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Chapter 1038 – 1034【Edo Sea Battle】

Chapter 1038 1034【Edo Sea Battle】

The Japanese Navy, in the era of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, still cheered up for a while.

Even hired European shipbuilders, imitated a Galen ship, and sailed to America and Europe. This Galen ship built in Japan has been sold to the Spaniards in the Philippines as a battleship.

There is still one Japanese ironclad ship, that is, on the surface of the Ataka ship, iron plates are nailed to key parts to defend against guns and artillery.

Whether it can stop firearms is not clear, but the speed is painfully slow.

The speed of the Anzhai boat itself is slow, and if it is equipped with iron armor, it is a deadly target in the sea.

“The Tang Army Navy is here, the Tang Army Navy is here!”

Several small boats rushed into Edo Bay. They belonged to the “Pirate Group” because piracy was common. It can also be called “Jing Gu Zhong”, who are hired by rich businessmen as bodyguards to prevent them from being robbed by pirates.

It is not so clear whether it is a robber or a bodyguard.

The speed of the small early ship is very fast. The fleet sailing from Shanghai is still more than half a day away from Edo. The pirates have already rushed to Edo to report.

The reporting location is Hama Rikyu, which was built on the outlying island of Edo.

Although Edo has begun reclamation, the speed of artificial reclamation is very slow, and the outlying islands are far away from the urban area. Tokugawa Tsunashige, the younger brother of the shogun, built an outlying island garden for the navy as the office of the general of the shogunate.

In another time and space, the Japanese Navy after the Meiji Restoration also used Hama Rikyu as a naval base.

However, it is not called Hama Rikyu at this time, but is called “Kofu Hama House”.

Navy generals are all in the castle town, which is their home. At this time, the people on duty on the island were all young warriors. When they received the news, they immediately took a boat to report to the city.

The 22-year-old Prime Minister of Kofu, Tokugawa Tsunashige, was tall and mighty, with a full height of 1.6 meters.

He is the daimyo of the Kofu domain, and at the same time he is a counselor in the shogunate, and he is also in charge of the Japanese navy. Although this brother is young, it is rare for him to be able to do practical things. Not only does he exploit the peasants lightly, but he also asks his retainers to remediate rivers and dig weirs and ponds in the fief.

Tokugawa Tsunashige is proficient in Sinology, and has even studied “Da Tong Ji”. While admiring Emperor Zhao, he asked to ban this book.

“Follow me to prepare for battle!”

Tokugawa Tsunashige went into battle, ordered the admirals of the navy to be summoned, and personally ran to outlying islands to command.

When the Datong Fleet arrived in Edo, Tokugawa Tsunashige had already finished reorganizing the army.

The shogunate navy fleet consisted of 1 ironclad ship, 3 Ataka ships, 21 Seki ships, and more than 200 Kohaya ships (many of which were pirates).

The ironclad ship is 30 meters long, and generally only the shogun can ride it. Now it is temporarily used as Tokugawa Tsunashige’s ship.

Captain Anzhai is more than 20 meters long, and the ship Guan is even smaller.

The shapes and structures of these ships of various colors in Japan are similar, they are just piled up in volume, without keels or ribs.

The small boat sent out to investigate reported that the Chinese fleet was about to enter the bay. Tokugawa Tsunashige immediately drew out his samurai sword: “To meet the Tang army, Japan will surely win, and the shogunate will surely win!”

More than 200 Japanese ships rushed out of the bay.

Tokugawa Tsunashige still has a telescope in his hand. He stands on the deck of the ironclad ship, holding up the telescope and looking into the distance. And then… jaw-dropping.

“Are the naval warships of the Tang Dynasty so big?” Tokugawa Tsunashige was going crazy.

Although he is familiar with Chinese classics, he is too young and inexperienced. He has never even left Edo, not even his own fiefdom. And Edo is absolutely not allowed to smuggle, and Tokugawa Tsunashige has never even seen what a Chinese merchant ship looks like.

He always thought that the ironclad ship in Edo was the largest sea ship in the world.

The Chinese Navy will also use line-of-line tactics. Eight warships will quickly line up in line of battle. The smallest ones are larger than the shogunate ironclad ships.

Hong Xu, who was born in the Zheng Group, has retired at this time, and the commander of the fleet is his nephew Hong Tao. Hong Xu was the first to join the Datong Army, and separated from Zheng Zhilong. When he retired, he retained the title of Marquis, and was also promoted by the Prince Shaobao.

“What battle line do you want? Just kill them!” Hong Tao ordered.

Eight Chinese warships rushed straight to the Japanese navy.

Japan has the largest number of small boats, not to mention artillery, not even guns, just a group of pirates driving small sampans.

Relying on their numerical advantage, they surrounded 8 ships with more than 200 ships, and wanted to climb onto the Chinese warships for hand-to-hand combat.

Chinese warships were surrounded, but they didn’t stop at all. Along the way, all the small Japanese boats were knocked over. The pirates tried to throw the hook lines, but it was difficult to throw them onto the side of the ship. Occasionally, a few hook lines were thrown up, and they had to climb up slowly, but the Chinese navy soldiers had already aimed their guns.

“Bang bang bang bang!”

A series of gunshots, all the pirates who tried to board the ship were shot down into the sea.

The pirates completely lost their fighting spirit. Taking advantage of their maneuverability, more than a hundred small boats quickly fled the battlefield.

“Fire!” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi shouted.

