The Seto Inland Sea is the strait between Honshu and Shikoku. Setomi means narrow, and the narrowest part of this strait is only 5 kilometers, and the widest part is only 55 kilometers, and there are countless small islands in between.

After the Tokyo North Route Fleet occupied the Kanmon Strait between Kyushu Island and Honshu Island, the Tokyo South Route Fleet occupied the Bungo Waterway between Kyushu Island and Shikoku Island, and the Kii Waterway and Osaka Bay between Shikoku Island and Honshu Island, the naval forces of the Western Princes loyal to the shogunate could only hide in the Seto Inland Sea, which was more than 400 kilometers long from east to west.

The Seto Inland Sea region is a very safe inland waterway due to its warm climate and low rainfall, but along the coast on both sides of the Seto Inland Sea and the small islands in the inland sea, it is the largest salt drying site in Japan due to the climate.

Shangseki, Tsuwa (Tsuwajijima), Kamagari (Shimo-Kamagari), Chungkaido, Taopo (鞆), Hibi, Ushikawa, and Murozu are some of the more important ports in this section of the strait. However, the most important forces in the Seto Inland Sea were the Aki Navy centered on Hiroshima in the west and the Awaji Navy centered on Awaji Island in the east.

During the Warring States period, the most outstanding period of the Japanese navy was when Oda Nobunaga controlled the world. At that time, the Japanese navy developed three ship types that matched the size of the small hayafune, the sekibune, and the ironclad Ataka ship. With the death of Oda Nobunaga, the Japanese navy began to go downhill.

After the Battle of Wanli in Korea, the strength of the Japanese navy was greatly reduced, and Tokugawa Ieyasu preferred to divide the connection between Kyushu Island and Honshu and Shikoku, so he has been strictly controlling the number of large ships manufactured by each domain. When the combined fleet of the Tokyo Kyodo imprisoned the last few naval armies of the western princes in the Seto Inland Sea, these ships that submitted to the hands of the shogunate princes, not to mention the Ataka ships, were very few even medium-sized ships, and only a few small ships maintained the safety of the sea.

However, with the countless islands in the strait, the large ships of the coalition army did not dare to enter easily, so the princes of the shogunate could barely control most of the strait.

However, when the news of the fall of the entire territory of Kyushu Island came, the Western princes of the shogunate finally couldn't sit still, and as the representative of the shogunate in the western country, Abe Masaji had to accept the request of the Western princes, and ordered the Osaka ship to serve Kohama Mitsutaka, and the commander of the shogunate Saikoku naval army with the same name as Tokugawa Tadanaga's retainer, to find a way to repel the coalition fleet around Osaka Bay, so that they could connect with the road between Kyoto.

Kohama Mitsutaka was forced to gather the naval forces of the Seto Inland Sea led by the Aki Naval Army, and contacted the Tokushima Domain, asking the other side to send the Awaji Naval Army, preparing to gather the main force of the Seto Inland Sea naval army and fight hard with the coalition fleet in Osaka Bay.

But Kohama Mitsutaka also knows very well that whether it is the Aki Navy that evolved from Murakami and the Kuijima Water Army, or the Awaji Water Army under the name of the Tokushima Domain, because of the perennial neglect of training, the current combat power is far less than before.

Not to mention, the main weapon of the Japanese naval forces in the battle on the water was iron cannons, but under the strict control of the shogunate, the number of iron cannons kept by the western feudal domains has been decreasing, and the shogunate has a monopoly on imported * and lead blocks. The navy lacked both training and iron artillery, so it was naturally difficult to confront the coalition ships with artillery.

However, it is the season when the southwest wind turns to the northeast, and as long as they seize the day when the west wind blows, they can still use the oldest method of water warfare, which is the fireboat tactic. Many of the small morning boats owned by the navy could be used as fireships with a slight modification.

Kohama and his men deliberated for many days and decided to implement fireship tactics in the waters of the archipelago south of the Ako Domain. Kohama Mitsutaka relayed the plan to the Tokushima Domain, hoping that the Awaji Navy would be able to divert the main force of the coalition fleet in Osaka Bay into the narrow channel of the archipelago, and then the Aki Navy, which had the upper hand, would cast fireships and inflict heavy damage on the coalition fleet.

Although Kohama Mitsutaka's plan was good, after receiving this battle plan, Wasuka Housemasa thought about it for a long time, believing that even if the other side defeated half of the Ming army's fleet in Osaka Bay, it would not be able to gain sea dominance. Instead, the anger of the Ming army would be focused on the Tokushima Domain, and after seeing the size of the coalition fleet, Wasuka Iemasa did not want to go to war with this fleet.

So Wasuka housekeeper quickly sent this plan to Osaka, and after Xu Xinsu saw this plan, he sent someone to contact the Tokushima Domain, asking Wasuka housekeeper to continue to cooperate with Kohama Mitsutaka's plan, Xu Xinsu after discussing with the captains, decided to take advantage of this opportunity to wipe out the shogunate navy in the Seto Inland Sea, so as to control the entire Seto Inland Sea shipping lane.

On October 27, a southwesterly wind blew early in the morning near Awaji Island, which was the day of the battle agreed between Kohama Mitsutaka and the Awaji Naval Army.

The archipelago in the southeast of the Ako Domain has nearly 100 islands and reefs, large and small, and except for a few large islands inhabited by fishermen, the other islands and reefs are uninhabited desert islands. There are more than 10 larger islands in the archipelago, which are divided into three island groups: eastern, central and western. Iejima in the middle of the strait formed a narrow strait with the islands in the west, and the Seto Inland Sea Force led by Kohama Mitsutaka lay in ambush in the northwest of the strait, preparing to meet the coalition fleet that followed the Awaji Navy again.

