Chapter 902: Inspection to the North (4)
The two warships Wu Sen brought were expedition-class and exploration-class, and together they were equipped with more than thirty cannons. It was no problem to deal with the Japanese pirate hachiman ships on the shore. Not everyone on the Japanese pirate ship found that they were outflanked, but almost everyone landed and attacked the targets on the coast. No one was wary of the sea. As a result, they could only watch as the two ships approached. Fire artillery bombardment.
Although the Yawat ship has high-erected planks on the side of the ship as a cover, this kind of bunker can only block bow arrows and low-speed musket lead bullets, but it is not much different from a piece of paper in front of the cannonballs. the difference. After a round of shelling, the scattered fragments of the ship's plank became the best weapon to kill the deck crew. Few of the Japanese pirates who tried to resist by hiding behind the ship's plank and using matchlock guns were directly killed by the shells, and most of them were killed by the shells. Injured by fragments of ship plank. Fortunately, the target of the Kaihan warship was near the waterline of the Yawata ship. In order to paralyze the enemy ship's ability to move, it did not concentrate its firepower on clearing the deck. Otherwise, there might not be any survivors at all.
When the cannon sounded, the Japanese pirates on the shore remembered that the target of their trip should be those large Haihan ships. They originally thought that the Haihan people had hidden the ships in a hidden harbor somewhere, waiting to capture them on the shore. These people then slowly started questioning them, but they didn't expect that the Haihan sailing ship actually came out to surround their retreat, and it was also equipped with such powerful artillery. It was really hard to say who was causing trouble for whom.
In front was the hard-to-break-through defense line of the Haihan camp, and behind was the Haihan ship that was attacking and bombarding its own sailboat with artillery. This situation of riding a tiger and being unable to get off immediately put the Japanese pirates into a dilemma.
Chen Yixin naturally would not miss such a great opportunity to counterattack and immediately ordered an attack. After all, the Japanese pirates are just a group of bandits who bully the weak, not an army with a firm will to fight. Fighting against the wind is not a combat environment they are good at. Once they find that they have no hope of turning the tide of the war, they immediately flee. Of course, escaping back to the ship at this time would be basically suicide, so they could only flee along the coast of Sasebo Bay to the uninhabited inland.
Chen Yixin did not intend to spend more time and energy to annihilate this group of Japanese pirates. He only ordered to close the formation and compress the Japanese pirates who had not had time to escape into a narrow area on the coast. These people did not have the determination to fight to the end. When they found that they had no way out, they quickly gave up resistance and chose to surrender to save their lives.
After the two ships commanded by Wu Sen at sea found that the battle situation was under control, they stopped continuing the bombardment. However, at this time, several Hachiman ships anchored on the coast had been bombarded beyond recognition. Two ships had too much water in their cabins, and their hulls were already tilting significantly.
The soldiers conducted a simple cleaning and statistics on the battlefield and found about fifty Japanese pirate corpses. The reason for the vague number of "approximately" is because the shelling of the Haihan warship caused several corpses that could not be put back together. In addition, there were more than 70 Japanese prisoners of war, but judging from the preliminary interrogation results, the leader of this group had already escaped in the chaos.
But this is not harmful. According to the prisoners' accounts, this group of people is almost out in full force. Almost all the people who can participate in the battle are here, and the only twenty or thirty people who escaped just now took advantage of the chaos, and they can no longer change the direction of the war. They originally wanted to follow Haihan's fleet to a secluded place to attack, but apparently they didn't do enough homework beforehand, and they didn't know that Haihan's tiger's butt was untouchable. I think there were so many armed forces on the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty that wanted to attack Haihan, but in the end they all fell into the hands of Haihan. Although the number of participants in this Japanese pirate armed force was almost the same as that of Haihan's fleet, the actual combat effectiveness of the two sides was different. Too far away, the battle situation is one-sided from beginning to end, and it is basically sent to Haihan for training.
Chen Yixin and others were actually mentally prepared for such an episode during the trip. As the saying goes, wealth should not be exposed, but their fleet not only exposed its wealth in Nagasaki Port, but also was very high-profile, so it was reasonable for others to target them. But after what happened, Chen Yixin could no longer take the risk of splitting up the team to carry out inspection missions. This time he was lucky and only encountered a small group of Japanese pirates. If he ran into a Japanese pirate group in the Wudao Islands area next time, the difference in strength would be too big. Chen Yixin couldn't guarantee that his group could escape unscathed.
