Chapter 645: Blasting Open the Door of Japan

"The Chinese demon dragon came from the sea, thundered and sprayed in Edo Bay, the heavens and the earth shattered, and everyone lay on the deck, except for one person, Numata Temple!"

He still stood firm, gazing at the dragon in the distance with a sad and deep gaze. Then he said to us in a loud voice: 'Stand up! Stand up! Even if you die, you have to stand and pay tribute to the benefactor who knocked on the door of Japan! Salute with our lives! ’”

"We all cried and said, Dafantou, this is the dragon, this is the enemy, why should we salute the enemy?"

"Numata Palace's gaze pierced our hearts like a rib, and he said in a low voice, 'The shogunate has been closed for almost ninety years, and the whole of Japan is sleeping, and we don't know what Shijie has become outside. Now that the Chinese are here, they have broken free from the slavery of the Manchu Qing, regained the grace of the Han and Tang dynasties and the Daming, and have regained their role models to admire and learn from, such a great moment, why not pay tribute to them!? ’”

"Numata Hall raised his arms and shouted, 'Such a great moment will surely be written in history!' What will you look like in the history books? What will the children and grandchildren say about our closest grandparents? At this great moment, panic like a frightened monkey and be ridiculed like a clown? No! We're going to fight with all our might! With our lives, with the glory of the samurai, make this great moment even more sacred! ’”

"Numata Temple's figure has become extremely tall, and he has inspired us to have the courage to fight and the consciousness to fight. This is the first battle of Japan's founding of the country, and we must use our own blood to tell everyone that this moment should not be forgotten! ”

"With Kikumaru hoisting the sails, the oarsmen rowed their long oars hard, facing the sun, and under the gaze of Amaterasu, they launched a decisive charge against the Chinese demon dragon. Under the leadership of Kazukimaru, hundreds of warships also bravely broke the waves, and we knew that this war would be lost, and we also knew that after this war, the door of Japan would be opened, and our children and grandchildren would live a completely different life, and Japan would embark on a new path. We are not standing in the way of such a future, but we are dying for it with the belief that Japan will cherish this future even more, so that the glory of our samurai can remain in the future......"

A few years later, Japan published an official history book dedicated to the "Demon Dragon Invasion Incident" on August 8, the 11th year of the reign of Kobo, called "The Day of the Dragon's Roar". The book recounts the memories of the survivor Masayuki Sakamoto, a subordinate of the Shogunate Daiban and the Daibantou Numata Mitsuyasu, who was in charge of the security of Edo Castle.

Sakamoto Masayuki's narration is clearly embellished, with a strong "post-shogunate" atmosphere, and the Daibantou Numata Mitsuyasu becomes a prophet whose eyes penetrate time and space, and his death battle is stained with a hint of sacred martyrdom.

In real history, on this day, Numata Mitsutai Yijing expected his name behind him, but with the same ending and different reasons, he never expected that he would be revered as a Japanese hero, but the shogunate and descendants did not want this battle to become an interpretation of "mantis arm blocking the car".

"We've seen such a ship, we've also seen such a national collapse, it's just that the ship is a little bigger and there are more cannons! And Kikumaru is wearing iron armor, what else is there to be afraid of? Ladies and gentlemen! As a samurai, isn't it a lifelong dream to achieve military exploits? What are you waiting for? Rush up! Lean on them and hold our sword high! Like Susanoo slaying the Great Snake of the Eight Monsters, cut off the head of the demon dragon! ”

Numata Mitsutai drew his sword and roared, driving the ironclad house ship to rush towards the demon dragon. Kazumaru's bravery also inspired the other ships, and more than a dozen ships followed.

"Didn't completely scare them......

On the Huaihe, the flagship of the Beiyang Fleet, Bai Yanding put down the binoculars, and the corners of his mouth hooked up a trace of disdain. "More than 100 years ago, when the Japanese princes were fighting for hegemony, they also imitated the sailing ships of Portugal and the Dutch, although they had been locked off for many years, they were not too unfamiliar. Probably they think that relying on that iron ship, there is still the strength to fight. ”

Fan Sihai said, indeed, although the four 2,000 cruisers and the fifteen 600 sea carp frigates are already unrivaled here, although the shape of the battleship is very shocking, and although the unison of more than 100 guns shook the world, they are all understandable to the Japanese after all.

During the Warring States period of Japan, many daimyo imitated Dutch and Portuguese sailing ships, and the Briton Miura pressed the needle to build two Western sailing ships for Tokugawa Ieyasu, which were used by the shogunate as Edo Bay guard ships. After the shogunate closed the country, it was forbidden to rebuild large ships, and there was no development on the sea, but for the Japanese, this kind of high-masted and large-sailed sea ship was not unfamiliar.

