Chapter 2084
Chapter 2084
Chapter 2084
This convoy came straight to the gate of Tagawa's house, with several horse-riding warriors serving as guards at the front and rear. This formation was by no means ordinary.Amakusa Shiro guessed that it was very likely that some important figure of the Tagawa family had returned from a trip, so he gave up the idea of leaving, and stopped to see what happened.
After the convoy stopped, the person who got out of the largest and most luxurious carriage in the center was a boy who looked only twelve or thirteen years old and was dressed in black, but his gestures were quite powerful, and his hands fell down when he walked. With his back behind his back, his head raised slightly, and the several attendants behind him all bowed their bodies to follow, the scene looked a little indescribably weird.
Amakusa Shiro has been to many countries in the years since he left Japan, and has seen all kinds of people, but in his memory, he has never seen such a majestic child.
After watching the team enter Tagawa's house, Amakusa Shiro inquired about the child's identity from nearby idlers.
"Master Tagawa, you don't even know? Did you just come from another place?" The person he asked immediately revealed the details of Amakusa Shiro.
Amakusa Shiro said with a smile: "Yeah, I just arrived in Hirado for two days... Is this Master Tagawa very powerful?"
The man glanced at Amakusa Shiro with contempt, but still patiently explained to him: "Of course it is very big! The most powerful retainer under Mr. Matsuura is the Tagawa clan, and Master Tagawa will succeed the Tagawa clan when he becomes an adult." The next patriarch of the family will be the most important person in Hirado from now on, understand?"
"Oh...so that's the case, then what is the name of Master Tagawa?" Amakusa Shiro continued to ask.
"Tagawa Shichizaemon."
Amakusa Shiro felt that he had seen this name before, but he couldn't remember it for a while.In fact, he still wanted to know what was so special about this child, which made Tianchuan listed him as the next head of the family early on, but it was probably difficult for the idlers on the side of the road to provide a correct answer.
But there is one thing that Amakusa Shiro can be sure of now, that is, the things that the Tagawa family deploys and participates in overseas should not be the works of this young master Tagawa.Although the kid showed the air of an adult, those methods were extremely sophisticated, but it was absolutely impossible for him to conceive of them at his age.
Seeing how the local people are accustomed to this, it can be seen that the Tagawa family does have considerable influence in Hirado, but this rising family must have quite a few core members, pushing a half-old child to After all, it is a bit strange to come to the stage to be the head of the family. Could it be that this Tagawa Shichizaemon has a strong enough background to convince the public?
Amakusa Shiro couldn't find the answer at the moment, and in order to avoid arousing suspicion from others, he couldn't stay here to monitor the entry and exit of Tagawa's house.So he strolled back to the port, found a place to sit down and eat, and listened to the people around him from all over the world to talk about any interesting topics.He has been away from Japan for too long, and he already has some strange feelings about the current situation in this country.
Amakusa Shiro left his hometown in 1624, the first year of Kanei, when the Tokugawa shogunate issued an order banning Spanish ships from entering Japan.Fast forward to more than ten years, and he was actually a little curious about the changes that he didn't know about in Japan during this period.
But in the past two years, nothing good has happened in Japan. In 1636, the Tokugawa shogunate issued an order to lock up the country, prohibiting Japanese from sailing abroad, and also prohibiting overseas Japanese from returning to the country.This means that people of Japanese descent like Amakusa Shiro are actually banned from entering Japan at the moment.
However, due to well-known reasons, the implementation of the shogunate's lock-down order in Hirado was very limited, and there were no strict checks and restrictions on Japanese entering and leaving Hong Kong.Unidentified personnel like Amakusa Shiro can easily enter Hirado Port, and there is no one to check his origin and whereabouts.
Of course, this also has something to do with Amakusa Shiro's businessman's attire at this time. In addition to the ruler Matsuura and his samurai retainers in Hirado, the highest status in Hirado is a large number of businessmen.The local laws and regulations of Hirado have a lot of consideration for businessmen. He pretended to be a businessman and mixed in here, and he was originally of Japanese descent. Under normal circumstances, no one would come to trouble him.
