Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1045 The Fleet Approaches
The huge sailing battleship Victory sailed close to the coastline in the Seto Inland Sea, behind it were warships, supply ships, and troop carriers.

There are dozens of mighty ships, making the fishing boats fishing in the Seto Inland Sea stay away.The fishermen in rough cloth hid in the small fishing boats and watched the Zhili fleet pass by vigilantly: "What a terrible fleet. Could this be a warship from the mainland?"

"Soon we will reach Osaka Bay at the end of the Seto Inland Sea. The total number of soldiers of the shogunate and the conscripts and auxiliary soldiers exceeds 10, and the city of Osaka has been surrounded layer by layer. Our intelligence personnel led The deployment map that came was from a month ago, and it is very likely that the situation has changed, and maybe even Osaka Castle has been captured.” A navy captain unfolded the deployment map of Osaka Castle, which marked the information obtained by the spies of the Military Intelligence Department. Intelligence, there are various arrows indicating the offensive and defensive situation of the shogunate army and the fallen coalition forces.

Naval Commander-in-Chief Nelson sat cross-legged on the deck: "Winter is over, if I were the commander-in-chief of the shogunate, I would definitely launch a general attack on Osaka Castle."

"This time our troop carrier did not bring many soldiers, only an infantry brigade with 3000 troops." Said another navy captain who came to provide military advice.

"To deploy 3000 people requires more than ten troop carriers, as well as to transport food, ammunition, bedding, and tents for them. A supply ship is essential. The Ministry of Finance allocated little money for our war, and we can dispatch two fleets at a time. , Hundreds of ships of various types are already quite difficult. To deliver infantry and artillery, the strength of a brigade is the limit. It is not that it is impossible to deliver a corps, but that the budget is insufficient." The officer in charge of the Ministry of the Navy said.

"Can 3000 infantry defeat the [-]-strong army of the shogunate?" a naval officer asked.

"The shogunate claims to have an army of 3. In fact, the fighting army is only 5000 to [-] people. The elite may only have a few thousand people. It is a new type of army that we helped them train before. Our Zhili fleet will also go ashore to assist them in combat and logistics. In addition, there are about [-] combat personnel, and it should not be a problem to defeat the shogunate's army."

"No, the goal of our Zhili fleet is not Osaka Castle, but to destroy the shogunate's navy, cut off the retreat of the shogunate army from the waterway, especially to block the Nagoya generation's sea area." Nelson said, "Put infantry and artillery in Osaka After the city, we will continue to search north along Honshu Island for the enemy's navy."

"The combat goal of the Fourth Fleet is to go directly to Edo Castle. According to intelligence, there are less than 3000 troops in Edo Castle and its surroundings, and all the main forces are concentrated in Osaka Castle and Kyoto. We have to deal with the main force of the Shogunate, and the Fourth Fleet can Taking the enemy's capital easily, the difference in treatment is really big."

"After all, the Fourth Fleet is a newly established fleet. It should be going to the Western Ocean to fight. This time, participating in the civil war in Japan is just to run in with the captains of the Fourth Fleet, so the combat mission given to them by the military department is very simple."

When the Zhili Fleet entered the Seto Inland Sea, the Fourth Fleet moored at Lushunwei was also ready to go. There were more than a dozen warships and supply ships with naval soldiers busy conducting final inspections.

Ruan Youjin dressed as a lieutenant colonel of the Kyushu Army. According to the order issued by the Ministry of the Navy, he will serve as the captain of the battleship Soochow and be responsible for the blockade of Edo Bay.

"Ready to set sail!" The main ship of the Shuhan raised the semaphore for departure.

The Fourth Fleet has three sail battleships, Wei Guo, Soochow, and Shuhan, among which Shuhan is the main ship of the fleet with more than 70 artillery pieces, while the Soochow and Weiguo battleships are slightly less powerful, with 50 artillery pieces. A battleship of the artillery class.

"Our combat goal is to occupy Edo Castle. Part of our troops will block Edo Bay by sea, and the other part will take a train from Yokohama Port to Edo Castle by land. At that time, someone will meet us in Edo Castle." Shuhan on board , Sun Xu, the commander of the Fourth Fleet, looked at the topographic map of Edo Castle. After several years of operation, the Military Intelligence Department was able to easily obtain the defense map of Edo Castle.

"Who will be in Edo Castle to meet us?"

"In Edo Castle, besides the civil servants such as schools, newspaper offices, banks, etc., do we have other people in it?"

The naval officer on the Shuhan asked.

"Of course there are people. The military department has been planning for Japan for a long time. There must be a plan to make such an arrangement. At that time, people will naturally meet us. I will disembark at Yokohama Port and lead [-] soldiers to disembark and take the train to Edo Castle .” Sun Xu said.

"Obey!" Many naval officers responded.

The walls of Osaka Castle were attacked by tens of thousands of shogunate troops. Cold weapons and hot weapons were intertwined, and dozens of Frang machine artillery organized by the shogunate army were roaring.The earthen wall of Sanada Maru was concentrated by Frangji artillery, and many clods on the wall fell off, making people worry whether the earthen wall of Sanadamaru could survive the artillery offensive of the shogunate.

"In the past, when Sanada Yukimura built this demaru to resist the shogunate army, the artillery of the shogunate was not as fierce as it is now. After 20 years of development, especially after the Kyushu army opened the country, the shogunate bought a lot from Frangki merchants. The Folang cannon also imitated a batch of artillery according to the field artillery used by the Kyushu Army. It is estimated that there are dozens of cannons in the city, and there are many older cannons, which are more powerful than iron cannons, but lower than Buddha Lang cannons, all kinds of firearms may add up to hundreds of them. Those ancient artillery pose little threat to our city walls, but Fran cannons and imitation field guns are likely to smash down the city walls..." Tachibana Tadamo Feeling the shaking of the city wall, he said to General Zong Mao.

"The artillery is really powerful. It is estimated that Sanada Maru will be blown out of the gap within three days. The shape of the war has changed..." Zong Mao saw a large piece of soil fell off the wall after being hit by the shell , helpless to the artillery offensive of the shogunate.

The artillery below was bombarding the earthen wall. Tachibana Muneshige could only suppress the opponent's firepower as much as possible and organize a reserve team to block the gap. Some tactics that could be used before in front of the artillery were also invalid.

The Napoleon artillery brought by Lu Xiangsheng was basically turned into scrap iron because of the exhaustion of ammunition.

"We used to pay attention to the Tanegashima iron cannon, but now it seems that the role of the cannon in the siege is far greater than that of the iron cannon. After the spring, the earth wall and the city wall become wet and loose, and the ability to resist the artillery has declined a lot. Push up the spare artillery together, and we must break through the Sanada Maru as soon as possible." Shogun Iemitsu Tokugawa spared no expense and used all the artillery transported to Osaka Castle in winter.

(End of this chapter)