On March 18th, the seventh year of Dazhou Shaoming, after Murong Nobunaga had led his army to land at Dazaifu, the protracted Japanese land and water army arrived near Chijian Pass.
The man who led the army was still Ono Yoshiko, who had taken up the post of Sanyodo envoy ten years ago and participated in quelling the Fujiwara Juntomo Rebellion.
After his immediate boss, General Fujiwara Tadafumi, died of illness, he finally gained the reputation of General Conquering the West.
You must know that in this era when the General Zhengyi can also be called the General Zhengdong, the General Zhengxi, who is also called the General Zhengdong, has a very high status.
However, Ono Yoshiko, who is 68 years old this year, is not as calm and calm as he was when he sent troops ten years ago.
Because at that time, although Fujiwara Juntomo was the pirate leader of the Seto Inland Sea, his total strength was only more than 400 warships, more than 3,000 samurai, and only about 10,000 sailors.
At this time, although the Japanese country was located on an island, its shipbuilding ability was not strong at all, and it was difficult to understand how to use flat-bottomed boats, let alone other things.
This was also the result of the imperial court's efforts to suppress it, because the Japanese country at this time was a beggar's version of the Song Dynasty.
Since they sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty to reach their "Chanyuan Alliance", the Japanese nation no longer had any worries about invasion by foreign enemies, and began to suppress the warriors vigorously.
The idea of the emperor and ministers of Heian-kyo was this. If the lower-level samurai acquired the ability to build large sea ships, the imperial court must keep up, otherwise they would not be able to control the place in the future.
But shipbuilding is a waste of time and money! With these manpower and material resources, we might as well conscript them and let everyone enjoy them.
So we simply came up with a weird and funny policy that is an island country but tries its best to suppress the shipbuilding industry.
Ono Yoshiko has been in the army for decades, and his beard and hair have turned white. He naturally knows that the Yan bandits and the pirates of the Seto Inland Sea are completely different.
No matter how arrogant the pirates in the Seto Inland Sea are, they still drive small boats and play by the Japanese maritime rules.
But the Yan invaders came across the sea from Silla. They were able to send tens of thousands of troops across the strait in the cold winter. This at least proved that their naval warships were tall and stable, and their navigation skills should not be comparable to theirs.
Therefore, Ono Yoshiko led the army to Saha River, which was more than 70 miles away from Akama Pass, and refused to leave.
With their flat-bottomed boats, they would definitely not be able to fight against the Yan navy in the deep sea west of the Shimonoseki Strait. They might as well wait in the shallow sea here.
At the same time, among the 50,000 land and sea troops led by Ono Yoshiko this time, only the more than 400 large and small ships under his command and the 13,000 to 13,000 naval troops and sailors on them were in place.
Because the Japanese navy did not have enough transport capacity, it was unable to transport a large number of land forces through the navy.
At this time, more than 30,000 army troops were still stationed near Itsukushima (Hiroshima), more than 100 miles away. In order to regain Saikaidō, Ono Yoshiko had to wait for them to be in place.
Therefore, Ono Yoshiko ordered the navy to repair the entrance of the Saha River, and immediately sent people to notify the Koreans at Akama Pass.
Although the situation was already obvious, Ono Yoshiko still couldn't trust these Koryo people. After thinking about it, he simply ordered the Koryo Navy to leave the military port east of Akama Pass and rush to the mouth of the Saha River.
After Hong Xiangdong received this order, his whole body went numb. He quickly realized what Ono Haogu meant.
This is to use the thousands of navy troops under his command as bait to lure all the Yan thieves and navy troops there!
Because if the Yan pirate navy is left alone, the Korean and Japanese naval forces can merge, and the Korean navy is very familiar with the combat capabilities of Murong Nobunaga's navy. After the exchange of intelligence between the two sides, the tactics formulated will definitely be more scientific.
If Murong Nobunaga sends a naval force to pursue them, and the Koreans are trying to control the Shimonoseki Strait, it will be easy to say they can win. However, if they are in a stalemate or fail to win, it will still be fatal if their retreat is blocked.
