[264] Greater China Co-Prosperity Circle

Kumamoto Castle is worthy of the brainchild of the Warring States period castle builder Kiyomasa Kato spent seven years building, although Mimaru was breached, but the various defensive facilities in Ninomaru brought the defensive firepower of the defenders to the extreme. When the Shimazu Satsuma soldiers bravely passed through a winding corridor, they found that it was a dead end, and what awaited them were iron cannons and bows fired from traps full of bamboo sticks and hidden shooting holes around them. Or maybe they finally found the gate, but found that there was a dense row of firing ports directly in front of the gate, and a burst of iron cannons rang out, and the brave Shimazu Satsuma Hayato fell down in a large area

Shinna Tadayao had no choice but to lead his troops and horses to temporarily withdraw from Kumamoto Castle, count the number of people, and wound 500 people.

"Why did you retreat with 500 dead and wounded?" Kong Youde asked the translator disdainfully, and the translator smiled and said: "The land of the country is narrow and there are few people, and the so-called lords under the jurisdiction of the feudal lord, if they are placed in my Ming Dynasty, there will be more county orders than him, and there will be 500 dead and injured people, so it is naturally distressing." ”

Kong Youde laughed and said, "It turned out to be just a village chief~", but laughing, Kong Youde was wary of this seemingly small, but quite strong small city of the Japanese Kingdom. So he raised his hand and said, "Light a cigarette!" ”

"Order~!" A personal soldier took out an iron box from his arms, opened it carefully, and then took out a small paper roll thinner than his finger from it and presented it to Kong Youde. Kong Youde stretched out two fingers to clamp it, and the pro-soldier immediately took out a fire fold and lit it for Kong Youde

"Whew~" Kong Youde took a few puffs and spit out a few smoke rings, "This cigarette is good, you can take it with you, you don't have to carry a big cigarette pouch everywhere." ”

The soldier smiled: "No, I heard that the cigarettes of this Shandong Cigarette Factory have all crossed the sea and been sold by businessmen to the country of Franco!" ”

Kong Youde took a few more puffs, looked at Kumamoto Castle that was smoking everywhere with contempt, and said indignantly: "Lao Tzu still doesn't believe in this evil. The city of Daming is much higher than this small village, and Lao Tzu has not broken it yet? Pass my command, give me a hard shot with a cannon, don't save me shells and gunpowder! ”

"Order!"

Boom Boom Boom ~ Boom Boom

The artillery of various calibers of the Ming army roared at Kumamoto Castle together, and the flying thunder cannons with a relatively close range were also pushed to a distance of less than 200 meters from Kumamoto Castle under the premise that the Shimazu army acted as a meat shield, and sent explosive bags weighing twenty or thirty catties into Kumamoto Castle

Matsui, the elder of the Hosokawa family, was directing the soldiers to repair the breach, and Matsui suddenly felt that the mountains were shaking, and then he saw the firelight accompanied by a huge and blazing wave of air with countless broken iron filings and wood chips flying in all directions~

Old Matsui was shaken by the air wave generated by the explosion, and hit a grain and grass cart before falling to the ground, and the pain of broken bones penetrated through his chest from his back to the chest. Matsui looked up at the sky and saw that the sky was still shining. But when I looked down, I saw that a large part of the wall reinforced by rammed earth and thick wooden pillars at the mouth of the bowl had collapsed, and the remaining ruins and broken walls were as incomplete as if they had been chiseled by a sledgehammer. Most of the soldiers who were close to the ramparts were gone, leaving only mutilated or bloody corpses. There were flames and black smoke all around him, and many creeps were running around, and several lightly wounded soldiers were screaming hoarsely trying to stabilize the mood of the creeps

Matsui was mentally prepared for the fierceness of the battle, and he could even imagine that in the midst of the earth-shattering battle, groups of samurai would fall in front of the walls and trenches, and rush forward one by one over the corpses and blood of his own samurai. As long as the two sides don't stop, the fight will not end, no matter how tragic it is~~~~ However, the current degree of tragedy has exceeded his imagination

Nagaoka Masanao instinctively lay down on the ground, his face was close to the ground, the ground that could have been relied on was now like a rough big hand, splitting his head and covering his face and constantly slapping Nagaoka's face, Nagaoka Masanao only felt that his body was like being slammed by many hard fists, and his internal organs were all mashed.

After the loud roar stopped, Nagaoka Masanao raised his head slightly and opened his eyes, but he saw that everything was blood-red, Nagaoka sat up with difficulty, his hand holding the ground felt warm and wet, and he turned to see a pile of blood-soaked things spread out next to him, it was a body with no head and half of its body.

沓~~ has been stepping on the face of Nagaoka Masano, Nagaoka Masachi raised his head with difficulty and looked up, only to see a Ashigaru standing in front of him with the Shimazu family cross coat of arms and a flag, and the Notai knife in his hand was already aimed at his neck.

Nagaoka was about to close his eyes and die, when suddenly a cold light flashed, and the Shimazu Satsuma soldier was slashed by a rushing samurai

"Musashi?" Nagaoka Masashi looked up and saw that it was the Hosokawa family's swordsmanship instructor, the famous Miyamoto Musashi.

