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Two Hundred and Two, Damn Not Dead (Part 1)

Two Hundred and Two, Damn Not Dead (Part 1)

Echizen. Tsuka Port

Black smoke rose everywhere, killing sounds shook the sky; corpses were everywhere, and blood flowed into a river.

A fierce and cruel city offensive and defensive battle came to an end with a panic retreat on the defensive side.

In the cold sea breeze with a fishy smell, the Aizu family's Aizu family's Aizu family was pulled down one by one, and the "Maruno Cross" flag of the Satsuma family was flying proudly on the entire battlefield. The Satsuma samurai who finally won the victory seemed to have been stimulant, and exclaimed as if they were chewing the prey like beasts chewing their prey, and pounced on the remaining enemies like tigers and wolfs.

The Aizu soldiers who had collapsed across the board were expelled from the towns they had previously defended and ran back and forth in the wilderness and beaches. Under the hard pursuit of many Satsuma troops behind them, they were crowded with each other like flocks of sheep hunted by tigers and wolves, helplessly rogue and desolate cry, and then accompanied by the screams of despair, flesh and blood splattered in panic...

The commander of the Kyoto court's Eastern Expedition Army, His Highness Shimazu Noschi, the lord of the Satsuma vassal state, was calmly standing on the hillside, looking proudly at his army formations pouring into the Tsuka Port like a tide, while the remaining enemies of the Aizu vassal state were rushing toward the wilderness. Although outside the Tsuka city area, the enemy still had some scattered fortifications and were still insisting on resisting, it was useless for the overall situation.

The general of the Kamakura court's garrison, Masayuki Matsuhiro, was covered in blood and was slapped on a fishing boat by his trusted guards. He was slashing the side of the boat with both hands. Looking back at the elite soldiers he had pulled up with one hand and became prey. He was killed one by one by one by chopping melons and vegetables. The results of the bleak management of several generations were destroyed. He couldn't help but bow his head and pause, with tears in his tiger's eyes, and his red and swollen eyes were filled with endless unwillingness and humiliation.

The battle surrounding the Tsuka Port lasted only half a day and ended with the disastrous defeat of the Aizu Family Expeditionary Force.

What's even more sad is that this is actually a wrong war against the wrong enemy at the wrong time, in the wrong place...

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Speaking of which, this lonely expedition by Aizu family was basically extremely unreliable from the beginning.

Although there were only about 5,000 disadvantaged troops in total, they were unwilling to engage in internal defense. They used countless natural dangerous terrain on the long journey from Kyoto to Aizu, which was a thousand miles away, set up defenses one by one, assisted with guerrilla warfare and mobile warfare, consumed the opponent's military resources, and dragged the Satsuma army to death. Instead, they were determined to "defend the enemy outside the country", and traveled across the ocean with this little capital, and went all the way from the distant Hokki Port to the Kinki area where they were unfamiliar. They fought with more than 20,000 Satsuma army, who were full of energy, rich experience and four times their number - no matter how they looked, they seemed like a shaking man came to the door to ask for a slap in the face...

However, Matsuhira Masayuki also had his last resort. Although he was first elected as the leader of the Ouyu-Yo-Yo-Yo-Yo-Yo-Party General, and then became the general of the Muro-Party Office of the Kamakura court. He nominally had already ruled the vast territory of four million stones, but in fact he was still the master of a medium-sized vassal state of 280,000 stones. Within this nominal jurisdiction, not only were there mountains and no control over each other, but there were even several vassal states whose land was larger than that of the Aizu vassal state. For example, the Sendai vassal state of the neighbor Ida family, was twice the size of the Aizu vassal state.

Therefore, it is impossible to truly dispatch so many unruly vassal states to selflessly contribute their precious army, food, money and materials to effectively support His Highness Matsuhira Masato to fight against the official army's siege, and even develop a rebellious mentality - but a few days ago, everyone was still on par with the name of a prince, why would they bow to you, the Aizu vassal lord?

