The six hundred and thirty-ninth chapter set sail (1)
Although the matter between brothers Yu Qiu Shang and Yu Qiu Yu gave Yu Qiuping a headache, Oda Nobunaga did not give him much time to deal with family affairs. He still has a more important task at the moment - to rescue the people trapped on Awaji Island.
Hideyoshi Hashiba was brought back.
Awaji Country is a small country, with only Awaji Island and a few scattered small islands around it. The height of the stone is only about 65,000 stones. However, this island plays a decisive role in the entire Seto Inland Sea and even Shikoku and Kinki. Although Awaji Country is in the prefecture
It is relatively small in the country, but the area of Awaji Island appears to be very large in the Seto Inland Sea. It is an obtuse triangle with a narrow top and a wide bottom, leaning to the right. To the north of Awaji Island, there is a mountainous area and a mountainous area close to the west coast.
The cliff is difficult to climb, and you can only go ashore on the east side. The north, southwest and east sides of Awaji Island are almost close to the mainland, leaving only three narrow channels: Akashi Strait, Naruto Strait and Kitan Strait.
If you want to travel in the Seto Inland Sea, you must go through these three straits. Whoever controls Awaji Island almost controls these three channels, and also controls nearly half of the entire Seto Inland Sea.
The reason why businessmen in the Diet have to obediently hand over one-tenth of the harvest to the Miyoshi family until now is because they are afraid that the Awaji Navy, which controls Awaji Island, will directly block the three straits, cutting off Sakai Town's trade routes.
Moreover, Awaji Island also has many good military ports, which are very suitable for the navy to dock. As a maritime strategic point, Awaji Island has been engaged in maritime trade and plundering pirates since ancient times. Later, it gradually evolved into the Awaji Eighteen Families.
They were the famous Awaji Navy. They controlled waterways, collected taxes from passing ships, and plundered merchant ships. They responded to the daimyo's hiring and fought in both north and south, becoming the most eye-catching force on the Seto Inland Sea. Later, the Miyoshi family
The third younger brother Anzai Toyasu inherited the famous Anzai family in the Awaji Navy, and gradually integrated the entire Awaji Navy and Awaji Island, making an indelible contribution to the Miyoshi family's dominance of Kinki.
Awaji Island is so important, how could the Yu Qiupei family, whose territory is close to the Seto Inland Sea, not know? Therefore, Yu Qiupei went to rescue Hashiba Hideyoshi this time, not simply to bring people back. On the contrary, Yu Qiupei had an ambition
An ambitious plan - he wants to occupy the important port in the north of Awaji Island - the northern apex of the triangle - Iwaya Port, and further expand a base around it, just like the leased areas occupied by Western powers in China.
If Iwaya Port can really be captured, Amakihei will be able to control the Akashi Strait adjacent to Harima Province in the north of Awaji Island, thereby opening up a safe passage for the Diet's fleet to the depths of the Seto Inland Sea. At that time, the Diet will not have to
Then one-tenth of the annual harvest is paid to the Sanhao family, and they can travel freely. A large part of the reason why Yu Qiuping's budget for military operations during the busy farming season was approved by Congress is that it can save businessmen in Congress.
A lot of tax money.
Amakihei can also use Iwaya Port and Akashi Strait as bases to further develop the navy, expand his influence in the Seto Inland Sea, and threaten the security of the entire Awaji Island at all times - because the Akashi Strait is too narrow, and the Japanese Army
It only takes less than half an hour to transport it from the southeastern end of Harima Country through the Akashi Strait. As long as the Yuqiu family can control a landing point on Awaji Island, they can lead their troops to land on Awaji Island at any time and attack southward.
However, the Momiji Fleet still has to return to Kishiwada Port, and it is impossible to stay in Iwaya Port all year round. If you want to completely occupy Iwaya Port, you must rely on the army, which means that you must build a city on the land beside Iwaya Port to defend and protect it.
