New Shun 1730

Many domains have the distinction between upper and lower samurai, and of course there are samurai. The internal hierarchy will inevitably produce many contradictions. The situation of Tosa Domain may be the most serious among the several outer daimyo.

Daikoku Haosheng actually doesn't really believe that Liu Yu came to seek justice for the old retainers of the Chosokabe clan. This is too ridiculous.

Whether it is credible or not, and whether Liu Yu will publicize it, there is no necessary connection.

There are always people who are dissatisfied, and they are not a minority.

In order to quell this dissatisfaction, Tosa Domain also introduced the policy of white-letter samurai. If you become a white-letter samurai from a samurai, you are the highest level among the samurai. In theory, you have the same treatment as an upper samurai and can participate in the domain government.

However. There are too many monks and too little porridge, and there are still a few.

Samurai, even the lowest-level foot soldier, need to live in the castle town. But many samurai in Tosa still live in the countryside and have strong power at the grassroots level. Because they are the remnants of the "one-rei system" in the old era.

They have power and strength, and not all of them live in the castle town. They have always been dissatisfied, so the worries of the retainers who stayed behind are not unreasonable.

The most urgent task is to drive away the Tang people who occupied Urado Castle, but under the external threat, the first thing to think of is to deal with the internal instability.

After the retainers who stayed behind generally agreed, they asked Daikoku Haosheng: "How many Tang people came?"

"I don't know. There are more than ten warships with a length of several dozen feet, all of which are Western-style. The leader is the earl of the Tang people, and there is also a warrior who once taught riding, shooting and falconry in Edo. It seems that the Tang people have planned for a long time. The Tang people in Urado Castle all carry iron cannons, and rarely see spears, swords, and swords, and they don't wear armor. There are many large guns and copper cannons. There should be at least hundreds of them."

Hundreds of people occupied Urado Castle, and the retainers who stayed behind were panicked.

After the separation of farmers and soldiers, samurai are samurai, even foot soldiers are the lowest level of samurai, and farmers are farmers.

The samurai were hereditary in what they did in the army. If they were to fight, it was impossible for them to capture peasants and recruit them into the army in half a year like the Dashun after the military reform.

The Tosa Domain did not have many soldiers at that time.

In order to compete with the Awa Domain for the false title of "the strongest domain in Shikoku", the Tosa Domain made a lot of false claims when counting the koku. The Awa Domain said that they had 256,000 koku, and the Tosa Domain made a number of 257,000.

It was rejected afterwards, and it was still 200,000 koku. How many soldiers can 200,000 koku send out?

The standard for 100,000 koku is 2,155 soldiers. Theoretically, the Tosa Domain could send out a total of 4,000 soldiers, and these 4,000 people were all samurai. Peasants could not serve as soldiers at all. They were not qualified, and they were not allowed to hold weapons after the sword hunting order.

If the shogunate wanted to go to war, every 100,000 koku of daimyo would provide the shogunate with 700 soldiers, about 350 with matchlock guns, 170 with cavalry, 60 with bows, and 150 with spears. Most of the time, these soldiers would serve in Edo or Osaka.

Now the war has not started yet, but repairing the city, repairing water conservancy, or serving as a fire brigade in Edo Castle, which often catches fire, all require manpower, so five or six hundred people went.

Under the samurai system, the number should be the number. If there is less, there will be a fine, and if there is more, there will be a fine. Countless eyes are watching, waiting for the lord to make a mistake and be deprived of the territory.

The lord Yamauchi Shishiki is still on his way to the audience to report. In theory, he only needs to bring 450 samurai with him, but the Yamauchi family has always been face-saving. Ishigaka had already made a satellite back then. How could he not bring more people for such a face-saving thing as the audience?

Theoretically, only 450 soldiers can be brought each time, but most daimyo who care about pomp and circumstance send a group of vanguards first and a group of rear guards behind to show respectability.

This took away nearly a thousand people.

There are about 2500 or 2600 left, of which more than 300 are untrustworthy country samurai, more than 100 are merchants who have paid for samurai status, or landlords who are rich and cultivate land.

Even if no one is left in Kochi Castle, only 2000 people can be gathered, and the number of matchlock guns only accounts for one-fifth of the total proportion of soldiers.

The two ships that fought desperately before were destroyed in an instant, which is too shocking.

The retainers who stayed behind thought for a long time. Although the territory was occupied by outsiders in the absence of the lord, the retainers should take it back, but...

But can two thousand samurai who have hardly fought a war attack Urado Castle?

The Yamauchi branch who stayed behind finally asked Daikoku Haosheng.

"Since you have seen a Tang warrior in Edo, is his martial arts very high?"

"His archery skills are unique and his methods are extremely high. However, since he is a spy, he taught us the riding and archery skills at will. I am afraid... I am afraid that there must be someone in the Tang army who is better than this person in riding and archery. The earl of the Tang said that he had been to Edo, and that he reminded the general about the re-coinage... He also said that he wrote the "Satsuma Iro Famine Relief Book". If this is true, he must come with confidence, and I think it will be difficult to capture."

Daikoku is a smart man. Even though there are basically no Catholics in Tosa, he, as a monitor of Christians, needs to distinguish and learn about Western ships, and has heard about the power of some Western guns and cannons.

He thinks it is impossible to capture Urado Castle with the two thousand soldiers of Tosa at this time.

