The third day of August in the fourth year of natural selection (the twenty-fifth day of Qianlong reign)
Kumamoto Domain
It's autumn and the temperature is slightly cooler
Since the battle of Tsurumaru Castle, the Allied Forces of the Eto Dynasty have been advancing continuously, while the shogunate's army has suffered a great loss of morale after its defeat at the Battle of Tsurumaru Castle. In this regard, Tokugawa Ieharu could only retreat to defend and gather troops again.
In order to gather troops faster and gain more advantages in the upcoming war, Tokugawa Ieharu directly issued an order to recruit 50,000 troops to dozens of vassal states in Kyushu.
While the shogunate was waiting for troops, the Allied Forces of the Eki Dynasty were not idle. They allocated some troops to annex many vassal states around the Satsuma Domain. The strength has been improved again.
Although both sides had many encounters during this period, the shogunate always lost more than it won. But even so, those few victories will be trumpeted by the shogunate to boost their sluggish morale.
As soon as Tokugawa Ieharu's order came out, the daimyo of Kyushu were miserable. After these more than 50,000 young men were mobilized, there would be almost no one left to cultivate their fields in the coming year.
But they did not dare to disobey Tokugawa Ieharu's order, for fear that after this war was over, the shogunate would find another reason to deprive them of their land.
You know, it may be difficult for the shogunate to defeat the Han army, but it is still very easy to really destroy them.
Moreover, if the shogunate cannot defeat the Yijun, the enemy's daimyo will not have an easy time either.
As a result, the daimyo of dozens of vassal states, large and small, on Kyushu could only issue orders to have their samurai go everywhere to capture people to complete the number required by the Tokugawa family.
For a time, the land of Kyushu was once again filled with mourning.
Of course, no matter what, the 50,000 troops required by the shogunate were quickly gathered by the great names of Kyushu. And in accordance with the request, they gathered near the Kumamoto Domain's Maishima Castle.
This time, the remaining 50,000 troops before joining the shogunate were nearly 80,000, and 300,000 were advertised to the outside world.
With the arrival of reinforcements, the originally defeated army of the shogunate lost its previous gloomy look, and its morale was greatly improved.
...
The Yi Dynasty Allied Forces originally only had 10,000 troops, and with the addition of logistics and transportation, only a few thousand could fight on the front line. However, as the Satsuma clan rebelled and surrendered, and the Yi army divided their fields in Japan, many farmers and samurai ronin came to join them, and the number of troops increased from 10,000 before to more than 20,000 now.
If it weren't for the fact that the Yi army had relatively strict requirements on the quality of personnel who signed up to join the army, the number of people in the Yi Dynasty coalition would have exceeded 40,000. But even so, the number of people signing up for Yijun recruitment is still rising.
There is no other reason than that it has a good reputation and good benefits.
....
Kumamoto Domain originally belonged to Higo Kingdom and Bungo Kingdom. However, after Tokugawa Ieyasu established the shogunate, part of the formerly powerful Higo Kingdom and Bungo Kingdom were merged into the Higo Domain, and then several feudal states were separated from the Higo Domain.
Kumamoto Domain is the most powerful of the Higo Domains and the most powerful domain in Kyushu.
The Kumamoto Domain Hall is located in Kumamoto Castle. It has a territory of 540,000 koku and has one of the few great plains in Kyushu as a food production place.
The feudal lords of the Kumamoto Domain were originally the Kato clan and the Hosokawa clan. After the Kato clan lost power, the Hosokawa clan took control.
The current lord of the feudal lord is Hosokawa Shigeken. He is a figure who is the master of the revival, and he is also very frugal.
Although the Kumamoto clan is a foreign clan with outstanding strength, the Hosokawa clan is very supportive of the Tokugawa shogunate. For example, in this war, the Kumamoto clan also spent money to strongly support it. This deeply impressed the Tokugawa family. Favorable treatment.
Mushima Castle, one of the two remaining castles of the Kumamoto clan.
The Kumamoto clan inherited most of the Higo Kingdom's land and originally owned six castles, but following the one-kingdom-one-city order of the shogunate. The Kumamoto clan immediately demolished the other four, leaving only these two.
One is Kumamoto Castle and the other is Mushima Castle.
Mushima Castle is located in Bungo Territory. This area is mostly hilly and war-torn.
Things are greatly affected by the topography.
Therefore, the damage of guns and artillery was also greatly affected. After the whole battle, the Yijun's guns and artillery were very limited in killing enemies. They could only gain an advantage on the battlefield. When they really captured the position, they still had to rely on close combat.
The coalition forces originally had few men and horses, and there were no more men and horses to add. If every battle was to charge with bayonets, the casualties would be huge. Therefore, most non-commissioned officers just rely on the power of guns and artillery to drive away the enemy troops and occupy the positions. They are not forced to do so, and they are not willing to lead troops in hand-to-hand combat.
But the new Ronin warriors who joined the coalition forces and served as the Japanese vanguard were very excited about going into battle and fighting hand to hand.
Since the third generation of the shogunate, a large number of samurai who have lost their daimyo support have been released into society. In addition to their martial arts skills, these samurai have no land to cultivate and no salary to live, so they will basically slowly decline. As a ronin, called a ronin samurai, his life was extremely miserable.
Sometimes in order to fill their stomachs, they even have to put down their bodies and let others play with them. Or they can only abandon the so-called samurai glory and become sharecroppers or handicraft workers and suffer bullying.
As warriors, they have their own glory.
Rather than becoming servants and tenant farmers, they are more willing to carve out a future with the knife in their hands.
However, under various operations of the shogunate, the samurai who became ronin basically had no future.
The daimyo all have their own samurai, and very few can recruit ronin samurai. As long as ronin samurai continue to be produced but there is no place to absorb them, a large amount of surplus will be created. The more unemployed ronin samurai there are in society, the harder it will be for them to survive.
Therefore, the battlefield is the best place for these ronin warriors.
In line with the "great justice" of Japan, most of the ronin samurai are willing to join the shogunate's army. However, the shogunate itself maintained a large number of samurai of its own, and most of the daimyo had their own samurai. Naturally, they were unwilling to recruit those warriors whose origins were unknown and whose prices were too high.
You must know that the salary of a samurai can support dozens of peasant soldiers for free.
As a result, those ronin warriors could not find a place to go to the shogunate.
Out of loyalty to the Bushido, they felt that they could not... join the Han army...
But as the Han army divided the fields among the people, they felt that the reputation of the Han army might not be as good as those...
But, for His Majesty the Emperor...
What? ...
The daimyo of the Satsuma clan rebelled against Japan and defected to the Han people?
It's not a rebellion against Japan, it's for the sake of the righteousness of the world, for the liberation of all Japanese people, and not to live in dire straits...
Right, that is it...
The latest news is that Dayu Fan and Qiu Fei Fan have also decided to join the Han army and jointly send troops to attack the Tokugawa family's cruelty and inhumanity...
So what are you waiting for? It's too late and there might not be anyone there...
