If the swollen Tone River did not erupt in the middle and upper reaches, it would inevitably flood in the lower reaches. Several tributaries of the Tone River system were operating at full capacity to supply water at the same time. The carrying capacity of the lower reaches was overloaded and soon broke through the weakest dikes and poured into Musashi Country, which is located in the south.
The area near Edo Castle in Kanto was the hardest hit area.
On the first day of the flood, hundreds of people were missing and thousands of people were displaced. Unfortunately, Hojo Ujiyasu was supervising the battle on the front line, and his legitimate son Hojo Ushimasa was also on the front line. Only his wife Zuikeiin was left to work in the rear. The war
Just like a gamble with no way out, the gambler who has invested all his chips has no chance to back down.
Hojo Ujiyasu also has a headache. He is known as the number one civil administrator in Kanto. He has a group of capable ministers and officials in his hands and has done a lot of good things. At present, diseases are spreading in front of the camp and behind the camp. The treatment of patients requires a large number of doctors and medicinal materials.
The total amount of material resources is limited. How to allocate limited resources to where they are needed is a science. Whether to rescue the victims first or the sergeants in the camp first becomes a question. Hojo Ujiyasu's choice is to solve the problem in the camp first.
The disease is spreading there.
There is a reason for him to do this. Those who do big things cannot be kind to women. Although loving and caring for the people is very important, war is more important. If he can only choose one of the two, Hojo Ujiyasu will definitely choose the latter. As for the disaster on the rear
If the disease spreads, it will be left to the Hojo family elders and assessors to deal with it.
This wanton storm lasted until the end of summer and gradually ended. By the time the weather cleared up and the soil became dry, it was almost early autumn. Several days of sunny days evaporated the moist water, and the Hojo family was delayed for a long time by this heavy rain.
, now that I have a glimpse of the opportunity, how can I let go.
Not long after the sky had just brightened, the fresh air was mixed with the smell of earth and grass. The sunshine from the sky shone on the neat rows of arrow oars in Ontake Castle. I heard the low and melodious sound of conchs, and the sky was clear and soft for five days.
The muddy pond turned into hard ground, and the howl of war was inevitably sounded again.
The archery team was holding their bows and throwing arrows desperately. More than a dozen ashigaru were struggling to advance forward while staring at the rain of arrows in the city. As the distance gradually approached, soldiers began to die. The heroic Hojo samurai raised his sword and rushed to the front. He was beaten by the city.
The archery team on the first arrow scull focused their fire and shot into a hedgehog.
Thousands of Ashigaru slowly gathered under the city like worker ants. They needed to fill up the earthen bank against the rain of arrows at the top of the city. Regardless of the mountain city or the flat city, various styles of earthen bank must be built, which are equivalent to pits similar to moats to introduce running water.
It can be transformed into a water bank, which is equivalent to a moat in a practical sense.
If you want to attack the city, you must fill up the earth. The process of digging, transporting and filling the earth is long, not to mention that under the eyes of the defenders in the city, the flying rocks and arrows thrown down from time to time will be extremely harmful to them.
To avoid the danger, the Hojo family's solution was to have the Ashigaru build a bamboo wall that was tens of meters long. Under the shelter of the bamboo wall, the villagers could escape for a while. Each square of soil was filled by several ashigaru to lift it.
They are escorted forward by infantry. This earth-filling siege tactic is now the only siege method.
The weakness of the lack of siege equipment and inability to attack the city was clearly exposed at this time. It was difficult for tens of thousands of troops to siege, so they had to use clumsy methods to attack by ant, block the soil, and then pile up mountains of earth to climb the city wall. The Hojo family did not think about it.
In other ways, in order to capture this fortified city, Hojo Ujiyasu sent the two hundred iron cannon ashigaru that he had finally built to the front line.
Ise Susuke is the leader of this iron running team. It is not easy to get this lucrative position. If his father is not Ise Sadun's younger brother, he would not be able to take the position. Under the cover of friendly forces, Ise Shusuke leads
Two hundred iron cannon ashigaru came to the castle. Dozens of them lined up in an orderly manner to load gunpowder, light the match rope, test the gunpowder, clean the gun chamber, load lead shot, reload gunpowder, and aim and shoot.
The sound of ping-ping-pong-pong-ping iron cannons did not cause panic among the defenders on the city. Iron cannons would also fire back sporadically from the top of the city. Since the iron cannons were spread eastward more than ten years ago, several iron cannon battles have occurred in Kinei.
The reputation of cannons has spread all over the world, and now, iron cannons are nothing new in Kanto.
