Chapter 687: Kyushu Occupation

The injured left deputy marshal Liu Fuheng was sent to the ship for medical treatment. The commander of the Yuan army, Xin Du, summoned the rest of the generals to discuss tomorrow's military action. After a day of fighting, the Yuan army was quite afraid of the brave battle of the Japanese samurai, and it was difficult to estimate the accurate number of samurai troops participating in the battle, thinking that it was several times that of the Yuan army. At the same time, although the Yuan army occupied the beachhead, it suffered many casualties, exhausted soldiers, and the commander was wounded, which had an impact on the long-experienced commander of the Yuan army, Xindu, so that he could not accurately judge the situation on both sides of the war. Kim Fangqing, the general of the Goryeo army, was relatively calm, he saw that the war situation at that time was more favorable to the Yuan army, and as long as he persisted in fighting hard, he could conquer Dazaifu and hold his position for reinforcements. Therefore, he suggested: "Although our army is small, it has entered the enemy's territory, and people are fighting for themselves, that is, Meng Ming burned the boat and Huaiyin carried the water plan." ”

Xin Du hesitated, because he was worried about the night attack of the Japanese army, he planned to order the whole army to return to the ship, at this time Zhang Xi, a general who was good at water warfare, "saw the shadow of the mountain and the waves, suspected that the reef was in the sea, and the green hair would be seen on the water, and the sea water was used as sulfur gas", judging that there might be a storm in the near future, and suggested that the whole army go ashore and camp on the shore to avoid the rain, and the warships in the bay were scattered and stationed, "each ship was anchored at a distance of 100 paces, so as not to collide with each other and be damaged when the strong wind arrived", Xin Du adopted Zhang Xi's suggestion and ordered all the army to land as quickly as possible. Choose a place where you can take shelter from the wind and rain and camp to hold on, the smaller ships in the bay sail into the estuary to avoid the wind, and the larger ones are separated by a hundred paces to anchor to avoid collision.

At midnight, the typhoon rain was so heavy that the Japanese archipelago is surrounded by warm currents from the tropical Pacific Ocean, known as the Kuroshio Current, except for the northeastern coast, and the climate is mild and humid oceanic monsoon. In August, September, and October, typhoons hit western and southern Japan. Hakata Bay happened to be in the typhoon attack area), due to the preparations made in advance, the Yuan army avoided the collision of the ships when the typhoon hit, so the loss was very small, only 22 large and small warships were destroyed, when the typhoon gradually stopped, the torrential rain fell again, the sea was pitch black, and the soldiers who fell into the sea could not be rescued, so more than 1,000 people drowned, and the injured left deputy marshal Liu Fuheng was also among the victims.

The attack of the typhoon did not cause much damage to the Yuan army, but it strengthened the determination of Xindu and the generals of the Yuan army to fight. Xin Du was glad that he listened to Zhang Xi's advice and did not get on the ship, so he escaped, he thought that this was the will of heaven to help him achieve the great achievement of conquering Japan, so he set out with his army early the next day, the morning of the 22nd, to attack Dazaifu Mizujo to attack the Japanese army.

At this time, the Japanese army has been arrayed in Dazaifu Shuicheng, due to the heavy rain last night wet gunpowder, the Yuan army's artillery can not be fired temporarily, it is because the Yuan army did not use firearms this time, but first shot the Japanese army with a bow and crossbow, and then launched an attack on the Japanese army with cavalry, the infantry followed, the Japanese army was weak and weak, and could not resist the attack of the Yuan army like a tide, and the whole army of more than 5,000 people was slaughtered by the Yuan army, and the Dazaifu Shuicheng was captured by the Yuan army.