Xu Ke, who was accompanying the Xu family on behalf of the Xu family, seemed very calm about this sudden battle. He had already seen the power of the Haihan militia in Zhoushan, and he had already had a vague concept of "Haihan is invincible" in his mind, and what he did today The skirmish that took place only further confirmed his view. Although the expedition team only consisted of two to three hundred people, Xu Ke felt as if he was under the protection of thousands of troops, and there was nothing to worry about in terms of safety.
Amakusa Shiro gathered the prisoners together and asked them to dig a big hole on the coast and bury the dead Japanese pirates' bodies in it. How to deal with the remaining Japanese pirates has become a thorny problem. Haihan did not set up a base here, and the ship could not hold such a large number of prisoners. But it would be too inhumane to execute all these prisoners on the spot.
Amakusa Shiro had to ask Chen Yixin for instructions and handed over this problem to his superiors. But why didn't Chen Yixin feel embarrassed? The expedition schedule behind the fleet was still long, and it was impossible to take such a group of prisoners on the road. It would be inconvenient to manage and consume a lot of supplies. It was definitely not worth the gain. After much thought, Chen Yixin could only order the prisoners to be released on the spot when the fleet left here.
Two days later, the Haihan fleet, which had completed its inspection of Sasebo Bay, finally set off and before leaving, released the Japanese prisoners who were detained on a damaged Yawata ship. This group of Japanese pirates probably won't be able to leave here in a short time, because this is the only one left among the ships they came to, and all the others were scuttled in the bay. The Haihan people also damaged the mast, sails and stern rudder of the ship. It is estimated that it will be difficult to repair based on the local environmental conditions.
The Japanese prisoners who were released all knelt down on the shore and did not dare to raise their heads. They were indeed lucky to be able to save their lives. Some of them were even mentally prepared to be executed. However, the following days will still be a great test for them. The Haihan people are not kind enough to leave them any supplies and tools. To survive in this deserted bay, they still need to face the test of nature.
After the Haihan fleet sailed out of Sasebo Bay, it continued to sail north. It was only about thirty nautical miles away from the Goto Islands where Japanese pirates were active. In addition, the Japanese pirate attacks they had encountered previously made Chen Yixin and Wu Sen fight for twelve Divide carefully. The fleet's next stop was Hirado, one of Japan's former foreign trade ports, located at the western end of Kyushu Island. The voyage was not long, and it only took one day.
Hirado Island is located in the west of Matsuura Peninsula. It is about ten kilometers wide from east to west and more than thirty kilometers long from north to south. It is separated from Matsuura Peninsula by only a strait with a narrowest point of only more than 500 meters. Hirado Port is located on Hirado Island and is a territory belonging to the Hirado Domain. The Matsuura family that controls this area has long been a samurai group known for its navy. Due to its geographical location close to the Korean Peninsula, in the past They also engaged in Japanese pirate activities. They were once called the Three Islands Japanese pirates by North Korea because their bases were Tsushima Island, Iki Island and Hirado Island. After Japan entered the Muromachi shogunate era, the third generation shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu showed favor to the Ming Dynasty to develop joint trade and began to strictly ban piracy. Only then did the Matsuura family begin to focus on the development of trade.
Later, the prestige of the Muromachi shogunate gradually declined and its control over local daimyo declined. The Matsuura family returned to their old business and opened Hirado Castle as a castle, allowing fleets from various countries to enter and exit. They relied on smuggling trade and maritime Riches were amassed through plunder. In 1599, Matsuura Jinnobu, the 26th generation governor of the Matsuura clan, built Hirado Castle on the basis of Hinodake Castle on Kameoka Mountain in Hirado Island. This castle is located at the highest point of the hills surrounded by the sea on three sides. It has an excellent geographical location. Above you can clearly see Kyushu Island across the strait.
As a free trade port, the trade volume of this place once exceeded that of Nagasaki Port. However, with the seclusion policy implemented by the shogunate in recent years, Hirado has inevitably gone downhill. At present, Hirado Port has been revoked as an officially recognized foreign trade port, and the prosperity of the port city is gradually becoming a thing of the past. It is worth mentioning that the merchant house established by the Dutch in Hirado still exists. According to historical records, it was not moved from Hirado to Nagasaki until 1641.
