Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 126 The Flintlock and Li Dan
Taking advantage of the time when the Seto family was ascending the castle, Hideka began to reflect on Ishida Mitsunari's words.

Although Ishida Mitsunari kept saying yes, because of the lack of people for building the city of Osaka, the executives discussed it themselves and asked Yuxi's family to take the initiative to send people to participate in the composition.

But there is such a controlling lord like Hashiba Hideyoshi on top of his head, and his subordinates pursue private collusion, openly violating his pro-vassal decree, Hideyoshi will never believe it.

From this point of view, Ishida Mitsunari came to Okayama this time without Hashiba Hideyoshi's instructions behind him, and Hideka absolutely did not believe it.

Hideya can refuse Ishida Mitsunari's request, and can refuse to follow the orders of the public, but absolutely cannot refuse Hashiba Hideyoshi's meaning.

The reason why Hideyoshi did not directly order is entirely because he had said before that "the relatives will not leave the house."

It is impossible for Hideyoshi to slap himself in the face just after he said it, which may be the reason why Hideyoshi asked Sancheng to come over, and asked Hideyoshi to hand in Dingkou on his own initiative in the name of pleading.

But in the end how many people need to carefully consider.

Do you think the monkey built Osaka just to consume the power of the daimyo?Each family's cousins ​​are registered in Hashiba's family, but the specific real strength is not clear. Hideyoshi can use this spectrum to find out the real situation of each family.

For example, Kinai has been peaceful and the population is thriving. It is not difficult for Baishi to mobilize 3 people. Hokuriku, San'in, and Sanyo were battlefields in the early years. They have been pacified in recent years. Hideyoshi can just take advantage of this time. Find out the recovery situation of each country and vassal.

Maybe Hideyoshi really didn't plan to recruit Yuki's family at the beginning, but Hideyoshi was too jumpy. Just after the battle, Jianyue mobilized all the leaders and dispatched more than 2 troops to attack Sanuki.

The high status of various countries can be faked, but no amount of people can be faked. This is why Hideyoshi broke his promise to ask Hideka to participate in the construction of Osaka.

Hideyoshi suddenly discovered that the family with only 1.5 troops from the two countries had grown beyond his imagination under the leadership of this little guy, so that he was a little scared. He needed to find out the strength of the Uki family as soon as possible and make a response.

Thinking of this, Xiujia knew that his actions against Sanuki this time touched Hideyoshi's nerves. Although Sanuki is a skill assigned to Xiujia long ago, Xiujia's action this time is really a bit big.

So Hideyoshi is asking the Xiu family to pay 2 yuan at this moment, I am afraid it is also testing the real strength of the Yuki family.

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Just when Xiujia was thinking about how to perfectly solve Ding Dasaka's matter, the attendant outside the door sent a message, "Master Setojiazheng has arrived."

The Xiu family was brought back to reality by the transmission, and said to the outside of the hall, "Come on."

The Seto family heard the order Pidianpidian to enter the side hall, and behind him were two men who obviously served in the Ming Dynasty.

"My servant Seto, I have met my lord and heard that my lord Xin Ke Zanzhou, so I will send a gift to congratulate you." Seto's retainer very humblely sent a gift list to Hideo to express his congratulations on conquering Sanuki.

The Xiu family took the gift list and glanced at it. This is a procedural etiquette in itself. The gifts given to the daimyo by the wealthy merchants are nothing more than military rations, horses, weapons, knives, and iron cannons. There is nothing new at all.

But just when Xiujia was about to present the gift list and expressed a courtesy compliment to the Seto family, Xiujia suddenly saw the words: before the iron cannon on the gift list.

"Nanban's new instant iron cannon? What is this?" Curiosity drove Hideo to ask the Seto family.

"This is a new type of iron cannon that I bought from Nanban merchants when I was trading with them. It is said that this iron cannon has an improved excitation device and can be used in rainy days."

Improved triggers?Can it be used in rainy days?Isn't that a flintlock?Xiujia said eagerly, "Go get that iron cannon."

Left and right got the order, and under the leadership of Setoya Shoteyo, he took out a beautifully decorated long-handled iron cannon from the gift, and Hideya directly looked at it regardless of whether there were outsiders.

The iron cannon is about 1.5 meters long and has a caliber of about 2 centimeters. It is a standard infantry musket. The butt is decorated with gold, which looks extraordinarily exquisite.

Xiujia noticed that instead of a hammer hooking the matchlock, it was replaced by a steel wheel that was already similar to a clock. It was the earliest version of the flintlock gun made by the Spaniards.

After hundreds of years of firearms, it has changed from the earliest matchlock to the iron cannon fired by the slow-burning matchlock against the gunpowder filling part. This is also a matchlock gun in the true sense.

