Vol 2 Chapter 2361: Battle of Honshu Island

Chapter 2361 The Battle of Honshu Island

Chapter 2357: Battle of Honshu Island

There are six major powers on Honshu Island: Oda, Uesugi, Takeda, Tokugawa, Date, and Mori. (Note: The power of the Uyizaki family is located in Hokkaido.)

　　Except for the Maori family, the other five families, after receiving the news that all of Kyushu had fallen, the coalition forces rushing to aid Kyushu directly disbanded on the spot.

This is actually a helpless move. After all, if you can't land on Kyushu Island, there is no point in continuing to maintain the establishment. It is just a waste of money and food.

Of course, the most important point is that the next place where the coalition forces of Qin, Wei, Song and Wu will attack must be Honshu.

 All countries in Honshu didn't know where the Four Nations Allied Forces would land, and they had no way to counterattack in any situation. They could only passively defend. Therefore, they naturally felt quite insecure, so they all recalled their armies to protect their own forces.

At this point, the eleven-nation alliance of Japan has basically ceased to exist in name only. They may still assist each other, but generally they will focus on their own interests and fight on their own.

“Report...to report to Your Majesty that the Central Plains Allied Forces have landed in the four countries of Iwami, Inaba, Bizen, and Tango in the west.”

Oda Nobunaga looked surprised and said to himself: "It's actually the west?"

After the fall of all Kyushu, Oda Nobunaga and other daimyo gathered their wise men to speculate on the next main attack direction of the Central Plains Allied Forces.

After all, even if it is a passive defense, if you don’t even know the enemy’s landing position, it would be too passive. Knowing the location can at least deploy targeted defenses.

At the meeting, most people believed that the Allied Forces from the Central Plains would land from the Kanto Plain, the Nongwei Plain or the Kingo Plain. After all, these three plains are the essence of the state, and are the most populous and richest places.

 The Central Plains Japanese Allied Forces came mainly for money, so they would never let go of these three plains.

In addition, the plain areas are vast and flat, making them easy to attack and difficult to defend. The Central Plains Allied Forces are good at attacking fortresses, so they may not seek stability and proceed step by step, but directly attack the richest plain areas.

 The three major plains of Kanto, Noo, and Kingo are all under the control of the Oda family, so the Oda family should focus on these three major plains for defense.

This statement is recognized by most people, including Oda Nobunaga. After all, just looking at the mass killings of the Central Plains Allied Forces in Kyushu, we know that they are not here to rule for a long time, but to seek wealth, so then It is absolutely impossible to let go of the three major plains of Honshu.

Through three Honshu wars, Oda Nobunaga drove the Maori family that originally occupied the nearby plains to the west, and drove the Takeda family and Tokugawa Island who occupied the Kanto Plain to the northeast. He finally occupied all three major plains of Honshu. Naturally, he could not The Central Plains Allied Forces may be allowed to seize the three major plains.

Oda Nobunaga also felt that the Central Plains Allied Forces were more likely to attack the three major plains, so he transferred most of his troops to the plains, but he never expected that the Han Allied Forces would land from the west.

  Why did the Han coalition choose to attack the west first? Naturally, it’s because the west is closest to Kyushu Island.

“I thought that the Han people would become more arrogant after successive battles and victories, but I didn’t expect that they would still be so cautious.”

Oda Nobunaga smiled bitterly. Facing such a powerful but cautious Han coalition, the Japanese countries would obviously not have an easy time in the future.

Since Oda Nobunaga completely misjudged the enemy's main attack direction, which resulted in a relative lack of troops in the western region, the offensive of the Four Nations Allied Forces was overwhelming.

After Xu Huang landed in Ishijian Kingdom, he quickly attacked the coastal cities and at the same time recruited the garrison guards of the major cities to surrender in the name of Maori Motoharu.

Although the Maori family has changed their name to a new name, the prestige of Maori Yuanqing is obviously not as good as that of his brother.

In addition, the Qin army's offensive is extremely fierce. If they do not surrender before the war begins, they will massacre the city once it breaks through.

Let me ask you, who is not afraid?

The Maori family was already frightened by the Qin army. Out of fear, many of the defenders chose to surrender in Kaicheng before the battle started.

The Qin army occupied a large number of cities without encountering any resistance. This also caused Xu Huang's troops to not only not decrease, but to fight more and more.

 In just five days, Xu Huang occupied the entire Shijian Kingdom, and his military strength increased to 30,000, and then continued to attack other countries in the west.

The entire Ishimi Kingdom fell, and the three kingdoms of Aki, Izumo, and Bingo were in danger. The new name of the Maori family, Mouri Yuanqing, was shocked. He quickly mobilized his few troops to resist, and at the same time sent an envoy to his alliance leader Oda Nobu. Asking for help.

But now Oda Nobunaga has too much time to take care of himself, so how can he have extra troops to support the Maori family?