"You guys~ cover Sado Mamoru to heal!" Miyamoto Musashi, who was already sixty years old, was still arrogant, and when several panicked Ashigaru saw Miyamoto Musashi, they immediately calmed down, picked up Nagaoka Masanao and retreated to Honmaru

"Miyamoto Musashi is here, who dares ~~~" Miyamoto Musashi was about to shout loudly, only to hear two gunshots, Miyamoto Musashi's head fell back suddenly, and fell to the ground on his back, only to see a blood hole in the center of his eyebrows and chest.

Then, I heard someone in the Shimazu army shouting: "Kill Miyamoto Musashi~~ Kill Miyamoto Musashi!" ”

"Hey, hey~!" With cheers of victory, the Shimazu army once again captured Sannomaru. However, the battle for Ninomaru is still fierce. Faced with the firing holes hidden by the defenders in various parts of the city, the artillery of the Ming army was helpless for a while.

At this time, Kong Youde remembered what he had done when he was mining in Liaodong, so he ordered someone to cut some bamboo nearby, open the bamboo joints, and then fill it with gunpowder to make a blasting cylinder. In the end, Kong Youde said to Xinna Zhongyao through an interpreter: "You send the brave men to stuff this powder keg into those battlements (shooting holes)." ”

Xinna Zhongyao, who had not been able to attack for a long time, was also red-eyed, so he immediately ordered people to act as a death squad

"Wow!" The Shimazu soldiers, who had a strip of cloth wrapped around their foreheads and shoved bamboo poles into the shooting holes, but the defenders' muskets were not fired very frequently, and the death squads were killed when they rushed to the firing port five or six paces away. The death squad, who finally rushed to the firing port, also found that the firing port was too small, and the bamboo pole was too thick to fit in at all. In desperation, the death squad could only use bamboo poles to resist the firing port.

Bang

rumble

A bullet from inside the firing port was fired into the bamboo barrel, causing an explosion. The Shimazu Satsuma soldiers with bamboo poles were naturally blown up and their flesh and blood flew sideways, and the defenders in the shooting port were also screaming again and again. After paying several heavy casualties, Shinna Tadayao finally entered the Honmaru and slashed off the head of Masanao Nagaoka, who was unable to move due to a spinal injury, and then captured Hosokawa Mitsuna, the second lord of the Hosokawa family, who was shivering in the closet.

Kumamoto deserves to be called the Great Phigo Domain, the Ming army found a large amount of grain and money in the warehouse of Kumamoto Castle, according to Song Youliang's established policy, the Ming army did not plunder the ordinary people of Japan, but distributed food to the poor, so the Ming army basically did not suffer any setbacks. At the same time, Song Youliang also played two cards against the Tokugawa shogunate: the first card was to raise Amakusa Shiro Tokisada as a pretext to call on the Catholic people and daimyo in Kyushu to join in the "holy war" against the Tokugawa shogunate.

Amakusa Shiro, whose real name is Masuda Tokisada, and his father, Masuda Shibei Koji, was a clerk for the daimyo Konishi Yukinaga (a Japanese daimyo who was killed in the Battle of Sekigahara). Later, Toshisada was passed on to Amakusa Shibei and renamed Amakusa Tokisada. Amakusa has been brilliant since childhood, known as a prodigy, and has a handsome appearance. A scholar once said to Amakusa: "Your Excellency has a noble face, and you should have mastered the world, but it is a pity that you were born in the Tokugawa era and cannot achieve great things." Amakusa embraced Catholicism and propagated among the people the doctrine that "heaven and earth are of the same root, that all things are one, and that there is no distinction between dignity and inferiority." More than 20 years ago, a priest named Marcus prophesied to the faithful at the time of his expulsion: "In the future, a virgin of sixteen years old will appear here." He was born with extraordinary talents, knew the doctrine, and performed miracles. The clouds in the sky were as red as burnt, and there was a sound on the ground. At this time, a cross appeared on everyone's forehead, and white flags fluttered in the mountains, and Christianity had swallowed up all paganism, and God had come to save the nations. Amakusa Shiro was regarded as a "tendo" by the people, so Amakusa Shiro had a considerable reputation among the people of the southwestern domains.

The moderate policy implemented by the Ming army and the introduction of the shield of Amakusa Shiro solved many problems for the Ming army. The Japanese people did not feel that the Ming army was invading them, but felt that it was to save them, and most of the people here in Kyushu believed in Catholicism, and after the death of Konishi Yukinaga and Amakusa Shiro, because Catholicism did not allow suicide, so their samurai did not follow their masters. Under the suppression of the shogunate, these samurai became peasants or itinerant samurai. Now with the call of Amakusa Shiro, the legendary tendo, and the shogun who opposed their enemy, many samurai asked to fight with the Ming army.

The second card is the Greater China Co-Prosperity Circle, which proposes to coexist and co-prosper tomorrow and support each other. Now, Korea, Ryukyu, Boni, Johor, and Nanyang have joined this co-prosperity circle. As long as Japan also joins this co-prosperity circle, the Japanese people and businessmen can enjoy all the benefits of this circle, such as businessmen can travel freely to various countries without paying customs duties, Japanese people can come to Daming to study and further their studies, Japanese people who have lost their land and landless can go to work in the factories opened by Daming, Japanese women can come to China to farm, and so on. In short, joining this Greater China Co-Prosperity Circle is only good for Japan, not bad. But now the ignorant and brutal Tokugawa shogunate refused to join this circle, and also cooperated with the enemies of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch, so the Ming Dynasty came to Japan, not to invade Japan, not to target the Japanese people, but to target the Tokugawa shogunate.