The situation in Japan has been unstable in recent years, but last year's reign of the Emperor gradually reached its climax, and the reformers demanded that the shogunate expel foreigners, re-isolate the country, and return power to the emperor to a certain extent.

Naturally, the shogunate, with the support of the Chinese Empire and the British, would not have agreed, because if the shogunate dared to agree, it would not be faced with the opposition of these reformers at home, but with another invasion from Britain and the Chinese Empire.

Therefore, the shogunate took silent measures, that is, it did not openly oppose the expulsion of foreigners by the Emperor's faction, but it did not take matters into its own hands.

Seeing this, the reformers became even more opposed to the shogunate, and a large number of reformers centered on the Nagasu and Satsuma domains began to rebel on their own.

One of the most obvious signs of this is the blockade of the coast and the shelling of passing merchant ships.

In 1863, Britain, France, the United States, the Netherlands, and the Chinese Empire, the five countries temporarily put together a temporary fleet to bombard the Xiaguan Fort.

Although the shelling deterred the Nagasu and Satsuma domains to a certain extent, it did not dissuade them from expelling foreigners.

In addition, they were extremely dissatisfied with the Shogunate's cooperation with Britain and the Chinese Empire, and even with the purchase of a large amount of ordnance from the Chinese Empire, believing that the Shogunate had already acted as a lackey for foreign colonization of Japan.

In this way, he embarked on the road of armed confrontation against the shogunate step by step.

Naturally, the shogunate would not obediently cede power in their hands, and with the support of the Chinese Empire and foreign countries such as the British, they began to purchase ordnance. Prepare a new army to conquer reformers such as the Chosu Domain and the Satsuma Domain.

Because the shogunate did not succumb to the reformers as in history. Therefore, neither the Chinese Empire nor the British chose to go to war with the Cheung Chau Domain or the Satsuma Domain in person. It was only in the summer of 1863 that after the bombardment of Shimonoseki was carried out, there was no large-scale military operation.

Therefore, there was no war between Britain and the Satsuma clan as in history!

The reason why the British army did not send troops to Japan at the first time is actually related to the Chinese Empire!

Historically, the British army was able to react quickly and send troops to Japan, which was related to the victory of the Second Opium War, when Britain had a large number of warships that could be called up in the coastal areas of China, but during this time and space, the British and French forces suffered heavy losses in Shanghai.

At the same time, the Indian uprising also needed more troops to suppress it, and then Lin Chengting also contained a large number of British troops on the Burmese side.

According to conservative estimates, the British have now committed at least 8,000 combat troops to Burma. On the contrary, although Lin Chengting was inferior to the British troops in Burma in terms of overall strength, he took advantage of the terrain to firmly control the northern part of Myanmar and carried out people's livelihood development in some areas close to Yunnan, China, so that Lin Chengting's headquarters had a stable rear.

Under such circumstances, it was much more difficult for Britain to send troops to Japan than it was in history.

Besides, the British are not stupid. Their interests in Japan are actually limited, and the interests of various countries in Japan are basically the same, so they can't let the British take the lead in fighting the war themselves, and then let others follow and pick up the benefits.

So the British have been trying to pull France, the Netherlands. Well, the most important thing is that the Chinese Empire sent troops together in Japan.

If they could pull the Chinese Empire together to send troops to Japan, then the British would be able to save a lot of effort. At least not so many troops and warships were sent.

Last year, however, the Chinese Empire maintained a high degree of concern about Japan's own situation. However, it will not be easy to send troops directly, and in the early stage, they basically counted on the shogunate to suppress the Nagasu Domain and the Satsuma Domain.

It's a pity. The ability of the shogunate was really disappointing to China and Britain, and after more than half a year, the new army they had trained was still only a show.

Other information shows that the new army of the Nagasu Domain has been formed as a whole, and in the second half of 1863, although a large-scale civil war had not broken out in Japan, it was actually completely different from history, and there was no so-called forbidden gate change, and the Hitoshu and Satsuma domains were already preparing to directly arm the shogunate.

In December 1863, there was a skirmish between the Choshu Domain's New Army and the Shogunate's Kyoto Forbidden Army, both sides using Mini rifles, still using line tactics, but the result was very disappointed by the Imperial Minister in Japan, Li Bocang, in this skirmish, the Choshu Domain soldiers were killed and wounded about 30 people, but the Shogunate army was killed and wounded more than 100 people.

It is already clear at a glance which of the two new armies is stronger or weaker in combat effectiveness.

Under these circumstances, a large number of diplomats stationed in Japan were pessimistic about whether the shogunate would be able to suppress the Chosu and Satsuma domains, believing that if foreign countries in Japan did not directly intervene in the Japanese civil war by force, the shogunate would most likely be overthrown by the Nagasu and Satsuma domains.

Later, another incident directly prompted the Chinese Empire and Britain to join forces to send troops to Japan.

That is, the Nagasu Domain and the Satsuma Domain formally formed an alliance and prepared to jointly conquer the shogunate and welcome the emperor's personal government.

Under these circumstances, neither the Chinese Empire nor the British could sit still, and immediately began to prepare for the dispatch of troops to the Chosu and Satsuma domains.

According to the arguments between the two sides, it was agreed that the two sides would jointly send troops to safeguard the interests of various countries in Japan and ensure the safety of the lives and property of businessmen of various countries in Japan.

To this end, the British sent six warships, in addition to sailors, about 400 marines.

