I

Sakurajima, camp.

Li Dingguo felt a little irritated. He had besieged Tsurumaru City for almost a month, but no reinforcements came to rescue him.

The tactic of siege and reinforcements has completely turned into a joke.

The shogunate did not plan to mobilize troops to rescue the Satsuma Domain, and the small lords within the Satsuma Domain did not intend to send troops to rescue their family governor. Originally they were sending troops to Japan, but now they are sending troops to Tsurumaru Castle. It cannot even be said that they are fighting against the entire Satsuma Domain.

In addition to fear of angering China, all parties are holding back their troops. There is also another very important reason, that is, the military discipline of the Datong Army is so good.

There was no burning, killing, looting, or looting of shops. They just surrounded Tsurumaru Castle.

This made Shimazu Mitsuhisa's brothers very happy and wished that the Datong Army could break the city as soon as possible. Not only would they have the opportunity to succeed the family governor, but they would also be able to take over the complete Tsurumaru Castle and the castle town.

Thirty miles east of Tsurumaru Castle, there is Kirishima Shrine, the legendary place where the grandson descended.

Tiansun is the grandson of Amaterasu. It was this grandson who brought down the eight-foot magatama, eight-foot mirror and Kusanagi sword from heaven.

Such an important shrine was not touched by the Datong army - mainly because they were too lazy to climb the mountain.

This approach also made the Japanese shogunate and various princes feel the strong goodwill of the Chinese army.

Since the shrine is not to be demolished, and since there is no burning, killing and looting, then the city can be besieged and the Satsuma feudal lord can be replaced.

"My lord, there is no need to worry," Miyazaki Shiro said. "The princes of the Satsuma domain have been frightened and dare not lead the rescue. We can attack the city with all our strength. If the general considers the casualties, I am willing to call on the civilians to help. As long as the general gives more If you order some food, at least thousands of people will be willing to die for the general!"

Ghost Head Forty-eight said: "Even if we fill it with the flesh and blood of ordinary people, we can fill up the stone walls outside the city!"

Listening to the heartfelt words of these two wild warriors, Li Dingguo felt that it was a bit nonsense. Obviously he led his own troops to fight, but the local people were willing to help attack the city, and they could fight hard just by giving them some food.

Since we can't call for reinforcements, there's no need to delay.

Li Dingguo said to the two of them: "You go and recruit 3,000 people as soldiers. Everyone can eat enough every day and receive an extra five kilograms of rice. In addition, the porridge shed that helps the poor will no longer provide porridge from today on."

Miyazaki Shiro said: "Please promise, sir, that after Tsurumaru Castle is conquered, the governor of the Shimazu family must be executed, otherwise the people will not dare to enlist in the attack."

"Okay." Li Dingguo smiled.

Miyazaki Shiro and Kidou Yoshi8 did not go to recruit soldiers immediately, but took the wild samurai to spread the news: Shimazu Mitsuhisa was furious when he heard that the people were trading with the Tang soldiers, and decided to liquidate after the war. All the cities that had sold things to the Tang soldiers to be executed.

A few days later, rumors spread all over the sky, and the people around Tsurumaru Castle were panicked.

Because of such outrageous rumors, the Japanese feudal lords really did it. In order to suppress the uprising of the people, even after the rebels surrendered, they would kill them all, including the old, weak, women and children.

On the one hand, he can eat enough every day and receive an extra five kilograms of rice; on the other hand, Shimazu Mitsuhisa may take revenge afterwards. Under the dual influence of inducement and fear, more than two thousand civilians actually joined the army and helped the Chinese army attack Tsurumaru Castle.

…

Inside Tsurumaru Castle.

Shimazu Tadayaro, Shimazu Hisumichi and others were meeting to conspire, discussing how to kidnap the family governor and surrender in Kaicheng.

Suddenly, there was a lot of noise outside.

