Xinshun 1730

Chapter 429: Let's Survive First

At lunch time, the Japanese offensive was already weak.

In front of the narrow city, corpses were piled up in disorder.

In the city, a few naval logistics soldiers carried an urn wrapped in straw, and began to distribute extra meals for lunch every day when they went to sea.

In addition to the food to satisfy the hunger, there are all kinds of strange things.For example, the jujubes in this urn, the freshly picked jujubes are soaked in spirits to prevent spoilage. This is something used in the navy to prevent scurvy.

Weihai is too cold, there are no lemons, and the navy has not been fighting in the tropics for the time being, so they can only eat some strange and easy-to-preserve things.

The navy has no official establishment, and there is no navy department in the DPRK and China, but it has all internal organs, and the logistics supply is the logistics and transportation department with a special department.It is guaranteed that the navy's own marines will have no problem in combat, but only need the army to help support some cavalry, so the trading company is asked to take action.

Sailors like this kind of crunchy dates very much, the key is the strong taste of wine inside.Apart from the glass of strong wine given after dinner every day, this drunk and crisp date is my favorite food.

The hot rice is steamed right behind Xiaobin Town by the sea.The flames on both sides had little effect on Xiaobincheng, that is, some burning black ash fell on the white rice.

The rice is served with a spoonful of lard with heavy salt, five drunk dates per person, and an onion that Liu Yu imported from Japan and planted in Wendeng and other places-this thing originated in West Asia, first spread to Europe, and then From the Americas to the Philippines, and finally from the Philippines to Japan, and from Japan to Weihai, it can go around the earth with a lot of effort.

Lard and rice, this is a delicious meal that can only be eaten in war.

The soldiers who had been fighting for a whole morning poured cold boiled water into the rice, separated it from the cold, stirred the glistening lard with chopsticks, took a sip from the bowl, and gnawed a mouthful of the spicy onion.

Then he carefully arranged the drunk dates in his hand, put them in his pocket, took out one and held it in his mouth until it was chewed like bagasse, and then he reluctantly swallowed it.

If the relationship with the officer is good, the remaining jujube-soaked wine in the urn can be shared among hands to drink.

This kind of life, compared to the vast majority of Dashun people at this time, is already considered the standard of the Chinese New Year.

There has always been a saying in the navy: eat enough to fight wars; eat all kinds of strange fruits to avoid scurvy; drink water must be boiled to avoid diarrhea.

Some of these strange principles have been integrated into military regulations, and some have become a habit. The navy's logistical support has always been adequate.

The embezzlement of military pay and the snatching of food from the soldiers' mouths did not happen until Liu Yu left.

Soldiers who had eaten lunch lazily basked in the autumn and winter sun, wiping gunpowder dregs from their muskets.

On the sea behind them, there is a row of warships flying the navy flag, which makes them feel at ease and will not feel panic of being surrounded.

Although these warships stopped firing because of the cover of flames and smoke after the war started in the morning, the small boats sent to deliver ammunition from time to time still made these soldiers feel full of hope.

Obviously there is no shortage of ammunition, but the captains of the navy still choose to use this method to boost the morale of the defending soldiers, proving that the soldiers in the city always have a way out.

…………

On the other side of the battlefield, the remaining Japanese warriors silently ate rice dumplings.

The feudal lord of the Hikone Domain, Ii Naosada, was a very frugal person, and he strictly abided by the frugal orders of the shogunate. Even when he went to Edo, he ate rice dumplings, for which he was praised by Tokugawa Yoshimune.

As a result, when the Hikone warriors fought, they only gnawed on rice dumplings.

Some rotten rice dumplings can be soaked in tea to get rid of the rotten smell of the rice dumplings.It is said that this is the way Toyotomi Hideyoshi ate when he marched out of China and returned.

Many samurai couldn't swallow their rice dumplings, and their mouths were dry.Having not fought a war in so many years, many of them have not even seen blood.

Some of them participated in the attack in the morning, and witnessed the death of their partners who drank and talked together on weekdays under the guns, and many of them were even hit by artillery while they were still on board.

