Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 105: A great achievement for all ages, counterattack on Japan!

August, the 40th year of Jiajing’s reign.

Tokara Islands.

This is the northern part of the Ryukyu Islands, across the Tokara Strait from the Osumi Islands of the Japanese mainland, and across the Okinawa Trough to the Ryukyu Islands' Keelung Mountain in the southwest. It has an excellent geographical location.

It originally belonged to the territory of the Ryukyu Kingdom, but was forcibly occupied by Japanese pirates in the 29th year of Jiajing.

Fearing the Ming Dynasty court, the Japanese pirates did not incorporate it into their territory after the invasion.

After actually occupying the Tokara Islands, the Japanese pirates turned the original Ryukyu people into Ryukyu slaves and carried out an inhumane massacre.

The Japanese pirates drove the Ryukyu people into caves, forced them to kill each other, and forced the Ryukyu people to use kitchen knives and axes to end the lives of their relatives: fathers killed their children, husbands killed their wives, and sons killed their mothers...

After more than ten years of looting, killing and burning, the Ryukyu people in the Tokara Islands were almost wiped out.

The Japanese pirates transformed the Tokara Islands into their base for plundering the southeastern part of the Ming Dynasty, and the Japanese merchants transported the looted items back to the Japanese islands.

On the sea.

Nearly a thousand warships surrounded the Tokara Islands, completely encircling ten islands including Kuchijima Island and Nakajima Island as well as nearby small islands, and then raised the Ming Dynasty dragon flag.

Hu Zongxian stood on the deck, looking at the Japanese pirates who lived on the island and pretended to be indigenous islanders, his eyes were full of coldness. No matter how similar these pirates pretended to be, they were not Ryukyuans, and that could not change the genocide of the Ryukyuans.

Since the time of Emperor Taizu Gao, the Ryukyu Kingdom became an "inner vassal" of the Ming Dynasty, and throughout the dynasties, letters from the kingdom were sent to the capital.

However, over the past two hundred years, the scourge of Japanese pirates intensified, and the Ming Dynasty was unable to take care of itself, let alone the inner vassal states, which allowed the Japanese pirates to find the opportunity and take great advantage.

Now, the Ming Dynasty's warships have returned to the sea, and the Ming dragon flag is waving wildly in the sea breeze. It is time to announce to the world that the overlord of the sea has returned.

"put!"

Give an order.

From the ship's artillery position, balls of artillery fire were directed at the Japanese pirates' warships on the shore!
The Japanese pirates had no idea that the Ming court was counterattacking, and before they could organize a counterattack, their warships were hit, and the cabins leaked and the hull caught fire.

In desperation, the Japanese pirates in the warship fired a few shots at the Ming warship, and then rowed frantically towards the beach on the lowered small boat.

When approaching the beach, the Japanese pirates on the small boat jumped into the shallow water one after another, shouting and fleeing to the island.

There are mountains on the island. Relying on the mountains, they can effectively avoid the artillery fire of the Ming Dynasty, and they can also wait for the Ming Dynasty army to land and then rush out to fight.

Hu Zongxian did not care about the Japanese pirates escaping in the Japanese warships, but watched the Japanese ships sink one by one.

In the Battle of Taozhu, the Japanese pirates suffered heavy casualties, but with the help of the Japanese pirates, they built one or two hundred warships and intended to counterattack.

The Japanese pirates are hateful, but the traitors are even more hateful.

The results of the battle came.

There was no longer a single Japanese ship standing on the sea.

Hu Zongxian looked through the telescope at the Japanese pirates clinging to the mountain, holding Japanese swords, waiting for the Ming army to land. Without any expression, he ordered all the warships to turn their guns, aim at the Tokara Islands, and fire at them all!
Compared with the lives of his soldiers, Hu Zongxian didn't care about cannons and gunpowder. Before he came, half of the cabins of all the warships were filled with gunpowder.

The Ming Dynasty warships had a load capacity of up to 100,000 jin, and half of the more than 1,000 warships were loaded with gunpowder, up to 50 million jin. This gunpowder emptied half of the Jiangnan area, and was also a great gift prepared by Hu Zongxian for the Japanese pirates.

