Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 366 Fighting in the Plains
At noon, Jiang Cheng sent someone to report that the Tachibana family and more than 300 tenant farmers on the Oga Peninsula had all been killed by the Kun people, but the Kun people also suffered heavy casualties, paying the price of nearly 200 casualties, but even so The eldest son of the Tachibana family, Tachibana Sadayori, also escaped in the scuffle and his whereabouts are unknown.

Sima Yang Jing sighed and said to Fan Ning: "It seems that the Kun people are still unreliable in their actions. Not only did they cause 200 casualties, but they also killed innocent people indiscriminately. They actually let the most important people go."

Fan Ning was also deeply disappointed. He shook his head, "They won't need to fight in the future. Tachibana Sadayori probably escaped to Kaga to report the news. That's fine, prepare for a decisive battle with the Kiyohara Army!"

At this time, Xu Qing pulled out more than a dozen horses from the city, and laughed all the way: "Look at these horses, they are very interesting!"

When everyone stepped forward, these horses were really special, they were all short in stature, just like donkeys. "

Fan Ning said with a smile: "This is a Japanese horse. The reason why I don't use Japanese horses to breed is because they are too small to afford soldiers in full armor to fight, and they are more like transportation for the people of Kunzhou."

"This seems to be their war horse. How can such a short horse fight?" Xu Qing asked puzzled.

Fan Ning smiled slightly, "That's because the Japanese soldiers are also very short in stature, and riding on this kind of pony seems to complement each other very well, and everyone will understand after thinking about it."

Everyone thought of the little soldier riding on the pony, and couldn't help laughing
Fan Ning immediately urged the horse to lead the army into Akita City. As the Song army entered the city, every household in the city kowtowed and kowtowed at the door, begging the Song army for forgiveness.

These people are not Japanese, but Ainu, that is, Ainu people, but they are no longer natives like the Ainu people in Kunzhou. They have been completely naturalized and transformed into a farming nation, except that their language and beliefs have not changed. , Other living habits, living houses and clothing are no different from the Japanese.

However, it can be seen that they are all poor, with simple clothes and small and dilapidated houses. Zhang Zhi, who joined the army, said to Fan Ning with a smile: "According to what I know, the taxation of the Ainu people here is quite heavy. One is land rent, and the other is tax. The rent for wealthy families is followed by tribute rent, which is a tax paid to the Japanese imperial court. In recent years, a military tax has been added, which is the burden of military expenses. Almost [-]% of each family’s annual income has to be paid. handed over, so the farmers here are generally in extreme poverty.”

Fan Ning nodded. The farmers in the hinterland of Japan are almost the same as these three items. However, because of the exploitation of the Dongyi people, the Japanese imperial court required the Dewa and Mutsu countries to pay twice the tribute and rent of the interior of Japan. This is the root cause of the rebellion of the Abe family.

Everyone walked into the mansion of the Qingyuan family, and Fan Ning went directly to the warehouse on the side. The warehouse is divided into two parts, the inside and the outside. The outside is for storing food items such as rice, fish sauce, and wine, and the inside is for storing a large amount of silver and gold. , sea pearls, corals, tortoiseshell shells, animal skins and other valuables, Yang Jin and his soldiers are busy counting them.

The rice is packed in sacks, each bag weighs about a hundred catties, piled up like a hill, there are tens of thousands of bags, and many of the rice has already shown signs of mildew and rot. This is just the Qingyuan family's grain. There are more tributes and rents that have not been turned over to the court, which are at least 30 shi.

This is the condition that the Japanese imperial court gave the Kiyohara family. As long as they send troops to the Mutsu country, the imperial court can waive all the tribute owed before, that is, a large amount of food in the garrison warehouse has become the private property of the Kiyohara family.

Fan Ning immediately ordered: "Order the soldiers to deliver a bag of rice to every household in the city, and tell them that all taxes will be exempted this year!"

Not long after, people in Akita City began to cheer, and more and more people ran to the street and started dancing to celebrate.

Just five days after the Song army occupied Akita City, under the cover of night, an army of 6000 people was rushing to Akita City along a secret canyon. This army was the Dewa country army led by Mitsuyori Kiyohara.

When they were fiercely besieging Kaga Castle, Abe's hometown, they suddenly learned that the Song army had landed on the Oga Peninsula. This news shocked Kiyohara Mitsuyori.

Of course he knew that the Song army was supporting the Abe family, but he did not expect that the Song army did not directly support Kaga Castle, but counterattacked his own base. He Cheng immediately withdrew his troops and returned to Deyu Country.

Kiyohara Mitsurai was also afraid of being ambushed by the Song army halfway. They did not walk along the two mountain gorge roads when they came, but took another secret path back, and this road was closer.

Kiyohara Mitsuyori was about fifty years old, with dark skin, wearing a black iron armor, and his eyes were particularly gloomy. He tried his best to hide his anxiety, but the hasty withdrawal of troops had already exposed his heart.

