Chapter 169 The Battle of the First Island (Part 2)
Of course, the naval guns of the Merchant Army are not invisible. There are always a few warships that can escape the bombardment of artillery by chance. The warships of the Merchant Army are close to the Merchant Army, and Tsushima Tadaro's ship is one of them.! .And his choice of target was the flagship of the Second Squadron: Pixiu.
Capture the king first, Shimazu Tadaro still understands this principle. The Pixiu is the largest ship of the enemy, and naturally it is the flagship of the enemy. As long as this ship is taken, the Satsuma fleet will turn defeat into victory. Opportunity. At the same time, Tadaro Tsushima was also determined to hit the ship, even if they could die together. Moreover, when approaching the Pixiu, Tadaro Shimazu was also very lucky, with several shots The shell fell into the sea water only a few feet away from him. Although the hull was still hit by three cannons, it was not a fatal part. It only destroyed some warships and buildings, which had no effect on the speed of the warship itself. .I saw that it was only more than twenty steps away from the Pixiu number,
Although the Pixiu was huge from afar, I didn't realize anything was wrong. But after getting closer, Tadaro Shimazu found that even if his ship was close to the Pixiu, he could not attack, because the height of the ship's side of both sides was at least It was 1.5 meters away, and there was no ladder on the boat, so I had to order the soldiers on my own boat to launch rockets at the Pixiu.
But just as Tadaro Shimazu's order was delivered, the sound of gunfire like a thunderous bean was heard, and the bullets were bought at his ship like dense rain. Before the Satsuma soldiers' rocket was shot out, They were beaten to the ground and died.
In the fleet that went to battle this time, each warship was equipped with one or two thunder chariots, which were prepared to fight against the country. Cheng Gang also saw Tadaro Shimazu's warship approaching him, so It was also ordered to push out two thunder chariots and shoot violently at the Satsuma warship.
The warships of the merchant army had the advantage of being condescending, and the strafing was urgent and dense, so in just two minutes, the soldiers on the deck of the Satsuma warship were wiped out, and they were all covered with soldiers. The body almost covered the deck, and even the chief general Shimazu Tadaro was shot more than ten bullets, and he had already died of anger.
At this time, the artillery of the Pixiu was filled and fifteen artillery fired and bombarded each other. Within a distance of less than 30 meters, not only were there any bullets, but each shell hit, but it was also full of force. In a blink of an eye, it was not only full of bullets, but also had a lot of force. It made the flagship of the Satsuma fleet a thousand holes, and it was about to fall apart.
In fact, the entire battlefield was completely one-sided, and the Satsuma fleet had almost no power to fight back. The threat to the merchant fleet was at most a few rockets, but as soon as the rocket landed on the ship, the soldiers immediately used wet soil to give it to them. The Gai was destroyed. Not to mention that it was no more than the Battle of the Fleet of the Pierce Island against the Spanish fleet, even the difficulty of training was much greater than this battle.
As a result, the battle was less than an hour before, more than twenty of the Satsuma fleet were sunk, and the flagship was destroyed. The main generals Shimazu Tadaro and Hirata Soyo were also killed one after another, and the merchant army actually had the largest number. Only when he used the skills of Qishu, even the Thunder Rockets were useless.
At this time, the Japanese samurai spirit had not yet reached the level of Bushido. When they knew they were unable to defeat, they rarely played with jade breaks, so the other ships also scattered birds and beasts and fled in all directions. At this time, Moya and Alves were at the same time. He led the fleet of Xibiao Island to the battlefield.
When he found that the battle had ended when he arrived at the battlefield, Moya and Alves were also surprised. Although the Satsuma fleet was not strong, there were more than forty warships after all.
It was too fast to win in such a fast time, is it because the merchant army is too strong, the Satsuma fleet is too weak, or the command ability of Alisandra is good.
Alisandra immediately ordered Moya and Alves to lead the fleet immediately to recover Ishigaki Island, and leave all seven auxiliary warships of the Second Squadron to transport landing soldiers. He led the others
The main warships pursued the defeated troops of the Satsuma fleet in order to achieve the goal set before the war and wipe out the Satsuma fleet.
Although the war hull and Samo ships of the merchant army were larger, the speed was much faster than Samo ships, and the overall firepower was stronger. Therefore, Arisan Yuanla also ordered that the warships of the third-level warships should be pursued independently.
Warships below level three were chasing in groups of two or three. However, although Satsuma warships fled in a scattered manner, they were all aiming at one target, Miyakojima. Therefore, they were also very easy to chase.
There are only sixty or seventy miles between Ishigaki Island and Miyako Island. On the way, more than ten Satsumo ships were chased. Two of them were sunk by the merchant army because of their stubborn resistance. The rest were chased by the merchant army.
