroshima, Hyogo, Okayama, Tottori and other places.

The fall of the southern part of the island, as well as the fall of Osaka Castle, made Tokugawa Iemitsu, who commanded the [-] coalition forces of the northern daimyos to go south, hurriedly led the army to Kyoto City.

In Kyoto City, Emperor Gomizuo, who is the titular ruler of the Yamato nation, and his family.

Although he was only a mascot under the Tokugawa shogunate, if he fell into the hands of the rebels, it would be a fatal blow to the authority of the shogunate.

At noon on the [-]th, with the sun shining brightly, Yan Siqi, who was wearing armor, had gray-brown gloves on his hands and a Yanling knife pinned to his waist, making him look very mighty.

Behind him stood the Eighteen Zhi, among which Zheng Zhilong was the most eye-catching, after all he led the army to capture the Shi Jian area that Yan Siqi valued most.

In front of Yan Siqi and Shibazhi were more than [-] guards and more than [-] general banner officers.

The establishment of the Gongwei Battalion has been screened, and they are the general soldier - the general - the garrison - the general banner officer - the captain - the corps leader - the soldier.

Yan Siqi summoned all the middle and high-level generals. Naturally, it can't be for the sake of showing off. What he wants to say is very simple and very rude:

"Other things have been told to you before the battle. Although the scale of this battle is not large, it is also a battle that His Highness is concerned about. If you want to make meritorious deeds, you must take the capital in the shortest possible time and capture it alive. The pirate king!"

As Yan Siqi's voice spread out, a flame rose in everyone's hearts. In this day and age, who wouldn't want to make military exploits and enjoy wealth?
Although they dealt with Japanese pirates instead of Beilu and Jianlu, which reduced the reward for beheading to five taels, but as long as they beheaded enough, they could still gain wealth by virtue of their military exploits.

"Taking Kyoto... marching!"

Yan Siqi shouted with his arms full, and all the middle and high-level generals in the audience responded with shouts.

At this moment, they are only less than three miles away from the capital city, which is not far away. At least after the general of the Ming army conveyed the news to the people below, the cheers of tens of thousands of people were enough to reach the ears of all the big names in the shogunate in the capital city. middle.

The soldiers of the shogunate on the city wall of Kyoto did not understand Chinese, but the senior officials of the shogunate were very familiar with Sinology, and even Tokugawa Iemitsu himself could compose poetry.

Although it is only at the level of Qianlong in later generations, it can't be considered bad in the shogunate.

When all the high-ranking members of the shogunate heard the phrase "Taking Kyoto", their faces were all extremely gloomy, and Tokugawa Tadacho, the heir of Tokugawa Hidetada, was even more furious.

"Bastard! Who do they think they are?! On the land of the Tokugawa family, how dare they be so arrogant..."

"Jiaguang, I would like to lead the army to meet the enemy!"

"Hmph, Mr. Zhongchang, don't worry, wait for them to get closer, lest they run off to the seaside before fighting."

Date Masamune on the side shouted in a low voice, his qualifications belong to the older faction among the daimyos, and he has become a pivotal figure since the Warring States Period, so he is not polite to Tokugawa Tadacho.

"Humph……"

A trace of anger flashed across Tokugawa Tadaga's face, but he was unwilling to argue before the battle, so he closed his mouth and sulked alone.

"Okay, the left and right can't wait for a while. Since they dare to come to the capital city today, they must be prepared to stay!"

Tokugawa Iemitsu, who was kneeling on the main seat, shouted coldly:

"Before I came, I had already discussed with the Minister of the Taizheng."

"Although the vassal government has little money, it is enough to reward everyone's achievements! If you can kill the enemy's general, you will naturally have a lot of high-ranking officials!"

Speaking of this, Tokugawa Iemitsu bent down and saluted very solemnly.

"Please do your best!"

"Hi!" Many big names bowed down one after another, and the reason why they agreed so readily was because Tokugawa Iemitsu moved out Tokugawa Hidetada, who had abdicated as regent at this time.

