633 Daimyo of Wakoku entered the port of Nagasaki

[Today's first chapter is presented,; Lao Yun cheeky begging for wave subscription!! 】

At Haizhou Port, Li Zixiao arrived in early March, when the weather had begun to warm, but there were still cold winds, especially the humidity on the beach.

But this still can't stop the busyness of Haizhou Port, at this time, dozens of merchant ships enter and exit Haizhou Port every day, and there are more than 100 ships moored in the harbor.

At this time, Li Zixiao already controlled many ports, such as Yangzhou Port and Haizhou Port in Jiangbei, Tamluo Port, Dengzhou Port, and Lushun Port and Liangang on the Liaodong Peninsula.

But in terms of scale, Yangzhou Port and Haizhou Port in Jiangbei are still the largest at this time, and even Dengzhou Port is not as large as these two ports.

After all, Dengzhou Port has been lonely all these years, while Yangzhou Port and Haizhou Port have been invested heavily by Li Zixiao in the past two or three years and have been under construction.

Yangzhou Port is okay, the scale was not small before, and Li Zixiao only expanded it later.

Haizhou Port, on the other hand, was basically built from scratch, and Li Zixiao was built from a barren beach into a prosperous port today.

At this time, Haizhou Port was not only a prosperous commercial port, but also the base of the White Dragon Army naval fleet, and the two naval detachments were anchored here at this time.

It's just that this time Li Zixiao came to Haizhou Port, mainly to see Li Zifeng, because Li Zifeng was preparing to lead the fleet of Jiangbei maritime merchants once again and set off for the Wa Kingdom to trade.

And this time, Li Zifeng's fleet of sea vessels also carried the personnel of the White Dragon Army Intelligence Bureau on the side, and carried a batch of firearms and armor.

It is said that these firearms and armor are prohibited goods, and even if they reach the port of Nagasaki in the Japanese country, they will be confiscated by the Japanese people.

Even when the time comes, once they are discovered by the Japanese people, Li Zixiao and they are carrying so many armors, they will be arrested directly.

But this time, Li Zixiao and his Japanese country have someone to answer, and all this will not happen.

Needless to say, it was Shuiichiro Yoshino and Yokokawa Fujino, who had successfully returned to the Japanese country before.

After these two returned to the Wa Kingdom, they quickly found a refuge force with the hundreds of elite Japanese soldiers they brought back.

Shuichiro Yoshino chose to take refuge in the Mito family, a daimyo family of the Wa Kingdom, while Fujino Yokokawa chose to take refuge in the Maeda family, a daimyo of the Wa Kingdom.

The great name of the Wa Kingdom is actually equivalent to the princes of ancient China.

The territory and population of these Japanese daimyo are 108,000 miles behind those princes of China.

At this time, the Wa Kingdom had just finished the so-called Warring States Period, and the Tokugawa family exterminated the Toyotomi clan, ended the chaotic Warring States Period, established the Shogunate, and gained control of the Wa Kingdom, ushering in the Tokugawa Shogunate Period.

In other words, at this time, the Emperor of Wakuni was simply an ornament, and it was the Tokugawa Shogunate that really had the final say.

The Tokugawa shogunate system was more like the feudal system of the Zhou Dynasty in China, where the country was divided into more than 300 daimyo of large and small sizes, controlling the entire land of the Wa Kingdom.

At this time, as long as they controlled the territory and provided an annual tribute of more than 10,000 koku of grain, they could become a daimyo, and you can imagine how cheap this daimyo was.

After the Tokugawa family seized the ruling power of the Wa Kingdom, they divided the more than 300 daimyo in the country into three ranks, namely the daimyo of the clan, the daimyo of the pedigree, and the daimyo of the outer kind.

As the name suggests, the daimyo is a daimyo that is related to the Tokugawa family, and the most famous is the three major families of Owari, Kii, and Mito, who are known as the famous 'Imperial Three Families'.

The pedigree daimyo refers to the families of the retainers and generals who followed the Tokugawa family before the Tokugawa family won the most important battle of Kansai and completely gained control of the Wa Kingdom.

And the foreign minister, needless to say, was the daimyo who was forced to surrender in the Battle of Sekigahara.

Some of these daimyos, some of whom once followed the Toyotomi clan, still had strong strength, at least because of the strength of the Tokugawa family, they chose to surrender.

And the Tokugawa family did not have the ability to completely eliminate these foreign daimyo in one breath, and could only rule them in the name of the central government.

However, the Tokugawa family could not interfere with the internal rule of the people, which was very similar to the feudal system in Huaxia.

Many of these outward daimyo were once families who followed the Toyotomi clan, and there was great malice towards the Tokugawa shogunate, which destroyed the Toyotomi clan.

Even those families who did not follow the Toyotomi clan in the past were eager to expand their power and one day replace the Tokugawa shogunate.