There are many daimyo in Kanto, and many people in the country buy several iron cannons from their own channels. Because there is no iron cannon production technology in Kanto, the price of an iron cannon is often as high as 300 to 400 guanwen, one-third of which is made by
Customs fees, local miscellaneous taxes, and seaport supplies are occupied, the other one-third is the merchant's profit, and only the last one-third is the cost of purchase and transportation.
Because the iron cannons are too expensive, the arming speed of the iron cannons in Kanto is much slower. Only powerful lords like the Hojo family have the capital to arm two hundred iron cannon teams at once. The status of the iron cannon head of Ise Shukosuke is unusual.
He is just a hair's breadth away from being a general in reserve. In terms of closeness, he is still as close as a horse back to the crowd.
Speaking of which, this is not the first time for this iron artillery team. In the past few years, there were only twenty or thirty people in the iron artillery team. During the Kanto Tenbun Rebellion, Hojo Ujiyasu was not willing to let them go into battle and die. In recent years, the life of the Hojo family has gone beyond
The better, the iron artillery team expanded several times to its current size, and successively fought several battles in Minami Kanto. Last year, it also appeared in the Battle of Yukijia and the Tonegawa Battle.
Ise Shubosuke thought that the iron cannon team had practiced well, so he wanted to imitate the Kira family's iron cannon tactics to kill with arrows and oars. He first commanded the two hundred teams to shoot arrows on both sides of the Otemon gate of Mitake Castle.
He fired fiercely at the oars, but was met with random counterattacks from the defenders on the oars. Five or six Tiepao Ashigaru were shot to death in two or three blows. He was so frightened that he quickly retreated.
The old-style iron cannons of the Hojo family have a maximum range of only thirty meters. Not to mention the accuracy of the cannon after flying more than ten meters, the power will be greatly reduced. In several attempts, more than a dozen iron cannons were killed by counterattacks from the arrows.
Ashigaru, I lost a lot every time I came back.
Such inefficient siege tactics obviously had no effect. The siege battle continued until the end of autumn and still could not break the city. There was no hope at all in the cage battle of Ontake Castle with one thousand against forty thousand, and there was no hope of waiting for reinforcements.
The long wait made Nagano Kentada a little helpless. Fortunately, the Nagao Legion quickly got out of the predicament and trekked for nearly a month to reach Ueno Country.
As soon as they arrived in Ueno Country, the Nagao family faced a siege. This time his enemy was the Naha clan of Isesaki Castle. Nagano Yasumasa took the initiative to express his inability to attack the city and invited Nagao Kagetora to help. Echigo
Zhilong agreed without even thinking about it. Soon he led an army of fifteen thousand to besiege Isesaki Castle. With the excellent iron cannons trained and equipped by the Kira family, he easily defeated the Naha Sect in Isesaki Castle.
Yuan's momentum was suppressed again.
The Naha clan is a branch of the Hirohito lineage of Oe. Speaking of which, it is said that they are the same clan as Hojo Takahiro and Yasuda Keimoto of Echigo Mouri, as well as Moto Mori, the newly rising overlord of An Yun Kingdom. The family crest is the famous ichimonji.
Samsung, in terms of family structure, is actually comparable to Hojo Takahiro. The first ancestor was Masahiro (also known as Somoto), the son of Hiromata Oe. It is strange that the name passed down to his generation is the same as that of his ancestor.
Naha Somoto has been maintaining a close relationship with the Hojo family since the end of the Kawagoe Night War more than ten years ago. If it hadn't been for the Kanto Tenbun Rebellion, he might have become Odawara's retainer, and he would be the first to jump this time.
It’s okay to come out, but it’s been my wish for many years.
Nagao Kagetora's siege skills are obviously much better than those of the Hojo family. The powerful iron cannon firepower ensures that there is no problem in executing the Kira family's iron cannon tactics. Once he gets started, he can destroy all buildings over five meters in Isesaki Castle, regardless of
It doesn't matter if it's an arrow scull or a small castle guard, don't even think about it.
Isesaki Castle is also a mountain city, and it’s not pleasant to climb up the mountain. Fortunately, the mountain is only over a hundred meters high, and the mountain is not steep and difficult to climb. The densely packed Nagao family ashigaru are slowly moving to the sound of military drums.
As they advanced, the defenders in the city immediately greeted them with bows and arrows.
The dense rain of arrows fell in a long trajectory on the mountain road. Whenever the rain of arrows poured out, the experienced veterans would raise their rifles and lie on the ground. Katsusaburo and several companions did not quite understand what this was doing.
, his movements were a little slow, and he was kicked to the ground by Shusuke Sugihara behind him. Then the samurai pounced on Katsuzaburo very quickly.