After thinking about it for two days, everyone finally had to bow his head under the eaves. Hong Xiangdong ordered his nephew Hong Qing to lead a thousand navy and two thousand sailors, drive most of the Goryeo navy warships, take advantage of the wind direction, rush out of the port, and head eastward. Go and join the Japanese navy.
The mouth of the Saha River, approximately near Hofu City in later Japan, was only a small and simple fishing port at this time, so it could not accommodate hundreds of warships.
Ono Yoshiko did not dare to park all the warships in the harbor. It would be troublesome if they were blocked.
Therefore, the navy of Japan was scattered in the nearby bays and islands. Ono Yoshiko built a simple beacon tower nearby to transmit messages.
In the seventh year of the Shaoming Dynasty, on March 27th, at noon, the Goryeo pirate Hong Qing led more than a hundred warships and sailed all the way to the Sapo River. After Ono Yoshiko made sure everything was complete, he ordered Hong Qing's warships to enter the mouth of the Sapo River.
At noon (two o'clock in the afternoon), the warships led by Chen Hui also arrived on the sea outside Zubo River.
In this battle, Chen Hui dispatched a total of 11,000 Henghai navy troops. Zhao Yanjin brought the original Jinghai envoys and the current Jinghai navy army was 4,000.
In addition, there were more than a thousand naval troops who volunteered to accompany the expedition, a total of 16,000 people, and a total of 30,000 sailors.
. . . .
Hong Qing looked at the Yan Kingdom navy moving forward with the rising and falling waves in the distance, his eyes full of despair.
Based on current observation, there are at least two building ships and more than thirty fighting ships in the distance.
These were large ships worth more than a thousand materials. During the naval battle on Jueying Island, Hong Qing had suffered enough from these large ships. As long as the other side rushed over and leaned against the waves, they could sink their small boats.
But looking at the Japanese side, damn, it's been two or three hundred years, and their so-called warships are still almost the same as they were at Baijiangkou.
No! It seems to be even worse, there are not even a few warships with 500 materials (1670 tons), which is nothing!
Hong Qing looked at the deputy next to him who was also sweating and asked: "Have the people who went to contact us come back? Didn't even one of the three groups of messengers come back?"
The deputy shook his head bitterly and said: "No, none of them came back. It seems like they are the same as before. They were either killed by the Yan people or imprisoned."
"Fuck you!" Hong Qing roared fiercely, but his face looked like he was about to cry.
While he was yelling and cursing, he also tore off the futou on his head three or two times and threw it on the deck. This was something he had practiced hard for a long time in order to disguise himself as a Han family member.
"This King Yan really doesn't give him any way to live! I'm willing to tie up Hong Xiangdong and hand him over to them, but they still refuse to agree."
The deputy felt very desperate when he saw Hong Qing, who was preparing to use his uncle as money for his life as a filial nephew.
"The Yan warships are so powerful that they don't even need us, so they don't care whether we surrender or not. General, we can only fight to the death!"
"Fight to the death!" Hong Qing shook his head quickly, "The Japanese country is so big, and King Yan only has tens of thousands of troops, so I don't believe that they can take over all the mountains and rivers of the Japanese country.
We are fluent in the Japanese language and there are thousands of people there, so there must be something they can use us for. "
Hong Xiangdong and Hong Qing were originally descendants of the Mu family, a powerful family in Baekje.
After Baekje was destroyed by the Tang Dynasty, a large number of Baekje people had to flee to Japan. It is said that the Imperial Family of Japan were the descendants of the princes who crossed the sea and stayed in Japan when Baekje was still powerful.
Therefore, most of the people in Hongqing's group could speak Japanese, and even had an accent better than the Japanese in Kyushu, so they were more connected to the Japanese court in Heianjing.
Hong Qing has always been convinced that he can find another way out with this advantage.
