Kai Fu Han

Chapter 205 The Alliance Under the City 4
It seems that the Matsuura Party has not given up resistance, and they probably have some trump cards, either with allies or with ships and troops that were not in Hirado yesterday.

When the fleet arrived about a mile from Toto Port, it stopped. Li Cang first arranged for a barge to go to the port dock to explore the water depth to ensure that the Matsuura Party was not doing anything underwater, and then the fleet began to dock.

Five state-class ships docked at the pier, while other county-class sand ships continued to be on guard outside the port.

"Go ahead. It's probably around [-]:[-] p.m. now. I'll give you two hours. After lunch, if there's no news from you, I'll start attacking the city. Remember my three requirements, The Matsuura Party will either agree directly or be forced to accept it after the war. I will not accept bargaining." Liu Xinqi said to Muneyimao.

The three requirements were discussed by several people last night:

The first is to request that two hundred acres of land be allocated in Hirado Castle and the port, and a total of four hundred acres of land be leased to the Xinghan League to build a trade station. The lease term is 99 years and the rent is 100 taels of silver per year.

The second is to require the Matsuura Party not to interfere with the Xinghan League's business in Japan, and not to affect in any way the normal transactions between Japanese businessmen and the Xinghan League.

The third is to compensate the Xinghan League for the losses they suffered in the Battle of Tuima and Hirado, equivalent to 20 taels of silver, and hand over the mastermind of the ambush and attack on the Xinghan League's fleet in the Tuima waters to be handled by the Xinghan League.

"I will try my best and hope that you can turn the hostility into friendship as soon as possible to avoid causing greater casualties." Zong Laimao promised.

Since ancient times, siege warfare has been a meat grinder. "Sun Tzu: Planning for Attack": "Therefore, the method of using troops is to surround it ten times and attack it five times." Compared with the Matsuura Party, the number of troops that the Xinghan League can devote to the siege is relatively small. The advantage of the defending troops is not great. If we attack the city, we will inflict [-] casualties on the enemy and [-] losses on ourselves.

Even if artillery broke through the city gates and soldiers made sharp knives to attack Hirado Castle, the Xinghan Alliance's own casualties would certainly not be avoided.

Since ancient times, the first step is to attack conspiracies, the second is to attack friends, the second is to attack troops, and the third is to attack the city.

Therefore, Liu Xinqi gave Zong Laimao the opportunity to negotiate again. Everyone is born from father and mother. If you can achieve your goal by killing fewer people, you must naturally choose to die less.

"I'm waiting for your good news." Liu Xinqi replied.

Watching Soyorimo enter Hirado Castle, Liu Xinqi began to organize the Marines and some selected naval officers and soldiers to land, while Ye Chuan commanded the people on the Qingzhou to unload the artillery ashore.

The most difficult part of the siege station is to break through the city gate or attack the city wall. This is also the reason why the role of the city wall has gradually weakened until it is useless since the birth of artillery.

The population of the Japanese state in this era was much smaller than that of later generations. The population of the Zhao state had exceeded 700 million, while the population of the Japanese state was estimated to be only [-] million. Therefore, the cities were very small, and the walls were not high. By visual inspection, they should be less than two feet.

At noon, all the troops and equipment planned to participate in the siege had been ashore, including 400 Marine Corps officers and soldiers, 400 Navy officers and soldiers, 50 artillery squadrons, and nearly 50 other auxiliary troops such as communications, martial arts, military law, and medical. Hundreds of logistics personnel carried ladders, explosive packs and other engineering equipment, a total of 1000 people.

Lunch was prepared on the ship and sent ashore. The 1000 people on the shore started eating in three shifts. After eating, they rested in place to conserve their energy.

Until the last hour (15:[-]), no one was seen coming out of Hirado Castle.

"Everyone stand up, form a team, and prepare to attack the city!" Liu Xinqi ordered.

The officers of each unit began to form the team according to the order, and finally formed ten hundred-man square teams of the first four, the middle four, and the last two.

"go ahead!"

The four marine formations in the front began to advance, followed by the four naval formations and the two rearmost formations.

The port was less than a mile away from the east gate of Hirado Castle. Liu Xinqi commanded the army to stop when they were 150 steps away from the city wall.

The only artillery piece was put on a cart and pulled to the front of the military formation. The cart was unloaded, earth bags were piled on the ground to form a base, and the artillery piece was put up.In this way, the artillery, which in Liu Xinqi's opinion could not be more crude, was set up. "Blast through the city gate!"

"Yes! Leader!" The artillery squadron leader saluted and took orders.

The officials who came from the company to guide and record the use of the artillery personally went into battle to measure the distance and adjust the elevation angle of the artillery.I saw him standing behind the artillery piece, straightening his arms and using the "thumb measurement method" to simply measure the distance. He roughly calculated the distance with a pen. He then directed two officers and soldiers to grab the muzzle of the artillery piece and lift one end of the artillery piece. They personally used a shovel to shovel the artillery piece. Several shovels of soil were placed on the sandbags under the muzzle.

"Put it down and take a look," the official said.

The two soldiers obediently put down the cannon, the muzzle was a little higher than the sandbags just now, and the officials went back to the cannon again to test it.

"Test fire!"

"Yes!" The artilleryman still operated the artillery, loading powder, loading ammunition, and inserting the fuse.

"ignition!"

The torch that had been lit before was placed in front of the fuse, and the fuse was lit. The artillerymen on both sides of the artillery immediately moved away, turned their backs to the artillery, and covered their ears with their hands.

"boom!!"

There was a loud noise, and a huge gap immediately appeared on the east gate of Hirado Castle in front. Half of the door was drooping, and it looked like it could be kicked in with a kick.

"Awesome!" Liu Xinqi couldn't help but praise when he saw the effect of this shot.It's such a talent to be able to shoot so accurately with such a crude weapon.

Because the gun was fired on land, the gun was fixed very firmly, and the recoil caused the gun barrel to move very little. After a simple adjustment, the gun barrel was cleared and loaded again.

"Boom!" Thirty breaths later, another shot was fired.

Perhaps because the last firing lowered the breech of the gun, causing the muzzle to rise, this shot directly hit the city gate tower. The five-pound shell broke a column of the city gate tower, swept past, and passed behind the gate tower. The wall flew out, and for a while bricks and tiles from the city gate tower were scattered everywhere, and dust was flying.

The unlucky guy who was guarding the city was spattered by fragments and howled in pain.

"Boom!" The officer put a few shovels of dirt on the rear of the gun and fired the third gun.

This shot was fired into the city gate hole again. The half door that had been crumbling before could no longer hold up and fell to the ground. The other door had no support from the middle door bar and was also half-open.

Liu Xinqi had good eyesight. In addition to half of the door panel, Liu Xinqi could see several Hirado defenders who had been shot down by artillery shells on the ground. Most of them had broken arms and legs. There were also a few who had died, and the rest were not alive. Dare to stay in the city gate hole, no one dares to block the half-open wooden door.

"Stop shooting!" Liu Xinqi ordered.Because he saw Zong Laimao being hung in a hanging basket and lowered from the wall next to the city gate, holding a white flag in his hand.

The artilleryman immediately stopped what he was doing when he heard the order.

"Let him come over." Liu Xinqi ordered again, and Zong Laimao walked safely to Liu Xinqi holding the chess piece.

"It fulfills its mission, they agreed." Zong Laimao reported to the island, his face full of joy.

(End of this chapter)