Because Shanghai and Japan have a lot of trade exchanges, coupled with the rapid development of naval navigation technology, it is no longer so dangerous and time-consuming to travel between China and Japan, so in fact, the Wu army expeditionary fleet is still assembling the Japanese Satsuma Domain, which was targeted by the Wu army, already knew that Wu Chaoyue was going to send troops to clean up himself, and immediately began to actively prepare for war, preparing to meet the sea attack from China again after nearly 600 years.

At the beginning, because he did not know the scale of the Wu army's crusade and despised the Manchu army that was beaten by the British and French fleets in the two Opium Wars, Shimazu Hisamitsu, the actual ruler of the Satsuma Domain, not only did not have the slightest fear and panic, but on the contrary, he also shouted the arrogant slogan of completely destroying the Wu army, and Shimazu Hisashi, the brother of Shimazu Hisamitsu, who commanded the fleet of the Satsuma Domain, even arrogantly declared that he would not give the Wu army any chance to set foot on the land of Kagoshima, and that he would kill the Wu army at sea. The decision-making level and the naval division did not take the Wu expeditionary fleet in their eyes at all.

(PS: Whether Shimazu Hisamitsu and Shimazu Hisamitsu are brothers of the same generation, this is uncertain, because the Shimazu family is a strong existence for nephews to marry their aunts and sons, uncles and nieces, and the generations within the clan are so dark that the author really can't verify it in detail.) If there is a mistake, I hope to understand. ）

Then, when he learned that Wu Chaoyue had sent eight steam gunboats and four sail battleships in one go, and heard the news that the British had also sent troops to help Wu's army, the Satsuma Domain, which currently has only three steam gunboats, was of course surprised, and Shimazu Hisamitsu almost didn't even blink an eyelid, and immediately sent people to ask the Japanese shogunate and the neighboring feudal lords for help, asking the Tokugawa shogunate and other feudal lords to help the Satsuma Domain resist the attack of the Wu army. At the same time, he contacted the Dutch minister, who had always been friendly with Japan, and asked the Dutch minister to intervene in the conflict with Britain.

Then, when the Dutch consul stationed in Shanghai sent top-secret information to report the fact that the Wu Army's expeditionary fleet had only more than 5,000 land divisions to assist the naval division in the battle, the decision-making level of the Satsuma Domain, which had been full of sorrow before, immediately became jubilant again, and rushed to shout that even if the Wu army was allowed to go ashore, it would not matter, and the Satsuma Domain, which had nearly 20,000 troops, was absolutely sure that it would completely annihilate the Wu army's land division on land, and it would definitely not be difficult to defeat the Wu army's fleet by land and water.

Even the puppet lord Shimazu Tadayoshi, who had a good impression of Wu Jun, spoke at the meeting and said: "We must teach the Qing people a lesson, let them know the fate of offending our great Japan, this battle, we must win, and we must win beautifully!" Let the Qing people live another 600 years, and they will not dare to offend our great Japan again! ”

However, the situation was indeed quite favorable to the Satsuma Domain, and the home battle was not only familiar with the geography, but also did not have to worry about logistics, and the land army had an absolute advantage in terms of troops, so it can be said that the time and place were in the hands. At the same time, what made the Satsuma clan even happier was that after receiving their letter of request for help, the Choshu domain, a hardliner of Japan with more powerful troops on land, did not even mention any request, and immediately agreed to send reinforcements; The current Japanese emperor Emperor Takamei, because of the need to win the support of the local feudal lords, personally came out to put pressure on the Tokugawa shogunate, asking the Tokugawa shogunate, which had five steam gunboats and five steam transport ships, to send troops to reinforce the Satsuma Domain.

Because the date of the arrival of reinforcements could not be determined for the time being, the Satsuma clan decided to take a defensive position at sea, withdraw the fleet to the shallow waters of Kagoshima Bay, and resist the attack of the Wu fleet with the help of shore artillery cover, and at the same time take the initiative to give up part of the beachhead to lure the Wu army land division to land and fight, and then completely annihilate the Wu army landing army by virtue of the superior land. Up and down, they rubbed their hands up, screaming loudly, just hoping that Wu Jun would arrive soon.

