Vietnam, Toyama Bay.

The sky was dark, and the last touch of the sunset hung on the horizon.

The sea breeze was blowing, and several people on the beach stood in the distance, their eyes sweeping around.

Li Xiao looked at the direction of Sado Island in the far side of the bay with both hands, and let out a long breath over time.

In July of this year, Li Xiao sent Mukai Masatsuna, Chiga Sun Bingwei and two generals to lead the Vietnamese naval army, a total of more than 30 warships, and more than 2,000 people to attack the Sado country.

In addition to the Vietnamese and Chinese naval forces, the Portuguese also provided the support of two gunboats.

At that time, Li Xiao was confident that with such military strength, it would be easy to bulldoze Sado, which was no more than 16,700 stone high.

However, in fact, in July, Li Xiao's Sado expeditionary army failed in the Duan Sado Expedition and failed to complete the occupation.

In this battle to conquer Sado, the initial situation was very smooth, and the Sado naval army was defeated at the sea.

After that, the Sado expeditionary force landed at Kogi Port in the southern part of Sado Island.

Ogi Port, where today's Kogi Town is located, is located at the southeastern tip of Sado Island.

However, after the landing, Mukai Masatsuna and Chiga Sunbei lost control over the naval forces under their command, and it was rumored that there were silver mines in Sado, so the people were very wealthy, so as soon as they landed on the shore, some of the naval troops entered the island and plundered everywhere with the tacit consent of their respective ship generals.

Mukai Masana and Chiga Sunbei could not control it, so they could only lead part of the army that could be mobilized, and continued to march north to encircle Hamo Castle at the southern tip of the island.

Hamo Castle is the main castle of the Hamo Honma clan, and since the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Daimyo Honma clan of Sado Island has been divided into three, which are the clan of Zatai Castle, the Kawabara Honma clan of Kawabara Castle, and the Hamo Honma clan of Hamo Castle.

After the demise of the Later Clan, Sado Island formed a situation of confrontation between the two families of Kawahara Tahonma and Hamo Honma.

Located at the southern tip of the island, Hamo Castle is the town of Hamo in today's Hamo Town, where the Honma clan of the Hamo clan controls the port trade of Kogi Port and is supported by its own Sado naval forces.

Kawahara Castle, the main castle of Kawabara Honma, was located in the middle of Sado Island on Nakahirano (present-day Wada Town, Sado City) and close to Lake Kamo, the largest lake on the island.

The Kokuchu Hirano is the granary of the island, and most of the grain income from the few stone heights on Sado Island is obtained from it.

In addition to the income from grain, the Kawahara Honma family also owns the mining rights of the only mine on Sado Island, the Tsuruko Silver Mine.

With the two major incomes of grain and silver, the Kawahara Tahonma family and the Hamo Honma family, who relied on the income from sea trade, have been in confrontation on the island for a long time, maintaining a balanced situation that is on par.

However, when Li Xiao's Sado expeditionary army attacked Hamo Castle, the Kawahara Honma family seemed to suddenly open up and understood the truth of the cold lips and teeth, and decided to give up the enmity between the two clans for many years, and gathered the strength of the whole family to support the besieged Hamo Castle.

Mukai Masana who was besieging Hamo Castle and the forces of Chiga Sunbei were attacked by the two main families on the island and were defeated for a while.

The sailors scattered on the island and were robbing their homes were also counterattacked by local villagers.

At one time, the Sado expeditionary force was defeated, and Mukai Masatsuna, Chiga Sun Beiwei commanded the army to retreat while fighting, but fortunately, Kawarada and Hamo and the two Honma clans did not plan to kill them all, and retreated after a period of pursuit.

However, in this battle, Xiangjing Zhenggang, Qianhe Sun Bingwei still lost more than 500 people, and in embarrassment, he could only return to Yuezhong by boat and report the battle situation to Li Xiaoyu.

On the way back, the Echichu navy was intercepted by the Uesugi family's Echigo navy.

The Vietnamese and Chinese naval forces were defeated at this time, and their morale was greatly reduced, so they had no strength to resist, but fortunately there were two Portuguese gunboats in the fleet.

The Portuguese gunboats opened fire with all their might, and finally drove away the Echigo navy, which returned safely to Iwaseminato.

Hearing the news of the defeat of the Yuezhong Naval Army, Li Xiao was furious, since he led the troops, he had not tasted a defeat in the southern and northern wars, and even the world's number one general, Uesugi Kenshin, could not get a bargain from him.

And his own sailors were actually defeated by a group of turtles from the Honma family on the island, which made Li Xiaoqing embarrassed.

Li Xiao summed up the reasons for the defeat in this battle, in addition to the underestimation of the power of the Honma family on Sado Island, and the fact that the navy army was not competent for land warfare, the main reason was that this group of sailors from the Wajima navy did not obey the order. …,

At that moment, Li Xiao governed the navy with an iron and bloody hand, and successively ordered people to behead seven bow and ship generals who did not obey the orders in this battle.

Li Xiao's army has always been lenient, and it is rare to have such a harsh punishment, but this time Li Xiao is killing, which really shakes the retainers under his command.

Li Xiao used cruel means to purge the Vietnamese and Chinese naval forces, and promoted many people from the original Suruga naval army to serve as the new bow and general.

It can be regarded as a blessing in disguise, through this purge, Li Xiao finally completely controlled his Viet Cong naval army.

Immediately, Li Xiao ordered Xiang Jing Zhenggang, Qianhe Sun Bingwei and the two to make meritorious contributions, re-trained the Viet Cong Naval Army, and prepared for the second crusade against the Sado Kingdom.

