Wild North America 1846

Chapter 400 The Changzhou Fan in the Firelight

Fuso Islands, Shimonoseki

The city fire has been burning for 5 days and 5 nights. Countless fiery ash floats in the sky of Xiaguan City. The city is a piece of burnt black ruins. When the sea breeze blows, it rises into the sky like black fog.

Standing on a high fort
The head of the Choshu clan advocates Mori Noto, the hardliners such as Hisaka Genzui, and the lower-level samurai, farmers, and Takasugi Shinsaku who organized a surprise army from townspeople, looking at the burning city, their eyes are full of bloodshot eyes.

Noto Mori sighed after a long time; "My dignified China has never suffered foreign insults since ancient times, and the slight insult I have incurred today is very serious."

"My lord, the ships of European and American countries are strong and powerful, and the fort of the Xiaocang Fan can't last long. I suggest that if necessary, we can temporarily avoid the edge and attack the enemy after they land." Hisaka Xuanrui said dryly, obviously unwilling.

Shinsaku Takasugi hurriedly took a step forward, bowed and saluted, and said, "This must not be the case. I have served in the Tang army for many years, and I know its details well. The Tang army has always been brutal in wars, killing people in the wild. A catastrophe is coming, and all the towns and cities of our Changzhou Fan will be razed to the ground, please think twice, please."

The head of the Changzhou feudal clan followed Maori Nengdeng's pale face for a long time. At this time, a fan soldier with a flag on his back ran over quickly, knelt down in front of the head of the feudal clan, and reported loudly; "Master Qizuo, Western warships have entered the bay again."

"what……"

Noto stood up in surprise, took a few steps forward, picked up the binoculars, and looked into the distance of the strait.

at the end of sight
One after another, dark steam ironclad ships floated on the sea surface. The tall triangular masts exuded a cold luster, and thick black smoke spewed from the huge chimneys. His hands and feet were cold.

Mori Noto recognized it at a glance. The two steam iron-clad giant ships in the front row were the iron-clad cruisers "Guangfeng" and "Evil Wind" from Tang, followed by four "Akizuki"-class iron-clad destroyers. , These six ships were the chief culprits for the complete destruction of Xiaguan City. The artillery fire they fired was so powerful that they ignited the entire city building.

"My lord, we must prevent the foreign ships from approaching. Please order the fort to fire. The surprise soldiers under my command are willing to fight bloody battles and swear to the death to keep the enemy in the bay." Shinsaku Takasugi once again bowed deeply to invite the battle.

Seeing more than a dozen steam ironclad battleships gathering in the Chofu Strait, Hisaka Xuanrui showed a look of fear on his face, and opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Now the intensified "respecting the king and fighting the barbarians movement" in Fusang has finally triggered military intervention led by Tang, Britain, France and the Netherlands. It is not known how many people will die with such serious consequences. It is false to say that there is no psychological regret.

But things have come to this point, so I can only bite the bullet and go on.

In 1858, the Shogunate signed the "Treaty of Commerce and Commerce" with the Tang Dynasty, Britain, France, Russia, the Netherlands and other powers, that is, the "Ansei Five Kingdoms Treaty", which stipulated that Yokohama Port was opened.

The big powers asked Yokohama to open the port for trade, but the military value of Yokohama should not be underestimated.

Yokohama Port is one of the sea passages in East Asia, and together with Shanghai and Hong Kong, constitutes the three major transportation hubs in East Asia.With today's navigation technology, it is still impossible to cross the Pacific Ocean from America to China directly, so it is necessary to go to Japan to supply supplies and coal. Yokohama Port is also the logistics support base for large-scale immigration from the Tang Dynasty.

After the opening of the port, Yokohama and Nagasaki have become an important international trade market. Because of its huge military value and an important logistics supply base in the immigration route, Tang naturally attaches great importance to Yokohama.

After the opening of Yokohama Port, Yokohama gradually formed foreign settlements. The status of the settlements was similar to that of concessions, and the settlements had scope and boundaries.

On the land leading to the settlement, the shogunate set up checkpoints, and ordinary Japanese were not allowed to enter at will, while Europeans and Americans were free to come and go.

The "Anzheng Treaty" also stipulated that the foreign powers entered Edo to open consulates, which greatly stimulated the anti-barbarian faction.

In the hearts of the ruined warriors, the Fusang Islands are the "Kingdom of God". How can the "Kingdom of God" be trampled by foreigners?

Edo actually plays the role of the capital of Fusang, and foreigners dare to openly enter and exit and live in the "great capital", which is really tolerable and unbearable!

Therefore, assassinations of foreigners often occurred in Edo and Yokohama, represented by the "raw wheat incident", "Ido Valley incident" and "Tozenji incident". ", which made European and American countries request to station troops in Yokohama to further strengthen the control and occupation of the Fusang Islands.

In 1861, the incident of Russia's occupation of Tsushima Island caused both Britain and Tang to be vigilant. They worried that Russia would further occupy the Fusang Islands, which was not in line with the fundamental interests of the two countries.

Therefore, it is reasonable to act before the Russians and deepen their control over the Fusang Islands.

最先正式向扶桑驻扎陆军的是法国。1863年4月5日法国非洲轻步兵第三营的250余名官兵已进驻横滨，法国驻日军队一直维持在200-300人左右。

Later than France, the United Kingdom and the Tang Dynasty officially sent troops to Yokohama on May 1862, 5 and three days later. The British army had more than 22 people as soon as they entered the field. The Tang army directly stationed two infantry regiments of the Royal Navy and one Artillery regiment, a total of more than 1760 people.

