Ming Dynasty: My Father Zhang Juzheng

Konishi Yukigo set up a large camp.

Ever since that day when Konishi Yukinaga's horse was frightened away by Li Rusong, Konishi Yukinaga became more afraid of the sharp artillery of the Ming army.

For five consecutive days, he never went to check the area five miles away from Tachibana Castle.

They just set up camp and waited for Toyotomi Hideyoshi to attack and for Kato Kiyomasa to return from the outing.

Just after noon that day, the scorching sun climbed up to the treetops. Konishi Yukinaga, with a bandage on his forehead and a gloomy face, came to the meeting tent and sat down.

The dull pain in my head was not the most unbearable thing.

The most unbearable thing is humiliation.

As a commander, he was almost scared to death by the cannons of the Ming army. Fortunately, the slope was not high, otherwise, if the warhorse fell off, he would be at least half dead.

"Baga! The Ming army's cannons are so powerful. If there are more Ming troops, how can I resist them?!"

They simply did not have mature firearms manufacturing technology.

Everything can only be purchased from smugglers from the Ming Dynasty and Portugal, and don't expect anything good to be bought.

It is estimated that some of the cannons are even older than him.

Even so, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and buy the cannon at a high price.

The reason why the Portuguese were so unscrupulous was simply because they had no artillery manufacturing technology on the Japanese island.

"If we could also have our own artillery technology, would the Ming Dynasty and the Portuguese still dare to be so arrogant and not take us seriously?" Konishi Yukinaga thought, a blush appearing on his originally pale face.

His eyes were shining, and he was obviously in some kind of fantasy.

At this time, a samurai in armor came over, bowed to Konishi Yukinaga, and pulled out a letter from his sleeve: "Konishi-kun, this is a letter from the regent to you."

Konishi Yukinaga woke up from his fantasy, nodded, and reached out to take the letter.

The soldier retreated tactfully.

Taking a deep breath, Konishi Yukinaga opened the letter and glanced inside. The contents of the letter made him ecstatic.

The letter said that Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army had defeated the vanguard of the Otomo clan and captured five castles of the Otomo clan in a few days.

I believe that it won’t take long before the Otomo family will be defeated.

Upon hearing the news, Konishi Yukinaga jumped up, clenched his fists and walked around the camp. His slightly pale face was now filled with joy, and even his injuries had healed to a large extent.

"Yoshi! Yoshi, the Ming army is not invincible. Wait until the Kanpaku takes care of the Otomo family, and then we'll see how arrogant your Ming army is." After walking back and forth five times, Konishi Yukinaga's eyes lit up and he sat back in his seat with great interest.

He picked up the letter on the table and wrote back to Toyotomi Hideyoshi: "Please rest assured, our army has surrounded Li Rusong's army. We are just waiting for the regent to clean up the traitors of the Otomo family. The two armies will join forces and make sure that the Ming army will not return."

After writing, he waved his hand and called a soldier from outside, and told him to deliver it to Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The soldier took the promise and left.

Before I knew it, it was noon.

Konishi Yukinaga had been in a bad mood for days, but today he finally got some good news, which immediately whetted his appetite. After a quick lunch, Konishi Yukinaga was supposed to take a nap as usual, but he was in a very good mood at this time.

Feeling like I had endless energy, I skipped my lunch break and looked at the map to study the surrounding layout of Tachibana Castle.

On the other hand, Kato Kiyomasa had been in Hakata Bay for three days.

Looking at the Hakata Bay filled with ships and people, he couldn't help feeling a little impatient.

These Portuguese are really fucking profiteers. A broken bird gun only costs a few taels of silver, but they actually sell it for eighty taels.

And that rusty cannon cost two thousand taels of silver.

“This is simply robbery!”

Kato Kiyomasa was sitting in a hotel at the pier, looking at the Portuguese who were chatting and laughing across from him and cursing. The Portuguese across from him restrained his smile and glanced at the Japanese in front of him with caution.

Kato Keishiyoshi glared at him, and the attendant beside him smiled awkwardly, looked at Kato Keishiyoshi and asked, "Then Kato-kun, should we still buy guns and cannons from them?"

"Tell them that they can buy it, but the maximum price for one handful is sixty taels of silver." Kato Kiyomasa pointed at his followers and shouted.

The attendant immediately translated it, but the two Portuguese men on the opposite side smiled coldly and replied: "Sorry, it was eighty taels of silver for a bird gun just now, but now we have changed it. Now it needs ninety taels of silver for a bird gun."