The Wu expeditionary fleet did not disappoint the Satsuma Domain, and under the guidance of two British armed merchant ships familiar with the sea routes, the expedition led by the Wu army general Wang Fu took only 12 days to successfully reach the vicinity of Kagoshima Bay, and anchored in the coastal waters of Taniyama Township, about 15 miles south of Kagoshima Castle Town.

The first time he went to sea to fight, Wang Fu, who had been refining and brushing up on the inland lake in the river, of course, felt a huge pressure, but fortunately, Wu Chaoyue hired a British retired naval colonel with a lot of money Aspen is very experienced in this area, and just summarized the enemy's military intelligence report that Wu Junmen had worked hard to collect, Asben saw the tactical purpose of the Japanese army at a glance, and said directly to his student Wang Fu: "Wang, this is a trap for the Japanese, they want to lure our fleet to the coastal sea to fight, and use their shore guns to cooperate with the battleships to fight, Strike at our fleet. In addition, judging from their land defense arrangement, they also have an attempt to lure us into launching a landing battle. ”

After studying the coastal defense map of Kagoshima for a long time with the help of the British, Wang Fu, who was quite familiar with water warfare, recognized Aspen's analysis, and asked Aspen, who was the principal of the Wu Army Naval Academy, "Principal, how should we fight this battle?" ”

"Distance, play slowly." Aspen did have some level, pointing out: "Judging from the information provided by the Americans, the Japanese shore defense guns are all Dutch cannons, and the range is only half of the range of our breech-loading rifled guns, so we only need to open the distance, use the breech-loading rifled guns to first knock out the three Japanese steam gunboats and shore defense batteries, and then use the gunboats to cover the landing of the land division, we can easily take Kagoshima Castle Shitacho, which is within the range of our fleet, and then find a way to take Kagoshima Castle." ”

Wang Fu thought hard about it, and only after a while did he ask: "Headmaster, what if the three Japanese steam gunboats suddenly rush out to fight?" Our breech-loading rifled guns are all broadside guns, and if we let the breezed rifled guns serve as the main force in combat, we can only use the ship's side to face the enemy. If the three Japanese steam gunboats suddenly burst out and bombarded our side with their large-caliber bow guns, it would be easy for our fleet to suffer if it turned around too slowly? ”

"Wang, you are really my best student, you think it through, yes, this is indeed the danger of our tactics." Aspen smiled and nodded, and said: "For this, we have two ways to solve this danger, one is to arrange special steam gunboats to monitor the Japanese steamboats, and immediately meet them to fight when they see them sailing." The second was to compete with the Japanese in terms of technology and experience, and when they found that the Japanese steam-gunboats showed signs of sailing, they quickly turned around and met the battle. ”

Aspen's two methods are feasible, but after careful consideration, Wang Fu shook his head again and said: "Principal forgive, the students feel that these two methods are a bit risky, arranging special steam gunboats to deal with the Japanese gunboats, in addition to weakening our gunboat firepower, we dare not guarantee that we will be able to stop the Japanese gunboat, and if the Japanese gunboat concentrates its firepower against our heavy and huge sail battleship, we may suffer a big loss." ”

"As for the ...... of technology and experience in competing with Japan." Speaking of this, Wang Fu paused for a moment and said with a wry smile: "To be honest, students really don't dare to take this risk, my soldiers used to fight in inland rivers and lakes, and they have not been trained at sea for a long time. ”

"And what are you going to do?" Aspen shrugged.

"Safe point, use frogman tactics, take out the Japanese gunboats moored in shallow water first, let their gunboats lose their steam power or sit, and then attack." Wang Fu replied.

