1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2134
Yu Chengli was able to become Hirado's official high-end textile supplier, so his personal relationship with the former feudal lord was naturally well managed, and he usually had a lot of contacts in private.Before the Matsuura family's accident, Yu Chengli only regarded Tian Chuansuke as a retainer of the Matsuura family, so he didn't have a deep contact with him, and he didn't know much about him.However, he remembered that once he went to a certain place in the north of the island with the former feudal lord, and Tagawasuke also accompanied him at that time. At that time, Tachuansuke mentioned in the chat that that place was once the secret hiding place of the old feudal lord during extraordinary times, but recently In the 30s, the Hirado Domain was very peaceful, so this function was gradually lost there.

Of course, Yu Chengli was not sure whether Tian Chuansuke would run to that place to hide, but at this moment, he was too busy to take care of himself. As for whether this kind of reporting would betray Tian Chuansuke, he didn't have time to slowly ponder the pros and cons of it. Alright, let's make sure I can get away first.

Although the news was full of uncertainty, it was immediately reported to the frontline headquarters.It is difficult to judge the validity of the information collected during the war, and there are various rumors about the whereabouts of Tian Chuansuke and others. The information provided by Yu Chengli is not very eye-catching among them, but the relevant information is being reviewed with the intelligence personnel. Gao Qiaonan still noticed the message just sent back.

"Tianpu? Where is this place?" Gao Qiaonan immediately asked his staff to verify.

Then there was feedback soon, that the place identified by a local Han merchant was located on the coastline at the northern end of Hirado Island.It is said that there is a small temple with a long history. Because of its remote location, there are few pilgrims and believers. The source of its incense has always been the special funds allocated by the feudal lord from the treasury.

Although it is no secret that the former feudal lord Matsuura believed in Buddhism, in fact, there are many temples such as Oath Temple, Guangming Temple, Zhengzong Temple, Saijiao Temple, and Yuxiang Temple in the vicinity of Hirado City. In a place off the beaten track to support an inconspicuous small temple.Thinking about it in this way, it seems more credible that the Han merchants identified this place as the secret hiding place of a big man.

However, there are still ten or so miles between Hirado City and Tanoura, a large area of ​​which is a mountainous forest area that is currently being cleaned up. If it is slowly cleaned up, it will take at least a day or so. Takahashi Nan does not want to wait any longer , Sun Zhen was sent immediately, and asked him to personally lead the team to confirm the situation at the location.

Sun Zhen took the order and ordered an infantry company.Before setting off, he confirmed the approximate location of Tanoura and the temple on the map of the headquarters, and then led his troops to the forest area north of Hirado.In order to make sure everything was safe, Shi Diwen also transferred several warships to outflank it from the sea.

In fact, Tianzhipu is not an unknown place, but these big bastards are not familiar with the history, otherwise they should have heard of the temple called "Tangshan Kaiyuan Temple".

In the history of Japan, there have always been many monks who traveled across the sea to China to learn Buddhist knowledge. Among them, Kukai, the monk who was sent to Tang Dynasty with the No. 17 envoy, is one of the well-known figures.Kukai arrived in China in 804 AD, and studied various Buddhist classics and Sanskrit in Chang'an, and returned to Japan with Buddhist scriptures and Buddhist objects in 806, and founded the Shingon sect of Japan called Dongmi, which was later named by the emperor as a propagandist. Grandmaster.

In addition to opening the door and spreading Buddhism, Kukai also introduced the advanced production technology of the Tang Dynasty to Japan, and the Hiragana alphabet used in Japan is said to have been invented by Kukai on the basis of Sanskrit, which can be said to have contributed to the development of Japanese culture. made an indelible contribution.

And the place where Kukai boarded the ship to Datang was at Tanoura at the northern end of Hirado Island.Entering the Kaiyuan Temple in Tangshan, this temple was built to commemorate this Japanese Buddhist figure. The reason why it was named Kaiyuan Temple is because the first stop of Kukai to Datang was the Kaiyuan Temple in Fuzhou.

However, due to the long history, many people don’t really know why the small temple with little incense was built, and outsiders like Yu Chengli don’t even know the relationship between the monk Kukai and Tanoura.As for people like the Haihan Army, they just want to catch Tian Chuansuke as soon as possible, but they don't have time to study these historical and humanistic knowledge carefully.

