Chapter 107, The End of the Five Years of Chongzhen (Part 2)
While disputes and wars raged across the Central Plains, the Japanese islands across the sea were also caught in the flames of war that covered the sky and the sun.
In the summer of the 9th year of Kanei, the newly rising overlord of the Western Kingdom, the Mori family of the Choshu Domain who had just converted to Christianity a few years ago, launched a new round of Kyushu offensive with the "Holy War to Protect Christianity" and uprooted the shogunate's power. The last few strongholds on Kyushu Island. Later, the feudal lord Mouri Hide finally publicly raised the slogan of overthrow, mobilized the famous "Kiroshidan" of the Western Kingdom to form a Christian overthrow coalition, and started the journey to "Shangluo" with a cross flag.
However, Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, who was stationed in Kinki and preparing for the war, was in a bad situation - he imported Western firearms, hired Dutch consultants, and spent huge sums of money to organize and train the 5,000 new shogunate troops. The time traveler army was easily annihilated, causing the strength of the shogunate army to be greatly reduced. Moreover, Tokugawa Iemitsu's most trusted minister, Masayuki Hoshina (the future founder of the Aizu Domain), was also absent from the battle, causing General Tokugawa Iemitsu to lose his arm before the decisive battle, and the entire army in the shogunate camp was even more demoralized. The morale is low.
Therefore, when the overthrown shogunate army gradually wiped out the vassal states loyal to the shogunate along the way, and finally invaded Kinki in a large scale, the resistance of the shogunate army was quite weak. The two joint battles organized at Himeji Castle and Yodogawa were both equipped with modern equipment. The Maori army, who had turned into firearms, suffered a disastrous defeat. The shogunate navy, which was still using Anzha ships and small morning boats, was no match for the Maori navy, which was already equipped with Western sailing ships.
By the beginning of October, General Tokugawa Iemitsu saw that the Kinki battlefield was in ruins and that his own side was losing the battle. He simply ordered the burning of Kyoto, coerced Emperor Meimasa and other members of the royal family and fled to Edo, leaving only Matsudaira Nobutsuna, the senior shogunate, and four thousand men. The Hatamoto samurai and 10,000 miscellaneous soldiers held fast to Osaka Castle, using this famous strong castle to try their best to delay the footsteps of the defeated shogunate, and buy time for the Edo shogunate to raise wages and recruit troops in Kanto.
On October 10, Lord Mouri Hidesuru led his army into Kyoto, which had been burned to ashes. At this point, the battle of Shangluo of the Choshu Domain Mori family was initially declared successful. But the war in the Kinki region was far from over - the Choshu clan had not been complacent for long before they discovered that their seemingly successful climb to Luo did not mean that the civil war situation in the Kinki region had settled: it was completely different from what they had imagined in advance. Differently, after the overthrown troops captured Kyoto, there was no announcement in various parts of the Kinei. Instead, civil unrest and war broke out, causing the Maori family to step into the quagmire of "people's war"...
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AD 1632, the fifth year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, December of the ninth year of Kanei, Japan, Kinki, Osaka Castle
Cannons roared and black smoke rose everywhere; drums and horns blared, and the sound of killing shook the sky; corpses littered the fields and blood flowed into rivers.
Thick smoke blackened the clear sky, and blood dyed the white snow red.
Seventeen years have passed since the "Battle of Osaka Summer" that led to the destruction of the Toyotomi family. This huge city built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi with all the financial resources of Japan has once again turned into a The flames of war set the prairie fire ablaze, and the bloody battlefield was full of killings.
This protracted offensive and defensive battle in Osaka has entered its third month.
Although after a series of battles, the overthrown troops had removed the outer strongholds of Osaka Castle one by one, and set fire to the castle town of Osaka into a charred ruin. But the tall and majestic Osaka Castle remained unable to be attacked for a long time, as if mocking the futility of the overthrown army.
As we all know, the so-called siege of a city since ancient times means that people in the city want to get out, but people outside the city want to come in.
Accompanied by the roar of conchs and taiko drums and the roar of shouts, colorful squirming crowds carried hastily made rough ladders and wooden blocks, holding bows and arrows, bamboo spears and a few ancient "iron cannons" (Japanese). Style musket), once again ran out of the messy simple camp outside the city, hitting the walls of Osaka Castle like a tsunami in waves. The momentum was so huge that it could give people the illusion that the earth was shaking.
