Ten days later, the Ming Central Army marched to Nagoya.

Nagoya is less than 500 miles from Osaka, and the terrain is plain all the way, and there are no mountains and rivers to hinder the march, but the Ming Central Army still walked for a full ten days to arrive! Of course, this was deliberate, and Wang Pu wanted to give the Tokugawa shogunate enough time to assemble an army and then finish the battle.

After Osaka, Nagoya was also bloodied by the Ming army, and more than 70,000 people in the city were slaughtered.

Wang Pu's line was set up outside the city, although he was like a murderer, and he was used to seeing dead people, but he didn't want to see the tragic scene of corpses all over the city and bloody all over the ground.

Intelligence secretary Liu Qingyan walked in with light steps and said to Wang Pu: "Lord, there is movement in the Tokugawa shogunate. ”

"Oh?" Wang Pu hurriedly motioned to Liu Ru on the side to spread out the march map on the line, and asked, "Tell me quickly." ”

After Liu Ru spread out the map, Liu Qingyan pointed to the map and said in a coquettish voice: "Here, Uenohara, according to the report of the brothers of the Holy Sect, Uenohara has gathered about 50,000 troops of the Tokugawa Shogunate, of which at least 10,000 are elite samurai, and the rest are temporarily assembled Ashigaru. ”

"Uenohara?" Wang Pu asked, "Can you tell us about the geomorphological features of this area?" ”

"Uenohara is a narrow east-west gorge that traverses the Kanto Mountains in the middle, and it is the only way to get to Kanto from the Kansai region, especially to Edo, and of course, there is still a way to go from Kansai to Edo, and that is to follow the southern coastline, but the distance will be much farther." ”

In the past three years, Liu Qingyan has indeed put a lot of effort into Yueben, in order to explore the terrain of Yueben, she has even been to Yueben three times in person, and many backbones in the White Lotus Sect have also been transferred to Yueben, many people have already gained a firm foothold in Yueben, and those who don't know them can't recognize them from the Ming Dynasty or Yue himself.

It is precisely because of this that Liu Qingyan can grasp accurate information so quickly and so quickly.

"Canyon?" The corners of Wang Pu's mouth suddenly bloomed with a sneer, and he said in a deep voice, "It seems that I am not stupid, I actually know that I am not stupid to fight with our army in the canyon terrain, and the canyon terrain is not conducive to the play of the general's artillery, and the shooting formation of the musket team will also be seriously restricted by the terrain. ”

Liu Ru tapped the map lightly with her fingers and proposed, "Then we will march along the southern coastline, although the distance is a little farther, but at least it will not be limited by the terrain." ”

"Nope." Wang Pu shook his head, an inexplicable coldness floated in his eyes, and he said in a deep voice, "There is an old saying that is good, you have a good plan, I have a wall ladder!" Since I have already set up a posture in Uenohara, waiting for us to drill into our pockets, then we will drill into this pocket, I want to see if my pocket is trapping my Ming Central Army, or whether my Ming Central Army is stabbing his pocket formation. ”

Liu Ru said in a low voice: "Lord Wang, isn't this too risky?" ”

Liu Qingyan also persuaded: "The prince doesn't know, Uenohara is not only a canyon, but also a low-lying land, although it has not snowed yet, but no one can guarantee whether it will snow next?" Once it snows heavily, and then when the snow turns in spring, that canyon will become a Zeguo, and the tens of thousands of officers and men of our Central Army, as well as the artillery battalions and baggage teams, will fall into the mud and be unable to move. ”

"Oh?" Wang Pu's expression moved when he heard this, and he said in a deep voice, "There is still such a thing?" ”

Liu Qingyan said: "So, for the sake of safety, it's better not to go to the wilderness." ”

Wang Pu shook his head and said: "No, we still have to go to the wilderness, even if it snows heavily next, even if the canyon is a low-lying land, but if I want to trap our army in the canyon, there must be a prerequisite, that is, they must be able to block the attack of our Central Army, do you think that I can block the attack of the Central Army?" ”

Liu said: "What if I build a fortress in Uenohara Taniguchi? ”

Wang Pu said with a smile: "I am not a fool, they have deployed troops on the Ueno Plains instead of the southern coastline, which is enough to show that they have figured out our intentions of the battle map, and they also want to fight a decisive battle with our army in the Ueno Plain, so they will not build a fortress there, because once they build a fortress, they have to worry that our army will temporarily change the route of the march." What's more, it's not so easy to build a fortress, how can it be repaired in ten days and half a month? If it was just a simple wooden fortress, how could it withstand the bombardment of the general's cannons? ”

Liu Qingyan and Liu Ru glanced at each other and stopped talking, they could see that Wang Pu was determined to go to the wilderness, and they also knew the reason why Wang Pu chose to do so, the reason why Wang Pu chose the Uenohara route was to teach himself a painful lesson, so that he knew that the Ming Central Army was invincible.

