The next day, the two parties held a grand engagement ceremony under the witness of Zhao Hao.
Ajiang is already fourteen years old, but Takechiyo is only nine years old. Should he marry his younger brother so early? The eldest nephew who loves his daughter dearly will never agree.
Therefore, he can only get engaged first and wait until Takechiyo is fourteen and Ajiang is nineteen before getting married. Such a cute little daughter can still be with him for five years. In addition, his uncle has promised that Chacha and Achu will be his own decision. Zhao Shizhen
Not so sad anymore.
During the engagement ceremony, although Ieyasu applied powder on his face, he could not hide the swollen ring under his left eye. He could only explain that it was because it was dark and rainy and the road was slippery, and he accidentally fell. As for what happened,
He didn't dare to tell, and the retainers didn't dare to ask.
However, the lord has been grinning from ear to ear, and the retainers said to themselves that the lord must have paid a small price. Anyway, this is not the first time...
In fact, Kaisho Co., Ltd. also has similar concerns to Ieyasu. Hideyoshi has super strong business capabilities, and now he is openly building a city thirty miles away from Kaisho. His purpose of replacing it is obvious!
Zhao Hao also had the same attitude towards the concerns of Sen Rikyu and others. Instead of being eliminated in the confrontation, it is better to actively embrace the "people of the world" and become the commercial center of the Toyotomi regime, so that he does not have to worry about being replaced.
But he asked Sen Rikyu not to get too close to Hideyoshi. Sen Rikyu agreed wholeheartedly, thinking that the big boss didn't want him to really join Hideyoshi. Little did he know that Zhao Hao was just worried that he would be caught by Hideyoshi.
To appease the panicked Japanese people, Zhao Hao set off and left Jiegang on July 14th.
Ieyasu and his son at the dock were still waving goodbye reluctantly, but Zhao Hao on the Jiangnan had already turned his attention to the northeast and stopped at the mouth of a large river.
That is the Yodogawa River originating from Lake Biwa, Japan's most important inland waterway. Twenty miles up the Yodogawa mouth is Osaka Castle, which Toyotomi Hideyoshi is building.
"It is said that in order to avoid being bombarded, Hideyoshi deliberately chose a site eight miles away from the river bank." Zhang Jian put down the telescope and said: "In this way, even Oda City rockets cannot be hit."
"Hmph, he doesn't know what a howitzer is..." Zhao Shizhen responded with a contemptuous sneer, and then said resentfully: "Well, no one may know it in a hundred years..."
"You solve the fuze problem first and then brag." Zhao Hao rolled his eyes at him, feeling a little regretful in his heart.
In fact, this time Hideyoshi asked him to meet through Sen no Rikyu. Zhao Hao declined this great opportunity to watch monkeys, so as not to affect the conclusion of the world line. It would be better to wait until he cuts off his monkey head before meeting...
Zhao Hao even regretted that he had been too harsh on the armored ships of the Oda Army. He also didn’t know that the absence of Kuuki Yoshitaka, the ‘Mizumi Hideyoshi’, would not affect Monkey’s plans to invade the country in the future, right?
Probably not.
Because Toyotomi Hideyoshi's method of unifying Japan was too peaceful. He basically relied on negotiations and alliances to arrange various princes. As a result, after he had almost arranged the three Japanese islands, he discovered that his professional army alone had reached an astonishing level.
More than two hundred thousand people.
Coupled with the armies of various daimyo, the number totaled more than 400,000. With Japan's low productivity level and a population of less than 15 million, continuing to support such a large army would inevitably lead to the collapse of the Toyotomi regime.
And in 1591 AD, Hideyoshi followed the example of the "People's Removal Order" promulgated by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, which strictly prohibited the movement of scholars, farmers, workers, merchants, and soldiers. He also completely blocked the channels for the demobilization of the army. Therefore, Toyotomi Hideyoshi could only general
These samurai and ashigaru, who were accustomed to licking blood with their swords, were sent abroad to carry out aggression in order to avoid the social explosion in Japan.
In addition, Japan's understanding of the outside world is even more closed-minded than the scholar-bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty. Zhao Hao believes that as long as Toyotomi Hideyoshi does not attack too much, the king of Japan, who made his fortune from a commoner, will never stop using North Korea as a platform.
The ambition to conquer the Ming Dynasty and then conquer India!
If he could fulfill Nobunaga's ambition and establish unprecedented achievements, who would dare to laugh at his humble background?
So what should come, will definitely come...
~~
According to the plan, after leaving Kaishi, the fleet will sail northward along East Japan to Ainu Island to test 2,500 kilometers of ultra-long-range wireless communications.
Zhao Hao also plans to inspect Ainu Island by the way. Although after acquiring Nanyang, the group no longer relies on the oak of Ainu Island, the island is still an excellent pasture for the group... During the non-logging season, more than half of the Ainu Island has
The Inu people are herding horses and raising cattle for the group. The other half are transporting the cut wood out of the mountains and sending it to Sapporo for shipment.
With the continuous material support of the group and after twenty years of continuous struggle, the Ainu have defeated the Oyizaki clan, compressed the scope of Japanese activities to a few cities near the Tsugaru Strait, and recovered the Ainu
Most of the land on Nu Island.
However, the Ainu had no siege ability, and they suffered heavy losses in several attacks on the last few Japanese strongholds. Zhao Hao did not support them in driving the Japanese across the Tsugaru Strait too early, so the two sides were temporarily in a stalemate.
