On June 9, 1853 (July 14, 1853), the small pier in Yokosuka was bustling with activity. Since the name of the small fishing village of Yokosuka was changed, many craftsmen have gathered to prepare for the construction of the ironworks, and today Yokosuka is the first time that the southern barbarians have landed, and this place has become the center of turmoil for a while.

In order not to lose their dignity, the idlers had already been ordered to stay closed, so when the rice people landed, only Kayama Saemon led people to greet them on the dock.

Yokosuka is a natural harbor, but the two steamships of the Mi people did not dock, but dropped several small boats and rowed to the shore.

He looked at each other with Rikayama and Tatsunosuke, but in line with the principle that more is better than less, he watched more than 30 meters of people rowing ashore.

According to Admiral Perry's original plan, he was going to land 300 people - how many people are there? In addition, he is also ready to make a big show, load his guns with live ammunition, and dress up in formation, which will definitely surprise opponents who have never seen a big scene!

But yesterday's shelling made him change his mind.

Yesterday, Governor Uraga of Fuso came on board to watch the ceremony, and it turned out to be surprising that the cannon of Fuso Odaiba could hit 13 chains (about 2,408 meters) so far!

Later, according to the first mate of the Saskana, Kenty confirmed, a few flowering shells actually hit about 15 chains (about 2778 meters), but the effective range and the maximum range are not the same thing, so let's think that Fusang's cannon and the bombardment on his ship have a similar firing distance - after all, this is a closed island tribal alliance, how can it be possible to produce weapons that exceed the range of the bombardment, it must be sold to them by the merchants of the Lan Kingdom, and what can be sold is definitely not the best thing.

Since it is a weapon sold by the Lan State to Fuso, the quantity will definitely not be too much, and the specifications will not be too good - although the Western countries do not have a weapons convention, it is customary not to import advanced weapons to colonies and uncivilized areas.

"But it may not be the case", Perry thought about it, it was an iron law that the Indians were not allowed to provide muskets, but now the tribesmen of the United States are not armed with smoothbore guns instead of ridiculous bows and axes to attack the western pioneers everywhere, and the merchants of the Lan Kingdom have always been mercenary, and it is not surprising that they do anything out of the ordinary - the countries of Europa are jealous of the Lan country's monopoly on the Fuso trade, so there are many words of defamation in private.

There was no big mistake in being careful, so Perry changed the landing regiment of 300 men to 30 men (to facilitate the retreat), refused to let the ships dock at the pier (to prevent Fuso from engaging in infantry raids), the two steamships sailing into the inland sea of Edo Bay did not turn off, and the sailors on the gun emplacements were also on standby and ready to respond.

Although they were so nervous in private, the 30-meter people who went ashore still behaved very toughly, not only firing a 13-gun salute before going ashore, but also inserting spurs into the smoothbore guns after going ashore, and they were neatly arranged.

The Mi people raised two flags, and under the leadership of Admiral Perry, marched neatly to the beat of the drums.

This scene really shocked the samurai of the Hikone Domain, who came to greet him.

The usual duty of the samurai was to inspect all the ships entering Edo Bay and manage the surrounding civil affairs, and they were basically civil officials, and they looked at the rice people who were neatly dressed and tall, which was very different from the usual merchants and ships that were half a cut shorter. Look at it, this rice man "marches with drums", and the formation is "gathered but not dispersed", is it obviously a strong soldier!

Unlike the laymen of the court, the samurai of the Hikone clan saw some way.

First of all, the clothing and weapons of these iron guns are very uniform, which shows that the opponent has a fairly high degree of organization. And what are they wearing shiny on their feet? The translator says, "The short ones are leather shoes, and the long ones are leather boots" - this is how rich and bad people wear this!

Because I received it a year in advance

Notice, the 1,000 Hikone Domain guarding the Miura Peninsula are all carefully selected, and there are many famous people among them, but not to mention famous people, even the head of the family has to wear grass shoes to fight! These shiny leather shoes and leather boots look really terrifying - there must be mountains of gold and silver in the Mi people's home!

