"The lord has an order, and he should obey it carefully," I agreed, and then asked questions, "It's just that the righteous brother has declared that he doesn't like mundane affairs and doesn't want to go out, and the lord has also agreed......"

"At this time and that time, now that His Royal Highness Yi Zhou is about to become a general candidate, and the affairs and contacts will become more and more complicated in the future, how about you convince Lord Ishiya to come back and help? After all, he is the former Gongfang Yihui Gong's Shen Cizhong. "Nobunaga is still quite patient with useful people.

"This ...... My brother has now gone to Sanhe, saying that he wants to appreciate the scenery of Fenglai Temple that I saw the year before last. I replied respectfully.

"It's okay, His Highness Yizhou can wait for Lord Shigu to return."

"I take the liberty of asking, what does the lord want my brother-in-law to be responsible for?"

"Do you need to say it? Naturally, he is responsible for liaising with the public. Nobunaga's expression was a little impatient.

"With His Royal Highness Yi Zhou's current status, if he is responsible for liaising with the public, he must probably have the status of an important minister in his family! But it seems very inappropriate for a righteous brother to suddenly obtain such a status even if he is from his own family...... "I reminded Nobunaga.

"Hmm...... What you said also makes sense," Nobunaga touched his mustache, of course he couldn't give Ishiya Yorichen such a status, "From your point of view, who is more suitable for this matter among the important ministers of the family?" ”

"Your Majesty recommends His Highness Zhensheng. His Royal Highness Sadatsu was originally in charge of some of the family's diplomatic affairs, so it was only natural that he would be in charge of this matter. Moreover, the host returned to the village this time, and he happened to form a friendship with the two families of Nijo and Kujo, and they will be closer to each other in the future......"

"I heard that you intend to marry the second daughter of Sadatsu for your retainer Gen Maeda, but is there such a thing?" Nobunaga asked suddenly.

"It is true," I frankly admitted, "that since Xuan Yi served as a subordinate, although he has not done much work, he has been conscientious and has never made mistakes, and His Royal Highness Zhensheng also appreciates it...... Moreover, Genyi is the only remaining descendant of the Mino Maeda family, and his subordinates contributed to this incident in response to the call of the lord to promote the marriage between the Mino and Owari clans, so as to strengthen the bond between the two parties. ”

Historically, Maeda Genyi married the second daughter of Murai Sadakatsu. Now a little earlier, it won't matter! Genyoi Maeda will be twenty-eight years old this year, which is a standard older youth. As for the status issue, there is no obstacle, the general Beehouse Yoryu can marry the sister of the old Niwa Nagahide, and I, as the elder of the family, will marry the daughter of the main general, so it will not be a problem.

"So be it." Nobunaga agreed.

……，…… Back at Mie Castle, I continued to work on the affairs of the water army, which was the most important business for my Kira family at the moment.

At the beginning of Okochi Castle, the Nine Demons Yosataka won Nobunaga's favor with his respectful attitude and became Nobunaga's direct vassal, and the head of the Nine Demons family, Sumitaka, who was a hostage, was also sent to Komakiyama Castle by me. After that, due to the fact that the Hokuhata family, a strong enemy on land, had been reconciled, the Kuki Yoshitaka began to try to develop on the sea; In addition, the Kizuku Masa, who was in charge of the affairs of the Kitabatake family, was also rebuilding the water army, and the one in charge of specific affairs was his eldest son, the Kizo Nagamasa who was obsessed with Nobunaga in Motofu last year. In this way, in order to firmly control the maritime trade routes of Tsuya, I must vigorously strengthen the naval forces to ensure the absolute superiority of my family in Ise Bay.

My current navy can be said to be nondescript, and I don't have much experience in naval warfare. The destruction of the Kitabatake naval army was actually a land battle; The elimination of the Seven Armies of Shima also relied on the guidance of the Nine Ghost Families, and then suppressed them with absolute superiority. For the most part, the navy was mainly used as a transport force, and its record at sea was nothing more than how many merchant ships were looted, how many rebellious guards were eliminated, and so on.

Now that the Nine Ghost Family and the Kitabatake Family have nothing to do on land, and they have all started to rebuild their naval armies, I suddenly feel a lot of pressure. The experience of the two of them in naval warfare is definitely above that of our naval army.

Fortunately, I also have a veteran of the navy like Iwamatsu Jingding in my family, and there are many pirates who have accumulated years among the sailors. In addition, the people of the Kawanami people were considered to have come from the navy, and the personnel recruited later were basically from various port towns, so it was not difficult to train.

For the whole year of last year, the family was busy strengthening the navy and training tactics. After the efforts of Yan Songjing and others, they really made some things. And the only thing I interfered with was the armament of the main forces of the navy.

