On the morning of July 7, the fifth year of Ansei (1858), five Russian warships came to Hakodate.

In fact, the Lucian navy is relatively weak among the Western powers:

The Crimean War from 1853 to 1856 showed the backwardness of the Russian navy - there were very few steam battleships, and the artillery was old, and the most advanced artillery shells were only spherical Nasimov explosive bombs.

But Fuso has been weak for a long time, and this "weak" sailing squadron is still not something that the small Hakodate can withstand.

The ensuing Battle of Hakodate fully proved this point:

Even though the Edo Clippers arrived at the port one day in advance, Hori Toshi and others were still very weak in their response, and it could even be said that they were in a state of confusion.

As a follower of Hakodate, Hori Toshihi personally came to Hakodate to ask for help, but the leader of Miren in Hakodate refused to help. Moreover, all Miren ships left the port in an emergency, which in turn aggravated the popular turmoil in Hakodate.

Not only were all the other ships gone overnight, but Fuso residents even fled by land overnight.

When the Lucian warship actually appeared, the morale of the Hakodate defenders had been almost destroyed by their own people.

Speaking of which, Fuso’s numbers did not suffer in this battle:

Lucia's military strength is five warships, including two third-class sailing battleships, one fifth-class sailing cruiser and two armed supply ships, with a total of 186 artillery pieces and a crew of more than 1,530 people.

After Hakodate's general mobilization, the number of the team was about 2,500 - there were more than 500 people in the Hakodate Office, and the two daimyo who were ordered to protect Hakodate each had a thousand people.

In fact, since the autumn of last year, Hakodate has stepped up its vigilance out of fear of Lucia's revenge. However, due to its poor financial resources, even though it took nearly a year of planning, the result was still unsatisfactory:

Among the more than 2,000 people, only the shogunate's division used homemade rifled rifles. The Tsugaru family guarding the inner and outer Odaiba and the Matsumae family guarding Hakodate all used smoothbore flints.

Firing the gun - this is the result of the shogunate's support, otherwise the Ashigaru would probably still be using cold weapons and matchlocks!

As for the artillery, except for the front-loaded rifled cannons sent from Edo and the forty Napoleon cannons each, the other large barrels are old-fashioned bronze cannons with doubtful combat effectiveness.

It stands to reason that Fuso's side has good fighting strength on paper, but everyone, including Hakodate's leader Hori Toshi, has little confidence - his family knows his own affairs, let alone the samurai, even the townspeople know, otherwise they will

He won't run away overnight.

There are several well-known weaknesses:

The first is that harmony cannot be reconciled.

This is not to say that there is any bad blood between the shogunate and the two daimyo. On the contrary, whether in official business or privately, the relationship between the Hakodate Administrative Office and the Tsugaru and Matsumae samurai families who assist the garrison is good.

But it's useless to have a good relationship - a good relationship is a personal friendship, and the three families attach great importance to hierarchy. The status of a samurai is determined by his family status. As for his ability, it is below his family status.

How could this be better!

The higher the status of the samurai lord, the more attention he paid to elegant matters. Even if there were a few who liked the art of war, they only talked about it on paper.

Moreover, although Lanxue has flourished in recent years and Western military art has slowly spread, after all, the times are still young, resulting in not many talents who are proficient in military affairs.

But even if someone is proficient in Western military art, it will be difficult to popularize it.

Take Takeda Toisaburo, who is familiar with the art of war, for example. He is Hakodate's professor of various arts. Logically speaking, he should have a great say in the military situation.

But in fact this is not the case at all:

For example, Takeda had a good personal relationship with the Matsumae family, but when it came to Western warfare, he had no idea - many samurai from the Matsumae family were disciples of Ichikawa Igaku, and Ichikawa of the Takasaki Domain was known as one of the top three in the world at that time.

A strategist of war. So whenever Takeda mentioned changes in the military system, the Matsumae family samurai would compare what he said with what Ichikawa taught, and ignore any differences once they discovered them.

And this is still a way of giving face.

There are samurai who don't give face, and directly refute Takeda to his face, saying what happened to my ancestors - but these words are unacceptable. Even if they say "this time and that time" euphemistically, they still refute the glory of their ancestors.

Therefore, although they were equipped with new Western weapons, during daily drills, each family still went their own way, with the majority of them practicing bows and arrows, wooden spears and long knives diligently.

In fact, this is not the biggest headache for Hakodate's followers, Hori Toshi and others - they think these people have still worked hard to practice their skills.

More samurai don't even practice cold weapons, they just drink and play every day.

You must know that there are many Ainu natives in Hakodate. When a lone ashigaru clashes with the natives, it often happens that they are beaten and run away, so the fighting ability of the group is really doubtful in the eyes of everyone.

Secondly, people are poor and short of breath.

Western ordnance requires a lot of practice to become familiar with, but in this case, a lot of cannonballs, lead bullets, and black powder are consumed. However, although the Hakodate Office has inputs such as iron smelting plants and coal mines, there are more places to spend money, and large-scale

I still can’t afford to practice.

The shogunate's office was like this, not to mention the Goban family, which had even less money. Therefore, most of the time, Western weapons were just for the ears of the deaf - decorations.

Even a fool knows that it is unreliable to improvise without practicing.

But these are nothing compared to them - the biggest problem of Hakodate is that it does not have a powerful warship!

There were warships, and the shogunate specially allocated two large ships and four small ships.