Tokugawa Hidetada is the second-generation general of the shogunate. Seven years after he succeeded to the throne, he followed the example of his father Tokugawa Ieyasu and abdicated to his son Tokugawa Iemitsu, and he retired behind the scenes.

Now that Tokugawa Iemitsu moved him out, it was obvious that Yan Siqi's rebels had reached the point where Tokugawa Hidetada couldn't sit still.

Many big names understood, so they began to mobilize troops after withdrawing from the castle tower in Kyoto.

At this moment, there are a total of [-] shogunate soldiers in Kyoto City, and the rebels outside the city need to defend Osaka Castle to prevent Osaka Castle from being attacked by Tokugawa Tadacho of Nara, so the number is only [-], and the strength of four battalions .

About half an hour later, the [-] infantry of the Ming Army's former army and more than [-] Yanshan five-jin guns arrived at the capital city.

Although there is still three miles between the two sides, the atmosphere is extremely dignified, and the battle is almost imminent.

The battalion and cavalry of more than [-] people wandered outside the infantry formation, guarding against the surprise soldiers that Tokugawa Iemitsu might deploy in the mountains around the city of Kyoto.

As for the top of the city, seeing the layout of the Ming army, Tokugawa Iemitsu also had a very bad face.

The shogunate's artillery was scarce, so even though Iemitsu Tokugawa knew that the rebels had many artillery pieces, after trying their best to mobilize them, only thirty-six artillery pieces were raised.

With thirty-six pairs of more than three hundred artillery pieces, this is unreliable no matter how you look at it...

Especially when the [-] Ming army cavalry were cruising around, Tokugawa Iemitsu couldn't help but glance at his own cavalry with their tall horses and well-armed appearance.

The cavalry of the shogunate rode Japanese native horses, and the native horses were short and weak, with an average height of only about four feet three inches. In addition, the height of the shogunate cavalry was generally only four feet four five inches, so the shogunate cavalry used to be It was once called the "Dwarf Corps" by Westerners who came to preach.

As for their war horses, they were jokingly called "big mice" by some missionaries.

Compared with the cavalry of the Ming army, the shogunate cavalry is like a monkey riding a dog.

Therefore, before the war started, Iemitsu Tokugawa felt that he had lost half of his energy.

But he also has a little confidence, and that is the number of people.

Their number is almost four times the number of the Ming army, plus they are the defenders of the city, and the city of Kyoto can be regarded as an impregnable fortress, so Tokugawa Iemitsu does not think that the Ming army of the rebels can take it in a very short time. them.

However, compared with Tokugawa Iemitsu's "confidence", the Ming army appeared more confident.

Except for the two battalions in front of the six battalions under Yan Siqi's command, the other four battalions are all elites transferred from the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion.

The long-term opponents of the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion were all Jianlu, so when they changed from facing the Jianlu to facing the Japanese pirates, the soldiers of the Eastern Army's Governor's Mansion always maintained a superior attitude.

This posture is not only racially superior, but also tactically superior.

But it was this superiority that deeply hurt the shogunate soldiers.

They built a camp of [-] people in front of the stone bridge outside Kyoto. The camp had various local fortifications of the shogunate. In this regard, their tactics were not far behind the Ming army and the Eurasian continent.

"A tentative attack first."

Tokugawa Iemitsu wanted to test the strength of the rebels, so he confessed to Date Masamune, and Date Masamune asked Tokugawa Tadacho, who had always wanted to be a pioneer, to go outside the city and lead the [-] troops outside the city to test The strength of the Ming army.

After receiving the order, Tokugawa Tadaga had completely let go of his superior posture after seeing the military appearance of the Ming army with his own eyes, and became vigilant instead.

Therefore, when he left the city, he did not directly order the army to rush out, but approached step by step according to the traditional tactics.

In the traditional combat method of the shogunate, the iron artillery and archers are usually placed first, followed by the spears and [-] shogunate cavalry on the two wings, ready to attack the side.

It's just that this set of tactics that had won many victories did not have much effect in front of the Ming army, because the gap in gun technology between the two sides and the gap in the number of artillery were enough to make the shogunate soldiers suffer a lot.

