Under the high pressure of Tokugawa Iemo, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and lead troops to join the war, even if they were reluctant in every possible way.

It is definitely impossible to expect them to look good on being forced to fight a war that they don't want to fight at all.

Of course, Qingdeng would not have high expectations for these guys' combat power and enthusiasm.

Qingdeng had only one request for them: don't hold back.

As long as they don't hold back, Qingden doesn't bother to care whether they want to be an atmosphere team or just a little transparent.

After making a brief opening remarks, Qingden squinted his eyes and glanced at Shannan Keisuke beside him.

The other party nodded slightly with understanding, and then stood up.

"I am the elder of the Qinjin clan and the chief of the new selection group, Shannan Jingsuke."

"Next, please come down and preside over this meeting."

"Everyone, please take a look."

As he spoke, he pointed to the long table that stretched in front of everyone.

There was a three-dimensional map made of clay on the table.

A long time ago, Seito mobilized a large number of elite ninjas headed by Yamazaki Hao and ordered them to sneak into Changshu to spy on important information such as terrain, material supply, troop deployment, and personnel movement.

Although Changshu tried its best to prevent ninjas from infiltrating, and did not hesitate to set up outposts at various passes to strictly check every entry, but in this backward era without satellites, surveillance and other advanced technologies, it is not easy to completely blockade a vassal state?

Despite the hardships and dangers, Yamazaki Hao and others are not vegetarians.

By using false identities, blending into caravans, crossing mountains and other means, many of them successfully sneaked into Changzhou and carried out carpet-like exploration of the entire territory of Changzhou.

The "Staff Group" headed by Hijikata Toshizo and Yamanan Keisuke finally succeeded in creating this detailed three-dimensional map based on the various intelligence they passed back.

The level of detail in this map is amazing.

The direction of the river, the specific location of the city...all the key locations are clearly marked.

Under the guidance of Shannan Keisuke, everyone at the scene turned their eyes and looked at the three-dimensional map in front of them that gathered the efforts of countless people.

Immediately afterwards, many people frowned slightly, with expressions of confusion on their faces.

There is no other reason - the terrain in Changzhou is too steep!

Nearly 80% of Japan's land is mountains and hills.

The only three great plains—Osaka Plain, Nomi Plain, and Kanto Plain—are all located in Gyeonggi and Kanto.

Looking back at the Western Kingdom, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as "no land is three feet flat". There is almost no plain with a larger area.

From the west of Gyeonggi to the Shimonoseki Strait, there is a huge mountain system called the "China Mountains", with only a narrow strip of land near the sea being slightly flatter.

Choshu Domain is located at the westernmost end of the Chugoku Mountains.

The mountainous mountains of China are a natural fortress.

Changzhou, located in it, is undoubtedly a "mountain country" that is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

For this reason, land transportation in Changzhou is quite congested, and there are only a few roads connecting people and horses to the outside world.

Of course, this affects commercial exchanges and economic development, but if you think about it from another angle, it is a great benefit to the military!

Only a small number of troops need to be deployed to defend the most important locations to protect the entire vassal state.

As a result, Changzhou took advantage of its geographical convenience and established five passes collectively known as the "Five Borders" at the five most critical traffic arteries along the border: Yizhoukou, Shizhoukou, Odaokou, and Xiaocangkou.

Mouth, Hagiguchi.

Among them, Yizhoukou is the pass adjacent to Anyi, which is the battlefield where Qingdeng and others are currently located!

Qingdeng's combat plan of "dividing his troops into three groups and attacking Changzhou" was to have the three armies march from Yizhoukou, Shizhoukou and Xiaocangkou respectively.

"As you can see, Changzhou is full of mountainous areas, which is truly a beautiful place."

"Although our army has an overwhelming military advantage, it will not be easy to capture Changzhou."

"Don't be careless."

Shannan Keisuke slowly picked up the thin stick at hand and pointed at the "five realms" marked on the map one by one.

"According to the currently known intelligence, Changzhou has deployed certain troops in the 'Five Borders'."

"They seemed to have expected that Anyikou would be the main battlefield, so they deployed the largest number of troops here."

