Chapter 281: The Japanese return to Japan (Thirty-eight) and attack again

Style: Historical Author: Yun WufengWords: 4072Update Time: 24/01/18 11:16:21
Decentralizing power and returning power, military discussions before the official start of war are still indispensable. Especially in view of the anticlimactic outcome of the previous Battle of Ulsan, Gao Pragmatic followed his past habits and must conduct a major summary of experiences and lessons. Therefore, the Ming army generals gathered in Jinhae for a meeting three days later.

Originally, the reason why the Japanese army was able to defend successfully in the last battle of Ulsan has been attributed to problems in the command system of the Ming and North Korean armies. As a result, when the Japanese reinforcements arrived in large numbers, they were able to cooperate internally and externally, but the coalition forces made mistakes, which ultimately led to the Ming army's failure. Defeated.

However, at this meeting, Gao Pragmatic deliberately downplayed this point in order for North Korea to successfully annex later, and instead emphasized the difficulty of the siege itself. He said that if Ulsan Castle itself was not strong and the Japanese army's combat capabilities were low, it would be impossible for Kato Kiyomasa to hold on until reinforcements arrived with the Ming army's combat effectiveness.

In order to strengthen this impression, of course, the fact that Japanese-style mountain castles are easy to defend and difficult to attack is indeed a problem, so Gao Pragmatic specially asked Kaiji to participate in the meeting as a "former Japanese general" known for her good defense, and paid attention to Japanese-style castles—— Especially the structure of the mountain city is explained.

Ji Feiji has indeed seen the world, and she was not frightened when facing the senior generals of the Ming army in Yishui, and introduced the differences between the cities of Ming, Korea and Japan in a eloquent manner.

According to her, Japanese-style cities have always been different from Ming and Korean cities. The cities in the Ming and Dynasties were mostly a city wall behind the moat. Once you entered, there was a civilian residential area. There was an inner city in the center of the entire city. These were usually larger cities, and smaller cities were usually There is no inner city.

The Japanese-style castle is different. Since the civilian residential area (castle town) is separated from the main city, the entire castle is actually a simple military fortress and has no role in protecting civilians.

Of course, the Japanese castles built in Korea almost did not have a castle town, but a direct city, so there is no need to analyze the role of the buffer zone of the castle town.

Kabiji introduced the Ming army generals using Ulsan Castle as an example, saying that the construction patterns of Ulsan and Dosan twin Japanese castles were almost the same, and they were divided into five parts from the outside to the outside: Outer Maru → Otemon → Sannomaru → Ninomaru → Honmaru layer. There is a city wall between each of these five floors. There are iron cannon firing holes on the city wall. Each floor is connected through a city gate.

This means that even if Outer Maru is captured, if Otemon has not been breached, Sannomaru will still be in the hands of the Japanese army.

"First Evolution"

In other words, to conquer a Japanese-style city, one needs to break through layer by layer from the outside inward. Only when the Honmaru is finally conquered can a Japanese-style city be completely conquered.

If they are forced to withdraw in the middle of the fight, the Japanese army can quickly repair it again, and they will have to repeat the previous attack the next time they attack.

According to Kafiji's point of view, if the Ming Dynasty coalition forces that have never seen such a city, or that have not attacked such a city many times, still adopt the method of attacking Ming and North Korea cities, they are bound to suffer setbacks.

In addition, the Japanese army used a large number of matchlocks in defensive battles, as well as purchased and captured Ming and Korean artillery and other gunpowder weapons. Therefore, the Ming army was unable to attack for a long time, so it adopted the tactic of encircling without attacking, in an attempt to starve to death. The Japanese troops defending the city were trapped and frozen to death.

There is nothing wrong with this tactic in itself, but Kato Kiyomasa, who relied on his perseverance to buy extremely precious time for the arrival of reinforcements, was lucky enough to save his life.

When Jia Feiji said this, the generals of the Ming army naturally wanted to ask for a solution. Kaiji said that generally speaking, it is a one-time forceful attack on the city - this one-time attack does not mean that it must be completed in one day, but that the attack must be continued for several consecutive days or longer, so that the Japanese army cannot retake the outer city and repair it. Opportunity.

If the city cannot be captured by force at once, then it will have to be besieged. The length of the siege will depend on how rich the material reserves are in the city, and whether it is difficult to maintain the supply of troops and morale. In short, either play fast or slow, but don't play intermittently.

However, at this time, Gao Pragmatic actually thought of a solution, that is, if there are mortars, there is no need to be limited by the difficulty of launching artillery attacks in Japanese-style mountain cities. It's a pity... Although this thing has a simple structure, it places high demands on the barrel. Gao pragmatically estimated that Jinghua might not be able to produce seamless steel pipes yet, so he had to swallow his words again.

Ji Feiji also brought some of the latest news in Japan to the Ming army. Besides the biggest news, the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, there were others.

