【274】Decisive Battle of Edo

On May 8, the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese Emperor Masahito officially turned from the background of the Emperor Taishang to the present, and announced in the name of the Japanese Emperor that Japan had signed the "Japan-Ming Shimonoseki Treaty" with the Ming Kingdom, and all the provisions of the treaty came into effect immediately. Masayoshi Muneki, Shimazu Mitsumitsu, Mori Hideharu, Matsuura Shonobu, Ukita Hideie, Fujiwara Yoshimasa, Nagamune Ibe Morisumi, and the Emperor himself were given large tracts of Chiyuki territory, and the Kansai area was no longer owned by the Tokugawa shogunate.

At this moment, major changes also took place within the Tokugawa shogunate. On the night of May 7, the shogunate samurai of the Shaozhuang faction, led by Sakai Tadashiyo, entered the house of Sakai Tadashi in an attempt to kill Sakai Tadakatsu. Awakened from his sleep, Sakai Tadakatsu saved his life under the protection of his retainers, and he did not dare to stay in Edo Castle, but fled outside Edo Castle, where the Ming beachhead in Uraga Port was unexpectedly captured. Sakai Tadakiyo, on the other hand, controlled the Shogun's Imperial Palace and the Tokugawa Iemitsu's wives and concubines in the Imperial Palace, as well as the Kasuga Bureau, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, and others

"Isn't this Sakai-sama?" Li Xin, who suddenly heard the change, saw the old man Sakai wearing only a crotch cloth, and forced a smile

"Unfortunately for our country, Iemitsu Gong has just died, and the traitor Sakai Tadakiyo has launched a rebellion." Sakai Tadashi really cried this time, he ignored his own ** body, and submitted to Li Xin, "Please make the Heavenly Empire the master of our country and send troops to quell the rebellion!" ”

Li Xin looked embarrassed and said: "Japan has never paid tribute to my Ming Dynasty, nor is it a subordinate of my Ming Dynasty. ”

Sakai Tadashi shivered in the night wind, and Li Xin ordered someone to bring him a set of cotton clothes

Sakai Tadakatsu said: "The general's words are insincere, your country has come forward to support a pro-Ming emperor, can't you support a pro-Ming shogun?" ”

Li Xin was puzzled: "I can't be the master of this matter, I must report it to Lord An Guogong who is in Kyoto." ”

Sakai Tadashi bowed again and said, "Then bother General Li to pass it on, and I will go and gather the old subordinates." After that, whether or not your country supports me and knows how to rebel, I will crusade against the traitorous Zhongqing. If this stubborn main battle faction is allowed to gain power, it will not do the Ming any good. ”

"Sakai-sama, are you threatening?" Li Xinban made a face

The treacherous and cunning Sakai Tadashi smiled: "No, I'm just talking about a fact!" ”

Seeing Sakai Tadashi get off the ship, Li Xin immediately ordered: "Flying pigeon pass the book and report this matter to the grandfather!" ”

"Order!"

Sakai Tadakiyo, who had driven out Sakai Tadakatsu, immediately took Tokugawa Ietsuna hostage and announced that he would refuse to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty, and then reinforcements from Masayuki Hoshina, Abe Tadaaki, and the daimyo of the Sashoku faction of the Kanto feudal clan attacked more than 90,000 people and arrived in Edo. They were accompanied by more than 300 Dutchmen who had been expelled by the Shimazu family. With these troops as the backing, Sakai Tadashiyo told Masayuki Hoshina that Sakai Tadakatsu wanted to take advantage of the power vacuum after Tokugawa Iemitsu's death to negotiate peace with the Ming army and sign a treaty that would lose power and humiliate the country. Bao Ke Zhengzhi, who was originally the main battle faction, was furious, and personally took command of the battle, wanting to fight to the death with the Ming army

On May 15 of the fourth year of Daming Hongde, the originally sunny weather on this day suddenly became gloomy, and the wind under the dark clouds blew the flag loudly. On a small plain outside the port of Uraga were lined up with infantry phalanxes.

"These hateful Tang people, Mingkou~~!" After Masayuki Hoshina discovered that the combined forces of the Ming, Chao and Sakai, and the Fallen Shogunate faction had almost no cavalry, he used his own killer advice as soon as he came up.

