The flags of both sides were unfurled, and Wang Wenyue's Honshu Mixed Brigade took the initiative to attack and approach the shogunate reinforcements when they gathered 150,000 reinforcements.

The shogunate reinforcements apparently did not know the cause of the previous defeat of Itakura Shigemasa, and the two sides encountered ten miles away from Edo, and once encountered, the shogunate reinforcements launched a fierce attack on the Honshu mixed brigade.

And so tragedy struck.

Hundreds of siege guns were placed flat on their muzzles and fired a shot at the rushing shogunate army. That is much more lethal than a howitzer.

The cannonball slammed into a bloody path, and then exploded. Generally, as long as the fuse is shorter, it can explode at a height of more than one meter.

Some shells turn into ricochets in the collision, some will explode on the ground, and the killing effect is not very large, but some can explode in mid-air, and once that happens, shrapnel will pour like rain on the heads of those soldiers.

"Onboard ......"

"Onboard ......"

The roars of the samurai continued, and under such shelling, the samurai drew their swords, shouted 'onboard', and charged brazenly.

The Qing army did not have such courage, and it was said that this bushido was indeed crazy.

The howitzers in the back also began to wield, but this could not stop the charge of the shogunate reinforcements, although the lethality of the artillery was huge, but it could not cover the entire battlefield.

Led by the samurai, about forty or fifty thousand people shouted and charged to the death against the Honshu Mixed Brigade.

The musketeers in front were armed with muskets and were already ready.

"First row, ready...... ...... fire," the commander shouted, and the musketeers in the first row immediately stepped forward, laid the muzzle of the gun flat, and pulled the trigger neatly.

The Yue army, which was charging 500 meters away, suddenly fell down like wheat harvesting, and the fire of 600 musketeers caused huge casualties of 4 to 500 to the Yue army.

"Second Row Ready ......"

The second platoon of musketeers quickly stepped forward.

"Fire!"

"Bang bang......" pulled the trigger, and a rain of bullets went out again, knocking down the Yue army again.

These musketeers looked very calm, because the enemy was still far away from them, and the distance of five hundred meters, and the other side was infantry, which was enough for them to shoot many guns. At the same time, the opponent was not able to attack their weapons from such a long distance, and they were very safe.

Although the new musket is not so fast in terms of rate of fire, its power has been greatly improved, and it is most suitable for fighting in such open terrain.

As the musketeers continued to shoot at the approaching Japanese troops, the artillery fired specifically at the areas where the enemy was concentrated, and gradually extended the artillery bombardment to the main camp of the shogunate reinforcements who had not charged.

Those 110,000 reinforcements who did not charge the shogunate were observing the strength of the Ming army at the moment. When they saw the ferocious firepower, their faces were not good-looking.

These muskets of the Ming army could attack them from a distance of 500 meters, and at the same time, the artillery could hit them from a distance of 1,000 meters, but what surprised them next was that the artillery of the Ming army actually hit their own formation.

Their main formation was three miles away from the Ming army, at a distance of 1,500 meters, and the artillery of the Ming army bombarded one after another.

The shells of the 150 125-mm howitzers and 10 200-mm howitzers were all transferred to most of the shogunate's reinforcements for non-stop bombardment.

For a while, the horses on which the commanders of the shogunate reinforcements sat down were frightened and went crazy, jumping everywhere, throwing the people above them fiercely, or directly turning around and galloping.

The shogunate soldiers saw that the samurai leaders had fled under the shelling, and they also joined the fleeing queue. As soon as the headquarters of the shogunate reinforcements retreated, the more than 30,000 shogunate troops who charged in front had no follow-up support, and the mixed brigade cavalry battalion immediately launched a charge.

The cannonade stopped, and only half of the more than 30,000 Shogunate troops who charged were dead and extremely scattered. The cavalry battalion slaughtered pigs and dogs, constantly slaughtering the Japanese on the battlefield.

Those Japanese people finally couldn't hold it anymore, and ran away crying under the iron hooves, which hastened their demise, leaving their backs to the enemy, which is the most stupid thing to do, which is one of the infantry regulations of the Shandong army: exposing your back to the enemy will make you die faster.

