The sea breeze blows through the light gray sky, and the smell of gunpowder smoke in the air is also blown away, and from a distance, the black smoke rising from the small island like a swimming dragon on the sea level is dissipating.

Ma Qianhu was walking a little the beach at the moment wearing a pair of rubber boots, and the more than ten people behind him were all elites of the Fubo Army - several of his guard squad were simply students he brought out of the military academy. Although he walked in the mud, just looking at his steps, he didn't feel the hindrance caused by the wet mud, and his expression was very brisk.

When he finally came from the beach to a bay house not far from the sea, he was presented with a cleaned 'battlefield' in front of him. Wooden longhouses were scattered in and out of the walled wooden walls, and the real samurai were kept alone, while the more local Shuri soldiers and the 'ashigaru' from Kagoshima were kept alone, but neither captives had yet to recover from the shock of the sudden attack.

Just two hours ago, 600 people of the Ryukyu Raiders Fleet, under the cover of the guns of the three Tengang-class cruisers of Amarashi, Akaki, and Bimao, launched a landing operation on Tokunoshima from Kanamasaki, Akitoku, and Kamezu at the same time. Although the enemy died less than 30 in the sporadic resistance, and the only wounded on the side of the Fubo army was only a recruit who fell into the water during the beach, it did not prevent the soldiers who participated in the battle from showing some generosity for this battle.

Seeing the arrival of the chief, several Fubo soldiers who had been discussing enthusiastically since the beginning of the day consciously moved out of the way, and a local person happened to meet them under the leadership of these soldiers.

"You're the Shingoro Palace?" Ma Qianhu was very kind to this intelligence informant in the Ryukyus.

"It's just a streamer, how dare you call it this......" The person who came was dressed in a tattered banana cloth, without a crown in his fists, with a short hair, he didn't look very old, but he spoke with vicissitudes, and he could hear it from not fluent Chinese, this is a Japanese man, if you look more carefully, you may be able to see his identity as a monk.

Ma Qianhu interrupted with a wave of his hand, "Since you have surrendered to my Great Song Dynasty, you are no longer a rogue person, as long as you do a good job for the Senate, your future will be indispensable in the future." ”

"The rest of the sentence, how dare you ask for any benefits, as long as the chief can keep his promise and help me find my younger brother, the little monk will be satisfied."

"Little master, rest assured, the Senate will not only help you find Brother Ling, but also help you return to your homeland and live a comfortable life."

"Really?" Shingoro's originally cloudy eyes shone with some light.

"You did a good job this time, the army can capture Tokunoshima without losing one person, it is inseparable from the formation map you sent in advance, this credit is recorded by the Senate, and you will follow me to screen the prisoners later." After saying this, Ma Qianhu went to the depths of the walled city by himself, surrounded by the guard squad, and the young monk gladly agreed.

This monk's real name is Hirata Sagoro, and his father is Hirata Zengmune, the deputy general of the Satsuma Domain's invasion of the Ryukyus, and Shingoro is the third son of Zengmune. At that time, because of his father's involvement, all the Hirata family was punished. He was lucky at home and saved his life and was sentenced to exile in the Ryukyus, while his fourth brother was sent to Iwo Jima. The intelligence agencies had been in contact with these exiles for a long time, and because Shingoro had the most resentment, he was also the most exerted on this time, so it was naturally impossible to say anything about it.

The original plan was to close the door and fight the dogs, and a cruiser cruised in the waters near the Diaoyu Islands and the Sakishima Islands to monitor the movements in the southwest of the Ryukyus, and by the way, to protect the supply fleet departing from Keelung. The other two blocked ships from the Kagoshima direction in the northern part of the Amami Islands. Now that the Fuba Army has taken the most important part of the Tokunoshima Islands between the Amami Islands and the Sanshan Islands, along with the walled castle of Wanya, the next military action will naturally be much easier.

Ma Qianhu happily cocked his pipe, lit the cigar he had just learned, and said proudly to the guards who followed him: "Send a report to the front finger, the key to the Ryukyus is in the hands of our marines, and the raiding operation is going according to plan." ”

Half a day later, Liu Dawu stood on the wall of Honmaru Castle, a fortress in the middle of the main island of the Ryukyus, now Nai Nin Castle, and Shuri Castle, more than 100 miles away, was already in sight, and he did not expect that this fortress, known as the gateway to Shuri, would fall into the hands of the Fuba army so easily, just as he was easily captured by the Shimazu army back then, and it was obviously not a good match for the dangerous terrain of the mountain castle.

