Ryukyu is a small country, and the so-called Western Daimyos of Japan have trade relations with it. In particular, the Satsuma Domain of the Shimadzu family has trade privileges with Ryukyu. Due to the strict maritime embargo imposed by the Ming Dynasty on Japan, merchant ships were not allowed to trade with Japan, but
Trade with the Ryukyus was allowed. As a result, the Ryukyu Nakayama Kingdom became a trade transit point for China and Japan, especially the Satsuma Domain. The Satsuma warriors held sword gatherings at Ryukyu Naha Port and ran around the streets shouting. This was the Ming Dynasty court.
The envoy witnessed the scene with his own eyes in Naha when he enthroned the King of Zhongshan.
Lu Yun was a subordinate of Oyakata Xie Ming, one of the three Ryukyu officials. The Lu family had been doing business for generations and was repeatedly robbed by Japanese pirates at sea. They had a long-standing dislike for the Satsuma Domain of Japan.
Xie Ming's family is actually of Chinese descent, with the same surname as Zheng. He is the first Sansiguan (the highest consul of Ryukyu, the highest official rank among Ryukyu nobles and civil servants) with Chinese ancestry in the history of Ryukyu. This time, Lu Yun was sent abroad in a private capacity.
China actually came to attract Chinese merchants to trade in Ryukyu. As a trading country, Ryukyu has not sent ships to trade in Southeast Asia for many years due to competition from Westerners. As a result, Ryukyu has become increasingly poor. The only people willing to come to Ryukyu are now
Chinese businessmen, so the whole country hopes that Chinese businessmen can go to their country to trade.
Yin Feng and Lu Yun learned of this situation during the chat, and readily agreed: next year, the company's merchant ship would be sent to Ryukyu for trade; at the same time, he requested to open a commercial hall of the China United Company in Naha Port. Lu Yun patted his chest and said that this was
I can help with every little thing.
The crew of the Feilong, under the command of Barreto Jr., were busy working. After all, it was the first time to sail, the first time to drive such a warship, and the sailors were still in the running-in period. This group of sailors was based on Hainan Dan people.
Lord, there are also sailors from Quanzhou and Zhangzhou, and several of them are also overseas Chinese refugees from Luzon.
Yin Feng stood on the bow of the ship and looked at the Xinxing, which was running parallel not far away, with great ambition and a good mood. This was the first real battleship. Due to the use of rib structure and a large number of iron fasteners, the battleship
Apart from ammunition, there is no space for cargo, and the hull is much stronger than the Xinxing.
According to Lu Yun's intelligence, the Zhuin ship dispatched by the Lord of the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Yoshihiro, only had two brigs with a load of 50,000 kilograms. To deal with such merchant ships without maritime combat capabilities, in fact, dual-purpose ships such as the Xinxing
It can be handled. In order to train the combat effectiveness of the entire crew of the Feilong battleship, Yin Feng insisted that the Feilong battleship participate in the operation.
Originally, it would be better to pretend to be a red-haired pirate and have the authentic Dutch battleship Eunice appear. However, the Eunice was too seriously injured and would not be repaired for a while, so Yin Feng had to forget it.
The two ships cruised on the Taiwan side of the northern Taiwan Strait for a whole day without encountering any ship. Originally, it would take another month or two for the Zhuin Ship to go south, and then there would be better wind direction. However, this year, the Satsuma Domain
Giving gifts to Tokugawa Ieyasu consumed a lot of the family's jewelry and property, and they needed to be replenished, so they set off impatiently before other daimyo's ships.
"Mr. Lu, will the Satsuma clan's ship definitely come to Jingang?"
Yin Feng has asked this question for the tenth time.
Lu Yun was sweating and said bitterly: "It will definitely happen. The needle master and helmsman on the ship told me personally."
This was also the tenth time he answered.
In this era, Japanese ships traveling south had fixed sea routes and generally had to sail along the coastline. To reach Taiwan's Jingang Port, this stretch of sea north of the Penghu Islands was the only way to go.
Chen Zhongji held Yin Feng's telescope and looked around curiously on the sea. He asked: "Shipowner, since the Japanese are coming to Yingang, why don't we wait for them at the port? Do we have to come here to intercept them?"
Yin Feng's mind was filled with worries about the company's financial crisis, and he gave the young man a slap on the forehead angrily: "You are so stupid, you have to do this secretly, there are so many ships from various countries coming and going in Yingang, you can't keep it secret at all.