As Mitsuyasu Numata said, the "Chinese Magic Dragon" is just a bigger ship and a bigger cannon...... That's it, but soon, they paid the price for this "that's it", and the blood shed was far more than the "black ship invasion" that Japan encountered more than a hundred years later in Li Shi's previous life.

Draped in an iron plate, like a black turtle, he slowly greeted him, and more than a dozen ships followed, and this group of brave and fearless combatants became the best exercise target for the Beiyang Fleet.

Leaving the sea carp frigates to continue bombarding the Uraga battery, the four cruisers continued to maintain a long snake formation and sailed into the depths of Edo Bay. At this time, the Beiyang Fleet had not yet fully mastered the hydrology of Edo Bay, and only this route was safe, but in the eyes of the Beiyang Fleet, there was no need to maneuver to fight against this group of Japanese warships.

Kazukumaru rushed in front with more than a dozen ships, and dozens of warships behind woke up and followed, looking down from mid-air, a large group of rabbits rushed towards the four wolves.

"Quick! Faster! ”

The Kazuku Maru's slab was hung with iron plates, and Numata Mitsutai kept shouting while looking out through the holes of the saki plates, and it was only five or six miles away from the head ship of the "Demon Dragon" Yijing, and under the tall sails, the pointed bow mast Yijing was clearly visible.

Unfortunately, whether it is an athome boat or a closed boat, the sail is only auxiliary power, and it all depends on the oars. At this time, Japan, the level of naval warfare was extremely backward, and the Ataka ship, which was once the main force of naval warfare, also had the function of relying on the ship to connect with the gunwale, and there were hundreds of iron gunners and dozens of sword-wielding samurai gathered behind the board, waiting to fight on the enemy ship, and had no concept of speed at all, what was the use of running so fast? In the end, don't you still have to fight together?

Rumble......

Numata Mitsuyasu is still with great xiwang, courage! As long as you have courage, all difficulties can be eliminated! This battle may not be lost! As the head of the shogunate, he guarded Edo Castle on weekdays, and was a pioneer in wartime, and he was familiar with the history of the Sino-Japanese Korean War. The powerful squadron retreated in front of the brave Japanese samurai, and there is no shortage of such examples in the history of war.

But his courage was frozen by the column of water that was suddenly pulled up on the side of the ship, what kind of collapse is that, you can hit it so far!?

Boom......

The continuous column of water rose and got closer and closer to Kazumaru, and the samurai on the ship were in a commotion, this was not a war they were familiar with, and it felt too bad to be under artillery fire before they saw the face of the enemy.

"It's worthy of Chinese, the collapse of the country is still so powerful......"

Numata Mitsuyasu sighed, subconsciously remembering the samurai's summary of the cause of defeat in the Korean War, that is, the Chinese artillery was too powerful.

Boom......

Sighing that there was still a trace of tail, a straight blood line was splashed, and Numata Mitsuyasu crashed out of the whole person, and the pain had not yet arrived, and the optic nerve Yijing transmitted the lost half of his body, plus the blood line connected to the body, to the brain unmistakably.

A fist-sized hole was exposed on the board, and the iron sheet was curled. The planks cracked, the holes getting smaller and smaller, and Numata fell on the plank, lying with the other bodies of Yijing's limbs and bones. ..., the shogunate's general Numata Mitsutai hit the big lottery, and on the way to the "Demon Dragon", he was hit by a shot of the "Demon Dragon Breath", which was also the first shell that the Chinese side hit Wakimaru.

"I hit it!"

"Fart! I deliberately fired three seconds late, that's my cannon! ”

Four or five miles away, the bow of the Haihe at the head of the row stretched out two semicircular platforms, like fish's eyes, which were particularly eye-catching, and stood on the left and right of the bow mast. Two three-inch guns stood on the platform, and the muzzles of the guns were emitting green smoke. The two lieutenants were a few steps away from each other, and they were fighting for credit with red ears and red ears.

The commander fought on his own, and the gunners opened fire on their own, without affecting each other.

"Damn, five taels of silver for a cannonball......"

On the helm of the Haihe, Luo Wugui held a telescope and counted the water column painfully.

After the Battle of Subic, the Foshan Manufacturing Bureau stepped up the research and development of rifled guns, and now the two-inch guns are generally equipped, and the three-inch guns are also equipped with cruisers and battleships, becoming another sharp auxiliary weapon of the navy.

That's right, it's just an auxiliary weapon, and if it weren't for the fact that this kind of cannon hits far, accurately, and can penetrate thick ship boards, the navy would not be very willing to install this kind of gun.

There are many reasons, one is that relying on the smoothbore front-loading gun Yijing is enough to overwhelm the opponent, and now with the steam engine, the gun is directly disemboweled, and the finished rate of the gun has greatly increased, and the range and accuracy have also increased compared with before.

