The Battle of Tachibanayama Castle in this time and space is a regular battle - Usuki Castle is close to Tachibanayama Castle. When Ling Yunyi and Shimazu arrived with their troops on the third day of October, the Otomo and Maori coalition forces had already established themselves under Tachibanayama Castle.
This formation.
Otomo Sorin set up his main formation of 17,000 troops and horses with his back to Mount Tachibana. On the right wing were 5,000 troops and horses of Tachibanayama Castle plus 7,000 friendly troops, a total of 12,000. On the left wing were 12,000 troops and horses of the Maori army. There were also five cavalrymen.
Thousands and three thousand were placed behind the high ground occupied by the Maori army, and two thousand were placed on the right wing.
Shimazu's army had 15,000, and Ming's army had 12,000. The ratio of the fighting forces was 27,000 to 37,000. Because it was inconvenient to transport military horses by sea, Ling Yunyi only had 500 horses, and they basically did not collect them at night.
With these war horses, Shimazu didn't have much cavalry. The full number of cavalry was more than a thousand and a half - one thousand and fifteen cavalry versus five thousand.
Ling Yunyi fought against the Japanese army for the first time, and felt that all the combat examples he had trained at Nanyuan Military Academy were useless. When he was marching along the way, out of caution, he sent night guards at both the front and rear, but there was no one along the way.
He was not used to being harassed.
After arriving at Tachibana Mountain, he thought he was going to face a battle to attack the mountain city from above, but the sentinel reported that the opponent had already set up camp and was waiting for the decisive battle, and even Ling Yunyi couldn't stop it - Japanese people don't like to watch "Sun Tzu" very much.
"The Art of War"? Are you so non-tactical?
Now that the other side has set up its battle formation, we should also hold a military meeting to study how to arrange the troops. Ling Yunyi attached great importance to his first battle in Japan, so he led the Ming Army Staff Department and the head of the Shimazu Army to hold a pre-military meeting.
Study how to deal with the enemy.
At the beginning of the meeting, Li Rusong, the chief military officer under Ling Yunyi, said that we are an all-iron artillery force and must design our formation around the tactics of iron artillery. Shimazu countered that iron artillery is indeed powerful, but it cannot fight against cavalry and brave warriors.
Therefore, they had to form mixed formations - which made the Ming Dynasty staff look at each other. As a result, not long after the meeting started, the two groups almost started fighting first.
Ling Yunyi's head ached as he listened to the translator's back and forth, and he finally made a final decision: "Naochao couldn't even agree to go together for a long time, otherwise you Shimazu family's whole army would be a reserve team. The 350,000 yuan on the opposite side is not enough for me.
I took a taxi during meal time.”
These words were not very hurtful, but extremely insulting. The Shimadzu family's general Yoshihisa burst into tears after hearing this. If Shimazu Yoshihisa hadn't stopped him with a stern look, he would have had a caesarean section in front of Ling Yunyi to scare him.
Not all at once.
However, the two sides have agreed that the main force of this march will be Ling Yunyi. Shimazu Yoshihisa has no choice but to let his general, Sakukane Uyei, lead the army to protect the rear of Ling Yun Yi's army as a reserve team. Once Ling Yun Yi is defeated, he will run away.
It's up to Kakukane Kamei to decide whether to fight or not.
Ijuin Tadayō, an old minister of the family, said privately that the only two hills on the battlefield have been occupied by the enemy in advance. Our army is on flat ground and can easily be defeated in a single charge. My lord, you should return to your own army to avoid falling into the mountains.
In the military formation.
Shimazu Yoshihisa sighed with a sad face: "You are right, even if Ling Yunyi is defeated, the Ming army still has a large fleet of navy and half of the main force. If Otomo and the Maori family dare not do anything to him, I will be miserable.
But Ling Yunyi is a very caring person, and he must be worried that we will trick him, and I have to be a hostage by his side. If I propose to return to my family's military formation, he may have his soldiers kill me directly."
Ijuin Tadayō was right when he thought about it. The so-called people who are not from our race must have different intentions. The Ming army was a guest army and was bribed by the Shimadzu family to participate in the Kyushu War. Of course, he had to worry about being tricked by the Shimadzu family and the other two families. In this case, no one could be a hostage as convincingly as Shimazu Yoshihisa himself. He had no choice but to ask his lord to take care and act according to the situation.
On the morning of October 4th, Ling Yunyi began a show-off operation. In order to prevent being attacked by the Otomo coalition forces when the army was deployed, Ling Yunyi quickly marched 3,000 front troops into six columns into the battlefield, with Shimadzu cavalry supporting them back and forth, etc. After entering the battlefield, Shimazu saw that the Ming army quickly expanded to the left and right, forming a wide front - a total of three rows of Ming troops.