Although after the battle eleven years ago, all the stone walls outside the fortress were filled with holes for shooting, and even a 'big cylinder' was added because of the presence of Japanese troops, but under the superior firepower of the Fubo army, it still could not hold out for more than two hours. Now that the owner has changed here, the situation is very different, but most of the Ryukyu captives of the year have been replaced by Satsuma feudal clansmen.

Because of the rapid progress, the landing force simply used Imakijin Castle as a base camp for the march, and all kinds of supplies and munitions were disembarked here, and the Senate also tentatively planned to follow the route of the Shimazu army's march back then, from Chatan and Urasoe all the way south, and to maintain a blockade of Naha by sea.

Everything is going according to plan, and it seems that you can rest easy as you wait for news from the north, and the strategy for the entire Ryukyu Islands is off to a good start.

…………

At this moment, a merchant ship from Osumi Province was heading for Amami Oshima, just like many Japanese merchant ships heading south to the Ryukyus during the northwest monsoon.

The purpose of the merchant ships was Yamahama in the middle of the island, where they would continue to the main island of Miyama in the south after a day of replenishment, and complete the transaction at the port of Naha. By exchanging swords from Satsuma for silk from the Ming Dynasty and sugar from the Ryukyus, you can double the profit by making a single trip. Shurijo Castle was already in the bag of the Satsuma Domain, and such trade had become commonplace here for a decade.

Of course, as the person in charge of this merchant ship, the nineteen-year-old Liver Fu Kanetake himself can also get a lot of benefits outside of the domain, and being able to get such a fat difference in the Shimazu territory is naturally inseparable from his identity.

Liver Fu Kanetake is now the governor of the Liver Fu family, and his father once went to Ryukyu with the Satsuma Domain, but died of illness in the battle, when the son was only eight years old. If it weren't for the support of the Shimazu family, I'm afraid that this one would have been taken away as the governor of the family by his two uncles, Kaneqiu and Kaneyao. Iejiu supported this son naturally because he was young and easy to control, but in this way, there was an extra favor, and even the gift of the Yuan Costume of Kanemu was presided over by Iejiu himself, and it was the liver of Osumi to pay the public in Kagoshima Although it was a foreign surname, it was particularly valued by the lord Jun, and this time the errand to the Ryukyu trade was also the turn of Kanemu.

Kanetake added a new son-in-law last year, and he is making a big wish to rebuild the Wakamiya Shrine in the territory, because he also values the benefits of this trade trip, and in addition, he wants to take the opportunity to see the outside world, and if it were not for the fact that there is a foreign trade channel like Ryukyu, there will be no chance to come out and see the world.

He was looking wistfully at the ocean to the south when he saw two black clouds of smoke rising above the sea level.

"What's that?" Liver Fu Kanewu opened his mouth wide and stretched out his hand to point in the direction where the black smoke appeared.

"Look at the direction of the needle road, it should be Fukaetsu." The old retainers' eyes were dizzy, and they couldn't see it really either.

'Enemy attack! ’

However, the bow of the ship, which stood in front of the castle tower, soon realized that something was wrong and shouted loudly, but until all the archers and gunners were in position behind Yakura and Sasama, the Daiyataku ship could not complete the turn, and the speed of the ship was too slow compared to the shadow of the ship on the opposite side.

'We are the Great Song Fubo Army, your ship has entered the waters of the Great Song Dynasty Taiwan Road, and immediately stop the ship and wait for inspection. ’

The shouts in Chinese, Ryukyuan, and Japanese are heard through the sea breeze and are very clear.

"Is it a pirate?" Six years ago, he had the privilege of serving with Shinnakushin, a retainer of the Shimazu family, in the Battle of Osaka Winter, and in his limited life, whether he had heard or experienced it, whether it was Liverpay or Shimazu, he had always gone from victory to victory, and when he heard the sound of the enemy's attack, his first action was not to hide between the castle tower or the throne set up for a samurai like him, but to draw the saber at his waist.

But the bow of the ship was obviously more experienced than him, and his eyes were already red when he saw the speed of the other party's approach and the waves parting from the two huge black ships, and it was obvious that he had seen some kind of monster after a long time in water battles.