"In recent days, we have sent out a large number of scouts to explore the details of the opposite position."

"Unfortunately, until today, we have not yet learned the specific strength of its troops and the identity of its commanders."

"The only thing that is certain at the moment is that the total force on the opposite side will not be less than 2,000."

Having said this, Shannan Keisuke paused for a moment, and then changed into a solemn tone.

"It's strange...the number of torches on the opposite side is far lower than we expected."

"The fall of Anyikou will determine the survival of Changzhou to a large extent."

"It's obviously a place of life and death, but there are so few troops... It's really puzzling."

As soon as Shannan Keisuke finished speaking, Nagakura Shinpachi on the side asked tentatively:

"Could this be Changzhou's plan to suspect the enemy?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he received a rebuttal from Hijikata Toshizo:

"'Suspicious soldiers'? Why does Changzhou need to adopt this strategy?"

"Throughout the ages, armies that have adopted the tactics of doubting their troops have been in two situations."

"One is to pretend to have a large number of troops to act as a bluff."

"The two are pretending to have very few troops to lure the enemy into pursuing them rashly."

"Judging from the current situation, Changzhou does not meet any of the above points."

Toudo Heisuke took over:

"Then...will they shrink all their main forces into the hinterland and plan to fight a decisive battle with us in the hinterland?"

Hijikata Toshizo's neither salty nor bland voice spoke again:

"If this is the case, then the commanders of the Changzhou Army are too stupid, right?"

"The location is the only advantage they have."

"Abandoning a great location and fighting us in a vast hinterland with slightly flat terrain? The commander of the Changzhou Army is not that stupid, right?"

Hijikata Toshizo's words caused the scene to fall into silence.

Indeed. Hijikata Suisan just said it, every word is true and every sentence is true.

No matter which angle you look at it, Changzhou's current actions are really confusing.

No matter how incompetent you are, no matter how ignorant you are of soldiers, you should still know this principle of "using geographical advantage to offset the difference in military strength", right?

Why not deploy the main force at the border pass to keep the enemy at bay?

In this way, although victory cannot be guaranteed, it can certainly delay the shogunate army and cause huge trouble to the shogunate army.

Regarding how Choshu won this battle, Seito, together with Hijikata Toshizo, Shannan Keisuke and others, conducted extremely detailed discussions.

After discussion, they all agreed that despite the fact that the Tokugawa army had an absolute advantage, it was possible for Choshu to make a comeback.

The solution is to drag!

Try to drag it out, try to survive, and then actively contact the Western powers to ask them to intervene and mediate.

In the past, due to the "lockdown order" implemented by the shogunate, the Western powers knew very little about this Far East island country.

For this reason, there was once a diplomatic incident in which "the general conquering the barbarians was mistakenly believed to be the head of state." This incident once made the court extremely angry.

Now, the "Black Ship Incident" happened 11 years ago.

Western powers no longer know anything about this Far East island country.

They knew that the island nation was divided, with a nominal king, a shaky central government, and more than 300 princes.

Compared with an integrated country and nation, a fragmented country is definitely easier to control.

In other words, it is in the interest of the Western powers to keep Japan divided and unable to form a joint force.

Especially England, Europe’s “super troublemaker”.

The shogunate has become very close to France in recent years. It not only buys French equipment, but also hires French instructors, which makes the British very unhappy.

Therefore, the British were very interested in finding trouble with the shogunate and causing trouble to the shogunate.

When it comes to how to mess up a country and how to torture a nation, the British are second, but who dares to be first?

If you step on a stone on the road, you can definitely suspect that the stone was placed by the British - so goes the Arabic proverb.

As long as the shogunate is held back until the Western powers step in and exert pressure, it is really possible for them to revive this dead game.

Even taking a step back, if Changshu really planned to fight a decisive battle with the Tokugawa army in the hinterland, then they should adopt a two-step approach.

The first step was to launch a thorough "scorched earth operation" to increase the supply difficulty of the Tokugawa army.

The second step is to launch a vassal-wide mobilization, abandon all passes and unimportant cities, gather all troops into the hinterland, and complete the victory in one battle.
To be continued...