Just as the previous two engagements with the Japanese navy, this attack on the coastal batteries in Naha Port also included foreign warships watching the battle, and just after the end of this short and intense shelling, Pei Jinquan and others had already discovered that a British gunboat and a French gunboat had appeared not too far from the Chinese fleet, and another American gunboat was sailing out of the harbor and hurrying towards this side. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

"My lord, do you want to continue the shelling?" Jiang Jingui asked.

"No need." Pei Jinquan held a telescope and carefully observed the situation of the fort, and he had already judged that the ammunition depot of the fort had been hit and exploded by a cannon shot by Deng Shichang's "Princess Heshuo", and with the shelling of the ships just now, the Japanese troops on the fort should have lost the strength to fight back.

"Send the foreign guns to land!" Pei Jinquan ordered.

Soon, the steamer "Daya," which had received the signal from the flagship, lowered its dinghy, and a group of red-uniformed shipmasters and sailors rushed toward the shore in the dinghy, and at this time the five Chinese cruisers had already approached the coast, and the guns of each ship raised their muzzles high and aimed them at the shore, ready to resume shelling at the slightest change.

But that didn't happen, and soon the shipmaster sailors landed on the shore and began to attack the battery.

Pei Jinquan watched the fiery red figure disappear into the fort, and after a while, as the figures of several shipmasters and sailors appeared, a red dragon flag fluttered on the fort, and Pei Jinquan and others saw the dragon flag rising, so they breathed a sigh of relief and put down the binoculars.

Suddenly, a crisp gunshot came, Pei Jinquan and the others were startled, and quickly raised their binoculars, and saw that there seemed to be a few gray figures among the red figures on the fort, but only after a while, with the burst of gunfire, these gray figures all fell.

"I guess there are some people up there that didn't kill me just now." Someone on the flybridge said.

On the fort, Deng Tianbao raised the rifle in his hand and carefully looked at the few Japanese soldiers who had fallen in a pool of blood - these Japanese were dressed very differently from the black-clad Japanese soldiers he had seen in Taiwan, they did not wear the black uniforms that Japanese army officers and soldiers often wear, but a strange gray-white or brown dress, with a wide skirt underneath, and of course, a katana stuck in their waists.

"Keep searching!" A naval officer glanced at the collapsed Japanese barracks, waved his hand, and shouted loudly.

Deng Tianbao and several companions continued to rush forward, and after walking a short distance, there was another "bang" of gunshots, and a bullet flew over his head.

In front of them, a Japanese man in a brown shirt and a torn skirt with a knife pinned to his waist rushed forward with a rifle, and after the first shot, he ran and reloaded, and fired another shot at the shipmaster and sailors, although it did not hit anyone, but the sudden momentum was really startling.

Deng Tianbao raised the rifle in his hand according to the tutorial of naval training, aimed at the opponent's waist, and pulled the trigger.

He was a hunter, he had always been agile, and this time he was the first to shoot among his companions, and he had never missed a shot, and this time was no exception, and when a shot rang out, a cloud of blood suddenly burst out of the Japanese samurai's abdomen.

The Japanese samurai stumbled, but did not fall, he threw away the rifle in his hand, jerked out the katana at his waist, let out a beastly howl, and continued to rush forward, when the guns of the other shipmasters and sailors rang out, and the Japanese samurai rushed a few more steps, and then fell to the ground.

A shipmaster sailor stepped forward and kicked the sword away from the Japanese samurai's hand, the Japanese samurai was already out of breath, but his eyes were wide open, and the expression on his face was still very hideous.

"Tianbao hit first, this knife belongs to you!" The shipmaster and sailor were very good with Deng Tianbao, pulled the scabbard out of the waist of the Japanese samurai, inserted the knife into the sheath, and threw it to Deng Tianbao.

Deng Tianbao took the knife and noticed that the equipment of this knife was very gorgeous, and he liked it very much, he didn't think much about it, pinned the knife to his waist, and continued to search and move forward with his comrades.

After a long time, there was no more gunfire from the fort, and Pei Jinquan relieved himself and ordered to sail to another fort on the opposite bank.

