Chapter 2085

Amakusa Shiro estimated that there should be special guards in this place, so he did not try to enter the village rashly. Instead, he lurked in the nearby mountains and forests to observe the place carefully.

The smelting workshop hidden in the ravine actually has a small production scale, with only six or seven smelting furnaces in total. If compared with the smelting base established by Haihan in Changhua, it is really insignificant and should be even one-tenth.

However, considering the area, population size, and economic level under the rule of the Hirado clan, it is unlikely to build a smelting base of the size of Changhua. In addition, it is said that there are military production tasks here, so

Moreover, the scale of production should not be made too large to avoid arousing the suspicion of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Sure enough, Amakusa Shiro soon discovered several armed men wandering among several smelting furnaces in the dark night. These people stopped and walked, and it seemed that they should be on patrol missions. He was alone and had no control over the environment.

He was not familiar with it, so he couldn't take the risk to move forward at the moment. He could only rely on experience to observe the trends in this area and see if he could find any signs of artillery production - this was also the main reason why he visited this area overnight.

But now it seems that this task is more difficult than he expected. It is difficult to distinguish where the warehouse is in the night, and it is impossible to take targeted actions. Amakusa Shiro stayed in the mountains for more than an hour and still got nothing.

As the ambient temperature dropped, he felt that his whole body began to become stiff. It would be difficult to stay here for a whole night. For safety reasons, he could only choose to retreat to Hirado Port and find a warm place to spend the night.

The next morning, Amakusa Shiro left the inn early and crossed the mountains again to Kagawa. This time, his luck seemed to be much better than last night. After only waiting for an hour, he saw what he was looking for.

thing.

He saw someone bringing an empty cart pulled by two horses to a certain house, and soon several people came out using bamboo poles and ropes to carry a cannon. Built in Hirado

Although the caliber of the artillery equipped on these Chinese warships is not large, the weight of each gun is at least about 500 kilograms. Therefore, after the casting is completed here, it must be loaded into a truck before being transported to the shipyard on the coast.

Amakusa Shiro could roughly predict the destination where the artillery would be transported, so he focused on the building that seemed to be a warehouse. He carefully observed the environment around the building in the mountains and forests, and then kept it in his mind

It would definitely be unwise to try to infiltrate at this time. His whereabouts could easily be exposed in broad daylight, and if something happened to him, no one in Hirado would be able to help him. So he planned to confirm the location first, and then wait until today.

Come back later in the evening and try to get into the warehouse to confirm your findings.

Of course, there is another reason for making this choice, that is, he made an appointment with the broker at Hirado Port yesterday to meet again today to see if the other party can arrange to discuss freight cooperation with the Tagawa family. If he can directly negotiate with the Tagawa family,

If you get in touch, you may have a chance to get more information.

The principle that money can make you go round is equally useful no matter which country you are in. In order to get the reward offered by Amakusa Shiro, the broker at Hirado Port actually helped him contact the Tagawa family within one day.

A steward. As for the rank and influence of this steward in the Tagawa family, the broker did not elaborate. Amakusa Shiro guessed that there was nothing worth boasting about in this regard, otherwise the broker would definitely brag.

This steward's name is Tagawa Juzo, a name that sounds very random. Amakusa Shiro is originally of Japanese origin, and he knows that this kind of name is usually given by the master of the family to the subordinates who give the surname, so that they can use the master's surname.

Surname. This is a good thing for Amakusa Shiro's investigation. Although this person's name should not be a core member of the Tagawa family, since his name carries Tagawa's surname, he should be someone who has access to some core information - at least in

It will have certain intelligence value in terms of business and trade.

The meeting between the two parties was arranged in a quiet tea room. This was probably because the broker described Amakusa Shiro as a "big and powerful businessman" when introducing the situation to the other party, so the other party put some thought into arranging the meeting.

, specially found an environment suitable for talking alone.

Amakusa Shiro has already made up an identity for himself: "I am Ono Kazuhiko from Edo Castle, working for a certain big shot who cannot be named. I came to Hirado Port to find a powerful family for my master's family.