Originally, they still planned to use broadside combat as the main combat mode, and the ship was still basically equipped with flying claws, ramming horns, etc., and personal weapons were still mainly long knives. However, I clearly knew that with this way of fighting, it would not be possible to compete with the Murakami Navy and the Awaji Navy Army, and might even be surpassed by the Shima Navy Army, which was fully developed, so I insisted on equipping a large number of iron cannons and imitating the baked jade of the Setouchi Navy Army.

The so-called roasting, originally a type of cooking pottery with ear handles on both sides that could be used as a wok, was originally said to have been used to burn taro. Later, the Murakami naval army filled it with gunpowder, used the fire rope as the lead, and then used the rope to thread the ear handle, making the most primitive yakiti. When using it, light the fire rope first, and throw it out with the rope when it is almost time, on the one hand, kill and injure the enemy with the burst pottery shards, and on the other hand, ignite the enemy ship, which is really a fierce weapon. During the first Battle of the Kizu Kawaguchi in history, the Kuki Yoshitaka was unable to cope with such an offensive, and almost all of his 300 warships were destroyed.

In fact, the technical content of this kind of baking is not high, and the difficulty of imitation is very small, and it has been popularized in the Mishima Navy, Nomi Navy, Kodama Navy, and Awaji Navy, which are essential for home travel, murder and arson. The biggest difficulty is to ensure the supply of gunpowder. There are many volcanoes and are rich in sulfur, but saltpeter can only be imported. In the documents handed down from the Maori family, there are many records of the purchase of saltpeter with large quantities of Iwami silver. However, since I own Tsuya and Shodo, the supply of saltpeter is not a problem.

But the problem of iron artillery is more prominent. When on land, the iron artillery corps could shoot at the front, and then retreat calmly, and be covered by pikemen and cavalry; However, in water warfare, ships are the basic units, and the mobilization and cover are certainly not as flexible as those on land. Moreover, when the iron cannon is used in water warfare, there is no terrain to use at all, and it can only be fired at the front, so that once it is attacked by a number of small groups of clippers, due to the slow rate of fire of the iron cannon, it will be very difficult to deal with it, and it is likely to be attacked by the enemy clippers who break through the defensive line. This is the main reason why Iwamatsu Jingding and others oppose large-scale installation.

Moreover, the cost and wear and tear of iron cannons are too high compared to long knives and spears. Although my family is very financially well-off, there is no need to spend it like this...... I have to say that their concerns are indeed very justified. In order to solve this problem, I will start from three separate aspects.

The first is the iron cannon itself. At present, the basic use of this book is all front-loading arquebus iron cannons, not only to load the ammunition to consume time, but also to ignite more troublesome, especially in water warfare, in case the arquebus or gunpowder is wet, it is basically equivalent to waste. However, as far as I know, flintlock pistols have been invented in Europe at the same time, divided into two according to the different methods of ignition. One is the German watchmaker Johann? Kiefus's invention of the flintlock gun is to press a toothed steel wheel and flint together with a spring, and when the trigger is pulled, the steel wheel will rotate rapidly, and its edge will rub against the flint to produce sparks, and then ignite the ignition powder. However, such a structure is too delicate, requires a high level of craftsmanship, and the corresponding cost is relatively high.

Another kind of hammer ignition is relatively simple, compared with the arquebus, but the arquebus clip is replaced with a flint clip, and then set up an anvil at the side of the fire hole, pull the trigger when shooting, under the action of the spring, the flint on the flint clamp hits the side of the fire door heavily, and a spark will emerge to ignite the ignition powder. Historically, this gun was invented by the Spaniards in the twenties of the sixteenth century, and soon spread in many countries, and by the eighties, it had become the standard equipment of many European countries. However, before this kind of gun could reach the company, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had already issued an order to chase and release the company, ordering the expulsion of all missionaries, and imposed various restrictions on the Nanban merchants, and later during the Tokugawa shogunate, it was even more closed to the country, so until the nineteenth century, the arquebus was still used.

If I switch to this iron cannon, then it is bound to greatly increase the rate of fire of the iron cannon, so as to gain more powerful combat effectiveness. With my current relationship with Portuguese businessmen, this is not difficult to do. At the same time, in order to ensure technological superiority, or to limit the combat power of the capital, I asked the Portuguese merchants to provide me with only flintlock iron cannons. This request plays into their hands. There are still a lot of arquebuses in Europe to dispose of, and it is clear that this is a good place to dump, which is tacitly understood between merchants from all over the world. Had it not been for my special request for a flintlock pistol, and for them to maintain friendly relations with me, I would have been given an old-fashioned arquebus.

