open sea

Chapter 381 Matsuura
"Mingjun?"

Matsuura Takanobu's two eyes stared out in different sizes, and he forgot to close his opened mouth when he heard his retainers report his facial expression so wonderfully.

In fact, he and Naoshima Naoshige had the same idea, and they both thought that these people were the Shimadzu Army.

Although Matsuura Takanobu also felt that if the Shimadzu family really came over, they would definitely beat him up.

According to the rumors he heard, only the barbarians of the Satsuma clan had the strength to defeat the elite Ryuzoji army. Now that it was the Ming army who came, Matsuura Takanobu rolled his eyes several times.

In the whole of Kyushu, if you want to say which family is most resistant to the Ming army, it is probably the Matsuura family that has been suppressed by various forces on Hirado Island and has no sense of existence.

Their family fought against the Yuan army and was the first to organize Japanese pirates to go to the Central Plains to plunder in revenge for the Yuan army, maintaining a long tradition of Japanese pirates.Therefore, when he heard the word Ming army, Matsuura Takanobu, who was horrified in his heart, directly ordered to recall the troops outside the city to repair the city wall on the spot and prepare to defend and surrender.

Hold first, then surrender.

But if you want to say which family in the entire Kyushu has the most favorable impression of the Ming Dynasty, it is undoubtedly the Matsuura family who was huddled in Hirado Island and was rubbed by various forces in turn.

Moreover, the person closest to the Ming people in this family is the contemporary patriarch, Matsuura Takanobu.

The last Ming person who had a deep contact with him was Wang Zhi, the leader of the Daming pirates, Wang Zhi who brought the bird gun and the Portuguese to Japan.

Matsuura Takanobu once built a gorgeous residence for Wang Zhi in Hirado. Later, because Wang Zhi came to Japan and passed by the owner of Wudao, the owner of Wufeng, he simply handed over Wudao to him to garrison and repair the port, so as to attract more smuggled maritime merchants from the Ming Dynasty to Hirado. trading.

That was Hirado and Matsuura Takanobu's most glorious moment. In the last few years of Wang Zhi's life, many Ming merchants attracted by Wang Zhi made Hirado Port unprecedentedly prosperous, and the economic prosperity also increased to a certain extent. The military power of Hirado Matsuura clan.

With more iron cannons and wealth, Matsuura Takanobu has the power to unify the Matsuura family, intervene in the internal disputes of the Shisa clan at the right time, support the son-in-law Shisa Junyuan, let the son-in-law take the initiative and control the Shisa clan; The resistance of the Hidaka clan, the retainer, took the opportunity to defeat the Bodo clan, acquire Iki, and build the largest territory of the Matsuura clan.

Then, Wang Zhi was killed in prison by Hu Zongxian.

It was the unprecedentedly prosperous Matsuura family who used marriage and other means to stabilize Otomo and Ryuzoji, but they could not stop the economic decline of Hirado Port.

There is no Wang Zhi, no Ming merchants, but Hirado still has Nanban trade. On average, five Portuguese ships come to Hirado for trade every year, but Matsuura Takanobu, who has lost Wang Zhi as an ally, is very weak to the Portuguese and allows trade. At the same time, it is also allowed to preach.

The conflict between Buddhists and Chechitan deepened day by day. In order to maintain the rule, Takanobu Matsuura had no choice but to expel the missionaries from the territory. As a result, Patriarch Torres said that he had broken his promise and told the Nanman ships not to come to Hirado again.

As for merchants, as long as there is profit, missionaries can't restrict most of them, so although the Nanban ships become one every year or every two years, there are still people who come to trade.

Then in the seventh year of Yonglu, which was also the 43rd year of Jiajing, the Kiritan daimyo Omura Junchu opened a port in Nagasaki. The old, weak, sick and disabled Japanese pirates and the declining Hirado port.

Without Ming merchants and Nanman merchants, the Matsuura family would die of poverty.

