Chapter 387 46. Strength Is Not Just a Superficial Thing
"Don't stop, hurry up!"
Koheita summoned the few dozen bow and arrow ashigaru to step forward to replace the iron cannon ashigaru that was still being loaded. In the blink of an eye, another forty or fifty arrows fell on the heads of the Takeda army.
After the gunpowder smoke cleared, the front of the trench felt like hell. Three groups of 600 commandos were almost all knocked to the ground with the bamboo rafts hanging in front. Only one of the three horse-riding generals who led the charge was still riding a panicked horse. .
The feudal army was neither brainwashed by nationalism nor infected by socialism. Fight in the wild instead of defending the city. After these five rounds of mixed attacks, at least a hundred people were thrown into the street.
Collapse!
The uncontrollable Takeda Army cried for his father and ran away, his defeat unstoppable.
"Hahahahaha, it's done!" Xiao Ping stood up excitedly, raised his gun and cheered.
"Don't stop, keep shooting!" The iron cannon has been fully loaded again, taking advantage of his illness to kill him.
After firing two more rounds of guns, the Takeda army finally ran out of the range of the iron cannon. The Yamauchi army then gave up and stopped attacking.
Killing a hundred enemies without losing a single person is indeed a great victory!
…
At this moment, Yamamoto Kansuke realized that he was still too much. Xiaoping Tai was too shady. He kept showing weakness and hiding his strength just to give him a chance.
"No, that's not the case! Zikoji Danzheng must be hiding something! We can't let it go to waste any more!" Kansuke Yamamoto made a decision, and Heita Kohe must still have some strength that has not been exposed.
"Retract the troops! Set up camp!" The envoy of the Takeda Army loudly announced the order to each team, announcing the end of today's battle.
Now even if Kansuke Yamamoto wanted to fight, there was nothing he could do. There were more than 3,000 people in total, and one hundred died after fighting for three hours. Proportionally speaking, it is only 3%, which seems to be very little.
However, more than half of the establishment of Army A was made up of warriors, handymen, juniors, loaders, and horse drivers. Like most Daimyo soldiers today, the army has a high proportion of non-combat forces.
The only one the Yamamoto army could actually fight was the ashigaru samurai Hōkō who was in his early 1,000s, and now one-tenth of them were dead. If a big victory cannot be achieved, then this loss will be a big defeat, and it is certain that Takeda Harunobu will suffer defeat.
The soldiers of Army A breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the order to stop the attack and set up camp. The originally restless soldiers calmed down, but each of them was still frightened by the terrifying short firepower projection just now.
…
"It seems that today is over, Army A will not come again!" Imai Meigoro wiped the sweat from his head and handed the cotton handkerchief back to Tatsuzo.
"Yamamoto's sword must be here to remember us!" Xiaoheita said nervously, but with a smile on his face, he didn't care.
"The bullets are arranged like this for the iron cannon to fire. It is much faster than the three-stage attack. It is supplemented by bows and legs, and it circulates back and forth without stopping." Rural samurai like Sakakihara Nagamasa have seen the benefits of this arrangement.
"No, this is Guo Xingye's Five Dragons Overturning the Sea Formation, isn't it awesome!" [Note 1]
After saying this, Xiao Pingtai realized that something was wrong. Not to mention Mr. Guo, his second and fifth son, Zheng Zhilong, had not even given birth yet. You spilled the beans, Hammer.
"Who's the national surname?" Imai Meigoro and Sakakibara Nagamasa looked yearning. The one who can figure out this kind of tactics must be a famous general!
How could Mrs. Xiao Ping tell? There was definitely no way to tell. She would not be born for another half century.
"It's about the founding king of the Ming Dynasty, King Qianning, and the adopted son of Emperor Taizu, Mu Ying. When he conquered Yunnan and Guizhou, he divided his musket into three to five rounds, and circulated them back and forth, beating the Mongolian Tatars to pieces. "Destroy."
Xiao Ping Tai had an impromptu idea and could only use this big boss to challenge him first. Anyway, Mu Ying is also a famous general who is unparalleled and frightens his enemies.
"Oh~~, it turns out that this is a fighting method passed down from the Ming Dynasty, and it is really feasible." The two of them heard Xiao Pingtai's nonsense, but they were gullible because of the two big golden characters of "Dameng".
"Okay, okay, let's think about how to fight tomorrow. Yamamoto's sword is obviously just Takeda's first move. Who knows if Takeda's will be behind."
Xiaopingtai quickly changed the subject, but still did not mention the Five Dragons Overturning Sea Formation.
"Yes, the Yamamoto army opposite is mostly composed of wealthy Chinese people and is not very elite. Only Tsuchiyaemon's troops are high-spirited and well-organized." Imai Meigoro immediately became serious when he talked about the war.
"Why do you use miscellaneous soldiers as the first mover?" Aji said suddenly and abruptly.
As a Hatamoto samurai, Aki was born as a servant of Koheita, and was promoted to Hatamoto because of his role as a savior. Before that, he had been following Mrs. Xiaoping, carrying flags and carrying guns. Although Mrs. Xiaoping taught him how to read and write, he didn't know much about systematic military knowledge and had never studied it.
"Huh?" Xiaoping Taiyi thought correctly.
"Kawabe's question is reasonable." Sakakihara Nagamasa also wondered why the Takeda Army's first attackers were all wealthy Chinese.
"There are only two possibilities. One is that Takeda Daisen thinks that we are weak and can be bullied. The other is that Takeda Daisen has not made a complete decision yet. He only uses mixed soldiers to test our side to see if our army is weak before making a decision."
Imai Meigoro wiped his sword with a fine cotton cloth. It was a daily habit for him to maintain his sword. After all, it was his most important "comrade-in-arms."
"So, the longer our army resists here and becomes more determined, the more Takeda Daisen will send more troops!"
"That's right!" Imai Minggoro, who put down his sword, suddenly raised his head.
If the Yamauchi family was stable, would they only allow a small group of troops to choose dangerous areas for defense? When has it not been possible to launch a large army and fight head-on?
If Yamanouchi Yoshiharu was fine, he would have dispatched three armies of 20,000 people, lined up in a magnificent battle array, and met Takeda Harunobu at a certain place.
Instead of letting Kobayata delay the enemy here, buy time, and kill a few insignificant local nobles.
In other words, the more fiercely Kobayata fought here, the happier and more excited Takeda Harunobu was. Anyway, the people he killed were all locals. If he ran into the main force of Yamanouchi Yoshiharu, it would not be a pity to die. If he did not run into it, it would be even more successful to find out the weakness of the Yamanouchi family.
"It's really difficult!" Kobayata stood up, pacing back and forth with his hands behind his back, feeling a little irritated.
Could these 300 people really take on Takeda Harunobu's 30,000 troops?
[Note 1]: According to records, Koxinga had black slave musketeers under his command. It is hard to say whether they were bought from the Dutch or the Portuguese. But based on the ownership of Mozambique at the time, the probability of the Portuguese was higher.
These black musketeers are very adaptable to the hot and humid climate in southern China. They were captured and trained very well by Western colonists and can perform round-firing musketeer formations.
Later, some friend in the martial arts world or the Tartar who was pressed to the ground by the King of the Country gave this team of black slave musketeers a nickname for their tactics - Five Dragons Turning the Sea Formation (Five Dragons Turning the Sea Formation).