Xianxia version of Water Margin

…

Nasuno, on a huge rock.

Ruan Xiaoer, Liu Qi, Wen Huanzhang and others were watching the Japanese military situation with telescopes.

Prior to this, the Dayuan Army and the Japanese Army had already fought two battles here.

The first battle.

At that time, the front army attacking the Japanese army from the left had just arrived in Nasuno. Reinforcements led by Ruan Xiaoer, Liu Qi, Wen Huanzhang and others are still on the way.

At that time, the Left Army had less than 50,000 troops.

——Together with the Dayuan elite, the Ji army, and the Japanese troops who surrendered to the Dayuan Empire, the left army had a total of nearly 300,000 troops. It can kill 10,000 enemies and damage 3,000 itself. The Zuo Route Army passed through the pass and defeated them, but actually killed and injured 50,000 to 70,000 horses (most of them were Ji Army and Japanese troops who surrendered to the Yuan Empire). In addition to the dead and wounded, the Left Route Army also sent out many soldiers and horses to guard various dangerous places captured by the Dayuan Army and to clean up the remaining troops and local armed forces in the acquired areas. As a result, the Dai Yuan army that first arrived at Nasuno actually numbered only 456,000.

At the request of the Nasuno lord Sudō Sakimori Sadanobu, Emperor Shirakawa prepared to take advantage of the Left Army's unstable foothold to defeat the Left Army, and then obtain bargaining chips with the Yuan Empire.

Therefore, Emperor Shirakawa ordered the Japanese court to organize a crusade, and appointed his cronies Yoshiaki Miura, Chiba Tsunein, and Hirosuke Kamisuke as generals, Onmyoji Abe Yasushi as military advisor, and dispatched 135,000 samurai warriors. A large army composed of monk soldiers set out to conquer Nasuno.

At that time, although the Left Army had less than 50,000 troops, a large part of it was elite cavalry, and there were also many thunder chariots. Yang Yizhong, who was the key leader, was very good at fighting.

As for Japan, although the main forces dispatched were also the main forces, these main forces had been defeated by the Yuan Army several times before, and the reserve forces added after that had already greatly reduced their combat effectiveness.

Having said this, some people may be a little confused, how many troops does Japan have? Why is it so forbidden to fight? How can it still organize so many Japanese troops after being wiped out wave after wave by the Yuan army?

In fact, the total number of samurai warriors in various places in Japan is only three to four hundred thousand. The reason why they have not been exhausted for so long is mainly because Emperor Shirakawa gathered monk soldiers and organized various places to recruit a large number of Japanese men as reserves. , to stimulate Japan's full war potential.

Not long after Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the seventh century, during the early Tang Dynasty in the Central Plains, the Japanese Emperor at that time issued an order prohibiting the consumption of cattle, horses, dogs, apes, and chickens.

After two hundred years of repeated emphasis, by the Heian period after the ninth century, Japanese dignitaries, wealthy families, and gentry had developed the habit of basically not eating meat.

During the period of Emperor Shirakawa, he felt that not eating meat was not pious enough, so he promulgated a strengthened edict to further prohibit the consumption of fish, shrimp and shellfish, that is, no one was allowed to eat anything except vegetarian food!

Compared with Patriarch Baihe, even Emperor Wu of Liang in China, who lost his country because of his worship of Buddhism (the emperor who first formulated the commandment that monks should not eat meat), is simply not pious, because Emperor Wu of Liang only asked monks to be vegetarian, and Emperor Shirakawa managed to make all the people vegetarian...

The reason why Emperor Shirakawa is so pious is not only because he believes in Buddhism, but also because Japanese Buddhism achieved the status of a state religion after the ninth century. Buddhist temples are everywhere. Temples not only represent a huge economic, political and military power, but also have achieved In order to achieve absolute dominance, Emperor Shirakawa relied on the support of these temples to become the supreme ruler of Japan, and he ruled for decades.

In short, there were hundreds of thousands or even more than 200,000 monk soldiers in Japan in this era.

Moreover, the monk soldiers of some sects attacked the monasteries of other sects and looted them. Therefore, the monk soldiers have actually become no different from armed elements of secular feudal lords.

In addition, Japan in this era has a population of nearly 10 million.

In terms of population alone, Japan ranks among the best in the world.

Therefore, it is normal for the reserve forces in various places to total hundreds of thousands.

but--

Although the number of Japanese troops is large, the quality of the soldiers is far behind. Not to mention the temporarily recruited reserves, even the monk soldiers have very limited combat power.

The Japanese samurai are a little better, but due to differences in spiritual talent, physical fitness, tacit understanding of cooperation, equipment, advanced combat methods, fighting spirit, etc., three Japanese samurai can barely compete with one Yuan army. The pawns tie.

Even the Japanese army that surrendered to the Yuan Army was far stronger than the Japanese army under the Japanese imperial court.

