Ten ironclad ships rushed towards the large Ataka ship, knocking over seven Ataka ships at once. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

At the same time, the cannons on the ironclad opened fire. At this time, the ironclad ships had already rushed into the interior of the Tokugawa naval forces, and each ironclad ship had thirty-two cannons on it, almost firing the guns close to the Tokugawa family's ships.

A cloud of sawdust flew and 320 shells were fired, all of which were fired into the hull of the Ataka ship. Then, a few seconds later, a series of cannon-like explosions resounded throughout the battlefield, and one spark after another burst through the hull of the Ataka ship, blasting those broken wooden planks into the air more than ten meters high.

The sailors of the Tokugawa family collapsed.

How can this ironclad ship with ironclad and extremely fast speed be matched by the Ataka ship? The high speed of the ironclad ship made it impossible for the Ataka ship to engage in hand-to-hand combat, and the thirty-two cannons continued to bombard the fragile Tokugawa naval forces. If this continues, all the wooden ships of the Tokugawa family will be sunk by this ironclad ship.

The Tokugawa family's Ataku ship turned its bow and fled into the distance. More than 100 Ataka boats pointed in a hundred directions and struggled to escape on the December sea.

The steamers were not prepared to spare the Japanese sailors, and the steamers chased after them with thick smoke, occasionally firing shells at the fugitive Ataka ships with their sides. After two hours of chasing on the sea, Li Zhi's ships sank more than half of the Ataka boats.

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On December 6, Li Zhi's 10 ironclad ships and 63 armed merchant ships blockaded Edo Bay and began shelling Edo Port.

With a population of hundreds of thousands, Edo is a very large city. The town can be divided into three parts, one is the samurai yashiki next to Edo Castle Castle, which is the residence of Japanese samurai, and it is a large area and is carefully built. One is the castle town of Edo Castle below the castle, which is radioactively distributed around the samurai houses and is the main component of Edo Castle. The other is the port town next to the Edo Pier.

Because of the large samurai class in Edo, Edo needed to ship large quantities of consumer goods and luxury goods from all over Japan, and the port of Edo was busy with trade. As a result, a bustling port town was formed along the wharf of Edo Port.

The castle town and the port town were not separated, and the merchant houses in the port town and the inns in the castle town were connected together to form the Edo city town.

Edo Castle was more than ten miles away from the pier, and Li Zhi's gunboats could not directly bomb Edo Castle. But the town near the Edo pier was completely exposed to the range of the ship's guns. Lee Chik's fleet stretched across Edo Bay, mercilessly bombarding the port town that served the samurai of Edo Castle.

Seventy-three steamers were united on starboard to the port town, and more than 700 cannons spewed sparks from their muzzles, raining deadly flowering bullets into the Japanese capital.

Blossom bombs smashed through the roofs of the wooden buildings and through the walls of the houses. Then the seal of the flowering bullet burned for a while, and it exploded violently, throwing iron projectiles and flames into the surrounding space. If the citizens of the Japanese country in the house did not flee in time, it was very likely that they would be killed by the flowering bombs at home.

Even more terrifying was the flames from the flowering bombs. With each round of shells, several of them ignited a fire in the town.

For the dense wooden houses of Edo Castle, the flames ignited by these flowering bombs were extremely deadly. Edo Castle has been destroyed by fire several times in its history, which shows the city's fragility in the face of flames. At this time, the fire spread rapidly through the town, jumping from one house to another, and devouring the entire town without mercy.

As soon as the bombing began, the entire city of Edo was in chaos. The citizens of the whole town fled to the north, huddled on the road like frightened elks, and ran wildly. In the chaos, someone was trampled to the ground by the crowd, and even broke their ribs and screamed and moaned by the chaotic crowd.

From time to time, a man covered in fire rushed out of the burning building, rushed to the street without fire, and rolled on the spot, screaming and extinguishing the flames on his body.

The bombardment continued, and only two hours later, the entire port town next to the port of Edo was burning. The fire even spread along the buildings north of Minato Town to the castle town, and there was a momentum that burned the entire Edo to the ground.

In a sake merchant house of a wealthy merchant, a wealthy merchant who is unwilling to give up his shop has stripped off his clothes in the roasting fire and is wearing only a pair of underwear, and is directing the extinguishing of the fire. He shouted loudly for the clerks to fetch water from the well to extinguish the fire. However, where can the buckets of clear water picked out of the well withstand the rapid spread of the fire? The fire in the east was finally brought under control, and flames spread to the west.

The whole merchant house was on fire, and the clerks of the rich merchant realized that something was wrong, abandoned the rich merchant and fled. The rich merchant anxiously rushed to the well, carrying a bucket of water and rushing into the fire. But he was halfway through when he was hit in the neck by a wooden beam falling from the roof, and he fainted at once.

The charred timber could not support each other, more and more timber fell, and the rich merchant was engulfed in flames in the blink of an eye.

On the castle tower of Edo Castle, Tokugawa Iemitsu looked at the burning town with a frown.

Behind Tokugawa Iemitsu, two shogunate "elders" and five "elders" watched the flames in the city with great flamboyance. The elder Doi Toshikatsu couldn't even control his body, trembling slightly behind the shogun.

If it continues like this, it won't be long before the entire town of Edo will be burned to the ground. The hard-built houses, the goods in the merchants, will all be burned.

The officials of the Tokugawa family underestimated Li Zhi's force. Li Zhi is not just a prince of the Ming Dynasty, he actually has the force that can confront the whole of Japan.

Tokugawa Iemitsu looked at the blazing town of Edo and asked, "Doi Toshikatsu, what does Li Zhi want?" ”

Doi Toshikatsu finally suppressed the trembling of his body and said, "His Royal Highness the Shogun, Li Zhi's envoy claimed that the shogunate was asked to open the three ports of Hirado, Edo, and Sendai as the Daming treaty ports. The shogunate was asked to cede Osaka to Lee Sikkata as a permanent concession. In addition, it was requested that the western part of Iwami Province be given to the Choshu Domain, and the southern part of Hyuga Province should be given to the Satsuma Domain. ”

Hearing Doi's words, several other shogunate officials were full of anger.

"Who does Lee Sik think he is? After seizing a few ports, did he think he controlled all of Japan? ”

Doi Toshikatsu's face turned pale and said, "However, now Li Zhi has colluded with many powerful daimyos. The entire western country has been completely in chaos, and the Shimazu family, the Mori family, and the Nabeshima family have all rebelled. Over the years, we thought that the Tokugawa family's control over Japan was indestructible, and they were quite strict with the daimyo of the outside, and the daimyo was full of dissatisfaction in their hearts. Now Li Zhi has stationed 20,000 troops in Osaka, and he is violent. If this continues, more and more foreign daimyo will raise their flags and fall the curtain! ”