Before hanging himself, Chongzhen lifted the table

Chapter 244 The Battle of Edo

Miyamoto Musashi is the most famous swordsman in the history of Japan. It can be said that he has never been defeated. But he was dead at this time.

In order to fight against the Ming Navy, Tokugawa Iemitsu summoned several adopted sons of Miyamoto Musashi, such as a large group of samurai led by Miyamoto Iori and others. They were all the most powerful group of people in Japan in terms of personal martial arts.

The courtyard of the General's Mansion was filled with the most powerful warriors of Japan. Tokugawa Iemitsu appeared accompanied by Matsudaira Nobutsuna. After many samurai greeted him, he turned serious and shouted loudly: "The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty went crazy and suddenly led his troops to attack us. This is to destroy us." They killed us and dragged all our men to mine, and all our women had to serve them. This is absolutely intolerable!"

Just the opening scene aroused the anger of all Japanese warriors, including Miyamoto Iori.

Of course they had also heard about how the Ming army dealt with the Japanese after they occupied Kyushu. At this time, hearing from the general's mouth confirmed the news.

Tokugawa Iemitsu glanced at them and saw that each of them was aroused with anger, so he continued: "Thanks to the protection of Amaterasu, the Emperor of Ming Dynasty lost his mind and sent all their navy here to Edo Bay. , trying to fight my navy."

"Gentlemen, the navy of the Ming Dynasty is coming from afar, but we can wait for work and be fully prepared. This battle will be won. Once the navy of the Ming Dynasty is gone, it will be fish on the knife board, and it will be slaughtered by us!"

When Tokugawa Iemitsu said this, he clenched his fists and said with an almost ferocious face: "This naval battle is very important, gentlemen, please!"

When Miyamoto Iori and others saw it, they all immediately lowered their heads and said "Hi". Everyone rubbed their fists and palms, making up their mind to kill all the invading Minggu! "

Afterwards, these warriors immediately took their elite men and assigned them to various warships, preparing to kill them when they jumped from the ship to fight!

The Japanese Navy is naturally highly prepared for war. All personnel are in place, and gunpowder supplies are fully prepared. There are also drills and detailed plans on how a naval battle will occur in Edo Bay and how each navy will cooperate.

Many fast horses on land were also sent to monitor the Ming Dynasty navy's itinerary at the seaside. He also tried his best to analyze the situation of the Ming Navy, including what warships there were, the number of warships, etc.

Finally, in mid-to-late February of the 24th year of Chongzhen, the Ming Navy arrived at Edo Bay.

On this day, the Japanese navy, which had already received the news, was naturally ready to prepare. Tokugawa Iemitsu, accompanied by Matsudaira Nobutsuna and others, watched the battle at the head of Edo Castle.

This naval battle was really the battle that determined the fate of the Japanese nation. In other words, the Japanese country cannot afford to lose and must win.

For this reason, the Japanese side also prepared a trump card, which was to prepare some suicide ships. If necessary, they would charge to the death to disrupt the formation of the Ming Navy and create conditions for the navy's victory.

"General, if the Ming Dynasty navy wants to enter the bay and engage in a decisive battle with our navy, it will be bombarded by artillery fire from prominent locations on both sides of the coast. It will lose a lot of money before engaging our navy and dampen its spirit. In the subsequent During the battle, they were also bombarded by coastal artillery." Matsudaira Nobutsuna introduced to Tokugawa Iemitsu, "The Ming Dynasty Navy has already lost half of its battles!"

No matter what, there are still some Japanese artillery pieces. Of course, they all belong to Tokugawa Iemitsu and are deployed in Edo.

At Matsudaira Nobutsuna's suggestion, the artillery on the city's head was moved to the coast, the protruding part of Edo Bay, to support the naval battle.

Tokugawa Iemitsu nodded repeatedly when he heard this, and said with a little relief: "Xinxi, this arrangement is the best strategy!"

This is the advantage of waiting for work, being well prepared!

At this time, Tokugawa Iemitsu was even looking forward to the start of the naval battle. It's just that the Ming Dynasty's navy was still gathering on the sea, seeming to be making pre-war arrangements.

After waiting for an unknown amount of time, finally, fifty warships of different sizes were separated from the huge naval warships of the Ming Dynasty and sailed towards the bay.

When Matsudaira Nobutsuna saw it, he immediately said to Tokugawa Iemitsu: "These fifty warships should be the vanguard of the Ming Dynasty navy to test our strength. As long as our warships do not leave the bay and have shore artillery If we help each other, we will be invincible. If the Ming Navy has been unable to attack the bay, it will have to find a coast to dock. In that case, our troops on the shore can attack the Ming Navy... …”

While he was talking, he heard a loud noise.

"Boom...boom...boom..."

Smoke rose from the shore, but it was the Japanese shore defense artillery that fired. The fired iron bullets fell on the sea and stirred up water jets.

Tokugawa Iemitsu saw it and said with a little regret: "What a pity, none of them were hit!"