In all the battles of the rout, the soldiers took this rule for granted, because the enemy who turned and fled was always the easiest to slaughter.

"All forward!" Wang Wenyue shouted.

"All move forward ......"

"All move forward ......"

The Honshu Mixed Brigade began to move forward, settling the unfinished battle behind the cavalry, and an hour later, the battle ended and the cavalry battalion returned.

Pursued by the cavalry battalion, only a few thousand of the more than 30,000 Japanese who launched the charge escaped.

At this time, a group of scouts rushed over, and one of the scouts turned over and dismounted, and reported to Wang Wenyue: "Report to the brigade, the enemy's granary is located in a city called Guhe a hundred miles away. ”

"How's the city defense?" Wang Wenyue asked.

"There is only a three-meter-high low earthen wall, and the number of defenders in the city is unknown." The scout replied.

"Let the cavalry battalion bring rockets, pull siege guns, and go around the rear of the enemy army to destroy their granaries." Wang Wenyue immediately ordered, "If the defenders are too strong, don't storm them." ”

"Yes."

…… Before the cavalry battalion could be repaired, it immediately pulled up twenty siege guns to form a temporary cavalry artillery battalion, and at the same time brought more than 3,000 rockets and marched towards Furukawa City.

The Japanese army, which had retreated five miles in a row, was in a dilemma at the moment.

Although the samurai is crazy, he is not unreasonable in such a battle with a huge disparity in strength. The strength of the Ming army was beyond their imagination.

Fighting on such plains, they had little chance of victory. As soon as the ferocious artillery exploded, most of the ordinary soldiers would collapse except for some samurai who could still support it.

It's not safe for two kilometers!

You can't even touch the corners of the other party's clothes, so how can you beat the other party? What's more, the other side has cavalry, and they only have horses for some high-ranking personnel.

There were two voices within the reinforcements, one side was determined to fight. The other side thinks that it is necessary to negotiate with the Ming people.

Just when the two sides were arguing, the cavalry battalion, under the cover of scouts and reconnaissance, bypassed all the way from the flank of the Japanese army, and went straight to the ancient river, killing people on sight along the way, so as not to expose their whereabouts.

The cavalry battalion rested for the night, and the next day set out again, arriving outside Furukawa Castle in the early morning of the third day.

Outside Guhe City, there is a three-meter-high rammed earth wall, and the soldiers of the cavalry battalion have a faint smile on their faces.

However, the Ming Dynasty is an outlier in this era, an outlier who built the city wall and the Great Wall, and has never stopped for more than 200 years.

The Japanese people in the city suddenly saw a group of cavalry coming, and they were all at a loss.

The cavalry battalion set up artillery and rockets directly outside the city and began to bombard the small city.

Rockets roared in, and in Furukawa, which was full of wooden buildings, it immediately started a fire. Twenty siege guns were placed 500 meters away and bombarded the three-meter-high low earthen wall, and in a few shots, a large section of the low earthen wall was leveled.

The defenders of the city were blown apart, and the thousands of Japanese soldiers had no choice in the face of such a professional war machine.

The cavalry battalion that blasted through the low earthen wall did not rush into the ancient river, but continued to fire rockets outside the city, and there were fires everywhere in the city.

The cavalry battalion stood guard outside the city, observing the raging fire inside the city.

"Battalion commander, it's still burning there after so long, and it smells of burnt rice, it must be the granary of the Japanese people."

"Hmmm! Not bad, stop firing rockets. "When the commander of the cavalry battalion saw that the target had been ignited, he ordered the firing of rockets into the city to stop.

Rockets are expensive things, and pointless destruction, waste, and slaughter are not allowed.

The fire burned for nearly half a day before the flames in the granary gradually subsided. It is estimated that at least more than 100,000 stone of grain was burned. The cavalry battalion destroyed the granaries in the city before leaving.

At the same time, Wang Wenyue once again blocked the three gates of Edo. Tokugawa Iemitsu watched the battle on the castle walls, and his face turned to ashes.

The reinforcements turned out to be defeated!

Although it was not a big defeat, under the strong force of the Ming army, there was obviously no possibility of victory.

