Shimonoseki Port and Nagafu Town are not far apart, so even if there were no means of radio communication, it is said that such a big thing happened in Shimonoseki Port that the British and American soldiers in Nagafu Town could not have found out.

However, last night's rainstorm covered up this qiē, when the fighting was at its most intense, it was also when the rainstorm was urgent, and it was thunder and torrential rain, even if there was any movement, it was difficult to find it on the Changfu side.

However, there is a difference between the sound of thunder and explosions after all, especially when the Japanese army blew up the two battleships moored at the pier during the final retreat, the sound was too loud, and the rain at that time had also weakened, so as long as the people on the Changfu side were not idiots, they would definitely be able to notice that something was wrong.

In fact, since there were no defenders in Changfu, the British and American troops surrendered so quickly that the British and American troops occupied the place without much effort.

It was precisely because they did not engage in any battles, and because they were too tired from the forced march before, and they were immediately exposed to heavy rain, so they did not plunder the long house, but occupied the area around the town hall and lived for a while.

Anyway, in their opinion, the whole place is already theirs, and they can loot whenever they want, and those officers also think that simple robbery is not only ugly, but also inefficient, and it is far better to arrest these people as laborers as before, and then let these people take money and forgive their freedom.

Because they understand a truth, that is, the Japanese don't care about the poor or the rich, it seems that they usually pay attention to hiding their wealth and pay attention to not revealing their wealth, so if you rob it directly, the action is too intense, they think that there is no way to live, they will always resist, and they will not say where the hidden money is, you will grab some floating wealth at most.

When they seized the port before, the income was not satisfactory, so those officers discussed. I think it's not that the Japanese don't have money, it's that their methods are wrong.

You look at the Chinese, how smart they are, when they go to Osaka, they don't play robbery, but directly invite those big businessmen, no, they caught those big businessmen for extortion, and the result is not only civilized action, but also a lot of money.

It was the same with the later robbery of Edo Castle. People don't do it themselves, let the Japanese who know the roots do it themselves, and they still share the biggest share of the money they robbed, and the same table is good, this is called the realm.

So this time, when the British and Americans came, they did not rob directly, but first stabilized the hearts of the people, and then pondered waiting for the next day to gather the people. In the name of "recruitment", they were tied up as free laborers, or prisoners, and then let them ransom themselves with money, and robbed them in this way.

In a word. The town had not been damaged too much, and although the rain and thunder had drowned out a lot of sounds, the British and American officers were all experienced, and they soon sensed that something was not quite right on the other side of Shimonoseki.

But. They were too confident in themselves, and although they felt that the people left behind were not very reliable, there were more than 2,000 people at the dock. And they also have warships as cover, so even if something happens, it is estimated that it is not a big deal, and nine times out of ten they are suppressing the rebellion or something. In addition, the weather was bad and they were sleepy, so they did not send anyone to spy that night, wasting precious time.

After dawn the next day, the British and American troops in Changfu sent three American cavalrymen back to Shimonoseki Port to inquire for information, of course, to find out information is only one of them, the key is to report the situation to the commander-in-chief behind, tell them that they have taken the Changfu, and let them be ready to accept it.

Unfortunately, the Shimonoseki garrison led by Genrui Kusaka and Shinsaku Takasugi had already marched all night and happened to run into these three heralds, so they set up an ambush in advance and divided them by two.

Just like the Four Nations Coalition brought a large number of interpreters overnight, and the troops of Genrui Kusaka and Shinsaku Takasugi also brought English interpreters, so even if the three heralds were all Americans, there was no problem in communication.

These three Americans have no backbone at all, they don't need to be scared after being caught, they have to answer all questions, they are very well-behaved, they can do whatever they want, just to survive.

It was the three American heralds who knew the details of the Shōfu's forward army, including the number of people and equipment waiting, that is to say, in terms of intelligence warfare, the Choshu Army was in a one-way and transparent situation.