Sure enough, when the distance between the shogunate soldiers and the Ming army gradually approached five miles, the artillery positions of the Ming army were also ready.

The gunnery officer had already demarcated the shooting range, and all the hands that had raised the red flag waved down together, and all the gunners who saw the flag information put their torches in front of the gun door one after another, and ignited the fuses of standard length.

"Bang bang bang-"

More than [-] Yanshan five-jin guns roared, and they were divided into six batches of fifty each, and they fired continuously.

Only at the first moment, more than [-] stone bullets directly pierced through the marching positions of the shogunate soldiers along with arcs.

The mud splashed by the stone bullets wrapped around the broken limbs of the shogunate soldiers, spraying a cloud of blood mist in the air.

The corpses that fell in all directions fell to the ground like harvested wheat.

Tokugawa Iemitsu, who saw this scene, stood on the top of the city of Kyoto, and couldn't help but hold the binoculars tightly, his heart sank directly to the bottom of the valley...

This means that his previous prediction was correct. The Ming army's artillery is not small, and its range far exceeds their artillery range.

Thinking of this, Tokugawa Tadaga glanced at the daimyos who were watching the battle from the side, and saw that their faces had turned pale, and he believed that they had already understood the strength of the opposition faction.

Indeed, just this round of shelling has already made Tokugawa Iemitsu feel regretful.

The rebels he was facing could not be formed by Yan Siqi alone!
"Ming dynasty……"

Tokugawa Iemitsu remembered Matsudaira Tadaaki's persuasion to him, and now it seems that what Matsudaira Tadaaki said was right, there must be Daming standing behind Yan Siqi.

"I can't fight anymore..."

Thinking of this, Tokugawa Iemitsu looked at Date Masamune expectantly, and his voice became extremely difficult:
"Date-kun, I think this battle can only end here. I want to send you as an envoy to strike peace with the rebels..."

When Date Masamune heard this, he couldn't help but sighed lowly, and the frown on his face became more severe.

After a while, he slowly opened his mouth and said:

"Behind Yan Siqi, there should be Daming's figure. If Daming wants to attack us, then our negotiation with Yan Siqi will not stop Daming's footsteps."

"Besides, general, the war has just started, so it's not suitable to seek peace. If you don't ask for peace, I'm afraid you will be treated as if you were defeated."

Tokugawa Iemitsu was also in a mess just now, after hearing Date Masamune's reminder, he immediately reacted.

No matter what, this battle must be finished, otherwise, given the current situation, how could the rebels and Daming give themselves a lenient peace treaty?
In fact, anyone with a clear mind knows that what cannot be obtained on the battlefield is even more difficult to obtain on the negotiating table. If you want to have a decent treaty, you must fight a decent victory.

"In that case, let's fight them!"

Tokugawa Ieko gritted his teeth, then he had already made up his mind and began to give orders.

"Tell Zhongchang, you must fight to the death and shoot at close range, causing huge casualties to the Ming army!"

Tokugawa Iemitsu changed the name of the rebels to the Ming army. Obviously, he had already guessed that what they were facing was not the rebels, but the main force of the Ming army under the guise of the rebels.

Under his command, someone on the city wall immediately went to the front line and told the news to Tokugawa Tadaga who was looking ugly.

Faced with Tokugawa Iemitsu's order, Tokugawa Tadaga became even more disgusted with this guy who took away his general position, but on the battlefield, he had to accept the order, and ordered the generals around him:

"Yinzhai-kun, I entrust you with the iron cannon of the former army, you must fight to the death and shoot at close range!"

"Yes!"

"Fujiwara-kun, the spear ashigaru of the rear army must follow the iron cannon ashigaru, and charge when the distance is enough!"

"Yes!"

Speaking of this, Tokugawa Iemitsu looked at the general Kinjiro Sagawa who he had pulled up with one hand, and the other party was in control of the eight hundred elite cavalry warriors of the shogunate on the current battlefield, which can be called a sharp knife of the shogunate outside the city.

"Kinjiro, after the front army reaches the enemy, you will lead the cavalry and samurai to destroy the enemy's artillery position at all costs!"

