Last time, we talked about the wealth and technology that Japan acquired through foreign trade, but it was not satisfactory because of the high cost and slow rate of fire.

Under these circumstances, how to maximize the power of the "iron cannon" became a question that all the princes ("daimyos") of all Japan should think deeply, because although the "iron cannon" is expensive to manufacture and has a slow rate of fire, its range and power far exceed that of bows and crossbows, and it has great potential to be tapped.

In fact, thinking about improving the combat effectiveness of early "firearms" has long been carried out in ancient China, which was the country that invented "gunpowder". In the battle of Mu Ying's expedition to "Luchuan", as well as in the subsequent Ming Dynasty Chengzu Zhu Di's "Five Expeditions to Mobei" and Yu Qian's command of the "Beijing Defense Campaign", the tactics of taking turns to shoot were adopted, which significantly improved the combat effectiveness of "firearms". At the same time, the Ming army also summed up a set of tactics that comprehensively used cold and hot weapons to cooperate with each other.

In the Battle of Nagashinoi on June 28, 1575, Oda Nobunaga became the first person in Japanese history to use this "three-stage" shooting tactic, and the opponent was the "Takeda Cavalry", which was famous in Japan at the time. This is a classic battle of Japanese infantry against cavalry.

Before the advent of the "Takeda Cavalry", the use of cavalry by warlords in various parts of Japan has been inadequate, on the one hand, because Japan as an island country lacks excellent horse breeds, and at the same time, Japan also lacks large areas of plains and open areas suitable for large-scale mobile cavalry charges, so Japan has few cavalry in ancient times.

In addition, it would cost a lot of money to train a full-fledged cavalry unit, and the territory of the Japanese "Warring States Daimyo" was no more than a county in the Ming Dynasty and a village in China. Therefore, it was almost an unbearable burden for them to train a cavalry force with strong combat effectiveness, and even if they were forcibly rationed hundreds or thousands of horses for each "daimyo", it was estimated that they would not have enough money to buy fodder to support.

It was not until the "Warring States Period of Japan" that "Takeda Shingen", who was known as the "Tiger of Kai", succeeded in forming a cavalry unit known for its rapid assault with the "Kai Jinshan". At the same time, this unit took the concept of "swift as the wind, swift as a forest, aggression as fire, and immobile as a mountain" in the Chinese "Art of War" as its operational policy, and from then on, the "Takeda Cavalry" under the banner of "wind forest volcano" became an existence that made other "daimyos" smell and change.

In order to weaken the combat effectiveness of the "Takeda Cavalry" to the greatest extent, the first thing Oda Nobunaga did after arriving at the preset battlefield was to let his soldiers build a horse fence to prevent the "Takeda Cavalry" from charging or detouring. At this time, God also helped Nobunaga, because the rainy weather effectively concealed the movement of the fortifications. Three days later, a large and complete set of "horse rejection fortifications" appeared on the hills of "Shirakuhara".

The fortifications were built along the banks of the river, and gates were set up at intervals for their armies to attack. As an opponent, "Takeda Katsuyori" knew nothing about Oda Nobunaga's pre-war preparations, and he divided the Takeda army into three wings: on the left route, Yamaprefecture Masakai led the cavalry to attack the Tokugawa side, on the right was the cavalry of Baba Nobuharu's department, and in the middle lane was the cavalry unit of Naito Masatoyo, attacking the troops of Sakuma Nobumori and Takigawa Kazuyoshi respectively.

The fierce generals of the "Takeda Army" poured out of the nest and pressed like a mountain. After a slight resistance, Oda's side retreated behind the horse fence. At this time, the sound of "iron cannon" suddenly sounded behind the anti-horse fence, and under the continuous "iron cannon" fire, the "Takeda cavalry" who could not exert the advantage of charging fell one after another.

The first wave of the "Takeda Army" failed. Despite suffering losses in the first wave of the charge, "Takeda Katsuyori" neither planned to retreat nor modify his tactics, but concentrated his forces to charge again. The problem was that the terrain of Shirakuhara and Nobunaga's defensive strategy limited the cavalry's superiority.