The route of the march was finally determined, and the next day, four infantry battalions, two artillery battalions, and two wings of marines of the Third Fleet, a total of 25,000 men, set out on the journey again!

■■■

Uenohara.

Tokugawa Iemitsu, the shogun, dressed in traditional samurai attire, stood on a cliff outside the valley with Toshikatsu Doi, Tadashi Aoyama, Nobutsuna Matsudaira, Shigemasa Itakura, and Tetsutsu Toda shitsu.

On the flat ground outside the canyon, there stood a strict barracks, the barracks were surrounded by a two-person high fence, outside the fence was a ditch, the trench was covered with sharp antlers, the camp was covered with dense marching tents, more than 100,000 troops had entered this huge barracks, of which 50,000 troops had just arrived in the past few days.

The north wind hunts, and the flag flutters.

Looking at such a huge military camp and the army gathered in the barracks, Tokugawa Iemitsu's face couldn't help but flush with excitement, this is a hundred thousand troops! Since Tokugawa Ieyasu opened the Edo shogunate, the Tokugawa shogunate has never assembled such a large army, and in the history of the company, only Toyotomi Hideyoshi has ever assembled such a large army.

Although the land area is small, there are many princes in the country, and each prince only has a small amount of land and population, so the scale of the melee between the princes is very small, generally the scale of hundreds or thousands of people, and in the entire Warring States period, the general battle of more than 10,000 people can be counted, so in the capital, the war has little impact on the population.

In ancient China, there were often hundreds of thousands of people, or even millions of people, and a big war of this scale had a great impact on the population, so the population of ancient China has been rising in a spiral, rather than rising steadily like the original.

Tokugawa Iemitsu clenched his fists and said in an excited tone: "If the people of the Ming Dynasty dare to come, they will die." ”

"I'm afraid that the people of the Ming Dynasty won't go to the wilderness and take the southern coastline instead!" Aoyama Tadashi said worriedly, "Your Excellency, most of the main forces of my Kwantung Cluster Army are gathered in Uenohara, and there are only a small number of troops stationed in Edo in the rear. ”

"No, it won't." Doi Toshikatsu said confidently, "The people of the Ming Dynasty would never take the southern coastline. ”

Tadashi Aoyama asked suspiciously, "Why?" ”

"As early as when I was in Edo, I said that the Ming Dynasty deliberately chose to land in Osaka to give us enough time to prepare, and they wanted to finish the battle, so the Ming Dynasty's goal was our shogunate army, not a certain castle, so I am sure that they will definitely go to the wilderness and will not take advantage of the situation to sneak attack Edo." ”

While he was talking, he went up to the broken shore panting, and reported: "General, there is news." ”

Tokugawa Iemitsu hurriedly said, "Speak quickly." ”

Masamori Kakuda gasped: "According to the report of the horses, after the Ming Dynasty army left Nagoya, it suddenly accelerated its marching speed, and it had already crossed the Kiso Mountains and entered the Nanai Mountain Road two days ago. ”

Aoyama Tadashi glanced at Toshikatsu Doi in some surprise, and said in a low voice: "The people of the Ming Dynasty are really here?" ”

"What?" Tokugawa Iemitsu was shocked when he heard this, "The Ming Dynasty army suddenly accelerated its march? ”

Tokugawa Iemitsu originally wanted to build a fortress at the mouth of the canyon, but now that the Ming army has accelerated its march, it will be able to kill it in seven days at most, and it is absolutely impossible to build a decent fortress in such a short time, and Tokugawa Iemitsu has to give up this idea.