, that’s why I have to wait for the Japanese here. Haha, it’s not that I’m afraid of Lord Satsuma, if I had 10 warships like Hiryu on hand now, I would come to find trouble for Shimazu Hiroshi.”
Lu Yun chuckled, feeling that the captain was so outspoken and cute, he was kind to others, and sometimes he was like a child.
Yin Feng grabbed the telescope from Chen Zhongji who was grinning. He looked randomly at the sea and looked up at the sailor on the mainmast who was watching the battle. This guy was still looking out with the telescope and didn't send any signals. He sighed.
He took a breath and said: "It's all caused by lack of money. People are poor and have short ambitions! Money comes slowly from doing business well, so I have to take this last step."
Lu Yun couldn't help laughing: "Yin Dadong, are you still short of money? I think this Chinese United Company can be compared with the red-haired East India Company."
"Compared with the East India Company? How could it be earlier? Now they are the largest company in the world!" Yin Feng said very modestly.
After nightfall, the sailors on the Wangdou changed shifts, and the captain Ye Hua personally went on duty.
Yin Feng had no illusions about discovering a Japanese ship at night. He had not had a good rest for several days and fell asleep in his cabin.
I don't know how long it took, but he was woken up by Chen Zhongji. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked at Chen Zhongji blankly: "What's the matter?"
"Ship found!"
Yin Feng jumped up from the bed, grabbed the binoculars and rushed out of the cabin, only to see that the deck was completely dark, and the sailors were coming and going in the dark.
"What the hell are you doing? Why don't you light a lamp?" Yin Feng almost bumped into the man opposite. The man standing upright said in a low voice: "You can't light the lamp for fear of disturbing the Japanese ships. I ordered not to light the lamp, Xinxing
Brother Lu who was calling also turned off the lights." The person who came was Ye Hua, and Yin Feng could vaguely see his slender figure in the darkness.
Yin Feng patted his head: "Yes! You did the right thing! Where is the ship?"
Several people came to the bow of the ship. Ye Hua pointed to a few ghostly lights on the left front and said: "It's right there, about three miles away, anchored close to the coast. Judging from the lights, there are two ships moored side by side.
.It was too dark to tell whether it was a Japanese ship. I was afraid of getting the wrong person or alarming them, so I had to wait until dawn before taking action."
Yin Feng nodded: "You are more familiar with matters at sea than I am, so you make the decision."
Ye Hua was startled and immediately understood that this was Yin Feng's expression of complete trust in him. He immediately stood up straight and said seriously: "Yes, I will definitely not let these two ships go."
Throughout the second half of the night, Yin Feng stood on the bow of the boat and looked at the few faint lights.
The sky was bright and a thin layer of fog had appeared on the sea. Ye Hua and Lu Shitou discussed it and decided that the Feilong would rush forward and take action, while the Xinxing would support and intercept from the outside.
Yin Feng did not interfere in the specific command. Firstly, he believed that the captain of the maritime fleet must have the ability to be proactive and make independent judgments. Ye Hua has such qualities; secondly, he wanted to see little Barreto.
What is the effect of training battleship sailors for several months?
In the light mist, two Japanese ships flying the flag of the Hachiman Daibodhisattva have been revealed. These are two Chinese-made lucky ships. Most of them are ships bought in China by the Japanese entrusted by Chinese businessmen. They are all two-masted ships.
The Japanese ship was still sleeping, completely unaware of the two giant three-masted ships that unexpectedly hung the pirate skull and crossbones flag in Sanli, and were slowly approaching them with malicious intent.
The leader of the two Zhusin ships, Shimazu family retainer Kawarayamaemon, walked out of the low cabin just after a good night's sleep. He took a long breath in the cool, salty sea breeze and was about to take his katana to practice on the deck.
Suddenly, when he raised his eyes, he saw a large ship more than fifteen feet long suddenly appearing in the thin mist. It was already close to about 100 steps away from the boat. The most eye-catching thing was the main body of the three-masted ship.
The black pirate skull and crossbones flag and the mainly orange Dutch flag fly on the top of the mast.
"Enemy attack!" Kayamaemon instinctively warned. There was no need to think about the meaning of the black skull and crossbones flag. Kayama, who had gone to sea for trade many times, knew exactly what it meant.
Several Japanese warriors stumbled onto the deck, and Huashan kicked one of them away: "Asshole, where are the people on duty? Go and wake everyone up!"
It was too late. At this distance, the 32-pound heavy cannon on the bow of Feilong roared. The shell penetrated the side plate of the bow of the Japanese Zhuyin ship in one fell swoop, passed over the upper deck, and then hit the stern cabin, destroying the ship.
