The envoy of the Satsuma Domain left in shame and anger under repeated questioning by Ryukyu King Shoutai, and the negotiations between the two parties broke down.
At noon, the Satsuma Domain's 50 coastal defense guns launched a preemptive strike. The Huaihai Navy did not expect that the coastal defense guns used by the Satsuma Domain were actually imported new coastal defense guns, and their shooting range caught up with the Huaihai Navy's naval guns.
Previously, when making combat plans, the plan for the Satsuma Domain fort was based on the artillery parameters of the Shogunate fort in Edo Bay.
This wave of bombardment by the Japanese did catch the Huai Navy a little off guard, but the Huai Navy quickly reacted. Nearly 300 artillery pieces on more than a dozen warships of the Huai Navy fired at the same time. The huge advantage in numbers quickly silenced the Satsuma Domain's forts.
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Then the Huai Navy began to extend the bombardment, attacking Kagoshima Castle of the Satsuma Domain and several steamships docked in the port of the Satsuma Domain. This was followed by the Shimazu family's modern factory complex.
During the shelling of the Huai Navy, the Shimazu family lost its fort, assembly hall and all ships. Shimazu Qibin could only give up Kagoshima Castle and withdraw his troops inland, preparing to fight the Huai Navy on land.
decisive battle.
However, the Huaihai Navy also suffered a lot of losses. A cruiser was unfortunately seriously injured during the bombardment of the fort, and 23 naval officers and soldiers, including a deputy captain, were also casualties. In desperation, Liu Dahai
This cruiser can only be temporarily withdrawn from the battle.
It is impossible for people like Shimazu Saibin to give up like this.
In the afternoon, the 4th Huai Navy Division landed at Kagoshima Port. Under the cover of naval guns, it quickly occupied Kagoshima City and encountered little resistance. Shimazu Saibin withdrew completely, but fortunately
He did not burn down Kagoshima Castle with fire. After all, this is where the Shimadzu family has lived for hundreds of years.
In order to prevent fraud, the Huai Navy did not stop in Kagoshima Castle, but directly pursued the Satsuma clan's army to kill them.
There was no way for the 60,000 to 70,000 people of the Satsuma Domain to hide, so the two sides faced off at the Takachiho Ranch in the north of Kagoshima.
Huai Haijun's side comprised most of the Fourth Division's troops. In addition to the casualties in Ryukyu and the 1,000 people who stayed behind in Ryukyu, a total of 6,000 people from the Fourth Division landed this time, as well as 2,000 Marines from Ding Li's Marine Regiment who came from Edo to assist.
The total strength reached 8,000 people, and it also had a complete artillery regiment.
The artillery regiment had plenty of ammunition, as they were not used at all in Naha.
The troops currently recruited by Shimazu Saibin are all Japanese old-style troops, and all his new troops have been consumed in Ryukyu.
However, there are still five to six thousand musketeers in the entire old-fashioned army of 60,000 to 70,000 people. They use what the Japanese call iron cannons, which are old-fashioned front-loading muskets.
Shimazu Qibin's plan was to use infantry to attack Huai Haijun's main town first, with musketeers following closely behind the infantry. The casualties of ordinary infantry were used to bring the musketeers within shooting range.
The artillery battle began before the two sides came into contact. The Huaihai Navy's artillery range had a great advantage, especially in such open land.
The reason Shimazu Qibin chose this ranch as his battlefield was out of helplessness. He had too many troops, and they couldn't deploy them in such an open pasture.
"Lord, we have received the exact news. Both General Kayama and General Saigo have been shattered." Okubo Toshimichi reported in the camp.
"They seek kindness and get kindness!" Xixiang closed his eyes, paused, and then said.
"Boom boom boom..." intensive artillery fire sounded. The first thing to be blown up was a row of old-fashioned artillery placed in front of the army by the Satsuma army. These artillery pieces were blown to pieces before they had time to sing. Artillery
The gunners on the position fled in all directions.
"Order the army to attack. The Qing people on the opposite side are using new artillery. I didn't expect the range to be so far. If we don't attack, we will have no choice but to escape." Shimazu said to the surrounding generals. He was making final arrangements for these people.