As the main general of this battle, Xiangjing Masatsune, Qianhe Sun Bingwei thought that he would die, but when he saw that Li Xiao forgave them and allowed them to make meritorious contributions, they were immediately grateful.

After the failure of this expedition to Sado, Li Dan, a maritime merchant of the Ming Kingdom, promised to provide Li Xiao with two thousand-stone-class Da'an house ships and finally arrived in Yuezhong.

This is definitely a relief in the snow for Li Xiao's now defeated Vietnamese-Chinese naval army.

Each of these two large ships has a scale of nearly 1,000 stones, each ship can carry 200 sailors, and the bow deck is equipped with small-caliber guns, and the hull is also equipped with iron cannons, and the narrow room for shooting with bows and arrows.

With the addition of these two Da'an house ships, Li Xiao's Viet-China naval army suddenly raised a notch.

These two Daian otaku ships were considered to be absolutely large ships in Japan at the time.

The largest Ataka ship in Japanese history was the Ataka Maru, built in 1632 by the son of Masatsuna Mukai of the Tokugawa family, the third generation of Edo shogun, and the length of the ship was only 55 meters, and it was already known as the first ship in Japan.

However, the expansion of the Vietnamese-Chinese naval army and the construction of new ships all need money, Li Xiao is already stretched thin at the moment, and Sado Jinshan cannot be won smoothly, which means that the debt borrowed from the Portuguese cannot be repaid immediately.

Although within a year, Li Xiao's development of Hida in Vietnam and Central China has been carried out very smoothly, and the governance of the territory has shown results.

As far as agriculture is concerned, in this year's land inspection under the auspices of Li Xiaoming Shioya Akizhen and Masuda Nagamori, the grain output of the three regions of Hida and Mino in Vietaka this year has reached an income of 450,000 koku, and according to Shioya Akizhen's optimistic estimate, it is expected to increase further next year if the year is good.

And now Li Xiao has reported the data on the books to the Takeda family, which is only less than 400,000 stones.

However, the new increase in annual tribute income is still not enough to plug the loophole for Li Xiao, who spends a lot of money.

On the contrary, for Li Xiao at the moment, the current situation has almost fallen into a financial crisis, so Li Xiao immediately shamelessly borrowed 20,000 yuan from Li Dan.

Although the current Li Dan has not yet reached the situation of being rich and rivaling the country in the future, 20,000 guan is not a big number for maritime merchants at that time.

He allocated this money without even having to go through his father's approval, so he generously lent it to Li Xiao.

This money is a lifesaver for Li Xiao now.

Of course, even if Li Dan is a human favor, he is like the way of the Chinese, and he is all-encompassing.

Li Dan also asked Li Xiao for benefits, and the Ming maritime merchants got together in Iwase to lease the land, which was further expanded, and the rent was deducted from the interest given to Li Xiao on this money.

For Li Xiao, giving more land to the maritime merchants of the Ming Kingdom was simply no pressure, and this move could promote the prosperity of Iwase Minato.

This is simply an interest-free loan in disguise, and it doesn't require any collateral.

Regarding the preferential treatment given to him by Li Dan, Li Xiao was even more suspicious of the other party's motives in his heart.

Could it be that he, a native of the Ming Kingdom, has understood the current situation in Japan, and the situation of either Takeda or Oda fighting for the world, so he has invested the capital of political investment in himself.

But even if he wants political investment, he should run to the Heshizaki Pavilion and find Takeda Shingen, why did he find himself.

So Li Xiao was even more suspicious of Li Dan, but he remained silent, still accepting the other party's money, and at the same time being wary of any further moves by the other party.

While Li Xiao was meditating on the shore, there was a convex sound of horses' hooves in the distance on the shore. …,

Several of Li Xiao's people approached sideways, all vigilantly watching the direction of the horse's hooves.

Li Xiao saw that there were two horses galloping from a distance, and both of them had flags behind them.

The first person pointed to the sun and moon on the object, which should be the side of Li Xiao himself.

And on the other person's flag finger, it was actually a hundred-legged centipede, which was Takeda Shingen's direct envoy.

How did the centipede legend appear in Vietnam.

Li Xiao seemed to think of something, mentioned it in his heart, and whispered: "It seems that it is finally coming." ”

The two rode from far to near, galloped in front of Li Xiao, and then dismounted, and hurriedly came to Li Xiao not far from the beach to bow down.

At first, Li Xiao's sentence said: "The lord is the messenger of the family, and he has just arrived in Toyama City, and he has an urgent matter to report to the lord." ”

At this time, the envoy behind him knelt down on one knee and said to Li Xiaoyan: "But Lord Ma Shou, down is Akiyama Sun Bingwei, who is ordered by the lord to send a letter to your lord." ”

Li Xiao took the letter from the other party and forwarded it to Li Xiao.

Li Xiao glanced at the other party, opened the envelope and pulled out the stationery.

At this time, the sea breeze blew, blowing Li Xiao's robe bulging, and the letter paper kept shaking.

After reading the contents of the letter quietly, Li Xiao said to the envoy: "Please report to the lord, Li Xiao will act according to the order, and I will tell you again." ”

Akiyama Sun Bingwei sighed and said, "Then I will retire in the next place." ”

After saying that, the other party stood up, returned to remount his horse, and galloped away.

After Li Xiao put the letter back into the envelope, he then said to the two close to the square: "Go back to the city immediately, gather all the retainers above the rank of general of the ashigaru, and discuss the matter in the castle tower, this matter is urgent, don't slack off!" ”

When these two people heard Li Xiao's words, they all knelt down together and agreed.