But before the crowd even reached the moat, they were already defeated in despair - there was a flash of fire at the top of the city, and a dozen black bronze cannons made a series of loud noises, throwing out many watermelon-sized rounds. The shaped projectile plunged straight into this dense crowd. Wherever it passed, the soldiers who could not avoid all had broken bones, blood and brain matter. In an instant, terrifying long ditches of flesh and blood were plowed out.
As a result, the siege team that had been charging at the approaching siege menacingly a moment ago quickly changed from high tide to low tide in the blink of an eye, disappearing from the foot of the castle at a much faster speed than during the attack. Only on the land around Osaka Castle, dozens of mutilated corpses were left scattered, as well as a few moaning abandoned seriously injured people, showing how "heavy" sacrifices they had made.
Next, as if in response, the artillery positions of the fallen army also opened fire on Osaka Castle. Each dark muzzle spit out countless bright orange-red flames, accompanied by strings of sharp whistling sounds, and heavy solid bullets were blasted by powerful The kinetic energy was sent out of the muzzle and slammed into the towering city in the distance... As the shells came out of the barrel, the diffuse smoke slowly flowed on the ground, almost covering the entire position.
Unfortunately, although the momentum of this shelling was spectacular, due to the range and terrain, most of the shells failed to hit Osaka Castle at all, but fell into the mud or moat outside the city, splashing A tall column of water. The few cannonballs that hit Osaka Castle only smashed a layer of the solid boulder wall foundation, leaving a few shallow marks, and the damage caused was simply negligible.
Facing the acrid smoke, the Osaka frontline general of the overthrown Tokugawa army, the famous "Chōshu Sukuro" followed Nobuyoshi. At this time, he was standing on the artillery position of the overthrown Tokugawa army, leaning on a samurai sword and watching with a tired expression. The overthrown army failed to attack the city again, and they lowered their heads and coughed twice from time to time.
Since the endless offensive and defensive battle in Osaka broke out, he could no longer remember how many times the shogunate army had been driven back by the trapped beasts. He only felt as if his chest was filled with balls of cotton. I was so suffocated that I couldn't even breathe.
——How long will it take to get rid of the last stronghold of the shogunate army in Kinai?
In fact, in the early days of the Battle of Osaka, with the high spirit of having just planted the military flag in Kyoto, the progress of the overthrow of the Tokugawa was quite rapid. Commanding the Changshu New Army, which had been personally trained by the famous Ming Dynasty general Huang Shi, and had skilled combat skills and sharp cannons, it took less than a week to follow Shinkichi and destroy Osaka's outer fortresses one after another, and even once The invasion of Osaka's castle town was overwhelming.
However, just when victory in the Osaka battle was in sight, the front in Kyoto was once again in crisis.
Facing an endless stream of enemies from all walks of life, the leader of the overthrown army and the self-proclaimed "Western Kingdom Detective", the Choshu feudal lord Mouri Hidesumi, was forced to transfer the elite troops under Nobuyoshi at this critical moment. Used to suppress the rebellions and popular uprisings that have arisen in Kinei... Therefore, with the sharp weakening of the siege force, the shogunate army trapped in Osaka got a chance to breathe. After recovering from the initial crushing defeat, they began to adjust their deployment and tactics, and exchanged offense and defense with the defeated shogunate army. The war has been delayed until now...
But Morisui Shinyoshi also knew very well that the feudal lord was not to blame for this matter, because Mourixiu was under much greater pressure in Kyoto than he was:
"...Alas, our Maori family's great cause of hegemony was aroused by Christianity before, but now it is also in a dilemma because of Christianity!"
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Unlike any of the feudal lords who commanded Shangluo during the Warring States Period, the Choshu Domain, which was deceived by Huangshi and other travelers, and its entire retainers starting from the feudal lord Mouri Hideji, gradually converted to Christianity a few years ago. officially becomes "Kiroshidan daimyo" (a nickname for Christians in medieval Japan), and upon seeing this, the merchants and common people of the Choshu Domain also followed suit and converted to Christianity... Next, those princes' daimyo who surrendered to the Choshu Domain, in order to please the Maori family, They were also baptized and converted one after another. In this way, the Maori family's overthrow army became the Christian coalition.