The archipelago is about 9 nautical miles from the Ako Domain to the northwest, about the same distance from Himeji Castle to the northeast, 22 nautical miles from Awaji Island, and about 32 nautical miles from Hyogotsu.

For this naval operation, Xu Xinsu used two-thirds of the main warships of the South Route Fleet, that is, nine ships. British Captain Hopkinshire served as the fleet commander of the detachment, and Captain He Changqi of the Mingwei became Hopkinshill's deputy.

Although the British at this time were not as good as the Dutch in shipbuilding skills, they did not lag much behind in ship management skills. For example, the use of large cuts to use the technique of sailing against the wind has been mastered quite well by the British.

This pursuit of the Awaji Navy was not so much a battle as a demonstration of the skills of three British ships to the three Ming ships behind them. As for the other two Portuguese ships and one Spanish ship, they had no intention of studying, but only did a sparring session.

After spending seven hours, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, Kohama Mitsutaka, who had been waiting for nearly a day, finally saw nearly twenty Japanese ships, pursued by four large Nanban ships, into the waters of the archipelago. Just when Kohama Mitsutaka was commanding 30 fireships to get ready, and nearly 50 ships of various types were arranged behind him to prepare for the attack, the southwest wind that had been blowing for nearly a day suddenly began to decline.

Although Kohama Mitsutaka was a little worried, he still prayed that the west wind would continue for a while, and as long as the Nanban ship on the opposite side entered the narrow strait, it would inevitably slow down, and then he would not have to worry about the other party being able to escape from the attack of the fireship.

Hopkinshire commanded the fleet with great care, for he found that the Strait to the northwest would not exceed a mile at most, but there was an island in the middle of the Strait that blocked his view and made him look down on the interior of the Strait. The Japanese chose this place to fight, and it was really a great location.

But now, knowing that there was an ambush in the strait, Hopkinshire naturally would not risk rushing into the strait, and while ordering the two ships behind him to leave the group and enter the northeast channel where there was no ambush, he took another British ship to wander around the entrance to the northwest channel.

Although Kohama Mitsutaka was expecting the other party to chase into the strait, when he saw the other party turn around at the gate of the strait and prepare to leave, he finally couldn't help but order his subordinates to attack. When Hopkinshill's ship was only halfway around, he saw dozens of ships in the Northwest Channel rushing out of the east and west entrances.

Hopkinshire immediately ordered the crew to hoist the sails in order to speed up the steering, and the crews of the two British ships quickly got into the gun emplacements and began firing from the guns on the port side.

The guns on one side of the two British ships combined were about 40 guns, and these shells formed a barrage at the entrance to the narrow channel, and although the first round of fire did not hit any of the small boats full of firewood and grass, the small boats running at the front tried to dodge the shells, but they ran aground on the large island in the middle in the chaotic operation of the crew.

In order for the fireship tactics to succeed, the crew of the fireship must be bold and careful, and drive the fireship to the closest place to the enemy ship, so as to have a greater success rate. But these sailors in the hands of Kohama Mitsutaka were obviously not so brave, and under the intervention of the cannons of the British ships, the sailors of the fireships that were originally set to set fire to the ships within 200 meters often miscalculated the distance from the enemy ships and set fire to the ships from 200 meters away.

It obviously takes some luck to drift such a long distance without stray from the direction of a fireship that has lost its human control. However, today's luck does not seem to be on the side of the Japanese, as some people took the lead in igniting and leaving, the sailors behind obviously regarded the location of these people as the offensive distance, and more than 20 fireships that successfully approached the British ships within 500 meters, basically none of them crossed the distance of 200 meters before igniting the attack.

The British, who were anxious because of the decreasing wind, breathed a sigh of relief, although the speed of the British ships had slowed down, but the fireships cast on the opposite side were also slowing down, and the direction of the current in this strait did not seem to be in one direction, so many fireships were quickly derailed by the undercurrent and became burning waste on the sea.

The navy led by Kohama Mitsutaka was dumbfounded, and the fireship they had worked so hard to build was now completely useless, but instead became a pile of torches burning on the sea. For now, the smoke from the burning of these ships obscures the view of the sea, and this is their greatest effect.

Kohama gritted his teeth and decided to use the effect of the smoke to make another attack. However, when he commanded the navy to attack, the Awaji navy refused to fight on the grounds that they had fought for a day and could no longer fight. Kohama Mitsutaka couldn't care about getting entangled with the Awaji Water Army, so he could only carry the headquarters to attack.

More than 10 customs ships and more than 30 small morning boats rushed out of the strait with more than 1,000 sailors. Hopkinshire immediately sailed into the northeast strait, and after losing the threat of fireship tactics, the four Allied ships simply lowered their sails and fought a defensive battle with the Seto Inland Sea forces armed with cold weapons, taking advantage of the high side of Western-style sailing ships.

The crews of the Allied ships used their guns and muskets to shoot at the crews of the Japanese boats, and the Seto Inland Sea Marine, who braved the hail of bullets and bullets, had to find a way to climb the extremely smooth side of the ship five or six meters high, and it was a desperate battle for Mitsutaka Kohama.

The coalition forces bullied them and had no effective means of harm, and turned a naval battle into a siege war at sea. And this was not the most desperate, the most desperate thing was that the coalition fleet patrolling the open sea rushed in from the widest point to the south and struck a fierce blow on the flank of the Seto Inland Sea Army.

The Seto Inland Sea Army finally began to flee, and this battle almost wiped out the naval forces that Kohama Mitsutaka had collected from the various feudal domains of the Western Kingdom, and even Kohama Mitsutaka himself disappeared into this naval battle. After this battle, the shogunate had almost no more water power in the western seas. And after watching this battle, the Awaji Navy was even more reluctant to be the enemy of the coalition forces.