Chapter 645 51. Learn From the Cannon
"Fujiwara Danzhao thinks I, Hojo, have no one?"
Matsuda Yasuada was not afraid of anything. Anyway, the Hojo family had not been besieged once or twice, so he was very experienced. It's hard to say who will win in Pingshan City, which has no use for cannons.
At worst, everyone is standing together at the foot of Edo Castle. Seeing that there are more than 40,000 soldiers and horses mixed together, the coalition forces with different people's hearts will not be able to hold it back. There is still a city to rely on, and food can last for several months. Although there are few troops and horses, Hojo, who at least has unified command, cannot bear it at first.
"You guys who are just talking, are you laughing at the disadvantage of having a sword in my hand?" As soon as Xiaoping Tai spoke, the general in the tent, Cang Langlang, unsheathed his sword, and Lu Tengteng spear Xu Lin.
"Then let's fight for victory with swords and weapons!" Matsuda Yasuda stood up, without bowing his head to salute, and strode out of the tent to leave.
The rule of not killing envoys when the two armies are fighting must still be observed. Otherwise, Matsuda Yasuda would not be allowed to pretend to be cool and run away. He would have been killed by Koheta on the battlefield.
In fact, Koheita was not even 100% sure of capturing Edo. Because of the abundant groundwater, the rivers merge into the sea. There was no way to carry out earth dragon attack operations under Edo Castle, and it was impossible to attack the city in caves.
As for the fire attack, the city seemed to be quite well-prepared. There were a large number of rotten straw mats hung on the city walls, and the fire arrows could not catch them, let alone ignite them. As for the water attack, it was even more impossible. The city was on a platform, dozens of meters above the ground.
If Xiaopingtai has enough food and supplies, and his troops and horses are united, then he can besiege the city here until the autumn harvest. Before Edo opened the city, they surrounded it until the New Year, drove back the reinforcements, and starved the defenders to death.
Just when I was feeling distressed, I saw Sanada Masayuki dragging Hosokawa Saimei out of the house. The two of them were whispering to each other, talking in private. Hosokawa Zaimei frowned for a while, and relaxed for a while.
"Kibei, what are you talking about with Tsai Nyeo?" Koheita knew that this person had a lot of clever ideas and was full of bad ideas. He was definitely no less than himself, and even worse.
"I was talking to my father about the Nanban Otsutsuki." Sanada Masayuki now calls him father very smoothly, and he is completely proud of his status as the son-in-law of the Hosokawa family. You just boast about yourself when you see others, do you see? My father-in-law, Hosokawa Kainyu, saw that I was honest and responsible, so he gave me a wife who came from a noble family!
"Nanban Datong? Edo Castle is too high to hit!"
"I have many soldiers!"
"There are so many people that we can't hit it!" Xiao Pingtai thought to himself, isn't this a joke? This is a cannon, so what does it have to do with the large number of people.
Here we still have to praise Masayuki Sanada. As the most experienced samurai in the room, he almost ate a cannonball himself!
Everyone should remember that during the battle of Toishi Castle, Koheita fired a cannon at Takeda Shingen's main formation. Takeda Shingen was not killed, but because the cannon hit the wooden pillar, the broken wooden pillar hit Takeda Shingen's chest.
At that time, it was Sanada Masayuki who was standing next to Takeda Shingen and running away with Takeda Shingen on his back. He was probably a few meters away from the impact point of the cannonball, so he had personally experienced the power of the bronze smoothbore cannon.
In addition, he is a diligent person, diligent in thinking, and will just sit down and hold back his troubles when he has nothing to do. He is the same model as Xiao Pingtai.
After running around Edo Castle, this terrible terrain gave all the coalition generals a headache. Fortunately, Sanada Masada was not so anxious.
There are dams on both sides of the Hirakawa River near Edo Castle to prevent flooding. They are nearly ten meters high from the ground. When the Tone River and Tama River flood, they are turbid and unstoppable. If the dam is not repaired and is tall and strong, it will not work at all.
This can be regarded as one of the good governance implemented by the Hojo clan towards the people of Minamimusashi. They renovated water conservancy, developed new fields, reduced annual tribute, etc., which won the hearts of the people of Minamimusashi.
"Please look at this dam!" Several people walked to the dam.
"You want to flood the city?" This was Xiao Pingtai's first thought.
Although the effect will not be good, after all, Edo Castle is high, but it can indeed weaken the morale of the military. If the peasant soldiers in the city saw that they were surrounded by floods, they would definitely realize that they were trapped to death, and they would definitely panic.
"No, no! When my father and I observed the terrain outside the city before, we found that this is the closest highland to Edo Castle, only less than fifty rooms (70-80 meters) away! It's just the right place for bombardment with Nanban large cannons Inside the city!”
Hearing this, Xiaoping Tai turned his head and compared the distance. It was really only seventy or eighty meters away. If he wanted to break into the city, it would only be a hundred or ten meters away. It has exactly the range of a bronze smoothbore cannon, and can exert 100% of its power.
"But if you launch from the embankment, you still may not be able to reach the city!" Xiaoping compared too much, but still couldn't raise the shooting angle to this point.
"Sure! We have forty-eight thousand people!"
"Huh?" Xiao Pingtai suddenly had an idea!
"When I was young, my father told war stories. He once said that tens of thousands of weaklings filled in the soil to build a siege road outside Odawara Castle! Now that we have enough troops and morale, why can't we use this embankment to build a siege road? How about building an earthen platform more than twenty rooms (30 meters) high?”
"You mean!"
Got it, got it, totally got it! To be honest, Xiao Pingtai has always commanded only more than 10,000 troops. Excluding the civilian husband, Xiao Pingtai is a division commander, and he is a division commander who was promoted from chief of staff.
He spent much more time as Chief of Staff and Logistics Director than as Division Commander. Now he and Hosokawa Saime were assisting Yamauchi Taro in commanding an army of nearly 50,000 people. They were so busy with so many things to worry about that their heads were spinning.
Where can I remember how to make good use of the army of more than 20,000 civilians under my command?
If more than 20,000 civilians are mobilized, a 30-meter-high earthen hill can be built on the 10-meter-high embankment. It doesn't need to be too big, as long as four cannons can be placed on the top of the slope.
As long as you can wash the city with one round, not to mention Edo Castle, Odawara Castle can be washed clean for you!
"Cai Nu! If I had met Kibei earlier, I would never let you become his father-in-law!" Xiaoping was so happy that he punched Hosokawa Cai Nu.
"I told you! My Kibei is an honest and capable person!" Sanada Masayuki has ideas and can do things, so as a father-in-law, Hosokawa Cai Nu must be very happy.
"Immediately send a message to all the troops in the camp! Tell them to calm down and not go out of the camp to fool around. Everyone should come here to build a dirt mound. Within three days, a dirt mound must be built!"
"Okay!" Seeing that his opinion was accepted, Sanada Masayuki agreed quickly, rushed down the levee and went to the team to ask the messenger to pass on the order.
Soon, the commanders in each camp of the coalition heard the order, and they understood it immediately after a brief explanation. Build a dirt platform, and you don't need to fight and die. You can destroy Edo by firing cannons into the city.
This is simple!
We can't win a battle, but we can't play with mud?