The fierce battle on Honsunji Temple has begun!
Even if the Shimadzu family were willing to let go, the California governor de Velasco, who was supervising the war, would not just watch these Japanese work as foreigners. After rejecting Zhu Cihuan's request for a duel (Zhu Cihuan didn't know about it at all), he moved his headquarters to the front less than 300 steps north of Honxun Temple - he knew that he had to cross the mountains to come here. The Ming army didn't have artillery, so they came in with a full line of pressure.
His command post pushed forward. The two temporary infantry regiments below and the 1,200 people from the Shimadzu family had no choice but to push forward. The six 6-pound cannons were even more bullying, pushing directly into the distance. Honxonji's front line, which was less than 150 steps away, was just short of inserting bayonets into the cannon barrels.
As soon as the cannon was pulled closer and the man hit it, the pressure on Zhu Cihuan immediately increased. Baoke Zhenghui no longer dared to drag Zhu Cihuan to show his face. Instead, he invited this man back to the main hall to think about the death poem. He set up his own formation in the courtyard to command the defense on Zhu Cihuan's behalf.
After another round of shelling and long-distance shooting from heavy matchlocks, before the smoke had dissipated, a fusiliary phalanx of the Shimazu Army rushed towards the gap in the wall that had expanded to nearly thirty paces wide.
This time the Shimazu family became serious and advanced quickly through the smoke that had not yet dissipated. The Shimazu warriors who formed the phalanx did not shoot. There were only a few selected groups of sharpshooters walking on both sides of the team, constantly using relatively accurate shots to provoke Zhu Cihuan's guarding warriors who were guarding the gap to fire.
These marksmen are all in groups of three, one of whom is the best shooter and is responsible for shooting, and the other two are fast in loading bullets. In fact, the Japanese three-stage shooting method is applied to snipers!
However, Zhu Cihuan's samurai guards are not vegetarians. Most of them have experienced the Toyotomi War in Japan and have gained experience. So at this time, no matter how the other side seduced them, even if they knocked down several of their own warriors, the remaining people would refrain from firing. In fact, the tactics they adopted were also three-stage shooting, with them half-kneeling against the collapsed earth wall. There were 30 sharpshooters, each with a loaded and lighted matchlock gun (also an imitation of a Spanish light matchlock gun), just waiting quietly. They waited until the Shimadzu family's team rushed 30 steps away, then fired the first round of volleys, knocking down more than a dozen Shimadzu samurai immediately.
The Shimazu army did not continue to attack despite the opponent's firepower, but stopped advancing and began to fight back with flintlock guns.
The two sides fought back and forth for several rounds, and the center of the battlefield was filled with smoke. The visibility dropped for a while, and then there was no accuracy anymore.
The Shimazu family set up a phalanx that was not very wide in front (because the gap was only twenty or thirty steps wide). Each soldier carried a large straw bag filled with soil, which was used to fill trenches. . After a few rounds, the Shimazu musketeers in the first two rows stopped shooting, and instead lay down and crawled forward.
The two rows of musketeers at the back took a few steps forward and began firing randomly with their flintlocks, creating smoke to cover the warriors who were crawling forward to fill the trenches. When the warriors who were filling the trenches returned, the warriors who were now firing would have to climb up and fill the trenches... This musket-covering trench-filling strategy was not something that ordinary troops could use.
However, the Shimazu army had no intention of going all out and just filled the trenches step by step, so the troops did not press too far forward and stopped thirty steps away. Even if the smoke hits again, there is no point in moving forward against the enemy's bullets.
The prostrate warriors moved forward at a snail's pace. His Highness Naiyoshi had already taken care of them. They had to crawl more carefully. Everyone knows what that means...
Therefore, the Shimazu Army's offensive lasted from afternoon to evening, with four waves, but they failed to completely fill the trench that was dozens of steps long and several feet wide to the north of Honsunji Temple.
As soon as the sky darkened, the little lady of the Shimazu family had something to say again.
