Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 106 Matsumae Castle Under Fire ([-])
On the Thunder God, the fifty recruits who were ordered by Zhao Xin to feel the artillery fire were all hiding behind a group of sandbags stacked half the height of a person.The impact of the first firing just now made these people numb and dizzy.

Although Yaichiro and the others had covered their ears tightly, knelt on one knee, and opened their mouths wide as ordered before firing the cannon, he still felt that his heart was going to be shaken out.When the shock wave from the muzzle scraped over his head, Yaichiro felt as if someone had slapped his head hard.

The huge vibration from the deck caused the hull to shake, which made the recruits feel as if the sky had collapsed.

After the two shellings, several soldiers were frightened like headless flies, staggering and huddling together, their faces pale.A soldier even got up and was about to run into the cabin, but was grabbed by the collar of the back of the neck by Huji next to him, and was dragged back behind the sandbag.

Seven or eight sailors wearing earmuffs are moving the cork and sandbags that have been shaken away to their original positions, and then taking out shells and cartridges from the ammunition box to prepare for loading.After these sailors participated in the shelling of Ishinomaki Port last time, Zhao Xin planned to train them to be loaders.

However, being a loader is not just about strength.Whether the loading action is accurate will directly affect whether the loaded projectile can be aligned with the cartridge loaded later, thus affecting the firing effect.

Take that unremarkable projectile delivery stick as an example. Every time you send projectiles and cartridges into the barrel, you must push them to the specified position according to the scale on it.On the modern battlefield in another time and space, some bullet-feeding sticks are connected to a special dynamometer at the tail to determine whether the force of the bullet-feeding is in place.

At this point, these sailors are far from being qualified artillery loaders.

Divided into two groups, Zhao Xin, Liu Sheng, Zhao Liang, and Ding Guofeng were waiting for Deng Fei to report the results of the shelling from the broadcast on the deck so that they could adjust the angle of the muzzle.And Deng Fei, who was in the cab of the Thor, was checking the impact point through the perspective of the drone, and then recalculated the shooting parameters.

Zhao Xin is tired of negotiating, being attacked, being attacked, and then negotiating again.He clearly remembered the few Dahe dramas he had watched.Except for the Tang people, the Dutch, and the Koreans, the attitude of the shogunate or the vassals towards the foreigners who came to do business is "the country pursues the national policy of closing the country, so it cannot agree with the business."

So instead of going ashore and negotiating in vain, it is better to express your position directly with cannons.

As long as the Matsumae Castle is smashed, the Matsumae Fan will not care about the affairs of Shachuan.With the speed of information dissemination in this era, wait for the Matsumae clan and the shogunate to react, and see you in at least two months.

During this period of time, Tuka's Shachuan tribe can get a respite, and Zhao Xin can also spare time to go south and continue to engage in Nagasaki Port.

The sad Tokugawa shogunate never imagined that the originally impregnable sea area under its rule would be riddled with holes everywhere by the Thunder God.

"The first shot hit the open space in the city, and the second shot blew up an arrow tower on the city wall." Soon, Deng Fei's voice came from the radio on the deck.

Seeing the smiling faces of Zhao Xin and others, the sailors around immediately burst into cheers.When the recruits hiding behind the sandbags heard it, they also jumped up and shouted "Wan Sheng".

After more than 20 minutes, Deng Fei reported new data after some calculations.

"This time we are going to shoot the castle guards in the city. Two quick shots." Deng Fei added after reporting the data.

The recruits on the deck saw that the muzzle of the cannon began to rotate, and knew that it was about to fire again, so they quickly hid behind the sandbags and tightly covered their ears.

Huji and Heita checked these soldiers one by one, and when they saw those who did not open their mouths, they stretched out their hands and slapped them, "Do you want to die?! Squat down and open your mouth wide!"

After the adjustment of the two cannons was completed, Zhao Xin gestured to Pingtai and Huji to signal everyone to get ready.

"Load!" When the sailors loaded the shells and cartridges, Liu Sheng and Ding Guofeng, who were in charge of inspection, kept watching their operations, and nodded their approval when they saw that the scale on the ammunition stick inserted into the barrel met the requirements.

"shooting!"

At this time, in Ninomaru of Matsumae Castle after the first two shells, ghosts were crying and wolves were howling.

Outside the meeting hall, a large crater blasted by the first shell was still smoking.In the Ninomaru Garden, which was originally covered with white sand and dotted with standing stones, there are bricks, tiles, rubble and flesh and blood corpses everywhere.

"Help! Someone..."

In the collapsed double scull, a wounded warrior was crushed under the masonry and wooden beams, screaming for help.

Several old and important officials who were hit by shrapnel fell on the steps of the meeting hall and screamed, while Matsumae Michihiro was shivering in a corner of the house protected by several guards.