"Don't be surprised, General." Doi Toshikatsu said indifferently, "It's not strange that the Ming Dynasty army suddenly accelerated its marching speed, because now that my shogunate army has gathered in Uenohara, the Ming Dynasty's goal has been achieved, of course, there is no need to deliberately slow down the marching speed." ”

Tokugawa Iemitsu thought for a moment and asked again, "Is there any news about Sakai-sama's Kansai Cluster Army?" ”

"Lord Shogun, Lord Sakai has assembled an army of 30,000 men in Kyoto, including 3,000 iron artillery and 500 franc mercenaries, and is now heading in the direction of Uenohara. ”

"Hmm." Tokugawa Iemitsu nodded, turned around and asked Doi Toshikatsu, "Doi-kun, what should I do next?" ”

Doi Toshikatsu replied without hesitation: "Continue to gather the army, raise enough grain and grass to carry the baggage, and prepare to fight to the death with the Ming Dynasty army!" This battle is not only about the life and death of our shogunate, but also about the life and death of our empire and the life and death of our Yamato nation, so we must go all out. ”

■■■

The southernmost tip of Indochina, Temasek.

Thousands of indigenous laborers are busy on the construction site, a simple military fortress has taken shape, Shi Lang is surrounded by several generals of the Second Fleet is inspecting the progress of the project, the prince said, Temasek Fortress is the outpost of the Ming Empire Navy and the Central Army to the south and west, Shi Lang does not dare to have any negligence.

Shi Lang is just doing it, he doesn't really know the military value of Temasek.

In fact, in a few years, Temasek will become an extremely important military fortress, and with the Ming Empire's strength and aggressive policies, the empire's tentacles are bound to extend further and further into Southeast Asia, South Asia, Australia, and even the Middle East and Africa.

As the empire continues to expand outward, Temasek will also become an indispensable part of the empire's colonial strategy because of its unique geographical location, whether it is a merchant ship sailing to the West, a troop carrier full of troops, or a fleet of the navy, when passing through Temasek, it must rest here to replenish fresh water, fresh vegetables and food.

Temasek is to the Ming Empire the historical equivalent of South Africa's stronghold to the Western powers.

Seeing Shi Lang, the officer in charge of supervising the work rushed forward and saluted: "General! ”

Shi Lang returned the military salute and frowned: "The progress is too slow, in another half a month, the first batch of garrisons will arrive, but Temasek Fortress is still like this, how can people live?" ”

The officer in charge of overseeing the work complained: "General, these indigenous monkeys are too lazy. ”

"Lazy?" Shi Lang said unhappily, "Don't you have a leather whip in your hand, won't you drive them away?" ”

"It's useless." The officer smiled bitterly, "I've already cut down hundreds of natives, but these guys are still half dead." ”

Shi Lang said: "Then find more natives." ”

The officer said helplessly: "The lowly post has already sent out the troops of the two wings, and the indigenous monkeys in this vicinity have almost been captured." ”

"After the local aborigines are caught, won't you go to Java and Sumatra to catch them?" Shi Lang said coldly, "Anyway, it's your business to catch enough indigenous monkeys, I just need you to repair this simple fortress within half a month, so that the army brothers who are about to arrive here have a place to live, have food to eat, and clean water to drink." ”

The officer saluted and said loudly: "Yes!" ”

■■■

Distant Siberia is freezing at this time.

Although Kyakhta is an outpost of the Ming Empire's colonization to the depths of Siberia, it is still just a small settlement at this time, with only three northern cowboys settling here, the Lao Meng family has only one son, the Lao Song family has three sons, and the most bullish is the Lao Ding family, with nine sons, but most of them are only half-grown children!

These three northern cowboys owned hundreds of acres of manors and thousands of acres of woodland in Kyakhta, as well as dozens of Tartar slave helpers.

The forests of Siberia are full of jackals, tigers and leopards, and if you are brave enough, there is some game, and if you are lucky enough to hunt a blind bear and a Siberian tiger, and take the bear's paws and tiger skins to a market town hundreds of miles away, you may be able to sell them for a good price, and maybe you can exchange them for several Tartar slaves.

The men had gone out hunting, the women had gone to the market, and there were only seven or eight half-year-old children from three families playing outside the entrance of the village.

At this moment, the alarm bell suddenly sounded on the sentry tower at the entrance of the village, and the seven or eight half-grown children who were playing immediately ran back to the village, turned out their shotguns from their homes one by one, and rushed to the fence outside the village as fast as possible.

Soon, more than a dozen sleds appeared on the vast snowfield, the figures on the sleds were one after another, the barking of the snow dogs and the scolding of the riders were clearly audible, among the seven or eight children, the eldest son of the old Song family was the eldest, but he was only fourteen years old, and he said unhurriedly when he saw this: "These damn Russians are here again, there are six sleds, more than twenty people!" ”

The rest of the children had skillfully closed the gate, pulled up the drawbridge, and raised their shotguns.