Therefore, the Daimyo of the Outer Appearance were also the main force behind the Curtain Fall, and their territory was mostly in some remote areas.

Shuiichiro Yoshino, originally planned to take refuge in a Daimyo family who once followed the Toyotomi clan, after all, the Yoshino family used to follow the Toyotomi clan.

But in the end, because Yoshino Shuiichiro wanted to get the opportunity to enter the port of Nagasaki, he had to abandon this plan and join the Mito family, one of the 'three families'.

Because, at this time, Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, had already implemented a policy of 'closing the country to the outside world'.

As a result, there was only one port of Nagasaki in the entire Wakoku Province, which was semi-open to the outside world, and it was also the port of foreign trade for the entire Wakoku at this time.

At this time, the only people who could trade in the port of Nagasaki were the merchant ships of Korea, the Ming Dynasty, and the Dutch.

On the Ming side, at first, it was mainly a caravan organized by the Zheng family, and later with the addition of Li Zixiao, at this time, the Jiangbei caravan became the most frequent caravan to trade with the Wa Kingdom.

The Kohoku caravan also managed to attract the attention of the Tokugawa shogunate.

It's just that after the Tokugawa shogunate obtained Li Zixiao's situation from the Zheng family, he decisively gave up his bad intentions against the Jiangbei caravan.

You must know that the relationship between the Zheng family and the Wa Kingdom is very deep, Zheng Chenggong's mother is a Wa Guo, and the Zheng family has maintained contact with many families in the Wa State at this time.

In this case, it was very easy for the Tokugawa shogunate to get information about Li Zixiao from the Zheng family.

If Shuiichiro Yoshino wants to get the aid and supplies sent by Li Zixiao, he can only get it from Nagasaki Port, and he must be eligible to be stationed in Nagasaki Port.

At this time, Nagasaki Port was basically controlled by the Tokugawa family and several other major feudal daimyos, and Yoshino could only choose to join these major families in order to have a chance to enter Nagasaki Port.

Fujino Yokokawa is different, he is just the opposite of Yoshino, he chose to take refuge in a foreign daimyo.

Moreover, among the external daimyos, the Maeda family of the Kaga Domain, which is relatively strong, and it happens that the Maeda family is also a foreign daimyo who are more hostile to the Tokugawa shogunate.

After Shuichiro Yoshino defected to the Mito family, he was not actually taken very seriously, and Yoshino successfully transferred a member of the Mito family to Nagasaki after bribing him.

After all, the Mito family's main territory is in the Kanto region of Japan's main island of Honshu, and that is where they have their roots.

However, in order to control the port of Nagasaki and obtain opportunities for trade with foreign merchants, the Tokugawa shogunate and the 'Imperial Three Families' and other major feudal daimyo sent a small number of men and horses to be stationed around Nagasaki.

The port of Nagasaki is located at the westernmost tip of Kyushu Island, and it is no longer part of the traditional sphere of influence of the Tokugawa family and other major feudal families.

If they don't send some men and horses to garrison them, how can they suppress the peeps of other foreign daimyo around Nagasaki.

In fact, at this time, the Tokugawa shogunate did not attach much importance to trade with overseas merchants, otherwise they would not have closed themselves to the country.

In fact, the Tokugawa shogunate was frightened by the previous Shimabara Rebellion, so Tokugawa Iemitsu completely banned Western missionary missions, and officially began to close the country.

Therefore, at this time, several major families of the Tokugawa shogunate sent troops to Nagasaki, more to monitor the place, and did not allow Western missionaries to set foot here.

By the way, they traded some goods from the Ming Dynasty or Dutch maritime merchants, and then used them for their own use or sold them to other daimyo to earn profits.

In the same way, it is precisely because Nagasaki is located on the island of Kyushu that the sphere of influence of the original Tokugawa major feudal families gave Shuiichiro Yoshino more opportunities.

And Yoshino and Fujino also got in touch with each other after gaining a firm foothold, and the two of them can be regarded as temporarily putting aside their previous suspicions and preparing to work together.

After all, both of them understood that the best way for them to quickly grow their strength in the Wa Kingdom was to cooperate with each other, because they were the real companions, and they were surrounded by enemies.

On 5 March, Shuichiro Yoshino led 300 Japanese soldiers early in the morning and waited at the port of Nagasaki, because this day was the first time that Li Zixiao had sent people to send them support.

Half a month ago, the first batch of personnel from the White Dragon Army Intelligence Bureau who landed at Nagasaki Port connected with Shuiichiro Yoshino.

At this time, a Japanese soldier standing next to Shuiichiro Yoshino was actually a member of the White Dragon Army's Intelligence Bureau, named Norumi, who was proficient in Japanese.

"It's coming!" Suddenly, looking at the sea, Norumi said to Yoshino in Japanese.

