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Chapter 973 Satsuma

In the early morning of the first day of September in the 14th year of Chongzhen, the combined fleet of Yang Zhen and Lemaia, consisting of more than a hundred warships, smoothly rushed into the bay amidst the beacon smoke at the entrance of Kagoshima Bay.

At noon that day, the combined fleet used battle line tactics and a round of concentrated bombardment to destroy the Satsuma Domain's fort on Sakurajima in the bay and occupied this important military location that echoed Kagoshima Castle.

Including a large number of Satsuma Domain naval vessels anchored in the bay north of Sakurajima that had no time to escape or destroy, they also fell into the hands of the combined fleet.

The old Shimazu Hisutichi of the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu clan, who was ordered to garrison Sakurajima, couldn't fight or escape, and he didn't have the courage to commit seppuku immediately. Finally, he took hundreds of iron cannon ashigaru garrisoned at Sakurajima and disarmed them together.

Became a prisoner of the combined fleet.

Lemaia, who was a little eager to reach a treaty with the Shimazu family of the Satsuma Domain, did not execute Shimazu Hisamichi. Instead, he wrote the conditions he had drawn up for the seizure of the Osumi and Tsushima Islands into a treaty and handed it to the island.

Tsukudori asked him to take him back to Kagoshima Castle that evening.

However, after Shimazu Hisumichi returned to Kagoshima Castle by boat, there was no news.

So on the morning of the second day of September, six giant battleships, the Provenza, the Geranzio, the Anthony, the Adriana, the Putmanson and the Yingzhou, were dispatched together to cruise and bombard the ships parallel to the coast.

Among the six giant battleships, except for the Yingzhou, which only had thirty heavy naval guns, the so-called Hongyi heavy guns of the Ming Dynasty, each of the other ships had more than sixty heavy naval guns of the same magnitude.

The two-story artillery deck of Lemaia's flagship Adriana was equipped with eighty heavy naval guns.

The total number of heavy guns on the six giant sail warships has reached 350.

With only three volleys, several Kokubō forts set up on the coast outside Kagoshima Castle were destroyed.

At the same time, after hearing the news, a large number of Samurai warriors and iron cannon Ashigaru warriors from the Satsuma domain were deployed along the coast in preparation for a counterattack against the landers. The Japanese who were besieging the castle town of Kagoshima fled in all directions.

After losing all the forts along the coast outside Kagoshima Castle, the Satsuma Domain deployed a large number of samurai outside Kagoshima Castle and thousands of iron cannon ashigaru under their command. The Naginata Ashigaru had no basis to rely on, and they resisted again.

After several rounds of shelling, a whistle was sent and the troops retreated to Kagoshima Castle.

At this time, there were still many forts on the Kagoshima Mountain Castle, which was laid out in a stepped layout along the mountains and the sea.

It's just that the bronze Folang machine cannon, which was imitated by the Japanese and named Guobeng, has an advantage in rate of fire, but its projectile is actually small. Even if the range is increased from a high position, it poses little threat to warships cruising on the sea.

By the afternoon of that day, the Sannomaru wall, the outer fortification of Kagoshima Mountain Castle, was seriously damaged, and a large number of people defending Sannomaru retreated to Ninomaru.

By this time, the solid bullets fired by the Kokubō fort on Ninomaru and other stone fires were no longer able to do anything to the warships cruising on the sea.

In order to save ammunition for the heavy artillery, the heavy artillery of the Dutch fleet stopped shelling at dusk that day.

Correspondingly, the musketeers of the Dutch fleet, as well as the musketeers and grenadiers of Yang Zhen's fleet, landed on the shore in small boats.

Facing the large number of Satsuma clan samurai and iron cannon ashigaru who were retreating to Ninomaru and waiting for them, the Dutch musketeers, Yang Zhen's musketeers and grenadiers who set foot on the coast of Kagoshima Castle Town did not choose to attack the city.

One on the left and one on the right, the troops divided into two groups and rushed towards the castle town that had already fallen into chaos.

Satsuma Domain is a large domain, Kagoshima Castle is the seat of Satsuma Domain's feudal hall, and the castle town is also large in area and has a large population.

In addition, the Satsuma Domain also relied on trade before, and many samurai families, craftsmen, merchants and others lived in the castle town, making it very prosperous.

Although the war broke out for two days and some traders had already fled after hearing the news, there were still quite a few feudal samurai and craftsmen and merchants hiding in their homes.

