Chapter 2085
Amakusa Shiro estimated that there should be special guards in this place, so he did not try to enter the village rashly. Instead, he lurked in the nearby mountains and forests to observe the place carefully.
The smelting workshop hidden in the ravine actually has a small production scale, with only six or seven smelting furnaces in total. If compared with the smelting base established by Haihan in Changhua, it is really insignificant and should be even one-tenth. are less than the scale of . However, considering the geographical area, population size, and economic level under the rule of the Hirado Domain, it is impossible to build a smelting base of the size of Changhua. In addition, it is said that there are military production tasks here, so the production scale cannot be increased. It was too big to avoid arousing the suspicion of the Tokugawa shogunate.
Sure enough, Amakusa Shiro soon discovered several armed men walking among several smelting furnaces in the dark night. These people were walking around and seemed to be on patrol. He was alone and unfamiliar with the environment. He couldn't take the risk to move forward at the moment. He could only rely on experience to observe the trends in this area and see if he could find any signs of artillery production - this was what he had touched here overnight. main reason.
But now it seems that this task is more difficult than he expected. It is difficult to distinguish where the warehouse is in the night, and it is impossible to take targeted actions. Amakusa Shiro stayed in the mountains for more than an hour and still had no results. As the ambient temperature dropped, he felt that his entire body began to become stiff. It would be difficult to stay here for a whole night. For safety reasons, he could only choose Return to Hirado Port first and find a warm place to spend the night.
The next morning, Amakusa Shiro left the inn early and crossed the mountains again to Kagawa. This time, his luck seemed to be much better than last night. After only waiting for an hour, he saw what he was looking for.
He saw someone bringing an empty cart pulled by two horses to a certain house, and soon several people came out using bamboo poles and ropes to carry a cannon. Although the caliber of the artillery equipped on these Chinese warships built in Hirado is not large, the weight of each gun is at least about 500 kilograms. Therefore, after the casting is completed here, it must be loaded into a truck before being transported to the shipyard on the coast. .
Amakusa Shiro could roughly predict the destination where the artillery would be transported, so he focused on the building that seemed to be a warehouse. He carefully observed the environment around the building in the mountains and forests, and then kept it in his mind. It would definitely be unwise to try to sneak in at this time. His whereabouts would be easily exposed in broad daylight, and if something happened to him, no one in Hirado would be able to help him. So he planned to confirm the location first, and then wait for another trip tonight to try to enter the warehouse to confirm his discovery.
Of course, there is another reason for making this choice, that is, he made an appointment with the broker at Hirado Port yesterday to meet again today to see if the other party can arrange to discuss freight cooperation with the Tagawa family. If I could have direct contact with the Tagawa family, I might have a chance to get more information.
The saying that money can make a difference is equally useful no matter which country it is in. In order to get the reward offered by Amakusa Shiro, the broker at Hirado Port actually helped him contact the Tagawa family within one day. of a steward. As for the rank and influence of this steward in the Tagawa family, the broker did not elaborate. Amakusa Shiro guessed that there was nothing worth boasting about in this regard, otherwise the broker would definitely brag about it.
This steward's name is Tagawa Shisan, a name that sounds very casual. Amakusa Shiro was originally of Japanese origin, and he knew that this kind of name was usually given by the master of the family to his subordinates, so that they could use the master's surname. This is a good thing for Amakusa Shiro's investigation. Although this person's name shouldn't be a core member of the Tagawa family, since his name carries Tagawa's surname, he should be someone who has access to some core information - at least in terms of business. There will be certain intelligence value.
The meeting between the two parties was arranged in a quiet tea room. This was probably because the broker described Amakusa Shiro as a "big and powerful businessman" when introducing the situation to the other party, so the other party put some thought into arranging the meeting. , specially found an environment suitable for talking alone.
Amakusa Shiro has already made up an identity for himself: "I am Ono Kazuhiko from Edo Castle, working for a certain big shot who cannot be named. I came to Hirado Port to find a strong family for my master's family. A reliable carrier, responsible for transporting goods from various places to Edo. Yesterday, I heard from the boss of Fukui Line that the Tagawa family is one of the most powerful maritime merchants in the area, so I asked him to make an appointment with you.”