After knowing that there were more than 4,000 people in the Changfu, and they were all well-equipped absolute main forces, both Kusaka Genrui and Takasugi Shinsaku fell silent, and each saw the heaviness of their hearts.

Thinking about it, the army led by Genrui Kusaka and Shinsaku Takasugi had about 3,400 people before, but after a night of fighting, although it was calculated intentionally or unintentionally, it still lost nearly 600 people, most of which were lost in the case of snatching the warships at the dock, and the real loss in Shimonoseki Port Town was less than 200 people.

In other words, the Cheongshu army had a tired division of less than 2,800 men, and in the face of 4,000 elite soldiers who had recuperated overnight, it was probably difficult to carry out a surprise attack like before.

After understanding this situation, Takasugi Shinsaku decisively ordered the whole army to rest and recuperate, and no longer went to the Changfu, but set up an ambush in an aisle not far behind, waiting for the other party to return before making plans.

As for the three American heralds, in order to prevent leaks, of course, they killed them, and after that, the troops dominated by this strange team began to set up a nervous ambush.

Let's say that since the Anglo-American coalition forces in Changfu sent scouts back to report and spy on the situation, they have started their own blackmail road. They first drove all the local men into one place and kept them in custody, and then let them pay for their lives.

At first, it was naturally not smooth, but after a few people threatened to sell them abroad as slaves without taking the money, the situation was immediately different.

At this time, although the Japanese people are living a very hard life, but in their hometown, how much can they survive, and like China, the strong man is the pillar of the family, generally a strong man has to bear the source of life of several people, once he is sold abroad as a slave, what about his wife and children here and his parents? Who will feed it?

Therefore, as soon as they heard that they were going to sell, especially if they went to the West, they might not be able to come back for the rest of their lives, and these people were afraid, so people began to use money to redeem themselves.

There are one and two, and when there are more people who redeem themselves, everyone will see it, and they want to spend money to eliminate the disaster, so as not to really make these people angry. Not to mention selling it as a slave, what if you start killing it.

In this way, they continued for two days, and looted a large amount of gold, silver and copper coins, which were roughly equivalent to more than 300,000 taels of silver according to preliminary estimates.

However, at this time, they also discovered the troops, because there was no news of the herald sent to Shimonoseki so far, and Shimonoseki did not send anyone to inform him. This is a very strange situation.

In the end, the generals met and discussed, and decided to send another herald back to have a look, and asked them to go back quickly.

As a result, after the herald of twelve people went, they lost their news again and did not return at all within the allotted time.

When they saw this, they realized that something was wrong. So he didn't continue to stay in Changfu, but took a group of people who had no money to redeem themselves as laborers, and returned to Shimonoseki Port with all the allied soldiers with large bags of belongings.

Just because it doesn't feel right. They were cautious along the way, but after all, there were a lot of Japanese civilians escorting their belongings, so the speed was quite slow.

Less than three miles after they walked out, they were subjected to a wave of attacks. It was a lot of people who fired three waves of arrows at them on the side of the road, killing and wounding more than a dozen people, waiting for them to react. When they began to send small groups of troops to search and advance, they did not find any trace of the other party.

When they got back on the road, it turned out to be another burst of rockets, this time, they attacked the people and vehicles escorting goods in the rear, and as a result, the Japanese civilians who were escorting couldn't stand it, and they were attacked, and few people died, but they fled in a swarm, even if the coalition soldiers tried to intimidate and stop it.

In the end, the allied soldiers saw that there was no way, and they were reluctant to take the looted things, so they divided a thousand people to escort the goods, and then all concentrated in the middle, and the other three thousand people were divided into square formations, walking slowly in front and back, left and right, so that it was safe, but the speed immediately dropped a lot.

On the road after that, they always encountered all kinds of attacks, either a cold shot of muskets from the bushes on the side of the road, or a burst of hidden arrows, or a few traps, which made the entire coalition army miserable.