With the sound of a conch, I saw more than 5,000 cavalrymen wearing black armor, with flags on their backs, and spears in their hands, rushing towards the coalition position. The shogunate army, which had already occupied the high ground, was now swooping down with 5,000 iron horses, and from a distance, it looked like a black flood pouring down. The horse's hooves struck the earth with it. The battle called the Battle of Edo by the Ming Dynasty and the "Edo Collapse" by the Japanese Shogunate faction began

The cavalry from the northern route was the first in the world, and the main battle was fought at the same time by the Kamiyama family of the Yonezawa domain, the largest poor clan in the world, and the Date family of the Sendai domain, the largest rich clan in the world. The Sendai Domain was the largest feudal kingdom in the Tohoku region of Japan, and the Sendai Domain was blessed with a unique geographical location, including the Sendai Plain, Ishinomaki, Kesenwan, and Onagawa River, which were rich in aquatic products, and the actual stone height of the Sendai Domain was as high as 2 million koku, making it the highest income feudal kingdom in Japan at that time. Its financial revenues surpassed those of the Kaga and Satsuma domains of the same period, and during the time when Date Masamune was in charge of the family, he sent envoys to Rome with the power of a feudal domain, and its wealth can be imagined. The cavalrymen of the Sendai clan wore brightly colored armor and held spears that shimmered with cold light in their hands, and compared to them, the cavalry of the Kamiyama family looked much poorer.

Boom, boom, boom

Boom, boom, boom

At this moment, a fierce artillery bombardment overshadowed the shouts of the shogunate cavalry, and more than a dozen black smoke bloomed like flowers in the black cavalry formation of the shogunate army. The air wave of the cannonball explosion ruthlessly overturned the shogunate cavalry and men and horses to the ground, and the shrapnel flying everywhere greedily harvested the lives of the shogunate cavalry, only to see that the closer the shogunate cavalry got to the Ming army, the more fierce the Ming army's artillery became, and there were constantly riders falling from their horses, or even people and horses were torn to pieces.

But the shogunate warriors on the horse had no intention of retreating, a thousand meters, eight hundred meters, five hundred meters... Seeing that the cavalry was getting closer and closer, the musketeers of the Ming army still stood there calmly, without even blinking an eye. Because on the battlefield of the Central Plains, these soldiers have encountered more terrifying assaults than this.

"Gear Ready~!"

"Gear guns ready!"

"Musketeers prepare~!"

"The musketeers are ready!"

"Shoot~!"

Woohoo

Da Da ~ Da Da

Every soldier of the Ming army clearly knew that now was not the time to retreat but the time to attack, with the order of the hundred generals and the general flags, the battlefield suddenly sounded like a series of gunshots, and bullets whistled out one after another.

Suddenly, the seemingly unstoppable torrent of iron cavalry of the shogunate cavalry seemed to hit a copper wall headlong, and the brave and helpless samurai were beaten by the cannons and muskets of the Ming army, but they were helpless. About 400 meters away from the Ming army's front, it became the cemetery of the shogunate cavalry, and the corpses of men and horses were thickly piled up

"My lord, is this how Nobunaga defeated the Takeda family's red cavalry in the Battle of Nagashino?" Sakai Tadakatsu's nephew, Sakai Senbei, was surprised to keep his mouth shut

Sakai Tadashi shook his head, "Back then, Nobunaga Gong also defeated three rejection horses in front of the battle, and it took more than 40,000 ashigaru to defeat the 30,000 soldiers and horses of the Takeda family. And now, the Ming army did not reject the horse, and there were only more than 3,000 people! ”

After several charges ended in failure, the morale of the shogunate army plummeted. Seeing that the shogunate army on the opposite side began to retreat in a hurry under the blow of the Ming army's musket team, an indescribable hatred rose in Hoshina Masa's heart, "Unworthy Uesugi and Date, don't they know the importance of the first battle?" "Scolding is scolding, but Masayuki Hoshina clearly knows in his heart that even if he is replaced by the Takeda family's Chibei cavalry or the Chibei cavalry of Ii Naomasa, they are just as vulnerable in the face of such fierce guns.

