Toda Clan Meng was waiting. He planned to launch a forceful expulsion of the Thor after the reinforcements from the Satsuma Domain arrived.
Edo is too far away from Nagasaki, a full three thousand miles away. When the order from the shogunate arrived, the day lilies were already cold.
Because the local armament was lax, the Toda clan had no time to ask Edo for instructions, so he directly asked the Satsuma Domain in the south for support. At this time, the head of the Satsuma Domain, Shigehao Shimazu, happened to be in Kagoshima Castle.
After the subordinate retainers received the urgent report from Nagasaki, they all 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 height of 770,000 koku, the Tokugawa shogunate used various tricks to get them to spend more money. They participated in the work report, built cities and bridges, encouraged to buy a court official position, etc. In the end, Satsuma
The feudal clan could only survive by borrowing money from merchants in Edo, Osaka, Kyoto and Honka.
Until Shigehao Shimazu came to power, the Satsuma Domain's annual income was only 150,000 taels. The total foreign debt had reached more than 5 million taels, and the annual interest payment alone was 250,000 taels, making it seriously insolvent. The more the
If it cannot be paid, the debt will be higher under the compound interest rate. Even if the entire Satsuma Domain does not spend a penny in the future, it will take hundreds of years to pay off the debt.
In this situation, how can we send troops?
Speaking of which, will the shogunate reimburse the cost of sending troops? That must be absolutely impossible...
In future history, in order to solve the debt problem of the Satsuma Domain, Shigetoshi Shimazu in his later years appointed Hiroyuki, the subordinate samurai transfer station, to serve as the ruling elder and daimatsuke.
After Tiaosuo Guangxiang took office, the way to deal with the huge debt was-to default on the debt!
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 repay the remaining debt in five hundred years.
Look, it's so awesome (shameless). If you pay it off in five hundred years, all the monkeys will come out of Wuzhishan. All the creditors immediately cried to death.
Tiaosho Hiroyuki also allowed the wealthy merchants of the domain among the creditors to inherit the family name of the Satsuma domain samurai, thereby breaking away from the status of merchants at the bottom of society. Although there was no salary, they finally entered the ruling class. The creditors in the domain had no choice but to
accepted.
According to the Ishigao system, the Satsuma Domain can send more than 10,000 troops (2,155 troops per 100,000 koku). However, since the Edo shogunate did not reimburse itself for travel expenses, everyone decided to send 3,000 troops after a meeting, including 1,000 naval troops.
The army has two thousand, fifteen ships, and a few small boats. The navy can arrive first, and the infantry can wait and stroll slowly. What if the foreign ships on the other side have retreated before they set off here?
However, Zhao Xin would not wait for the Satsuma clan to send troops. On the morning of the third day, he decided to take action in advance. The reason why he made this decision was because someone secretly reported the news.
It is said that Lu Jun returned to Tangren Yashiki yesterday to find someone to inquire about the whereabouts of Shen Jingdan and his daughter. After getting the news from businessman Lao Huang, Lu Jun panicked and couldn't think of anything to do after thinking about it.
She knew that the 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 be expelled by force, and that some officers and soldiers had already ambushed the warehouse on the new island (New Jizo), he immediately became anxious. This time he brought a large amount of silk and raw silk with the ship. If the two sides went to war,
, if the warehouse catches fire, it will be all over.
Lu Yun was also extremely anxious. If Shen Jingdan could not come back, what would happen to him and his unborn child if something bad happened?
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 those commonly used in peacetime.
When Shen Jingdan saw that the sun was setting in the west, he would have to eat dinner on the boat if he didn't go back. So despite his daughter's "pleading", Shen Xuan made another disguise, and hurriedly said goodbye to Zhao Xin. She 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 inside the room, hurriedly walked out.
Shen Jingdan hurriedly caught up two steps and said eagerly to Lu Yun: "Hey, slow down!"
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 boat 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.
When he was a guest on the Thor, Zhao Xin said that he had some leather goods here and wanted Shen Jingdan to take a look at them. As for the price, it was easy to say, so Shen Jingdan would decide.
Shen Jingdan was also shocked when he saw this batch of leather goods in a cargo hold. These were fine pearl fur fox skins, deer skins and otter skins from the North, and there was even a very complete high-quality black bear skin. .If this was brought back to the south and sold to salt merchants, it would definitely make a lot of money.
However, the person who gave him such a big benefit for no reason 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, a thousand people would be enough. .
The reason Zhao Xin gave is that although he has tens of thousands of refugees under his command, they are all from the island country. He still hopes to find some compatriots from his homeland, so that everyone can communicate easily. As for the future trading location, he can choose the sea off Nagasaki. , or off the coast of Sendai Domain’s Ishinomaki Port.
At this time, troops were constantly deployed in the northwest and southwest of the Qing Dynasty. Farmers in the north lived in very poor conditions. It was not uncommon for people to sell their sons and daughters, or even sell their entire family as servants. In times of disaster, two hundred coins would be enough. You can buy a boy; in normal times, you can buy a strong young man as a servant for only six taels of silver.
Shen Jingdan did not agree hastily to Zhao Xin's proposal. Although the financial benefits were attractive, they also had to be spent in life.
Zhao Xin saw the other party's hesitation and said that he would wait until the Nagasaki incident happened and ask Boss Shen to go to Beihai to have a look. If there were other businessmen who were interested, they could also go with him.
At this time, Shen Jingdan did not believe that Zhao Xin could resist the shogunate's army, so he pretended to be interested and agreed.
Zhao Xin did not notice Shen Jingdan's perfunctory behavior, and happily selected a few fine fox and otter skins from those fur goods and gave them to him.
At this time, Shen Jingdan, who was deep in thought, thought of Zhao Xin's kind smile and sincerity, as well as the huge benefits it might bring, and couldn't help but get entangled.
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 go to Shishan Temple immediately to find Sun Zhiyong and ask him to arrange for me to go out tonight. Then let me go out. He arranged 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. He once served as a spy on Tang Dynasty ships and was a "far-sighted man" of the Tang Dynasty. This man lived near Shishan Temple and was very close to the "Chinese Courtyard". So he was so bold that he started from his own country. The family dug a tunnel directly to the Tang house and started a smuggling business.
Digging tunnels was a big project in this era. Sun Zhiyong found a few townspeople in the city and a few low-level officials to work together, and the business was booming.
Shen Jingdan has also gone outside through tunnels, so he has a good relationship with Sun Zhiyong. Lu Yun also knows 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 obtained information via drone about the appearance of a new group of troops north of Nagasaki Castle. Judging from the marks on the simple map, the camp location of these men 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, making it 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 7 a.m., 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.
After discussion, Zhao Xin and others decided to blow up and sink all the guan ships moored at various docks, and then bombard the base twice. As for the soldiers, they were put aside for the first time. Without the guan ships, how could they still swim and attack?
At nine o'clock, intense business 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.
At a quarter past ten, after Deng Fei's careful calculations and taking into account the current calm conditions in the port, the two D30s had adjusted their shooting angles and raised their muzzles. Then the azimuth data was calculated based on the ship's position observed in advance. , shelled in turn.
At 10:30, Zhao Xin, who once again confirmed that everything was ready, gave the order to fire. Liu Sheng and Ding Guofeng immediately pulled the traction rope in their hands.