Li Dingguo had a headache in the face of a turtle shell. A strong attack would definitely result in too many casualties, and the artillery attack could not defeat the city defense artillery due to the terrain.
The defenders in Tsurumaru Castle were also frightened. They had been besieged for many days, and their morale was already low. In the attack and defense of Ishigaki just now, they directly lost one-fifth of their troops.
Today, there are less than 2,000 defenders, and there is no hope of victory.
If Shimazu Mitsuhisa's prestige was not there and he could suppress the samurai and ashigaru in the city, these defenders would have surrendered without saying a word.
Occupying the stone wall and continuing the siege, Li Dingguo did not panic for the time being.
But it is said that Shimazu Mitsuhisa's eldest son Shimazu Tsunahisa returned to Kagoshima from Edo on the orders of the shogunate. He came back to succeed the family governor, and by the way supervised his father's caesarean section to apologize. As a result, he took a boat straight to Hirado Castle and went together with him.
Also included is Matsuura Nobuzada of the Matsuura family.
"The shogunate asked me to have a caesarean section to apologize? Haha." Matsuura Shigenobu laughed.
Shimazu Tsunahisa said: "For the current plan, only the Matsuura family will send troops to defeat the Tang soldiers together with my Shimazu family. Otherwise, even if we change the governor, we will not be able to afford the heavy war compensation."
Retainer Yuhuang Tagawa said: "Your Excellency, perhaps Nanizaemon can be sent as an envoy to persuade the Tang soldiers to relax the conditions for withdrawal."
"Let him be the messenger? I'm afraid he will never come back!" Matsuura Shigenobu sneered.
Shichizaemon is Zheng Chenggong’s younger brother Zheng Daozhou.
Emperor Tianchuan Yu was Zheng Chenggong's maternal grandfather. Legend has it that this man's surname was Weng, and he was originally from Quanzhou. After marrying Japan, he changed his surname and became a retainer of the Matsuura family.
Zheng Chenggong's biological mother, Tagawa Matsu, had been taken back to Fujian to settle down, but the Hirado clan was unwilling to let Zheng Daozhou go. This forced the Zheng family to conduct official trade in Nagasaki and also spare some effort to smuggle goods to Hirado.
Matsuura Shigenobu was probably the one with the most far-sighted vision among the Japanese feudal lords.
He had been familiar with Confucian classics since he was a child, and at the same time he followed the Christian religion and rapidly grew his strength through sea trade. The fundamental reason for Tokugawa Iemitsu's seclusion was the Hirado clan, which had seriously threatened the rule of the shogunate.
After the country was closed to the outside world, the Dutch business establishment in Hirado was forcibly relocated to Nagasaki by the shogunate.
Although this move greatly damaged the strength of the Hirado clan, Matsuura Shigenobu was no ordinary person. He encouraged farmers to open up wasteland for reclamation and supported the development of industry and commerce. At the same time, he secretly engaged in smuggling and piracy. Even his own house was burned down in order to save money and food.
I can bear not to rebuild.
On the other hand, Shimazu Mitsuhisa is a guy with a lot of debt and still wants to build a vacation villa in Kirishima.
Matsuura Shigenobu later raised a good son who not only did not indulge in pleasure, but also implemented Confucian benevolent government and was committed to helping the poor and low-income people.
Matsuura Shigenobu stood tall, looked at the sky and said: "If the shogunate doesn't send troops, then my Matsuura family will do it!" He suddenly sneered, "The shogunate's plan is nothing more than to use Tang soldiers to weaken the strength of our Matsuura and Shimazu families.
, the rule of his Tokugawa family will be worry-free forever."
Hirado, Zheng Family Store.
Zheng Daozhou is only eighteen years old this year, but he has already become the head of the Zheng family's trade in Hirado.
"Master, the Matsuura family seems to be going to war. It's been very lively outside the city these days, and the samurai from the castle town are being ordered to enter the city." Zheng Zhong reminded.
Zheng Daozhou sighed: "I know that someone is watching the store and not allowing me to leave. They are afraid that I will take the opportunity to escape."
Zheng Zhong worriedly asked: "Will the business hall be in danger?"
