On the first day of the September 1st of the second year of Shenwu, the Ming Dynasty, it is advisable to travel far and carry out the battle.

This day was the day when the Japanese dispatched troops set off. Zhao Guoliang led four regiments to gather at Yizhen Wharf on the Yangtze River, waiting for the emperor's imperial envoy to read the imperial edict.

Because Prince Zhu Hai was unlucky to suffer in the clan's house, the chore of reading the imperial edict fell on King Zhu Huai of Chu.

Zhu Huai climbed up to the platform with his fat body, opened the bright yellow imperial edict and read it loudly. Around him were twenty loud soldiers, repeating Zhu Huai's words.

As one of the four regiment commanders, Zhu Jiang stood behind the admiral Zhao Guoliang and deputy general Li Tinglong, listening to the imperial edict.

Zhu Jiang is different from other generals. They are really semi-illiterate and do not understand classical Chinese at all. After all, Zhu Jiang studied as a child, but he still knows what the imperial edict means.

After hearing the imperial edict, Zhu Jiang sighed in his heart, his father was really shameless! He obviously sent troops to attack Japan first, but the imperial edict said that the Ming Dynasty and Japan were traditional friendship countries. This time it was a friendly exchange. And because the Ming Dynasty's barbarians are rebelling now, they need the brother states to support tens of millions of taels of silver and tens of millions of stones of food. The robbery was said to be exchanged by the emperor.

Finally, Zhu Huai said: "Now he appointed Zhao Guoliang as the admiral of the Japanese dispatched army, the navy commanded Li Tinglong as the deputy general, and gave Zhao Guoliang the sword to the emperor to take charge of the conquest! I admire this!"

After Zhu Huai finished his resignation, he handed over the imperial edict and the sword of the emperor to Zhao Guoliang. Zhao Guoliang knelt down and took it with both hands and said, "Thank you Your Majesty for your kindness. I will never let down Your Majesty's high expectations and return victoriously!"

Zhu Huai nodded and happened to see Zhu Jiang behind Zhao Guoliang. Zhu Huai stepped forward and held Zhu Jiang's hand and cried, "Second brother! You must take good care of your health all the way thousands of miles!"

Zhu Jiang was held by Zhu Huai's fat hand and felt very disgusted. He knew that this younger brother was a smiling tiger, smiling on the surface, and good at stabbing the knife in the back. Now he said it well, I hope he would take care of himself and would curse himself in his heart!

"Third brother, you should take care of yourself and lose weight at home!"

Zhu Huai hated people the most about saying that he was fat. When Zhu Jiang said this, he cursed in his heart: You are raised by a little girl, I hope you can make fish food at the bottom of the sea!

After the imperial edict was read, the people on the shore began to board the ship. This time the expedition was large. In addition to the 12,000 people led by Zhao Guoliang, there were 5,000 naval sailors, and the army followed the logistics support force. In addition to five large warships worth thousands of tons, there were six second-class warships worth five hundred tons, twenty auxiliary warships from one hundred to twenty tons, fifteen troop transport ships, and five supply ships. In addition to these, there were merchant ships from large merchants following the fleet to Japan, with hundreds of ships, covering the wide surface of the Yangtze River.

After the imperial edict was read, it took another hour before all the personnel boarded the ship and began the Japanese expedition.

The fleet left the Yangtze River estuary and entered the sea. Admiral Zhao Guoliang officially held the first combat meeting. All senior army officers and various naval ships gathered on the flagship Fuzhou.

The Fuzhou is a new type of warship that has just been launched this year. It has a displacement of 1,800 tons, the same as the emperor's flagship Guangzhou. This tonnage may not be considered the strongest warship in Europe, but it can already be roamed at sea in East Asia.

When Zhao Guoliang saw the officers arrive, he asked, "Deputy General Li, can your navy be familiar with the sea route?"

Deputy General Li Tinglong was originally a pirate who followed Boss Yan, so he was naturally familiar with the Japanese sea route. He bowed and said, "Please rest assured. Many naval sailors are pirates who have been rampant in this area of ​​sea for many years, and are very familiar with the Japanese sea route!"

Zhao Guoliang nodded and continued, "Although Your Majesty is polite, everyone knows that we are going to fight this time! I asked the Ministry of Rites officials who followed the ship and decided to attack Nagasaki Port in Japan first! What do you think?"

If you fight first, it's not a fight, so these officers naturally have no objection.

"Okay! This governor now orders that all the leaders of the army will go back and manage their own troops. There will be no accidents when the sea is long! The leaders of the navy will follow the main ships and do not fall behind!"

Zhao Guoliang's meeting was concise and clear, and the officials of each radical bowed to receive the order and returned to his own ship.

It is September and the sea surface in East Asia is very calm and the typhoon season has passed. Nagasaki Port is 1,6700 miles from the estuary of the Yangtze River, and it takes more than half a month to sail.

On September 12, the second year of the Ming Dynasty's Shenwu, the Ming Dynasty's expeditionary fleet entered the sea outside Nagasaki, and what appeared in front of them was the Five Islands Islands located outside Nagasaki.

After Zhao Guoliang asked about his geographical location, he called Yang Shilong, an official from the Ministry of Rites.

Yang Shilong is in his fifties this year, from Songjiang, Zhili, Nanzhili. He traveled to and from Nagasaki and Songjiang many times during the Chongzhen period. He was considered a talented person who was connected to Japan. This time he wanted to find a party to lead the way, so he found Yang Shilong, who was idle at home, and temporarily appointed him as the seventh rank of the Ministry of Rites, responsible for the translation and leading the way for this trip to Japan.

