On the vast expanse of sea, more than a dozen Jinling-class battleships had completely lowered their sails. All the crew members were shirtless, and they all tilted their necks back and looked anxiously at the lookout post on the top of the mast.

Although it is March at this time, the latitude of this fleet is currently about 24 degrees north latitude. In addition, the weather is fine today and the sun is directly shining on the deck. Therefore, the sailors at this time can no longer care about the military appearance, but

Military officers at all levels no longer require everyone to dress neatly.

"General, our reconnaissance sailing ship has been discovered."

"Great! It's finally here, I'm about to be roasted and fucked! Send the order, raise the sail!"

"Yes! The general sends the order to raise the sails!"

After Li Guozhu gave the order, he quickly entered the low poop: "Father, the spies we sent out are back. I think they must have found traces of Japanese pirates."

"Yeah." The famous Chinese captain Li Dan is over sixty years old this year. Years of life at sea have left deep marks on this old man's face like a knife and an axe. At first glance, he looks like he is in his early years.

He is an ordinary old man who works too hard, but when he opens his eyes, the light emanating from his eyes makes people feel his rich experience and firm will.

It was March 15, 1609, two full years had passed since Li Guozhu met Zhu Youdong for the first time.

In two years, Li Dan watched Li Guozhu serve as a formal officer of the imperial court and was not liquidated. He watched Li Guozhu wipe out the merchant fleet of Xu Ge's descendants and was safe and sound. Then he saw the new warships commanded by Li Guozhu. In fact, his heart was already filled with anger.

I have great admiration for His Highness Taisun.

The only thing that hinders the old man's return is that he has too many brothers. So many brothers have followed him all over the world for many years, whether they are Chinese, Japanese, Luzon, Malaysian or even Portuguese... If he can't give them to him one by one.

They find a good place to go, which will make the old ship owner feel that he is not loyal enough.

Therefore, Li Dan's main job in the past two years is to slowly divert his old brothers: Those who are willing to stay in Japan should contact the local daimyo to see if they can be allocated some land. Those who want to return to China should be resettled through Li Guozhu. I think.

Those who return to Luzon, Malaysia or Western Europe, will be given a certain amount of money or even a ship directly as a gift... In short, the Chinese captain can achieve today's prestige because of the support of his brothers and the deep loyalty of the captain himself!

However, in December 1608, Li Dan received news in Hirado: The Shimazu clan in Satsuma had a plan to plunder the Ryukyu Kingdom to replenish the family's finances due to the collapse of their family's finances!

The Japanese archipelago is composed of four larger islands and numerous small islands. The one closest to the mainland is the so-called Kyushu Island. And in the southwest corner of Kyushu Island is Satsuma. The daimyo who have ruled here have been ruling here for nearly a hundred years.

They are all from the Shimadzu family.

When the Shimadzu family was at its most powerful, it was founded in Satsuma and once controlled most of Kyushu Island. But this strength came too late: when they rose, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had already established an absolute advantage on Honshu Island. Later, the Toyotomi Army entered

After the defeat of Kyushu, the Shimadzu family lay down and was beaten, and their fiefdom was reduced to the Satsuma Kingdom and some lands in other neighboring sub-countries. The total output of these lands was about 605,000 Japanese stones.

A stone is a container, and its size is constantly changing. One stone in the Han Dynasty of China was about 27 to 30 kilograms. One stone in the Ming Dynasty was about 60 to 70 kilograms. The Japanese stone, after unified regulations by Oda Nobunaga, was about 130 kilograms.

Kilogram.

In other words, after the Shimadzu family was attacked and weakened by the Toyotomi family, the output of their territory was approximately 78,650 tons of grain per year.

According to the Four Public and Six Citizens policy generally implemented in Japan during the late Warring States Period, the Shimadzu family received approximately 31,460 tons of grain from their territory every year.

