Chapter 154: Fifty Years in the Human World

On the muddy mountain road, dozens of riders were galloping on horseback. They were all ragged and panicked, with no life at all.

It seemed to be a defeated army. As expected, it was Kumamoto and his hatamoto warriors.

"Go!"

The fleeing Kumamoto ignored the wailing of the warhorse under his crotch, and desperately waved the cowhide whip in his hand to speed up the warhorse under his crotch. As long as he reached Fukuoka Castle, he could settle down.

Looking at the city wall, Kumamoto's hanging heart was finally relieved. Three days of galloping made him exhausted, and a big defeat was even more devastating to his spirit.

Just as he was about to enter the city, he was stopped by the warriors guarding the city, "Stop!"

A dozen riders immediately caused a big sensation. With a shout, all the defenders on the city wall pulled the bows and arrows in their hands. As long as the military officer gave an order, they could shoot all the newcomers off their horses.

"I am Kumamoto Osamu, the head of the Kumamoto family. Why don't you let me into the city to meet the Tokugawa Palace!" Kumamoto shouted at the military officer guarding the city.

After a while, there was still no response. Kumamoto could already hear the thumping in his heart and the rustling sound of the bowstring and arrows on the city wall.

"Let me do it!"

Behind Kumamoto, Matsudaira Nobunaga suddenly rode forward and looked up at the top of the city: "Niwa Yuzhi, it's me, Matsudaira Nobunaga, let us into the city."

"Matsudaira Bugyo!" There was a commotion on the top of the city immediately, "Don't worry, Bugyo, I'll open the door right away."

Niwa Yuzhi!

Kumamoto sneered and remembered this person silently. When he saw the palace, he must learn from him.

By the way, there is Matsudaira Nobunaga, who is not a good person either.

It seems that a defeat made Kumamoto Osamu lose his mind. Now all his hopes are placed on Tokugawa Iemitsu, thinking that the palace will punish these people for him.

A moment later, the gates of Fukuoka opened wide, and Niwa Yuzhi led a team of samurai out of the city, surrounded Kumamoto and confiscated their weapons.

Seeing that they seemed to be using hemp ropes, Kumamoto was shocked.

"What are you doing? Why are you tying me up?"

Kumamoto wanted to take back his sword, but was held down by several samurai next to him.

"Matsudaira, what's going on?" Unable to understand the situation, Kumamoto had to turn his eyes to Matsudaira Nobutsuna who came back with him.

Unexpectedly, the response he got was Matsudaira Nobutsuna's cold eyes, as if he was looking at a dead body, "Losing the city and the land, according to the law, should be executed! Lord Kumamoto should stop dreaming."

"It's not like that, it was you who asked me to retreat, so I did it!" Kumamoto stared at Matsudaira Nobutsuna and roared hoarsely.

"Hahaha! I told you to retreat. Don't forget that I'm just a messenger. You're the commander. You know Tokugawa's order to defend Toyooka Castle. But you didn't hold it for a day and fled."

"That's not the case. You saw the artillery of the Keelung Army. They couldn't defend it at all. How can you ask me to defend it?"

"It was obviously because you went out of the city without permission to fight in the field that we lost. As the commander, you are to blame. Drag it on!"

"You lied to me. You said that the palace would not pursue it." The former Kyushu tyrant was like an old dog being slaughtered.

"A dog that lost its home dares to bark!"

Watching Kumamoto and his soldiers being beheaded one by one, the blood flowing from their necks dyed the grass outside the city into wine red. If they come again next year, the grass here must be more lush.

"The Kumamoto family is also dead!" After getting rid of this man, Matsudaira Nobunaga was in a good mood.

Finally, he completed the first task assigned to him by the Tokugawa Palace. If he eliminated Kumamoto, took Saga, and forced Shimazu to surrender, the shogunate would truly control the territory of Kyushu.

Looking at Fukuoka Castle, Matsudaira Nobunaga was very conflicted. Should he eliminate Yamashita Tomoko, the main general of this battle?

Although Yamashita had spoken rudely to him, Matsudaira Nobunaga was still unwilling to do so for the sake of the shogunate.

Now he is the commander of an army and has the lives of 10,000 soldiers. Even if he contradicts the palace, he is still the pillar of the shogunate.

If he plays tricks, he will inevitably be criticized by the soldiers, and his future promotion will be unusual and difficult.

But if he doesn't eliminate Yamashita Tomoko, he won't be able to explain to the palace.

The dilemma gave him a headache.

"Forget it, let's wait a few days. The Keelung Army is expected to arrive soon!" Matsudaira Nobunaga simply let go of his obsession and wait and see. He is still very much looking forward to the battle between the veteran and the Keelung Army.