"Wang, you are not only my most brilliant student, but also my most despicable student." Aspen smiled: "No matter the number of ships, or the tonnage, firepower and equipment, your fleet has an absolute advantage, and you still want to use such despicable tactics to sneak attack the Japanese, are you not afraid of being ridiculed as a coward in the future?" ”

"As long as I can make my soldiers and fleet less risky and less dead, and be scolded as cowards, I admit it." Wang Fu replied shamelessly.

"Then let's do it." Aspen said even more brazenly: "Act quickly, our logistics supply is difficult, we must take the castle town of Kagoshima as soon as possible to supply food." Also, remember to get two Japanese women to drink with me. ”

In this way, with the absolute superiority of the fleet strength, the Wu army's naval division, which had been completely damaged by Wu Chaoyue, still took the lead in a dark move, and sent several small boats to carry the strictly trained frogmen to attack the Japanese steam gunboats that night. As a result, in the case of such despicable tactics that had never been encountered, the three Japanese steam gunboats anchored in the offshore area suffered a great loss, and the paddle wheels on both sides of the Tianyou Pill were blown up, completely losing their steam power; The unlucky Qingying Pill was directly blown up because Wu Jun placed too much Dana explosives, and even the boiler was directly blown up, and the hull of the ship was seriously flooded, and it sank in shallow water; Only the flagship Hakuhomaru was in a better situation, one side of the paddle wheel was blown up, the other side of the paddle wheel was damaged, and the same basically lost steam power, although it can still go to sea to fight, the speed of maneuver has been greatly reduced.

When the situation was reported to Kagoshima Castle, Shimazu and his son, Saigo Takamori and others were of course furious, and the scolding of Hachigaya Road was repeated in Kagoshima Castle Honmaru. However, to the surprise of the lords of the Satsuma domain, before the sky was bright to check the situation, when the sky was just dawning, an urgent report was sent from the sea, saying that the eight steam gunboats and four sail battleships of the Wu army had anchored together and were heading towards Kagoshima Bay.

The well-prepared Wu fleet came quickly, and it took only an hour after setting off to approach Kagoshima Bay with four heavy sail battleships and more than a dozen armed sea ships, and the result was that Shimazu Hisamitsu and Saigo Takamori, who were quite familiar with steam warships, laughed that as soon as they entered about three miles away from the Japanese battery, the eight steam gunboats of the Wu army had already stopped advancing, and then turned around together and aimed at the coast with their sides, while the sail battleships and armed sea ships were all moored five miles away from the battery. There was no further step forward.

Seeing this scene, Shimazu Hisakei, who commanded the Satsuma Domain's naval division, of course, laughed out loud and frantically laughed at the cowardice of the Wu army's steam fleet, and took a defensive position before it was within range, completely sweeping away the bad luck that the steam power was severely damaged by the Wu army's sneak attack. What made Shimazu Jiujing laugh even more was still behind, after the steam gunboats of the Wu army lined up in formation, and the command flag of the flagship Zeng Guofan waved, only two armed sea ships of the Wu army went straight forward, entered within two miles of the shore, and bombarded the Japanese shore batteries with the ship's artillery.

"Eight Tooth Road! Despicable Qing people, are they trying to test the firepower of our batteries? ”

Contrary to the arrogant and ignorant Shimazu Hisatsu, the treacherous and slick Shimazu Hisatsu saw at a glance that the situation was wrong, and he was extremely suspicious that Wu Jun was trying to lure his battery to open fire and find out the fire arrangement of his own shore artillery. As a result, Saigo Takamori next to him also immediately suggested: "Father of the Nation, we should let some of the batteries open fire and see how the Qing people react." ”

Shimazu Hisamitsu nodded, and immediately sent someone to the front-line battery order, so that twenty shore guns fired back, in order to test the reaction of the Wu army's fleet, and the result was not as expected by the Japanese army, when their batteries fired back, Wu army's eight steam gunboats, sure enough, some tail smoke with thick smoke flew out one after another - Congreve rockets! The whistling swirled and shot at the Japanese battery, and it continued to explode in the sky, or on the ground, and the blue and white smoke peculiar to black powder rose.