Therefore, although the strength of the troops was less than half of the Japanese army, Yang Yizhong still decisively fought the Japanese army decisively.

In this battle, the Japanese army was defeated without any suspense. Only less than 20,000 of the 135,000 Japanese troops escaped. The blood of the Japanese army dyed the boulders under the feet of Ruan Xiaoer, Liu Qi, Wen Huanzhang and others red. Later, people called this huge stone the "killing stone" and said that it was transformed by Tamamo Mae.

The second battle.

Soon, Emperor Shirakawa organized another 300,000 Japanese troops to come back and invited eminent monks and masters from all over the country to help.

At that time, 30,000 Yuan troops led by Li Bao arrived in Nasuno.

Seventy thousand Yuan troops faced off against three hundred thousand Japanese troops.

Relying on Kinmen Yuke's profound Taoism, thunder chariots, elite horse troops and other advanced weapons and advanced tactics, after a hard battle, the Yuan army once again defeated the Japanese army southward, killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of Japanese samurai. and monk soldiers, and the remaining Japanese samurai and monk soldiers fled back to Kinki.

Now this is the third battle and will also be the last battle.

If the Great Yuan Army wins this battle, then Ruan Xiaoer and others can incorporate Japan into the territory of the Great Yuan Empire. In turn, the Great Yuan Empire will gain eight major counties, the strategic depth will be greatly improved, and it will also have a stable The rear area has the power to sweep the world, and Japan will completely become history. All Japan's dignitaries, wealthy families, and gentry families will have to be liquidated by the Yuan Empire.

And if the Japanese army wins this battle, then the Japanese army will definitely take advantage of the situation to drive the Yuan army out of China and Shikoku, and then defend the Zhou defense, Nagato Tenshin and Shikoku Island. In that case, Japan will be able to keep the Kinki region, China places, Shikoku places, and thus preserve the vitality of Japan and the luxurious life of Japanese dignitaries, wealthy families, and gentry. In the future, they may be able to take back Japan, but it is not certain that the territory of the Yuan Empire in Japan will be divided into There are two parts, the north and the south, and there is a hidden danger of being invaded.

Therefore, this battle will be a crucial battle for both the Yuan Empire and Japan.

Therefore, both the Yuan army and the Japanese army went all out.

The Great Yuan Empire.

Ruan Xiaoer, Liu Qi, Wen Huanzhang and others personally led reinforcements to the battlefield and participated in the battle. The Dayuan Army dispatched a total of 240,000 troops to fight the Japanese army to the death.

Japan side.

Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Toba mobilized all the Japanese samurai, monk soldiers and reservists in addition to guarding the three passes, with a total force of 500,000. Moreover, the ancestors and grandsons of Emperor Shirakawa and Emperor Toba also personally led the expedition.

——In fact, only Hiroyuki Shirakawa was on the expedition personally. The reason why Emperor Toba also came was because Hiroyuki Shirakawa was afraid that Emperor Toba would take away his right to rule after he left, so he forcibly brought Emperor Toba with him. come over.

Both sides had begun their arrangements and tentative attacks three days ago, and were now fully prepared.

The war is about to break out!

…

Liu Qi said to Ruan Xiaoer: "Marshal, look, although the Japanese armor is made in the Tang Dynasty, it is made of bamboo!"

Wen Huanzhang on the side introduced: "After the Dahua Reform, Japan's armor styles were learned from the Tang Dynasty in the Central Plains. However, due to insufficient resources in Japan, they mostly used bamboo. The protective capabilities of this bamboo armor are very limited. The only advantage is that Easy to make.”

Of course, not all the people in Japan wore bamboo armor, there were also some warriors and monk soldiers who wore iron armor, and these warriors and monk soldiers were the elite of the Japanese army.

In addition to this kind of armor made in the Tang Dynasty, Japan also has a large armor.

This kind of large armor is very gorgeous and looks very powerful when worn on the body. The only problem is that this large armor seems not very practical.

——This kind of large armor is bulky and has poor defensive capabilities.

And this kind of large armor is undoubtedly worn by the generals of the Japanese army.

In addition to the large armor, the helmets worn by the Japanese generals are also eye-catching.

Eyebrow (a visor-like part in front of the forehead), blowback (a part similar to ear protection), しころ (Japanese-made kanji, left leather and right hand, that is, a neck protector), face or cheek head (a part that covers the face or cheeks) ), throat chakra (the part that protects the throat) I won’t talk about these, after all, they are somewhat useful.

In addition to these useful things, they also made a lot of messy things, such as holding up two antlers, making a crescent shovel in front of the chest, hanging some jewelry and other small accessories, etc...

Moreover, these helmets include star helmets, head-shaped helmets, peach-shaped helmets, Tang crown helmets, Ichinogani helmets, black hat-shaped pockets, Hineno pockets, etc. There are hundreds of styles.

