Chapter 152 The Battle Is in Full Swing!

On the sixth day of the fifth month of the second year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty, it was sunny and windless.

This day in history was destined to become a nightmare for the Kumamoto family, an eternal nightmare!

Looking three miles west from the single-barrel telescope in the hand of Kumamoto, the soldiers of the Keelung Army were pushing several cannons into the gun positions in front of the battle array with the sound of horns.

However, in his eyes, after counting carefully several times, he only saw three cannons.

"The enemy only has three large cannons, not many!" Kumamoto loudly encouraged the surrounding hatamoto warriors, and the huge roar seemed to make him forget the fear in his heart.

However, if Kumamoto had read Chinese classics, he would know that the ancient sages once said, "How can the sharp weapon of the country be shown to others!"

These three cannons were just a cover for pushing them to the front of the battle array. On the artillery array behind the camp, ten 8-pound steel cannons were neatly placed, and the artillerymen were adjusting the angle of the muzzle intensively, striving to hit the target with one shot.

In front of the two armies, the sharp bamboo formation was originally arranged by Kumamoto Nan with great effort, but just last night, it was cleaned up by Zhao Dahai with Fuso foot soldiers, and the remaining debris was destroyed by artillery fire.

"Finally, we can go to the battlefield!"

In the camp, there were soldiers who had just finished breakfast everywhere, and they were nervously sorting out their weapons and equipment.

The camp officers used whetstones to sharpen their blue steel knives to make them sharper, so that they would not get stuck between the cervical vertebrae when beheading. A large number of musketeers lined up in front of the baggage officer to receive fixed paper tube ammunition.

Since Qin Hao implemented the land distribution system and vigorously developed the economy in the jurisdiction.

Now, in the one-third acre of land in Keelung and Hsinchu, large tracts of wasteland have been opened up. So far, more than 5 million acres have been reclaimed, including more than 3 million acres of paddy fields, and the rest are mostly mountainous and dry fields.

On average, these lands can produce about four shi per mu per season.

Compared with the three shi per mu in Huguang, the richest land in the Ming Dynasty, it is also a high yield.

Moreover, this is just an average value. According to the statistics of Keelung Household Registration Office, most of them include the newly reclaimed wasteland. If only those that can be harvested normally are counted, this number will almost double.

According to the public grain payment standard of 10% tax formulated by Qin Hao, the public grain collected in almost every season can meet the annual food consumption of non-agricultural population such as the army, craftsmen, and merchants, and there is a slight surplus.

As the business of Keelung Shipyard shifted from government-made to private, some people began to buy it.

If personal financial resources are limited, you can also form a joint venture with multiple people; if you want to run it alone, you can borrow money from the Silver and Money Office if you don’t have money.

As a result, a large number of fishing boats trawled in the near sea and the open sea, bringing a large amount of fish and shrimp to the people of Keelung, providing rich marine protein;

At the same time, the ranch veterinarians on the Ryukyu Islands also carried out medical innovations. They castrated pigs and chickens to remove the worldly desires of these farmed animals, allowing them to grow meat and provide people with a large amount of meat and eggs.

The rich variety of food and sufficient supply made Qin Hao's soldiers' faces shiny and their muscles bulged, allowing them to bear high-intensity military training.

In the tent, Zhao Dahai and several battalion officers were eating breakfast in the tent. Luo Dayou still couldn't change his careless temper. He swallowed in big mouthfuls and yelled loudly.

Soon, a bowl of steaming sour rice noodles covered with bright red peppers was sent into Luo Dayou's bulging stomach.

"Lao Luo, eat less. After we defeat Kumamoto, the lord will reward you with good food when we return to Keelung! Don't always act like a starving ghost!" Liang Zhan, who was chewing a piece of spicy chicken nugget, teased his comrade vaguely.

"Haha, why don't you take a piss and see how you look? You're not much better than me!" Luo Dayou cursed back, patted his belly, turned around and picked up a big bowl, and began to fight with the sour rice noodles.

After the meal, it was a life-and-death battle.

Perhaps being in Fuso, Kumamoto Man, a native, was protected by the gods, and he surprisingly ordered the entire army to rush out of the city and set up a battle formation.

In this way, he avoided the artillery elevation angle that had just been adjusted, but even so, Kumamoto Man's mood was not much better.

Looking at the sturdy and strong soldiers under the flags on the opposite side, and then looking at the thin and weak foot soldiers around him, Kumamoto was furious. He grabbed the foot soldiers around him and beat and scolded them: "Waste, waste, all waste, if you can't defeat the enemy this time, you will all commit suicide to apologize!"

