Early morning on February 18th, the 10th year of Hongxing reign in the Ming Dynasty.

In the distance, from the Osumi Peninsula, there was a faint sound of artillery. It carried for more than 20 miles in the humid air of the sea. It sounded like bursts of thunder, boom, boom, boom. This was the sound of the Eight-Power Allied Forces.

Small armed Galen ships were harassing and bombarding the forts located on the Shimazu family's territory on the west side of the Osumi Peninsula to attract the attention of the Satsuma domain defenders.

This Sakurajima island is called an island. It is actually a peninsula surrounded by sea water. Only the eastern corner is surrounded by the Osumi Peninsula. It is not very wide. Even for a little over two miles, it is still mountainous, but it is not impossible to pass. The west side of the Osumi Peninsula

There is a section of beach on the border of Tarumizu where you can land. After the troops land, they will march along the coastline towards Sakurajima. They will reach the gentle slope on the west side of Sakurajima and Kagoshima Castle in the distance.

The main body of Sakurajima is an active volcano, with an altitude of more than 1,000 meters. The mountains on the east, south, and north sides are relatively steep. There are mostly cliffs along the coast, making it impossible to land. Only the west (southwest, northwest) is relatively gentle, with some

There are many beaches and fishing villages where landing operations can be carried out.

However, the Shimadzu family and the Spanish fleet had long noticed this, and built the Sakurajima Fort on the gentle slope due east of Sakurajima. They also built the Sakurajima Fort on the east side of the harbor at the foot of Castle Hill opposite Sakurajima.

The forts were built. The two forts were only seven miles apart, about five miles of which was the sea surface of the Sakurajima Strait, which was very narrow and completely covered by the firepower of the 24 12-pound cannons from the Sakurajima Fort and Kagoshima Castle Fort.

It is this narrow strait that divides Kagoshima Bay into inner and outer parts. As long as the enemy cannot capture Sakurajima Fort, then inner Kagoshima Bay is an absolutely safe anchorage. And outer Kagoshima Bay is very important to this era.

It is too open for artillery. The narrowest area, Ibusukizu, has a sea width of more than 20 miles. Even if the Eight-Nation Allied Forces occupied the land on both sides, they would not be able to block the channel with artillery.

As for the use of fleets to blockade, it can be effective in a short period of time, but a long-term blockade is impossible. First, the Eight-Power Allied Forces still has insufficient number of warships in the east. If we do not count those that are too slow and can only be used as armed transport ships,

Stone Bird Ship, the coalition fleet only has a total of seventy-one armed Galenic ships. Although it is nearly twice as many as the Spanish's more than twenty armed Galenic ships.

However, these warships have to undertake too many escort tasks, so only some of them can be used for the blockade of Kagoshima Bay, and they cannot work all year round. Even if people can bear it, the sailing ships still need repair, maintenance, and supplies.

Therefore, once a long-term blockade mission is carried out, the ships will have to take turns on duty. The total number of armed galenic ships currently used for operations in Kagoshima Bay is only thirty. After another round of duty, there will probably be only twenty ships.

With this number of armed galenic ships, we have to be careful of the Spanish main force of the Eastern Armada coming to attack us secretly.

Therefore, capturing Sakurajima is still the first choice for the Eight-Nation Alliance!

On the sea surface of Kagoshima Bay south of Sakurajima, the main force of the Eight-Nation Allied Forces fleet, as well as the transport fleet carrying the main force of the Ming Army's First Division, had formed a landing formation with murderous intent.

Because some ships were previously allocated to control the Goto Islands, Nagasaki Port and Tanegashima. Some light Galen ships were also used to perform harassment and warning tasks. Therefore, the number of ships currently concentrated on the ocean south of Sakurajima is 27.

Armed Galenic ships and 45 Ten Thousand Stone Bird Ships.

When the sky brightened in the early morning of February 18, 72 Galen ships and bird ships, under the command of Tasman, Zheng Jiangong, David Jones and others, had completed their formation. 45 of them were large ships with ten thousand stones.

The bird boats were on the front line, all facing the enemy with their bows, and began to charge towards a beach two to three miles wide southeast of Sakurajima.

Although this kind of big bird ship is not suitable as a warship (it is too slow), it is very suitable for landing battles and bombarding targets on the shore.