When Thomas Peder and other Dutch officers landed with the ferocious red-haired musketeers and Uppano musketeers, their doom immediately came.

Of course, the nearly 3,000 musketeers and grenadiers led by Li Lu, Zhang Guogan, and Zhang Tianbao were not good deeds.

With Yang Zhen's acquiescence and connivance to what they did in Nagasaki Minato Town, when they arrived at Kagoshima Castle Town, they all knew what to do without Yang Zhen's face-to-face instructions.

That night, the Satsuma army, which had retreated to the Kagoshima mountain city Ninomaru, did not dare to go out to meet the attack. They just stayed in the mountain castle above Ninomaru and watched helplessly as the once bustling castle town was robbed, killed and burned to the ground.

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On the early morning of the third day of September, before the fireworks in Kagoshima Castle's castle town had dissipated, Lemaia, at Yang Zhen's suggestion, once again selected one of the samurai warriors captured from Sakurajima to retreat to Kagoshima Mountain Castle.

The Shimazu clan in Ninomaru sent an ultimatum.

In the ultimatum, Lemaia asked the lord of the Satsuma Domain to send someone to negotiate surrender terms before noon on September 3rd. Otherwise, Kagoshima City will be destroyed at all costs and the Shimadzu family's control of Satsuma will be ended.

The rule of the vassal territory.

With the strength of the Dutch fleet and the fleet led by Yang Zhen, if you are determined to completely destroy Kagoshima City and completely eradicate the Shimazu family of Satsuma Domain, you can do it.

However, both Lemaia and Yang Zhen knew very well that they could not put all their efforts into Satsuma Domain, a foreign daimyo who had an estranged relationship with the Tokugawa shogunate.

Whether it was the Dutch fleet led by Lemaia or the Jinhai Town troops led by Yang Zhen, they had all been far away from their ammunition supply locations since they set sail.

However, the supplies they carried with the ship, especially guns and ammunition, were numerous.

Although they could obtain a considerable amount of supplies by plundering the castles of the coastal lords of the Wonu Kingdom.

However, the ammunition that matched the Dutch naval guns and the guns and guns equipped by Yang Zhen's warships and troops could not be replenished by the Japanese.

It can be said that the guns and ammunition carried by each of their warships are as small as they can be used, so they cannot but consider using them sparingly.

Facing the Kagoshima Mountain Castle, which is built in a stepped layout based on the mountain's situation, although Lemaia and Yang Zhen are capable of completely destroying it, the amount of ammunition that needs to be consumed and the possible casualties of their own troops in the subsequent attack on the mountain castle will

, but it is something they are unwilling to pay and bear.

Under such circumstances, the only way to force the Shimazu clan in the city to surrender was by threatening to completely destroy Kagoshima Castle and end the Shimazu family's rule over the Satsuma Domain.

After Le Maia's ultimatum was sent to Kagoshima Castle Ninomaru, it seemed like nothing happened again.

In the morning of the same day, Lemaia, who could not wait for a reply, had no choice but to order the Dutch fleet and Yang Zhen's fleet to mobilize all the troops to dismantle the artillery pieces from the ships and deploy them ashore, assuming a posture of continuing the attack and completely destroying Kagoshima City.

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At noon, the Dutch heavy artillery positions were laid out, and Yang Zhen's artillery unit, Sun Deng, also transported dozens of sky cannons and thunder cannons to the outside of Kagoshima City.

Lemaia then ordered the bombardment to begin.

The ship-borne heavy artillery used by the Dutch was of the same level as the heavy artillery used by Yang Zhen and others, but the Dutch East India Company was rich and powerful, and their ship-borne heavy artillery was all made of copper.

Although their calibers are almost the same, because they are not afraid of exploding the barrel and dare to use medicine, their actual power is slightly better than the "high imitations" of the Hongyi heavy artillery carried by Yang Zhen's fleet.

However, the ship-borne heavy artillery used by the Dutch has a long barrel, long range, and amazing power. But after all, it is a type of cannon mainly used for straight bombardment. It is naturally not a problem for destroying cities on the plains.

However, for the Japanese mountain castles built on hills and distributed in a stepped manner, their original strengths have turned into weaknesses. The heavy artillery that cannot be fired upwards at close range seems to be somewhat inadequate.

The huge solid projectiles of the Dutch heavy artillery hit the foundation of Ninomaru of Kagoshima Castle. Earth and rocks flew everywhere, and the sound was frightening. However, its damage to the Japanese who were unable to escape from Ninomaru was quite limited.

