Kangxi, your Qing Dynasty is dead

Chapter 396 I didn’t expect that you guys turned out to be paper tigers! (Please subscribe, please vote)

The 1679th year of Brother Tian’s birthday, spring.

Under the Edo Castle, the Mito Domain Residence.

Tokugawa Mitsukuni, who had just taken office as the eldest brother of the shogunate, stood in front of a huge nautical chart hanging in his study.A "little surname" with thick eyebrows, big eyes, and very prominent facial features held the candlestick to light up the new elder.

There are two people standing behind Mitsukuni, one is Okubo Tadayo, and the other is a man in his fifties who is dressed like a high-level samurai. He is also a rare strong man in Japan and has a thick beard. , looks quite fierce.

Guangguo also held another small yellowed sea chart in his hand. He looked at the big one now and then the small one, obviously for comparison.

That small chart was retrieved from the shogunate archives by Tokugawa Mitsukuni's subordinates. It was a Pacific chart hand-drawn by Hasekura Tsunenaga, the Sendai feudal lord who led the "Date Maru Voyage" after he returned to Japan - so A chart that almost wiped out the U.S. Pacific Fleet has been lying quietly in the warehouse of Edo Castle for more than 60 years. If Tokugawa Mitsukuni hadn't become the boss and asked people to find it, it would probably have been lying there until Tokugawa. The Kawa shogunate fell and was treated like waste paper.

And that big sea map is much more detailed and accurate than the small sea map!This was copied from a chart stolen from the Spanish by spies of the Dutch East India Company - the Dutch were very good at commercial espionage. In fact, they relied on stealing Portuguese charts to find their way to the East Indies. Of the route!
However, the Pacific chart that the Dutch stole from the Spanish was of little use. There were only a few popular ports along the Pacific coast, all of which were colonies of the Kingdom of Spain.The hinterland corresponding to these ports is also in the hands of the Spanish.If you can't seize the hinterland, just seizing a port is of no use.And to seize the hinterland, the Dutch East India Company really couldn't afford to lose!
So the Dutch also threw the charts they spent a lot of money into in the warehouse in Batavia. Historically, they probably stayed until the Dutch East Indies were occupied by the Japanese.

But this time, these two Pacific Ocean maps, which could change the future world structure, finally came together - and both fell into the hands of Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the boss of the Tokugawa shogunate.

After some comparisons, Tokugawa Mitsukuni finally confirmed that the charts given by the Batavian Governor Spielman of the Dutch East India Company were true, and also confirmed that the charts drawn by Changcho Hasekura were available. Sighing softly: "It's a pity, if Shenjun and Hidetada had known that the mighty Spaniards were paper tigers, they would have attacked the port of Acapulco and opened the door to the new world for Japan!"

Okubo Tadayo immediately agreed: "What the elder said makes sense. It would be great if Shenjun and Lord Hidetada could see through the Spaniards' external strength and internal insufficiency. But it's not too late now!"
With Japan's national strength, it is not difficult to build 100 Western Galen ships that can sail to the New World within a year.If a Galen ship can carry 200 warriors, 100 ships can carry a full [-] warriors!

Ten thousand warriors are enough to conquer a large territory! "

Tokugawa Mitsukuni looked back at the bearded samurai: "Katakura-kun, can the Sendai clan still build a ship as big as the Date Maru?"

This bearded man turned out to be the patriarch of the Sendai clan, named Katakura Keinaga. He was the retainer with the highest number of stones in the Sendai domain. He owned a territory of [-] stones, and also owned his own city, Shiroishi Castle!
According to the "One Kingdom, One Castle Order" of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when an imperial kingdom is divided and owned by multiple daimyo, each of the castle lord-level daimyo and the kingdom lord-level daimyo will have one castle.When a daimyo owns multiple kingdoms, each kingdom he owns has one city.

And this Katakura Keinaga was not a daimyo, but just a retainer of the Sendai clan, but he could have his own castle. This allowed the Sendai clan to break the "one country, one city order" and achieve "one country, two cities".

This exceptional "Twin Cities" alone can illustrate the importance the Tokugawa Shogunate attached to the Sendai Domain and the Katakura family.

And this time, the reason why Tokugawa Mitsukuni invited the head of the Katakura family, Keinaga, from Shiraishi Castle, was to discuss with him about building a Western-style galleon-the Sendai Clan has experience in this matter!Under the guidance of Miura Yasuzu and his British partners, they successively built two Western-style sailing ships, one with a load capacity of 80 tons and the other with a load capacity of 120 tons.