According to the information provided to them by Hayashi Yizhe in advance, there is a fort on the south bank and the north bank of Naha Port, which guards Naha Port, and now that the south bank fort has been occupied, the next target is naturally the fort on the north bank.

As with the tactics of attacking the south bank battery, the Chinese fleet first carried out a fierce artillery bombardment of the battery, and the marines landed under the cover of naval guns, and the Japanese troops on the battery were also only equipped with old breech guns (although it is said to be an old type of artillery, but they are all purchased from Western countries, a few are made by Japan, and although they cannot be compared with the guns of the ships of the shipmaster and navy, they are still advanced compared to the shore defense guns in most areas along the coast of China), the range is short, the firepower is weak, and they were soon destroyed by the powerful artillery fire of the Chinese warships one by one. Soon the ammunition depot was also hit and exploded, and the Japanese soldiers on the platform were either killed or wounded, and after the landing of the shipmaster's navy, they only encountered weak resistance, and soon the Japanese army was annihilated, and none of the shipmaster's sailors were killed, only 4 were slightly wounded.

After occupying the forts on the north and south banks, Pei Jinquan led the captain of the fleet to drive straight in, and after the landing of the naval brigade, he went straight to Shuri Castle, the capital of the Ryukyus.

Deng Tianbao, who set foot on a foreign land for the first time, looked at Shuri Castle that appeared in front of him, and suddenly had the illusion of returning to his homeland.

Although the Ryukyus were annexed by Japan, the long-term suzerain-vassal relationship with China has left an imprint on Chinese culture everywhere in Okinawa, and Shurijo Castle in Naha Port is the location of the Ryukyu Imperial Palace.

"This article is actually written in **** characters?" Pei Jinquan couldn't help but be taken aback when he looked at the golden words of this piece of red land.

Although under the influence of Shen Baozhen and Lin Yizhe, Pei Jinquan has made great progress in Chinese and Western learning, but he does not know much about the history of the Ryukyus.

This plaque of "The State of Etiquette" is actually derived from the edict given to the Ryukyu Kingdom by Emperor Wanli of the Myojinzong. This gate is also known as the "Shouli Gate".

Probably after learning the news that the Chinese army had entered Shuri Castle, the pedestrians on the street seemed to be all hiding, and when they entered the city, Deng Tianbao and others first encountered a team of Japanese policemen in black uniforms, and these policemen who only had bamboo sticks in their hands saw the murderous shipmaster sailors, most of them scattered in a hurry, only one sergeant pulled out a revolver and shot, and was instantly beaten into a honeycomb by the sailors' platoon.

Zhou Ruitai was originally worried that the Japanese would engage in street battles with the shipmaster and naval soldiers in the city, which would cause large casualties to his subordinates, so he ordered the troops to search and advance, but did not find the Japanese army in the city, and all the Japanese policemen encountered were Japanese policemen, and these policemen did not even have knives, only bamboo sticks in their hands, which surprised Zhou Ruitai.

Soon, the shipmaster sailors captured the Japanese police station in Shurijo Castle and uprooted the various police stations in turn, most of them encountered no decent resistance, but when attacking the police station, the police chief drew a gun to resist and wounded one of the shipmaster sailors, only to be shot and killed by the shipmaster sailors. Then there were more than ten Japanese samurai with swords on the street, they hid in the private houses, and suddenly jumped out to chop the shipmaster sailors, the samurai's attack achieved a certain effect, 6 shipmaster sailors were injured, but the samurai were all killed in the street,

Fearing that the Japanese might get weapons from the police station to attack, the first target of the naval officers was the police station, but to their surprise, apart from a few revolvers, no firearms were found!

In order to prevent the Japanese from hiding their firearms, the officers of the Shipmaster Marine Corps interrogated the captured Japanese policemen, and the results of the interrogation surprised them.

Shurijo's defenses weren't as strong as they had imagined.

Since 1872, Japan abolished the position of Ryukyu King Shotai and changed the Ryukyu Kingdom to the "Ryukyu Domain", in order to prevent the resistance of the Ryukyu people, the Japanese government stationed about 400 soldiers and more than 200 policemen in Shurijo Castle, most of them from the Satsuma Domain, and after launching the "Taiwan Fandi Exploration Plan", half of the defenders here were transferred, and now there are only about 200 soldiers guarding the two batteries in Naha Port, and there are about 80 policemen in the city, whose main responsibility is to monitor the Ryukyu Royal Palace and maintain local security.