What's more, the three countries of Inaba, Bizen, and Tango in the eastern part of the Maori family were also attacked by the Central Plains Allied Forces. The connection between the Oda family and the Maori family was cut off and they were no longer bordering each other.

Even if Oda Nobunaga wanted to support the Mori family, the Oda family's army would not be able to get through.

 Hence, the Maori family has completely become an outcast.

 Mao Li Yuan Qing is far from comparable to Mao Li Yuan Qing in terms of prestige, ability, and character.

After learning that the Oda family could not send reinforcements, and that the territory was surrendering in tracts, and that Aki, Izumo, and Bingo were all fallen, in desperation, they surrendered directly to Xu Huang, causing the Qin army to fight without blood. The land of two countries.

During Xu Huang's campaign in the Western Kingdom, he did not encounter much resistance and most of the defenders surrendered directly. Therefore, the killings caused were not too heavy, and he only killed nearly 100,000 people from beginning to end.

After the war, statistics showed that the total population of the Six Kingdoms was still 250,000, which was less than the total population of the Kyushu and Three Kingdoms. However, the total population controlled by Da Qin in the Japanese Kingdom also reached 600,000.

 After annihilating the Maori family and occupying the six kingdoms, Xu Huang's troops reached 60,000.

 Among them, the Qin army only had 10,000 troops, while the Qin Xie army (surrendering army) had as many as 50,000 troops.

The number of the surrendered troops was five times that of the Qin army.

These surrendering troops were forced to surrender, and they had only surrendered recently. Xu Huang could not trust them.

 In addition, because the Maori family's bones were too soft, they surrendered without much resistance. Many surrendered generals still retained military power and had the power to resist the Qin army.

 So, after some thought, Xu Huang decided to stop further expansion, began to integrate the resources of the six western countries, and reorganized and trained the 50,000 Qin allies.

In addition, Xu Huang also recruited nearly 50,000 men to mine Shijian Yinshan on a large scale.

Xu Huang's various measures, especially the reorganization of the army and the seizure of power, aroused the dissatisfaction of many surrendered generals, and they began to plot rebellion, but Xu Huang noticed it in advance. The rebellion went on as scheduled, but Xu Huang was well prepared. After killing 3,000 rebel generals and beating 7,000 rebels into slaves and sending them to mines for mining, the military power of the Qin Xiejun was completely overturned by Xu Huang. It's in your hands.

 Since then, the six western countries have completely stabilized.

Xu Huang's side was unstoppable, and the wars between the Ming, Wei, Song and Wu kingdoms were much slower than the Qin army, but they were also extremely smooth.

On the Shikoku Island, although Imagawa and Hojo had assembled an army of 90,000, which was more than twice the strength of the Ming army, the overall quality of the soldiers and the lineup of generals were still far behind compared with the Ming army. .

　　The Imagawa and Hojo families, who fled from Honshu to Shikoku, both had more than one god-level general, but Zhu Di dispatched three gods of war.

 The general lineups of both sides are not at the same level at all, and the overall quality of the soldiers is also very different. How could they possibly stop the Ming army?

Since the Ming army landed on Shikoku Island, they fought three battles and achieved three victories, and soon occupied one-third of the territory of Shikoku Island. Imagawa and Hojo suffered heavy casualties, but they had to expand their troops and continue to resist desperately.

If this trend continues, within a month or two at most, the Imagawa and Hojo families will be destroyed and the entire Shikoku Island will be completely occupied.

As for the three kingdoms of Wei, Song, and Wu, the territories they attacked were all owned by the Oda family. However, most of the Oda family's troops were in the three major plains of Kanto, Noo, and Konge. Therefore, the military strength in the western region was relatively empty, and it was naturally impossible to stop them. He lived in the conquests of the three kingdoms of Wei, Song and Wu.

The goal of the three kingdoms of Wei, Song and Wu was to conquer the four countries. However, it took only half a month to complete most of the strategic goals, but the main force of the Oda family was still on the way to support.

As soon as the western region was attacked, Oda Nobunaga immediately mobilized his troops to support the western region. However, due to the road conditions and the long distance, he obviously did not arrive so quickly.

Just as the Oda family's army was approaching, the situation in western Honshu had completely collapsed, and it was completely impossible to recover by the time reinforcements arrived.

Oda Nobunaga had actually anticipated this, so from the very beginning, he was ready to abandon the twenty western countries.

Oda Nobunaga wanted to restrict the four-nation coalition forces beyond the nearby plains. To this end, he would not hesitate to beat the twenty western countries into a white field.

It is obviously not easy to achieve this goal with the power of Oda alone, so Oda Nobunaga also sent a joint statement to Uesugi, Takeda, Tokugawa, Date, and the Uyizaki family in Hokkaido, hoping that the four countries Troops can be sent to the west to join the war.

　　After receiving Nobunaga’s summons, the three families of Tokugawa, Uyizaki and Date all refused on the grounds that the Han coalition forces might divide their forces to invade other areas.

 Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen both responded to Oda Nobunaga’s call and personally led their elite troops to assist in the battle.

