Chapter 2118

Or because the continuous artillery battle at Hirado Port effectively "prevented" the enemy fleet from landing, even if Tagawasuke learned the news of the enemy's landing on the west coast, he did not intend to directly abandon Hirado Island.

He has been operating a base for many years. He still believes that he can continue to deal with powerful enemies from thousands of miles away on the island by taking advantage of his home field.

However, out of caution, Tagawasuke immediately summoned Tagawa Nanzaemon and prepared to arrange for him to leave Hirado first. He knew very well who the Han leaders and staff under his command were loyal to. The defeat was a big blow to the Hirado clan.

It's not a catastrophic disaster, but if something happens to his adopted son, the Hirado clan may really fall apart.

As long as Tagawa Nanzaemon is preserved, even if the Hirado clan is temporarily defeated in the war, or even if Tagawa suke himself dies in battle, there will eventually be a figure with enough weight to gather the remaining power under his command after the war and defeat Tagawa.

The family's dominance was maintained.

"Nanazaemon, you will leave here with my guards later and take a boat to a secret location. Wei Zhi's people will send you and your mother to Kyushu, which is safer than Hirado." Tagawa Suke tried to keep his tone calm.

Be calm and avoid the other person feeling that you are panicking.

However, Tagawa Nanzaemon was already precocious, and he had a relatively good understanding of the causes and consequences of this battle with the Kaihan Army. Of course, he knew that the opponent the Hirado Domain was going to fight this time was very powerful, and he might lose to it. And Tagawa Suke

To send himself away from Hirado clearly showed that he was not optimistic about the prospects of this war and was preparing to arrange an escape route for himself.

"Father, do you think we are going to lose even before the Kaihan Army sets foot on the Hirado Domain's land?" Tagawa Nanaemon asked in confusion.

"I was careless. The enemy took advantage of our offensive to deal with Hirado Port and secretly landed at Boxiang Bay in the west. I sent Kojiro to lead the troops to repel the enemy, but he failed." Tagawa asked after seeing him.

, and no longer intend to hide the truth from him. If the current situation is not explained clearly, it will be difficult for him to preside over subsequent affairs even if he is sent to Kyushu.

Tagawa Shichizaemon said: "Then let's gather the troops to fight the enemy. If my father wants to send me away from Hirado to avoid disaster, won't it make the feudal lords feel cold?"

Tagawa Suke said solemnly: "We will definitely fight, but you can't help by staying in Hirado. Instead, we need to dedicate manpower to protect you. I believe you also know that one of the reasons why the enemy attacked Hirado is

I want to get rid of you from the world, so I can’t let them catch you on the island. Don’t worry, the feudal lords will definitely agree to this arrangement. After all, most of them were once your biological father’s subordinates and friends. It’s impossible.

Sitting back and watching will put you in a dangerous situation. If you leave Hirado, the people who stay here will be able to calm down and fight the enemy to the death, do you understand?"

The reality is cruel, but the truth is just as Tagawa Suke said, Tagawa Nanzaemon must leave here in order to reduce the pressure on the Hirado Domain to resist foreign enemies. And because of his special status, he left Hirado at this time

There will be no opposition or resentment from the feudal lords. There will definitely be far more people in the Tagawa clan who agree with this arrangement than those who oppose it.

"Hurry up and leave. I don't know how much time I can buy you. For our Tagawa clan and the Hirado clan, you must live well!" Tagawasuke waved his hand and said: "Go ahead and leave quickly!"

"Please take care of yourself, Father!" Tagawa Nanaemon knows that his adoptive father has made up his mind. It is useless to say more here. On the contrary, more people may die trying to buy time for him to escape. The only way is to follow the arrangements.

The optimal solution at the moment. He lay on the floor and kowtowed deeply, then got up and walked out without looking back.

Tagawa Nanzaemon did not ask unnecessary questions such as whether Tagawa Suke would find a way to break out of Hirado Island, nor did he inquire about how to reunite after the war. He knew that from this moment on, he must truly begin to fulfill his duties as the successor to the feudal lord.

Duty. If Tagawasuke unfortunately dies in the battle of Hirado, then he will naturally become the next lord of the feudal lord, and will take revenge as his future life goal.

Regarding his biological father, Zheng Zhilong, he actually didn't have much emotion at all. After all, not long after he was born, Zheng Zhilong decided to adopt him to Tagawa Jie, who had no heirs, and was his uncle. To be honest, he was actually raised by his mother and his uncle.

