The sky is high and the clouds are light, and the breeze is cool, which is a good day for firing guns.

The main force of the Western Pacific Fleet, which was chasing the fugitive ships from Hirado Port, had reached the north of Kumayoshima, just a dozen kilometers from Kokura Castle (Note 1), and the flags fluttering at the head of the castle were clearly visible through the telescope.

Qian Ran had no consciousness of being a lieutenant colonel at the moment, he was sitting on a stool in front of the window, holding a telescope in one hand to observe the garrison on Xiongji Island, and holding a glass of cold lemonade in the other hand, and he didn't know whether he was here to fight or take a cruise ship to sightsee.

On the sand table in the captain's room is a model of Kumayoshijima Fortress made by the staff officers, based on maps secretly drawn by spies and merchants before the war... However, the fleet staff also said that the shogunate army had also strengthened Kumayoshima Fortress after receiving the governor's declaration of war, and they could not guarantee the reliability of the model.

Qian Ran shrugged when he heard this, saying that it didn't matter, and he didn't plan to occupy this lonely city anyway.

"Attention units, attention units," Shang Kexi grabbed a bamboo pole stretched out from the deck and shouted into the port, "Inform the battleship and the three destroyers to adjust the position of the shelling, and the other three are against the port of Okura, don't be poked by the fireboats!" ”

A string of swear words unconsciously slipped out of Shang Kexi's mouth, Qian Ran grinned, and drank the lemonade dry: "Dry, give these slaves a refreshing look." ”

Ten minutes later, the warships lined up in an arc along Kumayoshi Island officially anchored - this was also a blatant provocation to the shogunate's naval forces - and the cannons of the black hole hole had already poked out of the firing port of the removed baffle and were aimed at the castle tower a kilometer away.

"Zhenyuan is ready!" "The Zhiyuan is ready!" "The Erguna, Hailar, Kudur... You're all set! ”

After receiving the shout on the deck, Shang Kexi turned his head to look at Qian Ran: "Lieutenant colonel? ”

Qian Ran put the cup on the windowsill with a "bang", and a hideous smile appeared on his face: "Fire!" ”

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Hideo Furui got up from the ground, took off his helmet in some embarrassment, and patted the dust on his hair.

He ripped the hair at the back of his head a little irritably, feeling that this moon generation was really troublesome, or he should simply shave it. But then I felt that the bald head really didn't look like a samurai, and it would be humiliating to be seen by those damn ashigaru.

"Shunsuke! Shunsuke! Jun...", he saw a man buried by rubble lying in the corner, and the clothes on the lower half of his body should be the royal family he shouted at.

Gu Jing cursed in his heart, and pushed open the crooked wooden door with a knife, and walked up the stairs to the top of the stairs.

In the afternoon sun, the entire fortress was in disarray, and the ashikaru covered in a layer of dust screamed and ran around the city like headless flies, and even the head of the ashigaru and the other shoguns could not restrain themselves, not knowing what they were doing.

Gu Jing took a deep breath, and his already fierce appearance became more and more terrifying at this moment due to anger.

"You, listen to Admiral Ben!" He grabbed a ashigaru running past him, opened his mouth and roared, "Inform me of Aso Komatsu Hamada immediately!" Let them take care of their own roads! Or I'll hack them to death! ”

Pushing away the trembling Ashigaru, Furui pulled out his long knife, grabbed the handle of the knife with one hand and the scabbard with the other, and strode towards the top of the stairs with a fierce expression on his face.

Finally jumping from the rubble to the top floor, Gujing finally saw the culprit of all this, the evil Song warship, in the chaos.

Hundreds of meters away in the sea—after discovering that the artillery of the Kumajishima fortress was too weak, Qian Ran had already ordered the fleet to shoot at close range—and there were two tremblingly large ships, flanked by six smaller ships. The warships were slowly spreading out in a rough battle line, as if they were not going to continue pouring fire on the Kumayoshima fortress, which had been reduced to ruins.

Furui was about to thank the Buddha for allowing Kumayoshima to escape, but he immediately realized where these Song warships were going to leave Kumayoshima.