In view of the above reasons, Matsuura Takanobu took an extremely cautious attitude towards the Ming army landing in Hirado without anyone noticing and fighting the Ryuzoji family under his nose. He did not choose to contact the Ming people immediately, but sent people to Go to the five islands to find the pirates of the Ming Dynasty living in Japan.

This group of people didn't show up when he was fighting, so they should be of some use to him now that the war is over, right?They should go and find out for him the purpose of the troops stationed below the city.

Speaking of which, Matsuura Takanobu was also wondering, what about his Japanese pirates?
What about his huge number of powerful Japanese pirates?
In fact, there is no need to look for it. His pirates didn't abandon him intentionally, they were just frightened.

On the way they drove the Guanboat and Xiaozao all the way to rescue the Patriarch, they all found a terrifying large fleet docked in the bay not far from Hirado Port.

A group of powerful and well-equipped Japanese pirates, what will they do when they see the huge warships of the Ming Dynasty?
grab.

What about the result of the robbery?
Even people and boats sank to the bottom of the sea to feed the whales.

Witnessing the horrifying scene, the Japanese pirates and ronin were swimming in the sea, and they dared not land in Hirado at all, so they called the Japanese pirates everywhere and retreated.

Among them were quite a number of Ming pirates. They were far away from their homeland and deeply feared the Ming army. They did not hesitate to dispatch the bow to bring the news back to the five islands.

During the time when Matsuura Takanobu was waiting for his cronies, Chen Bazhi was not leisurely. Relying on the Battle of Kusano Castle to get a general idea of ​​the combat strength of the regular army of Ryuzoji, he was much more relaxed about the trip. out.

Only one thousand households stayed on the ship at sea, two thousand households searched for suitable places to build trestles on the shore, and the other thousand households were divided into ten troops to sweep westward and search for islands from the coast.

In fact, these actions are superfluous. There is only one Matsuura family on Hirado Island. In order to deal with the soldiers who killed Ryuzoji after he became fat, all the troops Hirado could mobilize were gathered at Matsuura Tsu Kusano Castle. In the overseas islands, Hirado has no hostile forces.

The wait lasted for three days. Chen Bazhi's banner army set up camp at a distance of only four or five miles from Caoye Castle, and the Matsuura clan in the city was waiting in full force.

In this strange peace, the people of the castle town who fled into the mountains returned to their homes. Many people thought that the Ming army drove the enemy away for them, and thought it was the rescuers invited by the daimyo Matsuura Takanobu. Bring some rice and radish, and even teach them to boil the radish in salt water, then grind it into a paste and eat it with a small amount of rice-the common people eat this.

This allowed Chen Bazhi to collect more information, and the people of Hirado were not surprised at all that the daimyo invited the Ming people to reinforce them. The strangest thing was that their armor was much better than that of the Hirado samurai.

Chen Bazhi made several turns in his head before realizing that the Hirado samurai mentioned by the Hirado farmer were not Japanese, but Japanese pirates and their descendants who lived in Japan after Wang Zhi died.

Here, these criminals have transformed into a regular army that is not controlled by the local daimyo, and they are dependent on each other, just like the Matsuura 48 Party.

He got information from Matsuura Takanobu through the mouth of the farmer, and Matsuura Takanobu would soon be able to get their information through the same means. Chen Bazhi thought that someone would invite him into Kusano City soon.

At this juncture, a warship from Guangdong led the way with several small shark boats, and stopped at the edge of the unfinished trestle bridge that Chen Bazhi had not yet completed. A veteran who was not armored but had a sword in his waist and hips got off the boat. Chen Bazhi knew this man.

The beard of the visitor was already grey, and he knew the year of destiny, so he clasped his hands to Chen Bazhi and said, "Commander Chen, this old man, Wang Rulong, is ordered by Shuai Chen to help you to bring peace to the Nine Islands!"

　Pushing a copy of "The Good Country Uncle in the Late Ming Dynasty" is also a new book recommendation. The author has already completed a novel of the Three Kingdoms, and his character is guaranteed.

　　


(End of this chapter)