Chapter 554 The slap in the face of the shogunate came so quickly [6600words]
There was a technical failure yesterday. I could only watch the free chapters and pre-ordered chapters of this book. There was no way to subscribe to new chapters, and there was no way to vote or reward.
I never expected that such a low-probability event would happen to me...
During the urgent repairs by the staff, the repairs were completed at noon yesterday, so starting from noon yesterday, the book returned to normal status and was updated as usual.
So everyone will continue to do whatever they are supposed to do. This book has nothing to do~~
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Red Moon Fortress is adjacent to the river in the north, west, and east directions, and it is impossible to deploy troops to attack the walls in these three directions.
Therefore, the shogunate army could only attack the south side of the Red Moon Fortress - this was undoubtedly a great benefit to the Red Moon Fortress, which had fewer troops, and could concentrate its forces.
As for the shogunate army, which could only attack in one direction, it was unable to maximize its strength advantage.
The inner and outer walls of Red Moon Fortress have already been deployed.
On the outer city wall were deployed men holding various melee weapons, responsible for chasing Kazuto who had climbed up the wall to the tribesmen who had climbed down.
On the inner city wall, archers and musketeers were deployed for long-range strikes.
The musketeers holding muskets lined up in a "one" shape in the middle of the inner city wall.
When Kazuto's conch horn sounded, the musketeers leveled their muskets one after another, pointing their guns directly at Kazuto's army rushing toward them outside the city.
The flintlocks they used had a range far beyond that of bows and arrows, so they were naturally the ones to launch the first wave of attacks.
After the generals of the First Army carrying long ladders entered the shooting range of the musketeers, gunfire erupted immediately on the inner city wall.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The gunshot sounded like exploding beans, overwhelming Kazuto's momentum in one breath.
Japan is a country that lacks iron ore, so it is naturally impossible to install such luxurious equipment as iron shields on a large scale.
The mainstream shield in the ancient Japanese army has always been a wooden shield.
Although they held up shields to defend against long-range attacks when carrying long ladders and rushing towards the walls of Red Moon Fortress, their shields were no different from a piece of paper when faced with bullets fired from flintlock guns.
However, flintlock guns also have a shortcoming, that is, their shooting accuracy is very poor.
A row of projectiles roared away, and less than 10 projectiles successfully hit the enemy soldiers.
However - although these whistling projectiles did not kill too many enemy soldiers, they caused a huge blow to the enemy's momentum.
A scorching hot bullet pierced the air, carrying a huge power, and hit the forehead of a soldier who was carrying the long ladder, and shot through the soldier's head.
Because of the high speed and powerful energy of the projectile, the brain, skull fragments and blood formed into a mist, which sprayed out from the back of the soldier's head and landed on the face of a soldier behind him who was also carrying a long ladder.
superior.
How has this soldier ever seen such a formation?
Whether they are the direct troops of the shogunate or the vassal armies of various vassals, most of them have not seen war for a long time, and they do not know what the "blood splatter" is like.
After witnessing with my own eyes how the companion in front of me who was fine just now but was shot to death in the next second died tragically, and the "mixed liquid" sprayed by the companion who was shot to death was splashed on his face, this time
The soldier was immediately stunned.
For a while, I even forgot to wipe off the "mixed liquid" on my face.
It took several seconds for the soldier to finally come to his senses.
After coming back to his senses, the blood on the soldier's face dissipated very quickly.
Then——
"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!"
It was a shrill cry that didn't even sound like a human cry.
Stimulated by this huge shock and fear, the soldier felt his legs were weak and almost fell to the ground.
Similar scenes continue to occur around all soldiers who are unfortunate enough to be shot.
After the musketeer completed a shot, he immediately handed the empty musket to an assistant next to him who was responsible for loading the projectiles.
The assistant handed the other flintlock gun with bullets loaded in his hand to the shooter, then took the newly empty musket handed by the shooter and began to load the ammunition. The shooter continued to shoot with the new gun loaded with bullets in his hand.