For example, from the end of the Battle of Ulsan to the end of the Battle of Dosan, thirteen major Japanese generals including Hideie Ukita jointly submitted a letter to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was still alive at the time, hoping to give up the In Ulsan, Dongrae, and Yangsan, the entire army retreated to Busan.

However, this proposal was strongly opposed by Konishi Yukinaga, Mune Yoshitomo, Kato Yoshiaki, Tachibana Munesege and others. In the end, this proposal was also rejected by Hideyoshi. Thirteen people including Ukita Hideie were also reprimanded by Hideyoshi. .

According to the information obtained by Kafihime, Hideyoshi then asked the Japanese army to start improving and strengthening fortifications, increasing firearms equipment, and increasing military ration reserves in each city on the defense line in order to rectify and strengthen the entire defense system.

In order to rectify the defense system of each city, in addition to the Japanese troops in North Korea who had to stick to the front, Hideyoshi once again allocated a large amount of supplies from the country. Taking advantage of the favorable winter weather in the south, Hideyoshi used the principle of "large batches and small amounts" to provide supplies to several important places in the south. Replenish supplies, including gunpowder, muskets, artillery, etc.

Before his death, Hideyoshi announced a plan to send another army to attack North Korea the following year, but fortunately, he passed away on August 18 before he could put it into practice. After that, the five elders and five monks who maintained the operation of Toyotomi's regime decided to withdraw their troops from North Korea and secretly began preparations for the withdrawal.

Moreover, because the news of Hideyoshi's death was concealed, the Japanese troops sent to Korea were completely unaware of the news that Hideyoshi was no longer alive. Only a few Toyotomi's direct generals learned.

Now that the Ming army had learned about it through wire reports, she suggested that the Ming and North Korean coalition forces could launch a final general attack on the Japanese army in the south that had not yet had time to withdraw.

Now that things have come to this point, why are you still hesitating? The generals of the Ming army naturally asked for battle, and Gao Pingshi took advantage of the situation and issued the previous orders. Three days later, that is, after the generals of each army returned to their respective headquarters, the Ming and North Korean coalition forces divided into three groups and launched an all-out attack on the three strongholds of Ulsan, Donglai, and Yangshan at the same time.

After the Ming and North Korean coalition forces failed to attack the Daoshan Twin Cities for the first time, they quickly received reinforcements from the country under highly pragmatic dispatch. The loss of firearms has been replenished, and the number of troops has also been fully increased, reaching 100,000. above.

At the same time, the Northern People's Party in power in North Korea, perhaps because it was beaten hard by Gao Pragmatic last time, took the initiative to quickly mobilize more than 20,000 troops this time, and stated that these people could be completely commanded by the Ming army.

In fact, there are not many main force of the North Korean army left. These people are basically cobbled together from all over North Korea, and their sources are also complex. Some are scattered officers and soldiers from various places, some are recruited from the rebel army, and a few are considered servants - ——After the Northern Party suppressed the Southern Party, the Southern Party had to sacrifice its servants.

Gao Jingshi and other generals knew that these Korean troops were of little use, but Gao Jingshi also considered that part of the next battle would require drama, and the drama on the battlefield would also require some cannon fodder, so he did not refuse. He even asked this group of Korean soldiers, who were similar to beggars, to receive a set of Ming army's mandarin duck war jackets, and subsequently followed the Ming army to fight.

Soon the armies were in position. The Ming army (including the North Korean army who had changed into Yuanyang war jackets) was divided into four groups: the East Route Army, the Middle Route Army, the West Route Army, and the Navy Army. They moved forward separately to start a new round of attack.

The East Route Army attacked Ulsan (actually Daoshan), the Middle Route Army attacked Liangshan, and the West Route Army and the Navy jointly attacked Donglai.

The East Route Army was commanded by Ma Gui, with a total of about 39,500 troops (34,000 Ming troops and 5,514 Korean troops). They swore an oath on September 21 and attacked Daoshan City on the 22nd. However, because Kato Kiyomasa and Kobayakawa Hideaki had sufficient troops but could not hold on, and the city defenses had been repaired, the Ming army was still unable to make effective progress quickly.

However, since the Japanese army in Korea received the order to return home on October 15th, Kato Kiyomasa held on for nearly a month, and finally found an opportunity for the Ming army to retreat later for repairs, and quietly withdrew from Ulsan at night and retreated to Busan. .

But this time, Kato Kiyomasa didn't know that the Ming army had been reminded by Kafei. This time, the renovated Ming army did not withdraw completely, and the reconnaissance efforts were even more intensive.

Therefore, he and Kobayakawa Hideaki were discovered as soon as they withdrew from the Japanese castle. As a result, they were severely beaten by Magui on the way back. In particular, Li Rumei's department took advantage of the extremely asymmetrical cavalry advantage and caused heavy losses to Kato Kiyomasa and Kobayakawa Hideaki. Post-war statistics showed that the combined losses of the two Japanese armies were more than 9,700, almost tens of thousands.

