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Although the number of 100,000 samurai was quite large, it did not make several generals fearful. What's more, according to what Geng Jingzhong said, these people can be regarded as having been peaceful for a long time, and they have not experienced the test of blood and fire, so they are not called real warriors. From another point of view, most of the soldiers of the Marine Army and Navy have experienced battle formations, and their armaments are more than one grade stronger than these samurai, so they are really confident in this battle.

When several people said this, they couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief, and after a little silence, they said in a deep voice: "As the prince said, our grasp is still very great, our 6,000 marines and more than 30,000 soldiers in the navy have a great grasp of dealing with 100,000 Japanese warriors. If the intelligence is accurate, there are a lot of muskets in the Japanese country, but there is a great lack of artillery, and there are a lot of all kinds of artillery on our ships, just with those scattered bullets, it is enough for them to drink a pot! What's more, we still have a big killer weapon in hand! ”

Wang Zhenbang nodded and agreed: "Yes, the artillery battalions in the Marine Army are quite a lot in terms of the number of artillery!" The power is not weaker than that of our navy! ”

"Fart!" Zeng Yangxing interrupted Wang Zhenbang without waiting for him to finish speaking: "The ships on your navy are all giant heavy artillery, can our small-caliber guns be compared?" Zeng Yangxing was also telling the truth, although the horsetail artillery workshop had been greatly expanded, and about 300 guns could be cast per month, most of them were installed on newly built warships. Since the Marine Corps has clearly discovered the role of artillery in previous training battles, it strongly requires the casting of a batch of marine artillery, otherwise. The number of artillery in the Marine Corps has not yet increased.

But. Land warfare is not the same as naval warfare. No matter how heavy the artillery is, it is easy to put it on a battleship. But if you put it on land, you can't move. For example, the Hongyi cannons of eighteen pounds and above weigh more than 4,000 catties, if they are used for land warfare, how many horses do they need to pull and move? If you fall into a pit, you won't be able to pull it up! As a result, at the request of Geng Jingzhong and the senior generals of the Marine Army, the artillery workshop produced a large number of light field artillery, and a large number of weakened versions of the Hongyi cannon, the thousand-pound Furlong machine, and the 400-pound Furlong machine were produced. In particular, the light Furlong machine was produced the most, reaching more than 500 doors.

The main purpose of the artillery battalion is to provide fire support to the soldiers, and in a large-scale battle, the first ten thousand cannons will be able to lose the enemy's mind, and then break and win. The Marine Corps, which followed Geng Jingzhong on the expedition this time, was equipped with two complete artillery battalions. Each artillery battalion had 30 12-pounder field cannons and 50 6-pounder and 8-pounder furlong cannons. As early as when the construction of the first batch of third-class warships began, the weakened version of the Hongyi cannon was cast by Nan Huairen and others. This cannon is only two thousand catties. It was a twelve-pounder cannon, and its range was not much less than that of the twelve-pounder Hongyi cannon on the ship. But when placed on a gun carriage, two horses can be pulled lightly and steered flexibly. Sixty Hongyi cannons in two battalions alone were enough to make the Japanese have no power to fight back.

"Huh!" Wang Zhenbang was not annoyed, he had a better temperament than him, and he also knew that the senior generals of the Marine Army had grievances. "Why should Zeng Shuai be angry, after all, this land is not as good as the sea, the sea ship can withstand the weight of hundreds of guns, but not on land, this is also a helpless thing. However, your Marine Army can fight against hundreds of thousands of Japanese soldiers at that time, and your achievements are right in front of you, in fact, I should envy you! ”

"Well, that's a good point." Zeng Yangxing nodded and said: "There are two artillery battalions to cooperate, plus our four musket battalions and four thousand brothers, it is completely possible to match far and near." This is also thanks to the son, otherwise when would we have so many artillery? And it's good that the caliber of this artillery is unified, so that the shells are also unified, and the speed of the fighters is faster. ”

Geng Jingzhong interrupted the conversation between the two of them: "This operation is not a matter for the Navy or the Marine Corps, and we must cooperate with each other. The Wa Kingdom is not one of those small groups of pirates, everyone still has to cheer up. Actually, I am not worried about fighting at sea, our fleet is far superior to the sailors of the Japanese country, and it is not difficult to deal with them. The only thing that needs to be cautious is to attack the Wa Kingdom proper, and Edo Castle is not so easy to fight. However, when the time comes, attacking Edo will allow us to accumulate a lot of experience for our Marine Army. The Marine Corps has not experienced a real major battle since it was formed, and the artillery battalion can also test the results of their training this year! ”

"Don't worry, Shizi, our brothers in the Marine Army are holding their breath! I will definitely win glory for you. Besides, we have plenty of ammunition, we are well-trained, and most of us have seen blood, if we can't win, the last general won't go back! Zeng Yangxing was full of confidence in his soldiers, patting his chest and reassuring

In the two days since the departure from Naha Port, the fleet has been heading straight for about 30 degrees east-north, and it is not surprising that it has the name of an archipelago along the way. Now this area is already the territory of the Wa Kingdom, and it is the sphere of influence of the Shimazu family in Kagoshima.

"Seko, about an hour further on, Yakushima and Tanegashima are located south of Kagoshima. As far as Shimono knew, there were very few inhabitants on Yakushima Island, but there were many on Tanegashima Island. There were also Shimazu army stationed there, but the number was not large, about 500 people. Tang Zhi looked at the surrounding small islands, calculated the approximate distance according to the sea chart, and then reported to Geng Jingzhong.