"What? Now?" Katakura Keinaga was almost speechless when he heard Tokugawa Mitsukuni's request. The Date family built ships for the shogunate to sail for the shogunate more than 60 years ago. Even if the craftsmen who participated in this matter are still alive, I probably won’t be able to do it anymore, shipbuilding is a physically demanding job!
Moreover, the Tokugawa shogunate began to implement strict seclusion more than 40 years ago. Shipbuilding craftsmen from various places had no business at all and either starved to death or changed careers, so the skills of those old craftsmen must have been lost.Where did you ask the Sendai clan to find a shipwright to help build the ship?

"Can't you?" Tokugawa Mitsukuni also knows that this matter is difficult, but Japanese people are not afraid of difficulties. This is a rare and excellent quality!They like to act recklessly when they encounter difficulties!

So Mitsukuni said to Katakura: "Go and find all the descendants who made Datemaru. If their ancestors can learn to make Western-style sailing ships, then they can definitely learn it too!"

The craftsmanship of joint shipbuilding can still be inherited!But this is also in line with Japan’s old rules-the spirit of craftsmanship!The same thing has been done for generations, and what matters is a craft that is passed down from generation to generation.For example, the emperor's son became emperor, the general's son became general, the minister's son became minister, the feudal lord's son became feudal lord, and the samurai's son became samurai.
"But the Sendai shipwrights who built the Date Maru built the ship under the guidance of the British-born samurai Miura Yasunagi. There is no Miura Yasunai now." Katakura Keinaga certainly does not want to take over the trouble of shipbuilding to the Sendai Domain. .

This is not a business, there is no such thing as the shogunate spending money and the Sendai clan accepting the order.

This thing is called "general invitation", which is a Buddhist term that means gathering people to work.Under the system of the Tokugawa shogunate, each domain sent people to help the shogunate, which was a feudal obligation. Under normal circumstances, the shogunate did not pay, and the emphasis was on free prostitution!

"Isn't it possible without Miura's acupuncture?" Tokugawa Mitsukuni asked.

"No, no, absolutely not!" Katakura Keinaga immediately shook his head.

"Okay!" Tokugawa Mitsukuni nodded heavily, and then pointed to the "little man" who was holding the candlestick for him, "Katakura-kun, he is Miura Yasunagi!"

"What?" Katakura Keichang was stunned again and again.

Miura Acupuncture has been dead for decades, why is there another Miura Acupuncture now?Is he resurrected?That’s not right. Isn’t Miura Anzhen an Englishman?How
The young man seemed to have noticed Katakura's doubts, and immediately introduced himself: "Elder of the Katakura family, I am Miura Yasunagi, the shogunate flag general, and I am the fourth generation Miura Yasunai."

The fourth generation of Miura Acupuncture?Is this okay?Katakura was speechless.

What made him even more speechless was that the Japanese way of naming was all about diversity. It was okay for ancestors to use the same name for generations.For example, the "Hanzo" of Hattori Hanzo, the ninja leader of Kamijun Ieyasu, is an ancestral name.There are also many businessmen who like to pass their names on to their descendants, using their names as a sign.

This Miura Anzhen has descendants in Japan. It seems that the Miura family has also passed down the name "Anzhen" from generation to generation.

Seeing that Katakura was speechless, Tokugawa Mitsukuni breathed a sigh of relief, smiled and said to Katakura Keinaga: "Elder Katakura, now Miura has an needle, and the shipbuilder also has the governor of Batavia. Spearman also promised to provide some foreign craftsmen for guidance. The matter of general invitation for shipbuilding will be left to the Sendai Domain. Although it is a general invitation, the shogunate will also remember your and the Sendai Domain's merits and open up territory in the New World in the future. , the shogunate will seal you a million stones in the New World!"

"A million stones?" Katakura Keinaga finally cheered up, "Mito Danagon, there is also rice in this new world?"

"It seems not. But there is corn!" Tokugawa Mitsukuni said, "I have already inquired with Spearman! When the time comes, I will give you a corn and a million dan!"

A million stones of corn is also a million stones!
Katakura still couldn't believe it, "But... can we really defeat it?"

