Located at the junction of the Tsushima Strait and the Shubo Shoal, Akama Pass is a key point connecting the Sea of Japan and the Seto Inland Sea.

To the west is the Genkai Beach of the Tsushima Strait, which is the sphere of influence of the Goto Naval Army, and to the east is the Seto Inland Sea, which is controlled by the Murakami Naval Army.

To the south of the Shubunkan is the Bungo Waterway, which connects the Seto Inland Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and is controlled by the Bungo Naval Army, and to the east of the Bungo Waterway and south of Shikoku Island is Tosa Bay, which is controlled by the Tosa Naval Army, and the Osumi Strait, west of the Bungo Waterway and south of Kyushu Island, is the sphere of influence of the Hozu Naval Army.

From the town of Akama Seki-no-cho to the east of the sea, to the Gyeonggi area, after passing through the Shubo Beach controlled by the Murakami Navy, you also had to pass through the Harima Beach controlled by the Shiosatsu Navy and the Kii Suido controlled by the Awaji Navy.

It stands to reason that the seven pirates around Akama Pass may have received the news spread by Long Tao and came to rob them.

However, the Ben Qi Jiangchuan of the Five Island Naval Army and the Ben Fang Jin Zhi of the Fangjin Water Army, one is in the western sea far away from Kyushu Island, and the other is in the southwest of Kyushu Island, which is far away from Zhoufang Beach, and Long Tao estimates that these two are unlikely to send ships over.

The five pirates who are most likely to rob him on the front road are Murayama, Shiosa, Awaji, Bungo, and Tosa, and it is completely unknown which pirate Imai Munehisa found to deal with him.

Long Tao didn't care at all, in his opinion, after using the "100,000 bait plan", it didn't matter who Imai hired.

On the fourth day of arriving at Akama Pass, Injiro arrived at the dock with his assembled men and loaded a thousand pieces of Hagi-yaki onto a passenger ship.

Long Tao ordered the passenger ship to stop at the pier for a day, the main intention of this move was to give the pirates enough time, after all, each of them was far from each other, and they had to leave enough time to get together at the same time.

It was not until the afternoon of the fifth day that the passenger ship lifted anchor and set sail, leaving the dock and heading east.

The passenger ship was a two-masted schooner, driven by a mixture of wind and manpower, and was fast, and in the evening, it was possible to see Itsukushima from a distance.

"Boatman, pull over the boat and rest on the island tonight." Long Tao commanded.

"Ashikaga-san, which way to stop?" The ship's owner asked.

Long Tao pointed to the tall vermilion lacquer gate, "Stop there." ”

The shipowner's face changed, and he exclaimed, "Mr. Ashikaga, by all means, that's a big torii!" There is a connection to the divine realm, how can you dock a ship there? ”

The torii gate is a kind of gate built in front of the shrine, but in fact, there is no door panel, only a frame, and it should be called a torii.

Itsukushima Shrine has a long history, and the torii gate 200 meters in front of it has been renovated several times and has become very tall, standing in the sea at high tide, and is called the Great Torii.

The Japanese believe in Shintoism, but this religion does not worship the gods fixedly, all kinds of animals, plants and even mountains and rivers can become gods, the shrine is a place to worship various gods, and the torii gate in front of the shrine has always been considered to be the gateway between the gods and the human world, and crossing the torii gate is to enter the god realm.

Long Tao naturally didn't believe the Japanese, but looking at the face of the shipowner, he didn't dare to pull the boat over for fear of killing him, so he had to point to the east of the island and said, "Then dock to the east." ”

Itsukushima is a small island with passenger ships anchoring in the southeast.

After Long Tao and others landed on the island, they stood on a high ground and looked at the island from afar, only to see a hill rising in the center of the island, the mountain was lush and green, the evening breeze carried a fresh and natural breath, blowing on the face of the warm and refreshing, refreshing people's hearts, it was really a famous island with good climate and scenery.

Thinking that it would soon become the battlefield of the naval battle between the Maori family and the Ouchi family, I don't know what kind of destruction it will be, and I don't know how many changes it will undergo after that, this kind of scenery may not be the beautiful scenery of Miyajima hundreds of years later, Long Tao couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

The few people didn't dare to linger too long, and after watching the island for a while, they returned to the ship, because the pirates in front of them would suddenly appear at some point.

When night fell, the ship lit up the wind lanterns, and from a distance, a bean of yellow light swayed gently in the bay on the edge of the island.

Long Tao faced the vast sea, sitting cross-legged on the bow of the boat, as if closing his eyes to recuperate.

Ruyoshi, Sun Bingwei, and Kenzaburo stood behind him.

"It's coming!" Long Tao suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the dark sea in the distance.

After a while, several small points of light appeared from far and near, approaching Itsukushima at a high speed, Kenzaburo counted carefully, and there were a total of nine points of light.

After a while, the whistle could be faintly heard, and then the voice became clearer and clearer, and Ruyoshi and Sun Bingwei couldn't help but glance at each other, this voice was very familiar to them, they had heard it the last time they were intercepted by the Murakami water army.

"Near the water, it seems that the Murakami Navy is the first to come."

Long Tao stood up, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, I wonder if the crane will come?

At this time, the three of them finally saw clearly, the nine points of light were nine warships, the middle one was larger, and its wings were lined up with eight smaller ships.

Each boat has an unequal number of oars sticking out on both sides of its hull, rowing neatly and in unison, allowing the boat to speed through the waves on the sea.

In the blink of an eye, nine ships had approached, eight ships were scattered, faintly enclosing the way out of the passenger ship, and the large ship rushed directly to the side of the passenger ship and stopped sideways.

The ship was a three-story ship, with sailors on the bottom floor, and a gun hole in the middle floor, in which a cannon barrel was exposed, and the upper floor looked like an attic above the deck, which was supposed to be used for observing the enemy situation and directing the battle.

There were many people standing on the deck at the moment, and a rough man with a beard on his face sat firmly on the command platform in the attic, wearing a gray turban, and looked down at Long Tao and the others with sharp eyes.

On either side of the big man stood two men and a woman, two men were thirty or forty years old, dressed in strong suits, and the woman was tall and slender, with a beautiful appearance, it was the crane.

"Smack!"

The long and wide bridge was erected, and the rough man led the pirates down to the deck of the passenger ship.

"You three, no matter what happens, don't move, just watch Hagiyaki!" Long Tao commanded in a low voice.

"Yes!" The three men whispered their orders.

The rough man was at the front, followed by Tsuru and two men, followed by seven or eight younger pirates, including Jitai, whom he had met last time.

"You're Ashikaga Yoshiji?"

The rough man's sharp eyes stared at him, Long Tao looked at him with a smile, and this person's name tag appeared in his mind.

Takeshi Murakami, twenty-three years old, leader.

Affiliation: Murakami Water Army.

Boss: None.

Command, 73 (+5).

Force, 75.

Government Affairs, 19.

Gambit, 53.

Glamour, 66.

"Haha, Crane said that she once had a relationship with you, and she was handsome, no wonder she would intercede for you!" Takeyoshi Murakami grinned, "It's a pity that the ability is too weak!" I can spare your life, but the cargo must be left behind! ”

Hearing that the crane was still interceding for him, Long Tao was slightly stunned, and when he turned his eyes, he saw that the crane's clear beautiful eyes happened to look at him faintly, and then he lowered his gaze and stopped looking at him.

Long Tao was just about to say something, when there was a whistle sound in the distance, and more than a dozen points of light rushed over at an extremely fast speed.

"Sure enough, it's all here!"

Long Tao secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.