"You, you." The son of the Song family pointed to the two youngest children and said, "Go and light a beacon fire on the high tower in the village." ”

The two children rushed away, and soon a fire was burning on the tower in the middle of the village, because the wolf dung added to the haystack produced a large amount of smoke, and the smoke soared so that it was clearly visible for dozens of miles, and in less than a moment, another settlement dozens of miles away also ignited wolf smoke......

Soon, six sleds were rushing outside the settlement.

The eldest son of the Song family gave an order, several children pulled the trigger at the same time, and a fierce gunfire suddenly sounded on the silent snowfield, and the two Russians fell from the sleigh in response.

The remaining two dozen Russians hurriedly climbed off the sleigh, each looking for trees and rocks for shelter, and then engaged in a fierce shootout with the little cowboys on the courtyard wall.

Because the shotguns used by the calves are all flintlock breech guns retired from the Central Army, although they are loaded with paper shells, both in range and accuracy, they far exceed the old arquebuses used by the Russians.

The shootout lasted less than half an hour, and the faint barking of dogs sounded in the distance on the snowfield.

The rescue of the Ming Dynasty was about to arrive, and the Russians knew that the sneak attack had failed, so they had to leave a few corpses and escape on the sled, and the little cowboys on the wall looked calm and did not have the slightest intention of cheering, here, such scenes are staged almost every ten days and half a month, and they have long been accustomed to this kind of life.

Wang Pu's original intention of promulgating the order to kill Hu is gradually becoming a reality, or in a few years these children will become adults, with the strong appeal of the Central Army, just a conscription order, these children will not hesitate to enlist in the army, you can imagine, what kind of performance will these little cowboys have after enlisting in the army? How terrible will the future Ming Central Army become?

■■■

Said Ben.

Six days later, the Ming Central Army successfully entered the Uganno Plain, at this time 160,000 shogunate troops had been assembled outside the canyon, and there was another huge shogunate army shadowing behind the Ming Central Army, and the distance was always maintained at about fifty miles, that is, it was not too close, and the Ming army would never be allowed to distance itself.

In the face of unfavorable terrain, in the face of the shogunate army's front and rear pursuit, the Ming Central Army did not hesitate, nor did it have any stop, under the leadership of the supreme commander Wang Pu, the Ming Central Army just drove into the canyon, and the shogunate army following behind suddenly accelerated the marching speed and blocked the west side of the valley from behind.

At the mouth of the valley on the east side of the canyon, 160,000 shogunate troops have been waiting for a long time.

The shogunate army camp, the Tokugawa iemitsu tent.

While Tokugawa Iemitsu was discussing with Toshikatsu Doi, Tadashi Aoyama and others, Masamori Tsukita hurriedly walked in, knelt down on one knee and said, "Your Excellency, the army of the Ming Dynasty has entered the canyon!" ”

"Oh?" Tokugawa Iemitsu was overjoyed when he heard this, "Did the people of the Ming Dynasty really enter the canyon?" ”

"Absolutely." "The Ming Dynasty army has all entered the canyon. ”

Tokugawa Iemitsu hurriedly said, "What about Sakai-kun's Kansai Cluster Army?" ”

Masamori replied: "Lord Sakai's 80,000 Kansai army has sealed the valley mouth from behind the Ming Dynasty army, and to paraphrase an ancient Chinese saying, the current Ming Dynasty army is already a turtle in an urn. ”

"Okay, great." Tokugawa Iemitsu said overjoyed, "This time, it is difficult for the Ming Dynasty to fly with wings. ”

Aoyama Zhongjun on the side also slammed the knot and said: "It's too arrogant, these Ming Dynasty people are really arrogant, it's just arrogant!" Knowing that the canyon terrain of Uenohara was unfavorable to them, they actually dared to drill into it, they didn't take our hundreds of thousands of shogunate troops into their eyes. ”

Only Doi Toshikatsu's face looked a little solemn.

Originally, he thought that the Ming Dynasty army would be temporarily stationed at the west end of the canyon for a period of time, and then decide whether to cross the canyon after inspecting the terrain, but what is surprising is that the Ming Dynasty army actually drove directly into the canyon, are the Ming Dynasty people really just arrogant?

Tokugawa Iemitsu took out his samurai saber, slashed forward, and said viciously, "Inaba Masayoshi! ”

A daimyo dressed as a samurai stepped forward and knelt down on one knee and replied, "My subordinates are here." ”

This samurai's name is Inaba Masayoshi, the second son of Tokugawa Iemitsu's adoptive mother Haru Bureau, Inaba Masaki and Inaba Masakatsu have been Tokugawa Iemitsu's companions since childhood, although the three are not brothers, but the relationship is better than brothers, after Tokugawa Iemitsu ascended the throne, the brothers also rose to become his hardcore cronies, and were successively named Daimyo.

