Although he was defeated in all three battles, Ogasawara did not panic, and he ordered Yushigaru to shoot at the Xia army pursuing by the Chinese army, intending to block the pursuit of the Xia army, and at the same time ordered the artillery and trebuchets that had stopped firing because the enemy and us were about to fall into close combat to fire again.

This time, the heavy firepower will attack the Xia army of the Chinese army without distinguishing between the enemy and us, and the Xia army that the Chinese army tried to pursue also had to stop the pursuit under the blow of the dense rain of arrows and artillery and trebuchets of the bow, so that the Japanese army finally had a chance to breathe and was able to rein in the defeated army.

The strength of the Xia army made Ogasawara Tadashi and the originally confident Miyamoto Iori dumbfounded, especially Miyamoto Iori, although the weaknesses of the Xia army he deduced before the war were all correct, but they ...... This is really completely different from what he thought?

Why was Xia Jun able to stand still and shoot in the face of a rain of arrows?

Why was the Xia army able to resist the charge of the cavalry, and even after suffering a large number of casualties, it was still able to continue fighting?

Why was the Xia army able to muster up the courage to counterattack after suffering heavy casualties after being drawn into a white-knuckle battle with the samurai?

Even if he wanted to break his head, he couldn't figure out the reason.

Even Japan's most powerful army can't do all this......

Therefore, in Miyamoto Iori's view, this defeat is actually not unjust, at least it makes them understand that the enemy they are facing is not comparable to any army in their previous cognition, you must know that even in the Renchen War more than half a century ago, it was also an army composed of Han people, and the combat effectiveness of the Ming army was not so rebellious.

"Lord Jiadu, according to what your subordinates see, the best choice at present is to evacuate here and not continue to fight against the Xia army." Thinking of this, he whispered to Ogasawara Tadashi in front of him.

Ogasawara Tadashi also had the idea of withdrawing at this time, he was indeed a little scared, if he continued to fight, whether he could beat the Xia army was one thing, if most of the troops were lost in it, he would definitely be reprimanded by the shogunate.

If this war had happened before the Shimabara Rebellion, then he would have been determined to urge the army to continue fighting against the Xia army, even if most of the troops were lost in it, it would not be a pity, after all, the daimyo of the Kyushu feudal lords at that time were all local forces that did not respect the shogunate, but after the Shimabara Rebellion, the local forces in Kyushu were almost all swept away, and the feudal lords of Kitakyushu were all loyal to the shogunate.

Just as Ogasawara Tadashi was hesitating, the Xia army's front began to slowly reorganize, with the reserve replacing the line on the right flank that had been almost torn apart by the Japanese, and the bloodied soldiers supported each other and retreated to the rear under the eyes of the reserve robes.

While they retreated to the rear, they also encouraged the sinicization of those robes who had taken over them, and a soldier with a wound on his abdomen covered the wound to prevent his intestines from flowing out, and shouted to his fellow villagers in the team: "Thief, your mother, remember to help Lao Tzu avenge and kill a few more Japanese slaves."

"I know, you go back to recuperate, Lao Tzu will carry the head of the Japanese slave to visit you." The fellow replied that as soon as he finished speaking, he was kicked in the body by the company commander in the ranks, and scolded, "Keep your eyes ahead and pay attention to military discipline."

When the soldiers of the reserve team stood on the top of the bloody right-wing battlefield, they were all shocked by the tragic scene in front of them, the right-wing battlefield was almost full of blood, and everywhere you could see the Japanese samurai and Xia infantry in different ways, the Japanese samurai mainly died from gunshot wounds, but there were also many people who could clearly see the bayonet wounds, the wounds were deep to the bottom, and the bayonets were pulled out, and the organs inside were also hooked out by the way.

Among the corpses in that place, you can still see the wounded soldiers who are not completely dead, and the wounded soldiers of the Xia army are all taken away together, so that only the wounded Japanese are still lying in the corpses, they let out a faint moan of pain, and some people raise their hands with all their might, trying to let others find and heal themselves.

But the mercy of the Xia army would not be left to these enemies, and after getting the permission of the commander, some of the soldiers left the ranks, walked in front of these Japanese who were not completely dead, and raised their bayonets high in the latter's pleading, sad, and desperate eyes, and then did not hesitate to pierce the opponent's vital parts to solve the opponent's pain,

After the reorganization of the Xia army's battle line, Ma Du immediately ordered to blow the horn of attack and launch a counterattack against the Japanese troops repulsed by them

The sound of the horn sounded, and at the same time, it also broke Ogasawara Tadashi's hesitation, and he saw that the Xia army took the initiative to advance, and finally made up his mind to withdraw his troops.

After getting the order to retreat, the Japanese army was amnesty, and they couldn't take care of the trebuchets that were difficult to carry, so they directly dismantled the trebuchets violently, removed the key parts, and then evacuated the battlefield as if they fled.

Although the Japanese retreated, they did not forget their mission, and under the leadership of Ogasawara Tadashin, they withdrew to the nearest Arichiyama Castle, and set up camps around Arichiyama with the mountain castle as the core, intending to block the Xia army's continued route to the interior.