"Yes, please rest assured, my lord, I will definitely complete the mission of my lord general, and at the end of the day, I will plant the flag of the shogunate on the opponent's artillery position!"

Kinjiro Sagawa had a somewhat solemn face, and he could naturally understand what Tokugawa Tadaga meant.

The so-called do whatever it takes, that includes himself, if the mission cannot be completed, then all of them will die on the road of charge!
"put!"

"Bang bang bang-"

The artillery of the Ming army continued to pour out, but the number of times the more than [-] artillery pieces poured was also limited. After the seven batches of alternating fire, the Ming army began to clean the barrels, and the cavalry began to advance.

Similarly, following Tokugawa Tadaga's order, the shogunate soldiers who had just finished the Ming army's indiscriminate artillery bombardment on the battlefield also changed their previous pace and began to stride towards the Ming army.

Taking advantage of the rest of the Ming army's artillery, they wanted to defeat the Ming army's cavalry in the shortest possible time.

They still have more than [-] people, with [-] versus [-], the advantage is on their side.

"Such tactics have already fallen behind. It seems that these Japanese pirates have not improved at all after the Korean War."

"If you don't improve in other places, no matter how high the morale is, it will only collapse later..."

Yan Siqi, who was watching the battle with his binocular clairvoyance and led the three battalions behind him, snorted slightly, and Zheng Zhilong beside him also said:
"Brother, three hundred and twenty-six cannons can achieve such an advantage. When we mobilize all six hundred cannons, I am afraid that within ten days we will be able to capture the capital city and capture the Shogunate alive!"

"Don't worry, Your Highness told us to fight slowly..." Yan Siqi responded with a relaxed expression.

In fact, if Zhu Youjian hadn't asked them to fight slowly, I'm afraid Yan Siqi would have taken his men to Edo City long ago.

Although he didn't know why His Highness King Qi asked them to fight slowly, it was always right to be obedient.

As for the frontal battlefield, the battle has come to this point. In fact, the generals of both sides will know tomorrow, and it is already very obvious what moves the opponent will have. Now it means that both sides have started to play their cards and compete for hard power.

However, if it is a comparison of hard power, I am afraid that there is no country in the whole world that can fight against the Ming army in the eighth year of Apocalypse with the same number of people.

"put!"

"Bang bang bang-"

At the head of the capital city, Tokugawa Iemitsu finally did not hold back, and took the lead in exposing the position of his own artillery.

More than [-] stone bullets spanned a distance of one and a half miles and hit the front of the cavalry of the Ming army, causing the horses to neigh and stand tall.

"Sure enough, I can't help it!" Yan Siqi saw the shogunate's artillery exposed, and immediately said to Zheng Zhilong:
"Mobilize the remaining artillery and bombard the artillery positions of the shogunate. I will destroy all the artillery of Tokugawa Iemitsu!"

"Order the gunners of the former army to abandon the artillery, replace the gunners of the Chinese army to take over the artillery, and the gunners of the former army prepare the rifles."

"Yes!" Zheng Zhilong heard the sound and immediately mobilized the artillery. Before the two armies collided tomorrow, the remaining [-] artillery pieces of the Ming army were pushed to the front. This action made Tokugawa Tadaga, who commanded the army, break out in a cold sweat. .

"Fixed fire loading, heading towards the artillery position at the head of the enemy's city, the elevation angle is fifty-seven, prepare for the test fire... let it go!"

"Bang bang bang..."

The artillery fire roared, and the shogunate soldiers who were still a little bit united in morale began to scramble, but before they opened up, they found that the Ming army's artillery had not hit them.

"Bang bang bang!"

The stone bullets flew, and all of them hit the base of the city of Kyoto, causing the city walls to vibrate.

"Bastard! The Ming army is going to hit our artillery, quickly move the artillery!"

Tokugawa Iemitsu, who was still watching the battle, was caught off guard and was almost hit by the Ming army's test fire. After reacting, he quickly directed the artillery to move.

However, Zheng Zhilong, who uses binocular clairvoyance, noticed their transfer.

