1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2085
Amakusa Shiro estimated that there should be special guards in this place, so he didn't try to enter the village rashly, but first lurked in the nearby forest and carefully observed the place.

The smelting workshop hidden in the ravine actually has a small production scale, with a total of only six or seven smelting furnaces. If you compare it with the smelting base established by Haihan in Changhua, it is really nothing. The scale is not enough.However, considering the geographical area, population size, and economic level under the rule of Hirado, it is unlikely to build a smelting base of the size of Changhua. It is too big, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Sure enough, Amakusa Shiro soon discovered several armed men wandering between several smelting furnaces in the dark.He is lonely and unfamiliar with the environment, so he can't take the risk to move forward at the moment. He can only observe the movements of this area with experience and see if he can find signs of artillery production—this is why he touched this place overnight. the main reason.

But now it seems that this task is more difficult than he expected. It is difficult to distinguish where the warehouse is in the night, and it is impossible to take targeted actions.Amakusa Shiro stayed in the mountains for more than an hour and still hadn't gained anything. As the ambient temperature dropped, he felt his whole body began to become stiff. It should be difficult to insist on staying in this place all night. To be safe, he could only choose Back to Hirado Port first, find a warm place to spend the night.

The next morning, Amakusa Shiro left the inn early and crossed the mountains again to Jingchuan.But this time, his luck seemed to be much better than last night. After only waiting for an hour, he saw what he was looking for.

He saw someone bring an empty cart pulled by two horses to a certain house, and soon several people came out with bamboo poles and ropes lifting a cannon.Although the caliber of the artillery equipped on these Chinese-style warships built in Hirado is not large, the weight of a single cannon is at least about [-] catties. Therefore, after the casting is completed here, it must be loaded on a truck before being transported to the shipyard on the coast. .

Amakusa Shiro could roughly predict the destination where the artillery would be transported, so he focused his attention on the suspected warehouse building.He carefully observed the environment around the building in the forest, and then kept it firmly in his heart.It would definitely be unwise to try to sneak in at this time, it would be easy to expose his tracks in broad daylight, and if something happened to him, no one in Hirado would be able to help him.So he was going to confirm the location first, and then come back tonight to try to get into that warehouse to confirm his discovery.

Of course, there is another reason for making this choice, that is, he made an appointment with the broker of Hirado Port yesterday to meet again today to see if the other party can arrange to discuss freight cooperation with the Tagawa family.If you can get in touch with the Tagawa family directly, you may have the opportunity to get more information.

The principle that having money can make ghosts turn around is equally useful no matter which country you are in. In order to get the reward given by Amakusa Shiro, the broker in Hirado Port actually helped him contact the Tagawa family within a day. one of the stewards.As for the manager's rank and influence in the Tagawa family, the broker didn't elaborate. Amakusa Shiro guessed that there was nothing worth boasting about in this regard, otherwise the broker would definitely brag.

The steward's name was Tian Chuan Shisan, a name that sounded very casual.Amakusa Shiro was originally of Japanese origin. He knew that such names were usually given by the patriarch to the subordinates who gave them surnames, so that they could use the master's surname.This is a good thing for Amakusa Shiro's investigation. Although this person's name should not be a core member of the Tagawa family, since his name bears Tagawa's surname, he should be someone who has access to some core information—at least in terms of business. There will be some informative value.

The meeting between the two parties was arranged in a quiet tea room. This is probably because the broker called Amakusa Shiro a "powerful businessman" when introducing the situation to the other party, so the other party put some thought into arranging the meeting. , I specially found an environment suitable for talking alone.

Amakusa Shiro had already made up an identity for himself: "This is Ono Kazuhiko from Edo Castle, working for a certain important person who cannot be named. I am coming to Hirado Port to find a powerful family for my master's family. It is also a reliable carrier, responsible for transporting goods from various places to Edo. Yesterday, I heard the introduction from the boss of Fukui Line, saying that the Tagawa family is one of the most powerful maritime merchants in the local area, so I invited him to make an appointment with you."

