Standing on the castle tower, Kayama Hisamori looked towards Takesaki Castle to the north, where the volcanic humus formed by the ash of Mt. Aso was covered in fertile land. What once represented life and wealth is now a battlefield of slaughter. I saw that from the other side of the Pingchuan, there were groups of soldiers and horses rushing towards Kumamoto Castle, and from the banners and formations, their morale was high, and their military appearance was in order. A rough look at the past, the number of people who appeared in the field of vision was probably more than 15,000 people. There are more than a dozen flags representing the daimyos.

In front of the ranks of the shogunate's army were more than 100 cavalry sentinels, who carried high flags on their backs to indicate their identities, shuttling back and forth between the ranks of the troops, whistling and galloping away. In an instant, he rushed to Kumamoto Castle, constantly running around the castle, spying on the movement on the castle. However, under the strict orders of the long guard of Kayama, the defenders of Kumamoto Castle only watched the slightest movement with cold eyes.

These cavalrymen, carrying the banners of the shogunate and the southern army on their backs, circled around Kumamoto Castle a few times, and after seeing the situation above and below the castle, they paused slightly to discuss peace, and some of them rode back to their own team, while the rest scattered around Kumamoto Castle in search of water sources and where they would set up camp.

"Sure enough, it's an army that lives up to its name! Shengmaojun's defeat is not unjust! ”

Putting down the clairtelescope in his hand, Birchama sighed for a long time.

Nabeshima Katsushige's fishing and no ambush tactics, after being eaten by two thousand decoy teams first, were concentrated by Li Huayu dozens of large barrels to carry out fierce artillery fire on the ambush position, those iron gunners who were ambushed in the thatch in advance. But he didn't have such a strong sense of organization and discipline, and when he saw the cannonballs raining down, he immediately screamed and ran from his hiding place to scatter, only to be chased and killed by the iron artillery team of the shogunate army, and fired with iron cannons.

5,000 men and horses, carrying 2,000 Nanzhong iron cannons and 20 large barrels, went out of the city for field battles, but as a result, less than 800 people returned, and less than 400 iron cannons were brought back. Discard all the cartridges.

This battle. The Shimazu army can be described as suffering heavy losses.

"Jiu Shoujun, please pass the order on my behalf, all the soldiers and civilians in the city rushed to make the equipment to defend the city overnight, and formed a strong team. Statistical grain reserves. Go out of the city to cut down trees and fill wells! We must do so before the shogunate arrives. There were sufficient defenses and garrisons in the city. In addition, this Kumamoto Castle was originally built to defend against the attack of the Shimazu family from Minami Kyushu, and most of the defense facilities are located in the south of the castle. Please organize the people in the city to go out of the city to the north, west and east, except for the south gate, dig a large number of traps and trenches, and transport the big cylinders in the city to the north and west, so that the officers and soldiers can advance on the ground full of trenches, no matter how many troops can rush to the city at one time, and finally become the target of the iron cannons in our city! Let them drain their blood under this Kumamoto Castle! ”

Katsushige Nabeshima, who was injured in many places by the cannon of the iron cannon, was lucky not to be directly hit, and was covered in white muslin, and told Kamaru to make defensive adjustments.

"This is the precious time I bought with those iron cannons that I left behind! Please! ”

Sure enough, more than 1,000 iron cannons and 20 large barrels were exchanged for nearly two days of precious time, which gave Kayama Kumamori barely enough time to dig trenches under Kumamoto Castle and clear the wilderness.

However, the busy time passed quickly, and after some quarrels, the officials and soldiers of the shogunate had completed the distribution of the captured materials and guns, and the brigades were overwhelming, and the flags were covered all day.

The men and horses slowly stopped in the area north of Kumamoto Castle and south of Takesaki Castle and began to set up camp.

Soon, a large camp appeared on the north and east sides of Kumamoto Castle on the east and west sides of the mountain. Over the large camp tents, various family emblems and flags fluttered endlessly, and the horns in the camp were fierce. Groups of patrol soldiers patrolled the camp inside and outside the camp, and peasants with cotton armbands with patterns on their arms traveled back and forth between the mountains, the river, and the camp, carrying water and cutting firewood, and leading their horses to the river to drink.

