Toda clan Meng Zai et al. He planned to launch a forceful expulsion of the Thor after the reinforcements from the Satsuma Domain arrived.
Edo was too far away from Nagasaki, a full three thousand miles away. When the order from the shogunate arrived, the day lilies were cold.
Due to the lax local armaments, the Toda clan had no time to ask Edo for instructions, so he directly requested support from the Satsuma Domain in the south. At this time, Shimazu Shigehao, the head of the Satsuma clan, happened to be in Kagoshima Castle.
After the subordinate retainers received the urgent report from Nagasaki, everyone held a meeting in the council hall.
When a large foreign ship knocks at the gate, troops must be sent; the question is how many troops should be sent?
By the way, Satsuma Domain is really poor!
As a daimyo with a wealth of 770,000 koku, the Tokugawa shogunate used various tricks to make them spend more money. Participate in duty transfers, build cities and bridges, encourage the purchase of a court official position, and so on. In the end, the Satsuma Domain could only survive by borrowing money from merchants in Edo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hondo.
Until Shimazu Shigehao came to power, the Satsuma Domain's annual income was only 150,000 taels of gold. The total foreign debt has reached more than 5 million taels, and the annual interest payment alone is 250,000 taels, making it seriously insolvent. The longer it is, the higher the debt will be under interest compounding. Even if the entire Satsuma Domain does not spend a penny from now on, it will take hundreds of years to finish.
In this situation, how can we send troops?
By the way, will the shogunate reimburse the cost of sending troops? That must absolutely not be possible...
In future history, in order to solve the debt problem of the Satsuma Domain, Shigehao Shimazu in his later years activated the lower-level samurai transfer station Hirōgo to serve as the ruling elder and daimatsuke.
After taking office, Tiaosuo Guangxiang's solution to the huge debt was--default!
He used a two-pronged approach, using force and inducement to get all creditors to cancel the annual debt interest of 250,000 taels, and the remaining debt was repaid in five hundred years.
Look, how awesome (shameless). It took five hundred years to pay it off, and all the monkeys came out of Wuzhi Mountain. All the creditors immediately cried to death.
Tiaosho Hiroyuki also allowed wealthy merchants of the feudal clan among creditors to inherit the family names of Satsuma clan samurai, thereby breaking away from their status as merchants at the bottom of society. Although there was no salary, he finally entered the ruling class, and the creditors in the domain had no choice but to agree.
From the perspective of the stone high system, the Satsuma Domain can send more than 10,000 troops (2,155 troops per 100,000 stone). However, since the Edo shogunate did not reimburse themselves for travel expenses, everyone decided to send three thousand troops after a meeting, including one thousand naval troops, two thousand land troops, fifteen customs ships, and several small morning ships.
However, Zhao Xin will not wait for the Satsuma clan to send troops. On the morning of the third day, he decided to act early. And the reason why he made this decision was because someone secretly reported the news.
It is said that yesterday Luyun returned to Tangren Yashiki to find someone to inquire about the whereabouts of Shen Jingdan and his daughter. After getting the news from businessman Lao Huang, Luyun panicked and couldn't find anything to do after thinking about it.
She knew that businessman Lao Huang had a good relationship with Shen Jingdan and that Lao Huang was kind, so she asked the maid to invite Lao Huang over.
When Lao Huang heard that the Japanese officers and soldiers were going to expel them by force, and that some officers and soldiers had already ambushed the warehouse on the new island (New Jizo), he immediately became anxious. He brought a large amount of silk and raw silk with the ship this time. If the two sides went to war and the warehouse caught fire, it would be all over.
Lu Yun was also extremely anxious. Shen Jingdan couldn't come back. What if something bad happened to his child?
The two of them waited anxiously until evening, when Shen Jingdan finally came back with Shen Xuan.
Originally, Shen Xuan didn't want to come back so early. She felt that everything on the Thor was so novel and interesting, even the tables, chairs, and benches were different from what she usually used.
In order to make the little beauty happy, Zhao Xin turned on the big TV in the conference room and played his favorite island movie, "Your Name."
Not to mention Shen Xuan, even Shen Jingdan was dumbfounded. How could the ancients have seen this? After watching the 106-minute movie, Shen Xuan begged Lu Shoushan to let Zhao Xin play it again.
More than three hours passed, and Shen Jingdan saw that the sun was setting in the west. If he didn't go back, he would have to eat dinner on the boat. So regardless of her daughter's "pleading", Shen Xuan made another disguise, said goodbye to Zhao Xin in a hurry, pulled her and got off the boat.
"Oh, Brother Shen, you're finally back!" Lao Huang, who was pacing back and forth in the corridor, saw Shen Jingdan carrying a baggage up to the second floor, followed by Shen Xuan disguised as a man.
"Wow!" The barrier door was suddenly opened, and Lu Yun, who heard Lao Huang talking in the room, hurriedly walked out.
Shen Jingdan hurriedly took two steps forward and said anxiously to Lu Yun: "Hey, slow down. Don't fall."
After the four of them entered the room and sat down, before Shen Jingdan could speak, Lu Jun recounted the news he heard from Boss Yamaguchi in detail.
"Brother Shen, what do you think we should do? If the warehouse catches fire, I will be dead!"
"Yes, Dad. I don't think the people on that big ship are bad people. I have to find a way to tell Uncle Lu and the others."
"Don't worry, let me think about it." Shen Jingdan lowered his head and pondered.
In the afternoon, when Shen Xuan was watching the movie fascinatedly for the second time, Lu Shoushan took him to see Zhao Xin again.