Edo Castle is the place where Tokugawa Ieyasu established the shogunate in 1603, and from this point in time, Edo has become the de facto capital of Japan, and it is also for the sake of Amakusa Shiro's mystification that it sounds more convincing.

Of course, there are many important people in Edo City, and their status and status are not convenient for participating in some secret trades. At this time, it is necessary to find some agents to handle these things. This is not a rare thing in Japan, Amakusa Shiro also believes that The other party can understand what they mean.

Sure enough, Tagawa Shisan was also a knowledgeable person. After hearing Amakusa Shiro's self-introduction, he was not in a hurry to ask who the owner of his service was, but first asked about the specific requirements, such as flight routes, capacity, etc. As soon as you open your mouth, you know you are an expert.

After Amakusa Shiro realized this, he became more afraid to be careless. Professionals like this are not so easy to deceive. Once there are loopholes in the conditions he mentioned, they may be seen through by the other party.

Fortunately, Amakusa Shiro has been traveling all over the years and has lived and stationed in many ports. He is no stranger to the shipping industry, and he has prepared before that, and the conditions he put forward are also combined with the actual situation in Japan, unless the other party can go Edo Castle to verify, otherwise it would be difficult to find loopholes in the conditions he said.

In the following talks, Amakusa Shiro used this false identity to slowly extract some information from Tagawa Shisan.

According to what Tagawa Shisan said, the Tagawa family has the shipping and trading qualifications issued by the Hirado Domain. In addition to completing various shipping tasks throughout Japan, the Tagawa family can also be designated in parts of Daming, Ryukyu, North Korea, and Haihan. The port can complete the trade on behalf of the port, and even trade with Western countries such as Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands can also be operated.

These business contents have actually violated the shogunate's shogunate decree, but the shogunate order is only aimed at ordinary people. It does not have such a significant effect on the big shots in Edo City and the local tycoons in Kyushu.Tagawa Shisan did not deliberately conceal this, because no matter whether the other party was a real merchant or a shogunate official who came to test him, these words he said would not become evidence against the Tagawa family.

Of course, it was really impossible for him to think that the guy sitting across from him would be a military officer from Haihan Kingdom.If he knew the real identity of Amakusa Shiro, he probably wouldn't introduce the business scope of the Tagawa family in a showy tone.

In order to be able to attract potential major customers from Edo Castle, Tagawa Shisan said that he could take Amakusa Shiro to Hirado Port to see the boat company run by the Tagawa family, in order to prove that his introduction to the business scope is not bragging.Amakusa Shiro was naturally happy to see the result, and agreed without hesitation.

So after the interview between the two, Amakusa Shiro was invited to go to the port area with Tagawa Shisan to visit the operation of Tagawa Shipping Company.

Compared with the domestic counterparts in this era, the scale and scope of Tagawa Shipping Co., Ltd. can definitely be regarded as a first-class level.According to the standards of Ming Dynasty, Tianchuan Shipping Company has more than [-] large ships with more than [-] materials, and this level of transportation capacity has even surpassed most of the shipping companies in Ming Dynasty.At present, there are still more than ten large cargo ships docked at Hirado Port. Basically, the ships are in good condition, and they are all equipped with a sufficient number of skilled sailors. They can depart from Hirado Port with only a short preparation time.

"If these large sailing ships go to some unsafe sea areas... I mean, are there any self-defense measures to protect the cargo and personnel on board?" Of course, the purpose of Amakusa Shiro's visit is not to see these cargo sailing ships, so He was also secretly trying to continue the routine from the other party, to see if he could get Tagawa Shisan to mention the information about the armed sailboat.

And this question obviously just gave Tian Chuanshisan a chance to show off his strength, but his response to this was more cautious: "Our shipping company also has armed sailboats specially equipped to transport important personnel and goods, but these ships will It will only be dispatched for special missions, and the freight will be relatively high... I think Mr. Ono should be able to understand."

