After listening to Shi Dakai's words, Sheng Haizhou persuaded a few more words, and found that the other party was resolute, so he sighed secretly, and stopped insisting.

In fact, the real purpose of Katsukaishu's choice of the strategy of luring the enemy to attack was to protect Edo Castle as much as possible and make Edo Castle less ravaged by war.

Because of the long-term contact with Tongguò, Katsu Haizhou knew very well how strong the expeditionary force was, especially because he was very afraid of their firearms, and knew that once they let go of attacking Edo Castle, they would not be able to defend it at all with the defense of Edo Castle, and when the time came, once they were attacked into the city, it would only be the people of Edo Castle who would suffer.

Knowing this, he hoped to lure the shogunate's army to attack, so that as long as the main force of the other side was defeated, and then he could retake Edo and release the shogun by negotiation, which should be the best solution.

However, Sheng Haizhou also knew that this kind of thing could only be said to be his own wishful thinking, and this army was nominally a rebel army under his command, but the real core was the expeditionary force composed of Chinese.

Without the help of the expeditionary force, it would be difficult to fight against the shogunate controlled by Minoru Sanjo with only the troops and horses under the command of Katsukaishu himself, for the simple reason that the name is not justified.

Katsukaishu was not a feudal lord, he was trusted by Tokugawa Ieshige because of his talent, and then because of his trust, he was able to command the shogunate's 5,000 soldiers and horses.

In other words, most of his soldiers and horses were from Edo Castle, and many of them were samurai of the shogunate, and the reason why he followed Katsukaishu to the Choshu Domain was to participate in a victorious war and add a little prestige to the shogunate's victory.

Therefore, Sheng Haizhou's control over his subordinates is not strong, if it is really his descendant, then if he wants to rebel, he does not need to rely on outsiders at all.

Now it's different, he can't lead his troops to face the general, or rather. He felt that the general had been accused, but the people below might not think so, not necessarily that the general was under house arrest, but only that he was going to rebel.

It was precisely because of this that he thought of borrowing troops, and except for one or two henchmen, he didn't tell anyone else about this intention, and he went to Li Hongzhang to discuss it in person overnight.

The reason why this is necessary is because Sheng Haizhou's biggest purpose is to trick his subordinates into getting on the thief ship, so that they can follow him to crusade against the rebellion when there is no way out. If he had known to his subordinates that he wanted to return to Edo, it would have been impossible to succeed if he had obtained supreme power.

Specifically, after Sheng Haizhou quietly agreed with Li Hongzhang, he then tricked his 5,000 men and horses onto the ship according to the agreement to join the task force at sea, but he did not say that he would go to Yokohama, but said that he would continue to fight the Changzhou Domain.

After meeting up with the task forces. Those subordinates did not notice anything wrong, after all, they had said at the beginning that fighting the Changzhou clan was a multinational cooperation, of which the Chinese and foreigners were the main force. They just follow the past and show the zài.

Sheng Haizhou's subordinates are all army troops, and when they get on the ship, they can't tell the direction at all, and it's not where the ship will take them. They're going wherever they go.

After arriving in Yokohama, they were also caught in the middle and back, and they were not the first to attack. Rather, it was an expeditionary force.

After the expeditionary force took Yokohama and they were driven off the ship, they found out what happened, but at this time they also had a hard time, because no one believed that they were unaware, and only thought that they had rebelled with Katsukaizhou.

At that time, they were still apprehensive, even if they heard that there was an expeditionary force to help, but when they defeated Kanagawa, the two successive victories finally gave them a little more morale and a little higher expectations for the future.

Just as Sheng Haizhou fooled them, as long as they defeat the traitors who hold the general hostage, they will be heroes, and when the time comes, they will be rewarded for their merits, and the benefits will be great.

However, although those subordinates were appointed, Sheng Haizhou knew that the reason why those 5,000 people seemed to be very obedient now, in addition to being forced to be helpless and lured, there was also the biggest reason for the expeditionary force.

It is precisely because of the threat of the expeditionary force next to it that this force does not dare to mess around, and if there is no expeditionary force on the side, the result is not easy to say.

