The Anbong did not stay in Nabutsu for long, and after receiving temporary repairs by the craftsmen accompanying the troops in the port, the short and heavy gun frigate set out on its journey back to Pusan.

The Anphong returned with several troop carriers that had unloaded their soldiers, and the troop carriers were not empty, and the wounded soldiers of the army who had been wounded in the battle with the Japanese were sent to the ships and returned to Korea for treatment.

The poor medical conditions in Fukuoka and the prospect of war in the future would not allow the wounded to recuperate, so Mado insisted on sending the wounded back to North Korea in the hope of reducing the number of people who had to retire early because their injuries were not properly treated.

Ke Zhiwen, whose head was wrapped in gauze, was also among the wounded soldiers returning to North Korea, standing on the deck of the troop carrier, looking at the land with his only remaining eyes, and a layer of melancholy haze was cast over his single eye.

Ke Zhiwen is a native of the Han Dynasty in Liaodong, since his grandfather's generation, his hometown has been bullied by the Manchus, and since then, their family has become a Manchurian clothed slave, and they can only swallow their anger even if they are bullied by the Manchus in every way.

It wasn't until the Xia army counterattacked the fortifications, won several battles, and liberated them from the iron hooves of the Manchurians, that they were finally able to regain their freedom and turn over to be their masters.

Ke Zhiwen will never forget that his father was directly beaten to death with a whip by the Manchu nobles just because he did not kneel down to the Manchu nobles in time to salute.

He will not forget that his young sister starved to death in the hot night because the family's food stock was robbed.

He will not forget that the Xia army, who were also Han Chinese, easily slaughtered the Manchus who oppressed them like pigs and dogs in the sound of guns, rescued them from fire and water, and allowed them to get back on their feet and get rid of the suffering of the past decades.

The Xia army gave them their freedom, and His Majesty abolished the heavy taxes that had been placed on them, and gave them land so that they could live in peace and contentment again.

Since then, Ke Zhiwen has secretly made up his mind that he must join the Xia army, fight for the death of the Son of Heaven who rescued them from fire and water, and repay the emperor's grace with a humble body.

……

After putting the wounded soldiers on the ships returning to Korea, Mado began to deploy his troops in preparation for the Japanese attack.

In order to prevent being attacked by the Japanese from many sides, Mado sent a group of pacesetters to the east to capture the Nashima Castle on the same coastline in the eastern part of Fukuoka before the Japanese army, and erected a defensive barrier for the eastern part of Fukuoka.

At the same time that the Xia army began to organize defense, the Japanese army on Kyushu Island gradually gathered.

Under pressure from the shogunate, the Japanese army assembled the forces of the various feudal domains of Kitakyushu to form an army of 50,000 in order to retake the two coastal castles, and by the end of the Sengoku period, Japan had emerged from what some jokingly called village warfare, and the number of troops that could be mobilized and engaged in the war was unprecedented.

For example, in the Shimabara Rebellion, which occurred in 1637, which is known as the turning point in Japanese history, in order to quell the Christian rebellion, the shogunate initially sent 50,000 daimyo coalition troops to quell the rebellion, and then used Matsudaira Nobutsuna and Toda Shitetsu as special envoys to gather 120,000 troops to Kitakyushu, and by 1641, the shogunate gathered another 220,000 troops and drove to Kyushu, almost eliminating the daimyo of Kyushu and bringing Kyushu under the direct jurisdiction of the shogunate.

Of course, due to the limitations of Japan's system and national conditions, although the shogunate was able to assemble a large number of troops, the combat effectiveness and morale of the army were not optimistic.

The same is true of the 50,000 troops raised by the various feudal domains of Kitakyushu, of which there are only about 2,000 cavalry and 3,000 samurai troops, and the rest are basically recruited from the civilian population and have only received simple military training.

As for heavy weapons, not to mention, the artillery and iron cannons in the feudal lords and daimyo armies were reduced in the Yuan and Yanwu, and the entire 50,000 army could only make up less than 20 artillery, but although the artillery was a little less, the Japanese army still found another way and built dozens of trebuchets to supplement the firepower of heavy weapons.

At the beginning of March of the 11th year of Muan, the Japanese army divided the army of 50,000 into two routes, attacking Fukuoka Castle and Nagoya Castle respectively, with Takacho Takamori, the lord of the Hizen Kunishimahara Domain, and Ogasawara Tadamasa, the lord of the Okura Domain, as the main generals.

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If it is said that the Japanese army concentrated on attacking one of the cities with 50,000 troops, then the Xia army may still be afraid and fight hard, but the Japanese army dispersed its forces, which reduced the pressure on the Xia army a lot.

At this time, there were more than 9,000 soldiers of the Second Brigade of the Xia Army in the Fukuoka area, and many troops were transported from Korea to Japan during this time, increasing the combat strength of the Xia Army.

In addition to more than 9,000 people under the command of Ma Du, the commander of the Second Brigade, there were two standard cavalry of the Third Brigade and one standard cavalry of the Cavalry Brigade directly under the Fourth Town, with a total of more than 14,000 infantry, more than 1,400 cavalry and 32 12-pounder infantry guns.

Although the strength of the Japanese army was only half of the army, Ma Du was still full of confidence, and after receiving the Japanese army movements provided by the Jinyi Guard lurking inland, he decided to take the initiative to attack and start a battle with the Japanese army, striving to defeat the Japanese army in a battle and clear the way for the Xia army to advance inland.