"Brother, didn't the Song Army reach an agreement with the imperial court? Not to interfere in the Japanese civil war, why did it go back on its word and send troops to our Deyu country?"

The question is Kiyohara Mitsuyori's brother Kiyohara Takeno, who is the commander of the Dewa country's army. He was supposed to lead the army to attack Kaga Castle, but Kiyohara Mitsuyori wanted to enjoy the taste of occupying Kaga Castle, so he led the army together. But it also escaped the disaster of Akita breaking the city.

Kiyohara Mitsurai said for a while: "This so-called agreement is not worth mentioning in the face of interests. The Song Army will not allow the imperial forces to go north to the Northeast. If the Abe family and the imperial army are evenly matched, he will not intervene. But now Abe is in danger of being attacked from both sides, and he will not sit idly by."

"But why are we the target?" Wu Ze Qingyuan said angrily.

Kiyohara Mitsurai was silent. In fact, he knew very well why Song Jun's goal was the Chuyu Country. It probably had something to do with the marriage at the beginning of the year. They first intervened in the political situation of Kunzhou and were caught by Song Jun.

Kiyohara Mikorai let out a long sigh, at this moment his heart was full of regret.

But now it is meaningless to say regret, Kiyohara Mitsuyori had to order: "Order the whole army to speed up, and must arrive at Akita Castle before dawn!"

The [-]-strong army sped up their speed and rushed along the path to the valley entrance, which was more than ten miles away.

Although there are 6000 people in the Dewa country's army, the actual standing army is only 3000 people, and the other 3000 people are farmers recruited temporarily, which leads to uneven equipment in the army.

The [-] standing army is mainly made of bamboo armor, and iron armor is only equipped by a few generals. There are about [-] horses, but they are mainly used to carry food and other logistics supplies. crude.

In particular, the spears are all made of ordinary wooden poles with spearheads. Unlike the spears of the Song Army, which have undergone multiple steps such as cloth wrapping, oil immersion, and sun drying, the spears are as hard as iron and can be chopped continuously.

This is still the equipment of the standing army. If it is a peasant, it is even more crude. First of all, there is no armor, and they all wear ordinary clothes, barefoot, and hold wooden sticks or sharpened wooden spears.

At this time, neither the standing army nor the ordinary peasants knew that the Song army had landed in the Chuyu country. They thought that they would no longer fight, and they were all elated, dreaming of going home quickly.

After passing through the Ou Mountains, they entered the plain area of ​​Dewa country. From here to the sea, there are plains and basins for more than 100 miles. There are at least [-] square kilometers of fertile plains. This is a rare flat area in the Japanese archipelago. It was this plain that made Dewa country a major grain producer in Japan.

But now the population of Dewa country is only over [-] people, and the land is far from being developed, only the land around tens of miles around Akita Castle has been developed, and the other plains are basically endless grasslands, which are suitable for raising horses.

For this reason, the ponies produced in Deyu Country are quite famous, and thousands of ponies are paid to the imperial court every year.

It was getting brighter, and the Dewa country's army had arrived about twenty miles away from Akita Castle. At this time, spies came to report that an army of about 2000 people was found a few miles away.

Kiyohara Mitsurai immediately realized that they had encountered the Song army, and he immediately ordered the entire army to stop advancing.

The rapid march overnight made his soldiers exhausted. At this time, fighting will inevitably reduce the combat effectiveness of the army sharply, which is very unfavorable to them.

As soon as his military order was issued, a black line appeared a few miles away. The Song Army did not give them a chance to breathe, and appeared in time. The Deyu Kingdom's army began to stir up. Only then did they realize that they hurried back to fight .

Qingyuan Wu Ze shouted: "Don't make a fuss, concentrate and prepare for battle!"

All the generals restrained their troops one after another and quickly arranged a combat formation.

At this time, two thousand Song troops had already arrived one mile away from the Dewa country's army, and they also set up their formation.

The two thousand soldiers are an elite army with excellent equipment. Each soldier wears armor with a mountain pattern along the water, an eagle-prismatic helmet on his head, a standard spear in his hand, a sword on his waist, and a round shield on his back. Carrying a powerful crossbow.

Among the [-] soldiers, there are [-] cavalry soldiers trained in Kunzhou. They ride tall and strong horses, carry spears, and line up neatly behind the infantry.

In front of the cavalry were 500 well-armored infantry, lined up in the shape of a square, and in front of them were two phalanxes of [-] men, both of which were armed with crossbows, ready to be drawn from the infantry with spears. Converted to crossbowmen.

Fan Ning was riding among the infantry. He was accompanied by general Xu Yan and two commanders. The Kun tribe entered Akita City for defense. They will not participate in today's battle.

On the vast wilderness, two thousand soldiers of the Song Army were full of murderous intent, motionless like a piece of iron, and the powerful murderous intent enveloped the wilderness, quietly waiting for the moment of the decisive battle.

(End of this chapter)