Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 560 Killing Stone (Please Subscribe!)
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Nasuno (surrounding Nasu County, Tochigi Prefecture in later generations), on top of a huge rock.

Li Yan and Yu Zaoqian were using binoculars to watch the deployment of the Japanese army.

Prior to this, the Liangshan army and the Japanese army had fought two battles in Nasu.

first battle.

At that time, the Right Route Army had just arrived in Nasuno, and the 15 reinforcements sent by Li Yan were still on the way.

At that time, the Right Route Army had only more than 5 horses-the Right Route Army originally had 6 or 4 horses.You can kill 3 enemies and lose 3 yourself. The right-hand army fought all the way, and actually killed or injured [-] or [-] horses.In addition to the dead and wounded, the Right Army sent out a lot of soldiers and horses to clean up the remnants and local armed forces in the land they had won (more than [-] horses were left in Kyushu alone, and there were also left in China and Shikoku. [-] or [-] horses were dispatched.)
At the request of Nasuno lord Sudo Gonmori Sadanobu, Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Toba planned to take advantage of the unstable foothold of the right army to defeat the right army and gain bargaining chips.

Therefore, Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Toba ordered to form a crusade army, appointing Miura Suke Yoshiaki, Chiba Sue Choyin, and Kamisousuke Hirono as generals, Onmyoji Abe Yasushi as a military adviser, and dispatched 13 warriors and monk soldiers The army set off to Nasu field.

At that time, although the Right Route Army had only more than 5 horses, most of them were horse troops, and there were also ace horse troops such as the First Battalion, Tiefutu, and Guaizi Left and Right Army.

On the Japanese side, although the main force was dispatched, these main forces had been defeated by the right army several times before, and then the supplementary reserve force had already been greatly reduced.

Speaking of this, some people may ask, how many troops does Japan have, and how can it have millions of troops?

In fact, the total number of samurai from various places in Japan is only 40 million. The reason why millions of soldiers can be produced is mainly because Emperor Shirakawa gathered monks and soldiers, and organized various places to recruit men under the age of 65 to serve as reserves.

In the seventh century (equivalent to the early Tang Dynasty) shortly after Buddhism was introduced to Japan, the emperor at that time ordered the prohibition of eating cows, horses, dogs, apes, and chickens.

After 200 years of repeated emphasis, by the Heian period after the ninth century, Japanese officials and nobles had developed the habit of basically not eating meat.

However, during the period of Emperor Baihe, he felt that it was not pious enough to just not eat meat, so he promulgated a strengthened decree to further prohibit the consumption of fish, shrimp and shellfish, that is, he was not allowed to eat anything except vegetarian food!

Compared with Emperor Baihe, even the Emperor Wu of Liang (the emperor who first established the commandment that monks should not eat meat) who died in China because of his worship of Buddhism, is not pious at all, because Emperor Wu of Liang only made monks eat vegetarian food, but did not eat meat. Emperor Shirakawa has managed to make the entire population vegetarian...

The reason why Emperor Shirakawa is so devout is not only because he believed in Buddhism, but also because Japanese Buddhism gained the status of state religion after the ninth century, and Buddhist temples were everywhere. The temples not only represented a huge economic, political and military power, but also gained In order to achieve absolute dominance, it was precisely with the support of these monasteries that Shirakawa became the supreme ruler of Japan, and he ruled for decades.

All in all, there are 10,000+ or ​​even more than 20 monk soldiers in Japan in this era.

Moreover, monks of some sects attacked the monasteries of other sects and would loot them, so monks and soldiers had actually become no different from militants of secular feudal lords.

In addition, Japan in this era has a population of nearly [-] million.

In terms of population alone, Japan is among the best in the world.

Therefore, it is normal for the reserve forces in various places to add up to hundreds of thousands.

but--

Although the Japanese army has a lot of troops, the quality of the soldiers is far inferior. Not to mention the temporarily recruited reserve soldiers, even the monk soldiers have limited combat power.

The Japanese samurai are better, but because of physical fitness, tacit cooperation, equipment gap, advanced level of tactics, fighting spirit, etc., three Japanese samurai can barely compete with one Liangshan soldier.

Therefore, although the strength of the Japanese army was less than half, Yue Fei still decisively fought the Japanese army.

In the end, the 13 Japanese troops were defeated without any suspense.

In that battle, only less than 13 of the [-] Japanese troops fled back. The blood of Japanese warriors and monk soldiers stained the boulder at the feet of Li Yan and Yuzao red. Later, people called this boulder the "killing stone". It is also said that it was transformed from Yuzao.

Second battle.

Soon, Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Toba organized another 30 warriors and monk soldiers, and invited eminent monks and masters from all over the country to help.

At that time, among the reinforcements sent by Li Yan, only the [-] forward troops led by Wang Yan arrived in Nasu.

The 30 Liangshan Army fought against the [-] Japanese Army.

Relying on advanced weapons and tactics such as rushing thunder chariots, unconscionable cannons, bed crossbows, thunderbolts, god arm bows, elite horse troops, etc., after a hard fight, the Liangshan Army once again routed the Japanese army to the south, killing and injuring them all. 10,000+ Japanese samurai and monk soldiers were killed, and the rest of the Japanese samurai and monk soldiers fled back to Kinki.

Now this is the third battle, and it will also be the last battle.

If the Liangshan army wins this battle, then Li Yan can bring Japan into the territory of Shuibo Liangshan, and then get eight big counties. strength, and Japan will completely become history, and all the officials and nobles in Japan will become prisoners and be slaughtered by Li Yan.

And if the Japanese army wins this battle, then the Japanese army will take advantage of the situation to drive the Liangshan Army out of China and Shikoku, and then defend according to Zhoufang, Nagato Tenkan, and Shikoku Island. In that case, Japan will be able to keep Kinki and China. , Shikoku, and then preserve the vitality of Japan and the luxurious life of Japanese officials and nobles. It is not certain that they may be able to retake Japan in the future, and Li Yan's territory in Japan will be divided into two parts, the north and the south, and there will be people who are invaded. Hidden danger.

Therefore, whether this battle is against Shuibo Liangshan or Japan, it is a crucial battle.

Therefore, whether it is Shuibo Liangshan or Japan, we will go all out.

Water park Liangshan side.

Li Yan and Yu Zaoqian led 12 reinforcements to the battlefield and participated in the battle. The Liangshan Army dispatched a total of 19 troops to fight the Japanese army to the death.

Japanese side.

The Emperor Shirakawa and the Emperor Toba dispatched all the Japanese samurai, monks, and reserves who guarded the three gates, with a total force of 50, and the grandparents and grandchildren of the Emperor Shirakawa and the Emperor Toba also personally conscripted—in fact, only Shirakawa was personally recruited The Emperor, the Emperor Toba also came, because the Emperor Shirakawa was afraid that the Emperor Toba would take away his right to rule after he left, so he forced the Emperor Toba to come.

The two sides started to make arrangements three days ago, and now they are all ready.

War is imminent!
……

(End of this chapter)