Volume 2: Soaring! The Overlord of the Region Chapter 242: Winter Battle in Osaka (Part 3)
"To Tsu Ge Ki~~!"
“Wow~!”
"Hanat~!"
On December 5, 1614, the shogunate army, which had completed its camping work at the foot of Osaka Castle, began its attack on Osaka Castle.
As expected, the shogunate placed the main attack direction on the south of the city, and sent the army of the Uesugi family, which was known as the most powerful during the Warring States period, to charge in the first attack.
However, as the most conservative family during the Warring States period, the main force of the Uesugi family was basically infantry and cavalry with cold weapons. Of course, there were firearms, but they were all matchlocks. In this cold and wet winter weather, such an equipped army faced the bastion built with cement by Yan Siqi, Sanada Yukimura and others in the south of Osaka Castle...
Although the bastion was only 4 meters high due to the severe lack of time for construction, when the soldiers of the Uesugi family adopted the ant-attached siege, any soldier, no matter how close he was to the wall, would be shot by the flintlock soldiers from at least two ridges...
Then, the 10,000-strong army of Uesugi Kagekatsu, the lord of Yonezawa Domain, collapsed after only about half an hour of attack.
"Hahaha, it seems that after Lord Kagekatsu moved to Yonezawa, the warriors of Yonezawa were not as brave and skilled as those of Echigo."
Seeing the Uesugi army facing the bastion south of Osaka Castle, they had no way to attack. The soldiers were shot one by one after entering the bastion's range. Everyone from Tokugawa Ieyasu to below had a grim look on their faces. As a result, Shimazu Tadatsune, the lord of Satsuma Domain, who was always known for his abnormal brain, stood up and laughed at him at an inappropriate time. Uesugi Kagekatsu, who was already looking gloomy, immediately jumped up.
"Does Satsuma-no-Kami mean that the men of Yonezawa are no good? How about the samurai of Satsuma come down and fight us?"
"Uh..." Low emotional intelligence does not mean low IQ. Everyone knows that such an unprecedented bastion is difficult to attack. Shimazu Tadatsune would never say such stupid things as "our Shimazu clan will go up and defeat it."
"Alright, alright, everyone, please be patient."
It was Ieyasu after all. After he spoke, everyone quickly quieted down.
"Takechiyo, what do you say this is?"
"Father, this is a bastion, which originated in Western Europe. Its characteristic is that multiple protruding facets are built on the city wall, so that there are no blind spots for shooting at the city wall and the city gate. No matter where the attacking soldiers are, they may be shot by the musketeers on the city wall."
"What is the material of the city wall?"
"It's cement, a special powder that dries and hardens quickly when mixed with water. If you add bamboo or steel bars to it, its hardness will be much greater than that of ordinary stone walls."
"Then, other than a long-term siege, is there any way to quickly break through this cement bastion?"
"Yes, we can use trench siege. The basic method is... just specifically for Osaka Castle, this place is by the sea, and there are many rivers nearby. So even if it is the flat land in the south of the city, if we dig deeper, there will definitely be groundwater gushing out. And the enemies in the city can easily lead to water attacks to crack this method. Therefore, before the real trench is dug, we must build the water diversion channel."
"Everyone, what do you think?"
"I see! Your Excellency the Major General is truly a genius!"
"That's right, Major General, you were born with the blessing of Susanoo!"
"Your Highness, I am willing to take on the trench digging work."
"Your Highness, I am willing to take on the task of protecting our friendly forces while they dig trenches."
“Your Highness…”
"Hahaha, okay, everyone, you see, as long as we unite as one, won't the problem be solved? Then please take your seats."
"Hi Yi!"
After everyone left, Tokugawa Ieyasu said, " Takechiyo , it seems you didn't finish what you were saying just now."
"Yes, father. Trench siege takes a very long time, and there is too much groundwater here. Even this method may not succeed. I just wanted to maintain the morale of the whole army, so I didn't say it in detail."
"Well, although this bastion and trench are all new to me, everything on the battlefield is the same. Many of the daimyo who went out are veterans. They may not understand it now, but they will understand it soon... So, do you have any other methods?"
"Father, there are two things we can do next. First, we need to bring our new fleet in Edo Bay over here. The blockade of Osaka Castle by the Kuki family is obviously ineffective. The casualties of the Uesugi family during the attack were obviously caused by flintlock rifles, and the material of this bastion is also cement. The Toyotomi family cannot make these things by themselves, so they can only be sent by the Ming Dynasty. And if the Ming Dynasty wants to send them, it can only be sent by sea... So many things cannot be transported by one ship. Therefore, the Kuki family's navy cannot be trusted. Second, we can use some tricks..."
The so-called little trick, from a historical perspective, was Ieyasu's own idea.
The specific approach was to deploy the shogunate army's large cannons on the east side of Osaka Castle and concentrate firepower to bombard Osaka Castle.
As mentioned above, there are several rivers to the east of Osaka Castle, which is not suitable for attack. However, because of this, Toyotomi Hideyoshi built the castle tower of Honmaru here when he built the castle.
As the times progressed, especially after the Portuguese artillery technology was further improved and introduced to Japan, it was possible to fire artillery fire outside Osaka Castle and hit the castle tower.
Now, in the castle tower of Osaka Castle, lives Toyotomi Hideyoshi's widow Chacha, now honored as Yodo-dono, and their son Toyotomi Hideyori.
"Well, Takechiyo, your idea is great! Let's do this. Use your newly built cannon to bombard the castle tower of Osaka Castle. In addition, I also agree to your request to bring the new navy from Edo Bay over."
"Hi! Thank you, father."
…
The time came to December 13. In the meeting hall behind the bastion in the south of Osaka Castle, Oono Harunaga sat in the first seat, Yan Siqi sat in the first seat on his right, and the others were the many generals in Osaka Castle.
“Oono-kun, Yan-san, the day before yesterday, Sanada-kun led his army out of the city and raided the shogunate’s trench digging team, killing about 700 people from the Ikeda family, while losing less than 100 people themselves.
At the same time, I also led my troops to raid the Kuroda army in the southwest of the city, killing about 500 of them and destroying about three ditches of the water diversion canal they dug. "
"Yoshi! Sanada-kun, Goto-kun, thank you for your hard work."
"No, it's all because of your good command. In addition, yesterday and this morning, the shogunate army bombarded us from the east side of Osaka Castle, and we also fired back from the city walls. A lookout saw with his own eyes that our shells fell into the shogunate artillery positions, which should have caused considerable casualties to the enemy. The shogunate's shells also fell into the city, and one shell hit the third floor of the castle tower, but the damage was minimal, with only a nearby maid being killed by a falling wooden beam."
"Hahaha, are all the people in the shogunate stupid? The land east of the city is not suitable for attack at all."
Just as everyone at the meeting was laughing loudly at the recklessness of the shogunate army, Oono Harunaga, the chief boss of the Toyotomi family in Osaka Castle at the time, frowned tightly.
Yan Siqi, who had received instructions from Zhu Youdong in advance, also had a very unhappy look on his face at this moment.
The two looked at each other and smiled helplessly.
Sure enough, not long after, Yodo-hime's personal maid came running over and said, "Master Xiu-liang, Yodo-dono needs you to come over right away."