"Yes!" Tokugawa Mitsukuni nodded heavily, "The Spaniards are just a bunch of paper tigers, they can't beat our invincible Japanese samurai!"

Dozens of crab boats with forty long oars broke through the morning sea fog and suddenly rushed into the quiet Hakata Bay in northern Kyushu.Twenty of the ships crashed onto the beaches of Shiga Island and Noko Island before the Japanese forts on the islands could react.

The remaining 20 or so crab boats, regardless of the situation, rushed straight to the two tidal flats of Torikai and Kuhara in Hakata Bay.After a while, more than 20 crab boats suddenly rushed onto the beach.

These are more than 40 large crab boats, not the small sampans usually used for beach surfing. Once a boat of this size washes up on the beach, it will be difficult to leave.At least until this wave of beach landing battles ends, there is definitely no chance.

In other words, in order to seize Hakata Bay, some people actually spent money and regarded more than 40 crab boats as "disposable sampans". The cost of building this crab boat was more than 500 taels, and more than 40 crab boats cost more than 2 yuan. Two!If you fail to log in, the more than 2 taels will be gone!
There were hundreds of sailors and hundreds of officers and soldiers of North Korea's new pro-army on each Crab boat. More than 40 boats washed up on the beach almost at the same time, and almost [-] and hundreds of people were thrown in at once.

The vigor of this hammer transaction is really great!

A ship worth more than 2 taels and 8000 more than a few hundred officers and soldiers were smashed in at one time. Moreover, even the men and the ship were advancing without retreating!

In order to boost morale, every officer and soldier who participated in this landing battle could receive a one-time reward of 10 taels of silver. If the landing was successful, another 10 taels would be given.

With these expenses alone, today’s beach wash is worth more than 18 taels!

And the only person in the world who can fight like this, besides Zheng Jing, is probably Yang Qilong!

It was impossible for Zheng Jing to send troops from North Korea to northern Kyushu, and his family had a good relationship with the Tokugawa shogunate, so he was not responsible for the invasion. He was responsible for persuading surrender. So today's landing battle was launched by Yang Qilong.

He is currently on an old 500-ton lock ship off the coast of Hakata, holding on to the railing on the stern of the ship, looking anxiously at the fog-shrouded Hakata Bay.Next to him stood a senior North Korean official in his 60s, North Korea and Japan's observation envoy Yin Jin. This old North Korean man looked even more nervous than Yang Qilong - he was originally a member of the "Southern Expedition Sect" of the North Korean Middle School. The People's Party is a crony of the Korean state and is hostile to some Western party.

The Southern Expedition Faction is a faction divided according to their stance on Japan.Before Yang Qilong took control of North Korea and became the superintendent of the country, Yin Jin was not a Southern Expeditionist but a Northern Expeditionist, a faction that advocated a Northern Expedition to the Qing Dynasty.Of course, he was just advocating, not actually doing it.

However, when all the Qing supervising states have entered Seoul, it would be too dangerous to talk about the anti-Qing Northern Expedition.

So Yin Kai changed to the Nanzheng faction. It advocates crusade against Japan, and will never suffer from Japanese pirates!

It’s really far-sighted!

But he never expected that Yang Qilong, a first-class official of the Qing Dynasty, was a very down-to-earth man. He might not have heard so many impassioned speeches when he was an official in the Qing Dynasty. In the end, he was really convinced by Yin Yin and decided to send troops to defend the country of Korea. Revenge!

And he did it as he said. At the end of last year, he destroyed the Choryang Japanese Pavilion. At the beginning of this year, he mobilized dozens of warships and sent 8800 troops to attack Japan!
When he first heard about this, Yin Yin was still wondering whether he should wait until Yang Qilong's defeat to invite the Great Tomorrow Soldiers to come to North Korea?Let’s be a republic!It's better than the Japanese pirates fighting back, right?

North Korea is a weak country and its people are poor and cannot afford another Japanese invasion.

But unexpectedly, Yang Qilong actually roped in Yin Jin to do it together. The two of them took a large ship that had just been bought from the Ming Dynasty. Together with the landing fleet commanded by Shi Lang, they chose a day when the north wind was blowing and set out to invade. Japan.And I only brought 8800 in total. How could this be successful?

Japan has already received the news, and sent the shogunate Okubo Tadatomo to Kyushu to be the prefecture, and organized the samurai of Kyushu to fight against the DPRK.

