[269] I still have to ask for help

It is said that after the shogunate army on the Sekigahara front received an urgent report from Edo, Sakai Tadakatsu immediately led the main force back to Edo day and night, while Hoshina Masayuki and Abe Tadaaki each led 10,000 soldiers and horses.

Ukita Hideya thought that he had defeated the shogunate army, so the other party began to retreat, so the fallen shogunate army under the command of Ukita Hideya drove straight into the country and chased after him. Masayuki Hoshina and Abe Tadaaki fought and retreated, so they were not embarrassed.

At this time, the daimyos, who had always been accustomed to seeing the wind and the rudder, joined the army, and by the time the army arrived at Odawara Castle on April 20, the number of soldiers and horses had increased to 100,000.

Located on the Kanto Plain of Japan, next to Sagami Bay west of Tokyo, Odawara Castle was one of the most fortified castles in the Warring States period. Odawara Castle was originally owned by the Okubo clan, but in the second generation of Okubo Sojo was forced to change due to a dispute with the shogunate, and within five years it became a castle. It was not until 1619 that 50,000 koku were divided into 50,000 koku by the Shoji Abe of the Upper Shoku Domain, and four years later it was transferred to Iwatsuki Castle and became Fanjo again. In 1632, Inaba Masakatsu was enthroned for 85,000 koku, and the current feudal lord is Inaba Masanori, the second feudal lord of the Inaba family.

Inaba Masakatsu is the second son of Inaba Masakatsu, and Inaba Masakatsu is the eldest son of Inaba Masanari, and his mother is the nurse of Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, Saito Fuku, that is, Kasuga. Therefore, the Inaba family is regarded as a pedigree by the Tokugawa family.

"Odawara!" Seeing that the war was going so smoothly now, Ukita Hideya began to feel a little flustered, thinking that the shogunate army was nothing more than that, and at the same time thinking that he was a military "genius".

"It seems that it is right to drive the Ming army away!" When nearly 300,000 soldiers of the Shogunate Army approached Odawara Castle, the Ukita Hideya even began to look at the faint Edo Castle from afar, and the Ukita Hideya began to fantasize about how to eliminate their political enemies, and then forced the emperor to appoint himself as Sekihaku, "If I can be like Taiko-sama~~ That would be great!" The white-haired Xiujia held a sword in his hand, and watched the morale of the fallen army rush to the barrier of Odawara one by one

However, don't look at the feudal lord Inaba Masanori is only a twenty-three-year-old boy, but with Odawara's sturdiness, he firmly nailed the 100,000 fallen shogunate army in Sagami Bay.

Countless soldiers of the Fallen Curtain Army, carrying ladders and holding tree trunks, flocked to the city walls. The shogunate soldiers on the city walls condescendingly poured boiling oil, fired iron cannons, and rained stones overhead. The soldiers of the Fallen Shogunate who rushed upwards were either scorched by boiling oil or their brains were scattered by stones, and the castle of Odawara was soon piled with stones and corpses. The brutal battle lasted for more than an hour, and the fallen army had already suffered more than 500 casualties, and they gradually could not hold on.

Of the 100,000 fallen army, only half were real samurai, and the rest were market scoundrels, peasants, and bankrupt townspeople who wanted to take advantage of the fire, and had no formal training. The previous brave battles were all based on temporary bravery, but now the battle has not lasted for a long time, but it has suffered heavy casualties, and the morale has really declined again, and it has been exhausted. The offensive of the Shogunate army gradually slowed down, and the samurai of the Shimazu and Mori families shouted "いけ!" すすめ! いけ (rush!) But the offense showed little sign of improvement.

In the city, the young Inaba Masanori looked coldly at the declining army, and finally gave a decisive order: "Go out of the city and counterattack!" ”

Hey, hey~Oh

The shogunate cavalry and ashigaru, who had long been unable to hold back, rushed out of the city gate with a roar, and the fallen shogunate army was about to collapse at the touch of a button, and they could not resist this group of tiger-wolf-like cavalry troops. The defeat at the front of the Fallen Shogun army quickly infected the troops behind the rear of the army, and a large number of soldiers did not see the enemy, so they began to flee on their own.

"Don't go back~~"

"Don't retreat~!"

Takaji, the old minister of the Mori family, and Shinna Tadayao of the Shimazu family, killed four or five deserters in a row, but they still couldn't stop the defeat. It wasn't until Ukita Hideya, Shimazu Hisamitsu, Mori Hideyoshi and others led the regular army to come up and suppress the formation, that the rout was finally stopped

Shimazu Hisamitsu looked at the Inaba Army that returned to Odawara in a big way after winning the battle, and said with great emotion: "Odawara is really an unbreakable fortified city in the world~~If we~" Shimazu Hisamitsu swallowed the second half of the sentence, he originally wanted to say that if there was a Ming army's artillery to help, how good would it be? He had seen the Ming army use artillery to smash Kumamoto Castle, which was no less solid than Odawara

Ukita Hideya looked at the corpses scattered all over the castle and muttered, "It is taboo for soldiers to station a large army under a strong castle, and I thought that we should bypass Odawara and attack Edo directly." As long as we take control of Edo, the daimyo who are still waiting will be completely disappointed with the Tokugawa family. ”

