After signing an unequal treaty with the shogunate, the Qiongshu battalion fleet left Edo Bay. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

William asked: "Go back to Nagasaki or go straight back to Lingao?" ”

Xia Nan shook his head repeatedly: "Didn't you read the agreement I signed with the shogunate?" The first is to catch the murderer on your own, let's go to Kagoshima. There were concerns about the bombardment of Edo, but there were no concerns about the bombardment of Kagoshima. ”

Lin Weiye Khan: "Are we really going to fight the Satsuma Domain?" Although there was an attack, but fortunately you were not injured, in order to fight for breath to fight a western powerhouse, the price is too great, right? ”

Xia Nan refuted him solemnly: "You are wrong, you went to fight the Shimazu family not to fight for breath, but to kill chickens and make an example of monkeys." If I don't beat this bird, I will learn from it in the future, as long as I appear in Japan, what will I do if any cat or dog will come to kill me? Even if you don't kill me, what about the people who attacked our Nagasaki Merchant House? After all, what we have done has damaged the face of the Japanese, and this possibility cannot be ignored. ”

Lin Weiye suddenly realized: "This is a must-fight." But as the shogunate said, that woman is the future candidate for the governor of the Shimazu family, so even if we bombard Kagoshima, how can they hand it over? ”

"Don't get in the way, even if the Shimazu family tanuki changes the prince and gets a fake Shimazu Chiyo for me, I will admit it, at least all Japanese people know that the Shimazu family bowed to the cannon, and my goal was achieved. Asking for the murderer is a cover, and getting the Satsuma clan to submit is the real goal. ”

Kagoshima, where the Satsuma Domain is located, is the southernmost region of Japan, and the distance from Nagasaki is just over 100 miles in a straight line. Prior to the issuance of the Lockdown Decree, the Satsuma clan had trade with foreign countries, which became the main source of their financial revenue, and through contact with Western culture, they were ahead of the rest of the feudal states in the manufacture and use of firearms. Japan's famous "Tanegashima Iron Cannon" was produced because the Portuguese merchant ship was blown to Tanegashima south of the Satsuma Domain by a typhoon, and was imitated by the craftsman Yaban Kiyosei, which is the earliest arquebus in Japan and the originator of the "Iron Cannon" that brought great changes to Japanese history. As the birthplace of the "iron cannon", the Satsuma Domain has always been known for its excellent firearms.

When the Qiongshu Battalion fleet arrived at Kagoshima Castle, where the Satsuma Domain was located, both Natsu Minami and William smiled when they saw this castle. Kagoshima Castle was built on the coast as the residence of the feudal lord and his samurai! At such a close distance, it's not too easy to attack with naval guns.

William's optimistic estimate is that the maximum range of a shot at an elevation angle of 5 degrees has a chance to hit the core area of the castle, the castle tower where the castle lord is located. If it can hit the castle tower, it will be no less significant than the shells outside Beijing falling on the Forbidden City, and it will be fatal to the defenders' military and political double blows.

The structure of Kagoshima Castle is a common Hirayama castle structure in Japan, and the Satsuma clan itself called it Tsurumaru Castle, which was built in the 6th year of Keicho (1601) and completed in 1604. At that time, the Shimazu family was defeated in the Battle of Sekigahara, and the feudal lord Shimazu Yoshihiro alone took all the blame and committed suicide, Tokugawa Ieyasu retained the territory of the Satsuma domain in order to stabilize the overall situation, and Shimazu Yoshihiro's third son Tadatsune became the new feudal lord, and Tsurumaru Castle was built in his hands. Before building the castle, Shimazu Yoshihiro thought that there was a hidden danger in building a castle along the coast, but after he cut his stomach, Shimazu Tadashi, as his successor, did not follow his father's advice and insisted on building the castle on the coast. He didn't expect that thirty years later, this wayward decision almost brought disaster to himself.

The defenders of Tsurumaru Castle quickly observed the approach of a large fleet, and they responded efficiently, with a Japanese-style Ataka ship immediately sailing out of the harbor and approaching the fleet, and the Japanese samurai on board warned the fleet in Japanese that it could not move further.

Out of professional habit, William carefully observed this house ship, and said in amazement: "This ship is actually covered with iron sheets!" I assure God that I have never seen such a ship in the Far East, except that our ship was covered with copper below the waterline. "The battleships of the Qiongzhou battalion were wrapped with copper below the waterline, mainly to prevent the corrosion of the bottom of the ship by seawater, but also to reduce friction and increase the speed of sailing. And the Ataku ship in front of him, wrapped in iron sheets, obviously plays a role in armor.

In the summer, Nan and Lin Weiye both came to the bow of the boat to watch the excitement when they heard the rumors.

Lin Weiye was also surprised: "Could it be that this is the legendary ironclad ship?" I thought Oda Nobunaga's ironclad ship was made up, but I didn't expect it to exist. ”

Xia Nan asked: "Could it be that the devil's shipbuilding technology is more advanced than ours, and they all use iron armor?" This is not scientific! ”

After Lin Weiye observed carefully, he shook his head: "It can be seen with the naked eye that this is not iron armor at all, at best, it is a thin layer of iron sheet, with a thickness of two to three millimeters at most, which is useful for fire prevention and attack, but it can't stop the shells." ”

William also said: "Maybe this is a deformed product of the use of fire attack tactics in naval warfare, although it can be fireproof to a certain extent, but it increases the overall weight of the ship, and in order to maintain balance, the bottom is widened, such a ship can run slower than a turtle, and the cost performance is very low." ”

Xia Nan was relieved when he heard it, it turned out to be just a useless iron turtle. He ordered, "Give this tin turtle a few shots and let them know how powerful we are." ”

Although this enhanced version of the Ataka ship is already second to none among Japan's famous sailors, it is simply the difference between a child and an adult compared to the 500-ton or even 1,000-ton warships of the Qiongzhou battalion. You can't use the Yongle level to deal with it at all, but the Wu Yi level can deal with it.

Several Wuyi-class warships, including the "Lingao" and "Chengmai", aimed at the target, and then fired solid shells with Caron guns.

"Boom, boom, boom", more than a dozen 30-pound solid bullets hit this ironclad ship, the thin iron sheet was vulnerable under the strong kinetic energy, and the shells easily penetrated the hull, causing a devastating penetrating effect, and the sea water slowly poured in.

The samurai on the deck were shocked and angry, drew their katana and shouted at the big ship opposite, although few people in the Qiongzhou camp knew Japanese, but judging by their expressions and movements, it was not a good word.

"Boom", another cannon sounded, and a shotgun fired by the "Lingao" swept across the deck of the Ataka ship, and several chattering samurai were swept into a sieve, brains and flesh flew everywhere, and the whole world was suddenly clean.