Just as Yoshikawa Motoharu's remaining troops hid in Moji Castle, Tachibana Dosetsu's pursuers arrived. The Kyushu military god had intended to seize the gateway to Kyushu in one fell swoop and drive the Mori family back to Honshu.
However, Moji Castle is located on the nearly 200-meter-high Gucheng Mountain, surrounded by cliffs on three sides, and only a dangerous mountain road connects to the plain, making it extremely easy to defend and difficult to attack. In addition to the main city at the top of the hill, there are five small fortresses around it as defense fulcrums. Any enemy army that wants to reach the main city must first conquer these outer fortresses one by one.
Since the Mori family occupied Moji Castle, they have been working hard to build this bridgehead for attacking Kyushu. Not only did they re-strengthen the castle defenses, they also stored a large amount of military equipment and food in the castle as a transit station for supplying the front line. Of course, the most important thing is that the two big flags of "Mori Ryogawa" are now in Moji Castle. How could the defenders lose their will to fight?
As a result, the Otomo army launched a fierce attack, but was beaten by the Mori army who were in a dominant position. Tachibana Dosetsu knew that he could not seize the city, so he had to leave thousands of corpses and retreat.
Then he ordered the camp to be set up at the foot of the ancient city mountain, pretending to be a long-term siege. At the same time, he cooperated with the Celestial Empire fleet to receive the prisoners in the fjord. He worked until midnight to escort all the more than 5,000 prisoners ashore. Finally, he set hundreds of captured ships and pontoon bridges on fire...
Tachibana Dosetsu was very distressed to see so many ships burned in a fire. If these ships were left behind, the cost of rebuilding new ships would be saved when they attacked Honshu in the future. But his lord had already strictly ordered him to follow the instructions of the young master of the Celestial Empire. He had no choice but to do as he was told since the other party wanted him to leave nothing behind.
At this time, after the two Ming fleets had joined together, they had left the Kanmon Strait and dropped anchor in Noda Uraka, four miles east of Moji Castle, where the sea was relatively calm.
In the commander's room in the stern tower of Ship 101, Master Zhao was eating minced meat porridge with a bandage wrapped around his head, amidst the flames rising from outside.
This was caused when the flagship collided with the Ataka ship earlier. Although the escort ships had tried every means to protect him... and even tied him to a chair, when people are unlucky, they are hard to guard against, and the violent collision actually shattered the glass windows.
Although the glass was reinforced with wooden strips, most of it did not fall off, but a piece the size of a fingernail flew out and hit him right on the forehead. Blood gushed out immediately, and his brother Gao was almost scared to death.
Gao Wu thought he was finished, so he quickly flew over to find the ship's doctor. Fortunately, it was only a superficial wound...
It's all his own fault. If Mr. Zhao hadn't shown off his glass and had just used window paper honestly on the boat, wouldn't he have avoided this disaster?
~~
The north wind brought a pine scent, which was emitted by the burning Japanese ships. It smelled quite nice.
"Seven or eight hundred ships, big and small, were burned like this. It's such a pity." The eldest nephew slurped his porridge with a look of regret on his face.
"Alas, Shizhen is wrong." Zheng Ruozeng said with a smile, holding a cup of tea in his hand. The old man was very upset today and couldn't eat a single mouthful of porridge, but he was in a very good mood. "The workmanship and materials of those Japanese ships are too poor. If we use them reluctantly, the cost of repairing them in the future may be higher than building new ships."
"Yes, they can only sail in the coastal waters, cannot withstand wind and waves, and cannot be equipped with sails." Young Master Zhao nodded and said, "The most disgusting thing is, look at how many rowers a boat needs. The money we spend on rowers is more than building a new boat."
"Good job! Burn all the Japanese pirates' ships so that they can't even go out to sea!" Gao Jie, who had been eating porridge, suddenly interrupted.
"What a brilliant idea, Zhong Cheng." Everyone looked at him in surprise when they heard his words. Ever since going out to sea, the old Zhong Cheng's condition has been getting better day by day. After this great battle, he feels almost like a normal person.
"Hi hi hi." Gao Jie was so proud that his beard, which was covered with porridge, stood up to the sky.
Well, I have to continue to recover...
As they were talking, Jin Ke arrived.
"Come, sit down and eat porridge together." Zhao Hao smiled and asked him to sit down, and the guard quickly added a bowl of porridge to him.
"Brother Jin, you've worked hard on the way. Today, a god-like soldier came from the sky and beat the Japanese so hard that they cried for their parents." Zhao Hao put a piece of fish with black bean sauce into Jin Ke's bowl of porridge. The pots and pans in the small kitchen were all smashed to pieces. A good housewife can't cook without rice. Tonight, she can only eat with the soldiers in the big stove.
"How can I be absent from such a grand occasion? As soon as I received the order from the young master, I immediately took my brothers and set off." Jin Ke had actually drunk two bowls of wine before coming, but since the young master gave him a gift, he dared not refuse, so he had to continue eating with a look of enjoyment on his face. "I hurried along the way, and luckily I was lucky enough to catch the banquet and eat and drink for free."
"That's not just freeloading, your firepower is strong enough." Zhao Hao laughed and said, "Hundreds of artillery fired at the same time, the momentum was deafening. It completely scared the Japanese."
