Chapter 281 The Japanese return to Japan (Thirty-eight) and attack again
To delegate power back, military discussions before the official start of the war are still indispensable. Especially in view of the anticlimactic outcome of the previous battle of Ulsan, Gao Pragmatic, in accordance with past habits, must conduct a major summary of experience and lessons, so the Ming army generals from all walks of life will hold a meeting on the third day.
Afterwards, we gathered in Jinhae to attend the meeting.
Originally, the reason why the Japanese army was able to defend successfully in the last battle of Ulsan has been attributed to problems in the command system of the Ming and North Korean troops. As a result, when the Japanese reinforcements arrived in large numbers, they were able to cooperate internally and externally, but the coalition forces made mistakes, which ultimately led to the Ming army's failure.
Defeat.
However, at this meeting, Gao Pragmatic deliberately downplayed this point in order for North Korea to successfully annex later, and instead emphasized the difficulty of siegeing the city itself. He said that if Ulsan City itself is not strong and the Japanese army's combat capabilities are low,
So with the combat effectiveness of the Ming army, it is basically impossible for Kato Kiyomasa to hold out until reinforcements arrive.
In order to strengthen this impression, of course, the fact that Japanese-style mountain castles are easy to defend and difficult to attack is indeed a problem, so Gao Pragmatic specially asked Kaiji to participate in the meeting as a "former Japanese general" known for her good defense, and made a comment on the Japanese-style castle——
In particular, the structure of the mountain city will be explained.
Ji Feiji has indeed seen the world. She was not frightened when facing the senior generals of the Ming army in Yishui, and introduced the differences between the cities of the Ming, Dynasty and Japan in a eloquent manner.
According to what she said, Japanese-style cities have always been different from those in the Ming and North Korea. The cities in the Ming and North Korea were mostly a city wall behind the moat. Once you entered, there was a residential area for civilians. There was an inner city in the center of the entire city.
City, and this is usually a larger city. Small cities usually do not have an inner city.
The Japanese-style castle is different. Since the civilian residential area (castle town) is separated from the main city, the entire castle is actually a simple military fortress and has no role in protecting civilians.
Of course, the Japanese castles built in Korea almost did not have a castle town, but were directly a city, so there is no need to analyze the role of the buffer zone of the castle town.
Kabiji introduced the Ming army generals using Ulsan Castle as an example. She said that the construction patterns of Ulsan and Dosan twin Japanese castles were almost the same, and they were divided into five parts from the outside to the outside: Outer Maru → Otemon → Sannomaru → Ninomaru → Honmaru
There are city walls between each of these five floors. There are iron cannon shooting holes on the city walls. Each floor is connected through city gates.
This means that even if Outer Maru is captured, if Otemon has not been breached, Sannomaru will still be in the hands of the Japanese army.
"First Evolution"
In other words, to conquer a Japanese-style castle, one needs to break through layer by layer from the outside inward. Only when the Honmaru is finally conquered can a Japanese-style castle be completely conquered.
If they are forced to withdraw in the middle of the attack, the Japanese army can quickly repair it again, and the next attack will have to repeat the previous attack.
According to Kafiji's point of view, if the Ming Dynasty coalition forces that have never seen this kind of city, or that have not attacked this kind of city many times, still adopt the method of attacking Ming and North Korea cities, they will inevitably suffer setbacks.
In addition, the Japanese army used a large number of matchlocks in defensive battles, as well as purchased and captured gunpowder weapons such as artillery from the Ming and North Korea. Therefore, the Ming army was unable to attack for a long time, so they adopted the tactic of encircling without attacking, in an attempt to starve to death.
The Japanese troops defending the city were trapped and frozen to death.
There is nothing wrong with this tactic in itself, but Kato Kiyomasa, who relied on his perseverance to buy extremely precious time for the arrival of reinforcements, was lucky enough to save his life.
When Kafeiji said this, the generals of the Ming army naturally wanted to ask about how to solve the problem. Kafeiji said that generally speaking, it was a one-time attack on the city - this one-time operation did not mean that it had to be completed in one day, but that it had to be continuous.
The attack continued for several days or more, preventing the Japanese from retaking the outer city and repairing it.
If the city cannot be conquered by force at once, then it is necessary to besiege the city. How long the siege will take depends on how rich the material reserves are in the city, as well as the resources and morale of the army. In short, you must attack quickly or slowly, but do not fight intermittently.
But at this time, Gao Pragmatic actually thought of a solution, that is, if there are mortars, there is no need to be limited to the problem that Japanese mountain towns are difficult to launch artillery attacks. Unfortunately... although this thing has a simple structure, it is very difficult for the gun barrel.
The requirements were very high. Gao Pangjing estimated that Jinghua might not be able to produce seamless steel pipes now, so he had to swallow the words that came to his lips.
Kafihime also brought some of the latest news in Japan to the Ming army. In addition to the biggest news, the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, there were also some others.
