Xinshun 1730

Chapter 426 Illusion
In the next few days, the inside and outside of the imperial palace did not disturb each other, forming a strange peace.

The samurai outside pretended not to know what was going on inside, and the officers of the Dashun Army inside also pretended not to understand what the Japanese called the Japanese king in the palace, and pretended not to see some etiquette that seemed a bit presumptuous upon closer inspection.

The samurai did not dare to attack the imperial palace, and Wu Fangrui also knew that it was a dream to evacuate with the Japanese king under such circumstances, and neither side could do anything about it. This kind of peace pretending to be blind to each other may be the best decency.

Later, Zhaoren sent an official document to Toki Yoshitoshi outside, which was handed over to Tokugawa Yoshimune, the general who conquered the barbarians.

The letter was nothing more than borrowing some examples from history, especially the ones that temporarily forbeared but succeeded in the end, as the reason for him to negotiate with the Dashun Army.

He said that he didn't understand political affairs and military affairs, so he hoped that the shogunate would choose a talented person who was familiar with Sinology etiquette to assist him in negotiations.

Talented people want to talk about serious business, and those who are proficient in Sinology etiquette must be members of the Lin family, head of the Holy Church University.

Zhaoren doesn't care about the real negotiation.

He took this step, just a step for the shogunate.

How the shogunate chooses is a matter for the shogunate.

Just like what Wu Fangrui said, either establish a new one or obey the order.In the eyes of the shogunate, the emperor's will is nothing, and sometimes he can't even leave the imperial palace. As long as he obeys the order, it proves that he really wants to talk.

…………

To the north of Kyoto, Li Yan led the army and moved forward in an orderly manner according to the march plan formulated by the staff.

Already not far from Kyoto, the striker is at Sanzenin, fighting with the last wave of several hundred samurai before arriving in Kyoto, and it will end soon.

A military report was sent from the rear. Hikone Fan, the last great feudal clan in the Japanese Kinki region, had assembled about [-] to [-] samurai from the east of Kyoto, and was about to attack Obama Castle.

This is a classic tactic of besieging Wei and saving Zhao, hoping to make the Dashun army turn back.

But after the staff researched, they gave Li Yan a full guarantee.

Let's go with the two to 3000 people of the Hikone Domain. Xiaohama only has [-] soldiers left, but it is enough, and the port will not be lost.

Kohama Castle, which was damaged by shelling before.

After several days of gun time construction, the prototype of a pure firearms era defense system has been formed.

After capturing Xiaobin City before, the Dashun Army did not set fires everywhere like Wu Fangrui did to create chaos.

Hiring people to build defenses, as long as you give money, the common people will be happy.

Petitions by the people of the Obama clan started three or four years ago, but the feudal lord has not allowed it.

Petitions have always been refused in history, and after a few years of holding back, there was an uprising, which was an uprising, not just a sacrifice to the leader.

Things on Japan's side are actually easier to handle than on Dashun's side.

On Dashun’s side, if they really want the common people to win grain, they have to overthrow all the landlords in Dashun, divide the land, and equalize the land.

There is no need to divide the land in the Wa Kingdom, because the sale of land is illegal in theory, as long as they say that they should pay less food tax.

Anyway, it is impossible for Dashun to occupy Xiaobin, and the next wave of grain harvesters will withdraw.Not to mention the one-in-three tax, since you dare to say such a thing as complete exemption from food.

The samurai legally have the right to tax the land, but in fact they are not directly responsible, but the feudal lord sends someone to collect and then distribute rice to the samurai according to the "fief size" of the samurai.

That's why some officers in the navy have the idea of ​​​​expelling the samurai, replacing them, and sealing Japan.Because it's really easy.

The differences in the land systems, taxation systems, and bureaucratic systems of the two sides involve too many things.

Li Yan, the seventh prince of Dashun before, couldn't see the deep-seated things in it. He didn't feel that it was wrong, not good, or detrimental to the Li family of Dashun when he chanted these slogans to buy people's hearts. rule.

He has known about the founding of his country since he was a child, but he has never seen it with his own eyes.Today, Wa Guo and his party can get a glimpse of one or two things that happened back then.

From what he thought, he felt that Dashun was not bad, and the imperial court's taxes were not high.According to his thinking at this age, as long as those corrupt officials who do not abide by the laws of the country and raise taxes privately are killed, Haiyan and Heqing will be cleared.

