After Monk Yingxiu returned with the agreement and several carts of looted goods presented to Tang Tong, the daimyos of other foreign countries also sent some troops to assist Tang Tong in attacking Edo. At the same time, Tang Tong also recalled the Japanese auxiliary troops who were looting everywhere and launched a large-scale attack on Edo Castle.
For the Japanese, 100,000 people was indeed a large-scale force. Tang Tong made a promise to these Japanese that after they captured Edo Castle, they would be allowed to plunder freely for ten days after the city was broken. He would also reward the first warrior who reached the top of the city with 1,000 taels of silver, and the first Japanese team of 100 people who reached the top of the city with 10,000 taels of silver.
After Tang Tong issued the order, he brought 3,000 men to support the rear. At this time, there were nearly 10,000 shogunate samurai and more than 70,000 temporarily recruited peasant soldiers in Edo Castle. With so many troops, if Tang Tong relied solely on the Ming soldiers under his own command, he would not be able to capture the city no matter what. After all, Tokugawa Iemitsu was not a waste and still had certain military capabilities.
This newly emerged Japanese city is currently the largest city in Japan. The Tokugawa family has invested a lot of manpower and material resources in it. In terms of planned scale, it is even larger than Kyoto where the emperor is located, so that it later became the capital of Japan. However, at this time, Edo Castle has not been fully built, and even many parts of the city wall are not completed. This brought certain favorable conditions for Tang Tong and his men to attack. Those Japanese auxiliary troops took simple siege ladders and climbed towards the walls of Edo Castle like a group of ants. However, the walls of Edo Castle were also densely packed with Japanese. They kept throwing stones down and pushing away the siege ladders. The battle between the two sides was tragic, which made Tang Tong a little frightened.
In fact, this was Tang Tong's first siege, which was different from the wars he had commanded before. At that time, Tang Tong relied on firearms and the battle was one-sided. But in this siege, the strength was similar, and both sides had a scale of more than 300,000 people. This scale alone was thrilling, not to mention the tug-of-war between the two sides under the city and on the city, and both sides paid with their lives. However, every time a subordinate of Tokugawa Iemitsu died, Tokugawa Iemitsu would feel more heartbroken, but no matter how many Japanese subordinates Tang Tong lost, he would not feel heartbroken.
Looking at the battle in front of him, Tang Tong couldn't help but think of the large-scale battles in Chinese history that often involved hundreds of thousands or even millions of people. How tragic that would be. In Tang Tong's heart, he would rather develop in the local area of Ming Dynasty, but Ming Dynasty has not collapsed yet. If he has too many troops on Ming Dynasty soil, he will definitely be feared by the Ming Dynasty court. In the end, he will either be killed by the court or rebel. However, Tang Tong did not want to take the path of rebellion. He did not want to consume more Han people's strength because of his involvement.
Zhao Yapeng beside him sighed leisurely, which brought Tang Tong back to his senses from his wandering thoughts and he once again focused on the battle on the Edo Castle wall. In fact, those who had followed Tang Tong to assist the army at the beginning did not participate in the siege at this time. Instead, they were leading the strong men captured from nearby to attack the city. Most of these poor strong men were holding weapons such as wooden sticks. They were cannon fodder on the battlefield, used to consume the defense tools of the defenders in Edo Castle.
The real name of the young man was Miyamoto Nagakawa. He was one of the first Japanese who followed Tang Tong. After Tang Tong established the Japanese Auxiliary Army, he became the captain of a 100-man squadron. Miyamoto Nagakawa changed his name to Kui. The reason for this change was that he had heard a storyteller talk about "Water Margin" and he liked the black man in "Water Margin" who killed people without blinking an eye. It happened that he also had a very dark face, so he changed his name to Kui.
Kui and his men were on the outskirts of the battlefield. At this moment, they were staring with wide eyes at the cannon fodder attacking the city in front of them. Seeing the blood raining and the broken limbs scattered everywhere, they felt a strange feeling in their hearts and wanted to rush forward to fight.
There were many Japanese who felt the same way as he did. Perhaps this was the nature of the people of this country. When they saw the attackers finally climbing up the city wall but being chopped down by the enemy, these people were not sad at all. Some of them even pointed and talked and laughed. That calm attitude made Tang Tong feel inferior.
Tokugawa Iemitsu, protected by his men, stood on the city wall, looking at the wave after wave of attacking troops in front of him, his heart filled with anxiety. He knew very well that at this rate of attack, Edo Castle would be breached by the enemy in no time, and the glory of the Tokugawa family would end. Although he had sent people to ask Zheng Zhilong for help more than ten days ago, looking at the current situation, he would never be able to wait for Zheng Zhilong's men to arrive.
The Edo Castle walls were considered very high for Japan, but much shorter than those of the Ming Dynasty. With the increasing number of dead bodies, a slope formed in some places, and then one end of the wall was less than a meter away from the city wall. This kind of place, because it was close to the city wall, became the focus of contention between the two sides.
Seeing this situation, Tang Tong narrowed his eyes slightly and issued an order to his men to launch a general attack.
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