After understanding this, he has always been very polite to the expeditionary force, so now that he found out that Shi Dakai decided to fight Edo directly, he no longer insisted on his opinion, but he did not agree to let Shi Dakai lead the expeditionary force to fight alone, but to march together.

To put it bluntly, it was Sheng Haizhou who didn't dare to leave the expeditionary force now, he was afraid that the expeditionary force on the front foot would leave, and those subordinates on the back foot would give him a military mutiny, and when the time came, it would be all over.

Finding that Sheng Haizhou agreed with his opinion, Shi Dakai didn't say anything more, and after discussing the dispatch of troops early tomorrow morning, he quickly left.

After sending Shi Dakai away, Sheng Haizhou returned to his seat, staring at the map for a moment, then shaking his head and sighing deeply.

"Your Excellency." At this moment, a young samurai suddenly spoke, "It's dark night, please rest early." ”

"Oh?" Katsu Kaishu reacted immediately, and turned his head to look at the young samurai, who was none other than his clerk, Keisuke Otori.

Keisuke Otori is in Japan in another time and space, but he is a big celebrity, known as Japan's important minister in troubled times, a capable minister of governing the world, and a rare all-round talent.

In this time and space, his ability is quite powerful, he knows Western studies very well, and he is also appreciated by Katsu Haizhou, and he was soon promoted from the shogunate to be his own flag samurai, in fact, he is his own secretary and clerk, and he is also his own confidant.

Seeing that it was Keisuke Otori, Katsu Haizhou smiled slightly: "It's Keisuke, hehe, I'm really sorry for letting you see the joke." Well, do you think I'm a traitor to the shogunate for my own selfishness? ”

"Where." The samurai bowed, "I don't know about the rest, I just see that the adults are working hard for Japan." ”

"Oh?" Sheng Haizhou's eyes widened, and then said lightly, "Why do you think so?" Don't you know what the people below say about me? They all said that I was a traitor to the shogunate, a traitor who brought Chinese in...... Why do you say that I'm working hard for Japan? ”

"Because they don't know the painstaking work of adults." Keisuke Otori said, "They're just a bunch of narrow-minded frogs at the bottom of a well, who can only be angry, but they don't know what to shoot if anger is useful?" This era has changed, and it is not enough to only do it brutally, only to take advantage of the situation. In order to save Japan, I don't think anyone can compare with adults in this regard. ”

"Huh." Sheng Haizhou smiled and didn't explain anything in detail, but suddenly waved his hand, "Okay, I'm okay here, you go down and rest." ”

"Adult ......"

"I'm really fine." Sheng Haizhou shook his head, "Go down and rest, I have to hurry tomorrow morning." Keeping your spirit good is more important than anything else. ”

"Yes, I see." Keisuke Otori bowed deeply again, "Please take care of your lords, too." ”

After saying that, Keisuke Otori slowly withdrew, leaving Katsu Kaishu alone in the house.

"Situational? That's easier said than done. Sheng Haizhou shook his head again, "What a problem, I can't help it, if I have a choice, how can I choose this path." ”

Truly. Sheng Haizhou had never thought about rebellion before, nor did he think about seizing power through a military coup. It should be said that at this time, Sheng Haizhou, although he also has a desire for power. But it was not strong enough to do anything to achieve this, and in his opinion, with the current situation of the shogunate, unity came first.

Other than that. Although the general is good to him, he also does not have that kind of foolish loyalty, that is. He doesn't really care who becomes a general, what he cares about is whether the new ruler's policies are his own mind.

Just like many upper-class intellectuals in Japan who were worried about the country and the people at this time, Katsu Haizhou also discovered Japan's crisis early and looked for a solution very early, and at the same time believed that only his own method was correct and could really help Japan resolve the crisis and embark on the road of prosperity and strength.

There were many factions in the shogunate at this time, but to put it simply, there were two main factions, one was conservative and the other was obedient.

Conservatives are generally very close to the Conservatives, and although they advocate being tough on foreigners, they are actually in favor of the founding of the country, and do not approve of closing the country to the outside world. The main reason why this faction is called conservatives is that they only agree to do business with foreigners and conduct economic dealings, but they do not approve of changing the original political system.