But the "big ships" built by the shogunate were small ships compared with Western ships - Fuso's self-built Western warships currently weigh more than 4,000 koku (more than 500 tons), while most of the Western battleships weigh nearly 20,000 tons.

stone (more than 2,000 tons). This gap is nearly three times, and the results of the fight can be imagined.

My family knows their own affairs.

Therefore, not only the residents of Hakodate Town knew that they could not be defeated, but the administrative office and the Goban family also knew that this time was dangerous.

Since the Mi people were unwilling to help turn things around, after deliberation, Hakodate followed Hori Toshi's decision to "strike later and strike before the enemy" - saying it was to strike after the strike, but in fact it was just lying down and letting the others laugh.

At Hori Toshihi's request, in order to avoid confusing people's opinions, the teams inside and outside the Hakodate Arena were not allowed to give orders and were not allowed to fire at will.

In fact, Hori Toshihi had no choice. Team leader Kawazu Yukuni, transfer commander Suzuki Sonshiro, subordinate Gentei Yamaguchi Kennosusum, and various arts professor Takeda Toisaburo all said they couldn't fight. What could he do?

?

However, Hakodate did not completely give up the resistance. The Advocate and the Goban family secretly prepared a plan of ambush from all sides, preparing to lure the Lucians ashore and go deep, and then follow the example of the White Master last year in "encircling and annihilating them."

It's a beautiful idea, but Lu Ren won't be fooled.

On the morning of July 7, the fifth year of Ansei (1858), five Russian warships appeared off the coast of Hakodate, and then a warship came straight to the dock.

Two small boats from the Hakodate Navy engaged in negotiations head on.

But who would have known that before the negotiations were completed, with a "bang", the Lucian warship suddenly exploded and caught fire.

The Lu fleet immediately launched a fierce bombardment!

In desperation, Hakodate's leader Hori Toshi immediately lit fires and smoke to notify the various stages to counterattack.

As expected, although the rifled cannon has an advantage in shooting range, its accuracy is poor due to lack of practice. However, the Lu people's naval guns are very powerful and can hit accurately and hard - according to Takeda Feisaburo and others, there are at least eight.

bombardment artillery, and used Nassimov explosive bombs.

By the afternoon of the fighting, most of the forts outside Hakodate were out of action - because the volcanic ash cement and iron plates recommended by Master Bai, the iron bar fortifications were very strong, and not many were completely destroyed, but the shells, especially the pointed shells

All lit up.

After testing and discovering that they were not luring the enemy, the Lu people began a landing operation. From then on, the battle began to turn against Fusang.

Under the cover of naval guns, Lucia quickly defeated the Tsugaru family's garrison team at the Odaiba, and the Benten Cape Odaiba outside Hakodate changed hands.

Then, the fighting began to spread to the dock.

What is disappointing is that the Lucian people never penetrated deeply from the beginning to the end. After using naval guns and Congreve rockets, the dock and nearby buildings were all reduced to a sea of ​​flames. The Lucian warships evacuated to the east before dark.

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To the west, we will attack Matsumae, and to the east, we will probably go to Shirozu - Ezo Land and North Ezo Land. Although there are many ports, these are the three that are worthy of attack. It is easy to guess.

However, Horihi did not have time to worry about others. He was organizing personnel to put out the fire.

As for the report, as soon as the battle started, the communication ship went to Matsumae and Shirozhu to alert him - although the two "big" and four small warships were destroyed in the previous battle, the high-speed communication ship had long been hiding in the distance.

Survived.

The result of this battle at Hakodate was that the Lucians gained the upper hand:

Although the five Lu ships were hit dozens of times, they were generally unharmed. Even the ship that mysteriously caught fire and exploded at the beginning seemed to be unimpeded in navigation.

As for the landing battle at Benten Cape Odaiba, the Lu people did not seem to have suffered any major losses.

In comparison, Hakodate is much worse:

All six warships of the Hakodate navy were sunk. There were more than 200 sailors on the two large ships that attacked, and most of them died in the battle. The sailors of the remaining four small boats did not participate in the battle, but were spared;

The Tsugaru Ashigaru people who were guarding Benten Cape Odaiba suffered more than 300 casualties, and all the large tubes were destroyed - a small part was the result of shelling, and the majority was done by the Lu people who landed;

As for the Matsumae family guarding Uchidaiba and the shogunate team guarding Hakodate, there were not many casualties, only a few dozen people. However, the Hakodate pier was completely destroyed, and many buildings were also destroyed by the war. Fortunately, after Shiro's suggestion,

The buildings near the dock are factories and warehouses, and the casualties were not much.

After this battle, the strength of the Hakodate Office was severely damaged, but the benefits were not without. After being beaten up by the Lucians, it is estimated that the words of Takeda Hizaburo, the professor of various arts, were finally listened to. It is estimated that it will not be difficult to promote Western warfare in the future.

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As for the White Lord, Hakodate is not particularly worried about Hori Toshi - because compared to Hakodate, the White Lord is much better prepared.

At the end of June in the Japanese calendar, Toshichi Okubo, Nagatoshi Murata, and Manjiro Nakahama, who had returned from Edo, visited Hakodate. At that time, they urged Horihi to build up the walls and clear the fields, and lay more mines.

Everyone in Hakodate didn't listen at the time. Now that I think about it, it's too late to regret it.

But it is estimated that Master Bai will definitely do this, so the loss will definitely be much smaller than that of Hakodate.
Chapter completed!