Amakusa Shiro remembered that he had heard that there was another shipyard nearby, so he inquired about the location. After eating, he went straight to that place to see if he could find any new clues.
Amakusa Shiro quickly found this shipyard in Boxiang Bay, which is similar to the shipyard in Tiansuke Bay. There are also two docks, extending from the coast to the sea with a gentle slope.There are also two ships under construction in the dock, and one of them looks like it is almost finished. It is the kind of Chinese warship he has seen in Tiansuke Bay before.It seems that this kind of sailboat is indeed being built in batches, which makes Amakusa Shiro seem to see that an armed fleet is slowly taking shape.
The purpose of spending a lot of resources to build these warships is of course impossible to defend the port. The tonnage and configuration of these warships are fully capable of meeting the requirements of cross-sea warfare. It is not an exaggeration to say that their design concept is for sea warfare.
Although this kind of warship is not advanced at all in the eyes of Amakusa Shiro, if the number reaches a certain scale, it may still pose a certain threat to Hai Han.And those countries whose maritime armed forces are far inferior to Haihan, such as North Korea and Ryukyu, may find it difficult to fight back when encountering such an armed fleet.
Amakusa Shiro doesn't know the purpose of building these warships, but if it is true that the Tagawa family organized the construction of these warships as he has learned so far, then Haihan must be vigilant enough for their ambitions. okay.
Near this shipyard, Amakusa Shiro was finally lucky enough to see the artillery being hoisted on the nearly completed ship.Although there was a distance, it was not difficult for Amakusa Shiro to judge from its approximate size that the artillery being hoisted onto the ship was a [-]-pound smoothbore gun—a lot of this stuff was seized when Manila was attacked last year, and it was later returned to the ship. Some of them were sold to countries such as North Korea and Kofi Annan.
Although the caliber of this naval gun is small, it still has a certain lethality in close-range sea battles.Moreover, this kind of gun can also be loaded with ammunition such as grape shells. When fired when it is close to the enemy ship, it can have the effect of cleaning the enemy's deck. At that time, the Haihan Navy also suffered from such losses.
This kind of warship has four gun positions on both sides of the ship, and a separate gun position at the bow. Calculated, up to nine cannons can be deployed on the deck. The ship may not have such a strong firepower.Compared with the warship of Shibazhi back then, the firepower has been at least doubled. It seems that the builder has also reinforced the hull structure so that more artillery can be deployed on the deck.
Amakusa Shiro suddenly thought that this way of deploying naval guns is of course not comparable to the firepower output of the entire artillery deck of a western warship, but it can effectively take advantage of the flexibility and seaworthiness of Chinese sailing ships.And having said that, having enough artillery and gunners to achieve the combat effectiveness that this kind of warship should have is likely to be a bigger problem for the Tagawa family than shipbuilding itself. If the number of shipboard artillery increases, the difficulty will continue. It is very likely that the weapons and operators will not be able to keep up with the combat needs.
Such a warship needs nine cannons to be fully loaded, so can the Spaniards provide the Japanese with so many cannons?Amakusa Shiro was very skeptical about this. If they had so many artillery pieces, the battle of Manila last year would probably have been more difficult.
If these cannons were not entirely provided by the Spaniards... Amakusa Shiro couldn't help feeling chills at the thought of this possibility, wouldn't it mean that the Tagawa family who built these warships may have mastered the technology of casting Western-style cannons?
Compared with those guns scattered overseas, the combination of artillery and warships is obviously much stronger, and once the Spanish weapon manufacturing technology is obtained by some ambitious people, it may not only be produced locally in the future. It's nothing more than a small-scale armed conflict. Such an armed fleet can go anywhere in the sea they want to go and attack the target they want to deal with.
After realizing the seriousness of the problem, Amakusa Shiro found that he had another task, which was to find out the source of the artillery equipped on the warship.Whether it is provided by the Spaniards or cast by the Japanese themselves, in short, it is necessary to figure out where these artillery come from.