"Ouch! It hurts!" Before he could finish his words, he heard the sound of a crackling rain of arrows.
Sugihara Shusuke also ignored his dignity and yelled: "You bastards, do you want to die? Are the arrows about to fall if you can't see the top of the city?"
"Yes! Yes!" Several recruits trembled in fright and even responded with their voices. At this time, the ashigaru got up one after another and continued to move forward with their rifles on their shoulders. Sugihara Shusuke glared at them: "Hurry up and catch up with the array.
, didn’t you see that the friendly forces behind you are all waiting for you! I’ve never seen how stupid Ashigaru like you managed to sneak in.”
Sugihara Shusuke left cursing all the way, which made several ashigaru want to crawl into a crack in the ground. A middle-aged man beside them smiled and walked over to comfort them: "Don't feel sad, we old guys
Back then, we all suffered from this crime and came over slowly. On the battlefield, we might have to give our lives at some point. These warriors are all burdened with military orders. How can they have time to speak softly to us soldiers?
You have to listen to commands you don’t understand when talking, this little setback is nothing, just get used to it.”
At this time, I heard the order from the samurai in front: "Continue to charge, my lord has an order, and I will reward you with thousands of gold coins for breaking the castle. Everyone follow me and charge, and I must capture Isesaki Castle!"
"Ha!" The Ashigaru took a deep breath, pushed up the starting blocks and continued moving forward.
Different from the unprepared Hojo Army, the Long Tail Army was equipped with simple siege vehicles. In fact, siege vehicles had been formed thousands of years ago. They were first called battering rams, and were later improved and turned into siege vehicles.
It had corresponding applications in ancient Rome and the Han Empire.
The manufacture of the siege vehicle is not complicated either. It has a triangular or olive-shaped metal support frame with an outer skin, and inside is a thick log suspended from a beam with an iron chain. There is a booster crank at the end of the log.
The front end is an iron conical head. Some conical heads are made into the shape of a sheep's head. It has been called a battering ram since ancient times.
A six-wheeled siege vehicle approached the city under the cover of several ashigaru troops carrying shields. The samurai hiding behind the siege vehicle worked together to grab the crank of the battering ram, swung it backwards with force, and then slammed into the city gate.
The Otemon of Isesaki Castle was shaken by the impact. The Naha Toshu who was responsible for directing the defense was startled and hurriedly shouted: "We can't let that weird thing get close to Otemon, fight back immediately, fight back!"
The defenders on the top of the city immediately fired back with bows and arrows. The waiting Ashigaru team raised their rifles to cover the siege vehicles. The dense rain of arrows embedded in the rifles made a crisp crackling sound. The siege vehicles did not stop attacking from the beginning to the end. , hitting the city gate again and again, the defenders in the city were a little at a loss. They had never seen such weird things, and they didn't know how to deal with them. In the chaos, the balance of victory tilted towards the Long Tail Legion.
Saito Asanobu looked at the tattered Ichimonji three-star flag at the top of the city and said with a smile: "Isesaki Castle is not big in scale. It is surrounded by our army and is cut off from all sides. There is no way out. There is no water source on the mountain. Let's see if they can still defend it. How long will it take? Sooner or later this city will be forced to do something!"
"Of course, the faster, the better." Nagao Kagetora looked at the mountains to the south and frowned, "We don't have much time left."
Hojo Ujiyasu's eyes were bloodshot as if he hadn't slept for several days, because he received a very bad news. Isesaki Castle was captured by Nagao Kagetora, while Ontake Castle here has not yet been captured, and several locals outside the city have Piles stood outside the city wall. Broken limbs and broken arms were hung on several damaged walls. The dark red blood dyed the loess piles reddish brown.
Isesaki Castle is a mountain castle. It is normal for the city to surrender before it is about to be captured. Not all mountain castles have enough water sources, and not every mountain castle can hold on for several months. Under the crisis of running out of water and food, Isesaki Castle The city was forced to open, and his sons Nabo Zongzong and Nabo Zongan brothers went out of the city to surrender. Nabo Zongyuan committed seppuku in order to give the whole city a chance to survive and surrender.
Ontake Castle has still not been breached. Under the fierce attack of 40,000 troops day and night, Ontake Castle seems like a small boat in the wind and rain that may capsize at any time. Every time, it is just a little bit close to breaking through Otemon, but it is defeated again and again by the tenacious defenders. They counterattacked forcefully and drove them out. In front of the Otemon Gate of Ontake Castle, the dark doorway seemed like a giant beast that chose people to devour. It swallowed hundreds of lives of the Hojo Army.
