The main castle of the Satsuma Shimazu family, Tsurumaru Castle, was in flames. The flames covered the buildings above the second floor of the castle tower in a short time. At the same time, other buildings in Honmaru were also on fire. The main castle Otemon (main entrance) )'s arrow tower also caught fire.
This is the "gift" that Yin Feng asked Li Kuiqi to give to Shimazu Tadahashi.
The earlier Tsurumaru Castle was built by the Ichirai family of Iso in the second year of Kangen (1244). The castle was located on a mountain with an altitude of 100 meters. Since the city was surrounded by cliffs, Tsurumaru Castle was a The castle was built using natural terrain and was strong. Later, in the second year of Engen (1337) in Japan during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, under the order of Shimazu Sadahisa, the fifth generation guardian of the Fangjimazu family in the Northern Dynasties, the eldest son Shimazu Yorihisa (ancestor of the Kawakami family) He began to attack Ichirai, who was affiliated with the Southern Dynasties. After two months of fierce fighting, Yorihisa retreated. In the third year of Kansho (1462), Tsurumaru Castle was captured by Shimazu Tachihisa, and the Ichirai clan finally perished. Japanese Astronomy On June 17, the eighth year (1529), Shimazu Sanehisa formed an alliance with Shimazu Echizen Mori and Shinna Hitachi Mori Tadanae. Shimazu also defended Tsurumaru Castle and rebelled against the guardian. Later, in the fifteenth generation of guardian Shimazu Takahisa and Under the joint efforts of his father Zhongliang, Tsurumaru Castle was captured and surrendered.
Before the construction of Tsurumaru Castle, the main castle of the Shimazu family was the inner castle (today's Dairyu Town, Kagoshima City). Although it was called a "castle", it was actually just a mansion with a moat dug, and its defense was extremely strong. Scarcity, in 1600 (Keicho 5th year), after the defeat at the Battle of Sekigahara, Shimazu Tadahashi moved his main city from the inner city, and built a new main city at the foot of Shiroyama Mountain, named Tsurumaru Castle, which was built with Shiroyama on his back. The Hirayama Castle has the Kobutsu River in front and Castle Mountain behind it. It is well-defended. During the Warring States Period, the Kobutsu River came along the eastern foot of the castle mountain (the river course of the Kobutsu River in Japan during the Warring States Period still flowed from the east of the Castle Mountain. 600 years later, the Kobutsu River has changed its course. It flows from the west side of Shiroyama), and most of the Kajiya Town and Castle Town on the right bank of the Kobutsu River are on the south bank. Therefore, the Kobutsu River, which is only a few dozen meters wide, becomes a natural barrier to the east of Tsurumaru Castle.
Li Kuiqi's surprise attack team led the way, led by a Fujian businessman who had business dealings with the Satsuma Domain, and set off after nightfall, heading north along the Inari River and turning west east of the foothills of Seongsan Mountain. The 200 surprise attack team members drove five carts along the way. They marched forward quickly, and wherever they met the fleeing Satsuma people along the way, they would deal with them without mercy and silence them on the spot.
In the second half of the night, the group finally arrived at the other side of the Kobutsu River near Tsurumaru Castle. The Shimazu family troops on the other side were heavily defended. Rows of torches were lit along the trench outside the castle, and there were patrolling samurai ashigaru everywhere.
The tall castle tower of Tsurumaru Castle was not considered grand in Japan at that time, nor was it anything special. The core of the Japanese castle at that time was called "Honmaru", which was where the castle tower and other daimyo's daily residences were located. The second level outside It is "Ninomaru", and so on, the third level is "Sannomaru", Tsurumaru Castle is a castle with only two levels, and the castle tower is 800 meters away from where Li Kuiqi and others arrived.
At that time, except for heavy artillery, there was no weapon that could hit such a distance.
But the Chinese company's army under Yin Feng had the unique long-range weapon in the world at that time - Thunderbolt rockets.
The rocket car with 20 rocket slides was improvised when the army left Taipei. It was basically a one-time use thing.
Li Kuiqi personally led more than 20 people to unload the donkey and use manpower to push the rocket car as close as possible to the bank of the Jiatu River.
