Three days passed in a flash, and soon it was time to officially set out on the expedition.

Although three days is far from enough time to master a new tactic, the new tactic of the wave attack method is just a plan, and even if this method is not used, it is believed that with the equipment of the expeditionary force and the help of the task force, it will not be difficult to take the Satsuma Domain.

The reason is very simple, the disparity in strength between the two sides is too great, especially the gap in equipment, which is not at all a grade, which allows the expeditionary force to have more ways to deal with it.

As soon as the expeditionary forces boarded the ships, the task force set off, but its primary target was not Kagoshima Castle in the Satsuma Domain, but Tanegashima.

At the beginning, the crusading army was indeed thinking of undeclared war, that is, directly raiding Kagoshima Castle in Satsuma.

This plan is not bad, although it is necessary to bypass Tanegashima, but Tanegashima has no strength in the first place, there is no threat at all, the essence of the Satsuma Domain is in Kagoshima Castle, and if Kagoshima is defeated, the Satsuma Domain will be finished, and Tanegashima will naturally surrender.

Moreover, if you don't hit Tanegashima and directly hit Kagoshima, you can achieve the suddenness of the battle, and if you hit Tanegashima first, it may leak news.

Because of these benefits, coupled with the advantage of strength, the initial plan was to start from Kaohsiung and go straight to Kagoshima Castle.

However, Shi Dakai later discussed with Tang Hailong, saying that although this method is good, it still has a certain degree of danger, and he is not worried about anything else, but he is afraid that if the enemy resists fiercely, the battle is stalemate, or there is a typhoon or something, it will be troublesome.

You must know that they all knew about the two expeditions of the Yuan Dynasty army to Japan, and naturally they also paid more attention to the typhoon weather in Japan. For now, there are no signs of a typhoon in the sea near Satsuma, but there are often no signs of such incidents, so it is important to take precautions.

So. For the sake of safety, Shi Dakai built a battle for Tanegashima first, and then Kagoshima Castle after taking Tanegashima.

The advantage of this is that Tanegashima is basically unsafe to defend and easy to take, and this island is very close to Kagoshima, so in case the war in Kagoshima is stalemate, it will also give everyone more peace of mind if Tanegashima is in a backup situation. Not to mention playing Tanegashima in advance, it can also allow everyone to practice their hands first.

As for leaking information, as long as the action is fast enough, it is actually nothing, the Japanese do not have a radio, and the communication between the islands basically depends on ships, as long as the blockade is good and the action is fast enough, there is basically no problem.

Other than that. Shi Dakai also said that in a mountainous area like Kagoshima (they have a complete topographic map), even if it is a raid, the effect will not be too obvious. After all, this is a siege, not a field battle.

Therefore, a surprise attack can only allow the opponent to minimize the resistance and make it too late for the opponent to mobilize. But war, there will inevitably be accidents, especially when you have a greater advantage. It is even more prudent to be cautious, it is better to have a nearby island as a bridgehead than to fight in one go.

Tang Hailong also agrees with Shi Dakai's construction, in fact, as a pirate, he originally liked to hide a hand, and he also thought about hitting Tanegashima first, but this was a plan formulated by the original General Staff, so he couldn't say anything.

Now seeing that Shi Dakai also said this, especially even the commissioner Li Hongzhang agreed to do this, which gave Tang Hailong more confidence, so he changed his plan and hit Tanegashima first.

Since it does not represent the Chinese Empire, the flag of the entire task force is only the company flag of the Eastern Bloc, that is, the Golden Moon Flag.

The prototype of the golden moon season on the banner of the golden moon season is the Rhine gold planted by the big flower perfume moon season.

This kind of Rhine Golden Moon Season was cultivated in 1982 in another time and space, the overall golden yellow, with bright color, strong disease resistance and many other advantages, is one of the modern Moon Season varieties introduced by Li Yongji from modern times, and is also a variety that is quite popular in the upper class society of the Chinese Empire at present.

