Persian Empire 1845

Chapter 263 Chaos
Iranian transport ships began to reinforce the troops in Kagoshima, and the shogunate ordered the Satsuma Domain to negotiate peace with Iran, but Shimazu Tadayoshi refused the request. In order to gain support, he sent people directly to Kyoto to ask the emperor to issue an edict.

The Emperor actually supported their idea, which stemmed from two "whatever" principles: "Whatever the shogunate supports, we oppose; whatever the shogunate opposes, we support."

This was mainly because the imperial court had been severely suppressed by the shogunate for over 200 years, with nobles, including the emperor, treated like pigs. Aside from being fed, they were forbidden from participating in politics, discussing politics, or even having any political thoughts. They were only allowed to study subjects they would hardly ever use. This situation might be bearable for a few years, but for hundreds of years and generations, who could endure it? A scholar can be killed but not humiliated!

Emperor Komei, who was in power at the time, also supported the Satsuma Domain in order to increase his own power, and therefore ordered the shogunate to wage war against Iran.

The Choshu Domain was naturally the first to rush to the front. Since the arrival of the Black Ships, two main doctrines have been popular in Choshu: the first is to expel the barbarians, and the second is to overthrow the shogunate.

However, overthrowing the shogunate is too costly and risky. If it goes too far, all the daimyo in the country will follow the shogunate to attack, which would be unbearable. It would be more worthwhile to temporarily follow the trend and enjoy the thrill of expelling the barbarians, since it would also earn a good reputation.

Unexpectedly, the Iranian Navy took the lead. Their goal was to completely destroy Japan's southwestern navy. Soon, they discovered three warships from Choshu: the Koshin Maru, the Minshu Maru, and the Kikai Maru, all anchored in the Shimonoseki Strait.

The largest ship, Timur, first targeted the Gengshen Maru, and after a fierce barrage of cannon fire, it was sunk. Seeing the situation was dire, the Renxu and Guihai ships immediately rushed to join the attack, but were also hit by a barrage of cannon fire from the other Iranian fleet, resulting in one being sunk and the other severely damaged.

Incidentally, these three warships represented the entirety of the Choshu Domain's modern navy. In other words, almost all of their naval power was wiped out by Iranian warships.

The Choshu Domain was completely dumbfounded. Such a tragedy arising from the expulsion of foreigners was unprecedented. It turned out these foreigners were really powerful when they got serious! No wonder the shogunate was willing to defy the imperial decree to open the country; these foreigners were indeed formidable.

Before they could react, Iran launched another attack. First, warships bombarded the forts from outside their firing range, essentially destroying them completely. Then, ground troops landed and began burning and looting civilian houses.

Since the Choshu Domain's navy had been almost completely wiped out before this, the concept of sea control was naturally out of their reach.

On the 28th, relying on their superior ships and cannons, the Iranians advanced another 6 kilometers, forcing the surrounding Japanese villagers to flee. For a time, the Satsuma Domain was filled with cries of despair.

As the saying goes, the atomic bomb is most powerful on the launch pad. The Satsuma Domain men chickened out. Shimazu retainer Ijichi Masaharu, along with four men, rowed a small boat onto an Iranian warship and met with Iranian commander Adil.

Upon seeing the Samoans arrive, Adil assumed they were terrified by the Iranian army. Without further ado, he produced a request and told Zhengzhi, "Our demands are all written here. Take it back and read it yourselves. Of course, you won't have a chance to delay. This is an ultimatum: respond within 24 hours, or we'll unleash our artillery!"

Masaharu said he would definitely have the lord review it carefully and would give a reply soon.

Afterwards, he suggested that in order to facilitate better negotiations, perhaps the other party should have a drink with his family to discuss important matters.

However, Adil refused after a moment's thought, a decision that proved to be extremely wise. The first step of Shimazu Tadayoshi's battle plan was to lure the Iranian commander over, chop him up, and throw him to the dogs, then launch a surprise attack while the enemy was leaderless. Of course, now that the plan had failed, they had to resort to another tactic.

The following evening, a number of people appeared very strangely near the Iranian positions and slowly walked towards them.

Soon, the Iranian soldiers spotted them and loudly asked who they were. The men calmly pulled a watermelon from a cloth bag and asked, "Want some watermelon? The best kind."

Others claimed to be a diplomatic delegation from the Shimazu clan of Satsuma, saying they were relatives of the Shimazu and had come to communicate with the Iranians with a reply from their lord.

Looking at the two groups of people, Adil was a little confused. One group was selling watermelons, and the other was dealing with diplomats—how did they end up together?

Because they are in cahoots.

There were two groups in total: one group claimed to be diplomats from the Shimazu family, and the other was an ordinary merchant caravan selling watermelons. In reality, most of them were genuine Satsuma samurai.

They planned to use this method to lull the Iranians into a false sense of security, then chop up the Iranian generals and throw them into the sea to feed the fish, while simultaneously signaling the Satsuma army outside to launch a counterattack.

However, Adil didn't want watermelon and only accepted diplomatic missions. Then, he saw that the other party claimed to have brought a reply written by Shimazu Tadayoshi himself, but when he actually got up, he stammered and rummaged around his body, muttering, "Huh? Where's the stuff? I brought it with me when I left."

This was clearly a problem, so Adil ordered his men to take them into custody. Upon seeing this, the enemy immediately engaged in a fierce battle, resulting in numerous deaths.

The Satsuma Watermelon Raid Team's operation plan has officially failed.

At this point, Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands also intervened, perhaps feeling it was unfair to let Iran bear the brunt of the burden. They dispatched their naval fleets to assist, and a fleet of 22 ships from the four countries headed towards Osaka, Japan's economic center.

Meanwhile, the French expeditionary force to Qing China was resting in Singapore. Although the army was already on its way, they decided to go to Japan to plunder.

On December 2nd, Iranian troops attacked Shimonoseki, the stronghold of the Choshu Domain, again. After landing and engaging the enemy, the marines captured 60 cannons from the Choshu Domain. Facing the Iranians armed with modern weaponry, the Choshu soldiers, armed only with old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifles and bows and arrows, were routed in less than two hours. By the early morning of the 3rd, the Choshu Domain's fortifications had been almost entirely destroyed by the Iranians. The coastline was littered with debris, a truly spectacular sight.

Even with its strongest army, the Choshu Domain couldn't withstand such an attack. They decided to negotiate peace, realizing that the foreigners were too powerful and that peace should be restored as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)