In the spring of the tenth year of Zhengde, the fleet led by Shenzhou left Edo Bay, which had just been occupied for a short time, and left Li Anliang to lead 10,000 Korean troops and 50,000 Japanese servants to guard Edo.

Iwami Province is one of the ancient order countries of the Wa Kingdom, belonging to the mountain vagina, also known as Ishishu, probably the western part of Shimane Prefecture in the future, famous for producing seafood, honey and ginseng, in fact, the most famous silver mine here, the largest Iwami Silver Mountain in the Wa Kingdom is located here, but in the early Warring States period, the silver mines of Iwami Province have not been mined on a large scale, but there are some sporadic small silver mines, so Iwami Province has not attracted the attention of the surrounding daimyo here for the time being.

Now there are two main clans in Iwami, namely the Masuda clan and the Yoshimi clan, these two clans are attached to Ouchi Yoshiko, and the entire Iwami country also belongs to the power range of the Ouchi clan, and Ouchi Yoshixing is one of the overlords at the western end of Kyushu, and he also settled in Kyoto before, and Hosokawa jointly controlled the power of the shogunate, but later Ashikaga Yoshisai and Hosokawa Takakoku had a fight, and the cunning Ouchi Yoshiko chose not to help each other, and he ran back to the old nest to sit on the mountain to watch the tiger fight, ready to wait until the Ashikaga clan and the Hosokawa clan fought when both sides were defeated, He came out again to clean up the mess.

As the saying goes, "Sitting at home behind closed doors, disaster comes from heaven", Ouchi Yoshikoan stayed at home separately, but he didn't expect that he didn't go to provoke others, but others ran to his door to provoke him. In the early morning of this day, the fleet led by Kamishu suddenly appeared in the Omori area in the eastern part of Iwami, that is, within the range of the Masuda clan's power. Raided Yitian Castle with lightning speed. In one fell swoop, he wiped out the Masuda clan, who had ruled the area for many years. And began to rebuild Masuda Castle, it seems that he wants to rule for a long time.

For the sudden attack of the Ming army, Ouchi Yoshixing went from the shock at the beginning to the anger later, he did not think that this was the independent action of the Ming army, after all, it was impossible for the Ming to send troops to himself for no reason. In addition, he has long known that Ashikaga Yoshisai has the support of the Ming Dynasty behind him, and he has suppressed Ashikaga Yoshisai with Hosokawa Takakuni before, so this time the Ming army suddenly attacked his territory. It must have an inseparable relationship with Ashikaga Yoshisai, and it is even likely that Ashikaga Yoshisai made a deal with Daming, in order to weaken his strength with the help of Daming.

Ouchi Yoshiko is worthy of being a heroic figure in the early Warring States period, his guess is actually very close to reality, before Ashikaga Kazuki ran to Zhou Zhong because of the Ming Dynasty's unauthorized occupation of Edo Bay, and the two sides finally reached an understanding, Ashikaga Yoshisai acquiesced in the actual occupation of Edo Bay by the Ming Dynasty, and Zhou Zhong provided Ashikaga Yoshisai with the weapons and food that Ashikaga Yoshisai needed most.

In addition to the above conditions, Zhou Zhong also reached another additional deal with Ashikaga Yoshisai, that is, the Ming Dynasty sent troops to attack Ouchi Yoshiko's territory. Help Ashikaga Yoshisai weaken or even eliminate Ouchi Yoshiko, a fisherman, while Ashikaga Yoshisai must agree to the actual occupation of Iwami Province by the Damei. And Zhou Zhong also promised Ashikaga Yoshisai on behalf of the Ming Dynasty that except for Iwami Province and Edo Bay, the Ming Dynasty would never encroach on any piece of land in the Wa Kingdom again.

Ashikaga Yoshisai and Ashikaga Kazuki couldn't figure out why Zhou Zhong would be interested in Iwami Province's place, after all, in their opinion, in addition to Iwami Country's abundance of honey and ginseng, only the paper industry was relatively developed, but this development was only relative, and it was still a lot worse than the paper industry of the Ming Dynasty, so Iwami Country had no interests at all for Zhou Chong.

Ashikaga Yoshisai and Ashikaga Kazuki are both smart people, they know that Tsushige Michi will definitely not want Iwami for no reason, there must be some interests in it that they can't see, if it is in peacetime, they will definitely not agree to cede their country's territory to outsiders, but now Ashikaga Yoshisai is in a tug-of-war with the Hosokawa clan, and if he is not careful, he will fall into the abyss from which he will never recover.

It is precisely because of the grim situation faced by the Ashikaga clan that they have no energy to consider the deep meaning of Shushige's occupation of Iwami Province, not to mention that Iwami Province is not under their rule at all, but in the hands of Ouchi Yoshiko who wants to reap the benefits of the fisherman, if Zhouzhong wants Iwami Province, there will definitely be a conflict with Ouchi Yoshiko, which is exactly what Ashikaga Yoshisai wants to see, not to mention that Shuzhong also agreed to fund them an additional batch of weapons and food, which makes Ashikaga Yoshisai have no reason to refuse.

Unfortunately, Ashikaga Yoshizai did not know how much impact his decision would have on the Wa Kingdom, among which Edo Bay was the most important port of the Wa Kingdom, which undertook the important task of communicating Asia and the Americas, and the Iwami Silver Mine was the most important mineral deposit in the Wa Kingdom, where the silver production was at its highest, even reaching one-third of the silver production in the world, while the Ming Dynasty used silver as currency, and these silver would have an immeasurable driving force on the economy of the Ming Dynasty.