The reason why this month is chosen as the banner of the Eastern Bloc is because the moon season is from China, and it is easy for Westerners to recognize, and gold represents wealth, and the thorn of the moon season shows that the company is not easy to mess with, anyway, it is very pleasing to the East and the West, unlike plum blossoms, although the Easterners like it, but the Westerners are relatively not very fond of it.

Tanegashima's current head of the family is Tanegashima Hisasho, but he is still young, only eight years old, so in fact, Tanegashima's government affairs are in charge of his adoptive grandmother, Matsujuin.

Matsujuin is an old woman in her sixties, although she is not confused, and she has rich experience in governance, but unfortunately the fiefdom of Tanegashima is too small and she can't do much business.

In other words, Matsujuin is not bad in internal affairs, and she is a lord of peace, but if she faces a crisis, she will inevitably have some shortcomings.

Therefore, when she heard that a large number of black ships suddenly appeared on the sea, she just pretended to be calm and made people feel less restless, and waited for the other party to fire directly before she hurriedly organized people to counterattack.

The so-called counterattack of Matsujuin was not to let people hold the city, but to send troops out of the city to counterattack and resist the enemy on the beach.

Her idea is good, after all, in her mind, the other party is outnumbered, the artillery is sharp, and it can hit her own city so far away in the sea, and the power is amazing, and it will blow up the city wall in one fell swoop, so defending in the city is looking for death.

The only way to do this was to take the initiative and let the soldiers go out of the city, scatter on the beach, and make contact with the landing enemy as much as possible to engage in cold weapon combat, so as to reduce the power of the enemy's artillery fire.

She had lived by the sea for a long time and knew the difficulty of landing from the sea, so she felt that it was wiser to let the troops stop the other party from landing on land, which was much better than letting the other side advance under the city.

However, she underestimated the power of the other party's artillery, not knowing that other people's artillery not only has a large number and power, but also has a large number of flowering high-explosive-* shells.

The shelling that Matsushouin saw earlier was just a solid calibration projectile, not a high-explosive shell, so she formed an illusion that the opponent's artillery was fierce, but the firing rate was slow.

Therefore, when the samurai of the Tanegashima clan led the so-called family soldiers, armed with a pile of bits and pieces such as swords, spears, bows, arrows, muskets, etc., and roared, the first thing they faced was not the army that was preparing to land. Rather, it was an indiscriminate bombardment of naval guns.

This time, the naval guns were not just a matter of firing a few shells, but of playing with a platoon of artillery, using flowering-explosive-explosive-explosive shells.

Now it was going to be fatal, there was no shelter on the beach, and before the attacking soldiers could meet the enemy, they were whistled by the bombed ghosts and wolves, and quickly retreated, and the samurai who shed down did not work to stop them, and even the samurai who stayed behind became the focus of greeting. It was soon buried in an explosion.

Tang Hailong is now on his flagship Pingyuan, quietly observing this qiē through the guò high-powered binoculars, and after seeing a qiē shun lì, the corners of his mouth still involuntarily turned up slightly.

For the kind of ironclad ships with a displacement of 2,000 tons, they are collectively referred to as Yuanzi-class warships, such as Zhenyuan, Dingyuan, and so on of the First Fleet of the Navy.

The five ships of the task force were called Pingyuan, Zhiyuan, Zhengyuan, Qiuyuan, and Fayuan. The displacement is more than two thousand tons. Although the power is far inferior to the modernized Zhenyuan, it is still not much different from ships such as Dingyuan.

The Pingyuan is the largest displacement of the five Yuanzi-class warships in the task force, with a tonnage of 2,300 tons, although it is not much different from the other four ships in terms of weapons. But relatively speaking, it is the most stable and the most durable, so it has become a flagship.

When Tang Hai Longtong Guò high-powered binoculars looked again and again, he found that there was no problem on the beach. He put down the telescope and nodded to Shi Dakai, who had also just put down the telescope next to him, indicating that he could land.

Seeing Tang Hailong nodding. Shi Da smiled, then picked up the wireless telegraph and gave the attack order directly to the regimental headquarters of the second regiment.

