New Shun 1730

Shi Shiyong had heard Liu Yu talk about the sailors of the Weihai Navy more than once, and he could imagine that he could not stand the ship after only sitting on it for such a short time, and in the well-decorated captain's room.

Those sailors who stayed in the gun room on the deck all day, slept on only a small hammock, asked for a glass of wine every day, fought whenever they went ashore on vacation, and could not see the land for more than a month at sea and could only talk to seagulls like crazy, could be imagined.

"Don't worry, sir, I will try my best to restrain them."

After the instructions were given, the sailors checked their pistols, hammers, daggers and other weapons suitable for boarding battles, jumped onto the small boats below, hid on the side, and waited for orders.

Under the city, the first attack of the Tosa clan was about to begin.

The samurai holding iron cannons came forward. They were all hereditary soldiers, but the Tosa clan had financial difficulties in recent years and owed a lot of money to merchants in Osaka and Edo. They had money to pay the interest first, and they had no money to organize drills that required the consumption of gunpowder.

Although some samurai can default on their debts, merchants are also divided into different levels. Can merchants who dare to lend money to feudal lords and charge interest so easily default on their debts?

The matchlock guns in the hands of the arquebusiers are almost the same as those used during the Wanli Anti-Japanese and Aid Korea War. They are not only inferior to the French flintlock guns after the Dashun Army reform, but also inferior to the Ottoman Central Asian matchlock guns before the Dashun Army reform.

However, the level of simple three-stage shooting is still there, and nothing can be seen in the shooting stage.

The arquebusiers moved forward little by little, approaching Urado Castle, and the samurai with swords or guns behind followed behind.

When they were about 150 steps away from the front line, these arquebusiers began to shoot in batches.

This was not yet the range of the archers, but the archers were not in a hurry. They were obviously waiting for the arquebusiers to slowly approach by shooting in turns.

Smoke had already risen at the foot of the mountain. Under the cover of the smoke and the noise of the battle, the sailors on the small boats began to paddle hard, taking advantage of the midday tide and going up the river.

The lead bullets from the iron cannon kept hitting the broken stone walls, and the marines hiding behind the stone walls quietly waited for the officers' orders.

From a high position, the Japanese iron cannons were not a threat. Thanks to the previous lord of Tosa Domain, Chosokabe, who chose this city site, it is very suitable for defense.

"Free fire!"

The officer gave the order to free fire, which was rare. The front row of skirmishers with Minié bullets aimed at the iron cannonmen moving in formation, and sporadic gunfire continued to sound.

The howitzer and mortar gunners who had been waiting impatiently in the back finally waited for Liu Yu's order, adjusted the elevation angle, and ignited the wooden fuse.

Under the ruins of the mountain city, the iron cannonmen of Tosa Domain fell to the ground from time to time, hit by the lead bullets spinning in the air. Their armor couldn't defend against the impact of lead bullets, and people kept falling to the ground.

However, the casualties in the shooting phase were always tolerable. Although the formation was already loose, they were still moving forward as a whole.

The archers finally reached the distance suitable for their throwing, and the close combat warriors behind them drew their swords and prepared to charge.

Behind the iron gunners and archers, Hayashi Yasutafu, who was wearing armor and holding a sword, was quietly watching the situation in Urado Castle. Hearing the continuous bursts of gunfire, he was not panicked.

Yesterday, I met the Tang people on the mountain with Daikoku Haosheng. The Tang people on the mountain did not have swords, spears or swords, but were all equipped with strange iron cannons without matchlocks.

He had never seen such iron cannons.

Although his salary was only 180 koku, in fact, Hayashi Yasutafu was the most capable man in the whole of Tosa.

He inherited the position of the head of the family from his adoptive father or father-in-law, and also inherited the swordsmanship. He is the tenth generation patriarch of the Eishin-ryu, a direct descendant of the Wushuang style. He is also a strong man in the Iaido slashing method in the whole of Japan.

In addition, he is also the successor of the Oguri-ryu jujutsu, proficient in shuriken and katana. His father-in-law is not only the patriarch of the Eishin-ryu, a direct descendant of the Wushuang style, but also an important inheritor of the Oguri-ryu in Tosa.

When he was in Edo, he had a competition with Shi Shiyong, who met again yesterday. Shi Shiyong was not very good at using swords and knives. If he competed with swords and knives, Shi Shiyong would not be able to beat him.

But in horsemanship, lance, horse archery, and bow, Hayashi An Taifu Zheng also knew that he was not as good as Shi Shiyong.

Listening to the popping bean-like gunshot, Hayashi An Taifu Zheng involuntarily tightened the knife at his waist, and an unusual excitement surged in his mind.

He felt that this was like a fateful battle.

That day in Edo, Shi Shiyong had argued with him about the status of bows, knives, swords, and lances.

At that time, Shi Shiyong had been saying that archery and archery skills were the learning of superior men; swordsmanship was just a small way of self-defense in close combat. The selection of the candidates depended on archery skills, not slashing; the six arts of a gentleman also include shooting but no slashing.

The lance and iron spear were the skills of a brave general; shuriken and katana were just small tricks for the chaos of the army. There was no chance of winning with katana against lance and cavalry.

Hayashi An Taifu had never argued with Shi Shiyong in Edo that time.

And today... he felt that the level of martial arts would ultimately be determined by blood.

Perhaps, he would die under Shi Shiyong's archery skills; perhaps, he would chop off his head with swordsmanship before Shi Shiyong shot him to death.

Today's fateful battle was just a continuation of the debate in Edo.

It was about both superiority and inferiority, and life and death.

Thinking of this, he held the knife in his hand tighter, and his arm even trembled a little, which was not supposed to happen to an Iaido master.

"A fateful duel."

Looking up, he wanted to see if he could see Shi Shiyong.

