Chapter 2081

Although Hirado Port is one of the most important trading ports in Japan in this era, compared with trading ports operated and managed by Haihan such as Sanya Victory Port, Pearl River Estuary Hong Kong, and Zhoushan Dinghai Port, regardless of trade scale or entry and exit,

The number of merchant ships in the port is far from the same level. After the two Haihan reconnaissance ships sailed into the waters near Hirado Island, what they saw most were not merchant ships, but some small fishing boats that only moved near the coast. After all,

The threshold for fishing is still much lower than engaging in cross-border trade, and this industry is more suitable for people who live on the coast to make a living.

When the two reconnaissance ships entered this sea area, they did not fly any flags or signs to identify themselves. Doing so may seem to attract official inquiries, but in fact it is just the opposite. It can effectively conceal their whereabouts. This small trick

It was an instruction from the Portuguese, because many foreign merchants who come to Hirado to trade are more or less involved in smuggling, so they do not want to take the initiative to expose their identities, and generally do not fly flags on ships.

Marks to identify oneself. If someone did this, it would appear to be a cover-up and attract the attention of Hirado domain officials.

Of course, the Haihan reconnaissance ship must also actively slow down its speed, otherwise it would be a bit shocking to appear on the sea at full speed, which may be more eye-catching than the effect of flying the Haihan two-color flag on the entire ship.

As long as you slow down your speed and appear calmer when sailing on the sea, no one will actually pay attention to these two sailing ships, which are not very eye-catching in appearance. Therefore, foreigners can easily regard these two ships as local ships.

, while locals will think these are two foreign sailing ships.

Shiro Amakusa is no stranger to this place. He left his hometown of Kumamoto to make a living, and he also visited the ports of Nagasaki and Hirado. However, that was more than ten years ago, and now he can't help but feel a bit confused when he thinks about it.

The feeling of another world.

Of course, the geographical environment here is no different from that of more than ten years ago. Amakusa Shiro knew that the strait to the north is the narrowest channel between Hirado Island and Kyushu Island. After turning around this bay, you can see the west coast standing

The ruins of Hirado Castle are on the high ground.

Hirado Castle was built by Matsuura Jinnobu, the twenty-sixth generation governor of the Matsuura clan, on the basis of the Hinoga Castle on Kameoka Mountain. However, after the Sekigahara War in 1600, Matsuura Jinnobu, in order to eliminate Tokugawa Ieyasu's influence on the Matsuura clan,

Suspicious, he took the initiative to set a fire and burned down Hirado Castle. This act of showing weakness finally allowed the Matsuura clan to secure the territory at that time. The ruins of Hirado Castle became the symbol of Hirado Port.

First, although more than thirty years have passed, the Matsura family still did not rebuild Hirado Castle, and allowed the ruins to remain in the most conspicuous place next to Hirado Port to show their loyalty to the Tokugawa shogunate.

However, although the old Hirado Castle is gone, it does not mean that the Matsuura family does not even have a decent castle in the local area. In fact, right next to the ruins of Hirado Castle, the Matsuura family surrounded a large area to build their own exclusive castle.

The residence is just not built like a traditional Japanese castle.

Amakusa Shiro soon saw the familiar ruins on the top of the mountain. The visibility today was good. Even without a telescope, he could clearly see the ruins of Hirado Castle. The ruined castle was similar to what he saw here back then.

There is no difference in appearance. The roof collapsed in the fire that year, and the original gray-white exterior wall has long since turned into black. If it is the first time here, it may be difficult to believe this.

The building that was burned down to only its frame by a fire is the famous Hirado Castle.

But even such an inconspicuous place was once the most important foreign trade port in Japan, and the Matsuura clan also obtained an astonishing amount of profits from many years of operations, and gradually became the most powerful feudal lord in the region.

In recent years, although the shogunate has gradually supported Nagasaki Port to become a new trade hotspot, Hirado Port can continue to operate on its own laurels for the time being. Businessmen from the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands, as well as some smugglers of unknown nationality, are still the main ones.

Hirado is the preferred destination, so there is still a certain scale of cross-border trade here, which is enough to provide the Hirado clan with income to maintain its operations.