Whether it is artillery or muskets, Japan calls them iron guns. Ironclad ships, Anzhai ships, and official ships equipped with guns and artillery all shot at the rushing Chinese warships.

But the caliber of the artillery of the Japanese ships is too small, and the warships of the Datong Navy are either built of century-old oak wood, or they are made of strong century-old teak wood. In the mountains of Vietnam, there are a large number of old teak trees, which are now under control and are prohibited from being harvested by any civil forces.

A small number of shells hit the target, but the shells could not cause effective damage to the Chinese warship.

And the eight Chinese warships turned suddenly after approaching, and aimed at the enemy ship with their side turrets. The amount of shells fired by a warship is equivalent to more than a dozen Japanese ships, and it is fired at close range, instantly smashing the target into a sieve.

Guan ship has no keel and ribs yet, and it will fall apart after a few more rounds.

“Quick retreat!”

After firing from the Datong Navy, in less than ten minutes, seven Japanese ships had been sunk, and Tokugawa Tsunashige was so frightened that he wanted to run away.

But the ironclad ship he was riding on was too slow.

Both the Anzhai boat and the Guan boat ran away, and he was still advancing slowly, causing those boats that were able to escape to slow down and come back to protect him. After all, this is the younger brother of the shogun!

“Boom boom boom!”

Two more Guan ships were sunk, and an Ataka ship was also crumbling.

Tokugawa Tsunashige’s ironclad ship was chased by two Chinese warships and caught in the middle trying to capture it, because the ship’s flagship status was too obvious.

Short spears with ropes were shot from the Chinese warships and slammed into the deck of the iron-clad ship.

Some naval soldiers were on the side of the ship, condescending and shooting towards the enemy deck. As the rounds of gunfire ended, some other navy soldiers slid down the rope and rushed to the Japanese navy who was dodging bullets.

The deck was quickly occupied, and Tokugawa Tsunashige hid in the command room, watching the battle outside through the window. He muttered to himself: “Damn, how could this be? I have read so many books, why didn’t they write clearly? The warships of the Tang army are too big, and the iron cannons are too powerful. How can the shogunate navy win?” ?”

Many Japanese daimyos living in Edo, as well as samurai, ronin, merchants and civilians, gathered on the shore to watch the battle.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, a large number of Japanese naval forces were defeated and defeated. That scene was not a war, but a powerful man bullying an unweaned toddler.

“The navy of the Tang Dynasty is too powerful, stronger than the Dutch decades ago.” A big name who has seen Dutch ships couldn’t help expressing emotion.

The Dutch fleet spans all over the world, relying not on large ships, but on small and medium-sized warships and countless armed merchant ships.

Another daimyo said: “This time it’s troublesome. The shogunate locked the country and angered the Tang emperor. The Tang people are afraid to attack Edo Castle.”

“Let’s go, let’s retreat to the city.”

“Yes, we can’t wait any longer, we must withdraw to the city for defense.”

“…”

The daimyos returned to their residences, brought their wives, children and accompanying officials, and flocked to Edo Castle.

Except for those who hold important positions in the shogunate, daimyo can enter the city once every two years. That is to say, he went to the city to meet the shogun and said that he had returned to Edo to report. But many times, the general just stood on the city wall, and the daimyos stood under the city to pay their respects.

Daimyo’s wives have no freedom at all. They can only live in Edo and cannot return to the fief with their husbands. They were not even allowed to go out, and there was no entertainment at all. They could only stand on the balcony and watch the street view.

The gates of Edo Castle have been opened, and the daimyo are pouring in with their entourage, while the samurai are still queuing.

In the Tokugawa Ieyasu era, there were 80,000 samurai in the shogunate. Later, the war stopped, and the number of samurai has been streamlined. Many samurai have become ronin. Today, there are about 20,000 to 30,000 samurai in Edo.

Of the 20,000 or 30,000 warriors, only a few owned houses, and the rest of the warriors lived in longhouses, which were probably similar to staff dormitories. They dragged their families and wanted to enter the city, but they were ordered not to enter the family. Only the samurai himself could enter the city to defend.

Edo Castle is so big, where can it accommodate the families of tens of thousands of samurai?

For a while, at the various gates of Edo, the family members of the samurai cried loudly, and the children were frightened and howled loudly.

Shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna dragged his weak body to the castle. He didn’t know what was going on at sea, he only knew that the Japanese Navy was defeated, and seeing the chaos in the city at this moment, he was suddenly anxious and at a loss.

Sakai Tadaki stood behind the parapet, staring blankly at the chaos below the city. His mind is also very confused at the moment, it’s just a closed door, and only businessmen are affected, why does the emperor of the Celestial Dynasty raise troops for a few businessmen?

Sakai Zhongqing couldn’t figure it out, but he knew very well that he must be finished this time.

Guarding Edo Castle, he can continue to be the boss, and after the Chinese army leaves, he will suppress those daimyo who are against him. But if Edo Castle is defended, no matter what the outcome is, he will only end up committing seppuku.

“The Tang army has landed, the Tang army has landed!”

Sakai Zhongqing quickly ordered: “Quickly close the city gate!”

The daimyo, their family members, and accompanying officials have all entered the city, and the high-level samurai have also entered the city, and only a few thousand middle and low-level samurai have entered the city.

It is useless to go in too much. There is not enough food in the city.

Sakai Zhongqing had people shoot arrows, and shot back the samurai who wanted to continue entering the city. He also appointed a famous general to go out of the city and organize those warriors who did not come in to fight street battles with the Datong army that was about to kill.

(end of this chapter)