The rudder stock in the stern cabin was shattered. The shell also left a long trail of blood and broken limbs on the upper deck. Two samurai were instantly transformed into a pile of rotten flesh and blood right in front of Huashan.
Huashan, who survived the disaster, encountered heavy artillery bombardment for the first time. For a moment, his brain lost the ability to think, and he stood there blankly looking at the pile of flesh and blood in front of him.
Chen Zhongji, who fired the gun, saw all this through the telescope and shouted excitedly: "It hit! It hit!"
The Hiryu quickly approached Kaguyamaemon's ship. A sailor from Quanzhou shouted in Hokkien: "Brothers from Tang Dynasty, don't come out!" Then a burst of musket shooting sounded, smoke covered the bow of the ship, and the impatient sailors had already opened fire.
Already.
Huashan was hit in the right thigh, but he immediately woke up, rolled to the side of the ship, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "It's Akito's ship!" He had interacted with Chinese people overseas a lot and knew a little Chinese.
However, no one paid attention to him at this time. The ship was in chaos, with screams and screams. The hull of the Feilong was 6 or 7 meters higher than the Japanese ship. The sailors tied the cables to the ship's side and slipped away with swords and axes in hand.
In a short time, more than 10 people jumped onto the deck of the Japanese ship. The musketeers on the Feilong formed three rows on the side of the ship, firing continuously with muskets, and fired at the entire upper deck of the Japanese ship from a high position.
Yin Feng felt very bored. The Japanese ships had almost no resistance. However, some Japanese warriors took out iron cannons and tried to shoot at the Feilong, but they were immediately killed by raindrops of bullets. Most of the warriors had been killed, except for a few Chinese people.
The sailors hid in the cabin and refused to come out.
More sailors boarded the opponent's ship and began to search and move forward.
After another Zhuin ship was awakened, it was busy raising anchor and sailing. Suddenly another large ship appeared next to it, which was the Xingxing. There were not many Japanese on this ship, mainly Chinese sailors and agents of some big Japanese businessmen of the Satsuma Domain.
People. They were not samurai and had no interest in resisting at all. At the same time, they also witnessed the tragic sight of Kaguyamaemon on the boat with blood and flesh flying everywhere, so they knelt down and begged for mercy and surrendered.
On the ship here, Huashan was found among the corpses by the sailors of the Feilong, pretending to be dead. When he tried to resist, he was shot dead by Yin Feng, who had just boarded the ship.
"We are from the Tang Dynasty, brothers outside, stop fighting!" A panicked shout came from the cabin. Yin Feng signaled the musketeers to prepare to shoot, and said loudly: "Come out, come out with your hands high!"
After a while, more than 30 Chinese sailors, clerks, and generals were escorted to the bow of the ship, squatting on the ground with their hands tied upside down. Several Japanese people were found mixed in the crowd; the special hairstyle of the warriors exposed them.
He was immediately dragged to the stern of the ship.
The two ships were completely controlled by Yin Feng's people. All the Japanese who were found alive on the two ships were gathered at the stern of the ship. There were about 30 people.
Yin Feng walked up to the captured Chinese crew and looked at these people. They were all frightened, and no one dared to look up at him. Although they already knew that these pirates were not Dutch Red Barbarians, some Chinese pirates also killed people indiscriminately.
Yeah, who knows what kind of person is in front of me?
Yin Feng found that among the group of people, only one dared to raise his head and look at him; a young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, with a strong physique.
Yin Feng coughed, and there was a burst of musket shooting from the stern of the ship, which lasted for about half a minute. All the Japanese were dealt with. Lu Shitou directed the sailors to throw all the corpses into the sea. He came from the Japanese ronin in Manila and Nihonmachi.
Having fought many battles, his hatred of Japanese people is second only to Yin Feng.
Yin Feng saw that the Chinese people were even more panicked. He was about to say something to comfort him when the young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes suddenly rushed out of the crowd and cursed loudly: "Straight bitch, if you want to kill me, kill me. Grandpa..."
Before he could finish his heroic words, the Danmin musketeer beside Yin Feng knocked him to the ground with the butt of his rifle. Yin Feng was about to tell his men to stop, but saw the young man stubbornly stood up again and stood there, glaring angrily.
"Stop!" Yin Feng told the musketeers to stop and asked the young man curiously: "Who are you? When did I say I would kill you?"
"Grandpa's name is Yan Siqi, we...what, you won't kill us?" The young man was a little surprised.
Yin Feng was even more surprised and asked in surprise: "Are you Yan Siqi?"