The coalition forces are not unaware of how to deal with it, and they react very quickly, once they find that they are attacked, they immediately send a volley of guns past, and usually hit a lot of people.

In the beginning, the harassed troops were able to bring back the corpses of their own people, but later, as the coalition soldiers became more and more vigilant, the effect of this harassment became worse and worse.

Although in the back, this attack tactic did not do much real damage to the coalition soldiers, but in terms of slowing down, it did work. Moreover, this kind of step-by-step frightening situation also tests people's spirits very much, so that the coalition soldiers are always on alert, and the mental fatigue can be imagined.

The road conditions in Japan at this time are not generally worse, not as good as those in China, and even if they are roads, they are only harder dirt roads, and the most feared thing about such roads is rain.

This section of the road from Changfu to Xiaguan Port, if the road is dry, then go quickly, you can get there in less than a day, but because of a heavy rainstorm the day before yesterday, the road became muddy, the road is deep and shallow, it is difficult to walk, and it is disturbed, and it is stunned to walk for two days, and it is less than half of the road.

This was already very distressing, but at about three o'clock in the afternoon of the next day, God looked at them again, and a thunderstorm directly fell, which poured the coalition soldiers into a group of chickens, and made the road more difficult to walk.

Thankfully, they were not attacked during the rain, mainly because the ambush was still some distance away from them, and they were also very vigilant, and it was quite difficult to carry out a rain assault during the day.

Although there is still some distance between the ambush of Kusaka Genrui's army and the coalition soldiers, their ninja Tanma is always paying attention to the dynamics of the coalition soldiers, and in order to facilitate the transmission of information, Takasugi Shinsaku divides this group of ninjas into a section, once there is news, the message can be transmitted in a relay way, and the speed is also quite fast.

Therefore, after discovering that the coalition forces had suspended their advance due to rain and chose to camp on the spot, Takasugi Jinsaku immediately decided that he would no longer continue to wait at the ambush point, but would take the initiative to attack and conduct another night attack.

Regarding Takasugi Shinsaku's decision, Kusaka Genrui also agreed very much, because he also tasted this kind of night attack, and he also saw that the enemy was strong and I was weak, no. They simply have no chance of victory.

"Kusaka-kun!" Before attacking, Takasugi Shinsaku solemnly said to Kusaka Genrui, "This time, it should be our last blow, and no matter what the results of the battle are, and no matter how much our own losses are, we should retreat immediately and not fight again." ”

"Why?" Kusaka Xuanrui said, "Wasn't your previous tactic very good?" After this attack, in case they survived a relatively large number. We can still harass them with this tactic. ”

"No more." Takasugi Jinsaku sighed, "Our repeated harassment, they are tired, but we are also tired. You know, although we are in a wheel war, after all, they have no shortage of food, plus they can rest in shifts, and their recovery strength is stronger than us.

Also, according to the ninja's report. Even in the event of a sudden rainstorm, their team did not become chaotic, but immediately strengthened their vigilance, which showed that the team was quite high. To such troops. It's useless to play harassing tricks anymore, especially when they're so close to the port of Shimonoseki.

In other words, we don't have the energy to play harassment anymore. So this attack, our last.

In this battle, we must be determined that there is no way back. To fight bravely, killing is secondary, and the most important thing is to make them feel our unyielding faith!

Only when they fully understand our determination and courage, and understand that we must pay a heavy price to conquer us, can they make peace with us, become our friends, and deter the hungry wolves behind them.

Therefore, in this operation, the focus is on attacking the heart, and everything else is secondary. We must tell you that you must not be afraid of sacrifice, you must forge ahead, and if necessary, you must have the courage to die with the enemy. Only in this way will we be able to defend our homeland, defend Japan, and live up to our brave and immortal samurai ways! ”

"Well said." Kusaka Genrui nodded, "Focus on attacking the heart...... I understand. ”

Sure enough, after that, Kusaka Genrui polished Takasugi Jinsaku's remarks a little, and then said it with emotion, which really made the blood of his subordinates boil.

