The killings in Shuri Castle lasted for a day and a night until the morning of the next day, when the merchant army sent two regiments from the First Brigade to enter the city from the four Méns of Shuri Castle to clean up the mess.
At this time, Shuri City was in a mess, with almost all the corpses lying on the streets, most of them were Ryukyu people, and a small number were Japanese soldiers. But now there are still many sporadic battles and the killing continues.
However, no matter which one is found in front of the merchant army, no matter whether it is the Satsuma army or the Hikone army, a row of guns will be shove until they are all defeated. Then they will gradually advance towards the city, which is the palace of Ryukyu.
Matsuhira Nobuzuka and others occupied several rooms to defend the defense yesterday. Because the whole city was full of húnluàn, and they had an organization, they survived the night and took turns to sleep. During the day, the luàn in Shuri City was extinguished a lot, so Matsuhira Nobuzuka also sent people out to inquire about the situation. After learning that the merchant army had finally entered Shuri City, Matsuhira Nobuzuka couldn't help but smile bitterly. It seemed that he was going to the city to clean up the mess, and this group of people still couldn't escape.
But after a night of rest, Matsuhira Nobutsu's mind returned to his brilliance. What puzzled him was that the merchant army could have taken action long ago to deal with the Japanese army in Shuri Castle, and to kill himself, there were more opportunities in the military camp. So is it necessary for the merchant army to make it so complicated? After thinking about this, Matsuhira Nobutsu seemed to have vaguely grasped something, but he couldn't say it for a while.
At this time, the merchant army had already moved to their garrison. Someone suggested to Matsuhira Nobutsu to simply fight with the merchant army. However, they were stopped by Matsuhira Nobutsu and ordered the soldiers to put down their weapons and not resist, allowing the merchant army to deal with it. Although others did not understand why Matsuhira Nobutsu did this, Izu was still quite convincing to everyone, so everyone followed Matsuhira Nobutsu's arrangements and did not resist.
Sure enough, the merchant army did not attack them. On the contrary, Cheng Gang also asked Matsupita Nobuka, saying that he would go to the city to make arrangements, why did he come so big? It seemed like a very unexpected thing.
This made Matsupi Nobunaga even more certain that the merchant army was not targeting him, so he was very at ease. Of course, he did not say that someone had informed the Satsuma family, but just apologized to Cheng Gang, saying that he had not handled it well and smashed the matter.
At this moment, someone came to report that the remaining troops of the Satsuma clan were left in the Ryukyu Palace and were still resisting stubbornly. After hearing this, Cheng Gang immediately ordered to rush to the Ryukyu Palace. Matsupi Nobutong also wanted to see what the merchant army sold in this gourd, so he ordered the Japanese army to go out of the city to station and not resist. He only led a dozen people with the merchant army to rush to the Ryukyu Palace with the Ryukyu Sanyan.
There were also several Satsuma troops resisting along the way, but in the face of the sharp firepower of the merchant army, the Satsuma troops either rushed up to die, or were beaten to death, and fled in scattered areas. Matsuhira Nobutsu also saw the benefits of the merchant army's muskets, no wonder Japan suffered heavy losses in the battle of attacking Yokosuka.
Soon, four groups of the Merchant Army gathered in the Ryukyu Palace, surrounded the palace, and immediately launched an attack. At this time, the Satsuma Army's remaining troops were more than 3,000 or 4,000, but they had no way to retreat, so they could only guard the Ryukyu Palace and resist to the death. However, how could the bloody body be able to block the fire bullets? Therefore, countless injuries were killed, and the front line was attacked by the Merchant Army layer by layer.
Seeing that the merchant army relied on fierce firepower, they easily tore open the Satsuma army's defense line. Even Yagyu Sanyan changed a little, and was thinking in his heart whether he could avoid the merchant army's musket attack with his own skills.
The Ryukyu palace was not big. It took the Merchant Army only more than an hour to attack the core position of the palace. The 100 generals were only five or six people including Shimazu Kokusa, Shinnahara Tadashi, Kazuo Kazuki, Nagayuki, Shimazu Kuroo, and Togo Shigee. The Merchant Army's encirclement was getting smaller and smaller, and it was almost time to lose.
At this time, Donggo Shigeheng held a samurai sword in his hand, walked out of the main hall and shouted: "I am the second-generation successor of the Show Lie. Is there anyone in the Zhong** team that dares to fight to the death with me in a righteous and open manner?"
The translator translated his words to Cheng Gang. Cheng Gang just sneered, raised the short gun in his hand, pointed it at Donggo Shigeheng, and said, "The warrior era has passed, and the duel is also completed with muskets."
At this moment, Naito Masatoshi from the Japanese Merchants came over and said, "General, there is a samurai in the Tokugawa Shogunate. I hope to fight him to the death, so you can allow it."
Cheng Gang looked at Matsuhira Nobutsu and saw Yagyu Sanyan Ji put a red scarf on his forehead, holding the hilt of the knife in his hand, looking at him. Cheng Gang thought that it was Japan himself who was fighting in his own nest, so he regarded it as a fun thing, so he nodded.