What is this concept? In 1589, Wu County in Suzhou Prefecture of the Ming Dynasty paid 9,400 tons of land tax to the country in that year. This was just a county, and the land tax of the Ming Dynasty was not as abnormal as 40%, but basically

The upper limit is around 10% (not counting extra bonuses or anything like that).

Therefore, the economic strength of the Shimazu clan, at least in the Ming Dynasty, was not comparable to that of an economically strong county in the country.

In short, this poor man became even poorer after being severely exploited by the Toyotomi family. During the Japanese invasion of Korea from 1592 to 1598, the Shimazu family charged at the front and retreated from behind. They were brutally attacked by Yi Sun-shin and Deng Zilong.

The losses were extremely heavy. Therefore, this family was deceived by the Toyotomi family.

However, what is even more funny is that in the Battle of Sekigahara, which decided Japan's ownership in 1600, the Shimazu family was originally going to join Tokugawa Ieyasu's Eastern Army. However, a general from the Eastern Army was rude to them during the journey. The head of the family, Shimazu,

Tsukihiro was so angry that he joined the Western Army.

During the Battle of Sekigahara, the Eastern and Western armies fought fiercely for most of the day, but Shimazu's army remained motionless. When the overall situation was decided and the main force of the Western Army collapsed and fled, the family just walked away from the Eastern Army's front line as if they had woken up.

Retreating... again resulted in heavy losses.

All in all, this family's brains are not normal. But I have to say that the poor people in this place are really quite powerful in fighting.

After the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who gained the supreme rule of Japan, did not reduce the Shimadzu family's territory (it was far away, poor, and capable of fighting, so it was really unnecessary), which made everyone in the Shimadzu family burst into tears.

The new head of the family, Shimazu Tadahashi, took the initiative to come to Edo and said, boss, you have been so kind to me. In order to repay your kindness, I will not care about my family affairs. I will come to you first to see if there is anything you need me to do.

.

Tokugawa Ieyasu thought: Huh? This is great! Okay, you can stay and help me handle government affairs. From then on, the system of handover of pilgrimage was slowly established in the Tokugawa shogunate: daimyo from various places brought their own dry food

, took turns to live in Edo Castle, help the shogun handle some matters, and express their loyalty and obedience.

The Shimadzu family is the farthest away from Edo among all the daimyo, and the cost of the visit was also the most expensive once it was implemented. They were already poor, and they suffered a lot of losses in many consecutive battles, plus such an expenditure.

.The finances of the entire Shimadzu family are almost completely bankrupt!

What should we do? Increase the land tax? But now the daimyo all over the country have four citizens and six citizens. If you dare to play the game of five citizens and five citizens, do you believe that the common people will vote with their feet and go to the territory of other daimyo?

Then the only choice is to go out and grab it! Anyway, the Satsuma people think that their fighting power is the best in Japan.

Thanks to its geographical location, the Shimadzu family has had business contacts with Korea, Ming Dynasty, and Ryukyu from very early on. The matchlock guns introduced to Japan by Westerners also originated from the Shimadzu family. However, there are no specialties in Satsuma.

The Jin family used to mainly engage in resale trade, taking advantage of geographical advantages to resell products from Ming Dynasty, Korea and Ryukyu to eastern Japan, acting as a middleman and reaping the price difference.

After Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea, both the Ming Dynasty and Korea implemented a trade blockade against Japan. Ryukyu, as a loyal vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, naturally followed the Ming Dynasty and stopped sea trade with Japan. Therefore, the Shimadzu family suffered heavy losses on the battlefield because of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

, the economy also suffered a devastating blow.

So, you have to go out and grab it!

Ryukyu is a small country with almost no national defense. With the Shimazu family's combat power, there is no problem in robbing it. And as a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, it can carry out normal sea trade with the Ming Dynasty. Steal Ryukyu and make a windfall. And then go back to the Ming Dynasty.

Secretly controlling Ryukyu and doing trade with the Ming Dynasty in the name of Ryukyu, I feel happy when I think about it.