At night, the lights are bright on and off the city, lest they be attacked by the other party.

In the camp of the shogunate army, Li Huayu sat high and accepted the worship of the generals of the army together with the general Matsudaira Nobutsuna.

Kikuchi River defeated 5,000 Shimazu troops, who were good at fishing and ambushing, and captured many prisoners, and this result made the daimyo feel troubled.

Originally, I thought that the Nanzhong Army was only with strong artillery fire, and I didn't want to be so fierce in the field, which iron artillery team asked itself if it could fire when the enemy was thirty paces away?

When checking the results of the battle, it made the eyes of the daimyo almost fall to the surface of their feet.

More than 1,700 Shimazu soldiers were killed and wounded by the firebolts, more than 1,000 people were killed by the big barrel (some of them were crushed and it is difficult to count), and more than 1,000 prisoners were captured. More than 1,200 iron cannons were seized, and 12 large cannons were usable, 8 of which were either blown up by gunpowder or temporarily unusable due to the loss of parts.

For these seizures, the daimyo are salivating one by one.

However, in the face of the big signboard of the general "centralized storage and use", everyone can only covet it secretly.

After bowing and bowing to Li Huayu respectfully, everyone began to deliberate.

"Tomorrow's battle is to conquer Kumamoto Castle! This general was written to the general and was approved. This time to capture Kumamoto, each army and horse must fight bravely to kill the enemy! No matter which one you enter, the general will have a heavy reward! Permission to open a treaty port! ”

Matsudaira Nobutsuna's words were subdued and frustrated, and they were good. There was an uproar in the big tent.

Sure enough, it's an unprecedented reward!

No matter how brave the battle was, the shogun was just a transfer of seals, rewarding some money, and increasing the height of the stone, but now rewarding a treaty port is much better than rewarding the land!

"From tomorrow, the Chinese army will launch artillery, and all departments will start attacking!"

"Now let's choose the direction of attack of each department!"

As soon as these words came out, the originally warm atmosphere immediately cooled down.

Everyone knows that whoever goes up first in a siege battle will die first, let alone this Kumamoto Castle, which is known for its fortification? Not to mention the fortifications in the south of the city, just looking at the trenches, traps, and pits on the three sides of the north, west, and east of the city, it is enough for everyone to drink a pot!

"Which lord is willing to take the south of the city?"

No one came out on top.

"Which adults are willing to attack the city first?"

Still no one spoke.

The atmosphere suddenly became a little subtle and awkward.

Matsudaira Nobutsuna's eyes began to widen.

"Old and middle-aged. So be it! Draw lots to decide which one will go to the south of the city and which one will serve as the head enemy. Tokugawa Yoshishihi came up with the idea of this and muddy.

"It's good! Anyone who goes to the south of the city to siege the city will get double the reward if they are the first to arrive! ”

The great temptation of the two treaty ports caused the daimyo to put aside their fear of Kumamoto Castle for a while.

The armies went according to their respective positions and entered into preparation for the attack. Tomorrow, with the sound of Chinese artillery as a signal, we will attack from all sides! ”

After the lottery was completed, the daimyo read out their respective positions aloud and handed them over to the Military Administration Department for record.

"The large barrel is divided into two artillery groups, the north artillery group is mainly composed of the artillery carried by His Highness and the fifteen large barrels captured this time, and the southern artillery group is composed of the shogunate artillery team and the artillery of various daimyo guns!"

"Hey!"

Because it's next to the sea. It's the middle of winter again. The weather was cold and damp, and after the night there were snowflakes falling from the sky, and the cold wind of the night froze these snowflakes into ice slag. It's slippery to step on. There are too many people to step on. It's getting muddy and muddy. The sun was lazily poking its head out from the depths of the East China Sea, but there was not much heat to spread on the battlefield that was about to be slaughtered.

To the north of Kumamoto Castle, the artillery team brought by Li Huayu was lined up here. In addition to the Big Franc machine and the eight-pounder gun. In order to strengthen the siege fire, more than a dozen twelve-pounder guns were unloaded from the gunboats. For a time, the people under the north city shouted and neighed, and it was very lively.