The garrison actions of Britain, France, Tang and other countries deeply stimulated the "respecting the king and fighting the barbarians" faction, so there were bad incidents such as Changzhou Fan's fort shelling American and Dutch merchant ships, which further aroused the anger of Europe, America and other countries, and the coalition forces decided to implement war punishment.

"Bombarding Shimonoseki" was a strong response from the coalition forces. Now a few days later, the coalition fleet entered the Changfu Strait again in a murderous manner. It was definitely not for good deeds.

Inside the conning tower of the steam ironclad cruiser "Gust"

The commander of the fleet, Rear Admiral Zheng Shuyu, had a clear goal, which was to bombard the fort of the Xiaocang Fan, smash the hastily repaired fort, and then send the landing officers and soldiers ashore to deter the Fusang people with brutal force, so as to "kill chickens to scare monkeys". effect.

rumbling guns

The bombardment by the United Fleet on the shore had already begun, and the Japanese defenders of the Ogura Fort, not to be outdone, fired back.

more than an hour later

The fort of Xiaocangfan was completely misfired, and the dead soldiers on the emplacement were piled up, layer upon layer. Under the fierce attack of the advanced artillery fire of the joint fleet, most of the more than 830 artillerymen of the fort of Xiaocangfan were killed, the artillery was damaged, and the fort was also destroyed. It was riddled with holes.

Under the cover of the steam armored battleship, the steam freighter transporting the soldiers approached the shore, then lowered the boat, and transported the landing soldiers to the beach one after another.

With Fan soldiers and Takasugi Jin as the surprise soldiers, Fusang folk samurai and townspeople formed the punishment team, Hachiman team, guerrilla team and other teams, armed with muskets and shiny long knives, charged out, trying to counterattack the soldiers who landed.

The Tang and British soldiers, who had been prepared for a long time, lined up in two lines, one squatted down and shot, and the other stood up and shot. Amidst the "crackling" sound of neatly lined up guns, they knocked down countless roaring Fusang people rushing over to the ground. Cannot get closer than 150 meters.

The fierce battle lasted for several hours, and most of the coalition soldiers had landed, but the bodies of the Fusang people on the beach were so black that they could not be seen at a glance, and thousands of people were killed and injured.

However, there were very few casualties among the soldiers of the Allied soldiers.

Under the attack of advanced weapons, any bravery will give away the head. The coalition soldiers who landed rushed to the fort in black, and killed the remaining Fusang people who resisted mercilessly.

"Get out of here, Takasugi-kun, rushing up now is going to kill you, Fusang country needs people with lofty ideals like you! Please think twice!" Captain Ito Hirobumi of the eighth division firmly grabbed Takasugi Shinsaku by the skirt, not to let the impulsive Takasugi Jin Zuo fought desperately with the enemy.

Looking at the tragic battlefield in front of him, the warriors of the Raiders died in various numbers, Shinsaku Takasugi was already filled with great sorrow, and said in a hoarse voice; "I am too conceited. When the foreign and barbarians confronted each other, I made a wrong decision based on passion, and I should apologize to the emperor for causing trouble for the people.”

"Takasugi-kun, don't die lightly, that's a coward's act, I hope you leave your useful body to serve the country!"

"Ito-kun, my heart is bleeding!" Shinsaku Takasugi calmed down and said with even more grief and indignation; "The army of the Tang Dynasty is especially cruel. Seeing their cruel treatment of whites and Indians in North America, I feel it from the bottom of my heart. Trembling! My biggest mistake was not to provoke the army of the Tang Dynasty, but now I need countless compatriots' painstaking efforts and lives to atone for my crime, I am really sorry!"

"Well, the matter has come to this, so don't say something irrelevant."

Ito Hirobumi is also bleeding in his heart at this moment, and his Hachiman team is almost dead. Originally, there were tens of thousands of soldiers and surprise soldiers with flags on their backs, and the punishment team, Hachiman team, and guerrillas. There are more than a thousand people in the lower district.

Moreover, the courage of these more than a thousand people has been frightened, and they are no longer able to fight.

Looking at the coalition soldiers rushing up in black pressure, if they don't want to die here, they have no choice but to run away.

After being brutally attacked by European and American armies, the "Respecting the King and Fighting Barbarians" on the Fusang Islands finally woke up and realized that challenging the foreign barbarians with the current strength of the Fusang Islands would only bring about ruthless destruction and death.

However, it was too late to realize this. The armies of Tang, Britain, France and other countries armed to the teeth had already killed them. The cities and villages of Changzhou Fan were ablaze everywhere, and screams could be heard endlessly...

A few days later

Yoshida Castle in Anyi County and Dicheng City, where the feudal lord Mori lived, were successively breached. The brutal Tang army and the British and French troops burned, killed and looted these two cities with a history of hundreds of years and burned them to nothing.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians were displaced during the war and were forced to flee everywhere. How can this situation not make people feel sad?

The chief executive of the Changzhou feudal clan advocated Mori Noto, and the hardliners such as Hisaka Genzui knelt on the side of the road and committed suicide by caesarean section to atone for their crimes. However, Takasugi Shinsaku and other culprits are far away, where is nowhere to be seen?

(End of this chapter)