"Congreve rocket?!" Shimazu Hisamitsu called out the correct name of Wu Jun's rocket, and couldn't help laughing: "Despicable Qing people, do you think that with Congreve rockets, you can beat our battery?" See how many rockets you have and how long they last. ”

That's right, although Wu Jun's Congreve rocket is an improved version of the accuracy that has been greatly improved, but it is still extremely difficult to accurately hit the Japanese battery at a distance of 1,500 meters, plus the Japanese battery is built quite strongly, and there is a breastwall to protect the gunner, so the dozens of Congreve rockets fired by the Wu army one after another only look huge, but in fact, the threat to the Japanese battery is so small that it can almost be ignored, dozens of rockets bombarded down, just killing two Japanese gunners, Wounded three enemies, killing them with a pitifully meagre efficiency.

At the same time, the remaining few armed sea ships of the Wu army also moved, taking advantage of the relatively favorable wind direction in the summer and autumn, they quickly advanced to within two miles of the Japanese battery, and while struggling to avoid the Japanese artillery fire, they bombarded the Japanese battery with large-caliber bow guns as much as possible. The sound of artillery on the shore and sea shook the sky and rumbled endlessly, and the solid shells shuttling back and forth continued to smash into the Japanese batteries and the Wu army's fleet, splashing the sky and smashing countless gravel and wood chips, the Japanese batteries were damaged by bullets, and the ships of the Wu army were also wounded by the shore artillery from time to time. As a result, it was also during this period that the Japanese side, which had 80 shore defense guns, joined the battle with another 20 guns, and still did not reveal all the gun positions.

"The son of a bitch is really cunning enough!"

Silently counting the Japanese gun emplacements and fire points, Wang Fu first cursed a swear word, and then quickly made up his mind, and decisively ordered the two sail battleships behind him to step forward and directly use the sail battleships to lure the Japanese gun emplacements. As a result, after seeing this in the telescope, Shimazu Hisamitsu was really fooled, and immediately sent someone to give an order to the battery: "All artillery preparations, the sail battleship of the Qing people will aim immediately after entering the firing range, and fire together when they see the signal!" No matter what tricks the Qing people want to play, give me one or two sail battleships first!

In the deafening sound of artillery, two third-class sail battleships captured by the Russian army slowly sailed into the range of the Japanese battery, and before the Wu sailors turned the bow of the ship and used the side of the ship equipped with more than 30 guns to face the enemy, Shimazu Hisamitsu could not wait to issue the order to open the gun, and when the signal was issued, the remaining forty Japanese shore defense cannons finally opened fire together, bombarding the heavy solid shells to the Wu battleship, and relying on the long-standing advantage and the well-trained gunners, In the first salvo alone, more than ten shells accurately hit the sail battleships of the Wu army, causing great damage to the sail battleships of the Wu army.

In addition to the Battle of Midway Island of the Evil Gate, the devils have always had good luck in the battle, in the first round of salvo, a cannonball miraculously and accurately hit the captain's room of the Wu Army's sail battleship Wisdom, killing the captain of the Wu Army's Wisdom on the spot, the Wu Army's officers and men were shocked by the noise, but the Japanese battery was full of joy, and many gunners directly shouted out the emperor's onboard cheers, and the action between charging and reloading was faster and faster, and the shells were blasted to the Wu Army's sail battleship one after another at a speed that exceeded the usual training.

That's it, and finally waited for the Japanese army's firepower to open up and quickly figured out the Japanese army's firepower arrangement, Wang Fu, the commander-in-chief of the Wu Army's expeditionary fleet, finally opened his mouth and said calmly: "Open the artillery, give me the artillery to kill the Japanese invaders." ”

When the flag was raised, the steam fleet of the Wu army, which had been building up for a longer time, did not keep it any longer, and immediately loaded and ignited, and opened fire with a breezed rifled gun that was one generation ahead of the Japanese artillery, and bombarded a picric acid shell at the Japanese battery............