Dragon Sea Empire

Yin Feng has had a temper recently, but he only gets angry at middle and high-level officials. His attitude towards middle and lower-level soldiers and employees is still approachable.

Yin Feng is anxious about the Ryukyu War, and the shadow of his wife's death still surrounds him. Few people can comfort and persuade him, except Li Lihua. However, now a Western missionary is gradually able to say a few words in front of Yin Feng. .

The Taiwan Jesuits sent a missionary to Yin Feng as a consultant in the war against Japan. This consultant has been in Japan for more than ten years. He is the former Tokugawa Ieyasu overseas who was kicked out of Japan because of the Arima Harunobu incident. Trade agent, Jesuit missionary, Portuguese Lu Ruohan, he was implicated in Arima Harunobu's revenge because he was the "password" of Andre Pessoa, the commander of the Portuguese Sino-Japanese trade fleet. After being expelled from Japan, he arrived in Macau just as the Catholic Church in Taiwan was about to reopen, so he was sent to Taiwan by the Chinese diocese of the Society of Jesus.

Yin Feng is very interested in this talented diplomat; in the historical time and space that has not been tampered with by Yin Feng, Lu Ruohan can not only directly climb the high branch of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Japan, but also be proficient in Japanese. Can write a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary; when he came to China later, he could write letters in Chinese very quickly, and he also connected with Xu Guangqi and other high-ranking court officials. He could also sell batches of Portuguese mercenaries to the Ming court and bought a batch of Cannons were given to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming army trained the first batch of gunners who were proficient in Western-style cannons; in the Battle of Ningyuan, it is said that the cannon that injured Nurhachi was fired by the gunners trained by the mercenaries brought by Lu Ruohan. Xu Guangqi entrusted Lu Ruohan to buy the cannon used.

Such a flexible, witty and versatile character, Yin Feng hired him as his special consultant as soon as he met.

In Lu Ruohan's view, Yin Feng is also a strange person: he is very popular and prestige, and has the supreme status in the Chinese company he founded, but his daily life is very ordinary. He saw Yin Feng sometimes with his own eyes when he was in the factory. Sitting at the same table with coolies and handymen to eat, those ordinary people treated him as kindly and naturally as if they were members of their own family. This is completely different from the strict hierarchy and clear class situation that Lu Ruohan saw in Japan .

Therefore, Lu Ruohan, who was born in a poor family in Portugal, has a sincere feeling of closeness to Yin Feng.

On this day, he came to find Yin Feng with a stack of Dutch voyage materials. The guards on Yin Feng's ship Flying Wolf saw him and knew that this Western monk had just become the ship's owner's adviser, so he let him go immediately.

When Lu Ruohan saw Yin Feng, he clasped his fists and saluted according to the Chinese etiquette, and said bluntly in Portuguese: "Your Excellency, I got their voyage information from the Dutch merchant's shop, according to their logbook on the Taiwan-Japan route. According to the records, the southwest wind will blow in about ten days," Lu Ruohan has just left Japan, and although he has learned Chinese before, he still can't speak fluently.

Yin Feng leaned against the window, watched the sailors practicing shooting and fighting on the front deck, and said in Portuguese uninterestedly: "Thank you, Mr. Lu, for us right now, the difference between ten days and one month Not big,"

He sat back at his desk, pointed to the map of Ryukyu and said: "The purpose of our intervention in the Ryukyu battle is to eliminate the threat of Satsuma to Taiwan. Regardless of whether Ryukyu will fall in a short time, we must send troops after the wind changes. Going north, what I am worried about these days is the safety of our personnel staying in Ryukyu to contain the Japanese troops. If the weather and wind direction do not change, the pressure on our personnel staying in Ryukyu will increase day by day. If it fails, then when our fleet goes to attack the Satsuma Domain, the Satsuma Army that invaded Ryukyu will be free to return to their bases."

Yin Feng pointed to the sky outside the window with a wry smile and said, "Father Lu, if you can ask your God to change the wind direction for us, I can accept your baptism immediately,"

Lu Ruohan had no choice but to smile wryly at Yin Feng's somewhat blasphemous words. As far as Lu Ruohan himself was concerned, he had no ill feeling towards the Japanese. His expulsion from Japan was more the result of intrigue within the Society of Jesus.

More than ten thousand troops were stationed in Taipei, which brought a lot of popularity to the two towns of Jilong and Tamsui. The family members of Xie Mingqing, Fang Zhengjiong, who escaped from Ryukyu, were arranged to live in the old battalion of the water army in Tamsui Port. district.

There were already tens of thousands of mainland immigrants in these two ports, engaged in mining and fishing, and the size of the town had begun to take shape. The growing prosperity attracted many immigrants from Fujian and Zhejiang, which laid the foundation for the later formation of the Greater Taipei City Group.

At the beginning of May, the Taipei area is approaching summer, and the wind direction on the sea changes from south to north, and sometimes heavy rain swirls on the northern sea of ​​Taiwan Island, forming small storms.

In a tavern near the port, Guo Yi and Guo Huai brothers were drinking and chatting with the scholar Chen Dong.