Recalling the limbs shattered by lead bullets and those driven by solid shells on the battlefield, the samurai who went to the battlefield for the first time kept churning the little acid in his stomach.

Some warriors quietly observed the feudal lord in the distance, wondering if they would fight again in the afternoon.

During the one-hour offensive in the morning, more than 400 warriors died in the city, and the morale of the army has actually collapsed.It's just that this is not a field battle, and they can retreat and gather without breaking up.

The latest attack was still seven or eight feet away from the outermost defense of Xiaobin City, but that was already the limit.

"I can't fight anymore!"

"I'm afraid there is no way to conquer such a city."

"Even if the Echigo Army God attacks Odawara Castle, I'm afraid it won't be so difficult to attack."

"The Tang people's iron cannons are very accurate, and the big guns can be fired further..."

The dejected warriors whispered their fear of the city in front of them. They had already compared this city with Odawara Castle, the most powerful city in their legend.

Some samurai from the Hikone domain even began to mock the samurai from the Obama domain who had previously withdrawn from here to fight with them.

"Didn't you defend such a city for even a day? Are Sakai's subordinates so cowardly?"

The samurai who had withdrawn from the Obama domain drew their swords and cursed: "Let the Tang army try to attack Hikone Castle! Can you hold it?"

Scolding and moaning sounded one after another.

Jing Yizhi knew that this battle was impossible to fight, and among the warriors he brought, the most capable ones had already been exhausted.

The rest are some poor warriors who have to borrow money from merchants on weekdays, and then wait to repay their debts. These warriors' salaries are not high.

Counting today, it has been four days.More than 800 warriors dumped their corpses under the city. If such casualties were to be fought in the field, they would have already collapsed.

Although it is still possible to gather outside the range of the gunboat for the time being, he knows that if the fight continues, he may refuse to attack.

Several of his trusted retainers died under the city, and even two of them were killed by the shells that exploded above their heads before they even made it to land.

After only an hour of attack, the follow-up samurai refused to board the ship to die, thinking that this was a meaningless attack.

Jing Yi Naosada raised the binoculars again, looked at Xiaohamajo, who was close at hand and not many people, and fell into despair.

It wasn't the guns and artillery of the Dashun Army that was desperate, he could at least know that those guns and artillery were better than the ones in his hand, and they could shoot farther and more accurately.

Desperate is the reformed Xiaobin City that seems to have no rules, but actually has rules.

But he couldn't understand it, and he had carefully recalled from the military books he had learned, but he still couldn't find out what the rules of defending the city were.

It would be even more desperate if the city's defensive layout was haphazard.If you can't even attack a city that has no rules, the quality of the soldiers forming the Dashun Army is much better than that of the warriors under the policy of separating farmers from soldiers.

There is no way to fight this battle.

With a sigh, he retracted the binoculars and ordered: "Retreat."

The horn of retreat sounded, and those dejected warriors received amnesty.I don't know who made the noise, first let out a cry of escape from death, and then such shouts joined together.

Hearing such howls, Jing Yizhi was sure that his order to retreat was correct, and if the fight continued, he might break up and flee. He would rather flee as a wanderer who escaped from the feudal domain, and would not take a step forward to this city.

The strategy of besieging Wei and saving Zhao is correct.

The tactic of burning the houses on both sides to cover the shooting range of the gunboat is also correct.

The first batch of warriors who rushed up were all elites, whether they were determined to die or not.

The strategy seems to be correct, the tactics are also very detailed, and there is also a desire to die.But, just can't win...

There is no longer an army in the Kinki region that can reach Obama within half a month. Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, the intruding Dashun army can go wherever it wants.

It wasn't just this that Ii Naodaka felt hopeless about.

It was Xiaobin City, which was defended by a maximum of 500 people, and more than 3000 people could not capture it. It is even possible that the Dashun Army had only single-digit casualties.

This means that as long as it is close to the sea and 500 people stick to a city, it needs at least [-] troops and enough cannons to try to attack.

And the time to conquer is measured in months.

The mobilization of troops of [-] people requires at least several vassals to be linked together, and marching with cannons is even slower.