For example, from the end of the Battle of Ulsan to the end of the Battle of Dosan, thirteen major Japanese generals including Hideie Ukita jointly submitted a letter to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was still alive at the time, hoping to give up the war on the grounds that the strategic location was prominent and reinforcements would be difficult to rescue.
In Ulsan, Donglai, and Yangshan, the entire army retreated to Busan.
However, this proposal was strongly opposed by Konishi Yukinaga, Mune Yoshitomo, Kato Yoshiaki, Tachibana Munesege and others. In the end, this proposal was also rejected by Hideyoshi. Thirteen people including Ukita Hideie were also reprimanded by Hideyoshi.
.
According to the information Kafihime had, Hideyoshi then asked the Japanese army to start improving and strengthening fortifications, increasing firearms equipment, and increasing military ration reserves in each city on the defense line in order to rectify and strengthen the entire defense system.
In order to rectify the defense system of each city, in addition to the fact that the Japanese army in North Korea must stick to the front line, Hideyoshi once again allocated a large amount of supplies from home. Taking advantage of the favorable weather in the winter in the south, he used the principle of "large batches and small amounts" to provide several key locations in the south.
Supplementary supplies, including gunpowder, muskets, artillery, etc.
Before his death, Hideyoshi announced a plan to send another army to attack North Korea the following year, but fortunately, before he had time to put it into practice, Hideyoshi passed away on August 18. After that, the five elders and five monks who maintained the operation of the Toyotomi regime
Decided to withdraw troops from North Korea and secretly began preparations for the withdrawal.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Moreover, because the news of Hideyoshi's death was concealed, the Japanese troops sent to Korea did not know the news that Hideyoshi was no longer alive. Only a few generals who were direct descendants of Toyotomi
Learned.
Now that the Ming army had learned about it through wire reports, she suggested that the Ming and North Korean coalition forces could launch a final general attack on the Japanese army in the south that had not yet had time to withdraw.
When things have come to this point, why are you still hesitating? The generals of the Ming army naturally asked for battle, and Gao Pragmatic took advantage of the situation and issued the previous orders. Three days later, that is, after all the generals of the army returned to their headquarters, Ming,
The North Korean coalition troops were divided into three groups and attacked with all their strength from the three strongholds of Ulsan, Donglai, and Yangshan at the same time.
After the Ming and North Korean coalition forces failed in their first attack on the Daoshan Twin Cities, they quickly received domestic reinforcements under highly pragmatic arrangements. Their firearm losses had been replenished, and their troops were also fully equipped, reaching 100,000.
above.
At the same time, the Northern People's Party in power in North Korea, perhaps because it was beaten hard by Gao Pragmatic last time, took the initiative to quickly mobilize more than 20,000 troops this time, and stated that these troops could be completely commanded by the Ming army.
In fact, there are not many main force left in the North Korean army. These people are basically cobbled together from all over North Korea, and their sources are also complicated. Some are scattered officers and soldiers from various places, some are recruited from the rebel army, and a few are considered servants -
——After the Northern Party suppressed the Southern Party, the Southern Party had to sacrifice its servants.
Gao Jingshi and other generals knew that these Korean troops were of little use, but Gao Jingshi also considered that part of the next battle would require a show, and the show on the battlefield would also require some cannon fodder, so they did not refuse. In fact, he
They also asked this group of Korean soldiers, who were similar to beggars, to receive a set of mandarin duck war jackets from the Ming army, and subsequently followed the Ming army in combat.
Soon the armies were in position, and the Ming army (including the North Korean army who had changed into Yuanyang war jackets) was divided into four groups: the East Route Army, the Middle Route Army, the West Route Army, and the Navy Army, and they moved forward separately to start a new round of attack.
The East Route Army attacked Ulsan (actually Daoshan), the Middle Route Army attacked Liangshan, and the West Route Army and the Navy jointly attacked Donglai.
The East Route Army was commanded by Magui, with a total of about 39,500 troops (34,000 Ming troops and 5,514 Korean troops). They swore an oath on September 21st and attacked Shimayama Castle on the 22nd. However, due to the strength of Kato Kiyomasa and Kobayakawa Hideaki, the two armies
It was sufficient but unable to hold on, and the city defenses had been repaired, so the Ming army still failed to make effective progress quickly.
However, since the Japanese army in Korea received the order to return home on October 15th, Kato Kiyomasa held on for nearly a month before finally finding an opportunity for the Ming army to withdraw and recuperate, and quietly withdrew from Ulsan at night and retreated to Busan.
.
But this time, Kato Kiyomasa didn't know that the Ming army was reminded by Kafei. This time, the renovated Ming army did not withdraw completely, and the reconnaissance intensity was even more intensive.
Therefore, he and Kobayakawa Hideaki were discovered as soon as they withdrew from the Japanese castle. As a result, they were severely beaten by Magui on the way back. In particular, Li Rumei's troops took advantage of the extremely asymmetrical advantage of the cavalry and caused heavy losses to Kato Kiyomasa and Kobayakawa Hideaki. After the war,
According to statistics, the total losses of the two Japanese armies were more than 9,700, almost tens of thousands.