Edo Castle is where Tokugawa Ieyasu established the shogunate in 1603. From this point on, Edo became the de facto capital of Japan, also to make Amakusa Shiro's mysteries sound more convincing.
Of course, there are many big shots in Edo City, and their status makes it difficult for them to participate in certain secret trades. At this time, they need to find some agents to handle these matters. This is not a rare thing in Japan. Amakusa Shiro also believes that The other party can understand what you mean.
Sure enough, Tagawa Juzo was also a knowledgeable person. After listening to Amakusa Shiro's self-introduction, he did not rush to ask who the master he served for was, but first asked about the specific requirements, such as routes, transportation capacity, etc. As soon as you open your mouth, you will know that you are an expert.
After Amakusa Shiro realized this, he became more and more afraid to be careless. Professionals like this are not so easy to deceive. Once there are loopholes in the conditions he proposed, the other party may see through them.
Fortunately, Amakusa Shiro has traveled all over the country in recent years and has lived and stationed in many ports. He is no stranger to the shipping industry. Moreover, he has been prepared beforehand. The conditions he proposed are also based on the actual situation in Japan. Unless the other party can go Edo Castle to verify, otherwise it would be difficult to find loopholes in the conditions he said.
In the following talks, Amakusa Shiro used this false identity to slowly extract some information from Tagawa Jusan.
According to Tagawa Juzo, the Tagawa family has shipping and trade qualifications issued by the Hirado Domain. In addition to completing various shipping tasks throughout Japan, it can also be designated in Ming Dynasty, Ryukyu, Korea, and Haihan. The port completes trade on your behalf, and can even trade with Western countries such as Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
These business contents have actually violated the shogunate's seclusion order, but the seclusion order only targets ordinary people. It actually does not have such a significant effect on the big shots in Edo City and the local tyrants in Kyushu. Tagawa Shisan did not deliberately hide this, because whether the other party was a real merchant or a shogunate official who came to test him, the words he said would not become evidence against the Tagawa family.
Of course, it was really impossible for him to imagine that the guy sitting opposite him would be a military attache from Haihan Kingdom. If he knew Shiro Amakusa's true identity, he probably wouldn't introduce the Tagawa family's business scope in a showy tone.
In order to attract potential big customers from Edo Castle, Tagawa Shisan said that he could take Amakusa Shiro to Hirado Port to see the shipping company run by the Tagawa family, to prove that his introduction to the business scope was not a boast. Amakusa Shiro was naturally happy to see this happen and agreed without hesitation. So after the interview between the two, Amakusa Shiro was invited to go to the port area with Tagawa Shisan to visit the operating conditions of Tagawa Shipping Company.
Compared with its domestic counterparts of this era, the scale and scope of Tagawa Shipping Company's operations are definitely considered first-class. If we look at it according to the standards of the Ming Dynasty, Tagawa Shipping Company has more than 30 large ships with more than 400 charges. This level of transportation capacity has even exceeded most shipping companies in the Ming Dynasty. There are currently more than a dozen large cargo ships docked at Hirado Port. Basically, the ships are in good condition and equipped with a sufficient number of skilled sailors. They can depart from Hirado Port with only a short preparation time.
"If these large sailing ships go to some unsafe sea areas... I mean, are there any self-defense methods that can protect the cargo and people on board?" Amakusa Shiro's purpose of visiting is certainly not to see these cargo sailing ships, so He was also secretly trying to continue the conversation from the other party to see if he could get Tagawa Shisan to mention information about the armed sailing ship.
This question obviously gave Tagawa Shisan an opportunity to show off his strength, but his response to this was more cautious: "Our shipping company also has armed sailing ships specially designed to transport important personnel and cargo, but such ships will be used during execution They are only dispatched for special tasks, and the freight will be relatively high... I think Mr. Ono can understand. ”
Amakusa Shiro nodded and asked: "Then am I lucky enough to see this kind of armed sailing ship with my own eyes?"
