The development of things was completely beyond Tokugawa Ieji's expectation.
But with the situation in front of him, Tokugawa Ieharu knew that he was unable to recover from the defeat in front of him. The only solution now is to retreat to the walls of Edo for the final defensive plan.
Fortunately, the troops currently lost are the captured strong men, and the shogunate's truly well-trained troops have not lost anything. As long as they still have these troops in their hands, they can still fight against the Yijun.
Ten days, as long as the shogunate can hold on for about ten days, the shogunate's main army in the four countries should be able to return to support, and then there won't be a big problem in driving away the Yi army.
Thinking of this, Tokugawa Ieharu no longer hesitated and ordered Mingjin to withdraw his troops.
Seeing that the whole battlefield was full of strong men running around like headless flies, Tokugawa Ieharu originally wanted to withdraw some of them to ensure more vitality. But at this moment, he saw a scout riding on his back with a flag flying towards him and reporting loudly:
"Report, Sir General, it's not good. A large number of Yijun troops were found in the southeast of Edo, numbering thousands, and they are attacking. Mr. Mirato is organizing troops to resist, but the enemy's firearms are very powerful. Please arrange manpower for support as soon as possible. "
"Damn it, why are there so many Yijun?" Tokugawa Ieharu cursed.
"The order was given, so the soldiers immediately retreated to Edo Castle."
"yes..."
...
After losing Edo Castle, Tokugawa Ieharu could also go to the territory of the three noble families to continue the counterattack.
But Edo Castle is a symbol of the position of the head of the Tokugawa family, and it is also where the foundation of the Tokugawa family lies.
The Tokugawa family lost Edo Castle, just like a country losing its capital.
At that time, other daimyo would think that the Tokugawa family was no longer a tiger but an old wolf with its teeth pulled out, and was no longer worth fearing.
Especially those famous names who are already powerful, they probably won't take the Tokugawa family's decrees seriously anymore.
In the future, the Tokugawa family's rule will be in danger.
Following Tokugawa Ieharu's order, the well-trained shogunate troops quickly followed Tokugawa Ieharu and retreated to Edo Castle. Only the strong men who had been captured were left on the battlefield and continued to run around like headless flies on the battlefield.
The Shogun's Mansion in Edo Castle is the only building in the entire city with walls for military defense.
The entire General's Mansion is as big as a small city. Even if there are 30,000 to 50,000 troops stationed there, it will not be too crowded.
The warehouse in the general's mansion is filled with all kinds of food and weapons, which is very sufficient. There is no problem at all in supplying an army of 30,000 to 50,000 men for several months.
After returning to the General's Mansion, Tokugawa Ieharu felt a little more at ease.
After all, the General's Mansion can be regarded as a militarized castle with a certain degree of defense. In addition, the inventory in the mansion is sufficient, and the troops he brought back are also sufficient. The rest just need to hold on for about ten days and wait for the troops who started the war in the four countries to return reinforcements.
On the battlefield outside Edo Castle, the moment the charge horn of the Yijun was blown, it was actually announced that the Yijun had won the battle.
The ensuing battle became extremely easy for the charging Yijun.
Those headless young men who were running around either fled Edo Castle or followed the shogunate's army and fled back to their homes in Edo Castle. The rest knew that they could not escape at all, so they knelt down and surrendered.
When it comes to Youshi, the sun is gradually setting towards the west.
The coldness of the night comes quietly, and you can still feel the warmth passing by during the day.
Winter always has short days and long nights. After the Yi army captured the prisoners on the battlefield, the weather no longer allowed the Yi army to enter Edo Castle and launch an attack on the Tokugawa Shogun's palace.
For this reason, Li Kaifu could only order to set up camp on the spot and wait until after tonight.
At this time, the nearly 10,000 prisoners captured were indeed of great help.
Although they are not good at fighting, they are still very strong. They are good at cleaning up corpses on the battlefield and building camps. There is no need for Yijun to hand them a stick to be a human being.
At this time, in the Yijun camp, the leading soldiers were setting fire to cook.