But what neither Oda Nobunaga nor Uesugi Kenshin expected was that the Uesugi family's army had just left the territory, and before they could fight the Wu army, the Echigo Kingdom in the rear was attacked by the Qin army, and it was Zhou Yu himself. Lead.

At this time, Oda Nobunaga and others knew that the Qin army that landed in Ishimi Country was just a partial force, and the main force of the Qin army led by Zhou Yu was eyeing the Uesugi family's territory.

 As for why the Qin army targeted the Uesugi family? I am afraid that only the Uesugi family's gold mine can attract the Qin army.

 After realizing this, Oda Nobunaga suddenly felt chills running down his spine. The Iwami Ginzan of the Mori family and the Sado Kaneyama of the Uesugi family were secrets even in Japan, but the Han coalition forces knew them very well.

 With such a powerful, cautious, but well-known opponent, can Japan really defeat them?

Oda Nobunaga didn't know the outcome, but he obviously had no choice. Regardless of success or failure, he had to fight to the death.

 Echigo Kingdom was suddenly attacked, and it was the main force of the Qin army that came, which frightened Uesugi Kenshin.

Echigo is not only the largest country in the Uesugi family, it is equivalent to the area of ​​three countries. It is also rich in mineral resources. It has the large gold mine of Sado Gold Mountain, and it is also the main grain-producing area of ​​​​the Uesugi family.

Because they own the Sado Gold Mountain, the Uesugi family has always been financially wealthy, but there is not much arable land, so the grain production has never been high, and the grain production of Echigo country accounts for half of the Uesugi family.

Once the Echigo Kingdom falls, the Uesugi family will not only lose its main source of wealth, but also lose half of its grain production. This is undoubtedly fatal to a country and forces Uesugi Kenshin to immediately withdraw troops and return reinforcements.

Takeda Shingen learned that the Uesugi family had been attacked, and he was afraid that the Han coalition forces would attack his home, so he recruited a large support force and tried his best to defend his country.

 So, Oda Nobunaga, who was leading his army to the west, could only fight alone against the three kingdoms of Wei, Song and Wu.

Uesugi Kenshin's return of reinforcements was not unsatisfactory, but it was still a step too late. Echigo country only had 15,000 defenders. Under the fierce attack of 30,000 Qin army's main force and 30,000 Qin auxiliary army (Japan surrendered army), only After holding on for ten days, the whole territory fell.

It is worth mentioning that no one in the cities of Echigo surrendered, and the strength of the resistance far exceeded the expectations of the Qin army generals.

 In the end, although the Qin army easily captured Echigo, it also lost 500 Qin troops and 4,000 Qin allies.

Such a strong resistance, in addition to the Uesugi family's propaganda of the brutality of the Han people, is more because Uesugi Kenshin is more popular than Maori Otomo and other famous names.

This also made Zhou Yu realize that if he continued to follow his previous practice of directly slaughtering the city without surrender, when the Uesugi family was destroyed, this area would also be slaughtered into a piece of white land. By then, there might not even be enough labor to dig up the Sado Gold Mountain. come out.

At this point, Zhou Yu decided to relax the conditions for massacre. Instead of directly massacring the city, he would kill all the resisters in order to reduce the resistance of the Uesugi family.

Zhou Yu's method is indeed more effective than massacring the city. Not massacring the city reduces the people's resistance to the Qin army, and the probability of the Uesugi generals surrendering is also greatly increased.

With Zhou Yu's combination of grace and power, it only took eight days to capture the ten cities of Echigo Kingdom, and did not cause too much killing. He only killed 50,000 or 60,000 people. This was the least killing by the Qin army. once.

Shortly after the fall of Echigo Kingdom, Uesugi Kenshin's army finally came back, but she was very sensible and did not fight with Zhou Yu to return to Echigo Kingdom. Instead, she chose to defend Echichu, Echizen, Noto and other places.

The Uesugi family is not the Oda family, and their military strength is far less than that of the Oda family.

The Qin army's combat power was stronger than that of the Japanese army, and its military strength was no less than that of the Uesugi family. How could Uesugi Kenshin dare to confront Zhou Yu head-on? It is better to defend instead of attack and wait for Zhou Yu to take the initiative.

While Uesugi Kenshin decided to defend, he also sent envoys to lobby Takeda Shingen and Date Masamune, hoping that the Takeda and Date families could send troops to support the Uesugi family.

Takeda Shingen originally did not dare to send troops, but he learned that the main force of the Qin army was in Echigo country, and the rest of the Han coalition forces were in the west. The Han coalition forces no longer had any extra troops to attack the Takeda family.

Considering that once the Uesugi family was destroyed, the Takeda family would not be able to survive alone, so Takeda Shingen decisively decided to send troops to attack Zhou Yu together with Uesugi Kenshin from the south and the north.

Dear friends, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival. The missing chapters from yesterday will be made up over the weekend.

　　

　　

 (End of this chapter)