The Japanese of this era, especially the Japanese samurai, did not have high requirements for material life, and they pursued a kind of spiritual pleasure. So once you say that you are immortal, defend Japan, defend bushido, many of them eat this set.

Even if someone is greedy for life and afraid of death, in this collective atmosphere, they will be infected by others, and they will burst out with a short-term enthusiasm.

In this way, after the final mobilization, everyone, including the common people of the Strange Soldiers, also tied white cloth on their heads, and then continued to wear the dark blue night jacket covered with mud and blood, and quickly walked forward.

Because it was not far away, by the evening, their forward came into contact with the camp of the coalition forces.

After that, in order to avoid exposing themselves, they also decisively stopped advancing, and rested nearby to make the final preparations before the battle.

They waited and waited, quietly, for the last moment of attack.

On this night, although it did not rain, it was cloudy and the light was poor, and it was also a good day for a sneak attack.

At about three o'clock in the morning in the middle of the night, all the Shimonoseki garrisons gave orders by word of mouth, and then all gathered together, lit torches at the same time, and walked directly to the coalition camp.

It is not good not to walk without torches, after all, the sight is too poor, and if you do not walk at night with torches, it is easy to have problems.

Anyway, this operation was originally to show their spirit of not being afraid of death, and it was better to attack head-on than to continue to sneak attack.

The battle soon began, and although most of the coalition soldiers were quite tired, they still held on, so when they saw that the other side was attacking with torches, they immediately gathered their teams and got ready. Moreover, the commander also knew that the vision was not good tonight, and it was estimated that the power of the strong artillery would be greatly reduced, so he decisively asked people to put on bayonets and fire more torches, preparing to attack the opponent.

In the mid-nineteenth century, American soldiers were no more, but in the case of British lobster soldiers, it was officially at its peak. They may have some faults or another, but one thing is recognized, and that is that they have never been afraid of frontal combat, nor have they been afraid of white-knuckle combat.

In addition, another reason for the commander to order a direct hedge instead of a defensive retreat is that the morale of the coalition forces is already extremely low, and a white-knuckle battle is needed to boost morale, otherwise, continue like this. That's the real danger.

Soon, the sound of a snare drum sounded, and the allied soldiers, with the British as the vanguard, took the initiative to open the camp gate, and then faced the approaching Japanese troops, followed the snare drum formation, and waited until they could already see the expressions on each other's faces, that is, when they were less than fifty meters apart, they opened fire under the officer's order.

After a flurry of guns, the charging Japanese soldiers fell one after another. However, this group of Japanese troops was not afraid at all, the people in front fell, and the people behind continued to rush.

Finally, when the two sides were about 20 meters apart, the British soldiers in the first row decisively gave up the intention of reloading, all picked up their rifles with bayonets, followed the officers, roared angrily, and rushed forward directly with bayonets.

The collision of quantity or patience occurs quickly. In the first formation, the British had the advantage because of their long arms and long rifles with bayonets. In one fell swoop, the Japanese soldiers in the front row were stabbed.

However, when the two sides were completely mixed together, the slashing advantage of the katana was brought into play, and most of the people wielding the katana were samurai with exquisite swordsmanship, so they suddenly regained the upper hand.

I can become like this all at once. It's also related to Takasugi Shinsaku's little tricks.

Takasugi knew very well the combat skills of the British army, or the Western army, and knew that once the two armies charged each other. The first people to hit must have died heavily. It was precisely because he understood this that when he arranged the charge, the first batch of people were all ordinary people of the Odd Soldier Team, and the real elite samurai were all hidden in the fourth and fifth rows, in order to fight them closely.

Things turned out to be as Takasugi Jinsaku expected, the coalition forces directly killed the Japanese troops in the first three rows in several waves of guns, but at this point, the two sides were already very close, and they no longer had a chance to reload and shoot again.

