As the nominal capital of Japan, Kyoto has a large number of ministers settled in the city. Although Tokugawa Yoshinao 'invited' the Emperor to Edo in March of this year, the vast majority of ministers still live here.

Now in this place, there is not even a nominal emperor, and the ministers who have long lost their real power naturally don't have to get up early. After all, this season is spring, and sleeping in in the morning is really comfortable.

Unfortunately, on the early morning of the 25th, they were destined to have trouble sleeping.

Starting at six o'clock that day, people on the ground in Kyoto felt a slight shaking under their feet. At first, everyone thought it was an earthquake, but soon someone realized that such rhythmic shaking was not an earthquake at all, but a large number of troops

Vibrations caused by tens of thousands of feet stepping on the ground at the same time!

Such a scene, combined with the various news that the ministers have recently received, it is very clear to everyone: where are the people from the Ming Dynasty coming!

Although they have no real power, the ministers are the elite of the country, and their national consciousness has been awakened relatively early. Therefore, they instinctively dislike the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty. However, compared with the Toyotomi family in the past, today's

The attitude of the Tokugawa family towards the imperial family and the ministers is really extremely cold. Therefore, the ministers will have mixed feelings: none of us want to help. Besides, even if we want to help someone, we don't have any power.

Forget it, let's evacuate Kyoto first. The Tokugawa shogunate actually stationed so many soldiers in the city. It would be really bad if this place became a battlefield.

Although the place where Kyoto is located is generally flat, there are still some small hills nearby. After the ministers left Kyoto City, they ran towards Atago Mountain in the northwest in a very uniform manner: Kyoto is the place that has been peaceful for several decades recently.

Years ago, a few years ago, there was so much chaos among Hosokawa, Miyoshi, Oda, and Akechi. You sang and I came on stage. Once there was a war, everyone would run to Mount Atago for refuge.

Although Mount Atago is not very high, the altitude of its summit is only more than 900 meters. However, this group of ministers, who were painted all day long, only climbed to a considerable distance from the middle of the mountain. They were already out of breath and had to stop.

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However, for the armies of both sides spread out on the flat ground at this time, the sight of the ministers standing on the mountainside two to three hundred meters away was much better than that of Zhu Youdong, who was standing on the improvised platform at the rear, which was only twenty or thirty meters high.

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More than ten miles north of Kyoto, the Tokugawa Army first deployed three divisions. Each division had 10,500 infantry and 1,500 artillerymen serving fifty 105mm cannons.

In order to maximize the power of the flintlock muskets, both armies will use large horizontal rows and shallow depth formations tomorrow. As a result, the more than 30,000 Tokugawa troops were only arranged in six rows, with 6,000 people standing in each row.

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When viewed from Mount Atago, this formation looks like a long snake formation, which is quite endlessly spectacular.

The Ming army, which was about a kilometer away from the Tokugawa army, was almost in the same formation.

Comparing the two armies, after all, the Tokugawa army had arrived here long ago and was well prepared, so their position had an advantage: the infantry stood slightly lower in front, and the artillery position happened to be located on a small piece of land about ten meters higher than where the infantry stood.

On the hill. In this way, the artillery's shooting field of view is very good, and it is not easy to cause accidental damage.

Relatively speaking, the position of the Ming army was a bit poor: it was a large plain, so that the artillery had to be moved forward and placed almost at the same level as the infantry line.

When the time came to nine o'clock in the morning on the 25th, the warm spring sun had steadily reached high in the sky, the fog in the field had all dissipated, and the sight became very good. At this time, the ministers on Mount Atago suddenly saw the Tokugawa Army.

A puff of white smoke floated from the position, and almost at the same time as the puff of white smoke appeared, a huge roar and a whistling sound broke through the air.

That was the artillery position of the Tokugawa Army that first fired a shot at the Ming Army in the distance.

In the historical standard, although the maximum range of the peak front-loading smoothbore cannon reached 3200 meters (forged in Britain in 1861, 205mm caliber, 14 times the caliber). But it is obvious that the 105 artillery of the Tokugawa Army at this time did not have such a long range:

After the artillerymen fired the shell at a distance of about five or six hundred meters behind the infantry, the shell flew nearly a kilometer in the air, and then fell feebly on the front edge of the Ming army's position, stirring up a large area of ​​grassy fire.

soil.

At this time, the Ming army was lined up in front of Li Chunzhong's third town, Huang Degong's seventh town, and because Cao Wenzhao wanted to coordinate the overall situation, Mao Wenlong was in charge of the first town commanded by the former enemy. And the location where this shell fell was exactly

It is the position of the first town standing in the middle.

