On the eighth day of March, the tenth year of the Hongxing reign of the Ming Dynasty, Laoshan Palace.
Early in the morning, Zhu Cixiang was having breakfast with Queen Wu Sanmei in the restaurant of Hot Spring Palace. He stayed at the Hot Spring Palace last night, "holding hands" with Wu Sanmei... He and Wu Sanmei have been together for thirteen years, but their relationship is still good, and he has no intention of neglecting the empress of the palace at all. On the second day of March, the imperial doctor from the imperial hospital mentioned that Wu Sanmei had diagnosed the Ximai pulse. This was really gratifying!
Wu Sanmei has raised five children for Emperor Zhu in the past thirteen years, but one of them is a son, Zhu Hexing, who was born in the fifth year of Hongxing. He is six years old this year and has just entered Laoshan Primary School.
However, the child's health has not been very good. Although he has grown quite big, he is a bit weak. He is sick all day long, which makes Wu Sanmei very worried, fearing that he will die young. So she stopped Zhu Cihong and never conferred the title of crown prince on Zhu Hexing. This was because she was worried that Zhu Hexing would not be able to assume the honorable position of the crown prince because of his poor fortune. She planned to wait until he was older and healthy before canonizing him.
Of course, the position of the eldest son of Zhu Hexing is unshakable!
Even if Zheng Chagu gave birth to three sons for Emperor Zhu (she also had five children, three sons and two daughters), all of them were healthy and intelligent, and among them the wealthy son (Zhu Hehao) was the top student at Laoshan Primary School, they could not sway Zhu. Kazuyuki's first heir status.
But if the first heir is gone... Zhu Hehao, as the eldest son of a concubine, and his mother is an imperial concubine, is the undoubted first successor!
Therefore, Wu Sanmei always had a knot in her heart. The only way to get rid of it was to give Zhu Cihong another son.
With two sons in hand, Wu Sanmei can rest assured!
Zhu Cixi also knew what she was thinking, so he worked hard to hold hands with her, and recently it finally came to fruition...
"Your Majesty, I heard that the King of France gave you a stunning concubine, who is more beautiful than the emperor's concubine. Is this true?"
While Wu Sanmei was tasting the oyster porridge sent by Zheng Chagu, she and Zhu Cixiang were talking about Mary Manich, but there was no trace of jealousy in her words.
Zhu Cixiang smiled and said: "It is indeed good-looking, with Western colors and a unique style...but she is wild and untamed, and she is unwilling to enter the palace as a concubine."
"Don't want to enter the palace? Then why is she here?" Wu Sanmei blinked and looked at Zhu Cixi a little strangely, thinking: If she doesn't want to, won't you rob her?
"She wants to be the royal mistress." As Zhu Cixiang spoke, he also scooped some oyster porridge into his mouth with a small spoon - it tasted good! Zheng Chagu is also very good at pretending. She obviously doesn't want Wu Sanmei to have another son, but she can pretend to be a sister. When she heard that Sanmei's appetite was a bit weak, she asked her own cook to prepare various delicacies and send them over. If only Mancini had her thoughts...
"Royal...mistress?" Wu Sanmei was stunned, "What does this mean?"
"This means...not wanting to have a status." Zhu Cixiang said, "She is a Catholic and cannot be used as someone's little wife."
"You're not a little wife, but you can still be together without any name or status?" Wu Sanmei shook her head repeatedly, a little puzzled.
Zhu Cixiang also shook his head, thinking: I don’t want status, but I don’t want less money! Fortunately, I am the richest in the Ming Dynasty. When Chongzhen becomes emperor, I really can't afford it!
Just as he was thinking of this, Huang Xiaobao's joyful voice came from outside, "Long live Lord, long live Lord... What a great victory, what a great victory!"
Zhu Cixiang looked up at the door of the restaurant and saw the eunuch Huang Xiaobao, who had become a ball of fat, running towards him, shouting while running.
"Long live the great victory of Kashima! The great victory of Kashima!"
Kashima? Zhu Cixiang was stunned for a moment, but immediately thought of Kagoshima Bay!
He was no longer in the mood to drink porridge, so he immediately stood up and walked to Huang Xiaobao in three steps and two steps. Huang Xiaobao immediately handed over a memorial from the Generalissimo's Palace with both hands.
Zhu Cixiang took the memorial, opened it, and first read it ten lines at a time, then read it over again carefully, and then showed an expression of ecstasy.