The Satsuma ships also surrendered one after another, and were carried by the merchant army's warships back to Ishigaki Island. Later, only Alisandra led four warships to chase after them, and there were less than ten Satsuma ships left.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon, the remaining Satsuma warships fled to the waters of Miyako Island, but at this time Miyako Island had long been occupied by the third squadron led by Cheng Gang. The island's defenders and warships were either captured or
It was wiped out. When Cheng Gang saw that the Satsuma fleet was defeated, he also led the main warships to sea to intercept. As a result, under the front and back of the merchant army, the Satsuma fleet did not escape and was completely wiped out by the merchant army.
At around 6 pm, when Alisandra led the fleet back, Ishigaki Island had been recovered by the merchant army. At this point, the naval battle of Xiandao was over. The merchant army's naval army won a complete victory and sank the Satsuma warships in total.
Thirty-two ships killed the Satsuma army's chief general Tadaro Shimazu and Soyoshi Hirata, killed more than 3,300 Satsuma soldiers, captured thirteen ships, and captured more than 1,600 Satsuma soldiers alive. Four of them were also
Translation. No warship of the merchant army itself was sunk, and only more than 200 soldiers were killed, and they were basically killed in battle when they attacked the island.
On the same day, Alisandra decided to station the fleet on Xidiao Island tonight. While sending people back to Zhejiang to report the victory, she also recruited naval generals to arrange the next phase of combat plan: after regaining Ishigaki Island,
Next is to attack Ryukyu Island.
So Alisandra first ordered that the logistics fleet anchored in Keelung immediately rushed to Xibiao Island, gathered with the army, and then sent troops to attack Ryukyu Island; Moya and Aves led the Spanish hiring fleet and temporarily stayed in Xibiao Island.
And Ishigaki Island, they escorted all the prisoners of the Satsuma soldiers back to Taiwan for custody, and recruited a group of soldiers from Taiwan, because the goal of this combat is to capture Ryukyu Island, which requires some army guards.
The Ryukyu Islands are generally located between Taiwan and Japan, and are generally north-south, including 55 major islands, with a total land area of 3,100 square kilometers. According to later generations, they can be divided into three larger ones from north to south.
Island group: The Amami Island chain in the north, the Okinawa Islands in the middle, and the Seiji Islands in the south.
Ryukyu Island is located in the southernmost part of the Okinawa Islands, which is the largest in later generations. It is the largest of the Ryukyu Islands, with a total area of about 1,200 square kilometers. It is also the location of Shuri, the capital of the Ryukyu Dynasty. After Ryukyu Island, it is equivalent to controlling the Ryukyu Dynasty, and then occupying a big position, then controlling the entire Ryukyu Islands, and gradually expelling the power of the Satsuma vassal from the scope of the Ryukyu Islands. Therefore, the capture of Ryukyu Island was also the same as this time when the troops were sent The main goal is, otherwise, Shang Yi would not have to mobilize all his troops just to protect the islands of Xiandao.
Ryukyu Island is about 700 sea routes from Xidiao Island. According to the current voyage of warships, there are two small islands west of Ryukyu Island. The names of later generations are Kume Island, Suko Island, and Liuqiu. The island's sea route is about fifty miles, so Alisandra's goal is to first occupy one of these two small islands as the frontier of the merchant army, and then use this as the foothold to capture Ryukyu Island.
Although before going to war, Shang Yi also explained in detail to the generals of the navy the importance of the geographical location of Ryukyu Island and the role of occupying Ryukyu Island, and even raised the national flag, because the Ryukyu Dynasty has always been the dynasty of the Chinese dynasty. He was offered to the foreign vassals and accepted the enthronement of China, but was now bullied by Japan. Therefore, this time the dispatch of troops was also the rescue of the Ming Dynasty. Its significance is the same as sending troops to aid Korea more than 50 years ago.
In fact, the generals of the Navy did not understand Shang Yi's explanations, because at this time, China's awareness of maritime power was not strong, but most people held a principle, anyway, they followed Shang Yi's orders. It's not wrong. He said he wanted to fight, so he would fight. And after the Battle of Xiandao, all the generals found that the Japanese were so easy to fight, almost vulnerable, and they also attacked Ryukao this time The battle was full of confidence, so the morale of the entire army was extremely high and everyone was looking forward to making contributions in this battle.
After a day of rest and preparation, Alisandra also led the fleet and continued to set out northward to start the second half of the first phase of the combat plan.
Two days later, the merchant army's navy arrived at Kume Island. At this time, Kume Island and Sugu Island had been settled for a long time by the people of the Ryukyu Kingdom, but there were not many residents on each island, only a few hundred people, basically all Live by fishing.
In order to control the Ryukyu Dynasty, the Satsuma clan left 1,500 soldiers to garrison on Ryukyu Island. When Tadorō Shimazu recovered Ishigaki Island and Nishio Island, he drew 500 soldiers from Ryukyu. The current garrison of 1,000 troops was now garrisoned. .And fifty soldiers were stationed on the four islands around Ryukyu Island. Kume Island is also a small island with Satsuma troops.
Of course, such a little soldier cannot stop the landing of the merchant army. As soon as Alisandra's fleet arrived, they immediately captured these two small islands. The Satsuma army guarding the island was also completely defeated, and then Alisandra Immediately prepared and started an attack on Ryukyu Island.