Ten armored ships rushed towards the large Anzha ships, knocking over seven of them at once.
At the same time, the cannons on the ironclads opened fire. At this time, the ironclads had rushed into the Tokugawa navy. Each ironclad had thirty-two cannons, and they fired almost right next to the Tokugawa ships.
Pieces of sawdust were flying, and the three hundred and twenty rounds of artillery shells were fired accurately, all fired into the hull of the Anzha ship. Then a few seconds later, a series of explosions like cannons resounded throughout the battlefield, and sparks exploded one after another.
The Anzhai ship's hull blasted the broken wooden boards into the air more than ten meters high.
The Tokugawa sailors collapsed.
How could the armored ship, which was covered in iron armor and extremely fast, be able to match the armored ship? The high speed of the armored ship made it impossible for the armored ship to engage in hand-to-hand combat, and the thirty-two cannons continued to bombard the fragile Tokugawa navy. The battle continued like this.
, all the wooden ships of the Tokugawa family will be sunk by this ironclad ship.
The Tokugawa family's Ataka boat turned around and fled away. More than a hundred Ataka boats pointed in a hundred directions and struggled to escape on the December sea.
The steamer was not prepared to let go of the Japanese sailors. The steamers chased after them, spewing thick smoke, and from time to time fired cannonballs at the fleeing Anzhai ship. After chasing for two hours on the sea, half of Li Zhi's ships were sunk.
The houseboat above.
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On December 6, Li Zhi's ten ironclad ships and sixty-three armed merchant ships blocked Edo Bay and began bombarding Edo Port.
Edo has a population of hundreds of thousands and is a very huge city. The entire town can be divided into three parts. One is the samurai house next to the Edo Castle, which is the residence of Japanese samurai. It covers a vast area and is well built. The other is
The Edo Castle Castle Town below the castle is radially distributed around the samurai houses and is the main component of Edo City. The other is the port town next to the Edo Pier.
Because of the consumption of the huge samurai class in Edo, Edo needed to transport a large amount of consumer goods and luxury goods from all over Japan, and Edo Port was busy with trade. Therefore, a prosperous port town was formed beside the dock of Edo Port.
The castle town and the port town are not separate. The shops in the port town and the hotels in the castle town are connected together to form the Edo City town.
The Edo Castle is more than ten miles away from the dock. Li Zhi's gunboats cannot directly bombard the Edo Castle. However, the towns near the Edo dock are completely exposed to the range of naval guns. Li Zhi's fleet lies across Edo Bay.
, mercilessly bombing this port town that served the samurai of Edo Castle.
Seventy-three ships all aimed their starboard sides at the port, and more than 700 cannons sprayed sparks one after another from the muzzles, pouring deadly explosive shells towards the Japanese capital.
The explosive bombs smashed through the roofs of those wooden buildings and the walls inside the houses. Then the seals of the explosive bombs burned for a while and then exploded violently, throwing iron pellets and flames into the surrounding space. If the Japanese citizens in the house did not escape in time
, it is very likely that he will be killed at home by a bomb.
What's even more terrifying is the flames caused by explosive shells. Every time a round of shells is fired, a few will ignite fires in the port town.
For the dense wooden houses in Edo Castle, the flames ignited by these explosive bombs are extremely fatal. Edo Castle has been destroyed by fire several times in history, which shows the fragility of the city in the face of flames. At this time, the fire spread rapidly
Spreading through the town, jumping from one house to another, devouring the entire town without mercy.
As soon as the bombing started, everything in Edo Castle was in chaos. Citizens of the entire town fled north in panic, crowding on the road like frightened elk, running away. In the chaos, some people were stepped on by the crowd.
On the ground, the chaotic crowd would even crush their ribs, causing them to scream and moan.
From time to time, a man covered in fire would rush out of the burning building, rush to the unfired street, and roll on the spot, screaming and extinguishing the flames on his body.
The bombing continued, and only two hours later, the entire port town next to Edo Port was burning. The fire even spread to the castle town along the buildings in the north of the port town, and one of them burned the entire Edo to scorched earth.
momentum.
In a sake store owned by a wealthy businessman, the wealthy businessman who was unwilling to give up his store took off all his clothes in the scorching fire. He was wearing only his underwear and was directing the fire-fighting. He shouted loudly and asked the clerks to fetch water from the well to put out the fire.
.However, how can the buckets of clean water picked out from the well withstand the rapidly spreading fire? The fire in the east was finally controlled, and another fire spread from the west.
The entire store was on fire. The wealthy businessman's clerks realized that something was wrong and abandoned the wealthy businessman and ran away. The wealthy businessman rushed to the well anxiously, carrying a bucket of water and rushed towards the fire. But halfway through, he was killed.
A wooden beam fell from the roof and hit his neck, causing him to faint immediately.
The charred wood could not support each other, more and more wood fell down, and the wealthy businessman was swallowed up by the fire in an instant.
On the castle tower of Edo Castle, Tokugawa Iemitsu frowned as he looked at the burning town.
Behind Tokugawa Iemitsu, two shogunate "elders" and five "old middlemen" looked nervously at the flames in the city. The elder Doi Toshikatsu couldn't even control his body and was trembling slightly behind the shogun.
If the burning continues like this, it won't be long before the entire town of Edo will be completely burned by the fire. Those hard-built houses and the goods in the shops will all be burned to the ground.
Officials of the Tokugawa family underestimated Li Zhi's military power. Li Zhi was not just a prince of the Ming Dynasty, he actually had military force that could confront the entire Japan.
Tokugawa Iemitsu looked at the burning Edo town and asked: "Doi Toshi, what does Li Zhi want?"
Doi Toshikatsu finally suppressed the trembling of his body and said: "Your Highness the General, Li Zhi's envoy claimed that he requested the shogunate to open the three ports of Hirado, Edo and Sendai as trading ports for the Ming Dynasty. He also asked the shogunate to cede Osaka to Li Zhifang as a permanent
Concession. In addition, we requested that the western part of Iwami Kingdom be ceded to Choshu Domain and the southern part of Hyuga Kingdom be ceded to Satsuma Domain.”
After hearing Doi Toishi's words, several other shogunate officials looked angry.
"Who does Li Zhi think he is? After seizing several ports, does he think he controls the entire Japan?"
Doi Toshikatsu said with a pale face: "However, now Li Zhi has colluded with many powerful daimyo. The entire Western Kingdom has been in chaos. The Shimazu family, the Mori family and the Nabeshima family have all rebelled. In these years, we thought that the Tokugawa family
The control of Japan at home is impenetrable, and it is quite strict with the foreign lords, who are full of dissatisfaction. Now Li Zhi has stationed 20,000 troops in Osaka with a fierce momentum. If this continues, more and more foreign lords will raise their flags and fall.