Although Chanup and the others do not understand how to defend a city, they still understand that "alternating firing of muskets can increase shooting efficiency" for them who live a life of fishing and hunting and have deep understanding and experience in shooting.
of.
They have a total of 80 flintlock muskets. There are 20 shooters responsible for shooting. Each shooter has 4 muskets and 3 assistants to assist him in loading ammunition. They adopt the shooting strategy of "changing guns without changing people".
After the musketeers took the lead in showing off their power and poured out non-stop firepower on the shogunate soldiers outside the city, it was finally the archers' turn to take the stage.
The generals of the First Army carrying the long ladder pushed forward for a while while pushing against the bullets of their muskets, when they heard the sound of vibrating strings on the wall in front of them.
The arrows, like locusts, drew a beautiful parabola, jumped from the inner city wall, and hit the generals of the First Army.
"Ah ah ah ah ah--!"
"it hurts!"
"Save me! Save me!"
The screams and cries became more frequent and dense as the blood flowers splashed.
Archery is the specialty of the Ainu people, who are a people of fishing and hunting.
Unlike flintlock guns, whose shooting accuracy is difficult to control, bows and arrows are much easier to control for the Ainu people.
Although the generals of the First Army relied on the armor on their bodies and the shields in their hands to successfully stop most of the arrows, a small half of the arrows still passed through the gaps between the shields and hit those who were not protected by armor.
place.
The ashigaru, who make up the vast majority of the army's generals, wear extremely simple armor. There are no shoulder armors, arm armors, etc., only simple breastplates and skirts. Many parts of the body are not protected at all.
protected.
There is no concept of "injury" in the arrows they shoot.
Either "shoot to death" or "shoot into the air".
Because the head of each arrow is coated with poison that the Ainu people use exclusively for hunting.
These poisonous arrows, which can prevent even a bear from taking a few steps after being hit, naturally have no meaning of "this person survives" when they are shot at a human body.
The generals who were hit by these poisonous arrows let out several painful cries, then their faces turned blue, they collapsed to the ground, and were poisoned to death.
These arrows, which were fatal if hit, naturally put great pressure on the generals of the First Army.
The sound of the trigger of the flintlock gun and the friction of the bow string vibrated resounded on the inner wall of the Red Moon Fortress, and the projectiles and arrows exerted great power.
The soldiers of the First Army paid a huge price before they even touched the walls of Red Moon Fortress.
When the soldiers of the First Army rushed towards the city wall, the archers of the First Army also provided covering fire for their companions.
However - they could only attack from their backs, and many of them had difficulty even shooting arrows onto the city wall... In addition, the number of archers was not large, so their cover shooting could only be described as
better than nothing……
Finally - after paying a lot of sacrifices, the soldiers of the First Army finally rushed to the outer wall of the Red Moon Fortress and put up the long ladder on the wall.
"Quick! Quick! Climb up! Climb up!"
Under the orderly command, the soldiers climbed up the long ladders toward the outer city wall like a colony of ants.
The tribesmen who had been waiting on the outer city wall for a long time finally started their attack.
Many long ladders were pushed down as soon as they were put up.
And the soldiers who finally climbed up to the outer city wall along the long ladder that was not pushed down in time will be greeted by sharp spears.
Many soldiers had just exposed their heads and were shot back to the ground.
The shooters on the inner city wall also actively covered their companions on the outer city wall, shooting all enemy soldiers who tried to climb the city wall.
Under the fierce attack of the Ainu on the inner and outer walls, the soldiers of the First Army who climbed up the long ladder screamed one after another, and then fell down the long ladder.
Soldiers continued to fall down the long ladder, but at the same time, new soldiers continued to climb up the long ladder, taking the place of their companions who had just fallen down the long ladder - and then, they also stepped in.
In the footsteps of the soldiers who fell down the long ladder.
Chanup, who was standing on the inner city wall, was directing the battle while observing the battle situation on the outer city wall.
Currently, the battle on the outer city wall is going smoothly, but - Chanup's brows remain furrowed.
It was only because of Chanup that he noticed that the guards on the outer city wall had an aura of "disorder" everywhere.
