The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

At Soga Shigehisa's command, the shogunate foot soldiers on and around the gun emplacements immediately began to move about in a chaotic frenzy.

The reason for the chaos was that the shogunate hadn't fought a war for decades, and these foot soldiers were only recently recruited, making them slightly stronger than wandering samurai.

The foot soldiers surged up from the bottom of the stone steps; they were all short, most of them around 1.5 meters tall.

They wore armor made of iron plates or specially made bamboo strips, which only protected the chest and thighs, and the plates rattled as they ran.

The first to be ready were a dozen or so artillerymen. They surrounded a cannon, some carrying gunpowder barrels, some carrying cannonballs, and others using iron shovels to poke out the gunpowder residue that hadn't been cleaned out last time in the cannon barrel.

Behind the fort, three thousand archer foot soldiers had already filled the high earthen slope. The bows they held were Japanese longbows, with bows taller than a person.

Behind the archers were two thousand musketeers, each carrying an iron cannon. The Japanese also called matchlock guns "iron cannons." The barrels were long and thin, similar to the flintlock guns used by the Han army, but not as long.

On the beach of the bay stood a legion of 10,000 samurai, 2,000 of whom were dressed in full armor and wielded Japanese swords or spears. Each of them was over 1.55 meters tall; these were the elite samurai of the shogunate.

The remaining eight thousand were lower-ranking samurai, who, unlike foot soldiers, wore only a helmet and had more densely packed armor plates.

Yamamoto Kazuo stood beside the crenellation at the highest point of the fort, having already drawn his katana. He no longer uttered any more words about the Han people not daring to come, but his mouth was still busy.

"Archers, keep your formations close together! Don't worry, their ships are big and can't get into shallow water! Wait until they launch their small boats to the shore before firing your arrows. Once they're ashore, the samurai will take care of them!"

Although young, Yamamoto Kazuo was experienced in combat and knew that these foot soldiers were just farmers who had laid down their weapons. He had to encourage them before launching a major attack.

Soga Shigehiro did not look at Yamamoto Kazuo. He stood in front of the battlements, his telescope held up to his eyes, watching the changes in the Han army fleet on the sea without moving.

He soon saw the Han army's fleet scattering, not collapsing, not in chaos, but simply dispersing.

All 330 ships turned simultaneously, with the Fujian ships moving to the flanks, leaving the middle sea area to the 30 galleons. One after another, the galleons turned sideways, aligning their hulls with Tsushima Island, opening all the gun ports, and protruding the cannons from each side hole.

Soga Shigehiro, with his extensive combat experience, immediately put down his binoculars and said something to Yamamoto Kazuo.

"They're about to fire. Everyone get down."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a row of lights appeared on the sea, and the sides of thirty galleons opened fire simultaneously, spewing out sparks of black smoke from their cannons.

Then hundreds of cannonballs were fired. Before the foot soldiers on the gun emplacements could react, the cannonballs had already hit them, and they were instantly torn apart.

Two-thirds of the thirty cannons on the fort were destroyed within half an hour. They were not suppressed, but completely destroyed, and the cannon barrels were even deformed by cannonballs.

Kazuo Yamamoto lay prone behind the battlements, his expression changing, no longer arrogant, and even though he still held his katana in his hand, the back of his hand was trembling.

Just moments before, he had witnessed a cannonball land less than three zhang away from him, blasting half of a foot soldier's body away. The remaining half of his body was still in a kneeling position, with a matchlock rope still clutched in his hand.

After the Han army's galleons fired their sixth salvo, the retaliatory fire from the gun emplacements had become so faint as to be almost inaudible. A thick layer of gunpowder smoke, as dense as fog, hung over the sea, obscuring the galleons' hulls so that only their masts and sails remained visible.

On the sea, Xu Chuang lowered his binoculars and glanced at the signalman behind him. "Order the galleons to continue the suppression, and the first wave of landing forces to launch small boats."

At Xu Chuang's command, the signal cannon at the stern immediately fired a shot, not at the enemy, but at its own people.

Then, the thirty galleons ceased firing almost simultaneously, their cannons still pointed toward the shore, but the ships began to slowly move aside, launching countless small boats at the same time.

The small boats splashed into the water in a continuous stream, each carrying twelve soldiers in khaki uniforms, iron helmets, and red tassels on their horsetails.

These are all regular troops of the Han Dynasty. Liu Mu has really gone all out this time to conquer the Japanese islands.

The compensation for a regular Han soldier who died in battle was 150 taels of silver, plus 30 mu of land as compensation. This was one of the reasons why everyone in the Han Dynasty wanted to join the army.

When the bow of the first small boat struck the beach on the east side of Tsushima Island, the first two flag bearers jumped into the water, which was waist-deep. They held their loaded flintlock pistols high to avoid getting them wet.

Then came the second, the third, the tenth, the fiftieth ship—within minutes, the number of people on the beach increased from dozens to hundreds, and from hundreds to thousands.

By this time, the warriors on the beach had already retreated, otherwise they would have become easy targets for cannonballs.

The moment the Han army stepped onto the beach, they quickly followed their junior flag officers, who in turn found the head flag officer. After being linked together at each level, they formed a square formation of a thousand men.

The leading deputy general was none other than Ma Sandao, who had repeatedly distinguished himself in battle and had now risen to a high position. He was wearing a military uniform bestowed by the emperor, embroidered with a fierce tiger.

Ma Sandao then raised the goose-feather sword issued by the Ministry of War.

"Brothers, for His Majesty the Emperor, kill the enemy!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

These Han soldiers trained tirelessly day and night, always thinking about killing the enemy. Now that they had found an opportunity, they all roared, their voices echoing throughout the Tsushima Bay.

On the gun emplacement, Yamamoto Kazuo's hand holding the sword trembled slightly; otherwise, it might have slipped from his grasp if he hadn't wrapped it in a strip of cloth.

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Looking at the Han army with such a military bearing, and the fact that every single one of them was taller than him, with Ma Sandao being at least 1.8 meters tall, they were giants.

"General, shall we charge?" He had just shouted when Soga Shigehiro suddenly moved.

Soga Shigehiro glanced at Yamamoto Kazuo, then revealed a solemn expression, or rather, a death wish.

"Let those foot soldiers deplete the Han army's ammunition first. You come with me to the beach to organize the samurai and prepare for close combat!"

As he spoke, Soga Shigehiro was the first to step down the stone steps.

Melee combat? You mean I should take a knife and go and hack and slash at that 1.8-meter-tall strong man?

Do you think I, Kazuo Yamamoto, have many lives?

However, even though Yamamoto Kazuo was afraid, it was no use, and he could only follow him to the beach.

At this moment, the ten thousand warriors hiding in the corner of the mountain were whispering among themselves, and the scene was chaotic. Some junior officers had already given up all care.

They hadn't fought a war in decades and were discovering for the first time how terrifying the battlefield was; the shells were almost bigger than their heads.

"Baka! What kind of samurai do you think you are?!"

Soga Shigehiro, who had just arrived, was furious upon seeing this. He grabbed a samurai general by the collar and began to berate him!

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