"Oh, that kind of sub-island seems to be suitable for habitation, otherwise there will be five hundred Japanese pirates stationed? Hehe, that's fine, it's only a matter of destroying them! "Dealing with this small group of pirates is the easiest for the soldiers, and basically a surprise attack can be done! Geng Jingzhong said with a smile. "However, there is no hurry here, let's destroy the Shimazu family's sailors first, and then come back to clean up these small land troops."

An hour flew by, and a few people stood on the deck and just watched the scenery for a while, and Tanegashima appeared in front of them. This island is similar to the main island of the Ryukyus, and it is elongated, but this sub-island does not seem to be that high.

The Satsuma Domain was the most powerful daimyo in the southern part of the Wa Kingdom, and the strength of the sailors was also the highest among all the daimyos. It's a little stronger than the Tokugawa family. But. Since the year before last in the ponytail suffered a loss. Their sailors are second in strength. The Shimazu family's sailors are divided into three branches, which are led by the head of the family, Matsudaira Tadaki and Oda Nobuyo, the two oldest family elders. The one of the head of the house was the strongest, almost as much as the other two combined. In normal times, the three sailors take turns to go to sea to conduct a large-scale formation drill, and the frequency is fixed once every five days. Today happened to be the time for them to go to sea, and it was this group led by Oda Nobora who came to sea.

As the saying goes, when people are unlucky. Drinking cold water stuffed his teeth, Oda Nobuya can be said to be moldy, his fifty large and small warships just came out of Kagoshima Bay, and soon after coming to the sea, he found the Western sail warship coming up from the opposite side. When he saw these warships, he felt that something was wrong, and when he looked closely, he found that there were more than 100 warships on the opposite side, and such a huge fleet was stronger than the entire Shimazu family.

The Mawei Navy sailed past Tanegashima. As we approached Kagoshima Bay, the clipper ship at the front of me signaled it. Said that a team of Japanese sailors had been discovered. The scale is not large, most of them are small boats, and there are only twelve large ships. Wang Zhenbang immediately ordered the first and second fleets to separate and surround them on the left and right, and they met them head-on.

Just when Oda Nobara was in doubt, he took out his telescope and looked at it carefully. There is a flag! All of them were hung with tiger flags on a blue background. Fujian Mawei Navy! Oda Nobuya had also heard of this banner for a long time, and their sailors were planted in the hands of the Mawei Navy. Hurriedly looked through the binoculars again, and when he saw that he was facing about four or five thousand sail warships, he was frightened into a cold sweat when he boarded, needless to say, this must be the main naval fleet of Fujian, and they came to retaliate! But they themselves fell into the trap of the Mawei Navy, and he immediately ordered without thinking: "Rush to the southwest, rush out to have a way to live." ”

At this time, how could Geng Jingzhong let go of such a big piece of fat and destroy this fleet, and when they would attack Kagoshima Bay, the pressure would be much less. Geng Jingzhong signaled to Wang Zhenbang, and Wang Zhenbang immediately ordered: "Order the First and Second Fleets to encircle, and all the warships of the other fleets to attack at full speed, and never allow a single ship to escape." Live or die! ”

The order was issued, and the herald urgently waved the flag to give the order. The fleet led by Oda Nobora was the weakest of the three fleets of the Shimazu family, all of which were old-fashioned Kara ships, which were slower, even slower than the sail warships. Today it happened to be a southerly wind, and those Tang ships were not as fast as the fast sail warships. In a short time, fifty ships of the Japanese sailors were encircled.

"Fire!" The captains of each ship received the flag order and immediately gave the order to open fire.

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

"Tom tom!"

Under these three flanks, the fleet led by Oda Nobora was completely passively beaten. It was similar to the warships of the Japanese Naval Division in Jinwu Bay, with only three rounds of artillery bombardment, and there were only a few of the fifty warships left. Even the few remaining ships are all riddled with holes and unable to move.

"Fire!" Wang Zhenbang did not mean to let go of these warships, and ordered to continue firing cannons. However, in the last round, only a few dozen warships in the headquarters were firing guns, which was enough to sink them.

In just half a day, all 50 of these old warships sank to the bottom of the sea, and with them, 4,000 Japanese of the Shimazu family were reimbursed. This is definitely a nerve-wracking for the Shimazu family!

The fleet continued to move forward, and the young master of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Tang Ji, and the many soldiers of the Ryukyu Kingdom who accompanied him also saw this scene. They were all shocked by what they saw. In the past, in their eyes, the powerful Wa Sailor actually met all the Hades in less than half a day, and only a few planks were left on the sea, which can prove that there is a Wa Sailor here. In the same way, after seeing the power of the Mawei Navy's artillery, they were full of confidence in destroying the Shimazu Satsuma Domain.

Kagoshima Bay, also known as Kinko Bay, is a bay between the Satsuma Peninsula and the Osumi Peninsula in Kagoshima Prefecture. It covers an area of 1,200 square kilometers, with a length of about 150 li from north to south and a width of about 40 li from east to west. It can be divided into three parts: the bay olympic, the central part of the bay, and the mouth of the bay. The whole bowl mouth is half-moon-shaped, shallow on the outside and deep on the inside, it is a natural bay, and there are no other small islands blocking the way at the entrance, which directly connects to the outer ocean. (To be continued......)