The Ming and North Korean coalition forces that came to attack from the east totaled about 40,000, led by Ming general Dong Yiyuan, and among them were the Jurchen coalition forces led by Nurhaci.
Donglai is located between Busan and Yangshan in the Japanese defense line. If it falls first here, Konishi Kyouchang's headquarters in Yangshan in the north will be divided and surrounded by the Ming army. Such an important stronghold is only Shimazu Yoshihiro and Shimazu Tadahashi.
The Shimazu Army he led consisted of 7,000 people--of which there were only 3,000 real Shimazu troops, and the remaining 4,000 were sent to him by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
And Yoshihiro rejected the plan to ask for help from Muneyoshi Tomo Army and Tachibana Muneshige Army. Therefore, in this battle, Shimazu Yoshihiro faced the incoming multi-party coalition forces with an absolute military disadvantage.
Yoshihiro Shimazu, who was aware of the movements of the coalition forces, quickly ordered his troops to assemble at Donglai New Castle (Japanese Castle) where he was located. However, the troops in Donglai Ancient Castle (Old Joseon Castle) had been defeated by the coalition forces due to their slow retreat.
surrounded.
At this time, the situation was critical. Although the chief general Kawakami Tadashi who was stationed at Donglai Ancient City had a reserve of nearly 10,000 shi, he only had a few hundred troops under his command. On the 27th, the Ming army began to attack Donglai Ancient City. Kawakami Tadashi was conducting
After a short defense, it was discovered that the combat effectiveness of this Ming army seemed... not very good, so he took the initiative to lead his troops out of the city to launch a counterattack against the Ming army, and successfully killed hundreds of people.
What he didn't know was that the so-called Ming army he just killed was actually a Korean army. After discovering that the Japanese army dared to fight back, Dong Yiyuan ordered Nurhachi to fight back against the Japanese army out of revenge for Nurhachi's previous actions (see above)
,
This retaliation was not very successful because Nurhachi fought very well against the Japanese army and soon caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army. However, although the Jurchens fought bravely at the beginning, they had no good way to deal with the iron artillery formation that the Japanese army quickly formed.
.Since the Jurchens were very sensitive to casualties, they withdrew immediately after the Japanese army set up their iron artillery array and suffered some losses.
At this time, the Japanese army was in a very dangerous situation. Facing the overwhelmingly superior coalition forces, Kawakami Tadashi had to choose to abandon Donglai Ancient City and break out in the direction of Donglai New City. In the end, Kawakami Tadashi's troops broke through successfully, but Kawakami Tadashi himself
Among them, the Jurchens were seriously injured by thirty-six arrows, and more than 150 people in their troops were killed in the battle - only more than 40 Jurchens died in the battle.
When Torai Ancient City was in crisis, Shimazu Tadatsune in Torai New City proposed to Shimazu Yoshihiro to send reinforcements, but Shimazu Yoshihiro rejected it on the grounds that Shimazu's army was insufficient in strength, so he continued to strengthen Torai New City.
defense.
And there is another point worth mentioning: before Kawakami Tadashi broke through,
He ordered Setoguchi Shigeharu to burn the food and grass in the city, and succeeded.
Due to the southerly winter wind direction, the supply of food and grass from southern Xinjiang has not been very abundant recently. The allied armies of the Ming and North Korea were already in relatively tight supply of food and grass. Now the Japanese army burned the food and grass themselves, and there was no hope of supporting the war with war.
As a result, the supplies of the Ming Dynasty coalition forces were always somewhat stretched, so they had to choose a short-term decisive battle.
So after entering the ancient city of Donglai, the Ming army decided to launch a general attack on the new city of Donglai on the first day of October.
Shimazu Yoshihiro built a strong Japanese castle in Torai New Castle, with complete defenses and an ambush. In response to the coalition's attack, Yoshihiro used a large number of iron cannons and buried explosives. The cannon shells also
The solid bullets were replaced with iron sheets, iron nails and the like to increase the lethality against people.
The coalition forces were led by Nurhaci and other Jurchen coalition forces to attack Dashoumen of Donglai New City. Shaanxi Army Hao Sanpin, Shi Daoli, Ma Chengwen, Lan Fangwei and others were on the left and right respectively. Dong Yiyuan personally led the Chinese Army directly behind the main attacking force.
At this time, an episode occurred: just as the coalition forces launched a fierce attack, a white and a red fox ran from the city to the Ming Dynasty, towards the direction of the coalition forces.
The Ming army had no feelings about this and did not take it seriously. However, the Shimazu army was overjoyed when they saw this scene. They all thought that Inari Daimyojin was telling them the news of victory, so their morale was greatly boosted.
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Dadi Hou", "Cao Mianzi", "Old West of Altay", and "Ling Qi Zhao Bi Xin" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
ps: Originally, I almost finished writing this chapter in the first half of the night, but... I fell asleep and didn't wake up until six o'clock. Then I finished coding the last bit and posted it quickly. This chapter was from yesterday.
