The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 251
A Ming naval fleet passed through the Tsushima Strait at cruising speed.

The fleet as a whole slowed down as it approached the Kanmon Strait between Japan's Honshu and Kyushu islands.

At the same time, it repeatedly exchanged information with small-scale reconnaissance fleets to confirm the situation on both sides of the Kanmon Strait.

Fleet Admiral Nelson took a telescope, looked at the scene on the sea and sky for a while, and asked the staff officer beside him:

"Have the Japanese feudal coalition forces in Kyushu started to cross the Kanmon Strait?"

The staff officer immediately reported the situation:

"The crossing has already begun. A large group of soldiers are crossing the sea by boat."

Nelson nodded slightly:
"Continue to monitor. Once all the Kyushu feudal coalition forces have left Kyushu Island, the main fleet will immediately enter the Kanmon Strait and block the Kanmon Strait and Bungo Channel.

"According to the order, after the strait is blocked, any Japanese feudal ship can be attacked without restriction."

The staff officer immediately agreed and passed this emphatic order to each squadron and all the captains again.

On the Pacific side, Zheng Ruian led another fleet into the Seto Sea between Japan's Honshu Island and Shikoku Island.

After also deciding to wait for the coalition forces of the Shikoku Island feudal lords to cross the sea, they began to completely blockade the Seto Sea and destroy all Japanese feudal lord ships.

At the same time, on the north side of the Kanmon Strait, at the southwestern tip of Kyushu Island, is the Choshu Domain's Akagama Pass (Shimonoseki).

The lord of Nagato and Choshu domain, Mori Haruchika, led the lords of the domains in the western part of Honshu Island to welcome the old lord of Satsuma domain, Shimazu Shigehiro, the lord of Hizen Kashima domain, Nabeshima Osamu, and other lords of Kyushu Island who had crossed the sea.

After meeting, a group of daimyo from the feudal domains went to the fortress of Akagami Pass for talks.

After everyone exchanged greetings, the local lord, Mori Haruchika, was a little undecided and worried and said:

"Can we really win? Is now really a good time to defeat the unjust Edo Shogunate? Aren't we really making an enemy of the Ming Dynasty by doing this?"

After hearing this, Shimazu Shigehiro said loudly with a bit of disgust:
"Being an enemy of the Ming Dynasty is only a means, not an end. Our ultimate goal is to hope that the Ming Dynasty will give us enough status, rather than standing completely on the side of the Tokugawa family!
"Letting the Tokugawa family become the sole king is not the best outcome for the Ming Dynasty.

"It's probably because the officials of the Ming Dynasty don't realize that the vassal states in our places are different from the vassal states in the Ming Dynasty.

"The Tokugawa clan is essentially just a feudal lord, a feudal lord that is more powerful than us.

"We are not vassals of the Tokugawa family at all.

"If the Tokugawa family can be king, then we should all be able to be kings too. If there is no king, then a duke will do.

"The Ming Dynasty is now in a turbulent time. The Ming Dynasty itself is relocating its vassal states to Africa to open up new land.

"At the same time, the Ming was also re-governing the newly recovered northern territories, the newly conquered Liaodong, and the grassland lands.

"Most importantly, news came this spring that a new large-scale riot had occurred in Europe, and the Ming court's attention had been drawn there.

"Right now, the Ming Dynasty simply cannot muster up the extra strength to directly intervene in the affairs of our Japanese archipelago.

"We can only rely on the Tokugawa family's own combat power, and at most add the command and assistance of the Japanese garrison that has participated in actual combat in the Ming Dynasty.

"We have no choice but to resist the attacks of the Tokugawa family and force the Ming court to mediate our conflict.

"We can achieve a similar status to the Tokugawa clan in the process."

Shimazu Shigehiro's statement was agreed by everyone.

This logic is obviously correct.

The problem is that the original purpose of the Ming Dynasty was to abolish the feudal system, and the Tokugawa family was just a tool and would have to move away in the end.

Shimazu was originally the connecter of these feudal lords, and now he has once again gained recognition from everyone.

So next we started discussing how to implement the plan in the future.