The material of the Great Franc cannon equipped by the Ming army was usually bronze, and since it was a rear-loading gun, the rate of fire was very fast. Each weighs about 300 pounds, the mother gun is 2.85 feet long, a Furlong machine is usually equipped with five guns, before the battle, the five guns are loaded with bullets, and the next guns are replaced immediately after one round is fired, and the skilled gunner can probably finish all the five rounds in one to two minutes. Since the South Chinese Army had the nodular cast iron, the big Buddha Lang machine was all made of the so-called nine-turn steel, using the good ductility and resistance of ductile iron, the weight of the big Buddha Lang machine was further reduced, the mobility was improved and the number of sub-guns was increased, so that it could fire shells equivalent to ten pounds.

The same twelve-pounder gun, which was still popular at this time, was still made of copper, with a caliber equivalent to the standard of 122 mm, a length of 2.29 meters, and a weight of about 1,600 catties. The South China Army is cast with ordinary steel, ductile iron or high manganese steel, which greatly reduces the weight of the gun body, not to mention, and uses raw rubber as tires on the gun carriage, replacing the iron wheels. At the same time, the spring behind the gun carriage was installed, which not only reduced the weight of the gun itself to less than 500kg, but also increased the time of the gun return speed. And because the performance of the artillery material is higher than that of bronze, the artillery of the Nanzhong Army also increases the charge measurement, even if the gunpowder produced by the standard of the Nanzhong Army is used, the amount of charge is also increased a lot. In this way, the power becomes greater and the range becomes longer. Of course, this also had the side effect of excessive gunpowder consumption and excessive smoke after firing. This requires that the gunner's shooting technology must be able to hit the first shot, and at the same time, it also tests the production capacity of the military industry.

On the artillery position, the gunners of several twelve-pounder guns were nervously carrying out the formation activities, the driver led the six horses responsible for towing the gun carriage to a safe place and tied them up, and the five gunners, under the command of the gun commander, urged the soldiers and civilians to carry ammunition and organize the artillery.

On the side, the commander of the Second Army, Tokugawa Yoshinao, heard a burst of shouts from his main formation.

"The Lord has an order! Those who ascended to the top of the city in this battle, whether they were samurai, ronin, or farmers, could all serve as the stewards of the treaty ports, hereditary! ”

"Wow!"

The whole army was in an uproar!

As the steward of the treaty port, it is a good errand to eat and drink fat! How much money will pass through your own hands? Countless people have begun to look forward to the good times after they took over as this steward.

The same reward was preached one after another in the various daimyo formations, and around Kumamoto Castle, accents from all over Japan could hear the repetition of the hereditary replacement of the first person as the steward of the treaty port.

The ranks of more than 100,000 people fell into a frenzy.

The sound of war drums and trumpets reached the castle tower, and the two men who commanded the battle here were bumpy, Hisamori Kashiyama and Katsushige Nabeshima, who were in command of the entire castle. "It's finally here!"

In the clairvoyant mirror of the two, the shogunate soldiers stretched from the north of Kumamoto Castle to Takesaki Castle in the north, and from Tachida Mountain to Honmyosa Temple in the east.

"I don't know how many samurai will shed their last drop of blood in Kumamoto Castle today."

"Boom!"

Before Kayama Hisamori finished his sigh, a cannonball fired by the Big Buddha Rang machine flew over the crowd to the stone wall, and the strong force hit the stone wall into a cloud of rubble.

With the discharge of this shell, the gunners of the Big Buddha Franc machine quickly began to bombard the city, beating the city head into flying sand and rocks.

This round of artillery fire. The prelude to the Battle of "Bloody Kumamoto Castle" was unveiled.

"Fire! Knock out the artillery of the shogunate! ”

The artillery fire at the head of the city began to return fire.

It is also produced in the south of the big Buddha Lang machine. It's just that in order to use the limited Nanzhong gunpowder at the most critical time, this first round of gunpowder was made by the Shimazu family. Although the amount of medicine has been increased, it still seems weak compared to the gunpowder produced in Nanzhong.

But. The condescending advantage makes up for this shortcoming. Time. Dense and fierce cannon fire rang out one after another at the head of the castle, and a large area of rising gunpowder smoke condensed in mid-air, and the twenty cannons placed at the north head of Kumamoto Castle opened fire one after another. Aim at the artillery group below the city.