The second is that the maintenance of rifled guns is more troublesome than that of smoothbore guns, and it is necessary to thoroughly clean the gun chamber after firing dozens of rounds, and it is also necessary to carefully check the wear and tear of the rifling, which is troublesome to use.

The third is the key reason, because it is also necessary to use a brass base, and the shells are very expensive, and a three-inch shell can buy more than ten shells for a thirty-pound gun.

If the power of a three-inch cannon is better than that of a ten-shot 30-pound gun, it is worth it, but this raises the fourth problem. The specially developed flowering shell is still immature, and the three-inch cannon can still only fire solid shells, and this kind of cannon that can only punch holes in the opponent's hull is naturally far less powerful than a round bullet that can smash a large piece of ship board and break the ship's ribs.

As a result, most captains only used rifled guns as auxiliary weapons, and the Haihe was equipped with four guns, two in the bow and two in the stern, which were used to intimidate from a distance. Through the binoculars, seeing the broken wood flying on the other party's ironclad house, Luo Wugui thought to himself, this three-inch cannon still has its use.

In the quarrel between the two gunners in the bow, about a dozen shells hit the Wakikumaru, and the actual lethality was very small, except for the hapless Numata Mitsuyasu, there were less than twenty casualties.

There were still three or four miles away from the other party, and they were hit by sharp artillery fire, and even the iron armor on the board did not work, plus the general ascended to the sky in the first shot, which made the soldiers and samurai on the Wakikumaru be wrapped in great panic.

They clamored to turn the rudder quickly, but where could the bulky Ataka ship turn so easily?

When he and Kikumaru pulled an arc and slowly turned his head, the Haihe Yijing sailed to a distance less than two miles away from it, and the twenty-pound gun crew on the upper deck on the front side of the ship's hull, and the thirty-pound gun crew on the gun deck were absolutely unwilling to let go of this good target that entered the firing angle and faltered, although it was a little far, two miles...... Far beyond the range of the naval smoothbore artillery firing table.

For veteran gunners, this is not a big distance, and the firing table of army artillery is twice that of naval artillery. The reason why the navy set such a short range was all due to the experience of fighting against the Spanish and Dutch, and it was the Japanese who were fighting today, so there was no need to stick to the rules.

Without waiting for Luo Wugui to order, the artillery crew spontaneously opened fire, and Luo Wugui just muttered: "These undisciplined bastards", and then concentrated on observing the impact point. This is the Beiyang Fleet, the latest fleet born in the Anglo-Chinese Four Ocean Fleet, like a newborn calf, so there is no need to be reckless and frizzy. ..., the recklessness of the Haihe brought great suffering to Kazukumaru, the previous three-inch cannon was a throat-sealing sword, the iron plate opened a hole, and the body was torn, almost a matter of an instant, and there was no aftermath. And this long-distance bombardment, only one of the more than ten shells hit, and only twenty catties of shells were fired, but it brought a continuous rumbling sound, and the square platform on the upper deck of the Kikumaru was smashed with a corner, and more than a dozen people flew away with a large amount of broken wood and iron plates, and a ball of salute flowers bloomed on the hull.

"Sharp! This big Haihe has to eat it all, and we won't give a bite of soup to the back! ”

Luo Wugui shouted into the microphone and pronounced the death sentence of the Kazumaru.

The slender and graceful cruiser sailed past the Wakimaru, which was slowly circling in a panic less than half a mile, and the mixed cries from the "ironclad ship" could be heard clearly, but there were also furlong cannons called "big barrels" by the Japanese, and some fanatical iron gunners were firing arquebuses in vain.

They suffered several shells, and the layer of iron plate could not block the penetration of the three-inch gun, nor could it block the round bombardment of the 20-pound or 30-pound gun.

The Haihe ceased fire at this time, like a warrior who was coldly watching the enemy's dying struggle, took a deep breath, and then, the ten thirty-pound guns on the gun deck and the six twenty-pound guns on the upper deck sprayed a rain of bullets with an extremely short gap.

Whoa......

Less than 500 materials, the Ataka ship was wrapped in a boiling water column, and iron wood chips flew out of the water curtain, and when the water column fell, the sponge could not see the complete hull, and only two pieces of artificial objects that had decomposed into strange shapes remained, and the head and tail were facing up and the waist was sinking downward.

Commander Bai said...... Don't leave food for the back, beware that the Haihe will always be at the bottom in the future. ”

"Stingy!"

The signal soldier passed the flagship's order, and Luo Wugui scolded and ordered the Haihe to turn the rudder and give way.

Japanese officials call this battle the "Battle of Edo Bay", but for the Anglo-Chinese navy, it was not a war. The small cannon musket of the Kikumaru was the fiercest "resistance" encountered by the Beiyang Fleet in the entire "conflict". After that, the ships were simply targeted by unilateral bombardment, slaughtered by cruisers about a dozen ships, and then pressed by the group of frigates, and finally completely collapsed, like lost dogs, running towards the depths of Edo Bay.

