On the 29th day of the seventh month of the fourth year of Tensho (1576), 22 ironclad warships led by me sailed on the open sea of Iyo.

On a large chair at the top of the "Hinomaru" ship, I sat majestically in a full set of "Hell Carcass", and Takenaka Hanbei and Kamiya Shigen sat on either side, one on the left and one on the right, surrounded by dozens of close attendant flags. A strong blond man fiddled with a steering wheel not far behind.

The noon sun shone warmly, the sea breeze blew the "cash cow" horse prints with a rattling sound, the seagulls chirped and chased the waves at the stern, and from time to time one or two flying fish flapped their wings and flew by, and then fell back into the sea. Such a casual atmosphere felt like an outing, but I was thinking about one thing in my heart!

Philip•Luc Besson, tired of his wandering life, wanted to return to his native land, and after eleven years of working for me, he already had a large sum of savings. I never owed my subordinates' salaries, which made him get a total of 5,500 taels of gold in 11 years, and I finally gave him 5,000 taels of "excellent employee retirement allowance".

"I'm going to buy a small estate with a lot of grapes and figs!" When I asked him what he was going to do in the future, he replied to me. "I'm going to take a knighthood, marry a beautiful young red-haired woman, and have a whole bunch of his children! Oh...... Perhaps the first thing to do is to convert to Catholicism! He fiddled with a few gold judgments in his hand and said enthusiastically.

"There is no hurry to convert to Catholicism, at least you should keep pace with your Henry•De&8226;Bourbon Majesty, and perhaps a few more crowns will be placed on his head!" I made the above suggestion to him in good faith.

Philip was about to leave with the large sum of gold I had given him to take the next ship from Ernst, but it was only a European adventurer who ended his journey, and more adventurers would form a tidal wave to flock to the world. How to face them? The world is moving from a closed space to a unified one, and it is definitely not possible to fight against this trend! I can't take care of the whole country, but what should I do personally?

"Lord, it's time to come to Island City!" The voice of the Takenaka Hanbei woke me up from my chaotic thoughts.

"Oh......" I looked forward, and sure enough, there was a city standing on an island not far away. The walls of the castle are all made of black stone, and although they are not large, they are very strong. There was no trace of people around, and there was no trace of anger in peace. "Is there any movement?" I don't think it's like a war.

"The striker took a closer look and found nothing!" The Takenaka Hanbei had already begun the normal steps of the battle, and the fleet had changed from a single column to a double row horizontally. "We've been sailing at full speed at sea for the past few days, so the latest ninja report hasn't been delivered. We don't know the latest disposition of the pirates on the island, but it stands to reason that they already know about our attack. Do you think you should wait for the ninja's report, or send a small force to land and observe? ”

"There's no need to rush to land, but there's no need to wait!" I don't want my troops to take unnecessary risks, but I don't have to be too timid, after all, the real strength of the enemy is much worse than mine. "Order the fleet to open fire and bombard the city, after all, we are here to destroy, not occupy! First, you can test the performance of the artillery in actual combat, and second, you can save more effort when you explode again. ”

"Yes!" The half-guard of Takenaka bowed down to answer the order, but then turned to signal for Kamiya Shiyuan to give the order.

One of the heralds on the lookout on the highest mast began waving a small flag, which was secured with a large basket-like guardrail so there was no need to worry about falling. With a series of instructions from the flag, the 10 medium-sized ironclad ships in the front row began to turn around with the help of the dual effect of sails and oars, and turned to the west side in a group to start moving, and at the same time, the planks of each ship facing the side of the island city were opened, and a dark and terrifying cannon muzzle protruded from each of the holes formed!

"Boom, boom, boom......" The cannons of each ship bombarded from front to back, so that a confused white "mist" was formed, except for the first few shots, you could see the fire flashing at the head of the island and the crumbling stone wall, and then all of them were shrouded in smoke. But an order is an order, and the gun positions have been adjusted a long time ago, and the ten medium-sized ironclad ships fired a batch as expected, and sailed west for about a mile to stop, assemble, and turn around.

Soon after, the smoke dissipated, and there was a dilapidated scene in the strict island city, the city wall had several collapsed gaps, which hardly played a defensive role, and the pheasant battlements in the upper part could not be seen now, and half of the city tower was destroyed. But that's it, there is still no shadow of half a person!

"One more time, and at the same time, Messenger Yoshitsugu is ready to log in!" Seeing that they were so calm, I simply fulfilled them. "Watch out for the direction of the attack on the city gate this time!" I added one more sentence.

According to the instructions of the flag, the 10 ships in front of them drove back again, this time with the guns on the left side firing, the same smoke filled the air, the same deafening.