However, in Haihan's view, the original history will definitely change. Because of the appearance of Haihan, the uninvited guest, the Dutch's activity space in the Far East has been severely compressed. Currently, only the city of Relanja in Taiwan is still there. Barely maintaining normal operations, and the commercial store in Hirado was already facing the painful situation of being unable to make ends meet. It was only a matter of time before the establishment was abolished, and it was unlikely to last another seven or eight years.
The Kaihan fleet bypassed Minami Ryuzaki on August 1, and the Hirado Bridge was later built at this location to connect Hirado Island and Kyushu Island. After bypassing this cape, you can see Hirado Castle on the east coast of Hirado Island. There is a bay on the north and south sides of Hirado Castle, which is the famous Hirado Port. However, the area of these two bays is relatively small, and the scale of the docks that can be developed is also relatively limited. Not to mention compared with Sasebo Bay, even it is far inferior to Nagasaki Port. It is no wonder that the shogunate will The trade center was moved to Nagasaki Port, and the layout of Hirado Port was really too small.
Chen Yixin was not worried about being refused entry to Hirado Port. Although this port had been removed from the list of foreign trade ports by the shogunate, judging from the information Haihan had collected before, it was actually still in operation and was only operated by the public. It just turned to semi-public underground trading. The Matsuura family neither wants to confront the shogunate head-on, nor is it willing to give up the way of making money that has been in business for generations. Anyway, there are policies from above and countermeasures from below. On the surface, the Matsuura family supports the shogunate's decision, but in private they still follow the rules on how to do business. Done right. For the Matsuura family, the Haihan people, who are financially strong and good at doing business, are undoubtedly an excellent business partner, and there is no reason to refuse such a good thing that comes to their doorstep.
Perhaps considering the feelings of the Dutch, the head of the Matsuura family did not personally come out to receive the "Haihan Business Group" who came from afar, but only sent a young man named Matsuura Shinichi to receive Chen Yixin and others. However, this Matsuura Shinichi is not simple at all. He can speak Chinese better than Amakusa Shiro, who has joined Kaihan for several years, which saves him the trouble of translation.
"I have been to the Ming Dynasty in my early years, including Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo and other places. It was at that time that I learned the language of the Ming Dynasty." Matsuura Shinichi seemed to see Chen Yixin's doubts and took the initiative to explain to him that he could speak Chinese. Reason: "There are many merchants from the Ming Dynasty in Hirado Port, and it will be more convenient to talk to them after learning."
Chen Yixin was also stunned after hearing this explanation. He dared to think that this little Japanese had also been to the Ming Dynasty. It was no wonder that the Chinese he spoke had the flavor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialects. Since the other party can understand, it will be much easier to communicate, and there is no need to worry about misunderstandings due to translation problems. Chen Yixin first explained his purpose of coming to him - he came to build a trade route from Zhoushan to Hirado.
"Before, Ming merchants also trafficked a small amount of Haihan goods for sale here, and each piece was very expensive. If you can transport the goods here by yourself, the price will definitely be more advantageous." Matsuura Shinichi saw this at once the nature of the problem.
Chen Yixin did not deny it, nodded and said: "After many discussions, we believe that the Matsuura family will be an excellent business partner, so I would also like to take this opportunity to ask if the Matsuura family is willing to cooperate with us?" < br>
Matsuura Shinichi did not immediately respond directly to this question, but asked instead: "Can I take a look at your goods samples first?"
"Of course there is no problem. In fact, I have prepared a sample, which should be regarded as a gift for Mr. Matsuura." Chen Yixin clapped his hands twice, and someone immediately came in carrying the box.
Of course, what Chen Yixin gave away was not a sample, but a gift specially prepared by the Ministry of Commerce. Simply put, it was a specially customized version of various flagship products that would never be found on the market. Although the cost of this box of gifts is not too high, if you want to compare the price with the goods, it is definitely not a small amount. After Matsuura Shinichi saw it, his expression became much more relaxed. He repeatedly praised Chen Yixin for being too polite and said that he would try his best to meet Haihan's requirements, such as setting up a commercial center in Hirado Port.
Chen Yixin didn't think about such long-term things. He was now thinking about how to complete his inspection mission. As for whether to set up a commercial store, that was a matter for the Ministry of Commerce and would not be decided by the military.
(End of chapter)