The intelligence of the battle between the two armies was also sent to Tokugawa Iemitsu through his handwriting, so that he had a clear understanding of the Keelung Army that came from afar.

"Please look, my lord, our army is now stationed in the Kokura River City, with the Zichuan River flowing through it to the south and the Dailiang River flowing through it to the east. The water flow of the two rivers is not large, and there is no flood season in summer." Dozens of flags were re-erected on the hill of Kokura River City, which had been abandoned for many years.

Under the flag, Saga Asaichi, as the future lord of Kitakyushu, respectfully explained the terrain and water system of the Shimabara Peninsula to Qin Hao and the Keelung Army generals.

Since there is no flood season, it is naturally impossible for any large-scale war to occur here, and it is also a peninsula. Except for the high mountains, there seems to be nothing special.

However, this is the only weakness of the Saga Territory, and it is also a point that no one has noticed. If Qin Hao did not like to study maps, he would not have found it.

Shimabara is a peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides and is a natural port.

If the shogunate controls it, shogunate soldiers will gather here continuously to attack Saga Territory.

Fighting a protracted war is not in his plan. The main purpose of coming to Fuso is to train soldiers. If the loss of troops is too great and they are unable to conquer the Central Plains in the future, it will be a loss of both sides.

This time, the Saga family mobilized 300 hatamoto samurai and 1,000 foot soldiers; Keelung mobilized all the troops of the navy and the army, 3,000 people, with a maximum of 1,800 navy and only 1,000 army. The rest are auxiliary arms such as baggage soldiers and engineers.

However, Qin Hao has always treated everyone equally in training. The combat effectiveness of these baggage soldiers, engineers and even medical soldiers is not bad. When encountering an emergency, they can also put down their tools, wear bamboo armor, and fight with swords and guns.

Qin Hao has absolute confidence in this.

For a while, on the other side of the Shimabara Peninsula, there were cars and horses, flags and banners, and murderous aura.

Fukuoka Castle, the only castle on the Shimabara Peninsula, originally belonged to the Saga family, but the shogun at that time was Tokugawa Ieyasu.

For Kyushu Island, which he had no control over, he only used 300 gold ingots to get this piece of land from the Saga family, which is exactly the same as the United States deceiving the polar bear to buy Alaska.

Fukuoka Castle is a typical Japanese strong castle. It is located at the foot of the active volcano "Kunimimyue". It has always been known as the second mountain of Fuso. There are hot springs everywhere, and it is a famous hot spring resort.

Because it is located in the crater, the hot spring water here is milky white sulfur spring, which has a good effect on cold constitution, skin diseases, etc., so it is also an excellent place for tourism in later generations. Of course, this is all off topic.

The form of Fukuoka Castle is generally a square Lianguo-style flat castle. The bricks and stones used for the four walls are all collected from "Kunimimyue", which is high and solid.

In addition, there is a three-meter-wide and five-meter-deep moat outside the city. This river surrounds the main castle of Fukuoka Castle and is connected by a wooden bridge in the form of a second maru and a corridor.

If the wooden bridge is destroyed, the only way out of the city on land will be blocked. There are advantages and disadvantages. If you have an advantage at sea and transport a steady stream of supplies from the sea, it will be a huge advantage. It is difficult for the enemy to break through from the front.

This is also where Tokugawa Ieyasu is shrewd. He had long expected that the shogunate would inevitably have conflicts with Kyushu. The struggle for power has never been a conflict that can be reconciled, which made him plan early.

The predecessors planted trees, and the descendants enjoyed the shade. It was because of Fukuoka Castle that Yamashita Tomoko was so fearless and swaggered to transport soldiers and supplies to the city.

But all he did had long been seen by Qin Hao and laughed in his heart.

In terms of naval strength, Fuso's broken ship Xiaopeng can't catch up with it, so asking him to transport troops is a real conspiracy.

I saw you send thousands of soldiers and millions of grains and grasses, but by then, everything will be in vain.

Gathering troops for a battle, a direct decisive battle, this is Qin Hao's goal.

"My Lord, the biggest difficulty for our army in attacking the city is these 38 turrets!" Saga Asaichi put down the monocular telescope in his hand with great care and sighed.

Oars are similar to the inner walls or bunkers and artillery platforms of the inland cities of the Ming Dynasty. For the attacking party, the crossfire from the turrets and the walls is a fatal blow to the attacking team. This often depends on the bodies of the soldiers to pile up the road to the top of the city.