He turned his head sharply and looked at Kokura Castle to the south: "It's over, it's Kokura!" ”

A huge ship, covering the sky and the sun. After destroying the fortress of Kumayoshishima, Kokura Castle, which did not have a fort, was like a drunken girl exposed to the big man, and only a theoretical counterattack remained.

The fleet stabbed its cannons close to the port of Kokura, and the first three rounds of shelling smashed the fleeing shogunate warships and the cargo ships docked in the harbor into pieces of wood floating on the water. Screaming and jumping sailors struggled between the debris of the hull and the shells, and from time to time the unfortunate ones were hit in the head by the smashed planks or masts.

Given that the Ogura clan was ruled by Tokugawa Ieyasu's confidants, the Hosokawa family, and played a large role in the logistics of the shogunate army, it had already been included in the list of "severe punishments" at the pre-war meeting.

Well, the so-called severe punishment is to show the brutality and ferocity of the emerging imperialist state nakedly. Don't take out those things that are benevolent, righteous, courteous, wise, and faithful, surrender and lose half.

When the port area northwest of Kokura Castle was reduced to rubble by chain bombs, shrapnel shells, and arson shells (Note 2), the transports that had been behind the battle line slowly crossed the battleship and headed for the boardwalk, which had been deliberately preserved.

These ships purchased from the Ming Kingdom have no combat capability, and their seafaring performance is not as good as the sea ships produced in our country, and the few remaining advantages are probably that the quality is relatively good, the difficulty of construction is also low, and there is no danger in opening it after controlling the sea dominance.

After several transport ships anchored in the plank road jutting out of the harbor, a group of people dressed in ordinary Japanese clothes rushed out of the hull, holding bamboo guns, knives, axes, and all kinds of weapons that looked very unprofessional.

Other boats that had no place to dock were parked offshore, and the sampans tied to the sides of the ships were lowered to transfer the armed men to shore one by one.

Qian Ran then went up to the deck, leaned against the railing and watched the group of miscellaneous fish with the word "rabble" almost on their heads gathering in the burning port area, and the whole process lasted almost an hour.

"The samurai of the Ogura Domain are so cowardly, they don't even try to fight back. What if it succeeds? Feeling the pipe in his pocket, Qian Ran subconsciously narrowed his eyes, wondering what it would be like for him to launch an attack with a platoon at this time.

"Well, I must have driven this bunch of garbage straight into the sea."

At this time, nearly a thousand people had gathered on the shore, divided into three areas according to their respective flags, talking to each other in a chaotic manner, and the whole scene was as noisy as a vegetable market.

Standing at the front of the procession are Christian clergy dressed in black with a cross around their necks, and soldiers of the Saga clan wearing khaki uniforms (Note 3). The officers appointed to lead the three Christian volunteer battalions were anxiously looking at the warship in the distance at this time, and it was not until they saw the battle flag raised on the top of the Zhiyuan ship that they breathed a sigh of relief, drew their sabers and shouted: "For the sake of the Great Song, all attack!" ”

The priests, who had been specially transferred from Liaodong, held up a large cross made of wood and shouted in Japanese: "God bless you!" Destroy the Tokugawa demons! ”

"Onboard!"

The Christian army, who had been pushing and shoving, immediately let out a wild beast howl and rushed towards the city with the worship of Jehovah, their eyes red and bruised, as if they were about to drag Tokugawa Ieyasu out and hack him to death immediately.

Qian Ran, who was still looking at the Christian army from the flagship, whistled, thinking to himself that this group of miscellaneous fish was so excited, I don't know if it was because the worship of the old man of the Lord had played an effect, or if he had announced that the free robbery after the capture of Ogura Castle had played a role.

Note 1: Ogura Castle was renamed Fukuoka after the end of the war.

Note 2: The Port of Kokura was built with a large amount of wood and bamboo, making it extremely flammable – a common problem in all Japanese cities and infrastructure.

Note 3: The troops who wore the khaki uniforms were the troops sent to the Ryukyus for training before the war, and they were directly under the command of the Ao-Song after the outbreak of the war, and were regarded as co-operatives in terms of political treatment. Unlike the Dongjiang Army, these Japanese Cooperative Soldiers are still called the "Imperial Cooperative Army".