The fuse was lit before the Shimadzu Army patrol soldiers on the other side discovered it.
"Whoosh whoosh..." With the rapid flow of flames on the fuse, twenty thunderbolt rockets filled with gunpowder and oil were ignited and launched one after another.
Bright firelights cut through the dark night sky, and twenty firelights rushed straight towards Tsurumaru Castle. Half of the rockets changed direction during flight and landed inside and outside Tsurumaru Castle. The remaining rockets hit the castle tower. And the arrow tower, a fire quickly broke out after the explosion.
The Shimazu samurai on the other side were stunned by the unprecedented rocket attack and were completely at a loss.
The rocket car was ignited by twenty fierce tail flames, igniting a fire, like a torch. The light near the river bank was very bright. Li Kuiqi and others were greedily watching the rockets fall into Tsurumaru Castle one by one. , suddenly found that he had been exposed by the fire ignited by the rocket car.
Li Kuiqi no longer cared about hiding his body, jumped up from the grass and shouted: "Brothers, run quickly," and then turned around and ran away. The Shimazu family warriors who were stunned by the rocket noticed the movement on the other side and woke up. Come over, dozens of archers quickly release arrows.
The Kotsuki River is only a few dozen meters wide. Although some Japanese samurai's longbows at that time could shoot a few hundred meters, the arrows of the Shimazu samurai archers could only shoot a hundred meters, so Li Kuiqi and others resorted to sucking Di Jin finally managed to escape into the darkness just as the opponent's arrow hit the ground.
The fire at the castle tower could be seen more than ten miles away from Kagoshima Castle. The surprise attack team was a great success and everyone retreated excitedly. On the way, Li Kuiqi also set up an ambush with the cannon and rainstorm gun he brought with him to catch up across the river. The Shimazu family samurai once again expressed his welcome.
Under the intensive bombardment of shotguns and bullets, a large piece of the Shimadzu samurai fell down and had to stop the pursuit.
At dawn, Li Kuiqi returned to the Chinese Army camp amid cheers from the crowd.
The only regret was that Shimazu Tadahashi escaped the fire. He spent the night inside and outside the city supervising the preparations of his troops, so the sudden fire in the castle tower burned several of his concubines to death; but his important ministers The veteran general Xina Zhongyuan unfortunately died in the fire because he was ordered to garrison the city.
"Damn it, damn it, the merchants are bullying people too much,"
On the morning of the 10th day of the seventh lunar month, there was a light rain before dawn. The fire burning in the castle tower was extinguished in the rain. Shimazu Tadahashi angrily hacked away at the ruins of the castle tower with only one floor left.
Shinna Fujigen hurried from Denen Bridge, looked at the still smoking ruins of the castle tower and fell to his knees, crying loudly, and then came to Shimazu Tadahashi and knelt down: "My lord, go to war, let me As your vanguard, I will seek the head of Yin Feng, the leader of the maritime merchants, to avenge my grandfather."
Shimazu Tadahashi held up his sword with both hands: "Fujigen-kun, you are now the head of the Shinna family. Take my sword, bring your troops, and prepare to attack."
"Kokubu Maizuru Castle Yoshitsune sent someone here,"
The knight with the Shimazu Iemaru cross on his back came quickly and dismounted in front of Shimazu Tadahashi.
The visitor was an envoy from Shimazu Yoshihisa, who brought news about the reclusive Shimazu Yoshihisa: Saruwatari Momitsu, a retainer who served Yoshihisa, came with 100 samurai directly under Shimazu Yoshihisa to support him, and spread the word: It must be Defeat the Chinese maritime merchants, but don't damage the relationship with the Chinese maritime merchants.
Neither Shimazu Yoshihisa nor Yoshihiro disapproved of Shimazu Tadahashi's attacks on Taiwan and Ryukyu, but the good tradition of the Shimazu family was to be united in dealing with the outside world: although there were many internal conflicts, they could always work together to put aside their differences to deal with the family's common enemy.
Soon, Yoshihiro Shimazu, who was living in seclusion in Kajigi, also sent support troops, and his message was similar to Yoshihiro's.
