Shimonoseki, also known as Akama Pass and Maseki Pass, is located on the north side of the Kanmon Strait, facing the Moji Port across the sea from Bunzen, where it guards the throat of the Sea of Japan and the Seto Inland Sea, and has been a battleground for soldiers since ancient times. In modern times, the "Shimonoseki War" between the Choshu Domain and the allied forces of the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France became a turning point in the Downfall Movement, which directly contributed to the birth of the Sacho Alliance. It is also important to mention that the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which humiliated the country, was also signed here, and even now, the "Nissin Showa Memorial Hall" in the Chunfan Tower (the venue where the treaty was signed) is still open to foreign tourists, and whenever Chinese tourists visit here, they are all indignant at the incompetence of the late Qing and feel sorry for the impact of the treaty.

However, at this time, this port did not have so much significance, but was valued by the Mori family as a strategic location, and during the Battle of Keichō, it became the assembly place of the Mori family's expeditionary force, and the 33,000 men led by Mori Yoshinari and Hidemoto set off from here and went directly to Nagoya through the Kanmon Strait to meet the various daimyos.

As a result of the armistice, most of the Mori clan's armies were disbanded, and the area was once again peaceful, with merchant ships from Kyushu, Honshu, and Shikoku plying the narrow Kanmon Strait, and a variety of workshops and shops filling the castle town.

Traveling east along the streets of Choshu for an hour to arrive at the Nagato National Palace, that is, the residence of Hidemoto, Changfu Castle, thanks to the help of Hideho, Hidemoto's Zhixing from the original Toyoura, Atsusa two counties of 60,000 stone (Shimonoseki was appointed by the clan) to the four counties of Toyoura, Atsusa, Otsu, and Miyu (Shimonoseki was appointed by Hidemoto), although only two counties were increased, the stone height increased by two times, which is not unrelated to the fertile land in the Naka-Nagato area.

After receiving the notification from Shimonoseki, Xiuyuan immediately took his family's important ministers out of the city to greet him, and at this moment, both Xiuyuan and his retainers were waiting for Xiubao's arrival with gratitude.

Needless to say, the welcome scene is more than the scene when Hideyoshi Nishi entered the Nagoya, and after Hidemoto introduced the important ministers to him, Hideho came down to the large wide room of the palace in front of the cluster, and Hidemoto specially set up a banquet to entertain him.

Although Xiuyuan is a year younger than himself, he looks like a military general who is nearly thirty years old, with dark skin and a strong body, and although he speaks in a thick dialect, he can still feel the unique majesty and courage of the person who leads the troops from his tone, which may be the result of his struggle in North Korea.

"I heard that His Highness is going to Hakata to greet the envoy?" Xiuyuan asked respectfully.

"Exactly, it is rare for Ming Guo to put down his shelf and send an envoy to negotiate peace, and we should also treat each other with courtesy, and there can be no rudeness." Xiubao sandwiched a piece of puffer fish meat and chewed it with relish, and praised it from time to time.

"This fish is a specialty of Changzhou, if Your Highness likes it, you can take it a little bit on the road to enjoy." Xiuyuan bowed slightly to the retainer behind him, and the man left the room in understanding.

"That's not necessary," Xiubao politely said, "I came here this time to ask His Highness the Attendant." ”

"Excuse me?" Xiuyuan leaned forward slightly so that he could hear Xiubao's question, "Your Highness just asks, and you should know everything about your humble duties." ”

"That's good," Hideho nodded, and continued, "As far as Your Highness is concerned, why did the Battle of Korea end up like this? ”

When Xiuyuan heard this, he thought that Xiubao was blaming him, and immediately bowed down and apologized: "Your Highness forgives the sin, the humble post was indeed done with all his might, but the fresh soldiers were too tenacious and had to retreat." ”

"I don't mean to blame you, you have already made a great contribution to the capture of Jinju in the first place, how could I be indiscriminate," Hidebo explained, "I just want to know why our army ended up in such a field in your eyes." ”

After all, Xiubao is his brother-in-law, and he has won such a big Zhixing for himself, there will definitely be no conspiracy. Thinking of this, Xiuyuan had the courage to say: "Although I have only been fighting in the DPRK for half a year, I have also learned something, so I will inform Your Highness here." ”

"Your Highness, please speak, Xiu Bao listens." Hideho asked rather humbly.

"That is, two points," Xiuyuan replied, "one is the navy, and the other is firearms." ”

"Oh? Your Highness, please elaborate. Hidebo's appetite was aroused, and he was right, and it was the Battle of Ulsan two years later that turned the tide of the war.

Seeing that Xiubao was interested, Xiuyuan also said slowly and relaxedly: "As far as I know, the reason why Konishi Settsu Mamoru stuck to Pyongyang and could not advance north was largely due to the fact that the logistics line was cut off, and there is an old saying: 'The soldiers and horses have not moved, the grain and grass go first', the naval battle of Busan, our naval army was basically destroyed, and we lost the right to control the sea, and the logistics can keep up, so it seems that the defeat of the army is only a matter of time." ”

"What about firearms?" Hideho asked, "Isn't our army's iron cannon powerful enough?" ”

"Not to mention the lack of power, not to mention the tiger squat cannon and general cannon of the Ming army, even the "sky", "earth" and "Xuan" cannons of the fresh soldiers are stronger than the big barrels of our army. Xiuyuan shook his head helplessly.

"Big tube?" Xiubao didn't understand, "Isn't it Fur Machine?" ”

"Furrow?" Xiuyuan looked at Xiubao as if he was observing an alien, and asked in surprise: "Has Your Highness forgotten the "Companion Heaven Lian Chase Release Order", since then the firearms of the Franc machine have not entered our country, and the few existing Franc machines have not been brought to North Korea because they are too old, and the main heavy firearms of our army are still large cylinders. ”

"I don't know much about this," Xiubao said, "Do you mean 'national collapse'?" ”

"How is that possible!" Xiuyuan exclaimed, "It would be nice if there was a 'national collapse', but our military ships are small, and it is impossible to install heavy stone fire arrows, and now we are only using large iron cannons." ”

"Big iron cannon," Xiubao muttered, the big iron cannon is an enlarged version of the iron cannon, although the weight is light, the rate of fire is fast, but the power is small, compared to the Ming Dynasty and North Korea's cannons, it is simply a small thing; In fact, even the "national collapse" that the Otomo family is proud of is just a kind of stone fire arrow, not artillery in the real sense at all, so it will cause a crushing defeat in the face of the Ming army's general artillery and Furlong machine, if it were not for the advantage of small firearms, the Japanese army would have been driven out of Korea long ago.

"You're right," Xiubao nodded, and sighed with mixed feelings: "This is the hard wounds of our army, if these can't be solved, I'm afraid it is doomed to failure." ”

"Your Highness doesn't have to be sad, this is also something that can't be helped." Xiuyuan saw Xiubao's gloomy face, and comforted him tentatively, "This is heaven and me, now that there is no Franco and Ming maritime merchants, it is impossible to obtain advanced firearms, so Your Highness should not care too much." ”

"Ming maritime merchants?" Xiubao couldn't help frowning.

"Yes, the maritime merchants of the Ming Kingdom also have a lot of Furlong machines and Hongyi cannons in their hands." Xiuyuan explained.

"That's right," Shuho stroked his beard and slowly closed his eyes.

(That's all for today, I'm going to learn to drive tomorrow morning, the new traffic rules, it's a tragedy, hurry up and learn, hurry up and learn...) Keep voting)