Especially the impact on the Kagoshima Yamashiro Honmaru above Ninomaru is not as good as when it is at sea.

In sharp contrast, it is the artillery regiment Sun Deng's selection unit brought by Yang Zhen. The sky cannons and thunder cannons they use are known for their large elevation angle and ability to shoot in a straight direction, and they come in handy at this time. .

Later at noon that day, after realizing that the Dutch heavy artillery came ashore and approached the shelling, the damage effect on the Japanese mountain city was not significant, Yang Zhen ordered Sun Dengxuan to bring his soaring cannon to Lu'er under the cover of the Dutch heavy artillery. Under the destroyed Sannomaru of Shimayama Castle, risking the possibility of the Japanese going down to the city to seize the cannons, we used the maximum shooting angle to shoot from the top, and fired the explosive shells into the Ninomaru of Kagoshima Castle.

Thirty sky-high cannons were fired one after another, seemingly endlessly.

One by one, the explosive bombs crossed the ruins of the hillside and were projected into the Ninomaru.

Some exploded after landing, knocking the Japanese defenders gathered inside Ninomaru to their knees.

Some of them exploded over the heads of the Japanese before they landed, and the Japanese defenders were so densely exploded that they ran away with their heads in their hands.

The sky cannon used by Yang Zhen's troops is a large-caliber front-mounted smoothbore howitzer with a large firing angle, low muzzle velocity, short barrel, and small straight-line range. At sea, it faced Dutch warships equipped with heavy artillery that could strike at long distances. Boat, that is definitely no match.

Because before it can reach the enemy, it has already been destroyed by the enemy.

However, when facing enemies at close range and on high ground, its power is immediately revealed.

Because of its high arc trajectory, it can shoot in a straight direction and can easily send explosive grenades to high ground or behind high walls.

In this way, after Yang Zhen ordered the sky cannon carried by his army to enter the battlefield and it was effective, the Japanese, who had never seen a shell before, fell into chaos.

Around late afternoon that day, when they found that the Kagoshima Mountain Castle Honmaru was still unable to avoid the shells being thrown high, the Satsuma domain lord and his retainers who retreated to the Honmaru finally gave in and raised a white flag to request armistice negotiations.

In the evening of that day, the old Shimazu Hisumichi of the Satsuma clan, who had been captured in Sakurajima and then released, led another servant of the feudal lord who supervised Shimazu Hisumi, and walked out of Kagoshima Yamashiro Honmaru under a white flag and arrived at the already

Outside Sannomaru, which was destroyed, he requested to negotiate with Lemaia, the commander of the Dutch fleet.

Of course, Yang Zhen led several generals under his command and also participated in the negotiations under the interpreter of He Tingbin.

In fact, whether the Satsuma clan surrendered or not had little to do with Yang Zhen and Jinhaizhen. At first, Yang Zhen did not want to waste ammunition on the Satsuma clan and draw chestnuts from the fire for the Dutch.

However, considering that if the Satsuma clan is not defeated as soon as possible, Lemaia will not be able to reach a treaty with the Satsuma clan, and at the same time, it will not be possible to go north to Edo Castle in the near future. It is precisely with this in mind that Yang Zhen had to spend a lot of ammunition to achieve

The Shimazu clan surrendered.

Of course, since Yang Zhen's soldiers and horses have contributed on the battlefield, they will naturally receive their due rewards after the war.

The negotiation process between the two parties after dark that night was much simpler than Yang Zhen imagined.

The plenipotentiary envoy appointed by the lord of the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Mitsuhisa, his elder Shimazu Hisumichi, not only agreed to Lemaia's request to dismantle the remaining forts along the Kagoshima Bay and seize the Mōshima Islands, the Osumi Islands and the Amami Oshima Island,

He also agreed to Yang Zhen's request to use all the rice and gold and silver in stock of the Satsuma Domain Hall to pay war reparations.

However, there were two conditions put forward by Shimazu Hisumi on behalf of his feudal lord Shimazu Mitsuhisa.

First, the Dutch and Ming Dynasty fleets wanted to make an agreement to guarantee the rule of the Shimazu Mitsuhisa family over the Satsuma Domain's home territory.

Second, the Dutch and Akito fleets should withdraw from Kagoshima Bay after reaching a treaty and return Sakurajima in Kagoshima Bay.
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