Amakusa Shiro nodded and asked again: "Then am I lucky enough to see this armed sailboat with my own eyes?"

This Tagawa Shisan is not stupid, he shook his head and politely rejected Amakusa Shiro's request.After all, Amakusa Shiro only vaguely revealed his background, and he was not sure about reaching a long-term deal with the Tagawa family, and this vague identity was definitely not enough for the Tagawa family to reveal their family background.Of course, he never imagined that the guy in front of him had actually seen the armed sailboat of the Tagawa family, and even went to two shipyards to check the situation. What he thought was a secret was actually no secret to Amakusa Shiro.

Tagawa Shisan put on a posture that he would not scatter hawks if he didn't see rabbits, so it was very difficult for Amakusa Shiro to take further measures.But at least from Tagawa Shisan's mouth, it has been confirmed that the Tagawa family owns an armed sailboat, and it can be regarded as reaffirming that the information obtained by Amakusa Shiro's previous investigation is indeed true.

Although Amakusa Shiro did not finalize a specific deal with Tagawa Shisan in the end, he said that he would bring the situation of the Tagawa family back to Edo Castle to report, and the main family he worked for would decide how to cooperate with the Tagawa family.Such a statement also made Tagawa Shisan not feel that he was too busy, and even had expectations for future cooperation.

The only person who was disappointed by this result should be the broker Fukui Yuki. Since the two parties have not reached an actual transaction, the intermediary fee that the middleman can charge is very limited.

That night, Amakusa Shiro came to Kagamigawa's smelting workshop again.With the two visits last night and this morning, this third time seems to be much more familiar.He followed the route he had hoped for during the day, avoided the patrolling guards, and reached the vicinity of the warehouse he had hoped for.

The warehouse was not guarded by a special person, and the door was locked. It took Amakusa Shiro some time to find a transom window that could be turned into the room.

After Amakusa Shiro turned inside carefully, he did not rush to light the torch, but waited patiently in the dark for a long time, confirming that there should be no danger in the warehouse, and then carefully took out the torch.

After lighting up the fire folder, he found that the warehouse was actually a private house, but perhaps in order to free up enough space, there were only load-bearing columns left in the house, and the internal partition walls had been demolished in sevens and eighties. .There is a row of low shelves in the middle of the room. This thing Amakusa Shiro looks very familiar to him. It is nothing but a gun mount for placing artillery.The things on the shelves were covered with tarpaulins. Amakusa Shiro lifted the tarpaulins, and there were indeed black cannons underneath.

In this warehouse alone, Amakusa Shiro found twelve Western-style artillery pieces of the same caliber.He also went to the muzzle of the gun and sniffed it, but there was no smell of gunpowder, and it seemed that they were all new guns that had not yet been tested.

Amakusa Shiro knew that no matter whether it was the Spaniards, the Dutch or the Portuguese, they would never put brand-new artillery on the arms market in East Asia.They sell almost all second-hand goods that have been in service for a certain period of time.Even for Haihan, a new arms dealer, a considerable part of the weapons it sells are old models eliminated by its own army.

With so many new cannons appearing in this place, the only possibility is that the Japanese made these cannons, which also confirms that the news that Amakusa Shiro had received at the port of Boxiang Bay before is indeed true.

There are obviously huge loopholes in the control of military secrets by the Hirado Domain authorities. Whether it is warships or naval guns, Amakusa Shiro basically got the answer he wanted without spending too much effort.Of course, this also shows from another perspective that the authorities do not have enough awareness of precautions against outside inquiries, and still believe that their small actions in Hirado will not attract the attention of the outside world. Such a judgment can be regarded as extremely serious Mistake.

Amakusa Shiro also found hundreds of shells and several barrels of gunpowder in this warehouse. According to his style, of course, he would use gunpowder to blow up this place, but if he did this, he would definitely startle the snake, so he finally forced himself to give up. With this radical idea, he quietly dug out of the warehouse and left Jingchuan to return to the Hirado port area.

(End of this chapter)