Shimazu Yoshihisa was dumbfounded. Could this imperial envoy really know how to fight? The entire iron artillery army couldn't form a formation like this, right? He didn't know how to form a formation. Thinking about it, besides encountering big guns by chance along the way, Except for the two cannons fired from the fort at No. 1, the Ming army has not been seen unfolding. Is this because the navy has come ashore and doesn't know how to play?
Ling Yunyi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the opponent did not send cavalry to attack when he entered the battlefield. Then he let all the troops enter the battlefield with various artillery carts and gunpowder covered with red waterproof tarpaulins, and organized in an orderly manner behind the front row of Ming troops.
In the end, the 10,000 Ming army formed a long snake I-shaped formation facing Dayou's main formation - a total of six horizontal lines, each with a thousand people, and each line was about ten feet apart.
At both ends of the long snake, there are six rows of columns, protecting the body of the long snake. Behind the long snake, there are artillery carriages dragging eighty cannons, also lined up in a row, with small square arrays on the sides. Each cannon is surrounded.
There were about three thousand soldiers remaining in reserve behind. These soldiers formed a square formation, with the command center of Imperial Envoy Ling Yunyi guarding the center.
Although it was already late autumn, Shimazu Yoshihisa couldn't wipe the sweat off his head. He carefully observed the Ming army formation: every twenty people had a person holding a flag, every fifty people had a drummer with a small drum tied to his waist, and the rest In addition to one iron cannon, everyone also had some small artillery placed in the middle of the queue.
The general flag in the queue can distinguish the general, generals, etc. from their clothes, but none of them are wearing armor, and there are no horse and caltrops to protect the cavalry. This is too ridiculous, the iron artillery team is definitely not like this. Useful! Well, the Ming army does have a lot of big guns, but what do you mean by putting them at the back? Do you want to shoot at the back of our army in front?
After studying this formation with no obvious left and right wings for a long time, Shimazu Yoshihisa finally determined that this Ling Yunyi was a fool. He asked cautiously from the side: "Sir, what are you going to do with my fifteen thousand troops?" manage?"
Ling Yunyi glanced at him and said with a smile: "It's okay, the most dangerous time is over. I originally didn't want to fight this kind of battle where the other side chooses the battlefield, but I can't lose the opportunity to kill them in a spoonful - just wait. Just stay by my side and watch. Once our army deploys, they will have no chance. You will definitely not be needed today."
Shimazu Yoshihisa continued to wipe his sweat and thought to himself: "Can you, old man, stop blowing your hair?..."
While the Ming army was regrouping, Sorin Otomo and Takakage Kobayakawa on the opposite side were also observing the opponent's array. Although the two sides were five miles apart, they could see clearly through the telescopes - as a side note, almost every Japanese daimyo had a telescope produced by the Ming Dynasty.
Seeing the Ming army put up a formation they had never seen before, Kobayakawa and Otomo Zonglin also looked at each other. Kobayakawa held a folding fan, pointed at the Ming army's formation and said: "What does the other side mean by placing a big tube behind the army, for fear of a surprise attack by our cavalry?
"
Dayou Zonglin said: "This must be the case. The Ming army is like a long snake. Should we use cavalry to rush it? The army formations are closely connected. If there is a fluctuation, the whole army will be confused. If the cavalry makes a contribution, it can be easily defeated."
Kobayakawa Takakage stood under Otomo Sorin's horse seal of the cross of Jesus Christ, frowned and said: "The Ming army has all iron artillery. Maybe this is the formation suitable for iron artillery."
Seeing Otomo Sorin deep in thought, Kobayakawa Takakage thought for a while and said: "I will return to our army's main formation first. You can just give the order for this battle. Our army will not have any intention of preserving its strength."
Otomo Sorin bowed to express his thanks. Kobayakawa Takakage returned to his home formation with a few cavalrymen and gave orders to the armies: "Otomo's family wants to use the cavalry to charge first - we will wait and see the situation. If the Ming army counterattacks fiercely, the priority is to preserve our strength."
!”
Before he finished speaking, there was a loud bang. It turned out that the Ming army's Da Tong, who had set up their formation before Dayou's cavalry could attack, spoke first!
Kobayakawa was startled, and quickly looked towards the Otomo main formation in the middle, and saw a Ming army artillery shell falling a mile in front of the Otomo main formation, bouncing on the ground, and finally stopped.
Kobayakawa breathed a sigh of relief and said: "It turns out that the Ming army's cannons were able to fire over their own military formations. I was shocked - fortunately it was not far away, otherwise our cannons would not have been able to hit them."
However, God was destined to let Kobayakawa Takakage become a salt-soaked mouth. Before he could finish his words, there was another bang. Another burst of white smoke rose from the Ming army's large cannon formation, and a shell rushed straight into Otomo's main formation, creating an alley of flesh and blood.
Come!
Kobayakawa Takakage used so much force in his hands that he almost crushed the telescope. Then a scene that made his scalp numb appeared: behind the Ming army's formation, it was like a continuous thunder rolling, eighty large tubes spoke in turn, and a large number of black spots could be seen with the naked eye.