Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Iron Cannons

Tsukahara Molong did not deal with the internal affairs of the Zhaoxian Pavilion, but chose to wake up Toki Raiharu and let him be in charge of rectification, otherwise he would not only be distracted by doing everything himself, but also easy to cause chaos among his subordinates because of overstepping the command, and the historical Emperor Yang of Sui is a typical representative. Although the historians of the Tang Dynasty continued to smear him, it is undeniable that Emperor Yang of Sui was indeed an unborn genius, and his abilities in all aspects were very outstanding, but he liked "meticulous" guidance. Just like his conquest of Goguryeo, in order to launch a political offensive and make the Goguryeo people surrender on their own initiative, Emperor Yang of Sui adopted an incredibly tolerant approach to the Goguryeo army: as long as you surrender, I will not attack, even if you regret it, I will still allow you to surrender next time. This made the generals on the front line instantly numb, and they were entangled in the face of the capricious Goguryeo to the point of breaking eggs. As a result, the 300,000-strong army was in a stalemate with the enemy army in Goguryeo, and when there was a rebellion in the rear, the army lacking supplies collapsed in an instant.

Of course, if Toki Yoriharu is still so virtuous, Tsukahara Moryū doesn't mind testing his sword. didn't kill Toki Laichun at the beginning, on the one hand, he took the initiative to admit his mistakes, he was embarrassed and not very easy to do, on the other hand, the Toki family is a local wealthy family, and forgiving and reusing the Toki family is conducive to Tsukahara Molong mastering the power of these wealthy families, but now it is also a good choice to use the Toki family to establish power.

Tsukahara Ink Dragon thought about this as he walked towards the castle town. After conquering the land of the Three Kingdoms and making Koganseong Castle its own city, a large number of standing armies and samurai settled in the castle town, and there was a huge demand. Wealthy businessmen from all over the world couldn't wait to rush in under a series of policies to reduce and reduce commercial taxes in Tsukahara Molong, especially the wealthy businessmen, who directly began to plan their own commercial districts and built a large number of residential areas after getting Tsukahara Molong's Shang Fang Sword. In the history of Japan, this situation is not uncommon, whether it is Osaka or Edo in the future, in fact, due to the powerful daimyo to determine the castle after that, a large number of standing armies moved here, these standing armies and their families settled here, resulting in a huge commercial demand, plus the daimyo still attached great importance to their noses, the road repair is still quite good, so that all kinds of craftsmen and service workers have gathered there, forming a huge urban agglomeration, and also providing a large amount of commercial tax for the daimyos.

At this time, the castle town of Koganeshiro was already like a huge construction site, and the wealthy merchants mobilized a large number of manpower and building materials to build their business empire here. Many of the ronins who had come from all over the country due to Tsukahara Moryū's recruitment order also gathered and settled down again, making the local restaurant industry almost overwhelmed, but fortunately, the huge demand immediately attracted some merchants from the surrounding area, and they opened simple sake houses here, which eased the tension a little.

Because Tsukahara Molong is Yu Xuanang, and it comes from the direction of Xiaojincheng, it was noticed by many people as soon as it appeared, and some people have begun to discuss whether to come forward to make friends and inquire about the news, but considering that a group of people surrounded each other in the middle on the street, it was easy to arouse the other party's disgust, so they followed from afar, hoping to find a place where Tsukahara Molong stayed.

Tsukahara Moryū didn't care much about these people, he himself was extremely sensitive to murderous and hostile intent, and those who were not hostile followed him, and there was nothing. When he came to a small stall, the vendor who sold things immediately showed a flattering smile: "What does this adult want to do?" ”

"Let's have two buns." Tsukahara Moryū took out four coins from his bosom and placed them in the hands of the vendor.

After taking the steamed buns from the hawker's hands, the group of people behind Tsukahara Molong dropped their jaws in shock: This doesn't seem to be a person in a high position, how can he buy steamed buns on the side of the road to eat? However, many people have the mind to immediately come forward to talk, and since they are not high-level samurai, there is not so much pressure to talk.

Just when they were thinking about each other, a gunshot made everyone's hearts tremble. Tsukahara Molong turned his head and looked in the direction where the gunshots came from, it seemed to be just a small alley. Although the influx of ronins made it very difficult to maintain law and order, after all, these were all masters with katanas, and even the Tongxin people who maintained law and order (similar to the modern chengguan plus police) were not necessarily opponents, but out of fear of Tsukahara Moryu, the vast majority of them maintained restraint. In the final analysis, they are here to find a job, not to smash the field, and there are too many swordsmen under the command of Tsukahara Moryū, and if they really want to fight to provoke the standing army, their lives may not be saved. However, iron cannons are still quite rare in Kanto, and some people even subconsciously look at the sky after hearing the gunshots, thinking that it is thunder. After thinking for a while, Tsukahara Molong chose to walk towards the alley, but before he entered the alley, several people who were dressed in rough clothes but looked frightened escaped in embarrassment. Although the muskets of this year were not as amazing as the initial velocity of later generations, Tsukahara Moryū still had no intention of blocking the bullets with a knife, so he chose to stop.

Soon, a young man with an angry face walked out of the alley, and the iron cannon with the smoke of gunpowder was firmly held in his hand, as if he was ready to shoot at any moment. But after seeing Tsukahara Molong, this young man put away his anger, judging from the other party's appearance, he was afraid that it was a high-ranking samurai of the Tsukahara family or a hero, no matter which one he was willing to offend casually. It's not that he's cowardly, it's that there's no need to take the initiative to make enemies for himself, after all, he's not here to kill people. But Tsukahara Molong obviously didn't mean to get out of the way, he was tall and just blocked the road tightly, and there was no hint of provocation in his gaze at the young man.