Iwaya Port is just like the relationship between Urado Castle and Urado Port. For this reason, Ame Qiupei specially brought Naoe Tadayei, who has been responsible for the general recruitment of the castle, and a group of skilled construction workers provided by Sena Uji and the Diet.
, then we will rely on them to build a city on the north side of Awaji Island.
·
On July 30, the Yuqiu family's 6th Army left Hanoi. Naoe Nobuhei and Fukuzawa Yunan led the Liaoyuan Bei, Fushu Bei, and Tongqiang Bei from Maple Leaf Mountain Castle and walked westward to Akashi in the southeast of Harima Kingdom.
Castle - it is the only area controlled by the Oda family in Harima country. The others are in the hands of the Miyoshi family. It is now guarded by Araki Murashige. Sandwiched between Akashi Castle and Iwaya Port is the Akashi Strait, and so is Akashi.
The mainland area closest to Awaji Island is where Hashiba Hideyoshi crossed the sea to surprise Awaji.
The navy of the Amaki family is scheduled to leave Izumi on August 2. Amakihei, Takenaka Shigeharu and Itami Yasukiyo will lead Hosoragi to board the Momiji fleet and take the waterway to Iwaya to meet Hashiba Hideyoshi.
Hashiba Hideyoshi is now leading his army to huddle in the mountainous area in the northern part of Awaji Island and defend it. Juga Ichitou has nothing to do with them for the time being. At the same time, Ikeda Hengxing also followed Oda Nobunaga's order and boarded the Momiji Fleet as a reinforcement, and
Yu Qiuping went to Awaji together.
Tokiwa Bei, Naru Dysprosium Bei and the unorganized special forces were commanded by Imagawa Kaede to stay in Kawachi, Izumi and Kii to prevent accidents.
However, the nominal target of Ame Qiupei's army dispatched was Harima, intending to distract the Miyoshi army. As expected, Miyoshi Yoshihiro, who was stationed in Harima, felt like a powerful enemy, hurriedly reorganized his armaments, and was forced to gather troops during the autumn harvest.
·
On the afternoon of August 1st, Kishiwada Port. The troops of Hongye Army and Ikeda Tsuneaki were busy at the port. With the help of auxiliary troops, they transported ordnance and baggage onto the fleet, while senior officers such as Yu Qiupei and Ikeda Tsuneki were
Standing by the port, looking at this busy scene like a beehive.
This time the scale of Hongye Fleet is many times larger than last time, with 1 battleship, 6 cruisers and 20 destroyers, as well as a huge number of small boats. And that majestic battleship will soon become Yu Qiuping's flagship. It
Its size was so huge that the Japanese could not even imagine it. Yu Qiuping even had to build a dock specifically for it to anchor it. Yu Qiuping imitated the way those great powers named their ships in previous generations and named it "Hanoi" after the place name.
"Maru". On this ship, there were a total of 10 side six-pound guns and one ship nine-pound gun. The dark barrels shone in the sun, making Ikeda Hengxing almost drool.
"Oh my god... you must have 50 large barrels in your fleet... My lord has been saving for so many years, but he only bought a dozen or so." Ikeda Hengxing pointed at the Kawachi Maru and was so surprised that he couldn't even speak.
It was unfavorable to ask, "This ship... is almost bigger than the lord's big barrel..."
"It's too troublesome to buy a big tube. Not only is it expensive, but merchants don't always have a big tube to sell. You have to make it yourself." Yu Qiuping smiled and patted Ikeda Hengxing on the shoulder, "otherwise you think I keep it.
What do the thousands of people in the Military Industry Department do? Do you know how much money I spent on researching how to make big tubes?"
"Hongye, do you still have the nerve to say that?" Sena Shiyoshi was furious when he heard this. Regardless of the occasion, he hit Yu Qiuping on the head. In Yu Qiu's family today, only Sena Shiyoshi has
His qualifications are comparable to those of Uakiupei, because Uakiupei was his colleague in the Imagawa family, and he has always treated Sena Ujitoshi as his father. In the eyes of Yuqiupei, Sena Shitoshi is his sworn brother. Every time
When I see him, I always think of Sena Shijun's care for me, and I feel guilty.
