Kowloon wins

Chapter 475 Encounter ([-])

On November 50th, [-]th year of Kangxi, at [-]:[-] p.m., the first snow in the Kanto region finally fell. It was not big, just some snow particles. It was just a little bit of whitewashing on the ground, but the temperature dropped suddenly, no matter how old or young, marching at such a time is undoubtedly a hard job, but with the pressure of the superior, the nearly [-] Kwantung army did not dare to complain. They could only go forward silently along the muddy road honestly, and then move forward, but the speed of the march was really not fast. It has been more than two days since they left Edo, and they just arrived at Kofu. That's it, the daily trip is no more than thirty miles.

On a small hill next to the army, a middle-aged general who was nearly forty years old rode his horse and stood erect. He was wearing a gorgeous armor, a crown that soared to the sky, and a solemn expression on his face with Chinese characters. Angry and arrogant, this person is the current shogunate general Tokugawa Yoshimune, who was originally the fourth son of Tokugawa Mitsusada, the lord of the Kii domain. Because the former general Tokugawa's family had no heirs, with the support of many family elders, he was able to enter the shogunate. The eighth shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate was outstanding in both civil and military affairs. Because he successfully stabilized the price of rice and made society stable, the people gave him the nickname "General Rice" and was called the Tokugawa shogunate. The most capable British Lord since he came to power.

The sound of the friction of the armor was endless, and half of the nearly [-] troops passed the hill where Tokugawa Yoshimune stood. Just as Tokugawa Yoshimune was about to ride down the mountain, he saw a cavalry frantically riding along The avenue galloped towards the small hill, Tokugawa Yoshimune frowned involuntarily, but loosened his grip on the horse's rein, so he gave up the idea of ​​going down the mountain, and waited silently for the arrival of the cavalryman.

"Report, my lord general, Kyoto is in urgent need, the Chinese army's artillery fire is sharp, the urn city in the east has been dilapidated and cannot be defended, Tokugawa Youchen has led his troops to retreat to defend the inner city gate, Kyoto is in danger, I request the general to send troops to rescue as soon as possible."

The galloping cavalry rushed up the hill, and at a distance of less than ten steps from Tokugawa Yoshimune, they reined in the galloping horse, rolled off the saddle neatly, and knelt down on Tokugawa Yoshimune's side. In front of the horse, he didn't even care to take a breath, and he was already panting to report.

"Um……"

In addition, this time, since the day before yesterday, the emergency in Kyoto has been No. 13. The tone of the first time is more urgent than the last time. Tokugawa Yoshimune's already chaotic heart is unavoidably more troublesome, but there is no What's the point, just let out a noncommittal lightly.

Tokugawa Yoshimune is known as the most outstanding British lord in the history of the Tokugawa shogunate. Naturally, he is not an idler. As soon as the Qing army showed the stance of not fighting to encircle Kyoto, he had already seen through the calculation of the Qing army's siege and reinforcements. However, Tokugawa Yoshimune made tit-for-tat strategic deployments, withstood the pressure of successive emergencies in Kyoto, insisted on completing the war mobilization of Edo and the surrounding feudal clans, assembled nearly [-] troops, and ordered the feudal clans along the way not to To enter the army without authorization, you have to wait until your own army arrives before you can go out with the army. The purpose is to use the power of the whole country to fight the decisive battle with the Qing army. It's only been two days since the fierce offensive was launched. Not to mention the loss of Wengcheng, the defenders in the city suffered heavy casualties under the artillery fire of the Qing army. If the Qing army really invested in the general offensive, the destruction of the capital would only happen overnight. That's all, such sudden changes are obviously beyond Tokugawa Yoshimune's expectations, how to deal with it has become an insurmountable hurdle in front of Tokugawa Yoshimune.

"Order: All ministries must speed up their march immediately, and must arrive at Iida within today! In addition, an encyclical is issued to all feudal clans of Echizen, Mino, and Iga to send troops immediately and join our army at Nakatsu River. There must be no mistakes!"

Tokugawa Yoshimune thought about it for a long time, but in the end he still didn't dare to take the risk of the capital being breached. No matter what, although the emperor was just a puppet, he was a symbol of the country after all. If it really fell into the hands of the Qing army, what would happen? It’s really not fun, let’s not say too much, when the emperor issued an edict, the names of the feudal vassals are bound to advance and retreat, and even he, Tokugawa Yoshimune, will inevitably have concerns about throwing rats. Obviously, this kind of risk is beyond Tokugawa Yoshimune’s Tolerance range, even if he knows that the Qing army is forcing his side to march quickly, Tokugawa Yoshimune has no choice. Besides, in his opinion, his side has now gathered nearly 13 troops. It is enough to make up a large army of more than [-], and it can completely eat up the Qing army that is alone and deep. With this in mind, Tokugawa Yoshimune no longer hesitated, and issued two orders in succession.

"The general has an order, all the ministries must march urgently, and must arrive at Iida before dark!"

"The general has an order, all the ministries must speed up the march, and must arrive at Iida before nightfall!"