Although low-key sailing in this area would not be easily discovered, Haihan's reconnaissance ship did not dare to dock at Hirado Port easily. They did not have any goods for trading on the ship, which could easily arouse suspicion. Therefore, Amakusa Shiro also

The reconnaissance ship can only be directed to sail slowly outside Hirado Port to gain more observation time to confirm the situation of foreign ships in the port.

At this time, the telescope came in handy again. Both Amakusa Shiro and Yuan Zhi confirmed the approximate number of ships docked at the port berths in a very short period of time. The few Western-style sailing ships here are basically owned by the Dutch.

The lucky ships are always conspicuous among the many lucky ships. Basically, the lucky ships belong to Han merchants, there are about twenty large and small ships, and the rest are local sailing ships.

They even saw two Anzha ships docked at the port. This kind of Japanese warship is huge and slow, and can carry more than a hundred people. However, this kind of warship, which only began to appear in Japan's Warring States Period, is not available to everyone.

can afford to build, so the main force of maritime armed forces is the slightly smaller Kanfune and Kohaya warships.

Of course, the few Japanese warships seen in the port combined may not be the opponents of the two exploration-class warships dispatched by Haihan this time, so these ships are inferior in the eyes of Amakusa Shiro and Yuan Zhi.

It did not pose a threat. Moreover, with the Anzhai ship's pitiful speed of less than five knots, it would be difficult to pose a threat to the Haihan warship, and it was not someone they would be afraid of.

What Amakusa Shiro and Yuan Zhi really care about is whether there are Chinese-style armed sailing ships in this place. When Shibazhi gained power in the Fujian Strait, the main warships under his command were armed sailing ships based on Fukusen and Guangzhou.

Shibazhi relied on a large number of armed sailing ships to suppress its competitors in the southeastern waters of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, no matter it was the Ming army, the Dutch or the Spanish, they all had to give way.

Later, the Shibazhi also absorbed some of the advantages of Western-style sailing ships and made new changes in the layout of deck guns. If the Haihan Army had not had obvious advantages in the performance of its warships and weapons, it would probably be difficult to compete with the Shibazhi at sea.

Zhi's main fleet faced off head-on.

Although the main force of the Hachiba Shiba had been wiped out by Haihan, the technology of building Chinese warships would not have been lost. If the remaining members of the Hachiba Shiba who fled to the Hirado Domain were unwilling to be left alone and wanted to choose an opportunity to make a comeback, then

They will definitely try to build Chinese-style warships with stronger combat capabilities again, and will even exchange relevant shipbuilding technology for the support of the Hirado Domain.

Therefore, one of the goals to be searched for in this reconnaissance operation is whether there are a certain number of Chinese-style warships in this area. If an established Chinese-style warship is discovered, there is no doubt about the influence of Shibazhi in the local area.

It has reached a very dangerous level.

After making a cursory observation of Hirado Port, they found no Chinese warships, but whether this is good news or bad news is hard to say now.

Two reconnaissance ships sailed outside Hirado Port from south to north, but they did not turn back immediately. According to data, Hirado Island also has several natural harbors, and these places may become the headquarters of certain armed forces.

A place for warships.

This place was much closer than they thought. After driving just a few miles north, they found several large shipyards in a bay near the coast. After observing the bay with a telescope, they discovered that this place

There are at least three Chinese-style warships with a displacement of about a hundred tons parked here. Although several gun emplacements on the side of the ship were covered with oilcloth, their special shapes could not be hidden from the two people who had fought against Shibazhi in the past.

A Haihan officer.

However, in order to avoid arousing suspicion, the reconnaissance ship did not stop here and continued to travel north until it left Hirado Island and then began to turn around at sea. At this time, Amakusa Shiro took the initiative to order a signal to another ship, requesting to follow

Yuan Zhi met.

But it is not easy for two ships to get closer at sea, and these two light sailing ships that have been reduced to the extreme will not be equipped with small boats, so the two ships can only go to an uninhabited island in the north first.

One of them anchored near the shore first, and the other ship slowly moved closer. It took a while before Yuan Zhi and Amakusa Shiro finally met.

"You should have seen the ship in that place, right?" Shiro Amakusa concisely confirmed the discovery to Yuan Zhi directly.

Yuan Zhi nodded and said: "I see, there are three ships, they should all be equipped with deck guns. In addition, there are two ships under construction in the dock, maybe they are of the same standard. The construction technology of these warships will definitely not

It was figured out by the Japanese themselves."