Although Amakusa Shiro had never received professional training from intelligence agencies, he quickly drew up an investigation idea based on his experience and insights.The value of these cannons is extremely high, and they must have been carefully stored somewhere before they were hoisted onto the ship. As long as you find this arsenal, you should be able to find further clues.
If it is the usual style of the special operations group, it is of course trying to get into the enemy camp to grab a tongue to extract a confession, but to use this extraordinary method here has to take great risks, Amakusa Shiro does not even have a lookout companion .Amakusa Shiro is not afraid of danger, but he is a little worried that if he does not operate well, he will startle the enemy and alert the enemy early.
But at this time, an accident happened that gave Amakusa Shiro new inspiration for his investigation.
The cart that a laborer was pushing on the pier suddenly lost its balance and overturned, and the things on the cart fell to the ground. The foreman rushed forward and yelled at the missing laborer, which attracted Amakusa Shiro's attention.
Amakusa Shiro was attracted, not because the foreman's mouth-watering content was refurbished, but because the foreman mentioned that the overturned cargo was iron ore.Amakusa Shiro looked around carefully, and found that dozens of laborers were unloading goods from a sailboat moored at the pier in the same way, and the goods in this car were all iron ore.
As far as the eye can see in Boxiang Bay, there is only a small port here, and a whole ship of iron ore is transported to this place. Either the owner of the ship has lost his head, or there is a workshop for smelting ore nearby.It is not difficult to know the reason. Amakusa Shiro spent a little money and quickly got the answer from a dock laborer.
There is a small village called Jingchuan in the valley south of the port. In the past, the place mainly relied on burning coke and charcoal. Two years ago, the government built a smelting workshop there, so they switched to producing steel. These iron ores are to be transported to the local area.And the laborer also told Amakusa Shiro the news that he was overjoyed, that is, Jingchuan's workshop not only smelted ore, but also produced some other things, such as anchors, chains, and artillery for ships.
Amakusa Shiro was also worried that he had misheard the other party's statement, so he asked him again for confirmation. As a result, the laborer patted his chest and swore that what he said was true, and there was an expert not far from Jingchuan. The shooting range for the test guns, one or two days a month, you can hear the rumble of the guns from there.It's just that the government doesn't allow civilians to approach that place, so he only heard that the artillery is powerful, but he has never seen the scene of these artillery firing.
There is no place to find when you break through the iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get it.After Shiro Amakusa confirmed the news, he was really happy and sad. He was happy that his guess was confirmed so easily and saved a lot of time and energy. What was worrying was that it seemed that the Hirado clan had already obtained the technology of casting artillery, and it is likely to realize it. In addition to mass production, an armed fleet equipped with a large number of naval guns is gradually taking shape near Hirado Island.
Whether this naval force is in the hands of the Tagawa family or under the orders of the Matsuura clan is no longer important to Amakusa Shiro. No one can bear the loneliness after having such a powerful armed force in their hands.He believes that at some point in the future, this maritime force will inevitably pose a threat to Haihan, or even cause an armed conflict.And now, he is probably the only one in the entire Haihan Kingdom who is aware of such a crisis.
Seeing the twilight fall, Amakusa Shiro had no idea of returning to Hirado Port for a good night's rest.There are still two days left for his operation in Hirado, and the situation is already very urgent. Before leaving here, he must collect as much relevant information as possible.Especially for key information such as the production of artillery, he had to implement it himself anyway.
So Amakusa Shiro ate something whole near the port, and after dark, he moved towards the direction of Jingchuan.Although he has never been to that place, it is not difficult to find the road to Jingchuan. The carts that have been transporting ore there for a long time have pressed the ground into deep ruts. As long as he follows these ruts, he will not go in the wrong direction. .
In fact, Jingchuan was much closer than he imagined. After passing through a large forest, he could faintly see the light shining from the valley in front of him.Amakusa Shiro knew that it was not the lights of the farmers' homes, but the raging fire of the smelting furnace that never stopped day and night.
