Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1587 Taking Chestnuts from the Fire ([-]) New Misaki Castle
If someone asks who is the most trusted "diplomat" under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, then the answer is yes: Toyotomi Hideyoshi.This time he sent someone to Misaki Castle, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi specially sent someone back to Beijing to invite Toyotomi Hidecho, and ordered him to go to Misaki Castle to meet Luo Yuan himself.

Who is Hidetomi Toyotomi?He is the younger brother of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, whose childhood names are Koichiro and Kotake.He has a characteristic that he has always followed his elder brother Hideyoshi's surname: Kinoshita earlier, after Hideyoshi changed the name of Miao Yuchai, he changed his name to Hashiba Hidecho, and in the 12th year of Tensho (1584), he changed his name because Hideyoshi was given the surname Toyotomi by the emperor For Toyotomi Hideaga.

In the 13th year of Tensho (1585), he led Koriyama Castle of Yamato Kingdom and became the Daimyo of 110 million stone.In the 15th year of Tensho (1587), he served as Dai Nayan, so he was called Yamato Dai Nayan.If you simply evaluate his life, he is the right-hand man of his elder brother Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He is very active in both civil and military aspects, and has made great contributions to Hideyoshi's unification of the world.

Whether it is in the present or later generations, the overall evaluation of Xiuchang is very high. For example, when Xiuchang passed away, someone commented that "the person who repaired the etiquette is Zong Yi, and the only one who is responsible for public welfare etiquette is the prime minister (referring to Xiuchang)." Later generations said that he was "the most talented but least known professional staff in Japan at that time."

Hidecho occupies a very important position in the Toyotomi regime, and Hideyoshi is very dependent and trustful of Hidecho no matter in business or private affairs.Xiuchang said nothing about his brother's help, and the two cooperated better, so Xiuchang was raised to a very high height.Generally speaking, a good relationship between brothers is more pertinent.

However, this time Hideyoshi had no choice but to let his younger brother go out in person, even with guilt and worry to some extent.The reason is that after Tianzheng's conquest of Kyushu at the end of 15, Hidecho began to fall ill, and could only attend some formal and not very tiring activities, such as the Jule Xingxing mentioned before.In addition, it is mostly praying for the recovery of the disease and accepting visits from all parties.Therefore, he failed to participate in the Odawara Expedition and the Oshu Expedition in the original history, and eventually died of illness for more than three years.

Of course, Xiuchang is not perfect, and his shortcoming is that he is more greedy for money.For example, during the Kyushu conquest, Xiuchang transported part of the military food back to his own territory to prepare for sale ("Chuanjiao Taige Ji"); The money obtained was swallowed up by Hideonaga Daikan ("Tamonin Diary"), which made the elder brother Hideyoshi very angry, and Hidecho was not allowed to go to the New Year's meeting.

In the original history, when Xiuchang passed away, the family property had 5.6 pieces of gold, and the silver piled up a house of nearly 13 square meters ("Tamonin Diary").However, his great achievements can still cover his minor shortcomings, and there is no more discord between other brothers.

At this time, Hidetomi was already seriously ill, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi specially sent Kato Yoshiaki to pick him up with the armed transport ship purchased by Jinghua with the navy, landed at Nirayama Castle in the east of Suruga Bay, and only traveled a short distance to Odawara Castle To the west is Shihuan Mountain City.

Hideyoshi personally held a grand dust-cleaning banquet for him, and then the two brothers met in private, and Hideyoshi gave him an opportunity to give him full authority to negotiate with the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance in Misaki City.

Hidecho rested outside Odawara Castle for a few more days, and first sent someone to contact Misaki Castle. After the "paving" was completed, he left sick and arrived outside Misaki Castle four days later.

Although he was seriously ill, since he entered the Miura Peninsula, he has carefully observed the management of the Misaki Castle by the Sea Trade Alliance.Hidecho, who was a half-life soldier, discovered that in addition to the main city, Misaki City also has two land-based city defense systems in the north.

The first road is near Danushan Mountain in the southeast of Kamakura. The Maritime Trade Alliance built two "city pools" along the mountain and the sea, blocking the Miura Peninsula back to back. One city faced Sagami Bay to the west, and the other city faced Edo Bay to the east.

It is said that these two are cities, but in fact they are only cities in the eyes of the Japanese. In fact, in Jinghua, they are just medium-sized bastions with horns built in the mountainous area between the peninsula junctions.

This line of defense was first proposed by Huang Zhiting. Since the Kanto Squadron brought professionals from Jinghua Infrastructure, it didn't take much effort to build two medium-sized bastions. In terms of manpower, it didn't cost much because of the cheap Japanese labor.Instead, it was the iron rods (weakened steel bars) and cement that Jinghua sent to Misaki Castle from the mainland of Daming that really cost money.

