Late at night on the second day of the second month of February, that is, on the third day of the siege of Kowloon, the Ming army camp under the mountain once again beat the war drums, and the trumpets sounded everywhere, and the 5,000 Ming army under the leadership of Li Rumei's brother and Li Rubai, the general soldier of Jizhou, launched a charge to the southern slope of Kowloon.

With the indiscriminate bombardment of heavy artillery, most of the already short and dilapidated city walls collapsed in an instant, and the Japanese troops defending the city panicked and turned around and retreated to the inner city. Seeing that the deterrent effect had been achieved, the Ming army stopped the shelling and instead took advantage of the chaos to advance rapidly to the top of the mountain, striving to attack the city before the Japanese army withdrew to the inner city, and wiped out the remnants of the Eastern Route Army in one fell swoop.

On the top of the inner castle tower, Ukita Hideya was holding the sword given by Hideyoshi, looking haggard at the rout army gathered under the castle and the bonfire that was gradually approaching at the foot of the mountain, and couldn't help but burst into tears, trembling his lips and sobbing: "My Xiu family is going to die in a foreign land after all, Tsunao, pass my order, let the army in." ”

Hearing the words of the Xiu family, the black-faced military general on the side of the guard hurriedly bowed down and admonished: "Lord, it is not a pity for those who are greedy for life and afraid of death to die, and letting them into the city will only reduce morale and disturb the morale of the army. ”

"So what do you say? Let me watch them die? Xiujia glared angrily and asked directly at the long ship under his knees.

As the third generation of the Uki family, Tsunao can be said to have done his best, and in the face of the kindness of the women of the Xiu family, as well as the unchangeable battle situation, he made an amazing decision.

"My lord." Tsunago slowly stood up, pointed to the defeated soldiers under the city and asked, "Have you ever heard of the allusion of 'fighting on the back'?" ”

Xiujia nodded: "I heard Taige say that back then, Han Xin, the general of the Han Dynasty, led his army to attack Zhao and ordered the soldiers to open their positions against the river and engage the enemy. Han Xin was facing a great enemy in the past, and there was no way to retreat to strengthen the determination of the soldiers to fight to the death, and as a result, the Zhao army was defeated. ”

"That's right," Tsunade bowed straight and said, "Lord, look, is the situation of our army and Han Xin the same at this time?" ”

The Xiu family understood a little, and asked: "Are you saying that our army can also follow the example of the Han army and live after death?" ”

"Whether it will succeed is another matter, but that's the only way to do it at the moment." Gang looked directly at the vanguard of the Ming army halfway up the mountain, and said firmly: "This is the only chance for our army, if we can defeat the Ming army, we can buy time for repairing the city wall, and we will have one more chance of survival." ”

After listening to Tsunao's suggestion, Xiujia closed his lips and thought for a moment, handed the saber to Tsunao's hand, and said solemnly: "This knife is given by Taige Qin, and it has never left me, now I will hand it over to you, you can use this knife to let the Ming people taste the power of our Uki family." ”

Tsunazhi took the sword with both hands, knelt down again, and replied solemnly: "The minister will never live up to the trust of the lord, and swear to live and die with this sword!" After saying that, he strode down the castle tower, and led a few of his attendants to gallop towards the city gate, during which Okiyatsu Katsu, another member of the Uki family, and the old Ashizuka Tadaemon of the Konishi family were willing to go to the outer city to defend against the enemy, and the head of the iron cannon group of the Konishi family, Miyoshi Sukuma, also led eighty iron cannon Ashigaru to support.

Everyone arrived at the city, with Tsuna's "open the door", the inner city gate slowly opened, and the outer city rout shouted like sea water and poured into the inner city, Tsunazhi saw this, and immediately ordered the bear to shoot, and before the rout could react, dozens of people fell under the guns of their own people. Seeing this, everyone stopped one after another, and some even turned around and ran out of the city.

At this moment, Gang straightened his voice and shouted at the rout in a deep and majestic voice: "The Ming army is coming, even if you retreat to the inner city, what's the use? Fortified cities such as Wonju and Jecheon have not stopped the pace of the Ming army, and now how can a small cottage protect our safety? Instead of waiting for the city to be broken, it is better to fight against the water, and there may be a glimmer of life. ”

Most of the defeated soldiers were peasants, and there was not much ink in their stomachs, and they really stopped when Tsunashi said this, waiting for Tsuna's instructions, especially those middle and lower-level samurai, seeing that Tsunao, who was the elder of the family, and Zhongyouemon were all dressed in battle, their hearts suddenly calmed down a lot, not only stopped the noise, but turned around and persuaded them, calling on the routs to obey Tsunao's arrangement, fight against the water, and defeat the Ming army.

So, under the command of Tsunao and Tadaemon, about 800 people from the outer city quickly gathered together, and according to the requirements, they were divided into three reserves, left, center, and right, led by Tadaemon, Tsunao, and Sukuma, respectively, except for the middle road holding torches, the other two roads were sneaking into the mountain roads on both sides of the city in the darkness of the night.

At the same time, the vanguard led by Li Rubai was less than 150 meters away from the top of the mountain, and although they encountered some attacks by the Japanese army on the way, they were generally relatively smooth and did not encounter any decent resistance, which also made many people complacent.

"General, as soon as the Japanese invaders see us, they will flee from the wind, so it is better to order the soldiers to speed up." Vice Admiral Rubai said with a grin.

But Rubai shook his head, pointed to the walled city on the hill and said: "Didn't you find it, the chaotic outer city seems to be a lot quieter now, it seems that the Japanese army has made a move, in my opinion, it is better to fight steadily, it is a taboo for soldiers to attack lightly." ”

The adjutant general was unwilling, and wanted to persuade a few words, but was interrupted by the scout who rushed from the front: "General Qiqi, an open flame was found a hundred meters ahead, and it was found to be a team of Japanese robbers." ”

"How many are there?" Rubai asked.

"Less than two hundred." The scout replied.

"Two hundred?" The adjutant general was overjoyed: "It seems that the Japanese are frightened, and few of them dare to go out of the city to fight." ”

"Probe!" Ru Bai ignored what the deputy general said, and said to himself: "Knowing that our army is pressing the border, we only sent 200 people to meet the battle, I think there must be something strange." ”

"General, in my opinion, it is not difficult to understand such a strange behavior of the Japanese army." For example, General Bai Shen and Ma Mingxun, deputy chief soldier of Jizhou, explained: "Now there are only about 2,000 Japanese troops left, and it is better to defend than to attack, so we will never dare to send troops to fight easily, so these 200 people are by no means a combat army, but a reconnaissance situation." ”

"Is that so...", the two generals of Rubai Jing also muttered when they said this, yes, two hundred people can't change the situation of the battle at all, can there be any other use except for reconnaissance? But even so, he was still not at ease, and still signaled the sergeant to be cautious and advance slowly.

"Woohoo!" Suddenly remembered a rush of gunfire ahead, dozens of Ming soldiers fell to the ground in response, and the forward troops suddenly rioted.

Seeing this, Ma Mingxun blocked in front of Rubai with an arrow step, and said loudly: "It seems that it was discovered by the Japanese Kou, and the general ordered to face it!" ”

Rubai was also panicked, nodded and responded: "Pass my general's order, and the whole army will attack!" ”