"Rush out." Tokugawa Iemitsu immediately decided to leave Edo, and under the premise that the reinforcements failed, Edo had become very dangerous, and could be conquered by the Ming army with artillery at any time, and he would be finished by then.

Moreover, the Ming army obviously had superior artillery, and the city wall could not stop their pace, but they besieged but did not attack, obviously waiting for reinforcements, once the reinforcements of the Ming army arrived, he would not even have a chance to run.

In order to break through the encirclement of the Ming army, Tokugawa Iemitsu formulated a strategy of breaking through on three sides.

On the evening of July 19, Tokugawa Iemitsu mobilized 50,000 troops from Edo Castle and began to break out.

The Japanese army rushed out of the west gate first, and the shogunate samurai shouted and led the ordinary soldiers to launch a decisive charge, and these samurai, as the most senior retainers of the Tokugawa shogunate, became even more crazy.

Wang Wenyue erected more than a dozen cannons at the three gates, and as soon as the Japanese army rushed out, the cannons fired one cannon after another.

The west city gate became a bloody road in an instant, and the cannonballs rushed through a bloody road among the Japanese army, and then exploded violently, and rows of Japanese soldiers fell at the city gate.

The musketeers in the back kept firing, and the Ximen Japanese army could not break through such a siege at all. The charge of the first ** was repulsed.

At the same time, the same situation happened at the north gate, the north gate suddenly opened, and the Japanese army inside rushed out like crazy.

It was also blocked by the mixed brigade.

Tokugawa Iemitsu observed the battle situation at the head of the city by the light of the Ming army, and was very anxious when he saw that the breakthrough of the west gate and the north gate could not mobilize the Ming army.

However, Tokugawa Iemitsu decisively changed his strategy, transferring the troops of the West Gate and the East Gate to the North Gate, and concentrating all of them on the North Gate for a breakthrough.

The 70,000-strong army was all concentrated at the North Gate.

Groups of samurai held their swords aloft, each commanding their own soldiers.

A group of thousands of Japanese troops rushed out of the city gates, and immediately heard the onboard shouts drowned out by the rumbling cannons, and under such a sharp weapon of war, anyone would feel helpless.

"Ozawa-kun, let's go!"

"Hello!" Toyohara Ozawa pulled out his katana and shouted, "Onboard ......"

Then he took the lead and rushed out of the city gate, only to see that the road outside the city gate was already covered with corpses, and the ground was full of blood. As soon as Toyohara Ozawa rushed out, he immediately saw a bright light rushing towards him, and with a loud bang, he only felt a shock on his body, and he immediately lost consciousness...... Without any suspense, under the fire of artillery and muskets, the 1,000 Japanese troops were wiped out again, but the Japanese troops in the city were endless, and as soon as the front fell, the rear rushed out.

"Company commander, no, the barrels are crooked." At this time, one of the artillerymen at the north gate shouted, only to see that the barrel of the bronze cannon they had made was almost seriously deformed.

"Shoot from the gun."

"Yes."

Soon the artillery in the back pushed up, replacing the dozen or so bronze cannons that had been firing for half an hour.

The service life of the general bronze cannon is more than 300 rounds, but as long as it is fired continuously for half an hour, it will be absolutely scrapped, and the barrel will be seriously deformed in the piping hot.

Under the loyal leadership of the samurai, a group of soldiers continued to rush out of the city gate, but they were constantly slaughtered, and the baggage soldiers continued to transport ammunition to the north gate, and there was no need to worry about ammunition at all, and the artillery was even more abundant, and it was completely affordable.

Tokugawa Iemitsu has become a turtle in an urn. When you think the enemy can't rush in, you usually can't rush out, and that's what you're talking about.

The Japanese army rushed from the third watch to the fifth watch, and the corpses outside the city gate had been stacked on top of each other, and a corpse wall had been built, and the corpse wall was full of messy things.

The Japanese army's breakthrough had to be terminated.

And the 100,000 reinforcements in the distance, who only listened to the rumbling of the cannon in Edo Castle at the moment, could not know what was happening there, and under the strict blockade of the scouts, those Japanese scouts could not leave even if they could get close to Edo.