And these 38 turrets were built during the reign of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It is generally believed that it is very difficult to carry out such construction and repair projects on land transformed from volcanic ash and lava flows. The transportation of stone alone is a big problem, which consumes huge manpower and material resources.

But he still completed this task, which shows how much money and food the conscription of corvée cost.

Such a unique and ruthless vision made Qin Hao, a man of later generations, amazed. He was indeed worthy of being called the old turtle of the Warring States Period. Tokugawa Ieyasu deserved this title.

"If our army breaks through the city wall with artillery fire, can you lead the troops to break the city?"

Qin Hao looked far away, and with his excellent eyesight, he could see all the large and small ships on the sea.

And on the more distant sea, five three-masted hard sailing ships were hanging sails on the side of Fukuoka City, galloping back and forth like wild horses on the sea, showing off their power.

Now the Keelung Navy has blocked the entire peninsula, and all the shogunate ships that dared to attack have been sunk one by one. Qin Hao's military order is that now not even a fly or a mosquito can be allowed in.

If I let you in, you will not encounter any obstacles; if I don't let you in, you will not receive any supplies from a fly or a bug.

"As long as the big barrels in the hall can blow open the city walls, my soldiers can climb the city walls and fight to the death!"

In order to regain the ancestral property of his ancestors, Saga was even more ruthless. He took out money and food from the treasury, and hired 300 hatamoto warriors from small and famous families in northern Kyushu at a cost of three catties of rice and one hundred coins per day to form a vanguard. If they were killed or disabled during the war, they would be paid a one-time pension of 200 stones of rice.

Anyway, the money and food were all supported by the hall of Qin Hao, so Saga Chaoyi was naturally not afraid of death!

Once the entire Kyushu was conquered, the use of this money would be maximized.

When he thought of commanding tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of chariots and cavalry, Saga's heart was full of heroic spirit, and he wanted to take a sword and go into battle in person.

Fortunately, a gust of cold wind blew on his face, which dispelled his enthusiasm. Thinking of those soldiers who lost their arms and legs due to the war, he felt a chill in his heart again.

A gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall, and a king dies after fulfilling his duty.

After comforting himself for a moment, Saga asked the bugler to issue the order to attack.

"Fuso's troops used the sound of cannons as a signal. After hearing the firing of our naval gunboats, they rushed towards Fukuoka Castle. With the vanguard as the forerunner and Ashigaru as their successors, our troops were responsible for supervising the battle.

In addition, our army's field cavalry is on alert outside Fukuoka City and is responsible for conveying military orders! If a military order is issued, it will be executed immediately. If there is any violation, he will be executed without mercy.

This is a big battle, so please be careful! "

"Hiyi!"

After a period of admonishment for the battle, the commander immediately ordered people to wave the command flag. The cavalry galloped their horses, waved the small flags in their hands, and passed on the orders one after another.

Soon, the Saga family's army began to advance, like a chaotic vanguard of dark clouds. These vanguards were composed of Hatamoto samurai, waving various traditional weapons such as tachi, ribashi, and bamboo spears in their hands. The uniform old bamboo armor funded by the Keelung Army, with such good equipment, they still hope to shine in battle and earn a lot of wealth for their families.

Behind the vanguard were a thousand people of Ashigaru. Compared with the vanguard, they were obviously different by more than one level. Apart from a bamboo spear in their hands, they only had canvas strips on their heads. There was no so-called armor at all.

Behind the Ashigaru, five hundred Keelung Army musketeers served as supervising the battle team. The muzzles of their guns were already equipped with sharp bayonets. The cold light on the tip of the knife complemented the rising sun.

As long as anyone dared to take a step back, they would be answered with hot lead bullets and bayonets piercing the throat.

Just waiting for the shelling signal from ships at sea, the Saga army will swarm forward.

The defenders on Fukuoka Castle also knew that today was the most critical moment, and they were afraid that the sun this morning would be the last time many people would see it.

Whoever was on the top of the city began to chant a war song loudly.

I often think about the drifting and impermanent nature of the world.

For example, morning dew

moon reflected in water

Prosperity is fleeting in an instant

romantic figure

Things are different now

fifty years of life

Could it be bustling?

Dreams of life

go down in history

Failure and annihilation

Just fate and cause and effect

in a moment

What a pity

Arriving in Kyoto in a hurry and feeling unbearably worried

Prison gate on display

The most prosperous

He stole it, returned home, and passed it on to the monks to worship him.

Sigh like smoke

The world is impermanent

fifty years of life

Could it be bustling?

Dreams of life

After fifty years of life, looking at the world, the past is like a dream. How can those who are alive once be immortal?