When the fleet led by Shen Zhou destroyed the Masuda clan and began to consolidate the city defenses of Masuda Castle, although the furious Ouchi Yoshixing knew that the army of the Daming was not easy to mess with, as the overlord of the western part of Honshu Island, he naturally could not watch his territory being invaded by others, otherwise it would deal a serious blow to the prestige of their Ouchi clan.

So in this situation, Ouchi Yoshiko had to organize an army, with another clan in the western part of Iwami Province as the vanguard, with an army of 20,000 people to attack Masuda Castle, which was occupied by the Ming Dynasty.

However, just as Ouchi Yoshiko's army left the Zhou Defense Area, Shen Zhou, who was supposed to guard Masuda Castle, suddenly appeared in the Shimonoseki Strait behind Ouchi Yoshixing with a fleet, and then shelled Ouchi Castle, the foundation of the Ouchi clan, and at the same time, some important cities and ports along the coast were also destroyed by Shen Zhou's artillery fire.

After eliminating the naval army of the Ouchi clan, the fleet led by Shen Zhou did not leave, but completely blocked the Shimonoseki Strait, which is the main transportation route between Kyushu Island and Honshu Island, and has always been a battleground for soldiers, and the scope of the Ouchi clan's rule spans Honshu Island and Kyushu Island, such as the two countries of Bunzen and Chikuzen on Kyushu Island, which belong to the territory of the Ouchi clan.

The army of the Japanese people and Xu can compete with the army of the Ming Dynasty on land, but in a place like the sea, it is the world of the Ming navy, after all, whether it is in terms of warships or weapons and equipment, the Japanese navy can not be compared with the fleet under Zhou Chong, so Ouchi Yixing immediately knew that the big thing was not good after the Ming fleet appeared in the Xiaguan Strait.

The lower strait is cut off by the fleet of Shenzhou, which is equivalent to dividing the territory of the Ouchi clan in two, which may not be much in a short time, but if it is a long time, it will definitely give birth to chaos. Ouchi Yoshixing also knows this very well, but the fleet of the Ming Dynasty is too strong, unless he fills up the entire Shimonoseki Strait, it is impossible to defeat the other party at sea.

And what's worse is that the Ming people don't seem to care about Yitian City at all, anyway, they can fight down the first time, they can fight down the second time, as long as the Ming fleet is still there, they can land from any point in the Wa Kingdom, and it is impossible for Ouchi Yoshixing to deploy troops on the coast of the territory to defend.

It was also in this situation that Ouchi Yoshixing had no choice but to send someone to take a small boat to Shenzhou to ask for peace, after all, he also saw that this Ming fleet did not really want to destroy himself, but wanted to use this kind of siege Wei to save Zhao, forcing himself to withdraw the army sent by Lu to attack Yitian City.

Shen Zhou has long waited for Ouchi Yoshixing to send someone to find him to make peace, don't look at them during this time to show off their might at sea, shelling the port city of the Ouchi clan at every turn, but the supplies on their ships are not unlimited, some time ago in Edo Castle has consumed a considerable amount of gunpowder and cannonballs, and now there are not many supplies on the ship, if they continue to fight like this, they can only return to Jeju Island to replenish supplies.

It is precisely because of this that when the envoy sent by Ouchi Yoshiko asked to board the ship for negotiation, Shen Zhou quickly agreed, but the envoy sent by Ouchi Yoshiko could not make much of a decision, so the last Shen Zhou and Ouchi Yoshiko met in person in the Shimonoseki Strait to negotiate.

Although Shen Zhou is a good general, he has no experience in negotiating such things, in contrast, that Ouchi Yoshixing is a generation of heroes of the Wa Kingdom, and if Shen Zhou negotiates normally with such a person, he will definitely suffer a big loss. Shen Zhou was also very aware of this, so at the beginning of the negotiations, he listed his own demands, and then told Ouchi Yoshixing that unless he agreed to his request, he would not withdraw from the Shimonoseki Strait.

Shenzhou's request is actually very simple, that is, to let Ouchi Yoshixing recognize the rule of the Ming Dynasty over Iwami Province, and at the same time, Ouchi Yoshixing will withdraw all his military strength in Iwami Province, and without the permission of the Ming Dynasty, prohibit the power of the Ouchi clan from entering Iwami Province.

For this condition proposed by Shenzhou, Ouchi Yoshiko is also the same as Ashikaga Yoshisai, and he is a little puzzled, after all, in his opinion, Daming must have reached some agreement with Ashikaga Yoshisai, so he will send troops to attack him, but now the Ming army has shown that he is only interested in Iwami Province, which is really a bit incredible for Ouchi Yoshiko.

Ouchi Yoshixing couldn't think of the reason, he also guessed the same as Ashikaga Yoshisai, and guessed that Daming must have an unknown purpose for asking for Iwami, which made him want to refuse, but thinking of the terrifying strength of the Daming fleet, his sailors didn't have any power to fight back, if Daming couldn't get Iwami, and then blocked the Shimonoseki Strait for a long time, then their Ouchi clan would not be able to contact the opposite island of Kyushu, so that the territory of the Ouchi clan would be in danger of splitting, The cost is much worse than the loss of a tiny Iwami country. (To be continued......)