The other faction of deference refers to being gentle with foreigners, not to conflict with foreigners too early, and to exchange their own market for new technologies and new systems from foreigners, and then slowly reform.

Sheng Haizhou is actually a person of the Zun faction, he advocates cooperating with foreigners, and then lying on his back, first changing his political system, changing the law to become strong, and then resisting foreign aggression.

In other words, Katsu Haizhou believes that with the current situation in Japan, it should not fight hard with foreigners, especially with Chinese, but should lower its posture and humbly seek advice, even if it will suffer losses, as long as it can preserve its vitality and maintain a unified and complete Japan, there will be no chance of rising in the future.

However, the person in power after the coup d'état, Minoru Sanjo, was not such a person, and he actually asked Katsukaishu to change the route of the army, and instead of conquest of the Choshu Domain with the Chinese and foreigners, he asked them to attack the Chinese and retake Osaka!

Just kidding, doesn't Shenghaizhou hate the aggression of the Chinese? Why did he lower his posture and be so tolerant? Isn't it because you can't beat it? Knowing that you can't beat it, knowing that the other party is strong, and knowing that you are a weak person, then why don't you quickly find a way to pretend to be a grandson and preserve your strength? Attract the other party's suppression?

That is to say, the coup itself is not Katsu Haizhou's concern, the main reason why he made up his mind to return to the division immediately is that he understands one thing, that is, the group of guys who succeeded in the coup d'état are crazy people with unclear heads, once they let them hold the shogunate power for a long time, they will definitely do something more irrational, once the war with the Chinese or Westerners starts, then what awaits Japan is the catastrophe.

It was with this idea that he came up with the idea of returning to Edo and taking power himself. Because in his opinion, since it is too unreliable for others to take power, and there is a danger of bringing Japan to the fire pit, it is better to let himself be in power, even if it is called a rebellion.

In short, just when Katsu Haizhou was determined to seize power, he gave up his reserve and dignity just to be able to achieve his goal of saving Japan.

And for this purpose, he simply invited the Chinese army, and even the troops under his own command were deceived together, creating a large army to crusade against the rebels.

"Forget it, right and wrong, leave it to future generations to say, just ask for a clear conscience." After saying this, Sheng Haizhou slowly closed his eyes.

Early the next morning, the well-prepared joint rebel army set off again. Heading east along the official road, the goal is Edo Castle.

The 5,000 people of Shenghaizhou, plus Shi Dakai's more than 5,000 crusading troops, add up to more than 10,000 people, and in terms of numbers alone, Japan at this time is also a large army.

Such an army rushed to Edo Castle under the banner of rebellion, and even if Edo Castle was slow to react, it sensed the mistake in time and reacted quickly.

Soon, the shogunate declared Katsukaishu a rebel. At the same time, Edo Castle urgently raised a large army of 12,000 men, led by Matsudaira Yoshinaga, and did not leave the city, but only asked to defend it to the death to resist the rebel army of Katsukaishu.

Minori Sanjo's method is simple, that is, to rely on the defense of Edo Castle to defend against the opponent's attack. Then, using the authority of the shogunate, he called on the other feudal kings to come together to defeat Katsukaishu.

It can also be seen from this that Minoru Sanjo is not a reckless man with a tendon. Knowing the affairs of the Chinese, knowing that they could not resist in a field battle, they decided to defend with all their might.

It is precisely because the opponent is bent on defending that there is no obstacle to the joint rebel army along the way. And because Shi Dakai accelerated the speed of the march, it only took five days for the whole army to rush to the foot of Edo Castle.

After the whole army arrived at Edo Castle. Shi Dakai took a breath of cool air, he didn't expect that Japan also had such a majestic city, because the city in front of him was not inferior to China's big cities in terms of scale and construction methods, and it was far from the small Japanese cities he had seen before.

This is also the case, since Edo Castle was built on a large scale from the 11th year of Keicho to the 13th year of Kanei (1636), and it took a lot of manpower and material resources to build Edo Castle, which was the largest castle in Japan until at least 1862.

