Japan, Nagasaki Port.
This port city located at the westernmost tip of the Japanese archipelago facing the Ming Dynasty has become an important center for exchanges between Japan and the world since the middle and late Warring States Period. After the Tokugawa shogunate followed the example of the New Ming Dynasty and embarked on the road of reform and founding the country, Nagasaki became an industrial and commercial center comparable to Osaka.
Hundreds of islands, large and small, are dotted around Nagasaki Port. They not only provide Nagasaki with excellent wind shelters and anchorages, but also protect Nagasaki Port layer by layer, making it an easy-to-defend but difficult-to-attack island. fortress city. On these islands located outside Nagasaki Port, either quite secretive forts, tall observation towers, or small naval ports where torpedo boats and gunboats can berth were built. If the enemy coming from the sea cannot clear these islands, it will be difficult to land in the bay of Nagasaki.
It is not easy to launch an attack from the land behind Nagasaki Port. The city of Nagasaki is built on a strangely shaped peninsula. Only the northwest corner is connected to Kyushu Island. The width of the connection is only 11 or 12 kilometers. There are mountains and hills in front, back, left and right, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack! The peninsula where Nagasaki is located is even more densely covered with low hills. Small pieces of flat land are surrounded by these hills and turned into valleys, all of which are good places for hiding troops and ambush - in the Tokugawa Shogunate Before they unified the world, this area of Nagasaki had always been a good place for bandits and pirates!
The lair of Japanese pirates like the Goto Navy and the Omura Navy is right here!
Today's Nagasaki port area has a mixture of old and new that is most common when an ancient country enters a new era. Ming-style and Western-style buildings are dotted here, and cranes imported from the Ming Dynasty are densely arranged in the port. Near the dock, there are cargo warehouses everywhere. However, in late February, Shimazu Sairyo of the Satsuma Domain suddenly led a group of former shogunate navy personnel, Satsuma domain warriors and renounced ronin from all over Japan to attack and occupy Nagasaki, and also used the banner of respecting the king and destroying the Ming Dynasty. Nagasaki Port soon became very bleak - after all, the business and trade here relied on the Ming Dynasty.
However, there are still some ships in the port. They are mainly warships originally belonging to the Shogunate Navy and some pirate ships or raiding ships disguised as civilian ships (there is actually no difference between the two). Oh, there are also several 10,000-ton fast sailing ships of the East India Company, also in the corner of the port. Parked next to the pier. A group of short Japanese dockworkers, wearing white cloth belts on their heads and shorts on their bodies, were moving back and forth to move large and small packages of goods from these large sailing ships under the guard of dozens of samurai.
The factory that can build some small and medium-sized ships is huddled in a corner of the port area. It is also very busy here. The tall chimneys are filled with black smoke and coal ash and dust are everywhere. The slipway was even more busy, but what exactly was going on was unknown to outsiders. Because black curtains have been drawn around these slipways, completely blocking them. All that could be heard was the rattling of wood being sawed, the clanking of banging, and the unique sound of Japanese workers' chants.
In Nagasaki City, the flag symbolizing the Tokugawa Shogunate has long since disappeared, and the flag of "Honor the King and Fight the Ming" is planted everywhere. Half of the shops along the street have been closed, but the rest are doing brisk business - the wanderers who have gathered from all over the country under the banner of "Zun Wang Hu Ming" seem to be quite wealthy, and they spend their money lavishly. But those businessmen who were still running shops in Nagasaki could not help but sigh...
Honor the King and fight against the Ming Dynasty!
Honoring the king means going against the Tokugawa shogunate, and fighting against the Ming Dynasty means going against the Great Tomorrow... This Nagasaki city is about to end!
On a mountain peak on the Nagasaki Peninsula, on the wall of a Japanese-style castle hidden in the dense mountain forest, Shimazu Sai Ryomasa, who "went into a rage for Akora", and George Eryu, the representative of the British Empire, There is also the one-eyed dragon Xixiang, who is looking at the sea with a telescope... looking at the giant ship wandering on the sea in the distance!
