Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 324 Disaster is approaching
The conditions of the Shimadzu family are definitely unacceptable to both sides of the coalition forces.

Just kidding, what kind of imagination is it to exchange Ryukyu, which does not belong to the Satsuma domain?And from Zhao Xin's point of view, he just wanted to make the island kingdoms into chaos, otherwise he would not be able to complete the secret plan formulated by Hepingtai.Only by messing up can we take advantage of it, right?

On the other hand, when Shimadzu Hisao returned to Tsurumomaru Castle, Shimadzu Qixuan learned that the negotiations had broken down, and he had two options left, either offering the city to bind himself or fighting to the death.Now that his father is still ill, all the vassals are waiting for themselves to make up their minds.

Shimazu Qixuan came to the back house and saw that his father Shigeho Shimadzu had woken up, so he was finally relieved.

"How's the boss?"

Facing the feudal lord's inquiry, a few doctors from the Zaoshiguan Medical Institute said: "Shou Zongshou is just temporarily stagnant, and he should be fine after resting for half a day."

"How did they answer?" Shigeho Shimazu, who was lying on the couch, saw his son coming, and immediately asked someone to help him up, and asked the most concerned question.

Seeing Shimadzu Qixuan shook his head sadly, Shimadzu Shigego suddenly laughed, and everyone present was surprised.

When Shigego Shimadzu stopped laughing, he asked the maid and the doctor to step back, leaving only one person nearby.After everyone withdrew, he said to his son with a solemn face: "Call together the warriors of the mountain cities from all over the country, and prepare for the decisive battle!"

"This! My lord father, the Beihai Navy is hard for even the shogunate to resist. How can we, Satsuma, defeat it?!"

Shigeho Shimadzu grabbed his son's clothes, pulled him close to him, and said in a low voice, "Don't fight to the death! Tsurumomaru Castle is too close to the sea, we can't hold it! Back to Satsuma County, we must delay They, wait until the reinforcements from other domains arrive!"

Said Shimadzu: "Father, can the reinforcements from the Kumamoto, Fukuoka, and Saga domains come?"

Shigeho Shimadzu sneered: "I have promised to hand over the Ryukyu sugar trade to the three of them, and they will definitely be tempted."

Shimadzu Qixuan turned pale with shock. The Ryukyu sugar trade is the lifeblood of the Shimadzu family. If it is distributed to those three families, the Satsuma domain will be spared in this war. What is the way out after that?
"Matasaburo, please remember!" Seeing his son's hopeless appearance, Shigeo Shimadzu shouted in a low voice, calling the other party's nickname: "That Zhao Wangdian is determined to win the 36 islands of Ryukyu, but we Satsuma can't get it. None of the other three families can get it! If we win, we won’t be able to keep Ryukyu, but we can do business with Zhao Wangdian; but if we don’t win, the Shimadzu family will perish!”

Shimadzu Qixuanfei explained: "If that Zhao Wangdian only wants Ryukyu, we have agreed to give it to him? Why are you still aggressive?"

Shigeho Shimadzu concentrated for a while and said: "This is also what I can't understand. There must be something in his eyes. If he can't get it, he will never let it go. But what is it?"

Shimadzu Qi Xuanxin said that the poor in Satsuma were only left with big radishes.Could it be the gold mine in Lingjia County?It's been dug up so early!

Shimadzu said: "Father, do you think the reinforcements from Edo will come?"

Shigeo Shimadzu sighed, and said: "We can't count on the public. Now that the Sendai Fan has the support of that Zhao Wangdian, it is already an open rebellion. If the shogunate takes action, it will be the Sendai Fan first. And That Zhao Wangdian, when the time comes, he will slap his ass and leave, in the vast sea, no one can do anything against him!"

"Then what should we do now? Send a navy to fight?" Shimadzu Qixuan said in his heart that the navy of this domain is just a dish in front of the big ship of the Beihai Navy, and there will be no return.

Shigeho Shimadzu narrowed his eyes, slowly shook his head and said, "No! We must delay the time! Sending food, wine, and beauties, if it can be delayed for a day!"

"What if none of that works?"

"Then you send an assassin! Remember, if you get to that point, everyone will have to withdraw from Tsurunomaru first and go to Satsuma County! We can't stand the artillery of the Northern Navy."

"I understand." Shimadzu Qixuan nodded, then bowed and bowed to leave.

In the afternoon of that day, the Shimadzu family sent people to send rice and seafood to the coalition forces, and then sent sake and kabuki. Even Yokoyama Town sent people to send a lot of pickled radishes and satsuma oranges.The coalition forces don't want any of these things.The reason is very simple, Date Shigemura was poisoned to death, he was crazy to eat the food sent by Shimadzu's family!Bei Haijun's compressed biscuits are delicious.

However, tens of thousands of people staying at sea just consume a lot of fresh water for a day, not to mention that some people in the army of Sendai Fan have already started to get sick.So the day after the negotiations, the Beihai Navy began to move.