As for his uncle Hong Xiangdong, Hong Qing did not agree with him. The old man had a rigid mind and even wanted to be loyal to the Goryeo royal family.
He was simply out of his mind. A Baekje man didn't know how to judge the situation, and he actually wanted to be a loyal minister to Goryeo. What was he thinking?
Ono Yoshigu's face was tense, and he looked at the huge fleet that appeared in front of him without saying a word. If he hadn't been extremely strong in his heart, he would have turned around and run away now.
He finally understood why no one from the Fujiwara family came to be the General of the Conquest of the West. This was just to die!
Chen Hui stood on the bow of the Hengbo, wearing a conspicuous brocade robe, looking very high-spirited.
For many years, Lin Renzhao, who was as famous as him at that time, was a commander of the pro-military army, and he had been suffering in the navy.
Now that he has finally come forward, it is time for him to show off his skills as a naval warrior by conquering Goryeo and Japan.
Looking at the hundreds of battle flags, large and small, standing on the sea in the distance, they looked very majestic, but the warship carrying the battle flags was as short as a wooden board floating on the sea. Chen Hui couldn't help laughing.
This is a battle with extremely disparity in strength!
Most of the Japanese warships were only about 100 tons (more than 30 tons) and carried more than ten or twenty sailors and naval forces.
On our side, there are more than 20 warships with more than a thousand materials, and the two sides are not on the same level at all.
"We will attack ten battles with one force. Regardless of the direction of the wind or current today, the entire army will move forward together to help these Japanese recall the Baijiangkou of the past!" Chen Hui gave the battle order amid loud laughter.
At this time, the navy did not rely much on speed in combat, because the combat method was too simple. It mainly consisted of shooting at each other with crossbows and spears when the two ships were staggered. The more sophisticated ones were just throwing a little fire. Just an oil bottle.
As for winch crossbow shooting, trebuchet shooting, racket shooting, setting fire to ships in the wind, etc., those are the patents of the Tang Dynasty, and the Japanese country cannot afford this.
Their water battles consisted of small boats shooting and poking at each other on the sea surface, and large ships approaching and fighting each other.
This kind of tactics will encounter great difficulties in rough seas.
Because the fluctuations are too high, the bows and crossbows will not have much power at all. Therefore, Japanese naval battles are usually carried out on offshore seas with low waves, and the speed of ships is not very fast.
Of course, when they have time, they will also grab the tailwind and tailwater position.
If the wind is favorable, the arrows fired will be more powerful. If it goes with the current, the boat will go faster, and it can be stabbed with strength, and it can even knock over the enemy boat.
But all this was completely ineffective on the Great Zhou battleship.
Don't be kidding. If your small boat with dozens of materials or a hundred materials comes with the wind and water to hit a big ship with a thousand materials or fifteen hundred materials, are you here to fight or to commit suicide?
On the sea, golden drums formed in formation. The warships of the Great Zhou Dynasty used the Hengbo and other two tower ships as the central force, and the Dingbo and other fighting ships as the two wings. They were surrounded by a large number of stern ships outside, and hundreds of yachts were used to hunt them down. Crane wing formations were formed on the sea surface and rushed towards the Goryeo and Japanese naval forces.
The war drums of the Japanese navy also sounded, but as the Zhou fleet got closer and closer to the Japanese navy, terrifying coercion weighed on the hearts of every Japanese.
A bald-headed pirate from Iyo Country on the South China Sea Road was dumbfounded. He stood on the bow of the ship and watched the small boat he had grabbed downwind, sailing desperately towards the opposite direction under the strong wind.
The reason why he was desperate was because he was facing the Hengbo, the flagship ship of the Zhou Army Navy. In front of the Hengbo, which was more than ten feet tall, the small boat, which weighed no more than 200 materials, was like a toy.
The bald Japanese pirate raised his bow and arrow, but suddenly he couldn't think of shooting because his bow and arrow couldn't even hit the opposite side of the ship.
