1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 899 Visiting the North ([-])

The day before the departure, Xu Yuzhuo, who did not know where to find out the news, rushed to the headquarters and asked to send someone to join the expedition fleet.Qian Tiandun originally wanted to say that the rated capacity was full, and it was inconvenient for more people to board the ship, but Xu Yuzhuo seemed to have expected that Qian Tiandun would make such an excuse, and offered to send a ship to join by himself, without the cost and supplies from Haihan Responsible.

The reason why Xu Yuzhuo was so active in participating in the inspection mission was naturally because he had learned the behavior habits of the Haihan people through long-term contact.In Xu Yuzhuo's view, this so-called investigation activity means that the Haihan people are already preparing to attack the next target.And such actions are often accompanied by a series of engineering construction and commercial development, and the benefits that can be obtained from it in the future are worth looking forward to.

The previous example was Haihan’s actions on Taiwan Island. At that time, Haihan did not know about the Fujian government when he was scouting the Tainan area. As a result, Fujian fell into a series of passive actions during the development of Tainan’s Kaohsiung Port, and was almost caught by his counterparts in Guangdong. squeezed out the competing queues of this fledgling trading port.Since then, Fujian officials have been very concerned about Haihan's so-called "investigation", "exploration" and other activities. As long as there is wind, they will definitely apply to participate in order to avoid missing opportunities.The small cost of participating in such operations is nothing compared to the possible future benefits.

Qian Tiandun couldn't laugh or cry at this. Although Xu Yuzhuo's judgment was correct, even if Haihan wanted to go north, he would have to wait a year or so until the situation in Zhoushan calmed down before he could act.Otherwise, the base is not stable, and how can it supply the early development needs of the next stronghold.Xu Yuzhuo was afraid of missing the opportunity to make a fortune, but he didn't know that he would have to wait for a long time before he could see the hope of getting his money back.

Qian Tiandun couldn't hold back Xu Yuzhuo, and finally gave him a quota.This trip to the north was regarded as a military operation, and it was not convenient to bring too many irrelevant people with him. It was enough to go to a representative of the Xu family to see the local situation.

The candidate arranged by Xu Yuzhuo is no stranger, that is, Xu Ke, the hidden stake arranged by the Xu family in Ningbo.Xu Ke has lived by the sea all year round, and his navigation skills are not bad, so it is definitely not a big problem to remember the route.Moreover, he is not a member of the army, and he acts with the Haihan militia, so his identity is not so sensitive.After Haihan took over the Ningbo government gradually, he didn't have much to do on Zhoushan Island, so Xu Yuzhuo simply arranged for him to follow him to the north to see what good things there were.

On the morning of July [-]th, a fleet of four ships slowly left Dinghai Port Wharf.The destination of this fleet is kept secret from the outside world. In order to avoid attracting too much attention from the outside world, neither Qian Tiandun nor Shi Diwen showed up at the pier to see them off. Gao Qiaonan was only allowed to come forward on behalf of the headquarters.

According to the route set by the navy, the fleet will first visit the west coast of Kyushu Island, then go all the way north to Jeju Island through the Korean Strait, and finally return west to the coast of Daming.Under the command of Wu Sen, the fleet sailed eastward along the coastline of Zhoushan Island through Qitouyang, and then passed through the Pushen Waterway between Shenjiamen Fishing Port and Mount Putuo, and sailed into the East China Sea.

It is about [-] nautical miles from here to Kagoshima Bay at the southern tip of Kyushu Island, Japan, and there are basically no islands or reefs or ports for replenishment in the middle.In order to be able to confirm the location after arriving at the local area, Shiro Amakusa, a Japanese naturalized citizen belonging to the special operations battalion, also set off with the fleet this time.

Amakusa Shiro's hometown is Kumamoto Castle in Kyushu, Japan, and his background is not as good as Takahashi Minami. He doesn't even have the status of a low-level samurai, and his name only comes from the local place name and the ranking of his brothers in his family.However, his luck is not bad. When Gao Qiaonan recommended him to the headquarters, he was very upset. This kind of opportunity to return to his hometown to visit relatives may only be like this once in his life, but Gao Qiaonan himself was in trouble because of military affairs. But it was impossible to make the trip, so I had to recommend Amakusa Shiro, who is also from Japan.