Among the four big ships, Thunder God was the first, Beihai No. [-] and No. [-] were in the middle, Jinglei was the last, and slowly entered the strait between Kagoshima and Sakurajima.

Shimazu Qixuan in Tsurumomaru Castle received the news and realized that the previous plan had failed, so he started a large retreat across the city in a hurry.However, some people just left without firing a single shot. After all, some people are not reconciled.

In fact, strictly speaking, in the Edo period, except for the Tokugawa shogunate, which had a navy establishment, the other feudal clans did not have a navy; or in other words, they only transported troops by water.As far as the Satsuma clan is concerned, whether it is "Royal Ship Pursuance" or "Ship Reform Pursuit", it has nothing to do with the navy's half a dime (some books even make up such a weird position as the general of the navy. ) Of course, if there is a war, the royal ship will also be requisitioned to become a military ship.

Ships in the Edo period were modeled according to the number of sails on the deck, ranging from 1 sail to 23 sails; and the most used for maritime security was the small morning boat with 1 sail.

Not reconciled, but there are not many cannons, even if there are cannons, they know they can't beat them, so these people's way is to set fire to the ship to stop the North Navy.Fortunately, the Satsuma clan had already made preparations, and the Satsuma clan’s shipyard was located at the mouth of the Jiatu River, and there were many ship bosses, sailors, and boatmen living nearby. Even sailboats on inland rivers can also be used as fireboats.

When the Beihai fleet was still a few miles away from Jiatuchuan, seventy or eighty fireboats came towards Beihai from the mouth of Jiatuchuan.

Regardless of the small size of the fireboats of the Satsuma Domain, the Northern Navy is equally careless, because once the debris of these ships damages the stabilizer fins and balance wings below the waterline, the ship will swing from side to side, and all people on board will have to carry it disgustingly. Can't live.

So the Thor began to slow down rapidly and turned the hull sideways; at the same time, the Thunderbolt also accelerated forward and sideways the hull.The two ships blocked Beihai No. [-] and No. [-] behind them.

"fire!"

Following Zhao Xin's order, 36 mortars, five D30s, and machine guns on the side deck of the two regiments on the Thunder God and Jinglei all opened fire.Let alone how the Shimadzu family reacted to this situation, the soldiers in the cargo holds of the two ships were terrible.

Every time the five-seat D30 fired, the loud sound shocked the North Navy and the Ashgaru of the Sendai Domain in the cargo hold.One by one, they covered their ears and opened their mouths wide, squatting on the ground, and kept begging to finish the fight and go ashore.

The 0.50 machine gun bullets tore apart the small boats, turning them into debris on the water surface and floating with the waves.At the stern of the Thunder God and Thunder, a group of sailors manipulated the fire water cannons to wash away all the large wreckage of the approaching ships and the fire boats that slipped through the net.

On the hill outside Tsurunomaru Castle, all the samurai of the Shimadzu family and local residents stood on the hillside to watch the battle.I saw the water jets splashed by countless explosions one after another in the fire fleet heading towards the North Navy, and the ocean surface near several huge boats seemed to be boiling.

Everyone stared dumbfounded at the scene in front of them, and some people had already started to kneel on the ground and cry loudly, while those guys who encouraged Shimadzu Qixuan to launch the fireboat attack were ashen ashes at this moment.

A samurai said sadly: "Let's go. Tsurumomaru Castle can't be defended anymore!"

Among the crowd, a samurai said bitterly: "If you let me see that thief Zhao, I will kill him with a knife!"

Everyone turned their heads to look, and found that it was Dongxiang Shiyi, a feudal official, who was a master at presenting himself.

Another samurai said: "Don't talk about those useless ones, the Beihai Navy uses rapid-fire guns, and you can't even get close!"

Dashan Gangzhang of the Taidao style looked very frustrated, and said: "Their iron guns are so sharp, what use is there for us to practice martial arts!"

While talking, a vassal ran over and shouted as he ran: "The master ordered everyone to evacuate immediately!"

Dongxiang Shiyi said, "Where are you going to withdraw?"

"At the foot of the county mountain!" the vassal shouted, then turned and left.

At 11 o'clock in the morning, the Northern Navy, which had wiped out the fireships, began shelling Tsurumomaru Castle.Because the drone was not sent to calculate the precise coordinates, the fire caused by the shelling immediately raged in Kagoshima Town.The vassals left with the team of the Shimadzu family, but the townspeople who stayed behind started fighting fires and demolishing houses frantically after the Beihai Navy stopped shelling.

At noon, the residents of Kagoshima Town were surprised to find that the large ship of the Beihai Navy did not anchor near the Kotogawa River at all, but went all the way north without a trace.

"It's broken! They're going to Kajikicho!" Shigeho Shimadzu was shocked when he got the news. "Shiluo County and Kuangyuan County are in danger!"