(End of this chapter)
This convoy came straight to the gate of Tagawa's house, with several horse-riding warriors serving as guards at the front and rear. This formation was by no means ordinary.Amakusa Shiro guessed that it was very likely that some important figure of the Tagawa family had returned from a trip, so he gave up the idea of leaving, and stopped to see what happened.
After the convoy stopped, the person who got out of the largest and most luxurious carriage in the center was a boy who looked only twelve or thirteen years old and was dressed in black, but his gestures were quite powerful, and his hands fell down when he walked. With his back behind his back, his head raised slightly, and the several attendants behind him all bowed their bodies to follow, the scene looked a little indescribably weird.
Amakusa Shiro has been to many countries in the years since he left Japan, and has seen all kinds of people, but in his memory, he has never seen such a majestic child.
After watching the team enter Tagawa's house, Amakusa Shiro inquired about the child's identity from nearby idlers.
"Master Tagawa, you don't even know? Did you just come from another place?" The person he asked immediately revealed the details of Amakusa Shiro.
Amakusa Shiro said with a smile: "Yeah, I just arrived in Hirado for two days... Is this Master Tagawa very powerful?"
The man glanced at Amakusa Shiro with contempt, but still patiently explained to him: "Of course it is very big! The most powerful retainer under Mr. Matsuura is the Tagawa clan, and Master Tagawa will succeed the Tagawa clan when he becomes an adult." The next patriarch of the family will be the most important person in Hirado from now on, understand?"
"Oh...so that's the case, then what is the name of Master Tagawa?" Amakusa Shiro continued to ask.
"Tagawa Shichizaemon."
Amakusa Shiro felt that he had seen this name before, but he couldn't remember it for a while.In fact, he still wanted to know what was so special about this child, which made Tianchuan listed him as the next head of the family early on, but it was probably difficult for the idlers on the side of the road to provide a correct answer.
But there is one thing that Amakusa Shiro can be sure of now, that is, the things that the Tagawa family deploys and participates in overseas should not be the works of this young master Tagawa.Although the kid showed the air of an adult, those methods were extremely sophisticated, but it was absolutely impossible for him to conceive of them at his age.
Seeing how the local people are accustomed to this, it can be seen that the Tagawa family does have considerable influence in Hirado, but this rising family must have quite a few core members, pushing a half-old child to After all, it is a bit strange to come to the stage to be the head of the family. Could it be that this Tagawa Shichizaemon has a strong enough background to convince the public?
Amakusa Shiro couldn't find the answer at the moment, and in order to avoid arousing suspicion from others, he couldn't stay here to monitor the entry and exit of Tagawa's house.So he strolled back to the port, found a place to sit down and eat, and listened to the people around him from all over the world to talk about any interesting topics.He has been away from Japan for too long, and he already has some strange feelings about the current situation in this country.
Amakusa Shiro left his hometown in 1624, the first year of Kanei, when the Tokugawa shogunate issued an order banning Spanish ships from entering Japan.Fast forward to more than ten years, and he was actually a little curious about the changes that he didn't know about in Japan during this period.
But in the past two years, nothing good has happened in Japan. In 1636, the Tokugawa shogunate issued an order to lock up the country, prohibiting Japanese from sailing abroad, and also prohibiting overseas Japanese from returning to the country.This means that people of Japanese descent like Amakusa Shiro are actually banned from entering Japan at the moment.
However, due to well-known reasons, the implementation of the shogunate's lock-down order in Hirado was very limited, and there were no strict checks and restrictions on Japanese entering and leaving Hong Kong.Unidentified personnel like Amakusa Shiro can easily enter Hirado Port, and there is no one to check his origin and whereabouts.
Of course, this also has something to do with Amakusa Shiro's businessman's attire at this time. In addition to the ruler Matsuura and his samurai retainers in Hirado, the highest status in Hirado is a large number of businessmen.The local laws and regulations of Hirado have a lot of consideration for businessmen. He pretended to be a businessman and mixed in here, and he was originally of Japanese descent. Under normal circumstances, no one would come to trouble him.
