I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 679: The Ming Dynasty’s version of the “Black Ship Incident”

Is this the end?
When the shogunate's "Navy" fought against the Ming fleet, many lords, samurai, ronin, and even merchants and civilians living in Edo City all ran to the shore to watch the battle.

As a result, the huge shogunate navy was defeated by the Ming army's fleet in almost a quarter of an hour.

The entire naval battle cannot be regarded as a naval battle, because the pirates hired by the shogunate had no ability to resist at all. They were hammered throughout the whole process, and even the flagship of the pirate general was captured.

Munehiro Mori, who came to Edo to participate in the mission, couldn't help but feel frightened when he saw the powerful combat power of the Ming fleet: "The Chinese warships are sharp, especially the Dutch warships."

The other daimyo present were a little confused, but when they saw that the one speaking was the (former) Maori family, the "leader" of the Japanese navy, they were all horrified.

A daimyo couldn't help but said: "The Chinese fleet is so powerful that even the shogunate's navy can't defeat it. Now the Chinese emperor has sent troops to kill us. The reason for this must be Japan's seclusion. The general has angered the Chinese emperor. What's next for the Chinese army?" I’m afraid they will attack Edo Castle.”

"The shogunate navy has been defeated. We should return to the city as soon as possible."

"that's right."

"Hurry up and go."

"..."

A group of daimyo came in a hurry and ran away quickly. They took their wives, children and companions and ran towards Edo Castle.

Their run also attracted other samurai ronin who were watching the fun on the shore.

The Edo shogunate during the Tokugawa Ieyasu period claimed to have 80,000 flags, but in fact it was definitely not that many.

What the Hatamoto 80,000 actually refers to is that in addition to the daimyo of the various feudal lords, the territory directly under the Edo shogunate can dispatch 80,000 troops, which is the Hatamoto Army (the troops directly under the general).

Moreover, these 100 banner soldiers must also include hatamoto samurai, royal family members (lower-level samurai with less than koku of knowledge and practice), accomplices (retainers of retainers), and a large number of ashigaru.

The actual number of Hatamoto samurai in Edo would not exceed 5000 at most, but don’t forget that in addition to these 5000 Hatamoto samurai, there were many more ronin hanging around with swords outside.

So many Hatamoto samurai and idle ronin all swarmed into Edo City, and more civilians and merchants were also crowding in.

The daimyo of each domain entered the city first, but everyone else had to queue up.

So many people have to be crammed into the small Edo Castle. Where can they possibly fit in?

For a time, there was a lot of crying and wailing outside the city, and children were crying from time to time. Tokugawa Yoshimune climbed on the city wall, looked at the chaos outside the city, and heard about the defeat in the Edo Bay naval battle, and his heart was already shaken.

Even Tadayuki Mizuno, his close confidant, and Tadayuki Ooka on the other side were quite confused. They couldn't figure out why the Chinese emperor would brazenly fight with Japan for a few despicable businessmen. War?
Are those merchants that important to the Chinese emperor?
In fact, this issue is not that important anymore, because Edo City cannot be defended, and the Chinese army enters the city and captures General Yoshimune. Even if there are no prisoners, just forcing Japan to reopen the country, the majesty of the shogunate will be wiped out in an instant.

Moreover, as the general White Glove who proposed to seize the country, Mizuno Tadayuki will be finished here, and he may have to be pushed out by General Yoshimune and commit hara-kiri.

By the way, there is Tadayama Ooka. This guy can't escape either. It may not be as serious as committing seppuku, but it's not impossible to beat him to the end and even cut off the stone.

"Chinese troops have landed!"

Someone shouted.

Mizuno Tadayuki took advantage of the situation and said: "Sir General, the Chinese Emperor brazenly sent troops to start a war with our Japanese vassal country. This is against the principles of the Celestial Sect. The shogunate should immediately write to the Celestial Emperor and ask why the unprovoked war was started? And...defend Edo Castle!"

Tadashi Ooka also said: "Edo Castle cannot be destroyed, otherwise the shogunate and the shogun will lose all their prestige."

Tokugawa Yoshimune is also a ruthless person. After all, he can climb up from the side branch step by step to the main shogun. After all, he still has some skills: "Recruit the daimyo samurai of each domain, as well as the ronin in the city, and immediately prepare for the Chinese army that landed in Edo Bay." . If Edo can be defended in this battle, the shogunate will award Hatamoto samurai to all the ronin who have made meritorious service."

Hatamoto Samurai?

Mizuno Tadayuki and the others don't like it, but the ronin in the castle must be very happy.

After giving so much treatment to the Hatamoto samurai at once, it seems that the shogun is determined to defend Edo Castle.

There are still many samurai ronin outside the city who have not entered the city, but the Ming army has landed on the Edo coast. The shogunate can only order the city gate to be closed and send a daishou to lead the ronin samurai outside in street fighting, consuming the Ming Dynasty. The combat power of the army.

In the outer industrial and commercial district of the castle town, there are no merchants or civilians here. Everyone has run away or been forcibly recruited as cannon fodder for civilians.

The vanguard of the Ming army had put on full body armor and fought with hundreds of warriors rushing over from the opposite side of the street.

There were warriors shooting arrows in the attics of the houses on both sides of the street. They had no way to enter the city, so they had no firearms.