Xiuchang continued to march south, and saw the second line of defense near the oil pot (place name).This is the closest and narrowest area to enter Misaki City from the south. The width from east to west is only more than five miles (2.7 kilometers). A "Great Wall" was built.

This "Great Wall" is actually a long wall of Qi Jiguang's cannon fort, with a fort every 200 meters. There are three fixed forts on the fort, which are divided into three directions: front, left front and right front.In fact, this setting is similar to the firepower setting idea of ​​the bastion, that is, it can fire directly in front of the distance, and can form crossfire when it is close to the city wall.

In addition, the walls of the "Great Wall" are designed with fire ports, which are battlements used by musketeers.In this way, it can not only form a strong fire suppression from a high position, but also implement traditional defense strategies, such as dumping rolling logs and stones, fire oil and gold juice, etc. It can be said that as long as someone defends the city, it is basically foolproof.

The Maritime Trade Alliance had only rented Misaki Castle for more than three months, and the Great Wall had almost been built. Such financial resources shocked Toyotomi Hidecho.Although the height of the city wall does not seem to be as tall as the legendary "Great Wall of Tang Dynasty" (the average height of the Great Wall is 7.8 meters, and some parts are as high as 14 meters), it is still more than two feet high.

For the Japanese, this is completely the standard of a giant city-the height of the walls of Odawara Castle does not exceed this!

Toyotomi Hideaga took a deep breath this time and finally understood why his brother was so cautious. The Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance is indeed a wealthy country. With their terrifying strength, they may be able to build an Odawara Kent within a year. city.

With inexplicable worries, Hidecho Toyotomi passed the Youhu Pass under the release of the Jinghua Marine Corps, officially entered the theoretical area outside Misaki City, and arrived at the castle town of Misaki in a short time-in fact, this is the city of Ming Dynasty. Misaki Castle in people's eyes.

In Japan in the sixteenth century, most daimyos of the Warring States period cooperated with the unification of their neighboring countries. With the implementation of the policy of separation of soldiers and farmers, the samurai regiments and merchants directly under the lords were forced to gather under the castle, forming the so-called castle town, and gradually Developed into the political, economic and transportation center of the neighboring country.

For example, Sunfu of the Imakawa clan, Yamaguchi of the Ouchi clan, Kofu of the Takeda clan, Azuchi of the Oda clan, and Osaka of the Toyotomi clan are all famous castle towns.

The reason why it is different from China is that Japan only regarded the lord's residence as a city earlier, and due to the limited economic strength and perennial wars, the Japanese daimyo only had the strength to build their own fortress-style residences, and did not care about the whole "City" - the city city, was originally a city and a market.

The castle town of Misaki Castle originally did not have a serious city defense system, but since Jinghua came, it is obvious that the strange situation that the market has no defense measures cannot be tolerated, so the construction of the castle town of Misaki Castle is also in progress.

Perhaps it was because the defense facilities of the castle town were not as urgent as the two defense lines to the north. They have not yet been completed, and they are still under construction in sections. The completed part is less than two miles long.

However, it was the city wall of the castle town, which was less than two miles long, that shocked Hidecho once again: this section of the city wall should be at least three feet high!A three-foot-high city wall is unheard of in Japan. Even the Azuchi Castle built by Lord Nobunaga, the city defense is not so strong as to be exaggerated.

In fact, the three-foot-high city wall is not bad even in Daming.Although the 9-meter-high city wall is still somewhat childish compared with the real great city of Ming Dynasty—such as the 14-meter-high Datong City Wall, it is not first-rate but also second-rate. In Japan, it can almost be said to be a supermodel. .

At least in the eyes of Toyotomi Hidecho at this time, after the reconstruction of Misaki Castle, even Odawara Castle will have to give up the title of "Japan's No. [-] Strong Castle".

Toyotomi Hidetomi, who is good at repairing the city, regardless of his serious illness, insisted on going to see the city wall even though he was sitting in a bullock cart, and then he found that the city wall—or the entire city defense system of Misaki Castle except for the extremely tall city wall In addition, it also refers to many Japanese-style designs, such as slits, fan slopes, split floors, etc.

Of course, it can be seen with a long-term vision that even though the moat has not been excavated (it is true that there is a design, but Jinghua is short of manpower here and started construction of three city defense systems at the same time), but from the height of the city wall and the giant Jinghua tank of the Maritime Trade Alliance (he is Judging from the firing range of the No. [-] gun, it is not surprising that the future moat will be one mile wide.As for the design of slits, fan slopes, split floors, etc., Xiuchang couldn't be more clear.