Zhao Guoliang saw Old Man Yang on the bridge and asked, "Is Lord Yang in good health?"

"Thank you for your concern to the admiral. The lower official is in good health! I wonder what happened to the lord summoning the lower official?"

Zhao Guoliang pointed to the island on the horizon and asked, "Sir Yang, that island is the Five Islands. Are you familiar with the situation of this island?"

"This Xiaguan naturally knows that the five islands refer to Fukue, Kuga, Naruo, Wakamatsu, and Zhongtong. Among them, Fukue Island is the largest and has the largest population."

Wudao is now under the Fukui Fen. The lord of the Fukui Fen was the Gokui Fen. The Gokui Fen was a pirate or a naval family that had been passed down for hundreds of years in Kyushu. The Gokui Fen has been active in this area since the Battle of Yuanpinghe, and is a typical powerful man on the coast of Japan. There are also many of the "Japanese pirates" that have gradually emerged since the Yuan Dynasty.

The Goshima family was like this and was half a pirate and half a fisherman. It has been passed down for 21 generations. The 21st generation of the lord, Genama Goshima, once led the Goshima navy to participate in the Korean strategy of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi's death, he remained neutral in the battle of Sekihara. Therefore, Genama Goshima was able to obtain a red seal from Toyotogawa Ieyasu in the eighth year of the eighth year of the throne, and officially became the first lord of the Fukuei vassal family, becoming a 15,000 stone-like daimyo.

Yang Shilong remembers that the Fukui vassal lord was the second generation of Megoshima Shengli. The adopted son of the Wushima family killed his opponent in a political struggle eighteen years ago. The biological son of the first generation of the vassal lord Xuan Ya, Ohain Zhushui. In order to consolidate power and rectify the retainers in the vassal lord, he was considered a relatively capable lord.

Zhao Guoliang had also studied the history of Japan before coming and knew that the vassal lords of Japan were warlords in the actual sense. However, when Yang Shilong said that there was a vassal lord on this Fujiang Island, he couldn't help but ask curiously: "Mr. Yang, this Fujiang Island does not look very big, and there is a vassal lord on it?"

"The Admiral doesn't know that the area under the jurisdiction of a vassal state in Japan is not as large as that under the jurisdiction of a county magistrate of the Ming Dynasty, and it is equivalent to a larger village. There are five or six thousand residents on the five islands, and this Fukui Fen is also considered a vassal state in good strength!"

At this time, the fleet was approaching Fujiang Island and could already encounter fishing boats near the sea. When the fishing boats saw such tall sea boats suddenly appear on the sea surface, they were so scared that they turned around and fled in panic.

The Fuzhou manager, deputy general Li Tinglong, asked: "Sir, what should we do? Go up and start fighting or be polite first and then soldiers?"

Zhao Guoliang touched the beard on his chin and said, "Look first, the other ships are parked outside the sea, and the main ships go to the dock to take a look!"

Yang Shilong bowed and said, "Sir, Xiaguan has a few friends on the island. Xiaguan can go to the island to let them know first!"

"Okay, you can go to the island first when you enter the dock!" Zhao Guoliang nodded and agreed.

Ten miles from Fujiang Island, all the fleet's sea ships stopped outside the sea, and only the flagship Fuzhou continued to drive into the bay.

When the people on the island saw the sea boats driving into the dock, they were frightened and panicked. More than a dozen merchant ships on the dock immediately anchored to the sea when they saw the Ming Dynasty flag.

Seeing that the dozen or so ships were all in the style of the Ming Dynasty's lucky ship, Zhao Guoliang asked: "Mr. Yang, aren't they my Ming Dynasty's merchant ship? Why do you still want to escape when you see us?"

"Sir, I don't know that they are merchant ships from the Zheng family in Fujian, and are now entrenched in Taiwan. These guys will naturally escape when they see the imperial army coming!"

It turned out to be Zheng Chenggong's merchant ship, so the escape can be explained.

The Fujiang Island Wharf is very small and has shallow water depth. The Fuzhou number, which has a sufficient draft of seven or eight meters, cannot be opened. There is no way, the Fuzhou number can only be parked one mile from the wharf, put down the boat and take Yang Shilong to the shore!

Seeing Yang Shilong approaching the dock, Zhao Guoliang used a telescope to observe Fujiang Island carefully.

Fuei Island is where the Fuei vassal lord lives in the city. It is relatively densely populated, the market is relatively prosperous, and the roads are flat. It can be seen that it took some effort. There are straw huts along the way, with sporadic fishing goods and vegetables placed, but no meat is seen. Since the Southern and Southern Dynasties, the upper nobles have stopped eating meat due to Buddhism, and gradually become a mess that the whole people do not eat meat. Therefore, although the vendors along the way are not hungry and hungry, they are obviously malnourished and malnourished, and they describe them as being withered and black and thin. Most of the men are less than 1.6 meters tall, women are shorter, and many people are only 1.4 meters tall.

However, since Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japan has not had a national war for decades. The benefits of social stability are obvious, unlike the Ming Dynasty's declining atmosphere everywhere. Although the living standards of the people are not high, they do not look like a frightened bird that is frightened and frightened.

Seeing that there was no prosperity on Fujiang Island, Zhao Guoliang probably couldn't afford any money. Seeing Yang Shilong leaving the boat in the telescope, Zhao Guoliang felt a move in his heart, and he would prepare. These Japanese pirates have never been reasonable and will stop talking for a while!

"Li Tinglong, be ready for battle!"

"Sir, are you afraid that the Japanese pirates will take action first?"

“It’s always good to be careful!”
Chapter completed!