Perhaps because the Hirado Army lost its command, the offensive and defensive battles in the Hirado City area were not too tragic, and the damage to the urban buildings was also limited.Before receiving a clear order from the executive committee, neither Qian Tiandun nor Shi Diwen had any plans to burn this seaside town to the ground.

However, for the local people, although the war has come to an end, the tense atmosphere has not faded. The crowds of Haihan soldiers on the streets show that the city is still under military control.No one dared to go out and walk around at this time, or they might be treated as resisters by the wary Haihan soldiers.

The Haihan army has already begun to conduct a second screening of the urban area. According to the plan before the war, certain specific groups will be arrested and detained next.For example, those who have served in the Hirado Domain Army or held public office in the government, technicians and craftsmen involved in military manufacturing, and those who are closely related to the Shiba Zhiyu Party.

These lists are mainly obtained from the Haihan army's search of Tian Chuanjie's mansion, and the rosters of various local yamen and vassal troops are all available.However, in this time of war and chaos, it will still be very difficult to find out what to look for, not to mention that many people on the list have died in the flames of war. The main function of this list is to verify the identity of the captives.

Yu Chengli's situation at this time is undoubtedly better than that of most people in Hirado. First, he used the two-color flag to express his pro-Hai Han position; second, he offered benefits to the Hai Han officers who came to search the door; Han provided key information about the whereabouts of Tian Chuansuke, which was enough for him to gain temporary trust and permission to go out for activities.

Of course, since the city is still under martial law, the scope of Yu Chengli's activities is still limited to a very small area, that is, the streets between the intersections on the left and right sides of the gate of his shop.

During the extraordinary period, there was no one walking around on the street, so it didn't really mean much. Yu Chengli didn't intend to go out in a hurry to cause trouble for himself.But he didn't take the initiative to go out, but someone came to visit, and the Portuguese businessman Gonzales next door ran over by himself.

"Look, my method worked, right?" Gonzalez raised his eyebrows proudly and said, "The Haihan people didn't bother you, did they?"

"I really want to thank Boss Gang this time!" Yu Chengli cupped his hands and replied, "If it wasn't for your guidance, I'm afraid it would not be so easy to pass the test!"

The life-saving method of the two-color flag that Gonzalez gave him was indeed very effective. If the flag hadn't been hung outside the door, I am afraid that Haihan soldiers would not be so polite when they came to the door.

Yu Chengli said again: "How come the Haihan people allow you to go out and walk around? Could it be that you have given them some benefits?"

Gonzalez said with a smile: "It's very simple, because my country and Haihan are allies. As a Portuguese, I can certainly enjoy some different treatment."

"I see!" Yu Chengli nodded, but felt a little uncomfortable.The Haihan people are also of the same line as the Han people, so they should be closer to Daming, but as a Han, they seem to be treated less than the Portuguese, which makes people feel very uncomfortable.

However, what Gonzalez said is not all the truth, and it is somewhat boastful.It is true that Haihan has an alliance with Portugal, but Portugal did not send troops to participate in the attack on Hirado, only the officer Simao who accompanied him as a military observer.If Simao hadn't explicitly asked the Haihan army to give the Portuguese who settled in Hirado as much convenience as possible, then Gonzalez might not have any special treatment at all.

In fact, this has nothing to do with ethnicity, it is purely a diplomatic issue.Although Xu Jiajun, who symbolized the armed forces of the Ming Dynasty, also participated in this operation, Xu Yuzhuo had no idea of ​​protecting the local Han people in Hirado.To put it bluntly, the life and death of these people has nothing to do with Xu Jiajun, and Xu Yuzhuo doesn't want to owe Haihan favors for irrelevant people.

To put it more seriously, in Xu Yuzhuo's view, these businessmen who took root in Hirado are not fundamentally different from Zheng Zhilong in the early years, and they may become competitors of Fujian Xu's in the future.Therefore, Xu Yuzhuo would definitely not care as much about the life and death of these expatriates as the Portuguese.

After summing up the current situation, the two felt that the Hirado Clan was over.However, even though he has been defeated, as long as Tian Chuansuke is not dead, there is still a possibility that he will come back and continue to be the feudal lord after the Hai Han people leave.Unless the Haihan people want to settle down here and incorporate Hirado Island into the territory of Haihan, then the direction of the situation will probably have to be discussed elsewhere.