All of this goes back to the defensive strategy Liu Yu set for Tokugawa Yoshimune: firefighting.

Any other strategy is useless, Jing Yi Zhizhi didn't believe it, and believed in the nonsense of besieging Wei and saving Zhao, and proved this point again with facts.

And this kind of firefighting tactic requires cannons and tens of thousands of people, which means that the army can only advance at a slow speed; the speed at which the Dashun army attacked Xiaohama means that even if the defenders increase by four or five times, they can only persist A few days; and if you persist for a few days, even if you have the marching speed of China's Great Return, you will have to pile up a field army within two hundred miles.

And all of this means that the whole of Japan needs at least 30 field standing troops and 60 garrison troops to fight.

But these are things that the shogunate cannot make up anyway.

The firefighting side needs 90 troops, one-third of which have to run around.

On the other hand, the party that set the fire only needs a fleet and three to five thousand marine troops.

As long as there are less than 60 garrison troops and 30 field standing troops, there will be vacancy, and the Dashun Army can seize the vacancy to land and attack the city.

There is no need to attack Kyoto, nor does it need to attack Edo.

As long as you play like this for a year, you can bring down the whole of Japan.

The shogunate went bankrupt, the merchants withered, there were uprisings everywhere, and there were uprisings everywhere.

Before returning to Hikone Castle, the desperate Ii Naosada asked someone to fetch a pen and paper, and wrote a request to the shogun.

After writing this request, he prepared to cut seppuku.

Remonstrate with death and ask the general to pay attention.

The process of Xiaobin's First World War was described as detailed as possible, which led to what he really wanted to say-please general peace talk, please general lift the ban on Lan Xue, general please try your best, and general please stop fighting.

As for the details of how to lie down in the future, he put forward his views to the shogun.

Now it seems that there are only three ways to counter Dashun Army's tactics.

One is a mythical fantasy, that there are six Ding Liujia magical methods, or that there is some kind of magical vehicle that can travel hundreds of miles a day, and can transport tens of thousands of troops for long-distance maneuvers at a time.

The second is to build a large navy to keep the enemy out of the country.

The third is to reform the samurai system, train samurai, train firearms, hire Dutch instructors, and learn tactics from the Dutch.

In addition to the first kind of mythological fantasy, when it comes to the choice of training the navy first or the army first, Ii Naosada suggested that the shogunate give up the navy first and build an army.

"It takes time to build a navy, and Tang Guo will definitely notice it."

"Today, you can attack in the name of Ryukyu. If you want to inflict crimes, there is nothing wrong with it? If they find out, they must be destroyed. The navy has been building ships for several years, and they may be destroyed in one fell swoop."

"If the navy is destroyed, the land battle cannot be won. Just like today's story, no one can fight across Japan. If millions of gold are invested, it may be wiped out in one day."

"Therefore, changing the land battle first is the right way. One is that the Tang State is not easy to detect. The other is that if the land battle can be won, even if there is no navy, the city will not be lost, and the Tang State will not dare to land. Even if it is defeated, it will only pay gold and silver. "

"If there is an army that can win in the field, how dare the Tang people attack Kyoto with only 500 people in the battle of Xiaobin? They dare not go deep. Even if they have a navy, they can't go down after more than ten days. Withdraw. Even if you can’t win like this, you can persist.”

"Building and training a navy requires money, and building and training a new army also requires money. The two cannot be combined, and there must be a sequence. If you see that the Tang Dynasty's navy is strong and has the idea of ​​​​defending the enemy from outside the country, then Liu Yu's plan is right! "

"The naval army is half built, the people are hungry, the merchants are poor, and the treasury is empty. When the Tang Dynasty navy raids the port, all the gold and silver are rotten wood, and years of hard work are wiped out."

"Even if the peace talks cease and Liu Yu does not die, how can Tang Guo keep his word? How can he keep the armistice agreement and sit back and watch the general build a navy?"

"Land first and then sea! First land and then sea! Only by surviving first can you be qualified to consider the future. The army is guaranteed to survive. At least Tang can only suck blood, not cut flesh and bones to suck marrow."

(End of this chapter)