In order to prevent the Ryukyuan people from resisting, the Japanese forcibly disbanded the Ryukyu palace guards, confiscated the weapons of the Ryukyu army and shipped them to Japan, and forced the Ryukyu people to hand over weapons such as knives, spears, forks, etc. Because the Ryukyus were disarmed for too long, the Japanese here were only kept to a minimum, such as the forts on the north and south sides of Naha Port, which were built in 1554 by the Ryukyus, "Yaraza Mori Castle" and "Mie Castle". Originally, the purpose of the Ryukyu people to build the fort was to defend Naha Port and prevent the port from being invaded by Japan, but they did not expect it to become a fortification for the Japanese in the future. The Japanese slightly repaired the original site of the fort built by the Ryukyuan people, and installed more than 20 large and small Western artillery pieces on it, all of which were old guns from the shogunate period that were shipped from Japan. The police at Shurijo Castle did not have any firearms except for the sergeant and the chief and police chief, who had a revolver, except for rifles for the fort defenders.

After Pei Jinquan got the report, he thought of taking the Ryukyus without blood, and he couldn't help but cry out for luck in his heart.

After learning of the arrival of the "Heavenly Soldiers", the Ryukyu monarchs and ministers were overjoyed, the Ryukyu King Shangtai wore a leather crown, a python robe, and a canopy, and led the queen and the prince to greet him ceremoniously, Deng Tianbao only then discovered that the clothing of the Ryukyuan people was very different from the style of the Japanese kimono, and it was closer to the clothing of the Ming Dynasty in China!

The Ryukyu king Shangtai personally welcomed Pei Jinquan and his "heavenly soldiers" into the palace, and Deng Tianbao noticed that although the palace was not large, it was full of Chinese palace style.

In Shurijo Castle, you can see the images of various dragons flying and entwining everywhere. Like the dragon pillars that stand on the left and right in front of the main hall of Shuri Castle, there are coiled dragons on them, but all the dragons of the Ryukyus only have four claws, because the Ryukyus are a subject country of China, and only the Chinese emperor, the "co-lord of the world", can use the five-clawed dragon, which is also a manifestation of the Ryukyu Kingdom as a courtier. The main hall of Miyagi is made of vermilion lacquer red tiles, carved beams and painted buildings, and the dragons decorated are the same as those found in the temples of China.

When he noticed that the main hall of Shurijo Castle where the king greeted them was not facing south, but facing east, he couldn't help but be surprised, so he asked King Shotai why, and King Shotai told him that the main hall was facing east and west, facing China, and this was to show that Ryukyu was looking for China. At the same time, King Shotai also told him that the north hall in front of the main hall was the place where the Chinese envoys were received, and the courtyard in front of the main hall where they are now located is the place where the Chinese envoys held the ceremony of canonizing the king of the Ryukyus.

Entering the inner room of the main hall of Shuri Castle, Pei Jinquan saw several plaques hanging there, all of which were given to the Ryukyu king by the Qing Dynasty emperor, including the Kangxi Emperor's "Zhongshan Shitu", the Yongzheng Emperor's "Jirui Qiuyang" and the Qianlong Emperor's "Yongzuo Ying". Pei Jinquan and all the officers and soldiers under his command stepped forward to bow down to show their respect.

According to Hayashi Yoshi-cheol's prior arrangement, Pei Jinquan informed the Ryukyu monarchs and ministers of their intentions, and summoned foreign consuls in Naha Port to announce the restoration of the Ryukyus with immediate effect, restoring the name of the Ryukyu Kingdom and the power of the king. The Ryukyu monarchs and ministers were grateful, and bowed one after another to the west to thank the "grace of heaven". After hearing the news of the restoration, the people of the Ryukyus took to the streets to cheer, and many more, like their king, bowed to Nishiyama and shouted "Banzai".

Shurijo Castle was bustling with festivals, and Kagoshima, Japan, near the Ryukyus, did not know that the Ryukyus had undergone a drastic change, but they also sensed danger coming.