The aiming of the Big Buddha Lang Machine had already been strictly ordered not to bombard the heads of the Nanzhong army, so as to prevent the complete anger of this group of ancestors and the cutting off of trade with Nanzhong. As a result, the aimers unanimously focused on the shogunate artillery. The level of everyone on the left and right is about the same, and if you hit, you will fight!

Unlike the solid shells used to bombard the walls of the city, most of the cannons in the city used shotguns to kill the gunners. Artillery is easy to find, but a qualified gunner has to spend countless hours and money piling up! Knock out the gunner, and the cannon is a waste!

In the dense sound of artillery, countless shotguns were fired into the shogunate artillery positions or through the artillery groups. Everywhere he passed, a mist of stump flesh flew up, and a burst of screams and groans continued. In the blink of an eye, there were five large Buddha cannon gunners, and the gunners were beaten to a bloody blur on the spot.

Coming and going, the Nanzhong army under the city was a little hit by this dense rain of bullets, and several gunners were killed in the intensive shooting.

"Aim at the cannon at the head of the city, blast to Lao Tzu!"

Twelve-pounder guns began to enter the battle.

A twelve-pound shell flew accurately above the gun position, smashed into a loaded barrel, and with a loud "boom", the large barrel gun carriage was shattered, the gun wheel flew wildly, and the heavy cannon body was lifted and rolled off. The surrounding gunners were all beaten by the various debris that was stirred up and their flesh and blood were blurred, and they all rolled to the ground and howled. To make matters worse, the ammunition loaded with the barrel exploded, igniting several shells and powder kegs stacked not far away.

For a time, the city was in turmoil.

"Don't rob me!"

The Ronin of the Volunteers, wielding long knives in their hands and holding the flags of their employers, began to charge the castle walls.

The city's artillery began to adjust the angle of the cannon barrel and bombarded the onrushing volunteers, and the previous shotgun also became solid.

In the smoke and dust of people running wildly, it became more and more difficult to identify the path of the shells.

There was a "boom", and a ten-pound cannonball smashed into the charging ronin ranks. In the fragments of flesh and blood, the cannonball smashed the bodies of the two ronins alive, and knocked the head of a peasant holding a bamboo gun behind him flat out, and in a blink of an eye on the ground was a puddle of red and white things, the corpse of the farmer was supported by the bamboo gun in his hand and stood there, just from the neck cavity kept spraying out streams of blood arrows, dyeing the clothes and faces of several people next to him blood red.

One cannonball after another flew down from the city, leaping into the ranks of the volunteers, or passing from a high place, knocking people's heads and arms away, or jumping on the icy, slippery ground, breaking the calves of countless people. The already chaotic formation of the volunteers became more and more chaotic.

This is where the difference between a siege and a defense is here, the artillery on Kumamoto Castle is protected by walls, and they just need to keep tilting the shells into the ranks of the shogunate army charging under the castle. With the help of this cold weather, the ground was frozen to a very hard point, and the lethality of the shells was greatly enhanced. And the gunners of the shogunate army, they were in the field, but they were unobstructed, and the actual operational firing level of the artillery was also far from that of the artillery of the Nanchu army.

Between the positive and the negative, the gap between the two sides is reflected in the volunteers. In this round of artillery fire, the casualties of the volunteers reached more than 1,000.

Amid the screams, the ronins who were still clamoring not to compete with him for the position of steward roared wildly and turned their heads and ran towards the way they came.

"Run!"

However, on the way to the road, there were two rows of iron gunners lined up to supervise the battle.

"Which one dares to escape!? Fire! ”

The Iron Cannon Commander, who served as the overseer, was a close confidant of the Shogunate family, and he hated these ronins composed of the remnants of the Western Army for a long time, and wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible.

"Bang bang bang!"

After the dense volley, dozens of ronins who rushed to the head were knocked to the ground, and the retreating crowd was suddenly stagnant.

"Fire!"

A second round of cannons was fired over people's heads.

"Go back, and if there are those who return without a military order, this is an example!"

As he spoke, more than 100 samurai rushed out from behind the iron cannon team, swords in hand, and cut off the heads of those ronins who were hit by the iron cannons, and provoked them with spears. (To be continued......)