1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2108
Older people in Hirado may still remember that an overnight fire razed Hirado Castle to the ground more than 30 years ago, and since then there has been no fire of this level in Hirado last night.The former feudal lord Matsuura Zhenxin personally set fire to the newly built Hirado Castle in order to protect himself, and kept the ruins for many years to show his loyalty to the shogunate, and his descendants were all killed in the sea of ​​fire last night. The fire site is next to the ruins of Hirado Castle, which can be described as a kind of reincarnation in the dark.

After such a big incident happened, the retainers of the Matsuura family actually rushed to the vicinity of the fire scene shortly after the fire broke out last night, but the fire was so huge that there was no way to rescue them, so they could only watch helplessly at the Matsuura family's house Turned into a sea of ​​fire.

Fortunately, Tian Chuansuke led his men to block the assassins who tried to evacuate from the sea after arson in the port area, and after a fierce battle, they wiped out the gangsters.The only regret is that no one was caught alive, nor was there any token that could prove the identity of the assassin, so it is not yet possible to confirm who was behind the assassination.

The bodies of the assassins had been transported outside the fire site, and together with their weapons and arson tools, they were displayed in public for the retainers to watch.At this time, the cleanup of the fire scene had also begun, and the charred corpses of the Matsuura clan were carried out of the fire scene one by one, and placed not far from the assassin's body.

With a stern face, Tagawa Jie explained to everyone the battle with the foreign assassins last night, and asked Tagawa Kojiro, who was the first to come to the Matsuura's house for rescue, to explain the situation to everyone.

Kojiro Tagawa was injured on the head and arms, his face was also blackened by the smoke, his clothes must have been burnt with many holes, he looked quite embarrassed, even his throat was swollen when he opened his mouth. Dumb: "When the villain received the warning yesterday and brought people here, the villain had already succeeded and was setting fire to prepare to evacuate. Although the villain tried his best to snatch back the feudal lord's token from the villain, it was too late. Some, failed to save Lord Feudal Lord!"

Tagawasuke asked him some details again in front of everyone, and Tagawa Kojiro also explained them one by one. Although there seemed to be some room for deliberation on some details, it seemed difficult for others to see him tossing around all night. Then question the veracity of what he said.

"Although the assassins were all intercepted and killed by us, the chief envoy behind the scenes is still at large. The feudal lord's family must be avenged!" Tian Chuanjie announced to everyone with a livid face: "I, Tian Chuansuke, swear that I will never Let the real culprit go, and we will definitely investigate to the end and avenge the feudal lord!"

"Revenge must be avenged, but the most urgent thing is to deal with the funeral of the lord's family as soon as possible. At the same time, an announcement is made to the public to explain the truth of the matter, so as to appease the people and avoid civil strife. We must also organize local defenses as soon as possible to prevent the real culprit behind the scenes from taking the opportunity to attack , to take further action against the Hirado clan."

Maki Nishiyama who spoke was also a retainer of the Matsuura family, and he had a good relationship with Tagawasuke, but at this time he took the initiative to stand up and express his opinion, and his purpose was also to pave the way for Tagawasuke.

"Master Xi Chuan is right. In times of crisis, someone has to stand up and organize everyone to handle the government affairs of the Hirado Clan. The more it is at this time, the more chaos must be avoided, otherwise it will be an opportunity for foreign enemies... I think it is better Let the most prestigious Master Tagawa be in charge!" Another retainer Tazawa Yu, who noticed the signs, was afraid of being left behind, so he simply named him by name and directly carried the sedan chair for Tagawasuke.

"Yes, yes, Lord Tagawa is familiar with the local situation and has won the trust of the feudal lord. It is very appropriate to be in charge of this matter. For the sake of the common people of the Hirado clan and the blood feud of the feudal lord's family, Mr. Tagawa will temporarily act as the feudal lord!" Makoto Nishiyama Hui was afraid that Tazawa Yuya would snatch away the power of the dragon, so he spoke more bluntly.

Tagawasuke didn't have any competitors of comparable strength in the Hirado feudal domain. Now that the feudal lord's family is gone, no one can compete with him for the vacated throne. As long as someone stands up to take the lead in appealing, the acting feudal lord is none other than him up.

