Chapter 756 4. Cannons Roared and the Nine Provinces Were at Peace

Faced with the shogunate's expeditionary army, the Otomo clan, whose rule was only deeply rooted in Bungo Province, was naturally panicked.

For example, the Utsunomiya clan of Bungo, the Aso clan of Higo, the Utsunomiya clan of Higo, the Kikuchi clan of Higo, which the shogunate claimed to restore, and the Akizuki clan, which had sold out Otomo without hesitation and became independent, were all big countrymen. It was not uncommon for one to surrender to you and another to surrender to him.

Otomo Sorin was also unlucky. When the shogunate attacked, the loyal and brave generals of his family died one after another, and they were not killed in battle.

Most of them died of illness!

For example, Usuki Kenhaku and Yoshihiro Kenri, two of the three elders of Bungo, died of illness one after another when the Yamanouchi family had just clashed fiercely with Oda Nobunaga in Shitarahara. They were Otomo Sorin's right-hand men, so they lived a little longer than Kobayakawa.

So in history, the Shimazu family succeeded as soon as they made an effort, because the Otomo family had lost a lot of talent, and he himself had a wave of sacrificial Christianity. All the retainers believed in Buddha, so how could the head of the family do this?

In the end, the only ones who stood up to take the lead were Tachibana Dosetsu, who was already a cripple, and Takahashi Shoyun, who was a junior. These two were not unwise people. They believed that the shogunate was determined to pacify Kyushu, and the shogunate was now powerful, and it was almost impossible to resist successfully.

For now, the only way is to try to hold on to several famous cities and towns and drag it out for two months. The shogunate army has 120,000 people, and the daily consumption of food and horses is astronomical. How can it afford to drag it out? Surrendering at this time can sell itself for a good price.

Important retainers including the Tanaka clan, the Imanda clan, the Yoshihiro clan, the Shiga clan, and the Totsugi clan finally leaned towards this proposal, and the Otomo clan immediately besieged the castle in the main castle, as well as in Usuki and Oka.

As the Otomo clan, which had several national cannons, thought it was impossible to fight against the shogunate army in a field battle, but they were still clear about the strategy of relying on strong cities and using cannons. In addition, it was a battle on the home ground. Although the soldiers were few and the generals were few, the victory was still due to the high morale.

But no matter how high the morale was, it could not withstand the shogunate's main force, Hosokawa Saijo!

Hosokawa Saijo, who had been granted 55,000 kan in Settsu, led the Awaji navy of Ataka Kiyokuni, the lord of Awaji, and the Miyoshi navy of Kawachi lord Miyoshi Yoshitsugu, plus the navy from the eastern countries to support, especially the navy directly under the shogunate led by Kobayashi Motoharu, Omura Masuji, and Shimizu Yoshitsugu.

There are still 200 large and small cannons to fight against Ryuzoji, so it is natural that there cannot be too few to fight against you, Otomo!

As the commander-in-chief of the front line, Hosokawa Saijo, who brought more than 300 large and small artillery pieces, followed the will of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshihide. Either don't fight, or give him a beautiful one. Anyway, we can't drag it out into a protracted war, otherwise it will cause many complications for the grand strategy of sweeping Kyushu.

So without saying a word, Hosokawa Saijo immediately sent out the most elite troops, with Murakami Yoshimitsu and Ogasawara Nagamasa, the backbone of the shogunate's public service, as the first to surround the palace on three sides, and then unload the naval guns.

The first-term students of the Yamanouchi Naval Training Institute and the Yamanouchi Infantry Training Institute just took the palace attack war as a graduation internship. Since the four best people will be promoted to Ashikaga Yoshihide's close followers, this is simply the best bright road in the world. These young people really fight like wolves and tigers, and are extremely dedicated.

Apart from the troops surrounding other branch castles, there were 35,000 people who directly attacked Funai Castle, while there were only 8,000 people in the castle. Although they did not capture the enemy in one battle, they also showed the power of the shogunate.

Probably due to the importance and love of cannons inherited from Kodaira, Hosokawa Saijo let these student soldiers try their best to operate within the feasible range, and as a result, Funai Castle was smashed into honeycomb coal alive.

Some students even proposed the idea of ​​mortars!

It was too wasteful to smash the city wall directly, so it would be better to find a way to project the shells directly into the castle. With the current level of those foot soldiers, if the cannon fell on their heads, they would definitely run away.

After letting these young people "play" for three days, Hosokawa Saijo received news that another route of the Western Army had basically surrendered to Beifei and was besieging Gangcheng and preparing to join them, so she ordered a general attack.

The Otomo army, tortured to death by the shogunate army, quickly collapsed under the general attack. Otomo Sorin and his son Otomo Yoshitsugu had a huge disagreement on the issue of defending the castle, while Tachibana Dosetsu and Takahashi Shoyun were in other branch castles, and there was not even a minister in the castle who could act as a peacemaker.

Enough! An old drama from the Warring States period!

Father and son killing each other!

Otomo Yoshitsugu sold his own father and opened the city!

The condition was to inherit the Otomo family, as well as the security of Bungo and half of Bunzen. Ashikaga Yoshihide agreed, but the condition was that Otomo Yoshitsugu would inherit the Kikuchi clan and the Otomo family would be cut off.

The main castle of Otomo was opened, but the branch castle was still defending. Takahashi Shoyun heard the news and rode out of the city alone and died. After hearing that Otomo Yoshitsugu had attacked and killed his father and surrendered to the shogunate, Tachibana Dosetsu offered all his knowledge and went to guard the tomb of Otomo Sorin.

Who knows what he was thinking.

In short, after Otomo was defeated, the Shimazu clan in southern Kyushu was still entangled with the Kanbu clan and the Ito clan. The combined forces of these three clans were not as many as those of the Otomo clan. Hosokawa Saijo went south directly with a letter, demanding that they completely surrender to the shogunate and collectively accept the shogunate's land inspection.

Ito and Kanbu were scared. They said they would accept the land inspection, but the shogunate's army of more than 100,000 arrived overnight. How could they be treated well? They were all transferred to Hizen and Higo. I was at the mercy of others and dared not even fart.

Shimazu was very stubborn, and he actually found more than 9,000 people to fight to the death with the 35,000 people of Hosokawa Saeko, who was the first mover of the shogunate army.

Shimazu Yoshihiro used himself as bait and performed the fishing and ambush tactics.

He rushed to the shogunate army with only 2,000 soldiers, and then pretended to be defeated and retreated, attracting the shogunate army to chase. Then, a cannon was fired, and several groups of people rushed out from all directions to annihilate the first mover of the shogunate army.

No one on the shogunate side saw his strategy for a while. The 2,000 people of Shimazu's army were considered to be some diehard hardliners who wanted to surprise the shogunate army and kill Hosokawa Saeko. After beheading, the shogunate army would naturally disintegrate.

So the first-term students of the shogunate army recalled the drill manual and the key points of the battle of Dansho-ko that Ashikaga Yoshihide had told them. Shimazu Yoshihiro rushed over, so just charge, and treat him to a Portuguese meal.

Are five sub-guns enough?

Fifteen is also fine!

If that doesn't work, fifty will do, we can discuss it!

Shimazu Yoshihiro was lucky not to be killed, but more than 300 of his Satsuma Hayato disciples died directly under the dense artillery and iron cannon fire, not counting the injured. The 2,000 people rushed in screaming and howling, and ran back screaming and howling.

Not many people died, but their spirit was broken.