Zhao Hao was going to appease the Ainu people again and persuade them not to rush to establish a political power, so as not to become the victims of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's attempt to divert domestic conflicts - Monkey was worried that he would not be able to become a general to conquer barbarians because he was of too low a family background. They were building a country at this time
, wouldn’t it give Hideyoshi a chance to become a general in a legitimate manner?
The "Yi" in the General Zhengyi refers to the Eyi people.
In addition, Zhao Hao also plans to conduct an on-site inspection of the group's location selection for the voyage base. In the future, the ocean-going fleet to North America will set sail from Ainu Island. This can shorten the voyage to less than two months, greatly reducing the cost of the North American strategy.
of difficulty.
However, as soon as the fleet sailed out of the Seto Inland Sea, a telegram forced Zhao Hao to cancel all plans.
At that time, Zhao Haozheng was having a meeting with Zhang Jian, Wang Zheng and others in the cabin. They were conducting technical discussions on the establishment of the radio network and how to ensure security and confidentiality and smooth communication.
Suddenly, the researcher who was guarding the telegraph machine knocked on the door and came in. He handed a piece of paper to Zhang Jian and reported in a low voice:
"Just received the telegram."
Zhang Jian took it and his expression changed drastically. He quickly stood up and handed the telegram to Zhao Hao. Zhao Hao was silent for a full minute.
This telegram was sent from Feige in the capital to Suzhou three days ago and then sent via Xishan Island. It only had two lines of text, but it announced that an era of the Ming Dynasty was about to end:
'The Grand Master is seriously ill and in a coma, and his death is not far away.'
"You guys go out first." Zhang Jian gently asked everyone in the room to go out.
When Zhao Hao came to his senses, he saw that only Zhang Jian and Zhao Shizhen were left in the conference room. He reached out and touched the table.
The eldest nephew quickly took an unfiltered cigarette and lit it for his uncle.
Zhao Hao took two deep breaths and ordered in a deep voice: "Immediately change the itinerary and return at full speed. At the same time, I will send a message to Xishan Island to report the latest situation at any time."
"Understood." Zhao Shizhen hurried out to deliver the order.
"This ocean-going radio test can only end here." Zhao Hao apologized to Zhang Jian.
"It's okay. Even if the radio station is temporarily set up at the district level as discussed just now, this distance is enough now." Zhang Jian said softly.
"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded and fell into silence again.
In the discussion just now, everyone basically reached a consensus - if you want to keep the secret of radio for a long time, you must control the number of radio stations and reduce the number of applications. It is best that only senior cadres of a certain level can know this top secret.
However, if the number of radio stations and the number of informed people are too small, the command and communication role of the radio network will be seriously weakened, and it will not be able to deter and restrain careerists.
So initially, it is a more compromise plan to secretly equip each administrative region and war zone with a radio transceiver group, and limit the access to information to members of the front committee of the war zone and members of the administrative district management committee. This will allow the group to communicate with each subordinate unit
Achieve timely communication between them, so as to achieve a qualitative change in the efficiency of uploading and distributing, and revolutionaryly enhance the group's control and timely decision-making.
In addition, when only high-level cadres know the secrets of the radio, it can prevent someone from controlling the radio and block the transmission of messages to the outside world.
Moreover, even high-level cadres only need to know that the group has the ability to transmit messages thousands of miles away, and there is no need to know the specific methods and technologies for implementation. Therefore, the radio transceiver group should be independent from the group system, and the security department should set up a communications department to report to the response.
Units that set up radio stations will station communications squadrons. Each communications station must be set up as an absolute restricted area...
"The confidentiality plan still needs more consideration. We will discuss it in the next few days, and then you and the security department will come up with a 'communication plan' for me." Zhao Hao finished smoking a cigarette and regained his composure and said:
"In response to the many problems exposed in this test, you should go back and step up improvements to complete the design from experimental products to practical equipment as soon as possible. When I am free next year, we will go to Nanyang for testing."
"Yes, Master." Zhang Jian nodded and asked softly:
"Shall we take back the equipment on the ship?"
"I will use these equipments when I come to Beijing." Zhao Hao shook his head and said: "Send me a technician. In such troubled times, this radio arrived in time..."
"Yes." Zhang Jian responded again.
~~
On July 18, Zhao Hao returned to Xingang City.
Zhang Xiaojing and her three children, 11-year-old Zhao Shiyou, 12-year-old Zhao Shilu, and 9-year-old Zhao Xiaoman, who came from Shanghai, have been waiting for him for a day.
Although Zhang Xiaojing was delayed for a few years, she had the most children, and she also had a son and a daughter who were too young to take back...
Zhao Hao couldn't help but feel deeply apologetic when he saw that Xiao Jing's beautiful face was extremely haggard and her whole body had lost a lot of weight.
Because of her 'breakup' with her father-in-law, she has not seen her father for eight years.
Grandmaster Zhang has been in poor health since the beginning of spring this year and has been in bed most of the time. Xiao Jing has been very worried, but she can't go back until now...
"I'm sorry..." Zhao Hao took her into his arms and held her tightly.
Xiao Jing lay in his arms, her shoulders shaking slightly, and she sobbed softly.
After a while, he shook his head gently and choked:
"It's okay, this is what father meant. Only in this way can the Zhang family be preserved..."
With Zhang Xiaojing's wisdom, she can completely understand the motives of her father and husband.