In this way, if the Aizu family was afraid of the strength of the Satsuma army and did not dare to take the initiative to fight, but chose to defend a certain pass to avoid the battle, then the various vassals in the front that were also proficient in protecting themselves would probably surrender to the Satsuma army without a single shot, then turn around and follow the fox and pretend to be the tiger's power, and fool the other vassal states in the rear to turn against Aizu together to make up for the losses of subjugating the enemy...

Therefore, the unlucky Aizin army would find that what they were about to resist was no longer just the attacks of more than 20,000 Satsuma samurai, but countless tens of thousands of troops that expanded like snowballs along the way... Therefore, Matsuhira Masayuki found sadly that he had no hinterland, depth and strategic space for inside battles. If he could not "defend the enemy outside the national gate", then as the various vassals under his command surrendered to the enemy one after another, his strength would not be more than "defend the enemy within the national gate."

Based on the above trade-offs and analysis, he had to bite the bullet and make up his mind, gathered the only five thousand elite troops, and temporarily recruited many merchant ships and fishing boats to launch a great adventure to march into the capital. In Masato Masato, since the princes of Hokuriku and Ouyu were unwilling to surrender to the Aizu vassal, which he had never met, he naturally was even less willing to surrender to the Satsuma vassal of the Southern Kyushu, which was not without the will to fight for this. The problem was that although

After seeing a series of atrocities in the past few months of rebellion, betrayal, and greedy, there is basically no madman who is willing to be loyal to the Emperor. However, when the attacking army is at the city, based on the weakness of human nature, no one is willing to be the leader of this and take on the main attack task. Instead, they will look forward to the front and hesitate, and miss the opportunity. In the end, no one dares to stand up and let the enemy defeat them.

But on the other hand, if any brave man took the lead and gained the upper hand, then most waiters should have rushed forward and joined forces to beat the dogs who fell into the water... However, the troops at hand were really insufficient, and they were still a little guilty when things came to an end. Therefore, after easily occupying the Tsunaga Port, which was not left behind by one soldier, Masayuki Matsuhira began to stay away from his feet. He did not take his five thousand troops and horses to continue to advance towards Kyoto. Instead, he built fortification barriers on the spot, collected strategic materials, and prepared to deal with the inevitable counterattack of the Satsuma Army and fight a lasting position war.

——Extreme strategic adventure plus extreme tactical conservatism... The situation has developed to this point and is almost destined to end in tragedy.

In order to increase the chance of victory, before rushing to the battlefield in Gyeonggi, Matsuhira Matsuhira also sent envoys to post heroes to various places, inviting heroes from all over the world to join. He claimed that he had brought 30,000 tiger and wolf army troops, Shangluo, and planned to defend the enemy outside the country and destroy all the Samoans in the south. I hope everyone can share the glory of victory together... Is this bullying others with poor information or what?

The ox flew in the sky, but the vassal lords who received the letter seemed to feel that the ox was not flying high enough, so they decided to continue to work hard and brag about it even more exaggeratedly... So, a few days later, Matsuhira Masayuki received many replies that were very encouraging to him. They praised the general of the magistrate of the magistrate for sympathizing with his subordinates and loyal to the king's affairs. In order to protect the territory of the various vassals, they did not hesitate to take risks. The princes behind the front were all moved and shed tears, determined to repay His Highness Matsuhira's kindness and organized an unprecedented army to "cover the sky and the sun" to Dunge Port to help the battle.

After receiving this guarantee, Song Ping Zhengzhi, who was already a little guilty, immediately put his heart back in his stomach and set off on the boat excitedly.

Unfortunately, no matter what cow flies in the sky, it is easy to be stabbed down. Matsuhira Masayuki has been staying in Tsuka Port in northeast Kyoto, blocking the road to the Satsuma army entering Hokuriku, looking at the east and waiting, waiting until the Shimazu family's "Maruno Cross" military flag had already rushed over from the south, and he did not see the army that "covered the sky and the sun" emerged...