"Actually, I was lucky. Firstly, the two large Western sailing ships had just been repaired before they set out, and the sailors and gunners were all prisoners. It happened that they happened to catch up with the fleet that was delivering supplies this month, so I was asked to bring along the ten large ships. I also installed all the one hundred cannons that were delivered this time. There were not enough gunners, so they had to be recruited from the prisoners." Jin Ke was very excited. Wang Rulong had led the fleet for nearly two months, sweeping across Kyushu and receiving frequent victories, which made him itchy.
In fact, the caravel, the Governor of Goa, was not repaired at all. In order to catch up with the final battle, Jin Ke asked the boatmen to bring the materials on board and repair the boat while they were on the way, so as not to delay things.
"Are those prisoners obedient?" Zheng Ruozeng asked curiously.
"Mr. Kaiyang, you don't know that although the two large sailing ships are in the ranks of the Portuguese army, except for the captain and dozens of important personnel, 90% of the crew members are actually hired by the Portuguese. As long as the money is in place, it doesn't matter who they work for." Jin Ke explained with a smile: "But for safety reasons, I still arranged for the coast guard members to monitor them one-on-one. So far, they have behaved well. This seems to be related to the fact that you have become the Eastern protector of the Christian Church."
"That just gives them a reason to convince themselves." Zhao Hao smiled faintly and said, "Westerners regard sailors as consumables.
They have a low status, are treated badly, and half of them die every time they go on a long voyage. Loyalty? There is no such thing. They are all just like whoever feeds them. "
"After commanding the gunners to fire, Mr. Ping said to me, 'Look, how powerful the multi-deck salvo is! If we hadn't been attacked in a shameful way and had fought a fair battle, it's hard to say who would have won or lost.'" Jin Ke laughed again.
"How did you reply to him?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile.
"I told him seriously, I'm sorry, Mr. Ping, I have left you with lifelong regrets." Jin Ke answered seriously.
"Hahaha!" Everyone burst into laughter. Zheng Ruozeng nearly spit out a mouthful of porridge and couldn't help laughing while wiping his tears.
"Well said, if we win, we win. Why so many ifs?" Young Master Zhao gave a thumbs up and praised. Just as he was about to continue speaking, he saw Ma Yinglong walk in with a serious expression.
"Have the casualties been counted?" The smile on Master Zhao's face froze. It was the moment he was most reluctant to face.
"Yes." Ma Yinglong nodded.
"Read it." Zhao Hao didn't want to read it.
"In terms of personnel, 43 people were killed and 15 were missing. 50 were seriously injured and 201 were slightly injured." Ma Yinglong sighed and said, "The combat effectiveness of the Maori navy is really not comparable to the rotten fish and shrimp in Kyushu."
In this battle, more than 3,500 enemies were killed and more than 4,000 were captured, but behind the brilliant victory were the huge sacrifices made by the Coast Guard officers and soldiers. The Maori army's reckless attacks and the rough sea conditions made the soldiers pay a heavy price. When the battle was the most intense, even Zhao Hao's guards were used as a reserve force, so the surge in casualties was reasonable.
In the past two months, there have been more than ten battles, big and small, and only 12 sailors have been killed, not to mention the number of deaths from illness and accidents. The casualties in this battle are more than five times the previous ones... With the current level of medical care, we would be thankful if half of the seriously injured soldiers survived.
How can it not make people feel sad and angry?
"Young Master, this is an essential tempering for the Coast Guard. If you can't endure sacrifice, you won't be able to develop true courage!" Jin Ke hurriedly comforted Zhao Hao.
"Yes, sir, sacrifice is not scary. What is scary is that the soldiers have lost the courage to fight hand-to-hand." Ma Yinglong also quickly responded.
"I know." Zhao Hao waved his hand, indicating that they didn't need to persuade him anymore.
The great powers of the Age of Exploration all regarded hand-to-hand combat as the most important means of destroying the enemy. Although the Dutch had the best warships and cannons, their main tactics in the wars with Spain and England were still boarding and hand-to-hand combat.
The British won the Battle of Trafalgar by using bayonets on cannons, and with Nelson's sacrifice, they prevented Napoleon from landing in Britain.
Under the circumstance that battleships could not destroy battleships, the ancient and brutal boarding battle was absolutely inevitable. Knowing this, he agreed to Wang Rulong's plan to break into the fjord.
He understood the truth, but emotionally he still found it hard to get used to the fact that hundreds of good men had been killed or injured for his so-called "grand plan".
After a while, Zhao Hao suppressed the discomfort in his chest and continued to listen to Ma Yinglong's report:.
"In addition, all of our warships were damaged to varying degrees. Eight warships, including 101, 201, and 203, showed signs of leaking. Although they could not sink, they were no longer able to fight and had to return to the base for overhaul. Moreover, 13 of our artillery pieces had their barrels exploded, half of them were deformed, and more than 30% were severely deformed, so they could no longer fire. Ammunition was also basically exhausted. We only had a few dozen rockets left, but we had run out of grapeshot and had almost used up all the buckshot. We only had more than 500 solid bullets left."
"There really isn't even a drop left." Young Master Zhao said with a wry smile, "Well, we have to withdraw our troops now even if we don't want to."