This religious overtone brought great help to the Maori family during the Kyushu Island Raiders - local Japanese Christians, encouraged by missionaries, actively participated in the "Holy War", which made the Choshu Army attack on Kyushu Island. Invincible. But for other religions, it was a catastrophe: During the Christian "holy war" march, countless temples and shrines were converted into churches, ordinary people converted to religion in order to survive and pay less poll taxes, and monks and gods turned into priests. The miko nuns became nuns, and the samurai who were devout believers in Buddhism either committed seppuku or fled to Kinki and Shikoku.
Therefore, by the time the Maori family's "Crusader" conquered Kyushu, the entire Kyushu Island had formally become a Christian territory.
The problem is that such a simple and crude strategy to exterminate Buddhism can be barely implemented in remote places like Kyushu. However, the closer you get to Kyoto and the core area of traditional Japanese civilization, the stronger the power of Buddhism becomes and its influence on Christianity The backlash has also become more intense. As a result, the Christian overthrow army under the banner of the cross encountered desperate resistance from traditional Buddhist forces in the Kinki region, and has since fallen into the quagmire of a national war...
How powerful is Buddhism in Japan? Theoretically, in traditional Japanese society, every Japanese should be considered a Buddhist!
Because in Japan, even in modern society, funerals and cemeteries are still exclusively handled by Buddhist temples. Therefore, no matter what people believe in during their lifetime, they have to spend a lot of money after their death, give themselves a dharma name and be forced to change their profession. Buddhists, otherwise the Buddha will reject this unruly soul, causing it to wander in the world and become a lonely ghost... To put it simply, no matter what you believe in life, you must believe in Buddhism after death!
As for ancient Japan, the power of Buddhist temples was even more powerful. Many Buddhist temples have vast fields, well-equipped monks and soldiers, and prosperous markets. As early as the Heian period, they were no different from princes, and their image in the minds of the people was much better than that of ministers and samurai.
——Compared with the ancient Japanese monk corps equipped with infantry, cavalry and artillery, China’s Shaolin Temple stick monks are just like children playing house...
On the other hand, the upper-class warriors, royal families and ministers often sent their young sons who had no inheritance rights to become monks in monasteries to learn knowledge from eminent monks in order to find a way out for themselves. In addition, when warriors and ministers retired in old age, there was a custom of becoming a monk and waiting for death. In other words, a considerable number of famous temples often served as both training schools for the children of high-ranking officials and nursing homes for retired high-ranking officials.
As a result, after thousands of years of hard work, the influence of Buddhism in the entire Japanese society has long been deeply rooted. Whether in the emperor's court or the samurai shogunate, monks of all kinds are indispensable. Monk officials of various levels have become an important part of the state machine. As for the lower class of society, there are believers in almost every city and village, and there are temples almost everywhere in the mountains and plains.
Especially in the Kinki area centered on Kyoto, there are many Buddhist temples and Sanskrit chants. At least 99% of the local people believe in Buddhism (and also worship many other miscellaneous gods), and among them there are also truly devout Buddhists. Accounting for more than 30% - among them, the Buddhist force with the largest armed force, the largest territory, and the highest reputation in later generations is naturally the Honganji Ichikai Sect of Japan's Warring States Period. The power of other temples in Kinki is not inferior. Especially the Buddhist temples in the two holy places of Nara and Mount Hiei not only have a long history, but are often inextricably linked to the royal family. Many princes and emperors have become monks there since ancient times. They have had a huge influence on Japanese politics as early as the Heian period. Interference ability.
Because of such large and deep forces in both the ruling and opposition parties, even those in power in Japan who have controlled the state apparatus have generally had nothing to do with the Buddhist community. Fortunately, there are many sects in Japan's Buddhism, each with its own doctrines and programs. They are very different from each other. There is usually no clear affiliation between the temples, and it has been difficult to form a joint force. This is why they have not been able to seize power and turn Japan into a sect. Become a "Buddha Kingdom on Earth".
——In the Warring States Period, the Honganji Ichikai clan worked so hard and once posed a challenge to the samurai society, but ultimately failed.
In short, although Japanese Buddhists are scattered and unable to pose a strong challenge to the state power, if anyone dares to become an enemy of the entire Buddhist community, the consequences will be simply a nightmare, comparable to the difficulty of opposing Christianity in medieval Europe. Not too different.