It is a reliable carrier that is responsible for transporting goods from various places to Edo. Yesterday, I heard from the boss of Fukui Company that the Tagawa family is one of the most powerful maritime merchants in the local area, so I asked him to make an appointment with you."

Edo Castle is where Tokugawa Ieyasu established the shogunate in 1603. From this point on, Edo became the de facto capital of Japan, also to make Amakusa Shiro's mysteries sound more convincing.

Of course, there are many big shots in Edo City. Their status is not convenient for them to participate in certain secret trades. At this time, they need to find some agents to handle these things. This is not a rare thing in Japan. Amakusa Shiro also believes that

The other party can understand what you mean.

Sure enough, Tagawa Jūsan was also a knowledgeable person. After listening to Amakusa Shiro's self-introduction, he did not rush to ask who the owner of his services was. Instead, he first asked about the specific requirements, such as routes, transportation capacity, etc.

As soon as you open your mouth, you will know that you are an expert.

After Amakusa Shiro realized this, he became more and more afraid to be careless. Professionals like this are not so easy to deceive. Once there are loopholes in the conditions he proposed, the other party may see through them.

Fortunately, Amakusa Shiro has traveled all over the country in recent years and has lived and stationed in many ports. He is no stranger to the shipping industry. Moreover, he has been prepared beforehand. The conditions he proposed are also based on the actual situation in Japan. Unless the other party can go

Edo Castle to verify, otherwise it would be difficult to find loopholes in the conditions he said.

In the following talks, Amakusa Shiro used this false identity to slowly extract some information from Tagawa Jusan.

According to Tagawa Juzo, the Tagawa family has shipping and trade qualifications issued by the Hirado Domain. In addition to completing various shipping tasks throughout Japan, it can also be designated in Ming Dynasty, Ryukyu, Korea, and Haihan.

The port completes trade on your behalf, even if you want to trade with Western countries such as Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands, it can also be operated.

These business contents have actually violated the shogunate's seclusion order, but the seclusion order only targets ordinary people. It does not have such a significant effect on the big shots in Edo City and the local tycoons in Kyushu. The Tagawa Thirteen vs.

There was no deliberate cover-up, because regardless of whether the other party was a real merchant or a shogunate official who came to test him, what he said would not be evidence against the Tagawa family.

Of course, it was really impossible for him to imagine that the guy sitting across from him would be a military attache from the Kaihan Kingdom. If he knew the true identity of Amakusa Shiro, he probably wouldn't introduce the Tagawa family in a showy tone.

business scope.

In order to attract potential big customers from Edo Castle, Tagawa Juzo said that he could take Amakusa Shiro to Hirado Port to see the shipping company run by the Tagawa family, to prove that his introduction to the business scope was not a boast. Amakusa Shiro

Naturally, he was happy to see the outcome and agreed without hesitation.

So after the interview between the two, Amakusa Shiro was invited to go to the port area with Tagawa Shisan to visit the business conditions of Tagawa Shipping Company.

Compared with its domestic counterparts in this era, Tagawa Shipyard's business scale and scope are definitely first-class. If we look at it according to the standards of the Ming Dynasty, Tagawa Shipyard has more than 30 large ships with more than 400 tons of cargo. This level of transport capacity

It has even surpassed most of the shipping companies in the Ming Dynasty. There are currently more than ten large cargo ships docked at Hirado Port. Basically, the ships are in good condition and equipped with a sufficient number of skilled sailors. They only require a short preparation time.

Departure from Hirado Port.

"If these large sailing ships go to some unsafe waters... I mean, are there any self-defense methods that can protect the goods and people on the ship?" Amakusa Shiro's purpose of visiting is certainly not to see these cargo sailing ships, so

He was also secretly trying to continue the conversation from the other party to see if he could get Tagawa Shisan to mention the information about the armed sailing ship.

This question obviously gave Juzo Tagawa an opportunity to show off his strength, but his response to this was more cautious: "Our shipping company also has armed sailing ships specially designed to transport important personnel and cargo, but such ships will be used during execution.

They are only dispatched for special tasks, and the freight will be relatively high... I think Mr. Ono can understand."