"But that's too risky, isn't it?" Shimazu Hisamitsu said

"Lord~" Just when everyone was hesitating whether to take the risk, Shinna Tadayao hurried over and said, "Just now, someone from the Edo side came to report that there was a riot in Edo, and Sekigahara's army was urgently transferred to Edo. ”

"God and Buddha bless!" Ukita Hideya laughed and said, "If we don't go straight to Edo now, how long will we wait?" ”

"Yes~ It's now!" Fujiwara Yoshimasa was the first to agree

Shimazu Hisamitsu, Mori Hidesa, and Matsuura Zhenshin also agreed, but Zong Yoshinari said coldly: "My army has been away from home for a long time, and everyone is homesick, I want to go back to Tsushima first." ”

"Zongjun~!" Ukita Hideya wanted to say something to keep it, but after thinking about it, the 1,500 soldiers of Tsushima had no effect on the fallen army at all, but there was one less person who shared the credit after the war. So Ukita Hideya dismissed the idea of retaining

"I wish you all a long martial arts!" Zong Yicheng saluted everyone

Back in his camp, Zong Yicheng hurriedly ordered people to stand guard outside the tent, and no one was allowed to come within ten steps of his tent. And Zong Yicheng himself quietly took out a letter from his arms, read the contents of the letter again, and muttered: "Song Jun, don't lie to me!" ”

"Ah sneeze~~" Song Youliang, who had returned to Busan, North Korea by sea, was carefully reading several reports sent by Beijing, and sneezed coldly.

"Ha, the steam engine is finally born!" The first report was from Song Yingxing from the Seiko Workshop, and thanks to the efforts of the skilled craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty and Song Yingxing and Western craftsmen, the Ming finally had its own steam engine, and the first steam engine was already in operation in a textile factory in Liaodong.

The second is a program of governance for the next five years drafted by a group of cabinet elders in Beijing in combination with their own ideas and their opinions.

Over the next five years, the report plans to promote and popularize a series of new processes and technologies, such as the steam engine, and to encourage private investment in machine and craft industries, so as to transform the growth of wealth from land annexation dominated by the agricultural economy to industrial investment dominated by the industrial economy.

Under this premise, the imperial court had to pay for a number of key government-run projects: in metallurgy, large iron and steel plants were opened or reopened in Handan, Xingtai, Wuhan, Zunhua, and other places, all of which adopted new smelting technology. To this end, the imperial court also focused on the construction of a number of coal mines and iron mines. The names on the list are: Kailuan Coal Mine, Jingcheng Coal Mine, Datong Coal Mine, Pingxiang Anyuan Coal Mine, Jinxi Coal Mine, Anshan, Tongyuanbao Iron Mine, etc. These mines are allowed to raise funds from the private sector, and private capital can participate in the shares, but they can only pay dividends and have no right to manage. In terms of coal mines, private and private mining in small coal mines is strictly prohibited. If you want to open a private coal mine or iron mine, the mine owner must have strong capital, be able to provide perfect safety measures for the miners, and then register with the local government and pay taxes according to the regulations before it is allowed. Supporting metal processing, there is Seiko workshop to provide technical support, and then in Beijing, Baoding, Shenyang and other places to open a number of factories specializing in the manufacture of machine tools and simple mechanical parts, for the full popularization of mechanization to do material backing.

In addition to metallurgy, it is also necessary to vigorously develop traditional advantageous projects. For example, in Songjiang and Suzhou and Hangzhou, new textile factories using new machinery were established, the export of ceramic manufacturing industry in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province was vigorously supported, and tobacco cultivation in Shandong was encouraged

In terms of water conservancy, the main task is to complete the design and manufacture of steam engine sailing ships as soon as possible, and strive to launch the first steam ship before the end of the year.

In terms of agriculture, it is mainly to build farmland water conservancy, excavate a number of new rivers into the sea, and dredge old rivers; The lower reaches of the Yellow River return to its old course and flow into the Bohai Sea; dredging project of the lower reaches of the Huai River into the sea; The Jingjiang section of the Yangtze River is bent and straightened, and the river excavation project is carried out

In the area of education, basic education and compulsory education are universalized, and compulsory education is universally carried out through compulsory measures, so that the basic education coverage rate will reach 100 per cent within five years. All provinces should prepare to build a new-style school like Dengzhou University Hall within five years to cultivate modern comprehensive talents. Establish a number of specialized vocational and technical schools in provincial capitals where conditions permit, and train skilled skilled workers and technicians. At the same time, encourage and reward folk artists and craftsmen with a skill to open their own museums to accept apprentices and teach skills.

In terms of science and technology, the Daming Royal University was established and the subordinate research institutions were improved, which are as follows: the Academy of Literature (comprehensive collation and research and storage of various scientific and technological documents), the Jinshi Academy (specially responsible for smelting), the Danhua Academy (chemical research), the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Geography, and the School of Medicine.

"Good guys!" Song Youliang looked at the long list, and the first thing he thought of was: How much money does this have to be put in? Although the treasury has been abundant in the past few years, so much money has to be spent in five years, and the household department should complain again, right?

Song Youliang was hesitating, and suddenly a pawn came to report, saying that the Japanese State had sent someone to ask for help

"Aha~" Song Youliang was overjoyed, "Dozing off and sending a pillow, this was just worried about money, and the person who sent the money there came!" Song Youliang straightened his clothes and asked, "Who is here?" ”

The pawn replied, "The man who claimed to be named Yui Masayuki. ”