Facing the punishment of the head of the family, the captured foot soldiers had to endure it silently with tears.

Seemingly tired of scolding and feeling relieved, Kumamoto began to pay attention to the military formations of the two armies.

Both the Kumamoto Army and the Keelung Army put their main forces on the front line. The Kumamoto Army had 3,000 foot soldiers, and the Keelung Army had 600 musketeers from the Shuntian Camp. Both sides tried to achieve success in one battle.

Not only were the formations similar, but both sides relied on the rear formations that they thought were very solid. The Keelung Army had its back to the main camp, and behind the main camp was the artillery with gullies and ravines; while the Kumamoto family relied on the city to fight the Keelung Army in the field.

"Begin the war!"

"The war begins!"

The commanders of both sides issued the same order almost at the same time.

At the Keelung Army's position, with an order, Zhao Dahai waved the flag in his hand, and ten trumpeters blew the trumpets in their hands.

Liang Zhan, who heard the horn, commanded the gunners to load gunpowder on the artillery position, and then grinned and laughed, "Warriors, have you eaten enough this morning?"

The gunners around him immediately answered in unison, "Yes!", the sound was deafening.

"Then put all your strength into it and hit me hard! Kill those Fuso dwarfs and scrap metal on the opposite side!"

In an instant, the cannon roared, and dozens of shells crossed in the air, falling near each other's targets according to their respective trajectories.

One by one, the iron balls rushed into the Kumamoto army formation, and blood and flesh flew everywhere in the army formation.

When the cannon sounded, the only artilleryman of the Kumamoto family immediately discovered the gap between himself and his counterparts on the opposite side.

For the same 8-pound cannon, his own cannon could only shoot one mile at most, and the shells lost their power. This was the result that could only be achieved by loading a large amount of gunpowder at the threat of exploding the barrel.

The 8-pound cannons on the opposite side not only suppressed the number, but also were far behind in technology. They easily sent the shells into their own army formation, turning dozens of shells into the death knell of hundreds of people.

Thanks to the industrial saltpeter production, all the artillery and fragments of the Keelung Army now use millet-colored gunpowder as propellant. This kind of gunpowder is the pinnacle of pyrotechnics, with great power and strong durability, and can push the shells to a greater distance.

At such a distance, all the artillery equipped by the Keelung Army is within the effective range and has a very high hit rate.

In order to form a deterrent, the Kumamoto Army arranged the foot soldiers very closely. If it were for other soldiers of this era, such a formation would not be too much, and it can be seen that the commander is not a mediocre person.

But using this dense formation on the Shuntian Camp is really like slapping a fly on a tiger's head - seeking death.

In such a dense army formation, a solid shell rushed in and it was a bloody mess. Fortunately, there were not many soldiers in the Kumamoto army who were wearing bamboo armor, especially iron armor. (Mainly because they were poor and could not afford iron armor)

If they were wearing iron armor, the armor leaves would turn into fragments under the action of solid bullets, causing more and greater casualties.

After the Keelung Army's artillery fired a round of volleys, Liang Zhan proudly ordered the gunners to temporarily stop firing. He wanted the observers to use the short time when the smoke dissipated to observe the enemy's position and evaluate the effect of this round of artillery strikes.

In the entire formation of the Kumamoto Army, broken limbs and bones were seen everywhere, and blood was all over the ground.

Those thin foot soldiers, holding their hands and feet taken away by the shells, howled loudly, and the people around them avoided them like ghosts. Such a terrible artillery was no different from ghosts and gods.

The Kumamoto man was pale, and the sweat on his forehead soaked his temples. He muttered to himself and kept holding his palms that were twitching with fear.

All this was completely beyond his expectation. The cannon on the opposite side was an 8-pound cannon like his own, but it could fire so far and so fiercely, causing such a great blow to his own soldiers.

Behind him, those hatamoto samurai who were usually as fierce as wolves and tigers had also fallen into a state of madness. Some were spinning around like headless flies, or seemed to be unaware that the enemy was far away from the range, and they raised their long spears in their hands and shot them at the Keelung army on the opposite side without any meaning, screaming; some even cried and fled to the back.

This is the samurai master, who simply brought down the dignity of the samurai family!

Several military commanders jumped out on their horses, waving their iron knives, and the knife flashed, and more than a dozen samurai who were running around in a panic were chopped to the ground. Under the leadership of the military commanders, the captains of each team also drew their swords to stop the foot soldiers and samurai teams from collapsing.

After a brief period of chaos, the formation of the Kumamoto army returned to calm. For this, the Kumamoto family paid the price of nearly a hundred lives.