Then the musket continued to develop. Born in the early 16th century, the German watchmaker Kiefers successfully developed the world's first revolving musket in 1515 by using the clock wheel.

However, the rotary flint gun is not perfect. It is not only complicated in structure, expensive in cost, troublesome to use, but also cannot be fired reliably when there is pollution on the steel wheel, so people began to develop a new "ignition" method.

Not long after, the first real flintlock gun was invented by the Spaniards. They removed the clockwork steel wheel, and instead clamped a piece of flint on the jaw of the hammer. Hit the anvil, and pull the trigger if it's time to fire.

Under the action of the spring, the flint is hit heavily on the edge of the fire door, sparks are emitted, and the gunpowder is ignited. This kind of firing mechanism is called a percussion flintlock, and a firearm equipped with a percussion tunnel mechanism is called a firearm. Percussion flintlock.

The percussion flintlock gun greatly simplifies the shooting process, improves the firing rate and shooting accuracy, is easy to use, and has low cost, which is convenient for mass production.

However, there is still a problem with this musket, that is, the oil in the joint part of the spring hammer will prevent the gunpowder from being fired. It was not until 1547 that the French watchmaker Mahan improved the position of the firing structure and added a safety device. Only the flintlock gun in the true sense came out officially, and the flintlock gun was finally finalized and produced until the 19th century.

However, when matchlock guns were generally installed in Europe, in Ming Dynasty, the first country to transfer firearms to the army, it was still using three-eyed muskets, which were old and could not be actively mastered. Firearms that trigger time are actually behind the times.

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were not without innovative spirit. After the Portuguese brought matchlock guns into the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Jiajing ordered imitation. By 37 years (1558), Bingzhanju was able to imitate in batches and equip the Shenji Battalion.

However, the task of equipping the new guns seems to be just a face job and a political task. After equipping part of the army, the replacement work of the matchlock guns in the Ming Empire stagnated.

But when Wanli entered the DPRK in 20 years and participated in the suppression of the Japanese Insurgency, the standard firearms of the Northern and Southern Army of the daimyo were still the three-eyed blunderbuss 300 years ago, so that they had no power to fight back against the locally-made iron cannons in the hands of the Japanese army.

But fortunately, after the Ming army suffered a defeat in the early stage, they quickly learned the lesson. Although we are not as good as you in muskets, we have cannons with larger calibers!
The caliber and justice are beginning to emerge at this moment. Using a huge number of artillery, the Ming army broke through Pyongyang in one day, and directly hit the head of Xiaonishi crying for his father and mother.

The first flintlock gun in the true sense of the Ming Dynasty was not designed by Bi Maokang until the end of the Ming Dynasty (around 1630), but the process was complicated and the cost was high. Guns can't save this old empire, which is already in decline.

Of course, these are all things to talk about. At this moment, Hideka is looking at the Spanish-style gun, and asked the Seto family, "How much is such a new iron gun?"

The Seto family replied, "There are not many Nanban merchants, and they have just been listed, and they bid me 300 taels of gold."

300 taels of gold is undoubtedly too expensive. The showmen are not willing to believe this kind of nonsense just listed. After Ma Han invented the perfect iron cannon in 1547, it has been installed on a large scale since France. A new type of musket.

By the middle of the 17th century, this kind of weapon had spread all over Europe. At this moment, the firecracker in the hands of Xiujia is likely to be a second-hand product that was eliminated after the production of new flintlock guns in Spain. After being slightly decorated by merchants, it was sold to the princes of the East. Aristocrats trick fools into "toys."

Xiujia even felt that the whole body of this gun was worth 300 years of gold, and only the butt was covered with gold leaf and decorated with gold patterns.

The Xiu family put the gun aside for now, and there were still many questions in their minds to ask, but there were still two Ming guests in the hall, the Xiu family needed to deal with it first, and other questions could be addressed to the Ming guests individually after the Ming guests left. The Seto family is asking.

So Xiujia looked at the two merchants and asked, "Jiazheng, please introduce who are these two?"

When the Seto family heard the question from the Xiu family, they hurriedly said, "This young man is Mr. Li Guozhu, the son of Li Dan, a great businessman from the Ming Dynasty, and this elderly man is their old man Li Zhongguo."

Following Seto Yamasa's introduction, the two greeted Hideo respectively, and Hideo also greeted them. Don't think that the people of the Ming Dynasty are all arrogant, pointing at the Japanese and scolding the existence of Japanese pirates.

This kind of people only existed at the bottom of the society that was propagated by the Ming court, and they were well versed in all the maritime merchants who dared to openly violate the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" to go to sea during the maritime ban period.

The Seto family continued to say, "Last year, when I wanted to open up commercial routes in the Ming Dynasty, my ship was robbed by Japanese pirates in the south of Kyushu. I suffered heavy losses. Afterwards, thanks to Master Li's mediation, our ship was returned."