At this time, Edo Castle was about 5.5 kilometers from east to west and 4 kilometers from north to south, and was surrounded by inner and outer moats, of which the circumference of the outer moat alone was more than 16 kilometers, and the circumference of the inner moat was more than 10 kilometers.

In addition to the outer moat and the inner moat, Edo Castle has two castle outlines, all of which are made of masonry and are exceptionally strong. There are 20 castle towers and 36 gates in the castle, as well as palaces such as Honmaru, Ninomaru, Sannomaru, and Nishinomaru. These palaces are interdependent with the watchtowers of the city walls, and it can be said that there are no dead ends.

Although Edo Castle was not a Western-style fortress, it was built for the purpose of war, and in terms of defensive capabilities, it was not inferior to the Chinese city of Nanjing at that time, and even in some cases, such as the stepped defense, it was stronger than the defense of Nanjing Castle.

With such a large scale and strong walls, even if it was an expeditionary force, unless it was attacked by a strong attack regardless of casualties, it would be absolutely unrealistic to expect to rely on the firepower of those Hua Type 2 field guns to win easily in a short time.

"I can't think of it." Shi Da, who had carefully observed Edo Castle, opened his binoculars, shook his head and exclaimed, "I didn't expect Japan to have such a majestic castle." ”

"Of course." Katsu Haizhou, who was standing on the side, smiled slightly, "After all, Edo Castle is the residence of the general and the center of all of Japan, although I dare not compare with the country, but it will not be too bad." ”

"Then it's troublesome." Shi Dakai frowned and said, "This city is easy to defend and difficult to attack, if the other party has been unable to retreat, it will not be easy to defeat it." ”

"yes." Sheng Haizhou said, "That's why I said not to attack, but to adopt a plan to lure the enemy into the field and fight with the enemy, but since it has reached this point, it is probably quite difficult to lure the other party out to fight with us in the field." ”

"Do you have anything to build?" Shi Dakai suddenly asked, "Since you have lived in Edo, you should know how to take this city quickly, right?" ”

"To be honest, if you insist on attacking, I can't think of any other way than to attack." Sheng Haizhou shook his head, "As you can see, there are almost no dead spots in this city, and a sneak attack is impossible, so you can only storm or besiege it head-on. If we attack, we seem to have fewer people, and it is said that there are more than 10,000 defenders inside, even if the combat effectiveness is not strong, but it should be enough to face us.

You must know that attacking such a city, without 100,000 people, there is absolutely no hope of attacking it head-on, at least in the short term, it is impossible to take it, you can only besiege it first, and then take it slowly, waiting for the opportunity. ”

"Siege? Take it easy? I don't know about this method. Shi Dakai frowned slightly, "Isn't there a better way?" ”

"Actually......" Sheng Haizhou thought for a moment, "Actually, we can set up camp here and confront them." The purpose is naturally to encircle the point and send reinforcements and attack their reinforcements. As long as we defeat their reinforcements in field battles in a row. It always has an impact on their morale.

When they understand that reinforcements are useless, and that they can't defeat us in the field, and that they will die sooner or later trapped inside, they will naturally be able to surrender to us. ”

"Isn't that still a siege?" Shi Dakai shook his head, "If you want to use your method, how much time will it take?" Half a year or a year? You can afford to wait, but I can't afford to wait. ”

"But you've seen it too." Sheng Haizhou said, "If you attack by force, it's really not a way, do you plan to fill it with human lives?" ”

"Human life? Not really. We imperial soldiers do not pay attention to the use of human lives to fight for the future. Shi Dakai said as he carefully looked at the map in his hand, "Well, I have another way." ”

"Something else? What else can you do? Sheng Haizhou asked.

"Don't worry," Shi Dakai smiled coldly, "The day after tomorrow at the latest, you will know what my method is." ”

Hearing Shi Dakai say this, Sheng Haizhou asked again, but he never got a reply. had to give up and wait for the so-called method the day after tomorrow, who knew that he didn't wait for the day after tomorrow, and he waited for Shi Dakai's method the next day.