Masayuki Hoshina stared at everything that was happening on the battlefield in front of him with a gloomy face, and did not say a word. At this time, the only thing he could rely on was that after the artillery attack of the Ming army ended, the confidence of his troops was not destroyed, but he was still able to rely on his strong confidence to block the offensive launched by the Ming army.

Sure enough, the enemy army quickly launched a counterattack, and one by one, the shogunate samurai clenched their steel swords and spears, determined to fight to the death against the Ming army based on the spirit of bushido. However, they soon became disappointed and began to turn from disappointment to despair.

The Ming army had no intention of fighting them hand-to-hand, but adjusted the angle of the cannon and began to fire at the positions of the shogunate army. What's even worse is that the Ming warships anchored in the port of Uraga also began to bombard the front of the shogunate army's position with naval guns.

For a whole day on 15 May, the artillery attacks of the Ming army never stopped. They kept combing the positions of the shogunate army repeatedly, as if they wanted to wipe out all the shogunate troops on the opposite side under the battlefield with their absolute superiority in artillery fire. And under such a frenzied blow, many young samurai who went to the battlefield for the first time began to waver, and their so-called bushido spirit was ruthlessly shattered by the cannonballs fired by the cannonballs of the Ming army.

On the 16th, the Ming army, having consumed a large number of artillery shells on the 15th, changed its strategy and ordered the infantry of the Shogunate and Sakai armies to attack the shogunate army stationed at Yamannote. The topography of Edo is high in the west and low in the east, and large and small rivers such as the Edo River and the Sumida River flow from north to west, eroding the eastern edge of the ancient Musashino plateau, forming small tongue-shaped terraces commonly known as "the hand of the mountain". The daimyo manor and samurai residences were built on the terrace of the "Mountain Hand". To the east of Yamate, there is a small alluvial plain where the town people lived in a low-lying and swampy area.

Tadashi Sakai, who had seen the power of the Ming army's artillery to flood the sea, repeatedly asked the Ming army to open artillery fire on the shogunate positions at the Mountain Hand in order to destroy the morale of the defenders. After thinking about it for a second time, Li Xin decided to let the artillery unit fire ten cannons at the hand of the mountain. As a result, the shogunate, who had also seen the power of the Ming cannon, began to flee in all directions when the fourth shell of the Ming cannon's cannon fell into the hands of the mountain

“たすけて！！！ Seeing that the defenders of the Mountain Hand were in disarray, the Shogunate Army and the Sakai Army immediately launched a fierce attack on the Mountain Hand, and they scrambled to rush up to the Mountain Hand. God knows if they were really that brave, or if they took a fancy to the treasures of the daimyo and the rich man's house on the mountain hand terrace.

The hand of the garrison was Uesugi Tsunakatsu of the Yonezawa Domain, and Ishikawa Sokei of the Sendai Domain, who participated in the Abu Kuma River Water Control Project in the 16~18th year of Kanei (1638~1641).

Because Masayuki Hoshina did not trust the Yonezawa Domain, he placed the Yonezawa Domain at the front of the Mountain Hands, so Uesugi Tsunaka's 5,000 soldiers and horses suffered heavy losses. Uesugi Tsunakatsu sent envoys several times to ask for help from Ishikawa Munekei in his rear, but Ishikawa Munekei ignored him

"Lord~!" Uesugi Tsunakatsu's retainer, Honjo Shigerumasa, said to Uesugi Tsunakatsu with a full body of battle wounds: "Today's events, the Tokugawa shogunate has already reached the level, why should we bury them? Let's see that Shimazu, Mori and others supported the emperor, and they were all entitled. Those who know the times are Junjie, and we are already attached to the strong! ”

"But~~ I once handed over the letter that Shimazu Hisamitsu and Mori Shu wrote to me to Sakai Tadakiyo!" Uesugi was at a loss for a moment

"Kill Sakai Tadashiyo, then no one will know?" Honjo is prosperous

"Okay~!" Uesugi Tsunakatsu said, "Immediately get out of the way for the fallen shogunate to pass, and send an envoy to express my support for the emperor!" ”

"Ho~!"