These three people are all private agents of Shen Yourong, the ex-Fujian capital and general of Wuyu Shuizhai. Shen Yourong is now serving in Zhejiang. He has been promoted to deputy general of Zhejiang and general of Ningshao for suppressing mine robbers and quelling civil unrest in Wenzhou and other places. , and once again in charge of the navy in northern Zhejiang, he sent someone to Taiwan to contact the three spies after a year.

Chen Dong has been tempered, and now he no longer has the arrogance of being a Confucian. He has been deeply involved in the commercial and military system created by Yin Feng, because he is a rare talent in Taiwan who can read and write and has passed the imperial examination. , he was promoted from a teacher at the school to the book office of the company headquarters, and now he has become a secretary of the old camp of Yin Feng's guards. Although he is only on the periphery of the inner circle and only does some daily ordinary clerical work, he can Learn about the trends and secrets of many Chinese companies' decision-makers.

He is very careful and never crosses his authority to care about any foreign affairs. He just listens and watches passively, and then keeps in mind that the salary he gets in this position is also very high, which is basically higher than the salary of Fuzhou Fuzhou Judgment , much higher than the nominal legal income of the county magistrate in his hometown.

"... Now Yin Feng's army has been here for a month, and the wind direction has not changed, and the army cannot be dispatched. In my opinion, the company's army will definitely win this battle..." Chen Dong took out a stack of The paper was handed over to Guo Yi from under the table, and he said softly: "This is the information on some new firearms of the guards that I copied. Time is tight, and Yin Feng's old camp has strict management of documents, so I can only get these firearms instructions. things like that,"

Guo Yi put away the paper, took a sip of wine and said in a low voice, "Mr. Chen, why does Mr. Shen want these materials? Didn't he fail in the trial production of new weapons?"

"Master Shen is just a deputy commander in chief. It's not easy to do these important things," Chen Dong couldn't help but sigh. Shen Yourong took office as a new official in Zhejiang, and proposed to reform the military system, build new types of firearms, and increase the number of soldiers, all of which will be subverted. The existing military system and ammunition supply system of the Ming Dynasty, not to mention that Shen Yourong's subordinates did not have the talent to invent and manufacture firearms at all, so these plans have only remained on paper on Shen Yourong's desk until now.

"My lord wants to poach people from the Chinese company. Your brothers are working in the navy now, but what kind of weapons can you..."

Guo Yi unceremoniously interrupted Chen Dong's words: "How much work and food can the imperial court give to firearms craftsmen? There are only 20 taels of silver, and there are red envelopes at the end of each year. The firearms craftsmen above the master level are all shareholders in the company.

Chen Dongmeng took a sip of his wine and shook his head depressedly: "You are right, this matter is difficult,"

Suddenly, the street outside the hotel was full of people, and the noise suddenly erupted from every corner. The three of them were taken aback. While they were in doubt, three cannons were heard one after another from the direction of the military camp and the direction of the wharf where the fleet was docked. , followed by the sound of the long conch horn, a group of cavalry galloped between the streets of the market, and the messengers holding high the red flag representing the supervising army came all the way and shouted: "The owner of the ship has an order, all guard soldiers, immediately Stop all vacations and fly back to your own troops immediately, the captain has an order, "

The sound of countless people running suddenly rang out on the street, and the escort soldiers eager to return cheered and ran to the barracks, and the small merchants who were still negotiating with them a moment ago waved their hands: "Brothers, good job, kill a few more Japanese pirates!" Devil, "

The Guo family brothers stood up together and said in unison: "It's an assembly order, and troops are dispatched."

……

In the 37th year of Wanli Wanli, on May 14th in the 1609th year of Qingchang in Japan (19), Chen Zhongji led the Zhonghua Merchant House to repel the Shimadzu Army. No. [-] days after the first siege of the city, the entire army of the Chinese Company's guards approached the city. Thousands of people started the battle of Satsuma.

Yin Feng still published a "Call to Satsuma", listing the enmity between the Satsuma clan and the Zhonghua Company over the past few years, denouncing the crime of the Satsuma clan's Japanese pirates attacking Taiwan and Hong Kong a month and a half ago... At the same time, Yin Feng promised that those who made contributions in this battle will, It will be able to obtain a share of the land that the company has recently acquired that originally belonged to Dadu Fanguo.

At this time, Chen Zhongji was living like a year in the Zhonghua Commercial Hall.

On the fifth day after he defeated the Shimadzu Army of the Hirata Department, news came from the direction of Shuri: King Shang Ning surrendered to the Shimadzu Army of the Huashan Department.

In fact, the defense of Shuri never took place at all.

After Zheng Jiong's troops were defeated, the most elite part of the Ryukyu royal guards had been wiped out. Kawayama Kudaka, who had suffered a bit from the sneak attack, approached Shuri cautiously. He was busy consolidating his camp for several days, busy sending people to recruit the Ryukyu king, and did not attack the Ryukyu capital.

After a few days, King Shangning couldn't bear the situation of being surrounded and not fighting, so he surrendered himself.