After the Hengbo discovered the Japanese warship, there was a creaking sound, and the tense racket slammed down. The bald Japanese pirate screamed and took the lead to lift it into the water.
But it was too late, the racket pole with a kinetic energy of at least hundreds of stones was smashed down with great force, and the head of the racket pole was also wrapped with a spiked iron sheet.
Just this one shot directly smashed the Japanese boat into a mess, the hull was almost broken, and more than a dozen of the more than 20 Japanese sailors on board were smashed into meat on the spot.
Although the bald Japanese pirate jumped into the water first, he was still affected. The huge impact made him dizzy.
Although he was very good at water and could control him from sinking into the sea, the crossbowmen on the Hengbo had already noticed him. Almost at the same time, three crossbows shot at this conspicuous bald head, killing him immediately. .
boom! A bigger explosion sounded. It turned out that the artillery on the main battleships on both sides began to roar. Although there were not many doors, the impact was really terrifying.
On this sea where the weather is gloomy and the cold wind carries a salty smell, the orange-red flames are as if they are ejected from the mouth of the hell demon. The terrifying deterrent effect of hot weapons on humans in the cold weapon era is maximized.
The advantage brought by the difference in weapons is so simple and unpretentious. More than 500 Koryo and Japanese boats on the sea cannot harm the Zhou Navy at all.
As for the Great Zhou Navy, the soldiers only need to stand on the deck as high as a city wall and shoot from a high position.
The rackets of the tower ships and the artillery of the fighting ships were even more powerful weapons that accelerated the defeat of the Japanese navy.
The battle ended before Shen Zheng, that is, from two o'clock to four o'clock in the afternoon. In just one hour, at least one hundred of the four hundred Japanese warships were sunk. There are also dozens of ships gone.
The reason why casualties occurred so quickly is because after Chen Hui used tower ships and fighting ships to break the Japanese naval formation, stern ships and yachts began to hunt and encircle them in batches. The large and small naval forces of the Zhou Dynasty benefited from the cooperation and maximized their lethality. .
Ono Haogu saw it from a distance and cried anxiously, but he had no choice. If nothing happened, the entire army would be annihilated.
But his luck was pretty good. At the last moment when Ono Yoshiko was about to be outflanked, the wind and waves on the sea suddenly became stronger. The generals took the opportunity to set up the general who conquered the west, and brought a dozen small boats with him. Flee to the east.
On the Goryeo pirate side, Hong Qing looked at the last two thousand or so people around him and simply became worried.
He abandoned all the warships and took these desperate Goryeo warriors directly ashore, preparing to occupy a small manor and settle down first.
At the end of Shen Dynasty (5 o'clock in the afternoon), the battle was all over. More than 500 large and small warships of the Japanese and Korean joint navies were sunk and more than 400 were captured.
Hong Gyeong, the leader of the Goryeo pirates, abandoned his ship and fled, and Ono Yoshiko, the Japanese general who conquered the west, fled east.
The combined navy, which numbered about 20,000, lost tens of thousands of people in battle and drowned. There were a large number of broken hulls and pieces of ships floating in various postures on the sea. With the corpses rising and falling in the sea, the entire Japanese coastal defense force was almost completely lost. All.
. . . .
At Akama Pass, Murong Nobunaga personally led an army of 15,000 people to remove this land fortress stuck in the Shimonoseki Strait.
Although Chimaguan Pass is not big, it was built together with Dazaifu Ono Castle and Suicheng in order to prevent the Tang Dynasty from attacking Japan from Baekje when Japan's military power was strong in the past. Therefore, the terrain is dangerous and the defense is very complete.
At the same time, there were still more than a thousand people in the Goryeo garrison. The leader of the garrison, Hong Xiangdong, the former minister of the Goryeo Ministry of War, was extremely stubborn. The garrison also knew that there was no way out, so they resisted resolutely.
Therefore, Murong Nobunaga led his army to attack fiercely for three days, but could not defeat it.
This level is backed by a cliff and faces the sea. There is only a small area of land in front of the beach where the team can spread out. It is still difficult to attack by force.