On the Chinese Empire, the Pacific Fleet was the core, sending four warships, but in addition to sailors, it carried more marines, including two infantry companies, three Marine infantry companies, one cavalry company and one artillery company.

The above-mentioned army and navy units formed a mixed regiment stationed in Japan, with a total strength of about 1,400 troops.

The combined forces of China and Britain had ten warships and about 2,000 soldiers who could fight ashore. If necessary, about 500 sailors can be mobilized to fight ashore.

After the dispatch of troops is decided, the Sino-British joint fleet will be the official dispatch date. The first target they chose was not the Nagasu Domain, but the Satsuma Domain.

Why?

This is because the Cheung Chau Domain has an army that is not weak. The Satsuma Domain, on the other hand, was dominated by the navy.

Although the Chinese and British soldiers were not afraid of the so-called Japanese new army, which still used Mini rifles and even flintlock muskets, it was always good to avoid fearless casualties.

So they chose to target the Satsuma Domain.

Unlike the Nagasu Domain, the Satsuma Domain did not have many modern armies, and although their naval power was much stronger than that of the Nagasu Domain and other Japanese daimyos, it was nothing compared to the combined fleet of China and Britain.

To put it bluntly, any major warship in the Sino-British Combined Fleet can sweep away the entire Japanese maritime power.

Attacking the enemy's shortcomings with their own strengths is a choice that all generals will make, so the Sino-British combined fleet will target the attack on the Satsuma Domain.

In order to be able to find a decent reason for his military campaign against the Satsuma Domain. Both the British and the Chinese Empire negotiated with the Satsuma Domain on some diplomatic matters, and put forward some demands for reparations and punishments for the parties.

For example, the British used the excuse of the Satsuma Incident to punish the top brass of the Satsuma Domain and demand a huge amount of compensation, while the Chinese Empire demanded that soldiers be sent to Kagoshima to search Kagoshima under the pretext of attacking a Chinese merchant who disappeared in Kagoshima last year, and demanded that the Satsuma Domain bear the cost of the search for a total of 50,000 pounds.

To this end, in early January, the British and the Chinese Empire once again jointly made new representations to the Japanese Honsatsuma Domain. He asked the Satsuma clan to allow Chinese and British warships to enter the port, and sent soldiers to the shore to investigate the raw wheat incident and the disappearance of Chinese merchants. The Satsuma clan must not be hindered under any pretext.

After the investigation, China and Britain have the power to deal with the criminals in the raw wheat incident and the Chinese businessman always in the incident, well. Those who are suspected and may be punished include, but are not limited to, the lords of the Satsuma domain. At the same time, the Satsuma clan was required to bear the costs of the investigation of the Sino-British troops, as well as all previous and subsequent losses. The total is £150,000.

In fact, it didn't matter what excuse Britain and the Chinese Empire used to negotiate, the important thing was that they had decided to use force to intervene in the situation in Japan, and the Chinese Empire could not sit idly by and watch the shogunate overthrow, even if the Satsuma clan agreed to these conditions, they would still find an excuse to come to war until the Satsuma clan gave up overthrowing the shogunate and abandoning the policy of rebellion.

As expected by the British and the Chinese Empire, the Satsuma Domain did not hesitate to reject the Sino-British proposals.

Thus, the Sino-Anglo-Saxon War was officially launched.

On the 28th of February, the combined fleet of China and Britain landed on Shikoku Island and destroyed a small Japanese army of only a few hundred men, which also supported the Satsuma and Chosu domains.

It took only two days for the Sino-British forces to complete the landing, and routed the local Japanese troops, achieving a huge result of killing and wounding more than 300 people, with only five casualties of their own, and incidentally destroying a battery through artillery shelling.

However, this is only an appetizer, and it represents the determination of the Sino-British coalition to fight the reformers at the core of the Satsuma Domain and the Cheung Chau Domain.

A few days later, the Sino-British combined fleet arrived off the coast of Kagoshima!

This was followed by the organization of a large-scale artillery bombardment in an attempt to destroy part of the port's batteries.

Not to be outdone, the Satsuma Domain used its only few steamships and some sailing ships to attempt a night attack on the Combined Fleet, but was discovered and stopped by the heavily sailed Combined Fleet.

This was followed by another massive shelling!

The next afternoon, most of the ships of the Combined Fleet approached Kagoshima Castle and the batteries, and carried out a large-scale artillery bombardment, in this shelling, it is worth noting that not only the Imperial Chinese Navy used breeched guns, but also the British used breeched guns, and these rifled guns were also generally equipped with grenades, which were much more effective than simple solid shells when shelling port settings and factories by the sea.

In terms of the performance of artillery, as well as in numbers, the combined fleet had an advantage.

During the bombardment, which lasted for many hours, most of the batteries belonging to the Satsuma Domain were destroyed, and the Combined Fleet continued to advance and bombarded some important facilities in the port, the most important of which were some modern projects, especially the factories used by the Satsuma Domain to manufacture artillery.

In this shelling, the Satsuma clan lost all of its steam ships and some of its sailboats, and at the same time the batteries were almost completely destroyed, and most of the main factories on the shore were destroyed, with many casualties.

As a result of this bombardment, most of the Satsuma Domain's maritime power was wiped out, and what little industrial manufacturing capacity had was reduced to ashes.

After two consecutive days of shelling, the Sino-British combined fleet had basically gained the opportunity to land on Kagoshima. (To be continued.) )