"I, Tagawasuke, have no interest in power and position, but this matter concerns the future lives of tens of thousands of people in the Hirado Domain, and I am also duty-bound. However, although there are two nominations, I still have to ask everyone present, for the time being. Who is for and who is against the replacement of the feudal lord?"

After Tagawasuke finished speaking, he looked around, and sure enough, everyone expressed their support for this arrangement with one voice, such as Maki Nishiyama and Tazawa Yuya, and the like, even blatantly stated that they would assist Tagawasuke in managing local civil and government affairs.As for the lack of opposition, some people may be dissatisfied with this, but now that Tagawasuke is in control of the situation, who would dare to sing against the most powerful group of people in the Herado Clan at this juncture?
Now that the Matsuura family has been exterminated, Tagawasuke's status as acting feudal lord has been confirmed.With his prestige and influence in Hirado, it would be difficult for either the Hizen Kingdom or the Tokugawa Shogunate to parachute a feudal lord to Hirado to take over this position.If there is no accident, when the shogunate learns the news, it can only accept the unusual personnel change of the Hirado domain.

After Tagawasuke took power, he immediately let his subordinates take over most of the main affairs of the Hirado domain.Even for Tazawa Yuya and Nishiyama Maki who jumped out to carry the sedan chair for him at the critical moment, Tagawasuke only assigned them irrelevant errands, and controlled important items such as public security, finance, and military power in his own hands.

And Tagawa Kojiro, who performed extremely well in this operation, was reused by Tagawasuke immediately after that, and all the more than a thousand Hirado feudal troops who were originally loyal to the Matsuura clan were handed over to him to command.

Of course, these people can't be used immediately. Tagawa Kojiro knew very well what his superiors valued his strengths, so he immediately cleaned up the existing personnel after taking over the army.

All those who had a close relationship with the Matsuura family, especially the samurai officers with clear backgrounds, were all disarmed by Tagawa Kojiro for various reasons and sent to work in warehouses, forest farms, quarries and other places.The remaining people were dismantled and reorganized with the armed personnel who served the Tagawa clan, so as to eliminate the imprint left by the Matsuura clan as much as possible.

At this time, Tagawasuke's residence had become a temporary official residence, and many of his staff and samurai had also transformed into retainers of the new feudal lord.In the past few years, the forces that Tian Chuansuke had cultivated in the dark finally emerged from the dark.

Some of these are industries that had already been made public during the reign of Kohei Matsuura. For example, the two shipyards near Hirado Port were built in the name of the Hirado Domain, and the Han Chinese under Tagawasuke provided relevant technology and sailors. In exchange for the crew, more than half of the funds for the construction of these warships actually came from the treasury.At that time, Tagawasuke persuaded Matsuura Kohei to build a new armed fleet in order to further strengthen the Hirado Clan's water armed strength and better control Japan's foreign trade rights, but he did not expect that Matsuura Kohei had ordered this fleet before it officially entered service. It's dead.

And similar to it is the arsenal of casting artillery, which is also a model in which Tagawasuke provides the casting technology and Matsuura contributes the funds.Once Matsuura Kohei died, all of them naturally fell into the hands of Tagawasuke.

Because the technology and personnel are in the hands of Tagawasuke, he doesn't have to worry about losing control of these industries.So while manufacturing the equipment, he had already secretly started the relevant personnel training.Of course, those who arrange and implement these things for him are basically Han subordinates who were born in Shibazhi.

Sun Feizhou, Gao Hongfu, Lu Yuanlong, Wei Zhi, Wen Jianyi... These names are very unfamiliar to the outside world, but they represent the power left over from the destruction of the most powerful pirate armed group Shibazhi in this era in East Asia. There are weapons experts, navigators, shipbuilders, businessmen, commanders, spy chiefs, masters, dead men... It can be said that all kinds of talents that Tagawasuke needs can be found from this team.

Although the strength of these people may not be considered the top figures in their respective fields, it is difficult to find more powerful characters in Japan.The gathering of these people in the Hirado Domain brought Tagawa not only various advanced technologies, but also a bright prospect for the rapid development of the Hirado Domain.

And Tian Chuanjie is also very clear that the main reason why these people will come to Hirado is because it can provide them with shelter and the conditions for a comeback, and the object of their real allegiance is not themselves, but Zheng Zhilong. Tagawa Qizaemon under his knees.

