Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 241: Winter Battle in Osaka (Part 2)
In November 1614, the Tokugawa shogunate and its daimyo's armies completed their assembly and began to enter Toyotomi's Settsu Province from the north, east and south.
This time, the Tokugawa side had a total of 160,000 troops, including nearly 20,000 named samurai.
Its troop configuration is:
The general, Tokugawa Ieyasu, led 30,000 troops and was at the rear.
General of the front army (commander-in-chief of the front line): Tokugawa Yoshinao, with 20,000 soldiers under his command.
The next daimyo, such as Maeda Toshitsugu and Date Masamune, organized 10,000 men each to join the battle. The daimyo of the Tokugawa family (the descendants of Ieyasu) and the hereditary daimyo (the vassal of the Tokugawa family for generations), also organized troops of 3,000 to 5,000 men according to their capabilities.
What is more surprising is that daimyo like Shimazu and Uesugi, who only had 300,000 or 400,000 koku of wealth, actually mobilized an army of nearly 10,000 people - this was purely to curry favor with Ieyasu, even at the cost of a significant reduction in their own family income.
Among these 160,000 troops, the best-equipped ones were of course the 50,000 troops led by Tokugawa Ieyasu and Yoshinao.
Ieyasu was a traditional Japanese samurai, and his understanding of firearms was that they were important auxiliary weapons. Therefore, his 30,000 direct troops only had 5,000 flintlock muskets.
Among the 20,000 men on Tokugawa Yoshinao's side, there were 10,000 flintlock soldiers. There were also 3,000 artillerymen, including 30 twelve-pounders, 10 eighteen-pounders, and five twenty-four-pounders.
However, although the proportion of firearms troops on Yoshinao's side is extremely high, it is limited by the current Japanese system: there are very few standing soldiers, and farmers are only recruited in large numbers when there is a war. Therefore, if Tokugawa Yoshinao's army is really strictly trained in modern times, it will not exceed 3,000 people.
But no matter what, the Tokugawa family had an absolute advantage in strength in this attack on the Toyotomi family.
Originally, according to Tokugawa Yoshinao's idea, this battle must be fast: he is not stupid, he knows very well that he can send people to Jianzhou to support Nurhaci. If the Ming Dynasty time traveler is not an idiot, he will definitely come to support the Toyotomi family. Therefore, once the army is assembled, it must be like a lion fighting a rabbit, using all its main forces to capture Osaka Castle as soon as possible, not giving the Ming Dynasty time to intervene.
However, his idea was rejected by Tokugawa Ieyasu.
"Takechiyo, I am already 71 years old, and this country will soon be handed over to you. It seems that you still have a lot to learn."
The white-haired Ieyasu put his arm around Yoshinao's shoulders and said, "How did I get from being a small lord of Mikawa with tens of thousands of koku to where I am today? I have worked hard and had a certain amount of luck, but more importantly, I know how to share.
You see, this is the last battle before the world returns to complete peace. The young samurai are eager to establish merit and leave their own martial name. Other daimyo are eager to perform well in this battle so as to get rewards - the Toyotomi family now has 650,000 koku of direct territory, and there is no telling how much gold, silver and jewels there are in Osaka Castle.
I know that your troops have been training hard these years and are the strongest. This time, we, the Tokugawa family, can win without relying on other daimyo. But why did you call everyone here? This requires everyone to express their stance and completely break away from the Toyotomi family, the former lord of the world. And everyone has come so far, it is impossible to give them no chance to show their abilities! So in this battle, we must give others a chance to show their abilities. It would be best if they win, but if they are defeated by the Toyotomi family, you can show your abilities even more.
In short, after this war, our Tokugawa family only needs Osaka Castle. The rest can be distributed to other daimyo who participated in the war. In this way, the military fortune of our Tokugawa family can last long."
Under normal circumstances, what you said is correct. But in this plane, it is not normal! Oh, who made the rule of not allowing self-exposure? It is so uncomfortable!
In short, due to Tokugawa Ieyasu's decision, Tokugawa Yoshinao could only watch as those eager-to-show-off daimyo led the medieval militia, which was mainly equipped with cold weapons and supplemented by matchlock guns, and the Toyotomi family, who were similarly equipped, fought slowly and repeatedly at various strategic points in Settsu Province.
Starting from early November, after nearly a month of multiple small-scale but high-intensity battles, with more than 3,000 casualties, including more than 200 samurai, the Tokugawa side finally cleared the strategic points controlled by the Toyotomi family outside Osaka. The entire army of more than 150,000 people arrived at the gates of Osaka Castle.
"Oh~~ This is Osaka, known as the world's number one city!"
When the Tokugawa coalition forces arrived at the gates of Osaka Castle, many young samurai who had never been there before expressed various exclamations after seeing such a "magnificent" city .