The so-called slit refers to the perforation of the iron cannon (gun) on the city wall.These perforations were carved out of rocks, and the overall shape was funnel-shaped, small on the outside and large on the inside, and the area of ​​the outside being bombed was less than 10 by 10 centimeters.There is a trapezoidal slope in the perforation, about 40 cm long, 50 cm wide, and a height difference of about 25 cm. Soldiers can lie prone and support their elbows to shoot stably. The inner wall is smooth and the ergonomics are very good.The perforation spacing is about 2.5 meters, and multiple soldiers can shoot from one perforation in turn.

Hidecho discovered that Misaki Castle of the Sea Trade Alliance designed perforations for different weapons. These perforations are different. Among them, the iron cannon perforation is square, and the bow and arrow perforation is rectangular, which is equivalent to the size of two iron cannon perforations. It is convenient for bow and arrow to aim and launch.

Strangely, the main city of Misaki Castle, the castle tower, has not yet been built (the Japanese generally build the castle tower first, that is, the castle where the lord lives), but according to Hidecho's understanding, under the defense of such a large castle town, after the castle tower is built, other There will definitely be multiple shooting platforms protruding out of the city wall about half a meter above, which are used to attack the enemies who attack the city and are located in the dead corner of the wall.

The fan slope is also a very Japanese design. Similar to many Japanese castles, the city wall of Misaki Castle Town is steep and arc-shaped, especially at the vertical junction of the city wall. The higher it goes, the closer it is to vertical.The city wall at the fan slope is made of larger monolithic stones, which are polished smooth, and the gaps between the stones are small, making it very difficult to climb.

Lastly is the split level.The walls of Misaki City are not square, but a staggered design based on the slope of the bastion to create a deep defense, increase the firepower, and disperse the enemy's strength.

Facing the straight wall, the enemy's forces can be pushed flat, and the supporting firepower can cover the entire city wall.The crossing of slopes and staggered walls can divide the enemy's forces into multiple sections, and the supporting firepower will also be shielded by staggered layers.

The split-level city wall forms an L-shaped position, changing the frontal contact to the frontal combined contact with the enemy, forming crossfire from the front and side to attack the enemy, and the effect of firepower is far more than that of the straight-shaped city wall.

When attacking the enemy at the root of the wall and in the dead angle of frontal shooting, the defender of the straight wall will have to stick out a large part of his body to complete it, while the split-level city wall can directly protect with side fire.At the same time, the length of the staggered layer is about 20 to 50 meters, just within the effective range of iron cannons or bows and arrows.

These are very Japanese city designs. Perhaps because of the large number of people and the small space for maneuvering, Japanese military thinking has always emphasized frontal resistance, so it is necessary to be meticulous in tactical details.This Japanese-style military concept was even reflected in the battlefields of World War II. For example, it was recorded in "Matsuyama Battle Notes" that the machine guns of the Japanese Army's Matsuyama bunker group had small perforations on the outside and large inside, with extremely small shooting circles and extremely high firepower density. The slot designs are very similar.

In the Southwest War during the Meiji period of Japan, the rebel warriors relied on complex terrain to launch a hand-to-hand charge against the Meiji government army. In the Battle of Matsuyama, the Japanese army also used cold weapons to attack the Chinese army under the cover of vegetation. ideas are similar.

In the battles of Matsuyama, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, the Japanese army relied on strong bunkers to achieve a relatively low casualty ratio, which may also be seen from the Japanese-style city defense design.

In fact, the design of Misaki City itself was explained by Gao Pragmatism himself, and so many people from Jinghua Infrastructure were sent here to try it out.

As for the reason, it is because Gao Wushi knew that during the Korean War in the original history, the Ming army had suffered miserably by the Japanese-style city defenses built by the Japanese army in North Korea many times.At that time, many memorials reported by the top generals of the Ming army mentioned words such as "Wocheng is difficult to attack", and a large part of the casualties were caused by the repeated storming of "Wocheng". The field casualties of the army were relatively small (this may be because most of the Ming army's aid troops were elite field troops. Maybe if the guards were replaced, the record and battle damage data would have to be replaced with each other).

In the eyes of Toyotomi Hidecho, the three city defense systems of Misaki Castle can be described as "a combination of Tang and Japan". Once completed, it is absolutely indestructible.In fact, he didn't know that the city defense of Misaki City should be said to be a combination of east and west.

A Marine Corps platoon leader who has been following him since he entered the first line of defense, seeing the Japanese imperial court's great Nayan looking at the unrepaired city wall in silence, was secretly happy in his heart, and raised his chin slightly to remind: "His Royal Highness, it's getting late, and Commander Luo is still waiting for you."

"Ah, I'm rude, I'm rude." Toyotomi Hideaga was woken up by him, and he nodded at him with a hint of humility in his amiable manner: "Please lead the way, Your Highness, please."
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(End of this chapter)