"Your Majesty the Governor, most of us East Asians are born with night blindness. We can't see clearly when the light is dim at night... It's better to wait until dawn tomorrow before fighting!"
De Velasco had spent a long time in Japan and knew that many Japanese were night-blind. Moreover, he did not know that after Shimadzu and his gang arrived in America, they had a lot of money every day and had long since eliminated night blindness. So he agreed to Shimazu Noyoshi's suggestion, but he would not make it easy for the Shimadzu family.
He nodded and said: "Then we will temporarily stop the attack and build a fortification with straw bags filled with soil 30 steps north of the wall of Honxun Temple. Tomorrow morning, we will use the newly built fortifications as our starting point and continue to attack Honxun Temple!"
"Hai!"
Shimazu Noyoshi and the several elders of the Shimazu family who followed her felt relieved in their hearts - the Ming Dynasty Warrior King had finally survived the day, but where were his "30,000 reinforcements"?
Even if the reinforcements from the Ming army don't arrive, they don't dare to defect!
Don Juan José now had nineteen thousand Spanish soldiers on hand (José brought fifteen thousand and de Velasco brought four thousand), and the Shimazu family not only handed over the hostages, but also had the troops on hand. Don Juan Jose transferred most of them and mixed them with the Spanish soldiers. The 1,200 men controlled by Naji couldn't make a difference at all!
What the Shimadzu family didn't expect was that de Velasco was actually not in a hurry to eliminate Zhu Cihuan of Honxon Temple, because Don Juan Jose's plan was to encircle the area and mobilize reinforcements.
The 2,000 men Zhu Cihuan had on hand were simply not enough to feed the 19,000 Spanish soldiers. What Don Juan Jose wanted to eat was the elite main force of the Ming Army in America.
And Zhu Cihuan, the prince of the Ming Dynasty, was just a bait to attract the Ming army to come for reinforcements.
While de Velasco was busy surrounding the area, Don Juan Jose was arranging reinforcements.
The battlefield for reinforcements was personally selected by the Marquis of Gasparra, the Minister of War of the Kingdom of New Spain and an old subordinate who followed Don Juan José in the Spanish Netherlands. It was called the battlefield by the Shimazu family. The great valley of the "Flood Valley".
This valley is not only the only way to go south from the mountains of Northern California to the Satsuma Valley, but the internal terrain is very complex. Some places are wider and some are very narrow. And this wide, then narrow, then wide, is the perfect terrain for Don Juan Jose to use to support and annihilate the enemy.
He first divided the six temporary infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment he brought to the Flood Valley into two parts. He placed a temporary infantry regiment in the open area in the center of the Flood Valley and used the forts left by the Ming army (Zhu Cihuan's command) to set up defenses. , the mission of this regiment is to lure the enemy.
The remaining five temporary infantry regiments and one cavalry regiment were placed in another open area south of the Flood Valley.
Between these two open areas, there is a relatively narrow passage. On both sides of the passage are relatively gentle hillsides with dense vegetation, which can be used to set up ambushes. However, Don Juan Jose did not place too many ambush troops on the hillside, and only placed a small number of warning troops.
The ambush on the hillsides on both sides of the valley is too obvious. As long as the opponent is not stupid, he is unlikely to be fooled.
Therefore, Don Juan Jose's plan was not to ambush the Ming army as they pursued the temporary infantry regiment that lured the enemy through this narrow valley. Instead, they planned to attack when part of the Ming army passed through this narrow valley and entered another open valley.
Concentrate the power of the five temporary infantry regiments and give them a head-on attack before the Ming army can all pass through the valley and deploy their forces! After defeating it, the cavalry was dispatched to pursue it.
Since the Flood Valley is 800 miles away from Hebian Fort, the Ming army's forward stronghold, and there are mountains and forests along the way, there are no residents except a few Indians, and the retreating Ming army cannot obtain supplies at all.
Therefore, as long as Don Juan Jose wins a rout, he can deal an annihilating blow to the main force of the Ming army heading south.