After Shi Dakai's order was passed on, the regimental headquarters of the second regiment, which received the first wave of attack tasks, began to fire a red signal flare and issued a general attack order, asking the attack teams below to carry out landing attacks in turn according to the plan.

In terms of landing, most of the boats used by the landing force were small flat-bottomed sand boats, each of which could fit just one company of troops, and then these sand boats would rush forward by rocking the oars until they ran aground on the beach, and then the soldiers jumped off the boats and stepped on the sand to attack.

As for some boats that ran aground because they were blocked by the reef before they could reach the beach, the troops rushed directly to the shore in kayaks, with five people per kayak. This is slow, but it is much better to keep the weapon out of the water than to let the soldier dive directly.

In fact, although the process of looting the stall is the most dangerous, unless the other side has powerful firearms, even if those soldiers are not dispersed in advance, it is simply a dream to stop these landing troops with bows, arrows, spears and some front-loading firearms.

Not to mention that there are two machine guns in front of every sand boat, it is not a joke to talk about the platoon guns of the soldiers on board.

In short, because the weapon gap is too large, it is useless for the guard troops of Tanegashima to play.

Soon, Chen Yucheng's second regiment landed on the beach without any danger, and then Chen Yucheng's troops defended first, and received the third regiment ashore, and then the second regiment continued to defend on the seashore, and the characters attacking Tanegashima City were handed over to Peng Yulin's third regiment.

This is not entirely because the second regiment is relatively tired, but also because of the distribution of credit, after all, the success of the stall grabbing is originally a great credit, if even the siege of the city belongs to the second regiment, then the people of the third regiment will definitely not do it.

So, in order to balance the interests, the characters who attacked Tanegashima Castle were given to the third regiment.

Peng Yulin was also ambitious, to fight a beautiful battle, who knew that just led the troops into the attack position, before he could call for artillery support in the rear, he saw a white flag raised over the opponent's city, indicating that the other party had surrendered.

It's true that he surrendered, Matsujuin was old, and he didn't have the ambition of a young man, and he didn't have the spirit of seeing death as home, so when he saw that he couldn't do anything, he decisively chose to surrender in order to save the Tanegashima family, even if she didn't know who this group of people was until now.

Although I don't know who the expeditionary force is, there is one thing that Matsujuin can be sure of, that is, these people are definitely not pirates, they must be regular soldiers, otherwise they would not have such strong discipline and combat power.

Therefore, if it is a pirate, she may still fight, but if it is a regular army, as long as she surrenders early, she will not be too embarrassed.

In fact, she guessed correctly, seeing that the other party surrendered so quickly, Shi Dakai didn't embarrass her too much. After leading the troops into the city and accepting the surrender of the other party, he explained to the old lady who led her adopted grandson and told her not to be afraid.

This is the benefit of cultivation, no matter how scared the old lady of Songshouyuan is, she still has a calm look on the surface, which has aroused the favor of Shi Dakai and others, so she has given them so much preferential treatment.

This is Shi Dakai and Li Hongzhang and others, if Li Yongji were here, he would definitely not be so confused. Otherwise, the etiquette stuff in Japan is really deceptive.

Although he sighed at the reasonableness and high cultivation of one party and the other party, Shi Dakai, Li Hongzhang and others are all political figures after all, and their hearts are like iron stones, so they give preferential treatment to the Tanegashima family, but what should they do.

In order to ensure the safety of Tanegashima, Shi Dakai asked all the guards of the Tanegashima family to be disarmed and centralized, and the head of the family, Tanegashima Tanejima Hisashi and others, were all placed under house arrest in Tanegashima Castle. Then a battalion was left to guard Tanegashima, and the rest of the troops were re-aboarded.

In other words, it took less than a morning to attack Tanegashima, and then in the afternoon the large force re-boarded the ship and set off. Straight to Kagoshima Castle, a soldier came quickly.

The reason for this is also because Shi Dakai found that the combat intensity of attacking Tanegashima was very low. Most of the soldiers did not accumulate much fatigue.

On the contrary, in the process of attacking Tanegashima, they also experienced the test of actual combat. Although it may not be much more difficult than the usual exercises, psychologically, it makes everyone more relaxed, and I feel that the Japanese are just like that.