Therefore, the "Takeda Army" simply relied on stupid hard attacks to charge, and it was difficult to obtain results from the charge. The second wave, Nobushige Koyamada and Takeda Xiaoyaoken, also found nothing in front of Nobunaga's fence and "three dans". In the third wave of the attack, Nobutada Kohata led his "Red Reserve Army" to charge, but then Nobutada was killed by a stray bullet. As a result, the morale of the "Takeda Army" was greatly impacted, and the morale of the army began to be unstable.

However, the "Takeda Army" soon launched a fourth wave of cavalry charges, which was the "Black Warriors" led by Takeda Shintoyo. Later, the fifth wave of cavalry charges was led again by Nobuharu Baba, and ...... "Takeda Army" carried out a frenzied "suicidal charge" in wave after wave.

Just when Takeda was obsessed with attacking Nobunaga's position, a puff of smoke appeared in the Takeda Army position in Washen's nest mountain, and Katsuyori originally left part of his troops in Washshare's nest to monitor Nagashino Castle, but Nobunaga secretly sent Sakai Tadaji to cooperate with Nagashino Castle to take this stronghold. The fall of this stronghold was another blow to the morale of the "Takeda Army." At this time, the battle situation had reached a stalemate, and the crazy "Takeda Army" simply broke through two "horse rejection fences".

This is due to the strength of fierce generals such as Nobuharu Baba and Masatyo Naito. Although Takeda Katsuyori gave a fool's order, this group of tiger generals was stunned to give a fool's order to a good effect, and it can't but be said to be a miracle!

At this time, the "horse fence" and the "iron cannon" (倭铓) were no longer decisive factors in the battlefield, because the "Takeda Army" and the Oda Army were fighting together, and the two sides fought for morale and willpower, and Nobunaga once again invested the three teams of Shibata Katsuie, Hashiba Hideyoshi, and Niwa Nagahide to join the battle group and fight together.

Yama Yama Masakai entered from the flank, but was discovered by Tokugawa's Honda Tadakatsu. As a result, Honda Tadakatsu immediately commanded the "Iron Artillery Team" to kill this powerful general. The fall of Changjing in Yama County made the Takeda army stunned for a while, and they fought for days, coupled with several crazy suicidal charges, both physically and mentally, they had already reached their limit. And the death of Changjing, the fierce general Shan County, was the last blow to them mentally!

Unable to accept this fact, the "Takeda Army" suddenly collapsed and fled in the direction of Fenglai Temple. In the melee, dozens of generals such as Nobutada Kohata, Sanada Masatei, and Sanada Nobutsuna fell to "Shirakuhara". Nobunaga launched a pursuit and killed Naito Masatyo on the way. In order to cover the retreat of the remnants led by Takeda Katsuyori, Nobuharu Baba took the initiative to lead his troops to break into the enemy formation and died on the spot.

The Battle of Nagashino was not only of epoch-making significance in the history of Japanese warfare, but also in the history of world warfare, because it marked the beginning of the new "gunpowder weapon" corresponding tactics to replace the old "cavalry tactics" of the Middle Ages.

However, this does not mean that the "Iron Cannon" has already overcome its inherent shortcomings. In fact, in the "Battle of Nagashino", Oda Nobunaga's victory was not achieved by relying solely on the "iron cannon", but by relying on the combination of the "iron cannon", the "three-stage attack" tactic, and the "horse rejection fence".

For example, on September 23, the fifth year of the Ming Dynasty (1577), two years after the Battle of Nagashino, Uesugi Kenshin defeated the "iron artillery troops" of the Oda family, led by Shibata Katsuie, in the Battle of Tetorigawa. It can be seen from this that at this time, the "iron cannon" (逭铓) was not a "new weapon" of decisive significance, but more needed to be combined with tactics, terrain and other factors in order to give full play to its actual combat effectiveness.

However, no matter how serious the defects of the "iron cannon" are, it is undeniable that it did change the traditional mode of warfare in ancient Japan. With the introduction of the "iron cannon", the original infantry ("ashigaru") became more valued. The "Ashigaru" was originally composed of landless peasants who were temporarily recruited and hired.

After the introduction of the "iron cannon", it gradually transformed to regularization and professionalism, and the "daimyo" in various places successively equipped the "iron cannon ashigaru", "spear ashigaru", and "bow and arrow ashigaru", and explored their way of cooperation with the cavalry, and also went to considerable achievements, at least the combat power was stronger than the Korean army.

