Chapter 4
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Chapter 4: The Eagle Ship Arrives
People feel differently about joy and sadness, I just think they are noisy.
In July 1840, England and the Prussian expeditionary forces arrived at Colombo, Ceylon. The soldiers disembarked the ship, singing and dancing to celebrate the end of their nightmare-like voyage. The bonfire party that night lasted until dawn, almost everyone drank heavily.
The Major General Hans of the Prussian Military Observation Team did not join the celebration, he just found a quiet place to stay, feeling hopeless.
The expeditionary forces had reached Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where they joined forces with the British colonial army. The goal of the joint forces of England and Prussia was Guangzhou of the Ming Empire, while Hans had to lead a small team to continue the long journey to the island of Japan.
Hans carried a trade treaty with him, he was to lead the troops to force open Japan’s gates for Prussia to gain a new free trade market.
Hans originally had no opinion on the navy. After this extremely long expedition, he became extremely tired of the navy and the sea. This journey was too torturous, with nightmares every day and night.
Not to mention the age of sailing warships, even in the age of ironclad ships, crossing half the globe was the ultimate ordeal.
The ship’s cabin was damp and dim, the deck was hot and unbearable. After finally docking to rest, once off the ship, people were disoriented, not even sure if this lousy rest stop they were in could be called a port. Various diseases took turns plaguing them, grinding down most people’s spirits.
On this journey, many people lost their minds, trying to escape or commit suicide. The atmosphere was very grim. Hans relied completely on his loyalty to Prince Regent to keep himself going. He lived in a special officer cabin at the rear of the warship, finding it incredibly painful. The plight of the ordinary soldiers was even more miserable.
The nightmare was far from over.
The main army of the Allied forces will rest and recover in Ceylon for half a month, while the small unit will resume their journey after a brief five-day rest.
The Prussian Navy went all out this time, sending their only cruiser, three single-masted escort ships, and five troop transport ships. This display wasn’t impressive enough for the occasion, so Prussia borrowed the Third-level Wind Sail Battleship Intrepid from England. This big boy, with a displacement of 1800 tons and armed with 74 cannons, was quite a sight.
All the warships hoisted the red claw Black Hawk Flag representing the Prussian royal authority. A total of 1100 soldiers from the Poland cavalry and the Scottish musketeers’ first battalion were advancing towards their target, the island of Japan.
Among this group, there were around thirty to forty people possessing magic energy, though it was very faint and almost negligible. Only two people from Poland qualified as Magic Energy Knights, having adequate magic energy and undergoing proper training.
Hans wasn’t entirely sure about leading this team, considering Japan looked quite sizable, and Prince Regent mentioned there were many magic energy warriors there.
On August 5, 1840, the Prussian fleet sailed into the mouth of Edo Bay.
The people on the docks of Japan were stunned, seeing such massive warships for the first time, along with those unique hawk flags.
The Edo Shogunate had a policy of sakoku, or closing off the country, but they had some contact with the Dutch before and had seen Westerners, though the warships sent by the Dutch were not as big.
The Third-level Wind Sail Battleship Intrepid, with a displacement of 1,800 tons and 74 cannons, frightened them.
The Shogunate had set up hundreds of coastal cannons, but most were small and could not threaten the giant ship’s cannons.
In addition to the giant ship Intrepid, there was also the Prussian cruiser Königsberg, which in the eyes of the Japanese also was a big ship with forty cannons.
"Open up for trade, or prepare for war."
The fleet sent small boats to deliver a letter written in Dutch to the Japanese onshore, threatening the Shogunate with force to open up for free trade.
Around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, Hans looked through a telescope at the bow of the ship and saw a group of oddly dressed people approaching from Japan, very different from the dockworkers; they seemed to be officials.
Hans ordered the fleet to fire a round of cannon shots, causing dense columns of water to appear not far from the shore, scattering the people at the dock in fear…
Hans was still nervous, unsure of how the people on shore would react. If a war really broke out, it would be very difficult for his side.
That evening, a large group of Japanese soldiers arrived at the shore. There were over three hundred magic energy samurais in strange armor. The Poland Magic Energy Knight on our side commented, "The magic energy of those dwarfs is low. I can fight ten of them by myself."
The two armies faced off for a week.
The senior officials of the Shogunate discussed whether to open the country or go to war. They quickly concluded that opening the country was the only choice.
Since the uprising of Oshio Heihachiro in 1837, continuous riots across the country had seriously shaken the rule of the Shogunate. The lower-ranking samurais were increasingly discontent with their lives, and it seemed that the daimyos in various regions also had some ideas.
If they signed the treaty, the reputation of the Shogunate would plummet, leading to more frequent uprisings across the country. If they didn’t sign the treaty, internal troubles and external threats would directly lead to their demise.
Under the current situation of internal turmoil, the Shogunate could not engage in a war with foreigners. The current issue being discussed by the Shogunate was who would sign this humiliating trade agreement…
The Shogun Tokugawa Ienari, who served as the Governor-General for Conquering the Barbarians, passed away this year. After losing his legitimate wife, he was consumed by sorrow. He spent his days immersed in the tenderness of his concubines and neglected state affairs, stating that if there was no urgent matter, he should not be disturbed.
The Emperor… The Emperor was just a puppet with no real power but honor. The Shogunate’s treatment of the Emperor was already awkward. If they forced the Emperor to sign this treaty, uprisings and rebellions would break out across the country, with daimyos and feudal lords seizing the opportunity to rebel.
The Shogunate was truly worried about who would end up being the scapegoat.
Hans didn’t care how troubled the shogunate was. After these few days of confrontation, he had already figured out that Japan was just pretending to be strong. Those coastal defense cannons weren’t even prepared, they were just decorations.
He sent a final ultimatum to Japan, either to open up or go to war, and demanded a response within three days.
The fleet moved closer to the shore and fired several shots at the dock, damaging many small warships and fishing boats with iron ball projectiles.
Finally, the shogunate could not stay still. They invited the foreign fleet to dock and warmly welcomed their distant friends with great respect and humility. Hans wondered if this was a trick.
The shogunate sent a representative to negotiate, similar to Prussia’s Cabinet Secretary. The shogunate secretary indicated acceptance of terms such as opening up, trade, consulates, and most favored nation status, but requested a name change for the treaty to be called the "Japanese-German Treaty of Friendship," which meant the Japan-Prussia Friendship Treaty.
Hans, representing Prussia, tentatively signed the treaty with the shogunate and agreed to exchange the formal text next time to make the treaty effective. Of course, Hans wouldn’t come again next time, and insisted on having a new representative for the formal exchange of text.
The Prussian expeditionary force used force to compel the Edo shogunate to open up, an event referred to by the Japanese as the "arrival of the hawk ships," which, along with the Japan-Prussia Friendship Treaty, marked the beginning of Japan’s modernization.