They discussed for quite a while, had a meal together, and waited for the news of the main forces of the Kyushu feudal lords landing.

The next morning, all the troops finally completed the crossing of the sea.

A group of feudal lords received reports from their subordinates and immediately stopped their impromptu meeting and prepared to lead the army eastward.

As a result, before everyone left the house, new news was delivered:

"The Ming fleet has appeared on the sea, heading towards the Kanmon Strait..."

When the feudal lords heard the news, the scene suddenly became noisy.

"What's going on? Why is the Ming fleet here?"

"Is this coming to chase us?"

"What should we do now?"

Shimazu Shigehiro urged with a little annoyance

"What else can we do? No matter what the Ming Navy wants to do, we have to leave here quickly."

The feudal lords reacted immediately and sped up their actions.

Each set out with his own army, marching eastward along the coastal areas and river valleys.

They also left behind scouts to continue monitoring the situation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Not long after, the Ming naval fleet officially entered the Kanmon Strait and directly opened fire on the Akagi Pass Wharf.

The power of the Ming Dynasty’s naval artillery was considered “horrifying” in that era, and the guards at the dock immediately evacuated after being hit a few times.

Nelson immediately sent the marines on board the ship ashore to take control of the Akagi-kan Wharf.

The entire fleet then passed through the Kanmon Strait, leaving a part to block the waterway inside and outside the strait, while the other part continued southward to the Bungo Channel.

When Mori Haruchika heard the report from his subordinates, he was so frightened that he wanted to retreat and surrender.

After all, this is his own place.

Shimazu Shigehiro was also a little alert, but he was not too panicked. Instead, he reminded with some disdain:

"Don't panic. Let's see what happens first. See if the Ming Dynasty has arranged a large-scale land force to land and if they are preparing to attack the Choshu Domain.

"The key is whether they have asked you to come forward and demand that the Choshu clan surrender directly."

Mori Osamu felt that Shimazu Shigehiko had some truth in what he said, but he still couldn't stop feeling anxious and worried. After thinking carefully for a long time, he said:
"I'll wait for news here...you guys go first..."

Shimazu Shigehiro immediately said:

"We are now in this together. You can't stop here alone."

Maori Osamu immediately said:
"Then let's all stop for a moment and figure out what the Ming Navy is going to do. If the Ming blocks the Kanmon Strait, everyone in Kyushu won't be able to go back."

Shimazu Shigehiro was speechless, but considering the strength of the Mori family in Choshu, he finally had to accept this barely reliable suggestion and asked all the feudal lords to temporarily stop advancing.

A group of feudal lords and their troops stayed here for three days and basically confirmed the movements of the Ming navy.

The Ming Navy only deployed a small number of marines to occupy the Akagi-kan Wharf and control the Kanmon Strait, but there was no expansion to the surrounding areas on land.

The feudal lords gathered in the camp to discuss the current news and situation.

Shimazu Shigehiko said to Mori Haruchika with great satisfaction:
"My guess is correct. The Ming Dynasty now does not have enough manpower to directly intervene in the affairs of the Japanese archipelago.

"The best we can do now is control key nodes like Chijianguan and control the traffic within the archipelago."

The Choshu lord, Mori Haruchika, did not say anything.

However, the lord of Hizen Domain, Nabeshima Osamu, who also belonged to Kyushu Island, immediately asked in a worried tone:

"Even if the Ming Dynasty doesn't directly occupy the land, as long as it blocks the Kanmon Strait, we won't be able to go back in the future."

Shimazu Shigehiro sighed:
“If we win the battle against the Tokugawa clan, then the Ming Dynasty will naturally let us go back after the peace talks.

“So even if we lose this battle, as long as we surrender and admit defeat, we can probably go back.

"But by that time, it won't matter whether I can go back or not."

Nabeshima Osamu immediately asked back:

"What about our next supplies?"

Shimazu Shigehiko looked at Mori Haruchika:

"We can only rely on the help of the feudal lords in Honshu, which is one of the contingency plans we have already discussed.