"Hey! What are you doing with so many people gathering there? There aren't many Kazuo people there!"
"Hurry up! Some people come over here! The people here are almost climbing up!"
Speeches similar to this appear constantly on various places on the outer city walls.
The reason why such a situation occurs is because they lack a "commander" who truly understands how to defend the city.
This "disorderly" situation quickly brewed negative consequences.
"Hey! Come here and help! Everyone here is boarding up!"
A scream sounded from somewhere on the outer city wall.
I saw a large number of Kazuo people rushing to the place where the sound came from.
These Ashigaru who successfully climbed up the long ladder to the city wall used the wooden shields in their hands to build a wooden wall around the perimeter of their long ladder, desperately blocking the Ainu attack, and built a wall that could ensure the follow-up soldiers
A small stronghold that is constantly being climbed.
When the surrounding Ainu people saw this, they naturally rushed to support and tried their best to destroy the small stronghold built by Kazuto.
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First Army, this formation——
Gui Yizheng, who stayed behind in the main formation, had been observing the battle situation on the outer city wall with a telescope.
The distance was a bit far, but relying on the high-performance telescope in his hand, Gui Yizheng was still able to see the battle situation on the outer city wall relatively clearly.
Looking at the busy barbarians on the outer city wall, Gui Yizheng couldn't help but show a proud expression.
"As expected... barbarians are barbarians." Gui Yi put down the telescope in his hand and sneered, "Even if you have muskets, you are just helping barbarians who don't understand the art of warfare."
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Also observing the battle situation with telescopes was Daomori.
Inamori stood on a high slope, looking at the battle situation in the distance with a telescope - he also showed a proud expression like Katsura Yoshimasa.
At this time, only a few of Daomori's close associates were standing on this high slope accompanying Daomori.
"It seems that the difficulty of taking this city is much smaller than I thought." Daomori smiled, "These barbarians don't know how to defend the city at all. They are so 'willful'
The city defense law really made me want to laugh when I saw it."
"We don't need our firearms anymore," a close aide agreed.
Daomori nodded: "Next, we only need to attack the city normally, and finally enter the breached fortress leisurely."
The reason why Daomori didn't use heavy firepower weapons such as artillery and cannons to blast away the inner and outer walls of the Red Moon Fortress from the beginning was - to protect the fortress.
The Edo shogunate launched such a large-scale expedition this time to capture this fortress located in a strategic location.
As long as you hold this fort in hand, it will be of great benefit to all subsequent Ezo land development actions of the Edo shogunate.
Inamori did not take the resistance of Red Moon Fortress seriously from the beginning. At the beginning of the expedition, he had regarded the fortress as the private property of their Edo shogunate.
In other words - destroying this fortress is equivalent to destroying the fortress of their Edo shogunate, and they will have to spend a lot of money to rebuild the walls of the fortress.
Therefore, Daomori must avoid damaging the walls of Red Moon Fortress as much as possible.
As much as possible, take over the Red Moon Fortress in an undamaged state - this is Inamori's goal.
"Sir," another confidant said at this time, "it will be noon in half an hour."
"At noon, do you want to withdraw the generals of the First Army and replace them with our troops to launch a non-stop attack on the barbarians?"
The "our troops" he refers to naturally refer to the generals of the Second Army, which are all composed of direct troops from their shogunate.
"No need." Inamori said without hesitation, "It's not time to send our troops on the field yet."
Speaking of this, Daomori sneered.
"Our troops of the Edo Shogunate are only responsible for the final 'harvest'."
"The early 'sowing' and 'cultivation' can be left to the First Army composed of the vassal armies of each vassal."
"If they die more people, the benefits to our Edo shogunate will far outweigh the disadvantages."
The confidant who just suggested whether to send their direct troops to launch a non-stop attack on the Red Moon Fortress smiled and said in a half-joking tone:
"Sir, you are so evil. You actually want to rely on this battle to weaken the strength of the Northeastern vassals."
"I'm just continuing what our shogunate has been doing for the past two hundred years." Inamori shrugged.
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The attack on the Red Moon Fortress by the soldiers of the First Army lasted until noon.