Tokugawa Iemitsu said: "The 20,000 troops of the Zhenbi Domain blocked the valley mouth and blocked the possible attack of the Ming army. ”

"Hey!"

Inaba Masayoshi suddenly agreed and took the order.

Tokugawa Iemitsu said again: "Toda Iron." ”

Toda's Tetsu said, "The subordinates are here." ”

Tokugawa Iemitsu said: "Lead the people of this domain, and be ready to meet Inaba-kun at any time." ”

Toda Railway: "Hey! ”

Tokugawa Iemitsu said again: "Matsudaira Nobutsuna, Itakura Shigemasa." ”

Two more big names came out and responded: "My subordinates are here." ”

Tokugawa Iemitsu said: "Lead the men and horses of the main domain to dig a trench at the mouth of the valley and set up obstacles. ”

Because of the fear of the Ming army's diversion, until now, the shogunate army did not dare to dig a trench at the mouth of the valley and set up obstacles, and now the Ming army has finally entered the canyon, and Sakai Tadashi's Kansai cluster army has also blocked the retreat of the Ming army from behind, and the shogunate army can finally rest assured that they can go to the road.

In the canyon, more than 30,000 Ming Central Army was winding forward along the narrow valley in a four-way column.

The terrain of the Uenobara Gorge is not very steep, and there are only a few sparse bushes growing on the slopes on both sides, so there is no way to lay ambushes, and the slope of the hillside is not too steep, although the gun trucks and baggage vehicles cannot go up the mountain, but the infantry can easily climb the mountain.

However, the terrain here is unfavourable for firearms.

The winding canyon is like a nine-curved ileum, there is a turning every few hundred steps, tens of thousands of troops walk in the canyon, and only a few hundred people can be seen in front and back, left and right, if you really want to fire on this terrain, the shells fired will definitely be blocked by the hillside, and it is difficult to cause damage to the enemy.

In addition, there is hardly any flat land more than ten paces wide in the canyon, and if the Central Army wants to set up a firing formation, it has to stand on the slopes on both sides, because there was a heavy snowfall a few days ago, and although the slopes are not steep, the soldiers can easily slip and fall when they stand on them, and it is not so easy for such terrain to shoot in a large formation.

However, Wang Pu is not worried at all.

The early muskets relied heavily on intensive shooting to form effective kills due to their slow rate of fire and poor accuracy, but now the Ming Central Army is using a new type of rifle, rifling, magazines, and sights, and its system is basically no different from modern rifles.

What's more, the Central Army of the Ming Dynasty relied not only on the general's cannon and advanced rifles, but also on a sharper melee weapon - the improved Dragon King Cannon! The improved Dragon King Cannon has a better blasting effect, more lethality, and can be detonated with a single pull of the fuse, and no longer needs to be ignited with an arquebus like the previous Dragon King Cannon.

As early as the beginning of the decision to march into Uenohara, Wang Pu had already chosen the right tactics.

As a traverser, even if Wang Pu no longer understands military affairs, he has always read many books and movies, and with his knowledge accumulation, even if he doesn't know much about the tactics of firearms, compared to the ancients of this era, he is definitely an outstanding conductor!

In the sound of hurried horses' hooves, Li Dingguo galloped towards surrounded by two horsemen.

Li Dingguo stopped his horse and said loudly: "Lord Wang, five miles ahead, I found that I was lining up along the canyon, it seems that I want to stop us from advancing, and according to the scouts, ten miles ahead is the valley mouth, at least 50,000 shogunate troops are digging trenches outside the valley mouth and setting up obstacles, it seems that they want to block the way of our army's advance." ”

"Blocking the road? How can that work! Zhang Yanlan, the commander of the Third Fleet who went out with the army, said hurriedly, "Lord Wang, the person in front of me will be handed over to our marines, and I promise you that I will definitely wipe out this group of people in less than half an hour, and clear the obstacles on the way for the brothers of the army." ”

"No, there's no hurry." Wang Pu waved his hand and said indifferently, "I only think of cutting off the way now, it's too late!" ”

"Late?" Zhang Yanlan was stunned and said, "That's ...... Don't fight today? ”

"No more fighting." Wang Pu said indifferently, "Order, the whole army is camped, have a good rest tonight, and fight with me tomorrow!" ”

(To be continued)