"Our top priority now is not to worry about any retreat plans, but to move forward together and win the victory over the Tokugawa family." There is no point in retreating now. We will only be defeated one by one and then annexed by the Tokugawa family in the name of the King of Japan.

"The future status of our vassal state in Japan and the Ming Dynasty depends on this battle. Let's work together!
Encouraged by Shimazu Shigetaka, the feudal lords discussed the issue for a while and finally reached a consensus.

That means you have to give it a try now, otherwise it would be a shame to just sit there and wait to die.

So everyone led the gathered warriors and peasant soldiers, a total of more than 150,000 troops, and advanced eastward in batches and routes.

The Okayama Domain was joined by the domains of Shikoku Island that had crossed the sea.

At the same time, he also directly saw Zheng Ruian's fleet of the Ming Navy that was blockading the Seto Sea.

The feudal domains on Shikoku Island, led by Tosa, were worried about this.

However, Shimazu Shigehiro relaxed and comforted and encouraged all the daimyo including the Shikoku domains with some emotion:
"The Ming navy first blocked the Kanmon Strait after the Kyushu vassal states crossed the sea, preventing us from retreating, but there was no active offensive action afterwards.

"Now they have used the same old trick again, blocking the sea route for the Shikoku domains to return, making it impossible for the Shikoku domains to retreat, and also preventing them from launching a direct attack.

"The purpose of the Ming Dynasty is very clear, which is to force us to fight a decisive battle with the Japanese king of the Tokugawa family.

“This just proves that Ming Dynasty is currently incapable of directly defeating all of us.

"However, we are all samurai, and this kind of battle is also a form of training, so after this battle, the true king of Japan will be decided!
"It's either Tokugawa or us!

"We no longer have anything else to think about. We must now move forward recklessly and fight desperately!"

Encouraged by Shimazu Shigetaka, the morale of the feudal lords also rose.

The main thing is that Shimazu Shigehiro's logic is correct and completely consistent with the way of thinking of these military family members.

At the same time, the Ming Dynasty's previous actions only cut off their retreat and did not occupy their territory.

This approach did force them into a decisive battle with the Tokugawa family.

If the local forces of Shenzhou see through this coercive strategy, they will often develop a resistance mentality.

But these Japanese warriors became a little excited.

After advancing eastward relentlessly, they finally crossed a large area of ​​hilly areas and arrived at Himeji Domain in Harima Province at the end of October.

According to Tokugawa Shigehisa's idea, the most ideal place to fight was the Osaka Plain, and the second best place was the plain area between the Himeji Domain and the Akashi Domain.

However, the lord of Himeji Domain, Sakai Tadao, suddenly died, and Sakai Tadamichi, who was only twelve years old, succeeded to the throne.

Just after the Japanese king's samurai division occupied the Akashi domain, Sakai Tadamichi surrendered unwisely under the persuasion of his retainers.

Because of the Tenmei famine and the invasion of Ming goods, the finances of the Himeji domain had completely collapsed.

The old lord tried to reform, but died unexpectedly.

Now that the Tokugawa clan is going to be king, the retainers of the Himeji domain have simply given up and left the mess to the king to deal with.

Based on intelligence from both the sea and the air, Liu Biao ordered the assembled 200,000 Japanese samurai divisions to enter the Himeji Domain and deploy defenses in the small plains and hilly areas around Himeji Castle.

So the place of the decisive battle became a narrow plain surrounding Himeji Castle, which was only a few kilometers long and wide.

The coalition of feudal lords did not realize that the Japanese king's army arrived so quickly and had completely occupied all the land east of the Osaka Plain.

The army was directly deployed around Himeji Castle.

Therefore, when they entered the area where Himeji Castle was located, they found almost no obvious signs, and during the march, they directly ran into the samurai division's defense line.

The battle began when the coalition forces were unprepared.

The Japanese samurai division's combat procedures had become a habit. Unless there were any special arrangements, they would directly launch a charge when encountering the enemy.

So far, there has been no army that has been able to stop their charge. At most, they can only stop them for a period of time, and they will be able to defeat them with a few more charges.

The battlefield was now only a few kilometers wide, and neither the Japanese samurai division nor the coalition forces of the feudal states had any way to fully deploy their formations.