"What happened?" No one waited for the young man to speak, and Tsukahara asked. He also had no intention of making enemies everywhere, blocking the other party's way, purely because the other party would use iron cannons, which were still quite rare at this time.

Seeing that Tsukahara Molong didn't mean to take the shelf, the young man's expression eased slightly, and although he was a little impatient, he still said: "They tricked me and wanted to rob me, but I killed three people. You don't know who it is? ”

"Three?" Tsukahara Molong smiled slightly and said, "In Shimotsukahara Molong, are you?" ”

Tsukahara Molong? The young man's pupils shrank suddenly, and he glanced at Tsukahara Moryū carefully, "In the lower Nasu Hanheita." Although he was very surprised by the other party's answer, he believed it a little when he saw the other party's dragon and phoenix assets, but when he saw Tsukahara Molong actually holding a bun in his hand and eating it as if no one was around, he instantly became suspicious of the other party: This seems to be far from the legend.

Tsukahara Moryu moved out of the way to show that he was not hostile, and asked with a smile, "You learned the iron cannon from the Nanban people in Kaimachi, right?" ”

"Not bad." Tsukahara Molong's gentle attitude further intensified Nasu's suspicions: I have always heard that Tsukahara Molong is a very strong person, how can he be so polite to a ronin he doesn't know? "I came here this time because I admired the heroic appearance of Molong Gong and hoped to contribute my own strength to his hegemony."

"Oh?" How could Tsukahara Molong not be able to hear the other party's distrust of his identity, he couldn't help but smile, and asked, "I don't know what you're good at?" ”

Nasu Hanpei hesitated for a moment, but still chose to speak, even if the other party was not Tsukahara Molong, but he was by no means extraordinary when talking about this appearance. "What I'm best at is the iron cannon warfare, and I've studied it for this, and I'm also familiar with the way of arching horses." Nasu Hanheita said as he secretly looked at Tsukahara Moryū's reaction. You must know that at present, most of the daimyos' definition of iron cannon is just a sound, this kind of weapon with a short range, slow reloading, and particularly expensive has never been able to be popularized, and it has really stepped onto the stage of large-scale joint warfare. That Hanhei is too talented, of course, he doesn't just specialize in iron cannons, otherwise how could he have caused his brother's jealousy and hostility in the first place? But for Tsukahara Molong, he had the purpose of temptation.

"The current iron cannon is expensive, and it will take time to popularize its use." Tsukahara Molong looked at Nasu Hanheita and frowned slightly, and smiled: "But in the future, it is enough to influence the direction of the battle, it can be said that whoever has more iron cannons in the future will have a greater chance of winning." ”

"Oh?" Nasu Hanheita's expression moved slightly, and he looked at Tsukahara Moryū, quietly waiting for him to say the following.

The two talked as they walked, and Tsukahara Moryō's guide, Nasu Hanheita, walked towards the Zhaoxian Hall. "The biggest weakness of the iron cannon is the rate of fire, and the biggest advantage is the destructive power, which is very similar to the crossbow arrows of the Ming Dynasty. In the Qin Dynasty, the Ming people used a kind of battle formation to deal with the impact of cavalry, and in the Han Dynasty, this battle formation reached the peak of the peak. They divided the crossbowmen into several rows, lined up in front, fired at the enemy in front of them with crossbows, and then quickly retreated through the gap between each column, reloaded in the rear, and waited until the front row had finished firing before firing. And so on, so as to achieve the purpose of uninterrupted shooting. Although Nasu Hanpei's eyes became brighter and brighter after hearing this, this kind of battle formation was actually purely made out of Tsukahara Molong's nonsense. The real Qin and Han Dynasty arrow arrays are unique in the world, how can they rely on crossbow arrows as a weapon? Although the history is long, the combat methods of the Qin and Han armies have been difficult to study, but the combat methods of the Tang Dynasty armies can be reversed: first, they use hard crossbows to shoot at their positions, and use projectiles to carry out ultra-long-range strikes against the enemy, and then crossbow arrows are fired horizontally, bows and arrows are thrown to carry out long-range strikes on the enemy, crossbowmen retreat, bows and arrows are fired horizontally, and medium and long-range attacks are carried out on the enemy; The crossbowmen all retreated, using projectiles to launch a deep attack on the enemy, heavy sword soldiers or heavy cavalry stepped forward to attack the enemy formation, and light cavalry launched attacks and attacks on the enemy's flanks; After the heavy sword soldiers or heavy cavalry rushed the enemy formation, all attacked, the crossbowmen put away their bows and crossbows, and used short knives to participate in hand-to-hand combat, and the light cavalry opened an encirclement of the enemy, and constantly attacked the enemy who tried to stop the resistance, and was careful not to escape the encirclement. However, this method of warfare is obviously not suitable for Japan, not to mention whether Japan's poor bow and arrow can complete such a feat as a cross-shooting, even if it can shoot, there is no thickness of the military formation to guarantee that it will not shoot on its own head. What Tsukahara Muryu is talking about is actually the battle method commonly used in Europe when they tear each other apart, that is, the musket formation that later generations of Japanese called the Western Phalanx.