Hagi Castle, backed by Mt. Zhiyue, is also known as Tsugetsu Castle, the domain hall of the Choshu Domain, and the mountain castle of the Tikaku-style flat castle.

At the beginning of April, Zheng Zhihu began to set up doubts in Kokura Castle, making it appear that he wanted to force his way across the Maguan Strait, and by the tenth day of the first month, Zheng Zhihu led an army of 30,000 to complete the assembly in Kokura Castle. All this seems to indicate that the Kyushu Army really wants to cross the sea from the Shimonoseki Strait to attack Honshu. On the same day, the 20,000 pioneers led by Zheng Zhibao quietly set out from Kyushu and attacked Hagi Castle.

In order to make his plan of "repairing the plank road in the open and Chen Cang in the dark" successful, Zheng Zhihu ordered the warships to bombard Xiaguan on the eleventh day of the first month. At this time, the army of the Changzhou Domain was already approaching Xiaguan and trying to block Zheng Zhihu's landing, and Mao Lixiu, the daimyo of the Changzhou Domain, also personally rushed to the front line of Xiaguan.

On the 13th, an army of 20,000 led by Zheng Zhibao arrived around Hagi Castle. Hagi Castle is also under martial law at the moment, but it is much more relaxed than in cities close to Kyushu such as Shimonoseki.

On the 14th, Zheng Zhibao sent hundreds of people to disguise themselves as refugees and infiltrate Hagi City. Although the war in Shimonoseki did not break out in full force, it had already given rise to a large number of refugees.

After the Kyushu army pretended to be refugees entered the city, they all quietly lurked in the city. As the sky darkened, Zheng Zhibao led an army of 20,000 to quietly land in Hagi Castle, waiting for Neiying to open the city gate.

At the end of the day, the Kyushu Army, pretending to be a refugee, suddenly broke out and seized the city gate in less than a quarter of an hour. Everything came too suddenly, and the defenders of Hagi Castle were already a little lax, and after the Kyushu army opened the city gate, the defender of Hagi Castle, Mori Tsunahiro, arrived in a hurry, and he ordered loudly: "You must take the city gate back and close the city gate." ”

But it was already too late, and the Kyushu army rushed in through the door like a tidal wave. As the number of Ming troops rushing in increased, the morale of the defenders of Hagi Castle collapsed faster and faster, and in the time of a stick of incense, the Kyushu army not only had a firm foothold at the gate of the city, but also gradually expanded the area under its control.

Realizing that the tide was turning, Mori Tsunahiro led the defenders of Hagi Castle to retreat to Honmaru. In one night, Zheng Zhihu occupied all but Hagi Honmaru.

"Mori Tsunahiro hastily retreated into Honmaru, they must not carry much grain and grass, our army only needs to besiege Mori Tsunahiro for a few days, and the enemy army will definitely surrender without a fight." Koma Takatoshi suggested.

"If it were in the past, this would be a good idea, but now our army must end the battle at Hagi Castle as soon as possible, and we must not delay too much time, otherwise, the army will not be able to complete the siege of Mori Hide, and once Mori Hide's breakthrough is broken, it will inevitably affect our army's battle in Hiroshima." Zheng Zhibao said.

"If you attack it, I'm afraid it will cost you a lot." Koma Takatoshi said.

Zheng Zhibao thought for a while and said: "Maori Gangguang hastily retreated into Honmaru, if they don't carry much food, then gunpowder must be less, they can't reserve a lot of gunpowder in Honmaru, we can pioneer the people who rushed to Ninomaru to attack Honmaru and consume Maori Ganghiro." ”

"My lord, this plan is very good, there must be many family members in the Honmaru garrison who live in Ninomaru, and driving the people in the city to attack the city can not only consume the enemy army, but also break the enemy's military morale." Koma Takatoshi said happily.

"Then you will be responsible for the attack on Honmaru." Zheng Zhibao said.

"No." Koma Takatoshi said.

……

Early in the morning, Ikoma Takatoshi first led a large army to drive all the residents of the city from house to house to the foot of Honmaru Castle.

"If you capture this pill today, the king of Kyushu will have a heavy reward, but if anyone dares to retreat, he will be killed!" Ikoma Takatoshi said coldly.

Hearing Ikoma Gaojun's words, the people at the scene were in an uproar, they didn't expect Ikoma Gaojun to drive them here to let them be cannon fodder.

"Charge!" Ikoma Gao Jun gave an order, but none of the people at the scene charged.

Ikoma Takatoshi said angrily: "I count three times, and you will start charging immediately, otherwise, there is only one way to die." ”

"Three ......"

"Two ......"

"One, fire." Hearing Ikoma Takatoshi's order, the Kyushu army did not hesitate to shoot a group of civilians. Seeing that the Kyushu army really fired, the people at the scene had to pick up the weapons in their hands and walk towards Honmaru.

"The army marches on!" Koma Takatoshi took the order.

The Kyushu army, armed with a bright bayonet, followed closely behind the ranks of the people, driving the people to rush to Honmaru.

Under the coercion of the Kyushu army, some people rushed forward with strange screams, some people rushed forward crying and staggering, and some people rushed forward with their eyes closed...... Although the whole team is a rabble, it puts a lot of pressure on the defenders of Honmaru.

Although this method of siege was shameless, it was very effective, and it was true that many of the families of the Honmaru defenders were located in Ninomaru, especially the families of low-ranking officers. In this case, Ikoma Takatoshi took the opportunity to launch a strong attack on Honmaru.

Zheng Zhibao expected that it would take at least two days to conquer Honmaru, but what Zheng Zhibao didn't expect was that it only took half a day for Ikoma Gaojun to break through Hagi Castle's Honmaru.

After conquering Hagi Castle, Zheng Zhibao led the army all the way west, and by the time Mao Lixiu received the news of the loss of Hagi Castle, Zheng Zhibao's army had already conquered Mimi and approached Houbao Castle. Once Zheng Zhibao captures Houbao City, Mao Lixiu will be trapped and killed in Xiaguan. Mao Lixiu couldn't take care of the upper and lower levels now, and he led the army to Houbao immediately.

And Zheng Zhihu was only half a day later than Maori Xiu, and received the news that Zheng Zhibao had conquered Hagi City. Zheng Zhihu knew that Zheng Zhibao had conquered Hagi City, which meant that Maori Xiu's back road was about to be cut off, and Maori Xiu would probably not continue to be trapped in Xiaguan.

Zheng Zhihu immediately ordered to mobilize a large army to storm Xiaguan, and sure enough, Xiaguan is now an empty city, and Zheng Zhihu easily captured Xiaguan. After capturing Xiaguan, Zheng Zhihu didn't have time to repair, so he immediately led the army to Houbao City, and he knew that the army led by Zheng Zhibao was in Houbao at this moment.

After Mao Lixiu gave up Xiaguan, he led 45,000 men and 15,000 troops led by Zheng Zhibao to start a decisive battle outside Houbao City.

Although most of the artillery of the Kyushu Army was eliminated by the Ming Dynasty, it was a rare weapon in Dongying, and Zheng Zhibao's 15,000 army relied on the advantage of artillery to be inseparable from Maoli Xiu for a while.

In the evening, Zheng Zhihu's army arrived at the battlefield, and the whole battle situation was one-sided, and Maori Xiu's army was attacked from both sides by the Kyushu army, and quickly collapsed, and the war continued until late at night, and finally ended with Maori Xiu's 45,000 men being annihilated.