It's not impossible to fight at night, but anyone who has lived in the countryside knows that the stars are very bright in both summer and winter. Even if there is no moon, the starlight is enough to make people see the things around them clearly, unless it is dark clouds, you will not be able to reach out and lose your fingers.

There is no night blindness in the Shandong army at all, and all those who have night blindness are cured with traditional Chinese medicine, and there are many ways to treat night blindness in traditional Chinese medicine, such as swallowing toads raw, but it is a little scary, and this method is generally not used.

The north gate of the mountain of corpses and the sea of blood made the Japanese army in the city rush out without a road. Nearly 20,000 or 30,000 people fell on the broken road in front of the city gate.

Tokugawa Iemitsu was extremely anxious and heartbroken in the castle, but there was nothing he could do.

At this time, Inaba Masakatsu hurriedly rushed to the head of the castle, and the solemn Tokugawa Iemitsu reported: "General, Matsudaira Junyu is broken. ”

"He's a good samurai." Tokugawa Iemitsu clenched his fists and sighed for a long time.

Matsudaira Nobutsuna, Tokugawa Iemitsu's most trusted retainer, ended his life as a samurai after his failure to break through.

Wang Wenyue was very pleased with the results achieved tonight, and the more the defenders of the castle died, the better, so that they would face less resistance when entering Edo.

"Calculate the time, and the fleet should be almost there." Wang Wenyue took out his calendar and found that it had been half a month since he landed in Yokohama, and the clippers would soon arrive.

This meant that reinforcements would arrive quickly, and they would be able to enter Edo.

…… Tokugawa Iemitsu made a difficult choice the next day when he was unable to rush out of Edo Castle with no reinforcements in the face.

He first ordered people to hide all the more than 8 million taels of gold and silver in the treasury in a large hidden dry well, then filled the dry well, and sent all the hidden people out of the city to make a decisive charge.

The infantry regiment thought that the Japanese army in the city would not come out to die during the day, but the gate of the city suddenly opened, and hundreds of samurai rushed out shouting and carrying it.

A few volleys of guns fired, knocking the samurai to the ground.

But one of the samurai fell to the ground and pretended to be dead without being shot, and neither side knew about it, and the samurai moved slowly, smearing his head with blood all over his face.

Both sides thought it was just a wounded soldier who was no longer saved. But this 'wounded soldier' actually moved slowly, and slowly crawled towards the musket company of the mixed brigade.

He moved so slowly that he climbed dozens of meters without anyone noticing the anomaly.

Finally, a few hours later, the samurai suddenly jumped up from the ground, and then raised his hands and legs and rushed towards the musket company blocking the city gates, shouting something as he ran.

The soldiers of the musket company were immediately vigilant and aimed the musket in their hands at the samurai, but when they saw that the samurai had his hands raised and had no weapons, and at the same time shouted that he did not know what to say, the intention was very obvious, and he wanted to surrender, so he did not shoot.

The samurai ran all the way to the musket company, and then without any resistance, he took the initiative to become a prisoner of the mixed brigade, and the Japanese army at the head of the city was very ignorant of this situation, they thought that the guy was crazy at first, but it turned out that he surrendered, and when he reacted, he was already out of their attack distance.

Tokugawa Iemitsu knew nothing about the situation, but Wang Wenyue was overjoyed.

When the samurai was captured, he babbled as if he wanted to tell something, but not like that kind of fuss, so the commander of the musket company went to find the interpreter.

There are many translators in the army, most of these translators are overseas Chinese recruited from Nagasaki, but many of them speak Hokkien, and some translators want to translate the Yue into Hokkien and then into the official dialect.

After the translation, the samurai said that he had a huge secret to reveal to the Celestial Empire King, and at the same time made a condition that after telling this secret, he must be rewarded.

The commander of the musket company hurriedly reported the situation to Wang Wenyue, who was very interested and asked the warrior to be brought to the camp for questioning.

"What secrets do you have to tell this officer?" Wang Wenyue asked the warrior, and after the translation of the general officer, the warrior replied.

"Brigade, he said that he wants you to guarantee him, give him glory and wealth, and promise his future, so that he can tell us the secret." The general officer said.