In the troubled times that have befallen Japan many times in ancient history, it would not be a big deal if local warlords were designated as "enemies of the court" by the imperial court. As long as they won the battle, they would become loyal ministers. But if you are unfortunate enough to be labeled as an "enemy of Buddhism", you will be like a maggot attached to your bones, tossed and battered by the wave after wave of Buddhist uprisings. For example, the famous "Demon King of the Sixth Heaven" Oda Nobunaga suffered miserably from the all-out uprising launched by the Honganji Ichikai clan, and was eventually made into a hellish barbecue dish by a fire...
——Oda Nobunaga is just not pious enough to Buddhism, and his subordinates are still basically Buddhists. The encounter in Kinki was so distressing. So, when the genuine Kirikidan lords from the West and Kyushu invaded Kyoto, you can naturally imagine the attitude of the Buddhist community!
In fact, before sending troops, the Maori family had already considered the strong Buddhist power in Kyoto, so they ordered to restrain the army and temporarily banned the destruction of Buddhist temples. Instead, they prepared to imitate the Ottoman Turkey on religious issues and implement a "moderate policy" while allowing pagans to remain While practicing their faith, they imposed heavy taxes on them, while for Christians, land was distributed according to population, and there were various preferential measures. At the same time, the funeral tomb industry, which was originally monopolized by Buddhist temples, has also been divided by churches and is no longer exclusively owned by Buddhism. Like the West, Japanese churches also have cemeteries attached to them.
But the problem is that even such a "moderate" policy is simply unacceptable to the high-minded Japanese monks - in the historic Kinki region, these Buddhist monks have always been an important part of Japan's ruling class. In part, they are human-like beings, not much different from the monks and officials who serve the Living Buddha on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau! How can one endure such discriminatory treatment?
In addition, many monks who escaped from Kyushu and Western countries were crying about the atrocities of "Kirishidan" in demolishing temples and destroying Buddhism. This aroused the resentment of the Kinki Buddhist community towards this group of Christians, believing that they were all at odds with themselves. Buddha's mortal enemies - you know, Japanese monks are not as cautious and aloof from the world as Chinese monks, but they are real rebel professionals! How many years have I spent fighting with the samurai?
As early as the end of the Heian period, Emperor Go-Shirakawa once mobilized the monk soldiers from Nara and Mount Hiei to fight fiercely with Taira Kiyomori's army. From then on, from the Kamakura shogunate to the Ashikaga shogunate, the Kinki monk soldiers have always been an important armed force that determines the future and destiny of Japan. It was not until the Bakumatsu period that the power of Buddhist temples finally declined... And in the seventeenth century, shortly after the end of the Warring States period, the military force of the Japanese Buddhist community was obviously still very strong.
In this way, when the Maori army invaded Kyoto, it ended up stepping into a pit of fire, or it turned on the switch of a big explosion - although the overthrown army with the cross flag made a comprehensive victory on the battlefield. Victory, but under the overall hostility of the Buddhist community, most of the imperial ministers and the entire Japanese royal family refused to cooperate with the Maori family, and would rather follow the Tokugawa family to retreat to Edo, so that the overthrow of the Tokugawa army was never able to obtain the name of justice.
What's even more terrible is that several Buddhist leaders from Mount Hiei and Nara, Japan's two major Buddhist holy sites, including of course the Honganji Ichijo clan, which has the most experience in military struggles, have openly declared that the Maori family, which believes in Western-style religion, belongs to all temples in the world. The enemy of the Buddha called on monks and believers from all over the world to fight against him to the end, setting off a vigorous nationwide religious war in Kinki!
As a result, the entire overthrowing army was immediately stunned - as the conflict broke out between the Buddhist forces in Kinki and the Kirishitan army in the West, not only the several small vassals in Kinki that had originally had hesitant attitudes, but also under the interference and influence of various Buddhist temples, were no longer allowed to do so. Don't fight to the end with the overthrown troops. Even within the camp of the defeated Tokugawa army, many Wu family forces who were not firm enough had their attitudes wavered and began to fail to work, making the war situation more and more difficult.
