Nakanoshima in Osaka is actually an interriver island, but the Japanese divide the Okawa River from east to west into two rivers by Nakanoshima River, and name it the Dojima River and the Tosabori River, which looks like the boundary island of the two rivers.

Nakanoshima Island was a vast island, with a wide and deep river that flowed from both sides of the island to the sea to the east, and it soon became a natural wharf and market for Osaka, where many merchants bought land and set up warehouses and homes.

In the northern part of Nakanoshima Island, near the Dojima River, there is a large mansion that not only occupies a large area of land near the river, but also has a private pier, which is the largest rice merchant Yodoya in Osaka.

Nakanoshima, located in the middle of the river, is naturally not within the castle walls of Osaka Castle, but from the wide front lawn of the Yodowake family, you can clearly see the towering Osaka Castle Tower. If the sunlight is angled at the right angle, the roof of the castle tower can reflect a golden glow, making it look like a building made of gold.

It is said that from the top of the castle tower, you can see the entire castle and Osaka Bay. However, Li Chenfang feels that in fact, standing on Nakanoshima Island and watching Osaka Castle is also an excellent scenery. The castle of Osaka, which was not fully built until after the death of Tokugawa Ieyasu, is said to have almost bankrupted many small feudal clans. After all, whether it was the 500,000 stones that built Osaka Castle or the triple moat of Osaka Castle, it was all out of the service of each feudal clan.

Tokugawa Ieyasu covered up the memory of the Osaka Castle built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi with an even more majestic and magnificent Osaka Castle, and by the way, weakened the power of the feudal domains, which was indeed a clever plan to kill two birds with one stone.

Thinking of this, Li Chenfang couldn't help but ask the head of the Yodogo family on the side: "I heard that the old Osaka Castle is just below this new city, is this true?" ”

The head of the Yodowu family, Yodowu Musashi, was obviously not as leisurely as Li Chenfang, he seemed to be in a trance, and it took a while to react, and he replied to Li Chenfang: "Yes, my lord, I followed my father into the city to meet Lord Taiko when I was a child.

At that time, Osaka Castle was not as majestic as it is today, but the castle tower of Taiko-sama was really covered with gold leaf, and it was not as stingy as Gonkenden. Isn't it time for us to go, my lord? If we don't leave, I'm afraid the shogunate officials will bring people to arrest us. ”

Li Chenfang glanced at him and smiled and said: "Didn't the guy who sent the intelligence already say it, it's just a group of big fans who come to arrest you, 1 fantou, 4 group leaders, 50 fanshi, 10 concentric people, and 30 people, adding up to 85 people."

We have a squadron of 96 people here, not including the wandering samurai you have at home, so there's nothing to worry about. Li Goro, you are not afraid of the officers and soldiers of the shogunate."

Although he is Japanese, the current Li Goro really lacks a sense of reverence for the shogunate. Having participated in the Battle of the Luanhe River, he replied without hesitation: "Lord Hui, even if the acting officer of Osaka sends out all 12 groups of Daiban, this squadron will definitely be able to protect your Excellency and return safely." ”

Li Chenfang smiled and nodded, "That's right, it's worthy of being a soldier who was awarded the Luanhe Medal by His Majesty." I just want to see what kind of Shogunate's army is, which is extremely necessary for us to estimate the Shogunate's combat strength in the future.

Mr. Yodowa, if you are worried about being injured by mistake, you might as well get on the boat first. With our warships right outside, you don't have to worry about the Shogunate catching up with you. ”

Yodowa Musashi only thought for a moment, and determined that this was a good opportunity to befriend the other party, and in the situation that he had already offended the shogunate, he naturally did not dare to provoke the other party, so he said decisively: "The villain's family has been sent away in advance anyway, since the adults want to see the combat effectiveness of the shogunate officers and soldiers, the villain should naturally advance and retreat together with the adults." ”

Regarding Yodowo Musashi's answer, Li Chenfang just smiled and stopped urging the other party to get on the boat. He turned his head and ordered the soldiers to enter the position at the squadron leader Li Wulang.

While he was looking at the Osaka Castle Tower, the servants of the Yodowa family and a squadron of soldiers he had brought with him had removed the furniture, shelves, and miscellaneous items from those rooms, and arranged a breastwork in the front yard.

The Yodowaz's house is large, with the backyard being the dock and the family living, and the front yard being the warehouse and the guys. Because rice is often soaked in water when transported by boat, there is also a large lawn in the front yard of the Yodowo family that is used to dry rice.

This large expanse of lawn is right in front of the gate, and it is the only way for outsiders to enter the Yodowo house. Li Chenfang planned to compete with the shogunate officers and soldiers who came to arrest the Dianwu family on this open lawn.

The two squads of soldiers were divided into two horizontal rows, standing behind the breastwork with flintlock pistols. There were also 3 to 40 samurai with swords on either side of the horizontal line to prevent anyone from attacking from the flank. There was also a team that quietly stayed by Li Chenfang's side, as a reserve team to deal with emergencies.

Soon after the soldiers entered the position, the sentry standing on the roof to observe the situation outside the wall sent a signal to Li Chenfang, and a team of more than 100 people was coming here.

