A Commoner's Fury

The fleet led by James Biddle consisted of three ships: the fourth-rate ship of the line Columbus, the frigate Vincennes, and the Connelly.

These three wooden sailing warships could no longer shock the Shogunate, and the fishermen at the Uraga station even continued to head out to sea as usual.

The magistrate, on one hand, indicated that they should go to Nagasaki to queue for negotiations, while on the other, he urgently notified Edo Castle. In reality, Abe Masahiro had already been informed of the situation.

This was thanks to a telegraph line the Shogunate had purchased at a high price from the Austrian Empire, which allowed them to grasp developments along the coast in real-time.

(The Shogunate had only purchased this one line, roughly five kilometers long, and its functions were quite limited, but it was sufficient for that era.)

Three ships, no ironclads, and only one large vessel—this made Abe Masahiro feel insulted.

"They call this a fleet?! How dare they come to knock on our door! Send our ships to surround them! Let the Americans see our courage!"

Historically, the Shogunate had done exactly this, dispatching several hundred "warships." Aside from a few O-Atake, the vast majority were Kobaya—a type of warship left over from the Warring States Period.

The situation was much the same this time, though the Shogunate's samurai were more confident, having previously witnessed the ironclad warships of the Austrian Navy.

Not long ago, the Satsuma Domain's successful "expulsion" of the French had also provided these samurai with immense encouragement. Japanese painters on the shore were frantically documenting this historic moment, and some had even set up cameras purchased from Austrian merchants, though they would have to travel to the Austrian Empire on the other side of the ocean to develop the photos.

James