According to the Japanese history books of the "Battle of Edo Bay", the shogunate army lost 26 warships, killed 463 people, and captured 217 people, while the Chinese side counted all those who fell overboard, those whose artillery burned, and even those who fell into the rudder of the battleship, and injured eight people......

Bai Yanding ordered the fleet to stop, not only because the water in the depths of Edo Bay was unfamiliar, but also because the threat of the Uraga battery was not completely lifted.

"You still have to land in Uraga and occupy their battery, land battles are inevitable, and the battle has just begun!"

On the afternoon of the 8th, there was no shogunate warship in the sea near Puga Chong, only wreckage remained, and Bai Yanding explained to his subordinates in an extremely dignified tone.

Feng Jingyao, Chen Xinghua, and the Beiyang Fleet did not believe that naval battles alone could make the shogunate bow its head, and pressure had to be exerted from land. However, there is a risk in land warfare, and the Beiyang Fleet is currently not attached to the formed Fubo Army, and only has scattered troops accompanying the ships, which add up to only 300 people.

As long as the range of activities does not exceed the range of naval guns, this amount of troops is enough, and it is not a big problem to occupy the fort, but everyone has read the historical materials of the Sino-Japanese Korean War and knows that the Japanese are fierce in land warfare, and they did sweat when they sent the Fubo army ashore.

Surprisingly, this small force went ashore without any resistance, and the operation to occupy the fort was very smooth, and more than 100 shogunate soldiers were captured who were blown to the ear and blood. ..., and learned from the captives that there were tens of thousands of shogunate troops on the line from Miura to Edo, and the fleet became nervous again, so they gathered 600 sailors, sent a few cannons ashore, and built fortifications overnight.

There was nothing to do all night, until the early hours of the morning, several leaders stayed up all night, their eyes were bloodshot, and they were full of puzzlement, what about the Japanese? What about the people of the shogunate? All evaporated?

The Beiyang Fleet stayed up hard all night, but Edo Castle did not live in peace all night, and the city was noisy all night. Frightened by the tragic situation of the shogunate's fleet fleeing from Huilai, Edo Castle gathered their belongings and fled north into the mountains.

Tokugawa Yoshimune was even more distraught, and his first reaction was to transfer the troops on the front line of Miura, Yokosuka and Kanagawa to hold Edo Castle.

"I ...... Should I visit Kyoto? ”

In the middle of the night, Tokugawa Yoshimune, with red eyes, asked the elder Sakai Tokitsuna if he should escape from Edo Castle. The defeated warrior Huilai gave an explanation of the battle situation 1510, just four words: mantis arm block the car. The heroic and fearless Numata Mitsutai Daiban was killed by a volley four or five miles away from the Demon Dragon Battleship, and such a liliang could not resist at all.

"Kyoto...... Not far from the boundary port, the shogun who left Edo Castle is no longer a shogun. ”

Sakai Tokitsuna tactfully reminded that the demon dragon came from the sea, and unless he absconded into the mountains, it was no place to stay, and the general who escaped from the city could still maintain the authority of the shogunate?

"So...... Let's wait for the envoys to come and see what conditions they have to offer. ”

Tokugawa Yoshimune suppressed the tide of fear and unwillingness, and whispered this. He was an aspiring shogun, and when he took office, he set off the reform of the Shogunate, which seemed to revitalize the dull shogunate, but just as the grand plan was just beginning, he was rudely interrupted by the demon dragon.

It was because of his ambition that he was able to calm down, "Now everyone is afraid of the power of the demon dragon, and the shogunate wants to fight to the death, and everyone is unwilling to contribute. If the Chinese envoys had put forward the conditions of humiliation, perhaps the shogunate would have been able to gather the hearts and minds of the people to fight China to the death......"

He comforted himself like this, told himself that this was by no means cowardice, and comforted him all night......

Tokugawa Yoshimune waited for one night, one day, and another night, but he never closed his eyes, and Feng Jingyao and the others also waited for two nights, one day, and by the early morning of August 10, both sides felt a little strange.

At noon, everyone was discussing waving troops under the castle and bombarding Edo, and the envoy of the shogunate finally came, it was a young man who claimed to be Aoki Kunyang, the director of the shogunate bookhouse, and when he saw Feng Jingyao and others, he knelt down with a puff.

"The country is guilty!"

Aoki Kunyang shivered all over, shouted loudly, and burst into tears, but his face was as bright as a flower.

"I, Japan, am finally going to follow China and embark on the road of glory!"

He was still shouting like this, Feng Jingyao and the others looked at each other, and couldn't help but shiver.

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