Amakusa Shiro nodded and asked, "Then am I lucky enough to be able to see this kind of armed sailing ship with my own eyes?"

Tagawa Shisan was not stupid at all. He shook his head and politely declined Amakusa Shiro's request. After all, Amakusa Shiro only vaguely stated his background, and he did not confirm that he wanted to reach a long-term deal with the Tagawa family, and this vague identity was definitely not weighty enough.

The Tagawa family revealed their family background. Of course, he never imagined that the guy in front of him had actually seen the Tagawa family's armed sailing ship, and even went to two shipyards to confirm the situation. What he thought was a secret was actually nothing to Shiro Amakusa.

It's secret.

Tagawa Shisan adopted a posture of not letting go of hawks before seeing rabbits, and it was difficult for Amakusa Shiro to take further measures. However, at least from Tagawa Shisan's mouth, it was confirmed that the Tagawa family owns an armed sailboat, which can be regarded as reaffirmation.

It turns out that the information Amakusa Shiro obtained from his previous investigation is indeed true.

Although Amakusa Shiro did not finalize a specific deal with Tagawa Juzo in the end, he said that he would bring the Tagawa family's situation back to Edo Castle to report, and the family he worked for would decide how to cooperate with the Tagawa family. Such a statement also made

Tagawa Shisan does not feel that he is too busy, and he even looks forward to future cooperation.

The only person who is disappointed with this result is probably the middleman Fukui Yuki. Since the two parties have not reached an actual transaction, the intermediary fees that the middleman can charge are very limited.

That night, Amakusa Shiro came to Kagawa's smelting workshop again. With his two visits last night and this morning, he seemed to be more familiar with the road this third time. He followed the route he had chosen during the day, avoided the patrolling guards, and touched the

It's near the warehouse I'm looking forward to.

There was no one on duty in the warehouse, and the door was locked. It took Shiro Amakusa some time to find a transom window that could be climbed into the room.

After Amakusa Shiro carefully turned it in, he did not rush to light the fire seal. Instead, he waited patiently in the darkness for a long time, confirming that there should be no danger in the warehouse, and then carefully took out the fire seal.

After lighting up the fire, he discovered that this warehouse was actually a private house, but perhaps to free up enough space, only load-bearing columns were left in the house, and the internal partition walls had been demolished.

There was a row of low shelves in the middle of the room. These things looked familiar to Amakusa Shiro. They were none other than gun mounts used to place artillery pieces. Everything on the shelves was covered with oilcloth. Amakusa

Shiro lifted up the oilcloth, and there was indeed a dark artillery underneath.

In this warehouse alone, Amakusa Shiro found twelve Western-style artillery pieces with the same caliber. He even went to the muzzles of the cannons and smelled them. There was no smell of gunpowder. It seemed that they were all new cannons that had not yet been tested.

.

Amakusa Shiro knew that no matter the Spanish, Dutch or Portuguese, they would never put brand-new artillery on the arms market in East Asia. What they sold were almost all second-hand goods that had been in service for a certain period of time. Even emerging arms.

Shang Haihan, a considerable part of the weapons sold to foreign countries are old models that have been phased out by his own army.

With so many new cannons appearing in this place, the only possibility is that the Japanese made these cannons. This also confirms that the news that Shiro Amakusa received at the Port of Boxiang Bay is indeed true.

There are obviously huge loopholes in the Hirado domain's control over military secrets. Whether it's warships or naval guns, Amakusa Shiro basically got the answer he wanted without spending too much effort. Of course.

, this also shows from another perspective that the authorities do not have enough awareness of prevention against outside inquiries, and still believe that their small actions in Hirado will not attract outside attention. This kind of judgment can be regarded as an extremely serious mistake.

.

Amakusa Shiro also found hundreds of cannonballs and several barrels of gunpowder in this warehouse. According to his style, of course he would use gunpowder to blow up the place, but if he did this, he would definitely alert the snake, so he finally forced himself to give up.

With this radical idea, I quietly dug out of the warehouse and left Kagawa and returned to Hirado Port District.
Chapter completed!