Chapter 3542
Chapter 3542
Chapter 3542
Time flies and it is already mid-April. The main battlefield of the civil war has shifted to the western end of the Kanmon Strait, a coastal plain on the coast of Kyushu.
Both sides needed time to gather their forces on this battlefield, so the frequency and scale of recent battles had also decreased, which made the inspection team that came to watch the battle quite bored. After watching the battlefield live for many days, the daily small-scale armed conflicts involving hundreds of people were no longer of interest to them.
However, most people were still waiting patiently. After all, the conflicting parties had gathered tens of thousands of troops in the Kanmon Strait, and they would eventually have to decide the outcome on the front battlefield. Many people had made up their minds to wait and see the battle before considering returning home.
In order to ensure that the entire battlefield could be seen at a glance, Hai Han chose Mount Adachi on the east side of the plain as the viewing point.
For this purpose, the Hai Han Army engineers took advantage of the period when both sides were mobilizing troops to cut down a large number of trees on the hillside and build a temporary stepped viewing platform.
There is a height difference of about thirty to forty feet between this observation deck and the sea level, and one can have a panoramic view of the plains below the mountain. It is only six or seven miles away from the southern hill where the Kyushu coalition forces set up their camp.
The only trouble was that the expedition team's camp was located at the foot of the mountain, and it was not easy to get to the high observation deck, especially for the older time travelers, as this journey was quite strenuous for the knees.
After discovering this problem, the only option was to ask the military craftsmen to rush to make a batch of stretchers so that the dignitaries who came to watch the battle could be carried directly on them.
The warring parties would certainly not be happy about Hai Han's high-profile move to set up an observation deck. After all, no one would like to have such a major combat operation be seen as a trick by others.
But at the same time, they all understood that if they did not show their best on the battlefield, they would most likely lose Hai Han's supplies. Hai Han people were smart and would never choose to support a loser.
Through days of transportation, the shogunate army has assembled nearly 50,000 troops in the coastal plain. Although there are still 20,000 to 30,000 troops on the other side of the strait, most of them are logistics and baggage troops. Almost all the real combat troops have been transported here, intending to compete with the Kyushu coalition forces.
The Kyushu coalition forces followed the pre-war deployment and Hai Han's instructions. After gathering on the hills on the south side of the plain, they no longer actively advanced. Instead, they relied on the mountain terrain to set up defensive positions and waited for the shogunate army to attack.
This hill is not the small hill that the two sides fought at the eastern end of the strait. It is part of a large mountain range with an area of hundreds of square kilometers. If the battle situation is unfavorable, the defenders can retreat into the mountains and forests, relying on this vast mountain range to deal with the shogunate army.
The shogunate army could certainly avoid this place and attack other places first, but since they knew that the Kyushu coalition forces had gathered here but avoided attacking, it would not only affect their own morale, but also prolong the war process. This was definitely not the best option for the shogunate.
Taking this opportunity to eliminate the main force of the Kyushu coalition and prevent the opponent from organizing large-scale resistance seems to be an effective way to shorten the war cycle.
If we take into account the time it took to mobilize troops from all over the country, this war has lasted for two months. Every day that it drags on, the shogunate will have to bear a huge amount of military expenses and material consumption. If this civil war continues for a few more months, the shogunate will find it difficult to sustain it even if it does not lose on the battlefield.
The start of this head-on confrontation came quietly at dawn one day. The shogunate army assembled a large number of troops and set out from the seaside camp, slowly advancing towards the position of the Kyushu coalition forces.
The shogunate army did not deliberately hide its tracks, nor did it choose to charge forward. There were no obstacles blocking the line of sight between the two armies, and any attack of more than a hundred people would be difficult to hide from the other side's surveillance. The expedition camp, which received the news, immediately sounded the assembly call, but the spectators did not need to risk entering the battlefield. They only needed to take a sedan chair to the observation deck on the mountainside to have a panoramic view of the battlefield situation.
This was probably the first time that the spectators saw the Shogunate army had enough space to deploy their battle formation, but the actual situation was a little disappointing to the spectators.
The composition of the shogunate army was too complex, and there had been almost no joint training before the war, so they could only be arranged according to the original organization of the troops. The formations were large and small, with square formations and linear arrays using muskets. Some troops were mixed infantry and cavalry, and the assembly speeds of each unit also varied.
Although it cannot be said to be a mob, in the eyes of the guests who have witnessed the Hai Han army fighting, it is not much different from a group of loose sand.
Fortunately, the shogunate army had a lot of troops. After the various units deployed their battle formations, they occupied a large area on the plain. In addition, with all kinds of military flags fluttering, their momentum was indeed not weak.
But when the Shogunate army began to advance, the formations of each unit immediately became disorganized again, causing the Hai Han bosses to shake their heads.
"The Shogunate army is at this level. I think it is not as good as the new army trained in Korea and Annan." Tao Donglai expressed his opinion without hesitation.
Yan Chujie echoed, "No wonder Li Yi has always been eyeing Japan covetously. This time he took the initiative to request to send troops to intervene. It seems that he is also confident that he can defeat the shogunate army."
Ning Qi said: "If we pull out the Kyushu coalition forces and arrange their battle formations, I wonder if they will be similar to the shogunate army."
Shi Diwen said: "After all, the Kyushu coalition army only has five factions, so it will definitely be much more organized than the shogunate army."
Ning Qi asked: "Will the Kyushu coalition be able to withstand the attack of the shogunate army later?"
Shi Diwen said: "Don't worry, since the formation of the Kyushu Allied Forces, the subject they have practiced the most is position defense. In today's competition, the Shogunate Army will definitely not gain an advantage!"
Yan Chujie said it more bluntly: "Not only can they not take advantage, the shogunate army is going to hit a wall today!"
Hai Han participated in almost the entire process of forming and training the Kyushu Coalition Forces, so the top military brass were very clear about its combat effectiveness level.
Considering that the Kyushu vassal states would inevitably face the shogunate's army after the uprising, the Kyushu coalition's training direction was mainly defensive. In recent years, about half of the artillery purchased from Hai Han was assembled on the hill positions here. Both in number and caliber, they were definitely far superior to the shogunate's army on the opposite side.
For the artillery units of the Kyushu coalition, the shogunate army's tactics of advancing in formation were basically no different from fixed targets. As long as the artillery fire was strong enough, it could cause large-scale casualties to the enemy in a very short period of time.
The shogunate army was clearly unprepared for the upcoming artillery attack and continued to line up in a more traditional manner, not taking into account the large amount of long-range firepower hidden in the mountains and forests opposite.