At the same time as attacking Dazaifu, Xindu also sent a small fleet to the Nagato Sea to contain Nagato's defenders so that they did not dare to rescue Dazaifu. The news of the Yuan army's attack on Nagato shocked the Kamakura shogunate and Kyoto. The people's hearts are unstable, and public opinion is panicked, so that there is no rice in the city, and the people are hungry. Rumors came one after another: "The Yuan army has occupied Kyushu, the Yuan army has invaded from the East China Sea, the North Sea, and so on." The ministers of the imperial court were particularly panicked, and some even advocated the speedy relocation of the imperial court to Kanto and the recruitment of samurai ronin to guard Kyoto. Emperor Go-Uta came to the shrine to pray for seven days and nights, and Emperor Kameyama prayed at Shimizu Shrine, and sent someone to Ise Jingu to congratulate him: I wish to replace the national disaster with my body. The princes and ministers have donated coins, written scriptures, and chanted scriptures to temples and societies.

When the Kitakyushu Zhenxi Guardian Office learned of the Yuan army's attack, the guardian troops under the leadership of the Jinsai Shogun, the Shoji Fujiwara Keishi, immediately went to the rescue. Under the leadership of Fujiwara Keiji, the Imperial Family Samurai Unit of the "Sanmae and Nishima" led by Fujiwara Keizori, the Bungo Samurai Unit of Otomo, the Chikugo Guardian Hojo Munemasa, Higo Guardian Anda Mune, and the Guardian Samurai Troops of Satsuma, Osumi, and Hyuga led by Shimazu Kushine. There were about 40,000 fighters on the front line, and even Fujiwara's father, 84-year-old Norido Kakue, put on armor. In addition, some of the imperial families and samurai of Shikoku and the Chugoku region participated in the Kyushu War, and Utsunomiya Sadadsuna led about 60,000 samurai troops from the Chugoku region as a reserve army to support Chikuzen if necessary.

In order to restore the morale of the army, when night fell, Jiro Kusano Jingyong, a member of the Matsuura Party Imperial Family who was familiar with coastal operations, led a small number of subordinates to attack the Yuan army in a small boat, set fire to the Yuan army's warships, and beheaded the 21st when the Yuan army was in a panic. This bold action lured the other samurai into following suit, and they continued to attack the Yuan army throughout the night. In order to prevent a sneak attack, the Yuan army moved the large ships to the periphery, and the small Japanese ships were difficult to attack head-on. When the sneak attackers arrived, the Yuan army fired heavy crossbows with artillery, and the Japanese samurai's boats were either broken or pierced, and the losses gradually increased. Seeing this, Fujiwara, the commander of the Japanese army, ordered that a sneak attack should not be carried out without an order.

After a short rest in Dazaifu, the Yuan army continued to attack, because it was sunny for many days, the wet gunpowder was dried, and the artillery of the Yuan army began to exert its power again, every time the Japanese army attacked, it was first bombarded with artillery, and then fired a salvo with a bow and crossbow, and then the cavalry rushed into battle, the Japanese army could not resist at all, but more than a month, the whole territory of Kyushu was captured by the Yuan army

The news of the fall of Kyushu shocked the whole of Japan, and Xindu was also shocked by the strength of the Japanese army, and after the capture of Kyushu, he did not immediately attack Shikoku and Chugoku, but sent an envoy to Kyoto to tell the Japanese rulers to surrender. However, the ruling Hojo Tokimune couldn't help but say that he beheaded the envoy at the mouth of Kamakura Ryuguchi. When the news came, Xin Du and the others were puzzled. Xin Du was angry, but also dispelled the idea of landing in Japan without a fight, and concentrated on preparing to attack again and destroy Japan in one fell swoop.

Xindu and others lacked knowledge of Japan and did not know that since ancient times, it has always been the nobility of the dynasty that has determined the direction of Japan's diplomacy with the mainland, but this time, it was Hojo Tokimune, the young ruler of the Kamakura shogunate, who insisted on a hard-line policy at the risk of provoking war. At the time when the Mongol Letters were delivered to Japan, the Kamakura Shogunate swept away the power of the Japanese government in Japan with the victory of the Jokushi War, and then eliminated the opposition to Tokumune within the shogunate through the suppression of the Miura War, and established a ruling government centered on the Hojo clan. When Hojo Tokimune took office, the Hojo clan's autocracy reached its peak, and the young rulers were confident and authoritarian, refusing to bow their heads in the face of foreign threats, not to mention the fact that this threat originated from the Mongols, a barbarian people in the eyes of the Japanese at the time.