"Gentlemen, how could you do this?" the attendant became anxious and scolded.

"You have the right to choose, and we have the right to choose, too." The tall Portuguese on the left smiled softly and shouted exaggeratedly, "I believe that our price is the most reasonable here. If you find someone else, it will only be higher than this."

The follower's face suddenly turned ugly.

He guessed that these guys had already reached an agreement to take advantage of this war to make a fortune.

If they all reach an agreement, then we will have to accept their price if we do not want to buy the weapons.

"What did they say?" Kato Kiyomasa asked vigilantly when he saw the ugly look on his followers' faces.

The follower repeated the two's conditions with a bitter face.

Kato Kiyomasa was immediately annoyed. He slammed the table, stood up suddenly, and said with gritted teeth: "Well, you golden-haired Western devils are blackmailing me. Do you believe that I will bring people to blow up this shabby place of yours?!"

The two Portuguese had no idea what he was talking about.

However, they understood a little from his expression and body language. They looked at each other, stood up and walked towards the private room.

Kato Kiyomasa was so angry that he screamed and stretched out his hand to grab the short Portuguese man.

The Portuguese didn't expect him to dare to attack him. He was shocked and kicked back, trying to break free from the restraints.

Kato Kiyomasa turned sideways, stepped forward, hooked his arm and strangled the short Portuguese man's neck.

He drew out the samurai sword from his waist, pointed it at the short Portuguese man and said, "Baka, your conscience is very bad!"

It happened so suddenly, everything happened in a flash.

By the time the followers and the tall Portuguese man reacted, the short Portuguese man had already been subdued.

The tall Portuguese man was filled with anger, pointing at Kato Kiyomasa and cursing. The attendant was also sweating profusely from shock, and hurriedly advised: "Kato-kun, please talk nicely if you have something to say. There is no need to do this, there is no need to do this."

Both sides are here to do business, not to fight. What will the Portuguese think of you if you do this?
Kato Kiyomasa didn't think about these things. He only knew whoever had the bigger fist was right. This Western ghost was also a human being. He would be afraid and beg for mercy if a knife was placed on his neck.

Thinking of the two men's previous arrogant appearance, and seeing the hostages in their hands now scared to death, Kato Kiyomasa felt very happy.

"Calm down, calm down, Kato-kun, don't forget what Konishi-kun told you before he left." The attendant looked at Kato Kiyomasa who was becoming more and more violent, and thought quickly and brought up Konishi Yukinaga.

Sure enough, the bloodshot in Kato Kiyomasa's eyes faded a little bit.

He then put forward his own conditions: "Tell them that if you want me to release them, you can pay thirty taels of silver for a musket. I want one thousand muskets. You can pay one thousand taels of silver for a cannon. I want fifty cannons."

The follower's face turned pale, thinking: You might as well just go and rob. "Translate! Translate," the tall Portuguese urged, waving his hand.

He glanced at Kato Kiyomasa and then translated to the tall Portuguese man, "Mr. Kato said that you should sell us 1,000 muskets for 30 taels of silver. You should also sell us 50 cannons for another 1,000 taels of silver."

"Oh, my God!" The two Portuguese shouted loudly when they heard this, "You are simply robbery, naked robbery, God will never forgive you."

Kato Kiyomasa didn't understand and turned his gaze to the follower.

The attendant made a random translation, and by then Kato Kiyomasa's anger had mostly dissipated.

Looking at the frightened hostage in his hand, Kato thought: If I really kill this Western ghost, they will definitely not agree, and there will be a big mess. It is better to relax and buy the bird gun and go back early.

Having made up his mind, Kato Kiyomasa slightly lowered his conditions.

The situation was stronger than the people, and the Portuguese had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

Agreement: Three days later, the money will be exchanged for the goods.

After sending the Portuguese away, Kato Kiyomasa put away his samurai sword and sat back in his seat.

The attendant beside him smiled and gave Kato Kiyomasa a thumbs up, praising him: "Kato-kun is indeed a man of courage and wisdom. I think Konishi-kun is no better than this when he came here to negotiate with the Portuguese."

Kato Kiyomasa laughed and asked people to continue serving wine and food.

The three days passed as promised.

Just after the hour of Mao, the rising sun fell into the sea, stirring up a burst of golden light on the sea surface. The sea surface refracted again, reflecting the mighty and moving ship.

Thousands of warships flashed golden light and crashed into Hakata Bay like a golden dragon.

As the large ship entered the port, the quiet Hakata Bay immediately became lively.