Secondly, I decided to do my three-dan training in earnest. Although I had known about this type of shooting, I had never been very interested in it before. With the rate of fire of the arquebus, it was impossible to shoot continuously, even with a three-stage shot, and after three rounds, there was at least a half-minute gap between shots. And there is a condition for using a three-stage shot, that is, it is equipped with a large number of iron cannons, otherwise, the power of each shot is too small, which is why I have always insisted on salvo fire. However, this method is very useful when it is used against multiple small groups of enemies.

The third is the combat mode of the naval army. After completing the first two improvements, I gave them all this question. Soon, they came up with a well-thought-out formation.

It was in March last year, and I remember that at that time, as soon as I took the formation map they depicted, I was immediately shocked: Oh my god, isn't this a famous river crab!

"Yes. It's indeed a river crab ......" Yan Song Jingding explained this formation to me in detail, "At the front of the formation are two large chela, each clamp is composed of two columns of iron artillery equipped with a quick closing of the ship, after encountering the enemy, it will become two wings open and outflanked, it is the first batch of attack forces, these two chelates pay attention to flexibility and mobility, once they encounter hard stubble, they can quickly retract to maintain their strength, and then wait for the opportunity to stretch out; The remaining eight legs were mainly long knife teams, and were equipped with some roasting, which were used to protect iron gun ships, command ships, or conduct offensive battles; The crab body is the main formation, consisting of five Ataku ships, equipped with iron guns and long knives, with the command ship in the middle, and the four ships guarding the perimeter, and participating in the battle when necessary; Then there are the two tentacles on the head, which are also composed of quick closing ships, which are responsible for the communication and transportation between the ships......"

"Hmm. Not bad! I nodded in appreciation. Such a formation is indeed very suitable for giving full play to the strengths of our iron cannon and baking, and the river crab is indeed an extremely powerful existence!

"Who came up with this formation?" I decided to give it a compliment.

"Back to the lord, it's the ship's general Erjian Pu Shiba!"

Oh, I remember, it's the one who set fire to the Kitabatake-Mizuka military camp during the Battle of Futamiura, and almost got his surname. Because of his great achievements, I overstepped the rank and promoted him to the bow of the ship...... Now that he has been promoted to the rank of captain and is qualified to participate in the major events of the navy?

"Call him here!" I commanded.

Iwamatsu was ordered to go, and after a while, he returned here with Futami Uhara Shinhachi.

"Your Majesty greets your lord!" He almost threw himself to the ground.

"Is this formation you came up with?" Seeing him in this position, I suddenly felt a little familiar...... By the way, Kinoshita Hideyoshi is in front of Nobunaga, and that's pretty much it.

"Yes." He replied.

"How did you come up with that?"

"Hui Lord, his subordinates were poor when they were young, and they often caught fish in the ditch to eat, and sometimes they encountered river crabs, which were rare and delicious...... However, if you want to catch river crabs, you have to get your hands down from your back, otherwise you will get caught. His Majesty felt that if the navy army of his family lined up like a crab's body, it would definitely be very difficult to deal with, because the sky would not stretch out its hand......"

"It's a man with a flexible mind." I nodded. The heavens will not reach out, but there is a possibility of dropping bombs. Of course, that was much later.

"Yes! Thank you for the compliment! He looked very excited.

"Hmm...... How can I reward you? I looked at him carefully, and felt more and more monkey-like, the same humble origin, the same cleverness, the same sacrifice for merit, and even the same humility.

To have such a subordinate is probably lucky for the lord! As long as he can be reused, and always press on his head, he will be respectful and powerful.

I made a decision.

“…… How about rewarding you with a city? ”

"Yes...... Yes! A city! He looked up in surprise, a look of disbelief on his face.

"Not bad. It's a city...... There will be twelve branch cities around Mie Castle, and since you have come up with this momentum, you should be the lord of Cancer City. ”

In fact, the twelve branch cities do not have any territory attached, but being able to become the lord of the city represents the status of the army directly under the family, and they are eligible to participate in the command of the standing army, reserve or navy of the family.

"Your Majesty is willing to die for the Lord! As long as the lord has an order, he will not back down even in front of the Daoshan oil pot! Futami Pu Shihachi swore in a trembling voice, and his whole body couldn't help shaking.

"As long as you are faithful!" I nodded, "Now that you are the lord of a city, an informal Miao character like Ermipu is not suitable for use...... Uchi County of Yamato Province has a wealthy family of the Futami clan, which originated from the Satake family, and is also considered to be a famous family, and the ancestors served as the five lower Yuan Jiang Shou in the Southern Dynasty. How about you take the second sight as the seedling word, and change the name to the second sight? ”

"Thank you for your name!" The original Futami Pu Shihachi, and the current Futami Mitsunari once again bowed to the shrine.

(To be continued)