Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 221 Attack on Ezo
It is precisely for this reason that the Japanese army continued to charge forward despite the Ming army's shelling. They were just praying secretly in their hearts that the Ming army's artillery shells would not fall on their heads.

However, soon, the Japanese army was only about one mile away from the Ming army, and had entered the shooting range of the Ming army's squatting tiger cannon. In an instant, five thousand squatting tiger cannons fired in unison, shaking the earth. The sound halted the progress of the Japanese army. Then the Japanese soldiers felt that the sky turned black instantly. When they raised their heads, they could no longer see the blue sky. Countless shells blocked the sky and blocked the sun.

Then screams of crying for fathers and mothers began to come one after another, and Japanese soldiers began to fall down in rows. Even if they were lucky enough not to be hit by the shells of the Tiger Crouching Cannon, they rushed out from the range of the artillery fire. , will soon meet the lead of the Ming army's gunfire, and be beaten into a sieve.

Maori Xiuyuan was stunned by the hellish scene in front of him. How could this be a war? This was simply the Ming army unilaterally massacring the Japanese army, and the Japanese army was slowly being pushed forward like a piece of meat. In the meat grinder.

Mouri Hidemoto looked back at Tokugawa Iemitsu, who was sitting high on the tower, and saw that Tokugawa Iemitsu was also looking at the battlefield in front of him in astonishment, completely frightened by the sight in front of him.

Hidemoto Mouri knew that it was impossible to expect Tokugawa Iemitsu to order the withdrawal of troops at this time, and if the word "retreat" came out of his mouth, he would probably become the scapegoat for the defeat, so Hidemoto Mouri secretly decided, If Tokugawa Iemitsu doesn't give the order to retreat after a while, then he will use the 36 strategies to escape and run away!

At this moment, several flying knights came flying from the distance of Hagi Castle. Mouri Hidemoto looked at them with a monocular and found that they were shogunate soldiers from Edo, who should have come to deliver a message.

Maori Xiuyuan sent a few men to meet them, and then continued to stare at the battlefield in front of him, sometimes making meaningless battle commands.

Zheng Zhilong on the opposite side also noticed several Japanese messengers coming from afar, and began to wonder where these messengers came from and what news they came to report to Japan.

Zheng Zhilong no longer needs to take command of the battlefield in front of him. These soldiers participating in the battle are all from the Li Banghua Naval Battalion. They are well-trained, and their artillery fire is neat, fast and accurate, as are the two groups of gunners at the forefront of the position. The combat level is quite high, he can take turns shooting without interruption, and his marksmanship is also very good.

As for Zheng Zhilong's men, they are all in the last row of the team. As the guards of the Chinese army's tent, even Zheng Zhilong's soldiers have thousands of people equipped with fire blunderbuss, but they are all equipped with the same bird blunderbuss as the Japanese, and they are also Without professional training, it is impossible to shoot quickly and ensure shooting accuracy.

Therefore, these soldiers under Zheng Zhilong can only participate in hand-to-hand combat, and they are all good at melee combat with the enemy.

It is precisely for this reason that although the Ming army has been fighting the Japanese army for more than a month and has fought dozens of large and small battles, Zheng Zhilong's soldiers have almost no combat experience. In most cases, the Ming army's artillery clears the way. He and the fire gun soldiers defeated the enemy from a distance, and then Zheng Zhilong's soldiers ran forward to finish off the damage or capture prisoners.

Although soldiers don't want to fight, that's because they don't want to risk their lives to fight with others. Naturally, they can be lazy if they can. But in today's one-sided battle, naturally whoever rushes faster will win. After grabbing more battle achievements, Zheng Zhilong's subordinates all felt a little too embarrassed by following behind to pick up the leaks and do some cleanup work.

But now Zheng Zhilong has long forgotten to consider the feelings of his subordinates. Now Zheng Zhilong's subordinates and Li Banghua's navy have been mixed into one. Zheng Zhilong, as the forward general of the Ming army, naturally commands them together and is unstoppable. The Ming Navy Navy made Zheng Zhilong feel that the more he used it, the more comfortable it became.

At first Zheng Zhilong was still sighing, how great it would be if he had such a well-trained army equipped with advanced firearms in the future, but as time went by, Zheng Zhilong had long forgotten these thoughts and commanded the Ming army. Zheng Zhilong felt quite proud as he killed all the Japanese troops and made them flee in all directions.

Even for the battle in front of him, Zheng Zhilong was originally worried about the disparity in strength between the two sides before the battle started. But now that the battle started, Zheng Zhilong found that it was a one-sided battle again. The Ming army hardly needed his own command to deal with the Japanese. The army carried out a massacre-like attack, which made Zheng Zhilong even feel a little lack of interest.

