As the vanguard to defend Toyotomi's army, the mountain castle was built very solidly. However, the gap in military strength is also obvious. The so-called attack with five times the strength, but now the strength difference is as high as ten times. The psychological pressure on the defenders is of course very great. Although Toyotomi
The general attack of the Chen army was originally scheduled for noon, but since Hideyoshi's main force arrived after noon, the actual start time of the general attack was around three o'clock in the afternoon.
The Hojo army led by the castle lord Matsuda Yasunaga, Hojo Ujikatsu, Mamiya Yasutoshi, Asakura Kagecheng and others also tried their best to defend, but Daizaki Demaru was captured first, and finally Nishinomaru was also captured, and the result was only
Around dusk, the entire city was captured.
The city that the Hojo clan spent several years building was taken away in just half a day. This news was undoubtedly shocking to the Hojo clan. This meant that the people who inherited Oda Nobunaga's policy of separating soldiers and peasants
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army was far superior in combat effectiveness to the Hojo clan's traditional military system of "elite samurai leading a large number of peasant soldiers".
If Gao Jingjing is here, he may not be surprised by this kind of battle situation, but he may be worried about the current military system of the Ming Dynasty, because the military system of the Ming Dynasty is actually very similar to the model of the Hojo family, which is nothing more than generals.
The servants are like warriors, and the guardsmen are like peasant soldiers.
Fortunately, in the original Korean War, the Ming Dynasty first dispatched direct descendants of the Li family army, and the proportion of servants was high enough. Later, the direct descendants of General Xuan were also dispatched, and the main force of the army was also servants. This allowed the Ming army to win with a weak force.
The Japanese army. As for the Li Jiajun's injuries and other injuries, that is another topic.
The Toyotomi army's idea was to defeat them one by one, so on March 29, another army was attacking Nirayama Castle at the same time.
According to the layout of the Hojo family, the line of Ashigara Castle-Yanaka Castle-Nariyama Castle (韭, 通韭, 魭的魭.) formed the Hojo family's western defense line, and Hideyoshi's plan was to capture two of them at the same time.
The people responsible for the attack on Nirayama Castle by the Toyotomi Army were Oda Nobuo, Hosokawa Tadayaki, Kamaojigo, Hachisuka Kasei, Fukushima Masanori and others, leading a total of 44,000 troops.
However, compared with Shanzhong City, which was captured in about two hours, Jiushan City was not so easy to capture. In the original history, the final surrender of the city here was on June 24th, and it actually lasted for three days.
The Cage Castle battle lasted for several months. The men who defended Nirayama Castle were Hojo Clan's men. Their disadvantage was actually huge. There were only 3,600 people in total, which was even fewer than the defenders of Yamanaka Castle.
In later generations, many people believed that Yamanaka Castle was captured in less than half a day, while Jiushan Castle persisted for three months, because the fortifications of Jiushan Castle were relatively strong. However, if the fortress was strong, or the structure of the city was clever,
, in fact, Mountain City is not under Jiushan City at all.
In fact, the real problem is that the difference in awareness of the attackers caused this situation. Because Hideyoshi must capture the Yamanaka Castle, because the main force of his own team is dispatched here. If he takes
Failure to do so or procrastination would look bad on face, so this team gathered a large number of Beijing-made cannons that he had smuggled from the Ming Dynasty;
In contrast, Jiushan City does not necessarily need to be captured immediately. It is naturally good to capture it. Even if it cannot be captured, it does not matter the overall situation. To a large extent, it is even better to capture it slowly - you cannot be better than Lord Guan Bai. You can still fight, right?
Therefore, with the momentum of conquering Yamanaka Castle in one go, Hideyoshi's army set up a formation on Mount Hakone on April 1 and arrived at Hakone Yumoto on the third day. After three days of repairs, Hideyoshi's main force marched towards Odawara and began to take The situation surrounding Odawara.
As everyone expected, Odawara Castle was protected by a large castle wall and a moat. Even if Hideyoshi mobilized an army of more than 200,000 people, it could not be easily captured. This giant city has an extremely wide moat. The city wall was made of stone bricks and had a solid and complex structure. Although Hideyoshi had many cannons, he lacked heavy artillery. Although he could attack a small city with one force, it would be inconvenient to attack such a huge city.
Of course, in addition to this, he also has another trouble. That is, the Sea Trade Alliance has quietly lowered the export volume of saltpeter. As a result, Japan has an almost unlimited supply of sulfur, but there is no supporting saltpeter, resulting in basically no gunpowder output. Go, even close to a shutdown recently.
To be fair, the walls of Odawara Castle, which are more than a foot high, are nothing compared to the real majestic castle of the Ming Dynasty, but in Japan they are indeed a bug-like existence, with the castle and towns being tightly wrapped. There are There are nine exits leading to the outside of the city. You can only go through these nine exits if you want to enter or exit the city. Moreover, each entrance is guarded by a member of the Hojo family or an important minister who has followed the Hojo family for several generations. The defense is very tight. Toyotomi After Hideyoshi arrived, he personally inspected it and had to admit that he could not capture the city in a short time.