The people of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese, and the Portuguese all looked up at this huge fleet. From time to time, a voice rang out: "Look, is that a Ming Dynasty warship?"

Upon hearing this, the Ming merchants immediately shouted with pride.

Like a thunderbolt from a blue sky.

"No, there are also Portuguese warships. Look, there are blond-haired and blue-eyed Portuguese people on them." A Ming Dynasty merchant suddenly screamed and pointed at the Portuguese people behind the big ship.

"How come they are together?" someone asked suspiciously.

"Are you here to fight the Japanese pirates?"

"It's probably true. These Japanese pirates are really despicable. They have ruined our good business."

Everyone was talking about this and that, saying a lot of different things.

Zhang Yunxiu stood on the main ship, with Song Ming, Philip, Karl, and Charles standing beside him. This time, the army was put together, and with the warships in the South China Sea, it was forced to make up a navy of 50,000.

With these 50,000 navy troops, although it is not possible to turn the tide of the war, it is still easy to cut off the battlefield and destroy Toyotomi Hideyoshi's supply lines.

"Send some people ashore first." Zhang Yunxiu ordered calmly.

"Yes."

Han San personally led the Jinyiwei to land first, and then Zhang Yunxiu and everyone else got off the warship.

The dock was crowded with people and noisy. If it weren't for the Jinyiwei maintaining order, it would have turned into chaos.

Even so, this chaotic scene still made Zhang Yunxiu frown.

Just at this moment, several blond-haired and blue-eyed Portuguese people desperately squeezed towards Zhang Yunxiu, as if they had a great grievance.

Zhang Yunxiu ordered his men to let them in.

It turned out that these people were the Portuguese who were threatened by Kato Kiyomasa a few days ago.

The tall one is called Thomas and the short one is called Okafor.

When they saw that Zhang Yunxiu, Charlie and others had a huge force, they immediately came to ask for help.

Okafor burst into tears and said: "The Japanese are so despicable. We were doing business with them, but they robbed us of our firearms."

"What's going on?" Charlie asked without waiting for Zhang Yunxiu to ask.

Thomas stepped forward, looked at the men and replied, "Some time ago, a large group of Japanese pirates came to Hakata Bay and said they wanted to buy muskets and cannons from us.

We sold it to them at the official price, but these guys were not satisfied and forced us to sell it to them at a lower price.”

"We refused to sell, so these guys grabbed my good friend and forced me to do it."

After that, he pointed at Okafor's neck and said, "Look, this is where the pirate's knife cut you."

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a faint bloodstain on his neck. Okafor showed his acting skills, his mouth pursed, and he immediately screamed and cried.

A blond, blue-eyed middle-aged man was crying and shouting. The scene was indeed a bit shocking to the eyes.

In the crowd, Zhang Yunxiu understood what they wanted after translating, so he said loudly: "Don't worry, these pirates are mostly under Toyotomi Hideyoshi's command, and we are here to deal with them."

"Dear sir, you are truly our savior," Okafor said with red eyes.

Zhang Yunxiu smiled and turned his head to look at Charlie and the other two. Except for Charlie who had an angry look on his face, the other two had no expression on their faces.

Zhang Yunxiu frowned immediately and thought: This is your compatriot being bullied, why don't you two show any reaction?

In fact, it’s not their fault.

Everyone works hard to come here, but most of them don’t do very well in their own country.

If you can do well in your own country, who would be willing to leave your hometown?

They have seen too many dirty things, and have basically lost interest in compatriots and fellow townsmen. In their eyes, everything has a price, it's just a matter of how high the price is.

"Ahem. Now, hearing what you two gentlemen said, the person should not have gone far. If we go after him now, we should be able to catch him." Zhang Yunxiu habitually clenched his fist and put it to his mouth and coughed twice, interrupting the silence.

"Yes, we haven't given them our cannons yet. Please, Mr. Governor, make the decision for us!" Okafor replied.

Although I don't know Zhang Yunxiu's identity, but he is so young and can command so many fleets. I think he must be at least an earl or marquis, and it is not impossible for him to be a governor.

Zhang Yunxiu was not in a hurry. He asked about the number of people coming and their equipment, and then made up his mind to defeat this group of Japanese pirates first.

"Mr. Philip, Mr. Charlie, Mr. Karl, this first battle is crucial."

The three of them looked at each other, smiled and agreed, "Don't worry, sir, we won't cheat our friends."

"Hahaha, then I feel relieved." (End of this chapter)