The Ming and North Korean coalition forces that attacked the east totaled about 40,000, led by the Ming general Dong Yiyuan, and among them were the Jurchen coalition forces led by Nurhaci.

Donglai is located between Busan and Yangshan in the Japanese defense line. If it falls first here, Konishi Gyōchō’s headquarters in Yangshan in the north will be divided and surrounded by the Ming army. In such an important stronghold, there are only 7,000 Shimazu troops led by Shimazu Yoshihiro and Shimazu Tadahashi - of which there are only 3,000 real Shimazu troops, and the remaining 4,000 were sent to him by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Yoshihiro also rejected the plan to ask for reinforcements from the Muneyoshi Tomo Army and the Tachibana Muneshige Army. Therefore, in this battle, Shimazu Yoshihiro faced the incoming multi-party coalition forces with an absolute military disadvantage.

Yoshihiro Shimazu, who was aware of the movements of the coalition forces, quickly ordered his troops to assemble at Donglai New Castle (Japanese Castle) where he was located. However, the troops in Donglai Ancient Castle (Old Joseon Castle) had been defeated by the coalition forces due to their slow retreat. surrounded.

At this time, the situation was critical. Although the general Kawakami Tadashi who was stationed in the ancient city of Donglai had a reserve of nearly 10,000 koku, he only had a few hundred troops under his command. On the 27th, the Ming army began to attack the ancient city of Donglai. After a short defense, Kawakami Tadashi found that the combat effectiveness of this Ming army seemed... not very good, so he took the initiative to lead his army out of the city to launch a counterattack against the Ming army, and Successfully killed hundreds of people.

What he didn't know was that the so-called Ming army he just killed was actually a Korean army. After discovering that the Japanese army dared to fight back, Dong Yiyuan ordered Nurhachi to fight back against the Japanese army out of revenge for Nurhachi's previous actions (see above) ,

This retaliation was not very successful, because Nurhaci, who counterattacked the Japanese army, did a pretty good job and soon caused heavy casualties to the Japanese army. However, although the Jurchens fought bravely at the beginning, they had no good way to deal with the iron artillery formation that the Japanese army quickly formed. Since the Jurchens were very sensitive to casualties, they withdrew immediately after the Japanese army set up their iron artillery array and suffered some losses.

At this time, the Japanese army was in a very dangerous situation. Facing the overwhelmingly superior coalition forces, Kawakami had no choice but to abandon Donglai Ancient City and break out in the direction of Donglai New City. In the end, Kawakami Tadashi's troops successfully broke through, but Kawakami Tadashi himself was seriously injured by thirty-six Jurchen arrows. A total of more than 150 people in his troops died in the battle - only more than 40 Jurchens died.

When Torai Ancient City was in crisis, Shimazu Tadatsune, who was in Torai New City, proposed to Shimazu Yoshihiro to send reinforcements, but Shimazu Yoshihiro rejected it on the grounds that Shimazu's army had insufficient strength, so he continued to strengthen Torai New City. defense.

And there is another point worth mentioning. Before breaking out, Kawakami Tadashi ordered Setoguchi Shigeharu to burn the food and grass in the city, and he succeeded.

Due to the southerly winter wind direction, the supply of food and grass from southern Xinjiang has not been very abundant recently. The allied armies of the Ming and Dynasties were already in a tight supply of food and grass. Now the Japanese army burned the food and grass themselves, and there was no hope of supporting the war with war. As a result, the supplies of the Ming Dynasty coalition forces were always stretched, so they had to choose a short-term decisive battle.

So after entering the ancient city of Donglai, the Ming army decided to launch a general attack on the new city of Donglai on the first day of October.

Shimazu Yoshihiro built a strong Japanese castle in Donglai New Castle with complete fortifications and an ambush. In response to the coalition's attack, Yoshihiro used a large number of iron cannons and employed methods such as planting explosives. The cannon shells were also replaced with iron sheets, nails and the like from solid bullets to strive for lethality against people.

The coalition forces were led by Nurhaci and other Jurchen coalition forces to attack the Dashoumen of Donglai New City. The Shaanxi army Hao Sanpin, Shi Daoli, Ma Chengwen, Lan Fangwei and others were on the left and right respectively. Dong Yiyuan personally led the Chinese army directly behind the main attacking force. At this time, an episode occurred: just as the coalition forces launched an offensive, a white and red fox ran from the city towards the Ming and North coalition forces.

The Ming army had no feelings about this and did not take it seriously. However, the Shimazu army was overjoyed when they saw this scene. They all thought that Inari Daimyojin was telling them the news of victory, so their morale was boosted.

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PS: This chapter was almost finished in the first half of the night, but... I fell asleep and didn't wake up until six o'clock. Then I finished coding the last bit and sent it out quickly. This chapter was from yesterday.