Looking at the artillery shells that were so close, Mao Wenlong frowned and waved his hand vigorously behind. Then the Ming army's gunner behind also increased the elevation angle of the cannon and tried to fire a shot.

The place where this cannonball landed was obviously worse than the opponent's cannonball.

Seeing this result, Mao Wenlong no longer hesitated. He quickly and loudly ordered: "Blow the drum, and the whole army will advance!"

Following the movements of the first town, the third and seventh towns on its left and right sides also began to move forward slowly.

As the Ming army advanced, another roar came, and the Tokugawa family's artillery position opposite began to fire continuously.

As the Ming army advanced, the accuracy of the Tokugawa's artillery became more and more accurate. At 9:05 in the morning, a cannonball finally flew into the Ming army's square formation accurately.

This artillery shell whizzed down from the air and directly hit an advancing Ming army soldier, smashing him from head to toe. When it hit the ground, its huge potential energy stirred up a large piece of soil, and also

It completely overturned several soldiers nearby. Then the solid iron ball that fell on the muddy ground bounced up again, and when jumping back, it cut off another soldier's thigh: when he got here, his potential energy

It was basically consumed, and after landing again, it only bounced slightly, and then quickly fell to the ground again, rolling down the terrain with a gurgling sound.

Seeing the miserable condition of his own soldiers, Mao Wenlong didn't even blink. He roared loudly and asked officers at all levels to work hard to maintain their formation. Then his eyes just stared at the Tokugawa Army's position in front.

Under the encouragement and strict orders of officers at all levels, the soldiers of the First Town, who had the unique name of "Henghai", continued to move forward in an orderly and steady pace with an indifferent expression. Behind them, there were

The medical soldiers quickly ran up and carried the wounded down.

Just as the Ming army continued to move forward steadily, countless puffs of green smoke suddenly rose from the Tokugawa army's position opposite, as well as countless gunshots that were almost confused into one sound.

Then several of the Ming soldiers in the front row fell down without warning.

After this row of gunshots, there was another roar, and more explosions sounded in the Ming army's phalanx. Whether it was the first town or the two nearby towns, there were varying degrees of casualties, as well as the volume of the sound.

Different screams.

However, such a scream only lasted for a moment. After it was shouted, the owners of the voice suppressed it with great willpower.

By 9:12 in the morning, although there were already many deep and painful screams in the Ming army's phalanx, the Ming army's line was still extremely neat in the face of the preemptive Tokugawa army.

"Stand firm!"

"Crack~" Following the orders given by officers at all levels, the Ming army began to stop. But at the same time, there was another volley of fire from the Tokugawa army position, and then the Ming army soldiers continued to fall down.

"We have it all! Get the gun and aim."

One officer failed to finish shouting the order and was hit by a bullet and fell down. But soon another officer stood up and continued to order almost without any obstruction: "Aim and fire~!"

"Crack~" Amidst the huge sound, countless plumes of green smoke rose from the Ming army's battle line. Immediately afterwards, a large number of soldiers began to fall backward on the Tokugawa army's position.

"The first row retreats, the second row advances, fire! The second row retreats, the third row advances, fire! The fourth row! The fifth row...the first row fires again!"

Following repeated orders from officers at all levels, the entire frontline army of more than 30,000 soldiers stepped forward in an orderly manner, raised their guns, opened fire, and then retreated in an orderly manner to reload their ammunition.

Although during this process, the Ming army was still being killed by the opponent's fusiliers and artillery. However, more than 30,000 soldiers still maintained an almost neat front line without any dispersion.

Although the Tokugawa family had been waiting here for a long time, and had built some simple fortifications in advance. But the fatal thing is that these fortifications should not be too high: the Japanese were nearly 20 centimeters shorter than the average height of men in the Ming Dynasty at this time.

There was no way to fight. Therefore, the defensive power of these fortifications was very limited. Facing the fierce firepower of the Ming army on the opposite side, they still took two steps back and advanced three steps, slowly but firmly approaching their position.

.The Tokugawa Army commanders who were sitting on the front line at this time felt that their whole bodies were soaked in the spring air.

By 10:05 in the morning, the Ming army's formation was less than 300 meters away from the Tokugawa army's defenses.

At this moment, the commander of the Tokugawa Army on the front line suddenly discovered in horror that countless black shadows flew quickly above his head.
Chapter completed!