Hideyoshi re-examined and believed that this battle would inevitably turn into a protracted siege, so he built a new city specifically for the capture of Odawara Castle. This new city was Ishigakiyama Castle, which is famous for its "one-night castle". It is called Ishigakiyama One Night Castle.
However, the "One-Night Castle" is actually not true. Hideyoshi started the construction of Ishigakiyama Castle on April 6. Although it is called "One-Night Castle", future generations will be affected by the impression of a castle built in a short period of time. , but in fact this city took a long time to build, and the fortifications were all completed on June 26. So it is actually not a "one-night city", but an eighty-day city (Note: According to "Jia Zhong" "Diary" records).
During this period, the always lecherous Toyotomi Hideyoshi even brought his concubine Yododen from Osaka Castle to Ishigakiyama Castle, and also recruited many Noh performers to perform Noh plays. While doing this, he continued to besiege Odawara Castle and wage a protracted war.
For the Odawara strategy, Hideyoshi not only mobilized an army of 220,000 troops, but also ordered the navy to attack the Izu Navy stronghold on the Izu Peninsula. In addition, he deployed naval forces to Sagami Bay to encircle Odawara Castle from the sea.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In contrast, the Hojo Army counted all the soldiers scattered in the branch cities within the territory, and there were only about 56,000 people. Among them were the ones just mentioned Like the captured mountain city, there were 4,000 or even 5,000 guards in a city, and even the smallest branch city had at least 700 people.
On the one hand, Hideyoshi surrounded Odawara Castle, and on the other hand, he defeated each of the branch castles within the general.
Most of the small castles were surrounded for less than a day before surrendering. However, the five castles of Matsuida Castle, Nirasama Castle, Hagata Castle, Iwasuke Castle, and Ninja Castle have withstood for a relatively long time and have not yet fallen. .
With Gao Pragmatic's intervention, a historical episode occurred at this moment, specifically in Ninja City.
Ninja City is not actually a city in the true sense. It is a natural fortress made up of many small islands scattered in swamps and lakes.
The islands are connected by bridges, but there are no bridges between some islands and can only be reached through other islands. This constitutes the complex topography of the city. The topography of Ninja City is destined to be Even if this city is besieged, there is no need to worry about food and water sources, because the lakes and swamps are covered with large areas of lotus flowers. You can eat lotus roots at this time of year. The fish resources in the lakes are also extremely rich, which is enough to ensure that the city Self-sufficient.
However, the problems of Ninja City are also very big. The most critical problem is the serious shortage of human resources, so the military strength is extremely weak. When Ninja City was caged, the nearby people went to the city to take refuge, but even so, several island fortresses were added There were only more than 3,700 people in total, less than 4,000 people. About 80% of them participated in the battle. Of course, most of them mainly assisted in city defense. It is hard to say whether they were officially participating in the war.
After excluding the local people, the actual strength of Ninja Castle was about 80 samurai and about 400 ordinary soldiers. The Toyotomi army that initially attacked Ninja Castle had more than 20,000 troops, and the peak in the later period increased to 40,000. There are many people, and the general of the entire army is Ishida Mitsunari, who has been mentioned many times before in this book.
Although Ishida Mitsunari was deeply trusted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his troops overwhelmed the soldiers of Ninja Castle, during the attack, the army led by Ishida Mitsunari was never able to break through any of the frontline defenses of Ninja Castle.
In fact, it's not that Ishida Mitsunari doesn't know how to command, or that the soldiers are afraid of the enemy. It's really that the general who is responsible for guarding Ninja City is too brave. Whenever Ishida Mitsunari attacks, the general of Ninja City always rushes to the front. Plus one vote Although the older but experienced samurai helped, Ishida Mitsunari attacked left and right, but all failed.
Ishida Mitsunari led the army to attack for seven days, but all failed. After learning about it, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered Ishida Mitsunari to use water attacks.
This order stunned Ishida Mitsunari, because Ninja Castle was originally a fortress city formed by the union of islands in the lake. This terrain already determined that water attacks would have no effect, but Toyotomi Hideyoshi insisted on using water attacks, and said that he On the day of the water attack, he will lead other generals to watch the battle.
The characteristic of the obedience faction is that they do not have much strength and rely entirely on the power given by the family leader. Therefore, it is impossible for Ishida Mitsunari to disobey Toyotomi Hideyoshi's order. In desperation, Ishida Mitsunari had to find people to build embankments everywhere. Seven days later, this road was 28 long The dyke, which is 9 meters high and 7 meters wide, was officially completed.
However, there is no doubt that among the people who came to build the embankment, there were people from the Ninja City defenders who sneaked in. They tampered with some key positions during the embankment construction project. At this time, Ninja City was affected by the rising water level. , the Toyotomi army was unable to attack.