Shi Dakai's so-called method of dealing with Edo Castle was simple. That's shelling, but not with their field guns, but with naval guns!

It turned out that when Shi Dakai looked at the map. Suddenly, he found that Edo Castle seemed to be near the sea, and then he asked a few locals, and then he learned that Edo Castle still had a port. It was close to Edo Bay, and as long as the battleships drove in, the range of the main guns of the Heito would be enough to fight from Edo Port to Edo Castle.

The power of naval guns is incomparable to that of field guns, and the task force also has a longitudinal . Fire. Although most of the castle walls of Edo Castle are made of brick and stone, there are also many wooden buildings, especially in the castle, where the houses are basically wooden, so if you set fire to Kagoshima like the one you did in Kagoshima, it is estimated that the effect will be good.

Although in this way, their army may have nothing to do, but it doesn't matter, in Shi Dakai's view, the key is how to achieve the goal with the minimum cost, and other things like face are not important.

Of course, Shi Dakai didn't do nothing, he also had to help with things, that is, to divide a force to cooperate with the task force to attack Uraga Port, as long as he occupied Uraga Port, not only control the throat of Edo Bay, but also destroy the navy in Edo, and at that time, the task force could bombard Edo Castle without worry.

Tang Hailong doesn't look at the surface as an elegant posture, but in fact, he is a militant in his heart, especially after the burning of Kagoshima, it seems that his brutality factor has been stimulated, and he suddenly likes to bombard the city, especially the action of burning the city.

It's just that his actions have to be restricted, and in terms of authority, he is not as good as Shi Dakai, so he burned Kagoshima, and under the unanimous opposition of Li Hongzhang and Shi Dakai, he has never fought the city seriously.

Well, now that Li Hongzhang is still opposed to attacking the city with naval artillery, Shi Dakai personally asked him for fire support, two against one, so what else to say?

In this way, the five warships formed a long snake formation, drove straight to Edo Bay, and headed straight for the port of Uraga.

Uraga Port was the military port of the shogunate's naval division, and it was directly forced by the task force, so it was inevitable that it could only be forced to fight.

Although there were quite a few naval warships in Uraga Port, more than 30 large and small, most of them were old-fashioned sail warships, and the largest tonnage was no more than 1,000 tons.

Naval warfare is different from land warfare in that it does not depend so much on morale, will, and quantity, but more on technical factors.

In other words, naval battles are mainly about whose ship is stronger, faster, and more firepower, and if there is an overall advantage, then if there is no accident, the side with the overall superiority wins.

Therefore, although the shogunate's sailors had more than 30 ships, they were not on the same level as the five warships of the task force in terms of speed, durability and firepower, just like a group of children beating five adults, and the solution was conceivable.

In just one morning, the task force led by Tang Hailong completely annihilated the shogunate's sailors, of which 21 were sunk and only eight surrendered.

After defeating the naval fleet in Uraga Port, Tang Hailong held a cup of black tea and said lightly to the adjutant: "Call Lord Shi, just say that the enemy ships in Uraga Port have been destroyed, and ask them to quickly send people to occupy the port." At the same time, tell them that we will be able to reach Edo Port by this evening at the latest. ”

"Yes!" As soon as the adjutant saluted, he grabbed the phone and gave the order.

"Wait a minute."

"Commander, what else do you command?"

"Hmm." Tang Hailong took a sip of black tea slowly, and then squinted his eyes and exhaled, "Order, put all the captive ships together, and then tie up the captives and rush over, and after that, let the Zhiyuan, Zhengyuan, Qiuyuan, and Fayuan come over, one by one, and sink all the captured Japanese ships for me!" ”

"Sink them all?" The adjutant was taken aback, "You, you mean...... Don't take prisoners? ”

"Yes, don't take prisoners." Tang Hailong blew the hot air on the teacup, "We are about to rush to Edo for an artillery bombardment, how can we have time to take this group of prisoners with us?" Hmph, take prisoners, here are everywhere, there are places to catch, and now the most critical thing is time! Do you know the time? ”

"This ......"

"Anyway, carry out the order!" Tang Hailong said, "Remember, it's all sunk, not a single one is left!" (To be continued......)