But soon, news came that Chen Hui had defeated the Japanese navy at Sahakawaguchi.
Murong Nobunaga immediately ordered Chen Hui to sail the battleship Dingbo into the Maguan Strait, and then used the four three-thousand-jin artillery and three winch crossbows on the Dingbo to bombard the city wall of Chijian Pass. cut.
Murong Nobunaga was angry at Hong Xiangdong and ordered Zhao Siwan to lead a beggar into the city to collect the money.
Hong Xiangdong looked like a madman. Before Zhao Siwan broke in, he killed Wang Yu, the son of Wang Jian whom he had supported, at the top of the city. Then he jumped down from Chijian Pass.
After Zhao Siwan entered the city, he ordered people to kill more than 700 Korean pirates in Chijian Pass. This nail stuck in Murong Nobunaga's march was finally pulled out.
On the first day of April, Murong Nobunaga left Zhao Yanjin to guard Dazaifu, and left him two thousand people to suppress the restless elements on Kyushu Island. Then he ordered the army to march by water and along the Seto Inland Sea towards Heian-kyo.
On the tenth day of April, the army converged on Itsukushima (near Hiroshima) in Bingo Province. After the local Bingo samurai resisted for a while, they fled with the Bingo warriors. The army easily occupied Itsukushima, a place with abundant food and fish.
However, before fleeing, the Bingo warriors burned all the tens of thousands of koku of grain stored on Itsukushima. Murong Nobunaga could only leave an army to guard the area while ordering people to transport military supplies from Dazaifu and store them on Itsukushima.
. . . .
Osaka, this city plays an extremely important role in Japanese history, and the Honganji Temple in Osaka is well-known to the world.
Osaka is located in the northeast of Osaka Bay in later generations. To the northeast is Heiankyo, the capital of the Japanese Kingdom at this time, and to the east is Heiankyo, the capital of the Asuka period.
Moreover, Osaka's name actually started with the character Kyo. At this time, it was called Namba Kyo, named after the Emperor Namba Palace in the city.
At this time, the news of Ono Yoshiko's tragic defeat had already reached Heian Kyo.
In order to resist the Yan army, the Heianjing court showed rare unity, and even the left minister Fujiwara Minoru stopped being petty.
He quickly asked Emperor Murakami and Emperor Suzaku to come forward together, and called on all samurai from all over the country to come to Heian Kyo to serve the king.
At the same time, the major Japanese families also mobilized urgently, pulling out all the combat forces they could from their territories.
Even the Buddhist sects of Japan, encouraged by high-ranking monks who had benefited greatly, sent a large number of monk soldiers to help in the battle.
On April 20, the seventh year of the Great Zhou Dynasty, nearly 70,000 Ashigaru warriors, monk soldiers, and farmers gathered in Namba.
It can be said that the combat power of the entire Japanese country has basically been gathered in this city, and they vowed to keep Namba Kyo.
On April 22, left minister Fujiwara Sanoyori led 2,000 Fujiwara family samurai and 1,500 Heian Kyo Imperial Guards to arrive.
These people are all the elites of the Japanese country. Most of them are wearing armor, and the swords, guns and crossbows they use are also of the highest quality. This makes the samurai from all over the Japanese country gathered in Namba Kyo, which is Osaka, extremely excited.
On April 24, good news continued to come. The Kanto martial arts tycoons Fujiwara Hidego and Taira Sadamori, who had put down the Taira Shomon Rebellion, also arrived with four thousand Kanto samurai.
In the Japanese country, the Kanto warriors were similar to the Liangzhou horses, Bingzhou Xiaoqi, Youzhou cavalry, Wei Boya soldiers, and Huaixi Cai thieves in the Central Plains, and they could be regarded as the ceiling of combat power.
This time, four thousand Kwantung warriors came, making everyone feel that it was impossible to lose. Victory seemed to be in sight, and morale immediately recovered a lot from the annihilation of the navy.
(End of chapter)
