The rain of accurate and fierce arrows fired in the dark night caused thousands of casualties to the attacking team in a short period of time, and when the shogunate teams began to realize that they were likely to encounter a strong enemy that they could not defeat and wanted to retreat, huge fires began to sound from all directions accompanied by violent explosions.

Compared with some of the explosive attacks and defenses played in the expedition to the European continent, this time the blasting attack and defense may be due to the limited amount of carrying, or perhaps because it is too hasty, the scale is relatively limited, and the scale is only about 10,000 catties of gunpowder or even 100,000 heavy shotguns, but at this night, when most of the enemy troops are not in a defensive state, they have played the most prominent effect, and in a very short period of time, five or six thousand enemy troops in the retreat have been killed and wounded at one time. The landing force of more than 20,000 people, which did not seem to be too small in size, was reduced to about 13,000 after this series of blows, and its morale and state fell to the bottom under repeated blows.

At this time, about 3,000 elite soldiers of the four battle groups of the Marine Corps, which did not lack combat experience, also launched an all-out offensive at this time, and launched a joint encirclement against the enemy forces from all directions before the night had completely dispersed.

The explosion of the black powder grenade was accompanied by the sound of a series of sharp arrows breaking through the air. If it was said that because of the disparity in the strength of the two sides, the final result may still be very uncertain, then at this time, the huge difference between the two sides in terms of training, equipment, combat effectiveness, and even morale makes the next battle no longer have major suspense, and the battle will gradually end before the sky is completely bright.

In a series of battles, the 25,000 shogunate troops who landed on the ground suffered a series of blows, and in the end, less than 1,000 of them finally fled back due to the prominent water nature and the geographical characteristics of the strait that were not very wide, and there were thousands of stragglers who were not able to escape across the strait and returned, but were scattered in the forests of Kitakyushu waiting for the verdict of fate.

However, the team of about 3,000 people of the four battle groups that were indirectly assembled did not clean up the battlefield or count the casualties and losses at the first time, but boarded the ship as quickly as possible before the sky was completely bright, and immediately after the sky was bright, the main ship group followed the main ship group to launch a landing from another position on the coast, preparing to intercept the retreat of tens of thousands of enemy troops stationed in the area around Shimonoseki.

The sound of explosions and guns on the other side of the strait throughout the night, and even the sporadic soldiers who fled back during the day, made Tokugawa Iemitsu, who had gathered in the Shimonoseki area, feel a pang of unease. But when it became known that the enemy seemed to be landing with a light force of about 3,000 men in a partial division of thirty or forty ships, the pressure that many people had felt before was slightly relieved.

"It seems that we can only try to offset the negative impact of a possible defeat as much as possible with a victory. . . ." Under these circumstances, Tokugawa Iemitsu did not hesitate any longer, and quickly ordered the mobilization of a large army to carry out a clear attack on the enemy army that had just landed with a strength of more than 3,000 men, especially when many people found that the troops, which were only a few thousand men, had arrogantly dared to open a thin front of about four or five miles to seek a decisive battle.

Soon, however, the rumbling of cannon began to make many people realize the truth. The four battle groups were strengthened by the ship's gunners, and the number of field light guns was increased from 128 to 160, and many marksmen had to serve as gunner assistants.

One hundred and sixty field light artillery shells in just a few minutes with 1,000 solid shells or even 30,000 light shotguns bombarded the attacking shogunate army suffered 1,7800 casualties, and the sporadic approaching vanguard also encountered a collection of bows and arrows.

Of course, the continuous artillery bombardment did not stop at this time, and in the next quarter of an hour or so, about twenty rounds of fire continued, and the three thousand elite soldiers of the four or five miles of the front line resumed the attack, and combined artillery fire with dense bows and arrows within a hundred paces, so that those opponents who seemed to be huge in number and size lost the desire to continue the attack.

In order to avoid being able to defeat the opponent and not be able to give the opponent a devastating blow in the real sense, Chen Xin, who was in charge of commanding the operation, was still relatively cautious, and did not rashly attack when the forces of both sides were obviously more than ten times stronger, but quickly ordered the team to organize defense on the spot and besiege the opponent as much as possible from both land and sea directions.

As the sky approached dusk again, Tokugawa Iemitsu seemed to realize that he must not hesitate any longer, no matter what the price is, it is obvious that he must organize a breakthrough attack at any cost when the sky gradually ends, otherwise even he may fall into the hands of the enemy. In the past, although I had expected that the combat force of the big country to the west would be very strong, I still did not expect it to be so strong.

Chen Xin actually did not rely on a force of about 3,000 people to achieve a more ideal grasp of the annihilation war against the team led by the shogunate himself, but at this time, the two brigades from the depths of Kitakyushu finally came to the shore, and under the personal organization and dispatch of Li Yuan, the reinforcements were gradually over, and when the troops in his hands reached the land combat strength of about four or five thousand people in the six battalion battle groups, Chen Xin's confidence was also sufficient. Although the gunpowder used to blast the defense has not been prepared much at this moment, one-tenth of the opponent's strength, even when the night is about to come, there is still a great chance of forming a relatively consolidated defensive line.

When the sky had not completely darkened, and tens of thousands of shogunate troops were preparing to start the attack again, the once terrifying rumbling cannons also rang out one after another at this time, which made the real attack after night have to spend a lot of time to reorganize the ranks. When the sound of fierce black powder grenades and bows and arrows breaking through the air sounded again, Chen Xin also understood that the real test was coming. If this operation can be successful, although it is impossible to achieve the whole goal, it is obvious that the gains will be not small.

(End of chapter)