Amakusa Shiro remembered that he had heard that there was another shipyard nearby, so he inquired about the location. After eating, he went straight to that place to see if he could find any new clues.
Amakusa Shiro quickly found this shipyard in Boxiang Bay, which is similar to the shipyard in Tiansuke Bay. There are also two docks, extending from the coast to the sea with a gentle slope.There are also two ships under construction in the dock, and one of them looks like it is almost finished. It is the kind of Chinese warship he has seen in Tiansuke Bay before.It seems that this kind of sailboat is indeed being built in batches, which makes Amakusa Shiro seem to see that an armed fleet is slowly taking shape.
The purpose of spending a lot of resources to build these warships is of course impossible to defend the port. The tonnage and configuration of these warships are fully capable of meeting the requirements of cross-sea warfare. It is not an exaggeration to say that their design concept is for sea warfare.
Although this kind of warship is not advanced at all in the eyes of Amakusa Shiro, if the number reaches a certain scale, it may still pose a certain threat to Hai Han.And those countries whose maritime armed forces are far inferior to Haihan, such as North Korea and Ryukyu, may find it difficult to fight back when encountering such an armed fleet.
Amakusa Shiro doesn't know the purpose of building these warships, but if it is true that the Tagawa family organized the construction of these warships as he has learned so far, then Haihan must be vigilant enough for their ambitions. okay.
Near this shipyard, Amakusa Shiro was finally lucky enough to see the artillery being hoisted on the nearly completed ship.Although there was a distance, it was not difficult for Amakusa Shiro to judge from its approximate size that the artillery being hoisted onto the ship was a [-]-pound smoothbore gun—a lot of this stuff was seized when Manila was attacked last year, and it was later returned to the ship. Some of them were sold to countries such as North Korea and Kofi Annan.
Although the caliber of this naval gun is small, it still has a certain lethality in close-range sea battles.Moreover, this kind of gun can also be loaded with ammunition such as grape shells. When fired when it is close to the enemy ship, it can have the effect of cleaning the enemy's deck. At that time, the Haihan Navy also suffered from such losses.
This kind of warship has four gun positions on both sides of the ship, and a separate gun position at the bow. Calculated, up to nine cannons can be deployed on the deck. The ship may not have such a strong firepower.Compared with the warship of Shibazhi back then, the firepower has been at least doubled. It seems that the builder has also reinforced the hull structure so that more artillery can be deployed on the deck.
Amakusa Shiro suddenly thought that this way of deploying naval guns is of course not comparable to the firepower output of the entire artillery deck of a western warship, but it can effectively take advantage of the flexibility and seaworthiness of Chinese sailing ships.And having said that, having enough artillery and gunners to achieve the combat effectiveness that this kind of warship should have is likely to be a bigger problem for the Tagawa family than shipbuilding itself. If the number of shipboard artillery increases, the difficulty will continue. It is very likely that the weapons and operators will not be able to keep up with the combat needs.
Such a warship needs nine cannons to be fully loaded, so can the Spaniards provide the Japanese with so many cannons?Amakusa Shiro was very skeptical about this. If they had so many artillery pieces, the battle of Manila last year would probably have been more difficult.
If these cannons were not entirely provided by the Spaniards... Amakusa Shiro couldn't help feeling chills at the thought of this possibility, wouldn't it mean that the Tagawa family who built these warships may have mastered the technology of casting Western-style cannons?
Compared with those guns scattered overseas, the combination of artillery and warships is obviously much stronger, and once the Spanish weapon manufacturing technology is obtained by some ambitious people, it may not only be produced locally in the future. It's nothing more than a small-scale armed conflict. Such an armed fleet can go anywhere in the sea they want to go and attack the target they want to deal with.
After realizing the seriousness of the problem, Amakusa Shiro found that he had another task, which was to find out the source of the artillery equipped on the warship.Whether it is provided by the Spaniards or cast by the Japanese themselves, in short, it is necessary to figure out where these artillery come from.