Three days later, in the sea near Kagoshima, a sea exercise was being carried out intensely.

"Bearing 122! …… Distance 3! …… Fire! ”

When a 100-millimeter Farvause breech gun and an 80-millimeter breech gun on the "Raiden Maru" training ship opened fire, a burst of fire flashed on the training ship, and several waves flashed near the target ship, and both shells were lost.

"Full throttle, full speed ahead! ……”

After the order came from the mouth of Second Lieutenant Hikonosei Uemura, another order came out.

"Six-inch shells of enemy ships hit the first deck gun position! The artillery commander is killed! Five people were injured! ”

The first mate beside him immediately spoke.

"Carry the body of the gun commander to the officer's room! Wounded soldiers transported into the cabin! ……”

A succession of orders came out of the mouth of the first mate, and a simple target shooting training was added by Hikonojo Uemura, which imitated battlefield casualties through verbal expression, in order to train the cadets of the Marine Academy and the newly recruited sailors in their battlefield response capabilities.

"The second artillery commander is going to command the gun emplacements on the first deck! Fire at maximum rate of fire! Enemy ships enter the artillery firing zone and do not have to wait for orders! Fire now! ……”

After a long while, as bullet holes appeared one after another on the canvas of the target drag, and the orders of the training officers became proficient, Uemura Hikoyuki felt a little satisfied.

Born in Kagoshima on May 1, 1849, Hikonomari Uemura graduated from the 4th class of the Japanese Naval Academy and served on ships such as "Tsukuba", "Unyo", and "Raiden Maru". This is the first ocean-going training of the "Raiden Maru" training ship, after this gunnery training, the next thing is the open-sea cruising training, sailing to the ocean has always been the dream of the gunboat captain Uemura Hikonojo, but he never thought that his first ocean-going was on the training ship, not the cruiser he imagined.

"Ring the ship's bell and the battle is over."

After the crisp ship bell rang, Hikonosei Uemura saw the ship "Chiyodagata", which played the role of an enemy ship, sending a flag.

"Five hits."

The people on the deck who were waiting anxiously saw that five shots had been hit, and they immediately sighed, they fired a total of 50 shells, but only 5 hits, just reaching a 10 percent hit rate, if it was on the battlefield, the hit rate would only be worse under the interference of enemy ship fire.

"Hits are earned with sweat! Hurry! …… Train now! ”

"Training! Training! Training! For His Majesty the Emperor! For Japan! ”

After a sigh, the training ship was boiling again, and the Japanese sailors and officers were once again conducting intense training according to the training subjects.

While they were training, Uemura Hikonosei walked out of the bridge and looked north, he knew that today was the first day of the Naval Officer Academy, and he had a faint expectation in his heart for this naval officer school, which could be said to be the common expectation of every naval officer in the Navy who was born in the Satsuma Domain.

"I wish Kagoshima could change everything!"

While Hikoyuki Uemura was expecting it, "Raiden Maru" continued to sail forward.

Suddenly, in the distance, the shadow of a ship appeared.

The "Raiden Maru" sailed towards the incoming ship, and soon, what appeared in the telescope of Hikonojo Uemura was an American gunboat flying the Star-Spangled Banner. And after the other party saw the "Thunderbolt Maru" hanging high in the Japanese flag, he quickly drove over.

"It's the Pike." Someone recognized the identity of the American gunboat and said.

The Pike, a small gunboat with a displacement of about 900 tons, is one of the few warships of the United States operating in Asia, and it has been in service for a long time between Kagoshima and the Ryukyus, and is no stranger to many people in the Japanese Navy.

When he saw the US warship, Uemura fired a salute at it in accordance with the usual practice, and the US warship also returned the salute with a salute, raised the flag signal, and asked to send someone over for talks.

Hikonoki Uemura did not understand why the Americans sent someone over, and out of politeness, he agreed to the other party's request, dropped anchor and stopped the ship, and the American warship also stopped on the side of the "Raiden Maru" and lowered the dinghy.

Seeing that there seemed to be an American captain on the dinghy, Uemura Hikonosei felt even more strange.