The marching coalition forces of the feudal states were like a flowing, winding river that hit a huge, right-arc dam.

The forward momentum was forcibly stopped and immediately began to be pushed back. This dam was moving.

The coalition forces of the feudal lords, with a total number of more than 200,000, had no way to coordinate well with each other and no completely unified command system.

The Allied Forces that were blocked by the Japanese Samurai Division in front were squeezed together with the Allied Forces that continued to pour in from the back, forming a crowd on the battlefield which was not wide to begin with.

The plain area where Himeji Castle is located is relatively wide, with a depth of at least seven or eight kilometers.

To the west of this relatively wide plain, the distance between the hills and the ocean is even narrower, with the narrowest point being just over two kilometers.

The coalition forces of the feudal lords entered the small plain where Himeji Castle was located through this passage between the mountains and the sea.

The Japanese samurai division deployed on the plain outside Himeji Castle is now forcing the coalition forces of the feudal states back to this extremely narrow open space.

Tian Yiming led five Japanese samurai divisions and had already passed through the valley behind Himeji Castle and the hills west of Himeji Castle, guarding the road that the coalition forces of the feudal domains had to take.

After the coalition forces of the feudal lords passed the border, they immediately launched an attack from behind them.

Drive the coalition forces of the feudal lords in the rear forward to the narrowest area.

The warriors and soldiers of the coalition forces had never been to the battlefield before, and were thrown into chaos when attacked from both sides.

The daimyo of the feudal domains, headed by Shimazu Shigetaka, were protected in the middle by their own retainers and samurai, and they were able to receive reports on the situation in front and behind at this time.

"Ambush! We're ambushed!"

"There are enemies behind us! The retreat route is blocked!"

"Damn it, the shogunate has taken control of Himeji!"

"How could it be so fast? This is impossible!"

"Everyone, don't panic, don't retreat, retreating will only make things more chaotic!"

"Charge forward with all your might! Only by fighting your way out can you survive!"

The daimyo of the feudal lords were instinctively shocked and questioned, and instinctively tried to issue orders to control the situation, asking their troops not to panic.

Their orders were indeed conveyed by their retainers, but they basically had no effect.

In a panic-stricken crowd, the power of any individual is insignificant.

Stampedes soon occurred in places where people were most concentrated. People began to be injured in the chaos, and some were even trampled to death by their companions.

But this is not the scariest thing.

What was even more terrifying was that the Ming Navy suddenly appeared on the sea, and at this time most of the battlefield was within the range of the Ming Navy's artillery.

More than thirty warships of more than 2,000 class began to bombard the chaotic coalition forces on the shore with their side shipborne artillery.

The shrapnel shells loaded with picric acid were fired at the area where the soldiers were most concentrated.

One shot would send hundreds of people flying into the sky.

Heart-wrenching screams and deafening explosions echoed across the beach, directly scaring most of the warriors and soldiers out of their wits.

They had never seen such a powerful shrapnel.

The bombardment once again intensified the chaotic situation on the shore. Many warriors and peasants frantically wanted to escape, but the more they wanted to escape, the less place they had to escape to.

The more frantically people flee, the more obvious the harm they cause to each other.

Some warriors went crazy and drew their swords to kill the peasant soldiers who were blocking their way, but they soon found that they could not pull out their swords.

On the chaotic battlefield filled with huge crowds of people, countless warriors and peasant soldiers were like sardines that had been pulled ashore. They went from being lively and energetic at the beginning to slowly becoming quiet.

Because they have turned from living beings into mountains of corpses.

When daimyos of various feudal domains, such as Shimazu Shigetaka, discovered that the situation was rapidly getting out of control, they immediately began to consider surrendering and begging for mercy.

But in such a chaotic situation, no information could be transmitted.

Even if the Ming Navy and the Japanese Samurai Division stopped the attack, the chaotic situation on the scene would not be relieved immediately.

What's more, Liu Biao and Tian Yiming could not get their surrender request at all.

All they could do was watch as the troops continued their attack.

(End of this chapter)