The few retainers who were lucky enough not to be injured staggered and shouted to several of Dohiro's guards: "Take the Patriarch to the Honmaru Tenshou to hide!" After speaking, they retreated to the Honmaru's castle tower with Matsumae Dohiro.

In the Honmaru, Michihiro's concubine and maids fled in all directions, terrified by the loud explosion.Some dazed women ran out of the house, ran back into the house, ran out again, running around completely bewildered.

At this time, someone heard an attendant shouting "get out of the way" outside the courtyard, so when they ran out, they saw Michihiro Matsumae and several retainers who were surrounded by his men and fled to the castle guard.These women also ignored the jewelry and belongings in the house, and hurriedly followed behind into the castle tower.

In the castle town, the townspeople walking on the street were stunned by the sound of the explosion and the subsequent black smoke column.Sudden changes made people in the market at a loss and did not know what to do.

Under the leadership of the group leader, the two teams of "Machihuoxiao" began to gather at the intersection.But they can't enter the feudal city, they can only stand under the city and wait and see.If the fire in the city burns through the moat, they will start to demolish the houses and build a fire zone.

On the dozens of large ships in the port, the owners and sailors who were busy were startled by the explosion in the city, and the two smoke columns that rose later left them all dumbfounded.

"Boom~Boom~" There were two more low-pitched thunderclaps on the distant sea, but they disappeared in the crashing waves and the noise on the shore.However, as the sharp and piercing whistling sound passed across the sky, the sound became louder and louder.

A sailor pointed to a black spot on the sea in the distance, and shouted to his companions, "That's where the sound comes from!"

A townsman standing on the shore for a long time looked up at the blue sky, and suddenly shouted: "It's coming again! Everyone, run for your life!"

"Boom!" A shell fell in the Honmaru, and the dozen or so people who were watching under the eaves of the Honmaru were immediately blown away by the shock wave of the explosion.

Immediately afterwards, the second explosion came from the main pill again, and the fireball and smoke column that rose immediately shocked the townspeople who were familiar with the buildings in the city, "Could it be the castle tower?!"

In the longhouse area on the east side of the castle town, residents who were confused about the situation ran towards the hill on the east side. From the wall of the temple there, the situation of Honmaru could be seen in the distance.

Hundreds of people were running up the mountain, when another sharp whistling sound made them stop, followed by two huge explosions.

The first few townspeople who came to the temple came to the west courtyard wall. They lay down on the wall and looked towards the feudal city to the west. They saw that the original thick and exquisite gate was blown up and disappeared, and the original white section of the courtyard wall It also collapsed into a pile of rubble; under the double scull of Sannomaru, a large piece of camellia was burning; as for the castle tower of Honmaru, it had disappeared from sight and was replaced by a fire that was smoking black smoke .

"My God! Is this the bombardment?" A shop assistant muttered while leaning on the wall of the monastery.

"Nonsense! The Dutch cannons are not so powerful. This is a meteorite falling from the sky!"

"I don't see it." The shop assistant looked at the fire rising in the main pill, and argued without looking back: "I've never heard that meteorites fall in two pieces at the same time. Have any of you seen it?"

Just as the few people were about to discuss, a townsman behind him ran over panting and shouted: "Some people say that the whistling sound came from the sea."

Hearing what he said, hundreds of people turned their heads and looked in the direction of the port.But at this moment, fog started to form on the sea surface. The fog gradually thickened, and soon covered the sea surface in the distance, and then spread towards the shore, and even the ships in the port became indistinct.

After waiting for more than half an hour, the terrifying roar never sounded again.So under the leadership of several brave warriors, a group of people went around to the northeast of Matsumae Castle and entered the city through the side entrance to investigate.

In the hazy fog, the bloody and ruined walls everywhere made the warriors holding the torches so frightened that they couldn't speak.When they rushed into Sannomaru, they finally saw the collapsed castle tower and several corpses under the bricks. These samurai couldn't help kneeling on the ground with their legs limp, crying loudly.

At night, news came from the Fan City.

Matsumae Michihiro, the 30-year-old eighth-generation lord of the Matsumae domain, was crushed in the collapsed castle tower together with his two concubine and three important ministers, and it was impossible to survive.

As for the important officials of the Matsumae Domain who had held a meeting with him in the Ninomaru Chamber before, five died and two were seriously injured.Except for more than [-] samurai responsible for guarding the Houshan Shrine, the samurai on duty in the city were completely lost.

Three days later, the workers responsible for cleaning up the ruins found hundreds of metal fragments of various sizes from various places in the city.Until this time, Matsumae Fan thought it was a meteorite falling.

And when they learned the truth of the matter, it was already a year later.

(End of this chapter)