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In fact, according to the conventional dispatch ratio of 250 people per 10,000 s, it can be at least a team of 10,000 people in the vast land of the Ouyu League of 4 million s. If you spend more money to hire ronin, it should be no problem to gather 150,000 troops in a short period of time.

However, the Daming of the princes and kings in the northeast were all veterans who had no choice but to bet before they were victorious. After discussing with each other, they believed that for the sake of stability, they could not bet on the same place, so they left enough reserves. The troops of the three countries of Muo, Tuo, Echute, and Echute were not moved. They were responsible for defending the backbone and providing spiritual support, so that only the princes of the three countries of Neng, Kaga, and Vietnam sent troops to assist in the war. Then, the princes of Neng, Kaga, and Vietnam discussed again, thinking that they would also have to leave enough reserves, so they could still reach the troops of Neng, Japan, and Echute, and only some food, grass, and coins were given as aid. The war was handed over to the Kaga samurai who were closest to the war zone.

However, Kaga State is close to Gyeonggi. In recent months, bandits and bandits have frequently fled in, and their military strength is already very tight. The Echizen War Zone in the west has been looted by barbarian cavalry from the grassland. Due to weak military equipment and insufficient military strength in the city, the local daimyos have never joined hands to help each other, so almost all of them are spared from the death and the escape.

In view of these bloody lessons around you, several vassal lords from Kaga Kingdom met in private and thought it was important to keep their own castle. They must keep enough reserves, and should not be too ambitious and send out the only small team of samurai casually.

As for the reinforcements to the Aizu Expeditionary Force... there are many monks in their respective corpses. Now that the Buddha was plotted to sleep for a long time, he unfortunately lost the magic power given by the gods and Buddhas, and became a waste of idle food. In order to reduce the burden, he simply sent all these bald donkeys to fight against the Buddha enemies who burned Mount Hiei and Nara. Then, he could confiscate the gold, silver magic tools, jade Buddha statues and other things in the temple to pay for military expenses. Anyway, even the Buddha is gone now, so he must not care about these external things...

Under the guidance of this supreme purpose, several vassal lords of Kaga State had been quarreling for a few days and finally sent a large number of samurai soldiers with swords and guns to various temples for "warm invitations". However, because the matter was delayed for too long, the news was unfortunately leaked. When the monks heard that they wanted to participate in the "holy war" themselves, they attacked the fierce Buddhist enemies who burned Mount Hiei and Nara Castle. They were all shocked by this glorious and great mission and were very excited. So they immediately rolled up the valuable magical instruments and precious Buddha statues in the temple, took off their monk's robe and wigs to escape. Many people even left the Buddhist scriptures and certificates, and were determined to move into a foreign land as soon as possible to preserve their strength and continue the incense of their own sect...

Because the sensation ability and speed of rotation of these monks were too amazing, even if the daimyos sent troops to search the mountains in anger, they only captured more than 300 bald heads. More than 20 of them were nuns or female disciples, and most of the remaining were very experienced people, with the highest age of over 100 years old and over 70 years old birthday stars. Although they should have passed the peak period of youth and strength, they still ran very fast. All the pampered warriors must ride horses to catch up.

There were even a few masters of broken legs in wheelchairs who could make the pursuers panting and sweating all over. They would definitely win gold medals when participating in the disabled sports meeting... Therefore, the princes were so happy that they bowed their heads and cursed. In order to prevent the night from getting long and dreaming, they quickly ordered the elderly, weak women, children, sick and disabled from different temples to combine them in an accurate way. They caught some refugees randomly and gathered them together. Finally, they urgently organized a "Churchist Holy Army" of 500 people. Each of them sent a dog-beating stick and a sack. Several warriors who drew bad signs were escorted with swords and guns, and they drove to the Echizen Kingdom to fight against the Buddha's enemies with pride.