Being able to park warships so close to Hirado Port is obviously impossible to hide from the official eyes, so it is probably with official permission or even support. Japanese-style warships and Chinese-style warships are completely different in appearance.

It is different, and the hull features that have been improved by Shibazhi are even more unlikely to be imagined by Japanese shipbuilders. The only reasonable explanation is probably that the remaining members of Shibazhi provided relevant shipbuilding technology.

In other words, it is this group of people who are in charge of the construction of these ships.

Of course, to confirm these speculations, they also need more tangible evidence, such as confirming at close range that these ships are the same models as the main warships of Shibazhi back then.

"We need to go ashore as soon as possible to confirm the status of these ships." Seeing that Yuan Zhi also knew that there was a target he was looking for in that harbor, Amakusa Shiro decisively put forward his own idea: "Maybe we can also find Spanish people there to provide information.

weapons, so that all the clues can be connected!"

"Today?" Yuan Zhi was a little surprised by Amakusa Shiro's eagerness.

"We'll go when it gets dark." Amakusa Shiro pointed to his chest and said, "I will handle this errand."

Yuan Zhi was also a little surprised when Shiro Amakusa volunteered. According to their original plan, if Shiro Amakusa wanted to go ashore, it should be done at Hirado Port or Nagasaki Port. But it seemed that Shiro Amakusa didn't want to wait any longer and wanted to

Confirm this crucial evidence as soon as possible.

Yuan Zhi did not object to Amakusa Shiro's proposal. The other party was a veteran who had fought on the battlefield for many years. He should be very aware of the risks of such an action and there was no need to remind him of it. Moreover, Amakusa Shiro was of Japanese origin, so whether he spoke language or living habits, he had no objection to him.

There are no big obstacles in this regard, and it will be relatively easy to reintegrate into the local area as a Japanese.

However, this errand is not just about sending Amakusa Shiro ashore. Yuan Zhi must also discuss with him when and where to pick him up and board the ship to leave Hirado. If an officer of Amakusa Shiro's level has an accident during the operation, Yuan Zhi must

It would be difficult to explain to the superiors even if we go back.

"Three days. After three days, I will evacuate according to the original plan and meet you at the predetermined location." Of course Amakusa Shiro would not risk going ashore to take a look at the ship and then come back. He wanted to take this opportunity to go "by the way"

Make a trip to Hirado Port, collect as much intelligence as possible, and then return to the ship to implement subsequent operations.

As for how to enter and leave Hirado, they had an action plan. Now they just changed the landing location to another place, and other details have not changed.

Amakusa Shiro and Yuan Zhi are both hard-working people, and they immediately began to prepare for the landing operation at night. Since there was no small boat on the reconnaissance ship, Amakusa Shiro could only be sent to the near shore, and then swam ashore in the dark.

As for the various tools needed for swimming, they were well prepared before departure. Immediately, Amakusa Shiro personally selected the items that needed to be brought ashore.

Clothes, pants, shoes and socks that need to be changed after landing, fire certificates, gold and silver belongings, two daggers, one long and one short, a few poisons in bamboo tubes, and just in case, I also brought a day's rations... There are actually not many things.

There are many, and it will be ready soon. All these items are put into a waterproof bag first, and then tied to the inflated sheepskin tire. When the time comes, use a thin rope to tie the sheepskin tire to Amakusa Shiro's waist.

It affected his ability to swim.

Yuan Zhi originally wanted to pack another sleeping bag for Amakusa Shiro, but Amakusa Shiro actively refused: "I won't spend the night in the wilderness. This thing is not needed."

At dinner, Yuan Zhi gave Amakusa Shiro two self-heating rations, plus sashimi made from snapper just caught from the sea. This was the best meal on the ship.

"If things go wrong, remember safety first, find a place to hide first, and don't risk your life. How did we get here, and how will we get back!" Before setting off, Yuan Zhi couldn't help but say a few more words.

Amakusa Shiro smiled and said: "Okay, I will be careful."

After dark, the two reconnaissance ships turned around and headed south, stopping near a beach that they had previously favored. Amakusa Shiro checked the rope tied around his waist and the sheepskin tire tied to the other end with his personal belongings, and then followed the

The rope ladder hanging from the side of the ship slowly descended into the sea and swam towards the coast.
Chapter completed!