It is better to gather all the samurai, retreat to Kochi Castle, and monitor those samurai at the same time, and quickly send people to Edo Castle to report the news.

The soldiers of the other feudal lords could not leave their own territories without the order of Edo. It was definitely impossible to rely on them.

However, his idea was rejected by the retainers who stayed behind.

"What if the people of the Tang Dynasty stayed in Urado Castle and never left? What would the master of the family say when he came back? Mencius said: Life is what I want, righteousness is what I want, sacrifice life for righteousness."

"Besides, there are many merchants and villages under Urado Castle. If I can't wait, what will the people think of me? The Tang Dynasty people are cunning. If they continue to preach some words, they will only fear that the common people will rebel."

"Five hundred people can be ordered to stay at Kochi Castle and monitor the countrymen. We will gather our troops and besiege Urado Castle first."

Dahei was competitive and opposed. He believed that it might be difficult to defeat and that the siege would be meaningless. The Tang people came by boat, and as long as they couldn't sink all those boats, they couldn't cut off supplies. A siege is useless, an attack cannot be taken...

However, everyone had reached an agreement and could not change it, so they had to summon the samurai living in the castle town.

They gathered more than 200 cavalry, more than 300 iron gunners, and 150 archers. The remaining people were armed with spears or knives. More than a thousand people were gathered in armor, and some people were left to guard Kochi Castle. He and the surveillance villagers ran towards Urado Castle.

Just as Liu Yu came to the conclusion after surveying the terrain on the mountain, the people of Tosa Domain had only two ways to go if they wanted to attack.

Or, under the threat of artillery from warships near the coastline, they can form a formation and attack the headland peninsula from west to east. There is only one way.

Or, hold a small boat and attack on the north side of the hillock of Urado Castle under the threat of the 18-pounder guns that have already been set up on Urado Castle. Then brave the artillery to cross the river and assemble the entire team within the range of the muskets. Launching an attack requires extremely high organizational skills. This direction cannot be the main attack direction. They may take advantage of the opportunity of the battle ahead to quietly send some people to land from this direction.

The so-called strategy cannot be implemented in a specific battlefield environment.

As expected, Tosa Clan's troops began to gather on the west side of the headland close to the coast.

"Sir, the fleet is raising its flag to ask if it will open fire?"

Liu Yu held his binoculars and looked at the Tosa domain warriors who were gathering in formation below, staring at the mules-like horses, thinking that the number of horses he smuggled was not large, and he did not teach them how to raise horses. Can these mules also fight?

Besides, have these mules been trained to handle artillery fire without causing chaos? They were afraid that when Chen Qinghai opened fire, these people would disperse before the fighting started.

"Return to the flag and tell Qinghai not to fire artillery yet. They will be strong in one go, then weaken again, and then all three will be exhausted. But I don't think they can survive the third rally, so they will fire while they are gathering after the failure of the first attack."

The messenger quickly ran to the commanding heights, raised the flag, and conveyed Liu Yu's order.

The howitzer gunners, as always, began preparing shells with wooden fuses of different lengths according to the distances and heights measured yesterday.

The two companies of Marines deployed according to the fortress defense posture, and the remaining ones were still lined up, with bayonets inserted, ready to attack.

Liu Yu looked at the mouth of the river again and cursed.

If there hadn't been a promontory peninsula protruding from the opposite side, narrowing the water surface from three to four miles wide to three to four hundred meters, warships could completely enter the inland river and pinch the retreat, no matter how hard they tried, no one could escape. It's a pity that the opportunity for a battle of annihilation was missed, and it was another sheep-herding battle.

The staff officer noticed Liu Yu's dissatisfaction and suggested: "Sir, why don't you let the sailors go up the river in small boats? Naturally, they cannot form a field array, but if it is a melee pursuit, the sailors are not bad. Originally, they were all gunners. If you want to practice fighting, you said that Western warships are made of thick wood like our cruisers, and it is difficult to sink them with cannons. These sailors have all practiced hand-to-hand combat and close combat. "

"If something unexpected happens, they can come back by boat. You see, there are mountains over there. There is only one road near the river that leads to Kochi Castle behind the mountains, and it's not far away. It's all under the surveillance of the hot air balloon. If there is a danger, you will know it very early.”

Liu Yu frowned and thought for a moment, hesitating slightly. These sailors are indeed good at chaotic battles. If the Japanese are defeated and they block the road and attack fiercely, they are absolutely suitable.

It's just that these sailors have little discipline, and are often unable to get off the ship for months in cramped cabins. There is no faith or psychological counseling in these years, and every one of them is more or less a manic maniac.

I was afraid that they would be too aggressive and chase them to the other side of the mountain, just in case there was an ambush. Or maybe you get so excited about killing that you turn fighting into robbery, which is not easy to handle.

He still has a political propaganda battle to fight. If he wins it, he can at least get an extra two to three million taels during the peace talks. How much can he rob the poor and debt-ridden Tosa Domain?

Calculating the strength of the Tosa Domain based on Shi Gao, Liu Yu estimated that there should be more than a thousand people in Kochi Castle. If the group of people at the foot of the mountain can be annihilated and prevented from escaping back to Kochi City, it seems that they can try to capture Kochi City. I think the shock will be even greater.

After weighing it up, he called Shi Shiyong, explained the plan, and warned: "Brother Shi, you will lead this group of sailors. Just restrain them a little and don't chase them over the mountain. You are the guest in the palace." Being from a Wei background, I should be able to control people like them."