Born in a deep palace and raised in the hands of a woman, he naturally would not have thought that the real land rent in some places in Dashun is similar to the five lords and five people in the Wa Kingdom, except that in Dashun there are one lord, five masters and four tenants.

Since he didn't understand the real situation at the bottom, he felt that what he said was not too much, and he didn't think it might make the bottom soldiers in the army have any strange thoughts.

However, most of the soldiers in the navy are either starving people whose families have starved to death, or refugees who have lost their land.Although these announcements are aimed at the Wa country, these people will inevitably have many thoughts in their hearts.

But at this moment, this kind of thought was just quietly sprouting in their hearts. The battle in front of them and the indoctrination of "I am not who" made them not think too much about it for the time being.

After the local people got over the initial panic, they were still very friendly to the elites of the Dashun Navy who actually spent money on shopping.Of course, it may also be friendly to Bai Huahua's silver.

In short, under the command of the military officers who had studied fortress engineering in Jinghai Palace, they spent money and rice from Xiaobincheng and hired local people to strengthen the city defense.

It's still easy to build.

These Weihai soldiers are very familiar with the Japanese tassels, which are actually straw-woven bags, which contain various strange things such as dried abalone, dried seahorse, and kelp. The straw bag outside is called a tael.

This thing is filled with soil, which is just right for building defenses.The labor cost in Wa country is low, so I bought a lot of bags for very little money.

The wooden castle tower was smashed, the old stone walls of Xiaohama Castle were demolished, and the white sand on the beach was packed in bags. Within a few days, Xiaohama Castle took on the appearance of a bastion.

Anyway, there are warships supporting the confrontation, and there is no need to consider the anti-cannon slopes. The workload has dropped sharply, and it is a special form with fewer bullies and cannons.

Two rivers surround Xiaobincheng, surrounded by water and facing the sea.

In the bay, half of the warships lined up shelling, and half of the warships stood guard outside the bay to prevent the Japanese navy from attacking ships and blocking the bay.

Until the samurai assembled by the Hikone clan attacked, the construction had not stopped. The fort, which had carefully calculated the angle, was crude but scientific.

On the third day of the Hikone Domain's attack, under the castle of Obama, the corpses piled up were almost one or two feet high.

With Kohama Castle as the midpoint, there is the sea behind and rivers on the left and right. Under the threat of gunboats, it is impossible for Japanese warriors to attack from the left and right sides with the fire support of gunboats.

The only attack route is in front of Xiaobin City, and it can only rely on this narrow terrain to attack.

Moreover, the range of assembly and attack is only a narrow and long oval with a width of twenty feet and a length of one hundred feet.

This was calculated by the officers who had studied fortress engineering. The gunboat fired from an inclined plane and could seal off the area outside the circle.

And because of Xiaobin City's obstruction, such an open space was formed that would not be shot and killed by gunboat fire.

Naval guns are all flat-firing and cannot be curved.So it's like placing a coin in front of the light, and the shadow area behind the coin is where the gunboat cannot threaten.

It's a pity that Xiaobin City was built on the delta and protruded into the sea, making the flanks easily exposed within the range of the gunboat.It's like having a row of lights and only the shadow area blocked by a coin, the place is that big.

Although the Hikone clan is the largest clan in the Kinki area and the most powerful clan in the genealogy of daimyo, after all, it is not the remnants of the Western Army who rely on force to ensure their existence.

The feudal lord Ii Naodada did not have many soldiers.Some samurai of the Hikone Domain went to strengthen the defense of Korakushan. Beware that Dashun used Shikoku Island as a springboard to cross the Kidan Strait and bombard Osaka.

After receiving the news that Kohama Castle had been captured, Ii Naodaka was worried that the Daishun Army would advance along Lake Biwa and attack Hikone Castle.

But soon, news came that the Dashun army had gone straight to the capital, and did not control his Hikone Castle.

With the help of the remnant soldiers of the Obama Domain, the guards of the Hikone Domain, and the soldiers of the nearby domains, I thought it was to support the "King Qin" in Kyoto.

However, the retainers who were familiar with military books persuaded him with the allusion that Sun Bin besieged Wei and rescued Zhao, thinking that it might be too late to go to the capital at this time.

It's better to attack Xiao Bin instead.

If Xiaobin can be captured, then the Dashun army advancing to Kyoto will be a lone army without a rear.When the troops of the various domains are assembled, they can be surrounded and wiped out.