However, what he saw was the flickering fire of the slow-firing mortar, and a black dot that could be captured by the naked eye showed a trajectory with a great arc in the air, and the black dot became larger and larger.

Boom...

A beautiful scene like fireworks, this was the last memory of Hayashi An Taifu before his death.

He did not wait for the fateful duel, but waited for a three-pound shrapnel bomb.

The nearly perfect fuse length and angle made the shrapnel explode ten feet above his head, and the scattered iron pieces instantly killed more than twenty people. Those who were lucky enough not to die could only lie on the ground and cry.

Subsequent grenades and mortar shrapnel bombs continued to explode above the heads of these Tosa samurai, and the huge twelve-pound solid iron balls also bounced up and down on the hard ground, smashing out blood marks, like the earth being scratched by the woman's nails after a quarrel with the woman.

A line of Marines spread out their formations and fired a perfect volley from the side, and the first charge of the Tosa samurai was over.

The ground was littered with broken limbs and corpses. A few people who were not dead were crawling on the ground, with purple-black intestines flowing out of the wounds.

A samurai whose leg was broken by a 12-pound cannon was holding his broken leg, at a loss. He could only watch the blood spurt out of his broken leg and tried to put it back on, but it didn't work after several attempts.

There were less than 100 of the more than 300 iron gunners who retreated, and nearly 300 samurai were killed or injured by the shrapnel.

However, their nightmare was not over yet.

They had just retreated to the main camp, and they were bombarded by warships at sea again. This was a distance they could not imagine, and it was even more intensive than they could imagine.

More than a dozen cruisers were lined up, and the gunners had already prepared to pull the flintlock gun machine.

The 12-pound shells that might not be able to hit the battleships could easily tear apart the fragile human body.

The hard rock ground on the beach increased the power of the bombardment several times, and the flying iron bullets harvested lives crazily.

Many people put down the so-called honor of samurai. In fact, there may not be too many people who have it. The more they lack something, the more they brag about it. Otherwise, the 400,000 registered samurai in Japan would be invincible.

Like a frightened flock of sheep... Perhaps this metaphor is not appropriate in Japan. At this time, there are no sheep that are easily frightened in Japan... The remaining samurai began to run away with their heads in their arms, running wildly along the way they came, and no longer cared about anything.

They only thought of one thing, to avoid here, to avoid the battlefield like hell.

Several horsemen were frightened and fell to the ground. The lower-level samurai were responsible and could help the upper-level samurai. More people ran wildly in the direction they came.

They wanted to escape back to Kochi Castle and never wanted to deal with this group of Tang people again. If they were willing to occupy Urado Castle, they could occupy it. Maybe it would be safer to stay in Kochi Castle.

Unless the food was finished, many people had made up their minds not to come down again.

Behind them, the bombardment of the warships had ended. The marines on the mountain beat the war drums, formed a company column, rushed down the mountain and began to pursue.

Among the defeated warriors, Dahei Haosheng's horse was lost. The horse was frightened and ran away during the bombardment just now. He was stronger than the other warriors. He did not throw away his bow, but the armor on his body was a bit cumbersome, otherwise he could run faster.

There were constant shouts and gunshots behind him. Dahei Haosheng, who was running, looked back and finally saw the appearance of the Tang soldiers fighting on foot.

They lined up in a neat team and chased behind them in a trot. There were only about twenty people in each row. They ran very fast, but the formation was still generally intact.

They held iron cannons in their hands, but there was no obvious matchlock on the iron cannons. There were sharp spikes in front of the iron cannons, like a short spear.

Dahei Haosheng was thankful that these Tang people had no war horses and cavalry, otherwise none of them would have been able to escape.

But soon, he was swept by a huge fear... On the road they had to take to escape, in front of the path at the foot of the mountain leading to Kochi Castle, stood a group of Tang soldiers wearing strange clothes.

They did not have iron cannons like the ones chasing them from behind, but some strange weapons.

Some held hammers, some held huge caliber hand cannons, some held rapiers, and more held short hand cannons.

Some of them had their hair shaved like criminal thieves, and some had their hair shaved off directly.

Dahei Haosheng did not know that these people's hair was shaved because they could not bear the bites of lice in the narrow cabin, but he had seen many Tang people with tied hair, and subconsciously felt that these people were different from those Tang people who formed a formation to shoot.

If the Tang people chasing them from behind were like biting tigers, then the people blocking them in front were like a group of mad dogs who didn't care about their lives.

In the crowd, he saw an acquaintance, Shi Shiyong, whom he had met in Edo.

Almost subconsciously, Dahei Haosheng drew out a feather arrow and prepared to draw his bow.

Shi Shiyong on the opposite side also noticed him. Seeing that Dahei Haosheng was about to draw his bow, Shi Shiyong almost subconsciously raised the flintlock short gun in his hand and pulled the trigger.

The sparks from the hammer ignited the gunpowder. Although Dahei Haosheng's Yamato-style archery was not bad, it was not as fast as the burning speed of gunpowder.

His arm had not yet been fully stretched out, and the lead bullet in Shi Shiyong's short gun had already flown to his chest, as if he was hit by a heavy sledgehammer. The severe pain hit him, his eyes went black, and he fell backwards. The half-drawn bow finally failed to complete the final movement.

Shi Shiyong inserted the short gun that had been fired into his waist, and pulled out another short gun that had been loaded long ago, and walked in front of Dahei Haosheng. He couldn't help but think of what Liu Yu said to him after he came back from Japan that day.

Then he thought, when I went to Edo, I was known as the first archer. However, after returning to the capital, I practiced thirty kilograms of gunpowder.

Seeing Dahei Haosheng lying on the ground twitching and not dead yet, Shi Shiyong repeated the words Liu Yu said to him.

"Times... have changed."