The continuous siege for many days has reduced the number of defenders in the city by more than half. If the defenders are not enough, the townspeople in the city will come to help. Nagano Kentada has a good reputation, and many townspeople are willing to help defend the city. The bravery can last for a while, but as time goes by, the soldiers become tired and quickly lose their morale. The morale drops and the battle losses are constantly refreshed.
The number of townspeople in the city was quietly decreasing, and no one noticed it. The corpses of the war dead were discarded casually on the top of the city, and no one paid attention to them on the streets. It wasn't that they didn't want to burn the remains of their comrades, but it was because the soldiers were too busy. When they were tired, the Hojo family's crazy attacks day and night did not give them any time to rest. Even sleeping became a luxury. If they had time, they would just take a nap and there would be no time to take care of the corpse of the deceased.
Another reason is that there is not enough wood in the city, so the townspeople can only demolish their houses to make fires for cooking. In the battle of Cage City, less than a thousand men died, and the women were busy burying pots to make rice. Healing the wounded, he also had to do the work of men, repair the damaged city defenses and the gate, and even patrol and temporarily guard at night.
They were also very tired, so tired that they couldn't even pick up the dishes and chopsticks to eat. Everyone alive in the city was gritting their teeth and holding on. They didn't realize that the dead bodies were quietly spreading the terrible plague. The remaining mosquitoes breeding in the hot summer were exactly the plague. A good medium for transmission, and soon a plague turned into a terrible disaster.
Nagano Kentada was under great pressure. While guarding the city, he also had to deal with the general affairs in the city. It was common for him to stay awake for two days and two nights. He was nearly sixty years old and was only skin and bones. He had been in a high-intensity cage for more than a month.
The battle in the city cost them a great deal, and every one of his relatives was killed. If it had not been expected that his wife and children would be sent to Minawa Castle, Nagano Kentada's lineage would have been extinct.
He knew what he was doing was wrong. He forced all men, women, and children in the city to bear heavy military service. Military service was a mistake, but he did not think he was a cruel warrior. He forced all men over the age of thirteen to take up arms and defend the country.
It was a miracle that he managed to hold on to the castle for more than a month under difficult circumstances. If he hadn't been worried about the domestic situation in Ueno and worried that Nagao Kagetora wouldn't be able to rush over, he wouldn't have fought so hard.
A warrior with tattered armor and messy hair came over and said softly: "My lord, there are still 1,531 soldiers who can bear arms."
Nagano Kenchu sighed: "Thank you for your hard work! Tajima Mamoru."
"My lord, please go and rest for a while. There will be absolutely no problem with me, Takayama Shigei, here!" Takayama Tajima Mamoru said.
"The medicine in the city has been used up, how can I sleep peacefully?" Nagano Kenchu frowned deeply. Soon it was dawn, neither of them could sleep, and a new day began again with a new attack.
A long-term siege is very destructive to morale. Even if the Cage City side is well prepared, it cannot be avoided. The most important thing in the Cage City battle is soldiers, morale, food, water and medicine. Without soldiers, there is no need to talk about defending the city. Without morale, the city cannot be defended.
, the importance of food, grass and water sources need not be repeated. The negative impact of lack of medical treatment and medicine has rarely been mentioned before. In fact, this is the most important part.
In the arduous cage battle, it is crucial to treat the wounded in time. Patients who do not receive effective treatment will become the source of infection. In this era, there are no advanced disinfection measures such as ultraviolet sterilization, especially in this small city.
With a lack of doctors and even less medicine, many wounded soldiers could only watch their bodies fester and die. One can only imagine how much morale their comrades could retain.
No one noticed that the epidemic was spreading quietly, and townspeople died of the disease for several days in a row. Because the Hojo Army's successive attacks were ignored, until the epidemic turned into a plague, and nearly a hundred defenders fell ill and died, the samurai realized that something was wrong, and some
The samurai spontaneously burned the highly decomposed corpses, but they themselves were quickly infected. Nagano Kentada also realized the seriousness of the situation, but by this time it was too late.
He had no choice but to order the seriously ill warriors to collect the corpses, pile them together and burn them with the few remaining firewood. The billowing smoke covered half of the city, and the survivors standing in the distance had only pain and sorrow on their faces.
.
Five days later, the Nagano army, which could not draw its bow and arrow and exhausted its last bit of strength, gave up resistance and allowed the Hojo army to break through the Otemon gate of Mitake Castle. Nagano Kentada and more than 60 samurai who could continue to fight were all killed in the battle. At this time, there was still a lot of fire in the city.
There are only about 500 people alive, all of whom are women and children. The men either died in battle or died of the plague. From a distance, you can see thousands of corpses piled up in several buildings. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature.
