Although the officers and soldiers led by Chen Xin and even Li Yuan had roughly known that the combat mission did not seem to be a big battle when the expedition set off, somehow,

After all, many of the officers and men who set out this time have experienced many bloody and vicious battles in distant places, and through their exploits in the war, they have to a great extent accumulated benefits for themselves that far exceed those of martyrs, and quite a number of officers and men have even started a family and started a career, and they are no longer the teenagers of the past, and no one wants to die on the battlefield when they are about to face a life completely different from that of the past. In particular, many people have experienced long voyages at sea, and know that even if the battlefield is not a problem, there are various risks at sea.

In order to boost morale, when the army was advancing, many re-research materials of the Wanli War to aid Korea, as well as some materials of the Dongying army, began to be studied and discussed by each ship during the voyage.

"What is the difference between the army in the Dongying area and the Westerners we have encountered? Their main elite, on the surface, does not seem to be very different, iron armor, large and small guns, and of course, a certain melee ability. But the details largely determine the combat effectiveness: more than half of the heavy arquebuses in the Western army can fire more than one or two projectiles, but less than one-tenth in the Eastern army. The armor and shields commonly equipped in Western armies often require us to follow the highest specifications, and each submunition is a heavy shotgun shell, but also to be charged to the highest standard, which is completely different for the Dongying people. The most important thing is that although there is no clear evidence, it can be assured that the possibility of them mastering the blasting attack and defense is not high, of course, in order to avoid encountering accidents in the operation, our army still has to be vigilant against the opponent's use of this means, this time our army may not encounter an opponent who is too large in a local battlefield, so when the enemy army is not very large, and the team is not alone, the gunner can first launch fire at the ultimate effective distance... ”

The coast of Jeolla Province is not very far from Kyushu Island, and there are many people who are familiar with this route, and after about three days of sailing, the fleet has begun to approach the open sea around Kagoshima. Although it was possible to land from the northern part of Kyushu Island first, the fleet adopted a frontal attack in order to deal the greatest blow to the opponent in a head-to-head encounter.

Because the sailing speed of the fleet was very fast, when the fleet led by Li Yuan and Chen Xin approached the harbor, the armed forces in the harbor had just received the earliest beacon fire alarm, and many ships were still suspended in the harbor, and only some armed merchant ships came and went on the sea. Often, with two blasting projectiles of about 300 catties to launch a salvo bombardment, there is a probability of about six or seven percent of the small ships that are not very strong in the protection of the small boats to sink, and at a distance of about sixty or seventy paces, there are hardly many medium and heavy artillery, and it is almost difficult for the enemy ships with light guns that are not much stronger than the army to pose any threat.

In the pursuit and clearance, the explosions on the vast sea were heard one after another, and it did not take more than an hour for the enemy's armed merchant ships and even some small water ships that were fleeing in all directions near Kagoko Harbor to be cleared.

Of course, it was also in this period of about an hour or so, in the most heavily guarded place on the island of Kyushu, the defenders also gathered and mobilized their troops to a large extent, and it was best to be fully prepared for the battle.

"Let the fireships attack!" Some of the officers on the shore were relieved to see that the enemy ships that had invaded the harbor did not seem to have as many gun windows as the Westerners, and felt that some of the tactics that had been prepared in advance might have some effect.

It's just that when more than 200 small ships began to approach, the light guns on the ship also began to use the aiming and operating devices on the side of the ship to launch a continuous fire and attack at this time, unlike the medium and heavy guns on some ships, although the power of these light guns seems to be inferior to some medium and heavy naval guns, but they can effectively fire directly by the personnel and the flexible operation hit rate has been improved a lot, and secondly, the entire fleet has the ability to move with human propellers, and is not completely confined to the wind direction, As a result, approaching boats are often subjected to several rounds of continuous fire from more than two guns within two minutes or so of intending to get closer. Perhaps because the size of the ship was too small, when attacking the demolition fireboat, some heavy shotguns fired by the 200-pound steel-clad cannon could bring serious damage to the approaching boat. The climax of the battle on the whole sea did not last long, and the curtain gradually came to an end.

After moving a little distance, the flotilla also began to lay down the small boats that were ready to land and began to move towards the shore. It was probably at this time that many artillery pieces and shore defense batteries on the shore, which had already made preliminary defensive preparations, launched a fierce bombardment at a distance of two or three miles, and although the heavy shotguns were widely dispersed, they only splashed some water in most waters, but after all, they could bring a slight threat to the landing team.

When the officers and men of the small boat began to land one after another, the cavalry of the Shimazu family, who had already completed their assembly, also set out from the castle not far away, and soon approached a distance of about a mile.

At this time, the gunners responsible for covering the fleet did not remain silent any longer, and launched fierce fire with less than one or two light shotguns, and in just one minute, more than 300 pieces of ammunition and tens of thousands of light shotguns were fired by 100 guns responsible for covering the ship. The light shotgun at a distance of about a mile did not seem to have a good killing effect, only a few hundred people were killed, but this also made the enemy cavalry, which was not very large, retreat under the blow of fire, and some of the infantry who were about to approach from a distance also gave up their intention to attack in this case, and were ready to shrink the defense with all their might, because perhaps only in this way, there was a slight chance of victory in the face of such a strong enemy.

(End of chapter)