Chapter 2086
After Amakusa Shiro returned to Minato City, he did not stay at the inn where he spent the night last night. Instead, he found another place to stay to ensure his safety. Looking back on the investigation into Hirado, it can be said that it was fruitful. Not only did they discover the fact that Japan's local armed forces were secretly forming an armed fleet, but they also learned more about the situation of the Tagawa family.
But there was still one thing that Amakusa Shiro couldn't figure out, and that was what exactly was the relationship between the Tagawa family and the Shiba Shiba Party. According to the information Haihan had previously obtained, Tagawa Song, the wife Zheng Zhilong married in Hirado, should be a member of the Tagawa family. However, after Zheng Zhilong’s death, the attitude of the Tagawa family towards Haihan has never been paid attention to. . If the recent investigation hadn't allowed Haihan to discover clues pointing to the Tagawa family, the various things happening in Hirado would have effortlessly avoided Haihan's attention.
What Amakusa Shiro saw and heard in Hirado showed that the Tagawa family was very powerful, and even seemed to usurp the host. Although he has only stayed here for two days and three nights, he already feels that the owner of the Hirado Domain is not the Matsuura clan, but the Tagawa clan who is a retainer of the Matsuura clan.
The Tagawa clan not only owns a sizable merchant fleet and an armed fleet that is being formed, but may also have support from the Eighteen Shiba Party. In both the commercial and military fields, its strength has far exceeded that of local daimyo's retainers. At a certain level, could the Matsuura clan, as the ruler, really be so reassured by him and just sit back and watch the Tagawa family continue to grow and develop?
This is also a question that Amakusa Shiro cannot understand currently. Whether what the Tagawa clan is currently doing is just completing some special tasks that are inconvenient for the Matsuura clan, or whether he has already planned to replace him and become the next ruler of the Hirado clan, he really can't understand now.
Another question is, since the Tagawa clan has not yet truly grasped the power of the Hirado clan, why is it so eager to launch a series of layouts overseas. You must know that it is not a wise move to proactively provoke an opponent of Haihan's level. If you are not careful, you will ruin the foundation you have built with great effort. Based on the current development situation of the Tagawa clan, if they can work hard for ten or eight years, it should be easy to become a powerful force in the Japanese archipelago. It is possible to overthrow the shogunate and ascend to the throne in one or two generations. But if you jump out in such a hurry now, I'm afraid the final result will be that after a lot of tossing, there will be no chance at all.
Amakusa Shiro couldn't help but think of the boy he saw near Hirado Castle yesterday who was said to be the next generation head of the Tagawa clan. Now that a series of dangerous actions of the Tagawa clan have been exposed, there is a high probability that Haihan will not just sit idly by and ignore it. Once he wants to deal with it, It's hard to say whether the Tagawa family can survive until the time comes when the young man takes over the family.
"Wouldn't it be better to just do some small business here and be a rich man? If you have to cause trouble..." Amakusa Shiro thought of this, and couldn't help but secretly lamented the Tagawa family's restlessness and made such a irritating decision. When Haihan's military attack comes in the future, these people wonder if they will not regret their original recklessness.
When he woke up the next morning, Amakusa Shiro checked his belongings again to make sure that he would not leave anything behind at his residence. Although there are still some clues that have not been verified, he has to rush to the predetermined location today to meet up with the reconnaissance ship that will assist his evacuation. There are some investigative projects that require a lot of time, such as the details of the Tagawa family, the presence of the Shiba Shiyu Party The current situation in Hirado cannot be investigated slowly at the moment.
The planned evacuation point was actually the place where he swam ashore in the dark before. It was also the only area on the nearby coastline that had relatively gentle shoals and no one lived nearby. Just like when he came, he still had to wait patiently until after dark, then the scout ship would arrive at the predetermined location to pick him up and leave.
On the last day of the day, Amakusa Shiro planned to take a good look around Hirado Port and learn as much as possible about the situation here, especially the Hirado Domain’s defense deployment near the port, because he would like to come here next time. At that time, there might be a war with the Hirado clan.