The various styles and ever-changing ornaments make these helmets very gorgeous, beautiful and highly ornamental.

However, Ruan Xiaoer and others thought it was flashy.

The flashy things of the Japanese army are not just large armors and helmets, but there are many more, such as the round fans and iron fans held by many Japanese generals.

Most of these round fans and iron fans are made of leather or thin iron, or are folding fans reinforced with metal plating. On them are painted a circular array with the Sanskrit words of the seeds of the Great Sun Tathagata of the Vajra Realm, the twelve heavenly and earthly branches, Wen Huanzhang told everyone about the twenty-eight constellations and other images: "This is a tool used by Japanese military advisers to calculate good and bad directions. It later evolved into the possession of generals and has a certain command effect."

However, Ruan Xiaoer and other generals of the Dayuan Army thought that the round fans and iron fans provided by the army had no special purpose except to cool them down.

The weapons of the Japanese army were even more diverse. In addition to fans, there were also tobacco pipes (cigarette rods). Many pipes were made of metal and were about three feet in length. Some even had hand guards, like swords. ), sickle (which is a sickle, a weapon like sickle is very popular among low-level warriors. It is a weapon in wartime and can be used for labor production in peacetime.), copper lock (sometimes also called Wanli lock or ten-hand lock, etc. , is actually an iron chain with two iron bars at both ends), etc...

Of course, although there are many users of these weapons, most of them are not weapons for the main force. They should be equipment used by the reserve forces.

As for the main samurai and monk soldiers of the Japanese army, most of them were knives, spears, razors, bows and arrows.

The sword was not the Japanese sword that Jiang Hongfei had in his previous life, but an imitation Tang sword.

Spears are also called 鑓, and there are many types and shapes, such as Kikuchi spear, Jumonji spear, Bishamon spear, Su 鑓, Alisma spear...etc., they are the main weapons in joint battles.

The razor was mostly used by monk soldiers. It is somewhat similar to the Chinese long-handled sword, but the blade is very narrow.

The bow is a long-arm bow more than two meters long. This bow is a three-piece bow that Japan improved not long ago. It is a composite bow made of bamboo wrapped with a wooden core from the front and back.

Not long ago, the Japanese army used bamboo bows, which were roughly made of wood and bamboo.

Looking at the weapons and equipment of the main force of the Japanese army, they were actually quite good, but such a force was not more than 200,000, or even about 150,000.

And even the warriors and monks of these main forces were far from being comparable to the soldiers of the Yuan army.

So, after watching, Ruan Xiaoer and other generals of the Yuan army felt relieved.

It is worth mentioning that Ruan Xiaoer knew that his command level was not high, and Jiang Hongfei sent Liu Qi to be his deputy, in fact, he wanted Liu Qi to be the commander-in-chief.

The key point is that after fighting all the way, Ruan Xiaoer also saw that Liu Qi's level was really higher than his.

The key point is that Jiang Hongfei let Ruan Xiaoer lead the expedition because he believed in Ruan Xiaoer, and Ruan Xiaoer could not live up to Jiang Hongfei's trust.

Therefore, when it came to the moment of deciding the outcome, Ruan Xiaoer followed Jiang Hongfei and gave the position of commander-in-chief to a more capable person.

So, Liu Qi became the commander-in-chief of this battle.

Although he did not personally command this battle, Ruan Xiaoer could not help but remind Liu Qi: "Uncle Xin, both sides have invested more than one million troops in this battle. Even Bai Qi and Han Xin have not fought many battles like this. You must not underestimate the enemy."

Liu Qi said: "Marshal, rest assured, I will do my best."

Liu Qi was not blindly confident, but personally checked every link and explained everything he could think of.

At the same time, Liu Qi repeatedly confirmed the order of attack with the commanders of each branch...

Not only Liu Qi and others were making final preparations for this battle, but the Japanese army also began to make final preparations.

The Japanese believed that the success or failure of the war depended on fate, so they held a series of ceremonies before going out to pray to God for victory.

The main part is the "Three Offerings Ceremony", which means that the general eats three kinds of food, namely, abalone, chestnut and kelp before going to the battle. While eating, children are asked to sing the names of these three products, which are homophonic, namely: "Da te, Sheng te, Xi te".

In addition, when the general leaves the palace, a baoding (a kind of kitchen knife) is placed on the ground in front of the palace gate, and the general steps on the baoding to show that "the general will step on the blade and move forward".

Finally, before going to the battle, the retainers will hold a singing meeting to pray for victory.

The Emperor Shirakawa, who is already over 60 years old, served as the general in this battle. At this time, he was very pious to perform a series of battle rituals, hoping that the gods and Buddhas in the sky would bless Japan to win this battle and drive away those despicable and greedy invaders of the Yuan Empire...

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