"Master Li heard that it was Xiguo Yuxiduo's fleet, so he specially sent his son and family elders to express condolences and discuss maritime trade matters."

Hideka listened to Seto’s story about the ins and outs, and couldn’t help sighing in his heart: It’s really a long life. The Japanese fleet was robbed by Japanese pirates. In the end, a Ming countryman was required to mediate to release the ship. You can go to the Ming Dynasty to talk about this kind of thing, and see how many letters the emperor has, but this is exactly what happened at that time.

Even Xiujia felt that the pirate who robbed Seto's house at the beginning, and Li Jiaping who brought him back in front of him might not be the same family!
After the Xiu family listened, they expressed their gratitude to Li Guozhu in Wu language, "It is thanks to Mr. Li's help that we can ensure the safe return of my ship and crew. Please be sure to express my gratitude to your father on my behalf when you go back."

You Guozhu never thought that you could still hear the language of your hometown in Japan. At this moment, the Mandarin of Ming Dynasty has been biased towards the northern language family, and it is no longer the Wu dialect of the early founding of the People’s Republic of China. Therefore, East Asian countries generally learn the pronunciation of the northern language family, and Wu dialect has become a local dialect.

"Does your highness know Wu dialect?" Li Guozhu said in surprise, "His highness's accent sounds like Su Song's dialect, which is rare in Japan. Wu dialect or Ningbo dialect is more common in Japan. Where did your highness learn Wu dialect from?" ?”

"My family teacher, Guangxing Academy, once traveled to study in the Ming Dynasty, and stayed in the land of Su Song the most. I learned my Wu dialect from him."

Xiujia lied with a red face, that the great monk of Guangxing Academy had never been to Kyushu, and he would have been to the Ming Dynasty there. Anyway, this is not the first time that the great monk has been blamed, so don't worry about the debt.

"Really? I didn't expect there to be such a master of Sinology in Japan. If I have a chance, I must visit."

visit?How could this be possible? After meeting each other, I found out that Guangxingyuan could not speak Chinese, so it was revealed, so the Xiu family could only continue to lie, and directly said to Guangxingyuan, "The teacher passed away last year, I'm afraid There is no such opportunity."

"Really, that's really a pity. From what His Highness said, this master must be a learned teacher."

Hideka showed a mournful look in cooperation, and asked him after a while, "I just heard that the Seto family said that you are a wealthy businessman from the Ming Dynasty, and you are doing business in Hirado? You can also reconcile your connection with the Japanese pirates. It seems that your family is very powerful in the East China Sea."

"I heard that the sea was banned in the Ming Dynasty, and boats were not allowed to enter the sea. The rich merchants who can communicate with the East and the West under such circumstances, probably have an unusual background in the Ming Dynasty."

"What a strong background, if it is really a strong background, it will not settle in Hirado, our family is just doing some small business."

It was Li Zhongguo, the old man who spoke, and he replied directly in front of Li Guozhu.In fact, Li Zhongguo, who had been listening for a long time, already felt something was wrong.

Ordinary daimyos would ask about the strength of the Li family in detail at the beginning of the conversation, and inquire about the deeds of the Li family, but the teenage boy in front of him seemed to know the details of the Li family like the palm of his hand, and he hadn't asked about the situation of the Li family until now. Has Hujia reported in advance?But he obviously didn't understand either.

Xiujia was indeed a little surprised when he heard Li Dan's name. After all, this was the great pirate who succeeded Wang Zhi in the late Ming Dynasty. From 1575 to 1625, he firmly controlled Japan, China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The ships operated are engaged in international trade.

It is said that this man is extremely domineering, and any fleet without his permission will be robbed by his armed fleet in the name of Japanese pirates, so the Dutch nicknamed him Jiapidan Li Dan.

In comparison, Wang Zhi dared to call himself the king of Hui, and based in Japan, he recruited Japanese bandits and sea people who suffered from the sea ban in Korea and Ming as soldiers, and plundered the arrogant and overbearing Chinese coast.

Li Dan learned deeply from Wang Zhi's experience and lessons, and strictly restricted the actions of Japanese pirates.Switch to money to clear the way, maintain a good relationship with the local government along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, and cooperate with local Ming merchants and officials for a win-win situation.

Therefore, Li Dan can indeed be said to be the number one pirate in the late Ming Dynasty who surpassed Wang Zhi. It is said that Zheng Zhilong is still his adopted son. With his political resources, he is able to mix among the various forces like a fish in water. His son Zheng Chenggong should also recover Taiwan and be crowned king. .

The Xiu family couldn’t say they knew Li Dan very well, but they knew the general situation. Hearing that Li Zhongguo said that it was a small business, he couldn’t help but smile. I’m afraid this is so small that the cost is almost zero!

(End of this chapter)