Dragon Sea Empire

It will take another 40 years for the Edo Castle project to be completely completed. Shimadzu Tadahiro brought a lot of subordinates this time with his "account of participation". slack.

The Tokugawa shogunate built Edo Castle, first of all, built the mansions of the daimyos in Edo, because the daimyos had to put their wives as hostages in Edo, and, because of the relationship of Sanqin, the daimyos themselves had to wait a while. Living in Edo for many years, many merchants and craftsmen moved into Edo in order to provide for the living needs of the retainers of the Tokugawa family and the daimyo, and as a result, Edo became more and more prosperous.

In the secret room of the Satsuma Fan Guild Hall, the monk Dasmarinas bowed to Shimadzu Tadahiro in the Japanese way, and then handed him the new flintlock musket of the Chinese company that he took the risk to get.

Shimadzu Tadahiro is a person who is very interested in the study of the Southern Barbarians and Lanxue. He also knows the prestige of Western muskets. He also has a 2000-strong iron cannon team in his fief. He curiously plays with this gun. Risk came here with a flintlock, his face full of excitement.

"That's right. In terms of workmanship, this gun can already be compared with our Japanese iron guns. Daming's shotguns are always rough, but this musket is really unusual. I never thought that the merchants of the Ming Kingdom could make such a gun. Musket, Mr. Sundarming, have you tried this gun?"

Mori Darmin, this is Dasmarinas monk who got the Japanese name, he bowed immediately, and said in fluent Japanese: "Dear lord, this gun is said to be invented by the big boss of the Chinese company. I tried to use this gun on the return trip." I have fired a gun, and I think there is a problem with its ignition device, and the inner wall of the barrel is relatively rough, "

Shimadzu Tadahiro is a warrior who is familiar with all kinds of weapons, so Dasmarinas honestly admitted the problem with this gun. Sure enough, Shimadzu Tadahiro pulled the trigger, fired a few times, and then used Putting his fingers into the muzzle of the gun and dawdling a few times, he shook his head and sighed: "It's a pity, this gun is not practical, and it needs to be improved. Mr. Sundarming, you can modify this gun and make a real gun. Can you bring a gun that can fight?"

Das Marinas had already thought up an idea, and immediately replied: "I'm sorry, although I have been a soldier, I don't know anything about this new type of flintlock gun, and I don't have any experience in making firearms. In Hucheng, there is one person who can improve and make flintlock guns, "

The head of the Shimadzu family opened his eyes curiously: "Oh, who is it?"

"Miura Anzhen, the general's chief overseas trade advisor," Dasmarinas said slowly: "He was originally a British craftsman, and he is familiar with the production of Western firearms."

Shimadzu Tadahiro gasped: "He, he is the most important Westerner in our 'Great Imperial Palace',"

At this time, Ieyasu Tokugawa had given up the position of general to his son Hidetada, declared his family to the world, called himself the "Great Imperial Palace" and lived in seclusion in Sumfu Castle, of course he still held the real military and political power behind his back.

Dasmarinas nodded and said, "This man loves money. If my lord promises you a lot of money, he will definitely help you. As long as he can draw blueprints, my lord's craftsmen can make the latest flintlock cannons."

Miura Yasuki, the chief mate of the Dutch merchant ship Livdi (Japanese name is Yasuna) Adams, in April 1600, the Dutch East India Company sent a merchant ship to the East through the Strait of Magellan in South America. When crossing the Pacific Ocean, there was a storm on the way, and he narrowly escaped death and arrived at the coast of Bungo, Kyushu (Oita County). When he left the Netherlands, there were 190 crew members on board. At this time, most of them had died at sea, leaving only 18 crew members The survivor Adams, the captain Kowa Kairunak and Yang Justin were called by Tokugawa Ieyasu who was in Osaka at the time. After hearing about their adventures, Tokugawa Ieyasu allocated them 5 taels of silver , and set up guards for their ships. The reason why he took such care of Adams and others was because he saw the nautical map presented by Adams and clearly understood the existence of the "world".

Until now, the so-called "Japan's more than sixty states" is considered to be an incomparably vast Japan. On this map, it is only as big as a bean, while countries dozens or hundreds of times larger than it are in the world. There are many, and Tokugawa Ieyasu is very interested in it.

Adams asked Ieyasu to repair the ship and go to the East Indies, but he did not get Ieyasu's permission. Later, Ieyasu sent money to the crew and sent them away, but Adams and Yang Justin accepted the good treatment given by Ieyasu and stayed in Edo .

Adams' position on the ship was the first mate (Yanzhen), so he was named according to his position. His house was on the bank of the Fish River in Nihonbashi, Edo in later generations, and "Yanzhen Town" still remains " place name.

Tokugawa Ieyasu kept talking with acupuncture needles in front of him after the Battle of Sekigahara, and regarded him as a foreign trade consultant.