Originally, when Shimazu saw how small the Huaihai Navy's guns were, he thought they were small-caliber guns. Judging from the size, his own guns were much larger.
Relying on the advantage of artillery, the Satsuma Army might be able to severely damage the Huaihai Navy's artillery team and destroy the Huaihai Navy's artillery positions.
The Japanese main force finally slowly moved into action. On the right were 15,000 soldiers from the San Francisco Allied Forces, the center force was 40,000 soldiers recruited from Satsuma Domain, and the left wing was composed of samurai recruited from other places on Kyushu Island.
, Ashigaru team.
Faced with Huai Haijun's superior firepower, Shimazu Qibin could only let the entire army attack and complete the victory in one battle.
"After filming this scene, we can call it "The Last Samurai"." Dong Shuheng looked at this magnificent battle scene and thought to himself.
"Boom, boom, boom..." Explosions continued to sound in the Satsuma army's formation, and each shell exploded like a flower of death harvesting life.
More than a thousand cavalry from the Japanese formation were the first to come out. Most of them were warriors and wore thick armor. These people held long spears in their hands and pointed forward, and charged at Huaihaiju's formation without hesitation.
In the cavalry formation, the screams of soldiers and the neighing of war horses were constantly heard. Every time a cannonball exploded around them, either the war horses were knocked over, or the riders and horses were blown away.
The efficiency of bombarding cavalry with artillery, especially explosive shells, is very high, because the cavalry and the horses cover a very large area, and the artillery can blow up a large area without deliberately aiming.
However, the cavalry was very fast after all. In the blink of an eye, the remaining cavalry ran within the 500 range. At this time, the mortars assigned to the infantry also began to show their power.
Shimazu Qibin, of course, did not know about the battle north of Tianjin. If he had known, he would not have made such arrangements.
Facing the impact of tens of thousands of cavalry, Huai Haijun's firepower was able to firmly block the enemy and prevent them from getting close. Not to mention the mere two thousand cavalry.
Sometimes war is really simple, so simple that it can be written in a few hundred words.
Of course, we must ignore the last struggles of living beings before dying. We must ignore the last words that soldiers hope to say to their families before dying.
If these are added, then one war would be an endless book.
Shimazu Qibin's eyes were red, and his ears were filled with the shouts of the simple Satsuma warriors as they charged, the continuous firing of the Huai Navy's various artillery, and the screams of broken bones and tendons when the warriors fell off their horses.
rattle.
These people all died fighting for the will of Shimazu Saibin, and they all died fighting because of their trust in Shimazu Saibin.
The brutality of this battle made later writers unwilling to describe it in detail, and even history books only mentioned it briefly.
In order to be able to match the Japanese battle formation, from a distance, the Huaihai Navy's battle line was very wide horizontally and very thin vertically, just like a finish line.
And those Japanese soldiers were like runners participating in a race. The samurai on horseback ran at the front, followed by the Ashigaru troops carrying various weapons.
Behind them is a phalanx of musketeers advancing in formation.
"Let the artillery fire further back to attack their musket phalanx." Seeing that the enemy's cavalry had been almost wiped out, Wang Xiao ordered the combat staff.
Soon the artillerymen raised their muzzles and began to shoot from behind, regardless of the fish that slipped through the net in front. Anyway, after these people ran into the range of the muskets, they would not be able to break in.
When the Japanese musketeers rushed into their firing range and were finally able to shoot at Huai Haijun, the originally dense phalanx had become sparse.
Just like a plump lamb chop, the meat on it has been torn off by the diners, leaving only sparse ribs.
However, they finally advanced within the shooting range. These Satsuma musketeers raised their muskets and pointed them at the Huaihai Navy's line, firing revengeful bullets.
This also caused the Huai Navy to begin to suffer casualties on the battlefield. It is hard to imagine that in the face of an enemy ten times larger than itself, casualties have not occurred until now.
However, this exchange of fire did not last long. With the rate of fire of the Type 53 rifle, it only took a matter of minutes to kill the opposing musket square.