Amakusa Shiro himself has no special feelings about the opportunity to return to Kyushu this time. His situation in his hometown was not very good, otherwise he would not have been exiled overseas.As for the idea of ​​returning to his hometown, he has no idea at all. He spent about the same time in the militia as Gao Qiaonan. Now there is only a deputy company commander, and there is Chen Yixin, the young chief, in the fleet, so he can only behave honestly.

Amakusa Shiro only hopes that this mission can be completed smoothly without any mistakes. After returning, the headquarters will definitely report to the Military Commission. At that time, he may have the opportunity to add something to his military resume. Maybe the current deputy As a result, the long position became a full-time job.

Wu Sen, who was also a naturalized officer, felt a little different at this time.He was captured in the Battle of Hue in 1629 and later returned to Haihan, but his promotion speed in the army was not affected at all by his former status as an enemy general.This time, Shi Diwen boldly handed over the command of the expedition fleet to him, which also fully demonstrated the trust of the senior Haihan military in him.The destination this time was a completely unfamiliar sea area to Wu Sen, so he also held back all his energy to perform well in front of Chen Yixin, proving that he was capable enough to command a fleet to perform missions in an unfamiliar area.

Four days after departure, an island finally appeared on the sea in front of the fleet. After Amakusa Shiro identified it, it was confirmed that it was an uninhabited island named Kuroshima. The voyage from here to Kagoshima Bay was less than [-] nautical miles. up.Wu Mori secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The four-day sea voyage basically did not deviate from the scheduled route. He almost drew a straight line from Zhoushan to Kagoshima Bay at the southern tip of Kyushu Island. His role as a commander can be regarded as well It's perfect.

Compared with the Haihan Fleet who came here for the first time, their allies, the Portuguese, must be more familiar with this place. In 1543, the Portuguese came to Tanegashima, south of Kagoshima Bay, and settled in Tanegashima, and in the following years, introduced Western muskets and religion to Japan.Although Japan's country-locking policy has been implemented for a long time, and the ban on Western religions in the Kyushu region has been promulgated for many years, it is said that some Portuguese still settle on Tanegashima and do some smuggling that has been banned by the Edo shogunate Business.

According to the information provided by Amakusa Shiro, the attitude of local officials towards overseas visitors is not very friendly, so the fleet did not rush into Kagoshima Bay, but found a fishing port near Cape Sata, the southernmost tip of Kyushu.

There is a small fishing village on the coast of this place. Perhaps the people here have seen the Portuguese from the west, so they did not panic when they saw the large ships of the Haihan fleet.

Since the water depth on the coast was not enough for the fleet to dock directly, Takemori ordered to anchor at a distance of about [-] meters from the coast, then lowered the boat from the boat, and asked Shiro Amakusa to row ashore to buy supplies from the locals.

This village is located in the Linhai mountain depression, with a total of about [-] households, with a population of less than a hundred people, and the supplies it can provide are extremely limited. Except for fresh water and seafood, there is only a little green vegetables, and they are so poor that they don't even have poultry and livestock. .

After Amakusa Shiro confirmed that the shore was safe, Chen Yixin also boarded the land in a small boat.He had never been to Japan before crossing, and this was the first time he set foot on the land of this island country, so it still felt a little fresh.However, there is really nothing to investigate in this place. The situation of the villagers reminded Chen Yixin not only of what he saw when he landed in Shengli Port six years ago, but also the Yulin Fishing Village at that time.

The villagers did not reject the arrival of this group of strangers, because these visitors were very proud, and all they took out were silver ingots.After the village chief took the money, he happily mobilized the villagers to rush to buy supplies for these rich men.

The fleet only rested here for one night, and set off the next day, heading north along the west coast of the Osumi Peninsula.However, the fleet did not intend to go deep into Kagoshima Bay. When it reached the southern tip of the Satsuma Peninsula, it turned west and crossed from the mouth of Kagoshima Bay.The Kagoshima area is not the focus of this investigation, and Chen Yixin does not intend to spend precious time here. It is enough to check the coastline changes on the map while passing by.