With another warning, a loud bang flashed at the same time as the fire in front of the warship, and then several water columns rose on the water not far from the Ataka ship, and several inexperienced iron cannons Ashigaru directly opened fire in fright.

The bow of the ship was a little stunned, and the distance of the cannon fired from the opposite side had exceeded ten towns (note: Sengoku Scale, 1 town = 109.09 meters), and it was difficult for even the best Franc guns of this era to have such high accuracy at sea.

But no sooner had his idea come to him than another round of shelling followed. This time, a large hole was torn open along with the five-sided Yakura slab in front of it, along with the lower layer of the oar, and the sailors and iron gunners who were hiding in it suffered heavy casualties, and several ashigaru fell directly into the sea from the broken upper shed at the moment of destruction.

The shouts rang out again, and this time the Japanese fully understood the meaning of the words, and in less than half a moment, the white cloth representing the renunciation of resistance was hung high on the mast posts.

Hinata Maru finally docked at his destination today, Yamatohama Harbor, and in half a day, three large and small ships had been detained here, plus the local defenders' original Kozao and Seki ships, the total number of ships had reached nine. As with Tokunoshima, all the captives were disarmed and imprisoned, including the young master of the Liver Fu family.

But half a day later, the captives, including Kanetake Liver, were re-emitted to the Hyuga Maru, escorted by the Fuba soldiers, and dragged south by the warship. Just before sunset, the fleet arrived at Kouri Island, off the coast of present-day Nai Nhonjo Castle, where a makeshift prisoner of war camp had been built. The captives who had been screened, except for those who were not yet reassuring, were all transferred to the city of Nakihito, and Liver Fu Kanemu was also among them.

During this period, the Fubo army provided two meals for the prisoners of war, in addition to brown rice, there were also small dried fish and oranges, which were much better than the usual food in the Osumi Collar, which made Liver Fu Kanewu doubt the identity of his prisoners for a while. But soon the sergeant in charge of the escort gathered them together, and orders were given to them to carry their baggage by land overnight to the south.

He was very curious about these strange short-haired soldiers, and from the simple exchanges he had had learned after being captured, that these Chinese-speaking Tang people were Australians who claimed to be from the Great Song Dynasty. The name is vaguely heard, and it seems to be a group of people who are entrenched overseas as merchants and thieves, and it is quite similar to the 'navy' along the coast of Kyushu and Shikoku, but it is different. It was only after a short battle that he had a deeper impression of this group of people who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, the strength of the other party was much stronger than he thought, even when he faced the tens of thousands of ronin samurai of the Toyotomi family in Osaka, he had never felt such pressure, and now he was driven to the south.

Although he returned to the Ryukyus for the first time, some of the captives seemed to be familiar with the geography of Miyama Island.

"To the south is the city of Chatani, and it is the only way to go to the royal capital."

"Do the Australians want us to go into battle? If that's the case, you should give a bamboo gun. ”

Liver Fu Jian Wu felt a little puzzled, he was even taken away from the saber now, and he was even worried about his life half a day ago, but now he actually complained about the lack of armament, and it seems that he has really become a member of the Australians, thinking about it carefully, everything has changed since those two meals, and the Australians seem to treat the captives too well.

The captives were carrying their baggage with torches, and at the urging of the Australian 'samurai', they were marching along the stone-paved 'official road', when they saw a trotting group of Fubo soldiers trotting by, and the leading military colonel shouted: "Brothers, cheer up, you must rush to Chatan Fortress before sunrise tomorrow." ”

He was still thinking about the words of the military academy, but he listened to the team that followed him also responded loudly, and this time he heard it more truly.

'Enter Shuri Castle and capture King Shangfeng alive!' ’

[References]

1、《Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680》Anthony Reid

2, "Sea Language" Huang Zhen

3. "Nanyang Yearbook"

4, "Xi'an Diary" Min's Xi'an pro-Fang entered the Taoist Fanyuan

5. Shen Fu of "Canonization of the Ryukyu Kingdom".

6, "The Legend of the Ryukyu Army"

7, "Making the Ryukyu Record" Chen Kan

8. "Chronicles of the Characters of the Domain", Kagoshima Prefecture Historical Materials Publishing Committee

9, "Kakukan Uei Diary" Kakukan Uei