Zhao Xin said that he had some leather goods here and wanted Shen Jingdan to take a look. As for the price, it's easy to say, it's up to Shen Jingdan to decide.
Shen Jingdan was also shocked when he saw this batch of leather goods in a cargo hold. These were the finest pearl fur fox, deer, and otter skins from the North, and even a very complete fine black bear skin. If this was brought back to the south and sold, it would definitely make a lot of money.
But for someone to give me such a big benefit for no reason, he must be asking for something. After Shen Jingdan carefully raised his doubts, Zhao Xin said that he hoped that the other party could help him buy some people in the Qing Dynasty. It didn't need to be more, just a thousand people would be enough.
The reason Zhao Xin gave was that although he now has tens of thousands of refugees under his command, they are all islanders. He himself still hopes to find some compatriots from his homeland, so that everyone can communicate more easily. As for the future trading location, you can choose the sea off Nagasaki or the sea off Ishinomaki Port of Sendai Domain.
At this time, the Qing Dynasty continued to use troops in the northwest and southwest, and the lives of farmers in the north were actually very poor. It was not uncommon for people to sell their sons and daughters, or even sell their entire family as servants. In times of disaster, a boy can be bought for two hundred cents; in normal times, a strong young man can be bought as a servant for only six taels of silver.
Shen Jingdan did not agree hastily to Zhao Xin's proposal. Although the benefits of wealth and silk are attractive to people's hearts, they must also be spent in life.
Zhao Xin saw the other party's hesitation, so he said that after the Nagasaki incident, he would ask Boss Shen to go to Beihai to have a look. If there are other businessmen who are interested, they can also go with him.
Shen Jingdan didn't believe that Zhao Xin could resist the shogunate's army at this time, so he pretended to be interested and agreed.
Zhao Xin didn't notice Shen Jingdan's perfunctory behavior, so he selected a few fine fox skins and otter skins from the fur goods and gave them to him.
Shen Jingdan, who was deep in thought at this time, couldn't help but get entangled when he thought of Zhao Xin's kind smile and sincerity, as well as the huge benefits it might bring.
After another stick of incense, Shen Jingdan finally made a decision. He first secretly winked at Lu Yun, who immediately understood and found a reason to drag Shen Jingdan to the back room.
After the two entered the house, Shen Jingdan whispered to Lu Yun: "It's still early, you can still go out. You immediately go to Shishan Temple to find Sun Zhiyong and ask him to arrange for me to go out tonight at Chouchu. Let him go out again." Arrange a sampan on the beach to take me to the big ship. Tell him that I will give him twenty taels of silver when the matter is completed."
Lu Yun looked at Shen Jingdan worriedly: "Is this okay?"
"do not worry."
The Sun Zhiyong mentioned by Shen Jingdan was an island native who once served as a "visionary" who monitored Tang ships and Tang people. This person lives near Shishan Temple, very close to the "Chinese Courtyard". So he was so bold that he dug a tunnel from his home to the Tang Dynasty's house and started a smuggling business.
Digging tunnels was a big project in this era. Sun Zhiyong found several townspeople in the city and several low-level officials to work together, and the business was booming.
Shen Jingdan once went outside through the tunnel, so he and Sun Zhiyong have a good relationship. Luyun also knew this person.
Late at night, a figure quietly walked out of a small courtyard in Juzenji Town.
Since he didn't dare to light a lantern, Heiying walked cautiously for half an hour before arriving at the beach and boarding the prepared sampan.
More than an hour later, a paper ball wrapped with stones was thrown onto the deck of the Thor.
After receiving the news, Zhao Xin immediately asked Lu Shoushan and Heping Tai to notify the ship's watchmen to strengthen their vigilance. He, Liu Sheng and other five people held an emergency meeting in the cockpit.
Yesterday afternoon, Zhao Liang had already obtained information about the appearance of a new group of troops in the north of Nagasaki Castle through drones. Judging from the marks on the simple map, the location where these people camped was five miles north of Nagasaki Castle.
The footage captured by the drone showed that the opponent's troops and horses were hidden in a dense forest, and it was impossible to see the specific personnel, baggage, and weapons.
In order to confirm the news, everyone decided to fly the drone again after dawn to check the rush stations on both sides of the port, the two dock warehouses and the ship closures at the port.
At seven o'clock in the morning, two drones painted light gray took off from the compass deck and began to conduct reconnaissance.
More than an hour later, the news on the paper ball was confirmed one by one.
Except for dozens of old and weak remnants in the Chongliang Station, the rest of the troops stationed there were motionless; near the warehouses at the two docks, there were armored warriors going in and out; the troops in the north of the city also started to take action, and they bypassed the east and west sides from the north of the city. The densely populated area is heading towards the port.
At nine o'clock, intense busyness began on the Thor. All personnel entered the poop and began to check their weapons and equipment.
At 9:30, the gun jackets of the two D30s on the center line of the deck were removed, and several boxes of shells were moved out of the cabin; the M2HB gun jackets on both sides of the deck were removed, and all eight machine guns were loaded. This time Zhao Xin Armor-piercing incendiary bombs were used.
After discussion, Zhao Xin and others decided to blow up and sink all the ships anchored at various docks, and then bombard the two stations. As for the soldiers, they were put aside for now. Without the ship, could they still swim and board the ship?
At a quarter past ten, after Deng Fei's careful calculations and considering that the current calm situation in the port, the two D30s had adjusted their shooting angles and raised their muzzles. After that, the azimuth data calculated based on the ship's position observed in advance were shelled one after another.
At ten thirty, Zhao Xin, who once again confirmed that everything was ready, gave the order to fire.
Liu Sheng and Ding Guofeng pulled the traction rope in their hands hard.