"Well... don't you think all this money is useful... Without these cannons, how can we compete with the Awaji navy?" Yu Qiuping was like a child who had done something wrong, carefully giving Sena a smile.
"Sir" Yi explained, "Money doesn't disappear, it just changes its form to accompany us!"
"Your Highness, you are too biased." Omaezaki Nakahide also muttered dissatisfiedly, "The navy only has so many people. It only adds up to more than 4,000 people, which is almost 50 cannons. Our 6th Army has a total of
There are 7500 combat troops, 15000 auxiliary troops, and only 15 cannons, all of which are three-pounders. In the past few years, you have swarmed all the artillery produced by Hanamaru and others to the navy, and we have not been able to get any of them."
"What do you know?" Yu Qiuping raised his eyebrows in front of Omaezaki Nakahide, and smiled pretending to be disdainful, "The navy's cannons have low quality requirements. It doesn't matter how heavy or large they are. It's also easier to grind the barrel. The craftsmanship is simple.
Production is fast. If we want to produce a 6-war gun for you, we have to reduce weight and volume, which is very troublesome. The time it takes to produce a 6-war gun is almost as long as four or five naval guns."
"We don't mind the trouble, give us a few more cannons!" Nakahide Omaezaki shamelessly came forward, "Just those big nine-pound cannons, I think they're good!"
"What are you thinking about?" Yu Qiuping smiled and patted Omaezaki Nakahide on the shoulder, "You are the Sixth Army. The specialty of our Red Leaf Army is rapid battlefield maneuvering! With so many cannons, can you keep up?
?Three three-pound cannons can hardly keep up with the troops. Do you want more and heavier ones?"
"What a big deal, Your Highness will set up a special artillery company! We don't have to keep up with you at ordinary times. It's really a big battle. If we have 50 cannons in hand, then we really have nothing to fear!" Nakahide Omaezaki thought to himself.
The scene of thousands of cannons, it seems like there are little stars in the eyes.
"This is... a bit interesting. I can think about it later." Yu Qiuping nodded in approval this time.
"Well, look, your people are much faster than mine." While Yu Qiuping and Omaezaki Nakahide were discussing armaments, Ikeda Hengxing had been watching the troops loading at the dock and couldn't help complaining, "
You have a lot more stuff to move than me, but you can board the ship faster than me!"
"Look, look!" Ikeda Hengxing first pointed at the pier of the Red Leaf Army, "Your people are lined up in a straight line, and each of their movements is very neat!" Then, he turned around and pointed at the pier of the Ikeda Army, "
My people, on the other hand, are huddled there in a noisy way, and I don’t know who is commanding them, and it’s like that! If you retreat from the battlefield, all your people will be gone, and my people will still be left there!"
"How much money do they spend on training and how much food do they eat? Ikeda-sama, do you know? They practice every day, and your people only practice once every few days!" Sena Uji couldn't help complaining,
"Eat meat every day to preserve your strength and still be full every time? Your warriors may not be able to live such a life!"
"What, it's not that our Highness is capable of training soldiers. The rules and regulations are very well stipulated. The instructors in the recruit camp are all our veterans who have been training there for almost ten years.
, Who can match this level? Which other company can match the soldiers we have trained?" When Nakahide Omaezaki mentioned the Red Leaf Army, he immediately began to boast unceremoniously. Sena Ujiyoshi and Ikeda Tsuneki, what do you say?
My words made Ikeda Hengxing's eyes go straight.
"Hongye, let me discuss something with you." Ikeda Hengxing said as he pulled Yu Qiuping aside and whispered in his ear, "See if you can do this, I will give you all my soldiers."
I'll pay for the training! Our soldiers are so different, one is in the sky and the other is on the ground."
"Ah...it's not as simple as they say." Yu Qiuping shook his head and explained honestly, "The fact that I can train such soldiers is inseparable from the many policies implemented in my territory... I will explain it in a moment.
I don’t understand, I’ll tell you another day when I’m free.”