"Cut!" Wang Wenyue pursed his lips disdainfully, "I'm not interested in those secrets, this official is only interested in silver, if his secret can make us earn an extra million taels, I will reward him with 10,000 taels, if we can earn an extra 2 million taels, I will reward him with 20,000 taels, if we can't earn the secret of silver, it goes without saying, it doesn't matter if the official listens to it or not." ”

The official translated Wang Wenyue's words, and the warrior said a few words loudly with an excited look on his face.

"Ryuza, he said that his secret was related to silver, and he said that Tokugawa Iemitsu told them to hide all the silver." The general officer translated.

"What! Hidden? Wang Wenyue couldn't help but be stunned, then looked at the shogunate samurai kneeling on the ground, and asked gently, "What's your name." ”

"Back to General Hui, my name is Junzaburo Kawano." The samurai said.

"Kawano Silly Saburo? Well! It's good, it's good. When Wang Wenyue heard this name, he directly translated Chunci into stupid words, thinking to himself, the more stupid the widow, the more he likes it.

He looked at Kawano Bridge Saburo gently and said, "As long as you are willing to tell me where the gold and silver are hidden, I will not only give you one percent, but also ask my son-in-law for instructions to make you a daimyo and rule the entire Kanto, are you willing?" ”

Kawano Fool Saburo heard the translation of the general officer, nodded excitedly: "Yes, yes, little willing." ”

"Alright, you go down first!" Wang Wenyue said to him. Kawano Foolish Ichiro kowtowed, and then was taken down, and then Wang Wenyue said to the staff officer on the side: "Let someone ask him where he is hiding in a while, and then figure out the details of this guy, and see if he can be trained as a puppet." ”

"Yes, Brigade."

…… The shogunate's reinforcements listened to the sound of artillery all night, and the next afternoon, news suddenly came from the rear that the cavalry of the Ming army had attacked Furukawa and burned all the grain.

This made the shogunate's reinforcements fall into the discussion of retreating for a while, and they were not worried about food, Kanto was a very rich region, and as long as they collected food from other towns, they could maintain the war.

But the strength of the Ming army was once again vividly displayed, which shook the will of these reinforcements even more, and those soldiers and horses directly related to the shogunate were determined to rescue Edo, but they could not come up with a good way to deal with the Ming army.

And those foreign daimyos, some genealogical daimyos, and even some pro-vassal daimyos, all have their own ghosts, and they don't want to enter the army at all, but have a wait-and-see attitude.

Those daimyo didn't want to fight the Ming army, it was no different from looking for death. But they were afraid that if the Ming army was defeated, they would be liquidated by the shogunate, so they all planned to wave their flags and shout in the back.

So at the same time, after a day of tossing, Tokugawa Iemitsu hid all the valuable things of the shogunate, and planned to take them out when he returned to Edo in the future.

Tokugawa Iemitsu even wanted to rob all the money in the castle and hide it again.

But first, it was too late, and secondly, it was too big, and once the Ming army entered the city, it would be noticed by them. And most of the wealth in the city is controlled by the retainers, which will cause the retainers to rebel.

Night fell again, and the stars were dim that night, and the Tokugawa Iemitsu was preparing for the day. I saw that on a dead corner of the eastern city wall, more than a dozen large hanging baskets were lowered from above.

The gondola was full of people, and there were horses.

The horses' hooves were all covered with cloth, and their mouths were covered.

More than a dozen hanging baskets were constantly transported down, and it lasted for an hour, and the Ming army outside the city did not find it.

It didn't take long for Tokugawa Iemitsu to rush out of the dead end with more than 300 retainers on horseback.

Wang Wenyue's mixed brigade consisted of only 20,000 men, so naturally it was impossible to besiege the entire Edo to death, and only the city gate was besieged, while there were large gaps in other areas.

Tokugawa Iemitsu, with three hundred retainers, absconded in the dim starlight.

I saw Tokugawa Iemitsu look back at Edo, who was gradually moving away, and swore in his heart: "Even if all the men of Yumoto die, I will not surrender to Akito, I will definitely come back." ”

(To be continued)