Chapter 1113: Red Teppō Corps — Attack! (Please Subscribe)

"I am Yamamoto Jin'emon Shigesumi, First Great Bansho Head of the Nagasaki Domain's Teppō Corps! Today I shall march beside the First Great Company and share life and death with you all! I ask only that every soldier obey the orders, advance without retreat, fight the enemy with all your might, and win renown for the samurai of Nagasaki!"

The seventy-year-old Yamamoto Shigesumi did his best to conceal the terror in his heart as he shouted out this pre-battle exhortation.

Though he had lived to a great age and had once been a senior retainer of the Saga Domain, with a hereditary stipend of as much as a thousand koku, he had never truly set foot on a battlefield before this day.

The battle that would later be called the Battle of Nishizaka Hill was in fact Yamamoto Jin'emon Shigesumi's first battle, and the battle that won fame for him and for Nagasaki's Red Teppō Corps.

The reason this new-model infantry regiment of 2,000 flintlock musketeers came to be called the "Red Teppō Corps" was not that their teppō — that is, the flintlock rifles produced by the Great Ming — were painted red, but that they all wore red jinbaori, red breastplates, and red helmets.

After more than two months of round-the-clock training (no longer mere 996 or 997), they could now form up in fairly orderly ranks. The 2,000 men were divided into five great company squares, drawn up outside Nishizaka Castle, waiting to go into battle and kill or be killed.

Today was already the tenth month of the twelfth year of Great Ming Hongxing; by Japanese reckoning it was the tenth month of the second year of Manji.

The Battle of Nagasaki had already dragged on for more than two months — the reason it had lasted so long was that the defenders had also dug trenches outside Nishizaka Castle, and had deployed 12-catty and 24-catty mortars in those trenches. The artillerymen from the Great Ming Army could use these mortars, set in their pits, to shell the Toyotomi soldiers digging trenches five or six hundred paces away. And the Nagasaki Domain kept organizing suicide squads to launch wave after wave of counterattacks under the cover of these mortars and the 12-catty long cannons deployed on Nishizaka Castle. Thus the Toyotomi army's siege trenches had been stopped two li north of Nishizaka Castle, unable to advance any further.

Still, the Toyotomi army had not been entirely without gains over the past two months. Though they had made no breakthrough in the center, they had gained considerable ground in the hilly terrain on both flanks, successfully seizing a number of hilltops. By early in the tenth month, the Toyotomi army's lines had formed a three-sided encirclement of Nishizaka Castle.

Faced with the Toyotomi army's steady advances on the heights flanking Nishizaka Castle, the commanders in Nagasaki — Hoshina Masanori, Nabeshima Mitsushige, Kuroda Mitsuyuki, Hosokawa Tsunatoshi, Tachibana Tadashige, and others, along with Tian Yiqing, who had come from the Great Ming to serve as Chief of Staff — after repeated councils of war, resolved that on the eleventh day of the tenth month they would sortie from the central position north of Nishizaka Castle and launch a large-scale counterattack against the Toyotomi army!

Since it was a large-scale counterattack, it would naturally not involve only the 2,000 men of the Red Teppō Corps. In fact, when the Nagasaki army drew up its battle formation, the Red Teppō Corps in which Yamamoto Shigesumi served was not placed in the first line — they were held back as the decisive trump card, not committed as the vanguard.

Even as Yamamoto Shigesumi and the other great bansho heads were shouting themselves hoarse with their exhortations, the twenty great companies of infantry, made up of teppō soldiers and Nagasaki soldiers, had already formed two great horizontal battle lines on the slightly undulating open ground north of the trenches dug by the Nagasaki army.

Each great horizontal line was composed of ten great infantry companies (equivalent to battalions), and each great infantry company deployed a firing formation with two teppō groups (hundred-man groups) in front and three pike groups behind — the Nagasaki army's great infantry company organization differed somewhat from the Ming army's battalion, as their proportion of matchlocks was lower, roughly two to three against pikes. Thus one great company was made up of five hundred-man groups.

Of these, there were two teppō hundred-man groups, all equipped with the Hongxing Year Six matchlock. There were three pike hundred-man groups, all equipped with the simplest and most practical long-shafted plain pikes.

Because these great infantry companies had not been organized for long, they had no complex tactics — only two methods of fighting: the "firing formation" and the "thrusting formation."

