open sea

Chapter 376 Chaos
In Kyushu Island, the situation is changing.

In the past six months, Ming merchants have invested heavily in Kyushu daimyo, not only Otomo, Shimadzu, and Ryuzoji, but also Omura, Ito and other less powerful princes, which brought great changes to the local area.

Kyushu Island has always been a relatively culturally chaotic area. There are not only Buddhists, Portuguese missionaries, and even the Catholic Chetchitan daimyo.

The main impact of the arrival of the Ming merchants was these Qiedzhidan daimyos.

When the Portuguese do business in Kyushu Island, they demand that "pepper and soul are indispensable." Compared with the Shimadzu family, which was the first to allow Portugal to open a business house and then closed the business market due to conflicts between Buddhists and traditions, Otomo Zonglin simply believed in He became a Catholic, named Francisco, and received support from local Portuguese merchants and churches.

Longzuo Temple also relies on trade, whether it is Portuguese, Ming, or Korean, they all accept it according to their orders.

The same is true for Shimadzu. Their advantage is that Tanegashima can still provide the Shimadzu family with a slow and small amount of self-made iron guns after severing ties with the Portuguese.

But how much can the Portuguese offer them?

Two or three hundred iron cannons a year, how many large barrels have been sold in several years?

Chen Bazhi, who was on the opposite side of the island, also felt helpless about the chaotic situation in the tiny place of Kyushu Island. He thought it would be very easy to accomplish the mission of his adoptive father, but after a little understanding of the situation, he knew that he underestimated these Japanese princes.

The external environment of Kyushu Island is the flourishing Maori family in the east. Qi Zhengyan has already landed to find Shikasuke in the mountains and help him re-establish the Nizi family, so Maori is their enemy.

Longzuo Temple is the most welcome to Ming merchants, but at the same time he is flirting with Mao Li and threatening Otomo together; Otomo is strategically wooed by Chen Bazhi, but Otomo Zonglin is a famous name of Qiezhidan; He had the idea of ​​uniting with Ming Dynasty, and Shimadzu Yoshihisa became a deadhead.

It's not that Yoshihisa Shimadzu hates Daming, but that Satsuma's paupers persist in their beliefs, which can bring them great courage, and they don't need anyone's help.

In this general environment, Spain's [-] came.

Taking advantage of the fact that Ryuzoji couldn't distinguish between Spain and Portugal, they quickly supported Ryuzoji Takanobu's war against the Hizen Kingdom with artillery and matchlock guns and the silver that was originally used for Philippine trade, imprisoned Ming merchants, and built a seaport. Of course, it is also indispensable to send people back to New Spain in the Americas to call for reinforcements.

In America, they had powerful legions that conquered the Aztec and Inca empires successively.

As soon as Li Dan returned to the Ryukyu Kingdom, he was like a giant spider entrenched in the Ryukyu Islands with its eight limbs stretched out. The merchants who traveled to and from Kyushu and Ryukyu in the past two months brought him a huge amount of information. The map of the island was laid out in Chen Bazhi's tent.

"I also want to know why the situation in this place is so complicated." After explaining everything to Chen Bazhi, Li Dan scratched his eyebrows helplessly, and said: "There are many princes in less than half of the land of Guangdong. ——Why is foster father staring at this place?"

Li Dan's implication is that there is no value here, and the situation is chaotic, it is better to let them close the door and have a good time.

"So it's a good time for Xiyi to come. Leave them alone. Where is the Longzuo Temple? Let me see... Feiqian." Chen Bazhi wiped his face angrily and said, "The enemy's allies are also enemies. Just defeat them, right?"

Spain's intervention allowed Chen Bazhi to choose war. This choice was much easier for him. Compared with any combination of vertical and horizontal, it is too easy to fight!
Li Dan was a little worried, and said: "The three families on the island have strong troops. We should be able to convince Otomo that they are fighting against Maori; as for Shimadzu, they have a bad relationship with Otomo and Xiangliang, so we should be able to save you from being threatened by the enemy. .”

"Then I'm going to trouble you, brother. I'm going to send troops to attack Hirado. I'll sweep the port first before talking about anything else!"

Li Dan pondered for a moment and nodded, and said: "Find out the situation first, if the shore is invincible, then go back and make a long-term plan. Yifu and Macheng Chief Chen should also have received news, and it will not be too late to send additional reinforcements to attack. We are much closer than Xiyi."
-
A huge fleet of Luzon Northern Guards set sail under the leadership of Commander Chen Bazhi, a Chihai-class Dingmao ship, twelve 36-material shark ships, [-] small shark ship gunboats and dozens of Dafu soldiers and food ships Golden Drum Shocking, bypassing Tanegashima and heading straight to Hirado in the Hizen Kingdom of Kyushu.

The huge fleet sailed offshore, horrifying the people in the surrounding castle towns of Tanegashima and Kagoshima. The Shimadzu family even mobilized the inner city navy to prepare to meet the enemy in the shallow sea. They waited for several days, but got the news that this The fleet went all the way north.

Shimadzu Yoshihiro, who was in command of the navy, was relieved. Those warships were much bigger than their Anzhai boats. Just a glimpse of them scared the ashigaru on the warships. few.

Before Yoshihiro Shimadzu breathed a sigh of relief, he saw a few more small boats sailing from far away from the sea, also flying the flag of Mingzi, this time heading straight towards their port.

It was Li Dan's subordinates who came to send a letter to the Shimadzu family. The letter was quickly sent by Yoshihiro to the Shimadzu Yoshihisa, the current head of the Shimadzu family in the inner castle.

"That large fleet is the Ming army?"

Shimadzu Yoshihisa frowned and read the letter bitterly, pouted, and said, "They really did attack Longzuo Temple. The letter said that they attacked Longzuo Temple because of the southern barbarians. The southern barbarians are enemies, Longzuosi and Otomo are close to the southern barbarians, Ming cannot find a better ally in Kyushu than I, Shimadzu——Matashiro, shall we unite with Ming?"

Matashiro was Yoshihiro Shimadzu's childhood name. Seeing his elder brother's question, Yoshihiro took the letter, read it up and down, shook his head slowly, and said, "The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are strong and the country is strong. If you unite with him, Shimadzu will be controlled by others."

"But this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Why not take advantage of this opportunity to surrender Sagara in one fell swoop. Without Ryuzoji behind him, Sagara would be vulnerable."

To the surprise of all the retainers, Shimadzu Yoshihiro shook his head before, but now he nodded and said: "That's right!"

Shimadzu Yoshihisa was also puzzled, and asked, "What does this mean?"

"Shimadzu sent soldiers from Shimadzu, but did not unite with the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty went to attack Hizen, and Shimadzu went to attack Hihou, and received people from the counties." Yoshihiro Shimadzu knelt down and saluted: The county doesn’t need too many troops, Yoshihiro can go on his own, and ask brother Chen Bing to go to the east to guard against Oyou, they know that after Shimadzu sends troops, they will definitely attack from the south.”

"But if we don't join forces with them, what if the Ming Dynasty defeats Longzou Temple and then invades Shimadzu again?"

Shimadzu Yoshihiro smiled without the slightest philistinism, but his words were very shrewd, and said: "There are still Otomo in Kyushu, and they are also named as Chiezhidan. Although the Ming Dynasty is strong, they may not be able to ignore Otomo when they travel across the ocean. They need Shimadzu Help them deal with Zonglin, first capture Feihou, and then talk to the envoy of the Ming Dynasty about attacking Dayou together."

(End of this chapter)