Seeing him nodding, Yayoi Miyan immediately stepped out and came to Dongxiang Chongheng, saying, "Mr. Dongxiang, I will be your opponent."
Donggo Shigee was stunned and said, "It turns out it is Mr. Yagyu. Why are you going to fight? Don't the Chinese dare to fight?
Yagyu Miyan said: "Now the Chinese use muskets, no longer swords. Perhaps the era of warriors is really about to end."
Donggo Shigee smiled bitterly, raised the long sword in his hand over his head, and said, "I didn't expect that my best opponent would be Mr. Yagyu, but if he could die under the sword of the third generation of the new Yinliu, it would be worth it. However, I will do my best in this battle, so Mr. Yagyu, you must be careful to face the battle."
Yagyu Sanyan pulled out his sword, took the right eye position, and said, "As long as I walk onto the duel arena, I will not be careless."
Donggo Jungheng's sword was held high above the upper right of his head, which was the standard starting posture for showing the flow. Although Yagyu Miyan and several samurai who showed the flow yesterday, when Donggo Jungheng made this move, he clearly felt that the pressure was tens of times heavier than others. Therefore, he also put on the starting posture of the new Liu Yanfei.
The two of them no longer spoke, but instead held each other, looking for a gap between their opponents. The atmosphere was also very tense.
Although the time felt very long, it was actually very short. The two of them roared almost at the same time, and then activated at the same time, rushing towards each other.
The tip of the Togo Shigeji long sword cut down the sun in the sky, and a thin rainbow drew out from the high place, directly aiming at Yagyu Sanyan's left shoulder.
Yagyu Sanyan suddenly leaned forward, and the long sword in his hand raised a cold light, which happened almost at the same time as the action of Dongxiang's heavy thunder strike.
“…”
“…”
After an instant, the two of them separated for more than one meter away and stood with their backs facing each other. Yagyu Sanyan bent down and stepped forward, leaning forward, holding a knife in one hand, pointing straight ahead, while Dongxiang Shishi doubled one in front and one behind, holding a knife in both hands, and hanging downward.
The red shadow flashed, and it turned out that the red scarf on Yayoi Sanyan's head was cut into two pieces by the tip of Dongxiang Chongji's knife and flew out.
Dongxiang Shigeji said: "Yao Shengxin Liu Yanfei's six styles are indeed good swordsmanship." As he said that, a blood line suddenly cracked in his eyebrows, spreading rapidly, and he fell to the ground.
After a while, a buzzing sound broke out in the merchant army, which of course was a pure soybean mentality. And no matter what, Yagyu Sanyan could be regarded as a battle on his own side.
After retreating to the formation, even Matsuhira Nobutsu was impressed and said, "Mr. Yanagi, today is an eye-opener."
Yagyu Miyan glanced at the merchant army, sighed softly, and said, "It's useless. No matter how skilled swordsmanship is, it's useless in front of the musket. Don't say it's me, even Mr. Musashi Miyamoto, is also vulnerable."
After hearing this, Matsuhira Nobusuke couldn't help but feel speechless. At this moment, a light of inspiration flashed in his mind and said, "I understand, I wish to come for this."
After Togo Shigeji's death, the merchant army launched a final attack on the remnants of the Satsuma Army. After a fire of muskets, the remnants of the Satsuma Army were injured and killed, and all of them committed suicide. The movements of Shuri Castle finally ended.
The Satsuma army was almost wiped out, and the Hikone army was not as good as that. Even if the remaining 2,000 people were brought by Matsuhira Nobusuo, there were only more than 1,800 people left. Therefore, it can be considered a heavy loss.
As for Shuri Castle, which also suffered heavy losses, it turned out that there were more than 30,000 Ryukyu people living here, but now there are only less than 5,000 left. After the movement, more importantly, Ryukyu King Shangheng and the royal family members were all killed in this movement. From the surviving few, I learned from where the members of Ryukyu's royal family were killed by Shimazu Kokuha and others who lived in the palace yesterday, and the royal family members were also from the Satsuma clan. Many people committed suicide.
After learning about it, Nobuzumatsu couldn't help but smile bitterly. His speculation was correct. The target of the merchant army was neither the Satsuma clan nor itself, but the royal family of Ryukyu.
Although Ryukyu is not big, it is still an independent country. As long as the Ryukyu royal family exists, it is difficult for Shang Yi to justify the annexation of Ryukyu. Of course, with Shang Yi's strength, it is not impossible to directly kill Ryukyu's royal family, but in this way, people may not be convinced and difficult to stabilize in Ryukyu. The Satsuma vassal fuss happened to solve this problem for Shang Yi. The hatred of the people of Ryukyu was transferred to the Lord himself. Instead, they would be grateful to Shang Yi and willingly obey Shang Yi's rule.
Therefore, Shang Yi's trick was indeed very clever. The shogunate, himself, Satsuma, and Ryukyu were all played by him in his hands. Ryukyu was the Mén house at the southern end of Japan. After Shang Yi occupied Ryukyu, Japan was equivalent to the Mén house opening. When facing such a terrible opponent, does Japan have a chance of winning?