As the smoke rose, the aroma of rice, steamed buns and stir-fried vegetables from the big pot soon wafted out, making the strong men digging trenches in the camp growl with hunger.
The desperate escape and running on the battlefield had already consumed a lot of energy. After being captured, in order to survive, he followed the instructions to clean the battlefield and build a camp.
Normally, after experiencing the bloody scenes on the battlefield, many people would just want to vomit at the end of the day and have no intention of eating at all.
But throughout the whole day today, they only ate a ball of salty rice balls filled with wheat grains. This amount of food would have been digested long ago even if they had not vomited it on the battlefield. Not to mention that there is a lot of physical exertion in the afternoon. How can the body not be hungry, and how can there be time to express feelings for them?
But as prisoners, these strong men also have self-awareness.
There is no Geneva Convention for prisoners today, let alone human rights. Especially for foreign armies, whether Yijun will kill their captives depends entirely on their mood.
If any of them dared to take the lead in making trouble because they had no food, what awaited them would be bayonets or bullets, and then they would be dug into a hole and buried by the people around them.
So no matter how hungry they are now, they can only tighten their belts and endure it. Unless they are really desperate, they can only pray to Yijun to take pity on them after eating and give them some leftovers.
Time flies and the sky begins to darken.
After digging trenches and clearing the battlefield, the captives and strong men were brought back to the camp for custody.
Hunger, fatigue, cold, and all the things they experienced today made many strong men cry uncontrollably. Slowly, the crying in the entire prison camp became louder and louder. It was not until the Yi army came over to maintain discipline that it became slightly quieter.
…
"Everyone is up, everyone is up, hurry up and line up, the meal is ready..."
Under the dusk, a not-so-loud Japanese voice came. To the many captives who were exhausted and had collapsed on the ground or even lying on the ground, these words were like hearing the sound of nature.
Most of the prisoners didn't think they would have anything to eat tonight.
After all, it is difficult to manage so many of their captives. It would be nice if they did not kill some of them. If they could eat something to restore their physical strength, wouldn't that cause trouble for their own people and increase the difficulty of management?
And with so many of their captives, even if each of them could eat just one bite, they would need a lot of food.
As an expeditionary army, their rations must be extremely precious, so how could they waste so much food on prisoners like them.
But the facts were right in front of them. Seeing the Yi army moving big pots one after another, many hungry prisoners felt a little moved in their hearts unconsciously.
"Even if the rice is mixed with bark and wild vegetables, at least you won't have to starve so badly tonight..." A prisoner in the queue murmured to himself.
"Yes! If you can eat, it's a meal! The weather is getting colder and colder. I don't know how many people will not survive tonight if they don't eat..." The people next to him seemed to have heard what the man said and couldn't help but accept. Got the word.
"Hey, I don't know what crime I committed. Everything was fine this morning, but now it's like this. I don't know if I can go back and see my family..."
"..."
"Stop talking. After receiving the meal, finish it quickly and put the bowl and chopsticks back. The next person will eat." Someone else in the Yi army was shouting in Japanese.
At this time, the queued team did not dare to continue talking.
There are people in Yijun who can speak Japanese, so they can naturally understand what they are saying. If he didn't pay attention and said something bad, he would not be able to eat, but the next best thing would be a severe beating or even death.
Under the supervision of the Yijun armed with live ammunition, no prisoner dared to do anything arrogant like jumping in line.
There were stacks of bamboo and wooden bowls and chopsticks placed in front of the team. The prisoners who received the bowls and chopsticks speeded up their pace a little to go to the meal points to get their meals.
"This is……"
The captives who came out from the meal looked at the food in front of them in disbelief.
A large bowl of white rice, a multi-grain steamed bun, a small piece of salted fish and some dried pickled vegetables.
"God, are the Han people really so rich? This is just for feeding the prisoners!"
Although the food in the bowl was still steaming, the prisoners who received the food still pinched their thighs in disbelief. Only when they felt pain did they confirm that they were not blind.
In the presence of "delicious food", the hunger in the belly is even worse. At this time, the prisoners are feasting on large portions.
It feels like the celebration banquet mentioned by the shogunate is nothing more than this.