Coming to Hirado Port again, Amakusa Shiro still admired the decision-making of the Matsuura family's ancestors. Being able to operate such a small harbor with not very good natural conditions into a country's foreign trade center requires not only forward-looking vision and boldness. decision-making, and at the same time, we must constantly eliminate various pressures and interferences from domestic and foreign countries during the implementation process.
However, Amakusa Shiro is also thinking that if Kaihan were to run Hirado, the situation might be very different from now. At least the port will not be located in a small bay that is difficult for large ships to turn around. It will most likely be located in Boxiang Bay on the west side of the island. The bay there is dozens of times larger than the current Hirado Port, and the hydrological conditions are harmonious. The surrounding environment is better and obviously has more development value. It can be seen that Matsuura's concept still has certain limitations. After successfully operating Hirado Port, it seems that he has started to stick to the status quo and has no idea of accelerating the expansion of business scale.
Of course, the Matsuura clan is just a small prince in a remote area of Japan. If the scale of business is too large, it will easily attract the attention of the shogunate, and that may not be a good thing for the Hirado clan.
Amakusa Shiro thought of this and looked up at the ruins of Hirado Castle. In order to keep this little bit of property from the shogunate, the Matsuura family burned Hirado Castle themselves and even gave up on rebuilding it. He deliberately left such a shameful ruin to show his loyalty to the shogunate. This sign has been placed high in Hirado Port for several decades. Probably when the Matsura family dared to demolish the ruins and rebuild Hirado Castle, then they would be able to put down their ideological baggage.
What Amakusa Shiro didn't know was that in the original history, the Matsuura clan had already rebuilt Hirado Castle in the next century, and the construction was started with the permission of the Tokugawa shogunate before the reconstruction, so the Matsuura clan's coercion was I have been scared for a hundred years.
Of course, the current situation is different. At this time, both the economic and military strength of the Hirado Domain are much better than the same period in history. However, whether the Matsuura family has the courage to challenge the authority of the Tokugawa shogunate is still a big question mark.
Shiro Amakusa strolled to the vicinity of the Dutch Commercial Building. He did not go in rashly. Although the Dutch could barely be called Haihan's trading partners, it was unrealistic to expect them to cooperate with Haihan's military operations overseas. If Amakusa Shiro went in and revealed his identity, the Dutch might betray him as soon as they turned around.
Amakusa Shiro observed nearby for a while and found that the Dutch business building was quite popular. There were always people coming in and out, and most of them were dignitaries with their entourage. It seemed that the East India Company was operating in Hirado. The situation should be very good. It is no wonder that Tai Yuan Port in Taiwan has been in such a difficult situation in recent years. The East India Company still insists on not giving up that small colonial port that can basically only serve as a transit point.
After having lunch in the port area, Amakusa Shiro bought some dry food. According to the plan, he would go to the scheduled evacuation location half a day in advance to confirm that the security situation in the area would not affect the evening operations.
However, the evacuation operation that night went very smoothly. The reconnaissance ship appeared near the coast on time, and Amakusa Shiro also used fireworks signals to indicate his position on the shore as agreed, and then swam into the sea to the side of the reconnaissance ship, using the rope net lowered along the side of the ship. Climbed aboard.
Yuan Zhi on the ship had already ordered people to prepare towel dryers and heaters for him so that he could get rid of the cold and wet condition as soon as possible. "Are we going south now?" Amakusa Shiro was paying attention to the direction of the boat while changing his clothes.
"Go south, meet other ships in the south tomorrow, and then go to Nagasaki." Yuan Zhi introduced the next action plan: "But if you make any important discoveries in Hirado, you can also modify the itinerary depending on the situation. .”
"We found quite a lot, let's talk about it while walking on the road!" Amakusa Shiro thought that there was no need to linger in Hirado for the time being, and suggested that Yuan Zhi act according to the original plan.
Amakusa Shiro's biggest discovery in Hirado is undoubtedly the armed fleet under the name of the Tagawa family. Although various signs indicate that this fleet is probably still in the process of being formed, its current strength has already made Amakusa Shiro wary. He informed Yuan Zhi in detail about what he saw and heard in the two shipyards, as well as the secret military workshop he discovered in Jingchuan.