At this time, the fourth platoon collided with the other party, which was also a bloody storm, and was quickly penetrated by the British army, however, the sacrifice of the fourth platoon also stopped the British army's charging momentum, giving the samurai in the fifth platoon a chance to quickly get close.

Once close, these samurai used their dexterity to their advantage, using skillful skill and razor-sharp bushido to kill the British soldiers.

However, this advantage is only for a moment, after all, the coalition forces are also in the overall charge process, the front is frustrated, and the people behind quickly make up for it, in such a dense formation, the space for maneuver is limited, and more importantly, it depends on your bravery and morale, it is to see who is more afraid of death and can withstand this bloody exchange ratio.

In terms of casualty bearing, don't look at the fact that the army of the Choshu Domain had won a big victory in front of it, and had done a lot of ideological mobilization, but after all, most of them were a rabble that had just been drafted, and they were forcibly twisted together by wealth and strict training, and compared with the British army, which had fine traditions and more rigorous training, there was still a certain gap.

Sure enough, in the process of such a cruel and ruthless white-knuckle hedge, the British soldiers continued to charge without changing their faces, but the army of the Choshu Domain became more and more powerless, and gradually went from excitement at the beginning, to hesitation, and finally to fear.

The reason is very simple, Takasugi Jinsaku's army has been established for too short a time, and most of the previous victories have relied on sneak attacks and self-anesthesia, and they have not seriously fought face-to-face with the Western regular army, so they subconsciously think that the Western army is strong in firearms, and it is really a white-knuckle battle, and it will definitely collapse in one fight.

Now, after they found out that the truth was different from what they thought, they immediately received a shock to their hearts, and in the face of this brutal fight suddenly, all the confidence they had built up before was slowly peeling away bit by bit.

After all, these people have been in the army for too short a time, and they have not experienced major setbacks. Country. Host. A soldier of the Imperial Army of the elite armor division of the Great Japanese Empire, armed with the idea of righteousness and bushido.

I don't know who turned around and fled first, but slowly, this rout became the wind, and more and more soldiers of the Odd Soldiers joined the ranks of the escape.

Seeing that the opposing front was shaking, the experienced British army decisively increased the pressure, and the American soldiers who were later in reserve were also sent out by Thomas, the commander-in-chief of this 4,000-strong force, and the addition of this new force became the straw that overwhelmed the defeat.

In the end, the new army, which had high hopes from Genrui Kusaka and Shinsaku Takasugi, could not withstand the pressure of the other party and began to break up in a comprehensive manner, not achieving the goal of Takasugi Shinsaku to deter the enemy, but making others tremble.

However, what Takasugi Jinsaku didn't expect was that although they lost the battle, they did have a great impact on the coalition soldiers and caused them considerable casualties.

This encounter, because the location of the outbreak is still in the suburbs of Shimonoseki, and it is closely connected with the previous Shimonoseki Port sneak attack battle, so although it is two battles, it is also counted as the second stage of the Shimonoseki battle.

That is, after these two battles, the coalition soldiers no longer dared to underestimate the army of the Choshu Domain, coupled with the previous sneak attack on Shimonoseki Port, especially after confirming the fact that the commander-in-chief Augustus was killed, the British, American, French, and Dutch allied forces finally admitted and took the initiative to withdraw from the ranks of the intervention army.

All in all, Takasugi Shinsaku used his strength to block the intervention and aggression of the Four-Nation Alliance, at least part of the purpose of the rebellion was achieved, and it also shook the hearts of the military and the people of the whole of Japan, and set off a wave of upsurge in the whole of Japan.

It's just that what Takasugi Jinsaku didn't expect was that after their successful battle this time, although he and Kusaka Genrui were both famous, and the four-nation alliance did not dare to come and move troops lightly, it did not really bring peace and tranquility to the Choshu Domain, but instead attracted a more powerful enemy in advance - the Japanese army of the Chinese Empire! (To be continued......)