The casualties from the bombardment and the camp roars left the Kumamoto army with only 2,000 people.

However, another round of artillery fire from the Keelung Army came.

"Master, this won't work!" A confidant shouted anxiously at Kumamoto. At this time, he had forgotten that Kumamoto was his master and he was just a small executive officer.

"If the enemy's artillery bombards continuously, our army will be destroyed by their artillery fire or collapse! They have more cannons than us!"

Kumamoto was also a little overwhelmed by the endless artillery fire from the opposite side. In the rumbling sound of the cannons, he felt as if his three souls and seven spirits were shaken out of his body.

It was not until this time that he realized that the cannons in front of the opposite formation were just to cover up the eyes and ears, and the real killing weapon was actually hidden behind the formation.

He regretted it after realizing it, but he could do nothing about it.

"Then what do you think our army should do?"

"Master, we should retreat back to the city, maybe we can still hold it!"

Hearing this, Kumamoto was disappointed, but there was no other way at the moment, so he had to let his confidant issue the order to retreat.

All the military commanders, hatamoto, and samurai retreated to the city to defend. As for the foot soldiers, Kumamoto did not mention them at all, and the confidant naturally forgot about this team with the largest number of people but the weakest in the Kumamoto family.

"Yamaguchi!" Looking at the confidant who came back, Kumamoto struggled to find his name from his mind.

"Master!" I don't know if it was the smoke of the artillery fire or the excitement that Kumamoto remembered his name, Yamaguchi's face was red.

"The future of the Kumamoto family depends on you." Kumamoto looked at Yamaguchi solemnly, "When Tokugawa was defeated by the Western Army and was about to be captured, a warrior..."

Yamaguchi looked ashen, listening to this heroic act that no one knew where it came from or it was just a newly made-up one, anyway, there was no trace of it.

He only knew that he couldn't leave today, he was going to be used as cannon fodder.

Yamaguchi's family was all in the Kumamoto family, he had no choice, thinking that he only had one daughter who couldn't inherit his legacy, he reluctantly walked to the front of the battle and began to collect scattered soldiers.

"Yamaguchi, I will definitely take good care of your son." After saying this, Kumamoto rushed away without looking back.

Not long after, there was another round of shotgun shells, a round of solid bullets, and after two rounds of artillery fire, the formation of the Kumamoto family army had become tattered. The large square formation that was neat and tidy just now was now in a mess.

"It's our turn now!"

Zhao Dahai was very satisfied after seeing the situation of the other side through the telescope.

He smiled at Qu Wan beside him, "Order the front camp to line up and attack!"

"Order the artillery team! Keep suppressing the enemy with artillery!"

A wave of red flags, a few trumpets blew, and the buglers of the front camp quickly responded with the waving of flags and the sound of trumpets.

The artillery team responded to Zhao Dahai's order with the continuous roar of cannons.

After three rounds of continuous firing, the artillery fire stopped temporarily to cool down the slightly heated barrel. If it continued to fire, even steel cannons might explode. .

Taking advantage of this gap, the soldiers of the front camp, led by the officers, adjusted their pace according to the whistle and slowly pressed towards the position of the Kumamoto army.

At this time, the Kumamoto army could basically no longer be called an army.

"Kill! Keep these cowards in line!" Yamaguchi waved the iron sword in his hand, shouted loudly, and began to win over the foot soldiers with a few samurai who were still awake and willing to stay.

After beheading dozens of bloody heads, the defeated soldiers finally calmed down. Following Kumamoto's orders, they began to regroup and line up, picking up the swords and guns discarded on the ground, and looking at the distance tremblingly.

Yamaguchi Xin only thought that it was impossible to turn defeat into victory with such a team of foot soldiers, but his task was to delay time. When the head of the family entered the city, his task would be completed.

At this moment, screams of terror came!

"They are coming!"

The foot soldiers looked at the magnificent Keelung Army in front of them in fear. At this time, they all had a question in their hearts.

Why should we fight such an army? We are just farmers in the fields and should not suffer such pain.

Looking at the dead and disabled on the ground, most of the foot soldiers now have only one thought: put down their weapons and surrender!

No more fighting!

But there are always people who don't let them go. Kumamoto, who returned to the city wall, restored his former majesty and shouted: "If you see anyone putting down their weapons, the whole family will be executed!"

This is the tragedy of the times and the tragedy of these foot soldiers.

Their lives are not their own, and neither are the lives of their families.

The Kumamoto family let them live or die.

Unable to break the slave mentality in their hearts, they helplessly clenched their swords and guns.

,

【If you like this novel, I hope you can share it on Facebook. The author will be grateful. 】