Shimazu Tadayō looked horrified, pulled out his samurai sword and went out to check, only to see Shimazu Hisamitsu leading his troops to kill him.

"Brother, what are you doing?" Shimazu Tadaro asked.

Shimazu Hisamitsu sneered: "Are you trying to defeat the superior? I already knew you were very ambitious!"

Shimazu Tadayaro said: "Brother, you misunderstood. We are discussing how to defend the city."

"Hide in the room to discuss?" Shimazu Hisamitsu shouted, "Kill them two and your crimes will be forgiven!"

The Tokugawa Shogunate gathered all the feudal lords from all over the country to live in Edo.

The feudal lords in various places also forced samurai groups and industrial and commercial people to live in castle towns.

Therefore, although there are only more than two thousand troops in Tsurumaru Castle, there are hundreds of samurai who have withdrawn. At this moment, more than twenty samurai were plotting a rebellion in the room, but they were blocked by Shimazu Hisamitsu's troops.

The warriors looked at each other and began to be unable to withstand the intimidation of the family governor. After hearing that their crimes could be forgiven, they quickly made a subconscious decision.

"Qiang Qiang!"

He pulled out his samurai swords one after another and rushed towards Shimazu Tadayaro and Shimazu Hisumichi, slashing them into pieces with random swords.

Then he turned around and knelt down, kowtowing to Shimazu Mitsuhisa: "Greetings to the family governor, the rebels have been killed!"

"Everyone, get up." Mitsuhisa Shimazu said calmly, as if everything was under control.

"Tang soldiers are attacking the city!"

At this moment, a retainer came running towards him in panic, and Shimazu Mitsuhisa's expression finally changed.

Shimazu Mitsuhisa raised his katana: "Warriors of the Satsuma Domain, follow me to defend Tsurumaru Castle!"

"Boom boom boom!"

More than two thousand local civilians, led by more than twenty wild samurai, armed with a variety of crude weapons, climbed the mountain from the front to attack the outer stone walls of Tsurumaru Castle.

At the same time, China's naval and army artillery also fired long-distance upwards at Ishigaki - the hit rate was very low and the destructive power was also small.

The city defense artillery of Tsurumaru Castle was also unable to bombard the siege troops. Because the mountain wall is too steep, as long as the siege team gets close, they can enter the blind spot of the city defense artillery.

The soldiers of the Satsuma Domain were firing arrows wildly, occasionally accompanied by the sound of firecrackers.

"Run away!"

The first wave of offensives by wild warriors and civilians lasted only more than ten minutes before being defeated. The team of more than 2,000 people, with less than 100 casualties and casualties, was shot by the Satsuma Domain's archers and fled.

Miyazaki Shiro followed the defeated troops and fled to the foot of the mountain, and finally roared: "No escape, no escape! General Li has been so kind to us. We have enough to eat every day, and we can also receive five kilograms of rice every day. We should swear allegiance to us." General!"

Oni Tou Forty-eight said: "Shimazu Mitsuhisa exploits us, who can eat enough as a farmer? We will starve to death if there is a natural disaster. If we escape today, when the Tang soldiers leave, we will all be executed by Shimazu Mitsuhisa!"

"Come back with me!" Miyazaki Shiro picked up the knife, turned around and rushed towards the mountain.

"Come on!"

The wild warriors were so passionate that they ignored life and death. Don't talk about repaying a favor, they just want to make meritorious service, maybe they can join the Datong Army.

Having already been with the Datong Army, who the hell wants to go back and be a wild samurai?

At this moment, Shimazu Hisamitsu, who personally led the troops to defend Ishigaki, received news from his retainers: "There are Tang soldiers on both sides and behind!"

But the front that is the easiest to attack is left to a group of miscellaneous soldiers.

As for the remaining three sides, which were more difficult to attack, Datong soldiers quietly climbed the mountain and launched a fierce attack.

Due to different terrains, the stone walls outside Tsurumaru Castle are four to five meters high in some places, and only two or three meters high in other places.