When drawn up in firing formation, the two teppō hundred-man groups were placed in front of the three pike hundred-man groups, forming a rotating-fire line of five to ten ranks — because the Toyotomi army had essentially no cavalry to use, the Nagasaki army's musketeers did not need to form dense ranks. Moreover, Tian Yiqing, the Nagasaki army's Chief of Staff, did not expect their limited firepower to shatter the enemy, so he had chosen rotating-fire tactics for the Nagasaki army's teppō hundred-man groups, to ensure sustained fire output, draw enemy fire, and cover the assault of the cavalry and the Red Teppō Corps.

Behind the two teppō hundred-man groups were the three pike hundred-man groups, each drawn up in five ranks, which when joined together formed a great square of fifteen ranks — like the teppō groups, all in "open order." Thus the teppō groups positioned in front could, after completing their firing task, pass directly through the open ranks of the pike groups and withdraw behind them.

In this way, the great infantry company's firing formation transformed into the thrusting formation!

While the twenty great infantry companies were deploying, on both flanks of the Nagasaki army there also appeared cannons and the Red Horo cavalry screening them — although these troops were dressed and equipped much like a Japanese samurai army, they were every one of them genuine Ming troops.

Ten 3-catty cannons and eight 12-catty cannons, hauled by powerful mules, quickly moved into position, their black muzzles angled obliquely toward the Toyotomi army's lines.

The Toyotomi army opposite had also sortied in force — banners flying, drums and horns sounding, mounted messengers galloping ceaselessly before the lines, kicking up clouds of dust. But the Toyotomi formation was still not complete. Facing the Nagasaki side's thousand-odd Red Horo cavalry, they had to form up with great caution, and also had to keep shifting formation to cover their ever-extending flanks. As a result, the Toyotomi army's deployment was greatly slowed, which also delayed the positioning of their artillery.

Tian Yiqing smiled smugly and said to Hoshina Masanori, the jindai of Tokugawa Taka, "Regional Commander, give the order to attack!"

Hoshina Masanori nodded, raised a "little mop," pointed it forward, and shouted, "Begin!"

A group of fully armored Japanese commanders on both sides roared in unison: "Hei! Hei! Ho! Hei! Hei! Ho!"

Their shouts were the signal to begin the attack!

Then two great drums placed in the Nagasaki army's main camp were beaten, and several absurdly long bugles were sounded!

Amid the ever-quickening drumbeats and bugle calls, the front ranks of the Nagasaki army's great horizontal line began to advance!

At the same moment, a muffled thunder of cannon fire erupted! Tian Yiqing immediately raised his telescope and trained it on the right-flank artillery position. He saw white smoke belching from the muzzles of several great cannons there, the gun barrels recoiling sharply backward, and the instant they steadied, the gunners nimbly began a second round of loading.

The Nagasaki army's 12-catty and 3-catty cannons opened a crossfire from both flanks against the Toyotomi army's formations. Because the battlefield was not wide, the Toyotomi formations had great depth, and the oblique fire could hardly miss!

The cannonballs flew crisscross into the Toyotomi ranks, dropping among the massed men, then bounding up again and continuing their flight — and wherever they passed, Toyotomi samurai were mowed down row after row!

Several of the Toyotomi cannons had now been brought into action and began firing back; their shot tore through the air and likewise fell among the advancing Nagasaki ranks.

The Nagasaki army's teppō soldiers quickly opened fire — volley after volley, continuous and unending, as if there were no limit.

And the Toyotomi army's musket companies immediately returned fire. The guns and cannons of both sides traded shot back and forth, and soon the ground between the two armies was shrouded in clouds and mist, visibility dropping sharply.

"Regional Commander, the Red Teppō Corps can go in now!" Tian Yiqing drew a breath, raised his right hand, and pointed at the Toyotomi army's right flank. "There! The smoke is especially thick there — perfect cover for the Red Teppō Corps' advance!"

"Good!" Hoshina Masanori nodded solemnly. "Exactly what I intended. Send the order!"

"Hai!"

Two mounted messengers answered, flew down from the fort, mounted the "Mongol fine horses" imported from the Ming, and galloped toward the Red Teppō soldiers, who had long been itching to move!

Red Teppō Corps — attack!

(End of Chapter)