Zheng Daozhou shook his head: "As long as the Matsuura family still wants to smuggle through sea trade, they will not attack the Zheng family store. Send a man to Nagasaki, not by sea, but by land. Tell the Zheng family store there,
Let them take a boat to Kagoshima to report the news. It is said that the Matsuura clan is gathering troops and is likely to go south to fight the Datong army. "
"Yes!" Zheng Zhong bowed and stepped back.
Zheng Daozhou has been adopted into his maternal grandfather's house. His surname should actually be Tagawa, so he is also called Tagawa Jiro in Japan.
Historically, his mother, Tagawa Matsu, committed suicide because she did not want to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. Zheng Daozhou always asked to return to China to fight against the Qing Dynasty. However, the Japanese never let him go, so Zheng Daozhou had no choice but to give up and continue to deliver anti-Qing supplies to his brother Zheng Chenggong in Japan.
This time and space is even more outrageous. Because Zheng Zhilong was made a Duke and Zheng Chenggong married a princess as his consort, the Matsuura family paid special attention to Zheng Daozhou. Zheng Daozhou's wife at this time was the youngest sister of the Matsuura family governor, and their son was already one year old.
However, it is said that after Li Dingguo occupied Shiyuan, he continued to besiege the city for more than thirty days, and the defenders in the city showed signs of collapse.
If the siege continues for another month, Tsurumaru Castle will be short of food.
At this time, news came from the navy that a Zheng family merchant ship had arrived from Nagasaki, reporting that the Hirado clan was preparing to gather troops to go south.
Li Dingguo was overjoyed and said: "We came just in time. Don't besiege Tsurumaru City too tightly. Breaking the city in advance will scare away the enemy's reinforcements."
Matsuura Shigenobu not only gathered his troops for the expedition, but also landed at Akune.
The accompanying Shimazu Tsunahisa, as the eldest son of the family governor, ordered the masters of the Shimazu family castles in Akune and Izuku to send troops. If they did not send troops, the Matsuura family troops would directly attack the city!
The army gathered troops all the way south, and the army grew stronger. When they arrived at Ijuin, the combined forces of Matsuura and Hirado had 8,000 people. Counting civilians, there were more than 20,000 people, and they were known to the outside world as a hundred thousand troops.
After setting off from Ijuin, Shimazu Tsunahisa said: "These people in the Satsuma Domain may not be willing to contribute in a frontal battle. They did not save their troops before.
I have offended my father, and now I wish that my father would die soon. If my father were alive, he would definitely ask them for their sins."
Matsuura Shigenobu nodded and said: "This problem is very troublesome. Although our two families have a combined force of 20,000, the only ones who are really united are the warriors of the Hirado clan. Do you have any good suggestions?"
Shimazu Tsunahisa suggested: "You can use the secret tactics of the Shimazu family to catch Nobushi!"
The so-called fishing field ambush is to set up an ambush, feign defeat to lure the enemy to pursue, and then use all the ambush troops to annihilate the enemy.
This method of warfare, which is very common in Chinese wars, was so praised by the Shimadzu family that they won many brilliant victories. They even defeated Toyotomi Hideyoshi's vanguard and captured the eldest son of Chosomegabu Motochinchi with this method of tactics.
There is also the Woodpecker Tactics, that is the ultimate secret of Takeda Shingen.
In fact, it is to separate the cavalry from behind, rush out at the critical moment of the battle, specifically attack the enemy's most vulnerable troops, and break the enemy's surface to cause a great rout.
The most interesting thing is Uesugi Kenshin's Chexuan Formation. This thing is more like a magic spell, or a big move in the game. It will definitely be full of loopholes in actual combat, and the enemy will beat him to the point where his own mother doesn't recognize him. I think.
To have practical significance, every soldier must be able to follow orders and prohibitions, and all middle-level officers must have the ability to adapt to changes.
If the Chaxuan Formation is true, the middle-level officers under Uesugi Kenshin are probably all first-class generals.
The allied forces of the two vassals were plundering the people along the way. They sent out troops too fast and there was not enough food and grass. They had to steal food from the people. The people under the jurisdiction of the Shimazu family, the closer they got to Tsurumaru Castle, the more people there were.