Although this is suspected of underestimating the enemy, as long as it is properly guided, it can make everyone more free and give full play to their strength, and the morale is very obvious.

That's right, the combat of modern troops is still the first priority, and the role of morale is actually to see how much Cheng dù can exert its own strength.

The so-called morale is a positive emotion, which can override negative emotions such as fear, frustration, and exhaustion.

The higher the morale and the more positive feelings, the more morale the soldiers can have, they can let go of their hands and feet, they will be more offensive and proactive, and they will be able to give full play to their strength. On the other hand, a demoralized army, no matter how well equipped, will not be able to fully exert its strength, and will be defeated by an enemy with poor weapons and equipment.

There are many ways to boost morale, but none can boost morale more than a victory, even if it's a small victory.

This is the case now, after the expeditionary force won a victory at Tanegashima, the hidden competition and contradictions within the original were bridged, and they became more united, more eager to fight, and no longer as worried as before.

In this way, taking advantage of the high morale of our troops and the fact that the enemy was not aware of the attack, the task force immediately set out with the main force of the expeditionary force, and arrived outside the mountain and river port on the outskirts of Kagoshima Bay at three o'clock in the morning of the next day.

Yamakawa Port is located in Ijuku-gun, the southernmost part of Kagoshima Bay, and is the gateway to Kagoshima Bay and Kagoshima Port. In the past, it was a famous trading port, but it was gradually abandoned after the rise of Kagoshima Port.

However, it is a rather important strategic hub, and if you place a fort, you can control the entire Kagoshima Bay.

However, it is a pity that the strength of the Satsuma Domain is limited, and there are no batteries or heavy troops here, so the task force did not open fire, and took advantage of the night to easily take this place with the strength of a battalion.

After taking this place, the large force of the expeditionary force rested in Shanchuan Harbor, and also arranged a company of artillery positions on the commanding heights here.

This artillery company was equipped with Hua 2 field guns, with a maximum range of 6,000 meters, which was enough to block the entrance to Kagoshima Bay, which was equivalent to closing the gate of Kagoshima Bay and leaving plenty of back roads for the troops.

After arranging the artillery position, the task force left all the transport ships and supply ships behind, and let these ships enter the mountain and river bay to anchor, and as for the five Yuanzi-class battleships, they lit fire and anchored and killed Kagoshima Castle directly.

The reason for this was simple: to select the most combat-ready warships individually, first go to Kagoshima Port to carry out the artillery mission, first break through the coastal fleet and coastal batteries of Kagoshima Castle, and then notify the landing force in the rear to carry out the landing operation.

In this way, you can use combat power more flexibly, so that the battleship can completely let go of its hands and feet, after all, most of the troops are troop carriers, and the combat power is limited, and if you follow it, it will only increase the chaos.

In a word. After leaving aside the army and logistics fleet, the five Yuanzi-class battleships seemed to be beasts that had let go of the reins, and their passion was completely ignited, and the white sailors on the ship, who were used to playing pirates, screamed and began to light the anchor with a hundredfold enthusiasm and kill Kagoshima.

At 5:35 a.m., the five Yuanzi-class warships of the task force arrived 5,000 meters outside the port of Kagoshima, and then, in order to improve the accuracy of the shelling, they directly stopped the ship and lowered the anchor, and turned sideways to face the port.

The port of Kagoshima at this time. You can still see the fire, which is normal, after all, this is a port, and a lighthouse is a must.

At 5:55 a.m., five battleships lined up, and then, under Tang Hailong's order, the first shot was fired at the coastal defense battery in Kagoshima Port, starting with the Pingyuan, which was the first to be fired.

Immediately afterward, the roar continued. Five ships, one hundred and fifty guns, fired in an orderly manner one after another, and filled the explosives with high explosives. 18 kg of 120 mm heavy artillery shells were constantly projected.

Among them, there are not only a large number of high-explosive bombs that destroy fortifications, but also a lot of solidified gasoline and oil bombs that cause fires, so they are very fast. A fire erupted in the distant harbor, driving away the pre-dawn darkness in advance.