Zhu Dafu personally led his troops to attack the north. They only had simple siege ladders, and there were not many in number. After all, they climbed up the cliff.

Fortunately, the number of defenders is also small. There are three inner and outer walls plus a stone wall. There are only more than 2,000 soldiers defending such a large place. One-third of the defenders were attracted by the miscellaneous troops on the front, and the defense of the remaining three stone walls was as leaky as a sieve.

The section of stone wall where Zhu Dafu attacked was only sparsely guarded by more than 30 defenders.

"Hmm... fuck him!"

A shower of arrows shot towards Zhu Dafu at the front, and two arrows were instantly inserted into his cotton armor. The staggering looks scary, but in fact it only hurt the flesh. The real injury was the arrow in the face.

Zhu Dafu was disfigured. An arrow shot into his cheek below the cheekbone, knocking out one of his big teeth.

Pulling out the arrows on his face and tearing off a piece of flesh, Zhu Dafu started climbing with his shield in hand.

"Bang bang bang!"

There was a burst of gunfire, and seven Datong soldiers fell to the ground. Here were the iron gunners of the Shimadzu family.

Zhu Dafu was also shot in the shoulder at close range. He rolled down the wooden ladder in pain and knocked over several friendly soldiers climbing behind him.

Another wave of Datong troops began to attack the city nearby, but the number of defenders was too small to prevent them.

Relying on Zhu Dafu to attract firepower, Li Tang took advantage of the loophole and climbed the stone wall with a battalion intact.

"Shoot, shoot!"

The Datong army raised their guns to deal damage, then mounted their bayonets or picked up their spears and rushed towards the remaining enemy troops.

"Woooooooo~~~~"

Shimazu Mitsuhisa ordered the horn to be blown, he was going to shrink his defense. The perimeter of the outer stone wall is too large to be defended by more than 2,000 soldiers. It is more conducive to defense to withdraw from the Demaru (outer wall).

The entire Tsurumaru Castle consists of the Main Maru, Nimaru, Demaru and Ishigaki.

Four lines of defense, enough to fight slowly.

"Onboard, onboard!"

As the Satsuma domain defenders withdrew, the Datong army successfully occupied Ishigaki, and the motley army of civilians suddenly cheered.

Li Dingguo did not continue the attack, but stabilized the stone wall he had just captured and counted the casualties in this battle.

2 wild warriors were killed and 13 were injured; 93 civilians were killed and 587 were injured - most of the injured were injured while fleeing down the mountain, and some even rolled down the hillside and died.

Among Datong soldiers, 9 were killed and 21 wounded. All of the dead were killed by musketry.

Shimazu Mitsuhisa was also counting the casualties. Because many soldiers did not retreat in time and were chased by the Datong army who boarded the stone wall, the loss of the Satsuma domain defenders reached 438 people. The so-called loss means that they were unable to withdraw and were either killed or captured.

Seeing the Datong army commanding civilians, reinforcing fortifications at the stone wall, and even building inward forts, Shimazu Mitsuhisa suddenly became furious and roared: "Fire and kill them!"

Demaru's castle wall also had forts, and the Satsuma Domain's firepower was extremely powerful.

In other words, the Satsuma clan, which has been engaged in maritime trade for a long time, has a large number of muskets and artillery.

"Boom boom boom!"

The civilians who were reinforcing the fortifications were quickly defeated by artillery in several places.

Li Dingguo had another headache. He had successfully climbed the mountain and occupied the stone wall, but how to attack the next three walls?

Of course, the builder of Tsurumaru Castle cannot be stupid. It is always more advantageous to be on the defensive side. In the exchange of bombardment with Demaru artillery at Ishigaki, the direction of Ishigaki can only be beaten, and there is no fire support at the foot of the mountain.

This is a mountain city. Although it is not as dangerous as Diaoyu City, Li Dingguo also felt how Meng Ge Khan felt back then.