But for Yu Chengli, if Tian Chuansuke could come back after escaping, it might not be a good thing for him.Although the news he provided to the Haihan army has not been released, the act of hanging the two-color flag outside the shop is public, and there is no guarantee that he will not be liquidated by the Hirado government after the war.There is no other way to think of at the moment, but to hope that the Haihan people can catch Tian Chuansuke and wipe out all his henchmen, so that they may be able to keep safe and continue to do business in Hirado in the future.

At this time, Sun Zhen had already led his troops to march in the mountains and forests to Tianoura, but the speed of the march was not fast, because from time to time, he would find traces of the activities of the Hirado Army nearby.More than half of the vassal soldiers who fled from the city fled into this mountain forest to hide.Regardless of whether these people still have the will to continue fighting, Sun Zhen dare not be too careless, lest they be ambushed by the enemy on the way.

So it took Sun Zhen and his party nearly three hours to complete the ten-plus-mile journey.Although there were a few small groups of enemy troops trying to launch an attack on the way, they basically retreated as soon as they opened fire.These stragglers retreated all the way here in defeat, obviously they no longer had the courage to fight the Haihan army to the death.Sun Zhen had a mission in mind, so he didn't dare to fight and pursue. As long as the enemy retreated, he would immediately continue marching northward, in order to reach his destination before dark.

Relying on the sunlight and the guidance of the compass, Sun Zhen finally reached the coast smoothly. After roughly comparing the nearby terrain, he judged that the small bay he was in should be the coast called Tianoura. .According to information, the temple was near the coast, but he looked around, but he didn't see any conspicuous buildings here, not even a private house.

Sun Zhen immediately sent two teams to march separately along the coastline, looking for the location of Kaiyuan Temple.It wasn't long before one of the teams spotted the temple about a mile away.

The reason why Sun Zhen didn’t see it so close was because the temple was hidden in the forest and could only be found when you got close. The second was that the scale of the temple was indeed pitifully small. A Buddhist temple not much bigger than an ordinary farmhouse.It is not surprising that such a wild temple in the mountains cannot attract believers to worship.

Sun Zhen rushed over immediately after receiving the news. The vanguard had already sealed off the area around the temple to ensure that no one would escape from the temple.

Although the Kaiyuan Temple is extremely small, the Buddhist hall is not in a state of disrepair, and the embers of incense candles can still be seen in the stone incense burner outside the temple gate, it seems that it is not completely devoid of incense.

The space of this Buddhist hall is not big, and the front and back of the hall can be seen at a glance, and there is no target person that Sun Zhen expected to hide here.And the ground is full of sand and gravel, Sun Zhen searched around but did not find any mechanism such as a hidden cellar, he couldn't help but feel very disappointed at the moment.However, there are a few daily necessities such as bedding, clothes, and cooking utensils in the Buddha Hall. It seems that there are indeed people living here.

At this time, someone caught a man who looked like a monk in the nearby forest, and brought him back.But this guy turned out to be a mute, Sun Zhen even said that it took a long time to make gestures, but it was still difficult to communicate with this dumb monk.

When Sun Zhenzhen was fuming in a hurry, several ships came slowly on the sea, but it was the warships transferred by the East China Sea Fleet for reinforcements.Sun Zhen ordered people to raise the banner and let the warship slowly dock.

The dumb monk saw a boat coming from the sea, but suddenly had the desire to express it, and made a lot of gestures.This time, Sun Zhen understood a little bit. The dumb monk said that someone left here by boat before that.

The mute monk's ability to express is limited, and he cannot explain the identity of the person who left Tanoura by boat, so Sun Zhen still cannot confirm whether Tagawasuke has escaped from Hirado Island through this place.

Looking at this small Kaiyuan Temple, Sun Zhen couldn't help but spit, thinking that such a small temple can't accommodate a few people, and the lord of the Hirado clan can still use this place as a refuge, which is too much Xiaojiazi got a little angry.But after working for a long time, he still couldn't find the whereabouts of Tian Chuansuke. How can he go back and report to his boss?
(End of this chapter)