The worst thing is that there are still many ships moored in the port. Most of them were fishing boats, but there were also a few Japanese steam warships, and these ships anchored in the harbor were also tragically attacked by pond fish, and suffered heavy losses.

Fortunately, there were no foreign ships here, so only the Japanese were to lose.

The reason for this was that the current lord of the Satsuma Domain was not friendly to foreigners, so the port of Kagoshima only allowed Japanese merchant ships to dock, and foreign merchant ships were not allowed to enter.

The fire burned brightly, illuminating the entire port of Kagoshima, which made the aiming of the attacking fleet more accurate, and the artillery fire was fired one after another.

This time, because they could see more clearly, the five ships immediately divided the work after a simple radio communication with Guò.

In short, two ships continued to shell the coastal batteries to clear the battery's fire, while the other three focused on attacking the moored ships, especially the steamers with large chimneys.

As early as the Shimazu Saibin era, the Satsuma clan began Westernization reforms, establishing not only a Western-style army, but also a navy and a number of industries.

Therefore, in Japan at this time, if you want to say that the navy is the strongest, it must be the Satsuma Domain, in the later period of the reign of Shimazu Saibin, purely in terms of the strength at this time, the Satsuma Domain is also considered to be strong, and it already has the strength to compete with the shogunate alone.

Unfortunately, after the death of Shimazu Saibin, the Shimazu family fell into civil strife, and in the end, Shimazu Tadashi, that is, Shimazu Hisamitsu, gained power, but in order to consolidate power, the original reforms of Shimazu Saibin were largely stopped.

For example, in order to save money, Shimazu Hisamitsu did not continue to increase the number of steam warships, but continued to strengthen the construction of the army, and had the intention of leading troops into the shogunate, overthrowing the shogunate, and replacing it himself.

Of course, I can't help Shimazu Hisamitsu think so, after all, after Shimazu Saibin's determined reform, the Satsuma Domain is already the strongest domain at this time, and there is no one, given time, it does have the strength to independently wrestle with the shogunate.

In history, the strength of the Satsuma Domain during this period was quite strong, and other Choshu Domains, etc., could not be compared with the Satsuma Domain for the time being, but because of Shimazu Hisamitsu's arrogance, he was single-minded, offended the British, and the Anglo-Saxon War broke out.

After that, after realizing the gap with the foreign powers, he knew that he could not achieve it in the short term, so Shimazu Hisamitsu focused on the combination of public and military forces, and never played again.

It cannot be said that Shimazu Hisamitsu's practice of attaching importance to the army and despising the navy is wrong, after all, the overall scale of the Satsuma Domain is limited, and even if he goes all out to develop the navy, he is actually not an opponent of the great powers, but in any case, his idea of paying attention to the army has led to a shortage of naval funds.

Due to the lack of money in the navy, not only did it not launch new ships, but even the number of shore defense guns did not increase, and they were all old-fashioned front-loading guns, using black-color-fire-powder, and the firing range was only two or three thousand meters, which was only half of the Hua-3 naval guns on the Pingyuan battleship, and most of them were solid shells, and their power was even more incomparable.

Originally, there were few ships, but now they were secretly coming over and blocking the door and beating them up, and it took time for the steam warships to act, and during the fire, the three battleships of the task force that were specifically aimed at warships had already fired seven or eight rounds of artillery bombardment with breech-loading guns.

Three ships, a total of ninety guns, according to seven rounds of fire, that's at least six hundred and thirty shells!

This is already quite a terrifying number of shelling, coupled with the fact that the ship has advanced modern artillery aiming equipment, such as laser rangefinders, fire control computers, etc., which makes the shelling more accurate.

Therefore, before the steam warships of the Satsuma Domain Navy could finish their fire, several warships anchored in Kagoshima Port were completely destroyed and sunk one by one by three warships of the task force using concentrated fire.

When the mobile fleet was destroyed and the sun had risen, the Satsuma Domain, which had lost its fleet, was like a paralyzed patient who had lost his hands and feet. (To be continued......)