Huairiang's messenger left the city at night and crossed the mountains to the territory of the Matsuura family.
The Matsuura family immediately sent a ship out to sea to search for the Kyushu navy in the waters of Iki Island to convey the general's decree to conquer the west.
In the end, the messenger successfully met the commander of the Kyushu navy, Utsunomiya Sadahisa.
Utsunomiya Sadahisa read the letter brought by the messenger and immediately summoned the naval leaders of the Shimazu family, the Otomo family, and the Matsuura family.
The numerous Kyushu naval forces are dominated by these three families, and the Goto navy is also affiliated with the Matsuura family. However, the Shaoyi family, the original overlord of Kyushu, did not care about operating the sea and did not have a capable navy.
Soon Shimazu Hisashi of the Shimazu family, Otomo of the Otomo family, and Matsuura Heinobu of the Matsuura family received the news and gathered on the Kansai ship in Utsunomiya.
The so-called Kanshun means maritime customs office. It was a large ship in the Japanese navy in this era. It had a tall superstructure box-type building built on the low ship side, which looked quite intimidating.
Utsunomiya's boat was even more ornately decorated with numerous flags, demonstrating his noble and extraordinary status.
The three navy commanders met Utsunomiya Sadahisa on the top floor of the castle.
Utsunomiya didn't talk nonsense to them, and directly conveyed Prince Huairang's non-negotiable order to the three of them: "Everyone, His Highness ordered that within three days, Your Majesty should hear the victory of the navy."
The three of them looked embarrassed when they heard this, and Shimazu said for a long time: "Your Excellency, according to the plan, we should harass the Ming army for more than half a month, and then launch a surprise attack when they are tired and numb."
"Yes, it has only been a few days, and there is not enough time. The combat effectiveness of the Ming army will not drop much." Otomo also agreed with his name.
"They are still very vigilant now." Matsuura Heinobu also does not want to attack so quickly. "From the contacts during this period, it can be seen that the Ming army is very cautious. It is difficult for us to catch them off guard."
"We have two thousand warships and 40,000 naval troops. The Ming army only has more than a hundred warships and only ten thousand naval troops. The advantage is mine!" Utsunomiya waved his arms and encouraged the three of them: "So what if we fight to the death in an upright and honest manner?
?”
"Alas, you don't understand how terrible the Ming navy is." The three of them were not as optimistic as he was. The three navies were the main force harassing the coast of the Ming Dynasty, and they understood the gap with the Ming navy far better than the people on land.
"Especially in the past few years, after they established the Maritime Administration, the navy's strength has improved by leaps and bounds. If we have more than a dozen small morning boats and encounter one of their warships, we still have no choice but to escape." Matsuura Heinobu said gloomily: "We can only have unexpected sneak attacks.
, only by catching them off guard can a miracle be achieved."
"That's true." The other two people also agreed. Dayou personally asked: "Can you please extend your grace for a few more days?"
"At least we have to wait for the northwest wind." Shimazu also said: "With the help of the wind, the chance of winning will be higher."
"You are mistaken. I am not discussing with you, but conveying the decree of General Zhengxi!" Utsunomiya Sadahisa is the army general of Zhengxi Prefecture and cannot understand their fear of war at all. He only knows that His Highness is under pressure.
Huge and urgently needed to win this naval battle.
He glanced at the three of them with stern eyes and said: "Besides, this is also your lord's wish... It is said that the Young Master has ignored his dignity and forced His Highness to fight! As retainers, how dare you fight cowardly?!"
"Don't dare!" the three of them hurriedly leaned over and said.
"Go back and prepare." Utsunomiya waved his hand and said: "We must go to war tomorrow night at the latest. If it is later than tomorrow night, you will commit suicide."
"Hi..." The three of them had no choice but to take the order and go out. On the boat going back, Matsuura Heinobu sighed.
"We have been able to deal with the Ming Dynasty's navy so far, all because of our flexibility and never fighting head-on. Now you are asking us to fight head-on. I'm afraid this time it will be more difficult..."
"It's just a head-to-head fight. It's just an egg against a stone." Shimazu said with a dark face: "If we fight to the end, our entire family will be in ruins."
"But we can't disobey, otherwise Utsunomiya will really kill us." Otomo said depressedly.
"Yes, we must go to war," Matsuura Heinobu said in a low voice: "But we must remain alert and withdraw our troops quickly when the situation is not good. We must not fight forcefully."
"That's right!" Otomo and Shimazu nodded in agreement: "If we can cause some damage to the Ming army and rob them of one or two battleships, we can explain the matter."
"That's it, an army man from Utsunomiya knows nothing about naval warfare, and he doesn't listen to what we say. Remember, exaggerate your own results tenfold. If you kill one Ming army, you say you killed ten. He is absolutely
He won't expose us." Seeing the responses from the two people, Matsuura Heinobu said even more boldly:
"Maybe they will exaggerate it ten times more in our battle report!"
"Hahaha!" The three of them looked at each other and laughed, and that was their decision.
~~
It was a calm night, and the three naval commanders unanimously decided to go to war tonight.
Utsunomiya Sadahisa still felt strange, asking people to ask if he was waiting for the northwest wind?
Of course the three of them could not tell him, because the northwest wind was conducive to attack but not conducive to escape.
They replied to Utsunomiya that our army relies on sails for sailing and oars for combat. It does not rely as much on the wind as the Ming army does, so tonight we can better take advantage of our flexibility and maneuverability.
Utsunomiya didn't understand, but he was very happy. He felt that the fighting spirit of the three "Navy Army Red Deer" had finally been inspired, so he asked someone to bring the three of them sake, and told them that he would give them credit after the victory.
As soon as the sky darkened, the three sailors weighed anchor and paddled away from the waters of Iki Island.
At midnight, they arrived outside Hakata Bay. The dots of red light at the mouth of the bay were the red lanterns hung on the bows and sterns of Ming warships to prevent collisions.
When they harassed them a few nights ago, they knew that the Ming army had sent a squadron to patrol the mouth of the bay to prevent them from sneak attacks.
Their goal tonight is this guard fleet, to concentrate their absolute superior force and besiege the Ming warships at the mouth of the bay without entering Hakata Bay at all.
They evacuated the battlefield before the main reinforcements of the Ming army in the bay... This way the safety factor is much higher.
This is called having policies from above and countermeasures from below.
The three naval forces speeded up their rowing boats in unison, swarming up like a pack of wolves, ready to approach directly for a boarding battle!
At least at this time, they have the advantage of surprise.
The Japanese sailors rowed the oars desperately, rowing the small morning boat like an arrow from the string, straight towards those red lanterns!
The two sides are twenty feet apart, ten feet apart, five feet apart, one foot away...
Seeing that it was about to hit the side of the enemy ship, the Japanese navy grabbed the side of the ship one after another, tensed their bodies, gritted their teeth and closed their eyes, preparing to accept the violent impact!
However, until they broke through the cordon and left the red lanterns behind, they didn't hear a single collision.
Everyone suddenly turned around, only to see those red lanterns still lighting up behind them. Could it be that the Ming army's guard fleet was as insubstantial as a ghost?