Although Amakusa Shiro had never received professional training from intelligence agencies, he quickly drew up an investigation idea based on his experience and insights.The value of these cannons is extremely high, and they must have been carefully stored somewhere before they were hoisted onto the ship. As long as you find this arsenal, you should be able to find further clues.
If it is the usual style of the special operations group, it is of course trying to get into the enemy camp to grab a tongue to extract a confession, but to use this extraordinary method here has to take great risks, Amakusa Shiro does not even have a lookout companion .Amakusa Shiro is not afraid of danger, but he is a little worried that if he does not operate well, he will startle the enemy and alert the enemy early.
But at this time, an accident happened that gave Amakusa Shiro new inspiration for his investigation.
The cart that a laborer was pushing on the pier suddenly lost its balance and overturned, and the things on the cart fell to the ground. The foreman rushed forward and yelled at the missing laborer, which attracted Amakusa Shiro's attention.
Amakusa Shiro was attracted, not because the foreman's mouth-watering content was refurbished, but because the foreman mentioned that the overturned cargo was iron ore.Amakusa Shiro looked around carefully, and found that dozens of laborers were unloading goods from a sailboat moored at the pier in the same way, and the goods in this car were all iron ore.
As far as the eye can see in Boxiang Bay, there is only a small port here, and a whole ship of iron ore is transported to this place. Either the owner of the ship has lost his head, or there is a workshop for smelting ore nearby.It is not difficult to know the reason. Amakusa Shiro spent a little money and quickly got the answer from a dock laborer.
There is a small village called Jingchuan in the valley south of the port. In the past, the place mainly relied on burning coke and charcoal. Two years ago, the government built a smelting workshop there, so they switched to producing steel. These iron ores are to be transported to the local area.And the laborer also told Amakusa Shiro the news that he was overjoyed, that is, Jingchuan's workshop not only smelted ore, but also produced some other things, such as anchors, chains, and artillery for ships.
Amakusa Shiro was also worried that he had misheard the other party's statement, so he asked him again for confirmation. As a result, the laborer patted his chest and swore that what he said was true, and there was an expert not far from Jingchuan. The shooting range for the test guns, one or two days a month, you can hear the rumble of the guns from there.It's just that the government doesn't allow civilians to approach that place, so he only heard that the artillery is powerful, but he has never seen the scene of these artillery firing.
There is no place to find when you break through the iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get it.After Shiro Amakusa confirmed the news, he was really happy and sad. He was happy that his guess was confirmed so easily and saved a lot of time and energy. What was worrying was that it seemed that the Hirado clan had already obtained the technology of casting artillery, and it is likely to realize it. In addition to mass production, an armed fleet equipped with a large number of naval guns is gradually taking shape near Hirado Island.
Whether this naval force is in the hands of the Tagawa family or under the orders of the Matsuura clan is no longer important to Amakusa Shiro. No one can bear the loneliness after having such a powerful armed force in their hands.He believes that at some point in the future, this maritime force will inevitably pose a threat to Haihan, or even cause an armed conflict.And now, he is probably the only one in the entire Haihan Kingdom who is aware of such a crisis.
Seeing the twilight fall, Amakusa Shiro had no idea of returning to Hirado Port for a good night's rest.There are still two days left for his operation in Hirado, and the situation is already very urgent. Before leaving here, he must collect as much relevant information as possible.Especially for key information such as the production of artillery, he had to implement it himself anyway.
So Amakusa Shiro ate something whole near the port, and after dark, he moved towards the direction of Jingchuan.Although he has never been to that place, it is not difficult to find the road to Jingchuan. The carts that have been transporting ore there for a long time have pressed the ground into deep ruts. As long as he follows these ruts, he will not go in the wrong direction. .
In fact, Jingchuan was much closer than he imagined. After passing through a large forest, he could faintly see the light shining from the valley in front of him.Amakusa Shiro knew that it was not the lights of the farmers' homes, but the raging fire of the smelting furnace that never stopped day and night.
(End of this chapter)