Tens of millions of kilograms of gunpowder were poured onto Kuchi-no-Shima and Naka-no-Shima, setting off one brilliant fireworks display after another.

At every moment, Ming Dynasty warships dropped more than 10,000 kilograms of shells on the Tokara Islands, bombarding the area with artillery fire.

From day to night, and from night to dawn, the sound of artillery fire never stopped. The ten islands looked as if they had been plowed through. The telescope was full of artillery craters!
Even the big and small hills on the island had their heights cut down a lot.

There was no trace of living people among the Japanese pirates and slaves on the Tokara Islands, but Hu Zongxian knew that the artillery fire could not kill all the Japanese pirates and slaves.

We still need someone to plow the yard and clean up the holes!
They lowered the small boat and landed on the beach, encountering almost no resistance. The island was quiet, with no sound except that of the Ming army.

Hu Zongxian landed without putting on any armor. Qi Jiguang drew his sword, stood guard beside the minister, and issued the order on his behalf: "Go out and kill!"

The rattan shield bearers, spear bearers, and short knife bearers were divided into groups of nine, and countless "mandarin duck formations" pushed forward with heavy steps.

Looking down from a high place, the dark mass of the Ming army was like a wave of tides, gradually submerging the Tokara Islands.

The Qi family army had very strict military discipline. Any Japanese pirates or slaves who were killed by the explosion, or those who were lucky enough not to be killed by the explosion and pretended to be dead, would be stabbed twice, regardless of whether they were dead or alive, to put an end to their suffering completely.

The islands in the Tokara Islands are not large; the largest one, Suwanosejima, has a circumference of only fifty miles.

The speed of clearing was quite fast. The military order was to kill the Japanese pirates and slaves wherever they were encountered. If they were met on the beach, they would be killed on the beach. If they were found in the caves, they would be thrown into the caves with rotten bones, kerosene and magic cannons.

This kind of firearm contains gunpowder, poison and iron sand. It not only has a powerful explosion, but also produces a highly toxic substance after the explosion. As for the iron sand, there is no need to say more!

The Ming army chose to use the bone-rotting kerosene cannon to deliver the final blow to places that could not be covered by artillery.

The Japanese pirates and slaves were forced to come out of the caves and fight with the Ming army, but under the countless muskets, feather arrows and javelins, it was all a meaningless death charge.

No surrender, no prisoners!
The command of the army was handed over to Qi Jiguang, and Hu Zongxian led a team alone to wipe out the remaining Japanese pirates and slaves.

Qi Jiguang originally thought that the Minister wanted to kill a few Japanese pirates and slaves with his own hands and complete the last battle before being granted the title of nobility and appointed as prime minister, so he took over the military power and asked a team officer to keep an eye on the Minister's movements at all times.

What shocked the team officer was that at this time Hu Butang was actually fighting with three real Japanese.

"General!"

The officer's voice trembled, "Look!"

The team officer hurriedly handed the telescope to Qi Jiguang. Qi Jiguang took the telescope and looked in the direction of the minister. His whole body was immediately shocked. He didn't know when the minister became alone.

Under the continuous attack of the three real Japanese, he was in a difficult situation. However, Minister was old after all and was a civil servant. He was almost killed several times after a few moves. Qi Jiguang could not help but yelled, "Minister!"

Just when Hu Zongxian could no longer hold on and Qi Jiguang ran in that direction desperately, several shields blocked Hu Zongxian.

A team of Jinyi killed the three ignorant Japanese and saved Hu Zongxian. "Hu Bu Tang, death is easy, life is hard. To die for the country and keep the reputation of loyalty is not what a real man should do. Even if you die here, the scholars will not say that you are a filial disciple of Yan Song."

According to national history, in the middle of the month, the Southeast Army wiped out 30,000 Japanese pirates at sea. Hu Zongxian actually went to the battlefield in person and killed three Japanese pirates with his own hands. He was both a civil and military expert.

The battle of the Tokara Islands forever put an end to the scourge of Japanese pirates that had plagued the Ming Dynasty for two hundred years, a merit that will last forever!
(End of this chapter)