Although the rebels organized by various Buddhist temples in Kinki were all unorganized and undisciplined rabble, they did not even have a commander-in-chief responsible for coordinating the various forces, and their ordnance and equipment were extremely crude, not to mention foreign guns and artillery. There were only a few pine cannons. But in the face of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of incited mobs and chaos, even if they only hold stones and sticks, it is enough to make people's scalp numb.
For a time, the overthrown army almost became a street rat in Kinki. Their baggage was often robbed, and small groups of troops were frequently ambushed. Faced with the turbulent general turmoil, although the Mouri Shusuke feudal lord quickly mobilized the most effective new modern army from the Osaka front line to attack Buddhist temples and suppress Buddhist rebellions, he was still overwhelmed and stretched, and could not care about this. I couldn't care about the other end... I was beaten to the point of danger several times.
As for the battle on the Osaka front line, it suddenly reached a stalemate - although Mori Sui Shinyoshi later received a lot of reinforcements, with a total force of up to 30,000 at one time, he still firmly controlled the sea, and had a continuous supply of food and arms. But the problem is that most of his troops now are ragtag groups assembled by various vassals, as well as "holy war" groups spontaneously formed by fanatical Christians. Their combat effectiveness and discipline are completely incomparable to those before.
In addition, although Osaka is a port, Osaka Castle is still a long way from the coastline, and the battleship's artillery cannot directly bombard the castle. The camps of the rebel troops on land were constantly attacked by monk soldiers and rural warriors, making it difficult for the rebel troops to concentrate on attacking the city.
To make matters worse, the weather has now entered winter, and heavy snow has begun to fall in Kinki. The ground has become muddy, making the siege more and more difficult... When the rebel troops from all walks of life laid down thousands of dead bodies at the foot of Osaka Castle, there was still no one. After any progress, morale began to become lower and lower every time. The desperate virtual fire at the beginning gradually subsided, allowing them to basically return to their cunning nature of bullying the weak and fearing the strong.
In the recent sieges, all the soldiers and horses have become more and more false, and they are just pretending... It seems that this battle will be postponed until next year!
Looking at the majestic castle in front of him that could not be conquered for a long time, "Changzhou Su Lao" Shou Xinji sighed gloomily, turned around and rode his horse to leave the forward position, then passed through the camp of the besieging soldiers and horses, and returned to his home base. . In the camp at this time, tens of thousands of rebel soldiers who had been clamoring and busy outside Osaka Castle for a long time, and who were already hungry, had already set up stoves, lit fires, and the air was filled with the aroma of rice and miso soup. . Some of the guys who had already had their meal were lying on oilcloths or straw mats in twos and threes, taking the time to rest.
Among them, the regular army camps of each vassal in the overthrown camp, regardless of their size, still look more or less serious. As for the crude camps built hastily by the Christian "Jihadist" groups, there is no order at all. They are just like mushrooms or dog urine moss after a rainy day, with lumps scattered everywhere. yes. Those who were more particular about it would use cloth plundered from nowhere to form a tent; those who were not so particular about it would cut some branches and remove some door panels to build a shack; some even lazy people would casually spread a mat on the ground next to the fire. Even a pile of straw is not afraid It was cold, so I just wrapped myself in a blanket and slept in the open... And in their messy camps, there were still piles of food, money, chickens and ducks looted from unknown places, without any minimum precautions.
But this is normal. After all, they are not trained professional soldiers in the first place, and it is inevitable that they lack relevant professional experience.
Although today's siege operation has ended, sporadic gunshots and shouts are still heard from time to time on the periphery of the battlefield - instigated by the shogunate and the Buddhist monks, the Osaka battlefield is filled with many large and small ronin Gangs and monks from Buddhist temples were roaming around, and from time to time they would sneak attack on small groups of lone rebel troops. Naturally, the rebel forces responded unceremoniously and launched a bloody massacre against them.
Due to the huge differences in equipment, discipline and strength, as well as the lack of the most basic coordination and tacit understanding between each other, these stragglers numbered only a dozen or dozens of people per unit. They were just stragglers who fought with bloody spirit and overthrew the curtain army. It's not difficult to kill them. However, those "hard nails" with more people and strong strongholds are not so easy to deal with... Shou Sui Xinji thought this while asking the attendants around him, "... there are Shitennoji Temple in the south of the city. Not taken down yet?”