Saburo Suzuki rode a short Kiso horse and led the team leisurely, as if he was not here to catch criminals, but to go on an outing. The fanshi and ashigaru who followed him were no better, barely lined up in two crooked columns, without the momentum of an army.

Also, it has been decades since the end of the Warring States period, and it has been almost 32 years since the Battle of Sekigahara, where the Tokugawa family and the Toyotomi family decided to belong to the world.

In such a peaceful era, both the samurai of each domain and the samurai of the shogunate began to degenerate rapidly. In particular, the shogunate samurai sitting in Osaka were out of the sight of the elders and family elders in Edo Castle, and in such a city dominated by commerce, they washed away the already small military atmosphere on their bodies, and there was a little more copper smell.

However, capturing a rice merchant is not a battle, so the morale of this team is still quite high. Neither the lowest level of concentricity nor the highest level of fantou do not think that this is a difficult task. With the Aoi no Mi crest of the hat they wore on their heads, would any merchant dare to resist? Even if there were really merchants who were forced to be in a hurry, the domestic servants and thugs around those merchants would not be so stupid to swing their swords at the shogunate.

Of course, Saburo Suzuki himself has no ill feelings about the Yodowatsu family's behavior of manipulating the rise in rice prices. This is because Japan has not yet established its own monetary system, and it is still a food standard.

The samurai's income was calculated in terms of grain, not gold and silver, so the price of food was related to the level of the samurai's life. In fact, the shogunate was not worried about the continued increase in food prices, but was worried that the samurai would waver in their loyalty to the shogunate.

Of course, when the price of food rose to a level that the common people could not bear, the shogunate also had to find a few culprits to make an example of them, so that the rice merchants could restrain their behavior and eliminate the resentment of the common people. The current Dianwu family is the chicken that was selected to kill chickens and set an example for monkeys.

When Saburo Suzuki led the team around a corner, he saw the mansion of the Yodowa family, and the door that had been opened in the past was now closed tightly.

Saburo Suzuki didn't take it to heart, but just commanded the two soldiers to step forward and open the door. The two men hurriedly stepped forward and pushed the door, but found that the door was not blocked, so one of them pushed the two doors and opened them inside. The door opened a little halfway, and the two fanshi suddenly froze.

Saburo Suzuki waited impatiently, so he pulled out* and pointed to the gate and shouted, "Ding Gu guards the door to prevent anyone from escaping." The other three groups rushed in with me, Group A went in to arrest people, Group B controlled the rice warehouse, and Group C rushed directly to the backyard to control the docks and boats.

Fan Shi and Ashigaru behind Saburo Suzuki suddenly responded loudly, but this time the response was relatively neat, and they also startled a few birds in the woods on the side of the road. And this response also muffled the voice of the fan who stopped pushing the door and turned back to warn Saburo Suzuki.

Saburo Suzuki rushed to the gate first, followed by a sword-wielding fanshi, and then Ashigaru with a spear. The long period of peace had made the shogunate's troops lose their vigilance, and perhaps they thought that attacking a merchant's mansion would not require any tactics, so they rushed into the gates of the Yodobushi house in such a chaotic formation.

Saburo Suzuki excitedly rode his horse into the gate, only to find that a low wall of furniture and miscellaneous items had been erected in the middle of the spacious courtyard, and behind the low wall were two rows of men with iron cannons. Although the men were dressed in civilian clothes, they looked more like an army than the samurai behind him.

The low wall was only 60 meters from the gate, and by the time Saburo Suzuki saw the layout of the courtyard, he was almost halfway there. On horseback, he could even see someone in the first row, squinting with one eye and aiming his gun at his own fire.

Saburo Suzuki subconsciously grabbed the reins of his mount and leaned on his horse, hoping to turn around and run back out of the gate before the opponent could shoot. However, he turned the horse, but the horse faced the opposite iron cannon side.

Saburo Suzuki only heard someone shouting from the other side, and then heard a series of sounds of stir-fried soybeans. Then his mount jumped up and shouted a few times, and then threw him out.

The stabbing pain in his left leg and right hand almost made Saburo Suzuki faint, but he managed to recover from the stunned state. Before he could get up, he heard a series of stir-fried soybeans again.

Saburo Suzuki, who didn't dare to move anymore, straightened his neck, first glanced at the subordinates behind him, and found that these subordinates who touted their ancestors' martial arts in front of him every day were now like a swarm of headless flies, desperately squeezing out of the gate, and no one cared about his situation at all.

And the ashigaru who had not yet entered outside the gate had not yet figured out the situation, and they were still blocked at the door, making the samurai who wanted to escape stuck at the door. Some of the samurai who couldn't get out swung their swords at their companions in despair, trying to smash their way through.

Looking at these ugly subordinates, Saburo Suzuki was so angry and anxious that he couldn't help but really faint. The soldiers of the 2nd Coastal Defense Battalion, who stood behind the low wall and shot two rounds, couldn't help but lose their minds a little when they saw that the shogunate samurai, who had been majestic in their minds before, actually collapsed under the two rounds of shooting.

Li Wulang turned around and glanced at Li Chenfang, and saw that he nodded to himself, so he took the command knife and shouted to his subordinates: "The first squad got bayonets and crossed the chest wall to capture the prisoners; The second squad is on alert..."