But for some reason, this "Advocative Holy Army" seemed to have only reached the border between Echizen and Kaga. As soon as the samurai in charge retreated, it disappeared inexplicably like soap bubbles in the sun... And the poor His Highness Matsuhira Masao was still waiting for the army that "covered the sky and the sun" in the battlefield fortifications under emergency repair in the Tsuka Port.

——This is the tragic ending of fooling others but letting yourself fool you.

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On the other hand, due to the frequent exchange of information between the Northeast vassals and poor confidentiality work, His Highness Shimazu Noshi, who was in Kyoto, who had received this information, had already received this information before the Aizu vassal soldiers left the Hokkien Island. His Highness Shimazu Noshi, who was originally planning to send troops immediately, stopped for a while and temporarily stayed in Kyoto to see the development of the situation.

——It is rare that people are so considerate about them. In order to prevent them from trekking thousands of mountains and rivers, they can only fight to the country where the snow and ice. They can fight the war. They can only cross the ocean and take the initiative to put their faces on their faces to find a fight... What kind of spirit is this? This is a typical spirit of shaking men who are determined to seek abuse, so they must not be too hasty, so that they can scare them away before they even reach the ground.

So, when Lord Fujiwara's southern army had already begun, more than 20,000 Satsuma army was rushing in the city of Kyoto for several days. It was not until a spy confirmed that a large number of Aizu soldiers landed in the port of Takaga, His Highness Shimazu Aoshi left Kyoto slowly and directed the entire army to advance to Takaga along the streets of Hokuriku, and launched a battle to determine destiny with the 5,000 Aizu soldiers coming from afar.

In fact, this battle was no surprise from the beginning.

Both sides are new-style troops equipped with Western firearms and have had certain practical experience, but the 1-to-4 gap in military strength is enough to determine the absolute disadvantage of the Aizu family army. In addition, the Port of Tsuka is not a nearly sturdy city, but a hodgepodge made up of many wooden houses, without any decent plans, and even the city walls and moats.

Although the Aizu army repaired fortifications since its inception and tried to make the fortification of Tsuka Port, the Satsuma Army had been approaching the suburbs and only half of the planned trenches, chest walls and fortresses were completed, and it was difficult to use much under a large-scale full-line attack.

What's worse, the Aizu army did not bring enough food because it set off too hastily. After landing at the Port of Tsuka, they saw that the residents of the city fled cleanly and could not imagine "transferring on the spot". In order to avoid turning this expedition into a hunger strike, Matsuhira Masayuki had to bite the bullet and send most of the fleet to Echigo, and he could go to various places to collect food. Until the Satsuma army arrived, they had not had time to come back... As a result, the Aizu army had not had enough ships to retreat on the eve of the outbreak of the battle, and had to fight against the strong enemy at the Port of Tsuka.

Inadequately prepared wars usually do not have good results. After the war between the two sides started, the Satsuma army only fired a few rounds of scorching bombs and incendiary bombs into the port of Tsuka, which burned the overwhelming raging fire, causing the Aizu army guarding the city to fall into chaos.

Then, with the order of His Highness Shimazu Noschi, 20,000 brave Satsuma soldiers, with sparse stray bullets, ran with all their might and quickly crossed the unfinished trenches and chest walls outside the outskirts of Tsuka Harbor. They launched a short and fierce hand-to-hand battle with a small number of defenders caught behind the fortifications, and completely defeated the last round of organized resistance of the Tsuka army and quickly established the victory. Except for the Aizu lord Matsuhira Masayuki and more than 200 people who escaped by chance, the rest of the soldiers were surrounded and had no way to escape, and were all slaughtered.

At this point, the last regular army left behind by the old shogunate system was wiped out in the pool of blood on the Tsuka Beach... And the Aizu army actually had no need to fight this battle. As long as they were patiently waiting for a while, time would bring them victory.
Chapter completed!