After making this decision, Mado withdrew the infantry that had conquered Nashima Castle, leaving only a small number of soldiers and horses to defend Fukuoka and Nanozu, and then led a large army to Iwaya Castle on the 5th of March.

Iwaya Castle is located in the southeast of Fukuoka, and together with Yuchiyama Castle, it blocks the road from Fukuoka to Akizuki Castle, and the Xia army is very fast, and first raids Iwaya Castle before the Japanese army arrives, and then uses Iwaya Castle as a forward stronghold to wait for the arrival of the Japanese army.

After Ogasawara Tadashi learned that Iwaya Castle had been conquered by the Xia army, he immediately realized that the next battle would be a bitter battle, and he could only order Kuroda Mitsuyuki to lead the vanguard into Arichiyama Castle, confront the Xia army, and wait for the arrival of the army.

On the eighth day of the first month of March, the main force of the Japanese army arrived outside the city of Youzhishan, and the Xia army took the initiative to meet it.

In order to facilitate artillery operations, he deployed the artillery position on the highest hillside near the battlefield, and deployed a thousand cavalry to ambush behind the hillside.

As for the infantry, Madu divided the 14,000 infantry into two fronts, with 10,000 soldiers deployed on the first line and 4,000 soldiers in the second as reserves.

On the other hand, on the side of the Japanese army, Ogasawara Tadashi was an important minister of the shogunate, with rich combat experience, and he also had the famous sword saint Miyamoto Musashi to raise the womb Iori as his assistant, he divided the army into three parts: left, center, and right, he personally sat in the middle army, and the lord of the Yanagawa domain, Tachibana Tadashige, sat in the right army, and the lord of the Nakatsu domain, Ogasawara Nagaji, sat in the left army.

The Chinese army took the spear ashigaru as the first front, and after the deployment of the bow ashigaru, the Chinese army had the largest number of troops to undertake the main attack task, and General Ogasawara Tadashi and the iron artillery team were concentrated in the right army, and ordered Tachibana Tadashige to lead the iron artillery team to attack the left flank of the Xia army, and open the situation on the left side with superior forces as much as possible.

After the battle between the two armies, Ogasawara Tadashi Nagaji attacked the right flank of the Xia army with the samurai troops and cavalry with the highest combat effectiveness, and uprooted the artillery positions deployed by the Xia army on the right slope.

The battle began on the morning of the 8th of the first month, and the Xia artillery positions deployed on the hillside on the right side of the battlefield were the first to start the battle.

The Japanese army fired at the Xia army with eighteen national collapse cannons and Nanban barrels, and the trebuchets deployed in front also threw heavy stones at the enemy under the operation of the ashigaru, and the boulder was thrown out after being thrown out, rolling and flying in mid-air, the posture was terrifying, but its accuracy was really indescribable, and none of the boulders thrown out by the fifteen trebuchets hit the target.

"Attack!"

Accompanied by the passionate attack horn and the dense snare drum beat, the Xia army in red military uniforms stepped on the neat pace and took the initiative to advance to the Japanese army's main formation, the snare drummers of each company skillfully beat the snare drum hanging on his chest, and on his side, the flag bearer holding the company flag unswervingly followed the company commander holding the command knife, and every step the soldiers took could echo the drum beat of the snare drum.

In front of the line infantry, the light infantry advanced in a skirmish formation, they followed the pace of the standard-bearer and the company commander to the Japanese army and kept approaching, walking in the front they undoubtedly became the first target of the Japanese heavy weapons, from time to time boulders fell from the sky and smashed on their side, but these brave light infantry were not afraid.

While the Xia army was advancing, the Japanese army was also advancing to the sound of a Japanese-style horn, armed with a four-meter-long bamboo spear and dressed in ashigaru uniforms

The armed ashigaru carried the bamboo spear on their shoulders and advanced in a dense formation, and the crowded team gave these ashigaru who lacked actual combat experience a great sense of security.

Behind the spear-ridden array were bowshigaru, armed with longbows made of bamboo and rattan, who were supposed to fight in formation with the iron artillery team, but after the iron artillery team was concentrated in the right army, they had to fight alone, providing fire cover for the gunashigaru in front.

In the rear of the Chinese army, the Japanese army commander Ogasawara Tadashi looked at the Xia army slowly advancing in the distance, with a little sadness on his face, he asked Miyamoto Iori, the old man standing beside him:

"Miyamoto, the soldiers of the Xia army marched in a uniform manner, the weapons and equipment were uniform, and the morale of the infantry soldiers was high, I dare to assert that the strongest army in the world was nothing more than that."

"What the family governor said is very true, but in my opinion, the Xia army is not invincible, they have a big weakness." Miyamoto Iori said.

"Oh?" Ogasawara looked at him curiously and motioned for him to continue.

Miyamoto Iori then explained to him: "The Xia army's foot soldiers are all dressed in light armor and have no shield to cover, so they must be weaker than arrows, and if you order the archers to concentrate their shots, they will definitely be able to inflict heavy damage, and not only that, but I see that the Xia army does not have a sword at the waist, and if it is a close fight with a samurai, the samurai will definitely win."

Moreover, the Xia army is equipped with firearms, and firearms need to be reloaded for a long time after firing, as long as they can survive the Xia army's volley and force them to get involved in close combat, the Xia army will definitely be defeated!"

"That's a good point." Ogasawara Tadashi smiled and stroked his beard, agreeing with him.