After returning from the Northern Expedition, Zhu Youzhen gave the North Sea Fleet the task of finding a suitable port along the coast of the Ming Dynasty, that is, to explore eastward, and to find suitable seaways and islands for navigation in the east of the Ryukyus.

When Zhu Youzhen summoned Wei Xin, commander of the North Sea Fleet, he specially told him that the fleet would pass through the Osumi Strait south of Japan's Kyushu Island and north of Ryukyu Tanegashima and go east to look for temporarily uninhabited islands in the Pacific Ocean.

However, Zhu Youzhen did not know the exact location of Hawaii, and even the current name of Hawaii did not know, as for those islands that he would encounter after leaving the Osumi Strait eastward, before finding Hawaii, Zhu Youzhen did not know anything, so he repeatedly reminded Wei Xin that the North Sea Fleet was really exploring, and after sending the fleet east out of the Osumi Strait, it must accurately mark the location of the islands encountered, so that the official route could be established in the future.

For the North Sea Fleet, east out of the Ryukyus, it was a completely unfamiliar sea, and Commander Wei Xin sent a small fleet from the home port of Qingdao.

The commander of this fleet, named Monin, turned out to be a regimental commander of the North Sea Fleet, and he took eight ships, two hundred and forty sailors and two hundred and forty men, guided by a compass, from Qingdao to the southeast.

The compass in Mo Ning's hand has been improved by the Ming Academy of Sciences, and the chassis of the compass is a circle, and the circle is engraved with twelve large grids, and each large grid is also divided into five small grids, so that there are a total of sixty small grids.

According to the measurement of the Ming Dynasty, the whole circle is divided into three hundred and sixty degrees, and each small grid is six degrees, and this compass with a scale greatly increases the accuracy.

When Mo Ning set out from Qingdao, he had always asked the recorder to observe the direction of the compass, and his goal was Tanegashima, which was the land of Ryukyu, and Ryukyu had always been a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, and had always been very friendly with the Ming Dynasty.

On the chart of the Ming Dynasty, the location of Tanegashima has been marked, but Mo Ning is not at ease, and he does not know whether the location marked before is accurate.

The fleet sailed on the vast sea for five days and five nights, and on the sixth day, when the sun came out, the observers finally saw the land, "Tuanza, there is land ahead." ”

"Land?" Mo Ning was overjoyed, he followed the direction of the observer's finger, and saw a black shadow, because of the light on his back, he couldn't see the true face of the island for the time being, "After sailing at sea for five days and five nights, I can finally land on land." ”

"Danza, do you want to move on?"

"Of course, go to the neighborhood first, and then look for a landing site." Mourning had been standing on the deck, completely oblivious to the sea breeze.

About an hour later, the fleet came to the east side of Tanegashima, but to the east was a cliff and there was no beach to land on.

"Take a detour around looking for a port where you land," Mourning said to the recorder, "and make a note of the location of Tanegashima." ”

To the north of Tanegashima, there is a narrow beach on which a fishing boat is parked, which is supposed to be a port.

Mo Ning slowed down the speed of the ship and slowly approached it, and sure enough, it was possible to dock the ship.

He landed on Tanegashima Island with his interpreter and his own soldiers, and about a mile from the port, Monin was surprised to find that the island was inhabited by Japanese people in loose kimonos, hair buns, and clogs, and a man dressed as Japanese wandering around the island.

"You are ......" Seeing Mo Ning and the others, the man was even more surprised than Mo Ning.

The translator stepped forward and said: "We are from Daming, may I ask, is this Tanegashima?" ”

"Tanegashima?" The man's brows furrowed into the last quarter moon, obviously not welcoming these uninvited guests from Daming, "This is Yakushima, you guys are wrong, leave quickly." ”

"Yakushima?" Mourning unfolded the chart and found Tanegashima to the northeast of Yakushima, "We'll be leaving soon, where is that kind of sub-island?" ”

"Tanegashima is in the northeast, so you can find it yourself."

Looking at the man's not very friendly attitude, Mo Ning really wanted to serve the whole island in one pot, but he thought about it or endured it, he had just arrived here, everything was unfamiliar, "Is this Japan or Ryukyu?" ”

"Of course it's Japan, don't you see what I'm wearing? Can the lowly Ryukyus have this kind of costume? ”

Mo Ning swallowed his anger and left Yakushima, the only thing he could be sure of was that the man was right, Tanegashima was in the northeast of Yakushima, "Write down the exact location of Yakushima, we will come back sooner or later." Mourning said viciously.

The fleet turned northeast and sailed for two hours before anchoring at the port of Akaogi on Tanegashima.

After Morning landed, he still saw the costumes of the Japanese.

A middle-aged man who was basking in the sun, obviously disturbed by Mo Ning and the others, stared nervously at Mo Ning and the others with his eyes wide and slightly closed.

The translator stepped forward to talk, and he came back soon, "Danza, this is Tanegashima, and he is the owner of the island, Shimazu Hisaharu." ”

"Kuji Shimazu? Such a coincidence? Judging from the name and attire, Mourning estimated that this was another island that belonged to Japan, but he still did not give up: "Does this belong to Japan?" ”

"Yes, said Shimazu Hisaharu, this has been their domain for a long time."

Mo Ning can't, it's noon now, and he has no other target islands for the time being, "You go and tell him, we pass by here, we need to anchor for a while, ask if there is food and fresh water on the island, O, you bring these porcelain, give them to the island owner, show our kindness." ”

"Yes, Danza." The interpreter continued to negotiate with Hisaharu Shimazu.