Yuan Zhi was also shocked after hearing this. If the Hirado Domain already had the ability to build warships in batches and form a large armed fleet at this time, then Haihan's estimate of the strength of the Hirado Domain was obviously very wrong. Although this kind of armed fleet is still difficult to pose a real threat to Haihan's navy, its scope of activities may threaten the trade routes under Haihan's control. Considering that a series of previous cases have been gradually confirmed to be related to the Hirado Domain to some extent, the armed fleet built by it appears to be particularly dangerous.
Of course, the strangest thing is that it was not the feudal lord Matsuura clan who carried out this matter, but his retainer Tagawa clan. This unreasonable situation also puzzled Amakusa Shiro.
But Yuan Zhi is not as sharp as Amakusa Shiro: "When I was receiving training in Sanya, the instructor once explained some situations in Japan to us. I remember he said that the most common situation in Japan is that the lower class conquers the upper class. Separate families and usurp the master. Households, retainers replacing the head of the family, and subordinates replacing superiors are all very common in Japan.”
Amakusa Shiro did not deny Yuan Zhi's statement, but he still felt that the situation of the Hirado Domain was a bit strange: "Generally speaking, when the bottom overcomes the top, the bottom is strong and the top is weak. This is indeed the case in the Hirado Domain, but as far as I have seen Judging from the situation, the Matsuura clan, as a daimyo, seems to have no idea of suppressing their retainers, and just sits back and watches the Tagawa clan build powerful ships and cannons under their noses. Are they not worried about their positions being replaced by their retainers? "< br>
Yuan Zhi thought for a while and then raised another possibility: "Perhaps the Matsuura family has been sidelined by the Tagawa family at this time, and they can only watch their family property being reduced by their retainers. They want to fight, but there is no chance to stand up."
Amakusa Shiro didn't expect this, and he felt enlightened when he heard this: "Speaking of which, I have been in Hirado for the past few days, and it seems that I rarely hear people around me talking about the Matsuura family. On the contrary, it is the Tagawa family who The local influence is huge, and they seem to be present in various industries on the market. If your guess is true, it all makes sense.”
Japan has entered the Warring States Period since the Onin Rebellion in 1467. During this era, many of the daimyo who ruled the local areas came to power by overthrowing their superiors as subordinates. Therefore, this period is also known in history as the era of "lower control of superiors". Although Amakusa Shiro was born as a Japanese samurai, his social status before leaving Japan was far from a level where he could have the opportunity to overcome his superiors. After arriving at Kaihan, he was loyal to the Executive Committee wholeheartedly and had no intention of making any mistakes at all. Therefore, He could not understand what was happening in the Hirado Domain.
As an outsider, Yuan Zhi's understanding of Japan came from what he learned during his training in Sanya, and the content taught by the instructors came from the information provided by the Haihan Crossing Team. Most of these materials looked at the historical development of this period from a God's perspective, and inevitably had a critical eye. Affected by this, Yuan Zhi naturally believed that what happened in Hirado was actually reasonable, and It's not as complicated as Amakusa Shiro thought.
But no matter who is in charge of the Hirado Domain now, the situation here is not good news for Haihan. The information obtained from the reconnaissance must be transmitted back to the Taedongjiang base via telegraph as soon as possible so that the superiors can grasp the situation in Japan in a timely manner. , and take necessary corresponding measures.
That night, the Datongjiang base received a telegram from Yuan Zhi. The news sent back from Japan was undoubtedly quite explosive, and it immediately attracted the attention of Wang Tom and Qian Tiandun. Although it was relatively late when they received the telegram, the two immediately bumped into each other to exchange views on the matter.
"The situation is more serious than we expected!" Qian Tiandun sighed: "We are still investigating the musket case, but we didn't expect that they even secretly came up with an armed fleet!"
"It is better to discover late than not at all. If the musket case was not investigated, it would probably be difficult to find out that the Japanese were doing these tricks secretly." Wang Tom was very optimistic about this.
"This is no small trick!" Qian Tiandun corrected: "Build your own ships and cannons to form an armed fleet. Even if someone with this ability is not a maritime overlord, he will not be too far away from this position!"
(End of chapter)