Matsudaira Nobutsuna heard this and quickly explained: "The artillery is not accurate and the range is not enough. Even if the Dutch operate their artillery, it is probably impossible to hit it."

After hearing this, Tokugawa Iemitsu nodded and said, "What do those Ming warships want to do? Are they going to fight our artillery on the shore?"

When Matsudaira Nobutsuna heard this, he took a look and said: "Shogun, I think so, but our artillery on shore cannot hit the Ming Dynasty's warships, so it is impossible for Ming Dynasty's artillery to hit it." Our shore artillery!"

I can say this, but I can only say that Matsudaira Nobutsuna is just the wise Izu of Japan. I am short-sighted and don’t know that the Ming Dynasty’s artillery is no longer what it used to be.

Just like the original history, whether it is the British fleet or the fleet of the Eight-Nation Allied Forces, whether it is at the Pearl River Estuary or the Dagu Port, they can stop outside the range of the Manchu and Qing Dynasty shore defense artillery and blow up the shore defense artillery. Understand.

In this plane, Emperor Chongzhen improved the artillery based on the experience of later generations, and also had the ability to crush the old artillery. Not to mention the old artillery of Japan, even the artillery of the Dutch in Dayuan was not as numerous as the new artillery of the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, due to limited production, not all warships are equipped with new artillery.

On the sea, warships equipped with new artillery quickly launched a counterattack against the Japanese artillery on the shore.

"Boom boom boom..."

Compared with the sound of Japanese artillery firing one after another, the sound of Ming army artillery was continuous.

Under the flying iron bullets, Japan's artillery positions were bombarded both front and rear. However, it was the first round of firing after all, and there was no shore defense artillery position concentrated at the moment. However, anyone can see that it is only a matter of time before the goal is focused.

Seeing this scene, Tokugawa Iemitsu was dumbfounded. He turned to look at Matsudaira Nobutsuna and said, "Didn't you say that those Ming warships are still out of range? Why can they hit the shore?"

Matsudaira Nobutsuna was also shocked when he saw it, his face was very serious, but he still said in disbelief: "This is impossible. How can the artillery of the Ming Dynasty be more powerful than the artillery of the Dutch?"

According to his understanding, the most powerful artillery of the Ming Dynasty should be called the Hongyi Cannon. It was copied from the cannon salvaged from the sunken ship of Xiyi.

In other words, no matter how powerful the artillery of the Ming Dynasty was, it could not be more powerful than the artillery of the Western Yi!

In their shock and surprise, the Ming warship's artillery fired again.

"Boom boom boom..."

The continuous sound of artillery was deafening, but what made Tokugawa Iemitsu turn pale was not because the sound was too loud, but because he saw that the Ming warship's shelling had hit two artillery emplacements on the shore. . Although there are still several shore defense artillery guns on the shore, it is only a matter of time that they are cleared out by Ming warships one by one.

In other words, the Ming Navy could kill the Japanese artillery beyond the range of the Japanese artillery!

"Boom boom boom..."

After another round of artillery bombardment, the Japanese artillerymen fled the artillery position one after another. The constant bombardment caused them to lose their fighting spirit and they could only flee in confusion.

In fact, not only them, but also the Japanese naval forces watching the battle and the Japanese troops on the shore were all very shocked by the scene before them. Everyone looked dumbfounded. It can be seen that this had a big impact on the morale of the Japanese army!

Matsudaira Nobutsuna suddenly came to his senses and said loudly: "The fifty or so Ming warships just now were not a tentative attack at all, but wanted to bombard the naval warships in the bay from outside the range."

Having said this, he immediately turned to look at Tokugawa Iemitsu and said: "We can't wait any longer. The Ming Dynasty's artillery advantage is too obvious. The only way is to get closer and fight by jumping off the ship!"

Tokugawa Iemitsu nodded repeatedly when he heard this, and immediately changed his plan, and ordered the navy through a flag to dispatch all troops to engage the Ming Kingdom Navy.

So, after a while, the Japanese naval warships in the bay rushed out one after another. Many oarsmen on the warships rowed even harder. On the deck, you can still see the officer above, holding the command knife and slashing at the void of the Mingguo warship, his mouth moving.

It seems that the soldiers of the Japanese navy have recovered from the shelling just now, and some are just crazy.

Since ancient times, the most important thing in fighting is morale.

There is a saying that goes well, when we meet on a narrow road, the brave one wins! Not to mention, the Japanese soldiers at this time all transformed into crazy orcs.

Seeing this scene, Tokugawa Iemitsu breathed a sigh of relief. With his men working so hard, this battle can be expected.

Sure enough, when the fifty warships of the Ming Kingdom saw all the Japanese naval warships in the bay rushing out, they all retreated to the outer sea, where the main force of the Ming Navy was docked.

As a result, the Japanese naval warships seem to have become even crazier!

Matsudaira Nobutsuna saw him, and when he was about to speak to comfort Tokugawa Iemitsu, he saw the warships of the main force of the Ming Navy dispersed to both sides, and then rows of warships with special shapes came out and began to head towards the bay. The Japanese warships are charging here.