I have done business with the Datong Army. Comparing the two, in the sky and on the ground, the Datong Army trades fairly and never kills or robs. On the contrary, the soldiers of Shimadzu and Matsuura are more like invaders.
As a result, nearby people fled one after another, taking their families and families to join the Datong Army, and took the initiative to help pass on military information.
About six miles away from Tsurumaru Castle, the Datong Army met the enemy coalition forces.
The Datong Army only has 5,000 people, and the rest are still besieging Tsurumaru Castle. The enemy coalition forces are even smaller, with only 3,000 people, many of whom are civilians wearing rags.
Ghost Head Forty-eight said: "General, be careful of the Shimazu family's Diao Yefu!
After listening to the translation, Li Dingguo realized that it was the secret of Shimazu's warfare, and he couldn't help but laugh: "It's been a long time since we fought a war, and we did a perfunctory job of luring the enemy. With so many civilians acting like this, I'm afraid there are less than a thousand real soldiers.
The dragoons are out to fight!”
The Datong Army brought over war horses, not many of them, only 1,500. Some died of illness due to the bumpy sea, and now there are still more than 1,300 horses.
Yuan Shizhong's military rank has been promoted to colonel, but he still commands 2,500 dragoons.
At this moment, Yuan Shizhong went out to fight with 1,200 cavalry. After running for a few dozen steps, he divided into two teams on the left and right, trying to outflank and annihilate the invading enemy.
"Run!
Seeing that they were facing cavalry, the enemy troops who had lured them turned around and fled from a long distance away. As for the civilians, they collapsed instantly and even forgot to lure the Datong army to the valley.
After a pursuit, more than a thousand people were captured, hundreds were killed, and only more than 800 enemy troops fled into the valley.
To the northwest of Tsurumaru Castle, there are valleys everywhere, and you can set up an ambush anywhere you choose.
"withdraw troops!"
Yuan Shizhong smiled and asked the herald to blow the trumpet, and did not pursue him at all. The Shimazu family's secret fishing method was a joke in Yuan Shizhong's eyes. He went from being a rogue to joining the Datong Army and fighting on the battlefield for ten years. What kind of lure is there?
Have you never seen the tactics?
Shimazu Tsunahisa was particularly shocked. Looking at the defeated soldiers who had escaped, he said in horror: "The enemy has a wise general, but my Shimazu family's Diao Yefu didn't work!"
Matsuura Shigenobu said: "It doesn't matter. Anyway, we only sent a few hundred soldiers to lure them, and most of them escaped. The rest are ordinary farmers. Fishing for wild ambushes doesn't work, so we can only fight head-on. It's a pity that our two families are really powerful.
Navy and land combat are not our strengths."
Shimazu Tsunahisa said: "The Matsuura family's iron artillery team can definitely fight against the Tang soldiers!"
The coalition forces rested in the valley for one day, then slowly marched in the next day, leaving the valley for a decisive battle with the Datong Army.
The Datong army still only has 5,000 troops, and there are more than 20 wild warriors. The rest of the troops are all in the siege and they are too lazy to bring them over. The main reason is that if they are all present, they will scare away the enemy troops.
The allied forces of Shimazu and Matsuura, including the peasants, pulled out all the troops and formed their formations. In terms of numbers, it was indeed quite large, with about 20,000 people, four times that of the Datong Army.
There was also a horse team, with more than two hundred dwarfs riding small ponies like mules. Some of them had flags on their backs, and the flags were flying when they ran, which was indescribably funny in the eyes of the Datong soldiers.
These Japanese cavalry rushed to the flanks. Yuan Shizhong led the dragoons to charge out. After being dozens of steps away, they raised their guns and fired.
"Bang bang bang bang!"
A burst of gunfire rang out, and more than two hundred Japanese cavalrymen suddenly fell down.
Matsuura Shigenobu was surprised and shouted: "Let the cavalry come back quickly, the Tang soldiers have horse-mounted iron cannons!"
Horse-riding iron cannon is the ultimate secret of Date Masamune. During the Warring States Period in Japan, some people also used dragoon tactics.