This Tagawa Thirteen was not stupid, he shook his head and declined Amakusa Shiro's request. After all, Amakusa Shiro had only vaguely revealed his background, and he had not confirmed that he wanted to reach a long-term deal with the Tagawa family. This vague identity was certainly not significant enough for the Tagawa family to reveal their family background. Of course, he would never have imagined that the guy in front of him had actually seen the armed sailboats of the Tagawa family, and even went to two shipyards to confirm the situation. What he thought was a secret was actually no secret to Amakusa Shiro.
Tagawa Shisan adopted a posture of not letting go of hawks when he saw rabbits, and it was difficult for Amakusa Shiro to take further measures. However, at least from Tagawa Shisan's mouth, it has been confirmed that the Tagawa family owns an armed sailboat, which can be regarded as reaffirming that the information obtained by Amakusa Shiro's previous investigation is indeed true.
Although Amakusa Shiro did not finalize a specific deal with Tagawa Juzo in the end, he stated that he would bring the Tagawa family's situation back to Edo Castle to report, and the master family he worked for would decide how to cooperate with the Tagawa family. Such a statement also prevents Tagawa Shisan from feeling that he is too busy, and even looks forward to future cooperation.
The only person who is disappointed with this result is probably the broker Fukui Yuki. Since the two parties have not reached an actual transaction, the intermediary fees that the middleman can charge are very limited.
That night, Amakusa Shiro came to Kagawa's smelting workshop again. After two visits last night and this morning, this third time seemed much more familiar. He followed the route he had chosen during the day, avoided the patrolling guards, and reached the area near the warehouse he was looking for.
There was no one on duty in the warehouse, and the door was locked. It took Shirou Amakusa some time to find a transom window that could be turned into the room.
After Amakusa Shiro carefully turned it in, he did not rush to light the fire seal. Instead, he waited patiently in the darkness for a long time, confirming that there should be no danger in the warehouse, and then carefully took out the fire seal.
After lighting up the fire, he discovered that this warehouse was actually a private house, but perhaps to free up enough space, only load-bearing columns were left in the house, and the internal partition walls had been demolished. . There was a row of low shelves in the middle of the room. This thing looked very familiar to Amakusa Shiro. It was none other than the mounts used to place artillery pieces. Everything on the shelf was covered with oilcloth. Amakusa Shiro lifted up the oilcloth, and sure enough, there were dark artillery pieces underneath.
In this warehouse alone, Amakusa Shiro found twelve Western-style artillery pieces with the same diameter. He also specially went to the muzzle of the cannon and smelled it. There was no smell of gunpowder. It seemed that they were all new cannons that had not yet been tested.
Amakusa Shiro knew that no matter the Spanish, Dutch or Portuguese, they would never sell brand-new artillery on the arms market in East Asia. What they sell are almost all second-hand goods that have been in service for a certain period of time. Even for the emerging arms dealer Haihan, a large part of the weapons sold to foreign countries are old models that have been eliminated by the own army.
With so many new cannons appearing in this place, the only possibility is that the Japanese made these cannons. This also confirms that the news that Amakusa Shiro received at the Port of Boxiang Bay is indeed true.
The Hirado Domain authorities obviously had huge loopholes in their control over military secrets. Whether it was warships or naval guns, Amakusa Shiro basically got the answer he wanted without spending much effort. Of course, this also shows from another perspective that the authorities do not have enough awareness of precautions against outside inquiries. They still believe that their small actions in Hirado will not attract outside attention. This judgment can be considered extremely serious. Mistake.
Amakusa Shiro also found hundreds of cannonballs and several barrels of gunpowder in this warehouse. According to his style, of course he would use gunpowder to blow up the place, but if he did this, he would definitely alert the snake, so he finally forced himself to give up. With this radical idea, I quietly dug out of the warehouse and left Kagawa and returned to Hirado Port District.
(End of chapter)