From the arrival of the Northern Navy to the Sendai Domain and the dispatch of troops until the fall of Yisu County, the Edo shogunate remained on hold.As the head of the old middle school, Matsudaira Sadanobu knew that even if he sent reinforcements, the distant water would not be able to quench his thirst.

Since taking over as the head of the old middle school, the ambitious Matsudaira Sadanobu finally understands what kind of black hole he has taken over. The financial deficit is bottomless, the victims of the disaster are displaced everywhere, and the voices of the local government to reduce the annual tribute are constant.But now if troops are to be sent again, all localities can only forcibly collect annual tribute, and the rule of the shogunate is already in jeopardy.

In May last year, the riots that spread to 35 places across the country because of a spat shocked the world.In four days, 980 rice shops, hotels, and [-] pawnshops were destroyed in Edo Castle, which has not changed since Edo was built.

Matsudaira Sadanobu knew that his first task was to reduce the burden on farmers so that the people would not starve to death again.The first order he issued after taking office was "frugality", suppressing entertainment and commercial activities, trying to invest limited manpower and other resources in restoring agricultural production.The food rationing system was promoted throughout the country, and many grains and other ingredients that were not used to be eaten were mixed into the food.And at the same time began to promote the hometown crop - cold-resistant Shirakawa buckwheat.

In other words, it was the promotion under this disaster that finally made buckwheat an important part of the diet of the island nation.

However, when Beihai Town sent another regiment of troops to Sendai Fan, Matsudaira Sadanobu couldn't sit still.He knew that if he did not act, the world would be divided again.As a descendant of the Tokugawa family, he would never allow this to happen.After consulting Tokugawa Iezari, Matsudaira Sadanobu decided to send troops to attack the Sendai Fan.

In the Edo period, the common name for Banner was "Hanben 7 riders", which included the Banner of the shogunate, the royal family, and the attendants of the royal family. Except for the early days of the three generations of Tokugawa, the number of people in the middle and late period was probably more than 2 to 400 .In the seventh year of Tianming, the number of the shogunate bannermen was [-], and the vassal group directly under the imperial family, including the imperial family below the imperial court, totaled [-] people.

For such a huge team, the military rations consumed every day alone are astronomical.However, considering the North Navy's offensive in Uraga, Matsudaira Sadanobu still gritted his teeth and ordered the shogunate and the Daimyo to collect the annual tribute.

As a representative who had negotiated with Zhao Xin face to face, Matsudaira Sadanobu knew how cunning and arrogant Zhao Xin was.He will never forget that person's gaze at that time, domineering and contemptuous.

Yes, contempt.Although that guy always had a smile on his face, the contempt revealed in his bones made Matsudaira Dingxin feel like he was sitting on pins and needles.

If you want to quickly take down the Sendai Fan, you must attack both land and water.Because they had received the news that the three huge boats from Beihai Town had all gone to Southern Kyushu, in order to reduce the consumption of military rations, a group of veterans finally decided to attack Shiroishi City, the key point in the southern part of the Sendai Domain, by land, and go straight to the mouth of the Hirose River by sea.

Upon hearing the news that the shogunate was preparing to send troops, the Sendai clan immediately got busy. With food and money, and the help of a regiment of the Beihai Navy and the Aoba Battalion, Fumi Ishikawa was not worried at all.

Because Zhao Xin made an agreement with him three chapters before, Beihai and Qingyeying could not command them at all.Therefore, the various families of the Sendai Fan were very thieves and deployed their soldiers in three places: Igu County, Watari County, and Miyagi County.As for the feudal clans in the northern part of Mutsu and Dewa, the Date family has sent lobbyists.

It is said that the shogunate is now poor and is about to become underwear, how about it?Come back to the embrace of the Date family, if you want food, you can have food, and if you want money, you can have money.What?Are you afraid that the shogunate will send troops to attack us?Just a joke, there are more than 2000 Beihai troops stationed in this domain, you don't know how powerful the Beihai Navy is, do you?Even the shogunate was beaten to the brim last year.

After some lobbying, all the feudal clans in the north were said to be a little moved, but if the rebellion fails, the whole family will always lose their heads. Right now, the Sendai clan has a big tone, but whether they can survive this calamity, everyone is waiting to see state.

In such a strange atmosphere, the curtain of the biggest war since the "Shimabara Rebellion" has slowly opened.

Except for the Satsuma clan, which is hard to protect itself, all the feudal clans in the world are now focusing on the every move of the shogunate and the Sendai clan.For a while, the streets of Aozhou, which should have been sparsely populated due to the arrival of the war, became bustling with spies in disguise from all walks of life coming and going.

At this time, Pingtai, who had already arrived in Kyoto, brought two companions from Beihai Town, and started to attack the Yingsi family according to the previous plan.

(End of this chapter)