This principle is very consistent with the law of war. After the investigation, it was also known that more than 500 soldiers were left guarding Xiaobin City.

Jing Yizhi decided that the big thing could be achieved, and led nearly [-] soldiers straight into Xiaobin City, intending to cut off the rear of the main force of the Dashun Army's landing force.

however……

The retainers read the art of war very smoothly, but they only talked about besieging Wei and saving Zhao, but they didn't say that the prerequisite for besieging Wei and saving Zhao was that Qi was strong enough.Under the command of Tian Ji and Sun Bin, the Qi army could really capture Daliang City.

Therefore, the very correct military strategy is used like this:

On the first day of the attack, the whole team was assembled within the range of the gunboats, but they were bombarded by warships at sea.Before they could attack, they collapsed.

On the second day, they still did not learn their lesson, attacked again, and collapsed again.

On the third day, they finally learned their lesson and attacked from the front, avoiding the side attack from the gunboats, but the terrain was narrow, and it was impossible to deploy too many troops, so they could only send 200 people in waves.

Ii Naosaka looked at Kohamajo through binoculars, frowning.

He was one of the few feudal lords who played with Nanban's strange tricks and glass mirrors, and he left a good story: He was playing with a telescope in the castle tower, and saw a retainer drunk and ugly in the castle town.I asked the retainers around me who it was, and no one said anything, except for a fool who believed in the nonsense of "loyalty speaks nothing" and told the truth.

In the end, Jing Yi decided that this honest retainer was not available, because he was borrowing other people's ugliness to show his loyalty to the Patriarch.It's a courtier.

At this time, from the binoculars that left a good story, all he saw were the corpses of warriors piled up in the lower castle, as well as the squirming wounded.

Some of the wounded warriors wanted to climb back, but the rest of the warriors retreated beyond the blockade of the gunboat, without anyone to help them.

In Xiaobin City, some mast shooters mobilized from the ship, just like hunting and shooting pheasants, targeted the wounded samurai.

Shoot and play.

In the binoculars, a Dashun sailor in a blue and white patterned shirt was dancing and talking to the people next to him, then he raised his musket and killed a warrior who climbed a hundred and fifty steps away.

A few people next to him reluctantly took some money from their bodies and handed it to the sailor.Clearly, money is being gambled.

Behind Xiaobin City, on the pier protected by gunboats, the Navy seemed to be provocative, and sent bags of sea sand to Xiaobin City with conscripted boats.

The sea sand can be sent, not to mention the rice. This is provoking Jing Yi Naoding: If you want to siege the city without fighting, how long do you siege, and how long will we stay with you.

On the dilapidated castle tower, several shining bronze cannons, reflecting the sun's rays, were stabbing Jing Yi Naodada's eyes.

Putting away the binoculars, Ii Naodada was deeply depressed.

Dashun's gunboats all use solid bullets, because the gunboats don't have curved guns with lower chamber pressure, and they don't dare to play with the extremely dangerous wooden butt shells on the warships.Fearing that the enemy would not be bombed, he blew up his own gun deck first.

But on the few simple forts built in Xiaobincheng, those new small cannons can use flowering ammunition without any scruples.

Some of the previous casualties were caused by these explosive bombs.

Whether it was the ultra-long-range Minie bomb that the mast shooter used to shoot wounded soldiers just now, or the unprecedented flowering bomb, Ii Naodada had a special feeling.

It is not the kind of incomprehensible despair that the Manchu officials in history saw after seeing the steamboat sailing against the current with black smoke, which is close to the incomprehensible despair of the earthlings watching aliens.

It is the kind of heaviness that is understandable, and precisely because it is still within the scope of understanding, there is a gap, and there is still a glimmer of hope.

He has played with binoculars, and as a genealogy daimyo, he has also participated in the military exercises after Tokugawa Yoshimune reorganized Falconry. He has seen the forty-pound mortars sent by the Dutch and used by the Swedes as gunners to practice the "Southern Barbarian Siege Technique". .

But the last Swede in Japan has been dead for nearly a hundred years. That forty-pound mortar may have participated in the 80-year War of Independence in the Netherlands.

It is also this kind of "it's just big guns and iron cannons. It's just that the range is longer and the shooting is more accurate." There is also a bit of hope and heaviness, which makes him feel: It seems that with more effort and more effort, he will be able to attack. .

The problem is not big.

(End of this chapter)