Shimazu Tadahashi felt that his two fathers were vaguely accusing him of provoking a war with China Company, but there was nothing to explain at this point. Defeating the enemy in front of him was the most important thing, and besides, these hateful people The enemy had just burned down his old home. This was unbearable. These Chinese must be defeated no matter what.
However, the support force sent by Shimazu Yoshihiro was 100 iron gunners and 100 gunners. The team was led by Togo Shigeshi, a kendo master who founded the self-revealing style (also known as the self-revealing style). Shimazu Yoshihiro's bow He is the swordsmanship coach of Tadashi Shimazu, as well as two Satsuma warriors including Kawakami Shirobei and Kubo Shichibei, members of the so-called "Little Return of the Five Guns".
During the Battle of Sekigahara, when the Western Army was defeated, the Satsuma soldiers were extremely fierce. They gathered their forces in one place and launched a frontal assault on the Tokugawa Main Formation of the Eastern Army. They cut a road diagonally in front of the Tokugawa Army and cut through the enemy's thick ground. This formation broke through the formation from the front, and the vanguard of the Shimazu Army at that time became famous in the first battle, Ukyo Ryo Kawakami, Shirobei Kawakami, Shichibei Kubo, and Rokubei Oshikawa, so they were collectively called the "Five Guns of Small Return".
Now, except for generals such as Kaguyama Hisaka and others who are isolated on the overseas Ryukyu Islands, all the existing famous generals of the Shimadzu family have gathered under Tsurumaru Castle. These Satsuma warriors who are famous throughout Japan and Korea and the Ming Dynasty are full of war spirit and have great ambitions. We must fight with the belief that we must win.
So, early that morning, Shimazu's military brigade began to cross the Kobutsu River one after another and set up formations on the plain between Shiroyama and Kagoshima Harbor.
And Yin Feng's side is also mobilizing troops and generals to prepare for a big war.
Among the generals on Yin Feng's side, except for Li Kuiqi of the artillery battalion, Yang Tiansheng, the supervisor of the first regiment, and Yan Siqi of Zhao Tie's southern route army, who were heroes across the coast of China in another time and space, basically no one was in the original historical time and space. He once left his name in the annals of history.
And Yin Feng himself is a character who should not appear. He led the originally unknown untouchable Danhu, Chinese pirates, fishermen, and farmers to appear under Kagoshima Castle to face off against the Satsuma army, which is known as the strongest in Japan.
His army was mainly made up of fusiliers and arquebusiers, while spearmen and shield-swordmen were mainly members of the Sailor Musketeers and Yiwu Bird Cannons, accounting for less than one-tenth of the total force.
In comparison, the main force of the Satsuma Shimazu Army was still samurai. Although there were a large number of iron artillerymen in the Japanese army at this time, the Ashigaru, composed of the iron artillery team and the pike team, did not become a decisive battle unit. Even though a large number of iron gunners were used in the battle Long-range weapons were used, and in the final situation the outcome was still determined by close combat with swords and spears wielded by samurai hands. The objects of evaluation of military merit were limited to these regular samurai, and the so-called medieval war concept of divine will deciding outcome, even in this Warring States Period. The times are yet to come and cannot be erased. On the one hand, firearms based on scientific knowledge are widely used. On the other hand, the art of war based on conjuration and astrology is still valued. The daimyo use Gaolu of the daimyo level to recruit soldiers who are not only good at An elite warrior who uses soldiers and weapons and is very familiar with the rituals and allusions related to war.
It goes without saying that the daimyo of the Heian period enthusiastically organized large-scale iron cannon corps. In the daimyo army of the Keicho period at that time, the proportion of iron cannons was overwhelmingly higher compared to bows and spears, and senior samurai also carried iron cannons. Despite this, as there are almost no cases of iron gun ashigaru being awarded military medals, it cannot be considered that the improvement of the political status of the ashigaru class is directly proportional to its military importance.
The so-called "people of the world" in Japan have the ambition to separate the army and peasants, which determines that they will strictly prohibit the public from participating in the military. Although some of the vassals adopt the rural scholar system, or it is limited to emergencies. Preparations were made to mobilize farmers and soldiers, but in practice these systems did not work.