When the interpreter came back again, he had a smile on his face: "Danza, Shimazu Kuji said that there is no food supplement on the island, but some fresh water can be replenished, and in addition, he thanked Danza for the porcelain he gave him, and he wanted to invite Danza to lunch." ”

Mo Ning said in his heart that his mission this time was to find Tanegashima, and he would expand eastward in the future, maybe Shimazu Kuji could provide some useful information, so he accepted Shimazu Kuji's invitation.

Shimazu Kuji served as the guide, and Mo Ning and the interpreter followed him, and within two miles, they arrived at Shimazu Kuji's home.

Along the way, Mo Ning found that the island is very low, and there are no mountains and rivers, it appears very flat, and it should be a good food production area, but a lot of land is not developed, and it is likely that the island is underpopulated.

Shimazu Kuji's home, just like his stature, is low, with two rows of low thatched huts, and the living room is in the middle of the front row of thatched huts, which is very similar to the structure of the Han people's houses.

However, there may be a lot of servants in the Shimazu family, and a table of banquets is quickly put in order.

The dishes on the table, in addition to a variety of wet and dry seafood, are the island's own goose, duck and vegetables, and the wine is sake, and the alcohol content is about the same as that of rice wine in the Ming Dynasty. Mo Ning picked up the wine cup and sniffed it, there was more sugar and a strong taste, it should be a strong wine.

After a few glasses of wine, Shimazu Kuji's words became more, not that he was talkative, but the stimulation of alcohol, it seems that this Shimazu should usually be sullen.

From Shimazu Kuji's words, Monin learned part of Tanegashima's history.

About a few hundred years ago, Tanegashima was called Shimazu Island and was a dependency of the Shimazu clan, but more than 200 years ago, Tanegashima was invaded by the Tanejima clan, a retainer of the Shimazu clan, and the name was changed to Tanegashima.

It wasn't until decades ago that Tanegashima, the sixteenth owner, was transferred to another place, and Tanegashima returned to the hands of the Shimazu clan and became a direct domain of the Shimazu clan.

Speaking of the history of Tanegashima being invaded for nearly two hundred years, Shimazu Kuji lowered his head and drank sullen wine to himself, perhaps because of the cowardice of the family, which made him feel ashamed.

Mo Ning saw that Shimazu Kuji was in a bad mood, so he had to drink a few glasses with him.

When Shimazu Hisaharu looked up and drank, he saw the flintlock pistol beside the translator, and he was stunned, he quickly got up, bowed down and walked into the inner room with a small fragment, and after a while, took out a fire # gun.

The interpreter was nervous and wanted to raise his gun in self-defense, but Mo Ning pressed his shoulder and signaled him not to worry.

Shimazu Kuji handed the fire # gun to Moning, and Moning took it and looked at it, it was an arquebus, a whole generation behind the flintlock pistol he used, and the Ming Dynasty now began to install breech guns.

The arquebus itself was not surprising, but the Japanese also had an arquebus, which surprised Monin a little.

From the mouth of Shimazu Kuji, Mourning learned about the history of Japanese fire # guns.

Japan's first musket came from Tanegashima.

In August of the 22nd year of Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1543 AD), a Portuguese ship bound for Daming Macao, lost its way at sea, docked at the port of Chiogi in Tanegashima, Shiyao, the fourteenth owner of Tanegashima, found that the Portuguese had a very powerful weapon, so he bought two fire # guns through the Ming translation Wufeng on the ship, and spent two thousand taels of silver to buy two fire # guns.

Later, Tanegashima Shiyao asked the family's "pillar of exercise" Yaban Qingding to imitate, but Hachiban Qingding has never been able to make a trigger.

The next year, another Portuguese ship was blown to Tanegashima by a typhoon, and Yabanqing asked the Portuguese blacksmith on the ship for advice, but people were unwilling to teach him, there was no way, Yabanqing married his beautiful daughter to a Portuguese blacksmith, in exchange for the manufacturing technology of the fire # gun.

This is the first Ko# gun produced in Japan.

Ten years later, the technology of making fire# guns spread to all parts of Japan and played an important role in the wars of Japan's major daimyos, but the production of iron-smelting in Japan was not high, and the lack of materials such as nitrate made the production of fire# guns not large.

The fire # gun that Shimazu Hisaharu took out just now is the fire # gun produced by the Japanese themselves.

Shimazu Kuji made a request to Monin to see Daming's flintlock pistol, but Moning did not refuse, to see if it could, but it would not be sold, let alone the technology, of course, no one in the current fleet would produce flintlock pistols.

Looking at the flintlock pistol, Shimazu Hisaji's eyes really showed a snatching light, "Mr. Mo, can you sell me two?" ”

Mo Ning shook his head.

"One?" Seeing that Mo Ning still disagreed, Shimazu Hisaharu was anxious, "Mr. Mo, you make a price." ”

You just marry your daughter to me, and I don't dare to sell guns, Mo Ning smiled: "I'm really sorry, Mr. Shimazu, it's not a matter of money, this is the latest firearm just developed by Daming, if I lose one, my head will be gone." ”

Hisaharu Shimazu made no secret of his disappointment.

Mo Ning estimated that if he had a daughter, let him exchange his daughter, and he would not be willing, "Mr. Shimazu, after a few years, after Daming develops a new firearm, this kind of fire# gun may be sold." ”

Shimazu Kuji lowered his head and drank a glass of sake in a muffled voice.

Mo Ning asked the interpreter to put away the flintlock pistol and toasted with him.

Although Shimazu Kuji can't speak Chinese, he is very yearning for the Ming Dynasty, a great country in the Celestial Empire, rich in products, rare treasures, endlessly, it is Mo Ning's flintlock pistol, which also haunts his soul.

When Mo Ning was about to leave, Shimazu Hisaharu told him that to the east of Tanegashima, there were two small islands, namely Hachijo Island and Aonoshima, and the inhabitants of the islands were all Han Chinese, related to Xu Fu, who crossed east back then.