Secondly, this rice man is really strong!

It looks like all of them are about six feet tall, and they all have big shoulders and round waists, although they can't compare to wrestlers (sumo wrestlers), but wrestlers are not so tall, and we will definitely suffer when the white-knuckle battle starts! - Fusang's foot is about 30.3 centimeters, and the Mi sailors are really not all 180 centimeters tall, but at this time, Fusang's poor economy and low living standards, coupled with vegetarian habits, have caused widespread malnutrition, and the average height of men is only 1.55 meters, so seeing that Mi people are generally taller than themselves, these people naturally overestimate the height of Mi people.

And the opponent's appearance is really scary, not to mention the red face (sunburned on the sea all the year round), the harrier-nosed eagle eye, what's going on with these blue eyes? Also, if you don't look closely, you don't know, this red hair and yellow hair also have it, just like the legendary man-eating monster, looking at it makes people tremble, don't you look at the usual high-spirited few heads don't speak.

The shogunate closed the country for a hundred years, and the staff of the Rankoku Merchant House, the only "outsider" in Fuso, were also ordered to live in Nagasaki Dejima, so ordinary samurai and civilians had never seen Westerners, so they also had a sense of mystery and fear of the Mi people caused by the unknown.

In addition, there are many strange theories of the southern barbarians circulating among the people of Fuso, such as eating raw flesh and blood and eating children, and at the same time, in order to increase the legitimacy of their own seclusion, the shogunate also connived at and even contributed to this trend, and as a result, today suffered a bad result - the samurai of the Shinsho and Hikone domains were frightened when they saw the rice people for the first time.

Well-equipped (well-dressed), burly (compared to the Fuso people), terrifying (different in length), and neat marching procession, especially the last one, the Fuso Art of War admired "its Xu is like a forest, not moving like a mountain", so even the samurai of the Hikone Domain silently watched the Mi people move forward, and no longer shouted and screamed.

In the Edo period, there were very few samurai who actually went into battle, and there was no chance to go to war after practicing martial arts, so except for a few samurai who dared to test their swords with civilians and saw blood, most of the samurai showed their bravery by boasting.

In contrast, the Mi people's naval army is much better - one is the ocean voyage to train people, the other is that the Eastern Tianzhu fleet has also fought pirates to some extent, and in modern times, Western countries have strictly trained soldiers with code of conduct, so the momentum of the two sides is obviously different - the Mi people are only more than 30 people, and there are more than 100 Fuso people on the dock, and even most of them are the elite soldiers of the Yanne Domain, but in terms of momentum, the Mi people have the upper hand.

After arriving at his destination, Admiral Perry led his subordinates into Fuso's unique "array" - a tent-like command post enclosed with a cloth curtain - not that Fuso's side did not want to be received in a large house, but that Yokosuka was a small fishing village before, and the preparation for the construction of the ironworks was not progressing well, and there were no tall buildings, so it was better to make the military formation more formal than to make the opponents laugh at the shabby.

When Admiral Perry entered, he was slightly surprised by the fact that the first thing he saw was four chairs and a table, because according to the information he had gathered, Fuso did not have high tables and chairs—these tables and chairs had been collected from a nearby temple by the Uraga Commission, and had been specially prepared to suit the habits of the Mi people.

The two daimyos, Toda Clan Sakai and Ido Hiromichi, stepped forward to greet them, bowed, and Perry and his subordinates also took off their hats to salute - Toda and Ido were not daimyos at all, but Perry demanded that the recipient of the credentials must be an adult from Edo Castle, so these two impersonated them.

It is said that there are now eight coastal defense hangers in Puga, which was not necessary in the first place, but several coastal defense hangers in total, decided to let these two guys come forward to receive them - not for the sake of safety, because

For the previous boarding of the ship to watch the ceremony, the Kayama Saemon did not just wave the flag, he also shouldered an important mission, that is, to discuss the details of the reception of the credentials, including the number of people in the entourage, the steps, the result of this negotiation led to the fact that several coastal defense hangers did not need to come forward to hand over the credentials.