His uncle raised him together, but he had never met his biological father. Therefore, in Tagawa Shichizaemon's mind, "father" was actually his adoptive father, Tagawa Suke, and his biological father was just his mother's dead husband, nothing more.

However, in the past few years, many Han people came from the Ming Dynasty. It is said that they were powerful figures who once took orders from their biological father Zheng Zhilong. Tagawa Nanzaemon had no interest in these people at first, but his adoptive father told him that these people were willing to be loyal to the Tagawa clan, but the premise was

Designate him as the heir to power of the Tagawa clan, because these people believe that the property left by Zheng Zhilong should be inherited by his only son, so they want to try to make Tagawa Nanzaemon the most powerful person in the Hirado clan - just

Starting from becoming the next head of the Tagawa clan.

Of course, when Zheng Zhilong arranged for these people to flee to Hirado, it is difficult to say whether he already had the idea of ​​occupying the magpie's nest in the future.

But even if these people did not make such a request, Tagawa Shichizaemon knew that his adoptive father would leave the position of head of the family to himself, because there was no one to compete with him within the Tagawa clan, and he was the only heir. However, because this relationship was still

He was of course happy to win over a group of people to work for his adoptive father. Therefore, he accepted all these Han subordinates from the Ming Dynasty according to Tagawasuke's arrangement.

While these people regarded him as their young master, they also played a great role in promoting the development and growth of the Tagawa clan and even the Hirado clan. They brought resources in many fields such as military, navigation, trade, intelligence, and connections.

These are all the good things that the Hirado clan wanted in the past. It is precisely because of the advanced technology brought by these people that the Hirado clan has a firearms force, an armed fleet, a trade volume that doubles every year, and

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Various resources were continuously concentrated in the Hirado clan, and under the operation of these people, they turned into huge wealth and military strength, making the Hirado clan become stronger at a speed visible to the naked eye. If the Haihan people hadn't suddenly jumped out to interrupt, then the situation would have been much worse.

In a few years, the Tagawa clan will probably not stop at controlling the Hirado Domain, but will expand further outwards and annex the entire Hizen Kingdom in northwest Kyushu, becoming a local daimyo with greater power.

But now with the sudden arrival of the Haihan Army, it seems that the Tagawa family's good luck can only stop here temporarily. If they can't pass the Haihan test, they won't have to think about who to annex in the future, let alone

Comply with the request of these Shiba Shiba remnants and send troops to avenge Zheng Zhilong and other Shiba Shiba leaders. And keeping Tagawa Nanzaemon is a more important thing at the moment than keeping Hirado Domain. Naturally, these Han leaders will not oppose Tagawa Suke.

He was sent to Kyushu to escape the war, even if he thought Tagawasuke was too slow, he should have sent the young master to a safe place before the war started.

Watching his adopted son walking out with firm steps, Tagawasuke let out a sigh of relief. He knew that this farewell would probably lead to no chance of seeing each other again, but if this was fate, he could only accept it calmly. He worked under the Matsuura clan

Having been a feudal lord for many years, I have seen many scenes of fighting and killing, and I don't have much fear of death. As long as I can arrange my posthumous affairs in advance, it is not a big deal even if I die in battle.

As the lord of the Hirado clan, you have the responsibility to defend the territory. If you can't even protect your own territory, you can die. But Tagawasuke can die, but the Hirado clan cannot just die. As long as Tagawa Shichizuo

As long as Emon is still there, no matter whether it is the Tagawa clan or Hachishiba, there will still be a chance to make a comeback.

"Come here, get my armor!" Tagawa Suke ordered angrily. In fact, it had been a long time since he had personally fought in battle, but this did not affect his confidence in his combat effectiveness. I think he was the same back then.

A fierce general, if he had not made many military exploits for the Matsuura clan on the battlefield, how could he have become the number one retainer of the Hirado clan? Even Zheng Zhilong, a figure with great influence in East Asia, also had great respect for his relative.

In order to appreciate him, he is willing to adopt his biological son to him.

Although the enemy troops have landed on the west side of the island, Tagawasuke still believes that the situation has not deteriorated to an irreversible point. In addition to the more than 3,000 feudal troops summoned from the entire Hirado Domain in advance and assembled near the Hirado City area, they are on standby.

, a few days ago, an equal number of farmers and soldiers were temporarily recruited from the private sector. No matter how you think about it, they should be able to fight with their opponents.