"Order the entire army to attack!" Wang Xiao shouted to the messenger next to him.
Immediately afterwards, the charge whistle sounded in the array.
At this time, the Satsuma side was close to collapse, and all the elite samurai in the army were killed or injured.
This was the case with Japan's old army. The spirit of the army was entirely supported by the samurai. Without the restraint of the samurai, those Ashigaru troops who came from the lower classes of civilians would disintegrate into a mess.
"Kill..." Huai Haijun's soldiers put bayonets on the muzzles of their guns, then rushed out with rifles in hand. When they ran, they seemed to be scattered, but in fact they were charging in an organized manner with squads and platoons as units.
"Lord, we have been defeated, please move." Okubo Toshimichi came over with a group of guards from Shimazu Saibin.
"Ojiu, am I wrong? Because of one of my decisions, tens of thousands of people died. Is it worth it?" Shimazu Qibin knelt down in the military tent and said as if he was dreaming.
"Lord, this battle is not a crime of war. It is because our equipment is too far behind the opponent. Everyone has tried their best, and you have also tried your best. This is not your fault. The samurai all fight to defend their homeland." Okubo Toshimichi
Kaikai realized that he was really worried that the feudal lord would lose his mind and take extreme actions like a samurai.
Fortunately, with the support of the guards, Okubo Toshimichi still took Shimazu Shibin away from the battlefield, and they fled all the way to the northeast, where the Shimazu family's Miyazaki Castle was also there.
Miyazaki Castle is not the core of the Shimazu family, but belongs to the territory of the Hyuga Kingdom and is considered the boundary of the Satsuma Domain.
Shimazu Saibin's father, Shimazu Saiyuki, is living in seclusion in Miyazaki Castle. And a man who shouldn't be here, Shimazu Chukaku, also appears here.
Here I want to briefly talk about the entanglement between these three people.
As the eldest son, Shimazu Saibin was born in the Satsuma feudal residence in Edo. His mother was Kenshouin Shuzi, who was known as the "Mrs. Virtue". Shuzi raised him personally.
However, Qi Bin was born to be influenced by many factors, and there was a gap between him and his father Qi Xing. There was the factor of disapproval between his mother and his father, and Qi Bin himself, like his great-grandfather Chonghao, preferred Western learning as he grew up.
factor.
The governance of the Qixing generation, led by Tiaosuo Guangxiang, has always been to weaken the influence of Western learning such as Lan Xue. Although this played an important role in making up for the fiscal deficit caused by the Chonghao generation, with the development of the times, Qi Bin took the initiative to learn Western
The advanced science and technology also became a far-sighted action. However, this also contributed to the source of struggle between the Satsuma feudal lord and his legitimate son.
Later, Shimazu Saibin's heirs died one after another, and Saibin's faction blamed Shimazu Chukyo's mother for the curse. Saibin's feudal lords attacked Chukyo's important ministers many times.
Later, the loyal sect took the initiative and arrested important figures of the Saibin sect on charges of conspiring to assassinate Yuro and the loyal sect. Kondo Ryuzaemon, the town leader and chief monk, Yamada Kiyosu, and Takasaki Goroemon, the funen leader, were sentenced to commit hara-kiri.
Then Shimazu Iki, the elder of the family, was executed (later committed seppuku), and the previously deceased Nikaido chief strategist was deprived of his status as a scholar. More feudal officials belonging to the Saibin sect either fled, lived in seclusion, or traveled far away, namely the famous A
By Luo commotion.
Shimazu Saibin failed to escape, but he was quite popular in Japan. With the support of other feudal lords, Tokugawa Ieki finally personally ordered Shimazu Saiki to live in seclusion, and Shimazu Saibin succeeded to the position of governor.
The conflicts between Shimazu Qibin and his younger brother and father were suppressed by the intervention of the shogunate. Qibin became very popular after he came to power. If this continues until Qibin's death, Qixing and Zhongjiao will have a chance to make a comeback.
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However, history has changed now. The failure of the battle with the Huai Navy caused Qi Bin's reputation and strength to plummet, providing an opportunity for Qi Xing and Zhongjiao.