Chapter 277: Bombardment of Edo

The first to see the black ships were the fishermen fishing off the coast of Uraga.

Against the backdrop of the huge black ships, these fishing boats looked as small as ants.

The fishermen in Uraga looked at these big black ships spewing black smoke and blasting shrill whistles. Some were so frightened that they were speechless, while others regarded these big black ships as monsters from the bottom of the sea and fled in a hurry.

"Is this the black ship that appeared in Nagasaki in the rumor? These monsters are really big!"

On the coast of Uraga, the students of Chiba Dojo who were studying swordsmanship sighed as they looked at the monster-like black ships.

Before Nagasaki was captured by the American army, the lord of Hizen Saga Domain, Naomasa Nabeshima, and the Nagasaki Magistrate Osawa Yasuzawa, had already sent envoys to inform the Edo authorities of the American black ships in advance.

In addition, the American fleet was ostentatious along the way, which was very high-profile. The originally lifeless Edo was also in an uproar because of this matter.

"We need to practice swordsmanship diligently to keep the enemy out of the country."

An older student said to the students of Chiba Dojo in the tone of a senior.

The students all nodded in agreement.

Only one student who was unusually tall looked at the thin and fragile samurai sword in his hand, and then looked at the huge black ship entering Uraga Port, and murmured to himself in a doubtful tone: "Can swords really defeat black ships? More than a thousand samurai blew blood on the Gaime Fort, but they couldn't stop the fall of Nagasaki."

This discordant voice made the students of Chiba Dojo feel uncomfortable, and the older student was furious,

"Sakamoto! You country bumpkin from Tosa, what depressing words are you talking about!"

At this time, in the captain's room on the Roland, Liang Yao and Perry looked at the defense map of the Uraga generation, which could be said to be no comparison and no damage.

Compared to Nagasaki, Edo's coastal defense can be said to be completely non-existent.

There are five artillery batteries to the west of Uraga, namely Chiyozaki, Chidazaki, Hokiyama, Oura and Kenzaki, all of which are under the jurisdiction of Hikone Domain.

However, these artillery batteries are useless. First, the artillery on these artillery batteries is old and has a very limited range, which cannot threaten ships entering and leaving Edo Bay.

Moreover, the location of these artillery batteries is not good and they are too scattered, which further weakens the role of these artillery batteries.

Compared with these ineffective feudal lords in Edo, Naomasa Nabeshima can be said to be a great man among the feudal lords.

"The Tokugawa Shogunate's response is a bit slow, and it has not given us a clear reply yet."

The Tokugawa Shogunate has not responded for a long time, which makes Perry a little impatient.

"We have all entered Edo Bay. It is unrealistic for the Tokugawa Shogunate to turn a blind eye to us." Liang Yao said with his hands behind his back, "If the Tokugawa Shogunate has not responded in six hours, we will bombard Edo and put pressure on Tokugawa Ieharu, the coward."

"What if the bombardment has no effect?" Perry asked.

"Then land in Kanagawa." Liang Yao said confidently, "but this possibility is very low."

The Tokugawa Shogunate has a paper force of about 80,000, but with the Tokugawa Shogunate's low organizational and mobilization capabilities, the actual mobile forces that can be mobilized are only 20,000 to 30,000 at most.

This number looks very scary, but these are medieval armies, which are qualitatively different from Liang Yao's army.

Although Liang Yao left half a regiment in Nagasaki to control the outer eye artillery, he only had one and a half regiments of regular troops that could be used for landing.

However, this one and a half regiments has a complete range of arms and is well-equipped, so it is no problem to defeat the rabble of the shogunate.

What's more, he still has the navy to rely on, and the lineup is much more luxurious than Perry's simple American East India Fleet in history.

"Very low?" Perry was also unsure. He learned from Liang Yao and Liang Sen that the Tokugawa Shogunate had a lot of troops.

"Yes, with the previous experience of Nagasaki, the Tokugawa shogunate will not rashly start a war with us. It is very unlikely that we will encounter such a strong resistance as the one in Nagasaki Gaime Fort in Edo." Liang Yao gave his judgment, "I think the Japanese shogunate is now discussing how to deal with us."

"Colonel! General!"

At this moment, Liang Sen walked into the captain's room and reported to Perry and Liang Yao: "A patrol boat came from Uraga, asking us to leave Edo Bay."

Leave Edo Bay?

Liang Yao just felt funny as if he heard a joke. If he left Edo Bay now, wouldn't he have come here in vain?

"Who sent the ship?" Liang Yao asked.

"It was sent by Uraga Magistrate Tsutsui Masanori." Liang Sen replied.

"Tell them to go back and tell Tsutsui Masanori that we want to talk directly with the high-level officials of the Tokugawa shogunate! He is the Uraga magistrate and is not qualified to talk directly with us." Liang Yao knocked on the desk and said, "If Tokugawa Ieharu does not take the initiative to talk directly with us, then we will break into the castle tower of Edo Ooku, and this colonel will talk to him in the castle tower."

"Yes!" Liang Yao took the order and went away, relaying Liang Yao's words to the people on the patrol boat.

Liang Yao walked out of the captain's room, looked at the Japanese people watching the excitement on the Uraga coastline, and said to Perry: "General Perry, it seems that we still need to put some pressure on the Tokugawa shogunate."

"Bombard Uraga?" Perry asked.

"Not Uraga, but Edo." Liang Yao shook his head and said, "Bombarding Uraga is not as effective as directly bombarding Edo."

Perry nodded, agreed to Liang Yao's proposal, and sailed the ship into Edo

After the black ships entered Edo, the ships fired in the direction of Edo. The huge sound of the guns disturbed the people of Edo and made people panic.

In the palace of Edo Ooku, the 12th shogun of the shogunate, Tokugawa Ieharu, the de facto supreme ruler of Japan, who was disturbed by the Western warships and cannons, summoned his shogun to discuss countermeasures.

"General, the Americans are extremely rude. The envoys sent by the minister were driven back by them and said that they wanted to talk directly with our top leaders, otherwise..."

The panicked Tsutsui Masanori was hesitant to speak.

"What else?"

Tokugawa Ieharu's eyebrows instantly twisted into a "川" character.

"Otherwise, they will break into Edo and talk to the general about opening up the country and trade in the Edo Castle." Tsutsui Masanori said with his head shrunk.

"Ahem, damn Americans."

The weak body was so angry that he slapped his thigh. These Americans were very arrogant, but when he thought about the Nagasaki incident, they did have the capital to be arrogant.

Tokugawa Ieharu asked someone to bring the declaration of war submitted by the United States last year. This was the first time he seriously checked the declaration of war of the United States.

Previously, no one in the shogunate took the U.S. declaration of war seriously, and no one would have thought that the U.S. would really attack Japan and Edo.

Reading this declaration of war written in English, Chinese, and Japanese, Tokugawa Ieharu was very conflicted, weighing the pros and cons of opening up the country and continuing to close the country.

Opening up the country for trade, once opening up trade with the U.S., Russia (Tsarist Russia), England, France and other countries will surely come one after another, how to deal with it then?

Not opening up the country for trade, the U.S. fleet will stop in Edo Bay, their guns pointed at Edo.