The defenders of Ninja City even took the opportunity to have some fun. The general of Ninja City even held a banquet in the city, which made the Toyotomi army watching from the distant hills couldn't help but be shocked and angry, and then sighed again and again.
The rising water level also impacted the dike. Since it had loopholes in itself, the dike naturally burst. Because Ishida Mitsunari was prepared when building the dam, the casualties among the troops he led were few.
Serious, but in any case, its morale has been extremely low.
The question is, why did the battle-hardened Toyotomi Hideyoshi force Ishida Mitsunari to use water attack on Ninja Castle?
The answer is actually not that difficult: because there was a pinnacle event in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's half-life expedition, called "Flooding Takamatsu Castle" [Note: There is not much historical controversy about this matter, so I won't explain it. It's not clear but there is
Interested friends can just search Baidu].
Since Flooding Takamatsu was Toyotomi Hideyoshi's previous masterpiece, it is understandable that he wanted to replicate a glorious victory in the final battle to pacify the world. Perhaps Toyotomi Hideyoshi thought that once this approach was successful, it would be a great success in the future.
The legendary "echoing from beginning to end".
But at this moment, Ishida Mitsunari suddenly had a turn of events, and the Toyotomi Army's careful investigation revealed that the castle's castle representative, the acting lord Narita Taiki, died of illness!
According to Ishida Mitsunari's understanding, Narita Taiki is the most determined militant in Ninja City, and because he is the uncle of the lord Narita clan, he has a unique position in Ninja City. He can be called the backbone of Ninja City. So, he can be called the backbone of Ninja City.
, once Taiji Narita dies, won’t the fall of Ninja Castle be just around the corner?
Wait, something seems to be missing here - why did Ninja Castle have a castle during such an important war? In other words, where did the Narita clan, the lord of the castle, go?
The thing is this: after the Odawara conquest order was issued, as soon as the news of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's troops was sent to Odawara Castle, the Hojo family ordered the lord of Ninja Castle, the Narita clan, to lead half of the troops to rescue Odawara Castle, so the Narita clan led half of the Ninja castle.
The defenders had already gone to Odawara Castle to assist in the battle. This was the reason why the number of troops in Ninja Castle was only a few hundred. Originally, they had more than a thousand troops.
The Narita clan chief went on an expedition to assist his lord. According to tradition, his son would usually be appointed as a jodai. However, the problem was that he had no sons, only three daughters, so he had to hand over the job of jodai to his uncle.
Narita Taiji.
With Narita Yasuki's status and appeal in Ninja City, he certainly has the ability to do a good job as a jodai. Unfortunately, he has died of illness again. According to the information received by Ishida Mitsunari here, Narita Yasuki's son Narita Nagachichi is a cowardly person.
, although he is very tall, he is not tall and brave. He is just tall and fat. He can't even climb up on a horse.
Moreover, Narita Nagauchi's character is very cowardly. It is said that when he walked in the countryside, even though he was dressed as a samurai, even the villagers dared to ask him to help with farm work - this was almost unimaginable and weird in Japan where classes were solidified, which led to
The people of Ninja City not only dared to call him "His Royal Highness Adou" not only in private, but also in front of him.
Naturally, Ishida Mitsunari would not take such a person seriously, so regardless of the morale damage caused by the embankment collapse, he once again ordered the generals to attack.
Who knows, this attack still failed. The reason for the failure was that the general of Ninja City once again attacked decisively and defeated the front army of the Toyotomi Army with elite troops, and the rear army immediately collapsed.
Although Ishida Mitsunari was furious, there was nothing he could do - the people under his command were from various alliances, almost all of them were daimyo. If Toyotomi Hideyoshi came to take charge in person, he would be able to command, but it is a pity that Ishida Mitsunari cannot.
Ah! He is only thirty years old this year, and has no direct military exploits before. Those famous names are all similar to the "generals" of the Ming Dynasty. Who is willing to listen to him?
Besides, Toyotomi Hideyoshi's previous order also gave them an excuse, and they all clamored for Ishida Mitsunari to continue building the dam - building the dam can sharpen foreign workers and preserve their strength, which is naturally harder than running to fight with the mysterious general of Ninja Castle.
Fight ten thousand times better.
However, just when Ishida's head was as big as a bucket, there was also someone in Odawara Castle who was anxious.
This person is the Narita clan leader, the lord of Ninja City, who has just learned that his uncle Taiji Narita has died of illness. The reason why he is so anxious is that, in addition to the fact that Ninja City itself is already in danger in his opinion, the only other person left is the man who has been the leader so far.
The safety of the extremely mysterious general is in danger.
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Lao Xi of Altay", "Cao Mianzi", "Zhou Yanyy", and "KIKI Kai" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: It implies that the general of Ninja City has reached this point, should you guess who it is? Hehehe...
