After all, Ryukyu is not an ancient civilization. Before the Ming Dynasty, it was just a large island in the East China Sea with primitive tribalism and no country. Therefore, some of the ancient place names in the Ryukyu Kingdom are very simple and unpretentious.
For example, Beishan, Zhongshan, and Nanshan mean that Ryukyu Island has three mountains from south to north, and each mountain is occupied by a large tribe. That was the period when the three mountains of Ryukyu existed side by side in ancient times. Three large tribes were three nation.
Zhongshan Kingdom, Nanshan Kingdom, and Kitayama Kingdom. Among them, Zhongshan Kingdom, where Shuri Castle is located, was the first to establish friendly relations with the Ming Dynasty. It was with the support of the Ming Dynasty that Zhongshan Kingdom unified the Ryukyu Islands and finally established The ancient Ryukyu Kingdom.
In the eyes of the Ryukyu natives, the unification of the three mountains was a great event, but for the Ming Dynasty at that time, it was a story of three villages fighting and finally merging into one big village. To put it harshly, a county magistrate was sent there. It's a bit of a shame to interfere with someone's seventh-grade Sesame Officer.
The history of Sanshan Kingdom has ended, but the ancient place names have been preserved. Nanshan and Beishan have become important strategic highlands that protect Shuri Castle.
The battle on the Beishan defense line was epic, but Nanshan was not a stagnant water. On the cement permanent observation post on the top of the mountain, three sentries with scarlet eyes stared at the French warships on the sea all day long.
The surrounding fortifications had long been blown into ruins. A fort was originally going to be built here, but before it was officially completed, it was bombarded by French warships, leaving only a mess.
"Mr. Matthew, please have a drink of water..." A soldier held a bamboo tube of water and sent it over. The tall man who took the bamboo tube looked carefully and saw that he was a foreigner with a big nose.
This foreigner was an old friend of the Ryukyu monarchs. He was the military observer sent by the U.S. President Lincoln. Matthew, it was this American military attaché named Matthew who, after getting old, re-recorded the diaries of his travels to China. It was compiled and a strange book called "Matthew's Diary" was released.
That book recorded in detail everything he experienced in East Asia, and from the perspective of a bystander, recorded the rise of the entire East Asian nation.
There are precise figures, detailed texts, rich photos, and even interviews with civil servants and military generals that people in later generations can only look up to. Of course, at that time, these dazzling political and military elders were just a bunch of ignorant people. Where's the boy?
A Matthew's diary has become a must-read material for scholars in later generations to study Xiao Letian and the history of the rise of East Asia.
Now Matthew has never left the Nanshan Observation Post since the French warship appeared in Naha Bay. The view from here is wide and commanding. Not only can he overlook Shuri Castle on the opposite mountain, he can also overlook the entire urban area below. You can also have a panoramic view of the vast Naha Bay.
Except for the battle situation on the Kitayama side, which he couldn't see, all the remaining battles could not escape his eyes and the camera in his hand.
The moment the French opened fire on civilians without declaring war, Matthew was completely angry. Americans who have experienced a century of western development have a cowboy spirit in their bones, and their worship of individual heroism has reached the extreme. They have Possessing a heroic sentiment unique to Europeans.
In Matthew's mind, war cannot completely avoid harming civilians, but it cannot be like Molière and you, who started shelling without even declaring war, and threw all the shells at the residents in order to increase the damage. Zone, and it’s still a fucking explosive bomb.
It was unbearable. Matthew really wanted to rush forward and fight the French, but after all, he was a military attache appointed by the president. If he joined this war, it would definitely cause diplomatic disputes.
After much deliberation, Matthew decided to record all this with his most cherished camera. After the war is over, he must make all this public and let the whole world condemn this atrocity.
Burning slums, collapsed commercial streets, seaports filled with dead bodies, weeping refugee camps, brightly lit medical stations... Of course, there are also charging New Army soldiers and student soldiers giving impassioned speeches.
Among the countless photos, the most popular one is of course the one overlooking the entire battlefield from the top of the South Mountain. Standing here always gives Matthew a feeling of being a God. Only from this angle can he truly feel the grandeur of the war. .
"Sir...look at the bay on the other side..." A scream brought Matthew's thoughts back to reality. He turned his head to the south and saw the exaggeratedly large white recognition flag, with the big Chinese characters across the Can see clearly from any distance.
"God bless me, what is this... Ryukyu reinforcements? Give me the camera..." A soldier carried a tripod to Matthew, while another soldier picked off the conch and puffed up his cheeks and whined. It blew up.
No one knows the identity of that ship, but as long as it flies the Xiao character recognition flag, it must be a friend rather than an enemy.
The conch horn alerted other observation posts, and more than ten hidden observation points throughout Nanshan discovered abnormalities on the sea surface, followed by the sound of the conch horn.