Zheng Zhilong ordered unhurriedly: "The cannon is tilted three degrees to the left, and the angle is raised four degrees."

He was waiting for the second round of test firing after the gun bore cooled down, and while he was waiting, the tomorrow's army in front had already begun to make contact.

The ex-soldiers of the Ming army who replaced the rifles advanced under the cover of the sword players, and as the distance between the two sides became closer, when the shogunate was about a hundred steps away from the Ming army, they began to pull the trigger indiscriminately.

At this distance, facing the riflemen of the Ming army protected by sword players, their bird guns failed to penetrate any of the rattan plates.

On the contrary, after the Ming army advanced [-] steps, the general who commanded the Ming army also gave the order to discharge the guns.

The Ming army advanced twenty steps, and the iron gunners of the shogunate also advanced twenty steps. The distance between the two sides was only sixty steps, and the firecrackers and rifles of the two sides also began to shoot at each other.

At this distance, the Ming army's supplementary forces can shoot the shogunate soldiers with high accuracy, but the shogunate soldiers cannot. They still need to advance about [-] steps.

"put!"

"Clap clap clap-"

The sound of dense and crisp rifles continued to sound, and the shogun Ashgaru, who was wearing simple armor, was constantly shot to death, and the iron gunner was also constantly knocked down in the cross-fire.

Compared with them, the soldiers of the Ming army, who wore iron armor on the outside and hooded and cotton armor on the inside, fell down after being hit, but did not die immediately.

"You can't line up your guns, charge with long spears!"

"Onboard! For the master, onboard!"

A trace of madness flashed across Tokugawa Tadaga's face in the rear, he shouted frantically, driving the soldiers to charge to the death.

"put!"

"Clap clap clap-"

The ashigaru charge with long spears is particularly vulnerable when facing the Ming army with fixed gunpowder and flintlock guns.

The distance of forty steps is like a moat, and each step requires the sacrifice of hundreds of lives.

At this time, the Iron Pao soldiers, after the shelling of the Ming army in front and the volley of guns of the Ming army, the entire team has fallen more than [-] people, and the rest of them are all trembling to put medicine on the guns. .

"Bang... bang bang..."

No matter what choices the shogunate soldiers made, for the soldiers of the Ming army who were firing salvos, all this was no different from the past.

They reload, then raise their guns and pull the trigger...

It's as orderly as doing farm work in a crop field, so that this kind of bloody killing has a somewhat uniform aesthetic.

It's just a four-wheel row of guns, and there are only a handful of long guns that can rush in front of the riflemen of the Ming army. Before they can move, the sound of horseshoes from both sides makes them stop.

"Clap clap-"

The crisp sound of riding the blunderbuss rang out one after another, even if they escaped some of the spears protruding from the face of the blunderbuss, before they could react, they were attacked by the gourd hammers of the Ming army cavalry.

A hammer hit the face, the teeth splashed, and the whole person spun around and fell directly under the city of Kyoto.

The three thousand spears in the front row were completely wiped out with the final harvest of the Ming cavalry...

Such a scene made all the daimyo who watched the battle drenched in cold sweat, as if they were frozen.

It's just that the war was not over yet. When the cavalry withdrew from the front of the riflemen, the riflemen raised their rifles again and pulled the trigger on the iron gunners who also raised their firearms.

"Clap clap-"

"run!"

"Run!"

The blood spattered and gathered into small red puddles after falling on the ground.

Seeing the companions around him fall to the ground one by one, watching the blood pooling into puddles under his feet.

Faced with such a terrifying scene, the iron gunners of the shogunate and the rear army ashigaru could no longer hold on, and finally a rout occurred.

"Bastard! Stop it all, stop it for me!"

The rout of one person led to the rout of the whole army. Tokugawa Tadaga led the supervising team to hack and kill the rout soldiers, but they still couldn't stop the rout of the army.

While he was still yelling, hoping that the army would stabilize their position, the sound of heavy hooves broke into his mind.

As he looked up, he saw the iron cavalry of the Ming army preparing to harvest the defeated army...

(End of this chapter)