It was not until noon, when the sun was high in the sky, that the First Army finally sounded the clarion call for retreat.
The generals of the First Army, who were launching a fierce offensive against the Red Moon Fortress, retreated like a tide after the order to retreat was given. While preparing lunch, they also allowed the generals who had been fighting for a long time to rest and recuperate.
.
Gui Yizheng's current expression... can be described in one word as "eluding".
Although their battle this morning, judging from the results, achieved nothing except killing some Ainu. Although they successfully built some small strongholds on the outer wall during the battle, they were all quickly destroyed.
destroy.
But even though this morning's battle yielded nothing, Gui Yizheng's eyes were still full of excitement.
Although there was no result, the battle this morning exposed the shortcomings of those barbarians who did not understand the tactics of warfare.
This greatly increased Gui Yizheng's confidence.
After returning to the camp majestically, Gui Yizheng was pleasantly surprised to find that Daomori came to greet him in person.
"Gui, you fought well." Daomori smiled and said, "Keep up this vigor and defeat those barbarians as soon as possible to show me."
In this society that emphasizes superiority, superiority, and hierarchy, a compliment from the superior is enough to make the inferior feel flattered.
"Yes!" Gui Yi Zheng hurriedly responded loudly, "I will definitely eliminate all the fools in the Red Moon Fortress who dare to resist as soon as possible! I will remove all obstacles for you to capture this fortress!"
Having said that, Katsura Yoshimasa and Inamori tacitly smiled meaningfully at each other.
Gui Yizheng is not a fool. He naturally knows that such a huge honor as capturing the Red Moon Fortress will definitely not be given to the First Army as a collateral force. Their First Army can only do some of the hardest work.
Therefore, what Gui Yizheng said just now was very playfully "clearing the obstacles" rather than "taking down the fortress".
Gui Yizheng actually didn't care at all about how many military exploits the other generals of the First Army could gain until the end of the battle.
After all - he is one of Inamori's trusted confidants and a "direct general".
"Hurry up and have lunch and rest." Daomori raised his hand and patted Gui Yizheng on the shoulder, "We have to continue fighting in the afternoon."
Gui Yizheng: "Yes!"
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Red Moon Fortress——
Since the battle began, a steady stream of wounded people have been carried off and carried into the "rescue area."
The so-called "rescue area" is nothing more than an open space near the city wall, with strips of blankets specially used for the wounded to lie on the open space.
After the battle, after the tribesmen were free to carry the wounded, the number of wounded in the "rescue area" immediately increased.
As the number of wounded continues to increase, the smell of blood permeating the "rescue area" is getting heavier and heavier.
The rich smell of blood is like an invisible chain that is firmly locked in this open space. No matter how you dispel the strong smell of blood, it will gather back again.
In addition to the strong smell of blood that penetrates your nostrils, there are also endless screams and wailings here.
Many of the wounded were pressing their wounds in pain, wailing and screaming one after another.
"Ahhhh! My hand!"
"It hurts... it hurts..."
"Miss Kunoya...my legs hurt so much..."
The doctors headed by Kunoya shuttled back and forth in the "rescue area".
Since treating the first wounded person, Cunoa has always had a calm expression.
Whether she was treating a wounded person with only superficial injuries or a wounded person with a terrible amount of bleeding, Cunoa kept a calm face, as if "all injuries are just minor injuries."
In an inconspicuous corner at the outermost edge of the treatment area, two middle-aged men silently looked at the wounded with complicated eyes.
"...Chanup, this can't go on like this." Retannoe said, "If we don't find a way to make up for our lack of 'commanders' who know how to defend the city as soon as possible, I'm afraid we won't be able to survive at all.
how long."
"I don't understand what you said." Chanup said solemnly, "But how can we make up for this shortcoming?"
"...How about going outside and capturing a general who knows how to defend a city?"
"Retannoe, is what you just said true?"
"Of course it's not true, I was just making a little joke."
"Don't make jokes like this that are not funny at all."