By the time the "Korean War" broke out during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, Japan, which did not even know what "gunpowder" was, had become a "firearms power", and its military strength could at least crush the surrounding Korea and the Ryukyus.

The "Renchen War" that broke out in the 20th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1592 AD) made "firearms" the protagonist on the battlefield at the beginning, but it did not take long to be quelled. Then, relying on the advanced "iron artillery", the Japanese soldiers fought all the way from Pusan, South Korea, to Pyongyang, North Korea, in only two months.

In the "Battle of Pyongyang" in the 20th year of Wanli (1592) of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese army easily shot the defenders of the Li Dynasty on the city wall with "iron cannons", because the range of the bows and crossbows used by the defenders of the Li Dynasty was far less than that of the Japanese "iron cannons", so the Japanese army continued to advance to the "Yalu River" on the border of China and North Korea after taking Pyongyang lightly.

On February 8 of the following year, the Ming army that went to Korea to resist the Japanese launched the "Battle of Pyongyang". During the battle, the Japanese army made "earthen walls" on the city wall, and pierced many perforations, and used "iron cannons" to shoot projectiles outward from the perforations, causing heavy casualties to the Ming army. At that time, the "arquebus" of the Ming army was inferior to the Japanese army's "Japanese guns" in range.

However, the Ming army had an absolute advantage in "heavy firearms". As a result, the Ming general Li Rusong mobilized 120 "general guns" and 20 "tiger squat guns" to carry out continuous bombardment of the Japanese army. Because the "iron cannon" (倭铓) is not the opponent of the real "cannon" in the end, because neither the range nor the power can be compared.

In the end, with the assistance of "artillery", the Ming army achieved complete suppression of the Japanese army in firepower. For example, in the official history book of the Li Dynasty, "Records of the Li Dynasty", there is a record of the "artillery" of the Ming army against the Japanese "iron cannon", and there is such a description of the combat effectiveness of the Ming artillery: "Although the sound of the Japanese guns is heard from all sides; But the cannon of the heavenly soldiers is like a landslide and the earth cracks, the mountains and plains shake, resounding through the heavens and the earth, and the mountains are moving......"

In fact, there is no such thing as the level of "firearms" in the middle and late Ming Dynasty lagging behind Japan, but the Ming Dynasty and Japan had different priorities for the development of firearms at that time. Although it is true that the Ming army is inferior to Japan in the production technology and tactical application of "individual firearms", this is mainly due to the difference between the Ming army and the Japanese army's respective combat environments and long-term enemies. The Ming army faced an invasion of nomadic cavalry from the north, and the Japanese army was a melee of domestic warlords.

Since Japan's land area and population were far inferior to those of the Ming Dynasty, in the "Warring States Period" of Japan, there were 66 different princes (daimyo) forces in the country. Is it possible to develop heavy "artillery"?

In fact, although Japan's "Warring States Period" was hotly fought, the scale of its warfare was relatively limited on the whole, so there was a strong emphasis on individual combat skills. Therefore, "individual firearms" such as the "Japanese guns", which were improved from the "arquebus", naturally became a weapon suitable for the melee of the Japanese Warring States daimyo.

In contrast, however, the Ming army was more adept at grouping charges and sought a wider range of lethal weapons when engaging large forces of northern nomadic cavalry. Therefore, the Ming army focused on the development of heavy firearms such as "artillery" in the research and development of "firearms", and also developed bombs such as "mines" and "mines".

The "Tiger Squat Cannon" equipped by the "Qi Army" in the Ming Dynasty was two feet long and weighed 36 catties, and could fire lead bullets weighing five coins. In contrast, the Japanese army's "iron cannon" could only fire lead bullets weighing two coins, and it is obvious that the so-called "iron cannon" in Japan is actually an enlarged version of the "arquebus", and it has not yet reached the level of the so-called "cannon" in the real sense. Compared with the traditional "tiger squat cannon" of the Ming army, the power of Japan's "iron cannon" (倭铓) will naturally be greatly reduced.

In addition, in the late Ming Dynasty, on the basis of the introduction of "Western firearms", the Ming army imitated and improved the power of "heavy artillery" such as "Franc machine" and "Hongyi cannon", while Japan never manufactured "artillery" in the real sense in this regard until the "Meiji Restoration".

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