Immediately, Yoshino hurriedly looked towards the sea, only to see a fleet of more than 30 large ships appear on the sea in the distance, and the front ship was hoisted with the "Ming" and "Li" flags.

"Roar, the general really counts when he speaks." Looking at the fleet of ships that appeared on the sea, Yoshino's face showed excitement.

During the more than six months that Yoshino returned to the Wakoku Kingdom, he was stationed near a village north of Nagasaki, and he had brought back only 600 Japanese soldiers.

And in this half a year, he relied on the silver that Li Zixiao gave him before, and recruited more than 1,400 warriors, working day and night, extremely elite.

Now, Yoshino's only poor thing is weaponry, once he obtains sophisticated weapons and equipment, those elite Japanese soldiers under his command can quickly burst into powerful combat power.

Although Yoshino spent a lot of money in his hand when bribing the Mito family, there was still a lot left, but recruiting a thousand people was already his limit.

On the one hand, the money in his hand is almost used, and on the other hand, he does not dare to expand his men too much until he obtains the armor.

However, once Li Zixiao's support arrives, he will have money and food at that time, and he is still worried that the Wa Kingdom will not be able to recruit samurai at this time!

With the samurai, and the firearms and armor sent by Li Zixiao, he could expand his power in a short period of time.

You must know that at this time, the Wa Kingdom had just ended the era of war results, but it was less than thirty years (here the end time of the Warring States Period in Japan, Lao Yun chose 1615, and there is another theory that it was 1585).

Even after the Tokugawa shogunate took control of the Wa Kingdom, there were several major rebellions, and the entire Wa Kingdom at this time was similar to the Ming Dynasty, and the people's lives were in dire straits.

At this time, grain was also a hard currency, and as long as you had food in your hand, you could easily recruit a lot of down-and-out samurai and ronin.

At this time, waiting in Nagasaki Port were not only Yoshino and his party, but also many members of the Daimyo family of Wakoku and many merchants.

They are all waiting here to trade with the Jiangbei Merchant Fleet organized by the Li family, because today is the official day when the Jiangbei Fleet comes to Nagasaki.

Since Li Zixiao and the Zheng family reached an agreement to also let Jiangbei maritime merchants trade in the Wa Kingdom, the Jiangbei merchants led by the Li family quickly formed a maritime merchant group and had to go to the Wa Kingdom once a month to trade.

Before they arrived in Nagasaki, they would send a ship as a spearhead, arriving two to three days in advance, so that the Japanese merchants in Nagasaki could be prepared.

After arriving at the port of Nagasaki, the merchant fleet of Jiangbei Sea generally stayed in the port of Nagasaki for more than a week, and then returned to the port of Haizhou or Yangzhou.

"The ship has entered the port, General Yoshino, I will take you into that sea ship later, and go to meet the general who came to hand over to you this time, and you will discuss in detail how to hand over when the time comes."

Norumi said to Shuiichiro Yoshino.

"Okay, I've already arranged it, and I've also bought off the officials of the port inspection, and this handover will be foolproof." Yoshino had been prepared for a long time.

"Let's go, I'll lead you."

Soon, after more than 30 sea ships entered the harbor and anchored, Dianhai took Yoshino and headed towards the largest Li family ship.

"Stop, who are you, idle people are not allowed to get on the boat."

When Norikai and Yoshino approached the Li family's big ship, they were immediately stopped by the ship's guards and said.

"Haha, this brother, I am a friend of your Manager Li, and I would like you to spread the word and say that Dian Hai wants to see Manager Li."

Dianhai walked up to the ship's guard and said politely.

The manager Li mentioned by Dian Hai is Li Zifeng, at this time Li Zifeng is fully responsible for the business affairs of the Li family, and he is also the main person in charge of the Jiangbei fleet this time.

"That man said his name was Dianhai?" Li Zifeng soon got a report from the ship's guard.

"Yes." The ship's guard answered truthfully.

"Captain Zeng, look?" Immediately, Li Zifeng looked at a middle-aged man in a black cotton suit beside him and asked.

This Captain Zeng was sent by Li Zixiao this time to escort the generals of the White Dragon Army who were handed over to Yoshino with the armor and money and silver, named Zeng Dawei.

"The name is right, take them on board, to cabin three." Zeng Dawei said with a straight face and an expressionless face.

It didn't take long for the returning guards to take Norumi and Shuichiro Yoshino onto the ship, and then led them down to the third cabin of the ship.

"Captain Zeng."

When Yoshino saw Zeng Dawei, he also recognized the other party at a glance, because Zeng Dawei had followed Li Zixiao and participated in the battle outside the Tatar Pass last year.

"Well, General Yoshino, let's meet again."

Zeng Dawei also smiled slightly at this time, said to Yoshino, and then bowed.

(End of chapter)