Of course, it's useless to have them. Japanese firearms are still stuck in the age of matchlocks, but the caliber is particularly large.

It's not that Japan can't make flintlock muskets, but that Japan doesn't have the necessary raw materials for flintlock muskets, and it's completely impossible to achieve mass production if they are purchased.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

A large number of the more than a hundred warriors who charged fell instantly under the guns of the Ming army.

How could a cold weapon really be better than a musket?

And it is a flintlock gun that fires faster than a matchlock gun. Before the vanguard heavy infantry could confront the warriors, the muskets killed more than ten people, and then grenades were ignited and thrown out.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

If the battle can be solved with firearms, why do a group of heavy infantry have to go up and exhaust their energy?
In street fighting, this grenade was so powerful that the samurai ronin rushing in the back row were all huddled together, with no time and no place to escape.

After several waves of explosions, only a few of the more than a hundred warriors survived. Even the warriors on both sides who fired cold arrows were knocked out of the window and fell heavily into the broken limbs, unable to move.

A heavy infantryman of the Ming Army rushed forward and asked a samurai who was not knocked unconscious: "Let's have a good street fight. Are you going to shoot me cold arrows?"

"Pfft!"

With one stab, the head fell to the ground.

Even the seppuku was omitted and the mistake was made directly.

The remaining ones who were not dead were able to finish their attacks on the spot without surrendering. They pushed all the way to the city gate. The warriors' bows and arrows were completely useless and could not shoot through the Ming army's plate armored infantry.

A few rounds of grenades and two more rounds of queuing to kill, what samurai is left?
The temporary general who was sent out to lead the samurai ronin outside the city to fight the Ming army in street battles was almost scared to death: "What kind of tactics is this for the Chinese army? I have read so many military books and studied with my father on the battlefield. Why have I never seen such a method of fighting before?”

There is no way, times have changed, and Ming China has now entered the era of semi-firearms.

In addition to the sugar-powder armor-piercing projectiles and steam battleships that have not yet been developed, even the Cannon Ordnance Bureau has a design plan, but it is still in the process of experimentation.

These are all firearms that can be developed in the current era, but no one has thought before that the enemies encountered by the Europeans were too weak, so weak that the weapons they had on hand were enough.

Counting sugar and ammunition, the Ming army's military industry has surpassed Europe for at least a hundred years. Compared with Japan, which is still stuck in the last century, it is really a dimensionality reduction attack.

In street fighting, just shitty street fighting, the heavy armored infantry have completely become human shields, and there are very few opportunities for real hand-to-hand combat.

If you encounter an enemy hiding in the attic to defend themselves, throw a grenade at the attic window and blow it up directly.

A group of samurai ronin who knew nothing about grenades saw a smoking thing flying in from the window, and then gathered around to see what was going on.

With a "bang" sound, everyone can see the great god they worship "Kensu Susanoo no Ming (more worshiped by Japanese people)".

The gap in combat effectiveness is too huge!
The ronin in the outer city are all rubbish. They only hang out with swords on weekdays. They can be regarded as Chinese ruffians, and the samurai are similar. They are similar to the military leaders of the guards in the Ming Dynasty who inherited the legacy of their ancestors.

It's okay to let them oppress civilians and scold and kill ronin, but let them fight?

What it is?
Perhaps even their fathers had never seen a battlefield, so they suppressed the common people.

There was no other way. After Tokugawa Ieyasu unified Japan, he suppressed the war and restored Japan to "the prosperous age of world peace."

The rule of the Edo shogunate has long been stagnant, and the current war is very similar to the Black Ship Incident a hundred years later. Both foreign fleets entered Edo Bay and knocked on the door of Japan.

No, it should not be called a black ship incident now, because the Chinese warships are not black, but have yellow-brown hulls.

The streets were full of corpses of warriors, and they were generally incomplete. These samurai ronin were frightened and spontaneously gathered at the city gate. But they were not allowed to enter the city and could only go around Edo Castle in circles.

The famous general was lucky to be alive, but the situation was not good. The shrapnel from a previous grenade stabbed him in the abdomen.

Without a professional doctor to perform surgery on him, the shrapnel would fester and suppurate, and he wouldn't live long.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

"The whole army rushes to kill!"

The warriors in the outer city were retreating, and the Ming army officially launched a general attack, even using cavalry.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

There is a horse farm in southern Liaoning, and these cavalry can still be brought, and they were originally brought here only to be used as reconnaissance cavalry.

Now it seems that there is no need at all. The combat power of these Japanese samurai is too weak.

Wang Zongtan saw this and felt not only that they were weak, but also that they were very short.

Generally, the gap is only 1.5 to 1.6 meters, and it cannot be any higher.

How the hell can we fight?
When the cavalry dispatched troops, although there were only a few hundred people, the visual impact of the Marwar horses and professional knights was too strong for those short Japanese samurai.

In particular, these cavalry were fully armed, and the samurai ronin no longer dared to resist.

The injured daimyo general was thrown away directly and became a prisoner of the Ming army. The remaining thousands of samurai ronin were all routed and driven around by the Ming army.

On the wall of Edo, the retainers of Tokugawa Yoshimune and Mizuno Tadashi, as well as several daimyo, were watching the battle. Their faces were already pale.

(End of this chapter)