This city was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and continued to be improved during the reign of Toyotomi Hideyori. It is a rare giant city in Japan. It has a radius of 16 kilometers and the outermost wall is five meters high. The castle tower and foundation of Honmaru, the core of the city, are more than 50 meters high. Between Honmaru and Ninomaru, there is a special channel to draw water from the nearby river, forming a moat with a depth of three meters.
The reason why Hideyoshi chose Osaka Castle as the foundation for his rule over the world was, of course, because of its excellent geographical location.
The Seto Inland Sea is to the west, and there are rivers to the north and east - nature has given the castle a natural moat. In other words, although it is a huge castle with a circumference of 16 kilometers, it is not difficult to defend: just defend the south.
On the historical plane, the monks of Ishiyama Honganji Temple in Japan held out here and resisted the siege of Oda Nobunaga for ten years: in the end, it was the Oda navy that defeated the Mori navy that continuously delivered supplies to the city by sea, causing the city to run out of food and be forced to surrender.
So, this place is really easy to defend and difficult to attack.
In this dimension, Zhu Youdong had already made up his mind to help the Toyotomi family resist the Tokugawa family, and had always kept Yan Siqi in Japan. Compared with Tokugawa Yoshinao's support of Nurhaci's two thousand flintlock muskets, the Ming Emperor's grandson's generosity was much greater.
"Wow~~ Yan Sang, is this cement? This is much faster and stronger than the stone we use to build cities in Japan."
"Ah~~ Yan Sang, is this the bastion? Yes, that's right! In this way, as long as the range of the iron cannon is sufficient, the entire city defense will have no blind spots. "
"Yoshi! This flintlock cannon is really amazing! Oh, it's a pity that I didn't meet Yan Sang earlier, otherwise, at the Battle of Sekigahara fourteen years ago, we could have killed the old thief Tokugawa under the leadership of Jibu-sho!"
"Yan Sang, what you gave me is so great! I really don't know how to thank you!"
Looking at the so-called famous generals such as Sanada Yukimura, Akashi Zento, Goto Kiji and others kneeling under him, Yan Siqi's mouth twitched: Is this still a good thing? They were replaced after long-term training with Fangshan and Hengkaiwei. The rifling inside is much shallower, okay?
That's right, although Zhu Youdong and Cao Sanxi both went to Beijing, it was Yuan Keli who was in charge in Nanjing at that time. Governor Yuan was extremely shameless when it came to business.
However, considering that the Toyotomi family had paid a total of 10,000 taels of gold and 1 million taels of silver, Governor Yuan was reluctant to cheat them too badly. So in the arms sale that began in August this year, the Toyotomi family received a total of 100 tons of cement, 5,000 flintlock rifles, 3 million Minié bullets, 20 18-pound cannons, and 1,000 shells.
This amount of equipment is enough to sustain the consumption of a world war.
"Uh, um, Yan Sang, may I ask about the fleet of His Royal Highness the Ming Dynasty's Grandson? Haha, you know, we usually have a say in the navy of the Kuki family, but now that the old thief Tokugawa has come with his army, even though the Kuki family has received so much money from us on weekdays, they dare not let the transport fleet enter Osaka Port at will now."
"Why, Ohno-kun? There are too many ronin in the city. Are you short of food?"
"No, absolutely no! Even if the ronin flood into the city, the entire Osaka Castle can accommodate nearly 300,000 people, but the food left by His Highness Taiko is still enough for three years!"
"Then why are you in such a hurry? Let me tell you, the Empress Dowager of our Ming Dynasty passed away a while ago. Do you think His Royal Highness is in the mood to deal with your affairs during this period?"
"Ah?" After hearing Yan Siqi's announcement of Empress Dowager Li's death, Oono Harunaga took the lead, and several generals below turned to the west and silently saluted.
"Yeah." To be honest, if Zhu Youdong hadn't brainwashed Yan Siqi again and again, telling him not to be fooled by the courtesy shown by the Japanese, Yan Siqi would have been really moved by the courtesy he received in Osaka Castle these days.
"Everyone, the fleet is on the way. I think it's better not to show up before the battle begins. Otherwise, the soldiers will know they have a way out, so why would they fight to the death?"
"That's a good point, Yan Sang. Lord Daye, let's put aside the Ming navy's support for now and do our best to do our own thing first!"
"Hey, hey, that's right. That's what I meant, but I couldn't resist Yodo-dono's repeated questioning, which happens at least ten times a day."
"Hmph!" Seeing that Sanada Yukimura and the others all looked a little uneasy, but they couldn't speak. Yan Siqi stood up and said, "There are some things that you can't say, I'll say them. Even if Taiko's widow stood in front of me, I still dare to say: Please don't let her get involved in the war in the future!"
