Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1049 The Great Fire of Edo
"Open the granary and release the grain!" A group of refugees on the outskirts of Edo City surrounded the granary set up by the shogunate on the bank of the Sumida River and confronted the samurai stationed there.

The number of displaced persons and surrounding tenant farmers and smallholders without food is in the thousands, and the number is growing.

"This is an important place for the shogunate, no one is allowed to approach, or they will be killed!" The samurai leader stopped the refugees who were gradually becoming irritable.

"There is still a mountain of grain in the granary, which is prepared for the samurai masters! When we were starving, they were still rich in clothes. They were leeches, attached to our bodies and sucked our blood!" Tanaka Chengichi said. Members of the Huaxia Society flocked down to call on the refugees gathered here.

As the president of the Huaxia Society, he has frequent activities and promotions in Edo Castle.Most of the samurai class are not interested in Tanaka Chengichi's Datong social concept, but because of the war, the lower-class citizens, farmers, and ronin who have no food suffer from hunger, and a large number of refugees join it because of the favor of the Huaxia Society.Tanaka Chengichi also confirmed his status among the Edo peasants.

"My lord, this person is the troublesome leader of the Huaxia Association, Tanaka Chengichi." A samurai recognized Tanaka Chengichi who was frequently active in Edo Castle, and whispered to the samurai leader.

"This guy, the shogunate has repeatedly arrested him and finally had to release him. He can do whatever he wants because he has a Chinese background behind him. Today I don't want to betray him! Someone, take down this group of rioters!" Guard the granary The samurai leader was somewhat annoyed when he saw Tanaka Chengyi leading the refugees to capture the granary.

"But my lord, there are a lot of people in their Huaxia Society..." some timid warriors under him reminded.

"There is nothing but, take them all down!" The warrior leader ordered.

The two hundred light feet guarding the granary pressed down on Tanaka Chengyi and the others with long spears or samurai swords and drove them away.

At this time, thousands of peasants and ronin who generally wore burlap gathered from all directions, some of them were carrying hoes, some of them were holding sticks, and stood behind Tanaka Chengichi.

At this time, there were two to three thousand members of the Huaxia Society and refugees gathered near the granary, ten times the number of warriors protecting the granary.With so many people behind him, Tanaka Chengyi stood in front of the shogunate with his head upright, without any fear.

"Damn it..." The warriors with armor and weapons dared not move forward. There were so many refugees, and they were also afraid of rioting and losing money.

"My lord, what should we do?" the Lightfoots asked their leader.

"Don't act rashly for the time being, go and report to the elders, the refugees seem to be rioting, we must try our best to control the situation!" The warrior leader replied unwillingly.

Edo Castle was originally in a state of prohibition, and the streets were filled with soldiers holding spears, and occasionally samurai with samurai swords were seen patrolling back and forth.

Abe Tadaaki and other important ministers still don't know whether the front-line shogunate army has been defeated, and they want to stabilize the situation in Edo Castle as much as possible before the situation becomes clear.When they learned that the most important granary was surrounded by rioters, they immediately mobilized three hundred light feet to protect the granary.

"President, the shogunate has sent more troops here. They don't want us to capture the granary. Our Huaxia Association's funds are almost exhausted, and we don't have money to buy relief food from Huaxia merchants for disaster relief. What should we do?" Huaxia Association Seeing that more and more soldiers were sent to protect the granary, the people asked Tanaka Chengichi for instructions.

"We need to use force to capture Edo Castle! Create chaos in Edo Castle and mobilize all hungry peasants and ronin to capture the castle tower!" Tanaka Cheng knew that this was a good time to seize power when he saw the anger of the people.

"The center of Edo Castle is where daimyo and samurai gather, and there are soldiers patrolling the streets. How can we create chaos?" a member of the Huaxia Society asked Tanaka Chengichi.

"Set it on fire! Most of the Edo Castle is a wooden house. We ordered the dead to set it on fire, causing a large-scale fire..." Tanaka Chengichi said.

"Set fire in Edo Castle? There are too many wooden houses in the city. I don't know if the flames will engulf the entire city. Will such an approach hurt some innocent people?" The members of the Huaxia Society hesitated.

"Those who do big things don't care about small things, so what if they just pay some sacrifices in order to overthrow the shogunate and the samurai class?" Tanaka Chengichi said nonchalantly, "In the past few years, our Huaxia Society has been secretly executed by the shogunate. Pay the price for this. Most of the places where the fire was set were the places where daimyo and samurai gathered. Although some civilians will be affected, there is no way to do it..."

"Then we'll go down and do it."

Boom!In Edo Castle at night, there was a sudden explosion of gunpowder, and the raging fire annihilated a wooden house!The ferocious fire spread and climbed all around, and the wooden houses in a small area were swallowed up by the flames!
"The water is gone! The water is gone!" The watchman watched in horror as the flames rolled, the firewood crackled, and the billowing black smoke sank into the night under the light of the fire.

Thick smoke billowed and filled the surroundings, and some samurai and their families escaped from the burning house clutching wet cloths.Influenced by Tang Ming culture, Dongying also commonly used wooden houses, and the fire spread rapidly.

"What happened to the explosion just now?!" The escaped daimyo's face was covered in black ashes, and he shouted hysterically.

Beside him was a child as young as five years old, and a woman in a loose kimono.

"My lord, it seems that the house over there is on fire, and the fire has spread over there. You'd better get out of here, or you will be affected by the fire!" The retainers and warriors who put out the fire came to put out the fire.

"The house over there?!" Daming looked in the direction the samurai were pointing, and found that the fire was the fiercest on the side of Benmiao Temple. "Why did Benmiao Temple catch fire suddenly, and what happened to the explosion before?"

Following the wind, the fire started from the vestibule of Honmyoji Temple, and then the fire spread to the Honmaru and Ninomaru of Edo Castle, and Edo Castle was engulfed in flames!
"The fire is going to spread to the Honmaru Palace!" The warriors of the Tokugawa family gathered nervously in front of the sea of ​​flames, carrying the well water that was rushed to them, which seemed to be of no avail.

At this time, there were not even regular firefighters. During the fire, Tadakatsu Sakai and other veteran ministers organized daimyo rescue.The houses in Edo Castle were all next to each other, and there were almost no disaster prevention measures. The sudden fire caused the sleeping daimyo, banner, samurai and their families in Edo Castle to flee for their lives, and many people even died in the sea of ​​flames!

On the city wall outside Edo Castle, there was a banner of the Tokugawa family stationed with a samurai sword, looking at the wailing core area of ​​Edo Castle, and sighed heavily.

(End of this chapter)