This memorial was jointly signed by Zheng Jiangong and David Jones. It reported the situation of the Great Battle of Kagoshima Bay during the four days of February 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st.
The Great Battle of Kagoshima Bay broke out at dusk on the 18th, and the outcome was decided that night - within an hour after the "Ibusuki Turn", the Spanish Eastern Armada suffered heavy losses, including ten ships. Armed galenic ships ranging from 100 tons to 600 tons were destroyed or sunk. Another eight Spanish armed galenic ships, including the 1,000-ton "monster" New Spain, were forced into the Sakurajima Strait. The landing team commanded by Zheng Jiangong and Dai Dai, who had entered Kagoshima Bay earlier, Under the attack of the naval battle unit commanded by V. Jones.
At this point in the naval battle, the Eight-Power Allied Forces fleet had still lost zero warships!
But the battle didn't end there, and it couldn't end. Because the remnants of the Spanish fleet entering Sakurajima Strait blocked the way out of Zheng Jiangong's forty-five bird ships, and the bloody battle between the Ming army's landing force and the Sashu samurai on Sakurajima continued!
In the next three days of February 19th, February 20th, and February 21st, the Eight-Nation Allied Forces and the Satsuma and Spanish Allied Forces engaged in protracted and fierce battles in Sakurajima and the Sakurajima Strait. .
The Spanish fleet set up a column blocking the road in the Sakurajima Strait, aiming the broadside guns of eight warships at both sides of the strait. Because the strait is too narrow, which is not conducive to large formation maneuvers, it is difficult for the Davy Jones detachment attacking from the south of Sakurajima Strait to set up the same broadside formation to face the enemy.
Therefore, several attacks launched from the south of the strait failed, and Zheng Jiangong's detachment from the north was unable to launch an attack due to the change in wind direction starting on the morning of the 20th.
When the battle at sea reached a stalemate, Zheng Jiangong and Shi Lang commanded the "Second Sakurajima Landing". The landing site this time was in the northwest of Sakurajima Island. The terrain in this area is flat, the length of the beach suitable for landing reaches thirteen or four miles, and there are many fishing ports available.
In addition, the Satsuma clan did not expect that the coalition fleet could rush into Sakurajima Strait with their artillery - Shimazu Mitsuhisa obviously overestimated the power of the 6-pound and 12-pound cannon provided by the Spanish!
Therefore, on the long beach northwest of Sakurajima, there are not many Sashu samurai waiting for thousands of fully armed Ming army infantry - although these infantry are not equipped with flintlocks (an infantry division only has one fusilier regiment, the first The fusiliers of the 1st Division were left behind on the Goto Islands and Nagasaki), but each of them had plate armor, and each infantry regiment also had a company of pikes (because the Japanese cavalry did not pose much of a threat, so pikes The number of soldiers has decreased), and the ability of hand-to-hand combat is very strong!
They were not like the unarmored Marines who landed southwest of Sakurajima before. Although they gained an overwhelming advantage in the gun battle, they were resisted by Sashu samurai who were far fewer in number than themselves in the subsequent bayonet assault. Later, it was only with the reinforcements of the second wave of landing Army infantry that the Sashu Army was completely repulsed and the beachhead position was consolidated... However, they only captured the beachhead and were unable to advance towards the Sakurajima Fort. Because the terrain southwest of Sakurajima is relatively dangerous, there are dense forests and mountains outside the Ming army's beachhead. At least 2,000 Sazhou warriors were entrenched there, using the terrain to block the Ming army's advance.
But it is precisely because the Sashu Army on Sakurajima placed its main forces in the southwest, resulting in an extremely empty force in the northwest. After Li Yuanyin led two infantry regiments and an artillery company to complete the landing, the Ming army advanced rapidly to the vicinity of Sakurajima Fort, while the Sashu Army's Sakurajima Fort ignored the defense behind it. Therefore, the defenders had no choice but to engage in a field battle with the Ming army in the open area northwest of the fort with no hope of victory. In the end, almost the entire army was annihilated!
While the Ming army attacked Sakurajima Fort, Zheng Jiangong also deployed eight large-scale bird ships and launched a fireship attack on the Spanish warships, completely destroying the eight Spanish warships blocking the waterway. destroy!
After losing these eight warships, the strength of the Spanish Eastern Armada has been completely lost...The Ming Navy has suddenly become the overlord in the Western Pacific!