In 1607, Shimazu Tadahashi took the initiative to visit Edo, and the Shimazu family became financially unsustainable. Voices within the family about going south to rob Ryukyu began to rise. In this year, Tokugawa Takechiyo killed Okubo Changan and took control of the country.

After the country's gold and silver mines began to prepare for unified coinage, this demand became more urgent: the right to mint money is not in one's own hands, and users are destined to be scraped off by the minter with another layer of bone oil. By then, the family's finances will be

Total collapse!

However, in the Noryang naval battle in 1598, the Shimazu family's navy was almost completely destroyed by the Ming and North Korean coalition forces. This memory was too painful, so although I had the idea of ​​​​plundering the Ryukyu Kingdom, Ryukyu still had no idea.

It is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Once this step is taken...those mature and prudent family members are still afraid of robbing Ryukyu.

But in the second half of 1608, the Shimadzu family was almost in trouble. If you didn't rob it, you would be waiting for death. If you rob it, you still have a chance of survival, so you must rob it! And by this time, even Tokugawa Ieyasu nodded: Go

Let’s try it and see if we can restore relations with Ming Dynasty through Ryukyu.

As a prince in the medieval era, although the Shimazu family's sense of confidentiality cannot be said to be absent, it is really not strong. This is very important to Li Dan, who has lived in Japan for many years and has good relations with all the famous names on Kyushu Island in Japan due to economic relations.

It is really not difficult to find out such news.

In fact, Li Dan didn't even bother to inquire, he received the news naturally.

On the historical level, even if the Chinese captain received this news, the most he would do was shrug his shoulders and not say anything more, but now the Chinese captain has decided to completely surrender to His Highness the Ming Emperor Taisun. After hearing such news, of course he has to take action.

.

At the end of 1608, Li Dan, who had just received the news, urgently recruited Li Guozhu to go to Japan. After further confirmation by the father and son, Li Dan asked Li Guozhu to quickly report back to Zhu Youdong. As a result, Zhu Youdong was still in Beijing at that time and had not returned. Yuan Keli, who was in charge of Nanjing,

After hearing the news, he immediately made a decision: Ryukyu must be saved! Chongmingsha's entire navy was dispatched to fight the first battle of what Taisun called the Ming Navy!

There are different opinions on how many kilograms a stone in Japan weighs. Some people say that a stone per day is only 17 to 20 kilograms. This book adopts the information from the popular science post "The Weight of a Stone of Meter in Japan during the Warring States Period" by "Namu Admiral Daimyojin" of the Horse and Blade Bar.

It is said that one stone per day is equal to 130 kilograms. As for why this number is used, it is of course because according to this calculation, Japan's rice can feed Japan's population of about 20 million at that time. Therefore, this number is relatively reliable.

In fact, Li Dan didn't even bother to inquire, and received the news naturally. Even if the Chinese captain in the historical standard received this news, he would shrug his shoulders and say nothing more, but now the Chinese captain has decided to completely

Serving His Highness the Grandson of the Ming Emperor. After hearing such news, of course he had to take action.

At the end of 1608, Li Dan, who had just received the news, urgently recruited Li Guozhu to go to Japan. After further confirmation by the father and son, Li Dan asked Li Guozhu to quickly report back to Zhu Youdong. As a result, Zhu Youdong was still in Beijing at that time and had not returned. Yuan Keli, who was in charge of Nanjing,

After hearing the news, he immediately made a decision: Ryukyu must be saved! Chongmingsha's entire navy was dispatched to fight the first battle of what Taisun called the Ming Navy!

At the end of 1608, Li Dan, who had just received the news, urgently recruited Li Guozhu to go to Japan. After further confirmation by the father and son, Li Dan asked Li Guozhu to quickly report back to Zhu Youdong. As a result, Zhu Youdong was still in Beijing at that time and had not returned. Yuan Keli, who was in charge of Nanjing,
Chapter completed!