Miura Anzhen not only taught Ieyasu astronomy, mathematics, geometry, etc., but also talked about world geography and overseas affairs. Ieyasu liked to listen to those strange stories like a child, and Anzhen also told him about the benefits of trade.

According to Miura, although Adams was working on a Dutch ship, he was from a place called Gillingame in Chateau County, England. When he was 12 years old, he entered the shipyard of Rhinehaas near London and worked there. He worked for 12 years, and at the same time, he was the firearms officer on board. At that time, once a merchant ship sailing at sea was in danger, the chief mate was responsible for combat matters.

Miura also made a European-style ship for Tokugawa Ieyasu. The ship weighed about [-] tons and was completely modeled on the Galen ship style that was popular at the time. The ship sailed back to Edo and moored in Asakusa River. Tokugawa Ieyasu went on the deck specially and happily rewarded the needle. Since then, Japan has been able to build European-style sea ships. Many Shuin ships are sailing ships that combine Western and Japanese styles.

Anzhen was the first foreigner who opened the window of the world for Tokugawa Ieyasu, so Tokugawa Ieyasu gave him a fief of 250 shi. It's called Miura Anzhen.

At the same time, Miura provided convenience for Dutch merchants, established a Dutch business office in Hizen (Nagasaki Prefecture) and Hirado, and sent agents to Kyoto, Osaka, and Sakai. One after another, they also got Ieyasu's permission to build a business office in Hirado, because it was their own motherland, and acupuncture also played a big role in it.

Das Marinas found out about Adams and Miura’s needles through the Jesuit missionaries who worked for the shogunate, and knew that he had made flintlock muskets that were rare in Europe at the time when he was in the Netherlands, so he thought of making it by him. To improve the products of Zhonghua Company, but he was unable to come forward because Adams was an Englishman, a crew member of a Dutch ship, a Protestant, and the Spaniards and the Catholic Church were their enemies, so Tadahiro Shimadzu had to come forward in person just do.

Shimadzu Tadahiro thought for a while, nodded and said: "There is no way, such a person, I still have to come forward, but I can't go to him, it will arouse the general's suspicion; you use the relationship of the missionary to send him Please come to my house..."

The next day, Adams, a former English poor who was reluctant to leave, and now a Japanese nobleman, Miura Anzhen, surrounded by dozens of servants, was invited to the Satsuma Domain Hall. In the face of large sums of money, Adams-Miura Anzhen did not resist at all. He immediately agreed to make flintlock guns for the Shimadzu family. For this gentleman, improving and creating a new type of flintlock guns is completely beyond his reach. Fortunately, he has come into contact with "thief guns" in the Netherlands, so He changed the flintlock guns of the Chinese company according to the style of the Dutch. In fact, he canceled some improvements made by the craftsmen of the Chinese company to the "thief guns". The performance of the gun is relatively stable, but it is not as good as the latest flintlock gun of the Chinese company in terms of range; moreover, since Dasmarinas did not get the paper-wrapped ammunition from the Chinese company, the flintlock gun that Satsuma finally got was only an ignition device With the revolutionary change, the procedure of loading ammunition is still as troublesome as the early arquebus.

……

"We cannot keep the musket secret forever, and if we do not invent the flintlock, some other country will, sooner or later,"

On the large playground of the northern military camp, two sentry teams are conducting actual combat confrontation exercises. One side is more than 200 former Zhejiang Yiwu bird gunners, and the other side is the fourth infantry regiment - Zhao Xuanming's "Iron Wall Regiment". The Fourth Regiment got its nickname because its predecessor, the Penghu Garrison, held the stronghold like an iron wall.

Yin Feng was talking with the firearms team of four from the Weapons Research Department on the side of the playground, while Lin Xiao, Zeng Rui and others were listening respectfully.

Both Lin and Zeng were responsible for the loss of the flintlock, so they worked hard these days, motivating their subordinates to run around, sorting out and checking all parts of the island; ports, docks, fort construction sites , hotels, hotels, factories, workshops, bookstores, grocery stores, farms, manors, villages, mines and iron works in the urban area, in every detail. For Japanese pirates, unlicensed fur dealers, smuggled fishermen and other characters, Lin Xiao likes to "rather kill three thousand by mistake than let one go." Being arrested for no reason made the whole island jump.

Yin Feng was rectifying the army again during this period, and after learning the news, he called the two men over. They came for a long time, but Yin Feng kept talking to the firearms four-member team and ignored them.

The four young senior craftsmen Lin Qing, Zhang Xiaohai, Wang Gong, and Li Hetian are the most outstanding among the thousands of craftsmen in the Zhonghua Company. They not only learned and mastered the techniques of the Dutch, Portuguese, and Spaniards, but also Mastery is not just to make counterfeit products, but to create many inventions and creations under the existing technical conditions. Of course, Yin Feng's inspiration and guidance are also indispensable.