Japan's Warring States Period: The Rise of the Wakasa Tiger

After obtaining the Cang Island promised by Yizhong, Wang Zhi immediately led his crew to the island to build docks and houses. Yizhong also mobilized many civilians to help. For a time, the sparsely populated island was bustling with activity.

Wang Zhi was extremely grateful for Yoshishige's warm welcome and wholehearted support, and he decided to return the favor. He not only unloaded all the raw silk, satin and other goods on the ship at Obama Port and sold them at a price slightly lower than that of Hakata and Sakai Port, thereby gathering business and popularity for Yoshishige and Obama Port, but he also "lent" two of the only six Portuguese cannons to Yoshishige, allowing him to use them to strengthen the coastal defense.

The so-called falconet is a breech-loading smoothbore cannon introduced to China by the Portuguese (collectively referred to as "Falangji" in the Ming Dynasty). As early as the third year of Jiajing (1524), the Ming Dynasty imitated the first falconet.

This type of cannon has a unique "mother-and-sub-gun" design: before use, the ammunition needed for one firing must be loaded into the sub-gun. After firing, the used sub-gun can be directly taken out from the rear of the mother gun and loaded into the new sub-gun. This can reduce the time required for filling gunpowder and cleaning the barrel.

Therefore, it also has four major advantages:
3. Fast firing rate. Each main gun was carried on a gun carriage and equipped with three sub-guns. When firing, the sub-guns were loaded into the main gun, taken out after firing, and then loaded with the second sub-gun. According to actual exercises, the total time for three sub-gun firings was less than 20 seconds, which was very remarkable at the time.

Second, fast heat dissipation. Since the breech-loading gun is connected front to back, air can circulate, and the barrel is thin, it is easy to dissipate heat. This can increase the gun's ability to fire continuously and reduce the possibility of gunpowder self-ignition.

3. Determine the capacity. The design of the sub-cannon determines the amount of gunpowder to be loaded, so there will be no explosion accidents caused by overloading.

Fourth, the sub-gun is made of iron. It can bear part of the gunpowder pressure and increase the life of the barrel. In addition, even if the sub-gun is damaged, it will not affect the shooting performance of the main gun.

However, the falconet also had its limitations. Due to the technological level at the time, the tolerance of the gap between the sub-gun and the barrel of the falconet was large, causing leakage of gunpowder gas. Therefore, its range was not as good as that of the red cannon. According to Ming Dynasty historical records, "it could fire at a range of more than 100 feet", which means that the range was between 300 and 500 meters.

It is worth mentioning that in 1576, the "Kokubeng" that Otomo Sorin obtained from the "Southern Barbarians" was essentially a Portuguese cannon. It was with this cannon that he defeated the Shimazu army in the Battle of Usuki Castle and held out until the arrival of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Kyushu expeditionary army. This shows that this cannon was still very "advanced" even in the late Warring States period.

Yoshishige was ecstatic to obtain this siege weapon more than 30 years in advance, but unfortunately the Takeda family did not have the technical capabilities at that time. Imitating the matchlock gun was already the limit, and imitating the falconet was out of the question.

To put it another way, even Wang Zhi and the Portuguese named Damoto were not capable of replicating this cannon, let alone Professor Yizhong.

But it is better to have these two weapons, and Yoshishige felt relieved. At this time, he also followed the agreement with Darmoto and selected Inato Yuhide and his son in Tango to learn how to imitate the matchlock gun.

The reason for choosing the Inatomi father and son was because Yoshishige knew that in history, it was their family that had a strong passion and unique insights into arquebuses. Starting with Inatomi Sukehide, his son Inatomi Naohide and his grandson Inatomi Sukenao all studied and learned the arquebus forging and use techniques and achieved success, resulting in the entire Inatomi family being masters of arquebuses, and eventually creating a major school of arquebuses called "Inatomi-ryu Cannon Technique".

After all, the arquebus was introduced earlier than in history, and Yoshishige summoned Inao Yuhide and his son with a try-it attitude, hoping that they could learn how to imitate and shoot the arquebus from Darmoto.

At that time, although they knew the power of the arquebus, many nobles and people still disdained it. They believed that even if they used the arquebus to win, it was "unfair victory" and that as samurai they should stay away from such "strange skills" so as not to damage their honor.

Yoshishige was also worried that the Inatomi clan would have such thoughts at this time, so he adopted a negotiating tone rather than a mandatory order. However, this may be the fate of history. When Inatomi Yuhide and Inatomi Naohide learned that Yoshishige wanted them to learn "artillery", they not only did not show any embarrassment, but were extremely excited. They were full of curiosity and enthusiasm for this new thing, the iron cannon, and immediately expressed their desire to start learning it as soon as possible.

Yoshishige was deeply pleased with this, and his heart was filled with hope and expectation as he thought that in the near future he would own Japan's first arquebus team.

As for another major task that Yoshishige has to do right now, it is the mining of Ikuno Silver Mine.

After receiving Wang Zhi's promise that he could recruit craftsmen who mastered the "ash blowing method", Yishige thought it over again and again and decided to tell the truth about the Ikuno Silver Mine.

Wang Zhi was of course very happy to hear that there was a silver mine in Takeda's territory that was second only to Iwami at the time, but he also noticed that Yoshishige looked very solemn, so he asked curiously, "Your Highness has such a huge fortune, why are you still unhappy?"

"If I were the Amago clan or the Ouchi clan, I would be able to rest easy with such a silver mine. But I am only a minor daimyo now. It is fine if the silver mine is not mined. Once mined, it will inevitably be coveted by others. In addition, the Asago County where the silver mine is located is a newly acquired territory of the main family, and the foundation is not stable. If it is made public at this time, it may increase the unrest in the territory."

Yizhong's concerns were shared by Wang Zhi, who analyzed:

"If it is true as Your Highness said, that it is a silver mine second only to Iwami in size, then I would like to suggest that you please do not mine it for the time being. I know that you are eager to gain profits from the development of the silver mine, and then strengthen your strength and enrich the country and strengthen the army.

But you should have heard that for decades, the Amago family and the Ouchi family have been at war over the Iwami Silver Mine, which has caused us merchants to trade with the Ouchi family one moment and the Amago family the next, and we have to look around and feel overwhelmed.

Your Highness's territory is close to the Nizi family. Before you can compete with them, don't touch the mine unless it is absolutely necessary, lest you make wedding clothes for others before you can taste the sweetness. "

"Thank you for your reminder, sir. In that case, let's not talk about this matter for now." Yi Zhong responded with some disappointment.

"Your Highness, I am a businessman. When doing business, I have to weigh the risks and pros and cons. Putting the mining project on hold for the time being is the best choice for both me and you."

Wang Zhi saw Yizhong looking depressed, so he patiently comforted him, "You have to take one step at a time and do things one by one. Given the current situation faced by the Takeda family, building and using the sea trade route is the top priority. Once this sea trade route is integrated with the internal trade network built by Your Highness, the profits generated will increase significantly. By then, Your Highness may not be so enthusiastic about mining."

"Your words make sense. I will fully cooperate with you in establishing the maritime trade route!" After Wang Zhi's consolation, Yi Zhong's mood was relieved a lot.

At this time, he has transformed his obsession with mining into a driving force for struggle. In order to mine silver in his own territory without any worries, he must continue to strengthen his own strength and prevent external forces from taking advantage of him. (End of this chapter)