Soon, more government soldiers floating on the sea began to shoot at the "Mt. Fuji" with rifles and pistols.

A bullet flew over Togo Heihachiro's head and hit the bulkhead behind him, but because of the distance, the bullet had lost its strength when it hit, and after hitting the bulkhead, it bounced back and landed at Togo Heihachiro's feet.

Heihachiro Togo leaned down, picked up the bullet that was still very hot and looked at it, and his face turned blue for a while.

Without waiting for him to give the order, the machine gunners on the "Mt. Fuji" opened fire uncontrollably, and a series of 40 mm caliber Habekai machine gun shells "dong dong" flew out of the chamber, and exploded among the government soldiers who fell into the sea, stirring up columns of water, and for a time the gunfire of the government troops disappeared, replaced by one after another screams.

Heihachiro Togo saw a machine shell hit the government officer lying on the broken plank, and with the explosion, the officer was blown to pieces along with the plank, so that the rising column of water turned pale red.

"Stop shooting!" Heihachiro Togo clenched the bullet in his hand, felt the tingling pain coming from his palm, and ordered in a deep voice.

Despite hearing Togo Heihachiro's orders, the enraged Satsuma naval gunners stopped firing only after they had exhausted one magazine, and through the faint smoke of gunpowder, Togo Heihachiro saw several blood-red strips on the surface of the sea - this had become a sea slaughterhouse.

"Let's go back!" Heihachiro Togo took a deep breath of the sea breeze with gunsmoke and ordered.

At this time, Heihachiro Togo didn't know that the American merchant ship that was sunk by him not only contained big names like Prince Chihito, but also many of his future "comrades-in-arms": Nogi Noshinori, Kodama Gentaro, and Okubo Gong......

In the "battle" of completely unequal strength in the "Percy" incident, the brave image of the Japanese government troops on board returning fire with rifles at the Satsuma warship was later widely circulated in the newspapers.

This is confirmed by the testimony of the surviving American captain Sampton: "Those poor people, knowing that there was no chance to swim for survival, bravely fought back. And the U.S. consul in Nagasaki, Hausenger, said in his report: "I can only express my admiration for those Japanese government soldiers who would rather die than be humiliated by the capture of their cowardly attackers......"

Although some scholars later questioned such senseless resistance, it was not impossible for government officers and soldiers with no way to escape to shoot at enemy warships at that special moment, but this was only a spontaneous and instinctive individual behavior, and it was impossible to organize resistance. Moreover, such resistance is useless.

The casualties of the "Percy" tragedy were staggering: a total of 1,950 government officers and soldiers on board, some of the survivors climbed onto the wreckage and mast of the "Percy", and were later rescued by the Qianguo warship "Kaiji", "Jingqing" rescued 124 people, and the French warship "Lyon" rescued 142 people; The other part drifted to a nearby island by swimming or lifeboat, and was later rescued by the Russian warship "Amur" with 112 people, and the British warship "Prince Albert" with 87 people; Another 72 people were rescued from rafting, and only 762 escaped.

Of the 76 foreign crew members, only 22 were saved, of which 13 were rescued by the Qianguo warship "Kaiji" and 9 by the French warship "Lyon".

A total of 1,188 Japanese government troops were killed on board the Percy, more than the total number of government troops (1,000) who landed on Hakata Bay for the first time. The three captured troop carriers carried nearly 3,000 troops and the corresponding ammunition baggage, and considering that most of these troops were elite troops trained by Aritomo Yama over the years, the losses of the Japanese government were very enormous. Such casualties not only exacerbated the imbalance of power between the government and the Satsuma forces in the southwestern theater, but, according to the British Navy's observations, the government forces were "greatly demoralized and satisfied with extremely unreliable sea supremacy, and the entire sea southwest of Japan was free to sail to the Satsuma." ”

"Squire! You will not die well! ”

Seeing the "Mt. Fuji" turn the rudder and fly away, Nogi Noshinori, who was lying in the lifeboat in the middle of the lifeboat, scolded and waved his fist vigorously in the direction of the departure of the "Mt. Fuji".

Just now, he witnessed this terrible massacre.

Nogi Noshinori scolded while stepping on the water, and suddenly he felt the rope on his body loosen, and his heart was shocked, and he looked back to see that the rope had broken at some point.

And judging from the neat fracture, it should have been cut by the shrapnel from the explosion of the machine shell fired by the enemy ship just now!

When he saw Chiren's body barely crouching at the other end of the wreckage of the lifeboat, about to slide into the sea, he couldn't help but be terrified, and immediately pounced, grabbed Chihito's wrist, and dragged him into the wreckage of the lifeboat.

And at that moment, he saw the long wound on Blazing Ren's back.

That's a shrapnel scratch!

"Your Royal Highness! Your Royal Highness! Nogi called anxiously.

Hearing Nogi Noshinori's call, Blazing let out a low hum.

"Never...... ...... to the squire Surrender...... Never ......"

Hearing that Chiren was still sticking to his beliefs when his life was dying, Nogi Noshinori was so excited that he actually shed tears.

Seeing that Chiren's injuries were serious, and now he couldn't heal him, Nogi Noshinori was anxious for a while.

And at this moment, the sound of a whistle in the distance attracted his attention.

Nogi Noshinori looked up and immediately saw a large warship with sky blue paint approaching quickly.

This is a typical large cruiser of French origin, the hull is tall, the body is mighty, like a huge bow like a sharp axe in the hands of the Sea King, chopping waves, plowing the sea, showing a sharp angle of attack under the water, this warship should not be in service for a long time, the ship is in the best condition, it is to move fast and steady, in the eyes of Nogi Noshinori, it seems to be a sword that crosses the sea.

"This is ...... 'Sword of the Ocean'!" I don't know who sighed, apparently he and Nogi Noshinori had the same impression of this warship.

But Nogi Noshinori knew that this was by no means a Japanese warship.

Soon, he saw the golden dragon flag on a red background flying high on the mast of this warship, and the dragon emblem on the bow of the ship, and immediately recognized the identity of this warship.

This is a warship of the Navy of the Dry Country!

――――Dividing Line――――

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