At that time, it was the eighth day of June in the Japanese calendar (July 13 in the Western calendar), and on that day, Xiangshan had already boarded the black ship to discuss how to hand over the national credentials, but this was not the rice people firing cannons, so the coastal defense hangers were vigilant and asked to clarify the vague details of the last time, especially to affirm again that "the public side is sick". The stakes are too great to change. It is advisable to come to Nagasaki next year to wait for the report" -- the rice people fired cannons for no reason, and everyone in Haiphong had an ominous premonition, thinking that the rice people may not only be arrogant and unreasonable, but also may also have a ghost in their hearts, "If it is not my race, its heart will be different".

After watching the ceremony, Admiral Perry disappeared, and it was still Adjutant Adams who received Xiangshan, and the two agreed on the details, and Adams pretended not to agree at first when Fusang took the initiative to reduce the number of Mi Shui troops who went ashore, but Xiangshan insisted that he would soon also push the boat down the river and agreed; Kagawa was also satisfied with Miren's re-promise that "it is advisable to come to Nagasaki next year to be reported," so the atmosphere of the talks was very harmonious, which was very different from the previous times when Kagawa made unilateral concessions.

The advent of the three-inch rifled gun changed a lot of things, Perry and Mito became much more cautious, no longer insisting on having the upper hand in negotiations, and Kayama Saemon was much bolder, and his rhetoric was no longer blindly pleading and compromising.

After returning to the shore, the clever Kayama reported the change in the attitude of the rice people, and the coastal defense hangers all clapped their hands and rejoiced, feeling that the risk of opening fire was definitely a wonderful step, and the candidates who came forward to receive the following were replaced by Uraga Governor Toda Eiei and his deputy Ido Hiromichi.

Admiral Perry of the rice people insisted that it must be the nobles of Edo who handed over the credentials, so since the coastal defense hangers were at the scene in Puga, they were naturally the first candidates to bear the brunt - Toda and Ido were stupid before rushing forward.

But the Haiphong hangers were reluctant to attend this ceremony - what if Perry made any unexpected requests on the spot, the risk of governance was too high! However, Toda and Ido resolutely did not come out on the grounds that "whoever is in high office is responsible", and these people have nothing to do.

In addition, not all of them were reluctant to come forward, so Mr. Egawa Tanan was very interested in meeting with the rice people, and Toranosuke Fujita of Mito was also eager to try.

Egawa returned the favor, but Mito had always asked the shogunate to reinstate the "Alien Ship Fighting Order" - if he saw the Nanban ship and opened fire without saying a word, if Fujita made something at the scene, everyone would be affected.

Fujita's agent is Qi Zhao, the old lord of Mito, and now Qi Zhao is not usually snubbed by Fujita, and if there is a coastal defense hanging up for this reception, Fujita proposes to go and see, and there is no reason to refuse-I can't go if you go? Therefore, everyone simply did not go, which not only avoided the risk but also eliminated the hidden danger.

The number of people who landed in the rice people became the original one, and the attitude changed again, as soon as the two brothers Toda and Ido combined, "I bet on this shop" - originally they had to attend no matter what, and they couldn't run away from any black pot, who let these two serve at the bottom of their posts. But listening to Kagawa say this, the attitude of the rice people has eased, and it will become profitable to come forward, and the risk is the same, but the first can not only make the eight coastal defenses owe them a big favor, but it is also a credit in case this matter passes safely.

So the two agreed.

So the two daimyos that Perry saw were Uraga Samurai Toda and his deputy Ido Hiromichi - starting from the beginning with Richujima Saburosuke pretending to be the vice governor of Uraga, followed by Rikayama Saemon pretending to be Uraga Daimyo at the final meeting, and Toda and Ido pretending to be the daimyo of the shogunate at the final meeting, Perry must know that these riotous operations of the Fuso people must be angry on the spot.

Now that the people have arrived, the submission of credentials has officially begun.