Chapter 3373
Chapter 3373
Compared with Asu Bay, where Tsushima Kinseki Castle is located, Hakata Bay, the gateway to the Fukuoka Domain, is dozens of times larger. The entire harbor is surrounded by Cape Nishiura and the Shiga Peninsula. It is like building two breakwaters. There are Genkai Island and Noko Island on the channel entering and exiting the harbor, blocking most of the wind and waves from the sea. It is simply a natural environment with excellent conditions. Good harbor.
If you enter the Sea of Japan from the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea via the Tsushima Strait and go to the Honshu region of Japan, then Hakata Bay is the only place to go to and from this route.
It's just that Fukuoka Domain has such a good port, but so far it has not been able to become a trade center in the Kyushu region.
This was not because the Kuroda family was not good at management or had no interest in sea trade, but because they were under the control of the shogunate and had no choice but to give up this lucrative business.
Restricted by the shogunate's seclusion order, only the Hirado Domain, Tsushima Domain and Nagasaki Port under the direct jurisdiction of the shogunate in the Kyushu region had foreign trade privileges.
These ports share the foreign trade share of the entire Japanese archipelago, so that areas with natural harbors such as Fukuoka Domain and Satsuma Domain cannot engage in cross-border maritime trade and can only watch from the sidelines.
Although the Hirado clan was later destroyed by Kaihan, and there was one less person in this line to grab food, the trade share vacated by the Hirado clan was still not inherited by the Fukuoka clan, and was soon taken over by the Tsushima clan and Nagasaki clan. Divided.
It wasn't until Kaihan and the shogunate signed the Treaty of Maritime and Japanese Amity ten years ago, forcing the shogunate to open up trade rights to many ports that the Fukuoka Domain caught a smooth sail and obtained the coveted cross-border trade qualifications.
However, Fukuoka Domain still started too late. Although Hakata Bay has good natural conditions, other aspects related to trade have not yet developed, making it difficult to compete with Tsushima Domain and Nagasaki Port in a short period of time.
In addition, the Kuroda family's position is in favor of the shogunate, and they have always kept a distance from Kaihan and have not actively sought cooperation with Kaihan. Therefore, the share they can get from cross-border trade in East Asia is extremely limited.
So far, Hakata Bay's share of the Kyushu region's cross-border trade is still not even among the top three. In addition to the Tsushima Domain and Nagasaki Port, the Satsuma Domain in southern Kyushu also relied on its good relationship with Haihan to catch up and established stable trade routes with Zhoushan, Ryukyu, Taiwan and other places.
But the Kuroda family was not ignorant of the outside world. In fact, they had business offices representing the Fukuoka Domain in Busan, Nagasaki, and even Sasebo Bay.
Especially after the new daimyo Kuroda Mitsuki came to power, he quickly realized that it would be difficult to continue to improve the strength of the Fukuoka clan based solely on local taxes on agriculture, animal husbandry, and fishery, and would even lag behind those with larger foreign trade in the competition in the Kyushu region. Fan.
Forces such as Tsushima and Satsuma have been increasing their military expenditures through cross-border trade in recent years, buying many foreign guns and cannons from Kaihan, and quietly expanding their military strength.
After learning this information, Kuroda Mitsuyuki decided to increase the scale of foreign trade and make it one of the main sources of financial revenue for the Fukuoka Domain in the future.
However, if the Fukuoka Domain wanted to achieve such a goal, it would inevitably not be able to bypass Kaihan. But when dealing with Haihan, one has to consider the feelings of the shogunate. Being caught in such a gap, Kuroda Mitsuyuki did not come up with a safe way to deal with it.
But at this juncture, Haihan took the initiative to contact the Fukuoka Domain and informed Shi Diwen that he was planning to add Fukuoka to his itinerary.
Since the Fukuoka Domain did not establish a diplomatic mission in Hangzhou, the news was still conveyed through the Sasebo base. Therefore, Kuroda Mitsuyuki received the news several days earlier than the diplomats from other domains who rushed back from Hangzhou. For Mitsuyuki Kuroda, who was determined to expand foreign trade, this news was simply a sleepy pillow.
Before that, if he wanted to meet senior officials of the Haihan Executive Committee, he could only go across the ocean to Hangzhou to seek an audience, and he might not be qualified to meet him. Now the other party actually wants to come to visit, which is a good thing that you can't even ask for.
Even if Kuroda Mitsuyuki could imagine that the reason for this matter was not just a "drop-in visit", he still could not refuse the temptation of face-to-face communication with senior officials of Haihan, and agreed that Haihan would arrange corresponding receptions and talks.
However, due to the tense relationship between the shogunate and Kaihan, Kuroda Mitsuyuki did not want Shi Diwen's visit to have too big an impact, so he planned to handle the matter in a relatively low-key manner and avoid leaving the impression of the Fukuoka Domain being condescending to Kaihan. .
He did not arrange a public welcome ceremony like Zong Yizhen did, nor did he plan to go to the port to welcome Shi Diwen in person. He just sent his trusted retainers and a team of warriors to pick up the ship on his behalf.
On the appointed day, Kuroda Mitsuyuki came to his castle tower. Three or four miles north from here is the coastal pier of Hakata Bay. The access channel to Hakata Bay further away is only about twenty miles away.
The weather was fine that day. As long as we climbed to the top of the city tower, we could see the Haihan fleet visiting from the sea early. There was no need to go to the dock to wait in person. After the men and horses he sent picked up the people and went back, it would not be too late for him to go to the city gate to greet them. This way you won't lose etiquette and won't appear to be flattering.
Kuroda Mitsuyuki's abacus was good, but not long after he climbed onto the tower, he discovered an incredible scene.
A large fleet slowly appeared on the surface of Hakata Bay. The giant ship at the beginning was the largest ship Mitsuyuki Kuroda had ever seen in his life. It was so big that he even didn't believe his own eyes. He even asked the attendant to get his precious telescope to confirm that he had not seen it just now. Dazzling.
It wasn't until he saw the red and blue flag flying on the mast of the giant ship through the telescope that Kuroda Mitsuyuki realized that he had seen it right. It was Haihan's fleet that came.
But the other party informed that they were clearly visiting the Fukuoka Domain. Looking at the posture of the fleet at this time, it seemed that they were coming to attack themselves. Is it necessary to dispatch a fleet of this size for a visit?
Kuroda Mitsuyuki quickly ordered his retainers to gather the samurai under his command, distribute all the weapons in the warehouse, and prepare for battle.
He didn't dare to bet on Haihan's integrity, but he still had to be wary of the other party attacking him directly. Even if there is a huge disparity in strength between the two sides, as the ruler of the Fukuoka Domain, he must not surrender without a fight.
At the same time, on the deck of the Zhoushan, Shi Diwen was also holding a telescope and looking at Fukuoka City in the distance, but the telescope in his hand was much more advanced than that used by Kuroda Mitsuyuki.
Amakusa Shiro stood next to Shi Diwen and asked softly: "Sir, if we break into Hakata Bay in such a big way, we won't scare each other, right?"
Shi Diwen put down the telescope and smiled and said: "If it can scare them, then there is nothing wrong with scaring them before meeting."