The 10 medium-sized ironclad boats behind began to lower some small boats, and then samurai and ashigaru armed with spears climbed down the soft ladder on the side of the gunwale, and soon a large number of small boats appeared around the rear fleet, and they quietly stopped there waiting for new orders.

After the smoke cleared this time, Laidao City can no longer be called a "city"! Most of the castle walls had been reduced to rubble, and the remaining half of the castle tower was now gone, and it was unknown where the shells had hit this time, and the castle tower was on fire.

"Let's attack!" I don't have any doubts anymore when I see this situation, even if there is any ambush at the moment. At the orders of the Takenaka Hanbei, the dinghy began to row towards the shore.

At this time, Ishikawa Sadatomo, who was on duty on the deck, hurriedly ran up. "My lord, I've sent a ninja here to report the news!" He reported for duty.

"Oh, bring him up right now!" I'm in dire need of first-hand information right now, there are so many branches and vines from the Murakami Clan's pirates that are clinging around here!

"See the lord!" A small, ordinary-looking "farmer" dressed in patched clothes was brought to me, and although I don't know if he was a competent ninja, he was exactly the kind of "country" that Sun Tzu was talking about.

"Are you in charge here?" I looked at the man and asked.

"It's not!" He knelt on the ground and shook his head before saying, "The younger one is the deputy head of the Iyo Kuninoma County, and the small one is in charge of the group leader in his absence!" ”

"Where is your group leader, why don't you come and see the lord!" The half-guards of Takenaka questioned their rudeness.

"Returning to your lordship!" The ninja turned his head to Takenaka Hanbei and said, "In the middle of last night, the leader of the pirates who came to the island, Murakami Tsuto, suddenly fled with his crowd. Because of the sudden incident, the head of the group personally led people to follow him, so the little one came to serve ......"

"Murakami always ran away?" I was a little surprised. In my memory, the island pirates are quite a die-hard type, at least the Murakami Bukites of Noshima are more slippery than them, although I have the intention of deterrence in advance, but that is mainly to deal with the Kono family!

"Lord!" At this time, the half-guard of Takenaka pointed to the shore and reminded me, "Lord Otani also sent a message, it seems that there is really no one here!" ”

"Oh......" I looked up, and my landing force had dispersed over there, ten or eight in search of something in the smoke-filled rudiment-filled island city, and a small group of samurai and other men had gathered on the beach, gesturing some kind of information on our boat. Do you have any inside information about the escape of Mr. Kurishima? ”

"There's some content, but nothing too critical!" The ninja looked at me and motioned for him to continue, and replied, "The pirates who came to the island learned about the attack of the lord a long time ago, and there is a lot of internal debate about what to do. It wasn't until the middle of last night that they made a sudden decision, and then immediately loaded all the supplies onto the ship and fled by sea in the early hours of this morning! ”

"Do you know where to go?" Takenaka's half-guard asked for me.

"I don't know yet!" The ninja wasn't embarrassed to tell the truth, it wasn't a situation he could control. "Since it was an emergency operation, the general personnel who came to the island pirates on the ship did not know the inside story. The head of the group immediately followed from a distance with a few people, but because the pirates were all experts in boating and there was no cover on the sea, it was not so easy to track. At present, it is only known that it is going to the southwest, and the specific goal is not yet clear! ”

"What is the attitude of the other forces of Iyo!" I think that if there is no explanation for such a fanfare action, then it will be a very faceless thing, and now I have to find other "substitutes".

"I have also sent a message for help when I came to the island city beforehand, but none of the wealthy families dared to respond!" The ninja pulled out a roll of paper from his body and presented it, and the half-guard Takenaka reached out to take it.

"The Kono family didn't send help, but accused the island of causing trouble with Maori one after another!" Hanbei Takenaka said with a smile to me after reading the report, with an indescribable lightness in his tone. "Actually, when I participated in the Itsukushima War, I came to the island with the consent of the Kono family to support Maori, and although I didn't listen to the greetings over the years, I still handed over a lot of coins every year. The Kono family is so cowardly and prevaricating, I'm afraid that they will fall even faster! ”

"Have the other branches of the island fled?" I stared into the distance and asked noncommittally, for a moment no one knew what I was going to do.

"No, people from several nearby islands are still there!" The ninja replied.

"Order Otani to burn down the island castle and board the ship!" I withdrew my gaze and stared at him and said, "You lead the way, let's go to Yuezhi Island first!" ”

"Lord, what are you?" Due to the unexpected incident, the half-guard of Takenaka was a little confused about my whim.

"Since the big fish has run away, let's go catch a few shrimps!" I sat back in my chair at a leisurely pace.