Warring States Eagle

Just returned to Xuefu City after being assassinated, Masara received an urgent report that merchant ships in Chikuzen Hakata Port were robbed by pirates.It was mentioned in the emergency report that the pirates were extremely ferocious, and after they got close to boarding the ship, they started killing them. Fortunately, the captain saw the opportunity early and left on a small fast boat first, and then met our patrol boat, and was able to escape. Fortunately, he escaped with his life.

The place where the accident happened was near Oshima and Jishima off the coast of Munakata County in the Chikuzen Kingdom. To the northeast is the Kanmon Strait controlled by the Ouchi family's navy, and to the southwest is the waters of Hakata Bay controlled by the Luo family.The waters where the accident happened used to be the sphere of influence of the Munakata family's navy, but after the Hakata Port sneak attack and ambush last year, the Munakata's navy was almost wiped out by the Luo family, and that area also became the Luo family's navy A place that often haunts, and the navy of the Ouchi family located in the Kanmon Strait, at the strong request of the Munakata family because they were worried about being attacked by the Luo family's navy from the coast, would also send sailors to patrol from time to time, so it became a big place. The area where the Nei family's navy and the Luo's family's navy confronted each other.

The first reaction to receiving an urgent report from Zheng Liang was to list Munakata's family as suspects.But it seems impossible.The main navy of the Munakata family and the naval base along the coast were destroyed by the Luo family.Even if the Munakata family still hides some navy ships in rivers such as the Onga River in their territory, their strength is still limited.Otherwise, when the Luo family's navy harassed the Zongxiang family's coastal territory before, their navy would have been dispatched long ago.

In addition, because they are afraid that their merchant ships will be intercepted by the Luo family's navy after they go out to sea, they dare not send their own merchant ships out to sea. At the same time, the Munakata family also desperately needs these merchant ships at sea to enter their territory.In this way.Munakata's family is even less likely to attack merchant ships.

Could it be that the sailors of the Ouchi family pretended to be pirates?But.In this way, there are two unreasonable places.First.At this time, there is no need for the Ouchi family's navy to block the Luo family's business routes.Because even if the trade route to the Luo family in the Kanmon Strait is blocked, the Luo family can now obtain new maritime trade routes from the Bungo Waterway.And Ouchi Yoshitaka doesn't want to increase the scope of entanglement with the Roche family because of the dispute at sea at this time?Second, the Kanmon Strait is the most prosperous strait in the west of Japan and the north of Kyushu, and there are extremely many merchant ships passing by every day.Now if you deliberately block the Luo family's business route, not only will you not be able to block the business route, but you will also lose a lot of tolls for merchant ships, and you will even continue to offend the merchants because of this. Even if Ouchi Yoshitaka is really stupid, he will not be so stupid this level.

The big island and the island are covered with hills and forests.There are very few flat lands, and the land that can be reclaimed is even rarer. Now there are only a few local fishermen who make a living from fishing.There have always been no pirates on it.After much deliberation, it is really just like the analysis of the intelligence cabinet, it can only be the doing of the Hata Navy from Iki Island.

Since the Luo family's navy defeated the main force of the Munakata's navy and took control of the maritime dominance of the Chikuzen country's coast, Hata lost its land connection with Kyushu.However, the Ouchi family navy of Zhou Fangguo and Nagato Kingdom were too far away from Iki Island, and worried that the navy would be besieged by the Luo family on the way to Iki Island, so they completely lost contact with Iki Island.Porta on Iki Island has since lost the support of the Ouchi family.

Later, the Luo family's navy began to block the trade route to Iki, mainly prohibiting the transportation of food and military supplies to Iki.However, merchant ships in the direction of Iki are allowed to transport any materials out, so that materials can only go out but not in in Iki.

Iki is an island country.The fishery is fairly developed; at the same time, there are plains on the island, and there are food crops that can be grown.Although the area is not as large as Tsushima, its arable land and population are higher than Tsushima. However, the land on Iki Island alone cannot grow food that can support the survival of the entire island's citizens, so it relies heavily on Kyushu land and Food support of the Honshu land.Now the material trade roads can only go out but not in, which makes Bodo on Iki Island anxious, especially when it is approaching the end of the year, if it is impossible to raise food for the winter, not only the locals will suffer from hunger, but even the people of Bodo will suffer from hunger. The family's army could not support it anymore, so in desperation, they had no choice but to act as pirates to rob merchant ships, especially the merchant ships that transported food.

During this time, Luo's Hirado Island and Hakata Port are using the income from this year's autumn harvest to buy a large amount of grain. Naturally, many merchants saw the opportunity to make money, so they used merchant ships to transport grain to these two places.This time, the ship that was robbed was Nawu, who had always had a good relationship with the Luo family.Naturally, the Luo family can't sit idly by, and once the business is affected by the pirates, other merchants will worry that they will also be robbed. In this way, the foreign business of the Luo family will also be affected.

What annoyed Zheng Liang even more was that just after the assassination, there was news that the business route was robbed. Zheng Liang already suspected that these things were caused by Bodo.

"How about going to Iki Island immediately?" After gently putting down the information, Masara asked Togo Heiji and Yamamoto Kansuke who rushed over because they received the news of Masara's assassination.

In the past, it was because the minister of Iki Island belonged to the Ouchi family, in order to avoid falling out with the Ouchi family, Masara did not have the idea of ​​attacking Iki.Later, after falling out with the Ouchi family, Zheng Liang was busy entangled with the Ouchi family and the Ouchi family.Now that he has finally freed his hand, and Iki is so close to Hizen and Chikugo, it is natural to consider including it in the power map of the Luo family.

"There is no problem with the military rations." Dongxiang Heiji did not make a clear statement this time, but only talked about the situation of the supplies.

"My lord, I'm afraid this is inappropriate. The last time our family went to the sea area of ​​the five islands in winter, although they won in the end, many soldiers were frostbitten because of it. Later, these soldiers had to retire early. Besides, at this time near Iki The sea conditions are not too good, which is not conducive to taking advantage of the number of naval forces of the family, and it is not the best time to launch a water battle." Kansuke Yamamoto objected.

"Hmm!" Zheng Liang became thoughtful after hearing the words.

Indeed, as Kansuke Yamamoto said, when water battles start this season, once soldiers fall into the water, they will be frostbitten in a very short period of time. Even if these soldiers recover in the future, they will leave sequelae (such as rheumatism) and the like), once it rains, it is impossible to fight.So these soldiers often end up having to retire early.What's more, not all of the Luo family's navy is on standby at this time, and there are many fishermen recruited temporarily among them.In this season, even if there are no complaints from the standing equipment, those fishermen who are familiar with the dangers of water warfare in winter will have complaints.

In addition, due to the influence of the monsoon, in this season, in the waters around Iki and Tsushima, there will often be strong winds and strong waves on the sea. Such sea conditions are indeed not conducive to the Luo family's navy to exert their numerical advantages.

(During the double monthly ticket period, I asked everyone for a monthly ticket. Today is four more.) (To be continued..)