Then the hidden observation posts at Qixing Mountain, Zhongshan, and Shuri Castle also discovered abnormalities, and the sound of horns continued throughout the bay.
What a shocking scene this is. Even French Major General Bruce was dumbfounded. Under the gaze of a row of warships, people watched helplessly as a Chinese sailing ship squeezed through the middle of two frigates. The sound of wood snapping was heard even by Bruce.
Of the three Chinese pirate ships, two chose to die together with the French warships. Now the two frigates were shouting like thunder, and the fish that slipped through the net was not much better. When he squeezed into Naha Bay, the sides of the hull were It has been completely cut open.
The French soldiers were stunned. There was nothing above the waterline on the side of the Chinese pirate ship. It was like an anatomy model displayed in the Naval Academy. People could see the entire internal structure of the pirate ship at a glance.
The sailors carrying gunpowder in the gunpowder cabin, the cooks holding boning knives and baring their teeth, and the wounded soldiers resting in the single cabin... Almost all the pirates were yelling at the French army, and it seemed that they were not angry at all. You don't realize the reality that the ship is about to sink.
This pirate ship is doomed to sink. People can clearly see the sea water rushing on both sides of the ship. According to this momentum, the ship will not be saved in less than ten minutes.
At the moment when all the French troops were stunned, Bruce suddenly shouted, "No, this ship is here to commit suicide. They are here to report a message...fire and sink it."
The words woke up the dreamer, and then people raised their attention from the side of the ship to the mast, and the big and scary flag with the character "Xiao" came into people's eyes.
"Damn it...this ship is to deliver news to the Ryukyu people, we can't let them succeed..." There was a rumble of cannons on the sea amid the shouting, and water splashed around the golden-eyed seabream.
"Accelerate, accelerate, we're just a little bit there... around the rocks in front, Naha Castle will be able to see us... turn the helm..."
Boom boom boom, the water spray raised by the shells rushed up to an altitude of more than ten meters, and then poured down like a heavy rain. The broken cables whipped in the air, dancing like the tentacles of the legendary deep-sea octopus.
From time to time, pirates on the mast fell into the sea, and the flying fragments harvested lives. Even the ribs of the goldeneye seabream were hit by a piece.
"Fuck, this mosquito bite is quite painful..." The goldeneye snapper was so fierce that he took out his dagger and gritted his teeth to dig out the piece of shrapnel. Then he tore off a long gown and bandaged it casually, then pretended that nothing was wrong.
"It's right in front of you. I've already seen Shuri Castle... I've seen it before, I've seen it..." The pirate ship sailing under gunfire finally saw hope. The lookout hand at the top finally saw the outline of Shuri Castle. Nanshan, which blocked the view, finally came around.
"Dragon King bless you... brothers, abandon the ship and retreat..." Golden-eyed seabream grabbed the conch horn next to it and started blowing in rhythm.
The pirates fighting on the sea did not dare to neglect when they heard the signal to retreat. They jumped over the side of the ship one by one and jumped into the sea, and then headed upstream to the shore with splashes of water.
"Abandon the ship... The mission is completed, let's go to the island to have a drink... I finally won my life by gambling..." There were figures dancing everywhere on the sea.
The sailors on the Poseidon and Rafale were stunned. The pirates who had been killed just now were inextricably linked. Why did all the pirates retreat in the blink of an eye? They rubbed their eyes and looked at the corpses on the deck. They felt that this was not a dream. .
"Clean the water in the cabin...repair the battleship immediately...the sailman is preparing to replace the sail...send a signal to the Glory, our ship is seriously injured and must withdraw from the battle..."
After sending the signal, the two warships began to adjust their posture, preparing to shake off the two pirate ships that had pierced the hull. However, they never expected that these two ships would never be able to get rid of the injustice they had committed in their fate.
In the deep bottom of the two pirate ships, there is a disabled old pirate in each. The torture of years of life at sea has made them suffer from all kinds of diseases. Thanks to the golden eye snapper, he still has a conscience and has been raising them in vain.
"Now is the time to repay the favor. The days of licking blood with the knife tip are over today..." They held the incense sticks as thick as their arms in their hands and blew in the incense sticks, and the incense tips became unusually bright.
In front of them were barrels of gunpowder, several of which had been smashed, and black particles of gunpowder were scattered everywhere.
Boom boom boom... Two mushroom clouds rose up from the sea without any symptoms, and the muffled thunder shook the whole island. The Poseidon and Rafale were blown up more than three meters high like toys in the face of such violent force, and then they were violently blown up again. Smashing back to the sea, tons of sea water rolled in, and flames and smoke shot straight into the sky.
"Prime Minister Xiao... I, the Golden Eyed Snapper, came from a broken family to deliver a message to you... Don't forget my contribution."