Zheng Zhilong turned around and walked into the commander's tent. He cupped his fists and saluted Li Banghua and said: "Master Junmen, it seems that the Japanese army is suppressed by our artillery fire and cannot even approach our army's position. It is only a matter of time before they are defeated."

Li Banghua nodded slightly. This was something he expected. After all, he had experienced such one-sided battles many times in Liaodong. Each time, the Ming army chased Jiannu's troops and fought. There is no way to fight back.

Zheng Zhilong then added: "I just saw a few messengers coming from behind the Japanese army, but I don't know what news they came to deliver to the Japanese army. Could it be that the Japanese army has an ambush elsewhere?"

Li Banghua said with a smile: "The Japanese country can gather the 22 troops and horses in front of them. I'm afraid this is their limit. How can they send troops to other places? In my opinion, I am afraid that reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty have arrived. The rear of Japan was attacked, and I came here to report the news to them!"

Zheng Zhilong suddenly remembered this matter. After the war with the Japanese army, Zheng Zhilong had forgotten about it. Now that Li Banghua suddenly mentioned it, Zheng Zhilong remembered it again.

Li Banghua no longer talks to Zheng Zhilong and directly tells Zheng Zhilong: "After Liaodong was recovered by the Ming Dynasty, Kuwu Island in the east has also been occupied by our Ming army. The imperial court has sent [-] soldiers and horses in advance on Kuwu Island. The South Shore rallied.

To the south of Kuwu Island is Ezo Island. There is only a Soya Strait of less than a hundred miles between the two islands. It only takes an hour or two to cross by boat. Then our army can go all the way south from Ezo Island to Edo, which smashed the country of Japan. "

Zheng Zhilong was immediately overjoyed after hearing this: "So that's it. Now that the Japanese country is empty behind them, our army coming from Ezo Island will definitely catch them by surprise!"

At this time, Tokugawa Iemitsu had already received news of the attack on the Japanese rear. The Matsumae Domain located on the Toshima Peninsula of Ezo Island was suddenly attacked by tens of thousands of Ming troops. The Matsumae Fukuyama Castle built by the Matsumae Domain had already fallen. Now only Lord Matsumae of the Matsumae Domain, Kohiro Matsumae, and his family escaped from Fukuyama Castle and fled to Edo for help.

Tokugawa Iemitsu put away the letter and raised his head with a pale face. He suddenly thought, if the shogunate only learned of the attack on the Matsumae clan when Matsumae Kimihiro ran to Edo for help, and counting the news from the shogunate By the time I came here to deliver a message to myself, I am afraid that the Ming army had already landed on Honshu Island, marched all the way south, and captured several Lingzhi countries, right?

Now that the entire Japanese military force has been gathered together by him, he has brought them to Hagi City for a decisive battle with the Ming army. Each vassal and the state is empty of military strength. Even if they can temporarily organize retainers and people to participate in the battle, there is no way What's the point?Even the regular army had no power to fight back against the Ming army. Can the temporary troops organized by retainers and common people alone stop the Ming army from advancing?

Tokugawa Iemitsu suddenly felt a chill running down his spine. If the Ming army was fast enough, even Edo might be in danger. After all, from Ezo Island to Honshu Island, there was the Mutsu Clan, and then all the way south there were only the Rikuchu Clan and the Rikuchu Clan. Rikuzen Domain, Iwaki Domain, Hitachi Domain, and Shimoso Domain were the five kingdoms. For the Ming army, the road was almost smooth.

Tokugawa Iemitsu didn't dare to think any more and quickly shouted Matsudaira Nobutsuna's name. Matsudaira Nobutsuna heard the sound and hurried forward. "Nobutsuna, the Ming army suddenly attacked from Ezo Island. Our army's rear is empty. Edo may be in danger. What should we do?"

After hearing this, Matsudaira Nobutsuna turned and looked at the map of Japan hanging on the wall. Then he raised his hand and pointed at Kyoto and said to Tokugawa Iemitsu: "General, if Edo is really lost, we can only move to Kyoto temporarily. Got it!"

Tokugawa Iemitsu was naturally not so panicked that he couldn't even think of a simple solution like moving, but it was just that he couldn't think of a suitable place for a while.

Now, under the strong offensive of the Ming army, the Tokugawa family has become too embarrassed, and it is difficult to deter the various vassals and orders. Many lords may have disobedient intentions and want to take advantage of the chaos to rebel, so no matter what No matter which country you went to hide in, it was difficult to guarantee your own safety, and you might be killed by the local feudal lord.

Since he cannot seek refuge with other feudal lords, then going to Kyoto, the emperor's territory, is naturally a good choice. However, in fact, under the current circumstances, going to Kyoto may not be safe.