Just by looking at it, Matsudaira Nobutsuna's expression immediately changed. Because he recognized that those weird-shaped warships were the nemesis warships of the Japanese navy, which were turtle ships.

The length of a turtle ship is generally 30-37 meters, the width is 11.8 meters, the armor is fully enclosed, the top is covered with iron shells and spikes, it is armed with 26-30 artillery pieces, it can carry 120-130 people, and the power is shared by sails and oars. The bottom of its ship is "U" shaped, and its attack mainly relies on artillery. There are five types of artillery equipped on the turtle ship, with ranges ranging from 200 meters to 600 meters.

This was invented by Yi Sun-shin, the famous Korean navy general, against Japanese warships. He once found that the Korean navy only injured a few people, but the Japanese navy killed and injured more than a thousand people. Several naval battles were won.

Yi Sun-shin used this special warship to win several naval battles and save some face for North Korea.

If Japan still has foreign ambitions, then it will definitely have corresponding strategies for warships like turtle ships that target Japan's navy. For example, increasing the artillery equipment in the army, building warships that can be targeted, etc.

However, the Tokugawa shogunate did not want to expand abroad at all, but was afraid that other daimyo would imitate the Tokugawa family and seize the power of the Japanese country. Therefore, they strictly guarded against other daimyo, and even eventually adopted the policy of seclusion.

For the Japanese country with this kind of national policy, they would only take some measures against North Korea's turtle ships when they have no time to spare.

Therefore, although the Japanese people knew that North Korea's turtle ships were the nemesis of their navy, they only understood it.

But what happened later was far beyond their expectations.

First, Korea was annexed by the Jianlu, then the Jianlu were annihilated by the Ming Dynasty, and finally the Ming Dynasty suddenly sent troops to attack the Japanese country.

If there is time to prepare for the Japanese country, then the Japanese country may be more prepared. But the officers and soldiers were different, and the speed with which Emperor Chongzhen led the troops to annihilate the Jianlu could be described as lightning-fast. Then he continued to attack the Japanese country without stopping.

Therefore, until this time, everyone in the Japanese country was dumbfounded when they saw many turtle ships suddenly appearing in the Ming army's warship group.

The Japanese navy soldiers who were screaming and charging lost their momentum and even began to panic when they saw dozens of turtle ships approaching them.

As for the turtle ship, as its name suggests, the turtle shell was too hard and the Japanese navy's firearms could not cause damage to it at all. Jumping ship? His boat was covered with barbed armor, so he couldn't jump. Not to mention, there are artillery on the ship that can bombard them.

This is an absolute dog bites the hedgehog, I don’t know how to start!

As a result, these turtle ships were seen rushing directly into the warships of the Japanese navy, just like wolves rushing into the flock of sheep. They bombarded with artillery and ran rampant, directly throwing the Japanese navy into chaos.

Some of the unlucky Japanese warships were shelled and their cabins were breached and flooded, and some were ignited and caused raging fires...

Edo Bay is really in chaos. On the contrary, the Ming warships in the outer sea seemed to be like people watching a show.

Finally, some Japanese navy rushed outside and continued to launch a desperate charge against the Ming warship.

However, the Ming Dynasty warships were not in a hurry. They formed two diagonal fleets, like a team to welcome them, and bombarded the few Japanese navy warships that rushed out of the bay.

Not long after, the exit of the bay was blocked by damaged Japanese warships. If the Japanese warships behind wanted to rush out, they had to either hit the damaged warships or wait for the damaged warships to sink to the bottom of the sea.

About half an hour later, about fifty turtle boats rolled around in the bay, and more than twenty turtle boats came out. In other words, the turtle ships completely disrupted the Japanese navy in the bay at the cost of nearly thirty ships.

Seeing this scene, the Ming Navy warships immediately dispatched arson ships and launched a fire attack into the bay.

In this era, artillery still used solid projectiles to attack, and the most effective way to destroy the enemy was still fire.

Some Japanese warships tried to rush out, but they were all stopped by the Ming navy outside the sea. With more people fighting less, the Japanese sailors tried to jump off the ship to fight, which did not exist at all. The elite warriors prepared by the Japanese country, such as Miyamoto Iori and others, had no use at all, and many of them were even unlucky enough to be burned to death.

Looking at the one-sided battle situation in the bay almost from the beginning, Tokugawa Iemitsu's face was very pale. The battle he had pinned his hopes on, a battle related to Japan's national destiny, gave him a complete disappointment.

I don't know when, Tokugawa Iemitsu suddenly fell back. Thanks to his quick eyesight and quick hands, he was able to hold him and revive him from fainting.

The weak Tokugawa Iemitsu just told Matsudaira Nobutsuna: "Seek peace, no matter what conditions the Ming Dynasty Emperor imposes, as long as the Japanese country can be saved!"

It is impossible to negotiate peace after the expected victory, so the conditions for the Ming Emperor to agree to peace must be very high!

But what can be done?

(End of this chapter)