However, due to problems with food supply and order transmission, not all of these farmers have gathered near Hirado City. Therefore, the number of men and horses that Tagawasuke can mobilize immediately is actually less than 5,000. Among them, firearms are actually used, or they are equipped with horses and armor.

, the elite troops with standard swords and bows are actually only about a thousand people.

But this has almost exhausted the strongest combat effectiveness created by the Hirado Domain. Except for the armed fleet led by Wei Zhi, which is still lurking in the outer sea, almost all the remaining fighting forces of the Hirado Domain have gathered here.

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Tagawasuke still insisted that there could not be too many enemy troops landing on the west coast. His reason was that since the enemy deployed a large armed fleet on the east coast to attack ports, it would inevitably lead to the loss of warships used by the landing troops on the west coast.

There won't be too many, otherwise it would be easier to gather together and attack Hirado Port directly.

As long as the port's shore defenses can block the enemy fleet at sea and prevent it from landing at Hirado Port, then it should be a feasible solution to concentrate its own land forces to clear out the enemy forces that have landed from the west.

Of course, Tagawa Kojiro's lightning defeat has proved that this enemy force that has landed is not a weakling. It will not be easy to defeat or even annihilate it easily. Tagawa Suke decided to personally lead the army to attack to ensure that it will not appear again.

The enemy army was about to be defeated in one blow. He had previously sent Gao Hongfu two thousand men to rush to the western front to intercept the enemy army, but most of those two thousand people were farmers and soldiers. He only hoped that Gao Hongfu would not make any mistakes again, even if he was defeated.

However, the opponent at least insisted on waiting until he led the main force to the battlefield.

But it was easy to say, but the actual battle situation could not fulfill his wish. More than half of the 2,000 troops led by Gao Hongfu were temporary peasant soldiers, and he did not dare to let these people lead the battle. Otherwise, if they were in the narrow terrain,

The enemy army was defeated on the mountain battlefield, and the defeated soldiers who fled back were likely to disperse the regular army behind them.

However, Gao Hongfu was reluctant to directly let the regular army with limited strength take the lead to explore the real situation, so he deployed a small number of peasant soldiers to act as pioneers in the front, with the regular troops following behind, while the remaining peasant soldiers were responsible for rearing and transporting baggage.

Materials.

Soldiers who had previously escaped said that the opponent's rifles fired very quickly and did not use formation shooting tactics. They seemed to have no need to stop and slowly reload ammunition, and defeated Tagawa Kojiro's troops with intensive firepower alone. Takahashi Minami listened.

After hearing these news, I already had some bad premonitions.

As far as he knows, only a few elite troops in the Haihan Army are qualified to equip this legendary volley of muskets. If this is true, then the Haihan Army landing from the west coast is likely to be an ace army with rich combat experience.

, rather than a small force that landed from Bo Xiang Bay for reconnaissance purposes.

When Gao Hongfu led troops in Shibazhi, he had a head-on confrontation with the Haihan Army on the battlefield. He knew very well that the elites of the Haihan Army were not comparable to ordinary musketeers. They were far superior in terms of weapons and tactics.

It's not a good idea to engage head-on with them.

Therefore, he did not choose to intercept the opponent head-on on the way from Boxiang Bay to Hirado City. Instead, he commanded his troops to set up ambushes in the mountains and forests on both sides of the road, preparing to wait for the opponent to fall into his trap. Although this may not completely defeat the opponent, but

If it causes relatively large damage to the Haihan Army, it can be regarded as completing part of the mission.

However, the Haihan Army seemed to know his tactics well and did not try to pass through this mountain road quickly. Instead, it patiently sent small teams in various directions to explore the mountains and forests on both sides of the road. In this way, it was not good at executing it.

The peasants and soldiers who were on the lurking mission soon revealed their secrets. The Haihan Army still did not rush forward to clean up the area. They immediately retreated after detecting that there were many people lurking in the mountains and forests.

"What's the plan of this Haihan people?" Gao Hongfu found that the other party did not advance rashly, and he was a little suspicious at the moment. Behind him was the Hirado city, and it was definitely impossible for his opponent to outflank his retreat, but if they didn't launch an attack in this direction, what would happen?

What opportunity are you waiting for?

"No! South!" Gao Hongfu suddenly realized something, and immediately sent people forward to explore the movements of the Haihan Army.
Chapter completed!