There are so many Kyushu warriors, 10,000+!Moreover, those Japanese samurai were all extremely ferocious. They killed the Korean nation and almost destroyed it. Now 8800 of them are going to conquer them. It would be fine if your 8800 people were all elite soldiers from the Qing Dynasty, but the problem is that most of them are Koreans. How can you beat this?
North Korea is over!

At the same time, on Kuhara Beach in Hakata Bay, a crab boat had not yet stopped. The newly-built North Korean military officers and soldiers and North Korean oarsmen from the Qing Dynasty Beiyang Navy had all been lowered from the bow of the boat. The springboard rushed down.The leader of the North Korean New Army team was wearing heavy cotton armor, holding a saber, and had red eyes.The soldiers also rumbled down, each one looking nervous.

"We finally rushed to the Japanese pirates' lair! Even if we die here, we will die with no regrets!"

The first officer to set foot on the land of Kyushu, Japan, was Kim Sang-yong from Andong, Gyeongsang Province. He was also from a well-known family. He was a descendant of the famous Andong Kim family. Unfortunately, he was not a direct descendant, but a worthless one. Being born into a prostitute is destined not to be reused by the Kingdom of Korea - the Korean family has a strict law of obedience to the mother. Even if you are from a famous family, you must be a direct descendant to be valuable.

Otherwise, a concubine, an evil son, or even a lowly prostitute would be inferior to ordinary civilians in terms of status, and of course he would not be able to join the second class.No matter how hard you work, there is no future.

But what Jin Shangyong didn't expect was that Yang Qilong, the superintendent of the Qing Dynasty, didn't care at all about people who were born as concubines, misbegotten, or prostitutes. Only the brave were promoted!
Moreover, he was given more money and was promoted based on merit!

How fair!

Therefore, Jin Shangyong and other bastards, evil sons, and prostitutes in the New Army all felt as if they had found an organization. They had a strong sense of belonging to the New Army and were willing to die for Yang Qilong.

However, it would be too hasty to die by landing in Hakata Bay today.
Thinking of this, Jin Shangyong looked back. The fog had dissipated a little, and most of the crab boats responsible for washing the beaches were clearly visible!

On the sea, there is no Japanese ship or boat. The prosperous Hakata Bay in the past looks extremely bleak. It seems that the "North Korean ship" that invaded is the only ship here.

Did the surprise attack succeed?
Of course an officer of Kim Sang-yong's level would not know what Japan's armaments are like now?

Because of the war 80 years ago, perhaps many Koreans still regard Japan as a country with a very powerful military. Even the Japanese themselves think so.

But the actual situation is that due to the peaceful age of 80 and the various restrictions of the Tokugawa Shogunate.Nowadays, the armed forces of various Japanese vassals have become quite weak.Their armament level is even far inferior to the army sent by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to invade North Korea.

Although he was sent to Kyushu by the shogunate to serve as a county magistrate, Okubo Tadashiro, who also had the Karatsu clan, had long expected that Hakata Bay might be attacked - when the Yuan invaders in history attacked, it was Hakata!But he really couldn't send a large army to tightly defend Hakata Bay.

Although there are many samurai in Kyushu, there are really not many who are ready to be loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate. However, there are many people who are looking forward to the Tokugawa family's misfortune so that they can take the opportunity to rise!
Moreover, even the Kyushu samurai who were sent to Hakata by Okubo Tadayo to defend themselves suddenly fell into panic when they suddenly saw the enemy ships rushing towards them on the sea.So much so that none of the artillery used for defense could fire in time.

A group of Kyushu warriors happened to be patrolling the Kuhara beach.They almost watched the enemy's big ship wash up on the beach, but they didn't know what to do?In panic.Even the matchlock of the matchlock on hand could not be ignited in time.

It wasn't until they found out that Jin Shangyong's men had already started to line up on the beach that they realized that something was wrong, and they lined up chaotically, barely forming a formation.

But when they had just finished forming, the bullets from the opposite side, which were more than a hundred steps away, were fired at them, and they were fired extremely accurately. A single salvo hit these Japanese soldiers with heavy casualties. Those who were lucky enough to survive were also hit. Losing the courage to resist, he turned around and fled in a hurry.

This reaction shocked all North Koreans.

Is this the famous Japanese pirate?How did they become paper tigers?

(End of this chapter)