Chapter 576: Bamboo Bundle

The first thing the shogunate army rolled out was their fifty-four cannons. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The range of these guns was not far. Not to mention the large barrels produced by the Japanese themselves, even the Dutch cannons had a limited firing range, and the direct firing range was only one mile.

This time, Li Zhi unloaded 300 cannons from the ship to defend the castle, and when he saw that the shogunate army was attacking the east side of the castle, he moved 260 of them to the east. As soon as the shogunate's cannons approached the castle Sannomaru, a deafening burst of cannons rang out on the castle walls, and the cannonballs rained down on the Tokugawa family's artillery.

When the artillery of the shogunate army was still five miles away, it was bombarded by the long artillery of Li Zhijun.

The target of the shell fired five miles away was projectile, and the shell would not bounce after landing, so Li Zhi used the flowering shell. Although the projectile was not very accurate, 260 cannons were too many, and the shells flying at extreme speed in the air were endless, smashing one shogunate gun truck after another outside the castle.

The explosion of the flowering bomb is actually not very lethal in this scenario, and the Japanese army will dodge when they see the flowering bomb falling on their side. However, a flowering bomb that exploded once was always stronger than a solid bullet that did not explode, and a few flowering shells blew up the nearby shogunate artillery trucks, which was worthy of the cost of the flowering shell.

The artillery wagons of the shogunate army were dragged by horses, and the advance was not very fast, and after a three-minute walk of two miles, the cannons on the city walls fired three rounds. By the time the cannons of the shogunate army had finally advanced to within three miles of the castle, twenty of the fifty-four cannons had been destroyed, and by this time the cannons on the city walls had begun to bombard with solid shells.

At a distance of three miles, the eighteen-pounder cannon could already fire directly. When fired directly, the solid bullet will continue to bounce forward after landing, and all obstacles that block the shell in a straight line will be hit. Compared to the flowering bullets that are thrown into the dirt after being thrown, the hit rate of the bouncing solid bullets is much higher.

The gun carriage hit by the solid bullets instantly fell apart, and the steel and wooden parts were scattered and shattered to the ground by the impact of the solid bullets. The artillery behind the artillery carriage was also not safe, and from time to time the artillery was hit by the catapulted solid bullets, the light ones were cut off their hands and feet, and the heavy ones were torn apart from human shape.

The eighteen-pounder cannon on the city wall smashed more than thirty artillery carriages in just one round.

There were only seven artillery wagons left of the Tokugawa family.

Speaking of which, the Japanese soldiers are still very tough. While most of the artillery was destroyed, the artillery of the last seven guns did not flee, but continued to drive forward, stubbornly.

But their courage is only strong. As soon as the second round of solid shells on the city wall sounded, the artillerymen of the last seven guns were so frightened that they abandoned their guns and fled, and fled in the direction of their own camp in a panic.

However, there is no difference between fleeing and not fleeing at this time. The bouncing solid bullets drew two hundred and sixty death curves across the ground, and an area near the gun carriage was enveloped by the straight lines shot from these walls, so that even the fleeing artillerymen could not dodge. The solid bullet was like a devil, breaking the human body it touched into a bloody paste, and only the screams of the soldiers who were shot could be heard on the battlefield.

In just a few minutes, dozens of precious cannons of the shogunate army were completely wiped out by Li Zhijun on the city wall.

On the top of the castle wall, looking at the vulnerable artillery of the shogunate army, the soldiers of the Tiger Warrior Division laughed. The laughter of the tens of thousands of people merged into a huge sound that rang out for miles.

This was the first time that the four Japanese daimyo who had taken refuge in Li Zhi's army had seen Li Zhijun's cannon with their own eyes, and they looked at each other for a while, and they felt more and more that it was the right choice to take refuge in Li Zhi.

Zhong Feng waved his hand excitedly, and Zhong Feng said loudly: "Commander, let's just kill it, right?" ”

Li Zhi shook his head and said, "Since they have the confidence to attack the city, we will wait for work in the city." ”

Zheng Kaicheng said a little shyly: "Grandpa Guo is wise! ”

In the main camp of the Tokugawa army, the daimyo and generals of the shogunate looked at the scene on the battlefield and turned pale.

Li Zhi's cannon is also too powerful. The daimyo and generals of the shogunate did not know what the billet cannon casting method was, and they were unaware of the tremendous innovation in cannon casting efficiency that this method had brought about. They only knew that Li Zhi had far more artillery than his own, maybe seven, eight hundred, or even thousands.

Artillery of such an order of magnitude is incredible in an island country. In an island nation that still uses ancient castles to defend territory, even seven or eight heavy artillery pieces can completely change the situation on the battlefield.

The number of artillery pieces owned by Li Zhi is even comparable to that of Westerners.

The "Great Elder" of the shogunate, Doi Toshikatsu, suddenly ran in front of Tokugawa Iemitsu and said loudly: "His Royal Highness the Shogun, retire the army!" Li Zhi's requirements are not too harsh, if we lose this battle, we will lose even more! ”

The other daimyo and generals were all in a trance when they heard Doi Toshikatsu's words. Li Zhi's cannon was so powerful that they didn't have the confidence to win for a while. Doi Toshikatsu's words shook them even more, and they all looked at the shogunate's shogun.

Tokugawa Iemitsu glanced at Doi Toshikatsu angrily, waved his hand and said, "Disturb the morale of the army and take Doi Toshikatsu!" ”

Several of the "Ma Dai Clan" rushed out, held down Doi Toshikatsu, who was wearing samurai armor, and escorted him down.

Seeing that the shogunate "elder" was taken down in this way, the other daimyo and officials looked at each other and did not dare to say anything more about retreating.

Tokugawa Iemitsu took a breath and said loudly, "The first team is attacking!" Besiege! ”

The Tokugawa Naka Army ordered the flag to be unfurled and passed the order down. Elder Sakai Tadakatsu personally led 40,000 ashigaru to attack the fortified Osaka Castle.

Most of Japan's castles were originally built on mountainous terrain, and the terrain was rugged and steep, which was not suitable for the deployment of siege machines, so Japan did not develop sophisticated siege machine technology. In the late Warring States period, some daimyo began to build castles on the plains. But by this time, artillery had already been introduced to Japan, and other siege equipment was useless.

All in all, the Japanese basically had no other equipment for attacking the city except artillery. And the shogunate army, whose artillery was completely destroyed by Li Zhi, could only climb Osaka Castle with their hands and feet at this time.

Li Zhi had watched some Japanese movies before crossing over, and was deeply impressed by the footage of medieval Japanese soldiers climbing castles and storming. At that time, Li Zhi still thought that the director had made a mistake, but at this time, seeing the soldiers of the shogunate rushing up and climbing the city wall with their bare hands, Li Zhi realized that this is how the island people attacked the city.

Japan is an earthquake-prone country, and the walls are oblique in order to prevent earthquakes, so the siege soldiers can climb them with their hands and feet.

Of course, in order to cover these soldiers who climbed the wall, the shogunate's iron gunners followed behind with thick bamboo bundles. The iron gunners hoped to rush to within 100 meters of the Sannomaru castle wall, hide behind the bamboo bundle and shoot at the city wall, suppressing the soldiers on the wall, so that Li Zhi's soldiers and horses could not attack the soldiers who climbed the wall.

The so-called bamboo bundle is to cut dozens of bamboos into bamboo sticks of the same length, and then tie them together to defend against the attack of iron cannon bullets. These bundles are very heavy and require the porter to move them. Carrying such a bamboo bundle, you can't even advance a hundred meters in a minute.