Because this kind of ship is different from traditional bird ships, it has a relatively large forecastle. There is a mast with a hard sail on the deck of the forecastle. The lower part of the mast is relatively open, and two 24-pounders can be placed side by side.

Short gun.

These two 24-pound short guns are placed on wooden circular rails and can rotate left and right. One of them can be completely turned to the right, and the other can be completely turned to the left.

In addition, there are two 24-pound guns placed one behind the other on the deck amidships of this Big Bird of Ten Thousand Stones, which can rotate 360 ​​degrees. On the stern of the ship, there is a 24-pound gun that can rotate 360 ​​degrees.

Pound gun.

In other words, there are a total of five 24-pound guns on a Wanshi Big Bird ship. When firing forward, two of them can exert their power at the same time. When firing to the left and right, four of them can exert their power at the same time. When firing backward,

When firing, there is 1 door that can fire.

Although the whole ship has 5 artillery pieces, considering the power of the explosive shells and the more stable trajectory of the shells equipped with wooden supports, these bird ships are still very powerful when teamed up for bombardment.

Now the 45 bird ships were divided into two teams, forming two diagonal lines on the southwest sea where they were scheduled to land on the beach. The bows of the 45 ships were all aimed at the beach, and a total of 90 24-pound bombardment guns were aimed ahead.

The shells that have not yet been loaded with wooden tube fuses have been hoisted up from below the forecastle deck. No more can be hoisted, only two can be hoisted at a time. This thing will explode if it explodes, which is terrible!

Therefore, warships equipped with bombardment guns moved their bomb bays below the gun positions, and stored the shells and porcelain bottles filled with seawater in fixed thick wooden crates. Once the wooden crates were hit, the porcelain bottles would break.

, the seawater in the bottle will wet the cannonball to reduce the chance of being killed.

In addition, next to each bombardment gun, there are also two wooden barrels filled with seawater. These are used to prevent the bombardment gun from failing to launch. The wooden tube fuses used in the shells are all lit after being lit.

What is stuffed into the hole in the cannonball is actually a delayed fuse that explodes when it reaches the point! If the cannonball is not launched, it will explode in the barrel!

Therefore, you must prepare a fire-extinguishing bucket next to the cannon. If that doesn't work, pour water into it from the muzzle.

We have basically made these preparations for fire and explosion prevention. The bombardment gun is still a very dangerous weapon for our own people, so we dare not install more. At present, a ship can only install five guns at most. And it is necessary to reduce the number of guns on the lower gun deck.

area to make room for the construction of a dedicated bomb bay.

Therefore, any ship equipped with bombardment guns will have a significantly reduced number of guns.

Zheng Jiangong stood on the stern of his temporary flagship "Fuqing", behind him was a 24-pound bombardment gun with its muzzle pointing rearward.

At this time, he was holding a monocular and carefully observing the beach ahead.

A dozen sampans released by the Big Bird Boat were carrying the first batch of marines to break through the waves and rush to the beach.

The beach was quiet, not a ghost was seen.

However, Zheng Jiangong's brows gradually knitted together because he knew that the only beach in the southeast of Sakurajima where one could land was impossible to be defenseless.

The Sazhou warriors cannot be that stupid, and the Spanish Admiral Garcia is not an idiot. The Sazhou warriors must be hiding somewhere near the beach!

Zheng Jiangong shouted in his heart: Show up quickly, warriors from Sazhou!

At the same time, Sashu warrior Saigo Takahiro poked his big head out of a trench in the woods near the beach, and squinted at the Eight-Power Allied Forces warship on the sea not far away.

Saigo thought to himself: There are so many warships! There are at least seventy or eighty of them, covering the sea! But it doesn't matter. No matter how powerful the warships of the Eight-Nation Allied Forces are, they can't board the land of Japan.

Because on the land of Japan, there are countless passionate warriors like myself!

Thinking of this, he tightened his grip on a Spanish light musket in his hand. Saigo, who was born in a Sashu vassal family, is already in his early thirties. Although he has the status of a samurai, he has never had the opportunity to serve as an official (his father is a vassal, but he still has

Two older brothers), they can only grow old at home while practicing various techniques of murder and arson, waiting for their own troubled times.
Chapter completed!