This is a battleship as huge as a city wall, with a scissor-style bow and an inward-sloping hull. The superstructure is relatively smooth, and there are no messy ropes on the tall masts, making it look clean and tidy.
The hull of the ship was painted pure white, and the Ming Dynasty's sun and moon flag hung on the mast.
There is also an armored turret at the bow and stern of the ship. Two 305mm giant guns extend from the armored turret, looking majestic. There are also a large number of secondary guns on both sides of the ship. Each side has at least 10 155mm secondary guns, all of which are protected by gun covers.
"This is... the Hongwu Emperor class!" One-eyed Dragon Xixiang said in an envious tone, "When will Japan have such a battleship?"
"There will be!" Shimazu Qi Liang said with a livid face, "When we defeat the shogunate and the Zaibatsu and establish a new Japan, we will have our own Great Emperor class!"
Saigo asked again: "Then...when can we overthrow the corrupt Tokugawa Shogunate?"
Shimazu said in unison: "As long as we can repel the invasion of Mingkou... If we repel the arrogant Mingkou, then all the patriots in Japan will be on our side!"
When George Yilu next to him heard this, he just frowned, and then continued to hold up the telescope and stared at the Emperor-class ship in the distance. This was the second ship of the Hongwu Emperor-class, the Hanwu Emperor-class, and also the Ming Dynasty. The flagship of the Beiyang Fleet. After the banner of "Respecting the King and Fighting the Ming" was raised here in Nagasaki, the Hanwu Emperor led an entire fleet to wander around the sea near Nagasaki.
However, the Ming Navy fleet did not dare to get too close to Nagasaki. After all, there were no fewer than ten forts around Nagasaki Port. These forts were equipped with Japan's own 11-inch howitzers, with a total of no less than 100!
The technology of this 11-inch cannon comes from the British Armstrong Company. It was developed in the late Napoleonic War and was originally intended to bombard Paris, so it was also nicknamed the "Paris Cannon". Although it is an "old cannon" from more than ten years ago (the technology of breech-loading cannons in this era has advanced rapidly, and it is basically lagging behind after being installed), it is still very powerful, and can fire shells weighing 217 kilograms, with a range of It can reach 7.65 kilometers. Even the Hongwu Emperor class cannot withstand the bombardment of such artillery!
With the protection of 100 11-inch howitzers, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to attack Nagasaki from the sea.
So the only feasible way is to land far away from Nagasaki, and then march overland... And land warfare is exactly what Japanese samurai are good at!
If nothing else, even if their lives were worthless, it would be enough for Ming Dynasty to drink from it.
The number of ronshi gathered in Nagasaki now exceeds 20,000, and there is a steady stream of ronshi coming! And George Elliot brought three 10,000-ton sailing ships to Nagasaki with a large amount of guns and ammunition, enough for them to fight a protracted land battle.
If Shimazu Qi Liang and others commanded it well, then the Battle of Nagasaki is likely to last for several years, and the Ming army may even pay tens of thousands of casualties... By then, the people of the Ming Dynasty will still think A long protracted war with the British-Indian Empire?
Thinking of this, George Elliot finally put down his telescope, turned around and said to Shimazu Qi Liang: "General Shimazu, based on the experience of the Peshawar Battle, as long as you do a good job in position defense engineering and then use water-cooled machine guns for defense, you will be able to It will definitely cause heavy casualties to the enemy... and the Ming Empire cannot bear that kind of casualties! Once they lose too much, they will give up the attack. At that time, our British Empire will intervene and let the Ming Dynasty Give up interfering in Japan, so that your Shimazu family can replace the Tokugawa family as the masters of Japan!"
Shimazu nodded solemnly: "If our Shimazu family becomes the master of Japan, Japan will regard the British Empire as its most solid ally... If Ming Dynasty dares to challenge the hegemony of the British Empire, it will be an enemy of Japan! "