……

Now that Tokugawa Yoshimune had issued the order, several messengers who followed him agreed to leave, galloping wildly while shouting loudly, conveying Tokugawa Yoshimune's order to all departments of the army. After a while, the Edo army, which was just walking forward, immediately mobilized. The whole army ran forward, and the marching speed suddenly became more than twice the original speed...

"What the hell is this place? It's winter, and it's still foggy. Grandma is such a wild place!"

On the surface of Yuanzhou Beach, the fog was churning. It was already four quarters, and the fog hadn't cleared yet. Standing on the tall bridge of the "Zhenyuan", the captain Wang Changgeng couldn't help but swear.

"Who says it's not true? Troubles come out of poor mountains and rivers, and it's a hell of a place!"

When Wang Changgeng scolded him, the first officer standing beside him, Sun Chengxi, felt the same way, and echoed him.

"Um……"

In fact, Wang Changgeng didn't really care about whether the fog was foggy or not. He was just holding a fire in his heart. Nothing else, the army had already fought several battles in the expedition to Dongpu, but Wang Changgeng hadn't been able to catch it even once. So far, even a single shot has never been let go-since the "Zhenyuan" Wang Changgeng was on has been the car of his master Hongqing. Whether it was the battle to encircle and annihilate the Osaka Navy in Japan or the bombardment of Osaka Castle, Wang Changgeng, the main guard force of the fleet, could only watch the excitement, which made Wang Changgeng, who was so dedicated to meritorious service, have nowhere to go Fortunately, in this battle plan for the surprise attack on Edo, Wang Changgeng finally got the important task of the vanguard fleet from the admiral of the fleet Sun Mingxu, and he wished to rush to Edo as soon as possible so that he could make a fortune. It's a great credit, but in such a foggy day, the speed of the boat can't be increased no matter what, and Wang Changgeng stopped scolding his mother if he couldn't be free.

"Alarm, a large number of Japanese ships are found ten miles ahead, suspected to be the enemy fleet, the number is unknown!"

Before Wang Changgeng's cold humming subsided, he heard the lookout post on the tall main mast suddenly shouted.

"Ok?"

As soon as Wang Changgeng heard the call from the lookout post, Wang Changgeng regained his energy immediately, and hurriedly picked up the binoculars hanging from his waist, and aimed directly ahead, but it was a pity that although the fog had almost cleared, But the distance is still blurred, and with the limitation of the angle, even with the help of a telescope, Wang Changgeng can only vaguely see some shadows of sails and some blurred flags, but anyway, there will be The appearance of such a large-scale fleet can only be the navy of the Wa Kingdom.

"Quickly, report to Admiral Sun, a large number of Japanese warships are found ahead, and our department requests to be the first to meet the enemy!"

Not only did Wang Changgeng not panic when he discovered the Japanese naval fleet, he became excited instead, he gritted his teeth fiercely, waved his hand, and shouted an order.

"General Wang, Admiral Sun has an order that the vanguard fleet is not allowed to act without authorization. Stand by and wait for the main fleet to arrive before encircling and annihilating the enemy fleet!"

Hearing Wang Changgeng's order, the lookout post on the tall mainmast did not dare to be negligent, and hurriedly waved the two small flags in its hands to pass the news to the rear. After a short while, the ships in the rear fought one after another. The semaphore conveyed Sun Mingxu's order to the "Zhenyuan".

"Order all the ships to drop half sail, turn full rudder on the spot, seize the T prefix, and arrange them in a battle line!"

Wang Changgeng's subordinates had one large, three medium and four warships with extremely powerful firepower, so he didn't pay much attention to the Japanese fleet without too many artillery pieces, even though the warships of the Japanese fleet might be more than ten times that of the Qing army's vanguard fleet, but From Wang Changgeng's point of view, they are nothing more than chickens and dogs, and they are not worth mentioning at all. He wanted to rush straight into the enemy's line, but Sun Mingxu had already ordered him, so Wang Changgeng dared not disobey. , I had no choice but to suppress the impulse in my heart, and loudly issued the order to prepare for war.

"Six miles ahead, we found the Chinese fleet, one large and three small, with a total of four warships!"

The warships of the Japanese state came with the wind, and the speed was not slow. Just when the vanguard fleet of the Qing army had just arranged the array line, the lookout post on the vanguard warship of the Japanese state had already spotted the vanguard fleet of the Qing army waiting in full battle. exclaimed.

The Japanese fleet also used semaphore to communicate. Although the meaning of the signal is different from that of the Qing army, it has the same effect. With the transmission of the semaphore, the enemy's information was sent to Sakata Yokosan, the commander of the Japanese Edo Navy.

"Yoxi, order all the ships to rush forward immediately and destroy the Chinese people!"

Sakata Yokozo is one of the veterans of the Tokugawa shogunate. Although he is only forty years old, he is already the No. 1 Japanese navy. The disobedient daimyo sailors in the various borders are absolutely belligerent among the high-level shogunate. This time, they received the order of Tokugawa Yoshimune to go south in order to compete with the Qing fleet and block the Qing fleet. He thought that he had more than [-] warships under his command, and he would not pay attention to the four warships of the Qing Dynasty. When he heard the message from the vanguard fleet, he did not even think about it. It was the order to attack loudly.

(End of this chapter)