The area at the southern tip of Kyushu Island belongs to the territory of the Satsuma clan, which was also one of the Southwest Dafans during the shogunate period.The Satsuma clan not only controlled the Kagoshima area, but even the Ryukyu Kingdom in the south was under the control of the Satsuma clan during this period.However, the reason for controlling Ryukyu is not that the Satsuma clan was greedy for the land on the sea, but because the Edo shogunate implemented the policy of locking the country. The Satsuma clan wanted to trade with Ming across the sea, but they could not openly confront the shogunate, so they used Ryukyu as a cover. Use it as a window for Ming trade.

However, this trip does not include the Ryukyu Islands in the south, and the focus of the trip to the Kyushu region is Nagasaki, Sasebo, Hirado and the Goto Islands in the north.

From the southern tip of Kyushu Island to Nagasaki Port, there is a voyage of nearly [-] nautical miles.The fleet specially slowed down its speed in order to investigate the conditions along the coast, so it took nearly two days to complete this voyage.

Nagasaki is located on the west coast of Kyushu Island. It has been Japan’s foreign gateway since ancient times. As early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, most of Japan’s envoys to the Sui Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, and monks set off for China from here.In the Ming Dynasty, a large number of maritime merchants from China's coastal areas also went to Japan to do business. In the middle of the 16th century, the Portuguese and the Dutch also arrived here and began to establish trade relations with Japan.Beginning in the 17th century, the Edo shogunate gradually restricted the trading places of foreign ships. By 1635, two years later, Nagasaki would become Japan’s only foreign trade port, and this would continue for nearly two centuries thereafter. Unique status.Of course, since there are more travelers like Hai Han in this time and space, maybe Japan's future trend will not be exactly the same as the original historical track.

"Nagasaki is a port city with many different features. You will see Tangren Town, Confucius Temple, and Western churches locally. It is similar to Haojingao in Guangdong and the old Shuangyu Port in Zhoushan." Amakusa Shiro introduced the local situation in Nagasaki to Chen Yixin during the voyage. He had lived in Nagasaki for a period of time, so he was familiar with the local area.Maritime merchants and sailors from various countries brought different cultures, making the local customs of Nagasaki present a unique and diversified situation.

When the fleet sailed into Nagasaki Bay, Chen Yixin felt more intuitively why this place has become the common choice of sailors and merchants from all over the world for a long time. The strip-shaped harbor surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing the sea on one side is indeed in good condition. Natural harbor.From a military point of view, the pincer-shaped highlands on both sides of the harbor entrance are also excellent defensive terrain. Only a few cannons can be mounted to completely block the access to and exit channels of the port area.If the radicals of the Navy and the Shipping Department saw it, they would immediately clamor to occupy this place.

As a comprehensive trading port that brings together businessmen from all over the world, the attitude towards outsiders here is very friendly. After the Haihan fleet sailed into the harbor, it did not cause any chaos.However, the blond-haired and blue-eyed European sailors on the shore couldn't hide the surprise on their faces when they saw the red and blue two-color flag on the mast. They must also be very surprised to see Haihan's sailboat appear here.People with quick brains are probably already thinking about the real purpose of the Haihan people appearing here.

Someone on the pier led them to an empty berth to dock, and then the port management staff boarded the ship and asked them the purpose of coming here, and made a record.In addition, there is a certain amount of docking fees to be paid to use the pier here. Chen Yixin asked people to pay for three days first, because this place needs to stay a little longer for inspection.

Surrounded by a group of guards, Chen Yixin had just landed on the shore when a group of locals surrounded him.They were not begging for money, but begging the new merchant lord to hire one of them as a local guide.Chen Yixin didn't bother to care about these trivial matters, so he handed them over to Amakusa Shiro.

Although Amakusa Shiro lived in Nagasaki for a period of time, it was many years ago. He dare not say that he knows the current situation here better than these locals.However, he still asked the price very cautiously first. Basically, it was one penny a day, and there were one or two guys who claimed to have a special relationship and could pass messages to local officials for them, asking for three cents a day.

Amakusa Shiro knew that those who bid high prices might be just bragging, so he planned to hire one from among those with low quotations, but Chen Yixin stopped him from doing so: "Let's hire a high price, and hire a few. It's short of money."

Although Amakusa Shiro didn't understand what he meant, he still did as Chen Yixin wanted.

(End of this chapter)