Because the Samurai family was so powerful before, the emperor could only be a famous but powerless "mascot" under the force of the Tokugawa family. But now that the Tokugawa family is in decline, it is inevitable that the ministers around the emperor may be motivated to get rid of the Tokugawa family. The Kawa family wanted to restore the power of the emperor.

Of course, these ministers may not be very loyal to the emperor. After all, the current Emperor Meisho is the niece of Tokugawa Hidetada and can be considered a member of the Tokugawa family. Tokugawa Iemitsu is not worried that the emperor will harm him. He is worried about those ministers. They wanted to get rid of themselves and seize power in the name of loyalty to the emperor, and resorted to the trick of "holding the emperor to order the princes".

In addition to worrying about his own safety, there is also the fact that in name, he ran to the capital for no reason, and it was indeed a bit "disrespectful". The shogunate lost face.

Matsudaira Nobutsuna could see Tokugawa Iemitsu's hesitation, and naturally he could also think of what Tokugawa Iemitsu was worried about, so he immediately said to him: "General, don't worry, general can. ' For the reason, go to Kyoto, and in this way, it will be justifiable."

After hearing this, Tokugawa Iemitsu nodded slowly, turned around and glanced at the map of Japan on the wall, and was secretly thinking that if he couldn't go to Kyoto, he would have to go to Osaka.

After learning the news of the attack on the rear, Tokugawa Iemitsu could no longer sit still. He immediately asked Matsudaira Nobutsuna to arrange a ride. He wanted to leave Hagi Castle immediately and rush north back to Edo to try to win the battle. The Ming army arrived before they reached Edo Castle.

At the same time, he also sent Pegasus to rush back in advance. If the Ming army had already arrived before he arrived at Edo, he would immediately pick up his family members and send them to Kyoto.

Mouri Hidemoto at the bottom of the city watched Tokugawa Iemitsu in the city walk into the city from the tower in panic after receiving the letter from Edo. He seemed to be leaving. It must have been someone coming from behind. What a big deal.

Now that Tokugawa Iemitsu, the shogun, is leaving, why should I still support myself here?Maori Xiuyuan immediately turned around and walked towards the city gate.

He deliberately walked leisurely so as not to be noticed by others. At the same time, he called his trusted men along the way and went to the city to take out the gold and silver that had been packaged. Then he left through the back door of Hagi Castle.

After Mouri Hidemoto left for a long time, the officers fighting at the front discovered that the general had never come out since he had just entered the city, so they had to go in to search, but they searched all over Hagi Castle but could not find Mouri Hidemoto.

Some officers who went into the city to search found that Mouri Hidemoto was missing and the back door of Hagi Castle was open. They could probably guess that Mouri Hidemoto had run away.

Without the restraint of their immediate boss, Mouri Hidemoto, these officers would naturally not foolishly continue to fight and die in vain, and they all fled through the back door.

Some officers simply stopped doing nothing and started searching for property in Hagi Castle, plundering some money and then leaving. With the first one taking the lead, there were the second and third ones. Chaos broke out in Hagi Castle instantly.

Before Tokugawa Iemitsu and the others came down from the tower, they heard that the city was becoming noisy. Matsudaira Nobutsuna sent someone to see what was going on, but the people they sent never came back, so Matsudaira Nobutsuna had to go in person. Look, it was discovered that the city was in chaos, and the rebel soldiers were looting the city.

Tokugawa Iemitsu was even more shocked when he heard this, but in this case, he was unable to restrain these Japanese soldiers, so he could only escape from Hagi Castle in embarrassment under the protection of his own soldiers.

The Hagi Castle in the rear was in chaos and was subsequently set on fire. When the soldiers fighting in the front saw that the Hagi Castle in the rear was on fire, they had no intention of fighting anymore and fled in all directions, abandoning their helmets and armor.

Upon seeing this, Zheng Zhilong immediately gave the order to the Ming army to charge forward and defeat the Japanese army in one fell swoop.

Hearing the order to charge, Zheng Zhilong's men, who were standing at the end of the military formation and were about to lose their temper, suddenly became energetic. They rushed to the front line, rushing to inflict wounds on the Japanese soldiers and capture the surrendered soldiers. Prisoners.

In this battle, the Ming army annihilated more than [-] Japanese soldiers and captured more than [-] Japanese prisoners of war. After being gathered by Tokugawa Iemitsu, nearly [-] Japanese soldiers were taken away from Nagato Domain and returned northward. Went to aid Edo.

The rest of the [-] to [-] Japanese troops have disappeared. Most of them escaped before the battle, fled to the surrounding vassals, and turned into rogue bandits to cause trouble in places.

By the time the Ming army finished cleaning the battlefield and arrived at Hagi Castle, Hagi Castle was completely enveloped in fire, and the possibility of rescue was lost.

(End of this chapter)