Although the Xia army was able to directly bypass Youzhishan Castle and continue to penetrate deep into the interior of Kyushu Island, the location of Youzhishan Castle was really embarrassing, and it was able to directly cut off the supply line of the Xia army, and the Japanese army in the area of Shancheng still retained a certain combat effectiveness.

If this mountain castle is not uprooted, once the Xia army continues to penetrate, the Japanese army can directly rush out and cut off their supply lines, and if they are even more unlucky, they will run into reinforcements from the shogunate, then they will be under siege.

Therefore, Ma Du could only order the whole army to set up camp tents around Youzhi Mountain Castle and enter into a confrontation with the Japanese battalions deployed around the mountain castle.

As the name suggests, Yuchiyama Castle is located on the top of a hill called Yuchiyama and is as easy to defend as most Japanese castles.

What's even more infuriating is that because of the angle and height of the Xia army's artillery, it could not directly launch an artillery bombardment from the foot of the mountain to the mountain city, so the Xia army had heavy firepower but could not be used in actual combat, so it could only send infantry to storm the mountain city, blow open the city gate with gunpowder, and then rush into the city for hand-to-hand combat.

Considering that not only would he be intercepted by the dense fire of the Xia army when he approached the mountain castle, but even if he attacked the city, he would not be able to win hand-to-hand combat with the skilled samurai of the Japanese army, Ma Du suddenly gave up this method of quick victory, and he pinned his hopes on besieging the mountain castle for a long time, so that the Japanese army in the city would fall into the predicament of running out of ammunition and food, and eventually trap it to death.

Before that, the Xia army had to defeat the Japanese troops deployed around the mountain castle, and although the Japanese army had lost thousands of men in the Battle of Iwaya, it still maintained a certain size and combat effectiveness - although the morale of the Japanese army was indeed unstable, especially when the samurai were killed in large numbers and Ashigaru lacked sufficient ammunition pressure, many Ashigaru began to have thoughts of escaping.

Although Ma Du did not know this, he was able to deduce that the morale of the Japanese army would definitely be hit after such heavy casualties, so as long as the Xia army took advantage of the situation to pursue, the Japanese army would be defeated in an instant.

On the tenth day of the first month of March, after a day of repair, the Xia army once again challenged the Japanese army.

In order to defeat the Japanese troops at the foot of Mt. Arichi in one fell swoop, Mado led his army to attack the Japanese camp from multiple directions, and the battle was opened with the shelling of 12-pounder infantry guns.

As the cannon sounded, the officers and men of the Xia Army, who had been repairing for a day and were full of energy, marched forward in a neat pace according to the beat of the snare drums and drums, and the shells from the cannon roared and fell directly into the chaotic camp of the Japanese army, and immediately overturned several camp tents and smashed the Japanese soldiers hiding inside into pieces, causing a big chaos.

"Enemy attack! The Xia army has begun to attack!"

"Get up! Get up for me, take up your weapons, and prepare for battle!"

The Japanese camp was in chaos, and the short ashigaru men ran in a panic, and from time to time shells fell into the chaotic crowd, smashing many hapless ashigara to pieces, and the flying flesh and stumps caused even more panic among the people around them.

The sound of the cannon also shocked Ogasawara Tadama in the mountain castle, and he jumped up from the tatami mat after hearing the cannon, and rushed out of the room without bothering to put on his shoes, and by the time he ran out of the castle, his old Miyamoto Iori had already begun to organize the samurai troops stationed in the mountain castle.

Seeing Ogasawara Tadashi arrive, Miyamoto Iori saluted and said with a serious face: "Lord Jiadu, the Xia army has launched an attack, and Ashigaru stationed at the foot of Mt. Yuchi will definitely not be able to resist the attack of the Xia army, and I also ask Lord Jiadu to move with me to the bottom of the mountain to supervise the battle!"

"Let's go!" Ogasawara Tadashi said anxiously, and at this time, Miyamoto Iori found his bare feet, and he quickly took off his shoes and put them on for Ogasawara Tadashima

, while saying, "Governor, the mountain road is uneven, please put on the shoes of your subordinates."

Seeing this, Ogasawara Tadashi was immediately moved, but he did not refuse, accepted Miyamoto Iori's service, changed into his shoes, and at the same time, Tadashi asked, "What about Choji? For such an important matter, why isn't Changji here?"

"Go home to Lord Governor, Your Majesty has already sent someone to invite Lord Choji to come, presumably he should be rushing here now."

Miyamoto Iori's voice fell, and Ogasawara Nagaji, who was dressed in armor, trotted all the way to this side, he also looked grim, and he didn't pay attention to the samurai around him who saw him glaring at him, until he ran to Tadashi, saluted, and said, "Lord General, Nagaji is ready, just to atone for his sins."

Although his actions were not as bad as Tachibana Tadashige's, he still abandoned his subordinates and betrayed them in the hearts of the samurai, so those samurai who withdrew from the battlefield would glared at him when they saw him.

Tachibana Tadashige, on the other hand, was seriously wounded by a light infantry sniper while fleeing, and after retreating to Yuchiyama Castle, he only lasted a few hours before dying in agony in his bed.

"Good!" Zhongzhen nodded, and he ordered, "The whole army will follow me down the mountain to meet the Xia army!"

"Hey!"

Everyone responded in unison.