However, Tagawasuke doesn't think there is any problem with this. Although Tagawa Qizaemon is not his own, but he is indeed half of the Tagawa family's blood, and it is completely reasonable to pass on the family business to him in the future.Moreover, with the excellent aptitude shown by Tagawa Shichizaemon now, Tagawasuke believes that there is no more suitable junior candidate than him in the clan.

So when dealing with various affairs, Tagawasuke is willing to bring Tagawa Qizaemon with him.In this way, firstly, he can learn the ruling party from an early age, and secondly, he can show everyone his determination to choose Tagawa Qizaemon as his successor.The most intuitive advantage is that these subordinates who came from Shibazhi are willing to serve Ta Chuansuke wholeheartedly. Perhaps in their view, doing things for the Ta Chuan family is equivalent to doing things for the young master. After the Tian Chuan family grows up, the young master will inherit With this family business, it will be easier to reorganize the reputation of the Zheng family and Shibazhi.

With more and more bad news about returning to the Hirado Domain, Tagawasuke and his subordinates could feel that the cloud of war was approaching little by little.Accidents occurred in the strongholds deployed to various parts of Haihan in Daming before this, which has proved that Haihan is trying to uproot the industries that the Hirado clan has painstakingly managed overseas.With Haihan's usual practice, he will definitely not let go of the Hirado clan who planned all this behind the scenes. In addition, he has recently received news that the Zhoushan garrison has started large-scale procurement of war preparations. It seems that the war is close at hand.

But Tagawasuke and his subordinates all understand that with the current strength of the Hirado clan, it is still difficult to compete head-on with the Haihan army. If the Haihan army goes east to Japan to attack the Hirado clan, the possibility of their defeat is still very high. big.

"Currently there are still six warships under construction in the dock, and the launch time ranges from one to four months, and even if these ships are successfully completed and launched, we may not be able to gather enough qualified ships within two or three months. Sailors. Therefore, we must take over all the original naval forces of the Hirado Clan, so that at least we can gather a few more ships to go to sea and fight."

"The casting progress of artillery should be faster than shipbuilding. As long as there is enough copper and iron, we may still have the energy to build more artillery for coastal defense. But the problem is that we don't have enough qualified artillery to use these powerful weapons , Need to consume more ammunition for training. In short, whether it is casting cannons or training artillery, the cost is very high, and there must be enough funds as a guarantee."

"However, since the end of February and the beginning of March this year, the number of foreign merchant ships coming to Hirado has become less and less, and our income from trade is less than a quarter of that of the same period last year. I have checked the books of the treasury , Matsuura Kohei did not leave any family property, it is said that the money from the treasury was basically taken out to build warships and artillery. If we want to continue preparing for the war, we may need to raise a large amount of funds first. "

There was almost no good news in the reports from his subordinates. Although Tagawasuke had seized the ruling power of the Hirado domain, when he got it, he found that it was not as bright as expected.There is not enough money in the treasury for him to spend, and a considerable part of the weapons and equipment that cost a lot of money to build are difficult to form combat effectiveness in time.

No one can accurately predict when the Haihan people will come to fight. Maybe in a month or two, maybe only three to five days. too optimistic.Including Tagawasuke himself, the question he is currently pondering is not how to defeat the Haihan army, but how to protect himself as much as possible during the opponent's attack. Even voluntary evacuation of Hirado is also included in the reference options .

"Before the Haihan people start fighting, they will definitely send ships to scout nearby. This is their usual tactic. Therefore, as long as we pay more attention to foreign ships and find traces of the activities of the Haihan ships, we can judge their intentions and deal with them in time. There is a warning message from Hirado Port."

After a discussion, everyone made a relatively conservative judgment on the tactics that the Haihan Army could adopt.It's just that they didn't know that Haihan's first round of reconnaissance on Hirado Island and the surrounding area had ended a few days ago. Haihan's spies even landed in Hirado Port in a big way and spent two days inquiring about the news. Only then calmly evacuated.They have only now begun to deploy reconnaissance methods to guard against Haihan, which is indeed a little late.

However, in the case of asymmetrical intelligence information, the current response of the Hirado clan can only be to strengthen precautions first. Tagawasuke ordered the surface troops stationed in the Goto Islands to strengthen patrols in the East China Sea. People went to Zhejiang to find out the latest local situation.

(End of this chapter)