Even people like Inamori and Katsura Yoshimasa, who could only use telescopes to observe the battle situation, could see that their battle was full of "disorder", and they stood on the inner city wall to direct the battle, but at the same time they also knew that they lacked
Why doesn't Chanup know that he is a qualified commander?
After witnessing the painful faces of these children in the "rescue area" with his own eyes, Chanup deeply realized how fatal their current biggest shortcoming was.
If there is a strong commander to conduct command and control, the casualties should be much smaller.
But his perception... was of no use.
Because they can't think of any solution at all.
After Chanup raised his hand and rubbed his frown, he said in a half-joking tone to Retannoe beside him:
"It would be great if at this time, someone could fall from the sky who knows how to defend the city."
"You just said you shouldn't make funny jokes at this time." Retannoe glanced at Chanup angrily, "but then you started telling stupid jokes."
"How can there be such a good thing in the world..."
Before Retannoe finished speaking, a somewhat anxious shout sounded from behind the two of them:
"Mr. Chanup! I finally found you!"
A young man ran quickly towards Chanup.
"What happened?" Chanup asked.
"That, that..." The young man was out of breath because of the fast pace, but he still held back his rapid breathing and struggled to piece together a complete sentence, "The one who is locked up
Heren... said he wanted to see you... said he wanted to fight alongside us..."
"...Ah?" Chanup tilted his head, "Want to... fight side by side with us...?"
"The imprisoned Kazuto?" Retannoe also looked puzzled, "Who is it...? When did we imprison a Kazuto?"
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About an hour later——
First Army, this formation——
"Okay!" Gui Yi was gently fanning the military mate in his palm, "Let's continue!"
Gui Yizheng not only had a hearty lunch, but also had a good sleep, replenishing his energy.
Because he was in a good mood, Gui Yizheng had an especially sweet nap today.
After taking his position in the main formation, Gui Yizheng vigorously waved his military equipment in his hand: "Attack!"
Following Gui Yizheng's order, the same scene as in the morning appeared - the generals of the First Army rushed towards the Red Moon Fortress like a swarm of ants.
After giving the order to attack, Gui Yizheng held military equipment in his right hand and a telescope in his left hand, leisurely looking at the battle situation in the distance.
However--
"Um……?"
Just after he turned his telescope and glanced at the outer wall of the Red Moon Fortress, Gui Yizheng subconsciously uttered a confused "hmm" sound.
The scene on the outer city wall was almost unchanged from this morning.
But for some reason... Gui Yizheng just felt the atmosphere on the outer city wall... No, it should be said that the atmosphere of the entire Red Moon Fortress has become a little different from this morning...
While Gui Yizheng was still puzzled by the change in the atmosphere of the Red Moon Fortress, the soldiers responsible for the siege had begun to attack each other with the barbarians of the Red Moon Fortress.
After setting up a long ladder on the outer city wall against the bullets and arrows, the soldiers followed the long ladder to attack the outer city wall like it was early in the morning.
It was also at this time that Gui Yizheng's complexion began to change at a speed visible to the naked eye.
First he raised his eyebrows.
Then surprise appeared on his face.
Then surprise turned to shock.
Then the shock began to be mixed with confusion.
Finally - Gui Yizheng, who could not hide his shock, jumped up from his horse and shouted sharply:
"What on earth did those barbarians do——?!"
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Some book friends may have forgotten it, so the author is here to help you review the components of this army of ten thousand.
In this battle, the Edo shogunate itself sent 5,000 troops, and these 5,000 people were the direct troops of the Edo shogunate. The Northeastern feudal lords sent a total of 5,000 troops, totaling 10,000 people.
First Army: 3,000 people. It is composed of vassal armies from each vassal kingdom headed by Sendai Domain. It is a proper collateral force.
Second Army: 5,000 men. The 5,000 men dispatched by the shogunate themselves are all in the Second Army. Therefore, the Second Army is a proper direct force.
Third Army: 2,000 men. The third army leading the formation is all troops of the Aizu Domain who are loyal to the shogunate and able to fight. Aizu is one of the vassals that the shogunate trusts and relies on most. It is considered a direct descendant.
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