November of the fourth year of natural selection (the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong's reign)
Japan
The temperature is cold and there is a big temperature difference between day and night.
The war between Dayi and Japan has been intertwined for several months. The Japanese army, which was still losing ground in the war, greatly boosted its morale under the divine power of the Japanese Emperor. Especially after the shogunate signed an agreement with the troops of Heian Kyo, all civil wars on the Japanese island were suspended, and they were mobilized unanimously to deal with the Yi Dynasty coalition forces.
At this time, the Japanese army adopted a dual-line approach to advance from the north to the south. Since they obtained a large number of material advantages in troop resources at home, the Yi Dynasty Allied Forces, which was originally unfavorable on the battlefield, had to adopt a defensive retreat policy and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.
The retreat of the Yi Dynasty coalition forces made the morale of the troops in Heianjing high, and their actions gradually became extremely rampant. They basically brutally killed Japanese civilians in the areas occupied by the Yi Dynasty army without mercy.
If the Yi Dynasty coalition soldiers were captured, their killing methods would be outrageous.
It was the luckiest thing for those soldiers to be beheaded directly. They even cut off the hands and feet of prisoners, gouged out their eyes, skinned them, pulled out their tongues, boiled them in water, disembowelled the living people and ate their livers, and even made the prisoners' meat into military rations.
They are as cruel and bloodthirsty as a group of little devils from hell.
As they slaughtered the prisoners, the Japanese soldiers in Heiankyo slowly felt that they were invincible in the world, and they even forgot about being beaten by the shogunate army.
Compared to Heian Jing's extremely cruel treatment of prisoners, the shogunate army was much more restrained. After all, they had actually fought against the Yijun. They knew the true strength of the Yijun and were also afraid of the true strength of the Yijun.
The reason why the Yi Dynasty coalition forces are now in a passive position is not that they cannot defeat the Japanese army, but that they are still at a disadvantage in terms of numbers. Once the Yi Dynasty reinforcements arrive, the shogunate generals cannot guarantee whether it will be possible to drive them away in the future. go out.
Therefore, the generals of the shogunate did not dare to do anything too extreme. Even if they did not give preferential treatment to the captured Yi Dynasty coalition soldiers, they would not deliberately mistreat them.
At least they won't until the development of the matter becomes clear.
When the news about the massacre of prisoners by the Heianjing army came back to Zhenwo Island, everyone was angry, including Li Kaifu, who wished that there would be no more prisoners on the next battlefield.
However, considering the preferential treatment policy for prisoners that Yijun had always proposed, it was better to send the news back to Zhang Rui and ask for his opinion.
After receiving the message, Zhang Rui replied a few words: "Privileges with preferential treatment are reserved for those who still have their humanity. There is no need to talk about preferential treatment for those who have no humanity. It is rude to come and not reciprocate!"
.....
In mid-November of the fourth year of natural selection (the twenty-fifth year of Qianlong's reign)
The 30,000 elite troops dispatched by Dayi successfully arrived in Japan.
Under Li Kaifu's deployment, 10,000 troops went to support Kyushu Island, and 10,000 troops went to support the four countries. He led the remaining 10,000 troops and went directly to raid Edo.
With the arrival of Yichao's reinforcements, the originally arrogant Ping'an Jing army felt what a real challenge was. After a battle, the mass tactic that relied on large numbers of people to be invincible failed. They were killed by tens of thousands of people without even touching the troops in front of the Yi Army. When the Yi Army was about to replace the troops, When the red gun barrel hit the enemy, they couldn't stand the terrible mortality rate and fled the battlefield one after another.
If it were in the past, when the battlefield was cleaned up after the battle, the Yijun side would send out medical staff to treat the injured Ping An Jing army prisoners, but this time it seems that they have completely gone crazy, and there is no longer an injured prisoner left on the entire battlefield. All those who were injured were given a knife to let them go happily.
As for those who were lucky enough to be alive, they were all sent back to work as coolies, and anyone who dared to resist was shot to death.
What? Treat prisoners preferentially?
Did you give any preferential treatment to our people when you captured them? If you were still human beings, you could indeed receive preferential treatment, but you are just a bunch of beasts, so there is no such thing as preferential treatment.
As for the Shikoku side, the shogunate's army wasn't necessarily much better off. Although the shogunate had assembled an army of 330,000 troops in the four countries, most of them had not undergone systematic training and were just like the ronin warriors in the Yijun.
If it were a traditional battle, they would naturally have good combat effectiveness. But what they have to face now is the Yijun who has a large number of hot weapons and high-intensity training, and their personal martial arts skills are not enough.
Originally, the shogunate army of the four countries relied on their large numbers and the consumption of weapons and ammunition by the Yi army to overwhelm the local Yi army. But as the supporting troops came with a large amount of weapons and ammunition, everything changed. The three of them The 130,000-strong army was beaten and huddled by the main force of the Yi army, which only had more than 10,000 people.
The remaining 10,000 people were led by Li Kaifu himself, crossed the sea under the guidance of the navy, and landed near Edo Castle, the most prosperous capital in Japan.
When receiving the news of the landing of the main force of the Yijun Army, the entire Edo City was shocked. You must know that Edo City has no high wall protection except the castle lord's palace. If the enemy wants to enter Edo City, it will be no different from entering the plains. Therefore, after receiving the news that the Yi army was about to arrive in Edo, many civilians fled with their families.
At this time, the general Tokugawa Ieharu, who was stationed in Edo Castle, could only gather the more than 50,000 troops left in Edo to resist the main force of the invading Yi army. He hoped that these more than 50,000 troops could It took about seven days so that he could mobilize the more than 300,000 main forces gathered by the shogunate in Shikoku to drive back the enemy.
It only took the tens of thousands of Yi troops less than an hour to rush to the beach and land on the island.
Facing the menacing Yi Dynasty army, Tokugawa Ieharu didn't have much confidence. After all, he had also fought against the Yi army, and he knew what the main force of the Yi Dynasty, which consisted of 10,000 men, wanted to do. But giving up without resisting for a while was something Tokugawa Ieharu couldn't do.
At this time, Tokugawa Ieharu also pulled out everything from the bottom of the box, and took away all the more than 50,000 troops except 5,000 who were left to deal with emergencies in the city.
And these are the most elite members of his Tokugawa family.
At the same time, Tokugawa Ieharu ordered to open the arsenal in the general's palace, capture 50,000 strong men from Edo Castle, and add them to the army to make up 100,000.
In this regard, some retainers persuaded Tokugawa Ieharu that the young men captured in Edo Castle were of little use on the battlefield and would only increase casualties.
But Tokugawa Ieharu don't think so. Although they are indeed a mob, they can always waste a bullet from the enemy when they rush forward, right? It can also buy some time on the battlefield to close the distance between the two sides, which is enough.
After all, under the powerful firearms of the Yijun, only close combat is the only hope for the shogunate army to win.
